Who Are We Really and Who Do We Belong To

God has called me as a prophet to bring back the truth of His Word which has been lost over the many years, but I have to admit this has been a very hard and frustrating task. Sometimes I wonder why God picked me for do this task. Even though I didn’t get to choose this gift that He gave me, I will be faithful to do the task that God has set out for me. The main problem with bringing back God’s truth to His loved ones is that the current deceptive things people believe as truth are so ingrained into them that they are not willing to let go of it to receive God’s real truth. I have tried not to offend people and sugar coat God’s real truth as much as possible without degrading the truth, but I realize most people are not getting it and are still heading down that lost path of deception. So I have decided to fight head on against the devil and his lies. I know this will make some people very uncomfortable, but God’s Word must prevail in order to conquer the devil’s evil schemes.

One of the simple truths that we must all return to is discerning who is a true Christian and who isn’t. This letter is not to have any one person tell you whether you are a Christian or not, but for you to evaluate yourself against what a true biblical Christian is. Like most definitions in this world, the term “Christian” has been watered down and made politically correct. In today’s world, we want to include almost everyone into the Christian group. Even if a person’s actions and walk don’t show faith in God’s Word, but they might have said a prayer, even once, then who are we to exclude them from the Christian name - right, or else we might be accused of judging. We must not judge, that is God’s domain, but we are called to evaluate ourselves and others.

I want everyone to understand that being a Christian is an exclusive thing, even though everyone has the option to become a Christian through a relationship with Christ. Becoming a true Christian can be the result of the process that can happen while we are in a relationship with Christ; it is not a single event that most people have come to believe. Most have made the mistake of proclaiming a relationship with Christ as the same thing as being a Christian. God wants and will have a relationship with anyone that accepts what Christ did on the cross, but only the few that fully submit to His Lordship will be called Christians in God’s eyes. The only way to become a Christian is to have faith in Jesus Christ, His truth, and His love. No one can be called a Christian unless they are living by faith in the truth which is found in Jesus Christ alone. If anyone is living any part of their life outside the boundaries of Jesus Christ’s truth and love, then they are not a Christian.

The well accepted definition of the term “Christian” within the Christian circles is to be a “follower of Christ”. Another definition is to be a “disciple of Christ”; we can find this definition directly out of God’s Word.

Acts 11:26 - The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.

Other definitions of a Christian include, being a “believer in Jesus Christ”, or any person that is considered a “son of God”. All of these definitions are true and can be used to define a Christian, but how the human selfish reasoning has degraded these definitions is where the problem lies. We need to look at the un-watered down biblical views of these meanings to see if we fit into the Christian profile.

Let us start with examining the definition of being a “follower of Christ”. Anyone that is following in Jesus Christ’s footsteps, as all Christians are called to do, will find themselves in the path of living a sinless and loving life, just as Jesus Christ did when He was on earth and in the flesh, just as we are in the flesh now. We do this by the power of His Spirit living inside us. A follower of Christ is no longer living by the ways of his selfishness, but by the ways of God’s love. If anyone is walking in the footsteps of Christ, then they are walking in righteousness and void of any sin, but if anyone wanders off the path of Christ and sins, then they can no longer be called a Christian, because they are no longer following Christ. Within the footsteps of Christ, there is no sin. Anyone that goes off and is no longer following in the footsteps of Christ is no longer in right fellowship with God until they confess, repent, and get back on the path of Christ. Until a person gets back to following Christ whole heartedly, that person cannot be called a Christian, but if they call themselves a Christian and do not immediately repent of all their sin, then they should be called a hypocrite, or a un-repentive sinner. So in essence, if anyone has sin in their life, they cannot be called a Christian, because there is no sin in Christ. If anyone has sin in their life, they are living by their own selfish spirit and not by Christ’s Spirit.

Now let us take a look at what it means to be a “disciple of Christ”. Anyone that has become a disciple of Christ has been made into the likeness of Christ. For Christ to make a person into a person like Himself, that person has to sacrifice themselves to the work of Christ, just like Christ sacrificed Himself to the work of His Father. To become a Christian (disciple), a person must give up everything they are so that Christ can make them into the likeness of Himself.

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.

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. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

These scriptures clearly state that to be a Christian (a disciple); a person must give up all of themselves to become worthy to become His disciple. If a person is still sinning, then that person has shown to themselves and others that they are not worthy to be called a disciple, because they are acting out their love for someone or something else other then Christ. Usually sin is the act of loving ourselves over God, but sometimes we might actually love something else other than ourselves, but still not loving God with our first love. Our first love represents who we love the most. If we cling to and love anyone or anything over God, then that is sin and this situation will result in sinful acts against God. Again, if we understand that a Christian is a disciple, or a replica of Christ, then we must also understand that a Christian (disciple) cannot live with any sin, since Christ lived a sinless life. As long as we have sin in our life, then we are not a disciple of Christ, but instead we must admit that we are yet a disciple of the devil, at least until we truly repent of all our sins and walk in a way worthy of being Christ’s disciple.

1 John 3:7-8 - Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he (God) is righteous. He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning.

For anyone that truly believes in Christ, they will be called a Christian, but what does “believe in Christ” really mean. Can we say that we believe in Christ and in that belief go and sin against God and/or our fellow man. Is there anything within the realm of believing in Christ that would make us sin? Of course the answer to this question is NO. So when we sin, it shows that we do not believe in Christ, but in someone or something else other than Christ.

When we say we “believe in Christ”, we are not just saying that we believe in Jesus Christ’s existence, we are actually believing in everything that Christ is and represents. Jesus is our Savior, He is God, the Alfa and Omega, the beginning and ending of all things, the Word of God, the Truth of God, the Son of the living God, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, the One reigning in God’s Kingdom, and the One that sees and knows all, etc……

John 12:44-46 - Then Jesus cried out, "When a man believes in me, he does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. When he looks at me, he sees the one who sent me. I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.

John 14:9-10 - Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.

A Christian doesn’t just believe that there is a God; a Christian must have the faith in God and all the aspects of God that He has opened up to us. Faith is a belief in the unseen reality of God, His Truth, and His Spiritual Kingdom. We must have the faith to search out God and become one with Him. Many people believe in the existence of God, including the devil and his demons, but they are not one with God.

James 2:19 - You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that — and shudder.

If anyone truly believes in Christ, then they will stop loving themselves through selfishness and love God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength.

1 Peter 1:8-9 - Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

If we say we believe in Christ (God), but do not love Him over our own souls, then we are liars, because we are still believing and relying on our own selfish souls as the god of our lives, but if through our faith we give all of our heart and soul to God, we will then be joined eternally with Him and only do God’s will, for our selfish will has been crucified with Christ on the cross and our will has been replaced with God’s will. God’s will is that we glorify Him by loving Him and others, even over ourselves.

John 8:42 - Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me.

1 John 4:20-21 - If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

If we sin, our father is not God, but the devil. A Christian cannot sin, because their Father is God, which is without sin, but a sinner’s father is the devil, for a sinner is a slave to his father’s work.

John 8:44 - You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire.

If we are born of God, then we are considered to be God’s son (or daughter), just as Jesus is God’s son. We have become brothers with Christ and joint heirs with Him. When we have become worthy of Christ, then Christ sends the fullness of His Holy Spirit into our heart and makes us like Himself. Anyone that has been born of God’s Holy Spirit, has been renewed with a new unselfish Spirit that does not sin. There is no sin in a life that has been born of God, because they are not living by their old selfish spirit, but by God’s Spirit. There is no more sinful lifestyle in a person that has been born of God’s Spirit, because there is no sin in God and we have become one with God.

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.

A true Christian has been born of God’s Spirit and no longer lives by his old selfish spirit. If anyone is still sinning, then this indicates to that sinful person and to everyone else that they have not yet been born of God, but that they are still living by their selfish spirit that they were born with. If anyone still has sin in their life, then they are not yet a child of God, but still a child of the devil.

1 John 3:10 - This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.

John 8:34-35 - Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family (God’s family), but a son belongs to it forever.

The scriptures are clear, anyone that loves and does what is right (doesn’t sin) is a child of God, but anyone that does not love and does not do what is right (sins) is a child of the devil. We need to come to believe in the real truth, even if it doesn’t feel good, and stop letting the name of “Christian” be degraded by letting it be applied to people that are still sinning. Anyone that is still sinning is a child of the devil and it is an abomination to God to call them a Christian. Before we call anyone a Christian, we should take the time to see if they really are a Christian.

Now let us look at how this truth helps the person that is still sinning, but desires to become a Christian. We know that believing in God’s truth will always set a person free from their sin.

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.

John 8:36 - So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

The real truth will keep a person searching for the goodness, love, and righteousness of God until they are made whole by the filling of His Holy Spirit (the fullness of Christ’s Spirit). But the lie of the devil – “that a person is a Christian and eternally saved even though they are still sinning” will stifle a person’s spiritual growth and stop their searching for God, because the lie of the devil is telling them that they have already achieved the righteousness of God to enter heaven. There is hope in God for everyone that continues to search for Him. Let us get rid of the lies of the devil so that people will search out God again and fully submit to Christ as Lord and not just have Christ be their Savior.

With God’s truth and love,
Michael W Reid

Getting to the Truth

Hello my fellow citizens,

I have heard reports that about 70% to 80% of the people in the United States claim that they are Christian. How is that possible when the United States has become so evil as a whole. If this statistic was right, we would not be having all the problems we are currently having.

I think it is time to stop soft shoeing around the issue of who is a Christian and who isn’t. Even though the definition of a Christian has been blurred by man’s understanding, God’s definition of a true born again Christian is very clear in His Word. Below are some biblical verses and questions to help you determine if you are a believer and where you are in your walk with God. This is an evaluation for yourself and on yourself.


First Question:

Do you believe in God and that Jesus His Son died on the cross for all our sins, and that Jesus Christ rose from the grave and is now our holy spiritual High Priest?

If you answered YES to this question, then go to question 2.

If you don’t believe in God and His Son Jesus Christ, then you should stop here and delete this email.


Second Question:

Do you believe that the Bible (the King James Version from the original Greek and Hebrew) is God’s infallible Word of God and that His Word doesn’t contradict itself?

If you answered YES to this question, then go to question 3.

If you answered NO, then you are not a Christian and should not call yourself one. If anyone believes they are a Christian, but they don’t believe God’s Word is all true, then you have no real belief in God and also no basis to evaluate your beliefs and/or morals to live by. Like many others, you have beliefs, but they could be based on anything, and they probably are. You should stop here and delete this email.


Third Question:

Have you given every part of your life over to God?

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.

Luke 14:33 - In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.

Rom 12:1 - Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God — this is your spiritual act of worship.

James 4:4 - Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.

Have you already killed all your selfishness or are you working intensely to die to all your selfish sinful ways? Have you or are you currently striving intensely to put Jesus (God) as Lord over every aspect of your life? Are you unwilling to accept any unrighteousness in your life?

If you answered YES to all these questions above, then go to question 4.

If you answered NO to any of the questions above, then you are not a mature Christian or a true Son of God yet, because you haven’t let go of some of your evil ways. You evidently have some belief and faith in God, but not the full belief and faith required for maturity. You can be considered a baby Christian that still feeds on spiritual milk. If are not a new Christian and you have considered yourself a Christian for awhile now, then you should really take a closer look at your current beliefs. God accepts us in the condition we are at when we first came to Him, but God expects you to keep growing ever like Him.

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

Rev 21:7 - He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.

If anyone doesn’t agree with any of these verses or think that you don’t have to give up all and be willing to kill all of your selfishness to be a mature Christian, then you probably don’t believe in God’s Word. If this is the case, stop here and go back to question 2.


Fourth Question:

Has God fully filled you with His Holy Spirit and His love where you no longer sin? Has God’s love fully taken over all your desires where you no longer desire sin, but only desire good and God’s righteousness?

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 everyone born of God overcomes the world.

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

2 Cor 5:17 - Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

1 John 5:3-4 - And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world.

Have you come to this point in your salvation, where you no longer sin? Are you now living in the power of God’s love alone? Have you been born of God?

If you answered YES to the above questions, then you are truly a born again Christian. God’s grace and your persistence for His righteousness have resulted in a true Christ like being. Congratulations on your overcoming, your son ship, and your inheritance into God’s kingdom. Please go on to the “We are the light” section below.

A person that has been born of God no longer sins against God’s will. Some people might have a problem believing this, but this is what God’s Word clearly says. If you have a problem believing these scriptures, then stop here and go back to question 2.


We Are The Light:

The few of us that have got this far, we must now understand that we have to be God’s main and brightest lights for Him. We must be bold for God’s glory and bold for the benefit of others that might eventually search or are searching for God’s righteousness. If there is going to be any hope for our country and/or world, we must not shrink back from our callings and use the mighty gifts that God has given us to do His work. God has released us from our internal spiritual war within ourselves to fight the battle out in the world for His glory. We are the ones that are now a slave to God’s righteousness and actually love being in bondage of doing His work. We have been given so much more of God’s Holy Spirit because we have been found worthy. Because God has given us much more, God also expects much more from us. We are called and have been freed to serve God and do His work alone. We are God’s elect to do His mighty works, with God’s grace let us be worthy of Him.

God’s blessings,
Michael W Reid

Deception #2

Now it is time to bring to light the main deception that churches are believing and proclaiming. This lie is the main deception of the devil that has entered into our churches, because there are many other deceptions that have been created and proclaimed to keep supporting this main deception. This one lie of the devil has become the root from which a lot of other deceptions spring forth.

This one lie of the devil has become so devastating because it has become the foundational truth that most people believe in for their faith. So as I set forth to show this false truth as a lie – I know I will be shaking and/or destroying the very sandy foundations that most of our churches have belief in. It is not my intention to hurt people and make them angry, but this is what is called tough love. God doesn’t want any to perish, so He is sending me to proclaim His real truth - so that the real truth will take the place of the false truth and truly set people free.

This main deception has to do with when and how we are born again. We have been taught that everyone must be born again to have eternal life – which is correct. Where the deceptions come into play is the devil convincing us that we are born again upon our salvation (upon our first coming to Christ). No where in God’s Word does it link being saved with being born again at the same time. This is a lie and an assumption of our own selfish human reasoning to tie these two events together. Although these two events can happen at the same time if the person’s heart has been conditioned and made ready, for almost all the people in our day, they have to hard of a heart to be born again upon their moment of salvation. We see many examples in the first church times where people were born again upon their salvation, but these people were already trying to live a Godly life because of their faith and love in God. What we accept and live in now is much different then the first church times. Society has lost their love for God and we love ourselves instead. We also don’t fear God like the people in the first church times. And today our culture accepts and even promotes out of wedlock sexual activity, but back in the times of the first church people, they were stoned to death for these sins. What they understood as sins back then, the world now accepts and promotes. In the time we live in, we all collect a lot of sinful baggage that we have to get rid of before God will accept us to be born again (born of God).

The condition of being born again is outlined in the following verse:
(This is not salvation – salvation is free, but being born of God has a cost - our love)

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.

We are not born again by receiving Christ at the altar. We can only be born of His Spirit after God sees that we love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. God is the one that sees our true heart – not any pastor, not any other person, and we can’t even see the true condition of our own heart (we are bias) – only God can. It is only God that chooses to make us born again when He sees us as worthy to receive His Spirit. What makes us worthy is our totally committed love for Him.

1 John 3:24 - Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.

Everyone that has been born again (born of God) will know it. Our spirit will testify to us by knowing we are totally a new creation, by God’s Holy Spirit being merged with our spirit. When we have been born again, we have become one with God’s Spirit. It is impossible for a person not to notice this change when they are born again. They know at that time that all the sinful nature and selfish desires are gone and only the desire to love God and others remain.

1 John 5:3-4 - This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world.

When a person has been born of God, all they have is love for God and others. The love for self (selfishness) is gone. A person that has been born of God and loves God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength cannot willfully sin against God, because the Spirit is guiding their every thought and action. Of course, God will never take the choice away from us to sin against Him – even after being born again, but if we do we will be committing that unpardonable sin.

We have to stop proclaiming this devastating lie. Preachers and teachers of the church, stop telling people they are born again and a son of God when they come to Christ – we cannot make that assumption of what God has or hasn’t done. Preachers and teachers stop proclaiming to the congregations that they are born again when in essence most of them are not really born again. It is not the preachers or teachers job to proclaim someone born of God. God says we will know them by their fruits. If a person has all good fruit then it is a strong possibility that they are born again, but if a person still has some bad fruit (sin) – then we know they are still of the devil and not of God’s Spirit yet.

1 John 3:8 - He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning.

Proclaiming someone born again when they are still being controlled by the devil is devastating to God’s glory, devastating to Christianity, and devastating to that person you are proclaiming born again when they are not yet born again. This is why this lie works so well for the devil. The devil has gotten us to believe that we can be a born again Christian and still live a sinful life. The devil has gotten us to believe that we can still live in sin and have eternal life in heaven with God – God would never allow any sinful thing in heaven – no matter how much He loves His creation.

Why this lie is so devastating to the person being called a born again Christian, when they are not yet born again, is because they stop trying to be Christ like and become perfect in God’s love. If a person is running a race and they have believed they have crossed the finish line, will they not stop racing. This is what has happened. People have stopped growing and stopped being sanctified because they don’t think they need to go any further. They think they have reached the finish line (being born again), when in real truth they had just started the race and the finish line is still a long ways off.

Salvation is the way, but not the destination. Salvation is the way to becoming a born again Christian. The destination is to grow in Christ (through our salvation) to the point where you are born into Christ’s likeness. Jesus is our salvation from sin and Jesus is also our destination (to become like Him). He is the alpha and the omega in our salvation. Jesus is the way, truth, and the life. Jesus gives us the way as a gift. Then we must grow in Him through His truth. If we grow into a person like Him – then we will be born into His Holy Spirit. If God’s grace has made you into a pure and blameless Christ like person, then praise the Lord. But if you are one of the millions that have been fooled by the devils lies – thinking you were born again from the beginning and now realize that you aren’t, there is all the power of God’s grace available at your disposal to become born of God - if you are willing to die completely to yourself.

For more information on the born again process – click to read the message below on my web site.
http://webpages.charter.net/reidmike/Archives/BornAgainVersesEntireSanctification.htm


God’s and your servant,
Michael Reid

A Prophet's Note

Eph 4:11-16 - And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head — Christ — from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

In today’s world of human understanding and reasoning, we accept people with some Godly gifts, but not people with gifts from God that go against our own human reasoning, understanding, and logic. How many people today would accept an apostle or a prophet of God? People will gladly accept any apostle or prophet if they proclaim what we already believe as truth. But what if God has sent these apostles or prophets to His people to bring back the truth and get rid of all the deceptions that are laced within the beliefs that people believe as truth? In this age, are people only willing to believe what they want to believe and only willing to hear what they want to hear? God calls to come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God so we can become the perfect man – where we measure up to the fullness of Christ. How can we become Christ like when we currently believe in the deceptions of the devil? The current gospels taught in most churches today are made up of half truths and half lies. Let us turn from these lies and find the real truth again.

How the truth has been changed since the first churches (during the Apostles time) is by our selfishness listening to the devil and changing the definitions of the terms in Word of God. We have grouped all these terms together where in God’s Spiritual reality they all have different meanings. Today all the following words mean almost the same thing to our churches today: saved, born again, life in Christ, born of God, son of God, Christ like, justified, sanctified, having eternal life, disciple, salvation, inheriting eternal life, relationship with Christ, in Christ, etc… Why do we believe that all these terms have close to the same meaning – because we want to believe it. The selfish human nature wants it all and it wants it all from the start. We don’t want to think that we have to be holy like God. We don’t want to think we have to give up all our sinful ways. We want have our cake and be able to eat it too.

Well I want to tell you – I have been sent by God and have been given the gift of the truth (the one and only truth of God) – and the truth that most of the churches are proclaiming is not the truth. That is why the church is in such a hypocritical state. Our churches for the most part belong to the devil and what they are proclaiming is some of the real truth mixed with deception. It only takes one or two words to change the truth into a lie. We have made so many assumptions in our understandings of God’s Word and this has led us to where we are now.

So now that I have told you that I have been sent by God to bring back the truth – it is up to each person that reads this letter to decide. Are you prompted to get more into the Word to find the real truth or are you going to reject what I am saying and stay comfortable with your own human logic and understanding. God’s ways are not our ways. There is no free lunch when it comes to inheriting eternal life. Salvation is free, but becoming a son of God so you can inherit eternal life will cost you everything in this life.

The Jewish leaders that lived when Jesus Christ walked this earth thought they had it all figured out too. Instead of accepting the real truth, they crucified the real truth to a cross. Are you going to find the real truth or will you crucify it?

God’s servant and yours,
Mike Reid

Spiritual Math

Scientists have determined that almost everything that we can see and touch has a certain mathematical equation to its makeup, but the same math that we use with physical things does not hold true for the Spiritual realm. In the Spiritual realm (1+1+1 = 1) is a true equation. We see this in the Trinity makeup of God. They are three, but still only one.

We get to choose the math we are going to live by. If we are willing to be born again of God, then we also become one with God (the Trinity). So if we are willing to die to ourselves and become one with God, then the equation (the Trinity + us = 1) is a true statement. But if we are unwilling to die, because we want to keep our individualism and control over our own life and desires – then we will not become one with God and we must still use the earthly math equation, which is (the Trinity + us = 2). In the earthly equation, we stay separated from God.

1 John 4:15 - If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.

Mark 8:35 - For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.

We can only be added to God’s Spirit realm when we are willing to let go of our own individualized spirit. Our spirit cannot be joined into God’s Spirit (which is one in total unity) until we are willing to let our spirit be transformed into His Spirit. We are all born with a separate spirit (apart from God), but He gives us a way to be joined with His Spirit if we are willing to let go of our own desires and selfish spirit. In essence we must die to our self before we can be merged with God’s Holy Spirit. This is why the scriptures say we must decrease so He can increase. When we die to ourselves and become one with God, we decrease and God’s Spirit realm increases.

John 3:30 - He must increase, but I must decrease.

I have realized that even though most teach and proclaim a “what God can do for me gospel”, that life is not about me at all. It is all about glorifying God and doing His will (not my own will). So because I am no longer considered my own, but a part of a much bigger and glorious God, I am no longer living for myself, but for the one that is in me.

I was born with an individual spirit with the name of Michael W Reid, but I am no longer that individual. I am no longer an individual of one, but have become one with my God. The name Michael W Reid no longer has much meaning, because I am now called a Christian.

Many people want to be remembered and leave a legacy – so that their name will be remembered. For me, my personal name is only worth the dust that it came from. I only want to leave a legacy with the souls that were willing to get close enough to me to see that I lived the Words I spoke and that I only spoke the Words of Him that was in me.

God’s servant

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

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

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)

____________________________________________

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

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

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

God Will Not Be Mocked – Message 2

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

Like in all the messages in this series, I will 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. So what does God have left to work with when it comes to reaching these lost souls – only FEAR. We must all come to the knowledge that God is God and we are not.

Proverbs 1:7 - The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.

I am calling to all people who are not already living by the Holy Spirit and by God’s precepts of love to come to a realization of who God really is and fear Him. For out of that fear of the true God and the realization of the damnation that He will cast you into - that you might come to Jesus Christ and be saved. But the fools that think they are wise and don’t need to be corrected by God will be cast into eternal suffering. It is not too late as long as you’re still breathing and you have come to the knowledge that you are spiritually bankrupt without God’s Holy Spirit in you. We have to realize that we don’t have anything in us that God would want in heaven, unless we have His Holy Spirit living already inside us. The only value we have, when it comes to being worthy of inheriting His eternal life with Him, is God Himself, living within us. His Spirit inside us is what is worth eternally keeping. We are not born with anything that would please God eternally. It is only His Spirit that is within us that pleases Him.

We must also come to an understanding that the filling of the Holy Spirit is not just for the asking. We can start down salvation’s path by confession and repentance, but the receiving of the Holy Spirit is reserved for the ones that have proven themselves faithful by dying to every sinful/selfish thing in them. The Holy Spirit cannot come in and fill a person until that heart and soul has previously been emptied. Before we receive the Holy Spirit, God’s Spirit is the one that comes along side our heart and soul to help us be cleansed of our selfish ways, but His Holy Spirit doesn’t fill us and give us a new heart until the previous process has been completed. This gets us to the next subject of this message and that is - what is this life all about.

This life is not about God blessing us so we can live a happy life. God is not our sugar daddy that just gives us everything we want – the devil does that for us. It is not about seeing how successful we can become in the world’s eye or how much money we make or have - this is what the devil helps us believe so that we never come to the knowledge that we need God. It is not even about seeing how good of a person we can be – God is the only one that is good and if we have any true goodness, it is only a byproduct of God’s Spirit living inside us. So what is this life really all about then?

Life on this earth is all about God testing and purifying us and then glorifying Him – not glorifying ourselves. God needs to test our heart and souls before He will let us inherit His eternal life. But some of you might say - how can this be? This sounds like God looks at our works. If you are thinking this, you are half way right. God does look at works, but is not our works He looks at. It is His works He is doing through us or trying to do through us. If we have belief and faith in God, than there will be works that come out of that faith, but if we don’t have real faith, there will be no works. This is why God says:

James 2:26 - For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

Every good thing we do or will do comes from God. When we first believe in God, that belief is given to us by God’s Spirit if we are open to it. When we put our faith in God’s Son Jesus Christ, that faith is given to us by God’s Spirit if we are open to it. When we repent from selfishness and turn to God, that power to repent is given to us by God’s Spirit if we are open to it. When we have hope for what God has promised, that hope is given to us through faith that God’s Spirit gives to us if we are open to it. When we are found faithful and worthy by all of God’s grace working in us, God’s Spirit then sends His Holy Spirit into us to live with us as one.

John 14:15-17 - If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter (the Holy Spirit), that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

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.

Before being filled with His Holy Spirit, God’s Spirit works at bringing us to salvation, but it is only upon this filling of the Holy Spirit that we can say that we have become one with God.

Phil 2:1-2 - If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.

John 14:20 - On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that you are saved onto heaven just because God’s Spirit is drawing you or working in your life. God must first work in you in order for you to be brought to salvation. When you have received the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit will attest to you that you are saved because you will know God intimately. You will know the nature of God and you will also notice that the Holy Spirit has taken control of your nature. You will be a slave to God’s will and you will love every minute with the Father in heaven because you will be sharing in His love, holiness, and righteousness. You will know that Christ is in you and you are in Christ and you are in the Father, because He is in you. Just like Jesus Christ is in the Father, you will know you are also in Christ which is in the Father. You will know that you have become one in Spirit with the Father and the Son. You will not hesitate to be called a brother with Jesus Christ, because Christ’s Spirit is in you and you are a son of the Father just like Christ is the Son of the Father.

I say all this to let people know that most people, including most believers are being fooled by the devil out of their salvation. God has called me to prophesy the truth to who ever will listen. Through the Holy Spirit that lives inside me and is now part of me, God has made known the very nature of Him self to me and I need to let everybody know that even though most people are being deceived – God is not being fooled. God wants to have His creation open their eyes, read His Word, and be lead by His Spirit to true salvation. Don’t go to other Christian books. None of these other Christian books have the full truth – they are partial truths. Everybody is set free by the truth, the whole truth. A partial truth is always deceiving. Read only the Bible for the full truth. Every Christian writer must have the whole Bible to back up what he/she is writing. So get to know the Word of God first before studying anyone else’s books.

God wants to let everybody in the United States know that – God has left us no excuse to not be saved, other than our choice of unwillingness. God has already given the Way, Truth, and Life to make this possible for anyone who believes. There will be a few (small percentage) that are saved. Are you willing to be one of the few?

Your servant in Christ – Michael Reid

Does Your Church Give A Message Of Life Or Death

Does your church preach and teach that all your sins can be conquered through the power of the Holy Spirit working in you, or does your church preach and teach that we will never be free from the bondage of our sins.

The message of life - When we are truly set free from our sinful nature and are given Jesus’ nature, we will no longer have a nature to sin and won’t. This is what being born again means – we are born again into Jesus’ nature and accepted into God’s eternal righteous kingdom. We are able to enter God’s kingdom because we are not just washed on the outside with Jesus’ righteousness, but when born again we are also cleansed spiritually and given a new heart filled with only God’s love, which is God’s nature. When born again we are given a pure heart and made righteous through and through by Jesus’ Spirit which lives inside us. This is what Jesus meant by having life. Anything short of this results in eternal death and separation from God in hell because only pure hearts and pure righteousness enter His eternal kingdom. Does your church teach this message of life?

The message of death - Many are teaching that we can never be free from our bondage of sin and will always sin as long as we live on this earth. If this is the case, why did Jesus even come? If we still have to stay in bondage to our sin, then we are no better off then the Jews before Jesus came and died on the cross. If there is no power in Jesus’ Spirit that comes into us when we are born again, why would God even bother to send the Holy Spirit if it had no power to conquer all sin in our life? Since we can’t enter God’s eternal heavenly kingdom unless we are spotless of any sinful nature, what is the sanctification by the Spirit all for if we will never be made spotless with out any sin? Some people believe we are made perfect after we die; there is nothing in the Bible that supports this. We are only given new spiritual shells for our soul to be in. If our soul is still sinful, even if we get a new spiritual body our sinful soul makes the whole spiritual soul and body unclean and sinful. The only reason this theology exists is because people want to believe it. It is not biblical and has been reasoned out by man to allow people to keep on sinning and also think they are saved unto eternal life. This theology is of the devil and the results are no re-born experience for who ever believes it. Anyone not born of God will not have eternal life. Does your church teach this message of death?

Michael Reid

Thy Kingdom Is Here And There

There has been much confusion about the kingdom of God and when is it going to come or has it already come.

First I would like to talk just a little about the future kingdom that everybody has hope for. True born again believers will go to heaven after we leave this physical body and we will go to live with our loving God forever. God has promised with many scriptures that the eternal heaven will be glorious. God also says this is when we enter His rest.

Rev 14:13 NIV - Then I heard a voice from heaven say, "Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on." "Yes," says the Spirit, "they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them."

Let us also remember that for any that do not have the faith to listen and obey His teachings and warnings, there will be eternal unrest for their souls.

Heb 3:16-4:1 NIV - Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert? And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief. Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it.

Since the future eternal kingdom is the kingdom that most preachers and teachers teach on, I want to concentrate instead on Jesus’ kingdom that is here now, a kingdom that every true born again believer is part of. If people only hear about the future eternal kingdom and not the kingdom that is here and now, people will be mislead to believe that they have to wait to be made “Christ like” until after they physically die. On the contrary, we have to be made Christ like before we physically die and we must be part of the kingdom of God here on earth while we are still in our fleshly body before we can transfer to God’s eternal kingdom.

The kingdom of God that every born again believer is part of, is a spiritual kingdom. Since people have a hard time understanding anything they cannot see or feel, we sometimes have a hard time understanding anything in the spiritual since we can’t see it to analyze and reason it out with our minds or logic. In this message I will attempt to simplify what many have made very complicated.

I would like to start with defining what a kingdom is. A kingdom is where you have an absolute ruler, a king or lord, and the kingdom having people as subjects to that king. For any person willing to live in the area in which that king has rule, that person must agree to be totally subject to the presiding king’s laws and rules. So when did this happen for God’s kingdom here on earth? We need to take a look at scripture to find this out.

Mark 1:14-15 NIV - After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. "The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"

Matt 12:28 NIV - But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

In Mark 1 the scriptures are telling the story about how John the Baptist was proclaiming the coming of our savior and after Jesus was baptized Jesus went into the nearby town of Galilee and started proclaiming that the time had come for the kingdom of God. Jesus said “The kingdom of God is near”. In Matt 12 we see Jesus telling the Pharisees that “the kingdom of God has come upon you”, meaning it was there when Jesus spoke those words to the Pharisees. Some people will say how can that be, there was no absolute rule or totally obedient subjects for the kingdom. We have to understand that Jesus Christ is the king and where ever Jesus Christ is, there the kingdom is also. Jesus could say the kingdom of God had come because He was the King and Lord and He had a totally committed subject, which was himself, since He was both God and also a human. So since he was human and was totally committed and obedient to His Father’s will, He was His own subject.

Anytime Jesus Christ was on this earth doing His ministry, the kingdom of God was also on earth with Him. After Christ was crucified, the kingdom of God left the earth until Jesus Christ was resurrected. After Christ’s resurrection, Jesus spent 40 days with His 11 disciples and during this time the kingdom of God was also on earth since Jesus Christ was on earth. After these 40 days with His disciples, Jesus ascended into Heaven and the kingdom of God went with Him. After 10 days the kingdom of God returned to earth again through the Spirit’s filling of the disciples at Pentecost. This time the spiritual kingdom of God was here to stay on earth until Jesus’ final return. It was to be a kingdom within the hearts of men. Christ would now rule the hearts of men from the inside of their very souls.

Luke 17:20-21 NIV - Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you."

Remember - Jesus Christ is the king and where ever Jesus Christ is, there the kingdom is also. We can say that the kingdom of God is within us because the very Spirit of Jesus Christ is in us, that is if anyone is a true born again believer. If we have been baptized by His Spirit, then we have been given a totally new heart filled with His love and desires and Jesus Christ Spirit is within us.

John 3:6 NIV - Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.

John 15:5 NIV - “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit”

John 14:19-21 NIV - Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 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."

When we are a true born again believer, our heart has been totally transformed. The old man or sinful nature which is comprised of any selfishness in us has totally been replaced with the new man or God’s Spirit which is comprised of only love. Since no sin can originate out of true love, we only have desires to love and please God and love our fellow man. It is this total change of heart that drives our every desire and action. It is with Jesus Christ’s Spirit and love inside of us that God rules our lives. Our heart’s desires are in turn the same as God’s desires. Because of the love He has put in us, we only have the desire to obey His commandments and full heartedly go about doing His will.

Jesus Christ is now our high priest, Lord and King while we are living in this fleshly earthly body, but when we leave this earthly body, He is no longer our high priest because we won’t need any priest to intercede for us anymore. We will have already made our decision before we die, which will decide where we spend eternity. If we have chosen the way of Jesus as our Lord, then we will spend eternity with our brother Jesus Christ and Jesus’ Father as our Father for ever and ever. They will be the constant loving light we will continue living by and praising forever and ever.

If we have died to our selfishness and have spiritually been born into His kingdom while we are here on earth, we will never spiritually die; we will just transition from Christ’s earthly reigning kingdom to God’s eternal kingdom.

John 11:25-26 NIV - Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

In His Kingdom by faith - Michael Reid

Romans 7 – So misunderstood

I was not planning on writing a message on the interpretation of Romans 7 until I realized that the misunderstanding of this passage was deceiving many away from God's truth. This scripture is so misunderstood by most churches.

There is an epidemic of misunderstanding of what a true Christian is and everybody with this misunderstanding seems to keep pointing to Romans 7 for their justification for this misunderstanding.

The misunderstanding originates from Romans 7:14-20.

We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do — this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

Most have misunderstood this verse because Apostle Paul seems to be writing this about himself. Since Paul is a born again Christian at the time he wrote this, people assume this is what a Christian is like.

If people fully understand the rest of the New Testament, they would quickly see these verses could not even be remotely considered to be representing what a true Christian is. To say a born again Christian is still controlled by his sinful nature is an oxy-moron. The phrases “born again Christian” and “controlled by sinful nature” cannot exist in the same person. Either you are still controlled in part or in full by your sinful nature or you are a born again Christian where the sinful nature has no control over you.

To start understanding this scripture we must understand whether this person Paul is talking about is born again or not. One of the key verses that indicates this is not a Christian is in Romans 7:14.

We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin..

When we are a Christian we are filled with God’s Spirit which has transformed our heart into a heart of love. Romans 7:14-20 is indicating a person’s life without the Holy Spirit in it. Without the Spirit in us, we have no hope of conquering sin on our own and we are still a slave to sin.

Apostle Paul is actually talking theoretically about any person, including himself, and how we are powerless with just our own human capabilities to get rid of sin. We learned throughout the Old Testament that we cannot obey God’s commandments on our own without the Holy Spirit’s power in us. This is what Paul is stressing in his letter. He is helping them understand what all of Israel already new before Christ came to die on the cross for us. The Jews knew the law was good but they were not capable of fulfilling the law.

Ever since the time when Adam ate the fruit of the forbidden tree, we have had the knowledge of good and evil in us. Remember it was the knowledge of good and evil, not just evil. The big problem ever since the original sin is not that we can’t know what is good, it is that we could not do any of the good we had knowledge of without the power of God in us. This is what Paul is talking about in Romans 7:15-16.

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.

Paul goes on to say that it is the sin, or evil, living in this person doing the sin since this person is still under the law. It is evident that this person does not have the Holy Spirit living in him. Paul concludes in Romans 7:17-18 that the only thing living in this person is the sinful nature.
As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.

Now to keep this passage in context, let’s go back to the passages before Romans 7:14-20 to Romans 7:1.

Do you not know, brothers — for I am speaking to men who know the law — that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives?

We see here that Paul is addressing people that know the Jewish law and emphasize that all men are under the control of the law until they die. Another words, we have to die to be free from the law. To illustrate his point Paul uses marriage as an example in Romans 7:2-3.

For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man.

So what Paul is emphasizing here is that we have to die to the law before we can be bound to another, which is Jesus Christ. We die to the law by believing in the perfect body of Jesus Christ dieing on the cross for us. In Romans 7:4-6 Paul explains this for us.

So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

If we believe Jesus Christ died for us, then we believe through the cross we also died and are no longer bound to the law and are now under God’s grace and no longer under the control of the sinful nature. We are given a new heart from God which does not have any selfishness or sin in it, but only love for God and love for all of God’s creation. True love cannot contain any selfishness or sin of any kind. Because this new heart that is from God has only love, it cannot willfully sin. Through this new heart we now have control of the body instead of the sinful nature in the body controlling us. Only God can do this and everything is possible with God.

Matthew 19:26 - Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Today Romans 7 is falsely preached from many pulpits with the idea that Christians can’t keep from sinning. This has been another deception from the devil that a lot of people have believed because it supports people believing they are born again when they truly haven’t had a total heart transformation yet. Don’t let yourself be fooled by this lie of the devil. The truth is, when your born again you can, through God’s Spirit’s power in you, conquer all the sins that His word or His Spirit convicts you of.

Remember God’s grace is His Spirit working in and through you – Michael Reid

Only Souls With Pure Hearts Will Enter Heaven

God has promised that when we are born again we are given a new heart.
Ezek 36:25-26 - I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you.

God says all of our sinful nature is gone and we are a new creation in Him.
2 Cor 5:17 - Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation ; the old has gone, the new has come!

When we are truly born again we are no longer slaves to sin, but slaves to His righteousness.
Rom 6:18 - You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. Jesus says he has set us totally free from the bondage of the sinful nature.
John 8:36 - So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

We must understand that for most of us that call ourselves Christians, we are not really born again yet. Most of us are in the pregnancy stage and we are getting ready to be born again. When God’s grace has purged all of the sinful nature out of our heart and soul, He will give us a new heart filled with only His love and all of our sinful nature will be gone. Then we will truly be able to love God and others like He commands us to.

To be born again, we have to humble ourselves by letting go of all of our pride and selfishness and give every bit of our soul to Him. Only then can anyone come to Him with the faith as a child to be reborn.

God is patient and gives us our whole life to let Him transform us into a pure spiritual being. Only after our heart is made pure, holy, and righteous by God are we acceptable for the gift of eternal life with Him. How long do you think you have left? Remember this is a process for most of us and usually takes some time.

For anyone that has been taught and believes that this total regeneration is not possible, please understand you have been deceived, for the Bible clearly indicates this entire sanctification is possible through the work of the Holy Spirit. It is not only possible; it is required for anyone to have eternal life with God. Our soul must be purged of any sinful nature because God will not allow any unholy thing into His eternal kingdom.

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."

I tell you this even though it might be hard to hear, because a lot of us have stopped searching for God’s real truth. We have become complacent with our walk with God because we think we are eternally saved already. We have to stop listening to preachers that are telling us what we want to hear and search for the real truth. God says if we will search, we will find. So I sincerely ask you to search God’s Holy Word. Don’t go to books other than the Bible. Most books other than the Bible will mislead you in some way. The whole truth is in God’s Word. Let God talk to you through His scriptures.

God Bless,
Mike Reid

Is Your Nature The Same As Jesus’ Nature

When Jesus was walking on this earth proclaiming the kingdom is at hand, He also proclaimed that He and the Father were one. He could say this because the Father and Jesus were of one Spirit. He indicated that His Father in heaven and He had the same nature, so if you saw one of them, you saw both of them.

John 14:9-10 - Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?

In other scripture Jesus said He could only do His Father’s will because His Father’s nature and His own were the same. He could only do His Father’s will because Jesus could not go against His own nature since it was the same as His Father’s.

Now where does our nature fit into this? If we are a believer that has been born of God, we will have the same nature as Jesus.

John 14:12 - I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

Rom 2:14-15 - Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts

2 Peter 1:4 - Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

When we are truly born again, we will have received Jesus’ Holy Spirit. When we are filled with His Spirit, we will be imparted with Jesus’ very nature. Since we are imparted with Jesus’ nature when born again, we can then say to others – “If you have seen me, you have seen Jesus”. We can say this because Jesus is in us and we are in Jesus.

John 15:4 - Remain in me, and I will remain in you.

Rev 3:20-22 - Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. 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.

In the following scripture, Peter stood up at the time of Pentecost and preached that what had just happened was what was prophesied – that God’s Spirit would be poured out to His people.

Acts 2:17 - In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.

When we are born again all of our old nature is gone and we are imparted with Jesus’ nature. As long as we stay in Christ’s nature, we can only do Jesus’ will since we have the same nature as Jesus. We no longer have any desires to sin and since all desires to sin are gone from us, we don’t willfully sin. We can’t willfully sin because it now goes against our very nature which is the same as Jesus’ nature. The only way a born again believer can willfully sin is if that believer rejects Jesus’ nature, but how could anyone born again want to go back to the sinful nature after they have experienced the very loving nature of Jesus.

When we are born again and Jesus’ nature has become our own nature we will be “Christ like”.

2 Cor 3:18 - And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

We are truly brothers with Christ and a son of our heavenly Father because we are of one in Spirit.

If your soul cannot attest to the above words in this message, then I want to encourage you to truly come to the Lord and give your whole heart, soul, and mind to the Lord as a living sacrifice, only then can God impart His Son’s Holy Spirit (His nature) into you. This is the mystery of the gospel, all things become new and understood when Jesus Christ is in you.

2 Cor 3:14-16 - But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

God Bless,
Michael Reid

Is It Possible To Do Jesus’ First Commandment?

Through my studies and walk in the Holy Spirit I have learned that God fully intends to bring us to a full loving relationship with Him. God wants our heart to be totally devoted to Him. It is by totally loving Him that brings us to living holy in Him and living a righteous life through this Godly love that He has put inside us.

We must understand the sanctification process. Sanctification is not a process of ridding us from sins, it is a process of growing in love with God, and it is a process of transferring our love from our selfishness to loving God only. When we love our selfishness we will sin. When we love God we will not sin against Him. If anyone is still sinning, it is out of him/her loving themselves instead of God. When a person loves God with ALL their heart, soul, and mind, they will not sin. Sin cannot come from a heart that totally loves God. When we are given a new heart from God, it is only filled with His love and no sin can come out of a heart filled with His love. Almost all professing Christians say very fervently that born again Christians cannot live a day with out sinning let alone not sinning for a day, week, or year after being born again. So what most people are really saying is that no one can do the first commandment that Jesus gave, which is: Matt 22:37-39 - 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. What a defeating message these people are giving. If we can't do this first commandment through Jesus Christ living in us, we then can say that God sending the Holy Spirit to reside in us has no value. It is only after we are doing this first commandment that we can do Jesus’ second commandment. Matt 22:39-40 - And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." Jesus came and sent His Holy Spirit to free us from the bondage of sin and supposedly born again Christians are telling everybody we will never be free from the bondage of sin.

Where is this logic coming from? Is this understanding that most believers have coming from God’s Word or is it coming from their experiences, or lack of experiences of these professing Christians. Are we “Christians” just fooling ourselves? I don’t see this defeating message in God’s Word of the New Testament. Christians today are living like the Jews in the Old Testament where they did not have the Spirit living inside them which enables us under the New Testament to do all of God’s commandments. The Jews in the Old Testament were not born again and could not live by the Holy Spirit, but Christians today are supposed to be born again and be living by the Holy Spirit which in turn allows us to do all of God’s commandments. As born again Christians we still might sin for awhile because of the renewing of our minds, but we need not keep on sinning. With Jesus’ Spirit living inside us we really have no reason to keep on sinning.

God says if we are His children, He will always give us a way out from our temptations. 1 Cor 10:13 - And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. So if God always gives us a way to not let our temptations turn into sin, is there any reason that we need to sin anymore at all?

God Bless – Mike Reid