Citizenship in Heaven

In believing that America is an expression of the Kingdom of God governmentally we have in essence shut down the expression of the power of the Kingdom of God.  Being a world power this faith in America has basically polluted the gospel on a global scale in very much the same way Rome did by mandating Christianity as the official religion of the state.  This error was not perceived by our founding fathers in that they established a freedom of religion clause to the charter, yet the “people of God” have attached America to themselves like a prosthetic arm or leg in place of citizenship in heaven.  In this we have failed to stand apart as ambassadors of another Kingdom that will and must consume all the governments of men with the fullness of the glory of God at the return of Jesus Christ.  We ask our lawmakers to pass “godly” laws and demand the respect of the wicked but we do not stand up and speak of repentance and salvation for our leaders.  We cast a ballot for the lesser of two evils while winking at the evil that is still present and compromising the pure good that the Spirit of God in us is pointing to; if His Spirit be in us.   In touting freedom and liberty through our constitution over the gospel of our One true God we essentially empower every false god and hold the value of America above the Kingdom of Him who saved us.  In Acts Herod was struck dead and eaten by worms for not giving glory to God, Ananias and Saphira were struck dead for lying to the Holy Spirit, the sorcerer was struck blind for trying to sway the proconsul from the faith, the apostles were beaten and imprisoned and performed great signs and wonders and we ask why don’t we see these things today?  We have traded the God of heaven for the idol of America and pledge allegiance to the flag of another Kingdom, how can the power of God rightly back our words if we serve another god.  How can the Kingdom of God come at the word of men who honor their citizenship in the earthly nation above the heavenly Kingdom.  I will preach a coming King who will set up His Kingdom and expect that as a representative of the Kingdom of God that His resources will supply me with every power necessary to convert the sinner and destroy the foolishness of the wise according to this age.  We must arm ourselves to suffer for the truth not fight for our rights.

Prophecy? When is it false.

O my God, can you sort out the thoughts of my mind.  They are many and diverse.  I am not so much confused by my thoughts as by what I see.  Many false prophets have gone out into the world to deceive many.  Things have been made so strange.  You are my Hope and strength.

When a man speaks a word from the Lord and it does not come to pass, was that word he spoke really from the Lord?  Do not muddle the question with your many doctrines.  Let me ask another, simpler question.  If a man says he is telling you the truth and it turns out to be a lie, was what he told you the truth?  Why do we make things more complicated than they need to be! 

Is God ever caught by surprise or unaware?  NO.  Does He know the end from the beginning?  YES.  Can God lie?  NO.  The answers to these questions are not debatable, they do not have an exception, nor can they change.  Why then is there so much debate and confusion across the Christian religion. 

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. - Jhn 1:12-13 NKJV

I’ve heard it said that God is releasing a “new breed”, the best of all the bloodlines, and this is the last generation who will usher in the Lord’s return.  This is a false word and should not be listened to.  The above Scripture says it is not by blood (or genealogy).  Being descendent of one of the apostles does not give you any advantage.  All have sinned, all have fallen short.  No man on the entire earth has ever been preferred by God because of genealogy (bloodline).  It has been said that since the legalizing of abortion after Roe v Wade in 1973 that this “new breed” will begin to be born.  This uses the 1973 date as the earliest time for a “new breed” Christian to be born, with the legalization of abortion being Satan’s attempt to stop such a plan.  The problem here is that abortion has been around and legal at much earlier times in history across the globe. 

Before 1803 British Common Law allowed abortion before “quickening” (the time it was then widely thought the soul entered the body—approximately 20-24 weeks.) Abortions after “quickening” were considered an offense but there were no fixed penalties and the woman was not always held responsible. However in 1803 the Lord Ellenborough Act made abortion at any time in the pregnancy a felony under English statute punishable by death.

The Offenses Against the Person Act of 1861 softened this, making abortion punishable by imprisonment of three years to life, even when done for medical reasons. 1929 saw the introduction of the Infant Life Preservation Act, which amended the 1861 law saying abortion was no longer a felony so long as it was in good faith for the sole purpose of preserving the mother’s life. The new law made it illegal to kill a baby “capable of being born live.” It also said the child should be presumed viable at 28 weeks, but gave doctors the power to decide the legality when the mother’s health in danger. 

The article “A Global History of Abortion” on the Life.org.nz website in New Zealand reports that “In 1920 the Soviet Union legalized abortion on demand and the World League for Sexual Reform began in Berlin. The influential 1929 London Congress of the World League for Sexual Reform promoted the Soviet abortion law as an ideal for its pioneering secular ideology,” and that “By 1932, supporters in the medical profession were lobbying the British Medical Association and in 1936, the Abortion Law Reform Association (ALRA) was established.”

Then in 1938 Dr. Alec Bourne challenged the law with a test case. He aborted a 14-year-old girl who had been raped by four soldiers, and turned himself in to the authorities. He gained great publicity and public sympathy and was acquitted. Life.org.nz reports, “Justice McNaughten told the jury that if Bourne believed that continuation of the pregnancy ‘would make the woman a physical or a mental wreck,’ then he operated for the purpose only of preserving the life of the woman.”

The article continues, “As a result of the Bourne case, more and more abortions began to be practised in Britain in cases where the woman’s physical or mental health was thought to be in danger, a loophole in the law that was interpreted increasingly loosely. This ambiguous legal precedent was adopted by other Commonwealth nations.” (http://www.hli.org/files/sr_jan_08.pdf)

With these above examples, it is very presumptuous to decide that America’s legalizing of abortion indicates the beginning of God’s plan.  He is not working solely on the scale of America but he has died for the sin of the world.  Exactly what plan of God is this belief playing into?  I’ll allow you to seek the Lord.

Well, anyway, it is the year 2012 and the generation of the “new breed” is coming to a close by those who spoke it defining a generation as 40yrs in the context of this word.  There has been almost no change in the body of Christ.  We pump each other up with the “latest” word while so many go unnoticed through our midst just needing a friend.  I want to love and be loved.  Let us quite chasing something and be someone.

All Things New!!

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, "Look, God's home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever." And the one sitting on the throne said, "Look, I am making everything new!" And then he said to me, "Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true." - Rev 21:1-5 NLT

Then the angel showed me a river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. It flowed down the center of the main street. On each side of the river grew a tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, with a fresh crop each month. The leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations. No longer will there be a curse upon anything. For the throne of God and of the Lamb will be there, and his servants will worship him. And they will see his face, and his name will be written on their foreheads. And there will be no night there--no need for lamps or sun--for the Lord God will shine on them. And they will reign forever and ever. - Rev 22:1-5 NLT

What a glorious future we have in Christ!!  As I sit in mourning for the arrival of His beautiful city, I trust in His love and power to make all things new.  All the wickedness, all the evil is to be done away with.  Can you imagine it?  Oh how He loves us, patiently waiting for all to come to the knowledge of His son.  What is your hope in? 

Pursue Love

Today my heart is stirred.  The commandment of God to love one another has been resonating in my spirit for some time now.  It seems so very hard to carry this out.  Not always because I do not possess the desire but I seem to lack opportunity.  How do we begin to truly love one another?  I was reading today in 1 Cor and was struck by verse 14:1 where it says to pursue love and desire spiritual gifts.  To pursue is to literally run after while desire is to burn passionately for and can entail a pursuit.  I got the sense that we must really go after love with all we have but never stop desiring the spiritual gifts, but only as they can aid us in loving.  Basically I think we should focus all our energy upon the love part but at the same time keep our eye open and ready for the gift part.  If we look back to chapter 13 we see plainly that Paul instructed that gifts without love are totally and utterly worthless.  Yet we clamor around for opportunity to exercise gifts instead of exercising love.  We spend hours in devotion and prayer to God many times with the sole intent of seeing His power manifested; healing, deliverance, resurrection, overcoming etc.  The power of God is good, but the love of God is better.  We could say that power will always follow love but love never follows power.  Think about this in the natural, someone who loves will always exert more power than someone who does not.  This is why you do more for your own children than for the children of other people, because you love your own children more.  We must learn how to pursue love!!  Jesus said it is by our love for one another that the world will know we are His disciples.  Let us begin to go out of our way for one another, to seek out and pursue opportunities to love.

Hophni, Phenehas, and the Ark of God

In the time of the Judges in Israel, Eli was the high priest at Shiloh, where the Ark of God was.  He had two sons; Hophni and Phinehas.  They served as priests before God, but they did so wickedly, having neither regard for the law of God nor any love for the people.  They took food from the offerings by force that was not meant for the priests and also had their way with the women.  Eli did not rebuke his sons, nor did they respect their father and God pronounced a severe judgment on the house of Eli.  Now Israel was at war with the Philistines at this time, and the Philistines were winning.  The men of Israel had the idea to bring the ark of God into the battle, so they sent to Hophni and Phinehas to bring it, and they did.  Both sons of Eli were killed during the battle and the Ark of God was captured, and Eli fell and died when he heard the news.  It was at this time that it was said that the glory of God had departed from Israel. 

Well the Philistines did not have a good experience with the Ark of God and sent it back to Israel and it ended up in the city of Kirjath Jearim for twenty years.  It was actually not until the reign of David that the Ark of God was brought up.

The reason I mention this story is I want to look at the way God was being treated.  You see God is alive, and is a being who desires friendship and companionship.  Yet the priests were not treating Him that way.  They did not take God’s presence seriously.  They used their position as a means for personal gain.  Their attitude must have spread through Israel because the men of Israel saw the Ark of God as a good luck charm.  As if God was a puppet or tool to be used by man to gain an advantage.  But God has His own agenda and it cannot be set for Him.  God was present at the battle but it wasn’t to help Israel but to harm them.  Why?  They did not rightly present Him to the nations. 

How is God being treated at your church?  Or by you?  Is he a good luck charm you pull out in times of danger to get you out of trouble?  You see, if the glory of God is not present it is because we don’t fear or revere God.  Like the children of Eli were more interested in what they could get away with because of their position as priests, we use our so-called freedom in Christ to continue in sin asking forgiveness as it seems necessary.  Jesus has become more like a lucky rabbits foot than the risen King of the universe.

I do not know how much time this nation has left, but we have been playing games with God for far too long.  He is real and He is alive and He is holy.  It is time to turn our hearts in reverence to Him.  I encourage you all to search your hearts and really turn to God.  I love you all.