Heading My Glorious Church

There is a cry among believers today for revival. There is also an awareness that the Church is lukewarm and we need an outpouring of God’s Spirit upon us. We sense that something is wrong, yet we can’t put our finger on what it is. We sense that we are in end times and that Jesus is coming for a Glorious Church, Without Spot or Wrinkle, yet we can’t perceive how He is going to pull this off in these dark, complacent days.

Jesus is THE TRUTH and He gave Himself for us that He might sanctify and cleanse us with the washing of the water by the word. Where we are deceived and unable to see our sin or where we have false beliefs, concepts or reasonings regarding our Christianity or faith, Jesus, THE TRUTH, will expose these false beliefs that we have had from our beginnings in order to wash and sanctify us. The word "principalities" in Eph. 6 means false beliefs from our beginning. We are fighting against these strongholds of false beliefs. Where we have false beliefs, satan will operate in our lives and churches. Jesus came to deliver us and set us free with THE TRUTH, so we must be meek and teachable in these last days as THE TRUTH exposes our false beliefs and washes and sanctifies us in the water of the word. As Jesus said to Peter when He knelt to wash Peter’s feet and Peter objected, "If you don’t allow me to wash you, you have no part with me."

A stronghold is a fortress of wrong thinking, beliefs, reasonings, concepts or arguments that we have that allows us to remain in the sin and deception we are in so that we will not change or accept THE TRUTH when Jesus exposes our deception and sin. Thus we reject THE TRUTH, Jesus, and we persecute the person He speaks through because we are so sure we are right.

Jesus is still THE WAY, and the only WAY to obtain favor in God’s eyes is through faith in the finished work of the cross. Jesus is also THE LIFE and what the church is lacking is THE LIFE. The Church has not been impacting the world and being a light. Instead, the world has been impacting the church and we must ask ourselves why.

John 1:4 says: In Him was life, and THE LIFE was THE LIGHT of men. The church has been getting its life, value, worth and acceptance through other sources than Jesus. When we get our life, value, worth and acceptance from Jesus, then we will be a light. Jesus told me "Behind every sin is a cause. Sin is just a symptom of something else. If you don’t deal with the root cause of the sin and only do away with the symptom, it does no good. Man is made in such a way that he needs to get a sense of worth and value from something. The ‘accuser of the brethren’ (false accuser) has caused man to get his sense of value and worth from his religious activities within the church. Others get their sense of worth from possessions, titles, status, position, degrees, worldly things and acceptance from others. There are many sources from which man gets his value and worth. Whatever gives man his sense of value and worth becomes an idol and he will not be able to give it up. Man will worship that which gives him value and worth. That is what I provided for mankind on the cross. The church is not getting its sense of value and worth from me. If they were, I would be whom they would worship and they would not be able to leave me for the things of the world. Worldly things would have no power over them. They would be able to endure until the end." When we get our life, worth and acceptance from Jesus, we will be loving and accepting of others. We will freely give what we have freely received. If we get our life, value and acceptance from our religious works, we will NOT be loving or accepting of others unless they perform as well. We have communicated to the church that the rules are more important than the needs of the people, just as the Pharisees did in Jesus’ day. The church is Laodecian because we point to the sin and we don’t minister life to the cause behind the sin. The word Laodecia means "the pointing of the finger" or "judging by the people". If we just point to the sin, people change their behavior in order to be accepted and they get their value from others, not Jesus. Their heart never changes and they do not experience Jesus as their LIFE.

As I stated, sin is just a symptom of something else. Many times a sinful behavior is a result of a deep hurt or wound, or possible rejection. If we bind up the wound or minister to the need, the sin will go away. That is how Jesus operated in His ministry and that is how He still ministers to us today if we aren’t in "denial" about our wounds, hurts or needs. The church has been taught to "deny" that we are hurt or that we have needs because it isn’t mature or spiritual to notice the offense or to admit that we have needs. Thus we "pretend" we don’t feel the wound and we don’t have needs. We are a pridefully deceived people who believe that we are mature and spiritual and have need of nothing. All the while, our needs and wounds are there as evidenced by the rampant sin and lukewarmness, but we just can’t see them or admit to them. Thus, like the Laodecians, we think we have need of nothing and our wounds never get ministered to and our needs are never met by the Lord who died and shed His blood to do that very thing. Thus we never experience or come to know the God of the word. We only know the word of God and we blindly think they are one in the same. There is a world of difference between knowing the word of God and knowing or experiencing the God of the word. To experience or know the God of the word requires being honest with and about ourselves, our needs, our wounds and our sin and not being in a phony state of "denial" over them in order to be accepted by those who point the finger. The cause behind the sinful behavior never gets acknowledged or ministered to and the sin never goes away. One reason Jesus bore our sorrows and grief's is because so much of our sinful behavior is born out of our hurts and sorrows. We will never experience His righteousness if we continue in a deceived state of denial in order to appear spiritual or mature as Christians or not have a bad "confession". We will continue to try to keep the "rule" in our abilities and as a result establish our own righteousness with no heart change and we never experience Jesus. We must not heal the wounds of the people slightly. In doing so, sin runs rampant. We must not say "peace, peace" when there is no peace to the tortured or hurting in our midst. We must not ignore the hurting or unlovely in our midst. To do so is deception and not acknowledging the pain people are in. To you who know to do good and you do it not, it is sin. Oh how Jesus weeps when He is not able to do what He died to do.

So how will Jesus sanctify us? He will expose our strongholds of false beliefs with THE TRUTH of the word in our deception, thus washing us. Jesus said, "MY people (Christians) perish for a lack of knowledge." It wasn’t that the knowledge or truth wasn’t given to Jesus’ people, it was that they rejected it as not being from God because they had their own strongholds of false beliefs. For this reason, Jesus wept over Jerusalem and said, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how I would have gathered you together under my wing as little chicks, but you would not have it. You have missed the hour of your visitation." Jesus visits and pulls down strongholds of false beliefs through the prophetic voice.

It wasn’t the adulterous woman who Jesus rebuked when the Pharisees brought her to Jesus to be stoned. The woman already knew she had sinned. Hurting people cannot keep "the rule". It was the Pharisees who were rebuked because they could not see their sin, and they could not be brought to repentance. If Jesus had been legalistic, He would have picked up stones to throw at the woman and He would have administered the "rule" to her. In our churches today, we minister the rule to people in sin instead of ministering to the need behind the sin. The church has been eating from and ministering from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil which brings death. There were two trees in the garden of Eden. We need to eat from the tree of life. Jesus is that tree of life. Only the deceived or those who can’t see their sin get washed in the word or get the "rule" in order that they see their sin and have their hearts exposed to them so that they will repent and receive forgiveness. Those who can’t see their sin are spiritually blind. The word blind means: callous or hardened as a result of constant pain or irritation, unfeeling, insensitive, undiscerning. If the blind lead the blind, then they both will fall in a ditch. The job of the Holy Spirit is to rebuke, reprove and convict of sin. Many times this is mistaken as the "accuser of the brethren" but if it is the Holy Spirit, it will not be a false accusation. The Holy Spirit will be trying to show you your heart and your sin in order to bring you to repentance, mature you and make you righteous, keep you in right standing with God and change you from the inside. He can only do this if you accept the chastening, put it to use or obey it, confess your sin and submit yourself to God. If you reject the chastening, rebuke or conviction and throw it back in the face of who the Holy Spirit is and what He does, then this is called blaspheming the Holy Spirit and that sin will never be forgiven you. It is important that we discern and be meek and teachable and submit ourselves one to another in the fear of the Lord. The "accuser of the brethren" is just a counterfeit of what the Holy Spirit truly does. If there were no real, there could be no counterfeit. If the real were of no value, then there would be no counterfeit. This goes for the gifts of the spirit as well.

Jesus died IN ORDER THAT we would be dead to sin and live unto righteousness. God does not merely declare us righteous without making us righteous. To only declare us righteous without making us righteous would be to declare an untruth or lie. All who submit to Jesus as Lord will be made righteous. All who persist in sin and rebellion will be removed by judgment. As I like to put it, Jesus can’t be Savior if Jesus isn’t Lord of your life. For those who believe that there is no judgment for the Church, the bible says that "judgment (literally translated "condemnation") starts in the house of the Lord. God will judge the church before he judges the world and He will gather out of His kingdom all who offend and workers of iniquity. This is the church. Many Christians quote that there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus and they stop there. They are quoting from Romans 8 and the scripture verse is not completely quoted, therefore, a false belief has arisen because of only half quoting a scripture sentence. They don’t even finish the sentence and they make a doctrine out of it. The verse says, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, WHO WALK NOT AFTER THE FLESH, BUT AFTER THE SPIRIT. I did a whole scriptural study on what it means to be "In Him". The question that kept coming up during my scriptural study was "Whose will are you doing?" The word "believe" is literally translated "obey" so believers obey. True believers do the will of the Father. What one says, he does and the actions line up with the words. Other things that identify a person as being "In Him" are:

Born of the spirit and water. Dead to sin and alive unto righteousness as in baptism. This is a continuing state of maturity as God brings up and deals with our sins. The water of the word of God, or Truth in your life continues to wash you and cleanse you. Reject this water and you reject Jesus. There is a reverence and fear of the Lord. It is the sin of rejecting Jesus that brings condemnation. We would never knowingly reject Jesus, so in order to do so, we must be deceived. How can this be? How do we end up rejecting Jesus and the finished work of the cross and how does judgment or condemnation come about?

We reject God, Jesus, and blaspheme the Holy Spirit because we have a stronghold or false image of God and how He is and how He operates. The Pharisees in Jesus’ day read the word of God constantly. They knew the scriptures inside and out, yet Jesus did not fit their image of how God must be, even though they read the word. Here was the living word of God standing in front of them, confronting their hearts and false beliefs and because he didn’t fit into their perceived image of God and belief system, they rejected Jesus, bringing upon themselves judgment and condemnation. The same can and is happening today. Because of the strongholds of false beliefs or "principalities" that we are fighting against in the Church, some and even many Christians will reject Jesus as He reveals Himself to them before His return. He will say to them, "Depart from me, I never knew you and you never knew me." You worshipped a false God and rejected me when I tried to gather you together under my wing as little chicks. You missed the hour of your visitation." Make sure you are meek and teachable, Church, so that you do not reject Jesus and persecute those Jesus sends to you to reveal Himself to you just as the Father sent Jesus to reveal Himself to His children and the world. It was His children that rejected Him because they did not recognize Him. I am not saying swallow anything that comes along, because Jesus said, "Take heed that you be not deceived". I am just telling you to discern and be open to investigate things. In essence, I am telling you to take heed that you be not deceived. Don’t hang on to beliefs and images of God that may not be true as God reveals Himself to you.

We also reject Jesus because we have a false image of ourselves and when Jesus exposes our hearts to us we do not receive it. We believe it to be false or a lie, so we reject it. We have strongholds about ourselves as well, so we blaspheme the Holy Spirit when we are reproved or rebuked, and thus we do not receive forgiveness for that sin. The Pharisees were also guilty of this and they persecuted those who exposed their hearts. They sure didn’t view themselves the way that Jesus did. The rich young ruler is a prime example of this. In scripture, this rich young ruler came and worshipped at Jesus’ feet. He said, "Good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus replied, "Why do you call me good? There is only one good and that is God. What does the scriptures say?" The young man replied, "To love the Lord your God with your whole heart, mind and soul and your neighbor as yourself." The young man replied that he had done this since he was a youth. What did Jesus do here. This rich young ruler was believing something about himself that was not true. First of all, Jesus pointed out to the young man that He was God and that the young man had recognized this. When Jesus said, "Why do you call me good? There is none good but God." Basically, Jesus was saying, "You acknowledge me as God because you call me good and only God is good. I am God." After the young man stated that he had loved God above all else and his neighbor as himself, Jesus replied, "Go and sell all that you have and follow me." What Jesus was exposing to this young man was that what he believed about himself wasn’t true. Jesus was saying, "If I am God and I am first and you love me above all else, sell all you have, give to your neighbor (loving them as yourself part) and follow me." Basically, Jesus was saying, "If that is true, do this...." The young man couldn’t, so it wasn’t true, was it? The young man wasn’t who he thought he was and he went away sad. How about you? Is there anything in your life you could not give up if Jesus asked you to?

How does judgment or condemnation come upon us? John 3:19 says, "and this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds (or hearts) were evil.

For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be manifest, that they are wrought in God."

Denying, explaining, rationalizing, minimizing, giving your intent, blaming, etc. all keep us in darkness and keep us from seeing the light and reality. If you defend yourself when confronted, you are in danger! A defensive person has a heart condition that is closed and will reject the TRUTH, LIGHT, AND JESUS. They will use the above techniques and more to remain in their darkness. Other scriptures that pertain to the same thing are:

A man who covers his sin will not prosper. How does a man cover or hide his sin? Through denial, explaining, minimizing, rationalizing, giving his intent, blaming, etc. His intent may even be good. Judas was well intentioned when he betrayed Jesus. Judas thought he knew how Jesus should take over the kingdom or rule from the Roman oppressors. He was a zealot. Jesus wasn’t doing what Judas thought He should in bringing the kingdom of God to earth NOW! You see the disciples, Judas included, thought Jesus would set up His kingdom here on earth now, and overthrow the Jewish oppressor. When it wasn’t happening according to how Judas thought it should happen, he thought he would help things along by setting Jesus up and making Him fight, thus ushering His kingdom in and speeding things along. If Judas made a little money in the deal as well, so much the better. You see, Judas was well intentioned and believed that He was helping God by manipulating the situation. Things did not go as Judas planned and thus he hung himself. So you see, good intentions often stem from pride, fear, deception and false beliefs, so just because someone is well intentioned and believe they are doing things out of love or for a good cause, upon closer examination, you will probably find pride, fear, deception, guilt and false beliefs there and satan entering the whole picture. Good intentions don’t mean it is good or of God. Satan uses well intentioned people to further his plan. A scripture that exemplifies this is: Whoa to them who call evil, good. How do we call evil good? By having good intentions, explanations, rationalizations, etc. Satan is behind all deception, darkness, manipulation, defending and control. Those who defend themselves, even though well intentioned, will betray you and God Himself. These are those who love darkness rather than light and will not come to the light that their deeds can be exposed that they were wrought in darkness. Their rationalization and explaining keeps them in their darkness, deception and mental stronghold and causes them to remain in their bondage and sin as Jesus is trying to bring them to the light and set them free. Even if this person CLAIMS TO HAVE ACCEPTED JESUS AS THEIR LORD AND SAVIOR, HAS PRAYED A PRAYER AND GONE DOWN FOR AN ALTER CALL AND SO ON....... This person is in danger of judgment because their heart loves darkness and they will reject THE LIGHT, THE TRUTH AND JESUS HIMSELF. This is the person who gets "the rule" or their sin exposed because they don’t think they have any! These are the people who most desperately need the TRUTH and believe that they have it, and will reject it. These are the people who will not care about taking heed that they be not deceived because they don’t believe they are and they won’t read, discern and seek the Lord on anything He exposes in their lives either. They reject and deny it through rationalization and justification and they remain in their darkness because of their strongholds of false beliefs and that is where they choose to stay. You cannot be deceived unless you want to be. Jesus is faithful to reveal the TRUTH to you. If you are deceived, it is because you WANT TO BE!!!!! Willfully deceived, rejecting Jesus and receiving judgment or condemnation. No fear or reverence of the living God.

Again, in doing the study on what it means to be "In Him"......Whose will are you doing, yours, God’s or satans. Do you know God’s will? Has He made it known to you or chastened you in some way? Are you doing what He’s instructed you to do? Are you led by the Spirit? Are you a servant to sin or to God (what you fear is what you serve). What you do shows what you believe in your heart. Do you allow God to change you? Do you hear His voice? Do you have a two way relationship? Does God reveal Himself to you? What is the condition of your heart according to the parable of the sower and the seed? Will you endure until the end? Do you love darkness more than light, thus defending yourself when your deeds are reproved or exposed? He that is of God hears God’s word. Someone who is not of God, won’t. Whose Glory do you seek? Do you keep Jesus’ sayings and follow Him? Are you submissive, humble, and teachable? What kind of fruit is produced in your life? How do you affect others? Are rules more important than the needs of the people? Are you ministering life or death, scattering or gathering? Tough questions! You will only stand on the Rock when the storms and floods come if you HEAR AND ACT upon what God tells you.

Your will plays a part in this. As Jesus said to Peter as He knelt to wash Peter’s feet and Peter objected, "If you don’t allow me to wash you, you have no part with me." The word "justify" means to make righteous and whom the Lord justifies, He also glorifies. Before being born again, man could not earn God’s favor through his works. After being born again, it is not you doing the works but Christ in you. You either let Him or you don’t. You either submit or you don’t. Grace is not the license to sin. It is the power of God given to you not to sin. You either submit, or you reject and rebel. You either let Jesus do what He died to do in you, or you reject Him in rebellion, thus rejecting the finished work of the cross.

The reformations or church movements that preach grace/no condemnation and righteousness as something that is merely declared have always failed in producing those truly righteous people who have had the accompanying change in nature or character. That is the fruit of that teaching. Reformations or moves of God that preach grace for those who are submitted and judgment or condemnation for those who aren’t, have always produced truly righteous people who have the change in nature and flow in the glory and power of God. The word "condemnation" in Romans 8:1 means judgment, and judgment starts in the house of the Lord. Before God judges the world in these last days, He will judge His church first. Those who walk in the Spirit and are led and controlled by the Spirit will not be judged or condemned. There is condemnation for those who walk in the flesh and fulfill the lusts thereof. You can have your name removed from the Lamb’s book of Life (Rev. 3:5).

You can be one of the five virgins who had the oil of the Holy Spirit but were not able to enter into the marriage feast of the Lamb. We must teach the church what is of the flesh and how to walk in the Spirit. The greatest harm and deception that can be done to the church in this hour right before God judges her is to teach grace/no condemnation and righteousness as merely a declaration of what Jesus did on the cross. Thus the church will reject anyone who brings God’s warning of judgment and repentance and they will persecute those sent by God to wake the church. The church will be falsely secure in the face of impending judgment; just what satan wants. Those deceived preachers and teachers who get on the grace/no condemnation movement are being used by Satan. Satan is the only one who benefits from this doctrine. A preacher once told me, "If I were going to be wrong in any doctrine, I would want to be wrong in yours. It is the safest one to be wrong in." Satan isn’t going to tell you to submit to Jesus as Lord. What I preach is scriptural and lifts up Jesus and the finished work of the cross. It glorifies Jesus and acknowledges Him as Lord and no one can preach Jesus as Lord except by the Holy Spirit. Grace is real, but so is judgment or condemnation. Let’s face it, wisdom begins with fear. If you knew you could lose your salvation and go to hell if you went ahead and had that affair and you died in that state without TRUE repentance, Jesus returned or God the Father brought judgment upon you because of it, you’d think twice before having that affair. You’d think things like, "Is this person worth losing my salvation for? If this act can bring the judgment of God upon me, do I want to do it? If I am dependent on God for everything, do I want to separate myself from Him with this sin?" The bible says a wise man speaks of judgment. I’m not saying you can’t be forgiven and restored in relationship to God. I’m just saying you would think long and hard about the possible consequences if you knew that you could lose your salvation or bring condemnation/judgment upon yourself for the act you are about to perform. If you don’t believe there are any consequences, and there is no holy fear, what is to stop you? Let’s teach who gets the grace and who gets judgment. Not everyone caught in the fishnet of evangelism is a good fish. Some fish are thrown back. Only pigs are content to remain in the mud or return to it. When given spiritual truths or pearls, they will turn on you and rend you. We are commanded by Jesus to preach the kingdom of God, which is submission to the King. No one can call Jesus Lord except by the Holy Spirit.

Recently, when ministering on America On Line, a Vietnam Vet came on and was filled with condemnation because he had killed women and children in Vietnam. He now had a wife and kids and he could hardly look them in the face because of all the condemnation he carried. This man could not believe that Jesus could love him or die for his sins. His sins were too great and terrible for Jesus to forgive. This man was not a Christian but came on the Christian Fellowship section of AOL. Why? What do you think he was looking for? You see, if we could love him, and Jesus lives in us, maybe he could believe. This man needed his burden lifted. He didn’t need any more "what is wrong with you finger pointing from Christians". In fact, Christians were ministering to him in the flesh and quoting scripture about how God loves him and if he confessed his sin, it would be forgiven him and so on. This is all true, but ministered in the flesh. The word without the spirit is dead. It takes the Spirit of God to pierce the heart of a person and we must listen to God on what to do and say. We must be led by the Spirit when ministering or we will scatter. I watched the antics and fleshly ministry go on on the computer screen. I prayed and God gave me a word. I sent the man the word from God privately and it pierced his heart. The word was, "And if your heart condemns you, God is greater than your heart." I told him that God was going to manifest His love and mercy to him and God did. The vet thanked me and it pierced his heart. I told him that the fact that his actions bothered him said that he cared about God and what God thought and he was remorseful. It was the guy who wasn’t bothered by his sin and didn’t want to see it that I was concerned about. This seemed to lift the burden of guilt and condemnation from this man in order that he could believe and receive Jesus as His Lord and Savior. To point fingers and judge others in THIS state or in a state of depression, will only scatter them, not gather them. Only those in denial who do not want to see their sin get the cloak removed to reveal their sin. This is in order to bring them to repentance and a point of decision in accepting Jesus and what He died to do, or reject Him because of their strongholds of false beliefs. This process continues in our Christian walk.

We have been taught how to discern things wrongly. Many of Jesus’ prophecies were of doom and gloom and they were condemning. The prophet Agabus in the books of Acts prophesied death in the land and this he did by the Holy Spirit. If Jesus or Agabus were in our churches today, we would throw them out and persecute them. We’ve had so many "pillow" prophets who pat our flesh and tell us "peace, peace" when there is no peace. We have had the peace, ease and prosperity prophets that have lulled us into self sufficient deception. Everything is in the power of your tongue. Just believe it and confess it and it is yours. The message is, "Don’t worry, be happy. If you are not, something must be wrong with you, your faith, your confession, etc." The church gets into a phony state of denial over their needs so they can be accepted by those who point the finger in this flesh patting, pillow prophet society. Lukewarm and in need of nothing. It is all in their power! It is all about them, not God. They worship the creation and not the creator. These pillow prophets were also in the old testament as well preaching peace and ease in the face of impending judgment and they couldn’t be awakened out of their spiritual sleep because of their deception. The same thing is going on in the church today. Satan isn’t doing anything new. God does bring warnings. We are living in the end times where people do not want to hear the truth. They want to hear what they want to hear and if it makes them uncomfortable, they don’t want it. So called Christians want to heap upon themselves teachers having itching ears or teachers who will tell them what they want to hear, not what they should hear. Are you one of those people? It is not love to pat your flesh and tickle your ears in the face of danger! That is why people do not want to hear the TRUE gospel and they don’t want to endure sound doctrine.

Again, only the deceived or those who can’t or won't (their will) see their sin get washed in the word or get the "rule". They also get God’s judgment if they continue in that sin because God won’t continue to strive with them forever. The wounded get their wounds bound up and healed. The rejected get loved, accepted and cherished. Jesus tends to us the way you would your own body. After all, we are His body. He washes us where we are deceived and unclean. He nourishes and feeds us when we are hungry. He binds up our wounds and broken places with His healing touch. He cherishes us, loves us and tends to our needs if we will let Him.

Jesus is still THE RESURRECTION and THE LIFE. If we are going to be revived, we must come to know Him as such. He is still THE WAY and THE TRUTH and it is only in experiencing Him as such and receiving the truth in our deception that we can be sanctified. When we let Jesus do what He died to do, and we become led and controlled by the Holy Spirit, then the church will be WITHOUT SPOT OR WRINKLE. Those that reject and rebel will be cut off and shut out, or judged. Jesus said, "I will gather out of my kingdom all who offend and workers of iniquity." Those left will be the bride who will enter into the wedding feast.

Jesus is going to confront us in our false beliefs in these last days just as Elijah confronted the false teachers in His day. The false teachers will be exposed and confronted. The purpose of the prophetic ministry is to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, then to build and to plant (Jer. 1:10) You cannot build and plant until you have cleared the land. God wants to build and plant and do something new in us church. Will you let Him? We will not see the outpouring of the Spirit until the false teaching and teachers are exposed and the true God is revealed. It did not rain until Elijah put to death the deception in his day. John the Baptist also came in the "spirit of Elijah" as he confronted the Pharisees in his day in their false teachings and exposed the sinfulness of their hearts. He called them to repentance and sought to bring restoration to the Kingdom of God. So it will be before Jesus returns. The "Elijah ministry" or the prophetic voice will be heard as it confronts our false beliefs. When they are confronted, exposed and put to death, then it shall rain, and we will see the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Hark, be still. I hear the pitter, patter of rain. The words "Latter Rain" mean teacher of righteousness according to righteousness. The TRUTH or righteous teaching must go forth before the Lord can pour His Spirit out upon us in these last days. Jesus gave Himself for us that He might sanctify and cleanse us with the washing of the water by the word: hence the "Latter Rain". The water from the Latter Rain or truth being preached will sanctify the church. The Latter Rain is not the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon us, but instead the Latter Rain precedes the outpouring the Holy Spirit.

Mat. 13:41 says: "The son of man shall send forth his angels (messengers): and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity". (Jesus’ words, not mine.)

The Greek word for angels is messenger. John the Baptist was called by this Greek word and he was born of a woman. If you are looking for white, winged, invisible spirit beings instead of a human messenger, then you are deceived. Again, this is the prophetic voice. The old strongholds of wrong thinking and beliefs have to be pulled down, destroyed and thrown down before anything new can be planted and built up to bring forth God’s crop. Imaginations that exalt itself against the knowledge of Christ must be pulled down in order for God to plant and bring forth restoration.

A complacent, slumbering, undiscerning, lukewarm Christian or church does more to further satan’s kingdom than a satanist does.

If you do not stand with Jesus and what He did on the cross, you’ll fall for anything. If you are not for Him, you are against Him. If you are not gathering, you are scattering.

Someone who does not exercise or put to use his senses to discern BOTH good and evil will be tossed about by every wind of doctrine. Jesus said to "take heed that ye be not deceived". It is okay to questions what is being taught. Many things we think are of a wrong spirit are really of God, like judgment and condemnation. Many things we think are of God are really a move of satan to deceive us and lull us into a false sense of security in the face of impending judgment. Only those who are submitted to Jesus as Lord and allow Him to wash them in their deception and sin are eternally secure.

You do not walk in the authority of Jesus Christ unless He is Lord of your life, not just Savior. You will not experience kingdom power or authority unless Jesus is Lord. Jesus only has as much power, Lordship or authority over you as you give Him. Your flesh only has as much power over you as you allow it. Satan only has as much power over you as you allow him or to the degree that you are deceived. You can only be deceived if you WANT TO BE. Who is Lord of your life; Jesus, your flesh, or satan?