"When the Money Failed" (a message for those who trust in money)

Greetings and God Bless All,

Well by now I'm sure most of this world has seen and heard all the chaos with regards to the American Economy. Where do we go from here? We have all the politicians, government officials, economist, financiers, educated coming together to save themselves and their economy. They are going to use their human unregenerate worldly wisdom (which is foolishness to God) to legislate a so called "rescue plan". Financial calamity is indeed here, but in fairness to God we are all reaping what we have sowed. God is not mocked for we will reap what we have sowed, it's a spiritual principal that never fails. To the flesh corruption, to the spirit life eternal.

America and this world are not only economically bankrupt but most importantly they are SPIRITUALLY FAMISHED. This economic dereliction we are witnessing is just a manifestation of the spiritual dereliction of this nation and the world at large. The spiritual dictates the natural we need to remember this always. Even if they come up with a plan eventually it will fail also because everything that is not produced by God's spirit will perish. God has declared in the book of Revelation that BABYLON HAS FALLEN. Let's stop spinning our wheels already, as if we have a greater plan than the creator of the universe. People are so deceived. It's sad.

There is a FAMINE in this world , people. A spiritual famine of the true knowledge of God. THE REAL JESUS CHRIST.

Let's look at what I'm getting at in the book of (Genesis 47: 13 - 15) And there was NO BREAD in all the land: for the famine was very sore, so that the land of Egypt and ALL the land of Canaan FAINTED by reason of the famine.

And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, for the corn which they bought: and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house.

And WHEN MONEY FAILED IN THE LAND of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came unto Joseph, and said, GIVE US BREAD: for WHY SHOULD WE DIE in thy presence? FOR THE MONEY FAILETH.

I looked at this today as I sought to understand the current economic crisis in light of God's word and discovered some things about the current economic storm.
I am in no way attempting to spiritualize this, because it already has a spiritual message in itself.

The first thing mentioned here that we need to see is that there was a famine. A famine (Ra ab 07458) basically meaning hunger. There was no bread in all the land of Egypt and Canaan. This resulted in the people of these lands to FAINT or languish. Famine is a manifestation of God's judgment in the land , that there is something seriously wrong in the spirit of that land. This land could be a nation, a single individual or a family.

(Revelation 18:8) Therefore shall all her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and FAMINE; . . . . . for strong is the Lord God that JUDGETH her. When God is not pleased with a nation He will break their staff of bread which they relied upon. (Psalm 105:16) Moreover he called for a famine upon the land: HE BRAKE THE WHOLE STAFF OF BREAD. It's a time of humbling the flesh. For people to consider their ways.

The word also says that their was NO BREAD in all the land. I submit this to you that there is NO BREAD in the land of heathen (haters of Jesus Christ) nations. The nations of this world are fainting and languishing, failing because they don't have the bread of life. The nations are proud because they have an economy, but an economy without God is destined to FALL either now or later.

Jesus said in (John 6:48) I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE. In (John 6:35) He said I am the bread of life: HE THAT COMETH TO ME SHALL NEVER HUNGER; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. In verse 33 For the BREAD OF GOD IS HE WHICH COMETH DOWN FROM HEAVEN, and GIVETH LIFE UNTO THE WORLD.

For too long mankind kind has lived on natural bread with no regard for spiritual bread, natural worldly wisdom, intellect and human will plus various economic systems contrived by the same. We keep experiencing troubles because we are eating the wrong bread. Jesus said that man should not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

The way to life is by God's word. We need to learn a lesson from this crisis even if it is not the end yet. We all need a higher dimension of life a heavenly and in feeding on the Bread of heaven we will reach this higher heavenly life. So when the end does come we will be above the natural realm reigning with Christ in life because we have fed on him and have been transformed to his likeness. This life cannot be purchased with money it was purchased by pure blood.

Let's continue looking at the famine. When their is no bread in the land and the people faint and are tossed about it's because there is a lack of "Joseph's" in the land. Joseph feared God while everyone else was caught up in the Egypt and Canaan lifestyles. He demonstrated his reverance toward God by eating the shewbread of God and coming away with the wisdom to know what to do.

Now when THE MONEY FAILED IN THE LAND OF EGYPT AND CANAAN the scriptures said that ALL the Egyptians came to Joseph and asked him for something. We need to look at this closely because they did not ask for money to meet their need for the money was worthless, it had failed and most importantly money could not meet the real need at hand which was to give life, so they asked for BREAD. They asked GIVE US BREAD for WHY SHOULD WE DIE. In (John 6:34) they asked Jesus then they said unto him, LORD, EVERMORE GIVE US THIS BREAD.

If our money has failed than let me say that it has failed so we would see that money cannot minister the life we need which is only in the bread of life JESUS CHRIST. Let say Evermore GIVE US THIS BREAD JESUS.

How did we get here well I believe if we go to the first part (1 Timothy 6:10) we will see a very important fact. FOR THE LOVE OF MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
Obviously this is a warning to the saints of God, they were warned to stay clear of the love of money, not money itself, but the LOVE of it. The leaders of this world surely have built an economy based on ungodly principals and their greed for money. This country it's Presidents, cabinet leaders, government officials, senators, congressmen and women have been playing a deadly game with the devil too long and all of you sadly will pay for your iniquities. Leaders should be people of integrity, disciplined, honorable, God fearing people who should look after the welfare of their people not their own.

The leaders of this country and world have sold themselves and their countries out for the love of money. I don't feel pity for any of these grown people, as an American citizen my allegiance is to Jesus Christ and His everlasting Kingdom. JESUS is the KING OF KINGS and every knee WILL BOW TO HIM and confess to Him. This country is on a 200 plus year coma to remotely think that any man or woman can lead us anywhere. The folly of this unjust economic system is shamefully open for all to see. How can blind leaders lead the blind. No wonder people are falling into the ditch.

Go to (Proverbs 1:20 - 27) If we are awake we can learn something here that perhaps will change our mentality and course of life.
Wisdom CRIETH WITHOUT; she uttereth her VOICE in the STREETS:

She CRIETH in THE CHIEF PLACE of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the CITY she uttereth her WORDS, saying,

HOW LONG, YE SIMPLE ONES, will love simplicity? and the SCORNERS delight in their scorning , and FOOLS HATE KNOWLEDGE?
TURN YOU AT MY REPROOF: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known MY WORDS unto you.

Because I have called , and YE REFUSED; I HAVE STRETCHED OUT MY HAND, and NO MAN REGARDED;
But ye have set at NOUGHT ALL MY COUNSEL, and would NONE OF MY REPROOF:
I also will laugh AT YOUR CALAMITY; I will mock when your FEAR COMETH;

When YOUR FEAR cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a WHIRLWIND; when DISTRESS and ANGUISH COMETH UPON YOU.

God's word is always current and alive. God is saying that His wisdom was crying out in the streets, in the chief places, in the openings of the gates, in the city. In other words the wisdom of His word was reaching out to all segments of society sinner(Without) and church (the City).

He asks us How long? will the simple minded people of this world continue to love simplicity and hate the knowledge of God. Simple minded or naive people scorn all the things of God to their own destruction. God said to TURN at his correction. He has called all nations to repent but humanity and nations as a whole have REFUSED. He has stretched out his helping hand and NO MAN has taken heed. The Lord has said that the NATIONS has set as nothing His counsel and wanted nothing to do with His reproof.

The severe consequences for this is God will do the same to nations that have refused, ignored, disregarded His counsel and correction. He will laugh at their calamity's and will mock when the fear starts to swarm the soul. When nations and their governments refuse to heed God then at some point fear will eventually follow. God will not always strive with flesh.

If we look closely at verse 27 this brings out clearly what will happen and is now happening to many, the outcome of refusing to take heed to God's wisdom, word, counsel and voice. Fear will come as DESOLATION, DESTRUCTION as a WHIRLWIND, DISTRESS and ANGUISH upon every soul that ignore God.

As we look at the landscape of this country and world there are just so many people hurting. God's spirit is available to help us because his spirit is OMNIPRESENT. God is everywhere at the same time but he will not force himself on any soul that is bent on rejecting him. Beloved we have got to seek God for these people. We need more Josephs in the church who will stay with God even when they themselves have been unjustly treated by brothers and allow God to have his way. Souls are very important to God for once a soul has left this Earth their fate has been set forever.

The gentile nations economy may fail but the kingdom of God's economy will last forever. May God bless you during these times.


By
Bro. Pete J Mojica

2 Chronicles 7:14
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

"PUT ON THE WHOLE ARMOR OF GOD . . . . THE ARMOR LIGHT"

Greetings All,

We took a brief look at warfare on the last post, and how the Lord was declared a man of war by Moses after he and the children of Israel witnessed first hand God defeating their enemies and delivering them out of slavery with a high hand.

We also saw how in Christ he has given us the victory over our enemies(Satan and his demons) in this present age and forever. Today I want to continue where we left off, putting on the armor of God, the armor of Light.

In the book of Ephesians chapter 6 the saints of God are admonished to "put on" in verse 11, and in verse 13 to "take unto" the WHOLE armor of God. Armor (panoplia 3833 in the greek) is defined as "full armor" and "complete armor". This armor can only work effectively as a whole, it is not intended to work as separate independent parts. Much like the body of Christ, we cannot function in the power God as individuals apart from each other, but as a whole body. God designed it to work this way. Unity of parts is more effectual than divided parts.

The terms "put on" and "take unto" are action terms, and it's implication is for us to be the one's to array or clothe ourselves. It is our responsibility to do our part and God will definitely do his. For verse 11 promises us by doing so , we WILL BE ABLE to STAND against the wiles of the devil.

The word "wiles" denotes cunning arts, deceit, craft, and trickery. So when we obey and put on the armor of God, God will cause us to stand against these wiles, it's a promise from the Lord. One thing we need to understand is we don't stand on our own strength and abilities, but in God's. The focus should always be on what God does in order to fulfill HIS righteousness and bring Him glory.

Armor is typically used as a protective covering, to prevent damage from being inflicted to an individual through use of direct contact weapons, usually during combat. Armor was commonly used for soldiers. According to (2 Timothy 2:3) we are to endure hardness (hardships, trials for the Gospel sake), as a good SOLDIER of Jesus Christ. In the following verse 4 we have been declared CHOSEN to be a Soldier. Paul was addressing Timothy in this text, but we can apply this to all Christians as well.

Soldiers are commissioned to follow orders, well good soldiers do. Since our Commander in Chief has never lost then we can have faith in his battle strategy. Since the word of God has declared us soldiers then we best equip ourselves for battle as soldiers do. In (1 Timothy 6:12) Paul instructs Timothy to FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT OF FAITH, LAY HOLD ON ETERNAL LIFE, . . . .

Our enemy is fighting against the saints of Jesus Christ, to keep us from inheriting eternal life he will battle us to wrestle it away from us. We must STAND on what God has promised us and not carelessly relinquish it to him. Eternity is at stake here. This struggle is no joke.

Now let's break down this armor as it is stated in scripture.
(Ephesians 6:14) STAND therefore, having your loins girt about with TRUTH, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
Let's look at a few verses to see the spiritual benefits of STANDING in the Lord.

In (Galatians 5:1) STAND FAST therefore in THE LIBERTY wherewith CHRIST HAS MADE US FREE, . . . .
In (1 Thessalonians 3:8) For now we live, IF YE STAND FAST IN THE LORD. As we read these two verses we are exhorted to stand in the liberty because Christ has made us free from the bondage of sin and we live if we stand fast in the Lord. Liberty and Life when we stand in the Lord. These are great benefits, don't you agree.

In (Philippians 4:1) Paul said it like this Therefore, my brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, SO STAND FAST IN THE LORD, my dearly beloved. Stand fast in who? the Lord. This stand we must take is made up of an armor of spiritual components which are mentioned here beginning with having our loins girt about with TRUTH.

Loins (osphus 3751 in the greek) is defined as hip, without a hip we are not able to stand in the physical. In the spiritual our hip is to be girded with the truth of God. We must equip and fasten ourselves with truth when in the field(world) of battle and stand against the deceiving wiles of Satan who will be firing at us with LIES of all sorts. So it is important that we invest ample time in learning the truth of God and believing it.

In (John 14:6) Jesus declared of himself "I am the way, THE TRUTH, and the life": . . . . When we put on the armor of the truth you also have Jesus.

In (John 8:32) To the believing Jews Jesus said And ye shall know the TRUTH, and the TRUTH shall make you FREE. If we continue in God's word we WILL KNOW THE TRUTH.

In (John 17:17) Sanctify them through thy TRUTH, THY WORD IS TRUTH.

(Proverbs 12: 17,19) HE THAT SPEAKETH TRUTH SHOWETH FORTH RIGHTEOUSNESS: . . . . THE LIP OF TRUTH SHALL BE ESTABLISHED FOREVER.

Those who speak out God's word through the spirit of truth declare God's righteousness in a world hungry and thirsty for righteousness. Jesus once said we are the salt of the earth, I submit to you that the truth is a type of salt. (Colossians 4:6) says Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with SALT, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man. When speaking the truth it should be done with wisdom and grace, but also in love (Ephesians 4:15) "But SPEAKING the TRUTH IN LOVE. . . .

The church in (1 Timothy 3:15) is declared the PILLAR and GROUND OF THE TRUTH. The church of the Lord Jesus Christ should not be a place for politics, worldliness, man made doctrines, money lovers, myths, liars or any other ungodly fleshly activities. So if you belong to THE CHURCH the word says we should be the pillar and ground of the truth.

The world does not know the truth because they don't know Jesus, Jesus has left HIS CHURCH to preach and teach the truth. Truth liberates, enlightens and equips us to see God clearly in the midst of all the darkness.

The truth protects us by giving us the ability to DISCERN BETWEEN GOD and EVIL. Yes, I mean GOD and evil not good and evil.

Adam and Eve had the knowledge of good and evil but it could not save them from the power of sin over them. Only BY KNOWING Jesus who is the truth can we clearly discern between God's way from sins way. The church or body of Christ should be where the truth is taught and expounded to empower the saints and equip them for their walk in Christ. We cannot stand without having the knowledge of the truth. We must know JESUS intimately to secure our stand.

(Proverbs 23:23) BUY THE TRUTH, and SELL IT NOT; also WISDOM, and INSTRUCTION, and UNDERSTANDING.
The instruction in this proverb is to buy the truth and not sell it. We know that buying requires a cost. We purchase the truth by paying with our time, searching the Lord for it. The Bible says we should STUDY to show THYSELF approved unto GOD, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, RIGHTLY DIVIDING THE WORD OF TRUTH.

Studying requires of us to exert ourselves with diligence in pursuit of wisdom, instruction, and understanding of His holy word. As we study and seek with an open heart God will reveal His word to us. (Proverbs 1:23) . . . . behold, I will pour out my SPIRIT UNTO YOU, I WILL MAKE KNOWN MY WORDS UNTO YOU.

(Luke 24:45) Then HE OPENED THEIR UNDERSTANDING, that they might UNDERSTAND THE SCRIPTURES. If there is one thing that I have seen much of in my spiritual walk is the need for believers to truly understand the word. I would have to say that there exist a dearth of spiritual understanding in God's body. When the body is yielded to the Head you will find a body full of light, revelation and good spiritual understanding.

The truth has been tried by fire and has past the test of time. Generations of people have come and gone yet the truth of Jesus Christ is still standing stronger than ever, especially to those who have believed it. If we are to stand then we must possess the truth and use it under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

The next spiritual component is having on the BREASTPLATE of RIGHTEOUSNESS;

The breastplate of righteousness is not self righteousness, but God's righteousness. Righteousness is defined (Dikaiosune 1343 in the greek) as state of him who is as he ought to be, righteousness, the condition acceptable to God. Also integrity, virtue, purity of life, rightness, correctness of thinking feeling, and acting.

In the book of (Romans 10:3) Apostle Paul says of Israel For they being IGNORANT (having no light) of GOD'S RIGHTEOUSNESS, and going about to establish their own righteousness, HAVE NOT SUBMITTED THEMSELVES unto the RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD.
As you can see from this verse Israel made a grave error three huge mistakes are detected here.

1.) Ignorance of God's righteousness
2.) Trying to establish their own righteousness and
3.) Failure to submit to God's righteousness

Looking at this clearly we learn that being ignorant of God's righteousness will lead us on our own and result in failure to yield to God's will.
The key to God's righteousness is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the righteousness of God. Believing in Jesus Christ and his redemptive work on the cross yields forth his righteousness.God has accepted the lamb of God which has taken away the sin and there is nothing anyone can add to this. This sacrifice fulfilled all righteousness as far as God is concerned.

All religions in this world are just wasting their time trying to be righteous and think God will be pleased with all their human efforts. If it's not JESUS , God will never ever accept their self righteousness. Remember what the prophet (Isaiah 64:6) Isaiah said But we are ALL as an unclean thing, and ALL OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS ARE AS FILTHY RAGS; and we ALL do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

God is not interested in our sinful natures efforts to obtain righteousness. People of all religious persuasions don't see that Jesus is the perfect sacrifice. Jesus fulfilled every bit of righteousness for all people everywhere. People are 2000 years plus behind the times when it comes to understanding what God has done for all humanity. It's ALL about JESUS. God is commanding REPENTANCE FROM EVERY NATION and acceptance of Jesus Christ, then God will be pleased and we will receive the blessing from the Lord.

What all the races of this earth are blind to is that our SINFUL NATURE is what God has a major problem with. Religion has been nothing more than a strait jacket on people who are seeking after God. Do this don't do that, wear this don't wear that, eat this don't eat that, pray this time, and the list goes on and on yet people don't experience freedom but oppression within.

Jesus nailed all this lifeless nonsense to the cross because it could not deliver us from the real problem, the sinful nature. You can practice all the religion you want to but your still a sinner if you have not repented and turned to Jesus Christ and obey the gospel.

Let's look at a few scriptures. These verses all come from Romans.
(Romans 1:17) For THEREIN IS THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD REVEALED from faith to faith: as it is written, THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.

Faith is a key ingredient in God's righteousness according to this verse those who have been justified (by the blood of Jesus Christ have their sins atoned for and forgiven) therefore God has accepted us through Christ. We have been saved by grace through faith and faith in Jesus is how we need to live the rest of our days for it to be the righteousness of God.

Abraham believed God and it was accounted unto him for righteousness. Abraham believed that God would provide the sacrifice when he took his only son to sacrifice him. I submit to you that God revealed to Abraham the only begotten son on the cross.

(Romans 3:22) Even the RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD WHICH IS BY FAITH OF JESUS CHRIST UNTO ALL AND UPON THEM THAT BELIEVE: for there is NO DIFFERENCE:

Now the breastplate of righteousness protects us when our adversary fires his doubts in the direction of our hearts. Why the heart? well look at (Romans 10:10) FOR WITH THE HEART MAN BELIEVETH UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS; . . . . The heart needs to be protected to receive God's word unhindered. God's breastplate will withstand him because he can no longer penetrate his accusations against us before God. Jesus Christ has made us righteous and has removed the reproach of sin in our lives by his precious BLOOD.

We stand on what he has done for us and not doubt our salvation, and calling. The enemy will inject his venom of "IF YOU BE THE SON OF GOD". We have been accepted in the beloved, we are the children of God, and are growing to be the MANIFESTED SONS OF GOD after Jesus Christ.

The next part of our armor is the GOSPEL OF PEACE. Our feet should be shod with and prepared with the gospel of peace. (Luke 1: 79) To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, TO GUIDE OUR FEET INTO THE WAY OF PEACE.

(Ephesians 6:15) And your feet shod with the PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE;

(Isaiah 52:7) How beautiful upon the mountains (nations of the world) are the FEET OF HIM THAT BRINGETH GOOD TIDINGS, that publisheth PEACE; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, THY GOD REIGNETH!

(Romans 10:15) And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THEM THAT PREACH the GOSPEL OF PEACE, and bring glad tidings of good things.

(Song of Solomon 7:1) How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince's daughter! the joints of thy thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a cunning workman. The bible says we are his workmanship.

These three verses teach us about the feet of believers prepared with the message of good news that Jesus Christ has reconciled us back to God and we have peace with God. HALLELUJAH ! We can't speak of feet without looking at (Revelation 1:15) And HIS FEET like unto FINE BRASS, as if they BURNED IN A FURNACE; . . . . Brass (Chalkolibanon 5474 strong's) is defined as some metal like gold if not more precious. I submit to you that these feet represent the feet of the church (Body of Christ) who have gone through the refiners fire with the true gospel of Jesus Christ. These feet have gone through the fire for the gospel and are purified.

God is a consuming fire and his fire purifies HIS CHURCH but with the same fire destroys his enemies.

(Romans 5: 1-2) Therefore being justified by faith, WE HAVE PEACE WITH GOD through OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace WHEREIN WE STAND, . . . .

So fellow believers wherever God leads our feet let them be prepared with this glorious message of peace. Since we have peace with God then we also should be at peace with people especially our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Now we come upon (Ephesians 6:16) ABOVE ALL, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench ALL the fiery darts of the wicked.

We have gone through some spiritual components but in this verse we see something extremely vital to our armor and it is the SHIELD OF FAITH. Above all or over everything else mentioned here the shield of faith is the most important of our battle gear. The shield we put up is one of faith, for without faith it is impossible to please our God. So whenever the enemy fires his fiery darts WE LOOK UNTO JESUS THE AUTHOR AND FINISHER OF OUR FAITH.

Jesus is the starter of our faith and it is his faith that he imparts to us. We just have to trust him in all our spiritual challenges and his faith will rise up in us through the Holy Ghost. David said in (Psalm 121: 1- 2) I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. MY HELP COMETH FROM THE LORD, which made heaven and earth.

God is well pleased is honored and glorified when we believe him no matter what our situation dictates to us. The faith that we have has been given to us as a gift from God, and this faith will be tested and tried for our growth. I have to confess that I tend to look at the waves (Luke 8: 22 - 25) of my trials and tribulations and have fallen short many times and presently I'm in the midst of another huge trial and I'm trusting I can go through this one with my faith firmly in tact.

If we want to see faith in action and it's fruit Hebrews chapter 11 is perfect. Faith is the shield to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. All that the enemy fires at us can be quenched. Quench (Sbennumi 4570 in greek) means to extinguish, of fire or things on fire, it also denotes to suppress, stifle. It does feel like fire when we are either in a trial, tribulation, or attacked but either way the shield of faith (The faith of Jesus Christ) , God promises , will be able to extinguish, suppress and stifle the enemy's fiery darts.

Daniel and the Hebrew boys were in the fire 7 times over and Jesus was with them in it and the only thing that burned away was the cords that had them bound. Faith in God delivered them. Their enemy saw them in the fire LOOSE WALKING IN THE FIRE and NO HURT. When we are in the fire for God only those things which the enemy try to bind us with will burn, but our faith will be purified and increase. They took a stand and trusted God to the end to see their faith perfected in the fire. The enemy threw them in to destroy them, but God used this to perfect their faith instead. What an awesome God we have.

Moving on to the next piece of armor we come across the HELMET of salvation.
(Ephesians 6:17) And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

What is this helmet of salvation? Well if we go to (1 Thessalonians 5:8) we get the definition,
But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the BREASTPLATE of FAITH and LOVE, and for an HELMET, THE HOPE OF SALVATION.

Before we look at the helmet of salvation I want you to look at the breastplate again briefly. In this verse the breastplate of righteousness here is described as the breastplate of faith and love. This confirms that righteousness and faith are inseparable for we cannot have faith without righteousness and we cannot have righteousness without faith and to take it further this faith works by love. This is the complete breastplate that believers are instructed to put on.

As for the helmet, the hope of salvation. Helmet in the greek means (Perikephalaia 4030) the protection of the soul which consists in (the hope of) salvation. We will look at hope because it is another important spiritual element of our armor that God desires us to have on. Hope is defined as a joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation (Elpis 1680 in greek). Hopeful people are joyful and confident people because they have believed and received God's assurance that they are eternally saved. Their experience with God was authentic and they are personally convinced.

Before Jesus Christ saved us from destruction we were all without hope in this world. The hope we thought we had was based on human standards which was no hope at all in comparison to the hope of God. As we continue to see this world disintegrate daily before our eyes we will need to have our hope placed on God alone, if we are to stand in these evil times. We need hope to keep us going for without it people will generally give up. The Bible has many wonderful edifying things to say about hope so let's look at a few verses.

Now to understand the condition we were in before Jesus we turn to (Ephesians 2:12) That at that time ye were without Christ, being ALIENS from the commonwealth of Israel , and STRANGERS from the covenants of promise, HAVING NO HOPE, and WITHOUT GOD in the world:
As we read this verse we can see we were in grim shape, pretty much dead. The word says we were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from God's covenants promise and we were hopeless and WITHOUT GOD in the world. Now I don't no about anyone else but when I lived in the Bronx I lived this to the letter.

I know what it is to have no hope for anything, to believe in no one. I know what it is to be angry at people and God and blame him for everything that went wrong. I even know how it brought me to the brink of suicide before an angel intervened. I know what it is to doubt and be in the abyss of pessimism about life. I also know mercy for it was God's MERCY that pulled me out of this hopelessness (for this I am extremely thankful to the Lord). This scripture text confirms my personal past life that without God we are utterly hopeless. We all like sheep have gone astray.

Like everything else in Christ HE is the only one to supply us with hope. (Romans 15:13) starts out by declaring Now the GOD OF HOPE fill you with all joy and peace IN BELIEVING, . . . .

God is certainly the one where hope comes from we cannot manufacture it no matter how bright we think our outlook on life is. Hope is not having a positive attitude, we are not batteries, a positive attitude only goes so far, but it does not atone for us, redeem us or saves us. When God causes us to hope he will also fill us with joy and peace. Those of us who have been truly regenerated spiritually know the joy and peace that flooded our souls at the beginning of our salvation. This was God's way of saying to us he was well pleased for believing and obeying the gospel of Jesus Christ. But it doesn't stop there.

What exactly does God cause us to hope for let's turn to (Titus 1:2) IN HOPE OF ETERNAL LIFE, which God, THAT CANNOT LIE, PROMISED before the world began; . . . .
We hope for eternal life, God promised it before world began for it is impossible for GOD to lie. We have to realize and understand what God has given us. There are too many Christians who are void of understanding their salvation and one of the reasons for this is they are not being properly nurtured and their careless with what God has done for them and resort back to the world and the old way of doing things, backsliding.

Why do you think that we are being taught from scripture to take unto us the helmet of salvation
as part of our armor. If we don't put on hope then we won't be able to stand. God did save us but we have to KEEP IT take a stand for the hope he has given us. Look at (1 Peter 1:3) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his ABUNDANT MERCY hath begotten us AGAIN UNTO A LIVELY HOPE by the RESURRECTION of JESUS CHRIST from the dead.

David always proclaimed the everlasting mercy of God for he was a constant recipient of God's mercy, we all need it and we all have experienced it in one form or another. God sends it from the supernatural realm and makes it's way to the natural effecting our lives for good, many just don't recognize it as such because their simply not acquainted with God's ways. Their simply spiritually ignorant.

This abundant mercy has begotten us again to a lively hope. This hope is based on the resurrection of JESUS from the dead. We have all been dead and now we have been made ALIVE, thanks to Jesus Christ. That famous praise song of "amazing grace" should also have included this line "I ONCE WAS DEAD, BUT NOW I'M ALIVE", that's just me.

(1 Peter 1:13) Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and HOPE TO THE END for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Peter says hope to the end because we will be rewarded for maintaining our hope steadfast.

(Galatians 5:5) For we through the Spirit WAIT FOR THE HOPE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS BY FAITH. Yes there is a lot of waiting, but we must occupy until then.

The next part of our armor is (Ephesians 6:17) THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT, which is the word of God.

The sword of the spirit is really expounded on in (Hebrews 4:12) FOR THE WORD OF GOD IS QUICK, AND POWERFUL, AND SHARPER THAN ANY TWO-EDGED SWORD, PIERCING EVEN TO THE DIVIDING ASUNDER OF SOUL AND SPIRIT, AND OF THE JOINTS AND MARROW, AND IS A DISCERNER OF THE THOUGHTS AND INTENTS OF THE HEART.

To be Continued . . . God Bless!


By
Bro. Pete Mojica


















































































Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

"CREATE IN ME A CLEAN HEART, O GOD" (pt. 2)

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.

On my last post I left off on the matter of God being the exclusive one to circumcise our hearts, his way . In addressing the nation of Israel in the wilderness under the leadership of Moses God promised He would circumcise their heart and the heart of their seed. This would accomplish two vital aspects to their relationship with God, to love him and cause them to live. We know through scripture that when God says "live" he desires his life to encompass all areas of our life. Ultimately, following His plan for life will lead us to eternal life, for he created mankind to live forever.

So many people today are after life, fountain of youth, longevity etc. trying in vain to prolong the inevitable, death. But it's through the death of self that God has designed for people to obtain life, some people refuse and reject willfully or ignorantly these waters. Death is the path to life in God's plan. It was through the death of Jesus on the cross that we obtain life.

Why does God need to circumcise the heart? Well let's see what the Bible says. (Proverbs 20:9)
Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin? Sounds like Romans 3:23 For ALL have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. This is just a fact. Let's look in (Jeremiah 17:9,10) The HEART IS DECEITFUL ABOVE ALL THINGS, and DESPERATELY WICKED: who can know it? The Lord can know it and does, in the following verses says "I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins . . . (Acts 1:24) . . . "Thou, Lord, which KNOWEST THE HEARTS OF ALL MEN . . .

Looking at this verse God said the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Deceitful in strong's concordance is apate (539) it means "to cheat, deceive, beguile, that which gives false impression, whether by appearance, statement or influence. Don't we have in this world an over supply of this. We witness this every day the people of this world and even believers lying to themselves, putting on airs because fear of dealing truthfully, and for fear of being themselves with all its short comings.

It's an inherent problem and will power, behavior modification, self empowerment does not even start to address this problem. Circumcision of the heart and replacement with a new heart is God's remedy for this, the problem is spiritual and it takes spiritual power to accomplish this. Human effort no matter how well intentioned cannot solve this heart problem. Circumcision requires God to cut away our fleshly nature and all it's ugliness. He uses the spirit of the word which is very sharp to accomplish this in our hearts.

This is a gradual process and it can be painful at times, but the reward is holiness and life.

Before we move on I want to give a few verses that would show us some signs of a troubled heart or a heart in need of spiritual circumcision.
If we find ourselves with these spiritual faults then all God desires is for us to take this to him at His mercy seat and ask him honestly that we don't want these things in our hearts, he will gladly remove these things and replace it with the traits of His heart. He will not compel us, we need to give it to him. Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me. If king David can do it so can we, for in Christ Jesus we can do ALL things.

Even though we are born again we have not arrived, as long as we live in this flesh we will always face trials, temptations, challenges of all sorts, it's a journey. We must be willing to admit to God that we in our strength cannot meet these challenges without Him, there is no way we can get around that without Jesus we can do nothing, He designed it this way. God does resist the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.

Some people say they are atheist, I submit to you that there is no such thing as an atheist. The Bible calls such individuals fools (Prov.12:23) . . . but the HEART of FOOLS proclaimeth foolishness. (Psalm 53:1) "The FOOL has said in HIS HEART, There is no GOD" . . . and what is a fool? Fool (aphron 878) signifies "without reason" "want of mental sanity and sobriety, a reckless and inconsiderate habit of mind" or the imprudent ordering of one's life in regard to salvation". This world is full of these type of people and I don't say this in a condescending holier than thou manner.

The term atheist is a man made society word to avoid the truth of God and hide themselves behind fancy terminology, today there are many terms, words, phrases that are used by the world to mask fear of God's infallible word, the world can run but they can't hide. Usually, the people behind these words,phrases, teminology are the unregenerate or even unlearned believers. Let us not fall for things which society says that clearly are contrary to God's infallible word. When the word of God is rooted in your heart the Holy Spirit will give you the ability to discern it all for what it truly is, lies, cover ups and denials.

Read (Luke 2:35) (Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that THE THOUGHTS OF MANY HEARTS MAY BE REVEALED. The word is sharp, sharper than any twoedged sword (Heb. 4:12) this is why God uses it to cut away at our stony and fleshly hearts. The sharpness of this also uncovers what we truly are inside no matter what airs we put on, God knows the whole truth of our inward man.

(Mark 7: 21 - 23) For from WITHIN, OUT OF THE HEART OF MEN, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, laciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness All these evil things COME FROM WITHIN, and DEFILE THE MAN. Now in Rev. 21:27 And there shall in NO WISE ENTER into it ANYTHING THAT DEFILETH, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie.

These are the things that are defiling the world and God has promised that none of these things will enter into His presence. God is not mocked people for all of us will reap what we have sown. Let's use his patience and longsuffering toward us for our eternal benefit and not our demise.

This is why we need to pause our lives and do the inventory of our hearts to find out if these Adamic traits are existent within us. If we do have these things we need to submit ourselves to the devine KNIFE. It's o.k. God is waiting and we don't have to go to our pastors, brothers, sisters in Christ or anyone seeing they themselves need to go also. We don't have to shout it on the roof top because people will know when we have truly been sitting before God the change will be undeniable that God's love is working on us.

Another sign of a troubled heart is when the heart is froward. (Proverbs 6:14) Frowardness is in the HEART, he deviseth mischief continually, he soweth discord.
He that hath a froward heart findeth no good: and he that hath a perverse tongue falleth into mischief.(Proverbs 17:20)

In (Prov. 14:14) The BACKSLIDER in HEART shall be filled with HIS OWN WAYS. The backslider shall be filled with their own ways. If we want our way then at some point in our walk we may fall away because in the Lord if we find our life we will lose it at the end. There is no room for selfishness for it must be dethroned by Jesus. God will require it from us at some point to lay it down on the cross, but it is up to us to lay it down voluntarily as we seek and have fellowship with him in prayer.

In a closely related verse in (Hebrews 3:12) Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you AN EVIL HEART OF UNBELIEF, in DEPARTING from the living God.
This strong admonition here is for brothers in Christ to take heed, because if we don't backsliding or departing from God is a real possibility, due to not nurturing and being diligent about our salvation. Departing from the living God is deemed an evil heart of unbelief. If we depart from God we will be filled only with our fleshly selfish ways. The nation of Israel is our example of such a decision. Their hearts were far from God, they just paid God lip service and pursued their covetousness, much like today.

Another sign of trouble in the heart (Prov. 18: 2) A fool hath no delight in understanding, but that HIS HEART MAY DISCOVER ITSELF. Here we have it a fool is out to satisfy his own desires and has no interest in Godly wisdom, knowledge, instruction, or understanding. There goal is self discovery, the problem with these type of souls is that they discover it was all in vain and the regret will be too much to bear on their conscious.
They go through life knowing within themselves that they are on the wrong track (because God has shown it to their conscious) but they rather hang tight to their pride, even though within they are crumbling with stress, fear, anxieties of all sorts. So much turmoil and pain just to protect a false concept of self discovery.

(Proverbs 19:21) says There are MANY DEVICES in a MAN'S HEART; . . .
We have seen only a few examples of these inward devices. Strong's definition for device in this context; 4284 machashebeth; a contrivance, i.e. (concr.) a texture, machine, or (abstr.) intention, plan (whether bad, a plot; or good, advice): cunning (work), curious work, device, imagination, invented, means purpose, thought.

I want to focus on the thought part of devices, most of the good and ills of society come from our hearts, but they generally most times start with the thoughts we harbor within us. Look at (Proverbs 23:7) For as a MAN THINKETH IN HIS HEART, SO IS HE: . . .
What we think, we are. Humanity thinks about a zillion things and we see those things all around us good or bad. God has made it possible to think and do like him ("for we have the mind of Christ") or we can think and do evil. Depending on the treasure of our heart. What kind of tree are we?

The way this process plays out is we get various thoughts by the things we invite into our hearts. Our hearts are like a gate, and we are the gatekeepers. Our natural senses play a prominent role in how our thoughts are formed whether through Godly influence or ungodly they take root in our hearts and spring out through our tongues and then actions. Most people are under the notion that the thoughts they have are their own, this is not true and if you closely consider this you will also conclude the same.
We need to pause and consider is that thoughts always come from the outside in, they don't start with us they are presented to us and we decide to agree or reject the thoughts. I see it like this we get thoughts from God through His Spirit, His word or we get thoughts from Satan through his lies or the lust of the flesh. We are vessels, containers or temples of the Holy Spirit or the world's spirit.

We must guard our hearts and minds beloved. Psalms 19:14 Let the words of my mouth, and the MEDITATION OF MY HEART, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.

Judas is an example of spiritual carelessness at its worst, he opened his gate to the devil (John 13:2) And supper being ended, THE DEVIL HAVING NOW PUT INTO THE HEART OF Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to BETRAY him. In this scenario we see that Judas heart received the seed of betrayal from the devil. The devil gave Judas these thoughts and when the moment was ripe it sprung out in betrayal. Thoughts are very powerful indeed they are the foundation of our utterances and actions. I guess we could ask advertisers. For they seek our attention constantly to influence our thoughts toward their products and services.

I wanted to look at a couple of more examples of signs of a troubled heart, I believe this will enrich our understanding a bit more.

Proverbs 28: 14, 26 In verse 14 the second part of the verse says . . . but he that HARDENETH HIS HEART shall fall into mischief. The first part of verse 26 says He that TRUSTETH IN HIS OWN HEART is a fool: . . .

In the Hebrew epistle chapter 3 verses 8 and 15 the saints are admonished to not harden their hearts if they heard the voice of God or the word of God. In the wilderness Israel hardened their hearts and tempted God. Today we have a very hardened generation of people, people who just don't believe the word of God.Pharaoh is an example of a hardened heart. God said to Moses that He would harden Pharaoh's heart, but when we look closer in Exodus his heart was hardened after Moses delivered God's word to him to let the people go, but he refused. When the word comes to us to correct or instruct us we have two choices either accept or reject. If we make it a practice to reject God's word then the heart can and will become hardened through unbelief, such as the case of Pharaoh to his own detriment, the loss of his firstborn. All rejection of God's word ultimately leads to His righteous judgment.

The next example deals with trusting our own heart. Most of us simply trust in our own heart because frankly we have been brainwashed to be independent, self willed and rulers of our own destiny. Eve was duped in the garden because she was led to believe that she would be like God, (she should have understood that she was already created after the image of the only glorious God) in reality her decision resulted in her independence from God. We have all been programmed to think this way throughout our lives. To rely on God for our lives just does not compute with many in today's self seeking world.

Even Christians are not properly taught that this is how we ought to walk with God. The heart of self has to be replaced with the heart of God. At this present time this is what the Lord is teaching me in my walk with him among other things, it's a good thing for me that God is patient.

Up to this point I have been pointing out what some of the signs of a troubled or uncircumcised heart manifest. I am now going to share some characteristics of a sound or circumcised heart manifest.

I am sure that most of us who have been in the word for a while are familiar with the proclamation that David was considered a man after God's own heart. Even though David committed murder and adultery as his biggest transgressions David always found his way to God. In the Bible I could not find another person as open about how he felt within, toward God then David. David knew how to repent and turn to God, it was his practice. I believe that though David committed such ungodly acts he never let any of these things keep him from going after God. Sin did not cause David to run from God like Adam, but run to God.

I believe his pursuit of God for repentance, worship, praise, teaching, etc. for whatever he needed demonstrated to God that he loved God in spite of his faults and shortcomings, for our pursuit of God is greater than our shortcomings. In reading the book of Psalms we could find just about every scenario in life and how we too can respond to God anytime, about anything. David did not depart from God in unbelief, he knew that God is merciful and slow to anger and that there was no other that could help him like God could. The Lord is not a criticizer, or neither does he throw us under the bus or breathe out condemnation like Satan does when we fail.

God is our father and we are His children and children need love, mercy, guidance, food, correction, forgiveness,instruction etc. and this is what the Lord is interested in providing us, not condemnation. He knows what we are made of so he suffers long with us. This spiritual walk is not a cake walk we do go through things and make mistakes but it is what we decide to do when we fail that really tries our hearts of what sort it is. The key is not to wallow in our failings.

David decided to run to God and pour out His heart before Him because He knew it as a safe harbor, a high tower from this world. A lot of us want to portray strength, but God wants us to admit weakness so his grace would rest on us. Hallelujah! Remember what Apostle Paul said (2 Cor.12:9,10) And he said unto me, MY GRACE IS SUFFICIENT FOR THEE. FOR MY STRENGTH IS MADE PERFECT IN WEAKNESS. Most gladly therefore will I rather GLORY IN MY INFIRMITIES, that the POWER OF CHRIST MAY REST UPON ME. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for CHRIST'S SAKE: FOR WHEN I AM WEAK, THEN I AM STRONG. Praise the Lord!

I believe if we meditate on this God's Spirit will bless us to understand this as Paul did and this will serve as an aid to rely on God when we are going through things. Let's not be ashamed when life doesn't turn out the way we planned because God has a better plan for us all. I mean isn't that one of the reasons that we come to God in the first place, to make him Lord of our lives. Our plans always lead us to selfishness and away from God's will for us. I am currently learning this the hard way and in some future post I will share with everyone exactly what I and my family have gone through.

Let's look at some of the things a heart does under the influence of the Holy Spirit. (Lamentations 3:41) Let us lift up our HEART WITH OUR HANDS UNTO GOD in the heavens.

(Lamentations 2:19) Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches POUR OUT THINE HEART like water BEFORE THE FACE OF THE LORD: . . .

(Proverbs 23:26) MY SON, GIVE ME THINE HEART, and let thine eyes observe my ways.

As we look at these verses it is clear that the invitation is for us to lift, give and pour our hearts before the Lord. Our hearts are safe in His hand he will touch our hearts and divinely so, but we must be the ones to lift, give and pour it out before him in faith. Jesus did this with the Father and as I mentioned earlier David amongst others. We are not accustomed to doing things God's way and He knows this better than we. It takes time, practice and our commitment to God to see godly fruit in our lives. Jesus did it ALL for us and all He is requiring is that we believe Him fervently and allow his workings in our life.

One of the fundamental things we should start out doing is what Ezra did in (Ezra 7:10) For Ezra had PREPARED HIS HEART TO SEEK the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments. (Job 11:13) If thou PREPARE THINE HEART, and stretch out thine hands toward him;

Out of all the things that we as believers could do to help our relationship with God is to prepare, give, lift, pour our hearts to God. It is our part to seek Him, a lot of believers truthfully are not doing this and are just going to church in the physical and that is where it ends for some. Instead of concentrating on church attendance we really need to lock ourselves in with God first and touch him and He us, then go. Your worship will be transformed this way.

It seems like all we ask God about is our needs, wants and personal desires. Jesus said we should be seeking HIS KINGDOM AND RIGHTEOUSNESS FIRST. We need to ask God to circumcise our materially covetous hearts and to remove our selfishness. Our priorities are all wrong before God and we are grieving his Holy Spirit because we are being led away to think that gain is equal to godliness. While we pursuit these things the world continues to suffer because the people of God have been snared and have become so earthly minded that we are unprofitable to God's service. Going to church does not mean anything if we have not allowed God to clean our hearts out of all that hinders Him from working through us. Something is seriously wrong with our Christianity in most circles because we have stopped being sincere with the One we need to be sincere with most.

May God bring us all to our knees in confession to Him so we would learn to be sincere and honest with Him first in our private times with Him and then it will be easier to be sincere with our neighbors and brethren and fulfill the will of God on earth.

We don't know the depths of our hearts as God does and this is the point of it all. The heart has to be surrendered willfully by us, the beauty of this is that through Christ doing everything for us as pertaining all spiritual matters we don't have to stress and be anxious about how am I going to accomplish this. You see modern day Christians are relying solely on human self effort and will power and this is why there is so much hypocrisy and stumbling trying to live this life out.

True Christianity is spiritual and not fleshly. We seem to want to help God when all the Lord is basically requiring is to believe Him in all the aspects of our walk with Him. Let's look briefly at (John 6:28 - 29) Then said they unto him , WHAT SHALL WE DO, that we might WORK THE WORKS OF GOD? Jesus answered them and said unto them, THIS IS THE WORK OF GOD, that ye BELIEVE ON HIM whom he hath sent.

When we truly believe we will let God do things His way and not our own, for without Him we can do nothing. Christianity is not about what we could do, it's about what Jesus will do through us. In the words of Paul in (Galatians 2:20) I am crucified WITH CHRIST: nevertheless I live; yet NOT I, BUT CHRIST LIVETH IN ME: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the FAITH OF THE SON OF GOD, who LOVED ME, and GAVE HIMSELF FOR ME.

Since Jesus has positioned us for eternal spiritual blessing through His death we can come to Him in the manner of (Heb. 10:22) LET US DRAW NEAR WITH A TRUE HEART in full assurance of faith, HAVING OUR HEARTS SPRINKLED FROM AN EVIL CONSCIENCE, and our bodies washed with pure water.


Father on behalf of all those who desire you, Create in us a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within us. In JESUS name I ask. Amen.


by
Bro. Pete Mojica


Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

"CREATE IN ME A CLEAN HEART, O GOD"

Greetings All,

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.

Create in me a clean heart, O God.
This was David's cry to the Lord when he discovered that his heart was imperfect toward Him. His response is what I want to look into on this post.

My subject matter today concerns a part of us that God is especially interested in above all else, the heart of believers. Not much is heard today from the pulpits on this very important aspect of our relationship with God. There is much the word of God has to say to us about the inner heart, so today I will share with you a few things that I see in the word concerning the heart.

When we speak of the heart of course we are not speaking about that muscle that pumps the blood through our physical bodies. In the physical the heart is the chief organ of physical life ("for the life of the flesh is in the blood," Lev. 17:11). The heart is used figuratively for the hidden springs of the personal life (Proverbs 4:23) Keep thy heart with all diligence; FOR OUT OF IT ARE THE ISSUES OF LIFE. This type of heart is indeed hidden, but not from God.

I believe when God looks at us, it is inside here where he looks the most. He sees our thoughts, motives, and anything else that stirs within us before we do. I mean after all He is God and there is nothing we can hide from him (Acts 1:24) because he knows the heart of all men.

As believers we spend a lot of time being "busy" in many areas pertaining to God and that's good, but do we inwardly ask ourselves am I spending quality time with God in matters concerning my heart. Let us look at two individuals in (Luke 10:38 - 42)
Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.

And she had a sister called Mary, which SAT AT JESUS FEET, and HEARD HIS WORD.
But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.
And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:
But ONE THING IS NEEDFUL: and Mary hath CHOSEN that GOOD PART, which shall NOT BE TAKEN AWAY FROM HER.

There is a good lesson here for us to consider. We see that Martha did receive Jesus in to her house, she had no problem letting Jesus use her home for ministry. However, the word said that she was cumbered about much serving and cumbered meaning to be weigh down; burdened. One of the problems Martha faced was she allowed herself to be overly burdened with the natural element of ministry to Jesus. She got so overwhelmed with the natural cares of ministry that she forgot to truly minister to Jesus in the spiritual aspect of ministry of worshiping and receiving His word, which is a higher dimension of service. She even went as far as doubting Jesus cared and desired him to compel Mary to help her and that her sister abandoned her to serve alone.

I submit to you here that Martha did not clearly understand what ministering to Jesus was about. Jesus responded to her by saying that she was careful and troubled about many things. She was so distracted with all the preparations that she lost herself from receiving Jesus in a more intimate way. She did the first thing right and that was to open her home to the Savior, but after that she lost him in her own house.

There are some today in ministry that are just like Martha who are so tied up in the natural aspect of ministry that they no longer know how to worship and hear God's word for their lives. They turn around and look at you like there is something wrong with the ones that are reaching out to Jesus in love, worship, praise and intimacy with him, as if this is unimportant, Jesus said ONE THING IS NEEDFUL.

Now Mary had Jesus as her target and with her inner desire for him she wasted no time moving in his direction as the spirit of God drew her to him. The word says that she sat at his feet and heard his word, this was her priority and she served Jesus in this manner and had no interest in serving tables. If you recall the Apostles made a similar decision in (Acts 6: 2) Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, it is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables.

I want to add here that if someone is in ministry and God truly placed someone in whatever capacity, there is nothing wrong with this at all. The problem surfaces though when we make ministry or whatever else more important than Jesus himself. Jesus deserves all our adoration and attention when we are privileged to be in His presence, this can be done most of the time because of the Holy Ghost which dwells within us we have the capacity to worship anytime and anywhere. What a blessing!

Now Jesus told Martha that one thing is needful and Mary chose that good part, which shall not be taken away from her. After all the preparations, and ministry services are said and done did our hearts touch Jesus that day. If we "go" to church and get caught up on everything else, but Jesus, do we really think we served him. God is looking for our hearts to be focused on him in worship and his word.

David got a hold of this and said in (Psalm 27:4, 8) ONE THING have I desired of the Lord, THAT WILL I SEEK AFTER; that I MAY DWELL in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the BEAUTY of the LORD, and to INQUIRE IN HIS TEMPLE. When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; MY HEART said unto thee, THY FACE, LORD, will I seek.

This is what Mary was doing seeking after Jesus and by sitting at Jesus feet she wanted to dwell there at his presence in humility and take in his word which would give her the life she desired. The beauty of the Lord is his holiness and purity and she was beholding this and inquiring in his temple. Martha was missing out on all these spiritual blessings, because of physical preparations. Just as David's heart said, Mary's heart said the same thing - His face will I seek.Jesus said this can never be taken away from her.

Our choosing Him is the good part or better part of ministry and by this we are storing up treasure in heaven where no thieves can come in and steal the treasure of our relationship with Christ.

Ministries today are too concerned with money and other forms of ministries than Jesus himself as if money can build the spiritual kingdom of God. It's not biblical. Money is needed for things, bills, upkeep, maintenance etc. but money can't build the kingdom of God. Many are erring from the faith due to this preoccupation. We really have to guard our hearts and introspect where our hearts are in relation to God. It's our hearts God is after above all else he owns everything on this earth anyway, and can transfer wealth to any ministry for His glory at any given time.

Now the first mention of the heart is in Genesis 6:5 - 6 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the THOUGHTS OF HIS HEART was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his HEART.

Looking at these passages we witness that man's thoughts at this time was evil continually and this produced much corrupt fruit on the earth. The imagination of his thoughts emanated from his heart. It was these thoughts and the resulting actions that got a hold of God's attention, this vexed his heart so much so that He decided that it was time to destroy the evil and the source of this wickedness. Before man had his heart issues there was Lucifer and his heart.

(Isaiah 14:12 - 13) How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning ! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For THOU HAST SAID IN THINE HEART, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:

Where did this blatant pride and self exaltation come from, his heart. This was a wicked imagination that overcame him and it sprung out to his fall and those that followed him. It started with unbelief in God's supremacy laced with selfishness, pride, out right rebellion and anarchy against God. I say unbelief because if you look closer all transgression has it's root in not believing God's word.

Saints we have to really guard our hearts from all the madness that this world is under or we too can fall. (Proverbs 4:23) KEEP THY HEART with ALL DILIGENCE; for OUT OF IT are the ISSUES OF LIFE.

(Matthew 12:35) Jesus says here, A good man out of the GOOD TREASURE of the HEART bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the treasure bringeth forth evil things. Jesus said in (Matt.6: 21) For where your treasure is, there will your HEART BE ALSO. The treasure of an evil man's heart can be seen in (Matt.15: 19 - 20) For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man: . . .
As we see these things they all start as thoughts within an individual and if these thoughts are not overcome by the Holy spirit's thoughts , (God's truth) then it will hatch forth into a wicked reality for that person. There is much need for meditation on God's Holy word. Adam and Eve also failed in guarding their hearts from the lies of Satan and became casualties themselves. It is the heart of people that God is after and so is Satan. The heart is where everything starts, it is the central battle ground.

If we look at Deuteronomy we will learn that God established very early the principle of the heart , worship and love. (Deuteronomy 6:5) And thou shalt LOVE the Lord thy God WITH ALL THY HEART, and with all thy SOUL, and with all thy MIGHT. (Deuteronomy 10:12) And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to LOVE him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all THY HEART and with all thy SOUL,

Now God will be the one to empower us to do this. He promised in (Deuteronomy 30:6) And the LORD THY GOD WILL CIRCUMCISE THINE HEART, and the HEART OF THY SEED (us through Abraham's seed of faith) to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that THOU MAYEST LIVE.

Looking at these verses God loves us and he desires for us to love him. To get to this place of loving God with our hearts he will have to circumcise it and change it first. I will share more on this at a later post.

In God's holy scriptures we see king David's desire for a heart conformed to God rather than his own will. I believe his response is the type of response we should have toward Jesus. We are all imperfect and God knows this full well but we have to know it also and then ask God to work on our hearts in our fellowship with him. In Psalm (139:23) David says Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know MY THOUGHTS: (Psalm 141:4) Incline not MY HEART to any evil thing, to practice wicked works with men that work iniquity: . . . . to be continued


By
Bro. Pete Mojica










Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

"THE SPIRIT OF WISDOM AND REVELATION"

Mercy to you, and peace, and love be multiplied.

Greetings All,

My post today is about the importance of acquiring revelation from God.
I will to start with a fundamental definition of the word revelation.
Strong's greek word apokalupsis 602, Revelation "an uncovering"; the unveiling of the "mystery" the purpose of God in this age. The communication of the knowledge of God to our soul.

It is my belief that before we as believers can execute God's purpose on this plain called Earth we need to be able to see God from His perspective and not our own. Jesus said in (Matthew 5:8) that the pure in heart will see God. Look at (John 5:20) For the Father loveth the Son, and SHEWETH him ALL THINGS that himself doeth: and he WILL SHEW him GREATER WORKS than these, that ye may marvel. The Father here is the one to show his sons all things that the Father himself does and on top of this the Father will show his sons greater works. God's love for his children motivates him to do this. We are blessed to be in this position in this present age.

In the old testament the only one's that had a constant access to the things of God were prophets, kings and priests. In Christ Jesus he has included us all into seeing His heart. So now that he has made us kings and priests of Jesus Christ we are in position to receive His plans for us, the Church.
If Jesus always looked toward the Father to execute His plan on this Earth, we should not think it can be done by another method and fulfill His righteousness.
It is vital that we seek God to reveal to us the mystery of His will. We have to be able to SEE and believe what He shows us.

We in this Church age are living in the age of revelation. Before Jesus was crucified, buried, resurrected and ascended humanity was veiled from the glory of God, God's ways were a mystery, there was only law. In Isaiah 25:7 God made one of His many promises And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the COVERING CAST OVER ALL PEOPLE, and the VEIL that is SPREAD OVER ALL NATIONS.
(Matthew 27:50 - 51) Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.
And, behold, the VEIL of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;
This veil which covered the people from God was ripped away forever and destroyed by the crucifiction. God took this wall down so that all people would be able to see Him through Jesus. Praise the Lord! So God no longer has a veil that would prevent any one from approaching Him and seeing Him in His fullness. Humanity no longer has any excuses to hide behind, it's plain old unbelief. The old physical temple had a curtain between us and God, today we are the temple of God (as He always wanted it) and the curtain in the heart of many people today is sin and unbelief. This is the reason people can't see and believe God because of unbelieving hearts. Look at 2 Cor. 4:3 - 4 For if our gospel be hid, IT IS HID TO THEM THAT ARE LOST: In whom the GOD OF THIS WORLD HATH BLINDED THE MINDS of them which BELIEVE NOT, lest the LIGHT of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

I inserted this to show that we can see God today and He is more than willing to reveal to us who He is. Let's look at what Apostle Paul desired for the Ephesian saints.
He said to them that he was making mention of them in prayer to God (Ephesians 1:17 - 18) That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may give unto you the SPIRIT OF WISDOM and REVELATION in the knowledge of HIM; The EYES of your understanding being enlightened; that THEY MAY KNOW what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
This verse confirms what I mentioned earlier about where revelation comes from, Paul saids here that it comes from the Father of Glory. Let's look at an example of the Father at work in (Matthew 16:15 - 17) Jesus asked Peter But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said THOU ART THE CHRIST, SON OF THE LIVING GOD. And Jesus answered and said unto him, BLESSED art THOU, Simon Barjona: for FLESH and BLOOD HATH NOT REVEALED IT unto thee, but MY FATHER WHICH IS IN HEAVEN.

As we look at this the first thing Jesus does is declares Peter blessed, truly it is a blessing when God reveals himself to us in our lives, for revelation always leads to God's will for our lives individually and corporately, it also leads to a deeper walk with Him. Secondly Jesus taught Peter that what he saw did not come from the nature of man it was not earthy, but divine. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, so it definitely cannot reveal God to us.

As we look closer Paul desired for the Father to give them this Spirit of wisdom and revelation so that they would know God better then they have before. Getting to know God is surely progressive but there is no limit to Him. I need to mention that they already had the Holy Spirit within, but now they were in need of God's wisdom and revelation so they would know how to walk in the spirit which dwell within them. Paul said that not only would they get to know him better but the EYES of their understanding would receive enlightenment. Symbolically eyes represent divine intelligence or spiritual understanding in scripture. There is more to this then just being born again, we must learn how to walk with God and without revelation we will stumble big time.

When we truly walk in revelation and wisdom God will use us to bring Him glory. God will give us insight so we or others won't be in the dark. Look at what king Nebuchadnezzar proclaimed after one of his dreams were properly interpreted (Daniel 2:47) The king answered unto Daniel, and said, Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and A REVEALER OF SECRETS, SEEING thou COULDEST REVEAL THIS SECRET.
This man was able to accept and recognize the God of Daniel and declared by his own mouth that He is the God of gods, the real God just by the revelation God gave Daniel.
If people are going to accept Jesus as the Lord of Lord and King of kings we need to know who He really is by walking in this spirit of wisdom and revelation. When we know Him we won't be just talking about God in general terms but in power, experience and reality. We have so much in Christ and most of us are just up to our ankles.

Now let's look at (Romans 16:25 - 26) Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the REVELATION OF THE MYSTERY, which was KEPT SECRET SINCE THE WORLD BEGAN, But NOW IS MADE MANIFEST, and BY THE SCRIPTURES of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, MADE KNOWN TO ALL NATIONS for the obedience of faith.
In this verse we see the terms "mystery" and "secret" implying that it was unknown or covered up from our understanding. Today it is manifested or completely made known through the SCRIPTURES of the prophets. Let's shed some more light on this from (Luke 24: 44 - 45) And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the LAW OF MOSES, and in the PROPHETS, and in the PSALMS, concerning ME.
Then OPENED HE THEIR UNDERSTANDING, that THEY MIGHT UNDERSTAND THE SCRIPTURES.
Here we see that through the scriptures or Bible we can know fully the mystery or secret of God's plan through the scriptures of the prophets. Jesus said the same thing to his disciples when he mentioned that everything that was written about him in the law of Moses, prophets, and the psalms
is fulfilled in him. The interesting thing was what he did next. He opened the disciples understanding or we can say their spiritual eyes so they could understand the word of God. I find this awesome and we can see that if we are going to understand the word it will have to be Jesus opening our understanding. He can do this as well because He and the Father are one. (Luke 10:22) All things are delivered to me of my Father: and NO MAN KNOWETH who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he TO WHOM THE SON WILL REVEAL HIM.
As you can see here the Son has the power to reveal as well as the Father.

So if there is any thing of God that is HID it is hid to a particular group. Look at (Luke 10:21, 23)
In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast HID THESE THINGS FROM THE WISE AND PRUDENT, and hast REVEALED THEM unto BABES: even so Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight.
And he turned him unto his disciples, and said privately, BLESSED ARE THE EYES WHICH SEE THE THINGS THAT YE SEE:
The Father would not reveal himself to people who were wise and prudent in their own eyes but to those who received him as little children. Jesus did say unless we receive the kingdom of God as little children we could not enter. For us to learn from God we have to abandon our knowledge and pride and come as a child and He will reveal himself and teach us. It's a matter of humility and sincerity on our part. It can also be said that revelation is God APPEARING to us. As we yield to the Spirit within He will remove the dross, and replace it with His divine attributes. God and sin cannot co-exist.
Revelation is for all of the people which love him, He will give it if we would just humble ourselves before him and seek him for it.
But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
But God HATH REVEALED THEM UNTO US BY HIS SPIRIT: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the DEEP THINGS OF GOD.(1 Cor. 2:9 -10)
So if we want to know God deeper than go to God directly because there is no longer a veil, only unbelief. Through Jesus blood we can come boldly to the throne. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the HOLIEST by THE BLOOD of JESUS. By a NEW and LIVING way, which he hath consecrated for us, THROUGH THE VEIL, that is to say, his flesh. (Hebrews 10: 19 - 20)

So let us receive that wonderful spirit of wisdom and revelation in order to know Him more intimately. God bless!

by Bro. Pete Mojica

Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory foreever and ever. Amen.

HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED ?

Grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.

This question was posed to certain disciples back in the days of Apostle Paul. I believe it's a question that should also be posed today in 2008. It is a good question and one that can lead to discovering where one is concerning the faith of Jesus Christ, after all the Bible exhorts us to examine ourselves whether we be in the faith. So today's question if we believe in Jesus as many claim , "have you received the Holy Ghost?"

Acts 19:1-6 And it came to pass, that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples,
He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, we have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.

These particular disciples were disciples of John the Baptist. (Matt. 3:11) I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: HE SHALL BAPTIZE YOU WITH THE HOLY GHOST, and with FIRE. There was no question that they did repent and were baptized under John (Mark 1:4) John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the BAPTISM OF REPENTANCE FOR THE REMISSION OF SINS.They did need the baptism of the Holy Ghost, but the Holy Spirit was not yet given until Jesus work on the cross was completed. These disciples did what they had to do at that time, but they still had a missing element that was needed to complete there full conversion. God knew all of this and made provision for these disciples to meet Apostle Paul and receive further instruction vital to their conversion. The baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Let's look at the next verse And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John's baptism. We see here that Paul asked them a follow up question, but it was concerning their water baptism. What does water baptism have to do with the Holy Ghost ? Let's look further.
Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.
When they heard this, THEY WERE BAPTIZED IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS.
Are we seeing this, these disciples were baptized again, but this time in the name of Jesus. These disciples were quick to hear and understand that they needed to BELIEVE on Christ Jesus thus they followed their confession of faith by being baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and they also understood that Jesus would baptize them with the Holy Ghost and fire for their obedience.

Verse 6 saids And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the HOLY GHOST CAME ON THEM; and THEY SPAKE WITH TONGUES, AND PROPHESIED. There is a lot we can learn from this today there are those who are in need of correction through God's word just like back then. Many are afraid and too prideful to admit that their conversion falls short of the biblical apostolic standard. After all in 2 Tim. 3:16 saids All scripture is given by INSPIRATION OF GOD, AND IS PROFITABLE FOR DOCTRINE, FOR REPROOF, FOR CORRECTION, FOR INSTRUCTION IN RIGHTEOUSNESS.

So Paul laid his hands upon them and they received the blessed gift of the Holy Ghost.
The Holy Spirit is an essential part of the spiritual birth (being born again). Without the Spirit we are not considered sons of God. Romans 8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, IF SO BE THAT THE SPIRIT OF GOD DWELL IN YOU. Now IF ANY MAN HAVE NOT THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST, HE IS NONE OF HIS.

We are all the creation of God, there is no doubt about this, but we are not all the children of God unless we have His Spirit residing inside of us through the spiritual birth. Further more Romans 8:14 states For as many as are LED BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD, THEY ARE THE SONS OF GOD. As we can see from this it is the Spirit that declares us sons, not just saying we believe. In the next verse it saids For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. We can't call someone father unless we are a son or daughter. God has adopted us into His family by this miraculous spiritual birth. Praise God!

I want to make a point about the disciples of John because in my personal experience I also was baptized twice. The first time I was baptized it wasn't according to the apostolic biblical standard. In the book of Acts the apostles always used the name of Jesus because they understood the revelation of Matthew 28:19 which saids Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in THE NAME of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: They did not repeat the command they executed or obeyed what Jesus commanded, and that was to baptize in the NAME of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Peter understood that name to be Jesus and so did Paul and the rest of the first century Church disciples. God has never changed this method, His word is crystal clear on this matter.
I urge you to look into this and see for yourself. The second time I was baptize it was in the name of Jesus Christ and there was a huge difference the power that I experienced after coming out of the water was awesome. Specifically, I experienced a great flood of peace and all the weight of the sin conscience just disappeared in a moment of time. I remember this like it was yesterday.
Proper biblical water baptism and the baptism of the Holy Ghost are essential for being Born Again (John 3:5) we cannot enter the Kingdom of God without it. Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of the WATER and of the SPIRIT, he CANNOT ENTER INTO the KINGDOM OF GOD. Paul understood this and that is why he asked the disciples of John Had they received the Holy Ghost since they believed? You see once we know the truth and we walk in the Spirit with God He gives us discernment so that we could teach and share with others who may find themselves lacking in the faith. Let's look at another example in Acts 18: 24 - 26 And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures, came to Ephesus. This man was instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in the spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John. Sounds familiar.
And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue: whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and EXPOUNDED UNTO HIM THE WAY OF GOD MORE PERFECTLY.

Here is another occasion where someone who was eloquent, mighty in the scriptures, who was taught in the way of the Lord, who was fervent, and spoke boldly and taught the things of the Lord in a synagogue, but only knew the baptism of John. He had a lot going but he only knew John's baptism and he had a need for someone to expound the ways of God more perfectly or adequately. Aquila and Priscilla heard him and then took him under their wings and explained God's way
more clearly. Now if he was a proud man he would not have submitted himself to them to be taught. We have to be open to the Spirit of God and be teachable because we never know when God will send someone our way to bless us with a word of knowledge, or wisdom and even correction all for our benefit. Proverbs 9:9 Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning. It shows prudence and humility on our part when we accept instruction. The scripture also teach us in (1 Cor.8:2) And if any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.

Ephesians 1:13 saids In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the WORD OF TRUTH, THE GOSPEL of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, YE WERE SEALED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT OF PROMISE,
So if you have not received the gift of the Holy Ghost then ask God for it (Luke 11:13) . . . . how much more shall your heavenly Father give the HOLY SPIRIT TO THEM THAT ASK HIM?
When you ask God He will give it to you when you obey him. (Acts 5:32) And we are witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, WHOM GOD HATH GIVEN TO THEM THAT OBEY HIM. Obey what ? the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

by
Bro. Pete

"THE TRUE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST" part 2

Greetings to all of you blessed of the Lord!

Grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.

I just want to start off by saying to all who have visited my blog that I feel blessed and fortunate to be able to share with you what the Holy Spirit puts in my heart. My desire is first and foremost that Jesus Christ would be glorified and exalted and that the truth of His word would find the good soil of your heart's. My prayer for you is that his word would persuade you and change your life completely from the inward man and that you would be conformed to Jesus Christ and not Adam. Thanks for stopping by.

On my last blog post I started to share with you concerning the true gospel of Jesus Christ. Today I want to continue the same subject matter. Paul warned the Galatians of ANOTHER GOSPEL (Gal. 1:6 - 12) which is not another. In other words there is no other gospel but the gospel of Jesus Christ.
There is only one true gospel and Jesus Christ preached it, Apostle Paul and the apostles preached it , and of course His Church should preach it as well.

Now Paul was astonished that these Galatians, new converts to the faith of Jesus Christ, were "removed" so soon from him that called them into the grace of Christ , unto another gospel. Paul said that there were some that troubled them and would pervert the gospel of Christ. Specifically, we will look at what the Galatian believers encountered as pertaining another gospel. Let's continue though in what Paul proclaimed to them on this matter.

Paul said in Gal. 1:8-9 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If ANY MAN PREACH ANY OTHER GOSPEL UNTO YOU than that ye have received, LET HIM BE ACCURSED.

Now it is very important that we discern with God's understanding what Paul is saying here because I believe it is applicable to modern Christendom today. We need to understand that Paul was a true man of God and proclaimed the truth by the Holy Spirit, we can depend on what he proclaimed ("Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I LIE NOT" Gal. 1:20). He said if any of the apostles, or any angel (messenger from God) from heaven preach any other gospel other than the one they (Apostles) preached LET HIM BE ACCURSED. In the NIV translation "eternally condemned" is used. This is a very strong indictment of anyone past or present who attempts to pervert and deceive the masses with any other "gospel" other than the one that declares the DEATH, BURIAL, RESURRECTION and ASCENSION of JESUS CHRIST. People of God , it is a crime under God to preach things that God does not ordain and cannot be confirmed or verified by the word of God. If the present false preachers of our day do not repent of preaching half truths and lies they will be condemned eternally it's that serious to the Lord.

In the case of the Galatians the problem was circumcision. There were FALSE BRETHREN in their midst. Look at Galatians 2:4 And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out OUR LIBERTY which WE HAVE IN CHRIST JESUS, that THEY MIGHT BRING US INTO BONDAGE. The problem was an attempt by these false brothers to bring in again circumcision as a requirement for salvation. Notice that Paul called this bondage as oppose to what they were experiencing and enjoying freedom in Christ and true spiritual liberty.

In Gal. 5:1 - 13 Paul said Stand fast therefore IN THE LIBERTY wherewith CHRIST HATH MADE US FREE, and BE NOT ENTANGLED AGAIN with THE YOKE OF BONDAGE.
You see the true gospel of Jesus makes people free and does not enslave them with endless rituals, rules and religious practices that do not have a bearing on our salvation or delivers us from the real issue which is sin and death in our Adamic nature. God made it simple for us. He requires faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus fulfilled and obeyed fully the whole law perfectly for us.
2 Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if YE BE CIRCUMCISED, CHRIST SHALL PROFIT YOU NOTHING. 3 For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. 4 Christ is become of no effect unto you, WHOSOEVER OF YOU ARE JUSTIFIED BY THE LAW; YE ARE FALLEN FROM GRACE. In verse 6 For in Jesus Christ NEITHER CIRCUMCISION AVAILETH ANYTHING, nor UNCIRCUMCISION; but FAITH which worketh BY LOVE.

God has no interest in fleshly foreskin but he does care greatly that the foreskin comes off our hearts. God is an inward heart God, not an outward superficial God. We can spend our entire lives attempting to get God's approval and try hard to please him with all our outward religion and then justify our self righteousness and still end up short of His glory and eternally lost. God requires that we believe the Gospel and then OBEY the Gospel. 1 Pet. 4:17 . . . what shall the end be of THEM THAT OBEY NOT THE GOSPEL OF GOD? 2 Thess. 1:8 tells us what will happen if we don't obey the true gospel of Jesus Christ "In flaming fire taking vengeance ON THEM that know not God, and that OBEY NOT THE GOSPEL OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.

As you see here the gospel has to be obeyed and when we look in the book of Acts people were instructed by the apostles to repent (crucification), be baptized in water in the name of Jesus (burial), and be filled with the Holy Spirit (resurrection) Acts 2:38, Acts 8:35-38, Acts 9:17-18, Acts 10:44-48, Acts 19:1-6. They never preached to people to repeat a "sinners prayer" or "repeat after me and they'll be saved". Modern Christendom is filled with false preachers misleading people with these false methods of giving there life to Christ. Another false method is where they tell you "accept Christ as your personal saviour" or "accept Jesus into your heart". They claim the gospel but unless you have spiritual discernment and understand the word of God many will be duped by these methods. We have to keep in mind that Satan has a counterfeit for whatever God does and he transforms himself as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14-15) And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore IT IS NO GREAT THING IF HIS MINISTERS also be TRANSFORMED AS THE MINISTERS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS; whose end shall be according to their works.). He does this to DECEIVE people and keep them from receiving the truth and their spiritual inheritance. I challenge anyone out there to try the spirits to see if they are of God. Beloved, believe NOT EVERY SPIRIT, but TRY THE SPIRITS whether they are of God: because MANY FALSE PROPHETS are gone out INTO THE WORLD (1 John 4:1). I have given you the four most widely used methods of many "churches" today, for so called giving your life to Jesus or joining the church as they say. None of these methods are biblical and that makes this the spirit of error or anti Christ.

All of the aforementioned false gospel methods leave people still in the flesh and adamic nature. These poor souls go about to live for God but they never have the power to live it because they have not truly been converted. We have to die people. Let's look at Romans 6: 1- 12 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, THAT ARE DEAD TO SIN, LIVE ANY LONGER THEREIN?
Apostle Paul saids should people that have been converted to the faith of Jesus Christ continue to live in sin so that we can get more grace. He said GOD FORBID. People who say they are Christians should not be living and willfully practicing sin, Jesus did not die for our sins in vain, so that we could turn around and live in it again. He died to give us the power to overcome sin. Verse 3 Know ye not, that so many of us as WERE BAPTIZED INTO JESUS CHRIST WERE BAPTIZED INTO HIS DEATH? Paul is teaching the saints in Rome, don't they know that when they were baptized into Jesus that they were baptized into His death as well. Part of a real believers conversion is that they have to die with Jesus and here is why verse 4 Therefore WE ARE BURIED WITH HIM BY BAPTISM INTO DEATH: that like AS CHRIST WAS RAISED UP FROM THE DEAD by the glory of the Father, EVEN SO WE ALSO SHOULD WALK IN THE NEWNESS OF LIFE.
Paul explained that we are buried with Jesus in baptism into DEATH, so that just like the glory of the Father raised him up or resurrected him WE TOO are raised from the dead with Him. This resurrection will manifest itself in the NEWNESS OF LIFE. Jesus was crucified, buried, resurrected and then ascended. We too must go through the same and in this chapter Paul explains wonderfully the revelation of TRUE CONVERSION. No sinners prayer or false Christian conversions here.
Look at verse 5 For if we have been planted TOGETHER IN THE LIKENESS of HIS DEATH, WE SHALL BE ALSO IN THE LIKENESS OF HIS RESURRECTION.
Knowing this, that OUR OLD MAN IS CRUCIFIED WITH HIM, that the BODY OF SIN MIGHT BE DESTROYED, that HENCEFORTH WE SHOULD NOT SERVE SIN.
For HE THAT IS DEAD IS FREED FROM SIN.

Let's break this down the Bible saids that if we (those coming to Christ) are planted or united with Him like this in death, than in like manner we also will resurrect with Him. KNOWING this that our old man (sinful adamic nature) is crucified with Him. Why? so that this sinful body could be destroyed and for now on we don't have to be a slave of sin. We cannot righteously serve God with a fleshly nature still in tact it must die, those who want to keep it alive are in for an eternal rude awakening. This is why there is so much world wide rebellion and contention against what Paul and the apostles preached and us today who understand this and preach it as well. People every where say they believe in Jesus but they won't repent and they reject water baptism in Jesus name and also many reject the baptism of the Holy Ghost with the manifestation of speaking in tongues.
To those who are reading this who do you believe Jesus and his apostles or the traditions of men and this present gentile Babylonian religious system of false priests and their Pharisee Christianity. This is the Biblical Gospel and not the other gospel which is not another because there is only one true Gospel. We have to stand for the true Gospel or we will sink in lies.

And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel. (Ephesians 6:19)

Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be glory forever and ever. Amen.

by
Bro. Pete