Monday, October 14, 2024
Unplugging from the Apostate System and all of its Traps
I have no complaint about the whole "COVID" problem of the closing of church gatherings because I see it as God's way of closing all the apostate church gatherings sending people back to their homes to evaluate why things were being done in those places the way they were operating.
Those in the church gatherings depended on the pastors to be their spirituality leaving them weak and lifeless when it came to the Christian walk.
Many people were upset that they had to stay home because they had never learned to worship and pray by themselves at home without being told what to do. They were co-dependent on the pastor up front and those worship teams rather than the Holy Spirit.
The closing of the churches was an opportunity for people to leave behind their traditional modern model of "church" and return to Christ. Those who remained faithful in their worship at home didn't have a problem with co-dependency, they were not feeling a loss of tradition because their hearts were not dedicated to it, their hearts were dedicated to Christ Who lives in them and goes everywhere with them.
We were not called to a "temple" as in the old testament, nor were we called to a particular number of believers with whom to gather except Christ's declaration that "where two or three are gathered, there am I in the midst." We were free to remain at home and worship and pray there with our families. Those who lived alone were free to meet with others in their homes.
shake-up
The shake-up of the church, that is the believers who are the church, caused something good to happen, it brought about the questioning of the way the modern traditional church was doing things and whether or not it was Biblical.
Many years ago the Lord showed my husband and myself the Biblical model of church gathering and it looked nothing like what the majority of gatherings were doing. It was beautiful and a blessing to meet in this way with those who loved obeying Christ but had no affinity for the minutia of frivolous activities that God never endorsed or commanded for the brethren.
A shake-up of the church in our modern age began with COVID. It was a blessing in ways people could not discern unless they were observing what had been happening to the unbiblical model of the church, centered around a building and a one-man-paid-pastor system that only served to undermine the work of the Holy Spirit in many believers.
There is no greater teacher than Jesus Christ Who lives in us. Anyone who operates to intimidate people into following them is usurping the work of the Holy Spirit.
Perhaps the Holy Spirit has been silenced in many gatherings because He has been ignored in favor of men educated by other men with agendas to dominate the congregations in the church gatherings they governed.
God designed a plurality of elders in each gathering so that no one became "the authority" over the people, only the Holy Spirit has this position in a believers life.
All believers are governed by the Holy Spirit. We are all used as led by the Holy Spirit in our perspective roles, and we share with one another as we are led by Him. Those who will only listen to "designated preachers" who have been appointed by men and paid by men, are usurping the Holy Spirit diminishing the power and works of God in the gathering.
Perhaps in these last days of apostasy, the Lord is giving us one more chance to see the truth right before He takes His church out. Perhaps the real church, the people who are born-again are coming out of the apostate gatherings, being set aside as they wait for their homegoing.
Luke 21:28
"And when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near"
Romans 8:23
"And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering"
Romans 8:25
"But if we look forward to something we don't yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently"
Brothers and Sisters, do not be dismayed at the separation and isolation from the modern church, rather glory in what is coming and in what God has called you individually to do. We do not need others telling us what to do, we only need the Holy Spirit and He will never disappoint.
What is in the Heart will Show even if only Subtly
Notice Lot's wife didn't actually go back to Sodom, she just longed to do so and was probably sad to see her city destroyed. All something has to be is in our heart for it to displease God.
Many people pretend to act friendly around us but in their heart they secretly hate those who bring scripture to bare on those who claim to be Christian.
I have never seen godly people roll their eyes or remain silent when someone shares scripture on any matter. Those who were godly I have seen enjoy the interaction and have their own scripture to share to compliment what was said.
How can you tell if someone loves Christ? You will be able to see a joy coming over them at the mention of His name. You will experience sweet engagement in what is being said and you will connect in a Spiritual way that cannot be explained.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
"4 Love is patient, love is kind, it is not jealous; love does not brag, it is not arrogant. 5 It does not act disgracefully, it does not seek its own benefit; it is not provoked, does not keep an account of a wrong suffered, 6 it does not rejoice in unrighteousness but rejoices with the truth; 7 it keeps every confidence, it believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."
This model of love is seen in someone who has been changed by Christ. They have the character of Christ and will live consistently the ways written of here in 1 Corinthians.
Those who have been born again will have all the fruit of the Spirit of Christ.
Galatians 5:22-23
"22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."
Those who have this fruit and His character will be this way all the time to everyone. They will never display this character to some and not others, it will be continually consistent all the time.
If your struggles and confidences have been gossiped to others you know the person who does this does not have love, understanding or care for you. If you have shared a good thing and the one hearing was jealous and lacking in engagement about it, then you know that person does not have love.
Romans 12:15-18
"15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. 16 Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation.
17 Never repay evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all people.
18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all people."
Those who love others love to hear all things about them without judging everything and without jealousy. Those who love do not consider themselves above others but love others better than themselves.
Philippians 2:2-4 "…2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being united in spirit and purpose. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or empty pride, but in humility consider others more important than yourselves. 4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.…"
God's way is so wonderful, healing and supportive, how could anyone mock it?
No Becomes Born-Again by deciding to join a church
People don't understand that just deciding to become Christian does not save them. They want to add Christ to their sinful life without any change in their heart. They change some of their ways so as to be "seen" as good but they maintain their prideful attitude and are confident about their good deeds even though they have never been born again. Their "religion" is based on how good their life will be and how good they look to others.
We are born again by repenting from our sinful nature and desiring to be changed by Christ into a new creation. Without that brokenness over our sinful nature and desire to be changed by Christ there is no salvation.
Christ will not change someone who does not want to be changed.
Adding Christ to our sinful life to feel safe and to act piously will not save anyone.
Matthew 23:1-28
"23 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples,
2 “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat,
3 so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice.
4 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.
5 They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long,
6 and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues
7 and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others.
8 But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers.
9 And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.
10 Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ.
11 The greatest among you shall be your servant.
12 Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.
15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
Matthew 23:23-28 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.
24 You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!
25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
26 You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.
27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness.
28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness."
No one can undo what Christ does in us.
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Ephesians 1:13-14
"13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of the promise, 14 who is a first installment of our inheritance, in regard to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory."
"Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh".
Mark 10:8-9
"And the two shall become one flesh'; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, no man can separate".
Ephesians 2:10 "10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life."
This is not merely for believers, God created man to be husband and wife until death. all human beings who marry.
The reason some people are going to hell is because they have not trusted what Christ did for them on the cross, and have lived their sinful life in rebellion against Him.
Refusal to obey Christ in trustin in His sacrifice for our sin has the penalty of hell. Therefore those who reject Christ and His principles are on their way to hell.
Those who have been born again do not live a lifestyle of sin and repent when they fail in the flesh, allowing the Holy Spirit in them to cleanse them from their sin.
Those who defend sin such as divorce and remarriage are likely not born again. They are pretenders who have not trusted in Christ or they would stand for His principles.
1 John 3:9
"9 No one who has been born of God practices sin, because His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin continually, because he has been born of God."
The Holy Spirit convicts people of sin, saved and unsaved people are convicted of sin. The saved people have an advocate with the Father but the unsaved have no advocate and no help because they do not have the Holy Spirit.
1 John 2:1 "My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate before the Father— Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2He Himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world."
Christ will only change us into a new creation and advocate for us if we are born again by the Holy Spirit. Someone who has the Holy Spirit will not fight to defend sin and will never demean and persecute believer who expose sin. Those who fight and argue to defend sin are those who have never been changed into a new creation by Christ. They remain condemned until they repent and understand their sinful nature is keeping them from salvation.
"Ezekiel 3:21
Nevertheless if thou warn the righteous man, that the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall surely live, because he is warned; also thou hast delivered thy soul."
Those who defend sin think they are righteous but they have no salvation with Christ because they fight against His principles.
1 John 1:8-10
"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us"
Those who defend sin are deceiving themselves, they do not have salvation but they do have a "form of religion" but they do not have the Holy Spirit. In the next passage, we see how the end times church will defend sin, lie against the principles of God, and even mock and demean the righteous people who speak the truth. Sadly the following passage is one describing the end times church system.
2 Timothy 3:1-5 "But realize this, that in the last days difficult (ragingly insane) times will come.
2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,
3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,
4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
5 holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power; avoid such people as these."
Those who claim to be Christians but deny the principles and promises of God within the church may be pretenders. And, it is my discernment that tells me most who say they are "Bible believers" today do not believe the whole Bible therefore they use the Bible to justify their own sin while practicing rebellion against God.
These people are only "saying' what they want others to believe but remain in rebellion against God.
Ezekiel 33:31
"31 And they come to you as people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear what you say but they will not do it; for with lustful talk in their mouths they act; their heart is set on their gain."
Matthew 15:7–9
7 You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:
8 "‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me;
9 in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”
The beliefs of our day are steeped in psychology, a work of Darwing who hated God, to convince the people to follow man-made traditions and doctrines while mixing what they think they know with the Bible and in the process negating the Bible.
The closer we get to the end times the more we see people leaning into and practicing faith in feelings rather than God's commands and principles. They even practice hatred toward those who warn them about their apostasy. They are not satisfied to fight against a person, they must turn others against that person too.
There are few people who understand the principles God gave us for gathering with other believers and who are leaving the apostate churches to remain faithful to God. These people will be accused of "neglecting the gathering", as they have misinterpreted what that gathering looks like. They are permeated with the ideas of the times adhering to their human traditions, unable to wrap their minds around God's ways.
Those who are able to understand the ways of God have been rejected, maligned and isolated from this crowd of tradition-minded and folklore followers. These followers of tradition think they can break down the authentic believer by causing them to feel all alone. I am here to tell you it is preferable to be all alone with Christ than with those who continually batter and reject us for our dedication to the Word of God.
It is one thing to be rejected by unbelievers, we expect that, but quite another to be repudiated by those who claim to be Christians.
God said this to us about this matter of false believers.
Christians:
2 Corinthians 6:17
"17 Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,” says the Lord. “And do not touch what is unclean; And I will welcome you."
God is referring to coming out from among unbelievers to be separate and we must remember that those who fight against God's Word are likely unbelievers pretending to be believers. They call themselves 'Christians" while negating most of God's word and worse adding to scripture to make their own desired belief system.
Matthew 7:21-23
I Never Knew You
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’
23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’"
How do we recognize these imposter?
2 Timothy 4:3 "For the time will come when they will not tolerate sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires,"
If you find yourself without godly companions surrounded at times by those who have gossiped and rejected you, count it all joy that you have not been accepted by the pretending world of religion posing as Christians, they would only work at bringing you low and undermining your faith.
1 Corinthians 15:33
"33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.”
If our only companions are those who have a superficial rebellious form of Christianity then we will loosen our grip on Christ to be accepted by them. It is human nature to make the problem go away by remaining silent or even deliberately changing our views to fit the culture.
Galatians 6:7
"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."
The more time we spend with false believers the more we will become just like them. They will make sure they punish us until we give into their ways or remain silent about the truth.
Never be discouraged by your life of solitude, God will take you to those who will listen and remove those who want to see our downfall.
Matthew 5:11-12
“Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you."
Matthew 10:21-22 "21Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rise against their parents and have them put to death. 22 You will be hated by everyone because of My name, but the one who perseveres to the end will be saved."
In verse 23 God tells the apostles to flee when they are not accepted. They are never told to remain and try, try, try again. They speak the truth and move on, just as we need to do in our own lives when others have made it clear they do not want what we have to offer them, that is the truth.
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