Bold and Lions Gentle as Doves

It is a time in which the apostate church is common and the norm. We must depend on the Holy Spirit to present the gospel to the unsaved as the Holy Spirit leads us to those who would be open.

In the apostate churches we meet many people who profess to be saved but have no fervor for Christ, they even have angst toward His Word and Principles.

There are fewer and fewer people who want to hear about Christ in our nation, the true gospel. Most people worship their freedom and their pride rather than Christ. Those who say they are Christians are full of pride, steeped in self-esteem promoted by the culture of psychology. We have all been trained to love ourselves more than anyone else through the media, schools, and yes, even churches.

What does God say?

We are born loving ourselves too much, full of arrogance, and demanding our own way. To become godly when changed by the Holy Spirit after salvation we will become the opposite of the human condition.

Philippians 2:3-5

"Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus."

Matthew 16:24-26

Discipleship Is Costly

"24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.

25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

26 For what good will it do a person if he gains the whole world, but forfeits his soul? Or what will a person give in exchange for his soul?

Just like in the garden with Eve the devil has managed to convince this generation that loving ourselves must be first before we can love anyone else. This is the opposite of what God says; He said we are born selfish and to be godly we must trust in Christ and walk as He did, that is unselfish. The devil's lies have not changed since the beginning.

Christ gave up His life for others, His entire existence was for the sake of others.

1 John 2:5-6…5 But if anyone keeps His word, the love of God has been truly perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him: 6 Whoever claims to abide in Him must walk as Jesus walked."

Satan has lied through the use of psychology to convince people they must first love themselves when God said we are to love Him first and then others.

Matthew 22:36-40

36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’

38 This is the great and foremost commandment.

39 The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 Upon these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.”

If we obey the first commandment we will easily obey the second. Because cultural Christians are not obeying the first they have no ability to obey the second. When we obey the first commandment Christ is working love in us, it is our very nature, we can do nothing else.

In the fruit of the Spirit that God gives us when He sends His Holy Spirit to live in us the first fruit is love.

Galatians 5:22-23 - "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."

Without this fruit, there is no Holy Spirit and without the Holy Spirit, there is no salvation.

Matthew 7:16-20 " 16 You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they?

17 So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 So then, you will [c]know them by their fruits."

This passage speaks of false prophets but also applies to false believers and those who follow false prophets.

Matthew 15:7-9 "…7 You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you: 8 These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. 9 They worship Me in vain; they teach as doctrine the precepts of men.’ ”…"

Many people in our day proudly proclaim they are Christians but deny God in their words and their actions. Whenever someone promotes a principle that flies in the face of God's Word and defends it, we know we have met a false believer. There are so many of these people that we have become confused about who is a true believer and who is not.

Our culture counts on words more than a demonstration of a life of faith, leaving a bad taste in our mouths while oppressing us into silence about the truth. Do not be intimidated by these false believers. Speak the truth boldly in love, and do not become worried about the response of those who defy Christ in their lives.

Do not become gooey and milk-toast hoping the hearer will not explode in anger, simply depend on the Holy Spirit, speak what needs to be said, and leave the response to God. Do not become phony to win a non-believer, depend on the Holy Spirit He will give us the delivery He knows the person needs.

Never allow others to give you a formula for how the delivery must work, there is no cookie-cutter delivery everyone should use. God gave us our own personalities and the Holy Spirit for His purposes.

In Acts 4:5-22 we see the account of the apostles being accused of wrongdoing when they had healed someone. Rebellious pretenders will accuse you of all kinds of things, none of which are true, merely to diminish your words and discredit you in front of others who may be watching. So what!!!!!! Ignore their foolishness and continue obeying Christ when He told us to be Bold as Lions and Gentle as Doves.

Matthew 10:16

A Hard Road Ahead of Them

16 “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be as wary as serpents, and as innocent as doves."

Words mean nothing unless they are backed up by lifestyle and dedication to Christ.

Only God's Words are powerful, man's words are fluff and floss meaning nothing all by themselves.

Psalm 19:14

"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer."

Psalm 34:13

"Then keep your tongue from speaking evil and your lips from telling lies!"

We cannot go wrong speaking the Words of Christ even if the response is one of irritation or rejection. The rejection of others is not a measure of how well we did or if we should have spoken something. The response often reveals the heart of the responder, not the delivery of the presenter.

Depend entirely on the Holy Spirit brothers and sisters, He will always do the right thing in us when we yield to Him. Hallelujah

3 Signs God is Trying to Remove Someone from Your Life

The Devil's Purpose Thwarted

The devil's purpose is always to ruin no matter how good his lies look.

The devil lied to Eve: Genesis 3:4-5

"The serpent said to the woman, You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

John 8:44 God said this to the religious leaders of His day.

"You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies."

1 Peter 5:8

"Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour."

2 Corinthians 11:14

"And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light."

The devil will always make a bad thing look good. He will use emotional gymnastics to remove the defenses of the person he is using.

How to be unaffected Spiritually by the tricks of the devil is in the following verses.

John 10:10

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly."

Ephesians 6:10-18

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, ."

The devil uses people to come against us, destroying our peace and our resolve to follow Christ, we do not have to let them. When we resist the devil we may have to say to a person, "get behind me satan." They may not understand but the demon who is using them will know and he will flee.

2 Corinthians 4:4

"In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God."

Just a thought, Jesus Christ had more trouble with the religious leaders of His day than anyone else, they were the ones with the power to turn the people who followed them. This is true today too, if the religious leaders maintain control over the people the people who are lazy will not think for themselves, pray on their own and worship on their own, they will depend on the leader to do everything for them.

There are many imposters in the church today, many pretenders, and many false teachers who dominate those who are weak-minded. These leaders are filling their pockets with money they took from those who have chosen to be deceived by them.

It takes courage to stand against the false teachers and the pretenders, but we need not worry about it, it's the courage of Christ we have and His peace and joy overwhelm us when we are being attacked. We need not be angry, discouraged, or intimidated by these servants of satan.

James 4:7 "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."

James 1:2-4

"My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing."

Be at peace always knowing God has your back every minute of every day.

Blind Hearts Opened and then the Blind Eyes

In order for the blind eyes of the unbeliever to be opened their hearts must first be opened. Those who love their blindness cannot be reached with the truth.

Ephesians 6:12

"12 For our struggle is not against [a]flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places."

Spiritual blindness is demonic influence but it is also a choice. Our world is spiritually blind but loves it, deceiving themselves into thinking their blindness is wisdom.

Jamses 3:15-17James 3:15-17

15 This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic.

16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.

17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits,impartial, free of hypocrisy."

Whenever you meet a "Christian" who fights to defend sin and refuses to listen to God's Word you have encountered a pretender.

Yes, Christians can be disobedient at times but they will never reject the word of God when it is used as evidence of the truth.

John 14:15-16 "15 If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to be with you forever—…"

Those who love Christ will live a lifestyle of desiring to please God. Those who are pretenders do not love Christ and will live a lifestyle without a desire to please God.

John 14:21

"Whoever has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. The one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him."

John 14:23

"Jesus replied, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him."

John 15:10

"If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and remain in His love."

1 John 2:3

"By this we can be sure that we have come to know Him: if we keep His commandments."

1 John 5:3

"For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome,"

2 John 1:6

"And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the very commandment you have heard from the beginning, that you must walk in love."

We do not keep the commandments of God to become saved or to stay saved, we keep them because He changed us into a new creation, we keep them because we have already been born-again.

The evidence that we are born again is in the fruit not the deeds.

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."

This is the fruit of the Holy Spirit of God Who lives in every born-again believer. We do not have to work to show this fruit, it comes naturally to us like breathing because the character of Christ living in us is this fruit.

We don't have to work up respect and kindness toward others, it comes naturally without thinking because Christ is working it in us. No effort of our own is present. Our nature has been changed by Christ, from a sinful nature to a righteous nature.

Colossians 2

"9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily."

John 1:14 "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."

This is Christ Who lives in born-again believers. We do not live a lifestyle of rebellion or angst toward the principles of God, we love to please Him Who lives in us.

Ephesians 3:17

"17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love,"

The first attitude of the born-again believer is to please God and the first fruit of the Spirit of God is love. Everything we desire is based in this fruit.

Group Think is Bondage

The devil is the father of lies. He will say foolish things like; "God didn't say that" when you know God did because you read it in His Word. The devil will use people to apply pressure on you to conform to the devil's ways and plan to ruin you. Don't give in, respond with more scripture like Jesus Christ did, they cannot fight against God's Word. Do not use your own words but use God's Words and let them fight with God.

The devil's way is to destroy our confidence in God while making sin look good and righteousness look like evil.

How many times have you been demeaned and dismissed because you quoted God when someone was attempting to convince you and others that something sinful was a good thing? One of the favored tactics of the devil is to remove all the emotional and spiritual support of others toward us to place pressure on us. He does not have to win because Christ is greater than the devil.

We now live in a world that twists everything to confuse people, enabling those who love their sin to defend it with avengeance.

We now live in a world where bad is called good and good is called bad, the biggest sign that we are living in the end times. However, even churchgoers do not recognize these tactics and become confused.

Isaiah 5:20

"20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!"

Do not allow the world around you, even the world in the apostate church, to intimidate you into silence so you become like them.

Galatians 4:16-17 "…16 Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth? 17 Those people are zealous for you, but not in a good way. Instead, they want to isolate you from us, so that you may be zealous for them. "

Unbelievers will try to isolate us from our support through lies and gossip. They think if they can leave us without support they can diminish our witness for Christ and cause insecurity causing us to go silent. They do this through lies and gossip so that others are afraid to ask us to clarify the truth. You see, those who live in clusters and cliques are more afraid of the mob than they are of being deceived. They will choose the lie over the truth to maintain their core group. Deception is acceptable to them as long as they have the allegiance of the group.

We are much better off when we follow Christ alone, using His mind to make decisions rather than being controlled and manipulated by the group. God's truth is much more comforting and precious than the group-think of the mob. Mindless acquiescence to the group leaves us weak and beggarly.

Galatians 4:9-10

"9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles, to which you want to be enslaved all over again? 10 You meticulously observe days and months and seasons and years."

When we are careful to observe all that the human group wants from us we become slaves to them.

Proverbs 3:3

"Do not let kindness and truth leave you;

Bind them around your neck,

Write them on the tablet of your heart."

Luke 16:10

“He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much.

The Sewage of the Devil

Next time the devil whispers in your ear, "That isn't so bad", remember the story I am about to tell you.

I once heard a story about the trickery of the devil in hell.

The devil gave a man three doors to choose the room he wanted in hell.

The man looked in the first door and a man was in sewage up to his neck.

He then looked in the second door and the person in there was up to his waist in sewage.

He looked in the third door and a man was sitting in a chair up to his ankles in sewage while drinking a cup of coffee.

The man chose that third door it seemed so much better than the other two.

The man went into his chair with his coffee in the third door, a few minutes later the devil came by and said; "coffee break is over, get on your head."

The devil cannot be trusted he will always make things seem insignificant and unimportant that are against God's Word. At the end of the day the consequences are far bigger than anyone thought.

John 8:44

"44 You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies."

Raking up the Muck

I am not interested in knowledge for its own sake. Many people have accused me of "having my head in the sand" because I don't care to fill my head with newscasts and articles about things I can do nothing about. They seem to think merely knowing something has virtue without any plan to "do" anything about what they hear.

This mentality is called "Gnosticism." Gnosticism is a worship of knowledge whether or not it has value.

The reason I equate the knowledge of most Christians today with Gnosticism is that the people who want to know every detail about everything going on in the world seem to have much to say and do little to nothing, in terms of their knowledge. They spend more time in the news media online than they do in their Bibles.

God never commanded us to go into the world and heap up knowledge, just the opposite.

1 Corinthians 8:1 "Now concerning food sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes one conceited, but love edifies people."

The people I have known who continually search the internet for worldly knowledge seem to always be angry. Anger dwells within them as breathing does. Their mouths are often repeating the ugliness of the world as though "speaking about them" is actually doing something to change it.

I asked someone once why they repeat the crud of the world, and their answer was; "to inform." I then asked;' "why do you want to inform people?" The answer that came back was not so they could do something to improve the situation but simply so they would not be uniformed. It's a little like gossip, there is no good reason to tell someone else about dirt on someone unless it is to warn them to avoid the person they are gossiping about. Gossip relays stories about people completely unrelated to the person hearing and the person speaking, the life of the one gossiped about has nothing to do with either the speaker or the hearer, so the information is useless and more often than not mostly untrue and without enough details to prove what is being said.

Our world is full of more deception than it is truth in these last days. Those who repeat news articles have no way of knowing if what they repeated is actually true.

Matthew 24:24

"24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect."

Christians are being deceived by all these false news reports.

Most things we read or view in the media we would never see in our daily lives nor would we be a part of the solution. No one can even prove what they heard is true, they merely believe it and repeat it.

I recall the sad movies I have watched when I cried at a particular tender scene. The story of the movie was not real, it was not a part of my life nor did it impact me except to make my "feelings cry", as a child once said. It had no value other than entertainment "amusement", amuse meaning to "not think."

Those who follow news sources on the internet are often and mostly getting it without thinking. They just believe what they hear and pass it on to others who are just like them. Amusing, not thinking but believing.

God told us to guard our minds so that we would not be distracted from Christ and His mission on earth for us. Many Christians are passing on news stories without any way of vetting them. This is a form of gossip.

Proverbs 4:23

"23 Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it."

When we are continually agitated at the useless information of the world we cannot be exhibiting the joy of the Lord. Ugly information about the world destroys our joy and replaces that joy with excessive pride and angst. A sense of pride overtakes those who think they know so much more than others. It gives them a sense of superiority.

Those who are following the muck of the world often act superior while accusing others of "having their head in the sand" if they are not interested in this worldly gossip. I was accused of this when the Lord gave me this retort to people like that. God gave me this to say to those who were attempting to draw me into their worldly deceptions, "It seems to me you have your head in the sewer. "

Romans 12:2

"2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect."

The more time we spend with someone or something the more we become like that person or thing.

1 Corinthians 15:33 "Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.”

Those who are spending more time in the news and media than in the Word of God are corrupting themselves.

Matthew 6:23-25 "…23 But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

24 No one can serve two masters: Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

25 Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?…"

When someone attempts to intimidate us by mocking our desire to remain untouched by the world we know they are not spending time with God in His Word. And, we know they are not our friends, they are used by the devil to distract us from God.

God's word cleanses us from the world and gives us hope and joy that surpass this life. It is a lie that "the more heavenly minded the more useless we are in the world," as some have said. (sadly I heard missionaries say this very thing)

The more heavenly-minded we are the more we are able to serve God His way in the world. It takes time with God, lots of it, to learn His heart and carry out His desires.

God never said; "go into all the world and learn about all the filth you can.", He did say the following;

Mark 16:15-16 "15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned."

We were never given a command from God to save a country, except to protect Israel.

Our mission on this earth is not to learn more worldly filth, our mission is to bring the gospel to the lost, that's it!!!!

Keeping our heads down in prayer and Bible reading will allow us to hear from God His marching orders, often NOT those of the worldly church, and not what they think we should be doing.

We are more likely to witness the love of Christ with our joy and plain speech about the gospel when we are not corrupted by the world.

James 1:27

"27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world."

When we are too busy raking up muck from the world we will not have time to do what God told us to do, while corrupting our minds into useless mush.

My challenge is for believers to refrain from the news media on any level for one month, replacing their addiction to the media with Bible reading and prayer to learn God's will for you.

If you cannot refrain from the media for one month, that is proof that you are addicted to the media like an addict is to methamphetamines. Those who are addicted to media are also brainwashed by it.

When someone cannot have a conversation with another person without bringing up the muck of the world then we know they have an addiction. Life is so much more than the ugliness of the world for those who are in Christ.

How about an analogy? We love the sun when it comes out, it has value for us, but we also know the dangers of it, too much sun can kill us and if we stare into the sun without glasses fixated on it, it will blind us.

We cannot get out of the world, we will see things just going out and about to do our shopping but we don't have to indulge in the culture.

Many Christians are walking about in the culture blinded by the intensity of it, acting defenseless because they walk in fear and do not remove themselves.

James 4:4-9 " 4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

5 Or do you think that the Scripture says to no purpose, “He jealously desires the Spirit whom He has made to dwell in us”?

6 But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

7 Submit therefore to God. But resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

8 Come close to God and He will come close to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

9 Be miserable, and mourn, and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into gloom.

10 Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you."

We cannot love two masters, the master of media and God too. Satan is the master of the media and is using it to distract believers from the Word and plunge them into depression and sadness, diminishing their witness in the world.

Philippians 4:8

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."