2 billion people on the earth call themselves Christians.
2 BILLION!!!
I'm not buying it.
If 2 billion people on this planet are truly followers of Christ, I have to ask the following:
How are there millions of abortions happening each year?
How do thousands upon thousands of children die from lack of food and clean water each year?
Why are veterans and seniors and the mentally ill homeless?
Why are people not being healed of diseases, raised from the dead and delivered from demonic oppression?
From here on out, I no longer identify as a Christian. I am a following of Jesus Christ.
So what's the difference?
Well, let's look at the church! Look at all the people that file through the doors on Sunday morning, and what do you see? They look no different than the rest of the world. They dress the same, they mouth the songs, they bow their heads, they warm the seats, they shake hands with the people and then it's back into the world. They struggle with infidelity, immodesty, foul language, alcohol/drug/sex/food/internet addictions, illness, jealousy, anger, anxiety, depression and so on and so on.
So what is missing??
The Power of the Holy Spirit and a true relationship with Jesus Christ.
In Matthew 10:18 Jesus told the disciples to Heal the sick,[d]cleanse the lepers, [e]raise the dead, cast out demons.
In Matthew 16:17 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; 18 they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
As followers of Christ, we should also be doing these things. But in the church these days we see people attending church every Sunday with no relief from their afflictions.
And why?
Fear
Pride
Control
Unbelief
Lack of teaching
Over the past five years, I have been on a personal journey learning from amazing authors and preachers about what the bible says about healing, deliverance and spiritual warfare.
Ephesians 6:10-12 10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the [b]wiles of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of [c]the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
The secular world mocks Christians while they flock to psychics, ghost hunters, clairvoyants, mediums etc. not realizing that they are exposing themselves to the spiritual realm. These are all things that Christians have been warned to stay away from but some regularly visit energy healers and participate in all kinds of new age practices which give the enemy legal authority over them.
While a Christian cannot be possessed, they can be oppressed, tormented and become physically ill due to the influence of evil spirits in their lives. So why is the church not doing what Jesus told his followers to do?
Fear
Five years ago when I first experienced deliverance for myself, the reactions I got from friends and family ranged from mild amusement to outright "Cori's a religious freak." And at first, I was a bit hesitant to talk about it again, but then I got mad. Was I going to allow my worry about what other people might think to stop me from doing what Jesus asked me to do? No!
Pride
My experience with deliverance was pretty drastic. I think that some people are afraid of looking like a fool if they go for deliverance. Sometimes deliverance is quiet and calm, but sometimes there is shrieking, belching, and vomiting.
Control.
People don't want to give up control but the control they have is just an illusion. When healing and deliverance happens, sometimes a person loses control of themselves. Sometimes they go into a trance, sometimes they scream uncontrollably, sometimes they start laughing uncontrollably. A person who is afraid to give up control to God will have a hard time going through full deliverance.
Unbelief
A lot of people that go to church don't believe in demons, the need for deliverance or the gift of healing even though the bible talks about it a lot. 25 times, Jesus cast out demons. He healed a great number of people throughout the gospels and the disciples after his ascension did as well.
Lack of Teaching
Over the last 100 years, the church has focused more on teaching the gospel and getting people saved then it has teaching on the reality of spiritual warfare, healing and deliverance. The results are congregations full of people not living in the freedom that Jesus died for. And for the outside world, what we have is not attractive because we look just like them. We're living with mental and physical illness, addictions, and so on. The church needs to get back to teaching about spiritual warfare, healing prayer and casting out demons, otherwise, we will not walk in our full authority in Christ.
In Africa, missionaries share testimonies of demonic manifestations, blind people receiving their sight, the sick being made well and the dead being raised. Reinhard Bonnke, an evangelist from Florida-based Christ for All Nations, has witnessed amazing miracles when he has preached throughout Africa. A young British woman* whose right side had been paralyzed since infancy. experienced a tingling in her disabled extremities and as people watched, the woman's underdeveloped right foot grew to its normal adult size.
The Western church needs to set aside their fear, pride, control issues, unbelief and lack of teaching return to teaching the fullness of the Scriptures to see true transformation and revival.
*as told to the houston chronicle - https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Known-as-conduit-for-divine-miracles-in-Africa-6083035.php
Monday, April 17, 2017
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
You just never know....
This past week in the news, I have seen several stories that are heartbreaking.
15 year old boys dies in skateboarding accident
5 year old Calgary boy disappears with Grandparents
Dunville teen killed in auto accident
And then there are the ongoing riots, shootings, tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, volcanic eruptions and the growing unrest in the Middle East and at the southern border of the USA.
I don't know about you, but I am not convinced that this kind of thing has been going on forever, we just have better access to information than we've ever had before.
Searching Google you will find that April of this year was a record breaking year for earthquakes.
According to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) which issues alerts for tsunamis, April was a very busy month for the earth's crust. Of course there are earthquakes every hour of every day, but the world usually only sees one or two earthquakes per month that are 6.5-magnitude or higher. This April there were 13, including five that were higher than 7.8, prompting tsunami warnings. "Easily a record for this institution," reports PTWC. ~ http://gizmodo.com/a-timelapse-of-all-the-earthquakes-from-this-record-bre-1570401997
How about tornadoes?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/record-breaking-oklahoma-tornado-was-wider-than-manhattan-and-had-winds-of-295mph-8645270.html
Many sites claim that the increase in tornado activity is actually a result of better monitoring, however, it would seem that the storms are getting more powerful... just ask the people in Arkansas, Indiana
This chart may help to show how tornadoes have increased in the last 60+ years:
Flooding?
I for one don't remember hearing about as much flooding up here in Canada as I have in the last couple of years. Between 2003 and 2013 Canada had nine disasters with damages surpassing CAD 500 million each. Prior to that only three Canadian disasters exceeded CAD 500 million in damages.[4] The Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) reports that the cost of natural disasters rose 14-fold since the 1950s
So what is going on? Is it Global Warming?
I don't believe it. Especially considering that there was a release lately about high ice levels in the Arctic. http://notrickszone.com/2013/08/23/nasa-stumped-summer-arctic-ice-extent-among-highest-this-decade-antarctica-headed-toward-record-extent/
What is going on? I guess it depends on what you want to believe. Some look to science for an explanation. Some don't care.
But here is what I really believe. In the last ten years, at least, we have seen in increase in all of these things as well as crime, disease, and the decline of morality. The only thing that I can think of that has this kind of affect is God. Yep, I said it, God.
The Bible is pretty clear about a lot of things. And the state of the world is described in the Bible to a "T".
In regards to the people:
2 Timothy 3
3 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power.
Matthew 24
10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved
2 Peter 3
Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4 They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” 5 But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water.
sound familiar?
As for the world?
Matthew 24
6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains.
9 “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me.
Watch what is going on all around the world and you can clearly see wars, rumors of war, nation against nation, kingdom against kingdom. In the last few years we've seen Libya and Egypt in upheaval, North and South Korea on the brink. Japan and China bickering. Iran threatening just about everyone, Syria has been a mess, and now we have ISIL on the scene, advancing through Iraq, into Syria and threatening Jordan... their ultimate goal is Israel.
In many place in the middle east, Christians are being killed every day.
Which brings me back to the beginning of this post.
Not one of us knows how much time we have left in this life. We could find ourselves facing eternity at any moment. But what is most important is where you are going to spend it.
Anyone who rejects the gospel of Christ, no matter how good they think they are, will be condemned to eternal separation from God. In other words, hell. Do you really want to risk it? Look at the world. It's pretty clear it's a mess and it's going to get a lot messier. Where do you want to end up when you die? A place with no fear, pain, illness or death? or a place of eternal misery?
Jesus said that he is the way, the truth and the life, that no one could get to the father but through him.
What he meant was that if you reject him, you can't get to heaven. Take some time. If you are unsure, ask God to reveal Himself to you. He will. I pray that anyone that reads this will research and consider and choose Christ, before it's too late.
Anyone else noticing an increase in persecution against Christians?
15 year old boys dies in skateboarding accident
5 year old Calgary boy disappears with Grandparents
Dunville teen killed in auto accident
And then there are the ongoing riots, shootings, tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, volcanic eruptions and the growing unrest in the Middle East and at the southern border of the USA.
I don't know about you, but I am not convinced that this kind of thing has been going on forever, we just have better access to information than we've ever had before.
Searching Google you will find that April of this year was a record breaking year for earthquakes.
According to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) which issues alerts for tsunamis, April was a very busy month for the earth's crust. Of course there are earthquakes every hour of every day, but the world usually only sees one or two earthquakes per month that are 6.5-magnitude or higher. This April there were 13, including five that were higher than 7.8, prompting tsunami warnings. "Easily a record for this institution," reports PTWC. ~ http://gizmodo.com/a-timelapse-of-all-the-earthquakes-from-this-record-bre-1570401997
How about tornadoes?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/record-breaking-oklahoma-tornado-was-wider-than-manhattan-and-had-winds-of-295mph-8645270.html
Many sites claim that the increase in tornado activity is actually a result of better monitoring, however, it would seem that the storms are getting more powerful... just ask the people in Arkansas, Indiana
This chart may help to show how tornadoes have increased in the last 60+ years:
Flooding?
I for one don't remember hearing about as much flooding up here in Canada as I have in the last couple of years. Between 2003 and 2013 Canada had nine disasters with damages surpassing CAD 500 million each. Prior to that only three Canadian disasters exceeded CAD 500 million in damages.[4] The Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) reports that the cost of natural disasters rose 14-fold since the 1950s
So what is going on? Is it Global Warming?
I don't believe it. Especially considering that there was a release lately about high ice levels in the Arctic. http://notrickszone.com/2013/08/23/nasa-stumped-summer-arctic-ice-extent-among-highest-this-decade-antarctica-headed-toward-record-extent/
What is going on? I guess it depends on what you want to believe. Some look to science for an explanation. Some don't care.
But here is what I really believe. In the last ten years, at least, we have seen in increase in all of these things as well as crime, disease, and the decline of morality. The only thing that I can think of that has this kind of affect is God. Yep, I said it, God.
The Bible is pretty clear about a lot of things. And the state of the world is described in the Bible to a "T".
In regards to the people:
2 Timothy 3
3 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power.
Matthew 24
10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved
2 Peter 3
Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4 They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” 5 But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water.
sound familiar?
As for the world?
Matthew 24
6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains.
9 “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me.
Watch what is going on all around the world and you can clearly see wars, rumors of war, nation against nation, kingdom against kingdom. In the last few years we've seen Libya and Egypt in upheaval, North and South Korea on the brink. Japan and China bickering. Iran threatening just about everyone, Syria has been a mess, and now we have ISIL on the scene, advancing through Iraq, into Syria and threatening Jordan... their ultimate goal is Israel.
In many place in the middle east, Christians are being killed every day.
Which brings me back to the beginning of this post.
Not one of us knows how much time we have left in this life. We could find ourselves facing eternity at any moment. But what is most important is where you are going to spend it.
Anyone who rejects the gospel of Christ, no matter how good they think they are, will be condemned to eternal separation from God. In other words, hell. Do you really want to risk it? Look at the world. It's pretty clear it's a mess and it's going to get a lot messier. Where do you want to end up when you die? A place with no fear, pain, illness or death? or a place of eternal misery?
Jesus said that he is the way, the truth and the life, that no one could get to the father but through him.
What he meant was that if you reject him, you can't get to heaven. Take some time. If you are unsure, ask God to reveal Himself to you. He will. I pray that anyone that reads this will research and consider and choose Christ, before it's too late.
Anyone else noticing an increase in persecution against Christians?
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