Do You Know What Is Really Going On?
Let me ask you something. Do you
know what is really going on? What are these
bizarre new attacks on the warriors of God?
The present darkness threatens us in ways
that we never imagined. The slightest mistake
brings huge consequences. The margin of
error is razor thin! What is going on?
Everything is happening suddenly.
Suddenly, strong believers self-destruct.
Suddenly, marriages and lifelong friendships
turn into bitter wars. Suddenly, cancer and
other life threatening diseases ravage bodies.
Disaster lurks at every turn! Life rages with
anger.
The weary warrior cries out to
understand what is going on. How can we fight
what we cannot see or discern? Is there a road
map through this minefield called modern life?
Can I steel myself in God to endure and finish
my course or have past failure and current
crisis erased my destiny? Can I cut away the
jungle growth and carve a path to mighty
exploits?
God is not ignorant of our daily struggle.
He has not been fooled by anything that Satan
is doing in this age. God always anticipates
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God always anticipates what we need and keeps a miracle ready For those who love him
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what we will need and keeps a miracle ready for those who love Him.
At every epoch of history God has done something unique. When tyrants rule
and perversion floods the land, God always invites the righteous to run into the strong tower.
Now He is inviting you to come find inner peace;
peace that goes beyond explanation and navigates you past every secret place
where the enemy lies in wait to destroy.
However, you must first understand
what is really going on. The ozone layer of the
Holy Spirit has been breached. A hedge of
protection has been removed. The hand of
God has been pushed away. It is easy to point
the finger to the anti-God forces and blame
them for this storm of crisis but this one came
from within the Christian community.
Two Deadly Threats on the Warriors of God.
There are two things very wrong with a huge
segment of the American church. These two
things are a greater threat to you than
anything in the outside world. You must see
them and renounce them before you can obey
the higher call of Christ.
The first threat against you is spiritual
flattery. Daniel 11 :32 says, “Those who do
wickedly against the covenant he shall corrupt
with flattery; but the people who know their
God shall be strong, and carry out great
exploits.”
There will be only two kinds of
Christians in the last days: Those who have
strength to finish glorious endeavors and those
who are seduced out of the race.
Flattery is at work in many pulpits
causing untold damage in Christians. This
story of a young boxer will illustrate what I
mean. He was a mediocre fighter but his
manager had a case of high optimistic denial.
The manager could not see the weaknesses in
his young charge and got him a fight against a
true contender.
In round one it was clear that this novice
had no chance against the experienced fighter.
When the round ended the battered young
fighter stumbled back to his corner. He was
stunned to hear his manager yelling, “You got
him kid. He hasn’t laid a glove on yOU!”
In round two it was futile to fight so he
just ran around the ring trying to stay alive.
Once again he staggers to his stool and hears his manager boasting, “You got him on the run! He hasn’t laid a glove on you!”
In round three he has one eye closed,
he is wheezing, his ribs ache and he can
barely stand. He is saved by the bell and
crawls to his corner and hears the hollow
refrain. “You got him kid! He hasn’t laid a
glove on you.”
The kid now fed up with it all looks up
and says, “Then you better watch the referee
because someone in there is killing me!”
American Christians continually hear
sermons that tell them they are awesome
warriors with vast rights and privileges.
Nevertheless something in the real world is
killing them!
Flattery is why millions of American
Christians feel frustrated, confused and
starved. The words sounded right but there
was no lasting effect, no active ingredient, no
revolutionary call and no transforming power.
There is no gut level confrontation with the real
problems. The irony is not lost on them. They
have just been weakened by a message about
strength. A man used a big screen and
PowerPoint for a sermon that had no power
and no point!
Flattery preaching will tell you, in so
many words, that you can be whole without
having to be holy. It will tell you that you can be
forceful without being forged. It exalts style
over substance. It tells you that victory is an
entitlement that does not require a deep work
of the Holy Spirit. It is not by accident that
these pep talks make no mention of the Cross,
the Blood, the Devil and Hell. These core
truths expose the real enemy, the real war and
the real formula for conquering modern life.
Vessels of God
that once carried
a powerful
anointing now
live in a vacuum
and do not even
know that they
have lost their
walk with God.
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There is a deliberate and calculated
conspiracy changing Christianity in America.
Certain religious celebrities blended elements
of the Bible, New Age and psychotherapy into
a highly marketable new religion. They put the writings of Buddha,
Mohammed, and Freud on the same level as the Holy Scriptures.
We are not
talking about liberal
theologians who deny
the deity of Jesus or
the inspiration of
scripture. We can at least respectfully
disagree with the honest liberal because they
actually believe what they are saying.
No, we are talking about mainstream
preachers who believe the Bible is the Word of
God but have chosen to misrepresent the
truths that they swore to uphold. Vessels of
God that once carried a powerful anointing now
live in a vacuum and do not even know that
they have lost their walk with God.
They began with a fiery calling but
somewhere along the line the undertow of
popularity morphed them into something that
God never intended. They became celebrity
gurus looking for beautiful ways to say things
instead of waiting on the Holy Spirit for a
tongue of fire and the sword of the Spirit.
There is an extraordinary reference to
this conspiracy in Jeremiah 5:31 which says,
‘The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests
rule by their own power; and my people love to
have it so. But what will you do in the end?”
Isn’t that the salient question? “What
will you do in the end?” The end is upon the
believers who have eaten genetically altered
manna. Inconvenient truths have been
bleached out of the grain; the very truths that
would have kept them from the ravages of
modern life. Why would true men of God do
this? Read on. The answer may stun you.
The second threat against you is the
Carnal Christian crowd. So why would men
of God conspire to give us a “new and
improved” Gospel? The answer is marketing.
American business has had breathtaking
success through marketing. Untold wealth has
been amassed by the methods invented in
America. Packaging, wording on labels, the
psychology of color, relentless research and a
myriad of other factors have built the most
lucrative system for moving inventory that the
world has ever seen. Marketing literally has
the power to manipulate almost every aspect of
a person’s life.
One of the most important goals of
marketing is to create an addiction. Addiction
is the key to repeat business. Americans are
addicted to taste, appearance, celebrity and
self absorption. Self absorption is the true
opiate of the masses. If beer can get the girl or
a car can get the image they crave then they
will spend beyond their means. This is why
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Americans are addicted to taste, appearance, celebrity and self absorption
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urban youth will kill to $100 basketball shoes.
These addictions run the
engine of our economy.
The temptation to
use marketing IS .’
overwhelming to some
ministers. They realize
that Christians are also
culturally addicted. If a
preacher laces his sermons with things that
Christians crave and validate them by using
scripture out of context then he is guaranteed a
crowd.
Look at 2 Timothy 4:3, 4 “For the time
will come when they will not endure sound
doctrine, but according to their own desires,
because they have itching ears, they will heap
up for themselves teachers; and they will turn
their ears away from the truth, and be turned
aside to fables.”
Do you see it? It predicts teachers who
will analyze the “desires” of the audience and
tailor the sermon to that desire … marketing!
Go back and read those verses again
and you will see something else that is very
interesting. Paul is warning us against the
carnal crowd more than he is warning us about
the false teachers. It is the crowd that will turn
away from truth and pressure preachers to
water down the Word. It is the crowd that will
heap the teachers unto themselves!
The itching ears crowd clamors for the
compromised word over truth the way the mob
wanted Barabbas more than Jesus. These are
the Laodiceans! Revelation 3:17 “because you
say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and
have need of nothing’-and do not know that
you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and
naked.”
This is the audience that has descended
into the world of fables. This is the group who
will promote a pastor to superstar status if that
pastor agrees to keep the intrinsic Biblical
demands of God off of their backs.
The carnal crowd is not an innocent
bystander! It is not as if they did not notice the
dramatic change in their church. They saw
their Pastor switch from sermons to
monologues. They could tell that the
atmosphere of worship, the gifts of the Spirit
and altar calls for lost souls were suddenly
missing in action. They watched their Church
enter the Christian witness protection program.
They never protested or asked the Pastor why
he is allergic to the Holy Spirit. They gave tacit
approval or worse- hearty support!
We are baffled by the popularity of
some false teachers but we forget that it is the
false crowd that makes them possible. When it
comes to the carnal crowd Paul’s advice is
painfully clear. 2 Timothy 3: 5 says, “Having a
form of godliness but denying its power. And
from such people turn away!” We must turn
away because they are contagious! The power
they deny is the power of the Cross and the
Holy Spirit. Their promiscuous lifestyle
demonstrates this. Except for a few religious
buzz words you cannot distinguish them as
Christians. If you join them they will ruin you.
If you question them they will blast you for
being judgmental! Either way you do not need
the abuse!
But God will not abandon His children!
He is still wooing the carnal Christians! He
does not want any of His children to sink into
the quicksand of the end times! That is the
heart of the letter to the Laodiceans.
Revelation 3: 18-20, “I counsel you to
buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you
may be rich; and white garments, that you may
be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness
may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with
eye salve, that you may see. As many as I
love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be
zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the
door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and
opens the door, I will come in to him and dine
with him, and he with Me. ”
Do you hear Him knocking? God is
inviting you to be gold in the age of tinsel. God
is calling you to be fire and lightning in the era
of smoke and mirrors. God is calling you to
embody excellence, abundance and wisdom at
a time when these have become the rarest of
treasures. If you reject flattery and compromise
and open the door then this astonishing
promise is yours, “I will come in to him and
dine with him, and he with Me.”
You can trade in what will never save you far what will never fail you.
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Here is another astonishing promise for
you: 2Timothy 2:20,21 “But in a great house
there are not only vessels of gold and silver,
but also of wood and clay, some for honor and
some for dishonor. Therefore
if anyone cleanses himself
from the latter, he will be a
vessel for honor, sanctified
and useful for the Master,
prepared for every good
work.”
What an honor it is to be
separated unto God. What a
small a price it is to rinse off
the toxic residue? Wood will
burn in the fiery trial and clay will disintegrate in
the enemies flood but you can be gold! You
DO YOU KNOW WHAT IS 11
REALLY GOING ON?
can trade in what will never save you for what
will never fail you.
The Response of the Warriors of God.
So what should you do with all of this?
Should you feel horrible? Should you cast it
aside and hope for the best? I think you know
what to do. You obey the voice of God! You
do not trust in your emotions or your wits to
make the needed changes. You worshipfully
declare “If this is You, I can make it! If this is
You, nothing can stop me.”
Remind yourself about every time in
your life that you fully trusted Jesus? What did
He do? He did the impossible. He did the
unexpected! Do not dwell on the enormous
task before you, look to the Mighty God above
you. He would never have awakened this
hunger in you unless He was making all of the
resources of Heaven available to you.
Finally, what choice do we really have?
We do not want to fall with foolish believers
who blindly go on living in denial. You know
that you cannot make life easier, but God can
make you much stronger! You know that the
enemy is real and he is determined to take you
out, but Jehovah will make you the devil’s
nightmare!
You are invited to become a new breed
with new gifts and new emotions. The signal
has gone out. The Holy Spirit says, “Come be
fitted for war and equipped for any cnsis.
Possess the emotions of a redeemed,
anchored and joyous warrior/heir of God. I
have just what you need to triumph in battle.”
(AP Photo)
