It's funny how the Lord will be quiet with me for a few days and then bam, dump some huge revelation on me out of no where, while I am just driving along minding my own business. Today, for example, while I was on my way to work this morning, I was having a Seinfeld moment thinking about the manner in which people get into cars when more than one person needs to get in the back seat. Like, when do you open one door and do the 'get in and slide over' vs when do you walk around the car to get in on the other side. I was factoring in the relationships of the people you'd be sitting with, then I started to think of the weather, like if it was raining and you're in a hurry, then I was wondering if it would make a difference if it's a cab or an uber, probably a difference if there are three in the back opposed to only two, if there is traffic on the road on the other side of the car, etc. As my mind was going into all of these imaginary scenarios for no reason at all, the Lord decided to stop me dead in my tracks. I saw this vision of fire burning everything up and this whoosh that instantly disintegrated everything in sight. There was this tremendous ball of fire and everything was gone. The Lord put on my heart whoosh, poof, gone. Heaven or Hell!?
It shook me up, the urgency of it. Then He reminded me, just like that, how everything that we think we know, everything that we see, touch, feel, and experience every day; can be gone in an instant. In any instant that He deems necessary. There won't be any chance for you to put your hand up last minute and say "Hi, uh Jesus, I know I totally blew you off but can I maybe not be burnt to a crisp in a lake of fire?" It's going to be too late. Whoosh, poof gone. Heaven or Hell? Just like that. Nothing else will matter.
Not only is our Lord a savior but also a judge. We can't have one without the other. We can't preach one without preaching the other. The Lord corrects those he loves. If you can run rampant in sin and not feel bad about it one bit, then you better question your relationship with the Lord. If He's not correcting you the way a loving father corrects his children, then are you really a child of the Lord? Are you really His? We should be thankful that He corrects us. It's within His refining fire that the old flesh is burned away and the Lord is able to mold the Spirit.
John 5:30 30 I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.
John 12:43-50 43 for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God. 44 And Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. 45 And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. 46 I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. 47 If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. 48 The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. 49 For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak. 50 And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.”
When I was at the conference this past weekend, it was a delight to soak in the presence of the Lord all day. However, through a prophetic friend, the Lord did correct me, lovingly. It wasn't something that caught me off guard either, I should have been expecting it. For a while, the Lord has been pulling at my heart to read more of the word and to spend more time with Him. I have been putting it off and not investing the time and energy that I should have been. This friend came up to me with the word that the Lord gave her being that He was very jealous over me and over my time. She didn't know anything about what the Lord had been putting on my heart for those weeks leading up to that meeting, she just spoke what the Lord put on her heart, and man, it was right on the money like a dagger to my heart. I felt not only the confirmation of what the Lord's been dealing with me about, but that sting of feeling as if I disappointed the Lord or failed that specific test of once again dealing with my delayed obedience. I am happy to say, that instead of feeling like a failure, I was emotionally sound enough to see it as the truth of the Lord reaching out and wanting more time with ME! How lucky can a girl get!? I have, since then, been spending more time in the word, and the Lord is revealing so much more to me than I could ever imagine.
Proverbs 3:11-12 11 My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline or be weary of his reproof, 12 for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights
Hebrews 12:6-11 6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” 7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Stop and think about it for a moment, really think about it. if time stood still right this second and everything that you knew was gone, where would you stand? Heaven or Hell? Are you prepared for the what if? The what if Hell is real? Was it worth it?
The Lord also put on my heart that the only real reason that we don't have peace on earth is selfishness. It's selfishness that causes strife, anger, hatred, anguish. It's the selfish thoughts of "I don't like they way they think, talk, act, what they said, what they posted about" It's selfish emotions making you feel slighted by others when in reality none of that matters. It's thoughts that divide families over small arguments. It's needing people to take your side. It's dealing with that annoying co worker, the slow driver, the cashier that's having a rough day. It's the selfish comparisons we make to the lives of others, it's our wants, our desires, what we deem as "needs" when truthfully it's clearly a want. It's thinking that you're supposed to be exempt from things going wrong or annoyances because of your faith or who you are. This entire nation is screaming in pride "I, I, I". The democrats, the republicans, the illegals, the citizens, the sick, the healthy, the poor, the rich, the masked, the unmasked; all screaming up to the Lord saying "I, I, I". At what point will the judge slam His gavel and restore order to his court?! How much more do we expect the Lord to take, honestly? I see this vision of the Lord in the judges seat slamming the gavel and saying "The I's have it" and meaning that they, the "I's" will have the way of their flesh, and the way of the flesh is death. Selfishness=death. Not only for eternity, but in this life. Selfishness is the cause of everything wrong with your mood, your day, week, or the way you view your life.
Galatians 6:8 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
Romans 8:5-8 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
He's right here, looking right at us all and thinking to Himself, is it really that hard? Love God, Love people, the rest will fall into place. "Love God, Love People" it's that simple.
Matthew 22:37-39 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 first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Doesn't matter if that person doesn't agree with your point of view, they're going to die one day. You're going to die one day. None of anything that you think about anything will ever matter to anyone in a million years. Heaven or Hell? That's it, that's all that matters. Whoosh, poof, gone. Heaven or Hell?
It's time to redefine how the world sees the church. It's time to show the world what true biblical power evangelical Christianity was designed to be. It's time to bring heaven to earth, to be kingdom minded. It's time to heal the sick, to cast out devils, to share the love of the Lord, and the urgency of the times that we are living in.
Mark 16:15-20 15 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.” 19 So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. 20 And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.
People avoid Christianity because they don't care for the way us "Christians" portray the Lord and this lifestyle. People think it's boring, that we follow to many rules and can't have any fun. Truth be told, we follow the conviction of the Lord because He dwells in us, and what is fun to the world, isn't always what agrees with the Spirit of the Lord. We obey because we love the Lord, not to earn His love.
John 15:9-27 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. 12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants,[a] for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.
18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. 21 But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin,[b] but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Whoever hates me hates my Father also. 24 If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. 25 But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’ 26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. 27 And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning
People avoid Christianity because they think that we act judgy, like we are too good for people, we act like we have everything together and don't tip our waitresses on Sunday's after church. They think that we tithe to our churches but won't buy a stranger a meal. That we drive our nice cars never offering anyone else a ride. They think that we go grocery shopping and get frustrated when there is a mother struggling with calculator in the same isle and she won't get out of our way. They think we are a bunch of hypocrites and in most cases rightfully so.
I can assure you that after 36 years as a "Christian" I didn't really care much for other Christians. I saw people going to church every week and still frustrated, still afflicted. I saw people get bitter and have arguments. I've seen people come and go. Here is a tip, the Church won't ever feel like a family, if the Holy Spirit isn't free to move and minister within the body of Christ. People become frustrated with boring church services so they stop taking their children to church. Then those children grow up out of the church and don't take their kids to church because they grew up thinking you don't need church to love the Lord. (That is true, but we are called to be the body of Christ on this earth as the gathering of the saints) We are to be heaven on earth. We are to be the embodiment of Jesus Christ here on this earth.
Luke 17:20-21 20 Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, 21 nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”
We need to realize that the same Holy Spirit that rose Jesus from the dead is alive and well inside each and every one of us. The Spirit is alive and lets Him live in and abide in us and us in HIM!! It's miracles, signs, wonders, healing, deliverance, prophecy, laying hands, praying in tongues of fire. It's all in the Bible together as the design for the church and we have churches that pick and choose what they want to use out of the word. How crazy is that? We have churches that want the supernatural experience but deny the power of the Holy Spirit and then wonder, why miracles signs and wonders don't follow them? Because you have a whole congregation that doesn't believe in prayer language! You have congregations that believe that laying hands is not for today. Yet you wonder why people leave your services thinking something must be missing?
Mark 16:16-18 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.
We have these generations of people who have been out of the church, so far removed, that when they see the supernatural at work in the name of Jesus Christ and they call it demonic! Then they'll turn on the tv and celebrating David Blaine and his levitating as a gift. They won't miss an episode of Long Island Medium but laugh at prophecy and say that's false. Then they wonder why nothing happens in their churches? Biblical Christianity is the entire word of the Lord. It is truth. This is why power evangelism is so important. To not only share the word, but to actually show the healing love of the Lord. To show the power of deliverance. To show the way the Lord leaves the 99 to go after the 1, every single time.
He died for you, He loves you. Tick Tick whoosh. Heaven or Hell? Are you ready? The gavel is about to drop!
Isaiah 5:20-30 20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! 21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight! 22 Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine, and valiant men in mixing strong drink, 23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe, and deprive the innocent of his right! 24 Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root will be as rottenness, and their blossom go up like dust; for they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts, and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. 25 Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people, and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them, and the mountains quaked; and their corpses were as refuse in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still. 26 He will raise a signal for nations far away, and whistle for them from the ends of the earth; and behold, quickly, speedily they come! 27 None is weary, none stumbles, none slumbers or sleeps, not a waistband is loose, not a sandal strap broken; 28 their arrows are sharp,all their bows bent, their horses' hoofs seem like flint and their wheels like the whirlwind. 29 Their roaring is like a lion, like young lions they roar; they growl and seize their prey; they carry it off, and none can rescue. 30 They will growl over it on that day, like the growling of the sea. And if one looks to the land, behold, darkness and distress;and the light is darkened by its clouds.
John 14:15-31 Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit 15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. 18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” 23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me.
25 “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. 28 You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 29 And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe. 30 I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, 31 but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.
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