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Sermon 92 – Witch Christian are you?

28 Nov

The Word of God is Spirit and not just writings in a book. When we read the story of David we need to realise and appreciate that it is not just a record of historical fact but primarily a spiritual expression of the heart of all of mankind.

There’s two types of Christians

There’s two types of Christians; those who are Davids and those who are Sauls. We see this reinforced in the parable of the 10 virgins. They both start-off with Holy Spirit (the oil), but half of them lose Him. If you have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you, then you’re a Christian, but that doesn’t mean you’re saved. The same evidence is endorsed in the parable of the sower and the Seed. The Seed (Jesus) falls into 3 types of ground and grows, but only one type of ground produces fruit. Judas had the Holy Spirit and so did Samson; they both lost the Holy Spirit, but the outcome was different for Samson.

The camp of David

Everybody wants to be a David, but they don’t want the hassle pathway that David had to take. The point of the Word of God is that to be a David you have to walk the same path, and to be a saved Christian you have to walk the same path of suffering as Christ; the path of being misjudged for doing the right thing, the path of separation from those who oppose the truth, the path of being hated for doing good, or the path of having to give up your position. If you read the Psalms, they’re all about the worship of God and thankfulness towards Him, or they’re about enemies, both within his camp and without, who are trying to destroy him.

The cross

Jesus is of the lineage of David. This is not just a heritage thing; it’s primarily a spiritual issue. He didn’t choose his lineage just because he was a king, otherwise Jesus would not have been born in a manger. By deliberately choosing to be of the lineage of David, Jesus was signifying that the spiritual path of opposition to David is the same spiritual pathway of opposition to Christ and the same spiritual pathway of opposition for all those who want to follow Christ.

Salvation is only via the cross. The pathway of the master is the pathway of the servant. The servant is not above his master. Every Christian is in the camp of Saul until they come to the cross. You can’t just make up your mind to swap camps; it’s only at the cross; whether it’s the pain of being misjudged for doing the right thing, being blamed for having done nothing wrong, or being held in contempt for following your Christ-like conscience.

You can have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (He’s not restricted by your lack of faith or even your false faith), but you’re not saved until you come to the cross of self-death (just like Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress). You’re not saved by inviting Jesus into your heart; rather you’re saved when you die to what you want and only live for what the Master wants.

Every Christian thinks they’ve done this, but the proof is in the pudding. Only when you’re faced with sacrificing what you truly do want (which generally you don’t know till God brings you face-to-face with it) can you move to the plane of salvation via your cross.

What this means is that your will has to be constantly and unconditionally surrendered to God’s will. Until you bend your will to God’s will, you’re not saved. The opposite of giving up your will is to retain the right to do it your way, and Satan will bombard you with temptations to fear God’s will.

The camp of Saul

Sauls can’t handle David being more popular.

Sauls need compliments and can’t handle contradictions, criticisms or corrections against their opinion. They have to look good in the eyes of the people. They may start off meek but they soon warm to the elevated position and surreptitiously their heart turns to themselves and away from God. They often live by rules and what’s right, even the Ten Commandments, but can’t be told they’re wrong and can’t take correction. Correction is equated as rejection. Consequently, their heart actually deceives itself and becomes stubborn and rebellious, and they come under the spirit of lying and practice subtle deception and ignorantly believe in superstition (if I do this, I will get that) and ultimately, witchcraft (1 Samuel 15:23).

Sauls are stubborn-minded and stubborn-willed. Sauls have to do it their own way; they don’t like to be told; they like to figure it out for themselves. They argue that they have the right to figure it out for themselves; but, really what they’re saying is, don’t tell me what to do; I’ll do it my way.

Sauls are swelled up with the importance of their own position, so when Samuel suggests that they’ve done it the wrong way, Sauls defend themselves by blaming others and by justifying that what they’ve done is right. Instead of respecting the prophet’s authority, Sauls have deduced that if you don’t agree with my thinking then you’re the fool, you’re the one who’s ignorant, you’re the one who’s blind, not me.

Sauls believe that if you hurt me, I have the right to hurt you back; and Sauls believe that if you hurt my feelings then you’re bad, and you’re wrong. Thus, Sauls have moods whenever you upset their feelings; but the real purpose of the mood is to make you feel bad so you will surrender to their demands.

Sauls act by their own judgment; they do not walk by faith, but rather by what they think is right. Even though Sauls may act generous, may appear happy and may enjoy being helpful, the truth is, Sauls are too proud to be corrected, too proud to forgive, bossy, and too stubborn to be told they’re wrong.

The camp of Saul is the camp of self-righteousness, whereas the camp of David is the camp of God’s righteousness. That is, God’s rightness, God’s ability and God’s goodness, not mine. Davids know that it’s nothing to do with me; it’s all Him.

The trigger

The trigger that stirs Saul spirits to change from meekness, is envy. Sauls can’t handle someone else being accoladed more than them.

What’s the problem with being a Saul?

Envy (1 Samuel 18:8) drives a Saul away from God and into the camp of witchcraft and then under the influence and control of a demon, then you’ll lose your right mind, and ultimately find yourself in hell. The stubbornness of Saul separates Saul from God (1 Samuel 16:14). This pattern started in the Garden of Eden, and nothing’s changed. If you allow envy into your heart and refuse to own it with repentance, you will not find heaven; it will take you to hell; and that’s the plan of Satan … self-destruction by self-rightness.

Jonathans

Jonathans agree and even support David but they prefer to stay in the camp of Saul. Saul’s camp is bigger and safer and more acceptable. David’s camp is outside the acceptable religious structure. Jonathans choose to stay with their father’s belief even though they know it’s wrong, because they need their father’s approval.

Why stay in the camp of Saul?

  1. Safety in numbers. The Orthodox churches considered the Pentecostal church, a cult, but when it increased in numbers it became an acceptable religion. Homosexuality was considered illegal, but now that it has publically increased in numbers it’s become an acceptable normal sexuality. People’s judgment is controlled by numbers and money. Where numbers and money dictate people’s decision, they have simply defaulted to the control of the spirit of the anti-christ. “He loved me, but not enough” is the catch-cry in Sense and Sensibility. Willoughby gave up his love for position and money. The comforts of his lifestyle and the temptation to look good in the eyes of others were too appealing, and thus he showed that he really loved himself . Like Willoughby, Sauls say and act loving but when it comes to the crunch they choose position over love for God.
  2. Social interaction. Humans are social beings and the church has been traditionally considered a safe place to interact with other humans; but that’s no longer the case … paedophilia and homosexuality, divorce and fornication are intertwined into the fabric of every religion and every church.
  3. More chance of being elevated to a higher position and recognised by more people.
  4. Scared to change camps. Religion controls people through their fears. People are too lazy to search the Scriptures for themselves. I believe because they don’t really want to find the hard way. They like the status quo; it suits their lifestyle, and any deviation from the status quo would make me look bad in the eyes of others.
  5. Indoctrinated by parents to believe in self-value
  6. Using the church as a hospital for all my hurts and expecting people to listen to me and be understanding of my needs.

Santa Claus

It’s no coincidence that Santa is the most valued figure at Christmas time. He’s the one with the goodies. Most Christians live in the Santa Claus syndrome believing if they’re good then God will give them nice things and remove all the hassles from their path. Most Christians believe that good gets rewarded with good. The whole focus is on what’s the deal for me and every deed is manipulated around that self-focus. They live in the belief that their goodness will save them because God is a nice God and surely He wouldn’t possibly reject ME. These are the Sauls. They’re not focussed on Christ; they’re focussed on what God can do for me. God is worshipped for the feelings, benefits and rewards. Their life is a pretence, full of envy of anyone else’s higher favouritism and anyone else’s happiness.

Can you change camps?

If you want to survive you have to leave the camp of Saul. Even Samuel had to leave Saul. You can’t stay in the camp of Saul and pretend you are a David; it’s a contradiction.

To change camps you have to give up what links you to Saul; what benefits you get by being in Sauls’ camp. They have to be put on the altar. There’s a price to change camps; it’s not for free. You can’t buy your way in with money or good deeds, but you do have to give your whole heart.

To change camps you have to forgive like a child, trust like a child, and be corrected like a child. Like the thief on the cross, you can’t swap camps by being good, but only via the bridge of repentance for your self-righteousness.

Why join the camp of David?

The people who joined themselves to David were the inferior ones … distressed, in debt, and discontent (1 Samuel 22:2). You can join yourself to David’s camp because you’re lost and lonely and David offers stability and responsibility, but if you don’t humble yourself by faith in the Lord Jesus you’re just using David for you and you will still miss out. You have to be a David, not just be in David’s camp, like Judas was in Jesus’ camp.

You can only become a David by giving up the fight to protect and promote you.

Suggestion

Stop worrying about you & think about God instead. If He is the creator of the universe with an earth that spins around the sun at exactly the right angle and speed; the creator of infinitely different-faced persons; and the manufacturer of infinitely different snowflakes, surely it makes sense to trust His plan. Stop operating your own back-up sub-plan in case God doesn’t come through, and commit your will to His; if you don’t it will be fatal.

May God help you take the plunge for your own sake,

Pastor Ray Simmonds

    

 
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Posted by on November 28, 2015 in Fake Christian, Uncategorized

 

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Sermon 91 – Why did God create Satan?

05 Oct

Surely God knew that when He created Satan it would lead to a complete mess and men would go to hell; so why do it?

Finish this sentence …

If someone doesn’t agree with my thinking, I think they’re ……………….

The blindness of pride

Every human is born with the arrogance of thinking that everyone else is stupid when they hurt our feelings. We might be polite and say something like ‘you don’t understand’, or ‘I feel fragile’; but what we really mean is ‘you hurt my feelings, I feel stupid, so you’re stupid.’ Our whole life is really built around protecting our feelings and promoting ourselves because we think we’re the most important, and we go about our life proving it and at the same time resenting those who are above us or below us. This is the selfish pride that God tries to address in every human being. It has to be exposed in order to find salvation, but most people try with all their might to deflect attention from their pride, and inadvertently miss the call. Instead they opt for goodness as their valid excuse for a ticket to heaven, conveniently forgetting that the Word says ‘not by works lest any man should boast.’

The danger of thinking everyone is stupid

Regarding your neighbour as stupid simply because they don’t agree with your opinionated opinion is grounds for being convicted to go to hell, Matthew 5:22. The finger points back at us but we’re blind to it; that’s how stupid we, ourselves, really are!

The conversion of Saul, Acts 9

Saul thought he was the man. He was highly educated, legally correct and in his opinion he was on the side of right, but he couldn’t see that he was actually totally wrong. He was spiritually blind. God intersected with him, made him physically blind to see if he would permit his arrogance to be broken, and then opened his eyes to not only see physically but primarily his own stupidity. Saul could’ve said ‘how dare you treat me this way’, but he didn’t. If he had of done that, God would have chosen somebody else for the task, and Saul would have died in his pride.

Why did God allow Saul to murder His people?

So the persecuted could share in His glory and so Saul could be saved and thus save more.

Why were the disciples blind even though they were walking with Christ?

The pride of the disciples blinded them from the Christ they walked with. They confirmed this when they argued over who was the most important, Luke 22:24. They couldn’t understand Jesus’ intentions because they were too proud and even though they had the power to do miracles, Luke 10:17, they weren’t saved until they gave up everything that gave them personal status, Matthew 7:21-23 & Philippians 3:7-10.

Why did God allow His disciples to be blind?

So that they could be saved and thus save more. What was the thing that saved the disciples? … the sifting of Satan, Luke 22:31. Their whole life changed and their purpose in life changed and their thinking and vision changed, but only after Satan misused them and this exposed their pride and they could see. Their life was no longer their own and thus they willingly suffered for the name of Christ; not for the reward and benefit, but rather, in gratitude for His love. Sadly, the majority are too proud to be stupid.

Envy repels; it only attracts evil to itself

After weeks of consultation with a fellow Christian I still hadn’t been able to discover why his family had suddenly become dysfunctional. That was until the man used the word ‘distant’ to describe his feelings about a friend. Now … the word ‘distant’ seems harmless enough but if you stop for a second and think about it, ‘distant’ really means the friend is leaving me out of things, and ultimately the man is saying that the friend likes someone more than me. And there we have it all over again; the envy of the human spirit when allowed to fester will always over-ride the new nature of God in you.

The trap of offence

What caused this old nature reaction and the side-effects to infect his family’s dynamics? The answer is, he got offended with a woman who was having a big paddy because his wife had exposed her evil to the church authorities. This woman had attacked his wife for pimping on her an had called her stupid, and he had automatically defended his wife against her. The problem was that his wife had also got offended at the unjust blame and the husband was inadvertently defending a demonic spirit operating through his wife. The evidence of this was that his wife was now telling her husband what he wasn’t doing right. She had usurped his authority.

What the husband should have done was support his wife but not defend her offence. In other words, he should have told his wife that she was right but that he would not support her case until she forgave the person for the offence.

The purpose of this trap is to snare you into the devil’s power and thus to disintegrate your family, and separate you from God.

The snare of the Devil

Judgment against a bitter moody woman who had hurt his wife’s feelings was fuelled by the wife telling her husband that he was responsible to defend her. This led to husband and wife disharmony, which then led to envy of a friend’s relationship with someone else, which led to the wife befriending their child instead of the husband, which led to the child being the authority in the house, and thus you have family dysfunction, reversal of headship and eventually satanic destruction unless it is addressed with repentance.

Judgments against people put you above them and results in you acting just like them, Matthew 7:1-5, and binds you in the snare of the devil, Matthew 18:34. Falling for the emotional trap to defend your wife or child will put you in the same snare. Instead, trust God in the offence and refuse to let your wife or child have their own reactive manipulative mood.

Why was this Christian’s family in a mess?

So that they could be saved by the exposure of their selfish pride and thus save others, but only if they wanted to see it. If you don’t want to see, you’ll blindly stay under the power of the devil and be absolutely convinced you aren’t, and just blame everybody else for your hassles.

The currency in the kingdom of heaven is blood and faith

The currency in heaven is not goodness. Our heart secretly does good things to avoid being corrected, to feel good about ourselves and to look good in the eyes of others. Man can’t do righteous good except by God in him because only God is good. If you want to enter heaven it’s only by repentance (= washed in His blood), and by His faith implanted in you. In order to meet these requirements a person must have their pride exposed to themselves, for it is only by the repentance of one’s pride that results in the washing of His blood and the implantation of His faith. There’s no other door.

It’s only after God is in you that you can do good, and it’s only this God good that verifies your faith, James 2, and this good is not by deeds but by repentance of pride.

So, why did God create Satan?

  1. Because man is made in the image of God, and like God he has to choose between good and evil. If there is no evil then there is no evidence of a person’s genuine goodness and commitment. Evil exposes good and differentiates what good is.
  2. Because evil is the thing that God has designed to actually save the remnant and at the same time destroy the wicked and self-righteous. You need evil to fuel faith to drive you to the Lord and trust His will and plan. Faith is inactive when you’re surrounded by comfort and no hassles. You need evil to waken you to yourself; therefore, God places around you, people who offend you and thus expose your own pride. You’re saved from evil (the Lord’s Prayer), not from good, so if God is to save you, evil must exist, and you must be personally exposed as evil if you’re ever going to be good.
  3. To demonstrate the power of God, Romans 9:17
  4. If you want to know Christ you will be sifted by Satan, like Peter (Luke 22:331-34), till you are humbled and all the struts you rely on for your self-reliance are dismantled. Pride closes your understanding (Luke 9:44,45), exposure of your pride opens your understanding.
  5. You have to share His suffering to share His glory, Romans 8:17, Philippians 3:10. In the Eastern world, suffering is generally physical; in the Western world, suffering is generally emotional eg. misjudged, mocked, separated, criticised, made to feel stupid and inferior. Eventually suffering will be physical in both hemispheres, Revelation 13:7. All that live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution, 2 Timothy 3:12.

The solution

The solution to pride is found in Philippians 2:3 “don’t do anything for vain glory but esteem others better than yourself.”

That just simply means … always start by considering others’ opinion better than your own. This is the 2nd Great Commandment, but, you won’t be able to do this until you’ve been exposed and like Saul you kneel to His will and see that you’re the one who is actually stupid.

I repeat; you won’t be able to do this until you see that you’re the one that’s blind and stupid.

Once you surrender, you’ll not need to be offended that someone disagrees with your opinion; your confidence will be in God, not your pride; and then the irony will be that you will humbly see that everyone is stupid who fails to see.

Pastor Rick Mathews

 
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Posted by on October 5, 2015 in Pride

 

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Sermon 90 – What Demons don’t want you to Know

13 Sep

Recently, a young man asked my opinion regarding the set-out of an accounting spreadsheet that he had done. As I was making several suggestions that he needed to fix, I began to sense that I had offended him. After I had finished with my suggestions, I decided to face the uncomfortable atmosphere and ask him what the issue was. Both he and I knew that something wasn’t right. Even though nothing was being said with our mouths, it was certainly being said with his spirit. I could feel the blame and guilt. When I feel that, I go to God and ask Him what just went down, check my spirit that I haven’t been proud myself, and from that position I realise that I’m up against a demonic spirit.

On the outside, this young man presents as courteous, helpful, respectful, sporty and well-balanced in his character. However, I discovered in the course of the conversation that he has developed these qualities for the specific purpose of being liked and well thought of by his fellow humans. These outside characteristics are learned behaviour for selfish reasons. His true inner character is hidden until you bring a correction or an opinion that opposes his, and all of a sudden he feels inferior or stupid, and starts blaming the other person for upsetting his feelings.

Value and favour

Over the years I’ve learnt that behind everyone’s façade is a striving for personal value and favour so that they feel worthwhile amongst their peers and other humans around them. Value is defined as worth and importance, and favour means ‘luck falling my way’. From favour we get the word favourite and favouritism. In our human makeup, everyone wants to be the favourite and feel valued, and everyone dislikes and envies anyone who is more favoured than themselves. This is the pride of our inner hearts that was inherited from the Garden of Eden, and along with that inheritance is the automatic blame we shift onto anyone that hurts our feelings or makes us feel bad.

We strive for this value and favour by being more educated, more successful, more sporty and whatever we can do that will put us higher up the totem pole than our competitors. Sadly, what pride doesn’t realise is that personal value is actually valueless, and what pride doesn’t realise is that pride is a serious fracture of the heart; it just regards it as a minor issue that everyone suffers and it’s not that significant if you’re good.

In reality, this young man had really come to me to present his spreadsheet for the purpose of being accoladed for his work. He had presented it expecting to be told he was clever and when it became clear that his work had several flaws, his spirit began to argue with me and declare that “you don’t understand”. Instead of being able to appreciate my suggestions, he became defensive with explanations as to why he had done it a certain way.

His defensiveness was really just bossing and telling me how I was supposed to behave in order to make him feel valued, and that’s also what everyone will ignorantly and blindly do to God if they approach His throne of Grace without their pride exposed.

Coupled with this defensiveness will be their argument for fairness (‘you’re not being fair to me’) followed by reactionary moodiness, and thus will be exposed the real motive of a person’s spirit.

What was really happening?

The real spiritual thing that was taking place was that God was giving this young man an opportunity to see his pride and the demon that was occupying him because of it. When you’re super good and defensive of your feelings, and you’re too proud to feel silly, you can’t find God until you see your pride, and what you fail to appreciate is that pride is the channel that gives demons licence over you. Be as good as you like, it won’t solve the demonic occupation.

That’s why God instructs us to forgive and repent. It’s o so we feel better with ourselves; it to break the stronghold of demons over us, Matthew 18:21-35.

Dumped on

I asked him how was he dealing with the bad feelings he was having? He said he put them under the carpet and pretended they weren’t there, but I informed him that what he was really doing was dumping his emotions on me. If you let your feelings get hurt you’ll always blame the person who hurt you, and you’ll dump these feelings on the person you’re blaming, so you don’t feel bad.

God calls this bearing your cross. If you genuinely follow Christ, you’ll suffer like Christ; obviously not to the same extent but certainly in the same manner. Jesus was crucified and everybody dumped all their guff on Him. He was totally innocent and by God’s will and plan, got the sin of everyone dumped on Him. This is what Paul means when he says, I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me, Galatians 2:20. Importantly, it’s not faith in; it’s faith “of“.

The favour chase

I find it no coincidence that the modern church is also chasing and promoting God’s favour; it’s made up of people who believe in value and favour. The modern church system has decided to call this period in history the age of grace. Grace means unmerited and unearned favour from God. The modern Christian expects God to pour out His blessings on me because I’m special and He loves me and will give me what I need and want.

No one’s calling out for His mercy; everyone simply believes they’re good and deserving of His favour. The problem is you can’t get His favour without first getting His mercy and you can’t get His mercy without first seeing your pride.

The Pharisee and the tax-collector

In Luke 18:9, Jesus tells the parable of the Pharisee and the tax-collector. The Pharisee is just like this young man. Doing everything right and thinks he’s a Christian, but can’t see that he’s full of himself and actually just praying to himself and desperately in need of God’s mercy. On the other hand, the publican can see it and cries out for it and consequently, comes under God’s grace.

What’s the difference between Mercy and Grace?

Mercy is different to grace. Mercy means diminished punishment. It means God won’t punish me as much as I deserve. Mercy refers to punishment, grace refers to blessings. This young man couldn’t see that he deserved any punishment; he could only see that his goodness warranted God’s blessings. So many Christians today are in the same boat. Adam and Eve didn’t cry out to God for His mercy, they’d got used to His favour, were too afraid to expose their pride; in fact, too proud to say they were wrong, and consequently, missed the boat.

The bottom line

This young man secretly lived to be his brother. From his selfish point of view, his brother was more favoured, more liked and had it all. The foundation for his whole life was covetousness and until he comes face-to-face with his pride of covetousness and his fracture of the 10th commandment and sees his real inner sin like the tax-collector, he’ll continue to use his goodness to protect his pride. I suggested to him that God can’t find you if you are your brother; He’s looking for you.

This man desperately needs God’s mercy, but he’s solely focussed on chasing His grace. He wants the favour to prove he’s better than his brother. This is the Cain syndrome.

The Cain syndrome

Cain hated his brother, Abel, because God favoured him more. I suspect he felt that Adam favoured Abel more, too. He didn’t seek mercy for his sin; rather, he told God that he needed more protection and favour. His pride caused him to miss the boat even though he talked with God. He was focussed on favour and missed the mercy, because the underlying reason was covetousness.

The two thieves on the cross are clear examples of mercy and grace. One thief challenged Christ and told Him what He should do to solve his problem. He was demanding Jesus’ favour and missed the boat even though he was face-to-face with Christ. The other thief simply said ‘remember me when you come into Your kingdom’. He saw his sin and sought God’s mercy and thus accessed the heavenly kingdom.

If you’re serious above God then He will remove anything that is propping up your pride so you get every chance to find Him. If you really want to find God eventually you’ll have to sacrifice anything that props up your pride; whether that be your career, money, or worldly position. There’s a price for salvation, and although it’s free because you can’t earn it or deserve it, it’s not free.


 Pastor Greg Hayworth

 
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Posted by on September 13, 2015 in Pride

 

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Sermon 89 – The LIE of GRACE

20 Aug

I was recently talking with a Christian couple about many issues that are affecting the world … from climate change, war, ISIS, migration crisis, homosexuality, to the Greek debt crisis. Their final conclusion to it all was … it doesn’t matter, we’re under grace.

I stepped away from the conversation disturbed in my spirit, and asked myself the question … who started this cop-out that we’re under grace. Grace has become the catch-cry of the modern church. We no longer call anything sin, but believe we should approach everything with an understanding of each individual’s weaknesses and express God’s love by accepting their weaknesses.

How dare the church get comfortable with Islam!

Because of this false belief, we now join hands with the Moslem religion that believes that there is only one God and his name is Allah. Because of the convenience of grace, the church turns a blind eye to the Word of God which declares “Thou shalt have no other gods but Me”. The church simply uses grace to avoid confrontation with the world. Islam is not pro-Christ it is anti-Christ; a comfortable friendly relationship between the two beliefs is incongruous.

How dare the church say that divorce and re-marriage is grace!

If the church was genuine it would be declaring that what’s happening in the world is a result of sin. The problem is that this increase in sin is really because the church has compromised the principles of God’s commandments and thus lost its saltiness. The church is the sinner! It no longer challenges sin, it turns a blind eye to it and calls it grace. The moment the church turned against the Word of God in Matthew 19:9 and softened its stance on divorce and re-marriage it started its downward cycle and thus now compromises the Biblical position on all sin issues by closing its eyes to sin preferring to live under grace.

Grace is the easy way out; confrontation of sin is the hard way

What the church fails to understand is that when you turn a blind eye to sin, you give licence to the demonic to increase its power and territory.

How dare the church say that homosexuality is an aberrant gene!

Romans chapter 1 makes God’s position on homosexuality loud and clear, and Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed as a warning, just like Pompeii, but the modern church is using grace to conveniently forget and ignore God’s warning in 1 Corinthians 10:5-12.

Recently, on Australian television, the ABC produced a documentary on ‘Australian Story’ about a young woman from a Pentecostal church family who decided she wanted to marry another woman. At first the family was shocked and embarrassed, but with time, they did what everyone else is doing and not only consented to the marriage but fully endorsed it. When it comes to the crunch, the church doesn’t stand on the principles of God’s Word, it compromises under the lie of grace and love. That’s not the end of the story. The young woman has now had hormone therapy and transformed herself into a man with a beard and at the same time given birth to a child. The other woman has given birth to a child as well. The church is not only saying nothing it’s accepting it as normal, believing that love allows every individual the right to their own personality and differences and the right to everyone’s own personal opinion.

That’s insanity

The church is insane for endorsing it, and the medical profession is insane for performing sex changes. Can’t you see that Satan has transferred what God created into the reverse of God’s creation? Satan’s just mocking us and we’re letting him. The fault lies at the feet of a sinful church and thus it has allowed demons to occupy its children. It’s demons that are turning the minds of our children to insanity.

The principle of Separation

The letter to the church at Corinth outlines the principle of separation until the sinner repents. Under grace, this principle is no longer respected. No one separates from sin, they just keep the sinner happy, and comfort and support them in their sin, and call it compassion and love. But it’s not love; it’s fear of being not liked. Love stands up for God’s principles because God is 1st. When you put the sinner’s feelings first, you prove that God isn’t first. Of course there’s a time to help the sinner, but everyone’s ignoring the fact that there’s a time to separate from the sinner. Has the sinner genuinely repented of their sin or are they using you to make their life easier by appealing to your feelings, and is the helper stirred by God to help or just applying “good works” to prove they themselves are good? If separation is not one of your Godly options then you’re a fake and just playing into the hands of demonic spirits.

Samuel separated from King Saul because rebellion and stubbornness expose a person to demonic possession (1 Samuel 15:23) and if you don’t separate it will suck you into it. A modern day example of separation is the Underground Chinese Church. It righteously refuses to be aligned with the Communist manipulated Three Self Movement Church, and thus has experienced the flames of persecution but with it the establishment of God’s genuine church.

The church is a lie

When it comes to the crunch, the church chooses family 1st instead of God 1st. Thus, the church is not made up of true disciples, for anyone who puts family or friends or self before God’s principles is not genuine, Luke 14:26, and demons are taking the advantage.

God is angry

When more than 50% of the population are practicing homosexuals and the general community are atheists, the reality is that the church has failed and we’re living in the days of Sodom. There will be consequences.

Why are so many young men and women joining ISIS?

Why would you give up the benefits of western society to sacrifice yourself for a terrorist organisation that hates Christians?

When the people of Israel turned their back on the principles of the Word of God, God raised up Nebuchadnezzar (a brutal and evil one world ruler like Hitler) to destroy them and teach them the consequences of their evil choices. Clearly, ISIS is an anti-christ regime that God is allowing to rise up to challenge and threaten the fake Christianity of the western world. The irony is that just like Jihad, if you are a fair-dinkum Christian you should be prepared to lay down your life for Christ, just like they’re prepared to lay down their life for a false god. Genuine Christianity is a commitment to death, not to gifts and benefits and position. Clearly, Satan’s power is rising up as the church’s power is crushed under its comfortable lie of grace.

Are we so blind that we can’t see the mess we’ve created as a result of compromising God’s Ten Commandments?

We’ve taken the wrong course of action? Every church family has now been hit with divorce, abortion or sexual perversion of some kind.

The truth about grace

To the modern church, grace = I’m a good person so God will look after me and if I make a mistake it’s ok, He won’t mind. This is ice-cream Christianity; no responsibility for my sin; just a belief that I’m special, so of course I’m under His favour.

“By grace are you saved through faith; and not of yourselves: it’s the gift of God; not by works lest any man should boast.” Ephesians 2:8,9

You’re not under God’s grace unless you walk by faith. The issue is faith, not grace. Without faith it’s impossible to please Him, and whatever is not of faith is sin, Romans 14:23. You can’t condone sin by turning a blind eye to it and say you’re under grace; it’s a contradiction to the Word of God. God resists the proud; He only gives grace to the humble, James 4:6. If you don’t have His faith, you don’t have His grace.

But the church has been sold the lie that humility is being graceful and understanding of each person’s individual personality traits. That’s not humility. Rather, humility is bending to the will of God and giving up your own self-will and self-rights and self-defence. In other words, instead of going with the flow, a humble Christian conforms to the will of God and cops the flack from the majority that are offended by your biblical position.

Humility is standing up for God, not for yourself or anyone that compromises the Word of God. Humility is God’s principles first, not family, not position, not me thinking I’m special, but rather recognising that I’m nothing before Him. If God isn’t first in everything then you’re not under grace; you’re lying to yourself.

Faith is a gift

The problem is that faith is a gift; you can’t generate it or earn it you can only exercise it; and faith is only exercised through trials, a fact that the church refuses to face, preferring the comfortable non-conflicting path of grace. It appears to me that God is withdrawing His faith because of the sin of the church. When He comes will He find faith? “As in the days of Noah so shall the coming of the Son of Man be”, Matthew 24:37. Only eight went into the ark, the rest were pre-occupied by their selfishness.

If you’re fair-dinkum for Christ you’ll offend the church and be hated by the church

Although salvation is free because it can’t be earned, there’s also a price for being genuine. It’s the price of separation. This was the pathway for Christ and this is the pathway for all genuine Christians. If you read the scriptures you’ll discover that from the very beginning of the church in Acts and ever since as confirmed in Jude, the church has been in decay and infiltrated by evil. Satan’s objective is to destroy it and the modern church is letting him. If someone is offended by your position on the Word of God, then know that you’ve trodden on the toes of the demonic.

The boundaries of God’s Ten Commandments that were keeping back the demonic are no longer in place

Most Christians think they keep the law, but they’re deceived. The reality is that most Christians are really nice people under the influence of demons because they won’t honour God’s Ten Commandments of life (not legalism but respect by faith) as evidenced by divorce and re-marriage, sexual perversions and the tolerance of them, adultery and the love of the world, murder by abortion, murder by envy, family first instead of God first, lying with pretence, disrespect of authority and answering back, and dishonouring of God’s Sabbath rest with shopping, work and sport; and it can be tested by their reaction against you whenever you stand up for God’s word instead of compromising under grace.

Grace teaching says that we are free from the law so we’re not accountable to them, but that’s a 1/2 truth and therefore a lie because Matthew 5:17-19 says otherwise.

Grace teaching says that the law is in our hearts so we automatically keep them. But that’s a 1/2 truth and a deception to keep you from Christ. If the law is in your heart you’ll love to honour them, and if you’re not honouring the commandments them they’re not in your heart and you’re not saved.

Like Jihad, the life of a genuine Christian is warfare, not peace and rest. Satan hates you, so how could you have peace, except by God’s peace in the middle of a war. Stand up, stand up for Jesus ye soldiers of the cross.

Pastor Greg Hayworth

 
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Posted by on August 20, 2015 in Faith, Grace

 

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Sermon 88 – The Lie of Forgive & Forget

03 Jul

There are two types of repentance in the Greek, which English fails to separate with its one singular word.

1. metamellomai (3338) = to be sorry because you got found out

2. metanoeo (3340) = to be genuine sorry for the wrong you’ve done

When the Bible talks about forgiving and forgetting it’s only referring to the second Greek meaning. God doesn’t forgive those who aren’t sorry and genuinely repentant eg the Jews, Judas, the man on the cross who told Jesus what to do, Satan, fallen angels, the wicked.

Forgive as He forgives

God tells us in Matthew 6 to forgive in the same manner as He forgives us. The point is, God only forgives those who repent and He only forgets the sins of those who do. If you refuse to repent then your sins are listed against you and used to judge you for hell; they’re not forgotten. In v.15 God clearly says that if you don’t forgive then I won’t forgive you. The point is, it’s the attitude of the heart that God is measuring, not the words of someone’s mouth; and that’s the same process of analysis for a genuine Christian; you should measure someone’s heart attitude and not blindly forgive everyone.

In fact, Luke 17:3 clearly states that if someone trespasses against you then you should actually rebuke them (address the issue with them and point out their sin), and only forgive them if they repent (and this repent is ‘metanoeo’).

It’s the motive, not the action

In Luke 6:37, the Lord declares that you need to forgive in order to be forgiven. This simply means that to be forgiven you need a heart that’s willing to forgive. If you’re not willing to forgive then you won’t be forgiven by God.

Clearly the church has taken such a verse and dictated over people’s forgiveness with fear of not being forgiven. They’ve used fear tactics to get people to forgive or else they’ll go to hell. If that’s your motive for forgiving then it’s not of God; rather, you’ve been tricked by the demonic to come under its influence by guilt and fear. Forgiveness from God’s perspective does not gain personal benefit. If you’re forgiving so you feel better, or if you’re forgiving because that now obligates the person that hurt you to say sorry, then your forgiveness is fake ; it’s metamellomai.

Forgive and forget is a tool of the demonic

I don’t know who started this lie but it has been adapted into the church belief system because it makes the offended person have to consent to the will of the offender. It gives the offender the power to accuse the person they have offended. Roman Catholicism would dearly love every paedophilic victim to forget they were ever abused. God doesn’t; and we shouldn’t either.

Example

I recall a man in our fellowship who rose up and disrespected my pastoral authority. When I challenged him on the matter he blatantly declared “I’ve forgotten the matter, so if you’re remembering it, you’re the sinner.” At that instance his true heart condition was confirmed to me. I perceived I was talking to a demon. Forgive and forget is too often a convenient tool for the sinner to cast judgment on the one they’ve sinned against.

The real truth is that a genuine Christian is not to carry a grievance against someone who has hurt them, and if they do they are required to repent and forgive the offender.

Forgive (aphiemi) = cancel the debt against someone who has hurt you

Forgive means to no longer hold a grievance against the person who has offended you. It means putting the consequences of their actions in God’s hands and taking the vengeance out of yours. It really means to trust God’s process and to no longer demand justice for yourself. The reality is that unless you’re a genuine Christian you cannot achieve this objective, you can only act as if you have.

The example of the servant in Matthew 18 who couldn’t pay his debts and the Lord forgave him, but then that servant turned and abused another servant for not paying debt to him, clarifies the differences of the heart in the process of forgiveness, and clarifies that the remnant are not to just blindly forgive everyone.

The demonic is just around the corner to latch onto and torment anyone who has a heart that holds onto its hurts, v.34. That’s why God strongly suggests ‘forgive’. People don’t realise what latches onto them.

David’s example is Christ-like

Besides Jesus Himself, perhaps one of the best biblical examples of forgiveness is David. He was told-off by his brothers; he was mocked by Goliath; he was lied to and abused by King Saul, yet he never held a grievance and he never forgave King Saul, and he never forgot what King Saul had done to him. It would be foolish to forget and keep walking back into the same trap that King Saul was continually re-setting for him. To forget what spirit was in King Saul would have been David’s demise. Instead, he kept a constant look out for his enemy and turned in trust to the Lord’s plan. That’s the example that all genuine Christians must follow.

There’s a time NOT to forgive

Think about hell and Satan and Judas, and have a look at Jeremiah 18:23, John 20:23, Mark 3:29, Romans 9:21-22, Isaiah 2:9, Hebrews 6:4-6, Nehemiah 4:5, and Ecclesiastes 3:1.

Pride refuses to forgive or forgives for some benefit for itself, but humility is willing to forgive because it’s not thinking of itself, and that’s the difference. Therefore, humility has the power not to forgive, whereas pride is obligated by the law to forgive or suffer the consequences of the tormenter.

Forgiveness does NOT mean reconciliation

David did not reconcile with King Saul, neither did Jesus reconcile with the Jews even though He forgave them from the cross. Reconciliation requires the perpetrator to be genuinely repentant even though you may forgive him.

Be aware, be alert

If you’re a remnant, then, like David, you’ll be consistently attacked by demonic spirits which sit in people’s spirits waiting to pull you down and destroy you. Remnant need to learn to walk by faith in God’s plan and leave the justice to His judgment.

Pastor Jerome Sidney

 
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Posted by on July 3, 2015 in Forgive

 

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Sermon 87 – Occupied by a Demon

30 Jun

Q. What’s a demon?

Nobody likes thinking about demons and nobody likes talking about demons, but the fact remains that if there is a Holy Spirit then there are unholy spirits, and if there are angels then there are demons. God calls them unclean spirits (Revelation 16:13). Nobody understands how the Holy Spirit can indwell the body of a Christian, but if that’s possible then it’s also possible for an evil spirit to do the same.

Examples of Demons

Demons seem to have different primary functions and can be single or multiple e.g. lying spirits (1 Kings 22:23), spirits of fear (2 Timothy 1:7), King Saul, the Gadarene (Mark 5:9), spirit of divination (Acts 16:16), Mary Magdalene, boy thrown into the fire, spirit of infirmity (Luke 13:11)

Church thinking

The church believes that if you are a Christian then you are occupied by the Holy Spirit and you can’t be occupied by a demon, but is that the case? Think about King Saul, Samson, Peter, Korah, and Baalim.

The church believes that if you are a non-Christian then you can’t be occupied by the Holy Spirit, but is that the case? Why should creator God be restricted to our thinking when He owns His creation, both good and bad? Both King Saul and Baalim suggest otherwise, as does Judas, Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 4:37), and Cyrus (king of the anti-christ kingdom of Persia, 2 Chron.36:22).

Everybody has been indoctrinated to think that we are born good and are inherently good; but the Word of God says the opposite. God flooded the whole earth because His creation had been contaminated from birth by the Evil One, Genesis 8:21. David confirms this in Psalm 51:5. The fact is, we’re all born under the power of the Evil one, and, from birth, God is fighting for you to be freed from Satan’s power over you; that’s why Jesus died. He’s just waiting for you to concede to His will.

Everybody thinks that demons are beings that inhabit people and cause them to rant and rave and froth at the mouth, but is that the case? The fact is that demons lay low until cornered. They don’t want to be cast out of the carrier. They hate exposure, but at the same time, like the spirit of divination in Acts 16, they like to promote their prowess. They come as wolves in sheep’s clothing, and angels of light. However, as society disintegrates into more sin, and the Holy Spirit backs-off His defence, demons will feel safe to come out of hiding and be more confrontational and aggressive because no one is spiritually capable of confronting them.

Characteristics of Satan (John 8:44)

In John 8:44, Jesus described the Pharisees as demons when He said that they were sons of Satan. They weren’t frothing at the mouth; they were practicing the rightness of religion and worshipping the same God as Christ. Yet, Christ could easily discern the façade. Secretively, they displayed the satanic characteristics of (1) Envy (2) Murder (3) Liar. These are the signs of a demon operating either in you or against you. The ultimate liar is someone who smiles to your face whilst plotting to stab a knife in your back.

A demon’s main objective

Demons are servants of Satan with the same characteristics but with different levels of power. The main objective of a demon is to kill you. When King Saul opened his heart to envy against David, his one and only objective in life was to kill David. That was the objective of Joseph’s brothers; that was the objective of Cain; that was the objective of the Pharisees against Christ; and whether you realise it or not, that’s the objective of any person who opens their heart to envy of their neighbour.

How does it work?

From birth, we are all under the influence of the demonic. Demons are able to speak into our minds; this is called temptation. The temptation is always to get us to elevate our position. God calls this ‘pride’, and in 2 Timothy 2:25 KJV, God calls it ‘opposing yourself‘, ie. you become your own worst enemy and thus in your blindness, your own pride starts to destroy you under the occupation of demonic spirits. Once we fall to our pride, demons have right of power over us (2 Timothy 2:26), and only repentance will resolve the problem. The opportunity for repentance will usually occur at a point of correction. If one resists this correction, then demons will take more ground and eventually the person will be possessed. King Saul became possessed because he was too proud to repent even though he said sorry, whereas David repented and was freed from his sin and the demonic influence that stirred him to commit murder and adultery.

The confusion of pride

Most people think pride is walking around with your nose in the air and acting pompous; but it’s much more subtle than that. Pride is exposed when I think I’m special; when I think you’re an idiot; when I think I’m better than you; when I murmur that I haven’t done anything wrong yet you are being mean to me; when I selfishly want something; when I can’t forgive or repent; when I wallow in rejection; when I have a mood because someone else is having a mood; when I have a mood because someone hurt my feelings; when I have a mood because I can’t get what I want; that is, basically whenever I regard myself higher or lower than my neighbour, or submit to my moodiness.

What’s the opposite to pride?

The answer is Faith; that is, trusting God’s outcome, rather than having a mood that it isn’t working out to your expected outcome. It’s this walking by faith that God calls HUMILITY.

James 4:5 “The spirit in us lusts to envy”.

When God talks about lust, He’s talking about envy. Envy then leads to all sorts of immoral behaviour. The Greek word for envy is Phthonos (*5355) = pain felt and malignity conceived at the sight of someone else’s excellence or someone else’s happiness. In other words, to us the English word ‘envy’ just means we are simply jealous. We all think of it as a ‘soft sin’. It doesn’t sound that bad, nor does envy feel bad, but in the Greek it means that I’m so unhappy with you having more happiness than me that I will kill you.

Anyone who practices envy is practicing murder from their heart whether they know it or not. Thus God clearly states in 1 John 3:15 that if you hate your brother you’re a murderer and you will not access heaven; but to even clarify it further, if you envy your brother then you don’t love him, you hate him and wish evil upon him. Thus your true hidden murderous heart is exposed by your relationship to your brother.

People think jealousy is just a normal characteristic of humanity. Everybody does it so it’s ignored as acceptable normal behaviour. What people don’t realise is that when they practice envy against their neighbour they’re actually operating under demonic power and wishing their neighbour dead. Envy is anti-Holy Spirit and the practice of demonism whether you want to know it or not. If envy is routinely practiced in your heart; if you desire the No.1 position, if you believe you are special to God, if you believe you have a special spiritual call, then know you are not saved; that’s the heart of Satan and you are under his demonic power. Like Isaiah, Peter and Moses, anyone called of God knows they’re not special or worthy.

Goodness isn’t the measurement

When you practice envy against your neighbour, you are demonstrating that you are under the influence of Satan and not Holy Spirit. Be as good as you like, e.g. the rich young ruler, it won’t save you. Envy is the sign that you are not under the Holy Spirit because it contradicts the law of ‘loving your neighbour as yourself’.

Signs of a demon

Genesis 3 spells out the side-effects that Satan has over you when you concede to his temptations, viz. envy, fear, blame, lie, bossing, sickness (in some instances). These were all exposed in Genesis 3 when Satan conned Eve, and Eve changed character as a consequence. The human spirit was made in the likeness of God. Envy was not a characteristic of Adam and Eve until they were tempted into it by Satan. From that point on, man inherited satanic characteristics.

1. Blame is the fruit of defending your envy. Blame is expressed by accusations against your neighbour e.g. if you make me feel bad, then you’re the baddie, you made me do it, it’s your fault I’m in trouble, it’s your fault I’m not getting what I want.

2. Searching for happiness is another fruit of your envy.

‘Demon’ in the Greek = daimon. ‘Happy’ in the Greek =eu-daimon. In other words, the Greeks believed that if you got lucky you were happy because the demon gods looked well on you. Seeking happiness is of the Devil; it’s not of God.                          

3. Bossing and hating to be bossed is another fruit of your envy.Demons love to boss, tell everybody what to do and tell everybody what’s right and wrong. They think they’re special and they don’t like being told what to do; they certainly don’t like being corrected or put in their place.

4. Moodiness because it won’t work out the way I want.

Demons don’t love each other; they can’t, they can only hate. They hate other demons for being higher than them. They only link together for the purpose of hate, and if you open your heart to envy they impart this hate into your heart.

Demons hate your happiness. They want the No.1 position.

Demons are happy when you’re helping them, but they’ll hate you when you’re not or when you’re higher than them. Thus if a sibling hates their brother for being more liked by a parent or friend, that sibling, in every single case, will plot to kill their brother. It may not be with a knife or gun, but it will be in their heart, even to the point of putting cancer on them. They’ll wish evil on their brother; anything that will remove him from the top position so they can replace them. Joseph is not an isolated case; his brothers are an example of the spirit of evil that lurks in the heart of every human being.

Confusion (James 3:16)

Wherever there is bitter envy there is confusion, and demonic, and every evil work.

Most Christians have split personalities. Consistently, one moment they’re really nice to you and the next time you meet them they’re sharp and bitey. This is confusing and thus it’s a sign that something else is going on in them that you can’t see. If you’re confused about someone’s inconsistent behaviour and you’re not sure whether they’ll bite you or be kind and considerate towards you, then know that you’re talking to two different spirit personalities in the one body.

Demons often tell the truth

It’s also confusing because demons often tell the truth, but it’s always selective and designed to manipulate and divert you from your course, or to hide them from exposing their course. Satan told Eve she wouldn’t die and it was the truth; well, almost. The spirit of divination in Acts 16 told the truth about Paul, and demons often worshipped Christ with the truth.

Voices

If you listen with your spirit, you can hear demons talk to you. These are the voices of temptation and they include feelings of guilt, fear, lies, intimidation and presumptions. You can diagnose these voices by comparing them to what the Holy Spirit would say to you.

The rise of demonism

Murder is on the increase; immorality is on the increase; drug abuse is on the increase; homosexuality is on the increase; the disintegration of the family is on the increase; divorce is on the increase. This is all due to the church’s de-valuing of the Ten Commandments which were written as life’s boundaries to inhibit the growth of evil. The church has lost its saltiness; it doesn’t deal with sin by separation, as instructed in 1 Corinthians 5, it accepts sin under the lie of love, and thus evil is propagating like an infection.

Death to self

Self likes the glory; death-to-self gives Him the glory. If you’re the axe and you tell the axeman what to do, know you’re under a demonic power (Isaiah 10:15).

To become a Christian, these satanic characteristics that indwell the heart of man, must be killed. You either die to your demonic character by letting God have His way with you, or you will die eternally. Man can’t do this by his own ability and will-power. Only the Holy Spirit can do it for us, and He does this when you fully surrender to His will = death-to-self. Even before you were born, God’s been fighting to free you from the power of demonic spirits we are all born under. If you could do it yourself, you could save yourself. You can’t; it’s only by His grace (Ephesians 2:8,9).

Pastor Mike Stanford

 
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Posted by on June 30, 2015 in Demons

 

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Sermon 86 – The LIE of “HAPPY”

13 Jun

In western society everybody lives for the pursuit of happiness; men crave no hassles and women crave fashion and friends. Even the Declaration of Independence states that every person has the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Underneath all our goals and ambitions is the desire to feel happy. We do everything for this feeling and we do everything to avoid the bad feelings; no one wants to feel sad, worthless, or inferior. We all want to feel happy and we believe it’s our right.

Is this God’s perspective or man’s?

Humans try to find happiness through a spouse and kids, through sport, occupation, education, skills, friends, retail therapy, tv, money, travel, cars, hobbies, sex, through achieving some sort of importance etc. and if they can’t find enough of it they turn to drugs, food, alcohol, pets and sexual perversion to dull the pain, or simply somehow block their feelings so they feel no hurt pain.

There’s a popular song that says that ‘happiness is the truth’. It declares that happiness is the solution to all of life’s problems, and it’s popular because it’s inclusive for everyone; no one should be exempt from being happy … everybody’s into the drug of happiness.

I deserve to be happy because my parents and siblings made me feel unhappy

I was counselling a woman who shared that because her childhood was so unhappy, she had set her goal to be happy as an adult. No one was going to ever stop her having happiness. Nothing was ever going to make her unhappy again. She was going to act happy, be happy and expect happiness from family, people and God, and if they didn’t give it to her then she had the right to put them in their place. Anybody that made her unhappy was wrong, bad and her enemy; and anybody that made her happy was good and her friend. She fantasized that she was a princess and everything was diagnosed on the basis of what made her happy, and she learnt to block out those emotions that made her feel unhappy so she had no pain.

She hated Samuel’s mother, Hannah, because she was more loved than Peninnah, even though Hannah was barren, and she set her heart to be a Ruth because despite her pain in life, she got the love of Boaz. This is a very selfish wounded spirit, yet believes she’s a Christian.

She believed that if God was her father as he declared, then He was responsible to make her feel happy, so, of course He would give her whatever she wanted and needed. I’ve seen this person in the church many times over.

The problem was, her whole goal was selfish; it had nothing to do with the will of God, and it had nothing to do with the love of God; it was all about the love of ME. It was all built on her wounded pride and her grief at not getting what she believed she deserved. On the outside she looked very together, but on the inside, whenever she saw people that appeared happy she would despise them and even set her course to destroy their happiness because she didn’t have it.

In James 3:14-16, the Word of God describes this kind of behaviour as demonic, because it’s lying, bitter, envious, earthly, sensual and devilish.

Happiness seems like it’s of God, and the word ‘happy’ is used throughout the scriptures, but it’s an English word that’s been incorrectly placed in our modern versions.

The origin of ‘happy’

‘Happy’ comes from the Old English word ‘hap’ which means someone who’s had good luck. The world’s promoted the feeling that if you’re lucky, you’ll be happy, and that’s what we’re all chasing. We all want to get the good luck and the feeling.

In the Bible however, both the Hebrew word ‘esher’ and the Geek words ‘makarizo’ and ‘makarios’ have been interpreted as ‘happy’, incorrectly. The truth is, you won’t find the word ‘happy’ in the bible. The real meaning of these words is ‘blessed’.

‘Blessed’

‘Blessed’ isn’t what you’ve been trained to think it is. We all think it’s getting something from God and getting the good deal. However, In the scriptures this word ‘blessed’ actually means ‘indwelt by God and thus fully satisfied’ [ref. #3106, #3107 Lexical aides in the Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible, KJV]. This word relates only to those who are saved vessels. In other words, it’s only genuine Christians that can ever find true happiness; though the world will try and trick you otherwise. A genuine Christian never chases happiness nor seeks the feelings of happy. They are indwelt by God and that’s all that counts. Thus, it doesn’t affect their inner core mood if they have things work out or not. They don’t base life on what they have or have not got. They don’t envy their neighbour because of what he has and they don’t laugh at their neighbour because of what he doesn’t have. Their outward emotions are based on the inner confidence that the Spirit of God dwells within.

Happy is a state of the heart, not a state of the emotions

The beatitudes in Matthew 5 clearly spell out that inner ‘happy’ only flows from being poor, being sad, being meek, being merciful, being pure, being a peace-maker and being persecuted for righteousness. In fact, in verse 12, the greatest level of happiness and the highest level of reward are found through persecution, not through fun and frivolity.

In John 13:17, happiness is the fruit of being a servant and washing people’s dirty feet. In Proverbs 29:18 … ‘happy is he that keeps the ten commandments of God.’ In Psalm 128:1,2 … happiness is the fruit of fearing the Lord. These happinesses are all because one is saved by grace through faith, not because it’s one’s right or motive, and not because one keeps the ten commandments or washes people’s feet. It’s not the act that makes you happy; it’s what’s in you that stirs you to the act.

Is it wrong to be happy?

Of course not, but if that is what you’re chasing them it’s of Satan and you’ve been conned. Genuine happiness can only come as the consequence of a relationship with the Spirit of God; every other means is fake and deception.

Of course God designed everyone to be happy, but Satan stole that right from us, and although the churches teach you that happiness is part of the package you deserve when you become a Christian, the right to happiness will not flow to you until you’re saved. You need to realise that if you’re chasing happiness as your right, then you haven’t found God, and you’re not saved; you’ve just been conned by Satan. Genuine Christians don’t tell God what their rights are; they’re dead to themselves and alive to His will and purpose, and that’s their source of happiness.

A lot of people simply go to church because they’re looking for something to make them happy. We’ve all been told that church is supposed to be happy, but that’s because the church is not the church. You’ll only find the real church when it’s suffering the flames of persecution, and in western society, the church is going all out to make sure it adapts to the world’s wishes and attitudes so it never suffers persecution. Therefore, its projected aura of happiness is a sales pitch for more numbers and money; it’s not God.

Happiness built on sand

You either have happiness built on sand where you live for yourself to be happy and serve God with the expectation of Him giving it to you, or you have happiness built on the rock where your happiness is simply in the privilege of serving Him without any expectation of reward or benefit.

Control

Eventually, people chasing ‘happy’ will expose what spirit they’re really of by controlling you for their own happiness. If you want to be happy the world’s way, you will have to control your environment to get it. Thus a fake happy will intimidate, blame, lie, be generous or whatever, to retain their position so they keep their feeling of happy.

The woman I was counselling fantasized, in her belief system, that she was a princess and was very special to God and thus had the right and position to tell everyone what to do and to question and challenge anyone who made her feel unhappy; plus, being a princess obviously meant that she should never be a maid or servant because that would degrade her position of importance. Until she comes to her senses and repents she’ll never be able to wash people’s feet (even if she does the act) and thus she’ll never be indwelt by Holy Spirit, and thus she’ll never be satisfied and thus she’ll never find happiness. Like a mirage, it will always escape her.

You have to be dead to yourself to be happy; anything else is self-deception and a lie.

May God touch your spirit to repent so He can indwell your dead spirit and bring it to life.

Pastor Keith Raymond

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2015 in Happy, Lie

 

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Sermon 85 – I’M SPECIAL

09 Jun

Recently I was counselling a woman who has fallen out with her husband and was struggling to keep a handle on controlling her teenage kids. From the outside the family appeared to be stable, well-adjusted and happy; but the truth was it was all a façade. The façade often cracks when the kids hit the teenage years and start being defiant.

In the course of our discussion she revealed that this was all a bit of a shock because she had always thought that she was someone very special to God and that God would naturally give her the life she deserved. Her childhood was strained by parental control and injustices, and it always seemed that her siblings got the better deal. From her perspective, she was the one that was good, so it wasn’t fair that she always seemed to be left out and mistreated.

I’ve heard this story many times. Certainly there are circumstances where children need to be rescued from evil parents, but why is it that where children have had a reasonable upbringing, they still want a better deal than they got?

The final price of “I’m special” is separation from God

The truth is that Eve took the fruit because she was tempted by Satan to get a better deal for herself. She wasn’t satisfied with the deal God had given her. From that point on, everybody is born with the selfish desire to get more for themselves. If we fail to recognise this temptation then we will simply fall to the same trap as Eve and, like Eve, the consequences will be to blame our husband that he didn’t protect me, blame our wife that she made me do it, live in fear, pretend we don’t know what God is talking about, act like everything is fine by being good, and lose our children to envy, just like Cain and Abel.

“I’m special” is just a mood

From the moment we’re born we demand attention. We learn that if we cry loud enough then our parents will give us what we want. We set a pattern of moodiness and we learn techniques that manipulate people to do what we want, and if we don’t get it we have a big mood and huff, and if a sibling seems to be liked more or get a better deal, we let our feelings get hurt and it fuels our envy.

We learn to allow our feelings to dictate our desires, so when we feel bad we have a mood until we get something that makes us feel good again. We live for feeling good, and we’re taught that if you’re good you get good from Santa, but if you’re bad you don’t get it, so we learn to be good so that we get it. We’re not good for God’s sake; we’re good for our sake.

The problem is, that this pattern of goodness doesn’t satisfy us. Somehow we still feel the wounds of rejection, left-out, misjudged, unfairness, cruel words, bullying, and envy. Thus, we either rebel against the authority or strive to be even gooder. But still it doesn’t satisfy, so in order to feel of value, we fantasize that we are special and live in a bubble of false belief about our superior value and purpose in society. We add education and skills to our portfolio so we can promote ourselves above our neighbour and prove we are more special than our neighbour.

We then find out about God and decide that if we follow Christ then He will prosper me, keep me from hassles, protect me and elevate me above those that have hurt me. We now incorporate God into our fantasy, believing that we are very special to Him, and because God is so sweet and kind He will give me whatever I want and do for me whatever I ask, and the Pentecostal church teaches that, so I must be right. We then begin to believe that we are pretty much always right and everyone who disagrees with us is wrong.

We become the person we hate, and dictate our selfishness over those below us

We then intimidate and control people and family with hyper-authoritarianism so that our environment is controlled to our personal liking and well-being with no hassles, and without even seeing what we’re doing, we’ve actually turned into the person we hated for hurting us in the very beginning. But, so we don’t look bad or feel bad we do enough good things to prove to ourselves and others that we are basically good.

We can’t see how arrogant we are

When our heart silently declares … I’m special, how could you correct ME? I’m special, how could you reject ME? I’m special, I deserve the best. I’m special; you can’t tell me what to do. I’m special; you can’t tell me I’m wrong. I’m special, I know more than you … then we’re blindly and arrogantly declaring that I’m the centre of attention, not Christ.

What we fail to see is that we haven’t found God at all. All that’s happened is that Satan has manoeuvred us further away from the truth by feeding us with the thoughts and feelings we want that gets us what we believe is what we deserve. The truth is we’ve fallen for the Santa Claus fantasy. You might think you’re in touch with God, but, like Adam and Eve, if you envy a better deal, you’ll be separated from God until you repent of your selfishness.

God’s into nobody’s

The belief that you’re special isn’t planted there by God; it’s planted there by Satan. Everyone’s born thinking that they are a somebody, but you won’t find the true God until you wake up to the trap and realise you’re a nobody.

God searches the heart. He’s looking for the nobody’s not the somebody’s. That’s why He’s coming back for the prostitutes and sinners, not the self-righteous. That’s why He invited the down and outs to the wedding banquet; the self-righteous were too busy fantasizing in their self-value. That’s why the thief on the cross was saved and not Pilate. They both came face to face with Christ but Pilate was too proud to stop the crucifixion for fear of what the church thought, and the second thief was too full of his own value to humble himself before the Christ.

The Word of God says in Luke 14:26, 27 & 33 that until a man considers himself of zero value before Christ he cannot be a disciple.

What’s really happened?

Our fantasy is simply the fruit of our wounds. It’s not born of God, it’s born of Satan and fed by self.

Evidence

If you really stop and think about it …

  • A person who wallows in their wounds is just being selfish.
  • A person that believes they’re the special one is just wallowing in their wounds and looking for something to make themselves feel good and to give themselves self-value.
  • A person that holds onto a prophecy to build their self-worth is a liar, not a Christian.
  • “I’m special” becomes a competition against your neighbour as to who is the most special. This proves it’s not of God.
  • The average Christian can’t handle the criticism. They want the truth but not the truth about themselves; it’s too much of a put-down and it hurts their feelings. This proves their fakeness.
  • “I’m special” is just a selfish way of blocking your hurt feelings.
  • “I’m special” is just a selfish way of saying “I’m No.1”. The bible says the first will be last, Mark 10:31. This proves it’s not of God.
  • A person who thinks that you’re the problem if you make them feel bad is living in the lie of their goodness and is under the influence of a demonic spirit, not Christ.
  • A person who thinks that you’re wrong if you have a problem with them, is obviously puffed up with their own rightness and can’t be told they’re the one that’s wrong.
  • “I’m special” eventually exposes itself by TELLING people what’s right and wrong. It doesn’t like to be told; it loves to tell.

Biblical Picture

God can use any vessel for His sovereign purpose, but if you’re going to be used of God and survive for heaven without being puffed-up in your own self-righteousness, you first of all have to be broken. This was the pathway for Moses, Noah, Abram, Joseph, David and even Jesus. There’s no other pathway. Samson learnt it the hard way, but King Saul was too stubborn to learn it.

If you truly are special to Christ, then you won’t think you are. If you truly do have a purpose for Christ then you’ll only find it via the pathway of put-downs, separation and persecution. Like Christ before us, this is the only pathway that makes you worthy.

‘All that want to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution’ 2 Timothy 3:12

Conclusion

  • If you think you are special, then you’re under the influence of a demon, not God
  • If you think you’re better than your neighbour, then you’re into satanic envy, not good
  • If you think you deserve to get the best deal; you’re selfish, not godly
  • If you believe that God will punish people that hurt your feelings then you’re under the influence of the spirit of anti-christ, not God
  • If you believe that you have the right to hurt back those that have hurt you, then you’re not a Christian; full-stop. The Word of God says ‘treat others as you would like to be treated’, Matthew 7:12.
  • If you think you’re worth more to God than your neighbour, you’re contradicting the 2nd great commandment, and therefore living in your own deception.

“I’m special” is just plain vanity and the fruit of a wounded spirit which vows justice for its pain.

Thankfully, the woman I was counselling was willing to be told that the pattern of her life was selfish. Enough had gone wrong for her to see that she had used God to feed her selfish specialness.

God uses dead people, not people who think they’re special

A true Christian doesn’t fall for the selfish trick that they’re special. It’s not relevant; they’re dead to themselves. It was the woman that put in the two mites that God valued, not the self-righteous wealthy. It was the centurion that said “I am not worthy” that impressed Jesus, not the Pharisees.

If any man desires to be first, the same must be last of all and servant of all, Mark 9:35. Any other means of thinking you’re first and special is from Satan, not God.

Pastor Jim Desmond

 
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Posted by on June 9, 2015 in Special

 

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Sermon 84 – The Lie of HAPPY FAMILY

06 Jun

Q. What’s your expectation about God?

Most Christians believe that if you do good then God will do good back to you. They believe that the closer you get to God the more God will protect you and supply all your needs, and make you happy, and free you from all bad feelings. Most Christians believe that the evidence that God is on your side is good health, financial success, happy family relationships, and good feelings all the time. But what about the song we sing from Habakkuk 3:17 …’though the fig tree doesn’t blossom’.

The truth is, most Christians have a relationship with God so they can get a better deal; they’re just not honest enough to want to see it. Most Christian’s I’ve met serve God on their terms and conditions, not His.

Reality is that the closer you move to God the heavier the battle against you.

Biblical Picture

Tell me somebody in the bible who had a happy deal because he was godly? You won’t find it in Samuel’s family, or David’s family, or Jesus’ family, or Noah’s family, or Adam’s family, or Moses’ family, or Jacob’s family, or Hannah’s family, or the prodigal’s family. You won’t find it in Paul’s life, nor any of the disciples or prophets. Daniel wasn’t happy, he was content in God.

Why?

It’s simple. Because of Eve’s sin, we’re all born selfish, self-righteous and envious, under the influence of Satan, and Holy Spirit fights for us to be saved from Satan. But that salvation does not occur until we concede to the will of Holy Spirit. The reality is that most people concede for their convenience, they don’t unconditionally surrender; thus it’s fake concession and therefore they remain under the influence of Satan thinking that they are under the influence of Holy Spirit. They worship Holy Spirit, but like the Jews they love the things of the world and they love the right to their own thinking (Mark 7:6).

In every family there is always some who will not bend their will to Holy Spirit, and the demonic influence over them will directly conflict with the other family members whether they are under the influence of the demonic or Holy Spirit, but specifically against you if you are under the influence of Holy Spirit.

Demons like being No.1, so they fight amongst themselves for that position, and they hate Holy Spirit. So how could family ever be happy unless all members are under the Holy Spirit, and even though that is God’s heart, in reality that does not happen because the human spirit is selfish and full of envy.

Why is a prophet without honour in his own family? Mark 6:4

Because everybody is born envious of everyone else’s position until they die and let that person have the honour God decreed. ‘Envy’ is Satan’s strategy to put you in conflict with God’s will. Like Joseph and David, it’s family that thinks you’re of no Godly value, because they selfishly think that they are the one that’s of value in God’s eyes.

Is God into happy family?

The simple answer is yes, but the reality is that it has been abducted by Satan, and won’t be a reality until heaven. In fact, Jesus said that if you put your hand up for Him then Satan will make sure your family opposes you; so the only way you can have happy family is to not be a genuine Christian and then Satan will leave you alone. But, even that strategy doesn’t work; Satan’s got control of all families, and in this modern western culture, the family model is disintegrating before our eyes.

Don’t tell me that Satan isn’t in control. Yes, God is the ultimate control, but God takes His hand away when His people concede to the world’s way; and Satan is taking full advantage.

And you shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolk, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. Luke 21:16

The most effective way that Satan can try and discourage and hurt the remnant is to get the family to oppose them.

Why do people want happy family anyhow?

So they can control their circumstances, look good in the eyes of others, have no hassles, have good feelings all the time, and get back what they lost in their childhood.

Suppose you that I come to bring peace on earth? I tell you NO, but rather division: from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against the daughter in law, and the daughter in law against the mother in law. Luke 12:51-53

Jesus said ‘division’; Satan preaches ‘happy’. Anything that you believe which is opposite the Word of God, is obviously anti-Christ. Happy family is not biblical; it’s a Satanic lie that both, Christians and the world aim for without any thought as to why. Who says that happy family is proof of God? As I’ve already reiterated, the truth is, happy family is really so I don’t have any hassles, and so we look better than other families, and so I can get what I lost as a kid in my unhappy family. It’s all about self-promotion and selfishness and control. The person with the power puts fear on everyone else in the family to toe the family line and from the outside everything looks happy but the reality is, the family is too afraid to be unhappy.

Under a spirit of fear

In almost all instances, if there is the appearance of a happy family, then that family is operated and controlled by a spirit of fear, and is cleverly demonically inspired, and not godly. Today, no doubt there are some rare families that are happy in Christ, not happy. But this will only occur by the grace of God because the father is righteous and the family respect his relationship with God.

Separation is the pathway to happiness

To find the real happiness of God you have to be willing to walk the path of unhappiness.

There is no man that has left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake and the gospel’s, But he shall receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters and mothers, and children and lands, with PERSECUTION, and in the world to come eternal life. Mark 10:29,30

This is the true will of the Father

If any man come to me, and doesn’t submit to my will in preference to the will of his parents, wife, children, and siblings, and even himself, then he cannot be my disciple. If he is fair-dinkum then he must bear his cross, count the cost, and forsake everything in order to be a disciple. Luke 14:26-33

Salvation is death to self; it’s copping the crap thrown against you by faith in God’s will for your life and purpose; and resting in His plan. Quite often the attack is from family to force you back under their control.

The issue is faithfulness, not happiness

If you’re chasing happiness, then you’re not of God, you’re of Satan. Satan offers happiness, God offers death, and He allows Satan to use the family to achieve your salvation by surrendering in faith to Him and His plan, through opposition and persecution.

Righteous expectation

Don’t expect anything from God except His perfect will and perfect plan.

My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation: he is my defence. Psalm 62:5,6

Conclusion

Whether you understand it or not, you won’t find God until you give up your family … the generational spirit is too strong.

Whether you understand it or not, the Word of God aligns happiness with death, not with get.

Everybody is born thinking they are a ‘somebody’, but you won’t find the true God till you wake up and realise you’re a ‘nobody’.

Pastor Jim Desmond

 
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Posted by on June 6, 2015 in Happy

 

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Sermon 83 – The LIE of “GOOD”

19 May

In Mark chapter 3, verses 1-6, we read the story of the man with the withered hand.

The Pharisees were there to see whether Jesus would break their interpretation of God’s laws. Their eyes were blind to the healing; their whole perspective was focussed on right and wrongness.

The real issue in their heart wasn’t a concern for the sick man, but a self-protected concern for their position. Jesus’ popularity and miraculous power was threatening their position with the people. If it carried on for much longer their church system would collapse and their valued position would be shattered. They had to come up with a plan to destroy Jesus.

Jesus’ righteousness was challenging their self-promoted authority. They hated Him because He was more respected and more capable, and they lived in the fear of losing favour and position. Don’t kid yourself … any time you challenge authority because you are self-elevated and are afraid of looking bad in the eyes of others, you’re under the influence of the same demonic spirit that the Pharisees were under.

They came face-to-face with the Christ but their goodness blocked their salvation.

The Pharisees genuinely thought they were good. They really believed it. They were blind to their pompousness. Their good was exposed as fake at the intersection of someone else looking better than them. It’s that intersection where you can truly evaluate your relationship with Christ. It’s that intersection that can save you by opening your eyes to your pompousness long enough to recognise that your goodness is just fake and plain selfishness.

The rich young ruler

The rich young ruler thought he was good because he did the right things and kept the commandments. He expected Jesus to reinforce that perspective to those who were watching. Jesus started with the comment that there is ‘none good except God’. He was hitting the heart of the matter. Jesus was saying that if you think you are good then you think you are god whether you can see that or not, and you are simply being good like the Pharisees to impress those around you and promote your self-worth.

In fact, if you think you are good, then you are evil and of Satan. A genuine Christian doesn’t think he’s good; he’s dead.

The Pharisees measured themselves by themselves.

Selfishness sets its own measuring standards. It thinks it’s comparing itself to the standards of God but it’s out of sync with the Word of God and simply manoeuvres God’s standards to fit with its own selfishness.

How do you measure ‘good’?

Most Christians measure it exactly the same as the world … being nice, friendly, not cheating, being polite, helping, doing good deeds. But, as pointed out by the 2nd great commandment, God measures good by your attitude to your neighbour, such as … envy, bitterness, superiority, judgemental, narcissism. If these attitudes dwell within your heart, then your niceness is just fake selfishness so you look good in the eyes of others, and you’re not good, you’re evil.

Don’t ever call yourself ‘good’ if you have a grievance or judgement against your neighbour, or think you’re better than your neighbour.

A genuine Christian’s heart is not based on right and wrong, it’s based on what’s best for my neighbour.

If you stand for Jesus, your enemies will be the authorities in the church + your own family

Evil, was the secret heart of the Pharisees. Their goodness was a sham; their real heart was filled with pre-meditated murder. Like Christ, if you’re a genuine Christian you’ll be able to tell from the hatred towards you from the church, John 16:1-3. If you’re a genuine Christian you will not allow envy against your brother to be harboured in your heart, 1 John 3:15, and you can measure that envy by your attitude when your brother is blessed and you are not; when your brother prospers and you do not.

This whole healing scenario happened in the church, not in the street.

Rules

The Pharisees measured their goodness by how much they kept the rules. In Mark 7 they found fault with Jesus because He didn’t wash before He ate. Washing hands is right, but if your heart is hard, you’re wrong even if you’re right. If you judge someone for not doing it right and you can’t face it that you are wrong, then your heart is hard.

Whereas, like Jesus, if you don’t wash your hands, you are wrong according to the law, but if your heart is soft, you are right, even if what you’ve done is wrong. Pharisaical rightness can’t understand love!

It’s a constant fight between old nature and new nature

I’ve met many people who believe they’re good and because they believe they’re good they believe they’re a Christian. If a genuine Christian senses his old nature trying to rise up he commits it to God and fights it until he has the victory over it. A fake Christian justifies his old nature by ignoring it because he believes he’s good.

Evil measures your goodness by your anger

Evil looks for ways to find fault with the righteous. Evil deduces that if you get angry, you’re the one that’s wrong. It can’t see why you’re angry. It’s measuring you by how it reacts. Jesus got angry because He was grieved by their hard-heartedness. It’s right to be angry against evil, if your heart is soft. Righteousness gets grieved at people’s hard-heartedness.

I’ve met many people who are very capable at not being angry. I have come to recognise that the demonic in people is capable of enabling a person to fake goodness and control their temper so that the demon is not recognised and exposed. Often times the only way you can recognise demonic activity in a person is by God exposing to you their hidden reaction of envy and bitterness towards their neighbour, even though it is still camouflaged by their smile and niceness.

Hard vs Soft

Jesus didn’t classify the attitude of the Pharisees as ‘bad’; He classified their attitude as ‘evil’ and ‘murderous’ (v.4). Any time you put yourself above your neighbour, your heart is inadvertently practising the same hardness; yet, in your self-deception, you still believe you’re good.

The Pharisees had the opportunity to have their eyes opened. It was right in front of their faces. Why couldn’t they see their arrogance and pride? I suggest they were more worried what the other Pharisees would think of them if one of them was to suggest that perhaps Jesus was real. Who’s going to suggest that Jesus might be right? You’d be knocked down in flames, but your heart would be changed.

Jesus came to open the eyes of the spiritually blind, but the majority were too stiff-necked to see and too hard-hearted to bend. What the Pharisees couldn’t see was that it was their own heart that had the problem, not Jesus.

Hard-heartedness actually can’t see right and wrong. It can’t see the truth even when it’s in your face, and it can’t be told it’s hard.

Be careful what you judge

If I’m doing ‘good’ by the hand of God and it doesn’t fit your box of ‘right’, and you judge it as evil, then you’re on the side of evil, even though you think you are good.

Thankfully, God can soften hard hearts (Mark 6:52), if you’ll own your hardness.

Pastor Jim Desmond


 
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Posted by on May 19, 2015 in Goodness

 

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