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Sermon 146 – OBLIGATION

16 Mar

Obligation = because I did this for you, you will do what I want.

It’s holding someone in debt to your goodness. It comes from the Latin word obligare = to bind.

Goodness, with debt attached, is a lie and a manipulative deception of Satan.

Over many years I observed a father destroy his family under the weight of obligation. God used it to show me a hidden spiritual truth.

Power

Every father has immense power over his children; the power to obligate them to be good for him so his image looks good to others; the power to obligate them to serve his agenda because he provides protection, or money, or gifts, or love; the power to obligate you to serve his will by the selfish application of intimidation and fear; the power to obligate you to serve his will by the manipulation of making you feel sad for him if he’s having a selfish mood.

Slavery

In every instance this power is selfish and contaminated unless the chain of obligation to his own father has been broken by being separated to Jesus Christ by faith.

I watched as this man’s children struggled to break free from a bondage they didn’t know had them chained by obligation to their father’s image, because he was chained to the value his own father’s image. Beneath the cover of this fine family lay hate for each other. They silently competed over each other for the father’s favour and thus chained themselves to the obligation of servitude to their father’s will. Eventually, the fake happy family crumbled under its lie of dysfunctionality.

Don’t tell me what to do

Humanity hates being told what to do. Whilst you remain chained to the obligation to keep your parents happy, your inner self will be tormented by having to be obligated to honor your parents, which you want to do and are designed to do, but you crave the freedom to do it without being told you have to. Thus, in your inner hidden confusion, you lie to yourself that you are serving in love, when it’s really chasing favour, and serving your own image, too. You end up being chained to the evil spirit of obligation and trying to make your children do the same for you. Consequently, envy and hate become the roots of your love. You call it love, but it’s really envy and hate masquerading as love, and at a point of correction, you will defy authority with ‘don’t tell me what to do’, and thus your lie will be exposed, and underneath the fakeness will be the envy of anyone who has a higher position of favour.

If you sew it, you will reap it

If you complain about being obligated by others, then you will ignorantly, and automatically, and uncontrollably obligate others to serve your will. The thing that you’re offended by is the thing you blindly practice against others.

That’s exactly what I observed eventually spew out of this fake Christian father. He had a silent mood about being obligated, but couldn’t see that it was him practicing it against others. He obligated others and got offended if they didn’t comply. The pride of his own image blinded him to see himself. He could only see what others weren’t doing for him, and unfortunately it drowned him in his own hatred. He hadn’t separated to God, he had manipulated others to serve him and used Christianity to validate this service so they would serve him, but it was all a lie.

Chained

If you’re chained by obligation to your parent’s will, then you will chain your children under your obligation, too. When you obligate your child to serve your will, you expose your chained servitude to your parents’ will, and at the same time, you ignorantly serve others with the expectation that they will be obligated to serve your will. Thus, when anyone opposes or contradicts your will, especially after you have served them, it causes your selfish spirit to be angry with the injustice, according to your perverted vision. You will either openly rebel against the injustice, or silently surrender to it and exist in a spirit of begrudgingness. Either way, it’s not love, but selfishness parading as love.

Cranky, outwardly or inwardly, about being obligated, just means your serving begrudgingly. It means you’ve never loved God by cutting the chains, and you selfishly obligate others to do your will. You will serve Him on a foundation of envy and hate and label it ‘love’, and create a ‘lie’ to support your fake truth, and no one will be able to tell you otherwise.

Hate

I always wondered why the Word of God uses ‘hate’ in Luke 14:26, to describe separation love. It’s now clear to me.

The greenies hate humanity because it hurts the environment. The vegans hate humanity because it hurts animals. This is the fruit of spite.

But, I hate humanity because it hates my God. It’s not spiteful hatred, but the hatred of their love for evil in spite of my God. I could not have stood at the cross and watched humanity crucify my God just because He wouldn’t comply with their religious dogma. It would have crushed my spirit. Because I love my God, I hate, not spitefully, but painfully, any humanity that hates Him.

Irony

This hate doesn’t stop me loving humanity; it stops me bowing to humanity’s lusts and enticements. God himself hated humanity and destroyed it all with a flood, but loved it so much he sent His Son to die for it.  He even sent his Son to hell to preach to those who hadn’t had a chance to hear about Him before the flood (1 Peter 3:19,20); that’s how much He loved humanity. But, He won’t tolerate humanity’s hate of his Father; especially hate that’s expressed by defaming His Father’s commandments.

Consequences

If you call homosexuality, love; if you legalise abortion, divorce, and defacto, ungodly religions, and if you control people to your will, do you naively think God is going to turn a blind eye and bless your evil. Earthquakes, floods, wars, bushfires, economic chaos, the rise of Communism and Islamic State, domestic violence, drugs, climate change and corona virus are the fruit of man’s selfishness, whether he thinks he’s good or bad. But, no one’s facing the warnings, they just blame God and dig further into their own inner strength.

The hatred of man’s evil is the expression of your love for God

I hate humanity for legalising homosexuality in defiance of my God’s instructions. I hate humanity for legalising the murder of unborn babies in defiance of my God’s instructions. I hate humanity for legalising divorce and adulterous defacto relationships against my God’s instructions. I hate humanity for endorsing and supporting demonic religions in defiance to my God’s instructions, John 14:6 … I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me. And, Acts 4:12 … there is no other Name given among men whereby you can be saved.

I hate any humanity that is taught about the true God and then turns their back on Him and goes and serves other gods. But, my hate is driven by my love for Him.

True Serve will always require a price

It’s impossible to serve Jesus Christ whilst you remain obligated to serve your father. You can’t be free to serve God until you break the chains of obligation to your father, and you’ll know it’s chains when you feel the fear of contradicting your father’s selfish will … the fear of what others will think of you; the fear of what the church will say against you; the fear of what your family will say against you; the fear of being wrong; the fear of hurting his feelings; the fear of his aggression. But, fear is just a threat to your image and that’s why it’s also the door to freedom, and until you walk through it you won’t find salvation.

Fear

There is no fear in love, and God is love, so God is on the other side of fear. That’s why fear is a spirit force of Satan to stop you finding God. Bound parents are chained to fear and the spirit behind them will try and chain you to the same fear. They can act like they love God, but if you truly choose Christ, you’ll soon feel the threat of their fear.

Fake

A genuine Christian parent will give you the freedom to serve God without requiring you to love them as well. A fake Christian parent will give you the right to serve God as long as you don’t stop serving them too. The fake parent will dictate over you with fear, and the fake child will seek the value of their parent to boost their selfishness, and gain points over their siblings, and thus be chained to that fear.

Persecution

Hopefully, now you can see that you can never truly serve God until you break the chains of obligation to serve your parents. In most instances, the parent has never broken their chains of obligation to their parents, and they will thus demand, either openly or silently, your servitude to their wishes. When you face the intimidation to stay under a parent’s will, you will experience the honor of being persecuted for the Name of Christ. The Satan trick is, no child expects a Christian parent to be Satan’s defiant and opposing force. You’ll need the faith of Christ to help you get free.

Even Jesus had to tell His mother to back-off because she was interfering in His commitment to the will of His Father, God. He had to tell Peter to back-off because Satan was working through him to entice Christ to not go to the cross.

How do you break free to serve God?

By faith, you have to face the fear of upsetting your parents and trust God. If you’re seeking to serve Him, the demonic will be seeking to scare you from serving Him. The most powerful weapon Satan has to inhibit your service, is a parent. You actually have to hate the evil of their obligation to hold onto you for their selfish value, and if they won’t let you serve God, then there is only one pathway; the pathway of complete separation.

Samuel was free to serve God because Hannah gave him up to God. Thus, Samuel could stay, not attached to Hannah, but connected with her by the love they both shared for God. If the parent won’t allow this to happen, there has to be a leave and cleave, and that’s the price of salvation.

Separation

The church no longer lives by this principle because it needs numbers and money to run its business. Separation is a price that costs everything to walk with Christ (Luke 14:33). It’s easier to believe in grace, because grace just means to the average Christian that you have the free-will to love Christ and the free-will to tolerate sin in others without the legal obligation to be too intense to faithfully submit to his laws. This is a lie of Satan propagated by the church. Have an honest look at Matthew 5:18,19.

If you’re tolerating sin in others, then it just means you obligate them to tolerate the sin in you.

Many called, few will choose

If you genuinely have a call on your heart to serve the living God, know that you won’t be able to fulfil that call until you love your parents by disobeying them if they are blocking that call. This is what God calls ‘hate’.  If you feel obligated to serve your parents’ will, then know you are being dictated to by a demonic spirit. The Spirit of God in a Christ-like parent will give you freedom to serve God without obligation. That pull to stay chained to your parent is so strong that God said … many are called but few are chosen.

Myway or Yahweh

Jesus doesn’t obligate; it’s your choice. Love Him and do what He wants because you love Him, or serve Him and do what He wants your way. They’re miles apart. One is free, the other is chained.

 

Pastor Jonathan Samuels

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Posted by on March 16, 2020 in intimidation

 

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Sermon 145 – FRIENDS?

22 Feb

I was counselling a young man who was struggling with the unfair behaviour of his friend. I confirmed that he was right that his so-called friend was behaving badly, but I then suggested he was having a mood because his ‘friend’ box was humanly defined to suit his selfishness. Seeing he was able to hear the truth, I went on to say, that if you’re a friend of God, friends might hurt your feelings, but they won’t drive you into a mood. There’s something wrong with your friendship with God.

What’s a friend?

I’ve asked this question on many occasions, and the general response is … ‘someone who is kind to me’, ‘someone who listens to me’, and ‘someone who makes me feel good’.

All humans are designed to want and need friends. It’s normal and it’s natural. But, there’s a problem. Our definitions and expectations are all about what someone should do for ME.

Jesus said … you are my friends if you do what I command you, John 15:14. This is the opposite to the human definition above. God expects you to keep Him happy and do what He wants; not the other way around. It’s pretty clear that the other way around is just a Satanic plot to trap humans in the fairness argument and divert them from doing it the way God says.

Jesus didn’t accumulate friends. He didn’t do good deeds to give Himself self-value and followers. More often than not, He lost friends (John 6). That’s because He was only interested in doing the will of his Father. If God is your friend, you won’t need friends to prop up your self-value, so if a friend does wrong by you, it might hurt your feelings but it won’t hurt your spirit.

Why do we have to do it God’s way?

The issue is spirit. God’s way usually doesn’t make sense, but If you don’t do it the way God says, and you do it the way of fairness, Satan will take power over your thinking. Satan will control your will and manoeuvre you away from God. This is confirmed in 2 Timothy 2:24-26 KJV.

Friendly vs friend

There’s a vast difference between being friendly with God, and being a friend of God. Friendly infers an expectation that God will look after me and care for me. That’s the human expectation of friendship and it’s contaminated by selfishness. On the other hand, if you want to be a friend of God, you have to give up your human right of fairness and trust His judgment and do what He wants; that is, not expect Him to serve your needs and wants, or be obligated to keep you happy.

You can’t be friend of God and a friend of the world at the same time, James 4:4. They are opposites. And you can only be a friend of God if you aren’t a friend of the world. The world is friendly with God, and therefore, the world expects to go to heaven if they’ve been good. But, they are not friends of God, and they won’t go to heaven. It’s the direct opposite for a true Christian; if you’re a friend of God you can be friendly with the world, but you can’t befriend the world. As soon as you try to collect worldly friends you threaten your friendship with God.

Irony

Under human friendship rules, no one has real friends. The reality is, everyone is just using and collecting other people for their own self-value status. However, if you’re a friend of God, you can have friends, because it doesn’t matter if they’re using you. All that matters is what God wants. However, if that friend opposes or challenges your friendship with God, you are required to separate. They should no longer be counted as a friend.

Example

Because God is my friend, and because my wife supports that friendship, then my wife is my friend, too. In fact, she’s my best-friend. It’s my friendship with God that sustains and uniquely blesses my relationship with my wife. If she opposed my friendship with God, how could we be friends?

How do you keep the laws of God?

This question may not sound related to’ friends’, but it is. Most people, even non-Christians, recognise that it’s good to try and keep the Ten Commandments. Everyone tries to do what’s right by the commandments, but it’s humanly impossible. God, Himself, has given us a simple instruction that doesn’t require you to be ruled by rules.

It’s found in Matthew 7:12 and it’s simply … treat others as you would like to be treated, because this fulfils all the law and the prophets, and it’s re-confirmed in Matthew 22:37-40. This means you don’t keep the laws of God by trying to be good and obey the rules, but rather, you can only keep the laws of God by first, being a friend of God and, second, by obeying his two directions towards other people. Those two instructions are … treat others as you would yourself, and hold no grievance against your friend or enemy, but instead trust His plan and purpose. Impossible to do unless you’re a friend of God.

If you walk in His love, you automatically keep the rules. If it’s not His love, the rules will give you a boundary of safety from the suction of worldly evil, but they won’t save you.

From God’s perspective, everything is measured by your relationship with your fellowman. Love is measured by relationship, not by rules. If you practice love to your neighbour with the secret expectation that ‘you get back more than what you give up’, it’s breaking the commandments of God. Be as nice as you like to your fellowman and then have a mood and hold a grievance when he hurts your feelings or attacks you without justification, and it simply means you are running by the friend rule, not the God rule.

God doesn’t say … hold a grievance when your friend hurts your feelings and turns against you. On the contrary, He actually commands us to pray for our enemies, Matthew 5:44. That takes faith and trust.

You can’t practice this strategy unless you’re a friend of God. You can try but it won’t work.

What’s LOVE?

Love = giving up something for someone else. The opposite to love is pride. Therefore, PRIDE = expecting someone to give up something for ME. This definition is confirmed in Matthew 7:12, John 6:38 & 8:29. Good friendship may look like love, but If love is motivated by pride, then it’s not love, it’s pride, no matter how it looks.

Contamination

You wouldn’t serve an omelette with 5 good eggs and one rotten egg. The omelette would be rotten. When you do a good deed for someone, that’s love, but as soon as you expect a good deed back, that’s pride. Counting up your good deeds and ignoring your pride deeds and ignoring your secret selfish motivation, does not equal love, but selfish usury. You can argue with God about your good deeds, but He’s measuring your love by the contamination.

Example

Greater love has no man than he lay down his life for his friend (John 15:13). That’s love, but it’s not love if it’s contaminated by self-value. This is confirmed in 1 Corinthians 13, where the Word of God also states that you can give your body to be burned but it will profit you nothing if it isn’t love. These statements seem contradictory but they’re really saying the same thing. That is, nothing’s genuine uncontaminated love unless you’re a friend of God, because if you’re a friend of God, then it’s His love that flows, and His love is not contaminated by pride.

Gratitude or attitude

Jesus proved Himself as love by dying for the human race. He did lay down His life for His friends and it worked because He didn’t do it for Himself but for His Heavenly Father. He did it the Father’s way, and rejected the ‘self’ way. Have you responded with a gratitude of commitment of being His friend, or like the selfish majority, are you friendly with God so that He’ll be friendly with you? One is death to self, the other is get for self.

If you have a mood or hold a grievance because someone hasn’t done right by you, you’ve got a friendship with God issue.

There’s a price to pay to be a friend of God. A Christian cannot accumulate worldly friends for their own status and self-value. A genuine Christian is someone who is a friend of God and not a friend of the world, James 4:4.

 

May God open our eyes to our selfish fairness that believes we’re Godly when it’s really just living for our own image, instead of for God’s.

 

Pastor Samuel Abbel

 

 

 
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Posted by on February 22, 2020 in friends

 

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Sermon 139 – The DICHOTOMY of LOVE & HATE

10 Aug

Is it possible for hate to be built on love, or love to be built on hate?

I asked some Christian folk how they would define HATE. Their responses were along the lines of … detesting someone, or super angry with someone.

I then asked … where does this hate originate from?

They each brought up certain incidences of injustice in their childhood, but it could all be summarised as “they hurt my feelings”.

I then asked … what was your reaction to these hurt feelings?

Their answers included … withdraw, blame, feel bad, switch-off, block-it, and justify why they were wrong, and determine not to be told what to do.

I then asked … how do you cover these hurt feelings?

Assuming that you didn’t retaliate with perverted rebellious behaviour, their common answers were basically … be good, be nice, and be busy.

I then asked … why do you cover these hurt feelings?

I received a range of responses, but they effectively boiled down to … “so my IMAGE isn’t tainted”.

I then asked … how do you propagate this IMAGE and why?

The responses included … increase my knowledge, increase my skills, be nice, popularity, and work harder. We do these things to protect and build our image, and to position myself above my neighbour, so ultimately, I’m the boss and no one can tell me what to do.

I then asked … how would you define LOVE?

The general responses were … caring, warming to someone, no anger, respectful, and wanting to be around someone. That is, practicing these things and expecting them in return.

I then asked … can you live in middle ground between hate and love?

They generally agreed that you could, but, this is the typically wrong perspective of the modern Christian.

God’s perspective

Now, let’s look at it from God’s perspective. God says, middle ground is neither hot nor cold (revelation 3:16), and therefore, cold. So, from God’s perspective, there’s no middle ground, it’s either love or hate. If you don’t operate in love, then you operate in hate, and if you operate in hate then you are not operating in love. It’s either, love or hate.

Middle ground

If you live in middle ground, then you call your hate, ‘good’, and God says that’s evil (Isaiah 5:20,21). And, if you live in middle ground, then you worship your own IMAGE, and God says that’s defying and disrespecting His 2nd commandment. It may not be graven into wood or stone, but you’re still ignorantly bowing down to it and worshiping it.

Middle ground means … I worship ME and pretend to worship God.

Hate is the opposite of love

God defines hate as … the fruit of “I love ME as No.1, so don’t TELL ME what to do”; and God defines love as … God, the Father is No.1, so He TELLS me what to do, and I do what I’m told.

Love is … “ok, God, I don’t like it, but Your will, not mine, be done”. Love is seeing from God’s perspective. God’s insight flows from doing what’s right in His eyes, rather than what’s right in your own eyes.

Hate is just the secret worship of ME, and love is the worship of God, for God.

Hate judges, love evaluates. Hate bosses, love trusts God’s plan.

You can’t make a judgement against someone, unless you live in hate, and you can’t love IMAGE unless you live in hate.

So, in reality, reacting to hurt offences is just loving myself, first, and hate flows from this self-love.

Self- love is focused on the other person’s offence against me. Agape love is focused on God’s will and how I serve it, for God.

You have to be dead first before you can be resurrected

The truth is, if you’re not dead to yourself you can’t properly see God, you will automatically operate in hidden hatred and make your judgments from that foundation, and more importantly, you can never be resurrected into His life. Without death there’s no heaven, no matter how good you think you are.

Good doesn’t cut it

You can’t solve your pride by trying to be more respectful, more good, more committed, or keeping silent with no apparent offensive opinion, or practicing pretense. That’s salvation by works, not by faith. Good will never cancel out hate. The only solution is turning to God to address your hate, and this can’t happen until you agree that you have it. You can’t change your sinful heart. You have to call out to God to change it, and He’ll use hate to do it.

The test

The test will be your reaction to being bossed, corrected, or someone who challenges or mocks your opinion, especially with intimidation. You should take your moody reaction to Christ and ask Him to address your pride.

Ok, we fail, but there’s a big difference between ignorantly and blindly living in hate (like King Saul) and falling into it (like David).

I then asked … how can you reverse self-love into God’s love?

Just as the foundation of hate is self-love (known as ‘pride’), so, the foundation of God’s love is the hate of hate, that is, the hate of sin (Zechariah 8:17, & Revelations 2:6). Consequently, you can hate on the foundation of love, if you hate sin, but you can never love on the foundation of hate.

That’s why, God hated Esau (Romans 9:13), because as much as Esau tried, his heart was focused on himself. That’s why God loved David and hated King Saul. They both sinned, but David repented because his heart was toward God. Saul’s’ heart was towards Saul.

What’s hate got to do with it?

Because, firstly, hate defines your relationship with God (1 John 2:11). If your love is built on the foundation of hate, whether you want to know it or not, then you are not related to God even though you vehemently demand you are.

And, secondly, because, you need hate to find God’s love. Just as hate controls everybody’s moods, so hate is the pill that you must swallow in order to stop hating. This means you have to suffer hate (Matthew 24:9) and the devaluing of your opinion to cure your hatred and high opinion of yourself … that’s the ‘cross’, that’s the place of ‘baptism into His death’ (Romans 6:4), that’s where you deny yourself, daily (Mark 8:34, Luke 9:23). Without hate, you can’t find the cross, you can’t die, and you can’t be resurrected to eternal life (John 12:25).

Why won’t so-called Christians listen to this truth?

Pride believes it has.

Pride blames and doesn’t accept responsibility for its sinful reactions.

Pride believes it’s good already.

Pride feeds on the FEAR of looking bad, of losing its IMAGE, and of persecution (Galatians 6:12).

The solution

Nothing of self, all of God.

 

May God open the eyes of His remnant to see their sin and instead be willing to suffer reproach for His Name!

 

Pastor Clive Douglas

 

 

 
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Posted by on August 10, 2019 in hate

 

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Sermon 138 – Don’t build a relationship on the hatred of someone who’s hurt you

14 Jul

Every human being is created with a body, soul and spirit. Our soul and spirit are the elements that allow us to commune with God. The soul consists of the MIND, WILL and EMOTIONS. The most important element of our soul is our ‘WILL’.

Why?

The answer is found in Jesus’ prayer to His Father on the Mount of Olives. What was His prayer? ‘Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from Me: nevertheless, not My will but Thine be done’ (Luke 22:42). Note, there are two parts to this prayer … the first part is a prayer to remove the trouble, the second part is a prayer of ‘will’ and surrender.

Salvation is a decision of our will in the face of distress; in the face of being aware that the decision will cost me distress.

Why does it have to be in the face of distress?

The Bible declares that if you are going to build a tower you should first count the cost (Luke 14:28). In other words, you can make a decision to follow Christ, but that decision isn’t verified unless, or until, circumstances dictate a cost. This is explained in the parable of the sower and the seed (Mark 4).

You see, the problem is, most so-called Christians don’t make a decision of ‘will’, they make a decision of ‘emotion’. That is, most people decide on the basis of their feelings, and usually those feelings are hurt ones. They decide to follow Christ in the hope He will remove the trouble.

You see, whenever you make judgments against someone for offending you or someone else, you effectively initiate retaliation against that person. Once you take the bait of hurt, and retaliate, you are no longer able to have control of your will. Once you lose control of your will you can’t surrender your will to the Father, and your will comes under the power of Satan. Your prayer will be … ‘remove this trouble from me’. If you hold this judgement for some time your heart will begin to harden and you’ll block your salvation. This is proven in 2 Timothy 2:24-26 (KJV).

Once you choose ‘offense’, you unwittingly choose ‘hate’ and automatically lose your ability to surrender your will to His. Your whole focus will be on removing the trouble by striving to win the competition of who is the best. You see, if you continuously allow your hurt emotions to control your judgement, the truth is, your spirit revolves around the lust for IMAGE, not Christ.

Practical observation

I was observing a group of girls in our fellowship. One of the girls decided she was more special and started recruiting a best-friend. The other girl could sense that she was being used and manipulated so she formed a best-friend relationship with someone else. This polite and silent retaliation stirred up more secret hatred in the heart of the first girl so she went about trying to steal the friend from the second girl.

Hypocrisy is judging someone for doing something wrong, then practicing it yourself

Both girls played their parts with seemingly pure goodness. They’d learnt the art of pretense, perfectly. The truth is, God’s not after ‘good’; He’s after ‘will’. If your will isn’t surrendered to Him, then your ‘good’ is not good.

Mood = reacting to wounded emotions

If you allow an offence to hurt your emotions you won’t have power over your will and, sooner or later, spite will flow out of you.

The truth is, if the first girl tries to build her relationships on the foundation of her hurts, it will fail, and If the second girl builds her relationships on the foundation of retaliation and hate, it will fail, too. No wonder most relationships fail; they’re invariably built on spit and spite.

Spitefulness = trying to injure someone

When I finally challenged the original girl about her spitefulness, she couldn’t see that she had done anything wrong. As far as she was concerned, all she was doing was trying to find a friend and the other girl had given her the cold shoulder.

Until you own your sin and repent of it, you can’t free your will. You can decide to not keep doing it, but it’s all a waste of time because your will can’t perform its will whilst your hurt emotions rule your soul. You have to repent to free your will before you can truly see you are wrong. Contrary to the popular belief that ‘I have to see it before I can own it’, the truth is, you won’t see it until you own it, first.

It’s not fair

If you don’t pray the second half of what Christ prayed, you’ll simply be plotting how to escape your hassles on the ground of justified fairness, or if you do decide to pray it, it will be ineffective whilst ever your hurt emotions rule your soul.

The truth is, if you seek fairness in this world without living for the next, then you are not saved. This world is not fair … Jesus was crucified for doing good, Christians are being persecuted for simply loving Christ, people are being unjustly treated and unjustly suffering all over this planet, plus homosexuals demand equal rights, women who hate male authority demand equal rights, aboriginals who worship the serpent god demand equal rights … they’re all into fairness; Jesus wasn’t. Striving for fairness is an argument from Satan to justify that the cup be removed from me. True fairness is only under the Lordship of the Creator judge, Jesus.

Christians are not called to receive fairness; we’re called to serve and suffer for the name of Christ. The reason so few pray the full prayer is simply because we want the cup removed; we want the right to defend injustices against us; we don’t want to suffer for His name.

The healing of the lame man at the gate ‘Beautiful’

In Acts 4, Peter and John were arrested for performing this miracle. The religious tribunal demanded by what authority they had done this. They weren’t inspired by the miracle; they were offended with envy. Peter, under the power of the Holy Spirit stood his ground and preached Christ crucified.

Why don’t we see miracles in the western world, today?

In the modern Christian church, everyone wants the power of miracles for their own positional image, but to my understanding, God gives the power of His Spirit when you’re facing ‘fire’. Moses didn’t get the power till he faced Pharaoh. Elijah had to face Jezebel. Shadrack, Meshach and Abednego had to face the fiery furnace, for the miracle to be done.

In the same way, Peter and John would have had to weigh up the consequences of healing the lame man. They would have known there would most likely be a reaction against them that would cost them. It’s the cost that confirms where one’s will is placed … under Christ’s, or set doing and seeking what’s best for one’s self.

If you’re here for Christ, people will hate you. If you’re complaining about the hate, then you’re here for image. One has surrendered their will to be hurt by offenses, the other hasn’t. One is saved, the other isn’t.

 

May God open the eyes of His remnant,

 

Pastor Clive Douglas

 
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Posted by on July 14, 2019 in WILL

 

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Sermon 114 – Christ vs Anti-Christ

16 Sep

I was standing next to a lady in our fellowship and began to feel uncomfortable. When I thought upon it, I could sense a disturbance in her spirit. Her outward appearance portrayed a smile and an ease that suggested she was fine but my spirit was saying otherwise. I tried to ignore it but the Spirit in me wouldn’t let it go. So, I asked her what was troubling her. Of course she said “nothing”, but I pushed a bit further. Finally, she admitted that she was hearing a voice that I, as the pastor, was going to make her do something she didn’t want to do.

Now, the thought that I was going to tell her to do a certain thing, had never crossed my mind. Having experienced this many times, I realised I was talking to an opposing spirit. She was a Christian but somewhere she had opened her heart to the demonic and was absorbed with what she might be told to do. She hadn’t stopped to evaluate why she was wallowing in her carnal imaginations. The real fact was that she was the one telling me not to tell her. “Telling” with resistant defiance, is the sign of a demon.

The signs and symptoms

The sign that you are under the spirit of anti-Christ is always … I don’t want to be told what to do, or, you can’t tell me what to do = TELLING. If a righteous authority instructs or corrects you in the Word of God and you say “I don’t like that”, then you are not opposing the authority, you are opposing God, and actually TELLING God how to behave. This opposition can only come from the spirit of anti-Christ. This is the whole reason why society and schools are teaching people to dream what you want and do what you want. The real agenda is not freedom, but to sway people from the rule of Christ.

The real question is … how did she get there?

The answer is always … pride. Pride opens the door to an anti-Christ spirit and gives it licence to manipulate your thinking away from the mind of Christ. This lady is a Christian, but like all of us, if you listen to the voice of pride you will fall to the voices of your carnal imaginations and unwittingly be on the opposing side to Christ. The whole strategy of Satan is to sway your mind away from Christ to yourself.

Biblical examples

King Saul was a Christian who allowed his envy and pride to block his mind against God and ended up opposing righteous David, losing his mind to Satan, and being possessed by a demon.

Judas served Christ as a disciple, was empowered by the Holy Spirit to do signs and wonders, yet allowed his envy and pride to twist his mind against the Saviour, and ended up possessed by Satan.

Samson was empowered by the Holy Spirit, yet let his pride drive him to whoredom in direct contradiction to God’s instructions, and almost lost his soul to hell.

Abram obeyed the instruction of God to kill his only son, without resistance, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Thus, even though he had human weaknesses, he became the father of faith.

David was a Spirit-filled Christian, yet he came under the influence of an anti-Christ spirit when he allowed his pride to suck him into adultery and even murder. When he was corrected by Nathan the prophet he repented and was freed from the demon’s power, unlike king Saul who was only really interested in what others thought of him.

If God’s Word says … do this, but you don’t do it, even though you pretend to, then you are serving the will of the anti-Christ.

In other words, if someone gives you an instruction that conforms to the Word of God and even though you might agree with it but you resist that instruction in your heart, you will unwittingly be in opposition to Christ and thus automatically supporting the camp of the anti-Christ. If you don’t wake up to this, eventually the demon will wholly possess your thinking. You will lose your mind and your salvation.

The real issue

I went on to challenge this lady as to where she had opened the door of pride. She said she didn’t believe she had. I insisted she write it down, and not just try and think it out. It wasn’t long before she realised she had elevated herself over a compliment I had given her about being willing to suffer for the name of Christ. I pointed out that the real issue is never the thoughts or imaginations, nor is it what we fear may happen, nor is it even our pride. Rather, the real issue is …. Christ vs anti-Christ. When you do the opposite to what Christ says, you are supporting the enemy of Christ, and that’s the real issue … which side are you supporting?

Escape

There’s only one way to escape the hold of pride and that is … repent. Trying to work through your imaginations is a waste of time. Repentance of our pride is the only solution against the anti-Christ. Repentance is bringing Christ back into His rightful position in our spirit.

If you can’t get past consistent voices that promote your pride, then it means there’s something in your heart that you won’t give up to God’s will.

Homosexual debate

In Australia, the right of gay marriage is being hotly contested. The real issue hasn’t got anything to do with marriage equality. The real issue is GOD. The real issue is … people hate God because He won’t do what they want, because they want the freedom to sin the way they want. If you don’t want to obey God’s laws, then the easiest solution is to believe there’s no God. Then you can do what you like. This is just the spirit of anti-Christ.

You can argue that the issue is fairness and love equality, but that’s just a lie of Satan. True love is not selfish, neither is it a feeling, it’s an action, and the action of true love is to do what God wants … “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” It’s the action of respect to the Creator to keep His commandments that displays our love. The feelings follow the action. Without the act of obedience, anyone’s love is really the feelings of defiance to God; it’s the fake selfish love of the spirit of anti-Christ.

God is love. Homosexuality is anti-God. Therefore, it is not love but sin and evil. Homosexuality is actually a reaction of hatred against God. Therefore, it is actually Satanic hatred of love under the guise of fairness and equality.

Another experience

A young girl asked her dad for permission to have a kitten. Her father said yes, but first I want you to learn to stop being ‘bossy.’ The girl had a mood of polite silence. When she was confronted about her mood, she replied … “you don’t understand”. Once someone has a mood and then states … “you don’t understand”, then you immediately know you’re up against a demon. If the instruction to the child is based on God’s Word, then any resistance to that instruction is in direct opposition to God. This is the spirit of anti-Christ.

I prayed against the demonic power and sought the Father’s wisdom. With her dad’s permission, I stepped in and pointed out to the child that the issue isn’t a kitten, nor is it sin, nor is it lack of understanding. The real issue is, you’re encapsulated by a demonic spirit as evidenced by the fact that, as the Word of God confirms, your father told you what to do and you won’t do it. Demons oppose God.

If I, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, tell you what to do, and you defy that instruction in your heart, then you are supporting the camp of the anti-Christ. If you support the camp of anti-Christ, then you are being controlled by a demon or demons. God doesn’t defy Himself, demons do. The young girl had her eyes opened, repented of her stubbornness, was freed from the power of a demon, and completely changed her attitude to one of respect and not silent co-operative defiance.

For though we walk in the flesh we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Casting down IMAGINATIONS and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of God.  2 Corinthians 10: 3-6

 

May God open the eyes of His remnant to see the demonic powers of opposition to His Spirit.

 

Pastor Raymond Islington

 
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Posted by on September 16, 2017 in Demons

 

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Sermon 100 – Satan gives men GIFTS

30 Apr

I was counselling 3 young men who each said they wanted to follow Christ but they couldn’t seem to get there. I asked them what the barrier was. They replied they didn’t know. So, I suggested that if your desire to know Christ couldn’t be fulfilled then there was something you didn’t want to give up. After a lengthy discussion, each one began to admit their secret belief. One said, he believed God had given him a ‘superior brain’ so he could think everything out. Another said, God had given him the gift of ‘coolness’ so he didn’t have to worry about anything, and the third said that God had given him the gift of ‘charisma’ so that everyone thought he was a great bloke.

Genesis 3

I opened my Bible to Genesis chapter 3 and showed them that right back in the beginning Satan said to Eve that God hadn’t done the right thing by them because He had withheld a special gift, and if they were to eat the fruit they could compete with Him as a god and also know what was good and evil like God, Himself (v.5). That sounded logical to her so she took the gift. The fact was, it wasn’t Satan’s gift at all, Satan simply gave her God’s gift, and used it to take power over her and power over all of future mankind. He contaminated the gift. In other words he used God’s gift to destroy them and separate them from God. That’s Satan’s secondary objective. His prime objective is to take over Jesus’ position. The secret gift he gave Eve was, envy. He wants the favour of the Father and moodily objects to the fact that Jesus has it. Any time you envy someone else’s higher position or better position, you prove you’re under the influence of Satan.

I pointed out that the gift they thought was from God was obviously from Satan. The evidence was loud and clear. If God gives you a gift it’s for the kingdom, not for you. It’s to help your fellowman find Christ or walk more faithfully with Christ, not to promote you above your fellowman.

The real reason they thought they had a God-gift was so they could believe they had the right to elevate themselves above their fellowman. It made them superior to their fellowman. This actually proved they were lying to themselves and deceiving themselves. Philippians 2:3 says … Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than yourself. They each actually believed they were someone of importance because they had special powers that no one else had. I couldn’t believe the arrogance of what I was hearing!

The test

When I suggested their thinking and attitude was evil, they were shocked. They couldn’t believe it and each started resisting my observations and politely objecting to such suggestions about them. To their mind it didn’t make any sense.

So, I asked them what does ‘correction‘ mean to them. They agreed that it meant … failure, bad, stupid, incapable and other such words of negativity. I suggested that at a very early age they had defied their parents when they were corrected and thus had contravened God’s instructions of respecting authority. They all agreed. So, I pointed out to them that although all correction is uncomfortable (it has to be if it’s God’s medicine), ‘correction’ just means you’re doing something wrong, or there’s something wrong with your thinking or your attitude and you need to stop it and go in a different direction. It doesn’t mean you’re stupid, and if you interpret it that way, you’re just making an excuse to defy the authority and give yourself the right to have a selfish mood because you’re not getting want you want, just like you did when you were a defiant kid. In other words, you’re just acting like a 2 year old and hiding it in an adult’s body. You’ve never grown up, spiritually.

I also asked them if they had ever called anyone an ‘idiot’ because they didn’t think the way they thought or do it the way they thought it should be done. They all agreed they had done that routinely. I showed them that the Word of God says in Matthew 5:22 that they’re on their way to hell unless they address this evil in their hearts and strongly declared to them that these two pieces of fruit (inner defying of correction and ‘idiot’) were all the evidence they needed to see they were in Satan’s camp, and if they wanted to truly walk with Christ they needed to stop listing all their so-called good points, see their pride, accept the Word of God delivered by the messenger, and repent. Thankfully, one did and the other two wanted to but wouldn’t.

The sad consistent reality

Over my life I’ve met many so-called Christians who appear to be ok on the outside, but when you make a corrective suggestion regarding their character, their demure changes and polite satanism exposes itself. I call it polite because they know that if they show anger it would expose them as the fake they are. The reality is they’ve never been told to stop their moodiness. As children they’ve been given free ‘reign’ to make up their own mind, and when a parent does that you’re just letting your child live for their own selfishness. Humanity always lives for its own selfishness. It’s an automatic reflex. Satan caused it and Jesus came to save us from it. Then as adults we cover this selfishness with niceness so we’re socially acceptable, but still live in the proud and selfish imaginations of our evil heart and are so blinded by the superiority belief of our Satanic giftings that our mind can’t compute there’s anything wrong with us. They’ve actually lost their right mind and don’t know it.

The truth

They couldn’t find Christ because they didn’t want to give up the gift, because giving up the gift meant giving up their position over others.

The one who thought he had a superior brain was really declaring that everyone else was an idiot if they didn’t think the way he thought. He was so bound, he would go away and have to think about everything and make up his own conclusions and always come to a harmonious deduction, because harmony was his favourite characteristic that he was so proud of. The real truth behind all this sham was, he didn’t want to be told. Thus it always comes down to an authority issue; the authority says one thing and your brain says another, and it’s that voice inside you that gives you away. That’s the voice of an anti-Christ spirit that’s dictating your mind.

The one who said he had the gift of ‘cool’ was really saying that he didn’t give ‘a stuff’ about anything. ‘Cool’ meant … my feelings are frozen so I don’t feel any pain, so you can’t touch me. ‘Cool’ was actually a characteristic that stirred his fellowman to envy him and although he hated their envy he gloated on it. It clearly was satanic because you couldn’t tell him otherwise.

The third man used his charisma to win popularity and status. Everything seemed to fall into his lap, so to him it proved his theory that God was his santa because he was such a great guy, and besides, everyone told him so. However, if anyone crossed his thinking he would use his specific knowledge to challenge them and put them in their place below him, and if anyone was positioned above him, he would silently hate them and at the same time pretend to respect them, but it was all a sham. God was on his case though, and when things began to crumble around him he was forced to face the reality of his pride. He admitted he had never seen it. He always thought he was so fantastic. His mind was under a lying spirit.

The measurement

The Word of God declares in James 3:17 that God’s wisdom is easy to be entreated, without partiality and without hypocrisy, and neither of these lads displayed these characteristics when confronted with the truth. The real truth was they lived for envy. Therefore, I knew I was talking to demon spirits because v.14 &15 declare that where envy operates then this sort of wisdom is earthly, sensual and demonic.

The measurement of the true character of a person’s spirit is the Word of God, not what a person thinks they are.

Know this ….

Jesus did the opposite. He was under God’s authority and thus He knew his enemy’s evil trickery. 

Philippians 2:7 … He made Himself of no reputation and took on Him the form of a servant and humbled Himself even to the death of the cross.

If you think you’re a person of some worth because you believe you have a special something then you are the one who is the real ‘fool’ and you are the one who has been duped by Satan to personally and ignorantly be an opponent to the kingdom of God and a means of destruction to your fellow-man.

 

Pastor Craig McWilliam

 
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Posted by on April 30, 2016 in Correction, Pride, Special

 

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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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