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Sermon 144 – It all depends what you call it

01 Feb

I’m only helping

I was addressing a young woman who couldn’t believe that she was doing anything wrong. Her defense was … I’m only trying to help. But what if the help is contaminated with selfishness? Her defense challenged the authority of my query about her underlying motive, and actually confirmed my suspicions. Holy Spirit would not have retaliated against my inquiry.

You see, selfishness always calls it something else other than what it really is. Everything we do is either the love of God or it’s selfish. 1 Corinthians 13 states that you can give all your money to the poor, and even your body to be burned, but it will profit nothing if it isn’t for God.

You call it helping. I call it showing-off.

You say “I’m just helping”, but more often than not, it’s a lie. What you’re really doing is showing-off how capable you are, or how clever you are. Your inner spirit is saying … “don’t tell me what to do. Look at me, I already know without you telling me”. This is really having a spirit of self-authority, which means your spirit disrespects authority. When someone questions, either verbally or silently, the correction of an authority, they reveal what spirit they are of. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. The façade image has to be broken if you want to be truly honest about your heart.

You call it helping, but it’s really trying to gain points of favor

I once asked a young man … why are you so willing to help? His reply was more honest than I was expecting. He said … so that when I’m having trouble, you’ll be obligated to help me. This is selfish help. God calls it holding a debt over the person you’ve helped. That’s sin, not love. It gains no heavenly credits.

You call it helping, but it’s really so the person will be obligated to like you or help you back.

You call it charity. I call it control and obligation to get others to do what you want.

You call it helping, but it’s really trying to gain position due to hatred-envy of your more favoured sibling.

You call it helping, but it’s really to make yourself feel worthwhile and look good in the eyes of others.

It’s hard to pin contaminated help. Helping is a tricky way of promoting your pride because no one can say you’re doing something wrong. But, you can smell contaminated help … eventually, it smells ‘off’.

You call it used and then dumped

I call it … asked to leave because you wouldn’t do what you were told

You call it independent thinking

I call it … challenging the thinking of the authority, so you can live in your own self-authority. I call it … no one’s going to tell you what to do.

You call it friendship. I call it servitude.

When you expect a friend to act a certain way towards you so you feel good and valued, that’s not friendship, it’s servitude. On many occasions I’ve asked people … what’s a friend? The common reply is … someone who will listen to me, support me, and be kind to me. Sounds right, but it’s all a lie.  God says ‘friendship’ is serving God, not keeping people happy (John 15:14). I’ve discovered that selfishness gathers friends for its own self-value and wants, because that same person that demands friendship will invariably TELL that friend how they’re supposed to behave towards them, expect them to be loyal to them first, and TELL their friend off if they are not being nice to them. That’s usury. There’s no freedom to have a differing opinion, share another friend, or say any truth that might offend their feelings.

You call it sorry. I call it selfish

I queried a young man as to why he felt so sorry for a woman who was having a mood because she was told she was wrong? His response was … so that when I have a mood, others will have to be sorry for me. This is contaminated sorry. It’s not love; it’s fake and selfish.

You call it protecting. I call it possessive, manipulation and control

I once queried a young Christian man as to why he was so protective of his family. He informed me that his domineering father had demanded of him to protect his mother. He complied because it gave him value in his father’s eyes and made him feel good. It fed his self-value. The value of protection became inherent is his spiritual DNA. His own family loved his protection, but they also feared his control. His protection looked good on the outside, but it was contaminated and used to manipulate the family to do exactly what suited his agenda. There was no freedom of opinion or choice. It was all a sham to protect and promote his own personal image. Protection made him feel ‘the man’ and it won his family’s support and value.

I’m good

You can’t correct ‘good’, or ‘help’, or ‘protection’; they look good. But, if they’re contaminated, they’re evil. If I find myself challenging a person’s ‘good’, I’m actually challenging the demonic spirit. It’s easy to forget that Satan comes in sheep’s clothing.

Many times I’ve challenged the evil in people’s spirit, but they invariably discredit my correction by justifying their goodness. All they’re really doing is preserving their image by trying to manipulate me to focus on their goodness, and hide the spirit that dwells within them. From God’s perspective, it’s what’s behind the image that’s important. If I’m correcting, I’m addressing the evil spirit behind the human façade. If you protect your image all you’re doing is reinforcing your pride, hiding the evil in you, and running away from God.

Good and help is not of God until your image has been smashed.

Keys to the Kingdom (Matthew 16:19)

The one key that unlocks the door to the kingdom of heaven, is “the DEATH of IMAGE”. That is, how I look in the eyes of other people. Until you give up the preservation and promotion of your image, you can’t be saved. King Saul talked himself into thinking he was great (1 Samuel 15:17). The fruit of that decision was envy and hatred of David because people sang his praises more than Saul’s. The consequence was hell.

‘Self’ rises up daily, so ‘death-to-self’ needs to be a daily exercise (Luke 9:23-26). You can’t do this in your own strength and you can’t do it without being treated unfairly, and like Christ, you learn to take it for His will.

The Ten Commandments are simply designed to expose my image

Image is another word for idol. Promoting or protecting IMAGE is a contravention of God’s second commandment … ‘do not make a graven image’. It may not be graven in stone or wood, but it’s engraved in your spirit. Protecting or promoting my image is the same as worshiping myself. The reason people lie and pretend to be good is simply to protect their image. It’s either image or it’s God. You can’t have both. Image is seeking the world’s favor. You can’t serve God and the world. Most Christians live in the middle, but that’s really just keeping the world happy so you don’t look bad in the eyes of the world, or get persecuted by the world.

James 4:4 … friend of the world, enemy of God.

Devaluing the Ten Commandments is a satanic plot to con humans to lower their resistance to sin and thus promote their image so they miss out on heaven with God

Satan tricked Eve with the temptation to be her own god (Genesis 3), and the same scam is still working today. It’s a clever GRACE scam, but it’s idol worship without even knowing it. It separates you from God because it’s wilful sin (1 John 3:4). Be as good as you like, it won’t save you. In fact, it conversely promotes evil (Proverbs 28:4 … they that forsake the law, praise the wicked), and that’s why the world is rising up and Christianity is decaying under the world’s intimidation.

The fruit of devaluing God and His commandments is a chaotic world, climate disasters, wars, disease, and a fake church that silently condones the world’s behaviour and undisturbingly watches sin being legalised. The world calls homosexuality, ‘love’. I call it ‘hate’ God. The world’s argument is … if God is irrelevant, then His laws are irrelevant, and thus I can do what pleases my flesh without any conscience. Plus, if a man is allowed to have sexual relations with a woman, who says it’s wrong for a man to have sexual relations with another man as long as they’re both consenting. The world defiantly says … I will do what I like and no God is going to tell me what I can and can’t do!

You can’t REPENT until you let God smash your IMAGE

Gideon smashed the image, then God could use him. Phineas speared the mocking evil that was destroying the Israelites (Numbers 25:8). You can’t escape destruction until you repent of your sin, and you can’t see your sin without letting God smash your image.

There’s a big difference between … I’m sorry for hurting your feelings, or … If I’ve done something wrong, I’m sorry, or … I’m sorry, but you make mistakes too, or … I’ll say sorry if you say sorry, too!

and, … I’m wrong, and I apologise unreservedly, and Lord God, I’m sorry for protecting my image and feelings instead of trusting you. Please forgive me.

The Truth

Why are people trying to be good? The answer is … Fear of looking bad and the pride of looking good. Until you sacrifice the fear and pride of what the world thinks of you, and the need to promote yourself in the eyes of others, and instead, give up your image to the will of God, Jesus will not open the door of heaven to you (Luke 14:33).

 

May God open the eyes of His remnant.

 

Pastor Samuel Abbel

 
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Posted by on February 1, 2020 in image

 

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Sermon 132 – The Love of Position

15 Sep

Good correction is an instruction that advises you that you’re doing something wrong. It’s an instruction designed to get you back on the right track when you’ve inadvertently stepped in the wrong direction with wrong analysis.

Pride, however, perceives and thus receives correction as a suggestion that “I’m bad”. Our pride turns correction into a ‘good and bad’ scenario, when it should be a ‘right and wrong’ issue.

Why does it do this?

Because pride is only interested in position, position, position. That’s all it ultimately cares about. You can camouflage your pride with as much exterior niceness as you like but underneath it all is the love of position, and this is the thing that Jesus came to save you from … the love of position. All pride is concerned about is … “I want to be above you”. Pride pretends to love its neighbour but in the depths of its heart it hates it when one’s neighbour gets an advantage over it.

Pride hates exposure, so it does anything it can to hide itself. The consequence of this hidden evil in us, is the solidifying of this evil by lying to ourselves that we are good, and thus the Evil One traps us in his web and manipulates us to unwittingly serve his will against God. Then, instead of breaking free from our sin at the point of correction, we reinforce the lie that we are good.

Lie to escape exposure

If correction is bad, why do we routinely lie to escape exposure of our wrong, and why do we routinely fear the embarrassment of the exposure? Obviously, because we’re too proud and selfish to let others think we are wrong. We don’t want to look bad, so we work our butt-off to show we are good, but our real objective is to avoid exposure of any bad, at all costs. We argue within ourselves that the more good we are the more the correction must be wrong. The ‘good-er’ we are the further from salvation we unknowingly wander, believing our own lie that our goodness is evidence of God in us. But, it’s all our own deception fuelled by our own evil pride.

Don’t tell me what to do

When you argue ‘good vs bad’ it’s simply an indicator of your pride. This means that the real underlying issue is the selfish belief … “I’m good, so don’t tell me I’m bad”. But, what this really means is … “you won’t tell me what’s right or wrong, I’ll decide, and you won’t tell me what to do; I’ll fix the issue myself, my way. Mind your own business”. It’s only at the point of correction that this spirit is exposed, and it’s at that point that one’s pride can be loosed from the demonic. Sadly, few surrender; most defend their pride. They still serve and worship God their way, but they’re not saved.

Pride doesn’t think it’s proud

Because pride can’t see its pride, it needs correction to expose it. The problem is, it’s so focussed on looking good, it sees any correction as rejection and a put-down, thus it constantly misses the door of salvation that God places before it.

Fake Goodness is Satanism

Pride won’t be told it’s wrong. In fact, pride won’t be told. Thus, pride is the practice of disrespect of authority, and the practice of incorrigibility. Thus, your pride protects you from being correctible, and thus pride is the root cause of fakeness and de-salvation.

Pride is always trying to show and re-affirm its goodness. Pride thinks it’s good, so it can’t handle any suggestion that it’s done anything wrong, because it hates feeling bad and looking bad. What pride doesn’t realise is that the more good you think you are, or the more you act that you are good, the more demonic influence Satan has over you. It’s really the spirit of Satan operating through you. The practice of pride is really the practice of Satanism. That’s why God hates it. That’s why it’s so hard to eliminate it from your spirit. This lying deception was inherited from Satan via Eve’s and Adam’s sin and refusal to repent. Pride is a direct inheritance from Satan. Retain your pride and serve God as much as you like. It will all be a waste of time and effort, just like Judas.

Fake Goodness (F.G.) retaliates

Fake goodness retaliates with blame for not letting them explain why they did what they did. F.G. shifts the responsibility so its own bad is not exposed. F.G. is focussed on what you think of me and can’t handle being thought less of. F.G. is just camouflaged pride. As I’ve already said, the more good you think you are, the more proud you are, and the more fake you are.

Only God is good, Luke 18:19

The rich young ruler indirectly asked Jesus to confirm to him that he was good. Doing good was his recipe for looking good in the eyes of his peers. Jesus made it clear; the answer is give up your position. Like most people it was too much to ask. So, if you think you are good then the truth is you’re just full of yourself, not God, and that’s what pride is. Consequently, pride judges others’ badness in the light of one’s own assumed goodness. This judgment actually verifies that you are not good (James 4:11), but pride can’t see it, so it bacterially flourishes and continues to be practiced indiscriminately.

Like the rich young ruler, once you find something that gives you value and supports your position in the eyes of others, it’s even more difficult to let your pride go and find God. The support becomes too valuable to you.

Feelings

Pride makes its judgments on its feelings. Pride believes if you make me feel bad, then you’re the baddie. Pride is always trying to show its goodness. Position by any means is all it cares about.

Do

The real reason we do things is to prove our self-worth in the eyes of others, and that’s why we can’t give up what’s of value to us, because these skills, or money, or successes, or popularity are the proof of our value. Instead of sacrificing them, we compromise to keep them and unwittingly instead, sacrifice the precious gift of salvation.

It’s not DO. It’s not FIX. Rather, it’s DIE to your pride. That means, openly expose you’re wrong and face the fear and the temptation to lie and blame. That’s the only way to free yourself from Satan’s evil spirits.

Good doesn’t cut it

The woman caught in adultery wasn’t good. Rahab wasn’t good. Samson wasn’t good. The thief on the cross wasn’t good. David wasn’t good; he murdered. Prostitutes are not good. The five foolish virgins were good. Good is not the requirement; exposing your pride is the requirement.

Jesus didn’t write-off the thief on the cross for being bad; He invited him into His kingdom at the point of his confession of wrong to a loving Saviour. He knew he was bad. He couldn’t fix the bad or the wrong, but he could face his embarrassment and give up his charade of toughness and lower his resistant position.

Pharisee and Tax Collector

In Luke 18:9, Jesus shares a parable about those who trust in their own goodness, yet at the same time, hate. The Pharisee spoke to his own mind about how good he was, whereas, the publican simply exposed his wrong and was saved. The Pharisee proved his goodness was a lie by passing judgment on the publican, in the light of his own goodness, and immediately confirmed his arrogant pride.

Good is always in your own mind

Good is never in the mind of a Christian. Like Christ, a Christian’s focus is serving the will of his Master, not in justifying why the Master should love him or do his bidding.  The Holy Spirit doesn’t pride Himself in His own goodness; He serves the will of the Father. The goodness that flows from a Christian should be Christ, not one’s own self-manufactured ability and fake purity. Fake purity is just piety, not love.

Pride vs. Humility

In simplicity, pride is calling someone a fool; whereas, humility comes via repentance, and repentance is seeing that you’re the fool. If you’ve never really seen your own folly, then your salvation is in vain. “Sorry” is an arrangement of convenient escape, but “repentance” is when you see your own folly, and without that revelation your pride is not broken. All that’s happened is, like Eve, you’ve talked yourself into believing in your own wisdom being right. But, clearly Eve’s wisdom wasn’t right, or she would’ve seen she was wrong.

Why does God advise against pride?

Pride is the fruit of the tree in the middle of the Garden. Pride tastes good, and pride looks good. It never looks bad. That’s so Satan can use it to manipulate you into thinking that you’re right (Genesis 3:5,6). But, the reason God advises against it is because pride will always end up hurting you. That’s why Satan sells it to you; to hurt you.

Everyone is either a Pharisee or a Publican or a Publican Pharisee

This parable is not just a story; it’s an evaluation of the human spirit. You can have different levels of Pharisee or Publican, but everyone exists in these two categories at some level. Everyone is born arrogant. Everyone is born fearful. Everyone is born a liar. You can either protect these qualities and reinforce you link your Satan, or you can expose them. What you choose to do at the point of correction will either lead you to salvation or to hell.

Salvation is simple

All you have to do is expose yourself. All you have to do is own up that you were wrong. All you have to do is face the fear of looking bad in the eyes of others. God does the rest. The problem is, almost everyone resists their conscience by explaining away their sin by blaming the other person, or justifying why they really didn’t do anything that bad, and so the opportunity for salvation is lost and sacrificed to protect one’s pride. You have to sacrifice your pride to be saved. You have to sacrifice your pride to be freed from Satan.

Conclusion

Ultimately, it’s not an issue of right or wrong, or good or bad. It’s an issue of … will you stop your pride and take the correction and admit you were wrong, no blame and no excuses.

No exposure, no salvation

Behold I stand at the door and knock (Rev.3:20). When Jesus is knocking on your door, Satan is also standing there whispering fears and lies into your mind. If you truly want to be saved you will always have to face the fear of embarrassment or the fear of persecution, and the temptation to lie, and the temptation to blame to protect yourself. It’s actually the temptation from Satan to fear and lie, that confirms that Christ is the one addressing your conscience. The fear is the sign of Christ’s presence, not from Him, but from the enemy trying to manipulate you away from Him. In fact, if you don’t face fear at a point of salvation, then it’s not Jesus that’s knocking. Yes, like Samuel, you can be saved as a child, and like Peter, you can walk with Christ and think you’re saved, but, somewhere along the walk you will have to face the fear of your convictions in order to seal your salvation (Luke 22:32). All you have to do is open the door and let your sin be exposed and you’ll realize that the fear was a Satanic inhibitor to block you from being free.

 

Pastor Rick McCauley

 

 
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Posted by on September 15, 2018 in Pride

 

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Sermon 108 – Correct me but don’t TELL me what to do

17 Oct

Over the years I’ve counselled many Christians who end up saying to me … I’m happy for you to correct me but don’t tell me what to do. When I dig deeper, what they’re really saying is … if you tell me what to do, then you’re not giving me the right to make my own decisions. If you tell me what to do, then you are making me feel incapable or stupid. I want to make my own decisions.

When I hit this impasse I know I’ve hit a demonic resistance. This person is happy to be a Christian as long as they retain the right to make their own decisions. The irony is, the Holy Spirit already knows He has the right to His own decisions; He doesn’t have to insist on it. When someone insists on that right they are revealing they are under the influence of an un-holy spirit.

Under a lying spirit

In truth, such a person is lying. This person doesn’t really want to be corrected at all, because there is no such thing as being correctable and yet not being willing to be told what to do to correct the error of judgment. What they are really saying is … I want your counsel, but not your authority. With your counsel I can weigh up all my options, and with my own authority I will make the choices that I think are best.

The thinking process of the anti-christ

An anti-christ spirit insists on its rights … you can tell me I’ve made a mistake, but now leave it with me to sort it out. It’s not your business. I’m capable to sort out my own issues. I have the right to make my own decisions. This spirit demands you listen to their explanations of why they did what they did, and then classifies you as rude if you don’t. Effectively, they actually hate being corrected, because correction is the state of being devalued in the eyes of others, and the state of having to give up what you want. The Word of God declares that if you are un-correctable then you are a bastard, not a son (Hebrews 12:8).

It’s the opposite process under the Holy Spirit

If someone who walks under the influence of the Holy Spirit makes an error of judgement they may not like being corrected but they open their heart to being told. They surrender to the correction and the being told. David made some serious errors of judgment but when it came to the correction there was no resistance.

Resistance to the correction is the measure of the spirit in you

Opposite to David’s response was King Saul in 1 Samuel 15. He resisted the correction, he explained and blamed, and when he saw he couldn’t get Samuel to back down, he pretended to be willing. It had nothing to do with serving God; it was all a scam.

Ultimately, any resistance to correction is the measure of your pride

A demonic spirit knows that your pride is its control point so it supports a person in preserving it; so a person has to act like they are willing to be corrected or they will expose their own pride, and pride can’t let this happen. Therefore, a resistant spirit must act willing to be corrected, but at the same time it has to retain its right to do what it wants, its own way. Whenever a Holy Spirit controlled person comes up against this resistance and demand for personal rights, he automatically knows he’s up against a spirit of anti-christ.

The sorry technique

Modern society believes that if you say sorry then the recipient has to forgive and reconcile. That’s not what happened between Jesus and Judas, nor between David and Saul. If you question a person’s sorry as genuine, a person under the influence of an anti-christ spirit will bite back with … I told you I was sorry, now stop pushing the point. I said I was wrong, now just get over it. It blames you for not accepting its apology and it tells you how to behave towards it; it won’t be told.

The diagnostic point

An anti-christ spirit will TELL you how you are to behave towards it, and that’s the diagnostic point; it actually doesn’t like being told, it only likes to TELL. That’s what pride is … TELL and not be told, but pretend to be willing to be told. So when someone in their spirit says correct me, but don’t tell me, they are declaring loud and clear what spirit it is that operates through them.

The modern thinking that exposes an anti-christ spirit

I have the right to my own thinking. Who says you know what’s right? My truth is just as valid as yours. If you’re being nasty to me then I have the right to be nasty to you. These are all the thoughts of Satan. The Holy Spirit does not think or speak that way. If you have any of these thoughts, you are of the spirit of anti-christ no matter how much you pretend to be of God.

Faith doesn’t have to see

I can’t see what you’re saying, and until I see it I can’t agree there is an issue. This is a statement of pride, not faith. The Bible declares that faith is the evidence of things not seen, Hebrews 11:1. If you are under the influence of the Holy Spirit, you know when the correction is true and you’ve done wrong. If you are under the influence of an anti-christ spirit, you will defend your right to see first.

Eventually, the Holy Spirit will leave

Like King Saul and Samson, you can be under the influence of the Holy Spirit and under the influence of an anti-christ spirit at the same time, but if you insist on retaining your pride, eventually the Holy Spirit will depart and leave you to your fate. Eventually, the character of the person changes from being helpful to being defiant, and a defiant spirit won’t be told that this is happening to them. I’ve seen this multiple times in the decay of the modern church.

How to beat a demonic spirit

The Pentecostal church teaches its flock to stand up against Satan by directly confronting him with Biblical text. This is just the pathway of pride, not faith. Michael the archangel didn’t do this technique (Jude 1:9), and neither did Jesus. You can’t win against Satan by defying him, rather it’s important to respect his position and power that the Father has delegated to him. You can only win by dying. The way Jesus defeated Satan was via the cross, fulfilling the will of His Father. If you want to be free from Satan’s power over you, it’s not by willing yourself to be good, or prophetically challenging Satan, it’s by dying to yourself by surrendering to whatever God the Father’s plan is for you. The reason the church can’t find the narrow way is because it refuses to travel via the path of death to self. It says is, but it’s lying to itself.

Salvation is really simple

The church teaches that Jesus died and did it all for us, but that’s only half the truth. The Word of God also teaches that the servant is not above the master. Jesus led the way to show His disciples the path to follow. Eternal life is via the cross, not by holding your position against someone who’s being unkind to you. He teaches this in Matthew 5:39 & Luke 14:26,27. If you don’t come to Christ via the cross, then you’re not saved. You actually can’t repent of your sin without dying to yourself and giving up your defensive position; it isn’t just sorry. The cross is a heart that says … ok God, if You have placed this spiteful person or issue in my path I’ll trust Your plan, not what I want. It doesn’t take the person on for hurting your feelings, but trusts the Lord with the outcome and without any expectation of getting the victory or vengeance. From this death position God raises you up above the opposing spirit, Philippians 2:7-11.

The reason the majority can’t find this simple way is that they are too proud to be told different to what they already believe. In simplicity, their own pride has fostered an anti-christ spirit to delude them to not be told; their pride wants to do it their own way. Too proud to cop it; too proud to lose; too proud to repent; too proud to be told; too proud to trust; too proud to be a nobody. Paul said “I count all things loss that I may win Christ.”

 

May the remnant of Christ awake!

 

Pastor Norm Wakefield

 
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Posted by on October 17, 2016 in Authority

 

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Sermon 107 – The Art of Christianity

12 Oct

Several years ago, a seemingly nice young man joined our fellowship. From all appearances he had everything … a well-paid job, a girlfriend, a nice car, plus our supportive fellowship. He attached himself to my family and we befriended him as a son. On the outside he appeared generous and helpful and appreciative, but there came a point where he didn’t like my judgment over a particular issue and a different spirit was revealed.

Over the years we had seen an old nature side to this young man that I often had to challenge. He often displayed envy towards my son. He regarded anyone who didn’t agree with his thinking as an idiot, and he was often casual and flippant with my instructions and ended up doing it his own way in his own time. On top of this, he had deduced that when I preached about bearing your cross, to him it meant having to tolerate the people God had put around him. These were the deductions of his youth and unfortunately, when they were exposed to him as sin, instead of repenting, he simply re-packaged them, and referred to them whenever he selected to. He had simply learnt the art of smoothness and coupled it together with the art of Christianity, and convinced himself that his generosity and helps proved he was a Christian.

In the course of time, his envy of my son, and his pompous intolerance of people, resulted in his heart lusting after the relationship I had with my son and family. From his position he didn’t think it was fair that I should love my son more than him. Eventually, he deduced that if he couldn’t have what my son had then he would copy my love and impose his control through his generosity onto another well-like family in our fellowship. Ultimately, God removed him and separated him from our fellowship.

As a pastor, I’ve seen this pattern of behaviour in so-called Christians far too often. I’m reminded of Ezekiel 33:31,32 … they come unto you as the people come and they sit before you as my people and they hear your words, but they will not do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goes after their covetousness. And lo, you are unto them a very lovely song of one that has a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument, for they hear your words but they do them not.

Warning

As I often warn my fellowship, the envy that’s inherent in the heart of man must be killed by your unconditional surrender to the will of God. Otherwise, this envy in your heart will fester and then everything you build your thinking on, everything you think is good and right, will really be false and sinking sand. Envy turns your thinking against the righteous, and like Simon the sorcerer, it ends up trying to buy or copy what’s in the heart of a righteous man. On the foundation of envy, sorry is never repentance, but just a quick way to escape embarrassment.

Tolerate

Unrighteous tolerance towards people is bearing people’s nonsense with spite and belittlement in your heart. It’s evidence that your heart is evil. Unrighteous tolerance is really a pompous snub towards God’s human creation and the selfish opposite of willing to serve God wherever and with whoever. The Holy Spirit doesn’t tolerate people with spite in His heart; He serves the will of God. When you allow yourself the privilege of feeling untolerated by someone, you’re simply living in the lie of your own imagination built on the foundation of your spiteful intolerance towards everyone else, but cleverly camouflaged by your coolness or niceness which is really the symptom of your own intolerance.

The evil vineyard keeper

In Matthew 21:33, we read the story of the evil vineyard keeper. Instead of the vineyard keeper being ever grateful for the opportunity to serve the Lord of the vineyard, he resented the fact that the Lord owned the vineyard and he had to work it. It wasn’t fair. When the son came to oversee the operation of the vineyard, instead of showing respect, they killed him with the stupid expectation of taking possession of the vineyard. But God isn’t gentle, meek and mild when it comes to justice and righteous vengeance. He kills the evil.

Biblical warnings

Of course, this is a parable of Satan’s grievance with God for not recognising him equal to or above Jesus His son. But it’s more than that. Anyone who wants what the Son has, is born of Satan, not God. Anyone who wants what the Son can give him is of the spirit of anti-christ. Anyone who wants what anyone else has, is an anti-christ. John warns us about such spirits. Jude seriously warns us about such spirits. James warns us about such spirits. Peter warns us about such spirits, and Paul warns us about such spirits. In fact, most of the bible, both old and new testaments are actually warnings about falling into league with Satan’s spies in the church. The warnings are real and even more pertinent for the remnant today.

Too many so-called Christians are working the Lord’s vineyard with resentment in their spirits and for the purpose of being recognised and acknowledged and valued. They’re instruments of Satan, not Christ. Too many Christians are practicing the art of Christianity without the heart of Christ. They’re not converted and they’re not saved. They’re enemies of Christ and their purpose is to divide, conquer and ultimately destroy and take over what you have. It’s tricky because they’re in sheep’s clothing.

Do you honestly think that Satan wouldn’t strike the heart of God’s people just as effectively within the church as outside it? Guerrilla warfare is far more effective than a direct frontal assault.

The two characters of a demonic spirit

One side of a demonic spirit can be generous, helpful and cooperative. That’s just a smoke screen. The true side of a spirit is seen when it eventually gets puffed up, expects to be valued, then unexpectantly gets corrected or put in its place for its inappropriate attitude. Like Samuel vs King Saul, you’ll know when you’re up against a spirit when it resists your correction, starts telling you how you are supposed to behave towards it, and wants to retain its position in the eyes of the people. Eventually, if you hold a righteous position in Christ, the scam is exposed and the true spirit gets revealed.

The battleground

Ephesians 6 teaches us that we are not fighting flesh and blood but demonic principalities and evil powers. The church teaches that these forces are external, but that’s the secondary battleground. The primary battleground is within us. It’s the battle between the forces of righteousness and the forces of unrighteousness. Once we concede to the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, the lusts of the eyes, the lusts of the flesh or the pride of life, then the force of righteousness is choked (Mark 4:19) and is only restored through sincere repentance.

The fight has intensified. Not a day goes by without hearing of some disaster or an increase in moral decay, suggesting that the end is nearer than we imagine, Matthew 24:7.

Hold firm your position in Christ and don’t worry about the world, nor lean on the world.

 

May God strengthen His remnant for His plan and purposes.

 

Pastor Norm Wakefield

 

 

 
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Posted by on October 12, 2016 in Deception

 

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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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