Let us consider for a moment the following words –

 

“To realise the Divine Presence of God and discover even something of the immensity of his power;  be touched by the mysterious fire of his love,  have an incredible experience of joy and exquisite awareness of the presence of God in a way you have never known before.“

 

This must surely be the desire within the heart of every sincere Christian who loves Christ and would like to know him more.

 

We long to be free from the shackles of sin, sickness, pain, despair, grief, loneliness and given perhaps the ability to cope with relationships through empowerment in the work and person of  Christ and to do this we need to be empowered to do this by Him.

 

We know that to achieve the freedom that we seek we need to be united with Christ in a way that is deeper and more committed.  He will provide His power to us to walk in freedom as we draw closer to Him.  This is the ultimate it seems for all of us in our Christian walk.  To look to Christ as our model, to visualise Him.

 

“His  power that can be ours –   we only have to ask.  All this is for those who are chosen by God.”    Since we all know that we have been especially chosen by God to be His then we also know that we only have to ask and we will be given what we ask.  “Ask and you shall receive.”  After all God does not give you a stone if you ask for a fish now does he.”

 

These words are tantalising and as smooth as silk to our jaded spiritual appetites and  from the biblical viewpoint, these statements stand in stark contrast to the road God has called us to take. In His work of sanctification our Lord does not promise that our road will be easy for those He loves He disciplines and we will be tested by fire.

 

The disturbing and confusing thing is that all of the statements contained in the first four paragraphs above are just some Hindu concepts of the New Age movement.

 

The subtle, sinuous, coils of the serpent creep into our spiritual man.

 

 “Don’t pray and empty your minds.”

 

We comply with these requests by our spiritual leaders. After all: “They are chosen by God,”  we are assured.    They must know the Bible better than I do.  Don’t get into it much.   Too busy!    We are told that we shouldn’t pray so we can receive the prayer more effectively.   There have so been many times we have prayed quietly as we have submitted ourselves to another for prayer.  Why then, should it be so different now?

The deception is firmly in place and we have become desensitised.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How much easier it is to bathe ourselves in the delicious pleasures of experience than put carpet time in before God.   Easier than acknowledging our sinful state before God,  our lack and desperate need before a Holy and Mighty God.

 

Ultimately we find ourselves less involved in prayer.  Somehow we don’t seem to need the daily application of the word of God to our minds.  We now have a better way to be spiritually satisfied.   We can receive instant power.

 

Men such as Rodney Howard Brown called out to God “give me your power God otherwise I am going to come up and get it.”

Perhaps he should have added   “Not your will be done God,  but my will be done”.

He was filled with power alright – but what power?

God is not into the business of being a power-broker.  He is not into empowering people.   Nor is power is not a spiritual commodity we should seek to acquire for ourselves.

 

If Jesus were standing right beside any one of us he would be seriously concerned with us having the vaguest notion that we should pursue a need to possess the ability to empower other people.  He must be grieved to watch our attempts to pass on the power we have acquired through some man then to pass it on to others and believe that this power  comes from God.

 

There have been Pastors in this city who have sent their leadership to other churches to take this  “blessing of joy”  and pass it on.    What about the churches who havn’t got  “it”?     I thought the Holy Spirit was everywhere.    I know the Holy Spirit isn’t an  “it”  He is a person.  The Holy Spirit is available to everyone it does not have to be delivered.  God does not need our help to make His Spirit available does He?

 

The harsh reality is that to “practise”  the presence of God,  and call for His power,  is anything but Christian than  attempts to visualise Jesus.

 

I believe that Christian sounding concepts are an attempt by the devil to deceive the Christian into accepting New Age doctrines.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A spirit of life and fire and wisdom

Those who have experienced the “mysterious fire of his love” and have known of his “spiritual energy” as their bodies jerked in the belief that they experienced the power of God  may well have discovered the effects of the arousal of the Kundalini spirit which is practised in Yoga, an occultic discipline.

 

Yoga originally developed by emphasising the sayings of an Indian sage who lived about 300BC named Patanjali.  These sayings, called “sutras” in Hinduism, contain the necessary steps that must be taken in preparation for the practise of yoga.34.

 

Patanjali emphasised the need for one to control and still one’s mind. When one empties one’s mind, as is required in yogic meditation, one in fact lowers his own will to such an extent, that the safeguard that was given by God to protect man from evil influence, is completely removed.  Thus to control and empty one’s mind is a dangerous practice which could, and does, open the door that leads to demonic oppression.35.

 

I make note of a conversation I had recently with a lady who practises Sahaja Yoga. I discovered her business practice quite easily in our local  “yellow pages”  under “Yoga”.

 

I sought to discover how the Kundalini spirit could be aroused and the reactions of the recipient when this was done and this is how the conversation was conducted:-

 

ME: “G…can you tell me please what the Shakti Pat is?”

 

G… “The Shakti Pat is the area where the fontenelle is.  You can see it in a very young baby.  It is the area that goes up and down on top of the head.”

 

ME: “What do you do when you arouse the Kundalini spirit?”

 

G “Oh, I can do that for you for free very easily.  Just come along and see me.”

 

ME: “Do you touch the Shakti Pat to arouse the Kundalini spirit …”.

 

G… “Yes, you do that but there is a special way of doing it.”

 

ME: “What does a person feel like when he experiences the arousal of the Kundalini spirit.”

 

G… “Well, firstly it is very important to feel a sense of coolness in one’s finger tips and a sensation of a cool and gentle breeze blowing.  Then as the Kundalini rises you have an incredible experience of joy and an awareness of the presence of God in a way that you have never had before.  A born again Christian with the Holy Spirit of God living in them could easily bring up the Kundalini experience. They have the ability to do this better than anyone else.”

 

ME: “Are there any other sensations that one might expect to feel.”

 

G… “Yes, you can have a burning sensation in your hands and tingling and feel hot all over.”

 

The controlled awakening of the Kundalini is one of the main objects of several branches of Hindu occultism.  The “serpent of life, fire and wisdom” can be aroused and properly directed to energise the body and soul.  The experiences associated with the awakening of the Kundalini spirit are varied.

 

At first many sounds are heard; perhaps the sound of the distant ocean and one becomes giddy;  the mouth fills with saliva; the voice of inner silence;  the word;  an experience of seeing dots of light, flames of fire;  illusive bright images;  bright circles of light;  an experience of exquisite joy and radiance and an overwhelming sweetness and presence of God.36.

 

There has been a worldwide revolution taking place over the last century invading every area of our society.  The Christian Church has always occupied the place of predominance on the devil’s hit list but today, as never before, I believe that his strategies are disguised by terminology that sounds Christian but is decidedly anti-Christ. Those who do not spend enough time studying the Bible, investigating sound doctrine are wide open to deception.

 

We have watched the truths of God’s Holy Scripture invaded and distorted by the “name it and claim it doctrine”, “possibility thinking”  and “positive confession of faith, “believe it and receive it doctrine” and the cruel and dangerous statements of those who command people to “stand in their healing”.

 

As for the poor unfortunate counsellees who seem to be unable to receive and believe;  to stand in their healing and perform as commanded because of the nature of their illness;  they are then condemned to the long ranks of the rebellious or charged with not having enough faith to believe.

 

There are those too who peddle the word of God for their substantial financial gain under the banner of “healing ministries” and declare people to be “healed” when they very obviously are not.

 

This must be the cruelest of all for both family and victim alike.  The family,  relaxing in the trust of faith that the loved one is healed – “this time.”

 

The victim, claiming their healing and “standing in it” believing that they have received.

 

After all we are assured:    “you don’t get a stone when you ask for a fish.”

 

Then to discover, after pills have been determinedly thrown down the “big white telephone”,  that the loved one has returned, as usual,  to the madness of schizophrenia or some other agonising disorder.

 

The horrible results of challenging the person who ministers to the victim finds one in a situation where a dozen or so Scriptures are delivered at such an alarming rate you reel back under the blast,  retire to your corner to come up for air and consider the apparent hopelessness of pursuing this tack any longer.

The frustration of knowing that any attempt to prove the cruelty and wickedness of this man in his exploitation of the most vulnerable will be nothing but a most futile exercise.

Firstly it would be necessary to sit down with this unpleasant man who has claimed to be the purveyor of God’s healing,  ask him for evidence of the Scriptures he has claimed justifies this non-event – I have found it hard to extract this information,  but if you are successful, then research the Scriptures he has used to determine the validity of his claims.  However, I tried and gave up.  Forty years experience with Pitman’s Shorthand left me ill equipped.   I was buried under an avalanche of Scripture delivered with a powerful presence of rage and with scathing contempt.   How dare I have the temerity to question?    I knew that what I was hearing was an absolute distortion of the truth.  This man was using the Mosaic Law to condemn and convict, placing heavy yokes on people to bring them into further bondage.   Do these people not know that Christ was the end of the law and that He fulfilled all its requirements and that we are now under a different covenant and under the Law of Christ?   (See the Eight covenants of the Bible – Ariel.org)

Then I challenged him with the fact that he had made the statement (twice) that my daughter was healed, therefore, why wasn’t she?   His heated response was that it was her fault that she was not healed due to the colossal sins she had been in.

Now God supernaturally has healed or He has not.

 

When you have proved what a charlatan he really is  –  what then?  Nothing.  He has flown the scene back to the United States from whence he came and you are left with one sick daughter or son.

You give up?

No.   You get on your knees ask God to help you forgive the outrage and violence of this man’s emotional abuse, flagrant lying and whatever else you reckon he is.   Hand it all over to Jesus and seek His comfort and peace.  Then keep on praying and believing that God will heal your loved one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I know God does answer prayers for people to be healed in Jesus’ name today. Jesus can heal our physical ailments.   I believe that Matthew 4: 23 is for us today as it was for the time that Jesus preached in Galilee but we must ensure that we have a balanced faith life.

So many are caught up in the showmanship of people such as Benny Hinn and Kenneth Copeland whose heresies are well documented and who make extraordinary yet unproven claims of healing.

It is dangerous for Christians to pursue healing from ministries whose leaderships declare extra-biblical phenomena to have a mix of witchcraft and God.   I have actually had a Pastor say to me “well what does it matter if it is demonic as long as you are healed that is what matters.”  You see they know the truth of the situation that they are deliberately exposing the ignorant and gullible to demonic healing.   These wretched men do not know how to divide the Word of God correctly –  they never had the truth.  They have been peddling a false gospel for years and most probably are not even saved.

God does not heal everyone who asks to be made well again otherwise no one would die.   What is God really saying in 1 Peter 2:24:-

 “and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.”

Our Lord died that we would we healed from our unbelief.   He died in exchange for our sin. The correct condition for salvation is that our faith must be placed in Jesus Christ as our Saviour as a substitute for our sin, and that He was buried and rose again in a body that could be touched, handled and seen and subsequently resurrected in bodily form. Jesus has saved us from the due penalty for our sin – the “lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death”  (Revelation 21:8) where the souls of those who have not believed on Him will suffer for all eternity..

Primarily Jesus carried out His miracles of healing the sick to prove to the Jewish nation of that day that He was their long-awaited Messiah. He wanted His people to be free from the bondage of being law-keepers but their pride was too great and chose to keep their 613 laws and in so doing committed the unforgivable sin – the rejection of the Messiahship of Jesus.

 

When we first believe in the gospel we are saved yet God’s salvation process continues until we are released into His glory.  I sometimes consider that sanctification is God’s processing plant wherein we will know a continual healing for all our anger, grief, shame and sin as the Lord works within us.

 

God is an amazing God.  He has done so much with this self-sufficient, determined little lady.  Only the Lord could have brought me to where I am today.  He has healed me from so very much.  Post traumatic stress and all the accompanying effects of rage, grief, terrible shame and recurring memories of the terror of horrendous child abuse.  I know God’s grace, His love and mercy, healing and deliverance in my life in Jesus name.

 

For so very many years I had overcome with self-sufficiency and determination.  “Let go and let God”   Christians would say to me.   What did they mean?  How could I do that?  I really did not know.   All those years of struggling and hard work and then the Lord brought me out of it all in His perfect timing.    It has taken so long to discover my Daddy God and what a wonderful patient and loving God He is.  “The Lord disciplines those whom He loves”.

 

 

 

 

 

A train-ride to death

 

A world-wide satanic plan has been on the move for some time now to develop the power within a person and attract the powers without.

 

There are certain church movements whose leadership feed on those who are vulnerable and easily led.  They push submission to leadership for all they are worth and anyone who may question is accused of rebellion.  There are some people who have the impression that to be a good Christian means obeying some pastor or leader.   The controlling influence of these self-appointed leaders affects the psyche of a man-pleaser so deeply that even the attire and mannerisms of the revered leader are copied.   I have been a witness to this sad state of affairs.   Clearly, those who are open to such control are most sensitive to autosuggestion.  There were quite a number of people who said they preferred to fence sit and the Pastor dealt with any resistance by advising them of the terrifying consequences of “blaspheming the Holy Spirit”.   If one should persist in pursuing a need for biblical answers to be provided for extraordinary activities then a clear choice was given –

 

“if you have not come here today to get up front under the power you may as well go home”.

 

To those who are alone in life and think that all they have heard and witnessed is what the Christian church is all about  there is a much safer option – RUN.   The terrors of returning to loneliness is more than they can bear.   These lost lambs will stay in the church for fear of disfellowshiping and bend to its bunch of controllers who have no sound biblical knowledge whatsoever.  One really has to question whether these poor lost souls are really saved.  The true gospel message has never been provided (1 Corinthians 15:1-4) and the necessity for extra-biblical experience elevated as being necessary to bring people to saving faith.

 

These same organisations encouraged adherents to become full members by signing a written covenant wherein they agreed to a list of unbiblical activities.   This has the effect of placing people in a situation where feel they must comply or they will be found out not to agree with a leadership they have been taught is God given.  People in such organisations believe that to disagree with leadership is rebelling against God.   These wicked leaders use fear and ignorance to exercise control over their flock and people feel unable to challenge these abusers.

 

Pastors and leaders who resent criticism and feel intimidated by members of the congregation who question the biblical legitimacy of that which would appear to have no biblical base are clearly at risk of being deceived.  In fact they are already deceived.  So subtle is the enemy that churches whose life and substance they believe has been based sound doctrines and the unchanging word of God and genuinely do not seek to add to its truths are still capable of being deceived by the spiritual nature of New Age teachings.  Many church leaders think it satisfactory to permit Yoga classes and/or the teaching of the martial arts to be held on church premises and are not equipped to teach about the dangers lurking within health food stores for the unwary.  The evils of Freemasonry  are also  unknown to them  and so both they and their flock dine on New Age activities in ignorance.

 

Hundreds of thousands of people throughout the world who have climbed upon the train of love,  unity and networking, power and joy have fallen victim to a spiritual conspiracy.   This journey once embarked upon does not fill us with the beautiful discoveries of the truth of His Holy Word.  A spiritual veil appears to have covered those who have entered in and partaken of that which is not written.   I know that there have been so many who have lost interest in reading their Bibles.  A spiritual ban seems now to be in place.

 

It is so important for the Christian to know Jesus more through the pages of his precious Word, and to be washed (sanctified) by spiritual truth?  I have to question whether those who have fallen for this deception ever had “the truth” in the first place.  What gospel do they believe in?

 

The reality is that all efforts by any amount of pastors and leaderships amount to nothing in God’s eyes unless they stand on biblical truth and preach that truth and its life-changing precepts.

 

Strategies that have been put in place to bring about “revival” have left people in those congregations with a variety of “experiences” which are shallow and every prophecy of man which has spoken of revival has provided us with yet another dry spiritual aperitif.

 

The appetite of  the spiritual man continues to dine in poverty of spirit.

 

Those who hang on to the words of those who proclaim Revival to be just around the corner I believe are misled.  There have been varied claims that revival has taken place and thousands have been saved.  How do they know?  It would be impossible to question every person and to ensure they truly accept 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 as necessary to salvation.   In fact I have made a point of asking many people (Christians) if they know what 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 says and they do not know and do not want to know.

 

Widespread Revival will not come until the middle of the Great Tribulation when the 144,000 Jews are sealed and will go forth to carry the gospel to the world.   They alone will be ready with the Word for they will know the Old Testament practically verbatim and only have to know the message of the New Testament.

 

How many of us have prayed and hoped as prophecy after prophecy,  given by “approved people” claiming revival will be in three years, or soon,  or just around the corner have been recorded and discussed.

 

Together we stand in the market place of the New Age.   We can buy into its wares and unlock the fatal promises of new powers, exquisite joy and an abundant and meaningful life,  or take the road which may appear to be tougher now but will yield a crop of fruit found only by an application of the Word of God to our sin-riddled lives.

 

God offers the permanency of different promises only to be found by taking up our cross of identification in Jesus Christ.  The way is often hard and He alone can ease the journey.  He longs to remove the stones and rocks within us and replace these with His Living Water.  The mountains we cross oft seem like literal geographical objects.

 

(Matthew 17: 20)

He replied, “because you have so little faith, I tell you the truth, if you have faith, as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, “Move from here to there and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

 

Sadly this Scripture has been misinterpreted  and has been used to justify hyper-charismatic phenomena.  It is the power of Almighty God that brings about healing – not faith in faith.  Jesus sought to emphasise that faith in Him, in the power of His name – Jesus, based on His teachings was enough to set demons to flee.

 

In verse 17   the disciples were asking Jesus why they were unable to drive out a demon from the little boy.   Jesus was pointing to their lack of faith.

 

The comparison He draws between the particle of a mustard seed to that of a mountain  is used to demonstrate that if we trust in God’s abilities to produce results we can be over-comers because we are in Him and He in us by His Holy Spirit.

 

Today which store will you shop in?   The store that offers the fascination of New Age wares to fill a spiritual vacuum produced by lack of prayer and little or perhaps no sound biblical study.  Or will you choose to discover and to then rely on the sufficiency of the Word of God as an answer to the difficulties of your life.

 

I hope that today you make the right decision even though it may seem to be the more difficult choice.