Tag

America

Is There Not A God?

By | Eyesalve

And they said unto him, There came a man up to meet us, and said unto us, Go, turn again unto the king that sent you, and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that thou sendest to enquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron? therefore thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die.” II kings 1:6

 

Though it may not be Baalzebub that you turn to, anytime you turn to any other source, be it people, programs, resources and such, instead of God, it could be asked; “Is it not because there is not a God” in America? Is not Almighty God the source of all your needs?

Eyesalve: Truth Has Perished

By | Eyesalve

But thou shalt say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the LORD their God, nor receiveth correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.” Jer. 7:28

 

Herein lies the reason that our politicians and most Americans can no longer tell the truth. “This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the LORD.” Truth has perished in America because this nation refuses to honor God.

Eyesalve: The Real Jesus

By | Eyesalve

And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.” Acts 5:42

 

Other bible translations of this verse say, “preach Jesus as the Christ.” The point is that the message that the disciples preached was one of proclaiming that Jesus is the Messiah whom they have been waiting for. In America, there are few that have not heard of Jesus. Even the cults and false religions heard of Jesus. We believers in America, no doubt preach that Jesus is the Savior of the world, but we have even a more difficult work before us. We need to preach and demonstrate who the real Jesus is. Preach the real Jesus, not the one made in man’s image.

America Needs revival

By | Articles

“Hezekiah began to reign when he was five and twenty years old, and he reigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that David his father had done. He in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the doors of the house of the LORD, and repaired them. And he brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together into the east street, And said unto them, Hear me, ye Levites, sanctify now yourselves, and sanctify the house of the LORD God of your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place” (II Chronicles 29:1-5).

 

One of my mentors said a statement in one of his sermons that went something like, “As the preacher goes, so goes the church, as the church goes, so goes the nation.” No doubt the preacher has a huge impact on the church. One of my brothers in Christ used to tell me that the pastor sets the tone for the church. It makes sense to think that if the pastor is spiritually strong, so will the church be; if the pastor is spiritually weak, so will the church be. However, saint of God, you will not be able to blame your pastor for your spiritual shortfalls because you have a Bible and the Holy Spirit teaching and strengthening you. I have seen Christians in dead churches rise above the prevailing attitude of that church and go on to be men and women of God. None of us have a legitimate excuse.

When it comes to the thought that the church impacts a nation, there is great truth to that. Yet I would not be too quick to make an absolute out of it, especially when we know Rome was a morally wicked nation that persecuted Christians. In the midst of Rome; the early church was united and powerful. I am sure that the early church had some impact on Rome. When Rome did concede to the church, we got the Roman Catholic Church out of it.

You don’t need super spiritual eyes to see that America is corroding at an incredible rate, and that the church in America is turning carnal and lukewarm. It seems that many of us are quick to blame the church for the deterioration of America. In some ways, we are making a correct judgment. It sure looks like America is failing because the church is failing. As we see moral failure in the church, we see America falling even deeper into the pit of moral degradation. As we see the church downplay and skirt around the truth, we see a nation with politicians bankrupt of integrity. I do think it is safe to say that as the church in America is, so is America.

However, the Bible also teaches us that in the last days, evil will abound and love will grow cold. This is happening right before our eyes. It is a fearful thing to witness, yet it is also exciting to see the very words of the Bible become such a reality in our day. Have you ever heard the term “relevant?” I am sure most of you have. It is a term that is used quite often in church advertisements. They want to let everyone know that they are relevant to today’s culture and that their preacher preaches relevant messages. I was having lunch one day with a pastor who was passionately telling me how he wants to preach relevant messages. I was a little confused by this statement, so I asked him to give me an example of how the word of God isn’t relevant to our day. He immediately replied back, “Well, the word is always relevant.” To that I say amen, to that I say then preach the word. So I encourage any preacher who wants to preach a relevant message to just preach the word of God. Have you ever considered that I Timothy 4:1-3 and II Timothy 3:1-5 speak more of the day we live in than the day that Paul penned those scriptures? The things that Paul wrote in those portions of scripture were pointing to a future day. We are in that future time right now and these scriptures are being fulfilled in an incredible way. How much more relevant can the word of God be than that?

So I make the point that the church does have an impact on the nations, yet I am convinced we are living in the days that nothing can stop the increase of iniquity because the Bible says it is going to happen. I am not suggesting that we all lay back and do nothing, for the Lord could delay His coming for some decades. I can’t help but to see that the signs are all around us and I believe that we are in the very closing hours of this church age. While society is deteriorating at an alarming rate, we must understand that we are still called to be light and salt to our nation, no matter what condition she is in. It seems that the nation is having a stronger influence on the church than the church is having an influence on the nation. If that be the case then the church is in desperate need of revival.

I believe revival of the church in America is the greatest need of this hour. The American church has become so Laodicean in that she thinks she is rich and in need of nothing, but knows not that she is wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. Yet God never chastises His people without leaving them with great hope. God invites us to buy gold tried in fire that we can be spiritually rich. He invites us to buy white raiment to cover our spiritual nakedness and anoint our eyes with salve that we can see the kingdom of God.

The southern kingdom of Judah had its ups and downs. The northern kingdom mostly had its downs. The northern kingdom was the first to fall because every king, since and including Jeroboam, did evil in the sight of the Lord. Judah had twenty kings. Eight did was right in the eyes of the Lord and twelve didn’t. One of those kings that did what was right was Hezekiah. He was the son of Ahaz. Ahaz was wicked and closed the house of the Lord. Hezekiah opened it back up and brought revival to Judah. He had all the filthiness removed from the holy place. Saints, we need this kind of revival here in America. America may have gone off the deep end, but we can still experience a revival amongst the church. Revival isn’t for the spiritually lost, though it affects them. Revival is for the church. You can only revive something that once had life. You can only wake up a people after they have gone to sleep. You cannot revive someone that hasn’t been born again. There has to have been life at one time. However, when the church does experience revival, it has a great impact on the lost. When saints are revived there is a renewed desire for evangelism and there is a holy fearful conviction that flows from God’s people. PRAY FOR REVIVAL!

 

“And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things” (Acts 5:11).

 

More About Truth

By | Articles

It was not my intention to follow up my last article, “The Truth About Truth” with another message about truth, but after reflecting more on this subject, I figured there is not a better time than now to bring out some more thoughts about truth.

Last month I shared how truth is more than something factual, truth is a person by the name of Jesus Christ. If you love Jesus, you love truth. If you downplay truth, you downplay Jesus. I also brought out how truth is what sets men free. So why in the world would the church ever mess around with the truth by trying to skirt around it? Proclaim the truth and let it, or I should say, let Him do His work. Another point I made about truth is that we can never really worship God unless it is in Spirit and truth. If your life is a lie, don’t think singing, shouting and raising your hands during a song service is going to be received by a holy God full of grace and truth. Then the very last point I made was that one of evidences of love is that it “… rejoiceth in the truth;” (I Cor 13:6). Real love, love for God, loves truth. If truth is diminished in a believer’s life, then understand, so is their love for God.

Now on to some more teaching about truth, right from the book of truth, and taught by the Spirit of truth. The Spirit only knows truth; He only speaks truth and fits the description as being the Spirit of truth. When we become born again believers, God freely gives us His Spirit of truth to dwell inside us. Joh 14:17 says, “Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” What a privilege, saints of God: We get the very Spirit of truth living in us Who will work in us and bring forth a living manifestation of truth. Everything we say must be true, and the life we live must be true. The Spirit accomplishes this in us when we cooperate with Him. Paul, writing to Timothy, called the church, “the pillar and ground of the truth” (I Tim. 3:15). Truth is what settles and establishes the church so she cannot be moved from the Rock she is founded on. Truth is the root that that goes down deep to anchor the church. Lies and deception dig away at the roots. If you disturb the roots of a tree, that tree becomes unstable. If Christians start downplaying and avoiding the truth then the church becomes susceptible to everything the devil will throw at her.

Joh 16:13 “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.” What a promise we have from Jesus. God will never leave us stuck somewhere between the false and the truth. As long as you brother and sister in Christ, have the desire and determination to walk in the truth, the Spirit of truth will guide you into all truth. It will be a lifetime pursuit, but all along the way the Spirit will be revealing the truth to you in a greater measure. There is never an excuse that we can come up with that will justify our ignorance of truth. We all are responsible to make sure we know, embrace and walk in the truth. We are warned over and over in our bibles to guard our hearts and to take heed that no man deceives us. As long as we are yielded to the Spirit of truth, it is impossible to be overcome by deception. There can certainly be moments when we can be deceived along the way, but that is when the Spirit of truth does His work. He reveals any deception we may be falling for as nothing other than a lie from hell. When the Spirit reveals to us things we believe to be false, we must then reject those beliefs immediately. If we refuse to, we then have willingly started down the path of deception and we are not only rejecting truth, but we are also rejecting Christ.

It is apparent that much of the church in America is bankrupt of truth. Be mad at me for making such a statement if you want, but consider this: If all the Christians in America would set their hearts and minds to really know the truth, the Spirit of truth would then guide us all into all truth. That alone would demolish our denominational separations; that would cause countless numbers of Christians to abandon dead truth rejecting churches to unite under the Spirit of truth. Sure, most churches believe and agree on many doctrinal issues. In fact I believe that they agree on more than they disagree on. However, Jesus said the Spirit of truth would lead us into ALL, let me say that again, ALL truth. Therefore church, we must believe and walk in ALL TRUTH. No excuses will be accepted.

Every so often you will meet believers that have faithfully served the Lord for many years, and yet have testimonies that they worked (or strived or endured) through all the confusion and worldly influence that had been so much a part of their church experiences. How did they do that? How did they have the ability to discern what God is in and what He is not? How did they know what was true and what wasn’t? It is by none other than the Spirit of truth. Saints, we have no excuse for any blindness we may have toward the truth. Let the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, guide you into all truth. When He reveals the truth, you are then accountable to that truth. Be brave, be bold and rise up with other saints all across this country to believe God and our bibles the way we should.

Eyesalve: City of Truth?

By | Eyesalve

“Thus saith the LORD; I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth; and the mountain of the LORD of hosts the holy mountain.” Zech 8:3

The politicians here in America have lost the ability to tell the truth. I know that is a major frustration to many of us. Zechariah tells us what is going to make Jerusalem to be called the city of truth, is when the LORD returns to that city and dwells among the people. The only way any city or nation can be called a city or nation of truth is when the Lord is there dwelling among the people. America has rejected God and therefore has no ability to be a truthful nation. Pray that Americans repent and turn back to God, and that truth will go marching on.