Rise to Fly with Eagles

Eph 4: 11So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

This verse has been very precious to me thru all my years with Jesus.  It simply points out the purpose of God in the Church and for the Church pulpit and more importantly the final goal of it all, maturity.

Casually reading over this verse seems like God gives to the Church the 5 fold ministry, the pulpit, so they would have a job.  Unfortunately we have mis-read.  It said He gave the 5 fold ministry to equip the people to do the work, their work.  (the pulpit is not to do the work but the people are! )   There is where we missed it.  We thought the purpose of the pulpit was to have a job to minister to the people.  But actually the purpose of the pulpit is to work themselves out of a job. How?  By equipping the saints to do the work of their ministry.  

Rather than teaching the people to do the work of the ministry we have built huge congregations, crystal cathedrals, men's kingdoms and padded pew full of people who know nothing about maturity and doing the work of their own ministry.   "Sit here, pay and pray" and we will do the rest, the pulpit cries!   We hired professional "pulpiteers" to pipe pretty words to us, filling us with the pride of life and pride of belonging to Big Church! 

We have learned to reach the lost by inviting them to comer hear "our preacher" and that is the extent of the work of our ministry.   "Join my church!"  

The pulpit has made us dependent on the 20 minute bullet sermon and caused us to think we walk in full maturity because we "belong".   Pay  and pray is the work of our ministry and the pulpit loves it so.  The pulpit keeps us dependent upon them rather than teaching us to walk in maturity where we don't need tutors.

Feeding the hungry, visiting the sick, orphans and widows in their afflictions has been reduced to dropping a couple of dollars in the plate.  We have hired hireling to pipe to us fables of prosperity, meaningless feel good sermons, and money as a means to godliness and keep on paying and praying  you are doing fine.  They lie. 

This is an accusation toward the pulpit, whose works is not to keep us saved but to equip us with the maturity we need to do the work of our very own ministry.  The pulpit Instead of teaching us to fly with eagles they keep us in the hen yard scratching for worms!   The Body of God in the earth is powerless to lift themselves off the padded pews to go to work.

Preacher if you are the ones saying "they can't be saved without me", then you are the problem not the solution.

Be blessed. BW and Jan

Do Christians and Muslims worship the same God?

The Muslims teach:

Quran, 5:17, "In blasphemy indeed are those that say that Allah is Christ the son of Mary. Say: "Who then hath the least power against Allah, if His will were to destroy Christ the son of Mary, his mother, and all every--one that is on the earth? For to Allah belongeth the dominion of the heavens and the earth, and all that is between. He createth what He pleaseth. For Allah hath power over all things."

Quran 5:75, "Christ the son of Mary was no more than a messenger; many were the messengers that passed away before him. His mother was a woman of truth. They had both to eat their (daily) food. See how Allah doth make His signs clear to them; yet see in what ways they are deluded away from the truth!"

The Bible teaches:  God was manifest in flesh I Tim 3:16

Jesus is the only image of the invisible God: Col 1: 15

The World was made by Him (Jesus)  John 1:3, 10

The antichrist denies Jesus is God   I John 2:22

Since Christians believe the Jesus is Almighty God robed in flesh, Creator of the World,  Son in redemption and the Spirit of regeneration and the Muslim are antichrist in that they deny Him (Jesus) who is the One True God I John 5:20 . 

We do not and cannot profess we worship the same God.  Our God's has a saving the only name Jesus, whom the Muslims deny.  They then are antichrist.  (Acts 4:12)

Even the Birds love His Word

Even the birds love His Word!

Matthew 13:4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.

If you were to go into the bedroom of a person well beloved, but someone you did not know, you might spend time looking for something they had written.  Perhaps a diary or a journal so that you could get to know this person so beloved.  

All of my 23 years during my B.C. days (before Christ in my life), I hungered to know God.  I always wanted to know what is the real truth and the real meaning of life.  Surely there is more to life than: he was born and died, and a few things in between!  

When I met Jesus in 1973 it was upon a deal that I made with God.  Show me truth, 100% truth and I will live for You.  He showed me His Word.  From that day to this I have loved His Word, eaten His Word, studied His Word that I might know Him in Truth.  Along with His Word He left me His Spirit so together I might partake in the divine nature of God, in Spirit and Truth.  

Why, even the birds love His Word!   

I see people who say they love Him, yet they do not love His Word and all I can say about that is they did not get what I got!  

I found in preaching for 40 years it is easy to preach, because people don't know His word so they can be entertained by stories.   I also found in 40 years of preaching  it is hard to preach His word because people do not know His word so it is hard to teach of the deeper things of God.   There is a vast difference between being entertain and being taught.  A difference between a 20 minute sermon (3 bullet points, and a joke) and really digging out the pearls of God's Truths.

The Word says: it is not the man that starts the race that wins the prize but we must finish the race.  Some quickly receive the good news but then dry up and blow away in the heat of life.  You see they didn't love His Word.

How can we not live to love and eat His Word, the Bread from heaven?  

Why, even the birds love His Word.  

BW

The Church and the Mark of the Beast

1.  We know that the dead in Christ are to be raised at the 1st resurrection.  I Thess 4:16

2.  Then we which are alive and remain will also be caught up in the 1st resurrection.  I Cor. 15:51

3.  The rest of the dead live not again until the 2nd resurrection.  Rev 20:5

4.  Those who take part in the 1st resurrection will rule and reign with Jesus for 1,000 years in the city of Jerusalem in Israel.  I Thess 4:17

5.  We have been falsely taught that we will not be here during the Wrath of God, or Jacob's trouble, but will float away on flowery beds of ease in a pre-tribulation rapture.

6.  Falsely taught:  The Mark of the Beast and the Anti-Christ reign will be AFTER the Church has been caught up in the 1st resurrection, according to modern church teaching call a pre-tribulation rapture.

7.  Unfortunately the Word says that the martyred during the Mark of the Beast will take part in the 1st resurrection (Rapture).  Rev 20:4

8. Fact is the Church will be here during the reign of the Anti-Christ and the Mark of the Beast and will not be caught up until the 1st resurrection which is when Jesus comes back to rescue natural Israel from total destruction.  Matt 24:22

9.  The modern church is ill- prepared to face persecution because of the false teaching of the pre-wrath rapture doctrine.

10.  The pulpit has failed in their job to prepare us to face hard times, by teaching the prosperity doctrine of building men's kingdoms and the "Rapture".  When hard times do come will He find faith on the earth?  2  Thess 2:3, Luke 18:8

Go in and Possess the Land

The things that happened to natural Israel happened for our lessons of learning, our examples.  We are suppose to look at their adventures or misadventures and learn from them, spiritually speaking.  

All my "religious" life I was taught that to cross the muddy Jordan river and enter the Promise Land was to die and then go to heaven.  That is what the Promise Land meant.  No wonder with that mentality of false doctrine we are willing to stay in the "wilderness of religious worship" all our lives until we drop dead!

Israel was to go in and possess the Promise Land.  To go in and take it by force!  They were to kill all the inhabitants in war, all  men, women, and children.  Does that sound like heaven?  There were walled cities to be conquered.  Does that sound like heaven?  There were giants to be killed.  Does that sound like heaven?  They were to conquer, possess, and utterly destroy the inhabitants by war.  Does that sound like heaven to you?  

Seems to me we missed the whole purpose of the lesson of Israel leaving Egypt and inheriting the Promise Land.  We missed it so much that we have a "do nothing system" of padded pews and stained glass-preacher religion instead of the Spiritual Possession of the Promised Land of the Spirit-Led life.  

The Promise Land is the land within each of us that we are to utterly conquer, every giant, walled city and destruction of all the inhabitants.  (Bring every thought to captivity)   We are to live in the Spirit-Led life without compromise to it's inhabitants.  We are to take the land within ourselves so that our King Yeshua can rule on the throne of our hearts.  

Instead, by our misunderstanding of the Promise Land we have grown rich, increased with goods and in need of nothing.  We have become the Lukewarm Church of the 7th and last Church Age.  

The Word describes it this way.  Ever learning but never arriving to the truth.  We "church" all our lives without the simple understanding the difference between the Moses/Pastor of going to church (Wilderness Christians)  and the Promised Land of the Spirit Led life being the real church.  Sad day! 

What can you do?  Allow the Lord to open the eyes of your understanding to know "churching" is not the be all end all of Christian living!  Sitting on a padded pew and filling up the offering bucket and dancing around the golden calf of our "religious" system, Spiritual Babylon, was not what Jesus had in mind as he hung on the cross.

The Spirit-led life is your responsibility.  Moses/pastor cannot take you in to possess the land.  You must have another leader, Joshua/Jesus to take you in!  Personal responsibility not "churchanity". 

Be blessed, Billy and Jan 

Source of Life

Water is a curious thing.  Without it we could live only 3 or so days.  Our lives are totally and completely centered around water.  Of course we think little about its necessity because we only have to turn on a tap and presto, we have water.  

Imagine with me for a minute if there were no water flowing from the tap.  If it required us hunting and searching for good water.  Or having to take bad water and purify it for drinking so we could live.  How drastically out lives would change.  No water no life.  No water no health.  No water no cleanliness.  No water would completely turn our lives upside down.  Without water we would have a bad day!

The central theme of all life as we know it is water, even spiritual life!  "If you knew who I was, you would ask and I would give, living water".  You see there is water to sustain life, which we drink naturally every day.  But then there is also a water that gives Life.  

There are billions in the world who drink to sustain their lives but who do not have the Living Water that gives true Life.  They have not been made to drink of that One Spirit that gives Life.

There are those that would like to explain all mankind to being saved, and to negate the possibility of anyone any where, Christian or not, of being lost.  But without this Living Water they do not have Everlasting Life.  

I will say it like Paul did without long dissertations:  If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost.   Jesus told the woman at the well to ask for water from Him.  If she was saved without drinking of His Water then He sure wasted His breathe.  

Be blessed, Billy and Jan 

Evening and Morning were the 1st day

Have you ever wondered why God starts His day with evening?  Sunset one day till sunset the next is one day.  Wonder why?

Not that I know God's mind in this matter, yet I might bring several things to "light" (pun intended).

It all started in darkness of eternity.  So in the beginning was darkness and then He spoke and there was light.  Darkness #1 gives way to Light #2 and so the progression begins.  You  have to start counting somewhere and the progression is darkness to light. 

We start in the darkness of the womb.  At the time of birth we see light, but the beginning was not light but darkness then light.  

In our spiritual understanding we start in total darkness.  Something is put inside of us to cause us to be self-aware and seeking for a reason for our existence but we are in total spiritual darkness.  Then the Light of salvation shines into our heart.  Then He brings us out  of darkness into His marvelous Light.

We close our eyes in sleep and wake to the morning.  From darkness to light.

Finally we close our eyes in death, the darkness of all darkness and awake to the resurrection of the dead to a day  without end.  

Weeping endures for the night but joy comes in the morning. 

Evening and Morning were the 1st day.

be blessed, Billy and Jan