The poisoned mind

 

In the last days it didn’t say the world would be filled with a spirit of Anti-God but  a spirit of Anti-Christ ..

Acts 14:2 But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brethren. 

Did you know that your mind can actually be poisoned by others to the point where you begin to then fall under their influence ? 

It’s going to become more and more crucial who we choose to listen to in these last days . 

Remember Jesus didn’t tell us to beware of sinners, but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisee and of Herod.

This leaven speaks of an ungodly persuasion that leads to a wrong influence 

The leaven of the Pharisee is legalism or performance based religion.. 

The leaven of Herod is the ungodly political spirit and the spirit of this world 

We must make a choice to have an ear to hear what the Holy Spirit is saying to the church. 

The Bible says that we should test the spirits to see if they are of God or not.. 

Why ? Because not everyone who says they are of God are really of God ! 

Remember in the last days, it doesn’t say that many would be anti God but anti -Christ ! 

We must also be careful about what our children are exposed too as well .. 

who are we allowing to influence our children??? 

Who or what are we allowing to babysit our children? 

I can guarantee you that the spirit of anti-Christ is at work in many ways attempting to poison not only our minds but our children’s minds to bring us underneath his influence not for good but for destruction.

 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; 

because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 

First, just because someone says they are a profit sent from God does not mean they are an actually a prophet  sent from God! 

The devil often shows up as an angel of light !!! 

So heres the test . 

By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 

and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. 

And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world. 

Many are looking for the antichrist but the spirit of Antichrist has been in the world for a long long time. 

The spirit of antichrist often works through religion.

Just as it did when Jesus walked the earth 2000 years ago, it’s still at work today denying that Jesus Christ is the son of God Who also was the word Who became flesh. 

But Ive got news for you ! not only did the word become flesh but the word then came into your flesh! 

Any spirit that denies that Jesus has come into you or into your flesh is also a spirit of antichrist!

The Bible says in Colossians that it is Christ in you the hope of glory! 

The main message that has been hidden from most of the church through a religious antichrist spirit has been the message of Christ in you the hope of glory or your identity now in Christ! 

The biggest theft in the world today is identity theft !likewise the biggest theft in the church today has also been identity theft

A spirit of antichrist will deny that Jesus Christ has come into your flesh.. it will deny the working of the Holy Spirit within the believer. 

A religious anti christ Spirit will always attempt to make you the main point of reference.. 

It will imply that you must live for God through your own fleshly determination will power  and effort. 

This message is contrary through the message of Christ and of grace.. 

If the message that you were listening to does not point to the finished work of Christ in Christ in you the hope of glory that is your identity in Christ then you need to get your self out from underneath that message because it’s leaven that will poison your mind and put you under a wrong influence and persuasion. 

Not all persuasion is from the Lord.

You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? 

This persuasion does not come from Him who calls you. 

A little leaven leavens the whole lump. 

Hear what it says here? Just a little bit a legalism can poison your mind! And begin to persuade you in a wrong direction than you have been called!

I have confidence in you, in the Lord, that you will have no other mind;   Galatians 5:7-10

God doesn’t want us to have any other mind but the mind of Christ

1 John 4:4-6 goes on to say this 

You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 

They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them.

We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

You are of God and you are the children of God this did not happen through your perfect performance but through Christ perfect obedience , greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world the Holy Spirit lives in us and we can hear what he is saying we want to be under his guidance and influence and no other.  Rick Sarver 

www.gracelifemb.com 

 There is no lack in Christ !

Mark 8:14-21 Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, and they did not have more than one loaf with them in the boat.

Then He charged them, saying, "Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod."

And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "It is because we have no bread."

But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, "Why do you reason because you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive nor understand? Is your heart still hardened?

Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember?

When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments did you take up?" They said to Him, "Twelve."

Also, when I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of fragments did you take up?" And they said, "Seven."

So He said to them, "How is it you do not understand?"

What did Jesus want his disciples to understand?

First: Leaven is a type of teaching that leads to a right or wrong belief system that then reflects in ones life.

As you know a right or wrong bs or belief system makes all the difference in a person’s life

As a man believes in his own heart do is he !

Proverbs 23:7

Jesus told his disciples to beware of the leaven or the doctrine, teaching of the Pharisee and of Herod . Which leads to a wrong belief system

The leaven or teaching of the Pharisee is legalism.

The leaven or teaching of Herod is the wisdom of man and of this fallen world that is earthly sensual and devilish.

The wisdom of the world continually looks to its own self and wisdom in order to provide for its self.. apart from God .. its all self centered.. not Christ centered

Jesus did tell us in another passage of scripture that what we really needed was the leaven or teaching of the kingdom of heaven which will then will cause a right persuasion and influence our hearts to believe right unto the glory of God. Matthew 13:33

All wrong leaven or teaching has the same thing in common..

It will influence your heart towards a place of the fear of lack or not having enough.

I need more ; if only I had this or that then i could do this or that. It operates from a place of insufficiency.

But the leaven of the kingdom of heaven will always lead or influence you toward a place of satisfaction, rest and complete sufficiency.

Remember the Promise land was a land that was flowing with milk and honey. A place of plenty ! A land of abundant provision and rest

Im also reminded of the scripture in 2 Corinthians 3

And we have such trust through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, 2 Corinthians 3:4-5

But again as we look in Mark 8..

the disciples said they had no bread !

They lacked bread. We don’t have enough!!!

What to do ,, what to do !

Jesus then began to remind the disciples about the miracles of the feeding of the multitudes and all that was left over !!

In other words God is a God that will not only meet your needs, but will so abundantly bless you that you will always have more than enough, not only for yourself but for others.

God is a God of more than enough!!

Now Lets look at the word Faith and Grace

The actual word faith literally means persuasion that causes one to believe.

How does true faith come ?

It comes

By hearing the word of Christ or by hearing the good news of the finished work of Christ and about our new identity and completeness in Him..

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Ephesians 2:8

As we hear the gospel of Christ we then receive the gift of persuasion from God that persuades us to embrace Grace or the divine influence on our heart that then reflects Gods goodness in and through our lives to the glory of God !

Grace literally means : the divine influence upon the heart and its reflection in the life;

Again .. The word Grace is the influence of God that then reflects in ones life.

So what am I saying???

Im saying that we need to be careful about what we are allowing to influence our lives or to persuade us..

We need to be careful of the leaven of legalism and of the wisdom of this world which by the way includes the entire fallen political system.

Both legalism and the wisdom will persuade us into a place of fear and lack !

We are living in a time where receiving the wisdom of God is crucial !!

Right teaching will lead to right persuasion, right believing and right manifestation.

The bottom line is this ..

God says we are complete in Christ which means there is nothing broken, missing or lacking.

We are crammed full of God.

The Vengeance of God !

Notice what Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah 61:2

To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;

Notice In between the acceptable year of the Lord and to comfort all who mourn is the day of vengeance of our God. 

The real question is ... who is the Lord really taking vengeance on? 

Who is the real enemy of the Lord ? 

Who are the ones where over and over God says that all of his enemies will soon become His footstool? 

Didn’t God tell us that even when we were yet his enemies Christ died for us? 

Remember we were all at one time the enemies of God... but in our own minds ! 

God has never been our enemy!!! 

we were Gods enemy in our own deceived minds !!

We were enemies because of the deception and lies that we believed, but we heard and embraced the truth of the gospel and it set us free to then receive Gods love and enter into a place of His Rest.

Listen to what the Apostle Paul says in Colossians.

And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight- Colossians 1:21-22

This is a done deal for everyone!!! But only those who are persuaded to believe it will benefit from it ..

Its also interesting to note that a Footstool is a place of Rest and Relaxation.. but its also a place of submission and instruction. 

Sitting at the feet of Jesus and listening to His word.

Could it be that the main enemy that God is taking vengeance are the lies that have kept those in whom God has always loved from seeing and receiving His love and from entering into Gods Rest? 

For we who have believed do enter that rest, Hebrews 4

I mean sometimes we have to wander around in the wilderness of legalism for a while before we eventually wake up to the truth about the grace , goodness and love that God has for us.

Maybe our real call is to love the hell and deception right out of people? 

Doesn’t God tell us to love our enemies and to even feed our enemies so that we would be just like him? 

We need to understand that our true enemies are not people nor is it any one political party.. 

our true enemy is the one like the wizard of oz behind the curtain pulling all the levers of lies and deception..our true enemy is the father of lies.

Even if our gospel message is veiled, it is only veiled to those who are perishing, for their minds have been blinded by the god of this age, leaving them in unbelief. Their blindness keeps them from seeing the dayspring light of the wonderful news of the glory of Jesus Christ, who is the divine image of God. 

2 Corinthians 4:3-4

At one time we were all blind and in our own minds to the love of God.. 

We were all the enemies of God, but God has never been our enemy.. God has always loved us. 

God in His infinite wisdom will continue to pursue and instruct all those who oppose themselves.. until all his enemies become His footstool.

www.gracelifemb.com

The Family Business

 

We are called to carry on The Family Business..

Most of our current theology has been centered around christians leaving earth and going to heaven as quick as possible, but didn’t Jesus say that we should pray “His kingdom would come and His will would be done on earth as it is in heaven? “

Shouldn’t we be more occupied with bringing heaven to earth instead of escaping earth and going to heaven?

Didn’t Jesus say that we were to occupy until He does come ?

Occupy means to carry out business..

What business ?

The Family business !

Remember-what Jesus told Mary when they found him in the temple teaching the Pharisees?

Jesus said “ Dont you know that I must be about my fathers business?”

Instead of us being constantly occupied with our escape from planet earth maybe we should be more focused on the Fathers business and that is to see His kingdom come to earth as it is in heaven .

So What is the main family business of the father that we are called to be occupied with?

It’s the same business of Jesus .. it’s the business of Love , healing the sick , casting out devils and the proclamation of the good news ...

Remember Jesus said .. As the father sent me so I now send you..

And as He is so are we now in this life ? Also the works I do you will also do and even greater works !

After the crucifixion of Jesus all the disciples fled in fear and hid themselves behind a lock door ..

it was almost like a self isolation in order to protect the from the outside world. And then Jesus suddenly shows up in their midst ..

His will was not to withdraw in fear but to move forward in confidence..

Jesus repeated his greeting, "Peace to you!" And he told them, "Just as the Father has sent me, I'm now sending you."

Then, taking a deep breath, he blew on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. I send you to preach the forgiveness of sins-and people's sins will be forgiven.

But if you don't proclaim the forgiveness of their sins, they will remain guilty." John 20:21-23

Our main family business is to let people know that their sins are forgiven! It’s already a done deal ! but people need to know, if they don’t know then they will walk around thinking that God is mad at them when the truth is that God is mad about them ! That God has reconciled them back to Him through Jesus and that there is now nothing at all between them and God .

They need to know that all their sins have already been dealt with in the body of Christ, so that their conscience is cleansed from all guilt and shame to set them free from the fear of all punishment and restore faith and confidence in them to draw near to the One who has always loved them ..

3Beaulah Lee, Roy Wayne Sr and 1 other

Moses is Dead !

Moses My servant is dead!!!! 

 Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, 

 The truth is that Moses is dead! The Law has been fulfilled and we are now alive in Christ! We who are now In Christ are to reckon ourselves dead to sin , dead to the law and now married to Christ. 

 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another-to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. Romans 7:4 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Romans 6:6-7 

An old testament prophet will continually point out sin and what you need to do for God, but a new testament prophet is going to continually point you to Jesus who took away all your sin and made you righteous in him! 

 An old testament prophet will attempt to make you sin conscious, but a new testament prophet will make you Christ conscious , forgiven conscious and righteous conscious. 

We will never see the full manifestation of fruit in our lives until we fully embrace the truth of our new union and identity in Christ 

We are also instructed by the word to enter into the Rest of God and embrace our right now inheritance in Christ. 

 We must understand that we are not trying to get into the promised land but we’ve already arrived!  

 We are no longer slaves to Egypt but we have been set free from Egypt..(the world) and are now the children of God. 

 We are not slaves we are sons! We do not live in Sinai but we live in Zion! The transfer has already been made!  

 You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness.1 Thess 5:5 

 We have already come near to God in a totally different realm, the Zion-realm, for we have entered the city of the Living God, which is the New Jerusalem in heaven! We have joined the festal gathering of myriads of angels in their joyous celebration! And as members of the church of the Firstborn all our names have been legally registered as citizens of heaven! And we have come before God who judges all, and who lives among the spirits of the righteous who have been made perfect in his eyes!  

Hebrews 12:22-23 

All the promises of God in Christ are yes and amen. But again we will not see the full manifestation of these promises until we actually become persuaded to believe that they are for us right now. 

 Many that came out of Egypt did not enter into Rest because of unbelief, but instead they wandered in the wilderness for over 40 years! 

 Many Christians today will never realize what has been already been given to them in Christ because of either ignorance or unbelief. 

Many today are still striving to get what God in Christ has already given to them, but as we begin to embrace everything that God says we are in Christ, we will know the truth and the truth will set us free.