A Modern Woman's Perspective On The Kingdom of God on Earth


Showing posts with label Demonic Influences. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Demonic Influences. Show all posts

August 15, 2020

"And Because Lawlessness Will Be Increased..."

     

     I'm going to go right to the heart of the matter ... it is time for all who are Warriors for Christ to get in the game. I dare to say that there is not a citizen of this nation that is not aware that we are on the precipice of a dangerous season in our history. And there has been a phrase that has been circulating among the secular citizenry as well as the faithful ... "As goes Texas, so goes the nation. And as the nation goes, so goes the world." I happen to subscribe to the truth of that statement -- both politically and spiritually.

     I know that Texas is a bastion of faith and prayer. I know that there is a spiritual movement across this wide and great state that is in relentless battle with the Enemy for the soul and spirit of this republic. And I see the first aggressive act on the part of the Enemy to gain ground for his infiltration. 

     Over the last couple of weeks, BLM and Antifa tried unsuccessfully to instigate the same kinds of rioting and destruction in Austin that they implemented in Portland and Seattle. They bussed people into our state capital, after one of their protestors approached a car in an intersection with a pointed rifle and was shot by the driver and killed. While still under investigation, initial reports are declaring the shooting justified. And I say "unsuccessfully instigating destruction", because the word went out across prayer networks to stand together in opposition to this kind of chaos. As Antifa plotted to take over the city by blocking the interstate and shutting down businesses, Spiritual Leaders came alongside the Austin Police Department and prayed with them for deliverance from mayhem, and the police were able to peacefully stop anything that resembled what we've all been seeing splashed across our TV screens for the last 70 days or so.

     Yet, did you see that success story of lawful intervention reported on any of the news networks or news outlets on the internet? No! The spirit of Anti-Christ does not want that message shared across the nation! It only wants to spread images of upheaval, anarchy, and lawlessness. Yet, the faithful in Texas have been praising God for this victory and trusting Him that He will help Texas to be a stronghold for Him in these lawless days.  

     So, I'm sad to say that the headline today in the state of Texas is this: Texas Governor Greg Abbott Slammed the Austin City Council for its Decision to Strip $150 Million From the Capital City's Police Department. Governor Abbott said in a written statement, "Austin's decision puts the brave men and women of the Austin Police Department and their families at greater risk, and paves the way for lawlessness"

     My spirit was instantly on alert! You see, I know the significance of lawlessness. The Bible makes it very clear, and Jesus had a lot to say about it. At its root, lawlessness [in the Bible] is rebellion against God, whether viewed as the condition of your life, or as specific acts that demonstrate a determined refusal to acknowledge God. And for those of you who are interested in eschatology and how the End Times are to play out, the Lord gives a pretty easy-to-follow road map to lawlessness in Matthew 24.

     When the Disciples want to know what the signs of His Coming and the end of the age will be, He tells them not to listen to all the men who come claiming to be Him; and not to get too caught up in the wars and rumors of wars-- those have to happen as kings and nations fight among themselves. He said famines and earthquakes are to be expected, but all of that will be like the false contractions that a mother feels as her child prepares to be born -- warning signs of an impending event; in the case of lawlessness, a period of tribulation that will be coming upon the earth.

     And when that tribulation starts we should expect to be persecuted and hated for our identity in Christ, even among our fellow Christians. Jesus doesn't state it, but there will be great fear among men on the earth. Even the faithful will stumble in their faith, and betray one another and hate one another. And among all people there will be many false prophets and leaders. And this false leadership will cause lawlessness to increase and the love of many will grow cold. The essence and nature of God is love, so that tells me that many will abandon any connection to Him in their mind, soul, or spirit. The fire of the heart connection to God will be extinguished and their heart will be cold and hostile to Him.

     Paul tells us in Romans 1:28-29 that "since they did not see fit to acknowledge God or consider Him worth knowing [as their Creator], God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do things which are improper and repulsive, until they were filled (permeated, saturated) with every kind of unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice and mean-spiritedness." This is the very picture of what we are seeing on the nightly news in Portland, Seattle, and now Chicago! We are seeing lawlessness exhibited as stores are looted and burned; Louis Vuitton purses are justified as "reparations". It's nothing more than unrighteousness and greed. Lawlessness is depicted in the innocent people who have been killed in the name of "peaceful protests". Let's call it what it is: murder and evil. Lawlessness is portrayed in the destruction of honest and law-abiding businesses in the wake of the chaos. That's a picture of malice and mean-spiritedness. 

     But we can take heart, even in the midst of the bad news! Jesus tells us all this will happen. Then He gives us Hope! "But the one who endures to the end will be saved". He's not talking about saved in the sense of a Salvation experience. He's talking about a future deliverance of Believers; a deliverance from the wrath of God that will be executed upon the ungodly at the close of this age, and from eternal death and doom. That's why Jesus's very next sentence is "And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come"... the end of this age of lawlessness. 

     So, although I am a realist, and I believe what the Bible says will happen (and because I see it before my own eyes), I am also full of hope that Jesus is hearing our prayers here in Texas. And along with the Holy Spirit, He is interceding for us [in prayer] according to the will of God. And I know it is not God's will for Texas to give in to lawlessness! Jesus and Holy Spirit not only stand beside us in our battle, but they stand in the gap for us when we feel weak, until we are again strengthened by their Might to take our place on the wall again. 

     And I pray for our Governor that he will be fortified by the Lord because I also believe that Texas will be a battleground between God's Heavenly Host and Satan's demonic hordes. If the survival of the nation and the world truly depend on Texas, we must be led by a man who relies on the Lord. And I am hoping that Governor Abbot's statement about lawlessness and that, "In the meantime, the Texas Department of Safety will stand in the gap to protect our city" portends a Biblical understanding of the importance of Texas's response in these wicked days. Please join us here in Texas as we fight for the Lord and for our nation. Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done, On Earth As It Is In Heaven!

Psalm 18:48-49   He rescues me from my enemies; He lifts me up high and keeps me out of reach, far from the grasp of my violent foe. This is why I thank God with high praises! I will sing my song to the Highest God, so all among the nations will hear me.

      

August 12, 2020

Satan's Same Old Playbook

      

     If you have followed me for any length of time, then you will know that I am not your conventional Christian. I'm not satisfied with blindly accepting the customary position of the Church when it comes to doctrine or ideology. I do not consider myself a conformist or traditionalist, IF it's for the sake of standing approved by men. I want to see beyond man's interpretation, which has been amended so many times that I often wonder if it represents God's perspective at all. 

     I want to understand God's heart and His truth in His inspired Word, both historically and spiritually. So, sometimes what I write about may appear far-reaching and radical; and maybe even heretical to some. But please know that when presenting it, I have spent an exceptional amount of time studying my Bible, praying, and asking for discernment. This may be one of those posts. But I hope you will read it with a heart open to new revelation and a mind eager to do your own searching. So, hear we go....

     Since I am a student of the entire Bible and not just the New Testament, I understand that Jesus is on every page of the Good Book; and that from Genesis to Revelation, we have been given God's plan for His creation, relationship, and redemption of mankind. And I will tell you that you can't just read the Bible once and see "the big picture". I have read it multiple times, and I think that's how God wants it, because if He tried to download every part of His plan to me in one sitting, my mind and spirit would be overloaded and explode. So each time I have read it, I receive a new principle of His magnificence and my "picture" expands a little more. 

     And in these multiple journeys through the Bible, I am able to see not only God's plans emerge, but how the Enemy has tried to counter God at every turn. I begin to see patterns in the devil's strategy. And the one thing I know for sure is that he is not on par with our Sovereign God when it comes to creativeness. He runs the same playbook over and over. And I'd like to compare what I'm seeing in the present with some of his earliest schemes.

     Sex and power have always been two of the devil's greatest seductive tools. From the beginning, in the Garden of Eden, we see his strategy of approaching Eve, offering her the idea that she and Adam could be "like God", knowing everything of both Good and Evil. And then in Genesis 6:1-4, we see Satan sending his Fallen Angels to have sex with earthly women, in the hopes of defeating God's plan to send the Messiah through a pure line of men. If Satan could corrupt the gene pool of mankind, then Jesus would never be born. But God brings the Flood and starts over with Noah, a man who was blameless in his evil generation and walked faithfully with Him. But once again, the devil is able to work his plan through the great-grandson of Noah. 

     The Bible refers to this descendant of Noah as Nimrod, which may not have been the actual name of this man. "Nimrod" means "The Rebel", and the name might have just epitomized someone who was rebellious against the Creator and the One True God. And sadly, we know that rebellion began soon after the Flood as civilizations emerged and expanded. This Nimrod soon established a kingdom of his own. And read what the ancient Jewish priest, scholar and historian Flavius Josephus wrote about him: "Now it was Nimrod who excited them to such an affront and contempt of God. He was the [great] grandson of Ham, the son of Noah -- a bold man, and of great strength of hand. He persuaded them not to ascribe it to God, as if it was through His means they were happy, but to believe that it was their own courage which procured that happiness. He also gradually changed the government into tyranny -- seeing no other way of turning men from their fear of God, but to bring them into constant dependence upon his own power. He also said he would be avenged on God, if He should have a mind to drown the world again; for that he would build a tower too high for the waters to be able to reach! And that he would avenge on God for destroying their forefathers!" (Ant. 1:iv:2) 

     Simply put, this Nimrod character was committed to violent rebellion against God, and bringing tyranny against mankind. And he was able to influence the Kings of the Earth to stand with him, and convince the rulers to counsel together against YHWH and His Anointed One. This is plainly stated in Psalm 2 ... "Let us break apart their [divine] bands of restraint, and cast away their cords [of control] from us." 

     All we have to do is look around us to see that Satan has once again influenced mankind to partner with him in his evil work. We see a repetition of how he was able to seduce man in the Garden; today men give in to his seductive whisper that they don't need to obey God in order to have the desires of their heart. They use the knowledge of evil to try to overcome good and overthrow God's government here on earth. We see it in the machinations of the Illuminati and the New World Order as they manipulate protest groups like BLM and Antifa. These groups march to the orders of powerful men who think they can "become like God".

     We see a repetition of sex [as in Genesis 6] as a tool to manipulate and control mankind through the evil practice of sex trafficking. The State Department speculates that nearly 25 million people are enslaved in human trafficking worldwide [per the 2020 Trafficking In Persons Report]. We can no longer hide from the facts or turn a blind eye to this wickedness. It is being played out on the nightly news around the world, and there are many speculations as to the powerful men and women that are involved.

     Which brings me to the repetition of Satan's use of the spirit of Nimrod. That Anti-Christ spirit has convinced men that they can rebel against the rule of God; that they can displace Him, dethrone Him, and seize His power ... that they can control the world through their own power and they can become their own gods. For example, we see that in the efforts to destroy man, who is made in the image of God, and replace him with computer brains and bionic body parts, all while manipulating our divine DNA so we become a hybrid species (think Genesis 6:1-4 again). Nimrod was a "mighty hunter of men", and do not be deceived because his spirit is still at work in the world.

     So, can you see the same old playbook being played? Rebellion/Disobedience, Sex, and Power are all the tools that Satan needs to tempt vulnerable men and women. It's all laid out for us in the first 10 or 11 chapters of the Bible and then repeated over and over throughout the remaining 65 Books. But I didn't show you this to discourage you -- I am writing to reveal the first layer of the "big picture" that God has shown me. And I am writing to motivate you to stand with me and fight against those who would pervert our Almighty God's plan for us. Know that those of us who worship and serve Him with an awe-inspired fear and submissive wonder will be blessed; we will be fortunate, prosperous and favored by God as we take refuge in Him. The Bible tells us so in Psalm 2! We just need to open our spiritual eyes and see what is being revealed to those who fervently press into Him. Take heart! Facing the monster is a whole lot less scary than avoiding the truth in fear. Our God fights with us!

 Psalm 2:4, 9    "He who sits enthroned in the heavens, laughs at their rebellion; The Sovereign Lord scoffs at them, and in supreme contempt He mocks them ... You [the Lord] shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall shatter them in pieces like earthenware."

    

August 3, 2020

Personal Thoughts On Our Christian History

    
I have always been a history buff; primarily a lover of American history. From the time I could read, I immersed myself in books about the settling of the American colonies; the mysterious disappearance of  the first English colony settled at Roanoke, and specifically, Virginia Dare, the first English child known to be born in America (who happened to share my birthday). I loved reading about the Pilgrims; how the various colonies came to be established; and the lead-up to the American Revolution. I've always been proud of my country and what it stood for; proud of the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence and concluded with these profound words ... "And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor". I've honored the brave men and women who participated in the events that define our history -- both the good and bad parts of it. I guess you could call me a Patriot. But don't stop reading, I am a seeker of Truth and I have much more to say...
     You see, I am also not blind to the flaws, failings, and faults of our nation, either. While I believe in the concept of America as "the great melting pot"; a beacon of freedom and tolerance for all peoples, I acknowledge that "tolerance" has not always been forthcoming or countenanced or condoned. Our treatment of early immigrants from Ireland, Italy, Palestine, and China, are examples of our national prejudice. In 1845, newspaper columnist, John O'Sullivan, coined the phrase "Manifest Destiny" to describe the cultural belief that American settlers were destined [some say by God] to expand across the North American continent, defeating and displacing the Native Americans and anyone else who got in our way. And then, in 1860 we fought a Civil War over the un-Godly right of one man to own another, and it cost the lives of 618,222 men. All that is part of our American history, too.
     I'm not naive enough to believe that our nation is perfect, or that some of our history hasn't been "photoshopped" or romanticized. Did George Washington really chop down that cherry tree and "could not tell a lie"? While I could be accused of being an idealist, I'm also a realist. I'm unwilling to gloss over our national mistakes and sins, but I also will not declare that this nation is inherently evil and vile. I believe that, culturally, we have been a Christian nation -- from the landing of the Pilgrims on our shores to our present day worship of Jesus Christ, in all its various forms and denominations, that has been the predominant faith of this nation. That does not mean that our Founding Fathers were all dedicated Christians or that their faith resembled modern-day evangelicalism.
     I am not a religious or historical scholar, so let me just state my understanding of how the Founding Fathers were influenced. I think one of the most instrumental developments that influenced the American colonies (and eventually our form of government) was the intellectual movement called "The Enlightenment". This movement emphasized reason, individualism, and skepticism. Enlightenment thinkers generally denounced supernatural occurrences as superstition or implausible. That does not mean that they were atheists. Therefore, Founding Fathers such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and political activist Thomas Paine were all believers in the principles and morals of Christianity, but considered themselves Deists. Deism is the belief that God exists, but does not involve Himself in our daily lives; preferring to let the universe proceed according to natural law. They insist that God is knowable through reason and nature, not divine revelation. That's why the language of the Declaration of Independence includes phrases like "the Laws of Nature and Nature's God", while referring to God, Himself, as "divine Providence". However, do not interpret this distinction as meaning that our Founding Fathers were not Believers. They all adhered to Christian principles and God as "Judge of the World".
     So, how does that understanding have any significance for us today? Anyone who is paying attention should be aware that the Anti-Christ spirit is the same as the Enemy in Matthew 13 who sowed (weeds)  among the field of wheat the Lord planted here in America. Throughout our short 244 years as a nation, this wicked spirit has influenced people to change the recording of our history. Psalm 33:12 tells us, "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom He has chosen as His heritage!" I believe we are such a nation!
     BUT, from the beginning, the Enemy has tried to destroy this nation and its allegiance to Jehovah God. And if he could not accomplish that, then he would try to distort and corrupt our history so that God would nullify His covenant with us. And he has a perfect instrument in the anti-God philosophical, social, political, and economical ideology called Communism. All you have to do is read come of the Communist goals that I referred to in a previous article, to see what he is executing and accomplishing .... Goal #27: Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch.... Goal #28: Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the grounds that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state".... Goal #30: Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man".... Goal #31: Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture" .... and finally, Goal #42: Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use "united force" to solve economic, political or social problems.
     Interestingly enough, the concept of the degeneracy of our youth, both socially and spiritually, was one of the reasons given by William Bradford (signatory to the Mayflower Compact, and Governor of the Plymouth colony) as to why the Puritans left the Netherlands after fleeing religious persecution by the Church of England. Here, in his own words, he writes of this concern: But that which was more lamentable, and of all sorowes most heavie to be borne, was that many of their children, by these occasions, and ye great licentiousnes of youth in yt countrie, and ye manifold temptations of the place, were drawne away by evill examples into extravagante & dangerous courses, getting ye raines off their neks, & departing from their parents. Some became souldiers, others tooke upon them farr viages by sea, and other some worse courses, tending to dissolutnes & the danger of their soules, to ye great greefe of their parents and dishonour of God. So that they saw their posteritie would be in danger to degenerate & be corrupted.
     We can certainly sympathize with him, can't we? Just in my lifetime, this nation has suffered the rebellion of its youth in the streets. I remember being in high school and watching the riots in the streets of Chicago during the Viet Nam War, and the violence of groups like the Weather Underground and the Black Panthers. Leaders of those groups infiltrated our universities and changed the way our history was taught and how our youth envision the legacy of this nation. Birth control made licentiousness acceptable, and abortion expunged its consequences. What God thought of this defiance of His moral laws became irrelevant. Respect for law and order, or authority became despised, and one injustice gave permission to commit another. We are seeing that in our streets today. I sympathize with William Bradford's assessment that the souls of our youth are in danger, as well as their posterity.
     Our flag is dishonored and disrepected; it burns along with Bibles in the streets of Portland. But why should that surprise us? We have allowed God to be removed from our classrooms, our public square, and our history. He is our Banner (Jehovah Nissi), our flag that goes before us into battle. But some in our culture don't want to go to war alongside Him. Yet, I declare this day that He still wants to be the God of America. As Psalm 33 states, "The Lord looks down from heaven; He sees all the children of man; from where He sits enthroned He looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth, He who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds".
     He sees the hearts of millions of Believers who stand on the walls of their communities and cities to pray against the Enemy who comes to burn and destroy. He sees us as we pray, repenting and asking for forgiveness for all the ways this nation has sinned against Him. He sees us joining together, battling in the spirit against the Anti-Christ spirit that has joined forces with agitators and rebellious youth. You see, we know the eye of the Lord is on those of us who truly fear Him; whose hope is in Him; and who trust in Him to deliver us from those in alignment with the Evil One. We will not be moved! We will occupy until He returns! And we will continue to walk in the glorious promise of this nation!
     I'd like to leave you with the final words of William Bradford and his hope for this New Land. It is the same as it was when he wrote this in 1620: "Lastly, and which is not least, [we have] a great hope & inward zeall of laying some good foundation, or at least to make some way therunto, for ye propagating & advancing ye gospell of ye kingdom of Christ in those remote parts of ye world; yea, though they should be but even as stepping-stones unto others for ye performing of so great a work." God, please don't abandon us! Behold Your children who have re-discovered a great hope and zeal for the Gospel of the Kingdom! Use this nation as a stepping stone for the spread of this Gospel around the world! Transform us into a nation You are proud to call Your own! We are willing, Father! We humble ourselves and seek Your face. Heal our land!

Psalm 33:20-22    Our soul waits for the Lord; He is our help and our shield. For our heart is glad in Him, because we trust in His Holy Name. Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in You.
    


    
   

    
    

July 22, 2020

Right Before Our Very Eyes


      Next month my husband, Mark, and I will be presenting a one-day teaching entitled, Freemasonry, the New World Order, and the Anti-Christ Spirit. As I've been organizing what we want to say, and developing the PowerPoint presentation, I've been forced to step back and look at just how subtle Satan has been in weaving his plan in the midst of the Father's intention for mankind.
     From the very beginning, in the Garden, through the temptation of both Adam and Eve, Satan has sought to corrupt mankind through the sin of thinking they can become their own god. This act in the Garden changed man's position from an immortal spiritual being [in the image of God] to a being with physical limitations. We moved from a transfigured spiritual existence to a lower physical reality, subject to the devil's agenda to steal, kill, or destroy any possibility of re-establishing that original relationship with our Creator.
     Even after Jesus comes as our Savior, and the Kingdom of God was initiated on the earth, Satan has not abandoned his efforts to entice man by convincing him he can rule the world as his own god. Nimrod is one of the first men to align himself with the devil and seek to usurp God's sovereignty. He was the King of Shinar (Babylon) and he took advantage of the fact that the people all spoke the same language, and convinced them to build a city with a tower that reached heaven, in order that they might "make a name for themselves", so they would not be scattered over the face of the whole earth. This is the same temptation with which the devil would entice Jesus when he offered Him "all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor" [their riches]. God's purpose was for man to live for His name, scattering over the earth to proclaim Him!
     From Nimrod down through the centuries -- from Nebuchadnezzar to Alexander the Great to Robespierre to Joseph Stalin to Adolph Hitler to Mao Zedong -- they've all succumbed to the Anti-Christ spirit of Satan to seek their own kingdom and government of the masses, while reserving the power and riches for themselves. They've often been occultist, which is defined as seeking to gain supernatural power, abilities, or knowledge apart from the Creator God. And it is all disobedience to God!
     But our Father has shown Himself to be a faithful Sower of Good Seed, producing men who will receive His truth and perpetuate His Kingdom on earth. Satan, however, has not stood idly by. As Jesus tells us in His Parable of the Wheat and Tares, Satan has sown his seed among the good seed and they have grown up in the midst of God's field [the world]. They have sprung up, like weeds, within our philosophies, our cultures, and our forms of government; at first, they resemble righteous men in appearance, except their hearts grow black. They have lost the quality of godliness and they poison ordinary men with their promises of power, wealth, social equality and justice. But, in the end, they only produce death for the souls of nations.
     Throughout history that death has come in various ideologies .... Feudalism (societal structure based on holding of land in exchange for labor); Plutocracy (government by the wealthy); Autocracy (supreme political power in the hands of one); Anarchy (abolition of the State as undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful) ... and our modern systems of Marxism, which is the basis for Communism (both of which advocate a class war in which property is publicly owned; there is no encouragement of individual rights or ownership). None of these ideologies harmonize with God's Kingdom system of government, where our faith in Him produces citizens who are productive, self-motivated, charitable, and servants at heart; men and women who are free to follow the Lord's ways above their own, and incorporate His Laws as their laws.
     Now, in this 21st Century, in the year 2020, we once again find Satan influencing the hearts of men as they reach for their piece of the world's power "pie". And sadly, the Body of Christ has been lulled to sleep by the soothing lies of the devil, who has convinced us that we are  "comfortable in our wealth and we do not need a thing." But Satan sees us ripe for the picking as he leads the world towards his goal of lawlessness and anarchy. He has firmly anchored his economic and political systems of Marxism and Communism in the hearts of godless men.
     Just consider some of these quotes from Karl Marx, Joseph Stalin, and Saul Alinksy (political activist who has greatly influenced some of our most powerful politicians; Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, among them).... "My goal is to dethrone God and destroy capitalism" (Marx). "Religion is... the opium of the people" (Marx). "We do not fight against believers or even the clergymen. WE FIGHT AGAINST GOD to snatch believers from him" (Stalin). "God is on your side? Is he a conservative? The Devil's on my side, he's a good Communist" (Stalin). In the dedication of his book, Rules for Radicals, Saul Alinsky wrote, "Lest we we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgement to the very first radical ... to the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom -- Lucifer".
     So, right now, from our halls of government to our classrooms to our streets full of chaos, we are seeing the latest anti-Christ agenda of Communism and Marxism being fulfilled. This is not a political statement... I don't believe God is interested in our politics. He is interested in how we, if we call ourselves citizens of the Kingdom of God on earth, are governing this realm according to His tenets and principles established in Heaven. And I would like to give you just an idea of how far we are off the mark ... On January 10, 1963, Democratic Representative Albert Sydney Herlong, Jr. read into the Congressional Record a list of 45 goals of Communism from the book The Naked Communist by W. Cleon Skousen. I want to show you just how much has been accomplished in the last 57 years -- during my lifetime!

Communist Goals
1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament [by] the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.
4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.
6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.
7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.
11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. 
15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policy-making positions.
21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."
24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.
25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."
27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."
28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."
29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."
31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.
36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand [or treat].
39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use "united force" to solve economic, political or social problems.
 
     That is 33 of the 45 Communist goals that have been reached in this country. I understand that Communism is kind of an old-fashioned idea in this country, and since The Naked Communist was written in 1958, and presented before Congress in 1963, the idea that the New World Order might be working through Communism in their plot to overcome and control all of the world's governments, has been variously called "a right wing conspiracy theory" and patently false. But can we deny the words of the anti-Christ Communist leaders -- or how quickly these 33 goals have been achieved?
     Again, I do not present this to you as part of a political statement, but to show you that the Anti-Christ spirit has been active and tireless in its agenda ever since Nimrod sought to use his form of violence and insurrection against God to see a "united force" establish a one-world government.
     And it's happening quickly and right before our very eyes! As Christians, we abandoned our identity as watchers on the wall. It's no wonder when we look in the mirror, we so often identify with the Church of Laodicea... we've become wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. But it's not too late! As long as the remnant is willing to take a stand, I believe God can defeat the physical and spiritual armies of Satan. But we must take off the blindfold and get in the fight! We've heard the Anti-Christ is coming, but it is not yet the last hour, so let's join forces with God and Jesus and show the Enemy what our agenda looks like!

1 John 1:22      Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.


    
    

July 16, 2020

Why We Have Tolerated The Weeds

    


     Once again, as I've studied familiar Scripture, the Lord has shined His light upon the Word to give me a new and fresh revelation. We are studying Matthew in our Home Church and, specifically, Matthew 13, best known for the richness of the parables Jesus shared with His disciples.
     If you've spent any time at all reading your Bible, then these parables are familiar to you. And if you are like me, my initial understanding of them was that Jesus spoke in terms of simple stories, in order to teach a moral or spiritual lesson. Theses "lessons" were to be applicable down through the centuries to His followers. And I thought I'd done a pretty good job of comprehending what He was trying to teach me. That is, until I discovered His message of the Kingdom. That changed everything!
     It began with the recognition that the Kingdom of God was the central point of the parables, and that the Parable of the Sower is the foundation for understanding all the parables. Jesus confirms this in Mark 4:13 when He asks His disciples, "If you don’t understand this parable [of the Sower], how will you understand any parable?"
     So, Jesus proceeds to explain the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13:18-23. How many of you, like me, missed verse 19 completely? How many, like me, were stunned when the Lord shined His Light on this fundamental truth in His Word? He says, The hard path where some of the seeds fell represents the heart of a person who hears the Good News about the Kingdom and doesn’t understand it; then Satan comes and snatches away the seeds from his heart. As we've all been taught by the Church, the "Gospel" is the "Good News" of Jesus Christ. He couldn't make it any clearer in this parable ... He is the Sower bringing the Gospel of the Kingdom into the hearts of men who will receive it! It is important that we distinguish which Gospel Jesus is sowing into the hearts of men in this parable! Check out the various translations in the Bible.... almost all of them identify "the seed" as the "word of the Kingdom".
     As I've written in previous posts (here and here), I am not downplaying or discrediting the Gospel of Salvation, but that wasn't His primary message to the crowds or to His disciples. Salvation is the necessary and mandatory entry point into the Kingdom of God. Jesus explains that quite well in John 3:1-5. Please read that, if you are confused about the difference between the two Gospels. Because, today, I want to show you why this confusion even exists today. And believe me, the Body of Christ needs to understand this truth in this critical hour.
     All you have to do is query the internet about the meaning of the parable of the Sower and you will find such vague and misleading answers as these .... The man represents God and the seed is His message. But what Message? Salvation or Kingdom?.... The moral of the Parable of the Sower is that not everyone who hears the Christian gospel will understand and believe. But which Gospel? Salvation or the Kingdom?
     So, why is it so difficult for the Body of Christ to grasp this important and crucial message about the Kingdom? Jesus made it clear that the Kingdom message was of primary importance to Him. In Luke 4:43, He says, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose. Why does the Church stay focused on the good news of Salvation, instead of taking the next step and sharing that once a person is Saved, they are to see and understand the Kingdom and enter into it? That's why they are here on earth!
     It's taken me a long time to get to the central point of this blog, but here it is .... In Matthew, after presenting the most important parable of the Sower, Jesus then shares the Parable of the Wheat and Tares [or Weeds]. Do you think that is a coincidence? If you believe as I do, that the Bible is the inspired Word of God, then join me in understanding what our Lord is telling us in this pivotal parable.
     In Matthew 13:24-30, Jesus has this exchange with His Disciples, "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.”
     We know from the previous parable of the Sower that the man is Jesus, the good seed is the Gospel of the Kingdom, and the field is the world which Jesus created. So how did weeds get in this field and what does it mean for us? This time, Jesus is more succinct in explaining the meaning of His parable. He says, "The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil."
     I want you to focus on this small portion of the parable ...  that Jesus sowed the good seed of the Gospel of the Kingdom, but while "his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also". Are you able to discern that Jesus accomplished His mission of sowing the Gospel of the Kingdom into the world, which means the Gospel was received by the sons of the kingdom [the Disciples] and the Body of Christ, or the Church, was born. But after that first generation of Disciples died [were sleeping], others came into the Church and sowed seeds from the Enemy. These seeds represent men who began to alter Jesus's Gospel of the Kingdom, to focus primarily on the Gospel of Salvation. While this Gospel is not wrong and is most important, it stops short of Jesus's full mission for us ... receive Salvation and then enter the Kingdom to bring the government of Heaven down to earth.
     And here is an expanded meaning of what the weeds represent: In the King James Bible, “weeds” is called “tares”, and this is how the Concordance describes them: “A kind of darnel (Eurasian ryegrass) that grows as tall as wheat and barley, and resembles wheat in appearance, except the seeds are black. It is seen by the Jews as degenerate wheat (it has lost the qualities of wheat). The seeds are poisonous to man, producing sleepiness, nausea, convulsions and even death. The plants can be separated out, but the custom, as in the parable, is to leave the cleaning out till near the time of harvest”.
      If as true Christians, we desire to righteously represent our Lord, why have we tolerated these "weeds" in our midst? It's because these “weeds” have grown up alongside the men of the Kingdom since the inception of the Early Church, poisoning its teachings. They introduced denominationalism with all its varied doctrines and traditions, and hid the Gospel of the Kingdom from the Body of Christ. They promoted Salvation as the be-all, end-all of our Christian experience, and these teachings have continued until today. That’s why the Church follows so many wrong man-made doctrine.
     We were unable to recognize the poisonous seeds because they resembled the seeds first sown by Jesus. We did not see what grew from the seeds; we ignored the blackness of the seeds which was a poison that produced apathy and passivity in the Church. We, as the Body of Christ, did not guard against imposters, but welcomed anyone whom we thought resembled us, without doing our due diligence.
     And now, the Body as a whole, cannot be trusted to recognize the pure wheat from the impure (or degenerate) wheat. Centuries of assimilation and accommodation have produced a crop within the Church that includes lethargy, sickness of soul and spirit, upheaval in the Kingdom on earth, and yes, even death. These conditions are the weeds grown from the seeds of Christ's enemy. And Jesus will come and gather them out of His true Church at the end of this age. He will be the One who separates the wheat from the weeds at His harvest. And I believe the Body of Christ will be shocked at what is revealed amongst them.
     But, I also believe this is the season before the harvest, when the Remnant can rise and boldly declare the full Gospel of the Lord ... He came bringing the government of His Father's Kingdom in Heaven; to show us why we were created -- to rule the earth [as images of our Creator] in the same way He rules Heaven. The first and crucial step is to recognize our unrighteous sin, and receive Christ as our Savior, and pledging to be obedient in all His ways. Then we have the credentials to enter into the Kingdom, where we are to spend the rest of our lives as ambassadors of the Kingdom and continuing Jesus's work to bring the heavenly model of God's Kingdom to earth. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven is not to just be spoken in reverent prayer, but is to be walked out and lived daily! 
     It is not too difficult to recognize that the wheat is ripening and the harvest is near. And I clearly distinguish the wheat from the weeds. The Good News that Jesus came proclaiming includes both Salvation and Kingdom! In this crucial hour, let us not rest on an incomplete Gospel. Let us bring Salvation to the nations and then encourage them to enter the Kingdom, where we might yet save more wheat from being destroyed by the weeds. I praise my Lord for calling my attention to His Word and revealing His truth where I have missed it. Let me be one of the righteous that shine like the sun in my Father's kingdom! Let me be an instrument to grow His harvest! Let's no longer tolerate the destruction that comes with the weeds!

Acts 20:29-30      I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.