Blessings from the Midwest. The Lord is good and gracious and I cannot praise Him enough! I have my list of struggles. I do my best to not let them be "a part of me". May I advise that you do the same? How quickly I make idols of my problems. Be weary of your words, who you counsel with, how many you counsel with. I am learning. Sometimes the painful hard way. So, we go on praising and worshiping our Saviour! He deserves our praise!
I just finished reading the book, The Harbinger. I think I am going to go and buy many copies to give away. This may be another choice of book for evangelizing. More Than A Carpenter is one I give to people who are unbelieving or severely questioning their faith. The Harbinger may be an all around good book to spread the Gospel, as there is the salvation message for the "religious" in the end, as well. A book of warning. It will shake you to your roots. It should, just as most sermons should in your churches.
Reading The Harbinger actually put me into a newer state of awareness, and at this point, I am still processing what it has and is revealing to me. Many in our community are speaking of revival of incredible significance. The birth pains are present. I have heard prophet after prophet speak of this and what is being revealed to them through dreams, signs and revelations. Yes, I mean now. Shut your Bible and pray if you continue to imagine that "that book" is about the past. It is breathing. It is pregnant. It is ever-present and perfect. It is trying to talk to you about today, tomorrow and yesterday. Put your thinking-cap away and read with your heart. Dream, imagine, wonder, pray. Become the child He wants you to be. If you call Him Father, you are a child. Throw away terms such as baby Christian and mature Christian. I see too many get stuck on these and label. Look at people's hearts and that is all you need to know.
Being a new believer (I personally own decades of "religion"), I am trying to put together the past. I am piecing together Nazi Germany. I am piecing together the Old Testament and its prophesies. I am piecing together how in the earth, when I was 6 years old, abortion became legal. How, in our country, African Americans were not able to have the same freedoms as my parents, in 1960! Obviously, the Lord has had me piece together my ENTIRE life up to the day of my salvation. As you have read about in my previous posts, it has been a rapid, bitter-sweet journey.
I can weave around all kinds of ways in these posts, but my hope is to keep you entertained enough to stay with me.
The turn of events in my thought process, since reading The Harbinger and more closely watching world events is that I am greatly concerned that the crumble of America may happen prior to the Rapture and this is important for me to consider.
Do you want to continue reading? Push through.
After my being filled with the Holy Spirit approximately 1.5 years ago, I quickly read the New Testament with hunger. I also read book after book about everything from Hell to dead churches to spiritual warfare to fasting. The cool thing about these books is that they all lead me back to the Bible. I get a "reference" from each book that puts an interest in me to read a certain book of the Bible.
Then, after finishing the New Testament (I am reading through it over and over again still), I started reading the major prophets. Daniel was actually revealed to me in a dream (Daniel Chapter 10), and I read that with wonder. It certainly helped me understand spiritual warfare more perfectly, along with prayers to be answered and why some take longer. I speaks to me, personally.
Most interesting, is a note I put in my Bible next to Isaiah 26:5-6. I wrote "Twin Towers".
I can't imagine a born again Christian not reading the prophetic books of the Bible and not correlate the warnings to Israel (the Jewish people wherever they were and the actual country) over and over (and destruction that followed) to God warning American to turn and repent. Yes, I easily see the message needed for America, founded on Christianity, to repent. Turn and change. I found this to be a reality to me very quickly after reading the Bible, as a born again believer.
It is difficult to find Christians who dare go this deep. Shallow is not the way. Ephesians 3:17-18 states: So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. There is such a "depth" to the scriptures. How can you continue to be shallow?
What a relief for me to find these Scriptures. I was someone who was told all of my life, the contrary of most of what is Biblical. Praise and Glory to God for His Word!
What does America need to repent? Do I dare list? Let alone legalization of abortion and same sex marriages, let's just look at the saturation of alcohol in our country. It is incredible what has happened over the last 10 years alone. Numb people don't make sensitive to the Spirit Christians. Born again Christians should quickly ask after their conversion if alcohol is really part of God's plan for them. Many do not.
Parents don't have Bibles on their coffee tables, don't read the Bible and don't read the Bible to their kids (I am guilty--now I see the light) and they gripe that there is no prayer in school. Parents, wake up! You didn't even start it in your home! No prayer in school? Do you pray from your heart with your husband and kids? Or do you settle for a memorized prayer at supper? Or do you watch on Sunday morning when you get your newspaper the neighbor going to church while you sip from your coffee mug?
I am guilty of many of these things. But, there is One who set me free and my guilt is gone. Now, I pledge a warning to all to kick it in gear and get with it. Jesus following is not a fad, it is not a phase that you go through as a "new believer". It is a way of life!!!! I can't number the people that indicated to me the opposite. "Oh, I remember when I used to feel about Jesus that way". Wow.
Parents, grandparents, any and everyone. Please read your Bibles. Read The Harbinger. Lead others to Christ and do it now. God will do His work, but He needs people to reach people.
Here is an interesting story to end this blog with. This is how infantile so many are about conversion and the need to repent:
Arthur Blessitt, a great evangelist spoke on this: He was out and about and came upon a car crash. He stopped and tried to help. The person in the front seat was injured severely and he didn't realize there was another in the car. This person was semi-conscious. Arthur was speaking to this person of the Gospel and the need to have Jesus as a personal savior. There could have been only moments left is this person's life. Then, a person chimed in from the wrecked car, in the back seat. This person has the nerve to say, "Quit talking to him that way. You are going to scare him."
God forgive this person in the back seat. God bless Arthur and all of us trying to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. God help heal our broken hearts over the pharisees comments, jeers and road blocks.
Please, all that read this. Pray for God to activate your gift of evangelism. Amen.
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