Glory to God our Father! I pray that you have had a Holy Spirit filled fall. I certainly have, and I have many brothers and sisters in Christ who have joined me and have been a part of that. May the God who saved you put a fire in your belly to be hungry and searching, all the while being joyful and satisfied! What can you expect from the God of the universe? Nothing but something so enormous that we can only wait to meet Him for His grand conclusions to these mysteries.
How can I convince you that many of you are evangelists? Preachers and teachers? How can I convince you that we have hit the snooze button for at least the decades that I have been an adult and can attest to this?
But, share in this Good News: There is a quake under your feet and non-believers feet, and don't deny that you can't feel it. Let me tell you what it is if your church isn't:
As I "sidewalk" evangelize, 100% (so far) of my listeners have made such intense eye contact that it is unmistakable that they are waiting for people like you and I to tell them the truth. Yes, I am waiting for the swearing and spitting on me and gnashing of teeth. I pray that all will have good soil in their heart, and much prayer goes into this mission before and after I start walking, two by two.....(Mark 6:7)
The Lord has made it clear to me to be hated for the Gospel. He has called me "lightening rod". I have previously blogged His instruction to me, "Have loose lips for me, Melissa". I have spent enough time testing and trying these revelations and yes, they come from the Lord.
The Lord has also revealed to me that He is now coming to women in masses to spread the Gospel. I have had this confirmed about a dozen times since He put that on my heart. The Accuser of the Brethren lately has given up on me on that topic. At least at the present time. Satan knows I have CLEAR instruction from God that women are called, in masses to preach, teach, evangelize and more. There seems to be no cap on what God is expecting at this time from women.
I drove to the east coast the first week of October on a Holy Spirit journey. I visited South Carolina. We went online and prayed for the Lord to show us a Holy Ghost church. We found one. In Georgetown, SC we spent 3 hours in fellowship and worship with a church with a core of Spirit filled believers/weepers. And here is the kicker: Two women took the opportunity to preach and teach (one was a weeping Jeremiah!) at this service. I believe the one woman said that the Lord put it on her heart to preach just days before. She was so "eating meat". Yes, JESUS!
1 Corinthians 3: 1-2 Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly--mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.
Now, remember when Paul wrote these letters to the churches, in some instances it was just a couple of years after the churches were established. See this in 1 Thessalonians. All it takes is a good Life Application Study Bible to read these details. I am not a Bible scholar. I have merely been studying the Bible for about two years.
You will see that Paul wrote this letter in A.D. 51, and the church was established 2-3 years prior to that. My point being: If you have been walking with Christ for 5 or more years, and you are not advancing, take note of Paul's instruction to this church after this short amount of time. You can read this epistle in about 20 minutes. As you read it, mull over the fact of my previous paragraph: He wrote this strong instruction just 2-3 years after the church was established! Please, brothers and sisters..........move from the pacifier to milk to vegetables to meat in your journey. We need to advance the Kingdom! You need to become stronger in the Lord in these end times!
1 Thessalonians 5:14 And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone.
Yes, my journey may be accelerated. I can't test that, because we all need to keep our eyes on Jesus and not others. It is nearly impossible to gauge our journeys, if we attempt to compare them with other believers.
As the preacher, James McDonald, who has a radio broadcast, Walk in the Word http://www.jamesmacdonald.com/, states: One thing we know is that we all need to progress in our journey. (loose quote). And believe me, he doesn't mince words. I have been listening to him for approximately 9 months, and I can say that if you listen to preachers like John Piper and James McDonald, you will move on to meat rather quickly. The Word of God is preached by these two men . The entire/full Gospel. Why wouldn't you want to hear that? If you are enjoying your "prosperity preachers", no wonder. I beg you to at least "pepper" your listening to include conviction and repentance preachers. It should stretch you to quit thinking about "What can I get?" to "What can I give up to feed the hungry and spread the Word of God?". You will also hear of sin, hell and repentance. Unfortunately, you can get an "Oprah" Gospel a number of places. There is a little too much life application preaching going on.
Yes, The Oprah Gospel allows us to dwell on ourselves. It allows us to dwell on our depression, financial heartaches and health problems. We should hear about these things. But, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is centered and founded on this and in this order:
1) The 10 Commandments
2) Our Sin Condition and need for repentance
3) The Cross
4) Faith to Believe
The unsaved need to hear these four things. Jesus is the Antidote to our poison of sin. We will go to Hell if we do not accept the Antidote. We will go to Hell if we do not realize we need the Antidote. We will go to Hell if we do not repent and change.
The saved need to progress on their journeys and continue to be sanctified until the Day Of The Lord, or until they fall asleep, waiting for Him. I can go into how they can/will do this, but it is a heart issue whether they want to or feel a need to progress.
If the saved do not yearn to grow, they will not experience heaven on earth. They will not possess the Joy of the Lord during the extreme trials that we all know life will provide us. As Dr. David Jeremiah puts it, "We will always drift towards evil if we are not intentional to stay holy" (another loose quote). I will not further go into detail, but I dare not drift. Scripture can be interpreted two ways: Either you can lose your salvation or you were never saved. I will not venture off of this path to put myself into either one of those treacherous conditions, and I will not wrangle with you on that topic.
All I can say is this: Why would you not want to progress? Or is this life on earth too cozy? This is not your home. Or, are you making this your home?
May you be blessed today and all days. May you rejoice in your salvation and share it. May you be a light on a hill. May you throw that basket off and shine brightly. May you be hot, not cold or lukewarm. May you pray to be hated for the Gospel. As I found out, many, many love to hear the Story. They are just waiting for you to tell it. Please see the Alan Jackson video below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpfsZZ9X5n8
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