Saturday, April 18, 2009

How does the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer “affect” the works of the Devil?

The Church is what keeps the Holy Spirit present in the life of a Christian. Men become conscious to the Holy Spirit’s presence when they hear the Gospel message. The Holy Spirit is recognized “after” men accept Christ for forgiveness of sins. Acceptance of His righteousness allows the Holy Spirit’s regenerating power to change the moral make-up of fallen man. This work of the Spirit of God in the human soul is what “defeats” the cause of the Devil. Christ …through the omnipresence of the Holy Spirit manifests holiness and righteousness within the human soul. How? …By giving the believer a divine nature. This new nature gives man power to live holy; and the strength to overcome sin. The Bible teaches that God purposed Christ to manifest Himself in heart of man…first to keep the believer from committing sin…second to destroy the works of the Devil.

· 1 John 3:8…He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

Through the "miracle of the Church" the Holy Spirit was given to all men who accept Christ’s power and presence into their hearts. Holiness of heart comes into members of the body through a conscious recognition of Christ. This work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer is what “defeats” the Devil’s cause. How? Christians resist the Devil by faith. Christians are in subjection to Christ not the Devil or His demons. That’s why the Scriptures teach that through man’s faith in Christ, “The Devil will flee”.

· James 4:7…Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

· 1 Peter 5:8-9…because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith,

Regardless of what the world says, Christians have victory over the Devil! The Spirit of God says so! The Bible says so! The victorious life of a Christian over the Devil is produced because the power of a living Christ is manifested every minute, every hour, every day… in the heart and mind of a believer!

This writer is thankful that members of the body of Christ… have the mind of Christ. Their mind is pure because their heart is pure. Clean thoughts and clean thinking gives the believer the ability to overcome sin and the works of the Devil. Members of the body of Christ think right and do right because they are “kept” by the power of God.

· 1 Peter 1:5…kept by the power of God through faith

The keeping power of God in the heart of man provides the believer with a way to “escape temptation” and to “escape the deceptive works of the Devil”. Without strength given from the Holy Spirits witness man is helpless to the powers of darkness. With Spirit given strength in the heart of a believer, the child of God has power to “overcome” sin, disobedience, the flesh, and the Devils devices. Here’s how!

The Devil and the powers of darkness are subject to Christ whose Spirit of holiness governs the heart and life of a believer. Through the power and presence of a resurrected Savior the Devils authority is spoiled. A believer’s triumph over the works of the Devil comes not only because of what Christ did on the cross; but what Christ is doing presently in from the Throne room. Members of the body of Christ triumph over the powers of darkness because Christ “spoiled” their powers openly. How? ... He is God! He rose from the grave! He’s alive forevermore! …Halleluiah!

· Col 2:15…And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Why the “Church” (God’s great blessing of the Grace Covenant) is perfect…

First, Jesus is the builder of the Church…

Matt 16:18… I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Second…the gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church and here’s the reason why. The powers of darkness, the Devil, and death cannot prevail against the church because Jesus is the head (or the one in authority over the Church)…

Col. 1:18…And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

What makes Jesus the head of the Church? He purchased the Church through suffering, His shed blood, and a cruel death on the cross.

Acts 20:28…the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

The reason the church is perfect is because Christ purchased it, built it, is the head of it, and gave his Holy Spirit so you and I could be part of it!

Eph 2:22…In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

Believers are a habitation of God through the Spirit.

The Bible teaches that members of Christ’s body, the Church are the “temple of the Holy Spirit and the temple of God is “holy”.

1 Cor 3:16-17… Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

Holiness is the perfect work of God in the human soul. All members of Christ’s body are holy. Holiness is a result of God’s redemptive work within all members of the body of Christ. All members of the Church are God’s creation.

1 Cor 6:19-20…know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

The Church is the perfect work of God that came into existence at the death of our Saviour. The Church is the blessing of the New Testament and the Bible teaches.

Heb 9:15-17…And for this cause he is the mediator of the New Testament that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.

Before the death of Christ the Law of Moses given to Israel was the greatest blessing on the planet Earth. The Law of Moses was the greatest set of morals ever written. The Law of Moses demanded the shedding of blood for the remission of sins but when Christ died on the cross and purchased the Church with His own blood a greater blessing than the Law of Moses was given. That blessing was the Church, the body of Christ governed by God’s greatest blessing…the Holy Spirit. Under Grace the Holy Spirit prevails in the Church. Under Law the 613 commandments were given to Israel. Under Grace God blessed the “whole” human family…both Jew and Gentile.

Eph 2:11-14…Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;

The Blessing of the Church was greater than Law because it was given to both Jew and Gentile. The Blessing of the Church was greater than the Law of Moses because it wasn’t only the commandments given to Israel. The Blessing of the Church is Grace given to the whole human family. …Jew’s and Gentiles. The Blessing of the Church tore down the wall of partition to Israel only…

Eph 2:13-16… But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:

The blessing of the Church is the dispensation of the fulness of times…

Eph 1:10… That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ,

That “fullness” is the work of the Holy Spirit in the human soul.

2 Cor. 3:3…written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

The morals of the tables of stone were kept by man. The moral holiness in the Church is given through the perfect work of the Holy Spirit in the human soul. This moral holiness is written on the tables of the human heart. In the Old Testament man did works to keep the Law. In the New Testament man has the work of the Spirit within. This is the blessing of the Grace Covenant we now have in the Church.

There are some that call the Church the “salt of the earth”. This is not a true statement and takes the Bible from its proper context! Why? Israel was the “salt of the earth” and they lost their savor when they rejected the Messiahship of Christ.

Matt 5:13… Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

The Church could never lose its savor or be trodden under the foot of men or it would be “imperfect”. Christ would never create an imperfect Church. Israel was imperfect because they “rejected” Christ when He came. The Church is perfect because its builder is perfect. Remember against the Church the gates of Hell shall never prevail!

The Church is a product of the Grace Covenant we now live under. The Grace covenant is better covenant than the Covenant of the Law given to Israel. Why? Members of the Church, the body of Christ have the work and witness of the Holy Spirit in their hearts. Under Law man worked to do right…under Grace it was the work of Christ within that allows the believer to do right.

Heb 9:11-12…But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

Heb 9:14-15…How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause he is the mediator of the New Testament that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.

May this revelation, given from a resurrected Christ be given to all believers like it was the Apostle Paul. May this revelation teach all believers in Christ how to rightly divide the Holy Scriptures…thus giving confirmation on how to make the distinction between the Church and Israel, Law and Grace, Jew and Gentile, and the Old and New Testaments. Grace and peace to all…

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

The authority of the Church presently defeats the cause of the Devil

Here's an excerpt from a document I wrote a while ago...perhaps it will stir your thinking.

• The head of the Church is Christ…who has “all” authority. The Devil and his demons are subject to Him.

• The Church was purchased with Christ’s blood. Man’s faith in this redemptive work destroys the power of death.

• The Church is the Spiritual body of Christ and consists of those who accept Christ’s person in their hearts and lives.

• The Church unites both Jew and Gentile and makes them one… through the ministration of the Holy Spirit.

• The Church universal is one body having many different members. All members are holy.

• The work of the Holy Spirit in the new birth baptizes believers into the Church.

• Sanctification through the Spirit rids members of the Church from an inherited Adamic nature.

• The Church defeats the cause of Satan through the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart of a believer.

• The Holy Spirit in the Church withholds or hinders God’s Wrath from being ministered now! The Wrath of God will be ministered in the Great Tribulation

• The mercy of God leaves Earth when the Holy Spirit steps aside at the Rapture of the Church

• When the omnipresence of the Holy Spirit steps aside at the Rapture, the Antichrist steps in for seven years according to Daniel.

By the Grace of God Christ stepped down from Heaven and experienced death on the cross. Why? So men could have life and union with Him through the omnipresence of the Holy Spirit. Adam’s sin brought death into the world. Death separated man from Eternal Salvation. Glory be to God...belief in Christ unites sinful man back to an Eternal Salvation. By the Grace of God Christ gives the believer a clean heart and power to have victory over sin. For this reason God’s Holiness in the heart of man defeats the Devil’s cause. Christ resurrected from the tomb because He was God… not man! Christ had power over the Devil because He created the Devil! The serpent who beguiled Eve in the Garden was judged by God after the original sin in Genesis 3:15!

• Gen 3:15… And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head,

This judgment came through God’s promise of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ that “bruised” the head of Satan. Simply put, “Satan’s authority was crushed by Christ as the Devil is in present subjection to the power of a resurrected Lord”. (In the future tense the Devil will be cast into the lake of fire.)

• Eph 1:20-22…which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,

The effects from Satan’s works in the Garden of Eden yielded death and separated man from God. Death has reigned through humanity since the fall of Adam. God’s promise of the sacrifice of Christ was an atonement made to “Destroy the power of death”. Unsaved men find life and union with God through faith in the sacrifice of Christ. Christ’s death on the cross was the bridge that allows sinful men to pass back from death unto life. The sacrifice of Christ destroyed him who had the power of death which is the Devil. How? ...Through the holy heart given to a believer.

• Heb 2:14… Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil

The fruit of holiness is Eternal life and Salvation to the human soul. The fruit of unholiness is Eternal death and damnation upon the human soul. Note how the Bible teaches that the power that comes from the death of a Savior can “destroy” him that has the power of death that is the Devil! That is the victory all believers have in the Church, the body of Christ! God destroys three things in the Bible that hinders man from receiving or maintaining Eternal Salvation. 1. The body of sin, which is the Adamic nature. (Romans 6:6). 2. The works of the Devil. (1 John 3:8) 3. The Antichrist at the end of the seven year Tribulation. (2 Thessalonians 2:8)

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Revived! Churches on Trial ...7-12-87 (audio) Part one of a two hour talk show.

2 Cor 4:5-6... For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

The following audio holds a special place in this writer's heart as it pertains to God using Brother Lindsey's radio broadcast to minister to those in bonds. This writer was first introduced to Brother Lindsey and his ministry for Christ during those years throughout a time of incarceration. At the beginning of this audio a dear Brother in the Lord, by the name of Larry Shilling had written Brother Lindsey and Jim Elsman a letter telling them about "us" who were incarcerated at Milan Correctional Facility in Milan Mi. The letter was a letter of love from a Church behind the fence...that contained a question about "Water Baptism" which Brother Lindsey very much clarified.

Brother Larry Shilling introduced me to Hubert Lindsey's ministry during that time as Larry and I both followed the Churches on Trial until it terminated in the 1990's. Unfortunately Brother Shilling was transferred I think in 1989. During that time frame Brother Lindsey and others from the Church at Birmingham came to Milan FCI to minister the Gospel to us in bonds. God knew and provided our needs. Meeting and getting to know Brother Lindsey was an unforgettable experience for this writer that impacted me enough that I was able to leave Milan, come home to Williamsburg Ohio to my wife, son, and daughter, restore a marriage, built a Church house, continue preaching the Gospel, and carry on Brother Lindsey's ministry up til now...21 years later. I know Brother Lindsey is smiling down from Heaven at this Blog that has "revived" his audio ministry after all these years. Hallelujah...God knows.

Brother Lindsey, Jim Elsman, Tom Lunn, and others were used by God to make Christ "real" to this writer who was called by Christ to also carry the Gospel. That's why I built the "Upper Room" a Church in Williamsburg, Ohio and carry on this ministry today.

I do it with the "Joy of the Lord" because He... is my strength.