Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall grow worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. (2 Timothy 3:12-13 KJ2000)
And concerning the dead, that they rise: have you not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spoke unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: you therefore do greatly err. (Mark 12:26-27 KJ2000)
Ever since men have read about Elisha getting the mantle that was on Elijah, they have been trying to lay claim the anointing that was on some great man of God before he dies. Leonard Ravenhill once said, “I get calls from all over the world, everyone wants my anointing and mantle… but nobody wants my sackcloth and ashes.” When two of the disciples of Jesus asked that they might sit at His right hand and at His left in the Kingdom of God, Jesus said, “You know not what you ask. Are you able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” Jesus drank the cup of suffering and He was baptized in the death of the cross. If He had not, He would never have been able to overcome death and the grave for all of us and give us His Life. Jesus was tempted to just set up an earthly kingdom with Him as its head and to avoid the cross, yet He knew there was no comfortable short cut and was (and is) obedient to His Father to the very end. Satan also tempted Eve to get on a fast track to be “like God” by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and her act brought all manner of sin, suffering and death into the world… everything that God is NOT. Watch out for those evil seducers in the church that offer you an easier way to spiritual success other than the cross of Christ.
The latest twist to getting on the “fast track” to get a powerful anointing in Pentecostal circles is to go lie on the grave of a famous evangelist or miracle worker and “suck up” the anointing that was on them when they died. (The picture above is a young lady lying on the grave of Alexander Dowie.) They call it “Grave Sucking.” Never mind that there is nothing in the scriptures that point to this practice. The only “fast track” to walking in the anointing of the Spirit is death– death to self, that old Adamic nature in us– and being born anew of the Spirit of God. We will know success in God’s kingdom only as we are cut off from that old Adam, grafted into Christ, abide in Him as the True Vine, and allow HIM to produce HIS fruit through us by His Life and not our own. Paul made it clear that the gifts of the Spirit are given as HE wills and not according to our wishes. All we can do is abide IN the Son and rest while He brings forth the fruit the Father wants.
P.T. Barnum, the famous circus entrepreneur said, “There is a SUCKER born every day.” How apropos. It seems that at the rate deception is taking hold in the churches (prosperity teaching, church growth techniques, seeking worldly success, etc.), a sucker must be born every minute! At least one local church leader laid face down on John G. Lake’s grave in nearby Spokane, Washington so he could pull up Lake’s healing anointing to himself. Well, we saw no healing miracles happen by the ministry of this man. All he did was pull up death. Shortly thereafter, his daughter was killed in a car wreck on the front lawn of the house next door and his wife died of cancer about three years later. He since has moved out of the area and who know what death has followed him as he continues to follow and teach these deceptions to Christians!
Paul warned the elders of the Ephesian church that men would rise up in the church and teach all manner of lies contrary to the gospel of Jesus Christ. He said, “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 perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears.” (Acts 20:29-31 RSVA) That is right, within the church men rise up and start teaching perverse things to gain a following. This was unheard of in the infant church. Church elders and leaders only worked to unite the saints with Christ as their Head and never to themselves, always pointing them to Jesus Christ as their sufficiency in all things. The apostles had no disciples and Paul rebuked the Corinthians for thinking in those terms.
“For you are yet carnal: for while there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are you not carnal, and walk as men? For while one says, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are you not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom you believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that plants anything, neither he that waters; but God that gives the increase… All things are yours and you are Christ’s and Christ is God’s” (1 Corinthians 3:3-2)
The perversity of false teachers, false prophets and false apostles and their teachings is accelerating in these last days and they are gleaning followers after themselves to make merchandise of them. Peter warned it would happen as well saying, “But there were false prophets among the people, as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly put forward wrong teachings for your destruction, even turning away from the Lord who gave himself for them; whose destruction will come quickly, and they themselves will be the cause of it. And a great number will go with them in their evil ways, through whom the true way will have a bad name. And in their desire for profit they will come to you with words of deceit, like traders doing business in souls: whose punishment has been ready for a long time and their destruction is watching for them” (2 Peter 2:1-3 BBE – emphasis added). Going to the seminars these men put on can be very expensive to your pocket book as well as your soul.
The tares are being gathered together in God’s field and bound in bundles for the end time judgment even as we watch these “believers” gather around false teachers that appeal to the perversity in their own hearts. We are watching the great apostasy (the great falling away) spoken of by Paul in action. This is NOT a time to go chasing after men, but rather a time to draw close to God. Remember Jesus’ warning, “For false Christs [false anointings] and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. Lo, I have told you beforehand. So, if they say to you, ‘Lo, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out; if they say, ‘Lo, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it” (Matthew 24:24-26 RSVA).
Paul warned us of this great deception of our times.
“And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: [Even him], whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” (2 Thessalonians 2:8-12 KJV – emphasis added)
This is no time to be playing games with God! The Wicked One is being let loose with his lying spirits to cover the earth. Men are being bundled into false religions, false churches, false political causes, and false philosophies all over the world. Why are people so easily deceived? Because they take pleasure in unrighteousness. It is a heart matter. What is it that tickles your pleasure zone? God is letting men chose who they will follow as they are offered whatever gives them pleasure. They follow what is in their own hearts and as a result they are being bound to these false teachers like bundles of tares. If the love of the Truth, Jesus Christ, is in our hearts we have a love for HIS voice and not the voice of thieves, robbers, strangers and hirelings. His sheep hear His voice and they follow Him. If we do not take up our crosses and follow Jesus, we will keep making room for that fallen adamic nature in us to manifest and follow deceivers who speak to the lusts of our hearts. Jesus’ sheep are being separated from the deceiver’s goats right before our eyes as are the wise virgins from foolish virgins.
Jeremiah wrote, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings” (Jeremiah 17:9-10 KJ2000). It is high time that the saints of God woke up and started praying as David did, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalms 139:23-24 KJ2000).
“I am the one who corrects and disciplines everyone I love. Be diligent and turn from your indifference… Anyone who is willing to hear should listen to the Spirit and understand what the Spirit is saying to the churches.” (Revelation 3:19-22 NLT)
A Wilderness Voice 
Seeing the photo you posted, Michael, I wished it would be real life, since my first impulse was to wrap my arms around this young woman and whisper into her ear, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.” (Lk 24:5-6 ESV)
Also, I was reminded of Benny Hinn who is said to have received his (Charismatic) anointing by frequently visiting Aimee Semple McPherson’s grave. His words describing that experience have become rather famous:
“I felt a terrific anointing … I was shaking all over … trembling under the power of God … `Dear God,’ I said, `I feel the anointing.’ … I believe the anointing has lingered over Aimee’s body.”
In contrast, receiving the anointing from the Holy Spirit is a silent, secret, and holy experience. No shaking or trembling of the body but a silent body filled with Heaven’s soft and tender spiritual gift.
However, haven’t we known similar things from people who wanted their share of the “anointed” cake in the Catholic Church for centuries as well? I am thinking here especially of dissecting the corpses of many saints in order to promote the cult of relics.
Finally, because it grieves me, I only want to say, “Let’s pray for them!”
Much love,
Susanne
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Susanne,
As you might know I was raised in the Catholic church and knew about the relics they boasted in. Luther once said that there were enough pieces of the original cross of Jesus in the Catholic church that you could build a barn! We were told that a piece of a saint was entombed in each “altar stone” just under the place where the priest sets the chalice when he says the magic incantations that “turn the wafers of bread into the body of Jesus.” Then there was the practice of kissing the bishop’s ring when he came to town because it had a piece of a saint trapped under its large gem stone and doing so, granted one “a blessing.” Like you observed, how different is this foolishness from hugging the graves of the dead evangelists and healers of the past or lining up to kiss the pastor’s feet? I have found that the Protestant churches are not all that different from Catholicism. The nuts have not fallen far from the tree. Like mother, like daughter. Yes, Babylon the Great has daughters that are just like her.
It can be a lonely walk once you leave Christian City behind for the last time and strike out for that New Jerusalem which is above, the heavenly City of Zion wherein dwells righteousness. But before one can leave all this craziness behind they have to wake up to the fact that Jesus does not dwell in houses made by the hands of men, in fact He cursed the temple in Jerusalem on his way out of the city the night before He was to die at their hands and its final destruction came less than 40 years later and the Levitical priesthood ceased to exist. In his loneliness, Elijah thought he stood alone against the prophets of Baal and said to God, “They have torn down your altar, they have killed your prophets and I am the only one left and they seek MY life.” But what was God’s answer? “Not so, Elijah. I have reserve to myself 7000 others who have not bowed down to Baal, nor kissed him.” We are NOT alone. Yes, pray that His light might penetrate such great darkness as men and women seek power instead of brokeness and humility.
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Michael, thank you for the sober warning. I pray that I and others will be so in the way, that we will not wander off the strait and narrow. I have spent too much time in dead ends already.
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Good word brother…your spirit testifies with mine as His does with ours. Thank you for bending your knee to the King and being used to encourage. I have been feed.
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Alan, thanks to you as well, my brother.
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This brings to mind Simon the Sorcerer, who thought he could buy the gift of God. There are no shortcuts in Christianity. Flesh wants it comfortable, easy, with no suffering involved. Don’t we see this in airconditioned churches with cushioned pews, coffee, tea and treats in the lobby? And the homes of Christians with all manner of comfort zones, pillow top mattresses, large screen tv’s, labor saving equipment, plentiful food?
Jesus never promised us an easy way; he most certainly told us there was a narrow way, and one of suffering;
7 As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? 8 What then did you go out to see? Someone] dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces. 9 What then did you go out to see? A prophet?[ Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 10 This is the one about whom it is written,
‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way before you.’Matt 11
Flesh wants to feather it’s nest, but Jesus had no place to lay his head.
Satan decieves Christians who’s hearts have not been fullly given over to Jesus, an alternative, an easy way, just as he did Jesus in the temptation…but there isn’t any. It’s a delusion of the mind and spirit.
But who is listening in this evil and perverse generation? Shouldn’t there be an armor of God we should be wearing, not a mantle of some dead, supposedly righteous saint?
“Let the dead bury the dead”, (and leave them alone).
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“Men” are always seeking a shortcut to God’s anointing and power instead of dying to self and simply trusting Jesus as required by The Lord. We are supposed to put to death our desires instead of trying to exploit the death of another in an insane effort to gain God’s grace and power. I guess the modern “church” needs such gaudy displays, but the true and simple church does not. Time to get real and put to death The Show. THE SHOW is nothing less than a sick display that draws men’s attention to other mere men instead of pointing to only Christ. It makes me want to vomit! Simple sincere faith is difficult to find these days. “Men” want big displays of pomp and circumstance……that edify only their egos. The only way to life is via His death and resurrection. Dead mortal bodies have no special anointing or power. Trying to suck any sort of thing from them is nothing short of witchcraft. I follow Christ so let the dead bury the dead.
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Chris, thanks for your comment. I agree with you fully. I remember the time when I was still a conference junky that I went to see C. Peter Wagner and his entourage of false prophets (profits, more like it) and false apostles in Dallas, TX back in the early ’90’s. Talk about pomp and circumstance! All the potentates sat in a corralled area to the right of the stage with body guards keeping people away from them before and after they spoke and then as the grand finale, down the isle parades Mr. Wagner himself with body guards in front and behind as the escorted him all the way to the stage up front. It reminded me of what I saw when the bishop came to town and was escorted up to the alter of the church I was in when I was a Catholic kid. To top it off, the big Baptist mega-church it was in was constructed like a Catholic cathedral complete with flying buttresses and gargoyles guarding the front entrance. I have never felt as lonely and out of place as I did that day, surrounded by three thousand people, all wanting POWER and to be counted as part of the inside group of power brokers. Funny how they all knew that I was not one of them and shunned me and I never even said anything! Nope! The Protestant nuts have not fallen far from their Mother tree.
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You said Michael,
“Watch out for those evil seducers in the church that offer you an easier way to spiritual success other than the cross of Christ”
Such a comment reeks of 1 Corinthians 2:7, 8 and 2 Corinthians 4:11, 12 and likely a hundred other verses. It’s a marvel that in light of the general testimony of scripture, past faithful saints and the example of Jesus Himself, so many remain ignorant of the necessity of death for a Christian. It has not been and it is not today some option of the Christian life on one’s journey to heaven, but an absolute requirement if one is even desirious to follow the real Jesus of scripture. One of these past saints kept it really simple for me: “The way up is down.” Doesn’t get much more simple and true than that now does it?
Sadly, I just looked up to the restaurant TV here and saw the pope leading a palm sunday processional followed by 8 or 10 people carrying a wooden cross over there heads. Somehow I don’t think this is what Jesus had in mind. Is the cross something we parade around with or proudly display around our necks? Or is it rather something that does us in altogether by severing our necks? I trust you all get the point- and yes, I do support throwing away those shiny trinkets!
Such a post makes me want to laugh and cry all at once. The vanity and foolishness of religious men, and yet the squandered opportunity to walk in intimacy with the One who loved enough to die. Oh may I, may you, may we, leave that legacy for this dying world and nothing that falls short of it.
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Michael F.,
Yes it is amazing that so many claim the name of Jesus, yet are so ignorant of who He is and what it means to be His disciple. Today we have a cross-less Christianity that promises salvation with the simple act of slipping up of one little finger with every eye closed and the filling out of a “commitment card” in the back of the pew… it promises everything for free that cost a TRUE follower of Christ 2000 years ago everything that is of this world, often including their own lives. Not any more. Nope, today we have the “Orange County Jesus” who wants to be your slave, give you every worldly blessing and pleasure, keep you from persecution and tribulation, give you a great job, a title in a church system and rapture you out before anything bad happens in your little world. This “Jesus” says that you can keep your ego centric “purpose driven” life and have Christ too, but of coarse it will cost you 10% of your gross income, but what the hay! Look at all you get in return in creature comforts for that little sacrafice! Paul said it well when He wrote:
“But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if some one comes and preaches another Jesus than the one we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you submit to it readily enough.”(2 Corinthians 11:3-4 RSVA)
“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and turning to a different gospel– not that there is another gospel, but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we preached to you, let him be accursed.” (Galatians 1:6-8 RSVA)
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I am, thankfully, unfamiliar w/ grave sucking. But there are wolves in sheep’s clothing everywhere. I do not fear for my own Salvation. That is secure in Christ. But I have grievous concerns for the well-being of unsaved love ones.
Thank you for preaching the Gospel so faithfully, Michael.
Your friend,
Anna ❤
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Anna, funny you should say that I faithfully preach the gospel. I often get the thought that because I am not leading people to Christ in a “sinner’s prayer” that I am not preaching the gospel like I should. Old church burdens are hard to shed, dear sister.
Thanks for your encouragement.
Your friend in His love,
Michael ❤
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