These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. (Heb 11:13, ESV2011)
How many of us really relate to the above verse? The more this world system rots from within the more isolated we feel… cut off from anything that we once found comfort in. Our streets have been taken over by rioters and demonstrators who use filthy language, our government is at war with what was once considered good and acceptable and even church services we once enjoyed seem distant and far away.
A couple of days ago, I was reading an article by T. Austin-Sparks titled, “Jealousy for God,” and as I read, it became an overlay of my experiences in organized Christianity. In his article he started out with the life of Elijah, how he was jealous for God and His rightful place among the people of Israel. His very presence in the land made him a hated target because he was the opposite of all that Ahab and Jezebel stood for. Elijah stood with God in His Spirit and Ahab, Jezebel, 450 false prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of the groves who ate at Jezebel’s table were all under the influence of the devil. Most of the people of Israel were completely under their influence as well. As a result he felt all alone while they had lots of company as they worshiped in their temples under the blessings of the king and queen and all the false prophets. The apostle Paul quoted Elijah,
“Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.” But what is God’s reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. (Rom 11:3-5, ESV2011)
Many hundreds of years later, we see a member of this “remnant chosen by grace” standing alone against the apostate Jewish system that killed their Messiah out of pure jealousy. A young man named Stephen stood before the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem. He was all alone as he spoke up for God and His Son, Jesus Christ. Stephen’s words struck at the heart of all that was wrong with the Jews and their temple worship and they hated him for it!
But it was Solomon who built a house for him.Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says, “‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest? Did not my hand make all these things?’ “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.” (Acts 7:47-53, ESV2011)
The more things change, the more they remain the same. False prophets, false religious systems, and false worship. Where in the New Testament did Jesus or the apostles command the early Christians to go out and build church buildings and cathedrals to worship in? No, Jesus told the woman at the well that true worship did not require religions and building, “They who worship God must worship Him in Spirit and in truth.” Peter made it clear that the true church of God was not a system of buildings.
As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1Pet 2:4-5, ESV2011)
It is this spiritual house built by God, those who walk by the Spirit and not by the flesh that is the Church and they are a threat to the very system that draws attention and worship away from Christ unto itself. This is why they killed Stephen! His face shone like that of an angel and theirs was the face of the devil. Darkness cannot stand in the presence of God’s Light.
Sparks points out that in this apostate system that focuses on buildings and human hierarchy, anyone who dares to speak the truth and tries to bring Christians back into worshiping in spirit and in truth is considered a “trouble maker.” Human nature in its fleshly ways takes those things that are holy and pulls them down onto this earthly plane, and anyone who dares to point this out is a threat to the status quo. If you dare to speak to these things in today’s churches, you will get the same reception that Stephen got when he spoke out in one of their synagogues long ago. Anyone who lifts up Christ in His body and draws attention to Him is a threat and the jealousy of false prophets, false pastors, and false apostles, etc., will rise up in a foaming rage.
Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him…” (Acts 7:54-58, ESV2011)
T. Austin-Sparks describes what we can expect when we walk in the Light as Stephen did.
Now that touches a principle. You and I, on the broadest basis of the Christian life, are here in this world in this very capacity, to straddle the path of iniquity, of sin – of the very course of man – and to represent a check; and because we are here for that, we shall be called ‘trouble makers’. In a very real sense we shall BE trouble makers. The trouble will focus itself upon us, and we shall have to suffer for it. The very fact that you are jealous for the Lord will bring you into conflict with that trend that there is in this world, in man. It is going to be a really gruelling business for any testimony for God in this world, because, in the very nature of things, it counters the whole course of this world, which is downhill.
That is, as I have said, the broad line of the principle. Let us get nearer to the heart of things, so far as what is represented by this chapter is concerned. When the SPIRITUAL stands to confront the merely formal, traditional, nominal and ‘natural’, then there is going to be trouble. This is not now merely the reaction from the world: it is the reaction from religion. I would go further, and say it may be the reaction from Christianity. There is a very great difference between formal, traditional, nominal, ‘natural’ Christianity, on the one side, and spiritual Christianity, on the other; a great deal of difference. So much so, that this also becomes a battlefield – the battlefield of a lot of trouble.
Leave formalism alone, and everything will go on quite quietly. Leave traditionalism alone – that is, the set order of things as it has always been; that framework of things as it has been constituted and set up and established by man; that Christianity which is the fixed, accepted system of things – and you will escape a great deal of trouble. But seek to bring in a truly spiritual order of things, and trouble arises at once. And YOU are the trouble maker! The truth is that the trouble lies in the existing condition, the situation, the state; but it is only brought out by your action. And so spiritual men and women, and spiritual ministry, are called ‘trouble makers’, because the two things cannot go on together.
That is where Israel was. They had the traditions, they had the oracles, they had the ordinances, they had the testimonies; they had the forms, they had the system – they had it all; BUT, in the days of the prophets, there was ever this vast gap between the ‘externals’ and ‘internals’ of life in relation with God. The heart is far removed from the lips. The spiritual reality is not found in the formal. You may have it all – but then bring in the truly spiritual meaning of things, and trouble begins in that very realm. It is the trouble which arises when what is external and traditional comes into conflict with something which is truly spiritual….
When, therefore, there is the purest testimony, the fullest expression of what is of God, the heavenly over against the earthly, the spiritual over against the carnal or the natural, the enemy gives a turn to things, a twist to things, and lays the responsibility at the door of a spiritual and a heavenly ministry. He says: ‘You are the cause of all the trouble – you are the troubler!’ But no. The trouble lies deeper than that, and in another realm. The truth is, there is something here that, in its very nature, MUST create trouble, MUST be a source of trouble, so long as God’s known will, His revealed mind, is being violated; while the full expression of God’s purpose is being withstood. To bring in something that stands for that, there is going to be trouble.
http://www.austin-sparks.net/english/001248.html
This spiritual principle will probably seem strange to many Christians who read this article, but I know that some of you who have had a spiritual walk similar to my own where no matter how hard you tried to fit-in and “be one of the boys” in that church system, the more you were rejected and persecuted. You might have thought, “Well, maybe if I just kept my mouth shut and smiled they would welcome me,” but that didn’t work for long either. It is not the words alone that offend, it is the Who that is in YOU that bothers them! “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship,” but only then. It is a heart thing. Out of many frustrating attempts to be part of that system, I cried out to God, “Lord, I DON’T FIT! I just DON’T FIT!” To this He replied, “YOU are not supposed to FIT!” Some of us like Stephen or Elijah have a “prophetic gifting” that makes us a target no matter what. If we walk into a room full of religious people they immediately know we aren’t one of them. I have written this article to you, hoping that you might find some comfort in knowing it is alright not to FIT, but rather as John did, find your place at the breast of Jesus Christ instead of nursing at the breasts of men.
Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. (2Cor 3:4-6, ESV2011)
A Wilderness Voice 
Yes! Michael, I read this article by Sparks, too. Not really fun to read, right? 🙄 It seems to me that the church days are over, or at least counted, and that we as trouble makers meet trouble wherever we go in our everyday life. I do not need to go to church in order to become an offense to others who want me to join them in their wrongdoing. As long as I want to belong to them instead of belonging to Christ, the temptation arises to give in and to no longer see what is wrong in God’s sight. Jesus once told us,
“So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Mt 10:26-28 ESV)
“So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Mt 10:32-39 ESV)
God wants us to reveal the hidden things and to not cover any wrongdoing, esp. when it has been done in our presence. Michael, you know that I as a people pleaser hate that as I rather want to be at peace with all people. But God…. 🙄 Either we receive our energy and peace from Him or we become part of the world or the religious system again. Indeed, the way that leads to (eternal) life is VERY narrow and it is anything but easy to stay on target. As you often say, “Without Him we are toast!” Or in other words,
“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.” (Jn 15:5-8 ESV)
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From what you have shared, Susanne, it would appear that Christ would not only have us be rejected, but pour fuel on the fire by speaking openly and in the face of injustice and hypocrisy so that they fully make their hearts manifest as being what they are… anti-Christ. “If they have hated me, they will also hate you… A servant it not greater than His Master.”
Thanks for the reminder, dear sister.
Your brother in Him,
Michael
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I am afraid you are right regarding the fuel, Michael. And even then when they hate us, we ought to love them and pray that Jesus saves them.
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I know one thing for sure, apart from Him I can do nothing that is of any eternal value.
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Susanne, as usual I did not give you a full answer in my first reply. Your words seem to have many facets when you comment and are worth praying over and letting them sink in. You wrote,
“Yes! Michael, I read this article by Sparks, too. Not really fun to read, right? 🙄 It seems to me that the church days are over, or at least counted, and that we as trouble makers meet trouble wherever we go in our everyday life. I do not need to go to church in order to become an offense to others who want me to join them in their wrongdoing. As long as I want to belong to them instead of belonging to Christ, the temptation arises to give in and to no longer see what is wrong in God’s sight.”
Yes, as so often is the case, Sparks digs right into where we live and it is not all that comfortable, for sure. As for the “church days” being over, I know that they are over for us, yet I think that the call of Christ is still going forth into Babylon and her harlots, “Come out of her my people and partake not of her sins least you also partake of her plagues.” I just don’t feel that I am suppose to go back into those Sunday services with that message like I once did, at least not since He told me, “Let the blind guides lead the blind and they will both fall into the ditch.” Like I wrote in my comment to Gordon, ditches have a divine purpose, too.
Yes, our place IN Christ is being challenged by the world and its people constantly, including the worldly Christians. It would be so much easier to “just go along with the flow.” Funny, even this saying speaks of ditches! Those of us who belong to Christ don’t belong in the world’s ditches and religions are some of the worst.
May we continue to be an encouragement to one another, my dear sister. Thanks for all you have been to me IN Him.
Your brother in His love,
Michael
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You are very welcome, Michael. Thank you for being you and for sharing this precious spiritual fellowship God gave us with me! ⭐
What I meant about the church days that were over was that I believe these people who went to churches, this generation is dying away. It is not only due to the corona virus lockdown, I also think that future generations will connect more and more merely online, in online churches if you will.
You sister in Jesus’ LOVE,
Susanne
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You might have a point there. Companies are finding out that their employees are just as efficient working on line from home and thinking about cutting back on the need for office space. I think that pastors would rather have the people right there in the audience so they could more easily convince them to “give.” But who knows what the congregation is learning by all this COVID isolation? As for me, I would rather fellowship with the saints face to face where possible and I have had all the sermons I can stand for one lifetime 🙂 It is good to see you inspired to write on here again. ⭐
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Yes, I thought about employees as well. Face to face might be good, but spirit to spirit in His presence might be better. The best thing would be, of course, meeting face to face plus experiencing Christ in our midst at the same time. 🙂
Inspiration comes, inspiration goes… just as He wills. I can’t help. 😉
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I agree 100% on all counts. 🙂
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Thx, bro 🙂
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Wow! Yes Just wow! I will never Fit in! I more or less gave up trying to fit in years ago but if feels more glaring now then ever before. Thank you for the stark reminder. I know you all don’t hear from me much, but I too have been going through some battles. Of isolation. Not very comfortable these days especially these past few years and this one too. Crazy! Eye Opener!
Good to read from you and Suzanne! Bless you both richly!
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Good to hear from you again, too, Stacey. Blessings in Christ, dear sister.
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Hi Michael,
One year is how long I would last wherever I joined a “church”. I would get bored and knew there was more to the abundant life than potluck dinners and fashion shows. It was funny to watch the parishioners fight over the pastor and positions. I confess that I was chasing idols too but Christ has led me on this journey to realize that He is all I will ever need or desire and I became His over 30 years ago. How foolish we are in our youth!!
Love in Christ,
Wanda
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Hi Wanda,
“Boring” in those churches was not what I experienced in my “church” attempts, at least not for long. I was more like the little boy in the adoring crowd that naively yelled out, “The king has no clothes!” I dared to ask questions about why the accepted norm in them was not according to the teachings of the New Testament… not to be disruptive, but rather I was hoping to see a needed change and the Holy Spirit given His rightful place in the direction of their meetings instead of the traditions of men. I soon found out that asking questions or pointing out error was not acceptable and would get a negative reaction from “the king” as well as his idolaters.
I was not always that way. I started out as being one of those who bought the program and tried to fit in. I first spent 23 years as a Catholic and then 2 years in an evangelical church and finally 7 years in a Christian cult that formed out of a group of young people who were sincerely seeking God. We were finally led away from the leading of the Holy Spirit by a false teacher. After getting free of that cult I decided I would not be silent any longer when I saw cult-ish errors being taught. Of coarse, the problem was that not very many people in those “churches” wanted to seek the truth, but rather they wanted to just have a good time and have their ears tickled. Yes, life in Christ is not an idealistic experience. It is a road filled with many potholes, but this is how we learn experiential truth and have our spiritual hearing fine tuned by God.
Thanks for your comment, Wanda,
Michael
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Thanks Michael, there is definitely comfort in knowing that we are not meant to fit in!
When Father first called me out of “‘natural’ Christianity” as TAS calls it, I spent a lot of time trying to tell others what the problems were, and trying to get them to see that “those who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God”. (among other things, I used tp pass on articles from the ‘Wilderness Voice’ site…)
Slowly it began to dawn on me that far from convincing anyone, all I was doing was becoming a “trouble” to them. Finally I began to realise that “friendship with the world means hostility toward God”… and the churchianity that I was trying to deal with was just another form of worldliness.
I have come to appreciate the “land of far horizons” – this world is not my home, and I feel less and less ‘involved’ in it… of course that doesn’t stop me getting pretty annoyed at some of the rubbish we see going on around us more and more as each day goes by ! 😉
…blessings in Him… Gordon H.
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Hi Gordon! Good to hear from you again. Yes, I was just like you were. I naively thought that church people were truth seekers and that was why they “went to church.” Then one Sunday during the service I heard the Spirit say, “Why do you keep seeking the Living among the dead?” After that He showed me that you don’t get to the finish-line any faster by flogging a dead horse. I heard Him say, “They are blind guides leading the blind. Leave then alone and let them fall into the ditch.” I learned that sometimes we are not to answer fools according to their folly and that the ditches along the edges of the road have a divine purpose as well. Falling in one of those ditches in a third world country is a nasty experience, for sure. I think that it was this kind of ditch that Jesus was talking about. I know from experience that these can be real eye-openers! It is Jesus’ task to give sight to the blind and He has His ways with them. Sometime He puts spit and mud in our eyes. How rude! Truly God’s ways are not our ways and His thought are not our thoughts.
As for all that is going on in this world around us, Jesus said, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.” Somehow all this world’s craziness has something to do with Him preparing an eternal place for us with the Father.
Love in Christ, my brother,
Michael
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You are so right, Michael. Christians are strangers and exiles on the earth. This applies both inside the church and outside it. We may expect to be rejected by non-believers. What can be excruciatingly painful is rejection by fellow believers. Did the Inquisition recognize Joan of Arc’s sanctity?
It is clear that your repeated rejection w/i the church shaped and prepared you to teach the truth. Relationship w/ God is what matters. The setting is irrelevant. Did the martyrs in the Roman Colosseum worship in golden domed basilicas? Did the 30 million Christians who perished in the Gulag have a Crystal Cathedral?
Of course, Christ, Himself, was rejected — both by the Jewish hierarchy and the world. Yet, “The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone” (Matt. 21: 42). He is our model. And He predicted our rejection. “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you” (John 15: 18).
May God give us each strength to carry our cross.
Your sister in Christ,
A. ❤
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Thank you for your insightful comment, dear Anna. You nailed it. I am sorry that it took me a couple of days to moderate and reply to your comment. Somehow it slipped by my attention. Like I told Fred, I think that some of us are marked by God even from our mother’s womb (see Galatians 1:15-16) and as such Satan sees that mark and sets out to kill us or so wound us that we withdraw from everyone because of all the rejection by this world’s minions. Even our families reject us. We are marked, but those who have the Spirit can see that mark and love Christ who dwells within us. It is a coupe de grace when even those who call themselves “christians” reject us. Satan even has his workers sown there. Like Jesus said,
Sister, I know the deep wound you received as a child from those close to you. Satan knows just how to make us of no effect, though we belong to our REAL Father. Climbing out of that pit of abuse and rejection has been a challenge for me as well. But we have found one another as orphans in this world rejected by our fathers so that we can love one another with HIS love and be instruments of THE Father’s healing touch.
Thanks for sharing His love with me,
Michael ❤
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I do not remember how I found your blog with Paul Davis. It was quite a few years ago now. It so happened that through reading the messages there the Lord used you and Paul as an aid in removing the last vestiges of “church”, and even the idea of God Himself, that I had been taught to believe as a ‘member‘ of the RCC, word of faith, organized whatever’s, and the prophetic movement (pathetic, more accurately imo – Soul readings).
I am sure anyone who I knew would have called you a “TROUBLER” 👍🥳😂
I always love to be stirred by your posts, Michael!
I think Susanne has a new blog post in the works from her comment, maybe?
Guess we shall see 🤔
❤️🔥❤️
Thank you, Michael…Hugs to all, Judi
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Hi Judi, I assume you are referring to my dear brother with whom I have written many articles and books, George Davis. George is doing well and we still live walking distance apart and get together often for fellowship. Our writings are still on http://awildernessvoice.com Yes, it has been quite a few years. Our website has been up for about 20 years.
I also started out as a Catholic. I was baptized into that system as an infant and did time in the nun’s schools. I also got sucked into the so-called “prophetic movement” as well for a season by believing their twist that the Church is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophet. The Spirit finally showed me the truth where Paul wrote, “No other foundation can be laid other than Jesus Christ,” and that Jesus was the ONLY foundation the apostles and prophets were placing Christ’s followers upon. In reality, the false teaching of these usurpers showed them to be antichrist (Grk. antichristos – instead of Christ) along with so many other false teachers in Christendom who seek others to follow them.
I guess it is a good thing to be seen as a “Trouble Maker” in the eyes of such men and their worshipers. It was such a relief to be set free of trying to fit into that system and cast off all their religious shackles.
Judi, thanks so much for your encouraging comment. Yes, Susanne and I have to wait for the inspiration of the Spirit before we write and sometimes those inspirations are far apart. It is crazy how I still wonder if He is still using me during those long dry spells. I think that Susanne is more at peace with not writing all that often than I am. She longs for His personal touch like she has known so often in the past, but when she prays in earnest for that, He comes through. I find it easier to pray for others than to pray for my own situation.
It is good to hear that you are stirred by what we share.
Thank you so much, Judi. Hugs back
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Yes, of course, George Davis was his name, not Paul 😊. I should have checked the other blog. I still go there on occasion. I have discovered that the Spirit highlights what He is planning on planting inside. Then the process begins which makes the revelation first real in me and then able to be shared as His Life with others. Again, I thank you for sharing those insights forged in the fire 🔥❤️ Judi
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You are welcome, Judi. I am glad that we don’t have to go through this purifying process alone.
“And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.” (Zech 13:9, KJV)
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Thank you for sharing your heart Brother. This is where I have been at for 5-6 years now and it still hurts. It hurts because the people you walked beside, lived beside, called “beloved” for so many years, can so quickly gnash on you with their teeth and murder you, not so much physically but in even worse ways. Alienate, character assassination, gossip and rumors. All because the Holy Spirit has spoke to His people and reveled, “its .a farce” and if you want to discuss it with the “hierarchy” you are the trouble maker. The Beast must be fed, it must. They/we built it and its is hungry, for money and people. The thought that it may fail if we look at the Truth of it all is not palatable so onward she goes. I would ask this as well, if you attend these gatherings and just stay quiet, not to rubble rouse, are you not supporting a corrupt institute with all the twisted ways and happenings that support the Beast? Just by going to that which you are supposed to be, the Church. We cannot go to what we ARE. 2 Tim “speaks to this, I am sure. “have nothing to do with them” and in Rev 18 that talks of “her” as specifically, “come out of her my people”, who or what is the “her”??
If you talk about that in the institutionalized church, you will be murdered.
God help us all…..
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Thanks for sharing your own experiences, Alan. It all sounds so similar, though I left all that insanity about 25 years ago. The Lord has let me peek in on it a few times only to confirm to me that I heard His voice correctly to “Come out of her.” Jezebel still seeks to kill anyone who obeys the voice of the Lord if she can’t seduce them (see 2 Kings 9:30-31). I am afraid the visible church is not all that different from the apostate Israel of old.
You mentioned “the Beast.” The beast as I see it in Revelation is the world’s military/industrial complex that gets its power from the worship of Mammon. And the Great Whore rides on the Beast and gets her power the same way (see Rev. 17:1-7)… money is power. The “her” in Rev. 18:4 is the Great Whore, the mother of harlots. She has seduced the Church of Jesus Christ and His people are being called out individually to all who have ears to hear. Remember, the whore is drunk on the blood of the martyrs and the saints. Yes, the institutional church system is quite capable of murder. Once they have you in their sights and haven’t been able to seduce you away from Christ they will kill any effect you might have in their congregations and beyond if possible.
Alan, the good news is that God is purifying His people through it all…
“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.” (1John 3:1-3, ESV2011)
May God bless you with more and more of Christ each day,
Michael
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This hit home. Lately I have been trying to show my family I love them. As you know one of my brothers is a freemason and that still bothers me greatly and because I love him I want to warn him. I tried to talk to the other brother about how I feel. I felt I was not getting through and his words through me for a loop sort of speak. I was not understanding why he was replying the way he was. I made the biggest mistake later on when I posted a question on facebook and even included my confusion in the post. My brother that I talked to saw it and got very upset. To him I was twisting his words around. It all stems from trying to show love. In a way I know how God feels. When he was here on earth he proved his love and yet people hated him. Although he made no mistakes as I did so not exactly the same.
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Hi, Fred. Jesus did not promise us an easy walk if we truly seek HIS kingdom. In fact He said,
To be a friend of the world and its people (including family) is to be an enemy of God. I think that God puts His mark on us while we were still in our mother’s womb. I know that I experienced rejection from family and my peers from the beginning and I just wanted to be “one of them.” If we are HIS we were never supposed to fit in this world. Paul wrote about himself, “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace,” (Gal 1:15, KJ2000)
It is a lonely walk, my brother. The challenge is to die to self and find Christ as our sufficiency in all things.
Jesus loved them all, but He was still rejected by even His own brothers (see John 7:2-5). It all goes with the territory, my brother.
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Amen and amen. I had been rejected all my life. I never fit in anywhere. Horrible life I had too. School and home and family gatherings. I tried so hard to fit in up until about 25 years ago or more. I just gave up trying to fit in. Glory be to God!
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Well, Stacey, you are our heavenly Father’s daughter and Jesus has prepared that place for you and it is eternal and out of the reach of the fickle whims of fallen man. Yes, Glory be to the Father and the Son!
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Thank you for the encouragement Michael. I don’t fit in churchianity, but to thankful to be a part of the church that Jesus is building.
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Amen to that, Bob.
“For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith which works by love.” (Gal 5:6, KJ2000)
It is not now or never has it been about religion, but about living in Christ and His love. Thanks for the confirmation, my brother.
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