The Heart
Matthew 12:35 – A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things; and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.
Heart (Hebrew: Le︡ba︡b – Greek: Kardia) In general usage, the core of the person. The term has a wide range of application which includes physical being, personality, emotions, intellect, will and relationship with God. Because we’re created as free-will agents, it’s the individual’s response to the revelation of God and of their responsibility for their own thinking, willing and acting.
The Old Testament often referred the heart to the physical organ of the circulatory system. Both Testaments also see the heart as the center of the personality or spiritual life. Jesus taught that sin came out of the heart of people. This is why it is so important what we allow to come into our hearts. We can allow sin to bombard our minds to the point we are no longer conscious of sin or think of it as not being sin.
Read MoreSalt
Mark 9:49-50 For every one shall be salted (seasoned) with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. V:50 – Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his saltiness, wherewith will ye reason it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another
Salt is a preservative, it protects from harm, damage, keeps food from spoiling, it gives flavor.
Read MoreBound
And, behold there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed (bent over) together, and could in no wise lift (raise) up herself – Luke 13:11
And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day – Luke 13:16
Infirmity - Greek (Astheneia) feebleness of body or mind, frailty, weakness – This woman Jesus was speaking of had an infirmity, she wasn’t sick or diseased, but she was restricted, she couldn’t move the way she desired to, she was bent over, and couldn’t lift herself up. Several things are being said in these two scriptures. This woman had an infirmity, in other words, her back was bent over for eighteen years. She was a woman of faith because she was one of Abraham’s daughters. The infirmity she had was something Satan had put on her, it wasn’t physical and Jesus was going to heal her on the Sabbath day. Her spiritual leader didn’t discern it was a spirit and not an illness.
Imagine, this woman was attending the Synagogue for eighteen years, in the eighteen years she was attending she was bound by Satan although she was in the Synagogue. She was hearing the word of God, but she was still bound. Those who were ministering the Word of God didn’t discern this woman being bound by Satan, they probably just thought she was bent over and there was nothing else to it. Secondly, those that were worshipping God was not allowing the Spirit of God to flow freely, if that was the case, she wouldn’t have been bound for eighteen years without receiving deliverance or it could have just been her appointed time to receive her healing.
The Church is a place where Christian believers gather together to worship and praise God. The Church is place where people should be able to come and receive, healing and deliverance. It should be a place where people can come and feel loved when they can’t feel or receive love from anyone or anywhere else. The Church is a place where spiritual surgery should be performed. It’s a place where people should be able to come and touch the hem of Jesus garment as He passes through the pews, it’s a place where people should be able to come and receive a blood transfusion.
This poor woman was in the congregation of believers and no one had discernment she was being attacked by Satan because they were looking at the outer appearance rather than in the Spirit. How many times do people attend church, and members of the church are bound by Satan and other demonic spirits and we have church as usually and no one is being set free? Something is wrong when you never feel or see the Spirit of God moving in the Sanctuary; gifts of the Spirit aren’t in operation, people joining church, but don’t stay connected with the Church.
In order for Satan to have attacked the woman as long as he did, he knew she didn’t have spiritual power neither those who was ministering to her. When Jesus detected it was a spirit of infirmity, the ruler of the Synagogue didn’t want Jesus to heal on the Sabbath Day. The rulers were more concerned about a day rather than seeing the woman healed.
Just as the ruler in the Synagogue were more concerned about a day than seeing the Spirit of God being manifested, we are having the same thing happened today in our churches where people are more concerned about which day we suppose to attend church, dress attire people are wearing than hungering for the Spirit of God to move in the Sanctuary. The Spirit of God is not being manifested in the church because of what people wear, He’s not being manifested because of the sin in the congregation.
Throughout the Bible you don’t read about one Sanctuary or Synagogue being a deliverance ministry, or healing ministry. When the Spirit of God is indwelling us, there should be a manifestation of the Spirit of God being manifested through the Fruit of the Spirit and the Gifts of the Spirit. When leaders and people of God come into the Sanctuary and being on one accord; having the Spirit of God indwelling them, the Spirit of God will give a visitation and people will not leave the same way they came in.
People are attending church and are bound and trying to bind those that are free! We’re more concerned about how a person is dressed than what’s going on in the heart of an individual (For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies – Matthew 15:19). If we can get the individuals heart right through the Spirit of God using us as instrument, when the heart receives righteousness everything else will begin to line up with the Word of God. God is concerned about our spirit not our dress-code or the day we have came together to worship Him. If a day was the case, Jesus wouldn’t have said when two or three or gathered in my name, there I’m I in the midst of them (For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them – Matthew 18:20). Satan doesn’t care what he can have us divided in as long as we don’t come together in agreement; because he knows if we come together in agreement the Spirit of the Lord will be there to heal and answer prayers. So what he does, he have us in disagreement over things that not pertaining to life and godliness or the Bible.
If we stop pointing the finger and blaming others and begin to fast and pray and ask God to show us ourselves that’s when the Spirit of God will begin to move in our Sanctuaries. (Then shatl thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting (pointing) forth of the finger, and speaking vanity (wickedness – Isaiah 58:9) We’re too busy looking at someone else’s flaws rather than looking at our own sins and flaws. How can we see someone else need and we can’t see our own need of Spiritual growth? We must first get the darkness out of us in order to see darkness in someone else life, and we must be filled with the Spirit of God. We need more than Him coming upon us every now then, we need Him to live in and through us.
When God shows us something about an individual, it’s for us to either to confront them with loving-kindness and to pray with them and for them until they receive deliverance, it’s not for us go about telling everyone else about a person sins or flaws. The Holy Spirit will convict you, not condemn you!
Let us as Christians; get in a place with God where He will allow us to see those among us bound by Satan and through His Spirit set the captive free!
Read MoreStrange Fire
Leviticus 10:1 – And Nabab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not.
Strange – Not own, foreign, unknown, unfamiliar, new.
There have been various interpretations given for the strange fire. It appears following instructions is very important naturally as well as spiritually. Listed here are a few reasons why the sons of Aaron may have died at the altar.
- Coals that were not taken from the altar as required in Leviticus 16:12 – And he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the Lord, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the veil: and he shall put the incense upon the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is upon the testimony that he die not.
- Offering it at the wrong time of day as instructed in Exodus 30:7-9 – And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning when he dresseth the lamps he shall burn incense upon it. And when Aaron lighteth the lamps at even, he shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generation.
- No one except the high priest should place incense on a censer of coals and present it to God - Exodus 29:29-30 And the holy garments of Aaron shall be his sons’ after him, to be anointed therein, and to be consecrated in them. And the son that is priest in his stead shall put them on seven days, when he cometh into the tabernacle of the congregation to minister in the holy place (sanctuary).
Sin In The Pulpit
Jeremiah 12:10 – Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.
Pastor – A shepherd, priest or minister in charge of a congregation.
It’s sad to say, when we hear about ministers today in the media, its nothing good, but a reproach against God and the disciples of Jesus Christ. Years ago, when a man or woman would say he or she was a representative of God, you could depend on them leading you to God and not away from God; or the minister leading you to them as though they were God.
Because some ministers have ordained themselves, sent themselves and were ordained by man rather than God, many of God’s people have been abused, misused and corrupted by false ministers. A man or woman ordained by God will have the people’s best interest at heart. Too many times people look at the person rather than looking into the word of God to see if the minister’s life is lining up with the word of God. Alot of times people don’t take the time to read or study the word of God, and because of this, they categorize all Christians as the minister(s) that has brought a reproach to Christianity.
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