From
approximately 1977 to 1982, I attended one of the faith movement churches in
Dallas where I lived.
I thought it
was great. I
saw nothing at all wrong while I attended this church group,
although I didn't like that "prosperity" message, but I knew I could
just copy down the scriptures and study the body of scripture when I returned
home, so I contented myself with doing that each time that message was spoken
by our pastor (Robert
Tilton),
and that message was often spoken.
*****
In 1979, God gave me
the following terrifying dream:
Destruction
was everywhere.
I went into a
meeting room where a meeting was going on. A man was speaking to a room filled
with people. I went in and began to listen.
A second man
rushed in and said: "Stop ... Wait ... Can't you
see ... It's too late ... It's already begun."
The first man
resumed speaking.
I looked out
the window to see what had "already begun."
There
was a tall pole with a yellow civil defense speaker at top of the pole. A gas
was coming out of the speaker. I knew it was poisonous and would kill the
people. It was coming directly toward us!
The shocking
thing was the speaker that was set there for the purpose of warning us was
being used as the instrument which dispersed the gas that was poison and would
kill us!
I looked at
the man seated next to me. He had a big grin on his face and was looking
directly at the man who was speaking to the group. But then I saw this man was
a corpse, though he looked alive. He was already dead!
I looked about
the room at the other people and realized they were all dead.
As I sat back
in my chair and listened to the man speaking I began to feel sleepy and I knew
as I sat there among them this was killing me too.
God
was showing me the anarchy in the church groups, at the time of the dream,
1979. The destruction in the churches was everywhere, even at that time.
And it is much worse today.
*****
When I
received the poison gas dream, I was greatly troubled, much like
Daniel reported being troubled by a dream where he had no understanding. At the time I received that dream, I didn't
know what it meant.
On a Wednesday
night in 1982, I
attended church at Word of Faith.
I looked at the man who was seated to the left of me. I was shocked. This was the dead man in the poison gas
dream. I looked about the room at the
other people and realized they were like those dead people in the poison gas
dream.
I got up
immediately and went to the Ladies Room and began praying, saying to God:
"I
think YOU are wanting me to leave this church so
I am going to get into my car and drive away.
If YOU want me to come back, I will."
God
didn't want me to return to that church group.
Instead God began showing me many things about The
Faith Movement in the church groups.
*****
The power of
God is not in a scripture but is in the scripture brought to our
minds by the Holy Spirit for that scripture is from the heart of
God showing the will of God in the matter at hand.
I Corinthians 2:10-13 ... for the
Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
For
what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of
God.
Now
we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the
spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely
given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's
wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things
with spiritual.
That
scripture brought to our mind by the Spirit of God shows us the way for
us to go in the situation.
Another
way God communicates with us by HIS Spirit is when we are reading Bible
and a verse stands out to us and our attention is drawn to that specific verse.
God is delivering a message to us by
this and we need to stop reading and focus our attention on that specific
verse, applying it to our lives in a proper way.
*****
A
woman in my neighborhood became very angry with me. I tried to reason with her
and even apologized. She slammed the
phone down and would not hear me. A
year or so later, something happened and she became annoyed with me again,
without real cause. I didn't know what I
should do. I asked God. I was even trying to write her a message when
I heard the following from the Spirit of God showing me what to do:
"If
the blind lead the blind they both fall into the ditch ... Leave her
alone." So
I left her alone.
A year or so
passed, and
I was reading Romans 1, and saw the word "implacable" listed as
characteristics that brought the Wrath of God. When I read the definition of this word, I
was reminded immediately of the woman who refused to be placated and continued
hostile toward me. (She faithfully attends Methodist church.)
Implacable: opposed to someone in a very angry and
determined way that cannot be changed
Romans 1:28-32 ... And even as they did not like to
retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a
reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness,
covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity;
whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors
of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding,
covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that
they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but
have pleasure in them that do them.
*****
But to hunt a scripture
to stand on is of our own fleshly mind and frequently is based on our own
desire rather than on what God plans for us.
*****
I made that
mistake early in my life as a Christian.
I was born again in 1975. I
wanted to marry. I prayed to God about
this. Our prayer group prayed, asking
God to bring me an husband. My best
friend prayed.
But my best
friend heard a thought delivered from the Holy Spirit.
"MY
grace is sufficient for her."
No
matter how many church people "agreed" with me to get husband ... no
matter how many scriptures I stood on to get husband ... it was not going to
happen for it was not the will of God for me.
I stood on a
scripture in Isaiah ... "None shall want her mate." (Isaiah
34:16)
The
power is not in standing on a scripture.
Apart from the Spirit of God, scripture by itself, hunted by our minds,
has no power at all.
You
can even do evil by quoting a scripture like some kind of parrot without being
led by the spirit of God. You can cause
other people to hate scripture that way.
It is really a type of blasphemy caused by the one
who quotes the scripture without the Holy Spirit.
It is only
when God calls that scripture to our mind by the Holy Spirit in
the situation and we speak it after the Holy Spirit calls it to our mind, that
the power of God is present to do the work of God in the moment at hand.
*****
This
is not what is being taught in The Faith Movement.
Instead
they are being taught to find a scripture and by faith they will get what they
want if their faith is strong enough.
Then if it
fails, it is thought it was because their faith was not strong enough.
But the entire
principle of real faith is first hearing from God
... then believing what God says, examples Noah and Abraham.
The
Faith Movement
is the epitome of antichrist described by Paul in II Thessalonians 2.
And when
people fail to get what they are wanting, I've never heard anyone say: "This
teaching is wrong." But it is wrong.
*****
The
Faith Movement is a primary example of antichrist in the churches today for they
sit in the temple of God, the church, showing themselves to
be god.
II Thessalonians 2 ... NASB ... Let no one in any way deceive
you, for it (the
day of the LORD) will not come unless
the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of
destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every
so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes
his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.
*****
The apostasy
in churches is not limited to what is happening in The Faith Movement. It is all over in churches.
You say: "Not in my
church."
Really?
Does your
church teach that the man who marries a divorced woman
commits adultery?
That is what
Jesus taught. Matthew 5:32 and
elsewhere.
Paul told the
NT church the following was the commandment of the
Lord.
Is this really what your church teaches?
I Corinthians 7:10-11 ... And unto the
married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not
the wife depart from her husband: But and if she depart, let
her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband:
and let not the husband put away his wife.
*****
This
is just one of many problems in the churches today. Any time a scripture or a portion of
scripture is omitted it removes the restraint against antichrist and allows the
apostasy to move into the church group.
It
is all around today.
Paul
said Jesus could not return unless
the apostasy took place in the churches.
II Thessalonians 2 ... NASB
The
apostasy was already going on in Paul's day.
John spoke of "many" antichrists working in their time on this
earth. (I John 2:18)
Antichrist is not one man as has so foolishly been discussed for
hundreds of years.
The
Russians in 1812 thought the antichrist to be Napoleon.
In
1975, when I was born again and first heard of antichrist, the churches I
attended thought antichrist to be Henry Kissinger. I asked why it couldn't be Hitler. And they said, "Because antichrist
comes speaking peace."
(Today's
churches do often speak peace to the world by approving you regardless of the
sin you wish to live in.)
But
look for antichrist in the churches for antichrist sits "in the temple of God" ... in
the churches. II Thessalonians 2
(Antichrist
is not one man. Like the devil,
antichrist is a spirit operating in "many" men.)
The
apostasy in the churches has taken place and is taking place right now before
our eyes for those who are alive enough to see.
Scriptures
are quoted in part in the churches and eliminated in part to gain approval of
man and to increase the attendance at church groups.
I
attended a dinner at a museum group and was assigned a seat next to a man who
was wearing around his neck the largest cross I have ever seen.
This
man quickly identified himself as former pastor at Indiana Street Baptist
Church.
He
went on to say: "We have such a
problem at our church. We have so many
people attending our services that we don't have room to seat them. We have added onto the building several times
and still can't seat all the people."
I
replied: "If
you would begin teaching what Jesus said ... 'The man who marries a divorced
woman commits adultery' ... about 1/2 of the people would get up and leave and
you would have no trouble seating the people."
I got up and left the dinner, even without eating. I was not going to sit beside such a man and
try to eat my food. So I left as quickly
as I could get out of the building.
*****
Concerning
antichrist, Paul says:
II Thessalonians 2 ... NASB … And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed.
For
the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the
way.
Then that lawless one will be revealed
The
restraint was the scripture. When portions of scripture were removed from
the churches, lawlessness moved into the churches ... thus the apostasy in the
churches.
*****