Prophecy?

Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand (Revelation 1:3, KJV).

Prophesy in the life of the believer can be an excellent thing when it is properly studied and applied. Even our opening text tells us that we are blessed when we read, hear, and keep those things written in Revelation. Of course, this would also apply to the entire Word of God. When a believer approaches prophecy –written or spoken and it is truly of God, excellence will follow. However, it can move from being excellent to merely being good when it is not studied at the proper time, and/or when it is not properly applied. It is one thing to do a good thing, it is quite another to do the right thing. When everything is led of the Lord, it will be right.

When we approach prophecy, we need to keep first things first. The first thing is to pray and ask the Lord His will concerning our next move. In this case, does He even want us to study it at this time? The reality is that unless we are taught of the Lord through the Holy Spirit, it will be a fruitless effort for the most part. If God wants us to focus on something different from prophecy, prophecy can become a distraction. The Lord is constantly working in our lives (see Philippians 1:6), and the more we submit to His desires the quicker He is able to bring us to maturity. That means even end time prophecy can become a diversion from those things the Lord really wants to reveal to us, which includes things about ourselves we do not want to see. In some cases, the Lord may want to build a better Biblical foundation before taking someone into the deeper things of God -first things first! Even the Apostles had to apply this principle.

Acts 1:4-8 And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth (KJV). Part of end time prophecy is the restoration of the kingdom to Israel. In this passage of Scripture, we find that Jesus is giving His disciples a set of instructions –wait for the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. In the midst of His instruction, the disciples ask Him about the restoration of Israel. His response was simple, that’s not for you to know at this time, receive power first, so you are able to be My witnesses. This is not to say that the disciples should never receive instruction in this area, in fact, they already had (i.e. Matthew 24; Luke 21). However, this is not the time for that. As believers, we need to consult the Lord before going any further. As we do, we will find prophecy will be an excellent thing in our lives.

I prophesy that you will "Rise & Walk"

Be on the lookout for my new highly anticipated book; “Don’t Let the 4 Wheels F.O.O.L. You”!!! If you have ever felt as though society has counted you out! You won’t want to miss this inspirational road map to success!

Do You Share?

If you choose to be obedient to the commands of Jesus, one of the hardest things that you need to do as you walk through this life is to share the Gospel with people. In particular, people that you know and come into contact with often. This includes, family members, friends, co-workers, and neighbors. You know it is your job to share your faith with these people, but you get nervous because you don’t want to be thought of as a religious wacko or nut case. We have all seen way too many examples of morons out there acting like a bunch of bozo’s thinking that they are doing the Lord a favor by sacrificing themselves on the alter of persecution “for the Lord”. In reality most of them are driving people farther from the Savior than they were before they came across this “martyr in his own mind”. Let’s forget about those folks for a while, and focus on the real world. You have family members, friends, co-workers, and neighbors that do not know the Lord, and if they were to die today they would end up in hell. This is a terrible fate that we don’t want for anyone, much less a loved one. But yet we let time go by and death draw all the more near and never utter a word about the Savior they so desperately need. The purpose of this article is to motivate you to stand up boldly for your faith, and to share the gospel lovingly and honestly in a way that people will appreciate. We will focus on your neighbors, however the information presented can be used to share the gospel with anyone. When you share your faith with your neighbor you should always prepare for the encounter with prayer and Bible study. Then just go and talk to them like you normally would. You don’t just walk up to them and ask how much money they have in their bank account, or how much they weigh. Those questions are way to personal to start out a conversation with, and it is the same with sharing the Gospel. You don’t just start out by saying, “if you don’t trust Jesus as your Savior, you’ll go to hell for eternity”. Start the conversation with normal, everyday chitchat about the weather, the ball game, or how the kids are doing. Then take the leap to jump from natural things to spiritual things. Deliberately bring up your faith, or what you learned reading your Bible recently by interjecting it into the conversation. You will be able to tell by their reaction as to whether or not they are open to spiritual things. If they are open then ask them questions about their own faith. Let them talk. This is the key to having anyone like you; let them talk about themselves for a while. We will deal with those that are not open to spiritual things later. After they are talking for a while, and you are listening intently you will get a good impression as to whether or not this person has a Biblical understanding of salvation by grace through faith, not of works. Then you will know how to steer the conversation. If they don’t have a biblical understanding of salvation, you can chime in with some verses of scripture that will help to guide them. Use Bible verses that will straighten out the areas that are incorrect in there thinking. Let them go on for a while, but when it is your turn to talk take them straight to sin. Teach them in a conversational manner what sin is. Use the Ten Commandments as a mirror so they can see for themselves that they are sinners too. Explain to them how God is perfect and holy and just. How He must punish sin wherever it is found. Don’t be shy here. You must get them convinced that they are sinners and worthy of death and eternal punishment before the good news that Jesus died for them will make sense. If they do not show outward signs of sorrow over their sins go back and show them God’s commandments again, and help them see how horrible they really are in God’s sight. After they are convinced that they are sinners and how they deserve to be sent to hell, teach them that God doesn’t want to send people to hell so he made a way for them to be forgiven. Ask them if they know what God did for them. This is when you can sometimes see the light come on. Someone’s face will light up and say “hey! I knew that, Jesus died on the cross” and they will tell you that they just never heard the gospel put quite like that before. Share with them a few more scriptures about Jesus being the only way to God, how He was born of a virgin, then lived a sin free life then died on the cross to save them from the penalty that they owe by virtue of being a sinner. Then he rose again to give us everlasting life. Continue the conversation by asking them if they will make that commitment to trust Jesus as their Savior. Share with them how to pray for forgiveness of their sins by confessing them to God. Then encourage them to spend some time alone, talking to God and getting their heart right before Him. Share with them what David said in Psalm 51 so they can see what a sinful man says to a Holy God. Then you can thank them for being so kind as to let you share your faith with them. Make sure they know that you aren’t pressuring them to go to your church, but that they should try to find a Bible-believing church to be part of so they can grow in their faith. And of course, make sure they know that you are available to try to answer any questions they might have about spiritual things. But, if the person is not interested in spiritual things then you will need to be very courteous and to maintain the friendship and good standing between you. Consider the Parable of the sower; you have encountered someone with thorny ground. The ground is so thorny that the word can’t take root but gets choked out. You need to turn the thorny ground into good ground. You need to plow up the thorny ground and fertilize and water and plant fresh seed until his heart is fertile and ready to receive the word. Only then will the fruit spring up and increase. There are many ways to start the process of tilling this person’s soil. Obviously prayer is our best weapon, however it is not our only weapon. You should always be ready to help this neighbor with a chore, or have a kind word for them when needed. Showing them the example of a servant that Jesus left for us. Your life should be an example of Christ. And it should be obvious to your neighbors. If your neighbors have to guess whether you are a Christian or not, you need to do a better job. Another way I like to reach out to those people with thorny ground is to send them anonymous gospel mailers. Put a tract and/or a letter in the mail to them that explains the Gospel in a direct way. Anonymous gospel mailers should not be wishy-washy. They should be eye-catching, interesting, and to the point. After you have done these things for a while, go have another shot at it. Test the waters to see if they are now more open to the things of God. Don’t get so caught up in showing them your lifestyle, and ministering to his physical needs that you forget about his spiritual condition. If all his physical needs are met, yet his spiritual needs are not he will be in big trouble on the day he goes to stand before God. Don’t let this happen! Now you have a quick Biblical strategy for how to share the Gospel with a neighbor, now go find one and practice on them.

I prophesy that you will "Rise & Walk"

Be on the lookout for my new highly anticipated book; “Don’t Let the 4 Wheels F.O.O.L. You”!!! If you have ever felt as though society has counted you out! You won’t want to miss this inspirational road map to success!

So You Want To Help?

It is the heart of a Christian to help people. It is the Good Samaritan in us. "But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion.” (Luke 10:33 NKJV)

We are rightly motivated to sacrifice for others as our Savior did for us. “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” (1 John 3:16)

From a secular or spiritual perspective, there can be nothing wrong in helping another person in need, even a known sinner. That’s what we believe, but we’re wrong. Help, even with the best of intentions, can be deadly. Not only to the sinner, but to those who help.

The spiritual key is whether or not the sinner will repent of their sin. If that is the case, we are to do everything we can to lead them from the darkness of their sin to the Light of the Lord. But if they will not repent, we are to leave them. “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.” (Ephesians 5:11)

As with all applicable commandments, leaving the sinner is done not to hurt them, but to lovingly shame them into turning from their sin so they may be saved. “And if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet do not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.” (2 Thessalonians 3:14-15)

This may sound harsh, perhaps even judgmental, but it’s not. We are not to judge people as it is not our right. "Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” (Luke 6:37)

But, and this is where so many go wrong, we are to judge all things. “But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one.” (1 Corinthians 2:15)

This seeming nuance is spiritual dynamite, as we are told not to judge the person, but only the sin. That is hard for the secular to tolerate, as our society is being covertly programmed to be permissive and tolerant of even aberrant behavior. But the spiritual among us understand the loving motivation of what God commands, and for that we will never apologize.

We are to help those in need, especially those with needs of the soul. But we are not to tolerate continued sin, as in doing so we help the sinner to remain comfortable in his wretched condition. In contrary to our intentions, we then become sin’s facilitator. And it doesn’t matter if such a person is a stranger or a family member. God’s law is God’s law. “But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner— not even to eat with such a person.” (1 Corinthians 5:11)

And if we will not listen to God’s guidance? The following is a biblical doctrine often ignored and/or misunderstood by even those of devout faith. “Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him; for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds.” (2 John 1:9-11) As a lay minister and counselor, these three verses take my breath away. We people of faith in trying to help sinners be reclaimed are walking a tightrope most of us don’t know we’re on.

God is saying that unless we are careful to adhere to His Word, we, even in trying to express our faith through a helpful witness, may make the sins of others our sins. And while I speak for no one other than myself, on Judgment Day I will have enough to be concerned with without having to answer for the sins of others. That is why the Bible warns us to only help sinners as God commands.

I prophesy that you will "Rise & Walk"

Be on the lookout for my new highly anticipated book; “Don’t Let the 4 Wheels F.O.O.L. You”!!! If you have ever felt as though society has counted you out! You won’t want to miss this inspirational road map to success!