The aim of this study is to see the father’s heart toward all who are lost, our responsibility and our...
Read MoreWelcome to My Weekly Milk where one can be fed with the milk of the word of God, be stirred up in the spirit and filled with spiritual strength to face the challenges we might encounter during the week and come out victorious.
We should forward this “My weekly milk” to as many people as we think it might bless.
Read or listen to a collection of bible studies centred on God’s word,
where one can be fed with the milk of the word of God, be stirred up in the spirit and endued with spiritual strength to face the challenges one might encounter during the week and come out victorious.
Many of us can relate to the story of that woman caught in the very act of adultery or any...
Read MoreGod is an honest employer. In the days of Jesus, the people used to work for twelve hours in a...
Read MoreMany born again Christians when they hear the word confession; do not have the full revelation of what God means....
Read MoreThe reason for this study is to refresh our knowledge concerning the bases or foundations of prayer. Prayer cannot be...
Read MoreBelievers of old have undertaken this return journey and we all must take the same journey in our walk of...
Read MoreThe aim of this study is to equip born again believers in the practical knowledge of praise and worship. Many...
Read MoreThe purpose of this study is to give believers some basis of how to receive divine guidance. Many believers are...
Read MorePaul tells us in the New Covenant: you are no longer servant or slave but son, and if a son...
Read MoreHalloween is an annual holiday on the 31st October. It has roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain (an Irish...
Read MoreWe will be looking at the leaven in the bread, what it means and what its implications in the life...
Read MoreMany times believers go through fire in their life, marriage, work place, family, studies, health, wealth, etc. The questions that...
Read MoreWhenever we talk about prosperity people are already hardening their hearts; because they think that God is after their money....
Read Moren the days of Jesus, the people used to work for twelve hours in a day. They would receive for...
Read MoreAs I was praying and reading my bible this morning, I had so many questions in my heart and I...
Read MoreWhenever we ignore God and his ways, we are acting like an ass or a donkey. We are being foolish...
Read MoreMany of us, including myself, plan our lives outside God’s counsel; we invite everybody but Jesus and His disciples. Be...
Read MoreFrom the account of Mark we see how the disciples and Jesus were caught up in the middle of a...
Read MoreWe have all heard countless times about this phrase: we are the salt of the earth. But what is the...
Read More2Samuel 12:1 And the LORD sent Nathan unto David. And he came unto him, and said unto him, There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor.
2Samuel 12:2 The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds:
2Samuel 12:3 But the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up: and it grew up together with him, and with his children; it did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter.
2Samuel 12:4 And there came a traveller unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him; but took the poor man’s lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him.
2Samuel 12:5 And David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the LORD lives, the man who has done this thing shall surely die:
2Samuel 12:6 And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.
2Samuel 12:7 And Nathan said to David, You are the man. Thus says the LORD God of Israel, I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul;
2Samuel 12:8 And I gave you your master’s house, and your master’s wives into your bosom, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto you such and such things.
2Samuel 12:9 Why have you despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight? You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.
2Samuel 12:10 Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house; because you have despised Me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.
2Samuel 12:11 Thus says the LORD, Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house, and I will take your wives before your eyes, and give them unto your neighbour, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun.
2Samuel 12:12 For you did it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.
2Samuel 12:13 And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die.
David was a man after God’s own heart for the Lord said: the LORD has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the LORD has commanded him to be captain over His people (1Samuel 13:14). So David was a man who loved justice and righteousness like God; for the foundation of God’s throne is righteousness and justice (Psalm 97:2). The Lord loves righteousness and Justice (Psalm 33:5). So when Nathan narrated to David the story of the ewe lamb of the poor man that the rich man took, the nature of God in him for justice was stirred up. And he wanted to avenge the poor man because he had been defrauded.
David committed that sexual immorality in the night and did it secretly, he thought only a few people were aware of that sexual immorality that he committed with Bathsheba. For in 1Samuel 11 where the story of the adultery that David and Bathsheba committed is told, it was at evening and David sent messengers to take Bathsheba. David was sure that his messenger would keep it secret.
I remember a dear brother who used to teach in Bible College I was attending and he told us a story of a Christian sister who was in Mongolia, she was committing sexual immorality only at night because she thought God does not see what she does in the dark! The brother told her that it does not matter to God darkness or light are the same to God. David later said: Where shall I go from Your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from Your presence? If I go up into Heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the furthest parts of the sea; even there shall Your hand lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light around me. Yea, the darkness does not hide from You; but the night shines as the day; as is the darkness, so is the light to You (Psalm 139:7-12).
So you see, brothers and sisters you and I cannot hide from the presence of the Lord or from His Spirit. Some think if they take their wings and fly to exotic destinations thinking nobody knows us there, or if we decide to go on a Caribbean cruise thinking at sea nobody can see us, or if we rent a nice hotel room, or if we decide to do those things at night, people won’t see us, we are deceiving ourselves. The Lord is there and sees everything. So David thought the secret was well kept, but God knew it, for God was there and saw all things and even revealed it to Nathan the prophet.
A dear sister called me one day and told me a dream that she had about one of her relatives. The Lord told me that the relative had had an abortion! She was surprised for she never told me anything about that relative of hers, but God knows everything about everybody, for nobody can hide from His presence and both when the sexual immorality was being committed and when she went for the abortion, God was there and standing beside her. David’s sin was exposed and he was convicted of his sin and repented. David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die (2 Samuel 12:13).
David not only committed adultery but also committed murder. He arranged for Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband. When we read 1 Samuel 11, we see how David plotted to kill Uriah. Uriah was loyal to David and refused to go to his house and sleep with his wife. David was trying to set him up so that the pregnancy would not be seen as David’s but Uriah’s. When David saw that he could not prevail, he plotted to kill him in a battle so that it would look like a war casualty; He placed Uriah in front so that he would be killed. David was afraid that when the womb of Bathsheba started becoming big because of the pregnancy, words would get to Uriah and Uriah would tell everybody that it is not his pregnancy since he has been at war, and even when he came back to Jerusalem he did not set foot at home. So the matter would become known that David had impregnated Bathsheba.
I tell you the truth, it is when we try to cover our sins that we end up even committing murder like David did. We are afraid of what people will say. I was talking to a sister and I was telling her my story. I told her before coming back to the Lord, I was living in sin, in fornication. And one day the woman I was living in fornication with told me that she had missed her periods so she thought she might be pregnant! I told her, you need to abort that baby because I was not ready to have a child! Thank God three days later she started her period and it was just a false alarm! But the Lord spoke to me: “Gery you are a murderer!” I was convicted because I read in the bible Jesus telling us: You have heard that it was said to the ancients, “You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that whoever looks on a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matthew 5:27-28). And John tells us: everyone hating his brother or sister is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has everlasting life abiding in him or her (1John 3:15).
I tell you the truth that I was a murderer according to God, because when I heard the false alert of the pregnancy, my thought was to abort the baby, to kill it. Jesus tells us: You are of your father the Devil, and the lusts and desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and did not abide in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it (John 8:44). I agreed with the word of God that even thinking of an abortion was already a murder in the eyes of God. I cried out to the Lord and that’s when I came back to the Lord; He healed my backsliding and loves me freely (Hosea 14:4).
People will ask Jesus: when does life start according to God? The bible tells us about John the Baptist: he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall neither drink wine nor strong drink. And he shall be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb (Luke 1:15). So even in the womb the Spirit of God is already in the baby. God said to Jeremiah: the Word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Before I formed you in the belly I knew you; and before you came forth out of the womb I consecrated you (set you apart, sanctified you), and I ordained you a prophet to the nations (Jeremiah 1:4-5). So God knows a baby even before he is conceived in the womb and from the first day of the pregnancy the Lord has already set that baby apart for His purpose and has a great destiny for that child to change the world for His name.
In the bible days, they did not have the equipment we have now to abort children so they waited for the baby to be born and they burnt that baby in the fire to the demon Molech (Leviticus 18:21, Leviticus 20:2-5). The Lord associated idolatry with adultery and all sexual immoralities because that is the way they served demons. So killing babies by aborting them or by burning them in the fire is of the Devil for he is a murderer from the beginning. After I had shared my testimony with a sister, she went home at night and wept for when she was younger and in university one of her female friends, who was living in fornication got pregnant, and she took her to a private clinic to abort the pregnancy. I was witnessing to another sister and her mother, and the sister said she aborted one of the pregnancies and wondered if God could forgive her of that murder and receive her, I said God, through the death of Jesus, forgave you of the guilt of bloodshed, if you become born again, and that sister and her mother gave their lives to Christ that very day. You see David did not kill Uriah, but he arranged that the Ammonite should kill him in battle, and God held David responsible. I told that sister what Jesus told me when he convicted me of murder for just thinking of an abortion: if we confess our sin, God is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1John 1:9).
God promised in the new covenant, saying: I will acquit them of the guilt of bloodshed, whom I have not acquitted; for the Lord dwells in Zion (Joel 3:21). You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born who are written in Heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel (Hebrews 12:22-24). Yes the blood of Abel is not acquitting anybody of the guilt of bloodshed: murder, abortion and manslaughter; but the blood of Jesus is speaking better things on your behalf and is acquitting us even of the guilt of bloodshed: murder, abortion, manslaughter. So why don’t we confess our bloodsheds and repent of them, so that Jesus, who is our mediator, may plead our cause before God the judge who will acquit us of them.
David when his sins of adultery and murder were exposed, confessed them saying: I have sinned against the Lord. He accepted his responsibility. Luke tells us: some were present at the same time reporting to Him of the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. And answering, Jesus said to them, Do you suppose that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered such things? I tell you, No. But unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were sinners above all men who lived in Jerusalem? I tell you, No. But unless you repent, you will all likewise perish (Luke 13:1-5). Some people committed the same sins but were simply not caught. There are many people who live in fornication or adultery but they simply do not get pregnant or impregnated, so if you look at them you would think they were better people than other believers. Some believers, before coming to Christ, or even when they were born again fell into sexual sin and were pregnant and decided to keep the babies instead of aborting them, whereas others decided to abort the baby. So in churches they look down on the sister or brother who has a baby born from fornication or adultery and respect or esteem the brother or sister who has not had a baby from adultery or fornication. What they do not know is that maybe that brother or sister is practicing sexual immorality or has even aborted many pregnancies!
Jesus and God know what everyone of us is doing in secret and what we are thinking of. When we see people that have been caught in sexual immoralities like the woman in John 8, who was caught in the very act of adultery; Jesus extended mercy to her. He did not condemn her, for there are many people, even in churches who have been living in sexual sin and even committing abortions. He did not condone her sins either, but he convicted her of her sins and told her go and sin no more. He did not tell her go and sin some more so that you can come back next Sunday and ask for forgiveness again! No, that is not repentance! Repentance is to be remorseful and sorry for what we have done and deciding to turn our backs on those sins, and then deciding to do them no more. If someone decides to confess his or her sin but is planning in his or her heart to go back to do the same sin, he or she is not repenting of those sins, it is religion, not Christianity.
So Jesus tells us unless we repent we will suffer the same fate: a decree or word pronounced by God; or a fixed sentence by which the order of things is prescribed; hence, inevitable necessity. The thing with abortion, it hurts you and torments your mind. But I tell you if you confess your sins God is faithful and just to forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness like he did David, God forgave him for both the adultery and the murder. And remember when you give your life to Christ and have truly repented of your sins and no longer live in that sin, Jesus tells you: There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit (Romans 8:1). And if your heart is still condemning you this is the word of the Lord to you: how much more shall the blood of Christ (who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God) purge and cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God (Hebrews 9:14)?
There is power in the blood of Jesus, not just to forgive you but also to cleanse your conscience from that guilt and condemnation of a life that has been destroyed, to cleanse you of your bloodshed guilt. If our heart accuses us or condemns us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not accuse us or condemn us, we have confidence towards God (1John 3:20-21). So God knows what you and I have done, and he knows that we are genuine in our repentance, not just that we have confessed our sins but we have also decided to forsake them. And God is telling us the same thing he said to David: the Lord also has put away your sin. I do not condemn you, go and sin no more!
The reasons people sin against God and transgress against their fellow humans are the following: lack of knowledge of the Holy Scriptures and unbelief or lack of faith in what the promises of God in the Holy Scriptures say. God says to us: My people perish or are destroyed for lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6). The only place you can get the knowledge of what the will of God is, is in the Holy Scriptures. Jesus said to us: you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it, You shall love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 22:37-40).
When you read your bible from Genesis to Revelation; understand that they are 66 love letters from your Heavenly Father. He wants to tell you first of all how much He so loves you; so that you can love Him back. John says: we love Him because He first loved us (1John4:19). Then God wants to teach us how to love our fellow human; for we cannot see Him physically; but by demonstrating our love to our fellow humans we show that we love God. John says: No man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwells in us, and His love is perfected in us (1John4:12). If a man says, I love God, and hates his brother or fellow human, he is a liar: for he who does not love his brother or fellow human whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen (1John 4:20)?
The second reason people sin against God and transgress against their fellow humans is unbelief or lack of faith in what the promises of God, in the Holy Scriptures, say. God says: My people perish or are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because they have rejected knowledge (Hosea 4:6). The second set of people has received the knowledge; yet they rejected it by acting contrary to the knowledge they received. Why? Because of unbelief or lack of faith in what the promises of God, in the Holy Scriptures, say. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness, when your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My works forty years. Therefore I was grieved with that generation and said, They always err in their heart, but they have not known My ways. So I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter into My rest.” Take heed, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God (Hebrews3:7-12).
They sinned against God because of unbelief. Christians divorce because they do not believe that God can help them resolve their issues. So though they are taught the word of God; one of the parties chooses to reject the knowledge of the Word of God. Christians covet and are envious of others because they do not believe that God can also do the same thing for them; if they act according to the knowledge of the scriptures in that particular area. God says: His people, Christians, err or go astray in their heart [because of unbelief; had they known My ways unbelief would not be a problem, unless they chose to reject My knowledge] but they have not known My ways. So we see that they could not enter in [the promised land flowing with milk and honey] because of unbelief (Hebrews 3:19). Therefore let us labour to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of unbelief (Hebrews 4:11).
How can I deal will unbelief or lack of faith in what the promises of God, in the Holy Scriptures, say? It is simple: read the written word of God, confess it in prayer and become a doer of that revelation of the ways of God you have got; for faith or belief comes by hearing and hearing by the word that God speaks directly concerning you and your issues (Romans10:17). And your belief or faith is not complete or perfect until you become a doer of what you have read in the Holy Scriptures concerning the ways of God about your particular situation. Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Do you see how faith or belief worked with his works, and from the works faith was made perfect or complete? And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was imputed to him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God (James 2:21-23).”
A sister told me: Gery you should not tell all the stories of your sins because some people can look down on you in the church and they might think that you are not a true man of God, so keep your past secret. I want to ask you something: after you read the story of David and Bathsheba and how he murdered Uriah, did you stop reading the psalms of David? Or after you read how Moses murdered the Egyptian who was oppressing a Hebrew, did you stop reading Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy? Or after you read how Peter denied Jesus three times and how all the disciples forsook Jesus when he was arrested, did you stop reading the letters of Peter, or of John or their gospels? Or after you found out that Paul who used to be a murderer, for he was the one holding the garments of those who were stoning Stephen, and he was arresting many Christians; did you stop reading the writings of Paul?
The truth is the bible is full of imperfect people whom God used for his glory. Some of them had a terrible past, but God turned their lives around. So they are not holier than anybody else but the moment they repented of their sins and believed in Jesus, God started working in them, but to will and do for His good pleasure (Philippians 2:13). When we read the lives of these people God greatly used, it gives us hope that if God used them he will certainly use us as well. For Paul tells us: For whatever things were written before, were written for our learning, so that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope (Romans 15:4). Yes, as we read the scriptures and see what God did in their lives, we know that it shall be well with us. God did not hide the sins of those people; it is to tell us it is of grace, not of works lest anybody should boast. For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God not of works, lest anyone should boast (Ephesians 2:8-9). For if I desire to boast, I shall not be foolish; for I will speak the truth (2Corinthians 12:6).
Solomon tells us: he or she who covers sins will not prosper. But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy (Proverbs 28:13). Confessing and forsaking our sins is true repentance! As it is written in the book of Job: If I covered my transgressions like Adam, by hiding my iniquity in my bosom, because I feared the great multitude, and dread the contempt of families or I am terrified by the scorn of families; so that I kept silence and did not go out the door (Job 31:33-34). Many people are afraid of what the great multitude of church people would say if they knew what they had done in their past life, prior to their conversion, or what their family will say if they knew they had had an abortion, or were living in fornication or adultery prior to their conversion to Christianity. So people like us are not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God to salvation, deliverance, healing and prosperity for everyone who believes (Romans 1:16). Paul commanded me through the Holy Spirit to expose, rebuke the works of darkness in me, saying: have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove, expose and rebuke them (Ephesians 5:11).
I want to prosper in the Kingdom of God and in my fellowship with God. Satan will not keep blackmailing me with my past life. I remember when the Lord healed by backsliding, I came to church, because by nature people say I am a “gentle person” but only God knows if it is the case! So people thought I had always been in church my entire life and had never practiced sin. So I remember talking with a mother who was in the church leadership, she had a daughter who was of age to be married. Because she was self-righteous and thought I was also self-righteous, she told me: I do not want my daughter to be married to someone who had been in the world living in sin; I want her to be married to someone who has always been in church. So the next Friday when people were giving their testimony; they were giving testimonies of how God has blessed them financially, how He has given them a new car, a new Job.
So I also raised my hand to share my testimony, people were exited to hear my testimony, because outwardly I looked like a guy who had always been in church. So I said: praise the Lord! Everybody answered: Hallelujah! So I said: I thank God because He has delivered me from the kingdom of darkness and has translated me into the Kingdom of the Son of His Love, Jesus. I was living in sin, in fornication, I was drinking a lot, from Tuesday to Sunday morning, I was either in pubs or in nightclubs, the reason I was not in pubs on Monday is because they were closed, I used to work in nightclubs as a bouncer, I used to work as a bouncer in a nightclub that had strippers; but I thank God he has delivered me from that life of sin, and now I am free and I am a new creation, I used to also gamble sometimes 40% of my income every month, but God has delivered me! At that end of my testimony that mother did not see me as a potential husband for her daughter anymore!
When I came out of the world and the Lord healed my backsliding, I struggled for a while with my sexual desires. Since I used to live in fornication I had a withdrawal from sex, and the devil was lying to me that it is impossible for a young man to go without having sex. So I bought into that lie for a while and I started to watch some pornography and do some of the unlawful things that accompany it. I was saying at least I am not doing that with a physical woman, it is just for my own enjoyment. But it was because I was ignorant of the word of God. And as I was reading my bible I read the words of Jesus which said: you have heard that it was said by them of old time, you shall not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart (Matthew 5:27-28).
I was definitely doing more than just looking at those women in a lustful way! So just like to be born again, one needs to acknowledge that he needs a saviour, he cannot save himself, the same way to be delivered from anything you need to agree with God and believe what He says about that subject. God says: can two walk together except they be agreed (Amos 3:3)? You cannot enjoy a wonderful walk with God unless you agree with what He says about your situation. And Isaiah says: you need to believe the report of the Lord concerning your problem and the moment you agree with God, His power to set you free of your problem will be revealed to you (Isaiah 53:1).
As I kept reading the bible I discovered that by watching those movies and engaging in those unlawful activities, I was joining myself with that spirit of harlotry like Paul explained in Corinthians: Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of a harlot? God forbid. What? Do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body? For two, He said, shall be one flesh. But he who is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication. Every sin that a man does is without the body; but he who commits fornication sins against his own body. What? Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost who is in you, whom you received from God, and you are not your own? For you are bought with a price (Jesus died on the cross to buy your body): therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which both belong to God (1Corinthians 6:15-20).
So I needed to be made free, so even after I had received that revelation of what God said that night I still watched one movie. And that night I had a vision, and a woman was running after me, and she was a demon, and I was trying to bind her and she said you cannot bind me you have something that is mine! So I screamed: Jesus! And I came out of that vision. And the Lord gave me a scripture: the prince of this world is coming, meaning Satan, but he has nothing in me which belongs to him (John 14:30). I realized that that demonic spirit of harlotry was coming after me because I was watching what was his. So I repented before the Lord and asked him to take control of my sexual desires, because I could not do that on my own. I surrendered my sexual desires to God. I put an internet protection on my computer so that I could not access any website that was for people above 16 years old even if it was a nice Christian program. I did what was humanly possible on my side and God did what was supernatural. For John tells us: we know that whosoever is born of God does not sin; but he who is begotten of God keeps himself, and that wicked one does not touch him (1John 5:18).
So I did what was humanly possible to keep myself from falling so that the wicked one will not touch me again, never again! And when I had the total victory over my sexual desires and had the fruit of the spirit, self control, I could now use my internet fully, because the sin no longer had dominion over me. We need to agree with the Lord, when He tells us: He who commits sin is of the devil; for the devil sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, so that he might destroy the works of the devil (1John 3:8). We always want to quote the second part of the verse, but we do not want to agree with God about sin, we now belong to God and not to the devil anymore, so we should stop committing sin like the devil, because we are no longer his but God’s. Jesus was manifested first to destroy sin in our life, then sickness, diseases, demon possession and premature death, let us get it in the right order! You are of God, little children (and certainly not of the devil anymore, for you were once darkness, now you are light, walk as children of light), And you have overcome them: because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world (1John4:4). For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world (1John 2:16).
I remember in those days I would always pray this prayer: you spirit of harlotry I command you to leave me in the name of Jesus, get behind me Satan, My body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, God dwells in here you are no longer welcome in Jesus’ name! Thanks be to God who gives me the victory over pornography and the unlawful acts that come with it through my Lord Jesus Christ (1Corinthains 15:57). And even better than that: thanks be to God who always leads me in triumph over pornography and the unlawful acts that come with it, through my Lord Jesus Christ, and through me He defuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place (2Corinthians 2:14). Amen.
If you have a smoking addiction, a drug addiction or alcohol addiction say the same thing out loud whenever you are tempted to do it or even when you are doing it. People will ask me: Gery, why do you tell us all these things? Because exposing the work of darkness is the key for personal revival and freedom from that bondage. That is why John the Baptist before he baptized; they needed to confess their sins publicly. Everything that is taboo, the devil is using that to destroy people’s lives.
Jesus Himself commands us to expose the works of darkness saying: there is nothing covered (or done in secret or watched in secret), that shall not be revealed (or exposed); neither hid, that shall not be known. Therefore whatsoever you have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light (whatever lustful thing you said over the phone or one to one to a person); and that which you have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops (Luke 12:2-3). I remember I was going to do a bible study in a family and one of the sisters was not truly interested in the bible studies but in me. So when the other people were not in the room she would tell me that she likes me in a sexual way, and she wants someone like me. And as soon as the other sisters and brothers would walk into the living room she would act as if nothing had happened. So I would explain according to the bible what the word of God says about relationships with the opposite sex. Only when people are married can they have sex – fornicators, adulterers, homosexuals are all going to hell, if they do not repent (1Corinthians 6:9-10).
So the next time I would come to do a bible study, she would buy gifts for me or want to give me money, for a so called “donation to the ministry and the man of God”. But I would refuse to take all her gifts and money. So sometimes she would weep because Gery does not take anything from her. I am not moved by people’s tears, it is an emotional manipulation, James says: any wisdom that is sensual is not from above but is earthly and demonic (James 3:15), for manipulation is the spirit of witchcraft. And she is using the Balaam spirit which is rooted in financial manipulation to cause you to commit sexual immorality as it is written: I, Jesus, have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the teachings of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit fornication (Revelation 2:14).
So her gifts and money were to try to put a stumbling-block before me so that I would fall into fornication and disgrace the Kingdom of God. So on a one to one basis I explained to her why I was not taking her money and gifts, like Jesus told us: Moreover if your brother or sister shall trespass against you, go and tell him or her his or her fault between you and him or her alone: if he or she shall hear you, you have gained your brother or sister. But if he will not hear you, then take with you one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he or she shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him or her be unto you as a heathen man and a publican (Matthew18:15-17). So when I saw that she was still doing that when she was the only one in the room, I called the other sister who was in the other kitchen to come into the living room and I exposed out loudly all that the other sister was saying to me in the absence of the others. And I rebuked her publicly like Paul rebuked the Corinthian church for their sexual immorality. Jesus commanded us to even say it on the housetop!
The devil wanted me to keep those things in my bosom because of fear of what would people think about me. You know the moment I exposed the works of darkness that used to be in me, I stopped having fellowship with them. Satan wants us to hide them, and he keeps on enticing us with those desires. If you used to drink, and the moment you are born again, you meet your drinking buddies, tell them that you are born again and are a new creation, all things in you are of God, and there is nothing of the devil in you: drinking, gambling, revelry, covetousness, sexual sin, etc. When people came to John the Baptist to be baptized the bible tells us: they were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins publicly (Matthew 3:6). Yes they were confessing their sins publicly and they were confessing their new faith also to everyone who knew them prior to their conversion for Jesus said: I say to you, Whosoever shall confess Me before men, the Son of Man also shall confess him before the angels of God (Luke 12:8). During the Welsh revival in the beginning of the 20th century, the message for that revival was: everybody who professes to be a born again Christian, must first confess his sins publicly, must forsake them and then must confess Jesus to people around him, who know him or his acquaintances.
You see the reason why people are still practicing sin even in church is because they are not exposing those works of darkness, but are keeping them in their bosoms for fear of what people will say about them, they are afraid of confessing Jesus before men, they are ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus! You see the moment you confess your sins publicly, or even to a friend whom you know will pray with you and not judge you; Satan will not use that sin against you anymore. The moment you start sharing your faith with people around you, something happens in you, you awake to righteousness and stop sinning (1Corinthians 15:34). Even when you want to sin again, the people around you remind you who you are now. The reason our churches are not revived is because of this simple truth: confess our sins publicly, forsake them and confess Jesus before men and women! If we do not forsake our sins, our witness or confession of Jesus is not effective, because the unsaved people know that we are hypocrites, because we profess one thing and we do something else. And if we are still practicing sin, our conscience will accuse us and we will never share the gospel with anybody. Every born again believer needs to awake to righteousness and stop sinning!
Some Christians watch horror movies, or movies that promote homosexuality, or movies that promote aliens, which are but demons, and they wonder why they have troubles in their life, because those demons are coming into their life through that television. We need also to be careful about the kind of music we listen to, read the lyrics of the song. Music and television attracts spirits, either the Holy Spirit or demons. In the Old Testament when Solomon built the temple, they sang and then the Spirit of the Lord filled the temple. When Saul was being tormented by an evil spirit David played for him and the evil spirit left Saul (1Samuel 16:23). When the prophet Elisha wanted the spirit of the Lord to fall upon him so that he could prophesy he called a musician to play for him, and then the Holy Spirit would fall and he would prophesy (2Kings 3:14-18). So when that evil spirit was upon Saul it pushed him to try to kill David by throwing spears at him, and when David played the music of the Lord that demon left Saul. So if you listen to demonic music, to gothic music, if you watch horror movies, and play video games where they kill people, those demons will possess you, and you will go and commit murder like they were causing Saul to try to murder David. Now you understand why in the USA, when there is a gun shooting in a school when they ask that kid: why did you murder people? He says: I watched a video game, a horror movie. Or why are you suicidal? I listen to gothic music, I watch vampire movies!
Do not make provision for your flesh to commit sin! Paul tells us: But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof (Romans 13:14). A sister called me and said to me that she went to see her G.P. (General Practitioner) for some dermatological issues. And when she got there the G.P. showed her many condoms of different flavours that the NHS gives for free. The GP told her she could take as many as she wanted to have safe encounters with her boyfriend. But she said to her G.P: I have no boyfriend, so I think I will not need them. But for a moment she thought: why not take some of them they are so nice and have different flavours? But she resisted and walked away. When you go and buy some condoms or collect them from your G.P. you are already making provision for your flesh to fulfil its lusts. Sooner or later you will be tempted to have a boyfriend so that you can use those condoms. You can say: I am not collecting or buying them for myself but to give to a friend of mine who has a boyfriend. I am trying to help her so that she will be safe. No, you are not helping her, but you are partaking in her sin of fornication or adultery, God will judge you! If you truly love that friend and want to help her, you will tell her that she must repent and be born again! The same thing applies also when you go to buy or collect from you G.P a pill to abort a pregnancy, either for yourself or for a friend: you are making provision to commit a murder and partake in a murder.
A sister told me, but brother Gery, if I do not sleep with my boy friend he will never get married to me. Another told me: in my tribe men do not marry a woman unless they have impregnated her first, because they want to know that she is not barren, therefore in that tribe, even when they are Christians they still sleep with the woman before marrying her. I told that sister what Jesus told the Jews: making the Word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have delivered. And you do many such things (Mark 7:13). God is not against any tradition or custom, but if that tradition or custom exalts itself against the word of God and is now making the word of God of no effect or even telling people to sin against God we must reject it.
When the gentiles were converted to Christianity the Holy Spirit told the apostles that they should not burden the Gentiles with the Jewish traditions and customs saying: For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these necessary things: that you abstain from meats offered to idols (and from idol worship), and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication and sexual immorality; from which, if you keep yourselves, you shall do well. Farewell (Acts 15:28-29). Now I have written to you not to associate intimately, if any man called a brother and is either a fornicator or sexually immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such a one not to eat (1Corinthians 5:11). Yet not altogether with fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then you must go out of the world (1Corinthians 5:10). For this you know, that no whoremonger fornicator, adulterer or sexually immoral person, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God (Ephesians 5:5). Many people who are in church and are practicing these things listed are deceiving themselves; they have no inheritance in the Kingdom of God.
I told that sister: you do not need to compromise your walk with Christ because of a man. Abraham was married to Sarah, she was barren, Abraham did not say: let me test her first of all, I will sleep with her and if she is pregnant I will marry her, but if not I will go and find someone else. No Abraham did not do that, we serve a living God, God opened the womb of Sarah and she conceived Isaac. Zachariah did not say let me sleep with Elizabeth before marrying her, no he married her and although he discovered that she was barren God opened her womb and she conceived John the Baptist (Luke 1). Jesus is the same yesterday today and forever! And you have the same example with the parents of Samuel and the parents of Samson, they got married first although they discovered that their wives were barren God opened their wombs and they conceived (1Samuel 1, Judges 13).
One day I turned on the TV and they were interviewing some African Americans about the issue of why so many African American women are single. The statistics showed that for the same age group there were more African American women who were single than white or Hispanic American women. So they interviewed some African American women about it: they were talking about the BWC (black women curse). They were saying it is because there are more African American men in prison or doing drugs, so African American women study more than African American men. So women have more education in that community than men. Women are left with a very little choice of whom to marry. If they want to marry someone from their community they have a choice between an ex-con and a person who has lower education than them. Genuine African Americans are few and all the women of that community are after them, so they know it and do not want to settle down either.
So those African American women who were interviewed were contemplating having a child out of wed-lock and raising up that child on their own because they were already close to their thirties or even over thirty. Some other women were the ones entertaining those men, the men impregnated them and left them with the child or sometimes children. They are the ones taking care of the child or children and they are also giving money to the guy so that he will be coming all the time to visit them. Those men have many mistresses and each of those mistresses think that by giving the men money or by giving him children they will marry them, None of those women that were interviewed were Christians, but I have been in church and I know that there are sisters who have the same fears those African American women had about the “BWC”.
So I went to the Lord in prayer because I was concerned about the “BWC”. And the Lord spoke to me, saying: there is nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9). What those women are afraid of, other women in the bible had the same fear. Isaiah prophesied, saying: in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, we will eat our own food and wear our own apparel; only let us be called by your name, to take away our reproach (Isaiah 4:1). Many women are so concerned about what people say about them, they do not want people to tell them that they are single, that they do not have a child, so some of them become so desperate that they literally throw themselves in the hands of some men, they have lowered their expectations they say to the guy: you do not even have to take care of me, I will take care of myself I will dress the children and feed the family but let me only be called your mistress or the mother of your children, even if you never marry, some even know that the man is messing about with other women, but they say to themselves: those other women are nothing, I am the mother of his children.
I was in Glasgow Scotland and a sister came to talk to me about her female friend who was a “Christian”. Her friend was going out with a man. She was giving the guy money all the time. She would travel to England to go and meet this man to spend time with him. Every time he asked her for money, and if she did not give him the money, they would start fighting. Many times she has caught the guy cheating on her with other girls. But she is afraid that if she leaves him she will not find anyone who will be with her, or even marry her. First of all it is not God’s plan for us to be living in fornication or adultery not to talk about practicing adultery and fornication. I said to that sister: your friend needs to be born again, it is not about going to church, but it is about being born again. For fornicators, adulterers, drunkards, homosexuals and extortioners have their place in the lake of fire in hell, for their name is not found in heaven (Revelation 20; 1Corinthians 6:9-10).
All sexual immoralities are from the devil, it is not just having fun it is the devil that is behind it. Adultery, prostitution, pornography, fornication, homosexuality and sleeping with beasts are from the devil. It is a spirit of harlotry or prostitution. My people seek advice from their wooden idols, and their rod declares to them. For the spirit of harlotry or spirit of prostitution has caused them to go astray, and they have gone lusting away from under their God (Hosea 4:12). They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God: for the spirit of whoredoms or spirit of harlotry or the spirit of prostitution is in the midst of them, and they have not known the LORD (Hosea 5:4).
What many women do not understand is that the moment a man uncovers their skirt to see their nakedness, he no longer respects her, and he has already got want he wanted without marrying her. So that woman would try to cook for him, to sleep more with him, or even become pregnant because she is desperate, thinking that by so doing he will marry her, she is deceiving herself. She has become vile. All who honoured her despise her because they have seen her nakedness (Lamentations 1:8).
That sister was complaining that her boyfriend was not respecting her, was abusing her verbally and was cheating on her. Yes, he had already seen her nakedness without marrying her; the bible says that he will no longer honour her but despise her. Some woman would tell me: it is love, no it is not love it is lust, and if he loved her he would have married her first. In the book of 2Samuel 13, Amnon, David’s son, lusted after his half sister Tamar. He pretended to be sick, love sick. Many women are deceived when the man tells them I cannot sleep because I think about you all night, I have lost my appetite, and please I need to know you intimately. And they think that it is love, no it is not love sisters it is lust. Amnon, was love sick and could not eat, he asked his father to send his half sister Tamar to come and feed him.
But when she came, he forced her to sleep with him. So she cooked for him and then slept with him, but after eating her nice food and sleeping with her, he despised her like the bible said. And Amnon said to Tamar, Bring the food into the room so that I may eat out of your hand. And Tamar took the cakes which she had made, and brought them into the room to Amnon her brother. When Tamar had brought them to Amnon to eat, he took hold of her and said to her, Come lie with me, my sister. And she answered him, No, my brother, do not humble me. For no such thing ought to be done in Israel. Do not do this folly. And I, where shall I cause my shame to go? And as for you, you shall be as one of the fools in Israel. But now please speak to the king. For he will not withhold me from you. But he would not listen to her voice; but, being stronger than she, he forced her and lay with her. Then Amnon hated her with a great hatred. And the hatred with which he hated her was greater than the love (lust) with which he had loved her. And Amnon said to her, get up and go. And she said to him, there is no cause. This evil in sending me away is greater than the other that you did to me. But he would not listen to her. And he called his servant who waited on him and said, and put this woman out from me, and bolt the door after her. And she had a robe of many colours upon her, for the king’s virgin daughters were clothed with such robes. And his servant brought her out and bolted the door after her (2Samuel 13:10-18).
Now people can say that of course Amnon hated her afterwards because he had just raped his half sister. So it does not apply to me, my boyfriend is not my half-brother and he certainly has not raped me! The truth is, when I have spoken to many sisters; they felt like something precious had been stolen from them. And deep inside them, they wanted to only share that moment with their husband. But, because they were pressured by their peers, who were making fun of them for still being a virgin at their age, they decided to fornicate just to prove to their peers that they were not of the old school. After that act they did not like themselves, because they felt that, what was so precious to them, was taken away. Justifiably they feel that way, for deep inside them they know that God intended them to only do that with their husband. And when you hear women talking, they will tell other young women: if I had to do it again I would wait to be married and only share those moments with my husband.
So first of all, a man who fornicates or commits adultery is a fool like Amnon not just because Amnon raped his half sister, but for defiling the marriage bed, a fool is the one who says there is no God and rejects what the word of God says (Psalm 14:1); and I, Gery, was the chiefest of fools. Tamar asked Amnon to marry her first for their father the king David would not refuse her to him. But he did not want; he slept with her and hated her after sleeping with her. He even sent her away and asked his servants to put her out of the house. In those days, the Jewish tradition allowed half brothers and half sisters to marry. Sarah was the half sister of Abraham. As it is written: Abraham said, because I thought, Surely the fear of God is not in this place, and they will kill me for my wife’s sake. And yet truly she is my sister. She is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother. And she became my wife (Genesis 20:11-12). God later will forbid the Jews to practice that tradition. But the point is let the man marry a woman and not try to defile her.
Cook for your husband to be and for your husband, if a man asks to uncover your nakedness before marrying you, he is not the husband that God has for you, he is a fool according to the bible and does not know God. The bible says, a woman who cooks for her lover; gives him money to sleep with her is worse than a prostitute, she is degenerate in heart, for at least the prostitute collects money from men. How degenerate is your heart! Says the Lord God, seeing you do all these things, the deeds of a brazen harlot or prostitute (Ezekiel 16:30). You are like a harlot or prostitute because you scorned payment. You are an adulterous wife who takes strangers instead of her husband. Men give payment to all harlots or prostitutes, but you made your payment to all your lovers, and hired them to come to you from all around, for your harlotry or prostitution. You are opposite of other women in your harlotry or prostitution, because no one solicited you to be a harlot or prostitute in that you gave payment, but no payment was given you, therefore you are opposite (Ezekiel 16:31-34).
My friend that is a curse, it is not God’s plan for any woman; every woman is a queen and is waiting for her king. The bible says: if any man does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel or unbeliever (1Timothy 5:8). When we are Christians God gives us men who provide for their family, it does not mean that the man must necessarily be the sole bread winner of the house, Rachel the wife of Jacob was a shepherdess (Genesis 29:9). Moses’ wife Zipporah was a shepherdess (Exodus 2:16-22). A family is a team; God commends wives who contribute in the house even when we read Proverbs 31, the wife who is helping her husband is praised. But still the bible wants husbands to do their best to provide for their family.
Jesus tells us: Have you not read, that He who made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Therefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together let not man put asunder (Matthew 19:4-6). So God has a husband in store for you; you do not have to share him with any other woman. That man will do the right thing he will marry you and will not take advantage of you. The bible says: Christ Jesus has redeemed us from the curse of the Law (Galatians 3:13), so even the BWC (black woman curse); Christ has redeemed you from that curse. What Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah 4:1 is not your portion when you are born again.
God commands us men and women saying: I beseech you, I beg you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God (Romans 12:1-2). My brothers and sisters, God wants us to serve Him with our spirit, soul and body. As we read the word of God our mind is renewed to the will of God, how we ought to serve Him acceptably. We do not have to copy the ways of unsaved people; we should no longer live the rest of our time in the flesh for the lusts of men; but for the will of God. For we have spent enough of our lifetime in doing the will of the gentiles: when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelry, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries (1Peter 4:2-4).
Paul tells us: Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For you know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears (Hebrews 12:14-17). Brothers and sisters we are called to Holiness, God says: be holy for I am Holy (1Peter 1:16). Without peace and holiness no one will see God. Our body which is the temple of the Holy Ghost is holy for the Holy God dwells in it.
A profane person is a person who has no respect for that which is holy. So people who practice sexual immorality are profaning the temple of the holy Ghost, they do not respect the holy God that now lives in them, like Esau was a profane person, He rejected the firstborns right, this is symbolic of being born again, being found in Jesus the first born among many brethren (Romans 8:29). You and I are now in Jesus the firstborn we should not profane His body which is our body. Esau who rejected it did not receive the blessing of the firstborn even though he sought it with tears. God tells us: Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers, fornicators, sexually immoral and adulterers God will judge (Hebrews 13:4). The word of God is the same and God is the same, He does not change His standard because we live in the 21st century. He wants people to be married and not be living in sexual sins.
We need to believe that God has a plan for our life and they are good plans, for He says: I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope in your future end (Jeremiah 29:11). As you delight in the Lord God, He will give you the desires of your hearts He is the one who gave you those desires in the first place (Psalm 21:2, Psalm 37: 3). Commit all your desires and ways to have a godly husband and a godly marriage to the Lord, trust in Him and He shall bring it to pass (Psalm 37:5). What God will give you shall be permanent not ephemeral, for the blessing of the Lord makes rich and adds no sorrow with it (Proverbs 10:22). You might have been crying about your relationship with your husband, you have been overly concerned about who will be worthy to put a wedding ring on your finger. I will remind you what John said: so I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll or look at it. But one of the elders said to me: do not weep, behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seals (Revelations 5:4-5).
So please weep no more and do not compromise your walk with the Lord, Jesus has prevailed and has found the spouse that is worthy to put a wedding ring on your finger, a man after God’s own heart. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion and fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you always, Amen!
What happens when a person keeps practicing sexual immoralities? We have explained, in the bible study titled: Come Home, that the moment we are born again we receive eternal life. A sister told me that we should not tell people that truth because it will cause them to sin some more! People are afraid to tell you that when you are born again you have received eternal life because they think that it will give the new convert the license to practice sin. Grace is not a license for sin, but it is the unmerited favour of God and His divine enablement to live a life above sin, to have dominion over sin. So a sister asked me: are the Christians who practice those sexual immoralities born again or not?
There are three answers to the said question. The first one is that they are born again but do not have the knowledge of the written word of God. God said My people perish for lack of knowledge and because they have rejected the knowledge (Hosea 4:6). Many Christians simply do not know what is written in the bible because they do not read their bible. The bible is clear, saying: do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminates or homosexuals, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God (1Corinthians 6:9-10).
We have explained all those works of the flesh in the bible study: application of the perfect redemption plan, in the section work of the flesh versus fruit of the Spirit. The truth is, when you are born again, your body has become the temple of the Holy Spirit, God dwells in you and so does Jesus. And whenever you practice unrighteousness it grieves the Holy Spirit. If you are still practicing the unrighteous things Paul has just listed: fornication, idolatry, adultery, homosexuality, theft, robbery, covetousness, practicing extortion, drunkenness, wild drinking parties like clubbing and pubbing, and different ways of abusing yourself or other people: rape, incest, etc. You shall not inherit the kingdom of God. The Holy Spirit in you would have made you feel so bad because He would have convicted you, that what you are doing is of the devil and not of God. Whenever a person who professes to be a Christian and practices the things listed above, is not remorseful and enjoys it, that person most likely is not born again.
When you are born again, the Spirit of God convicts you that what you are doing is not right. And many times the first reaction is that you will pick up your phone and call another Christian brother or sister to tell him or her what you have done. It is a sign that the Spirit has convicted you, that what you are doing is not right and it grieves the Holy Spirit. If you were not born again you would not even bother calling that brother or sister to tell him or her that you have sinned. The reason why you are calling is because you are a new creation now, all things are passed away and behold all things are new and all things in you are of God now, that is why when you sin the Holy Spirit in you wants to help you to get out of that sin though you do not even know it yet.
Paul tells us: Adam was not deceived but Eve was (1Timothy 2:14). Do not be deceived, men are never deceived when it comes to sexual sins but women are sometimes deceived. Even recently it has been proven in the court of law that a man cannot be raped by a woman. Why? Because if the man is not interested in having intercourse with a woman he will not have an erection, even if a loaded gun is placed on his head. Some women have low self esteem and do not love themselves, so they seek approval in the arms of men. I remember when I came out of the world and God healed my backsliding. I told the woman I used to fornicate with: I will go to a seminary and become a catholic priest, or become a Pentecostal preacher. She begged me: do not do that, what will people think about me? Was it such a bad experience you being with me, that it gave you ideas of becoming a preacher of the gospel!
But I did not listen to her; I went to Bible College and became a preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ! Some women, when things like that happen to them: their boyfriend is now saved and decides to go to bible school to preach the gospel of Jesus, or their husband or boyfriend decides to leave them for another woman or worse leave them for another man. It truly damages their self esteem. They feel rejected and think it is their fault. So sometimes they will go out with another man and fornicate or commit adultery because they want to feel desired by another man. For them being in that man’s arms is a sign of acceptance: at least I am desirable to this man, he does not reject me like my boyfriend who got saved and left me for Jesus and Bible College, or my husband who left me for another woman or left me for another man.
The man who commits adultery or fornication with that woman is not deceived, he knows exactly what he is after, and he is preying on the miserable woman like a wolf around a ewe. The bible says that kind of man is the wolf in sheep’s clothing. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves (Matthew 7:15). The sheep represents a born again Christian, so those men act like born again Christians, they quote the bible, they talk “christianese” but they are not Christians. Beware of such men!
When such men come and entice you to practice sexual immoralities tell them: let us pray first and in your prayer say out loud: Let us pray—-Father I thank you for giving me the victory over all sexual immoralities: adultery and fornication included, through My Lord Jesus Christ (1Corinthians 15:57). Thank you because I know that I am born again, I no longer practice sin for he or she who practices sin belongs to the devil, but I belong to God and all things in me are of God, and you were manifested in my life to destroy the works of the devil starting with sin (1John 3:8). I know and I am not deceived about the truth that no fornicator and no adulterer shall inherit eternal life (1Corinthians 6:9-10). Fornicators and adulterers have their place in hell and in the lake of fire (Revelation 21:8), but as for me I have received eternal life the very day I was born again and I will not be in hell and thrown into the lake of fire like the adulterers and fornicators, thus I do not practice them, and I thank my God who always leads me in triumph through my Lord Jesus Christ and through me he defuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place (2Corinthians 2:14). In Jesus’ name I have prayed, Amen!
My sisters beware of some men in the church, they are wolves in sheep’s clothing. A man is never deceived when it comes to sexual immorality. Women need to know that they will never find their acceptance through a man or being in the bed of a man. If a man who professes to be a Christian wants to be with you he will do things the bible way: he will go to church and marry you, he will not defile your body by sleeping with you before marriage. Paul says: Marriage should be honoured by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral (Hebrews 13:4). Yes, God will judge the adulterers, fornicators, homosexuals and all sexual immorality. We ought to honour marriage and keep the marriage bed pure.
Women who do practice sexual immorality have low self esteem. They do not know who they are in Christ, or do not believe what God says about them. What those women must understand is that each one of them is accepted in the beloved Jesus (Ephesians 1:6). They will never find acceptance in the arms of a man, or from one bed to the other, in fact it even makes it worse because every break up they have, lowers their standard. Woman must understand that they are queens in the eyes of God and any man who does not treat then as such does not know how to treat women! The bible says about born again women: but you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light (1Peter 2:9). John tells us: You, Jesus, made us kings or queens and priests or priestesses to our God, and we will reign over the earth (Revelation 5:10). So you are queens and Jesus is the King of all the queens, you are a priestess and Jesus is your High priest; therefore let no man treat you like a commoner or concubine.
In the book of Esther in the first Chapter we have the story of queen Vashti. The King Ahasuerus made a feast for his nobles and sent his servant to go and ask the queen Vashty to come wearing nothing, naked, but her royal crown on her head in order to show her beauty to the people and the officials for she was beautiful to behold. Now according to Jewish Targum, A translation or paraphrase of the sacred Scriptures in the Chaldean language or dialect, Vashti was the daughter of King Cyrus. And it tells us that in the days of the kingdom of the Chaldeans, kings and nobles invited their concubines and prostitutes to their feasts but not their wives. They treated their wives with respect and would not allow them to act like prostitutes who would be dancing naked before other men, or half dressed. So they treated those concubines and prostitutes with indecency (that which is unbecoming in language or manners; any action or behaviour which is deemed a violation of modesty, or an offence to delicacy, as rude or wanton actions, obscene language, and whatever tends to excite a blush in a spectator).
Now a concubine is a woman who cohabits with a man, without the authority of legal marriage; a woman kept for lewd purposes, lewd means given to the unlawful indulgence of lust; addicted to fornication or adultery; a kept mistress. Every born again man is a king under Jesus who is the King of kings and is a priest under Jesus who is our High Priest, so if a man who professes to be born again wants to treat a born again sister who is a queen and a priestess under Jesus the King of all queens, like a concubine or a prostitute, that sister must refuse to be so treated; for you will never marry a concubine or prostitute but you sleep with them and you treat them with indecency. That is why born again Christians do not cohabit before getting married because that is the way they treat concubines, but Jesus says: Have you not read that He, God, who made them at the beginning “made them male and female”, and said, For this cause a man shall leave father and mother and shall cling to his wife, and the two of them shall be one flesh (Matthew 19:4-5)? So both the man and the woman leave their parents house and start living under the same roof after they are married they certainly do not cohabit before marriage.
The bible says: queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s command brought by the eunuchs; therefore the king was furious and his anger burned within him (Esther 1:12). Queen Vashti, I did not say concubine Vashti and I did not say prostitute Vashti, but I said Queen Vashti refused to be treated like a concubine or a prostitute. When you know who you are in Christ, a queen and a priestess to God under Jesus your King of queens and High Priest of priestesses, you will not allow any man to treat you as a concubine or prostitute.
It cost Queen Vashti her crown, she was removed from being queen. Being a queen has nothing to do with the earthly crown men set on your head, but with who you are, and how you see yourself in the light of the scriptures. And any truly born again man, a king and a priest, will never treat any sister like a concubine or prostitute. When a person has low self esteem he will even sell his or her body as a prostitute. There are male prostitutes as well as women prostitutes. All those gigolos or male escorts, female escorts: people who trade sex for accommodation, for a promotion at work; they are but prostitutes, even if it is only once. Still in the book of Esther, in chapter two, many women wanted to become a queen and so beauty preparations were given unto them. And when their time came they could ask for anything they wanted to wear, expensive dresses, expensive jewels and all was paid from the treasury of the king.
So those women were there for the money of the king Ahasuerus. They had low self esteem about who they were, they thought wearing expensive dresses and expensive jewels would give them acceptance and bestow upon them a title of queen. My friend you are a king or a queen, not because of what you wear, or the money in your bank account. So the King Ahasuerus knew that those women who had low self esteem and were moved by those earthly possessions, were not worthy to be bestowed a title of queen but at best they were to be his concubines. And the bible records: and in this way the young woman came to the king. Whatever she desired was given to her, to go with her out of the house of the women to the king’s house. She went in the evening, and on the next day she returned to the second house of the women, into the hand of Shaashgaz the king’s officer, who kept the concubines. She did not come in to the king any more, unless the king delighted in her, and she was called by name (Esther 2:13-14).
Some women tell me: Gery you do not understand my situation, I am in great distress so I have to compromise my faith. I was talking to a sister who came from a country of war and she was a widow and had daughters. They were now living in a foreign country as refugees and they were facing terrible financial problems and immigration problems. But they were genuine Christians, but because of the pressure and great distress and financial troubles, they were thinking of committing fornication, so that they would be pregnant and through the child their situation would be sorted out, or living in fornication with a man and be pregnant of that man to force him to marry them, so that their situation could be sorted out. They knew it was not God’s will for their life, but they did not want to go back to that country where they saw their loved ones being murdered, and they were tired of their prolonged famine in the new country where they were refugees. I gave them some scriptures and prayed with them.
But when I came home, it truly troubled me and I cried out to the Lord for that widow and her daughters. I prayed that they would not compromise their walk of faith. I asked God: show me a situation in the bible that addresses their issues. Then the Lord took me to the book of Ruth. In Chapter one of the book of Ruth, we see that there was a famine in the land of Israel and a man of Judah who lived in Bethlehem, left Judah for the land of Moab. Elimelech was his name, he left with his wife Naomi and his two sons for the land of Moad. His sons married there from the daughters of Moab, but in the course of time Elimelech and his two sons died. Naomi was now a widow and his daughter in law Ruth, who also was now a widow decided to go back with her into the land of Judah. When they came to Bethlehem in Judah they had nothing, because of all the calamities that befell them in Moab, they were widows and were in deep financial trouble. In chapter two of the book of Ruth we see Ruth gleaning in the field of Boaz, which is to gather the stalks and ears of grain which reapers leave behind them. Gleaning was for poor people, foreigners, widows and orphans.
And today you might feel like Naomi and Ruth, you are only eating people’s leftovers, you only buy clothes from charity shops, you only have small jobs like babysitting or cleaning people’s homes. You know that you can do more in life and you have great potential. But because you are foreigner, widow, orphan or refugee you are not entitled to do more than gleaning and you are frustrated. Naomi and Ruth know exactly what you are going through. So Naomi decided that their famine and all troubles can be over if one of them got married or had a child. But Naomi was too old to have children and at that age it might have taken her longer to find a man who would be willing to marry her, for many men want young women. So, Naomi talked to Ruth and said to her: between you and me, you are the one who has greater odds of getting married and you can also bear children. So Naomi said to Ruth: my daughter shall I not seek security or rest for you, so that it will be well with you (Ruth 3:1)? Now for Jewish people finding security or rest for a woman is getting married, so that it will be well with both Ruth and Naomi.
Now Naomi was calculating because she knew the law of the land of Judah. If Ruth gets married and has a child, not just Ruth will be sorted out and it will be well with Ruth, for her status in Israel and her days of gleanings would be over, because she would be entitled to all that her husband had and have the same right as any Israelite. But it will also be well for Naomi, because since Ruth was married to her deceased son, if she remarries a person from the Family of Elimelech, Naomi’s late husband, Ruth’s firstborn will be Naomi’s. And through that son, all the inheritance of Elimelech will be restored to Naomi. So Naomi had a great plan to end their famine. Ruth was free to remarry whomever she wanted; she was not under any obligation to remarry into the family of Elimelech. When it comes to marriage, the woman must be the one to make her choice, people can make suggestions or can introduce potential husbands to her, but at the end of the day she is the one who must make the choice, nobody should do it for her.
So Naomi advised Ruth to choose Boaz, who was one of Elimelech’s relatives, there was another relative closer that she could choose and there were other rich young men in Judea, who were not relatives of Elimelech, but Ruth did not choose any of them, but went for Boaz. Boaz told her: blessed are you of Jehovah, my daughter. You have shown more kindness in the latter end than at the beginning, in that you did not follow young men, whether poor or rich (Ruth 3:10). You see, Ruth had a choice, nobody forced her to marry Boaz, Naomi only suggested and Ruth herself saw how Boaz treated her nicely when she was gleaning in his field, how he showed her unusual kindness and favour (Ruth 2). Boaz did not even think that a beautiful young lady like Ruth would go for someone like him; he thought she would go for young men, rich or poor. But yet he treated her nicely without any hidden motive, he did not look down on her because she was a foreigner and poor. My sister, if a man does not respect you and treat you nicely, when you are still dating, the likelihood of him treating you better after you are married is small.
Boaz was aware of the situation of Ruth, her famine, and that she was a stranger and a gleaner. No matter what your status or situation is; be honest with one another, let there be transparency from the beginning. Seek Godly advice from men or women of God, for some people have been hurt by people in need, they only got married to them because they were in trouble. The moment they had whatever they wanted, they divorced the guy or the woman who helped them. These things even happen in churches. Please, before marrying a sister or brother in distress, seek Godly counsel. Sometimes, we are under such pressure and distress, that we want to compromise our walk; because we think that the person we want to marry is not acting fast enough. So Naomi came up with a plan to force the hand of Boaz to marry Ruth, since Ruth already liked Boaz and she knew that Boaz also liked Ruth, but he was not sure that Ruth would go for someone like him. She said to Ruth: wash yourself, and anoint yourself or wear some perfume and rub some moisturizing cream on your skin, and put your clothing upon you, and go down to the floor. Do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. And when Boaz lies down, you mark the place where he lies, and you shall go in and uncover his feet and lie down. And he will tell you what you shall do (Ruth 3:3-4). In other words, what Naomi was saying to Ruth is this: thus far every time Boaz has seen you, you were wearing rags, perspiring in the field while gleaning, he has not been able to see your real beauty, so now wash yourself, wear some perfume, rub some moisturizing cream on your body to make it smooth and put on your best clothing, do your hair so that Boaz may see your real beauty.
Now according to the Law in Deuteronomy 25:5, since Boaz was a relative of Elimelech and Ruth was a widow in that family, Boaz had the right to become the husband of Ruth and if Ruth slept with Boaz, the next day people would tell him to formalize the marriage because it was his right. So Naomi also told Ruth to go only at night after Boaz had eaten and had some drinks; because alcohol arouses men sexually as we have explained in the subsection on the works of the flesh in the bible study of the Application of the perfect redemption plan. What would have happened is that in the morning when people would have seen Ruth coming out of the place where Boaz was sleeping they would force Boaz to formalize things, because he should not be treating Ruth as a concubine, you only sleep under the same roof with a man when you are married to him. And no matter what Boaz could have said to the people, that nothing happened between them, they would not believe him and they would tell him: it is fine, you are the one supposed to marry her according to Deuteronomy 25:5 so, just formalize it today so you are no longer living in sin.
Some men of God have gotten into trouble and brought reproach to the ministry, because they went to sleep on their own in the house of a single sister. They should not be doing that, because in the eyes of people, they are treating those sisters as concubines. And after people have seen you coming out of the sister’s house early in the morning, they will call you and tell you: brother, you need to marry that sister because you are living in sin. Even if you say you are doing nothing wrong, Paul says you are acting improperly towards that sister and you should marry her (1Corinthians 7:36). That is why Jesus sent the disciples two by two, so that even when you enter a city and a believer offers you accommodation, the two of you go to stay in that house: brothers sleep in the same rooms with brothers and sisters in the same room with sisters. If you are alone, male or female, and you are offered an accommodation choose preferably to go to a family, or to a sister’s house if you are female or to a brother’s house if you are a male. And if you are a brother and the only accommodation that is being offered to you is in a single sister’s house or vice versa choose rather to go to a hotel, or even to sleep in the street, I have slept in the streets sometimes because I did not want to act improperly toward any single sister and bring a reproach to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
But Boaz, when he woke up in the middle of the night and realized that Ruth was sleeping at his feet, wearing a nice perfume and dressed nicely. He knew what it meant; he knew that they were saying to him why are you delaying to marry Ruth? It is your right to marry her, do you want some help to make your decision? Do you want us to force your hand? Are you so shy that you cannot tell us that you want to marry Ruth? What is your problem Boaz? Are you impotent? Now at least we waited until you had some drinks and by now you should be aroused sexually. But, Boaz did not want to defile the marriage bed he said to Ruth: Now my daughter, do not fear, I will do for you all that you request, for all the people of my town know that you are a virtuous woman. Now it is true that I am a close relative, however there is a relative closer than I. Stay this night and in the morning it shall be that if he will perform the duty of a close relative for you – good; let him do it. But if he does not want to perform the duty for you, then I will perform the duty for you, as the Lord lives! Lie down until morning (Ruth 3:11-13).
So Boaz gave his word and even vowed by the Lord saying: as the Lord lives! Boaz said to Ruth, I know your distress and your famine and I know that it is my right to marry you, but you have been so virtuous all those years, hold on to your virtuousness even when it comes to marriage, do not destroy that wonderful testimony. I, Boaz, promise you to do everything legally and then we would be able to live under the same roof and know each other physically, I Boaz am not shy to say what is in my heart, I do not need to be drunk to take courage to say to you, Ruth I want to marry you, and neither am I impotent. I do not want to commit fornication with you, but I fear God and I want to do things God’s way, as it is written in the bible. My sister, if the man you are dating is a true born again Christian, he will not try to take advantage of your distress and your famine to uncover your nakedness. Instead he will speed up the wedding as Boaz did, you do not need all the pomp, you can just sign the registry and ask the minister of the gospel to pronounce a blessing over both of you and that’s it!
Boaz knew that it was Naomi who was pulling the strings behind the curtains and he gave something to Ruth for Naomi. When Ruth got home she said to Naomi: these six measures of barley Boaz gave to me. For he said to me, Do not go empty to your mother-in-law. And Naomi said, Sit still, my daughter, until you know how the matter will fall. For the man will not rest until he has finished the thing today (Ruth 3:17-18). Now the Jews had the understanding that God did not rest for six days while creating the world and mankind, so when Boaz sent six measures of barley to Naomi she understood what Boaz said, just like God did not rest for six days until He was finished, I will also not rest today, until I have sorted everything that needs to be done for me to be able to legally marry Ruth. Women are sometimes under a lot of pressure from their parents, they want them to be married by yesterday! So since they are under pressure, they also put that pressure on the man to make up his mind quickly. Every true born again Christian is not a time waster to any sister, for he will do things according to the word of God and he knows the moment he is dating that sister he has already prayed and if God tells him that it is not the sister, he will immediately stop wasting that sister’s precious time.
Then people will tell me Gery, how can I know that this is the person I will marry? Genesis 24 is the story of father Abraham sending Eliezer to seek a bride for Isaac his son. Father Abraham is the picture of Father God and Isaac the Seed of Abraham is the picture of Jesus and Eliezer means helper he is the picture of the Holy Ghost who is our Helper. So, in marriage, God the Father must be involved, the guidance of the Holy Spirit must be what helps us to make all our decisions, Jesus must be the centre of that marriage so that even if you run out of wine or joy, since Jesus is the centre of that marriage, he will reserve the best wine for the end according to John 2 and also in the bible study He kept the best wine for the end. So the man or the woman you get married to, first of all the criteria are : he or she must be of the country and the family of Abraham (Genesis 24:1-3); which means a person who is born again, whose citizenship is in heaven, and belongs to the household of God. It has nothing to do with the name of the church, the denomination of the church that person attends, that person’s skin colour, that person’s origin or earthly country; but the first criterion that matters, is that that person must be born again.
The second criterion is to determine where in the world you want to live, to spend the rest of your life. Eliezer said to Abraham: perhaps the woman will not be willing to follow me to this land. Must I bring your son back to the land from which you came? But Abraham said to him: beware that you do not take my son back there. Jehovah, the God of Heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my kindred, and who spoke to me, and who swore to me, saying, To your seed I will give this land: He shall send His Angel before you. And you shall take a wife to my son from there. And if the woman will not be willing to follow you, then you shall be clear from this oath of mine. Only do not bring my son there again (Genesis 24:5-8).
Some people never ask this question before getting married, and they end up divorcing. You need to sit down and ask: where do you want to live? The world is now a big village, but still people in their heart desire to live in a particular place. Some people got married and never discussed before getting married where they should live. So after they got married the wife tells the man, I cannot live more than an hour’s drive from my parents, I need to see my parents every day or every weekend. That would not be the wife for Isaac for Rebekah had to leave her parents to go to another country. Some men have a dream of living in the countryside because of space and want to become farmers in their old age, but they never discussed it before getting married, for their wife never thought about living in the countryside or becoming a farmer, some people want to live in Africa or in Australia and they never discussed it before getting married and after they got married in France they say to their spouse I want to live in Australia.
Sooner or later those heart desires of location will become stronger and stronger and you will want to fulfil it, and if, from the beginning your spouse never wanted to live where you want to live, it might become a cause of divorce for you will go and live on your own there and your spouse might not follow you. And in the case of Abraham, God was the one who told him where he should live and he already had a prophecy concerning his future. The advice is when you know already what God has called you to do and where He has commanded you to go or to live; share those details with the person you are considering for marriage. You do not need to reveal everything, but the main ones that will affect her life or his life if you get married.
The third criterion is the desire of your eyes and this is very important especially for men, because they are very visual. No wonder that Naomi told Ruth to wash herself, wear some perfume and nice garments before going to meet Boaz. God said to Ezekiel that his wife was the desire of his eyes (Ezekiel 24:16-21). Now we are not talking about lustful desires which are from the devil, but you yourself deep in your heart you know the kind of woman you like, or the kind of men you like. Job says: I made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I look upon a virgin (Job 31:1)? If the wife is not the desire of the eyes of the man he will have wondering eyes, and if that man is in a position of power and authority it will be a weakness that the enemy can use to destroy the testimony of Jesus in his life.
When the wife is not the desire of the eyes of the husband, he will not treat her well. The bible says: Leah was weak of eyes, but Rachel was beautiful and well-favoured (Genesis 29:17). When Jacob saw Leah, in his eyes she was not the desire of his eyes but when he saw Rachel, she was the desire of his eyes: she was beautiful. Because Rachel was the desire of Jacob’s eyes, he favoured her. Beauty is relative, it is not what the people’s magazine says, in fact many top models have a low self esteem and do not like their own bodies according to the psychological surveys conducted in USA and UK. It hurts women so badly when their husband’s have wondering eyes and sooner or later people will start noticing the behaviour of the husband. People have preferences and we need to respect their preferences, God was the one who put it in their heart. If a sister does not want to marry a type of person we need to respect her choice. Many women have received so called prophecies for marriage and deep inside them they do not even like the guy. And they are afraid that if they do not marry that person they will disobey God.
The fourth criterion is your heart desire. God says: delight in the Lord and I will give you the desires of your heart (Psalm 37:4). There are things you want your spouse to have character wise, a man or woman after God’s own heart, a prayerful person, a family person, a caring person, generous, encouraging, hard working, relaxed, etc. You know deep inside you what the character of a person you want to spend the rest of your life with is. You know what you cannot accept. Jesus will give you the desires of your heart as long as they line up with the word of God. Nobody is a finished product when it comes to character, but a work in progress but even if we are a work in progress, there ought to be some embryonic aspect of the character we desire to see in the person we want to spend the rest of our life with. The bible says: Whoever finds a wife finds good and gets favour from Jehovah (Proverbs 18:22). The same thing applies to the one who finds a husband. You need to see the potential in people and believe that the wife or the husband will come to the full potential of the kind of wife or husband God called him or her to be.
The fifth criterion is to write down your vision concerning the man or woman you want to spend the rest of your life with. So that you may be able to identify that person when God sends him or her your way. The Prophet says: I will stand on my watch and set myself on the tower, and will watch to see what He will say to me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved. And Jehovah answered me and said, Write the vision, and make it plain on the tablets, that he who reads it may run. For the vision is still for an appointed time, but it speaks to the end, and it does not lie. Though it lingers, wait for it; because it will surely come. It will not tarry. Behold, the soul of him is lifted up, and is not upright; but the just shall live by his faith (Habakkuk 2:1-4). If you have not specified what you want, it will be difficult to identify him or her when God sends him or her. And sometimes God gives you a specific word concerning that person. You will be watching and many people will be passing by and talking to you and you will let them go away because you failed to write plainly what you wanted and what God said specifically to you about that person. If you specify what you want and have the specific word of God concerning that person; you will be able to run with that vision and pray effectively, and God will be able to speak to you concerning your vision and direct your steps.
The sixth criterion is prayer; you need to communicate with God your Father through Jesus Christ what you have plainly written down concerning your husband to be or wife to be. Eliezer prayed and asked for a sign from God as it is written: he said, O Jehovah, the God of my master Abraham, I pray You, send me good speed this day, and show kindness to my master Abraham. Behold, I stand by the well of water. And the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water. And let it be that the young woman to whom I shall say, Let down your pitcher, please, so that I may drink; and she shall say, Drink, and I will give your camels drink also. Let her be the one that You have appointed for Your servant Isaac. And by it I shall know that You have shown kindness to my master (Genesis 24:12-13).
As you read the rest of Genesis 24 you see that God gave Eliezer the sign he asked for. And Rebekah was the one who met all the criteria set: she was of the family of Abraham and of the country of Abraham, for us it means she was born again and her citizenship is in heaven. She has the character Eliezer was looking for: a hospitable woman who goes the extra mile in her serving, for Eliezer only asked for a drink for himself, but she offered to give a drink to his camels. And Eliezer knew that she would be the desire of the eyes of Isaac. And we have the testimony that in the eyes of Isaac, Rebekah was beautiful to behold and he favoured her and showed her affection (Genesis 26:7-11), just like Sarah was beautiful to behold in the eyes of Abraham (Genesis 20). So it was not just the sign which Rebekah did that told Eliezer that she was the one for Isaac; but she fulfilled also the other criteria. If she did not fulfil the other criteria it did not matter if she fulfilled the sign, she would not be the one for Isaac. Some people will pray: if I see a man coming into church wearing pink shoes he is the one God said I should marry.
And the next Sunday a man walks into church wearing pink shoes. But the man is not born again, he is not the desire of the heart of the girl and he is not the desire of her eyes. He must fulfil the other criteria before fulfilling the sign you have asked from God. There is nothing wrong with asking for a sign from God to confirm the word He has already given you, and you have seen manifested. Eliezer asked for a sign and Gideon also asked for two signs in Judges 6 and in Judges 7. It is God who gave Gideon a sign through the dream and its interpretation that the Midianites had. Please read the bible study on divine guidance to study briefly how God guides His children.
Eliezer also did not waste Rebekah’s time when he discovered that she met many of the criteria he had written down. He told his motives that he was looking for a bride for Isaac and Rebekah met the criteria. And he told Rebekah and her family members what the promise God made to Abraham and Isaac was: that they have to live in Canaan and not go back to Mesopotamia. And that criterion was the deal breaker, regardless of the fact that Rebekah fulfilled all the other criteria, and the sign he asked for in prayer, but if she was not willing to live the rest of her life in Canaan, then she was not the one for Isaac. There is a TV program on one of the British television channels for people who want to buy a house and its title is: location, location, location. Yes you can meet all the other criteria but the location is the final deal breaker. And we see in Genesis 26 the prosperity of Isaac was tied to his location in the land of Gerar of the Philistines. When you know what God has called you to do in life and where He has told you to go, do not compromise it even for marriage because you will be disobeying the call of God in your life.
The seventh criterion is that the woman has the final say as to whether she wants to marry that man or not. Even in the bible days, marriage was sometimes arranged but the woman always had the final say whether she wanted to be married to that man or not. We have seen that in Deuteronomy 25:5 that if a man left a widow and had not a child, his brother had the right to raise an heir for his late brother by marrying his widow. But it was not automatic, the widow could refuse to marry into that family and go and marry someone else, that is why Boaz commended Ruth because she was free to marry whosoever she wanted, not necessarily a member of Elimelech’s family. At the end of the day you are the one who is going to live with that man or with that woman for the rest of your life until death do you part, it is not your father or your brother or your sister or your uncle or your friends who are going to live with that man or woman but you, and you alone.
The parents and brothers of Rebekah were happy for her and for the bride price that Eliezer brought, but, she was the one who made the decision to marry Isaac. As it is written: the parents and brothers of Rebekah called her and said to her; will you go with this man? And she said; I will go. They sent Rebekah their sister away, and her nurse, and Abraham’s servant, and his men. And they blessed Rebekah, and said to her, our sister, be the mother of thousands of millions, and let your seed possess the gate of those who hate them (Genesis 24:58-60). A brother was forcing a sister to get married and he had already set the date of the wedding and started to manipulate the sister with visions and dreams he had, and so called prophecies he received and twisting the scriptures. And I explained to that sister Genesis 24 that she was the one to take the final decision, not the man. Beware of men or women who use “thus says the Lord” to tell you: you are the one to marry them. If you are born again, you are the sheep of Jesus, and you hear His voice say to that brother or sister thank you, I wrote it down I will also pray and God will speak to me.
Sometimes people use it to manipulate sisters, they know that they are not the desires of the heart of the sister, nor the desire of the eyes of the sister. So they use the name of the Lord to manipulate the sister and put fear in her heart. Manipulation is the spirit of witchcraft and God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and sound mind (2Timothy 1:7). The sister or the brother must genuinely love a person before marrying the person and certainly not be forced or manipulated by prophecies to marry. Some prophecies have messed up people’s lives. We need to judge every prophecy and test the spirit behind every prophecy to see if it is from God and from the Holy Spirit, because if it is from God it will always line up with the written word of God.
Jesus knows how to talk to women and truly honours and respects them and their decisions. He gives us a parable and says: Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it (Matthew 13:45-46). Back in those days of Jesus, silver and gold were common and the other precious stones: diamond, ruby, emerald, etc; were also common. But pearls were priceless. And they were unique, it is impossible to find two identical pearls in nature. The finest quality natural pearls have been highly valued as gemstones and objects of beauty for many centuries, and because of this, the word pearl has become a metaphor for something very rare, fine, admirable, and valuable.
In nature there are black pearls, white pearls, yellow pearls, pink pearls or reddish pearls and also brown pearls. Just like the races on the earth, there are black people, white people, yellow people, red people and brown people. So the women of all those races are pearls in the eyes of Jesus. Black women, red women, white women, yellow women, brown women and all the mixed races we have on the face of the earth, each one of them is a pearl in the eyes of Jesus and God. Just like Jesus who is the husband of every born again believer, likens Himself to a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, He sold everything he had and even gave His life on the cross to pay the dowry or bride price so that we could be married to Him. Those women who heard the words of Jesus felt that they were of great value in the eyes of Jesus and of God.
Even in 1917, the Jeweller Pierre Cartier purchased the Fifth Avenue mansion, that is now the New York Cartier store in exchange for a matched, double strand of natural pearls, that he had been collecting for years; valued at the time at $1 million USD. Today of course there are mass produced pearls and fake pearls, but in the eyes of God and Jesus your husband, you are not a mass produced pearl or a fake pearl. See yourself the way Jesus sees you and any man who wants to marry you must treat you as such, a natural pearl of great value. Father Jacob also found his pearl in Rachel as it is written: Jacob fled to the country of Aram; Israel served to get a wife, and to pay for her he tended sheep (Hosea 12:12). Jacob did the right thing, he did not have money so he worked to pay the dowry for Rachel, he did not fornicate with her, but waited for seven years until he could have the money to marry her. So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her (Genesis 29:20).
So the man, God has ordained to be your husband will wait to be married to you before sleeping with you, even if he has to wait seven years, if he genuinely loves you, those seven years will seem like only a few days. Why? Because you are a pearl of great value in his eyes and he is ready to do the right thing and treat you right. Jesus tells all the black pearls, white pearls, brown pearls, pink or reddish pearls, yellow pearls and the mixed race pearls: Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces (Matthew 7:6). Now here dog talks about people who are sleeping around, just like natural dogs. Your body is now sacred, which means holy; pertaining to God and to his worship; separated from common secular uses and consecrated to God and His service; that is what sacred means. So do not throw yourself in the hands of dogs that will defile your body, which is the temple of the Holy Spirit, with sexual immoralities. Those people are pigs because they fail to see the pearl in you, that you are a pearl of great value, and they ought to marry you before doing anything improper.
For a pig everything is common and can be wallowed in the mud. Solomon says: like a gold ring in a pig’s snout is a beautiful woman who shows no discretion or who is without understanding (proverbs 11:22). And unfortunately some beautiful woman do not realize, that, not only do they have a gold ring that God placed on their finger when they became born again according to Luke 15, but they are also a pearl in the eyes of God, and they allow men, who do not see them as pearls and royalty, to treat and defile them. You are a pearl, do not throw yourself to the pigs who don’t respect you, or who you are, and how precious you are. If you do throw yourself into their hands, you will be hurt emotionally and even physically sometimes. They may trample you under their feet, and tear you to pieces. Break your heart to pieces, impregnate you, and run away like a dog does to other female dogs. So Jesus tells you: you are a pearl; do not allow any man to treat you that way!
When I was in the world, I saw many women running after men who drove fancy cars, who had money, and they would drive off from the night club and go for a one night stand, and the guy does not even know her name or does not even collect her phone number, if he delighted in her, maybe next weekend when he sees her again in the night club, he will take her again for another one night stand. If she is not there he will find another woman who will fall for his money and cars. So that is why king Ahasuerus did not even care to know the names of those women. I bet many times the ones he delighted in he only remembered their faces. He described them to the officer who kept the concubine, and that officer was the one who knew which concubine the king was talking about. Like Paul said, men are not deceived they know what kind of woman is in front of them and they take advantage of them. The king would never marry any of those women who were after his money, he would just have fun with them. So any sister who acts like that is wasting her time, the guy will not marry her, he is just treating her like a concubine or worse than a prostitute! Or, if he marries her, he will treat her like his slave because he does not respect her for she does not respect herself, and it works the same way for men.
But Esther was not moved by the money of the king, his jewels and his fancy dresses. The bible says: when the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abihail, the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her for his daughter, had come to go into the king, she asked nothing but what was chosen by Hegai the king’s officer, the keeper of the women. And Esther had favour in the sight of all who looked on her. And Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus into his royal house in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign. And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she rose in grace and favour in his sight, more than all the virgins. And he set the royal crown on her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti (Esther 2:15-17).
The king did not send her with the other concubines, but the king did the right thing and married her. Learn from Esther how to have self esteem. She was one of the captives who came from Jerusalem, she was an orphan raised up by her uncle. Many of the other women who received the beauty preparation along with Esther were Chaldeans, they had their parents and they were not poor. But Esther, in her poverty held onto her self esteem and she knew as a daughter of Abraham, she was already a queen and even if right now she was in poverty, and in captivity in a foreign land; it did not change who she was. Joseph was also a guy who had self esteem, though he was a slave in Potiphar’s house, but when the wife of Potiphar wanted to sleep with him, he refused and fled the scene (Genesis 39). You can be captive in a foreign land, but captivity is not in you, you can be a slave but slavery is not in you and you hold onto your integrity, because you know who you are in Christ and who Christ is in you. Read the series on the perfect redemption plan and the application of the perfect redemption plan, to know who you are in Christ and who Christ is in you.
Low self esteem can cause a person to act so low, because the person seeks acceptance. God says: You adulterous wife! You prefer strangers to your own husband! All prostitutes receive gifts, but you give gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from everywhere for your illicit favours (Ezekiel 16:32-33). That was the problem of Israel who is married to God, in like manner, every born again Christian is married to the Lord Jesus who is our bridegroom. God associates all sexual immorality with idolatry, for all sexual immoralities have their roots in idolatry, it is of the devil as we have explained in the application of perfect redemption plan, under the section of work of the flesh versus fruit of the Spirit. Some women who battle with low self esteem will go for a man who will financially be dependant on them. The man will almost never contribute to the finances of the house but the woman will. Some women who think they are not too pretty according to the lies of the gossip newspapers they read. These women believe that if they provide for the whole family the man will be with them and not leave them.
The truth is those men they marry are not deceived either, they know that the woman they have married or they are fornicating with has low self esteem and they will always be asking for money. And if the woman does not have money to give them, their attitude changes, they are no longer affectionate or they become mean to those women. They are faithful to that woman as long as that woman is supporting them financially, but the moment she cannot support them financially they go elsewhere. That is not love but manipulation and manipulation is the spirit of witchcraft. In this case it is a Balaam spirit, the spirit of financial manipulation, which is teaching people to commit sexual immoralities (Revelation 2:14). If you are married to such a woman or a man, pray until that man or wife is born again and learn how not to succumb any longer to the financial manipulation. You cannot buy love with your money. God calls it being worse than a prostitute, for at least the prostitutes collects money from their clients, but you are paying them. We are not saying that the wife cannot provide for a family, no, but the two should be providing for the family. You know in your heart when you are using your money and your gifts to try to buy the love of the other person.
In the book of Hosea, Gomer was married to Hosea, but she had such low self esteem that she constantly played the harlot and had three children from prostitution. She was paying her lovers to come to her, and one day she did not have money to pay them for their services they had provided her. So they sold her as a slave, for such was the practice back then, if you could not pay your debt they would sell you as a slave. So her husband, Hosea, had to go and buy her from the slave market and bring her home and told her that he is not her master, though he bought her at the slave market, but he is her husband (Hosea 3; Hosea 2:13). All those years of low self esteem, trying to buy love from strangers did not help Gomer one bit, because she did not know who she was in Christ and who Christ was in her. Gomer means complete, and Hosea her husband means salvation. Jesus means Jehovah is salvation. Paul tells us: you are complete in Christ, who is the head (Colossians 2:10).
Just like Paul explains that in a marriage: the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Saviour (Ephesians 5:23). So Gomer never knew that she was complete in Hosea her husband, today some Christians, men and women, do not know that they are complete in Christ Jesus their Saviour, who is their head and their husband. They try to find completeness and acceptance in the arms of different men or women, they try to give those men or woman money to buy their love, but they will never find that love unless they come to Jesus their husband, who will love them the way they are, who has already accepted them (Ephesians 1:6). My role is to teach believers that they are already complete in Jesus and to present them complete so that they act according to who they are in Christ and who Christ is in them. As Paul says: To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ (Colossians 1:27-28).
Therefore if any born again brother or sister has been practicing any sexual immorality today, let him repent of that sin. Confess it to God, and He will be faithful and just to forgive him or her and cleanse her or him from all unrighteousness (1John 1:9). Repentance is not being merely sorry for what we have done, but on top of being remorseful for the sin committed, we decide to turn our back from that sin and purpose in our heart not to do it any longer, and the most important part of repentance is the renewal of the mind, according to the written word of God, which unfortunately some Christians fail to do and they end up committing the same sin. If you are being pressured by a brother or sister whom you are dating, to practice sexual immorality, expose it and it will stop, do not hide it, run to you pastor and tell your pastor what that sister or brother is asking you to do. And tell that brother or sister you have told it to the pastor. Satan does not like being exposed.
The second set of born again Christians who are practicing sexual immoralities or any other unrighteous deed listed in 1Corinthians 6:9-10 though they have the knowledge of what the bible says about that sin. If, because they have refused to renew their mind, they had the wrong understanding of what repentance means; saying sorry to God for our sins is not enough, unless we have purposed not to do it again and to renew our mind according to the word of God. Religion tells you: you can sin as much as you want and come on Wednesday for confession and the moment you come out of that confession room you can go and do the same sin until Sunday, when you will confess it again and immediately after Sunday mass you can go and practice the same sin. My friend that is religion, Christianity is not religion but a relationship with God, God lives in us, our body is now his temple.
God says through Hosea: My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge and those who have received that knowledge are destroyed, because they have rejected it, I also will reject them says the Lord (Hosea 4:6). Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: Since you have forgotten Me and turned your back on Me, you must bear the consequences of your lewdness and prostitution (Ezekiel 23:35). There are consequences in rejecting the word of God that people in the church do not want to talk about, but when Christians refuse to repent, God deals with them. This is what Jesus himself says about sexual immorality and the Balaam spirit which is but financial manipulation: I have a few things against you: There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin, so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality. Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth (Revelation 2:14-16).
I do not want Jesus to fight me! What happens is, when you have been convicted by the Holy Spirit, that what you are doing is not right in the eyes of God according to the scriptures, and you refuse to genuinely repent but instead go your way and sin some more. You become less and less spiritually sensitive to the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Your conscience is no longer accusing you because you refused to renew it according to the knowledge of the word of God, thus your conscience becomes seared as with hot iron (1Timothy 4:2). Think of it this way: you are ironing your clothes and mistakenly you burn your finger, in the beginning it is so painful because your nerve endings are very sensitive, but after some days the place where the burn was becomes insensitive to the burn any longer.
When I was growing up I used to see my grandmother removing a casserole from a burning stove with her bare hands and she would be talking with people taking her time before putting the casserole on the floor. Or, sometimes she would remove red hot coals from one stove and put them in another stove with her bare hands. I thought that casserole was not hot or those red hot coals were not hot, and one day, I tried to remove that casserole with my bare hands from the stove, I did not touch it for more than one second and my little boy fingers were burnt. And my grandmother rebuked me that I should never do it again. And she showed me her hands, the palms of her hands were so hard, she did not feel anything with her hands, all the nerve endings had lost their sensitivity. So, when a Christian is unrepentant that is what happens to his conscience, it is now seared as with hot iron and he does not care about the conviction of the Holy Spirit any longer.
These are the Christians whom Jesus will fight because they refuse to repent. Peter tells us: it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And, “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner (1Peter 4:17-18)?” For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 10:30-31). Why should any Christian be against Jesus, and suffer the same judgment with the ungodly? We have passed from death to life when we became born again, from darkness to light, so why should we keep practicing the works of darkness? It is never too late to make the right decision, even if your conscience has been seared as with a hot iron, Jesus tells you just to repent: to be genuinely remorseful for what you did, to purpose in your heart not to do it again, turn your back from it and decide to renew your mind according to the word of God and He will be faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Even in the book of Malachi God says to us: this is the second thing you do: you cover the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and crying; so He, The Lord, does not regard the offering anymore, nor receive it with goodwill from your hands. Yet you say: for what reason? Because the Lord has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, with whom you have dealt treacherously, yet she is your companion and your wife by covenant (Malachi 2:13-14). Just like God dealt with Cain and Abel, as it is written: in the end of days, it happened, Cain brought to Jehovah an offering of the fruit of the ground. And Abel also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat of it. And Jehovah had respect to Abel and to his offering, but He did not have respect to Cain and to his offering. And Cain glowed with anger, and his face fell. And Jehovah said to Cain, Why have you angrily glowed? And why did your face fall? If you do well, shall you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin crouches at the door; and its desire is for you, and you shall rule over it (Genesis 4:3-7).
So according to these two scriptures God first of all has regard or respect for the person, before having regard and respect for the offering of the person. God is not after our money. And some people who are living in adultery, fornication and all the other sins listed in 1Corinthians 6:9-10, God has no respect for their person and no respect for their offering. Just like a pastor tells their congregation, that if you play the lottery and win, do not bring that money to church for playing the lottery is the sin of covetousness and according to 1Corinthians 6:9-10, no covetous person and no idolater shall inherit the Kingdom of God for covetousness is as the sin of idolatry (Colossians 3:5). For people who fall into covetousness worship money, money has become their god or idol; they are under the influence of the mammon spirit which is the god of greed (Luke 12:15; Luke 16:11-13).
Pastors are being partial about 1Corinthians 6:9-10. They only target people who play the lottery, telling them not to bring their money to church, because they know that the odds of winning, let us say the UK national lottery, are very few, for the jackpot it is 1 in 14 million. So they are not worried that it will happen to any of their church members. But they know if they apply that 1Corinthians 6:9-10 for the other people listed there, who shall not inherit the Kingdom of God, it will affect a lot of their church members. For according to that 1Corintians 6:9-10; no fornicators, no idolaters, no homosexuals, no abusers, no rapists, adulterers, no covetous, no drunkards, no thieves, armed robbers, no revilers, no extortioners should be bringing their money into church, for God has no respect of their person, nor has He respect of their tithes and offerings.
God is not after people’s money, He wants them to run away from the sins listed in 1Corinthians 6:9-10. We should not be a hypocrite and only treat covetousness and look away for the other sins, because it is leading people to hell. There are people in church who are drunkards, homosexuals, fornicators, revilers they go clubbing and pubbing but we close our eyes to those things, because we ourselves do not believe that God will provide for his church, even if we refuse the offerings and tithes of all the people listed in 1Corinthians 6:9-10. God wants us to repent, then both your person and your offering will be accepted by God.
The third set of people in the church who are practicing sexual immorality and all the other sins listed in 1Corinthians 6:9-10, are actually not born again. They are wolves in sheep’s clothing (Matthew 7:15). They talk like Christians, they dress like Christians but they are only religious people but are not born again. Jesus says: By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn-bushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire (Matthew 7:16-19). So those people are in church, they talk like born again Christians, but their fruit is telling us that they are numbered among the people Paul lists in 1Corinthians 6:9-10. They will be cut down and thrown into the fire, even hell fire, for they shall not inherit the Kingdom of God.
Do not be moved by people’s sweet words, watch out for 1Corinthians 6:9-10. There are many people in the church, but do not be deceived, not everybody that is in church is born again. Some come to church because all their friends go to church, some come to church because they are looking for a husband or a wife and think in church they will find a serious person and a honest person, who will be faithful to them, unlike the people they have met in nightclubs. Believe me; I know what I am talking about, for I have seen it for myself. Some come to church because they are looking for a miracle in their life but are not looking for Jesus the miracle worker. Some come because they are broken hearted and want to listen to a motivational speech to help them get through their broken-heartedness. Some come because they are in need of healing, but they do not want to receive Jesus who is the Healer. So we all have our reason for going to church, only you and God know the motives of your heart and if you have truly received Jesus as Lord and Saviour.
Paul tells us that there are many who do all kinds of things and teach all kinds of things that are contrary to what God and His written words say. Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness.” In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for special purposes and some for common use. Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work (2Timothy 2:19-21). So if you profess to belong to the Lord Jesus depart from the things listed in 1Corinthians 6:9-10, because you are not deceiving God but you are deceiving yourself, God knows those who belong to Him. Just like any parent knows his children and does not confuse his children with children of another parent. God knows His children, His sheep, and you know the voice of your Father God, since you are His sheep and you will not follow the voice of the devil. You and I need to cleanse ourselves from all the filth of the world and especially those listed in 1Corinthians 6:9-10, God will not do it for us, it is our responsibility, then we will be instruments for his special purpose, useful to Him and prepared to do any good work in His name.
When you are discipling people do not be discouraged, if they seem to reject your counsel of the scriptures, because their fleshly desires are deceiving them and they want to continue practicing sin and do not show any sign of genuine repentance. You have done what you were commanded by God. As it is written: when I, the Lord, say to a wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn them or speak out to dissuade them from their evil ways in order to save their life, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. But if you do warn the wicked person and they do not turn from their wickedness or from their evil ways, they will die for their sin; but you will have saved yourself (Ezekiel 3:18-19). You have done your Job and brother Gery has done his job, by warning that person according to the scriptures, if that person refuses to be born again and goes to hell, God will not hold you, who is disciplining or brother Gery who wrote this bible study, to be accountable for the blood of the person and that he or she burns in hell for rejecting the will of God.
If that brother or sister who is born again has a seared conscience and refuses to repent, according to the word of God, though you have warned him or her according to the counsel of the written word of God. God will not hold you responsible for the blood of that person, when Jesus comes and passes judgement, that brother or sister, who has a seared conscience and has refused to repent, when Jesus fights that brother or sister with the sword of His mouth, you will not be held accountable. If also a brother whom you disciple did not have the knowledge of these things and practiced them, but now that you have given him or her that knowledge of the scripture and he or she repents genuinely, then rejoice with him and her. Jesus says: the servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked (Luke 12:47-48).
These are not the words of brother Gery but of Jesus; if anybody has a problem with them, let him or her go and see Jesus, but the word of God will not change for you or me. We need to stop being conformed to the world, but be transformed into the image of Christ by the renewing of our mind, by the washing of the water, by the word of God (Romans 12:2). Our life must line up with the written word of God and not the word of God line up with our life. Paul, when he talks about our body that is now the temple of the Holy Spirit and how we should no longer defile it with sexual immoralities tells us: I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God–this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will (Romans 12:1-2). Our praises and worship is not just singing and dancing, but doing the word of God, and especially our body. God wants us to worship Him with our bodies, by not defiling it with sexual immoralities, that is what pleases God.
So when you are discipling people, you must learn to trust the Holy Spirit. Your job and mine, is to tell people the truth in love as Paul says: speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ (Ephesians 4:15). Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone (Colossians 4:6). You are not the enforcer or the one who brings conviction, it is the role of the Holy Spirit to convict people of their sin not yours so cast your care upon the Holy Ghost to convict the people of their sin, and understand that God has made them righteous through Jesus so they do not have to practice that sin any longer. Jesus told us: but very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin or convict the world of their sin and righteousness and judgment (John 16:7-8).
So cast that care upon the Lord, and pray for that brother or sister that is practicing such a sin, that the Holy Spirit will arrest that person and lead him or her to a place of genuine repentance. I tell you: you will be amazed at what God can do through your prayers. Love the people, but hate their sins, for God so loved us that He gave His Son to die for our sins, but God hates sins. He loves sinners but hates sin. We need to love people enough to tell them the truth of the word of God, and then pray that God through the Holy Spirit will bring conviction of sin that will lead to genuine repentance. That is what happened in the church of Corinth that was practicing sexual immoralities; Paul wrote a severe letter to rebuke them and some of them even wept when they read that letter because it was cutting to the chest.
When they had genuinely repented Paul wrote to them and told them: Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it. Though I did regret it–I see that my letter hurt you, but only for a little while–yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter (2Corinthians 7:8-11). If you do not warn your brother or sister who is doing what is leading him or her to death, you do not love that person according to the scriptures, though you think according to the world you love him or her, he will go to hell, that is not the love of God, the love of God is to pull him or her out of hell fire. I believe and my prayer is that we will all have this godly sorrow and repent from our evil ways like the Corinthian church did, in Jesus’ name!
Some Christians think that watching and reading pornographic materials are not sinful and demonic. They also think that masturbation is not a sin and has no demonic consequences. Well, they are wrong! Jesus says to all of us: Blessed are the pure in heart! For they shall see God (Matthew 5:8). For I say to you that unless your righteousness shall exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 5:20). The Pharisees and scribes were only concerned with an exterior righteousness; but what they thought in their heart and head was ungodly and what they did behind closed doors was ungodly too. But God sees behind closed doors and knows what is in our heart and mind.
Jesus continues and says to all of us: You have heard that it was said to the ancients, “You shall not commit adultery.” But I say to you, that whoever looks on a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. [So when we watch and read pornographic materials and think unclean thoughts, we have already committed the sin; we ought to be pure in our heart and clean in our mind.] And if your right eye offends or causes you to sin [by reading and watching pornographic materials], pluck it out and throw it from you [meaning: stop watching and reading those materials]. For it is profitable for you that one of your members should perish, and not that your whole body should be thrown into hell. And if your right hand offends or causes you to sin [by masturbating], cut it off and throw it from you [meaning: stop that masturbation and use your hands to praise the Lord]. For it is profitable for you that one of your members should perish, and not that your whole body should be thrown into hell (Matthew 5:27-30).
I, Gery, was guilty of masturbation and watching pornographic material after the Lord had healed my backsliding of living in fornication. Nobody taught me how to have victory over masturbation and pornography and it was and is still a taboo in church settings. I wish I had known how to “pray through”, as it is explained in the “Abecedary of prayer”, to break the power of masturbation and pornography the very day I came back to the Lord. One day as I was sleeping, I had a vision and in that vision there was a woman in my bed and she was trying to have sex with me. I woke up in fear, my heart was racing. I slept again and the same woman appeared in a vision and was trying to have sex with me. I woke up in fear again.
When I was growing up, in our Christian home, we had the phenomenon of “husband and wife of the night”: a man or a woman appears in a person’s dream or vision and has sex with that person. That person will be possessed by that demon. Basically it was a person who is in the occult or practicing witchcraft, who sends his or her demon to come have sex with you at night. You become the slave of that person and you are tormented by that demon every night. Some married women, who have their husbands living with them, also have a “husband of the night”. They will be pregnant for 3 years and the baby will not come out of their belly; for the demon, who was that “husband of the night” was tormenting her and preventing the baby from coming out. When she goes to the hospital to have a scan, they will find no baby in her belly or any fibroma; yet her belly will be like a pregnant lady during her ninth month. And she will be that way for three years and sometimes more years; the baby will be kicking in her belly and she will have all the symptoms. The doctors in South Africa call it a phantom pregnancy.
When they minister deliverance to that sister, she gives birth to a baby after three years or more of pregnancy that could not be seen by medical doctors on their instruments. Or at times it is a big tumour that comes out of her; and those ministering deliverance take it and burn it. When it is a baby that comes out after three years or more of pregnancy; it means that the baby was conceived naturally by the union of the wife and her husband; but the “husband of the night”, even that demon bound the baby so that he will not be born. When it is a big tumour that comes out of the woman who was pregnant for three years or more; it means the “husband of the night”, even that demon, put that tumour there, so that she will remain barren and not have her own children. Many times with women having tumours in their womb, when they are of satanic origins, they will not be seen by the instruments of doctors; but after prayer either they come out immediately or they become visible on the instruments of doctors so that they can operate to remove it.
Behind all sexual immoralities, including pornography and masturbation there is a demon, even the spirit of harlotry (Hosea 5:4). Sexual immoralities are deeply rooted in the worship of Baal. When people used to go to the temple of Baal or any other idol, there would be temple prostitutes: male and female temple prostitutes, who were priests and priestesses of Baal or the idol through whom the oracles or divinations were given. When you went to the temple of Baal, you might be asked to have sex with the male temple prostitute or with the female temple prostitutes to have your divination. That is why all sexual immoralities are demonic and are sins leading to death; because they are rooted in idol worship! Balaam, who was a diviner of Baal, advised Balak to entice the Israelites to commit sexual immoralities and God Himself will destroy them. Why? Because by doing sexual immoralities, unknown to us, we worship those demons, even Baal.
One day when I prayed for God to help me deal with pornography and masturbation. I had a vision. And in that vision I saw Satan was above my head. I woke up and said: “it is a lie; Ephesians chapter 1 and chapter 2 tell me that you Satan are under me!” Then the Holy Spirit spoke to me, bringing to my remembrance the little scriptures I knew in those days, saying: For by whom anyone has been overcome, even to this one he has been enslaved (2Peter 2:19). Do you not know that to whom you yield yourselves as slaves for obedience, you are slaves to him whom you obey; whether it is of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness (Romans 6:16). Jesus said to the Jews who believed on Him: if you continue in My Word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free (John 8:31-32). The Jews, who had God as their Father according to Exodus 4:22 and John 8:41, said to Jesus: We are Abraham’s seed and were never in bondage to anyone. How do you say, You will be made free? Jesus answered them, Truly, truly, I say to you, Whoever practices sin is the slave of sin. And the slave does not abide in the house forever, but the Son abides forever. Therefore if the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed (John 8:33-36).
I, Gery, was in bondage! I was slave of Satan because I was overcome by masturbation and pornography. Some born again Christians are like Israel. They are children of God, the seed of Abraham; yet they are in bondage to Satan: with alcohol, sexual immoralities, theft, smoking and all other sins they are practicing. Jesus wants to set you free indeed like he set Gery free indeed! In the vision I saw the devil was over my head, meaning oppressing me. Had I continued practicing those sins of masturbation and watching pornography, that devil would not just be over my head, he would be in me; meaning I would be possessed by that demon or demons. Hosea says: My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you from being priests to Me. Since you have forgotten the Law of your God, I will also forget your sons, even I (Hosea 4:6). Jesus wants to make you free indeed from the oppression and the possession of the devil, even though you are a child of God and a seed of Abraham.
The first thing I, Gery, did was to agree with God about the fact that masturbation and pornography was sin leading to death as fornication, adultery, homosexuality, sodomy, incest, paedophilia and bestiality are; for they all fall under the spirit of harlotry (Hosea 5:4). Amos says: Can two walk together unless they are agreed (Amos 3:3)? If I want the help of God, I need to agree with Him about what He says in His written Word. I need to allow Him to lead my life and not me leading my own life. There is a difference between walking with God and God walking with you. The bible says: Enoch walked with God, and then he was not, for God took him (Genesis 5:24). By faith Enoch was translated so as not to see death, and he was not found, because God had translated him; for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God (Hebrews 11:5). So walking with God is allowing His written word to be a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path: He leads we follow (Psalm 119:105)! God walking with you is you leading your own life according to the dictates of your heart and God follows you even when you make your bed in hell and you do evil things in the dark He goes with you (Psalm 139:7-12).
I, Gery, repented of my sins and I asked Jesus to forgive me and cleanse me with His precious blood; for there is power in the blood. We overcame the devil by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony, both what God wrote concerning that bondage of ours and our personal confession (Revelation 12:11). And because the life or Spirit of Jesus is in His blood according to Leviticus 17:11; therefore it shall be, in that day the burden of the devil shall be taken away from off your shoulder, and his yoke from off your neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing of the Holy Spirit (Isaiah 10:27). Then I had a vision and in that vision I was standing and saw a big fiery red anaconda type of serpent under my feet. Initially fear gripped my heart at the sight of the serpent, even Satan (Revelation 12:9). And then I said: “that is right, you are where you belong: under my feet!”
I remember being in Glasgow and a man in his fifties came to me, referred by his pastor. We went into a coffee shop to talk about his problem. He told me that he had left his wife and children in France and had been studying in Glasgow for three years. He was living with his sister and his nephew in Glasgow. They are all Christians and Pentecostals. But his problem was, that at night in a vivid vision, he was seeing his nephew coming into his bed and forcing him to have homosexual sex with him. He was very graphic when he told me his problem! And it had been happening for about six months. He was afraid to sleep at night for it would happen again. So sometimes he stayed up all night and slept in the morning. It got so bad that he was about to leave his sister’s house. But he could not find a reason to tell his sister why he was moving out.
Most of the times women would have a “husband of the night” and men would have a “wife of the night”. It was the first time I encountered a man having a “husband of the night”. It is an oppressing situation and people cry out to be delivered of that oppression and even possession; because at times it happens every night! I said to him. First of all it is not your nephew that is a wizard or a homosexual; for he is a zealous born again Christian. The devil is just using his face to cause you to hate him and cause division in the family. I said to him, you need to stop watching porno videos. And you need to go back to your wife in France. I prayed a simple prayer: in the name of Jesus, you “husband of the night” I thrust you through with the sword of the spirit and I behead you. I break your yoke of oppression over the life of my brother and I remove your burden off his shoulders by the anointing of the Holy Ghost (Isaiah 10:27). I cover him with the blood of Jesus and I apply the blood of Jesus upon every wall, floor and ceiling, door, doorpost and lintel of that house. You devil come out of that house and never return in the name of Jesus. We overcame you by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony, in Jesus’ name, Amen (Revelation 12:11).
And that was it! He never had those problems of “husband of the night” or “wife of the night”. He returned to his wife in France.
When we were back home in my youth; sometimes a man, who is in the occult or practicing witchcraft, covets a woman and asks her to have sex with him. She refuses to yield. So he goes to a witchdoctor or casts a spell on that woman so that he will be appearing in her dream to have sex with her, every night. She will be so tormented. Some witches also did the same thing to some men and appeared in their dreams every night having sex with them, those men are so tormented. People are being oppressed and possessed by the devil either because they willingly opened the door to the devil, or because some wicked people, agents of the devil, just decided to attack them and make their life miserable. They suffer in silence, because they think if they open their mouth to speak, some people will think they are crazy. Even their pastors will think they are crazy!
I remember I was in Glasgow. I booked into a guest house. And when I closed my eyes to sleep, I saw a vivid vision: a woman appeared on the other side of the bed. I thought initially that I had not locked the door and someone just entered it! So when I woke up that woman had disappeared. I understood what was going on. I said out loud: “in the name of Jesus I thrust you through with the sword of the spirit and I behead you in the name of Jesus! And I send the fire of the Holy Ghost that comes out of my mouth to burn you into ashes! I plead the blood of Jesus over the walls, floor, ceiling, door, doorposts and lintels of this bedroom. I command every unclean spirit hidden in them to come out now and never return. I overcame you by the blood of Jesus and the word of my testimony (Revelation 12:11)”. And I went back to sleep nothing else happened. I discovered a year later that that guest house used to be a freemason temple. And freemasonry is the worship of Baal! My brother and my sister, if you see in your dream or vision a woman or a man trying to have sex with you, do not enjoy that dream or vision, use the sword of the spirit to behead that spirit and burn it into ashes. Then plead the blood of Jesus.
People will ask me how can you kill a spirit of harlotry or any other spirit? Spirits do not die! You are right; spirits do not die according to what theology teaches. My job is to quote the scriptures, for it is the sword of the spirit coming out of my mouth (Ephesians 6:17, Revelation 19:15). The bible tells me: And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth and their armies, being gathered to make war against Him who sat on the horse, and against His army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet doing signs before it, (by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast), and those who had worshiped his image. The two were thrown alive into the Lake of Fire burning with brimstone. And the rest were slain by the sword of Jesus [Revelation 19:15] who sat on the horse, it proceeding out of His mouth. And all the birds were filled from their flesh (Revelation 19:19-21).
Now what happens in the spirit really is not my problem! My job is to open my mouth and speak in line with the written word of God so that those sharp double edged swords will be coming out of my mouth to destroy the work of the devil! In 1Samuel 5 the Ark of the Covenant was captured and brought into the temple of Dagon, that philistine god. That night the statute of Dagon fell prostrate before the Ark of the Covenant. The next day they put that idol back on its feet. But that night the idol of Dagon was beheaded and dismembered. And also in Revelation 2:20-23, the Lord is saying that He will kill that Jezebel who causes the people to commit fornication and all sexual immoralities. Now we know that there was only one physical Jezebel, the wife of King Ahab, and she died centuries before the book of Revelation was written. So the Lord is talking about the spirit of Jezebel He will kill! The same thing in Revelation 2:14-16, the Lord talks about the spirit of Balaam who is teaching people to commit sexual immoralities like the physical Balaam did centuries before the book or revelation was written. And the Lord said He will fight them with the sword of His mouth! Read the power of confession you will have a glimpse of what happens in the spirit realm when you speak in line with the written word of God.
When I was growing up; we had a tribe in my county that lives by the sea side and they worshipped mermaid spirits. And most of the time they dedicated one of their daughters to those mermaid spirits. They would go to the sea at night or early in the morning to do their ritual. That daughter would be possessed by a mermaid spirit. She will never get married; but she will always go out with men who are rich. And all the money of her prostitution she would be bringing to the family. She was basically a sex slave for the family. Some of them were prostitutes. They will always be wearing a red rope around their waist, and a red rope around one of their ankles. When people were familiar to the meaning of those ropes around their waist and ankle; they started wearing gold chains around their waist and ankle. We understood it was not fashion but it was a satanic covenant with that mermaid spirit.
One of the sisters in Manchester came to me. She was a pastor’s daughter in Nigeria and her father was a witchdoctor. She was dedicated to a mermaid spirit when she was born. Later her mother converted to Christianity and divorced her father, the witchdoctor. She fled Nigeria in a network of prostitution and arrived in Belgium. She was a prostitute in Belgium for some time. Something was driving her to prostitution. She did not like it but something beyond her control was driving her to that prostitution. It was that mermaid spirit. So, when in Belgium she ran for her life into a church: I will not name the church. And she explained to them that she needed deliverance from that demon. They put her with some so-called exorcists in a room. They starved her, calling it fasting, and whipped her to drive demons out of her. I, Gery, have not seen a place in the bible where Jesus or His disciples flogged anybody to cast demons out of them or Jesus asking a person to fast before He or His disciples could cast out a demon from person.
But when people are desperate for deliverance they will endure anything! They fall into the hands of men who are in self-imposed religion. People have died in some churches in Europe, Africa, Asia and America by those so-called methods of deliverance by starvation and flogging. A pastor and parents have been arrested for killing a child in Seoul, South Korea in 2012; because they starved and flogged the child in an attempt to cast demons out of him. If you go to a church and they ask you to do something; please tell them to show you from the scriptures why they are asking you to do that. If they cannot show you from the scriptures do not even submit to it for an hour! Back to our sister, she told me that the flogging was too much, that she could not take it anymore. So after the second week she ran away, for she said I would rather remain a prostitute than suffer those floggings to drive out that mermaid spirit.
She managed to come to the United Kingdom and met sound Christians who ministered biblical deliverance unto her. I was the one who lead her to Christ in the year 2009. When she was pregnant with her third child, I had a vision and saw a little dinosaur trying to enter her womb. Now dinosaurs fall under the category of leviathan spirits (Job 41:1). Now the leviathan is a twisted, interwoven beast: crocodile, serpent, some other sea monster. As it is written: this is the great and wide sea, in which are creeping things without number, both small and great animals. There the ships go; You made this Leviathan [great sea animal] to play in it (Psalm 104:25-26).
So that is the true nature of the mermaid spirit: it is a leviathan, even a sea monster. It appears in a form of handsome prince half human half fish; or beautiful princess half woman half fish. Truth be told it is a sea monster! If it had appeared in its true form, you would have run away from it and not wanted to have anything to do with such a demon or any demon. Paul tells us: Satan disguises himself as an angel of light (2Corinthians 11:14). So those mermaid spirits disguise themselves like their master Satan does. When I look at cartoons on television they have those mermaids falling in love with humans and our children watch those cartoons all day long. They have monsters living with children secretly in their bedroom in those cartoons. Parents you need to watch Television with your Children; there are many cartoons on monsters and mermaids; they want to make it normal so that when in a vision that demon comes to possess your child, the child welcomes it, because the cartoon told him that monsters and mermaids are good, fun, friendly and they can marry humans.
When I saw that leviathan spirit trying to enter the womb of that pregnant sister, I said: “in the name of Jesus I send forth the sword of the spirit that comes out of my mouth to cut you into pieces. I send the fire of the Holy Ghost to burn you into ashes. For the word of the Lord coming out of my mouth is fire! I cover my sister in the blood of Jesus so that the enemy will not touch her. I cover the baby in her womb with the blood of Jesus, and I fill him with the Holy Spirit like John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb, in Jesus’ name, amen”. As for leviathan the bible says: You, Lord, cracked open the heads of leviathan, and gave him to be food to the people living in the wilderness (Psalm 74:14). In that day Jehovah with His great and fierce and strong sword shall punish Leviathan the sea-monster, the darting serpent, the Leviathan [the sea-monster], that twisting serpent; and He shall kill the monster in the sea (Isaiah 27:1). So theology tells you that spirits do not die, you cannot kill them, you cannot cut them into pieces with the sword of your mouth. Well I tell you God knows what He wrote in His bible: so kill those spirits by thrusting them through with the sword of your mouth and cutting them into pieces in the name of Jesus!
Brothers and sisters, Satan and all his demons are under the feet of Jesus Christ and Jesus wants to put them under your feet too. Paul in the book of Romans teaches how we should have dominion over sin and no longer be slaves to sin. Then in closing he says: the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen (Romans 16:20). God wants to give you a personal victory over the devil through Christ Jesus so that you will be able to destroy all the works of the devil, starting with sin then sickness, disease and demonic oppressions and possessions (1John 3:8). And you will not be very effective at setting other people free indeed if you yourself are still in bondage to the devil and sin. Paul tells us: For though walking about in flesh, we do not war according to flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, pulling down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought into the obedience of Christ; and having readiness to avenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled (2Corinthians 10:3-6).
Jesus puts it this way, saying: why do you look on the splinter that is in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the beam that is in your own eye? Or how will you say to your brother, Let me pull the splinter out of your eye [or let me cast out the demon of drunkenness, the demon of harlotry, the demon of homosexuality, the demon of fornication, the demon of sexual immoralities, the demon of drug addiction, the demon of sodomy, and any other demon]; and, behold, a beam is in your own eye [or you yourself are bound by the same demon and sometimes to a greater degree of bondage than the person you are trying to minister to]? Hypocrite! First cast the beam out of your own eye +
[or cast out that demon or those demons from your own life], and then you shall see clearly to cast the splinter out of your brother’s eye [or and then you will be able to cast that same or those same demons from the people you are trying to minister to] (Matthew 7:3-5). In many churches they do counselling instead of casting out demons. Since the Lord set me free indeed; I, Gery, do not do counselling for those demons; I cast them out and then I disciple those people!
I was in Glasgow, invited to preach in a church in 2014, I will not name the church. As I was preaching one of the sisters in the audience started to manifest uncontrollably. She was speaking in tongues but they were more like groanings coming out of her mouth and she was in tears all her makeup was ruined. Now groaning means uttering a low mournful sound, a deep sound uttered in pain, complaint and sorrow. Now when the children of Israel were in bondage in Egypt for 430 years, God said: “I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered my covenant. Therefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments. And I will take you to Me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians” (Exodus 6:5-7).
Paul tells us what the Holy Spirit does through us sometimes when we pray in tongues, saying: Likewise the Spirit also helps our infirmities. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings [uttering a low mournful sound, a deep sound uttered in pain, complaint and sorrow] which cannot be uttered. And He, searching the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God (Romans 8:26-27). The Holy Spirit was praying through her uttering mournful sounds with even tears coming out of her eyes, deep sounds uttered in pain, complaint and sorrow because she was in bondage like in Exodus 6:5-7. She did it for about 10 minutes then the Holy Spirit by word of knowledge gave me the interpretation of her groanings. He said to me: spirit of harlotry!
So I came, jumped off the platform that was about four feet high and walked to where she sat. I laid my hand on top of her head and said: “in the name of Jesus Christ I adjure you spirit of harlotry come out of her and never come back. I curse you fornication, come out of her life now, in Jesus name!” immediately she stopped groaning, crying and shaking. And I returned to the platform to finish my preaching. At the end of the service she came to see me and asked me: “what should I do with my boyfriend?” I said: what boyfriend? She said: you know that I have a boyfriend and we are fornicating together. The truth of the matter is: I did not know anything about her life; it was the first time I even saw her. The only word of knowledge I received was: spirit of harlotry! I said to her: “ditch that boyfriend of yours and live in holiness unto the Lord. No fornicator has any place in the kingdom of God. The man God has ordained to be your husband will marry you first of all before bedding you!”
I remember going to a Christian fellowship on a Sunday afternoon. There was a gentleman in his mid sixties who was one of the leaders of that Christian fellowship. He called everybody who had not attended that fellowship since the beginning of the year, so that he could lay hands on them and pray a blessing and protection prayer over their life. So people came out and lined up for prayer. I did not come out. Whenever I go to a fellowship I always take authority over the meeting so that whatever they do in that meeting nobody will lay hands on me. When I came back home that night; the Lord showed me a vision of that same Christian leader who was battling with lustful thoughts towards some of the younger sisters in that fellowship who could even be of the age of his granddaughter. I prayed for that gentleman that God will help him and commanded that unclean spirit of harlotry, even paedophilia to come out.
I remember also I used to visit a church every two months to fellowship with them on a Friday evening. I knew one of the leaders there. Whenever I came into that church, I would tell that leader after the service: so and so in your church is living in sexual immorality. Even when I had not been in that church for six months, the moment I came in the Lord would reveal to me the people in that congregation who were living in sexual immorality. That leader used to tell me, you know more about what is happening in our church than our pastors, though you only visit us six times a years or sometimes twice a year. The pastors and the leaders never addressed the sexual immoralities that were going on in the church. They never addressed the fornications of their members, their members marrying unbelievers; they covered up pregnancies out of wedlock by organising quick marriages before the pregnancy could become evident to everyone. They had arranged and faked marriages so they could stay in the United Kingdom.
In that ministry even the bishop of that ministry was taking £5,000 from his church to pay for the faked arranged marriage of his son. Some of the pastors and leaders had paid and also done their fake and arranged marriages and were advising their members to do so. I confronted one of their leaders about that fake marriage of his. I told him marriage in the eyes of God is marriage. The moment you signed that marriage document you are in a blood covenant with that woman, whether it is a fake marriage or not. That leader was living with his wife, while he was still married to another woman in order to get his immigration status. I told him: you are living in adultery with your wife! He said: no, I am not sleeping with the other woman I did a fake wedding for immigration purposes. I said to him: in the eyes of God you are living in adultery and you need to repent! He refused!
The main pastor of that church, when they addressed the issue of sexual immoralities in his church, said: it is under the blood of Jesus and we are under grace now! He was more concerned about the tithes and offerings and church attendance than the eternal destiny of those souls. Jesus says to John to tell the church: But I have a few things against thee, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication and sexual immoralities. So you have also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth (Revelation 2:14-16).
Some sisters in some churches have a child with their husband; but on the child’s birth certificate they declare that the child belongs to another man, who has a European or United Kingdom citizenship. And they give that child not the name of his biological father, but the name of that European or United Kingdom citizen, to be able to have an immigration status through the child. And many other lies Christian brothers and sisters tell the immigration, in order to obtain an immigration status. The bible says: Let not my lord, I pray, regard this man of Belial, even Nabal: for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him (1Samuel 25:25). As a man’s name is so is he! It is a spiritual thing; bearing a person’s name, meaning you share their spiritual heritage: nature and character, spiritual blessing and spiritual curses.
And there is power in names, in bearing a person’s name. Just like there is power in the name of Jesus Christ. When we become born again and receive the name of Jesus; we share the nature and character of Jesus Christ but also the blessing found in that name of Jesus. Nabal means fool and that is what he was too: a fool! We know the story of Jabez. The bible tells us: Jabez was more honourable than his brethren: and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, Because I bare him with sorrow. And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that Your hand might be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested (1Chronicles 4:9-10). The problem of Jabez was the name his mother gave him. And just like his name meant pain, sorrow and grief; that is what he experienced in his life; until the day he cried out unto the Lord for deliverance.
When Rachel gave birth to her second son and died; the bible tells us: And they journeyed from Bethel; and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath: and Rachel travailed, and she had hard labour. And it came to pass, when she was in hard labour, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not; you shall have this son also. And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni {son of my sorrow}: but his father called him Benjamin {son of my right hand}. And Rachel died, and was buried on the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem (Genesis 35:16-19). Jacob, being a spiritual person understood that there is power in names given to children. He refused to call his son by the name son of my sorrow; because sorrow, grief and pain will be the portion of that son all the days of his life like was the case of Jabez. Why plague a child with such a heavy baggage in his life? He called his child, son of my right hand, meaning son of my strength and power.
When God wanted to bless the barren Abram, which means exalted father, He changed his name to Abraham, which means father of many nations. As it is written: As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. Neither shall your name any more be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made you. And I will make you exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come out of you (Genesis 17:4-6). Names carry covenants, even blood covenants. God gave His name to Abram and he became Abraham. God also changed the name of his barren wife Sarai, which means dominative, to Sarah, which means princess. And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. And I will bless her, and give you a son also of her: yes, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her (Genesis 17:15-16). Indeed names have blood covenants in them: nature and character of the person, but also blessings or curses.
Abram and Sarai came from an idol worship background and their names were deeply rooted in that idol worship. God had to put His name on both of them to enter into a new covenant with Him, so that they could enjoy the blessings of God. You are the LORD the God, who did choose Abram, and brought him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gave him the name of Abraham (Nehemiah 9:7). When Rebecca’s days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. And the first came out red, all over like a hairy garment; and they called his name Esau. And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau’s heel; and his name was called Jacob {heel catcher, or supplanter}: and Isaac was threescore years old when she bore them (Genesis 25:24-26). God also had to change the name of Jacob {which means supplanter: one who removes or displaces by stratagem; or displaces and takes the place of; as, a rival supplants another in the affections of his mistress, or in the favour of his prince} to Israel {which means prince with God}. Truly as a man’s name is so is he (1Samuel 25:25). Jacob, the supplanter, deceived his father Isaac to get the blessing and supplanted his brother Esau (Genesis 27).
The bible tells us: Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a Man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that He prevailed not against him, He touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as He wrestled with him. And He said, Let me go, for the day breaks. And he said, I will not let You go, except You bless me. And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And He said, your name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed (Genesis 32:24-28). Jacob who was now Israel had learnt the importance and power invested in names we give to our children; they either carry blessings or curses. So he did not do that mistake with his son Benjamin, he refused to call him Benoni (Genesis 35:18).
God sometimes has to change people’s names like he changed Abram’s and Sarai’s names to Abraham and Sarah when that family name is deeply rooted in idol worship; for there are evil covenants attached to those names. Rev Henry Emmanuel was born Henry Otunoga, from a family of idol worshipers. His family name Otunoga was deeply rooted in that idol worship and God told him to change his family name to Emmanuel, which he did with his wife and children. Rev Paul Jinadu, General Overseer of New Covenant Church, was born Muslim and in an idol worshiper home. His first name was not Paul that was the name Christian brethren gave him at his conversion; for the Lord appeared to him like he appeared to Paul the Apostle at his conversion on the way to Damascus. He had his other names that were rooted in idol worship; which he no longer bears today and now he is only know as Rev Paul Jinadu. God will speak to you personally like He spoke to Abraham, and Jacob if He wants you to change your family name, your wife’s name and your children’s name.
Therefore sisters, who for immigration issues give their children another person’s name on the birth certificate, in order to have an immigration status through the child, are entering into spiritual covenants they have no idea of. Their children are receiving spiritual heritage: nature and character of a person who is not their father, blessings and curses that are covenanted with the name given to their child. People will say: that person is not the biological father, so even if I give my son his name for immigration purposes, there will be no consequences. God the Father is not our biological father but our Spiritual Father; He gave us His name when He adopted us: we now share the nature of God, the attributes of God and the blessings of God, for in Him there are no curses for His children. My prayer is that the eyes of our understanding will be enlightened. Some Christians say: what I am doing is not a sin; I am not lying to a person but just to an institution, even the immigration. My friend the Holy Spirit does not condone lying to a person or lying to an institution! A lie is a lie, whether it is a lie to a person or a lie to an institution; it is a lie in the eyes of God. We need to agree with God and His word and repent to God.
Jesus says to whosoever acts that way: You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, you do not believe Me (John 8:44-45). And Jesus Christ who sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And He said unto me, It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He who overcomes shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all LIARS, shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone: which is the second death (Revelation 21:5-8).
Christians need to learn to speak the truth in love and not lie. Paul says: Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another (Ephesians 4:25). That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ (Ephesians 4:15-16). All those cunning crafty Christians, when they lie in wait to deceive the immigration institution or any other institution, they are booking themselves a first class ticket to the lake which burns with fire and brimstone. My brothers and sisters, let us no longer be children in things of the spirit, liars have their place in the lake of fire. God showed how Ananias lied in the books of Acts 5:1-11. Ananias and his wife Sapphira thought they were just lying to the institution of the church about how much they sold the piece of property, in the eyes of God a lie is a lie. Peter told Ananias: why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land (Acts 5:3)? So whenever we lie it is Satan filling our heart to lie; for he is the father of lies and there is no truth in him. Ananias and Sapphira dropped dead because of their lie. And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things (Acts 5:11).
The fear of the Lord must return to the church. On Monday 23rd February 2015, Sister Louise, the prophetess of the Lord, sent me a text message saying: this is the word of the Lord for you Gery: “and at the end of seven days, the word of the Lord came to me: son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel [even the house of prayer for all nations the Lord is building in the 50 European nations]. Whenever you hear a word from My mouth, you shall give them a warning from Me” (Ezekiel 3:16). What I say to all, I say it first of all to myself; for what Jesus says to one He says to all and we all need to watch (Mark 13:37). Paul and today Gery joins with him to say: I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway (1Corinthians 9:27).
I remember when we were growing up in our Christian fellowship, we had a sister who used to work in the public treasury. She used to falsify medical reports saying that she had a heart condition. So the public treasury gave her a lot of money to come to France to receive treatment every year. She took the money and did something else with it. One of my mother’s colleagues at work also used to bring falsified medical reports and the company gave him a lot of money to come to France to receive treatment. He took that money and bought buses and other cars and brought them home. Today that sister who used to work at public treasury, suffers from a real heart condition and had heart surgery in France. And that colleague of my mother’s is now suffering from real cancer and is always constantly in France receiving treatment.
I remember fifteen years ago we used to say to that sister of the fellowship who worked at the public treasury: in 2Kings 5:20-27, Gehazi, who lied to Naaman who had been healed of leprosy and collected money from him, received the leprosy of Naaman. We said to that sister: do not collect money for sickness when you are not sick, that sickness will come upon you. Faith works in both ways: God calls the things that are not as though they were (Romans 4:17). We use that principle to speak healing into our body when we are sick and we receive our healing. The same way if you call sickness and collect money for sickness, as though you were sick; sooner or later it will manifest in your body. I was in Birmingham in December 2013. They reported to me the case of a guy who was suffering from mental illness. For many years he collected money for mental illness when he was not mentally ill. I had to disassociate myself from some Christian healing ministry, because some leaders where collecting money for disability and they knew they were not disabled. In 2014 sister Lynn Giles had a vision from the Lord. In that vision she saw people in a church gathering, worshiping God with their hands lifted up. And there was written in the air above the lifted hands of the Christians the word: FRAUD.
All these people need to repent. Everything I have mentioned, what does it have to do with self inflicted spiritual blindness? The answer is: everything! Jesus says: And why do you look on the splinter that is in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the beam that is in your own eye? Or how will you say to your brother, Let me pull the splinter out of your eye; and, behold, a beam is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First cast the beam out of your own eye, and then you shall see clearly to cast the splinter out of your brother’s eye (Matthew 7:3-5).
Utterance gifts {prophecy, tongues and interpretation of tongues} and revelation gifts {word of knowledge, word of wisdom and discernment of spirits} work through the person ministering them; they are not independent of the person ministering them. That is why in the 20th century with the Pentecostal renewal, they insisted on the three works of the Holy Spirit: first salvation of the soul, second sanctification and third the baptism in the Holy Ghost.
Sanctification or holiness is the master key to flowing in the gifts of the Spirit. Jesus says about the Holy Spirit: Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when He is come, He will reprove or convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on Me; Of righteousness, because I go to My Father, and Ye see Me no more; Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged (John 16:7-11). Balaam spirit has crept into the church and when you hear prophecies and testimonies in churches today most of them have nothing to do with reproof and conviction of sin, conviction of righteousness and conviction of judgment. They all have to do with obtaining material things.
The testimony of Jesus Christ is the Spirit of prophecy (Revelation 19:10). Paul says, when we come to church, this is what ought to happen: if all prophesy, and there come in one who does not believe, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all: And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest or revealed; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth. How is it then, brethren? When you come together, every one of you has a psalm, has a doctrine, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying (1Corinthians 14:24-26). Paul did not say that the secret of his pocket is made manifest: how much he has in his purse or in his wallet. Though God does it at times; but when the focus becomes how much people have in their pocket we must be careful not to operate with the Balaam spirit.
So prophecy, revelation either by dream or vision or by word of knowledge or by word of wisdom or by discernment of spirits, tongues and interpretation of tongues are to reveal first the secret of the hearts. So that people are convicted of their sins. People are challenged to draw close to God and He will draw close to them. As James says: Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners; and purify your hearts, double-minded ones (James 4:8). And Paul says: Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries (Hebrews 10:22-27).
If you and I do not sanctify ourselves, we will be having spiritual beams in our eyes. That pastor, that bishop and those leaders of that church I used to visit every other month, have inflicted on themselves spiritual blindness. They could no longer see spiritually what sexual immoralities were going on in the church; because they themselves were living in spiritual adultery with their fake marriages, or had embraced the doctrine of Balaam, that was only interested in money and speaking what people wanted to hear, so that they will keep coming back and giving money; who taught the people sexual immoralities. Paul says: For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ (Galatians 1:10). Yes there will be prophecies, word of knowledge and word of wisdom concerning the prosperity of Christians; yet they should not be the main thing to the detriment of the prosperity of your soul! Let us have our priorities right. John says: Beloved, I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers (3John 1:2). Jesus says: (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things. But, you Christians, seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you (Matthew 6:32-33).
Paul says: their thoughts or minds were blinded; for until the present the same veil remains on the reading of the old covenant, has not been taken away.) But this veil has been done away in Christ. But until this day, when Moses is read, the veil is on their heart. But whenever it turns to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. And the Lord is that Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (2Corinthians 3:14-17). When a Christian does not live a sanctified life; even when he reads his bible his thoughts and mind are still blinded: he has that big beam in his spiritual eyes; he will not be able to remove any straw from his neighbour’s eye (Matthew 7:3-5). Even when sins are reported to him in the natural; he will not address it in the life of his neighbour or other Christians; for his heart will be condemning him and his conscience will be accusing him; for he does the same thing in secret or approves of those who do them (Romans 2:15). Paul says: those people who, know the righteous order of God, that those practicing such things are worthy of death, not only do them, but have pleasure in those practicing them (Romans 1:32).
You do not necessarily have to do them, but by approving of those who do them, you blind yourself spiritually. God says: can two walk together except they are agreed (Amos 3:3)? If for instance you approve of homosexuality and fornication; even though you are not practicing them yourself; you will not be receiving words of knowledge from the Holy Spirit that a person in the church is living in fornication or in homosexuality; because by rejecting the righteous order of God, you have placed a big beam of spiritual conformity to this world, that lies under the influence of the devil, in your spiritual eye to blind yourself (Romans 12:1-2, 1John 5:19). The gifts of the Holy Spirit are just manifestations of the Holy Spirit; you and I will be able to flow in those manifestations of the Holy Spirit if we decide to agree with the Holy Spirit. What does it mean to agree with the Holy Spirit? It means to agree with what the written word of God says about a particular situation. If for instance you yourself are plagued with lustful thoughts, are watching pornographic movies, are living in fornication, are drinking alcohol, are smoking, are going into pubs and night clubs, are gambling, are lying, are a thief, etc. The Holy Spirit will not say to you that your neighbours are doing one of those things you are doing. The Holy Spirit will first of all tell you that you are doing those things and you need to repent.
If you refuse deliberately to repent and change your lifestyle, though your conscience is accusing you and your heart condemning you; Paul says: you will be speaking lies in hypocrisy, having your conscience seared with hot iron (1Timothy 4:2). That is the problem Jesus had with the Pharisees, He called them hypocrites; because outwardly they looked okay; but inwardly and in their closet they were not doing what they were teaching. He called them blind leaders of blind, they and the people they lead will all fall into a ditch (Matthew 15:14). If you are living a hypocritical life in one aspect of the gospel, you are blinding yourself spiritually. Many times the Holy Spirit brought the conviction of sin to the heart and conscience of a person; yet that person decided to ignore the conviction of sin. Therefore he becomes spiritually insensitive to the Holy Spirit that is the meaning of having a conscience seared with a hot iron.
And though he reads his bible every day, but because he willingly seared his conscience with hot iron, he had developed spiritual scales in his eyes. Paul also had scales in his eyes and they fell off when he turned to the Lord Jesus and decided to agree with Jesus (Acts 9:18). If you approve of or do something that is against the knowledge of the word of God and refuse to repent and sanctify yourself; as your conscience becomes more and more seared with hot iron, you will develop spiritual scales in your spiritual eyes that will blind you spiritually, even a beam in your spiritual eye. You will also develop a veil on your heart that will no longer make your heart sensitive to the Holy Spirit: hardened and impenitent heart. And though you read the scriptures and you see those things you approve of or do are against the knowledge of the word of God, you will overlook them and make light of them. Paul says: after your hardness and impenitent heart you treasure up unto yourself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God (Romans 2:5). You will be calling good evil and evil good, calling darkness light and light darkness. God says: Woe unto those who call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight (Isaiah 5:20-21)!
People, do you want to know how to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit? The answer is: agree with the written word of God and become doers of it: live a sanctified life. Sometimes when I am doing a healing service, as I walk towards a person I smell alcohol coming from their side. And the moment I address a drinking problem; when I walk again towards that person the smell of alcohol disappears. I discovered as I sanctified myself I could flow more and more in the utterance gifts and revelation gifts of the Holy Spirit. And something happened too: as I read the bible I could see: holiness and sanctification everywhere in the bible. Before I could not see these words; the scales in my eyes had fallen off and the veil on my heart had been taken away; when I turned to Christ, when I decided to agree with what He said in His written word. I was no longer spiritually blind and no longer insensitive to the Holy Spirit.
Isaiah prophesied, saying: a highway [even a motorway] shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called, The Highway of Holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it. But He shall be with them; the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err in it (Isaiah 35:8).The problem in Christianity is that the next generation always wants to reinvent the wheel. The wheel was invented in 3500 BC; it has been around for about 5500 years. No sane person will try to invent a square wheel or a triangular wheel; for all those other shapes had been tried and found that they do not work. A wheel must be a circle. The devil hates holiness and righteousness. And in every generation he tries to deceive the new generation, telling them: you can enjoy God’s blessing, walking in the power of God, see the glory of God in your life and in your ministrations without living a holy life.
That is a lie from the pit of hell! It was holiness unto the Lord from Genesis to Revelation; it is still holiness unto the Lord for us in this century and for the generations to come (Exodus 28:36, Zechariah 14:20). Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14). For it is written: be holy, because I am holy (1Peter 1:16). For I am the Lord and I do not change (Malachi 3:6). Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). He prays for each one of us to the Father, saying: they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through Your truth. Your Word is truth. As You have sent Me into the world, even so I have sent them into the world. And I sanctify Myself for their sakes, so that they also might be sanctified in truth (John 17:16-19).
Now think of yourself as being a car. You can be alone in that car or you can carry passengers in your car. If the wheels of your car have a square shape or a triangular shape; no matter how many horse powers your engine can produce your car is going nowhere. The first thing God said to Moses when He appeared to him was: Do not come near here. Pull off your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground (Exodus 3:5). And whenever Moses was to go upon Mount Sinai to talk with God or whenever God wanted to come in the midst of the people to talk to Israel they were to sanctify themselves (Exodus 19, Exodus 24). If a person wants to enjoy fellowship with God he or she will have to willingly choose to live a sanctified life, even practice righteousness.
Again Jesus prays to the Father for each one of us, saying: they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through Your truth. Your Word is truth. As You have sent Me into the world, even so I have sent them into the world. And I sanctify Myself for their sakes, so that they also might be sanctified in truth (John 17:16-19). Of Jesus it is written: You have loved righteousness and hated iniquity, therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness above Your fellows (Hebrews 1:9).” If you do not willingly choose to hate sin and love righteousness, even holiness; you will not flow in the anointing of the Holy Spirit either. God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and He went about doing good, and healing all those who were oppressed by the Devil, for God was with Him. And we are witnesses of all things which He did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem (Acts 10:38-39).
Isaiah prophesied, saying: Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it (Isaiah 40:4-5). Let us explain it. When you drive from Manchester, England to Glasgow, Scotland on the motorway; you will be privileged to admire the beautiful and breathtaking landscape. There are mountains, hills and valleys. On highways or motorways cars drive at a higher speed than in cities. In the city a car can make a U-turn; you are not allowed to make a U-turn on the motorway; in fact there are railings separating cars coming from the opposite direction. They are there to prevent foolish drivers, who might be tempted to make a U-turn on the motorway, to endanger their life and the life of others.
In Christianity you are no longer living for yourself. You are that car, and you are always spiritually carrying other people along. They are imitating you as you are imitating Christ. That is why for the sake of the people watching around you, you ought to sanctify yourself like Jesus did for our sake to give us an example (John 17:16-19). Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit in you, whom you have of God? And you are not your own, for you are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s (1Corinthians 6:19-20). Therefore the one teaching another, do you not teach yourself? The one preaching not to steal, do you steal? The one saying not to commit adultery, do you commit adultery? The one detesting idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in Law [in the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures], do you dishonour God through breaking the Law [the Holy Scriptures]? For the name of God is blasphemed among the nations because of you (Romans 2:21-24).
If you make a U-turn on the motorway it will be deadly because of the speed at which you are driving. So for your own safety they install railings to prevent you from acting as a fool. What Christians do not understand is that the commandments God put in the Holy Scriptures, were meant to keep you and people around you safe, to protect us from harm and from harming those who are with us and around us. And the true heart behind the commandments is love. The purpose behind the traffic signs is the same. Now if you act foolishly you will wreck your life and the life of others; even if you do not care about your own life; for the sake of those around you obey the Holy Scriptures; for you are the only Jesus the world will see.
You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men, it having been made plain that you are the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, not having been written with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not on tablets of stone, but in fleshly tablets of the heart. And we have such trust through Christ toward God (2Corinthians 3:2-4). Let not my or your lifestyle be the reason someone is offended and rejects Jesus Christ and blasphemes His name. Whoever shall offend one of these little ones who believes in Me, it would be better for him that an ass’s millstone were hung around his neck, and he be sunk in the depth of the sea (Matthew 18:6). Let us sanctify ourselves for the sake of the people around us, both saved and unsaved people.
What is a spiritual U-turn? It is to backslide. Jesus tells us about the prodigal son who backslid, saying: for this my son was dead and is alive again, he was lost and is found. And they began to be merry (Luke 15:24). Peter says: For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire (2Peter 2:21-22). Paul says: Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draws back, My soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who draw back unto perdition; but of those who believe to the saving of the soul (Hebrews 10:38-39).
In the city you can make a 90 degree turn to the left or to the right. But on the motorway, even the Highway of holiness, you are not allowed to make a 90 degree turn either to the left or to the right. Because of the high speed at which you are driving, your car will somersault and you will kill yourself. God told us: only be strong and very courageous so that you may be careful to do according to all the Law which My servant Moses commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may act wisely wherever you go. This book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it by day and by night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall act wisely (Joshua 1:7-8).
And on the motorway when the road has a sharp turn, though it is not 90 degree turn to the left or to the right, they know that if you carry on driving at the same high speed, the centrifugal force will take your car off the road and it will somersault and you might end up injuring yourself or worse killing yourself and those with you in the car. So they place a traffic sign indicating that you must slow down your speed. And the other traffic sign they place is a black and white chevrons sign to indicate a sharp deviation of the route to the left or to the right. The reason they put it in black and white is to draw your attention to the fact that it is a matter of death and life, good and evil; you need to be very careful and obey what you are being advised to do.
For us spiritually, Moses tells us: Behold! I have set before you today life and good, and death and evil, in that I command you today to love Jehovah your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, so that you may live and multiply. And Jehovah your God shall bless you in the land where you go to possess it. But if you turn away your heart, so that you will not hear, but shall be drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land where you pass over Jordan to go to possess it. I call Heaven and earth to record today against you. I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose life, so that both you and your seed may live, so that you may love Jehovah your God, and that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him. For He is your life and the length of your days, so that you may dwell in the land which Jehovah swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give it to them (Deuteronomy 30:15-20).
Paul warns the Christians who are taking sharp deviation to the left or to the right from that Highway of Holiness that they will die spiritually if they do not stop. Do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor abusers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God (1Corinthians 6:9-10). John tells us: the fearful, and the unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, will have their part in the Lake burning with fire and brimstone, which is the second death (Revelation 21:8).
In the city there are roads in the valleys and on the hills. On the motorway they fill up that portion of the valley in which they want the motorway to pass through or they build a bridge in that valley. They level a hill on which they want the motorway to pass, or they dig a tunnel through a mountain for the motorway. If they do not do that, the cars will jump in the air entering that valley and coming out of that valley; because of the high speed at which people drive on the motorway; this would result in accidents. The same thing will happen when driving on the mountain or hill; that is why they level it or dig a tunnel through it. No wonder Isaiah said: every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low (Isaiah 40:4).
Now spiritually those valleys that need filling up or exalting and those mountains and hills that need to be brought low are obvious sin in the life of a person, even the sins listed by Paul in 1Corinthians 6:9-10, which are sins leading to death because they are rooted in idol worship (1John 5:16-21). Paul says: some men’s sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment (1Timothy 5:24). Sexual immoralities are spiritual pits or ditches, even valleys. When you fall into them you are trapped and become filthy both spiritually and physically. Flee sexual immoralities. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits fornication sins against his own body (1Corinthians 6:18). Solomon who fell into them says: the mouth of strange women is a deep pit or deep ditch; those despised or abhorred by the Lord shall fall there (Proverbs 22:14). My son, give Me your heart, and let your eyes watch My ways. For a harlot is a deep ditch, and a strange woman is a narrow pit, even a well (Proverbs 23:26-27).
Does the Lord God abhor or despise any person? The answer is no! For God so loved the world [even the wicked and unsaved people] that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16). Do I actually delight in the death of the wicked? says the Lord Jehovah. Is it not that he should turn from his ways and live (Ezekiel 18:23)? Say to them: As I live, says the Lord Jehovah, I have no delight in the death of the wicked, except in the turning of the wicked from his way, and so to live. Turn, turn from your evil ways; for why will you die, O house of Israel (Ezekiel 33:11)? God demonstrates His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).
So what does Solomon mean by the Lord God abhors or despises a person? We have the example of Eli the high priest and his sons. They knew the word of God; yet they deliberately disobeyed it by taking much offerings, which is Balaam spirit and they practiced sexual immoralities with the women who came into the temple to worship (1Samuel 2:12-27). The bible says that those sons of Eli, who were priests, abhorred or despised the offering of the Lord (1Samuel 2:17). By acting the way they did, they abhorred not just the offering of the Lord but the Lord Himself. God said through a prophet about those sons of Eli: Jehovah, the God of Israel says, I said indeed, Eli’s house and the house of your father should walk before Me forever. But now Jehovah says, Be it far from Me! For those who honour Me I will honour, and those that think little of Me, or those who despise or abhor Me, shall be lightly regarded or lightly esteemed or despised or abhorred (1Samuel 2:30). Do not act like the sons of Eli and you will be safe!
By strange women, Solomon means women who are not in the covenant of Israel; and for us born again Christians, it means women who are not born again. At that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world (Ephesians 2:12). The problem of Solomon is that he married women who were not in the covenant of Israel as we have already explained and that was his downfall. Samson also had the same problem, not just he married a philistine woman but he also visited prostitutes and that was his down fall. This applies to men and women who are not born again Christians; they are spiritually strange women and strange men, even strangers from the covenant of promise.
Solomon says a strange woman is a narrow pit or a well (Proverbs 23:27). What is in his mind is that when you fall into a well or narrow pit, you bruise yourself in a terrible manner, by beating from side to side; and out of which you cannot extricate yourself. If you read 1Corinthians 7, you are not to divorce the unbeliever if he or she is willing to stay with you. So if you disregarded the word of God and acted according to the dictate of your own heart, by marrying an unbeliever; you have to stay with him or her. Do not blame God; you deliberately disobeyed God, especially after you have read this bible study and the one on “He kept the good wine for the end”. It already shows your heart towards God. If for a crucial matter like marriage, that binds you for life to a person, you are willing to deliberately disobey God after you have received the knowledge of His ways; you will have the tendency of disobeying Him in other things that pertain to life and godliness.
In the city there are humps on roads and some roads even have potholes. You cannot have humps and potholes on the motorway, accidents will happen because of them. That is why Isaiah says: Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain (Isaiah 40:4). Some people’s sins are not that obvious. Paul tells us: some men’s sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after. Likewise also the good works of some are manifest beforehand; and they that are otherwise cannot be hid (1Timothy 5:24-25). We want to smooth the rough places of our life by even abstaining from appearance of evil; so that our good will never be spoken evil of. Paul says: prove all things; hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil (1Thessalonians 5:21-22). Then do not let your good be spoken evil of, for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:16-17).
We want to make the crooked ways of our life straight to line up with the way, truth and life of Jesus; for our ways are not His ways or our thoughts His thoughts (John 14:6, Isaiah 55:8). And we want to remove the humps of our spiritual life which are but stumbling blocks on our way, and fill up all spiritual potholes which ensnare us. Paul says: therefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:1-2).
You and I have come in the same Spirit of Elijah John the Baptist came in, even to turn the heart of the children to their Father in heaven (Malachi 4:5-6, 1Kings 18). In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand. For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths straight (Matthew 3:1-3).” If we choose willingly to sanctify ourselves, we will see the glory of the Lord in our life and the ministry of reconciliation God has entrusted us with. When we talk about seeing the glory of God in the New Testament, it is related to salvation of souls, transformations of lives from a worldly life to a sanctified life, healing, deliverance, casting out of demons, dead raising, prosperity and everything else contained in our salvation package.
Isaiah prophesied, saying: Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it (Isaiah 40:4-5). And a highway [even a motorway] shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called, The Highway of Holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it. But He shall be with them; the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err in it (Isaiah 35:8). So my advice to each one of us is to walk, even drive, on that Highway of Holiness so that the glory of the Lord will be seen in us and in the lives of the people we minister to.
When we have prepared the way of the Lord in our life we will be able to run or even drive faster to our God given destination in life and ministry. So then I run, not as if I were uncertain. And so I fight, not as one who beats the air (1Corinthians 9:26). Holding forth the Word of Life, so that I may rejoice with you in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain nor laboured in vain (Philippians 2:16). Jesus built that Highway of Holiness for us, He drove on that Highway of Holiness. His disciples also drove on that Highway of Holiness, prophets of old drove on that same Highway of Holiness. They did not suffer shipwreck. Paul told us that we must hold faith and a good conscience, which some have put away and made shipwreck as to faith (1Timothy 1:19). If we follow in their footsteps or drive on the same Highway of Holiness we will also see the glory of God in our generation; pursue peace and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord God (Hebrews 12:14).
If we ourselves are still slaves of the devil, though we are children of God and a seed of Abraham; when we want to cast out some demons we will not have confidence toward God; because our conscience will be accusing us and our heart will be condemning us (Romans 2:15, 1John 3:20). And at times when we are praying in tongues the Holy Spirit will be groaning through us; because we are in bondage and Jesus wants to set us free indeed. We will have more results in ministering the power of God in healing and deliverance the more we walk in holiness and yield fruit of righteousness; for our conscience and our heart will not be accusing us or condemning us. John says: Beloved, if our heart does not accuse us, we have confidence toward God. And whatever we ask, we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight (1John 3:21-22). Jesus tells us: If you abide in Me, and My Words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done to you (John 15:7). But what does it mean to abide in Jesus and Jesus abiding in us? John answers, saying: “the one who keeps Jesus’ commandments abides in Him. We know by this the He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us (1John 3:24). Whoever says he abides in Jesus Christ ought himself also to walk even as Jesus walked” (1John 2:6).
We need to embrace the way, the truth and the life of Jesus Christ in all things that pertain to life and godliness. If we want to have the desires of our heart granted unto us and see His mighty signs and wonders performed through us (John 14:6, John 14:12-14). If the word of God means so little in our own personal life, the power of God will also be so little in our ministration to people, and to get answers to prayer. Jehovah, the God of Israel says, I said indeed, Your house and the house of your father should walk before Me forever. But now Jehovah says, Be it far from Me! For those who honour Me I will honour, and those that think little of Me shall be lightly regarded (1Samuel 2:30). The sons of Eli were still serving in the temple carrying the Ark of the Covenant and burning incense in the temple. Yet they were defeated and killed by the Philistines and then the Ark was captured (1Samuel 4). Those sons of Eli lived in sexual immoralities and thought it was about their service in the temple that mattered to God? Our personal life matters first to God: holiness unto the Lord!
The person is first of all accepted before his service or ministration is accepted. Adam knew Eve his wife. And she conceived and bore Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from Jehovah. And she bore again, his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in the end of days, it happened, Cain brought to Jehovah an offering of the fruit of the ground. And Abel also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat of it. And Jehovah had respect to Abel and to his offering, but He did not have respect to Cain and to his offering. And Cain glowed with anger, and his face fell. And Jehovah said to Cain, Why have you angrily glowed? And why did your face fall? If you do well, shall you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin crouches at the door; and its desire is for you, and you shall rule over it (Genesis 4:1-7).
The saints in Azusa Street revival and people like Smith Wigglesworth understood it; they have three messages in their life time of ministry: repentance toward God and faith in the finished word of Jesus to be born again, which they called the first work of the Holy Spirit; sanctification or holiness unto the Lord, no longer being conformed to the world but being transformed into the image of Christ by the renewing of the mind by the washing of the water of the word of God, which they called the second work of the Holy Spirit; and the baptism in the Holy Ghost and fire with evidence of speaking in tongues, for power in ministry to heal the sick, cast out devils, raise the dead, which they called the third work of the Holy Spirit.
Paul tells us: faith works by love (Galatians 5:6). First of all it is the unconditional love that God has for us. John says: We love Him because He first loved us (1John 4:19). We need to reciprocate the love that was bestowed upon us for faith to work; for we are labourers together with God (1Corinthians 3:9). So how do we reciprocate His love? Jesus says: If you love Me, keep My commandments (John 14:15). Again Jesus answered and said unto all of us, If a man loves Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him (John 14:23). For that faith to heal the sick, cast out devils, raise the dead, move mountains to work, we will need to love God, meaning keeps His commandments contained in His written Word. In other words you and I need to live a sanctified life. If we call ourselves disciples of Jesus we ought to walk like Jesus our discipler: in the same Spirit and same steps. John, a disciple of Jesus tells us: Whoever says he abides in Jesus Christ ought himself also to walk even as Jesus walked” (1John 2:6). Paul says to the church of Corinth: I begged Titus and sent with him the brother. Did Titus overreach you or make gain of you? Did we not walk in the same spirit? Did we not walk in the same steps (2Corinthians 12:18)?
Some people will say I already have eternal life the day I was born again; I do not need to become a disciple of Jesus. But what does it mean to have eternal life? Does it only mean to receive Jesus into our life as Lord and Saviour? Jesus gives us the definition of eternal life; saying: And this is life eternal, that they might know You the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent (John 17:3). What does it mean to know Only God the true God and to know Jesus Christ whom He has sent? Does it mean to merely be born again? It is more than just making a confession and believing in our heart. John gives us the answer, saying: And by this we do know that we know Him, if we keep his commandments (1John 2:3). So it is about doing what God commanded us in His word.
The reason why God so loved us and gave His Son, is so that we in turn, can learn from Jesus and love our fellow humans like Jesus loved us. In other words the reason for John 3:16 is 1John 3:16. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whosoever believes in Him, Jesus, should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16). By this we have known the love of God, because He laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers (1John 3:16). God wants Christ Jesus to be formed in each one of us, that is the reason He gave His Son. He wants us to grow into the full stature of Christ Jesus (Ephesians 4). Paul says: My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you (Galatians 4:19). Every born again Christian must become a disciple of Jesus; this is the commission Jesus gave us (Matthew 28:20).
You and I need to become disciples of Jesus: embracing His life, way and truth, then walking in the same Spirit and in the same steps He did. Jesus gave power and authority to preach the gospel, cast out demons, heal the sick, cleanse lepers and raise the dead to His disciples, not to mere converts. Christianity is not just becoming a convert but becoming a disciple of Jesus. Our great commission is to make disciples not to make mere converts. Jesus says: All [authority to exercise] power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go therefore, and teach all nations or make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen (Matthew 28:18-20).
People like Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathaea were secret disciples of Jesus for fear of the Jewish leaders (John 3, John 19:38-39). They were teachers of the Law in the synagogues, and loved the praise of men more than the praise of God; though they believed in Jesus, they did not want to voice it out; for they did not want to be rejected by their religious friends and lose their social status (John 12:42-43). Jesus says: Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of Me and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when He comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels (Mark 8:38). Jesus will not entrust such a person in His leadership team; because he will not teach accurately the word of God but will try to please his friends and relatives; because he is still seeking acceptance and praise of men.
Paul says: For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ (Galatians 1:10). Jesus said to his disciples, who were not ashamed of Him: you are those who have continued with Me in My temptations. And I appoint unto you a Kingdom, as My Father hath appointed unto Me (Luke 22:28-29). Paul says: Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. For faithful is the Word, for if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him. If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He also will deny us (2Timothy 2:10-12).
The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And since we are children, then we are heirs; heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ; so that if we suffer with Him, we may also be glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the coming glory to be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation waits for the manifestation of the sons of God (Romans 8:16-19). If we make the choice to become disciples of Jesus: embracing His life, way and truth, walking in the same spirit and steps He did. nobody said it will be easy, we might suffer for righteousness sake; but Jesus will glorify Himself with us by manifesting His life and power through us, to this generation of ours that has been waiting for someone to manifest Jesus Christ unto them; so that they can believe in Him and be saved.
Peter tells us: if you also suffer for righteousness’ sake, you are blessed. And do not fear their fear, nor be troubled, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to everyone who asks you a reason of the hope in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that while they speak against you as evildoers, they may be shamed, those falsely accusing your good behaviour in Christ (1Peter 3:14-16). If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of God and of glory rests on you. Truly according to them, He is blasphemed, but according to you He is glorified (1Peter 4:14). I, Gery, came to make disciples of Jesus Christ, that is why I am transparent about my life: how the Lord saved me and delivered me from my bondages. How he disciplined me with the rod of his word. I want to be a partaker of the holiness of God my Father and I want you to be a partaker of that same holiness and yield the fruit of righteousness.
Paul tells us: you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons, “My son, despise not the chastening or discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and He scourges every son whom He receives.” If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons, for what son is he whom the father does not chasten? But if you are without chastisement, of which all are partakers, then you are bastards and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh who corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For truly they chastened us for a few days according to their own pleasure, but He for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness. Now chastening for the present does not seem to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who are exercised by it (Hebrews 12:5-11).
Paul says: those who sin should be reprimanded or rebuked in front of the whole church; this will serve as a strong warning to others (1Timothy 5:20 NIV). And all Israel [and the whole church] shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this among you (Deuteronomy 13:11). Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead rebuke them, even expose them for what they are (Ephesians 5:11). I, Gery, accepted the rebuke I received in secret from my Abba Father and wrote it for the whole world to hear it and read it. Jesus tells me: Therefore whatever you have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light. And that which you have spoken in the ear in secret rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops (Luke 12:3). Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy (Proverbs 28:13).
Jesus did not appoint a kingdom or a sphere of influence to secret disciples like Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea and other priests and Pharisees who though they believed, but were ashamed of confessing him publicly. Jesus entrusted His kingdom to those who could accept the correction of the Lord and were transparent about how the Lord corrected them. That is why the bible is so true. The disciples could have omitted to mention their blunders [gross mistakes and stupid errors] in ministry when they were with Jesus; yet they recorded everything in the bible for us to learn how the Lord corrected them; so that they could be partakers of His holiness and yield peaceful fruit of righteousness. Paul says: For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek (Romans 1:16). The righteous are as bold as a lion, even as Jesus the Lion of the tribe of Judah (Proverbs 28:1, Revelation 5:5). For God has not given us the spirit of fear or timidity, but of power and of love and of a sound mind (2Timothy 1:7). A disciple of Jesus ought to embrace the life, way and truth of Jesus Christ and then walk in the same Spirit and in the same steps He did.
Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house; and many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized (Acts 18:8). Paul was the one who baptized Crispus and Gaius (1Corinthians 1:14). Yet Paul followed the example of Jesus in appointing leaders over the work of ministry. One will think: Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, has received Jesus; he is versed in the scriptures and is experienced when it comes to sharing the scriptures to an audience. He should be appointed to oversee the work in Corinth and set in order things in the churches. But Paul took Titus and the young Timothy, who were his disciples, to set things in order and ordain deacons and bishops in the churches. Why? Because he knew that his disciples embraced the life, way and truth of Jesus Christ and then walked in the same Spirit and in the same steps He did. They could have asked the same question to Jesus: you should have appointed some of the Pharisees and rulers of the Jews, who believed in You, for they have years of bible college and rabbinical teaching; instead of appointing unlearned fishermen and tax collectors over your work.
An incident happened in the early church. Some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up, saying: “it is necessary to circumcise the gentile believers and to command them to keep the Law of Moses” (Acts 15:5). Likewise today, when there is a move of God; people will leave their previous denominations to join the new group that is experiencing the move of God. In the beginning they will be quiet; but with time; since they cannot go back to the denominations whence they came; for each one of them has become “persona non grata” [an unwelcome person like a foreign person whose entering or remaining in a particular location or venue is prohibited by the leadership in that location or venue]; they will try to introduce some of the doctrines of their former denominations in the new move of God and dilute the true word of God.
The early church had to use a strong hand to stop that sect of the Pharisees, who believed, to continue teaching the custom of the Jews as being the truth of the word of God in light with the finished work of Jesus at Calvary. And sometimes Paul had to tell his disciples to not give the pulpit to born again Christians with that background of the sect of the Pharisees to teach the word; because they brought more confusion and division to the new move of God. Paul in his letters to his disciples and to the churches used sometimes hard words against that sect of the Pharisees to stop them at all costs; lest he had laboured in vain. Paul himself was a Pharisee, so he had nothing against the Pharisees who believed (Philippians 3:5). Barnabas was a Levite, so the apostles had no problem with Levites and priests being converted to Christianity (Acts 4:36). The only thing they required is that, though you were a priest, a Levite or a Pharisee, you do not bring your previous religion and doctrine to pollute the truth of God’s word in this new move of God.
In the beginning of the Pentecostal renewal at Azusa Street; things started well and people were leaving their dead denominations to join a new move of God. The Pentecostal renewal had his background in the salvation movement and the holiness movement. So they were building upon the first work of the Holy Spirit, which is salvation; and on the second work of the Holy Spirit, which is holiness or sanctification. Sanctification is getting the world out of you: you are no longer conformed to this world which lies under the influence of the wicked, even the devil; but you are transformed by the renewing of your mind according to the written word of God, to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ (Romans 12:1-2, 1John 5:18, Romans 8:29). Then they had the third work of the Holy Spirit, which is the baptism in the Holy Ghost and fire with evidence of speaking in tongues, for the effectiveness in ministry to heal the sick, cast out demons, cleanse lepers and raise the dead. When the group started they all had the two first foundations; they believed that the baptism of the Holy Ghost with evidence of speaking in tongues was available for every born again Christian, and every born again believer can have the miraculous signs following him or her.
Then people from other denominations joined them. Some were not even rooted yet in the first work of the Holy Ghost, which is salvation. Some, who had the understanding of what it means to be saved, were not yet rooted in the second work of the Holy Ghost, which is holiness or sanctification. And some, who were rooted in salvation and holiness, could enter into the third work of the Holy Ghost, which is the baptism in the Holy Ghost and fire. So they were silent at first; they used to be preachers, evangelists and teachers in their previous denominations. So when the Pentecostal work grew, they gave them a platform to preach and teach. So evangelists like F.F. Bosworth, who used to be a Methodist minister; but was now a Pentecostal healing evangelist; came up with teachings like: “Do all speak in tongues?” He was one of the founders of the Assemblies of God; but left after the disagreement over his teaching on “Do all speak in tongues?”
It is not just on tongues being the evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit that they will try to compromise the truth of the word of God. Those who did not have the background of the holiness movement will now say: I come from a catholic background, I am a Methodist, I am a Presbyterian or I am a Baptist and it does not matter: we can drink alcohol, we can smoke and we can go to night clubs and pubs, we can go and marry unbelievers, we can live in fornication before marriage, etc. Love those brothers and sisters but tell them the truth and do not appoint them in leadership according to the letters of Paul to Timothy and Titus; for they do not walk in the same spirit or in the same steps of Jesus and His disciples. For if you put them in leadership; even if when you are present, they do not teach people what they are doing; but when you are absent, or in their homes, carnal Christians wanting a licence to sin ask them questions.
They will answer: myself I drink alcohol, I smoke; I go to pubs, to the gambling institutions and into night clubs, “god told me to marry an unbeliever”, etc. They are still carnal Christians and need to be sanctified before appointing them to disciple anybody. James tells us: Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord (James 5:13-14). James did not say: when you are afflicted drink wine and alcoholic beverages; but pray! Read the bible study on “Abecedary of prayer”, the section on “Praying through” and discover how when Jesus was in great distress, depressed and in agony “He prayed through” and asked John, James and Peter to join Him in prayer (Matthew 26). Jesus did not tell them, come let us drink wine so that we will relax and forget what is happening and about to happen to Me. James tells us if we are cheerful let us sing psalms or spiritual songs; he did not tell us let us open a bottle of alcoholic beverage and drink. We are still carnal [ruled by our flesh and not by the written word of God] if drinking alcoholic beverages is our response to cheerfulness and affliction. During the Welsh revival in the beginning of the 20th century many taverns closed down because believers understood that sanctified believers do not drink alcoholic beverages.
When you appoint a person in leadership or to disciple other converts you have approved of that person: the words of his mouth and his life style. You must be able to be confident about that person that He will obey the word of God and teach the truth of the word of God without twisting it to justify his ungodly lifestyle; both in your presence but much more in your absence. Paul says: “God has highly exalted Jesus Christ, and has given Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of heavenly ones, and of earthly ones, and of ones under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord [if Jesus is our Lord we should only say what He told us to say and do what He commanded us according to Luke 6:46], to the glory of God the Father. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, cultivate your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure (Philippians 2:9-13).
Jesus Christ could ascend to heaven and leave the work of the ministry to His disciples; because he could trust them, that they would not only now obey him when he is present, but much more now that He is absent in the physical. So Paul appointed Timothy and Titus and other disciples because he knew they would keep walking in the same spirit and same steps of Jesus Christ, even when Paul was absent. They were not pleasers of men. They would obey Christ Jesus their Master or Lord, with reverential fear and trembling, in singleness of their heart, as if Christ was physically standing by their side watching and hearing everything they said and did; not with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, with good will doing service as to the Lord and not to men (Ephesians 6:5-7).
Some people when they become leaders, they think if they confess their blunder in life before the people, it will belittle their authority. It is because they have the wrong idea of leadership of God they think it is like the secular leadership. So they have a private interpretation of the word of God to justify their ungodly lifestyle; instead of confessing it openly and forsaking it. Peter gives us a severe warning about having a private interpretation of the scriptures. Peter says: we also have a more sure Word of prophecy, to which you do well to take heed, as to a light that shines in a dark place [even to expose our unfruitful works of darkness, for what they truly are, so that we can stop having fellowship with them according to Ephesians 5:11], until the day dawns and the Daystar arises in your hearts [even the nature of Christ Jesus who is the Daystar or Sun of righteousness is formed in our heart], knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture came into being of its own private interpretation. For prophecy was not borne at any time by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke being born along by the Holy Spirit (2Peter 1:19-21).
Disciples do not only do what you tell them, but what you do. And God hates the hypocrites. If you are in leadership what you do behind closed doors you must be able to tell it before the whole congregation; there must be such transparency because you have nothing to hide and you can say like Paul: imitate me as I imitate Christ (1Corinthians 11:1). Disciples are our children in the faith. Paul said that his disciple Timothy was his son in the faith (1Timothy 1:2). And just like children imitate more what their parents do than what the parents say; so it is for disciples who are but our children in the faith. Our children know it when we are hypocrites: we talk the talk but do not walk the walk. I, Gery, used to do all of those ungodly things I confessed in this bible study; but the Lord saved me from my sins. Paul says: What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Do you not know that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life (Romans 6:1-4).
Likewise reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace (Romans 6:11-14). Choose a sanctified life in Christ Jesus. Some, who were not rooted in salvation, will start teaching that everybody will be saved; for Jesus died for the whole world. No you need to receive Him as your Lord and Saviour to be saved (Romans 10:9-10). If you have not you are going to hell. I was talking to an elder in the church of the Brethren denomination in Glasgow. He liked the healing miracles Jesus was performing through me; but he wanted to convince me that everybody will be in heaven; because God is love! The Muslims, the Hindus, the Jehovah’s witnesses, the atheists will all be in heaven, according to him.
I said to him: let me stop you right there! My own grandfather is burning in hell fire; for he did not receive Jesus Christ as his Lord and Saviour while he was still alive. But my grandmother is in heaven; for she repented of her sins and received Jesus as her Lord and Saviour before passing to glory. It is not a matter of emotionalism; it is what the written word of God says. And I will not compromise it even for my relatives, no matter how much I love them. I do not have a private interpretation of the prophecy of scriptures. He said to me: you are too rigid and dogmatic. And he walked away from me. Never give your pulpit or place to someone like that in your leadership; he is not a disciple of Jesus; though he is a convert and goes to heaven. If you read the letter of Jude it so hard; because they have to contend for the truth which was once for all delivered unto them. Some people, who came in by stealth, wanted to distort the truth of the Gospel: by compromising on salvation, holiness and the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I, Gery, know it very well and I am not deceived; I am a discipler to some; but to others I am only a teacher. They take whatever they like and reject the rest. As long as what I am saying is in line with the written word of God; I Know God backs me up!
Now let us address the question of F.F. Bosworth: “Do all speak in tongues?” it is taken for the writing of Paul to the church of Corinth. You are the body of Christ, and members in part. And God set some in the church, firstly, apostles; secondly, prophets; thirdly, teachers, then works of power, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, kinds of languages. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of power? Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? But zealously strive after the better gifts. And yet I show to you a more excellent way (1Corinthians 12:27-31).
Let us answer them one by one. Are all apostles? The answer is no! Are all prophets? The answer is no! Are all teachers? The answer is no! We can also add: are all evangelists? The answer is no! And are all pastors? The Answer is no! Why? Because these five offices or fivefold ministry offices are the leadership team of Jesus for His church, the body of Christ; they equip the saints for the work of ministry (Ephesians 4). The Apostles govern. The prophets guide the sheep by pointing them to the way they ought to go. The evangelists gather the sheep into the fold. The pastors guard the sheep and the teachers ground believers in the truth of the gospel. There are more pastors, teachers and evangelists than prophets and apostles. The apostles and prophets are the guardians of the doctrines; they receive the revelation of the word of God and use it as the foundation of the faith of believers.
Disciples must teach the revelation of the word of God they have received from the apostles and prophets (Matthew 28:18-20, Hebrews 5:12). So though we might not be in the office of a teacher, but we learn the bible studies and go and teach them to the people we are discipling. As we are taught we will learn how to witness to people so that they will give their life to Jesus though we are not evangelists. We will be taught how to prophesy though we are not prophets. We will be taught how to shepherd though we are not pastors. We will be taught how to walk in apostolic power though we are not apostles.
Are all workers of power? The answer is yes! Do all have gifts of healings? The answer is yes! Do all speak in tongues? The answer is yes! Do all interpret? The answer is yes! I will add: do all prophesy? The answer is yes! If I refuse to be a mere convert to Christianity; but chose to become disciples of Jesus meaning: being taught and embracing His way, truth and life and then walking in the same spirit and same steps He did. He promised us, saying: Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he who does not believe shall be damned. And these miraculous signs shall follow those who believe; In My name they shall cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover (Mark 16:15-18). Please read the series of the “Perfect Redemption Plan” and also the “Application of The Perfect Redemption Plan”. We expound on what God has in store for every born again believer who chooses to become a disciple of Jesus Christ.
I was praying on Tuesday 26th January 2015 in the afternoon. And the Lord, Holy Spirit, told me: “transfigured and transformed”. So He brought back to my remembrance what I have read in the scriptures. Paul said: I beseech you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed [metamorphoō: changed, transfigured, transformed] by the renewing of your mind, in order to prove by you what is that good and pleasing and perfect will of God (Romans 12:1-2). And again, he said: But we all, with our face having been unveiled, having beheld the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are being changed [metamorphoō: changed, transfigured, transformed] into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord’s Spirit (2Corinthians 3:18).
And again the Holy Spirit brought to my remembrance Jesus, when he went to pray at the mountain of transfiguration. After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John and led them up into a high mountain, apart by themselves. And He was transfigured [metamorphoō: changed, transfigured, transformed] before them. And His clothing became shining, exceedingly white as snow such as no fuller on earth could whiten them. And Elijah with Moses was seen by them, and they were talking with Jesus. And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. And let us make three tabernacles, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah. For he did not know what to say, for they were very much afraid. And there was a cloud that overshadowed them. And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is My beloved Son. Hear Him. And suddenly, looking around, they did not see anyone any more, except Jesus alone with themselves. And as they came down from the mountain, He commanded them that they should tell no one the things that they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead (Mark 9:2-9).
The disciples saw a vision of Jesus standing with Elijah and Moses (Matthew 17:9). The physical transformation that we see in the life of a born again Christian, is only a result of the spiritual transfiguration that happened in the life of the born again Christian. For by faith we understand that the physical worlds were framed by the word of God; so that the things which are seen in the physical realm were made by the things which are invisible, even what happens in the spiritual realm (Hebrews 11:3). Thus as you are being spiritually transfigured, you will be physically transformed.
So what is the Lord, Holy Spirit saying? He is saying: “when you are transfigured spiritually you will be transformed physically, so that you will no longer be conformed to this world. This is the perfect will of God for every born again Christian”. The mountain is the place of prayer, fasting and revelation of the written word of God. Moses went onto Mount Sinai to talk to God, which is prayer, to fast for forty days and forty nights, and to receive the revelation of the written word of God (Exodus 24, Exodus 34). But before Moses or the people came close to that mountain or Moses climbed that mountain, God asked them to first of all sanctify themselves. And Jehovah said to Moses, Lo, I come to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and believe you forever. And Moses told the words of the people to Jehovah. And Jehovah said to Moses, Go to the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes. And be ready for the third day. For the third day Jehovah will come down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:9-11).
If a person did not sanctify himself he could not touch that mountain, let alone come upon that mountain. The people only sanctified themselves for three days. But after that, they said to Moses this sanctification deal is not for us; you Moses sanctify yourself and go on that mountain to talk to God; we will believe whatever you tell us from the Lord. Sanctification is getting the world out of you so that you are no longer conformed to the world, for it is under the influence of the devil; but you are transformed by the renewing of your mind according to the word of God, so that you are conformed to the image of Jesus Christ (Romans 12:1-2, 1John 5:19, Romans 8:29). When a person is truly sanctified he no longer acts like a heathen, though he lives among them. The people only sanctified themselves for three days and did not want to do it again. In the New Covenant we are all priests and kings, sanctification is not just for Moses and Joshua; but for all of us.
The first encounter God had with Moses, when He appeared to him in a burning bush. The Angel of Jehovah appeared to him in a flame of fire, out of the midst of a thorn bush. And he looked. And behold! The thorn bush burned with fire! And the thorn bush was not burned up. And Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the thorn bush is not burned up. And Jehovah saw that he had turned aside to see. God called to him out of the midst of the thorn bush, and said, Moses! Moses! And he said, Here I am. And He said, Do not come near here. Pull off your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground. And He said, I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God (Exodus 3:2-5). So from the first encounter Moses had with God; God first of all talked to Him of holiness. Moses if you want to have fellowship with Me, acknowledge that I am a Holy God and sanctify yourself.
It starts with sanctification. If you want to hear the voice of God clearer than even before; you must start with sanctification. God put sanctification before prayer and fasting. Samuel explains it to us. Samuel said: Does Jehovah delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of Jehovah? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice! To listen is better than the fat of rams! For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idol-worship. Because you have rejected the Word of Jehovah, He has also rejected you from being king (1Samuel 15:22-23)! Start with sanctification. How can I sanctify myself? Read the word of God and become a doer of the truth you discover therein. Jesus prayed to God for all of us, saying: They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your Word is truth. As You have sent Me into the world, even so I have sent them into the world. And I sanctify Myself for their sakes, so that they also might be sanctified in truth (John 17:16-19). Sanctification is not just for Jesus but for every born again Christian.
As you read the four gospels you will see Jesus first of all living a sanctified life then going sometimes early in the morning or late at night on the mountain to pray. As it is written: when Jesus had sent the multitudes away, He went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, He was there alone (Matthew 14:23). And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God (Luke 6:12). And it came to pass about an eight days after these sayings, He took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray (Luke 9:28).
On that mountain of transfiguration Elijah, Jesus and Moses were together. Moses represents the Law, Elijah represents the prophets. The Law and the prophets all wrote about Jesus and were pointing people to Jesus Christ. As we embrace the sanctified life of Moses and Elijah and then Law and the prophets, meaning from Genesis to Malachi; and also embrace the sanctified life and the writings of Jesus and His disciples, meaning from Matthew to Revelation; and willingly decide to walk in the way, the truth and the life of Jesus Christ as found in the Holy scriptures, we will be spiritually transfigured: our spiritual clothing become shining, exceedingly white as snow such as no fuller on earth could whiten them. Moses, who spent his time in the word of God, with prayer and fasting, was transfigured too.
As it is written: it happened as Moses was going down from the mountain of Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony being in Moses’ hand as he went down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face had become luminous through His speaking with him. And Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face had become luminous. And they were afraid to come near him. And Moses called to them. And Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him, and Moses talked with them. And afterwards all the sons of Israel came near. And he commanded them all that Jehovah had spoken with him in Mount Sinai. And Moses finished speaking with them, and he put a veil on his face. But when Moses went in before Jehovah to speak with Him, he took the veil off until he came out. And he came out and spoke to the sons of Israel that which he was commanded. And the sons of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face had become luminous. And Moses put the veil upon his face again, until he went in to speak with Him (Exodus 34:29-35).
These are the four things Moses did for his face to be luminous or shining: first of all he sanctified himself by the truth of the word of God (Exodus 19); second, had the revelation of the written word of God, even the two tablets the Lord gave him; third he prayed with fasting: he talked with God; fourth he was a doer of the written word. When even Aaron compromised and built a golden calf for the people to worship, Moses did not partake of their idolatry (Exodus 32). It was not every time Moses went onto the mountain to pray and receive the revelation of the word of God that he fasted. Please read the “Abecedary of Prayer” bible study. If we are only hearers of the word and prayerful people; but we are not doers of the word we are deceiving ourselves; our faith is dead, useless and worthless to ourselves and the people around us (James 2:17-20). The revelation of the written word of God we have and the prayer with fasting will transfigure us spiritually, only when we become doers of those revelations.
Jesus also first of all lived a sanctified life; from His own mouth, He said: I sanctify Myself for their sakes, so that they also might be sanctified in truth (John 17:19). Jesus also fasted in Luke 4 and as we read the four gospels we see Jesus praying. Jesus had the revelation of the word of God and taught us. And He was a doer of the word and then doer of the works of God. As God testified of Him: to the Son God says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom.
You have loved righteousness and hated iniquity [Jesus lived a sanctified life, He was a doer of the work, which is the truth], therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness above Your fellows (Hebrews 1:8-9).” So because He was first of all the doer of the word, even living a sanctified life that is why God also anointed Him to become a doer of the works of God.
Jesus testifies, saying: If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me. But if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works so that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him (John 10:37-38). Peter tells us: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and He went about doing good, and healing all those who were oppressed by the Devil, for God was with Him (Acts 10:38). For you and I to become doers of the works of God and of Jesus, we need to become first of all doers of the word of God. James says: be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man studying his natural face in a mirror. For he studied himself and went his way, and immediately he forgot what he was like. But whoever looks into the perfect Law of liberty and continues in it, he is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work. This one shall be blessed in his doing (James 1:22-25).
That is why in John 14, Jesus says first of all: I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father but by Me (John 14:6). Let us first of all embrace the way of Jesus, the truth of His word and life, His sanctified life, His life of prayer with fasting. That is becoming doers of the word of God. Then we will be able to become doers of the works of Jesus and of God. Jesus continues in John 14 and tells us: Truly, truly, I say to you, He who believes on Me, the works that I do he shall do also, and greater works than these he shall do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you may ask in My name, that I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. If you love Me, keep My commandments (John 14:12-15).
Paul, having in mind the experience of Moses whenever he came down from the mountain, tells us: we all, with our face having been unveiled, having beheld the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are being changed [metamorphoō: changed, transfigured, transformed] into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord’s Spirit (2Corinthians 3:18). The mirror Paul is talking about is the mirror of the written word of God. As it is written: if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man studying his natural face in a mirror. For he studied himself and went his way, and immediately he forgot what he was like. But whoever looks into the perfect Law of liberty and continues in it, he is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work. This one shall be blessed in his doing (James 1:23-25). So the Written word of God is that mirror; when we study the word of God; the word of God studies our life back; and the Holy Spirit convicts us of things we ought to change in our life, not just sins but even the appearances of sin, so that we can walk in greater level of sanctification and be perfect as our father in heaven is perfect (1Thessalonians 5:22, Matthew 5:48).
Moses’ face was shining for he took time to look into the mirror and study his walk with God and change what needed to be changed. He was not a forgetful hearer but a doer. He looked into that perfect law of liberty and continued in it. Whatever God tells us to do in His written word, it is not to bring us into bondage. His Law is called the perfect Law of liberty according to James. David, who was rebuked by God for his adultery with Bathsheba and murder of Uriah, prays saying: restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me with Your free Spirit (Psalm 51:12). Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (2Corinthians 3:17). The more we are free from the bondages of this world and sin, and the more we walk in the revelation of the written word of God, our light shines ever brighter unto the full day. As it is written: the path of the righteous is like the morning sun, which shines brighter and brighter until the full day (Proverbs 4:18).
Just like at noon, which is full day, the sun casts no shadow; that is how God wants the life of every born again Christian to become. Yes, we are already in the light yet some are walking in the light of 6AM, and are still casting some shadows. But God wants us to walk in the light of 12 noon so that our life will cast no shadow at all, not even the appearance of evil. This is what is in the mind of Paul when he says we are going to be changed from glory to glory; or from 6AM to 12 noon. We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord (2Corinthians 3:18). We need to become perfect like Jesus, who always walked in the light of 12 noon, having no variation or shadows of turning, as James says: Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning (James 1:17). People are afraid of that word perfection, it is simple: according to the scriptures, if we do what the written word of God says about a particular aspect, we are perfect in that aspect like your Father God is perfect.
The image Paul is talking about is Christ Jesus. Paul tells us: For whom God did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren (Romans 8:29). This is the plan of God for every born again Christian, that we will all be conformed to the same image of Jesus Christ His Son. And the glory to glory Paul is talking about, is that ultimately we will walk in to the glory of Jesus as we grow into His full stature. As it is written: Jesus gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: until we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into Him in all things, who is the head, even Christ (Ephesians 4:11-15). So do not say it is for those who are in the fivefold ministries, no they are there to teach all born again Christians to grow into the same image of Christ Jesus. And a day must come where who we are spiritually will match who we are physically. John tells us: as Christ Jesus is so are we in this world (1John 4:17).
A sanctified life is very important to God. We must go from glory to glory, as we make a conscious decision to no longer be conformed to this sinful world that lies under the sway of the devil; but conformed into the same image of Christ Jesus and transformed by the renewing our mind as we allow the perfect law of liberty to study our life, so that we can change what needs to be changed (1John 5:19, Romans 12:1-2, Romans 8:29). People around you might not see what is happening in the spirit realm: how you are being transfigured. But they will definitely recognize that you have been transformed; because the word of God has now been made flesh in you and is dwelling among them. They are beholding the glory in you, even the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). God never intended His word to stay on pages of the bible; but that each one of us should be His living epistles. As it is written: you are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men; Forasmuch as you are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart (2Corinthians 3:2-3).
I was in Glasgow, Scotland, and a sister called me and asked me if I would be willing to do a baby dedication. I said yes, and she told me that the baby was born of fornication. I said the answer is still yes, it does not make any difference to me. Then I asked that sister: does your friend who gave birth to the baby girl not attend a church? And she gave me an evasive and confusing answer. I knew that in that church where she attends, they still have an Old Testament mindset, which says that a bastard cannot enter the Assembly of God. A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the LORD (Deuteronomy 23:2). So many churches do not want to dedicate children who are born of adultery or fornication or incest or rape because they also fear that by so doing, it will damage the image of their church and it might send a wrong message to people that they are condoning that sin.
So I prayed about it and asked God what I should say to that sister who had that beautiful baby girl. So I went on Sunday to her place with a church member, who was her friend to dedicate the baby girl. When I got there, there were other family members; I decided to share the word of God first of all before dedicating the baby to God. God does not condone any sexual sin at all. And no preacher should condone any sexual sin or any other sin. If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; He is proud, knowing nothing (1Timothy 6:3-4). So we do not flatter people because we want to please them, but we tell them the truth of the word of God. We give them a hope that God has a way out for them.
Paul tells us: For though I should boast somewhat more of our authority, which the Lord has given us for edification, and not for your destruction (2Corinthians 10:8). We should not be rude or harsh to anybody, as it is written: the son or daughter who is serving God his or her Father and the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men and women, apt to teach, patient, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will (2Timothy 2:24-26). But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, who tries our hearts. For neither at any time we used flattering words, as you know, nor a cloke [a cover; that which conceals; a disguise or pretext; an excuse; a fair pretense] of covetousness; God is witness: Nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome, as the apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherishes her children: So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us (1Thessalonians 2:4-8).
So I said to the sister who had the baby of fornication, that what she did was a sin, but if we confess our sins God is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1John 1:9). But I told her that though she and her boyfriend sinned, God is not punishing the child because of the sin of the parents. As the prophet Ezekiel prophesied: The word of the LORD came unto me again, saying, What do you mean, that you use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge? As I live, says the Lord GOD, you shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel. Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sins, it shall die (Ezekiel 18:1-4).
So why should God judge the sin of the parents who committed fornication on the child who is innocent. People would say what about the son of David that he had with Bathsheba of adultery who died (2Samuel 12:14-18)? David was under the Old Covenant you are in the New Covenant; God does not judge your sins on your children. So if your child is born with any sickness or disease or is a still born child, it is not God it is the devil: who comes but to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10). When the disciples of Jesus asked Jesus about that man who was born blind: Master, who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind? Jesus answered, neither has this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God might be revealed in him (John 9:2-3). The purpose of the life and ministry of Jesus is to destroy the works of the devil: sin, sickness, disease and premature death (1John 3:8). Jesus healed that man who was born blind. Please read the perfect redemption plan of God and its application so that you will know what your benefits in the new Covenant are.
So I told that sister: God does not condone her fornication, but if she confesses her sins and repents of them, God will forgive her and cleanse her from all unrighteousness. As for the baby girl she is accepted in the beloved Jesus (Ephesians 1:6). I told her Jesus Himself came from a messed up family after the flesh, to tell us that everybody who decides to come to Him is accepted. I told her the very first Chapter of the first book of the New Testament Matthew 1, gives us the genealogy of Jesus. Of the five women listed in that genealogy of Jesus, all of them were women who were not of good reputation. The first woman listed is Tamar who gave birth to Perez and Zerah through Judah. Judah was her father-in-law, in Genesis 38; she dressed like a prostitute and slept with her father-in-law. God did not kill those two sons of hers but Jesus came through Perez.
The second woman listed is Rahab who married Salmon, a descendant of Perez, Rahab was not even an Israelite but from the city of Jericho in the land of Canaan, God said of the people of Canaan that the Jews should kill all of them (Joshua 6). Rahab was a prostitute and she gave birth to Boaz, the ancestor of David. The third woman listed is Ruth who married Boaz, she was of Moab, God said of those people that they should never enter the assembly of the Lord. Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of Jehovah. Even to their tenth generation they shall not enter into the congregation of Jehovah forever, because they did not meet you with bread and with water in the way when you came forth out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor, of Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you (Deuteronomy 23:3-4).
But you see just like Ezekiel prophesied that the sons and daughters should not suffer for the mistake of their fathers and mothers. Therefore Ruth who was a Moabitess entered the congregation of God, and even entered into the genealogy of Jesus. In Genesis 19 we see that Moab and Ammon were born of incest, Lot was drunk and his first daughter slept with him and bore Moab and another time he was again drunk and his second daughter slept with him and bore Ammon. God did not condone the incest of Lot and his daughters but he did not punish Moab and Ammon because of the sin of their parents. God gave them an inheritance not their father Lot by God himself, and God forbade Israel to touch their inheritance when they came out of Egypt.
Jehovah spoke to me, Moses, saying, today you are passing over the border of Moab, even Ar. And when you come near, across from the sons of Ammon, do not trouble them nor be stirred up against them. For I will not give you any possessions from the land of the sons of Ammon, because I have given it to the sons of Lot for a possession. It also was known to be a land of giants. Giants lived there in past times. And the Ammonites call them Zamzumim, a great and plentiful people, and tall, like the sons of Anak, but Jehovah destroyed them before them. And they expelled them and lived in their place (Deuteronomy 2:17-21).
So just like Israel the descendants of Abraham, God was planning to fight the giants of the land for them and give them the land of Canaan, God had already done the same thing for the descendants of Lot, He destroyed the giants who were occupying the land and he expelled them. God also gave an inheritance to the sons of Moab. The sons of Lot: Ammon and Moab started to lose their God given inheritance when they sinned and started to fight Israel in the wilderness (Deuteronomy 2:29-37; Judges 11). They were punished for their own sins not for the sin of their father Lot. So like Ezekiel prophesied: the soul that sins it shall die, even lose its God given inheritance. And as the children grow up God will hold them responsible for their own sins not for the sins of their parents. So if you see something happening in your life that is like a generational curse or sickness; know that it is not of God it is the devil.
The fourth woman listed in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1 is Bathsheba, Matthew makes sure that we all remember who she was, to let us know that even she is accepted in the beloved Jesus. Matthew calls her: her who had been the wife of Uriah (Matthew 1:6). Yes God forgave her and she gave birth to Solomon. The fifth woman listed in the genealogy of Jesus is Mary who was a virgin when she was found pregnant with Jesus, but after the birth of Jesus she gave birth to other sons and daughters through Joseph her husband, so she was no longer a virgin as it is written: Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And his brothers, James and Joses and Simon and Judas, and his sisters, are they not all with us? Then from where does this man have all these things (Matthew 13:55-56)?
Joseph was not yet married to Mary when she was found pregnant with Jesus. So in the eyes of the people Jesus was born of fornication and the Jews, whenever they wanted to insult Jesus they would remind Him that he was born of fornication. As it is written: they said to Jesus, we are not born of fornication; we have one father, even God (John 8:41). So Jesus knows how people in society or in the church circle treat children born out of wedlock. He knows how religious people look down on those children who are not responsible for the sins of their parent. So He came on earth from that messed up family tree and accepted to even suffer the reproach of being wrongly accused of being born of fornication, so that you can know that he knows what you are going through and to tell you that He has accepted you, whatever your past is. For we do not have a High Priest, Jesus Christ, who cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities or weaknesses, but was in all points tempted just as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15).
After explaining all that to that sister, not in length as I have put down in black and white here, but succinctly, I opened the bible in Luke 2:21-40 which talks about the dedication of the eight days old baby Jesus. I explained to them that number eight is the number of the new beginning, that the Lord will give her a New beginning in her life, that the Lord will heal her backsliding and love her freely (Hosea 14:4). And I made a personal declaration in her life and at the end I took the baby girl in my arms like Simeon took the baby Jesus in his arms and prophesied over the child Jesus. Everybody in the room prayed and prophesied what they wanted to see in the life of that baby girl for in that Luke 2:21-40 it was not only Simeon who prophesied over the child Jesus, but the prophetess Anna also prophesied. The testimony of Jesus Christ is the Spirit of prophecy, so every born again Christian can prophecy (Revelation 19:10). For you may all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be comforted (1Corinthians 14:31).
So everyone in the house prophesied over the child one after the other. They were surprised they thought I would be doing all, no I follow the bible and according to the bible every born again Christian can prophecy. When it was my time to prophecy over the baby girl:
I prayed with my whole heart as if it were my own baby girl. I said something like this: Father I thank you because you have heard me and I know you always hear me, I give you the glory because unto us a child is born and a daughter is given (Isaiah 9:6). Just like the Father bestowed a kingdom upon You, You have also bestowed a kingdom upon her (Luke 22:29). She will grow and become strong in spirit, filled with wisdom and the grace of God will be upon her (Luke 2:40). She will be taught of the Lord and great should be her peace (Isaiah 54:13). She will be the head and not the tail, above only and not beneath (Deuteronomy 28:13). No one will be able to stand before her all the days of her life, the Lord will be with you He will not fail you, nor forsake you nor forget you (Joshua 1:5). You are like an arrow in the hand of the Mighty God, you are in the quiver of the Lord and he will shoot you the way you should go (Psalm 127:3-5).
You shall be taught the way you should go and when you grow up you will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6). You shall not reproduce the mistake of your mother, you shall be married and bear children, you will never defile the marital bed for marriage is honourable and the bed undefiled (Hebrews 13:4). At the appointed time when you will become born again and serve the Lord your entire life. I plead the blood of Jesus over you, on all the doorposts and lintels of this house, when the enemy that brings death and sickness will come he will see the blood and pass over you (Exodus 12:13). No plague shall come near your dwelling, a thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand it shall not come near your dwelling, only with your eyes you shall see and behold the reward of the wicked, for the Lord is your refuge (Psalm 91:6-9). For we overcame Satan and all his works of darkness by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony (Revelation 12:11). In Jesus’ name I have prayed, Amen!
I would like to end this letter by expounding the salutation of Paul which he gave to the church. When this letter is read before you, cause that it be read also by everyone whom you disciple and in every house for as it is written the Lord says, your house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations, and that you also read all the other letters written thus far (Colossians 4:16). If any man or woman does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed or Anathema (which means excommunicated or put away from among yourselves by the decision of the church authorities after they have seen that wicked person is not repenting of the sins leading to death, even if it is brother Gery who has become wicked and refuses to repent of his wickedness that leads to death excommunicate him too, until he or she repents of his evil ways for whatever Jesus says to one He says to all, there is no double standard with Jesus (1Corinthians 5:9-13 & 1Corinthians 6:9-10); but if that wicked person repents and forsakes his wickedness that leads to death, restore him or her into the fellowship and show him or her your love (2Corinthians 2) Maranatha (which means: our Lord come!). The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen (1Corinthians 16:22-24). Surely goodness and mercy shall follow you and me all the days of my life and your life: and you and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever (Psalm 23:6).
My brothers and sisters remember me in your prayers as I remember all of you who read these “My Weekly Milk” bible studies and want to be disciples of Jesus Christ in my prayers with fasting (Daniel 9:1-4). May God bless you and keep you, may He open your eyes to see wonderful things in His book of the law (Psalm 119:18). The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all, in Jesus’ name. May the Lord God create in every one of us a clean heart and renew a right spirit within each one of us, may He remove that spirit of prostitution and make room for the Holy Spirit (Psalm51:10). And finally, let us all hide the word of God in our heart so that we will not sin against God (Psalm 119:11).
Regards,
G
We meet for prayer & sharing of scriptures every Sunday
11:00 -13:30
Venue:
54 Quarrywood Road.
Glasgow
G21 3ET
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
Jesus said to him,
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
Jesus said to him,
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
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Thank You
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
Jesus said to him,
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.