06/06/2009
The sound of beating drums filled the air. The speaker took the podium to preach. He talked about ways of practical living and pleasing god. The congregation seemed to take in every word as they listened in silence. If not for the place one would have mistaken it for a Christian service and also applauded the message and its intent listeners. However, it happened in a Hindu temple.
A conversation with a Russian doctor revealed her financial struggles prior to going to a certain place. She traveled across a continent to get there with her family. She stayed in that spiritual setting and was prayed over by the individual who ran that place. She had been blessed ever since and had developed faith to believe in the god of the supernatural. All of this would have made a great testimony in our modern Christian service, expect that the man she went to meet was a certain guru from a certain country and the spirit behind was that of unclean demons.
Cancers healed, tumors disappearing, problems solved! What a great place to go to. Don’t be too hasty because even the Buddhist monks of Korea and Japan, the witch doctors of Africa and the spiritists from India can work such miracles.
A faith healer praying in Jesus name and signs and wonders follow. Tumors disappear, arms and limbs grow. Christians from the thousands flock to Africa to see god’s power through a certain individual or is it the power of the devil revealed through deception? For behind the scenes works a subtle spirit of uncleanness. People lying naked on the floor and women molested to have sex with the man in the spirit.
O Christian, have you met the God of the book? Is His name Holy? What differentiates you from the rest? Isn’t it walking in God’s supernatural love towards a lost and dying world? Do you love your enemies and pray for those who despitefully use you? Is your life distinct from that of the world?
Have you experienced what Isaiah did when his lips were cleansed with the burning coals from God’s alter? Have you known the ONE whose feet are as burnished brass and his eyes like flames of fire? Do you not know that those who are justified, He will also sanctify?
Are you so blinded with lust and the love for self that you can’t see God in His Holiness? Is your way so perverse that you are no longer gripped with the conviction of sin when wrong? Which bible are you reading? What gospel are you preaching?
Have you been baptized in the Holy Spirit and Fire? Do you not know that the baptism of the Spirit is a baptism to commitment and a baptism of Holiness? Is it not plain that the power is for us to be martyrs (witnesses)? Or do you think it is all about signs and wonders and miracles? Didn’t you know that the disciples had already received authority from the Lord to heal the sick and raise the dead prior to Pentecost? Didn’t you realize that the main problem they had till then was being a witness for Christ regardless of the cost?
Have you read through Moses’ miracles in Egypt? Did you read past the place where the magicians could no longer match God’s power? Have you seen the living God in action? Or are you so satisfied with little? You holler and hoot and jump for a small miracle, other times you hype yourself to believe. Is that all your god can do? Isn’t He far greater than all other gods? What is His name then? Where is He?
O God! O God!
God of Elijah, hear us I pray. Set a mark on those who truly follow you. Make clear a distinction. Answer us by FIRE. Separate the sheep from the goats, the wheat from the tares.
Revive your works of old. Pour out your Spirit without measure. May the many signs of the ends of the age be spoken out of the mouth of your prophets!
O God! O God!
God of John the Baptist, answer us I pray. All we like sheep have gone astray. We’ve been blinded by our pride and have refused to repent of our sins. Grant to us true repentance. Bend us if we are unwilling for we are a stiff necked generation, uncircumcised in the heart.
O God! O God of Moses, display again your mighty works. Part the seas, make a pathway in the deserts, and display your great hand of power again. Let it be known to the rulers of this age that YOU alone are all powerful. Rise up your true apostles, O God and anoint them to be martyrs for your name sake.
Arise, O God! We long for your ways to be established and your kingdom to come. Arise O God, let your enemies be scattered.
