Don't ask God for bread...preach the gospel

It is wrong for a preacher of the gospel to ask for money for the furtherance of the gospel, it is right for people to give money for the ministry but it is wrong for the preacher to ask.

Let them beg for alms for the poor and let them be double diligent to make sure that all money given for the poor is received by the poor.

The devil loves to teach half of the truth.

Old fashioned preachers tell the people "seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness..." but they leave off the part which says "...and all these things shall be added unto you"

They flog the people to "give, give, give..." but they do not add the part which says "... and it shall be given you again, good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over shall men give into your bosom"

They have the utter temerity if you enquire to say "well we do not want to encourage folks to give from impure motives" Who told them they were judges over peoples motives that they dare to play fast and loose with God's word?

God wants YOU to prosper.

Look at this. Mark. ch.8.vs.14-21

Now the disciples had forgotten to bring bread, neither had they in the ship with them more than one loaf. And He charged them saying "take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the leaven of Herod"
And they reasoned among themselves saying "it is because we have no bread"
And when Jesus knew it He saith unto them "why reason ye because ye have no bread?

perceive ye not yet?
neither understand?
have ye yet your hearts hardened?
having eyes, see ye not?
and having ears, hear ye not?
and do ye not remember, when I brake the five loaves among 5,000 how many baskets full of fragments ye took up?" and they said unto Him "twelve"
"and when the seven among 4,000 how many baskets of fragments took ye up?" they said "seven"
and He said unto them "how is it that ye do not understand?"

What a catalogue of questions, what a series of rebukes, this is one of the sternest rebukes He ever gave them.

"How is it that ye do not understand?" How is that YOU do not understand? in a parallel gospel of this same story it adds then they understood it was the doctrines of the Pharisees and Herodians that He warned them about.

The Religionists and the Politicians....beware of their doctrines. They promise prosperity, plenty for all....in the sweet bye and bye, it is always in the future. When God provides it is NOW, when you have the need. Like when He broke the bread. All God's miracles are in the now....when you pray, when you have the need.

The source of this miracle provision IS the GOSPEL. The gospel itself will bring YOU the provision you need when you need it. Beware of the doctrines of religions and politics, believe the doctrines of Christ.

Now if the gospel is itself the source of provision/prosperity you do not need money you just need to start preaching it. If you do not yourself preach, partner with someone who does, you will receive the same reward.

"But I thought you said preachers should not ask" yes I did but I said that christians should give and they should be encouraged to give that they may prosper.

You see how that all true doctrines are a narrow path, if you stray a little to the left you have gone wrong and are in danger of falling into the ditch and if you stray a little to the right you have strayed and are in danger of falling into the ditch.

What should be shunned is the appeal for funds in return for the "blessing" that is scam.

   

I saw my brother's ghost

When St. Peter was released from prison by the angel, he went straight to where the saints were praying. The little girl who answered his knock was so excited to see him she left him standing at the door and ran in to tell the others that St. Peter stood at the door. They said "you are mad, it must be his ghost...his spirit"

I once saw a brother's spirit.

I had not long been saved and went to work at a drug re-habilitation centre, it was non-denomination so there was every which kind of Christian working there. One there was who really, really disapproved of Pentecostalists in general and ME in particular, not only so but he was a very difficult person, overbearing and he wore a permafrown. I made it my business to keep the heck out of his way.

But you know the Lord, we were put to room together :)

Each night I would go and press my ear against the door and when I could hear him snoring I would retire to bed. One night I had scarcely put my head on the pillow when he was THERE by my bed. The hair shot back on my head for he was transfigured, his countenance was lit up into a radiant smile  and his hand was stretched out toward me as though he would bless me.

I ducked down under the duvet and when I looked again he was gone, I could hear him snoring in his bed the whole time. God said "that is how ALL My children look" 

A Little Chinese Girl

I was preaching in London's Hyde Park, the place was packed with Mother Theresa's Sisters of Mercy nuns. A little Chinese girl espied my bible and obviously thought I was part of that crowd, she came running over.

"Oh I wish I could  wear a white robe and have a pure heart" she blurted, I cried inwardly to the Lord for wisdom to deal with this young lady, she was about 17 years old and very pretty.

"You could wear a white robe but it'd still be YOU, you'd have a white robe on" her face fell and she acknowledged that it was true...."But you CAN have a pure heart, today, before you leave this Park"

She did not look very sure of this so I showed her my bible "look St. Peter said, do you believe St. Peter? "Himself bare our sins in His own body on the tree that we being dead unto sin might live unto righteousness...."

She grabbed my bible and stared down fiercely at the scripture I had indicated, her look seeming to demand that the words explain themselves......"it says He bore your sins...." she looked at me her face working a passion to grasp the meaning. I pointed dramatically at a nearby tree and cried "Look! there He is, hanging by nails, He is bearing your sins....you'd have a pure heart wouldn't you?"

Her hands went to her face and there was a sharp intake of breath as the revelation broke upon her, she understood.

"Do you believe that if we pray here in this park God will hear our prayer?" she did believe and together we prayed. She thanked the Lord that He would love her so much to come and save her, she asked that He might come to dwell in her heart as her Lord, that she might be born again, that she would receive a new pure heart.

Perhaps because of her Chinese ethnicity she had bowed right over to pray but suddenly she lifted up and a great joy welled up in her, she smiled radiantly and I was left to marvel once more at the wonder of the new birth.

The "Miracle" Rally

Attended a week long "Miracle" Rally in London, it was a real old fashioned Pentecostal do, glorious worship, exquisite anointing, heavenly preaching and miracles galore. Many were saved.

The preacher had advised everybody not to expect to see any miracles on the first night, people need to be taught, when they have heards God's message then they will see miracles, if they believe.

That first night he took as his base Isaiah 53 the first 6 verses, he went back to the garden where man fell and sickness, poverty and death first entered the human experience along with sin, he went to Pilate's porch and Calvary to show how Christ was that suffering Servant who fulfilled the words of Isaiah, "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement for our peace was upon Him and by His stripes we are healed." The sermon lasted almost 2 hours and I wished it could go no another 2.

Then the preacher closed in prayer.

Now I was in the outer circle facing the centre body, my attention was drawn to a little girl, I had noticed her before. She was a darling little blond thing about 6 years old. She had come to the meeting deaf and dumb. She wore a huge amplification device on her chest and back, it looked a little like a life preserver. By it loud noises were converted into vibration which would alert her of impending danger.

During the prayer she had become very animated, her face lit up like a little angel and she was tugging at her Nan's sleeve. Her ears had come open and she could hear the noise of people around her.

Meanwhile the preacher having dismissed the crowd with a blessing had started to walk off the platform. But he stopped and came back to the microphone, "somebody in the building has received a miracle" he declared, "Someone came to this meeting deaf and dumb but during prayer their ears came open and they are hearing normally."

Of course the little girl's Nan grabbed the child and rushed to the front, her hearing was tested on the platform and demonstrated to be perfectly normal, she also made her first sounds that night. What a precious miracle.

The next night the people came expectantly, faith was risen in their hearts. The preacher had only been preaching about 10 minutes when he said "for this purpose was the Son of God made manifest that He might destroy the works of the devil" A great wave of glory went through the whole auditorium and people started to get healed all over the place. And so it continued the whole week, the platform was filled with sticks and crutches, frames, chairs and other mobility devices as well as casts and various other medical implements. Needles used for drugs and piles of cigarettes also littered the platform as God set men and women free.

Many were saved each night to the glory of God. 

Isreal does not go through the Great Tribulation, the church does

The Great Tribulation is also known in scripture as "the time of Jacob's trouble" although the term only once appears in scripture by that name. Jeremiah.30. 7.10

 Tribulation means trouble.

Because it is called so people have always leaped the conclusion that Israel is to pass through very grim times ahead before they are to be brought to the light.

Here is what scripture says Jeremiah.30.3-10

For lo the days will come saith the Lord that I will bring again the captivity of My people Israel and Judah saith the Lord and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers and they shall possess it.

And these are the words that the Lord spake concerning Israel and Judah

For thus saith the Lord, we have heard a voice of trembling, of fear and not of peace.

Ask ye now and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness?

Alas for that day is great so that none is like it, it is even the time of Jacob's trouble

but

he shall be saved out of it

for it shall come to pass in that day saith the Lord of hosts that I will BREAK THE YOKE OFF THY NECK and will BURST THY BONDS and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him. But they shall serve the Lord their God and David their King whom I will raise up unto them.

Therefore FEAR NOT o My servant Jacob saith the Lord, NEITHER BE DISMAYED o Israel for lo I will save thee from afar and thy seed from the land of their captivity. And Jacob shall return and SHALL BE IN REST and shall be QUIET and NONE SHALL MAKE HIM AFRAID.

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Look carefully at what the Lord says, it is not the man who travails in childbirth, Israel is God's firstborn son, but it is the woman, the church.

Why then is it called "the time of Jacob's trouble?" because it is trouble coming upon the nations because of Israel, God has got a quarrel with the nations for the way they have treated His firstborn son during the long years of their diaspora.

And the church is among the nations. 

Jesus was post-trib

In Matthew 24. we read

vs.21.
For then shall be great tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

vs.29
Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened and the moon shall not give her light and the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of heaven shall be shaken.
vs.30
And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, then shall the tribes of the earth mourn and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
vs31
And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

*
Friends there are not multiple comings of Christ in the clouds of heaven with great power and glory, angels and trumps and gatherings together of the elect, there is only one such coming. It is the same one spoken of by Paul in 2.Thessalonians 2 and fits his description perfectly.

It happens Jesus said "after the tribulation of those days"

People try to draw their eschatology from out of the book of Revelations, the problem is no two Christians can agree exactly what Revelations is saying. It is much more sensible to draw eschatology from plain and open scriptures first and then make Revelations to agree with the plain and open scriptures, and it does.

And 2.Thessalonians.2. simply could not be plainer, there had been much confusion which Paul was anxious to clear up.

"Concerning our gathering to meet the Lord in the clouds......

.....that day shall not come except there come a falling away first and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition"

Antichrist must come first

vs.4
who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped

*

Friends he is not just going to shake his fist, he is going to persecute. This is the great persecution which Jesus spoke about. Tribulation is persecution. He is going to do his darnedest to destroy ALL religion before he sits in the temple of God declaring that he himself is God.

But his sitting in the temple and his declaring that he is himself God is not the beginning of his career but the end for it is then that the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout.

So first is Antichrist and his awful persecution in the tribulation then is Christ the Lord and our gathering to meet Him in the clouds of heaven.

Let no-one deceive you dear brethren....prepare yourselves for this, for the western church is not prepared.

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By His Stripes

On the cross, crucified, in great sorrow He died
the Giver of life is He.
Yet my Lord is despised and rejected of men
oh this Jesus of calvary.

The price for healing it was paid
as those cruel stripes were laid,
within Pilates judgement hall.
But His suffering, it affords
perfect healing for all
this Healer of men today

But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquity.
Surely He bore our sorrows.
And by His stripes we are healed.

He has healed my sick soul,
He made me every whit whole.
oh He,ll do the very same for you.
He,s the same yesterday, and today, and forever.
This wonderful Saviour is mine.

But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquity.
Surely He bore our sorrows,
And by His stripes we are healed.

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U/k author