Jonathan Brenneman's Blog, page 7
July 6, 2020
How Human Tradition Has Influenced Scripture Translation
[image error]I recently had a very interesting talk with a Bible translator. He is working on revising a major Bible translation because of inconsistencies, and I was curious about what those inconsistencies were.
Years ago, I started studying the Bible with the free esword software. I realized I could either search every place an English word is used in the Bible and examine the different Greek or Hebrew words behind those translations, or I could search for the Strong’s number and find every place a Greek or Hebrew word was used in the Bible, see the context, and see how it is translated differently in English. I now often use the interlinear Bible online and am even starting to pick up the Greek alphabet.
I’ve read the Bible in dozens of translations and languages. They are all different, and I usually prefer the more literal translations. All too often it seems to me like rich insights are lost in paraphrased versions. Over time, I’ve become aware of various scriptures where translators added words which are not in the original language, translated the same Greek word in different ways, or translated different Greek words with different meanings or shades of meaning into the same English word. For example, the KJV of 2 Corinthians 12:9 translates the same Greek word in two different ways in the same sentence and context, “infirmity,” and “weaknesses.”
Sometimes this is reasonable because words have different meanings in different contexts. Sometimes it is not inaccurate, but some of the meaning is lost in translation. However, some of these translation inconsistencies are rooted in pure bias and human tradition.
Authoritarian And Hierarchical Bias
King James included in his 15 rules for Bible translators that the old ecclesiastical terms be kept when translating the Bible, including that they should not use the most accurate translation,“congregation,” but instead should use the word “church.” He also wanted them to use the language most in line with church tradition when translating a word with more than one meaning. The KJV has been the basis for many other modern translations.
As I studied words like “authority, obey, apostle, bishop, deacon,” and others in the original language, I was shocked to see how much translation bias had clouded the epistles’ agreement with Jesus’s words that we were not to exercise authority over each other and the greatest would be the servant of all. I wrote my first book, “I Am Persuaded,” because some people encouraged me to share my findings. Wanting to test my findings, I sent the book to scholars who knew more about the original languages than I did. I got glowing endorsements.
For example, the Greek word “proistemi” literally means “to stand before” someone. 1 Timothy 5:17 and Romans 12:8 in the KJV translate this word as church leaders “ruling,” and 1 Thessalonians 5:12 translates is by saying they are “over you” in the Lord. However, the noun form of the same word in Romans 16:2 calls Phebe a “succourer” (helper) of many, not a ruler! A letter written in Greek from a son to his father in 252 BC expresses his desire to “look after” his aging father. The word is “proistemi.” He is talking about caring for his father, serving his father, not ruling over his father! And so the translators interpreted the same Greek word as “ruling” or being over someone in several other parts of scripture, but as a reference to service in Romans 16:2!
Why? In his teaching about greatness, Jesus said that the greatest would be the servant of all. Jesus used the very words that repeatedly refer to the authority and governments of this world to describe how it should not be in the church. Yet the KJV interpreters were seeing the word “to stand before” through the lens of a politically powerful church that was deeply intertwined with government, and not through the lens of Jesus’s teaching.
I realized that the New Testament uses a whole different set of language when talking about church leaders than it uses when referring to government officials. Yet these different Greek words are often translated in the same way into English!
One inconsistency that I see in many English translations but not in other languages like Spanish, Russian, or Portuguese, is that the New Testament uses the noun “pastor” at least eleven times in the singular referring to Jesus himself, but only one time, and in the plural, referring to any church leader other than Jesus. The emphasis is strongly on Jesus as our pastor. In a Biblical mindset, the first answer that comes to mind for the question “Who is your pastor?” is “My pastor is Jesus.”
I learned that the connotation of the word “bishop,” rather than being a powerful position in a hierarchy, was the function of visiting people to care for them and minister healing! In fact, I could also scripturally say that I am Jesus’s bishop! And I sure don’t think I’m “over” Jesus!
One of the things that really blew me away was the use of the word “deacon.” It is a transliteration, not a translation. In the Greek New Testament, Jesus himself, apostles, and elders are repeatedly called “deacons,” or “servants.” It’s hard to understand how anybody reading the Greek could possibly envision this word as a reference to a lower level in a hierarchy of church leadership. In the KJV of 1 Timothy 3:10 and 3:13 this verb, translated almost everywhere else simply and accurately as “to serve,” or “to minister” suddenly becomes “to use the office of a deacon.” What? None of that is in the original language!
The Influence Of Gnosticism and Greek Philosophy
This is far too much to talk about in much detail here, but I discuss it in more detail in the book Jesus Has Come In The Flesh. Augustine was a member of a Gnostic cult that denied Jesus came in the flesh for about 10 years before he converted to Christianity. The Latin Bible he read added to the confusion. Augustine and some other early church leaders were heavily influenced by Gnostic ideas and Greek philosophy, which in turn influenced Catholic theologians and then Evangelicals like Martin Luther and John Calvin. Some of the ideas that came into the church through these philosophies were the beliefs that God controls everything, everything is pre-determined and happens for a reason, God and his will are mysterious and unknowable, and sex (even within marriage), mankind, and the physical world are fundamentally evil.
After talking with a church member, I recently asked a pastor if they believe that God controls everything that happens. He said “we believe what the Bible says.” I responded “That’s not an answer! What do you understand the Bible as saying about this?” He replied “Matthew 10:29.”
I answered, “Jesus said that not a sparrow falls to the ground apart from the Father. This verse doesn’t say anything about God controlling everything that happens. It just says God is there.” And the pastor said, “Yeah, but it means God controls everything.”
After that conversation, I looked up this verse again in multiple translations and compared them. And many of the translations do say that not a sparrow falls“apart from your Father’s will,” “apart from your Father’s permission,” “without your Father’s consent,” or “apart from your Father’s control.” But the Greek doesn’t say any of these things! It speaks of God’s omnipresence and care for his creation, but says nothing about him willing or giving permission for every little thing that happens!
What Does All This Have To Do With Heaven Now!
We recently talked about having unity that’s based on boasting in Christ and not in having all the same doctrine. That being said, doctrine has huge implications! The authoritarian bias and the gnostic worldview have long hindered the church from walking more fully in God’s glory.
So many Christians seem to find comfort in the phrase “God is in control.” Yet have they thought through the implications and scriptural foundations (or lack of foundation) for this belief? I believe God is all-knowing and all-powerful, but this does not mean he is all-controlling. He gave dominion to men.
More than once, demons have manifested as I explained to someone that God does not control everything. Deep belching, falling, eyes rolled back. At least once, the demon left as the person simply accepted a more scriptural view, without me even needing to cast it out.
Why? Last year I heard someone who was sexually assaulted say “I know God had a reason for me to go through this.” She was not walking with the Lord but gnostic thinking has been deeply ingrained in her through its influence on Evangelicalism. How will she ever get a heart revelation of God as scripture reveals him, as the protector of the weak, if she thinks God was controlling and “permitting” every detail of what happened to her? Few lies lead as many people into atheism or bitterness against God than the one that “God controls and permits everything that happens for a special purpose.” To walk as heavenly people, faces glowing with God’s glory, we have to be able to behold God as he truly is, not looking at him through life but looking at him through Jesus!
Are You Willing To Dig Deep?
The Bible translator agreed with me as I shared my thoughts about some of these translation issues, and he told me others. Then he made a statement that surprised me a little bit. He said “The Bible societies do care about accuracy, but they also care about selling Bibles. There are certain passages where we can’t really translate exactly what it says because it looks so different than other English translations and will really mess with people’s theology. If we would really translate them as what they say, people would think there was something wrong with the Bible and wouldn’t buy it.”
He then told me “My real concern, much more than the translation issues, is the pastors. They don’t want to study!” Likewise, I’ve encountered many pastors and Christians who are very dogmatic about a point without being open to hear scholarship that sheds light on the original language or historical context. Many even misquote scriptures to support their points! When scripture says one thing and you hear or quote another, it’s a great indication of an outside bias affecting your understanding of scripture.
The Holy Spirit Leads Us Into All Truth!
John 16:13 (NIV) But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.
It’s so hard today for many Christians (and leaders) to trust the Holy Spirit to do what Jesus said he would do. We need the Holy Spirit to open our understanding to the words of scripture. I often combine reading the Bible with praying in tongues, and it’s amazing how often I later find out that the insight I got closely matched the underlying Greek or Hebrew language. I’m not talking about having a private interpretation that has nothing to do with context, but rather, revelation that makes the scriptures come alive to our hearts.
I’ve received so many riches reading imperfect translations of the Bible, and I certainly would like to encourage people to read the Bible more, not less. While a great deal of scholarship goes into getting modern translations right, issues do exist and human tradition is still behind some of those issues! I think many Christians would be healthier if they were willing to dig deeper at times and were aware of the history of authoritarian bias, Gnosticism, and Greek philosophy affecting the church. I’m not saying to totally distrust your Bible translation, but when something is confusing or it seems like scripture is contradicting itself, looking into the original language and historical context can help a lot.
The post How Human Tradition Has Influenced Scripture Translation appeared first on Go to Heaven Now!.
June 3, 2020
Jesus Still Comes To Us Humble And Riding On A Donkey
[image error]In the last post, we talked about knowing Jesus being the supreme goal of every Christian. We are continuing today with a related topic which I felt that the Holy Spirit was highlighting to me.
It Takes Humility To Recognize Jesus When He Comes!
Isaiah 53:1-4 (NRSV) Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised, and we held him of no account. Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted.
Everything about Jesus was offensive to religious pride. He was unimpressive. There was nothing in his appearance to attract people to him. Yet the broken and humble recognized him as the Messiah.
Matthew 21: 1-9, 14-17, 31-32 (NRSV) When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, just say this, ‘The Lord needs them.’ And he will send them immediately. This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying,
“Tell the daughter of Zion,
Look, your king is coming to you,
humble, and mounted on a donkey,
and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting,
“Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he cured them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the amazing things that he did, and heard the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they became angry and said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, ‘Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise for yourself’?” He left them, went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there….
Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him.
For the most part, the scholars, the learned, and the religious leaders of Jesus’s day rejected him. They boasted in appearances and in outward things but Jesus had nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. They boasted in their wealth yet Jesus was found gleaning fields with his disciples. The children and the sinners received him. It is still true that the prostitutes and sinners are often quicker to receive Jesus when he comes than the religious leaders are.
Truly, many people say that they want revival but they don’t receive Jesus when he comes to them. So often I’ve seen families of unbelievers, even those involved in witchcraft, receive Jesus when he came, yet the churches will not. I have seen a greater manifestation of the spirit of Christ and more miracles in the house of unbelievers willing to receive prayer than I have seen in many churches.
When You Receive Who Jesus Sends, You Receive Him!
Jesus still comes to us humble and riding on a donkey. He offends religious pride and nobody is able to receive him without humbling himself. He often comes riding on a donkey that has different doctrine than we do. He comes to us in the form of people who are of a different culture, a different social status, who are unknown and unimpressive. Several years ago I share the story of how Jesus came to the pastor of a church in NYC through a little boy and healed his head.
Matthew 10:40 (NRSV) Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.
John 15:20-21 (NRSV) If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also. But they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.
To reject who Jesus has sent is to reject Jesus. To receive who Jesus has sent is to receive him. The people from Jesus’s hometown didn’t receive him, because he was just a commoner to them, nobody special.
Mark 6:2-4 (NRSV) On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, “Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. Then Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.”
Many people reject Jesus because he comes in the form of those who are familiar to them. God has put his spirit in the church and scripture teaches so clearly that God’s intention is for all of us to act as the body of Christ, never a one-man show. If we fail to receive, honor, and make way for the manifestation of Christ’s spirit through the various members of his body, we fail to receive Christ. Religious spirits of hierarchy, control, and tradition cause many church leaders to reject Jesus when he comes to them. This grieves Jesus because he wants to come and bless and heal people, but they all too often do not recognize him and reject him when he is in their midst.
1 Thessalonians 5:19-22 (NRSV) Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil.
When Jesus Comes In A Form You Don’t Recognize
Luke 24:13-17, 25-35 (NRSV) Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?”
…Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.
As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!” Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
The disciples only realized they had received the resurrected Christ after they invited him to stay with them! He would have gone on.
Jesus has often come to me in such a way that I needed to humble myself to receive him. I used to have such a thing against rap music. But Jesus came to me in the form of Christian rappers who were filled with the Holy Spirit. Their lyrics were overflowing with praise, scripture, and the gospel. I repented and humbled myself because I really wanted to know Jesus. Then I saw young people spreading the gospel in Central America through hip hop and dance, and I came to love Christian rap, especially in Spanish!
In my older teen years and early twenties, I frequented long prayer meetings at a Charismatic Episcopalian church, often getting home at three in the morning. Jesus has come to me in Baptist churches and other traditions. Two pastor couples who are good friends of mine are in the Brethren in Christ denomination. In Lancaster, we have seen the Holy Spirit move among the Amish and gathered with born-again Amish who began ministering healing and seeing Jesus do miracles. (Many of them have been excommunicated but still have the traditional Amish dress and many of their customs.) I might have different doctrine and the traditions of another group or culture might not be “my thing,” but if Jesus is there, I want to see him, honor him, and receive him!
If You Love Jesus, He Will Come To You!
Let’s finish with a promise from Jesus himself:
John 14:23 (NRSV) Jesus answered him, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.
If you love Jesus, he will come to you! He will certainly to those who really want to know him, and only the humble will receive him. May your eyes be open to see him when he comes!
As many Christians say they want revival, the church has often rejected Jesus when he comes to them. Revival history shows that the most prominent religious leaders have often persecuted those who received Christ when he came to them!
But I want Jesus! Knowing him is worth everything, and if I have to give up my pride to see him, so be it! If I have to be offended, so be it! If I have to climb a sycamore-fig tree like Zaccheus did, OK. I want to see Jesus!
In our next post, we’ll continue by talking about the unity that comes from receiving Christ when he comes to us.
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Do You Belong To Paul, Cephas, Or Jesus?
[image error]Denominations…I’m not for them or against them…but I refuse to identify myself by one. This is a very strong conviction…often an antichrist spirit draws attention to that…
If they receive you, they receive me…if they don’t, shake off the dust. If you want Jesus he will come to you…but don’t reject him when he does!
Conversation about doctrine…I said “there isn’t a place that would receive me if unity depends on doctrine…” (Maybe in the US but not in my city here in Brazil.) Presbyterian, charismatic…he explained we can be united in Christ but we cannot be united in edifying the church. So what do I do?
If I’m going to teach, then I can’t talk about certain topics. Can’t talk about eschatology. Can’t share what I believe about it? So if we can’t talk openly about scriptures when we meet as the body of Christ and be sincere about how we view them, then everything follows a certain narrative and the plurality of elders means little. If the ruler “pastor” is wrong about something, there is no way of testing it. What’s the point of the scriptural command that a prophet sit down, let two or three others speak, and the believers test what they say, if nobody is allowed to share a viewpoint that disagrees with the church’s non-essential theology? (I saw non-essential because we must all agree on Jesus’s incarnation, death, and resurrection in order to rightfully be called Christians, but there are multiple issues on which real Christians have held a wide variety of views throughout history.)
I have observed that many people raised in a certain Christian tradition tend to treat certain non-essential topics as essentials. They may not realize that some of their historical Christian heroes believed the same thing they consider “nearly heresy,” or that some of their theology is relatively new in the scheme of church history! Neither do they understand why some leading theologians take a certain interpretation of a scripture passage.
This young guy has been a Christian for a few years and is attending the church’s seminary. It seems to me that he is being taught what to believe rather than being given information to consider which may help him to better understand scripture. He isn’t even aware of some of the alternative viewpoints to what his seminary is teaching, and could not tell you why some Christians think differently. He seems to be strongly convinced about certain statements he makes, but is unable to explain why or how he came to those conclusions from scripture.
This isn’t healthy! He believes he has to hold to the party line in order to be a leader in the church, and if he disagrees with anything, he can’t talk about it. That sounds to me like “Some say “I follow Paul,” others “I follow Apollos,” and others “I follow Christ.” Did anybody notice how similar it sounds to say “I’m Wesleyan” or “Lutheran,” or even any other church?
Now I appreciate Wesley so much and I’m not saying if you’re Wesleyan or anything else you should leave your church or denomination. But don’t be defined by a denomination. Did anybody notice that in the New Testament, there may have been various congregations but there was one “church” in the city?
1st Corinthians 3:1-9, 21-23 (NRSV) And so, brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food. Even now you are still not ready, for you are still of the flesh. For as long as there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving according to human inclinations? For when one says, “I belong to Paul,” and another, “I belong to Apollos,” are you not merely human? What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labor of each. For we are God’s servants, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building.…So let no one boast about human leaders. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all belong to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.
Jeremiah 9:23-24 (NRSV) Thus says the Lord: Do not let the wise boast in their wisdom, do not let the mighty boast in their might, do not let the wealthy boast in their wealth; but let those who boast boast in this, that they understand and know me, that I am the Lord; I act with steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight, says the Lord.
2 Corinthians 10:17 (NRSV) “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
1 Cor. 3…I have a high value for scholarship…so not against theological education…but don’t boast in your seminary education but in knowing the Lord…the scholars of Jesus’s day missed him…
Boasting in knowing God, because if that’s our aim the result is unity. A lot of division comes from boasting in other things…Do you gather around doctrine or knowing Jesus…there was nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
There are things in scripture that I’ll say “I don’t fully understand this,” or “I’m not sure if I understand this correctly.” There are others I am quite convinced of. Many of the people I have received so much from, both from their teaching and from their lives, have certain views I strongly disagree with. But I honor Jesus and when I see the Spirit of Jesus manifest through these people’s lives to any extent, I honor him.
Where we have seen revival and renewal, denominational lines matter less and less. As a teen and young adult I went to prayer meetings at an Episcopal church until 3 am. I have good friends who are in the Brethren in Christ denomination. I attended a Baptist church in Rio de Janeiro, and I spoke at meetings with many very traditional Assemblies of God believers. In Lancaster PA we have friends from among the Amish who were touched by the Holy Spirit and began ministering healing and fellowshipping with other denominations. (Some were excommunicated for it, but they continue dressing and acting like Amish in so many ways!) We fellowshipped with Mennonites among us. What matters to me is that I honor the Spirit of Christ and I want to have the humility to receive him when he comes humble and riding on a donkey!
Last year when I shared my views on eschatology, I also shared the book of a friend, Will Riddle, whose view contrasts with mine. (But he still makes some good points that we agree on.) It’s not that theology doesn’t matter to me. It’s very important. But it’s not a threat for me to allow people to be exposed to different views, and it doesn’t mean we can’t work together to edify the church. I recently heard our friend Reinhard Hirtler say “You don’t have to agree with me. It’s all right if you think differently.” I agree! But this contrasts so sharply with the attitude that we can’t walk together to edify the church if we don’t have the same views on non-essential issues. Where is the church where two or three people speak and the others test what they hear?
What I look for is not people who have all the same theology as me, but those who have sincere love, who have encountered Christ and boast not in having all the perfect doctrine or anything else, but in knowing him. I have known believers from many countries, groups, and denominations. There have been some who were incredibly divisive and boasted in their doctrine, “We’re right and you’re wrong so we can’t walk together,” and there have been others who recognized and honored the Spirit of Christ even when there were differences of perspective among us.
As important as doctrine is to me, if we boast in doctrine rather than in knowing Christ the result is division. But if we boast in knowing the Lord, the one result is unity and the manifestation of the Spirit of Christ. And the one thing we must agree on is Christ, because it is only through him and his incarnation, death, and resurrection that we can know God!
…not holding fast to the head, that is Christ…
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May 18, 2020
Knowing Jesus-The Supreme Goal Of Every Christian
Ephesians 3:14-21 (NIV) For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Stop and think about that. What would it look like for you to be filled with all the fullness of God? I think it would look like walking on the earth as Jesus did. Walking as Christ in power, in love, and in every aspect. Scripture doesn’t treat this as an impossibility. On the contrary, it is the goal!
What does it mean to know God’s love that surpasses knowledge? It is to not only receive his love, but to then become a participant in that love, a participant in God’s nature, to love like God loves, to feel what God feels.
2 Peter 1:3-4 (NRSV) His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Thus he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust, and may become participants of the divine nature.
The Aim Of Salvation Is Knowing God!
John 17:3 (NIV) Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
When I was growing up and struggling with sin as a child and pre-teen, I was always so afraid that I would end up “trampling of Christ’s blood” and falling into “greasy grace” if I really received God’s grace and forgiveness freely. Now I understand that salvation is about so much more than just being forgiven. Salvation at its core is really about becoming a participant in God’s nature. It includes forgiveness and deliverance from wrath, but it is more than that. And it’s impossible to become a participant in God’s nature of love unless we first see God fully revealed in Christ and then receive his forgiveness.
Holiness is only possible if we fully receive forgiveness, but for so long I that I had to act holy in order to qualify for forgiveness. As long as guilt and condemnation is part of the equation, we will still live out of a sin identity instead out of a God identity. And this is why Jesus had to die for our sins. That old identity, along with all the guilt and shame, had to die so that we could know God. I know love because Jesus died for me when I was still a sinner!
Growing In The Knowledge Of God
2 Peter 3:18 (NIV) But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.
There are so many aspects and facets of knowing God. But I remember when I went to a Global Awakening conference and saw hundreds of people healed. Then I started ministering to other people and seeing the same happen. I had read the Bible many times. But now I read through the gospels and wept, saying to myself “How could I have missed this! I missed the point of Jesus’s compassion. He healed everybody who came to him because he had compassion, not just to prove he was God.”
I had an assurance of salvation. I loved Jesus. But I felt like I had barely known him until now! The real thrill was about so much more than seeing miracles. It was about feeling what God feels. Feeling what Jesus felt. It was a about a love taking hold of my heart that was far beyond my natural ability to love, a love I could not understand but I could experience. I remember thinking “How is it possible for me to love like this?”
And when I prayed for people and sharing testimonies of healing became an obsession, it was never really about healing. I had found out “this is what God is like.” And I wanted people to experience God, to experience his love, as I had. Even when God healed my back as a child, yes, I was happy that my back was better. But the really important thing was that I had “felt God’s hand in my back.” I wanted to know him! This showed me that he was not distant, but near!
At times I’ve felt grieved when people didn’t “get it.” I’ve talked to people and they’ve said responded with talk about “your spiritual gift” or “the power of faith.” Christians and non-Christians alike. To some, they had no clue that it was different than reiki, nothing to do with Jesus. Christians said, “Oh, healing is Jonathan’s thing.”
No. Healing isn’t my “thing.” My “thing” is that I want to feel God’s love gripping my heart, taking over all my life. I want to know Jesus, to feel what he feels. And I want people to know him. I remember once being overwhelmed by the sense that he was standing beside me and I could grab his hand. I’ve experienced enough that I usually can’t talk much about Jesus or about salvation without tears.
Philippians 3:7-15 (NIV) But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained. I count it all as dung…for the sake of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
Whatever we have talked about on this blog, whether divine healing, supernatural provision, supernatural protection, signs and wonders, or anything else, the real point is all about knowing Jesus and growing in the knowledge of him. I feel like all of these topics become perverted if it’s not really, first and foremost, about knowing Jesus.
It takes courage to press into any of these things, because so many questions come up, disappointments, and more. But it is catching a glimpse of Jesus that gives us the courage to do so. And it is wanting to know him that enables us to go on and persevere through everything, to not get offended with God or fall into unbelief because, for example, “I’ve faced so many financial trials before so how can I believe God for provision?” Or “My friend died of cancer and I prayed, so how can I step out to minister healing again?” If it’s about knowing Jesus, these things don’t stop us. That’s the point of it all.
I’ve had to care for some old people and it’s been difficult at times, lots of work and sleep interruptions at 3 am. Poop and pee because of incontinence, craziness from dementia, having to lift Edgar and now my mother in law. And I believe in God’s will to heal old people just as much as everyone else. We’ve seen miracles among the elderly. Caring for an elderly person difficult, but it’s a joy when I remember that Jesus said “whatever you do for the least of these, you do for me.” So when serving in any way, facing pressing circumstances, or anything else, it’s also about knowing Jesus and seeing him revealed through us.
I think of Mike and Deena Van’t Hul who left their good jobs and their rich and comfortable life in the United States to serve disabled orphans in China. They have seen many die and faced heartbreak. But they’ve also seen many miracles and many children raised from the dead. Many stories of lives of faith are similar…those who’ve experienced great miracles have faced heartbreak and discouragement. And it is only when it’s really about the all-consuming desire to know Jesus in the power of his resurrection and the participation in his sufferings, that we have the faith to growl back at it all and keep going!
I’ve known Christians to boast about their doctrine, their education, their connections, many things. But there is one thing that is important to me. I want to know Jesus and experience his love in the fullest way, through participation in it. That is heaven on earth.
Jeremiah 9:23-24 (NRSV) Thus says the Lord: Do not let the wise boast in their wisdom, do not let the mighty boast in their might, do not let the wealthy boast in their wealth; but let those who boast boast in this, that they understand and know me, that I am the Lord; I act with steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight, says the Lord.
Daniel 11:32 (AMPC) …the people who know their God shall prove themselves strong and shall stand firm and do exploits [for God].
Maybe it’s a good idea to get alone with God right now and pray “Open the eyes of my heart, Lord. I want to see you! I want to know you!”
In our next post, we’ll talk about a closely related topic-when we are looking for Jesus, we will have the discernment to receive him even when he comes to us humble and riding on a donkey!
The post Knowing Jesus-The Supreme Goal Of Every Christian appeared first on Go to Heaven Now!.
May 5, 2020
Thank God For The Time And Place You Live In!
Coronavirus A Month Later
In early April, I published the article Coronavirus and Fear. I knew God was saying the fear would cause far more harm than the virus itself, and I shared what I knew about how the responses to the coronavirus were counterproductive and would cause a great deal of human suffering.
Almost a month later, data from comparing various places that did total lockdowns with those that didn’t, as well as coronavirus data before and after lockdown, is showing that lockdowns saved ZERO lives. If anything, strict lockdown areas have often had higher coronavirus death counts. Just compare Tokyo, which did not shut down and is reporting fewer than 500 covid-19 deaths, with the slightly smaller NYC, which did and has reported over 12,000. Of course, we know that thousands of deaths in New York’s reported death toll were of people never tested for coronavirus. However, these numbers are also high because New York forced nursing homes to receive still-contagious COVID-19 patients instead of allowing them access to a nearly empty hospital ship. Several states under strict lockdown have done the same, resulting in thousands of deaths. It appears that they are just trying to keep the numbers up in order to keep their narrative going! They are even robbing the cemeteries to pad death totals by adding past deaths as presumed “coronavirus fatalities.”
Universities such as Stanford, as well as many medical doctors, have figured that the coronavirus case mortality rate is about the same or a little higher than that of the flu. In spite of widespread efforts to inflate the numbers, the death tolls have fallen far short of what “experts” predicted. This does not mean that the virus has not killed people or even overwhelmed a few health systems which were not prepared. However, putting so much focus on an epidemic that has still killed fewer people worldwide than a bad flu season distracts from seeing the big picture and completely distorts a realistic perspective of the situation.
The United Nations World Food Programme estimates that by the end of this year, more than 260 million people will face starvation. That’s twice last year’s figures. The International Food Policy Research Institute estimates that if the world GDP declines by another 5%, another 147 million people could be plunged into extreme poverty. It is also hard to estimate the lives that have already been lost and will be lost due to increasing suicide, domestic violence, and violent crime rates, substance abuse, broken health systems, and no medical care for those who needed it urgently. Worldwide lockdowns have already had a large death toll, and in the long run they could cost hundreds of millions of lives.
I’ve updated the article Coronavirus and Fear significantly since I first published it, with new links to help understand the current situation. I soon started getting messages from friends that they couldn’t share my website posts. Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram have completely blocked not just that article, but my whole website from being shared on their platforms! Facebook and Youtube have openly said they are censoring anything that doesn’t agree with the World Health Organization, which first opposed travel restrictions and told us the virus didn’t transmit human to human when they knew otherwise, and then flipped and greatly exaggerated the situation. Yet now even a top World Health Organization official is saying that Sweden, which avoided lockdowns, should be the model for the world. Facebook and Youtube are censoring medical doctors as well as renowned virologists and epidemiologists who disagree with lockdowns.
We have seen an explosion of religious persecution and totalitarianism in Western countries, all under the pretext of saving lives. The mayor of Kansas City is ordering pastors to turn over the names, addresses, and phone numbers of anybody who enters churches, something we only imagined happening in regimes like communist China or Nazi Germany.
Meanwhile, we are hearing reports of foul play everywhere. I have nearly 5,000 Facebook friends and I have seen a comment or two of someone sharing that they lost a loved one to COVID-19. However, I’ve seen a lot more posts and comments saying something like “My friend’s dad died in a car accident and they said it was COVID-19. They tried to get them to change the death certificate, but they said they couldn’t.” People are hearing doctors and nurses they know personally speak up about this. It’s not just in the US. We heard from a friend whose brother is a nurse in Rio de Janeiro that if a patient dies of Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever, it gets listed as COVID-19. Many NYC Funeral Directors and Pennsylvania coroners are also speaking out about it.
My Uber driver said he didn’t believe it until he saw the video, but some people suspected foul play when a film crew was filming the burial of a bunch of coffins in Minas Gerais (Brazil) for a TV report on COVID-19. They went and dug up a few coffins, filming is, and found they were filled with rocks and dirt! I can’t verify this particular report but what are we to think when we hear dozens of such reports coming out of the woodwork, and many are verified!
The President of Tanzania thought something fishy was going on, so he sent in samples from fruits and animals for coronavirus testing, but with the names of people. Most of them came back positive! Were the tests themselves contaminated with COVID-19 as they found some UK tests were? Were they tests just faulty? Or did they lie about the results?
OK, let’s go on to what God is saying in the middle of this craziness! But first, remember that you may want to check out my updated Coronavirus and Fear article for more of what’s going on. You may also want to check out this website put up by a group of physicians in Western Alabama on Coronavirus Truths (and lies), and this article by a Swiss doctor on COVID-19.
God Determined The Time And Place You Would Live!
I recently heard God say “Be thankful for the time and the place you live in.”
Acts 17:26 (ERV) God began by making one man, and from him he made all the different people who live everywhere in the world. He decided exactly when and where they would live.
Many people are now more afraid of what’s happening in the world than of the virus. But the perspective that comes from understanding the gospel and walking in fellowship with Christ isn’t focused on “What will happen to me?” Rather, it asks “What is God’s purpose for me in this generation?”
Acts 13:36 (NIV) Now when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep.
I was just re-reading my book Present Access To Heaven. I read my Heaven Now trilogy periodically to encourage myself. One of the things I said there was that if our joy doesn’t hinge on our circumstances but rather comes from giving away God’s love, nothing can take our joy. The heavenly perspective is that in whatever situation we find ourselves, we have the privilege of representing Jesus there. So we thank God for the place and the time in which we live.
Why are you living? What determines your joy reveals what you are living for!
Ephesians 5:2 (NRSV) and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
The Privilege of Representing Christ
Many people are already going hungry. I heard a report from friends in Uganda that five children have already died in their area from starvation during the lockdowns, even though they have no cases of coronavirus in their area. Although I live in a third-world country, I’d say the city where I live now is a first-world city. It’s far from being one of the most impoverished areas. Even so, last week someone we know was crying because she waited in line for hours to get food and it ran out right before her turn. We ended up helping them with some groceries. My wife said the daughter hadn’t eaten in a day. This scripture came to me:
Acts 11:27-30 (NRSV) At that time prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. One of them named Agabus stood up and predicted by the Spirit that there would be a severe famine over all the world; and this took place during the reign of Claudius. The disciples determined that according to their ability, each would send relief to the believers living in Judea; this they did, sending it to the elders by Barnabas and Saul.
If you are able, this is a great time to send relief to those most affected by hunger! It’s also a great time to learn from brothers in Christ who are walking in supernatural provision. Check out my article A New Paradigm For Supernatural Provision And Finances if you haven’t yet!
Christ’s light shines brightly through the church when, in pressing circumstances, we turn outward and manifest the overflowing joy the comes from expressing God’s love instead of turning inward and getting depressed because times are tough. Many people are looking for hope right now. We have what they need!
Some Christians believe that the world is going to hell in a handbasket anyway and hoping for anything else is useless. As I shared last time in Responding To Chaos From Heaven’s Perspective, I reject such fatalism. The current situation is a great opportunity to see evil people removed from their place of influence, and I am declaring Psalm 37!
Time To Stand For Truth!
Some Christians with a fatalist theology keep quoting Jesus’s words “my kingdom is not of this world” and concluding that Christians should not be involved politically. It is true that God’s kingdom, which we are a part of, is not moved by worldly kingdoms. However, God’s kingdom certainly does influence the kingdoms of this world for good, which is why Paul urged Timothy that prayers be made for all in high positions of authority so that they would have a peaceable life.
Many of our Old Testament heroes, such as Joseph, David, Daniel, and Esther had God-given political influence. In the New Testament, John the Baptist was imprisoned and executed for speaking truth to a political leader. Paul spoke truth to kings and rulers, and he made the corrupt King Felix uncomfortable:
Acts 24: 25-26 (NRSV) And as he discussed justice, self-control, and the coming judgment, Felix became frightened and said, “Go away for the present; when I have an opportunity, I will send for you.” At the same time he hoped that money would be given him by Paul, and for that reason he used to send for him very often and converse with him.
Lockdowns are costing lives and causing great human suffering, yet many leaders have become tyrannical and want to continue them. This is injustice. Will we speak truth even when it is uncomfortable and some may react with anger? Esther risked her life to speak truth, saying “If I perish, I perish.”
Esther 4:14 (NIV) And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?
Proverbs 31:8-9 (The Message) Speak up for the people who have no voice, for the rights of all the down-and-outers. Speak out for justice! Stand up for the poor and destitute!
Slavery ended without a war in the British empire because prominent Christians like John Newton, John Wesley, and especially William Wilberforce spoke out about a highly political topic. Many Christians contributed to the end of slavery and segregation laws in the United States through civil disobedience.
United States law says that Deprivation of rights under color of law is a crime with penalties ranging from imprisonment to the death sentence. Many officials are doing just that under the pretext of a coronavirus crisis. We are seeing more and more reports of US citizens engaging in civil disobedience by exercising their constitutional rights. They are opening businesses and opening churches. Police in various places are also refusing to enforce unconstitutional orders.
The early church engaged in civil disobedience, as do churches in many oppressive nations today, by meeting and proclaiming the gospel. Corrie Ten Boom and other Christians engaged in civil disobedience in order to save the lives of Jews during World War 2. Widespread civil disobedience at this time in history may prevent us from going down a dangerous path and end up saving many more lives. The article Covid-19 and Christian Action lays a great foundation for Christians engaging in civil disobedience.
I encourage you guys to share this and the two previous articles with others and to write to state representatives and elected officials. Remind them of the tremendous consequences of lockdowns. Talk about the failures of technocracy. And point out that all the data says lockdowns have not saved any lives. Maybe try sharing any article from my website on Facebook or Instagram. When they don’t allow you to, click the option to appeal and give them some pushback about their censorship.
Add believing prayer to your action. Believing prayer is impressed by God and not by the problem. Those who pray the prayer of faith like Elijah did so often shape the course of history!
Here again are the previous two article dealing with coronavirus:
Responding to Chaos From Heaven’s Perspective
The post Thank God For The Time And Place You Live In! appeared first on Go to Heaven Now!.
April 13, 2020
Responding To Chaos From Heaven’s Perspective
[image error]In our last post, we talked about how fear is doing far more harm than the coronavirus, and how some are actively promoting fear by exaggerating a real situation. I’ve gotten several emails and messages since writing it, including from people working in the health system. Some people are hearing from nurses who’ve gone for a week to help in NYC that it was very difficult. Let’s pray for the health workers in the areas where this is worst. But we are also hearing more reports that doctors using hydroxychloroquine are seeing remarkably quick recoveries. In fact, a friend in my Facebook feed shared that her 88-year-old grandmother with only one lung, diabetes, heart failure, and declining kidney function beat Coronavirus in three days with the hydroxychloroquine treatment! I am praying that this highly-effective treatment would be used more widely and that people would see through the attempts to discourage or discredit it.
We are also hearing more health workers speaking out about the exaggerations in the numbers. One email I received said “I spoke to my friend who works in a Pallative Care Unit turned COVID-19 Unit. She said the virus gives the exact same symptoms that a terminally ill person would get at the end of their life. When they die, at the moment, they aren’t tested but are given as the ’cause of death’, you guessed it, “COVID-19”. The numbers are so fudged it’s ridiculous.”
Anyways, I’d like to talk a little more about our perspective and response to what’s going on…
Jesus Died To Free Us From The Fear Of Death
Hebrews 2:14-15 (NIV) Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
I got really sick just two days before I was going to leave for my second trip to Russia. I felt horrible and had a really sore throat. And I was going to minister healing in Russia! I felt the fear that this would ruin my trip.
But the Holy Spirit spoke this verse to me and told me to reject the fear of death. Even though I wasn’t expecting to literally die from this sickness, I recognized that the fear of feeling horrible for a few weeks and the sickness ruining my trip was a form of the fear of death. So I rejected that fear.
I was running on little sleep, and the natural thing I should have done was staying home. But there was a worship night that Friday and I wanted so badly to go. My plane would then leave on Monday. I went to the worship night and felt overwhelmed by God’s goodness as I sang. My hands and mouth started to vibrate violently. 15 minutes later the symptoms were gone. I rejected fear, worshipped Jesus, and the vibration of his goodness killed the virus.
Even secular scientists recognize that chronic fear and anxiety suppress the immune system!
I just thought it interesting that I am writing this on Easter, or resurrection day. Jesus conquered death! His death is our death and his resurrection is ours! We identify with him in his death and resurrection, and it sets us free from the fear of death.
During a time when we lived in Duque de Caxias and I was really hard-pressed, I started singing “I don’t know if I’ll live or die. But as long as I live, I want to live for you, Jesus!”
Galatians 2:20 (NIV) I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Colossians 3:3 (NIV) For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
How can you be afraid of death if you’ve already died with Christ and your life is hidden in him?
Philippians 1:20-22 (NIV) I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know!
I don’t want to die yet, but I’m not afraid of it. I want as much time as possible to represent Jesus on this earth. I’m on the highway to heaven and want to take as many people as I can with me! Yet either way, whether I live or die, I win in Christ! He has conquered death!
An evil spirit is promoting the fear of death through the media. Much of the way we trample on Satan’s power is simply standing firm, proclaiming the truth, and moving in the opposite spirit. Jesus has given us authority to trample on all the power of the enemy, but we will only do so if we are walking in fearlessness.
Is Your Foundation Firm?
Matthew 7:24-27 (NIV) “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
If I feel like I’m falling apart, I have an opportunity to examine my life foundations. The storm comes to both the wise and the unwise, but the house built on the rock will stand. Do I really believe in the victory Jesus accomplished for me by his resurrection, or am I just giving mental assent to the fact that he resurrected? Have I resolved that whether I live or die, whatever comes, I belong to Jesus?
Being beaten and blown by the wind may loosen a tree’s roots, but if the wind doesn’t completely uproot the tree the shaking only makes way for the roots to grow deeper!
Conspiracy Theories?
A lot of conspiracy theories are going around right now. When I say that some people have intentionally exaggerated this situation and pushed fear for ulterior motives, some people write it off as a “conspiracy theory.”
I don’t believe all the conspiracy theories that are going around. However, people and nations have conspired and deceived throughout history, and the nature of humans living in rebellion to God has not suddenly changed now!
Psalm 2:1-6 (NIV) Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, “Let us break their chains and throw off their shackles.” The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them. He rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath, saying, “I have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain.”
Psalm 33:10-11 (NRSV) The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.
Many people thought that talk of political elites engaging in pedophilia and child trafficking was just a “conspiracy theory.” Then with the arrest and murder of Jeffry Epstein, they realized that more than they had imagined of this “conspiracy theory” was true.
The biblical response to “the nations conspiring” is praise to our God who frustrates the plans of the peoples, and proclamation of His lordship and kingdom over the earth. We worship that which captures our attention. We confront evil. We don’t hide from it, but we refuse to be impressed by it. When we encounter evil that disturbs us, it is important to continue giving our “worth-ship” to Jesus. He’s the one who is totally impressive and worthy of my attention!
Is The Mark Of The Beast Next?
I’ve been hearing more talk than I have in years about the “mark of the beast.” Bill Gates wants to implement digital vaccine certificates and maybe even tattoos that people need to have in order to travel or do anything. Many Christians are concerned that this is leading to “the mark.”
I agree with the strong outcry against this. I don’t want microchips, forced tattoos, or forced vaccinations! Yet I encourage Christians to question the view that this is inevitably going to happen. I am convinced that the mark of the beast is a historical event-it already happened! And it does not need to happen again.
Jesus taught us to pray “You’re kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Trying to pray this prayer in faith for the nations when we think that evil is inevitably going to dominate and “the antichrist” will take over the world, is about the same as trying to pray the prayer of faith for healing when you think that God is using the sickness to teach someone a lesson. It’s double-minded and powerless!
Notice what the Psalms we read above say. Yes, evil people plot, but God frustrates their plans. His purposes stand firm. This is what we need to be declaring. I encourage you to read Psalm 37. Here’s just a little bit, but you may want to read this over and over again as you pray about the current situation.
Psalm 37:1-2, 7-15 (NRSV) Do not fret because of the wicked; do not be envious of wrongdoers, for they will soon fade like the grass, and wither like the green herb…Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him; do not fret over those who prosper in their way, over those who carry out evil devices. Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath. Do not fret—it leads only to evil. For the wicked shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land. Yet a little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look diligently for their place, they will not be there. But the meek shall inherit the land, and delight themselves in abundant prosperity. The wicked plot against the righteous, and gnash their teeth at them; but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he sees that their day is coming. The wicked draw the sword and bend their bows to bring down the poor and needy, to kill those who walk uprightly; their sword shall enter their own heart, and their bows shall be broken.
Proverbs 29:5-6 (AMP) A man who flatters his neighbor [with smooth words intending to do harm]
Is spreading a net for his own feet. By his wicked plan an evil man is trapped, But the righteous man sings and rejoices [for his plan brings good things to him].
We’ve had wicked people rise up many times before in history, but they were blown away like the chaff and their plans were frustrated. Remember Hitler? Many people also thought that was the end of the world. We declare, along with scripture, that those who persist in unrepentant wickedness will fall into their own trap and be blown away like the chaff. Their plans will be frustrated, but the purposes of the Lord will prevail!
Maybe you’re asking “What? What about the antichrist and the mark of the beast? Isn’t everything going to just get worse until Jesus comes back?” The following articles may help you to find clarity about this:
God’s Purposes For The Nations
Why The World Is Getting Better
I can very well see the current events being turned around for good as the wicked overplay their hand and fall into their own trap. We see in part and prophesy in part. Before this happened, I was praying and I began to have several visions about Spain and hearing phrases like “the Iberian Tiger.” And I believe the interpretation of what I saw and heard was that Spain is going to have a roaring economy in the next years.
This was completely unexpected, nothing to do with what I was praying or thinking about. It was not the first thing I would have imagined either, as I’d heard so much about Spain’s bad situation after the 2008 financial crisis. So understand, I’m not a financial adviser to trying to tell anyone to put their money into Spain, and I expect people to test for themselves any prophecy that I give. I’m just saying, Spain has been one of the hardest-hit countries from the coronavirus recently, but God’s perspective on the future may be a lot more positive than what many of us are seeing. I believe God has heavenly plans and purposes for the nations, and for the nation of Spain!
Conclusion
Some people have been gripped by fear of Coronavirus. Others realize that the situation has been hyped up and exaggerated to cause panic, but are much more afraid of where we are going. They realize that certain people have a sinister agenda.
I hope this post has encouraged you to reject fear and fatalism, and instead respond by praising the King of all Nations and declaring his dominion! I hope encourages you to engage in believing prayer in agreement with God’s purposes for the nations. Remember, Elijah was a man like us, with similar weaknesses. Yet he changed the course of nations as he prayed in faith and proclaimed God’s word!
The post Responding To Chaos From Heaven’s Perspective appeared first on Go to Heaven Now!.
April 10, 2020
Coronavirus And Fear
[image error]I was going to write something else today but I felt it was important to talk about this, even though it’s a sensitive and politically charged topic and I risk offending some people. We need to see the big picture of what’s happening. I don’t want to appear insensitive to anybody who has lost someone to coronavirus by sharing my perspective. However, I am also seeing the human cost of the draconian responses to the situation, including many people who are currently going hungry.
Having lived for eight years in a third-world country and seen busses set on fire, tanks rolling down the street, terrified people fleeing gunfire, shortages of gasoline, fruits, and vegetables, maybe the human costs of fear and shutdowns are a bit more prominent in my mind. I hope my perspective will help shine light on how to pray and respond to the current situation. This article focuses on how the spirit of fear and of deception have been working hand-in-hand to cause destruction. I will work on quickly getting another article out after this one about how we respond to the current situation.
Questionable Data And The Principality Of Fear
Early on in the shutdowns, our friend Reinhard Hirtler sent a word to our Revival Brazil WhatsApp group. He was in prayer and not even thinking about the coronavirus, and the Lord gave him a vision. He saw the demon behind the coronavirus in a vision, and it was weak and puny. But then he saw a principality of fear begin to take a hold of the airwaves (TV, radio, etc.) and cause great destruction.
His word confirmed what I was already feeling. I soon heard others share similar visions. The fear was causing a lot more harm than the virus. Before even hearing this word, I had been researching the situation and it seemed to be blown out of proportion. I saw that the CDC estimates there are 291,000 to 646,000 yearly influenza deaths worldwide and we had 80,000 influenza deaths in the US alone in 2018. In fact, we already had a shortage of ventilators before the coronavirus news!
I saw the CDC data on confirmed flu cases deaths for this season, which at that time (a few weeks ago) was about 222,000 confirmed flu cases and 22,000 deaths. I realized that if we figured the case mortality rate of the flu in the same way as they were figuring most of the case mortality rates of the coronavirus, the case mortality rate of the flu would look like nearly 10%! Of course, the real rate is much lower. The vast majority of flu cases are not officially “confirmed” with a test. Likewise, many coronavirus cases are completely asymptomatic. Maybe far more than half of them, as the population on the Diamond Princess was the only group where everybody was tested whether or not they had symptoms, and in spite of the aging population only about half of the people who tested positive for coronavirus had symptoms. Even more have mild symptoms, and large numbers of people who got coronavirus were never tested and actually confirmed…which makes the real case mortality rate much lower.
Of course, I questioned and tested my own conclusions. But I learned that many experts were asking the same questions I just couldn’t avoid. A renowned scientist wrote an open letter to Angela Merkel about the problems with the way the situation was being presented, and Sweden did not close their country because they didn’t trust the science behind the current narrative! I also soon learned that Italy concluded only 12% of their “coronavirus deaths” were deaths directly caused by coronavirus. And the average age of people there dying from it was around 80, almost all having other health conditions. No wonder their case mortality rate looked so much higher than in many other places.
I saw predictions of 40-60% of Americans getting the virus, and talking as if it would all happen at the same time and we would only have one ventilator for every 50 people needing one. So I thought: South Korea tested and tracked people, quarentining the sick, but they didn’t close their country. And they had been over the peak number of cases for a month. So I looked up their population and figured the percentage of them who had been confirmed to have coronavirus so far. It was less than one-fifth of a percent! The 40% to 60% number was 200-300 times the percentage of South Korean’s who’d gotten the virus as of one month after their peak!
To be clear, I never concluded that the virus was nothing, and I’ve been in favor of preparing the health system and trying to slow the spread the whole time. Yes, it has been a nasty bug and fatal for some who’ve gotten it. Quarantining the sick and at risk, as South Korea did, is in order. But not shutting down everything and taking draconian measures that have far-reaching consequences and are causing greater human suffering! Why didn’t we do that in the 2018 flu season? Or why don’t we close roads and ban cars due to deaths in traffic? Doing so would, overall, cause more human suffering than it would prevent and send us back in time!
We have to understand, we were having a very bad flu season before the coronavirus was a big thing, and some health systems were already at capacity or overwhelmed with just that. It’s not that there was no real cause for concern. But why isn’t the media giving the same attention to the flu as to the coronavirus?
See the following links for more:
12 Experts Questioning The Mainstream Coronavirus Narrative
Coronavirus Data Doesn’t Match Doomsday Predictions
We Are Making Decisions Without Reliable Data: “Reasonable estimates for the case fatality ratio in the general U.S. population vary from 0.05% to 1%.”:
Sweden Keeps Their Country Open As Scientists Question The Mainstream Narrative
So far, the way things are playing out falls far short of the predictions that sparked international shutdown. In fact, it falls far short of even radically downgraded predictions that came later. Hospitals in many parts of the country are empty and thousands of healthcare workers are being laid off. In spite of the situation looking nothing like what was predicted, the same people who wanted to shut down everything now want to keep it shut down for 18 months!
Intentional Misrepresentation Of The Current
Situation
Many of those who are exaggerating the situation more recently were the same ones who downplayed it before. For example, the World Health Organization originally said the virus did not spread person to person and criticized Trump’s closing of travel with China. Some of the politicians who have pushed for the most extreme controls now were just weeks earlier encouraging people to get together, party, and hug Chinese people to show you’re not a racist!
There is a lot of deception going on right now in an attempt to create a narrative that’s not based on reality. CBS was caught using footage from an overwhelmed Italian hospital and representing it as NYC. Although they apologized and called it an editing mistake, the presenter on the Highwire video above noted he previously worked for CBS and there was no way a video of footage from Italy could have just mistakenly passed for NYC footage. It would have had to go through about seven people and is labeled with the location. Citizen reporters are showing empty hospitals everywhere, including in places that seem to be overwhelmed when you watch the news.
Remember that in Italy, coronavirus was only actually the direct cause of death in 12% of their cases? The CDC in the US is actively encouraging doctors to assume the cause of death was coronavirus. By dying with a virus doesn’t equate to dying of it. Even medical doctors in the US are now speaking up and pointing out that this is dishonest. All of the sudden, deaths caused by pneumonia, heart attacks, and other issues are looking way lower than normal, because if someone has a heart attack or other issue and tests positive for coronavirus, coronavirus is being listed as the cause of death in many cases. They may even have been asymptomatic for coronavirus!
Dr. Annie Bukacek is one of my Facebook friends and is on the health boards of her county and her state, Montana. She is highly qualified and has 30 years of experience filling out death certificates. She shares here about how the books are being cooked on numbers of deaths from Coronavirus. This Louisiana doctor is furious about the misrepresentation, saying that if someone runs into a theater and yells “fire” and there is none, they go to jail. He is especially angry over the claim a one-year-old child died of coronavirus when in reality it was a baby born 22 months premature that died of complications yet tested positive for the virus. (Video contains profanity and strong language) Likewise, Candace Owens uncovered another lie about an infant’s death. Yes, the child tested positive for coronavirus, but died in a terrible suffocation accident, not of coronavirus!
This girl shared how she had cold symptoms and the doctor wrote she was positive for coronavirus without even testing her! (Angry video with profanity.) Many similar reports are surfacing, which explain why the death rates for several other diseases are looking much lower than normal. Many deaths are being attributed to Coronavirus instead, even though it was not the primary cause of death.
Pushing Fear And Crisis
Where fear has a stronghold people are open to deception. It has become clear that some are intentionally pushing fear for the sake of their agendas. In spite of strong evidence that hydroxychloroquine is highly effective for treating coronavirus patients and safe for this use, studies done in other countries showing promising results, and doctors using it more than any other drugs, certain people are highly opposed to it yet want to close entire countries for 18 months until the can develop a vaccine. Recently, Peter Navarro confronted Dr. Fauci on the claim that the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine was “unproven.” Navarro said what he has is proof, remarking “I have a PhD, and I understand how to read statistical studies, whether it’s in medicine, the law, economics or whatever.”
We won’t go into the ulterior motives and special interests behind wanting to prolong a crisis…
Thousands of doctors agree hydroxychloroquine is best treatment for coronavirus patients
International studies showing remarkable success rates of Chloroquine treating coronavirus cases
Doctor Vladimir Zelenko treated 300 Covid 19 case with the drug the media hates. (An other, more recent video says it’s now 699, with shortness of breath gone in 4 to 6 hours and 0 patients requiring intubation, or respirators.)
Dr. Smith sharing the remarkable success, saying no person who has received this drug regimen has been intubated (Needed a ventilator.) Many other doctors are sharing similar reports.
The Human Costs Of Shutdown
Some may say “OK, I agree that the situation is exaggerated. However, aren’t lives worth more than money?” Few people realize that there is a high cost in terms of human suffering and even human lives to draconian measures taken to slow the spread of a virus. Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, the Stanford professor whose interview we linked to above, not only has a degree in medicine but also in economics. He believes the lives lost due to a global economic crisis could easily be in the millions–far more than we are likely to lose due to coronavirus.
How are lives lost due to the measures taken to prevent the spread of the virus? In many ways, including increased suicide rates and increased violent crime. But the most common causes of death, including cancer, heart disease, and stroke highly correlate with stress, and loss of employment is one of the most stressful situations many people go through. I’ve seen the stress the media’s exaggeration has caused my aging father-in-law. He told me he lived through World War 2 and this is worse than that was! (Of course, he wasn’t on the frontlines of WW2 but at home in Brazil.) Many people who need to go to the hospital and get care are afraid to do so because of the coronavirus, and some people who need care, such as cancer patients, have lost it. Many patients have been removed from hospitals due to expectation of a coronavirus apocalypse.
The number of lives lost worldwide due to hunger and malnutrition dwarfs the numbers of people we will lose to the coronavirus. The effect of nationwide shutdowns on these numbers could easily be long-lasting. People are already going hungry due to them. There’s a hunger crisis in Southern Italy, a first-world country, right now due to shutdowns. Thousands of Indians making $5 a day in big cities were forced to go home to the villages. How will their families eat? Will sending them home actually have the effect of spreading the virus from the cities to the villages more rapidly? And then consider the video of the first day of lockdown in South Africa for just a little bit of a more global perspective.
Make no mistake: social distancing is also going to cost a lot of lives Wealth Inequality as a predicter of subjective health, happiness, and life satisfaction among Nepalese women
Yale study says rising unemployment equals higher mortality
Conclusions from microdata on unemployment and mortality
The Alleged Cure is worse than the disease
Many Measures Being Taken Are Counterproductive
Police are making sunbathers go home in many places. Most Sunbathers are socially distanced and sunbathing provides crucial vitamin D and lowers blood pressure, reducing risk of heart attack and stroke. Sun also kills pathogens on surfaces. In the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic, sunbathing was used in outdoor hospitals as a treatment for the sick, and some scientists today believe it reduced the mortality rate in that epidemic. Exercise also raises immunity. Draconian measures preventing people from going outside, exercising, and getting sun are totally counterproductive.
In many places, shutdowns have actually had the effect of cramming people more closely together! You can see that in the video above of the first day of shutdown in South Africa. Yet it’s true in first-world countries too! How many times have scenes like the one below occurred in the panic that’s been spread about the coronavirus?
Here, an epidemiologist shares why he considers the shutdown to be counter-productive. Social distancing measures slow the spread of the virus, not stop it.
Radical Agendas And Violation Of Constitutional/Human Rights
Many are using the coronavirus to spread radical agendas. In many countries they are using it to push a police state, GPS tracking of citizens, encouraging communist-style snitching on your neighbors, and more.
A pastor in our revival Brazil WhatsApp group sent us a police report of five family members being arrested for praying together in their home, because religious services are suspended due to coronavirus. Remember, Brazil is a western country where religious freedom is supposed to be one of our greatest values. The Mayor of NYC threatened to shut down churches permanently if they didn’t fully comply with restrictions. Rodney Howard-Brown, a pastor who has been behind several revivals in the United States, was arrested for holding church. While many Christians joined with the media in criticizing him, there is another side of the story. His church took more stringent measures to prevent coronavirus transmission than many businesses did which were allowed to stay open. And the police told him just a few days before that he could go ahead with the service! Read his statement after arrest and the article on COVID19-Restrictions and Freedom of Religion.
Then we have the World Health Organization, which wants to raid homes and remove sick family members. The virus is being used as an excuse to quell dissent around the globe. Some people are joking that the US has gotten a taste of what real socialism is like: empty shelves in the markets and a police State. In Germany, Easter celebrations were cancelled for Christians yet few seemed to be concerned about going ahead with a 5,000 person Ramadan celebration.
How Should We Respond?
I’ve shared here because we need to recognize that our primary enemy isn’t a virus, but is fear. We need to trample on fear, stay in a “gospel position,” and agree with God’s purposes for the nations in this time. I am praying that people would begin to see from heaven’s perspective and that get free from the grip of fear. I’m praying for God to give leaders dreams and wisdom about the situation, and that businesses would start opening again. We also, of course, will minister to anybody who has the virus. I’ve already seen a few reports of healing from friends in my Facebook feed, although many of us still haven’t yet gotten the opportunity to pray for anybody with it.
I’ve seen a lot of different reactions from Christians. Some are terrified of the virus. Others agree with me that the situation has been misrepresented to cause fear but are very concerned about the hidden agendas of those pushing fear. Some wonder if microchips inserted with vaccinations could contain the mark of the beast. In our next post, very soon, we’ll talk about how to respond to the current situation from heaven’s perspective.
The post Coronavirus And Fear appeared first on Go to Heaven Now!.
March 25, 2020
Pressing In To Supernatural Provision With Thanksgiving And Testimony
Of course, God’s provision is rich, much more than just pennies! But sometimes walking in great grace starts with recognizing the little miracles like metro tokens and quarters falling from thin air, and thanking God.
In our last post, we shared about a paradigm for supernatural giving and supernatural provision which doesn’t include the legalism. Today, I’d like to share some of my testimonies of God’s provision.
When I started seeing people healed I started talking constantly about what I saw God do. I was talking about testimonies all the time, and I would begin to feel God’s power well up in my heart as I shared. God’s power would come on people through the testimony and it would happen again.
As I was writing the last blog post a few memories of God’s provision came up, and I felt God’s power on them as I remembered. It felt a bit like a sudden rush of adrenaline to my heart. As I do with healing, I’ve been taking the attitude of focusing on testimonies and thanking God, even for the small things.
Last month I was excited by my friend Reinhard’s teaching and testimonies, and I was enthusiastically telling my wife about it. I was happy to see where I’d failed to trust God before. The church had a big event at a sports club during Carnival, and I wanted to go. When we got there we found out that it cost a lot more to get in than I’d been told. I only had a little money, and my daughter wanted to go to the pool. But then the gatekeepers said, “You know, there’s just four more hours to the day.” And they let us in free! It may seem like a little thing, but I was so excited. I said “See, honey! God provides for us!”
Don’t Take Any Money!
Jesus told this to his disciples when he sent them out to proclaim the Kingdom of Heaven:
Matthew 10:9-10 (NIV) Do not get any gold or silver or copper to take with you in your belts— no bag for the journey or extra shirt or sandals or a staff, for the worker is worth his keep.
When I was 15, my uncle called from New England. He felt the Lord was calling him to go on a prayer walk through Washington D.C. with his 12-foot cross. The plan was to go through the city twice, in the shape of a cross. I think it was 15 miles each way. He wanted to know if I would go with him.
My parents prayed. They were reluctant to let me go, feeling that it would be dangerous, but they felt the Lord say “release him.” When my uncle got to our house to pick me up for the weekend trip, he didn’t even have enough money in his wallet for gas to get back! My mom was concerned, saying “What are you going to eat?” He said, “God will provide for us.” He was taking Jesus’s words about not taking any money seriously! Still, mom made us take a bunch of sandwiches and apples.
We were staying at the house of a Christian family my uncle met at the beach, and someone connected with some prayer groups in Washington D.C. who were praying for the country. We didn’t tell anyone we needed anything, but people kept handing us $20 bills and inviting us out to eat steak. We returned with more money than we’d left with.
That trip had a big impact on me as a 15-year old kid. I met three people who had been raised from the dead. One was the daughter of the family we were staying with. Another was a missionary who had died of tuberculosis. And all the prayer ladies inspired me. We met with them at night after walking through the city. These ladies prophesied, healed the sick, and told us stories of God’s mighty works. They were racially mixed, black and white together, united in purpose and in love.
My uncle told me later that he’d had a credit card and would have been able to buy gas with it if we hadn’t had money, but he’d been determined to trust the Lord to provide. And he did! As I recently remembered this testimony again and how the experience inspired me, I felt a great release of God’s power just as I have so often felt released with healing testimonies. It made me want to go on a mission again and not take anything with me!
Coins From Thin Air!
As I remembered the trip with my uncle, I began to think of other testimonies of provision. I remembered another experience that may seem small but was so encouraging to my heart.
Some of my most memorable times of seeing God move were in Russia. On my second trip, I was preaching to the old ladies, visiting orphans, and speaking in houses. I was so happy sharing testimonies and praying for people! One evening, I was going to an apartment to speak to a bunch of youth. There was a meeting with about 20 youth there, and I was going to share about God’s power and love.
We were in a rush and were already running a little late. But when we walked in the metro in St. Petersburg, we only had one metro token left and the line to buy more was so long it might have taken us half an hour longer.
All of the sudden, it seemed like a metro token fell right out of thin air in front of us. Someone picked it up and gave it to us. I looked all around and couldn’t tell where it could have come from. But we walked right into the metro, deposited our two metro coins, and our arrival was only slightly delayed. I felt the Lord’s presence powerfully there, like there were many angels, and one young man whose heart had been hardened for a long time opened up and talked to his mom about his struggles after hearing me speak.
So many weird things started to happen around this time. Some I wasn’t absolutely sure had no natural explanation so I tried to be realistic. I kept seeing gold specks on my girlfriend as we went around praying for people and asked if she had glitter in her makeup. She said she didn’t, but her bed had been covered with gold dust. It went on for two weeks. When I got home and shared the testimonies with my mom, gold specks appeared on both of our faces as I was speaking.
After that, other things happened like supernatural winds as angelic manifestations in my house. They certainly had no natural explanation! As for the metro coin, I thought it was probably the Lord taking care of us getting to the apartment on time to preach, but I also considered that maybe it was a coincidence and I just didn’t see where it came from.
More crazy stuff was happening. I spoke at one church and a little girl told her mom something was stirring the water in her water bottle. The mom thought it was her child’s imagination but something really was stirring it. Some things like that we didn’t understand at first. Then I thought it must be a sign of the Lord’s angel stirring the waters at the pool of Bethesda. Then there was the supernatural rain inside my house!
I returned from one mission trip and my housemates were all excited. They said they thought that angels were on the porch and in the house, and things were happening that were “weird but good.” (My housemates were not hyper-charismatics or anything like that. They were open to those kinds of things but didn’t really have much experiences of their own like seeing God heal people.)
One of my friends who had really been struggling in life told me what happened when he was on my porch. He was sitting there on the steps, nobody anywhere around him, and all a sudden a quarter dropped out of thin air into his open hand! There was no possible explanation, nobody nearby!
Like, I said, I was seeing things sometimes that God was doing and I didn’t always understand. Honestly, I thought “What’s the point? It’s a quarter! Why would God do that?” But it seemed like it meant something to my friend, like God touched his heart through it. and more than that, it seemed like a message to me. When the metro token in Russia seemingly dropped out of thin air in front of us, I had thought it was God but also considered that maybe there was a natural explanation. Yet now, there really was no natural explanation for where that quarter was. It really seemed like God was telling me “Yup. That Metro Token was from me!”
Look For What God Is Doing
Both these testimonies may seem small. I could have also shared about when my family was in need as a child and God told people to buy us groceries. We never knew who they came from. Yet the testimonies I’ve shared here meant so much to my heart. The important thing is the revelation of Jesus that I received through them. I encourage you guys to keep a watch out for what God is doing. Have eyes to recognize it.
Maybe you have a need that seems so big, but don’t fail to recognize God’s provision in the little things. A few weeks ago I was caught in a rainstorm on the street with my daughter sleeping on my shoulders, so I ducked into a “pomonharia.” A pomonharia is a place that sells pomonha. And pomonha is a food made with corn and wrapped in the corn husks, very popular where I live. I love “Pomonha a moda,” which is pomonha with a sausage and cheese inside.
The owner didn’t have a way of accepting credit cards. And my little five-year-old had stolen all my money and put it with her stash of coins. Only when I was already on the street and found my wallet empty did she confess! But the other customer said something like “No problem, I’ll buy your pomonha. I can’t let you go without pomonha!” So I ended up eating pomonha and talking with the guy for like 2 hours!
It feels a bit awkward when a stranger wants to buy your food. At least it does for me. But I think the Lord would like us to get to the place where we are comfortable with both giving and receiving generosity.
I had much bigger needs than a pomonha! But I chose to not worry about it and thank God for provision in even the littlest of things. When we have this attitude it fosters an eager expectation for what God will do next and how he will take care of us. Instead of worrying about money, we are enjoying an adventure with our Heavenly Father! Learning to trust him for provision frees us from the hoarding mentality and enables us to give generously from the heart, not of necessity and free from compulsion.
1 Timothy 6:17 (NRSV) As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.
2 Corinthians 9:8 (NRSV) And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work.
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March 10, 2020
A New Paradigm For Supernatural Provision And Finances
Lately, I’ve spent a lot of time considering the topic of supernatural provision and finances. If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you’ve read of how I came to the end of my rope with tithing and much of the paradigm I had been taught about money. It was just a year after my Christian accountant had told me how blessed I would be for giving so much to the church. I soon realized that tithing had undermined the foundations of my Christian faith. I discovered that a huge move away from orthodox Christianity was occurring based on mainstream tithe teachings, to the point that millions of people now believe their eternal destiny–heaven or hell–hinges on their tithes.
For years people had asked me to write a book about tithing, but I didn’t have peace about it yet. It wasn’t time. Then late last year, the Father suddenly gave me the go-ahead. That book, The Trojan Horse Of Tithing, is now free to read on this site or download as a PDF. It will soon be available in Kindle and Paperback.
I received multiple confirmations that God is now putting his finger on this issue in the church and it’s time to deal with it directly. For example, I recently listened to a message in Portuguese from the pastor of a 3,000 member church in Brazil, entitled in Portuguese“Jesus+the tithe?” The pastor hit the nail on the head, highlighting how the tithe paradigm is leading people into bondage, and he boldly proclaimed that faith in Jesus’s work alone puts us right with God. Every speaking engagement he had was quickly canceled and people began taking snippets of his sermons out of context and calling him a heretic. Yet what got my attention was that, in his message, he said he felt for so long that it wasn’t yet time to deal directly with the subject, but now it was time! He preached his message around the same time I got the go-ahead to write my book on tithing.
So we are fully rejecting tithing and some of the related paradigms for how to walk supernaturally in the area of finances. Yet money is a big topic in scripture, and the Bible has multiple stories of supernatural provision. We want to learn how to engage in radical generosity and always have enough–because our God is a Father who cares for us, he is generous, and we have been made participants in his nature.
For so long we’ve heard teachings about finances that were inflated with leaven–human traditions, legalism, and ulterior motives. I know. I can smell them from a mile away! I want to introduce you guys to some good teaching on supernatural finances that will both challenge and encourage you–and without the leaven!
People Teaching A More Biblical Paradigm For Supernatural Provision And Supernatural Giving
I’ve found three guys in particular who have great teaching on Kingdom Finances which is not tithe-based. All three engage in radical generosity and have great testimonies of supernatural provision. Two of them have literally had angels give them cash.
I already pointed my readers to Michael Van Vlyman around mid-2018 in The Supernatural Grace of Giving. Although he is a radical giver, Van Vlyman believes the tithing paradigm is a human tradition that hinders people from being led by the Holy Spirit and obeying God’s voice as they give. He gives practical advice in his book Supernatural Provision, including an exercise to help people step into giving and receiving supernaturally.
The second guy is Bertie Brits. Just go to YouTube and search “Bertie Brits Money.” It’s all so good that I recommend listening to every one of his messages about money. Not only does Bertie make it crystal-clear why we need to reject the tithing paradigm, but he also has excellent teaching on finances which highlights scriptures we don’t often hear taught. He teaches about contentment and helps people who have been “financially abused” to come out of a place of hurt so as to walk in freedom in giving. Bertie has great testimonies of provision, such as receiving a house that someone decided to buy for him. None of it is based on tithing or conventional “sowing money to reap money” teachings.
The third guy I’d like to point you to is Reinhard Hirtler. In 2017 when I was last in the United States, I visited Life Center in Harrisburg. I wept as I felt God’s love all over me, and I wept because of the need for other people to encounter that love. I talked to the pastor, Charles Stock, about the need for revival in Brazil. He told me about his missionary friend Reinhard and said “email me, and I’ll put you in contact with him.”
Well, I think my email got in Charles’s junk bin, because I never got a response. But about two years later, I got an email from Reinhard, saying “Hey, I saw you’re moving to Goiania. Do you want to meet up and talk?” He was the same Reinhard who Charles had suggested meeting two years before! Someone from Washington had told him about one of my books. After reading my book, he subscribed to my blog and saw in my post that I had just moved to Goiania.
So we got together in the mall and chatted for a few hours. It was really encouraging to exchange testimonies and talk about what God is doing. I was also excited to hear about Reinhard’s work to rescue street children. In the northeast of Brazil, Reinhard’s heart broke as he saw young children selling their bodies for just a few cents. He began opening homes for children. He now has three homes for children running, and he wants to open 100!
Radical Trust In God Our Provider
Soon after meeting Reinhard, I read his book Provision Of Heaven. Then I listened to a four-part teaching he did on Finances in the New Covenant. Reinhard went through some really difficult times financially, but he eventually learned to trust God radically for provision.
Reinhard has trusted God to provide for the monthly expenses of the three children’s homes without asking people for money. Once, the pastor managing one of the children’s homes called and said, “I need 10,000 reais today or the workers at the children’s home aren’t coming to work.” Reinhard responded “OK. I’m on the road now, but I’ll be back in 20 minutes and send you the money.”
His wife asked “Where will you get the money? We don’t have much in our account.” But he was confident it would be there. He logged in, the money was there, and he sent the 10,000 reais for the children’s home. A few minutes after he responded to the message from the pastor, a couple he’d never met had sent him $3,000 (about 12,000 reais) by Paypal. God had spoken to them! Reinhard has many similar testimonies of financial miracles. And walking in supernatural provision enables supernatural giving.
Hearing Reinhard’s messages on YouTube highlighted to me how I’ve made some financial decisions in the past out of fear instead of trusting in God. Those decisions ended up hurting me.
As I learned from Reinhard, Michael Van Vlyman, and Bertie Brits, I thought about how much good, Biblical teaching about finances we’ve missed due to the widespread focus on teaching human traditions like tithing. These guys talked about scriptures which I’d read many times, but had rarely heard anybody teach about in their messages on finances. The common themes I found in the teachings of these three guys also confirmed some of the thoughts I’ve had as I’ve wrestled to better understand how to walk in God’s supernatural provision. Following are two of the points that really stood out to me:
God Is Our Father
Matthew 6:25-34 (NIV) “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Our expectation of provision is based on our Heavenly Father’s nature as our provider. One of is Jehovah Jirah, which means “The Lord Will Provide.” Our trust is in his nature, not in our works. Our provision doesn’t depend on if we’ve paid a tithe or how much we’ve sown.
The foundation for generosity and supernatural giving is trust that God provides for us because he is our Father, and then participation in his nature of generosity. We give because we are in communion with God and we feel what he feels.
Man Shall Not Live By Bread Alone, But By Every Word Which Proceeds From The Mouth Of God
As I studied the stories of supernatural provision in scripture, I concluded that it was a mistake to try to extract principles from them for getting your financial miracle. I wrote about this two years ago in When To Give Out Of Need And Expect Supernatural Provision. The miracles of provision came in different ways, but the one thing they all had in common was that God spoke.
Reinhard’s teaching was a strong confirmation of this. Provision is in God’s voice. It could be God saying “Those five loaves and two fish are plenty for everybody” or “Don’t worry. Just cut up that little piece of ham and pass it around.” God might tell you to speak to the rock or to strike the rock. God’s provision could look like when he spoke to someone’s heart and said “Send Reinhard $3000 because he needs it to care for orphans.” Or God could say something else to you. Just like Jesus’s mother Mary said before Jesus turned the water into wine, “Do whatever he tells you.”
Are You Broken And Hurting In The Area Of Finances?
I remember when I was so frustrated. I knew God was real and did miracles because he had healed me, but I’d never seen somebody healed through my hands when I prayed. I felt like God had been stingy with me, but he showed me that his heart was generous but some things I didn’t understand were hindering me.
I felt so broken and weak, so unable to have faith, but I got a revelation of God’s nature in that conference. I became totally convinced that he wants to heal people. I decided to keep praying for everybody I could, even if I didn’t see anything happening. And confidence settled in my heart that God could do the impossible by bringing me to the place of being able to believe for miracles. I tell the story in How A Life Of Miracles Began.
I had formed my view of God through my past hurts and disappointments, but the image I had of him was distorted. Jesus is the image of the invisible God, and if faith is ever going to settle in our hearts it must be by seeing the true nature of God as revealed in Christ. Instead of looking at our disappointments and painful life experiences, we turn our eyes to Jesus and realize “This is what God is really like!” If we could see an accurate picture of what God was like through our life experiences, Jesus would not have had to come as a man to reveal the Father to us!
Maybe you feel broken and confused in the area of finances, as I felt at that conference where I heard about so many healing miracles. Maybe it feels impossible to really trust in your heart that God is your provider and be free from worrying about money. I pray that you would begin to see past the disappointments and painful experiences of the past and the revelation of God as our Father and Provider would begin to settle in your heart.
I came to a heart-revelation of God as our healer through scripture and testimonies. As I fill my heart now with scripture and testimonies revealing God’s nature as my provider, a new confidence is settling in my heart, bringing me to a place of rest. If you feel broken in the area of finances, do the same. Fill your heart with truth, and then begin to keep track of your wins. Focus on thanksgiving to God, even for the little things. I am doing this. I’ll share more about that next week.
Meanwhile, here are links to some resources to help you grow and experience God’s grace supernaturally manifest in your finances:
George Muller Collection George Muller was a man of faith who regularly experienced miracles of provision as he cared for thousands of orphans. He is also one of Reinhard’s inspirations.
Provision of Heaven: 21 Days To Experience Supernatural Provision This is Reinhard Hirtler’s book in English. I read it in Portuguese. All of the profits from any of Reinhard’s books go to caring for orphans and rescuing street children in Brazil.
Finances In The New Covenant Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4. If you click on the links to these messages by Reinhard, you’ll see the titles in Portuguese. However, the whole thing is bilingual with him speaking in English and being translated to Portuguese. This is several hours of teaching, but well worth it. I listened little by little. It’s challenging, but in a good way!
Bertie Brits Money This is what comes up when I search “Bertie Brits Money” on YouTube. I’ve listened to all these messages and they are excellent. His teachings are especially great for helping people who have been hurt by financial abuse in the church to find healing in a fresh revelation of our Heavenly Father’s nature and come out of a place of hurt.
Supernatural Provision: Learning To Walk In Greater Levels Of Stewardship And Responsibility And Letting Go Of Unbiblical Beliefs This book by Michael Van Vlyman is a great resource for helping people step out of a tithe paradigm and into Spirit-led giving. It contains an “activation exercise” to help you embark on the adventure of trusting God with your finances, partnering with Him in supernatural giving and experiencing supernatural provision.
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February 26, 2020
The Antichrist Spirit Says You’ll Always Keep Sinning Because You’re Human
[image error]I’ve written quite a bit on the antichrist spirit in other articles and in my book Jesus Has Come In The Flesh. In the article I Know God’s Will Because Jesus Came In The Flesh, we looked at scripture’s teaching on the antichrist spirit in 1st and 2nd John. The apostle John wrote that we can test every spirit by seeing if it acknowledges or denies that Jesus came in the flesh–that a pure, holy God came as a sinless man. This truth is called the incarnation, and understanding it is key to walking in the anointing. John calls every spirit which denies Jesus came in the flesh an “antichrist spirit.”
How The Gnostics Influenced The Church With An Antichrist Worldview
It’s easy to give lip service to acknowledging a truth like the incarnation but deny its implications. The incarnation comes with a certain worldview. The gnostics were a heretical group that denied Jesus came in the flesh, and they denied that Jesus really had a physical, flesh and blood body because their worldview contrasted with the implications of the incarnation. Many people believe the book of Colossians and John’s epistles were written specifically against the gnostics.
Augustine belonged to a gnostic sect for about ten years before he became a Christian. Although he rejected so many of the gnostic teachings, he didn’t completely break away from the gnostic, antichrist worldview. He became, probably, the most influential theologian throughout church history. I don’t question Augustine’s conversion, but his confusion in certain areas brought an antichrist spirit’s influence into churches for generations to come. The historian Neander said that Augustine’s teaching contained the seed of all the religiously motivated violence throughout history that was done in the name of Christ.
Today we are going to look at a lie of the antichrist spirit which I commonly encounter in the church, falsely cloaked as humility and piety, but keeping many people in bondage.
The Same Lie Which Says You Can’t Do The Works Of Jesus Says You Can’t Be Free From Sin!
Jesus said emphatically, with the words “truly, truly,” that the one who believed in him would not only do the same works that he did but would do even greater works. Bill Johnson and others who teach an incarnation-based theology explain that although Jesus continued to be God, he did his mighty works as a man having every weakness we have but walking in communion with the Father. Although thoroughly biblical, this teaching has been the basis for accusations that people like Bill Johnson and Todd White deny Jesus’s deity.
The accusers are pitting Jesus’s humanity against his deity because their worldview struggles with the truth of the hypostatic union as scripture presents it. God became as weak as one of us! Jesus was just as dependant on the Heavenly Father as any of us are. He was weak, hungered, was tempted (even though James 1:13 says God cannot be tempted), received ministry from other people, and was strengthened by angels. He himself said that he could do nothing of himself, but only what he saw the Father do.
Hebrews 2:14-18 (NIV) Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. For this reason, he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
Bill Johnson teaches that because Jesus became as weak as any of us are, he is a model for how we can live in communion with the Father. The miracles he did are also a model for how we can confront and change situations as we walk in communion with God. The same Holy Spirit that empowered Jesus to do what he could not do of himself now empowers us to do what we cannot do of ourselves.
As I’ve talked to people who would accuse Bill of heresy for such a teaching, I’ve also found that many of them believe we can never be free from sin. They say things like “We are positionally righteous, because of Jesus, but we can’t help that we are always going to keep messing up, because we are human. None of us can really live like Jesus did.”
That sounds a lot to me like the “doctrines of demons” that scripture warns of. It not only denies that those who believe in Jesus will do the same works of power such as healing the sick by the Holy Spirit’s empowerment. It denies that those who believe in Jesus will ever be able to follow his example of holiness and pure love by the Holy Spirit’s empowerment.
2 Timothy 3:5 (NIV) …having a form of godliness but denying its power.
Wow! Don’t settle for a powerless gospel!
A Gnostic Definition Of Salvation!
Lately, I’ve frequently heard Christians around me saying things like “We are always going to mess up because we’re human. Of course, God sees us as righteous because of what Jesus did, and God forgives us and we have to keep repenting every day.” I constantly hear language such as “We are sinners, we’re only human.”
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We’re big on grace and receiving Jesus’s righteousness imputed to us as a free gift. But something is twisted in the above statements. The free gift of righteousness is so much more than only “positional righteousness” or being forgiven. It includes that, but it is also an identity, new nature, a tree that bears the fruit of righteousness as we walk in the light. (See Falling Out Of Sin And Into Righteousness)
Romans chapter six clearly teaches that we have died to sin with Jesus and been raised with Jesus in newness of life, so we must consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to righteousness. How is constantly calling ourselves sinners and saying “we will always fail because we’re only human” considering ourselves dead to sin? Many Christians are doing exactly the opposite of what Romans six says by considering themselves alive to sin rather than dead to it, and we hear it all through their conversation. “We’re always going to fail…”
I was recently having a chat with a friend who kept talking like this, and I said, “This expectation that we are always going to fail is not found in the Bible. You keep saying we are sinners but scripture repeatedly calls those who are in Christ ‘saints.'” The assumption in this line of thinking is that we as Christians may be positionally righteous but we will only ever really be free from sin when we die…when we put off this earthly, physical body.
I just saw this really clearly and I want to share how this line of thinking comes right from the Gnostics’ antichrist worldview. The Gnostics believed that the physical realm was evil, base and corrupt, but the spirit was pure. They denied Jesus had come in the flesh because they did not believe that a pure, holy God could come in a base and corrupt human body. They taught that Jesus only appeared to have a physical human body, but really was pure spirit. Because they denied Jesus came in the flesh, the apostle John called them antichrists.
The Gnostic’s idea of salvation was escaping and being freed from the base, corrupt, physical realm. Being freed from the body. Do you see where this is going? The idea that we will always mess up because we are in this human body is part and parcel of the antichrist, Gnostic worldview. The same worldview by which they denied Jesus came as a human. The idea that only death will fully free us from sin is as gnostic as you can get! It makes Jesus out to be our savior only from the penalty of sin, but death, liberation from this physical human body, to be our savior from the power of sin!
Deliverance From The Power Of Sin
Matthew 1:21 (NIV) She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
Jesus came to deliver us not only from the penalty of sin, but also from the power of sin. Bill Johnson has sometimes remarked that people make death their savior when they put off the healing Jesus purchased on the cross until we die. He is right, and people are also making death their savior when they say Jesus makes us right with the Father but only death will really free us from the power of sin because “we’re just human.”
If we really teach what Jesus has done to free us from sin’s power, people will accuse us of heresy! But it is they who are on shaky ground as far as their incarnation theology. Do we really believe that Jesus came as a human, with every weakness and temptation we have, without sin, depending wholly on the Father, and empowered by the Holy Spirit? Do we accept not only the truth of Christ’s full divinity but also of his full humanity, that he needed the Holy Spirit’s empowerment just as much as we do? That’s not heresy, it’s foundational Christian doctrine.
Look at Romans 5:
Roman 5:12, 15-19 (NIV) Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned…
But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!
Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
Does Romans 5 says sin and death reigned because “we’re just human and we’re always going to mess up?” No, it reigned because we all sinned! But notice how deliverance from sin came! It came through a human, Jesus! Romans then talks about humans who receive God’s grace and righteousness reigning in life, free not only from the penalty of sin but from the power of sin. That doesn’t sound to me like “We always fail because we’re human.” We are no longer “mere humans” but we are humans now united to God in spirit, indwelt by the same Holy Spirit that empowered Christ. The righteousness God gives us is so much more than just “positional.” It is a new nature, empowerment to reign in life now, as humans, just as Jesus came as a human!
We are human-the new human!
Ephesians 4:22-24 (NKJV) put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man (new human) which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
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