Before becoming a pastor a Christian has to make sure they are called "by God" to pastor and are established in a church. That's no. 1.
Second they need to make sure they train for ministry before being ordained.
Thirdly they need to wait for the right timing to pastor a church. Otherwise "failure" is bound to happen.
Lastly, pastors need to be held accountable by wise counsel, so that when pastors fall into sin they will be taken down from the pulpit and guided into complete and total deliverance and restoration.
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Before Becoming a Pastor
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Dear Lover of God
After more than 220 blog comments, the general witness is clear: "You can feel God's presence and instantly go before His throne".
=> Watch the video here: <a href="http://encountergodmedia.com/free/">Free Christian Music</a>
Here is what people say: "Only a move of God could have made possible a proclamation that pierced the soul orchestrated by beautiful music. I felt transported to that indescribable throne of His majesty King Jesus!" - Ching
"This album should be released with a disclaimer: "Due to the teleporting nature of this recording, do not listen to while driving your car. Sit down and close your eyes because this prophetic worship is one of the fastest divine escorts into the Throne room!" – Cheryl Ott
=> Get the album on (CD or MP3) here: <a href="http://encountergodmedia.com/free/">Free Christian Music</a>
Monday, January 21, 2013
CIVIL WAR in THE USA?? - The Visions
Before the recent US election and "gun" controversy, many would have laughed at the idea of Civil War or similar conflict in America. I guess it is not quite so "laughable" now.
I got a lot of nasty and bitter personal attacks aimed at me last week over my article, "Do Christians Love Guns?" People accused me of all kinds of twisted motivations for publishing such a thing. But the honest truth is that I am genuinely concerned. Concerned for a country that I love and a people that I love. I feel many Christians are being driven into a great anger that can only result in grief. Perhaps when you read the prophecies below you will understand my concern. I truly would hate to see any of my friends caught up in such a conflict. Here are the visions-
Kenny Atnip (Jan 2013)-"Some time ago God showed me and some others that America would enter an internal war. You can call it civil war or revolutionary war or anything you like, but it is coming. God showed me plainly that many Christians would be tempted to be part of a war against the government and that this war would be part of his judgment on the U.S.A. and we should not get involved. The current government´s actions are because of God´s judgment so he who resists this government resists God´s ordinance.
Global war is coming as well, and America will be attacked, and after all of these things I saw a time of peace again in the land. America will be humbled and once again look to God as it´s provider and defender.
The message to Christians here in America is the same that Jeremiah told to Judah- Submit to God´s judgment and it will go well for you, resist and it will cost some their lives and others their freedom..."
Darren Smith (June 2009)-"Last night while praying before I went to bed, The Lord gave me a vision that really rattled me. In the vision I saw this land split into four parts with each one under its own flag. Each region had terrible destruction and many people were dead. As I looked over the destruction I was crying and the Lord asked me, "Why are you crying over the fall of Babylon? As a matter of fact, why have you been praying for the healing of Babylon?"
In this vision I didn't have an answer and the Lord opened a scroll and started reading off the indictments against our country, but before each one he clearly called the USA Babylon. The list was long and to the point, with such points as the killing of several generations of unborn children. Beside this charge He added that these babies had been sacrificed to the god of self. The list also included greed, idolatry, pride, fornication, and many others, so many I could not even read them all.
As I looked at the list of charges I was overwhelmed and broken by the fact that we live every day in a nation that is so far removed from God and in total opposition to the Kingdom of God, yet we are comfortable here. We have become just like Lot living in Sodom, the prosperity that the nation offers us has blinded us from the evil that rules this land. We complain about how bad it is but still stay attached to it with every ounce of strength we have.
The Lord told me to look at the nation as He sees it, not through my eyes but through His. I could not look too long before I had to agree and repent of loving Babylon. Once I repented the Lord told me to prepare for the fall as time is running out. I must preach the Gospel of The Kingdom, not the Gospel of America. America is already judged, the time of shaking is now and will increase rapidly..."
'Journey' (Jan 2013)-"I too believe that the United States is headed for a civil war or something to that nature. I have friends who are in the "Patriot" movement so I hear of things happening that the media will never report. In a nutshell, here is my conclusion to what I hear. There have been hundreds of thousands of assault rifles sold in the past year. There have been laws and rules put into force against assault rifles. Why would this conflict be?... A move to rile up the people has been put into play. Arm the people and then make laws to make them revolt against the Government. The underlying purpose is actually to cause the individual states to secede from the union... Divide and conquer is the idea."
Kenny Atnip - "Civil War in U.S." (Dec 2010)-"My 16-year-old daughter, Maryann, had a dream a few days ago. She dreamed of civil war against the current government. The scene was very chaotic and those in rebellion to the government were going house to house forcing any and all men to join with them. Many of us Christians were in hiding, not willing to join in a rebellion against the government.
She awoke in the middle of the night with a strong taste of blood in her mouth. Her 13-year-old sister, Aimee, woke up as well and immediately asked her what was wrong. The 16-year-old said that she had the taste of blood in her mouth to which the 13-year-old asked, "Were you dreaming of war?" Somehow she knew that she was dreaming of war.
Last November my three-year-old son, Jeremiah, slept with Mom and Dad. He awoke at 5:30 AM yelling, "War is coming ... people are dying ... people are crying to God." He has no idea what these things are. It woke me out of a dead sleep and I sat up and looked at him. He was wide awake...
We will have 5 years of terror and turmoil beginning very soon... I believe the government will begin rounding up people that are on a list. If we are on that list, don´t resist or run, God sends some away to protect them. God will vindicate the righteous in his time."
Donald replies-"Kenny- that advice is the same as that given to the Israelites. Don´t resist when King Nebuchadnezzar comes to take you away. If you go willingly you will be established in a foreign land, if you resist you will die. (We may or may not actually die, but our lives could become so miserable we will wish we would die). Good advice for all of us at this unsettling time."
'Journey' replies-"Yes Kenny, Good advice. It is better to serve God while in captivity than to die resisting His purpose. God is doing this to the Church because of their pride and arogance. God is humbling His Church."
Could civil war be coming to America? What should the Christians' response be? We would love to hear your comments, my friends.
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http://www.revivalschool.com/
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Sunday, November 11, 2012
Sow in Tears; Reap in Joy
|
Sow in Tears; Reap in Joy
Here is a word for you from the Word
The Bible is so accurate, so faithful to life. It doesn’t give us a rosy, false picture of what life is like. It shows us both the dark and the light, the evil and the good, the hard and the enjoyable, the bitter and the sweet. And it says that, in effect, if we want to reap we are going to have to sow. That’s a law of life; it’s a law of the universe. It says that sowing will be done with tears, but reaping will come with joy. That’s faith, you see. You’ve got to go out with your seed even in tears, to scatter the seed and be willing to wait, and to wait upon God and let Him bring forth the harvest which He’s promised. But the promise is so beautiful, “He that goes out weeping carrying seed to sow will return with songs of joy carrying sheaves with him.” Let this be a message to you. If you are feeling discouraged, if you are feeling that somehow things aren’t going the way you want them to, that you are working and seeing so few and such indeterminate results, just be prepared to weep. But go on sowing, because God has promised that if you sow the good seed, even weeping, there’ll come a day when you’ll carry back your arms full of sheaves with songs of joy. Don’t be afraid to sow even in tears, you’ll reap with songs of joy.
- Derek Prince
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Thursday, November 8, 2012
OUR DEAR AMERICA - Where do you go From Here?
by Wolfgang and Mercy Simson.
Today, Obama has been re-elected; all the efforts of many Christian
leaders, prayer movements, "prophets" and "concerned Americans"
who have lobbied, written appeals, articles, books, letters - some
have even done films - to warn not to vote for him have come to
nothing. Many of them have behaved as if the future of the Kingdom
of God is at stake. Well, it is not.
Can we, as foreigners who dearly love you as a people, say a few
words into this situation? Because it is evident to us that God has
a clear plan with your nation. But many don t seem to see it, and
therefore run the danger of fighting the wrong fight, wasting precious
time and resources, and even endlessly call upon God to do what
he just will not do.
The German weekly Der Spiegel, kind of a German Time Magazine,
has a cover picture of Uncle Sam in bed, titled, The American
Patient: The decline of a Great Nation. We think this is a prophetic
picture. As your friends, we know, acknowledge and admire that
America has had a great past. But how will your future look like?
God chastises whom he loves because he knows: pride will come
before the fall, and humbleness and brokenness is the only condition
he responds to. We personally sense we need to tell you: the
destiny of your nation is in God´s hands, not yours. It is not at all
about Obama or Romney, it is about God using all the nations in
the world according to his global and unchanging plans. Did you
ever allow the thought that God in his sovereignty is using Obama
like a pawn on his chessboard to humble the US as a nation
because he wants to show his grace to a nation gone completely
self-sufficient? A nation that is so full of independence, individualism,
nationalism and trusting a greed- and fear-based economy that there
may be only one way open to heal it from its idolatry and re-align
itself with the Kingdom of God: a crisis beyond anything that
America has ever seen?
In 2008, God has been challenged by a man standing up in public,
preaching to the cheers of a huge crowd: "Yes we can!" We watched
it; we saw the tears of excitement in the eyes of the people; the
statements were received as if coming from the Messiah himself,
and the electoral rallies had all the flavor of a religious revival. "Yes,
we can" is the exact opposite of the King of kings saying: "Without
me, you can do nothing!"
If God is the one who "deposes kings and raises up others" (Dan
2:21), does it really matter what are the names of the current
puppets set in place by God that advance both the New World
Order and the Kingdom of God? Neither Herod, Pilate nor Caesar
were truly important for the development of the Kingdom. That is
exactly why Kingdom people do not play in the Second League,
but the First, the one that matters. The one that puts the Kingdom
first, and everything else - including their own nation - second.
The problem of the current commotion and insecurities arises
when even the people that call themselves after God keep confusing
the Kingdom of God with the United States of America. And when
that happens, especially through Christians with a public voice,
then we have truly lost all perspective of the coming Kingdom of
Jesus Christ and the predictions he has made that will precede
his coming.
America is being publicly humbled by God; and he is going to use
Obama - and those after him - to further advance his agenda that
will lead all nations to kneel before that one true King Jesus very
soon. If any nation wants to become a tower that reaches up to
high heaven, it will be humbled by a God who will not share his
glory with people relying on their own strength.
America, where do you go from here? What does this mean for
you? The future is going to be very, very rough. Your securities
will vanish, the economy will go down, the education system will
become even worse, the streets more dangerous, the churches
even more divided, the youth even more disillusioned - unless
there is a true movement that abandons all those idols mentioned
above, and radically repents, makes a radical alignment with the
King of the Kingdom of God and his constitution, live the Law of
Christ in all areas of life, first and foremost in the areas of sex,
money, power and how we "do church". This is a defining moment
for you as a nation. You could go down, as the German journalist
of `Der Spiegel´ predicted. Or, America could be literally re-invented
by Kingdom people who are ready to implode the prevailing myths
about America's greatness, and replace it by God´s greatness.
The King has even greater things purposed and would fulfill those
purpose IF those who call themselves after Jesus the King, would
turn away from their self-made religion, self-made churches and
religious factions, self-made visions of success, and their self-made,
harmless God.
Can we lovingly but urgently call you back at this hour to begin and
initiate a movement to reposition and repatriate yourselves into the
eternal Kingdom, by submitting yourself not only in theory but also
in practical deeds to Jesus the King, starting to obey the King and
his liberating decrees in all the areas that count? You might even
want to write a declaration of dependence on God and each other,
because by idolizing anything else before and over God, you will
become illegal aliens in the country that counts, where we all are
called to have our home: the Kingdom, the one place where our
true citizenship, nationality and allegiance lies (Phil 3:20). This is
the only one country that will not be shaken, as it has an
unchanging King.
Monday, October 22, 2012
Can an Evangelical Christian Vote For a Mormon?
by Wolfgang and Mercy Simson.
Today, Obama has been re-elected; all the efforts of many Christian
leaders, prayer movements, "prophets" and "concerned Americans"
who have lobbied, written appeals, articles, books, letters - some
have even done films - to warn not to vote for him have come to
nothing. Many of them have behaved as if the future of the Kingdom of God is at stake. Well, it is not.
Can we, as foreigners who dearly love you as a people, say a few
words into this situation? Because it is evident to us that God has
a clear plan with your nation. But many don t seem to see it, and
therefore run the danger of fighting the wrong fight, wasting precious time and resources, and even endlessly call upon God to do what he just will not do.
The German weekly Der Spiegel, kind of a German Time Magazine,
has a cover picture of Uncle Sam in bed, titled, The American
Patient: The decline of a Great Nation. We think this is a prophetic
picture. As your friends, we know, acknowledge and admire that
America has had a great past. But how will your future look like?
God chastises whom he loves because he knows: pride will come
before the fall, and humbleness and brokenness is the only condition he responds to. We personally sense we need to tell you: the destiny of your nation is in God´s hands, not yours. It is not at all about Obama or Romney, it is about God using all the nations in
the world according to his global and unchanging plans. Did you
ever allow the thought that God in his sovereignty is using Obama
like a pawn on his chessboard to humble the US as a nation
because he wants to show his grace to a nation gone completely
self-sufficient? A nation that is so full of independence, individualism,
nationalism and trusting a greed- and fear-based economy that there
may be only one way open to heal it from its idolatry and re-align
itself with the Kingdom of God: a crisis beyond anything that
America has ever seen?
In 2008, God has been challenged by a man standing up in public,
preaching to the cheers of a huge crowd: "Yes we can!" We watched it; we saw the tears of excitement in the eyes of the people; the statements were received as if coming from the Messiah himself, and the electoral rallies had all the flavor of a religious revival. "Yes, we can" is the exact opposite of the King of kings saying: "Without me, you can do nothing!"
If God is the one who "deposes kings and raises up others" (Dan
2:21), does it really matter what are the names of the current
puppets set in place by God that advance both the New World
Order and the Kingdom of God? Neither Herod, Pilate nor Caesar
were truly important for the development of the Kingdom. That is
exactly why Kingdom people do not play in the Second League,
but the First, the one that matters. The one that puts the Kingdom
first, and everything else - including their own nation - second.
The problem of the current commotion and insecurities arises
when even the people that call themselves after God keep confusing the Kingdom of God with the United States of America. And when that happens, especially through Christians with a public voice, then we have truly lost all perspective of the coming Kingdom of Jesus Christ and the predictions he has made that will precede his coming.
America is being publicly humbled by God; and he is going to use
Obama - and those after him - to further advance his agenda that
will lead all nations to kneel before that one true King Jesus very
soon. If any nation wants to become a tower that reaches up to
high heaven, it will be humbled by a God who will not share his
glory with people relying on their own strength.
America, where do you go from here? What does this mean for
you? The future is going to be very, very rough. Your securities
will vanish, the economy will go down, the education system will
become even worse, the streets more dangerous, the churches
even more divided, the youth even more disillusioned - unless
there is a true movement that abandons all those idols mentioned
above, and radically repents, makes a radical alignment with the
King of the Kingdom of God and his constitution, live the Law of
Christ in all areas of life, first and foremost in the areas of sex,
money, power and how we "do church". This is a defining moment
for you as a nation. You could go down, as the German journalist
of `Der Spiegel´ predicted. Or, America could be literally re-invented by Kingdom people who are ready to implode the prevailing myths about America's greatness, and replace it by God´s greatness.
The King has even greater things purposed and would fulfill those
purpose IF those who call themselves after Jesus the King, would
turn away from their self-made religion, self-made churches and
religious factions, self-made visions of success, and their self-made,
harmless God.
Can we lovingly but urgently call you back at this hour to begin and
initiate a movement to reposition and repatriate yourselves into the
eternal Kingdom, by submitting yourself not only in theory but also
in practical deeds to Jesus the King, starting to obey the King and
his liberating decrees in all the areas that count? You might even
want to write a declaration of dependence on God and each other,
because by idolizing anything else before and over God, you will
become illegal aliens in the country that counts, where we all are
called to have our home: the Kingdom, the one place where our
true citizenship, nationality and allegiance lies (Phil 3:20). This is
the only one country that will not be shaken, as it has an
unchanging King.
Sunday, August 12, 2012
PICTURE OF a PROPHET
-by Leonard Ravenhill.
The prophet in his day is fully accepted of God and totally rejected by men.
Years back, Dr. Gregory Mantle was right when he said, "No man
can be fully accepted until he is totally rejected." The prophet of
the Lord is aware of both these experiences. They are his "brand name."
The group, challenged by the prophet because they are smug and
comfortably insulated from a perishing world in their warm but
untested theology, is not likely to vote him "Man of the year" when
he refers to them as habituates of the synagogue of Satan!
The prophet comes to set up that which is upset. His work is to
call into line those who are out of line! He is unpopular because he
opposes the popular in morality and spirituality. In a day of faceless
politicians and voiceless preachers, there is not a more urgent
national need than that we cry to God for a prophet! The function
of the prophet, as Austin-Sparks once said, "has almost always
been that of recovery."
The prophet is God's detective seeking for a lost treasure. The
degree of his effectiveness is determined by his measure of
unpopularity. Compromise is not known to him.
He has no price tags.
He is totally 'otherworldly.'
He is unquestionably controversial and unpardonably hostile.
He marches to another drummer!
He breathes the rarefied air of inspiration.
He is a "seer" who comes to lead the blind.
He lives in the heights of God and comes into the valley with a
"thus saith the Lord."
He shares some of the foreknowledge of God and so is aware of
impending judgment.
He lives in 'splendid isolation.'
He is forthright and outright, but he claims no birthright.
His message is "repent, be reconciled to God or else...!"
His prophecies are parried.
His truth brings torment, but his voice is never void.
He is the villain of today and the hero of tomorrow.
He is excommunicated while alive and exalted when dead!
He is dishonored with epithets when breathing and honored with
epitaphs when dead.
He is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, but few 'make the grade'
in his class.
He is friendless while living and famous when dead.
He is against the establishment in ministry; then he is established
as a saint by posterity.
He eats daily the bread of affliction while he ministers, but he feeds
the Bread of Life to those who listen.
He walks before men for days but has walked before God for years.
He is a scourge to the nation before he is scourged by the nation.
He announces, pronounces, and denounces!
He has a heart like a volcano and his words are as fire.
He talks to men about God.
He carries the lamp of truth amongst heretics while he is lampooned by men.
He faces God before he faces men, but he is self-effacing.
He hides with God in the secret place, but he has nothing to hide
in the marketplace.
He is naturally sensitive but supernaturally spiritual.
He has passion, purpose and pugnacity.
He is ordained of God but disdained by men.
Our national need at this hour is not that the dollar recover its
strength, or that we save face over the Watergate affair, or that we
find the answer to the ecology problem. We need a God-sent prophet!
I am bombarded with talk or letters about the coming shortages in
our national life: bread, fuel, energy. I read between the lines from
people not practiced in scaring folk. They feel that the "seven years
of plenty" are over for us. The "seven years of famine" are ahead.
But the greatest famine of all in this nation at this given moment is
a FAMINE OF THE HEARING OF THE WORDS OF GOD (Amos 8:11).
Millions have been spent on evangelism in the last twenty-five years.
Hundreds of gospel messages streak through the air over the nation
every day. Crusades have been held; healing meetings have made
a vital contribution. "Come-outers" have "come out" and settled, too,
without a nation-shaking revival. Organizers we have. Skilled
preachers abound. Multi-million dollar Christian organizations
straddle the nation. BUT where, oh where, is the prophet? Where
are the incandescent men fresh from the holy place? Where is the
Moses to plead in fasting before the holiness of the Lord for our
moldy morality, our political perfidy, and sour and sick spirituality?
GOD'S MEN ARE IN HIDING UNTIL THE DAY OF THEIR SHOWING FORTH.
They will come.
The prophet is violated during his ministry, but he is vindicated by history.
There is a terrible vacuum in evangelical Christianity today. The
missing person in our ranks is the prophet. The man with a terrible
earnestness. The man totally otherworldly. The man rejected by
other men, even other good men, because they consider him too
austere, too severely committed, too negative and unsociable.
Let him be as plain as John the Baptist.
Let him for a season be a voice crying in the wilderness of modern
theology and stagnant "churchianity."
Let him be as selfless as Paul the apostle.
Let him, too, say and live, "This ONE thing I do."
Let him reject ecclesiastical favors.
Let him be self-abasing, nonself-seeking, nonself-projecting,
nonself-righteous, nonself-glorying, nonself-promoting.
Let him say nothing that will draw men to himself but only that which
will move men to God.
Let him come daily from the throne room of a holy God, the place
where he has received the order of the day. Let him, under God,
unstop the ears of the millions who are deaf through the clatter of
shekels milked from this hour of material mesmerism.
Let him cry with a voice this century has not heard because he
has seen a vision no man in this century has seen. God send us
this Moses to lead us from the wilderness of crass materialism,
where the rattlesnakes of lust bite us and where enlightened men,
totally blind spiritually, lead us to an ever-nearing Armageddon.
---------------------------------------------------------
God have mercy! Send us PROPHETS!
"When a prophet is accepted and deified, his message is lost. The
prophet is only useful so long as he is stoned as a public nuisance
calling us to repentance, disturbing our comfortable routines,
breaking our respectable idols, shattering our sacred conventions."
-A. G. Gardiner.
"The function of the Prophet has almost invariably been that of
recovery. That implies that his business is related to something
lost. That something being absolutely essential to God's full
satisfaction, the dominant note of the Prophet was one of
dissatisfaction. And, there being the additional factor that, for
obvious reasons, the people were not disposed to go the costly
way of God's full purpose, the Prophet was usually an unpopular person."
-T. Austin Sparks.
"Those whom God calls to such a ministry - and a call is essential -
must be prepared for a pathway of unpopularity and misunderstanding.
"You troubler of Israel" was the way Ahab addressed Elijah."
-Arthur Wallis.
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http://www.johnthebaptisttv.com/
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