The Darkness Of Your Soul Hide In Plain Slight (The Name is Deception)

                                                 When The Door Slams

For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works. (2 Corinthians 11:13-15 NKJV)

            But you, O Lord, who abides forever--you are not angry with us in our fumbling blindness. You are so merciful to us. It was pleasing to you to reshape the deformity that was causing my blindness. It was the darkness of my soul hiding in plain slight, his name is deception and his game is to deceive.

            Now I see that I was searching for the answer outwardly--trying to reason with my mind the best way to escape deception--with the freeing knowledge I sought could come only by your Spirit as it brings inner light. As long as I kept struggling in this way, I was unable to return to the place where my soul might receive fullness, well-being, rest and joy.   

            All of the "roaring and groaning" of my spiritual desire to overcome this evil in my heart. You kept stirring me with the sense that I was missing some secret goodness that is Your Spirit. You kept me in a state of restlessness. Finally, I saw, inwardly, the truth about the origin of evil. The darkness of my soul that hide in plain sight.

            I saw how superior I felt, in my striving for spiritual well-being and sufficiency--but in all this striving I was still totally inferior to The Holy Spirit. I had been so blind to what I was doing, because deception is like a spiritual wound to the face, swelling shut the inner eyes of understanding. And through this swollenness of deception, I was deceive and separated from You. But the Lord Jesus healing hand applied to my eyes a stinging ointment that cause my pride and self-sufficiency to subside. What was this stinging ointment? 

            Think about this: I was given a true understanding and repent for my sinful condition. And at the same time that I was observe myself in this way, I looked upon my Lord and His mercy for me...From that day to this, I have kept that wholesome sorrow for my sins--sorrow that cause me to run to my Lord Jesus for the healing of my soul, and not away from Him in my deception, deceiving myself thinking that I can somehow prove my worthiness. For I see now that deception, pride and self-sufficiency before You--is the source of evil in me. So I come to the Lord daily--weak, hungry and in need of the Holy Spirit flowing through me--that my troubled and darkened soul may gain Your light and strength.  

            Affirmation: Some sat in darkness, in utter darkness, prisoners suffering in iron chains, because they rebelled against God's commands and despised the plan of the Most High. So he subjected to better labor; they stumbled, and there was no one to help. (Psalm 107:10-12 NIV)

Ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart and reveal any areas of unconfessed sin. Acknowledge these to the LORD and thank Him for His forgiveness.   

                                                           Never Rest Ministries

Religious People Sabotage Their Own Futures

                                                 When The Door Slams

For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.                                           (Matthew 6:14-15 NIV)

            You can clear your mind and heart of the negativity you have built up over time with one decisive action: Issue a blanket pardon to everyone for everything that they have done to hurt you in any way. The doorway that opens to a life of love and joy forgiveness. Your ability to freely forgive other people, and to let the hurt go, is the true mark of integrity, character and a fully developed personality. 

            Many people cling to their resentments because they feel that they have paid so dearly for them that they cannot possibly give them up. Sometimes people's entire lives are built around their past hurts and suffering. They have little else to talk about, and they dwell on their negative experiences continually. 

            Eventually, these people make themselves physically and mentally ill. Their repressed anger and negativity sooner or later erupt and spoil any new relationships that they try to build. They sabotage their own futures. And, in every case, there is only one solution and that is to let go and give it to LORD Jesus our Savior. Forgiving another person is a perfectly "selfish" act. You do it so that you can be free. You give it to the LORD, so that you can experience the happiness and joy for which you were created. 

            Think about this: We are talking about truly born again Christians. If you find that you still cannot bring yourself to do a kindness for the other Christian, this should tell you something about your true feelings. This inability to forgive might be holding you back from loving yourself and other Christians. You might have your foot on the brakes of your own future happiness.

           Affirmation: But what does it say? "The word is near you, even in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith which we preach); that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes to righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to salvation. For the scripture says, "Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame." ((Romans 10:8-11 NKJV)     

 Ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart and reveal any areas of unconfessed sin. Acknowledge these to the LORD and thank Him for His forgiveness 

When A Man Has Sinned Against God He Or She Has True Guilt

                                      When The Door Slams

Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy. Blessed is the one who always trembles before God, but whoever hardens their heart falls into trouble. Like a roaring lion or a charging bear is a wicked ruler over a helpless people. A tyrannical ruler practices extortion, but one who hates ill-gotten gain will enjoy a long reign. Anyone tormented by guilt of murder will seek refuge in the grave; let no one hold them back. The one whose walk is blameless is kept safe, but the one whose ways are perverse will fall into the pit.  (Proverbs 28:13-18 NIV) 

            These words from the Lord should end the controversy once and for all. Each adult is responsible for his own behavior, and that of no one else. The person who sins is the one who will die. A child will not be punished for a parent's sin, and a parent will not be punished for a child's sin.                    (read: Ezekiel 18:1-24 NIV) 

            The results of sin were immediately evident in the Garden of Eden.... The significance is that Adam and Eve were brought to a realization of what they had done. They began to feel afraid and to feel guilt--and well they might, for their guilt feelings were rooted in the true guilt. When a man has sinned against God, he or she not only has guilt feelings, he has true guilt; and he has true guilt even if he does not have feelings of guilt.

            "And the man and his wife hid from the LORD God among the trees in the garden" (read: Genesis 3:8-10 NIV).... In the garden in the cool of the day, there was open fellowship, open communion--open propositional communication between God and man before the Fall. But now that which was his wonder and his joy, the fulfillment of his need, an infinite, personal reference point with whom he could have communion and communication became the reason for his fear. He was going to meet God face to face! Once man had shaken his fist in the face of God, what had been so wonderful became a just reason for fear, because God was really and truly there.

            Think about this: We notice here when we...try to pass the guilt from ourselves to another, and we have, therefore, the division which is at the very heart of our relationships with man from this point on.... We do not have to wait for modern psychologists to talk about alienation. Here it is.... However, this "self" conscious world is in desperate straits. Each new promise leads only to a frustrating paradox.... Decades of seemingly limitless affluence have succeeded only in sucking our culture dry, leaving it spiritually empty and economically weakened. Our world is filled with self-absorbed, frightened, hollow leaders.

            Amid these debilitating paradoxes of modern life, men and women search for some shred of meaning, some understanding of self. But the obsessive search leads only to the narcissistic destruction of what is so avidly sought. Once man had shaken his fist in the face of God.

 Ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart and reveal any areas of unconfessed sin. Acknowledge these to the LORD and thank Him for His Forgiveness.  

                                                        Never Rest Ministries   

Things Of God Is Lock In Mortal Combat With Earth Concerns

                                                 When The Door Slams

Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice! Have mercy also upon me, and answer me. When You said, "Seek My face," My heart said to You, "Your face, LORD, I will seek." Do not hide Your face from me; Do not turn Your servant away in anger; You have been my help; Do not leave me nor forsake me, O God of my salvation.        (Psalm 27:7-9 NKJV)

            One holy passion. A passion is a strong feeling, an emotion that is packed with intensity. At times it carries a sense of urgency. Not all passions are holy. As fallen human beings we are often trapped in unholy passions. Our feelings are mixed. then the Holy Spirit quickens us to a new life with new passions. But many of the old passions remain. We struggle with our feelings. Our affection for the things of God is locked in mortal combat with early concerns. 

            If we are to progress in godliness we need to fan the flames of a holy passion. We need a single-minded desire to know God. We follow Jesus who went before us. He was moved by a single passion to do the will of His Father. His meat and drink were to do His Father's will. Zeal for His Father's house consumed Him. He was a man of holy destiny with a face set a flint. 

            Jesus knew the Father. His knowledge of God was so deep, so profound that his entire earthly life reflected a single holy passion. Jesus revealed the Father to us and called us--to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. 

            Think about this: We are to press into the Kingdom of God, to storm it if we must, to seize the opportunity to know God. This quest is not casual. The pursuit is not cavalier. We are to be driven by a holy passion. God gives us freedom to make our own lives within the situation which is the gift of His love to us, and by means of the power His love grants us.

            Affirmation: But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.              (Philippians 3:7-11 NKJV) 

Ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart and reveal any areas of unconfessed sin. Acknowledge these to the LORD and thank Him for His forgiveness 

                                                            Never Rest Ministries  

                

                      

Modern Churches Have Substituted An Institutionalized Religion For The Life-Changing Dynamic Of A Living Faith

                                                 When The Door Slams 

To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ.                                                                             (1 Corinthians 2:2-3 ESV) 

            While the church may seem to be experiencing a season of growth and prosperity, it is failing to move people to commitment and sacrifice. The hard truth is that we have substituted an institutionalized religion for the life-changing dynamic of a living faith. For most of us the church is the building where we assemble to worship; its ministries are the programs that we get involved in; its mission is to meet the needs of its parishioners; and its servants are the professional clergy we hire to shepherd us. Church growth has come to refer more to such things as location, marketing, architecture, programs, and head counts than to the maturity of the body of Christ.

            When compared with previous generations of believers, we seem among the most consistently at peace with our culture, the least skillful at transforming society, and the most desperate for a meaningful faith. Our reason for being is confusing, our mission unclear, and our existence as a people in jeopardy. Worst of all, our leaders know it--but seem unable or willing to do anything about it. 

            Think about this: In light of this, it should not surprise you that while plenty of people are still walking through the doors of churches, secularism reigns as the dominant world-view of American culture. It is hard to imagine, therefore, a more urgent or critical task than the recovery and restoration of the biblical view of the church.

            Affirmation: And Peter said to them, Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself. And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, "Save yourselves from this crooked generation. So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousands souls.                                                            (Acts 2:38-41 ESV)       

 Ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart and reveal any areas of unconfessed sin. Acknowledge these to the LORD and thank Him for His forgiveness.        

                                                    Never Rest Ministries

Religious Churches Praise The Lust Of The Eyes, And The Lust Of The Flesh

                                                 When The Door Slams

Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people." Therefore "Come out from among them And be separate, say the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you."  I will be a Father to you, And you shall be My sons and daughters, Says the LORD Almighty."  (2 Corinthians 6:14-18 NKJV)  

            At this point Satan is doing his deadliest work because what has just occurred went unnoticed, unseen, and produced no shock or alarm. It is not by the open confrontation of evil that Satan corrupts and disrupts the church, but by quite, unnoticed substitution. The holy things of God are being removed, the spiritual gives place to the natural, and the divine is eliminated because it is made secondary.

            A growing trend among Evangelical churches is to attract people through their events, clubs, shows, performances, sports, and any other convenient methods. But these activities appeal to the sinful appetites, the lust of the eyes, and the lust of the flesh. This alarming and scandalous and cries out for God's judgment. How radical the contrast between the activities of the modern, worldly church, with those of primitive church. The original methods and gatherings were wholly spiritual, calculated to strengthen and cultivate all the graces of the Spirit to preserve a deep experience of God. 

            The church was a training school for the spiritual life. They never lingered in things exclusively moral, aesthetic, and mental. They developed no taste or inclination which was not spiritual. They took it for granted that all who came to them really desired to flees from the wrath to come, and were sincerely sorrowful after full redemption. These carnal activities are regarded by many as the perfection of spiritual things. But in the end all that is distinctly spiritual is eliminated, and when this occurs anything that is deeply holy will not survive the death of things spiritual. Edification, a high priority of the church, is wholly forsaken, and vain amusements and things pleasing to the flesh take its place. The social forces not only suppress the spiritual forces, but effectually destroy them. What do church activities and meetings filled with worldliness and carnality have in common with true holiness and the fruit of the Holy Spirit? "How can two walk together unless they are agreed?' (Amos 3:3). "What communion has light with darkness . . . and what agreement has the temple of God with idols?" (2 Cor. 6:14,16). "Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening?" (James 3:11). 

            Think about this: Disguise it as we may, apologize for it as we do, we vainly boast of growth, but the truth is, we have lost that intense type of experience, that deep conviction of spiritual things which are evidences of the blessing and presence of the Holy Spirit. Many preachers and people have fallen so low in their experience that they don't hunger for spiritual channels of grace, but attend "churches" to gratify their non-spiritual tastes which are halfway between Christ and the world. Few of them might possess one grain of spiritual power, and can never be the means of communicating spiritual life.

Ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart and reveal any areas of unconfessed sin.                Acknowledge these to the LORD and thank Him for His forgiveness

                                                                    Never Rest Ministries           

The Holy Spirit Or The World

                                                When The Door Slams

Jesus answered, "I assure you and most solemnly say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot [even] enter the kingdom of God. [Ezekiel 36:25-27] "That which is born of the flesh is flesh [the physical is merely physical], and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit.                                                                 (John 3:5-6 AMP)     

            The religious leaders, secular thinkers and philosophers used the phrase "let's save the world." All this sounds fine, and agrees with this material age, and becomes practical in operation, and impressive in results. But does this agree with the essential purpose of the church? Do we need any church to obtain these ends? Councilmen, police, and social workers can achieve these results. It requires no church, no Bible, no personal holiness, to secure these ends. The purposes of the church rise in praiseworthy above these childish dreams and fanciful philosophies.

            Our goal is to regenerate and sanctify the individual; to make him or (her) holy and prepare him for heaven by purifying and training him in the school of Christ. The church is like the net cast by fishermen into the sea. The purpose is not to change the sea, but to catch the fish. Let the waves roll in their natural way, but the net will catch the fish. To save the world and ignore the individual is not only unworkable, but damaging in every way. In the hopes of saving the world, as noble as it appears, it will be the undoing of the church. It will make the church worldly and unfit for her holy and praiseworthy mission. Christ said that gaining the world and saving the man are antagonistic ends. Christ taught Peter[Matt. 16:16-24] that his satanic suggestion would gain the world for the church, but would lose the soul. Everything seems helpful to the cause of God, when in reality it was death. 

            The church is distinctly and preeminently a spiritual institution. It is created, energized, and directed by the Spirit of God. Her methods, activities, rituals, services, and officers have no beauty, no sufficiency, no power, except as they are vessels and channels of the Holy Spirit. It is His indwelling and inspiration that equips the inner man and secures its divine purpose. If the Holy Spirit is persistently grieved and quenched, the church will lose its power to bring divine life into the world. If the devil can blind the eyes and dull the minds of church members to the desperate need of the Holy Spirit's sanctifying power, he has effectively lulled the church to sleep.

            Think about this: Satan tries to accomplish this by marginalizing and retiring the means which God has ordained, and replaces them with natural talents and fleshly works that are useless without the Spirit's power. Christ announced a universal and immutable law when He said "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit" (John 3:6). The church may have a holy preacher, a man of prayer, who is filled with the Spirit. But if Satan can instigate his removal and replace him with a prayerless, popular, and eloquent man, the church may seemed to have gained, but it has substituted the spiritual for the natural, a change that has unconsciously weakened the church.

 Ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart and reveal any areas of unconfessed sin. Acknowledge these to the LORD and thank Him for His forgiveness.

                                                Never Rest Ministries