Tag: God

We Are Living in Amazing Days!

“Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.”

One of my major complaints over the past several years is that many churches/pastors are not teaching what the Bible tells us is going to be happening in our culture during the Last Days before the return of Christ.  I have heard that many Christians don’t even read their own Bibles, let alone those people who aren’t believers! Or, if a Christian does read their Bible, some will skip over those parts that make them uncomfortable or parts they don’t understand.  If pastors don’t speak/teach on such things, the difficult and challenging things, how on earth are we going to be prepared for the world-wide deception that is coming? Jesus himself admonished us in Matthew 24 to not be deceived. The only way you do that is to learn the truth of it from God’s Word so you will recognize the deception when you see it. God gives us prophecy in the Bible to prepare us, not to scare us! That way when we see these things happening it will encourage our faith to know that he is God and his Word is true.

 I thank God for Pastor Jack Hibbs! I can’t attend his church personally as he is located in California and I am not, but I check in regularly online as a supplement to my local church. I would strongly urge you to settle in with a coffee or tea and watch each of the following teachings in their entirety.  They just may open your eyes to a whole new understanding of scripture that you’ve never even thought of before. Look up the scripture references yourself in your own Bible and ask God to help you understand his Word.  Whether you want to believe it or not, there IS a spiritual battle going on for the souls of men/women, and I truly believe we are on the verge of witnessing demonic deception on a level that we have never thought possible. Buckle up and hear what God has to say about it!

In the Daze of Deception Part 1

In the Daze of Deception Part 2

In the Days of Deception Part 3

Following are some of the key scriptures referenced by Pastor Jack:

Luke 21:34-36 – “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap. For it will come upon all those who live on the face of the whole earth. Be always on the watch, and pray that you will be able  to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.”

1 Thessalonians 5:1-9 – “Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Luke 21:28 – “When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

1 John 4:1-3 – “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits (with the Word of God) to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.”

2 Corinthians 11:14-15 – “… for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.”

Colossians 2:8 – “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.”

Ephesians 4:14-15 – “Then we will no longer be (spiritual) infants, tossed back and forth by the waves (troubles of life), and blown here and there by every wind of (false) teaching, and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up (spiritually) in him who is the Head, that is, Christ.”

Luke 21:8 – “He (Jesus) replied: ‘Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not follow them.”

I have to admit that I didn’t grow up going to church or reading my Bible. It wasn’t until late high school/early college that I experienced a spiritual crisis that led me to salvation in Jesus Christ. Oh, how I NEEDED him!! And from the very beginning of that relationship I knew deep in my heart that I would experience the return of Christ in my lifetime. But how did I know? I can only say it was by the Holy Spirit. I had no knowledge of the “End Times”, the Book of Revelation or biblical prophecy – I had never even really read the Bible at all! But I knew that God exists, and I had come to know his Son intimately, and I believed his Word. And if I believed Christ had come the first time, to be the perfect sacrifice and to shed his blood as a ransom for all, then I had to believe that he is coming back – because he promised that he would. And he has given us a road map of things to watch for; signs of the season, of sorts. I pray with all my heart that you would hear his voice today and respond with your heart to welcome him in. I promise, you will not regret it in the least!

Until next time, be blessed!

Discerning Gods & Thrones – Part 1

I’m currently reading a book by Carl Gallups, Gods & Thrones, and I wanted to preserve my notes and thoughts as I pray through this book, asking for God’s wisdom, truth and discernment in what I read. And I thought it would be good to share this with you as well, since we will be delving into the supporting scripture. It will be an on-going post, with new content added as I continue through the book.  So here we go.

There are numerous questions posed at the beginning of this book which the author will address. Some of those I’m most interested include the following:

  • Did you know that God’s Word describes a heavenly governing council that has surrounded God’s throne since before God created the Earth? And did you know this heavenly council is actively involved in the affairs of men?
  • Did you know that angels can sin? Did you know that angels can die like men?
  • Did you know that a certain group of angels have already been judged by God and are marked for death at a future date?
  • Did you know that the Bible teaches about an ancient heavenly insurrection which gave rise to the Nephilim before the flood in Noah’s day?
  • Have you ever noticed in the Old Testament the numerous references to other “gods”?
  • Have you ever wondered why God ordered the ancient Israelites to “kill them all!” in reference to the Canaanites and other tribal groups living around God’s people in the Promised Land?
  • Did you know that several times in the Bible God appears to describe Himself as “us”?
  • Are you familiar with the modern scientific proof of the existence of multiple realities?
  • Was the serpent in the Garden of Eden really a talking snake, or something else?
  • What exactly was the deadly knowledge imparted to Adam and Eve that caused a literal cosmic upheaval?
  • Have you ever wondered why the world is so infatuated with the possibility of UFOs and alien visitations?  Could the world be in the process of being prepared for a demonic deception?
  • Have you ever wondered why Jesus “showed Himself alive” after the resurrection for a period of 40 days?

Something very important worth noting, and this is so important I’m going to quote it directly from the book (emphasis mine): “One of the most important contextual considerations when it comes to properly interpreting the Word of God is the cultural framework in which the text was first created.  Without a grasp of the life philosophy of the early biblical writers and its first audiences, our westernized worldviews often overlay their prejudices upon the original meaning of the biblical text.  There’s nothing like entrenched tradition, forced paraphrasing, political correctness, closely guarded sectarian creeds, and blindly accepted denominational dogma to conceal the truth of what God’s Word actually intends to reveal.”  Have I piqued your interest yet?

So how do we get around this? We let the Bible contextually interpret itself first. This means we delve into the biblical languages it was originally written in (Hebrew and Greek) and allow those words to speak plainly to us without preconceived notions.  And we put those words into proper historical, grammatical and cultural frameworks to see what they have to say.  We don’t want to read into the Bible what we think it says. We want to strip all that away and just read the Bible to see what it does say, and then we understand, believe and act accordingly.

  1. Reality/Creation is multi-dimensional
    • There are two realms of physical existence – the seen and the unseen.  Most of us have probably heard this before, but I would guess that many people don’t think about this regularly as part of their daily lives.  If we are going to be successful in our spiritual walk, we need to become more aware of this fact.  This would explain how God can be omnipresent (everywhere all the time) and omniscient (knowing all things, past and future) – humans are limited to a 4-dimensional existence: length, width, height and time. But God exists outside of those limitations, so time and distance have no effect on Him.  God exists outside of time, so He knows and can see what will happen in the future.  This is where we get into such exciting fields as quantum physics and quantum mechanics.
      • “For in him [Jesus] all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.”  Colossians 1:16
      • “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood (people), but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”  Ephesians 6:12
      • “Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.'” Matthew 28:18

I’ll continue to update this post as I read through the book, so I’m going to leave off here.

Until next time – be blessed!