Showing posts with label lawless living. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lawless living. Show all posts

July 28, 2011

End Times witnessing: God forgives the Repentant

 One elderly but apparently healthy man just passed away peacefully. He turned up one Sunday suddenly to hear the words of God and was convicted by the Holy Spirit as he listened to the preaching on “Thy Kingdom Comes” from morning to late afternoon without break. He came for deliverance a Saturday later. He repented in tears, asked his wife for forgiveness and reconciled with her. On the following Sunday he listened to the words of God with further conviction. He decided to spend one solid days repenting in the House of Prayer. He was delivered from a list of sins listed in Galatians 5:19-21. At the end of the day he was filled with great joy and the peace of Yeshua (Jesus). He passed away praising God and smiling.

Like all men, he had an appointed time with death. But he did two important reconciliations before his death. During the first wake service his own church’s pastor remarked that as many had died without forgiving or reconciling with their loved ones, this man had done the right thing. (He omitted to say that indeed many had perished without repentance)

1. He reconciled with God (by repenting and renouncing all his ties and allegiance to idols, sorceries, and the whole list of sins as in Gal.5:19-21). The daughter-in-law testified on the second wake night that the man confessed that only God is the Healer, not the things he used to believe in (e.g. a healing bed, or a bunch of healing chrystal etc). He repented and withdrew his previous testimony given to the promoter of the sale of the healing bed, giving glory to it. He wanted to give God glory now.

2. He reconciled with his wife (who was touched by the Spirit and the Word of God too and agreed to forgive him). He repented and asked for her forgiveness for getting angry with her and hitting her previously.

This man was truly blessed.

Two days after the man’s death, the watchman received this following passage when he asked the Lord what to pray.

God Forgives the Repentant

Isaiah 57: 14 God says, “Rebuild the road!

Clear away the rocks and stones

so my people can return from captivity.”

(The above verse is for the Prayer House and other servants of God who serve the Lord and minister to bring many lost, hurt and enslaved souls to healing, deliverance and righteousness)

15 The high and lofty one who lives in eternity,

the Holy One, says this:

“I live in the high and holy place

with those whose spirits are contrite and humble.


I restore the crushed spirit of the humble


and revive the courage of those with repentant hearts.

16 For I will not fight against you forever;

I will not always be angry.

If I were, all people would pass away—

all the souls I have made.

17 I was angry,

so I punished these greedy people.

I withdrew from them,

but they kept going on their own stubborn way.

18 I have seen what they do,

but I will heal them anyway!


I will lead them.


I will comfort those who mourn,

19 bringing words of praise to their lips.

May they have abundant peace, both near and far,”

says the Lord, who heals them.

20 “But those who still reject me are like the restless sea,

which is never still

but continually churns up mud and dirt.

21 There is no peace for the wicked,”

says my God.

_________________________

On the day of this man's death, the watchman received the following verses when he asked the Lord about his sudden appearance and death. The man was turned away from wickedness to seek the life giving God, his Savior instead. He repented for having previously sought wickedness to save him. He repented in the nick of time! God is merciful.

Ecclesiastes 8:7-8 (NLT)

7 Indeed, how can people avoid what they don’t know is going to happen? 8 None of us can hold back our spirit from departing. None of us has the power to prevent the day of our death. There is no escaping that obligation, that dark battle. And in the face of death, wickedness will certainly not rescue the wicked.

June 8, 2011

End Times Witnessing: How a love-thirsty woman received the Holy Spirit!

Today the watchman has found wonderful fresh revelations in how patiently and determined Jesus is when bringing even a maritally broken (five times divorced) and sinful ‘lawless’ living Samaritan woman to salvation and in-filling of the Holy Spirit! Many want to receive the Holy Spirit but are still outside, thirsting and wondering why they are not in. But a thirsty woman has received by faith on her first encounter with Jesus. How did she do it? (or rather, how did Jesus evangelize?)


The Scripture: (comments from watchman are in bracket)
John 4:7, 9-14 (NLT)

7 Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Please give me a drink.”

(Jesus took the initiative to approach the woman voicing out her need for her, “Please give me a drink.” He wanted her to ask Him!)

9 The woman was surprised, for Jews refuse to have anything to do with Samaritans.She said to Jesus, “You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a drink?”

(The woman was just like any natural human, absorbed by what she saw in the physical realm, her past experience and traditional culture and religious practice)

10Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.”

(But Jesus was not distracted from what He has intended to give her. He wanted to give her a gift, the Holy Spirit in-filling; He also wanted her to ask for this gift!)

11 “But sir, you don’t have a rope or a bucket,” she said, “and this well is very deep. Where would you get this living water? 12And besides, do you think you’re greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well? How can you offer better water than he and his sons and his animals enjoyed?”

(The woman’s response to Him in her physical realm was no surprise. In hind-sight we can all see how she continued plodding away at the wrong track. But don’t we all?)

13 Jesus replied, “Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. 14But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.”

(Jesus, undeterred by this Samaritan-Gentile woman mindset, continued to address her spiritual thirst, and explain patiently what the Holy Spirit is like and how He will meet her unquenchable thirst in her when she is filled! This is further described in the next section of the Gospel of John when Jesus was addressing the multitude of Jewish temple worshippers in Jerusalem)

John 7:37-39 (NIV) 37[ On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.]

John 4:15-26 (continue the discourse between the Samaritan woman and Jesus)

15“Please, sir,” the woman said, “give me this water! Then I’ll never be thirsty again, and I won’t have to come here to get water.”

(The Samaritan woman’s attention was finally turned to what Jesus could give her and she asked Him for that supernatural Gift!)

16“Go and get your husband,” Jesus told her. 17“I don’t have a husband,” the woman replied. Jesus said, “You’re right! You don’t have a husband—18for you have had five husbands, and you aren’t even married to the man you’re living with now. You certainly spoke the truth!”

(Jesus wanted truthfulness from the spiritually thirsty woman. She was looking for love in the wrong places to quench her thirst which can only be met by God in her!)

19 “Sir,” the woman said, “you must be a prophet. 20 So tell me, why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship, while we Samaritans claim it is here at Mount Gerizim,where our ancestors worshiped?”

(The woman’s response and attention turned to that of God, religion and worship. Despite her marital problems and then ‘lawless’ living, she knew about the key Jewish and Samaritan religious physical difference. Now she wanted to know more and how to worship God correctly. What a change!)

21 Jesus replied, “Believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans know very little about the One you worship, while we Jews know all about Him, for salvation comes through the Jews. 23 But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. 24For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”

(Jesus came to the point of true worship: 1. Know the God-Person Whom you worship, not the place or physical church or congregation group; 2. Know God in the Spirit, and therefore could worship-join to Him, in spirit and in Truth-His word.)

(1 Cor.6:17 (AMP) 17 But the person who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him.”)

John 4: 25The woman said, “I know the Messiah is coming—the one who is called Christ. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

26 Then Jesus told her, “I Am the Messiah!”

(The Samaritan woman was thus saved! Her spiritual eyes were opened when she turned to the matter of knowing the true God and true worship, and she recognized and accepted Jesus as the Messiah, her Savior!)

(What a journey Jesus has taken to save just one thirsty soul! Of course, after her salvation, seeing and hearing her testimony, encountering Jesus themselves, many of her countrymen were saved.)

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