The University Student Who Went by the Cross Roads.

Opposite our front gate lived a university student who was to have graduated from the
university that year. After moving here I talked with him, asking him to come over and
discuss the Bible and Christianity in a friendly way. He came a few days, and I felt
certain he was convinced of the truth of what I said. The questions he raised seemed to
be answered to his full satisfaction.
Through him I managed to get a chance to talk with some of the other university
students during their vacation. I had been going to their rooms ten days, when there came the mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon Adullam. The students were friendly, and I felt that the student I have mentioned saw clearly the truth of the gospel.
I could see that, although he was polite, he was not disposed to accept the truth and did
not seem to like the friendly way the other students responded to the Bible discussions.
One morning when one of our girls was out at our front gate it happened that this
young university student was out there too. The girl began telling him he ought to be a
Christian, in a simple way urging him to believe in Jesus to save him from his sins,
make him a good man, save him from hell, and lead him to heaven.
"What's the use of my being a Christian ? I do not need to be saved."
"You might die suddenly in your sins, and you would go to hell."
"Who are you?" scoffed the student. "You are a little snip of an ignorant girl, just a sort
of useless beggar. What do you suppose you are trying to do? You are trying to teach
me something when you are not worthy to even talk to me. I am a university student. I
am wise. I have read many books. I have been many years in Peking. I can speak and
read English as well as Chinese." He then spat in her face and told her to mind her own
business.
Two weeks later hearing a funeral commotion in the front alley, I was surprised to learn that they were carrying this university student to his burial; I had seen him on the
street a few days before. One of the boys said that as we were going out to preach, a
few days previous, he had offered this young man a tract, but he would not take it.
I knew nothing of this conversation with the girl. About a month later this girl was in a
trance under the power of the Spirit. After seeing visions of heaven and the glories of
the redeemed she stood still and bent over as though looking into hell. This is what I
heard: "Ah! There is hell. No, I cannot; I have no power to help you now. You certainly
are in an awful plight. It is you who are worse than a beggar now, all dirty, all filthy,
and suffering in the lake of fire. In fact, you look worse now than any beggar I ever
saw. I thought you told me you were rich and that you had a great education. Where is
your education now? Well, I cannot help you now even if you do apologize. That may
be, but I have no power. No, only Jesus can save you, but when I told you about Him
you made fun of Him and cursed me.
"Look what we beggars who believe in Jesus have received in heaven: all is joy, all is
happiness; all is love in the city of golden streets with its wonderful Paradise of God."
You can act wiser than this foolish undergraduate today by saying the following prayer out loud to God if you are yet to do so and living the rest of your life to please Him:
The sinner’s prayer
Heavenly father,
Have mercy on me a sinner. I repent of my sin and receive the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on Calvary’s cross for my salvation. I believe He died for me and on the third day, you raised Him from the dead for my salvation. From today, I receive Him as the Saviour and Lord of my Life.
Thank you father for forgiving me and writing my name in the book of life with the blood of Jesus. I pledge allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ from this day forever in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen!!!
If you just said this prayer, congratulations! You are now born again.  Please let me know by emailing flourishinggirl@gmail.com and I will send you an e copy of our “Believers’ Guide to Growth” to enable you take off on this glorious adventure of the new creation. God bless you!!!

Who is a False Prophet?

False Prophets

A false prophet is anyone who pretends to be a man or woman of God when they are not. They claim to be called of God and sent to help mankind whereas, they are either doing that for covetous purposes or directly on behalf of the devil with the intent to deceive people and turn their hearts from God to the devil. They either never heard the call of God or heard at some point but later deviated into apostasy.

The definition of a false Prophet is brought out clearly in this statement of the Lord in Matt.7:15-23:

“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.

A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

From this text of Scripture, we learn the following truths about false Prophets:

False prophets are described as ravening wolves that come to us in sheep’s clothing. This is a figurative expression describing a hypocrite. A friend of mine, who is a Pastor now, once told me a story of a Church his wife took him to when he was still a young convert. The lady pastoring the Church according to him came up with a very funny “revelation”. According to him, this lady pastor told him that from that day, he was to start treating her like his wife. That whatever he did for the wife, he should also do for her. He said he could not take it alone, so he called the wife to hear it and this “lady Pastor” had the effrontery to repeat he “revelation”! He said his wife did not say anything to this lady pastor that day. Then one day, the lady pastor came to their house; presumably to implement the “revelation”. This brother’s wife gave her a sound beating and threw her out of their house!

While this may sound funny, it is not something to be taken lightly at all because they later discovered that this same lady Pastor was committing adultery with another man in the same Church. Her ridiculous explanation for this adultery was that that was the means through which she transferred the man’s “blessings” to him! Sadly, this is not an isolated case. It is a common occurrence in the African Continent. Many people due to poverty and a desire to get something for nothing have become preys to these ravening wolves (greedy and voracious agents of the devil).

Interestingly, these occurrences are not new. In the book of Revelation, Jesus warned the Church in Thyatira of his impending judgment of a false prophetess luring His servants into adultery and feeding them food sacrificed to idols. In Rev.2:20-23, Jesus Christ said to the Church:

“Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.

And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.

Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.

And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.”

From this text, we can see that this so called prophetess is the one who calls herself so; the Lord did not call her a prophetess but Jezebel. This refers to a spirit in some women who seek to gain undue control over a congregation (over which they have no spiritual authority) mostly through their lying dreams and visions. You would recall that Jezebel in the Old Testament was the wife of Ahab; a king who once reigned in Israel. She was so domineering that she controlled the affairs of the kingdom of Israel during their reign through her sorceries and witchcraft. You will find her account in 1Kings 16-22.

In 2Cor.11:13-15, Apostle Paul describes these false Prophets as false Apostle. He said:

“For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.

And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.

Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.”

In my Country, you have some of these title crazy people who are not really servants of God, but pretend to be. There is a notorious one whose chief activity is adultery and extortion. As this nefarious activity persisted, his associate Pastors who really wanted to serve the Lord began to resign one after the other.

If a lady goes to a pastor for counseling for instance and the man’s prescription is sex as a means of transferring the ‘blessing’, she should escape for her life because it is a hallmark of false prophets to “renew” their evil powers through sexual intercourse with unsuspecting victims. They are aptly described by Apostle Peter in 2Pet.2:1-3, 12-19:

“But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.

And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.

       … But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;

And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you;

Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:

Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;

But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man's voice forbad the madness of the prophet.

These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.

For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.

While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.”

Here, Apostle Peter describes them as false teachers peddling damnable heresies denying the Lordship of Jesus Christ all for covetous motives. Their conscience has become so desensitized by sin that the Apostle describes them as blemishes in their feasts with eyes full of adultery and are so given to vanity that they cannot speak of anything else but vanities. When you hear them speak, you could hardly hear any edifying words flow through them because they are empty. They cannot give what they do not have. He also describes them as wells without water and clouds without rain. This describes a people who can make many promises and deliver on none of them because they are incapable of deliveries due to carnality. Spirituality is the fertile soil for spiritual productivity and they are not spiritual at all; they are carnal like the devil. He sums their description by pointing out that they promise liberty while they themselves are the agents of corruption! What a paradox!

Welcome to November 2012 Our month of Refreshing

Our text scripture for the month is Acts 3:19-21 and I will quote from both the KJV and Amplified bible. That text reads:

“Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;

And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:

Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.” KJV

The Amplified Bible puts it this way:

“So repent (change your mind and purpose), turn around and return [to God], that your sin may be erased (blotted out, wiped clean), that times of refreshing (of recovering from the effects of heat, of reviving with fresh air), may come from the presence of the Lord:

And that He may send [to you] the Christ (the Messiah). Who before was designated and appointed for you even-Jesus.

Whom heaven must receive [and retain] until the time of the complete restoration of all that God spoke by the mouth of all His holy prophets from ages past [from the most ancient time in the memory of man].”

As I awoke this morning, my heart was ringing with this song by Panam Percy Paul:

Few years turning into few months; in just few days

Jesus will come

No more crying; we shall be rejoicing

In just few days we will go home.

When I woke up fully, I added my favorite song by Pastor Andrae Crouch:

“Soon and very soon we are going to see the King 2ice

Halleluiah, halleluiah we are going to see the king

No my dying there we are going to see the King

No more weeping there we are going to see the king.

Halleluiah, halleluiah we are going to see the king!

Should there be any river we must cross

Should there be any mountain we must climb

God will supply all the strength that we need

Give us grace till we reach the other side…”

As I meditated on these lyrics together with the word of the Lord which came to me from Joel 2:18-26 when we were praying in Church yesterday putting it together with our text scripture for the month, I cannot help but feel a sense of excitement that the Church is in her greatest period in time.

Jesus Christ is coming soon to fulfill all that God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets preceding us from the farthest time in the memory of man. The bible says He is coming for a glorious Church – without spot or wrinkle. As the days progress more, I understand better now why the Lord has been so emphatic on our getting rid of carnality and living spiritual lives.

The work load on us as a ministry this year has been huge in spite of the strength of the work force, but God has made up for us by supplying all our needs. He has enabled us to broadcast the gospel on television, internet and radio and the print media this year more than ever before. He has also enabled us to take on building projects beyond our human capacity and is blessing the work with His favour beyond our wildest dreams.

And now, the compassionate God that He is has shown up again, He wants us to clean up and come and be refreshed and recover from the effects of heat brought on us through labour and self-inflicted stress due to missing the mark or not going by divine direction.  He indeed wants us rejuvenated for our own good; what a good God we serve!!!

In light of this, our focus this month shall be on the most important person on earth right now. So I shall be teaching on the gifts and the Ministry of the Holy Spirit from one of my latest books so titled. The reason is that it is His job to bring us this much needed refreshing and we would do well to tune in by knowledge. The more of Him we know, the more refreshing we can enjoy! You can keep up with these teachings by logging on to www.facebook.com/flourishinggirl and www.flourishinggirl.blogspot.com or www.jointheirsfamily.blogspot.com.

If you are not born again and you are reading this piece, I would like you to know that you are not reading by accident. Events were orchestrated from the realm of the spirit that caused you to be reading now. Jesus wants to give you rest from all your troubles. In Matthew 11:28, He said: “come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” To receive that rest, please say the following prayer out loud and mean it with all your heart to God and a new day will dawn for you:

            Heavenly father,

Have mercy on me a sinner. I repent of my sin and receive the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on Calvary’s cross for my salvation. I believe He died for me and on the third day, you raised Him from the dead for my salvation. From today, I receive Him as the Saviour and Lord of my Life.

Thank you father for forgiving me and writing my name in the book of life with the blood of Jesus. I pledge allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ from this day forever in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen!!!

If you just said this prayer, congratulations! You are now born again.  Please let me know by emailing Flourishinggirl@gmail.com and I will send you an e copy of our “Believers’ Guide to Growth” to enable you take off on this glorious adventure of the new creation. God bless you!!!