Hello Beloved Readers,
This is blog post number 100! It is hard to imagine that on this new blog site there are over 100 writings and probably 75 more on our old site. I want to thank the 78 nations and 1000 cities throughout the world that have taken time to view our website and to read these blogs.
I pray they are a blessing to you who read them. It would be nice once in a while for you readers to add a comment or to send me an email if these teachings are making a difference in your life. I pray they are beneficial and bringing you closer to the heart of God.
I do want you to know, that I too like Paul wrote was the chiefest amongst sinners. I am learning how to surrender more and more to the awesome love of God through the power of the Holy Spirit. There is an awakening in my Spirit of the Kingdom that is about to come. The Kingdom of Jesus Christ being established on the earth for a 1000 years.
Dear reader it is burning in me. Our King is really coming and will He find a people or a bride that has made herself ready. Will He find faith on the earth when he comes. Remember Dearest Readers, the kingdoms of this earth will become theh Kingdoms of our Christ the Lord. We are being prepared now to rule and reign with Him forever and ever.
There is a call to His church today. Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart as they did when they came out of Egypt. There is cry to us from Jesus, "He that has an ear let him here what the Spirit says to the churches." I pray you are one of them and that is how you found this blog. I pray this 100th post will change your life forever in Him. God bless you my dear friends, brothers and sisters and family of God.
The Gehsemane Cry:
I wonder how many of you dear readers ever saw the movie “The passion of Christ.” It is an incredible movie about the suffering and death of Jesus like none other portrayed before. It is violent and a graphic portrayal of the torture Jesus went through at the hands of the Romans with the approval of the Jewish Leaders.
Literally in the movie they portray a cat of 9 tails whip pulling the flesh out of Jesus back, legs and arms and blood pouring everywhere. This is far more graphic than other movies like King of Kings or Jesus of Nazareth. There was a lot of uproar over the movie being made because it portrays the Romans and Jews not in a pretty light and the barbaric torture that Jesus went through.
The movie begins where I want to share with you in this blog. It begins in the Garden of Gethsemane. In this Garden, Jesus is tempted with His greatest temptation, not to die for our sins or take our place. So agonizing was this choice that Jesus sweat great drops of blood from His forehead.
In that Garden the great wrestling match of heaven and earth took place. Once again a divine choice was at stake. The first Adam when faced with a choice to do God’s will above all, succumbed to his wife and decided to choose his own will, over God’s will. There was no suffering involved, no torture, just a simple choice: who do I belong to? Who will I serve? Whose will is supreme, his or God’s?
With one simple act demonstrated to him by his wife, he gave in to being his own god and separated himself from God’s glory until the day God would provide a savior Christ the Lord. One simple act of disobedience condemned mankind to be under the rule of Satan the god of this world for the last 6000 years.
Look around dear family of God and read the history of mankind under the dominion of Satan the god of this world. You see this is very important for you to grasp. The reason Judas betrayed Jesus was to force his hand to set up “an earthly kingdom” then and there. Jesus refused to do so and said to Pilot, “I am a king; my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world my Father would send legions of angels to defend me.”
Jesus Christ did not come 2000 years ago to set up an earthly kingdom then, but to establish His kingdom in the hearts of men. Dear reader this is the heart that separates a religion from a relationship. Jesus ultimate goal at that time was to rule “the heart’s of men by allowing men to be “born again” from above. "He came to demonstrate to us a life under the completer rulership of Abba Father on this earth.
My dear family in Christ in which I am laboring with my tears, Jesus never deviated from the menu, never made up new rules, and never changed the Father’s plan. In fact He said, “I have not come to do my own will, but the will of the Father that sent me. Listen to these following passages of scripture to see this kingdom authority and power in a man’s heart.
John 4:34, “my meat is to do the will of Him who sent me, and to finish my work.”
John 5:29 “And they will come out; those who have done good, into the new life; and those who have done evil, to be judged. John 5:30 Of myself I am unable to do anything: as the voice comes to me so I give a decision: and my decision is right because I have no desire to do what is pleasing to myself, but only what is pleasing to him who sent me.”
The book of Hebrews quotes an old testament prophesy about Jesus telling His true purpose for coming: Let us read it.
Heb 10:4 -9 for it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he said, Sacrifice and offering thou does not desire, But a body you have prepare for me; In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou has no pleasure:
Then said I, Lo, I am come (In the roll of the book it is written of me) To do thy will, O God. Saying above, Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou would not accept, neither have you pleasure in (they are offered according to the law), then hath he said, Lo, I am come to do thy will. He takes away the first covenant that he may establish the second covenant.
As I write to you this evening, by the way ends up to the early morning, I want us all to see how far we have fallen from the heart and truth of this glorious Gospel, me included. Why did Jesus come to the earth to save us? Did He come to save us from our “guilty conscious” from our past sins only? Did He come so that we can receive forgiveness today to go back to living exactly how we did before we knew Him?
This is a good point to make beloved readers! Many believe that once we are saved we are always saved no matter what we do because we have Jesus in us now. Some even believe since we have the Holy Spirit in us, we can never sin; our flesh is doing it according to Romans 7. They believe it is not them doing it but sin in them. It is ok for the sin to do it, because it is not them committing the sin. They are perfect because of the blood of the lamb and the power of the Holy Spirit.
This is a true false doctrine and a doctrine of devils. In the USA, most Christians don’t believe that but many live like that. A good dear friend in Christ just shared a statistic with me that only 57% of evangelical Born Again Christians in the USA believe that Jesus is the only way for salvation and to God! Did you read that? That means 43% of Evangelical Christians believe there is another way to find God and be saved here in the USA?
How could we ever stray so far from the TRUTH of the Gospel? Beloved, John the Baptist came preaching this Gospel as a Friend of the Bridegroom or His Forerunner and listen to His words about true repentance and change of our hearts. Please read the highlighted verses:
Mat 3:1 And in those days cometh John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, saying, Mat 3:2 Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Mat 3:3 for this is he that was spoken of through Isaiah the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make ye ready the way of the Lord, Make his paths straight. Mat 3:4 Now John himself had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his food was locusts and wild honey.
Mat 3:5 Then went out unto him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about the Jordan; Mat 3:6 and they were baptized of him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Mat 3:7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said unto them, You offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Mat 3:8 Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of repentance:
Mat 3:9 and think not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to rise up children unto Abraham. Mat 3:10 and even now the axe lies at the root of the trees: every tree therefore that brings not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
Mat 3:11 I indeed baptize you in water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit and in fire: Mat 3:12 whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing-floor; and he will gather his wheat into the garner, but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire.
Does that sound like a message of “once saved, always saved” to you? Beloved reader, there was a requirement to meet God’s terms of salvation: Repent! That means turn around, amend your ways, and do the opposite of what you were doing that was sin. John warned them by saying to them “who warned you about God’s judgment to come upon all mankind? Bring forth fruit that proves you are a different person, a new man.
Beloved we quote 2nd Cor. 5:17 every week, but is it a true living reality in us? Let us read it: 2Cor. 5:17: "Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new."
Beloved reader, are we really new creatures or have we just changed our vocabulary? Are we still living like we did before we knew Christ? Do we still have the same priorities, nice house, and new car, no problems in our lives, lots of money, vacation, and ball games?
Beloved, has anything in us really changed? Are we open to the Kingdom of God’s rule in our heart? Are we living to please ourselves, satisfy ourselves as we did before we are saved? Or have we heard what Jesus said, “No greater love than this than a man lay his life down for his friends.”
Dear Reader, the power of the Gethsemane Cry was not that Jesus sweat great drops of blood or even the fact that he was tempted. This was not the first time He was tempted by the enemy. The power of the Gethsemane Cry is the fact it was here Jesus won, “our new life to be hid in him.” It is here, real Christianity gets its power and meaning.
Jesus said, “Here I am, coming to do your will Oh God. A body you have prepared for me.” He established a “new covenant based on a new truth.” NOT MY WILL, BUT YOURS BE DONE! It is this Truth and this TRUTH alone that established a BETTER COVENANT the Book of Hebrew explains in chapter 9-11.
Christianity wasn’t based upon someone praying a sinner’s prayer. It wasn’t based on our “idea” of what it means to be born again, but God’s idea of what it is to be born again. To be Born again in the power of the Holy Spirit is to live a “completely new and different life on this earth.” Not the same one we had before with whip cream and a cherry on top because we go to church. The late Keith Green said, “Going to church does not make you anymore of a Christian than going to McDonald’s makes you a hamburger.”
In America, our brand of Christianity testifies of a new life in Christ. It preaches about it, but it does not do it. The church of today preaches being born again, but does not lead people to the “power of being born again of the Spirit of God.” If this were not true, the church would never be in the mess we are in at the end of the age as found in Revelation Chapters 1-3.
Our present brand of Christianity allows us to “keep our life as it were, except get rid of the awful things that are not pleasing in men’s sight”, and take all the good of our new life in Christ. It is this very thought, heart and attitude that has produced a Luke warm church in this nation that will be spewed out of the mouth of God unless we truly repent of our sins.
The agony of Gethsemane in a believer’s life is hardly felt anymore. Again the Bible tells us of the real wrestling of our souls it takes to follow Christ and break the power of living our old life under sin’s dominion. Listen to the word of God found in Hebrews chapter 12:
Heb 12:1 Therefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Heb 12:2 looking unto Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Heb 12:3 For consider him that has endured such gainsaying of sinners against himself, that you wax not weary, fainting in your souls. Heb 12:4 You have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin:
This is the agony in the Garden, this is Gethsemane's Cry. Jesus was going to condemn the power of sin over us and in our lives by putting it to death on the cross. He was going to bring forth the ability in us by the power of His endless life and the Holy Spirit coming upon us to live that same life of 100% obedience to God's will. It is that grace that we can now say by that same Holy Spirit, Here I am Father, coming to do your will! This is the real Gethsemane's cry! That same new life in Christ is to live as citizens of heaven and strangers on this earth.
Beloved, the un-believers do not see that real changed life of Chrsit in us as a Body of Christ. A few individuals or even a few churches might reflect that, but the Body of Christ here in America is scorned, maligned, laughed at and ridiculed not because of our belief in Christ, but our failure to live like Him as citizens of another Kingdom.
I know many of you who have made it this far in this blog might say, Brother Henry, you are too critical. Brothers and Sisters let me assure you that I am not excluding myself from this word. This word is for me as much as anybody else. I need to grow deeper into Christ than I ever have before until the Kingdom of God consumes me as it did Paul, Peter, James and John.
In that Garden, Gethsemane's cry was proven, Jesus could have walked away and we all would be dead in our sin. He could have looked for a short cut away from death of the cross, but he didn’t. He came to restore the true Kingdom of God in men’s heart.
What is that Kingdom in reality: "Here I am, I have come to do your will Oh God, A body you have prepared for me.” I have not come to bring offerings and sacrifices to you, but a life that is completely and totally lived in your will Father God alone.
This and this alone is where real and genuine Christianity alone. It is not based on the work we do for God, nor even going to the mission field. It has nothing to do with the outward but everything to do with the inward “miracle power of God” to change your life to “love to do the Father’s will.” Dear reader, will these be yours and my testimony? Will we say, here I am Lord, a body you have prepared for me?
Many in the Body of Christ are basing their whole walk with God on what they are doing for His kingdom! I pray it is for His Kingdom and not theirs. Remember Jesus said, “Many in that day will say to me Lord, Lord, look what we have done in your name. We healed the sick, cast out devils and prophesied in your name. Jesus looked at them and said, “Depart from me you workers of iniquity, I never knew you.”
Beloved, may none of us ever hear those words, but if our life is not radically changed, our priorities the opposite of this world, our language, our actions the opposite of what we were, I wonder if we are really yet Born Again from above. The kingdom of God is from above and it is in you, and it is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Honestly my beloved family of God in the USA is this your life my fellow Christian? Are you living solely for Him and His will alone each day? Have you abandoned yourself away from the love of this world, for the Love of Him and His kingdom? Is there real and true evidence of a “new life” in Christ being lived in you? Can Gethsemane's cry be heard in you as it was in Christ Jesus?
If not, it is not too late to try again. Ask the Holy Spirit now to bring the power of true conviction to your heart until a Godly sorrow arises in you. Then when and if He convicts you of sin, turn from your sins and turn to Him/ Promise Him today you will walk in another and new direction of His will for your life. Start by making what I am about to write the deepest cry of your heart?
Dear Heavenly Father,
Today I have heard your word, and I make a true and honest pledge to do your will for the rest of my life. I forsake this world and all that is in it and ask the Holy Spirit to establish the Kingdom of God in my heart. I Ask you to take over my life and now to lead me in the footsteps of Christ. I Ask you to reveal in me the true Son of God in the power of the Holy Spirit. I am today a willing prisoner for the rest of my life, and I really mean it. So today Oh God, by your grace I pray and cry out to you, Here I am Lord, ready to do your will, a body you have prepared for me. I am yours now and forever, save me completely and finish your work in me now and forever more, in Jesus name I pray and I receive.
If you prayed that prayer above Dearest Reader, the fire of God will consume you and the real Born Again power of God will come to your life to live a true Christian life. If you prayed this prayer today, please write me at henry@flameoffire2007.org and let me know you did. I will write back to you and pray for you as soon as I receive it.
May you be the first and real fruit of the coming Kingdom of God that is about to be established on the earth in Jesus' Millennial Reign. Thank you for praying this prayer and please contact me. Please pray for me for this is my own prayer as well.
In His love to you always, Beloved Readers!!
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