The Following Message Has Been Transcribed And Edited For
Clarity, Continuity Of Thought, And Punctuation By
The LEM Transcribing & Editing Team.
PROPHECY
I am with thee, saith the Lord, indeed I have always been with thee. Thou, sometimes, has not seen me for I have called to thee, and thou hast indeed looked in the other direction. Yea, I have spoken to thee, saith the Lord, and thou hast said, 'Where is the voice of the Lord?' I have given thee dreams saith God, and thou hast said, "This is not of God, these things cannot be the greatness and the glory and the promises of my love and my Spirit." I have called to thee, and thou hast indeed run from me, saith the Lord. Thou hast run from the tribulation, and thou hast run from the pain, but I have held on to thee, saith God, and I have brought thee through, and I have brought thee to this place, and I shall not leave thee now, saith God.
I never promised thee an easy walk, saith the Lord, but I have indeed promised thee My Son, My Righteousness, My Life, My Glory, and the ability and the privilege of ruling and reigning with me. Even now, tell I thee not that the way will be easy, saith God. I charge thee, saith the Lord, to lay down thy desires and thy goals and the works of thy mind and the works of thy flesh for I, indeed, desire to manifest through thee, and the hour is at hand, saith the Lord. I shall not just manifest in thee in an organized service, but I desire to live through thee 24 hours a day.
I desire to overtake that carnal personality, to absorb it into the Life of My Son and to live out through thee. Yield thy members unto Me. This is the work of Jesus Christ. There is nothing that thou can do; nevertheless, when you oppose me there is hindrance. If you cannot lay it down, saith God, confess it unto Me, I shall help thee, I shall join Myself to thee, and I shall indeed strengthen thee. Lay it down, saith the Lord, and if you cannot, confess to me that you cannot, for I shall marry thee, saith God. I shall, indeed, marry thee and thou shall rule and reign with me, and eye has not seen and ear has not heard, indeed, what I have in store for thee.
Thy carnal mind cannot even imagine, nor can you imagine how close it is, saith the Lord, for, indeed, the hour is at hand for the manifestation of the revelation of My Son to the church. Thou shall indeed be hated, lied about, scorned, maligned, and rejected, but I shall be with thee, saith the Lord, and I shall give thee strength that thou has never had before. I shall, indeed, give thee strength unto overcoming, saith God, and the day shall come in thy lifetime that the church shall see you.
Yea, indeed, they shall see Me in you, and many shall shed bitter tears, saith the Lord, for, indeed, the doors shall be locked, and they shall bang, and they shall clamor, and they shall knock, and they shall say, "Lord God we have cast out demons in Thy Name, and we have healed the sick and we have prophesied. Why have you rejected us?" And I shall, indeed, say to them, "The word was out, thou must manifest the image of My Son." The works of man I will not receive even though they be the casting out of demons, and the healing of the sick. My Son must come forth in thee. The soul life must be laid down. And I shall say unto them, 'Thou hast rejected the Gospel of the Kingdom for thy pride has stood tall in thee and has opposed the work of my Son, and I have, indeed, rejected thee for this season."
MESSAGE
John Chapter 12, Verses 31 and 32. "Now is the judgment of this world, now shall the prince of this world be cast out, and I, if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto Me." Skipping over to John 16, Verse 7. 'Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you, and if I depart I will send Him unto you, and when He is come He will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Of sin because they believe not on me, of righteousness because I go to My Father, and you see Me no more, of judgment because the prince of this world is judged. I have many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. Howbeit, when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come He will guide you into all truth for He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear that shall He speak, and He will show you things to come. He shall glorify me, He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine; therefore, said I that He shall take of mine and shall show it unto you.
This Scripture is very commonly preached. "Nevertheless, I tell you the truth it is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you, but if I depart I will send Him unto you, and when He is come He will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment."
The word reprove is Strong's #1651, and it means to convince someone of their fault. We have a similar word to that in the Scripture. It is usually translated "rebuke." We know that we can rebuke people if we know they have done wrong, when we know by the Spirit of God that they are not in order, that their behavior is not acceptable. We can rebuke them, but there is no indication in the Greek word translated "rebuke" that the person receiving the rebuke will receive our correction and make the necessary changes. This word, "reprove," implies in the Greek that the world will be rebuked, and they will receive the rebuke. They will know that what they hear is true, that the accusation made against them is true, and they will be convicted, they will be convinced, and the result of this is that they will repent and submit themselves to God, not only the cleansing, but for the process which will bring forth the image of Christ in them.
But we do not see this happening in the world today. We have a Scripture which says that many are saying, all this time has gone past since Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross or since our fathers slept, and where is the promise of God? And they go off into the world. They cannot abide the persecution and what they see in the world. Nevertheless, we are told that this is the job of the Holy Spirit. He is going to convince the world of sin. He is going to convince them that they are a sinner.
When I first came to the Lord, and God gave me some people to witness to one of the things that I noticed was that they really believed that they were not sinners. They really thought that they were okay, and one of the biggest things that I come up against today is someone telling me, "I do good things, I help people, I go to church, and I am okay." And there is no helping them. There is no getting to them because Jesus Christ cannot work in you if you cannot admit that you are not complete, that you are in sin because it is your state of being, and that you cannot help what you are doing, and even if you do good works, we still sin in our thoughts. This is the work of the Holy Spirit.
Well, why is it not happening today, or why is it happening on such a small level? The reason that it is happening on such a small level is that God is still putting together His program, and that program is that He is raising up a people in the earth through whom He will manifest His power, that they will speak in such power that their words will convict the world of sin. If I go to you, if you are not saved, and I say, "You are a sinner, repent," and you do not repent," that was not the Holy Spirit because when the Holy Spirit speaks it, you will repent. Hallelujah. Now, on the other hand, we need to recognize that repentance may not come forth immediately, but, in some cases, may take many years to manifest itself. But, if it was truly the Holy Spirit of Almighty God speaking through you when you said, "repent," in due season, the one who heard from those words, will bow his knee before the living God.
The hour has not yet come for the salvation of the world. God, except in some rare cases, does not approach man as a spirit. He approaches a man through another man, and one of the biggest problems in the church today is that the church world cannot see the Spirit of God on a person. Paul told us that we are not to know anybody after the flesh any longer, but you go into churches everywhere, and they want to know how much money you have, they want to see the way you are dressed, sometimes, as we were saying earlier, if you are a man, if you are a woman, you can do this, and you can not do that, and they are bound up in all of this legalism, but the hour has come, God tells us, that He is moving by His Spirit, and He wants us to discern His Spirit where ever it manifests. Even if it manifests in a donkey or in a five year old child.
Did you hear about the five-year old boy that was preaching at the school? The newscaster went up to him and said, "What do you think of this principal that is against you?" He said, "I think he is a Pharisee." But, you know, it is our responsibility to discern whether it is the Spirit of God on whoever is speaking. I do not care if they are from a religious denomination that you think God does not visit. It does not matter.
This word has to get out. Everything is by the Spirit of God, and man does not want to believe it. They do not want to believe it. They want the big building, they want the numbers, they want what appears to be success by man's standard, and God will defeat you. He will send you someone in poverty, He will answer your prayer through a person who is manifesting poverty, and if you cannot receive it you will lose it. If you have a hang-up about women, and God is dealing with you in this hour, He will send a woman to be the answer to your problem, and if you cannot receive it because she is a woman it is gone. It is gone.
So God is tearing down the walls. It does not matter what it is, male, female, wealth, job, it does not matter. These are just examples. God wants us to discern His Spirit so that we can go forth as spiritual beings and be His first fruits company. He is going to raise us up in spiritual power, and He is going to send us to the world, and we are going to convince the world of sin. We are going to have so much spiritual power on us that they are going to believe us, and we are not going to convince them of sin by telling them that they are evil, and they are wicked, and they are going to hell. The way we are going to convince them of sin is by demonstrating the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
A person gave me a testimony once that they met this man in Christ, and he had such a presence of God about him that they could not even stand in his presence. They could not even look him in the eye, and I know that many of us have had these experiences that we meet people. And it has been my experience that the more demonized the person is, the more likely they are to be unable to meet my eyes or to have a carnal conversation with me. I am not talking about people in the church. I have met people that cannot even look at me. They run from me. They would not even say hello to me.
They are going to be convicted by the righteousness that emanates out from our very being, and righteousness is not deeds. Righteousness results in deeds, it results in good works because faith without works is dead, but righteousness is a spiritual thing. It is a spiritual condition that comes forth from the spirit of holiness and then emanates out from within our skin. We have been speaking about this these last few weeks, that our spiritual life is rooted in these bodies, but it is not restricted by the skin. It emanates out from the skin. You do not have to be a spiritual person. People discern spiritual things, and they do not even know that they are doing it, but they discern it.
So, the world is going to be convinced of their sin when they are brought into a place of confrontation with a human being that has been made righteous by the power, and the spirit, and the processing, of the Living God. The processings are very painful. Not all of us are going through them now, but this is what is coming, and when the world gets the revelation, there is a Scripture in the prophets that says they are going to be chaining themselves to our doorsteps.
When that spirit in us is raised up to the point of power that it is being raised up right now, it is going to touch these people, and they are going to know....they are not going to know how they know, but they are going to know that we can help them. They may know that it is Christ in us, or they may not know it is Christ in us, but they are going to know that what they need is in us.
Before God can bring this ministry forth, He has to tear down the existing ministries that are doing it by the power of man. This is what is happening in the world today, the process has already started. What is happening to the ministry of that man in Baton Rouge has nothing to do with his sexual problem. God is burning up ministries. He is not going to be hindered any longer. He does not want programs. He does not want plans. He wants us to preach and teach what He is giving us to preach and teach. He will come to us once, and He will come to us twice, and He will tap us on the shoulder, and He will speak to us in dreams, and He will send prophets to us, and if we do not do it we are going to wake up one morning, and we are going to find ourselves face to face with Almighty God. It is already happening.
Only, a lot of the people it is happening to are calling Almighty God the Devil. I say to you, brethren, you had better find out who your enemy is because it just may be the Living God.
He is going to convince the world of sin. So when they come up against someone who is manifesting the righteousness of Jesus Christ, they are going to be convinced of their terrible condition, that they cannot live on such a high realm, and the way they are going to be convinced is that they are going to be convinced of righteousness. Now the Scripture says that they are going to be convinced of the righteousness of Jesus Christ because He goes to the Father. Well, what happens when He goes to the Father? He said, "After I go to the Father I am sending the Comforter back to you." The righteousness of Jesus Christ enabled Him to be raised from the dead. There is no death in righteousness, and He is giving us His righteousness.
So the two things are happening simultaneously. The world is going to have a confrontation with the Lord Jesus Christ in His people, and I suggest to you that the heathen in the world are going to discern the spirit of God on this group of people before the Church does.
I suggest to you that there will be many in the Church that will not discern the spirit of God, if they have their religious thoughts in their mind that this is the way it has to be. And there are going to be few, very few in the Church, that are going to discern the new move of God. It is going to be so offensive to them that they are not going to discern it.
The first two aspects we have is that the world is going to be convinced of sin, and the world is going to be convinced of righteousness because there is going to be a confrontation of the natural realm with the spirit of God. The spirit of God is coming down, is indeed in the process of coming down to the natural realm, and He is confronting man, and we know that in the Book of Exodus the Lord told Moses, "Tell the people to stay back, put up barriers because if they come in contact with Me they will be burned up."
Well, brethren, when you come in contact with the Living God you get burned up. Everything in our spirit that is not of God, that is not the original root of the Father, is being burned. Hallelujah.
The world will be convinced of judgment because the prince of this world is judged. The prince of this world is judged. We have spoken about this, and I suggest to you that Satan is not a red being with a tail and horns that is out there. I heard a preacher preach once that Satan is out on another planet somewhere, and we are just dealing with the demons.
Brethren, Satan is a part of the original creation. He is a part of the living soul who was created to give the creation form and be under the control of the Living God. He is in each of us. He is in our soul, he is in our mind, but he is not in his proper position. He is out of his position, and he is causing us to die by his works in our life. He is the prince of this world, and the judgment is, indeed, upon him. Hallelujah.
So the world is having a confrontation with Christ in His people, and the result of it is that the world is being judged. The prince of this world is being judged. Satan in the mind of each and every man is being judged, and in order to come forth in the image of Christ this revelation must be accepted. It must be accepted, and man does not want to accept it. He is doing everything he can to declare his own righteousness. He is picking out Scriptures from the Bible saying that we are one with Christ, and we are okay, and God is going to share His glory with us. Yes, He is, after the natural man dies, after Satan is swallowed up, and after everything comes into order, but Satan is the evil side of the natural man.
This is the word of the hour, this is the message of the hour that God is bringing forth, and it is not a popular message. People do not want to hear it, but God is going to prosper it because it is the revelation that is going to usher in the Kingdom of God. Jesus Christ is at war with Satan in our mind, for our soul, and for the body that we live in, and He will indeed defeat him and rule and reign in the mind of each and every human being. But, this process cannot come forth until we acknowledge our spiritual condition.
John Chapter 16, Verse 13, "Howbeit, when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth for He shall not speak of Himself, but whatever He shall hear, that shall He speak, and He will show you things to come." The Greek word translated "show" means to make known the messenger, and the word "things" means....what it really does in the Greek is to emphasize the previous word. What it is really saying is that when the Spirit of Truth comes He is going to reveal the messenger or the Angel of God. This means that the Spirit of Truth will equip us to discern Christ, both in our self and in another man. Only Christ in one man can recognize Christ in another man. The carnal mind of the natural man will never recognize Christ. Spiritual things are within. The Spirit of Truth will show you the Christ, that is to come.
The word "show" also means to go from a lower to a higher place. The job of the Spirit of Truth is to fertilize our human spirit and bring forth Christ in us, and that is what Jesus is telling the people here. "And He shall glorify me for He shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you." He shall receive of mine. The word "receive" means, "to take an order, to carry away, to choose, to select, to experience, to let one's self be marked or stamped."
"He shall receive what is mine, and He shall reveal it unto you." When the Spirit of Truth enters into our heart He seeks out the human spirit, that part of our being which is of the substance of Christ, and He fertilizes it, and He brings forth the Christ in us. This is what Jesus is saying here.
"All things that the Father hath are mine." That is us. We are the things that the Father has. "And, therefore, said I, that He shall take of mine and He shall show it unto you." That word "take" is the same word as "receive." He shall choose what is mine, He shall select what is mine, and He shall experience what is mine. That word "experience" is referring to the concept of intimacy, or what we would call human sexual intercourse. The Spirit of Truth is going to experience us spiritually, just like the Holy Spirit hovered over Mary and fertilized her in the natural. The Spirit of Truth will impregnate us with the holy child of the glorified Jesus Christ (Acts 4:30), which will save us from hell and death when he is fully born in us (1 Tim. 2:15).
First, things happen in the natural, and then they happen in the spiritual. What is happening in the Spirit today is that the Spirit of Truth is within us seeking out that which is the Lord's, which is the human spirit, and experiencing it. He is fertilizing it, and when He fertilizers it He seals us and He brings forth the image of Jesus Christ.
I want to show you the prophesy in the Old Testament so that we can get a better idea of who this one that is going to be revealed in us is and what His work is. Sometimes things are clearer in the Old Testament. For those of you who do not know it, the Old Testament is the original Word of God, and everything in the New Testament is just an expansion or an explanation of what was in the Old Testament.
The Old Testament is much more difficult to understand than the New Testament, but everyone that preached, all of the men that wrote the New Testament, were all students of the Old Testament, and what God did was He quickened a revelation from the Old Testament, and He expanded it in their mind. He gave it to them in such a depth of understanding that they could give it to other people that could have never understood the Old Testament. They spoke it, and they expressed it in such a simple way that men could understand it; although, some of us cannot understand the New Testament either.
The New Testament is an expression of the Old Testament, and sometimes it is really worthwhile to look for the same revelation in the Old Testament to get a better understanding of it of what the New Testament is saying. Very often when I am studying, and I am trying to understand something in the Greek, I look for the equivalent Hebrew word, and I go back into the Hebrew because the men that wrote the Greek New Testament did not preach in Greek. They preached in Hebrew and Aramaic, so if I do not really get a witness from the Spirit of God that I am understanding the revelation that is coming forth in the Greek, that I really have it, I go to Thayer's concordance which gives the Hebrew equivalent of the word or the actual Hebrew word from which the Greek word was translated, and then I go into the Hebrew, and I say, "Oh, that is what the Lord was talking about."
So not only do we have the problem of the King James translators not having the spiritual revelation when they translated the Greek into English, but we have a problem with the people that translated the Aramaic into Latin, and the Latin into the Greek, not understanding the revelation that was written in the Hebrew and Aramaic. So, there is no way that we can truly understand the Scripture without the Spirit of God, so we really have to have Him giving us revelation, or it is highly unlikely that we will ever find out what the Lord is really saying.
Malachi 3:1 talks about the messenger. This is the prophesy to the House of Israel. "Behold I will send My messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek shall suddenly come to His temple, even the messenger of the covenant whom you delight in. Behold, he shall come saith the Lord of hosts." Now, we know that God made a covenant with Israel. He made a covenant with Israel in the desert after they came out of Egypt, and He said, "I will give you my laws, and I will be your God, and you will be my people."
I was very surprised that God actually went to Israel, and He said, "Would you accept me?" He never said to them, "You know, I have just taken you out of Egypt and you are my people, and that is it and that is the way it is." He never did that. He said, "Will you accept me?" And they agreed, they said, "Yes, we will do everything that you have told us we would have to do to be your people," and they meant it when they said it, but they could not perform it. And that is the case of every one of us today. Most of us mean well, and we just cannot follow through on what we intend to do.
So the promise to the House of Israel is, "Behold I will send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me." That word "prepare" means, "to appear, the external appearance." It means He is going to appear in the flesh. God is going to send His messenger in the flesh. He is going to appear in a man. "He shall prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to His temple."
Now we know that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. The Scripture is prophesying the New Covenant whereby Christ will dwell and abide in us. In the Old Covenant, in order to have communication with the Lord....well, first of all, only the priests could have communication with the Lord in the Old Testament. If a man of Israel wanted to have communication with the Lord, he had to go through the priest, he had to bring a sacrifice to the priest who performed all kinds of religious rituals, they had to slay the animal in a particular way, they had to wash it, they had to tie it in a particular way. Some sacrifices were burned, others were boiled, and there was a lot of laws as to what they had to do. This was the only way that a man of Israel could get in contact with his God.
When I first started studying this I said, "Wow I cannot even conceive of living in a society like that." The relationship that God has with me, I just say, "Lord help, I need this, I need that, Lord help me, I need counseling, I need understanding," and He is right there. I cannot even conceive of living in a society where before I could petition the Lord I had to go buy some pigeons and take them to the priest and have them slay them, and with the animals they had to take the kidneys out, and take this out, and take that out, and follow all of these rituals that I cannot even conceive of. I do not think I could bear it, but that is because I know better. They did not know any better, and because they followed these rules God poured His Spirit out on them. We have had a mighty outpouring of the Spirit of God in this service today, and we know what it feels like. They did receive a mighty outpouring of the Spirit of God, but it did not come up from within them. It came upon them from on high, and it was God honoring their obedience to this ritualistic law.
One thing that God showed me recently really surprised me. I had done some studying into witchcraft. I had been involved in deliverance for many years, I have some knowledge about how witchcraft operates, and those of you who have any knowledge at all know that they use all kind of paraphernalia, pieces of hair, sometimes pieces of animal flesh, blood, and they do all kinds of rituals.
I saw a movie on TV which depicted some African witchcraft, and this particular witch was doing some very advanced witchcraft. She was involved in....I don't know if it was soul travel, I think she took her whole body with her, and she was walking around, and she was shaking some kind of instrument that made a noise, and she had someone there against his will, and she drew blood from him. In some instances they drank the blood, and they do all of this, and I used to say, "This is disgusting, this really repulses me, all these horrible things that they do."
Well, one day the Lord showed me that the spiritual realm that witchcraft operates it, is a valid spiritual realm. Now, do not misunderstand me, witchcraft is illegal, but the Lord showed me that the Old Covenant was operating in the same spiritual realm except that God blessed it. The Hebrew priests did not drink the blood, but they sacrificed the animals, they sprinkled the blood on the altar, they did all of these things, and God showed me that ritualism is a valid spiritual realm. In other words, the legality, or the illegality, of the exercise of spiritual power on the spiritual level that requires animal sacrifice and ritual, is directly associated with the Spirit that is invoked. In other words, if the animal sacrifice and the ritual are paraphernalia designed to invoke the Spirit of God, that exercise of spiritual power is legal. But if the animal sacrifice and the ritual are paraphernalia designed to invoke any spirit other than the living God, even, Jehovah (in the Old Testament), or the Lord Jesus Christ (in the New Testament), that exercise of spiritual power is illegal, and the punishment associated with it is death.
We should not take this witchcraft lightly that is being worked illegally, which is something that the church is doing today. They "poo poo" it away. It is not to be "poo pooed" away. It needs to be dealt with. But in this hour in Jesus Christ, we are on a higher spiritual realm than those practicing witchcraft. We no longer use rituals. They may drink blood, but we drink the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. They may sprinkle the blood, but we are sprinkled with the anointed word that comes forth in a service like this. We are empowered by the emerging Christ that is coming forth in us, and this is the hour for truth. It is the hour for realism as Jesus Christ emerges forth in His people.
There are innumerable amounts of witchcraft-practicing people that are going to be standing up and praying incantations against us, sprinkling blood, doing their rituals. They are going to be doing it. We know we are not to be afraid, but what do we do and how will the believers be prepared to deal with it if they either do not believe that it is happening, they do not believe that Satanism is a reality, or they are not taught how to deal with it?
I suggest to you that there is more involved than saying, "I rebuke you in the name of Jesus." You have to be trained to deal with this. I have been in training for years, and I still know very little. I do not know why I am telling you all this. I do not even know where this is coming from. This is a very supernatural service today, and I do not know why this is in today's message, but I declare unto you that witchcraft is real, that Satanism is real, and what it is, is the natural man risen up in the fullest depth of his wickedness to imitate God, and by that I mean to express spiritual power. Satan is not a joke, he is real, and he is powerful, but Jesus Christ is more powerful than Satan. Yet, the church today is not prepared to deal with witchcraft or Satanism.
Now in this country today we are meeting in Long Island, New York, and we have many, many people that have emigrated to this nation from other countries that are living in this area, and they have brought their witchcraft with them. They are sacrificing animals, people's dogs are being stolen, their cats are being stolen, and they are invoking spiritual power in our geographical area, and this power is affecting us. They have the power to manipulate our mind, they have the power to set us one against the other, and God is saying that we have to see this for what it is and seek Him as to how He wants us to deal with it.
He does not want us to deal with it on their level. He does not want us to meet them on their level. Now I do not want this to come out the wrong way....there are believers that have been trained in this area, and their training was, in a measure, to meet witchcraft on its own level, and I am not knocking this. I am just saying that the Word of the Lord is, "Come up higher." That is what I am saying. The Word of the Lord is, "Come up higher." We do not have to send back curses, and we do not have to fight on the level of the witches or the demons in this hour.
You see, there is a place for everything in God, and we have talked about this. One of the biggest problems in the church is that when they come up higher they cannot see the validity for other people of a particular ministry which may be on a lower spiritual realm, but it may still be valid for other people.
So, what I am suggesting to you is that if God has given you an awareness of witchcraft, and you are in a place where the revelation that you have is to return curses and bind and loose, well do what ever you have been taught to do. If that is where you are, I say unto you, "continue." But if God has brought your attention to this message, or if you are sitting here today, and you can hear Him saying in your spirit, "Come up higher," then what the Lord is saying to you is that there is a higher realm that He wants you to fight from, and I am going to reveal it to you.
God is telling us that there is a better way, that as Christ emerges forth in us we can ascend to a high spiritual realm where we can bring forth life out of death. When people curse us we have the power to bring salvation into their lives. Now, sometimes God returns the curses, but if that is the case, it is God. We cannot return the curses. If this is where God is bringing us to, if you believe in doing it the other way, and that is where God has you, I am not knocking you, but if you want to ascend to this high spiritual realm we do not return curses. Our weapon is forgiveness.
It is the judgment of God manifesting through us as to whether or not we just bless the person and let it go at that, or whether He will give us a manifestation of His spirit whereby the judgments will be executed. It can go either way, but it has to be Christ doing it. It cannot be our carnal mind deciding whether or not to send the curses back, because our motive for sending the curses back is very important. If we send the curses back, because our root motive is to defend our self, we are fighting on the level of our attacker, which subjects us to their arrows. This means, that we could possibly get hurt, and he will be no benefit to our opponent at all. But should Christ within us send the curses back, then, because there is no selfish motive, but the righteous judgment of Christ Jesus within us, the judgment will be used to correct our opponent and resulting the ultimate could, for all concerned.
I had an experience a couple of years ago. I was at a place where there is a lot of witchcraft, and, for whatever God's reason, I guess I know what His reason was, He pointed out to everyone that was in the building that I had been involved in reading tarot cards before I came to the Lord, and there was a practicing witch in the congregation that became so enraged that he tried to kill me by cursing my lifeline. He grabbed my arm, and he drew his fingers across the lifeline on my wrist where if you commit suicide, you slit your wrist.
That was the exact area, but he did it spiritually, and I was really frightened. I was hysterical for almost 24 hours, at which point I just gave myself over to the Lord, and I told Him that if He was going to let this happen to me, well then, let me die. And the Lord just strengthened me, and He gave me great confidence, and I just stood up and I spoke into the spiritual realm. I said, "If Jesus Christ lets you kill me, well then let it rip. If He cannot save my life against you then what am I even doing here, and alive?" I did not die.
About a year later I said, "Lord, what happened to that witch?" He was really into it. He was throwing curses that my Pastor, who was preaching at the time, he was sitting right in the service, it was black witchcraft, and I said to the Lord, "What happened to that man, did he die? Did the curse go back on him? Did he die?" And the Lord brought me into a service in Brooklyn, and there was the man with his hands raised praising God. The Lord saved him. Yet in other instances, and I would not go into the whole thing now, but in other instances when someone curses a Son of God I have seen them die.
So this is all in the mind and in the wisdom of Jesus Christ, but we are not to make these decisions ourselves. We are to bless our enemies, we are to pray for them, we are to be available to help them under any circumstances, if the Lord God is to move through us. Hallelujah.
We will go on with Malachi. So the Lord is talking about the New Covenant. "And suddenly He shall come to His temple." The Living God is going to dwell in us, even the messenger of the covenant, that is the New Covenant, whom you delight in. "Behold, He shall come, saith the Lord." The messenger of the Lord God, the Angel of God, the emerging Christ, is coming forth in us. That is the promise of the New Covenant that we will no longer be involved in rituals. We know that the church today is in an interim stage. They are no longer sacrificing animals, but in most instances the Christ has not emerged, and their ritual is religious structure in the church.
Now, I repeat, I am not knocking anybody. I am just declaring unto you that God is doing away with religious structure in the church. I am not against you, I bless you, but this is the Word of the Lord in this hour. Lay down your religious ritual. Lay down your plans, lay down your structure, lay down your practicing religion, and submit to the Spirit of God. He wants to do a new thing. Hallelujah.
Now this messenger is coming forth in our soul, as our the mind of our New Man. What is He going to do when....well, first of all who is He coming to first? I want to just clarify to you by looking at Malachi 2:1-3 who God is speaking to in the Book of Malachi. "And now oh ye priests this commandment is for you, if you will not hear and if you will not lay it to heart to give glory unto My Name, saith the Lord of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. Yea, I have cursed them already because you do not lay it to heart."
I am suggesting to you that the Lord God is speaking to the priests, because in the days of the Old Covenant there was no contact with God except through the priests. The priests had all the responsibility towards the nation of Israel, and then again in Malachi 3:3 the Scripture says, "And He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and He shall purify the Sons of Levi." The tribe of Levi was the priestly tribe. So this word is to the priests.
God is giving this message of laying down the Old Covenant and moving into the New Covenant to the priests, and I am going to suggest to you that, although it is not obvious in the natural or even in the spirit, it is really hard to discern that there is a priestly group in the church today. We are priests because Jesus Christ has called us to be priests, and for no other reason. Not because we are intelligent, handsome, good looking, rich, poor, black, white, green, yellow or in the church for 15 years or 6 months but, for whatever His reasons, Jesus Christ has called us to this priestly company. There are a lot of people that are going to be very offended by this, but it is the truth.
I worked with a woman, and one day she was suffering very badly from pain in her body, and I said, "We are having such and such a service tonight why not come and have hands laid on you?" And she got very upset with me, and she said, "I believe everyone can heal everybody." Well, maybe some day everyone will heal everybody, and I am not saying that you have to go to church to get healed. God can anoint someone and send them to you outside of the church, but, nevertheless, the reality is that not everybody in the church has the power to heal you.
There are certain people that are anointed with healing, there are certain people that are anointed with deliverance, and even if you take a person that you know from experience that they are anointed to heal, they may not be able to heal you. God may be sending you to the little old lady in the back of the church that has only been there for the second time. You do not know her credentials, you do not know who she is, you do not know where she came from, you do not know where she was raised up, you do not know who she is sitting under, but God might say to you, "My Spirit is over there. If you want your healing go and get it."
In this hour, God is preparing, and has, indeed, already started to tear down the religious bondage in the church, and the powerful forces in the church are rising up in greater power than ever to bring the church world into bondage. There used to be no problem. When God called a preacher he went out and preached, he started a church, and there was no problem. Today, all you hear is that you have to be sitting under somebody else. What do you mean you have to be sitting under somebody else? That is a denomination.
God calls you, you go. Paul said that he answered to no man. He got up and he went. They want to know where you were raised up, who you studied under, do you have your college degree, who are you sitting under, and who are you submitting yourself to? This is not Scriptural, brethren. It is rising up in the church today in direct opposition to the move of God to tear down religiosity in the church.
So there is a priestly group in the church world today. You can only discern them by the anointing. If you want to know who they are, ask God, he will tell you. Usually they do not have an office. Most of the time they have no office. Some of the time they do, but it has been my experience that most of the time they have no physical office. They have a spiritual office, but if you go looking for somebody with a title or a big church usually they are not there.
Usually, they are not in the main-line denominations. Usually, they do not have a title. Usually, they do not even have the office of deacon in the local church. They are just people, and they are moving in and out of the Body of Christ, and the only way you can know who they are is by the Spirit of God, but there is a priestly company, and in accordance with the Book of Malachi, Chapter 3, God is coming to cleanse His priestly company first.
And this is what He is going to do. "But who may abide the day of His coming, and who shall stand when He appears for He is like refiners fire and like fuller's soap, and He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and He shall purify the Sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness?" If your life is a torment today, brethren, you may be a part of this company. Hallelujah.
"But who may abide the day of His coming?" Who may be able to survive it? It is going to be so painful and traumatic. "And who shall stand when He appears?" When the Christ emerges forth, who will be standing with Him? He is like a refiner's fire. He burns, and He destroys everything that is not of God, and He is like fuller's soap, and fuller's soap is a very caustic soap. It scrapes and rubs your skin right off of your body. "And He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver." We know that silver typifies salvation. He is bringing forth the salvation that God has buried deep in the earth of our soul. He is bringing it forth, and to get it out He has got to rub away and wash away everything from the earth.
We know that when we garden, first of all we have to turn over the ground, which is extremely painful. All the rocks and weeds are pulled out, then we plant the seed, and, when the seed comes forth, very often the harvesting is a very painful process. Harvesting cotton, for example, it is really hard to get the cotton off of the plant. This is a tremendously painful, difficult, excruciating process, and God likens us to plants. This is what we are going through now. Those of us in the priest company who God has come to, we are going through severe trials and tribulations and are being purified. This is what is going on in our lives.
Now, we know that God uses the demons, and He uses them in two different ways. When you are in total rebellion, God turns you over, and He says to the demons, "Go get him," and the purpose of this is to bring him to repentance. But, on the other hand, when you are in the will of God, God will use ALREADY EXISTING DEMONS within you to train you in spiritual warfare, and other sundry purposes, all of which will result in the emergence of Christ within you and bring forth this refining in your life. He is bringing you forth like fine gold in the image of Jesus Christ, and the priestly company is coming forth first.
Verse 4 says, "And then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years." Now when the priests get cleaned up, Judah and Jerusalem is going to be a pleasant offering.
It seems to be a spiritual reality on the average (there are always exceptions) but people sitting in a congregation just cannot seem to get past the leadership in the church. I have heard a lot of stories about this. Whatever the sin is in the pulpit, it just seems to proliferate in the church. I heard a couple of testimonies right from the pulpit. One man was a practicing homosexual, but he kept it undercover, and finally God got a hold of him and convicted him, and he repented, and he got deliverance, but by the time God accomplished all this, homosexuality was spread throughout the congregation like a cancer. I have also seen it happen with adultery.
"So when Levi gets cleaned up then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord as in the days of old." So before God goes into the church world, He is dealing with the priests. "And I will come near to you to judgment, and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers and against the adulterers and against the false swearers and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages and the widow and the fatherless and that turn aside the strangers from his right and fear not Me saith the Lord of hosts." All these things are going on in the pulpit.
"I will come near to you." To the priests. "I will come near to you to judgment, and I will be a swift witness against those of you that are practicing witchcraft in the pulpit, and against those of you that are practicing adultery in the pulpit and against those of you that lie in the pulpit and against those of you that oppress the hireling, those that work for you and you are oppressing them. I am not going to tolerate it in the pulpit any more."
You oppress the widow in your church, and I remind you that the widow is not just the natural widow; there are also spiritual widows – both physical females and physical males who have a relationship with the Lord, but are not married to Him. I have been in churches where the widow was oppressed. They only want to know the people that have money. "Can you help me, can you help me, if you can help me I want to know you, if you cannot help me I do not want to know you." Well, I state to the preachers that are in this category, "You are out of the will of God because God is your help, and you are there to help the widow. You have got it backwards, you have got it backwards." So God is tearing that down. "And I will be a swift witness against those who oppress the widow and the fatherless" The fatherless are those who do not have a relationship with the Father.
You can have a relationship with the Holy Spirit and not have a relationship with the Father. You can be a new Christian, you can have the Holy Spirit, but the Father is one with Jesus Christ, and until Christ Jesus is emerging forth in you, all you have is the vehicle to bring Him forth, and He may not be very powerful in your life at the moment. If you are fatherless, you are defenseless EXCEPT FOR THE PREACHERS whose job it is to defend you until Christ is formed in you! So the preachers that are taking advantage of these people are violating a sacred trust, even that of a mother toward a child, and God is tearing you down. Repent. He will give you every chance, but if you do not repent He is going to tear you down.
"And those that turn aside the stranger from his right and fear not me, saith the Lord." Repent. The word of the Lord to the preachers is repent because if you do not repent, God is tearing down your ministry. The fire is going forth like a flaming sword, and everyone is saying that it is the Devil. It is not the Devil. It is the fiery judgment of God.
The Kingdom age is coming in, and it is swallowing up the church age, so if you want to survive, repent and throw yourself on the mercy of the God. 'For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore, ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. Even from the days of your fathers you have gone away from my ordinances and have not kept them. Return to me and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts, but ye said, wherein shall we return?" "What have we done wrong?" Everything that I just read. You do not really care about the people; you care about your own kingdom. Oh God, may this word be quickened to everyone that this tape is going to. God is here to minister to the people.
If you need a new sound system He is going to get it to you without you bloodying the people, and if you do not have it, obviously, you do not need it, and if you need it, and He does not give it to you maybe He does not want you to preach. You do not have to bloody the people.
I knew a woman once who was on welfare, her husband had left her, she was raising a child on welfare, ahe had something like $400 a week plus food stamps for all of her needs. She was giving this preacher $40 a week, and she was not making it. The child did not have enough food to eat, so she sought God in her desperation, and He told her to stop giving the $40 a week and use the money to buy food. And the preacher in the church that she was going to, instead of telephoning her and saying, "Sister, I have not received your tithe, is anything wrong? Is there tragedy in your life? Do you have a problem? Are you in trouble? Can I help you?" He threw her out of the church because she was not tithing. The Lord rebuke you. Where is your mercy? If your church falls because you do not have a widow's $40, it is going to fall anyway, and it is falling now.
UPDATE TO MESSAGE #012
WITCHCRAFT, TITHING, & OTHER TIDBITS
I no longer believe that the Sister described in the above paragraph chose the Scriptural course of action. She called me recently saying, that the Lord told her to call me, but she did not know why. After we spoke for while, and she revealed to me that she is the only one in her family not prospering financially. I asked her if she was tithing. She told me that she was not, so I counseled her to tithe, but she did not take my advice. The Scriptural course of action that she should have taken 15 years ago, was to continue to tithe, pray, and seek prayer and material help from spiritual elders until the Lord moved on her behalf to provide enough money to meet her needs. Of course, the reaction of her Pastor was ungodly, but that is another issue.
Message Continued
So the Lord is rebuking the preachers or the sons of Levi, same thing, and He is saying, "You never kept my ordinances, your fathers have gone away from my ordinances, and you have not kept them. You have never done it." We know Eli's sons did not do it; we know that this continued throughout the entire Scripture. There is a season where the priests are faithful to God, and then they fall. There is a season that we are faithful to God, and then they fall.
I was studying in the Old Testament once, and I read that Samuel, who was a great prophet of God, went to a high place to make the sacrifice unto the Lord, and gave a heathen sacrifice. I read it four times. I said, "I don't believe it," but the truth of the matter is that no one born of a woman that God has raised up has served Him in perfection to this day except, of course Jesus of Nazareth, who was the Christ. Some have had an overall ministry that great good has come forth from, but even those ministries failed here, and failed there. God shows us this subtly, by telling us that Samuel went to a place known for its heathen altar is, and he gave a sacrifice, for example.
I could not believe it when I read it. So God says, "You have all done it, but now I am telling you to stop because I am going to give you the power to stop doing it. My Christ is emerging forth in you, and you will not have to do this any more, but you must lay it down, lay it down, lay it down so that I can change you. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord." Well, what does that mean? If you are doing these things in abundance, He has left you. Has the Spirit of God lifted off of your church? If He has, there must be a reason why. God wants to bless His people, so He must have left for a valid reason. Something is wrong, brethren.
He says, "If you return unto me I will return unto you, saith the Lord. But ye said wherein shall we return?" We are clean, we are clean, look at what we have done, we have three services a week, I am on TV, I am on the radio, and I have a food ministry. Well brethren, I suggest that you seek God as to where you have missed Him.
They say, "Wherein shall we return?" and he says to them, "Will a man rob God?" That word "man" is Adam, and we know that if we are in Christ we are two men. We are fallen Adam, and we are Christ. And the Lord is saying, "Will Adam rob God?" Now, Christ is the resurrected Adam. I know this gets confusing, but Christ is the resurrected righteous Adam, and our old Man is fallen Adam. In other words God is saying, that is not my Son ministering through you in this church. The church is supposed to be a manifestation of Christ, which is righteous Adam. Will you rob God? Yet, ye have robbed Me. Fallen Adam in you has robbed Me. "But ye say, wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse for ye have robbed me even this whole nation." God is saying that He is one with the whole nation. He is on the side of the people. He is against the preachers that are robbing the people.
You have not ministered to the widow in your church. You have had your barbeque on every holiday weekend, and you have invited all the prestigious people in the church, and that poor woman who is struggling to survive with her kid, who is alone, who is living a Godly life, she has no man and she is living a Godly life, and she is by herself in the house. She cannot afford to have company in her house. You have invited everybody but her, and paid for it with her tithes, but you have not invited her. You invite all the rich businessmen with their families to swim in your swimming pool, and that poor child whose mother works and has no father she does not get invited to your swimming pool. Hallelujah.
"You are cursed with a curse for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithe into the storehouse that there may be meat in Mine house and prove me now herewith saith the Lord of hosts." The truth of the Scripture is not what has been preached in the church world for years. This Scripture has been used to preach to the church world that you had better tithe or God is going to get you. I actually heard a preacher preach once that if you do not give your tithe, he would not want to be riding in your car when God takes the tires off of your car that you bought with His tithe.
Well, brethren, this is what this Scripture means. Praise the Lord. The word "storehouse" means a treasury of food or provision. John 6:35 says, "And Jesus saith unto them, I am the bread of life." So our provision is in Jesus Christ, and 1 Corinthians 10:17 says, "We, being many, (Paul speaking to the church) are one bread." When we are one with Christ we become what He is, bread, and we then become one with everyone else who is one with Christ; therefore, that makes those of us who are all one with Christ, those of us that have become the bread that He is, all of us together become one bread. We are one bread with each other. Christ is in people today, so we are the provision that is being poured out for the life of the world. Hallelujah.
We talked about the tithe a few weeks ago when we studied Isaiah 6. Let us take a look at it again. Isaiah 6, starting at Verse 10, "Make the heart of this people fat and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. Then said I, Lord how long, and He answered, until the cities be wasted and not inhabited and the house without man, and the land be utterly desolate, and the Lord has removed men far away and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land."
The Lord has made my life utterly desolate even to the point that, in the natural, there is no reason for me to be alive. He has given me an opportunity to minister to you, and I thank God for it, but outside of that there is no reason for me to be alive. He has just stripped me of everything. My land has been greatly forsaken. So there is an in-between stage between the tearing down and the emerging of Christ. It is a wilderness experience, and God requires us to bear it, but if that is where you are right now, be encouraged because the glory of God is about to fall on you. Hallelujah.
Verse 13, "But yet it shall be a tenth, and it shall return." Now, what the with is He talking about? "And it shall return, and it shall be eaten." What is He talking about? A tenth shall survive this wasting of the living soul that died. That small kernel of the life of Jesus Christ that is represented as a tenth of the whole, He is going to preserve it alive. He is going to rip down and strip us of everything that makes life worth living. But the processing will not destroy that tenth, that tithe, which belongs to God, that which is of His Spirit.
So He says, "But yet it shall be a tenth, and it shall return." That tenth is coming back. Our life may be utterly destroyed, but that which is of Christ, and was of Christ from the beginning, that which is in us shall survive, and it shall return, and it shall come back unto God, and it shall be eaten. Who is going to eat it? It is the life of Christ. It is the life of Christ that is going to be consumed and become one with the glorified life of Jesus Christ. That part of us which is the dead Christ that was born with us, is going to be consumed by the grafted Christ, the seed of the glorified Jesus Christ. They are going to be joined, and we, our soul/personality, that element of us that is being saved, are going to live and rule and reign together with Christ forever. Hallelujah.
That is the tenth. Glory to God. That is the tithe. "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse," bring ye the life of the dead Christ that was with the people from birth into my storehouse. Bring it to me that it should be provision, bring him to me so that I can raise him from the dead by grafting the seed of the glorified Jesus Christ to him, so that my life should emerge in them, and that I should be revealed in them. I want what is mine. I want that which is of my Spirit that I sowed in the earth with the seed of man and beast when I brought forth this one into the earth. Give it to me, I want my tithe, I do not want your money. He is not asking for money. He is saying to the preachers, "I have commissioned you to minister to these people the life of my Word so that, that which is a part of me that is within them will rise from the dead and emerge forth."
Preaching tears down the sin nature of the natural man. We know that. Preaching is warfare. That is why sometimes people in the congregation manifest when you are preaching a true Word of God. Sometimes people get all upset with what the preachers says. Sometimes they get upset when it is not a Word of God, but if it is the Word of God, and you are upset at what the preacher said, then it behooves you to ask the Lord if it was Him speaking through that preacher. And if it was the Lord, that means that something within you that is not of God opposed the Word of God that came forth from the pulpit, and the Lord requires you to repent.
This is warfare. I, by these words, am attacking everything in you that is not of Christ. I am tearing down your traditions. I am tearing down your false doctrines. I am ripping things out of you that have been hidden within you for years. Like xxxxx was saying earlier. Your carnal mind is under the attack of God through me, through the sword of the Spirit that is in my mouth at this moment, because God has placed it there.
So this is what He is saying to the preachers. "Bring ye the tenth into my storehouse, my place of provision. I want it back that there may be life in my house." If you are a preacher, you are supposed to be bringing forth life in the people of God. Unfortunately, it is only happening in a very few ministries. Hallelujah.
"And prove me now herewith saith the Lord of hosts if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that there should not be room enough to receive it." It says nothing about money, people. Nothing about money whatsoever. I do not know about you, but if I had a choice between a spiritual blessing and a financial blessing I want the things of God's Spirit. Who even wants the money? Unless we can have both. I will take it if we can have both, you know. I am not a fool, and I do not believe that poverty is holy, but if I have to choose, I want the things of God, more than I want money, because the Scriptures tell us that if you seek the Kingdom of God first all things will be added unto you. Go for God. Go for God. It is the only way to go. A few of us in this ministry have been talking lately about something that God has been showing us, and we believe that you have to be willing to lose everything, to move into the power of God.
If you know that you are experiencing life through your fellowship with Christ, and He is bringing you into experiences and trials that, when it comes to His righteousness, you have to be willing to lose everything, and if you are willing to lose everything, God will give you the victory. It is not always a natural victory though. You have to really get a spiritual revelation to understand this, but I pray that God gives me this ability to be willing to lose everything, so that He should be glorified in me. You just cannot miss, if you take such an position. What else is there? It is the best, it is the greatest, and it is all there is, when you dwell in this spiritual place. Everyone is not dwelling there. Hallelujah.
So what He is saying is, "Prove me now herewith saith the Lord of hosts if I will not open unto you the windows of heaven." The word translated "windows" is "an interwoven work, a work or a dove house, being shut in with latticework." I am suggesting to you, and we have touched on this before, that the living soul that died is locked up inside of this body, this vile physical body. Paul calls it a vile body. It causes us sickness and pain and torment, unless you are blessed in this life in this area. But I have been afflicted sorely in this area in my lifetime. This body has been a torture chamber to me, and we know that we have many people in this world that are afflicted this way.
So this body is not the glory of God. Our soul/personality is locked up inside here, and the only way to get our soul/personality out, the way things are right now, is to kill this body, and then we no longer have a life in the natural realm.
But the day is coming, brethren, yea the day is even at hand, that our soul/personality is going to emerge forth from this body, and our soul/personality will not die because our soul/personality will have been joined to Christ Jesus, and that event will give us a spiritual body, and our spiritual body will serve the spirit man that is emerging forth. But we are in prison, this physical body is a prison.
The Scripture says, "See if I will not open to you the windows of heaven." Now the word "heaven" means, "firmament," and it means "something which seems to be spread out like a vault over the globe." The ancient Hebrews that studied the Scriptures believed that the firmament was the skin on the body. We discussed this in a prior meeting when we talked about mountains and hills. We said that the mountains are the projecting spiritual power that emanates through the skin, and that the hills are the top of our being. We measure our self, not from head to foot, but from our most internal point to our most outward point.
Now, we are spiritual beings living inside this physical body so we are inside this place, and the outermost part of the vessel we are living in is the skin. Jesus talks about outer darkness. I believe it to be the most extreme spiritual condition of being as far away from Him as possible. I hope I am making this clear to you. We are spiritual beings. We do not exist from head to foot. We exist from within to without, and the ancient Hebrews believed that the firmament was the skin. This skin separates us from the world without. So the Lord said, "See if I do not open the windows of heaven, see if I do not open this jail that you are in and pour you out....".
Now, the King James translators added words in here. "And pour you out a blessing." It is not "pour you out a blessing," but "pour you out as a blessing." We are so selfish, we want to get, we want to get. He is not saying I am going to give you a blessing. He is saying I am going to make you a blessing. I am going to take you out of these jails into a spiritual life, in a spiritual body, and I am going to pour you out as a blessing to the world. He is saying this to the preachers. If you will just bring forth life in my people, the end of it is that I am going to bring you into a spiritual life which will manifest all provision to you.
You do not have to worry about money. Provision is in the life of Jesus Christ. We see it in the Scriptures. They needed money for taxes. Jesus said, "Catch a fish," and there is money in the fish. They could not catch any fish with their nets. Jesus said, "Throw nets over the other side," and the nets were so full they broke. Provision is in Jesus Christ. If we weren't just stop doing it ourselves, we would never be without. He is saying, "Stop this nonsense with the money. Bring forth spiritual life, turn it over to me, be prepared to lose your ministry, be prepared to lose everything, and see what I will do for you. Watch me, prove me, and see what I am going to do for you."
"See if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour you out as a blessing that....". These few words, I do not even want to read what the King James translators added in. What it is really saying in the Hebrew is, see if I do not pour you out as a blessing until my sufficiency is exhausted. Now we know that is impossible. God is infinite. He said his sufficiency would never stop. You will have my sufficiency for the life of the ages if you will just bring forth life in my people and stop with these religious works. Bring forth spiritual life, and you will not have to take two offerings. Sufficiency and provision is in the Spirit of God. Hallelujah.
I want to read that Scripture as an Alternate Translation. "And I shall pour you out as a blessing for the life of the ages." For the life of the ages. Hallelujah, glory to God. We are the provision that is being poured out for the life of the world. "And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes." Now who is the devourer? He is the one that eats dust. Who is the one that eats dust? The curse upon the Serpent is that he will eat dust for the duration of this divided age. So God will rebuke Satan who is the unconscious part of our own mind, the one who is ruling us and bringing torment into our lives.
Look at what is going to happen if the preachers bring forth life. Satan is going to be overcome. He is going to be swallowed up by Christ Jesus. "And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground." What is the fruits of your ground? It is Christ. He is saying that if you bring forth life in the church I will strip Satan of his power to hinder the life of Christ that is coming forth in the people.
"Neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time." Premature birth. We are bringing forth the life of Christ. We are all spiritually female, we are wombs in which the spiritual life of the Lord Jesus Christ is growing . And from time to time there are premature births, which, life, I believe, comes to naught until God roots it in another being. I do not really want to get into that right now.
We can have a premature spiritual birth. We see people cast down all the time. The most anointed preacher on Long Island, what happened? "Neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field saith the Lord of hosts." The field typifies the world. The life of Christ is not going to come forth too soon when we are still in the flesh, because if it comes forth too soon, it will not survive.
"And all nations shall call you blessed." Because you gave 10% of your salary? No, no, no, no. "And all nations shall call you blessed for ye shall be a delightsome land." Well, the land is the land of our body and our soul. We are not going to be cursed any more. Now remember, we were cursed. Adam left the Garden a cursed man, but we are not going to be cursed any more. That is what the delightsome land means. We are not going to be cursed any more. We are told in the Book of Revelation that at the end of the process, there is no more curse.
There is a curse now, people. If you think you are not cursed, you cannot get delivered. You cannot get delivered if you think you are not cursed. You are cursed now. At the end of the process, which will end in your total salvation, you will no longer be cursed; you will be a delightsome land. Hallelujah.
I just want to say another word on tithing. Tithing is a commandment of the Old Covenant. It is not valid for the New Covenant. Jesus never, ever told us to tithe. The only time He ever spoke about tithing was when He was mocking the Pharisees. In Matthew 23:23, He said, "Ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith." You do not know mercy, justice, righteousness or judgment. Jesus has commanded us to give alms deeds. People grow up. What He is saying is, "I am no longer telling you that I want 10% of your salary. I want you to manifest mercy. I want you to respond to my spirit. I want you to do what is right because righteousness is coming forth from within you." And I will tell you people that 10% is not always what is right. If your family is starving to death, you do not have to give anything. What you have to do is what God tells you to do.
UPDATE TO MESSAGE #012
WITCHCRAFT, TITHING, & OTHER TIDBITS
(15 YEARS AFTER THE ABOVE PARAGRAPH WAS PREACHED)
Pastor Vitale's Testimony
Fifteen years ago when I preached this message, I was caught up in the false teaching that the Church was to pay alms deeds rather than tithes. The Lord subsequently taught me that the ability to pay alms deeds is an aspect of the nature of Christ Jesus, which must be developed in the individual. Shortly after I switched from tithing to paying alms deeds I found myself praying over every paycheck to ask the Lord how much money I should give to the Church. I became very frustrated early on because the Lord was not answering me, and I simply didn't know what to do. Finally, one day, as I prayed in desperation, the Lord spoke to me, saying, "10% sounds pretty good to me." I was completely confused at this response, so I began to seek the Lord about the difference between alms deeds and tithes.
I found out that alms deeds is a level of spiritual maturity which causes one to respond to financial issues in the same way that Christ Jesus would respond. I found out that anyone who is truly ascended into the spiritual level of alms deeds gives much more than 10% of their gross income, because alms deeds is an attitude of the heart. It is the response of Christ within us to any call for help, which very few in the Church attain to. The truth is that most people in the Church who give beyond a straight 10% of the gross of their income do so out of the spirit of pride, while alms deeds is a distinct move of the Spirit of Christ from within the individual.
I had been tithing 10% of my gross income for many years, when I realized that, despite my sincerity and hard work my income was wholly inadequate to support a middle-class lifestyle, so I went before the Lord with a great complaint.
I cried before him with bitter tears, and one day, despite my very small income, there appeared in my heart a desire to feed the hungry. At first I thought I would donate some canned goods to a Thanksgiving Day collection, but I soon recognized that the Lord had other ideas and was challenging me to donate some of my small income to feed others who were less fortunate than I.
The Lord then led me to a local ministry that goes out into the streets to feed the poor. At first I gave them a single donation, then I committed to a monthly donation, and after that, much to my surprise, I found the desire in my heart to give to another ministry, and then another ministry.
I was very concerned about what was happening to me, because I did not want to be financially irresponsible. So, I prayed and I prayed, until the Lord spoke to me saying, "Sheila, don't be afraid to do what is in your heart." Then I made a fleece with the Lord, saying, Lord, I will give all that it is in my heart to give, but the first month that I cannot pay my bills, I will withdraw from all of these commitments.
Well, that was about two years ago. (Oh, by the way, I forgot to tell you that the Ministry was barely paying its bills, and it was not unusual for us to be in the red at the end of the month, even though the Ministry was tithing 10% of its gross income also.)
Well, last year the Ministry gave away 15% of its gross income, and the Ministry income is greater today than it has been at anytime in the past 15 years. I have not calculated what percentage of my personal income I gave away last year, but it was well beyond 10%, and my income today is greater than it has been at anytime since I gave up my secular job. Glory to God!
I thank you Lord for everything you have taught me, and for the opportunity to pass this knowledge onto others.
E-Mail Concerning Tithing And
Pastor Vitale's Response
QUESTION: I have read the subject matter concerning, "Gifts, Tithes, Alms deeds, etc," from the Question & Answer section of your web page. I have also listened to Message #12, Witchcraft, Tithing & Other Tidbits and I am confused.
PASTOR VITALE: I am sorry for the confusion that this message may have caused you. I preached it 10 years ago, at a time when I was offended by the pressure that was being put on the Church to give money. At that time, many Kingdom preachers were preaching that the tithe is under the Old Covenant, and many preachers still preach that message today.
It is true that the tithe is under the Old Covenant, but it is also true that this is only half a message. The whole message is that either you give because the Law demands it (tithe), or you give because your conscience demands it (alms deeds). The fact that there are many unscrupulous preachers in the Church today using mind control to get money from God's people, does not change the Law of Sowing & Reaping.
I was shocked to find out that the majority of the people who heard this half message (that you only have to tithe if you are under the Old Covenant) were keeping all of their money for themselves, and that many were going into destruction. It was after this that the Lord revealed the Gospel of Giving to me, which I have been preaching now for many years. I will post this email as an addition to the transcript of message #12.
QUESTION: Are you saying it is okay to tithe because we are still under the Old Covenant?
PASTOR VITALE: Yes. As I told you in the interpretation of your dream (Ascension & Finances), the New Covenant is a face-to-face relationship with Jesus Christ. The problem that most Christians have today is that they do not understand that we can have a face-to-face relationship with Jesus Christ in some areas of our life, but not in others. We are under the Old Covenant In the areas of our life where the Lord speaks to us through a mediator, a teacher for example, and we should tithe to the priest (the teacher/pastor) who covers our sins by instructing us in righteousness.
QUESTION: And that when we are led by the Spirit of Christ, we are giving alms which is above the tithe amount?
PASTOR VITALE: When we are led by the Spirit, it is very likely that the Lord will lead us to give more than 10%, but the bottom line is that we do what He, our renewed conscience, tells us to do. Those of us who have experienced giving alms deeds as a result of a face-to face relationship with Jesus Christ, have found out that, in this area, He always asks us to give more than we think we can afford.
There is a great misunderstanding in the Church in this area. The truth is that, according to the Spiritual Law of God, the way we increase our finances is to give away a portion of what little we have, in the form of tithes and free-will offerings. But, this makes no sense to the carnal mind, wherefore, the people who are usually in the most need of financial assistance, follow their carnal mind, rather than Christ, and give away very little, or nothing.
The tithe is not a penalty. It is a carnal law which, when followed, defends us against the destruction of the Sowing & Reaping Judgment (which is enforced by Satan), until Christ Jesus matures our conscience in the area of finances (because it is not right to drink at someone's well and take no responsibility for replenishing that well).
Psalm 37:21. The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again: but the righteous sheweth mercy, and giveth. (KJV)
The above Scripture verse does not mean that we are wicked. It means that this is the way the wicked carnal mind thinks, but the Mind of Christ does His part to replenish the well that dispenses the mercy of God.
If we are not under the spiritual law of Christ (New Covenant), whether we know it or not, we are under the Law of Sowing & Reaping (Old Covenant), which is mediated by Satan. Under this Law of Sowing & Reaping, we receive back what ever we put in. If we give nothing, our source of income and blessings begin to dry up. Experiencing loss helps us to learn that we do not have gainful employment, health, etc., because of your own righteousness, talents, skills, or hard work, but that promotion comes from the Lord.
Psalm 75:4-7
4. I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly: and to the wicked, Lift not up the horn:
5. Lift not up your horn on high: speak not with a stiff neck.
6. For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south.
7. But God is the judge: He putteth down one, and setteth up another. (KJV)
This truth sounds unfair to some who may think, "I know many who do not tithe, and they are prospering." Wherefore, it is a great mystery that judgment falls swiftly upon those whose heart is turned towards the Lord, but may take two or three generations to fall upon those whose heart is turned away from Him.
QUESTION: On the tape, you say that Malachi was not talking about tithes, and Jesus did not instruct us to tithe. Could you clear this up for me?
PASTOR VITALE: It is true that Malachi was not talking about tithes in that Scripture. Actually, he was indicting the pastors for not bringing forth the life of God in the people. There is no New Testament Scripture that tells us to tithe. Yet, pastors and ministers need money to run their churches and ministries, so, unfortunately, many ministers use that Scripture to pressure people into tithing. But pressure and the misuse of Scripture is witchcraft. The only legitimate way to solicit money from God's people is to educate them by instructing them in righteousness. If they do not respond to our instruction, it is up to the Lord to deal with them. As far as the pastor or minister is concerned, all he can do is ask the Lord to supply his needs and speak to the people. If the Lord does not supply his needs through the people, or otherwise, the pastor or minister should get a job.
QUESTION: Correct me if I am wrong. As long as we have a dual nature (the carnal mind and the mind of Christ), we are to tithe. However, when we are functioning with the Mind of Christ, and are led by Christ Jesus to give, then it is alms when we give.
PASTOR VITALE: Yes.
QUESTION: Is the Church in error to teach that to give tithes means you should expect something, in return?
PASTOR VITALE: The answer is yes to the way tithing is being taught today. I remember once when I was a young Christian, and very short of money, I attended a Church revival where a well-known international evangelist was preaching. To make the story short, he preached that if you put in $10, you could expect $20 in return. Well, I put my last $10 into the offering, but no money came to me the next day or the second day, and I had no money left for food for the rest of the week. This is irresponsible preaching.
As I told you above, tithing comes under the Law of Sowing & Reaping. This means that you tithe out of obedience (sowing), and the Lord provides your needs (reaping). That is, a job, transportation, food, home, health, etc. The carnal mind leads us astray when she tells us that we have the necessities of life (job, etc.) because of our own abilities, because this is not true. Everything that we have -- breath in our lungs, a healthy newborn child, skills that qualify us for a good job, legs that work - are all gifts from God.
According to this formula, there are many in the Church today who should not be prospering, but God has mercy on the unjust as well as the just, and upon the ignorant. Mortal man is a spiritual criminal because of his carnal mind (1 Timothy 1:9). God has mercy on the ignorant, but is angry at the powers and principalities that live through our carnal mind all the day long.
Psalm 7:11. God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day. (KJV)
He delivers the righteous [we are the righteous because of Jesus Christ] from the influence of the wicked [carnal mind] by instructing (judgeth) us [out of the Christ mind, either in us or in a teacher/pastor].
QUESTION: So we all are to tithe?
PASTOR VITALE: If the desire to give is not strong enough in us to cause us to give at least 10% of our gross income, we should put ourselves under the Law of Tithing for our own safety, and for the preservation of our family, until our conscience matures in the area of finances.
QUESTION: What is the purpose of the tithes?
PASTOR VITALE: I think I answered this question above.
QUESTION: Does it matter where we give our tithes?
PASTOR VITALE: Yes, you should give to the ministry that is supplying your spiritual food, and satisfying your spiritual needs.
QUESTION: Some of my other questions have been answered from reading the materials. Do you have any other information concerning this subject?
PASTOR VITALE: I think I have covered it all between this and my other emails. God Bless you.
Sincerely in Christ,
Sheila R. Vitale,
Pastor, Teacher & Founder
Living Epistles Ministries
Message Continued
Now we know that in the Scripture there was the widow with her son that had one last little cup of oil and enough flour for one cake of bread, and the prophet came to her and said, "Give me your food." Well if you have no food for your family, and God says, "Do it," you better do it. You better do it or you are finished for sure. But you better make sure that it is God telling you that you have to give money to the church when your family does not have enough food. You better make sure it is God because He would not honor it if it is not God.
There are preachers preaching against tithing in this hour, and the purpose of preaching against it is that God is tearing down religious works in the church. Every religious work has to come down. It does not mean you do not give money. It means that you obey the Spirit of God within you, rather than the law. You have compassion, you have mercy, you start growing up, you exercise your intelligence based on righteousness, and you seek God, and you ask Him who you should give what. Grow up. It is grow up time. We are becoming spiritual men. We are not children any more. He wants us to start exercising the power of God that is coming forth within us.
Give alms deeds, have bowels of mercy. But you know, brethren, we cannot have a carnal mercy. We can get caught up in a carnal mercy. God gave me a couple of interesting experiences I would like to share with you. I am in Manhattan a lot. There are a lot of people begging in Manhattan. It is pitiful. Some of these people are pitiful. So, when I first started going there, I said, "Oh, I am supposed to have mercy, you know, I am supposed to give money." But there are ten of them on every street. Now God does not want us bankrupted. I said, "Lord I do not know what to do. How can I have mercy on this one and not mercy on that one." I was going into all kinds of confusion. I was really upset over this because I wanted to do what was right, and the Lord said to me, "You are not to give to any of them." He just shut me down. Lots of times when we are in confusion God will just shut us down.
For a whole year I did not give to any of these derelicts in Manhattan. Well, with one exception. I was walking down the street, racing to get to a commuter bus on 5th Avenue and 44thStreet. This is a very crowded area at 5 o'clock at night, a lot of people, like ants, and this woman was standing off on the side, and she saw me coming. It was wintertime, and I had one of those quilted coats on with my hood up. She could not have even seen my face. I was deep in thought, and my head was bowed down, and she walked right up to me. The Lord sent her right up to me. She stood right in front of me, and she said, "Help me, my children are starving." I was shocked because I had been meditating with the Lord, and suddenly there was this woman saying this profound thing to me. I just looked at her, and God just quickened it to me.
Unfortunately, I did not have much money in my wallet, but I gave her what I had, and I prayed for her. I said, "Do you know the Lord?" And she was a believer. God sent her over, and He must have said to her, "That one." I believe He said to her, "That one." Me. And I stood there on 5thAvenue and 44th Street praying with her. She was a black woman, she was poor, she was obviously poor. And it was right in the middle of 5thAvenue with all these prosperous people in $400 suits walking down the street, and I am standing there holding on to her hand for dear life praying for her. I did not even care if anyone was looking. We were in another world.
The people were just swarming around us, and I was in another world. They did not even care, and when I got on the bus I was a little upset because I really did not give her that much. And the Lord said to me that the prayer went further than the money. I only had a couple of dollars. He said it was enough money for them to get something to eat that night, but that He gave her a job the next day. That is what He told me.
That was very exciting, and this is how God started to teach me the truth about alms deeds. He wants us moving in His Spirit. He does not want us giving money out of guilt or pride, but we can give it out of obedience. We have to do what He tells us to do. Then there is another experience that I had which was very exciting to me. Now this is going on for almost two years, I hear all these people begging, and I am just walking down the street. There was a man standing on the corner. He had his palm extended. There was three pennies and a nickel in his hand. I cannot even conceive of anyone giving a penny to someone that says they are starving to death, but there were three pennies, and a nickel on his palm which was rigidly extended outward, and I just walked past him, and as I walked past him he cried, "Doesn't anybody hear me, I am starving?"
And something deep down inside me clicked. Christ Jesus heard him, stopped me dead in my tracks, and had me give him something. It was so exciting. I started to take a certain amount of money out, and the Lord said, "No, more," and I took a larger bill out and went over to him. His eyes were closed, so I slapped it on his hand because otherwise it would have blown away. He was not expecting it. I wanted him to know that there was something there, so I slapped it on his hand, and he said to me, "God bless you." Maybe he was a believer. I really do not know.
As I walked away, he looked down and saw that it was more than a dollar. He must have thought that it was a dollar, so he got so excited when he saw that the bill was a larger denomination, that he started screaming and yelling after me as I walked down the street. I was so embarrassed, I just put my head down, and I ran. I did not want anyone to know that it was me. He said, "Thank you ma'am, thank you ma'am." I said, "Oh my God, I cannot stand it." But it was very exciting. I was flying for the rest of the afternoon.
Now on the other side of this, a few months after that, every time I passed a derelict, I am saying, "Lord, is this the one you want me to help?" There was this woman sitting on the side, and as I approached her a woman was giving her money, and she was saying, "Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you." And I started to think, should I? And the Holy Spirit rose up in me, and He said....He spoke to me and shocked me out of my wits. He said to me, "Not a chance, not a chance until she repents." That is what He said to me, and the words were resounding in my head for the next four blocks.
Now, I could not tell the difference by looking at these people, but that is what He said to me. On another occasion, I went down the big escalator in Grand Central Station, and there was a man standing there without a hand. He had a sign saying that he was a Viet Nam vet, and my carnal reaction to him was, "Well he looked well enough, he was just missing his hand, why doesn't he have a job? Surely he should be able to get a job. A healthy strong man like that, he was a young man. He should not have to be begging, something is really wrong."
He had one good hand, and his legs were working, and I walked right past him, and the Lord stopped me dead in my tracks, and I went for my wallet. I thought I took a dollar bill out, and I gave it to him, and when I gave it to him I blessed him. He really manifested when I said, "God bless you," and I walked away. Then I found out that I had given him much more than a dollar. God just blanked out my eyes because I had no mercy on him, you see. I really did not have mercy on him, but God wanted me to do it so I realized I had given him a much larger bill.
So this is what we are coming into, brethren. We are the manifestations of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we are supposed to be yielding to Him. Now it is hard. Maybe we will make mistakes at the beginning. When God first gave me this revelation I went through a whole year of socking all my money in the bank. "Oh, I don't have to tithe any more, whoopee!" I Socked all the money in the bank. This went on for a whole year, and what happened to me was that I became greedy.
Well, a combination of things had happened to me at the same time. The Lord had called me out of the church that I had been very involved in for a long time, and there appeared to be no other church for me to go to. I was in a wilderness. It was horrible for me. I did not know where to go to find an outpouring of the Spirit of God. It was terrible, and I was bitter and angry towards God. I said, "Well you would not give me a church to go to, so I will just make money." I was working, and working all the overtime that I could put my hands on. I just wanted more and more and more, and I was socking itallaway in the bank, and one day I woke up, and I was spiritually dry and I was miserable, and I was unhappy.
I did not know what was wrong in my life because I really thought that it was God's fault because He did not provide a church for me to go to, and then one day the Lord spoke to me through a brother. He gave me this Scripture. He said, "Return unto me and I will return unto you." And I said, "Wherefore should I return unto you Lord? You are the one that threw me out in the wilderness and left me nothing of substance, so I turned to money." And I said, "But I repent, I just want your Spirit back, and if I did something wrong I am sorry, but I do not understand what I did wrong." After that He started pouring out His Spirit in my life, and He showed me that we have to praise Him even in the wilderness, and that I did not have to be throwing all my heart into making money. I could have gone home, I could have read the Bible.
But even more than that, you know what He really showed me? He showed me that I had pride. He showed me that I came out of a church which was fairly spiritually mature (there were no other churches on Long Island at the time that were on that level) and that I said, out of all the churches on Long Island there is no place for me to go because they are not as spiritually mature as the church that I left. The teaching is not on the same level, and there is no deliverance, and I went down a whole list of excuses why I could not go to church.
So, when I repented the Lord sent me to church. He sent me to some young ministries on Long Island, and I will tell you, brethren, God poured out of His Spirit. There was an anointing in those churches. He showed me that I could get deliverance in those churches, that I could get healing in those churches. Not that the church believed in deliverance and healing, but that God is able to use anybody. One day I had a lot of pain in my back, and I went up to a man who was praying. This church actively preached that a Christian cannot have a demon, and I had a lot of pain. He (it was not the preacher, it was someone visiting) prayed for me, and nothing happened but I believed God, and I went out to my car and I got delivered all the way home. I hacked, and I coughed, and I belched, and I yawned all the way home. It did not happen in the church because they did not believe in deliverance, but it happened as soon as I got in the car.
God taught me many lessons. I was in the wilderness for two years. It was horrendous, but He taught me many lessons, and this is one of them. He can do anything by His Spirit, and that I was extremely lifted up in pride saying that I would not go to any of these spiritually youthful churches because I was too advanced for them. So He sent me around. I went to several of these churches over a period of time, and sometimes it was very difficult because I really did not agree with the doctrine that was being preached, and sometimes I would see the anointing for deliverance come down, and the preacher would not respond to it because he did not recognize it. It was very difficult for me. Sometimes the Lord let me be a blessing. Sometimes he did not, but I stuck it out because I had heard God.
At least I knew what He wanted me to do so I stuck it out, and then praise the Lord He raised up this ministry. He showed me that I had left Him as a result of pride. All we need is Him, but if we are looking for a deeper experience or a greater outpouring, sometimes God gives us experiences when we gather in a group, and sometimes He gives it to us when we are alone. He pours out a heavy anointing, but lots of times He does not. All we have to do is seek people that love Him and that have His Spirit. They do not have to have the same revelation that we have. They do not have to have the doctrine, they do not have to believe in deliverance, but they just have to love Jesus. If you go to a place where His Spirit is being poured out He can do anything. He can do absolutely anything.
God used a preacher who does not believe in deliverance to kick off the ministry. He says he believes in deliverance, but his actions said otherwise. I was told I could not break curses in his church and a whole bunch of other junk. He says he believes in deliverance, but I do not think he does, and he is absolutely against this ministry. He is against the teaching, he is against me being the overseer, and he is just against the ministry totally. That is his revelation, that is what he believes, and he is entitled to believe it.
God used this man and two other people that are very active in this ministry to call me out . We were all in that church on that Sunday, when he called us out. He gave us a blessing and a prophesy to me, and the word was, "A fresh anointing, a new strength," and there was a third part to it that I do not remember, but it was obvious that God was preparing me for the work that He had given me. "A double portion." It was "A fresh anointing, a new strength, and a double portion," and the power of God really fell down. There were two other people that are active in the ministry that were present, and this same preacher blessed them to. God used this preacher to kick off this ministry, so to speak, and that same preacher is diametrically opposed to this ministry.
So my whole point is that if you go where there is a vessel that will yield, at least in a measure, to the Holy Spirit, God can move. To this day, I am repenting of that pride. That is all that it was, and God had to say to me, "Return to me, and I will return to you."
I want to talk about what happens after Christ is revealed to the church, because that is what is happening today. Christ is about to be revealed to the church. I want to read you a few Scriptures in Malachi 3:16-17. This is what is about to happen.
"Then those who feared the Lord spoke often to one another, and the Lord harkened and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him, for them that feared the Lord and who thought upon His name. And they shall be Mine saith the Lord of Hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son that serves him." That is us. This is happening right now.
We are being spared, and our being spared is in the life of Jesus Christ. That is how He spares us. He brings forth the life of His Son in us and joins Himself to us, and we will have eternal life, the life of the ages, because we are joined to the life of Jesus Christ. Hallelujah.
Verse 18, "Then shall you return and discern between the righteous and the wicked." We must discern between the righteous and the wicked. There is no way we can serve God....do not lay hold of my words, God can always use us a little bit here and a little bit there, but to use us in great power we must be able to discern between the carnal mind and the Christ Mind, between the righteous and the wicked. "You shall return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serves God and him that serves Him not." Now if someone is out there in the world cursing God, you do not need an ability to discern that he is not serving God. What is the Lord talking about here? He is talking about the people in the church. There are people in the church that do not serve God. They say they do, and they probably even believe that they do, but they do not serve God. There are many Scriptures to indicate that, and we spoke about one of them earlier.
When Jesus raises people up and closes the door, there will be others who will say, "We prophesied in your name, we cast out demons," and He is going to say to them, "Depart from Me, I never knew you," because they are not serving God. Who are they serving? They are serving their own self-interests. There could be many different reasons. Some of them want the glory of being in the pulpit. For some of them, it is the way they earn their living. If they stopped doing this, what kind of a job would they get? Such a thought must be very frightening for them.
If you have been a preacher for a long time, and the church provides a home for you and your family, and cars, and pays your electric bill and your phone bill, and you have been doing this for 15 years, what kind of a job are you going to go out and get that will provide all of these benefits for you? It must be very frightening, so they are serving themselves, and the reason they are serving themselves is that, in some instances, they do not have the faith that God can provide for them, or they just want the glory, and they do not want to turn it over to God.
This is what is going to happen. We are going to be raised up. We are going to be spared, and we are going to receive the ability to discern the righteous from the wicked in the church. Now, a lot of people go on guilt trips when they start seeing and hearing the thoughts of the sin nature, saying, "Well, concerning sister so and so, there is just really something wrong there, I must be thinking evil of her." Well, brethren, seek God because the Lord may be showing you her heart. You can pray for her, but we have to get out of this bondage that it is ungodly to acknowledge what God is showing us about other people, because there are people in the church that do not serve God. They are not concerned with His righteousness or with bringing forth the life of His Spirit in the people. That is not what they are concerned with. They are concerned with other things.
They do not serve Him, and if God reveals that to you, you do not have to hate them. You just put the truth in your heart, you ask God what He wants you to do about it. You can pray for them or whatever God tells you to do, but just lay the knowledge away in your heart. Do not be feeling guilty because this is a sign that you are moving on to a life in the Spirit with Jesus Christ. You can discern between the righteous and the wicked, but it gets to be very painful, brethren. When God starts showing you sin, it really hurts.
Sometimes I walk down the streets of Manhattan, and I think about things that people are doing to each other, and sometimes just the way I see that people relate to one another, and I think I am losing my mind. I have good days and I have bad days. Some days I feel like I cannot bear it, but God just keeps giving me in the Scripture that righteous Lot was vexed when he lived in Sodom. When I hear in the news about children being abused I just cannot bear it, I cannot bear it. So this is what is going to happen. We are going to start seeing these things, and God has to give us the ability to deal with them. This is part of the processing that is raising us up to the point that Christ will be revealed through us, and when He is, this is what is going to happen.
Malachi chapter 4:1,"For behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea and all that do wickedly shall be stubble, and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root not branch." What this is saying is that the salvation of Jesus Christ that is upon the church right now is going to the world. It is going to the whole world. Hallelujah. And the day is going to burn like an oven, and the proud are going to be burned up because the fire of God is coming upon the whole earth, and He is going to burn up everything that is not of Christ. Only that which is of His Spirit will remain. He will, indeed, be all in all, and when this process is completely fulfilled He will turn the entire creation over to the Father.
Now we know that "the Christ," is no longer Jesus Christ who has been glorified, and is now the Father of Christ, His Son, who is in the earth. The Christ is no longer one man in the earth. He is a many-membered company known as Christ, God in the flesh. So when we are told that when Christ Jesus is all in every person on the earth He will turn the Kingdom over to the Father, what does that mean? It means no more Christ in the flesh. It means the glorification of humanity. No more physical body. The form of the creation will become spiritual. There will be nothing left of this natural world. We do not know what the world is going to look like, but it is going to be a glorious visible, but spiritual world. But we cannot perceive it now. This could be a long time away, but you never know what God is going to do.
And it says, "And He shall leave neither root or branch." Now, we know that God refers to men as trees in the Scripture. Christ is a tree, and fallen Adam is a tree. There is going to be neither root nor branch left of the tree of fallen Adam. The root of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil that is under the ground will be destroyed, and that which appears in the realm of appearance will be destroyed also. There will neither be root nor branch of the existence of fallen Adam. We talked about this in prior meetings, that fallen Adam is a spiritual entity who has the power to take on the flesh of a many-membered man in the earth. He is unseen, he is hidden, and he is manifested across a multitude of human vessels in a manner similar to the body of Christ. Spiritual is spiritual.
Fallen Adam will exist no longer. His root is going to be destroyed. He will no longer be able to rise up and take on the flesh. He is going to be utterly cast down. That part of him that is invisible, under the ground, and that part of him that is in the realm of appearance. He is going to be totally swallowed up by the life of Christ Jesus. He will no longer be able to take on the flesh. Hallelujah.
Verse 2, "But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in His wings." Now I have heard it preached that the word "sun" which in the King James is s-u-n, should be S-o-n, but the Hebrew word is sun, s-u-n, and I suggest to you that each one of us is a little universe, is a little cosmos, and Satan, the spiritual sun of the natural man, which has ruled the living soul that died, is about to be replaced by Christ Jesus, who is going to rise up in righteousness with healing in His spiritual covering, and we shall go forth and grow up as calves (the offspring of the glorified Jesus Christ) of the stall.
"And you shall tread down the wicked." Now that is the manifestation of fallen Adam that is within us. When Christ Jesus comes forward, He is going to destroy fallen Adam. We are going to feel pain. We are going to scream and we are going to yell, and we are going to say, "Maybe it is not God." But it is God, brethren. It is God. "And you shall tread down the wicked for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this." Now a lot of Christians go around saying, "Well Satan cannot hurt me, he is ashes under my feet."
I call your attention to the rest of the Scripture. In the day that I shall do this, in the day that God shall bring forth His Christ from within you, the demons and Satan within you shall be ashes under your feet. It has not been done yet. All you have is the beginning of the process. We have the Holy Spirit, the vehicle which will bring this forth in your life, but it has not been done yet. Hallelujah.
COMMENT: About 6 months ago, I started questioning in my mind about the tithe, but yet I was afraid to stop doing it. When I went to Africa I had $30 of my time that I did not have time to turn into the church, and I asked myself "What am I worried about? I have been giving my whole life?" And even on this trip to Africa, I was giving myself two people, "Why am I so worried about this tithe?" I feel God has been showing me, but yet I did not realize He was showing it to me.
PASTOR VITALE: It is witchcraft in the church that is exploiting God's people for somebody to feel that they can contribute that kind of money to go to Africa on an evangelical campaign and still feel fearful that they have not given 10% of their income, something is really wrong, and it is witchcraft in the church. God is exposing it, so we praise God for that. When God starts dealing with you in this area, the tendency is to be afraid. I know I was afraid when I first stopped tithing. I was very frightened for about three months. I looked over my shoulder everywhere that I went because I did not know what was going to happen to me, but God does not want us to be in this kind of bondage. He wants us to be free in the spirit. Something is really wrong.
I believe that you can give all the money that you want, for example, to buy equipment in the church or to build a new building, not that there is anything wrong with this, but what God is really looking for in us is to have mercy. If someone in the congregation is having a hard time, if they just lost their job, if they move, if they need food, just have mercy. God wants us to have mercy. I do not see how He can bless a fellowship that is giving thousands of dollars to missionaries overseas, but does not take care of its own people that are on welfare and does not take care of its own widows, although I do not believe that you should give money to irresponsible people. A lot of God's people are immature, and irresponsible, and they need a strong hand.
I do not believe in giving money to people that are going to take it and use it for ungodly purposes, but, as always, you have to seek God for wisdom. If you do not take care of your own, the Lord says that you are worse than a heathen. How could you not take care of the people in your own church that do not have a place to live, that are being put out of their house, and say, "I am alright with God because I give $3,000 every month to the missionary in Guatemala." Something is really wrong, brethren.
Did you notice that we talked about that earlier, that the weakness of the pastor is passed on to the entire congregation? It is amazing, but it seems to be a spiritual reality.
I was in a local church once and had a very interesting experience. God has been teaching a few of us a lot about the language of the spirit which is symbols. Very often God speaks to us in symbols, and this is what happened to me in one of the local churches that I was going to when my pride was being broken. I was just standing there praising God, and all of a sudden the Lord just dropped this vision into my heart. I guess, as Peter said, I went into a trance, and He just dropped this vision before my eyes. I think I would like to share it with you, so that maybe it will help you to understand.
In the vision the preacher stood up in the pulpit with the microphone and made the announcement that Sister Sheila was going to minister to us today, he called me up and handed me the microphone, and I stood up there, and I said, well....now this church does not believe in deliverance, but I stood up there in my vision, and I said, there is somebody in the church today with a spirit of witchcraft, and if you will come forward the Lord is going to deliver you. A woman came forward, and, in the meantime, I am seeing this vision of what I knew to be a brain tumor, and it was pretty ugly.
The woman comes forward, and I said to her, "You have a brain tumor, and the Lord wants to deliver you," but the witchcraft was so strong that, although she came forward, she would not receive the ministry. She did come to the front of the church, I tried to lay hands on her and she backed off, and I sort of followed her, stepped after her, step to step, back up the aisle, and the preacher was sitting on the aisle, and all the elders were sitting in the aisle, and she started writhing and getting text book deliverance. It was pretty violent, and they were all sitting there with their eyes wide open, and I fell out of the trance, and I said, "What in the world was that?".
I cannot believe this man is going to call me. First of all, he does not believe in deliverance. Second of all, he hardly knows me. Well he did not call me. When God speaks to us in visions very often He will use a person that we know to symbolize or represent another person. So when we have visions or dreams, if we want to understand these visions and dreams in the Spirit of God, we have to understand that everything is symbolic. We have to ask ourselves what that person symbolized in the dream.
Now, right after I fell out of the trance, this preacher said that he had a guest speaker that night, and she was a woman, and he turned the microphone over to her. Now, I had absolutely no way of knowing that the preacher was about to turn the microphone over to a woman. The vision that the Lord gave me was His way of saying, "Sheila, you are a preacher, so in this trance you symbolize a woman preacher, and, in particular, you symbolize the woman preacher who is about to be given the microphone in the service." That is what God was saying to me. Only the woman preacher did not call anybody out with the spirit of witchcraft or a brain tumor. She had a prayer line that stretched all the way across the width of the church, and I was sitting all the way in the back. I am a little short so I could not see her, but I heard her pray in tongues.
Now, I had spent many years in a deliverance church where I prayed deliverance four or five nights a week, so I was experienced in recognizing false tongues. Well, I heard the woman preacher praying in tongues, and I said, "Oh my God, that is a witchcraft tongue, if I ever heard one. I've got to see what this woman looks like." So I went up to the front of the church to get a seat close enough to see her. Well, she looked like you and me. She was a woman who was naming the Name of Jesus Christ, and she was praising God. I watched her as she ministered, going down the aisle, and I said, "Lord I know I am out of practice, but if that is not a spirit of witchcraft I have lost it completely."
I continued to watch her, but I was having trouble accepting the fact that this well-meaning pastor turned the microphone over to this woman and introduced her as a mighty woman of God. I could not believe that this woman was manifesting a spirit of witchcraft right in front of the pastor of the church, that because he could not discern it, three-quarters of his congregation submitted themselves to her. I sat there in utter disbelief, praying and praying until God said to me, "Calm down, you are seeing it the way it is. Calm down, it is true."
I did not understand until the next day that the person who was called out with the spirit of witchcraft was this female preacher. She had the spirit of witchcraft, and the brain tumor that was shown to me, and this is no offense to the pastor, but the brain tumor was in the pastor, because the pastor is the brain of the church, and this pastor's brain was not functioning properly. The pastor of the church, who did not believe that a Christian could have a demon, could not discern witchcraft in the woman preacher because, he refused to face the possibility that someone who named the Name of Jesus and was seriously serving the Lord in their own eyes, could minister by a spirit of witchcraft. He, and by extension, his whole church, were completely victimized because the pastor didn't believe that such a situation was possible.
We just talked about that in Malachi 3:18. When you return to the Lord you are going to be able to discern between the righteous and the wicked. He said that because this woman was on her face three hours a day before God that she was alright with God. Well, she was manifesting a spirit of witchcraft, and she was laying hands on these people, and she was praying for them. I was really upset because God has given me a burden for His people. Sometimes it causes me great grief, when there is nothing I can do about it, because of the burden I carry for God's people. I said, "Oh God this cannot be," and I tried to stop it by praying against it, but I could not stop it.
On the other hand, the Lord showed me something very interesting that I want to share with you. I looked down the line, and there was a woman on the prayer line that the Lord witnessed to me was a Son of God, that she was a woman in a deep walk with the Lord. Now we know that people are in different places in Christ. Everybody is not in the same place. Some people have the Holy Spirit, and the Christ has only started to emerge in some people . We are all in different places in Christ. I do not even know all the different categories.
The first time I saw this woman was in another church (this was not her church). I had just walked into this other church and saw her standing there, when God said to me, "She is one of mine." Right after that, I heard her give a testimony, and I heard her pray, which were further witnesses that she had a deep walk with the Lord,
And, now, this woman of God was away from her home church, and on the prayer line of a preacher manifesting a spirit of witchcraft. I said, "Lord, what is going to happen?" Then, I became really excited as I saw the woman preacher moving down the prayer line and approaching the woman of God who had the deep walk with the Lord. I looked, and I saw the Holy Spirit rise up and overwhelm the spirit of witchcraft, and bless the woman of God. The Lord did not permit hands to be laid on the woman of God by a spirit of witchcraft. Then, in a split second the woman that was praying moved on to the next person on the prayer line, and I saw that the spirit of God was gone, and the spirit of witchcraft was back.
Now what happened is that the emerging Christ in the believer with the deep walk with the Lord rose up and swallowed up the spirit of witchcraft in the minister. Hallelujah. But why were the other believers in the prayer line not protected? Why would God do this for only one person out of a whole prayer line? This is a very hard word for many of you, but the truth is that the the purpose of Holy Spirit that we receive when we first experience Christ (barring those instances, of course, where God moved sovereignly, God can do anything), is healing. He performs a healing function.
The Scripture says that He, the Holy Spirit, anchors into our hearts, and from that internal position begins to renew our mind. Physical healing and deliverance from evil spirits can result from the indwelling Holy Spirit, as well as emotional healing and deliverance from difficult or ungodly situations, but did you ever ask yourself why Paul was not hurt when the snake bit him?
I suggest to you, brethren, that if a snake would bite us, those of us who have the Holy Spirit would be in a lot of trouble. We are still afflicted by viruses and poison ivy and snake bites. Well, what is the difference between Paul and us? Brethren, I am suggesting to you that the Holy Spirit is curative, and not defensive. Our defense, the armor of God, divine health, victory without first being smitten (not to be smitten and then healed), but by throwing off of the assault, abides in the emerging Christ child of Revelation 12.
Brethren, if you can receive this Word it is yours. The Christians on the prayer line who received the spirit of witchcraft in the minister only had the Holy Spirit. They had not yet birthed the emerging Christ. It has nothing to do with how much you love God, how often you speak in tongues, or whether or not you read your Bible every day. The work of Jesus Christ, by His Spirit, is to fertilize the spirit of our mind, and reproduce Himself in the earth of our soul, which is a change of nature. The victory that most of the Church world believes is available only after death, is actually available in our lifetime, but only when we are joined to the Christ which has been birthed in us. Hallelujah.
Something very interesting happened. I walked out of there very upset (as frequently happened to me in the two years that I spent visiting other churches, because I saw so many things that they did not see). When I arrived home, there was a call on my answering machine. I listened to it, and became very angry with the caller who had left a message for me to call her back. Something just broke in my mind, and I came under a severe attack, but I did not discern it as an attack. Intense anger developed in me, and I said, "I had better not call her back now, because, if I do, I will tell her what I think." She had invited me to dinner, with some ungodly overtones in the arrangement suggested, but the extent of my anger was completely inappropriate. I thought, "I had better not call her back because, if I do, I will have a fight with them. So, I struggled with this the whole next day.
Well, Somewhere along the line the Lord delivered me from this ungodly anger, and gave me the revelation that the spirit of witchcraft that was prevailing in that service knew that I knew. There is no time and space in the realm of the spirit. That spirit of witchcraft followed me home, bent on destroying me or bringing destruction into my life. It did not cause me to manifest in the service because then I would have related it to the spirit of witchcraft. It waited until I got home, and then tried to destroy a relationship with an old friend.
This spiritual warfare is very real. We have talked about this before. It is not the demons flying around in the sky. First of all, the demons are in the people, and second of all they are in the people that are in the Church, in great power. I pray that this reality can be quickened to everybody that is reading this message, because I can hear it in the Spirit, I can hear the uproar, "Oh no, no, no, shut her down, shut her down." It is the truth, and God is revealing it, but I do not know how the above spiritual communication will manifest in the natural.
We have demons operating in this fellowship. They are everywhere. They are a part of the natural man. If you deny them, there is no help for you. There is no help for you if you deny that it could happen to you.
UPDATE TO MESSAGE #012
WITCHCRAFT, TITHING, & OTHER TIDBITS
(15 YEARS AFTER THE ABOVE PARAGRAPH WAS PREACHED)
The pastor in the above testimony was eventually seduced into an ungodly personal situation and lost his church at the height of his career as a powerful minister of God.
Message Continued
I heard another preacher that I know knocking the concept of vomiting or spitting up during deliverance. He was very offended by the thought of it, and conveyed his disapproval in an inappropriate manner. A few of us were sitting at a table in a restaurant, when this pastor recognized us as believers and came over to our table to say hello. But, when he realized that we believed that when people get deliverance they can spit up or vomit, etc., he became so manifested that he went to the men's room, got a paper towel, returned to our table, and started bouncing the paper towel on his hand, saying, "Alright, who is first, who is first?" Then the Holy Spirit rebuked him. The Holy Spirit manifested through two of us and brought a Godly rebuke. He was so shocked, he looked like he had been punched in the nose.
Now, one of the ministries of this pastor's church was to provide transportation for retarded adults to and from services. I had been going to that church for 4 months, at the time. These retarded men were there all the time, but I had never seen any of them spitting up or showing any other signs of deliverance. Well, the Sunday after the restaurant incident, three retarded adult men were sitting in one of the front pews when this heavy anointing came rolling into the church (I knew it was a deliverance anointing), and all of a sudden one of retarded men started spitting up in into napkin. God has a sense of humor, brethren, He really does. Just a couple of nights before, this preacher had openly said, "I would never allow spitting up in my church," and here is this man coughing up sputum into napkins and putting the napkins under the pew. Well, the pastor was so upset that he sent the man to the back of the church.
So God is tearing all of this stuff down.
COMMENT: The Jehovah's Witnesses do not believe in it either.
PASTOR VITALE: The Jehovah's Witnesses have a lot of truth. I am no expert on Jehovah's Witnesses, but they do not seem to have this life-giving relationship with the Spirit of God, and they do not believe in tongues. They believe in demons, but they do not believe in the power to cast them out or anything like that.
They are lacking the ministry of the Spirit, and the Lord had shown us recently that we have to have the ministry of the Word and of the Spirit.
There is so much speculation in the Church as to who the two witnesses of Book of Revelation are. Some say they are Moses and Elijah, but there has been all kinds of speculation in the Church for years as to who they are. It is so simple, people. The two witnesses are the Word of God and the Spirit of God. We have to have both of them. The Word of God is the Doctrine, and the Spirit of God is the supernatural ministry of Christ Jesus. The Church is in pieces today.
We have talked about our own soul being in pieces. Well, the church is in a similar condition, it is not joined yet. There are ministries that have a lot of truth in the Word. They have the doctrine, but they do not believe in the supernatural manifestations of Christ Jesus. What is very common, especially in the Pentecostal world, is to see a great move of the Spirit, people jumping, and dancing and singing, and healing and great miracles coming forth, but when you listen to their doctrine, you just want to cry.
Today, the Lord is joining the Spirit of God to the Word of God, and, brethren, when that union is complete there is going to be a spiritual explosion. When the disciples were in the upper room they were in one mind and one accord. I have heard a lot of preachers preach that we have to get into one mind by agreeing on issues. But, brethren, I declare to you that you cannot get into one mind with me by agreeing with me on issues.
When the Mind of Christ manifests in me and the Mind of Christ manifests in you, we are of one mind and one accord because we are both in Christ, but there is nothing that either one of us can do to bring this about at any particular time. As we all pursue Christ, and as His Mind is formed in us, we will come into agreement and manifest the collective power of Christ Jesus.
The one mind and the one accord that the Church is waiting for will appear as the emerging Christ manifests in the collective body of believers who submit to Christ Jesus and lay down their soul life. When this happens, we will shake the foundations of the earth, and it is happening now.
Most of us that can hear this. It is going to be in our lifetime, and I think it is going to be soon. The new age is coming in, the age of the Kingdom. The new move of God is already rolling in. It is just a little wave rolling in, a tiny bit of foam at the edge of the beach, but it is coming in, and if you hear this message and receive this Word, you are called to be a part of it.
This is just so exciting. The Lord has invited us to this great move of His Spirit, which is the union of the Word and the Spirit. Hallelujah. Glory to God.
