Earlier this year, when I started this Substack; the Lord told me to NOT check the stats. I.e., pay no mind to how MANY people are reading the posts. His point was clear - Checking pew stats is a fast track to seeking to please people, rather than preaching truth.
I get that. Though I have been aware of the number of my blog readers, as I get emails saying ‘new subscriber’.. Through the year I saw the numbers grow. Then lately, for the first time all year, this week I saw people drop away. Just 3 - but that’s a vote. They’re objecting to something I’m writing. And it happens that the UNsubscribers coincided with my posts about Israel.
That tells me, what we all already know. There are people, even in the Church (ESPECially in the Church?) that do NOT want to hear the truth about the place commonly called ‘Israel’ today. Raise the spectre of their being ‘not the Israel of God’, and some do not want to know about it. You’re messing with their theology. This is the sign that someone is not a disciple. What do I mean? They will hear you out, providing you are telling them what they already agree with; and not stirring the pot. Because, these are not disciples, i.e.. those who - when confronted with something contrary, go to the Lord and ask ‘Are these things so?’, as a disciple would.
You know what, I have a trough of troubling data and videos about just how godless, godawful and evil, the current government and self identifying individuals of ‘Israel’ really are. Some of it would shock the unshockable. But I don’t share it, because my mantra is - ASK JESUS CHRIST. Ask at His Mouth. I’m not here to convince you one way or another. I have evidence that would try them in court and win a dozen times over. But, my ministry is to teach and beseech you to ASK THE LORD. Because, at the end of the day - (Which this is) all the evidence in the world doesn’t matter if a person offers it - and if you have only a ‘single witness’. But when HE - that is JESUS the Christ - shows you truth - not only will it be undeniable, He will CONFIRM it with several witnesses! You will be able to KNOW that you KNOW that you KNOW.
(That’s exactly how, 5 years ago, the Lord convinced a 62 year old lady that the earth was not a spinning ball as she’d believed it to be her whole life - but was as the Scriptures declare it, FLAT and MOTIONLESS - FIXED in Space! (How else will he turn it ‘upside down’ in the near future?) He told me to study it, and then gave me MULTIPLE WITNESSES - both from the BIBLE and the WORLD. And I do mean MULTIPLE. NO MAN convinced me. Jesus led me to the information - convincing me all by himself. I was flabbergasted on the one hand, at how the elites managed to tomfool the masses on points that are now so obvious to me, and I also experienced an otherworldly PEACE for having recognized Truth. )
Sadly for the people who dropped out of this blog, they will be missing out.
DISCIPLES
Yesterday, I wrote about the Israeli crisis, and also about Disciples of Jesus Christ. The main point again being, how IMPORTANT, no CRITICAL it is, to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ - For many reasons:
To THEM - Disciples - it is given to know the MYSTERIES OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD; KNOWLEGE WORTH ITS WEIGHT IN GOLD.
To THEM the Lord gave the promise of Luke 10:19 - ‘I GIVE YOU AUTHORITY - OVER ALL THE EVIL IN THIS WORLD - and NOTHING SHALL BY ANY MEANS HURT YOU.’ That promise alone is worth more than all the wealth on earth.
To THEM the Lord continues to commune and break bread, as He did at the Last Supper with the disciples present.
To THEM the Lord continues to appear - as he did following his resurrection - for he is the Lord that ‘changeth not’, the same YESTERDAY - TODAY and FOREVER.
The Disciples of Jesus Christ go to him for everything. He is our physician, our counselor, our Lord and our King. We need no other.
And - It was from the Disciples that the Lord chose, and still chooses His Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors, and Teachers.
READ #1 AGAIN.
BACK TO BLACKABY:
Henry Blackaby said another thing concerning disciples that is worth sharing.
"I have often asked at pastors’ conferences, “How many of you believe in the Great Commission?” (Matt. 28:19-20). They all put up their hands.
Then I ask the second question, “If you believe in the Great Commission, how many of you have systematically listed everything Christ has commanded, and have systematically taught the people of God how to practice everything Christ has commanded?”
In twenty years of asking that question among pastors, I have found only one pastor who has ever done that.
My next statement then is, “Regardless of what you say, you do not believe in the Great Commission. You have changed the Great Commission to be, ‘Make disciples and baptize them.’
The greatest single aspect to the Great Commission comes in the third statement: “….. > teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.” !
The greatest single aspect to the Great Commission comes in the third statement: “..teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.”
“..teaching them to observe ALL THINGS that I have commanded you.”
“That is what you see in Acts 2. The new believers “…continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers” (v. 42).”
‘…they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine.’
‘They continued daily in letting the apostles teach them how to practice everything that Christ commanded.’
“Do you know why the early church with new believers turned the Roman Empire upside down? They continued daily in letting the apostles teach them how to practice everything that Christ commanded.”
“Do you know why the early church with new believers turned the Roman Empire upside down? They continued daily in letting the apostles teach them how to practice EVERYTHING that Christ commanded.” H. Blackaby
“Most of God’s people may attend only a worship service once a week on a Sunday morning, and they feel they can be an adequate disciple of Jesus with no teaching on how to practice. Some may go to prayer meeting, but I am finding that even elders and deacons don’t go to prayer meeting, and most of the rest of the church doesn’t either. How can you be a leader among God’s people and be absent from the prayer meeting when the people of God gather to intercede in the presence of God? We need to repent! We are going in the wrong direction.”
“Fellow believers, we are equipped by the Holy Spirit, equipped by the presence of the living Christ, equipped by the fullness of God in our life, equipped by the Scriptures, and have been granted an opportunity to come before God in prayer, which is another equipping, and He has put His people around us to help us. Yet, even though we are equipped and carrying bows, we’re turning back in this day of battle.”
“There is no possibility of winning this battle with that kind of involvement. We have abandoned our brethren who are in the battle, and we have left them alone to fight the battle.” Henry Blackaby 2007
“There is no possibility of winning this battle with that kind of involvement.”
You may ask.. What Apostles’ doctrine are we failing in?
Here’s just one example:
TAKE NO PART IN THE UNFRUITFUL WORKS OF DARKNESS
INSTEAD - EXPOSE THEM!
HOW are we taking part in the unfruitful works of darkness?
Unfortunately for the Church of professing Christians, the list is long. We have all been guilty at one time or another, but the answer then is to observe the preparation of a disciple by observing ALL things that the Lord commanded.
Are we teaching men to observe all things that Jesus Christ commanded us?
ARE WE ourselves observing all things that he has commanded us?
Are we keeping our camps clean of the enemies crafts and devices?
Are we compromising his principles and thus trying to serve 2 masters? (Isn’t this why churches closed in 2020?)
Are we seeking to please him with what we preach, or more concerned about ‘filling the pews’?
DO WE HAVE OCCULT PRACTICES IN THE CHURCH?
When I write about the 3 most disabling physical assaults in my life, all of which were a result of an alliance with an occultic person, you may be shocked to see the root cause of harm in your own life - that seemed - for a time - to nullify the Promise to the Disciples that ‘Nothing can by any means harm you’.
Number 2: ARE WE EXPOSING THEM?
WHEN WE SEE CHRISTIANS PRACTICING ‘CHRISTIAN YOGA’., DO WE WARN THEM?
WHEN WE SEE CHRISTIANS WEARING MASKS IN CHURCH.. DO WE WARN THEM?
WHEN WE SEE CHRISTIANS SPORTING SATANIC TATOOS, OR PUTTING A SKULL T-SHIRT ON THEIR CHILD -
OR POSTING A SATANIC BUMBPER STICKER ON THEIR VEHICLE LIKE A TRYZUB OR A STAR OF DAVID.. DO WE WARN THEM?
These are not easy things to do. And though it may seem UnChristian to be ‘confrontational’, yet the opposite is allowing someone to suffer him whose mission is to ‘steal, kill, and destroy’.
Jesus Christ said that the harvest was ripe, but the laborers were few; There was one courageous David in the crowd of a cowardly army of men. Which are we?
The best first course of action is to be certain that you are a disciple. That means, among other things, that you are observing to do all things he has commanded you. And learn to ask at his mouth expecting to receive an answer.
VJCB