**A Dead Church …OR… The Living God?
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You Choose:
A Dead Church … OR … The Living God?
“I’ve given my heart to Jesus so many times, I feel like an organ donor!”
That’s because Jesus never asked for your heart in the first place! There is not a single scripture in the Bible that asks for people to give their hearts to Jesus, or to simply “accept” Him as their Lord and Savior. Rather, God requires us all to be born again (reborn) via water baptism (full immersion) and by the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Until you’ve undergone this conversion process (made possible by the sacrifice of God’s only Son, Jesus Christ), you will never feel changed and connected with the living God.
“I’ve tried so many different churches, but none of them seemed right. I just want to find a place that feels like a true refuge for my family and me.”
It’s not surprising that your church hopping hasn’t worked out so far. What you’re searching and yearning for doesn’t exist in a building, a charismatic preacher, a talented church band, a great youth program, or in anything that a group of people or institution can offer. These things may fill a void for a while, but eventually you will recognize their emptiness and even experience the hypocrisy that goes on behind the scenes.
Permanent refuge can only be found in the Body of Christ (God’s family) into which you are born when you are baptized (by full immersion in water) and anointed with the power of God’s Holy Spirit. When you’re born again of water and of the Spirit (John 3:5) you have access to the power of the living God within you, 24 hours every day, so you can experience constant peace, comfort, strength, joy, contentment, and everything else the love of God has to offer, despite what may be going on around you in the world.
“I tried ‘the God thing’ to overcome my problems, but it was no use. I kept on slipping up!”
You gave up because you were trying to cure a festering wound with a few slaps of ointment and a Band Aid! The poison was still there, infecting your heart and mind, so no amount of trying anything on your part was ever going to work.
Sit in the driver’s seat all you like, but without any gas in the car you’re going nowhere!
You may have been going to church for many years yet never experienced the true power of the living God, including tangible changes in your life like the ones you read about in the Bible. Church and man-made religion are like cars without fuel. There’s no power present to take people where they would love to go.
“How can anyone believe there’s a God when so many terrible things are done in the name of religion?”
God doesn’t want robots to love Him, so He gave every man a free will to choose either God’s way, or another way. The religious beliefs that the doers of evil choose to follow DO NOT represent the will of God. Don’t assume the mind and heart of our Creator is synonymous with religion; it’s NOT!
“I just don’t feel like I need God in my life. Everything is going along fine.”
Even if you feel this way, it doesn’t change the fact that GOD needs YOU. God created you and He wants to have a personal father-child relationship with you. Mankind was separated from God the moment sin entered into man’s heart thousands of years ago, and God is calling people to be reconciled with Him through Jesus Christ, His only Son.
Give people a lock without the key and the lock is useless!
Today, there are a multitude of churches freely and eagerly handing out different gospel messages. Their messages are like locks and people are happy to receive them, but after a while churchgoers realize something is missing: there’s no key. The missing key is the power of the Holy Spirit anointing, and without it a person cannot possibly open the mysteries of the Word of God.
Many people either stop going to church because they can’t make the lock work for them on its own, or they just “shrug it off” and keep going anyway. Others “church hop” for years, hoping to one day find the missing piece. Often, church becomes just another social club, or a good place to bring the kids for the youth program. Is that what you really want?
“I’m not a sinner! I really feel like I am a good person.”
Indeed, maybe you are a lovely person that says and does good things constantly. However, it doesn’t matter how nice a person you are, your fleshly self is still in a state of sin. When someone is said to be a sinner, it is referring to sin as a state of being, not necessarily an act. Sin entered into the heart of mankind thousands of years ago the moment people chose to open their minds to evil, or wrongdoing. Adam and Eve disobeyed God and chose to eat fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Their eyes were opened to evil, and the generations thereafter inherited Adam and Eve’s sinful state of being. It’s a fact none of us can escape on our own. It’s only through Jesus Christ’s precious redeeming blood that our sinful state can be removed from us when we repent and appeal to God for His help.
Does blind faith seem impossible, or even ridiculous to you?
That’s quite okay because God doesn’t expect you to have blind faith in Him. God has always proven His presence to people since the beginning of time. In this New Testament age, God gives people a tangible sign when they are filled with the power of His Holy Spirit. That sign is the ability to speak in a brand new language called speaking in tongues. It’s a spiritual language and it’s one of the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is like a package; inside are all the gifts, but speaking in tongues is the first gift to be made manifest.
I’d like to have a bumper sticker that says the following: “Please don’t judge Jesus by the people you’ve met so far!”
We think that’s a great idea! Unfortunately, there are many people who claim to be Christian yet are not “walking the walk” and “talking the talk.” Most of these people are not filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, so they are trying to walk and talk in the ways of the Lord by their own strength. Even when people have been anointed with God’s Spirit, they still have a choice whether or not to listen to and obey God’s direction. God never takes away man’s free will to make his own choices on a moment-by-moment basis.
“I think the Bible is just another book of fairy tales. It seems so unreal!”
Many people read the Bible and conclude that it’s a bunch of fairy stories because they don’t see anything like it happening today. However, just because they haven’t yet seen the miracles and power they read about doesn’t mean it’s not there. The Word of God is real, and the people in our fellowship are living proof of this.
The following will help you to see that the Holy Spirit (Holy Ghost) is imperative for salvation (entrance into the Kingdom of God) and that the infilling of the Holy Spirit is consistently accompanied by the initial outward sign of speaking in tongues:
John 3:3-7 tells us that we must be born of water and the Holy Spirit to enter the Kingdom of God. Luke 11:5-13 tells us that with persistent asking, seeking, and knocking for the Holy Spirit, God will give it to us.Mark 16:15-20 lists the signs that shall follow those who believe. “They shall speak with new tongues” is one of the signs.
John 4:21-24 states that true worshippers will worship God in the Spirit. 1 Corinthians 14:14 explains HOW to worship God in the Spirit: “For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful.”
1 Corinthians 14:2 explains that “…he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.” And 1 Corinthians 14:14 clearly states, “For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful.”
In 1 Corinthians 14:18-19, Paul is thankful that he speaks in tongues more than others, but he recognizes that when meeting together in a group, tongues is not as valuable as compared to praying in tongues during his personal, private prayer time.
1 Corinthians 14:23 mentions “all speaking in tongues at once.” This implies everyone in the fellowship meeting had the ability to speak in tongues. The Holy Spirit encompasses all nine miraculous gifts (1 Corinthians 12:7-11) for God’s anointed to use, but brethren are expected to keep the gifts in perspective whenever they come together to worship.
The Book of Acts is a crucial and inspiring history of the Holy Spirit. This Book informs readers of the first outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It also explains that anyone can born again of the Spirit, including how to know when you have received it:
In Acts 1:5-8, the disciples are told by Jesus to wait in Jerusalem, that they would receive the Holy Spirit, and that the experience would be powerful. Jesus spoke of His necessity to depart from this earth in order for the Holy Spirit anointing to be made available (John 7:37-39, John 16:7, John 14:26).In Acts 2:4, the disciples were ALL filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them words to speak.
Acts 2:33 explains that the Holy Spirit can be seen (i.e. mouth speaking) and heard (i.e. it’s an audible noise).
Acts 5:32 mentions that the Holy Spirit is given to those that obey God. Acts 7:51 states that some people will resist the Holy Spirit despite its necessity for salvation.
Acts 8:14-16 is proof that people can be baptized in the name of Jesus without having yet received the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 8:17-18 mentions that Simon saw that through the laying on of hands the Holy Spirit was given.
Acts 10:44-46 is the first account of Gentile people (those outside of God’s chosen nation) receiving the Holy Spirit. The very moment they were filled with the Spirit was known because the disciples heard the Gentiles speak in tongues. Peter then commanded the Gentiles to be baptized.
Acts 11:15-17 emphasizes the fact that even the Gentiles received the Holy Spirit in the same manner as the disciples at the beginning (the beginning is described in Acts 2:4). Acts 15:8-9 states that there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles after they receive the Holy Spirit.
Acts 11:26 records the first time the disciples were called Christians (meaning “anointed ones”). 2 Corinthians 1:21-22 refers to the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 18:25-28 mentions Apollos (an eloquent man who was very knowledgeable of Scripture) being further instructed in the way of the Lord. Even though he had been fervently following after God, he was not yet filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, so Aquila and Priscilla expounded to him the way of God more perfectly.
In Acts 19:1-6, believers in Christ had not yet not received the Holy Spirit. When the Apostle Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them and they spoke in tongues.
There is nothing in the Bible that says you need to give your heart to Christ, or “accept” Him into your heart. However, the Bible does say to… “Repent,” (turn from your ways) “and be baptized,” (by full immersion i.e. completely under water) “every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” (Acts 2:38)
Don’t just “Go to Church.”
Experience the Power of the Living God every day!
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