No Mistakes... Please!

THIS IS A MESSAGE ONLY FOR BORN AGAIN CHRISTIANS! 

Meaning… People that one day their spirit got born again WHEN they accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord, repented from their sins, gave their lives to God and now ARE living in the fullness of His Word. No mistakes.

I’m getting a little upset when I’m seeing some “Christians” placing posts in reference to Lent and Ashes Wednesday. It irritates me the lake of knowledge that some “Christians” are dwelling in.

First... there is no such thing in the whole Bible, God’s Word (our manual for a good life), about Lent or Ash Wednesday. The apostles and the early church NEVER celebrated such events. Secondly... we don’t see ANY reference about these two events, being mentioned by ANY of the apostles.

So why are some “Christians” and some “Christian churches” falling into this error?

Here are some updates on this subject. Hope that some of you might wake up and think wisely, according to God’s Word, and put aside ANYTHING that has to do with religious costumes, traditions and inventions. We Christians have NOTHING to do with religious practices, and nothing to do with religion. Jesus Christ didn’t come to this world to give us a religion but a kingdom. And with Him... there’s no connection of religion. Our connection with Him is a relationship. Meaning… no third party. No operator putting us on hold to see if He’s available, after confirming our identification. We have a direct line!

The earliest documentation related to Lent dates back to the third century. In the writings of Dionysius, the Bishop of Alexandria, he writes a letter to the Basilides to address the length of Lent. At the Council of Nicea, convened by the Emperor Constantine, in 325 CE, there was a discussion of a 40-day Lenten season of fasting, but no one knows exactly when the practice officially began.

There is still a need to know how Ash Wednesday got started. Until the seventh century, the first day of Lent always began on a Sunday, but in 601 AD, Pope Gregory (the Great) changed the days to begin on a Wednesday, and implemented the removal of Sundays in counting the duration of Lent. Instead, he changed Sundays to feast days. He then called the beginning of Lent Ash Wednesday. It appears that Gregory even determined the practice of marking people’s foreheads with crosses made of ashes as a symbol of repentance. He equated the practice to the Old Testament custom of wearing sackcloth and ashes during a time of incredible grieving or repentance.

Up until the 800s, most Christians were not allowed to eat anything during Lent, with the exceptions of Sundays. Water was only allowed during this time. Sometime during the 800s this practice changed, however. People were then allowed to eat after 3 pm, and in the 1400s people could eat after noon. In 1966, during the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church restricted fasting to Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

When I was a teenager I heard the following quote… “Truth never changes”.

Made Whole

ARE YOU SICK? 

DID YOU GET A BAD REPORT FROM YOUR PHYSICIAN?

ARE YOU FIGHTING SOME KIND OF INFIRMITY? 

If you are a son or daughter of the Most High God… not through the ideology or distorted belief that “we all are children of God”, but in the act of faith once taken, by accepting Jesus Christ as you Savior and Lord, and surrendered your life to God with no restrictions, and now you’re living a life totally engaged in His Word… you can take the following prescription:

First… Believe that God has created you in His image and according to His likeness.

Secondly… Believe that He made your body, not your spirit or your soul, but your body, temple of His Holy Spirit. This means that the Holy Spirit has His habitation inside of your body. In other words, that’s where He lives. That’s His home on planet earth. Question: How can any disease live in the same house as the Spirit of God? Can this be possible? In second Corinthians 6:14, the apostle Paul questioned believers when he said… “what communion has light with darkness?” So by this we can conclude that if the Holy Spirit really lives inside our bodies, there is no room at all, for any kind of disease, whether it’s benign or malignant. Your body is exclusively the home of God’s Holy Spirit… period

Third… in the first epistle of John 4:17, in reference to Jesus, with boldness John declared the following statement…“as He is, so are we in this world.” Question number one: Was Jesus sick? Question number two: Why would John say this, if it wasn’t true?

Here’s how you take this prescription and obtain healing:

First, you have to believe deep in your heart (your spirit), that you have been created like God. Therefore, being a son or daughter, doesn’t give you any right to beg, but to step inside His barns and take possession of what is yours, of what belongs to you. Healing... belongs to you!

Second, you have to accept by faith the truth that God in His Word speaks about you. When He says that His Holy Spirit inhabits inside your body, you need to believe that and live based on that truth. At the same time, you are the gatekeeper of your body. This means that you have to keep all doors locked. Not close, but locked. You have the power to keep away everything contrary to the presence of the Holy Spirit inside of you. Everything!

Third, you have to position yourself in Christ Jesus, to the point of being like He is in this world. He carried our sickness, but He left them in hell. Jesus is alive and well… so are you in this world.

The doctor gave you a bad report, what about God’s good report? Which one you’re taking? Which one you’re trusting in? Take God’s report, take His prescription and be healed and made whole.

Take this prescription three times every day. The way to take it is by believing with your heart and confessing with your mouth the following truths:

• “I’m a son (or daughter) of the Most High God. 
• Therefore I’m no longer a beggar. 
• I take possession of my healing. 
• Healing, God’s healing, belongs to me. 
• I take it and I place it over my body. 
• My body is the temple of God’s Holy Spirit. 
• He dwells in me. Therefore there’s no room for any sickness. 
• I lock all the doors with the key of God’s Word. 
• Nothing, nothing at all will come in, or live in, except the Holy Spirit. 
• My body is His personal habitation on earth. 
• It is written, therefore I believe it with my heart and I’m confessing it with my mouth. 
• I position myself in Christ Jesus. In Him I live, in Him I move and in Him I have my being. 
• Therefore, as He is so am I in this world. He’s alive, I’m alive. He’s well...  so am I. 
• He took ALL my diseases upon Himself on the cross. The weight brought Him to hell. But at the third day He rose from the dead, and left ALL my infirmities there. So I’m free, I’m healed”.

Now… believe this with all your heart. Then open your mouth and declare it so that Satan knows, hears, that you know the truth, and you’re not living based on his lies.

In Mark 11:23, Jesus made one of the most powerful statements: “For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says”. 

Note this: What brought Jesus to hell after He was crucified was the weight of our sins and our diseases. If you believe that He left your sins there and for that reason you have been made righteous, you need to believe the same way that He left all your sickness there and you have been made whole.  

Psalm 103:3 says that "God forgives ALL your iniquities, and heals ALL your diseases". When? When Jesus took them both to hell and left them there… forever!

This is another nugget from my book in progress. Read more about it here

And you can follow its development and more nuggets that will come, on Facebook

In 2014... Don't Let God Become Unemployed!

Many times we try to do God’s job.

If you have a problem and you get to a point that you can’t handle it, to a point that whatever efforts you apply, can’t fix it… that means that it’s a job for God.

When we struggle with problems, we can’t differentiate that we can only go so far. We think we know it all. And by knowing it all, we think… we can do it all. We forget our limitations and at the same time… God’s possibilities.

If we have a relationship with God, then we have a partnership. This means, that we do one thing and God does the other. I say many times that if we do our part (the possible), God will always do His part (the impossible). We can never do His part, but He will never do our part.

So when a problem comes, and you come to a point that you can’t handle it, you need to let God take hold of the reins, in order to get you to the solution.

Keep in mind that in many problems that we face in our lives, the impossible exists. It might be sometimes in a small percentage, but the fact that it exists, there’s nothing that you or anyone one on this earth can do. But God can! And matter of fact, He wants to do it, He wants to handle it, because that’s His job.

This is why I’ve said “stop God from being unemployed in 2014”. If we look at it in our natural way of seeing things (this is why Jesus always spoke in parables), we can look at it this way. If God has a job to do and you takeover… guess what? God loses His job.

You need to keep God at work in your life, all the time.

Now pay attention to this:

Is there a way that we can make 2014 like no other?
Yes we can. We can even create our future.
We can make things happen for the best.

Now all this may sound very farfetched or some new age theory, or a new doctrine from some neo… something. No! Not at all. I never say anything concerning the spiritual realm, without a biblical platform.

You see… in Isaiah 64:4 we read the following in the New Life Version:

“From long ago no ear has heard and no eye has seen any God besides You, Who works for those who wait for Him." 

The New Living Translation goes very similar;

“For since the world began, no ear has heard and no eye has seen a God like you, who works for those who wait for him."

Then the Easy-to-Read Version, concerning the last part, puts it this way;
“Who does such great things for those who trust him."

Note that, many times we try to do our job and God’s job. It doesn't work! 
I did it a lot in the past and happen that I messed up everything. What could’ve been a success, ended up by being a starting point.

So through the years I have learned and I’m starting now to apply this principle in my own life. And the Lord has been faithful to His Word by making it happen in my life. If I have some kind of situation that I see that it’s going to get out of control, if I see that it will get to a point where I’ll be struggling because I will not be able to handle it, I stop.

I stop and I… WAIT! Wait on the Lord.

This is a spiritual law. I wait for Him… He works for me! 
WOW! What a God we serve.

Just meditate deeply again on what Isaiah said: “From long ago no ear has heard and no eye has seen any God besides You, Who works for those who wait for Him.”

No other god ever did this, or ever promised such blessing to his followers. But the God who created all things, the only living God, has done it!

So… again I say, “help God to keep His job in 2014" in your life. And at the same time, let Him stay busy. If you do this, if you just WAIT for Him, you keep Him at work. 

Can you grasp the idea of you being in the middle of an unsolvable problem, and in the background, God is working to fix it? Do you have an idea of the final results? Can you imagine, can you visualize it?

This is the great God that we serve.

Do you want 2014 to be a year like no other in the positive way? 
Keep God at work! 

 “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.” (Luke 18:27)

Christmas Discrepancies

At this time of the year when the whole world celebrates Christmas, I can see many discrepancies that deviate from the truth creating at the same time traditions that with time obtain a religious position. This becomes distressing when certain religious groups call themselves “Christians” and even more distressing when these discrepancies are accepted by Christians and Christian leaders, as if they were biblical truths.

One is… so many people talking about the “baby Jesus”. They talk about it, sing about it and instill the idea in children as a substitute for Santa Claus. There’s no such thing as “baby Jesus”. 

My grandfather was once a baby. Should I call him “baby grandpa?” Of course not. First of all, I never met him as a baby, neither saw his picture as a baby. Secondly, I met him as who he became, who he was born to be. An adult… my grandpa – The same with Jesus. He was a baby when he was born. He had to be. But the purpose was to become an adult and as an adult he was able to be my Savior. If He would stay as a baby, He couldn’t do anything for me. Jesus wasn’t born to be known as a baby, but as a Savior. It would be like trying  to make mashed potatoes with potato seeds. 

Again I say… there is no such thing as a “baby Jesus”. There is a Jesus that was born among us, became like us to save us. And when someone accepts Him as their Lord and Savior, we say that… “He is born in our hearts.” That’s an expression based on the fact that from that moment on, He’s alive in that person’s heart. But in this marvelous episode of our lives, we (the ones who have accepted Him), we don’t see Him as a baby, but as a Lord that will be reigning in our lives. This is how we see Jesus in Christmas. 

He came has a King. The wise man came to see Him and worship Him as a King. Herod wanted to kill Him because the scriptures mentioned Him coming as a King that would sit on the throne of His father David, forever (Luke 1:32,33). That should be our way of talking about Him, singing about Him and teaching our children about Him, even on Christmas. Notice that we say Christ-mas, not Jesus-mas. Christ means “The Anointed One”. In Jesus time, only prophets, priests and Kings were anointed. Jesus as an adult became all three. This Christmas, let’s celebrate King Jesus.

One other discrepancy, probably the one that sticks out the most, is in reference to Mary, the mother of Jesus. Her image has been adulterated to the point of a discrepancy being formed and transformed into tradition and from tradition it is now a dogma inside some religious groups. A dogma so strong and so engraved in the minds of many, that her position (among these religious groups) has become higher than her Son Jesus. 

Now… this becomes a big concern when Christians, believers, followers of the Lord Jesus Christ (not religious ones that have been labeled as Christians), get lured by these doctrines that the Apostle Paul would classify has “doctrine of demons” (I Timothy 4:1 NKJV). That’s when Christians become so vulnerable that the Devil can turn them into a yo-yo, and do whatever he wants to do with them. Then these same Christians are the ones that will question… “why did God allow this to happen in my life?”

This discrepancy was formed from the way that the Angel Gabriel approached Mary when he gave her the good news that she had been chosen to give birth to Jesus. No question she was chosen among others. But I believe that if God needed ten more virgins or twenty more, He would probably find them the same way He found Mary. But He only needed one, and Mary was the chosen one. 

Without getting into too many details on how Gabriel approached Mary and the way he saluted her, I just want to focus on the subject that Gabriel nor any other celestial being, including God Himself, ever placed Mary on a superior position or empowered her more than any other believer in her time, or after. People need to understand that Mary was chosen to be the vessel. God used Mary to bring Jesus to us. He didn’t use Jesus to exalt Mary. It is like getting a ride from someone and at the end of the trip you thank the car that carried you instead of the driver that gave you the ride. So here, all exaltation goes to God the Father that gave us His only begotten Son.

If we had to give any praise to Mary, we probably would have to give more to Joseph. 

First of all, Joseph could’ve stopped God’s plan but he didn’t. Because of Joseph’s love, Mary was saved from being stoned. Secondly, Gabriel spoke with Mary once, but Joseph had four divine visitations. The first one, was an angel that in a dream told Joseph to take Mary as his wife, and explained to Joseph how she got pregnant and that she was going to give birth to a child. The angel also told Joseph (this part is very interesting) that he would call His name Jesus. Legally, by God’s will, Joseph was Jesus’ father.

In Luke 1:32 and 33, we saw above that Gabriel told Mary in reference to Jesus that “the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David". As history tells us, in any kingdom, the throne was always accessed through lineage. Now take well note of this; Jesus would sit in the throne of David because of His lineage with Joseph. Shouldn’t we here give Joseph some praise and exaltation? Note that Jesus would never sit on David’s throne because Mary was His mother, but because Joseph was His father. So, why do some religious groups exalt Mary so high when she was only a vessel and Joseph gave Him the right to be King on David’s throne, which according to the scriptures it will literally take place in the millennium (thousand-year reign of Christ) and after that… forever?! Why?

The Bible really doesn’t say anything about it, but even so, we don’t need to speculate or assume that besides Mary, Joseph was also chosen by God. When I read the genealogy of Jesus which starts with Abraham and after forty-two generations it ends with Joseph, I have no doubt at all that Joseph also was chosen to be Jesus’ earthly father.  

One other valid point, is how people recognized Jesus. For instance; in Matthew 13:55, we see that at a certain time when he came back to his home town and spoke with wisdom at the local synagogue, people questioned; “is this not the carpenter’s son”? In John 6:42 we find another episode when Jesus was teaching on the shore of Capernaum about Him being “The Bread of life”, and some Jews that didn’t like it, questioned; “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph”? Jesus one hundred percent God and one hundred percent man, presented himself not many times as the “Son Of God”, but a few times he did it as the “Son of Man” (Mark 10:45). But never as… the son of woman.   

Going back to Mary, there is something very profound that she said, and these distorted religious groups that have the audacity to call themselves “Christians”, don’t have the courage to face the truth that is written concerning Mary’s position before God and among believers. In the gospel of Luke chapter one, we find the well known classic song of Mary. And in verse forty-seven we read the following words of Mary concerning her being chosen to give Jesus birth; “my spirit rejoices in God my Savior". 

By this, we can see that Mary was a normal woman that had been chosen by God for a specific moment. But that didn’t position her in any level of authority, power nor even has deity. Mary was very clear by saying that she was (like everyone else) a sinner and for that, now through Jesus, she could be saved because the Savior (through her) had come. That’s why she was special. She gave birth to the Savior that she (and the whole world) needed. Note that she didn’t position herself saved by just giving birth to the Savior. Today Mary is in heaven among many other believers. But note that in the throne room the Bible only mentions two thrones, God the Father and His Son Jesus to whom He said "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet” (Psalm 110:1). Later on Jesus defined our access to the Father by saying that; “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me". 

By Mary’s words we can say today that she went to the Father, through Jesus… THE  Way. In other words, Mary isn’t “the way” but she found the way. And what we can get from her today is the lesson of humility. That whatever favor we get from God, we can only see Him when we follow Mary’s footsteps and we say like her: “my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” One last thing… Mary is no longer the “virgin Mary”. After Jesus was born, Mary and Joseph had more sons. So this stops the idea that her pregnancy while a virgin, would give her any heights or a deity position. She was special, she was favored, she was obedient, she was blessed among other women, but above all, she was honest. And that was the high part. Chosen as a special vessel, she still looked inside herself and noticed that she needed a Savior. In Luke 1:43 Mary positions herself as… “I am the mother of my Lord".

2012 "Turn of Events"

We’ve just entered in the New Year, 2012. According to many biblical scholars, the number 12 signifies perfection of government, or of governmental perfection (placing things within perfect order). But I have also discovered (without going into details), that it’s also related with a “turn of events”.

The world is shifting, the human race is shifting, and the church will be shifted. 2012 is going to be a year of shifts, a year of turned events, a year of placing things… in order. You’re probably asking why, what for?

Why? ...Because God only moves when things are in order, in the right place, organized or in perfection of government. 

What for? ...It has to do with preparation. Getting things in order is a sign that there is a vision to be fulfilled. We need to get things in order, settle our priorities (governmental perfection) and let God shift things around. Here’s why; without being negative (although negative is not always bad), we need to keep looking ahead because every time God shifts things around the devil comes to hijack it. The number 13 in the Bible is a number of apostasy; depravity and rebellion. But number 14 is the number of deliverance and salvation (it speaks of double completion (2 x 7) and compression). 

Where I’m getting with all this is that the year 2013 is going to be a year of great challenges for the church and for every believer. Number 13 in the Bible also represents famine. So 2013 will be a year of spiritual famine. But when Isaac sowed in time of famine, he reaped one hundred fold. The year after (2014) will be a year of reaping. A year of spiritual harvest. This means that the church in 2012 that gets everything in order, settles all priorities and is positioned when God makes His shifting, His turn of events, that’s the church that will go through 2013. That’s the church that will be able to face negative challenges without compromising.  That church will enter 2014 ready to reap, harvest, revive.

You’re probably saying, Paul… that’s too far-fetched, that’s only probabilities. Well… it can also be possibilities, if Jesus doesn’t tarry (and I’m just talking about a couple of years ahead).