I Don’t Know Whether Or Not To Believe He Is Possessed Or Being Oppressed?

Question on Demonic Possession of a Believer

Question : I stumbled upon your website after a strange incident I had with my husband who is an Apostolic preacher.

In April 2012, he began experiencing severe pain (neuropathy) in his body where he loses control of his nerve functions. He has been hospitalized several times, and the doctors can find no explanation for the pain nor any reason it should get so intense. Of course, we have prayed through this, rebuked it, etc. During the pain episodes, he began having nightmares that he revealed to me as childhood sexual abuse that occurred from the time he was 5 years old at the hand of a neighbor. His dreams involve demonic figures on top of him, literally feelings of being probed, etc. I wake him up and pray with him when these dreams start and let him talk it out.

On Monday night, he began to have this pain and asked me, “what are we doing on Friday?”. I responded we didn’t have plans, then he told me, “I’m going to die”. I began to pray in Jesus’ name over him. Suddenly, he sounded very panicked and began to say, “Where am I? I need to go home.” I began to bind Satan and suddenly, a demonic voice came from him that said, “He is mine” followed by a strange laugh. I asked, “what did you say?” It repeated itself. I began to pray in tongues and bind the devil, and he somewhat came to, but he was very weak and laid back down. This started again, with the voice saying things like, “I’ve tormented him since childhood”, “he enjoyed the abuse”, “I did this because of this grandfather and father” (grandfather founded a major apostolic organization). My son, a minister as well, came to pray, and he asked the spirit it’s name, to which it replied, “The accuser”. At one point, my husband sat up and looked at my son with very steely eyes, then slowly turned to look at me. He tried hiding the Bible, which I was reading, would bury his head while I was reading and lunged at my son. In the end, my husband returned to normal and kept saying it went through the window.

He has no recollection of this incident. He then got very upset with me on Wednesday, and decided he was leaving. I first stepped in front of the door to try and calm him down, and he grabbed my arm leaving marks. He later walked into the garage to retrieve items of his, and I again tried to reach out to him to calm him in a hug. At that moment, he fainted (which he does a lot from the neuropathy) and hit his head. He wound up being taken by ambulance to the ER, where he told the paramedics I shoved him to the ground. I was questioned by the police, and showed them the finger marks on my arm, but I did not press charges. According to him, they handcuffed him for a period of time, which is hard for me to believe considering I was the one who was questioned. He has not came home, and finally did talk to me some yesterday. He demanded I do not talk to him about Monday night ever again. He stated he is probably going to divorce me and suffer the consequences. I know this is still not my husband talking, even though it is no longer the demonic voice.

A couple of things to note, he and I were both previously married, and only got married in March of this year. I found out, by accident, a few weeks ago that after his separation from his wife, he was involved in homosexual relations. He was still seeking relationships on Craigslist even after we were married, although he says he never acted on them.

I don’t know whether or not to believe he is possessed or being oppressed because of his childhood. I have shared this with our Pastor (my dad) who has not ever cast out a demonic spirit or operated in that realm.

I am trying to decide what I should do as far as see him right now, let him go ahead and move out and pray that God sends someone to deliver him or what. Please help.

Answer : Greetings to you in Jesus mighty name! You are welcome dear Sister and that I believe you have not stumbled upon our website but it is a Divine appointment that God has planned in his sovereign will. Jesus said, "The thief [i.e. Satan and his demonic cohorts] does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." (John 10:10). The abundant life which Jesus has given your husband has been lost by him because he has allowed the demons to influence him consistently over a period of time and thus they have stolen it,  has killed his prosperous soul life completely and now finally it is trying to destroy him bodily when it knows that it cannot kill his soul and spirit forever because he is a child of God (Matt 10:28). I believe that your husband is demonically oppressed as he is a child of God. First of all I should appreciate you for taking authority in Jesus name which caused the demonic spirit to leave your husband's body and flee.

Using the authority of the name of Jesus is the privilege of every believer which they should never fail to use in times of need. Jesus has promised all the children of God saying, " 19 Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. 20 Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” (Luke 10:19-20). This shows that all the children of God should use their authority which Jesus has given to them spiritually to reign over the demonic world and thus glorify God ultimately. As we are believers of Jesus Christ our Lord, Jesus confidently declared about us saying, "...In My name they will cast out demons" (Mark 16:17). So it should be a normal thing for a believer to take authority over demons in Jesus name and make it submit to the Lordship authority of Jesus. But our rejoicing should not just be based on the fact that all demons runs away when we use the name of Jesus to make it subject to us (Luke 10:17), but our reason of rejoicing should always be based on the fact that God has saved us from sin and have freely made us to be His children when we believed in the name of Jesus and received Him in to our lives (John 1:12).

One of the things we should all understand is that we should never initiate a dialogue when we drive demons away from a person who is possessed or oppressed. This is a subtle trick of the enemy to speak out and distract us with its lies while we use the name of Jesus. When demons speak, it always gives some fact along with some lies and so we should never let demons speak while we drive it out (John 8:44). We can never see Jesus speaking with demons in his ministry at any time in his deliverance ministry except the one time when it begged Him in the name of God to stop tormenting it. Jesus after commanding the unclean demon spirit to come out, He then asked its name to know its origin. And as it kept begging Jesus not to send it away out of the country, Jesus gave it the permission to enter the swine for which it asked him and thus it entered the swines and drowned all of it inside the nearby sea (Mark 5:6-13). I believe that Jesus spoke to this Legion because it begged in the name of God and then He gave permission to enter the swines just to show that a single human soul is more valuable than all the swines combined which were used to do a huge commercial meat business, and thus reveal the evil heart of the humans who were more concerned about money than a soul of a person (Mark 5:14-17). Jesus always rebuked the demons to be quiet and come out of the person it possessed or oppressed (Mark 1:24-25). So we should also take Jesus as our example and therefore should never let the demons speak out of a person but command it to be quietly leave in Jesus name. I promise you that it will go quietly without confusing you.

In this case of yours, whether the demon identify itself as the accuser or not, we know from the word of God that Satan is called the "accuser of brethren" (Rev 12:10). So the major work of all demons against the Church saints is the work of accusing them within their soul when ever they sin. But God has declared that once and for all time there is now no condemnation for all believers as they are all who walk according to the Spirit (Rom 8:1, 9). As Jesus took all of our sins upon Himself and condemned sin in the flesh, all the righteous requirement that we need to be justified before God has been fulfilled by Him on behalf of us all, once and for all time (Isa 53:5; 1 Peter 2:24; 2 Cor 5:21; Rom 8:3-4; 5:1). We have thus become as righteous as God is because of our righteous position in Christ Jesus. Thus Satan who accused all the righteous people in the Old Testament times before God has been cast down from heaven and therefore has no business before God anymore in heaven (Zech 3:1-5). Now that he has no rights to go before the throne of God to accuse about brethren, he is in the business of making saints to become involved in sin and then try to make them self condemned because of his constant accusation against them within their soul (Rev 2:14-16; 12 :12). Such accusation from Satan can be overcome by all believers who use the blood of the Lamb to cleanse themselves through confessing their sins to God in which they were involved (1 John 1:7, 9; Heb 9:14), and then speak the testimony of their cleansing that has happened by faith to the demonic world which tries to oppress them, this word of faith confession done consistently towards demons will completely make them powerless to keep this person under its bondage (Psa 116:10; Heb 10:23). Then as the oppressed believer submits his soul life to Jesus by not loving it, but rather make it conformed to death by doing God's will in their personal life to please Him rather than their own (Gal 5:16-17), then all demonic oppression's can be completely overcome by that believer who will again regain and live the abundant life in the peace of God (Rom 8:4-11).

Satan and his demonic minions does not want to hear the Bible being read because as they have no light in them they do not like anyone to stand on truth, like they themselves are in darkness they want others to also continue in it with them (John 8:44). Like cockroaches scurry for cover of darkness when light comes in, they also will try to hide themselves form the light of the truth. So always read the Bible loudly as you have done when you are driving demons away, so that they will be reminded of the victory of Jesus over them again and again (Col 2:15). Satan and his demons do not like anybody to remind them of the victory that Jesus has won over them all two thousand years ago on the Cross of Calvary. They will want to deny it, but we should be persistent to stand on the word of God by faith. Automatically all demons will flee away when they see people stand on the light of the truth of the word of God (James 4:7). This is what has happened when you did the right thing in reading the word of God to your husband who was oppressed by the devil. Hurrah! You resisted the devil and it has fled....

One thing you must do to your husband who has been oppressed by the devil is that you should not judge him immediately of all his faults (Matt 7:1). He cannot recollect what has happened to him because the demonic oppression was very high to the level that the demons have taken possession of his soulish emotion, will and mind completely which has been redeemed by the blood of Jesus (1 Thess 5:23-24; 1 Peter 1:18-19). If you try to confront him with all the details that you have heard from the demonic world while you drove it out in Jesus name, he will immediately break apart in his soul completely which has already been broken by the deception of the evil one that has led him in to sin. First of all the demonic feedback is not fully truth and so it should be discarded out of your mind so that you will not be judgmental towards your husband but be kind to him as usual in forgiving him as Christ forgave you all your past, present and future sins (Eph 4:32).

Then one of the main thing that you husband needs is a conviction of sin in his soul which only the Holy Spirit can give it to him (John 16:7-11). All you can do for him now is not to try to talk to him the truth which he cannot accept because of the deception he is under and ego that works in all husbands, but pray for his deliverance because he is a child of God taken subtly in to the demonic net of sin and deception (Col 1:9-14; James 5:14-16; Gal 6:1; 1 John 5:16-17). He does not want you to talk about the day of the demon manifestation in him because he might not want to give up his sinful ways. See your husband is influenced by demons and so you must differentiate between him and the evil works that is influencing him. When you are acting good to him in the unconditional love of God even though he might be influenced by demons, you are overcoming evil with good and the Lord will reward you specially for that (Rom 12:21). Jesus loves the sinners, but hates their sin. In other words, Jesus differentiates evil of humanity from the human they are by the love that works unconditionally in his heart towards them. David overcome the evil Saul who was in the same state as your husband through unconditional love and reverence he had for Saul, who was considered by David as the anointed of God even though the way Saul acted was like the devil himself under the direct influence of a oppressive demon spirit which oppressed him because of his disobedience to God (1 Sam 16:14, 23; 18:6-11, 14-15, 28-29; 19:1, 9-10, 32-33; 24:4-7; 26:7-12). Each time David showed the unconditional love of God and reverence for the anointed king, Saul realized and regretted the foolishness of his own ways each time and even blessed David when his mind returned from demonic foolishness to its godly senses (1 Sam 24:16-22; 26:21, 25). This unconditional love of God is what your husband needs right now from you and Satan's greatest fear is to see the child of God oppose him with His love without being reactive towards the person through whom he is working (1 Cor 13:4-8). Love never fails because the God who is love never fails to justify at the end the one who operates with His love (1 Cor 13:8; 1 John 4:8). So this is a test allowed by God for your spiritual growth at this time of your life which you can never get if you miss it now by resisting and reacting against it unwisely and soulishly, and God has promised to give His grace each time according to the level of your need to overcome the situations that come against you that you may be able to bear it (1 Cor 10:13).

I do not understand why someone should divorce their partner except for marital infidelity (Matt 19:9), if anyone has got separated or divorced for any reason other than infidelity, they should not get remarried but remain alone the rest of their lives or get reconciled back to their spouse (1 Cor 7:10-11). Unless a believer has a unbelieving spouse who do not want to continue in marriage because of the faith of their partner, Apostle Paul has instructed to let them go in peace and live in peace for God in complete devotion further without going for any remarriage (1 Cor 7:7:12, 15; 27, 32). Under normal legal system the one case for remarriage can be the death of one's spouse which annuls the previous marriage covenant and gives them the freedom to again marry in the Lord (1 Cor 7:39). God's word also prohibits not to return back to one's ex-spouse after doing divorce and remarrying another person (Deut 24:1-4). So I believe that a believer failing these standard of God in their life will fail to get blessed fully with the blessing of God in their remarriage union.

I understand that homosexual relationship that are spreading in to the believing community is a clear sign of the end time which Jesus prophetically told will come (Luke 17:28-30). We are in the time of the revelation of the Son of Man Jesus who has promised all believers that he will come like a thief and will resurrect all believers in their glorious brand new sinless body and will take them back to the heavenly palaces which He has prepared for them in the heavenly city of God (1 Thess 4:15-18; 5:2; John 14:2-4). So pray for your husband to come out of this deception, and moreover you walk in full submission, chaste conduct and respect toward your husband apart from judging him by his behavior, so that he may be won back to freedom of faith by your wonderful and exemplary godly conduct (1 Peter 3:1-2).

It is good that you have shared this with your pastor whom God has ordained as the shepherd over your life, because of this God has promised to give you a special grace to overcome sin and exalt you spiritually in due time (Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 5:1-6). It does not matter how much spiritually equipped your pastor is, if God has really placed you to be shepherded under him. Just let God control your life and let go of yourself in Him.

I believe that you husband does not need more casting out experience of demons out of him, but a true godly repentance through confession of his sin to God and his family members which is hard but not impossible when we pray to God (2 Cor 7:10; 1 John 1:7, 9; Heb 6:4-6; Luke 1:37), then he needs to develop a deep hatred for sin by strongly growing in his love for Jesus and showing it out by fleeing away from sexual immorality which will give him the freedom and power over the deception of sin in which he is involved (1 Cor 6:18; Psa 97:10; Gal 5:1).

Your are the one whom God has placed in this situation to love your husband unconditionally and patiently pray to the Lord to intervene in his life and thus wait to see the change happen very soon. Nothing is impossible to you when you work in partnership with the Lord, soon when you are expecting change in your husband, even before He changes completely and turns his life to the Lord, you will see yourself get changed in to the image of our Lord and Savior in your life which is the will of God and calling for all of his true children (Rom 8:29-30). I promise you that God will work all things whether it is good or bad doesn't matter, He will work it all together to make it become only good for you in your life, because you love God and are called according to His purpose in your earthly life (Rom 8:28). This problem you are facing is a blessing in disguise for your spiritual growth. Be encouraged and rejoice in the Lord always (Php 4:4). I will also be praying that your husband might realize his foolish ways of sins which has destroyed his life and is destroying the marriage, and turn to the Lord and become spiritual enough to judge himself and not be judged by the Lord in chastisement of sickness which may lead to his demise if he stubbornly does not turn to the Lord (1 Cor 11:31-32, 30). But I believe that the Lord will turn him soon and bring him back in to the path of abundant life again and will help him live for His glory!!!

Much Blessings.....

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How To Overcome Depression?

I Worry About Useless Subjects And Confuse Myself...Please Pray For Me.

Question : Hi Brother, Prayer request : I'm undergoing lots of emotional breakdowns. Though there is no reason to be upset, I feel sad and depressed. I know all that is happening in my life is according to his plans. I don't feel like studying. I feel the anger and hatred within me when ever I think about my studies. I need prayer help. I want the strength to face it. I worry about useless subjects and confuse myself. My exams are nearing...More over my sickness cripes me...( suffering from juvenile rheumatoid arthritis since childhood). Some times I even behave so mean to Lord...Please pray for me...

Answer: Hello Dear Sister, Greetings to you in Jesus mighty name! Praise the Lord! I understand your situation and I had similar kind of feelings and turmoils when I was approximately passing through 15 years of my age to 25 years in my past life. Like what you understand that all that is happening in your life is according to the plans of God, I also knew it to certain extent, still I had this turmoil which always caused some kind of emotional breakdown, self isolation and depression.

First of all let us know from the Bible that emotional breakdown, self isolation and depression are not the will of God for us and that is why Apostle Paul said, "Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!" (Php 4:4). Rejoice in a simple way means, to release the joy that is already within you in your new spiritual-man. According to theFreeDictionary.com 'rejoice' means 'feel happiness or joy, to express great joy, rejoice proudly, become cheerful, be ecstatic with joy.' It is essentially a choice to express ourselves freely that then makes us joyful later. For example, it is like a girl who is waiting for her exam result who after knowing that she has scored the first mark and got qualified in at the top of the chart in her whole nation, starts to jump and then she feels the joy and taste of victory that she deserves for all the hard work that she has put in.

In our Christian life, the same is what the Lord has told to do. For example, God has said in His word, "Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place." (2 Cor 2:14) and "For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace." (Rom 6:14). This means that no matter what we go through, God has promised that He will always give us victory over sin, victory over depression, victory over every evil that the devil will bring against us in our lives to destroy our faith at the end of every ordeal. And that He has promised to always lead us in triumphal procession of victory if we choose to rejoice by faith the promised victory in each step of our life, which we have not seen or felt by our feelings we experience through our limited five senses that we have (2 Cor 5:7; 4:18). Once we choose to rejoice believing in the promise of God, then the feelings of our senses will change because of joy supplied from our inner spirit-man where the Presence of God resides within (Psa 16:11). Once we choose to do this and train ourselves regularly in the Lord, we will feel joyful all the time apart from the circumstances we go through. This is why Paul urges all believers to grow spiritually by learning to "rejoice in the Lord always". 'Always' means 24/7/365. He reemphasizes this point again saying "Again I will say, rejoice!" because he knows that this is the foundation upon which the abundant life of heaven which Jesus promised to every believer on earth can be experienced (John 10:10).

All the Old Testament believers were promised earthly blessings in the earthly places (Deut 28:1-14), but God promised the Church saints mainly all the spiritual blessings which He has deposited on behalf of each one of us individually in Christ Jesus and have given us a choice to experience all of it through faith, in the heavenly places of every part of our immaterial soul and spirit (Eph 1:3). Which means that our Canaan land is not heaven as some people think and hope to die and go there to experience joy everlasting, but our Canaan land is our ever increasing joyful abundant life of our soul. In heaven as it is the abode of God there are no giants to kill and this itself shows that Canaan to inherit is not heaven but the life of God lived on earth as it is in heaven (Matt 5:5; 6:10).

After I have learned this truth in my life, I began to fight every contrary feelings daily in Jesus name and I started to live by faith in the promises of God, then I began to experience bit by bit the joy of heaven in my soul more and more progressively. For nearly a decade in my past, I know that I know that God has helped me to grow spiritually and thus experience more and more of His abundant life everyday. God allows whether physical infirmities or any other lack in our earthly life to make us depend on Him more and more, and as a result of it overcome those circumstances by faith so that we can grow spiritually and be blessed to be a blessing for eternity ahead! So no trials that come our way can exceed our ability within us to face it through the power of the Holy Spirit and win over it, God always gives grace equal in measure to our trials and gives us temptations that are common to all our brethren around the world, therefore humbly we should receive more and more grace to live victoriously and abundantly on earth as it is heaven (1 Cor 10:13; 15:10). Patiently by God's grace bear the trials and rejoice by faith that it has come your way to make you grow spiritually as God's child (James 1:2-4). If God does not allow trials, you will be a baby believer forever, thus because of doubt you will be tossed to and fro like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by wind, and will neither please God through your life nor will receive anything good from the Lord God because of double mindedness which will bring instability in your spiritual life (James 1:6-8).

God says that if you do not have wisdom enough because of lack of spiritual maturity to draw and use the grace of God against the problems that comes your way, God has promised to supply it all if you ask God in faith (James 1:5-6). This is what I did during those times of depression. If I have not learned to overcome negative doubtful feelings by thinking positively with the help of the Spirit and the word of God, today I would not have been in ministry. If you have not read till now, how God helped me through my physical, mental, spiritual, financial and social trials that came my way, please do so in the following link : http://www.apostolicrevelation.info/2008/07/my-testimony.html. It will really encourage you to see that God wants us to change our thinking through the word of God and become joyful to fight the devils and win over it. Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy all our blessings through our soulish sin nature (John 10:10). Thus only by resisting him and his demonic minions actively by faith in the promises of God and His word, we can make them flee and be free to serve God with our life (James 4:7). To be joyful in the Lord all the time is the very weapon through which the devils can be defeated and God be glorified.

God told the Israelites that He will not drive out all the nations on the Canaan land which were their enemies immediately, lest the animals on the field become too numerous for them to handle, but progressively He had promised that if they keep fighting against them by faith, the Lord will defeat them until they are destroyed completely one day (Deut 7:22). O what a Promise! In our New Testament times, the same promises works spiritually in our lives (Rom 15:4; 2 Cor 1:20). In other words, God tells us that He will not drive out all the demonic depressive forces in our life which are acting against us as our enemies in the spiritual realm immediately, lest the selfish animalistic prideful nature and all its evils within our soul suddenly become too numerous for us to handle (James 1:14-15; Mark 7:20-23). But He has promised us to give the Canaan land of joyous abundant life little by little increasingly and progressively, so that we may stay humble and balanced in our spiritual life before God and thus stay blessed to be a blessing to many other through serving God loyally in our lives (James 4:5-6; 2 Cor 1:3-4; 9:8). So until you overcome a particular problem in your life, keep fighting by faith and you will win someday because God promised it. Above all while you are fighting, Satan and his demons might want you to become grumpy and throw cripes and tantrums, realize the situation and ask the help of the Holy Spirit to stay calm in such situation by patience. Soon those feelings will run away. Thus learn more and more to rejoice and keep rejoicing always. A fighter always inherits the Canaan life of God, a lazy person will lose his privileges spiritually and will be miserable in life more and more.

Do not worry about anything in life, but in all prayer and perseverance let your supplication be made know to God, and by doing the above, you will be kept away from confusion by the heavenly peace of God that will pass all your natural understanding (Php 4:6-7). Heavenly angelic hosts of God will guard your mind supernaturally in the peace of God and then you can rejoice for those things in life with a grateful thanking heart of gratitude. God has promised that in the weakness of all your sickness, His power will be manifested and made know to all for His Glory (2 Cor 12:9-10). I will be praying to the Lord to give more grace to you to reign in this life of yours (Rom 5:17, 21), but I believe that you will resist and fight for the glory of God against all oppression's of the evil one. You will win in the end when you are walking by faith in your life, because you are not fighting alone but actually God is fighting with you and all you are doing is that you are cooperating with Him. When you can't walk anymore and that you are slipping down spiritually, you can honestly share those thoughts with the Lord, whether the thoughts are mean or not it does not matter, the Lord is compassionate enough to help you no matter what and make you succeed spiritually and experience abundant life of God on earth as it is in heaven (Heb 4:15-16; Psa 73:2-17; 103:8, 13; 94:18). A best friend is the one who knows all your weakness, yet wishes and supports you to overcome and become successful in life. God can be your best and closest friend if you choose to be honest with him always. He always loves specially all those who are honest with Him and you can be that one!

Don't forget to Rejoice in the Lord always!!!

Much Blessings.... :)

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Prophetic Testimonial Devotion

The Father's Heart

By Abraham Israel

As a father of a little baby boy Issac that God has graciously given to me, I have come to realize the heart of a father towards his child. As for me as a servant of God, I sincerely wish and desire the little boy to become a man of God and be a blessing to all the saints in the Body of Christ all over the world.

The Biblical baby name Isaac is Hebrew in origin and it's meaning is laughter or he laughs. I felt impressed in my heart nearly 6 months earlier to give this name to the coming baby if God gives a baby boy to us, and my wife prayed before she became convinced to keep this name.

My wife had to struggle throughout the time after 5 months of pregnancy due to pregnancy diabetes. We prayed and had faith in God through out the time. God miraculously time after time saved the baby and gave us a good doctor to consult, who is actually the wife of a dear friend and a minister of God.

Usually according to the rule of the company in which my wife is presently working, they will give leave only to employees who have worked for the company at least 6 months, which was supposed to get fulfilled for my wife only on October 5th. So first they were reluctant to give leave before that time. Then we prayed and left the burden to God, God helped my wife to get leave officially from her office before time on September 22nd itself miraculously and we traveled safely to her native place. Praise the Lord!

There first the doctors told that they will do artificial inducement to bring the baby on October 5th officially, but suddenly they changed their decision to go for a cesarean operation to bring out the baby. My wife was disturbed at first a day before the operation and in that afternoon while I was praying and was half asleep, I clearly felt that God wanted me to take Isaiah 66:7-9 which says, "7“ Before she was in labor, she gave birth; Before her pain came, She delivered a male child. 8 Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her children. 9 Shall I bring to the time of birth, and not cause delivery?” says the LORD. “ Shall I who cause delivery shut up the womb?” says your God." Then as I felt that it is God who was speaking to me through His word, I started to type Isaiah 66:7 in my cell phone and then wanted to type further the next verse which said just the opposite. I felt God impress me to stop with the 7th verse. So I understood that a male baby boy will come to us before my wife could labor, through cesarean.

From that moment I felt peaceful and sent the text through SMS to my wife. Later in the evening when I went to speak to my wife she was very peaceful and told me that the SMS I sent was confirmation to her that God wants her to go through a cesarean to deliver the child. O what a confirmation to me and peace that followed that evening time till she went to the operation theater. On October 5th morning God again spoke to me through Genesis 17:19 which says, "Then God said: “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him." I told what God has told me to my father-in-law, and He told, 'May God's will be done through whatever He gives.'

My wife was very relaxed and went for operation at 9.30 AM as it was scheduled. At 9.42 AM, October 5th, 2012, I saw this baby boy 'Isaac' crying, and he was kept on a table. I praised God and all of us rejoiced to see a gift from God before us. Dad, Mom and my elder Brother John and all his family were on their way to attend another relatives marriage, they all rejoiced in the Lord when they heard the good news on the way and thanked God. Many in the Church family all around called me to convey their wishes. I thanked all of them for their love and prayers. I thank all of you my readers now for your love and prayers for me and my family that has kept me faithful in the Lord's ministry!

Then I wanted to know the significance and speciality of the day October 5th, as little Isaac my son was born on that day. Then to my astonishment I found that on October 5th, 1703, Jonathan Edwards was born. He played a leading role in the first Revival that broke out in America in 1733-35. The revival changed the lifestyle of the people in different colonies and had its influence in the constitution. One church in Enfield, Connecticut had been largely unaffected during the Great Awakening of New England. Edwards was invited by the pastor of the church to preach to them. Edwards aim was to teach his listeners about the horrors of hell, the dangers of sin and the terrors of being lost. Edwards described the shaky position of those who do not follow Christ's urgent call to receive forgiveness. As he read the final section of "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," Edwards showed his theological argument throughout scripture and biblical history. Invoking stories and examples throughout the whole Bible. Edwards ended the sermon with one final appeal, "Therefore let everyone that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the wrath to come." Immediately Jonathan Edwards was interrupted before he could finish the sermon with prayer by people moaning and crying out saying, "What shall I do to be saved?" Thus God did a deep work of repentance and salvation in those hard hearted people and saved them for eternity ahead. Edwards through this sermon indirectly gave a sense of hope to those who were then currently out of Christ. Although the sermon has received criticism, Edwards' words have endured and are still read to this day. Edwards' sermon continues to be the leading example of a Great Awakening sermon and is still used in religious and academic studies, over 270 years later.

"Lord stamp eternity on my eyeballs," was his heart cry toward the Lord in his prayers. Jonathan Edward said, "Of all the knowledge that we can ever obtain, the knowledge of God, and the knowledge of ourselves, are the most important." In other words, when we find who God is, then we find ourselves in Him. What a profound words these are that speaks to all humans who are born on this earth to make us understand that salvation from sin is the most important thing in life and the very purpose for the existence of this earthly life (Matt 26:24; Mark 14:21). With a father's heart I rejoiced to see 'Isaac' born on this day and sincerely wish that he will make a difference through his life like as this man of God Jonathan Edward made in the lives of many many people.

Do you know that our Father in Heaven has a sincere wish and a desire for this upcoming generation to serve Him in His kingdom in these end of end times? Once I had a dream that is so fresh within me, in it I saw the little ones of Issac's generation moving in the Elijah's authority doing signs, wonders and miracles at an early age and proclaiming the coming of our Messiah Jesus Christ to this world. From their early childhood days, if we bring them up in the way of the Lord through His word and the Spirit of God, they will be used by God from their early days in a authority of God that is unknown and unseen for the last two thousand years since John the Baptist and Jesus' ministry.

God says, "3 Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb is a reward. 4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s youth. 5 Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them; They shall not be ashamed, but shall speak with their enemies in the gate." (Psalm 127:3-5). From this we know that the children who are a heritage from the Lord and are given to us as a reward within a covenantal marriage relationship. God has already prepared in His heavenly blue print a particular and specific plan and purpose of His to be fulfilled through each of their lives individually. Like a arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s youth when we willingly give them in to the hands of the Lord to use them to fulfill His purpose to be fulfilled in their lives. When our children are used by God, then they will stand at the gate and speak with the spiritual enemies of ours and will make them flee in Jesus mighty name, then we will be happy enough for the quiver full of children that we took care of carefully to bring them up in the way of the Lord through discipline and love. It is indeed a great responsibility from God and a privilege to raise children for God to use them. Dear parents and saints, take care of the children that God has given to bring them up in the way of the Lord. Teach them scriptures from their early days, commit them in to the hands of the Lord constantly, very soon you will see them all glorify God in their generation. Father God's heart is beating for this upcoming generation and He wants them all to fulfill the purpose and plans that He has for their lives. May God help Isaac's generation to bring laughter to our Heavenly Father and to all the people of God alike.

Say this prayer with me, "Dear Heavenly Father, I understand that you have a great plan and purpose for all of our children, and you want to use them all for your glory very early in their childhood and young days itself. Help me to bring them up in your way through your Word and the Spirit. Help me seek your face constantly to direct them by knowing and implementing your will for their lives. I thank you for your gifts and graces that you have showered upon my life. Thank you for your heritage of children that you have given me as a reward from the fruit of the womb. Thank you that you are going to use my children to speak to all the spiritual enemies at the gate so that the gates of Hades will not prevail against the Church (Matt 16:18). Use my children to glorify you and be a arrow in your hands to destroy all the works of our spiritual enemies. May our children make us happy in being a blessing to the whole world. In Jesus name I pray. Amen and Amen!!!! Best Wishes!"

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Should We Call All Churches As The Church Of Christ?

Does The Church Have A Official Name Or Not?

Question : The Church belongs to Christ and therefore it has no name. So call it as the Church of Christ. Let us not use our wisdom; but let us follow Christ and the Bible. Why are we hesitating to name the church in all places after Christ and thus call it as "Church of Christ". He shed His blood for the the whole world, so Christianity is a way to eternity and is more than a religion (John 14:6). This I said not to hurt your feelings, but to speak the Truth. God be with you and guide you.

Answer : Greetings in Jesus name! Without any doubt the Church belongs to Christ because Jesus promised to us all saying, "I will build My Church" (Matt 16:18). Whether anyone accepts this fact or not, the Church belong to Jesus Christ who is its head. But no where in the Scripture it has been told for the Church to be conformed to the same name, instead it encourages diversity and Jesus Himself wrote to the various Churches in the Book of Revelation calling it by the name of the places in which it was physically present (Rev 2:1, 8, 12, 18; 3:1, 7, 14). God has called each individual pastor of the Church and spoke to them the message he wanted to give to them in it. This shows that God has a individual vision and pattern for each shepherd to build the Church in a particular way according to the need of the place (Acts 20:28). Paul the leading apostle of all time, calls the Church as "the Church of the living God" (1 Tim 3:15). All those who are in Christ by faith are members in "the household of God" as Paul says in another place (Ephesians 2:19). The same apostle calls it as "the body of Christ" to reveal to all the individual members of the Church that all believers are interconnected to minister to each other spiritually in Christ who is the head over the whole Church just like our head presides and directs our physical body to minister to each other in love, and thus cherish the life of God rather than boast over one another carnally (1 Cor 12:28, 7, 20). In writing to the Church of Galatia, Paul calls the Church as "the household of faith" (Gal 6:10).

If God wanted Paul the apostle to call the Church word for word with the exact description "Church of Christ", then he would have written it all alike like how you want it to be called. This itself proves that God doesn't want all the Churches to look like copy cats. But He wants each individual Church to be unique in the way it is called, God's word reveals that though on the outside each individual Church might look different in many aspects, yet in all His true churches the same life of God will flow in it (Rom 8:9; 1 John 5:11-13; 1 Cor 12:3-6). It is not a problem to call a Church with some BIBLICAL NAME according to the vision God has given each individual shepherd (1 Cor 16:19, 1; 1 Peter 5:1-4), but the problem starts to come when somebody thinks carnally that the whole body of Christ should be conformed to someone's belief because that is the only true one (1 Cor 3:1-4). This is how cults are formed. Cults are people with intense belief in and devotion to a person, idea, or activity rather than God. They take one Scripture verse or a few related one and devote themselves to conform all people to the same way they believe it. Everything in the Bible should be seen with a balance which the Holy Spirit gives and no one should become cultist. The Holy Spirit gives true spiritual discernment to all those believers who are submissive and humble enough to correct their own mistakes when the Holy Spirit convicts them by revealing the truth (1 Cor 2:14-15; John 16:13).

When the people of the Church of Christ say, "The Lord promised only one kind and built only one kind--There is only one body (Eph. 4:4), and that one body is the church. (Col. 1:18)", they take the word "church" out of its context to mean it from being a spiritual universal body to a physical organisation in a particular place. The "true church" is a spiritual organism, NOT a physical organization. So it is a cultic mindset to make all people conform to the same name "church of Christ" which God does not want it to be. The term "church of Christ" is found nowhere in the Bible, then how can one even for a moment tell anyone this title to be the only one that a New Testament church should be called as? There is nothing wrong for a group of believers to call themselves as the "Church of Christ", but it is absolutely wrong when they insist to call all assembly of believers all around the world to be called with the same name "Church of Christ" and claim to be the only true one. All those who claim exclusivity in the body of Christ will soon become a cult in a matter of time and this is what has happened to the Church of Christ.

You are so wrong in saying, Christianity is a way to eternity. Christianity is not a way but the way which means that there is no other way at all to reach God, so only Jesus the head of the Church claimed himself as the only way to God and eternity of life with God (John 14:6). Do not add every one in to your limited light and wisdom and generally say that we should all follow Christ and the Bible, thus implying as though nobody other than those of you and your church follow the Lord Christ and the Bible. Nobody is hesitating anything, except the tyranny of  the cultism of all cultists. You have not hurt my feelings because I believe and know that the way you are expecting all to gulp your belief is not the right way we should follow the Lord. We should major on the weightier matters of the law which is justice, mercy and faith, and not unnecessarily create divisions within the body of Christ by acting in a childish carnal way (Matt 23:23). We should stop majoring on the minor issue like getting in to dispute over names, or else all of us will turn to be Pharisees of the first order very soon (Col 2:21-23), instead we should be spiritual enough to cleanse our heart from all filthiness of the world by living to please God rather than live religiously to please men and their doctrines and traditions (2 Cor 7:1; Matt 23:27, 26; Mark 7:13-15; Gal 1:10). Thank you.

Much Blessings.....

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Repent Once And Confess For A Lifetime!

Repentance Really Means What? Will Daily Confession Make Us Sin More?

Question : What does repentance really mean? Is the following explanation right, that I found else where, "The word in the New Testament usually translated “repent” is the Greek word “metanoeo”. It means “to change your mind; reconsider; or, to think differently.” Granted, if a person changes his mind (repents) toward certain sins in his life, he may become very sorrowful and may even stop committing those sins, but this would be a result of repenting, not repentance itself.

When God tells an unsaved man to repent, He means for that man to change his mind about how to reach God and accept His way of salvation. The person must change his mind from any idea of saving himself through religion or good works, and trust Christ’s death as payment for everything he has done wrong."

If we really repent, will we not go back to the same sin again at all? Of course I know that once we repent we will look sin as sin and not as something that is justifiable or as a good sin that is not affecting others. Once we repent we will not categorize sin as something big and small sin, good or bad sin, serious or normal sin, but all sin to be equally sinful. Am I right in saying this?

If we consider we have repented once and for all at the time of salvation, and then confess the sins of ours after that consistently when we do sin to cleanse our conscience for fellowship with God, does that mean we by confessing our sins daily we will start to have a tendency do more sins with out walking in righteousness.

Thanks for your answer in advance.

Answer : This is a great definition for repentance, the word “repent” in the Greek is “metanoeo” means “to change your mind; reconsider; or, to think differently” and it does not mean change in behavior though it might follow sometimes instantly and at other times progressively. The true act of repentance is when a person knows that he is a sinner and needs the Savior Jesus to save him from sin. To know that we are sinners and that we need a Savior in Jesus is the only repentance we need to get saved from sin (Rom 10:9-10).

Dead works are something we try to do religiously to please God that can never save us. Our sins are breaking of God's righteous law (1 John 3:4). To repent from dead work is to introduce faith in the cleansing blood of Jesus again to save us (Heb 6:1). Repentance is to turn towards God and agree with Him that we are sinners in need of salvation, and then to believe and accept that Jesus has paid for all our sins and as a result become saved (Acts 2:38-39; 11:18; 17:30; 20:21; 16:31; Matt 3:2; Luke 13:3).

Repentance is the God ordained way for a unsaved man to reach out to God and receive His salvation. For a person to repent means to tell God that he cannot save himself except through His ordained way of believing in Jesus knowing that he himself is a sinner in need of Him (Gal 2:17). But confession is the God ordained way to clear the way to God from our dead works and sins which accumulate between us and the Lord because of our sin nature that tries to hamper the fellowship between us and God (1 John 1:9).

And once faith comes to us, we do not repent again as we already know that our behavior is a sin, but confess to God and get cleansed in our conscience. Many of us are taught that we have to stop sinning to repent, but that means we should stop sinning before we can ask Jesus to save us and therefore none of us could ever be saved. God sends us His Holy Spirit and seals our heart and saves it by grace through faith as a sign of our salvation, which is a gift given to us, and then helps us to change our behavior progressively more in to the likeness of Christ day by day (Eph 1:13-14; Rom 8:29). We are saved by grace through faith which we received as a free gift from the day we are born again to the day we will die and go on to be with the Lord, and God has not even once said or warned to revoke us of our gift of salvation if we sin, instead He has spoken and encouraged the believers through the apostles to walk in the benefits of salvation because Jesus justifies all believers from their sins (Eph 2:8-9; Heb 6:9; 1 John 2:1). The Bible says that not even one person on earth who always does good and does not sin (Eccl 7:20). So according to the Bible, no believer can boast of being sinless at any point of time in his saved life. Yes you are absolutely right in saying that all sin is equally sinful.

Because of our sin nature influence, we might commit any sin that we have committed before we were saved, but because of the new nature God has put in to us, we cannot habitually practice those sin without any regret for having done it (1 Cor 6:9-10, 11; 1 John 3:9). Because we have become righteous by our faith before God, we can practice joyfully only righteousness because we are truly saved (1 John 3:7; Gal 3:11). But as for the sins we do, we will regret for having done it and therefore must confess it to God (1 John 1:7, 9). Then we will be forgiven and cleansed by God, and then God might deliver the believer from it according to his own faith (Luke 7:50; 8:48; 18:42). Some times God delivers a believer from sin instantly for his glory (Matt 9:29; Mark 10:52), still at other times he delays his deliverance to test their faith and make them grow in it (Matt 15:28; John 9:2-3, 7; 11:4, 6, 14-15, 40, 43-44). The original root cause of all sickness is sin, sickness brings death (Rom 6:23). So all these healing event in which Jesus healed people can also be applied to sin symbolically and spiritually.

God expects in the New Testament that no matter what, each believer should keep fighting against sin when it tries to dominate their lives, and He has promised to all believers that sin cannot dominate them once Jesus has set them free when they were born again, and that each one should receive His overcoming grace to be overcomers over sin (John 8:36; Rom 6:14). As faith grows in the heart of believers, no sin will ever be able to stand against them and they will be victorious over it by their faith (1 John 5:4). As more and more grace of God increases in the lives of believers, they will start to reign in this life through Jesus Christ over sin by the grace of God (Rom 5:17, 21).

Whether we like it or not we all sin until we die because of our sin nature within us, and only after the day of rapture we will be given by God a glorious sin-free body to live, then we will never sin (1 Cor 15:56, 54). A man like apostle Paul who was sold out to fulfill the will of God for his life and for the Church was honestly telling that he was not able to control himself when tempted. When he did not want to sin, he did what he did not like to do because of the sin nature working within him (Rom 7:14-20). So to some degree all those who are born again also sin in their motives, thoughts and actions. And according to God, breaking one law is equal to breaking all the laws of God (James 2:10). That means we all fall short of the perfect requirement of God all the times in our lives. The Bible says that if anyone says that he has no sin nature, he is deceiving himself and the truth of God is not in him (1 John 1:8). Then how then can we ever be a righteous person and walk in righteousness? That righteousness with which we can walk in God way's does not come by our own strength but by faith in Jesus who has made us as the righteousness of God in Him and gives us His righteousness to walk day in and day out when we choose not to depend on our own righteousness (2 Cor 5:21; Php 3:8-9). When we believe what God has done for us in Christ Jesus as something done personally for us, that is when we are made righteous before the eyes of God (Gal 3:5-6).

Only by God's empowerment of His grace we can ever be made righteous and can walk in His righteousness, and we can never walk righteously by our own strength before God (Rom 11:6; 3:22). If we try to walk in righteousness by our own strength, then we actually are counteracting the force or effectiveness of God's grace that is available freely for us from God and therefore we make what Christ did for us by dying on the Cross for our sins as something done in vain and of no effect to us personally (Gal 2:21). Christ become the end of the pursuit of all righteousness for all those who believe Him because they themselves have been made the righteousness of God in Him and they will walk in righteousness by letting Christ walk daily in His righteousness through their bodies (Rom 10:4; 2 Cor 5:21; Php 3:9; Gal 2:20; Rom 12:1). God demonstrates His righteousness to all people through our life by letting Christ walk through our lives (Rom 3:26). So if we do not try to work righteousness but instead believe God's way of justifying us through Jesus and let Jesus walk through our lives, even though we are ungodly sinners in the natural state, our faith is then considered as righteousness before God (Rom 4:5). God puts Jesus' perfect righteousness in to our spiritual account which the Bible calls as "the righteousness of the faith", and then seals us with a unique sign of spiritual identity from heaven called spiritual circumcision which is of faith like He did to our spiritual father Abraham in the beginning where He considered him guiltless before Him through his faith (Rom 4:11,16; 9:30). No person who tries to work his own righteousness before God will ever be considered guiltless from sins done by him before God (Gal 2:16).

Even though all our past, present and future sins are all forgiven by God when we believed in Jesus (Eph 4:32), still when we presently sin because of our sin nature, the fellowship with God and His joy in us will be broken by our sin (1 John 1:3-4), so God has made a way to keep our conscience clean through confessing it to God through Jesus our High Priest who is in heaven on behalf of us all (Heb 10:21-23). Jesus Himself is the offering that appeases and satisfies God's anger against our sins every time we do sin and confess it to Him through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior (1 John 2:1-2). Once we confess to God all our present sins in Jesus name boldly, Jesus Christ as our Advocate with the Father settles the issue and bring a clean state of righteousness in our spiritual fellowship and makes us as righteous as God is and also just as if we have never sinned at all (1 John 1:7, 9; Luke 18:13-14). God has made this the living way of righteousness to be happy and prosperous spiritually through Jesus Christ, what more do we need (Heb 10:19-12). So the issue is not whether we sin often or once in a while, it is whether we are humble enough to consider all sins as breaking all of God's laws and immediately run to Jesus to confess it that will bring a clean conscience before God through the blood of Jesus (Heb 9:14). We repent once we are saved, but we confess for a lifetime according to the word of God.

Fearing that we will sin more as we confess and get cleaned by the blood of Jesus is a illogical fear of all men, the question is, "What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!" (Rom 6:15). The answer continues saying, "And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness." (Rom 6:18), and having become slaves of righteousness, why should any believer willingly would like to become addicted to sin again rather than enjoy the true liberty of the Spirit of God unless deceived by the deceitfulness of the sin of unbelief (Gal 5:1; Heb 3:13, 17-19). If any believer intentionally sins because of unbelief, he will be chastised by God and if still he doesn't turn back, God will judge him physically even to death and he will lose his eternal rewards (Heb 12:10-11; 1 Cor 11:30-32; Rev 3:11), but as for salvation it is not earned by him so it cannot be lost by him (1 Cor 3:15). Jesus has promised not to lose even one sheep of his who are saved for eternity, and has guaranteed that no one including sin or devil can take them out of His hand (John 10:27-28; Rom 8:38-29). So it is not our business to judge, give a opinion or say and determine who is saved and who is not (Rom 14:4). Praise God that we are saved by grace through faith and that it is not a effort of our work, but that it is a pure gift of God from the first day of our salvation to the final day we receive our glorious sin-free body! Or else sinful human being we are, I know for sure that no one of us could ever be saved and could go to heaven. Just enjoy your rest in God by faith.

Thanks and Blessings......

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