Posts

Showing posts from July, 2020

Casting Out Devils

Image
Mention the Great Commission and most Christians only think of “preaching the gospel to every creature.” Yet Jesus gave other commandments in the sixteenth chapter of Mark. One of which in verse 17 is to cast out devils. That commandment must be important. It is listed before speaking in tongues and laying hands on the sick. Many churches in Western nations don’t do deliverance ministry at all. Some ministers believe Christians cannot have a demon. I can testify that this is not true. Over the years. I’ve witnessed numerous devils cast out of God’s people. I’ve done my share of exorcisms. During the mid-1990s, I became close friends with “Stacy” (not her real name), a middle-aged woman often placed on my team during our church’s evangelism outreaches. Despite her faithfulness in sharing the gospel, Stacy was often oppressed. One particular afternoon while I prayed for Stacy, these words came out of her mouth: “You can’t have her! You can’t have her!” I recognized this as Sat...

Check Your Heart

Image
When someone has a physical checkup, the doctor will use a stethoscope to examine their heart. It’s also important for people to know the status of their spiritual hearts. Sometimes when I’m evangelizing, sinners try justifying themselves by saying, “God knows my heart.” Yet Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it?”   Fortunately, one who becomes born again has a supernatural heart transplant. Ezekiel 36:26-27 promises, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.” Believers should still occasionally examine themselves to maintain a clean heart. An excellent time to do that is when taking communion. 1 Corinthians 11:28-29 commands, “But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drin...

Why I Resist Wearing Masks

Image
Last week, a pastor in Florida asked his Facebook friends if they thought there was a political agenda behind the requirement of wearing face masks. I wrote a response saying there was (more on that later). The pastor originally liked my comment but then unfriended me after someone else posted an opposing viewpoint. Since this pastor allowed public comments on his wall, I then wrote: “It’s sad the devil is using masks to divide believers.” The pastor reacted by blocking me. Days before I posted this on my social media pages: “What would Jesus do regarding COVID-19? I can’t imagine Him staying home and wearing a mask. He’d be out healing the sick.” That stirred up negative remarks from a minister’s wife I met four years ago. She insisted God wants us to wear masks and quoted Isaiah 26:20 claiming it’s a command to self-quarantine… “Come, my people, enter your chambers, and shut your doors behind you; Hide yourself, as it were, for a little moment, until the indignation is pas...

Pray For Your Nation

Image
Christians in the United States are becoming increasingly discouraged from sharing the gospel in public places. Because of fears over the coronavirus, politicians have also placed limitations upon church meetings. California Governor Gavin Newsom recently issued a ridiculous ban from singing and chanting in places of worship. Yet Ronald Reagan (who was also a California governor) stated, “Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged. When our Founding Fathers passed the First Amendment, they sought to protect churches from government interference.” This country was founded mostly by Bible-believing men who intended to keep the government out of the church, not God out of the government, In a statement made to the General Assembly of the State of Virginia in 1778, James Madison (the chief architect of the Constitution) said, “We’ve staked the whole future of American civilization not upon the power of government, far from it. We have sta...