In Matthew 10:5-8 we find Jesus preparing His disciples to minister in His name and in the power of the Holy Spirit.  It is illuminating to note exactly what He told them to do because 99.99% of the modern preachers fail to do even one of those things.  He told them to go to the “lost sheep of the house of Israel,” a few of whose descendants make up His tiny, rejected and hated modern day church located in so-called “Christian nations” found throughout the world.  Read Who and Where is Israel Today?  Key word–Today.  Once they found those scattered Israelites they were to: “… preach, saying, ‘The Kingdom of Heaven (His church) is at hand, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead and cast out demons.  Freely you have received (power to do the above), freely give (use that power to do the above).”  Note that Jesus did not provide a time limit on when that type of ministry was to end.  One of Satan’s church denominations, with which I am very familiar, contends that the day of divine miracles is passed.  The theory is that God now provides doctors, medicine, knives, needles, drugs, etc. to take care of those problems.  And if He fails to do so, well, “That’s just the way it is.”  This is the voice of unbelief by which multitudes of church people proclaim their rejection of God’s Word.  But it does not end there.  Jesus said that such faithlessness rejection of His Word signifies one’s rejection of and hatred toward Him and His Father (Lk. 10:16/Deut. 5:9).  The truth is that every denomination embraces that same God-rejecting “truth.”

Notice in Matthew 10:5-8 that the message the apostles (“sent ones”) were to preach concerned the Kingdom of Heaven–God’s church on earth prior to the creation of the Kingdom of God upon the return of Jesus Christ.  Note that the message was not about Jesus Himself, but about the kingdom today (His church) and how to enter it.

Note also what else Christ’s ministers were to do: they were to heal the physically and mentally sick and afflicted, raise from death those who had died before their time and CAST OUT DEMONS–the root cause of the problems that plague mankind.  Disease, epidemics, pandemics, plagues, mental problems, wars, droughts, famines, floods, tornados, hurricanes, accidents, poverty, crime, etc., etc.  What do they all have in common?  THEY ARE ALL SELF-INFLICTED WOUNDS cause by man’s failure to resist Satan’s attacking demons.  God has said repeatedly that if we would obey Him none of these things would come upon us.  However, He tells us, if we do not obey Him, ALL OF THESE THINGS WILL COME UPON US.  Read Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 while remembering that MAN MUST LIVE IN OBEDIENCE TO “EVERY WORD THAT PROCEDES FROM THE MOUTH OF GOD,” WHICH MEANS EVERY WORD FROM GENESIS 1:1 TO REVELATION 22:21.  EVERY WORD IN THE HOLY BIBLE CONSTITUTES GOD’S LAW, NOT ONE JOT OR TITTLE CAN BE CHANGED (Lk. 16:17).  The Ten Commandments constitute the Law in condensed form.  Sin is the breaking of that Law (1 Jn. 3:4).  Sin separates us from God and allows demons full access to us.  In this way, sin begets sin which allows demons to move in and take over our lives from within our minds (“hearts”).  Read James 1:12-16 for a full explanation of how demons work within the human mind.  Only a mind filled with the Holy Spirit can repel their “fiery darts” of temptation (Eph. 6:16).

As noted, sin–both individual and corporate–allows of all of the problems which afflict mankind to come to pass.  Sin is the result of spiritual influence from the forces of power “in high places.”  As noted in the previous posting, Satan’s fallen angels (devils/demons) have one job–to tempt mankind to sin.  As Jesus predicted, only a very few people have the Holy Spirit living within them and have God’s armor to protect them.  Man “puts on the whole armor of God by obeying His Word.  No one is exempt to these attacks.  Jesus was tempted more than any of us, “yet without sin.”  Was He ever sick?  Did a storm ever stop Him?  Satan and his demons failed on every count until, according to the will of the Father, He died for mankind.  His death and resurrection made it possible for man to receive the Holy Spirit so that he can resist the antichrist spirits.  He is our standard, our example.  Because He was able to resist Satan and his angels’ temptations through the power of the Holy Spirit, He expects us to resist them to the same extent by that same Spirit (Rev. 3;21).  Those who do will sit with Him on His throne (Rev. 3:21).

Let us now examine some passages of Scripture that tell us about the influence of evil spirits and how we must deal with them.  A perfect example of this process is found in Mark 9:17-29.  Here Jesus was speaking to a group of people when a man came forward and told Him that his son had a “dumb spirit” which “tears him, causing him to foam at the mouth, to gnash his teeth and waste away.”  The man told Jesus that he had brough the boy to His disciples, but that they could not cast out the demon that was causing the problem.  Obviously, the man had a modicum of faith in Jesus and in His disciples.  Jesus’ cutting response was directed toward His disciples (vs 19) as well as the man (vs 24).  The man brought the boy to Jesus and told Him that the demon often cast him into the fire and into the water in order to kill him.  The father expressed his faith in Jesus, but admitted that he needed more faith.  Jesus told him that all things were possible to them that have faith.  Then He cast out the evil spirit.

Later the disciples asked Jesus why they could not cast out the spirit.  He replied that it was because of their lack of faith.  He then noted that some demons were especially powerful, therefore required much faith, which, He noted, came only through prayer and fasting.  This episode proves that physical and psychological problems are both caused by evil spirits working in the afflicted person.

Another episode confirms that truth.  Jesus was at the pool of water at a place called Bethesda.  Many people lay around the pool waiting for an angel to stir up the water.  The first one to enter the water after the angle disturbed it would be healed.  Jesus spoke to one man and healed him.  Note what He said to him: “SIN NO MORE LEST A WORSE THING (DISEASE) COME UPON YOU” (Jn. 5:14).  This proved that the man’s disease was caused by his sins, and that if he sinned again he would be afflicted with an even worse sin.  The Institutional Church refuses to believe Christ’s own Words concerning the sin-disease connection.

Demonic activity in mankind’s life can also include nature.  In Luke 8:22-24 we find Jesus and the disciples crossing the Sea of Galilee at night when a violent storm came up, threatening to sink the boat.  Jesus was asleep.  The disciples, fearing for their lives, woke Him and explained the situation.  Jesus then “rebuked (spoke to) the wind and the waves and they became calm.  He chastised them for not doing what He had done.  HE EXPECTED THEM TO COMMAND THE DEMONS BEHIND THE STORM TO CEASE AND DESIST.  Had they done so with the faith Jesus expected them to have (His level), the demons that caused the storm would have obeyed them.

“I AM THE LORD; I CHANGE NOT.”  Nothing about the Lord has changed.  His commands are the same today as they were then.  His power is the same; His expectations are the same; His faith, which He gives to His true saints, is the same.  As He said, He is no respecter of persons.  GOD’S COMMAND TO HIS MESSENGERS IS THE SAME TODAY AS IT WAS THEN.  

Timing is important in the Lord’s world.  As He said, there is a season for everything and everything comes to pass in its appointed season (Eccl. 3:1).  The time for God’s true apostles to do on a global level what He commanded the original apostles to do will be ushered in during this present generation.  Due to television and the internet, people throughout the world will see the miraculous take place in real time.  Soon you will begin to hear about and watch men, using the power of their Spirit-empowered words, heal the sick, cast out demons, raise the dead, kill trees, move mountains, multiply food, turn water into wine, know the minds of men, control nature, foretell the future, etc., just as Jesus did and as He prophesied that His holy ministers would do in the latter days.  He proclaimed this Truth in John 14:12 where He prophesied that the time would come when, “He who believes in Me (has His level of faith), the things that I do, he will do also, and GREATER THINGS THAN THESE WILL HE DO BECAUSE I GO TO THE FATHER.”  He would soon die and rise again, leaving His Holy Spirit to empower men to believe His Words and obey them.  These men will literally fulfil John 14:12.

The time is “at the door” for the Almighty to show the world who and what He is.  As has always been the case, He will use His anointed messengers through whom to reveal Himself to mankind.  True Spirit-empowered men will walk as Jesus walked (1 Jn. 2:6) so that they can honestly say, “They who have seen me have seen the Father.”  However, the world, including the church world, will rise up against God’s messengers and their followers.  They will form a one-world (Catholic) church (Rev. 17:1-5) and be led by the false prophet (second beast) off Revelation 16:13; 19:20; 20:10.   The forces of evil have risen to new heights and are wreaking havoc in this world.  They are flaunting their powers for all the world to see.  They are taking over city and national governments–United States cities and her federal government being prime current examples.  I believe that, over the next two years, God is going to expose Satan’s stooges that now control all liberal (democrat) city and national governments.  I believe that He will also expose the news and internet media in the process.  I believe that He will give the United States one last chance to repent and turn to Him, both individually and corporately.  Many are predicting a great revival.  I believe a form of “revival” will take place, but that it will not be a turning to the Biblical God and His Law, but a REturning to religious “business as usual” which, because of its anti-Bible, anti-God theology, will not endure for long.  I also believe that there will come a time, and soon, when the world will hate God’s tiny church so vehemently that His people will be forced to leave the country and go to a “place of safety” which I believe will be located in a mountain region known as Petra in Jordan where they will be welcomed.  We will be hated because we will do on a unlimited level what I and others are now doing on a very limited level.  We will tell the world why God’s wrath is falling on them.  L.J.