Brother Gary Wednesday Evening 3/13/13

Brother Gary Wednesday Evening 3/13/13

The enemy has many in sin that are bound with invisible barriers.  They think that they are free but they are bound with many barriers.  Some of the barriers are deception and some are unbelief. 

I desire to know what is going on spiritually with people so that we might know how to pray and how to fast and pray to see the prisoners freed.

In Daniel 11:35 it seems like the enemy is going to try to wear out the saints. 

Act 3:19  Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;

As I’ve tried to study and grasp these thought patterns I am convinced that both of these expressions have happened over and over through the course of time.  Among the things that are happening today is that the devil wants to wear out the saints, spiritually first, but also emotionally and physically. 

You’ve prayed, worked, and fasted and the answer hasn’t come, but don’t give up for God is still on the throne. 

Times of refreshing:  this scripture has been hit with a lot of baseballs to try to calculate it for a specific time.  I’m not saying that God didn’t ordain a time of refreshing for the Jews, but there have been lots of times of refreshing for the Church before now and there will be lots of times of refreshing for us ahead.

1Pe 5:6  Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:

1Pe 5:7  Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

1Pe 5:8  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

1Pe 5:9  Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

This is a very good exhortation for every one of us.  The devil walks about as a roaring lion seeking…

He doesn’t give us as the children of God just a glance over.  He tries to know everything that is going on in our life.  He wants to see if there can be something that he can pull out to begin a mind battle or a thought pattern.  He knows that before he can ever get you he must distract you.

When Gyme and his parents lived in Salmon the highway patrolman stopped to check out a hitchhiker.  The man had a plan and took out his pistol and told him to take him where he wanted to go.  The patrolman knew that the only way to get out of this alive was to get the man distracted.  He didn’t want to go past a road that went into the woods and knew if he did that he would be taken and killed.  The guy that was with him got distracted by the car behind.  The policeman got near a steep bank, grabbed the door and turned the car off the bank all the while the man was shooting at him.  He managed to get out of it alive.

Everyone in this audience is closely associated with others that have needs, big needs.  Our times have people in this community concerned about what if we lose our electricity.  Does the water system have a generator?  This is not a bad thought; it is just that the distractions of the people today are many.

‘Whom resist steadfast in the faith.’  God came to sister Hawley’s rescue this week.  The enemy was there and even though she couldn’t feel literal barriers gripping her with all that it was gripping her with, it was having a pronounced effect on her.  God has a way.  He gave her an experience that helped her to know what to do the next time the enemy came.

When the enemy comes to us there is only one thing to do and that is to resist him, steadfast in the faith.  Though the battle seems new to us they are really old battles.  The enemy is after a live soul, we are those live souls.

1Pe 5:10  But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.

There is no suffering compared to being in a battle spiritually.  God allows these things so that we will be perfected.  Perfected in the thought of realizing, “God how I need you.”

It causes us to be established, strengthened, and settled.  It causes us to realize, “Oh God I never want to give up you.”

Rev 20:7  And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,

Rev 20:8  And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

Rev 20:9  And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.

Satan is loosed from his prison and this scripture bears it out strong.  Satan is loosed to deceive. 

Whatever the deception is, unbelief, false religion, false doctrine…, whatever the deception, it is a barrier.  Barriers may not be seen, but they hold people in such grip that even though the grace of God appears to them many times while they are under it, they are so under the cloud of the enemy they don’t get to God. 

They know God is talking to them but they are so bound by invisible barriers that they don’t get to God.  This alarms me.  Not just because my relatives are bound, it is not just our own that we love.  We love whosoever will.

Sister Esther met a man that had great needs at the post office the other day.  That man if he came from paradise then he came close to the church of the living God.  If he was going to plains, then he came by it. 

The darkness, the gathering of Babylon, compassed the camp of the saints.  There is something really going on.  Gog and Magog, the devil and all his agents, have encompassed the camp of the saints. 

I don’t think that I have gotten all the thoughts that can be gained from this.  The first thought is the one of darkness trying to get inside the camp.  How the enemy will bring to our mind (our emotions, our spirit, and our heart) thoughts of darkness that will take us into greater darkness. 

Sometimes I think he compasses the camp of the saints so that we feel so encompassed that we don’t know what to do.  Only God has the answers, it is His camp.

The darkness that tries to penetrate inside and the darkness that goes around outside the camp:  I think the darkness outside goes on souls that are in Babylon and on souls that are considering: “I need to be considering my soul.”  That darkness paralyses them from getting to God.  I want to tell you it is an alarming thing to me.  It is alarming for souls, not just from my family.  Souls.

Karen and I walk the McLaughlin creek road.  There are souls running up and down that road that are that are paralyzed spiritually.  They are within walking distance of the church when they stop at the post office.

God alone can help souls.

Tit 2:11  For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,

When the divine influence of God appears to a soul, it is a wonderful opportunity. I’m thinking of individuals that have been inside this little church that neglected to get help for their soul.  It stirs my heart.

Grace teaches us that denying ungodliness: the grace of God teaches people to live holy.  There could be people that don’t have a full understanding about holiness, they could have been taught wrong, and we’ll leave that with God. 

We know that if people are saved, the grace of God will convict them of their language, their dress, their attitude, and everything about them.  It will not deal with them any different than it does with us.  Grace only deals with one thing concerning sin and that is to deny ungodliness and worldly lust.

Grace brings a soberness.  It is a wonderful thing to find someone that is genuinely sober about their soul to live righteously and godly.

Speaking of Jesus:

Joh 1:16  And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.

We need John to help us understand the depths of this scripture: ‘of His fullness…’

Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.