AND! (You NEED Both!)

1)  Matthew 3:11-12, Luke 3:16-17

"I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

"John answered, saying to all, “I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire."

These scriptures are so important that I had to put it twice! He (JESUS) WILL baptize you (Fully Wet, Immerse, Overwhelm) with the Holy Spirit (Spirit of God Himself, Wind, Breath, Spirit) and fire (The spiritual fire of God, Burns off the impurities of the flesh and soul, Our God is a consuming fire).

Before I was baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire, I read those scriptures in Matthew and Luke with a carnal mind and I remember thinking, 'ok, Amen, that sounds spiritual, but what does it mean? What does it mean to be baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire? I read it and kept living my life without knowing what it really meant! I heard the pastor quote it numerous times but I never understood it! And neither did he!

This is exactly why Paul said the carnal mind CANNOT, CANNOT, CANNOT, understand the things of the Spirit! Why not? Because they are SPIRITUALLY DISCERNED!

Noone can explain what it's like to be baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire, YOU HAVE TO EXPERIENCE IT FOR YOURSELF NEO!

And if you haven't felt the definitive experience of God Himself entering your soul and filling you with Dunamis (Power from on High) that you cannot deny, and will be ACCOMPANIED by speaking in other languages (tongues), then you HAVE NOT been baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire. Read my post on John G. Lakes testimony of his baptism with the Holy Spirit and you can begin to understand the reality and manifestations that happens when you receive this gift from God. And He gives it to those who BELIEVE it is for us today. If you don't believe it, you WILL NOT receive it! And you WILL NOT be converted to Christ! 

2) John 3:5

"Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God."

These words of Jesus should be crystal clear! But unfortunately for many professing Christians they are not, as they have been discarded by the carnal minded, and replaced with Romans 10:9-10. Did the scriptures Paul wrote to Roman believers, who were already converted to Christ actually replace all that Jesus and John the Baptist said about conversion? ABSOLUTELY NOT!

You cannot ENTER OR SEE the kingdom of God without being born from above. You must be baptized in water and with the Holy Spirit. The kingdom of God is a spiritual kingdom for those on this earth. Jesus told the Pharisees, you will not look and say there is the kingdom of God, for the Kingdom of God is WITHIN you, (in your soul by the indwelling of God's Spirit). The reality of God's kingdom is in another dimension called Heaven, where God and all the other holy spirit beings dwell.  

Don't be deceived by the sinner's prayer, which is a good start, but not biblical conversion! Don't be deceived by the repeat after ME's! (Many Televangelists and mega-church preachers do this!) 

Don't be deceived by men or women telling you to just quote Romans 10:9-10, and then they tell you that NOW you are saved, and you are a Christian because you quoted those scriptures. Read the bible for yourself! ASK questions! ASK GOD to reveal the truth to you! He said that those who sought HIM with all their heart WILL FIND HIM! 

Don't accept the lies, deception, false doctrines, misinterpretations of scripture, and ulterior motives of overseer's who are just thinking about numbers, their career as a Pastor, and money to fill their pockets! 

It's time to wake up and receive the great blessings that God has for those who believe and OBEY HIM!

In Jesus,

Tyrone

The Wicked Lie In Wait For The Righteous!

 

Psalm 37:32-40

"The wicked watches the righteous, And seeks to slay him. The Lord will not leave him in his hand, Nor condemn him when he is judged. Wait on the Lord, And keep His way, And He shall exalt you to inherit the land; When the wicked are cut off, you shall see it. I have seen the wicked in great power, And spreading himself like a native green tree. Yet he passed away, and behold, he was no more; Indeed I sought him, but he could not be found. Mark the blameless man, and observe the upright; For the future of that man is peace. But the transgressors shall be destroyed together; The future of the wicked shall be cut off. But the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord; He is their strength in the time of trouble. And the Lord shall help them and deliver them; He shall deliver them from the wicked, And save them, Because they trust in Him."

Do you trust God to save you from the wicked? 

We must trust God no matter what the situation looks like! He knows what we're going through! He knows when the enemy lies in wait for the righteous to pass by. The Lord will go before us and give us strength and peace to help us press on and walk through the valley of the shadow of death with our eyes fixed and focused on Jesus!

In God I Trust!

Tyrone

A Daily Lifestyle!

 

Luke 9:23

"Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me."

I've said this a few times before in posts over the years, but it has to be said again, THE CHURCH BUILDING IS NOT THE CHURCH!

How many times have we heard pastors say that, but then go and say this building is the house of God? Isn't that contradictory? Of course it is!

So just because you attend a service at a church building every Sunday or even mid-week service usually on a Wednesday, that attendance does not make you a Christian!  

That truth was made even more evident during the lockdown of the whole country and nobody could go anywhere except to the grocery store for the necessities of life. Everybody got sat down for months, and even crime decreased, I bet the police enjoyed the rest!

I believe that was a precursor to the coming days when Christianity will be outlawed, bibles will be confiscated, the internet scrubbed of all Christian content and there will only be house churches and Christians praying and worshipping God in their own homes because church buildings will be shut down or owned by the states and the government.

That is why the coming revival will prepare Christians for the inevitable appearance of the man of sin, who will implement laws that will cause Christians to go underground, like they're doing in China right now. This is also why now is the time to get the word of God in your heart, and the Spirit of God in your soul! 

Being a Christian is a daily lifestyle, a daily denial of the lusts of the flesh, lust of the eye, and ungodly habits that quench the Spirit and hinder the spiritual growth of those who are in Christ. 

The 1st century Christians met every day in the temple courts and ate together from house to house daily! How often does this happen today? A few believers may get together to watch a football game after church service, or go out to eat at a restaurant, but how about meeting together every single day? 

How many of us would get tired of another believer coming to our house everyday? It takes true genuine Love of God, the fruit of the Spirit and great grace to meet everyday and go to another believers house to eat, drink and fellowship daily. 

But that's exactly what many other organizations and religions do, they're always together, eating, talking, and enjoying life, while many Christians just say hello and goodbye, see you next week, to each other!

Acts 2:44-47

"Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.

So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved."

We WILL see these days again! It won't just be quoting scriptures but LIVING the REALITY of unity in the body of Christ, united in the faith by the Spirit of God!

In Jesus,

Tyrone

Are You Following Man, Or Jesus?

 

Matthew 4:18-20

"And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” They immediately left their nets and followed Him."

This is one of my favorite scriptures in the whole bible! It's the call of life, the call of change, transformation, and salvation. The Lord comes today just like He did two thousand years ago to men who had no clue what was about to happen to them. Jesus appeared suddenly out of nowhere and asked these ordinary and unlearned fishermen to follow Him, and He would make them fishers of men! 

So glorious is the call of God, so life-changing, eye-opening and enlightening for those who answer, it is absolutely priceless! Understand this clearly, there is no other way to become a pastor, an apostle or evangelist, unless you are MADE one by Jesus Himself, by His Spirit that enters your soul when you are converted to Christ.

Jesus said to these men, come follow ME and I WILL MAKE you fishers of men! Can seminary school make you a fisher of men? How about bible college? A master's degree in theology maybe? A doctorate in theology? What about coming up through the ranks of the clergy and being ordained by someone else? 

The answer to all of the above questions is a resounding NO! 

There is so much more involved in the making of a man or woman of God than intellectual knowledge of the bible. You have to first be made a disciple of Jesus, converted to Christ by being baptized in water and then baptized in the Holy Spirit by Jesus Himself. He does use men to make disciples, but even those He uses have to be made into vessels He can work through first before He can use them!

God has a pattern, a process, a way He does things, and He does not change! It's men and women who don't like doing things God's way that's the problem! So many don't like to wait on the Lord and go through the right door (Jesus), so they devise other ways to ordain themselves and teach themselves instead of going to the school of the Holy Spirit! And every time man tries to do what only God can do, it always falls short! 

If you want holiness, deliverance, power, wisdom and understanding, you have to go to the school of the Spirit, you have to go through the oil press of God, the furnace of affliction, the chastening and correction of the Lord. You need to go down to the Master Potters house and be re-made into a new creation on His potter's wheel. If you really want life, blessings, love, genuine joy and the salvation of your soul, you must do it God's way!

In Jesus,

Tyrone

The Real Matrix!

 

Isaiah 60:1-2

"Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, And deep darkness the people; But the Lord will arise over you, And His glory will be seen upon you."

Morpheus said this to Neo in the first Matrix movie, "The Matrix is everywhere, it is all around us, even now in this very room, you can see it when you look out your window, or when you turn on your television, you can feel it when you go to work, when you go to church, when you pay your taxes, it is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth" 

Neo asked Morpheus, "What truth?"

Morpheus replied, "That you are a slave Neo, like everyone else you were born into bondage, born into a prison that you cannot smell, or taste, or touch, a PRISON FOR YOUR MIND. Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself."

I'm here to tell you today that the Real Matrix is Darkness! Or Evil! Just substitute the word darkness for Matrix and you will have the real truth, that goes beyond the movie and reveals a spiritual truth that only those who have been enlightened by the Spirit of God can understand. I'm so amazed at how close the Wachowski's were to the true spiritual reality that exists in our world, although they likely were implying something else. But even though the truth can be hidden in plain sight, spiritual blindness can cause you not to see it! 

What is going to separate the people of God from those who will take the mark and ultimately lose their soul is the light and the glory of God that will be seen upon us. Remember Jesus said let the wheat grow with the tares, until the time of harvest, and you cannot tell a wheat from a tare, until both are fully mature! Then it will be obvious!

Jesus said those who believe in Me will NEVER walk in darkness but will have the light of life! That light is within true Christians and cannot be put out, it will shine forth in the darkness because the Kingdom of God is within us! This is why the first century Christians were martyred, because they would not deny their Lord, and the presence and glory of God emanated from their souls and filled the atmosphere with God's presence, and darkness will always hate the light!

So when you gather a group of Spirit filled Christians together what do you think will happen? More of God's presence fills the atmosphere and His glory cloud covers us! The exact opposite happens when you gather thousands of unbelievers full of darkness and evil, what do you get? A big cloud of darkness covering all the people!

The only way your eyes can be truly opened is to enter the Kingdom of God by being born from above, by being baptized in water and the Spirit of God. Jesus told Nicodemus, "You CANNOT SEE OR ENTER the Kingdom of God unless you are born from Above."  (John 3:1-7)

And one thing I know is that the devil and evil men cannot control God and what He wants to do, like pouring out His Spirit to wake up and help His people. God is in complete control of everything! And He knows everything!

Wake up people! While there is still time!

In Jesus,

Tyrone

They Didn't Know!

 

1st Corinthians 2:6-8

However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

This scripture is an indictment of the depravity of the human mind without God. Human beings are capable of such barbaric cruelty, torture and crimes against each other that I'm amazed we haven't seen world war three yet! 

This is why Jesus said that if the days of the great tribulation were not shortened NO FLESH WOULD BE SAVED! That means the human race would annihilate itself, human beings would be extinct along with the dinosaurs!

Matthew 24:21-22

"For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened."

I'm also amazed at how God's own creation rejected Him when He came to this earth in bodily form through Jesus Christ. He came to His own, but His own received Him not! Amazing! How can this be?

Because of spiritual blindness, hard hearts and darkened minds, God's creation killed the Lord of Glory. I know it had to happen this way though, because if it didn't, we would have no way to be forgiven of our sins, have our souls saved, and reconciled back to God.

Jesus Himself said it on the cross, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." This is why true ministers of the gospel like Paul and the other apostles in the 1st century had to go through so much opposition and persecution when they preached the gospel. The people didn't understand that God was sending His servants to be ambassadors of Christ to help them become His children! But many didn't want it!

This is also why those who minister the gospel have to be filled with God's great love and the fruits of the Spirit in order to be able to minister and serve in these last days because of the level of evil that they face every single day!

We have to fight hard every day to remain connected to the vine and humble ourselves, not considering ourselves more highly than we ought, because it's very easy to miss Jesus when He comes to visit us, it's very easy to reject Him and the Spirit when we feel pricked in our hearts by His word, or a minister tells us we're wrong. 

Remember the word tells us that we could entertain angels and not know it! Humble yourself today so that you won't say on Judgement Day, I didn't know!

In Jesus,

Tyrone

Fruit Bearing Is The Goal!

 

John 15:16-17

"You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. These things I command you, that you love one another."

I say to you again THIS TRUTH: The ultimate goal of every true Christian is to bear fruit! It is to become LIKE our Master, JESUS THE CHRIST! He is the Captain of our salvation, and it's God's desire to bring many sons to glory, through the shed blood of His only Begotten Son.

The religious leaders of today do not help believers to come into a saving knowledge of their soul, nor are they made disciples of Jesus, or converted to Christ. They just say come as you are, but the multitudes STAY AS THEY ARE! They are not changed where it matters the most, INSIDE THE HEART AND MIND!

And why not you ask? Because they are taught to just confess the name of Jesus, and Just believe or accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior and then you are saved! Can anyone please show me where it says that in scripture! Many quote Romans 10:9, but Paul was talking to Christians who were already converted! Those scriptures ARE NOT the roadmap to salvation!

Sure, it's great to hear the word, believe what you heard, and then confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, but you still need to OBEY the words of Jesus and His apostles by being baptized in water by full immersion and then baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire, by the Lord Jesus Himself! And this baptism is evidenced by speaking in other tongues!

My point being that without full and complete conversion to Christ by being born from above by water and Spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God, therefore it's not possible to Bear The Fruit Of The Spirit! If The Spirit Of God IS NOT IN YOU!

This is exactly why millions of professing Christians around the world have no power to overcome their flesh, the world, or the devil! You can always fake the fruits of the Spirit by doing good works, smiling all the time, giving to the homeless, sharing your possessions with others, you can show these outward displays of fruit but is it really the fruit of the Spirit birthed in your soul that cannot be hidden? Or how about when calamity strikes your home, your health, your finances, your family, your children etc... that is when what is really in our hearts comes out!

This is also why Jesus commanded His disciples to love one another, because then the whole world would know that they are His disciples, if they loved one another! The testimonies we read about in the book of Acts are clear examples of what love should look like in the body of Christ. Meeting together daily, eating together often, sharing the word of God with each other, giving up possessions and finances to help each other! That is love! And that is a fruit of the Spirit!

John 15:5-8

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.  If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples."

In Jesus,

Tyrone