Many passages in the Bible speak about the end time. We read in 1 Timothy 4:1: But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.
This has already occurred, the “Dark Ages” are traditionally considered to have begun around 476 AD, following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. This period, often called the Early Middle Ages, started when the last Roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus, was overthrown. The term covers a period of approximately 500 to 1,000 years.
We have had a 1,000 years of falling away from the faith once delivered to the saints. We have had two world wars of tribulation.
We are in the time of the restoration of the faith (correct doctrine) the problem is in the belief systems of the church, they already believe doctrines of devils, and it is hard, to minister to them, because they are unteachable and have religious spirits.
But God can move mightily through people who have really bad theology like Charles Finney, who changed whole cities, where they closed all the bars and whore houses.
This is because God looks at our heart, our motives and intentions. Therefore, we cannot judge our brothers and sisters in the Lord, God deals with his children individually, we are told to wait until the perfect day when God we know God even as he knows us.
In the new day we are living in we are going to be up against deceitful spirits and doctrines of devils. With every new move of God, the old move of God persecutes it. Most of the persecution we receive is from Christians who believe they understand what the bible teaches, and that we are teaching heresy.
William Tyndale is considered the primary father of the English New Testament, being the first to translate it directly from Greek into Early Modern English in 1526. While earlier Latin-to-English versions existed, Tyndale’s work formed the basis for later translations, including the King James Bible, despite his execution for heresy.
It is easy for a Christian to follow the spirit of this age (the god of this world who we have not yet displaced, even though Jesus stripped him of his authority) and be tolerant toward it saying, “Well, I study it all because there is a little bit of good in everything.” Remember, rat poison that is really effective is ninety-nine percent pure wheat, one percent poison. That’s the way they kill rats.
Satan gets a hold of the saints by making them tolerant of doctrines, tolerant of the things that are going on.
This deceit that Satan is bringing forth is so great that it has deceive the church at large.
John 7: 16 Jesus answered them and said, “My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me. 17 If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority. 18 He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him. 19 Did not Moses give you the law, yet none of you keeps the law? Why do you seek to kill Me?”
Wills thelō -to will, wish, desire, implying active volition and purpose. To will, to have in mind, purpose, intend, please. Generally, to wish, desire, choose.
Will autos – means HE HIMSELF-YHWA
Knowing what is true or false does not come from reasoning it out. It does not come because you consulted a good commentary.
Isn’t it surprising that the best scholars of the Scripture in Jesus’ day plotted to crucify Him? Don’t forget that the men who were the most learned in the Word of God were the ones who tried to crucify Him.
To hold the truth, but to hold it in unrighteousness (Romans 1:18), to hold it without a dedication to walk in it, can be very dangerous because God turns you over to delusion and you believe a lie. God does it, and the devil takes advantage of it.
In spiritual warfare our best protection is our dedication to walk in what God shows us. A person is in a dangerous position when they are not dedicated to the Lord. To hold any truth and not appropriate it (make it a lifestyle) puts us immediately in some degree of spiritual jeopardy in the spiritual warfare with the enemy. If we really want to be protected and come through victoriously, the first thing to do is to will to do His will.
We need to Let God put it in our heart that we want to do His will more than anything else in this world we live in. Then we will know the teaching, whether it is of God, or a doctrine of man. God can help us with that.
When we Open the door to His will, then we will see that the answer is right there. The Bible is a concealed revelation, and the Lord opens our spiritual eyes to see it. It was always there in plain sight, but we interpreted it wrong, because we were not seeking to be a doer of the word and not just a hearer, not really understanding that we know nothing yet as we really ought to know.
The more I study the Bible, the more I realize I do not yet fully understand, but I walk in the light he reveals to me so that I am on the path, that shines brighter and brighter until the perfect day.
Very closely related to our will to do the will of God, is the governing of our spirit. In the new birth of our spirit, our spirit is willing to do God’s will. And through our will we have direct control over our spirit.
But the will is a function of our soul, so that we have maintain a conscious contact with the Lord by joining our spirit to his. We must rule our spirit, to always maintain a right spirit, those qualities of God’s divine nature, the fruit of the Spirit, the anointing, the divine abilities of God flowing into us.
I Corinthians 9: I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. 27 No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize-NIV.
I Corinthians 9: 27 But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.
Disqualified adokimos means rejected after testing.
This has nothing to do with dying and going to heaven. When you are truly born again their will be evidence of it. You will pray, read your bible, go to church, your spirit is alive to God and desires the things of the spirit. If you are born again, you will not lose your salvation. But you can lose your rewards, crowns, and your governmental position in the Kingdom. Ruling and reigning as the wife of Christ.
But when we are in heaven, our spirit will continue to grow, but it is a totally different atmosphere. On the earth we have the perfect environment to become manifested male and female sons of God. And our faithfulness to walk in the light will determine our position in heaven, like Jesus said in a Parable, thou good and faithful servant rule over ten cities.
We must decide who is going to be the master. If the physical dominates us, the result is disaster. If the soul dominates, we are also open to deception. If the flow of God’s Spirit within our spirit dominates, we can keep our soul and body under its influence.
When things get to us, it is because something is wrong with our spirit, it is not governing our life which affects our soul. We have a sick soul, because it is the emotions of the soul that gets us into trouble. It affects our spirit too, but the disease manifests in the soul life of an individual. We are a three part being, spirit, soul and body. If our body is sick it affects our soul and spirit. If our soul is sick it affects our body and spirit. If we have a wrong spirit it affects our soul and body. But everything starts with maintaining a right spirit with the Lord and then our soul and body come into alignment with the Word of God.
Proof of this is found in Proverbs 25:28: Like a city that is broken into and without walls is a man who has no control over his spirit. In other words, he has no defenses. Spiritual defenses come from having our spirit under control.
If you do not have control over your spirit, it leaves you like a city with the walls broken down. That’s a dangerous place to be in spiritual warfare, where you have no walls, no protection. You are like a city that has been broken into and is without walls. Everything has been broken down. The enemy can come in any time he wants.
There are individuals who make an effort to walk with God and say, “Oh, I’m going to get down to business. I am going to pray, read the Word, wait on the Lord.” The devil looks back and laughs at them because all he has to do is push a little button, and they will respond in a certain way. Flip, flip, flip, they are out of the race. He knows just how to do it, so we had better build up some defenses for our spirits.
What is it that controls our spirit? The human will. Everything comes into being in our spirit by willing it to be so. It isn’t emotions that control our spirit. You may say, “I’m going to wait on the Lord in undisturbed surroundings. I’ll play some nice soft music, take the phone off the hook, and put the children to bed.” Then you sit down and think about something that happened yesterday and you become angry. It isn’t the circumstances that are going to help you have that good spirit. Some people in this world are never going to control their spirit because they never set their will to do it.
Being spiritual is a soul activity with many Christians. When they say, “I am going to be spiritual,” they really mean that they are going to be religious or soulish. Being spiritual is another thing. You decide; you set your will to walk with God. It is a matter of your will turning your spirit unto God.
Don’t say, “I would, but I am depressed”. We are as happy as we have made up our mind to be, because our spirit has the ability to tune into the joy of the Lord. The will operates with faith.
When we minister to an individual, what is that little secret method that turns on revelation for them? It’s very simple. It’s our will.
It is our responsibility to have a word from God, so we have decided we will have a word from God. When we yield our will unto the will of God, when we will to do His will then it happens. We know the truth, and we know what to say.
We must realize that we are one of the most fortunate individuals in this whole universe when our spirit is alive to God, because then God can meet our heart.
We can either set our mind on a few little problems, little petty things, or we can set our heart on God and our walk with Him. We can set our will to be spiritual, to walk with God, and to be joyful.
Some people are dispensers of gloom. It is hard to be happy around them. We try to say something cheerful, and they snap right back. Then what should we do? Put up walls. Say in your heart, “I set my will not to be disturbed by this person.”
I am going to teach you how to build spiritual walls, we do not just open our spirit up to anyone, or else we will be hit by the enemy. Then it takes a little time to recover. It affects our spirit, it becomes grieved and quenched, and we need the joy of the Lord restored to us.
We are talking about spiritual warfare where Satan uses agencies. He uses anything that is close to us, but especially people to whom we are open.
Satan will come to harass us, and if we have a defense around our spirit we have shut off much of the battle. This does not mean that you shut our heart up to another individual. It doesn’t mean we put a wall up to them. We put a wall up to what they are dishing out.
This is a very practical lesson because it deals with the time we are in when God will have a people who will defeat principalities and powers. But they will not be successful if they cannot even rule their own spirits. With faith we determine that we are going to control our own spirit, and we will.
Our spirit can acquire things. Our spirit can appropriate. When we put on love that is a thing we do with our spirit. We reach out and take something from God. Is there something lacking in your spirit? Then acquire it from God. Qualities are acquired. We learn in other ways. But with our spirit we appropriate.
There is a big difference between the spirit, the soul, and the body. We want things to change in your spirit. This is where we want the victory. The victory is not won; our spirit appropriates it.
Our spirit will appropriate the victory. It receives it, it takes it. The victory is in Christ. All of this is in Christ.
We put on the Lord. Our spirit has an amazing quality that it will absorb whatever we are open to. If we have no walls up against sin, it will absorb sin and become defeated and defiled, it will become weak. If we have no walls in our spirit against certain things, then they come in and we acquire them.
When Moses went up on the mountain, he wanted to see the glory of the Lord and he saw it. When he came down, that glory had so completely saturated him that even his face was shining. People couldn’t look at him. We absorb God! We appropriate Him!
How do we change physically? Our size and shape is determined by the hereditary process, as well as by what you eat, how you take care of yourself, and how you exercise. All of these are factors that make us grow physically. If we don’t like our features, we can go to a plastic surgeon, and he will change some of them.
How do we change in our soul? We work at it through the power of positive thinking. That’s the way we reach the soul life. We can learn to control many of our feelings, our reactions, and other areas of our soul, by what we think about.
How do we change in our spirit? – By exposure to God. We open our spirit to the Lord; we must connect to the Lord with our spirit. We must get the life of God flowing into our spirit. When we are filled with the Spirit, then we have the strength to keep our soul and body under its control.