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DOES GOD STILL HEAL?

28 Jul

You have probably run into an ad like the one below. Such types of posters are common all over the world.

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Many flock to these meetings, hoping that they will find remedies for illness affecting them or a loved one. Faith or spiritual healing has been around for a long time, some believe it’s a scam but to others it’s a show of faith in order to get a miracle from God.

Seeking supernatural help for healing is a practice that has happened both outside & in the church.

Brief history of Supernatural healing outside the church

Ancient Egypt and Yin & Yang philosophies in ancient Chinese healing traditions believe that illness came as a result of unbalanced human energy and returning the balance was key to bring healing back to the body.

In Egypt, several ritual practices that were done to bring about healing included chanting, drumming, dancing, incantations & hoaxes that would be done by priests. The Egyptian priests were supposed to be pure enough to connect with spirit guides who would let them know if the patient is ready to be healed or they should remain with their illness because it is intended to teach them a life lesson.

In ancient Egypt – a physical ailment was seen as an outward sign of an inner spiritual issue.

In Ancient Greece, around 4 BC many temples were built to worship a god called Asclepius who was referred to as the god of medicine & healing. Followers claimed they would receive healing just by entering the temples.

The rod of Asclepius, is a snake-entwined staff, commonly seen today as a symbol of medicine.

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Those who sought healing would offer sacrifices, and then spend a night in the holiest part of the temple. Any dreams or visions were reported to a priest who would interpret and prescribe the treatment the patient required. Some temples had sacred dogs to lick wounds.  There were also non-venomous snakes left to slither on the floor. These snakes were used in the healing rituals.

Healing practices such as Reiki, Yoga, healing touch used today share some similarities to the ancient practices..

Brief history of Supernatural healing in the church

When looking at the Old Testament, there are few references in relation to healing; a good example is when Prophet Elisha directed Naaman to dip himself in the river Jordan 7 times & he would be healed of leprosy. Naaman felt the instruction was insulting & beneath him, So he didn’t want to do it but at the pleading of his servant he did and his skin was restored. 2 Kings 5:1-14

The New Testament on the other hand has a lot of references to healing, mostly done by Jesus, some examples:-

Matthew 8:16

When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick.

Matthew 12:15

Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. A large crowd followed him, and he healed all who were ill.

Matthew 14:36

and begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed.

Jesus also bestowed the power to heal on his disciples as well.

Matthew 10:1

Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.

The Early Church

The Early church was characterized by miracles and huge growth as many people heard the gospel & were saved.

In Acts 3 Peter & John heal a lame man and the crowds became astonished and gathered around them, thinking they are powerful healers. Peter corrected them in verse 12 that they haven’t healed the man by their own power but that the crowd had witnessed  the power of Jesus Christ; Peter then preached the gospel of salvation to the crowd.

Another example where many were healed is recorded in Acts 5:12-16

The apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon’s Colonnade.13 No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. 14 Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number. 15 As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by.16 Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by impure spirits.

From this passage, we can see the apostles were known for healing people.  The end result was many started believing in Jesus Christ & the church grew rapidly.

Healing had a purpose for the early church – to show the people of that time that the kingdom of God had come & it was used to support the preaching of the gospel to others. Would it be correct to say that this specific gift of healing has accomplished its purpose & thus ceased with the early church?

God still does heal & restore people, I can personally attest to my mind being healed & restored as I went through my deliverance journey with Pastor Pam Sheppard. But In recent times, we haven’t seen healing situations as recorded in the book of ACTS where huge crowds of sick people legitimately received miraculous healing.

Will the gift of healing as shown by the apostles in the book of ACTS return? – maybe, if it does, it will be to fulfill a specific purpose that God wants.

Nowadays both in the Christian & non-Christian world there are many people seeking supernatural help for healing. The world has methods such as Reiki where people get hands laid on to receive healing. In the church people flock to crusades where the pastor breathes on them, lays hands on them and prophesy healing to the attendees, Christian TV has a lot of programs where people are told to touch the screen & receive healing. Some ministries send prayer cloths, handkerchiefs, oil which have healing power for a nominal fee. One might say they are doing the same as the early church, but are they?

The fruits of some of these healing ministries we have today can help us determine whether God is in it or not. Most ministries are embroiled in some sort of scandal. There are cases where people have come forward stating they were paid to act sick. Innocent people have also suffered as they were deceived into thinking they were healed only to continue suffering from their illness; and in some tragic cases, people have died because they stopped taking medication.

What purpose does healing in current ministries serve?  Is it to further the gospel that teaches we can accept Jesus into our  hearts by repeating the sinners prayer? It seems to be the case which in itself is a huge red flag since that is not the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Believers at this time need to be more vigilant as deception is the order of the day. God definitely has the power to heal but understand the devil can also perform supernatural acts in order to trick people. People have turned to Reiki, yoga and received immediate healing only to be tormented. In the church people have gone to healing ministries and asked Jesus into their hearts when they actually received the fake Jesus who calls himself Jesus Sananda Emmanuel. When they asked Jesus to come into their hearts, they opened themselves up to be demonized.

It can be confusing to know what to believe.  The key is to be undeceived and understand the times we live in.

The enemy is using everything including healing to Lead many into more deception. Therefore we need to learn the wiles & strategies of the enemy to avoid his traps. If you don’t know where to begin started by getting a copy of The Church of the End-Time Zombies. 

Paperback  http://www.lulu.com/content/16262055  and

e-bookhttp://www.lulu.com/content/16464312

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Eddie Long & the Church

15 Jan

eddie-long

Eddie Long declared that he was back and healed at his church during his pastoral anniversary service on Oct. 9, 2016. He also asked for church members to move forward to the pulpit and receive healing so that he could lay his hands on them. . It has now been announced that Eddie has passed away today and it was from an aggressive form of cancer. His death  will probably leave many church goers puzzled, disillusioned and needing answers wondering does God still heal? does deliverance & the power of God still exist? Why was Eddie not healed even when he claimed he was as the prosperity gospel teaches? 

Deliverance, healing still occurs, people are even becoming born again BUT this is not happening in the church but outside of Her.

In Re. 18;4, the Lord Himself declared “Come Out of Her, My People.” my pastor, Pam Sheppard challenges the elect of God  to ask themselves 3 simple questions concerning the Lord’s warning, as follows:

1.  Where are “God’s People?”

Could the scriptures be referring to a particular nation or country? No. God’s people are in every nation. Even though America claims to be a Christian, people of diverse persuasions can agree on this one point, namely, that America is really NOT a Christian nation.  Let’s face it. The universal place where God’s people assemble for worship is “in the organized church.” It’s the only place that makes sense. In this day and time, without a passport and finances, who can walk out of their native country very easily and re-locate elsewhere? In truth, mass exodus from anywhere today is practically impossible. Jesus would not command us to do the impossible.

However, anywhere in the world, we can come out of the organized church by simply no longer attending.

2.  What generation of God’s people is Jesus speaking to?

Most of the book of Revelation is about the end of the church age. If the 7 churches in the book of Revelation represent chronological symbols of church ages throughout history, then Jesus is talking to the final generation, the church at Laodicea.  It’s a no-brainer that no other church era on earth could top our own generation in a claim to be “rich and in need of nothing.” (Revelation 3:17)

3.   Are we at the end of the church age?

For all intents and purposes, if we are the church at Laodicea, where those who preach the prosperity gospel actually DO brag on how rich they are, spiritual blindness is clearly and undeniably rampant. When churchgoers haven’t a clue as to the meaning of repentance, rebirth and the resurrection and therein believe that they are saved but they are not, what could be a stronger sign that “we are near or even at the end of the church age?

So if you answer in the affirmative to all 3 questions, then Jesus has spoken to YOU! He is warning you at this very moment to come out of the organized church, and if you don’t, you are going to receive of her plagues.  You don’t have to be a bible scholar, a prophet or even a rocket scientist to answer these 3 questions. Once you have your answer, then if you are a true believer in Jesus Christ, you will know, without a shadow of a doubt that you must “come out of Her.”

In a nutshell, ONE primary reason stands out above all others that should be enough for the elect to decide to come out of Her. It’s because fallen angels—religious devils—have infiltrated the entire church system. Certainly, they have no part in the true Body of Christ because the real “church” is not a building made with hands. However, through compromise and doctrinal distortions of all kinds, there is an invisible, imposter god undergirding every edifice, regardless of how sincere and faithful the leadership.

Consequently, if you are unknowingly worshiping an imposter, then you are unknowingly practicing idolatry and breaking the 10 Commandments. The punishment for idolatry is a release of the curses or “the plagues.” (Deuteronomy 28) When judgment falls, churchgoers will not be able to find the secret place of the Most High, nor abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Paul warned the Corinthians that they should “flee fornication.” In the spirit, fornication is idolatry. In the words of Klein and Spears in their book “Devils and Demons,” these co-authors offer the elect some sober and sound advice:

“We need to run, not walk—-as fast as we can and as far away as we can get—from any devils and demons that masquerade as our great God of the Universe.”

Putting my interpretation of who actually is “Her” of Revelation 18:4, I have also considered several other scriptures in both testaments. For example, in the old testament, whenever the Father referred to the idolatry of the children of Israel, He used symbols of gender, with Himself as masculine and His people as feminine. In fact, God command the prophet Hosea to marry an adulterous woman to stand as a metaphorical comparison of Himself and the children of Israel’s practicing the religions of heathen nations. (Hosea 1:1-3)

Similarly, Jesus is the metaphorical Bridegroom while the elect—His people—are the Bride. In both testaments, idolatry is synonymous with fornication or sex outside of marriage. When God’s people practiced a false religion, it is written that they “went a whoring.” In the new testament, the Lord chided the first church at Ephesus with a gender based reproach when He warned “you have lost your first love.” (Rev.2:4) In response to the idolatry in the church at Thyatira, the Lord declared yet another gender based statement with “I’ll cast you into a bed and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. (Rev. 2:20-22)

There are several more examples that in themselves could be the subject of a book or two, particularly “the Songs of Solomon.” In keeping with the biblical pattern, it stands to reason that in our times, the “Her” of Revelation 18:4 is an idolatrous religion practiced predominately behind church walls.

Playing the devil’s advocate with yet another question posed in an attempt to try the spirits to see if they be of God, I asked myself the following questions: : Suppose I am completely wrong and I have absolutely misinterpreted the scriptures and the “Her” in Revelation
18:4 is really NOT the organized church? To that, my response is “I will have lost nothing because I gained absolutely nothing from the church except error and deception.”

More telling words from Pastor Pam:

As I look back in order to present my decades of spiritual history within a well known denominational system,” chapters 2 to 6 will progressively unfold that not only did the organized church have nothing at all to do with my salvation or my spiritual edification, but in fact, the entire religious system served as an enemy to my soul. A root in dry ground, I did more than merely survive. Showered with God’s grace and mercy, I actually thrived in a dark, un-nurturing place— a spiritually dangerous, hostile spiritual environment. If God Himself had not been on my side, I am convinced that I would have withered on the vine and died—spirit, soul and body.

For an unparalleled revelation as to what is happening in our midst today, get a copy of THE CHURCH OF THE ENDTIME ZOMBIES: “

 

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click the title for paperback and  the cover for ebook.

At our ministry, we believe in healing and deliverance.  Yet we are also aware of and vigilant to try the spirits, because in these end times, fake healings and deliverances shall be rampant.  If you need to be assured of the difference, complete the contact form blow:

 

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Christian Mysticism and the Days of Noah

13 Jan

Mysticism

    Charismatic witchcraft is akin to mysticism. What is mysticism? Mysticism is the sensual expectation of a relationship with God and dealings with the spirit realm. By sensuous religiosity, mysticism seeks a climactic  epiphany  quite similar to a sexual orgasm.  Mystics want to know God intimately through their physicality. In other words,   mystics want to see, touch, feel, and be one with God NOW. The mystic asks “Why can’t we feel God? See Him? Go deeper and deeper with Him, into deeper levels of intimacy?” [1]  What they don’t perceive is that we know Him by faith. Without faith, it is impossible to please God.  Faith is a substance that transcends the senses.

     The mystic does not accept the fact that our salvation is not yet complete.—that the only aspect of our being that is saved or “born again”  is our spirits.  The hunger “to know and be known” is good, but coupled with the discontented impatience, and a low or distorted view of scripture, and you have a mystic. The mystic relegates the work of the Spirit  to the level of sensual manifestation. People are trying to feel God.  Charismatic believers tend to be mystical. The mystical application of charismatic witchcraft is to teach  people to look for the anointing, the “force of faith and grace,” the power to heal, and the activity of God through physical sensations. As a result Charismatic Christians are tuned into   “tingling,”  seeing a “radiant glow,” expecting to tremble,  to feel electricity, falling slain, tongues ecstasy and a host of other supernatural manifestations.[2]

      The widespread infestation of the Fake Jesus, first among the occultists  and now within the organized church  is probably the single most important contribution of the  new age movement  to the infiltration of a cleverly hidden  evil that looks and sounds humanitarian, peaceful and loving. The ascended masters  claim to be  overseeing the spiritual  development of the human race on both an individual level and on a global plane. According to various accounts, there is a distinct hierarchy of “fallen ”  in operation to build a kingdom for their master Sunat Kamura, whom  the bible calls Satan.

      Through consciousness-altering techniques of yoga, transcendental meditation, channeling, chanting, drugs and hypnosis, millions of New Agers  have allegedly received visitations from disembodied beings  who have masqueraded as benevolent spirits, duping their hosts into believing that they are  sent from God to fulfill His Divine Plan. Yet as depicted in the Book of Genesis, it is a more highly favored achievement for a fallen angel  to be able to manifest in the flesh as they did in the days just prior to the flood.  In the Lord’s  warnings about the last days just prior to His second coming, Jesus compared the endtimes to “the days of Noah.”

     Let’s take the ministry of Benny Hinn as an example.  It is extremely “mystical” and “sensuous.”  Those who follow and support Benny Hinn  may not have noticed that he has been wrong in many of his predictions.  However, in both his prayers and his prophecies, Hinn has called for the appearances of spiritual entities to “show up” in churches, not as spirits but “manifested in the flesh.”  If and when this prediction comes to pass, could this be the “abomination of desolation?”  Surely, demons are once again trying to take on flesh, not by coming through the door of the womb of a woman as did Jesus, but they are definitely  “climbing up” another way—trying to re-play  “the days of Noah.” The demons that infested the earth in Noah’s day are chained in hell yet, there are other high ranking principalities of the air whose ambition it is to be “embodied.” We don’t doubt that demons have infested human  bodies who   dress up on Sunday,  go to   church, and even speak in tongues.  However the worst of it is the ever-increasing reports of churchgoing women who are having sexual encounters in their bedrooms with spirits. We are in “the Days of Noah, for sure!

   The book entitled the New Idolatry: Charismatic Witchcraft, Deliverance and Other Counterfeits  clearly describes the connection between the  21st century  with  Noah’s Day:

“The bible and the book of Enoch only highlight ONE sign of Noah’s day: the sexual  copulation between fallen angels and human women–resulting in the birth of the giants, also known as the Nephilim.  In fact, the book of Enoch reveals that the demons that  the Lord cast out in His first coming  2000 years ago were the very same spirits of the offspring of Noah’s day—a hybrid human species, half angel and half human whose bodies died in the flood and whose spirits roam the earth. The truth is that the spirits of the Nephilim have never left the earth.  They are the very same demons that are destroying human flesh in this hour.”

[2] Ibid

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Setting Captives Free From False Prophets

13 Dec
Taken from a website called Pulpit Pimps

With 30 years in ministry under my belt, I know a thing or two about false prophets. Besides the TV mega preachers that Iwatched for years, I also came to know at least 200 ministers while I was pastoring in a well known denomination. So from my observations, I have designated 3 different types of false prophets. The deceived, the detoured and the diabolical.

There are those false prophets who are really saved but they followed the wrong leaders, and “sucked into themselves” mixed and false doctrines and practices. In short, they heeded and harkened unto the voice of seducing spirits and doctrines of the devil. However, they have not yet departed from the faith. These I call, “the Deceived.” Some of them will be set free. Because of pride, sad to say, others won’t be. Some false prophets would prefer to be caught up in a scandal than to admit that they taught error and thereby “led the people in the wrong direction, away from God, and not toward Him.” They are too spiritually proud to admit that they did not rightly divide the word of God.

Then there is the false prophet who was once used of God mightily, but he or she got deceived by the enemy and fell into disrepute. These I call “the Detoured.” This man or woman becomes a pretender—one who is very dangerous to those who are babes in Christ or who remain carnal Christians. Their followers “stand by their man” even when they should jump ship. The bible has a classic example of how the detoured “Old Prophet” deceived the man of God, resulting in the latter’s death. (I Kings 13)

Then of course, there is the out and out pretender who knows that he or she is serving the spirit of the Anti- Christ and everything they do is a masquerade. These I call “the Diabolical.” They are imposters, planted in among Christians to willfully bring confusion that will lead to destruction.

Every false prophet type— whether the Deceived, the Detoured, and the Diabolical— is equally dangerous. Why? Because they can leave a huge trail of victims.  I am humbled and thankful that although I was on the road to becoming a false prophet, the Holy Ghost jerked my chain, then cut it and broke it.  When  I was deceived by charismatic teachings,” God blessed me by closing doors and blocking me from spreading error. Even though I once had the heart, the skill and the desire of a mega preacher, God purposefully would not allow me to become a popular celebrity.. When a door opened, the Holy Ghost closed it and blocked my way through it. Moreover, among those that I have pastored, even though I personally believed some mixed doctrines, I didn’t teach them to those who allowed me to lead them. So praise God, after 30 years as a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, I have no victims.

For example, I spoke in tongues, but I didn’t teach my followers to do so. I tithed, but I did not preach a “sow a seed,” prosperity gospel. In fact, I was completely self sustaining. I gave back my church salary in the form of tithes and offerings to the churches that I pastored. When I practiced healing and the laying on of hands, I never told anyone to stop taking their medicine and “walk by faith.” I primarily preached the cross, sin, repentance, rebirth and the resurrection. But make NO MISTAKE. The false prophets of all 3 varieties:— the deceived, the detoured and the diabolical— are equally dangerous! Your prayers for them to repent may NOT prevail. And why not?

In order to repent, the false prophet has to do more than apologize and ask for forgiveness from those he has abused and deceived. If he has been made rich off of the backs of poor people by preaching the prosperity gospel, then God will require him or her to “give back” all of that money to the poor. Not too many false prophets are willing to give up those jet planes, million dollar homes and those Bentleys. Even the false prophets who are NOT mega, many of them have practiced the lie for so long, that it is practically impossible to receive the truth and act on it. Far too many have made “ministry” their career and not their calling.

Ask the Apostle Paul. He maintained as a tentmaker. He would not allow any of the churches that he set up to totally provide his livelihood. That is why he could write, “whether abased or exalted, I can do ALL things 4 through Christ who strengthens me.” In other words, JUST SO YOU KNOW, I am not dependent upon YOU to live and to serve my God. When a false prophet’s livelihood is intricately tied to church dollars and resources, he or she is captive to a self made trap that cannot be escaped from without God’s help. Actually, some false prophets have to be stripped naked to find God again, if they ever knew Him. So if you really think a particular false prophet is deceived, perhaps detoured but not diabolical, then your prayer should be “Lord, strip him.”

A word of caution. The religious demon assigned to me tried to set me up to become  a false prophet.  In several dreams, he showed me standing before huge audiences, walking up and down across a platform with my bible in my hand, preaching and teaching.  He even showed me pastoring a church of about 10,000 people.  Because I sought after the power to slay in the spirit, after 10 years of seeking, I got it. I could wave my hand, and certain ones would fall out, unconscious.  However, I began to question this power because I noticed that the ones in my congregation who fell out the most, were also those who could not STAND for the Lord, relapsing or backsliding constantly.  So I said to myself, “Pam, there is something wrong with this so-called gift. This cannot be from the Holy Ghost!” Once I prayed to the Lord and asked Him to “show me the darkness,” I got quite the wakeup call that revealed that  the mega preacher phenomena of today is NOT of the Lord.  It is a combination of human charisma, “anointed” by the enemy’s power.

10/25/11 “THIRTY YEARS A PREACHER!

So if you are on that road, you need to get off, and get off with a quickness!

If you have been burned by a false prophet, there is help.  Call 519-477-5759

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My False Conversion: An Anonymous Testimony

20 Nov
Author Anonymous

MY FALSE CONVERSION

Looking back, it is no surprise that I had a false conversion. The cross of Christ, I never heard of it. No, not in church. I never heard a sermon on the message of the cross, until my first Easter sunday in a Word of Faith church. I found out that the message I did hear, was a recycled message that anybody could find online. The message was staged, and the pastor jumped down from the pulpit with a hop and stylish skip. He had, what Pam Sheppard calls a gimmick. The hop, the stylish skip, and the jumping from the pulpit, with a flourish might as well have been a stage show. The cross of Christ message the pastor gave never touched me. I sat there admiring his alligator shoes, and fancy pin stripe suit. Why? Because I was not saved then.

I thought I got saved while listening to a Benny Hinn broadcast. Benny Hinn called my name, he said ” You you are saved”. My Mom looked at me with glee, and led me into the sinners prayer. I felt a little sorry for sins, I felt good and I wondered what God would now give or do for me. The cross of Christ, the resurrection power, Godly sorrow and repentance were not found in me. It was a set-up from the devil. I had a false conversion. I had what Pam Sheppard has coined a ” counterfeit birth “.
What happened when I finally got saved for real? I did not get saved in a church. I got saved in my own bedroom. My son’s father died after being in a coma for about three days. During the period of his ill-health, and after years of abuse from him he was attending church. This man, who had been a problem to me for many years began apologizing left and right. At the time, I was what the church falsely labels backslidden. Pam Sheppard has taught us this truth, yet some refuse to receive it.
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My friends, there is no such thing as a backslidden Christian, for as the Apostle Paul says, in the Book of Hebrews 6:4,5,6 it is impossible.
It is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift to fall away and be renewed again. If they shall fall away, to renew themselves again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God AFRESH, and put him to an open shame.
So then, when you are truly saved there is no backsliding. If there is backsliding ,what we are saying is the cross of Christ, and message of the cross, did not take the first time. What kind of mess is that? Is Christ’s resurrection power so weak, that the knowledge of it fails the first time, but works if we hear it a few more times?
Anyway, there I was in sin and never saved from the get go’. Don’t get me wrong, we do grow in Christ, but if we are truly saved we do not return to total darkness and start drinking like a fish and fornicating like a champ. If we do, as I did, we were never saved in the first place.
Back to the story of how I got truly saved. My son was deathly sick and hospitalized. I realized that I was bitter towards him. I felt bad about that and begun to pray. I kept seeing a vision in front of me of the cross of Christ, I kept seeing Jesus on the cross and at first, did not know why.
As the days passed, I understood that I had never know Jesus at all. All I knew was a God who was going to give me ” stuff “. All I knew was a Jesus who was rich who would one day make me rich. Thanks to the Word of Faith church I had met ” The Fake Jesus ” who Pam exposes in one of book’s entitled the same.
ebook www.lulu.com/content/12044954

I had pledged and made an unholy alliance with Satan. My story continues. As I shared my son’s father Brett was ill and I kept seeing the cross of Christ, and Jesus on the cross before me in vision. I had been praying about my own bitterness and reluctance to visit him. I called someone who reminded me of what Jesus had said on that cross. Jesus said, ” forgive them father, they know not what they do”. The word of Christ prompted me to visit Brett Sr. It was the day he had slipped into a coma. I went to his bedside. Kissed his hand and sung his favorite church songs. Kissed him on the forehead and told him I forgave him, and forgave myself. He passed away that night.

 

I was saved in my bedroom as the days progressed. I realized what a hypocrite I had been. I was never saved. How could I have been. I had returned to drugs, fornication and the world. The message of the cross never made a dent in me, I never heard it. When I did hear it once it was from an unsaved man posing as a pastor. I had looked death in the face because my son’s father died. I knew that if I died then, I would have gone into hell. But it was not hell itself that scared me. What frightened me, was that I would be totally cut off from God. I had fancied myself a spiritual person, a person who loved God and wrote Christian poetry. Those moments that I sat in my room, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I was neither spiritual or saved. My so-called love for God was not there.
My life in church flashed before me. I had been a works salvation. A works salvation is a ” counterfeit birth “. I was churched, as Pam would say. I had been on church boards and committees and such, but I was unsaved.  I had written fancy Christian poetry, dripping with fleshy sentiment. When trouble came, I faltered from a crumbling foundation. My faith was never built on the rock. I was a wayside ” counterfeit birth”.
My bitterness flashed before me. I harbored bitterness against those who I thought had wronged me. I suffered clinical depression, the open door of unforgiveness had ushered in a demonic spirit. How on earth is one saved and still having bouts of depression? Where is the power of the cross in that? I was a liar and a fake, the God I thought I loved was just then drawing me to him in my bedroom. I cried, and I cried and I repented in those tears. As I lay in my bed the Lord bought me to Isaiah 53. Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? I had never believed the report that Jesus Christ of Nazareth died on the cross, that gruesome death but rose in the flesh. I never understood myself to be a wretched sinner. I had never understood, that this man Jesus, who was man and God in the flesh had to die in order for me to be saved.
I never knew that the sacrifice of his very life was needed to cleanse. What price can you put on a life? What price can you put on the life of the Son of God. As I read through Isaiah 53 and learned of the suffering servant, my joy became full. I knew why the Lord drew me to him by showing me a constant vision of Jesus on the cross. The work that was done on the cross proved the complete power of God which no devil can match. Christ was dead but now alive in the flesh. The disciples had seen and believed this 2000 years ago, and I was seeing  and believing  it for the first time. And it was the same power that lifted Jesus from the cross that was now lifting me up.
I believed the report that day. I was grateful for what Christ had done on the cross, for me and for those who would believe on him. I was grateful for his mercy. I was happy and besides myself with joy. God had drawn me. His love was clear to me. My friends, the agony of that cross and the suffering it took to save me was clear. I loved the Lord God for his eternal kindness and saving grace. I deserved nothing, but God through Christ had given me all I will ever need. So then, in my bedroom, after years of church, I was finally saved.
I receive and trust every word that Pamela Sheppard teaches. For she speaks truth, the organized church is a conglomerate of condemned  buildings.

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