Tag Archives: repentance

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You Cannot Build on Dead Works

Sometimes people say “I will pick up where I left off” after they’ve been out for a while. Can you imagine if a building has been dilapidated and we clean the building up on the outside and inside, then we’ll take that building and connect it to that building so we can keep going on? Do you know what will happen when the first wind storm comes?

You can’t build on dead works. But if you have junk in your life and you never got rid of the junk, you can’t build a solid foundation on that, because as the junk’s being affected, you’re going to see it shake and quake. It will fall.

There are the things you never got straight; those are the issues in your life that you build another life on top of. Most people say its ok, because “I’ve put it in the past.” How many people know that your past will become your future? Its just like when people build on quick sand; after a period of time it will sink. Then after a period of time water seeps up into the building. You can’t build from dead works. You have to eradicate it and clean up.You have to be refurbished, so that when God places a load in your life of work, you can say “Lord I got this” and not “Lord its too much.” When Things are done everything comes to the forefront and the Lord gives it to you. You have a clean foundation that you can build on. A solid foundation. Amen?

Hebrews 6:1-12

Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this will we do, if God permit. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned. But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister. And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

How many have heard of the word Ichabod? This is a very important word, which stands for “the glory has departed from that place.” In the case with Israel in 1 Samuel 4:21, it had departed.

1 Samuel 4:19-21

And his daughter in law, Phinehas’ wife, was with child, near to be delivered: and when she heard the tidings that the ark of God was taken, and that her father in law and her husband were dead, she bowed herself and travailed; for her pains came upon her. And about the time of her death the women that stood by her said unto her, Fear not; for thou hast born a son. But she answered not, neither did she regard it. And she named the child Ichabod, saying, The glory is departed from Israel: because the ark of God was taken, and because of her father in law and her husband.

You remember when the Children of Israel were traveling from land to land and they carried the Ark of the Covenant with them? They would set the Ark in the Holy of Holies in the temple. God would commune with the priest in the midst of a cloud. This was Gods way of talking to His people before the point where He became flesh. He would leave messages to them of what they should do with the people, etc. So the Ark was taken; removed from its place. When God leaves His power, His glory and presence are gone. Amen? So now here we have in our lives when the Holy Ghost leaves you the presence of God is not in you and if its not in your what is going on? Its Ichabod that is written on your life.

Some people have Ichabod written on their lives and they don’t even know. So they are building on a shaky foundation. They think of when they USE TO worship; when they USE TO dance. They’re building their whole spiritual walk on what USE TO be. You can’t build on dead works. You can’t build on dead works. You cannot build your Christian walk on something that you use to do. People will fight you tooth and nail and say “He was with me then so I know He’s with me now.” Let me share something with you: Satan is with us 24/7. The mocker; the accuser who has imps that can watch you to mimic your ways to give the impression that you are saved and filled with the Holy Ghost. Satan can make someone jerk, he can make them speak in another tongue. Satan can give you a joyous expression. He is the mocker and accuser, deceiving the bothers to spread the message of lies to other people. What happens to you if you don’t go to your job in 4 or 5 months? You won’t have one,. What happens when you don’t go to church in 4 or 5 months? We take it for granted with God. Its ok with God. You’ve heard what people say “God knows my heart.” He does. That is why He’s trying to tell you get yourself some teaching; some understanding. Because if not, then you’re going on yesterdays work, trying to build today’s future on yesterdays work. Well what’s wrong with that? If it didn’t work yesterday it won’t work today because new mercies God brings forth every morning. How many wake up every morning?

So its time for us to begin to let go of the old foundation, and clean it and prepare it for a whole new work. The Bible says greater works shall you do because Jesus is gone to the Father. You know what a greater work is? Us sitting here in a basement in Bedford, OH at 10 am, talking to a bunch of people in another country witnessing to them, instructing them and getting them together without having them there. They didn’t have the technical capabilities then that we do now. They had Paul, Timothy, Bartholomew, walking for days or weeks to get to one Church. There were seven churches. A greater work is when you can bring someone from the dead, or when thousands of people can be fed from one basket. But what has not been done is communication from one person to another in another country! The point is these are greater works they never conceived of then. What is another great work? Reaching people in the most isolated places in the world, that don’t have internet, Google, Facebook, Instagram; who can’t text or who don’t have anything. Greater work is when you get up out of your seat, go across the seas and talk to these people. The greatness is when the people receive it, and say they’ve heard and been asking their god to teach them and tell them the truth. That is why the word of God says the harvest is ripe, but the labors are few.

Ain’t nobody doing nothing, because were all in church talking about each other, going to dinner, self devouring, usurping authority, making people jealous of others and the souls are dying. If you allow the Word of God dwell in you richly, you’ll hear the Word of God say to you “there is a brother or sister who will come, go with them.” You’ll hear the voice of God. This is what we do when we hear the voice of God; We ask “is it real?” We’ll be able to hear the voice of God when we stop fighting with one another. Then you can testify to 5 people who heard it, received it, and got baptized in Jesus name. You never would have done that when you fuss and argue with yourself and other people. The work goes undone, but you still try to build on that foundation but you’ve never heard Him and haven’t seen Him in years. If you go out and try to witness to someone else, and you’re jacked up, what will happen?

Jesus said I want you to prepare a place for Me for the Passover. Go to the city, see a man…God will use others to get you to where you should be in Him. Jesus said go and tell them that the Father has need. Sometimes we say we don’t hear the voice of God. Well maybe we need to shut up for a while. I know what His voice sounds like to me, but it may be different for you. You need to find out how He will speak to you. God uses whom He will to get his point across to His child. Little kids will be used in this way. He wants us to get rid of that mentality of trying to go on…you’ve been wound forth last last 45, 50, 60, 70 years. You know how many people in the Church are wounded and they try to say something to someone about Jesus? They know absolutely nothing. If you’re not happy how can you tell that God is ecstatic? If you’re not delivered how can you tell someone else that He delivers. How can you say God is awesome and you’ve never seen His awesomeness. How can He talk to You? Does He have to take a number? This is what we don’t really understand. All the stuff in our past will, and has been, and can become our future.

The word build; to assemble; the way a thing is put together; pattern made up composition; in other words, the material used to build upon; to construct; building. If you’re building a new highway, do you build atop the old highway? No, you take out the old concrete, then level out the soil, then build anew. But we say, why can’t they hurry up and build that high way? If you go over that highway that isn’t reinforced, when you drive over it, you’ll be dead in rubble. They aren’t building on dead works, they are gutting it out and restructuring so they can build on solid foundation. Same with a Child of God, you can’t have all that mess in your life; you can’t carry all that baggage with you and try to witness to someone. You can’t build on anything in your life if you’re still going through other things in your life. If you haven’t been redeemed from the burdens and things in your life that are causing your to be weighed down, you can’t build on it. You don’t want to assemble something atop of shaky ground, you don’t want to pour into something that will leak out. You’re a bucket with a whole in it, because while your walking there is a trail. It could be a trail of devastation, where onlookers will say sister or brother has been though here with their leaking bucket.

We Look at the word Dead: lifeless, deadly; passes away.

We look at the word work:physical labour, effort, metal; physical, its work; time spent; time management.

You can’t build on dead works. You have to get old works out and ask the Lord to clean up the stench in you. What’s in the past is in the past, but my life isn’t connected with that. I’ve been forgiven, and given a new life, direction and focus, now Lord You show me what You want me to do, because now I don’t have all that mess in my ear anymore.

When the presence of the Lord has left a ministry, there can be no rebuilding on the foundation of which that ministry was building. That means the person who started cannot rebuild again. Because Ichabod is not only tied to that location, but that ministry. If they restart it, they are building upon an Ichabod foundation. It will not flourish nor be glorious even though they may talk about it. When the name of Ichabod has been written on your ministry its time for you to go out, go to another ministry and get cleaned up. Then it may be He will open the door for a new ministry and new direction. You can’t build on an old messed up situation. It has become dead.

You build on good foundation. Start afresh, start anew.

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What is Sin

The biggest problem with most people or just, in general, is there has been a debate over what is sin and what is not sin. Some people in the world say wrong doing when you are evil towards someone else, but the actual definition of what sin is Biblical. It’s an immoral act against God. The definition that the dictionary says is this: an immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law. Synonyms of sin: wrong, wrong doing, active doing evil, wickedness, transgression, crime, offenses, misdeed, lying, cheating, vices. Any act under the aforementioned words is considered to be sin unto God. So you may ask, what does that mean? What it means unto God, we all have sinned and we all have come short of His glory. Is sin wrong? Well, yes. Does sin cause other people to be harmed, hurt, or injured or even killed? The answer again is yes. So we all have come short of God due to sin. For instance, if you tell a lie or half truth as they say, on an individual on a situation, you may cause someone or something to go wrong to the point of someone getting hurt or killed. If you mistreat someone evilly, harm them verbally or physically, you still have commited a sin. Most individuals don’t want to accept the fact that their sin has transpired in their life. But what we must reconginze is one important factor: sin has destroyed many hearts, lives, and possessions. So I ask you again, have you sinned, has sin played a big portion of your life? Have you ever been lied on, has anyone ever cheated on you, has anyone ever caused harm in your life?

 

Romans 6:9-23

Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

I read all that to say to those who say they have no sin or don’t know what it is, in todays modern day language the word sin is being limited and pointed at partiular events or situations. But the fact is its all sin, whether you lie, cheat, kill, steal, tell white lies, or mistreat, abuse, even to the point of miscarriage of justice, its still an evil act. So if you don’t like the term sin, its an evil act. No one likes an evil act, no one, and

No one likes an evil act, no one, and everyone understands what an evil act is. Well the Bible termed it as sin. So again it points to we all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, but Christ has died for your sins. He did it one time. There remains no more sacrifice, that anyone can do say or act, He is the untimate sacrifice because He died for sin. When He rose 3 days later, He brought captivity of sin captive. He made everything that we do of sin nature, dead to us, because He brought it to death. That is why it asks the questions, so since we are freed from sin, so is it ok for us to go ahead and continue sinning since we’e been freed from it? God forbid. No one else can die for you or deliver you from sin anymore, so there remains no more sacrifice athat anyone can do. SO is sin wrong, someone may ask? Is someone slapping you in the face, shooting you killing you, burning down your house, stealing your possessions, stealing your food, stealing your kids, killing your husband or wife, kidnapping, raping, are those things ok with you? If so, then you have become a part of the problem with society. You need to seek help to be delivered from that type of mentality. THe only one who can deliver you from you is our lord and saviour Jesus CHrist and for you to recongize that and understnad that these things have brought you in to being captive, these evil things. Christ came and died on the cross to set the captives free. Whom the Lord has set free they are free indeed. While you were in sin, you served another master, and the master of that term sin or evil doing is Satan, the Devil Beelsivub, and all his impts and demons, they are who you were serving. In Romans 6:16

That is why it asks the questions, so since we are freed from sin, so is it ok for us to go ahead and continue sinning since we’ve been freed from it? God forbid. No one else can die for you or deliver you from sin anymore, so there remains no more sacrifice that anyone can do. So is sin wrong, someone may ask? Is someone slapping you in the face, shooting you, killing you, burning down your house, stealing your possessions, stealing your food, stealing your kids, killing your husband or wife, kidnapping, raping, are those things ok with you? If so, then you have become a part of the problem with society. You need to seek help to be delivered from that type of mentality. The only one who can deliver you from you is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and for you to recognize that and understand that these things have brought you into being captive, these evil things. Christ came and died on the cross to set the captives free. Whom the Lord has set free they are free indeed. While you were in sin, you served another master, and the master of that term sin or evil doing is Satan, the Devil Beelzebub, and all his imps and demons, they are who you were serving.

 

Romans 6:16-17

Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.18 Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.

 

It all starts by giving your heart over to Christ, repenting for who you were, asking for forgivness for where you are, and being baptized in His name for the remission of sin. In simple terms, you are changing who you serve, you stop serving Satan, and now serve the Lord. Whom the Lord sets free from sin is free indeed. Now you can go about serving God. We might get those who may say whats going to keep me from going back and serving Satan?

 

Acts 2

37 Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?

 

So if you have that same question, then Peter says in the 38th verse: Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Not the Holy Spirit but the Holy Ghost

Continuing on to the 39th verse: For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.

Holy Ghost and Holy Spirt, I hear some say that there is no difference becuase of the writers of that time. If you look at the OT it talks about the Holy Spirit from God, but the New Testament talks about the Holy Ghost from Jesus. One is from the Father the other is from the Son. The Holy Ghost will lead you and guide you into all truth. All comments and questions are welcome.