I want to start off by telling a story that happened to me years ago involving two young men. I was always talking to somebody about Jesus and salvation. I was getting quite a reputation at work. I love God and had found the answer to life. I was so excited and wanted others to have the same thing that I had. I was saved in July of 1985 and when the Spirit of God entered my heart that instant my life changed for ever. I was Spiritually dead and now was alive. I was given a new heart in place of my old wicked one.
[Ezekiel 36:25, 27] “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will keep my judgments and do them.” [NIV bible].
This is what happened to me when I received the spirit of God that day and accepted salvation. I was given a new heart and could actually feel it. My motives began to be God- centered instead of me centered and my wicked desires. This is when the supernatural things of God began to happen in my life. This is why I was excited and wanted others to have it also. This is the motive of this blog to get people saved and aware of God’s great love for people and also His authority and righteous judgment.
I talked to a lot of guys at work and made friends with some of them. One of them was Brian. Brian was raised catholic all his life. I would sit with him at lunch and have coffee breaks with him. I would talk to him about Jesus and salvation for months. He had a lot of questions and wanted to know a lot of things so I would answer what I could and what God was giving me at the time for him. I was noticing that as I was ministering to him over the months that there was a hesitation and a resistance in him to receive salvation. The word was not going in his heart but only his head.
We were baptizing people from all over at our house in the basement in a cattle trough during home bible meetings and Brian came over after work one day to be baptized of his own free will. He was going through the motions but his heart was not in it. This is the essence of religion. Going through the motions on the outside but no change within.
Part of Brian’s back story was that he was raised by his mother and I don’t really know what happened to his dad and when he was gone out of Brian’s life. So Brian and his mom were very close and loved each other. At some given point his mom died which devastated him. He never got over it.
I was punching in at the time clock at work one morning and Brian came up to me and said, ” I need to talk to you as soon as possible”! So we went to the side and he told me that last night as he was in bed. He was sleeping and all of a sudden he was woke up by a presence in the room. He opened his eyes and it was his mom standing in his room. She looked real good, she was dressed with a white dress or gown and had a gentle smile on her face. Brian was speechless. She walked over to his bed and sat on the bed and said to him, “Brian you know how much we love each other and how close we are but you must stop listening to Marty and His pastor. They are trying to divide our relationship. Then she got up and disappeared before his eyes. Brian had to tell me right away.
The pastor that this being mentioned that was talking to Brian was staying at our house and Brian had also met him. So this demon mentioned both of us to Brian, not to listen.
So what did Brian see that night and why did it come to him? His mom had been dead for years.
[NECROMANCY] It,s the practice of magic involving communication with the dead-either by summoning their spirits as apparitions, visions, or raising the body- for the purpose of divination, imparting the means to foretell the future events, discover hidden knowledge, to bring someone back from the dead.
[Isaiah 8:19] [NIV bible] God speaking, “And when they shall say to you , seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter” should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living”?
Other scriptures to look up on this is [Leviticus 19:31] [Deuteronomy 18:9, 12] [2 Kings 21:6] [Leviticus 20:6].
So Brian was approached by a demon that took on the form of his mother in order to appeal to his emotions and deceive him into not listening to the Gospel that I was giving him in order to be saved. God was trying to save Brian and satan was beginning to panic that he was going to lose Brian to God. Brians resistance to the Gospel over all that time opened the door for the satanic visitation he got. Brian heard enough word of God to be saved but resisted it. He went the other way. He began to mach me and not want to talk to me anymore and started staying away from me. He never received Christ. It would have been better for him not to have heard the word of God than to hear it and then reject it. Remember that I said Brian is Catholic, why did he resist the word of God? I was a catholic for 25 years, and I resisted the word of God. Why? Because I never heard of the Born again message of receiving Christ in my heart from them. They teach error. A religion doesn’t save you. I was saved in my living room, not in the catholic church. I heard the message of receiving Jesus in my heart as Savior and believed it and received it and that’s when the power of God began to manifest in my life!!
Please do this. Whatever belief system you believe or whatever religion you belong to. Go home and take your bible and look at the new testament and see if the things that you believe line up with the word of God. If not, Love your life enough to make changes and follow Christ. Believing the wrong thing can put you in hell because you did not receive the love of the truth because you did not know it or ignored it. You are responsible for your decisions. Jesus said that “those who seek me will find me. All that the Father gives me will come to Me and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.” [JOHN 6:37] NIV. Start pursuing God and getting in His word and talking to Him and He will come to you.
There was another guy that I met at work who heard me preaching to people at work. Jim approached me and started talking to me about the word of God. He asked me if I would come over to his house on Saturday and talk to him more about the Gospel. I said sure. We set a time and I went to his house on Saturday. He told me his story and he was daily tormented because some years ago he and his wife were in the car after drinking. They got in an accident and his wife was killed. He was the driver. He was raising his 2 daughters himself and he never had one day of peace because of the guilt he felt. Jim was ready. He wanted Gods forgiveness. He wanted the assurance of eternal life. He wanted to raise his daughter right and give them hope. He said ” will you lead me in the prayer of salvation. I sais YES.
Lord God, thankyou for salvation, thankyou for sending Jesus to us for salvation. Please come into my heart and restore my life. I declare Jesus as Lord of my life and ask that you erase all the sins of my past. I give my life to you.
Jim was instantly saved. He was so excited that he was saved and forgiven for not only the accident but for all sins he has ever done. When I left his house, he had peace and joy and knew he was right with God. Brian on the other hand was never ready. He heard far more word of God and had more time given to him of ministry but never came to the place of repenting and receiving Christ. Jim was ready. He heard the word of God and believed it and received it in a very short time. Both these men exercised their free will.
Did you know that we were supposed to live forever since the beginning of creation? Eternal life was stolen from us through the temptation and the rebellion and deceit that took place in the garden of Eden. Now God through Jesus wants to restore to us what we lost.
[John 3:14,18] NIV
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so, must the Son of man be lifted up, so that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son”.
SALVATION PRAYER, MUST BE BELIEVED IN THE HEART.
Lord Thankyou for sending Jesus to save me and You want me in your Kingdom with you. Lord please forgive me of my sins, I repent. Come into my heart and give me a new heart and be the Lord of my life and I thank you and praise You for it AMEN.
Thank you all for reading the blog. God reveal His love and mercy to you.