BEWARE OF FALSE GOSPELS

Divine House-Cleaning

Isaiah 1:25-26; Malachi 3:2-3; Matthew 3:12; 10:7-8; 21:12-13; Mark 11:15-17;

John 2:14-17; Luke 19:45-46; Galatians 1:8-9; I Peter 4:17

Martin Luther exposed the corruption of religious racketeers who profiteered from the fears of people kept ignorant of My Word. As this Church Age draws to a close, I am about to purge My House again, even as I drove out the buyers and sellers of merchandise from My Father’s House in Jerusalem.

When I gave My disciples the Great Commission just prior to My Ascension to heaven, did I command them to fish for funds rather than men? No! I sent them out to heal the sick and to preach deliverance to those held captive by satan. I wanted to show mankind MY loving nature, and to manifest it through My followers. They were to freely give, as they had freely received.

There were many charlatans in Jerusalem who called themselves by My Holy Name, who claimed to be My earthly representatives. They exhorted (and extorted) as religious tax collectors, forcing others to cede to them even the tithe of mint, anise, and cumin. But they were not so zealous to perform those duties which would not bring them immediate rewards. Instead of taking pity on poor widows, those heartless religious scoundrels robbed them of their very subsistence. What leeches they were!

How enraged those racketeers were when I drove the merchants, birds and beasts out of the Temple! How frantically they scrambled to recover the coins clattering on the pavement! Their hearts and souls were bound up in that filthy lucre, and they perished with it.

How insulted I am, to be associated with con artists preying on weak souls. MY Prophet Ezekiel prophesied against false pastors who exploit the flock of the Lord and drive away those who are thirsty for the Truth (Ezekiel Chapter 34). Many lost souls are lampooning the Gospel of Christ, just because of all the con games which are going on in My name.

I am finished with being patient with those who deliberately turn My Holy Gospel into a Greed Creed, and the Lord of Heaven into a slot machine!

I know of more than a few fools who say: “So what if I’ve got to stand before God someday and give an account of my true motives? I will already have had my piece of pie, with ice cream piled on top.”

But bitterness will fill the bellies of all those who lived to serve self and gratify their carnal lusts. Too late they will realize how false was their maxim: “I can eat my cake and have heaven too!”

A Lethal Dose of Error

Isaiah 5:20; II Corinthians 2:14

Satan is quite clever, the way he deceives people. He dispenses doses of deadly error in a sugar cube so people will more readily swallow it. And even when the spiritual error isn’t exactly swallowed, a person will be on the verge of swallowing it. He will hold it in his mouth while he decides whether to go for the error or not. No realizing that digestion begins in the mouth, that one will not spit the false teaching out immediately. No wonder he feels deep unease in his inner parts and gets a spiritual stomach ache, for some errors are so deadly dangerous that mere contact with them ministers death.

If you suspect that some teaching does not line up with the Word of God as originally imparted to My Church, it is time to reflect on whether it is a doctrine of devils. There are many false apostles and prophets who try to revive a dead code of ceremonial ordinances I nailed to the Cross of Calvary and reimpose them upon you, by telling you that “I am doing a new thing” because this Age of Grace is almost over and you’d better become more expert on the old ways or else. If some self-apointed apostle or spiritual guru tells you you MUST observe and teach to others some “new revelation” not given to the early church through the original apostles, and you’ll suffer My wrath for not doing so, watch out! Either spit that poison out immediately or you’ll feel the turmoil of spiritual bondage within. The Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus within you resists coming back under the yoke of the Law of Sin and Death.

Whatever the brand of error, misguided, gullible souls will stray from their Good Shepherd, eat weeds in the devil’s pasture and end up with a spiritual belly ache. It is then that I must minister to their inward parts so they can recover.

Giving is Much More Than Money

II Kings 1:8; Matthew 3:1-4

Some pastors let it be known (particularly to younger converts) that living an “orderly” life is of the utmost importance in being My disciple, and that I will not be patient with those who deviate from conventional standards of what constitutes an orderly life.

It is taken for granted that a Christian young person will get all the secular education he can, then pursue either a highly-paid profession or open his own business, unless he opts to serve on a foreign mission field. Any job requiring a sharp suit and tie, and situated in an air-conditioned office must be a good one, their pastors think. To them, that is putting godly diligence and good stewardship into action, and the only decent way for a Christian to live.

A young person is expected to marry young enough to start a family, and continue in his chosen field until retirement age. Throughout his working life he should faithfully make payments on a a mortgaged home, so as to put down roots . He should update his car every two or three years to a shiny new model. Even the church parking lot must bear testimony to the popular Gospel of Materialism.

The believer’s prestigious job will enable him to contribute decent tithes and offerings to the church treasury. That, supposes his pastor, is true responsibility, and the only acceptable Christian example. To become a service worker or low-paid laborer is to fall short of My glory, many are told in various insidious ways. Obviously, a poorer person’s donations do not excite the church accountant very much.

Elijah and John the Baptist lived unconventional lifestyles, yet these two saints gave far more of themselves to Me than carnal, materialistic believers do. Neither of them ever married or took out a mortgage on a fine home. Elijah was not spirited away from Queen Jezebel in the back of a sleek limousine. He ran on tired, sore feet over stony ground.

I was the only insurance policy those godly men ever had. I kept John alive until the day his ministry on earth was finished, then he was martyred for his faith. Elijah was translated to heaven in a chariot of fire.

These two men did not steep their brains in the godless wisdom of this world’s prestigious universities. Nor did they seek lucrative positions in the world of finance. Neither man had a penny. They never ran for political office. Neither patronized hair salons or fretted much about the labels on their sweaty garments. And they weren’t very fussy about the style of their daily cuisine. They certainly didn’t draw their strength from power lunches! John the Baptist dined on locusts and wild honey, and ate only enough to keep himself alive and active in the ministry. He wore a humble hairshirt held together by a strip of leather. The respectable religious leaders of his day thought he was nuts because of his no-frills faith. They were incensed because he never paid his respects to the Temple with an envelope full of cash. Neither he nor Elijah were liked much by the Religious Establishment.

Neither man was affluent, but both were rich in faith. Each man simply gave Me everything he had.

Name-It-And-Claim-It

Galatians 1:8-9; Jude 3

The enemy cannot entice My people to bow down before idols of wood or stone. He cannot persuade them to venerate the prince of darkness who tempted My Son in the wilderness. If he were able to put an end to My Church, or at least completely neutralize its witness, he would have done so long before now.

When satan realized that My Son’s death on the Cross of Calvary spelled doom for all the forces of darkness, he reacted just like a crooked politician caught red-handed. “Damage control” became his top priority, for he knew that he had been judged as wicked, and his kingdom on earth was destined to be ousted by My glorious Kingdom. If the devil could not extinguish My Holy Fire entirely, he was determined to at least water down its effectiveness through My Church.

How sneaky satan is! He knows his time is short, even if My own people choose to ignore that fact. Time is a precious commodity, especially in cold congregations which cannot concentrate on a service longer than ninety minutes, or two hours at the outermost.

So the adversary reasons that if he cannot silence the preacher, he can at least “tone down” the message by instilling fear in his heart. I must preach what they want to hear, the pastor reasons. MY offerings will nosedive if I offend anybody, and I will lose MY flock and MY respectability in this community.

Who are so blind as such church ministers? The hour is perilously late, and so many of them carry on playing church as usual. My people are lulled to sleep, made to think they will be on this earth forever, piling up corruptible possessions and continually seeking more.

Abraham My servant is touted as being the progenitor of the Gospel of Materialism. I did bless him in every area of his life, but greed was not his god. Rather, he confessed that he was a stranger and pilgrim upon earth, and looked forward in faith to that Heavenly City whose builder and Maker is God.

Indeed his grip upon material things was loose, for he always put Me first. He was even ready and willing to offer up Isaac his heir upon the Altar of Sacrifice, knowing that I could raise this chosen son of his from the ashes of death and still fulfill the promises I had made concerning his life.

Name it and claim it, this new gospel proclaims. Jesus, who had possessed all the wealth of heaven, came to earth to become poor for your sake. Prosperity profiteers lead you to believe He died so you could pile up a stash of toys bigger than your neighbor’s. Give ten dollars and get a hundred back. The Lord is better than the lottery. Just believe you receive, and that Cadillac will exist in the spirit before it manifests in the visible realm. What sickening, self-centered idolatry of the grossest kind! I meant no such thing! I head a Church, not a gambling casino! You can only truly believe you receive your petition if I impart My pure faith to your heart. I did not come to inundate you with childish toys, or to fan the fires of your carnal lusts. I came to transform you into My image which had been marred by the Fall of Adam, and to share all the riches of My heavenly Kingdom with you, including life eternal.

Covetous church leaders bear the greater share of responsibility for this end-time deception, and I will hold them accountable for how they mislead My sheep. Let those who have deliberately furthered this lie repent now of this vile wickedness. Let those who did it out of ignorance humble themselves before Me NOW and seek My face, that I might take them by the hand and lead them back to the gospel which was first delivered to the saints, that work of faith and power which has its roots in My love, not in greed.

Learning to be Content

John 6:27; I Timothy 6:5-6; Philippians 4:11; Hebrews 13:5; Revelation 3:17

The Laodicean Church was so materialistic so that its members lost sight of the Master Who bought them for Himself. That same spirit of carnality now pervades My end-time Church.

My Son said, “Labor not for things which perish.” He meant that nothing should dethrone Me in an individual’s heart, not even the quest for legitimate necessities. How much more grievous is it when My dear people feel pressured by their fellow believers to toil extra hours to pay for superfluous extravagances in order to keep up the appearance of “prosperity”? Those who are content with cheaper apparel or humbler household furnishings are often painted as slothful, slovenly or irresponsible.

Materialism in a Christian is often regarded as a sure sign of godly diligence and industry, rather than as a pitfall of the flesh. Indeed, so many of My people fear they show a poor testimony to the world if they don’t look “successful” enough. These misguided ones imitate the world by competing with one another to appear the most prosperous; and, by association, the most spiritual.

What burdens My people put upon one another! I expressly commanded you to be content with whatever things you possess. My resources are often wasted to replace things which are still in perfect working condition, but which a capricious, money-hungry world says are no longer “in”. Driven by feelings of insecurity, many will even go into deep debt to buy more stylish cars, or fancier furniture.

Prudence and moderation were once considered signs of spiritual growth, but such virtues are out of sync with those demanding immediate gratification. The Children of Israel were once enslaved to Pharaoh. But now My children are in bondage to credit cards and life-long mortgages. They are investing in future anxiety. They are much too encumbered to freely serve Me.

What will the Ministers of Materialism say when they bring Me the fruits of their erroneous doctrine? Their status symbols, fine jewelry and electronic toys will not stand the test of fire. Neither will they endure as eternal treasures.

You are bought with a price. Do not devote your lives to the acquisition of transitory, perishable things. You are here to serve Me, not to be greedy of gain, leading others astray down the perilous paths of covetousness.

Monument$ to Ego

Isaiah 66:1; Hosea 6:6; Matthew 12:7

It is written: I would rather have mercy than sacrifice. So many of My precious saints are laboring under grievous burdens which I never laid upon them.

Men and women struggle in today’s unjust economy working at one, often two, jobs, just to meet the exorbitant cost of living and to eke out a survival. They often feel like beasts of burden chafing beneath a heavy iron yoke.

They should find rest and refreshment in My church, a refuge from the dog-eat-dog environment of the world. Very often just the opposite is the case. Much unnecessary building and other superfluous projects are undertaken by over-ambitious church leaders, who exert pressure on My people to finance whatever they fancy. Their monuments to selfish human pride must go up at any cost. Egocentric preachers build for themselves, rather than for Me!

I do not demand that an opulent palace be erected in My honor. A humbler location will suffice as a gathering place for My flock. Souls of men are My primary concern in these end times. I am far more concerned about building up the Body of Christ, My Spiritual Habitation, with living stones of saints, than working in brick and mortar.

I counsel those who would offer Me a gift to use it to show charity to the needy, to make adequate provision for their shepherds, and to invest in the salvation of souls. My appearing is near, even at the very doors. Set my people free to serve Me with their whole heart. My precious resources must not be frittered away on fancy fixtures.

Church: Green Pasture Or Pork Barrel?

Ezekiel 34:1-10; Hosea 6:6; Matthew 23:23

Yes, I behold across the land countless scenes of silver-tongued ministers badgering and cajoling overburdened church members to give, give, give. There is an insinuation that I will not give to them unless they succumb to all this pressure.

Do you not comprehend that unless I first give you , you cannot give back to Me? I am the Giver of every good and perfect gift. I want to share My abundance with you, My people. Tell Me what you truly need. Tell Me what satan has stolen from your lives. I want to restore every broken area of your being. Let Me love you. Take the time to linger in MY Holy Presence, that I might build you up in your spirit and fortify you with the riches of My Word. I would have your cup to overflow with a joy that no man can take from you.

How could you ever think I am so unloving and petty that I would change My attitude toward you if you were unable to buckle and bend to the demands of men? My mercy and love are unspeakably greater than I am given credit for in many churches.

The browbeaten congregation feel they are being fleeced and policed as inquisitive envelopes and intimidating pledge cards pop up in the offering plate. Their money-driven leaders need to know who gives regularly, and above all, how much. No matter that I commanded that giving be done in secret!

Worse yet, many subtly insinuate that My blessings are for sale. After all, “God can’t multiply zero.”

Don’t tell Me what I can and can’t do! I set in motion the laws of mathematics. I created the world out of nothing but the power of My Word. I spoke, and visible things were made from that which is invisible.

I alone am the righteous Judge of hearts. I know when people are deliberately being stingy with Me, and won’t render that portion which I have shown them should be rightfully set aside for My Kingdom. I also know when pockets contain only pennies and people are backed up against the wall, struggling for daily food and shelter. Far better that these burdened saints buy a bit of sustenance without condemnation, than that some well-fed preacher lay the Law down on them and pry their last dollar out of them with threats of My retribution! The poor widow indeed gave her very last mite, but she did it because she was much richer in faith than all those rich men who proudly dumped their surplus funds into the treasury. The widow was not afraid I would punish her if she bought a bit of bread with that money instead. She gave it out of love and gratitude for all I had done to sustain her in her affliction. Her faith was such that making an offering was a joyful act of worship she wanted to participate in. She trusted that I, the Defender of orphans and widows, would be faithful to meet her own need that day. And I surely did. I did not let that dear woman starve. But many have not matured to her level of faith, and it would be cruel to force them to pretend otherwise.

Elijah prayed earnestly for rain to appear, for the ground was parched and cracked. Cattle and people were dropping dead from the severe, prolonged drought. Only a miracle could save them all from death.

There was not even one tiny cloud in the sky for Me to use as seed to multiply into more cloud mass. Elijah’s fervent prayer of faith was all it took to release My power over nature. Soon a tiny speck of a cloud appeared. It expanded into a cloud mass large enough to unleash a heavy downpour upon the thirsty land.

I created the whole universe out of what you term nothing, through the power of My Spirit-activated Word of faith, even through My dear Son Who was with Me in the very beginning. And I would emphasize it is MY faith imparted to you through My grace which produces fruit, not your own futile human efforts to “muster up” faith. False “faith” is a fruit of the flesh, not a fruit of My Spirit!

Throughout history there have been those poor in this world’s goods but rich in faith. These faithful ones lay up treasure in heaven, far beyond the reach of the enemy. In heaven there is no depreciation of the value of possessions.

But money-obsessed leaders lightly esteem the less affluent among you, and, by their example, teach others to do the same. One who is temporarily out of work or who toils at a minimum-wage job is thought to be flunking in the so-called School of Faith. No matter how dearly that saint loves Me, no matter how much of the Life of Christ is reflected through his life, hypocrites scorn him. If only that poor brother weren’t harboring some secret sin, if only he were more adept at working the “foolproof” faith formulas, he would be basking in Canaan Land and never again suffer setbacks. Didn’t my servant Job suffer similar criticism when he was tried? In the end, who received My approval; him or his critics?

David’s Desperate Need

I Samuel 21:1-6; Matthew 12: 3-7

David once ate that which was holy and reserved for the priests, the loaves of consecrated bread from off the altar. He was desperately famished. No other food was available to him. Only the priests might eat that bread. He is another Biblical patriarch who is often cited as an example of how righteous men become wealthy. But did I value him any less when he was persecuted, and fleeing from Saul in the wilderness?

Had David yielded to the counsel of his cohorts, he might have spared himself a prolonged exile in the barren wilderness by killing King Saul. But he would not sin against Me by harming a man whom I had anointed to be King of Israel. For a time he suffered great privation and discomfort, living on the verge of starvation, for food was extremely difficult to obtain in the Judean desert. Was David’s great trial ironclad evidence that he was an unrighteous man who didn’t know how to work the ABC’s of prosperity?

Tithing: The Untainted Truth

Romans 8:2; Galatians 5:1; I Corinthians 16:1-3; Hebrews 7:1-10; 8:10; I Pet. 2:9

Don’t eat the seed, they say. Even if your refrigerator is empty, pay your tithe on time. What a merciless, hard-hearted attitude! Although I have set believers free from the ordinances of Old Testament Mosaic Law, Church rulers often keep their people under subjection to the ones they like. If they insist on enforcing the ordinances of ancient Israel, why not become more expert on those old ways? This will surprise many legalists, but there were times when the tithe WAS eaten by the worshipper himself! There was more than one type of tithe proscribed by Mosaic Law. I refer you to Deuteronomy 12: 17-21; and Deuteronomy 14:22-29. This tithe spoken of in these passages was used to provide choice foods for the worshipper and his family in a joyous meal of thanksgiving, as well as to provide for the priesthood. And if anyone insists on sticking meticulously to the letter of the Old Law, Deuteronomy 14:26 encourages the worshipper to even buy beer or wine as part of that fellowship meal, if he so desires! Also, every third year, a special tithe was rendered to provide sustenance not only for the landless Levites, but also for the needy among what is now termed “the laity”: widows, orphans and even hungry aliens in the land. Tithes were not originally used to construct fancy monuments to human ego!

Some will object that Jesus commanded his hearers to meticulously observe all the ordinances proscribed by the Jewish religious leaders, including the tithing of tiny garden herbs (Luke 11:42). In the same breath, He rebuked the Pharisees for neglecting the weightier issues of the Love and Mercy of God. When that scene transpired, Jesus and the Pharisees were still living in the Old Testament, and were still under the Old Law.

But ever since the Resurrection of Christ, My people have lived under a New Covenant of Grace. Self-appointed tax agents of heaven have no right to chain My redeemed ones to their version of their favorite ordinance of Jewish Law. Enforcing such an edict of legal compulsion upon My people is contrary to the Mind of Christ, Who has set His people free to walk in holy liberty. Your salvation is free, not a taxable commodity!

The epistles of Paul, Apostle to the Gentiles, never bind upon his flock the heavy yoke of tithing. He exhorted his followers to give liberally, according to how I had prospered them! I even pour upon My obedient children a Spirit of Liberality toward Me, and out of gratitude for all I have done for them they ought to respond to needs upon My heart. A little given in love by a poor saint pleases Me much more than a big “tithe” grudgingly paid by a millionaire who had the law laid down on him from the pulpit. There is the written Law, and there is the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus, which I write upon the hearts of My New Testament saints.

The Jews were very familiar with the tithing ordinances of Israel. In the Book of Hebrews, the writer strives to reason with Jewish Christians who long to return to life under the Law of Moses. Under the old economy tithes and offerings were received by mortal human priests. Abraham, who lived before Moses,paid tithes of the booty of war to One Who lives forever.1 He did this not out of compulsion but as an act of thanksgiving for My help in giving him the victory over his foes. Christ, the only Mediator between God and men, still receives gifts which are given out of a willing heart of love and faith.

Always act according to the true degree of faith and maturity to which you have grown, and you will be rewarded for being a faithful steward. Seek ye first the things of the Kingdom of God, and I will recompense you.

You MAY resolve in your heart to render a minimum of 10% of your disposable income to My work, but you are not living under a law which would coerce that much out of you. Yet hard taskmasters will pressure you to tithe even if you are near-destitute and struggling to buy food or medicine or keep a roof over your head. Tithes were used to keep food in My own house (see Malachi 3:10). And who eats the food at their Father’s Table? My children, not just religious leaders! Do you think I want compulsory tithing for church upkeep to be a white elephant on the backs of My overtaxed and underpaid children?

Tithing on money is a lucrative, man-made tradition which overbearing ministers eagerly enforce to keep “the laity” in line, because they’re really afraid to let them walk in liberty! Actually, there is no such thing as a laity in the true Body of Christ. All My New Covenant children are called to be a Holy Priesthood and a Holy Nation. So when you say today’s paid clergy are the equivalent of Old Testament priests and make yourselves their bondservants, so as to surrender to them 10% of your salaries and wages as forced tribute, you deny your own priesthood in My Holy Nation. NOT ONCE, even back in the Old Testament, do I command as law the tithing of money, just tithes of the produce of My Land Israel. If you were a sandalmaker or tentmaker, you didn’t tithe on those things. Nevertheless, a saint with a giving heart will look after the true needs of someone in full-time ministry. If a shepherd of My flock shares with you spiritual things you ought to contribute to his support as I lead. A true man of faith will allow My Spirit to lead each saint in the matter of contributing to the work of the ministry, rather than resorting to veiled threats to exact a tithe tax from them.

A great many of today’s ministers KNOW that compulsory tithing on money is nowhere sanctioned in My Word! Yet they also know that most of their sheep are not nearly so Scripture-savvy as they are, and will being afraid to question what they are taught, wil go along with their dictates on any issue! I shall indeed hold false teachers accountable for deviating from My Word in order to keep the money rolling in.

King Saul of Israel also claimed that it was zeal for the Lord’s offering which made him deviate from My instructions “just a little”. But the Prophet Samuel’s response to that was: “Does the Lord delight as much in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord?”

Regardless of deeply entrenched traditions of men, I never gave anyone permission to add one single commandment to My written Word!

I have seen so many elderly saints eaten up by guilt because they paid off pressing debts or bought a decent meal with their Social Security check instead of paying a full tithe. Then, out of fear, not faith, they would struggle to repay their “debt” to Me so I wouldn’t punish them! All because some erring preacher bound their hearts with fear that they would fall under a curse if they didn’t.

A few gladly give more than 10% of their disposable income to my work, for they have prospered in this world. But some people are taught that I require them to tithe on their before-taxes income. This can give rise to the most grievous bondage of weariness instead of the Rest of Faith into which I have called My children. It can cause bitterness and resentment in those who must work an extra job just to meet their own needs after tax-paying and tithing on the first paycheck. Do you think I take pleasure in the fact these opressed churchgoers must neglect time with their own families to do this?

I am a loving Father, not a cruel taskmaster.

Sheep or Pack Mules

Ezekiel Chapter 34; Isaiah 2:3; Luke 11:46; Rev. 7:17

Many pastors look at what other religious leaders have and they grow green with envy. Palatial sanctuaries, impeccably groomed grounds with “inspirational” landscaping, vast office and Sunday School complexes, even conference centers with visitor facilities. There is such a competitive spirit controlling some of these men that they will scarcely pause long enough to count the cost of being a copycat. Only perfunctory prayers, if any, are offered before these men rush off to the bank to sell My people into bondage.

Even congregations of very modest size have been informed by their leadership that they’ve “just gone into escrow” and they’ve all just taken out a monstrous mortgage to finance a spiritual wonderland which will surely attract more visitors unto Jesus. The new burden of debt is praised as a blessing of the Lord, something to give Me thanks and glory for. But that’s just a smokescreen to prevent resentment. Any member of the congregation who objected would be made to feel like a sinful rebel after the show of “praise and worship” offered up for the decision taken to sell My people down the river. Carnal leadership can always spiritualize away any reservations about how the “laity” might feel about being saddled with a gigantic debt, to be paid for with unscriptural money tithes and offerings given out of guilt, not love.

I am against those shepherds which feed themselves and not the flock, who lade My people with burdens too heavy to bear. These men (and occasionally women) cannot feel the strain they’ve placed on others, because they themselves are supported by the labor of the flock and are spared the weariness of day-to-day toil. But I will deliver My flock out of their hand. I will lead them out of the House of Bondage. I will lead them into a higher spiritual place: the Mountain of the Lord, where they shall find streams of Living Water which have never been tainted by sin. I will give them a choice pasture to graze in and I will rid them of parasites. All these things I shall do unto them as their Good Shepherd. But the overfed wolves in sheep’s clothing will I judge for muddying the clear waters of refreshing with their dirty feet, and for making pack mules out of My sheep whom I have called unto rest.

Unmasking the “Force of Faith"

I Tim. 4:1; Jude 3

One of the worst pitfalls of this so-called Prosperity Doctrine is that I am dethroned in the minds of many immature converts. In My place has been put an imaginary “Force of Faith” to which even I am obligated to bow. Some teach that so long as your “faith” is strong enough, and you chant “positive confessions” long enough, that alone will move My hand to do what you want, regardless of how I might view the situation. This is a doctrine of demons satan designed to sway the hearts of My people to a mass delusion. Satan’s aim is to blind My people to what should be their central focus: Christ and Him crucified being their all-sufficiency.

Do not be deceived, My people. Some think that the apostate church will emerge exclusively from the ranks of big religious organizations of men, and suppose that so long as you stick with small informal congregations of evangelical believers, you can’t possibly go wrong. But satan has infiltrated both huge cathedrals and small storefront churches with this positive-thinking Prosperity lie.

Set My People Free!

Exodus 10:26

Indeed it was Pharoah, the cruel taskmaster King of Egypt, who first tried to set limits on how far I could go in setting My people free. But Moses said: “Not one hoof of any animal shall be left behind.” The Israelites would not just barely escape Egypt with the clothes on their backs, but everything they owned would also be liberated! That included their cattle, their flocks, their silver, their gold, and the labor of their hands. Never again would the Israelite nation toil to make bricks for Pharaoh’s monuments.

My Word must never be compromised by any religion peddler. If the Son of God sets you free, that includes your paycheck as well. Not one hoof shall remain in bondage.

The Glorious Freedom of Faith

Nehemiah 10:39; Isaiah 55:1

Yea, saith the Lord, proclaim liberty to all who have been held captive by legalists. Spread the glad tidings far and wide, and set My children free. You are not legally bound to tithe at all!

In ancient Israel, tithes were levied on the yield of the land, and consisted of agricultural produce! Every tribe of Israel, except the Tribe of Levi, possessed a portion of the Promised Land, to be farmed and bequeathed to their descendants in perpetuity. Tithes were never meant to be garnished by the priests from the paltry pay packets of landless laborers! The vast majority of today’s Christians do not own farmland. More than a few of the earth’s Christians earn a subsistence wage, just barely squeezing by. It enrages Me to see the lavish lifestyles of today’s self-ordained “priests” financed by so-called tithes grudgingly given out of fear, not faith. This fear charlatans have instilled even in the hearts of babes in Christ, and I will not hold them innocent for perverting My Word.

People are taught to treat Me as a celestial vending machine which requires the insertion of money before I loosen up and dispense any kind of blessing. Pay “the Lord” first, and the big jackpot will shower out of the slot machine, so much you won’t have room to receive it. I am provoked to anger by this crass corruption! I am grieved at the disgruntlement of My wounded sheep, who, impoverished both financially and spiritually, wander away to seek some promising new panacea for their ills.

The Sincere Milk of My Word which enables believers to grow in grace is to be freely imparted to all those who will receive it in humility. Any true minister of Christ will serve others, not himself. It is written: Let everyone who is thirsty come to the Waters, and HE WHO HAS NO MONEY, come ye buy and eat. Yea, come buy wine and milk WITHOUT MONEY AND WITHOUT PRICE.

Rejoice in Me, My people. Cast off your shackles and dwell in the glorious liberty which is your birthright in Christ Jesus.

I Provide For You Out of LOVE!

Matthew 6:25-26; Acts 14:17; Romans 8:32; I Timothy 6:17 (faithwriters)

Consider the Children of Israel who wandered in the desert in the days of Moses. Did they pay tithes? No. They had not yet inherited the Land of Promise, and could not yet tithe on its fruits. Did they pay tithes on the daily food which I regularly provided for them? No. The priestly tribe of Levi had to get up in the morning along with everybody else and go collect their own.

I loved the Children of Israel just as much before the giving of the Law as I did when they were settled in the Land and tithing on its produce.

Birds and wild animals never pay one cent of tithe money, yet I never fail to provide for them.

Some of My dearest children are undergoing times of severe testing in their own personal wilderness.They must lean on Me daily for the provision of all their daily needs. They trust in the God Who not only provided manna for the Israelites in the wilderness, but clothes the lilies and feeds the birds.

Don’t ever let any shameless preacher shame you out of what I give you to survive on.

Giving in Adversity

II Corinthians 8:1-6; Philippians 4:14-19

Some will stress that it is scriptural to give out of poverty, as well as prosperity. That is true, but only if you do it because you’re rich in faith, not because you fear I’ll punish you for not doing so. A person who knows he is rich in faith depends upon Me to meet his need, not the pittance he possesses. If I, not some fly-by night charlatan, tell you to make a gift to a certain ministry, you will gladly do it if your heart is full of faith and you know you possess great riches in My Kingdom.

Even Scripture can be quoted with the wrong motive. Satan himself did that. Desperate preachers, sensing their disgruntled listeners are no better off financially and were getting wise to their game, have reminded them that the Macedonian Christians gave even out of their deep poverty. These dear ones shared with Me out of their very limited means, although so many of them were near-destitute at the time Paul collected their donation.

Paul was not in the habit of dunning poor people for money. Tears sprang to his eyes as he considered how sacrificially these dear saints gave. They absolutely insisted he take the money, wretchedly poor though they were. They wanted to share in the ministry of liberal giving, and would listen to none of his mild objections.

Those Macedonian saints were knit together in love with their brethren who were enduring a great famine in Judea. They, who knew privation, wanted to do what they could to send relief to people they had never even met. Thus they willingly gave out of their need, expecting Me to meet their own need.

It never occurred to Paul to buy a Cadillac with that money.

YOU Are a Holy Nation

Ezekiel 18: 34: 1-22; I Peter 5:2-4

Many money-mad ministers use this line as a crowbar to pry an easy living out of so-called “lay members”: “WE, who minister from the pulpit, represent the Levites (priestly tribe) of the Church Era.” In the Old Testament, there were twelve tribes of Israel who were My Chosen People on earth; and out of the whole nation, only the Tribe of Levi might approach My Presence in the Tabernacle to render service unto Me. My original intention had been that the whole nation would be holy unto me, and free to draw near unto Me, as New Testament Christians are privileged to do.

But the Israelites grumbled against Me in the Wilderness. Moses was delayed in returning from his meeting with Me on from Mount Sinai, and they grew impatient. They forgot My former kindnesses toward them, and judged Me as unfaithful and powerless. They had a golden calf made for them, and they began to throw a wild orgy around it, worshipping it and committing all sorts of lewd acts. Only the desperate intercessions of Moses persuaded Me to not to wipe out the entire nation of Israel. Only members of the Tribe of Levi made a stand against the rebellion of the malcontents. Upon that tribe only did I confer the honor of ministering as priests before Me.

But in this dispensation, all who are redeemed and sanctified by the Blood of Christ are holy unto Me. My Spirit has taken up residence in their hearts by faith. I have said: YE are the Temple of the Living God! So why should you be coerced into bringing tribute to a brick building presided over by unconscionable opportunists who take advantage of your ignorance and set themselves up as taskmasters over you? If professional preachers had an inalienable right to take tithes to support their ministries, you would also.

I would have you to remember that you are called in My Word a Kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Not just a favored few, but every believer who is consecrated and set aside for My service. I desire that there be no want in My Body, but that everyone have tender care one for another. If the humblest member of your body is hurting, you will give it the very best of care, for you share its hurt.

“I feel your pain” is a popular catch-slogan today. But are self-appointed lords over the Body of Christ truly sensitive to the hurt and frustration of its more obscure members? I am sickened by the sight of heartless ministers taking their offering bags to the back room and cackling over the big haul they’ve taken in for themselves,when they are well aware that so many of My sheep are jobless or hungry. They feed themselves, and not My flock.

Unless they repent, I shall have to feed those fat cats with judgment.

$kimming Off the Fat

Exodus 29:37; Leviticus 3:16; I Samuel 2:12-17, and 27-36; James 5:5

The offering of the Lord is a most holy thing, for it is sanctified by the Altar of the Lord. Yet religious thieves have profaned it in the sight of both believers and unbelievers, and made it a reproach among the heathen.

The two sons of Eli the priest demanded the choicest part of the sacrifices. They forcibly seized the fat from the offerings of the people, although I had reserved that part of the animal strictly for Myself, along with other choice portions coveted by Eli’s sons. They just brazenly snapped up whatever they wanted, right out of the worshippers’ cooking pots. They bullied the worshippers and ignored My specific instructions on what they as priests were entitled to, and even on how it was to be prepared. Because of their contempt for Me and My offering, those two men fell under a terrible curse, and removed themselves and their descendants from My protection.

Today I see greedy preachers dipping their hands into the offering baskets and running off to do whatever they please with the money, without first consulting Me.

They are only fattening themselves up for their Day of Judgment.

A Busine$$ Proposition

Acts 8: 18-24

The blessings of My Kingdom are not to be had in exchange for filthy lucre, although many gold-diggers set themselves up as My sales representatives, and try to corner the market.

Simon the Sorcerer had just been converted and baptized, but he had not yet made a complete break with his old ways of thinking. Simon still considered himself a magician, and wanted to be able to impress people by working showy miracles. He asked the Apostle Peter to sell him the power of the Holy Ghost. Peter replied: “May your money perish with you, because you thought that the Gift of God could be bought with money.”

Only Simon’s immediate repentance saved him from death. If I was furious with a new convert who tried to purchase My favors, then how much more am I indignant against those who have known the Way to Life for years, and yet have made a fortune by pretending to sell My favors to gullible souls!

The Huck$ter

II Corinthians 11:13-15; II Timothy 4:3-4; II Peter 2:1-3

Many spurious teachings are generated when a simple principle of My Word is adapted to cater to the tastes of this self-obsessed generation. A few words of Scripture can be isolated from their true context, then twisted and contorted until varying degrees of error crop up among many ministries or groups. Some itinerant ministries are markedly similar to secular success seminars, and My Holy Name is used to endorse them. But it is sheer blasphemy to make Christ the mascot of materialism.

Bogus ministries usually center around a colorful, scintillating character sporting beguiling mannerisms and ostentatiously expensive apparel. I have yet to see a single one staging his show without gold rings on his fingers or glittery props in the background. In fact, the more bombastic his presentation, the more credence his viewers seem to put in him. There might even be an electronic bug in his ear which imparts “divine” knowledge about a particular person’s ailment, so he can thrill the crowd that much more.

This dynamic character deludes his devotees into thinking that the life of faith is as simple as 1-2-3. No mention is ever made of denying one’s self, or the daily cross-bearing of discipleship. It’s “Whatever I want from God, I must get...NOW!” This deceiver proudly points to his own “success”, and brags that he no longer works for money ,but makes money work for him instead. He boasts of HIS fleet of luxury cars, HIS mansion, HIS private jet, HIS freedom to travel, HIS liberation from the rat race. All you need do, he says, is sow a “sacrificial seed” (to HIS ministry, of course!). And it doesn’t hurt to intone the “key confessions of the kingdom”. Supposedly, that’s how HE got HIS Rolls Royce. If you keep it up long enough, he insinuates, the devil will tuck tail and run. And I will get so tired of your pestering that I must relent and give you whatever you want just to get you off My back_regardless of just what it is, or just why you want it. And furthermore, he implies, if your “faith” were strong enough, you would always get immediate answers.

A favorite quotation he uses is Hebrews 11:1: Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. WHATEVER YOU DESIRE, one bamboozler proclaimed, is conceived within your spirit before it is born into the visible realm. One goofy con man made quite a show of it. He used the “parroting technique” to get the the gullible audience to repeat phrases after him, and copy his ridiculous motions. Gripping his stomach in mock pain, he grimaced and groaned: “I’m travailing in birth with MONEY!” The audience, following like dumb sheep, grabbed their own stomachs and “travailed in the spiritual realm” along with him, hoping that they, through their positive confession, really would give birth to money. These misled saints were so desperate to get the same blessing as the preacher, they gladly mimicked everything he did and said, unquestioningly. How ridiculous it looked to angelic witnesses! They certainly didn’t laugh at this foolish farce, though the devil did!

My original apostles never resorted to such buffoonery! If they could look down from heaven and see the travesties which are taking place today in the Holy Name of Jesus, they would be outraged to witness those carnal clowns going through their paces! My heavenly saints would wonder why, after 2000 years of the Church Age, so many people are still missing the true meaning and mission of My Kingdom!

According to these Scripture-twisters, you can ALWAYS have whatsoever you say! It’s a good thing it doesn’t work that way for people whose “faith” is of the fallen nature, rather than of the spirit. Countless times I’ve heard immature backsliders pray prayers such as these: “O Lord, please don’t let him be reconciled with his wife. That man is my true soul mate, and You KNOW those two married outside Your will. You said I could have whatever I claimed. I claim HIM, in Jesus’ Name!” Or: “Your Word says I can have whatever I say, Lord. Please give me a revelation of next Saturday’s winning Lotto numbers, so I can glorify You by living like a son of the Great King.”

How could such carnal, unholy requests possibly be birthed within that pure spirit-room I have reserved for Myself? Is adultery the substance of faith? Is carnal luxury the substance of faith? Even the most casual student of My Word would realize that there are certain things I can never endorse. It is possible to ask amiss, according to James 4:3, and not to receive your request because you are motivated by the lusts of the flesh. But today’s spin-doctored sermons don’t like to “dwell on the negative”.

I see many misled saints wandering around in a bewildered haze, wondering why it didn’t work, why THEY don’t drive a luxury car or dwell in a mansion. They’ve mumbled “positive confessions” thousands of times, but they never did win the lottery, and they still have to work for their living and pay rent.

My apostles were not sent to put on a thrilling show to squeeze money out of people, or conduct success seminars for the upwardly mobile. They were called to bear My Cross. They were sent to further My own ministry of liberating souls from the kingdom of darkness. Christians are commissioned to carry the Light of the true Gospel of Salvation to the furthest corners of the globe, and to proclaim that I am Victor over that old serpent the devil, who has bound the souls of men with the keys of hell and death. I want people to know I died to give them eternal life, that I love them as individuals, that I care when they are oppressed in any area of their lives,and that I want to deliver them from bondages of every sort. I want to loose satan’s grip on their health and circumstances, and set them free from the spirit of poverty, as well as the spirit of covetousness which plagues many individuals and churches. These insidious attacks of the devil rob people of the joy of My abundant Life. To know Me is to have Life eternal.

Faith vs. Foolishness

Faith is the bridge you must cross to reach Me, not a cliff to leap from. And it is I Who carry you across it, even as I uphold that bridge to keep you from falling.

Carnival Con Artist$

Deuteronomy 16:17; Ezekiel 34:1-22 ; Micah 4:11; II Corinthians 9:6-8; Philippians 4:19

I say to all mercenary charlatans masquerading as ministers of light, I detest your marketing gimmicks. To fatten your already bulging bank accounts, you turn Me into just another marketable commodity. You perceive Me as the ultimate slot machine, and thus you misrepresent Me to your vast television audience.

“You can’t outgive God” is your favorite motto. You serpents! How cunning you are, the way you twist a bit of Scripture and lace it with lies until it becomes a very lucrative heresy to enrich you. “Put God to the test,” you say. “Go fetch that money set aside to pay the rent.”

I did promise to bless My people whenever they followed My directives in giving liberally, but the exact amount will vary from person to person, according as he is truly able. I did exhort My people to prove My promise to bless them for their obedience in this area, but I also specifically commanded them never to put the Lord their God to foolish tests. Yet you greedy ones tempt My sheep to jump off the cliff, just like satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness. Gullible souls are told to give “the Lord” the rent money, because “there’s bound to be be a divine safety net to avert a disaster on rent-paying day.” Some of you even promise that special angels will move into the donor’s house to keep the blessings rolling in. Thus you counsel your listeners to overreach the boundaries of their immature faith, and act presumptuously, so as to force My Hand. But I am not a circus animal Who must jump through a hoop at your slightest whim. I am tired of the way slick hucksters weave a snare out of portions of My Word they can bend and twist. I will not be roped and tied by religious cowboys who wish they could corral Me into doing their will to entertain the crowd.

“Send it in as a special, ‘one-time’ offering to this ministry, and trust God to meet you at the point of your need, just before the landlord brings the sheriff to the door to serve an eviction notice on you,” you imply. God might be late by your standards, but He’s always on time. So step right up and lay your money down. Don’t worry, God has bound Himself in His Word to multiply it back to you a hundred-fold! One hundred dollars will yield ten thousand. You can’t get better odds in Las Vegas! Plant a seed out of your need, is your jaunty jingle.

I am weary of your clever catch-slogans. I hate your phoniness, your studied gestures and mannerisms, your gaudy carnival act cloaked in cunning craft. I detest your subtle, manipulative techniques which border on sorcery. I loathe your slick, multicolored mail-outs with warnings not to “miss Jesus as He passes by” (your mailbox?). I even hate the way you modulate your voice when you make a syrupy appeal on TV for a special “Prove God” offering. Rather, I say, it is a “Tempt God” offering, the way you workers of deceit court my displeasure.

My, how slick your routine has grown with practice. Even the melodramatic groans of the canned organ music rise and fall in sync with the convulsive contortions of your phony face as you shed crocodile tears and extend your hand in supplication for ever more money, playing people’s emotions like a fiddle. And your usual closing line is: “God bless you. We love you.”

For the moment, the lonely shut-in gets a nice cushy feeling. Why, you have him or her eating out of your hand. How could that dear saint deny money to someone who says “I love you?” So she hurries to get pen and paper to write down all her prayer requests. With a boldness gained from being psyched up by your spiel, she writes out a much larger check than is wise, and sends it to someone who is only using My Holy Name to further his own tawdry kingdom.

The dear lady thinks: Oh, glory! That sweet brother said he’d PERSONALLY touch God for my needs. I can’t wait to hear from him!

But little does she consider that you hear from thousands of poor souls just like her, and you couldn’t possibly read, much less bother yourself with, her personal trials. And just what do you mean by “love”? What good would your ministry be to someone made homeless by following your counsel and doing something presumptuous which I never commanded him to do? After all the hundreds or thousands of dollars which he sent in to your religious racket, would you send him so much as a dime to keep him fed and off the street? And why wouldn’t you help that person, if you truly believe giving makes a person richer? Aren’t you motivated by money? Why, then, don’t you practice what you preach?

Get your cheap trash out of My sight! You’ve got no right to stamp My Holy Name on those Miracle Key Chains and other cheap trinkets mass-produced by impoverished laborers in third-world nations! Neither do I endorse your assortment of Faith $eed Packets mailed out to vulnerable, hurting souls! Your slick junk mail implies that if the recipient’s “seed packet” is not postmarked for tomorrow’s mail, there will be no answer to prayer, because God’s Special Season of Miracles has an expiration date, and will soon pass you by like a fleeting wind! As if the flow of My mercy were regulated by the flow of the Almighty Dollar, or the schedule of the U.S. Postal Service!

“Claim a Cadillac,” you say. “But first plant the seed, and what better seedbed than this ministry? Don’t stop paying on your $2000 vow, or you’ll stop God from blessing you. How dare you undercut the magnitude of My fathomless love! How dare you insult My mercy! How do you greedy snakes expect to escape the damnation of hell!!!

Judgment must begin in My House. I behold you fat preachers gorging yourselves on delicacies while you fail to feed the flock what they need, and preach only mild messages which won’t rouse them from their torpor. “Go away, I don’t have time for your troubles,” is your attitude. Yes, all you see out there is a shapeless gray mass of common peons who render their tribute to you as one of the ruling elite. You always travel in style. Your clothes are the finest money can buy. Your home is a virtual palace filled with the latest in electronic gadgetry. Some of you possess several homes. You take frequent vacations to to exciting destinations, and always go first-class. And all because some lonely, frightened, desperate soul “sowed a seed out of his need.”

Yes, the laborer is worthy of his wages, and those who faithfully serve Me in full-time ministry must be honored and well provided for by the rest of My Body. From the beginning I ordained it to be so. But I also said to my disciples who were to take My spiritual blessings to the four corners of the earth: Freely ye have received, freely GIVE!

All you fraudsters ever give Me is grief!

Turning on the Tears

Certain preachers have played people’s sympathies like a fiddle to get them to open their hearts and wallets, not to Jesus, but to themselves. They turn on the tears like a water spigot. The Scripture speaks of phony religious people as clouds without rain. Their timely tears flow copiously. Ironically, all those stage performers do is promise their hearers the Water of Life and give them a good soaking instead.

One man insisted he wasn’t a con, but managed to butter up his audience enough to collect an extra offering from them, by saying his mother had just died. There were very few objections when the big buckets went around again, after being heaped high the first time. My, how that “evangelist” was comforted after his purported tragedy. A starving fox in a henhouse has more integrity than a money-hungry fox in a pulpit pretending to be an innocent lamb.

The lowest of the lot make appeals for starving children who never see a penny of the donations. What a despicable thing to do in My Name! Be very discerning about what ministry of mercy you support. As I enable you, give generously to genuine Christian relief organizations and I will bless you for it.But always act on the basis of My leading, and don’t ever be manipulated by theatrics.

Beware of those who cry and plead for money because “the devil is attacking their ministry” and they are in danger of folding. My Son’s financial resources were limited, but His life was exceedingly fruitful. If those people truly had an anointing of faith, they would rest in the certainty of My daily provision.

Charlatans will cry very real tears when they stand before Me in the Judgment. If any of them think they will escape divine justice by resorting to phony tears, then they’re in for a big shock.

Satan's Infernal Revenue Service

Isaiah 56:11; Prov.22:16; Hosea 4:6; I Tim.6:5,10

My heart is grieved by the mass exodus from the church of people who truly love me and can take no more pressure to give until it hurts. Many are so blinded by their tears of frustration that they not only desert the institutional church but keep their distance from anything which even remotely resembles true commitment to Christ. In their bewildered minds they cannot discern the difference. Why? These former followers of Mine were brainwashed and hoodwinked into casting their bread upon the waters so they could wait many, many days for their shipload of fruit to come in for seed sown.

Well, I cannot put My seal of approval upon error, even when that error is obeyed out of ignorance. My people are destroyed through lack of knowledge of the truth. He who gives to greedy dogs who can never have enough shall sink into the despair of deeper darkness and poverty. So many of My people found that their ship sank long before it reached the happy shore of fulfilment of their desires. But deception is like an intoxicating drug. You swear that you have had your very last fix and will take no more, but so many lack the courage to break free of error. It is a binding spirit of deception which holds My people in grievous bondage. Multitudes of disappointed Prosperity devotees are told to wait for the next wave to come in, then the next and the next. Perhaps next month, maybe next year, Scripture-twisters say, I will pour out blessings from heaven too numerous to count, if only those poor souls will keep on tithing out of their poverty and cheerfully do without the things they and their children need daily.

Those who cannot be persuaded to continue giving to satan's infernal revenue agents without visible reward are bound to their masters through other means. Threats issue from the pulpit that I will punish those who refuse to surrender to their teachers a tenth of their earned income or other monetary assets. Marinated in error, saints are brainwashed into associating Me, their loving Heavenly Father, with Pharaoh, who would not relent on the daily quota of bricks his overworked slaves must deliver. Only eternity will tell the heartbreak, emotional trauma and family feuds which are directly attributable to being taught a flawed, demonic concept of my nature and My relationship to My beloved Bride, the Church. Such crafty peddlers of lies who oppress my people skate on a very thin line which borders on blasphemy against the Holy Spirit because their slanderous sermons on giving cast a shadow on my character and rob Me of reputation as a God of perfect love.

Guilt-ridden saints fear to approach My Presence anymore, because they are taught that you must never appear before God empty. Yet those same unscrupulous prosperity teachers who teach you to come before Me with both hands full sometimes teach that you can only receive from Me if you hold out empty hands to receive! Why the inconsistency? To deny My all-sufficiency in presenting you guiltless before God the Father is to blaspheme against the precious offering of My Blood upon the heavenly Altar and to call it an inadequate offering on your behalf.

Just as sharks can smell blood a mile away, so those greedy infernal revenue agents can smell money from afar. So they hold infernal revenue services geared toward buttering up the congregants and getting them to open wide their purse strings, much more than their hearts, supposedly to Jesus.

These sleazy snakes are not My representatives anymore than Judas was my representative after he betrayed Me. And in My sight, they are every bit as bad because they have sold out My reputation in the sight of men for a bag of filthy lucre.

Those who know the real truth but hide it beneath a bushel basket in order to profiteer from the childlike innocence of babes in Christ, such shall suffer the greater damnation in the Day of Judgment, saith the Lord unto His Beloved Bride the Church. So do not cater to their lusts, and do not bow down before them as Baal lords. For most assuredly I have not sent these infernal revenue agents to bleed you dry. Satan has.

The Party’s OVER!

Acts 5:1-11; II Peter 2:1-3

I say to that disgraced “evangelist” who feeds his insatiable appetite for luxury by devouring vows: I, in My mercy, permitted you to experience this lull in your so-called ministry to give you an opportunity to reflect on your evil ways and turn to Me in deep repentance. This, Brother Fleshpot, you have stubbornly refused to do, supposing you’ve still got many years to “live it up like a King’s kid”.

Instead of humbling your heart in repentance, you wallowed in self-pity, wondering how you would “ride out the storm” of government “persecution” and maintain yourself and your cronies in the lifestyle to which you have become accustomed, as your offerings nosedived!

Little did you trouble yourself over the deep hurt you inflicted on the Body of Christ. The memory of Joe Six-pack out there in TV Land is short, you reasoned in your evil heart. He won’t hold a grudge for long, and he’ll come around. He’ll open his heart (and his wallet) to this “ministry” again, you hoped.

My, how you’ve hurt My too-trusting sheep. Broken hearts and bitterness are the fruit of your life. Many hardened, cynical hearts have turned from Me forever because of you; for you, Brother Fleshpot, claimed to represent the innocent Lord Jesus. You have made My Holy Name to stink from coast to coast, and your judgment shall be very fearful. Better would it have been for you if you’d never come to salvation than to have degenerated into such a cunning enemy of the Cross of Christ Jesus. I count it a crass insult whenever you claim to represent Me!

Now you’ve got the gall to say you’re getting ready to ride the new wave coming in. There’s a whole new generation of babes in Christ out there you can con with your sales pitches. Easy pickin’s, as you term it. Gullible suckers to replenish your depleted coffers. Virgin territory, you say, still unexploited and unburnt.

Don’t bet on it, Brother Fleshpot. Remember Ananias and Sapphira, and the swiftness with which I punished them for just one act of deception? It wasn’t Peter who killed those two. It was by the word of My mouth that they fell dead at the apostle’s feet. In fact, Peter was just as terrified as anyone else who either witnessed that awful event or heard of it.

After Pentecost, Peter was possessed of a holy boldness, but he also had a human tenderness about his nature. After all, he himself had denied his Lord, and he could feel for weak saints who made errors of judgment. Had it been left up to his own human inclinations, he would have failed to see the extreme gravity of the offense and dealt with the couple much more leniently. But he received a divine revelation about the exact nature of their sin, and its awful seriousness. Peter had no option but to pronounce the words of judgment imparted to him by My Spirit.Those who reflected on the suddenness and severity of the fate of Ananias and Sapphira were very afraid to play perverse games with a Holy God.

Now I am raising up not just one voice, but many prophets to warn you and those like you to repent. It is no mere human crying out in indignation, but the Spirit of God in My chosen vessel.

The party is over, Brother Fleshpot!

Pre$$ure Tactics

I Kings chapter 17; John 5:1-9; II Corinthians 8:11-15

There was once a famine in Israel. It took My miracle-working power to provide food for My servant Elijah. Wild blackbirds delivered food to him, as he lingered beside a brook, drinking of its waters. Eventually it dried up because of the relentless drought. At that point, I directed Elijah to go to a Syrian village, and ask a poor widow to sustain him with what little food she had.

At first she hesitated, for she had only a tiny drop of olive oil and a handful of meal left in a jar. She and her son would eat that food for their last meal, and then slowly starve to death. But My servant Elijah had good news for her: If only she would share what she had with him, she and her boy would have plenty to eat, enough to keep them alive till the famine was over. She fed him first, trusting in Me to perform My Word and keep them all alive. To her delight, she was able to bake cake after cake, until the three of them had had enough. And there was food left over for future meals.

During the famine, the prophet dwelt in a guest room of the woman’s house. He watched over her house for good. He raised her son from death when he succumbed to an illness. Elijah had a very real concern for this woman’s welfare. There was mutual support in seeing one another through that awful famine. That’s the kind of empathy I meant for the members of My Body on earth to have one with another, an attitude where the life of each member is deemed to be very precious.

But this Biblical incident has been twisted by “faith” preachers. The poorest TV viewers are pressured to sacrifice all, and to do it immediately, or else “they’ll miss the stirring of the waters”, and someone else will get the blessing instead. This ruse is used by unscrupulous preachers who recall the story of the pool called “Bethesda”, a place whose name means “House of Mercy”. An angel would descend from heaven at widely spaced intervals and impart temporary healing properties to its water. Whoever dipped into that water first was healed of whatever disease he had.

But My Son brought a fuller revelation of My merciful grace and lovingkindness to a nation which had, up to that time, known only a partial revelation. He came to fulfill My Word, and to reveal the fullness of My glory. Moreover, He came to lift up those deemed to be the underdogs of society, and to confound the wisdom of the proud. He declared that those who had always come first would be last, and those willing to take the lowest places would be the exalted ones in His Kingdom. He took pity on one poor man who had always been unable to dip into the pool first. That man, who had been paralytic for 38 long years, received healing from far better waters; even through the Water of Life, imparted by My Holy Son Who is One with Me, the Fountain of Living Waters. For the man who had encountered Yahweh-Rapha, the Healing God of Israel, there was glorious rest. No longer would he live daily in unrestful vigilance and anxiety, competing with others to get My blessing first. The con artist ministers unrest to those whom I have called to enter into My Rest of Faith! And unrest gives rise to foolish decisions based on fear, not faith!

The viewer impulsively gives out of her poverty, afraid to pray an extra day to make certain that I, not some fly-by-night operator, direct her giving. And her gift goes, not to provide food for a prophet, but profits for a fool.

An Unspeakable Cruelty

Ezek.34:4

This is the cruelest, most despicable, extortion of all, used by an evangelist whose beginning with Me had been sincere: “If you have made a pledge to this ministry and later decide not to send it in, you’re in BIG trouble! That amounts to the greatest sin of all, lying to the Holy Ghost! And don’t go around acting like you’ve already sent the money in. You could be dead within days if you don’t keep faith with God and honor your promise!”

It wouldn’t have fazed this evangelist one bit if his dire predictions had come true, and those who welshed on their “faith pacts” dropped dead. In his opinion, I wouldn’t have even spared a “faith partner” who fell on hard times and had nothing to send in. I have had to restore many a shattered soul who lost My peace, worrying that the devil would bump him off for not paying the preacher.

What psychological trauma has come to souls who have been told they’ve sinned against the Holy Ghost, just because they were unable to fulfill a pledge made to a TV preacher who preyed on people’s emotions!

Where was this evangelist when some of his supporters paid their protection money and STILL endured hard trials during the New Year?

Religiou$ Blackmail

II Corinthians 11:13-15; I Peter 5:7-9; II Peter 2:15-16

Blackmailing My saints, no matter how tactfully it is done, even if it is perfumed by calling it something else, is an abomination in My sight. I will never hold any preacher guiltless who sends out intimidating mail in My Name to extort money from My sheep! Deliberately putting people into spiritual bondage in order to control them is witchcraft of the basest sort!

Sometimes it’s very evident that con artists aren’t getting their orders from Me. A certain man continues to receive strange mail from all sorts of religious quacks, many years after his death from cancer. He was put on a master mailing list which can be purchased by any “non-profit” organization. One false prophet had some dismal news for him: “The Lord has revealed that in the coming year, satan is going to launch an attack on you as never before. Please fill out this prayer request form, and tell God what you need from Him.

Always remember, faith without works is dead. Act out your faith by enclosing a one-time “Defeat the D