"But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully." 2 Corinthians 11:2-3


We are living in difficult times - things are not always as they seem; especially within the Christian world. Many voices can be heard across the airways and in the pulpits. A few are speaking truth while others, the voice of deception rings loud and long. It is our responsibility as Christians to evaluate the character and conduct of others, including leaders within the church.

Discerning a distorted Jesus can be difficult at times but ask yourself a few simple questions:

1. Who is at the center of the ministry? Do they speak more about themselves than they do about Jesus?
2. Is the ministry marked by arrogance? It's ALL about "me".
3. Is the ministry stained with immorality? Is their sin in the camp?
4. Does the ministry show a love of money? Send me your seed and it will come back to you a thousand fold. [NO where in scripture is this taught].
5. Does the ministry attempt to manipulate the sheep?

The sheep are being fleeced due to a lack of knowledge due to laziness and gullibility. How will one be able to discern truth from error if the Word is never opened [study to show thyself approved] and one chooses to swallow and follow.

No Wonder our LORD calls us sheep.

"The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much." James 5:16

Effective fervent prayers are desperate prayers spoken through tears of pain and suffering from a heart broken with the weight of circumstances beyond our ability to understand or control.

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:5-6

Learn His will, persist in prayer, pray in faith and pray in expectation.

"...ask in faith without doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea... James 1:6

and wait upon the LORD.

"They that wait for the LORD will gain new strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary." Isaiah 40:31

Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved.

"....guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called 'knowledge' which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith...

John MacArthur writes in The Truth War ~

'The gospel message is a clear, definitive, confident, authoritative proclamation that Jesus IS LORD, and that He gives eternal life, abundant life to all who will believe. We who truly know Christ and have received that gift of eternal life have also received a clear and definitive commission to deliver the gospel message boldly as His ambassadors.

But we are not merely ambassadors - we are soldiers, commissioned to wage war for the defense and dissemination of the truth.

We are ambassadors with a message of good news for people who walk in a land of darkness and dwell in the land of the shadow of death. And we are soldiers - charged with the pulling down of strongholds and casting down the lies and deception spawned by the forces of evil.

Our task as ambassadors is to bring good news - our mission as soldiers is to overthrow false ideas. Our warfare is not against flesh and blood and our duty as ambassadors does not permit us to compromise or align ourselves with any kind of human philosophies, religious deceit or falsehood. We are not called to wage war against people or to enter into diplomatic relations with anti-Christian ideas.

If these sound like difficult assignments - it is because they are.!.'

...Grace be with you." 2 Timothy 6:20-21

Pray said a small voice - PRAY.!.

The church thinks itself alive, but it is dead. Wake up church, wake up, strengthen what remains before it is too late. Get up church, get up, you are not finished - get busy, turn from your sin.

Pray for strength for the faithful, pray for encouragement, pray for the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Pray for Wisdom, pray for revelation of truth to come to the church, pray for the spirit of pride and arrogance to be broken and pray for forgiveness.

"IF My people who are called by My Name humble themselves and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land."II Chronicles 7:14

Hold tightly to what you have - stand on the Promises of God - finish the race and PRAY.!.

When the world is hopeless with fear - you are to tell them that great is the anger of the LORD against this people. Calamity has come by their own hand, because they refused to obey their God.

"...and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, 'Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their [He who sits on the throne and the Lamb] wrath has come, and who is able to stand?'" Revelation 6:16-17

"...and they repented not of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts" Revelation 9:21

"Peter said to them, 'Repent, and each of you be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit..."' Acts 2:38

When we spend more time in the world than we do in the Word, we are separated from God and capable of anything.

No man has truly repented until his sin has wounded him until the wound has broken him and defeated him and taken all the fight and self-assurance out of him and he sees himself as the one who nailed his Saviour on the tree.

We must be changed by the Word. We need to - read it through, write it down, pray it in, work it out, and pass it on.

Jehovah God is calling His body to come out and be ye separate. Out of compromise, out of deception, out of self-importance and greed, out of the world and back to the security and peace only found in Him.

IF you do not know the truth, you will believe the lie. IF you do not know the truth, you will believe anything.

"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things..." 2 Timothy 4:2-5

"We must tell people what we have learned. . . that no darkness can keep out God's marvelous light. They will believe us, because we've been here." - Betsie ten Boom (died in Nazi concentration camp)

"It is one of the greatest wonders in the world, how the church subsists under such fierce and frequent assaults as are made upon it by its enemies." - John Flavel

We live in a day when many Christian Right political leaders are telling people how to survive the difficult times that are coming. One recent evangelical presidential candidate, in a recent column, remarked that "we are on the precipice of some potentially catastrophic -- or at the very least, challenging --days." His practical solutions for preparation include "moving to a more rural location," stocking up on provisions, getting in shape physically, and preparing for self-defense with firearms. After many paragraphs describing various weapons, he concludes with a brief nod to faith:

"I strongly suggest that you seek to possess a personal relationship with God's only begotten Son."

If we could choose for ourselves, we would escape trials and tribulations. The glory and praise must be given to God, another difficult doctrine for those who want their ears tickled.

Flavel explains that: "Moreover, by exposing His people to grievous sufferings, G-D gives a fit opportunity to manifest the glory of His power in their support, and of His wisdom, in the marvellous ways of their escape and deliverance."

"Affliction is a furnace to separate the dross from the more pure and noble gold.

Multitudes of hypocrites, like flies in a hot summer, are generated by the church's prosperity; but winter weather kills them: Many gaudy professors [of the faith] grow within the enclosure of the church, like beautiful flowers in the field, where they stand during its peace and prosperity, in the pride and bravery of their gifts and professions; but the wind passeth over them, and they are gone, and their places shall know them no more."

The Truth:"

And our hope of you is steadfast, knowing, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation." (2 Corinthians 1:7)