When we listen to the Word of God, motivation will be created. When motivation is created, you will be driven to the road of a choice. When you are driven to the road in which you need to make a choice, this is the time where many people hesitate and take a long time until they make the right choice. They may hesitate by stating that they need to pray more about their situation and circumstance. They would overly think about the choices that need to be made. As they put so much thought into it, they are psychologically stressed, feel pressured, they wander around, and they sometimes allow opposition of family members to drag them into delaying. What kind of choice do you need to make?
People possess an element called, ‘character’ or ‘personality’. We are able to freely move, perform certain things, and choose. People have the right to do things according to their desires. It may appear that we are doing things according to our desire but this is not true. Somebody is controlling us and our lives. Who are we controlled by? There are two forces of controlling beings. One is good and the other one is wicked. The wicked forces want to shatter our lives and we call it the devil. God leads us to a good way. At the same time, God will not force us as to control a robot. God will personally lead us without violating our free will. Therefore, we may sometimes not feel His presence within us. We need to be precisely trained in precise areas. This way, we will know the leading of the Lord and we will be able to hear the voice of the Lord.
We obtain information and knowledge through the written Word of God, but God does not want us to stop there. God desires to lead us vividly and lively. God desires to us to hear His voice. He desires to personally touch us. God desires to open our spiritual eyes and encounter us. These are the areas of Rhema. God said the most important aspect is the presence of God. When there is no presence of God, the service is counterfeit. Without the presence of God, you will become a hypocrite. Where there is no anointing of God in the church service and/or worship, this means God is not pleased and not present. Therefore, we need to always seek ways to worship that pleases God. We need to boldly reform our services and worship unto God.
Christians do not think of the Lord’s day, Sunday is the day of God. Many christians think it is ok not to give tithe. They further claim that even though they are not keeping the Lord’s day holy and not tithing properly that nothing will happen to them. When you break God’s Word and if nothing is happening to you, than it is a great sign of danger for you. You do not know when you will die. Despite this truth, such people live boldly with confidence. The people who live according to the Word of God, even if suffering, trials and death comes upon them, God will deliver them from such circumstances. The reason is because those who follow and live according to God’s Word and will possess a calling and mission to carry out. But the people who do not live according to the Word of God and will of God will die with the world when some kind of disaster and accident occurs in the world. These christians will easily die with the world.
Do not test the Lord. Whenever I make a mistake and nothing happens, that’s when I am most fearful. When we make a mistake, It is best that God disciplines us right away with measure. Please do not test God. When I had visited heaven, I did not meet people in heaven who had not properly tithed to the Lord. The people who had stolen God’s tithes were considered evil doers. Stealing tithes is contrary to the bible. The Lord clearly warns us in the bible that the evil doers will depart from Him. People who do not keep the Lord’s day holy are people who are considered evil doers. They are not worthy of the Kingdom of God. Despite of this fact, many servants of God are evil doers. These ministers lightly think of the kingdom of God.
The Lord fearfully said, “The Servants of God are raising up thieves at the altar/church of God. They will not enter into My house. Pastors are not keeping Sunday’s holy. They do not boldly teach people to keep the Lord’s day holy. Pastors are drinking, smoking, committing adultery and doing lustful things. Such people will not enter into My kingdom. Pastors are not powerfully teaching about giving tithes to God.”
Therefore, due to the pastor’s erroneous leadership, many church congregations are in deception and they often ask, ‘Do we really have to give tithes?’
You cannot be replaced with any other creation. You cannot replace tithes with something else. Those who did not give tithes to the Lord, please fearfully repent. Despite knowing and hearing this revelation, if you continue to test God, He will eventually strike you. If you do not give tithes, you will never get out of poverty. Do not limit (제한) God with your own thinking. Yet, God still patient with many christians.
As generations pass, people place their own thinking and ideas into the Word of God. When it comes to applying (적용) God’s Word, the people have rearranged God’s Words according to their own taste. Eventually, christianity became “a free for all” according to their will. If you desire to enter heaven, please keep the Word of God as best as you can. You need to live your daily lives as holy as possible. Father God said, “Be holy for I am holy”.
Saturday main message
Satan is an invisible being who possess powerful authority and power. The devil exposes things behind our back. If we ever wander around, it will make us wander about even more. If we are troubled with certain problems, it will make us more troubled. When we waste time, it will make us waste more time. When we are exposed to certain sin, it will make us expose to more sin. Satan is an ancient serpent and possesses the characteristics of an accuser. The devil causes us to have a handicap. To people who are confused, the devil will make them even more confused. The devil will cause things to make normal people become abnormal. When people try to go to church, the devil will cause many incidents to prevent them from going to church. The devil brings sickness and utilizes circumstances. There are times even when good people and even the people of faith are controlled by the evil spirits. We need to know the identity of the devil. We will know the devil through the bible. But at the same time, the bible does not talk a lot about the devil.
There are areas where the devil operates. There is an outer and unseen area. God has temporarily trapped the devil in hell. Until God’s appointed time, the devil will act like he is the king of hell. The devil has access to roam around the outer space and the earth. But most of the times, the devil is seated on its throne in hell. The devil commands give orders and teach from his throne. In the devil’s view, when there are incidents occurring which damages his kingdom, the devil will personally carry out an operation. Especially when spiritual aggressive and offensive christians and churches emerge, the devil will fiercely appear to the earth personally.
Many christians do not carry out their faith lives that frightens the devil. In order to fight against the devil, we need to receive the Holy Spirit. In order for the Holy Spirit to come upon us, we need to pray. Even if people pray, they carry out the kind of prayer that does not scare the devil. According to their own idea and thinking, many christians are carrying out their prayer lives that is below God’s standard. Their prayer quantity is greatly lacking. But these kind of christians still say that they are living spiritually. When the devil looks at christians, the devil instantly knows their spiritual level. Therefore, the devil looks down on christians. The devil treats christians below average. Due to many christians’ below level or standard in prayer, the demons mock us by saying, “Go ahead and continue to pray in such a way! It does not scare me! Do it hundred times! You say you go to church but you still sin a lot! Go ahead and attend church! Do not give tithes. It will be fine! The Lord will not strike you! Commit adultery and be lustful, God will forgive you! Doing these things are not that bad. Although you commit sins, the only thing you have to do is ask for forgiveness. Therefore keep on sinning and just repent later. ”
These are words the devil puts into the minds of Christians. This is how servants of God teach their church congregations. The Lord said that entering into the kingdom of God is very difficult.
Fleshly desires and greed are made within our carnal nature. We need to crucify our flesh on the cross. Although many christians claim that they believe in the Lord, they spend their whole lives living according to their fleshly desires and greed. These christians are persistent with their own ideas. They do not crucify their flesh and they do not yield. They are very stubborn.
Satan is one and there are countless number of subordinates under him. There are hidden evil spirits within people, families, churches, cities, nations and countries. These spirits have been hidden for a long period of time. These spirits are called, ‘The spirit of Religion’. In order for us to spiritually transform, we have to find the hidden spirits of religion from within us. We need to find hidden spirits of religion within our churches. We need to find the spirits of religion that are hidden within our households. In order for us to truly repent, we have to find and shatter them. What is true repentance? True repentance means truly being transformed. The Lord desires to use us but before using us, He requires true transformation. We must think and exam ourselves. We always need to think and exam ourselves. We need to ask ourselves, “Who am I?” We all have our own identity. Depending on how much we understand about our identity, our lives will be determined. It is very important for us to understand who we are. We need to know our identity. Because we act according to our identity, when we understand who we are, our consciousness and actions will be changed.
When my wife’s brother had a wedding on a Sunday, although we could have gone to the wedding for a short time after the church service since it was on the Lord’s day we decided not to go. From the smallest things to the largest things, if the Lord desires and requires, we need to follow His lead. When God calls us, we need to act and think according to our identity. The concept of who we are will need to be created. When we know our identity, our way of thinking and our methods will be created. Our Identity cannot be learned by education. It is given by the grace of God.
It is very important for us to know if we are continuing to hold onto the promises of God. The promises of God helps us to make decisions. It will influence your reality, household, church and children. Once we know our identity, we will act and think accordingly. When it comes to our identity, sometimes we need to find it. Sometimes our identity needs to be changed. Sometimes, our identity is newly made. When you come before the Lord and pray, the purpose of your identity can be formed. Sometimes, a wrong identity can be created. In order to prevent a wrong identity from being formed, we need to pray and cry out to God. It is the same with a household, the household needs to pray and cry out to the Lord. It is the same with a church, a nation, countries, and even all of creation. This also is related to the spirit of religion.
In the kingdom of Satan, the spirit of religion is the first ranked evil spirit among all the subordinates under the devil. When christians decide to move toward their new faith, the hidden religious spirits within us will suddenly hinder us. This hidden spirit of religion will whisper like the Holy Spirit, “Do not do new things. You are not supposed to do that.”
When christians try to change their thinking and ways, the spirit of religion will try to prevent our changing. The spirit of religion is very skillful and cunning. The identity of the evil spirits will manifest in various ways. Their appearance is not visible to the spiritual eyes. Even with the spiritual eyes, there are many invisible evil spirits in the spiritual realm. No matter how deep our spiritual eyes may have opened, many evil spirits are still invisible. Many christians and churches do not know that they have the spirit of religion within them. Through tonight’s message I proclaim to you, please discern if you have the spirit of religion. First, the spirit of religion is very cunning and has no form. When christians try to go deeper with their relationship with the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, it will try to stop us by hindering us. There are many various ways to hinder us. The spirit of religion is very wicked and cunning.
There are many religious groups or organizations. Even if the groups and organization may appear holy and if the spirit of religion takes over, such groups and organizations will become mixed. The spirit of religion do not like christians changing. The spirit of religion wants christians to stay in their current state. The spirit of religion tries to change the work and manifestation of the Holy Spirit with the method of democratic and religious activities. This is one of the reasons why some spiritual people and spiritual churches suddenly change back to religious or common ways. Therefore the spiritual thinking of leadership is very important. It is very important for churches to become spiritual. Religious churches appear very attractive and good when they carry out religious activities. They participate with activities within society and emphasize volunteer work. The religious churches portrait these activities as something great.
When the spirit of religion works, there will be symptoms. First, the person with the spirit of religion equip themselves with some form of appearance. This person will stress their appearance. These types of people overly stress the format or formalities. This applies to churches or organizations. Second, the person or church with the spirit of religion are scared with changes. There are people who appear spiritual, have a lot of understanding, and may pray a lot but in that crucial moment, these types of people will not participate spiritually. The people with the spirit of religion may pray but still give excuses.
Although they may believe in the power of the Holy Spirit, they will not participate as they may feel aversion. They will hesitate in new things. These are symptoms of the people who are seized by the spirit of religion. Fourth, the people with the spirit of religion become scared when people criticize or condemn them. The people with the spirit of religion cares too much about what others may say about them. The people with the spirit of religion, when they did not do something right or have made mistakes, they condemn themselves. These types of people do not think spiritually. The people of religion are seized by some kind of oppression, judges others, think with religious precepts and instead of serving one others, they would act pridefully. These types of people act like they know everything. If you are a person who has a hard time transforming your mind to something new, this is due to the spirit of religion.
The kingdom of God is not in words but in power. The Kingdom of God needs to be filled with grace and the love of God. But the spirit of religion always talks about bible study and formats. What you experience may be right, but if you overly insist on itto others, then you could possibly damage others. The spirit of religion will emphasize bible studies and know God through knowledge. The Kingdom of God varies. God may work with knowledge but at the same time God will also work and manifest impromptu and with an impression. The problem with people is that they want to understand the work of God with their limited thinking. People with the spirit of religion overly emphasize tradition, make others to misunderstand about the truth, they distort the truth, and they only insist their own ideas. These are two faced people like Israelites in the Old Testament.
The spirit of religion works with our mind and thoughts. It sometimes would stick to our bodies. It enters into our minds and it works with our words spoken through our lips. The spirit of religion is closely glued to a person’s soul and body. It will be very difficult to cast away. There is a spirit of religion that dwells and works within the households for a long period of time. The spirit of religion passed down from one generation to the next generation. The spirit of religion seizes one generation to another generation.
Self reflection is required but if we go too much into self reflection, the spirit of religion will attack us. We need to repent all the time but at the same time not be consumed with the the idea of overly repentance. Outer appearance of salvation is by receiving Jesus as your Lord, attending church, listening to the Word of God, and to grow. This is the common way of your christian life. Genuine salvation requires one to be spiritually born again. You need to enter into the actual appearance of salvation. If the assurance of salvation is the outer appearance, then the content of salvation is to enter into the gates of salvation.
Even though we instantly receive salvation, but when it comes to the content of salvation, we will gradually accomplish our salvation. There is only one method when it comes to receiving salvation. There is the duality of salvation. We begin our salvation as we receive Jesus as our Savior. When you become a child of God, do not think that is the end of it. Now the assignment has been given to you which is to live your life as a child of God. You need to move forward to accomplish and complete your salvation. You need to gradually accomplish your salvation. People who are saved, they always need to move forward towards the Lord. You need to keep on moving forward. You can not stop.
Do not spend too much time on self reflection. Do not waste too much time on repenting. When you have truly repented, you will entrust it to God. You will boldly jump into the work of God. In order to know the will of God, although we need to pray, if we focus too much on praying to find out the will of God, we will not be able to perform our daily needs. Then your family will face difficult times. Many people think that they will know the will of God as long as they only pray without performing proper daily activities. But this is not true. You need to go into your reality and daily activities. You need to go to work. This way, you will realize the will of God. Satan constantly stimulates our emotion and circumstances. No matter how much evil spirits are within you, even if ninety nine percent of you is filled with evil spirits, there is still one percent which the Lord works. The Lord will touch that one percent and will spread to whole body. Although we have evil spirits dwelling within us, do not say you can’t perform or you can’t normally act. You need to use your will.
Sermon by Pastor Kim, Yong Doo
Head pastor of the Lord’s Church, Korea
Author of Baptize by Blazing Fire book series
Translated by Pastor Steve & Yoojin Kim
Pastors of Fire of God Church in San Francisco (Fremont)
Fire of God Church is a branch church of the Lord’s Church, Korea and is under the spiritual covering of head Pastor Kim, Yong Doo