Friday Bible study taught by Pastor Don Moore June 16, 2011 – this was taught at the time when Camping was suggesting the earth would end shortly.  When the first prophesy didn’t occur, he then said it would happen October 21, and guess what?  We’re still here.

Errors we profess follow us around. We need to have compassion for Camping’s people for they have been deceived.  Camping didn’t admit his mistake and that will hurt those who believed this false prophesy, as their faith is shaken.  Camping came forward and said that the judgment was spiritual, not physical when the first date didn’t pan out.  It is easy to wonder if he would have avoided a stroke by honestly admitting his mistake instead of trying to hide it.

The number one way that false prophets deceive is by saying it is spiritual.  When something prophesied for the natural doesn’t come to pass, the false prophet claims it happened in the spiritual.  By claiming that they can see this in the spiritual it elevates them above you, for you may not see what they “see” in the spiritual.  You can’t see it, the prophet says, but I can.  The only one under judgement in Camping’s prophesy was him.

For his followers this is a hard lesson to learn, for their beliefs are shaken.  We must have compassion for the millions who believed he was right, who fell for his prophesy.  These people blindly believed, not reading Scripture, not comparing Scripture to Scripture to seek the truth.  Camping went way beyond the meaning of Scripture in what he taught.  The sad thing is that this is not the first time he made this mistake, he has foretold the end of the world previously three other times.

God will deal with Camping.  We need to be humble.  We all don’t do right or speak the right things in line with the scripture all the time.  We must be compassionate to those who were deluded.

Romans 14:12-13 So then each of us shall give account of himself to God. Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother’s way.

We are accountable to God.  We don’t judge one another as to ultimate outcome of if the person will be saved or not.  This passage does not say don’t judge – just we don’t judge another’s salvation.  We can judge when a person has made a mistake.  We are to judge the fruit of a person’s life.  

Judgment will happen to us if we get out from under the truth of the Gospel, and put ourselves in position and power over people teaching them untruths.  Some teach their followers that the healing, tongues, and the power of the Holy Spirit is not effective today.  They argue against signs, wonders, and gifts of the Spirit, preaching against the things clearly shown in Scripture.  They come out from under the covering of God, and when they believe these false teachings it becomes self-fulfilling prophesy, for the gifts and signs and wonders won’t happen unless the person adds faith to the mix.

The revelation truth of the Word is based on yieldedness.

The meaning of the word Salvation is wholeness, health, prosperity, healing, deliverance.  It is not just about dying and going to Heaven.  

There is no sinner’s prayer written in the Bible – it is about repenting and believing.

We create religion and tradition that is not established on the Gospel.

One of the biggest errors we have is saying we don’t know God’s will.  We often pray for the sick (not realizing it is God’s will that the person be healed) but we pray, “If it be God’s will let that person be healed.”  When we pray like that it shows that we are ignorant of the authority of the believer and we aren’t operating in the authority of the believer.  We are not expressing our relationship to and understanding of the work of the Cross.  

If God tells us to pray and gives us the authority of the believer, and we refuse to do it, we are in disobedience.  

Some people will say that it is God’s will that a person isn’t healed, or that God took the life of someone.  It is blasphemous to speak evil and attribute it to God, when the cause is the devil or neglect of the Word.   It is common to call hurricanes and tornadoes acts of God. Sometimes when a person has an accident it is said that God was teaching the person a lesson.  What?????  God does not need to teach us through tragedy.  

Of course, if we get outside the permissive will of God, and choose to do our own thing, God is not required to protect us from the errors of our judgment.  And sometimes when we are out of God’s will we make stupid mistakes and face serious consequences for those mistakes.

We don’t have to pray, Lord if it be thy will.  We know, through Scripture, what is God’s will in a situation.  We might ask God how to pray in our situation or pray in tongues if we don’t know what to pray.  

1 Corinthians 11:27-32  Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.  For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.  For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world. 

Many traditions have people examine their lives and sins before taking communion so they do not take communion in an unworthy manner.  But the unworthy manner of taking communion refers to our faith, about our not discerning the work the Jesus did on the Cross, and that is why there are many sick – for they are not eating the Body of Christ and realizing that it is by His stripes we are healed, so many are sick and sleep (die).  We need to judge ourselves, to come before God and be chastened by Him, then we won’t have the world bringing us away from God’s perfect will.

Pastor Don said, “If salvation was only about dying and going to Heaven, why don’t we all just drink the Kool-aid?”  Salvation also speaks to the Kingdom work on the earth and our quality of life on the earth.

We need to ask ourselves questions to help determine God’s perfect will for our lives, questions like, what do you want to do?  God wants to know what you want to do and helps you to make the best decision based on his perfect will.  Sometimes the answers are not always evident by circumstances, such as do I take Job A or Job B?  Job A may initially pay more, but Job B offers training and advancement for the future.  We won’t be comfortable in our spirits until we take it to God and hear from Him.  He will help us to clarify the truth.

God gives us the desires of our heart, and He puts those desires into our heart.

1. Is it my will or God’s will?  When we are in doubt we need to ask ourselves if we are choosing something based on our personal will or are we lining up with God’s will.  These are not empty opinions, our decision is based on our understanding of God inside us.  If we want to Know God’s will, we need to be filled with His Word, then the Holy Spirit has the Word of God in us to draw from to help guide us to God’s perfect will.  Stop wasting money on personal will issues, save money for God. Shut out distractions and discern if what you want to do is God’s will or the permissive will of God.

2. Salvation and spiritual outcomes – know the will of God.  We don’t have to ask if God wants us to forgive.  We know that He wants forgiveness. If someone is seeming to deliberately disturb you (after discerning where you are at, that you haven’t contributed to the problem) then maybe ask the person if there is a disturbing spirit that is making you act this way? To ask a question is far better than combat.  Ask yourself why this is so important to you?  You may not know. Often we are taught not to ask questions.  We can pray in tongues if we don’t know how to pray about the situation.  Seek the heart of God for the circumstance.  Know His Word so you can know the will of God.

Paul and Silas tried to get to Macedonia three times and God blocked their trip.  When he finally opened the door to Macedonia, he had Lydia there to take care of them and the church flourished.  Had they gone before it was God’s perfect timing things would not have proceeded so smoothly.

3. We need to pray and hear God’s response.  We don’t have to act immediately.  There are no emergencies in God’s Kingdom.  When we feel we have discerned God’s will we act in faith.  If we get it wrong, God will correct us.  

4. We need to trust in God, cast our cares on Him and not take them back.  So often we pray, give God our concerns then like a fisherman casting out his rod, we reel our cares back.  We need to cast our cares and then cut the line.

5.  Sometimes tough circumstances could lead us to believe we are out of God’s will.  When we are in God’s will, sometimes the external circumstances would seem to dictate otherwise.  Jesus was in God’s perfect will but he went to the Cross.  Paul and Silas were beaten and cast into prison.  But God used the prison to set up another church.  When we know God’s will in our heart, don’t let external circumstances tell you that this may not be God’s will.  When God tells you to do something, be obedient.  Seek God’s will and apply it in your life.

Jeremiah 30:1-2 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, “Thus speaks the LORD God of Israel, saying: ‘Write in a book for yourself all the words that I have spoken to you. 

Jeremiah’s scribes wrote what Jeremiah prophesied into a book

Jeremiah 30:3 For behold, the days are coming,’ says the LORD, ‘that I will bring back from captivity My people Israel and Judah,’ says the LORD. ‘And I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.’” 

The Israelites wee in captivity – the Jews and the People of the Book (Messiah)  Jew and Christian.

Many of us were raised while in captivity, and brought out of captivity.  They believe God’s promise to return on faith, while they were captive.  They were taken into captivity by the evil one.  They are in a generational curse of captivity.  They were also in captivity in their spirit and mind.  

God will give us (and them) our stuff and what our fathers lost as well.  God will bless, and his blessing will erase the captivity.  God can restore what the enemy stole and give us a blessing that is greater than we can imagine.

We need to stir up hope that God can restore exceedingly, abundantly, above all we can think or imagine, or ask.

I hope this teaching blesses you.

Heather

Taught June 10, 2011

Prophesy causes us to center on the call of our life for the end times.  The Church (ecclesia) is the gathering of the saints, the Body of Christ.

The saints are told not to forsake the assembling of the brethren, together they are the spiritual body of Christ.  

The problem comes when the flesh gets in the way of the spiritual. 

The Church is not a democracy.  And many churches try to shape the church to the image we understand.  But that is not God’s vision.

Ephesians 4:10 He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)

This is referring to Christ.

Ephesians 4:11  And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,

Notice – it is given to SOME, not all.  The modern day church does not recognize the apostleship. Not all recognize the prophetic.  To speak to the congregation from the pulpit can be prophetic.  Some tell Forth the Word of God and some tell what will happen.

Evangelists – if there are no evangelists, the church is not destined to grow, no visitors, no one saved. 

Signs and wonders are rejected by the church.  

Today pastors are being asked to do many things, but a pastor’s chief role is to love the sheep and shepherd the flock.  Not all pastors are anointed to teach.  Some pastors are not anointed to teach.  Some can teach, but it isn’t their calling.

God established five offices in the church and each one is important.  What are they for?

Ephesians 4:12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 

The reason for the five offices is for the equipping of the saints, to edify them for the work of ministry.  Ministry does not fall solely on the pastor. The whole congregation should be out there reaching the unsaved.  God is building His church.   Apostles sit in authority.  Not all that call themselves apostles are acting in that role and many are not truly apostles the way Jesus spells it out.

Ephesians 4:13-14 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, The purpose of these offices for the equipping of the saints is for us to all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God…

We should be in the process to be growing in this way.  If we are still caught in some stuff of the past, we need to be showing movement in the direction that God wants us to be, we are not perfect, but should be striving to line our lives up with God’s will.  We need to cast our cares on the Lord and not pull back and wait for our lives to be fulfilled.  If we don’t have faith that God can produce these changes in us, then we won’t possess what God has planned for us.

Ephesians 4:15-16 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

This won’t happen until we die to self.  it won’t happen until the church comes under pressure and gets in line with God’s will.  When the end times exerts pressure on the church, churches will have to pull together to survive, to work together as one body.  God will feed what He has planted.  Judgment begins in the house of God.  We will have a choice – step up for Jesus, or not.  We want to spread the Gospel. 

What happens when we try to reach the lost and it didn’t work.  Why?

Isaiah 28:9-12 “Whom will he teach knowledge? And whom will he make to understand the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just drawn from the breasts? For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.”  For with stammering lips and another tongue He will speak to this people, to whom He said, “This is the rest with which You may cause the weary to rest,” and, “This is the refreshing”; yet they would not hear. 

The world would not hear.  God gives us the power to share the Good News.  We need to be like CIA agents for the Lord, sometimes the price of sharing is difficult, but what God gives you to share is a test for your ministry.  Will you obey Him?

You get the teaching of the Gospel line upon line, precept upon precept.  You don’t get the Gospel listening to a band or at a barbecue.  When you share the gospel, you need to stay with the people and teach them until they understand it.

Isaiah 28:13 But the word of the LORD was to them, “Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line,  here a little, there a little,”  that they might go and fall backward, and be broken and snared and caught. 

We are to minister to the people, and when the power of the Lord comes, some may fall backward and be broken.  God does the surgery, the person gets off the floor and is snared and caught.

Isaiah 28:14-15 Therefore hear the word of the LORD, you scornful men, who rule this people who are in Jerusalem, because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we are in agreement. When the overflowing scourge passes through, it will not come to us, for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood we have hidden ourselves.”

The Church commits falsehood and lives are not touched.  When the Church brings forth the Gospel, people get saved.  Do we put the Word of God over entertainment in the Church or do we have our priorities wrong?

Isaiah 14:12  How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! 

How did he weaken nations?

Isaiah 14:13-20  For you have said in your heart:  ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’  Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit. Those who see you will gaze at you, and consider you, saying: ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, who made the world as a wilderness and destroyed its cities, who did not open the house of his prisoners?’  All the kings of the nations, all of them, sleep in glory, everyone in his own house; but you are cast out of your grave  like an abominable branch, like the garment of those who are slain, thrust through with a sword, who go down to the stones of the pit, like a corpse trodden underfoot. You will not be joined with them in burial, because you have destroyed your land and slain your people. The brood of evildoers shall never be named. 

Leaky praise and worship, false teachings in the church, will pull down nations.  Our culture has become dominated by the airwaves, false teachings, secular music, and satan is the lord of that heaven.  We need to take back the airwaves.  We are not trying to sound like the secular music, but rather to teach the truth of the Gospel.

Ezekiel 28  also speaks about the fall of satan and the world system.

Hope this teaching blesses you.

Heather