FEAR! MAGIC? MIRACLE!!!

 

FEAR! MAGIC? MIRACLES!!!

 

***FEAR: a painful feeling of the impending danger, evil or trouble; the feeling or condition of being afraid; in order to avoid or prevent. reverential awe, as of God; to have a reverential awe of.

 

***MAGIC: The pretended art of producing effects beyond the natural human power by supernatural agencies or through command of occult forces in nature.

 

***MIRACLE: An effect in the physical world which surpasses all known human or natural powers and is therefore ascribed to supernatural agency: a wonderful thing: a marvel.

 

 

I have been concerned a bit lately. I may even pose it to you as a question. Why is it that people fear God and the things of God, when He simply wants to love them and have them love Him in return; yet at the same time, they welcome with open arms the things of satan, when all he wants to do is destroy everything. We welcome in our home through the means of television, books, computers, games, etc., things that include witchcraft, demons, fortune tellers and all that go with it…then get upset because of the evil we see in our homes, towns, schools and yes even our churches. Let us dare not forget WE INVITED THEM…anytime we have bought them; rented them, we have invited them in and even pay for their continuance. Yet we leave our Bible sitting on the shelf, gathering dust. Some of us leave it at the church on our pew, lest we forget to bring it the next time we come. What are we gonna read when we are home; the likes of “harry potter” “chronicles of narnia” “the lion the witch and the wardrobe“? There are no such things as “good” witches or “good” demons. Some think it’s OK just because the “good” seems to win in the end. WRONG!!! Just as there are no big or little sins, there is no “good” and “bad” devils, witches or any of the like. Anything that teaches different from the Holy Word of God is bad. In God’s eyes all sins and evils are the same.

 

Isn’t it odd, we will pay money to go see a “magic” show, yet we will not give to the church for the furtherance of God’s work. Just in case you are wondering, didn’t God give them the ability to perform these “magic” feats; the answer would be “everything comes from God…in the beginning. (I believe these things are from the fallen angels who chose to leave God’s world for one of their own.) Yet if you have paid attention to scripture, when magicians were called in, they were limited in their ability; the man of God was unlimited….when Pharaoh’s magicians tried to duplicate what Moses did, they repeated SOME of his acts, but they could not do them all. With the interpretation of dreams for the kings and such of the old testament, the magicians and “seers” who were in the kings court, could not speak the interpretation and even the magicians told the king to call for the prophet of God. I recently read of a story in the Old Testament involving a king who had called for his magicians, seers, whatever you want to call them, before he went into battle to see if he would win. He didn’t want to call the prophet of God, his words were “but I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. He didn’t want the truth, much as we don’t want it today. So, he didn’t want to hear what God had to say…Instead he went on with what the “false” prophets had to say…in fact the prophet of God told the king he would be killed…the king chose to go into battle “disguised” so they wouldn’t know him and hopefully he would spare his own life. Yet he sent in a “friend” in his place…knowing his friend could possibly be killed in his place…but God was faithful to Jehoshaphat, and the enemy saw that Jehoshaphat was not the king of Israel, and didn’t kill him but the king of Israel was killed.

(Story is 1Kings 22)

Isn’t it the same today, we want to know what the future is, yet when the man of God tells us, we don’t like what he has to say. Therefore, we will go where they say what we want to hear, and expect everything will work out alright.

 

We are led to believe, in order to deceive us into thinking they are harmless, that the “white witches/white magic” is good because they only cast “good” spells. Any time you “cast a spell” over someone, good or bad, it takes away their free will; a precious gift from God. In fact, “free will” is the #1 gift from God. It allows us to freely love Him rather than force us to love Him. God, Himself will not take our free will away, so anything that would, be it “good” or bad cannot be from God. The curses and the spells brought upon many by the “good” or bad evil is in direct conflict with what Jehovah God has planned for you. Yes, He could stop it. But that would take away His love gift of free will. Our most prized possession. You may think that salvation is the greatest gift, but without the ability to CHOOSE, it would be a forced thing. It would be one in which we didn’t freely accept. This is why I believe free will is a greater gift than salvation…salvation is free but it is a choice to take it or not. Even with this free will, it allowed Lucifer to choose to be opposite of God. God knew what he would do, but didn’t stop it because even the angels have free will.

 

I seem to have gotten off course here, let me see if I can find my way back.

 

We go to churches where there is a Holy atmosphere; people may shout, may lift their hands, may weep, may tremble. When we don’t understand, we fear it. But it seems to be only the “holy” things that we fear. Could that be a reflection on the condition of our own spirit? Those who belong to Jehovah God may, be a little “uneasy”, when things of the Holy Spirit are manifested, but not to the point of rejecting those who are USED by the Holy Spirit. We are told in the Bible to “try the spirits”; Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. 1 John 4:1

What would the word “try” in this instance mean? Prove? experience it for your self? Check it out and see what the purpose is for it? When your spirit and heart are right with God, then you can look at what surrounds the things of the spirit, question in your heart what is happening, and you will KNOW beyond the shadow of a doubt which is true.

I must tell you that God isn’t in the business of working “magic”, HE PERFORMS MIRACLES. No one can accomplish or duplicate the miracles of God. When God works, you know it was God not some “magic” from the other side. This will be part of the deception the antichrist will expect us to fall for during the tribulation. This is how he will make us believe he is Christ. But be warned THIS DAY, during the tribulation, which is set about to separate the chaff from the wheat, the children of God from the children of Baal, it will not be the same. The secret of the emery is to “copy” the miracles of God from the Old Testament…but don’t fall for it. As the old saying goes, you catch more flies with honey than you do vinegar….and that’s the purpose of the “miracles/magic” of the antichrist….to catch you away.

This will be of utmost importance to all during the time of tribulation. Many false christs will appear, many will come deceiving the peoples of the earth. You must stand faithful; watch and see, try those who come in the name of Christ and see if the spirit within them is of Jehovah God. Deception comes in many ways….usually in the ways that would seem “natural”, “easy to understand” even “pleasant”. The old adage from the 60s and 70s, “If it feels good, do it” will not and does not apply. We look for it to “feel good” in the flesh. That is wrong. When your heart is pure toward God and it “feels good” in your heart and soul, then you will know it is right. God allows you free will yes, but when His spirit dwells in you, it is as though what you do is being guided by Him. If your heart is NOT pure toward the Father, then satan and his evil hordes will direct you. Your spirit knows the things of God and will follow after them…IF your flesh will submit to your spirit, not the other way around.

 

And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Matthew 10:28

We are taught to “fear” God. Yet at the same time, we are to “love” God. So many of us fear God to the point that we are “afraid” of Him. There is a difference in the words you know. Just as many words have several different meanings, so does the word “fear”. You can fear God due to an “awe” in knowing how powerful He is; how magnificent He is….or you can fear Him to the point you are afraid to breathe because you may not do it the way He would want you to. Charles was taught to fear God in the second way….”If you mess up, God’s gonna squash you like a bug”. I thought that was a northern teaching until I met those in the south who believed the same thing. They even used the story of Samson to back them up….saying God killed Samson, for his disobedience. PARDON ME??? God didn’t kill Samson. Samson was ashamed of what he had done and what they had done to him because of his weakness….he could be termed as the first “suicide bomber”. He knew what he was doing…and he asked God to give him his strength one last time so he could recompense for what had happened. God did not kill Samson. Charles later learned that God is a loving Father. AMEN!!!!!!!! He takes HIS children when they err, and lets them know they’ve messed up, and if they ask, He will forgive them, and He will put His arms around them and say, I love you. Notice I said HIS children. He forgives, but where the most of us get messed up is in thinking He takes away the consequences for the wrong….He doesn’t do that…He leaves that for the learning….if we had no scars from wounding, we wouldn’t know “not to do that again”. We would have no reminder that “that was wrong, I shouldn’t have done that; it hurt me and others the last time I did that.” That’s what consequences are for…that’s what scars are for.

 

When we study about the “fear of the Lord” we learn that it is wisdom, that it is clean. Psalm 33:8..The eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him… That doesn’t mean, “you’d better look out, God’s watching you”. It means that those who fear Him, He knows love Him and they are under His protection. Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him; Psalm 85:9 No place are we told to be “afraid” of God, but to “fear” Him.

You have a fear of electricity….you know what power it has…..yet you are not afraid to turn on the light switch….it’s more what I choose to call “a healthy respect” for it. You know the hazards it carries, yet you know if you treat it right, the benefits far outweigh the bad thing that could happen; it’s not gonna hurt you if you use it in the right way, but try to cross some wires and see what happens. You know better…..I see that as similar fear we should have for the Father.

The sad thing about all of this is, when we have the wrong fear of our heavenly Father, we miss out on such tremendous blessings. Things we fear in this way, we tend to stay away from so we don’t get hurt. At least that’s what we think. Then when things turn out bad, who do we blame? We blame God when He was right there all the time saying, “Come to ME, don’t fall for the things of the enemy.” We want Him to protect us, to fix our mistakes. Why should He when we’ve traded Him so many times for things of the enemy and things He has told us is wrong all along. And we still expect Him to bring us home to Him in heaven. This is further reason why the “christian” must go through the tribulation. He knows, but He wants to make sure WE know, where our hearts are. Will they follow Him regardless, or will we succumb to the “magic” of the antichrist and the hordes of satan?

Just a note here of something I heard on TV the other day: “The art of ‘magic’ is deception.” We all know magic is pure deception, “slight of hand”, illusion. I for one don’t like being deceived. And we all know where deception comes from. It should create in us a fear of satan and his hordes, not the Father who brings us truth, evidenced by what we see and know beyond any doubt. Put your faith in miracles of God. Direct yours fear to the enemy and his deception. The miracles of God are pure and true, NOT the ‘magic’ of satan.

Isn’t it funny, we embrace lies and deception and reject and shun the truth?

 

***Definitions from the American Collegiate Dictionary

All Scripture is KJV

Maxine Branthoover 3/21/2008