Category Archives: Disciples of Jesus Christ.

Jeremiah 23:1, Woe be unto the shepherds that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the LORD.

Allow me to share some of my anti-Christ or (alternative Christ’s) experience with you all on the web. First off, I want to say that I was raised up in the Reformed Church; I experienced my Salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ at around 15 or 16 years of age. Prior to this the devil tried to destroy my walk with God, and for some time afterwards. Within the spiritual realm we fight not against flesh and blood (human beings) but against principalities and wickedness. The children of the Devil are known as the wicket in the scriptures (the unregenerate) and are agents of Satan spiritually. The manifestation of their actions and attitudes cannot be of God, as they do not know him, or walk with him in the Holy Spirit. So persecution of the elect, is the result because of who the wicket are, and who they serve, simply because of the fall of mankind from God.

Normally, the natural of the unregenerate man, has not a clue that he is evil, sinful, or fallen by nature. Most of the time they will appear to even be “good people”, yet they have no appetite for the truths of God, or his people, as that is the nature within them. The religious person is the worst, having a form of Godliness but not the power their of. The scribes and Pharisees, (the theologians) at the time of Christ, were the worst of all the enemies to Jesus and his disciples. Most of these men with the exception of Nicodemus never were elect of God for salvation from sin. Nicodemus himself had to live on the lamb (so to speak) to escape persecution from the very people he had been a part of. This type of behavior is what the Bible is actually speaking about when it speaks about not fighting against flesh and blood. It is a description to the true disciple of Jesus what can be expected of the natural man (or carnal man) within their lives.

Today is no different, other than the Religious’ people today claim the name of Jesus Christ as their savior, and those who have started with Christ, are most often diverted onto the broad road by such nominal believers. The Apostle John first put a name to these type of broad road believers, he called the anti-Christ’s in having once been a part of the brethren, than they peel off to preach another Gospel to others. These type men are only interested in their building of something for Jesus, normally in their pride of life, and not just ignorance. Yet it is even worse for them if they knowingly deceive people for personal gain, or to be accepted within the world. These men have no desire to be a follower of anyone, especially the Lord; as this would impose on them being in command and control of their own lives, and the lives of others! These type of Ministers are the wolves in sheep’s clothing which the scripture warns about to other sheep. Denominationalism is just a symptom of this spiritual condition, it goes much, much, deeper than most could even imagine, or want to see!

I had no idea when entering into ministry how severe and deep this root of sin runs today, and how destructive it is to a “would be follower of Jesus Christ” in the Holy Spirit. No, rather all this “Gospel selling” is the direct equivalent to Jesus getting angry and turning the tables over in the temple of the day!

One of the greatest “selling points” or Heresy of the Gospel today, is the doctrine which teaches that God loves everyone; this is totally unscriptural in the broader sense which it is used. Yes of course God is love, and God is also good. He allows the rain to fall on the wicket, as well as the righteous. Yet this is because of the nature of God in being all good, yet he is also without sin and cannot partake in it. The love of God to man was in sending his son to die on a cross in paying the price for sin. It was an act of great unfailing love towards mankind to provide such atonement for all who would choose and believe in faith, in the great mercy and grace which only Jesus Christ could provide as the unspotted lamb of God.

God’s love for the natural man ends there. There will be a judgment day to determine simply who is, and who is not in the lamb’s book of life. I don’t want to get off track here, but I would like to interject that more often than not, the new Near Death Experience phenomenon which people are so interested in reading about today, often teaches that people will have a second chance at confessing Jesus Christ is Lord, and receiving salvation beyond the grave. Having suffered a NDE myself, I can understand why many would believe such an assertion. Yet by personal experience in the subject prior to my own event, is that everyone who returned from the dead (that I knew) came to a saving faith, before their final curtain call. Even Lazarus who Christ had raised from the dead eventually died again. 2 Corinthians 6:2 KJV-  (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.) We are told here in 2 Corinthians 6:2 that we are given the chance to enter in with Christ while we live and breathe, not afterwards in the scriptures.

Now if someone wants to believe in a universal doctrine that all tongs will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord in an era of purging fire, well go rite ahead, be my guest. Yet this assertion to me, would be to dismiss the lake of fire described after the final judgment, and is purely speculative and merely academic in nature.

Let me get back on track now; I was talking about Shepherds, or Pastors, Ministers, Elders, or people whom have interjected themselves into leading others. Noticed I said “interjected themselves” as a true Elder in the Lord would never make such an assertion in independence of the calling and leading of God. Yet an anti-Christ would; in attempting to be an alternative to the truth of God, found only by walking and abiding in Christ! This has nothing at all to do with education or Bible knowledge, it is a call of God alone, and given only to men whom he empowers!

I will go off on a limb here and say from my personal experience, that most of the Clergy I have met in recent times, are at best people who have started with Jesus Christ in initial salvation, yet in spiritual ignorance (if that were possible) have either started to lean towards their own understanding in the flesh, or are in rank rebellion against God by refusing to listen and be taught of him. This is known as a broad roader, who if they will not repent will eventually be cut off and burnt. The other type of nominal minister is one who has never come into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, yet may hold a good theological understanding. Both men are the result of the condition of their heart towards God, and if elect how will they chose to follow him in Spirit.

Allow me to share with you why I shared my thoughts this evening: It is because after having my spiritual experience in Jesus Christ one night, in being given a brief vision of a heart beating filled with rich green grass, soon after I was married, I could not understand the meaning of the vision the Lord had given me. The next day on a Truth for Life radio broadcast in 1999 while warming up my car for the drive for work… Pastor Alistair Begg was preaching on how the word Pastor is derived from the word Pasture, and how it is only God who gives a man a “Pastor’s Heart”! Instantly the vision the night before made perfect sense to my understanding. I waited years until I got my computer and ordination to contact him regarding this experience. I received a nice letter from a staffer saying they were glad the Lord used their broadcast, yet my story never appeared within their “truth notes” sometimes read on the radio. and never a personal response from a man called to minister to others. I just couldn’t figure out why, even if these Church personalities are so very busy.

To the best I can recollect, it seems that I once again sent my story to the Man’s Facebook page immediately after he changed his profile picture, and now it seems I am no longer connected to his personal page, I am not making any negative assertions about the man’s character, but the whole thing seems very strange to me when wishing to share the things of God with a brother in Christ.

Another time when I was in my early 30’s I once wrote a long detailed letter to Mr. Bible – Dr. Jack Van Impe asking questions about eschatology, in the letter I shared that in 1948 when Israel became a nation, could not have been its blossoming, as that occurred in the 1967 war, when Jerusalem was regained. I received a bunch of books, answers to most of my questions – except the 1967 war. A couple years went by I guess, and I was walking in the halls of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, NY. Dr. Van Impe read a letter from a Bishop in England asserting the very same point I had written in my letter years prior; maybe this is just a coincidence, but then again I would have never thought, I would have seen that program in the halls of a military academy either.

The third contact was with Rev. Pat Robertson, sent by my brother in law in a letter thanking him for his prayers while nearly dying in military training. I had written how a friend with muscular dystrophy and I had watched his programs as a teen, and how encouraging they were to both of us. Then I went on to say I thought maybe the Lord would have me in ministry, but that I did not like the business end of the industry in something that was freely given; or at least something to that effect… I never heard back from that minister either, and my testimony of my near death never showed up even as a footnote on his website.

My whole point is this, who do these men really serve God or Manna? I’m sure if they were led of the Holy Spirit of God, surly they would have desired to have some sort of fellowship? I have only experienced true fellowship with people who actually have spiritual (supernatural experiences) in Jesus Christ, and this is why the Bible says you will know them by their fruits, and not Bible knowledge.

Mathew 7:13 -14 (ASV) Enter ye in by the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many are they that enter in thereby. For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leadeth unto life, and few are they that find it.

The Bible is only written to disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, (not the world) and discerned by the Holy Spirit (the teacher) to those who receive regeneration (Born Again) And strive to enter the Kingdom of heaven in heart (Spirit) not theology or natural understanding.

by, Lightship Chaplain

The first thing to understand is that our Lord is spirit, so we must learn to identify him in spirit, and not just by natural senses, but by the supernatural.

It is plain for most anyone to identify wickedness, and the fruits thereof. It is much more difficult to identify false brethren. Just like gangster use a storefront covering, to mask what is really going on inside, people too will use this tactic to mask what is really within them.

Everyone born into the world by natural miens is a son of Adam, and if not regenerated of God, is still a son of the Devil, making them the Devils agents, liars, thieves, murderers, adulterers and thugs by nature. In most Church circles we have been taught that we are all fallen, and need a Savior. We are also taught not to judge people, and to look for the goodness within them. Yet Jesus taught that nothing in man was good, so his disciples’ had to learn to be wise as serpents, yet gentile as doves in spirit to the world around them.

A true sheep of our Lord will already posses the quality of being meek and mild (gentile as a dove), while desiring to follow his shepherd and be close to him. But a goat on the other hand, will not be herded, follow a shepherd, and would rather jump, climb, and butt their way to the top. They function in independence, rather than dependency on their master.

Fallen man will never submit to God, or his principles. Rather they fight God with everything that is in them. This is why the Holy Spirit of God must do a work within us first, in order to bring us to repentance and salvation. It is my personal opinion, that those who are elect towards salvation will inherently already posses the nature of a sheep, or that of being “good ground” for the word of God to take root in eventually. Yet we are talking about people’s spiritual conditions, as when Jesus described people as being different types of grounds, so I do not want to digress into trying to explain what can only be discerned by spirit.

The most deceptive people to a follower of Jesus Christ are people having a form of Godliness, but do not have the spirit of truth; who is Christ himself. These type people have an apostate spirit and the nature of a goat. They tend to act mild-mannered on the outside, cultured, principled and often intellectual by nature. The most effective and most dangerous “store front” used by this type of individual is the “Church”, with most having being taught good Bible understanding within their minds. This is most dangerous to true believers, as they are nearly always deceived by this religious’ yet false spirit of truth, (as the truth  is only found in Christ).

The spirit of anti-Christ is everywhere, he is known as the Father of lies. I will give the reader a couple of examples of using the store front in masking deceptions to the genuine believer.

It must be understood that the deceiver already knows who the sheep are, and who his goats are.  My first example is when I was driving home on Christmas Eve, after spending some time with a new Baltimore City police officer; I had met who just happened to be a black man. I wanted to believe that people were basically good-by nature, so I let my guard down intuitively.

I was passing in front of the railroad station, to my apartment in the City. When I looked over and saw a van having its hood up, apparently having engine trouble, with a man waving his arms for assistance. So against my better judgment in avoiding that railroad station, I slowed down in the road as the stranger waved his arms in the air singing praise God, praises to God, someone has stopped to help me!

The stranger asked me to take him to a filling station as the neighborhood got darker and darker, than he wanted me to drive deeper into the community, so he could pay me for my efforts. I then woke up, realizing I had been had. I always kept a survival knife bolted next to the door beside my seat, but I did not possess the will to use it on the man, nor did I wish to have bloodstains inside my new truck, so I gave him the money I had, and told him to get out. While walking away he proudly proclaimed to me; be careful who you pick up in this neighborhood, this is a bad area brother, as he laughed with amusement to my ignorance.

This second example is concerning a man “I thought I knew” for years. I had known his mother and father, a retired Methodist minister, and had run into his brother a couple of times, with his wife.

This man was a big man, with a good-looking and rugged type of appearance in nature.

We had become friends oftentimes experiencing many of the same type hardships in life, in trying to be accepted by others around us. He attended our Church, had come over and helped me on projects and work around my home. We shared jokes, meals, talked about the Lord, and this apparent brother had once even corrected me when thinking about skirting my responsibility for dinging a stranger’s car door.

In our wheeling’s and dealings, I showed him tools I owned which no one else had ever been shown.

One winter, I had paid in the spring for some trees to be cut up and split for firewood in my backyard.

I had thought I gave this friend a pretty reasonable deal on over a cord of wood. He paid cash for what I had asked for it, then later became indignant that he had paid so much, and burnt it up so quickly.

Another friend of mine in the firewood business told me it is always that way with a customer, so I forgot about the issue. Some time went by, and I started receiving phone calls from my old buddy asking me if I would be around today, how about tomorrow, and so forth.

Finally a couple of months went by, and my brother-in-law (a mechanic) came over the house, and we went to my detached garage together so I could show him my favorite tool, a refractor meter used to measure batteries and antifreeze levels. The instrument was gone from my toolbox, and only one other person knew of its location, and it cost about the same amount of money as a cord of wood!  I was hurt and angry about this theft deducting who it may have been, and sent my old friend in an e-mail, asking him to return the meter when he was done using it.

Later that spring some minor vandalism and theft had occurred outside on my property, which closely resembles some of this guy’s character traits, concerning small theft and property destruction. I had unavailingly witnessed before which had been done to others, who once had a relationship, gone badly with this fellow.

These are just the more pointed examples of people who masquerade as Christians, or use a storefront appearance to mask what really is within them. The better educated with Bible doctrines, the more deceptive they can be and function, just like their father the Devil who himself wants to be God. False brethren always resemble in spirit, just who their fathers is! So discernment can never be something which occurs on an intellectual level, even when applying doctrines or scripture understanding with the mind, but rather true brethren are discerned by spirit, and a mature believer must know how to test them.

To sum it up for fellow brethren, who actually know and follow our Lord, ask yourself; does that person ”ring right” to the spirit within me, by intuition rather than just doctrine..?