"The EKKLESIA and the CHURCH: Are you Going Out or Coming In?""

Greek #1577. ekklesia ek-klay-see'-ah from a compound of 1537 and a derivative of 2564; a calling out, i.e. (concretely) a popular meeting, especially a religious congregation 

The "ekklesia" is a gathering of citizens called out from their homes into some public place; it is an assembly of Believers unified in serving God's people in the marketplace. Many Christians mistakenly refer to themselves as the ekklesia just because they are members of a "church."

The focus of the ekklesia is for you to "go out" and the focus of the church is for you to "come in." 

Who are the ekklesia? They are the ones that the Lord God called to Himself by name in Matthew 10:1 to, "...He called His disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness. We know from studying the scriptures that the ekklesia are His disciples. We know that the Holy Spirit has given all Believers the same power and authority as Christ to drive out impure spirits. We also know that the Triune Godhead has the expectation that all Believers heal the sick and diseased.

Are you a disciple of the ekklesia or a member of the church? Are you going out or coming in?

Did you know that the miracle Jesus performed more than any other was the "casting out of demons (impure spirits)!" Why do you think that is so and do you think that modern day Christians even give this demonstration of glory a second thought?

Who is the church? These are the ones have taken this profound doctrine of truth, peace, love and joy in the Holy Spirit and created over 44,000 Protestant denominations, and transformed the group dynamic of leadership into "sola pastora" or the one leader, one voice communication model. The false prophets come from "inside" the church. The church loves to be inside. The church doesn't like the other kids to play in their sandbox. This is not the model Jesus fostered in the earth. The church is not visiting the sick, clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, going to the prisons taking care of the poor.

Jesus was interruptible. You could ask Him questions while He preached. He would ask you what you thought while He preached. There was room for discussion. Discussion and debate promotes growth and maturity. Maturity elicits "graduation" from the milk to the meat and "creates a seat" in the church for the new Christian as the disciple graduates to the ekklesia and goes out to serve the Lord God.

This is a hard word I know. But I love the hard stuff in God. When the Holy Spirit visits me and asks me the hard questions, I have to respond to Him the only way I can; by humble submission to His Presence and teaching the hard truth. The truth is an offense!

In Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus came to His disciples and directed them to "go out to all the nations and make (other) disciples baptizing them in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit." He sends them out again in Luke 9:1-6; and again in Luke 10:1-18; and yet again in Mark 16:15. It seems Jesus was fixated on sending the brothers outside to gather the lost sheep.

It's hard to hear but I couldn't find one scripture where Jesus told His disciples to "come in" to church...

Are you going out or coming in?

"The ANATOMY of TRUE BAPTISM!"

"Take me to the water; take me to the water;take me to the water to be baptized.
  None but the righteous shall be saved, so take me to the water to be baptized!"  Nina Simone

How many times have we sung that song and the church went berserk? Now that is an oldy but goody, right? I can see the nurses with the white gloves on lining up in the aisles of the church getting ready to "handle" the church mothers that got "happy" from singin' this song in the old church!

This was the mandatory hymn that had to be sung in the AME Zion church that I grew up in on the Sunday when folks got baptized. Ya'll would put your white tee shirts on and drape the white robes over your head and after a few words of scripture and a short prayer, the Right Reverend would start body slammin' the heathens one by one in the tiny little pool behind the buckboard! They had to start fillin' up that pool on Saturday morning to be ready for service on Sunday afternoon (ya'll laughin' but ya'll know what I'm talkin' 'bout!)

Ya'll would step in the pool, get slam dunked and then come up and the church would go crazy! The feeling of elation from the new Christian is hard to describe. This is a prolific symbolic gesture; it is by no means the end of the story...only the beginning!

John the Baptist baptized Jesus with water; then God baptized Jesus with fire (trials and tribulations) and the Holy Spirit. Immediately after His baptism, the Holy Spirit (not Satan) led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. John said that water baptism would provoke a spirit of repentance in the transformation process of the sinner; but after that, Christ would come in and baptize that new Christian with the Holy Spirit and fire (Matt. 3:11). The hard truth is that spiritual victories are often followed by adversity and testing.

There is a profound difference between being baptized with water versus fire and the Holy Spirit. With water baptisms, you go in and then you come out. You think it's the end, but its just the beginning. On the other hand, with fire and Holy Spirit baptisms, you go in but you NEVER come out! You remain in Him, you rest in Him and He makes His abode in you. This is where the Believer receives his "signet ring; this is the place where the Spirit qualifies him for "son ship" and he receives a bonafide seat in eternity with the Father.

This is the anatomy of TRUE BAPTISM....No WATER can put out this FIRE! Selah...

"Are You INTERRUPTIBLE?"

Are you INTERRUPTIBLE? That is the million dollar question!

For most Christians, being interruptible comes with a price. When the Holy Spirit asked me this question, it radically changed my walk with Christ and gave me a global perspective on true evangelism. What do I mean? The simple answer is that I went from serving myself and meeting my needs to serving others and meeting their needs.

I was transformed from a "bastard" to a "son" of the Living God by the power of the Holy Spirit. I got up out of my tight, little Kindergarten chair and graduated to the PhD. level of the things of God. The selfish, self-centered, arrogant Christian "scales" fell off of my eyes and I became a Believer!

How do you know if you are interruptible? If you have experienced extreme discomfort doing something for someone else that you never thought you would do in a million years; if it totally disrupted your comfort zone; if it was most likely very inconvenient for you and if you didn't know how you were going to solve the problem initially, but you knew you had to do it anyway!

The Lord God was interruptible when His Father tapped Him on the shoulder and directed Him to step out of eternity into time and become a Living Sacrifice for a band of thieves, thugs and perverts who would hate Him and, ultimately, kill Him. Can you imagine having to sacrifice your own life for a group of people that you knew would hate you and were going to kill you?

So you say Brother Nick, "That's an extreme example. It was His destiny! Are we expected to do the same?" In a word, "yes." The Word of God tells us that we are to present our bodies a "living sacrifice" holy and acceptable to God, which is our reasonable service (or the least we could do). (Romans 12:1)

Satan loves that you are interruptible too. He can't wait to distract Christians and Believers from doing the Will of God. Satan's voice is a favorite of millions of Casual Christians. They push the "play" button on Satan's will Monday morning until Saturday night when they hit the "pause" button not the "stop" button. Then, on Sunday morning, they hit the "play" button on the voice of God (or what they think is the voice of God) for two or three hours, hit "stop" and go right back to listening to Satan's channel Sunday evening! 

How do you know if you are interruptible?

Taking a relative into your home with a long term disability even though it will cramp your comfortable lifestyle is being interruptible; driving across town to pick up a friend without a car early in the morning to take him to work for a few months (even on your days off) is being interruptible; giving the vacation money that you have been saving all year to a friend or family member who just lost their home is being interruptible.

Now all of these examples are wonderful gestures and put us in a place of grace, joy and peace. But all these gestures of kindness, benevolence and blessings to mankind mean absolutely nothing if you are not interruptible by the One True God!

One thing is for sure; someone is going to interrupt you! You will know exactly who is interrupting you depending on what they are telling you to do.

Who is calling your name? God or Satan? (Isaiah 43:1)

"The THREE VOICES I Hear"

In the turbulence of my over active mind I encounter several voices that war for my attention. The voice of God, the voice of Satan and my own voice are engaged in constant chatter and debate for control.

As a Believer, I must confess that the voice of the Spirit of God has won me over many years ago through an exhaustive regiment of deprogramming, retooling and rigorous instruction; but I must admit that Satan has not stopped whispering sweet nothings in my ear and I still wrestle with "my voice sounding a lot like God's voice" given the situation at hand!

How do I distinguish between the voices? What are the voices telling me to do?

God's voice is Spirit and Truth. The Spirit can only give you the revelation contained in God's Word or some other verifiable source; .i.e. something that He spoke to you in the spirit that has been confirmed in the natural. As His voice is spirit, it will only give you profound truth and instruction. His voice will not corrupt you or derail you in your efforts to pursue an intimate relationship with Him. The voice of God will not confuse you, trick you or lie to you. His voice can be heard in the soft summer breeze, the babbling brook, the songbird and the crashing waves. His voice will rebuke and reprove you; soothe and console you and give you peace!

Satan's voice is filled with lies, deception and manipulation. His voice will lead you down the path of destruction, desperation and death. He is the Father of Lies and as such has no truth in him. His goal is to keep the Christian off balance and to create fear, division and lawlessness. He is in the business of creating "bastards," that is, "sons who have been separated from their Father" (the Lord God). Satan has no need for your mortal body, all he wants is your faith; the FAITH that belongs to God. He is crafty at disguising his voice to sound like God's voice, but you can easily tell the difference if you are a "son" (led by the Holy Spirit) and not a "bastard" (trained and tricked by the lies of Satan).

The voice of mankind is a fusion of one of these two; either your Father is God or your father is Satan. Whoever your father is, that is who you will emulate. Your thoughts, words and deeds will reflect the character of your Father. Your walk in this earth will mirror the direction (either peace or war) given by your father. Your relationship with others will be measured by the relationship you have with your Daddy. Your service, or lack thereof, in the marketplace will be a gift or a burden to those your encounter. Finally, you will transfer the spirit of your father to the people you engage and empower. 

You will either transfer the Lord God or you will transfer Satan; it all depends upon whose voice you listen to! Selah...

"STRANGE FRUIT!"

"Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheeps clothing, because inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore, by their fruits you will know them."   (Matthew 7:15-20)

This is one of my favorite scriptures in the Word of God. Jesus eloquently lays out the blueprint for success in the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. He emphatically states that there are those individuals (both male and female) masquerading as prophets of God but are, in fact, wolves seeking to devour the saints.

When I thought about this writing, I was able to see the fruit as "strange" or, specifically, the works of the enemy as a diversion, derailment and defilement of God's truth. I saw the strange fruit as an enticement of the senses; not as a building up of the spirit man; but as a means to destroy the Believer's FAITH, PEACE & JOY.

Jesus uses the analogy of "fruit" to make His point. The revelation I got from the Holy Spirit (HS) on fruit is that it is, "the pure virtue or power of the HS manifested by integrity in moral and ethical conduct in the life of a Believer while loving and serving God's people in the marketplace."

By following this definition, it is easy to discern the motives of the wolves in our midst. There is no evidence of life, love, integrity, morals, ethics or peace. The Believer will always be skeptical of the wolf because his nature is to be sneaky, disloyal and territorial. This behavior is strange to the Believer. Jesus asks us a rhetorical question (paraphrased), "who in their right mind is going to pick grapes and figs from thorn bushes and thistles?"  

Since grapes and figs don't grow on those types of vines, the Lord is provoking us to use discernment in the affiliations, alliances and fellowships we make. He is directing us to ask the hard questions when we encounter something, someone or some situation that does not line up with the Word of God. The Lord God gives us wisdom and discernment to filter the shenanigans of the devil and his imps.

Would you travel to a foreign land and, while out in the wilderness, pick strange fruit from a tree that you have never seen before, or with no knowledge of its origin and eat it?

You don't have to taste their "fruit" to          know that it's strange; 

Just carefully inspect their "tree!"  . ...Selah

"A REPROBRATE MIND: When SIN Knocks At Your Door!"

The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life; sound familiar? It should! These are the same cheap magic tricks the devil has been using since he was cast out of heaven for being disobedient, envious, lustful and prideful.

A reprobate mind is, "the stubborn condition of a person who persists in unbelief." The reprobate is rebellious, obstinate, arrogant and is an habitual liar. The reprobate rejects the will of God and is therefor an enemy of God.

The life of sin that permeates the reprobate is a cancer that spreads throughout the Body of Christ creating lesions, scars and destroying everything in its wake. Sin brings, along with it, a disdain for righteous values and holy living. Sin is diametrically opposed to the heart of God and, as a result, God abandons the man or woman that abandons Him and He turns them over to themselves. Just think about that for a moment; God turning you over to yourself to manage your own life. No wonder the world is a hot mess!

SIN is tricky and audacious. Sin makes a man delusional. A man can think he is getting away with something just because no one is around or he does his dirt in the dark or late at night as if God can't see him in the dark! Sin is a multifaceted, complex and manipulative disembodied spirit that moves through the ethos lurking for a "door" to enter in to you mind, spirit, body and soul.

The devil knows exactly what you like! He has a very close relationship with your flesh (your senses). Satan knows one thing that reigns true; "the flesh never forgets." He can dial up a special order of whatever you want, when you want it and how much of it you might want. The devil has an unlimited supply of sin. He doesn't mind that you can't afford your sin and he doesn't care what happens to you as a result of your sin. He only wants your faith; he could care less about your physical body!

The Presence of the Holy Spirit is a filter that cleanses the Believer of all unrighteousness, uncleanness and unholiness. The Holy Spirit is a fortress that defends us against the spiritual attacks of the enemy. The reprobate spirit is saturated with every manner of unrighteousness, iniquity, greed and malice. They are filled with murder, envy, strife, deceit, treachery, ill will and cruelty. They are back biters and gossipers and they hate God. These spirits travel in packs like wolves seeking whom they may devour!

So when SIN comes knocking at your door; and believe me it will come a knockin', what are you going to do? Who their right mind would open the door of their spirtual house and let murder in? A Believer can uncover the disguise of sin. To an immature Christian or a reprobate, murder doesn't look like murder initially. You might miss the fact that that sexy lady you are attracted to is a Moabite woman! Only "spiritual eyes" can protect you!

The Word of God says those that particpate with the reprobates deserve to die. They are rejected, unapproved, casted away and unfit for citizenship in the Kingdom of God...

Knock, knock. Who's there? Satan. Satan who?....Selah.

"The MASS INCARCERATION of the CHRISTIAN MINDSET!"

Once upon a time there was a large group of individuals who had deep compassion for one another. There was a profound spirit of caring and sharing for the needs of the individual family and the community at large.

The original intent was to develop an army of soldiers who would be battle tested, well prepared and fearless to face the attacks of the enemy head on. Its leadership had integrity, grit and resolve and weathered the storm of controversy and stood flat-footed and immovable in the face of adversity.

There was a strategic connection to the Spiritual Leader whose guidance and counsel were without peer. The ultimate goal was peace, love and joy and the transfer of that same spirit to those we encountered. This was before we became Christians. Before we became slaves to the institution. Before we became adulterers and fornicators and thieves and bandits of the things of God. Before the betrayal of the Holy One and His obsessive love for us. Before our ruthless determination to undermine His Word, His Truth and His Life became our prime objective because of the limitless of our selfishness.

The Christian Mindset is on lock down! It has been manipulated, infiltrated and controlled by Satan. It is hard to hear that too many Christians have subtlety submitted to the beckoning call of their father the devil. So if Satan is their father, can they be called Christians? Yes and No. Yes, because of the "cultural affiliation" and the "status quo" and no, because their close association and alliance with the devil makes them an enemy of God! Not my words, His words!

Many people believe they are Christians just because they go to church, carry a bible and pay their tithes and offerings. They think they are "in the number" because they lead the church choir on Sunday, are ushers and deacons and parking lot attendants and walk along side the Pastor as armor bearers. Not so my friend. The key to eternal life is total submission to the Spirit of God and not man, his ways or his institutions. You see, mankind is corrupt, wicked and deceitful. We have a propensity for good and bad. Sometimes bad "feels better" than good. This is not a problem for Satan, but it is definitely a problem for God.

Like a physical body in chains, the incarcerated mind is devastating. In many cases, it can be worse. The mind directs the will, soul, spirit and body. The need for a "clear channel" for the Spirit of God to communication to His children is essential for a follower of Christ to manifest the title of "son." You are a son of God if you are led by and taught by and submit to the power of the Holy Spirit.

The healthy mind of the Believer is not free from the temptation of sin, but is free from the temptation to "act" upon that sin. Goodness, holiness and righteousness are the traits that ward off sinful behavior. The Presence will prevail against all evil. Evil deeds and evil thoughts are no match for the power of the submitted servant of God.

Evil is always present; but so is the Presence of the Holy Spirit! Choose ye this day life or death...Selah.