A Lost Love: Ephesus and The Church Today

A Lost Love: Ephesus and The Church Today                                  Kelly Durant

 

Revelation 2

2:1 Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things said he that holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks;

2 I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:

3 And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast labored, and hast not fainted.

4 Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.

5 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.

6 But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, which I also hate.

7 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

 

2. How many of you have heard the words, “I don’t love you anymore”? Those words really hurt! These words create broken hearts, and broken relationships! I am very sorry if you have had to deal with another person who has said this to you before! I know after several years married many couples may doubt, and ask the question inside, do I really love like I did in the beginning? To speak this is damaging! Never forget that real love, God’s love is more than a feeling! God’s love keeps on loving no matter what! God’s love forgives, heals, and sacrifices!

 

The current lack of love in people is a sign of the times, Matt 24 “the love of many will wax cold”. Anti-Christ like people of the cruel world only live for their selfish up and down feelings in reference to love. This is why a dedicated Christian should never be unequally yoked with an unbeliever because over time the unbeliever will feel entitled to satisfy their desire for love (lust) by whatever means possible instead of trying to invest their energy into the one they married and swore a lifetime commitment to. The best way to live is to choose to live “in love” everyday! In love with Jesus and those He has put in your life! Pray for love to fill you and it will! Pray, Lord, make me live “in love” with my mate and all humanity! And to love the lost and needy as you did!

 

Today we will continue our study of the modern day church in reference to the sins exposed in the first 7 churches in Revelation. We covered the Church in Laodicea before, today we return to the first one mentioned in the context of the seven in Revelation, Ephesus. Sadly, isn’t it obvious compared to a generation ago, that the church of today has lost its passion to win souls to righteousness, lost its love for Jesus, and lost its mission? The church has allowed apathetic worldly people inside to subvert it with the corrupt culture of the current trends. It is urgent that each Christian must evaluate their own self and get back to their first love for God!

 

3. I love how Jesus is described with the seven spirits, the stars and the candlesticks. Jesus is ascribed to being the light which extends throughout the universe in the stars and also as the light in front of you as a candle in the room. Do you recall His words, Matthew 5:15 “Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house”. Jesus is our light! His light is life itself! Many candles make the church shine if they are lit!

 

Go to Verse 2, “I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:” Jesus is praising the true ones in Ephesus! They are working hard, have good works, and they have patience with others. We all fail and it is important to put up with each other with love and forgiveness, and here we learn that they are mature in several ways.

 

Jesus is also praising them for not tolerating in their fellowship those that are pretending to be apostles (which are ones who claim they follow Jesus) but instead they are false, hypocrites, and liars. This means they are praying, singing hymns, listening to the Word studied together but they are doing it with false pretenses having no intention of being a true Christ lover. Have we seen people like this in our churches? They seem to do what a Christian does, copying the actions, but when they are out in normal life, they are as crooked as a snake. Sadly, too many churches tolerate people who are false pretenders and hypocrites and these few bad apples causes others to get turned off and never what to come back to worship Jesus in church! How damaging this is!

 

4. Vs3 And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast labored, and hast not fainted. Interesting, Jesus once again praises them a second time for working well serving in His name, for having patience, and he highlights they have not fainted or given up. This implies they have had problems and resistance. Have you ever felt like giving up? I have a few dozen times! But after I pray about it and give it to Jesus, Jesus seems to always encourage me somehow and I keep on going!  Ask yourself, have I ever fainted? Do I labor as expected by the Lord?

 

Jesus expresses Himself as any good teacher, He first praises the good, and then He comes down with the bad news. 4 “Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love”.

What was I mentioning a few minutes ago about not being in love? A life without love hurts! The first love refers to how it is when you are first starting out enthusiastic, optimistic, and hopeful as a couple “in love”. You do anything and everything the other person wants because your happiness is their happiness! One who is full of love serves, respects, and has full focus on the needs and desires of the other. Is there evidence of you having a passionate love for Jesus?

 

When you lose your love for someone you do not care to make them happy anymore: in essence you pass from a selfless phase to a selfish phase! Losing love is tragic! The whole point of Jesus coming to earth was to teach us to love! A church or Corps should be the most loving place in the city! John 13:34-35 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”  

 

5. A Christian leader who has been around for a long time and loses their first love for Jesus also loses their love for their brothers and sisters in the church and for the lost outside the church. How is, or not, love? I Cor. 13: 3 “And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.”  Do you know of Christians who serve the poor but with a bad attitude? They do it just because they are required to by their peer group or their job description but their heart is not really into it! They are not loving those a lot less fortunate than them! It is painful to put up with someone without love! It is also painful to observe many churches in America (and globally) have lost their first love for Jesus!

 

You and I know people who probably started out loving Jesus but then they lost their first love so how do they act? The opposite of this: 4 “Love suffers long and is kind (they are impatient and mean to  others); love does not envy (they are jealous of those who have a better situation than them); love does not parade itself, is not puffed up (they are arrogant and proud of their power position and accomplishments); 5 does not behave rudely (they are rude and humiliate you and others), does not seek its own  (their self interests always come to light), is not provoked, thinks no evil (they get angry quickly and want to harm to those they don’t like); It is tragic how each of us suffer under those with no love!

 

Let’s continue to compare how people with love and those without love behave: 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth (they are happy when someone insulting and bad pulls a fast one); 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”(They are not tolerant of others claiming they are tolerant, they do not expect good outcomes and always bear bad news, they pass disillusion on to others and make them lose faith and hope, and they do not want to put up with anyone because only they know everything)  Sadly everyone else around them perceives them to be just ignorant, belligerent fools pretending to be good!  

 

6. Vs.5 “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; (of doing things with a passionate love!) or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.” Jesus is stating He will allow their fellowship to be removed and disbanded if they do not repent and get back to having the passion and love they once had.  Haven’t we already seen too many churches disbanded from a lack of love for God and others! The enemy today is attacking fiercely with apathy and dissention using divisive popularized controversial subjects as the wedge.

 

I can say in my lifetime I have seen several Christian ministries come and go! What happened? People may start off great, loving Jesus, and laboring for Him but then the light goes out if over time some problem gets in the way. It is usually these things that destroy Christian fellowships: false teachings, a lack of patient love replaced with a legalistic self-righteousness, or an apathetic laziness to keep up the good work loving and serving others. Also, the light goes out when a person or group of proud leaders in charge refuse to see their faults and their churche’s faults! The leader should be bringing everyone closer to God loving Jesus more!

 

Vs. 6 “But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, which I also hate.” Despite the warning, Jesus praises them again for rejecting a group of false infiltrators. Notice that Jesus says He hates these people, the Nicolaitians. So Jesus loves, but He also hates those who are hypocrites and false to profane the will and love of God! If one of these Nicolaitians were to repent, I am sure God would have received him, but the subversion of Jesus’ teachings is an abomination!

 

7. It is speculated by theologians that the Nicolaitians were a local gnostic group that rose to power and faded away after a few years. “Nike” (first part of word “Nic”), in Greek means to conquer, and “laitian” refers to people (as in the word laity), so their name has the connotation of meaning “those who conquer people”. So how did they conquer? By deceit, they were liars and false ones infiltrating the brethren to abandon the absolute faith, trust, and truth in Jesus. 

 

From history we know that the early church had a battle with those who claimed there was no resurrection. What conquered thousands of early believers was the conviction with which the disciples retold the story of Jesus resurrection! For a person or group to counter that and say that it is a lie is a huge offense and insult to Jesus’ life, death, sacrifice, and resurrection!  Any resurrection denier is in effect a liar deceived by Satan! Today there are too many loudmouthed disrespecters of Jesus! Jesus’ life and doctrine was pure love, so anything not of that is of Satan!

 

Possible other offenses were that these people being Greeks, thought that since in their worldview no God is pure and holy or capable of saving someone from Hades, (their Greek gods were definitely not divine in their behavior!) then they could justifiably live as hypocrites claiming one could be loyal to Jesus for certain moments, and then participate with the other Greek pagan gods as well. This false doctrine meant that they did not have to live a holy life, but rather they could participate in Greek orgies doing abominable things, thinking its fine to please your flesh in unholy ways since the other gods were of this nature. Do you know of any hypocrite person who partakes in all the things of the world during the week yet they go to a Sunday worship thinking its ok with God? Today we see many world pleasing hypocrites as were the Christians that were in Ephesus! The remedy is to repent, which means to leave it behind and never go back to it! It is all Jesus and nothing else! By observation we know that corruption and modern day Nicolaitian type behaviors have infiltrated every ‘woke’ company, elected government official, and church leader! They want to show off faith yet practice the opposite of what their faith teaches.

 

8. Vs. 7 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. Basically Jesus is commanding us to be spiritually attentive! We must listen to what He says about the churches, and since He is alive in the Spirit, Jesus still speaks to those that listen concerning the state of affairs of the churches. Those who study understand and see clearly.

 

Where do we read about the tree of life? It is the tree that God prevented Adam and Eve from eating from so they would not live forever.  Genesis 3:24 So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life. But after we die and become spirit, we will be enjoying this tree again in heaven! 

 

But we see a condition here to gaining this privilege, what is that? It is to overcome, “To him that overcometh”. In this case what is Jesus referring to? To overcome what? Within all the context it means to overcome the apathy, hypocrisy, and falseness He is exposing. What did they need to overcome? What do you need to overcome so God will be pleased with you?

 

9. The Christians in Ephesus, and all Christians today must overcome these obstacles:

A) To not lose one’s first love for Jesus

B) To not lose the ability to repent from their failures

C) To hate hypocrisy and expose evil workers as Jesus did and hate them.

 

Have you lost your first love? Some people come into our doors excited that they have discovered that Jesus is real, they have their eyes opened, and their hearts are on fire. But then due to their peers or family criticizing them, due to resistance from the world, they stop coming to worship and love Jesus, and they lose their “first love”. How tragic! Like the seed that was sewn and grew, but then died before it could flourish into a beautiful plant!

 

Jesus always offers us a chance to repent! Everyday, and not just on Sundays after the sermon, we should be examining our hearts to repent of any wrong behavior, of any behavior that was not done in love. It is a sin to live without a passionate love for God and Jesus! Pray and love like it is your first love!

 

 

 

 

 

Be A Bold Christian: Say No to the Devil!

Be A Bold Christian: Say No to the Devil!           Kelly Durant 1-24-21

 

Colossians 2:6-8

6 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:

7 Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.

8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

Proverbs 28:1

The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.

 

2. How many of you learned to say no at a young age? You learned when you were only months old, do you know how I know? I learned by experience with our 5 kids that even a baby can shut his lips so hard that spoon of mashed potatoes cannot be forced in no matter how hard you try! We all have learned to say, “No!” since the time we were little.

 

Later kids you did not know were bad would say, “Get on the merry-go round, we will give you spin; alright”, you reply. And soon you find out that in the super fast spinning what they really wanted to do was not play but see you fly off of it and roll in the dirt so they could laugh at you! So you learn to say, “No!” in life to those who want to trick you, spin you, and then harm you.

 

Christians must learn to say, No!” to a lot of things in life! As soon as you accept Jesus, Satan and his demons get on your tail and they do everything possible to make you regret speaking up that you have Him as your Lord, and want you to shut up! Weird people crawl out of their hidden holes to mock and offer you the world if only you will compromise, accept ‘the pleasures of sin for a season’, or join the causes of the corrupt people in the world who are the experts, who have their high positions and PHDs, and are so much better than you! Condescendingly these evil people classify Christians and those with the pure values of Christians, as fools, ignorant ones deceived by conspiracies and fairy tales, and that you are a danger to society! Stand up and say, “no!” to these ugly people!

 

3. I saw as a young man that I needed to man-up and become as solid as a rock, because everyone wants to convince you of their opinion and you feel stupid and hypocrite if you change from one week to the next. Making the Bible with Jesus as the rock of your foundation eliminates all the stress of one having to get convinced or not convinced on all the vastly different belief systems, governmental systems, and philosophies that are always aggressively recruiting members. It’s by faith, but then God does great things to reveal He is there with you.

 

The Salvation Army’s training for Corps Cadets has the title on their training books as ‘Bold’ and that is what we expect young people to be, bold to defend their faith in Jesus! Jesus warned us that if you are called be salt, and have no flavor or kick, then one is worthless to be tossed away as dirt! Matthew 5:13-16. Bold means saying no to the devil and being salt and light!

 

With the desire for my own children to be ‘bold’ I even named our oldest with the middle name of Lion, because in the verse today of Provers 28:1, I wanted him to be ‘bold as a lion’ to confront all the evil in the world. And he has been faithful and is a witness of the faith to thousands by communicating in ASL. He said, “No!” many times to perverts and drug dealers!

 

4. So, the quicker all of us learn in life to say , “Yes!” to the Lord, and “No!” to the people of the world the better off we will be! Why am I bringing up this topic? Because I think many Christians hear too much the voices of the world, the voices false religious teachers, the voices of imperious politics, the voices of people with twisted causes trying to shove down our throats their corrupting agendas that are opposite of the Lord’s. The 10 hours a day of media does affect the minds of mega millions of people and most easily get mislead!

 

I got deceived when I was young (18-20), when gurus were popular and when churches were old-fashioned, formalistic, and unattractive.  I thank God for a few good friends back then that discussed Bible with me to help me untangle all of my misconceptions and flawed thinking which was ‘conformed to the world’s trends’. (See Romans 12) One verse that made me feel very uncomfortable bringing on conviction (which is a good thing when coming from God’s Word) was one of the verses of today: 8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

 

I deeply reflected inside, could it be I am deceived by philosophies? In today’s language this translates into being political correctness, and sanctioned acceptable ‘truths’. What a warning! Could it be I am deceived, vain, and following men who are of the world? Oh, how it hurt my pride to have to admit I had been following the wrong thing and the wrong people! I had invested several years into learning about yoga, world religions, and the hippie movement. I finally was coming around to see that Jesus Christ was the truth and all the rest was an illusion and irrelevant to bring about a better society and salvation to confused hopeless suffering depressed people. Thank God I had that revelation (also, God sent me some dreams as well) at age 21 because now it is evident some people older than myself now are still deluded into following people, causes, philosophies, and illusive agendas more than Christ. Be patient with folks who are deluded, God will give them changes, so pray for them!

 

5. Getting back to the verses, how can you and I prevent getting on the wrong path, or be deceived being protected from being misled by the world’s so called leaders who seek to use as the Egyptians did the Israelites? See verse 6: ‘As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him’:  The Christians I know that are strong, have no second thoughts about saying no and standing up to the perversions and corruption in the world. They are protected from not falling into the trap of the trends of the world by keeping their faith alive. Their walk of faith includes, reading the Bible daily, praying, fellowshipping with other Christians, and being irreproachable in their morals, values, and service to others. Psalm 15:4 (a)

In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honors them that fear the Lord.

 

Strong and bold Christians will denounce and oppose evil works and the people doing evil works and the unrepentant guilty people of the world will hate, persecute, you and me. They will spread lies and label us as undesirables, ‘those who don’t honor Cesar’ as god,…. but God rewards you, me, and all Christians with peace and we know His eternal rewards in heaven are for us. We must be like Martin Luther who said: “Here I stand, I can do no other, God help me! Amen”

 

And verse 7; Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. There two points here, we must build up our faith and make our foundation in Jesus by learning; that can be from Godly teachers and directly from the Holy Scripture itself. And don’t miss the part about being thankful! Unthankfulness is destroying our community relations today! Unthankful people who disrespect everyone are dividing us and making us hostile; and Satan loves the practice of ‘divide and conquer’! So many people seem to be very unthankful for their jobs, their parents, their teachers, their country, their church, their, leaders, and their lot in life (everyone else is to blame) and they have lost their focus on Jesus and see that this world is not our home and we are just passing through.

 

6. “Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone?” This lesson is revealed in the Bible many times. Unthankful people, those who become judgmental and hard towards others seem to always end up reaping a punishment. For one, they lose friends because they themselves do not value you, me, others, or even God! God is a jealous God and abandoning Him and not loving your neighbor is a huge mistake that brings on consequences!

 

I bring this up because there are Christians that do drift away from Jesus and His teachings (we are in the days of apostacy) and they lose their boldness to defend Him and the morals and principles of the faith.  Sadly, some get conditioned to be complainy as the world’s people are and then they get in a rut, in a state of losing their Holy Spirit’s power and they just repeat like a parrot the words of the subversive ones in world. And in that depressing mentally captive state, they often progress into bad health. They stop being rooted in the faith and so then they then wait for the world to tell them what to speak. And this world is temporarily run by Satan so basically they are backslidden and controlled by Satan not even being aware of it! Remember the fate of the Israelites in the desert! 1 Corinthians 10:10 nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer.

 

Here is warning from God over those who are not remaining with Him but go their own way: 

Romans 1: 28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; 29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: 32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. 

 

7. So be careful and stand up for Jesus even if it causes you to lose a few friends! Stand bold for Him or you will be ashamed of your naked soul when you face the Lord in the Great White Throne judgment. In you don‘t stand for something (in our case Jesus) then you will fall for anything! Pray everyday to not get tricked with any subversive talk, persecution, or a temptation to go with the flow of the world that is on the wide road to hell. The people of the world are headed for destruction, and narrow is our path that leads to life; stay on it! 

 

One final thought referring to persecution, all of us should speak up when we learn about people trying to establish perverted laws in our community. The endgame of Satan is to make legal everything that God has given us commandments against! These are laws that accommodate the destruction of life, self-destruction, and betrayal of your family and neighbors. Satan basically wants all human life divided and killed by any means possible, be it by war, virus, or persecution! Pray hard because things that on the surface that seem to be for our good may be turned and used for our erasing and termination. If you resist (‘Resist Satan, James 4:7) and expose the injustices of any one of his ungodly laws, then you will be attacked. Concentration camps and death squads are not here again yet (in the U.S.) but some people in the media are saying we need to bring them back to control some people! They exist in several countries! Now that is pure hate to want that for another but we keep on, follow Jesus who taught us to love! So here are some words from a Christian man who suffered in a Nazi concentration camp and from his words we learn an imperative lesson that we must do our part to expose and resist the slipper slope of evil, dictatorial laws that will get us killed.  

 

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—

 because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.  By Martin Niemöller 

 

8. Be bold! Teach the young people to be bold! Young people don’t need 300 fake friends who are controlled by the media anti-Christ system, you only need one or three real friends to be happy! And in our Salvation Army Corps you can have a few dozen friends! Christians need to unite in these days of so much delusion, lying propaganda, and wickedness. Ask, talk, and consult (see Psalm 1), and pray!

 

These are trying times. Some people will have to change their lifestyle in order to keep their faith strong; they may need to homeschool their children with God’s views, they may need to move away from certain danger zones getting burned down, they might even need to lose a job over standing up for Jesus. And as I always say, “God never takes something away without giving you back something better!” Psalm 37:25 I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. (Read all of Psalm 37)

 

Pray for discernment over all decisions! Not all people in the world are Christians and they do foolish and unwise things! In a certain time period of the ancient Greeks, it was thought to be a bold and noble act to jump off of a cliff and kill yourself!? The trends of the world as you see are not God’s standards! So not all popular or legitimatized current events are what God wants for you and me! Stand for what Jesus stands for and God will be on your side! See victory soon!

Jesus: Like Him I’ll Be! No matter the backlash!

Jesus: Like Him I’ll Be!                              9-22-19 Re 1-17-21        Kelly Durant

 

1 Corinthians 2:13-15

14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. 16 For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

 

2. Back in the hippie times, if a man had long hair and a beard and was somewhat handsome, friends would usually gaze a moment and then comment, “Look, he looks like Jesus!” Some people with a beard and long hair may remind us of the paintings we have seen of Jesus, but exactly how this olive skinned Jewish man actually looked physically, we will never know, artists can only speculate. 

 

But we can know Him spiritually! Jesus left us with so many teachings that it takes a lifetime to discover all the depths implicated by Him. 1 Corinthians 2:16 

For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

 

You or me can ‘know’ Jesus, but how? Only by His teaching! His Spirit will touch you as well! Are there not in the world too many doctrines and churches, too many books and personal opinions, and too many immoral bad examples to the point that most of us just want to give up? Never give up! Each of us is special and loved by Him and He will show you what your mission is, what your calling in life is, and where you need to go.

 

3. Also, learn this: You learn best when you teach a subject! Jesus teachings should be spread and never be limited! Never did Jesus say only have my teachings confined to people going to church! It was the contrary, he sent His disciples out to preach the gospel to every creature in the world! Mark 16:15 

 

Many people form the idea that Jesus is someone only the preacher should mention, and that is occasionally, that He was a good and holy man that we should ‘try’ to be like Him. Jesus told you and me to… Luke 14:23

Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.

 

After Jesus did healings, He would say, go and show yourself in the temple so others could see the miracle; after Jesus would forgive people of their sins like the Samaritan woman at the well, He would inspire to the point that all that person could do was talk about Him to everyone! If Jesus has touched you, you will not be able to shut up about it! Acts 4:13 It will overflow and people will know you experienced something very real and life changing! We must tell it! It is your story and mine that is authentic and people see the love of God in us and want it.

 

4. And speaking of telling your story, there are so many people today that have experienced miracles! How many times have you heard, “The doctor gave me 3 months to live but Jesus healed me!”? The miracles have not stopped!

 

I have seen a person get healed from weak knees and get x-rays to prove they no longer needed an operation to stop the swelling after a prayer! I have seen the miracle of Jesus stopping a car from crashing into us! I have seen people stop using drugs after a prayer and stay on the right path healed afterwards. Miracles do happen and we need to recognize it is Jesus doing them.

 

And they happen for all to glorify God! Luke 18:42 Then Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has made you well.” 43 And immediately he received his sight, and followed Him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God. When God does something for you, share the good news, please!

 

5. We can know Jesus’ love by observing the contrast of those who despise Him. Matthew 11:6 “And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.” It is a given, there is a vast majority of people out there that are evil and get offended by Jesus because they do not want to be reminded of their unrepentant ugly sins! 

 

The fact that Jesus exposed(s) hypocrites, the fact that His presence brings awareness, the fact that He and His teachings are absolute truth is too much for some people!  Liars, lazy ones, and deceivers hate Him for exposing their schemes and this is what makes Jesus so repulsive to them along with the average carnal corrupt individual that conforms to the perverted ways of the world. 

 

I have been attacked many times over telling others about Jesus and do you know why ‘those people’ never won me over to their side? Because I could feel, see, and hear the hate they had for me just because I talked about Jesus! My logical reasoning mind kicks in in these situation and asks, why would I leave the teachings of Jesus who inspire me to do good for others, to love God and others, in exchange for the cognitive dissident no-reasoning and uninspiring rhetoric they defend? I prefer the beautiful spirit world over the ugly flesh world any day!

 

6. How do we know the name of Jesus is powerful? Because in society He is rarely mentioned except when used as a curse word in some Hollywood movies! The most loving amazing Son of God is still rejected by the evil ones in power. Before they accused that Jesus had a demon when it was they that had the demon!

 

The subject of Jesus has been quarantined by our evil societies to not be discussed in the public arena. Jesus cannot be brought up in the classrooms, in the community city halls, and not in the media forums or in some local civic clubs as it is a topic deemed ‘uncomfortable’ or ‘offensive’ by some. 

 

Who, and I ask unrhetorically who, is defining our freedom of speech?! We have freedom of religion and speech, at least on paper (the US Constitution) it states that we should have! I am offended by the politically correct demons trying to silence you and me when the spirit moves on us to talk about Jesus. If a few elites controlling our society, the education, the tech world and the media, who sooner or later are revealed to be extortioners, pedophiles, and filthy corrupters wanting to shut you up, why would you let them have the final say and the power? Are we not offended by them!?

 

7. To know Jesus we must be born again and become as a child! John 3:3-8 When you or I were a child going to Sunday School classes we ‘got it’, we saw with a fresh mind that Jesus is real, you could hear his loving words and feel in your spirit that He was (is) the powerful Son of God. 

 

Jesus told us to have the faith of a little child! Matthew 18:3 And said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. To know Him means to become simple, simple in just believing because logic and science cannot explain everything! We should sing children’s songs like ‘Jesus loves me’ to remind us we must remain uncomplicated, and unsoiled by the world, innocent in our faith as a child. 

 

We can reason and understand a lot but always at some point we will hit a wall of doubt. It is then when we must just simply trust that God knows best, that He, like a good Father will protect and guide us through obstacles that are bigger than what we are able to handle. Patience, faith, & trust, will we ever learn them? 

 

8. Your average Christian without the Holy Spirit is unprepared to battle with demonic people who don’t like Jesus. Jesus has to be in you, in your mind, in your deepest convictions, to be real to you in order to give you power. You only can be strong in Him if you are daily reading His word, praying, and seeking to put into practice the example He left us.  1 Corinthians 2:16  For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

 

The people of the world have no excuse, God can be seen in all the details of His creation. (see Romans 1) Around 300 Old Testament prophecies describe the events in the life of Jesus! There is no doubt that factual evidence abounds to prove Jesus lived, died, and started a revolution to the point that the underground church became above ground 300 years after his resurrection.

 

Despite having 1,700 years of the Catholic Church, and 500 years of the Protestant Church, atheism, materialism, and Satanic religions thrive because the average Christian is not shining their light as they were commanded to by Jesus! Darkness cannot stand the light! Just bring Jesus into the conversation and see what happens! There will be praise and inspiration, or there will be attacks! 

 

 9. All of us can know Jesus in a profound way and there is no excuse. Let’s review:

We can know how to be like Jesus by knowing His teachings.

We can know Jesus by how he has touched and changed our own life.

We know that Jesus’ name is powerful or He would not be prohibited publicly.

We can know Jesus’ love by contrasting how others that hate Him treat us.

We can know Jesus having the mind and faith of a child.

 

And finally I will end with the verse we started with, “You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” The ultimate followers of Jesus have done what He says here. It requires giving your all to Him, materially and spiritually for all your life! I did that to be a missionary, I did that to serve Jesus as a Salvation Army Officer, and millions have done it to serve Jesus throughout history! Millions have even been martyrs! What have you really given to Jesus? To gain the full joy He offers, He must be in control of your life! Those that give Him all never regret it!

 

God supplies our needs and gives us the desires of our hearts! But too few are willing to just give it all up for Him! I cannot imagine living life without Jesus being everything! The question is how much of Him do you want? All the way, or just a little bit? 

Human Trafficking: It’s Worse Than What You Have Ever Known!

Human Trafficking: It’s Worse Than What You Have Ever Known!  

  Kelly Durant

 

2 Peter 2:2-4 King James Version (KJV)

2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.

3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.

 

2. How many of you of think we are in better times, that in general slavery has been abolished? No longer are people wearing chains plowing in farm fields but is the era of slavery really over? This is Human Trafficking Awareness Month and we must all be instrumental in helping to rescue and heal those caught up in it. How sickening and sad to know many children are used and abused and many corrupt officials are getting paid off to let it keep happening!

 

I did a google search and this is what came up concerning slavery today…. ‘Estimates of the number of slaves today range from around 21 million to 46 million, depending on the method used to form the estimate and the definition of slavery being used. Slavery in the 21st century - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Slavery_in_the_21st_century’

 

Is that not shocking? That is like the entire population of Colombia, or Spain! And honestly, I think those numbers are low! Many of the persons trafficked are prostitutes. Here is web site for that info which states that 42 million are involved in that! About 2 million are in the United States and many of them are minorities. https://prostitution.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=000095

 

3. How does God feel about people owning other people as their slaves to be abused, adulterated, and extortioned? He detests it and excludes these kinds of people from heaven! 1 Corinthians 6:8-10 King James Version (KJV) 8 Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren. 9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

 

But as you all well know, we live in a fallen world, taken over by Satan’s authorities which control religious, governmental, and entertainment organizations, and since we are in the end-times, we can only expect more of these above named evil activities to increase. 

 

It sad because so many young people, especially those of minorities groups or with single parents, fall into the trap of evil seducers who promise them big money and hob knobbing with influential people in exchange for committing crimes against God and humanity. After 5 or so years of abuse, they are then thrown away to the street like a sick ugly dog. These human extortioners, which range from street low-lifes to billionaires control their naïve victims usually by getting them addicted to drugs, by enticing them with wealth and fame, by exercising over them extreme fear and intimidation, and by disorientation moving them to another city or country, or island. As in the case of Epstein, many employ mind control tactics. They evade the law usually because the victims are afraid for their lives, for the lives of their families, and consequently they suffer in silence never seeking help.

 

4. Okay, now that I have shared the shocking information about how massive this abominable soul condemning abuse is, we must now ask ourselves, how can we be a part of the solution to help save the suffering? To begin with, you and I can pray God will use you and me one day to see an injustice and then act to do something about it. If only one person in every hundred people aggressively tried to help a victim out, we could rid ourselves of this plague in a few years. We might need to quadruple our jail space size though!

 

Here is a major problem I see, Christians and most large churches are afraid to tackle this issue but they should actually be the first ones to respond! It is a moral and physical injustice! And sadly, for some huge churches worldwide, sexual exploitation is ignored, covered up, and under Satan’s control, keeps on proliferating. Sexual sins are dividing and destroying the churches everywhere!

 

Millions of people commit the sin of omission for not denouncing this and doing something when they learn of someone being abused or falling into the hands of evil abusive people. I am very thankful that our church, The Salvation Army has safe houses for the victims in almost every State in the U.S., and we also have them in around the world where victims can get rehab, learn a skill, live in a new city, and start a new life. 

 

5. What is sad is that the world promotes sexual exploitation sins (porn, prostitution, etc.) as if they are normal, legal, and acceptable. A friend of ours who ran to be Mayor of a (certain) City told us that the first ones to come offer him money (in case he were the victor) were the owners of the strip clubs! Evil exploiters always work in the dark from behind the scenes, it is Satan’s secretive way.

 

The mafias in New York and L.A. don’t even need to pay off officials anymore to sneak in illegal drugs, all they have to do is find some rebellious teenager online that wants to run away from home! They get enticed by people they have never met and then after meeting up with them are trapped and enslaved just like in the movie 2017 ‘Trafficked’.  

 

These evil gangs can put her or him in a hotel room and make more than $1,000 per night, so one youth over time can make someone a million dollars before they are abandoned or killed! This is like having a chain on someone who is forced to labor. It is a hell with no freedom, no education, and no normal life like others. 

 

6. Have you ever wondered, what happens to all the missing children year after year? In the U.S. alone 800,000 go missing! That is almost 1 in every 100! Apart from exploitation many children are captured for Satanic ritual abuse (SRA)! The practice of abusing children and then killing them has been Satan’s game from the beginning of time! People who play with Satan’s crowd are commanded to perform acts that will guarantee them hell as a punishment for abominable works.

 

 The children of Israel were forbidden to offer their children to the false pagan (Satanic) gods who always wanted human sacrifice. Leviticus 18:21

And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the Lord.

 

This is why Satanic groups in society are nothing to play with nor respect! Due to their secret evil practices by blackmail and coercion, Christians must demand they never be allowed in our community schools, libraries, or clubs and organizations. They need exposure and to be stopped! They are parasite vermin destroying communities from within by their immorality, corruption, murders and extortions.

 

7. Those of us who love God are often naïve to all the evil around us, while the people of the world think violence, disappearances, and exploitations are just the normal ways of the world. Those living a lie hold the truth as the enemy! Vs 2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.

 

The pattern we observe is that people who are evil, violent, vile and abusive, with secret sins having a double life, are the ones who are most outspoken against the people of God because we speak the truth, and the truth exposes their evil and lies! Christians usually are the only ones who expose their deeds as evil so we are hated the most, maligned and under attack, either to be sabotaged in our fellowships internally by Judases, shamed by the media, or shut down by new illogical laws targeting us. 

 

After all the agendas are in place already, there is a now a new push to normalize pedophilia. Marriage, or casual you know what, between an 8 year old and a 50 year old should be legal and normal, according to many people who support certain political and religious views!? So if the murder of a newborn is fine, then why not any s_x as one pleases? We are as in the days of violent Sodom and Gomorrah!

 

8. So we are on God’s side and what is He going to do about it? Vs 3. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.

 

God is going to judge, condemn, and lock into hell the demons and the dead souls who have practiced these abominable acts! The practice of demons is to own their host, to have them as their property or merchandise so they do extreme lude and offensive acts. They get them to recruit and entice others into a sinful lifestyle as well which will bring upon their souls and bodies horrible consequences and judgement. Beware that certain political parties, certain religions, and certain companies want to own you and me. They will punish you or kill you if you do not think, act, speak, and support all the soul damaging agendas they dictate to you. 

 

Satan hates God’s beautiful creation of humankind and he wants all ages and races of people to be rapidly killed by extreme exploitation! What a crime and an outrage that people would destroy their own, even those from their own families and neighbors by trying to own another’s soul, mind, and activity in order to make money from them, or get them to do evil. 

 

9. So we need to warn everyone, even the children, and we need to do awareness campaigns to expose that this type of evil is an abomination to God and a crime against humanity. Human trafficking may include exploiting others for the drug trade, sexual abuse, and unpaid labor and an infinite amount of secretive sinful activities.

 

Take note that this abuse happens on a scale of entire nations! In (fill in the blank) if you do not like their government and policies, and if you do not conform to their abuse of you as a slave to their leaders to labor in a factory, you will end up in a slave prison camp. There your kidneys, or any body part, will be harvested at any moment they please so the state can then make a huge financial profit off of you! Atheistic political parties, or false Satanic domineering cult-like religions (those opposing the glorifying of Jesus), are murderous and abusive and never fulfil their promises to you for peace, equality, justice, and a god-like status. 

 

Watch and pray and be very cautious with certain organizations, gangs, mafias, and even your neighbor down the street, as Satan is always on the prowl, like a roaring lion seeking who he can devour. Pray that you and I can protect our own from being owned by another person who will make merchandise of them. Save your own, and save a stranger when possible! Jesus will guide you, be courageous! Let’s expose human trafficking so the cannot operate in our neighborhoods! 

      

 

You know you can expose suspicious activities when you see them, here is a website for that https://www.dhs.gov/blue-campaign/identify-victim?utm_source=google.com&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=rg.search-fy20.broad-allcit&utm_content=human&utm_term=human%20trafficking%20statistics

 

 

  

Perfect 2020 Vision Did Not Happen in 2020; What’s Going To Be For 2021?

Perfect 2020 Vision Did Not Happen in 2020; What’s Going To Be For 2021?

 

Romans 12:9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. 10 Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; 11 not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; 12 rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; 13 distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality.

 

2. Those of you who don’t wear glasses may not relate to what I will share right now but here is how it is when you go to get new glasses. You sit in a high chair and a big bunch of slides are put over your eyes and you look through them and they fine tune what you see. You strain and read the letters of a chart and say, E, no wait, F, G, no wait, I mean C, N or M, you get the picture!

 

The doctor then asks you, ‘Do you see better now, or worse, as they flip through the lenses and after 20 guesses on your part they say, all done, here is your lens prescription! You then get new glasses and feel like you are walking on shifting sand for a week until you get use to them, ha! But this is what it takes to get close to 2020 vision so you can see the outline of human figures with details. 

 

For those of us that see fuzzy, we must rely more on what we hear, smell, or touch. My wife and I use to frequently visit the folks in a blind institute in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, and we discovered they could tell you the color of a cloth, shirt, or even a cash bill by how warm it was! They would make carved wood pictures just by feeling the one on the left and carving it on the right! They made good money from these and we must never think that when we lack a certain sense that we are blinded to everything. To the contrary we start to see in the spirit and experience what others have no clue of!

 

3. This fuzzy, stick figure vision is what 2020 gave us! It seems all the media went off the charts of sanity and led us into a land of dystopia, of conflicting signals so that no truth or reason could be deducted. Instead of helping us to see all details and facts clearly, we were given thick distorted lenses of their ill interpretations and led to believe that what we saw and heard was not real, and that only what they dictated to us should serve as our guidance. Remember how 300 in a Walmart was fine, but 10 in church was not fine and so bad you would pay a violation?! Some churches owe a few hundred thousand dollars right now in fines set by the State!

 

This ‘new normal’ of the new vision and new reset, is all about indoctrination! This existed in Jesus time still exists today! There was a class of leaders then that were blind and they wanted their followers to be blind as well and Jesus warned us about them. Matthew 15:14 Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.” To manipulate another so you can control and exploit them, you must first destroy how they see the world. They must be influenced day after day with false information so they believe what they are told even though it makes no sense to them. People with no discernment become empty shells and that is when deceptive demons come in so they believe only lies. 

 

2 Tess 2:9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie,

 

4. As the evil Scribes and Pharisees hated the truth of Jesus, we have people today full of violent hate for those of us who love Jesus and for anyone not conforming to how they want you to accept the filthy perverse world. And to accept the world as they do you and I are persuaded to abandon all reasoning, faith, and rationality, as well as all morality and dignity, and to defy God-given logic while accepting any and all lies they spew! Most of their lies come with a price, that of being motivated by fear which they provide you with. When you are then molded like putty in their hands, your bodies and minds are then taken over with the deceptive debauchery they claim are the standards for your and my own good!? It’s like prescribing  you glasses with the wrong prescription so you never understand anything of what you see! Remember Satan is the author of confusion!

 

Matthew 23:15 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves”. One of the biggest abominations provoking hell punishment from God is hypocrisy! 

 

Today we witness so much hypocrisy in our governing leaders, it’s even in some church leaders, that it sickens you and me to the core. Instead of people repenting from sin when their hypocrisy is exposed, they instead excruciatingly justify dirty deeds living their double standards. It is the ‘I can, but you can’t’ lawlessness paradigm. They presume a power position posturing, ‘I am rich and powerful and am above the law’ but you? You must ‘do as I say, not as I do!’ Infuriating, right? Satan’s people have cruelly manipulated and infuriated God’s children by fearmongering, lying words, and murderous abuse ever since the beginning of creation!

 

5. The blurriness and bold lying deceptions of 2020 has induced many people into become slaves without chains, under house arrest without being guilty of anything criminal, and unemployed with no hope of paying for all the bills! The implications of the message are to  ‘just go ahead and die!’ Like never before in our constitutional history, people have their mouths covered and their opinions silenced and censured! 

 

If one questions anything as to why things don’t add up, then one is targeted, ridiculed, silenced, and erased. Are we so naïve and dumb as a sheep being led to the slaughter to continue to abide by the past 2020 muddled vision? A vision that one is required to unquestionably submit to? A mandate in which local governing despots, who are  hypocritical, dictatorial, and lawless impose rules that provoke our disintegration and destruction?

 

Here is the perpetual conflict within all nations throughout time: the more trust in God the people have, the less they can be manipulated by evil dictators, but when God is absent, men from Satan dominate and want to be worshipped as god! Bold God honoring people cannot be deceived and manipulated and is why there has always been such a huge war against Christians, against them being able to be strong, to congregate and communicate, and against them being able to speak about Jesus in public or on media platforms. Jesus said it in John 8:32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Most people in power hate Jesus and free thinkers, and these evil ones overtly hate you and me and all of God’s humanity! They fool many with their enticing deceptive words that contradict the Bible and faith in God but they do not fool a Holy Spirit filled sincere Christian!

 

6. Are we as Christians being responsible to practice our faith Biblically as we should? Are we awake and ‘woke’ to Satan’s schemes, evil plans, and manipulations? We are not to live according to the world’s imposing standards and scheme of things. Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. 

 

Romans 12:9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. 10 Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; 11 not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; 12 rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; 13 distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality.

 

The Word makes it clear we are to trust in God and not man for healing in dealing with our brokenness, sicknesses, and tribulations. In 2021 this should be our theme, to love, to not tolerate hypocrisy, to keep on praying, serving one another and those with needs. 

 

7. We cannot just say ‘good riddance’ to 2020 without questioning if the deceptions of 2020 are going to remain in 2021?! There comes a point in time in which the righteous have to speak up and over-ride the schemes of the minority filthy unrighteous who seek to enslave all for power and profit. Jeremiah 17:5 Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man And makes flesh his strength, Whose heart departs from the Lord.

 

Christians, you and I should lead by example, it is about defending the poor and their right to work and support themselves. Ephesians 4:28 Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. William and Catherine Booth spoke up and ‘did something’ for the oppressed and it worked, support came in, jobs were created, souls got saved, and the world was made better. The entire world got relief and millions still benefit today because we are still focused on helping others get a clear vision of where God wants them to be.

 

To capture what I am communicating think of Moses. God’s people were being enslaved and oppressed by the Pharaohs until it got to a breaking point and then God called them to leave. (God’s people may need to abandon some ungodly cities in the world) To rebuild the walls of Jerusalem Nehemiah had to have his men work with a brick in one hand and a sword in the other. Jesus first words were those of liberation: Isaiah 61:1 “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, Because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives.  Wouldn’t this be a good message for 2021? It needs to be! It’s time to heal and restore! Enough with the fear, the misleading information, the unconstitutional mandates, the theatrical speeches and the prohibitions.

 

8. There is a spiritual battle taking place! To convince others that God is our only salvation out of this, that no schemes of man, that no remedies of science can save us must become our message so we have a future with hope, restoration and salvation! But it will be difficult to get others to trust more in God than in science but at least try. Colossians 4:6 Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one. 1 Timothy 6:20 (KJV) O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:

 

When all media channels promote man’s solutions, when all public voices speak as if they are the gods of us, when the truth and the messages of faith in God are censured, and mocked then you know this is a battle that will require much boldness and resistance with the Holy Spirit.

 

Will you help me to proclaim 2021 to be a year of getting back to God? 3 (the trinity) multiplied by 7 (God’s number of Spirits) is 21, so even the numbers of God could, according to some people who believe in numerology, line up for this to be a productive year for God! We must seek out the hurting and the fearful ones to help them see how faith in God is what will save them and us!

 

9.  Psalm 118:6 The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?

Hebrews 13:6 So we may boldly say: “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” 

Psalm 43: Vindicate me, O God, And plead my cause against an ungodly nation;

Oh, deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man! 2 For You are the God of my strength;

Why do You cast me off? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

3 Oh, send out Your light and Your truth! Let them lead me;

Let them bring me to Your holy hill, And to Your tabernacle.

 

See 2020 as a year in which our garden got overcome with evil weeds chocking out the food producing plants. See that 2021 will be more of the same unless the people who don’t believe lies put great effort into de-weeding the gardens. It is a matter of survival! Proverbs 28:1 The wicked flee when no man pursues: but the righteous are bold as a lion.

 

Please invite others as never before in 2021 to God’s places of worship, here in our Corps which is a part of His tabernacle or worshippers, or to a Bible study, or prayer meeting, or to something! Everyone must start to see with renewed spiritual eyes and must strengthen their faith and knowledge of the truth if not the enemy is at the door to deceive, steal, and kill! Do we want to be manipulated even more as slaves by the dictates of evil ones in high places? No! We must lift Jesus, our defender and lover of our soul, high above them all and they don’t stand a chance. Luke 9:1 Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases.     Jesus power in you is what we need for 2021!