Our Independence as a Christian People

Our Independence as a Christian People! Re: 4th of July 

Our Independence as a Christian People!   Re: 4th of July    

By Kelly Durant                      7-5-20

John 8:36  

36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

Gal 5:1

1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

3. How did you celebrate the 4^thof July? At home this year? Other countries celebrate at different times, Did you know that for Venezuela, it is today, July 5^th? Did you know it is Biblical to remember when you as a people were liberated? In the Old Testament we see the clear example of the Jews remembering the Passover, the day that marked when they were set free.

4.That highlighted the day that pharaoh decided to let those enslaved people go with Moses to the Promised Land. Even today, the Passover is celebrated as a very holy day for the Jews. We should always reflect on the O.T. because it teaches us parallels to the life of Christ. We learn about oppression and freedom and how sin brings on oppression but holy living brings on freedom.

5. Easter for Christians marks our day of liberation! It’s our liberation from death, and do you recall it happened the next morning after Passover? Jesus resurrection brought freedom from death for all who believe in Him! The Jews then and even today still remember their freedom which was about 3,300 years ago. All people must remember their history and celebrate freedom as the Jews celebrate today their liberation of slavery in Egypt!

Christians everywhere celebrate obtaining their freedom from the slavery of sin and death at the same time the Jews got liberated from Egypt, which is a fulfillment of God’s parallelisms in prophecies! It is okay to be patriotic and share in the roots of the liberation of your people. After 14 years in South America, I am familiar with the history of Latinos. I am very glad that Mexico and South America did not remain under the domination of the Spanish. Spain freed them from the slavery of the Mayans, Aztecs, and Incans, but then Spain went on to make them slaves as well to mine their silver and gold. For thousands of years slavery was just the norm but thank God Simon Bolivar liberated them from Spain in the 1800s! But sadly Cuba, Venezuela, and other countries are again slaves under communism!

6. In English a famous saying is, “God and country!” and the supposition is that everyone reverences God first, then your country. That is a good ideology and it would make a more perfect world if every person reverenced the hierarchy in that order. We must remember these traditional phrases as they teach how things should be. But today some governing parties denounce and insult God and exalt their leaders as gods, and these leaders are horrible abusers and murderers. Without God the world’s people are heading for a new phase of slavery under a global anti-Christ system and it is all because people are distracted with sins, and deceived.   

7. In the Salvation Army there were a few good men that after they got out of the service from WWI & WWII, they joined the Salvation Army. This shows how people have served country and then God, later and thank God for that. We are an Army of Salvation, and there exists two totally different organizations and ideologies here. Our fight is to free souls doing all the work we can to liberate spiritual captives and bring them salvation in Jesus. The soldiers of the world keep us free from outside oppressors. Was Jesus concerned for people in bondage? Let’s look up a part in the scripture where Jesus gives His very first message on his mission: to give people freedom! 

8. Isaiah. Isa 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;

God and His son are very interested in the liberty and spiritual freedom of each of us! When you first repented and received Jesus that was your Independence Day of sin, and death, and it was your rebirth into the family of God with eternal life!

9. Apart from everyone knowing the date from which your country was liberated from the oppressors, do you recall the date you personally were liberated from the oppression of the devil who would have destroyed your soul?

My date is the same as my birthday on 3-24, because it was coincidently then when I was 21 that I began a training to go abroad with a Christian mission group, and I left 6 months later to serve the Lord in Brazil, and then in other countries for 14 years! I think God I did that instead of staying bound in the world of sin I was in!

So now let me hear yours! When were you saved? Let me hear some of you, when was your independence day? (Others should speak out loud their dates)

10.How many of you have read the history of countries that get free from oppressors? Liberation and independence is a gift from God! 

But how many people do you know who could be free, remain captive?

How many of you have known of a young man or woman who wishes to escape the heavy abusive oppressing control of her father or mother, only to marry a person that does the same thing, that is, oppress, abuse, and dominate? Or have you seen a woman leave a marriage from a dictatorial man, and with her freedom rejoice she could start again only to see her end up with another man who dominates and beats her the same as the first one did? Do you see how we need God’s power in our life to not be a victim of oppression? 

11. Why does that happen in life? Why can’t we just live out the verse we read in the beginning, how if the son makes us free, then we are free indeed? Why is it people will not turn to Jesus? He is the only one who can change things! Sometime we will do an in depth study into Galatians but what was happening here in 5:1, but what was happening was that the common people were being converted to being a Christian but they were being told by the Jewish Christians in control that they had to now submit to all the Jewish laws and customs. That was not freedom in Jesus, but slavery!

In other words, Jesus came to free each of us from sin and to fulfill the law, and we are to obey His commands to love God and our neighbor and preach the gospel and serve others, but we will never be made perfect by legalism, be it Jewish or from some aberrant church! With Jesus, for 2,000 years now being “the way” to heaven, communicates that there is no other way or rules that will save you!

12. In vain the church in Galatians was trying to obtain perfection by legalism, and what it turned out to be was a church full of oppression! How many of you have darkened the door of Christian churches that are full of oppression?

I have visited many of them and I have questioned this matter extensively, why do people choose to attend there if there most of what they offer is a dark, unloving, oppression, rules and regulations? Is it fear? Is it that the people are too weak to stand up and proclaim what is right? Do people, or do you read the scriptures to know wrong from right? Only Jesus words can give us the wisdom and power to be free!

13. My conclusion is this; many people live years under the fear and oppression of Satan. However, when they accept Christ they experience a new strange feeling, freedom!

This is true independence!

They feel freedom from fear, a clean conscious, and a warm strength within, but soon the Enemy comes back to tell them, this is too good to be true, this is uncomfortable, this is not normal! But security comes not from some domineering and controlling devil. 

So since the devil often cannot persuade a person to stop believing in Christ, he persuades them to go to a church that is not a loving holiness Christian church, but rather a church where they will be dominated by fear and oppression! Those with false doctrines, those who are deceivers must be unmasked and shut down. Today we see apostacy everywhere! We see slavery in 2/3rds of the world due to oppressive religions and communist governments.

14. Remember our salvation and freedom does not come by the completion of heavy works or rules, (Ephesians 2:8,9) and it is not by deceptive feelings either! So if you feel uncomfortable that there is freedom in Christ that is a good thing! Get use to it! That is what Jesus came and died to do for you, to liberate forever! 

Venezuela, Mexico, Bolivia, and dozens of countries, were liberated in the past, but many are fell back into oppression, either from a Satanic government, or by the oppression of the rich mafia. Examine your own life well. Are you being oppressed? Jesus truth can free you! 

Evil rules with dark illusive spiritual forces! Oppressions today are rampant coming from globalists manipulators, coworkers, family members, political groups, or even demons talking to you in your own mind! You can make your own self miserable when not fully transformed under the liberty of Jesus Christ! You can be your own cruel oppressor as in the case of addicts, those who allow in demons of destruction! Beware of the propagators of false religions, or instigators with enslaving political ideologies.

Freedom is not anarchy! In our church, we need organization, and rules, in order to function, but those are for everyone’s own protection and good, but the rules are not our main message. Our message is Jesus Christ’s liberation, love, and salvation! Amen? 

Let’s pray now for you personally to be free in Christ! Free from oppression & fear! Free from the voices of the world that try to own you! Remember If Christ has made you free, you are free indeed! 

Appreciation: For God and Others Who Honor God

Appreciation: For God and Others Who Honor God   6-14-20 Kelly Durant

John 10:28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Proverbs 21:21 He that followeth after righteousness and mercy findeth life, righteousness, and honour.

2. Do you want to know about the character of a person? Ask yourself, who do they love and appreciate?  Who do they talk about and spend money or time on? Are they the vain type of person that idolizes mere men or women in high places of power? Ask, who are their favorite performers, movie stars, or rich and famous ones they look up too? Or do they (or you) speak of what God is doing in their lives or in the lives of others having their pleasure in those who inspire by good works? Who we honor says everything about who we are as a person! 

Basically, to appreciate is to reciprocate! Appreciation is a reaction, something was done for you, and now you seek to return a favor or gesture to reveal your thankfulness. Often you and I cannot return the same value of what was given but to do something reveals an honorable heart. Friends are often those whom we appreciate most but often you or I do not get a chance to thank them appropriately! 

Appreciation can be shown in different ways but one must always be a support to the person. This may also include being an imitator or admirer of their goodness. Appreciating a person by sharing with them something of value like a gift is a good thing but simply time spent with someone may reveal that you appreciate their presence and value them as a person. But often people today do nothing, and they do not even say, “Thank You!” In today’s world too many people do not appreciate anything!

3. Let’s start with priorities, how do you show appreciation to Jesus for His love to you by dying on the cross to give you eternal life? The verse of today are Jesus words, He gives us eternal life and the blessed assurance that no “man” can ever take it away. Eternal life? How amazing! How incredible! Jesus had appreciation for His followers so much so that He granted them (from the present and the future) life after this life in a perfect utopian heavenly world!

How can you or I ever thank Jesus enough for saving our soul? Eternal life in heaven is something that no amount of money can buy and there is no way to earn it! Eternal life has been the obsession of all cultures since mankind’s inception and is usually the basis for all religions, disciplines, and sacrifices throughout time. Before Jesus, the Hebrews, the Hindus, the Egyptians and all humanity have sought ways to gain eternal life and earn position by purification and respect by following Godly standards (laws) which would carry over in the next life. But mankind’s attempts at being worthy and clean are never enough to gain a purified soul acceptable enough for a Holy God who is the embodiment of pure holiness and love.

So how do you and I show appreciation for eternal life? Are you taking it serious how much God loves you? What can you give back to God?  The gift of God, is eternal life, but it cost Jesus His, to give it to you, And it will probably cost you yours, to live it too! You are no fool to give a life you cannot keep, To gain a love you’ll never lose!

4. For the gift of eternal life people will do anything! Some religions teach you must earn it by being selfless, sacrificial, ritualistic, and generous to their church, or even live separated from society. Some religions also teach that you must kill others who are unfaithful to God (what they think God wants as described by false prophets) so people will also even commit murder and violence. Until when will this time of horrible radicalism dominate mindsets submitting people to a misrepresented idea of god?! The only way to conquer is with Jesus! Violence and the murder of the unfaithful brings no justice to any God or to anyone. It is the system of satan and only serves to satisfy man’s lust for power, wealth by robbery, and sexual domination and it is the total opposite of what we know our God of mercy, compassion, and love to be!

Imagine such a perverted way of thinking that in order to please God, to show God appreciation and in order to gain eternal life with rewards you should murder another human being who does not agree with your god as defined by their ideas?! John 16:2 (b): “Yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service”. Appreciation and how it should be expressed has always been misguided by those carnal and dead towards God. God sent Jesus as the ultimate example of how we are to live and love. God Jehovah is the only one who taught us how to love through Jesus granting obedient ones eternal life and God will honor them with crowns and rewards in heaven.

5. What I can witness is this, once Jesus really touches your spirit, you will be changed, you will understand that your life is not yours anymore and that you owe Him everything! To show Jesus appreciation I chose as a young man to give up everything to follow Him. I gave up all my possessions, I gave up comfort for poverty in poor nations for 14 years, and I still am giving up all my years in service to Him, I can never pay Jesus back so all I can do is to show Him I love Him by obeying and following Him and winning people to Him! Appreciation for Jesus requires being His disciple full of love for everyone, appreciating every soul you meet as a potential future lover a servant of Him!

We know how we all should appreciate God by living for Him worshipping Him, but who should we appreciate in this life? Should not appreciation be shown to those who do the most for God and Jesus? Think about who you know here in the Corps church, about who are obeying the Lord, “serving another in love” as commanded.

Each person according to their talents do what they can for the Lord and sometimes amongst ourselves we are unaware of what the other is doing for God or the Corps because not everyone is here all the time to be informed about who does what. In general you and I should try to not judge who to appreciate more than the other, but instead just take an attitude to appreciate and love everyone that we know are here for God! It is God that keeps a record of words and deeds. 

6. Many times others do many good things for the Corps church that you may not be aware of and often these are things you could not do yourself. For example, some people have a talent to raise several hundred dollars every time they go out ringing the bell for the red kettle and others do not. Some others of you can repair broken doors and locks; others can decorate amazingly while others know how to cook and provide great meals for a hundred people. Each person has value, and to appreciate that try switching the tasks and ask the decorators to repair the sound system!? We all must show honor and respect to one another! All have value! Always esteem the humble poor ones, God does!

Someone asked me one time, what did the shepherds give Jesus on Christmas? (Assuming they gave Him a sheep) The Bible does not record that they gave Jesus a sheep, but they did run to admire and worship him! Maybe they did give Him a sheep, I don’t know, but the important part is they gave Jesus their heart, praise, and worship! That surrendering of the will is what anyone can give and is what God wants! We should not expect people to give what they may or may not be able to give.

7. Do you want to know what has been a hard lesson for me in life? It is to appreciate broken-ness and to just work with broken people! We have volunteers that have had bodily injuries and cannot lift more than 10 pounds, some of them are homeless, some of them are not to solid emotionally but do I reject them? No! I appreciate them! At least they are serving God in some manner as best they can around here. Some Christians are too good and too proud to work with a motley crew but not me because I know Jesus disciples were a mess, and I know I am still a work in progress! Being a volunteer Army we take whoever will serve!

In this life our Corps church will never be perfect with perfect people altruistically loving and sacrificing for each other to the level Jesus expects. Some of you sometimes I perceive are not happy with each other and you don’t like the way some show or don’t show appreciation to the Corps church as you think these people are benefiting more than giving and in some cases this has been true. 

Like it or not, all people always are measuring who does what and they comment about it so try to examine yourself well in what you do for God. Also remember none of you are ever seeing the whole picture of all that goes on behind the scenes. Some people with rough edges that may appear undesirable are actually doing God’s work and going out and visiting the sick and helping the helpless while others stay back and clean, serve food, decorate and repair and even provide a gift for someone in need without calling attention to it.

8. Concerning the things of God, you and I should concern ourselves with own ourselves first, so ask yourself, do I actually give enough to God as He wants to my Corps, family and friends? Do I do all of what God expects of me? Do I show the appropriate amount of appreciation to God and others? Do I, as in the Proverb of today, concern myself to be full of “righteousness and mercy” which invokes life and honor? 

The reality is everyone should take conviction to be more appreciative to Jesus, to their brothers and sisters, and to their Corps church which should shine like a light in the community with the evidence of the love a God present in each person. In order to please God we must appreciate every act of kindness, appreciate every visitor, and appreciate and love each other!

There are different types of appreciation. You may appreciate a person who feeds you once, but what about someone who over a course of more than a decade has fed you hundreds of times? Now that is where a deeper appreciation takes place! It is obvious some of the people of this Corps have provided service, food, and acts of kindness for the people of this Corps and for those of the community many hundreds of times. Now that is truly worthy to be admired and appreciated on a deeper level! Each one of us will reap what we sew!

9. As human beings and animals of habit we often take for granted the good that others do for us through the church or on their own and sadly we later only take notice of it once it is gone! It is sad reality that ‘you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone’? We should all wake up and notice all the good that each person does, whether they be a driver who picks up people on Sundays, or whether they be a cook, or a Bible teacher who brings clarity to God’s word. 

                                                                                                             

My grandmother use to say some people would not do things neither for ‘love or money’, and it is true, many people are motivated or not motivated to do things as it affects their personal gain, but with God things works to the contrary. You are expected to love, give, and serve expecting nothing in return! Just be a faithful humble servant! The reality is, however, that by being obedient to Jesus, sacrificial, and generous you do gain things that money can’t buy such as honor, respect, righteousness, and love! And most importantly, Jesus will grant you eternal life and rewards in heaven when you do these things in His Name!

Let’s ask God to forgive our past failures and ask Him to give us a love and appreciation for Him so deep that it will sustain you and me to do greater things for Him, for our brothers and sisters, the Salvation Army Corps, and for all others out there in the community! Appreciate everyone, always, and thank them!  

Society Crumbles Because of a Lack of Biblical Leaders

Society Crumbles Because of a Lack of Biblical Leaders   Maj. Kelly Durant

Exodus 1:8 Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.

2. How many of you have ever done a project together in school or at camp in which everyone needed to give their ideas, but things did not work out like they were supposed to? I recall one year at our summer camp I had a group of boys and they needed to build a water raft in 2 mornings (4 hours) to race one evening against the other 5 groups.

We had plywood, inner tubes, and rope. I recall guiding them to make holes so the rope could tie the innertubes underneath us. They did it their way, of course. The lessons learned from this experience were: The loudest kid may not always be the one with the best ideas, the most pushy one may also not have the best creative ideas either, and finally, after everyone hears all the ideas of everyone, if the team listened to the right kid and made the raft strong with the holes in the right places, the knots tied correctly, etc. then there was a better chance at winning the race. In our case, better teamwork happened on a different team than ours, ha!

As suspected the tubes slipped out from the plywood and did not stay in place so rowing was thwarted. Camps are important as lessons are learned, like this one of not letting the ignorant loud mouths run the show. But many people are missing this lesson, they are following those who want to lead when they possess no preparation or skill for the task, and also they have no leadership preparation to listen to others, only an ability to shout at others what to do!Proverbs 11:14 Where there is no counsel, the people fall; But in the multitude of counselors there is safety.

3. We have had over a week of terrible news! How sad the murder of Mr. Floyd, and The Salvation Army USA come out officially to say they were shocked and do support justice. But the news of violent people burning, looting, and attacking anyone that is in their path does not help! It is understood that injustices, and even deaths from injustices, will happen, and this justifiably deserves an outcry to demand steps be put into place to prevent a repeat of it. But man’s systems will always fail us! Has anyone noticed we as a society seem to never make enough progress in the creation of systems that are more just and fair? Greed, pride, and corruption seems to always rot the fish head at the top, and just one bad apple damages the whole batch!

Why is it history repeats and repeats the same old painful mistakes? Could it be that it is as the Bible states that Satan has done a military coup and he is running the world and the world’s top brass? This has been this way ever since after Noah’s children resettled the world. I lived through the 60s and 70s riots and when I was young it seemed riots were justifiable to prevent more deaths from happening in the Vietnam War. That war alone provoked 300,000 wounded, 60,000 dead, and probably 500,000 addicted to drugs! The youth caught on to the fact that that war was being prolonged on purpose so that arms manufacturers could become filthy rich so they would in turn would make rich the government officials who kept it going. This is mass murder so an elite few can live privileged and rich, how sickening, right? And mass murder still is happening with bio engineered viruses, abortion, starvation, and civil wars!

Here is the problem, and I have repeated it several times, Satan is the one behind the world’s divisive systems and it is he who inspires his demon possessed authorities and rebellious ones to perpetuate war, division, sickness, oppression and the murder of innocent people. And here is another part of the problem, those that know to do good (Christians), those that know to expose the evil, and those that know that only God is the solution often remain silent when they should be offering meaningful Biblical solutions! This is dropping the ball! We are to be salt and light. Matthew 5:9 Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God. 

4. I have emphasized a lot recently that Christians need the Holy Spirit discernment! I see weak Christians on social media posting political things concerning these recent events and many are very misinformed. Politics always operates within the paradigm of making you take sides so this is a lose lose situation to get you sucked into thinking certain political people will solve these divisive matters! The problems we face are bigger than politics, we have a falling away from God problem, a moral problem, a problem of the brute beast mentality in people in power positions, which in the end is actually a demon possession problem! Who is standing up to demons these days? Way too few!

Our lack of leadership problem in most all our burning cities is a product of people gaining power positions by trickery, bribery, or force and they have no spiritual depth, no discernment of right and wrong, and no Biblical values or wisdom as their compass to intellectually guide the public with. We are in a leadership crisis throughout the world!

So what is another part of this problem? People in general are being fools to not investigate seriously who they are electing as their city, state, and government leaders! Some people just go with the flow of being convinced by the person who is the loudest! The bullies may have won in high schools but should they also today win in politics by the oppression, disorder, ineffectiveness, and brokenness?  Dominating with ignorance they are fomenting real damage! Our broken system keeps getting fueled and perpetuated by those who keep on believing the lies of these manipulators.  Romans 1:28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting;

5. Ecclesiastes 5:8  ‘If you see the oppression of the poor, and the violent perversion of justice and righteousness in a province, do not marvel at the matter; for high official watches over high official, and higher officials are over them’. This is a Biblical outline of how governing authorities should function, and those who do evil, should in the end, pay for the evil and suffering they cause. It is up to those who have Biblical values to weigh in on matters requiring justice to be an influence to maintain Godliness and respect and push for the love of our neighbors as instructed by the golden rule. It’s the main law Jesus pushed!

‘The best safeguard against fascism is to establish social justice to the maximum extent possible.’ Arnold Toynbee. Where the government is literally worshipped as god, as in fascism, socialism, communism, and in theocracies, secret society orders, and private fraternities, there will never be any justice possible as there is always death and destruction coming down onto the one(s) who has any word of opposition! The USA is an exception to all historical governing systems which in general have been monarchies, oligarchies, and military kingships. The fact that people are allowed to protest reveals that we still have some hope of justice for the oppressed. I believe we can improve things city by city if we dialogue in peace and get back to Biblical wisdom, elect leaders who practice Biblical standards, and get rid of the bullies with their terrible agendas! Who will take up that challenge?

The Bible does offer us the best solution alternatives to the world’s governing powers who rule as wild beasts, described by God as devouring monsters, lions, bears, and leopards in the book of Daniel. The original governance of Israel was done by judges, men who proved themselves to be Godly leaders, who would rightly serve with justice anyone who was wronged. But what happened to Israel? They became fools and demanded a king and they got king Saul who failed them and oppressed and bullied them, as all kings do. They also fell into allowing monarch kingships and the spoiled grandsons of the previously righteous ones to lead them into Baal (Satan) worship. This provoked God to anger and he allowed them to go into being slaves of the nations that also worshipped Satan but they just had a different name for him! Read Psalm 78 to learn of Israel’s rebellious history and how God dealt with them! Is God dealing with this nation? Is it from the many sins in our cities, not just murder? How are you doing in obedience to God, anyway? Do you live holy?

6. It is up to Christians to be involved and influence for good our corrupted society so more equality and justice can exist (to be salt and light!). This is what the Salvation Army did since its inception but not enough folks take up the challenge. We must be warned that God will allow destruction to the nations that stop honoring Him. Ezra 5:12 But because our fathers provoked the God of heaven to wrath, He gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this temple and carried the people away to Babylon. 

Don’t ever think that it could never happen to us here, that an outside oppressive nation could take over while we mess around with riots, destruction, and chaos. If God allows a nation to fall because their sins are too many, it will happen! Proverbs 16:12 ‘It is an abomination for kings to commit wickedness, For a throne is established by righteousness’. Abominations provoke God’s wrath. 

The kings we can compare to are our local senators and reps, mayors and governors, and too many of them lately have passed murderous and perverse laws! They also have made laws to kill our economies and futures proving that, ‘we the people’ have no voice with them as they are bullies! And the righteous are treated as scum by them! And sadly, too many of the righteous passively stay comfortably on their sofas and do nothing against these arrogant, ignorant leaders who demise how to bully, confuse, and subjugate you and me!  

7. Don’t let the world go to hell! Christians, it is not too late for you to be a Joseph, an Esther, or a Daniel! Or even a William or Catherine Booth who raised the prostitution age from 12 to 14 in England! Uninvolved Christians, letting the world go to hell, not jumping in to be mediators and peacemakers cannot complain when violence arrives at their doorstep. Proclaim the word of God! Pastors and everyone are needed to push back on this aggressiveness!

If people would agree that entire cities and city leaders must repent of their sins and at all cost get back to the principle of “loving God and your neighbor as yourself”, then we could make some real progress! But no! People without Biblical knowledge, full of themselves and arrogant pride, with no knowledge of anything but how to satisfy their own ego and lusts, want to dictate contradictory laws and damage mass amounts of people. And the sheeple still follow them after all their debacles!? How can the acceptance and endorsing of criminal behavior in a local leader be praised as justice? Romans 3:8(a) And why not say, “Let us do evil that good may come”? The blind are leading the blind as never before so beware who you listen to! Listen to God’s Word and the Holy Spirit!

Those not declaring in public they are governed by God are governed by Satan, and many of them even secretly worship him doing horrible Satanic human sacrifice rituals in their secret society basements. Much has come to light on that of late (Epstein Weinstein, Nxivm Hollywood sex trafficking, etc.) The evil in our world today is the same as it was in the murderous days of the past oppressive empires and cultures. The focus now is on 1 murder, but 1,000s happen daily!

8. Egypt, despite its worship of pagan gods (comparable to the idolatrous USA today) was somewhat blessed, just, and made prosperous when guided by Joseph, God’s righteous one. But after a generation a pharaoh came that did not care to respect God our Father as Joseph had instructed and this provoked their internal self-destruction, oppression, and decadence which slowly ended the empire. Psalm 9:17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God. It’s simple, obey God’s principles and no enemy (internal or external) can destroy you. Pray that people wake up and return to God!

Today many leaders are like this pharaoh ‘who knew not God’, alienated from the life of God, (Ephesians 4:18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart) and everyone is suffering from ‘a crisis fatigue’ after absorbing an overload of news (much of it fake) about massive deaths and sickness and few did anything about it! People are sick and tired of being propagandized to be ‘sick and tired’ and they want healing and life! God can restore that! Now is the time for the whole world to turn to God because most all our local leaders are godless ignorant bullies, and this is why things are falling apart.

Previous to this 2020 crisis we were hearing all about the exploitations and murders done by the cabal of the global powerful wealthy elites and it seems they got our attention away rather quickly from their horrific injustices. Rarely does justice ever seem to catch up to them! These evil few finance riots and mass murder projects and no one riots to get them arrested! 

9. How disgracefully sad that there seems to exists few sins or evil so heinous that it will shock anyone anymore. We have been dehumanized, desensitized, and conditioned by this Satanic club of elite oligarchs to be outraged only over what they decide. Much proof exists that they plan and plot our division, destruction, and enslavement! ‘Don’t get fooled again!’ ‘We are not divided, all one body we, one in hope and doctrine, one in charity!’ Onward Christian Soldiers! 

Proverbs 1:17 ‘Surely, in vain the net is spread In the sight of any bird.’ For the serious Christians, for those who pray, read God’s Word and seek truth, no machinations can fool them to enslave them into any false paradigm that the world’s deceivers try to sell you. Always exalt Jesus in your sphere of influence as His teachings are the best solution to bring about a righteous ‘God’s kingdom world order’, so we are not dealing with this degenerate injustice ‘world order’ we currently survive under which are systems controlled by Satanic orders.  

Today the violent are praised as just and justified while those offering peaceful solutions to fix the problems are often labeled as ‘unjust’ or ‘racist’ because they will not burn down the city with them! Justice over these recent events will be served in the future, but for now many great injustices are being carried out on innocent people by globalists. Pray that Holy Spirit guided Christians will not fall into this current trap of wanting one to support violence as a solution! Pray for peace! Pray that Bible following leaders will rise up to guide the hurting masses!

Interruptions: They Augment the Good or the Bad

Interruptions: They Augment the Good or the Bad   Kelly Durant

John 15:24 If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father.

2. What is an interruption? I think the past 2 months we have learned a lot about it with all the new restrictions and changes that occurred during the Covid 19. An interruption is when there is an activity going on, like regular business, and then something stops it abruptly but usually temporarily; there is then a timeout time and a focus on something else other than the regular so called ‘normal’ activities. New knowledge and awareness of things are disrupters as well bringing on new results. We must always analyze these outcomes if they are of God or not.

When you serve Jesus and serve others as a missionary, preacher, or in particular as a Soldier or Officer in the Salvation Army, your whole life becomes one big interruption of going from one unexpected activity to the next. It seems daily unforeseen things happen and you really have to hold on to Jesus to manage this type of lifestyle. I call it good stress, because in the end what we do is for God’s glory to help others, amen? But we must also have a time for a Sabbath rest.

All Christians when they get serious with the Lord will be called to do many things extraordinary that we are not familiarized to do, like becoming ‘fishers of men’; It will become uncomfortable, and it will involve learning patience, and also, a dying to your pride. Today I will focus on some angles of how interruptions affect us, I’ll start with myself, how I had to change, then focus on the community at large and the Covid disruption, and finally focus on the church, and more things to expect.

3. Personal interruptions: I recall as a kid I would be having fun outside, practicing throwing a knife at the tree or acting out as some character or something and then I would hear my mother yell, “Come inside now! It’s time to eat, wash dishes, and get ready for tomorrow!” I hated being interrupted but there seemed to be no other alternative if I wanted to eat and not get whipped.

Also, after being married, even on the first year my sweet wife Regina would yell at me too, “Come here and take your son, I need to cook!” I would in vain respond, “But I am practicing a song, or working on a project!” as that seemed to not have any priority. So again, having a family, I learned to get interrupted about 20 times daily and learned to just do what a parent does and become extremely flexible.

Also, when I was 21 and in college, thinking I would become a psychologist and make myself into some eccentric earth loving character but I got my lifestyle  interrupted with a call to go serve the Lord in Brazil. Thank God for that interruption! I would not trade all that I have learned while serving Jesus for nothing! When Jesus calls you, you must stop what you are doing, make a u-turn, and go down the road He has for you in life. Life after the interruption of ‘God’s calling’ gets excitingly better, and purposeful, but also full of unexpected changes and interruptions. You become as the wind, driven by the spirit. John 3: 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Soldiers in the Salvation Army get this call, a call to serve and love and then the action!

4. Interruptions in the community: When Jesus called Peter and Andrew, they thought they would be fishermen until they were old and dead, but then Jesus interrupted them one day and totally changed their lives and direction, Matthew  4:18 And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. 19 Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” 20 They immediately left their nets and followed Him.

This is how it is when you learn of Jesus, you have to make a decision to follow Him or not, to keep on with the old, or choose a new life with Him at the stern guiding your deep sea adventures. I can tell you I am amazed that even after so many years (over 40 for me) the adventure with Jesus never ends and what a glorious life it is to see souls saved and lives made better!  

The lifestyle of serving others and Jesus implies that every day you will get interrupted in your planned activities by a dozen different things and people that have some kind of a need and then their need becomes your challenge on how to help them as much as possible so they gain hope and faith that there is a God that loves them. Jesus changes us from being self-serving to God-serving!

5. Not everyone likes getting interrupted by Jesus (or you telling them about Him). Mark 1:24 saying, “Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!” 25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet, and come out of him!”

You and I must be Jesus’ spokesperson sharing the ‘good news’ and like it or not, Jesus will bring on a change! Where there is a demon possessed person, Jesus will rebuke and heal, where there is a sick person, Jesus will comfort and heal, where there is a broken hearted soul, Jesus will heal it as well and give that person a new life, a mission, and one of sharing His ‘good news’ of life eternal!

So do you see the cycle? Jesus shows up, He interrupts normal business, He then repurposes the broken stuck-in-a-rut person to do good for God’s Kingdom, and then He gives that person a mission. So you or I when touched by Jesus also go on to interrupt others in their day-to-day boring existence to share the gospel with them. We see some people change totally, and then we see others who miss the boat and go back to their mundane repetitious life and are forgotten by all. 

6. Interruptions by Satan: Satan certainly does scheme time and time again how to interrupt the flow of things and deceive and murder God’s people! His tactics are diametrically opposed to Jesus! Jesus in the community comes to bless, to heal, to give meaning to life, and life eternal, to instruct on humility and love but not so with Satan. Satan inspires people to spread violence, sickness (viruses), division, and death. We see him too active of late!

Satan always comes in with deception fooling people who are carnally minded motivating them with temptation; temptation with power and personal wealth, playing on their fear of living life poor, enticing a person, you or me, to satisfy inordinate passions which always  includes harming and abusing others, even to steal from them and even kill. He also pressures all to be subdued under fear, to succumb to his demons who are merciless psychotic debauched gang leaders and dictators who overtly exploit and persecute  innocent people.  I really hate Satan and His people with a passion! All true Christians will hate Satan and expose the evil works of his people!

So what are Satan’s end-time plans for absolute dominion which will require every person on earth to worship him? We already know from what Jesus revealed in Revelation to John His servant. These tactics keep repeating and keep getting more intense. His favorite is to divide and conquer. 

7. Interruption by prophecy: From the 4 horsemen we learn that these objectives will be used by Satan and they are: Subjugation by force, war and division, hunger, an imbalance of wealth, and then death which implies death by diseases. What is implied under death? Revelation 6:8  So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth.

The interesting part here is “and by the beasts of the earth”. The first claim was the Corona 19 was from a virus (or bacteria) carried by bats, but soon it was said to be one made in a lab (in China or the US), so maybe the truth is somewhere in between; it could be bats carry it but it was enhanced by a lab to infect humans more readily. A bat is considered a beast as it is not an animal that can be domesticated. Basically beasts do kill many humans yearly by many means!

So we are at the moment in time in which man’s intervention, or interruption of nature’s normal containment, is what is provoking more death carried out by people doing Satan’s wishes to discover how to kill mass amounts of people. 

8. What terrible days we are living in and we all need Jesus like never before! Imagine, the news groups already report that due to the shut downs we should expect more death from suicides from the effects of having the Covid 19. We also should expect many deaths from hunger, from food shortages, as the interruption of the production of food from the factories and slaughterhouses has crippled the normal supply. China already only produces half the meat they use to!

And what do we know from WW1 and WW2? It was failed economies and mass desperation for food and goods that provoked Japan and Germany into the war invasion phase to invade other countries and kill on a mass scale. Also China’s leader, Chairman Mao killed 26 million or more of his own people to subdue them into atheistic communism in 1949. Don’t think it can’t happen again! Mass destruction is already in the works by these elaborate elites that already own more than half of the world already. Governments obey their bidding because they own the governments, the world organizations, and most everything!

Satan has always killed some of his own to get to the ones he really hates, and that is his adversaries, the Christians, who always with the truth expose his plans for dominion, wars, hunger, death and population reduction by ‘plandemics’. Imagine, lab generated poisons and viruses can kill more people on a mass scale more than anything else besides an atomic bomb. And will things now get calmer? It seems not as they announce a 2^nd wave and that no normalcy will happen until 7 billion get the vaccine they already planned to market years ago.. 

9.The interruption to the church by Covid 19: Genesis 50:20 But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive. (The evil done to Joseph by his own family, sold into slavery).

As Christians it seems that so many times that the attacks against us turns into something unexpectedly beneficial. Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. By the closing down of houses of worship many thousands of house churches (church-in-the-home) were opened up! Some churches probably will lose some folks for a while, but the number of Christians in this time of uncertainty and confusion, I believe, has actually grown. 

Christian church buildings are only a modern luxury. Before it was like this,  Acts 5:42 And daily in the temple (Jewish ones), and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. Worship before was an everyday thing! It was as we do it today, it was a scripture reading, a devotional reflection, a singing of a hymn or inspired song. With the internet you can hear the teaching of most anyone you like, just be careful with false doctrines though!

10. One last thought, the interruption of death: As Christians our hearts go out to families right now who are dealing with loved ones who have died due to the Covid 19 interruption. There is nothing like a death in the family to interrupt your normal life and change your destiny and the relationship dynamics you have with others. Death, no matter if it is by prolongated fear, an addiction, a virus, an accident, a murder, or old age, is an interruption by Satan! 

He brought death into the world by enticing humans with temptation, never forget that! He still provokes early deaths by getting people involved in wrong and destructive activities. Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We cannot control much of what happens in the world or in this life but we can control how we will respond to all these interruptions.  Will we do what Jesus would do? Will we trust God anyway despite the world rapidly going to hell?  Psalm 9:17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, And all the nations that forget God. Today this could include almost every nation! It is time to increase our faith and always be ready to get interrupted, ready go or ready to stay, either way we must glorify the Lord, loving everyone, in all we do! Let’s pray… 

Invite the Holy Spirit’s Discernment In Your Life!

Invite the Holy Spirit’s Discernment In Your Life!     Kelly Durant

1 Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

15 But he that is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.

16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? but we have the mind of Christ.

2. I forgot exactly how this conversation was but a French man was asked about how he felt about his life as a soldier during the French War. He replied, “There are only 2 outcomes. If I am called to serve, I will go, or I will not, When I am on the battle field, I will be put in the front lines, or I won’t be. If and when I fight on the front lines, I will live, or I will die!  It is simple, one can accept these types of facts, or not”! It’s true that in life there usually is only 2 final outcomes, you will survive, or you won’t! After here, there will be heaven, or there will be hell.

So the question today is, how are you accepting things with this so called ‘new normal’ of masks and social distancing? Things will get better, or thy won’t! Life will get back to how it use to be, or it won’t. Your faith and trust in God is either getting stronger, or it is not! How are you responding to things? How you respond depends of how much you are guided by God’s Word and how much of the Holy Spirit you have in your life. So we must be living in a way that places us on the narrow path to heaven, or we are on the highway to hell. It’s up or it’s down!

Back to the Covid 19 crisis new rules, as the experts tell you in counseling classes, you cannot stop or control outside situations or an abusive person from being abusive to you (and it is usually not your fault, but theirs) but you can control how you respond to them! As Christians we do not play into the negative drama of illogical emotions because if one does one ends up as messed up as what the abuser is! 

3.As a society, we the people are getting bullied into false paradigms and we must not back down to conform to aggressors and deceivers. Nothing should ever be mandatory in a free country, but intimidation is a favorite tactic of Satan. After I accepted Jesus at age 21 and I decided to do mission work, I decided that I would not allow myself to be belittled by any small minded ignorant person out there who thought I was a fool, a freak, a fanatic, or lost-his-mind dupe. The Holy Spirit gave me the power to overcome this! The typical reaction from people when you propose you will do something deemed ridiculous or impossible (like going to live in a poor country to preach Jesus with no solid support or knowing the language) is that you have gone crazy. This is because they have a carnal, thick-as-a-brick, mentality that cannot accept things that come from the Spirit of the Lord. Most people instead of climbing the mountain with you, they make every excuse why they wouldn’t and why you can’t!

To truly understand an on fire, radical, unafraid of anything Christian Soldier you have to be one yourself! Like the old saying goes, ‘walk a mile in his shoes’! Try it! Step out on the water of faith! You will become empowered and invigorated and the mundane ambitions of the so called normal greedy average person will be correctly judged by you to be foolish, fading endeavors. ‘A life will soon be past, only what’s done for Jesus will last!’ 

Christians before were forced to accept the Roman ‘new world order, and if you did not say, “Cesar is god’, you would be killed! The problem today, as it has always been, is that the regular Christians, instead of being out in the arena of the Roman Coliseums preaching salvation with their last breath are sitting idly by in the grandstands watching their Christians brothers getting mocked, laughed at, falsely accused, discriminated against, and even killed in the hands of evil people in power who hate hearing about Jesus and hate hearing they have sins they need to repent of. Now the globalists, politicians, and technocrats want to be the new gods. 

4. Carnal people are always attacking the spiritual ones! It’s Cain and Abel all over again. Here is an example from the Bible (John the Baptist) of how the carnally minded respond when a righteous person calls them out to try to help them to be righteous and pleasing to God. Matthew 14: 3 For Herod had laid hold on John, and bound him, and put him in prison for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife. 4 For John said unto him, It is not lawful for thee to have her.

So what is happening is that John the Baptist is making a judgment call that Herod was wrong for stealing his brother’s wife away from him. In most cultures, stealing your brother’s wife does invoke anger, it might even lead to murder within the family! So laws (God is the originator of them, except for others man invented) exist for a reason; They are to control abuses, suffering, and tragedy to bring justice and consequence to the perpetrator. But lawbreakers and abusers, who are usually the powerful at the top, the ones who think they are above the law, are always acting out on their inordinate passions not caring about suffering, morality, God, or who they destroy. We do live in a wicked world highjacked by Satan.

So one action leads to another and the evil adulterous wife of Herod persuades Herod to give to her daughter anything she pleases in exchange for a sexy dance. Today many people get manipulated with sex and later pay horrible consequences! Little did Herod know she would have so much hate against John for calling her (and him) out that she would demand his head on a platter! How sick! So learn this, unspiritual carnally minded people who want to sin as they please hate Christians and make war against the righteous because they expose their cruel murderous hearts! All Christians battle against those who sin in their families, communities, and against the powers in secret dark circles in high places. 

5. So you as a Christian knowing you are not to conform to the world but to have the ‘mind of Christ’ how does that play out in real life? Have you ever thought about it? (Romans 12:1,2) What are you accepting, or not accepting concerning your lifestyle as a Christian? I hope you have not ever tried to steal someone’s soulmate as Herod did (but some so called Christians have done these types of sins!) and recall that King David paid grave consequences for doing this very same thing. There are some sins that carry a bigger punishment than others. Jesus sums it up like this, Luke 12:47 And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.

1 Corinthians 10:4 Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit, 10(a) To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits. Most everything centers around discernment and convictions to do the right thing! Will you stand up even though everyone is against you? Another problem is our culture today has lowered the bar on the responsibilities of Christians and evil powers are advancing and this world is going to hell at a rapid pace because of it. It is our job to seek out truth and not just accept anything we are told by the world’s perverse people. You either obey God’s Word in faith or you obey the world’s. It’s either God’s reality, or the world’s delusion; the red pill or the blue one!

You could almost do the entire opposite of what the world says to do and you would mostly likely be in God’s will!  Luke 16:15 And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knows your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. With discernment we can evaluate and judge that the world wants us subdued to them to our own demise, but, we have not God but Jesus!

6. Christians must discern how to live a healthy lifestyle, and this implies dominating many areas of our lives. Taking care of your body by eating well, resting well, and not abusing our body with addictive substances is a first start and a must do. (A requirement to be a Salvationists Soldier). Doing this you can resist germs and viruses! I also believe you should not allow just any vaccine concoctions into your body either as many of these have proven to do great harm. (Big pharma always pay big techys to remove truth but investigate the lawsuits in India, and ask me about Bolivia) The new vaxes are not as the old ones either (some old ones only provoked sterility!) because these new ones have nano-bots and DNA altering genetics! We need discernment and be informed on what evil ones want to do to our bodies and minds. They want us subdued and defiled, they want to be worshipped as our savors, and they want our money!

As we say in The Salvation Army, everyone needs Soup, Soap, and Salvation! We have human bodies and we do need to eat to be healthy, and then we must take care of our bodies. Cleanliness is Godliness. We must discern between healthy and good foods, and discern that our bodies must be clean and attractive in a modest way, without the vanity of plastic surgeries and extravagant clothes. We are only borrowing this temple that God gave us, right? So let’s keep it a good testimony.

1 Timothy 2:9 In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; Do you discern that you are taking correct care of yourself, not too much, and not too little?

Most people actually, naturally, do take good care of their flesh, but what about the mind? I think too many of us do not discern what comes in and what goes out of our minds. When society was a bit more innocent and Christian influenced in the 1950s & 60s, it seemed that children were respected, cursing in music and in public was taboo, and values were cleaner. But now for a generation already it is as if Pandora’s box of filth has been opened! All vulgar and abominable destructive communications are the ‘new normal’ and it has contaminated the minds of the young and old. A new normal of debasement and evil has been imposed on us to create division, confusion, fear, a mocking of Christian values, and in the final chapter, in our weakness, an enslavement to a new world order governed by extreme A.I. computer systems of control. But there exists a salvation to keep a person from falling into these new deceptions, and it lies in the discerning the signs of the times which Jesus prophesied about. (Matthew 24)

7. Here is a preliminary prophecy of how we would discern with the Holy Spirit after learning from Jesus. Malachi 3:18 Then shall ye (the people of spiritual Israel) return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serves God and him that serves him not. 

All of us who have become Christian must unlearn most everything from our past in order to learn from God’s ways. Too many people only obey commands from the world’s people, but recently, as always, they have shown themselves to not be so smart after all as they keep changing what you should or shouldn’t do day to day. The world’s people always blame others and never accept that they are wrong on anything. Due to this evil nature is why Jesus always said, “Repent”!

Here is our reality, we as Christians will quite often disagree with the majority of people who, not using their minds to research or pray to discover truth, will usually be mistaken in their convictions. And when one is resisting the trends of the world, one is labeled, attacked, mocked, and now destroyed on the internet before getting fired from your job for not being a parrot for the globalist cabal crowd. 1 Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

8.The bigger tragedy today is that too many Christians have forgotten to ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom and discernment and they are not defending God’s statutes  evaluating, judging, and deciphering all things spoken and all deeds done.The goal is to have the mind of Christ! 

The Greek idea to ‘know thyself’ is helpful, but this must be within the context of discerning how God sees us, now how we what to make ourselves be perceived: we only want to reflect Jesus! Discernment concerning those around you and leaders, no matter their branch of work, or what comes into your own mind from yourself, must be filtered through what is God’s truth on all our decisions as the consequences is a life and death matter!

In the Salvation Army it is ‘blood and fire’ and most Christians remember the blood to ask for forgiveness but let’s not forget the ‘fire’ of the Spirit! We must always ‘try the spirits” (1 John 4, read the whole chapter) and determine how to live free in God and be a testimony for good. Pray for the Holy Spirit to be in your life and pray for discernment so no evil controls you!