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The Body of Christ: The citizens of the Kingdom of God on earth and in heaven

Assembly: Christians gathered together for worship or other purposes of The Kingdom. Also called a fellowship.

Congregation: A group of people that meet in a church or similar building that may include non-Christian or lukewarm Christians.

Denomination: a collection of congregations which segregate their congregations from congregations of other denominations and by this divide The Body of Christ. There is only one denomination and that is The Body of Christ. All others are man made for the purposes of man as a result of the reasonings of man. Jesus does not recognise denominations. He only recognises The Body (of His followers).

Independent Church: A church that does not belong to a denomination or similar. These form associations of independent churches and negate their name and purpose for being independent through doing this. They may belong to The Body but not necessarily do.

Social Gathering: A group of Christians who are gathered together for purposes other than those of The Kingdom of God.

There is only one law in the universe. The Law of The Kingdom of God. All others laws are in part or whole a reflection of this. The Mosaic Law was a reflection of the law of The Kingdom of God.

The Law of The Kingdom applied from before eternity and creation and will apply after these are gone. The Kingdom is the primary law we are under and all else is a reflection of its law

The Mosaic Law applied only from Moses to the death of Jesus died as He replaced it with a new covenant. The Mosaic Law no longer applied as it died with the old covenant (see the decision in Acts 15 by the Apostles).

Jesus fulfilled the Law of The Kingdom in regard to sin and as a result of this also fulfilled the redemptive and atonement part of The Mosaic Law which was a shadow of the Law of The Kingdom of God. The Cross fulfilled the requirements of God and also as a consequence, the principle behind the Sacrificial Law which was a reflection of the requirement of The Kingdom of God for restoration to fellowship with The Father.

Jesus spoke about The Kingdom of God and restoration with The Father as He was not dead at that time. Jesus is reconciling all things with God and His Kingdom and not with Himself (Eph. 2:16, Col. 1:20).

The Body of Christ reflects the fellowship we will have in heaven. The church is not The Body of Christ but is a meeting of people who profess to be Christian and at times may approximate the love and fellowship we will have in heaven. Those belonging to The Body will be doing The Work of The Kingdom rather than the work of a denomination and by their fruits you will know who they belong too: The Kingdom and The Body or a denomination.

When Jesus died He established a New Covenant (Testament) based on The Kingdom of God and summarised by the following verse:

This was to signify the presence of the Holy Spirit given to us after Jesus ascended to heaven. There was no longer a need for a temple or a high priest. The Mosaic Law was no longer applicable and the temple was removed to signify this in 70 AD.

God is in us so now we are The Temple of God in which the Holy Spirit lives and marks as belonging to The Kingdom of God. Jesus also removed the blockages between God and ourself so we can go directly to God (through Jesus Jn. 14:6)and do not need any other intermediatory. He alone is sufficient and our High Priest. We can worship where we are, when we want too and need no one else to be there to do this. All you need is a desire to worship and to have intimacy with The Father, Jesus and The Holy Spirit.

The Law was the result of God’s covenant with Israel (Duet 5). We are under a new covenant so The Law does not apply and that includes the dietary laws, the Jewish Feasts and the Ten Commandments (Acts 15).

The New Covenant was mediated by Jesus and witnessed too by Calvary and is based on God’s Love and Grace. As the old commandments were no longer applicable a new commandment was required that would express this new covenant.

This now replaces The Law and is the only real commandment of the New Testament that Jesus gave and which is the basis of all other New Testament commands.

Salvation is a relationship (Jn 17:3) and this new commandment shows the type of relationship it is, a relationship based on Love.

We are told in Acts 15 that Gentiles are not required to keep the law and are given By the apostles then only two commands to keep: one for the physical health (Not to drink blood - strangled animals do not bleed so the blood is still in them) and a spiritual one (not to condone idolatry or be a part of it).

Do not confuse God’s Laws of The Kingdom with The Mosaic Law as the latter is the one we are free from and no longer have to meet the requirements of to approach Him. The Sacrificial Law of the Mosaic Law reflected God’s will. So Jesus fulfilled both by his death on the cross.

The sacrificial Law did not save us. It only made it possible for us to approach God. What saves us is our faith in God and continual obedience to Him. Jesus died to satisfy God’s requirements under His Law and a consequence also satisfied The requirements of The Mosaic Law in this area. The Mosaic Law in this area was based on God’s Law for approaching Him in The Kingdom and was a representation of it for our instruction. This allowed Jesus to teach us of His fulfilling The Law of Moses while He was fulfilling The Law of God.

This is why He did not come to change The Mosaic Law as it did not need to be changed for purposes of The New Covenant. Jesus ushered in a new convenient so the old was no longer necessary. The New covenant was between God as ruler of His Kingdom and a person as a citizens of it and not as The Mosaic Law was, between the God of Israel and the people of Israel.

People observe the feasts and dietary laws. To do this because you believe they still apply places you under the law again. To do this as you want to worship is different and leaves you still under grace. As for the dietary laws, the original ones are not found in The Law. They were established by God in the garden of Eden (vegetarianism) and a dispensation to eat meat was only given after the flood. The dietary commands in the Law were necessary as man ate meat, something He did not do in the Garden of Eden.

These laws were made to protect you from diseases in animals or animals that would make you ill. With the better hygiene we have in domestic animal husbandry these warnings are no longer necessary and domestically produced food banned by The Law may now be safely eaten when prepared probably.

After the flood God had to tell Noah that he could now eat meat as before this was not done. So if you want to follow the true dietary laws, become a vegetarian. If you want to be under the Law then follow the dietary laws but if you do you condemn every Chinese Christian that eat’s Pork.

As a citizen of the kingdom we are free from the Law and its constraints. So any legalism of any type, should no longer be in a church. The moment there is legalism of any type, the church is no longer under grace. If it is no longer under Grace is it is no longer under the new covenant of Grace and love as there is no grace in legalism.

The Body of Christ is used by God to further His Kingdom and also to worship Him Showing God’s love and grace in all they do as well as its manifestation on earth and by this bring Him Glory and Honour. Everything a church does should be directed at these things or it will result in glory and honour to man and be a form of idolatry. Churches do not do God’s Will if they do not demonstrate, preach or teach the Kingdom of God, of which the church is suppose to be an example of in this world. A church not doing this is not part of The Body. Individuals in it may be but not the congregation as a whole and in serious cases may have its candle (light in the world) removed by Jesus so it no longer is His as it no longer represents Him and His Kingdom.

When you become a Christian and follower of Jesus the minister invites you to join the church or denomination. You already are a citizen of The Kingdom of God so why do you have to join a church or denomination as you are the church. He should be asking you to join their fellowship of Kingdom orientated believers. Anything else is not Biblical.

A church Christian lives in and for the denomination of church. A follower of Jesus lives in and for The Kingdom of God and may attend a church but the denomination or church is not important to them.

To many people in the western world a church is a moral place which they have little or no interaction with and have no idea what happens there. In a sense, to many it may as well be a secret society as they have no idea what it is or does.

They are attracted by New Age, Masonic lodges, Satanists or religions that advertise what they do as they appear to have spiritual power and authority and in which people can get involved on a personal basis and which do not rely ‘qualified people’ to run the show.

However, once a church walks in love and demonstrates the authority and power of Jesus through (signs and wonders and deliverance etc.) and not just use the world’s methods to sustain their budgets and grow in numbers, people will see it is different to religions and as they see it overcome demons and the illness that the demons cause then they will see Jesus as being greater than the New Age or Satan. The church must show this or die spiritually.

Until a church can show these things it is not going to do the work of Jesus, hinder Satan’s Kingdom, rescue people from it’s influences or destroy his works. It may as well be a social club of high moral standards or a secret society for a few who know the ritual and language of the church.

The principles of The Kingdom express themselves in creation and they are written on the hearts of men by The Holy Spirit so they can be seen by man in God’s creation.

As you express the relationship you have with The King you either follow these principles (being led by The Holy Spirit) or follow man’s principles as expressed by a church or denomination in their rules and requirements that are additional to all replace what The Bible teaches.

If the guidance and empowerment of The Holy Spirit are no longer sought and deliverance form the ravages of Satan on the people no longer is done then the church activities are little different to what the world does and there is little to differentiate the methods of the church from that of the world. If it does not preach the kingdom it does not preach a purpose greater than that which the world offers an has little to offer of the world.

Without the guidance of The Holy Spirit, deliverance or other manifestations of the Kingdom of God the church, becomes nothing more than a social worker using reason and man’s method giving lip service to The Holy Spirit and the Kingdom of God. The tools of organisation and/or methods of working that Satan promotes in the world are used as they ‘work’ but are Christianised to be acceptable to the denomination.

They denominations promote a social gospel having not the power and authority of God so must use man’s (Satan’s world) methods and devices. There is also the opposite end of this situation where The Spirit is followed and deliverance is carried out but excesses occur as Christianity becomes emotion driven and not Biblically driven and the guidance of the Holy Spirit becomes hidden or obscured as it all becomes an emotional experience and not a spiritual one.

Satan has trained the church well so that deliverance is made to appear difficult even dangerous and something to be feared or done after long study and striving for holiness. Demons are allowed to manifest to further make people hesitant to work in deliverance.

Satan cripples the church through their ignoring the things of God and everyone continues as if nothing is wrong having been duped by Satan into believing what they do in church is normal to the Christian life and the expression of The Kingdom!

There is also the witchcraft spirit in a church that controls the people for the purposes of the people in charge. People do what the leaders say or are considered to be troublemakers or spiritually immature and to be ignored spiritually. Often the leaders guide the church for their own self-esteem purposes or out of pride or denominational purposes and not as the Holy Spirit wants it led. This is a major problem in denominations where minister put the denomination and/or church growth ahead of what Jesus wants them to do.

You cannot worship with people who do not follow Jesus. To worship with them and say nothing about the fact they do not worship Jesus but Satan is to show approval of their beliefs and to imply there are other ways to heaven that Satan is able to provide.

This is in conflict with what the Bible says and indicates you do not follow Jesus or are very naive and it is very like you are not His representative but representing your own idea of what Salvation is. There is also the possibility you are heading to hell because Jesus is not your Lord or you would not fellowship those who do not follow Jesus and appear to condone their faith as being salvation faith.

It is to be noted thatch the problems of ecumenicism with the Catholic church is not to do with biblical doctrine, but doctrine resulting from the pronouncements of man or from tradition. The basis for these practices will not be found in the Bible as they are man made.

It is only when traditional or man-made doctrine modifies, changes negate Scripture that they become a problem requiring ecumenicism. Remember that ecumenicism then deals with what a man says is there and not what God says is there.

It is only as you walk in unity with God, being unified through The common Holy Spirit in all Christians will you walk in unity with Him and other Christians. The Holy Spirit gives us the instructions of God so we know what God wants us to do and it is only as we listen to Him will we walk in harmony with God and The Body of Christ fulfilling what God wants us to do.

This is how The Body is suppose to function. All are led by The Holy Spirit and all work in unity of purpose in accordance with the Will of Jesus and any body or committee or governance that sets itself up to make laws for the interaction of The Body is interfering with God’s guidance through the Holy Spirit and limiting God’s guidance in people by making The Holy Spirit’s leading subordinate to man’s judgment. This is why a spirit led person cannot worship or survive well in a church that is not spirit led.

It is as each person is led by the Holy Spirit will they perform the role God requires them to perform in the body son that it will function as it should.

Satan knows this which is why people who are led by The Spirit are forced out of churches or have The Spirit’s leading quenched in them through control spirits working through the leadership in a church.

Note the basis for the unity: Peace with God! All the members being in a proper relationship with God. If this is so then they will be all led by The Holy Spirit and act as one, unified body. The fact that there are denominations and factions within churches shows that this unity of The Holy Spirit is not there which means those that promote their denomination or church and not the Kingdom are not in a correct relationship with God or they would be listening to The Holy Spirit and promoting The Kingdom of God!

Remember you will be judged for how you dealt with Jesus and His kingdom and if you did not promote The Kingdom and the unity of The Spirit that is integral to the Body of Christ then you could be in a precarious position in regard to salvation when you face Jesus and give an account to Him of your life.

People are without excuse for not promoting The kingdom of God or learning how to as Jesus spoke only of The Kingdom and His example was to preach, teach and demonstrate The Kingdom of God Matt 4:23)!

So why is the church not doing this? Satan has gotten into its teachings and corrupted them so that they teach what he desires and not what God wants otherwise there would be no disunity amongst Christians.

He places people where He needs them for His Will to be done. The Holy Spirit trains people for their role in The Body.

As people walk Matt 6:33 each day they are being trained and placed where Jesus needs them to be at that moment of time and they will be doing what He needs them to be doing at that point of time. You will be in the place you need to be to serve Him and do His Will and you will do your part in the body so that it will function as it should.

Holy Unity is defined as the union we have with Jesus as we identify completely with Him and His teachings so all is put aside to pursue His Will. This unity is the highest form of worship and is paralleled to the relationship in marriage between a husband and wife and is the desirable state to be in if a marriage is to succeed and serve God.

Churches should be in unity and have no denominational differences. To preserve denominational differences is to make the denomination an idol as it is placed before the unity we have through The Holy Spirit.

Any denomination that will not relate to others is in danger of being a cult as it has to modify Bible requirements to keep its incorrect attitudes to other Christians or denominations. It ignores the Law of Love and the unity of The Holy Spirit and places itself outside this law which means it is not following Jesus as Lord and thus ‘saved’. Any denomination half-heartedly relating to other denominations is in danger of hypocrisy as well as idolatry.

For one church to have more than they need and another not have what they need is to make any church withholding from another (and the leaders of it) guilty of covetousness putting their church before the needs of others. It is also a lack of trust in God’s provision (Matt 6:33, 2 Cor 8:10-15). It is also bad stewardship. If the belonged to The Body this situation would not arise.

Not to share with another when you have and they do not is against the Law of Love.

For one denomination to not relate to another as they think the other is not correct in their beliefs is pride unless there is something wrong according to The Bible that the other denomination is doing. To not show the other that they are wrong according to the Bible is also a lack of love. If the other denomination will not accept the truth of The Bible then they are a cult. To sit there and criticise them and do nothing about confronting them with what The Bible says is gossip and slander.

To evangelize and area independent of the other churches in the area is pride or else you would ask them to join you and all would be done in unity without reference to what each denomination can afford to or put into the outreach or what each denomination promotes as their beliefs. You are proclaiming The Kingdom of God and all churches in the area should belong to this Kingdom including yours.

Any church ignoring the evil or need around it or being indifferent to it is being lukewarm as it is not expanding The Kingdom of God but tolerating the enemy expanding their kingdom around it and will be spewed out by Jesus and become more and more like the world in its activities and attitudes.

Ministers promoting things for the sake of their church or denomination have made these an idol and are promoting disunity of The Holy Spirit and do not belong to God’s Kingdom or they would be promoting unity of the Holy Spirit and expanding the Kingdom and not the denomination. These minister also divide the Kingdom of God. Jesus says a kingdom divided will not stand. This perhaps is why the Kingdom of God is not expanding as it should in many places and churches are dying spiritually and financially.

Churches not meeting their budgets are not doing the work of Jesus as He promises to meet all their needs if they seek Him and His kingdom (do His work). The question arises as to whose work they are doing? If it is not God’s whose is it?

Churches not defending Jesus, His Name and His things are not doing the work of The Kingdom and do not belong to Jesus possibly for if He was their Lord they would be defending these things of His.

Any church or denomination tolerating in it things not of the Bible (such as homosexuality, same sex marriage or other unbiblical arrangements) is not of God and is a cult in danger of hell fire.

Because most Christians focus on what the church or denomination says the Christian life is and look to these and the minister for guidance, they are not listening to the Holy Spirit and doing what Jesus desires him to do for the Kingdom of God.

Any Christian who listens to the Holy Spirit and not the denomination or church representative is usually placed on the fringe slurs they cannot cause ‘trouble’ in the church and may even be asked to leave by the minister, or leaders of the church.

Church members are taught to focus on what the denomination or church thinks or says God wants and not asked the Holy Spirit what Jesus wants. This is why you are not taught how to hear the Holy Spirit. This is because He is really irrelevant in most churches.

This attitude of listening to the minister’s only and not researching what is actually in the Bible is common to all denominations and churches. This is done so that people find only what the denomination or church says is in the Bible so that thy will blindly follow what they are told and not cause problems. The Holy Spirit is the interpret to of the Bible and promises to teach you what is is there. If you really want to know.

When people start to examine the Bible and see what it says, Then they will live as The Kingdom requires and will see how far from the truth Most churches are.

Most churches do not listen to what the Holy Spirit wants them to do and wonder why they are not growing and are longer relevant to society. God cannot use them as they are too busy maintaining or expanding a denomination or church and not ministering His Kingdom to people.

They are usually not following the principles in Acts 6 so are not where God wants them to be for him to use them. As the ministers not waiting on God as they are supposed to and doing administrative work, they do not spend time listening to the Holy Spirit size they can know what God desires of them.

It is only as a minister fulfils their role as described in Acts 6 will the church function as it should and do the work of the Kingdom.

In Matt 6:33 there is the promise that anyone who seeks The Kingdom of God and being in a correct relationships with Jesus will always have provided what they need to live and serve Jesus. This also applies to The Body and its subgroups.

A Church is not a building but a fellowship of people many of which are believers. If they are seeking His Kingdom and His righteousness they will never lack for any thing they need to do the work of God. God promises to provide all they need so why Then do they need to ask for donations or take up offerings? If they are doing what God wants them to do these should not be necessary.

If people are listening to the Holy Spirit, they will give what God says so to give so that the church does not need to ask for what it needs. By demanding people tithe or give it makes God a liar by implying that what He said in Matthew 6:33 is not true.

The only conclusion is that they are not doing what God wants so need to find money for these ‘ungodly activities’, or, they do not trust God sufficiently to supply their needs. Satan will suggest many good things to tie up a church’s money which have the appearance of what God wants done are actually not what He wants done. By this Satan has a church tie up its money and sidetracks what it does so it does not do what God wants it to do.

If a fellowship is led by The Holy Spirit Satan cannot sidetrack it this was as The Spirit will tell them it is a plan of Satan.

If God asks you to step you in faith He will always provide what you need. As it is a test of faith He will make you wait for His provision to strengthen your faith in Him. You will not need to ask for donations or gifts or to takes up offerings. It is only as we do not trust God that we turn to man for help.

God will prompt those He wants to give to do so and will tell them how much to give and to whom to give it too. This assumes these people are listening to God and can hear God’s instructions in regard to this.

This also assumes the church has taught them how to hear God so when He prompts them to give they will give. If the church has not taught them how to hear God then they will not hear what to give.

It also assumes, the church is doing what God wants it to do and is not doing things it is not suppose too which God cannot bless or supply provision for but which Satan will gladly try and supply them so that the church or denomination becomes committed to the new expanse. When the church has all these ungodly commitments (not being from God), then Satan will stop helping the church leaving the church wondering where God is.

While Satan is limited with what He can do to you there is nothing to stop him leaving things around for our lusts to accept and use and by this gain a foothold in you. This is how he use the media that he controls.

Whatever the case it begs the question. With God’s promise of provision in Matt 6:33 why does a church have to ask for money to keep itself going.

As the church building is only a place the people use and it is not something that is able to determine its usage (as it is not alive) it then becomes the attitude of the church people towards God that determines whether God provides for its upkeep or not.

If the people use the church fellowship for the purposes of The Kingdom and pursuing righteousness with God, then He will provide for its upkeep (Matt 6:33). The moment they go outside this usage there will not be enough money to meets its upkeep and people will be asked for donations and offerings (often special church fund type offerings) .

This also applies to parochial organizations, para-church organisations or associations attached to a church. If these bodies are used in accordance with God’s purposes their needs will be met otherwise they will be continually asking for Money.

Should a Christian give to organisations not seeking God’s kingdom (Purposes) or God’s righteousness? No! Why give to the devil God’s money. This is how Satan ties up the money of Christians so it is not given to God’s work or purposes. Often people give out of habit or guilt. Since when does God make you feel guilty so you will give. Since when does God also ask you to give out of habit instead of asking Him first what to do with His property (Is 66:1,2).

We should g or there will be numerous sermons on giving and tithing to exhort the congregation to give what the church needs. Through this Satan ties up the money God should be using elsewhere and by this removes blessing from the congregation. Give only as guided by The Holy Spirit. Then you will know it will be used as God wants it to be used.

I write this section with a heaviness as I see many opposing the work of The kingdom of God and do not realise it as they are led by pastors who oppose the work of God (without realising it).

When God has a work for a person to do you opposes it at the risk of death, illness or separation. God will tolerate rebellion and resistance to His Work for only a certain period then He acts. It is more important one person dies for the sake of The Kingdom than many go to hell or be hindered in doing His Will. Often the death will save the person’s salvation which could lose if they kept going on with their opposition to His Work.

In revival, people opposing revivalist preachers have suddenly dropped dead. In marriages a spouse opposing the work of God has died suddenly, divorced, lost their voice or been incapacitated so they could not longer resist the spouse and their work for God. God will free the bound spouse to do His work so be careful opposing a spouse or someone whom has the anointing of God on them for a work while of The Kingdom you are resisting. Sometimes the opposing person has illness that gets progressively worse as a warning before they are removed.

A person led by The Spirit of God will never oppose the work of God so that is your safeguard, a conscience desiring to do God’s Will and desiring to hear The Spirit so that you know what God’s Will is.

God is Love and all He does is in Love and that includes removing the opposition to His Will and Work.

Jesus said it is His church so we should leave it to Him to fix. However, we should obey what He tells us to do and He may use us in some way to help, heal or deal with church problems.

We should know what their errors are so we can avoid them as well as meekly explain to people what they are (backed up by Biblical scripture).

We are to go whom He wants us to warn and in humility warning them, telling them only what Jesus wants us to say to them.

We should examine ourselves daily to ensure we do not fall into these errors ourself.

Any other way of doing discussing these things is pride, judgemental criticism, gossip or lovelessness, any of which is sin.

After the usual heated debates in a chat room about the Lakeland revival (which debate I observed in a concerned manner and tried to defuse) I was shown the following by The Holy Spirit.

Remember people have gone there to draw closer to Jesus and the ministers there are seeking to preach the Truths of God so as long as they sincerely doing these things you cannot condemn or criticise them. So do not attack the people but attack the demons causing any problems (Ep 2:10):

If the revival is of Him you will not be able to stop it. If it is not of Him He will take care of it His way. So sit back, watch, bind demons and do what He says to do in respect of it but do not criticise it as it may be a move of God then you would be criticising God’s work..

It can be said that the modern view of the Christian life as being church or denominationally centred is completely inadequate to give the complete picture of what it means to be a follower of Jesus and a citizen of The Kingdom of The Father.

There is only one Kingdom of God and as each church or denomination follows their own agenda they will be out of unity with the others, not being unified in purpose and direction by The Holy Spirit and showing they are possibly not part of God’s Kingdom. In Mark 3:25 Jesus said:

This means that as churches and denominations squabble and divide the Kingdom of God they may keep their physical presence but spiritually will fall and no longer represent God or His Kingdom as they should. As this has happened churches no longer work in the Power of The Holy Spirit and man’s attempt for unity of the churches has led to the modern ecumenical movement which is more political than spiritual and has allowed Satan to set up the foundation for the One World Church in preparation for the Antichrist.

The fact that the ecumenical movement is necessary shows how divided denominations are and how far away they are from the unity of The Spirit which characterises The Body of Christ which is the true church.

God does not need a special place to worship as He is everywhere. He does not need us to offer things from creation as He owns them already. To say you need to worship God in a special place is to limit God’s presence and imply He is only able to be worshipped in places like churches and not able to be worshipped everywhere.

He does not need these as He is complete but desires these for our sake so He can give us the pleasure of our relationship with Him and all that results from it.

In other words He wants an intimate relationship with you where you appreciate His love for you and are thankful for all He does with you.

Jesus did not give leadership roles to the church. The fivefold are gifts to serve His church not rulers too govern them. This is in line with Matt 20:26-27 where those in charge are servants not rulers.

Its Bishop (ruler) is Jesus (1 Pet 2:25) and its Guide is the Holy Spirit. This is the situation in The Kingdom of God whose citizens we are. In the Kingdom Jesus rules and appoints people to do His Will and His Will involves serving others and not usurping the Role of Jesus as King and controlling them. Any church, denomination or similar that appoints leaders without consulting The Holy Spirit is setting up its own system independent of The Kingdom of God. This thing set up will not do the work of The Kingdom as it has not been sanctioned by its King. It will probably hinder the work of The Kingdom as it is man reasoned and orientated and not spiritually led.

In the early church, spiritual guidance was given by people who waited on God, while the physical side was, carried out by people (deacons) The Holy Spirit appointed to do this (acts 6:3-4).

There were leaders appointed by God who did not rule or control as such but passed on what The Holy Spirit advised them to do or tell others for the purposes of the Kingdom of God.

Churches, Bible colleges denominations did not exist. God did not ask for these and fact said that they were really for mans benefit and not necessary for the worship of Him!

Most of what the church considers necessary to worship and serve God was not actually present in the early church and in fact may even detract from or hide the Kingdom of God because it portrays it incorrectly to people so that they do not see The Kingdom of God but a man made organisation.

Jesus is your King. The Holy Spirit is your Guide. He will teach you or send people to help you and advise you in regard to spiritual things and they will mentor you and not rule you.

All are given gifts and are expected to use them to minister to each other. This is what happens in heaven according to those that have been there. Everyone willingly and gladly serves others, putting serving them before their own needs. This is easy in heaven as no one has a lack of anything they need to live and survive and the tyranny of time is not a problem. On earth this placing others before yourselves is sacrificial at times because of your own personal survival needs that are not dealt with to help another who is worse off then you. In heaven personal pleasure is forgone to help others but people do not count this a loss as heaven is such a joyful place.

So people in heaven all serve while on earth they must be qualified by the pastor or the denomination to have any roles of importance. Instead of helping people to find their gifts and training them they are sent to a bible college or similar or told you need church approval to use them. So most people are not prepared for the Kingdom and are not utilised as God wants them to be and are kept in a sort of servitude, always being ministered too and never given a chance to minister.

This should not be so and goes against what God desires for all of us which is for us to learn how to serve and minister and grow as well as being used to expand His Kingdom through the example of loving service to those inside and outside the Kingdom of God that will make people look seriously at what Christians believe.

Love was a mark the early church and until it sees as the mark of the modern church, Jesus and His Kingdom will not be seen in its fullness, if at all.

Evangelisms is for reaching people you do not know which is why signs and wonders are necessary for that. For a close friend, your lifestyle and your Love of The Kingdom expressed towards them will reach them and it is important to show this love to them in all you do with them.

Hypocrisy is the one thing that will turn people off The Kingdom of God quicker than anything else except lovelessness.

Our life is a training ground for The Kingdom and we need to be taught and guided now how to live as a citizen of The Kingdom through learning how to love and to serve others so that we know how to use our gifts probably. We also need to hear The Holy Spirit so we can serve God as He desires us too here and in eternity.

If you are not serving God and are in a position of authority in The Body then what are you doing? Earth is God’s training ground for The Kingdom of God and how you use this life to prepare people to live in eternity and beyond will have a big effect on your rewards and possibly your even getting to heaven.

To be an ‘adopted son of God’ you need to be led by The Holy Spirit and not man (Rom 8:14). This means Jesus is your head/authority and not man,

The moment you place yourself under a man’s spiritual authority and follow him you are no longer a son of God but a son of that person by adopting them as your leader. This is spiritual idolatry replacing God with another (unless that man has been appointed to be a mentor to you and then he is only a guide for a season and not your controller)

In the physical things are different as people are given stewardship over things by delegation. Deacons are given responsibility for physical things in The Body (Acts 6:1-3), a husband for a wife and family while those appointed to lead spiritually spent their time listening to God and doing what He says to them. In the early church there was no denominational or church guidelines to limit The Holy Spirit. These became necessary as people, not led by The Spirit, came to control the church and rules were needed to support their usurped authority.

God will send people to guide you and tell you what The Holy Spirit said but they will point you to Jesus not to their will or the guidelines of a denomination or church. The moment someone points you to these instead of Jesus you are in idolatry unless The Holy Spirit has told you to obey them.

Jesus is King, and anyone who says they are your leader and controls you and others, is usurping Him and may cause you to sin as they take the place of God and become to you an idol if you obey them and not God.

The danger of denominations is that they set themselves up as the authority over its members and by this stop the individual leading of The Holy Spirit that is necessary for Jesus to guide each member of His Body in what He wants them to do. By this His work is hindered, not promoted.

As The Holy Spirit no longer leads, the denomination turns to man’s methods and reason and starts to decline and move away from The Bible. The moment you place man’s rules before God’s or use them to constrain what God teaches you have a church or denomination that is starting to die and possibly a cult. It no longer is led by God’s Spirit and so must use its own reason which Satan gladly helps them with.

This is why denominations do not teach the leading of The Spirit but teach obedience to the denomination. It is not obedience to Christ they practice, even though they may preach it, but obedience to what man has said is best for their church or denomination.

Unless each member of The Body is led by The Spirit, or taught this, then The Body will not function as it should and denominations will take over The Body and splinter it. In the revival to come each person will be led by The Spirit and any minister stopping this will be removed or lose their salvation if they are not careful.

One of the problems in a church is that people will condemn someone as having a wrong spirit (Jezebel, gossip, lying etc) but do nothing to heal the person of the hurts that allowed the demon to enter.

Sin in a person is a result of a compensation measure for a hurt. That root cause needs to be healed before the person will stop sinning and have peace with God. Instead of condemning and correcting we should be asking The Holy Spirit what to do. God is their judge not you. Perhaps love, deliverance and healing is what is needed and not more guilt, hurt or rejection heaped on the person.

Ecumenecism is a movement, very prominent in the New Evangelical movement which aims to unite into one body all faiths that believe in Jesus. This ecumenical union they equate with The Body of Christ, the true church.

It does not matter if you are Unitarian, trinitarian, catholic, fundamentalist, charismatic, Pentecostal, etc., as long they you believe somehow in Jesus and He fits into your gospel somewhere, even if incorrectly you are accepted in this movement. Faiths that would have called each other heretics 100 years ago now gladly stand beside each other and work together in this new type of ‘body ‘ where you do not need to necessarily believe what others believe as long as you believe in a gospel based on Jesus and use similar terminology and have similar social agendas.

By this a universal man-made body of the followers is made that is Satan’s version of the Body of Christ and which eventually will be used by Satan to deride, ridicule and persecute Christians, but not as Antichrist will and say will not have the power to kill, only to mock, ridicule and deride.

These people will be shown to be wrong and put to shame, only if The Body manifests The Kingdom and shows that it is the true Body!

One of the dangers of Ecumenecism is the need to compromise doctrine so that there can be agreement even through the Bible strictly forbids this sort of fellowship with people who do not believe the doctrines of The Bible. We are told to come out from those who do not believe the Bible and not compromise our beliefs so that we can fellowship with them.

So Bible doctrines are compromised and doctrinal error ignored while Christian terminology is redefined to more acceptable meanings so other faiths involved the ecumenical movement can relate to these Christians terms as being correct. Modern bibles are even written so this is possible. Jehovah Witnesses use the NIV in preference to their own and Satanist can pray the Lord’s prayer in Luke11.

In doing this ecumenecists who are Christians turn away from the God of the Bible to another god who happily allows them to compromise doctrine, accept error and redefine Christian terminology to suit theirs and his (Satan’s) purposes.

The true objective of Ecumenecism is a one world so religion and modern day Bibles have been compromised for the purposes of Ecumenecism and are the precursor of the one world bible all apostate Christians will use in the days leading up to and during the time of Antichrist. The evidence is there if you would do the research!

The true body of Christ is one in His spirit and His doctrine and does not need to build bridges or find commonality of faith and doctrine as the ecumenecists need to do. That need alone shows Ecumenecism is not of God and the body it forms is not of God but of Satan.

This apostate body belongs to Satan so it takes on the worldliness of his systems which is why the church in the west is so much different to what the Bible say it should be. It is powerless against Satan as it actually is ruled by him indirectly (because they compromise Biblical truth and accept error) so it is worldly and lukewarm and does little of the work Jesus asks it to do. It promotes the things the world does: money, power, position and authority over others, knowledge, hierarchical structure, earthly management styles and/or organisational structure as well as worldly ways of dealing with problems: psychology, psychiatry, reason etc., instead of deliverance, inner healing and the guidance and leading of the Holy Spirit.

Churches involved in Ecumenecism have all the marks of the church of the last days: godliness without spiritual power or authority, lukewarmness to doctrinal error (which it must have for the sake of ecumenism) lukewarmness to the spreading of the true Gospel of the Kingdom of God, and a formality of worship that does not have God’s Love or joy in it.

If you do get involved in the ecumenical movement you will need to compromise your beliefs or overlook doctrinal error and you will be eventually influenced by them, disobeying the command of God to be holy and not fellowship with those who do not believe the truths of God in the Bible.

You will be fellowshipping with The Body of Satan and may even lose your salvation through constantly rejecting what God says about fellowshipping with those who do not believe the true Gospel of Christ and His Kingdom.

If you do not separate yourself from those that do not acknowledge Jesus as their Lord or do not preach His Gospel the Father can not treat you as His son and you do not have Salvation.

Become involved with Ecumenecism and ignore the warnings of God and you may lose your salvation and at best seriously compromise your belief system and ministry for God as He cannot use you if He is not your Lord and by rejecting His call to separate from those who do not follow Him you are no longer under His Lordship to be used by Him.

Before you get involved with another religion or church check their doctrine. If it is biblical then you do not need Ecumenecism. If it is not then you should not get involved with them and to do so will result in compromise and eventual separation from God for all involved in the Ecumenecism.

People were entering the church. As each entered they looked at the grand building and all the pretty ornamentation and pondered how wonderful a church they had and thanked God they had a building worthy of Him. Few had thanked Him that the day for their breakfast but most thanked Him for the wonderful church building they had.

"What does God want me to do here today?" Thought one.

Another wondered what they could do there for The kingdom

Another was wondering if there were any good looking girls there that day

Another wondered if they would finish counting all the bricks behind the altar before the sermon finished (true story)

Another wondered what they could do today in the church to serve the minister or his church

Another was looking forward to the emotional high they got when worship was on and they could ‘feel’ The Spirit’

Another was wondering how long the sermon would take

Another was glad the wife was not nagging them to come to church as she had stopped nagging when they said they would go

Another entered and wondered what church was all about.

Everyone walking in greeting people they knew, ignoring strangers or others not of their social standing or clique except possibly for a polite ‘hello’.

Sadly this is typical of churches and you wonder why The Kingdom of God is not found in them and fellowship is missing as God wants it to be.

Wrong! Satan has suggested things and people listen to him. He is behind all this and the church ignores him and does nothing to fight him.

Until the church fights Satan and demonstrates The Kingdom of God it will be a social club achieve little for The Kingdom and be in danger of being spewed out of the mouth of Jesus.

We are told we fight the demons who plan the attacks and not jut the people, that we are to attack these demons and not just the people they use. Demons can replace these people but if you remove the demons then there is no one to use the people to attack you and their attack stops dead in its tracks.

So the church ignores all this and asks Jesus to do it for them when Jesus has distinctly said we are too. Any wonder the church is in decline in many places.

Satan is out to kill, steal and destroy and his time is short. As he is still ruler of this world these trademarks of his are all over it. Every where is death, destruction as well as people who have been robbed of their quality of life. As his time is short he has stepped up his activities in these areas so that these activities of his will be more worse and in the tribulation become almost unbearable. But God is a God of Love and has promised never to test us above what we can handle so there will still be a way of escape for these people in the tribulation and great tribulation. Jesus will still accept them if they repent.

The earth belongs to Jesus as it is part of the spoils of war from His victory over Satan (apart from being is creation). It is an unclaimed part of His Kingdom and so we have a responsibility because we are citizens of The Kingdom of God and thus stewards of the things of The Kingdom to look after these things of Thr Kingdom of God on the earth we are given to care for. Usually this is the family property although in government and public departments it could be a greater area or activity.

As stewards of the things of God we need to care for them. Satan knows this and all ecological problems are a result of Satan trying to destroy God’s spoils of war as he uses them to trap as many people as he can and take them to hell.

Hurting animals for sport is bad stewardship. Killing them for the sake of pleasure is also not being a good steward.

Farming and land clearing are good if they are done in a way not to unnecessarily harm animals, people or the Land. Otherwise they are not good stewardship.

People also see evil in the industrial revolution because of the attitudes that have come out of it. Satan hijacked its values so Big Business now follows his values. The challenge for a Christian in this world in which Satan guides most businesses is to show Christian values and God’s working in their business. Mat 6:33 also applies to businesses as well as people, families and countries.

This stewardship means we are to do things in a way that will not hurt the ecology of the planet or people on it an which are not wasteful but are economical and beneficial.

There is, of course, the greater stewardship of people, God’s creation as He alone can give the life they need to be exist and be people Job 33:4).

The thing Satan tries to destroy most are our mind and body so we cannot do the work of God, attack Satan and his kingdom and bring Jesus dishonour by abusing what He has given us as a bad steward of these things.

We need to examine what we do carefully and see whether we are destructive (Satan guided) or constructive (God guided).

As stewards we must be faithful to reap the rewards promised of which one is Salvation.

Another masterstroke of Satan was to convince the church they were owners and not stewards of the things they had and as such could do what they wanted with them without the need to consult God. Thus God was deprived of the use of these things and Satan got the benefit of them because people do not ask God what to do with them. This meant Saturn could suggest what to do with them and use these things for his own purposes, They would not be used to cause people openly to sin but to sidetrack them and gradually lead them into sin.

Because possessions were thought by people to be their own to do with what they wanted, Satan brought in the concept of profit on interest and saving (hoarding possessions and not sharing excess possessions with those who needed them). Wealth creation and profit became more important than hearing God as people did not believe they needed to ask God what to do with things. Because of this we have the resulting financial structure today with the emphasis on wealth creation. This emphasis on wealth creation and preservation hides the promises and requirements of Matt 6:33 as well as the attitude to money a citizen of the Kingdom of God should have.

By this structure he ties up the money of God even further having Christians seek for treasure on earth, ignoring obtaining treasure in heaven as well as blinding them to their stewardship responsibility of things, and that they need to ask what to do with God’s possessions that have been entrusted to them.

Until this situation is remedied the church will always be poor spiritually and financially.

The Body has many interactions with the world one of which is stewardship and unless it is led by The Holy Spirit it will not serve God as it should let alone be able to demonstrate The Kingdom od God as it should.

The book of Acts is a history of the of the Kingdom of God on earth after the commencement of the New Covenant (Testament) between God and man that resulted from The death of Jesus at Calvary.

With the death of Jesus, the Old Covenant (Testament) was completed, the need for the law and its sacrificial system was made redundant so that there were new ways to worship and minister to Jesus, and relate to Him.

The Kingdom of God was now in the citizens of God’s Kingdom and you no longer needed a select group of people to help you approach God or a special place to worship. These were made redundant after Calvary and now you could worship God without the need of sacrifice or of a special place to worship God in. There was no need for ritual of any kind or for someone to sacrifice an animal for you. Worship was now possible wherever two or more people were gathered together for the purposes of The Kingdom of God (Mat 18:20). Fellowship could occur anywhere now, and not just in the Temple synagogue or special places.

The Kingdom of God was now mobile and was sent to everyone in the world as it was no longer tied to the Temple as it was in people now. The people of The Kingdom could go everywhere to preach Jesus and were able to worship Him wherever they were. The shackles of Old Testament worship and evangelism had been broken and a new regime for evangelism and worship (as recorded in Acts) was now to occur!

The book of Acts opens with Jesus telling His disciples to wait in Jerusalem until The Holy Spirit was sent to authorise (empower) them to serve Him (Acts 1:4-5). The disciples were not to be concerned when this would happen, or when Jesus would return but to wait for the Holy Spirit to anoint them to minister and then all the resources of The kingdom would be behind them as they did the work of the Kingdom (Acts 1:7-8, Matt 6:33).

This principle of waiting for God to anoint you to minister is so important that it is the first command given in Acts. The command given in the Gospels, the Great Commission, could not be fulfilled until The Holy Spirit came at Pentecost to appoint and anoint (empower) them to this ministry. To serve Jesus, you must wait for His timing to anoint you, authorise and empower you to minister. Often the Ministry is not told to you after this has happened.

In the Gospels Jesus told us what was on His heart for us to do and in Acts He tells us we need His Commissioning (anointing of His Spirit as happened in Acts 2) as well as the guidance of The Holy Spirit to perform it. Note how many times the baptism (anointing) and the Will of The Spirit is mentioned in Acts.

The disciples had been given the Holy Spirit previously to mark them as belonging to Jesus (Jn20:22)and would soon be given The Baptism (anointing) of the Holy Spirit to authorise them for service so that The Holy Spirit could work through them to demonstrate the Kingdom of God like Jesus did.

The apostles were still a man short and had not yet received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit to be Led by Him so resorted to reason to replace Judas. They used a method of the Old Testament, the casting of lots (Acts 1:26, Prov 16:33).

Here is the first example of what happens when you do not consult with God or wait for His timing:

God’s solution is far superior to that of man which is why we need to be led by the Holy Spirit to hear God’s answers and desires for us! It is as we implement our own solutions separate from God that we fail, achieve second best or get in God’s road.

God is a God of wonders! Not only did He stop the persecution that was to come but used one of its leaders to replace the position left vacant by Judas (Acts 9:31)!

The Holy spirit was given to them (acts 2) and the gifts they needed would also have been provided. As the primary focus was to preach and teach the Kingdom, the first gift given was the gift of tongues, the ability to speak in your own language but be understood by the hearer in their own language.

When they had been sent out previously to the Jewish Nation the gift of tongues had not been needed but now they were to be sent into the world to preach amongst people of a strange tongue they would not be able to talk to them without the gift of tongues and the corresponding gift of interpretation of tongues.

The apostles and disciples were now authorised to do the work of Jesus and had a boldness they did not have before. They came out of hiding and the first act Peter did was to take up his God-given ministry of evangelism and preach Jesus. The Holy spirit does not just anoint you to minister He also gives you the boldness to minister!

Another result of The Holy Spirit’s anointing was unity. They continued in worship and praise of God, learning more of God and having fellowship and communion (in 4:23-24) in unity of The Spirit (Acts 2:42-43), they also were willing to share what they had spare with those who needed support of any kind, but they did not steal from the needs of their family to give to others (Acts 2:44-45.)

The Kingdom was also demonstrate in miracles so that many were confronted with the authority of the Kingdom of God over that of Satan’s Kingdom and followed Jesus.

They were not afraid to suffer and fearlessly preached Jesus, valuing His message more important than their own life (Stephen, Acts 7) or the threats of imprisonment or beatings (acts 4:17). The Holy Spirit will always give you the strength and faith you need in these circumstances (Acts 4:8,5:17-18)

They were doing the work of God (Acts 8:12-16) so God protected them (Acts 5:17-20). They went fearlessly back into the Temple they had been thrown out of and were not being afraid of being arrested or beaten.

As in revivals God quickly dealt with those that opposed the move of the Spirit.

Ananias and Saphiras believed they could hide what they did from the Apostles and God. They did not really appreciate God and His all knowingness, or wholeheartedly follow Jesus, not being willing to pay the cost of following Jesus. God did not tolerate this lukewarmness and removed them before they could pollute the Kingdom and bring it into disrepute (Acts 5:1-11)! Similar happens in revivals where people stand up against the anointed evangelist resisting the revival preacher and the revival and drop dead. The Holiness of God will not stand being polluted by unbelief.

Another problem that arose was the time the spiritual leaders spent doing the mundane activities required to meet the needs of the disciples. So God brought this to a crisis and gave instruction in regard to who was to do what in the assembly. God divided them up into two categories: those involved in spiritual ministries and those involved in physical ministries. Later on in the Bible God gives us a list of the five spiritual ministries given to minister too ( and not control) the citizens of The Kingdom of God.

Those who were the spiritual leaders were not to get involved in the daily duties necessary to run the local assembly but were to spend their time with The Holy Spirit to hear His advice and instructions so they could give the spiritual guidance people needed. God’s fast is to separate yourself from the world and what it offers so minsters are to separate themself from worldly pursuits and concentrate on the spiritual side of Christianity.

Godly people were appointed to run the gathering of disciples and family and meet their daily needs. This would also be a training ground for them to learn to serve properly in preparation for when they would be spiritual leaders and spend their life in service to others (see Acts 6).

An example of the quality of Godliness these people had is shown when Stephen is Martyred for testifying to the religious leaders of his faith in Jesus (Acts 7) rather than denying Jesus and being freed. The early Christians were not afraid to die for their testimony.

The early church trusted completely in God and obeyed Him regardless of the possible consequences to their selves.

As usual Satan puts fear into people so the Christians in Jerusalem were scattered because of the persecution of them by the leaders of the Jews. This God allowed to scatter the knowledge of Jesus throughout Israel or wherever other places the disciples were scattered too.

The quality of Character of another of these men is shown. Phillip was an evangelist as well as one who demonstrated the miracles of the Kingdom of God. He was the disciple who took the Gospel to Samaria leaving his home and security behind. The Samaritans believed but had not been authorised (anointed/empowered) to minister. Two apostles were sent to them, whom when they realised this, laid hands on them and prayed for them to receive The Holy Spirit’s Baptism (authorisation to minister). With authorisation by The Holy Spirit comes His empowerment. The laying on of hands, was symbolic, as the anointing comes from the Holy Spirit and not from man.

The things of the Kingdom cannot be bought, They are gifts from God (Acts 8:18-20). Anyone selling them or implying they can impart them at will does not belong to the Kingdom of God or is very deceived and needs deliverance. Only as God authorises can the gifts be imparted and stewardship of property and possession be transferred.

The church also baptised by immersion (Acts 8.38). It is hard to be buried and rise again if you are only sprinkled but it is easy if fully immersed in water.

God makes every thing beautiful in His time and now it was time to replace Judas. God is a God of Miracles, and now the person who was to replace Judas was the chief one stirring up opposition to Jesus. The Apostle Paul!

Note the obedience of Ananias (Acts 9:17) even though there was the possibility of dying He trusted Jesus, and went to Paul. The early church were willing to do the work of the Kingdom no matter what the cost was to them.

Paul’s life was now in danger as He preached Jesus because He was sufficiently skilled to show the teachings of Jesus as superior to The Law (Acts 8:23) but his time to die had not yet come and God delivered him to safety.

We are given specific examples of the kinds of miracles the early church did. Healing People, raising people from the dead (Acts 9) and casting out demons (Acts 16:16) are all examples of the authority of The Kingdom over that of Satan’s kingdom. These are the signs Jesus said would follow those that believe (Mark 16:9-19) and their occurrence in the book of Acts verifies that this passage of Mark is scripture.

We are also shown that the Gospel is for all (Acts 10) so that if you withhold the Gospel from any one because of their lifestyle or race then you are not doing what Jesus asked you to do. In heaven there is no such thing as race or creed (Gal 3:28). There are only true believers who are citizens of the Kingdom of God. Any church promoting their denomination over that of another one (except for their being heresy in the other denomination) is dividing the Kingdom of God and does not belong to it, promoting its own agenda over that of God’s! Any church ignoring a race or group of people and not taking Jesus to them and does not belong to Him or it would be impartially doing His work!

A final comment is on Paul surviving a snakebite (Acts 28). Jesus said we would take up serpents and they would not harm us. Here God also shows His word in Mark 16:9-19 is true.

When we look at the book of Acts we see that so much of it is about the apostle Paul and is in a sense a mini panorama of his life. Why, in a part history of the Kingdom of God on earth, is there so much about the Life of one man.

Acts 13: 2-4 The Holy Ghost appoints him to ministry and guides him in it. He is sent by the Holy Ghost to evangelism the Gentiles and to teach them how to live for The Kingdom of God (2 Tim 2:2).

An apostle goes where no Christian evangelist or pastor has been already. An apostle is to proclaim the Gospel and teach Jesus where no one has gone Before, He may find believers who have declared Jesus To be their Lord in another place in which case the apostle strengthens their faith and teaches them how to live as a citizen of the Kingdom of God. This is how Paul operated in ministry, reaching those who had never heard and encouraging and building up those who had. He rarely stayed in a place for too long (unless there was a need to) and moved around teaching and preaching The Kingdom God (Acts 28:31). He preached boldly and unashamedly and fearlessly trusting God for whatever happened to him.

Paul gave up all to follow Jesus and was not afraid to die for his faith in Jesus. He willingly went to Rome knowing he was going to die there. He willingly went there as it would give him a chance to tell the Gospel to the empire as well as preach to people who would go to all the empire because Rome was the centre of the empire and people went from Rome to every part of the empire.

Any one who calls themselves an apostle but stays in a church is really a glorified pastor. Unless you are appointed one by God and sent to do the work of an apostle you are not one.

In Acts we have before us a panorama of the Christian life as it should be lived by a citizen of the Kingdom of God (Paul being a chief example which is why his life is mentioned so much in the book of Acts).

It is not just the Apostles (leaders who lived it) but the disciples (ordinary people) also lived it. All who say they belong to the Kingdom of God, are expected to live this lifestyle or at least trying to live it. If this lifestyle is the requirement to live as a citizen of the Kingdom of God what then of Churches and its members that do not do these things? Are they part of the Kingdom of God? After all Jesus said that by your spiritual fruits you would be known.

You are either in The kingdom of God, doing His work (showing His fruit), trying to do His work, resting or learning how to do His work. If you are not doing any of these you may not be in the kingdom and not have salvation.

This is all plainly seen in the Bible is so you do not have any excuse for not knowing that you have to do these things.

Jesus also said that the miracles done by the early church were a sign that they were His followers (Mark 16:17-18). Any one not doing any of these signs needs a good reason not to be doing them unless they are resting, learning how to work in them or waiting for anointing to go out and minister in them.

What of the Shepherds of the sheep that do not teach the sheep to do these things. They are suppose to be mature Christians and if they do not do these things or teach them then they do not believe what Jesus said and may be false shepherds honouring Jesus in name only and not doing the works He said to do.

Jesus said we would do these things if were His follower. If you are not doing them then you had better have a good reason to give Him for not doing these things when you face Him at the Judgment seat.

You are a citizen of the Kingdom of God and are expected to live like one and to undertake the necessary training or learning to be able to serve Jesus in these things.

You will have no one else to blame but yourself as Jesus said (John 7:17) that anyone who wanted to know what Jesus taught (including what He says you are to do) would be shown this by The Holy Spirit.

When writing to the churches in the book of Revelation why does Jesus address the church as a whole and not individuals in each church?

He is looking at the church in terms of the requirements of The Kingdom of God and how it impacts on the society around them because of what it preaches and how it demonstrates Jesus and The kingdom. The church and their representation of The Kingdom reflects the leadership and in a way these letters are comments on the leadership in these churches.

In a sense it shows the importance of the church as a local representative of the Kingdom of God on earth. There is longer is a temple, synagogue or other places of worship mentioned in the New Testament as each person in The Body now is a temple and is able to worship God personally. People cannot see this except through the life of a citizen of The Kingdom in the normal daily life of a citizen of The Kingdom or when they make as a group, a part of the Body known as a local church.

The church is the only gathering that represents The Kingdom on earth either as a local church or as a local assembly of churches.

Ministers are usually responsible for what the church does so if the church does not do the will of God it is probable, they will have the greater condemnation. Perhaps this is why the Nicolaitans are amongst the first mentioned problems in the church.

If a church is not doing the work of Jesus it may not be part of the Body. It could be in the category of one of those churches that God says will be removed and people in it may lose their salvation. They church loses being a member of the Body of Christ and its members may be in danger of going to hell. This is not to say all the members have these wrong attitudes but many do and they allow the church leadership to make it the way it is.

The church is the sum of its members so the local church that Jesus condemns is because of what most of its members do. The condemnation is also of the church’s leadership that guide the members so that they do what they are taught by the leadership which a reflection of what the leadership believes and does.

In a sense these letters are a judgment on the official and unofficial leaders in the church. So these letters are to leaders who are recognized and appointed as such and those that assume leadership unofficially in a church.

The root of the word Nicolaitans comes from Greek ‘nikao’, to conquer or overcome, and ‘laos’, which means people and which the word laity comes from. The two words together mean ‘to overcome or rule’ the people and refers to the earliest form of what we call a priestly order or clergy which later on in church history divided people and allowed for leadership other than those led by the Holy Spirit. A good translation of Nicolaitan would be "those who prevail over the people"

These leaders destroyed the flat structure of the Body of Christ where each person is directly answerable to Jesus and not to another and replaced Jesus as its bishop (1 Pet 2:25).

Spiritual authority over another in the Body of Christ is only for the purposes of helping them in their spiritual life and then it is not control type authority but a servant type serving the spiritual needs of the person. This true authority last only as long as Jesus wants you to minister to that person: to guide them, help them mature, to meet any of their needs you need to or to teach them what Jesus wants them to be taught.

Ministry is the expression of God’s love in you to another and to express it any other way than helping them because Jesus has asked you to is to take over the role of Jesus and declare you know what is best for a person.

To take authority over the physical side of a person is wrong unless Jesus appoints you as steward over them. Physical authority is really legal authority which God has setup laws in the land to guide and control this area.

Chapters 2 and 3 of the book of Revelation deals with letters to seven churches in Asia Minor. Why were they all in Asia Minor?

We are told in the Letter to Pergamos that Satan had his throne (seat) there so he ruled from there.

The chief spirit over Asia Minor was not a lower territorial spirit but Satan himself? So the churches were prime targets for his attacks. So these Letters are to seven churches to illustrate the effects of Satan attacks on churches.

It is interesting that after these letters to the seven churches the focus changes from these churches in the area Satan controls to God’s throne in heaven as if to remind us that Satan is controlled by God so that these churches are only in danger if they do not follow Jesus as Lord!

This was the seat of the worship of the Goddess Artemis who was worshipped throughout the then known world. The demon behind Artemis would probably be working directly To Satan and if Satan did not have his seat there would have been the most powerful demon in that area.

The Ephesians were doing all the correct things as Christians, but from wrong motives. They had left their first Love, Jesus (v4) so love for Him was no longer their motivation. The legalism that was involved in the cult of the goddess Artemis had some how crept into the Christians so love was no longer a motivation for service.

But their motive for service was wrong so Jesus could not have them as His representatives and would close the church down rather than have it minister in a corrupt way. Even though they were preaching the correct gospel of salvation (as they followed the Bible (v2) legalism and ritual had crept in and replaced love and grace. They were not serving Jesus out of love for Him but for the sake of service.

Legalism cold only have crept in if The Holy Spirit was no longer in charge or being ignored and not manifesting in their midst with His guiding gifts.

They were commended, however, because they hated the priestly structure associated with the Nicolaitans.

The Ephesian church had the truth but did the right things but for the wrong reasons. They had lost their love for Jesus so it was just ritual and legalism, the same as it was a the Temple of Artemis to which it was little different in many ways once it lost its love of Jesus.

It was a church society could not see are different to what they were doing already and in many ways represents the church of today.

The church at Smyrna is commended for its endurance against Satan attacks on it. They are encouraged to continue in their endurance until the trial is over and they will be rewarded with eternal life.

They are told not to be afraid as Jesus is greater than Satan and they can never lose the gift of eternal life He promises them if they endure to the end of the trial.

This is the type of Church that resists the evil around it and is not compromised by this evil in any way. Its members would rather be imprisoned than give in to the forces of evil around them.

They have not lost their first Love for Jesus and endured because of their love for Him and His Things.

In this city Satan had his seat (throne) and from this earthly throne he could monitor Rome, Jerusalem, Ephesus, Egypt and other important spiritual areas in the countries around him.

The church in Pergamos was once godly and they had people who had died fighting for the faith in that city. But they had become compromised in two ways:

They had allowed a priestly structure in the church (with all the results that follow this type of structure). They had also abused the forgiveness and freedom the Grace of Jesus allows a Christian. They had compromised their faith through allowing things of Satan’s world system to be an acceptable in the belief they could repent afterwards because of Calvary and the forgiveness that was there. (Heb 6:6-8 had been written then and they also had the warning in Rev 3:5)

After a while this worldliness became a natural part of their lifestyle and they no longer repented.

The Nicolaitans were there because the church had accepted things of Satan’s world, because they had lost the ability to Hear the Holy spirit so adopted man’s system of doing things

This is the church did not fight evil but compromised with it and lost its love for the truths of God as well as its ability to hear the Holy Spirit and adopted mans methods of doing things.

It was a church that was irrelevant to the society around it and is also representative of many churches today that has lost the leading of The Spirit and look to mans ways of leading and guidance.

This is the longest letter to any of the seven churches. Jezebel was the problem. in this church. Jezebel is part of the unholy trinity: Jezebel, Death and Hades and Anti-Christ so a victory over her is important.

This church showed Gods’ love in its ministry but had Jezebel in its midst using Christians for her purposes. (Those that did not have Jesus truly as Lord).

Each person in the Thyatira church would be judged according to their service of Jesus. Those who allowed Jezebel to use them would be destroyed. Those that resisted her would continue in their relationship with Jesus (salvation) and would rule the nations with Him.

Jesus placed no other trial on them than to resist Jezebel and obey His revealed Will (truths). This is the church that seeks to do God’s Will and resist the things of Satan but the leadership does not remove those Satan uses from within its midst so it sends mixed signals to society around. Those of Satan and those of Jesus.

This is a church that is too busy trying to please man and so ignores what God wants it to do. A church that tolerates evil in its midst for the sake of peace and so called unity.

Sardis was a Church that had forgotten its beginnings so the foundational teachings it had received were badly compromised or forgotten. Things were so bad that many would lose their salvation. They were told to restore (strengthen) that of the Truth that they still had left (and Jesus would build on this and their desire to hold to these truths).

As always, there was a faithful remnant who had held to this what they were originally taught.

This is a church that compromised its truths and salvation because they allowed into their belief system things that were ungodly and embraced them. They had salvation (were in the Lamb’s book of life but if they did not repent their name would be blotted out of and these would lose their salvation (v5).

Can you lose your salvation? Yes, through disobedience, according to this letter.

This church did not represent God or His Kingdom so was of none or little use to Him.

Jesus had been watching them as they had been faithful to the point of exhaustion (had little strength) and had obeyed Jesus completely (there was no condemnation to them).

Jesus set before them an open door (of service and ministry) as they had proved their worth to Him through their faithfulness to Him. Their enemies would bow before them and admit their error of faith to the Philadelphians.

They are encouraged to endure to receive their rewards. It is only as you finish the race do you receive the prize.

This church represented Jesus and by their faith and lifestyle attracted people to Him and His Kingdom.

The people in this church had passed all the tests necessary to prove their faith in Jesus so they could be used by him as He desired too so He would lay no other burden (trials) on them. Satan had been allowed to sift them and had failed. Through the way they had handled these trial of Satan. They had proved to Satan. They were worthy of doing the work Jesus had called them to do.

You do not become great in the kingdom of God through studying the Bible at seminaries, Bible colleges etc.. You become great through applying the Bible, and faithfully enduring every trial Satan places on you.

The lukewarm, worldly, wealthy, comfortable church, a comfortable social club with all the trappings of Christianity but none of the fruit of it. Of no spiritual relevance to the world around it as it makes none or little spiritual impact on it. And appearing to be different to the world, and a pair is only, to other religions and cults but having little impact on the world.

If your church makes little impact in the society around it, perhaps it is this type of lukewarm church. If this is not this type the church, you had better find out why Jesus cannot use your church to impact the people around you.

Jesus hates comfortable, lukewarm people or churches so much He spews (violently vomits) them out of His Body into Satan’s world as He will not use or tolerate hypocrisy. This is the hypocritical church that say they are Christ’s, but pay only lip-service to Him.

If any repent and obey Jesus (v20) their Salvation relationship with Jesus will be restored (Jn 17:3) and they will be restored to fellowship with Him and The Father.

They had not blasphemed The Holy Spirit as they were able to be restored so it was more comfortableness and disobedience rather than maligning (blaspheming) God and His Things. Ignoring the Holy Spirit is disobedience and not blasphemy.

This church was hypocritical saying they served God but ignored what He wanted them to do so they were of no effect on society and even gave a bad impression of what Jesus wanted to tell society and would be vomited strongly out of His Kingdom if they did not repent. He had nothing of good to say to this church but still gave them hope if they repented.

You can lose your salvation (Rev 3:5)

Only in obedience to Jesus and His truths is their salvation

There are rewards for overcoming the attacks of Satan.

Only if you endure to the end will you receive a reward (Matt 10:22, 1 Cor 15:58)

Lukewarmness (comfortable Christianity) is hated by Jesus.

You must reject the world and all it offers not to be compromised by it.

God is Love and readily accepts the repentant person back into fellowship (Salvation,). It is obvious these people had not blasphemed The Holy spirit or they would not have been able to repent.

You must be led by The Spirit to avoid the traps these churches fell into.

Each of these churches would have shown the Kingdom in a different way but only those that obeyed The Holy Spirit would be showing it correctly. Those that showed a church structure or lifestyle little different to the religions around them would have little impact on the society they lived in but those that had people willing to stand up for Jesus and die for Him would have changed the society they lived in.

Only as you show your life is different to those around you as you demonstrate the authority of The Kingdom of God in the world and that you are willing to die for Jesus will you impact society in a way that will change it.

Remember, that these church is reflected the attitudes of the ministers over them and Jesus will hold them accountable for the way they led the people they had control of.

As I was discussing the purposes of these letters the prophetess I was discussing this with was given the following by Jesus:

They were written to the people in those areas professing to be of Christ yet not willing to open their blind eyes or their ears. Had they been willing to listen to the Holy Spirit, certain letters would not have been necessary. They are also an example for churches employing those same practices today.

These were written for Christians to examine their heart and see which one of these churches they are attending. Yes was written for leaders of churches as well as all people professing to be Christians.

The church has confused the denomination with The Kingdom of God and exalted the denomination to a position it should not have and by this makes the work of the denomination replace the work of The Kingdom. As a result all sorts of errors and wrong principles have crept into the church.

When the Kingdom of God is not demonstrated then Christianity is no different to any other religion or moral lifestyle.

When the Christians stopped meeting in public places and used special buildings they became a closed society and no longer informally met people in the public places to discuss the Christian faith as the early church did.

When they stopped hearing The Holy Spirit or believed He was not personal or could be hear by people, they became like any other religion and had to use man’s way of doing things.

When they stopped laying up treasure in heaven they laid up treasure on earth and grew wealthy and worldly.

When they stopped showing God’s Love and Mercy to people they had to find a new direction and purpose for being a church and justifying their existence. Man’s ways of doing things became the churches way of doing things so it grew less and less like The Kingdom of God and like the world.

When they lost their personal relationship with God they lost their identity of whom they were.

When they gave authority to a person (pastor apostle etc.), they placed themselves under man and not God and lost direction and purpose being guided and driven by man and their processes rather than God.

When they paid others who were "certified and trained" to do their social work and evangelism they lost their purpose for being a Christian.

When the became insular and self orientated promoting their own church or denomination they lost their focus on the world and God’s heart for it.

They do not demonstrate the authority and power of Jesus over His enemy

They do not destroy the works of the enemy

They do not publicly stand up for the values and purposes of the Kingdom of God

They do not worship in public

They do not take ground from the kingdom of the enemy so that the enemy takes ground from The Kingdom of God

They have given Satan the earth and all on it rather than fight Satan and increase the influence of the Kingdom of God on the earth.

They tolerate the sins that resulted in so many dying in Israel and Judah and eventually resulted in the people being removed from the land!

They do not teach the true cost of what Jesus did on Calvary!

They do not teach personal holiness and sanctification and became compromised by the world!

Their worship has become fleshly and self-centred, no longer being led by The Holy Spirit

They enjoy the chief places at the feasts and the importance of having large churches.

Numbers and prosperity are more important that humility or holiness!

They do not use God’s weapons of warfare and so are easy prey for His enemy!

They do not protect the people in the congregation adequately because they use their own weapons and defences and not God’s!

They do not fulfil God’s requirements for true religion… loving their neighbour as they love themself! Helping the widow, orphan the sick and the needy!

They do not grieve in their heart over the lost and your fallen! They do not weep over them as Jesus does!

They are too busy building "organisations" and using the latest "approved" method to listen to The Holy Spirit’s Leading!

They spent money on buildings and personal "junkets" and "necessary" luxuries, rather than on the lost and needy around them. Many of the ministers also have a lifestyle better than the people they are supposed to Love as themself!

They are too busy playing "important pastor" of "prominent minister" to develop intimacy with Jesus. Their activity on His "behalf" are no replacement for a vital, close, relationship with Him!

They do not develop the gifts of the people under their authority!

Unless they are "trained" or "officially" approved, they can not minister in "their" church!

They condemn many to consider themselves inadequate for God’s service because of this!

They do not teach "their" people to minister to those outside the church, but only "trained" people are allowed to minister "officially" in or outside the church!

They do not teach people what God’s Love is so they can show it to those living around them, and by this, win many to Jesus!

They do not properly disciple new followers of Jesus but process them, so many do not mature, or fall away. Those that remain are churchified and fit in to what is required of them by the church and denomination.

They reject God’s prophets calling them to repentance but listen to those who "tickled" their ears with prosperity and ease!

They do not learn or teach how to share in God’s fellowship of suffering or teach others what it means!

They do not carry out the commission in Is 61:1-3, or Math.28:18-20, or teach "their" church to do so!

They do not used God’s gifts, or delegated authority, properly… but use them to build numbers… not heal or deliver people then train them and send them forth to a lost and hurting world!

Hell and God’s Judgment: We are not told what we are saved from so that salvation does not become imperative. Restoration and deliverance do not mean anything as there is nothing to be delivered from. We do not realize our potential as we are not delivered from the effects of the fall on the ‘flesh’.

The Victory we have over demons and temptation won by Jesus at Calvary

The rewards of the Kingdom of Heaven: so we don’t know how much better they are so that we do not realize that the pleasures of earth are not worth holding onto because they pale in comparison to what is going to be given to us in heaven. It is the rewards in heaven, that make suffering worthwhile. If there were no rewards there would be no reason to suffer. The true Christian does not suffer for reward but out of love for Jesus.

The Love of God expressed towards us: so we don’t know how special we are to God or what He does for us each moment of the day. We are not taught the extent of God’s Love towards us!

Salvation as a personal relationship: so God becomes impersonal to us and the depth and quality of the relationship with Him is not realized. Thus we do not serve Him out of love but of necessity.

The Grace of God is not taught. How much God gives us and gently deals with us out of no benefit to Him. That it is God’s unmerited favour towards us.

Who Jesus is and what He gave up for us: so we don’t appreciate His Love for us and what He gave up to help us. Thus we do not realize any sacrifice we make pales in significance when compared to what He gave up for us!

What it means to be a citizen of God’s Kingdom: so we do not realize what it means to be a citizen of God’s kingdom and all it requires of us and as well as the rewards offered toward us!

The gifts of The Holy Spirit and the delegated authority of Jesus so that the church is sick, without power and has nothing with which to do the work of Jesus but reasoning and psychology.

The return of Jesus when all will be restored on earth and things will be as they should have been.

The complete work of Jesus at Calvary so that people are emotionally crippled by guilt, shame and condemnation instead of being released from these.