November 29, 2016 WWJWMTD by Steve the son of John

All of Us Owe Him

#4 in Series

In the fourth article in the series, You Owe Him, I am making the call to be smart. Religious leadership, who want to be popular in today’s culture, does not use wisdom from God. Wisdom, which is both pure and humbling, does not seek to be popular or well known. The temptation for religious leaders is trying to walk the line between being popular and speaking the truth. This has been and will always be a problem for anyone who is seeking a following.

Wisdom defines what the will of God is. Its focus is on making the distinction between good and evil. Job struggled with what God did and what he felt was unjust on the part of God. Job believed he was justified for having anger and his resentment toward God. God, however, was patient with Job and was willing to counsel him till Job found the ‘fear of the Lord,’ which is a corner stone of all Godly wisdom.

The following truths will protect you from appearances of godliness, which are only lies dressed up as truths. Wisdom identifies evil and it is best to follow its advice. Solomon wrote about how deceiving evil can be and Jesus warned His disciples of the doctrine of hypocrites and religious zealots in the four Gospels.

Jesus and John the Baptist were bringing the Kingdom of God to the Israeli nation. They encountered opposition from popular religious leaders of their day. It is no different today as it was 2000 years ago. You can count of opposition and deception when God brings revival (the Kingdom of God & Kingdom of Heaven) to American.

Let me use recent events to illustrate how ignorance and pride gets in the way of truth and the operation of the wisdom of God in current events.

One, God knows that public opinion or gossip (today we call this social & news media) works contrary to His will. That is why God does miracles—unexplainable events that baffle public opinion. Without the miraculous in any revival there is no revival. When the Spirit of God moves, He does so in ways that amaze and confound the ‘wise in this world’. Expect and pray for the miraculous of God’s nature. We saw this in Mr. Trump’s election as president, and when revival comes it will confuse the world—they will not understand nor will they acknowledge God’s actions. The world will only hate God more.

Two, there were self-made prophets within the Pentecostal and charismatic groups that claim they prophesied Mr. Trump would win but only after the fact. I am persuaded that they edited or invented their prophecies so they could claim they knew all along. They are false prophets or teachers as Christ said there would be in the last days. There will be individuals in our churches that will claim revival has come because of them—they are liars. They want recognition and positions of importance in the church at large. They are hypocrites and God will judge them harshly. Do not be fooled by ministers that want to be recognized and honored.

Three, revival comes through prayer alone. And, true prayer that God hears comes from the humble and the ‘nobodies’ in this life. God only answers the prayers of those who seek His Face, not those who want to be recognized by their fellow man. God’s revival will start with a few who hearts are pure and walk in meekness. It will come from humble beginnings not from established organized religious institutions. John the Baptist was in the desert not the city nor did he dress appropriate. Moses was a somebody, a political leader, which had to lose his authority and become a nobody in order for God to use him. Jesus was from Nazareth and it was said of Him, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?”

You want revival? Become a no-body! Pray for revival not for yourself but seek God for others. Reject pride, ignore recognition for your efforts, and pray for God’s will alone—make no demands or personal conditions—just allow God to respond.

If we join together to pray, humble ourselves, seek God’s face, and resist evil, then God will hear from Heaven and Jesus will heal our land. Together we owe Him and together God will manifest His Glory to all of us…all of us owe Him.

WWJWMTD

What would Jesus want me to do?

Dr. Steven J. Wentland www.wwjwmtd.com

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