Tuesday, January 11, 2011

An alert from God to a decaying nation

AN ALERT FROM GOD TO A DECAYING NATION
Especially for Christian Leaders


By Josimar Salum

On January 4th this year (2011) I had the privilege of sharing a message with pastors in the city of Worcester, Massachusetts, United States, at a meeting of the BMNET - Brazilian Ministers Network.

I understand, by God’s Mercy and Grace that He speaks to His children and reveals His will even today.


Therefore, what I have shared that day and I write down the registry here to submit it to you, wherever you are, so that you will be able to examine the instructions, as I believe, that I have received from the Lord for this time and this season.

I publish this text not with that kind of intent of making it something special or as an occurrence from an exclusive channel. Because I believe that God is not a respecter of persons I firmly believe that only Jesus Christ spoke with exclusivity, being God, perfect words.

TWO WARNINGS

First is about how leaders must treat the wounds of God’s people.

Wounds don’t get better because we say so. Wounds get healed because of God’s healing virtue and power.

Jeremiah 6:13-14:

13 “From the least to the greatest, are all the greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit

14 They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace”.

Three expressions require my attention in these Scriptures: Greed, deception and superficiality.

They are greedy for gain, they practice deceit and they dress the wound of my people, in other words, they treat superficially the wounds of my people covering them with bandages.

We live in the middle of a shallow, mediocre and superficial generation. Everywhere is moved to avarice and personal and collective greed.

Preachers especially, deceive themselves assuming they can continue being and acting intentionally greedy deceiving others. It is not what they say or they do, it is about the true motivation for ministry.

I believe that clearly I heard the Lord declaring: "Enough!"

A few years ago I had a dream where I saw a star, resembling the shape of a mine (bomb) with bits, which fell at the feet of a very famous preacher in the United States.

He had by his side another man I know well, "his right arm" as they call him in that ministry.


In the dream, I was still and they came towards me.

When the star fell, now at the feet of them, instantly I heard a voice saying: "A star has fallen."

At the same time I saw on the left side another famous writer and preacher that was playing a piano. As the star fell he stood up and came towards them.

Shortly after that day, in a few months, scandals started to burst in the United States with many famous preachers, both men and women.

To my sorrow, the preacher and the pianist, whom I always respected and still love them – they are considered in high esteem all over the world- they also within a period of less than three years fell, like the star that fell from above.

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24).

Second warning: alert to people for what is to come.

The Holy Spirit asks: “Again, if the trumpet does not sound a clear call; who will get ready for battle?” (I Corinthians 14:8)

In the United States economic depression drove back to Brazil thousands of people.

And every day, as tougher, harder and tighter that becomes the financial situation around here, combined with the natural tragedies and violence increasingly constant and rampant, the spiritual condition of the nation is proportionally colder and colder.

Society as a whole, in great strides, distances itself from God and His Word. It is led by a political class, business people, social and artistic leaders, and even by ecclesiastical leaders increasingly cynical and despicable about the fear of God.

Most of this present federal government all way down to the local authorities are totally immersed in defying the very character and nature of God, bound in His Love, the very reason Jesus Christ was crucified, with the acquiescence of thousands of dormant preachers who decided to embrace the Hell’s agenda of environmentally issues, global warming, etc, in despite of the supreme reason nations fall down and are destroyed.

Proverbs 14:34:
Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin condemns any people.

There is no worse judgment that God can apply when He abandons a nation to do wherever they want to do.

Intercession only can hold God’s punishment, but only until a limit - the limit of His enduring patience. The truth is our nation is under God’s terrible decrees of judgment. While the judgment of God intensifies, as with what happened to the ship Titanic, the party continues with its orgy and ungodliness.

Today in Brazil, as it was with the United States, nationalist preachers are deceived to witness the economic success and prosperity as signs of blessings.

These fake signs of blessings are really to make misty of the following:

• The institutionalization of iniquity in the bowels of the Law and Government,

• The systemic dissemination of greed and avarice in the practices of the “Gospel”

• The worldliness, secularization and humanization of what they call "Gospel" while the voices of the righteous are ridiculed and silenced to allow the status quo to proceed in a church driven by results and not by the faithfulness and loyalty to Jesus Christ.

There is talk of peace, but there is no peace.


Isaiah 59:7-17:

Their feet rush into sin; they are swift to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are evil thoughts; ruin and destruction mark their ways.

The way of peace they do not know; there is no justice in their paths.

They have turned them into crooked roads; no one who walks in them will know peace.

So justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us.

We look for light, but all is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in deep shadows.

Like the blind we grope along the wall, feeling our way like men without eyes.

At midday we stumble as if it were twilight; among the strong, we are like the dead.

We all growl like bears; we moan mournfully like doves.

We look for justice, but find none; for deliverance, but it is far away.

For our offenses are many in your sight, and our sins testify against us

Our offenses are ever with us, and we acknowledge our iniquities: rebellion and treachery against the Lord, turning our backs on our God, fomenting oppression and revolt, uttering lies our hearts have conceived.

So justice is driven back, and righteousness stands at a distance; truth has stumbled in the streets, honesty cannot enter.

Truth is nowhere to be found, and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey. The Lord looked and was displeased that there was no justice.

He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so his own arm worked salvation for him, and his own righteousness sustained him.

He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head; he put on the garments of vengeance and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak.


"Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me.” (Ezekiel 33:7)

“For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?

And, If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner”? (I Peter 4:17-18)




THREE WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT

1) PREACH THE WORD


II Timothy 4:1-4

1 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge:

2 Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage with great patience and careful instruction.

3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

What word is preached in Brazil and the United States?

Which Gospel is preached by thousands and thousands of preachers and sermons every Sunday?

Is there any zeal left for the Holiness of God?

Is there any clamor to love and reach out the multitudes house by house, one by one, in two by two groups like Jesus strategically ordained?

Are the billions dollars Christian market ready for the application of the Word of God?



In Brazil and in the United States, have the crowds that throng the temples and fill evangelical concentrations and events heard the preaching of the cross? Have they heard the whole Council of God?

My fellow preacher: Which is the word that you preach? What word have I preached?

The Scriptures have been replaced by millions of sermons on TV, on radio and the Internet, by magazines and Sunday school lessons, by the thousands of books and magazines, by the millions of DVDs and CDs that overload the houses and saturate the time of the believers.

This massive mountain of knowledge had usurped the place of the Scriptures in the lives of God’s people which as statistically proven read less and lesser the Word of God.

Why not only the Scriptures, pure and simple?



Why not only the communion and fellowship with the Holy Spirit sufficient to build up our faith along with the simple fellowship of believers sharing with each other?

The Holy Spirit says to the churches: "Preach the Word. Preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Preach the Gospel of the Kingdom."

I Corinthians 9:23-27

23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.

24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.

25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.

26 Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air.

27 No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.


2) GO BACK TO FIRST LOVE

Revelation 2:4-5

4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.

5 Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lamp stand from its place.



First Love: the love of Jesus that is expressed in love to the lost.

Simply this: you have to return to the practice of the earliest works. It is meaning, to sharing, personally the Gospel with people all around you.

May all believers and their congregations abandon all programs, events, shows, everything that don't generate uniquely the "single business" of God on Earth, the unique appeal of the Spirit (Who thirsts come and drink for free from the Water of Life) and the sole mission of The Son: preaching the Good News to the poor, to proclaim freedom for the captives, giving sight to the blind and put at liberty the oppressed. (Isaiah 61)

Matthew 9:36-38

36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field”.

Matthew 10:7-8

7 As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near’.

8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons.

FREELY YOU HAVE RECEIVED, FREELY GIVE

What we call the great commission must cease to be the great suspicion. Every church talks about the great commission but everybody doubt if it is serious.

The heartbeat of Jesus is sharing His Kingdom with all mankind.

Our cathedrals are not big enough to be filled with our shame, because we did not reach the whole world and we already have lost three generations at home.

It is a shame to pray for revival when we don’t share with our own people Jesus arrival 2000 years ago.

If we had spent in the last 10 years only 10% of our time of attending conferences and congresses to reaching the people with the Gospel, praying for the sick and casting out demons in our own cities we would have had long time ago a revival of millions into the Kingdom.

Where is the missionary ardor of the people of God? Why are we so centralized in our organizations, meetings, committees and meetings, in voting for budgets of maintaining buildings and programs, as dead as the mummies are in Egypt?

Why are we so stuffed with shoes, and clothes, and abundance, entertaining ourselves, and in giving BMWs and Mercedes to our famous preachers, calling these practices honoring our leaders?

They have substituted making disciples, which must be, one by one, for the multitudes, and crowds, and TV outreaches.

Let them preach to the multitudes and reach out even more millions and millions, that is not wrong, but 100% of those kinds of preachers I have spoken with would never come to a little town in America or in Brazil anymore because they became so big to preach for small crowds.

Let them do it whatever it pleases them.

What about you and me?

We do need the fire and fervor of reaching our day by day fellows as we go and meet them in our daily lives.



3) TO HAVE FELLOWSHIP WITH EACH OTHER

Hebrews 10:25

25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

To meet doesn't mean gather exclusively in temples.

In fact, the vast majority of meetings in temples are meetings according to "the altar" and not for fellowship - sharing, eating bread together, and ministering to each other, the fellowship of the saints.

For "the altar" I mean in terms of what one does or around "the platform or the pulpit" – for all those who are in front and not every one to each other. The fellowship of the saints became the fellowship around the altar. As we gather we don’t minister to each other, we are ministered by only few. Think about it!

I Thessalonians 5:11-13

11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

12 Now we ask you, brothers, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you.

13 Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other.

Pastors will never be regarded with esteem if they do not learn to consider other pastors in esteem, the other pastors from their cities or community.

Some practical ideas for pastors:

1 – Personal encounters with other pastors and with other family pastors’ in your locality.

2 – Meetings between congregations.

In the town of “Tres Rios” (Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil) at the end of last year most temples closed its doors at a Sunday and got together at a Public Square, to cry out to the Lord Jesus in unity.

You can, now and then, the brothers and sisters of the street temples, or neighborhood, led by their pastors, go to one place to sing and pray and celebrate the Lord's Supper together.

Or at least leaders can preach on Sundays, one in place of another, in their meeting places!

3 – Retreats between pastors and churches. Not necessarily from the same denomination.

I am referring to pastors and ministers Christ centered and not of politically correct gatherings.

Groups of 3, 7, 15, 37 pastors who decide to meet in retreat, not to preach to each other or to discuss doctrines, but simply to have fun together, for churches as well.



God is moving across the Earth.

He is bringing his people together. Where I've been, especially in Brazil and in many places in US, apart of the events and agendas of organizations, the Lord is gathering His people.

Men do their agendas to serve themselves deceiving themselves as if they were serving God. “You cannot serve both God and money”, thus said the Lord.

90% of the events I have been involved in US in the last ten years money played a big role not just because of the need to get things organized (logistics) but as one of the main reasons for visiting preachers get their support to run their ministries.

God, however, is gathering His people in a separate move, a differentiated action, even if in many places, silently and unnoticed.

There is an underground revolution going on, especially with young people and teenagers, the Spirit instructing one by one, uniting thousands and millions of them. It is the sound of many waters. Is the Tsunami of God' Spirit.

They share with each other only the Spirit and the Truth and doing so they fight off all the deceit, avarice and greed.

They dare to love the Holiness of the Lord because they are saints.

They interrelate with others beyond the designed borders imposed by leaders who are not pastors, are robbers.

And together with the pastors and ministers of God, those who remain faithful, they cannot be manipulated and controlled.

Nobody can control the sheep who know the Voice of the Shepherd. Because the flock is the Lord’s only and there is just one Pastor: Jesus Christ.

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