So Ed, you say you love Jesus and wish to follow Him and to do that you say you are with the Holy Spirit, yes?
Would you say that what you wrote below is truly what Jesus would carry out or even indeed the Holy Spirit instructed you to do?
This is what you say ..........
Since i have surrendered my life to the Living God and die moment by moment to flesh taking every thought captive and bringing it into obedience to Christ, despise my own flesh and sin and despise all unholiness, love God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, their Holy Kingdom and all that is holy... and i am led by the Holy Spirit of the living God, He places holy convictions and holy desires in my heart which i obey with delight and which have brought immense blessing and favor upon my life from the Living God whom i serve with all that i am and everything within me. Especially over the past 4 months or so, His leading has become much stronger and much more clear, corresponding with the many signs and wonders He has been pouring through His surrendered vessel. If you are not led by the Holy Spirit of the Living God, which the bible teaches us to be, who or what then are you led by?... and how is this working out for you?
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It is Sunday 10/7/12 about 1pm and i pull into the parking lot of a church i wanted to visit and pray for, a church that preaches 80% world / 20% God and a church which i had visited 3 times over the past 6 weeks, as led by the living God, beginning in my fast soon after completing the 3 day esther (dry) portion. There are very crazy stories i could add to this experience including a demonized head security guy with a spirit of anger and extremely inappropriate hostile reactions to church goers who go out a door that does not say "no exit" or someone attempting to give a father the wristband to pick up his own son who was checked in by the father's friend, an honest mistake of not knowing the rules. The security team also had a very strong reaction to me after i had asked permission from the person at the door if i can go into a certain hall to join the awesome worship and she said, "yes, absolutely". The demons in this place knew who i was as a surrendered servant of God my Father and His precious Son, my Lord Jesus and perhaps they even knew why i was there... and they were putting the people who were strongly under their influence on high alert.
So i had gone into this fairly large church (about 1100 capacity per service, with 5 sunday services) on 3 occasions to participate in the worship and then to quietly leave the auditorium and silently pray for the pastor and for the church during his message in the fairly large coffee shop they have. Now in this place, if you are praying or reading a bible, you are singled out as an obvious troublemaker since there is not a single person besides you doing this in the entire huge lobby and coffee area. If your conversation is Christ centered, beware because you may be persecuted. So i was silently, peacefully praying and this security team was getting very nervous and going into defcon 4 mode. I kept glancing up and they were scrambling and their eyes were all over me. Note that in several other actual Christ-centered churches i have visited and with the same type of praying, not a single person has become nervous, nor was there a crack security team in place ready to pounce. In fact, they seemed to think my praying was a good thing since these were people who themselves prayed and read their bibles.
So while i was praying, one of the "elders" was alerted to this obvious threat and once i was done, he approached me to figure out what i was up to. I said, "hi, nice to meet you... i was just praying for your pastor and the church". He was particularly concerned as to why i was not sitting through the message and i said, "i just go wherever the living God leads me, and He led me to come over here and pray". The elder wanted to talk scripture verses about how i need to submit to the pastor and i said, "well we each have our own calling, i just do what the living God speaks into my heart". Please note that everyone i had ever spoken with here, i had only ever had extremely gentle dealings as led by the Holy Spirit of the Living God, speaking so gently and with so much of the Lord's peace as to almost be whispering.
So fast forward to Sunday 10/7/12.
As i was sitting in my 1997 ford expedition looking at this church, the Lord was very strongly impressing upon me that this place is evil. I already knew that something was deeply wrong here, but now the Lord was really showing me on a much higher magnitude. I was so excited for Him to reveal the specifics to me and was asking that He would. "What is so evil about this place?! What exactly is going on here?!". I knew it was a greedy place, deeply steeped in prosperity teaching, i knew that the teaching was very new agey and 80% world, but i began to wonder if it was a cult and/or if there was actual criminal activity going on there. I wasn't sure and the Lord wasn't revealing it to me at this time.
After i prayed for the Lord to expose the specifics of the evil in this place and while i was still sitting in my vehicle, He put it on my heart to read James chapter 1 which i began to do...
James 1: 2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
This is as far as i got before noticing that 2 guys were approaching my vehicle, both officers of the church, one an elder i had never seen before and another a financial officer guy with apparently authority in areas besides finance who i had met and spoken with last week. How they even knew i was here is yet another awesome testimonial to their amazing security system and staff... in a church! I would love for the Lord to give me a better understanding about this as well, but as far as i can tell, they are protecting foremost against true surrendered followers of the living God from infiltrating their ranks.
I opened my door to talk with them, having a pretty good idea of what to expect and they said.. something like, "several of us leaders were discussing this and we have decided that we don't believe this is the right fit for you and we no longer want you attending here."
I smiled and very gently said, "wow you really have no discernment at all, do you? I was here praying the Lord's blessings for your pastor and your church. You have no idea who i am in Christ Jesus, do you? and the elder guy said, "you see, now that's a very strange question to be asking". then i said, "out of curiousity, does the pastor create his own messages here or are they given to him by a committee?" to which the elder said, "now you see, that's a very inappropriate question for you to be asking". So i said, "ok, i will leave, no problem. i don't exactly know what the living God is going to do about your open defiance against Him, but i really do feel bad for you. If i was you, i would get very humble before the Lord on your faces, repenting of all sin, seeking His truth and His will". With this, they both smugly walked off, apparently believing they had done something good and i drove away, worshiping the Living God in my heart.
Later this night, i was talking with my brother Peter about the the extreme evil the Lord had put on my heart about this place with the newly imparted and ridiculously strong Discernment of Spirits gift the Lord had given me about 6 weeks earlier, again right after getting through the 3 day esther (dry) portion of the 20 day water only fast. Peter a dedicated and surrendered follower of the Lord Jesus for about 25 years understands how much the Lord is using me because he has witnessed and experienced some of it first hand, not the least of which was being used of the Lord to help his 16 year old son get rescued and set free from demonic captivity and being used to help him get radically filled by the Lord with His holy Spirit. As well, Peter when visiting had a 15 year caffein addiction lift from him just by being here, without any prayers even being made against this. So Peter said, "maybe it's Masonic" and immediately this resonated in my Spirit. We talked more about this and both believe this was spoken to Him by the Holy Spirit. So i sought the Lord on this and was led to their websight where i clicked on "giving" and noticed that there is a pyramid in their logo. For any who don't know, the pyramid is a masonic symbol!... and like with the pyrimid on our currency with the all seeing eye, the freemasons like to parade their symbology right out in the open.
What i believe (but don't know for sure) i am hearing from the Lord is that whatever He does, the attendance of this place will be reduced by at least 50%. I am His humble servant and however He wants to use me in this, i am surrendered to His will, even if He wants me to do nothing at all. The immediate idea that has run through my head is of standing outside the parking entrance with a massive poster board that says, "Beware, BE VERY AWARE, this place is a Masonic Cult!!! Please read the 1 page summary which explains everything"... but maybe the Lord has something much better planned.
Within about 2 hours after concluding this conversation with the 2 "church leaders", the Lord led me into a divine appointment with the most mysterious and amazing young woman of God i have ever met... but that's another story.
Ed I think you have a problem don't you?