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Monday 28 March 2016

Will He find faith?

A few weeks ago  I was anointed with oil and prayed for by the pastor, and a few others, of the church group I had been attending since we have moved here.  It had taken some time to get this to happen as when I first asked if this was done there I was told that it was not.  Before they prayed the pastor started speaking to me about 'religion'.  Then, when they prayed, one of the men prayed for 'the spirit of religion to be removed.'   I thought this was quite strange, but did not say anything then.  When we came down from the upstairs room where the prayer had taken place I noticed a plaque on a wall with the word 'achieved' on it.  I thought 'Oh, that might be a nice sign to say that my healing has been achieved'.
 
Several days later, when nothing had started to change in my body, I was reminded of what had been spoken of regarding 'religion' and the prayer for the removal of 'the spirit of religion'.  I thought 'Are they saying that the anointing with oil and prayer for the sick was regarded as 'religion', a spirit that had to be removed'?  The following Sunday I questioned the man who had prayed regarding this and didn't really get a satisfying answer.
  
That morning my friend said that when she had come in to the church a lady had come over to her and said that the anointing with oil was in the Old Testament and was not to be done now.  My friend told her that it was in the New Testament and that I had actually had an instant healing through this being done when I first became born of God's Spirit in Australia, and at that time the Lord had shown me through the scriptures that it had been the 'prayer of faith' made by the elders of that church that had brought the healing about.

For several weeks the words 'Will He find faith'? have been constantly coming into my mind.  All this is now causing me to wonder if the 'achieved' I saw on the wall was a message to me of proof of what I believe the Lord was pointing out to me had been achieved,  the fact that there is a lack of faith in the church. 
 
Hebrews ch. 11 v. 6 says:- 'But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.' 
Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.  If we mix the Word of God with the word of man, or take away or add anything to scripture,  then we are in danger of 'making void the Word of God through the traditions of man,'  as did the Pharisees in Mark ch. 7 v. 13

I believe that a dream I had while all this was gong on, and a scripture I opened to the next day, is confirming what I feel is being revealed to me here:- The dream may appear to be a little crude, but I believe it was necessary to reveal what the Lord was showing me.
 
In my dream I was given a large beautiful house to live in.  It stood apart from other houses and had everything I needed in it and more. I walked around to a street  where a lady was saying how lovely was her house.  There were large houses in that street, but something caught my eye in the gutters.
At first I thought it was water running down the gutters.  Then on looking closer I could see it was a substance that condoms are made of that was lining the gutters. Then I awoke from the dream.
That day, when I opened my Bible to read, I opened to a page that had a section of a verse underlined.  I must have done it a while back.  It was the last part of Jeremiah ch. 5 v.7....'and trooped to the houses of harlots.' 
Although this is referring to the Israel of the old testament, the church is classed as 'spiritual Jews', (Romans ch. 2 v. 29,) and  the same scriptures apply spiritually to the church, God's spiritual Israel. 

Now the dream made sense to me.  I believe it is reflecting that the church, or 'house of God,  (as the church is the one combined 'house' that God dwells in)  is committing spiritual adultery when mixing the Word of God with mans' doctrine, and can become many 'houses' with mixed doctrines, through what should be the Water of the Word of God being replaced by the doctrine of man.


We have allowed the spiritual thief to rob us of the faith which comes from hearing the Word of God, and therefore miss out on the content of that faith, which is the 'substance' of things hoped for.  A few days ago I believe I had an incident happen which could be a sign to accompany this.

I was looking out of my lounge window onto the garden at the front of the house.  A magpie had landed on the soil and had a large white object in his beak. He dropped the object and started to dig a
hole in the soil using his beak.  Then he picked the object up, dropped it into the hole, and covered it over with soil once more using his beak.
When I went out to see what the bird had buried, I was amazed to find out that it was a large piece of fat with bird seed contained in it. I thought 'No wonder the Magpie is called 'the thief.'  It reminds me of the thief (Satan)  stealing and hiding the food of the birds 'heavenly creatures' ( those born of the Spirit.)  Isn't the enemy trying to bury the word of God in earthly doctrine (the doctrine of man) in so many churches these days? 
As 'Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God' (Romans ch. 10 v. 17),
  the Word of God must be above all other voices in my life, and I must not let circumstance cause doubt in my mind regarding the promises of God which are 'Yes' in Jesus. (2 Corinthians ch. 1 v. 20)
 
A recent example of this happening in my life is as follows:-
 
Because my healing had not come as my mind expected it to come after the 'sign' experience with the television programme, (contained in my last post)  and the prayer with anointing of oil finally coming about, I started to be a little fearful that the Lord was not going to heal me.
I had thought that my healing was going to be achieved when the pastor and elders of that church had prayed for me and anointed me with oil, and I thought the television program showing a dark skinned man praying was a sign of who was to pray because the pastor of that particular church was also dark skinned.  However, what was actually 'achieved' through all of this happening was me being shown that there is a lack of faith in the church in general.  There was no scripture to connect with the fact that the person who was to pray would be dark skinned, and I could see that the purpose of the people who prayed was to try to convince me that the anointing of oil was 'religion' as opposed to being 'instruction to the church', and that they believed that I had a 'spirit of religion' which had to be removed.  I believe absolutely that those instructions of anointing with oil are still to be carried out in the church today, and if a person praying for someone does not believe this then there is a lack of faith there.

Yesterday I went with my friend to a church gathering I felt led to go to that I had noticed while driving to my friend's house.  The pastor there spoke on Psalm 16.  When I opened my Bible to Psalm 16 I found that some time ago I had underlined one of the verses in that Bible.  It was verse 9 b which reads  'my body also dwells secure'
 
This was the only encouragement that could have convinced me that the promise of healing that I have had from the Lord will come about.  My convincing had to be from the hearing of God's Word, whether that be the prayer of faith of an elder or my own faith that comes from the hearing of God's Word , which I felt was spoken to me through v. 9b of Psalm 16.  I have prayed, and often do pray, for the Lord to increase my faith in Him, and He encourages me to trust absolutely in what He speaks to me regardless of what my eyes see and my ears hear.

 

Today I noticed a dove in my front garden and I took a picture of it through the blinds.  I thought it might fly away if I opened the blinds to get a clearer shot.  In the picture the blinds make the dove look like it is behind prison bars.
Even this picture portrays to me the Holy Spirit (represented by the dove) being imprisoned (deprived of freedom of movement), which I believe is happening in the church.

I believe all of what I have gone through has shown me that the Holy Spirit is being restricted by the church allowing the spiritual enemy to come in and rob us of our spiritual food - the Word of God, thereby robbing us of the blessings that God has for us.

When I first asked about this at that church I was taken to an upper room by an elder to discuss it.  In the room was a book entitled 'You are being used', and I believe even that speaks about how I have been used to bring out the fact that there is a lack of faith in God's word in the church today.

I continue to say:-
I will love Thee O Lord my strength. (Psalm 18 v.1) as I wait upon Him for my healing.

16 comments:

Frank E. Blasi said...

Dear Brenda,
I'm with that man who prayed for the "spirit of religion" to be removed. "Religion" - an attempt to please God by self effort and following man-made doctrines - was the way of the Pharisees who had both Jesus and Stephen killed, and the apostles imprisoned. I also agree with you that there are many churches which inhibits the Holy Spirit, particularly in the Western World. Guarding of our wealth and material possessions for security may demonstrate our lack of faith, together with our reluctance to deviate from our national culture.
An excellent written post. God bless.

Brenda said...

Hi Frank,
I hope you and your wife are well. I believe absolutely that the 'spirit of religion' should be removed, but it all depends on what people call 'religion'. We must not deviate from the instructions in the Bible and bring in our own rules. There is only one plumb line we can use to test if what is being done is scriptural, and that is the written Word of God. Many churches are putting their 'pastors' in the place of God and 'worshipping the created more than the creator'.
God bless you and Alex.

Sandi said...

What a beautiful garden you have, Brenda, even through the blinds.

I believe in annointing with oil and prayer. It does sound so odd, doesn't it? I mean, why oil? But my experience has taught me it is real. I can't explain it. And, of course, it is in the Word. My experience is always catching up with what was already written so long ago.

I think a spirit of religion can masquerade as truth. Sometimes a person will accept it as all there is. It's putting on a show. But maybe it happens because of lack of faith, disbelief that God can actually change a heart and make the unholy holy. Sometimes people are afraid to let God look inside their heart because they are afraid that He will not accept them. But He does! That's the good news.

God bless you, Brenda. Thank you for sharing your experiences here!


Sandi said...

Oh! I was going to say that I do not see a spirit of religion in your writing, or what you said here. I was surprised they said that to you. However, take it to the Lord...

Brenda said...

Hi Sandi,
thank you for your kind comment on the garden. It is a bit of a project at the moment, it was just flat grass and moss when we came here in November. I love height and depth in a garden, and the neighbour across the road has kindly given me some shrubs from his garden.
I believe what they think is a 'spirit of religion' in that church gathering is following what the Bible says. I feel that many churches have become entertainment centres with musicians sometimes the one who is looked up to. I had a dream about this at one time.

I had a complete miraculous healing through elders of a church in Australia praying for me, and have had other healings at times during the twenty five years that I have asked the Lord to teach me about healing.

1 Timothy ch. 4 v. 1 tells us that in the latter times many shall fall away from the faith. We only have the Bible as our plumb line in which is the word of God from where we get our faith, so it is obvious from that verse that people are falling away from believing that written word.
God bless you Sandi.

Brenda said...

Sandi,
I just had to come back to you to say that I was unintentially led over to a post that I put on my blog on 5th November 2014. It is called Prayer, and faith in God's timeless word, and it actually mentions in it how I was led to your blog. I could hardly believe out of 118 posts that I have put on my blog that I was led over to that one without actually looking for it. The post is all about faith and how the Lord was encouraging me to have that faith in Him. I know that is what He is saying to me, He has a wonderful way of speaking to us.
God bless you Sandi.

Sandi said...

Brenda, after I read your post earlier today I looked at some of the photos on the left side of your blog. I clicked on one and it took me to that same post!

Also, wanted to say...

"I feel that many churches have become entertainment centres with musicians sometimes the one who is looked up to. I had a dream about this at one time."

I agree, sadly.




Brenda said...

Amazing how God speaks Sandi, I know what He is emphasizing here. We must not put any of the 'created' in the position of the 'Creator', for if we do then we would be in danger of putting their word above God's Word, and we are all a bit like a jigsaw puzzle - not one of us has the whole picture.
It reminds me of when I was a child and when my siblings and I used to argue we used to go to our father and say 'Dad, dad who is right.' Our father used to say 'Let's see what the Lord says', and used to go to his Bible and always solve our argument, whether he got a verse from the book of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Psalms or whatever. He knew his Bible from back to front, and was a wonderful dad. Even though I went completely astray before coming to the Lord, now that I have been born again my father's words are constantly in my mind, and whenever anybody preaches anything, whether 'apostles', 'pastors' or whoever they claim to be, the first words I hear are 'Let's see what the Lord says'.

Brenda said...

Just to add Sandi,
Our dad prayed for one of my sisters and myself at different times when we were sick and both of us were healed. That is because he had faith.

S. Knowles said...

Well said Brenda. Continue to have faith in God. I have also noticed certain things in the church today. Many persons are placing their trust in the wisdom of man instead of placing their faith in the power of God like Paul encourages us to do in 1 Corinthians 2:5. Many are following the commandments of man as though it was God Himself who told them. Much false doctrine, covetousness, idolatry and adultery among other things, seem to be infiltrating the church, but no matter how much opposition we face we must continue to earnestly contend for the faith. You said, " As 'Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God' (Romans ch. 10 v. 17), the Word of God must be above all other voices in my life, and I must not let circumstance cause doubt in my mind regarding the promises of God which are 'Yes' in Jesus." I agree. May God continue to strengthen you and comfort you and may His will be done. God bless you Brenda.

Brenda said...

Thank you Sateigdra for your lovely comment and the prayer you ended it with.
One of the first things the Lord spoke to me was 'If you love me you will keep my commands.' (John ch. 14 v. 15)
Verse 20 goes on to say:- 'He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.'…

It is only through God speaking to me this way and the Holy Spirit convincing me that it is my daily 'mana,' that I am able to act on that word spoken to me.

He has proved Himself true and kept me for all this time so how can I not continue to trust Him.

There is more I would like to share concerning my trials, so I will probably put up another post soon.
God bless you Sateigdra, lovely to hear from you.

elderchild said...

FATHER, "if YOU are willing, remove this cup from Me"!

Yet nevertheless:

"Not My will, But THY Will Be Done"! (Luke 22:42)

For Our FATHER, HE knows what is best for HIS children.......

FATHER Help!

HE DID! and HE Does.......

Thankfully so, for HIS children cry unto HIM so that we might endure all things unto the end of this temporal life!

For when we receive that final breath(Spirit, air);

Home, Home at last!

HalleluYAH!

elderchild said...

Came to me to make an additional comment:

Now i don't know you or the one who accused you of having a "religious spirit", yet seems such would be a favorite accusation used of those who have their portion in what they call the "lgbt" way.......

Brenda said...

Thank you elderchild for your comments,
How can I not trust and believe the One who 'so loved the world' and 'is not a man that He should lie'. His presence is my only true source of peace. When we are born of His Spirit the 'connection' is real.
Amen to HalleluYAH!

shortybear said...

awesome

Brenda said...

Hello again, thank you for your visit and nice to meet you.