Glen Hartline

Enough is Enough

I received a call the other evening and on the other end of the line was someone I have been mentoring for just a couple weeks. They have been going through some very difficult battles and are trying to walk in the authority and power given to them through Jesus. This is a very new concept for them and they are looking for answers everywhere. They had been praying and decided to sit down and watch television. When they turned it on, a channel they never watch was on and they began watching an evangelist and wanted my opinion on what they were hearing. As I listened to the evangelist preaching about faith and favor, the Spirit of God rose up in me and I became extremely disgusted at what I was hearing and the condition of the body of Christ.

Now I understand that this evangelist was trying to raise money, and I have no problem with that. It’s not the raising of money, but how he was going about it. He was telling us that faith moves God, and that we can open the heavens over our lives and the lives of our family if we give a sacrificial gift in faith. That it was the gift that would cause the favor of God or His grace to flow. He then went on to give heartwarming accounts of how giving sacrificially unlocked a miracle in his life and then in lives of others. Then as if on cue the phones began ringing and people began giving.

First of all let me continue by saying this is a complete mockery of the sacrifice of Jesus. It is teachings like this that give an appearance of the gospel but are actually anti-Christ. Anything that diminishes what Jesus did by making you add to it is anti-Christ. God does not move based on our gifts or actions. God moved based on Jesus’ sacrifice alone and nothing else. It is not your faith that moves God, but you receive through faith what He has already freely given. It is no different than salvation. He doesn’t wait to save you when you receive Jesus as savior. He had already saved you, you just had to receive it by faith. His grace and favor was poured out through Jesus and He has already freely given us all things. We just have to receive it. As children of God we give because we love Him and we love others. We should give so that others will hear the gospel and give to those who feed us spiritually, not to get something but because we, like our father, are generous givers. We don’t need to sacrifice or plead to get God to open the heavens over us, because it’s not the sacrifice that makes things happen, it’s the faith in Jesus and the fact that we have the kingdom of God within us, we have the fullness of Jesus in us, why would we need anything else? Unless we as the body of Christ stop acting like babies and start developing our own relationship with our Father and allowing the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth, we will continue to allow people like this to play on our emotions and fleece us for everything we have. We MUST STOP giving to messages like this, because by doing so we are condoning it and encouraging these people to continue in their soulish manipulations. I don’t put the blame entirely on this evangelist, but on the rest of the body for allowing them to spoon feed us this sewage. They are only giving us what most of the body is crying for and paying for. It is time for the sons of God to say enough is enough and start being the body Jesus paid the price for us to become.

Passover

As we enter into the season of the spring feasts I start getting questions about do Christians need to keep them? Let me start by giving the quick answer NO and then I’ll explain what I mean.

Many years ago I began learning about the feasts of the Lord and trying to follow them mainly because they fascinate me. To me they speak of how big God is and how He knows the end from the beginning. He can institute a feast that meticulously describes an event that will take place thousands of years later- that really blows my mind! Anyway, I started associating with others that kept the feasts, mainly so I could learn more, but as time went on I became aware that my new acquaintances believed that if you are a Christian you must keep the feasts or you will not see God’s favor or His blessings in your life. Still being new to all this it was having a greater impact on me then I realized. Then one night the Lord woke me up saying, “you are starting to go down a very slippery path.” He then said, “Why do you desire to go back under the law?” Now understand that He wasn’t saying that by keeping the feasts I was going under the law, but the instant I started believing I could earn God’s grace or had to earn His grace by keeping the feasts, that was when I was putting myself under the law and not His grace. It’s all a matter of the heart. Why do you celebrate the feasts? I believe they are great and declare the greatness of my Father! They all point to Jesus, and if not, you are wasting your time. So if you celebrate, I want to remind you of one little thing as you celebrate Passover.

Col 2:16-17

So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, 17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ. (NKJV)

Like I said before, the feasts are only shadows of what was to come; the reality of them is Jesus. He is the reason for the feasts because they point to Him and what He did. In Exodus we read that the Israelites placed the blood of the lamb (representing Jesus) on the door posts so that death would pass by, but what happens next is what I want to show you. Right after that Pharaoh set the Israelites free after having been slaves for hundreds of years. And when they left, there was NONE FEEBLE among them. They were all healed and healthy! The only burden they had was that of carrying their prosperity.

Ps 105:37

37 He also brought them out with silver and gold, And there was none feeble among His tribes. (NKJV)

Now if just the shadow of what Jesus did healed all the people, dare to believe what the reality can do. Jesus is that reality and He has paid the price so that you can be healed. You can be free of any physical, mental, financial, dis –ease you may be struggling with. Be healed in Jesus’ name!