Influences Matter

I have a little time to fill, so here I am.

I haven’t written much about my relationship with God lately, so I thought I’d catch up. Things are continuing to improve.

If I could only stress one thing, it’s this: the most important thing you’re supposed to do, after receiving salvation, is to become like God. You’re supposed to be transformed by the Holy Spirit, so instead of having the mind and heart of an educated monkey (selfish, violent, sex-crazed, aggressive, greedy…), you have the heart and mind of a being who is made of love and faith.

You can watch Christian TV all day and never hear this. That’s amazing. It’s as if Procter & Gamble gave an ad company ten million dollars to make Tide commercials, and instead, they made Bugs Bunny cartoons.

The “dead” churches–the ones that deny the spiritual gifts–teach about inner transformation, but they teach that you have to do it by yourself, which is impossible. This is what the Jews taught. It didn’t work for them, either. Jesus came to put the Holy Spirit inside us, to do the work, and he was murdered for it. The churches that deny the Holy Spirit murder Jesus every day. They turn a powerful sacrifice into an ordinary homicide.

A monkey can’t give birth to a saint. It doesn’t work that way. Without the addition and help of the Holy Spirit, we are just monkeys.

God has shown me that if I have stress in my life, it’s not normal or acceptable. I think many Christians think we should admire their stress and misery. On their own, without God’s involvement, they decide to put themselves in difficult positions, “for God.” Then God doesn’t help them, because he’s not an enabler, and they think their unnecessary, pointless suffering makes them holy and special.

Look at the Bible. When people had stress, it meant God wasn’t blessing them. Over and over, people with problems went to God, asked them why, and (if they listened to his advice) got their problems fixed. The Bible hammers this lesson home: when things go badly, there is a problem with your relationship with God.

As far as we know, Jesus only had one bad day in his life, and there is no known example of him working hard.

American Christians teach kids to be proud. That’s sickening. They tell kids to believe in themselves and in hard work. The Bible says just the opposite. It says people who believe in themselves will suffer and fail. It says God works against proud people and helps the humble. A humble person, in Christian terms, is a person who lets God do the work and take the credit.

When blind people approached Jesus, he didn’t build laboratories and concoct medicines to help them, using his own mind. He listened to the Holy Spirit and allowed himself to be a conduit for miracles. If Jesus had tried to do medical research instead, he would have failed. God wouldn’t have helped him. God has all the power. Our little tools are very weak. We rely on them too much, and in doing so, we isolate ourselves from the only source of real help.

I’m not saying you can do nothing but lie in bed and pray all day, or that nothing bad ever happens to good Christians, but we suffer and work much, much more than we are supposed to.

Here’s a lesson I’ve had difficulty with: when a problem pops up, BEFORE I TRY TO FIX IT OR ASK ANYONE FOR HELP, I’m supposed to pray about it, curse it, and speak victory to myself and the Lord. If I do anything else, I am actually making the problem stronger. I’ve taught this to other people, but somehow, I still have to be reminded.

The other day, a friend came over for prayer, and he had some sort of problem. I said we should get on the Internet and look for an answer, and he had to stop me. He said he wanted to pray first, because we needed to lay a foundation for success before using our own strength.

That was really something. He was throwing my own words back at me, and he was 100% right. I felt so stupid.

If you’re going to fix all your problems yourself, why are you a Christian? What do you need God for? You’re living like an atheist.

Here’s another thing: I think we’re supposed to perceive the presence of God as much of the time as possible. When his presence is inside you, it makes it much easier to reject things like anger, lust, and fear. The love and peace are too enjoyable to give up. Focusing too much on hard work will cut his presence off. You won’t feel it when it happens, but afterward, when he’s gone, you’ll realize you blew it, and you won’t feel good at all.

I believe the presence of God is one reason I need to get out of Miami. This area is full of people who worship demons every day. It came with them from the islands. There are all sorts of people here who are demon-controlled drones. They provoke and annoy, all day. When you are constantly wronged, as people are here, focusing on God’s peaceful, loving presence is a challenge.

I find that I get connected with God, and then I go about living my day, and the first thing you know, someone does or says something nasty. If the plan works, I forget about God and think about anger. If I continue with it, his presence leaves. Then I’m in trouble.

This is one of the purposes of the Internet. Satan uses it to provoke people. You go the the web to read the news, and the first thing you know, you’re reading filthy, vicious comments from people who hate God. It’s like having Miami piped into your house.

This must be one of the reasons God got me to quit social media. I was provoked by ignorant people all day, and most were Christians. I would go on Facebook and see people praising Black Lives Matter or supporting homosexual “marriage,” and I let it destroy my peace. I had kids from my church try to set me straight on sexual sin. Young kids, with no education, no prayer lives, and no understanding.

A carnal Christian would say, “If you loved them, you would stay forever and be insulted and provoked.” Of course, that’s wrong. Jesus avoided annoying people, and I’m not better than he was. He spent a certain amount of time with them in order to reach the ones God had sent him to, but that was about it. He didn’t sit in the outer court of the temple for days on end, yelling, “LOL LOL STFU!”

I get stirred up just thinking about it. God’s presence…God’s presence…look back at the target…

I feel better now.

Last night I watched some Youtubes about the Jay Leno/Conan O’Brien/David Letterman feud. Maybe you remember this. Jay Leno was pushed off The Tonight Show, and he agreed to go and pass it on to O’Brien. Then NBC brought him back for a ridiculous show that came on before O’Brien’s and killed The Tonight Show’s audience. Then Leno graciously (not) agreed to take The Tonight Show back.

I watched various talk show conversations about this. I was impressed by the talent of the comedians as they ripped Leno and discussed their frustration. It made me think about myself. Humor is one of my talents. I could do the kind of thing they do. I couldn’t help feeling a little left out.

Then I remembered…you can’t have that mindset and also have the presence of God. Their careers are traps. The money and admiration are poisons that keep them asleep so they can’t see how lost they are.

Americans get nastier all the time. Our connection to God gets weaker. I can’t be part of that. Some talents are not supposed to be used.

Here’s another thing: I believe God is confirming what I’ve said about churches. People I respect keep leaving them. Churches belong to the devil. They poison people.

You decide you need God, you go to the people who are supposed to put you in touch with him, and they feed you a lot of nonsense that limits your proximity to him. That’s Satan’s system, not God’s.

Jesus didn’t hesitate to call the Judaism of his time “the synagogue of Satan,” but somehow, we think our churches are healthy and well. Christians are positive Jews are idiots, and that we’re the ones who do it all correctly. That’s wrong. We’re just like the Jews; we are no better. Look how many of us live under the law! Our churches generally belong to Satan.

You can go there and receive salvation, and you may learn some useful things, but in the end, you have to know God personally. A person who continues relying on church year after year is like an adult who hasn’t cut his mother’s umbilical cord.

The Bible calls them babies and says they suckle instead of eating meat.

Last night God told me something that made sense of his plan to move away from churches: in the future, church will be illegal. There won’t be many churches, and apart from the demonic government-controlled church, they will be underground. If we can’t carry on our relationships with God in private, we will be in real trouble.

We have to learn to get by without a sick dependence on organizations.

Eventually I would like a church to visit, simply to be around other Christians, but I won’t volunteer there, I won’t even consider receiving a title, and they’ll get little or no money from me. I am all done with Satan’s hamster wheel.

I was talking to a friend yesterday. Another friend is a sub-pastor at a church we know. He’s talking about quitting. He’s getting great results with the people he works with, but he knows the organization is filthy. Good for him. Why feed the wolves? You don’t need a church in order to reach people. John the Baptist was cut off from the temple, where he had a hereditary right to be a priest, but look how well he did.

God doesn’t need our help. We are positive he does, but he doesn’t.

Because I have been set apart, including my escape from social media, I am provoked and tempted less than I used to be. I look forward to living in a place where the pollution levels are lower still. I think I’ll sin less, be under less stress, and spend much more time in God’s presence.

Prepare for the mess that’s coming. Don’t say nobody told you.