NOW THAT

by | Jul 14, 2019 | Christianity Today | 6 comments

Truth is the new hate speech.  Light has become darkness, lies have become truth, villains have become heroes, and love is now hate.  What do we do, especially now that the teachings of Jesus Christ are being intricately and essentially banned in the United States?  This censorship is designed to weaken the nation, centralize control, and bring down America.  Many believe it is already too late.

What is even worse is that much modern preaching is setting believers up to crash and burn when they face persecution.  Instead of arming the church to push back on the onslaught of censorship, some sermons are actually weakening the resistance of Christians.

I do not often drop the God card.  I never claim to hear from the Holy Spirit unless I have heard from Him in a clear and undeniable way.  Today, I heard from Him!  My spirit jumped at what He revealed about the very hour we are living in.   To begin with, I felt deep hope and a high sense of urgency.

I believe that the Lord is telling me to say, “It is not too late—but there is work to do.” This was reinforced by the verse He gave me, “I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day;  the night is coming when no one can work.” (John 9:4)

Immediately after that, these next verses were branded into my soul:

Acts 14: 2 “But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brethren. 3 Therefore they stayed there a long time, speaking boldly with reliance upon the Lord, who was testifying to the word of His grace, granting that signs and wonders be done by their hands.”

I am going to offer four specific steps derived from these verses.  I believe that they hold a powerful key to understanding the moment we are in and the exact direction we must take.  Read it with great openness.  Let the lukewarm Christian take heed.  Let leaders and preachers give serious heed to these words of direction.  I do not believe they are my words.

1. Ask God to show you by the Holy Spirit what you are doing—and then abandon everything you are doing by your own power—no matter how ‘sacred’ it seems.  

Let us begin by repenting of our greatest mistake.  Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to run the Church and grow the Church.  He was sent to make us effective and relevant to the culture.

We are guilty of taking away His authority and running the church by our own wits, and by the methods of the world.  We have failed miserably.  Sadly, even failure has not stopped men from controlling the things of God.

In every generation hell belches out a new weapon of mass destruction.  But heaven is neither passive nor taken by surprise.  God creates a weapon of choice by the anointing.  Then He seeks for the person who will take up that weapon in the Name of Jesus and thrust it into the heart of darkness.

The American death-march does not surprise the Holy Spirit.  He already foresaw it, and He is driving us to our knees in prayer to seek His effective counter-attack.

It is all summed up in the words Samuel spoke to Saul: 1 Samuel 10: 6 “Then the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man. 7 And let it be, when these signs come to you, that you do as the occasion demands, for God is with you.”

Waiting on God for power is the highest duty of a preacher.  Prayer must saturate us before we go forth. Those who believe that God must instantly honor our prayers are deluded by modern church entitlement.   We must seek—being utterly convinced that power is coming—but at the same time we must be fervently committed to wait as long as it takes.

This first step will cost you friends and church members, and it will impact your lifestyle.  But this is nothing compared to the disaster you will avoid.

2.Do not abuse prayer! In Numbers 22 it says, 18 “Then Balaam answered and said to the servants of Balak, ‘Though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the word of the Lord my God, to do less or more. 19 Now therefore, please, you also stay here tonight, that I may know what more the Lord will say to me.’”

Balaam sounded noble, yet greed was in his heart.  He totally contradicted himself.  First he says, “Keep your money. God said, No.”  Then he asks the money people to spend the night to see if God might change His mind.

The classic reaction to my blogs on America’s disaster is, “All we need to do is pray.”  Nobody believes in the power of prayer more than I do.  However, there is a widespread abuse of prayer.  Prayer is being used as an excuse for delaying, remaining silent and escaping responsibility.

The key to the Lord’s Prayer is, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  Prayer is going to give you direction.  But, if you pray until you get the direction you like, you have the spirit of Balaam.

This abuse of prayer even hit Moses.  He knew that he was supposed to lead the people through the Red Sea.  Yet he hesitated, and God got angry!  Exodus 14:15 “Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Why are you crying out to me? Tell the people to get moving!’”

Disobedience is a prime reason we have lost this generation.   Many were told what to do about the nation and simply ignored it.  True intercession will never become a substitute for soul-winning.

God has been offering wisdom, direction, and power during the entire Obama regime.  We are at the point of destruction because few leaders have listened and obeyed.

If God sees that you want no part of the warfare, that you refuse to touch the unlovely, and you simply do not want to deal with your local human tragedy, then He will skip over you and find someone else.  Mordecai warned Esther about remaining silent:  14 “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14)

 3. Ignore the accusations of hate. When Christians address gay marriage, they often begin with a disclaimer: “I am not trying to be hateful.” Quit wasting time with misnomers. There is no widespread hatred of gays in the church. The hate is not coming from us; it is coming at us! The slander, smearing, obscene language, and death threats are spewing out of radical feminists, gay activists, and radical Islamists, not the Christians.

Simply speak the truth in love.  Do not apologize or condemn.  Offending people is unavoidable.  Save your energy, tell the truth, and leave the results in God’s hands.

4: We must make way for signs and wonders and supernatural acts of God like never before.   Jesus knows they are the only way we will get our message across in this toxic atmosphere. The miracles of Jesus not only continue today, they will accelerate more and more.  The phrase, “speaking boldly with reliance upon the Lord, who was testifying to the word of His grace, granting that signs and wonders be done by their hands” (Acts 14:3) speaks loud and clear to our time.

History teaches us something important: When the Word of God is summarily rejected and immorality has spiked, the Holy Spirit has more than met the challenge with increased power to preach, and towering miracles to confirm the message.

Finally, all four of these actions are summed up in the reality that we are at war.  We did not pick this fight but, with God, we are going to finish it!

 

 

 

6 Comments

  1. Dorothea Kreie

    Dear Mario,

    this truly is „the word in time!“ A Holy Spirit inspired word which I read right after re-reading the same in Isaiah 5:20! What a confirmation… I pray that this message reaches many and pass it on…

    Rich blessings for your Tent-meatings,

    Dorothea (Germany)

    We need voices like you here…!

    >

  2. Terri Weaks

    Mario, I just want to encourage you. Never, ever, ever, stop speaking what God gives to you, or doubt it. I have followed you for more than 30 years. You have “fresh off the press” words that have never changed and will never change. The reason we are not seeing the benefits or miracles Jesus performed is because of the very reasons you so eloquently describe. We CHOOSE every moment whether we will make the things of The Kingdom our priority or not. We CHOOSE to hate our flesh and not let it reign. We CHOOSE to speak The Word and believe it. We CHOOSE to “get in the ring or not.” I salute you, Mr. Murillo.

  3. Carolina

    Dearest Mario, EXCELLENT!..words of truth.
    I particularly related to this you wrote,” True intercession will never become a substitute for soul-winning. God has been offering wisdom, direction, and power during the entire Obama regime.” WOW is that right on target.?

    Those who were truly awake and alert in Christ during the Obama years got a moveable feast of Spirit driven downloads from heaven regarding what was to come and how that ‘regime’ would impact the nation and Christianity for years to come.
    As to intercessory prayer, it (at times) was turned into a soaking exercise done from afar without the compliment of ACTION. I’m remembering the Lord’s words…”do unto others as you would have done to you”…and the parable of the good Samaritan, he didn’t just pray for the man he saw, he got up close & personal, took the battered man off the side of the road gave him lodging and instructed the Inn keeper on how to care for the man until he returned from his journey. It doesn’t say what the Samaritan did after that with the battered man but the point is the good Samaritan is about putting ACTION behind your prayers because ACTION speaks louder than words.

  4. CARLOSV55

    Amen

  5. Roger Culwell

    Big amen good word, praying to change the direction God has said, only changes the direction in our mind, that’s most of the problem we pary OUR WILL BE DONE, not his will, and we want to change the word today instead of the word changing us, we want to change it, so many thing’s you hear that is wrong, grace cover’s sin, when only the blood cover’s sin, God is all Love he never correct’s or punishes, ask Ananias & Sapp. in acts 5, or just read about Israel, whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth Heb 12:6-9, a lot of twisting the word to fit our version not Gods, We have the most disobedient and unlearned people that ever was, we are to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, but we must REPENT, and ask him back in, we are trying to follow man to heaven, and man in the flesh will lead you to hell, we need our Spiritual guide for a Spiritual journey, if you need a guide into a strange land you need a guide that’s been there, we need our Guide Back, the Holy Spirit and Fire back, we need our helper, and protector, the enemy has set up ambushes with trained assassins to take the Church out, we need our dynamic power our TNT power The Precious Holy Spirit, who empowers us to win and walk out this journey we can’t do it on our own. we have a guide a teacher, a counselor, a comforter, a friend, a healer, a deliverer, a peace giver what ever we need, we just need him back in control, we are not fighting a natural battle we are fighting a spiritual battle, and we need a Supernatural Spiritual Guide The Precious Holy Spirit and his Fire. Be Blessed

  6. Debbie

    Excellent!!! Truth!!! Thanks!!!

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