BC or BCE?

One of the most blatant examples of the secularisation of the West, or should I say the promotion of the atheistic religion, has been the recent switch in usage from using the terms BC and AD when referring to our dating system, which was adopted in England two hundred years after its introduction by the Scythian monk Dionysius.

The change has really been in force since the dawn of the 21st century and has seen BCE (Before Common Era) and CE (Common Era) replacing Before Christ and Anno Domini. Despite some attempts to say that Christians had introduced differing terms themselves, the media gave voice to dissenters such as anthropologist Carol Delaney, who said the substitution is merely a euphemism concealing the political implications without modifying the actual source of contention.

Astrobiologist Duncan Steel argued that if BC and AD were to be changed then all aspects of the dating system should be changed, as all have a basis in religious beliefs. He rightly rejected secular arguments as selective against Christians.

I found it interesting that such changes had been made long ago in the communist nations such as China and those of the former USSR. The Muslim nations have also historically omitted any reference to Christ or Lord in their dating systems, and so have the followers of Aleister Crowley. Jewish academics of the mid-19th century first began to use the specific terms CE and BCE, and then in 1964 the Watchtower society started to use it exclusively in their publications! Any surprise that the Smithsonian gleefully followed suit?

So the UK, America and the rest of the West has aligned itself with communists, Islamists and cult followers by avoiding the chance of children asking what BC and AD stand for and thus any profession to their impressionable young minds that Jesus may be their Lord and Saviour, who has impacted even our dating system. Let's keep proclaiming the Christ and Lord that saved us from living in sin 24/7! No tinkering with dating systems will ever prevent the day of judgement from arriving!

The Bonds of Religiosity

Easter weekend turned out to be particularly eventful, with several interesting insights to add to my ministry quiver.

I was visiting a family, but as soon as I entered the door it became clear the demonic did not want a happy afternoon. One of the sons, long suffering from mental torment began to curse explicitly and I recognised the demonic straight away. I took him up stairs to a private place and pointed at him, saying that I was not addressing him personally but the unclean spirits that were influencing him.

When I looked him directly in the eyes and pointed they let me know their disapproval at the authority I was expressing. I laid on hands for deliverance after which there was a calm upon him, but I discerned this was more of a demonic influence than a direct possession. I was drawn of the Spirit to ask him where his room was and enter it. Upon opening the door I was met with a terrible sight - the room was in disgusting mess with newspapers, plastic bags and dirty washing covering the floor inches deep in place.

I told him we were going to clear it up together, whether he liked it or not. I gathered a small fortune in lost coins and had to kill several repulsive insects that had found a rather secure home. I pulled back the curtain to illuminate the squalor, telling him that if he was going to live for God he couldn't do it living like a pig. After making a good start on the room I left it to his brother to finish the job. I was told by my wife a few minutes after that the tormented man's mother had had a dream that morning that his brother would clean his room and their would be deliverance associated with it - praise God that I was the one to kick start the fulfilment of this only hours later!

After throwing out unclean newspapers, DVDs and CDs, I relayed to his parents that they had to make sure these things did not come into the house again. I talked to them about the scripture where an unclean spirit goes out of a man and tries to return to him with seven more wicked spirits, finding the place swept, but the doors wide open. We had physically cleaned, but for spiritual cleaning to be affective every door to the demonic had to be shut - otherwise those spirits would simply walk back in through the open doors of sin and uncleanness.

By the mother's answers I started to discern an injurious religiosity. She talked about the 'disciplines' that she had as a child, but dragging her unsaved sons to prayer at 6am would do nothing without conversion. She later wanted to pray for me, for God bringing me there to fulfil vision and start a healing process within the family, but as she laid on hands I knew that this was all the flesh and no Spirit. The woman had to have the last word on whatever I said, through religious pride, and now as she spoke in tongues of the flesh over me the back pain I woke with got worse (I later laid hands on  my self and received healing from it).

I now see that there will be no healing, spiritually or physically within that household until she repents of her religiosity. The devil loves to mock those who speak of deliverance but continue to live in covetousness, pride and rebellion, which is as witchcraft. My strategy on my next visit will be to address the religiosity immediately and give no room for the flesh - in that there will surely be mighty deliverance by relationship with God, not religion.

Holy Ghost Opportunities

We pray and we wait. Then we pray and wait some more. Then we pray some more and wait some more - we may even fast - but God has called us to an active faith. 

No one ever got anything from God without action; from Moses getting off his couch in Pharoah's house to Peter stepping out of the boat to meet his Lord, men and women of God are called to action.

There are Holy Ghost opportunities presenting themselves every single day of every single of our lives. A chance to share the Saviour, a chance to display the power of God to heal, or maybe a chance to speak a word to encourage or convict - everyday we have a chance to respond to God and labour while it is still day.

The other day I was sitting in my car at the supermarket with my wife and sister in-law and saw a lady walking in a lot of pain with a crutch. God immediately convicted me to go and minister to her, but I reasoned in the flesh that she was in a rush and wouldn't respond; again He prompted my heart. I told my wife and sister in-law to give me a minute, as I got out of the car and went after her.

By the time I was out of the car she had met up with her family and I knew I had missed it. Oh what God could have done to set her free and establish a witness in her heart  - I've seen it countless times before. Lord help me to never miss an opportunity again because the flesh has been overfed. If we feed the Spirit then any time those opportunities come it will simply be too strong for the flesh to resist (Read Galatians 5:17).