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The Warfare that we are in comes as a surprise to the average church-goers who see it as a concept at best and not as a real battle, with the Body of Christ as the target! We all must be made aware to this very real fact that the spirit world is battling between  the Holy Angels and the unholy fallen angels for the souls of all mankind! The evil that is progressing in the visual world is blamed in part on things like poverty but the majority of this world has lived in poverty, by American standards, throughout the history of man. Their has never been equality. Jesus said that “the poor will always be with you”. We need to find out what our “gifts” from The Holy Spirit are and then put them into practice within the body of Christ. These gifts are meant to primarily edify “The Church” and also help to open the eyes of true believers to this battle that is going on in their midst!

The Spiritual Gifts from The Holy Spirit are provided to believers when they receive Eternal Life through Faith in their LORD and Savior, Jesus The Messiah or The Word of God who set aside His Prerogative to remain seated on the Throne of Glory, at the Right Hand of The Father. He then, chose to be born a human being, who are created in the image of God. It was Love that caused Him to do this and pity for this vast sea of humanity who were like sheep without a Shepard, wandering to and fro without hope. Mankind had been cursed along with all of creation and without a sinless Savior to become the Final and most complete sacrifice, there was no hope for humanity. After Our LORD paid the Great Price for our salvation, He then returned to Glory and 10 days later He sent the promised Holy Spirit at the time of Pentecost which meant that Jerusalem was filled with those who chose to worship the God of the Jewish people. This was the beginning of the “Church” which is the body of Christ, Also known as the “Bride of Christ” who will someday be snatched away to meet The Lord in the air or upper atmosphere which is  the “Second Heaven”. Actually, it could be anywhere, from where the clouds are to the outer atmosphere or “space”.

Now back to the “Gifts of The Spirit“. Each “true believer” receives at least one spiritual gift and these are available in the books of 1st Corinthians chapters 12, and 14, 1st Peter chapter 4, Ephesians chapter 4, Romans chapter 4 and of course in the book of Acts which describes the coming of The Holy Spirit at Pentecost. I can not speak very much in-depth about the gifts that I do not personally have but know that at least one of the gifts that I have  is “Spiritual Discernment“. Spiritual Discernment is a gift that is very important today but not many seem to have it or they do not yet realize what it is or how to use it! I have found that this gift is somewhat threatening to people, sometimes because members are not certain of their own salvation! If a person with Spiritual Discernment was incorporated into every body of believers then the “Chaff” would be recognized for who they are and removed or made to understand that they are at best seekers and are not allowed to take communion or take part in Church leadership at all!

Today is a time like no other in the history of the Earth. The battle is raging for the hearts, minds, and souls of our children. The enemy of all mankind has conceived all manner of traps, snares, and deceptions to keep or prevent as many human beings from knowing the Truth which is God’s Truth and no other. The battle is on Earth yet the primary players are in another realm or dimension. This takes an incredible amount of “Spiritual Discernment” as well as caution when defending against an invisible enemy who hates all of humanity because we are created in the image of God and because God is their primary enemy. That which makes it even more difficult to understand is that the battle has already been won by “The Word of God”, when He died on the cross and paid the sin debt for all who will believe a simple yet astonishing truth. “We are “Saved By Faith”. All other religions are in one form or another, “works based” in their understanding of what is “good” and what is needed for atonement, of one sort or another.

The description of this spiritual battle in the Bible has proven to be absolutely true. I know this from personal experience yet it has taken decades for me to even begin to understand why I have seen and experienced all that I have. I finally turned to the Bible after God personally stepped into my life at the age of 30. There was a long interval where I was like a ship without a rudder because I received Christ as my Savior at the age of 6 and for a variety of reasons why, it took a long time for me to look to “The Book” for some answers.  The main reason is, my parents were not saved and soon afterwords stopped taking myself and my siblings to church. Then not long afterwords, they divorced and I was never properly discipled. The “Word of God” is now like daily food that is every bit as important as food for the body. The better the nutrition for the body then the healthier will be the body, and it is the same for our soul and spirit! Without  feeding daily on God’s word, we become not only malnourished but leave ourselves open to attack by “the enemy”. This does not mean that we are not attacked daily any way, it means that we are better prepared to resist the attacks. I have found that for me it is necessary to listen to the audio Bible daily if possible as well as listening every evening to as many of my favorite Bible expositors as possible. Since I live alone it is possible for me to spend most of my waking hours filling my mind with God’s truths. It is something like an immunization. The enemy still tries to get a foot-hold in my life but when his attacks happen, I know why and do not turn and run but stand my ground with the addition of spiritual armor from God and can even use the Lord’s offensive weapon which is God’s Word!

The “Spiritual Gifts” today are more important than ever in my opinion because the church has been invaded by false Christians and it is primarily  the fault of the Church leaders, who for a couple of reasons at least have allowed anyone with money in their pockets to join or simply attend to support all the Church activities, as well as because of pride, which is to increase their numbers and become larger than their competing Churches in their area. I know that this sounds harsh and it is, but the truth needs to be made known. The Body of Christ is in trouble for the lack of integrity and for the lack of concern for the purity of “The Body of Christ”. These children of Satan have infiltrated into the Church , just as they have into our government and worked their way into leadership and are steering the Body of Christ down the wide  road that leads to destruction, just as they are doing to our country! The true believers have been deceived into thinking that all of their church activities are somehow accomplishing Christ’s mission for His Church. The leaders have ignored the importance of the “Spiritual Gifts” that work to keep the “Body of Christ” healthy and protected from the wiles of the devil. Lets face it, the Church is in trouble! Without these gifts being incorporated into the “Body”, we have fallen into the hands and plans of Satan, which is to divert the attention of the Church onto less important things and projects instead of winning souls and seeing that they are properly discipled. One of the main issues that arose  in the “Billy Graham Crusades” was that these people who were making decisions for Christ were not being steered to Godly churches to be properly discipled. Therefore the majority of those who made decisions for Christ, fell away! Many never returned to The Lord.  Some did return, but later in life!

The Primary Purpose of the Church is to Love and worship our Creator with praise and thanksgiving while seeking to obey the “Great Commission” which is to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. We Are also commanded to “love one another”.The Gospel means “Good News”. That is the good news that our Creator and Redeemer has come and paid the great  price which was necessary to  save us from our sin debt which is owed to a Holy God who must be satisfied by a pure blood sacrifice and only Christ Jesus could pay it! We in the body of Christ need to not only worship God but we are to seek and to save the lost with that same good news. It is actually The Holy Spirit who regenerates the spirit. Our job is to plant the seed of the Word of God and also water the seed that has been planted by others and the Spirit gives the growth.

After we have our worship and fellowship, we are to do these very things in our own neighborhoods and at work and even in our schools and government. We are not to fear the repercussions from unbelievers who jeer and ridicule Christians who truly live out their faith and are obedient to God. These things are to be expected and Jesus Himself said”Because they hated Me, they will also hate you”. And they do, especially if you are obedient! The ungodly want us to hide in our churches and our homes and keep the Word of God out of their hearing and to a great degree they have succeeded in browbeating us into submission. When was the last time that you witnessed to your neighbor or someone at work? It takes courage to risk being rejected yet we are commanded to do just that and be prepared for ridicule and scorn! We are also to go into ALL of the world and not just our neighborhoods. There are millions dyeing every year and going into a Christ-less eternity. If we are not personally called to missions then we are called to support those who do go into the mission field! We are to GIVE even until it hurts and then give even more. I must confess that I am also guilty! I have plans to support missions in a big way as soon as the Lord provides the mineral wealth that I have sat on for the last 24 years. It is all according to his timing and his timing is not my timing, as I have so painfully learned through these many years, even decades!

How can we today truly purify the Church, because the body of Christ has become so very worldly? The prosperity in the western world, and America in particular, today has made the” Body Of Christ” soft and weak! We have become factional, divided into a variety of Christian clubs with many divisions and many distractions that keep the Church from its God given course of action to “GO” to seek and to save the lost. We need to take a hard look at the early Church and how they worked as a unit, although scattered around the known world through persecution which was hard yet healthy for the True Church. Affluence has made the body of believers soft and unprepared for spiritual warfare which will come as unexpectedly as is needed for the lord to shake the Church into submission and into obedience to God’s Word. Let it happen soon!