SPIRITUAL PRINCIPLES The objective of Spiritual Principles is to provide believers with a deeper understanding of God’s spiritual laws and how they govern the unseen spiritual realm with the same certainty that physical laws govern the natural universe. Pastor Marcos seeks to help Christians grasp the unchanging and perfect nature of spiritual principles, showing how obedience to them leads to transformation, humility, and grace, while disobedience results in spiritual downfall. SPIRITUAL PRINCIPLES Pastor Marcos Marrero Objective: The objective of Spiritual Principles is to provide believers with a deeper understanding of God’s spiritual laws and how they govern the unseen spiritual realm with the same certainty that physical laws govern the natural universe. Pastor Marcos seeks to help Christians grasp the unchanging and perfect nature of spiritual principles, showing how obedience to them leads to transformation, humility, and grace, while disobedience results in spiritual downfall. Synopsis: In Spiritual Principles, Pastor Marcos Marrero explores Psalm 19:7 as the foundation for understanding how God’s law is perfect, converting the soul and enlightening the heart. He draws parallels between the physical laws of nature, such as gravity and aerodynamics, and their spiritual counterparts, like pride leading to a fall and grace lifting the humble. Through these comparisons, he shows that while physical laws may sometimes be defied or mitigated, spiritual laws are flawless and unchanging, always producing their intended results. The lesson highlights how Jesus’ teachings consistently revolved around spiritual principles, often illustrated through parables, and how His disciples, though untrained in worldly education, demonstrated profound wisdom through their understanding of these truths. Pastor Marcos explains that spiritual principles warn us, correct us, and reward us when followed with humility, but bring destruction when violated through pride or presumption. Grace is presented as the higher spiritual law that sets humanity free from the weight of sin, much like aerodynamics overcomes the pull of gravity. The text emphasizes that God’s statutes are more valuable than gold and sweeter than honey, converting the soul and shaping a life of righteousness. Ultimately, walking in humility and reverence for God allows believers to live under the covering of grace, avoiding presumptuous sins, and keeping their words and hearts aligned with God’s will. The teaching concludes with the prayer of Psalm 19:14—an exhortation to let both word and meditation be acceptable before the Lord, who is our strength and Redeemer. Written teaching: Psalm 19:7 “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.” God is using His creation of the entire universe, verses one through six, the six days of creation, as a backdrop to His statement on verse seven, The law of the Lord is perfect as He reveals to us the perfection of His spiritual principles, so that we can have an understanding of how His spiritual laws work, as we compare them to the physical laws of nature that we understand. Spiritual principles are the spiritual laws that govern the invisible spiritual universe; and the physical laws or principles, govern the visible physical universe. Our understanding of them engenders us with the ability to be transformed in our thinking, they, the spiritual laws, have the power to convert our soul, our spiritual make up, and to make our simple ways of understanding nature into a powerful tool that helps us to understand the invisible qualities of God Himself. Acts 4:13 “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.” Everything that Jesus taught revolved around spiritual principles, and He often used parables, simple physical imagery, to portrait how spiritual laws worked. We can see from the verse in the book of Acts the powerful influence that Jesus’ teaching had upon His disciples, they understood spiritual laws/principles, just as well or better than those men educated in matters of the practice and principles of the law itself. What is a spiritual principle and how can we compare it to a physical law of nature? Gravity is a physical law of nature, our discovery of it has helped humanity tremendously to understand how our physical universe works, and most of us have a basic understanding of it. The spiritual counterpart of gravity could be found in our next Scripture verse. Proverbs 16:18 “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” Here we see the connection between spirit and gravity, pride always precedes the fall, now that is a spiritual principle that has a tremendous effect upon our physical world, just like gravity, yet very few understand its workings, because most people do not understand that pride is a spirit. Proverbs 16:19 “Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.” We naturally understand that if we jump of a cliff we are going to fall and hurt ourselves, but how many of us know that if we walk in pride we are certain to fall and hurt ourselves. See, you might be spared somehow if you jump off a cliff, because natural laws deviate, but not so with spiritual laws, for they are perfect. There are no trees to cushion your fall in the spiritual realm, your only protection is to reject the spirit of pride and humble yourselves before you fall. But you see, we would do that only if we really believe that pride and gravity have the same effect, they both will cause us to fall, the only difference is that in the physical realm the consequences are sometimes mitigated by other factors, but not so in the spiritual realm, because, once again, God’s spiritual laws are perfect, they never fail. Psalm 19:11-12 “Moreover by them (our understanding of God’s spiritual principles) Your servant is warned, and in keeping them (God’s spiritual principles) there is great reward. Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults.” A humbled heart goes a long way into helping us to see ourselves from the proper perspective, and that is where the great reward is, for who can understand his errors, unless someone with a different perspective as theirs points them out to them, but if we walk in the spirit of pride we would never listen. And when we are willing to listen to wise counsel and deal with our known errors in a biblical way, them even our secret faults, God is more than willing to cleanse, because of another spiritual principle that walks hand in hand with those who walk with a humbled heart. Proverbs 3:34 “Surely He scorns the scornful, but gives grace to the humble.” To walk with a humbled spirit is to walk with God’s grace. How can a metal airplane that weighs tons, loaded with hundreds of passengers, with tanks full of fuel, and hundreds of pieces of luggage on board fly and defy gravity? Because of the law of aerodynamics; for thousands of years humans could not mechanically fly, until the law of aerodynamics was discovered, and now we can even fly into outer space. For thousands of years humans languished under the heaviness of sin, and could not rise above God’s perfect law that declared that the soul that sinned shall surely died and be confined, until the more perfect law of God’s grace was revealed on Calvary’s hill to release mankind from the burden of sin that kept us down. Not everybody flies, and not everybody is saved. Under the natural law not everybody might be able to fly due to physical limitations, but in the perfect spiritual realm of God’s grace, everybody can be saved no matter what their physical limitations might be, because God’s grace is perfectly adequate for all humans to avail themselves with. Right, pure, clean, true and righteous altogether, those are the qualities that the perfect law of God’s grace brings into the soul that understands God’s mercy and makes these qualities of grace its habitation. Psalm 19:8 “The statutes (spiritual principles) of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.” The understanding of right begins within the human heart having experienced the power of God’s grace, being humbled by the manifestation of God’s great mercy and forgiveness. Having the right perspective of our standing before God is a humbling experience that opens our eyes to the purity and perfection of Jesus’ sacrifice for us and what He accomplished for the entire human race. Psalm 19:9 “The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.” The fear of the Lord is having a clear understanding of how spiritual principles work, that they are more real than the physical laws of nature that we dare not violate because we naturally understand the consequences of such violations, that is what keeps us clean. When we understand the judgments or consequences for violating God’s spiritual principles, how true they are, we make every effort to avoid violating them, and that in essence is what makes us to walk in righteousness altogether. Psalm 19:10 “More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.” Here we see how the soul is converted by the testimony of the Lord; once we understand the reality of these spiritual laws, we naturally desire them more than any physical thing, more than gold and riches, even more than our necessary food as Job declared about God’s statues. Psalm 19:13 “Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, and I shall be innocent of great transgression.” Assumptions and presumptions: In the natural or physical realm we tend to believe, based on assumptions, that friends will be true, that others can be trusted to work for our betterment, that life will be normal, and if we are young, that old age is something that happens to others, not us. To assume is not a great transgression because when friends betray you, and when others put their own self-interest ahead of yours, and when life treats you like a toilet, and wait until you start getting old, Ha! Ha! All that does is make you stronger if you understand spiritual principles and are living by them. But to presume, now that is a different type of sin, for those who presume on the grace of God, which is spiritual, fall under the dominion of the sin they ignored and presumed would not harm them. So that no matter what we think we know and understand about spiritual principles, it is always desirable to keep a humble heart and an open mind, lest we fall into the sin of presumption and forfeit the grace that sustains us. Psalm 19:14 “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.” Now that is great advice, let’s take advantage of it and put it to good use. Amen! Previous Home Next

I WILL GIVE PEACE The objective of this teaching is to reveal how God’s promise of peace, spoken through the prophet Haggai, extends beyond the rebuilding of the physical temple and points to the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit within the believer. Pastor Marcos emphasizes that in these end times, when everything that can be shaken will be removed, only what is eternal—faith, hope, love, and peace—will remain. This teaching aims to encourage believers to detach from worldly dependencies, seek inner peace through Christ, and prepare spiritually for trials and the return of the Lord. I WILL GIVE PEACE Pastor Marcos Marrero Objective: The objective of this teaching is to reveal how God’s promise of peace, spoken through the prophet Haggai, extends beyond the rebuilding of the physical temple and points to the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit within the believer. Pastor Marcos emphasizes that in these end times, when everything that can be shaken will be removed, only what is eternal—faith, hope, love, and peace—will remain. This teaching aims to encourage believers to detach from worldly dependencies, seek inner peace through Christ, and prepare spiritually for trials and the return of the Lord. Synopsis: In I Will Give Peace, Pastor Marcos Marrero explores Haggai’s prophecy of the latter temple and connects it to the believer’s body as the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. Drawing from Haggai, Hebrews, and the book of Acts, he shows how God’s glory was poured out on Pentecost and how the prophecy also points to the final shaking of heaven and earth at Christ’s return. The teaching explains that God allows the shaking of nations and the collapse of worldly systems to test what remains within His people. In these times, only those rooted in His Spirit and filled with His peace will endure. Pastor Marcos illustrates this truth by pointing to global tragedies, persecution of Christians, and the fragility of worldly security. Believers are urged to examine their hearts: would they still glorify God if stripped of every comfort and possession? The lesson highlights that true peace is not found in material things but in the eternal presence of Christ within. By renouncing worldly attachments, embracing the fruit of the Spirit, and remaining steadfast in faith, Christians can walk in the unshakable peace that God promised—peace that surpasses understanding and will sustain them through the end of days. Written teaching: Haggai 2:9 “‘The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘And in this place I will give peace,’ says the Lord of Hosts.” The literal translation for the word temple is house. Although Haggai is speaking about the rebuilding of the temple that had been destroyed, it is also referring to the physical body, which houses the spirit of man, that in a little while in their future, would be indwelled by the Spirit of God. Haggai 2:6-7 “For thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the Lord of hosts.” We know that Haggai’s prophecy is applicable to the end of days because it is quoted as such in the New Testament. Hebrews 12:26-27 “Whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, ‘Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.’ Now this, ‘Yet once more,’ indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.” The Desire of All Nations is a reference to Jesus Christ. When the Holy Spirit fell upon the believers on the day of Pentecost, all nations were represented in the city of Jerusalem. Acts 2:5 “And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven.” So that we can see the fulfillment of Haggai’s prophecy where God said, I will fill this temple with glory, He was also speaking about filling the physical bodies of His future believers with His glory. And the part of the prophecy that said, I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land, was a reference to His second coming, as explained in the Scripture that we quoted from Hebrews. And it is within this context that He gives us the promise of His peace. I will give peace. Now as we put it all together, we have a chronology of events that paints a picture for us for the times that we are living in, and one thing is made clear to us, we are going to need His inward peace in order to get through these difficult times that it portrays. We need to pray for Inward Peace. Why do we need to pray for peace that passes understanding? Now this, ‘Yet once more,’ indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. The things that are going to be removed are the things that are made, the physical things upon which so many put their lives and energy into. And the reason that God is going to remove them is to see if what is left still has the glory with which He filled the house of all who believe. What would you do if everything that you possess that has been made, all of the sudden is taken away from you in an instant? Will you be at peace in spite of having nothing left of the things that you were so dependent upon? Could you stand in the absence of every comfort and convenience and necessity, and still give heart felt glory to God? Haggai 2:22 “I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms; I will destroy the strength of the Gentile kingdoms. I will overthrow the chariots and those who ride in them; the horses and their riders shall come down, every one by the sword of his brother.” If the rule of law that governs the nations ceases to exist and anarchy reigns, and if the wealth of the nation's collapses, and if the airliners fall from the skies, and if all modes of transportation come to a halt, will you still be at peace? It is hard to imagine going through such a catastrophic scenario, but did you know that many of our fellow believers around the world are going through indescribable trials that are just as bad? There was a plane not too long ago that disappeared from the sky with hundreds of people in it, and to this date, the family members of those who were lost have no idea what happened to their love ones. Another incident, hundreds of school's girls were kidnapped by those who believe that women have no right to be educated. Those who took them by force plan to sell them as slaves. Throughout Africa, the Middle East, China, Europe, and other parts of the world, believers are driven out on a daily basis, out of their homes, and out of their lands. In many instances they become refugees in other nations where they are not welcome, others are imprisoned, tortured and murdered in the very place that they once called home. I know that the tendency of many of us is that such terrible tragedies will not take place here, wherever our here is. But perhaps many of those to whom those bad things happened felt the same way that we do now. This covid-19 is the latest incident that has stopped everything around us. Now why am I saying all this? Well, if you are a believer like me, you are looking for our blessed hope to appear, that is when Jesus returns to take us all away with Him. If you follow prophecy, you know that the signs of His return encompass a heavenly shaking that will remove all those things that have been made, so that the only things that will remain, will be the eternal things like faith, hope, love, and yes, His peace. Although we have many signs around the world that these things are already taking place, and that many of our brethren are being martyred on a daily basis, we really do not want to face these facts and refuse to acknowledge that these are the end of days that we are witnessing. Haggai 1:2 “Thus speaks the Lord of hosts, saying: ‘This people says, “The time has not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built.”’” As you can see, the Scriptures that we are dealing with in this lesson are clearly referring to the days that we are living in right now. The majority of Christians today live in denial, and do not want to consider that the Lord is about to come because they know that the Day of the Lord involves them losing everything they own in this world. Haggai 1:4 “Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, and this temple to lie in ruins?” Remember that the temple, or house that lies in ruins, refers also to our physical bodies which are the temple of God, the Desire of All Nations. 1 Corinthians 6:19 “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?” This is why we are to put all our emphasis on the spiritual qualities that are ours in abundance, for they reside in the Holy Spirit who is in us. 1 Corinthians 6:20 “For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in in your spirit, which are God’s.” I’m sure you are aware of the many warnings that Scripture proclaims in regards to our relationship with this world system. That friendship with the world is enmity with God. Whoever is a friend of the world is an enemy of God. One sure way to know that we have fallen for the deceitfulness of this world system is if we lose our peace when deprived of worldly things. That is why God is going to remove, and is already removing, the worldly things from many of His servants all around the world, to see what is it that remains within their hearts after all that was made in this world system is removed from them. Our turn is coming; if you have a stronghold within your soul for the delicacies of this world, and if you know that your peace would be lost if you were to lose all your belongings that you’ve received from the world; then you are in need of deliverance from those demonic strongholds. You can begin by renouncing your allegiance to this world system, then take an honest look into your heart, and let God remove from you whatever it is that needs to go in order for you to regain your peace. 2 Corinthians 4:2 “But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.” Handle the Word of God truthfully, be honest with yourself and strive to produce spiritual fruit, for only that which is produced by the Holy Spirit who is in you will remain after He shakes both the earth and the heavens. 2 Peter 1:5-10 “But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble.” May the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all! Haggai 2:6-7 “For thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the Lord of hosts.” Previous Home Next

THE MIND The objective of The Mind is to help believers recognize the battles that occur within their own minds—confusion, misunderstanding, fact vs. fiction, trust, and faith—and equip them with scriptural tools to overcome them. By understanding that we have the mind of Christ, created in God’s image, and by exercising the authority given through Jesus, believers can take control of their thoughts, reject deception, and walk in peace, clarity, and victory. THE MIND Minister Lisa Kane 2021-07-18 Objective: The objective of The Mind is to help believers recognize the battles that occur within their own minds—confusion, misunderstanding, fact vs. fiction, trust, and faith—and equip them with scriptural tools to overcome them. By understanding that we have the mind of Christ, created in God’s image, and by exercising the authority given through Jesus, believers can take control of their thoughts, reject deception, and walk in peace, clarity, and victory. Synopsis: In The Mind, Minister Lisa Kane teaches that one of the greatest battlegrounds for a believer is not external, but internal—the mind. While created in the image of God and endowed with the mind of Christ, our thoughts often become vulnerable to confusion, misunderstanding, and deception. Scripture reveals that confusion is never from God, but from the enemy, and believers are called to take authority over it through the name of Jesus. The lesson further explains how misunderstanding stems from the heart, requiring repentance and a return to God’s Word for true understanding. When dealing with fact or fiction, feelings and perceptions must not dictate truth; instead, believers are to lean on the Word of God and exercise self-control through the Spirit. Trust and faith, foundational to a believer’s walk, are emphasized as both a gift and an action that must be nurtured. Unbelief can hinder faith, but by dwelling in God’s presence daily, believers can overcome doubt and strengthen their trust in Him. Ultimately, the mind is renewed and protected through salvation, the Word, and intentional time spent with God. This teaching equips believers to reject lies, overcome confusion, and develop a steadfast, faith-filled mind that reflects the authority and likeness of Christ. Written teaching: One of the enemies we deal with as a believer is our own mind. Sometimes we’re confused, or we don’t understand, or we think we know what’s going on and yet, we can easily miss the battle that’s taking place. Confusion is a battle. Misunderstanding is a battle, and fact or fiction, trust and faith are major battles. We need to understand what kind of mind we have and what we’re capable of. 1 Corinthians 2:16 NKJV 16 For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ. Genesis 1:26 NKJV 26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; ...” God made us in His image. God created the world. We’re able to create too…differently, but we can create things like God. Look at masons, carpenters, etc. We can build. Look at artists creating things from their minds. We have the same mind of Christ – God. But there’s something else we can do that no other heavenly being can do and that is to procreate. We have children and those children have souls with potential to become believers in Christ. This is what makes us in the likeness of Him. God is perfect and He keeps Himself perfect. There is no corruption in God because there is no sin in God and that’s what separates us from Him, even though we’re in His likeness. But He didn’t leave us defenseless. He gave us His begotten Son and His name to redeem us. With this type of mind, let us explore the scriptures on how to deal with confusion, misunderstanding, fact or fiction, trust, and faith. 1 Corinthians 14:33 NKJV 33 For God is not the author of [a]confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. James 3:16 NKJV 16 For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. From the two above scriptures, you now know that confusion is not from God. Whenever you are confused, stop and say, “In the name of Jesus, devil, get under my feet where you belong”. Ephesians 1:19-23 NKJV 19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power 20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all principality[a] and [b]power and [c]might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. 22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. God has established His authority by placing the name of Jesus first, because He’s earned it by dying on the cross and rising from the dead. You put Satan under Jesus’ dominion when you use the name of Jesus! Say it out loud and make sure to say it again if it’s still an issue. This is your right as a believer in Christ! As long as you are putting Jesus first, you have dominion over Satan and confusion. Now, how do you deal with misunderstanding? Mark 7:17-23 NKJV 17 When He had entered a house away from the crowd, His disciples asked Him concerning the parable. 18 So He said to them, “Are you thus without understanding also? Do you not perceive that whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile him, 19 because it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and is eliminated, [a]thus purifying all foods?” 20 And He said, “What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. 21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22 thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within and defile a man.” Here's the root of the issue…us within. In our hearts is the issue that causes us to miss the point of understanding in relation to God and His Word. That’s because we’re driven by spiritual entities to keep us away from Christ knowledge, the Word of God. To overcome misunderstanding, you need to deal with your heart and repent because the Bible tells us to. Romans 10:9 NKJV 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Notice, this is an action you must take. Repentance will put you back on track with God’s Word and bring understanding to you. Also note, that when you seek God’s Word vs the world’s point of view, you will have perfect understanding – again, action you need to take and overcome. You may not see the whole picture but you will know God and He will know you. You will move under His understanding in every situation when you seek Him first. Now, how do you deal with fact or fiction? John 8:32 NKJV 32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” 1 John 1:6 NKJV 6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. Ephesians 1:13 NKJV 13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, You will always know the truth with the gospel. Fact or fiction is where your senses are going off the radar about a situation around you. For example, a spouse or girlfriend, boyfriend you don’t trust because you’re senses are telling you somethings up. Sometimes this is true and sometimes it isn’t. How do you deal with a situation like that? First, senses are just that. They’re not facts. You need self-control here to ‘not’ follow your senses or feelings regarding the situation. Galatians 5:22-23 NKJV 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 [a]gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. When you are in a situation like this, get closer to God and ask for self-control. Ask Him for wisdom and knowledge. This puts God first in this situation and allows Him to show you the truth. And believe me, He will. The patience will cause those lying to you to fall or trip up over themselves and then you’ll know the truth. God’s Word is perfect and will not mis-lead you. You can trust His Word to help you get through the situation. But this means YOU need to spend time with His Word. Not your pastor, not your spouse, or your friends, but YOU. God will show you what His Word says about a situation when you are dealing with fact or fiction or fantasy, etc. The last two areas I want to focus on is trust and faith. First, you can trust and have faith in God always. Remember Ephesians 1:13? Ephesians 1:13 NKJV 13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, The gospel, the Word of God is truth. Again, YOU need to find out what the Word says to obtain perfect truth. Unbelief is what hinders your faith. Matthew 17:20 NKJV 20 So Jesus said to them, “Because of your [a]unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. Mark 9:23-24 NKJV 23 Jesus said to him, “If[a] you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” 24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” There’s no shame in asking God to help you with your unbelief. There are things we grew up with that we struggle overcoming. For example, having faith to be healed. This struggle is real but God is more real than the struggle. Look what He says in Psalm 91… Psalm 91 NKJV (Take the time to go and read the whole chapter. Well worth it.) 91 He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Notice what all this entire message hinders on? YOU! Seeking His presence in the ‘secret place’ verse 1. Your faith will grow because you will be able to say God is protecting me, healing me, because I spend time in His presence. Church time isn’t enough. Make this daily and watch God move in your life. This dwelling in the secret place overcomes the doubt of ‘unbelief’ in the mind. When your mind knows, you overcome. Mind over matter. Ephesians 6:17 NKJV 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; When you spend time in His Word while wearing your ‘salvation’, you OVERCOME the issues of the mind! Be free and separate from the world by spending time in the Word and becoming an overcomer in the mind! Previous Home Next

COMPROMISE The objective of this teaching is to expose the destructive impact of compromise in the believer’s walk with God. Pastor Marcos aims to reveal how false teachers, through covetousness and deceptive doctrines, pervert the Word of Truth in order to weaken the faith of the church. The goal is to strengthen believers with the knowledge of God’s uncompromised Word so they may walk in spiritual authority, persevere against deception, and live as faithful priests and kings under Christ. COMPROMISE Pastor Marcos Marrero Objective: The objective of this teaching is to expose the destructive impact of compromise in the believer’s walk with God. Pastor Marcos aims to reveal how false teachers, through covetousness and deceptive doctrines, pervert the Word of Truth in order to weaken the faith of the church. The goal is to strengthen believers with the knowledge of God’s uncompromised Word so they may walk in spiritual authority, persevere against deception, and live as faithful priests and kings under Christ. Synopsis: In Compromise, Pastor Marcos confronts the danger of false teachers who infiltrate the church with deceptive doctrines that weaken the faith of God’s people. Drawing from 2 Peter, he explains how Satan seeks to undermine the dual authority Christ has given His church—authority over both the spiritual and physical realms—by corrupting the Word of God and luring believers into selfish desires and covetousness. The lesson emphasizes that faith comes only through hearing the uncompromised Word of God, and when believers compromise that truth, their spiritual authority is disarmed. Pastor Marcos outlines Peter’s instructions for fortifying faith: adding virtue (valor), knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. By standing on truth with courage and rejecting self-serving ambitions, believers strengthen their shield of faith, overcome deception, and shine as lights in a darkened world. Ultimately, Pastor Marcos reminds us that we are called to reign as kings by first serving faithfully as priests. Living in uncompromised obedience to God’s Word ensures that our authority remains intact, enabling us to trample serpents and scorpions, expose the works of darkness, and minister the saving light of Christ to others. Written teaching: 2 Peter 2:1 “But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.” In our last deliverance lesson, Kings and Priests, I taught about the separation of powers that God ordained for mankind after the flood, and how Jesus has restored to us—His church—the ability to exercise His authority in both the spiritual and the physical realms. Luke 10:19 “Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions (demonic spiritual entities), and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” Matthew 21:21 “So Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain (which is in the physical realm), “Be removed and be cast into the sea,” it will be done.’” The key to this power is the faith which comes by hearing, and the hearing of the uncompromised Word of God. Romans 10:17 “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Now you can see how important our opening text is, in relation to the power that has been given to the church. There will be false teachers among you. Peter is telling us that false teachers will come and pervert the Word of Truth that has empowered us, so that our faith is disarmed to the point that it becomes ineffective. 2 Peter 2:2 “And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed (or perverted).” We can see a mechanism here that begins to emerge. The devil knows that our Lord has given to us authority over him and over his demonic hordes. He can also see that our Lord has given to us authority over the physical realm as well; so how does he stop us from deploying our faith for the purpose of destroying his kingdom? Since the key is, that our faith comes through us hearing the Word of God, the devil’s aim is, to disarm our faith by perverting the Word of Truth that we have been taught to believe in; which are the great and precious promises that have been given to us. 2 Peter 1:3 “As (or according to) His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness (physical and spiritual), through the knowledge of Him (we know Him through the hearing of His uncompromised Word) who called us by glory and virtue.” False teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, for the purpose of separating us from the promises in the Word of God that pertain to the dual power that has been given to us in God’s Word. 2 Peter 1:4 “By which has been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature (which allows us to exercise authority over both, the physical and the spiritual realms), having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” What is the key element that the enemy uses in order to detach us from the great and precious promises that empower us? Compromising the Word of Truth for the sake of selfish ambitions! 2 Peter 2:3 “By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.” Our power is exploited through deceptive words that appeal to our physical nature and its natural desires, thereby separating us from the spiritual mind set—which is the mind of Christ—to where we become physically minded and forego our spiritual responsibilities, which are to trample on serpents and scorpions by exercising our dual authority over all the power of the enemy. Romans 8:5-7 “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death (no power), but to be spiritually minded is life and peace (power in both the physical and the spiritual realms). Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.” How do we get delivered from the negative effects on our faith, that all the deceptive words that we have been exposed to through the doctrines of false teachers that are in the ministry for self-gain, have caused us? 2 Peter 1:5 “But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge.” Peter, well aware of the tactics of the devil, begins to instruct us as to how we can prevent, and also how to be delivered, from the damage that false doctrines can bring to our faith in the Word of Truth. Giving all diligence means this is a top priority, we must not take this lightly. A weak or compromised faith not only weakens our authority over the enemy, but it also lowers our covering shield that protects us. It may surprise you to know that the word virtue used by Peter as something that we need to add to our faith, means manliness, (valor). How do we add manliness, or valor, or courage to our faith? Knowledge is what adds virtue or manliness to our faith! What type of knowledge adds virtue or manliness to our faith? John 8:32 “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Is this not obvious to all? If belief in the perverted or compromised Word of God weakens our faith, wouldn't belief in the true and uncompromised Word of God add to our faith the strength and manliness that it needs? 2 Peter 1:6 “To knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness.” We cannot exercise control over something that we do not know or understand. Knowledge is what motivates us into exercising control over that which we know to be wrong and that we know is weakening us. Once we know the factual truth that our faith is purposely weaken by false teachers who teach perverted doctrines, we can add virtue or manliness to our faith, by courageously turning away from their demonic doctrines that we know are hurting us, thereby acting in self-control. False teachers are not going to vanish just because we find out about their false doctrines. False demonic doctrines permeate all facets of life, these false doctrines will continue with their allure for us to compromise our faith, especially in the face of the resistance and opposition that this corrupt world system continuously hurdles against our stand for the Truth of the Word of God. That is why perseverance is required of us, and what motivates us into maintaining our perseverance, is our desire for a godly life that pleases God, as we continuously walk in the self-control that is guided by the knowledge that strengthens and adds virtue/manliness to our faith. 2 Peter 1:7 “To godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.” We fulfill the Law of God, when we love God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength, and when we love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Now, think about it? Since selfish desires or covetousness, are the allure that the devil uses against us; if we operate under the law of love and brotherly kindness—by putting the needs of others first—we insulate ourselves from the need to compromise that will lead us into accepting the perverted doctrines that weaken our faith in the Word of God. Philippians 2:3-4 “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better that himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.” This is the mind of Christ—and as long as we operate within the mind of Christ, we do not compromise the power and authority that our Lord has given to us to use on behalf of others, for their benefit, as well as ours. 2 Peter 1:8 “For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” There is a proper flow to this authority that has been given to us in our call as kings and priests to Christ—a flow that we do well to heed if we want to be effective in administering this dual power that has been vested in us. 2 Peter 1:19 “And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.” Since Jesus is our example, let us look at the ministry of Jesus and how He handled the physical and spiritual authority that was given to Him, as King of kings over all physical matter, and as our High Priest over all spiritual hierarchies. John 3:17 “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” The simplest way to put it is this, before we can rule as kings on this earth, we need to serve as priests of the Most High God. We are not to call for the destruction of our human enemies, but for their salvation. And the weapon that we are to implement on their behalf, for their deliverance from the forces of darkness that keeps them blind, is the uncompromised Word of God that shines as a light in a dark place. The Word of God is like a double edge sword, as we wield it without compromise; it shines as a light that not only delivers us personally from the allures of this world system, but it shines through us into the world, and convicts and exposes the darkness that has befallen all who have fallen for the worldly desires that binds them. And through our uncompromising stand for the Word of God it gives them hope. Psalm 18:28 “For You will light my lamp; the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness.” Isaiah 9:2 “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined.” We are the light of the world; and the light that we are to radiate can only come through the uncompromised Word of God that we live daily for all to see. Here is a true saying: If we live as priests we will reign as kings. Previous Home Next

IN WHOM IS NO DECEIT The objective of this lesson is to reveal the importance of living in authenticity before God, free from deceit and double-mindedness, as exemplified by Nathanael in John 1. Pastor Marcos emphasizes that true transformation comes when we reject the false identities and lies the enemy places upon us, and instead embrace the new nature given by God. The teaching aims to help believers recognize their real identity in Christ, overcome deception, and walk in truth that leads to spiritual deliverance and clarity of purpose. IN WHOM IS NO DECEIT Pastor Marcos Marrero Objective: The objective of this lesson is to reveal the importance of living in authenticity before God, free from deceit and double-mindedness, as exemplified by Nathanael in John 1. Pastor Marcos emphasizes that true transformation comes when we reject the false identities and lies the enemy places upon us, and instead embrace the new nature given by God. The teaching aims to help believers recognize their real identity in Christ, overcome deception, and walk in truth that leads to spiritual deliverance and clarity of purpose. Synopsis: In IN WHOM IS NO DECEIT, Pastor Marcos Marrero draws from John 1:47, where Jesus declares Nathanael to be an Israelite without deceit. This profound statement sets the foundation for understanding the value of integrity and truth in the believer’s life. Nathanael, later known as Bartholomew, represents a transformation that occurs when one sheds falsehood and embraces the identity God bestows—his new name, meaning “Gift of God,” reflecting his new nature in Christ. The lesson explores how deceit operates as a spiritual counterfeit, tricking believers into identifying with a false version of themselves rather than with their true identity in Christ. Pastor Marcos explains that deceit causes instability, double-mindedness, and distance from God’s purposes. Nathanael’s encounter under the fig tree symbolized a place of spiritual decision and cleansing, where he renounced generational sins and aligned himself with God’s truth. It was this submission and authenticity that positioned him to immediately recognize Jesus as the Son of God and the King of Israel. Pastor Marcos highlights that believers, like Nathanael, must confront and renounce deceit by humbling themselves, confessing sins, and embracing deliverance through Christ. By resisting the devil, drawing near to God, and believing in the truth of God’s Word, Christians are freed from counterfeit identities and empowered to live as their authentic selves. The teaching concludes with a call to identify strongholds of deceit, reject the lies of the enemy, and embrace the reality of being the righteousness of God in Christ—living out the victory and promises that flow from a life of truth. Written teaching: John 1:47 “Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, and said of him, ‘Behold, an (a real) Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!’” Imagine having Jesus say that about us today, it would go something like this: Look everybody, here is a real Christian who has no deceit in him. The setting has Jesus calling on men that He met, and saying to them, Follow Me, Phillip is one of those men whom Jesus called, evidently Jesus was telling those He called, that He is the One of whom Moses prophesied, and that’s the reason why they should be following Him. John 1:45 “Phillip found Nathanael and said to him, ‘We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.’” Even though Nathanael was skeptical, he followed Phillip to meet this Jesus that Phillip was so excited about, and as he was approaching Jesus, our Lord made that amazing statement about him, to which he responded with the following answer. John 1:48 “Nathanael said to Him, ‘How do You know me?’ Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Before Phillip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.’” What is even more amazing to me is Nathanael’s response, how do You know me? I mean, if Jesus said that about any of us today, here is a real Christian in whom there is no deceit, we would probably turn around and look behind us, I know I would; Hey, it wouldn't be the first time I said to the Lord, are You sure You have the right man Lord? Let us see if we can sort this out, for there are a lot of symbolisms in this story; first we have Nathanael, an Israelite that was under a fig tree doing something, a fig tree is symbolic of the nation of Israel. This man had obviously been delivered from contaminated doctrines and falsehoods while under the fig tree, since Jesus said that he had no deceit in him. And perhaps our greatest clue is in the new name by which John identifies him, Nathanael; for this same man is called Bartholomew in the other gospels. John who probably wrote his gospel after he was taken up to heaven while on the island of Patmos, writes with the emphasis on spiritual truths that are revealed through natural events. Bart in front of Bartholomew, his original name, means the son of in his case the son of Holomew, or Bart-holomew; However the new name by which John calls him, Nathanael, means: The Gift of God. Remember that in biblical reasoning your name reveals your nature, a new name means that a new nature has been given to that person. John 1:49-51 “Nathanael answered and said to Him, ‘Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!’ Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Because I said to you, “I saw you under the fig tree,” do you believe? You will see greater things than this.’ And He said to Him, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.’” The gift of God to Bartholomew was the new nature that was imparted to him while he was under the fig tree. Something spiritual, radical, and personal, must have happened to him while under the fig tree, for when Jesus mentioned it to him, it left no doubt in his mind that Jesus was, for He had to be the Son of God, in order for Him to know about this very personal experience that he, Nathanael, obviously had with God. Can we know what happened to Nathanael while under the fig tree? Let us start with what Nathanael did not have inside of him when Jesus met him, it is clear from Jesus’ statement that Nathanael did not have any deceit in him; let us ask then, what is deceit? And how did he get rid of it? The word Deceit, or Guile as it appears in the King James version, in the original Greek means Decoy or Trick, which implies that a person can be tricked into believing in their hearts that they are a person who differs greatly, a decoy, from the real person that they are. So that their personality becomes a forgery, a copy of the original person’s soul that was originally created in the image of God. James 1:7-8 “For let not that man suppose that he will receive ( a gift, Nathanael means the gift of God) anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man (two spirited man, a copy, or a forgery of an original), unstable in all his ways.” What made Nathanael special, was that he was delivered from the deviations that had caused him to believe a lie, something about himself that he was not, and as he came into the reality of who he really was in the Lord, he was now able to accept the role for which God had created him, to be an apostle of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The gift that Nathanael was given, not only allowed him to realize who he really was, but also, to recognize who Jesus really was, for he said to our Lord, Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel! The implications here are tremendous, for it tells me that I can never fully know who Jesus is, until I know who I really am in the Lord. For a double-minded, two spirited counterfeit person, can never comprehend or understand who the real Creator is. How did Nathanael get rid of deceit? James 4:7-10 “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.” When Nathanael was under the fig tree that represented Israel, he as an Israelite, probably realized how many generational curses had been handed down to him that were caused by the disobedience and idolatry of his ancestors. Right there he had to make a decision, was he going to be an idolater like them, or renounce their evil practices and align himself with the God that created him to be a servant of the high calling of God? Once he submitted himself to the high calling of God, a spiritual resistance to the lies of the devil arose from within him that allowed him to forsake the forgery of himself that the devil had fashioned after his idolatrous ancestry. By refusing to accept the devil’s plan for his life, he drew near to God and God’s plan for his life. What followed had to be a cleansing prayer of true repentance, like in: 1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Then he had to do something to purify his heart, that is to rid it of the perverted sprit that was a forgery of who he really was and was pretending to be the real him. How did he do that? James 1:6 “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind (spiritual fake).” He believed! The human soul was created in the image of God, it cannot be made to conform to the animalistic instincts of the flesh, for our souls were not created out of dirt, but came directly out of the Spirit of God, after God breezed into Adam’s nostrils, Adam became a living soul. If we believe the lies of evolution and other demonic doctrines, whose aim is nothing more than to devalued the integrity of our souls and profane it as worthless, then a lie about who we really are is accepted, and that two spirited nature will hinder us from fulfilling the purpose for which God created us, which is to be spiritually minded creatures that exercise God’s dominion over this earthly plane. It takes a humbled heart to recognize our true condition, if we are willing to admit it, all of us fail God somehow, somewhere, sometime. Let me ask you this very personal question: Do you identify with the sin that you fall into after you fail God by sinning? When you lie do you believe that you are a liar? Your answer here is very important, for it will reveal to you which personality you are operation under, since you are a Christian and know that it is wrong to lie. Romans 7:20 “Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.” Listen to the words of Paul, and how he separates the sin from the sinner when he says that, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. If you are a Christian and believe that your sins make you a sinner, let’s say that you’ve lied so therefore you see yourself as a liar, then you are identifying with the duplicate you, and not the real you. For the believer should identify with the real self that says, it is not I that lied but the sin that dwells in me, which by the way, in this case would be a lying spirit. You may say, what’s the difference? If you believe that you are a Christian and that your are also a liar, then you condemn yourself, and in the same act, you accept a perverted version of yourself that God did not create, for your soul was created by the Spirit of Truth to abide in the Truth. If you as a Christian recognize that you’ve lie, but do not see yourself as a liar, but rather as a person that needs to be delivered from a lying spirit, then you are identifying with your real self, and in the same act, you are asking for deliverance from an act that you do not want to do anymore. In the New Testament, the definition for sin is to miss the mark, which clearly implies the absence of an action, rather that the commission of a lawless act. If we are Christians, all of our sins, past, present, and future, were paid for in full by the work that Jesus wrought for us on the cross, that makes us a new creation in Christ Jesus, we have no grounds to identify ourselves with the old nature anymore. So that when we sin in accordance with our old nature, is because we are failing to take advantage of the deliverance that is already ours through the atoning power of the blood of Jesus, that is how we sin, we simply miss the mark. And it usually has to do with us identifying ourselves with the phony duplicate that the devil has been fashioning for us all our lives. Truth originates with God, lies originate with the devil, we ought not to identify ourselves with any of the devil’s lies, but with every Word of Truth that proceeds out of the mouth of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21, 6:1 “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 6:1 We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive (miss the mark) the grace of God in vain.” Identify the strongholds in your life that cause you to sin, and target them for extinction. Do not see yourself as the person that the devil accuses you of being, but become the righteousness of God in Jesus through faith, that is who the real you is, and is already within you, do not miss the mark by accepting failure in your life. Do not give up! Remember that some of your victories are future victories, for the Lord will always allow you to stay sharp by the battles that you are presently fighting. And in some instances you will be left to trust the fact that His grace is sufficient for you, for His strength is made perfect in your weaknesses. Follow the prayer model that James chapter four showed us for the purification of our souls, evict that counterfeit failure that the devil has made of you, and totally put your trust in God’s great and precious promises that are Yes and Amen. Here is a prayer that will help you get started: PRAYER (pray this out loud) Our Father who are in heaven, creator of heaven and earth, God the judge of all; in the name of Jesus your only Son I enter into Your heavenly court and publicly repent of all of my sins, and I ask for Your forgiveness in the Name of Jesus. Apply dear Lord I pray, the atoning blood of Jesus over all the sins in my life and the sins in my ancestor’s life that resulted in a curse. I repent of all of our disobediences and rebellions committed against Your Word. I now repent from and I renounce all the sins in my life and my ancestor’s life such as the sins of perversion, lust, cheating, lying, adultery, fornication, mistreatment of others, uncleanness, filthiness, wantonness, lewdness, and every perverted thing that was connected to our fallen nature. I now repent from and I renounce all the sins in my life and my ancestor’s life such as the sins of false religion, cults, reading of horoscopes, idolatry, witchcraft, divination, all occult involvements, seditions, heresies, sorcery, dissentions, and every demonic thing that was connected to our fallen nature. I now repent from and I renounce all the sins in my life and my ancestor’s life such as the sins of indecision, compromise, hatred, contentions, envy, gossip, murder, hostility towards others, hostilities towards my self, ill will towards others, ill will towards my self, and every divisive thing that was connected to our fallen nature. I now repent from and I renounce all the sins in my life and my ancestor’s life such as the sins of malfunction, failures, laziness, lack of responsibility, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, drunkenness, intoxication, addictions, dependencies, and every compromising thing that was connected to our fallen nature. According to 1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Now that I’ve confessed all my sins, I ask for Your forgiveness and cleansing from all my unrighteousness and the unrighteousness passed to me through the iniquity of all my ancestor’s. Deliver me Lord and cleanse me by the power of the blood of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I now take authority over the devil’s accusations against me. In accordance with the Word of God, I break and condemn any and every curse upon my life in the name of Jesus. I break all curses of poverty, lack, debt, destruction, sickness, death and vagabond. I break all curses on my marriage, family, children, and relationships. I break curses of rejection, pride, rebellion, lust, hurt, incest, rape, Ahab, Jezebel, fear, insanity, madness, and confusion. In the Name that is above every name, the Name of Jesus, I now break all curses affecting my finances, my mind, my sexual character, my emotions, my will, my intellect, and all my relationships. In the Name of Jesus I now break every hex, jinx, spell, and spoken curse over my life and my family’s life. I break every fetter, shackle, chain, cord, habit, and cycle that is the result of a curse. According to Galatians 3:13 I have been redeemed from the curse of the law by the sacrifice that Jesus offered on my behalf. Father in heaven I now exercise my faith in the blood that Jesus offered for my redemption, and I loose myself and my descendants from any and every curse. I claim forgiveness through the blood that Jesus offered for my sins and the sins of my fathers. All of my sins have been forgiven, so I now renounce all the works of Satan and their effect over my life, and my family’s lives, and I loose myself from every curse that came as a result of our disobedience and rebellion to the Word of God. I exercise my faith now in the Word of God: Romans 10:9-10, and I make confession with my mouth of the salvation, deliverance, healing and restoration that I believe in my heart is now mine, because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Therefore I confess that Abraham’s blessings are mine. I confess that I am blessed and not curse. I confess that I am the head and not the tail. I confess that I am above and not beneath. I confess that I am blessed coming in and going out. I confess that I am blessed by God, and what God has blessed cannot be curse. In the Name of Jesus and by the power of His shed blood, I now command spirits of Rejection, Hurt, Bitterness, Unforgiveness, Bondage, Torment, Death, Destruction, Suicide, Fear, Lust, Perversion, Mind Control, Witchcraft, Poverty, Lack, Debt, Confusion, Double-mindedness, Sickness, Infirmity, Pain, Divorce, Separation, Strife, Contention, Depression, Sadness, Loneliness, Self-Pity, Self-Destruction, Self-Rejection, Anger, Rage, Wrath, Anguish, Vagabond, Abuse, Addiction, Insanity and the rest to COME OUT NOW in the Name of Jesus my Deliverer, and be forever gone, because all of your rights to torment me and my family have now been removed. Dear Father in Heaven, in the Name of Jesus Your only begotten Son, I now thank you for setting me and making me free from every curse and from every unclean spirit that had operated in my life as a result of curses. Thank You Jesus! Amen. Previous Home Next

THE ANOINTING THAT HEALS The objective of this teaching is to help believers understand the power of the healing anointing, how it flows from God through the Holy Spirit, and why walking in the truth of God’s Word is essential for experiencing that power. It aims to equip Christians not only to recognize that they are already anointed through salvation, but also to walk in the fullness of God’s power that brings healing, deliverance, and transformation. THE ANOINTING THAT HEALS Pastor Marcos Marrero Objective: The objective of this teaching is to help believers understand the power of the healing anointing, how it flows from God through the Holy Spirit, and why walking in the truth of God’s Word is essential for experiencing that power. It aims to equip Christians not only to recognize that they are already anointed through salvation, but also to walk in the fullness of God’s power that brings healing, deliverance, and transformation. Synopsis: In The Anointing That Heals, Pastor Marcos Marrero explores the scriptural foundation of God’s healing power as revealed through the anointing of Jesus Christ (Acts 10:38). He explains that while all believers are anointed with the Holy Spirit at salvation, not all walk in the power of that anointing because of a lack of enlightenment in the truth of God’s Word. The Spirit of Truth only bears witness to God’s Word and glorifies Christ, which means that to walk in the power of the anointing, believers must remain faithful and aligned with Scripture. Pastor Marcos emphasizes that without the Spirit of God we are helpless, without Jesus we are powerless, and without the Word of God we are directionless. He challenges believers to examine their relationship with God’s Word, since handling it deceitfully or with unbelief hinders the flow of the Spirit’s power. Liberty, transformation, and healing are promised where the Spirit of the Lord is present (2 Corinthians 3:17-18). The teaching also highlights that the healing anointing often follows a process of inner transformation. Even in moments of weakness, failure, or delay, God’s love and grace remain constant, and His power is revealed in faithfulness. Through personal testimony, Pastor Marcos shares how God’s anointing has shown up even in his failures, proving that the miracle is always the work of the Anointer, not the vessel. Ultimately, the lesson stresses that the believer’s role is to show up, pray, anoint, and declare God’s Word—leaving the results to Him. The bottom line of the healing anointing is rooted in God’s unchanging love and compassion. As Jesus declared, “all things are possible to him who believes” (Mark 9:23), reminding us that the anointing that heals flows from God’s truth, His Spirit, and His everlasting love for His people. Written teaching: Acts 10:38 “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.” When I started teaching about the anointing oil, it immediately became clear to me that more lessons would be required just to touch on the basic principles of God's anointing. In this lesson we will deal with the power of the healing anointing, or a different way to look at it, the anointing that heals! Now the very first thing that I want you to notice in our opening Scripture is how Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power. This is very important, notice how it describes Jesus as having both, the anointing and the power that comes through the anointing. Now why is that important? Every believer that is saved in Jesus Christ has been anointed with the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:13 “For by one Spirit we were all baptized (plunged) into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink (partake) into one Spirit (anointing).” So that all believers are anointed with the Holy Spirit. 2 Corinthians 1:21-22 “Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.” But not all believers walk in the power of the anointing, now why is that? There are several issues here that we can point at, but at the foundation of everyone of these failures we will find that it is because they are all lacking in the enlightenment of what the truth of the Word of God is. John 16:13 “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.” The Spirit of Truth will not bear witness to falsehoods, nor to things that do not glorify the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Just like Jesus did not come to do His own thing, but only to speak that which He heard from the Father above. Since the anointing comes from God then all things must revert to God and to His Word, for that is from Whom the anointing flows. John 14:10 “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.” So that we can see an extremely clear pattern of how the workings of the anointing flows. The Holy Spirit does not bear witness to Himself but of Jesus and the work that He accomplished. Jesus does not bear witness of Himself or the work that He accomplished, but He bears witness to the God from Whom all blessings flow. So that all who are anointed by the Spirit of God, if they want the power of the Spirit of God flowing through them, must remain faithful and true to the Word of Truth that governs the outpouring of the power of the Spirit of God in our midst. And that is without the Spirit of God we are helpless, and without the name of Jesus we are powerless, and without the guidance of the Word of God we are clueless and hopelessly lost. So let us begin with this point then, what is your relationship with the Word of God? Is the Word of God your only Truth? 2 Corinthians 4:2 “But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.” Paul was dealing with how the minds of the Jews of his day were blinded every time they read the Word of God, so that the Truth of the Word that they were reading could not penetrate their hearts. And that is what happens to many today that are anointed because of their salvation in Jesus Christ, but lack the power of the Spirit of God in their lives because they are handling the Word of God deceitfully. How do I know if I am lacking the power of the Spirit of God in my life? 2 Corinthians 3:17 “Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” What are the things that hinder us? What are the things that bind us? What are the things that we are lacking? If we honestly ask ourselves these questions and come up with things in our lives that truly hinder us, and find that there are issues in our lives that bind us to things that we do not want to be bound to, and realize that as Christians there are things promised to us that we are lacking, what do we do about it? 2 Corinthians 4:1 “Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have receive mercy, we do not lose heart.” The most important thing for us, is to realize that God is not against us; sin in the New Testament is defined as missing the mark, God does not want us to miss the mark. He wants us to receive all the blessings that He has already made available to us. Romans 8:32 “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” Remember that the key to the anointing power is truth, the above verse is powerfully liberating truth. I have been walking by faith in the Word of God for a while now, it will be thirty seven years this coming June, do you want to know what truth really is? Here is truth, Jesus loves us. He will never leave us nor forsake us, no matter what! Even when we are lacking the power of His anointing in our lives, He is right here. He will not go away, and He will never stop trying to get us into the true knowledge of His Word, so that we can receive the power of His anointing in our lives. He wants us to succeed. He does not want to see us lacking. He does not want to see us sick. He definitely does not want to see us powerless. In my many years walking with Him I have experienced a lot more failures than victories in the natural side of the ledger, but yet somehow out of the very failures of my many weaknesses He somehow always gained the victory in my life, and all because I did not quit in the face of failure. As a matter of fact, it has been in the midst of my greatest defeats that I have always experienced His greatest anointing. 2 Corinthians 3:18 “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” One of the greatest revelations that I’ve ever received from the Lord was while I was worshipping Him in a church service. The song that we were singing was, Here I am to worship; all of a sudden the Lord revealed to me in the middle of that song, the many schemes that the enemy had employed through the years to try to destroy my faith in Jesus. Things that I knew and many that I did not know. He just simply said to me, in spite of all that the enemy has done to try to destroy you, My grace is sufficient for you, and that was all the truth that I’ve ever needed. But we also need to understand that the power of the anointing follows a process of gradual transformation, and it requires steadfastness in our part. You see the true healing anointing begins in the inside of us. So that even when we do not see any immediate results we need to remain faithful to the truth of God’s promises, for He always comes through for us, although it may be years before we realize it, if ever while in this earth, for some, if not many of God’s greatest miracles on our behalf may never be known by us until we get to heaven. I have seen God heal a dying man from cancer even after my failure to pray for him, for I was intimidated by the hopelessness of the situation, but just the fact that I showed up to pray for the man was good enough for Jesus to heal him in spite of my failure to pray for him, although the man that got healed told everybody that I had prayed for him and that was how he was healed, yet I knew better than that, for I know for certain that I never prayed for the man. But I learned a great lesson that day, for the Lord spoke to me and said that my job was just to show up and pray, and that the rest was up to Him. So that it is our job to show up and not be intimidated by how hopeless the situation may seem. We are to pray, to anoint with oil, to proclaim the Word of God to those who are infirmed or bound by the enemy. But the miracle is always left up to the Anointer, the Spirit of Truth. I’ll close with this, a Scripture that I once heard an unbeliever proclaim on TV that it was so puzzling to him that he did not understand it and could not explain it. Mark 9:23-24 “Jesus said to him, ‘if you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.’ Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, ‘Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” The deaf and dumb spirit that troubled the child was rebuked by our Lord and commanded never to enter into the child again. What was the criteria for this miracle? A father needed help to get his son healed. The Lord helped him on the basis of His compassion and love. There are all kinds of things that we need to do, and there are all kinds of things that we need to learn, and there are so many Scriptures that we need to understand better, but at the root of all these things we need to know that He is a God that loves us, that He is compassionate towards us, and that He is more willing to help us in our time of need that we are to ask for His help. He will work with us to train us, He will teach us how to respect His anointing, and He will lead us into the valley of trust and leave us out there for a while if need be so that we may learn how to trust Him more. But the bottom line is this: HE LOVES US NO MATTER WHAT! AND THAT IS THE TRUTH. Previous Home Next

SPIRITUALITY VERSUS CARNALITY The objective of this teaching is to help believers discern the difference between living as spiritual Christians and living as carnal Christians. Pastor Marcos Marrero emphasizes that true spiritual maturity is marked not by worldly wisdom or religious appearances, but by the fruit of the Spirit and the revelation of God’s wisdom through the Holy Spirit. This lesson seeks to guide believers into choosing daily to walk in the Spirit, rather than yielding to the works of the flesh, so that they may mature into victorious, Christ-centered lives. SPIRITUALITY VERSUS CARNALITY Pastor Marcos Marrero Objective: The objective of this teaching is to help believers discern the difference between living as spiritual Christians and living as carnal Christians. Pastor Marcos Marrero emphasizes that true spiritual maturity is marked not by worldly wisdom or religious appearances, but by the fruit of the Spirit and the revelation of God’s wisdom through the Holy Spirit. This lesson seeks to guide believers into choosing daily to walk in the Spirit, rather than yielding to the works of the flesh, so that they may mature into victorious, Christ-centered lives. Synopsis: In Spirituality Versus Carnality, Pastor Marcos Marrero examines Paul’s admonition to the Corinthian church, highlighting the tension between spiritual maturity and carnal living. Drawing from 1 Corinthians 3:1–4, he explains that spiritual Christians are mature in faith, while carnal Christians remain as infants in Christ, unable to receive deeper revelations because they are hindered by envy, strife, and division. Pastor Marcos contrasts the world’s wisdom with God’s hidden wisdom, reminding readers that spiritual truths cannot be grasped through human reasoning but only through the revelation of the Holy Spirit. He points to Paul’s ministry as an example, where the demonstration of God’s Spirit and power, rather than persuasive words, confirmed the truth of the gospel. The lesson also clarifies that the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, and self-control—are marks of a spiritual life. On the other hand, works of the flesh such as selfish ambition, resentment, and divisions mark a carnal life and prevent believers from growing in spiritual understanding. Through biblical examples, such as Rahab’s decision to act spiritually rather than merely “do the right thing,” Pastor Marcos shows that spiritual maturity often requires choices that defy worldly logic. He urges believers to submit to Christ’s teachings, even when they do not make sense to the natural mind, trusting that the Holy Spirit will apply God’s wisdom and peace to their lives. Ultimately, the message underscores that the Christian life involves a daily choice between spirituality and carnality. By yielding to the Spirit and rejecting the flesh, believers grow in freedom, wisdom, and maturity—living as those who are no longer slaves to sin but made free in Christ. Written teaching: 1 Corinthians 3:1 “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ.” A spiritual Christian is a mature Christian, and a carnal Christian is one who does not have a clue as to what spirituality is really all about. It is odd that in some church settings, spiritual Christians are frowned upon as being way out there, out of the main stream, they are almost ashamed to acknowledge them, while their carnal counterparts or more worldly minded Christians are held with high regard for being more in touch with the reality of life, in their more balanced relationship with the world system. Let’s face it, spiritual truths are always at odds with the physical realities. I see programs on TV all the time trying to explain biblical events, not just secular programs, some Christian shows as well, that try to make carnal sense of events that can only be interpreted through the eyes of faith in the word of God. Paul’s complaint to the Corinthians is that he cannot address them with the meat of spiritual truth because they are like infants holding on to their baby bottles. Now, don’t get me wrong, I like to know the mechanics of how things work more than anybody else, but I am humbled enough to know that while I am in this body of flesh, I am limited in my ability to fully understand spiritual mysteries. If I do not fully understand something, I am comfortable enough in my belief that it happened the way that God said it happened, and my faith does not require any further explanation. 1 Corinthians 3:2-3 “I fed you with milk and not solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal…” Paul, while under his apostolic ministry and anointing, was privy to the revelation of the mysteries that had been hidden from the sages of old and was extremely eager to share those revelations that he had received with all his converts. But imagine his frustration with the inability of many of his converts to receive the revelation of those spiritual mysteries that he treasured. 2 Peter 3:15-16 “And consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable (carnal) people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.” Peter himself acknowledges the gift that God had invested in the apostle Paul, and recognizes the fact that it takes spiritual maturity to receive the understanding of many of the mysteries that Paul was revealing in his teachings to the churches. How does a carnal babe in Christ become a spiritually mature servant? 1 Corinthians 2:4-5 “And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” The majority of Paul’s converts got saved by the demonstration of God’s Spirit and power moving in their midst as Paul preached to them, so that it was the supernatural manifestation of God’s power among them that confirmed the truth of what Paul was preaching to them, not human logic. Now Paul is teaching them that in order for them to become spiritual they have to follow the same pattern, spirituality does not come through persuasive words of human wisdom, but rather through the manifestation of God’s Spirit and power, that in many instances defy human logic. 1 Corinthians 2:6-7 “However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in an mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory.” The wisdom that makes us spiritual is like an encoded mystery that was deposited into our newly recreated born-again spirit-man when we got saved, which only the Holy Spirit can reveal or decode in those who through the agency of faith and trust in the word of God, will be able to receive and understand. 1 Corinthians 2:10-11 “But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the sprit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except (unless) the Spirit of God (reveals them to us).” The spiritual mystery or quality that enables a believer to become spiritual or mature, has already been deposited into our recreated spirit-man, but the revelation or unlocking of those mysteries are left to the Spirit of God who searches the human spirit that dwells within our heart, to see if spiritual fruit it's been produced by our spirit. 1 Corinthians 3:3 “For you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you (works of the flesh), are you not carnal and behaving like mere (natural instead of spiritual) men?” I am responsible before God for the kind of fruit that my spirit produces: Love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, meekness, faithfulness and self-control are all spiritual fruit, the more of that kind of fruit that my spirit produces, the greater the revelation of God’s wisdom that I will receive as it is unveiled through my heart by the Spirit of God. Envy, strife, divisions, selfish ambitions, and the like, are all spiritual manifestations of the works of the flesh, the carnality that will hinder my heart from receiving the revelation that will allow me to become a mature, and victorious spiritual Christian. So that I have a choice to make each and every day between peace and distress, love and hate, forgiveness and resentment. Am I going to be at peace in the face of distress? Am I going to love those who hate me? Am I going to forgive those whom I resent? If I follow my natural inclinations that compel me to demand an eye for an eye, then the spiritual revelation that makes me wise in Christ is withheld from me, for my actions prevent the Holy Spirit from revealing them to me as He desires. But if I summit myself to the words that our Lord taught us, His spiritual words that are my life, even when it absolutely makes no sense to me to do what He says, then the Holy Spirit is not hindered, and though I may not be ready to receive the understanding as to why I need to do what the Scriptures require, nevertheless, His healing balm will be applied to my soul and I will walk in His peace no matter what! John 6:63 “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” There is a disconnect for many Christians between doing the right thing and doing the spiritual thing. Understanding the difference between doing that which is right and doing that which is spiritual can be an important factor that will help to lead us into maturity. That is because our natural understanding of what the right thing to do is, has been tainted by our worldly perception. We sometimes confuse human goodness with God inspired spirituality. So that when we think we are doing the right thing that should make us more spiritual, instead we are being carnal and do not even know it. Therein lies a trap that has diverted many well intended Christians from what had been a promising road to maturity, into the folly that Paul calls the wisdom of this age, by comparing or trying to understand spiritual things through the prism of human wisdom. 1 Corinthians 2:13-14 “These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural (carnal) man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” The more spiritual that a believer becomes, the more at odds that he will be with the wisdom of this world, and the difference between what the spiritual thing to do is, verses that which is the right thing to do, will become more obvious to the believer that matures spiritually. A spiritually mature man will never be bound by the spirit of religion. 1 Corinthians 3:4 “For when one says, ‘I am of Paul,’ and another, ‘I am of Apollos,’ are you not carnal?” When Rahab the prostitute was faced with the choice of doing the right thing and not lie to the soldiers that asked about the whereabouts of the spies that visited her, she chose to do the spiritual thing instead, and protected those who belonged to God by misleading the soldiers away from them. By her actions she did not only save their lives, but she also saved her own life and the lives of her family and became part of Jesus ancestry. To become a spiritually mature Christian is the same as that of being a slave that has been made free. 1 Corinthians 2:15 “But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one.” After all it is for freedom's sake that Christ has made us free! Previous Home Next

DISCERNING FALSE TEACHERS Equip believers to discern false teachings by anchoring themselves in the gospel’s “righteousness of faith,” testing teachings and spirits by Scripture, and responding with prayerful integrity. Clarify the difference between destructive error and healthy theological debate, so Christians can recognize bad fruit, protect their minds, and keep their eyes on Jesus. DISCERNING FALSE TEACHERS Minister Lisa Kane October 31, 2022 Objective: Equip believers to discern false teachings by anchoring themselves in the gospel’s “righteousness of faith,” testing teachings and spirits by Scripture, and responding with prayerful integrity. Clarify the difference between destructive error and healthy theological debate, so Christians can recognize bad fruit, protect their minds, and keep their eyes on Jesus. Synopsis: Lisa Kane opens with Jude 12–13 to frame false teachers as visible “spots” and fruitless “clouds without water.” She then lays a gospel foundation from John 3:15–17 and Romans 10:5–13: salvation rests on confessing Jesus as Lord and believing in His resurrection— a righteousness received by faith, not by law-keeping. Hebrews 11–12 adds the “cloud of witnesses,” underscoring that our public confession places us openly on Christ’s side and strengthens us to run our race. Believers are urged to evaluate every message by Scripture, spending “secret place” time with the Holy Spirit, our best Teacher. From 2 Peter 2:1–3, 12–13, 17, false teachers are marked by covetous motives, deception, and self-destruction; from 1 John 4:1–3, they fail the Christological test (denying Jesus come in the flesh); and from Matthew 7:15–20, they are ultimately known by their fruit. The proper response isn’t social attacking but intercession: pray for pastors, teachers, opponents, and for personal discernment. To distinguish error from legitimate discussion, Kane contrasts false teaching with a “healthy theological debate,” using the identity of Revelation’s two witnesses (Rev 11) as an example where Scripture allows differing views without undermining the gospel. She traces related passages (Numbers 16; Revelation 16, 19–20) to model careful, contextual comparison rather than speculative dogmatism. Practically, believers “wear the helmet of salvation,” test doctrines against the whole counsel of Scripture, watch for motives and fruit, and entrust controversies to God in prayer. The message closes by calling Christians to deepen time in the Word, rely on the Holy Spirit for wisdom, and keep their focus on Jesus, whose truth exposes deception and preserves the church. Inspired Teaching: Hello and welcome to the House of Faith Ministries. I'm Lisa Kane. I'm recording this on Sunday, October 30th, 2022. Welcome. This message is called Discerning False Teachings. Let's open up in a word of prayer. Father God, we bless this message and we thank you for your blessing on it. Thank you for fulfilling our hearts and minds with your word, your strong word, your gospel, so that we are not deceived by the false teachings that are going around the world today and tomorrow. We thank you for your strength within us. And we thank you for giving us wisdom, knowledge, and understanding in your scriptures. And we thank you for pointing us to you so we can keep our eyes focused on you. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. All right, let's go to our opening scripture here. We're going to the book of Jude. Jude has only one chapter. So, we're going to read verses 12 and 13. These are spots in your love feast. While they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves, they are clouds without water, carried about by the winds, late autumn, trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots, raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame. wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. What an interesting scripture, right? So, what we're going to be doing with this message is is I'm going to show you how to discern some false teachings out there and basically show you the difference between a healthy theological debate and the false teachings that are out there. So, in order to do that, so what I'm going to have to do here is bring you the basics of what the gospel stands for, what the gospel is, and then use that and the scriptures that teaches us how to determine what is a false teaching. And and really, you can tell by their fruits or they stand out like a sore thumb or, you know, here it is in Jude, it says there spots in your love feast. They're they're individuals that are in between you and they they're hindering you, holding you back. They're they stand out everything. They're contrary to what you say. So, these are people that are purposely placed in certain situations within your area or your realm that is doing everything to stop you and they do stand out. There is also, you can see here, autumn trees without fruit. Uh they're clouds without water. the so you're going to be able to see these. You can recognize them. So I want to show you that. But let's start with the gospel and get a foundation here first. Okay, we're going to go to John because you know that's where it is spoken of right here in John 3. We're going to read verses 15 through 17, the most popular verses in here. That whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved. Okay? So I I want you to notice something here. So, I've been teaching in the past several messages that as made in God's image, we are a representative of God and that every generation has a representative of God to them. Noah, to that generation, the nation of Israel had their representation as the judgment, the law. They they're the ones that said, "Here's the ten commandments to the world." And basically they said, "Well, that's how you have to live righteously." Well, okay. So Jesus came, their Messiah, and they cut him off. And because they had cut him off, he was crucified, and then he rose from the dead. So now what Jesus did is he took that representation from the nation of Israel and he put it on himself and he says, "I am the son of God. I am the word that became flesh that has always been there. And he's the embodiment of let there be light. That spoken word. He is that power. And every time he walked here on the face of the earth, not only did he overcome Satan in the wilderness, he laid hands on people. They got healed, sick, and it was because of he is the power. He is that embodiment. So he fulfilled that law. So let's look at the scriptures so that we can see how the gospel came about by the fulfillment of the law. So here in Romans 10:5 through13, for Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law. The man who does these things shall live by them. But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way. So in the Old Testament, you lived by righteousness by keeping the ten commandments. You kept them. you were righteous. God called certain people righteous. And you're going to see that here in a bit. And it it went from the Old Testament all the way to the New Testament. And you can see people who are righteous. So God knew who to call righteous. But he did something different with his son, the Messiah, the only begotten son that you see that he came to not condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. And that means there's probably going to be people who won't be. That is part of this gospel. So now that you see that he has fulfilled the law, we have a new righteousness to follow. That is the gospel here. Watch this. It's a righteousness of faith. Look at this verse six. But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way. Do not say in your heart, who will ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down from above. or who will descend into the abyss? That is to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say? The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith which we preach. That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes into righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made into salvation. For the scripture says, "Whoever believes on him will not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. For the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon him. For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." So we have a righteousness of faith. How does that work? Did you see it was by the spoken word? Remember God said spoken word let there be light and there was light. Jesus is the embodiment of that. So when he was crucified and he went to the grave for three days and he came back up the grave couldn't hold him because he is the embodiment of the power of the spoken word. So now to embrace that we need to speak out in faith. How do you do that? When you confess a spoken word to the air, no one can see you. And what happens is you are speaking out in faith because you can't see Jesus. You can't see God. You can't see the Holy Spirit. So, you're actually speaking out in faith. And what you're doing is when you confess with your mouth, you are making a statement to everyone who's watching. We're going to get into that in just a minute who's watching you. But you're making that bold statement and then in your heart because you're doing this because you're like, "Well, okay, God, I can't see you, but I'm told this is how I should believe. I need to repent. I need to confess my sins. I need to re do this out loud with a spoken word. So in my heart, Lord, I am sorry." And what happens is your confession is made true. And now a seed is planted in you and you become a new creature. Now how that seed germinates and grows is up to you entirely. It's up to you and how you spend time with God. But the basics of salvation is that do you have to be water baptized? No. Look at the two thieves that were on the cross when Jesus one was cursing Jesus. The other one says stop. He's innocent. What are you talking about? Jesus told the guy who said stop your innocence. says, "I will see you in paradise tonight." He was saved and he did not need to be water baptized. And if you understand water baptism, you will know that Jesus ever after he was water baptized, he went into the wilderness, dealt with the devil, and then went into ministry. So getting baptized is not so much an acknowledgment of your salvation because that was your confession, but your acknowledgment with water baptism is saying, "I'm ready for the ministry. I'm ready to lay hands. That is the gospel. So, it it has righteousness of faith built into it. Has to deal with the confession of the mouth and it has to deal with letting God know with a repentive heart that you're sorry and that you were a sinner and now Jesus is your Lord and Savior. Now, the act of Jesus on the cross and his blood and his broken body, those are the embodiment of what that represents in the spirit realm. Anyways, righteousness of faith. Now, when you speak out to faith, you speak to a cloud of witnesses. So, who's this cloud of witnesses? So, in Hebrews, we're going to get into Hebrews here in just a moment. Go to Hebrews 11. Now remember, I'm always trying to encourage you to read the extra scriptures because I don't have time to present them all here. Take a look at chapter 11. It will uplift you like you have never been uplifted. If you're down, if you're ever down, read that chapter because that will always bless you and help you lift up out of it because you're going to see all these people who did things that you're now a part of. When you make that confession, your name gets written in the lamb's book of life and is written in blood and that I believe and that it cannot be taken out. Why? Because anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And that is God's word. So now when you speak that, you speak that to this cloud of witnesses, something interesting happens. I want you to see this. So we're going to read the end of Hebrews 11, which is verse 39 and 40. And we're going to read the first two verses of chapter 12. And all these having obtained a good testimony through faith did not receive the promise. So all of those people that he mentions in chapter 11 were given a promise. The bride of Christ were given a promise. Those people died before they saw their promise. But they believed that it was real. Abraham believed he would be the father of many nations. even though God asked him to sacrifice his son and then he believed and it was counted to him as righteousness. So when you see something like that, you're you're realizing all of a sudden, okay, well, this has to do with the heart, but has to do with putting God in his where he belongs, which is above you. So watch how this goes. So he's telling you that they did not receive the promise. Now verse 40, God having provided something better for us that they should not be made perfect apart from us. verse uh one in chapter 12. Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ens snares us. And let us run with endurance a race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has not sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. So now when you speak that confession to this cloud of witnesses, which are all the people of righteousness in the past that are already in the presence of the Lord, you're also speaking to God, the God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. You're also speaking to the angels and the demons, and you're speaking to anyone else who is listening. Why does that matter? Because now everyone knows what side you're on and who you stand for. It says why it has to be spoken out loud. You don't have to be in a church to speak that you you can be in the top mountain. Say those words be changed. And when you go out to minister because that's what happens when you get changed as you go into the ministry because your testimony speaks very powerfully. We're going to see how that uh works and how the fruit is manifested from that. People didn't even have to hear your confession. They know that you're a believer because they can see it by the fruit, which is what I'm going to be getting into here as we talk about false teachings and we determine who those false teachings are. Now, you notice we didn't have to go through the shame of the cross. Jesus did that. We get to have this confession. We're uh prevented or kept from that shame. So you know since Jesus did the shame for us you know when we should not be ashamed of him because he is not ashamed of us and that is very important. It comes down to the heart and the mind and what you consider most important. So you have this righteousness of faith and that is the basic foundation of salvation and it has to do with confessing your sins out loud and basically just simply saying Lord I ask you to forgive me my sins. I ask you to come into my heart. I ask you to be over my mind and over my life and be my Lord and Savior in the name of Jesus. I repent. Amen. And repent means to turn from the ways you were living to your new way. And he will teach you if you have to spend time in the word of God. Now, that's very important. Let me reiterate this part. You want to make sure that what you're listening to and you're hearing from preachers and teachers aligns with the word of God. So when you become a believer in Christ, you judge their messages and you need to know how to judge that message. And you need to know by spending time in the scriptures alone with the Holy Spirit because the best teacher you'll ever have is the Holy Spirit, not Lisa and not any other pastor or preacher out there, the Holy Spirit. So, it is your responsibility to accept or reject messages, which is how you're going to be able to determine what a false teaching is. That's very important. This is actually a weapon in our arsenal as a believer in Christ because we do wear the helmet of salvation. And what happens is all these woke ideologies and false teachings try to penetrate, but there's red flags going off because if you were reading the scripture and you were spending time with God, you'll be like, "But God said this. God said that. I know his scripture that." And you go and you validate and look. So you should be able to determine that, see that, know that, and act upon it. Now, how do you act upon it? You don't go out to the world and pick on them socially or harass them socially. Who is the accuser? Satan. Let him do his job. Your job is to go spend time with God and to give it to God. We're going to see what Moses did here at the end. Because when he gave something to God about an attack of a false teaching that could have crumbled everything, he said, "No, no, no. Uh, this ain't about me. This is about God. I'm giving it to God." You're going to see that. So, what's going to happen is your responsibility is to go to God and say, "Lord, I give you this person and I give you this situation because I don't know what to do. I don't know how to handle it and I'm just praying and giving it to your attention. It is off my hands. It is in your hands. And when you do something like that, you're giving God permission to deal with it. And he will because you will see that false teachings are cut off. You will see that they die. You will see that they do not multiply. You will and in fact, you can take a look at it in today's politics. You can see this other side by their actions. And as you see their actions, you're you're noticing that they're not getting uh away with it. And people are waking up and realizing it because they're they're they're looking at the actions going, "Wait a minute, but you said one thing, but you're telling but you did something else." And that realization is coming into play. So again though, because God puts people in places, it is not your responsibility to tear them down. That is the devil. Let God and the devil deal with that. Your responsibility is to pray for them. Pray for yourself that you're understanding it correctly because I'm going to show you a a difference between a healthy theological debate versus an actual false teaching because there are differences which means that prayer plays a huge role in here. Again, that's your responsibility. Jesus taught us how to pray. We put God first. He he is our headship. Jesus is our headship. That is the confession and the belief in our heart, the basic of salvation. And then he says, "Ask for whatever you ask, it will be given to you." And where two or three are gathered, this is also very powerful because where you guys get together in prayer, you say, "Lord, I lift up this pastor." You need to be praying for your pastors, your teachers, and who you listen to because they need your prayers. I am telling you, I need your prayers. So when you do that, you're taking up your responsibility and you're giving it to God and you're going to let God deal with it. Amen. Amen. Amen. Okay. So now what I want to do is I want to show you more of the scriptures of how you can tell because now that you understand what salvation is, what the gospel message is, that is your helmet of salvation. This is what's going to keep you from all of these false teachings. And remember though, you need to spend time in the word of God. You need to validate this in the word of God. You need to go in there and check and look at the scriptures. Make sure they're not being taken out of context. Make sure that they corroborate one another, that there's other areas because everything balance. There's a corroboration. Every scripture kind of links to other scriptures in there. You you got to say it's powerful. Get into the word of God. Spend the secret place time with the Lord. Psalm 91. That's very important. Okay. Look at these other scriptures here. Second Peter 2 1-3. But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed by covetousness. They will exploit you with exploit you with deceptive words for a long time. Their judgment has not been idle and their destruction does not slumber. Okay. From the very first scripture that I read, which we're going to see more of here in second Peter, you will see a very important key that helps you understand if it's a false teacher or not. Look at the key word here. I mean, there are several, but I want you to see this one. This is the one that stands out the most to me. By covetousness, they covet what you have, but they don't want to make the repentance. You see, if you recall my teachings, I told you who was in the Garden of Eden with Adam and God. Ezekiel tells us Lucifer was there. What was wrong with Lucifer? He's watching the relationship build up between Adam and God. And he got jealous. He coveted it. In fact, not he went beyond that. He crossed that line and he said, "You need to worship me." You see, that is the root of false teaching. Now look at also what what else happens here. You see, there are false prophets, false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and then bring on swift destruction. As soon as a destructive heresy comes into play here, it is destroyed and very quickly. So, like you can take a look at what happened with Black Lives Matter and all of that kind of stuff and you can see it ended very quickly. But that is why see you can start to see some of the false teachings. Watch watch how it ends. But Black Lives Matters about their themselves. You see the root the covetousness in there. Oh, and Jude talked about that. Peter is actually going to re uh reiterate that here in uh right here in in chapter 2 verses uh 12 through 13 and verse 17. I do have a typo there in my header there. Sorry about that. Says, "But these like natural brood," and by the way, we are continuing in second Peter 2. We just finished reading verses 1 and three. Now we're coming into verses 12 to 13, verse 17. But these are like natural brute bees made to be caught and destroyed. Oh, you have got when you're in the word of God, you will understand that God is in control of everything. And he uses the devil as his puppet. And that means he brings in people that are purposely made to destroy. They are purposely sacrificed for the ones that God already knew are going to choose him. He sets this up. And and when once you understand that concept, it really blows everything out of the water because now you realize the devil doesn't have a chance. We're going to see that here, too. So, uh, be made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption, and will receive the wages of unrighteousness as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and blemishes carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you. And then verse 17, these are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. Isn't that what Jude says? So Peter is reiterating it, saying they stand out like a sword, thumb, they're a spot, they're a blemish. You will see the destruction come on them very quickly. So when you see a false teach and you're not sure about it, you pray about it, you give it to the Lord, you move on with your life, but you will see it end and it will be destroyed very quickly. So you don't want to get caught up on that because you know what your salvation is. You know your righteousness of faith. You know what your your covenant spoken word and repentance was. You know what your confession was. So do not get caught up with this. You just need to wait. But give it to the Lord and pray because that is your responsibility and you will see. You will see. So let's continue on here and take a look at now 1 John 4:es 1-3. Beloved, do not believe every spirit. So what we're going to be looking at now is how to test it. This is powerful. Watch this. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are of God. Because many false prophets have gone out into the world. But this you know the spirit of God. You see when you became a believer and you confessed him and then you allow that seed to germinate because you're spending secret time with the Lord and you're getting to know him because you keep reading the Bible. You know him. You know him. Watch this. By this you know the spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of Antichrist which you have heard was coming and is now already in the world. Oh wow. This is powerful. So let's say you've got somebody who is around you and they're very contrary to everything you say. You can test it by simply, you know, make a little statement like, um, oh man, I'm going to be praying in Jesus that this is going to be made well. We're going to have victory. And when they're contrary to you, and they don't don't speak Jesus, they do not consider him to have been the son of God. They may think he's a good prophet, a good person, but not the son of God. You will know by that very moment. I humbly apologize about the sound outside. That's our pool cleaner going off and he sounds like a monster going off. But anyways, you will know because if they cannot say Jesus and they cannot acknowledge him as the son of God, then they are not of God. And you need to separate yourself and but you most importantly you need to pray for them. You absolutely need to be praying for them. And here's, you know, let's look at this a little further because Matthew describes this a little bit more here in Matthew 7. We're going to look at uh verses 15 through 20. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore, by their fruits you will know them. See, if they're contrary to you and they've been fighting you and fighting you and fighting you, that is fruit. And that tells you right now they're not of Jesus. So, you can see that go on. You can see the fruit of what they're doing. Look at the fruit of Black Lives Matter. It's dead now. It's pretty much dead in the water. I mean, you're you're seeing it all become exposed. Look at our politics. Look at our government. You can see everything is exposed because they're d they're being destroyed. By the way, destroyed by themselves and the devil, you know, they God doesn't really need to do anything. They're doing it to themselves. This is kind of comical if you ask me. But anyways, they are destroying themselves and you can see it coming to an end. It is destroying themselves. I mean, I just saw a couple of speeches of Nancy Pelosi and Obama and the crowds. They thought they had control of the crowds. The crowds are turning on them and chanting, "You're a liar. You're a liar." So, you see these things happening. That is the fruit of what they've been talking about. Is that productive fruit? No. Absolutely not. So you can see it is bad for you and people are recognizing that. But again, are you the one that should be chanting out there? You need to be praying for them. They need your prayers. They may never ever call God and confess to God. They never they may never do that. But your responsibility is to pray for them so that they would whether they do or not. It doesn't matter. You do your responsibility and then we'll see how this goes. So that is one way to tell of their fruit. So now what I want to do is I want to teach you what a healthy theological debate is. And I want to show you because this is different than let's say a false teaching. So I because I think a lot of people blur the lines here and I I really want to make sure that there's a little understanding here. So one of the the healthy theological debates that are around are about the two witnesses in Revelation. So let's go read some scriptures on the two witnesses. And I want to show you the healthy theological debate here. Okay? That way you can understand. So we already know what our gospel message is. We already know what our salvation is. And we already know that we can tell because they stand out like a sore thumb or they're blemish or you can see that they're not being fruitful. So now we're going to use that measurement and we're going to measure it against a healthy theological debate. So here in Revelation 11, we're going to read verses 3 through8. And I will give power to my two witnesses. And they will prophesy 1,260 days clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the God of earth. And if anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouth and devours their enemies. And if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this manner. These have power to shut heaven so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy. and they have power over waters to turn them to blood and to strike the earth with all plagues as often as they desire. When they finish their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them, overcome them, and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. Okay, the theological debate that goes on is who are the two witnesses? Okay, you've got one group of people that are saying that it is Moses and Elijah. You have another group that says it's Enoch and Elijah. Okay, first of all, do the scriptures even tell you who the two witnesses are? Well, kind of. They gave you a description of what they're going to do. So, you you do have that uh you can see straight up. I want to get back to the scripture here. Um they have power to shut heaven that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy. They have power over waters to turn them to blood to strike the earth with all plagues as often as they desire. But look what else they're described as. They uh are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the god of earth. And notice if anyone wants to harm, the fire proceeds from their mouth and devours their enemies. It it it's as if um they got like a protective bubble around them. And so they shoot the the fire out and it anyway what happens is the enemy tries to shoot fire at them or tries to harm them. It bounces off the protective uh the protective bubble and and kills the enemy trying to kill them. This is who they are. So they've got these plagues but there are no names. No names. So it's semantics. Okay. Does it really matter if we identify who the two witnesses are? Not really. it it isn't for a spiritual growth per se. Now, if you're somebody who studies the scriptures and you're seeing a mystery here, then this could be a very interesting theological thing to look at. But there's another element to this that I think a lot of people forget. So, let's let's go into a little of the concepts here. So, those that say it's Moses and Elijah, they look at the the plagues and the fire from heaven or holding up rain. These are things that both Moses and Elijah did when they were here. Now, Moses died. We know that Michael can he did not uh he dealt with Satan. In the book of Jude, by the way, you can go back to the book of Jude and you can tell him that the Lord rebuked you. He was talking about the body of Moses, which means when you hear about the body of Moses, Moses is dead. So, Moses died. Elijah didn't. He was taken up in a chariot of fire. The reason a lot of people bring up Enoch and Elijah is that Enoch was also raptured or he was God took him for he was righteous and he prophesied about the second coming of Christ. So, but did he call fire down from heaven and hold up rain? There wasn't rain at that time. He lived in a different time period. And this is why a lot of people disagree that it's him. But both Elijah and Enoch did not die. Moses did. Then the scriptures say that is appointed for everyone to die at least once. So does that make the scripture a liar if Enoch never dies. So you can see the the philosophy here or this this um this how should I put it um a healthy theological debate that is taking place here. But you got to know your scriptures to understand the mystery. You know, we do re reemphasize and and anyone who is in this he healthy theological debate will tell you go read the scriptures and that's good. We want you reading the scriptures. You see, the best teacher is the Holy Spirit, not Lisa, not anybody else out here. You and the Holy Spirit will learn a whole lot more. So, you got to get in there. Now let's continue on and read a little bit more about what happens here because this goes right along with this healthy theological debate says now after three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them and they stood on their feet and great fear fell on those who saw them and they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them come up here and they ascended to heaven in a cloud and their enemies saw them. So, we saw them get killed. Uh they they're killed three and a half years in. They their bodies lay on the street for three and a half days. Nobody buries them. In fact, they exchange gifts. Again, go read the rest of the scriptures. And what happens is these two had died. That makes God's scripture true if it is Enoch and Elijah because now everyone has died. Well, let's go a little further because there are two other people that didn't die. And that goes right along with this theological debate. Now, is there anything wrong with those people that are promoting Moses and Elijah? Well, if they're telling you not to believe in Jesus, then yes, there's something wrong with them. But if they're telling you to go to the scripture and that Jesus is the son of God, there's nothing wrong with them. They just have a different understanding and a different interpretation and it may be incomplete which means they need your prayer. So this healthy theological debate. So here I just presented both sides but there's a third side because there's two other people that didn't die. Wait, what? Let's go look at that scripture because again it's a healthy theological debate. I'm just Previous Next Related Teachings Heading 6 Teaching Title Heading 6 Button Heading 6 Button Home

RESISTING THE HOLY SPIRIT The objective of this teaching is to help believers recognize the danger of resisting the Holy Spirit, whether through sin, fleshly desires, or religious legalism. Pastor Marcos Marrero shows how resisting the Spirit hinders God’s abundant life and blessings, while walking in step with Him brings freedom, truth, and preparation for Christ’s return. The lesson calls the church to humility, discernment, and a Spirit-led life that avoids compromise with worldly systems and traditions of men. RESISTING THE HOLY SPIRIT Pastor Marcos Marrero Objective: The objective of this teaching is to help believers recognize the danger of resisting the Holy Spirit, whether through sin, fleshly desires, or religious legalism. Pastor Marcos Marrero shows how resisting the Spirit hinders God’s abundant life and blessings, while walking in step with Him brings freedom, truth, and preparation for Christ’s return. The lesson calls the church to humility, discernment, and a Spirit-led life that avoids compromise with worldly systems and traditions of men. Synopsis: In Resisting the Holy Spirit, Pastor Marcos Marrero explores the sobering warning of Acts 7:51, where Stephen rebuked Israel for being stiff-necked and continually opposing the Spirit of God. From the fall of Adam and Eve to the present day, humanity has inherited a natural inclination toward sin, rebellion, and resistance to God’s Spirit. Yet through Christ’s resurrection and the gift of the Holy Spirit, believers are called into a new creation where life and abundance are freely available. Pastor Marcos highlights that the fleshly tendency to resist the Spirit often disguises itself in religious legalism. The Pharisees of Jesus’ day resisted Him because they valued their man-made laws and traditions above the Spirit’s revelation. Instead of celebrating healings and miracles, they condemned Jesus for breaking Sabbath rules. This same spirit of legalism continues today, where religious structures resist true spiritual revelation because it threatens their control. The teaching emphasizes that Scripture must interpret Scripture, and the Spirit is the one who brings life and understanding. Jesus Himself declared that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath—showing that God’s law was always meant to bless people, not bind them. When leaders compromise truth for power or acceptance by the world, they lead others into darkness. The only safeguard is to remain humble, Spirit-led, and uncompromising in faith. Pastor Marcos concludes with a call to vigilance and reliance on the Holy Spirit as our guide into all truth. In a world unraveling morally and spiritually, the church must cling to Jesus, the Light of the world, and refuse to compromise with darkness. Above all, he warns: do not resist the Holy Spirit, for He is the One who prepares us for Christ’s soon return and empowers us to walk in life, light, and victory. Written teaching: Acts 7:51 “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did so do you.” As humans we have inherited the propensity to do both, good and evil, for from the knowledge that Adam and Eve gained from their partaking of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we, to this day, continue in the ways and manners that our ancestors did. Satan was the tempter who deceived Eve into partaking from the elixir of death, Adam partook of it willingly not wanting to be separated forever from the wife that he loved. 1 Timothy 2:14 “And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.” Regardless of how they fell, all their descendants became heirs of the curse of death that their actions brought upon them. John 10:10 “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” Now those of us who have received salvation through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, are passed from death into life, and from being cursed with lack and lost, into the blessings of life and abundant life that we have inherited in the new creation that we become in Jesus. John 8:52 “...If anyone keeps My word he shall never taste death (which is the penalty for eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil).” The agent that brings us into the blessings of this new creation is the Holy Spirit, but in our flesh, the carnal/natural man, we have an inherited tendency to resist the Holy Spirit, that tendency is still in us. 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” So that when we walk after the Spirit we do not fulfill the lusts of the flesh, but when we walk after the flesh we are basically resisting the Holy Spirit, and by doing so we hinder His work of filling us with life and the abundance of blessings that our Lord has already made available for us. Believe it or not, the greatest thing that hinders us from walking after the Spirit, is the law! Religion cannot function without rules and regulations. Galatians 3:2-3 “This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?” In the chapters leading up to John chapter ten we can see the resistance that Jesus encountered from the Jews that were so entangled by the law, and how to practice it, that they failed to see the spiritual revelation that Jesus was trying to teach them. Now the common people received the revelation that Jesus was teaching them, but for those full of legalism in their hearts, spirituality was nothing more than a curse. John 7:46-49 “The officers answered, ‘No man ever spoke like this Man (Jesus)!’ Then the Pharisees answered them, ‘Are you also deceived?’ Have any of the rulers of the Pharisees believed in Him? But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.” Here the Pharisees had sent the officers to arrest Jesus because He had healed a man on the Sabbath, in their religious thinking the keeping of the Sabbath (law) was more important than making a person whole. John 7:23 “If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath, so that the law of Moses should not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made a man completely well on the Sabbath?” The officers were so caught up with Jesus’ teachings, that they forgot why they were there in the first place. So that the people, the officers, and everyone that had an open mind, could hear and understand the teachings of Jesus that were being confirmed by the miracles that He was doing, except for the legalistic crowd, they were more concerned with the violations of their man-made rules that were based on their carnal understanding of Scripture, rather than the blessings that were being bestowed on the people that they ruled over. When a leader, or a group of leaders, are more concerned with the well being of their ruling structure and governing power, than with the well being of those over whom they have rule over, is time for those who are under their rule to get out from under them. John 7:24 “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.” How do we judge with righteous judgment? 1 Corinthians 14:32 “ And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.” In other words, Scripture interprets the Scriptures. Did not Jesus said that the devil is the one that kills, steals, and destroys? And that He, Jesus, came to give us life and abundant life? Then was Jesus in the process of restoring life on the Sabbath, or was He taking it away? Jesus quoted to them the Scripture that said that an infant was to be circumcised on the eighth day, even if the eighth day fell on the Sabbath, now we know that a child’s immune system is the strongest on the eighth day, so that the spirit of the law is always in harmony with what is always best for the child, or the person, not what is best for the law itself. Mark 2:27 “And He said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.’” Why are the religious rulers so much against the common people receiving the spiritual understanding from the Holy Scriptures themselves? When we receive spiritual understanding from the Scriptures that governs us, the Holy Spirit is in control, for He is the Revealer of Scripture, when we follow man’s carnal interpretation of Scripture, then carnal men are in control, and carnal men do not like it when they are not in control. If you read the chapters leading up to John chapter ten, you find that chaos reigned among them, when it came to what Scripture had to say about where the Messiah was supposed to originate from. All the works that Jesus was doing in their midst confirmed to them that whoever did those kind of miracles among them had to be from God. That was what Nicodemus, a Pharisee, acknowledged, and the miracles that Jesus did were the reason why he believed Jesus was the Messiah, but he too was confused about how spirituality worked, that is why Jesus told him that he had to be born again, born of the Spirit of God. John 7:40-43 “Therefore many form the crowd, when they heard this saying, said, ‘Truly this is the Prophet.’ Others said, ‘This is the Christ.’ But some said, ‘Will the Christ come out of Galilee? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from the town of Bethlehem, where David was?’ So there was a division among the people because of Him.” Like wise in our present day, confusion reigns as to when, where, and how, Jesus will be returning to the earth, there is even doubt among many as to whether He will be even returning to the earth. So how do we know? How do we prepare for His soon return? How do I make myself personally ready? There is only one way out of this confusing mess, we have the Holy Spirit to guide us, so let us put our trust in Him and not on the wisdom of man. John 7:39 “But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” Well, guess what, Jesus has already being glorified, and we have the Holy Spirit within us to guide us and direct us into all truth. All we have to do is remain humble, for the Lord resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Let us rely on the simplicity of our faith; did not Jesus say that if He left to prepare a place for us, that He would return for us? Let us keep looking up, He is coming for us, that where He is we might be also. Is our world falling apart as the bonds of morality that kept it together become unrestrained? That is exactly what Jesus said would happen before His return. In order for the judgments of God to be revealed there has to be a rebellion against His moral codes. John 8:12 “Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.’” Stay away from those who compromise Scripture for the sake of keeping a balance between them and the world. What Jesus taught was offensive to many because He refused to compromise Scripture for the sake of being liked by the rulers of His day. There is a great deal of pressure being applied right now on many of the religious leaders to compromise for the sake of been accepted by the world, if you think like them, you become part of them. The spiritual thing to do is that which is best for you and your family in the long run, just remember that compromise is always a shortcut to nowhere. The world is in darkness do not follow it, follow Jesus by all means, who is the light of the world, and who always has your best interest in mind, AND WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT RESIST THE HOLY SPIRIT. You will not be disappointed! Previous Home Next

THE LIVING WORD PART 2 Equip believers at Signal Hill Christian Center to trust and apply God’s “exceedingly great and precious promises” (2 Peter 1:3–4) by: understanding salvation and new life in the Spirit, practicing faith-filled speech and prayer, cultivating patience and surrender through seasons of testing, and embracing humble, servant-hearted discipleship that invites God’s light to heal hidden places. THE LIVING WORD PART 2 Pastor Marcos Marrero August 12, 2007 Objective: Equip believers at Signal Hill Christian Center to trust and apply God’s “exceedingly great and precious promises” (2 Peter 1:3–4) by: understanding salvation and new life in the Spirit, practicing faith-filled speech and prayer, cultivating patience and surrender through seasons of testing, and embracing humble, servant-hearted discipleship that invites God’s light to heal hidden places. Synopsis: The message opens with 2 Peter 1:3–4: through Christ, God has already provided everything for life and godliness, delivered as promises that make us “partakers of the divine nature.” The teacher explains salvation as union with Christ: at repentance we “die” to sin’s judgment and rise into new life; all of Christ’s provisions reside within our reborn spirit in seed form and must mature over time. Because growth requires knowledge and practice, Scripture and spiritual principles become essential (Hos 4:6; Prov). The enemy’s core tactic is always, “Did God really say?” so believers must answer with God’s Word. Using Israel’s wilderness as a pattern, the message shows how God trains His people to rely on His Word above circumstances. Romans 8:32 assures that if the Father gave His Son, He will “freely give us all things.” A central motif is the seed: promises germinate in a prepared heart, watered by the Word, and develop in God’s timing/season. Hebrews 4:12 is unpacked as the Word’s life-giving energy that surgically separates and heals soul and spirit—like Spirit-led “radiation” that targets spiritual disease without destroying what is healthy. John 1:1–5 adds that the Word is both life and light; believers must invite that light—by their words—into dark, wounded places (Rev 3:20; Prov 20:27), overcoming guilt and shame so healing can flow. The message models warfare through prayerful speech: David “gave himself to prayer” under accusation (Ps 109) and cried out until his soul was released from prison (Ps 142). Jesus interceded for Peter before the sifting and still intercedes for us as High Priest. We overcome “by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony” (Rev 12:11). Like Caleb, a “different spirit” (faith-filled words) chooses God’s report over fear. Practical response includes three covenant prayers grounded in Scripture: Covenant of Salvation (Rom 10:9–10) — confessing Jesus as Lord and believing in His resurrection. Covenant of Surrender (2 Tim 2:19–21) — turning from wickedness so Christ is Lord over every area, becoming a vessel useful to the Master. Servant’s Covenant (John 12:26; Ps 143:10) — embracing humble service in God’s will rather than self-directed ministry. The message closes by blessing the congregation and leadership, asking for renewed strength, a fresh wind of the Spirit, and a local revival of the Word that releases healing, holiness, and fruitful ministry to the community. Inspired Teaching: problems from Jesus directly. So Lord Jesus, we ask again that uh what you have for us tonight, what you have for this house, for Sigma Hill Christian Center, what you have for the individuals, Father God, that make your church here in this area, that the Holy Spirit will go directly to you, Lord Jesus, and bring to us what we need tonight. We submit ourselves, Father God. I submit myself to you, Father God, to be now a voice, Father God, for the Holy Spirit to speak what you would want your church to hear. I just pray that you will grant us ears to hear, that you would give us a heart to understand, Father God, and the ability to apply what the Holy Spirit speaks to us tonight. In Jesus name, we agree. Father, we say, "Amen." Amen. Praise God. Hallelujah. You can tell I got a little bit too excited this morning. And My voice is kind of wanting. Praise God. That's always good. Anyway, um I'm going to start with the scripture. Second Peter chapter 1:es 3 and 4 is what we finish with this morning. And then uh we read there that according or as his divine power, God through Jesus has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue. Then he tells us what that knowledge brings about. es by which this knowledge have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises that through these promises the knowledge or the understanding of these promises that through this you may be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. So basically by putting things into context we believe that God has already given to us and and I don't want to get too theological but you know uh I think it's 2 Thessalonians 5 says that your whole spirit your whole soul and your whole body may be kept blameless until the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. But our spirit is what is born again. The minute that we confess that we're sinners. See, the word of God says that the soul that sinnth it shall surely die. So in June 2nd, 1976, without me knowing or understanding all of these things, when I walked up to the altar with my wife and then um I repented of my sins, basically God declared me dead right then and there. I have to die. See, you cannot go to the court of God and say that you're a sinner and live because God's word cannot be revoked. God's word said the soul that sinned to surely die. So when I confess my sin and admitted that I was s a sinner immediately the judgment of God was brought upon me. I was declared God the judgment of God said he's dead. The reason why I didn't die there is because Jesus, you see, Jesus provided my death in the cross. He satisfied the divine uh uh uh requirements of God. Jesus is my substitute. I think Paul writes in Corinthians when he says that he who knew no sin became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. In other words, when I went forward and and and my wife went forward, we died. As far as God is concerned, we die. The life that now I now live, like Paul says, I live by the power of the risen son of God. In other words, God in in my spirit gave me life. He took Jesus's all of my sins that have been placed in on Jesus on the cross. He took his death on the cross as full payment for my sins. And immediately God, that's why it says that we're baptized by one spirit into one body. Baptized means to be put under. Uh it's like taking a drop of water and dropping it on the Pacific Ocean. As soon as that drop goes into the ocean, you can't tell where it's at. It becomes part of the whole ocean. My spirit was baptized into the Holy Spirit. And when that happens immediately, your spirit is alive to God. All of the promises of God are now in me in my spirit in seed form. You see, because uh we need to understand that even though salvation is immediate and and and um uh and your names are immediately written in heaven and there's rejoicing in heaven, the minute that a sinner repents, the manifestation of that salvation in us and through us takes a while. You know, one of the odd things because when I I was saved, I was radically transformed. I I mean, I I use this analogy a lot. It was just like somehow God just took the half of my skull up and he reached in there, took my brain and turn it around and put it back in and then put my skull back. It was like, "Oh, wow. Now things, you know, I begin to understand and see things uh uh from a different perspective. That's what what salvation was to me. It was like I was turned around completely, but everything that was in there was in seed form. I went home and I look in the mirror and I look the same. How that's the same me but I don't feel like me anymore. You see there was a transformation. It it it is called born again. Means your spirit all of a sudden now becomes alive. Your spirit now becomes uh uh into the things of God. It was a hunger for anything that had to do with the word of God because it had been starved all these years separated from God. Now, we need to understand that all of that, all of these great and praiseful promises over here that we were just reading, we have to apply knowledge to it. How do you know that God just doesn't all of a sudden uh uh uh gives you all of the wisdom and all of the understanding and and all of the things? One of the things you find out when you get born again that you still make the same stupid mistakes sometimes over and over again. Except this time now you have a spiritual understanding. This time now you're aware. This time now you say, you know what, this is not working for me. You know, when you're in the world, it didn't matter. This is your life. That's what you went with. But now that you're born again, you have a different perspective, a different understanding of what sin is or what sin does of of of of decisions and stuff like that. So then knowledge becomes something that is very much needed. Like I quoted this morning in Hosea, I think it's 6:4, he says that my people perish for lack of knowledge. And I think it was Proverbs um maybe 9:11, the last part. I don't remember for sure but it says that uh it is through knowledge the last part of the verse that the righteous or the just is delivered. So we need to understand there is a requirement now for us not only to study the word but to begin to put what the Bible calls spiritual principles to work. And the reason why I I I um harp so much this morning in the principle of the power of words is because that is the foundation. You see the foundation is everything that is going to be challenging you like uh uh the very first words of Satan Quarter on the Bible. Did God really say? Every challenge that you're going to have whether is sicknesses, whether it's family problems, whether it's business or work related, whatever challenge you have in your life has one root cause and that is Satan challenging the veracity of the word of God or of the promises of God to you. You see, it's going to come to this to where you're going to be faced and having to make a decision. Did God really say? Because that's what Satan is challenging. He's not, you know, God is a God of the person. That's why I love him so much. God can be so awesome and so great. But God is into people. God never invest in big buildings or big program. God, everything that God does has an individual at the center of it. Which is the reason why so many churches fail today. They can build great things, but the individual's needs are not met. God is into people. If you can come face to face to God, you will find out that God is into people. One person to God is a lot more important than a million. There can be a thousand people here tonight and there be one person there with a great need. And God's eyes focus on that person. He said, "That's the sheep that's lost. That's the one that I need to get. That's the one that and that's what God is." But Satan is not like that. Satan is like communism. Everything is is for the the system his system of of destruction. So he will always come to you to the point of of your knee and challenge the veracity of the word of God or of the promises of God in your life. Guess what? And God for the purpose of training us in in in the ways of faith because without faith it is impossible to please God. We are going to be faced with challenges that we're not going to pass until we cross that line and we make the decision and dare to believe what God says in spite of all of the circumstances. Abraham had to do that. Moses had to do that. Every person of faith that you read about in the Bible had to do that. As a matter of fact, in Hebrews 11 talks about some of them never received the promises while they were here. The Bible said they were not the world was not good enough for them. So we need to understand that that is going to be the challenge. Uh God brought the Israelites out of Egypt, Previous Next Related Teachings Heading 6 Teaching Title Heading 6 Button Heading 6 Button Home

PRAYING THROUGH OBEDIENCE The objective of this message is to teach believers how to deepen their prayer life through obedience to God’s commandment of love, forgiveness, and humility. By understanding prayer as an act of obedience, rooted in the Word of God, Christians are equipped to intercede effectively for themselves, others, and even nations—breaking curses, binding evil, and releasing blessings under the authority of Jesus Christ. PRAYING THROUGH OBEDIENCE Minister Lisa Kane October 28, 2025 Objective: The objective of this message is to teach believers how to deepen their prayer life through obedience to God’s commandment of love, forgiveness, and humility. By understanding prayer as an act of obedience, rooted in the Word of God, Christians are equipped to intercede effectively for themselves, others, and even nations—breaking curses, binding evil, and releasing blessings under the authority of Jesus Christ. Synopsis: In this message, Minister Lisa Kane explores the powerful connection between obedience and prayer, beginning with Christ’s commandment in John 13:34 to love one another in a moral and social sense—our duty and obligation as followers of Christ. Prayer through obedience requires believers to forgive others (Matthew 6:14–15), releasing bitterness, hurt, and unforgiveness that often manifest as spiritual and physical bondage. Minister Lisa emphasizes the importance of entering the secret place with God, where transformation occurs. From this place, believers are set apart, their desires change, and they are empowered to pray with authority. Spiritual warfare, she explains, always begins with praise and worship, which ushers in God’s presence and aligns the heart with His will. The teaching highlights the authority given to believers (Psalm 149), showing how to bind kings, governments, and demonic influences through prayer, while also interceding for repentance and transformation rather than destruction. Using Scripture as a two-edged sword (Hebrews 4:12), believers are instructed to pray strategically—beginning with forgiveness, casting out demonic influences, then replacing curses with biblical blessings and life-giving promises (Psalm 133:3; Psalm 5:12). The message provides a practical prayer model, applying these principles to personal struggles, families, governments, industries, and nations. Minister Lisa stresses the need for humility, self-control, and faithfulness when using the authority of Christ’s name. By praying in obedience, believers become effective spiritual warriors who can shift atmospheres, weaken the hold of evil, and prepare hearts for revival. Ultimately, “Praying Through Obedience” calls Christians to submit fully to God’s will, intercede in love, and walk in the authority and responsibility given by Jesus to bring transformation to individuals, communities, and the world. Inspired Teaching: Hello and welcome to the House of Faith Ministries. I'm Lisa Kane. I'm recording this on Saturday, October 28th, 2023. Welcome. This message is called Praying Through Obedience. This is a good message. You're going to be blessed by this one. Let's open up in a word of prayer. Father God, we thank you for your word. We thank you for teaching us how to pray. We thank you for teaching us how to be obedient to our calling to love one another with obedience and moral sense. Thank you, Father God, for your living word of God. And let your scriptures implant in our minds and our hearts that we know them and that we can just share them at the moment that we need to under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Thank you, heavenly father. In the glorious name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Let's go to our opening scriptures here where this is called praying through obedience. We're going to start here in John 13:34. A new commandment I give unto you that ye love. That word love there means in a social moral sense, duty, obligation. This is G35 Strong's Hebrew Greek dictionary. So, let's read that again. A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. All three loves in that scripture is the same love. So Jesus is saying, you know, you got to love me with a moral sense and an obligation duty. So before we dive into this beautiful message, this is an awesome message. I'm I'm going to teach you how to pray this, how to apply it to your life and all those around you, to America, to the world. Uh this is going to be amazing and I hope that you're blessed by it and truly truly blessed. But as you see, we're to love one another, which means we need to love our country. We need to love our governments. We need to love our neighbors, ourselves. But notice that word love. What is that word love? It is a moral sense. social moral sense. It is our duty, our obligation to do that. So, how do you love one another? Because this is where things get interesting now because you want to look at this and see, should I be praying for them? And that's the key right here because when you're praying for them in the spirit, things change. So this is where you're called to fulfill your commandment is here in the secret place praying. Boy, have I been talking about that secret place for a few years now. And I've been talking about this love now for the last few messages. So we're just now going to bring this to the act of obedience. And I'm going to show you who to pray for and what to pray. And I'm going to show you how to pray. So bear with me as we get to every scripture here. And it starts with the spirit of forgiveness. So, we're going to start here in Matthew 6:14 and 15. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you. But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses. Before I dive into that scripture, this is not about your salvation. Anyone who calls upon the upon the Lord shall be saved. Romans 10:13, Joel 2:32, and I believe it's Acts 2:21. Anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. This is different. Look at what this says. It says, "For if you forgive." You see, when you call upon the Lord, you're saved. Now, he's saying, "I want you to forgive." Look at this. What's the word forgive? You need to put away, send forth people, men, women, children, whatever. That trespass. Look at this. It's a sides slip, an offense, an unintentional error and or a willful sin. So he's telling you put it away. You need to forgive and let it go. And he's saying if you do that, your father will also forgive you. If you don't do that, your father won't forgive you. What happens is let's say you're harboring sickness, cancer, disease, whatever. likely it is from holding on to unforgiveness, hatred, bitterness, anger, hurt, suffering. Well, you need to let that go. To let that go, you've got to go to the root of why you have that and you're holding on to it. So, if you're upset with somebody, you've been holding on to it and you're like this, you're just really, really tight. What happens is your body never relaxes. Those cells never relax and they harden. They're so stressed. They're so tight. They never they don't hard or they don't soften. So they harden and when a hardened cell what it does it turns into cancer. It turns into some form of sickness or disease. So nine out of 10en times when you hear somebody who has uh was diagnosed with cancer, this prayer is going to help with that because it starts with the spirit of forgiveness. Why? Because the power and the authority you're about to find out in this message is so amazing that the Lord has to know that you are humble and you will be under humility as you pray this prayer because we got to realize what Moses did when he talked to the Lord about the nation of Israel like stop don't punish them hold on we got to have that heart for the beloved of the people that God loves just as much as he loves me he you know what I'm going to share bitter In reality, he loves Hitler just as much as he loves me. Got to get that concept in your mind. He loves the terrorists as much as he loves me. So, the act of forgiveness is that moment of humility that you have within you. And that's what the Lord is showing us with the concept of the scripture. Amen. John 3:34, for he whom God hath sent set apart, speaketh the words of God. For God giveth not the spare by measure unto him. Okay. So, we're going to be talking about being set apart for this. So, for the most part, anyone who's been following any of my teachings for several months now know that I've been talking about the secret place of the Lord. As you get into that secret place, your life transforms and it changes. Your prayer life changes. That's what's so amazing about this. That's what I love about this. God changes you. He transforms you. So he's going to take you now to that next level where he's going to teach you how to pray. Now what does he have to do first? He sets you apart because you purposed in your heart to put him first in your life. You said, "I'm going to go to the secret place and I'm going to give it to the Lord." Once you do that, guess what happens? He enters into your life. He changes you, but he sets you apart. It's like the desires of your heart changes. And let's say you're someone who used to like to watch horror films. Found out my sister-in-law like that up until this month. We're interceding and we're getting closer to the Lord. She's realizing I don't want to even do that. That's a testimony. Amen. So set apart. Look at and you're going to speak. So we have to know what words to speak. We have to know the word of God. This message is targeted to the people who spend time with the Lord in the secret place that is studying the word of God and getting to know the word of God. So this is going to be powerful going to teach you some good stuff and you're going to be blessed by this. I promise you that. So let's go to the authority we have. We're going to look at Psalm 149. Let's start with verse 1 through3. Praise ye the Lord. Sing unto the Lord a new song and his praise in the congregation of saints. Let Israel rejoice in him that made him. Let the children of Zion be joyful in their king. Let them praise his name in the dance. Let them sing praises unto him with the temporal and harp. Spiritual warfare always begins with praise and worship. And most of the time a lot of people tend to do praise and worship in the church or in the sanctuary. But YouTube has got a lot of praise and worship songs now. You can actually put it on in the background or even put it in on in your secret place while you're praising and praying to the Lord. You could be praising and worshiping him at the same time. Praise and worship is key. Find scriptures that praise the Lord. The mountains rejoice you Lord or or praise you, lift you up. There are many scriptures that praise the heavenly father. Praise him yourself. find something, you know. Um, wow, Lord, today's got a beautiful blue sky. Doesn't hear, but he you just say, "Man, Lord, you really know how to make the color blue. You know how to make the sky look great. You're praising him for what he accomplished in creation." This is key. You got to praise and you got to worship him. Worship is adoration, putting him first. When you go into the secret place and you open up the Bible and you say, "Okay, Lord, let's you and I talk." That's worship because you prioritized him and put him first. Now, I want you to see something here. He says, "Let Israel rejoice in him that made him. Let the children of Zion be joyful in their king. We're adopted into the nation of Israel. We are part of Jesus." When you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, he is Jewish. So, you are actually now part of the nation of Israel. So understand that they've got to rejoice in their king. You're rejoicing in King Jesus. Jesus hasn't come back as king yet, but he will. So get ready. And that's something also to acknowledge that he's your king. This is and all you're what you're doing here is is obedient. Because when you do these things and you're being obedient to it, you're saying to the king, I'm going to do what you commanded me to, which is to love one another. And how do you love in that social moral sense? with your duty and obligation. Amen. All right. Now, verses four and five. For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people. He will beautify the meek with salvation. So, see, this is why we start with spirit of forgiveness. We've got to get humbled before the Lord because of the power and the authority that he's giving us can do some serious damage. And so, we have to have the self-control of the Holy Spirit with the with our tongue. We've got to be able to speak appropriately with the Holy Spirit covering and guiding us and telling us what to pray for. I'm gonna show you how all that works here in just a moment. When you do that, you are obeying him because there's going to be times you don't want to pay pray for a person. I didn't want to pray for a terrorist. And then I went ahead and I did it anyways because the Lord told me to love one another. That's his commandment. I got to obey the commandment. I'm like, "All right, Lord. I'm going to go ahead and pray for him. I'm going to tell you right up front, I don't want to do it, but I'm going to do it anyways because you asked me to. And then what happens is he just he transforms you. Now I want to pray for them because I don't want them to go to hell. I don't want anyone to go to hell, you know. And let that sit in your mind, in your heart. Everybody has a choice out here. Yes. But imagine if we're praying for them. We can save them. We can save them. Oh, you got to get this message. It's awesome. Verse five, let the saints be joyful in glory. Let them sing aloud upon their beds. And I I'm going to tell you how this that scripture means to me personally. Uh I remember years ago we I had a long drive to and from work and I would take my daughter to school. It was about a two-hour drive one way and I turned off music. She was sleeping anyways. and I would put on preachers and I would listen to the word of God. And I did this for like three years. It was a good amount of time that I did this. So I had no music in my my spirit, my soul during that entire time. Well, now you know, I listen to music. I I love putting my headphones on and relaxing to some good Christian music that touches me on the inside. So, what I do now is I'll play this music and I don't do it every day. It's probably once a week or something like that, but I I have, you know, 10, 12, sometime maybe about 20 songs. But I rotate them out with newer things and stuff like that. But I will wake up in the morning now and my spirit is singing that song as I wake up in the morning in my bed. And that is because as I'm waking up, I'm I'm my spirit is still praising the Lord because I'm walking in godliness and righteousness. And I hope this is a testimony to you that I hope it changes you because you can be transformed. And if God can change me, he can change you. I promise you this. And that's what the scripture is saying. So he's identifying this group of people to do this kind of prayer. And I already fit the category and I started doing this. So as he's teaching me, I want to teach you. And that's why I'm doing this message today for this verse six. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth and a twoedges sword. And that is the word of God according to Hebrews 4:12 in their hand. So when we start to pray, we want to pray with scripture. And you are going to realize how much authority you have when you start applying scripture to your prayers. And it changes everything. So he's saying right here, let the high praises be of God be in their mouth. And and notice he said the mouth. And remember what Romans 10:9 says that if you confess with your mouth, your mouth is your key power, total authority here. It's what you say. So all of us who are in this place where the Lord has transformed us, this is what he's saying. Let the high praises of God be in your mouth as you're praising him because you're putting him first. The in the it goes in front of the battle when um you go look at Jericho and the way that the army was set up. The praisers were in front. They're the ones that go out to do the front battle lines because they're praising God, giving him the glory. Because when you put first God in your life when seek first the kingdom of God and then all these things will be added unto you. Catch that. Catch that. So he says, "Let the high praises of God be in their mouth and a two-edged sword in their hand." And that see the the word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword. So he's saying, "Put this word in your hand. You're going to be speaking it and you're going to be speaking it in authority." This is how this works because it works with the mouth. This is why we speak to the mouth. We have a cloud of witnesses around us. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. You've got the angels and the demons, and they're all listening to you. And you've got to determine what you're telling them. Because every time you go into prayer and you go in to do that battle, you start with your praise. But as you enter into the throne room, because you march in, you're marching in. You enter into the throne room. The first thing you're doing is you're addressing the heavenly God and Jesus, your savior. But there's a whole throne room there. And they're listening to your petition. And Jesus will go to God and interrogate him as to where's this going to go if we allow it to happen. You can get that from the last message or the one before it I taught. Either way, it's there. Okay, look at verse seven now here. Okay, you know what I really want to do? Hold on a moment. I want to go one more slide. I want to show you the authority you have. So, we're going to go to verse 9 first. To execute upon them the judgment, this honor have all his saints. Praise ye the Lord. So, you end with praise. So, he's saying what you're about to read because I I put I went to verse nine. What you're about to read in verse seven and 8 is the authority that you have all all well let's read again have all his saints this honor have all saints honor there means magnificent this is incredible this is what we get to do we get to do this we have the power and the authority to do this let this sink into your mind here you know uh what's that Spider-Man with great power comes great responsibility Well, this is what you're seeing it in action here in the scripture with you and me. I don't have to be a superhero, but I got the words to say of God that will penetrate and will release people from demons and will set them free, heal them, and deliver them. We have this power and the authorities. So, let I'm jumping in. Let's get into it. Verse seven, to execute. That word execute there means to do, to make, or accomplish. Vengeance. Wait a minute. We get to execute vengeance. That word vengeance. Revenge. Wait, wait a minute. I get to accomplish revenge. Get this. I know. Revenge from the Lord. Watch. Must show you how this works because this is very powerful. Upon the heathen. And by the way, heathen here, it's translated as foreign nation, gentile, unbeliever. You can add that in. I I should have typed it in there. Unbeliever. Any heathen, somebody who is under the influence of evil, and by the way, could be a believer in Christ, too, that is under the influence of the devil. Keep that in mind because there are people who claim to be Christian and they're claiming it and they might have said it salvation and repented unto the Lord, but they're not living. You see, you have a choice to live for Christ or not to live for Christ. You see, anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That doesn't mean that you live for Christ. It simply means you're saved. You're saved. You go to heaven. Hallelujah. That's better than hell. Okay? And I rather you get there even if you choose not to live for Christ. The problem is is when you do not live for Christ, you are vulnerable to the spiritual influences around the demonic activity and things that way. This is why people get um confused about all this. We got to be very very careful. Okay. So let's get back to this. So to execute vengeance upon the heathen or unbelievers and punishments upon the people or chastisements or corrections. So hold on a minute. We can execute, we can accomplish revenge on the unbelievers, the heathen, the Gentiles, and that's a key word there and the chastisements correction upon the people. I I love watching Jonathan Khan teach. Rabbi Jonathan Khan, if you haven't um met his ministry or got aware of his ministry, he's very powerful teacher. He has gone boldly to send messages to Biden and to the government to let him know what you're doing and and what you need to stop doing. It's time to repent. So, he's he's been sending out the chastisement. Okay. So what we're going to do here is we're going to do it behind the scenes in the spirit. So look at verse eight and it says to bind, which means to yoke or hitch their kings with chains and their nobles with feathers of iron. Okay? Want you to pay attention to this scripture right here. You get to yoke the the king. If Biden's doing something evil, we have the right to yoke him. He's the king of America. Okay? He fulfills that role. The title is president. It means the same thing. You go a little further. You get to bind him with chains. Now, the word chains there is a leap forth word or a spark because it's really focused on fire. But when I see leaps forth, I see it grabbing him. See, you're now speaking action word into the spiritual realm. Remember, we can bind what we bind on earth is bound in heaven. What we loose on earth is loose in heaven. We get to bind the king. It grabs him. It it it sparks him and it it braids him. That word fetter there is braided twine. Um, in this case it's with twine or chains of iron, feathers of iron. And look at this. And then it says, "And their nobles," which means the word to be heavy. But because it's associated with the king, I'm adding the word government in here. Yes, I added this in. It was not in the Strong's dictionary, but it's very applicable. And I want you to see why. Oh, in fact, why is because when you are required to pay your taxes and it gets burdensome, it's hard because that's a thing on you that you're like, I don't want to pay those taxes. I know where they're going. They're going for evil or they're too much. Well, it's heavy. It burdens you. That is our government. So, that's why I'm applying this word here. So, look at this. So, you get to bind the king. You can yoke him, hitch him with a a chain that just leaps forth and grabs a hold of him. And the government with feathers of iron, you get to do that to execute upon them the judgment written. Now, what is the judgment written? Now, the word judgment there means verdict. The verdict written. Okay? The Bible is full of prophecy. I think you see where I'm going with this. Now, the word of God, you know, if you go read Jeremiah, Isaiah, and any of these prophets, and they come against certain kingdoms and nations, they are executing verdict, written judgment against them. When the Lord says this I have against you, remember Jesus did it to us. By the way, we are going to be doing Christlike things. So, we have to be like Christ. He did it when he wrote seven letters to the churches. But this I still have against you as you read through that. Oh, if you haven't read that, you haven't read any of this, you got to go in and read it. See how the written word judges. It's a verdict. Well, we get to make accomplish that written verdict on. Now, look at this. To execute, to do, make accomplish upon them the judgment written. This honor have all his saints. Praise ye the Lord. So, we get to do this to our kings, to our governments, and to ourselves, to those around us. And we get to speak these words of power and authority in the name of Jesus. Let's remember what Jesus said because it starts with spirit of forgiveness. Matthew 6:14 reiterating it here. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you. Okay. So starts with forgiveness. Now let's start with an example prayer here. So, we're going to start this for me. Okay? So, put yourself in my shoes right now and be me or you be yourself. This is you individual. You're praying for yourself. Okay? That's what this is about. Dear heavenly father, I ask you to forgive me. Now, look at what I put in parenthesis here. I'm going to give you a list of things you can pray for. But you can pray for governments, kingdoms, world industries, family members, any special request request, you put that here, right here in this spot. So you acknowledge, you're telling the demons, you're telling the angels, you're telling the heavenly father, you're telling Jesus in the courtroom, I'm praying for and then you tell them. In this case, for this example, we're going to do me. So I ask you to forgive me of my sins. Forgive the sins of the land I walk on. forgive the curses spoken against me and the curses I've spoken. I also ask you to forgive the iniquity found within me in the name of Jesus. And I forgive myself of these things too. So you start with yourself. Why do you do this here? Because you're the one who's going to be praying. So you need to be in godly righteousness because when you speak the words of authority and you are actually atoning and you're going to stand in. You have to make certain that the devil has nothing against you. And it starts here. So you start asking for forgiveness. And when you do that, this is where now because when you speak words, the devil has nothing against you to stop you and what your words say. Oh, you better grab a hold of that one. Oh. Oh, this is awesome. This is awesome. Let's continue on. So, now that everything is forgiven, what you do now is you go after the demonic activity because they think they still have authority because they have a contract. You see, what happens is us, me, or the government or whomever you're praying for goes into a binding contract with the devil and allow the devil to do what he's doing to us. It's a contract and he's legally right to be there because of something we said, something we did, we sinned, whatever it is, he has the right to be there. So now that we forgave it though, we nullify that contract. And guess what happens? He no longer has a right. Because see, when you're standing before the throne room and and you say, "Forgive me of my sins." Jesus says, "Well, I forgive her." And then he goes to God um and heavenly father says I forgive her too. Okay. And he clears off all the contracts. You're clear. You're clean. You are righteous. That is how then I say okay Lord. And watch what you do next. Demonic activity loose me now in the name of Jesus. I bind you with chains of iron preventing you from interfering in my physical and spiritual life again. Ever again. get below my feet where you belong in the name of Jesus. He has to let you go. So, let's say you have a loved one who's dealing with alcoholism or drugs um or is in jail for whatever reason or whatever. This is where you start. Forgive the curses against them. And notice I added the curses on the land because we're walking on the land. The land has been cursed. witchcraft, warlocks, and whatever they that's the they do everything they can to interrupt the land below your feet. So, you have to remove that curse. So, what I do, let's say I'm praying for a family member. Let's say it's my parents. I not only so when I put me in the spot of prayer, I'll put my parents there and I will say, "Okay, and any of their associates or family members with them because every one of us who associate with one another, we're cursing each other like it's no big deal because our language has gone that way. Oh, that food was too hot that they served or it was too cold. Why can't they serve hot food? Uh, this service here is lousy." These are curses that you're placing on whatever establishment you're speaking on. And the devil knows it and he's like, "Yep, that's what I'm doing. Anything to make your life miserable, that's a curse." This is why we have to forgive them. Because the moment you forgive them, wait a minute, God, how could you clear that? They did that. And he said, "Nope. Nope. They're forgiven. I don't see it." That is how God works. So let's let's continue on here. So you're going to now you're going to tell it demonic activity to loose you. And then look at this. Remember I told you you're going to apply scripture. Say I'm allowed to do this per Matthew 18:18. Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. And whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. I know the devil knows the scriptures, but it is our duty to say them when we're praying in the name of Jesus. Oh, hallelujah. So, now let's continue on because we cast out the demons, everything's forgiven. Here is Psalm 133:3. As the do of Hermon and as the do that descended upon the mountains of Zion, for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forever more. This is where you say, I bless my life as you have, heavenly father, life forever more. Oh, this is the part where you add whatever blessings that are in the Bible. I'm blessed to live a long life forever more. I have that right. When you bless your life with this, because remember the curses have been active in your life. You've just broken the curses. You got to replace the curses with something. You're bless you're replacing them with blessings. When you bless all the demonic activity going on around you where you might be in a place where it splatters on you, you're not involved with it, but it it's there. It could affect you where it kills you accidentally or something like this. But by you blessing your life or whomever you're praying, you're blessing them for that long life, which we're entitled. We're entitled to have that as you saw in that scripture. You can find other scriptures and put them in here. We're blessed with life as seek first the kingdom of God. All these things. Psalm 91. Find the scriptures. Put them in there. Speak them as you bless your life. Let's continue on. You know, and yeah. So, now that everything is forgiven, the demons are bound and whatever you're praying for. Now, here's Psalm 5:12. For thou, Lord, will bless the righteous with favor. Wil thou com compass him as with the shield? Here's another blessing. I bless my life with your righteousness and reaffirm your shield round about me. Look at what else you can add here. The fruit of the spirit, the gift of the spirit. Because if you're praying for somebody who's a non-believer, here's where things get very interesting. The gifts of the Holy Spirit works in a very interesting way. When you ask for the fruit of the spirit, you're asking for love, joy, peace, gentleness, kindness, goodness, meekness, faithfulness, and self-control. You're asking for those seeds to be planted in their lives. And what happens is you are asking them to be watered so that they grow and manifest in that individual to become a believer. Or let's say they are part-time church tenders go during Christmas or whatever. Now you can ask for the gifts of the Holy Spirit to start talking in their minds. Give them the gift of discernment, the gift of wisdom, knowledge, gift of speaking in tongues, the gift of interpreting tongues, what and you and you know what? Because the Holy Spirit is not limited to all these gifts that Paul wrote because there's more. Ask the Holy Spirit to give them the gift that is appropriate for them at their time in their life. Sometimes you just got to go walking around smiling at people and that makes a change in their lives. Amen. Now, same principle when you're praying for governments and kingdoms. When you add the your your United States of America or any nation, here is where you can say Psalm 149:7 to execute vengeance upon the heathen, which is what we're studying here, and punishments upon the people. Every per, this is what you pray. Every person in leadership out there in the world, if they choose evil versus good, bind them tight so they can't breathe. Heavenly Father, place them in their sick beds until they repent, they will not be fruitful with evil in the name of Jesus. You have the right and authority to judge them and put you see the Bible tells you that when you are living in curses and you're rejecting God, you get sick and you die early. You can't breathe. You can't breathe spiritually. Well, you have the right and the authority to do that here. Um, same thing with verses 8 and n. every king or person in charge of anything that affects the people of the world. If you do not choose good for the people, but choose to do evil, I bind you tight in the name of Jesus. Heavenly Father, bind them so hard that they can't breathe. Place them in their sick bed so they cannot move forward with evil until they repent. I'm not asking them to be dead. Now, they may die because they ch they don't choose repentance, but the Holy Spirit is working in them. But because you make them so tight with sickness, they cannot move forward in evil. And I can tell you right now, nobody's been praying this because evil is running rampid in our country. Look what else you get to do. I get to stand in their shoes. I can stand in Biden's shoes. I can stand in my loved ones shoes who don't believe. I put myself in their place. Look at how this works. And atone for them, heavenly father. I speak on their behalf. It's like this. Lord, I say I'm stand in in so and so's shoes and I say, "Jesus, save me on his behalf. Jesus, heal me on his behalf." You see, this is how you do that. You're now interceding, atoning for them. Jesus, deliver me. Jesus, help me. Thank you, heavenly father, for your grace, mercy, and salvation, and allowing your saint saints to walk in authority with your name in the Jesus name. Amen. This is now you interceding and atoning for those around you. And I would make sure not just to target the one person you're wanting to see change in, but get everybody around them. If it's one cousin, get their spouse, get their children, get their parents. You want to cover all of them and include them all in that group prayer. That way you are ministering to them. Look at what you get to pray for. You start with me and you can do the nations and their governments and look at the people within those nations and their enemies. When Hamas attacked Israel, I was all upset, man. Al and the Lord reminded me, this is why he's showing me this. And he says, "I want you to pray for them." And I was like, "Okay, I'm gonna do it, but I don't want to." But I did it because it's obedience. Notice the title of this message. Praying through obedience. We've got to be able to be obedient. Control our mouths or tongues. Self-control. I'm not going to curse those that are supporting terrorism. I'm not going to curse them. I choose not to. I'm going to bless them and I'm going to ask the Lord to forgive them. But I'm also going to bind them if they choose evil over good. And I'm going to bind them so hard that they can't breathe. and they're in their sick beds and can't do anything until they repent. Oh, I hope you're grabbing this. I hope you are. Look, you can pray for our Previous Next Related Teachings Heading 6 Teaching Title Heading 6 Button Heading 6 Button Home

FIVE AND NINE, GRACE AND THE SPIRIT The objective of this teaching is to reveal the divine relationship between the numbers five and nine in Scripture, showing how they symbolize God’s grace and spiritual completeness. By examining Paul’s exhortations in 1 Thessalonians 5:14–22, the lesson emphasizes the five graces that form the foundation of Christian maturity and the nine spiritual necessities that follow, leading believers into sanctification, wholeness, and a life aligned with the Spirit. FIVE AND NINE, GRACE AND THE SPIRIT Pastor Marcos Marrero Objective: The objective of this teaching is to reveal the divine relationship between the numbers five and nine in Scripture, showing how they symbolize God’s grace and spiritual completeness. By examining Paul’s exhortations in 1 Thessalonians 5:14–22, the lesson emphasizes the five graces that form the foundation of Christian maturity and the nine spiritual necessities that follow, leading believers into sanctification, wholeness, and a life aligned with the Spirit. Synopsis: In FIVE AND NINE, GRACE AND THE SPIRIT, Pastor Marcos Marrero explores the symbolic and spiritual significance of biblical numbers as they apply to the Christian walk. Beginning with 1 Thessalonians 5:14, Paul instructs believers through five foundational graces—exhort, warn, comfort, uphold, and be patient—which guide personal growth, knowledge, perseverance, and maturity in Christ. These five graces, when cultivated, give birth to nine spiritual necessities listed in verses 15–22, including rejoicing always, praying without ceasing, giving thanks, testing all things, and abstaining from evil. Pastor Marcos explains that just as the number five represents God’s grace and breath, and the number nine represents spiritual completeness, together they form a fourteen-fold process leading to full sanctification of spirit, soul, and body. The teaching draws from examples in both Old and New Testaments—highlighting the nine fruits of the Spirit, nine beatitudes, and nine gifts—as patterns of completeness. Through this lens, Marrero emphasizes that God’s grace (five) working in us produces the Spirit’s fullness (nine), resulting in a life that is whole and blameless before Christ. Ultimately, the message reminds believers that, though we are nothing apart from God, aligning ourselves with Him transforms us from zero to ten, bringing us into spiritual completeness by the power of grace and the Spirit. Written teaching: 1 Thessalonians 5:14 “Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all.” In verse fourteen Paul gives to us five words that will help us to bring forth spiritual qualities in our walk with Christ that will make us whole. As we will see in verses fifteen through twenty-two, nine spiritual necessities are numbered, and they flow as the result of implementing the five graces that he first introduced us to. In biblical reckoning numbers are symbolic. We know that the number nine is the number that symbolizes spiritual completeness, that is why there are 27 New Testament books, nine three times. There are nine spiritual fruits listed in Galatians 5:22-23. In Matthew 5:3-11, nine spiritual blessings are uttered by Jesus. And in 1 Corinthians 12: nine spiritual gifts are listed as well. Whether it is talking about fruit, blessings, or gifts, by enumerating nine of them in each case, it is conveying the idea of spiritual completion in each case. The number five is the number that represents the grace of God. The fifth letter in the Hebrew alphabet represents breath, it is pronounced he, or hey, in either case breath has to come out of our mouths in a short blast in order to enunciate the fifth letter. Since the universe (one-verse, or one-breath) was created by the breath that came out of God’s mouth, the fifth Hebrew letter also represents the Word of God, and in it is where all His graces are found. In Psalm 119, eight verses are given to describe the meaning of each one of the twenty two letters in the Hebrew alphabet, 22 X 8 = 176, so that there are 176 verses in Psalm 119. Look at what the eight verses that correspond to the fifth letter say about the meaning of the fifth letter. Psalm 119:33-40 "1) Teach me, O lord, the way of Your statutes, and I shall keep it to the end. 2) Give me understanding, and I shall keep Your law; indeed, I shall observe it with my whole heart. 3) Make me walk in the path of Your commandments, for I delight in it. 4) Incline my heart to Your testimonies, and not to covetousness. 5) Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, and revive me in Your way. 6) Establish Your word to Your servant, who is devoted to fearing You. 7) Turn away my reproach which I dread, for Your judgments are good. 8) Behold, I long for Your precepts; revive me in Your righteousness.” Even though there are eight verses, the spiritual nature of God’s Word is revealed to us in a nine-fold form: statutes, law, commandments, testimonies, way, word, judgments, precepts, righteousness. It is no coincidence either that our opening verse of Scripture is found in chapter 5 and verse 14, since five and nine add to the number 14. Also, the nine necessities that Paul reveals starting in verse 15, end in verse 22, which symbolizes the completion of the Hebrew alphabet. Just like the book of Revelation has 22 chapters and completes the entirety of the Bible which is the Word of God. All of that to say that the Holy Spirit wants us to pay very close attention to what we have been taught by the five graces, for they can bring about spiritual completeness, that is, deliverance to our souls. Exhort, warn, comfort, uphold, patient. These are the five graces. Exhort has to do with personal growth. 1 Thessalonians 4:1 “Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God.” Our deliverance is a process that goes from glory to glory. We do not conquer to rest when we fight spiritual battles, we briefly rest after we conquer in order to battle and conquer some more. If we are contented with our present spiritual level we will never reach the maturity of the faith. And notice how Paul adds an urgency to the exhort part, God will not give us spiritual maturity unless we zealously desire it. 1 Corinthians 12:31 “But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way.” Paul completes the chapter where the nine spiritual gifts are listed, with the commandment to earnestly desire, not just the gifts, but the best gifts. Warn has to do with personal knowledge of high the cost is, and how great the loss is if we fail to mature in Christ, for there is a lot at stake. 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to posses his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion or lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God.” Without knowledge there can be no personal deliverance, no sanctification, no walking in self-control. Proverbs 11:9 “...But through knowledge the righteous will be delivered.” Comfort has to do with the hope of the resurrection which is the antidote for the sorrow that leads to discouragement. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 “But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.” The process of sanctification contains many ups and downs, but nothing is worse than the lost of a love one that walked side by side with us, and that shared in our triumphs a well as our defeats. So to keep us from getting discouraged Paul charges us with these words about the hope of the resurrection. 1 Thessalonians 4:18 “Therefore comfort one another with these words.” Uphold has to do with not giving up our spiritual visions, dreams, and desires, regardless of how much opposition and resistance we face. 1 Thessalonians 3:4 “For, in fact, we told you before when we were with you that we would suffer tribulation, just as it happened, and you know.” If we are not being persecuted by the world, it is because we are not upholding the spiritual principles that have been handed down to us by God’s holy apostles and prophets. 1 Thessalonians 4:7 “For God did not call us to uncleanness, but to holiness.” We cannot be established by God until we uphold the principles of holiness to which we were called by God to uphold. 1 Thessalonians 3:13 “So that He may establish (uphold) your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.” Be Patient has to do with a mature understanding of the spiritual process. 1 Thessalonians 1:3 “Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father.” Faith hope and love always go together. We believe the Gospel through the love that is manifested toward us in it, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us, then we patiently hope that the work that Jesus began in us, He will bring to completion as long as we do not give up. 1 Thessalonians 5:24 “He who calls you is faithful, who will also do it.” These five graces are the foundation which will bring in us the nine spiritual qualities that can make us whole. 1 Thessalonians 5:15-22 "1) See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, 2) But always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all. 3) Rejoice always, 4) Pray without ceasing, 5) In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 6) Do not quench the Spirit. 7) Do not despise prophecies. 8) Test all things; hold fast what is good. 9) Abstain from every form of evil.” In this lesson, the five graces represent the root of the tree, if the root of the tree is well nurtured, these nine branches will form a tree which will not fail to produce spiritual fruit to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And here are the results of this fourteen-fold process: 1 Thessalonians 5:23 “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The words completely, and your whole spirit, soul, and body, are all represented in the numbers five and nine. If you want to know what all these things mean to you my friend, here is the simple answer, God has your number! God is the big number One, we are the simple zero, by ourselves we are nothing, and we have nothing. But when we by faith align ourselves to Him in the proper order, immediately we become His precious treasured possessions. The only way that a worthless zero can ever become a ten is by surrendering everything to Jesus Christ, and by making these simple steps a way of life, and God Himself will take care of the rest. Previous Home Next