House of Faith Ministries
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SPIRITUAL DARKNESS The objective of Spiritual Darkness is to reveal the dangers of walking in spiritual blindness and compromise, to expose the three unclean spirits—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—that work in tandem to keep people in bondage, and to call believers to stand firmly in the light of God’s Word. The lesson aims to equip Christians with discernment to recognize spiritual deception, reject compromise, and embrace the truth of God’s Word as their weapon in spiritual warfare. SPIRITUAL DARKNESS Pastor Marcos Marrero January 1, 1900 Objective: The objective of Spiritual Darkness is to reveal the dangers of walking in spiritual blindness and compromise, to expose the three unclean spirits—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—that work in tandem to keep people in bondage, and to call believers to stand firmly in the light of God’s Word. The lesson aims to equip Christians with discernment to recognize spiritual deception, reject compromise, and embrace the truth of God’s Word as their weapon in spiritual warfare. Synopsis: In Spiritual Darkness, Pastor Marcos explores Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 6:23, showing how the condition of one’s spiritual eyes determines whether the body is filled with light or darkness. He explains that spiritual darkness is not merely the absence of light, but a counterfeit light rooted in deception and pride. The three major spirits at work—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—operate together to blind hearts and ensnare souls. The lust of the flesh represents inward selfish desires, while the lust of the eyes operates externally, enticing the flesh to open the door to sin. The pride of life, the deadliest of all, locks people in darkness by keeping them from admitting wrong and humbling themselves before God. Pastor Marcos illustrates how spiritual blindness manifests in addictions, compromises, and religious pride, all of which alienate people from God’s truth. This message emphasizes that the true battle is not over fleshly struggles alone but over truth versus lies. Those who walk in darkness are captives of the enemy, while those who walk in the light of God’s Word are empowered to set captives free. Believers are called to reject compromise, cleanse themselves from filthiness of the flesh and spirit, and remain steadfast in truth. The antidote to spiritual darkness is humility, repentance, and obedience to God’s Word, which brings true spiritual enlightenment and victory. Inspired Teaching: Matthew 6:23 “But if your eye is bad (evil, or in poor condition), your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” There are some great insights about spiritual darkness in our opening verse. First Jesus tells us that the condition of our spiritual eyes is critical for the wellbeing of our entire body. The great second insight that I find is when Jesus refers to the darkness in an individual as if the light that is in you is darkness, referring to darkness as a type of light. Let us deal first with the spiritual condition of the eyes for they have a direct effect on the body, be it positive or negative. 1 John 2:16 “For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.” There are three major unclean spirits that work together to bring the entire person into spiritual darkness, these three spirits work in tandem in order to suppress and/or to pervert the higher calling of God for man. Since we are all descendants of Adam whose flesh was corrupted by the spirit of the lust of the flesh, all of us humans are born with the spirit of lust within us, also known as selfish-ambition, so that the propensity for sin is already in us. But thankfully God has blessed us with cognition, we are born with the natural ability to understand right and wrong, so that when we are tempted by our selfish desires, we have built in discernment that allows us to weigh out the possible consequences of our actions. The lust of the eyes is an external spirit, always operating from the outside trying to get in, in order to do so it has to connect with its kindred spirit, the spirit of the lust of the flesh that dwells in the inside and who is able to open the door to the external spirit that wants to come in. A bad spiritual eye, or an eye that is evil, is in no condition to recognize the spirit that lurks behind the temptation that its being tempted with, so that it cannot fully weigh the consequences of its indulging in the lust that its being offered. A good eye will always caution the person as to what is really at stake if it proceeds to indulge in the temptation. A good example would be that of a person being offered drugs for the first time; the temptation is the experience of a very personal internal high that is attained through the intake of external things, like the ingesting of drugs that alter a body’s normal functions. The effects of the drugs eventually wear out, but the spirit behind it stays in, and it becomes the force that eventually compels that person to continuously seek another, and another external fix to which it becomes addicted. A person with good spiritual eyes has the ability to weigh properly the consequences of its actions. Spiritual vision is the ability to foresee that which at the present is invisible. Let me use the same example, let’s say that a person is offered drugs for the first time, who is aware of the ruinous consequences that drugs can have in a person’s life, no matter how alluring that temporary high may sound, a person in the right frame of mind would immediately say; it is not worth it! Matthew 6:22 “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good (clear or healthy), your whole body will be full of light (full of a clear and healthy understanding).” Our inabilities to understand the spiritual consequences of our actions is what plunges us into the realm of spiritual darkness. The lust of the eyes is always hard at work to deny the reality of the truth so that it can join forces with the spirit of the lust of the flesh. But there is a third spirit whose work keeps in bondage those who fell into the original deception. So that those who were originally deceived are now kept in the chains of darkness by its power, this spirit has to be defeated if they want to be made free again. Matthew 6:21 “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Now we are dealing with the third and most deadly of the three, the spirit of the pride of life and it resides deep within the heart of man. It is the folly of a man that ensnares him, but it takes his pride to keep him bound. When a man replaces the light of sound judgment with the darkness that he calls light, because he is too proud to admit that he did wrong deep in his heart, that type of blindness is what is called spiritual darkness. I've been using common illustrations to portray spiritual realities here, but it is not sins or addictions that we are dealing with in this lesson, but rather, the issues here are, light which represents God’s enlightenment, and darkness which is represented by the pride of the wisdom of man. We are in the midst of spiritual warfare, there is an ensuing battle that has raged on for thousands of years, this war is being fought by the forces of darkness against the forces of light. It is not fought with carnal weapons, it is a fight between truth and lies, our mightiest of weapons is the truth of the Word of God which always defeats the lies of the enemy. Those who walk in spiritual darkness are prisoners of war who have been taken captive by the devil to do his will. Those who walk in the spiritual enlightenment of the Word of God are like mighty warriors who conquer the strongholds of the enemy and set the captives free. Who are the captives? Ephesians 4:17-18 “This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their (spiritual eyes) heart.” In times of war there should be no room for pride for it is pride, the pride of man, that blinds the human heart to the wisdom of God’s Word. The pride of a religious mindset can blind its followers to the truth of God’s Word. The pride of religious traditions can blind the minds of its followers to the truth of God’s Word. The pride of religious status, commonly known as the praise of man, can blind the minds of its recipients to the truth of God’s Word. Anything that has been corrupted, of which we are a part of somehow, if we fail to recognize the corruption and do not make every effort to alienate ourselves from it, will surely cause our minds to be blinded to the truth of the Word of God, and we do not want that. Ephesians 5:6-8 “Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them. For you were once darkness, but now your are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.” Here is what I am trying to say, stay away from compromise; spiritual darkness makes its bed in compromise, and once in it your sleep will be nothing but nightmares of darkness and gloom. Is there compromise between light and darkness? How about between truth and lies? When is it okay to discard the wisdom of God for the counsel of man? But yet people do it everyday, I have to believe that it is because they have no clue as to what the will of God is for their lives. Ephesians 5:17 “Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” If we walk in the light as He is in the light then we have fellowship with one another, according to 1 John 1:7 But how can we have fellowship with those who walk in spiritual darkness? You see the predicament that walking in spiritual darkness puts the body of Christ in. But the promise is that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from that foul spirit of the pride of life that keeps so many in bondage. 2 Corinthians 7:1 “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” We cannot cast out the spirit of the lust of the flesh that is attached to our natural selfish desires, so that we will always face temptations while in our mortal bodies. But if we are fully aware of the consequences of giving into the spirit of the lust of the eyes, it makes it easier for us to reject the temptations knowing that we do not want to be in spiritual darkness. Remember that the focus of this teaching is not about our everyday struggles with the flesh, This is a lesson about the spiritual warfare that we are engaged in. In this lesson we are exposing the spirits that want to contaminate your faith by making this a carnal fight. Our bodies already died with Christ on the cross, this is a battle for truth, the truth of the Word of God. It is the enlightenment that comes from the truth that makes the captives free. If you have fallen prey to any of the many facets of the demonic doctrines of man’s wisdom, do not walk in pride, admit that you were deceived and refuse to walk in darkness anymore. Reject compromise and stand in the truth of the Word of God and the truth of God’s Word will be your vindication. Nail the spirit of the pride of life to the cross and it will never bother you again as long as you keep your eyes on Jesus. 1 John 2:5 “But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.” Previous Next Home

DELIVERANCE FROM DISCOURAGEMENT The objective of this teaching is to equip believers with the biblical tools to overcome discouragement by relying on the Word of God as their spiritual weapon. It seeks to encourage Christians to remain strong and courageous in the face of trials, recognizing that discouragement is a spiritual battle fought with God’s promises, prayer, and faith. The lesson aims to help the reader align their perspective with God’s timing and purpose, so they may walk in victory and hope regardless of changing circumstances. DELIVERANCE FROM DISCOURAGEMENT Pastor Marcos Marrero January 1, 1900 Objective: The objective of this teaching is to equip believers with the biblical tools to overcome discouragement by relying on the Word of God as their spiritual weapon. It seeks to encourage Christians to remain strong and courageous in the face of trials, recognizing that discouragement is a spiritual battle fought with God’s promises, prayer, and faith. The lesson aims to help the reader align their perspective with God’s timing and purpose, so they may walk in victory and hope regardless of changing circumstances. Synopsis: In Deliverance from Discouragement, Pastor Marcos Marrero draws from Joshua’s journey into leadership after the death of Moses to highlight how God strengthens His people against discouragement. God repeatedly commands Joshua to be strong and courageous, teaching that His Word must be meditated on, spoken aloud, and used as a weapon against spiritual attacks. The teaching explains that discouragement feeds on death and change, both of which bring uncertainty and fear. Yet God’s command to Joshua—“Moses My servant is dead…Arise, go over this Jordan”—reveals the call to move forward in faith instead of remaining bound by despair. Pastor Marcos compares this to today’s world, where moral decline, cultural changes, and spiritual compromise can easily lead Christians into discouragement. However, God’s timing is always perfect, and His promises remain sure despite shifting circumstances. The message emphasizes the need for prayer, unity of the Spirit, and confidence in God’s eternal refuge. Using biblical examples, Marrero encourages believers to wield the “sword of the Spirit,” remain steadfast in faith, and find joy in the unchanging promises of God. Ultimately, the teaching reminds Christians that discouragement cannot prevail when we understand God is in control, and that even in times of decline and suffering, our blessed hope in Christ draws nearer. Inspired Teaching: Joshua 1:7 “Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go.” Several times the Lord tells Joshua to be strong and very courageous, for this is a critical time in the life of Joshua, and the Lord is ministering to him personally, to keep him from getting discouraged by the circumstances that he is presently facing and those which he will be facing later. We need to remember that discouragement is a spirit, and we do not fight spirits with physical weapons, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, we fight spirits with the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God, and that is how we overcome them. Joshua 1:8 “This Book of the Law (the Word of God) shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” God tells Joshua that His Word, which He gave the Israelites through Moses, is an indispensable weapon that he needs to use and maintain continuously in order to overcome the spirit of discouragement. How do you fire this weapon? With your mouth! Watch what you say! We are to meditate in His Word day and night, that is how we keep our spiritual weapons clean and loaded, and we are to fire it every time that we come under attack from the enemy. If the spirit of discouragement has a favorite meal, the spirit of death would be it, for discouragement feeds on dead things like worms do. Joshua 1:2 “Moses My servant is dead. Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them—the children of Israel.” Death always brings change with it, and change is something that we naturally mistrust, for with change comes another opportunity for us to fail, and in our relationship with God, having a new opportunity to fail God again in a different way, is not something that we welcome. God simply tells Joshua with five little words that, Moses My servant is dead, and with that simple, yet very powerful statement, He tells Joshua that it is time to move one and to, Arise, go over this Jordan. God is basically telling Joshua not to be afraid to cross that river that stands between him and God’s promises, and to not let the spirit of discouragement keep him from fulfilling God’s destiny for his life. From Joshua’s experience we can learn that he had plenty of opportunities to be discourage, when God took Moses to the mountain top for forty days, Joshua was kept out in no man’s land, while the children of Israel that stayed back and fell into idol worship. It is very difficult for us humans to deal with the reality of not belonging, for what we are a part of, is what helps us to identify with who we are as a person. Joshua was in a transition period for many years, kept there by God until the day came when he was to step into the new order of things that God had prepared him to fulfill. Joshua 1:9 “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Perhaps the most difficult part for us to understand when we are in the midst of no man’s land, spiritually speaking, is that we are still part of the purpose and will of God, not only for our lives, but even within the will and greater purpose that Jesus has for His church. There are so many things changing right now that it is impossible for me to enumerate them all, but it is this change that is taking place right now, that is discouraging so many Christians today. We are living witnesses of the demise of western civilization. We are witnessing the death of the institution of marriage, and we are witnessing the death of the godly principles that the martyr’s of the Gospel of Jesus Christ died to secure for us. Life has become a choice as well as gender. Many churches have fallen prey to the gospel of conformity, so that the spiritual life of many churches has been drained out, leaving many of the faithful within those churches to ask this question, where has the Spirit gone? Death and change seem to be the only certainty. In order for us not to get discourage we need to keep all that is going on right now within the context of the Word of God. Remember that God promised Abraham four hundred years earlier the land that they were about to enter, and God also told Abraham that the iniquity of the inhabitants of the land had not reached its peak at that time, so that his descendants would have to wait for their inheritance before they could enter and possess the land of promise. Genesis 15:13, 16 “...Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs (Egypt), and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years...But in the fourth generation they shall return here (the land promised to Abraham), for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” So that God’s timing precedes everything, way before Moses was born, and before Joshua was born, and before whatever circumstance arose that Joshua was facing, God had already set up the time and date for their conquest to begin four hundred years earlier. Had Joshua concentrated on the facts that his circumstances presented him with, he would have had reasons to be discouraged. But God was there to remind him to keep his eyes on the Word of God, for therein lay the promises of a God who cannot lie. 2 Timothy 3:1-4 “ But know this, that in the last days perilous (times of stress) times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.” But know this: Can you hear the certainty with which Paul makes this statement about our present day condition? It helps us to know that whatever it is that is going on right now, God knew what it would be like thousands of years before it came to pass. Let us ask ourselves a few questions in regards as to what is going on today, and let us see if we can answer them within the context of what God said would take place, and what took place during the days of Joshua. Is the world as a whole and society in particular going through a radical change right now for the worst? Yes it is. Did God say that it would happen like this at the end of time? Yes He did. Is there a reason why God is letting the moral fibers of society to become undone? Yes there is. Why is God letting those things that kept us together for centuries all of the sudden become undone? Have we reached the point of conclusion? Our prayer emphasis has been for the unity of the Spirit, the more united that we become in the Spirit in our prayers, the stronger that we are at restraining the power of lawlessness. It is my belief that true Christianity does not slack in prayer in the face of discouraging news, it is the opposite, the more bad news that we hear, the greater our prayer emphasis becomes, for we know that the more that sins abound, the more that the grace of God abounds as well, so that we do not give up in our praying no matter what. I’ve then reached the conclusion that the reason why the power of lawlessness seems to be increasing it is because we are within reach of the point of conclusion, the event horizon, the point of the end. If that is the case, the death of Moses before Joshua lead the children of Israel into the Promised Land, can be likened to the death of our Judeo-Christian values before our Joshua, Jesus, leads us into our Promised Land, the resurrection and rapture of the body of Christ. Isn’t it amazing that from Christianity’s point of view death does not lead into depression but into salvation? For us Christians, natural death is welcome for as stated within His promises, Absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, so that as we are witnessing the death of everything that is near and dear to us, be it civil or moral, religious or traditional, the things that are dying, be it good or bad, can only mean one thing for us Christians, our blessed hope is nearer than we think. Here is the last will and testament of Moses, the servant of God, before He died and blessed the children of Israel with these promises. Deuteronomy 33:26-29 “There in no one like the God of Jeshurun, who rides the heavens to help you, and in His excellency on the clouds. The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms; He will thrust out the enemy from before you, and will say, ‘Destroy!’ Then Israel shall dwell in safety, the fountain of Jacob alone, in a land of grain and new wine; His heavens shall also drop dew. Happy are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord, the shield of your help and the sword of your majesty! Your enemies shall summit to you, and you shall tread down their high places.” Here are some promises that will keep us from getting discouraged no matter what changes we are going through right now. Who rides the heavens to help you. We can count on His spiritual help; just this week I saw on the news how Christians are being killed and persecuted in the Middle East, and how their places of worship and homes are being burned, I saw this Christian priest forced face down to the ground before he was beheaded, and I thought to myself, what a great honor this man was given, it humbled me to the core, how God allows some of His servants to die a martyr’s death, I could just hear the cheers from heaven as he was welcome into the joy of our Lord and given a place of honor among those who have died for the faith, like apostles and prophets of old. It touched me because every night my wife and I pray for those who are being persecuted for the sake of the Gospel, and in my prayer I always pray that God would give His strength to those whom He has called to give their life as an offering to God, seeing this man, not resisting but peaceful, encouraged me to know that God always answers our prayers. The eternal God is your refuge. In the natural, those killed and those persecuted and tortured for the sake of the Gospel, might be viewed by unspiritual people as unfortunate or disadvantaged, but what does the Word of God say? Hebrews 13:6 “So we may boldly say: ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?’” Our time here on this earth is temporary, our refuge in God is eternal! Happy are you, O Israel. Happy people are people who are not discouraged. For their happiness is based on the eternal promises of God that do not change with the circumstances. The shield of your help and the sword of your majesty! Remember how God told Joshua that, This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, well, the shield of our help is the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the breastplate of righteousness which cover and protect our vital parts, but we have also been given a majestic sword, and this is an offensive weapon, which we can use to execute against our spiritual enemies the will of God, to tread down and subdue the strongholds of the enemy, with the words that proceed out of our mouths, as we enforce the Word of God over our enemies. Psalm 149:6-9 “Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand, to execute vengeance on the nations, and punishments on the peoples; to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; to execute on them the written judgment—this honor have all His saints. Praise the Lord!” Once we understand that if we are in the will of God, whether we are called to martyrdom, suffering, or to triumph over our enemies, it does not matter what the circumstances are, as long as we believe that we are within the will of God for our lives, no discouragement can afflict us. Nations may fall, they may rise, or nothing may end up taking place after all, it does not really matter, as long as we know that our God is in total and complete control of whatever situation we might be facing, we have peace and the assurance of His promises for us who believe. Joshua 1:5 “No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you.” Go into God’s spiritual bank today, and in the name of Jesus deposit some of these promises, for they will suffice to cover for whatever debt or lack you may have that is causing you to be discouraged. Just remember that whatever situation you are facing today will pass, but the promises of God, they endure forever. Previous Next Home

THE BEWITCHING HOUR The objective of The Bewitching Hour is to expose the dangers of spiritual deception, or “bewitchment,” and to remind believers that the only safeguard against falling into error is the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Pastor Marcos seeks to encourage Christians to remain grounded in the truth of the Gospel of grace through faith in Jesus Christ rather than drifting into legalism or works-based righteousness. THE BEWITCHING HOUR Pastor Marcos Marrero Objective: The objective of The Bewitching Hour is to expose the dangers of spiritual deception, or “bewitchment,” and to remind believers that the only safeguard against falling into error is the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Pastor Marcos seeks to encourage Christians to remain grounded in the truth of the Gospel of grace through faith in Jesus Christ rather than drifting into legalism or works-based righteousness. Synopsis: In The Bewitching Hour, Pastor Marcos draws from Paul’s warning to the Galatians—“Who has bewitched you?”—to highlight how easily a Spirit-filled church can fall into deception without even realizing it. He explains that deception, like hypnosis, blinds believers to their own folly and causes them to squander the spiritual anointing given by God for discernment. Pastor Marcos shows how the Galatians, once alive in the Spirit through faith in Christ, were led astray by false teachers who insisted on legalism and adherence to the Law of Moses. This shift from grace to works caused them to lose the anointing that empowered them. He makes clear that the law, while perfect, was never designed to save—it only exposes sin. True righteousness can never be attained by human effort, but only by faith in Jesus Christ’s finished work on the cross. The message warns that the door to a bewitching spirit opens whenever believers or congregations compromise the truth of God’s Word. Pastor Marcos emphasizes that although obedience to God’s commands is important, salvation is never earned by keeping the law but is received as the free gift of grace through faith. Ultimately, the antidote to deception is the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit and the anointing He supplies, which reveals truth and keeps believers free from the curse of legalism. The message closes with the reminder from Ephesians 2:8-9 that salvation is by grace alone, through faith, and not of works, lest anyone should boast. Inspired Teaching: Galatians 3:1 “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified.” Deception has to be the worse pit of all to fall in for those of us who are alive. Think of it, if we are being deceived we wouldn’t know it, for if we did, it would not be called deception. Here Paul uses the word bewitched to inform the Galatians that they have been deceived and that they do not know it. Another way to think about it is by looking at people who are hypnotized and make fools of themselves in front of others, and after they are brought out of their hypnotic trance they are not even aware of the foolishness that they committed while under the hypnotic spell. Proverbs 21:20 “There is desirable treasure, and oil (anointing) in the dwelling of the wise, but a foolish man squanders it.” The worst part is that once a believer falls under bewitchment, he/she squanders the anointing that God has given them for true discernment. How did the Galatians church turn from being a Spirit filled church into a deceived and bewitched fellowship? Galatians 3:2 “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?” Paul does not mess around, he goes right after the heart of the issue, and asks them the question of how they received their spiritual anointing originally, for after all that was what they had squandered away. How do we know whether we are being deceived or not? The anointing tells us! If the anointing is present within us, we have nothing to fear, for it is the anointing that always reveals God’s truth which is the antidote for deception. But if the anointing is lacking, then we should know that there is a problem that needs to be dealt with. By definition bewitching means that there is a problem that is present, and for some unexplained reason, nobody can or seems to be able to do anything about it, they just keep putting up with it. The door for a bewitching spirit is opened when an individual or a congregation compromises the Truth of the Word of God! Matthew 7:26 “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish (one who squanders the anointing) man who built his house on the sand.” In the case of the Galatians church, they started with a great anointing that was brought about by Paul’s preaching to them about God’s grace, as he clearly portrayed to them Jesus Christ crucified for their sins. Then some Jews who wanted all the Gentile believers to be converted to Judaism and follow the law of Moses, preached to the Galatians a different gospel than what Paul had preached to them, a gospel of legalism to which they were now trying to conform. Galatians 3:3 “Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? (the works of the law)” This does not mean that we do not try to live up to the righteous standards of the perfect Law of God, for this is what Scripture says about that: 1 Peter 1:16 “Because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy.’” What was at issue here was how does one attain to the righteousness of God, is it through the works of fulfilling the requirements of the Law or by simple faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead? Galatians 3:5 “Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you (for the anointing that works miracles) and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” It should have been obvious to all the Jewish believers that the law of Moses never made anyone perfect, on the contrary the law convicted them of sin, so that when Jesus preached to them that salvation is a gift from God that cannot be earned or merited, the true Gospel was revealed to them as it had been prophesied in the Old Testament to them: Galatians 3:11 “But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for the just shall live by faith.” Habakkuk 2:4 “Behold the proud (legalist), his soul in not upright with him; but the just shall live by his faith.” So that the legalism of the day was become a Jewish convert, and we will not persecute you, and that was what got the Galatians into trouble with the apostle Paul, and the reason why the anointing had left them. Galatians 5:11 “And I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution? Then the offense of the cross has ceased.” The offense of the cross to the legalists was that now righteousness before God could be attained by simple faith in the work of salvation that Jesus accomplished for us in the cross. I know that this can be a little confusing to some people, so let me try to explain it in another way. What does it profit a Christian to try to live up to the commandments of God? Let us look at the commandment that says do not steal. If you are a Christian all your sins are forgiven you, but if you steal while a Christian, will the law of the land forgive you also for being a believer? No, you get caught stealing and you ask the Lord to forgive you, He will forgive you according to 1 John 1:9, but you are still going to have to do the time for breaking the laws of man. So that as a Christian if you steal, you will not only lose your freedom, but you will lose your testimony as well. The same can be said about committing adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lying, dishonoring your parents, or whatever other commandments there may be, there are always consequences for breaking God’s Law. Being honest, faithful, trustworthy, responsible and law abiding can get you far in this world with the law and with others, but not with God as far as your salvation is concern. People who abide by the basic principles of the law will fair much better in this world than those who are the law breakers. But if you want God to save you on the merits of your legal standing within God’s Law, you are in deep trouble. Galatians 3:10 “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.’” What does that mean? Psalm 19:7 “The law of the Lord is perfect…” The Law of the Lord is perfect, and we are not! So that if we wanted to be made perfect before God on the merits of keeping His Law for the purpose of salvation, we would have to keep all of them, all the time. And that is very much impossible since we are all born sinners before we even get old enough to have a chance to do good or bad. That is why the conception of Jesus was not the work of man, but He was conceived by the Spirit of the Living God in the womb of the virgin. Galatians 4:4-5 “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law (to fulfill the Law in order that He may), to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.” Galatians 3:22 “But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.” 1 Peter 1:23 “Having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever.” Now here is a final truth that will keep you from becoming bewitched. Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Previous Next Home

SOUL IDENTITY: THE REAL YOU The objective of Soul Identity: The Real You is to reveal the divine design and true identity of the human soul as created by God, to expose the lies of Satan that distort and fragment that identity, and to demonstrate how God’s Word restores and redeems the soul to its original purpose and beauty. This teaching calls believers to recognize their worth in Christ, renounce the lies of the enemy, and walk in the truth that they are fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God. SOUL IDENTITY: THE REAL YOU Pastor Marcos Marrero January 1, 1900 Objective: The objective of Soul Identity: The Real You is to reveal the divine design and true identity of the human soul as created by God, to expose the lies of Satan that distort and fragment that identity, and to demonstrate how God’s Word restores and redeems the soul to its original purpose and beauty. This teaching calls believers to recognize their worth in Christ, renounce the lies of the enemy, and walk in the truth that they are fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God. Synopsis: In Soul Identity: The Real You, Pastor Marcos Marrero explores Psalm 139 as a profound revelation of God’s intricate workmanship in creating the human soul. He explains how each soul is uniquely woven together by God with strands of personality, will, and emotion—forming a divine identity that reflects God’s glory. Yet, just as a knitted garment can unravel when snagged, so too can the soul become fragmented by the lies of Satan, which tear at its integrity and distort its original design. Pastor Marcos highlights the contrast between lies that break and bruise the soul and the Truth of God’s Word that heals and restores. Drawing from David’s psalms, Job’s struggles, and the New Testament teachings of Jesus, he shows how words—whether truthful or deceitful—carry the power to shape or shatter a soul’s reality. He reminds us that our real identity is not what the world says we are, but who God says we are. The lesson emphasizes that the enemy’s earliest and most destructive lie is that life has no value or purpose. But God, as the Everlasting Father, affirms every believer’s worth and destiny. Pastor Marcos explains that through Christ’s sacrifice—His stripes for our outward sins and His bruises for our inward wounds—our fragmented souls can be made whole again. Finally, the message calls believers to renounce every lie they have believed, replace it with the liberating truth of God’s Word, and embrace their eternal identity as God’s children. To know the “real you” is to know that your soul originated from God, is sustained by His Spirit, and is destined for everlasting life in Him. Inspired Teaching: Psalm 139:14 “I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well.” Psalm 139 gives us a great deal of details into the creation of the human soul and its complexities, it also speaks volumes of how God is able to bring forth a brand new soul out of nothing into existence. Psalm 139:13 “For You formed my inward (invisible soul) parts; You covered (wove me, like knitting a garment) me in my mother’s womb.” Our souls, like our physical bodies, are made of many individual parts that are designed to work together in unity to form the whole person. Unlike the physical body which is comprised of diverse organs within a skeletal frame that’s held together with muscles and sinews, our souls are knitted together out of a consortium of different strands of personality traits, wills, and emotions, that come together to form the person that we become with its unique identity and temperament. And just like a knitted garment that snags on a sharp object and ends up pulling on one or more of the strands, which ends up in distorting the complexity and beauty of the original piece, so it is with the human soul. Psalm 139:19-20 “Oh, that You would slay the wicked, O God! Depart from me, therefore, you bloodthirsty men (men of bloodshed who tear at the soul with lies). For they speak against You wickedly; Your enemies take Your name in vain.” Suddenly the beauty of Psalm 139 is abruptly interrupted by what it seems like an out of place rant by David, but if we understand that what tears apart the human soul is the lies that the enemy continuously utters against it, then we can appreciate the importance of David’s words in regards to what causes the human soul to become fragmented, and in turn, we can learn what it takes to put it back together again. Job 19:2 “How long will you torment my soul, and break me (my soul) in pieces with words?” Words of Truth are not only the governor of the soul, but its liberator as well. It cannot get any simpler than that, the lying words of Satan are designed to fragment the human soul to such an extent that it causes such a soul to lose its original design and it makes it out to become a fraudulent entity, a distorted copy of what once was an original and exquisite design created in the image and to the glory of God. David was an expert when it came to understanding his soul, and why he behaved at times in a manner inconsistent with the anointing that he had upon his life, listen to what he says in Psalm fifty-one. Psalm 51:5 “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.” David understood that from his mother’s womb Satan had been at work to pervert the original personality that God intended for David to be, that is why within the beauty of Psalm 139 he abruptly inserts his call of condemnation against the wicked ones and their lying distortions and calls on God to slay them for profaning the beauty of the Lord’s name. Since we were all created, within our souls, in the image of the invisible God, every time that there is a tampering against our soul’s original make up, it is done as a disrepute against the Maker, who stamps His brand name on each and every one of us, that is why David states the following: Psalm 51:4 “Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight—that You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge.” David knew that his sin with Bathsheba had caused harm against many innocent others, but what he means when he says to God that, against You, and You only have I sinned, David is recognizing that the only brand name that He impugned by his actions was God’s name, and by David making a public acknowledgment of Satan’s tampering with what God had originally made good, David in a sense sets out to clear God’s name, that is why he adds: that You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge. So that the burden is on us, when we do not live up to God’s original design, to recognize that it is the lies of the devil that we believed that caused us to cast ill repute upon the veracity of God’s Word. Psalm 89:32 “Then I will punish their transgression with the rod, and their iniquities with stripes.” Jesus suffered both, stripes and bruises, at the hands of His executioners on our behalf, the stripes symbolized that which was visible, in our case, our sinful actions that are there in the open for everyone to see. The bruises symbolized the hidden areas within our souls that caused us to sin in the first place. The blunt trauma that a person suffers when struck by a rod is not immediately seen until much later when a bruise appears. Job said that his tormentors were breaking his soul to pieces with their words of accusation. Lies break, bruise, and deform the human soul, but on the other hand, Truth heals the soul the same way that the medicated ointment heals the visible stripes, but Truth has to be applied to the deep inward parts that comprise our human souls. Psalm 51:6 “Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part (the real you, not who or what you have become) You will make me to know wisdom (liberating Truth).” Can you imagine that, the real us has been hidden from us all these years by the lies that the devil has perpetrated against us, and we like fools just followed along with those lies, believing something about us that was never true. Psalm 51:14 “Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness.” Remember what David says in Psalm 139:19-20, he tells those bloodthirsty men to depart from him, for they are profaning the Lord’s name with their wicked lies. After David renounces them, then he asks the Lord to deliver his soul from the blood shedding guilt of believing and following along with their wicked lies. How do I know what wicked lies the devil has perpetrated against me? Boy, where do we start? Let us start at the beginning, within the womb. Job 3:3, 11 “May the day perish on which I was born, and the night in which it was said, ‘a male child is conceived’...Why did I not die at birth? Why did I not perish (expire, had the spirit of life leave me) when I came from the womb?” I found out from an early age that the devil’s problem with me had more to do with where I was than with who I was. You see, I was not born out there in outer space or in another planet, no, I was born here on the earth. I’m an earthling, my soul was placed within a physical body and told to occupy time and space while here on this earth, the place from where the physical body that I indwell was made out of, the dust of the earth. Had my body been void of a soul when it was born, the devil wouldn't have a problem with it, it would be no more than an unreasoning animal occupying space. For you see my soul, what makes me who I really am is foreign in nature, it originated with God, and it is a product of His Spirit. As long as I am here on this earth I have authority over the piece of the earth that I live in, because I live in a body that was taken from this earth, the devil is here illegally on this earth, and I have authority, as a human, to expel him from the territory that I occupy. So that the first lie that the devil tries to instill in every human is that we should had never been born, that is what was at the root of his attacks against Job’s reasoning soul. By destroying everything that Job possessed and then blaming God for it. The devil’s aim was for Job to commit suicide, in other words, exit the territory over which Job had dominion. Job 2:9 “Then his (Job’s) wife said to him, ‘Do you still hold fast to your integrity? (our soul’s foundation) Curse God and die (kill yourself)!’” The devil even got Job’s wife to doubt her own husband’s integrity, imagine how much those words of her cut deep into Job’s heart, is no wonder in the next chapter he curses the very day that he was born. Our carnal human nature always wants to quit, run away or give up, and if it cannot escape the trials, then it seeks solace in the belief that it should have never been born, but the soul within its original make up is not a quitter, it does not think in terms of beginning and ending, for it has an eternal nature and it cannot be killed, since it originated from God. Since our souls instinct is to resist quitting or giving up, the only option that the devil has left against our souls is to fragment it. That is to divide it with a lie that diminishes our soul’s great potential to exert God’s dominion over all of the devil’s usurped authority that he stole from the first man, Adam. Our present world system has been built on a lie, the reality that we perceived as we were growing up was a distortion of the original reality that God intended for us humans to grow up with in a place called Paradise. Our parents were part of that design in God’s original plan for man, the father was to be a representation of God here on the earth, while our mothers were a type for the church, the body of Christ. Since none of us had a perfect mother or father, our perception of God and His church was never fully demonstrated to us as we were growing up. When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray effectively, this was the very first thing that Jesus addressed: Our Father who are in heaven. Many of us have had good fathers, Joseph, Jesus stepfather, was a good man, but while Joseph was still alive, here is what Jesus said: Luke 2:48-49 “So when they saw Him (Jesus at the age of twelve sitting amongst the elders), they were amazed; and His mother said to Him, ‘Son, why have You done this to us? Look, Your father and I have sought You anxiously.’ And He said to them, ‘Why did you seek me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?’” Joseph’s business was carpentry, they found the boy Jesus sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions in the temple of God His real father. When Jesus reached the age of accountability, He had to identify Himself with who He really was, and in which reality He really lived. John 7:28-29 “Then Jesus cried out, as He taught in the temple, saying, ‘You both know Me, and you know where I am from; and I have not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true (the real reality), whom you do not know. But I know Him, for I am from Him, and He sent Me.’” Years later, when Jesus is in full ministry, He makes the statement to those who were hearing Him teach that they both know who He really is and where He came from. Jesus refused to see Himself or to portray Himself the way and within the context that the world saw Him. That is exactly what He was trying to teach His disciples, and that is what He is trying to teach us in our present day. John 7:7 “The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil.” What an amazing statement, Jesus tells His disciples that the world cannot hate them, for they have not yet learned how to testify against the world, now later towards the end of His ministry, He tells His disciples that they would be hated by the world; what is this all about? I believe that it has to do with soul identification, and the concept of who our real Father is, and from where do our souls originate from. John 8:44 “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.” Here is how I see it, Jesus knows that He is not of this world and that He is here on earth on a mission from God to save sinners from their sins and to destroy the works of the devil. The Jews that He is contending with claim to be children of Abraham, but Jesus tells them that if they were real children of Abraham they would do the works of Abraham, vs. 39 and believe in Him, since Abraham was a man of faith. Meanwhile in the middle are the disciples and those who believed what Jesus was teaching them, but who had not yet entered into the revelation of what they were taught. How do we enter into this revelation? Adam was the first sinner, I am a descendant of Adam, so I too I am a sinner. Jesus is a descendant of Adam as well, on His mother’s side, but yet He never sinned, for His Father is God who is righteous. Jesus offered His sinless soul as a sacrifice on behalf of all Adam’s descendants, to save them from their sins, and to destroy all the damaging work that the devil instigated against their human souls. God accepted the sinless blood of Jesus as the perfect sacrifice, and in place of the old testament that declared that the soul that sinned would surely die, a new testament was declared, that if we confess our sins, Jesus is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us, body, soul, and spirit from all unrighteousness. 1 Corinthians 15:47-49 “The first man (Adam) was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly (born again). And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.” Our physical bodies will finally bear the image of the heavenly Man on resurrection day, but if we are born again, our souls already bear the image of the heavenly Man, for our souls are spirit. So that it comes down to this, what are we feeding our souls? Remember that it is words that either feed nourishment to the soul or cut it to pieces, truthful words deliver the soul from the enslavement of fear, however, the lie keeps the soul in bondage. 1 Peter 1:9 “Receiving the end (or goal) of your faith—the salvation of your souls.” 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 (nourishment for our souls).” For me it starts with this: Who is my real father? God is my One and only Father! This is what Jesus meant when He taught in Luke 14:26 that if anyone came to Him and did not hate his father or mother and even his/her own life, that they could not be His disciples. This is how our soul acknowledges that it originated from God, like when the boy Jesus, testified in the temple about His heavenly Father, the issue was not disrespect towards His parents, it all had to do with His soul’s identifying itself with God, who is not of this world. For He alone created us and He alone sustains our life with His breath, for man does not live on bread alone, but by every Word of God. If we are His children, and we are if we are born again, then we belong to Him, we are His property, our lives have meaning and purpose. The world tells us that we are insignificant, one of seven or eight billion people on this earth right now, the world wants us to believe that nobody cares for us, that we are worthless, for that is what fragments the human soul, the lies that divide us from within. The world will say that we are a chip from the old block, that because of our race, or gender, or geographical location, or whatever our status in life is, that we are nothing, and that we will never amount to anything. Those are all lies perpetrated by the devil that keep good people of faith bound to the distorted personality that they have come to know so well. Adam was naked when God told him that he was good, then the devil came and told Adam that he was naked and that it was shameful to be naked, so Adam felt shame for the first time. God gave Adam a choice, the tree of life which is the Word of God, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the lies that begins the process of death as soon as they are ingested. The minute that Adam put more value on the lies of the devil, than over the truth of what God had told him, that he was good even though he was naked, as soon as he did that, he was barred from the life giving fruit of the Word of God. That is why Jesus the Word of God, had to come in the flesh and restore order, by exposing the lies of the devil, and displaying once again the great value that God has placed on every human soul. Matthew 16:26 “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” We, like old Adam, are continuously bombarded by Satan’s accusations, he never gets tired of telling us that we are naked, and that our behavior is shameful, and that there must be something really wrong with us, and why don’t we just give it up. Did you know that the devil never told me that my actions would one day lead me to hell until I became born again. Imagine that, for twenty nine years I was lost and on my way to hell, and not a peep from him, boy, but as soon as I got saved, all hell broke loose. All of the sudden everything I did seemed offensive enough to the devil, and grievous enough in his view to cause me to fall out of favor with God. Then I remember the words of Jesus that truly describes who the devil really is, and a smile comes to my face: John 8:44 “...When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.” Whatever stories the devil has been telling you, remember this, he never, ever, speaks on God’s behalf, for God is Truth, and the devil has no concept whatsoever as to what truth really is. Maybe you never had a father that loved you, if Jesus is your savior, you have One now! For the Bible calls Him the Everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace. Everlasting because He will never leave you nor forsake you no matter what. He will never run out on you and there is nothing that you can do to get rid of Him. Hide that truth deep into your soul and you’ll have peace. Did you know that everything bad that the devil ever said about you is a lie? Now if you hesitated when you read that, then you need to read once more those red letters, where Jesus calls him out for what he really is, the father, that means originator of all lies. All that’s left for us to do is to keep seeking the revelation from the Word of God that will expose those hidden things that keep holding us back from who we really are in the Lord. Psalm 139:23-24 “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked (lies) way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Every time that the Lord exposes a lie that we’ve harbored, let us renounce it immediately and replace it with the Truth of the Word of God. AMEN! Previous Next Home

DO YOU BELIEVE THAT GOD IS ABLE? The objective of Pastor Marcos’ message Do You Believe That God Is Able? is to teach believers the true meaning of biblical faith, showing how it operates through knowledge, confidence, and reliance on God’s ability rather than human strength. The lesson emphasizes that faith requires both a realization of our desperate need and confidence in God’s power, leading us to boldly trust Him for the impossible. DO YOU BELIEVE THAT GOD IS ABLE? Pastor Marcos Marrero Objective: The objective of Pastor Marcos’ message Do You Believe That God Is Able? is to teach believers the true meaning of biblical faith, showing how it operates through knowledge, confidence, and reliance on God’s ability rather than human strength. The lesson emphasizes that faith requires both a realization of our desperate need and confidence in God’s power, leading us to boldly trust Him for the impossible. Synopsis: In this teaching, Pastor Marcos explores the nature of faith by examining Jesus’ question to the two blind men in Matthew 9:28: “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” Faith, he explains, is not merely a personal opinion but is biblically defined in Hebrews 11:1 as the “substance of things hoped for” and the “evidence of things not seen.” True faith rests on hearing and understanding the Word of God (Romans 10:17) and grows as we deepen our knowledge of His character and abilities. Pastor Marcos contrasts natural examples—like trusting a mechanic to fix a car—with spiritual realities, showing that while men are limited, God is limitless and unfailing. He highlights three miracles surrounding Matthew 9: the ruler’s daughter raised from the dead, the woman healed after twelve years of affliction by touching Jesus’ garment, and the two blind men receiving sight. Together, these witnesses establish that Jesus is more than able to do what is humanly impossible. The message also dismantles the false belief that “God helps those who help themselves,” affirming instead that God helps those who cannot help themselves but place their trust in Him. Pastor Marcos concludes by pointing to Ephesians 3:20, reminding believers that God is able to do “exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think” through the power of faith working within us. Faith, then, is both a desperate dependence on God and the confident assurance that He is willing and able to meet every need. Inspired Teaching: Matthew 9:28 “And when He had come into the house, the blind men came to Him. And Jesus said to them, ‘Do you believe that I am able to do this?’ They said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord.’” Have you ever wonder what faith really is? What is biblical faith, and how do I know if I have it? I am sure that we all have our own personal understanding of what faith is to us, but I wonder if we can all come to a general understanding of the Bible’s definition of faith, or what I call biblical faith. Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance (realization) of things hoped for, the evidence (confidence) of things not seen.” In the Bible’s own definition of what faith is, we see two basic components working together, and I believe that if we are able to understand their interactions, it will make us more capable, if you will, to overcome those situations where only faith can deliver us. But before we look at these two components, let’s get a biblical perspective first, of how the basic principles of faith work. Romans 10:17 “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” I believe that the difference between listening and hearing is that when we hear something it has the connotation that we understand what we are hearing. When we hear a familiar sound we are able to understand where it is coming from and what it is. For example if we hear a baby crying or laughing we can respond appropriately. In the same manner if we hear sounds that we are not familiar with or know from where they originate, then we are clueless as to what is going on and have no idea as how to respond. So that faith rests on the foundation of knowledge. Theoretically speaking, the more that we know the more that we are able to believe, but there is a double implication to that theory, the more that somebody else knows, the more that we are able to believe in their abilities as well. Let us use a natural example of that theory: Two men are riding in a car when the motor stops working, they open the hood and look at the engine to see if they can find out what is wrong and if it can be fixed. Do we believe that they will be able to fix the problem? I would need more information about the two men. Let’s say that one of the two men is a medical doctor. I’m pretty sure that he won’t be much help in this case, unless of course, somebody gets sick. Let’ s say that the other man is an auto mechanic, well then, that changes the whole equation doesn’t it? For even if he cannot get it fixed right there, he would probably know what the problem is and what needs to be done to get it fixed. If it was the other way around, the car is running fine, but somebody gets sick, then my money is on the doctor. That is a simple, yet powerful illustration of how faith works, we need to know, but we do not need to know everything, for it is impossible for a single human to know every craft, but we do need to know about the One that knows everything, for the more that we know about Him, the easier it is to believe that He is able to help us. Matthew 9:27 “When Jesus departed from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out and saying, ‘Son of David, have mercy on us!’” Jesus had gone into a ruler’s house where the daughter of the ruler had died and a crowd had gathered to mourn her passing. The father of the dead daughter went to Jesus and worshiped Him and said to Him on verse 18: “My daughter has just died, but come and lay Your hand on her and she will live.” Obviously the two blind men were part of the crowd that had gathered at the ruler’s house, they could not physically see but they knew what the commotion was all about. When Jesus got to the house He said that the girl was not dead but sleeping, after the crowd ridiculed Him, He sent them outside of the house and proceeded to raise the girl back to life, as Jesus left the house the two blind men, after hearing what had taken place, followed Him and His disciples crying out to Him, Son of David, have mercy on us. Here we see the two sides of faith clearly displayed. A desperate father reaches out to a man, not just a man, but a man of God whom the crowds are following because He is reputed to have supernatural powers to heal all those who are brought to Him. The father cannot bring his dead daughter to Jesus, so he brings Jesus to his dead daughter. He finds himself in a desperate situation, for if Jesus does not come right away, his daughter will be buried before the sun sets, so he goes for broke and all in. No hesitation, no wondering about the divinity or genealogy of Jesus, he just comes and worships Him and tells Him that if He lays His hand on his daughter, she will live. In the other side of faith, we have two blind men attending a funeral, their advantage was that they did not use their eyes to gather information for they were blind. So that when the crowd was put outside of the house so that they could not see the miracle that Jesus did, the blind men could see what had taken place by the reaction of the crowd when the girl was presented to them alive. So they followed Jesus, reasoning that if Jesus could raise the dead He could surely give sight to the blind. So that a desperate need as well as sound reasoning are key to releasing the faith that can deliver us. Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance (realization) of things hoped for, the evidence (confidence) of things not seen.” The substance of faith is in the realization of our desperate need, and the evidence is in the confidence that we show when we ask. Ephesians 3:12 “In whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him.” My confidence rests with His ability to do that which for me would be impossible to attain, but first I must realize that only He can deliver me. For as long as I think of a possible remedy for my situation outside of Him, there is no substance to my faith. And if there is no substance, then there can be no confidence, and without confidence there can be no boldness to access what we are in need of. Hollywood perpetrated a lie in one of their old movies that to this day many believe is a Bible verse when it is not, here is the quote: God helps those who help themselves. This is a false premise that is accepted by many people of faith as a true statement. But in reality God helps those who cannot help themselves, yet believe that God is both willing and able to help them. If you have a varmint problem, you call an exterminator. If you have a water leak, you call a plumber. If your power goes out, you call an electrician. And the reason we do that is because they are people who are trained to handle those situations, and we trust that their abilities will help us solve our problems. First we realize that we have a problem, secondly, we call on their services and trust on their abilities to fix them, but as you know if you ever hire somebody that did not live up to his credentials, it is a system that is based in trusting those whom we hire to perform. What we can draw from that is that men are fallible, but God is not. Where men will fail us for lack of honesty and or abilities, God will never do that. In order to have total and complete confidence towards God when we call on Him, we need to know about His honesty and His abilities, as one of our previous Scriptures told us: Romans 10:17 “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” So that when we read the Scriptures in the light of what faith teaches, we need to ask these two questions: Is God really able to do that which seems impossible, and will He do it for me? Romans 8:31-32 “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 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?” The one thing that I failed to mention earlier when I was doing a comparison between the natural and the spiritual, was that some people cannot afford a plumber when their water main breaks, but thankfully with God all is free, for Jesus paid the price of everything that we are in need of now, and He paid it in full. So that Scripture clearly establishes that God will do the impossible for us all, and that He will also do it freely. So that the only question that remains is, does He have the power do it? Matthew 9:22 “But Jesus turned around, and when He saw her He said, ‘Be of good cheer, daughter; your faith has made you well.’ And the woman was made well from that hour.” There was a another miracle that took place in our opening text as well, a seemly unintended one. A woman that had been suffering for twelve long years with an affliction that no one could heal. She said to herself, If only I may touch His garment, I shall be made well. She was made well when by faith she touched His garment. Here is what was meant by that miracle: Deuteronomy 19:15 “...By the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established.” Jesus asked the two blind men, Do you believe that I am able to do this? We have three miracles within the context of the story that testify that Jesus is more than able to do what for us it is impossible. Ephesians 3:20 “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us (our faith).” Previous Next Home

THE FOUL SPIRIT OF HATE The objective of The Foul Spirit of Hate is to equip believers with biblical understanding and discernment to recognize the destructive influence of hatred as a foul spirit. Pastor Marcos seeks to help readers understand how unclean spirits influence human emotions and behavior, and how to resist their control by standing firm in the Word of God, walking in love, and cultivating a sound mind through the Spirit of Christ. THE FOUL SPIRIT OF HATE Pastor Marcos Marrero January 1, 1900 Objective: The objective of The Foul Spirit of Hate is to equip believers with biblical understanding and discernment to recognize the destructive influence of hatred as a foul spirit. Pastor Marcos seeks to help readers understand how unclean spirits influence human emotions and behavior, and how to resist their control by standing firm in the Word of God, walking in love, and cultivating a sound mind through the Spirit of Christ. Synopsis: In The Foul Spirit of Hate, Pastor Marcos Marrero examines the spiritual reality behind the destructive force of hatred. Drawing from Revelation 18:2 and other Scriptures, he explains that hatred is not merely an emotion but a manifestation of a foul spirit working through human souls to stir up chaos, division, and rebellion against God’s truth. Using insights from the Greek meanings of “spirit” (pnyoomah) and “soul” (phookhay), he clarifies how spirits act as currents of influence, shaping human personalities and actions. Pastor Marcos describes the mechanics of spiritual influence: the human spirit was designed to draw energy from God’s Word, but when influenced by unclean spirits, it leads to destructive behavior. He stresses that inspiration and influence come from spiritual sources—if they contradict God’s Word, they are unclean. Believers, though made new in Christ, must choose daily which spirits they allow to guide them and filter every influence through Scripture. Focusing on hate as a dominant strongman in these last days, he identifies it as one of the three most powerful human emotions—alongside love and fear. Hatred, whether violent or verbal, fuels division and strife, especially through modern propaganda and media that incite old grievances and perpetuate enmity. Pastor Marcos warns that harboring hatred leads to insurrection of the soul, a revolt from within, where one’s fallen nature rebels against God’s commands. The teaching concludes with a strong exhortation: believers must not repay evil with evil, nor fall into Satan’s trap of cruel hatred. Instead, they must cling to God’s Spirit of love, power, and a sound mind. By allowing God’s love to govern their responses, Christians can rise above deception, remain steadfast in faith, and avoid backsliding into hatred, walking instead in the peace and satisfaction that comes from above. Inspired Teaching: Revelation 18:2 “And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, ‘Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird!’” If there is a word that conjures up strong emotions when spoken, it has to be the word hate. I can even picture a human face contorting as it utters that word. It is almost like one cannot even say the words, I hate you, without the display of an outburst of emotions attached to them. Since spirits manifest themselves as influences through persons, it is only natural that a spirit of hate would manifest itself through a person with such a display of emotion. I guess I should explain how I believe unclean spirits operate through persons, for those of you reading this that may not have heard of this teaching before, so that we can all be on the same page, here it is. 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.” As you may know, the New Testament was written in the Greek language which has a lot more words to express meaning and sentiment than the English language does. Every now and then we have to look at Scriptures as they were written in the original language to get the full meaning of what is teaching. This is one of those cases. In the original Greek, the word translated spirit is the word: Pnyoomah: # 4151 in Strong’s concordance, and it means Breath, as in a blast or a current of air and is translated as the word spirit. For in the Greek, spirits are referred to as breath or air, but in this case it refers to a specific form of breath, a blast or a current of air. Pnyoomah is the Greek word from where we get the term pneumatic as in pneumatic tools, which are tools that run on blast or currents of air. In the original Greek, the word translated soul is the word: Phookhay: # 5590 in Strong’s concordance, and it also means Breath, but by implication, static air, and is translated as the word soul. To get a better understanding of how the spirit and the soul work together to give us our personality, let us go to the first created human. Genesis 2:7 “And the Lord God formed man (the physical body) of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath (the human spirit) of life; and man became a living being (soul, personhood).” If we want to understand how spirits can move the physical body, here is what I believe are the mechanics of how it works: The human spirit is like the energy, the blast or the current of energy like in a pneumatic tool, that moves the soul, that in turn gives to us our personalities, the person that we become. The human spirit is not self-sufficient, so it has to derive energy from sources outside of itself. Our spirit man was originally designed to receive energy from the Word of God and derive its human personality from it, that is to drive the soul into becoming what the Word of God intended for that person to be. Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is living (Zoe in the Greek, and it means life giving and life sustaining) and powerful (Energea in the Greek, and it means moving energy)…” Take for example the word influence, it describes the spiritual inflow that motivates people to do things, an influence is a spirit, and if the influence contradicts the Word of God, is an unclean spirit. Another example is the word inspire, when a person dies, that person expired, it means the spirit of life left them. When a person is inspired, it is a spirit who is doing the inspiration, and if such inspiration contradicts the Word of God, it is also designated as an unclean spirit. Now we were all born after the flesh, so like Adam we all have the propensities within us to fear and to doubt, and to feel shame and nakedness because of our sinful natures. But in the new birth we become a new creation, a brand-new creature. 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.” We are not beholden to the old nature any longer. But we still have to make a choice, and it has to do with which spirits are we going to allow to influence us, and are we going to filter those influences through the sift of the Word of God. Here is another example; as new creatures in Christ, all of our sins have been forgiven, we are not to walk in the fear of eternal torment any longer, but in the power of God’s love for us, and rejoice that in Christ, we have the mind of Christ, which is a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7 “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” Now that we understand the process let us shift our attention to the spirit of hate, which is the culprit for the majority of the chaos going on around the world today. For hatred is the strongman of these last days. I believe that the three most powerful human emotions are: Love, hate, and fear. According to Paul God has not given us the spirit of fear, but He has indeed given to us His Spirit of love. However, the spirit of a sound mind is necessary to keep us from falling prey to the foul spirit of hate, especially in these last days. Harboring the spirit of hatred can lead to the insurrection of the soul. Psalm 64:2 “Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked; from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity.” KJV Insurrection is revolt from within, and since the workers of iniquity still reside within our souls which are still in the process of salvation, what it means is that our human nature can be led into rebelling against the commandments that flow from God into our spirit man. Just like the love of God nullifies the spirit of fear, the spirit of a sound mind can help us put away the spirit of hatred. First let us identify which type of hatred we are dealing with as the Day of our redemption draws near. Psalm 25:19 “Consider my enemies, for they are many; and they hate me with cruel (violent) hatred.” All you have to do to know that this is the type of hatred that we are dealing with today, just search the news and see how many believers are beheaded, tortured, burned alive, and struck down for their faith in Jesus Christ all around the world on a daily basis. In the more civilized parts of the world, where still some common sense restrains it, the violence from this spirit of hatred is more verbal in nature, but the sentiments are the same. If you are a believer in the morality that the Word of God commands for societies to follow, you are considered the scum of the earth, and it won’t be long before this sprit of hatred rears its nature of violence against those of us who believe here in the western nations as well. What feeds this spirit of cruel hatred is the spirit of division that is continuously propagated by the mediums of today, the news organizations that do not barter in the truth that they were originally established to proclaim, but rather in incitement and propaganda against the dictates of God’s Word. Ezekiel 25:15 “...Took vengeance with a spiteful heart, to destroy (through violent means) because of the old hatred (perpetual).” I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but all the hatred that is being fomented right now by many, has its roots in old hatred, that is, they are trying to revive past grievances, but in reality it is nothing more than Satan’s perpetual hatred against those of us who belong to God. Proverbs 10:12 “Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all sins.” Now the reason I am bringing all these things up is to warn you, and to keep you from falling into the demonic trap of repaying evil with evil. As I look at what is happening from a spiritual perspective, the devil is playing mankind as a well-rehearsed orchestra. Everything out there is designed to bring up strife within the hearts of people with common sense. I see the frustration that many are having to endure, for it seems that what is evil and destructive has become the acceptable norm, and what is sound and good judgment is ridiculed. But we need to keep in mind that what they are doing, they are doing it purposely, they do not need to convince those who have swallow their lies hook line and sinker to follow in their destructive ways. It is us that need to be neutralized, from their point of view that is, those of us who believe in the power of God’s love to inspire and to motivate our actions. And the way to neutralize us is to have us fall for the tricks of the cruel spirit of hatred and become like them. Proverbs 13:21 “Evil pursues sinners, but to the righteous, good shall be repaid.” Please my friends I know that it is not easy, not to become upset over the lies and the deception that they seem to be getting away with these days, without seemly any repercussions, let God deal with their actions. Make every effort not to get caught up in their web of cruel hatred and bad intentions. Let God’s love fill us with His peace, and deliver us from the snares of the wicked one. Let not our hearts backslide from His love. Proverbs 14:14 “The backslider in heart will be filled with his own ways, but a good man will be satisfied from above.” Previous Next 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. < Back 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 Home

WONDERS IN HEAVEN ABOVE The objective of Wonders in Heaven Above is to examine the prophetic significance of the heavenly signs foretold in Scripture, particularly those associated with the end of the church age and the return of Jesus Christ. Pastor Marcos seeks to guide believers in understanding how cosmic upheavals reveal not only God’s glory but also humanity’s central place in creation as God’s treasured possession, redeemed through Christ. WONDERS IN HEAVEN ABOVE Pastor Marcos Marrero Objective: The objective of Wonders in Heaven Above is to examine the prophetic significance of the heavenly signs foretold in Scripture, particularly those associated with the end of the church age and the return of Jesus Christ. Pastor Marcos seeks to guide believers in understanding how cosmic upheavals reveal not only God’s glory but also humanity’s central place in creation as God’s treasured possession, redeemed through Christ. Synopsis: In Wonders in Heaven Above, Pastor Marcos reflects on Acts 2:19 and Peter’s quotation of Joel concerning the coming of the Holy Spirit. While Pentecost marked the beginning of the church age, the prophecy also foreshadows its conclusion, when great wonders in the heavens will precede the return of Jesus Christ. Scriptures such as Mark 13:24–26 emphasize the sun darkening, the moon turning to blood, and the heavens being shaken—cosmic events announcing the arrival of the Son of Man in glory. Pastor Marcos highlights that while modern science reveals the immensity of the universe, it often diminishes humanity’s importance by measuring size and scale rather than purpose. The psalmist, however, reminds us that God created humanity as the crowning jewel of creation, granting dominion and significance not because of our size, but because of our God-given position and role (Psalm 8, Psalm 19). He contrasts the effortless act of God’s “fingers” forming galaxies with the full strength of His “arm” employed in the salvation of mankind through Christ. This reveals humanity as God’s most precious creation, His jewels, destined to reflect His righteous character. Before Christ’s return, God will shake the heavens and the earth, exposing false conceptions and setting the record straight, ensuring creation glorifies the Creator rather than itself. The message concludes by addressing misconceptions that life elsewhere would disprove Scripture, pointing instead to the reality of angelic beings who already minister to humanity. Pastor Marcos calls believers to remain watchful, understanding these prophetic signs, and preparing for the wonders that will precede the Lord’s triumphant return. Inspired Teaching: Acts 2:19 “I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath: blood and fire and vapor of smoke.” As Peter quoted the prophet Joel about what was transpiring after the Holy Spirit fell on the one hundred and twenty disciples and they were prophesying and speaking in tongues, the Holy Spirit did not stop Peter, but allowed him to continue with the rest of Joel’s prophecy that not only told how the church would begin, but that also spoke of how the church age would come to an end. We know from the history of the church that when the Holy Spirit fell upon the believers on the day of Pentecost, wonders in the heavens did not appear, for the sun did not turned into darkness neither did the moon turned into blood on that day, for those wonders are reserved for the times of the end of the church age to announce our Lord’s return. Mark 13:24-26 “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars of heaven will fall, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.” We have plenty of Scriptures that associate those wondrous cosmic upheavals to the return of Jesus Christ for His church. Since we are living in the days of the closing of the church age, it is imperative that we not only look for those signs to come to pass in our day, but that we understand what those signs are and how they relate to our present condition when they appear. What does the powers in the heavens will be shaken mean? Modern science has a very strong grip in our present understanding of the physical heaven of today, we see the pictures of the myriad of galaxies that fill the sky, and we struggle to understand the vast distances that separate us, not only from other galaxies, but even from those stars that are close to us within our own galaxy. The immensity of those vast distances, and the scope and grandeur of the cosmos in relation to our tiny earth, makes even those of us who believe that God created us feel so insignificant, that it diminishes our own conception of who we are, and it makes us wonder why such a great Creator would bother Himself with such a small speck of dirt. I believe that when the powers of the heavens are shaken, all those misconceptions that we presently have about the universe, and our importance within it, will be done away with right away. What does Scripture really mean when it states that the powers of the heavens will be shaken? Can we, from our present-day vantage point postulate what the real unseen power that runs the universe is? And can we imagine what the reality of the unseen universe will be when it is finally revealed? I do not know that we really can, but that should not stop us from trying to seek the truth that will prepare us to readily accept our place within the creation when it is finally revealed through God’s wonders. Where do we start? Psalm 8:1,4 “O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth, who have set Your glory above the heavens!...What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?” When David saw the revelation of the many wonders of God’s heavenly creation, he felt the same way that we do when we gaze at the pictures that come to us from the universe that reveals creation’s wonders. It caused David to ask, if I can paraphrase: What is the human race that You visit us, that You care for us, that You give attention to? Immediately God answered his question. Psalm 8:6 “You have made him (humans) to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet.” The answer lies not in the proportion of our size in relation to the greatness of the creation, but rather in the greatness of the position that has been assigned to us within the creation. As we read the history of the creation in the opening chapters of the book of Genesis, galaxies and constellations are not the focus, neither are black holes or dark matter, man is the crowning achievement of God’s creation! That is why he was put in charge of all that was created. Psalm 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handy work.” The firmament refers to the first heaven, the physical realm of which the earth is the capitol, where man was placed to rule everything from. So that while the heavens, visible and invisible, demonstrate how magnificently glorious and powerful the Creator is, His human creation before the fall, was created to demonstrate God’s righteous character and compassion, the invisible qualities of the Creator, into a visible forum He called the firmament where He placed His human jewels. So that the supreme qualities of the Creator are not seen through the heavenly bodies that He created, marvelously wonderful as they might be. The supreme quality of the Creator can be seen through the human creatures that He created in His personal image, as fully demonstrated through the life of Jesus, the only human able to portray God’s wondrous love in all its beauty and elegance, towards fallen creatures like us who did not deserve His love or compassion to begin with. Psalm 8:3 “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained.” God created all His heavenly wonders with His fingertips. Isaiah 63:5 “...Therefore My own arm brought salvation for Me...” But when it came to the creation and to the salvation of His beloved humans it required all the strength of His right arm. If we put it within the context of God’s creation this is what it all means, all the billions and billions of galaxies, all the trillions and trillions of stars, all the nebulas, all the black holes, all the dark matter, all the dark energy, gravity, you name it, all of those things which exist in the universe were made by the simple touch of God’s finger. But when it came to His beloved humans whom He made out of earth’s dirt and placed us in it, so that from it we could rule over His entire creation, He brought the full force of His righteous right arm to bear, for to Him we are His jewels, the most valuable of all that He has created. Psalm 98:1-2 “Oh, sing to the Lord a new song! For He has done marvelous things; His right hand and His holy arm have gained Him the victory. The Lord has made known His salvation; His righteousness He has revealed in the sight of the nations.” Science has it all backwards, they worship the creation rather than the Creator, who is forever blessed. Amen! So that before the Lord announces to the world the return of His Salvation, Jesus, who is coming to redeemed us, His human brethren, from the decay and corruption of this world that is passing, God will set the record straight once and for all, by shaking violently the heavens, the earth, and the underworld, everything that He created, as one who is removing the ingenuously designed wrapping on a present that He can hardly wait to open. Malachi 3:17 “They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, on the day that I make them my jewels. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.” I constantly hear the harpings of this world sages stating that if they find that life evolved and exists in another part of the universe, that it will be a transforming event, they do not spell it out, but what they are saying is that it will invalidate the Bible and what it teaches concerning God’s special creation of the human race. In order for a life supporting planet to exist, it needs to orbit a star, the closest star to our solar system is light years away, we have a better chance of growing wings and flying by just eating ducks, than we would ever have of interacting with anything that is a light year away. They think somehow, that if there is intelligent life in another planet somewhere, that it will prove the Bible wrong. But yet the Bible teaches that there is intelligent life elsewhere, they are called angels, they live in a spiritual/invisible realm, and they interact with earthlings all the time. They travel back and forth from the presence of God to the earth all the time, as ministering angels on God’s behalf to the human race. Hebrews 1:14 “Are they not all (the angels) ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?” In our next lesson I will deal with the difference between the three dimensional physical realm where we humans live and the four-dimensional realm where the angels operate. As we continue to prepare ourselves for what might be a year of wonders. Previous Next Home

SALVATION IS OF THE LORD To affirm that true deliverance and preservation in times of chaos, uncertainty, and peril does not come from human preparation, strength, or resources, but from the Lord alone. The teaching aims to encourage believers to place their full trust in God’s promises, resting in His mercy and provision, while living as witnesses of His peace and salvation in a fearful world. SALVATION IS OF THE LORD Pastor Marcos Marrero Objective: To affirm that true deliverance and preservation in times of chaos, uncertainty, and peril does not come from human preparation, strength, or resources, but from the Lord alone. The teaching aims to encourage believers to place their full trust in God’s promises, resting in His mercy and provision, while living as witnesses of His peace and salvation in a fearful world. Synopsis: In Salvation is of the Lord, Pastor Marcos reminds believers that while the world is growing increasingly unstable and many prepare through stockpiling food and securing safety, the Scriptures teach us that lasting protection and provision come only from God. Psalm 33 highlights that it is not armies, strength, or human strategies that save, but the Lord Himself who delivers His people from death and sustains them in famine. Pastor Marcos stresses that although practical preparation is not wrong, our trust must never rest in material supplies but in the mercy of Christ, who alone is our salvation. Acts 4:12 affirms that salvation is found only in the name of Jesus, while Revelation 3:10 promises that He will keep His faithful people even in the hour of global trial. Believers are called to demonstrate this trust through their peace and confidence in God’s promises. In a world overwhelmed by fear, the church becomes a witness when it shows reliance on God’s Word rather than human planning. This testimony points others to Christ, who is both our Redeemer and Deliverer. Ultimately, Pastor Marcos emphasizes that perfect love casts out fear, and those who abide in God’s Word walk in peace regardless of circumstances. As the end of the age draws near, Christians must rest in the certainty of Christ’s soon return, rejoicing in His salvation and letting His peace shine as a witness to the world. Inspired Teaching: Psalm 33:18-19 “Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His mercy, to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.” Without a doubt these are clearly perilous times that we are living in, and I know that there are many people out there who are preparing themselves for the hard times that are swiftly coming upon us. The two basic things that everyone would need in the midst of the breakdown of society’s infrastructure are food and safety. When there are no law enforcement agents available to protect you or your property, your life is in great danger. And even if you are able to hide for a while and survive the first few days of mob rule, you are still going to need food and water to sustain you once you run out of your existing supplies. That is why so many today are storing up ample supplies that would enable them to survive for a longer period of time. But take a good look at the promises of God for those of us who believe in His Word. We are told that He will deliver our lives from death, and that He Himself will keep us alive in the days of famine. What are we to do in the face of all of this? Should I prepare myself by finding a safe place to hide in case of an all out descent into lawlessness? And should I invest in storing enough food and water to keep me and my family fed for a reasonable amount of time if the worst were to happen? I read an article that said that over fifty percent of Americans live from paycheck to paycheck, so that for those who lack the resources to prepare for such a future event, they cannot really do anything about preparing themselves for the chaos which may someday come. Psalm 33:15 “He fashions their hearts individually; He considers (understands) all their works.” The beauty of the Lord is that He understands every single one of us individually, He knows all of our personal needs and what our situation is in any given circumstance. So that when everything is said and done, it does not really matter what situation we might find ourselves in, what is important is that we are trusting Him completely, and not what we prepared or failed to provide for a future day of need, for if we fully trust Him, He will provide for us His salvation. Psalm 33:16-17 “No king is saved by the multitude of an army; a mighty man in not delivered by great strength. A horse (mobility, our ability to escape the chaos) is a vain hope for safety; neither shall it deliver any by its great strength.” There are things that we can do to prepare ourselves for the coming destruction that is going to be revealed one day, but they are not physical things, but rather spiritual. Psalm 33:20 “Our soul (life) waits for the Lord; He is our help and our shield.” Since much of the impending doom that is coming our way has to do with the events that will precede the return of Jesus our Savior and Lord, and if our lives are invested in His soon return to deliver us, then we do not fear that which is coming, but rejoice in the fact that His return is getting closer and closer. So that our help and shield are not made of material things that we have stored up, although there is nothing wrong in saving provisions for the day of trouble, as long as we are not putting our trust in them but in the fact that the return of Jesus is getting closer and closer. Psalm 33:21 “For our heart shall rejoice in Him, because we have trusted in His holy name.” We put our trust in the name of Jesus! Why do we trust the name of Jesus? Acts 4:12 “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Jesus is our Salvation, our Redeemer, and our restoration! That is why we trust Him. He is also our Great Deliverer! Revelation 3:10 “Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.” He will keep us from the hour of testing, if we just keep trusting Him, His Word, and His promises, no matter what. Psalm 33:22 “Let Your mercy, O Lord, be upon us, just as we hope in You.” We hope in His mercy to deliver our souls from death, and to keep us alive in famine, not on our own personal plans that we’ve devised ourselves. Psalm 33:10 “The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect.” But there is also another component into what we are learning today, and that is our influence upon others who witness how we have decided to prepare ourselves for the devastation that is coming. Psalm 34:2 “My soul (life) shall make its boast in the Lord; the humble shall hear of it and be glad.” Whether we know it or not, as Christian believers, the world is watching us, they are noticing how we react to all this talk about how the fibers of our present-day society are coming apart at the seams. They are watching us to see whether what we proclaim to believe is real to us or not, by the way that we respond to all the nonsense out there. So that how we prepare ourselves, and how we conduct our lives in the face of so much uncertainty, will be a witness to those around us, if we are truly trusting the promises of God for us, and walking in His peace. Psalm 34:4 “I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.” How can we walk in fear if we are certain that the return of our Lord to deliver us is getting near? For fear has to do with torment, but we walk in love, His perfect love for us, and it is His perfect love for us that casts out all of our fears. 1 John 2:5 “But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.” 1 John 4:18 “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.” So the key in all of this is that when we are trusting in God’s promises so firmly, we will have peace in whatever situation we may find ourselves in, and when we have peace in the midst of the storms of life, those around us will notice and they will be drawn to the Jesus in us who is the author of the peace in which we are walking. Psalm 34:8 “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him!” As we rapidly approach the inevitable end of the age, we do not really know how things will evolve around us personally, but we have His uncompromising promises to strengthen us, and hopefully we can take advantage of the situation, when things begin to get bad all around us, that we may be able to lead to the Lord those around us who do not know Him yet as their Savior and Lord. Psalm 34:11-14 “Come, you children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Who is the man who desires life, and loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit. Depart from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.” Let the peace of God flow like a river from deep within you! Previous Next Home

A TEACHABLE SPIRIT The objective of this message is to emphasize the necessity of cultivating a teachable spirit in order to walk in God’s will. By acknowledging God as supreme, trusting in the goodness of His Spirit, and following His leading into uprightness, believers learn humility, submission, and reliance on God’s Word. The teaching aims to show that a teachable spirit is not passive but active—choosing obedience, embracing correction, enduring trials, and persevering in faith as God molds His servants for His purposes. A TEACHABLE SPIRIT Pastor Marcos Marrero Objective: The objective of this message is to emphasize the necessity of cultivating a teachable spirit in order to walk in God’s will. By acknowledging God as supreme, trusting in the goodness of His Spirit, and following His leading into uprightness, believers learn humility, submission, and reliance on God’s Word. The teaching aims to show that a teachable spirit is not passive but active—choosing obedience, embracing correction, enduring trials, and persevering in faith as God molds His servants for His purposes. Synopsis: In A Teachable Spirit, Pastor Marcos draws from Psalm 143:10 to reveal the heart posture required for spiritual growth and obedience. He explains that human nature resists submission, making it even more challenging to submit to the Spirit of God. The psalm highlights three foundational attitudes: acknowledging God as Lord, affirming the goodness of His Spirit, and desiring His guidance in uprightness. A teachable spirit begins with recognizing God’s supreme authority, not as one of many options but as the only true God whose counsel is final. Jesus’ teaching affirms that true love for Him is displayed through obedience to His Word. Though believers often fall short, humility, perseverance, and reverence for God’s truth keep them teachable. Pastor Marcos also shows how David, despite trials and overwhelming distress, turned to God rather than blaming Him. David’s cries—“Cause me to hear, cause me to know”—demonstrate reliance on God’s promises during seasons of testing. Such moments refine the believer’s ability to trust God’s Word and discern His ways. Finally, the message concludes that God’s ultimate honor for a believer is to be called His servant. David, though king and warrior, identified himself simply as God’s servant. A teachable spirit is proven when one embraces God’s will above personal understanding, allowing every trial, correction, and instruction to shape them into faithful servants of the living God. Inspired Teaching: Psalm 143:10 “Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God; Your Spirit is good. Lead me in the land of uprightness.” In our natural state it is hard for us humans to submit to another person, be it their counsel, their teaching, or their way of thinking, after all, in order for us to become our own person we have to differ somehow. Imagine how much harder it is to submit in the spirit to the Spirit of God, something which is foreign to our natural way of thinking. Our opening text reveals three things which are needed before we are ready to submit our spirits to be taught by the Lord to do His will. You are my God! Your Spirit is good! Lead me in the land of uprightness! When we say to the Lord, You are my God, is not like us saying to our medical doctor, you are my Doctor, or to our lawyer, you are my lawyer, for we can always get a new doctor or a new lawyer if we do not like what they tell us to do. When we say to the Lord, you are my God, His answer to us is, then why don’t you do what I tell you to do, is not like we can go and get another God, although some religious people think that way. Luke 6:46 “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do the things which I say?” So that a teachable spirit begins with the acknowledgement that God is God, and that besides Him there is no other, and that His counsel is the right counsel whether or not it makes sense to us in the natural. If we are not willing to accept Him as God Supreme, and His teaching and counsel for our lives as the final word, then we can say, Lord, Lord, with our mouths all we want to, we just deceive ourselves and His truth is not in us, for He will not accept us until we accept Him as our God in all His fullness. John 14:23 “Jesus answered and said to him, ‘If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.’” We do not get partially saved when we get saved, God does not hold anything back when we get saved, Jesus tells us that both He and the Father will come into us, to live in us, when we love Him and call Him Lord and keep His Word. Psalm 143:2 “...For in Your sight no one living is righteous.” None of us are perfect, so that we do not perfectly keep His Word all the time, but the idea is that even when we fail Him because of our weaknesses, we still recognize and acknowledge that His Word is Truth, and that His plan for our lives is best, even when we are unable to live up to the standards that He sets for us, and that is what makes us teachable, for we do not give up, we just keep trying to get it right. By our actions we acknowledge that Your Spirit is good, and that if we try to follow the pattern that His Word spells out for our lives, we will eventually learn how to abide in His will for us 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.” This will probably be the hardest thing for us to master, total and complete reliance on His Word and the promises that are contained in it. In this we will all be tested, for it is critical for our spirits to learn to rely solely in the promises that are contained in His Word for us. Psalm 143:3-4 “For the enemy has persecuted my soul; he has crushed my life to the ground; he has made me dwell in darkness, like those who have long been dead. Therefore my spirit is overwhelmed within me; my heart within me is distressed.” Listen to the words of David during his time of testing, he feels like his soul has been crushed and that his spirit is overwhelmed by all the distressed that he was confronted with. But because of his love for God and his communion with the Word of God, he was able to call to the God of His love and rely in God’s promises to him. Psalm 143:7-9 “Answer me speedily, O Lord; my spirit fails! Do not hide Your face from me, lest I be like those who go down to the pit. Cause me to hear Your lovingkindness in the morning, for in You do I trust; cause me to know the way in which I should walk, for I lift up my soul to You. Deliver me, O Lord, from my enemies; in You I take shelter.” Notice how David did not blame God in the middle of all his trials, instead of running away from God, he turned to his God, in verse one he says: Hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my supplications! There is no doubt that David was at the end of his rope, for he said, answer speedily Lord for my spirit fails me. But notice how he learned during his trials to rely on God’s promises to him. Cause me to hear, cause me to know; since his relationship with God was based on the fact that God loved him, he cried out for God’s lovingkindness to be revealed to him afresh in the midst of his trials, and then he said, cause me to know the way in which I should walk, basically he had learned the lesson that the trials that came his way were teaching him, spirit, soul, and body, for he said, in You I take shelter. Lead me in the land of uprightness! The third thing that we need to recognize before we can learn how to do the will of God, is that there is the right way, and there is the other way, which always leads to death and destruction. We naturally do not recognize the other way until we walked in it for a while and get deep in, and if we trust God’s love and compassion for us enough, to call on Him in the midst of our circumstances that were brought about by our rebellion to His Word and destiny for us, then it becomes a teachable moment for us when He delivers us. Psalm 143:11 “Revive me, O Lord, for Your name’s sake! For Your righteousness’ sake bring my soul out of trouble.” If we have truly made God our God and have a sincere desire to learn how to walk in His will for our lives, and we submit ourselves to the trials that are needed for us to learn how to trust Him, then His reputation is at stake, for His own name’s sake He will deliver us if we do not give up and quit. The hardest thing for a true believer to learn is this: What is God’s ultimate will and purpose for my life? I remember when I was young in the Lord, how I used to get so frustrated, I remember saying to God, how can I be what You want me to be if you do not tell me what it is that You want me to be? I had to learn to be whatever it was that I was needed to be wherever it was that God placed me. On June 2, 2013, my wife and I celebrated thirty-seven years of service to our Precious Lord, for we both got saved together at the same time and committed ourselves to serve Him for the rest of our lives. Have I learned what my calling is after thirty-seven years? Let me give you a hint, you can find it at the end of our last verse of Scripture. Psalm 143:12 “In Your mercy cut off my enemies, and destroy all those who afflict my soul; For I am Your servant.” I believe that there is no greater honor that can be bestowed upon a believer of the Living God, than that of being called a servant of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! David might have been many things, and indeed accomplished many things for God’s kingdom, but when he found himself in the thick of trials and temptations, the only title that he claimed for himself was: For I am Your servant! Let us all become like David, true servants of the Living God. Previous Next Home

THE SPIRIT OF FAITH The objective of The Spirit of Faith is to teach believers the dual nature of faith as both a fruit of the Spirit and a gift of the Spirit, showing how they work together to strengthen the believer’s walk with God. It emphasizes that faith is the key to pleasing God, unlocking His power, and experiencing His promises, while also calling believers to nurture their measure of faith and connect it to the supernatural gift of faith for endurance, deliverance, healing, and transformation. THE SPIRIT OF FAITH Pastor Marcos Marrero June 18, 2021 Objective: The objective of The Spirit of Faith is to teach believers the dual nature of faith as both a fruit of the Spirit and a gift of the Spirit, showing how they work together to strengthen the believer’s walk with God. It emphasizes that faith is the key to pleasing God, unlocking His power, and experiencing His promises, while also calling believers to nurture their measure of faith and connect it to the supernatural gift of faith for endurance, deliverance, healing, and transformation. Synopsis: In The Spirit of Faith, Pastor Marcos explores the foundational truth that without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). Faith is described as the most powerful force in the universe, the very means by which the worlds were framed and the unseen becomes reality. From Scripture, Pastor Marcos distinguishes between faith as the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22), which grows internally as we nurture the measure of faith God has given us (Romans 12:3), and faith as the gift of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:9), an external empowerment from God that provides an added dimension of strength in times of weakness. He illustrates this through the story of the father in Mark 9 who declared, “I believe; help my unbelief!” showing that when our personal faith struggles, Jesus provides the extra boost through the gift of faith. Faith is compared to a car battery—sufficient on its own but sometimes requiring a “jump start” from an external power source. This external source is the Spirit of Faith that partners with our internal faith to overcome unbelief, endure trials, and prevail against spiritual strongholds. Pastor Marcos further highlights that discerning when “the power of the Lord is present to heal” (Luke 5:17) is vital, as demonstrated by the friends who brought the paralyzed man to Jesus in faith. Unlike the Pharisees, they recognized the Spirit of Faith and acted on it, revealing that unbelief blinds us while faith perceives God’s presence and power. The message concludes by pointing to the altar as the place where the fruit of faith connects with the gift of faith. Salvation itself is received by faith, but for God’s glory to dwell in our lives, we must continually unite our internal faith with God’s external empowerment. When truth within us meets mercy from above (Psalm 85:10–11), faith becomes an unstoppable force. Ultimately, The Spirit of Faith encourages believers to cultivate endurance, discern the move of God, and live in the overflow of faith that brings salvation, healing, and transformation through Jesus Christ. Inspired Teaching: Hebrews 11:6 “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Faith is the most powerful force in the entire universe: Hebrews 11:3 “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.” Without faith it is impossible to understand the invisible things that make up the vast majority of the universe. Faith is also the substance of what we believe to be true or real, and the evidence of those things which are invisible, but still we know that they exist. Faith is awesome! From the biblical perspective faith is revealed as a product or fruit and also as a gift; if we may ask, what is the difference between the two? Galatians 5:22 “But the FRUIT of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, FAITH.” KJV 1 Corinthians 12:9 “To another FAITH by the same Spirit, to another GIFTS of healing by the same Spirit.” All of us have been giving a measure of faith and it is up to us to nurture and to grow—as you would fruit in a plant or a tree—the measure of faith that has been given to us as in seed form. Romans 12:3 “…As God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.” The gift of faith is more like an external force, unlike the fruit of faith which is more like an internal force. Do the two of them combine and if they do how do they work together? Think of faith as a car battery which stores the power needed to run the car. When the battery runs down—for whatever reason—it struggles to start the engine, in which case you connect it to another energy source with jumping cables. The external energy aids the internal one when they combine. The gift of faith provides the extra boost needed when the fruit of our faith fails us. Mark 9:24 “Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, ‘Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!’” This troubled father brought to the disciples of Jesus, his son who was in desperate need for deliverance from demonic torment; the disciples were unable to help the tormented boy. When the father of the boy saw Jesus and told Him about his situation, Jesus replied to him that all he needed was faith: Mark 9:23 “Jesus said to him, ‘If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.’” So the father had faith for he said to Jesus: I believe! But his faith was struggling and needed help, and Jesus did not hesitate to give it to him. Jesus helped him to overcome his unbelief. Jesus used this opportunity to teach His disciples about their need for more prayer and fasting to increase their faith when dealing with demonic strongholds. But our point is made that when our faith needs help, if we, with a sincere heart come to Jesus, with tears as if it were in desperate need, He will not fail to help us in our time of need, for He is faithful and He will not deny Himself. 2 Timothy 2:11-13 “This is a faithful saying: For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him. If we endure, we shall also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He will also deny us. If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.” Notice that it said: If we endure, we shall also reign with Him or have power from Him. The mark of true faithfulness is endurance; we never give up regardless of the outcome. Another way of connecting with this external force called ‘The gift of faith’ is through spiritual discernment. There is a time and place for everything the Bible tells us. Luke 5:17 “Now it happened on a certain day, as He was teaching, that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. And THE POWER OF THE LORD WAS PRESENT TO HEAL THEM.” Italics mine. What does it mean by: The power of the Lord was present to heal them? I believe that this is what it means: THE SPIRIT OF THE GIFT OF FAITH was present! There was an atmosphere conducive to merge the internal force of the fruit of faith with the external power of the gift of faith. Luke 5:18 “Then behold, men brought on a bed a man who was paralyzed, whom they sought to bring in and lay before Him.” Notice that the Pharisees and the teachers of the law did not perceive that the power of the Lord was present to heal them. Men whose names are not mentioned recognized that the power to heal was present, to such a degree, that when their way to Jesus was blocked by the crowds they climbed to the roof and lowered the paralyzed man down from the roof in front of Jesus. Wouldn’t you like to be friends with men of such faith like theirs? They saw the need of their friend and perceived that the power was present, so they persevered. What was it that blocked or hindered the Pharisees and the teachers of the law from perceiving that the Spirit of Faith was present? They did not believe that Jesus was their Promised Anointed One! Luke 5:21 “And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, ‘Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?’” What is salvation? To be forgiven by God from all our sins! Salvation is God’s personal Gift to all mankind. Salvation came as a human man. He came to His own and His own received Him not. But to those who believed in Him, to them gave He power, the promised of the Father; to be filled with the Holy Spirit of God. If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior you have been given the Gift of eternal life and abundant life. That internal faith that brought salvation to your soul is looking to connect with that external gift of faith that brings power to transform your life to be a glorious testimony for Jesus, the Savior of your soul. Matthew 23:19 “Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift or THE ALTAR THAT SANCTIFIES THE GIFT?” It is when we bring the measure of faith that God gave to us to God’s altar that our faith is sanctified, and we are saved. In the same way it is, when we bring the fruit of internal faith to God’s altar that we get connected to the Gift of Faith that brings the power to heal and restore. Psalm 85:9 “Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him, that glory may dwell in our land.” We receive our salvation through the measure of faith given to all of us since birth. As we receive Jesus as our Savior this measure of faith is sanctified on God’s altar. His salvation is near to those who fear Him. But for His glory to dwell in the land, or to be manifested through us, we need to connect to the gift of faith that comes from above. James 1:17 “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” Psalm 85:10-11 “Mercy and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed. Truth shall spring out of the earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven.” As we declare that Jesus is our Savior and our Lord the Spirit of truth springs out of us and meets with the God of mercy, God’s righteousness that looks down from heaven and our faith becomes one powerful force that cannot be stopped. Truth from within us meets mercy from above us. John 14:17 “The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be with you.” Psalm 86:11 “Teach me Your way, O Lord; I will walk in Your truth; UNITE MY HEART TO FEAR YOUR NAME.” Italics mine. Previous Next Home

LYDIA - WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP To examine the biblical account of Lydia as a model for women in leadership, demonstrating how God equips and uses women for ministry, business, and hospitality in the early church, and to explore the broader transformation of women’s roles in light of Christ’s redemption and New Testament teaching. LYDIA - WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP Minister Lisa Kane June 27, 2024 Objective: To examine the biblical account of Lydia as a model for women in leadership, demonstrating how God equips and uses women for ministry, business, and hospitality in the early church, and to explore the broader transformation of women’s roles in light of Christ’s redemption and New Testament teaching. Synopsis: In this teaching, Lisa Kane continues her series on Women in the Bible by focusing on Lydia, a successful businesswoman and devout worshiper of God introduced in Acts 16. The message begins with prayer, inviting God’s presence and guidance, then connects Lydia’s story with Jesus’ declaration in Luke 19:40 that even stones would cry out if His followers were silent—emphasizing that God uses whomever He wills, including women, to carry His word forward. The teaching outlines Lydia’s conversion under Paul’s ministry, her baptism with her household, and her role in hosting and supporting the apostles, providing a home large enough for gatherings that likely became the foundation of the church in Thyatira. Lisa highlights Lydia’s independence, her financial success in the trade of purple cloth, and her courage in housing Paul and Silas after their release from prison. The message then ties Lydia’s leadership to Revelation 2, where the church in Thyatira is addressed, underscoring both commendations for faith and love, and warnings against false teaching (symbolized by Jezebel). Lisa stresses the importance of discerning truth from false doctrine, walking in forgiveness, and relying on the power of the cross for healing and freedom from sickness. Finally, the teaching broadens the discussion to the transformation brought through Christ’s resurrection. By citing John 20 and Romans 8, Lisa emphasizes that believers—male and female—are no longer “lower than angels” but joint heirs with Christ, empowered to minister in His name. While affirming the biblical pattern of pastoral leadership through husbands and wives together, she reminds women not to discount themselves, since God uses anyone willing to serve Him. The message concludes with encouragement to hold fast to true doctrine, walk in forgiveness, and live in the authority of Christ’s redemption, bringing glory to God. Inspired Teaching - Written and/or Transcribed from Video Above: Hello and welcome to the House of Faith Ministries. I'm Lisa Kaine and I'm recording this on Thursday, June 27th, 20124. Welcome. Let us open up in a word of prayer. Father God, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the power and the authority of your name and your presence, Father God. And we thank you for making mighty men and women of God who have served you who has spoken your word and shared your word throughout all the generations and to the world. Thank you Lord. Thank you Lord. Prepare our hearts and minds as you work in us to do the same and to follow in the footsteps of your son Jesus. Thank you. and by the powerful mighty name of Jesus we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Welcome. I'm in uh a series called Women in the Bible. I've been doing this now for a handful of weeks. I will continue to do it. There are a lot of women in the Bible. Now, I'm not going in any particular order. No, I'm just letting the Holy Spirit direct me. And it was interesting the last I attend a Bible study on Tuesday nights and Wednesday nights. And uh both Bible studies were talking about the uh women's role in leadership in the church. And uh so here I've been in the women of the Bible series and for whatever reason I kept waking up and it was like the Lord kept telling me speak about Lydia, Lydia, Lydia. So I went and did some homework. And so we're going to be talking about women in the Bible and we're going to be talking focusing on Lydia, women in leadership. That's the title of this message. So let's go to this opening scripture. Luke 19:40. And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that if these should hold their peace or refuse to speak, the stones would immediately cry out, croak, scream, cry out. Now let me explain why I'm using this scripture for opening. I want the purpose of this particular teaching is to show you establish parameters in the past and the transformation of those parameters in the present time in scripture. So this is going to be really really neat. Now the reason I bring this scripture up and this scripture here talking about the stones would cry out. This is when this is Palm Sunday. Jesus is riding on a colt and they're laying down their clothes and palm frrons and all that and they are shouting praise to Jesus and the the Pharisees and the Sadducees are telling Jesus, "You need to tell these people to stop." And Jesus Jesus is the one who's talking. He's the one who says if they hold their peace and the stones would immediately cry out. In other words, God is going to use anyone and anything to speak to us. This is why he uses the stars to speak to us. See, he shows us in the different ways of how he can communicate with us. That is very important. And I want you to see that and I want you to understand that. So, we're going to be talking about Lydia and I'm going to be bringing you through a little bit of history through the word to show you how the transformation takes with what Jesus did through dying on the cross, rising from the grave, and redeeming us. Amen. So we're going to start here in Acts. Acts 16:14 and 15. And a certain woman named Lydia, seller of purple, a female traitor in purple cloth of the city Thotira, which worshiped, revered, adored God. And by the way, just to pause for a moment, when you see the scripture on the screen, and there's a bolded word with parentheses afterwards, the bolded word is the original text it was written in. The parentheses are other words that the author could have translated or the translators that uh translated the Bible into English and so forth, they could have used these other words to translate with. So, I'm just adding those extra words in because it gives us a bigger picture what we're looking at in scripture. So, anyways, uh which worship revered, adored God, heard us, whose heart, which is our thoughts or feelings, the Lord opened that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. And when she was baptized or fully wet and her household, so her and her household were fully wet, she besought us, saying, "If ye have judged or distinguished, decide me to be faithful, trustworthy to the Lord, come into my house and abide, stay there." And she constrained or compelled us. So this is very interesting. So we have a woman of God. She became a believer. Uh she um heard the word taught to her by Paul. She's a successful businesswoman because she trades in purple cloth. Now, understand this. She's the one dying the cloth. She's got her team of workers. Purple cloth can only be afforded by the rich. So she had a very expensive commodity and was selling to the rich, meaning she was well off providing purple commodity or purple cloth and that expensive commodity. She knew how to run her business. She had been doing it fine and she was organized and successful. A successful businesswoman in the time of that Paul lived. Now I want you to see something here. When Paul brings other people up in the ministry that he's in and where he's at and what he's doing, he's always mentioning uh usually the male and sometimes the wife's name and only depends of how much of the role she's in. So like Priscilla and Aquilla, he worked with that couple. He mentioned both their names. So they were both heavily involved with Paul in the ministry. Well, here he mentions Lydia but no husband. I don't think she had a husband. And in fact, because she deals in purple cloth, she doesn't have a husband in another who had to take care of her in another job. So, she had to have a job in order to be successful. We don't know any other history about her. We just know that she is a successful businesswoman ministering or re um selling to the rich, which means she has money. She's she's got enough. So she has a large enough home where she can accommodate Paul and those with him. Now when you read the rest of that chapter in Acts, we're going to read the last verse here in just a moment. You will see that this is the time where Paul and Silas went to prison and they were worshiping the Lord and the prison cell shook. All the walls fell and the centurion thought he was they were all gone. He was going to kill himself. And Paul said, "Hey, no, no, no. We're right here. Don't don't do that." Well, the next day Paul and Silas were released. Then if we in fact let's go to verse 40 because I want you to see that um that when she they were released look who they went to says and they went out of the prison and entered into the house of Lydia and when they had seen the brethren they comforted her consolation exor prayed them and departed. So they went to Lydia's house. So, she has this successful business where she affords a big enough home to accommodate Paul and Silas and whomever else is there with him. Uh, and and let me point out another thing here. She wasn't afraid to have prisoners or ex-prisoners in her home. She had Paul and Silas in her home who just came out of being in jail. So here she's a very interesting woman, a very interesting businesswoman, one who has her heart on God. Now she lived in a city called Thotira. Don't know if I'm saying that right or not, but I'm going to run with it. And it's believed that she started the church of Thotira. So there is a letter written by Jesus in revelation that John wrote on behalf of Jesus to the le to the church of the doterans. So let's go look at that letter because now I want you to see something that's going to help us understand the role of a woman in the church. By the way, the role of the man in the church as well because you're going to see what Jesus is pointing out. This applies to everybody. Male, female, uh, Jew, Gentile, free, slave, black, white, Asian, Indian, doesn't matter. It applies to everybody. So, let's go to Revelation 2. We're going to be reading verses 18 through 29. And unto the angel or messenger of the church, by the way, a church is a calling out, a meeting, a congregation. So in other words, her home was big enough where people could come to it because that's how they established churches in those days. They were in people's homes. So she had a good amount of people showing up to church in her home in Thotir. So he's talking to the church of Thotir, right? These things sayeth the son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass. I know thy works and charity. That word charity means love, affection, benevolence, and your service or attendance. And your faith, that faith is persuasion, credence, reliance on Christ, and thy patience, which is cheerful endurance, and thy works, and the last to be more than the first. So, pause here for a moment. Jesus is saying, I know all the good things you've been doing. Excellent. Thank you. Those are good. Then let's see what else he has to say. Because no church, no person is perfect. We have to rely on forgiveness with each other and with each church. We have to move in forgiveness to stop the fruit of the evil that is going on from prospering. No weapon formed against us shall prosper. How do you stop it from prospering? You forgive something and it just stops it right in its tracks. So, you're going to see what Jesus is going to point out here now in verse 20. Notwithstanding, I have a few things against thee. Uhoh. See, there's always something. If you think you've made it, think again. Because you haven't. Jesus points out, "Ah, you got something else to work on. There always will be something else to do. Notwithstanding, I have a few things against thee. Because thou sufferest, or you let be that woman, by the way, that woman is a specifically a wife person, Jezebel, which is a false teacher, which calleth herself a prophetus or a female foreteller, to teach, and to seduce, roam astray, my servants, to commit fornication, to act the harlot, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. I'm going to pause here for just a moment. I want you to see something here. This church is allowing a false teaching in here. Keep that in mind. We're going to get to this in just a little bit more. I give her space. I gave her space, time to repent, think differently, reconsider of her fornication, and she repented not. Okay? I want you to see something here with this false teaching. So, there's good teaching and there's false teaching. So, you got people that are in the word and you got people who are not in the word. I'm going to show you that here. Let's go to the next set of scriptures. Verse 22. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, a couch, bed for sickness, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, which is affliction, burden, pressure, except they repent of their deeds. In other words, I'll stop doing it if they just repent. But I'm going to put them in their sick bed. Verse 23. And I will kill her children with death. And all the churches shall know that I am he which searches the res, the kidney, the inmost mind, and hearts. the thoughts or feelings and I will give unto every one of you according to your works. Okay? In the church today and in the past, you had people who got sick and died prematurely. And you have people that don't. There's many people who live to be old. There's many people who die prematurely. Now, why this scripture answers that if you can believe that he Jesus is saying, "Listen, I'm going to put you in your sick bed until you repent. If you go read my prayers in the empowering prayer under houseof faith ministries.org, you will find that those that are blaspheing the Lord, even though I forgive them and I ask the Lord to forgive them and I'm hoping to give them another chance to repent, but if they continue not to repent, I ask the Lord to put them in their sick bed. That's scriptural. That's what he does. He's telling us straight up he does this. So, if there's somebody in the church that has cancer, for example, they're believing in some sort of false teaching and they don't even know it's a false teaching. They don't. That's scary. But the you've got, let's say, Lydia who became a believer in Christ and knew what to do and was able to established the church. Now, keep in mind as the stat the church grew and she got older and eventually passed away, men took over the church because that's what had happened. Men became the dominant pastors. And keep in mind that Paul, Peter, James, Timothy, they were provided instruction on how to establish the office of pastor, the office of elders. And it always talked about pastor being married with his wife and their children under control. It talked about the elders the same principle where their household was in order with God. All of them were following God. And that's how you became a pastor or an elder. Now a pastor is someone who has to meet the needs of every individual in his church. So these mega churches, those pastors can't do it. So what they're doing is they're they're farming it out to others. That's not right. You're the pastor, not others. And maybe what you should do is make more pastors and split the church up into different congregations everywhere. And that those pastors will minister to th that little bit of congregation there. That way you're following scripture. Now, because they're talking about a role of a husband and a wife, and we know that Christ is head of the church, and husband is head of the church, we know that a pastor has to be a male. We know that because that is the established parameters. But keep in mind, look at Lydia here. She's a founder of a church. She had no husband. And yet, look at how much the Lord blessed her. God can use anyone. If he can use the rocks, he can use women, too. So, women, don't you give up. You stand strong because it's by the anointing of the Holy Spirit, by the fruit, that they're going to see your ministry. And they will know by your fruit who you are with Christ, not contaminated by false teaching. Because if you're always sick, you're, you know, when we moved out here to Missouri that first year, which we just had our yearly anniversary a few weeks ago, I we were sick. I think five or six times I finally went to the elders of this new church we're attending and I said, "I need you to pray over me," which is scriptural. See, I'm going back to the scripture. I'm not believing in whatever false teaching. And I believed it was an attack against me for doing what we did with the Lord because he opened the doors to do this for us. And next thing you know, I was fine. I haven't been sick since. You know what? I praise God and give him the glory and I'm taking holy communion regularly. This is awesome. That's how God works. That is how God works. Amen. Amen. Let's continue on to verse 24. But unto you, I say, and unto the rest, as many as have not this doctrine and instruction, and which have not known the depths of Satan, the accuser. And see, there's one clear um item that you can see in the church is the accuser. Who is the accuser? the devil. How many people want to get up and co gossip men and women alike in saying something in the way of did you see so and so? That's a form of accusation. He just took up the devil's role for him. He don't even have to do anything. You did it for him. By the way, that's false doctrine that you're walking in. And if you're wondering why you're sick, it could be your mouth that's in trouble. What is it that you need to do? Repent. Remember Jesus forgave you. Ask you forgive yourself. Go back to the power of the cross. What Jesus did because he forgave everybody on the cross by dying on the cross, redeeming us, raising from the dead. Then you go and take holy communion and that's going to remove your sickness and you won't be sick anymore. So if you, this is a tailtale sign. If you are walking in some sort of sickness on a regular ba basis, go back to the cross. The power of the cross. Amen. as they speak, lay forth. I will put upon you none other burden, weight, or load. So mean, if you're not following the accuser, you're not following, you're you're actually well and doing good, you're in the ministry and all's looking good, the Lord is not going to put on you any other burden. You won't be burdened anymore. So those that have a heavy burden, there's another tail sign. These are things that the Lord is showing you. I need you to get out of that doctrine. I'm putting this pressure on you so that you can realize what's happening so I can teach you to be right and get out of that. Amen. That's what Jesus is doing. Verse 25, but that which you have already hold fast seize retain till I come. He says, hold on to what you got. You're not sick. You're walking in goodness. You're walking in right. That's because you are going to God. Yes, you're walking in righteousness. Yes, you're walking in the word. You're looking at the word. You're living by the word and not by false doctrine. And because of such he tells you, hold on to it till I come. And he that overcomemeth and keepeth my works which were keepest to watch and guard it my works until the end. To him will I give power over the nations. And we're not done. He said, "And he shall rule them with a rod of iron as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers, even as I received of my father. and I will give him the morning star. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches. Tailtale signs here, my friends. Tailtale signs. These are signs that tell you whether you are walking correctly in the church. It has to be scriptural. This is why I don't believe personally that a woman should be a pastor. It needs to be a husband and a wife. But if the husband was a pastor and he has gone home to be with the Lord and the wife has left, she has every right and every authority to take the role of pastorship at that point and then she can divvy it out or she can just be there with the Lord and let the anointing be upon her because she should be equal with her husband because they both were in ministry unto the Lord and she followed the direction of her husband and through Christ. So she should have the knowledge there. You see how this works? depending on the circumstance and the history and where it's at. That is the power that we see God use in people in ministry. Amen. Now, to show you the transformation of things from old to new. This is why women don't count yourself out because you are a big important part of this. I'm going to go to Psalm 8 and four. uh 84 and5 What is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou visitest him? For thou has made him a little lower than the angels and has crowned him with glory and honor. Now look at this with the extra words. What is mortal that you're you remember you mention him by the way the word mindful means also full of mind. He's f God is fully con thinking of man of you and I at all times. He knows how much hair we have on our body at any given moment in time. He is so mindful of us. He says and you visit him, you care for him, you avenge him, you bestow him, you oversee him. You made him a little lower than the angels. And these this word angels is gods on the ordinary sense difference and has crowned you encircled to protect from attack him with glory and honor. This is how we're established. Okay? A little lower than the angels. But I want you to see something very very important of what Jesus did. Watch this. I just taught on this recently. John 20:16-1 17. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself and saith unto him, Raboni, which is the same master. She's at the tomb. And she sees that Jesus is not there. And so Jesus is now revealing himself, "Hey, Mary, this is me. I'm right here." And then he says this. Jesus saith unto her, "Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my father, but go to my brethren and say unto them, I ascend unto my father and your father, and to my God and your God." Do you see what just happened here? We're made a little lower than the angels, but Jesus is the son of God. Jesus is telling Mary and Magdalene here, "Hey, I'm going up." And by the way, check this out. He just rose from the grave. He's got a billion souls behind him that he took out of paradise. He's on his way to his father and he stops. We can make this very comical. Everybody bumping back like, "Whoa, why did Jesus just stop? We're going to the father." And Jesus stops to talk to Mary Magdalene, a woman. He stops everything he's doing to talk to her, to share this most important thing. We're no longer a little lower than the angels. Jesus, his father, is our father. Do you see that? He says, "My father, your father, my God, your God." Oh, something changed. Something changes. Go to Romans 8:14. For as many as as are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God. You see, we're no longer a little lower than the angels, my friend. A change from history to Jesus took place where now man is with Christ. Now understand this. Yes, we're still in our flesh. So the flesh isn't there yet, but our spirit which has died to this flesh is up there with Christ standing next to Christ as joint hes right before our heavenly father. Oh, let's look at this. For ye have not received to take the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption, the whereby we cry, aba, father. The spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children then hes of God and joint hes with Christ. So if so be that we suffer with him that we may also be glorified together. Oh hallelujah. I hope you guys are seeing this. We're no longer under the angels. We're next to Christ. Which means when he says go into all the world and preach the good news, who is he talking to? male, female, Jew, Gentile, free, slave, Greek, black, white, Asian, Indian, whoever you are, male, female, whoever you are, you're called to ministry. Look at me. I'm not a pastor, but I am called to teach and preach the word of God. And those that catch this, by the way, continue to watch because they know by the fruit and the manifestation of what's being taught to them and how it grows in them. That is what the calling is. I don't have to be a pastor of a church to teach. Pastors do teach, but really they have the office to minister to their their congregation. If a person in the church gets into the uh the emergency room, they go they go there to be with them. They're praying with them, but they're to keep the church on the doctrine of the word of God and not allow false doctrine in to pray with them and get them back right at the power of the cross. That's the role of a pastor. And he has to do it with his wife because the two work in tandem because they are completed in an image of God. We are created in his image. male and female. I taught that when I talked about Eve. So now, even though I believe that women can't be pastors or elders do the requirements established by Paul and Peter and them in scripture, I believe women are joint hes in the church with Christ just as much as men. And if men falter or fail or they go home to be with the Lord, then God will use woman or whomever is ready and willing that is listening to him speak. I hope you get this. Hallelujah. Be ready. This means you need to get back to the power of the cross. Remember the redemption. This do in remembrance of me. Take your holy communion. If you think you've been too sinful, ask God to forgive you. He will forgive you. And ask him and then say, "Lord, I forgive myself." You see, once you let go and realize the sinner and the wretched, decrepit person that you were, you got to let that go and move forward in the calling of the spirit of God in your spirit. So his spirit will rise in you and you transform, change, you renew your mind. You think differently. You turn back and say, "Wait a minute." But the word of God says, "I'm not supposed to be sick. Why am I sick?" So you begin to follow what scripture tells you. You look at James 5. You go get prayed over by the elders. You forgive yourself. You forgive those around you. Forgive you the history of your genealogies. You forgive your children, your your grandchildren. You forgive them all. You walk in the spirit of forgiveness. And once you do that, God has forgiven you. You are forgiven. Sickness must flee because Christ is rising up in you. And sin and Christ don't mix. Diseases, sickness, and Christ don't mix. They both cannot reside in your body. And if they are, you're in a church that where you're sick and you've been told you you have cancer or this or that. Well, guess what? That's when you say, "Nope. I believe in the true word of God. And if I messed up here, Lord, forgive me. I'm going to I want to get right with you. How do I do it?" And the first thing you do is you ask for forgiveness. You get in your word. You spend time with the Lord. and you begin to find out what the Bible says, not what others say, what the Bible says, because now you get back on the right track with God. Amen. That's how it's done, my friend. Let's close in a word of prayer. Father God, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the revelation. And I pray that the enemy does not take this word out of our hearts or minds. That we do not forget the power and the authority of your word, but that we apply it to our lives. that we get right back in right standing with you, Father God. And I thank you for showing us women that we can be more with you and that we know that your Holy Spirit can work through us. We can pray for the sick. We can minister online. We can minister at Bible studies. Father God, thank you. Help us be stronger in your word. And Lord, push us aside and let your Holy Spirit manifest within us, within the woman and within the man, so that we're serving you, giving you all the glory because you are King of glory. Hallelujah, Father God. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. God bless you. Next week is Fourth of July on Thursday. I'm going to take the entire week off and enjoy my vacation week. So, there will not be a teaching next week, but will resume the following week. God bless you, and I'll see you in the next message. Bye-bye. Home Previous Next