What Is Persecution?

I have seen another evil under the sun, as Solomon would have written in the Book of Ecclesiastes. “Human nature can be very odd at times. I have come across people who will persecute you and or what you stand for. When you see them you realize that what they persecute you for is something that they are subconsciously longing for. People who have time to persecute you are usually bored, lonely and empty people. They usually don’t have many friends. You become their obsession and cause, the thing that fills up their life, since they have little else. Deep down they are either envious, jealous of you, or fear you. Or if they try to control you, through persecution, they do so out of fear. The root of control is fear. The worse thing that you can do is to disengage them. They want you to react to their ongoing persecution, to feed their dysfunctional relationship, which they so desperately need. If you disengage them, what else can they do with their lives? Miserable creatures they are, and to be pitied. They need the love of God in Christ. Sounds like how we should fight all the devil’s lies.”

“Intervention USA: Change Which Is Holy and Pure.” Forty Days of Prayer and Fasting.

I am persuaded that without God’s USA intervention, our country will be lost in darkness and despair.

I am convinced that prayer and fasting to Almighty God is the only hope left for our nation.

The 2012 Elections will be held on November 6th, 2012.

Our confidence is not on politicians or political parties, but on Christ Jesus, who sits on the throne of heaven.

Yet, there is little doubt that the outcome of these elections will spell to one of America’s most defining moments.

Not only are the results of the 2012 elections vital, but the destiny and purposes which God destined America for are being assaulted.

The staff at Doral Vineyard Church sensed to begin a forty day season of prayer and fasting on 9/11/2012, to commemorate one America’s greatest tragedies.

The fast will terminate at the end of the day of 10/20/2012.

This is a free will fast opened to any and all in the Body of Christ.

For those who attend Doral Vineyard Church, this is not a corporate church fast.

All social sites friends are welcomed to participate.

The fast will be at your own discretion.

Some will fast a meal, or multiple meals.

Others might fast coffee, others TV.

Some will only fast part of the time.

I will be updating daily with prayer points, thoughts and interjections on social sites.

People will be free to comment on what the Lord is showing them.

We will create a blog for those who want to blog their experiences.

There are other groups that will be doing their forty day fasts from September 28 through Election Day 2012.

If this is the prayer and fast that you prefer, here is a good link.

http://www.40daystosaveamerica.com

Any questions you have, please do not hesitate to write.

Blessings and thank you,

Jose Alvarez

Assistant Pastor Doral Vineyard

FACEBOOK EVENT:

https://www.facebook.com/events/281604881941048/ 

GOOGLE + EVENT:

https://plus.google.com/u/0/events/celi3n4jtvi61r0tljb8hn031c4

A Classic Truth,Though Brief, Worth Posting!

Among the top ten objections raised by non-church attenders is the objection that the church is filled with hypocrites. Dr. D. James Kennedy once responded to this objection by replying, “Well, there’s always room for one more.” He cautioned people that if they found a perfect church, they ought not to join it, since that would ruin it.

Why Is God a Birther And So Am I?

The great purpose of renewing of our minds in Christ is to be able to create the kingdom of God into our lives progressively from our imaginations.

Romans 4: And Abraham believed God, and this was placed to his credit as righteousness.

God’s righteousness is defined as the manifestation, tangibility or the manifest reality of God’s kingdom within our lives.

Just in the same way that we deposit or credit money into our bank accounts, we deposit and credit the tangible reality of God’s kingdom into our every day’s lives by simply believing what we are asking for.

This is because faith is a law.

Romans 3:27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.

A law tells us that specific circumstances will trigger specific results. If a police catches you speeding, the circumstances of your speeding car will trigger a ticket from him. According to your faith, you can trigger the manifested realities of God’s kingdom to be deposited as part of your every day existence.

Your everyday reality is made up of things or objects. The world around you is full of objects. These objects make up the existence of your life. A thing or an object is an entity that stands up by itself. It has shape, form, smell, appearance, etc. Important attributes of an object are that they stand alone, exist alone, and have an influence upon our life independently of any another object within our reality. The kingdom of God is full of things and objects that make up the reality of His kingdom. One of the things which is different about the kingdom of God to the one which we live in is that it is invisible, and the objects and entities which make it up are also invisible.

Colossians 1:16 For in Him was created the universe of things in heaven and on earth, things seen and things unseen, thrones, dominions, princedoms, powers—all were created, and exist through and for Him.
As you can see there are invisible things or entities in God’s heavenly kingdom.

If we are to live in the fullness of God’s kingdom, then we must be able to get access to the invisible entities or objects of His kingdom living in the reality and the influence that emanates from them.

The purpose of a renewed mind which is free from limitations, doubt, confusion and unbelief is its ability to first birth the objects of God’s kingdom in its imaginations. The renewed mind in the realm of its imaginations is the birthing or hatching ground for the invisible objects of God’s kingdom.

Romans 7:23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
24 O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
25 I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
Part of what Paul tells above about serving the law of God with the mind is its ability to birth the objects which make up God’s kingdom into its imaginations.

Because of the law of faith, the more that we can birth in our imaginations the invisible objects of God’s kingdom the more that we can get access to them and then credit or deposit them into the reality of our everyday world, altering our very existence.

The objects of God’s kingdom are ever-increasing, ever abounding, they are without measure, and they transcend the impossibilities of this life. The renewed mind in the realm of our imaginations is the birthing and hatching ground of the invisible things of God’s kingdom. Our faith deposits them into our everyday lives. Slowly by slowly our existence changes into one which all things are possible.

2 Corinthians 10:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

In the verse above Paul describes for us the process of renewing the mind. It is of utmost importance that the word for imaginations is the same root word found in Romans 4 that means to credit or deposit. Our imaginations are the means of depositing the objects of God’s kingdom into our everyday reality.

Every Christian must be a “birther” or creator. God is!

I am not here talking about Mr. Obama’s now  four-year, and still unanswered quandary.

He or she must be constantly birthing the invisible objects of the heavenly kingdom and living by faith from their reality and influence.

The Great Apostasy And Abortion

I came to Jesus in 1979.

I was more screwed up at twenty five, than many twenty five year old agers of today.

For two years after my salvation event, I did not know Christians.

I had no pastor or priest to counsel me.

I did not have a cell phone, a computer, or Face Book.

God was setting me free from pornography, drugs, drinking, smoking, deep rejections and insecurities.

I had been a severe stutterer from the age of four.

I was a university drop out in my junior year.

My church was Christian radio and TV.

My parents were getting divorced and my worldly friends, now finding me odd, were departing from me.

I only had a Living Bible to read, and my knees to pray on while leaning on a couch  which had been converted to a bed.

I did not go through rehab and did not know Christian therapists to counsel me.

I became free by the Word of God and His presence in prayer.

I finally met up with Christians in 1981 and began attending a small church.

The pro-life movement was picking up steam.

I understood little about abortion, thinking that the baby was a blob in the womb.

I was shown a film entitled “The Silent Scream” which depicts an ultra sound of a baby being aborted.

At the moment that the abortionist’s forceps touches the little infant, his mouth gapes open in a blood curdling but silent scream.

The film changed my life. I knew then that abortion was murder, that it was wrong, that I must oppose it, and never vote for any politician who supported it.

I mean, I just knew it!

Did anyone teach me this? No!

Did I have tons of Face Book posts and graphic pictures of bloodied and mangled babies to inculcate me? No!

It was just me, the Word of God, and the voice of the Holy Spirit.

Here was 28 year old guy, majorly screwed up, insecure as hell, a severe stutterer,  blatantly knowing that abortion was murder, and that not even the woman who carried the baby had the right to extinguish his or her life.

Now a bit older and wiser, I find myself delving in our technologically educated, amazingly informed, and ultra-connected society.

I see many young Christians like I was,  with an abundance of Biblical resources at their disposal, pastors who communicate with them through email and social sites, who support this heinous practice and vote for politicians who radically support it.

I cry to heaven burdened, “God what is happening?”

What was so obvious to me at 28 without all this internet stuff to indoctrinate me, is not obvious to many of today.

Is it that Christian of today, does not know how to recognize the Holy Spirit’s voice?

Does he not spend time with the Lord, but simply relies on Bible apps to teach them?

Or is it that to walk by the Spirit, which is the most essential of things, is no longer imperative?

Does he not embrace the value of freedom and deliverance?

Are social and political issues placed above the Word of God?

When an issue is idolized in the name of a right, above God’s Word, it becomes deception.

2Thess 2:3   Let no man deceive you by any means, for that Day shall not come, unless there comes a falling away (apostasia) first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition,

Apostasy come from two Greek words defined as “away from the standing”.

Better said, it means to be displaced or removed from a standing or stance where someone was originally at.

I see Christians removing themselves from the convictions of the Holy Spirit’s voice, and the dictates of God’s Word as the map to their lives, to compromise with a social issue.

This my friends cannot be.  This is deception, and we will pay for it.

Are we nearing the Great Apostasy or falling away of Christians?

I just wonder if current generations of Christians will stay true to the voice of the Spirit, and the dictates of the Word, or will these things become ancillary?

Oh how I wish that I am wrong!

The issue of professing Christians supporting abortion as a woman’s right and voting for political candidates who do so, is something that I  cannot wrap my head around.

Abortion is diametrically opposed to the God who gives life, and sent His Son who is the author of life, to give us life abundant.

Any person, who professes Christ and supports abortion must seek the Lord to find where unhealed wounds of the soul have formed a callousness in their hearts  to a baby’s right to be born.

Christian who supports abortion and vote for candidate who do so, have an issue with hardness of heart caused by a past hurt.

God loves you, He does not condemn you.

You,  however, must come to recognize that something is not right with your way of thinking.

Whoever you are, God loves too much for you to stay in this place.

You must pray and ask God to show you why you believe the way you do.

I guarantee that there is past wound that has produced an area of callousness of heart.

A callous in the palm of your hand does not allow you to feel pain.

A callous in your heart does not allow you to be tender, merciful and compassionate the frail life of the tiny unborn.

Seek the Lord, while He might be found. Ask Him to heal you.

Many blessings on this church Sunday.

“The Substance of Heavenly Things”

Success in the kingdom of God is proportionate to how much it becomes our reality, our actuality, existence, or state of being.

Existence has to do with what our physical senses make us aware of in terms of our surroundings.

What we are aware of around us becomes our environment that dictates with it a culture.

When Jesus said in Matthew 6 “let your kingdom come, let your will be done, as in heaven so upon the earth,” He is talking about existence. The term, “let your will be done”, is actually “become” (Greek “Ginomai”).  Jesus is saying, let your kingdom come upon us our reality and let your will become our existence or state of being.

As a matter of fact God’s philosophy of existence is so important that the Lord’s Prayer is stated in the grammatical mood of command, or how the Greek grammar defines it; “the imperative mood”.

The Lord is not telling us to pray “Lord let you kingdom come….”

Rather it should be prayed like this “Come thy kingdom!” “Done be thy will!”

Jesus is telling us to contend for the existence and the actualization of the environment and culture of heaven to become our norm of life here on earth.

Exodus 3:14  And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.

The term “I am that I am” in the Hebrew is “I am the existing one which exists” (or your life must become actualized in me, God who is the true existence. Or, the things that make up God, His kingdom and His will must become our existence, because only this is true existence).

Existence had to do with our surrounding reality. It is a state of being that becomes our life. It is what we are aware of.

Things or objects in this visible natural kingdom that make up our visible existence are made up of matter that has a certain shape, function and purpose. This matter is called substance. Substance on earth is material with its own chemical composition. This material takes us space that creates places. Places create an environment which defines a culture.

The matter of the invisible objects or things in the kingdom of God is called faith.

Hebrews 11:1   Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

It is important for us to realize that God’s kingdom is full of things or objects.

Ro 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

Col 1:16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:

The invisible things of God’s kingdom are far superior to the visible things of this earth.

2Co 4:18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are

seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

2Co 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Col 3:2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

While we access the visible things of this earth through our senses; seeing, hearing, smelling, etc.; the things of heaven must be accessed by a spirit of revelation. (Ephesians 1:17-18)

All heavenly things are hid in mysteries. We will blog about this another time. Sufficient is to say that a mystery cannot be accessed by our sensory perception but by revelation.

His invisible things are made up of an invisible substance called faith. The more that we can walk by faith, the more that we will enter into the reality, existence or the state of heavenly things.

As there are earthly spaces or places so there are heavenly spaces or places.

Eph 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:

Eph 1:20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,

21  Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:

22  And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,

23  Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

Eph 2:6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

7  That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

By the simple reason of our being born again we now have our daily affairs, and the carrying out of our normal everyday life in heavenly places.

What are the advantages of living in these heavenly places? Ephesians 1:3 tells us that in any heavenly place that we access and live in, all of God’s spiritual blessings are at our disposal.

Ephesians 1:20 tells us that in a heavenly place we find ourselves seated far above every demonic entity, sickness and every name that is named. Does everything in earth have a name? Does cancer have a name? Do financial difficulties have names? You are seated above them. But unless this heavenly place becomes our reality, our awareness, our environment, what we can touch, see, or feel by faith, we won’t be able to experience these realities within our life.

The doorway to entering into the awareness and the enjoyment of the environment and culture of heavenly things is a renewed mind. A mind that operates in doubt, unbelief, or ignorance to the Word of God will become a closed door to the entrance of heavenly places and its indwelling things. The door to these places becomes slowly and progressively opened by the renewal of the mind until when it finally becomes free it drops you into these heavenly locations.

Romans 12: And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Paul says in Romans 12:2. “Do not copy the blue print or schematic of this world system but be metamorphosed by the renewing of your mind so that it becomes a totally different type of mind and you find yourself transformed. A metamorphosis of your mind and life are the keys to the doors of heavenly places.

Where there is doubt and unbelief or confusion so will be the doors of heaven will be barred to you. This is because the substance of heavenly things and places is faith, not doubt.

Genesis 1:3  And God said, Let there ( become) be light: and there was ( became) light.

In Genesis 1:3 the Hebrew reads like this “and God said let light become (or become the existence) and there became light.

From the beginning of creation God brought the tangible reality and existence of heaven to earth. He knew from the beginning that the existence of the invisible as our reality is the most important thing that there is.

Lets finish by looking at a few more scriptures from Genesis.

Genesis 1:5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. (Hebrew: And it became the evening and it became the morning, the first day.)

6 And God said, Let there ( Let there become) be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it( Let there become) divide the waters from the waters.

8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. (And it became the evening and it became the morning, the second day.)

9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. (and it is becoming so)