Demonic Possession and Mark 9

So I really like what I just read in my quiet bible study time. I was reading Mark 9:38-41 which says:

38"Teacher," said John, "we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us."

39"Do not stop him," Jesus said. "No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, 40for whoever is not against us is for us. 41I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward.

I like how Jesus rebukes division in His Kingdom here. Jesus is plainly talking about UNITY here. His disciples think that the only way the the LORD works is by the way that they have been taught and seen, but the LORD clearly tells them that "whoever is no against us is for us." I mean, how much more clear can it get than Jesus saying, "don't stop him?" Haha. Jesus says that no one that does a miracle in His name, can in the next moment not be of Christ.

Of course, we have to take into account here other verses that say, "test everything" and that "some will call Him 'Lord Lord' and not enter the kingdom of heaven." BUT, whoever does miracles in HIS NAME is our ally. Sometimes even miracles divide us? Can you believe that?!?! Someone comes and heals someone in the name of Jesus and we as Christians act like today's version of yesterdays' hypocritical and legalistic pharisees! Man! The Devil is smart and like I said in a previous blog, the Devil's main weapon of destruction towards the Church is division.

I have come to know 2 maybe 3 different ways of casting out Demons. And these 2-3 ways sometimes do not agree with one another. I mean, I've even talked to the founders or pro toge's of the founders of these different praxis and they go as far as saying that the other people casting out demons are doing it wrong... CAN WE ALL SAAAAAY - - "ignorant disciples?" I was too an ignorant disciple at one point just because I only knew of one way and I was taught by one of the founders of one of these praxis. But thank you LORD for opening my eyes to see!

I hope that we can love the LORD our God SO much that we can put ourselves humbly before Him in order to do what He desired for us most found in John 17: for us to be 1 just like the Father and Jesus are 1.

We should be saying this:

OH! You be thrown down on some Demons too! TIGHT! OH! You do it differently but in Jesus name? TIGHT! It's a WHOLE new strategy!! Let's see HOW WE CAN WORK TOGETHER!!!

I think our sinful nature makes us selfish and prideful and "me-centered" people! YUCK! Let's become people after the will of the Father! Meaning not "we" centered people, but HIM centered people. There's a big difference! We're centered people is NOT about HIM :) And we-centered people leaves a huge lane open for sin and mistakes and for missing the mark when it comes to what HE wants!

Man, I can keep going but then people won't read this... hahaha... I'll just end with a prayer:

LORD teach me and everyone that is part of your Church how to live out John 17 so that we can ALL be unified in You and act as one church instead of a whole bunch of wandering body parts. Teach me LORD, open my eyes, open my ears as well as all your Church! I want this SO bad. I want this because You want this!

Unidos Con el Amor de Dios - United with God's Love

Wow. I can't believe how well the sermon went last night. There were places to improve, sure, but you can't improve the work of ma man the Holy Spirit! In the 9am service it well okay, but I felt that something was missing. I felt that I had all the right ingredients, but that I missed something. So I started praying after the 9am service and as I prayed and prayed the Spirit showed me that I was preaching on unity: the hardest thing to achieve and the thing that battles Satan's strongest weapon of division! So, I needed to battle man! I needed to spend more time on my knees to get myself and the congregation ready to receive this message. So I did. And it went great in the 5:30pm service!

I had been prayn off-and-on throughout the day, but I prayed hard core right before the service. I just went off to myself and had me some good God time :) Well, God time is always good since it means that you are in His presence :) I was a little scared to tell you the truth because I wasn't getting ANYTHING in regards to what I was going to do different. So the service started and I wasn't ready :/ But throughout the service I had a feeling that the LORD was going to give me something to say before I started preaching... and He SO did! He prompted everything with what He put in Paula's heart to say right as worship was finishing their last song. Paula talked about her wanting to pray for the future of the church and for all the big changes that are coming. THAT WAS SO GREAT! The Lord instantly spoke to me about how when there is change, there is great danger of division within the church. When there is change, a church, as a whole, can either go with God's vision or stay in the stale plan that the church "thinks" they are supposed to follow. Or, sometimes people leave the church because they don't "agree" with the new pastor's ideas/theology etc.. It's SO sad!

The church... hmmm.... I thought that there was only one Church with a big "C." The Church of our LORD Jesus Christ. The ONE Church. So, denominations in Santa Barbara. Can we PLEASE work together and see what the ONE Holy Spirit wants for our city? Can we please look and see that we have more resources than the 1st 3,00 people church in Acts and STILL have poverty in our city while the 3k in Acts made it so that none lacked anything! Man!! Preach on Jesus!

Unity... without Unity there is no power. Read John 17 and noticed how the ONE thing that Jesus prayed for His disciples and His future disciples (US) was for the Father to protect us so that we could be ONE just as the Father and Jesus are one: in will. Unity is the hardest thing for the church because it's the one thing that makes us have to be totally humble and totally in LOVE with Christ! When Jesus talked about the most important commandment He said "Hear, Oh Israel" He didn't say, "Hear Oh, Pablo" or "oh 1 person." He was speaking to the WHOLE COUNTRY... TO HIS WHOLE CHURCH! As a church we need to be united so that we can fully do the work that He has prepared!! I wish that I could speak instead of type so that my expression and voice can show through!

ONE church in SB, ONE Holy Spirit, ONE strategic plan for Santa Barbara! But only if we are humble in love and in unity...

Below is the powerpoint that I used...

POWERPOINT IN SPANISH

God Bless,
Pablo

I Love Jesus! - - - UNITY - - - Matthew 18:19-20

Man! I am SO in love with Jesus and the things that He said!! I recently finished the OT and started again in Matthew 1 and I LOVE IT!! There is SO much Wisdom the is SO much love!

I was reading Matthew 18 and I came across this famous passage:

19"Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 20For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them."


I have usually heard verse 20 quoted and explained this way: If 2 or 3 come together in the name of Jesus or to worship Jesus or to pray, that Jesus is there. However, I think that verse 19 comes into context here and maybe turns the understanding that I have had about this verse around a little.

Coming together in His names as verse 20 states ALSO, I think, means coming together in His name and being one as He (Jesus) and the Father are one as Jesus' prayer states in John 17. I think that 2 or 3 Christians come come together and Jesus will be there, but His authority and power and full presence will not necessarily be there unless those that have come together are truly acting as the body of Christ in one spirit; with that same purpose.

Again, verse 19 says that when His Children come together and AGREE about anything The Father will grant it AND (verse 20) the Son will be there also.

WOW! WHAT POWER!!

No wonder Satan wants to divide the church! And he, I believe, has done a pretty good job when it comes to "denominations" that cannot come together in unity. If we were united... just a few of us... then, "it will be done for you by my Father in heaven."

ANYTHING!

The desire of Jesus was indeed that His disciples... US AS WELL... would come together in the way that the Father and Him are one; and that is that the Father and the Son haver perfectly harmonious wills even though they are 2 different beings. Of course that the Holy Spirit comes along as the 3rd separate being and He makes a perfect trinity in which all 3 beings have perfectly harmonious wills :)

ONE...


Coming together in the name of Jesus, to me---from these verses, means to come together with perfectly harmonious wills so that when we ask for something the Father grants it.

Also, when we ask for something we obviously should want to be asking for the best thing for us, which is the Father's will. It's so perfect! And it works within perfect reason. It's kind of a cycle. it's kind of a programmer's dream :) We could even put it into a programming language... but I won't :)

Ask and it shall be given to you. You the person, you the church, you the united church of God. So what do we have to do? Find out what the LORD wants us to do or ask for so that we can ask for something with COMPLETE confidence that it's going to be given to us. For example, when we pray for healing, don't pray without authority because we are not sure that the LORD will do it. Pray like it's done, because in God's "timing" and in His presence, IT IS! I mean, God is on the past, present, and future at the same time, so when we ask in the present, He sees it done in the future already :) Think about that for a second.

Well, I could go onto some more tangents, but I won't.

God Bless...