PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE

And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. (Joshua 24:15)




In the last lessons titled; "THE HOUR BEFORE THE HOUR", we spent time finding out about the terrible hour of persecution coming to the church and saints of God. We learned that know one is escaping this, and that you must prepare NOW, to have the strength to stand, then. We learned of the weapons Jesus gave us to become warriors, standing strong, when the trouble comes. These weapons are:



• PRAISE AND WORSHIP (in church and in our everyday lives)

• PRAYER ( a time set aside everyday for one on one relationship building - not just at church or mealtime)

• PRECEPT- THE WORD OF GOD (the logos or written word of God that we should be reading and studying everyday)

I suggest you re-read these 4 part lessons as much as possible and let only your Bible reading time out number the times you read these. Who I want to talk to now are the people who have took this series to heart and are doing it. I am talking now to the people who are worshipping God with song, with dance, and with love and affection in their prayer time everyday. I am talking to the people who are listening to the call to prayer. Who are finding time alone with God every day, sitting at his feet to listen and love on him the way Mary did. And by the way, you will know you are doing it right when the "Martha's" of the church and world get mad. And, I am speaking to the ones who have took up the call to grab their Bible, dust off it's unused pages, and began to breathe it in to their soul as an astronaut consumes oxygen on the moon.



NOW THAT YOU ARE DOING IT............WHAT IS NEXT?



When once a house is built, then all that is left is what is called in the construction world; "PREVENTIVE MAINTAINANCE". The owner of the house will inspect said house every so often to check for leaks, cracks, termite damage and wear and tear that would cause the house to eventually rot and fall. When a bridge is finally built to span a chasm uncrossable, crews will come in to inspect its support beams and structural integrity for coming failure and possible castastrophe.



When the I-35 bridge in Minnesota collasped in August, 2007, it fell at the busiest, most crowded, time during the day. As people were rushing home from work, around 6:00 PM, that day one hundred people's lives would change forever. The bridge, built in 1964, hadn't had a "preventive maintaince" check in a long time. Because the bridge was took for granted it was working good, and had never had any problems before, inspections became fewer and far between. And because of this lethargy, un-noticed to the many children, dads and moms crossing this bridge every day, a crack had formed in one of the support beams holding this massive, 1,900 foot long, span up.



Wear and tear of everyday use, rain pounding on it's structure, the cold and heat making a cycle of freezing and swelling bolts and connections, finally formed a small, tiny crack. In the image below, taken from the bridge itself, is where inspectors of the disaster traced the failure....

  Above is the actual picture taken from the wreckage of I-35, showing the actual crack, just a few inches long, that caused the deaths of 13 people and injuring 145. Think of it! this little, tiny crack, caused 100 cars to plummet 115 feet to the river below, some to their death. In an instant, in a blinking of an eye, a bridge which stood proud for 40 years was lying at the bottom of the river, with 100 cars, mangled and twisted bodies, and 81 feet of bridge on top of them.


Beloved, this little crack did bring down the mighty I-35 bridge, but this crack is not what killed them. What killed 13 men, women and children that day? What sent 145 people to an emergency room was not a 4" inch long crack, not really. It was the utter failure and apathy of a crew, commissioned to stand watch over and inspect the mighty I-35, that ultimately is to blame. Slowly, over time, as wear and tear worked it's magic, as little droplets of rain pounded its joints little by little, the crew charged with keeping I-35 safe, over time, cared less and less and took for granted it's strength more and more. And at the very end, a small crack caused such loss of life


I don't blame the rain, it was just doing its job. Nor the elements or wear and tear, that also is a natural progression of time and physics. Who must bear the burden the rest of their lives of the many who perished that day were the leaders who were in charge. Beloved, what do you think would have happened had the crews been out there, inspecting every day? Combing over its beams and structure, keeping a trained eye on anything unusal or out of the ordinary? I can tell you this, that bridge would not have crumbled, and no one would have died.


So is with our spiritual and eternal lives dear reader. In the coming lesions we will describe to what our Lord requires of us in “preventive maintenance”. We will learn why the above scripture is key to your survival in this, and, you will see just how much you, and that bridge, have in common.

THE HOUR BEFORE THE HOUR (PART #4)

" My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children."  (Hosea 4:6)

 Now we come to the final weapon in this series, "The HOUR before the hour". In the last lessons we learned, there is an hour coming, a time of great trouble that the world has never seen before in its history. Diseases running wild with no cure. Famine in the earth with millions starving for food. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods and other natural disasters on an unprecidented scale. We learned that this HOUR must come upon every human on this people planet, saved and unsaved. We also found out that in this time, which by now you know is not a literal "60 minute" period, but an undetermined amount of time of trial, persecution never before witnessed, that God will seem as though he is silent and far away.

But we also learned some good news. In the last lessons, we learned that our Lord, Jesus Christ, has left us weapons to stand in this evil day. We learned of  the weapons of:

• PRAISE AND WORSHIP- Which brings down the presence of God
• PRAYER - Which builds the personal relationship with God that will must have

And now we come to the final weapon, PRECEPT. Another word for this THE WORD OF GOD, your Bible. Again, like PRAYER, there are hundreds of books on this subject and many ways that this weapon has been presented. For time's sake I will bring out only two points on this issue that you need to know to use this as a weapon.

Look at our reference above. God was speaking to the prophet Hosea about the backslidden, rebellious condition the children of Isreal were in. No longer would they listen to the instruction of the word of God already given to them in the books of Moses and existing writings by other prophets. No longer would they listen to the words of prophets and priests that stood up right then with a word from God. They came to the place where "every one did that which was right in their OWN eyes". So God was giving Hosea this eternal truth, that his people were being destroyed by a lack of knowledge. This is not meaning there were not any smart people in Isreal, or any schools or books of knowledge. God was saying that the people were perishing in the sin of their disobedience and rebellion because they refused the knowledge of God.

They did not any longer wish to know what God thought about right or wrong. No longer cared what God said to do and not to do, but came to the place where they wanted only to do what they thought was ok and right. Beloved, this evil has never left us. Turn on your TV, read a newspaper or listen to the commentaries of our political and even church leaders today and you will find a hatred for this book called the Bible like has never been. Political leaders like President Obama, celebrites like Oprah Winfrey, and many others in power believe there is not only ONE truth. They all push an agenda in our society and schools that say there are many ways to God, truth is relative ( meaning depending on how you want to look at it). And they say that the Bible is a fallable book, containing no truth and written only by men who made mistakes.

I want to boldy stand and proclaim this TRUTH right now!

• THE BIBLE IS THE ONLY GOD AUTHORED, GOD INSPIRED, AND HOLY GHOST BREATHED BOOK ON THIS PLANET...PERIOD
• THE MEN WHO WROTE IN ITS PAGES WERE MOVED BY THE HOLY GHOST, TOLD WHAT TO WRITE BY THE HOLY GHOST. NO HUMAN AUTHORED OR WROTE THIS BOOK
• IT CONTAINS THE ONE, THE ONLY TRUTH IN THE UNIVERSE. ANY OTHER BOOK OR SOURCE IS A LIE.

Beloved, the Koran is a lie, the catholic bible is a lie, the book of Mormom is a lie, the Jehovah's witness bible is a lie. Your KJV bible, ( and any translations that are older) contain the only truth about who God is, the only way to heaven, and the ways to stay out of Hell. Many people have given their lives to protect this truth, distribute this truth to the common man and I encourage you to read the history of your Bible. Maybe we wouldn't use it for a decoration on our coffee table if we knew the men and women who were raped, beheaded, set on fire and their children tortured and killed for believeing, preaching and copying this Bible to give to others.

Your Bible contains the only way to stand against Satan. Contained in this book is the truths that reveal how Satan works, the power we have to not only stand against him, but to cast him out in Jesus name. Without your bible, how would you know Jesus gave us power to cast out demons and devils in his name. Without your bible how would you know Jesus defeated Satan forever on the cross and destroyed his power to chain souls in their sin. Without your bible how would you know the traps he uses to destroy you, to stay away from hatred, anger, fornication, adultery, murder, backbiting, and know that Jesus has gave us power not to fulfill these lusts in our lives. My friend, you would be blind and easy pickings for the Devil to destroy without knowing these promises and wind up on a road to eternal Hell you never knew you were walking on.

That is point one, my final point is this. Without The WORD OF GOD, we would not know the promises of God to us from him. We would not know how much he loves us with an everlasting love, that he is and always will be faithful to us. That he is not an "Indian Giver", someone who promises something and never makes good or delivers. But we see time and time again, in the WORD, how God promised and whatever it took to make it come to pass, he did it. We see how he never failed Abraham, Moses, Jeremiah, and all who put their trust in his promises. We see how he sent the greatest promise of his love and power, Jesus, to this earth to redeem us from Satan and a road to Hell. We see how God's love is so great that he sent his only Begotten (birthed by God himself) son into this world, than gave him to be tortured and killed, just for us! It reminds me of the words of the great song; "Because he loved me my saviour died......he suffered it all, because he loved me". My friend, you would have no knowledge of this, none. You would be left to your own devices and intellect to figure God out without your Bible. And know this, your devices, all your intellectual prowess, would never figure out the truths that a holy God knows. You would fall to every trap Satan would bring, you would not believe the faithfulness and power of God, and you would die in your sins.

I close with this. When all else fails, when the world crumbles, and when no one has any answers, only those who have got alone with God, know his voice now, know his word intimately, now, and know his promises by heart will be able to stand in this coming hour. Every preacher, pastor, world leader, every person will shake and quake and fall over in fear because they have no understanding, no knowledge of God and his word. Pick your Bible off of the table, pull it out of the nice little bookstore cover you have it in and begin reading and memorizing those precious promises. they will never fail you. Learn what God is, what he wants and demands, before it is to late. My friend, don't stand on judgement day and perish in Hell because you had no knowledge of God. Read his word, and live.

THE HOUR BEFORE THE HOUR (PART #3)

"....The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."  (James 5:16)

We will not focus on the other half of weapon number one today, prayer. In the last lesson we showed the power and application of the first half of this weapon, Praise and worship. Don't forget that these two weapons go together and cannot be seperated from each other. You must be using both together and not focus on having one more healthy than the other. All these weapons, PRAISE AND PRAYER - PRECEPT go together and work together. Let us begin breaking the weapon of PRAYER down now.

First let me say this, there are hundreds of books and teaching on prayer today. You cannot walk into a bookstore without a huge section devoted to the subject. Preachers have preached many sermons on this weapon. I'm sure you've heard at least one sermon this month on this topic. I don't want to get into the hundreds of aspects and benefits and the do's and don'ts of praying here. What we will learn are the points contained in our scripture reference above, all you need to know is contained in this verse, to begin.

Point one, let's take a note that James is talking about a man who is praying, every day. It escapes me to understand how we can call ourselves a christian, the bride of Christ, and not take time to talk to our husband, God. How long, in a marriage, do you think would last if the man and woman never spoke to each other? My friend, it would soon crumble to the divorce court! Without talking to each other there would be no connection built. They wouldn't know what each other like or disliked, loved or not loved, or even if they were compatable for a lifetime relationship. Most important, without communicating their love for each other, how would they know they ever cared? Beloved, just having love for someone is god, but not enough! It takes communicating this love verbally, physically showed in some way, or it is useless.

So without daily communion with the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, how do you know they love you? How will He know you love him? How will you know God's heart? What he wants and thinks about himself, and about you? How will you recieve the things you need, problems you need solved, if you never spend quality time with God? I will say it again, this one on one time I speak of builds the relationship connection that will give you the power to stand in these last days. You will not make it without your own one on one relationship with God. The one your mother had will not cover you. The one your Pastor has will not save you. It must be you and him getting to know each other that will give you the faith, the trust, the power to stand in this evil day. NOTHING LESS WILL DO.

I must move on, but i will say this to finish this point. When I speak of quality time I do not mean the two minutes it takes to thank God for your dinner tonite. I do not mean the quick "grab him and go" prayer you give him when you run into trouble. Those things do not, and never will, build the intimate personal connection I speak of.

James is speaking ohere of a man, no matter what the cost, that is making time every day to spend time with God alone. Think of Daniel. He was a man who was busy every day running a country, and on the board of advisors to kings, and still made time to pray to God three (3) times a day to God! Imagine what would happen if we took our lunch time at work and gave it to God in prayer! Imagine what would happen if we sacrificed the time we preserve to make sure we don't miss that hour long TV show each week, and gave it to God in prayer! Yes, it will cost you, turning off the cell phone, giving up all that time on facebook, and getting away from the aimless time spent with family and friends to do this. You might even have to jump into your walk-in closet at home and shutting the door to get alone, but it is well worth it!

Beloved, the benefits will always outweigh anything you must sacrifice to spend time in prayer. James in essence is telling us one who is praying, everyday, one on one with God, FERVENTLY (that means with all your heart and strength) will avail much! Let me break that down for you.

He or she will AVAIL (produce) this:

• Hear the voice of GOD almighty ( imagine that!)
• Destroy fear, depression, worry and anxiety
• Protect themselves and loved ones from danger and harm
• SEE MIRACLES! (imagine that one!)
• See your church and leaders preach with power and annointing, and have his presence in your service for a change.

I could go on and on with the benefits here. But I will stop with the greatest one of all. It will cause you to fall in love with Jesus, like you never have before. As the presence of the Holy Ghost overwhelms you in love, and you allow time for your Father to speak to you, and the tears flow and your hands shake under the power of his love, and he whispers sweet peace to your soul and loves you like only a father can. I think once you get into this presence in prayer, you won't have to be prodded anymore to go and pray. You will be running with giddy anticipation every day to get into the lap of your heavenly father.

I close with this. Prayer is a weapon. It destroys enemy strongholds, casts out devils, heals the sick, raises the dead and delivers anyone from anything on earth. But most of all, it builds an connection with a holy god that causes you to become one, in love, knowing each other personally and intimately. Believe me, when he comes back again to gather his own, he will not forget those who  have entered his bedchamber in prayer and have a personal, intimate, first name basis connection with him.

Beloved, find time with God. Make time, every day, for your lover, your master, your lord Jesus. If it takes literally going into a closet and shutting the door to get alone, do it. He promises what we pray, alone with him, he will reward with his presence being there. Give him time to speak back to you! Don't rush off once you have finished talking. I promise you will see your life change, wonderous things happen when you begin to pray. I challenge you, take this time and try God, and see just how wonderful God is, alone with you.

THE HOUR BEFORE THE HOUR (PART #2)

"PRAISING GOD, and having favor with all the people, and the Lord added to the church daily, such as should be saved". (Acts 2:47)

This is part two in the series, "The HOUR before the hour". In this lesson we shall expound on one of the two weapons Jesus used, and left us to use, to be able to stand in your coming hour. First, let us recap the reason for this series. In the previous lesson, we learned there is a coming HOUR for everyone, Jesus our Lord was not exempt from this hour. It is an hour coming upon this earth of tribulation and trouble scheduled in the life of every believer. For Jesus, it was the horror and suffering of the cross, for you and I it will be some type of trial or trouble that will be the hardest, strongest, we have ever faced. It will destroy, as it is designed, any type of half-hearted life to God. No type of doubt filled faith, lukewarm or middle of the road christian lifestyle will stand in this hour. One thing is for certain, it is not a 60 minute time period, but an undetermined time of testing and trial, and when it will come to you and me I do not know, but it will come.

The good news are the weapons Jesus left us to stand in this hour. These weapons are mighty and powerful to the pulling down of strongholds, the kind that will try our faith and lifestyle to God in this coming hour. These weapons are annointed to help you to stand, victorious, in this hour, and at the end be standing strong in the grace and favor of God. You can make it thru the coming "hour", but only by using these weapons and them only. let's begin with the first weapon: PRAISE AND PRAYER.

For time and space sake, I will focus on the topic of PRAISE here, and PRAYER in the next lesson. Webster's dictonary defines the word praise as this; "To adore, to hold in deep affection, to love intensely". Praise is a powerful tool that throughout the Bible was used to bring down the presence of God in a place or situation, to drive out demons and devils from a person or place, and to win important battles and defeat armies. King Saul, after being rejected by God for disobedience to his command, was given a demon from Hell to torment him day and night. This demon was driving Saul to a nervous breakdown, and he had no peace day or night until he would call on a young king to be, David, to come play his harp and sing praises to God in his presence. David's praise would drive out the demon, every time, and give Saul peace in his soul.

Praise and worship is NOT just a function in a church service. It is not twenty minutes of singing red hymnal songs that makes praise and worship. It is a weapon of war, It is a lifestyle, it is a heart that is so full of affection and love that it cannot contain it and must come out by lifting a hand in the air, by shedding tears till your eyes are red as stop lights, by using your mouth to sing and shout aloud the wonder and love and adoration that is in your heart and soul for a God and father that has loved you with a love that you did not deserve.  Look at our definition, praise is to love intensely, passionately, as the woman in the Song of Solomon. Praise is not a noun, it is a verb, which means it requires physical action and response. The days of those who just sit in a pew, fold their arms, and never move one muscle to sing, shout, cry and phsically praise God are gone. The true worshippers, the ones that have the power and grace to stand, are those you will find that are beating there chest in service, crying tears, dancing before the Lord, and have a heart that knows to whom much has been forgiven, must love out loud and physical.

Praise is commanded and desired by God. The Bible tells us he wants us to enter his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts (Church) with praise. Priests were commanded in the Old Testament to have a job day and night to only sing a praise God in the temple. To approach him before this action was done would cause some serious problems for you. The Bible also tells us to praise him with our lips, with our musical instruments ( God help our church of christ brothers who are wrong), and with our hands and with a lifestyle dedicated and consecrated every day to a Father who forgave us and bought us when we didn't deserve it and he didn't have to do it. The victory of praise and worship to God in your prayer life, at church and work is this: IT BRINGS DOWN THE HOLY GHOST INTO THE PLACE YOU ARE IN.

I want to say something here to any preacher, teacher or singer reading this; it is not how loud and good you preach, it is not how deep and intelligent you teach, it is not how good and pretty you sing that makes any difference or moves a devil one inch off of a believer. It is the power and presence of the HOLY GHOST that breaks bondages, saves souls, destroys the enemies plans and drives Satan out of your church and life. All your plans, programs and denominations mean nothing and do nothing. It is only when we praise and worship God till the same presence that formed the worlds, raised Jesus from the dead and filled the disciples on pentecost comes down will people be healed, saved and delivered. Without him preacher, teacher and singer you are as blind, poor, wretched and naked as the Laodicean church in Revelation. God help us to get this back into our services, churches and personal lives.

One of Satan's main devices thru the ages has been to stop the Praise and worship in our church. Stop the flow of the gifts of the spirit mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12. Stop the physical action of lifting hands, crying at the altar, laying hands on the sick and depressed and singing till the Glory of God comes into the house. Now, he has placed hirelings, leaders with no sense of the moving of the spirit in charge, and they have confined this into 2 songs and take up an offering, very dignified, service. Everything is planned down to the minute. All the while the people recieve no power, no presence, and dry up and die under such devilish devices. Dear reader, if you are in a place of worship where you are not allowed to let the Holy Spirit move you to tears, move you working in the spiritual gifts, move you to go to the altar, move you to lift your hands in praise I have a word for you; GET OUT! RUN AWAY AS FAST AS YOU CAN!. Find you a place where you can move in liberty.

I pray today, make praise and worship part of your every day life. In your prayer time, begin with Praise first. Thru the day, every day, praise God by living a life and talking a talk that would not make God ashamed of you on judgement day. It doesn't take a pretty voice to sing, it doesn't take a minister to talk out loud of his praises. It just takes you, making the decision today, now. to say I will praise him with everything I have every day. Start now child of God, your life depends on it.

THE HOUR BEFORE THE HOUR

"These words spake Jesus in the treasury, as he taught in the temple: and no man laid hands on him; for his HOUR was not yet come"....(John 8:20)

The story above is a very compelling one. Jesus was rebuking the religious leaders of Isreal for their evil plan to kill him. I love how Jesus comes straight to the heart of the matter and plainly, in front of many witnesses rebukes them so hard they wish to grab him then, to kill him. This is where our scripture above comes in, and the pint of our lesson today.

These leaders were so angry at Jesus they wished to grab him then and kill him, but could not, because Jesus' hour was not then. God's protective hand was on Jesus, and no power of man or demon could touch him, until the APPOINTED HOUR for Jesus to be taken and crucified. When the Bible speaks here of an hour, it is not meaning a literal 60 minute time period. It means a fixed point ahead, an event in the future pre-planned, that will come at the time appointed by God. Even though Jesus could pass thru crowds, raise the dead, and deliver many people, in the back of his mind, forever looming closer, was an event he knew he could not allow himself to escape. And that would be the suffering of the cross. All the lives of every human ever born would depend on that hour.

I praise God that he endured that hour. A time of tribulation and suffering so harsh you and I could never have endured it. But beloved, though it looked like Jesus was powerless in that hour, that was far from the case. He used two (2) powerful weapons all through his earthly life, and he left them for us to use!....let me explain.

First, I must warn you...... YOUR HOUR HAS NOT YET COME!

Now you must be saying; "but sir, I already have endured suffering!". I am not talking about the trials and troubles of normal living that this broken planet brings. There is coming an HOUR, on this earth, for the children of men living, that has never been before. Where the earth will reel and rock under the judgement of God. Where Christians will be killed, and their families, for their faith. Children will be killed for their faith in Christ. Earthquakes and disease spread like flies on a dead carcass, with no hope of cure or prediction in sight. Women and men and children starve because they refuse to accept the currency of a devil possessed world leader who would damn their souls to hell with it.

And in this very same HOUR, it follows an erie silence from God. No word coming from heaven, no "goose bumps" of his presence to feel....nothing. But, in reality, God has not relinquished command and has not left you without any weapons to survive. This hour is coming for every church, every pastor, teacher, and every person that warms a pew. Their is no escape for us alive today. But their is good news, for you have two very powerful weapons that our Lord left us. These weapons carried him thru the horror of the cross, and it will carry you thru your coming hour. One last thing, you must get and use these weapons for without them you will not stand.

WEAPON #1 = PRAISE AND PRAYER

WEAPON #2 = PRECEPT (THE WORD OF GOD)

Please understand this universal truth:.. YOU MUST HAVE BOTH. One will not work without having the other as well. You cannot have just one, both must be present. Think of a gun without any bullets, or having a box of shells without any weapon...USELESS! So is praise and prayer and no reading of the word. The same holds true for lots of devotion to reading the Bible, and very little to non-existant prayer life. Without both the imbalance of your walk with God will implode on you, causing you and your faith to fail. And that could cost you your life in the coming "HOUR".

We will brake down these weapons in the coming lessons to show you what they do exactly, and how to use them. I pray that you read and follow this series "THE COMING HOUR". I pray that you listen and do what is said. I pray you begin to use these weapons now, your life here, and after, depend on it.