Being a Disciple for Christ

We all know the story of Stephen; the first Christian martyr, and how he was killed, but let us look at the reason why he was killed. In Acts 7 Stephen had been taken before the council of high priests with claims of blasphemy because of the truth that he preached. Knowing that the penalty for blasphemy was death, this is what he said in the midst:

Acts 7:51-53

51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.

52 Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:

53 Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.

This is not the message that would seem to be profitable for Stephen to preach knowing that he could face death. But obviously he did not care about his life enough not to preach the truth. He made a statement that shows that he knew the possibility of death; he said, “Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted?” as if to say you left none of them alive. But it still did not intimidate him. And we all should know the rest of the story:

Acts 7:54-60

54 When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.

55 But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,

56 And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. 57 Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord,

58 And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul.

59 And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

60 And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.

And when he had said this, he fell asleep. Looking at that, where do we find ourselves? Right now, are we above or within the compression of God? Those who hear that might say, things are not that extreme anymore so it does not call for all of that, and you are right, things are not that extreme anymore. Now the church has conformed. Those who are not in agreement with the Word no longer carry literal stones and run us out of their cities, but the truth is being driven out of their hearts. The crowd now says “Amen”, and looks like church but in fact, they are rejecting the same Spirit of Truth that those who stoned Stephen did. Every time you may sit and hear the Word over the pulpit and judge it through your own intellect or what you want to hear, you are rejecting the Word of God. You may believe that you are wise to pick and choose what part of the Word you want to use, but in fact, you are not rejecting the minister, but you are rejecting God Almighty. So in a sense you are just as bad as those who stoned Stephen. So judge your own hearts.

2 Corinthians 4:1-2

1 Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not;

2 But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.

We must at all times know that God is pleased with us, and not worrying about man’s opinion. I was listening to a new song called “I Am a Friend of God”, it is a nice song, but I began to ask myself, am I really a friend of God? Paul was a friend of God, and Moses was a friend of God, but what am I? Does God call us His friend? So then I began to examine some things within my own conscience. Comparing myself to Paul and Peter and those who were actual friends of God, I began to realize that the only difference between us was not our calling, our teaching, nor our lack or abundance of the Holy Ghost, but the difference was the acceptance of self-denial. It is so easy for us to go into sin because we refuse to deny ourselves of the pleasures of sin. And then we wonder why there is no communion with God. God may save us and call us to His ministry, but it is our responsibility to make it into heaven.

God may give us a gift, and we might get comfortable knowing that it came from God so we think that we are all right, but it is still up to us to make it in. As I said before, we can keep coming to the Youth Advances and to church or to prayer and we get comfortable because we are still coming, but the simple fact that you are coming does not mean that you are in right standings with God, and it does not mean that you are even trying to get right with Him. Some go to church or to prayer because they know that it is a standard in the ministry. Inside of all of those duties in the church, we might get the praise of men because they say we are trying to do better, but we know the real us. We need not lie to ourselves and go off of the praises of others as what God sees of us.

We still have to deal with what we know about ourselves, even if no one confronts us. We know the last time that we had actions or even thoughts that were contrary to the will of God, so it is time now that we judge ourselves by our own conscience and not sit around in sin and wait for people to confront us. There might be areas in our lives that we have never given over to God. There are spots that we have always tried to hide from God that we refuse to give up. Us try to be apart of what is going on in the ministry it does not establish us as being a saint of God. But there is only one thing that will establish us in God; walking in The Spirit. Let’s go to Matthew 12:29

29 Or else how can one enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house.

Matthew 12:21-28

21 And in his name shall the Gentiles trust.

22 Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw.

23 And all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the son of David?

24 But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils.

25 And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand:

26 And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand?

27 And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? therefore they shall be your judges.

28 But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you. Jesus could say the whole kingdom of God, the power, and authority of the kingdom was walking with Him.

Just as the scripture says:

1 John 1:5-6

5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:

Jesus could say this because He was pure. There was no darkness in Him; so therefore, He has power over all darkness. Jesus had the power of darkness based on His relationship with God, His agreement with God. We do not have power over the devil or darkness because we have not agreed with God. We can have the gifts and the knowledge of God but not be able to partake of the power because we are not in agreement with what we have. Envision looking into a house that is full of food, being able to smell and tell exactly what it is, but not being able to eat it because you are not in agreement with the route it takes to get to it. Many are at that same position of having knowledge of the power of God, but because there are areas of our life that we just refuse to let go, we will NEVER manifest God. We will never be able to walk in the fullness of the power of Christ until we agree totally.

2 Timothy 3:1-5

1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,

3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,

4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;

5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

Most of us have been in the Word long enough to be able to quote, and teach it, but God reserves the right to walk in His power for those who are walking in the Spirit. So we can talk, preach, teach, dance, and sing it, but we will never MANIFEST it! When will we become tired of knowing our possibilities in God but never walking in it? We only go so far for fear of losing some things. But let us weigh them against what we would gain, Christ! After indulging in sin over and over again, I have come to find out that there is nothing that feels better to a son of God than lying down at the end of the day knowing you are pure in the sight of God.

Being able to say that when I come to a situation that the whole Kingdom of God comes with me, because I am in constant fellowship with God! We should be tired of allowing our sins to continually keep us from fulfilling our purpose in God. We need to begin to hate that we are still walking in lust, pride or whatever it is that keeps us from God. Because if we were honest, the real reason we are not moving in God, is because we love ourselves more than the plan of God for our lives. We love ourselves so much that we will not pursue the anointing or even eternal life because we do not want to lay down our lives.

Mark 8:34-37

34 And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

35 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.

36 For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

37 Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

Is sin so important to you that you would forfeit eternal life? We love ourselves so much that when the Holy Ghost comes to kill us, we hold on tighter and tighter, fighting against the Spirit who is trying to bring us into life. The Spirit is trying to make us free, but we are fighting to try to stay in bondage. That is why God can say:

Acts 7:51

51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.

Now we look at those who are bringing the Word after the flesh and we take our eyes off the fact that we are miserable and God is just trying to save our lives. We can come up with all types of excuse as to why we cannot come out of our sins, but all we have to do is make a decision to agree with God. It has been said so many times that we feel as if it is just a cliché, but God has made it just as simple as that. That is Why Jesus could have cast out devils because He knew that the Kingdom of God was backing Him up because of His decision to stay pure at all times. God cannot back us up because we decide to walk in darkness. The devil will not cast out the devil; so therefore, we can do nothing until we break our allegiance with him. If he is working in us, how can we have power over him?

That is why I took the Youth Advance off the streets. There is no way that we can go and pray that others might be delivered if we are all in darkness with them. That just does not make sense. We would have no power backing us up. That is why it is time for us to regroup, and get ourselves holy so that we can effect change when we do go on the streets. Just as they do in football, it is time for us to huddle up. We have to discuss our strategy against the enemy. But before we even do, that we have to make sure that all those who will be fighting with us are not wounded or hurt because if they are they would not be able to fight with us. We have to check each other. We have to ensure that we have nothing in us because if there is, when we do go out to battle, then the devil will exploit it and it will damage the whole team. Be Encouraged,

Apostle Mike