FROM THE DESK OF JOHN S. TORELL

It is with great joy that we present another issue of The Dove to you. In the month of May, 1998, it will be 33 years since my wife and I surrendered our lives to God, and made Jesus Lord in our lives. Much has been changed in the world since that day in 1965. At that time we had no idea that we would have a ministry reaching out to many nations in the world, nor could we dream that God would call us into the service of pastoring churches.

Having been born in Sweden, we had to learn to speak and write in English and God has helped us supernaturally, so that we have been able to communicate well. God has also given us a very loving and capable staff to give us the support we need to enlarge the ministry as the Holy Ghost directs us.

This issue of The Dove is dealing with the counterfeit movement of Satan which is today sweeping the Church of Jesus Christ. Never before has this verse of Scripture become as real to me as it is now, and I want to share it with you:

My people are destoryed for lack of knowledge: because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you, that you shall be no priest to me: seeing you have forgotten the law of your I will also forget your children. (Hosea 4:6)

As a pastor, it has become clear to me that the average Christian believer in Christ has very little knowledge of the Bible, the customs people had during the different centuries when the Bible was written or knowledge of historical events since the time Jesus walked on the earth. They are particularly lacking in historical knowledge of the revivals and awakenings which swept through England and the United States since the time of the reformation in the early 1500's. They do not know how the false prophets and teachers started the many false doctrine cults which plague the Christian faith today.

THUS, PEOPLE ARE BEING DESTROYED FOR LACK OF KNOWLEDGE!
When God spoke to the prophet Hosea some 2,700 years ago, the message from God hit the people of Israel very hard. They had no knowledge and because of this the nation was bang destroyed and people were being killed or taken captive. Instead of living a life abundant with the blessings of God, they lived a hard sinful life; died in their sins and went to hell. Not only did they lose out in this life, but they lost the chance of living with God for eternity. Instead, they will have to live in the Lake of Fire for ever, without hope of ever being released.

The people who are currently living on planet earth have not learned from God's Word. Instead, generation after generation are repeating the same mistakes, and thus hell is being filled up with people who are being destroyed for lack of knowledge.

PEOPLE ARE REJECTING KNOWLEDGE
As a pastor, Bible teacher and evangelist I have found that when people are given the opportunity to receive knowledge, they become angry and reject it with great wrath.

It does not matter what the subject is, people do not want to hear any truth. The obese person does not want to hear about possible strokes, heart attacks or any other dangers a fat person is threatened by. They do not want to hear that by changing their diets, they can lose weight and live a better life.

Try to reason with an alcoholic, a drug addict, or a smoker and they will curse from one end of the earth to the other. Try to reason with a homosexual person about his life style and the risk of getting aids, and he will curse you and call you dirty names. Try to reason with a rebellious child or a teenager, and they will scream at you in great anger. Try to share Bible truth with a person who is trapped in a false religion, and that person will rant and rave and shout how great a prophet he is following. Even Presenting indisputable documentation that the person is in a false religion will cause the person to will pull the "FAITH CARD, .. and in a strong affirmative voice proclaim his absolute faith in the leader of the cult. it does not matter if there is documentation. He will refuse to believe it and has no desire to see the truth.

GOD REJECTS THEM THAT REJECT THE TRUTH
This is what is happening in the world right now. God has rejected the people who have rejected Him and great darkness is falling over the nations. One of the worst hit nations is England, where Christianity is being replaced with Satanic cults, including Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and witchcraft. The warm missionary spirit that used to rule Great Britain has been replaced with a materialistic, agnostic spirit, which has opened that nation up to a rot of pornography, abortion, murder, divorce, etc. It is noteworthy that this decay is present in the Royal family as well as among other leaders such as politicians, bankers, educators and industrialists.

The United States and Canada are not far behind England in its descent into this dark abyss, and the nations in Europe have been a stronghold of Satan for at least the last 400 years.

GOD SAID, YOU SHALL NO L0NGER BE A PRIEST TO ME
Being turned over to a reprobate mind is the worst condition that a human being can fall into. (Romans 1:18-32). A person with a reprobate mind does not know that he has been abandoned by God, no longer is convicted over his sins, and becomes happy in his evil ways. A strong example of this would be Anton LaVey, who became a leading Satanist in 1967, founded a Satan church in San Francisco and wrote the satanic bible. LeVey led his wife and children into the abyss of Satanism along with some 10,000 persons who became his disciples. Later he divorced his wife and fornicated with one of the women who had served as a "high priestess." Some of his well known disciples were Jayne Mansfield (now dead), Sammy Davis Jr. (now dead), and Charles Manson. God allowed Anton LeVey 30 years of this folly of sex, drugs and honoring Satan, but on October 29, 1997 God said, "Enough is enough," and LeVey died by drowning, his lungs filling up with fluids. Now he is burning in hell and waiting for the day when he will be resurrected with a shameful body to stand before God at the Great White Throne Judgment where the severity of his eternal punishment shall be determined. Then shall he be cast into the Lake of Fire (Luke 16:19-31; Revelation 20:10-15).

Joining him will be men like Nimrod, Tammuz, Judas Iscariot, Napoleon, Karl Marx, Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Mau Tse-tung and all people who have lived on this planet and died without having received Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour. There will also stand false prophets like Mohammed, Joseph Smith, Charles Russell, Herbert W. Armstrong and thousands of others, who will wring their hands and lament, but to no avail. (Matt. 7:21-23) [The current death rate per year on the earth as of 1997 is 50.5 million persons and of these 19.4 million are nominal Christians.]

The prophet Ezekiel was used by God to tell us that there will be a time when men who have once been the ministers of God shall lose their anointing because of their sins, but the men shall not have discernment and know it. Look at what God said:

And the Levites that are gone away far from me, when Israel went astray away from me after their idols; they shall even bear their iniquity. Yet they shall be ministers in my sanctuary, having charge at the gates of the house, and ministering to the house: they shall slay the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the People, and they shall stand before them to minister unto them. Because they ministered unto them before their idols, and caused the house of Israel to fall into iniquity, therefore have I lifted up mine hand against them, says the Lord God, and they shall bear their iniquity. And they shall not come near unto me, to do the office of a priest unto me, nor to come near to any of my holy things, in the most holy place; but they shall bear their shame, and their abominations which they have committed. But I will make them keepers of the charge of the house, for all the service thereof, and for all that shall be done therein. Ezekiel 44:10-14

God is saying that He will leave these men alone. They will remain as pastors of the churches and will continue to travel as evangelists. Those who are television or radio evangelists will continue, but they will not have access to God. The anointing will be gone, replaced with an organization and music done in the flesh. BUT PEOPLE SHALL SEE AND KNOW THE SHAME OF THESE MINISTERS, AND THEY SHALL BEAR THEIR INIQUITY.

Not long ago someone sent me a prophecy that was given to someone from the Lord in 1965. Here is an excerpt from that prophecy:

"I warn you to search the Scriptures diligently concerning these last days, for the things that are written shall indeed be made manifest. There shall come deceivers among My people in increasing numbers, who shall speak forth the truth and shall gain the favor of the people, for the people shall examine the Scriptures and say, 'What these men say is true.' Then when they have gained the hearts of the people, then and then only shall they bring out these wrong doctrines. Therefore, I say that you should not give your hearts to men, nor hold people's persons in admiration. For by these very persons shall Satan enter into My people.

"Watch for seducers (2 Timothy 3:13). Do you think a seducer will brandish a new heresy and flaunt it before the people? He will speak the words of righteousness and truth and will appear as a minister of light, declaring the Word. The people's hearts shall be won; they will bring out their doctrines, and the people shall be deceived. The people shall say, 'Did he not speak thus and thus? And did we not examine it from the Word? Therefore he is a minister of righteousness. That which he has now spoken we do not see in the Word, but it must be right, for the other things he spoke were true."

"Be not deceived, for the deceiver will first work to gain the hearts of many and then shall bring forth his insidious doctrines. You cannot discern those who are of Me and those who are not of Me when they start to preach. But seek Me constantly, and then when these doctrines are brought out, you shall have a witness in your heart that these things are not of Me. Fear not, for I have warned you. Many will be deceived, but if you walk in holiness and uprightness before the Lord, your eyes shall be opened, and the Lord will protect you.

"If you will constantly look unto the Lord, you will know when the doctrine changes, and you will not be brought into it. If your hearing is right, will keep you, and if you will look constantly to Me, I will uphold you.

"The minister of righteousness shall be on this wise: his life shall agree with the Word, and his lips shall give forth that which is wholly true, and it will be no mixture.

"The deceivers speak first the truth, then error to cover their own sins, which they love. Therefore, I exhort and command you to study the Scriptures relative to seducing spirits, for this is one of the great dangers of these last days."

WHAT GOD TOLD ME
Some five months ago, when I started to write the main article for this issue of The Dove, I did not know that this prophecy had been given by God back in 1965. As I was praying about what direction my heavenly Father would have for this issue, the Holy Spirit strongly spoke to my heart that He wanted me to write on "THE COUNTERFEIT ANOINTING." In my flesh I wanted to expose the virus production, which has been going on in American research laboratories since the early 1950's and much documentation had come to me. But the Lord flatly told me, through the Holy Spirit, there was nothing wrong with exposing that, but this was not the time. Then material started to come to me from all over the United States, and as I began to study, pray and seek the Lord over this, the article was completed. It was a very difficult one to produce because everything had to be documented to make sure that I would not bring out any false information. What normally should have taken one month to complete took me close to five months. When I started the article, I did not have some of the key evidences needed for it, but at the correct time in my writing, it was either sent to me in the mail or given to me in person at the church I pastor.

Yes, the deceivers have been here and some of their names are household names: Mohammed, Joseph Smith, William Miller, Ellen G. White, Charles Russell, Herbert W. Armstrong etc., and new ones are coming. Now I understand why God had me detail this study of deception. God's people must be educated and warned and I feel very blessed that God chose me to be one of the TRUTH DECLARERS.

MANY OF THE ANOINTED ONES SHALL FALL BY THE WAYSIDE
It is bad enough to have deceivers in the Body of Christ, but it is much worse when a man or a woman start out with God and end up being a mouth-piece for the Devil. Here is another excerpt from the same prophecy:

"When I visit My people in mighty revival power it is to prepare them for the darkness ahead. With the glory shall come great darkness, for the glory is to prepare My people for the darkness. I will enable My people to go through because of the visitation of My Spirit. Take heed to yourselves lest you be puffed up and think that you have arrived. Listen to the messengers, but do not hold man's persons in admiration. For many whom I shall anoint mightily with signs and miracles shall become lifted up and shall fall by the wayside. I do not this willingly; I have made provision that they might stand. I call many into this ministry and equip them, but remember Tat many shall fall. They shall be like bright lights, and the people shall delight in them. But they shall be taken over by deceiving spirits, and shall lead many of My people astray."

If we look just to America, the list of fallen men and women in the last 50 years is alarming. Billy Graham (1918-) started as a very bright light in the early 1940's, but fame and power have corrupted this man, where he was accepted an honorary degree from the Freemasons and today he is a mouth-piece for the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church. (See The Dove, Summer 1995)

William M. Branham (1909-1965) born in a poor family in Kentucky, where his childhood home had a dirt floor. He reported to his parents that he had had visits by angels at the age of three and seven, and as a young Baptist preacher he became well known in his home state. In 1937 his wife and child were killed, and Branham attributed this to punishment from God, because God had called Branham to start preaching in "Oneness Pentecostal Churches." (Jesus Only, where they deny the trinity of God). In 1946 Branham reported that he had met an angel in a secret cave, who was from that day going to be his "HEALING GUIDE." From that day Branham relied upon this angel, as he began healing crusades. Branham was a frequent speaker in the beginning of the Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship, but was taken off the speaker roster when he began insisting that people baptized in water in a church that believed in the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, must be re-baptized in the name of Jesus only. In the early 1960's Branham began openly teaching the doctrine of the "Serpent Seed," which is the corner stone of the Identity Movement (See The Dove, Spring/Summer 1996), where they teach that at the fall in the Garden, the Serpent (Satan) had sexual intercourse with Eve and the offspring were the colored people, who have no souls, cannot be saved and were called by God (animals). During this time Branham declared himself to be the Angel of Revelation 3:14 and 10:7, and he prophesied that by the year 1977 all denominations would be merged into one under the dominion of the Roman Catholic Church.

In 1965 Branham was driving his car, when a drunk driver collided with him and he was killed. Branham's followers waited to bury him for some time, expecting that he would be resurrected, which never took place. Branham's writings and doctrines are still being spread on the earth by people who believed what he spoke.

Kathryn Kuhlman (1907-1976) began as a young female evangelist at the age of 16, assisting her sister and brother-in-law. She then started her own ministry and ended up in Denver, Colorado, where in 1933 she became the pastor of the Kuhlman Revival Tabernacle. By 1935 her congregation had grown to some 2000 members. She also started a radio ministry. She seduced (and was seduced) by a traveling evangelist who divorced his wife and married Kathryn. The result was the destruction of the church in Denver and the scattering of the sheep. Her marriage lasted 6 years. Then she abandoned her "stolen" husband and went back into the ministry. According to what she herself told in meetings, she had asked God for forgiveness, repented and was given a chance to start all over again. She made her headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where she would hold healing meetings. People would flock to her meetings claiming that they had received a healing. She went back on the radio, and in 1965 began working with pastor Ralph Wilkerson of the Anaheim Christian Center (next to Disneyland) in the Los Angeles area. From here she moved her services to the Shrine Auditorium (Freemasonic temple in Los Angeles), where her fame spread. The CBS television network picked her up and she began producing television programs aired from coast to coast. She was then known as a faith healer and when she prayed for people in her meetings they would fall to the floor, so the term "slain in the Spirit" was coined.

But it was another man that was going to bring Kathryn down and destroy her ministry. His name was Dino Kartsonakis, a young man, born to Greek parents in New York, who had become a very accomplished pianist. But his manner, clothing and style was that of the American homosexual pianist, Liberace. In no time Dino became a star on her television programs, Kathryn picked out all his clothing and sent Dino all the way to Italy so that he could have tailored suits made for him. She put him up in the finest hotels and financed his record and sheet music production. In return, Dino became her constant "escort," and wherever Kathryn went, there was Dino. Other people in the Kuhlman organization started to call him a "gigolo." After some time, there was a fall-out between Kathryn and Dino, as the latter was trying to distance himself from Kathryn for a Las Vegas show girl.

Dino was fired from the Kuhlman ministry. He and a brother-in-law tried to sue Kathryn, but the suit was eventually settled out of court.

During the last 10 years of her ministry Kathryn became very close to the Roman Catholic Church and traveled, at least one time, to Rome where she had a private audience with the Pope. In her last years she did much damage to the cause of Christ by leading hundreds of thousands of Christians to accept Roman Catholics as Christians, despite the fact that they had never been born again. On February 20, 1976 she died in a hospital after having heart surgery. It did not help that Oral Roberts came in person and prayed for her twice.

The losses in the Christian community since 1975 have been staggering. Bob Harrington, the Chaplain of Bourbon street in New Orleans (a Southern Baptist minister) committed adultery, divorced his wife and married his mistress, then started a new ministry. Arthur Blesset, the Southern Baptist preacher that carried a huge cross through every continent and is very well known, became very close to the Roman Catholic Church. Rex Humbard lost his ministry due to financial irregularities and loans from the Mafia. Jim Bakker committed adultery, was black mailed and sent to prison for financial irregularities together with his top aid, Richard Dortch.

While Jim was in prison, his wife divorced him, broke up the marriage of Roe Messner, Jim's building contractor, and married him. Ironically, in 1995 Roe Messner was indicted for bankruptcy fraud, convicted and sentenced to prison. He lost his appeal on February 19, 1997. Tammy Faye, Jim Bakers ex-wife, has now lost her "stolen" husband to a prison while she battles cancer in her body.

W. V. Grant, a Texas pastor and healing evangelist married "a not so spiritual" woman. Together they defrauded the ministry, taking money that did not belong to them. Grant was convicted in a court for tax evasion and sent to prison. Robert Tilton, another Texas pastor and TV evangelist, became involved in adultery, divorced his wife and married his mistress, while still trying to keep the ministry going. Jimmy Swaggart was caught twice with prostitutes and also confessed his addiction to pornography and his world-wide evangelistic ministry has been reduced to a pitiful token of what it once was. Oral Roberts has been rocked by financial irregularities, and his son Richard has a divorce behind him and is remarried to another woman with whom he started a new family. Pat Robertson, the founder of the 700 Club, has sold off the cable television network, which had grown to 67 million cable subscribers with money solicited on his TV programs, to a non-Christian, Rupert Murdoch, who has turned the network into a "cesspool" of filth. Part of the money siphoned off for the Robertson family has been used to buy into diamond fields in the old African colony of Congo. Pat has established a Roman Catholic chair at the university he founded, now called Regent's University. (The Dove Autumn/Winter 1995) Jack Van Impe, the fundamental Baptist evangelist who for years proclaimed the Gospel of Jesus Christ, has abandoned his faith and gone back to the religion of his ancestors, the Roman Catholic Church. (The Dove, Autumn/ Winter 1995) Kenneth Hagin embraced the heresy teaching that "Jesus died spiritually," became one with the Devil and was taken to hell for three days and nights, where the atonement for sins took place. When Jesus was raised from the dead on the third day, he was raised as a man, so that men can become gods. Hagin received this teaching from E. W. Kenyon, a Baptist pastor and radio evangelist from the early part of this century. Hagin has embedded this teaching into Kenneth Copeland, Fred K. Price and a string of other so called "faith preachers." Ron Hause, a former California pastor and TV evangelist, who built a local TV ministry in northern California with the flagship of channel 42 from Concord, California became very greedy and sold the station some two years ago to an ungodly man who has turned this once Christian station into a "cesspool" of filth. He refused to sell the station to other Christians, but sold it for some three million dollars less to this ungodly man, who in turn is funneling over the three million dollars to Hause and his wife, Connie, under the pretense that while they are waiting for the final approval from the FCC, the Hauses are managing the station as consultants to the tune of an enormous salary. In the meantime Hause is traveling around with BENNY HINN, who has openly stated that he has visited the Pope on at least three occasions (private audiences) and that the Pope asked Benny to be his ambassador to the Pentecostal movement in the world ( See The Dove Autumn/Winter 1995).

"My son, keep your father's commandment, and forsake not the law of your mother; bind them continually upon your heart, and tie them about your neck. When you go, it will lead you; when you sleep it will keep you; and when you awake it shall talk with you. For the commandment is a lamp: and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life: to keep you from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman. Lust not after her beauty in your heart; neither let her take you with her eyelids. For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread: and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life. Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned? So he that goes in to his neighbor's wife; whosoever touches her shall not be innocent. Men do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry; but if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house. But whoever commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding: he that does it destroys his own soul." Proverbs 6:20-32

In 1969 THE DISCIPLESHIP MOVEMENT was born, founded by five leading charismatic leaders, Ern Baxter, Derek Prince, Charles Simpson, Don Basham (1926-1989) and Bob Mumford. For more than 15 years these men caused much destruction among Christians. Many churches were destroyed and closed and thousands upon thousands of Christians left the body of Christ and will no longer set foot in a church. The main teaching of this group was "a chain of command." Each pastor that embraced this doctrine was held accountable to the "Five." The pastor would then set up elders in his church, and each elder was responsible for a "cell" of believers. The members of the cell had to ask their leader for permission for anything that they planned to do. Husbands were no longer in charge of families; the wife and children had to go to the elder to get permission for various activities, including shopping for groceries. A family could not make a decision to buy a car, move, enroll a child in a private school, etc., everything had to be approved by the elder. Sometimes elders could be in their 20's ruling over people in their 50's and up. According to the "Five," physical age had nothing to do with eldership. Many marriages broke up in divorce and the damage from this group of fallen leaders will be felt for years to come.

Don Basham is now dead, Derek Prince and Bob Mumford have left the discipleship movement, and have publicly repented for the false doctrine they taught and for the destruction they did to the Body of Christ.

Henry J. Lyons, 55 years old and leader of the black 8.5 million member National Baptist Convention, narrowly survived as president of the NBC denomination after they held a meeting in Denver during the month of September, 1997. Lyons had maintained an adulterous relationship for years with a woman, Bernice Edwards, (40) who held the position as publicist for the denomination. Lyons was charged with misusing church funds to maintain a very lavish life style, buying expensive gifts for Bernice, including purchasing a plush home in Florida valued at close to a million dollars. Lyons wife, Deborah, to whom he had been married for 25 years, became so despondent when she found the deed to the house and discovered that it was jointly owned by Henry and Bernice, that she waited until her husband went on a church-related trip to Africa (July 1997), broke into Deborah's home and set it on fire. She was later arrested and charged with arson, to which she pled guilty and was sentenced. Instead of holding Lyons responsible for his adultery and embezzlement of church funds, the NBC delegates voted to keep him as president and the whole thing was put under the carpet

HIDING THE SINS OF THE LEADERS
One of the most arrogant preachers in the United States today is Earl P. Paulk Jr, born in 1927. Paulk is a TV evangelist, and pastor of Chapel Hill Harvester Church, located in a suburb of Atlanta , Georgia. At its height the church had some 12,000 members, until Paulk was caught in adultery in the mid 1990's and the membership declined sharply. Paulk also claims the title "bishop," which was given him in 1982 by the International Communion of Charismatic Churches. Paulk grew up in the Church of God, Cleveland, Tennessee. In 1986 Paulk and his brother Don (also a pastor at this church) founded a liberal arts college under the name "Earl Paulk College."

Paulk, his brother and the pastoral staff of the church were not only committing sexual sins, but they were running a "Christian" whore house. Paulk seduced beautiful young women in the church to "MINISTER" to himself and other male pastors. According to the reasoning of Paulk, this would keep the ministers vigorous and better equipped to preach the Gospel. When some of the women went public and reported the abuse, Paulk and his ministerial staff labeled the women as "revengeful, unstable, greedy liars." The magazine, Charisma, picked up the story and discussed it in one issue, interviewing some of the women who claimed to be

"NOTE- Sexual perversion has been rampant within the Roman Catholic Church, and American dioceses have been forced to pay out hundreds of millions of dollars in damages to men and women who as children or adults were either sexually molested or sodomized by priests. It is a well known fact that a large percentage of the priests in the Roman Catholic Church are practicing homosexuals. Many Roman Catholic priests have been sentenced to long prison terms after having been found guilty of molestation."

victims of Paulk and his staff and also interviewed Paulk. that the story virtually disappeared, even though it was carried for some time in the Atlanta papers. Did Earl Paulk repent? As far as the Christian community in the United States is concerned, no repentance has been published. According to Charisma, several thousand members left the church at the height of the controversy. As of today Earl Paulk is still the pastor, the TV programs are continuing and his "buddy" Oral Roberts is still chummy with Paulk and so are many other charismatic leaders. If there is a classic example of what God spoke to the prophet, Ezekiel, Earl Paulk is the one. He has been left in charge of the house, but the anointing is gone and he is bearing his shame.

Added to this list are thousands upon thousands of pastors, evangelists and missionaries, from all Christian denominations, who have fallen into adultery, become enslaved to pornography, embraced homosexuality, become alcoholics, drug addicts or simply burned out and left the ministry.

Some are in prison for embezzling, child molestation or rape. Divorce is another plague among the ministers. If thousands of ministers have fallen, there are millions of church members, who have been defeated by the same demonic forces. The truth is, CHRISTIANS HAVE TAKEN A TERRIBLE BEATING AND THE LOSSES ARE STAGGERING.

IS THERE A SOLUTION?
God has promised us in His own Word, that He indeed shall protect the men and the women that diligently seek Him and are willing to obey His Word.

But you, beloved, building up yourself on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost Keep yourself in the Love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And of some have compassion, making a difference. And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.

Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. (Jude 20-25)

How do you build yourself up on your most holy Faith? First of all: MAKE SURE THAT YOU ARE BORN AGAIN, SAVED AND WASHED IN THE BLOOD OF JESUS! If you are not born again, turn to the back page of this magazine and follow the instructions for Salvation. Then build your Christian life on that foundation. Here is what I have done in my life for the last 32 years, since I made Jesus my Lord and Saviour:

1. Only read a good translation of the Bible. If you are English speaking, make an old King James Bible your work Bible. Read at least one chapter per day.

2. Purchase a good Bible dictionary, like "Ungers." Regardless, whether or not you speak Hebrew or Greek, you can learn all the customs, food, coins, weights and measurements, so that you can understand every setting described in the Bible, including the parables which Jesus taught. Also purchase a good Concordance of the Bible, either Young's or Strong's Look up all things that you cannot understand in these books, so that you have no language problem. Then pray that the Holy Spirit will teach you.

3. When you read the Bible, take it at face value. God has not written the Bible in a secret code; every word means just exactly what it says.

4. Establish a daily routine of prayer, wherein you pray at least half an hour per day. For the last ten years I have been doing a personal spiritual warfare prayer daily. If you are interested, you may ask us for a copy of this "type" of prayer. If you have not been baptized in the Holy Spirit, ask for the baptism of the Holy Spirit and God will give it to you.

5. Learn to fast periodically, regardless of whether there is or is not a crisis in your life.

6. Find other strong believers in Christ so that you will be able to get together with them several times a week and be in church together.

7. Never go anyplace where you might be tempted above your strength. Never meet with people who you know are attractive enough that they may seduce you. If you are married, never go any place where your spouse would be uncomfortable. Always ask this question: Would Jesus be comfortable to go with me? If the answer is no, do not go.

8. Stop reading all ungodly books, including novels. Your time is very limited. Read only what is going to build up your spiritual life and what you need to read for educational purposes. Stop reading all worldly periodicals, magazines etc. Stop watching all ungodly TV programs including the renting of videos and going to the movies. Only watch Christian programming that is not polluted. Personally, I have stopped watching Christian programming such as the "700 Club, TBN" etc., since they have become very polluted with idolatry and slant toward uniting with the Roman Catholic Church. Remember that all news programs on TV are full of propaganda; they are slanted and are not really telling the truth.

9. Do not follow any personality, but make God your source. Remember this, people come and people go, but the Lord Jesus Christ will never change nor forsake us. (Hebrews 13:8)

10. Ask God to bring you into the vision that He has for your life. However, you should not wait until you come into your vision before you witness to people around you about Jesus. The more you testify about Jesus, the stronger you will become in Him. (Revelation 12:11)

11. Fill your home and automobile with music that magnifies God. Remember this, praise music and hymns will make the presence of the Holy Spirit felt; ungodly music will attract evil spirits. ARE YOU WILLING TO BECOME A WATCHMAN ON THE WALL, TO BLOW THE TRUMPET IN ZION AND AWAKE THOSE WHO ARE ASLEEP?

"Blow you the trumpet in Zion and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord comes, for it is nigh at hand; A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there has not been ever the like neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations. A fire devours before them; and behind them a flame burns: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yes, and nothing shall escape them.... They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining;. . . . Therefore also now, saith the Lord, Turn you even to me with all your heart and with fasting, and with weeping and with mourning: and rend you heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and a great kindness, . . . . Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly; gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: . . . . Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, 0 Lord, and give no, thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people Where is their God? Then will the Lord be jealous for his land, and pity his people. Joel 2:1-18

Back to The Dove - Spring 1998