The fundamental truth is what Ted Turner said

In the beginning there was Adam and Eve.

After the flood there was Noah and his wife.

In the beginning of the nation of Israel, there was Abraham and Sarah.

In the beginning of the new Israel – the birth of the Lord Jesus – there was Mary and Joseph.

Do you notice the manner that God starts things, and lays the foundation of a project?

Marriage.

From the beginning marriage has been the foundation on which God builds His major projects.

One reason is that marriage is a prototype of the relationship between people and God. It is like a flight simulator for pilots, where they test their skills and learn to deal with every situation they will encounter in actual flight.

In marriage, our Christianity is tested more than in any other area. Turning the other cheek. Doing for others what we want others to do for us. Sacrificing. Forgiving in order to be forgiven. Refusing to judge so that we will not be judged. Loyalty. Fairness. Giving to receive. Denying your own will... In other words, all the principles of Christian faith should first be practiced in marriage. If we succeed in our relationship with the person closest to us, then we will succeed in our relationship with God.

Nobody knows a husband better than his wife, and vice versa. Nobody can testify of his character and faith better than her. This is why every great project conceived by God began with a couple. In spiritual terms, He also chose for men of God to be tested in their marriages:

"For if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?” 1 Timothy 3.5

God made a successful marriage a prerequisite for leadership of a church. (How many religious leaders would pass this test?)

In your life it is no different. If you're searching for the solid foundation to permanent success, you should start investing in your marriage. If you are single, be careful with your choice. If you are married, prioritize your marriage.

According to research, happily married people have greater benefits. Here are a few:

- They live longer because they are more stable and their partners help them take care of their health;

- They have more peace because they are not plagued with loneliness, betrayal, or old relationship ties;

- They are more prosperous because they are partners when it comes to money;

- They avoid immoral and reckless behavior to avoid hurting their partners;

- Their children are more stable with stronger marriages, because of their parents’ example.

The American billionaire Ted Turner, founder of CNN and the second largest private landowner in the U.S., when asked asked if he had any regrets in life, said:

"I regret that I wasn’t more successful with my marriages, but it is what it is."

Turner (pictured above with his third ex-wife, Jane Fonda) has been married three times, and today, at 74, has four girlfriends. He says, "It is much simpler having a wife."

If you failed in marriage like Ted Turner, God is a God of new beginnings. He has a plan for you. You just need to be prepared to start again – but this time, God’s way, not yours.

What you may NOT have thought about Christmas

Supposedly, the spirit of Christmas is one of joy, unity, family, love, giving and receiving gifts, and peace. But in reality, VERY FEW people experience those things.

Sadly, most people either do not have a family or are not getting along with family very well. Many are struggling financially even to keep up with their bills, let alone buy everyone they love a gift!

As a result, a lot of people are NOT so happy and peaceful this time of the year. So what’s Christmas like for them?

A disaster! A really depressing time!

Many take to drinking and drugs, others feel really lonely and depressed, and some even commit suicide. Now I ask you:

Is that what Jesus meant to promote?

What many people don’t know is that Christmas has very little to do with the spirit of Christ. Jesus never asked us to celebrate His birthday, but He did tell us to celebrate His DEATH regularly. Why? Because the heart of Christ’s message is the cross, not the manger!

It’s more important to have Jesus be born in YOUR HEART than simply knowing the historical fact that He was born 2,000 years ago.

Don’t get caught up in the emotionalism and commercialism of this season. That’s not Christ-like. Don’t put yourself under pressure to get everybody a gift or put up a Christmas tree. And don’t feel left out if you didn’t get gifts.

Instead, focus on the real reason the Lord Jesus came to this world and what it means TO YOU.

I guarantee you’ll have a much happier, more productive time.

Halitosis

The Lord Jesus did not come for hypocrites. He came for people who are lost in sin and are crying out on the inside – people who want to serve God and cleanse themselves. Once they are cleansed, they will give good offerings. God wants to be worshipped by people that give fragrant offerings to Him.

Have you ever spoken to someone with bad breath? How did you react? I try to get away because the smell is so bad, as if something were rotting. I don’t tell the person, but I step backwards because I can’t stand the smell. I can’t stand people with bad breath or to have it myself.

The same goes for the offerings we present to God, because our lives are an offering. The Lord Jesus was an offering to God and we should follow His example and be offerings too.

This is what happened to Noah.

Noah was so grateful that he and his family had been saved that soon after leaving the Ark, he built an altar to the Lord and sacrificed “clean” animals on it. When he made that offering the Lord smelled the aroma of his sacrifice and immediately said: “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake..." Genesis 8.21, and then blessed Noah and his sons, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth." Genesis 9.1

God made a covenant with Noah because he had expressed deep gratitude through his sacrifice.

Have you ever asked yourself what kind of offering you are to God?

Abel’s offering pleased God and justified him before the Almighty.

Noah sacrificed “clean” animals because “unclean” animals would have given off a foul smell.

Jesus was an Offering to God on Calvary, and God the Father smelled that perfume.

But what about you? And me? How do our offerings smell? Do we emit the fragrance of the Lord Jesus or the smell of halitosis?

Many people ask me what my secret is.

Do you know what it is? …or at least one of them?

I spend my time saving souls. I live to save souls, to serve my God. I believe that while we are on Earth, we have a great opportunity to save as many souls as we can, and I will not waste the time I have been given. While I'm here, I want to do my best to glorify my Lord and foster the salvation of souls. While I'm here, I want to give my best so that my life is a pleasing aroma to God.

God saved us so that we could save others. Those of you who have no church title, but are born of God, should consider your primary mission in life to be saving souls. This can be done through offerings, evangelism, visiting the sick, the imprisoned, the orphaned… whatever. When we are born of the Spirit, we live to do the same for others. This is a good offering.

We are not happy to see a pastor, assistant or member fall away. Instead, we are revolted! In fact, I want to make a special invitation to former pastors.

I don’t know what you did wrong, and I am not referring only to former pastor of the Universal Church, but to former pastors, assistants, and members of any church, no matter which it is. We want to help you.

Though you left the true Vine, the Lord Jesus wants you back. It doesn’t matter what church or ministry you belonged to. We will help to restore your spiritual health, so that you can be a fragrant smell, a good offering, and once again emit the frangrance of Jesus, so that God is glorified through your life.

If you used to be a clean offering to God, but now emit a foul odor, attend the nearest UCKG and get help this Sunday at 6pm.

Destroying the altar of baal

Judges 7.1-4
Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years, and the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made for themselves the dens, the caves, and the strongholds which are in the mountains. So it was, whenever Israel had sown, Midianites would come up; also Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. Then they would encamp against them and destroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor ox nor donkey.

After 40 years of peace (‘So the land had rest for forty years.’ Judges 5.32) the people went back to doing what was evil in God’s eyes and because of this the Lord delivered them in the hands of the Midianites.

It was not, it is not, and it will never be God’s will for His people to be oppressed by the Midianites (demons). They were oppressed because they CHOSE to do what was evil.

When they were living in sin they knew they could not count on God. So, what did they do? They applied their ‘strength’ to building caves and hiding from their enemies (problems) instead of fighting against them. This is exactly what sin does to us. It makes us come up with excuses for our failures (blaming others, blaming the economy, blaming our lack of opportunity, etc.).

Isn’t this what happened to Adam and Eve as well? They hid from God because they were AFRAID (Genesis 3.10).

How many don’t have the faith to sacrifice to God because they are of the opinion that they will not be answered anyway? They think this way because they know there is a Baal inside their houses (heart). Their consciences accuse them, just as they did the Israelites throughout those seven years. At the end of the day, they knew they had abandoned the Lord.

It’s interesting to note that the Midianites did not kill the Israelites. They would come and take everything the people of God had worked for. They did it for 7 years. They didn’t kill them because the Israelites were working for them. In the same way, the devil does not always want to kill us immediately, because he also came to steal and to destroy.

So, what did God do? He found a man who refused to hide, and who was revolted and ready to do whatever God asked him to do. Gideon was actually thinking about God and His wonders when the Angel of the Lord appeared to him.

What did God do? FIRST he was told to tear down the altar of Baal and cut down the wooden image beside it. This gave him strength to sacrifice the second bull on GOD’S ALTAR (the one he built).

In the exact same way, when a person decides to let go of sin and abandoning it once and for all, he IS FILLED WITH STRENGTH AND ASSURANCE that God is with him, because the accusations of the devil are no longer there. This gives him strength to do WHATEVER God asks of him. THERE’S NOTHING BETTER IN THIS WORLD THAN A CLEAN CONSCIENCE.

There are people who can make a physical sacrifice, but not a spiritual one. They may even be healed, or get a great job and achieve some other blessing, but they will never have PEACE and the ASSURANCE OF THEIR SALVATION that God gives. And that’s NOT what we want! We want a strong church that’s free of demons, blessed, prosperous, made up of fighters, converted and above all, BORN OF GOD.

We invite you to destroy the altars of Baal inside of you (grudges, hatred, hidden sins, doubt, evil thoughts, envy, jealousy… and any other thing that brings doubt).

This will give you the boldness to present your sacrifices on the altar of God next Sunday December 16, 2012.

10 Also I said to you, “I am the Lord your God; do not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell.” But you have not obeyed My voice.’” Judges 6.10

What about you? Are you going to obey the voice of God or not?

The power of choice

The power of choice is mine, and the consequences cannot be shifted to anyone else.

It's not fair to knowingly make bad choices and blame the consequences others.

God gave us the power to choose good or evil, to obey or disobey.

Nobody’s perfect, but the obedient strive for perfection. The Spirit of God wants for these types of people to serve Him.

Integrity and righteousness, the fear of God and fleeing from sin are virtues that are a part of the character of those who spread the fragrance of the Lord Jesus.

1. Integrity and honesty: The way you react to others. Treating others the way you want to be treated, and wanting others to have what you want for yourself. Matthew 19.19

2. Fear of God: Faithfulness to God. Malachi 3.8

3. Fleeing from evil: Running away from every form of sin or injustice. Job 1.1

What’s the point of doing the Work of God when we have bad character? Bad character is like bad breath to God. It’s unbearable.

If the Work of God means destroying the works of the devil, how can we destroy the works of the devil when we’re living together with him?

It is better to be or to spread the fragrance of the Lord Jesus Christ than to be a maker of perfume.

A cry from Heaven

"I have loved you, says the Lord ..." Malachi 1.2

The love of God is a fact. And yet, we should never assume that His love tolerates sin. God is Righteous, Perfect and Pure. He forgives the wrongdoing of repentant sinners and is slow to anger, but will not allow the guilty to go unpunished. His Righteousness, Holiness and Purity do not allow His love to be mixed with unrighteousness, wrongdoing and the wickedness of humanity.

Meditate on these passages:

"The Lord is slow to anger and rich in faithful love, forgiving wrongdoing and rebellion. But He will not leave the guilty unpunished..." Numbers 14.18 (HCSB)

"The Lord is slow to anger but great in power; the Lord will never leave the guilty unpunished..." Nahum 1.3 (HBSC)

Many Christians obsess on the Love of God in an unthinking manner. As a result their faith is devoid of the Fear of God. They defile themselves with every type of immorality, idolatry, lie and deceit. They are yoked to the world. Their sins are so blatant that they no longer understand the Word of God. They have eyes but do not see, and ears but cannot hear. They are lost at the bottom of a pit, but continue to act as if they were Christian. They rush to do evil, and even convince others to join in their misguided ways.

The moral and spiritual climate in the time of Malachi is no different than today. Christians are estranged from the Covenant made on Calvary.

In those days the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel sent Malachi the prophet with a judgment, a verdict against Israel not unlike the stern verdict of Jeremiah to the false prophets and corrupt priests of his day. In those days the Lord said, “I… will cast you out of My presence. And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten." Jeremiah 23.39-40

The question we should ask ourselves is: Can the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, in the Person of the Holy Spirit, be pleased with the spiritual state of His people today… the New Israel, the Church?

Could a stern verdict have been pronounced against modern day "Christians" who take their faith lightly and only bother to be spirit while they are physically inside their churches?

Rock bottom and still wearing high heels

If Jesus gave this assurance: "And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover,” (Mark 16.17-18) why are some people in church, including the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, unable to break free, change their lives or solve their problems? Is the authority of God a farce? Is it real?

Of course it is! Proof of this is other people who give testimonies of their victories and conquests. We have authority over every kind of demon, but what we do not have is authority to remove pride from people’s hearts, which allows the devil to work in the lives of destroyed people.

Unfortunately, we live in a world where people let go of anything and everything – properties, health, relationships, a family’s love, peace, etc. – but not arrogance and pride. This is clear in the story of ex-psychic Lucia Culanda:

"I suffered a lot, and it took me a long time to overcome because I HAD HIT ROCK BOTTOM BUT WAS STILL WEARING HIGH HEELS. Though I was sinking and going downhill fast, I refused to let go of my ego and arrogance. I would not step down from my pedestal.”

If you are experiencing pain and suffering and want our help, let go of your pride. As long as it remains we cannot help you. We do not have the authority to drive our your pride.

Here is a piece of advice from the Almighty: "The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom, and before honor is humility." Proverbs 15.33

God bless you greatly!

Bishop Guaracy Santos

Whether you like it or not

Some time ago I was speaking to the parents of a young man who were fed up and did not know what to do about their son. He refused to obey anyone. He said he was free to act whatever way he wanted and would not allow anyone to tell him what to do.

When they came to the UCKG, I prayed for the young man and he manifested a demon. The spirit said: "I don’t let him obey anyone. He’s proud of that, but he doesn’t know that he has to obey me."

People make a big mistake when they equate freedom with not having to submit to anyone or anything. We will always have to submit to someone or something, and it’s up to us to decide who or what – who we are going to OBEY!

You can obey an evil spirit like that young man…

You can obey your own fleshly urges…

You can obey other people’s advice about your life…

Or you can obey God, like Gideon.

"So Gideon took ten men from his servants and did as the Lord had said to him ..." Judges 6.27

Bishop Marcus Vinicius  

What are you tired of?

In this world of evil, all of us are tired.

The question is: What are you tired of what? Fighting? Suffering?

There’s a huge difference between these two people.

When those who are tired of suffering are attacked by fear, they may even have crawled into a cave at some point in their lives, but when they have had enough of suffering, they take a stand, face and overcome their fears to turn the tables on defeat and shame.

They do what Gideon did, who was called by God to change his life and the lives of the entire nation because of his attitude.

"Now the Angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son GIDEON THRESHED WHEAT IN THE WINEPRESS, in order to hide it from the Midianites." Judges 6.11

Elijah had experienced God’s deliverance in great ways, but got frightened by a letter and irritated by the unbelief and ingratitude of the people of Israel and got "tired of fighting". He asked God for his own death and crawled inside a cave. He was overcome by fear and had to be replaced by Elisha.

God even had to choose someone else to replace him, saying:

"Also you shall anoint Jehu the son of Nimshias king over Israel. And Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel Meholah you shall anoint as prophet in your place." I Kings 19.16

Tell me, what are you tired of? Suffering or fighting?

Your answer to this question will determine where you are going: Out of the cave or into one.

May God greatly bless you!

Bishop Guaracy Santos

Righteous offerings

 

God is looking for righteous offerings from His servants.

A prophecy:

"He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness."  Malachi 3.3 announces the coming of Jesus as Lord and Savior. He would refine the children of Levi like gold and silver.

Levi was the tribe of Israel chosen to serve Almighty God as priests. They would perform the special duties of the Tabernacle, and later in the Temple.

At first Levi and his sons felt honored to dedicate themselves to the Lord. They did it with holiness and fear. Only they could carry the Ark of the Covenant, assemble and disassemble the Tabernacle, making sacrifices and present the people’s offerings to God, in addition to other duties.

But over time, his children grew cold in their faith and did what was evil. They no longer served God.

Their lack of fear caused them to look at offerings as a weariness. They showed disrespect for the Lord of Hosts by giving Him unclean offerings… stolen, lame and sick animals. Malachi 1.13

Jesus came as a refiner's fire to purify the unclean hearts of the sincere, and refine them like gold. But this can only be performed on the sincere because all others, hypocrites and so forth, would be burned up by His fire.

The blood of Jesus continues to wash and justify a sincere sinner, and the fire of His Spirit keeps him pure so that he brings righteous offerings to the Lord.

The true worshiper

EVERYTHING is possible for  those who believe. But this belief requires that one abide by certain rules to make EVERYTHING possible.

God the Son came into the world to remove sins and serve as Intercessor before God the Father. But only for those who obey Him.

Therefore, Jesus is the Gift of God the Father to save the believer and is The Offering of the believer to enter the presence of God the Father. Ephesians 2:18

Jesus is the Torn Veil that enables the access of His servants to the Holy of Holies. Hebrews 10:20

Three times the Lord said:

None shall appear before Me empty-handed. Exodus 23:15; 34.20; Deuteronomy 16:16.

This means that it is impossible to enter the presence of God the Father without the offering.

Every offering made to God the Father has to symbolize Jesus.

If the offering comes from a pure heart, it represents Jesus and the offering giver is accepted before God the Father.

If the offering comes from an impure heart, the offering giver is not accepted before God the Father.

In other words, the Christian life depends on the offering.

My Father seeks true worshipers, said Jesus. That is, My Father seeks offering givers.

It's not about money, belongings or possessions. But something that proves sincere dedication of the heart.

Worshipers who worship Him in spirit and in truth.

Christians who use their intellect (spirit, intelligent faith) and in true, that is, through Jesus (The Truth).

True worshipers are true offering givers.

Fake worshipers are fake offering givers.

“No servant can serve (offer up, surrender to) two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve (offer up, surrender to)  God and mammon.” Luke 16.13

This is why many "Christians" are losers. Their offerings have not symbolized the Lord Jesus.

"But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him." John 4:23

In other words, Jesus is The Way, The Living Offering, Clean and Perfect for access to the presence of God the Father.

When you realize you have to change

Over the course of our lives, we go through many experiences that shape us — or at least they try to. If we are blind and deaf to what each experience teaches us, then our character cannot be shaped. And that’s the problem many of us carry inside. Our human heart is just so full of itself, so convinced that it knows better, that it can never be wrong, that we often miss the learning point in an experience.

When it hits us — the rude awakening of being shown we ARE wrong — we can react in one of two ways.

1. We can wake up and humbly learn our lesson, or
2. we can stubbornly dig our heels in and maintain our pride.

The first means we learn and grow; the second means we have become too proud to be taught something new.

“And be renewed in the spirit of your mind,” said the apostle Paul in Ephesians 4.23. Few, but deep words.

Our mind needs renewal. It does because it gets old. As the years go by, if we don’t keep refreshing the spirit of our mind, we start getting really old spiritually and mentally. Old ideas, old ways, resistance to change. We stop growing. We get left behind. Younger (and fresher) minds begin to pass us by. And we become a boring, bitter, resentful caricature of our old self. And then we blame the world for having changed.

“Change is difficult but often essential to survival.” – Les Brown

So next time your current views or beliefs are challenged by different, better ones, don’t be proud. Go ahead and change yourself.

It’s for your own good.