Encounter with an Angel in Houston

In the mid eighties I was a young husband, father, and preacher.  I wanted so desperately to do something for the Lord.  For a little over three years we worked as the Youth Pastors of Imperial Valley Assembly of God in Houston, Texas.  This position offered no monetary pay so I worked at a company named Southwest T-Tops.  My duties included traveling all over the greater Houston area by car attempting to convince insurance agents to use our services in repairing and replacing damaged and stolen t-tops in sports cars.  I took my Bible with me daily, and at lunchtime I would often find a quiet place to park and read.  After visiting an agent in a business strip center I pulled down to the deserted end of the business park, set my Bible up on the steering wheel, and flipped it open to read.  When I pulled up I had looked carefully to make sure no one was around and everything was safe, and I had rolled down my window to enjoy the fall breeze.  Before I could look to where my Bible had opened a man spoke to me right outside of my car window and said, “Sir, could you spare something for someone who is hungry?”  It was only a few days until payday and I had no money on me.  I told the man that I was sorry but I had nothing to give him.  He said, “Thank you” and then stepped away from my car to leave.  I looked down at my Bible and these words leaped out at me from Acts chapter three, “Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, give I thee, in the Name of Jesus of Nazareth rise up and walk”.  My heart was smitten immediately and I looked out the window to call the man back so I could pray for him, and before my eyes he vanished from sight.  God had sent an angel to visit me.  I learned a valuable lesson that day.  We may not have much money, we may not have much material gain, but we always have something to give.  It is our duty to always be ready to give to every one that asks us.

Rebel With A Cause (a must read for anyone in a decaying Pentecostal denomination)

REBEL WITH A CAUSE

          We are told in 1 Samuel 15:23 that “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.”  These words were spoken by the Prophet Samuel to the rebellious King Saul who had refused to obey the Word of God.  We know from this passage that rebellion against God is intolerable and that it will be met with terrible justice.

          In no way, shape, or form do we advocate this kind of rebellion.  Rebellion against God and His Word is absolutely forbidden and equated with witchcraft.  God’s established leadership that is operating within the confines of the Word of God should never be rebelled against.  If the movement is under the blessings of God then there is great danger to those that rebel against it.  We can see numerous examples in the Word of God of those that were destroyed because of rebellion, examples such as King Saul, Korah, and Nadab & Abihu.  All of these met with a tragic end.

What I want to relay is that all vital movements at one time, in its formative stage, were revolutionary in tone.  This is the only way that new ideas are propagated.  Moses rebelled against the leadership of the Pharaoh of Egypt, Jesus rebelled against the Sanhedrin, and Peter stood up to the religious leaders and said, “We ought to obey God rather than man”.    Daniel was rebel.  When the Kingdom of Babylon passed a law that made it illegal to pray or petition anyone other than the King of Babylon, Daniel went to his house and opened a window and prayed.  The Three Hebrew Children were rebels.  When a Law was passed that required everyone to worship an image they rebelled against the law and the King and were thrown into a fiery furnace.  No one would list these as rebels, and we use the more sanitized form of the word, revolutionaries.

Even America, which is considered one of the greatest countries on earth, exists today because our forefathers rebelled against the rule of England.  This rebellion, or revolution, led to the Declaration of Independence, and the formation of the United States of America. 

Rebellion is the process whereby the new breaks out of the old.  When I was Born Again the New Man rose up against the Old Man.  This rebellion slew the old nature and placed it under subjection to the new.  This is why Paul said, “If any man be in Christ, old things are passed away.  Behold all things become new”.  Notice how Paul uses the term “passed away”, which is a term that we often use to refer to the deceased.   I am not saying that you will never have trouble out of the Old Nature again, but I am saying that if you walk in the Spirit you can walk in victory over the Old Nature at all times.

The passage in 1 Samuel 15:23 is a peculiar passage to mention in regards to revival, but if we are going to have revival in the 21^st Century Pentecostal Church then we are going to need a revolution against established religion that has lost its way.  Much of what goes on today in the modern Pentecostal Church does not represent Christ.  I am not saying that we should revolt and make something completely new, but rather that we should revolt and go back to the original model set forth in the Book of Acts.  No other Church will please Christ.

When we do rise up against the bloated bureaucracies of Pentecostal Religion there will be those that will misunderstand and label us as “Rebels”.  This is unavoidable.  The only way for the Church to remain vital in this present world is for her to revolt against “order without God”.  Paul referred to this order as “having a form of Godliness but denying the power thereof”.

Should a powerless form of religion be obeyed?  Should a form that has rejected the supernatural and doubts the Word of God be submitted to?  These questions must be considered and answered.

We are living at a time in the modern Pentecostal movement where most Pentecostal denominations are nearing 100 years old.  These denominations have fourth and fifth generation Pentecostals within their ranks and they no longer represent what they were in the beginning.  Can we effect change from within these denominations?  Or is it impossible?  If it is impossible then what course of action should we consider?

Whether we want to admit the truth or not, there is a connection between true reformation revival and rebellion against a corrupt and dead religious system.  You can see this connection in every major reformation in history.  Without these reformation, revolutions, or rebellions we would not have the modern Pentecostal movement at all.  These revolutions were necessary to the advancement of the plan of God.  From Moses to Christ to Pentecost to the Great Reformation under Martin Luther to Methodism under John Wesley to Azusa Street in Los Angeles, California – all advancements required that the new order revolt against the old.  There is no other way.

If a person stands up and rebels against a corrupt religious system is that person truly a rebel?  The obvious answer is “no”.  If we are to label all acts of opposition as “Rebellion” then we must also conclude that America is a “Rebellious Nation” because we revolted against the tyranny of England.  We know from of study of history that we had every right to oppose England because of its tyrannical treatment of the American Colonies. 

Others in the Bible could also be called rebels by such a narrow definition of the word.  Men like David (he ran from King Saul, gathered a following of over 300 men into an army and dwelt in the land of the enemies of Israel), Jeremiah (he encouraged his fellow citizens to surrender to an enemy army [Babylon] and open the city gates to them), the Apostle Paul (who opposed the corrupt religious system of Israel), and even Jesus (who called the scribes, lawyers, and Rabbis hypocrites).

Everything in this world tends toward degeneration and decay over time.  Our human bodies grow old and decay and eventually die.  All plants and animals go through this same process.  Even mountains erode over time.  This is unavoidable.  What is true for the natural world is also true in any man-made movement.  At first it may be vital and alive but given enough time, decay will set in. 

The same is true for any religious movement.  What may have started out in the beginning, as a lively and healthy religious movement will eventually, over time, begin to decay and degrade.  It will degrade until it becomes as corrupt as the movement from which it came out of.  A new movement will now need to come out of it in order to restore purity.

Many of the old religious “forms” of today were once vital movements of God.  Time saw them degrade from life to death.  They no longer represent the voice of God to this generation.  Speaking of these forms Paul told Timothy, “from such turn away”.  Is it rebellion to “turn away” from these forms?  Most certainly not!  It is a necessity!

The Methodist Church was once a revival movement.  The preaching was holiness, the worship was anointed, and people were committed.  Today, the once great Methodist Church ordains homosexuals.  What happened?  They degraded and died!  Would a person be a rebel that leads a people out of such a movement?

In my study of Church history I have become convinced that the Church needs a revolution every 100 years so that it may break away from corruption and regain purity.  Revival is a restoration of life.  All that refuses to be revived remains dead and must be rebelled against!  If we choose to remain among the dead, their corruption will spread to us.  Rebellion, Revolution, Reformation, and Revival are our means of regaining our purity.  Without a revolution everything falls into decay and the testimony of Christ in this world is diminished.

Around A.D. 33 the Church was born in an Upper Room in Jerusalem.  The Church spread quickly from Jerusalem to Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the known and civilized world.  The Church covered all of the Roman Empire, which included the Middle East, Asia Minor, Upper Africa, and Europe.  But in less than hundred years we read Jesus’ words to the seven churches of Asia (minor) and see that decay has set in.  Of the Seven Churches, five had decayed and degraded.

The great Reformation of the 16^th Century took place when men got tired of the corrupt system and rose up to oppose it.  Martin Luther, a Catholic, wanted to please God; he was taught that you had to do good deeds to overcome your bad deeds so he became a Monk (we know that Luther was not perfect and we also know that there were some elements of Catholicism he retained).  Years went by and he was still unfulfilled.  The Catholic Church of the late Medieval period was corrupt.  They sold indulgences (spiritual positions and power) and spiritual relics (bones, fingernail clippings, clothing of saints) to raise money (they built St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome with this money), they were involved in all of the politics of Europe, the priests had many concubines, and many were guilty of rape, incest, murder, and extortion.  Martin Luther was sick with all of the corruption.  On October 31, 1517 Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Catholic Church in Wittenberg, Germany.  This act began the Reformation and founded the Protestant Churches, which we are a part of.  We “Protest” the Catholic Church!  In his 95 Theses, Martin Luther declared these points:

1.  He denied the authority of the Pope.

2.  He denounced the system of indulgences.

3.  He denounced the glorification of saints.

4.  He denounced superstitions allowed in the Church.

5.  He denied the Popes authority over Purgatory.

6.  He denounced the financial abuses of the Pope and the  Clergy.

7.  He denounced the doctrinal fallacies of the Catholic Church.

8.  He brought the Catholic Sacraments down from seven to two (water baptism & communion).

9.  He taught these two key Doctrines in his Theses”

a.      Sola Scripture- Scripture alone has authority.  Not the Catholic Church or the Pope.

b.     Sola Fide- Justification by faith alone.  Not works, good deeds, or indulgences. 

Martin Luther intended on remaining in the Catholic Church and reforming from within, but a confrontation was not long in coming.  In 1521 Luther was summoned to appear before an ecclesiastical tribunal.  He promptly burned the “bull” (an edict from his superiors) in the streets.  Later he did appear and these were his words to them, “I will answer without horns and without teeth.  Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason – I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other – my conscience is captive to the Word of God, I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against my conscience is neither right nor safe.  God help me.  Amen.”  They promptly excommunicated him and would have killed him except for the intervention of some German princes that hid him for years.  “What began as an internal reform movement had now become a rebellious fracture…”  Luther believed in a non-violent “Revolution”, hence his statement, “I will answer without horns and without teeth.”

Unfortunately some of the elements of the Reformation did turn violent.  Skirmishes and war did occur.  Catholic religious leaders and Catholic rulers killed many of the early Protestants.  Some fought back.   The German religious leader Thomas Muntzer led a revolt in his city and seized the sword.  Though his method was undeniably inconsistent with scripture he was the first in the reformation to declare that the New Birth was the test of whether a person was a Christian.  The revolt was put down and he was beheaded.

In France, John Calvin rose up in opposition to the Catholic Church with his book, Institutes of the Christian Religion.  John Calvin endorsed justification by faith, the authority of scripture, congregational singing of the psalms, and he rejected the catholic crucifix and infant baptism.  Unfortunately, Calvin did cling to many of the teachings of Augustine and today we have to deal with the heresy of Calvinism because of that.  Calvin stated emphatically, “The Church reformed is the kingdom of God.”  The Huguenots rose up in France to follow the teachings of John Calvin and some instances resorted to violence. 

Anabaptists rose up Switzerland and were marked for extermination by the Catholic Church.  One of their early leaders, Felix Manz, was martyred by drowning. 

The Mennonites rose up in Holland.  The Amish rose up in Switzerland.  In Scotland, John Knox formed the Presbyterian Church and declared that the Catholic mass was worse than a cup of poison.  In England, John Wycliffe taught that the scandalous popes were, “the damned limbs of Lucifer” and the very antichrist.  Even the King of England got in on the Reformation, but for very wrong reasons.  Henry VIII repudiated the pope and set up the Anglican Church so he could divorce his wife and marry another.  The Puritans formed in England.

Several hundred years later and now the early Protestant churches were decaying.   The Church needed another revolution.  John Wesley rose up in England and founded the Methodist Church that believed in personal holiness and an emotional relationship with Christ.  In the American colonies Jonathan Edwards preached his great message, “Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God” and revival broke out.  George Whitfield preached powerful revival meetings that drew tens of thousands.  Thousand broke away from the dead, dry, formal Protestant churches and formed new congregations that included emotional singing and preaching.  Many of the leaders of the Great Awakening were labeled “Rebels” by the orthodox Protestant churches of the day.  The Revolution was on again.

In 1901 in Topeka, Kansas, Charles “Daddy” Parham taught his Bible school students out of the book of Acts.  When asked if he thought speaking in tongues could be evident today he replied that he did not know.  He called a prayer meeting and they waited on God to see what God would do.  In that prayer meeting Agnes Ozman was the first to be filled with the Spirit and speak with tongues.  Others soon followed.  Charles Parham traveled and preached that tongues were the Biblical evidence of the Baptism of the Holy Ghost.  In Houston, Texas William J. Seymour heard this message and believed.  William Seymour traveled to Los Angeles, California where he preached this message and founded the Azusa Street Revival that lasted for 3 ½ years.  All of the early Pentecostal leaders were labeled as “Rebels” and “Heretics.”

I am not advocating rebellion but I am saying that sometimes the only way to have revival is to rebel against the religious form.  The Church must have a revolution every 100 years so that it may become vital again!  In time, any viable movement will start to degrade and decay.  We are seeing this pattern today in the Pentecostal organizations that were formed in the early 20^th Century. 

It has been 100 years since modern Pentecostalism swept the world.   All of the major Pentecostal organizations trace their roots to Azusa Street.  The Assemblies of God was formed in 1914; the Church of God is even older.  The Unitarian Pentecostals, which includes the United Pentecostal Church, have their roots in Azusa St. and are almost a hundred years old. 

Now we are seeing the decay in all of the Pentecostal Denominations.  Corrupt leaders, scandals, heresies, and even spiritual deadness abound.  It is time for another revolution, great awakening, and reformation!  Without a new reformation the old, dead forms will persist.  Today, we stand at a crossroads!  We are once again at the same point that Martin Luther and the reformers stood.  Without a revolution this world stands a chance of entering another Dark Age.  Revival is God’s way of reforming the Church into a new and vital force for Him.  We must give ourselves again to prayer and fasting for Revival.  The World must see a vital church again.  Revival is the means of change! 

Already now there is the rumbling of discontent!  Some are sick and tired of the corruption and abuse in the Pentecostal Denominations.  It is the same climate today as it was when Martin Luther tacked his 95 Theses to the Church door.  What we need is another Martin Luther!  Another John Wesley! 

Some are trying to reform their respective organizations from within.  While I am not criticizing them for their effort, history teaches the futility of this course.  Martin Luther never wanted to leave the Catholic Church but he was forced to.  John Wesley was also forced to admit that true reform could never come from within.  Many tried to reform from within but ALL, I found not one that was able to remain and make any significant reform from within.

Revelation 18:4

And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

The call is being sent out.  Jesus is saying, “Come out of her”.  How can we remain in fellowship, unity, and support organizations that are no longer representative of the true Church as established by Jesus in the Book of Acts?  How?  We cannot.  You will not reform from the bottom upward.  If the head, the leadership, of these Pentecostal denominations is sick then the whole body is sick.  The only hope is for those that love the truth to come out of them and seek the true and living God.  Come out, not to form a new movement, but to reform into the original Church that Jesus built.

Miracle in the Old Bible

Not long after my mother gave her heart to the Lord she, and my unsaved Dad (at that time) came into a tough financial trial. Our young family desperately needed $100.00. My Mom went to prayer and asked God to help us. The Lord distinctly impressed her to go and read the Bible. She got up to read her Bible but the Lord dealt with her to go and read her old Bible. She had gotten a new Bible and had placed the old one in the top of her closet. So she went to her closet and found the old frayed Bible that she had not read from for many years. When she opened it up to read it, there in the pages was a crisp one hundred dollar bill. Was the money there all the time? Had she forgotten it months earlier? Had some thoughtful Brother or Sister placed it there? Maybe. Or, maybe, just maybe, God put it there. Once again God had met our need and made known to us that He is ever in control.

Beenie Weenie Story

My wife and I were married in June of 1982 and after our honeymoon we left to go to Bible College. Neither one of us had ever lived away from our parents so there were lot of learning experiences for us. As you can imagine money was tight at times. Many times when we had a need I would go over to the college post office to check the mail and there would be a check from one of our loved ones. Checking the mail was a real joy for us. There was one particular time that our food supply at home got very low. Our cabinets were low. We had several cans of pork and beans and some wieners and Terrie made “Beanie Weenies” all weekend. I was sick and tired of eating “Beanie Weenies”. Monday morning I got up early and prayed for the Lord to send us some money. I told Terrie, “I am going to my morning classes and afterward I will go and get the mail. God is going to send us some money. I felt very confident that God was going to send us money in the mail just like he had done before. When I checked the mail I was shocked when there was no money. I returned home dejected and disappointed because God had not brought any money to us in the mail. Seemingly God had failed us. I slowly walked home dreading having to tell my wife the bad news. When I opened the door Terrie was grinning from ear to ear. Before I could tell her the sad news she held up two one-hundred dollar bills. “I had a visitor while you were at class”, she said. Our Pastor, B. J. Starnes, had driven 300 miles to Waxahachie and stopped by our apartment and gave us $200.00. God had not failed us after all. He simply answered our prayer in a different way. God will answer payer but He may not answer the way you think he will.

Our Baby is Healed!

Mark Jr., or Mark Edward as we call him, was born in 1983. When he was born he had an Umbilical Hernia, which is a belly button that was pushing out. The doctor hoped that this would correct itself and did not want to do surgery on a new born baby so decided to put off doing anything until our son was a few months older. Time went by and it did not improve but began to grow worse and worse until the skin ruptured and started bleeding. Our baby was in severe pain. Terrie took Mark Edward to the doctor during the week and the doctor said that surgery needed to be performed the next Monday. Sunday morning we got up and doctored the raw and bleeding belly button, and dressed Mark Jr. in a baby jumpsuit and we went to Church at Hillister Assembly of God. The Pastor was out of town and the Assistant Pastor was conducting the morning service. At the end of the service he called for a prayer line, something that we had never seen happen at this church before, and we took Mark Jr. up for prayer. There was no great shaking or no great feeling when we prayed. After Church we went to our apartment 17 miles away at Bible College and when we got home Terrie took Mark Edward to our bedroom to change his diaper and clothes. I heard a loud shout from the room and ran back to see what was wrong – nothing was wrong. God had healed our baby! Mark Edward was lying on the bed and his belly button was normal. No bleeding, no inflammation, no swelling, and no discoloration. We took him back to the doctor and he confirmed that our baby was healed and that he would not need surgery. Sometime between the time when we left home to go to Church until we returned, God had miraculously healed our baby.

Tesitmony About My Dad (Excerpt from my book "My Faith - My Family"

Ernest Herridge: The Grace Years

I was just a boy when my Dad, Ernest Herridge, got sick.  He began to gain an excessive amount of weight but we thought it was just normal weight gain.  He also fell asleep very easily and his skin color had darkened.  We did not know that on the inside Dad had Cushing’s disease, which is a very rare glandular disease that very few people had even heard of.  It took a wreck to find this out.  It also took a wreck for Dad to get serious about serving God. 

In 1976 on FM 1127 between Shepherd and Urbana, Texas Dad fell asleep at the wheel of his Chevrolet pick up.  He was out delivering packages for Tex Pack, the small business that he had started.  His truck drove up on the rail and then tipped over and plunged 40 feet to the bottom of the ravine.  The Chevy landed upside down in the mud and just a few feet from standing water.  The wrecker driver that pulled the truck out later told us that they found two dead water moccasins under the crushed truck. 

Dad was pinned in by the steering wheel, which was pressed down deep into his thigh muscles.  He carried the scars from that steering wheel the rest of his life.  The gas tank was behind the seat on this pickup and it was punctured by the fall.  Gas leaked out and covered him.  This road was little used and Dad said that he only heard two cars drive by while he was trapped below.  Each time he hollered as loud as he could but no one heard him.  For three hours he hung upside down in the pickup all soaked in oil and gas.  At one point a flame started on the hood of the truck.  Dad knew that if the fire caught he would not survive (there are pictures of a burnt spot in the middle of the hood of the wrecked truck) and he prayed to God and the fire went out.  For those three hours Dad prayed and committed everything to God, crying out, “Lord, save me and I will serve you, I will take my family to that Pentecostal Church.”

Finally he heard someone yell from the top of the bridge, “Mister, we are going to go get you some help.  Hold on.”  Two boys had played hooky from school and were out joy riding.  God had sent help from a most unlikely source.  It was not long afterward that help arrived and they cut Dad out of the truck.  Once they cut the steering wheel loose Dad rolled over, got up, and walked to the stretcher.  The rescue worker said, “Hold on mister, we will carry you” and Dad replied, “I have been lying there long enough”.

At the hospital things looked pretty grim.  Dad had three crushed vertebrae and second and third degree burns from the gasoline all over his body.  I will never forget that day when the phone rang at home.  My brother and I were playing in my room.  Momma hung up the phone in a hurry and said, “Come on boys, your Daddy has been in an accident.”  We loaded up in our brown Buick station wagon and finally made it to the emergency room in Livingston.  We rushed inside not knowing what we would find.  It was a very scary time for us as we hung on to hope that God would pull him through.   

The hospital decided that it would be better to transfer my Dad to a better equipped hospital in Lufkin.  By ambulance Dad was transferred there.  He was in a coma as they tried to treat his burns and the damage from the accident. Large blisters formed on his body.  Our Pastor, Brother Frank J. Woolf came to the ICU in Lufkin and laid hands on Dad.  Immediately the blisters shrank away and disappeared.  The beauty of this is that Dad never carried any scars from the burns.  God was already working. 

The doctors continually told us that he should be dead.  Some said he was “Lucky” but we knew that luck had nothing to do with it.  He was in God’s hands.

Finally Dad came home.  The doctors said it would take time but he would recover.  Weeks went by but he never got better but rather grew worse.  Brother Woolf came by and took Dad to the Veteran’s Memorial Hospital (VA) in Houston.  Many tests were run.  Finally a doctor figured out that Dad had Cushing’s disease.  At the time of his Diagnosis the Doctor said there were only twelve known cases in the world.  The treatment for this condition was that all of Dad’s glands had to either be removed or rendered inoperative.  They used radiation to kill the glands near his brain and cut out the ones near his kidneys. 

For one year Dad was in the VA Hospital in Houston.  In those days the patients were housed in large rooms called Wards.  Dad was in Ward 308.  The doctors were amazed at Dad’s enthusiasm for God and his determination to live.  When Dad would share his testimony of the wreck he had  survived they would stand in awe.  At one point a doctor stood Dad up on a table in the Ward and had him share his testimony with everyone in the Ward.  There were tears in the eyes of all around as Dad shared his new commitment to the Lord and the miracle he had experienced.

It was a long time but finally Dad came home.  The doctors said we had better enjoy the few years we had left with him, for they would most likely not be many.  You know God is always greater than the situation.  Dad lived another 32 years after the accident and his treatment for Cushing’s disease.  I have come to refer to those 32 years as the “Grace Years” – these were the years that God gave us that we did not deserve, but he gave them to us because of his “Amazing Grace”.

In September 2008 Dad finally went home to his reward.  In all of those years since the wreck he served the Lord.  As a Pastor, he was my greatest supporter.  He never failed brag on my preaching and to tell me that I was the greatest preacher in the whole world, even when I felt I had flopped.  His faithfulness to God’s house is surely legendary.  I could count on one hand how many times he missed a church service.  He was our doorkeeper.  He faithfully kept his post until his health would not allow him to do so.  May God give us more such believers.

Invisible Men

INVISIBLE MEN

THE TRANSPARENT LIFE

John 3:3

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Hebrews 11:1

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Hebrews 11:27

By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.

INVISIBLE MEN AND WOMEN

To be invisible is to be unseen.  Only that which is unseen can truly give God the glory.  If I am getting the glory, and not God, then I am still visible.  The Flesh, the self-life, abhors invisibility.  The Flesh despises being invisible.  The flesh thrives on being seen.  People in our Churches want to be seen- to be visible.  They sing, testify, play an instrument, preach, pray, and fast so that they will be seen of men.  This is fleshly!

Matthew 6:1, 5,

1 Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.

5 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

16 Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

Why do you do what you do?  Would you do the same if no one were watching?  A preacher friend asked me on the phone the other night about a preacher that used to be in our Church, he asked, “How is he doing?  Is he still in Church?”  My answer was, “No!”  Why?  Why did he not make it?  The answer is simple, “PRIDE”.  When he realized he was going to have to “do the first works over” and just be a Church Member, he got out.  He did not want to be an Invisible Christian.  He wanted to be a Visible Preacher on the platform.

There are many people that will not come to our Churches because they want a Position and we will not give them one.  One lady visited our Church when her church closed down. The Power of God was falling in our Church.  She stood up and testified, “Ya’ll pray for me.  I’m looking for a good Church to go to, one where I can be used.”  She wanted to be Visible.  She did not join our Church.  She was too proud to learn to be Invisible.  God cannot use you till you first learn to be invisible!

I like to call the Wednesday night service the “Invisible Service”.  Why?  Because this is the hardest service for people to be faithful to – it takes the most effort.  For this reason only the faithful attend this service.  It is the one service a week that is invisible to the half-hearted.  Only those truly invisible know the value of this service.

THE INVISIBLE MEMBERS OF THE BODY

There are parts of my Body that are of the greatest importance but they are never seen.  They are invisible!  Who would doubt the importance of the Heart, Liver, and Kidney?  They are never seen yet you and I could not live without them.

Everyone wants the visible ministries!  You let them feel the Call of God on their lives and, Pastor, they are going to want your Pulpit!  Why?  Because it is highly visible.

What is wrong with being a Church Member?  What is wrong with sitting on a Pew?  What is wrong with being an invisible member of the Church?  What is wrong with being a Heart, Lung, or Kidney?  No member is unimportant.  All have great value.

GOD ONLY SEES THE INVISIBLE

Jesus is the greatest example of a life lived for another.  He lived his life to please his Father.  Jesus’ Will was invisible.  His own desires and thoughts were invisible.  Only His Father’s will and desires were visible.  Jesus took on a Visible Form but only those that saw past the visible became his followers.  They followed him because they saw the Invisible in Him.

John 14:7-9

7 If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.

8 Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.

9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?

All the Pharisees could see was Jesus’ birthplace, lineage, hometown, and family.  They could never really see who Jesus really was. 

FAITH SEES THE INVISIBLE

It takes special equipment to see (and hear) the Invisible.  There are spectrums of light and color that our eyes cannot see.  There are sounds that our ears cannot pick up (Dogs hear at levels that we cannot hear).  Faith is the eyes of the spiritual man.  Faith sees the invisible things of God.

You will never be able to see this invisible God without faith.  “Without faith it is impossible to please God”, we might add also that it will be impossible to see this God.  Faith makes it possible to view the invisible realms of God.

Once we found the Lord a whole new invisible world opened up to us.  Our eyes, our ears, our senses were opened up to us.  Now we realized there is more to life than just the tangible things that are readily observable.

Jesus told Nicodemus, “Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God”.  It is the new set of eyes that we receive at the New Birth that can see the invisible realm of God.  The old Adamic eyes cannot see this Kingdom – only the new eyes of the New Birth.

GOD CAN ONLY USE US WHEN WE BECOME INVISIBLE

As long as we love the praises of men our effectiveness is diminished.  Our effectiveness is diminished because of our visibility.  It was only when Abraham’s ability to produce a Son had faded away to Invisibility that God gave Abraham a Son.

Hebrews 11:12

Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.

The illegitimate offspring of Abraham and Hagar was produced while Abraham was still Visible and they have had problems with him ever since.  The Tares in our Churches today are the by-products of our Visibility.

Joseph was in prison for 20 years.  God was simply waiting for him to fade away so that he could use him.  Moses was on the backside of the desert for 40 years.  Moses left Egypt Visible but he returned Invisible!  God is waiting for us to fade away so that he can use us.

John 3:30

He must increase, but I must decrease

We are opaque.  Instead of being invisible we are opaque.  The lions could not find Daniel because he was invisible.  He was invisible to his own ambitions.  The 3 Hebrew Children went through the fire but did not burn.  Fire can’t burn Invisible Men.

When God needed a King for Israel he chose the invisible son of Jesse.  David was the eighth son of Jesse.  He was invisible and was not even invited to the meeting.  He so far down the list of important people that no one even bothered to invite him to the meeting.  For all intents and purposes, in the home of Jesse, he was invisible.  It was just this kind of man that God needed to fill the office of the King.

1 Samuel 16:10-12

10 Again, Jesse made seven of his sons to pass before Samuel. And Samuel said unto Jesse, The LORD hath not chosen these.

11 And Samuel said unto Jesse, Are here all thy children? And he said, There remaineth yet the youngest, and, behold, he keepeth the sheep. And Samuel said unto Jesse, Send and fetch him: for we will not sit down till he come hither.

12 And he sent, and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to. And the LORD said, Arise, anoint him: for this is he.

The followers of Jesus must be invisible.  Jesus said, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me (Mathew 16:24).”  What was Jesus saying?  If I deny myself then I am making my self (flesh) invisible.  I asked my self the question, “If I make my flesh invisible and pick up my cross, what is going to be seen?”  ONLY THE CROSS!

We are fading in and out.  I have spent the last 21 years pastoring Pentecostal Lighthouse Church (in 2009) and I asked myself the question, “What am I doing here?”  I am learning to be invisible!

Jesus spent 3.5 years teaching His disciples to be Invisible.  God will use us as soon as we learn to be invisible.  On the day of Pentecost 120 Invisible people came out of the Upper Room.  God chose David the eighth son, the Invisible son, to be the King of Israel.  God will only choose the invisible to do his work.

1 Corinthians 1:26-29

26 For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:

27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;

28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:

29  hat no flesh should glory in his presence.

THE INVISIBLE GOD WILL ONLY BE VISIBLE TO THE WORLD WHEN THE CHURCH IS INVISIBLE

The world can’t see God because all that they can see is us!  We have had seasons when we faded away and we saw great things done.  Revivals where God moved and miracles occurred, but after the revival we began to reappear and everything went back to the way it used to be.

When Isaiah was Invisible he saw the Lord (Isaiah 6).  God sent an Invisible man to declare Himself to the people.  When we are invisible the world is going to see Jesus.  The only thing that is visible to the world is us!  They see our Doctrines, our Parties, Dinners, Conventions, Campmeetings, Revivals, our Buildings, even our Standards, but they don’t see our Invisible God.

Gideon cried out, “Where are the miracles of our fathers?”  The miracles were invisible because God was invisible!  The miracles are in the Invisible God!  They will only be seen when he is seen!  And God will never be seen when all people can see is us!

PRAYER: THE MEANS TO INVISIBILITY

Leonard Ravenhill once said, “The secret to praying is praying in secret.”  It is the secret prayer closet that causes the flesh to fade away.  This is why the flesh resists prayer so vehemently.  The flesh hates prayer.  Prayer breaks down our flesh.  The more we pray the more our flesh is going to fade.

A person of high visibility is a person the never prays.  The ones that work unselfishly and lovingly, with no thought of temporal reward or the praises of men, are the ones that are fading to invisibility.  They are the ones that are praying.

You show me a proud man and I will show you a man that does not pray.  Prayer will never allow the high-visibility sin of pride to rule in our lives.  Prayer will demand invisibility.

THE TRANSPARENT LIFE

A transparent life is one that does not hinder a view of God.  God is seen when the vessel becomes transparent.

Colossians 3:1-4

1 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.

2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

Glass comes in many different varieties.  Stained glass, frosted glass, but the best is clear glass.  Clear glass allows the contents of the container to be seen.  The transparent life is the one that is dead to all self-interest, dead to all self-promotion.  This is the life that is “hid with Christ in God”.

Look at verse one (1): “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.”  We are told to seek the things that are above.  The things that are above are invisible!

Look at verse two (2): “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.”  We are told to place our affection on the invisible.

Look at verse three (3): “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.”  This is the place of invisibility!  It is the place where all self-life, self-will, self-promotion is dead.  It is a hidden secret place!  Only spiritual people can see into that place!

Look at verse four (4): “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.”  Many people think that this is talking about the rapture.  This is talking about much more than that!  This is simply saying when we become invisible then Christ will become visible!  Christ will not be seen until people can no longer see us!  The Rapture is going to occur but not until we fade away!

Enoch faded away until he was Raptured!  The rapture was the culmination of years of Enoch walking with God.  The Rapture will be the ultimate “Disappearing Act”.  But never forget this one thing: Only those who have already started to fade will disappear in this great Rapture.