It Is Time for Revival in the Land

Romans 13: 8 - 14, Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery," "You shall not murder," "You shall not steal," "You shall not bear false witness," "You shall not covet," and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts. NKJV

Today, I want to share some findings about the church and our culture with you that were taken from the research of "The Barna Group." The purpose of this word is to encourage you in your walk of faith as a follower of Christ. If you have ever wondered if you're making a difference in the world, or if you even matter to anyone as a believer in Christ, let me share these staggering stats with you about American society. After reading these percentages, you should have a new-found sense of duty and responsibility to be all that God has ordained you to be as one of His children.

During the WWII generation, the percentage of Bible-believing Christians was 65%. This generation gave birth to the largest baby boom in history... up to that time; they were called the "Baby Boomers." There was a sharp decline of Bible-believing Christians in the Baby-Boomer generation; the percentage went from 65% down to 36%. The Baby Boomers gave then gave birth to Generation X. In this particular generation, the number of Bible-believing Christians now dropped to only 16% from the previous number of 36%.

Now, we come to the new generation that has exploded in number and exceeds the record number of babies who were conceived shortly after the end of WWII. The Millennial Generation has the lowest number of Bible-believing Christians of any generation that we have a record of in the church, at only 4%. Finally, 91% of those polled by The Barna Group say there is "no" absolute truth. 

It is high time, as the Apostle Paul proclaimed in his epistle to the church of his day, for Christians to put off the "works of darkness" and to put on the "armor of light." Our salvation is much nearer now than when we first believed. I was compelled by the Holy Spirit to share the findings of this poll with you to show that we are, indeed, living in dark times. Nevertheless, it is not the time to get in despair or to become despondent over the situation we find ourselves in, but rather it is the time for the CHURCH to RISE UP and be counted for Christ. It's time for us separate ourselves from the pleasures of this world and to become the "salt and light" that Christ ordained us to be. 

Instead of the world influencing the church, let us live out the Word of God so that we are able to influence and impact the world for the glory of God. It is the prayer of many believers; myself included, that we will see a revival of God's holy fire return to the hearts of His children. It's also time that we return to our First Love, Jesus, and seek to please Him, instead of our fleshly appetites.

According to the stats that I have shared with you today, this nation is poised for a revival like this world has never seen. I don't believe it is a coincidence that God has moved upon the heart of Reverend Billy Graham during this season to bring a grassroots movement of evangelism back to the church of America and Canada. It is possible for us to see millions of souls swept into the kingdom of God in 2013. In Romans 5:20, Paul tells us that where sin increased, grace increased the more. God has always had a plan; even so, He needs people to carry out that plan. Won't you join with thousands of believers to turn this tide of evil descent around and proclaim that this is the year for a mighty harvest? You can learn more about "MyHope with Billy Graham on our website. Go to www.whcnorth.org. You will find the link to MyHope there. Will you be a part of this great move of God's Spirit in these last days? Contact me at passion30@whcnorth.org. I look forward to hearing from you.

Reaching Out to a Dark World with the Love of Christ,
Pastor Asa Dockery 

Perfect Peace

Isaiah 26 : 3, You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. NKJV

John 16 : 33, These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." NKJV

Have you ever set out to accomplish a task that required the help of others? Perhaps you've been in need and have reached out for assistance, only to realize that no one would cooperate with you. Isn't it frustrating when someone's help is essential, and it's just not there? There are times when God allows us to experience what it is like when He tries to work on our behalf, but can't get us to cooperate with His Spirit. 

If we would just work with the Lord, instead of resisting His way of doing things, life would go much smoother. In Isaiah 26:3, we read that God will keep us in "perfect peace" as we keep our minds fixed on Him. After all, isn't He the answer to all of our problems? Consequently, shouldn't we be focused on Him and listening to His voice rather than being focused on the impending trouble we face? Absolutely!

We can do without many things in this life; however, peace isn't one of them. Peace comes from having the presence of God in our hearts, surrounding us  every minute of the day. There is nothing in this world that can give you the peace that only God can give. 

One of the mantra's of the world is "world peace." The problem with the kind of peace that the world seeks is that it will always elude them because they're trying to accomplish peace apart from God. No one, including Christians, can have peace while walking in opposition to His Spirit. Therefore, we must be willing to yield our hearts and the thoughts of our minds to relying upon Him and allowing His presence to keep us in His peace. 

Jesus tells us in John 16:33 that we can only find peace in the Word that He has spoken. In this world, or if we are focused on the world, we will have tribulation that can take away any peace that we may have in our hearts. Therefore, let us give our time and attention to the Word of God and the will of God for us, and as a result, God will be allowed to keep our hearts in peace. Through His peace, we will reduce our stress and  greatly improve our quality of life.

Nevertheless, before you set out to "get God" to go along with your plan, why not first ask Him what His plan is? If He gives you peace about the plan that you have offered up to Him in prayer, then you have His approval to move ahead. We will have the peace of God when we come into agreement with HIS will for us. Father always knows best.

There Is No Peace like His Peace,
Pastor Asa Dockery

The Candle Maker

Matthews 13 : 13 - 17, Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: 'Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive; for the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them.' But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. NKJV

When you read this passage of scripture and take it at face value, it appears as though Jesus doesn't want the Jews to be saved and healed. However, we know that just isn't the case because Jesus was sent by the Father to the household of Israel. He also tells us that He was sent to seek and to save that which was lost. Therefore, we need to study the Word of God and see what this portion of scripture really says so that we can learn truths from it that will help us receive the answers we need from the Lord.

Why did Jesus speak to the Jews in parables, if He was sent to save, deliver, and heal them? Conversely, why did He speak plainly with His own disciples so that they heard and understood the mysteries of the kingdom of God? Unlike the majority of the Jews in Jesus' day, His disciples obeyed Jesus when He commanded them to forsake all and follow Him. Because the disciples believed in Jesus and obeyed His commands, God gave them spiritual ears to hear and spiritual eyes to see. God also gave the disciples understanding so that they could perceive or grasp the truths that Jesus taught them. God did this for the disciples because they believed Jesus and placed their trust in Him as their Messiah.

Even so, we see the majority of the Jews still rejected Jesus and His testimony that He was the Son of God. Therefore, they HARDENED their hearts and rejected Him as their Messiah. Consequently, He could do no mighty works to help them. The hardness of their hearts kept or prevented God from releasing His power and favor upon His own people. Jesus gives us the reason why the Jews hearts were hardened and why they couldn't understand His parables. They repeatedly hardened their hearts to the prophets of God and to His Laws.  

When Jesus was speaking privately to His disciples, He used a term that refers to the making of candles as to why He used parables to speak to the Jews. The KJV says, "This people's heart is waxed gross. The NKJV says, "Grown dull." In Jesus' day, candles were formed by dipping wicks into hot wax and then pulling it out to allow the wick to cool. This process was repeated many times until the candle reached the thickness that the candle maker desired. In the same way, Jesus said that the Jews had hardened their hearts to God's Word over and over, until they could no longer hear the truth. In other words, their hearts were completely closed to God's voice, and now He could do nothing to help them. 

Here is the sobering part of today's teaching. The writer of Hebrews teaches us in chapter 3 that the Jews, who were led by Moses in the wilderness hardened their hearts to the voice of the Holy Spirit for forty years, even though they saw the mighty acts of God. Because the Jews constantly disobeyed God and hardened their hearts to His voice, they weren't allowed to enter His rest. All the Jews who had been delivered from the land of bondage died in the wilderness; they didn't inherit the Promised Land. Only those who were twenty years of age and younger were allowed to possess the promise of their inheritance from God.   

Let's put a draw string on this and bring it altogether. In the same way that the Jews could not enter the Promised Land because their hearts were hard and because of their unbelief, the Jews in Jesus' day didn't accept Jesus as their Messiah (Promised Deliverer). As a result, they also perished, just like their predecessors. The writer of Hebrews tells us that if God's own chosen people didn't inherit the promises of God because of their unbelief, then we (Gentile believers) should believe and obey God's Holy Spirit, lest we allow the promises to slip away from us, and we perish as well.

Should you hear the voice of God or the Word of God preached and choose to harden your heart because it doesn't agree with your carnal desires for sin, be careful that you don't harden your heart to the point that you cut your soul off from God's power and presence. It happens more than you might think. The generation that we're living in "chooses to believe" that their sin won't be punished. James calls this being deceived by ourselves. People who deceive themselves by ignoring the truths of God's Word so that they can continue sinning against it, don't need Satan or a person who lies to deceive them, they're already deceived by their own deceptive ways. 

God is calling His people to become broken over our evil ways. We must forsake them and return to Him with whole hearts. Therefore, we must be more than just hearers of the Word; we must also obey the truth so that it can save our souls from deception. God doesn't want us to be religious. God wants us to walk by faith and be obedient sons and daughters so that we will inherit the promises of God. All of God's promises are yes, and they are amen in Christ. You have an inheritance in Christ. Therefore, keep your heart humble and pliable to His voice, and you will possess His promises.

Seeking the Lord with My Whole Heart,
Pastor Asa Dockery

You Are Loved!

Matthew 8 : 8, The centurion answered and said, "Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed. NKJV

Throughout the Old Testament, the gentiles are excluded from the covenant that God made with Abraham. In fact, Ishmael, Abraham's flesh and blood son was also excluded because he wasn't conceived of God's will; he was birthed through Abraham's desire to have his own son. You may ask, "Why was God so set on having His own chosen people upon the earth, even though we're told in Psalms 24 that the earth belongs to the Lord and all that dwell therein?" 

Perhaps it wasn't that God was seeking to exclude the peoples of the earth from being in covenant with Him; it was God establishing His ways in the earth so that people could be brought to faith. Allow me to call to your remembrance John 3:16: For God so LOVED THE WORLD that He gave His only-begotten  Son, that WHOSOEVER believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting or eternal life. By this scripture, we can conclude that God did love the peoples of the world. He was revealing to Abraham, the Jews, and us just how important faith is to Him... and to us who desire to walk in covenant with God and be saved.

God rejected the acts of Abraham that he had done in his own power, but accepted Abraham's obedient acts when they were done through faith according to God's instructions. God loved Isaac, but rejected Ishmael. God loved Jacob, but hated Esau. Once again, let me say that we see this distinction throughout the Old Testament and even into the gospels. The scripture that I shared above exemplifies what the Lord has given to share with you today. Even though the centurion was a gentile, he still had a need that only Jesus could supply. Instead of allowing the fact that he was a gentile to prevent him from receiving from Christ, he acknowledged the authority that Jesus walked in as the Son of God.

Because the centurion didn't dwell on not being worthy, although he mentioned it, his focus was on Jesus' authority. The centurion did this by faith because he had heard about Jesus from the Jews. It was this gentile's faith in Jesus that caused Jesus to sit up and take notice. Moreover, Jesus sent His Word and healed the servant of the centurion. When Jesus saw the humility and faith of this gentile man, He told those who were assembled that He had not found such great faith, even in all of Israel.

Once we get past the gospels, and through the book of Acts where the Holy Spirit is poured out upon the gentiles, as well as the Jews, Paul, who wrote almost two-thirds of the New Testament books, teaches us a new principle. (Please allow this new-found  revelation to get down into your heart and spirit.) When Paul begins writing a letter to the believers in Ephesus, he tells them (Gentile believers) that they are ACCEPTED in the Beloved, Jesus. Instead of Paul's emphasis being on our unworthiness, he placed it on Jesus' worthiness and our acceptance from the Father through the work of Christ.

Now you are accepted in Christ, if you have placed your faith in Him as God's only Son. You no longer have to listen to the voices of condemnation and guilt that still accuse you because of the things you have done in the past that were wrong in God's sight. So instead of focusing on being unworthy and having nothing to offer to God, begin to focus on Jesus and to declare that He is worthy of all adoration, praise, and honor for saving us and for reconciling us back to God through His cross.

Let us sing praise songs that exalt Jesus and focus only on Him instead of telling God how unworthy we are while we're in His presence. If God has forgotten our past, shouldn't we honor His request, not insult Him by bringing up our unworthiness before Him? It never was about us anyway. It's all about Jesus and our faith in Him that causes us to be accepted in God's sight. Now we can be blessed and walk in the favor of God because of what Jesus has already done for us. 

I Am Blessed and Accepted in Jesus,
Pastor Asa Dockery

God's First Command Is Love

Mark 12: 28 - 31, Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, "Which is the first commandment of all?" Jesus answered him, "The first of all the commandments is: 'Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." NKJV

Why do you suppose the first commandment is to love God? God is love. Therefore, when we love Him more than all else, we are allowing the very nature and essence of God to live and flow through our hearts. It's interesting, to say the least, that God requires us to love Him because there is no love (agape) apart from God; and man was separated from God through sin. It is no surprise then that when God gave the commandment for Israel to love Him, they naturally fell short.

As a minister of the gospel, I hear and see many people who confess faith in Christ, but fall short in living for God. The reason they most often give me as to why they fall short is they lack the power to live for God and to overcome the pleasures and desires of sin. What many believers who struggle to live a godly life fail to realize is that it takes the love of God abiding in our hearts before we can successfully live for God.

Even as Christians, we can't love the world and love the Father at the same time; we will have no power to live holy before Him. We are required to choose whom we will serve. The Apostle John tells believers in Christ that if they love the world, then the love of the Father is not in them. Thus, we will fail whenever we try to live for God. We must accept the gift of God's Son, who was given by the Father out of His great love in order to bridge the gap between Him and us.

After Jesus had risen from the dead, He appeared to His disciples several times. About the third time, Jesus "cornered" Simon Peter and asked him if he loved Him. Jesus asked Simon Peter this question three times. Perhaps, Jesus dealt with Simon's heart three times because he had previously denied knowing Jesus three times. Nevertheless, Simon wasn't living for Jesus, and Jesus wanted to know if Simon truly loved Him. It was there with Simon that we see Jesus tying together living and serving God with loving Him. 

No one can live for God for a lifetime, if they don't truly love God first. We're told in 1 Corinthians 13 that love never fails.

Consequently, if you regularly struggle to overcome sin and to live for God without feeling under condemnation, then you must ask the Lord to fill your heart with His love. You must also seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. The more you allow yourself to love God by placing self on the cross of obedience, the additional liberty you will have to live for Him.

To love God or even someone else is simply an act of your will. You're willing to put them first in your life. As we prioritize our life to live for God's pleasure, then He will be released to fill our hearts with His divine nature and give us power to overcome the will of our flesh. You can do all things through Christ, and live a holy life.

Loving God,

Pastor Asa Dockery

Listening to the Wrong Voices

Genesis 3: 1 - 5, Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?" And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.'"Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." NKJV

Adam and Eve were doing very well in life until Satan decided to show up dressed like a serpent and deceive Eve. We know the serpent deceived Eve because Paul confirms it as truth in 1 Timothy 2: 14. Satan could mislead Eve because she didn't know God, or her identity as a daughter of God. Had she known the truth, Eve wouldn't have fallen prey to Satan's lie, which caused her to sin in order to become like God. It is imperative for new believers to become disciples of Jesus, so that they learn their spiritual identity and are not robbed by Satan's deceptive schemes.

Because of Eve's spiritual ignorance, Satan could cast doubt in her heart about God and His command to refrain from eating the Tree of Knowledge. Like I stated earlier, Adam and Eve were tremendously blessed until Satan came into the story. After the serpent engaged Eve into a conversation, he began to feed her another opinion about the consequences of sin; and he sounded believable.

Satan used doubt to rob Adam and Eve of their spiritual inheritance and blessings from the Lord. As a result of their sin, they were driven out of the garden of provision, where God had supplied their every need; now, they had to work in order to eat. When we entertain a voice of doubt that offers another opinion or option to what God has told us to do, then we are playing around with something that is going to be used to rob us of our spiritual blessings from God.

Doubt occurs when we vacillate between two opinions because we may not like or agree with what God has said to us concerning something in our hearts or in our lives. Obviously, Eve wasn't exactly pleased with God's instruction not to eat of the forbidden fruit, or she wouldn't have listened to another opinion. There was something in Eve's heart that opened her up to consider Satan's lies as a viable option to God's point-of-view. Therefore, since we are descendants of Eve, we, too, must guard our hearts, so that we don't receive ANY REPORT that contradicts God's Word as our final authority. If we allow another opinion, other than what God's Word declares, then we are opening the door for Satan, the thief, to rob us. 

If you are struggling with doubt, and you're in need of a touch from God, then begin looking at anything that may be adversely influencing you to believe something that goes against God's Word as being truth. Once the Holy Spirit reveals the doubt, begin separating yourself from the cause of it...through prayer. Now, you can stand on God's Word as your final authority and see the salvation of the Lord. The One who called you is faithful to His Word.

Oh, How I Love Jesus,
Pastor Asa Dockery

Exposing the Root of Doubt

Mark 9: 17 - 24, Then one of the crowd answered and said, "Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a mute spirit. And wherever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast it out, but they could not." He answered him and said, "O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to Me." Then they brought him to Him. And when he saw Him, immediately the spirit convulsed him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth. So He asked his father, "How long has this been happening to him?" And he said, "From childhood. And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us." Jesus said to him, "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes." Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!" NKJV

I shared this portion of scripture from Mark's gospel because we can certainly relate to it in our own lives. Here is a father who is desperately seeking help from Jesus' disciples, but they are unable to set his son free from the spirit. Finally, the father brings his son to Jesus. The father realizes that he wants to believe; however, he is dealing with unbelief. 

Isn't it frustrating to have needs in your life, but you lack the faith to receive the answer to those needs? I applaud this father because he was open and honest with Jesus. Therefore, it enabled Jesus to help him get past the unbelief in his heart and see the boy get delivered. Like this man, you, too, have probably tried different ways to receive a healing, a miracle, a deliverance... etc., but to no avail. Consequently, because of all the times that you haven't received an answer to your request, you are probably dealing with a little doubt or unbelief in your own heart, and now it stands in the way of "getting your breakthrough." 

It's a fact of life that living in a world that is filled with sin and unbelief will sometimes cause us to be adversely affected by their voices. Satan loves to use disappointment and discouragement to dampen our faith. Therefore, we must guard our hearts against doubt, fear, and unbelief, especially when seeking the Lord for a breakthrough in our lives. We must close out the voices of bad influence and negative circumstances that could cause us to falter in our walk of faith. If we allow anyone or anything to cause us to waver in our faith, then we have found where the root of doubt is creeping into our hearts. 

Please keep your heart protected against all influences that place God or His faithfulness in a negative light. God is faithful!!! (Period) There will be times in our walk of faith when God will allow us to wait for a while before showing up to deliver us. Even so, we know that God has promised to deliver us from ALL our afflictions. Read James 1 to help understand why God allows us to wait. 

Remember this today: Doubt occurs when we believe one thing, but listen to someone or something else that contradicts what we believe. James tells us in chapter 1 that if we waver, then we WON'T receive anything from the Lord... even though He wants supply our need as much as we want Him to. Without faith, we can't please or come into agreement with God. Have you been waiting on God for an answer to prayer for a long time? Keep standing, guarding, and believing! He will surely fulfill His good pleasure in your life, in His time.

God Is Still Faithful,
Pastor Asa Dockery