DISCIPLE BELIEVER SAVED?

Thank You Father for Sowing the Word into this earth.

So I wrote about disciples versus believer's yesterday.
Lord I know I done made some folks spit.

What does she mean everyone won't be a disciple?
She ain't operating in faith if she doesn't believe that we can sweep through this nation and everyone we talk to and pray for can't be won...

I am operating in faith.
The faith in the Bible that says that there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Because everyone will not be won.
Listen,
I am not saying don't go and that multitudes will not be won, I'm saying go recognizing that what the Bible has said will be fulfilled.

Jesus said,
Many will say unto me on that day Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy Name? and in thy Name have cast out devils? and in thy Name done many wonderful works?
And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Matthew 7:21,22

The Bible also teaches that there will be a great falling away.
Why?
Because they came in for the wrong reasons.

Remember the woman with the Alabaster Box?, and I am not referring to my self as being that woman.
The Lord told the Pharisitic people that they had not ministered to HIM.

When I got off work yesterday I went home and opened the Bible up to Acts chapter 8 and began to read.
It gives the account of a man who believed and it also shows why he believed.

Why do we believe?

Simon was a sorcerer who practiced witchcraft in Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, and people both high and low, applauded him.
Because he produced something for them to see that was tangible, he drew big crowds.

They marveled at the things that he did and they followed him because he had amazed them with what he could produce.
(Listen)

Many people have money and they have big buildings and you may admire their station and their status and you believe that they are successful so you want to go and see how they got what they got.

I promise you if you open up the Bible you won't have to study another man on this planet if you study Jesus.
Because every true success is following Jesus closely.

So Simon has the people mesmerized and they are convinced that he is the next charismatic thing to run to.

Then Philip came, who was a genuine disciple, filled with the Holy Ghost and power of God and began to preach the gospel of the Kingdom of God and of Jesus Christ.

Philip didn't come preaching some formula that he got off of a mountain top in Tibet.

He came preaching Christ and the people of Samaria their men and women were saved and baptized.

Guess what?
The sorcerer himself believed and was baptized.
He wasn't a disciple.

Why did he receive this gospel?
You will soon see that it was not faith that brought him to follow but it was what he thought he could get out of the deal.

We talk about faith so much but it's not a blind leap.
We know why we do what we do.

Simon didn't operate in faith when he believed, he was operating in greed for recognition, power and fame.
His thought was how could he profit by following along with this group?
How much of the world could he influence?

Jesus is the influence.

What will it profit a man if he gains the world and loses his soul in the process?
Because we can't influence nobody if Jesus ain't in the mix.

The record of Samaria being saved goes on to teach us that Peter and John came down after the city was saved and prayed for them and laid hands on them and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.

The Apostles didn't lay hands on Simon the Sorcerer.
Don't you lay hands suddenly on folk either, because the Bible teaches this.

Well, when the sorcerer who "believed" saw that through the laying on of hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money.
Let me study you, who do I pay to enroll in the academy of Peter and John, so I can learn how you do it, I want to do what you do.

I'm not interested in what Jesus said, I just want to imitate you two and have the kind of respect that you command.
Not knowing that if Jesus left the building it would collapse.

Foundation, Foundation, Foundation.

John himself prepared the way of the Lord and said that he wasn't worthy to tie the shoes of Jesus, so John knew it wasn't him who was the power but that the power lived in him.

Simon asked them to give him this power, so that whoever he laid hands on, they may receive the Holy Ghost.
That power wasn't theirs to give from the jump.
It's God's power.
And it's received, but Simon wasn't saved, but he believed based on what he saw them do.

Blessed is the man who will believe without seeing.
Not without knowing and understanding but without seeing.

Simon didn't care about people being filled with the Holy Ghost, he wanted the credit and to be held up as being the one who did this.

All Glory goes to God.

Peter and John didn't even take credit for that, them folks was baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ not in the Name of Peter and John.

So Peter said to him, May your filthy money die with you, because you believe that the gift of God can be purchased with money.

You have no part nor share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God.
(It wasn't Peter and John's ministry.)
Repent of this wickedness and and pray to God, if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you.
For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.

With the heart man believes and whatever is in the heart of any man is what comes out of his mouth.

I used to imitate people before I started to seek the Lord daily.
I said things that made them feel condemned if they were not at a standard or place where I had heard they should be.

Jesus didn't even do that.

You know how when you first get a job you imitate the person who is training you and then at some point you become proficient enough to do the job without having them help you all of the time.

From milk to meat, like teaching a child to ride a bike.
I don't mean you get to a place where nobody can tell you nothing.

There are a lot of jobs where you could train an animal to do the job and they really don't have an understanding.
They could learn to pick up trash, bag it, tie it closed and put it in a dumpster, pull it down to the curb on the right day and when the dumpster has been emptied by waste management, they could pull it back up and put it in it's place.

But can they explain why they do what they do?
If this is not you, don't grit your teeth, loosen your jaw.

This is for someone.

The mystery is not for every man to understand but it's for those who seek the Lord diligently.

Matthew 6:33

Love Y'all