A Message for Our Times

© 2013 by William Doyle. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 12/13/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4918-8776-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-8775-2 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-8777-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013923099

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Contents

Dedication

Introduction

Unconscious Unreality

The Cross of Christ

The Apostolate and apostasy

The Christian Faith and apostasy

The Unity of God’s People

The Spirit of Jesus, The Christ of God & The spirit of witchcraft

Our Spiritual Landscape

End—Time Apostles

The Nature of Evil

The Cross and Self-Denial

The True Gospel

The Essence of our life with God

Christian discipleship

Building on firm foundations

A child of God from Lincolnshire

Two men praying

The Family Prayer

Author’s notes

Dedication

To those friends both known and unknown, who have persevered and laboured with me in prayer and in the spirit, to fulfil a ministry of the word, in love and healing to those seeking the meaningful wealth of God’s message—thank you; I bless you in His Holy Name and devote this work to His glory.

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Biblical References: AKJ version of the Bible and the NRSV

* * *

If there are any omissions in this work it is due entirely to my oversight

and not intended.

To those who believe,

No explanation is necessary.

To those who do not believe,

No explanation is possible.

Frank Werfel:

The Song of Bernadette

Introduction

This book is addressed to the people of God and is an earnest attempt to warn them of the perils to come and the depredation to the spiritual life unless one is prepared. It is a theme that has been raised by the prophets of old, so it is not new. But it is of such importance to human well being that it should not be ignored; complacency in these issues can only result in disappointment and severe chastisement, when the time comes.

We are living in days when changes to our way of life are causing grave concern; these new directions are proving far more subtle than in any other generation. Today most people are better off financially than their parents and are living longer. Yet we are poorer than they, in that we have lost the trust they enjoyed and the integrity, quality and decency of behaviour they experienced and relied on. Whole sections of society are caught up in the success syndrome. Furthermore, apostasy is increasing and there is a loss of faith in God that once inspired everyday living and brought inner peace.

All this together with the preoccupation of sensationalism, showmanship and the lure of easy borrowing, has steered the minds of this generation away from lasting values, which one would expect in a civil society. But the summit of these changes is those that have diminished the hunger for the spiritual life and the gifts of the Spirit, which enrich the individual. The gaps in our church pews is widening and though it saddens me to say it, many preachers fail to engage the minds of the people with words of spiritual content and even prey on searching souls. None of what I am saying is meant to intimidate my clergy colleagues, or to arouse neither conflict nor controversy. Rather it is for men and women to examine their own conscience and guided by the Spirit to repent and make amends. I am convinced that unless men turn away from selfishness; harming their fellowmen; causing corruption in fiscal and business circles, the future of mankind is heading down the road of more rebellion, hastening in the End-times. Recovery will prove difficult unless men repent from pride and malice. The message in this book is for both Christians and non-Christians. God loves all His people, but does not tolerate a rebellious nature.

This book attempts to help people put spiritual values into proper perspective, according to God’s Will. It also contains the very basic demands made by our Lord upon anyone who wishes to follow Him and what it cost to be a Christian in our contemporary society. The discerning are aware of those timid clergy, false teachers and perilous preachers that undermine the true faith of believers, causing ripples of unrest in our Church communities; if this is not halted where will the apostates go? Already far too many churches are closing and our Lord’s glorious teaching is being removed from the school curriculum, Christianity taken out of the courtrooms and omitted in government circles. The enemies of Christ are intent on removing Jesus’ name and influence from public life. If this continues, it will leave the way open for men to assume a higher power and play God! These misguided men have set themselves a futile course and no good will come of it. There is an urgent need for a spiritual awakening. If it will not come from the pulpit, then let it begin in the pews!

* * *

My words are the words of a man who can fail, but God’s Word of which I speak and write about, can never fail and will remain forever.

Unconscious Unreality

Global language and computer jargon is increasingly influencing this generation leading to ‘virtual reality’; indeed many unsuspecting souls are attracted into this virtual world. It is proving a rapid fact finding source of information, some of it useful and some not so edifying. However, I see no evidence that it benefits our spiritual life; worse still, its deadliest contribution is the unconscious unreality, in which many people are caught up in an engineered environment, where nothing happens randomly. Unknowingly they are being sucked into this e-learning facility which though it boasts a teaching and learning technique, also shapes a networked environment with or without a blending of face-to-face contact, often carrying dire consequences.

Many of us can remember when most communication was done by talking face to face, or writing a letter, sending a postcard and when personal problems were resolved over a cup of tea with a friend. These days many Christians are chasing across the countryside to listen to some charismatic preacher peddling the word of God for profit—though some are genuine—or employing gurus, counsellors and specialists, using mind boggling techniques such as Transactional Analysis, Constancy hypothesis, ego-grams and so on; it is mind boggling! These systems have their place, but in our walk of faith, we do well not lose sight of knowing who we are in Christ; no charismatic preacher or secular counselling practitioner can give us that—it is a gift of God.

Our blueprint for living the Christian life as God has ordained, is found in His Word which is unchanging. Knowing who we are in Christ forms part of our belief system; it is this that will determine the life that follows. Worldly systems of counselling teach us to know ourselves. The teaching of the Holy Spirit is to know God first. This helps us to know who we are in Christ. The bible teaches us that we children of God. This picture of ourselves becomes clearer as we familiarise ourselves with the OT teaching that records the story of Creation, outlining the true relationship we have with God. It is revealed again in the NT showing God’s answer for fallen humanity, by recording the life, death and resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ and how He relates to His people under an entirely new covenant.

Knowing who we are in Christ prepares us to deal with life’s unforeseen circumstances and with those emotional traumas we so often encounter, such as rejection, doubt oppression, loneliness, stress and so on. Whatever our circumstances, we are strengthened by knowing that God is present when the dark clouds descend, as He is in the bright light of our triumphs. Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, not even those mental barriers of rationalism, doubt and ignorance that may have formed in our minds. These will be torn down and through His unfailing mercy God bestows His grace upon those He chooses, so no one may boast. However, I would utter this warning: if we say we have little or no faith in God’s promises we shall falter and may even fall into apostasy.

It is much the same in our human relationships; these are strengthened once we are rightly related to God. Once we get this fundamental relationship right, all else will fall into place. But we cannot do it by ourselves; we need the help of the Holy Spirit and have God’s promise that if we want a spiritual renewal in the church, it comes when the people seek God and when the supremacy of God’s word is established (2 Chronicles 29:15).

We need to ask ourselves from time to time, what is our vision for our lives, our ministry. God has given us a vision. If we lose that vision, we alone are responsible. The way to keep it alive is to constantly recall it, not only in prayer time, but all the time. And though it may tarry, we do well to ‘wait for it’ and live in the inspiration of it, until it comes. Waiting on God is a test of our loyalty to Him. We get so caught up in worldly affairs, so busy in work that it is easy to miss the vision when it comes. God will give us a vision, but it is related to our character, we have to work it out and we best do that by living in the light of it.

We do well, therefore, to keep in mind that God may hide from us what He wants to do for us until we get to the place where He can reveal it. He does not over-ride our will, but He does want to possess our hearts and the discerning believer will allow Him to do so, for when the Spirit of the Son of God moves through the souls of men and women a change takes place; they become new creatures in Christ—daughters and sons of God (1 John 3:2).

Unconscious reality

In the beginning what did God promise to those who maintained the Law? Prosperity, peace, power, health, abundance and a huge off-spring; in addition He assured His people triumph over their enemies. Conversely, the lawbreakers were threatened with wars, hunger, shortages, plagues and the slaughter of their herds. Men, working with God can achieve the former as they enter into His Contract with humanity: I set before you this day a blessing and a curse… choose (Deut 11:26). We either work with God or we place ourselves under the seal of the Beast. It does not take the mind of a Theologian, Psychologist or Sociologist to know the outcome; yet men have chosen to go their own way having ignored God’s warning.

Despite the noble efforts of many genuine, enthusiastic kindly souls in our nation and other countries, there is an unconscious reality pervading our communities. For example, human life is increasingly less valued, there is a growing hatred of things godly and this is reflected in the objections to the Christian faith and though subtle in its infancy, goes to great lengths to silent the voice of the Christian message. This is the result of men placing themselves under the influence of the Beast (the Antichrist) who has corrupted men’s souls. The outcome of this is that our society is facing a spiritual crisis which is affecting the behaviour of its citizens, even to influencing the right to free speech, which is evidenced by more street