These are the comfort food junkies. Their slogans are peace and tolerance at all costs... You scratch my back I'll scratch yours... I'm O.K. your O.K. And there are more than enough religious places all too willing to supply what they crave. The Christian world gladly embraces that God is Love, that Jesus paid it all... but are far more selective when it comes to which commandments to actually keep. The focus isn't on Jesus at all, it is on finding ways to get what we want from God. Talk about delusions!

"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables"2 Timothy 4:3-4.

Today we see evidenced every belief system man has ever dreamed up. There is an unacknowledged war going on... it is a spiritual war... for the souls of men. Demons disguised as angels of light are spreading adulterations of the Gospel across the globe... and the masses are accepting these messages as being from God. Perversion's of Christ's Gospel are commonplace. There are even entire religious belief systems constructed upon revelations men have received from familiar spirits passing themselves off as angelic messengers (Mormonism, Christian Science, Scientology, Islam, etc.). "How can this possibly be" you many ask? We see in Hosea 4:6

"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children." Holiness is an unknown in today's religious systems. We have an excess abundance of the teachings of men... but little revelation of the Word of God in Power. Jesus said in Luke 6:45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.

It is unfortunate that today's pre-eminent leaders boast more of their own achievements and accolades than they life up the name of Jesus. The late Kathryn Kuhlman was one of God's anointed servants to this generation. She never opened a meeting without first giving all glory and honor to Jesus, without expounding on how wonderful the Son of God IS. When asked to what she attributed the healing ministry the Lord had given her, she simply replied, "One day I went down a road and died." Not a very satisfactory answer to those who desired to emulate a similar ministry, but fully exemplifying what is required to be a servant of the Most High.

What signs might accompany a servant of the Most High? We see in Mark 3:11 And unclean spirits, when they saw him, fell down before him, and cried, saying, Thou art the Son of God. This is the kind of response that Jesus himself evoked. As well as Matthew 8:29 And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?

All the demon hordes of hell know that there is one true God over all creation. They also know that there is a time of judgment coming. Equally, the sons of God know this to be true - and live their lives accordingly. Jesus paid the way and set the example for us to follow in His footsteps.

Act 16:16-18 And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying: The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which show unto us the way of salvation. And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour.

Paul had a revelation of Jesus Christ. He knew in the very depths of his being what a privilege and an honor it was to be a servant of Christ. He did not need or appreciate having the fact that he was a servant of God validated by a familiar spirit. Paul's letter to the Churches make up most of the New Testament. He suffered in his physical body for the stand he took for Christ. He was imprisoned, tortured, homeless, harassed and ridiculed by men, yet he said in Philippians 3:8-12 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.

We have a problem today. Our problem is that unlike Paul, we have not had a revelation of Jesus Christ. We have been presented with two socially acceptable images of Jesus; as a babe in a manger and hanging on the cross of Calvary. Neither of these two images is complete in themselves. But they are very adaptable for use by religious people whose goal is compartmentalize and organize their spirituality. Do we wonder why we don't see the power of God in our lives? We may be in perfect compliance with the dogma's and requirements of our denomination. We may be highly respected and well thought of by our peer's. But we are not impacting the world. We are not seeing God's power manifested in our lives. Why?

Maybe it's because we need to get hungry for God... we need to get passionate about God. Religion is the breeding ground for self-righteousness. We receive the acclaim of men, without ever seeking the approval of God. Good works will never make us righteous before God. The world today, including a majority of the Church, have been taken in by humanistic ideals. Many would be greatly offended to receive anything but admiration for all of their humanitarian efforts. Charitable acts may soothe our consciences, but will not put us in right standing with God. Only as we are clothed with Christ's righteousness, by faith, can we dare to enter God's presence.

We must seek for Him as for hidden treasure. This treasure is truly hidden amidst the religious theologies of man. The way to find it is to keep our eyes steadfastly fixed upon Christ Jesus... and off of "self." To do just the opposite of all that "self-preservation" demands. For us to know the power of His Resurrection, we must be willing to share in the fellowship of His sufferings.

2 Timothy 3:12 Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. We must actually desire that we may be made conformable to His death. The Amplified reads in Philippians 3:10-11 [For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death, [in the hope] that if possible I may attain to the [spiritual and moral] resurrection [that lifts me] out from among the dead [even while in the body].

This is what we are called to. Will we continue to be satisfied with less? The choice is ours. The status-quo calls looking for God beyond the accepted limits of man's religious boundaries being radical. You could certainly be in danger of excommunication and exclusion from some of the leading groups and societies. We will have to be radical to walk with God. To stand on His Word to us, His servants, regardless of whether others accept what He says or not. Our faith will be tested. We must decide who we will listen to and obey.

Joshua 24:15 And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

This is just as applicable to us today as it was then. If you are dwelling in the midst of unbelievers, surrounded by the beliefs of Islam, Catholicism, Mormonism, New Age, etc., you too must choose whom you will serve. Your Pastor may come against you. Your family may turn their backs on you... you may become a social outcast. Can you bear that? If you are willing to pay the price and make your stand for God and His truth as He reveals it to you, you will find yourself in some very good company. The company of such people as Peter, Paul, Jeremiah, Elijah, Stephen, Isaiah, and the countless number of saints who paid the price and fought the good fight. They did their part, now it's our turn to do ours. Even now we are seeing a growing movement toward the mergence of different religions, uniting in a common goal of achieving peace and unity... claiming that they are 'all just different paths to God.' To the natural man, this has the appearance of being a 'good thing.' But God is not the author of this. Jesus said in Matthew 7:14 But the gate is narrow (contracted by pressure) and the way is straitened and compressed that leads away to life, and few are those who find it.

Man may well succeed in merging the world's religions into a world Church... But God won't be in it. Matthew 7:13 Enter through the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and spacious and broad is the way that leads away to destruction, and many are those who are entering through it.

To go with the crowd is to take the easy way. How does one walk on the broad way to destruction? We do so when we follow after logic and carnal reasoning instead of the voice of the Holy Spirit. We are stepping on dangerous ground, when acceptance by others requires that we compromise the Gospel of Christ. When we put pre-eminence on finding some sort of peace among men, rather than making sure that we are in right standing with God... we are voluntarily surrendering without even putting up a fight. The prison houses we will find ourselves in will be prisons of our own choosing. These prisons will be filled with the comfort food junkies... those not willing to pay the price for Sonship... opting instead to believe that there was another way... and listening to the voices of strangers.

Jesus never compromised. He completed the mission the Father sent Him here to do. Why would we think that we can make concessions to the enemy of our souls; that we can adulterate and make of no effect the blood Christ shed for us, and still somehow escape judgment??? Because it is a lie from the pits of hell... a product of our carnal nature.

When we look at the warnings in God's Word of what to look out for in the Last Days, we find an appropriate description of the world we live in today. By way of example look at this passage written by the Apostle Paul to Timothy...