Tag Archives: angels

Decline in spiritual beliefs: In the time closest to the Lord’s Return how will he find his bride?

Blue Cloudy Sky

Revelation 2:5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

Important Takeaways:

  • Belief in Five Spiritual Entities Edges Down to New Lows
  • The percentages of Americans who believe in each of five religious entities — God, angels, heaven, hell and the devil — have edged downward by three to five percentage points since 2016. Still, majorities believe in each, ranging from a high of 74% believing in God to lows of 59% for hell and 58% for the devil. About two-thirds each believe in angels (69%) and heaven (67%).
  • Gallup has documented sharp declines in church attendance, confidence in organized religion and religious identification in recent years. Americans’ beliefs regarding God, angels, heaven, hell and the devil have also fallen by double digits since 2001. Still, U.S. adults’ belief in each entity remains at the majority level, and regular churchgoers, Protestants and Republicans, in particular, remain largely resolute in their beliefs.

Read the original article by clicking here.

Pope blames devil for Church divisions, scandals, seeks angel’s help

FILE PHOTO: Pope Francis talks as he meets youth and the Synod Fathers at the Pope Paul VI hall in Vatican, October 6, 2018. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – The devil is alive and well and working overtime to undermine the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis says.

In fact, the pope is so convinced that Satan is to blame for the sexual abuse crisis and deep divisions racking the Church that he has asked Catholics around the world to recite a special prayer every day in October to try to beat him back.

“(The Church must be) saved from the attacks of the malign one, the great accuser and at the same time be made ever more aware of its guilt, its mistakes, and abuses committed in the present and the past,” Francis said in a message on Sept. 29.

Since he was elected in 2013, Francis has made clear that he believes the devil to be real. In a document in April on holiness in the modern world, Francis mentioned the devil more than a dozen times.

“We should not think of the devil as a myth, a representation, a symbol, a figure of speech or an idea. This mistake would lead us to let down our guard, to grow careless and end up more vulnerable,” he wrote in the document.

The Church has recently been hit by one sexual abuse scandal after another, from Germany, to the United States, to Chile. At the same time, a deepening polarization between conservatives and liberals in the Church has played out on social media.

Francis’ use of the term “the great accuser” to describe Satan hit a raw nerve with one of the pope’s harshest conservative critics, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the Vatican’s former ambassador to Washington.

 

CHURCH DIVISIONS

In an 11-page statement published on Aug. 26, Viganò launched an unprecedented broadside by a Church insider against the pope and a long list of Vatican and U.S. Church officials.

He accused Francis of knowing about sexual misconduct by a former U.S. cardinal with male adult seminarians but not doing anything about it.

Viganò, concluding that his former boss had singled him out as the devil in disguise, complained in his next statement that Francis “compared me to the great accuser, Satan, who sows scandal and division in the Church, though without ever uttering my name”.

On Sunday, a top Vatican official issued a scathing open letter accusing Viganò of mounting a “political frame job devoid of real foundation” and contesting his accusations against the pope point by point.

Francis is so convinced that Satan is ultimately to blame for both the sexual abuse scandals and the divisions within the Church that he has enlisted the aid of spiritual big gun – St. Michael the Archangel. Michael is mentioned several times in the Bible as the leader of the angels who ousted Lucifer, the fallen angel, from paradise.

Catholics are being asked to recite the rosary daily in October and conclude it with a prayer to St. Michael that was said after Mass until 1964 but then fell into disuse.

The prayer reads:

“St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, O Prince of heavenly hosts, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan, and all evil spirits, who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.”

(Reporting By Philip Pullella; Editing by Gareth Jones)

Angelic Visitations

Our friend, Rick Joyner, was with us recently and we had a wonderful time recalling the supernatural visitations of the Lord’s angels that we have all experienced.  Angelic visitations are biblical and should not be considered unusual.  In fact, angelic visitations should be commonplace among those who belong to the Lord.

Angels are messengers and ministering spirits. 

LUKE 22:42-43
42 …”Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.”
43 Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him.

There are protective angels as well that will keep God’s people from harm. 

PSALM 91:1-6,11-12
1 He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in Him I will trust.”
3 Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence.
4 He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge; his truth shall be your shield and buckler.
5 You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day,
6 Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.
11 For He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways.
12 In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.

 Often an angel will appear in a dream with an instruction or communication of some sort. 

I remember when we were visiting Moravian Falls, N.C., where Rick’s main church is located and I had a vivid visitation from an angel of the Lord.  When I awoke, I was so excited and I wanted to tell Jim all about it but he said, “no, I’ll tell you about it.  You were talking all night long in your sleep!”

In this particular visitation, the angel showed me a group of young people with their hands raised in worship and sometimes performing human videos in worship… and it was in the most beautiful place.  It was only later, when the framing for the tabernacle was going up, that I realized that THIS is the place I was shown in my dream.  The angel was telling me that many young people will worship God in that tabernacle and it will be pleasing to Him.

In the last days, the Lord promised to pour out His spirit on all flesh – the young and the old, male and female.  Part of that spiritual outpouring will be to have our spiritual eyes opened to see supernatural beings.  Rick said we’re going to need that supernatural guidance from the Lord’s angels in Times that are coming.  In fact, our very lives may depend on it!

I believe that, and I pray that God will send His angels to guide and encourage His people in the Last Days.

The Lord recently spoke these three things to me: 

(1) Be prepared for the storms, natural and supernatural

(2) Weather the storms

(3) Clean up after the storms

I know in my heart that we will need help from angelic forces to be able to withstand the storms that are coming.  I want my heart and spirit prepared to receive from the Lord’s messengers.