Author: Tracy Eldridge

This my witness for my Lord and Savior on the web. I pray that you find these posts useful in your search for Jesus. http://thelivingmessage.com

Is there a lying spirit in church?


What?!! Where does this come from?

In some churches, there are different spirits from the Holy Spirit and many times they are lying spirits. Rather, they are referred to as “spirit of Jezebel“. Controlling spirits, the kind which makes suggestions and which bring up ideas to influence the leaders of the church by manipulation.

They do it very discreetly and subtly, just as the serpent did with Eve and Adam in the garden. In many churches today there are good people who are being influenced by these and their ideas will sound good at first but they are being used by a spirit which is sent from Satan.

God talks about these spirits which are present today and they were present in Israel and in the early church too. Some of these can be in the form of very respected people, pillars of the community and the church, but they are being used through pride or other means to bring separation or trouble in God’s house. So how can we as a church do anything about this? Mostly through prayer, I think.

You don’t want to confront the people directly unless they are a real disruption problem in the church. For some who may be spreading hints here and there about something they don’t like or something which a preacher said, it may be very hard to tell exactly who is causing the problem.

If there is a problem and it can be felt in the church but it is very quiet and subtle, then it will take a lot of prayers and seeking the Holy Spirit’s help in finding the problem and hopefully ending it.SpiritofLies

Read God’s Word and learn from it!


Listen to God’s Word being preached and be transformed by the Holy Spirit, Amen.

GowheretheWordisPreached

Live free from sin!


As free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.
1 Peter 2:16 KJV
https://bible.com/bible/1/1pe.2.16.KJV

Psalm 62


Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from him cometh my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation; he is my defence; I shall not be greatly moved. How long will ye imagine mischief against a man? ye shall be slain all of you: as a bowing wall shall ye be, and as a tottering fence. They only consult to cast him down from his excellency: they delight in lies: they bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly. Selah. My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation: he is my defence; I shall not be moved. In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God. Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah. Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity. Trust not in oppression, and become not vain in robbery: if riches increase, set not your heart upon them. God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God. Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy: for thou renderest to every man according to his work.
Psalms 62:1‭-‬12 KJV
https://bible.com/bible/1/psa.62.1-12.KJV

Friends are better than gold


A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.
Proverbs 18:24 KJV
https://bible.com/bible/1/pro.18.24.KJV

Writing for the Lord


At some point in the past seven or eight years, I have been told to abandon this blogging thing. I was told this by some well-meaning people but I cannot stop doing this because it is as much my job as being a preacher is. God called me to do this and until He stops me, I will continue. Last night, I wrote an article about my early life and it caused me to think about why I do this and who I am doing this for. It is not for myself, it is for anyone who will read and be searching for their Savior specifically. I do this for the same reason that I preach.

God gives each of us a talent or an ability and if we belong to Him, we should use it for His Kingdom and glory. There are many in the world who are using their talents for making money or to push a cause forward that they believe in. My cause is the cause of Jesus and why He came to Bethlehem so long ago. Why am I trying to push this cause out into the world?

Because the world matters to God and each of you who read this matters to God which is why Jesus was sent to die on the cross and rise again! God could look through the ages and see that mankind would need a Savior and the only Person Who could fill that job was One of the Godhead.

Mankind, then and now, is predisposed to sin in some form in this world. We are hard-wired this way because of the sins past down through the lineage of Adam. Whether you believe that we are created in God’s image or not makes little difference. The point is this: our ancestors rebelled against the way that God had set things up. Even though they had everything at first, they were tempted to seek a way that put them in charge rather than God. We have been doing this ever since then.

Why? Because we are stubborn and like little children, we want to do it our way.

God knew this and He saw it coming. Although He could’ve put a stop to it He didn’t. People have been asking why for thousands of years. The only reason that I have been able to grasp from my Bible study is that God has always allowed a choice to His creation. Even the angels had a choice of serving Him. But why did God do this? Because of His love for His creation, that is why.

Taking “choice” away from angels or humanity would make us and the angels more like animals living by instinct than created beings with a soul. God has always wanted fellowship with His creation and that is something that only comes by voluntarily worshipping Him. Make sure of your relationship by seeking Him today because He is waiting for you…patiently.

I don’t know you…


What does this mean? “I don’t know you!” It is a putdown from some today and an eternal sentence from God. There is another way which Jesus put it in His teaching in Luke 13:27. He said this: Jesus answered, 24 “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able. 25 After the master of the house gets up and shuts the door, you will stand outside knocking and saying, ‘Lord, open the door for us.’ But he will reply, ‘I do not know where you are from.’ 26 Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’ 27 And he will answer, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers.’

The Sheep and the Goats

31 When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate the people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will place the sheep on His right and the goats on His left.

34 Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in, 36 I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you looked after Me, I was in prison and you visited Me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You something to drink? 38 When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? 39 When did we see You sick or in prison and visit You?’

40 And the King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.’ 41 Then He will say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave Me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, I was naked and you did not clothe Me, I was sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’ 44 And they too will reply, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ 45 Then the King will answer, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me.’ 46 And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

God can use you if you will obey Him. Not acting like a Christian or going through the motions to appear to be a Christian. The disciples walked with Jesus and they still had trouble believing Him until He rose from the dead. When He came into their midst after they had seen HIm flogged and whipped and crucified and then buried…then their faith exploded! From the day of Pentecost onward the church was persecuted mercilessly but their numbers still grew!

Why? Because they knew that the disciples wouldn’t believe in a lie. They would not preach a lie and you couldn’t be healed by a lie. That is what the church today needs to see in faith and then walk in that faith!

Be a humble servant


Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
Philippians 2:3‭-‬4 KJV
https://bible.com/bible/1/php.2.3-4.KJV

My early life…


Life, for me, was not easy. Especially when I was young. I had known that my family was broken and the school did not help. None of my classmates except for maybe one or two had a stepdad or mom. So nobody could identify with my family life. Most of them didn’t want to know me or who I was, regardless of my family situation. Because I didn’t live in town.

I lived in the country with my grandparents. I had to ride a school bus to get to school. I know, all of these reasons don’t sound like a real reason to look down on someone but I could feel it. Even though I don’t remember anyone saying anything to me, it was the tone of their voices or the way they looked at my clothes or my shoes. Did all of this affect me?

YES!

Not just this but also the custody and child support hearings which my parents were going through at the time added to the anxiety and the feeling of being less than what others expected. I was never told this, of course, but looking back on it from the point of being fifty years older I can recognize the feelings which were there. Even if I didn’t know what they were at the time. I mean, how can you know about these things when you are six or seven years old?

Now I can look back at the self-destructive behavior which I began even before I was a teenager and I can see that this was caused by my situation and not by myself.

Do I blame my outcome on my classmates? NO! In many ways, being in school with them very likely helped because most of them came from Christian homes. I did as well, but I was angry. Angry at God and my own Dad and my mother…truly I was angry at everything around me in some form or another. As I got older, I turned that anger inward and began smoking and drinking. I had a few wrecks before I graduated from high school because I was so drunk at the time I can barely remember them. Even on my senior trip, I had gotten so drunk the night before until I have no idea how I made it home. The next morning I still had enough alcohol in my system that even drinking coffee before going to school made me drunk again.

I would say that I was on a self-destructive path, which is why I am writing this because I never believed I would live long enough to be in my late fifties. I pray that someone reading this who may be in a similar situation might turn away from their self-hate and seek the only One Who can help you.

Have I had other problems with alcohol? Yes, but not quite to the extent that I did during high school. I have gone out and drank alcohol but I have not gotten drunk enough to not remember how I got somewhere or with whom I was at the time. I also never drank beer to the point of being or getting drunk. When I drank, I drank whiskey or bourbon. I intended to get drunk.

Why do I write this now? Because things have changed. I am no longer angry and I am not trying to kill myself with whiskey. I am writing this to show that even though I am a pastor now, I wasn’t always someone that could get up and preach or tell others that living for Jesus and with Him in your heart is the way to live. Yes, I do buy whiskey occasionally but it isn’t for the reasons which I did over forty years ago.

If I buy any today it is for relaxing before bed or for making some home-made cold medicine, nothing more. I don’t get drunk and I don’t drink unless I am NOT driving. I am not claiming to be perfect or anything other than a recovered drunk. For a while, I had worried that I was an alcoholic but I think that most of my problems with alcohol were my own and not a disease.

God has been good to me these past ten years or so. His blessings and His grace have carried me through some hard times with finances and sickness but I know that He is in control and at some point soon, He will come for His church and hopefully take me home with Him. I urge you to seek Him out and give your heart to Him too because there will soon be a time which will test the whole world and it will happen after the church, the body of believers, are taken to Heaven. Make sure that you are part of that number who have gone with Him.

There is only One God.


For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.
1 Timothy 2:5‭-‬6 KJV
https://bible.com/bible/1/1ti.2.5-6.KJV