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Do you pray or talk to the dead, or to dead saints? Do you ask them to help you without crying out to God and being in an intimate relationship with Him and depending upon Him alone to meet all your needs? Do you reach out to people more than God Himself? God is to be ALL things to us, in a healthy relationship based on His love and His enabling and our seeking His will out of obedience and love for Him. A mediator is someone who stands in the middle of two people and makes peace between them. Jesus Christ is the only mediator between God and man. An intercessor is someone who speaks for us when we cannot or are not speaking for ourselves. The Holy Spirit is the Major Intercessor for a child of God. A priest is someone who atones for your sins. Jesus Christ is the atonement and the only priest Who stands forever. The Lord says, I will put My laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people. A child of God can hear God directly. A saint is anyone who is born again and saved by the blood of Jesus Christ's atoning death on the cross. If you call out to saints and lean on other people more than going to God Himself, then you are putting someone in front, or before God. How much do you trust God's Word for you? And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. Phil 4:19 "Seek the LORD while He may be found; call on Him while He is near." Isaiah 55:6 A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. (That's Jesus Christ!) Proverbs 18:24 "Not by might, Not by power, but by My Spirit", says the Lord Almighty. Zechariah 4:6 The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace. Deut 6:24-26 Do you pray to saints because you think God does not value enough to take care of you on His own, but that He has to listen to someone else on your behalf? God's Word says that He is more than capable and worthy of your complete trust! - What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave Him up for us all--how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died – more than that, who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Rom 8:31-39 A mediator, however, does not represent just one party; but God is one. Gal3:20 For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises. For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance–now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant. to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. 1Tim 2:5; Heb 8:6; 9:15; 12:24 If you are filled with the Holy Spirit, then you have God, the only intercessor there is!! In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will. Rom 8:26,27 Jesus also intercedes for you! A child of God can hear God directly. So, as the Holy Spirit says: "Today, if you hear His Voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, Heb 3:7,8; Psalm 95:7-11 Jesus gave them this answer: "I tell you the truth, whoever hears My Word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. John 5:19,24 The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice." Jesus used this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them. Therefore Jesus said again, "I tell you the truth, I am the Gate for the sheep. All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through Me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. "I am the Good Shepherd.
The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the
shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the
sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man
runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. A saint is anyone who is born again and saved by the blood of Jesus Christ's atoning death on the cross. Saints are living people who know, love and serve the Living God Almighty. In both the Old Testament and the New Testament saints are spoken of as living people alive on the earth who are God's people. God's Word says to always pray for the saints, and never mentions praying to them. To know if someone is a saint, or saved by Christ's atoning blood, you can see the person bearing spiritual fruit on this earth. However, if they are dead before it can be determined if they are a saint, then that way of measuring them is not according to God's Word. God declares that by their fruits you will know them. Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. Matt 3:8; Lk 3:8 "Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. Matt 12:33 And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, Col 1:10 "Watch out for false prophets. By their fruit you will recognize them. every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them. Matt 7:15-23 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. 16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit--fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. John 15:1-16 As for the saints who are in the land, they are the glorious ones in whom is all My delight. Ps 16:3 We have no need for an earthly priest - We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek. Heb 6:19,20 It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died – more than that, who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Rom 8:33-39 the Son of God He remains a priest forever. "The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: 'You are a priest forever.' " Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant. Now because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. Such a high priest meets our need--one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. . He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. For the law appoints as high priests men who are weak; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever. Heb 7:3, 22-28 Jesus said, "And do not call anyone on earth 'father,' for you have one Father, and He is in heaven." Matt 23:9 The point of what we are saying is this: We do have a high Priest, One Who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, and Who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man. But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which He is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises. Heb 8:6; 9:15; 12:24 I will put My laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people. "The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant. This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put My laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." By calling this covenant "new," he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear. Heb 8:1-13; Jer 31:31-34 "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD . "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. Jer 31:33 "Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; Matt 10:37 Matt 10:37 Bring me to Many Gods or False Teachings or Your Religion? or Righteousness or Friendship with God. |
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