What Happens After Death?

What Happens After Death?

Life is precious to us. We don't want to die. But what really happens to us after death?

Scientists, philosophers and even theologians don't agree. Where can we go for answers? Shouldn't we seek them from the Creator of life?

A drunken driver loses control of his car and careens headfirst into a van, killing a family. A mother dies of breast cancer, leaving confused children and a grieving husband. An infant boy succumbs to a fatal birth defect. A gentle, elderly lady dies quietly in her sleep. A desperate, depressed teenager commits suicide.

Maybe death would be different if it were predictable or consistent. But death can be so capricious. It hardly seems fair.

To us life is precious. But death is everywhere! We don't want to die. We don't want to see our loved ones die.

Self-preservation is a powerful instinct. We design special diets and exercise programs to keep us young and fit. Through medical science we seek to isolate the gene that causes aging, hoping somehow to eliminate death. A few have even arranged for their bodies to be preserved cryogenically in the hope that they can be brought back to life when the cure for what killed them is finally discovered.

Yet for all our efforts, hopes and wishes, death is the one thing in life that remains certain. Whether through old age, illness, accident or violence, whether we are rich, poor, male or female, no matter if we're good or bad, all of us—regardless of race or creed—eventually face death.

Scientists cannot tell us what happens after death. Too many aspects of life itself are intangible—too elusive to measure and record. Philosophers disagree on death and the afterlife.

Religions also disagree. Traditional Christian denominations generally teach that the souls of the dead live on in a place or condition of heaven or hell. Many non-Christians believe in the transmigration or reincarnation of souls at death. Still others believe the dead will never live again—that this life is all there is.

What really happens at death? Why do we even have to die? Can we actually know whether there is life beyond the grave? Where can we go for meaningful, believable answers?

Only the Creator of life can reveal its purpose and the state of the dead. By looking into the Word of God for answers to our questions, we can learn a great deal about both life and death.

Let's now take a look at what God, our Creator, says about life and death in His inspired Word, the Bible. You may be both surprised and challenged as you discover the truth about what happens after death.

To be cont'd. 

God bless you all. 

Are Demons Real Or Fictional? (6)

Well, we've been looking at Satan and demons as they are revealed in the Scripture. We see that they play on an aspect of our humanity. We were made in the image of God and we have capabilities of interacting with God on a spiritual level as our Creator. And what Satan and the demons do is they actually try to deceive us. They try to pull us away from that and get us involved in all these other things to try to damage our relationship with God. So it may be silly on one level, but on another level its a natural deception to try to create a bridge between us and God.

 We are created in God's image. There is a spiritual component to mankind that does give us this desire to connect with God, and also to understand and want to understand what this life is about, what perhaps is beyond this life. And there's this continual searching for it. Demons know that. And they will attempt to capture our imagination by dabbling with us - if we give them that opportunity.

In fact, in a war, its not always obvious, blatant attacks. Sometimes you come around the back door and seem nice, and seem good, and seem friendly. Ever think about what was the story that Satan told those angels that became demons? It probably wasn't a frontal attack. Probably deceit and subtlety probably had a part to play in some of those same types of things.

 The apostle Paul says that Satan can appear as an angel of light. So, Satan is going to try to deceive us in all different kinds of levels, including in our own Christianity and how we respond to God. So we have to be very, very careful here. He knows sometimes he cant hit us head on, but the demons are going to try to get to us or Satan is going to try to influence us. He is called the prince of the power of the air. He is the present god of this world, and so his fingerprints are on everything.

The best relationship is one with the one true God and Jesus Christ whom He sent. And that far outweighs any interest that we might have and anything we might gain from dabbling with this. And that certainly removes any of the fear you might have as we might be under attack. We dont have to worry with that kind of protection on our side. 

Demons are real, so don't be taken in by the deception. Halloween is not a godly holiday. Its rooted in falsehoods. It promotes evil. It minimizes wickedness and its plain unchristian. Its dedicated to the spirits who oppose God.

The truth is that we are in a spiritual battle. Your Bible says, "What partnership can righteousness have with wickedness?" "Can light associate with darkness?" (2 Corinthians:6:14) Well the answer is, it cant! So make the choice not to associate with anything that even hints of darkness, evil or demonism.

Jesus battled the powers of the rulers of darkness and he won! And we can, too! He died that we may live a life free from the spiritual hosts of wickedness. Lets never take that for granted.

God bless you all.

Are Demons Real Or Fictional? (5)

I believe that a lack of connection with God can reinforce a lot of evil forces out there and I think that without a daily spiritual connection with positive, then the evil can come in.

 We absolutely need a strong connection with God. Let's never forget that we are in a spiritual battle. And both sides have weapons. Don't be taken in by the deception. "The night is nearly over, the day is almost here. Let us stop doing the things that belong to the dark, and let us take up weapons for fighting in the light" (Romans:13:12, GNT).

It's time to recognize the influence that invades our world. It's time that we say as Christians, we wont stand for any of it in our lives. It's time that we dedicate ourselves to live by Ephesians:5:11 and "Have nothing to do with the useless works that darkness produces. Instead, expose them for what they are" (GW).

Let's come away from the evil influence around us. Let's not be taken in by Halloween or other man-made holidays. Instead, lets dedicate ourselves to be serious about following God and putting our lives fully into His hands.

Now there is so much more to talk about on the deception of demons and what you should do about it. A lot of people would wonder, what difference does it make? Is it really that big a deal if I celebrate Halloween?

Biblically, we know that there are no ghosts, what we are talking about are demons. And demons are fallen angels that have turned against God, have become the exact opposite of what God is. God is good, they're evil. God is love, they're hate. So now we have a holiday that celebrates evil, witchcraft, demonic images. So why would a Christian even want to be involved in that? Thats the real question. Why would a Christian want to be involved in something that is against God?

 It matters, because God says in His Word not to have any connection with the works of darkness. But rather to… Not even a little, don't even give them a foothold but to expose them. Which is what you've done by just reading this today. You have exposed the works of darkness which is what Paul says in Ephesians:5:11 we should do.

And, why would we want then to give them a foothold in our life? Even on one night a year, in any part of our property, our person, to expose ourselves to works of darkness? I think it's one of the biggest travesties when a Christian group reports to calling themselves that, but then entertains this as part of any outreach or entertainment within their fellowship.

Now, it is a challenge to kind of put these pieces together, in the sense that, we know they're powerful, the bible talks about how it is a battle and yet, why would a demon waste its time appearing as a ghost, or maybe seeming friendly, or a dead relative? Why would it bother doing something like that?

To be cont'd. 

God bless you all. 

Are Demons Real Or Fictional? (4)

So it's evident that  ghosts are not disembodied human spirits. As Christians, we know that no man has ever returned from the dead, except for Jesus Christ and those He raised back to physical life as a special miracle.

In fact Gods Word makes it clear: there are spirit beings, both good and evil. But the spirits of deceased human beings cannot remain on earth and haunt the living.

Ecclesiastes:9:10 tells us, "Whatever work you do, do your best, because you are going to the grave…" Now, whats the grave like? It says "…where there is no working, no planning, no knowledge, and no wisdom." At death, there is no in-between. God's Word says that there is no possibility of deceased human beings remaining on earth in spirit as a ghost. Thats just not biblical.

Now God does tell us that there are spirit beings that connect with us and appear in our physical world. And examples are angels, and of course demons.

Angels on one hand are faithful spirit beings. They serve God. They help mankind. They are righteous, and they're good, and they're holy. But on the other hand, demons are corrupt angels, angels who defied God. Were told that they're "good," but they're good at pretending. The'yre good at impersonating. They're good at tricking people. "Even Satan can disguise himself to look like an angel of light! So its no great thing if his servants disguise themselves to look like the servants of righteousness. In the end, they will get exactly what their actions deserve" (2 Corinthians:11:14-15
, GNT).

So demons masquerade as angels of light and as servants of righteousness. At times, they pretend to be ghosts and at times they may impersonate a deceased human - even seeming at times to be friendly. But they are never friendly. They're always wicked, even if they "appear" to be kind. Because remember, their purpose is to undermine your faith - to deceive, to confuse you, to mislead you so that you might even question your faith in God and believe a lie.

So do you think theres any kind of evil that could be behind some of that stuff?

> It's always some kind of lurking around the corners, something in the shadows, somethings evil every day. You know - even politics is evil.

Demons are not just symbolic and they're not just bad "forces" - they are real. I am surprised by some Christians who don't think demons are real at all. Thats contrary to the reaching of our Savior Jesus Christ and God's Word. We know, Jesus spoke to them in the New Testament. He knows they exist. He cast them out. In fact the Bible tells us, He overcame the attacks of Satan and his demons.

We are told that as God's people - as Christians, we are in a war. It is a battle and in fact, its not just any old war. "For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places" (Ephesians:6:12, NLT).

When you look at the evil and the difficulties that we have in our world today, do you think there's any connection to that with evil spirits and demonic forces?

To be cont'd. 

God bless you all. 

Are Demons Real Or Fictional? (2)

What do you believe? Are houses haunted by ghosts? Are they the spirits of the dead?

The plain truth is: No! If you believe the Bible, it says that the dead know nothing (Ecclesiastes:9:5). They do not live on as ghosts or phantoms. In fact, we'll discuss more about this in just a moment. But it points to a major problem: Its an undeniable fact that most Christians take their values and their beliefs from other people - from someplace else and not the Bible. How about you?

There are powers that want you to believe that false, annual celebrations, misidentified as Christian, are perfectly fine to observe. Moreover, they want to convince you that theres nothing harmful about Halloween. In fact, that demons are simply myths. But what about their influence? If you look around, you can certainly see that sinful influence is everywhere in our chaotic world.

People are swayed to follow fraudulent, destructive ways. Therefore, try to discover how you can stand up against demonic deception through the very power of God.The fact is, you shouldnt believe in ghosts! They are not spirits of dead people. If you're a Christian, you should know - it just isn't true.

Your Bible says if you think ghosts are spirits of dead, youre mistaken. Why? All ghosts, without exception, are actually demons. Theyre spirit all right, but not what many think. Theyre not earthbound human spirits, they're not haunting spirits of the dead. Your Bible says they are demonic spirits.

So what are evil spirits? What exactly are demons? 

Well Scripture says they're wicked angels whose only task is to deceive and to harm. Demons are evil spirits that are opposed to God. They're opposed to God's people. In fact, theyre opposed to you. They're sinful. They're rebellious. They're fallen angels.

In fact, we learn a lot about angels in bits and pieces from various Bible passages. And those passages tell us that God created angels with free will - they had the freedom to choose between righteousness or evil. Lucifer, who became Satan - chose rebellion. Yes, the devil does really exist and he also convinced a whole host of other angels, to turn against God.

In the book of Revelation a dragon symbolizes Satan. And it tells us the story of Satan's initial rebellion. Revelation:12:4 says, "His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven."

Were told that those stars are symbolic of angels (Revelation:1:20). So imagine it! Satans evil influence caused one-third of the entire angelic creation to follow him in wickedness.

Now those defiant angels - those spirits who rebelled are called sinful angels. "For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned…" Thats what 2 Peter:2:4 says (NABRE).

The Bible also refers to them as demons or evil spirits. And they've combined their forces to continuously and relentlessly oppose God and try to undermine Gods purpose for humanity. And so, now they're bound to this earth and they devote themselves to their goal of deceit, disorder and destruction in the lives of all people.

To be cont'd. 

God bless you all.

Are Demons Real Or Fictional?

Are they genuine or fictional? Is there is a spirit power behind evil in our world? Are we in a fight with spiritual wickedness?

Are demons real? Did ancient peoples dream them up? Are they genuine or just imaginary? Much of the world today has a celebration that seems to be dedicated to the demonic world. Its Halloween. Is that a problem for Christians? What could be wrong with Halloween?

 Theres a lot of joyfulness in costuming - and then, as a little kid, separating candy by size and color, paper-wrapped and not, you know. Yeah, adults love it.

 Its cool because we never celebrate this kind of festival in China. And yeah, during the Halloween, I actually have sent candies to little children, and I think they are like pretty cool because they like dress up, and get makeup, and yeah.

One guy, being a butcher, he'd decorate his house with animal carcasses. Well, a couple times. Usually instead of a jack-o-lantern, he'd have a pig's head on the front porch, oibvious mixed views on that. Probably scare the pants off the little kids, huh?

>> "Halloweens great. I mean, its fun, I don't see anything evil or wrong about it", some do say.

Lets think about that for a moment. Is there anything wrong about it? And what does that have to do with whether or not demons are real?

Well you may know that Halloween came to us through the Roman Catholic Church. They assigned each day of the year to honor one of their saints. When it reached the point that they had more saints than days, they combined them all together on November 1st and called it "All Saints Day" or "All Hallows Day."

The night before became "All Hallows Eve" or "Hallow Even" - holy evening - which contracted to the name Halloween. Now theres not too much scary about that, right? But lets look at a few of the details.

Why did they choose November 1st? Because it was the same date as the Celtic and Druid festival of the dead called "Samhain." The church tried to redirect those new converts to their Christian holiday by having it on the same day - but, the problem was they brought all their heathen practices right into the church. Check out your history books. I think its fair to say, they Christianized evil.

Heres why: Do you know what the ancient pagan Celtics did on that day? They actually had their own version of trick or treating. They visited supposed haunted houses. They built huge bonfires to ward off evil spirits. Thats because they believed the physical and the spirit world intermingled that night like no other time of the year. They actually thought the dead came back to visit the living, so witches, and goblins, and ghosts would appear. So a pagan celebration was repackaged and relabeled as Christian - ultimately becoming Halloween.

Now you may be thinking, okay, so what? What difference does it make if Halloween is based on a godless heathen celebration? After all, demons and devils, aren't they just a figment of imagination? You may celebrate just the fun, the family aspects. But really, can that be done?

It seems like our world is kind of obsessed with, not just Halloween, but the whole spirit thing. Youve got these programs with the Ghost Hunters, and the Paranormal Witness nd walking with the zombies…

Should you be scared? Or is Halloweens connections to an unchristian past a problem?

Well we still have to deal with the question: 

Are demons real? And in a moment, we'll do just that and discuss what God thinks about it. But what do you think?

A recent survey found that 45% of Americans believe in ghosts, or that the spirits of the dead people can come back.

And Americans arent alone. 50%  of Australians believe in ghosts and spirits.

About 20% of Australians not only believe in them, but say they've had a brush with a ghost or a spiritual entity. About the same number of American adults, almost 1 in 5, say they've seen a ghost or been in the presence of a ghost. Almost 30% say they have felt in touch with someone who's already died.

Have you ever had an experience like that, where you felt there was something strange or different or some type of interaction with a ghost?

To be cont'd 

God bless you all.

Change The Rules Like David Did

A continuation of how David changed the rules in order to defeat Goliath:

The devil and his cohorts must be forced to acknowledge the full weight of the Scripture which says: “Touch not my anointed and do my prophets no harm” – Ps 105:15

 Like David, we are about to change the rules of the game.

Instead of allowing yourself to be beaten black and blue by the devil … in the ignorant belief that it is God’s will for you to suffer at the hands of wicked enemies…

We are about to turn the tables … against affliction … against marital distress … against witchcraft-sponsored poverty … infirmity… the dragon of debt, among others.

If the enemy insists on touching YOU or your marriage… or children… or finances … or your health or that of a loved one, then you have to come to the understanding that God's will for his children is to be victorious over every strategy of the old dragon, satan.  With that in mind, you must live a clean and sanctified life,  obey the words of the Lord and learn to pray in the Holy Spirit. That's where battles are won.

… boldly declare our stand in Christ, and decree total mayhem on the merchants of darkness in the days ahead. 

Pray : Oh Lord,  help me to fight the good fight of faith and let the power of your spirit empower me to be strong in you and in the power of your might in Jesus Christ's name amen.

Thank you Lord for answering my prayer.

God bless you all. 

Change The Rules To Be The Winner

David triumphed over Goliath Because He Decided To Change The Rules.

Let's Look at this scenario carefully:

“And it happened as the Philistine arose and was drawing near David that David hastened and ran out from the lines toward the Philistine,” the Bible says.

“And he reached his hand into the pouch and took from there a stone and slung it and struck the Philistine in his forehead.”

The second sentence – the slingshot part – is what made David famous. But the first sentence matters just as much.

David broke the rule here.

Now, let’s remember who made that rule: Goliath.

And let’s remember why Goliath made that rule:

When the world has to play on Goliath’s terms, Goliath wins.

So everyday he would come out and state his terms:

“Choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me.
If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will become your servants;

But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall become our servants
and serve us.”

Again the Philistine said, “I defy the ranks of Israel this day; give me a man
that we may fight together.” – 1 Sam 17:8-10

Then David appeared and changed the rules of the game.

He didn’t know that duels with Philistines were supposed to proceed formally, with the crossing of swords.

All he knew was:

“When the lion or the bear would come and carry off a sheep from the herd, I would go out after him and strike him down and rescue it from his clutches.”

He brought a shepherd’s rules to the battlefield. By so doing he broke the existing rule of combat.

He changed the rhythm of the encounter. He speeded it up.

The sudden astonishment when David sprinted forward must have frozen Goliath… stopped him cold in his tracks… making him a better target.

Lets not forget David was a shepherd.

He came at Goliath with a slingshot and a staff because those were the tools of his trade.

Friend, do you know the tools of your trade … as a believer?

Fasting-Prayer is just one of the tools.

Pray : Oh Lord, in the name of Jesus,  equip me to overcome every enemy in my life so that i will be victorious in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, amen.

God. Bless you.