Dear Mike,

The information on the website is unmistakenly revealing and inspired by God. He led you into a wonderful work and may all who are meant to receive from it be led to your site. Question: I quit smoking and started again. I don’t like to smoke. But I do it still. Is God causing me to do it? How do I quit? Will He cause me to quit? I still don’t quite understand some things in regard to God’s causing everything. Will God cause me to overcome? I want to have victory of the things in the flesh. If God wills that we do certain things and not do other things, does He cause us to be able to do or not do what He wants?

One other question: Do you have some insight as to the coming of the Lord? Is it imminent? The bible says only the Father knows. Does prophecy reveal anything? I used to believe what is being taught by our so- called prophecy experts of Christendom but no longer after God revealed some things to me in your site. Hope you can help. May God keep you and all of yours under the shadow of His wings as you continue to stand your ground in His will and purpose!

J____

Hi J____,

Thank you for your words of encouragement and thank your for your questions.

You ask:

Will God cause me to overcome? I want to have victory of the things in the flesh. If God wills that we do certain things and not do other things does He cause us to be able to do or not do what He wants?

Yes, you will overcome. It will not be because of your will; it will be because of His grace.

It is of the utmost importance to God that you realize that your overcoming is not of you, not of the flesh. That is why God has given us flesh that is so weak that it desires to do things that it knows are not good for the flesh.

I suspect that you are already aware that ‘grace’ is a verb as well as a noun. I hope that you understand that grace “chastens us to forsake ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live godly lives in this present world. If you are not aware of this facet of grace, go to the ‘Strong Delusion’ article and read the section on ‘The Purpose And Function Of Grace.’ You will soon see that “where sin abounds, grace doth much more abound,” simply means that ‘where sin abounds, God’s chastening grace does much more abound.’

So, to answer your question directly; yes, “If God wills that we do certain things and not do other things … He cause[ s] us to be able to do or not do what He wants?”

Php 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

This verse of scripture is total foolishness to the ‘called’ but not ‘chosen’ churches of Christendom. It stands in direct contradiction to the cornerstone of their theology, the unscriptural doctrine of free moral agency. God tells us that “it is God who works in you BOTH to WILL AND TO DO of His good pleasure.” This is the plain teaching of scripture from Genesis to Revelation. It is “The Potter” Himself who creates a marred clay vessel that wants to smoke cigarettes and cigars and eat so much sugar that he becomes diabetic, and looks at pornography and a million other counter- productive, self- destructive weaknesses.

Jer 18:4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter:

It is nowhere to be found in scripture that the vessel that was made of clay was marred either of its own free will or by the will of the Adversary. Here is the plain Truth of God’s Word. And it is a consistent message from Genesis to Revelation:

Rom 9:16 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
Rom 9:17 For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
Rom 9:18 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

Yet Billy Graham, D. James Kennedy, R. C. Sproll, John Hagee, Paul Crouch and the entire orthodox Christian world will tell you that ‘Yes, God is sovereign, but He will never cause you to do anything against your own will.’ Such double talk is a contradiction of both their own proclamation of God’s sovereignty and of scripture.

Php 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

So yes, God caused you to want to smoke cigarettes or whatever it is that you smoke. But he made you that way in Adam. And the reason for making a ‘marred vessel’ first is revealed in that same verse of Jeremiah:

Jer 18:4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
Jer 18:5 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Jer 18:6 O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.

God did not “make man in His image” and leave it at that. God and His Word have a character that is totally unknown in today’s orthodox churches. God Word is “the Alpha and the Omega, Him that is, was and will be.” Christ is the cause of both the first and the last Adam. You smoke because God made you of weak, corruptible, naked dust. You will be brought to despise smoking as you are reborn into the true image of the son of God.

Rom 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

This being “conformed to the image of His Son’ is the “chastens us to forsake ungodliness” of Titus two, and it is the “so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it” of Jer 18.

There is a reason for all of this struggling that the elect must endure. Here is the reason for ‘the trial of your faith,’:

Rom 11:30 For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
Rom 11:31 Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
Rom 11:32 For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.

Just as Christ had to experience the weaknesses of the flesh to become the “captain of our salvation,” even so must we endure the same temptations “that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.”

The elect of God are “as He is”:

1Jn 4:17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

I hope that this gives you the hope and patience to endure the “seven times [ that] a just man must fall” before he rises again.

Pro 24:16 For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.

The “seven times,” is to tell us that we of ourselves must understand that we are complete in our failures to overcome based on the strength of the flesh. The “riseth up again” is the overcoming of that weakness through “Christ in you.”

The day is coming, when you will despise the desire to smoke, but it will be Christ in you and not you.

I will leave you with the words of our Lord:

Luk 21:19 In your patience possess ye your souls.

God is working His work on His schedule. You will overcome. Help is on its way in God’s time.

Yes, I do believe that the return of Christ is imminent. It would take several pages to explain why. While I am confident that Christ’s return is imminent, I am equally confident that our main concern is to be “keeping our garments.”

Rev 16:15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. Rev 3:4 Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy.

If we “keep our garments,” “that day will not overtake you as a thief.”

1Th 5:1 But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.
1Th 5:2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
1Th 5:3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
1Th 5:4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
1Th 5:5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.

It would take a spiritual blind man to fail to see the times we live in. If you can make it to any of our conferences, you will meet the most crushed, dedicated and sincere people on earth, and you will get many answers to any questions you may have.

I have spoken on “The universal consumption that God has decreed upon the earth.”

Isa 28:22 Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth.
Isa 10:22 For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, [ yet] a remnant of them shall return: the consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness.
Isa 10:23 For the Lord GOD of hosts shall make a consumption, even determined, in the midst of all the land.

The times we live in are “the beginning of sorrows” and will never let up until Christ’s return in power to establish an outward kingdom which as yet has never been. It will be ruled by those in whom it has been inwardly in existence ever since Christ’s first coming.

I hope I’ve answered your questions to your satisfaction.

Mike