WesleyGospel Ministries

When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. –John 8:44

Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. –1 Peter 5:8

The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the Gospel. –2 Corinthians 4:4

Stand the test and be obedient in everything. Anyone you forgive, I also forgive. And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes. –2 Corinthians 2:9-11

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. –James 4:7

That they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will. –2 Timothy 2:26

Halloween might have been turned into a pop holiday for cute kids’ costumes and going door-to-door for candy, but the spiritual substance of Halloween, if people would just stop and think about it is essentially devil worship, Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA), Wicca, and Druidism. Even human sacrifice! Not to mention devil-glorifying horror films which bring demonic oppression and hauntings into people’s lives. If people want to give attention to fear in October, then use this time to preach hellfire and brimstone sermons, but not to glorify the devil. Trunk-or-Treats are a sign that even Baptist and Pentecostal preachers don’t have faith in the first commandment: “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3)–allowing kids and parents to dress up like Harry Potter or some witch at church! And to not rebuke ’em for it! To let perverse, and probably child molester preachers, come into the church with Magic Show ministries so they can ape the works of the devil, and tell all the kids that God loves them, and to lie, and receive visits from Santa (the word Satan rearranged,) at Christmastime. The fact that idolatry, worship of other gods, and outright lying to kids right there in church is going on, goes to show that American tradition is more important to such preachers than the Ten Commandments. It also shows us that SUCH PREACHERS DON’T BELIEVE IN THE SUPERNATURAL; AND ARE ACTUALLY UNBELIEVERS. If they did, they wouldn’t allow this watered-down Satanism into the church, and PREACH AGAINST THE MIRACULOUS GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AT THE SAME TIME! –J.B.

⁹ When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. ¹⁰ There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, ¹¹ or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. ¹² For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you. ¹³ You shall be blameless before the Lord your God. ¹⁴ For these nations which you will dispossess listened to soothsayers and diviners; but as for you, the Lord your God has not appointed such for you. –Deuteronomy 18:9-14 (NKJV)

Halloween might have been turned into a pop holiday for cute kids’ costumes and going door-to-door for candy, but the spiritual substance of Halloween, if people would just stop and think about it is essentially devil worship, Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA), Wicca, and Druidism. Even human sacrifice! Not to mention devil-glorifying horror films which bring demonic oppression and hauntings into people’s lives. If people want to give attention to fear in October, then use this time to preach hellfire and brimstone sermons, but not to glorify the devil. Trunk-or-Treats are a sign that even Baptist and Pentecostal preachers don’t have faith in the first commandment: “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3)–allowing kids and parents to dress up like Harry Potter or some witch at church! And to not rebuke ’em for it! To let perverse, and probably child molester preachers, come into the church with Magic Show ministries so they can ape the works of the devil, and tell all the kids that God loves them, and to lie, and receive visits from Santa (the word Satan rearranged,) at Christmastime. The fact that idolatry, worship of other gods, and outright lying to kids right there in church is going on, goes to show that American tradition is more important to such preachers than the Ten Commandments. It also shows us that SUCH PREACHERS DON’T BELIEVE IN THE SUPERNATURAL; AND ARE ACTUALLY UNBELIEVERS. If they did, they wouldn’t allow this watered-down Satanism into the church, and PREACH AGAINST THE MIRACULOUS GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AT THE SAME TIME! –J.B.

⁹ When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. ¹⁰ There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, ¹¹ or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. ¹² For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you. ¹³ You shall be blameless before the Lord your God. ¹⁴ For these nations which you will dispossess listened to soothsayers and diviners; but as for you, the Lord your God has not appointed such for you. –Deuteronomy 18:9-14 (NKJV)

British witchcraft, also known as Wicca, or Druidism in ancient times, presents a strong supernatural challenge to Christians. This has been sufficiently answered by St. Patrick, St. Columba, John Knox and the “Scots Worthies,” George Fox, John Wesley, and Smith Wigglesworth; add to that Augustin Poulain’s The Graces of Interior Prayer, Herbert Thurston’s The Physical Phenomena of Mysticism, and Donald Gee’s Concerning Spiritual Gifts. With reservation to a stronger view of sanctification, I would recommend any books about or by John Wimber and the Vineyard churches.

The popularity of the Harry Potter books and movies should present a real spiritual threat to Bible-believing parents, because these stories introduce witchcraft ideas and practices to children! A popular excuse for these stories is that “they are just fantasy, not reality”; but upon close examination, you will find that these stories are basically introducing the cult of Wicca to kids: a real life cult of witchcraft that has existed for ages.

In the Christian exposé film Harry Potter: Witchcraft Repackaged, Making Evil Look Innocent (2001), we learn that Wiccan concepts are found in the stories, such as when Harry’s mother dies for him as a love sacrifice (goddess concept); or Harry’s use of wands and brooms and other “wizard” tools, that real life witches use in the cult of Wicca; or the use of spells, curses, and magic incantations:–all of which can be found in Wicca; or when Harry’s girlfriend becomes demon-possessed on Halloween (a Wiccan holiday) and murders someone; or Harry’s communication with ghosts (as in Spiritualism); or his use of psychic powers (common to Wicca and all New Age cults); or his dabbling with black magic–which has its parallel with Satanism and other varieties of cult activity; all of these occultic ideas and practices, and more, are taught to young Harry and his friends at Hogwart’s School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Moral relativism is also implied as acceptable, as Harry is rewarded for lying to and disobeying his teachers:–a parallel with Wicca again–a worldview in which there are no clearly defined rules of right and wrong. A word to the wise: wicca, the Old English word for witch, is the root word for WICKED.

How can Christians, Christian parents, and even Christian pastors (I’ve met two), endorse the Harry Potter stories? The Word of God clearly condemns witchcraft as a real life sin:

Deuteronomy 18:10-12: “Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord; because of these same detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you.”

1 Samuel 15:23: “Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.”

God’s prohibition of witchcraft carries over into the New Testament as well:

Galatians 5:19-21 lists witchcraft as a damnable sin that leads to Hell: “The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”

Revelation 21:8 says that those who practice the magic arts (such as Wiccans), will burn in the lake of fire forever: “The cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars–they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur.”

It is no surprise to me that this exposé film provides evidence that there are other books written in favor of Harry Potter for kids to get at the bookstore, or the school library, which provide links to real life Wiccan websites! The video concludes with several e-mails from middle school age kids about how they too would like to become wizards and witches, and wish they could go to Hogwart’s wizard school too. Now, I understand there are always going to be Christians who say Harry Potter is “just fantasy, not reality”:–but WICCA IS REALITY; its a real life pagan cult that is gaining popularity, because these wicked Harry Potter stories have stimulated interest among young people to dabble in the occult and become demon-possessed, anti-Christian, and mentally ill. As disgusting as the religion of Wicca is, its sickening to think these books are being pushed in our public schools; in a way its no different than the Goosebumps or Scary Stories books were for me, when I was in elementary school (which I now regret reading):–but in a way it is: in those books, scary demonic concepts were present, but in these Harry Potter books, witchcraft and Wicca-like concepts are glorified over and over and over! They are designed to seduce children into the occult, no doubt. These books are inspired by the devil. They are evil books and movies; and should be utterly rejected, destroyed, preached against, and entirely hated by Christians without reservation. But sadly, that’s not the case for the most part. Destiny Image Publishers, the popular charismatic publisher, has only one book that even mentions it (thankfully critically): Steve Wohlberg’s Exposing Harry Potter and Witchcraft (2005); Tyndale House Publishers, long held to be conservative evangelical, has a supportive book: John Granger’s Looking for God in Harry Potter (2004)–unbelievable!; but then you have the extremely supportive book by the liberal Christian publisher Westminster John Knox Press: Connie Neal’s The Gospel According to Harry Potter (2008)–blasphemous! Granger’s book is the most popular.

Nothing but the Gospel of Jesus Christ, of justification by faith in the cross, and sanctification by obedience to the Word of God, can set these kids free the devil’s grasp! Add to that a real encounter with the presence of the Holy Spirit in worship! O God! Show your power in this, my generation! J. K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter books is surprisingly not a Wiccan, so it seems; she claims to be a member of the Scottish branch of the Church of England; but since the Anglican Communion now supports gay priests, this is no evidence of Biblical Christianity; being a member of a heretical church, Rowling has to be thrown into the category of a heretic at the least, and at the worst, to be called a witch in spirit. REPENT J. K.! It may be that God will even have mercy on you for this great sin! Matthew 18:6: “If anyone causes one of these little ones–those who believe in Me–to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.” Jesus said that.

Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against them that dwell in the midst of them that rise up against me, a destroying wind. –Jeremiah 51:1 (KJV)

Originally from here.

Here we go again, I thought. I wasn’t surprised by the question. Idol-hunting, after all, is a favorite pastime of my fellow evangelicals. But I was caught off guard by the candidate for the potential idol.

It’s certainly possible I’ve made an idol of money. And I’d reluctantly confess that I’ve often made an idol of comfort or security. My wife might say I’ve made an idol of my smartphone, since I always seem to be staring at it in adoration and obeisance. But an idol of politics? How is that even a question? I hate politics. I consider politics to be, at best, a necessary evil, not something I would put ahead of God.

Yet the question was hard to shake, and made more difficult to dismiss since it had come from within my own head and heart.

Still, I assumed I could answer in the negative, so I created a set of questions to test this idolatry theory.

Before we get to the questions, though, let me clarify a concern you might have. At this point many readers are thinking this article is not really about me at all, but rather a passive-aggressive means for me to get others to admit (at least to themselves) that they are the ones who have made an idol of politics. Let me assure that is not the case. It’s not that I’m above such finger-wagging, whether passive-aggressive or just aggressive-aggressive. I wouldn’t be against writing such an article if I thought it would work. But as I’ve learned over the past several years, it would not work. Almost no one is willing to admit they have made an idol of politics—including me.

That’s why I started creating a list of idol-identifying questions that I thought would vindicate me.

21 Questions to Consider

1. Have you heard the name of a political figure more today than you have the name of Jesus?

2. Have you spent more time today thinking about the president (or another politician) than you have thinking about the creator of the universe?

3. Have you spent more time listening to talk of politics—on social media, talk radio, cable news, and so on—than you spent in the Word of God or with gospel-oriented media?

4. When I discover that a fellow believer disagrees with my political preferences, do I make assumptions about their level of sanctification and commitment to Jesus based on their political affiliation?

5. Do I continually make excuses for why I support certain policies or politicians, even though I know they undermine my gospel witness?

6. Do I judge myself as having noble motives when it comes to politics, yet assume the worst about people on the other side of the political divide?

7. Do I look for excuses to judge my ungodly behavior when it comes to politics rather than asking forgiveness from God?

8. Have I become more obsessed with achieving a specific political outcome than I am about leading people to Christ?

9. Am I more willing to allow injustice to occur than to suffer injustice myself?

10. Can I truly say that my political choices and preferences are informed by and consistent with a biblical standard of ethics?

11. Do I attempt to justify my politics based on the “realism” of general revelation (e.g., that sometimes we must make compromises) rather than on reality as revealed in special revelation (e.g., “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” – James 4:17)?

12. When I (reluctantly) pray for politicians with whom I disagree, do I primarily pray that they will lose the next election or otherwise fail to gain political power and influence?

13 Am I more likely to be shaped by the political views of an acquaintance on Facebook than I am by the inspired words of Scripture?

14. Would I find it easier to recite the names of 12 presidential candidates than I would the 12 disciples or the 12 tribes of Israel?

15. Have more of my conversations today been about politics than about the gospel?

16. Do my words and actions reveal that I am more concerned about the way Christians will vote than I am with whether they are enjoying God?

17. Based on my thoughts and actions today, does it seem as if I’m more concerned about the next four years than I am with eternity?

18. Have I been willing to overlook when politicians on my side say they are Christian and yet act in ways that bring dishonor to Christ?

19. Am I more concerned with political pragmatism than I am with obeying every command of Christ?

20. Do my concerns about possible political outcomes show that I may not truly trust that God is sovereign over the nations?

21. Am I more offended by these questions (and my honest answers) than I am in how they reveal my idolatry?

Paul’s Proposed Solution

I had set out to create 20 questions, and only added #21 after it became apparent that was my gut-level reaction. Of these 21 questions, there is only one that I can honestly say doesn’t apply to me directly (#13, and only because I unfollow anyone on Facebook who talks about politics). That’s not an outcome I would have predicted. And it’s not a situation I want to face, especially in an election year.

Over the next nine months I’ll be forced to think (and, at times, write) about politics and politicians. How do I do that without letting it become an idol? Fortunately, the apostle Paul provides an answer in 1 Corinthians 10.

First, I must recognize this form of idol-making is not a new temptation to sin (“No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind” (v. 13a)). Second, I must recognize I have the power of God within me to overcome this particular temptation (“And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear” [v. 13b]). Third, I have no excuses for not dealing with politics in a non-idolatrous manner (“But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it” [v. 13b]). And finally, I need to simply run in the other direction, away from this idol and toward God (“Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry” [v. 14]).

On reflection, these steps seem rather achievable, perhaps even easy. They are certainly much easier than admitting my idolatry of politics. But now that I have made this confession, I feel a burden has been lifted from me. That’s why I’m sharing these questions, in the hopes that someone else my find them helpful too. Like Paul, all I can add is, “I speak to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say” (v. 15).

Many cessationists are conditioned to think that if dreams are sometimes taken seriously as messages from the Holy Spirit, that it automatically assumes the dreamer of dreams is a SELF-EXALTING, PROPHET-BRAGGER, OR A CULT LEADER, OR A FALSE APOSTLE. What they fail to admit is that they do the same thing with Bible teachers and evangelists like Billy Graham and John MacArthur, but instead of using the word “prophet,” they’ll say, “That guy is solid,” but let’s be honest, the level of honor and respect they pay to them sometimes approaches cult leader status. And what do they do when they find out that R.C. Sproul didn’t believe in a literal Hell of fire and eternal punishment? He just believed in some vague “separation from God” concept…they give him a pass. At least he didn’t go off the deep end into dream interpretation. Are these equal weights and measures? No. The reality is, the Bible plainly teaches that the psychological experience of dreams can indeed be brought under the guidance of Biblical sanctification, and be useful for encouraging, exhorting, warning, urging, and comforting Christians (1 Cor. 14:3): not only on a moral level, but also on a supernatural level as future events or heart secrets can sometimes be revealed to specific Christians when other Christians take Bible-based dream interpretation and “prophecy” seriously.

I believe that the dream interpretations below could possibly be of the heart secrets category, for certain readers of my blog or my podcast listeners (1 Cor. 14:25). I usually follow Ira Milligan’s Understanding the Dreams You Dream (Treasure House, 1993), as a help to my dream interpretations, but I always consider the Bible as primary for that. For cessationists who might have trouble understanding the validity of dreams in the Christian life, I would point you to Archibald Alexander’s Thoughts on Religious Experience, which was published by BANNER OF TRUTH in 1996. I did a podcast recording and commentary on chapter 7 from that book, which explains how dream interpretation was accepted in the 1800s by Bible believers. There are a few 1600s and 1700s dreams and prophecies of Dutch Reformed people mentioned in Thomas Boys’ The Suppressed Evidence, pgs. 305-312. Dr. Jack Deere also has a great teaching about dreams in chapter 10 of Why I Am Still Surprised by the Voice of God (Zondervan, 2022). He used to be an Old Testament professor at Dallas Theological Seminary. He also implies in chapter 3 that George Wishart, John Knox, and many of the Covenanter pastors in Scotland for over a hundred years, used to interpret dreams and sometimes share them as prophetic words from the pulpit. The Methodists in the 1700s continued to have prophetic dreams and were journaled in The Supernatural Occurrences of John Wesley, ch. 9. “Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good” (1 Thess. 5:20-21). –J.B.

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IN THE LAST DAYS, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream DREAMS.   –Acts 2:17; cf. 1 Corinthians 1:7

That the Spirit should be in them a Spirit of prophecy; by the Spirit they should be enabled to foretell things to come, and to preach the gospel to every creature. This power shall be given without distinction of sex–now only your sons, but your daughters shall prophesy; without distinction of age–both your young men and your old men shall see visions, and dream dreams, and in them receive divine revelations, to be communicated to the church; and without distinction of outward condition–even the servants and handmaids shall receive of the Spirit, and shall prophesy (Acts 2:18); or, in general, men and women, whom God calls his servants and his handmaids. In the beginning of the age of prophecy in the Old Testament there were schools of the prophets, and, before that, the Spirit of prophecy came upon the elders of Israel that were appointed to the government; but now the Spirit shall be poured out upon persons of inferior rank, and such as were not brought up in the schools of the prophets, for the kingdom of the Messiah is to be purely spiritual. The mention of the daughters (Acts 2:17) and the handmaidens (Acts 2:18) would make one think that the women who were taken notice of (Acts 1:14) received the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost, as well as the men. Philip, the evangelist, had four daughters who did prophesy (Acts 21:9), and St. Paul, finding abundance of the gifts both of tongues and prophecy in the church of Corinth, saw it needful to prohibit women’s use of those gifts in public, 1 Corinthians 14:26, 34. —MATTHEW HENRY’S COMMENTARY

In young men the outward sense, are most vigorous, and the bodily strength is entire, whereby they are best qualified to sustain the shock which usually attends the visions of God. In old men the internal senses are most vigorous, suited to divine dreams. Not that the old are wholly excluded from the former, nor the young from the latter. —JOHN WESLEY’S EXPLANATORY NOTES

If an unbeliever or an inquirer comes in while everyone is prophesying, they are convicted of sin and are brought under judgment by all, as the secrets of their hearts are laid bare. So they will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!”   –1 Corinthians 14:24-25

As these, who were the prophets or teachers, had often the discernment of spirits, they were able in certain cases, and probably very frequently, to tell a man the secrets of his own heart; and, where this was not directly the case, God often led his ministers to speak those things that were suitable to the case before them, though they themselves had no particular design. The sinner, therefore, convinced that God alone could uncover the secrets of his heart, would be often obliged to fall down on his face, abashed and confounded, and acknowledge that God was truly among them. This seems to be the plain meaning of the passages before us. —ADAM CLARKE COMMENTARY

I was one of the million in my state who just went through the Category 4 Hurricane Helene, and lost my power to an extreme extent; and so as an evacuee currently staying somewhere else, I’m not currently at my home where I normally do audio recordings of prophetic words. But I had some dreams recently and I’m going to share them along with their interpretations:

1. DREAM OF A PASTOR WHO IS CONFUSED ABOUT LEGALISM. I dreamed that a certain pastor is confused about what Biblical holiness means; and so his only concept of holiness is what people like to call “legalism,” which is a made up word that doesn’t exist in any of the Bible translations. The idea here is one of extreme judging of other people–whether family, friends, or church members. This concept, whatever you want to call it, should really be called CENSORIOUSNESS according to the old Puritan way of definition. This thing called CENSORIOUSNESS actually is taught against in the Bible. First by Jesus in Matthew 7:1-5 and secondly by Paul in Romans 14. Although the word “censoriousness” is not a Bible word, the teaching is clear enough from long passages to say with confidence that the teaching isn’t made up, but that it is Biblically grounded and within its context. What we today like to call NITPICKING is what the Puritans used to call CENSORIOUSNESS. While this is a sin described in the Bible, its not such a horrible sin, that it comes up to the level of breaking one of the Ten Commandments. In my dream I saw the pastor extremely and harshly judge and rebuke his son for showing up to a Bible study at church in his soccer outfit, with cleats that had dirt on them. It was then that I knew in my spirit, that is, I knew that I knew, that this pastor was being petty or what they call being nitpicky: he calls that thing LEGALISM, and although its spiritually wrong to act that way, none of these words: legalism, censoriousness, or nitpicky–none of them come close to what the Bible means by holiness. At least the way that traditional Methodists and Wesleyans have understood it: Biblical holiness boils down to loving the God of the Bible with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength; and loving your neighbor as yourself; and all within the framework of Ten Commandments awareness and the Cross.

Love is never meant to be understood in such a way that the Ten Commandments are ignored. To antinomianly act like that would be how a gangster carries himself. At the same time, holy love for God and neighbor doesn’t mean you can’t REBUKE people for breaking the holy commandments of God that you’ve come to know and love, especially if you see people getting into things that are leading them to Hell and damnation. When you find other Christians that agree with this principle, then you’ll experience koinonia around them. But if you’re going to “judge,” then make sure those judgments are righteous ones based on actual evidence; and are serious enough to be considered spiritual felonies, and the REBUKES based on those judgments are damnation-related and SALVATION-RELATED REBUKES. Not about dirt clods and soccer cleats: or minor unspiritual issues that just don’t matter. But if its about Ten Commandments related things–like TV shows, movies, music, video games, conversation, business un-ethics, and other general behavior that pollutes and perverts people’s minds against the laws of God–things that make an outward display of breaking the Ten Commandments, make a big thing out of it, then REBUKE ‘EM! Don’t be that dumb dog that cannot bark. Let ‘er loose! BARK! BARK! BARK! AND WARN ‘EM ALL, AS IF THEY’RE THE PEOPLE OF SODOM AND GOMORRAH, OF NINEVEH AND CHORAZIN! Its the types of things that drag their souls down to Hell: its for those that are “the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars,” that “shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone” (Revelation 21:8, KJV).

2. DREAM OF AN UNREPENTANT BIBLE STUDENT. I dreamed that I confronted a man who has been attending a Bible study group for a very long time, but has an unrepentant or impenitent heart. I was urging him and trying to tell him that’s what the Pharisees were like: they didn’t read the Bible in order to obey it better. They just read it. To people like this the brother of Jesus said, “Get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.  Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like” (James 1:21-24). Again and again I pleaded with this man to stop reading and studying the Bible in such an apathetic manner. Bible study is not supposed to be about understanding Israelite maps and deserts. Its about the interpretation and application of Biblical principles to your heart and life. This was the old Methodist way of using the Bible; and anything less than this God can clearly see; and will bring into judgment against any wicked soul who thinks they can mock God with such a hypocritical, apathetic, and agnostic approach to the Scriptures. “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life” (Galatians 6:7-8). Don’t be like a spiritually dead Pharisee! Be a disciple of Jesus and actually try to do what the Bible says when you learn about some new principle within it. Revelation 20:11-15: “I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hell delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.”

3. DREAM OF TWO PEOPLE RELYING ON “ANTI-PELAGIANISM” (ANTI-FINNEY) THEOLOGY TO EXCUSE THEIR SINFUL LIFESTYLES. I dreamed that these two people who don’t know each other, but who know who I am, are in a backslidden condition. One was a woman, one was a man. They were living in fornication; and were at least agreed with antinomian types of Calvinists that Finney should not be listened to because he was into “Pelagianism,” a doctrine which they called a monster. But they couldn’t see that this was just a lame excuse for their impenitence in sexual immorality. I agreed with them that Pelagianism is a monster compared with a proper Wesleyan understanding of grace and free will. Pelagianism has such an optimistic view of human nature that it sets people up for failure, leading them to perfectionistically believe that everyone can be an infallible pope. But dwelling too much upon this topic boils down to just another intellectual distraction from Biblical sanctification.

4. DREAM OF A DENOMINATION BEING PENTECOSTAL IN NAME ONLY. I dreamed that I was reading a book that was apparently written by Dr. Vinson Synan, the Pentecostal historian. I was on a page where he had listed off all sorts of things, and when I came to one of the bullets, it had the name of a certain Pentecostal denomination. And I could overhear Dr. Synan’s voice in my dream. He was defending Pentecostalism with a very weak and unpersuasive argument to one of his evangelical critics. He said, “Pentecostalism has accomplished so much in its time. We even have a legacy institution with the word Pentecostal in it,” as if this really mattered spiritually. It was then that I knew in my spirit, or knew that I knew, that this specific denomination was spiritually backslidden and PENTECOSTAL IN NAME ONLY. And so just to be careful, I got my pen and scribbled out that specific Pentecostal denomination from the list in my book. When faced with a lukewarm, backslidden, nominal form of Pentecostalism, the only way to maintain your Pentecostal faith is to pull away from such expressions of unbelief, as they can do far more damage than living out your Pentecostal experience somewhere else.

5. DREAM OF A WORLDLY FATHER UNWILLING TO BE RECONCILED TO HIS REAL CHRISTIAN SON. I dreamed that the son in question was at first a boy and part of a class at a public school; and he was experiencing conflict problems with troubled kids at school, as were other kids. The boy went to the school counselor, and through her, had invited all the kids and their parents to come to the counselor’s office, and watch a conflict resolution video together. The video taught people how to apologize to others for specific actions of hurtful behavior towards others; and then to forgive those hurts and patch things up afterwards. Then the video was over and the kids started to leave with their parents. The boy who put together the event remained afterwards; and saw a smashed green pea on the ground that some other kid had left behind. He picked it up and threw it away. Then the boy left the room with his dad, and they began to walk down the hallway, as they were heading home. The boy and his father began to walk and talk; but I couldn’t tell about what; and then the boy was changed into a fully grown man. “Dad, what fellowship can light have with darkness?” the son said, referring to 2 Corinthians 6:14, which is from the main passage on separation from the world. The dad kept his sunglasses on and wouldn’t look his son in the eye. And the son tugged his arm but the dad tried to pull away two and three times; and the son said, “Why is it you won’t receive my testimony about Jesus? Why won’t you listen? Why don’t you want to be born again!” And the son saw clearly that his dad’s heart was hardened against the Gospel and that he was a hopeless case. It was nothing he’d done. It was all because the dad was unwilling to submit his heart to Christ as his Lord.

6. DREAM OF A BACKSLIDDEN PENTECOSTAL PASTOR WHO SAYS ITS ALRIGHT TO SPEAK IN TONGUES AND USE THE F-WORD. I dreamed that a backslidden Pentecostal pastor said its alright if a person speaks in tongues and then uses the f-word, because nobody’s perfect. What exactly are people talking about when the phrase “nobody’s perfect” is thrown around? Do we mean that the pursuit of Christian perfection is totally ignored? What about speaking in tongues and serial killing, raping, and molesting women and children? “Nobody’s perfect!” At what point are you going to draw the line man! The Bible. This is why our lives need to be permeated with Bible study; or you can say stupid careless things like, “Speak in tongues and use the f-word, because nobody’s perfect; or how about speak in tongues and look at porn because nobody’s perfect; or speak in tongues and kill someone because nobody’s perfect.” It gets ridiculous real quick. Cheap grace Pentecostal ministry doesn’t make any sense. In the dream I said, “That’s a demon if you speak in tongues and just use the f-word without a care,” but the backslidden pastor said, “I wouldn’t say its a demon but its at least coming from the flesh.” Well enough, both ways grieve the Holy Ghost. James 3:9-12: “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.”

7. DREAM OF PREACHING AGAINST GAY SEX AT A COLLEGE CAMPUS. I was street preaching against gay sex in the Brickyard at NC State. I had a sandwich board on me that said something like, “Sodom and Gomorrah Are Still Under God’s Judgment.” I was preaching about anal sex between men, AIDS, the destruction of Sodom, and gays molesting children. I preached 1 Corinthians 6:9-10. But I noticed there was an Indian guru teaching pluralism and Hinduism with a crowd of 50 or 100 people around him; and nobody listened to me.

8. DREAM OF A SLIPPERY FLOOR IN AN OFFICE BUILDING. I dreamed that a young man was working in a big office building and had a standalone desk like many others. He had a white dress shirt, black slacks, and a black backpack with various things in it. He had a very pretty blonde haired woman manager and he gave her his backpack for some reason. The backpack had a bunch of women’s bra pads in them. I’m guessing that this meant he was something of a playboy and used to collect them as trophies from all the women he had sex with. The young man walked across the white office floor but it was wet with either water…or KY Jelly. He walked across the slick office floor in his bare feet, but there were slippery clear spots that he couldn’t see, and he eventually slipped and fell on a slippery spot. Then another young man slipped and fell. The first young man then almost fell a second and third time. It was the same with lots of the guys in there. God says, “To Me belongeth vengeance and recompense; their foot shall slide in due time; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste” (Deut. 32:35, KJV). Many young men are in this situation, many who start out as Bible believers, but because of all the pretty pagan women in the office, they backslide, they lose their salvations, and they become regular womanizers, philanderers, and playboys. Run away! Pursue remote work, become self-employed, and GET THE HECK OUT of there man! Potiphar’s wife said to Joseph: “‘Come to bed with me!’ But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house” (Gen. 39:12). Good man! Be like that guy.