CHURCH AS JESUS INTENDED PART 3

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The only “building program” in the New Testament is the building of men and women up in Jesus Christ. In the New Testament God did not reinstitute a new physical building program as He did in the Old Testament. God sovereignly destroyed the only physical building in the world that had any reflection of Him!

In the New Testament, in every town and city, Christians gathered in house churches. It was through all these small house churches everywhere in cities that Christians so rapidly multiplied and “turned the world upside down” for Christ. Only when we follow God’s model can we expect to do the same.

http://www.housechurches.net

In the New Testament Jesus’ followers came together to “break bread” and “remember the Lord” only in house churches. Why only in houses churches? Jesus may have many more reasons that we don’t think about or understand, “His ways are not our ways.” But I can think of at least 10 pretty good reasons:
1. Identification: God does not want to be identified with a lifeless dead building anymore but rather only with life – the life of Spirit-filled believers.
2. Invitation: No one ever feels defensive when invited to come to a home, but rather gratitude and appreciation.
3. Extension: A house church is like a large family. It is just a large spiritual family. How a family operates is similar to how a house church family functions. Thereby, a good family becomes a good model for a house church and a good house church becomes a good model for a family.
4. Participation: A group as small as a house church allows everyone to participate and enjoy doing so. There is no such thing as “pew warmers”. House churches naturally foster real spiritual growth among everyone. In a traditional church, you are like a “spectator”. You walk in and are ministered to, spoon-fed, and entertained. You sit, you listen, you hear music, you hear a sermon and then you walk out. It’s like a spectator sport where you go, sit, watch and walk out. But believers in the New Testament church were not spectators ꟷ they were participators!
5. House Unity: Believers that meet in small house churches all feel very close to one another and experience true practical unity, quite unlike and impossible to experience in a large church congregation.
6. City Unity: Small house churches feel a greater need and desire to have unity with the larger body of Christ throughout their city, breeding a citywide spirit of love and unity with all believers in their city. The big building church congregations are so large that they often don’t see outside of their own big organization, unlike the small house churches.
7. Multiplying Leaders: The more leaders that develop within any group in society, the greater that group will multiply. Small house churches automatically stimulate spiritual leadership where large church building congregations with their professional clergy intrinsically suppress multiplying leaders.
8. Spreading the Gospel: Preachers are more apt to follow the New Testament example of going out to the public to preach the gospel when they don’t have a big church-building organization for people to come into. They’re more apt to follow the New Testament command to “GO and make disciples…”
9. Money: Billions of dollars are spent on church buildings, while if the same dollars were spent directly on people it would have an explosive impact the world over for the Kingdom of God.
10. Our Heavenly Father knows best: If we are not able to see any good reasons for house churches, we should still defer to house churches for no other reason than it is the only New Testament example that God Himself gave us. Does not our heavenly Father always know what is best? “What sorrow awaits those who argue with their Creator. Does a clay pot argue with its maker? Does the clay dispute with the one who shapes it, saying, ‘Stop, you’re doing it wrong!’ Does the pot exclaim, ‘How clumsy can you be?” (Isaiah 45:9).
The implications of the precedent that God set in the New Testament for meeting in-house churches is staggering once you understand all the benefits and implications of it. Here are 8 more important implications:

  1. Spiritual growth explodes qualitatively and quantitatively because everyone is committed and involved in a house church.
  2. Real accountability with all the believers becoming close, loving one another, and being “subject one to another”, as the Scripture instructs.
  3. Potential leaders have real and practical opportunities to develop and multiply rapidly unlike possible in traditional churches.
  4. All Believers can be more individually encouraged and motivated to share their faith in all their workplaces and marketplaces.
  5. Eliminates the destructive clergy/laity class system so unbiblical and oppressive in traditional church organizations. In house churches, all the Believers are not just “priests” in theory but in practice (1 Peter 2:5, 9).
  6. Stimulates all Christian men to rise up and see their spiritual opportunity and responsibility to become mature men and spiritual leaders within house churches, thus greatly benefiting and affecting their own physical family, their workplace, and their whole community (1 Timothy 3).
  7. Allows for and galvanizes the “apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers” to get out of their “church” buildings and follow Paul’s example to preach in public areas and from house to house (Acts 20:20).
  8. No money is diverted into building programs or church bureaucracy etc. but all funds go to help any faithful believers that are in genuine need and into the growing number of spiritual leaders to “fill all the city with their teaching about Jesus” (Acts 5:28).

Extracted from Jim McCotter’s book Church Revolution Today.

IS CHRISTIANITY SHRINKING?

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Glenn T. Stanton explains in his book, The Myth of the Dying Church (2019): “The apparent shrinking of Christianity is both true and false. True in that nominal and weak ‘Christian-in-name-only’ folks are identifying as Christians less and less. But there is no indication whatsoever that serious faith is shrinking any.”

How Christianity Is Actually Thriving in America and the World

Stanton adds, “So is Christianity shrinking? Not if you’re talking about the biblically faithful congregations that call their people to genuine Christian discipleship. Only … the mainline churches … are free falling as if they have a millstone tied to their necks.”

“So the real story is,” notes Stanton, “this is a sheep and goats being divided thing. A clarifying of faith, rather than shrinking of faith.”

In John Calvin’s Commentary on Isaiah 9:7, he provides an excellent reminder for Christians of all ages that we are truly on the winning side: “Though the kingdom of Christ is in such a condition that it appears as if we are about to perish at every moment, yet God not only protects and defends it, but also extends its boundaries far and wide, and then preserves and carries it forward in uninterrupted progression to eternity.”

Dr. Byron Johnson, Distinguished Professor of Social Sciences and Founding Director of the Institute for the Studies of Religion at Baylor University is one of the country’s leading researchers on the role of religion in public life. He gave this bit of advice: “the secular media will continue to push out the narrative that religion is dying … why not focus on the hundreds and thousands of peer-reviewed studies that show the power of faith to transform people’s lives for the better?”

The church as we know it, the institutional church is certainly dying as it is not the church Jesus established. In the last days before Jesus returns, we will return to House Churches as described in the Book of Acts. In fact, it is already happening. Francis Chan is leading the way in America. Can I also suggest you get a copy of Jim McCotter’s good book, Church Revolution Today to discover the truth about the church Jesus established and what God is doing through house churches that are following Jesus’ command to make disciples that make disciples.

CHURCH AS JESUS INTENDED PART 2

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Jesus Christ started His New Testament church after prophesying the very destruction of His physical temple! Yet today most Christians are busy spending their money and time building more new temples!
In the New Testament Christ made it clear that His only building program was going to be His church, but “church” in Greek, “ekklesia”, was not a building! The Greek word “ekklesia” is defined only as a group of people. Furthermore, God once and for all abandoned His Old Testament physical building program the moment Christ died on the cross… “At that moment the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom” (Matthew 27:51). At that moment the “Spirit of God… tore” out of the temple! Never to return! Yet 325 years later Constantine and his mother Helena started the unbiblical precedent of building temples again for God’s people! And the Christian clergy/priests have been promoting Constantine and his mother’s unbiblical precedent ever since!

http://www.housechurches.net

“The woman said to Him, Sir, I perceive you must be a prophet. So tell me, why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship?’ Jesus replied… ‘The time is coming – indeed it’s here now – when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way” John 4:19-23
In the Old Testament God was to be identified with and in a building, the holy temple in Jerusalem. But Jesus made clear in the New Testament that worship was no longer to be identified with or in a “place of worship”… but rather “true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.” And then Jesus made clear, “The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way!”
With the new covenant the Spirit of God left the physical temple and started a new building program, a “spiritual temple” (1 Peter 2:5). No longer would the Spirit of God reside in any temple or church building. No longer does the Spirit of God want to be identified with any religious or church building. Now the Spirit of God resides only with and in His people, Christ’s new “ekklesia”, Christ’s group ꟷ “All of you together are the temple of God!”

“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.” 1 Corinthians 3:16

The only “building program” in the New Testament is the building of men and women up in Jesus Christ. In the New Testament God did not reinstitute a new physical building program as He did in the Old Testament. God sovereignly destroyed the only physical building in the world that had any reflection of Him!

When Christians deserted the house churches and met in large pagan temples, all they could do then was, as they continue to do today, sit in rows and listen to a sermon from some clergy/priest. This was contrary to what all believers did in house churches for over 300 years from the time of Christ and His apostles.

The church dramatically changed from being a participatory gathering to a spectator gathering. The church was now completely transformed into a whole different foreign and unbiblical “church” format and structure. It was nothing like what they had been instructed to do as described in the Book of Acts.

As might be expected, most clergy do not refer to such church history or such Scripture violated by it. However, there are a few unbiased Christian leaders that have written about some of this. Frank Viola and George Barna are two that have documented much of the pagan church tradition in their book Pagan Christianity.

This post is an extract from Jim McCotter’s book. Want more, can I suggest you purchase his ebook.


CHURCH AS JESUS INTENDED

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https://housechurches.net

All of the following verses clearly show that New Testament churches were only and always house churches. What about all the verses that are in the New Testament where believers met in church buildings ꟷ ZERO!

  1. “Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives… they went to the upstairs room of the house where they were staying… They all met together and were constantly united in prayer, along with Mary the mother of Jesus, several other women, and the brothers of Jesus” (Acts 1:12-14).
  1. “On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability” (Acts 2:1-4).
  2. “They…met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity” (Acts 2:46).
  3. “From house to house, they continued to teach and preach” (Acts 5:42).
  4. “But Saul was going everywhere to destroy the church…he went from house to house” (Acts 8:3).
  5. “When he realized this, he went to the home of Mary, the mother of John Mark, where many were gathered for prayer” (Acts 12:12).
  6. “When Paul and Silas left the prison, they returned to the home of Lydia. There they met with the believers and encouraged them once more. Then they left town” (Acts 16:40).
  7. “There were many lamps in the upstairs room of the house where we were meeting” (Acts 20:8).
  8. “I taught you publicly and from house to house” (Acts 20:20 NIV).
  9. “Give my greetings to Priscilla and Aquila…also give my greetings to the church that meets in their home” (Romans 16:3-5).
  10. “And give my greetings to the believers from the household of Aristobulus” (Romans 16:10).
  11. “Greet the Lord’s people from the household of Narcissus” (Romans 16:11).
  12. “Give my greetings to Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers and sisters who meet with them” (Romans 16:14).
  13. “Give my greetings to Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and to Olympas and all the believers who meet with them” (Romans 16:15).
  14. “Gaius says hello to you. He is my host and also serves as host to the whole church” (Romans 16:23).
  15. “For some members of Chloe’s household have told me about your quarrels, my dear brother and sisters” (1 Corinthians 1:11).
  16. “The churches here in the province of Asia send greetings in the Lord, as do Aquila and Priscilla and all the others who gather in their home for church meetings” (1 Corinthians 16:19).
  17. “Please give my greetings… to Nympha and the church that meets in her house” (Colossians 4:15).
  18. “They must be silenced because they are disrupting whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach” (Titus 1:11 NIV).
  19. “I am writing to… Archippus, and to the church that meets in your house” (Philemon 1:2).
  20. “If anyone comes to your meeting and does not teach the truth about Christ, don’t invite that person into your home or give any kind of encouragement” (2 John 1:10).
  21. “Behold I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come, and we will share a meal together” (Revelation 3:20).

Since there is no verse in the New Testament that says “the church met” in any building, that may be one of the reasons a necessary qualification for being a New Testament leader/elder was to be “hospitable”: “An elder… must enjoy having guests in his home…” (1 Timothy 3:2).

All New Testament churches only met in believers’ homes. None of the apostles, no church leaders, or Christians ever even mentioned meeting in or constructing any kind of church building. House churches were the only church pattern for meeting in all of the New Testament. And the New Testament home church pattern was the only church model for all Christians for over 300 years!

I strongly urge anyone interested in knowing more about church as Jesus intended that you get Jim McCotter’s book Church revolution today. Jim has been involved in establishing hundreds of house churches and indirectly thousands,

GOD APPOINTS LEADERS

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Just as God appointed Italy’s new Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, its first female prime minister (see recent post “Italians Made Wise Choice“), whose focus is on protecting the institutions of God, family, and country, we now have the new UK Prime Minister Liz Truss pledged “wholehearted” support for the Jewish State during a speech at the Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI) conference on Monday.

“I am so pleased to be here for the first time at the CFI event as your prime minister,” Truss was quoted as saying by the Jewish Chronicle.

“As you know I am a huge Zionist, I am a huge supporter of Israel, and I know that we can take the UK-Israel relationship from strength to strength.”

Prime Minister Yair Lapid meets with UK Prime Minister Liz Truss, September 21, 2022, 

“In this world – where we are facing threats from authoritarian regimes who don’t believe in freedom and democracy – two free democracies, the UK and Israel, need to stand shoulder to shoulder and we will be even closer in the future,” she said.

Truss stressed that her country’s support for Israel is “absolute” and “wholehearted,” while adding that the UK and its allies would ensure that Iran “will never…get a nuclear weapon.”

During a meeting with Prime Minister Yair Lapid last month, Truss mentioned that the UK is weighing moving its embassy – which is currently located in Tel Aviv – to Jerusalem.

God reestablished Israel as a nation back in 1948 as part of His “end times” plan and He has used leaders like Trump and now Truss to support His plan. We know from Biblical prophecy that Israel will suffer greatly under the Antichrist and as many as 2/3 of the population killed or deported but ultimately Jesus will return to rescue His nation at the battle of Armageddon and set up His Millennial Kingdom in a completely restored Jerusalem.

“They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.” Revelation 20:4-6

WITCHCRAFT IS NO LONGER EVIL

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Deeply disturbing reality purportedly at center of new Disney film ‘Hocus Pocus 2’

The film has an unexpected twist: Witchcraft is no longer evil. When “Hocus Pocus,” directed by Kenny Ortega, was released in 1993, “satanic panic” had been running wild across the country for more than a decade, as witches and Satanists were blamed for harming young children and corrupting teenagers

Flash-forward 29 years. Satanic panic is ancient history and modern witchcraft has fully emerged from the proverbial broom closet, legally recognized and accepted as a spiritual path and religion. Pentacles appear on gravestones even in veteran’s cemeteries. Prison chaplains host Wiccan circles and Satanists fight openly for religious equality.

Belissa Escobedo as Izzy, left, and Whitney Peak as Becca in Disney’s “Hocus Pocus 2,” exclusively on Disney+. Photo by Matt Kennedy. © 2022 Disney Enterprises Inc. All rights reserved

Occult practices, such as tarot, are now openly practiced by teens from all walks of life and all faiths.

The portrayal of witchcraft and the Sanderson sisters in the new film had to change to meet the times.

Disney’s writers did this by injecting a prototypical “Sabrina” teen witch into the narrative. “You’re a witch,” exclaims Izzy (Belissa Escobedo) to Becca (Whitney Peak), two of the three teenagers who make up the new movie’s new coven and learn to combine their girl power to fight evil magic. The writers add crystals, herbs and moon pendants, all available at the local metaphysical store. The teens banish a curse with counterclockwise movements and use salt as a means of protection. 

In the new film, witchcraft is just a tool that can be used as its practitioners see fit. “Power is meant to be shared,” Izzy says. 

Director Anne Fletcher (“The Proposal”) includes a glimpse of the 1993 Marshall scene as tribute to the original, but Satan is no longer the source of the witches’ magic — nature is. The forest, where the teens’ rituals are held, is called sacred and, as shown in a flashback to the witches’ childhood in old Salem, the spell book they use is given to them by another woodland witch, not the devil. 

This is just more evidence we are in the prophesied “last days” prior to Jesus return. As I have mentioned many times on this website there were 300 plus prophecies of Jesus first coming to earth as given in Isaiah 53.

“But He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Isaiah 53:5-6

But there are 2000 prophecies about Jesus second coming to earth so we cannot say Jesus has not warned us beforehand.

“For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short… For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand.” Matthew 24:21-22, 24-25

MANKIND AND CREATION’S VASTNESS

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God in His Word reveals why He created human beings. We are meant to be in a relationship with Him.

Genesis 1:27 states: “God created mankind in his own image.”

Psalms 8:1–5 says: “O Lord … What is man that You take thought of him … Yet You have made him a little lower than God, And You crown him with glory and majesty!”

John 3:16 explains God gave humans His son to redeem us out of His love for us.

The vast expanse of space

These texts show that God is human-oriented: human beings are like God, and he values us highly.

“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands” Psalms 8:3-6

Note the contrast between vv. 3–4 and v. 5. Looking at the stars causes the psalmist to ask why He (God) cares for us. And yet in verse 5, He crowns us with glory and honour. The psalmist is clearly capable of meditating on his own insignificance in the light of the sky, and yet he also acknowledges God’s care for us in the way He made us.

Solomon makes a similar observation, this time concerning God dwelling in the temple he has just built.

“But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built! 1 Kings 8:27

Solomon prayed these words after God had manifested his special presence in the temple (1 Kings 8:10–11), so he wasn’t questioning whether God would care enough to dwell in the temple. Rather, he was marvelling that God would condescend so far and fill the temple with His glory. This is even more evident in the Incarnation, where the eternal Word of God “tabernacles among us” (John 1:14) as the human Jesus of Nazareth.

The vastness of the universe impresses on us God’s sheer immensity. Even the cosmos, as large as it is, can’t contain God! But we’re so small. Little dots on a single speck of a planet floating in some nondescript place in the vast cosmic dark. Does it make God feel immense? Of course, it does!

And yet, we are right at the centre of God’s spiritual concerns. The Incarnation proves that. But this disjunct is precisely what we’d expect of God.

“For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.’” Isaiah 57:15

God is a God of loving condescension. He voluntarily descends from His transcendent dignity to care for us “mere specks of dust”. What better way for God to create a context for that impression than to create a vast universe in which we’re alone on a tiny speck in the vast cosmic dark? He fills all things, yet concerns himself with us so much that He sends His eternal Son to become one of us to bring us into eternal communion with Him by making it possible for our Heavenly Father to send the eternal Holy Spirit to indwell our spirit.

“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Our spirit was always meant to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit, as this verse shows, our spirit is the lamp of the Lord which needs the Holy Spirit to function as God intended.

“The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all his innermost parts.” Proverbs 20:27

Extract from the article “Why did God make such a big universe?” by Shaun Doyle 19th July 2022 http://www.creation.com

ITALIANS HAVE MADE A WISE CHOICE

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Italy has elected Giorgia Meloni, its first female prime minister, whose focus on protecting the institution of the family and national identity has caused some media outlets to compare her ideology to “fascism.”

The 45-year-old firebrand insists she’s no fascist, just a proud conservative and nationalist, comfortable nevertheless with some of the hallmarks of Italian fascism, like this motto: God, fatherland and family,” CBS’ Chris Livesay reported.

Meloni’s previous strategy of rejecting any participation in government and remaining true to being the only opposition party through three different governments now seems to have paid off. Dissatisfied with all the other parties, many Italians seem prepared to vote for her.

The politician’s supporters see her as committed to upholding the values of God, family, and country as European leaders increasingly embrace cosmopolitan and secular values of supranational organizations like the European Union as opposed to individual nation-states. However, mainstream media outlets have tied Meloni and her party to fascism. As conservative political commentator Ann Coulter pointed out, a New York Times article used the word “fascist” or “fascism” 28 times when discussing the possibility of a Meloni victory.

Meloni has elaborated on her philosophy in multiple speeches over the past few years. In a speech at the World Congress of Families in 2019, she asked, “Why is the family an enemy? Why is the family so frightening?” “There is a single answer to all these questions,” she suggested. “Because it defines us. Because it is our identity. Because everything that defines us is now an enemy for those who would like us to no longer have an identity and to simply be perfect consumer slaves.”

Meloni lamented what she viewed as attacks on “national identity,” “religious identity,” “gender identity” and “family identity.” She expressed concern that “I can’t define myself as Italian, Christian, woman, mother” but instead must define herself as “citizen x, gender x, parent 1, parent 2.”

“I must be a number. Because when I am only a number, when I no longer have an identity or roots, then I will be the perfect slave at the mercy of financial speculators,” she added. Meloni stated that her opposition to serving as “the perfect slave at the mercy of financial speculators” is why “we inspire so much fear.” Meloni vowed to “defend the value of the human being,” stressing that “each of us has a unique genetic code that is unrepeatable.” “That is sacred. We will defend it. We will defend God, family and country, those things that disgust people so much,” Meloni said. The Italian politician cited the defence of God, family and country as necessary to “defend our freedom” and ensure that “we will never be slaves and simple consumers at the mercy of financial speculators.”

DEMONIC DECEPTION IS REAL, SAYS EX-PSYCHIC

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An ex-psychic whose encounter with tarot card reading as a child led her on a journey into new-age practices and the occult is offering a dire warning about the “deception” and dangers she encountered.

Jenn Nizza spent years doing readings and communicating with what she believed were the dead loved ones of her clients — until she had an encounter with Jesus that changed everything.

The hidden dangers of alternative spirituality in contemporary America and its churches.

Nizza recently told “The Playing With Fire Podcast” about how her journey into the occult unfolded at a “very young age” when the “door was open” inside her home. Despite being culturally Catholic, she said paranormal discussions were a regular occurrence with her family.

“In my home, it was very acceptable to talk about paranormal activity, what people commonly call ghosts, which, of course, were demons,” she said. “I had my very first tarot card reading [at the age of 13].”

Around the same time, Nizza said she had already begun experiencing what she now believes was demonic oppression. She started having dreams about events that would essentially come true. Rather than flee from these practices and experiences, Nizza became enamored and dove in even deeper after her first tarot reading.

“That’s when I really walked through the door, because I was so intrigued by it, and I started seeking it out. … I went full-in,” she said. “It was a rabbit hole of destruction. … I had my own tarot cards. I kept going for readings; I became addicted to it.” Nizza found herself exploring numerology (the occultic practice of exploring the relation of numbers to events) and astrology (divination that involves celestial objects), among other techniques.

At the same time, she faced struggles with depression, as well as an eating disorder.

Still, Nizza forged on and started doing readings for friends, family, and eventually other clients. She said she eventually believed “every single lie the New Age,” told her.

She Believed She Was Helping

Nizza said she really believed she was helping people through her “abilities” and made an important proclamation about many of the psychics and mediums she has known. While many Christians might assume these individuals have diabolical plans, most believe they’re assisting others.

“This is part of the destruction that happens,” she said. “I think it’s the first line of deception … I’ve always been a compassionate person and these psychic mediums, for the most part, are nice, compassionate people that really do want to help other people.”

But people engaging in such things, she said, have become spiritually vulnerable, believing the evil they’ve allowed in is somehow a form of good.

“Satan masquerades as an angel of light,” Nizza said. “You think that you’re a servant of righteousness.”

“For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.” 2 Corinthians 11:13-14

A Warning About Demons

Rather than receiving information from sources of good, she said demons, whom she described as fallen angels, are “giving psychics information.”

“Demons are real and they hate us, and they hate God, and they’re on a mission to get us away from the Lord,” Nizza said, adding they predict what will unfold but can’t know for sure.

As a former medium, she believed she was communicating with the dead but now acknowledges the spirits she once channeled were demonic.

“There is no good spirit talking to a psychic. … They masquerade as your deceased loved ones,” Nizza said. “When it seemed like mom or dad or grandma, and you’re crying with your client … that seems good and comfortable.” But the ex-psychic said mediums are actually convening with evil.

Finding Jesus in the Mess

As for Nizza’s own journey away from the occult, she said she eventually hit her absolute lowest point and found herself calling out to Christ.

“When I was 36, I first cried out to Jesus,” she said. “I was at the lowest of the low, the lowest moments of my life — one of the darkest moments. … My soul, my spirit, knew to cry out to Jesus. I needed Him.”

By the time she turned 37, her Christian journey had finally begun.

Reflecting on all that unfolded, Nizza — who believes she was oppressed throughout her life but not possessed — found it fascinating she turned to Christ rather than the spirits she spent years adoring.

“I didn’t cry out to a deceased person, a spirit guide, an angel, anybody who I thought I was communicating with all those years,” she said. “I cried out to Jesus Christ and He really did show up.”

Nizza continued, “The Gospel is what saves.”

She also offered a warning to anyone considering or in the midst of pondering occultic and New-Age practices: beware of the dangers. “If you go down the wrong road — it just takes one tarot card reader on TikTok, one person in the new age, one ‘love and lighter’ to tell you that you are gifted,” she said. “And you are going to go down the rabbit hole of destruction.”

DEMONIC ACTIVITY PREVALENT IN THE LAST DAYS

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From the author that brought you 6 New York Times best-selling books including The Harbinger, The Book of Mysteries, The Oracle and The Harbinger II

Jonathan Cahn joins Erick Stakelbeck on TBN’s Praise to discuss his new book, The Return of the Gods. Cahn takes his readers on an unforgettable journey into the mysterious secrets of Biblical and ancient Middle Eastern parables and inscriptions — information that sheds light on the cataclysmic occurrences taking place right now in America and across the earth. These ancient prophecies and mysteries hold important clues to both the wickedness assaulting our world today and who is involved in initiating it, from the evil and troubling images that confront us on our computer monitors and television screens, to the breakdown of society and culture, the attack on our communities, families, and children, and the alarming present-day transformation of America and the world?

Biblical prophecy reveals; Jesus told us beforehand (Olivet Discourse in Matthew and Luke) that prior to His return it will be like the days of Noah when lawlessness abounded and indeed demonic activity was rife.