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Don't Miss Steve Shultz
on the MIRACLE CHANNEL April 25th & 26th
April 24, 2005
 As
promised, we would like to let you know that Steve Shultz of The Elijah List will
be airing on The Miracle Channel and will be featuring two programs. The first program
will air on Thursday, April 21st, at 12:00pm, 8:00pm, and 6:00am Monday, April 25th.
The second program airs on Monday, April 25th, at 12:00pm, 8:00pm and 6:00am on
Tuesday, April 26th (Mountain time).
The programs will also air one week and a day later on Faith TV out of Odessa, Florida,
and Alpha and Omega Broadcasting out of Albuquerque, NM. For more information, visit
www.faithtelevisionnetwork.com
and http://www.kazq32.org/.
It can also be seen on the Miracle Channel website at
www.miraclechannel.ca. Click on the "Watch
us Online" icon in the upper right hand corner to watch.
If you have questions about the webcast,
please email lifeline@miraclechannel.ca.
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April 24, 2005
"Did
God Really Say?"
by Steve Shultz
The Elijah List
www.elijahlist.com
elijahlist@qwest.net
 SATAN
IS "IN YOUR FACE." GOD IS "BEHIND YOU."
Since the Garden of Eden, Satan has confronted man -- to his face!
His question -- his accusation -- has always been, "Did God really say that?"
And now he's lying to the church again, in a very big way. His claim? His accusation
is that God isn't speaking to His Church at all any more -- other than what was
written 2,000 years ago. And millions have believed this lie.
In-your-face doubt is his specialty.
The problem in "The Garden" was that there was truth in Satan's accusation to Eve
against God that day. God really did say some of what Satan
claimed. Satan, who Jesus called "The Father of Lies," and "a liar from the beginning,"
knew the ropes about how to go about the process of deception.
Satan first claimed that God's problem was that He knew if Adam and Eve ate of the
tree of Life, that they would become like God. That part was actually true. God
even admitted it a bit later in the story.
The Serpent twisted and contorted what he knew to be the truth. What he said
contained truth, but it was not "truthful."
"You will
not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat
of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
Genesis 3:4,5 (Emphasis mine)
After the fall, God confirmed Satan's
statement:
"And the
LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil.
He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life
and eat, and live forever." Genesis 3:21,22 (Emphasis mine)
SATAN TALKS UP A STORM
Satan is not terribly creative. He never stops talking, all the while convincing
much of the Church that God has HIMSELF stopped talking.
Satan is still saying, "Has God really said that? Is God really talking to you?"
Satan continues, "Or has He pulled back, because God still doesn't want you to become
like Him?"
Because of Satan's incessant accusing, it is critical that you understand one of
his favorite lies of all time -- that God is NOT talking to you -- at all!
Satan snarls, "God is way too busy with the things of the universe and the world
to talk to little ol' you!"
And far too many Christians believe it. Direct from the pit of hell, this lie is
repeated and yet, by the millions, it sounds so credible that "Believers" don't
actually BELIEVE that God is alive and well and is, Himself, talking up a storm
TO YOU.
This is written to expose that lie -- to every Christian of every denomination.
Many Christians I've spoken to, who have tried to convince me that God doesn't speak
to people today except through Scripture, are the same fellow Christians who, by
one method or another, teach their own children and friends that God DOES INDEED
SPEAK!
Confused? You should be. Because those Christians, themselves, are confused and
don't even know it. While protesting that God doesn't speak today, they'll say things
like, "I just felt like I should call Joe, for some reason." Or they'll say, "I
had an impression that I should go visit my aunt today."
If you pressed them to the point, as I have, most end up admitting that this must
have been God somehow impressing on them to do something. Thus the contradiction.
He doesn't speak . . . but then . . . He does speak, doesn't He?
Much of what you read in these pages will begin to clarify and make exciting the
possibilities . . . that, if these thoughts and impressions are indeed from God,
then what more might be out there from God -- that "He wants to say to me?!"
GOD SPEAKS AND THE STORM IS CALMED
Satan talks up a storm. Yet, God shows up, speaks daily, and calms it.
Let's repeat the good news about God. He is still talking -- and He's talking
to YOU -- all of the time!
Oddly enough, most Christians actually know that . . . somewhere deep inside, they
know that it's not only the Holy Written Word of God that is spoken (which of course
is "the" standard by which everything else must be judged), but at a heart level,
most groan for more communication with God that they sense other Christians have!
We all want our revelation to become more alive and real, vibrant, moving, changeless,
yet ever creative. Most of us know it's there, yet we grasp with all that is within
us to realize -- in our experience -- what the old songs have claimed all along!
I serve a risen Savior - He's in
the world today,
I know that He is living, what ever men may say,
I see His hand of mercy, I hear His voice of cheer,
And just the time I need Him, He's always near . . .
He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today!
He walks with me and talks with me along life's narrow way.
He lives, He lives, salvation to impart!
You ask me how I know He lives? He lives within my heart
See?
Still others have sung since childhood,
"I come to the garden alone, while
the dew is still on the roses . . . and the voice I hear . . . falling on my ear
. . . the Son of God discloses . . . AND . . . He walks with me, and He talks
with me, and he tells me I am His own . . . "
God, from the beginning, has been
all about the business of proving to mankind that He is alive! He wants us to know
what He really is saying and has been saying . . . and continues to
say.
The confusing part is that the Church, as a whole, has believed that He is alive,
while also being clueless as to what God is up to.
Let me tell you the answer to the question. He's up to good things for you, personally,
daily, in your life. He rejoices over you with singing and He calls you His friend.
He longs to converse with you, not just as words on a page, but as the Love of your
life.
SO WHAT DOES HE SOUND LIKE?
Sometimes God holds Himself back, almost hiding Himself because, as one pastor put
it, "He wants you to chase Him until HE CATCHES YOU!" (Proverbs 25:2)
He may reveal Himself as that "still small voice" (I Kings 19:12). He is the One
Who must be carefully discerned and sought after with all your heart -- to know
His will (Deuteronomy 4:29).
And yet, at other times, He shows Himself in thunderings (John 12:29). Still, other
times He is to you that Creator who says, "You-have-not-because-you-ask-not" (James
4:2); He Who wants to have a special relationship with you, but yet He needs you
to seek Him for it (John 15:15).
In His personal story -- Jesus' mother, Mary, appears to "ambush" her own Son at
a wedding party one day. I love that this whole thing started at a raucous party
with rejoicing. He is our Bridegroom, is He not?
"God with skin on" -- Jesus, Who claimed that His time had not yet come, was there
with His mother at the wedding. Perhaps Mary had heard the Father's voice tell her
something that morning. Perhaps Jesus was just testing her level of belief when
He refused help at first. This would not be the last time He would
first pretend to refuse to help! (Later in His ministry, Jesus would pretend not
to help the woman at Tyre. But when He had tested her faith, He instantly healed
her daughter.)
But this is for sure what happened at the Wedding party in Cana...
Jesus' mother, after telling Jesus that the wine was gone, said to the servants,
"Do whatever He tells you" (John 2:5).
God is still saying, "If you listen and do what I tell you to do . . . things will
go so much better for you! You'll be like a house built on the solid Rock, if you'll
just hear and do what I'm telling you to do" (Luke 6:47,48).
My goodness! He loves to talk to people! If you think Satan is an incessant talker,
he has nothing over on the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
THIS IS YOUR SITUATION.
The reason I can state, as fact, that this is your situation, is that it's everyone's
situation.
Satan is always in your face, like a roaring lion . . . LYING. He's always asking
you, "Did God really say that to you?" Or "Aren't you just making that up in your
mind, that you feel God is telling you that? Aren't those times you felt God speak
to you, just your vivid imagination at work?"
Meanwhile, God, the other kind of Lion, the Lion of Judah, comes to you in whatever
fashion He chooses: as Thunder, or in the "still small voice"; in a vision, or a
light impression; in Scripture, or a dream in the night. He waits, usually patiently
(but not always patiently), to be invited into your mind, your thoughts, your heart,
and your life.
Once "in," however -- once you finally believe not only that He speaks, but that
He wants to speak to you, He's got you! You're addicted. Because God is the
ultimate addiction. The more He talks, the more you want to hear Him talk.
Every other addiction in the world is the enemy's cheap substitute for being addicted
to God.
He's the One of whom the Scripture refers when "HE" says,
"Whether
you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you,
saying, 'This is the way; walk in it.'" Isaiah 30:21,22 (Emphasis
mine)
WHY IS HE BEHIND YOU?
Why does God represent Himself as a "voice behind you"?
Is it because He's difficult to hear? No, it's not that at all, because sometimes,
as we've said, He's loud!
"On the Lord's
Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a
trumpet, which said: 'Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches
. . . '" Revelation 1:10,11 (Emphasis mine)
I believe, fervently, that He is the
voice behind you, because He's got your back.
He's telling you that in Scripture. He sees the "unseen." He knows the location
of every demon at every moment on earth, 24 hours a day, and He's got your back.
He's guiding you with his eye.
And since He can see that which we cannot see -- ought we not to listen closely
to His voice and learn to hear it better? Wouldn't that be an improvement over Satan's
lie that God isn't even speaking today?
But, beware . . . if Satan knows that you are settled that God is actually alive
and speaking today, his lie has to change to this . . . Satan whispers, "He certainly
doesn't have time for your puny, little problems. Look at all the
suffering in the world!" The Devil says, "Why should God care about your car, or
your house, or your child who is healthy?"
SATAN'S BIG FEAR
Satan doesn't want you to hear God's voice. Why? Because you will be quickly transformed
by it and the enemy is scared to death about your transformation . . . because the
more you are transformed, the more you will be an infectious Christian.
But worse, you will continue to be even more transformed. Faster and faster,
from glory to glory, because the more you hear, the more you'll want to hear from
Heaven -- and Satan is shaking in his boots about that.
How do I know?
It's in the Word through the first miracle Jesus ever performed. Jesus was painting
a word picture on the canvas of our hearts and minds to demonstrate His priorities
toward sinful and wounded people -- the ones He died for.
What painting is that, you ask?
"Nearby stood
six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding
from twenty to thirty gallons." John 2:6
It's fascinating to me that 20-30
gallons is the rough volume of the human body (I know because I calculated it).
And even a surface study of the Word teaches that "six" represents the number of
man. Jesus was making a point here. God told Mary to tell Jesus to fill six stone-cold,
empty, dirty, water jars -- the "kind used for ceremonial washing." Each jar seems
to represent filthy, dried up, set-off-to-the-side, or abused mankind -- you and
me.
As mankind, we stand in all our filth. We are the ceremonial pots and legalistic
rituals, and Jesus wants to transform us into the best wine which was saved for
last. Where Believers are caught in traditions, the Lord wants to transform
us for expeditions. He even claims, in the Word, that those who know their
God will do great exploits (Daniel 11:32)!
SOME ARE ABOUT TO BE JOLTED. SOME SIMPLY
AWAKENED.
God is upon you in this hour (or you wouldn't be reading this), and you are about
to jolted awake.
One scientist, decades ago, deduced that in order for that water to be changed into
wine in an instant, it might have taken an electrical jolt bigger than the power
produced by the Hoover Dam -- the same project he was doing the electrical engineering
for. God showed him a dream that illustrated this. Dreams are one of the Lord's
many ways to speak today. So, this engineer acquired some pottery from Jesus' day
and duplicated its composition to hold the electricity (in the form of electrical
insulators) and all the power that would need to be produced by the Hoover Dam.
The project was a miraculous breakthrough and a roaring success.
For some of you who are reading right now, and are seeking to hear God's voice better
than you already do, this will be less of a jolt to your paradigm of understanding;
but it will be to you a fresh jump-start, an awakening if you will, into the transformation
of your inner man. The more "awakened" you become to God's desire to talk to you,
the greater will be your desire to pursue His every avenue to hear HIS voice more.
And God loves a great pursuit!
This teaching contains help for you to hear His voice for the first time -- or to
hear it better and better until the end of time.
And, through it, some of you will begin to grasp -- perhaps for the first time --
that you've been hearing His voice your entire life!
With new revelation that will come through Scriptures and stories, you will most
certainly begin to hear His voice better than you currently do. You will even begin
to hear His voice "on purpose" instead of by accident.
He is the voice behind you -- He's standing in the background. But He is
continually speaking to you. And yes, you are hearing Him, whether you've realized
it or not -- all along!
It matters not if you are a Baptist, Pentecostal, or "Bapticostal" -- you've all
been hearing His voice since you were born.
You're just getting warmed up!
I feel like saying, "Ladies and Gentlemen . . . Start your engines!"
by Steve Shultz
The Elijah List
www.elijahlist.com
elijahlist@qwest.net
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