Connecting to the True Vine

I am sure like me many of you have read John 15, where Jesus says, ‘I am the Vine, you are the branches and My Father is the Husbandman.’ There is a wonderful little book that was written many years ago by Andrew Murray called The True Vine.

While this pandemic has been on, I have spent over ten weeks studying this passage of scripture. I have been asking myself the question, where is the real anointing of Christ and why does the world seem to be in such a mess, the established churches and their leaders so weak and ineffective? I have come to the conclusion as many prophetic people around the world have that Satan is now present on the earth and is establishing his kingdom. We are told in the word of God that the time will come when Satan will be allowed by Almighty God to establish his kingdom upon the earth and go to war with the saints. Many years ago, Pastor David Wilkerson of Times Square Church, New York, preached a message Satan’s Final War Plan Exposed

He brought out the point that if we allow the fly in the ointment (Ecclesiastes 10:1), which refers to the anointing of God, then it turns the oil to putrefaction, which is the same with the anointing of God. This is in direct correlation with John 15. If we allow unconfessed sin into our hearts and our lives then there is a disconnect with the True Vine, Jesus Christ.

Over the many years, I have seen a lot of nonsense in pentecostal churches. Like Pastor David, I have seen people fall on the floor, I have seen people writhe on the floor like snakes, I have seen people scream and shout, but sadly when they get back up off the floor they are no different. I believe the true anointing comes through the word of God by allowing the word of God to permeate through our souls, to become obedient to what the word is saying and put it into action in our lives.

There is a major word that is missing from many ministries across this world. Is the first word that Jesus preached in Luke’s gospel, it is the first word that John the Baptist preached to the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the people of his day. Peter preached it, also Paul, and it is a word that is lost from our churches and sadly our ministers. It is the word repentance. Many Christians today do not understand what true repentance is. They are living under the delusion that their sins are forgiven, past, present and future, and they can behave in any manner they choose, as grace covers a multitude of sins. Many people would call this hyper-grace. I would call it deception. There is nowhere in the New Testament where it tells a believer we can live like an angel on a Sunday and a pig on a Monday.

I personally believe this COVID-19 is a wake-up call for the world and the body of Christ. The Chief Executive of Christian Concern, Andrea Minichiello Williams, recently has put out a YouTube video where she states clearly where is the voice of the true body of Christ?

Why are there not senior church leaders standing up for the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ? Sadly, we all know the answer to that if we are close to Jesus. God our Father, Jesus Christ our Saviour and God the eternal Holy Spirit are allowing Satan to set up his kingdom. Satan does not have to go after the minions; he has already got them. He does not have to go after the media; he owns that. He does not have to go after the Internet or Hollywood; he is in total control of all this media. So what can we do? If you are a born-again, Spirit-filled believer, you can revoke your BBC TV licence as you are allowing filth and degradation to come into your homes. You can write to your MP to ask them to push back the abortion laws and promote the freedom of speech and the decency of our nation. You can vote with your feet and not buy videos or watch Netflix with programmes which blaspheme the name of God or use foul language. You may say that you are strong enough spiritually to withstand this onslaught but I would like to tell you, you are deceiving yourselves. If more of us in the body of Christ stood for holiness and righteous lives I believe the spiritual dimension of this nation would change. If we spent more time on our knees seeking our Father than the box in the corner or our hobbies I believe we would see a true major revival in our land and across the world again, but as long as we compromise with the world and the world system we affect the anointing that only comes from Christ.

Many years ago, the former Pastor Reinhard Bonnke said, to understand the anointing we need to understand the anointed one, Jesus Christ. We as ministers have no power of our own. We are as Pastor Bonnke once said, no more than fuse wire, but I am led to believe the most perfect conductor is pure gold. So if you want to be effective in the body of Christ, you need to go and open yourself up to the Holy Spirit and allow Him to clean out the garbage and to purify you. Your pastors, your elders are not the answer. We are told in the word of God to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto us, and we are also told to look unto Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith. So if you are tampering with sin then I can assure you, you are drawing your source from another system. So I leave these challenges with you as I am challenged too as I believe it is time now to prepare ourselves for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. I personally do not believe we have long, but that is dependent on God.

Rev Ross Rennie

What goes in must come out

I have been challenged this morning by the Lord. As many of you know, I am not religious. I am a man of faith and I would believe I walk in grace. But I have found myself recently being challenged by what I watch and what I read. It has been said that the eyes are the windows to the soul and what goes in must come out. Our ears are a doorway to the soul. Again what goes in must come out. We put food in our mouths and it has been said, what we eat we become. So if our ears are the doorway and our eyes are the window of the soul it is clear to me what goes in has to come out. So when we are watching East Enders, Coronation Street, reality shows, is that wholesome, is it pleasing? The word of God says, Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things (Philippians 4: 8). So do not take my word for it, read your own Bibles.

I believe this is the problem with most of the established church. I myself was caught up in a lie for about seven years as I misinterpreted Scripture and believed I could do as I liked and there were no consequences, as my sins were forgiven, past, present and future. I could watch what I wanted, do what I wanted and there were no consequences. That was my mistake, not that of those who taught me, but my interpretation of what I believed was extended grace. The Bible says it is a bad thing when we deceive ourselves. The consequences of this were I ended up in the wilderness for a long time. The good news is I am out of the wilderness now and I for one would never want to go back into that deception.

I have been challenged by the Lord about that little screen in the corner of our house and I believe it is now a time when all Christians need to make a stand and cancel their TV licences with the BBC. I myself have challenged the BBC and I have found out that whether you watch the BBC or not you are paying for their anti-Christ, LGBT agenda. What perverted, degenerate producer came up with the title ‘Gay Britannia’? I think this is an insult to Queen Victoria and all the God-fearing people that lived before us. I suggest this is not the time to be passive but to be proactive and write to your MP and the Director General Lord Hall. Do not write to the complaints department. Write to Lord Hall and bombard him with your disgust. Or make a bolder stand and cancel your TV licence. There will be outcries from your children, but you are responsible for your children, what they watch, what they do, and it is your responsibility to bring them up in the nurture and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. When they are old enough they can make their own decisions.

Unfortunately we as a Christian nation have compromised and, as somebody once said, you do not have to become an ape to win apes. This society is trying to rewrite the Bible. We are the people with the truth and the world is the one with the lie and the father of lies, the devil. Stand up, stand up for Jesus and follow the cross.

If you agree with us, contact us. If you disagree, we would still like to hear from you. As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.

Please share this article with your friends and family.

Rev Ross Rennie

Whatsoever Things Are Lovely and Honest…

Passchendaele New British CemeteryThe world has just remembered Passchendaele and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge honoured our nation for the loss or wounding of about 275,000 allied troops in the mud and the squalor of Passchendaele. What were they fighting for? Freedom and democracy.

I believe we are moving into a time when many of these freedoms will be taken away from us and I believe this is the time when the church of Jesus Christ should rise up.

There is a left-wing, LGBT agenda, which unfortunately if you are TV licence payer you are paying for every time you pay your TV licence.

I do not know if you are like me, but I am appalled at the left-wing agenda that the BBC seem to be promoting. It is our duty as Christians to stand up for truth so I would urge you to pick up a pen and paper and write to your MP, the Prime Minister and the Director General of the BBC, Lord Hall. If you can live without a TV, the ultimate thing you can do is disconnect your television, which much of today seems to be anti-Christ promoting values that the BBC was never set up to do. Their founders on their own statue of a sower which can be found in Broadcasting House stated clearly,

Inscription

This temple of the arts and muses is dedicated to Almighty God by the first Governors in the year of our Lord 1931, John Reith being Director-General. And they pray that good seed sown may bring forth good harvest, and that all things foul or hostile to peace may be banished thence, and that the people inclining their ear to whatsoever things are lovely and honest, whatsoever things are of good report, may tread the path of virtue and wisdom.

So it would be clear to me the founders of the BBC believed in the Bible. The present Director General it is very clear by the types of programmes he is sanctioning does not hold any of these values that the founders believed in, which are much of the values of the Bible and God’s word.

So now is not the time to procrastinate. It is time to make your voice heard. Share this with your brothers and sisters in church, as one letter to an MP or the BBC is equivalent to a thousand. We can make a difference if we stand up and are counted. There is an old saying, evil increases because men and women do nothing. If you agree with me, let me know. If you disagree , also let us know.

May God bless us as we all stand up for truth and justice in our nation.

Rev Ross Rennie

Intolerance – in the United Kingdom and Cambodia

Rev Ross Rennie, Director of Grace Missions, recently wrote to Mrs Theresa May, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He assured her of his prayers, and those of many other Christians, regardless of political views or affiliation, who accept the authority of the Bible’s injunction in 1 Timothy 2: 1-2 to pray for all who are in authority. He wrote,

You are my prime minister and as long as you decide to keep your position I and the true Christian church of Jesus Christ will pray for your protection, for wisdom for our nation, to heal the wounds and rebuild this country, to root out bigotry and hatred in our nation, so as an Englishman I and others can be proud again of our nation and our democracy.

Ross also alerted the Prime Minister to two dangers which cause him great concern.

The Intolerance of the British Media

In his letter to Mrs May and another to the Director General of the BBC, Ross expressed his disappointment and anger at how the BBC has abandoned the value of impartiality with which it was founded and has become a platform for elitist, anti-Christian, anti-Brexit views. This is symptomatic of the way our news media have been corrupted.

To quote The Christian Institute,

The BBC has openly mocked the beliefs of millions of Christians and others with socially conservative views in its election commentary.

During an interview on Monday morning, Radio 4 presenter John Humphrys laughed at former MLA Nelson McCausland when he stated that the DUP’s policies are “compassionate”.

The BBC also ran a sizeable feature highlighting mockery of the DUP’s socially conservative values by various satirists.

Other media outlets have attacked the party for its views on sexual morality and marriage in recent days.

Telegraph columnist Dr Tim Stanley said the hostility shown towards the DUP because of its stance on same-sex marriage and abortion shows that mainstream Christian beliefs have become toxic in politics.

Writing about the resignation of Tim Farron as leader of the Liberal Democrat Party, who said, “To be a political leader… and to live as a committed Christian… has felt impossible for me”, Andrea Williams, CEO of Christian Concern and the Christian Legal Centre, said,

“Tim Farron’s treatment demonstrates that Christians are simply not tolerated by the illiberal elite in positions of influence. This, alongside the widespread reaction to the DUP’s views on abortion and same-sex unions, is further evidence of this anti-Christian morality.

“The vilification of the DUP for its opposition to abortion and same-sex unions and castigation of Tim Farron is shocking and upsetting. If we continue in this crusade of ‘totalitolerance’, we will enter a harsh and conformist world where Christianity will be ‘no platformed’ and eventually squeezed out of every sphere of public life. The elite determines what are toxic unacceptable views. Unless you approve of their ‘new morality’ you are punished. At first comes the loss of privilege, a political position, a place at university, then the detriment: the refusal of a grant and ultimately criminal sanction.”

The Intolerance of Opposition in Cambodia

Ross wrote to Mrs May about the possibility of violence in Cambodia if the opposition party wins next year’s general election:

Many in Cambodia are very concerned about the possible actions of Mr Hun Sen, the Prime Minister, who has over many years marginalised all opposition even back to the time in 1997 when using his control of the army he ousted Prince Norodom Ranariddh when they were first and second prime ministers in a coalition government.

For many years Hun Sen has been seeking to neutralise the principal opposition party and he has made repeated threats that he will hold on to power, if necessary using military force, even if his party loses in the general election.

When Ross wrote to Boris Johnson, Foreign Secretary, asking to discuss this with him, he was told he was too busy. Instead he was assured that the British government was giving money to Cambodia for election monitoring. Ross suggested to Mrs May that this was like giving money to Hitler to protect the Jews.

Alarm Bells

The alarm bells are ringing.

The tendency of the authorities in the United Kingdom seems to be to ignore them and only take action when it is too late, whether it is erecting barriers to protect pedestrians on London’s bridges or enforcing fire safety standards in high-rise buildings. Christians should be different.

  • It was said of the sons of Issachar they were “men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do….” (1 Chronicles 12: 32).
  • The Lord said to Ezekiel, “If the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet and the people are not warned, and a sword comes and takes a person from them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require from the watchman’s hand.” (Ezekiel 33: 6)

Where are the watchmen? Who will speak up? Who will give a warning? What will you do?