The Lukewarm Church
in America

By Carlos A. Oliveira








Introduction

"These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God:
'I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked— I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.'"
Revelation 3:14-19
 
The only motivation that led me to write this book is to see the American church rise up again with power, anointing and holiness like never before. It is to see true deliverance and repentance take place everywhere, throughout this wonderful nation, as lives are being touched by the power of the Holy Spirit as they come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, the only and one Savior.

I truly desire to see people being saved and delivered from the power of Satan, the most powerful enemy of our souls, and become what God has planned for them to be--mighty men and women of God, “light” and “salt.”

I don’t mean to criticize but to exhort the Americans because I recognize that God has chosen this nation to spread the Gospel throughout the entire world. But the time has come now, I believe, that the American church will need to step up to the plate changing their strategies of evangelizing the third world nations by giving away “candies” to children for a much more profound way of evangelization--the transformation power that is in God‘s Spirit and His Word. The nations need much more than just material supplies, such as candies, etc., they need the real deal. They need to know the difference between God and Satan, freedom and bondage, life and death, and so forth. I also understand that you only can give what you have, and if the American church does not have the power of God within then it is not expectable to see the church impacting other peoples and nations because they don’t have too much to offer.

The American church needs to be evangelized very seriously. The true Gospel has been kicked out of many temples giving place now to fables, shows, programs, humanism, feminism, science, culture, the occult, self-seeking seminars, money motivation courses, greed, racism, prejudice, yoga, transcendental meditation, etc. The transformation power of the Holy Spirit has been kept out. Now, this is, of course, based on a generalized view of the church and not in its totality.

The reason I have been focusing on the American church it’s because of the influence that this church has had over the rest of the world. That doesn’t mean the churches around the world are in better shape, I truly believe that the church around the world, in general, is pretty much like the American one.

American church, wake up! Rise up! Step up to the plate! Repent! Weep! Pray! Cry! Come back to Jesus! Come back to God!





Wake Up American Church! Wake Up!

When I first came to America I heard about an Argentine preacher who was traveling all over the United States, teaching American pastors and leaders how to pray,  then I thought to myself “something is wrong with this picture.” The Americans have always been known as the world evangelizers and now someone comes in from a third world country and begin teaching pastors and Christian leaders how to pray? Well, if the pastors and leaders in the U.S. don’t know how to pray, then, definitely something is not right.

The impression that I always had about the American leaders was the one of anointed men and women of God, sold out to Jesus, due to the fact that, when I was living abroad, I used to read many books which told tremendous stories about their faith and how bold and anointed some of the Christians leaders were. I have read many accounts of evangelists who prayed and preached boldly the Gospel of Jesus Christ to multitudes of people, and so forth, and even to the point of going to prison for God‘s sake. I’ve read many stories of tremendous breakthroughs that have happened in the past. But now, what happened? Where has all this move of God gone to? Why is that we don’t see happening today the same mighty move of the Holy Spirit that many Christians have written books about long ago? What went wrong?






“Spiritual Blindness” One of Satan’s Most Powerful Strategies To Deceive Christians

Evil Oppression and Possession Inside The Church, Overlooked by Christian Leaders.

I don’t mean to scare you, I just mean to warn you about what I believe is one of the most powerful tactics Satan has ever used inside our churches--Spiritual Blindness. Oppression and possession by evil spirits inside our churches are also being overlooked, and not being taken very seriously by our leaders.

Satan is still the number one killer in the entire world today. Now, honestly, how often do you hear your pastor say something like what I just said? Or, perhaps, I should have asked, "When was the last time your heard any of your leaders talking about oppression and possession inside the church?" Usually we have more important things to talk about, such as: football games, parties, Halloweens, Christmas programs, shows, movies, weddings, and so forth. We as church leaders are ignoring the warnings God’s Word gives us. Perhaps, we are not taking God’s counsels seriously.

It doesn’t matter where I go to minister, whether here in the U.S. or overseas, whether here or there, whether at Pr. Good Guy’s church or at Pr. Bad Guy’s evangelistic meeting, one thing I always encounter--evil spirits. Evil manifestations of all kinds, colors and shapes happening inside our churches. That tells me something that the church of Jesus Christ is not yet completely set free.

Recently I was invited to minister at a couple of churches in Taiwan. There also the situation wasn’t different than the one in the United States. During our regular ministrations, under the power of the Holy Spirit, demons began to manifest in both Christians and non-Christians alike. Most of the manifestations were happening in the stomach and abdomen areas, due to the fact that in Asia it is very common to hear about food and drink being offered to idols during ritual ceremonies and festivals. As some of you may know that that kind of religious rituals is very common in Asian countries, it is a part of their tradition to sacrifice foods to idols and then eat them. Many children are also victims of this abuse since they have no choice but to obey their parents. This is one of the types of generational curses that travel in the family tree passing on from generation to generation. Now if you were to ask me what is the church in Asia doing to change the reality there, I would say “not much” especially because they are following the footsteps of the American church very closely. Anyway, the crisis in the church of Jesus Christ is everywhere, but again, the church in Asia is not the one influencing the rest of the world. Don’t get me wrong I am not denying the restoration and transformation power given by Jesus Christ, I am not just seeing the church stepping up to the plate to be what Jesus has called it to be.






The Letter Kills, The Spirit Gives Life?

"He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." 2 Corinthians 3:6

Generally, the service formats in churches are pretty much the same no matter where you go. I have already visited many churches in many cities and states in this country, and approximately 98% of them are exactly the same. A little praise and worship, then the word, the offering, and for last the cookies. Deliverance ministration is what the church is lacking. What sets people free unfortunately is not in their agenda. Now, let's go to the word of God to see what Jesus' response to the needs of the people was:

^"Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people." Matthew 4:23

"Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness." Matthew 9:35

"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the  Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound."  Luke 4:4

Dear reader, if the church you go to is lacking any of the underlined ministries above I suggest you look for another one. Jesus is our role model, and we should follow His steps.

What I have seen in the majority of the congregations is the preachers starting their sermons with a "holy joke" in order to warm the members up. Have you ever seen that, too? For the first few minutes, usually with one of the hands in the pocket and with a straight face, they entertain the crowd not hesitating to make them laugh. The joke finding process usually happens during the preparation of the Sunday sermon, that's when they find time to surf the internet looking for "Christian jokes" to entertain the folks. Now, dear reader, have you ever read about Jesus or any of the apostles telling jokes to the crowds? Do you know why you don't come across anything like that? It's because they took the Gospel very seriously. The apostles really understood what Jesus' sacrifice on the cross really meant. They really knew what the atonement was all about. On the contrary we see how they were concerned about the people's spiritual needs, that's what mattered to them. Unlikely most of the ministers of today's Christianity, the apostles were all filled and baptized with the Holy Spirit. Well, it is because of things such as the lack of the Holy Spirit's anointing and power that the church today is so compromised and powerless! Shame on us!

The Signs And The Believers

"Go into all the world and preach the good news to every creature, he who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out  demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick and they will recover." Mark 16:15-18

Dear reader, let us put our brain to work a little bit now. The word of God states that after Jesus rose from the dead He appeared to His disciples and commended them to "preach the good news to every creature",  and He went on to say that the signs would follow the believers as well. Let's pause a little bit here, based on the above passage of the Scriptures, do you see any link between SIGNS and BELIEVERS or am I reading a different Gospel? My point is this, the signs are for today, and they are supposed to follow the believers. Now if you are a believer , but the signs spoken by Jesus are not following you nor being manifested in your ministry in any way, then according to God's word you are actually not  considered a believer, "these signs will follow those who believe", there's no believer without the manifestation of the signs, if you believe, according to the Scriptures, then the signs will always be following you. Now let me ask you a question, are the signs following you? If not, why not? How about your leaders? If your pastor has no signs accompanying his teachings and preaching, then according to God's word he is not a believer. The believer MUST have the signs following him/her, that's what the Word of God states. Now, ask your pastor when was the last time he cast a demon out of someone? Ask him when was the last time he prayed for a sick person and healed him/her? Ask him when was the last time he spoke in tongues? By asking him those questions you will know whether you are attending the right congregation or not. Test your leaders with the Scriptures to see whether they are from God or just mere business people as some of them even called the pastoral position a job.

The percentage of Christians under spiritual bondage in the church is very high. I could say without hesitation that the average congregation has approximately 30% of its members with serious spiritual problems even demon possession, so don't let your pastor say he does not have opportunities to set people free from spiritual bondage. I even have heard of pastors and deacons who were possessed by demons. If you read the book "Pigs in the Parlor" you will see how a pastor was delivered from demons.  A friend of mine, who pastored a church in Eugene, Oregon, mentioned to me that one day, at a home prayer meeting, one of his male deacons had a terrible manifestation of demons, up to that point no one knew that he was possessed by evil spirits. The fact is, in most cases, the people who are spiritually oppressed and possessed by evil spirits are not aware of that fact until some more serious things start happening, then that is when they start asking for help.

The Gifts Of The Spirit are for today!

  ^"And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues." I Corithians 12:28

Now-a-days it's very common to hear ministers say that the manifestations of the Holy Spirit, such as the gifts, are not for today. Some believe and even teach that the gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12) are no longer in operation, they were only assigned to the apostles and operated in the first century. They even say that the church does not need the gifts of the Spirit any longer.

"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the  Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound."  Isaiah 61:1 

Dear reader, we are Jesus Christ's representatives in the world today, if Jesus was anointed by God to preach, to heal and to set people free, we, as Heaven's ambassadors on earth, ought to do the same. Now my question is this, why are we not doing it? Why is the church neglecting such a wonderful manifestation of the Holy Spirit and not obeying His calling in its fullness? What are we missing? Jesus even gave to His church the same power and authority God gave Him. Please, read these verses below:

"All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth." Matthew 28:18

"I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy, nothing will harm you" Luke 10:19

" Go , therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Matthew 28:19-20

The same authority Jesus received from the Father He transferred to His church. Are there any more excuses?

Below is an email I received from a woman who was desperate for help and can't find any Spirit-Filled church in her region to assist her. Their names have been altered in order to protect their identities:

Another one:

Now let me ask you a question, Why aren't the churches doing deliverance as Jesus commanded them to do? What's the reason each congregation does not have a deliverance ministry available to the public?  Why do they normally refer cases like this above one to psychiatrics and psychologists? Dear reader, psychiatrics and psychologists are not qualified to cast out demons and to set spiritually oppressed people free, unless they are born-again believers and filled with the Holy Spirit. That's up to the Spirit-filled Christians only. That's up to the church of the Living God. Give me a break, please!

I have lost track of the numbers of emails I have received over the years from people in desperate situations, looking for spiritual help. Our churches are too busy with their programs of all kinds and secular agendas that they can't offer spiritual help to those in need. The Theological Seminaries out there don't really focus much on teaching the leaders of today's church about what really matters. These entities, such as Bible Colleges and Seminaries, especially in the U.S., concentrate more on how to form leaders who will speak fluently and eloquently in order to impress people, that's primarily their focus. Master and Doctor in Divinity are degrees that are frequently offered by these types of entities who focus more on the abilities of man rather than the power of God. It seems to me that they have not yet understood that " the letter kills, the Spirit gives life." 

 "He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." 2 Corinthians 3:6

Exposing The Works Of The Devil In The Church

"It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer,' but you have made it a den of thieves." Matthew 21:13

One day, while driving through the city of  Manteca, California, I was a bit surprised when passing by a big Calvary Church I saw a decoration made of many pumpkins, all around the main building, where the sanctuary was located. I believe there were dozens of them. That happened during the month of October 2003. Well, that got me thinking a little as I was a bit confused, due to the fact that, in my mind, pumpkin decorations during the month of October only had one significance--Halloween celebration (the exaltation of the devil). Well, by doing that, I believe, that church, perhaps out of ignorance of its leaders, was simply signing a letter of approval of that particular celebration, welcoming Satan into their congregation and giving him a legal ground for him to come in and disrupt the peace process, working to destroy people, families, people's health and finances, etc . That's one of the reasons some churches don't have the transformation power of the living God being manifested within. They worship the devil as well. They observe and celebrate pagan ceremonies  and festivals.

Most churches in America are blending in with the world. They seem to be looking for public acceptance and so forth. I even had unbelievers coming to me and saying that they don't attend church services regularly because Christian churches are no different than "social clubs". In fact I've been to a church in San Jose, California, that has built in a state-of-the-art gym for its members. I don't know whether they did that to attract more people or was just another way of making more money. If you go there and visit that gym, especially in the evenings, you will be able to see a lot of people working out, but if you stop by their prayer chapel you won't see anybody. Christians in America are not trained nor encouraged to pray, only to eat too much and have fun. Well, Jesus one day said that His house should be called a "house of prayer" (Matthew 21:13), but in some places the churches are everything else but houses of prayer. How about coffee shops in church buildings? Hey, I have nothing against coffee shops in church facilities, I enjoy coffee myself..., but my point is this: the church was formed by Jesus to focus more and take care of the spiritual aspects and needs of the people rather than focusing in their fleshly desires and aspirations, for "My people are perishing for lack of knowledge" Hosea 4:6. I believe if things keep going the way they are the time will come when churches will be just like shopping malls. The more secular the churches become the less transformation power people will experience. Jesus said, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer,' but you have made it a den of thieves." Matthew 21:13 
 

The "Prayer of Jebez" Generation: Blessing or Distraction?

We want the blessings of the Lord, but we do not want the Lord of the blessings!


Amazingly, for awhile the most important biblical prayer become the "prayer of Jebez", taking the place of the Lord's prayer, which was taught by Jesus Himself. Suddenly everybody everywhere, from coast to coast, and even in other countries began to pray the prayer of Jebez. I can see the motivation behind it, can't you? Honestly, I believe that two people, more than any other on the face of the earth, really had their territories expanded after praying that particular prayer, the first one was Jebez himself and the second one was author of the book "The Prayer of Jebez" who became famous and rich as a result of the millions of copies of his book sold throughout the planet. The majority of the other folks might be still waiting for the expansion of theirs.

People so often are looking for blessings one way or another even to the point of making theirs someone else's prayer that has nothing to do with them. Many have fallen into deception, even now, by asking and not receiving the "increase of their territory" the way they wanted, by the simple fact that they couldn't handle not even the territory they have now. First we must be able to show to the Lord that we can handle properly and fully what we have now before asking for more. That kind of motivation shows me that we are more interested in the blessings of the Lord, rather than in the Lord of the blessings. Even unbelievers who read the book "The Prayer of Jebez" began asking the Lord for increase of their territory. In other words they had no idea what they were asking for.

I believe in the goodness of God, that's why I also believe that the Lord has given to some of us, who have asked for increase, the increase of our territory by bringing more people to our circle of influence so that they can hear about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Honestly not many of us really want that kind of increase due to the fact that we don't want to share the gospel, that doesn't interest us much. We want monetary increase, we want recognition increase, we want prosperity increase, anything that can satisfy our flesh. Those are the kind of increase we want.

The Lord's Prayer--the most complete prayer one can pray!

If you measure by words, the two prayers, you'll realize that the Lord's prayer outweights the Jebez's by far, so then the Lord's prayer is the one we all should be praying all the time, not the Jebez's one. The Lord's prayer is the kind of prayer that gives us the increase we need for our day-to-day life, such as "holiness", "forgiveness", "daily bread", "thanksgiving", "prosperity", "deliverance", "humility", "dependency", etc... that is the kind of stuff we need.

More to come...

 

Persecution in the United States: Christians Persecuting Christians

It's been happening more often than you can imagine!

"Do not touch my anointed ones and do my prophets no harm"
  Psalm 105:15

Often I get emails from an organization that reports Christians being persecuted by Muslims  entitled, "Persecution in the Middle East". I was wondering why they don't also send out emails reporting persecutions among Christians in the US. They should have the boldness to also report persecutions that are happening on a regular basis, maybe something entitled, "Persecution In The USA" . Please, don't tell me that things like that doesn't happen in America. Just as an example, back in 2002, my house was invaded by two chief intercessors from a well-known prayer evangelism ministry, located in San Jose, California. According to their line of thinking they had their motives for persecuting me, but not to the point of invading my own home without my permission, I think. They were threatening me and trying to intimidate me by pointing fingers toward my face and accusing me of wrongdoing. Today they all realized that they've made a huge mistake by acting like that, but still they have not said a word of apology to me for that incident, and what amazes me is that they are out there preaching the gospel and teaching people everywhere to be loving and kind.  May the Lord of Hosts forgive them for what they've done.

If you have been a Christian for quite some time you have probably seen or heard of competition among denominations, churches, pastors, preachers, deacons, males and females, etc., all inside the church. Envy and jealousy is what the church is not lacking. Most of the Christians, especially those in leadership, claim to be followers of Jesus Christ, but in reality they are actually serving Satan by the way they act and proceed most the time. The worse thing that can happen is a spiritual blind or carnal leader in charge of the church that Jesus Christ bought with the price of His own shed blood. It seems to me, based on what I see going on, that there's a lack of the fear of the Lord!  Men and women rise up and began doing things the way they think is right and don't worry too much about the consequences that follow the mistakes we make by hurting God's children intentionally. I have observed that what most of us is lacking is the Holy Spirit inside of us. There's a difference between having the Holy Spirit on the outside and on the inside. If the Holy Spirit is not dwelling inside of us then there's a sign that things we are doing are not pleasing God and they won't flow.   
Well, during my Christian life I have seen horrible actions taken by Christians against Christians. The problem I believe begins with the lack of understanding of God's word and principles. People taking advantage of the weakness of others manipulating them and even to the point of doing experiments with vulnerable people.

More to come...

24/7 Prayer Ministry, Daily Services and Church Planting

Is there a reason why Christian churches in America don't hold worship services on a daily basis? Well, the only reason I can think of would be either lack of interest, laziness or lack of vision on the part of their leaders. I can't think of any other excuse besides those. Due to the various work schedules of people in today's society I think churches should provide morning and evening services daily, just like the Catholic church, for an example. They hold masses at least twice a day everyday, in most of their churches. Worship services twice a week are not enough. I, myself, would attend at least two to three services on a weekly basis if I knew I had places to go. The American Christian leaders have no idea how many more people they would have visiting their congregations if they offered daily services. Now, don't tell me that people are too busy to attend daily services. I won't swallow that. Just pay attention to how many people watch Oprah's TV shows and countless of other TV broadcasts on a daily basis just because they have nothing more important to do. Satan's been working overtime to keep people from getting saved and blessed while our church leaders are asleep, eating too much or, perhaps, busy browsing on the internet. 

Prayer Chapel

I remember how many times, during normal business hours, I had to drive around neighborhoods hoping to find a chapel in order to be able to spend some time in prayer and found none. Then the majority of the time I ended up at a catholic church somewhere, because there I always could find a place to pray. The Christian temples were always closed to the public as usual. I really never understood the fact that the catholic churches had their temples and chapels open for prayer on a daily basis and the ,so called, Christian ones had theirs closed. Those incidents happened to me in Texas, Florida, Colorado and California, all places I have lived before. It doesn't matter where you live in this country, if you want to find a quiet place to spend time in prayer chances are you'll have to end up at a catholic church somewhere. Churches in the U.S. are no longer known as "houses of prayer".

Universal Church of God's Kingdom (Iglesia Universal del Reino de Dios)--the most aggressive, successful and the fastest growing Christian church in the whole world today--7,000,000 regular attendants in Brazil, and 10,000,000 worldwide.

The most aggressive and fastest growing Christian church in the whole world is Brazilian. It was established in '78. Their success, I believe, is attributed, primarily, to the fact that they have a 24/7 prayer ministry which covers their leadership in prayer. Also to the commitment and efficiency of their leadership in getting the job done and done right.

Over two decades ago they came up with a plan of action which was to plant one church a day, everyday, until Jesus came back. So far they have been very successful in accomplishing that task as they keep planting churches throughout the five continents on a daily basis. Well, especially in Brazil they hold daily services and their churches are usually open from 6 am till 10 pm everyday, holding many services throughout the day (6 to 8 services a day). Throughout the day they also offer prayer to those in need. Their pastors are required to spend time in prayer before and after the regular services. They are encouraged to pray and fast regularly, not to mention that their pastors and deacons are all trained to cast out devils and to minister to the spiritual-oppressed people as well. In my opinion, and based on what I have seen, that is the only church, I know of, that really "kicks the devil right in the butt", and challenges him face to face, especially in Brazil. Many times the devil has tried to stop that church from growing but without success, even to the point of using Christian leaders to persecute and blaspheme against them. But now it's too late, they pray and pray a lot, so it would be impossible for lukewarm believers and leaders to stop a praying church. But besides the Christians they also suffered persecution from the government and from some secular corporations as well. In Brazil, now-a-days, everybody is on their side, even the government, because they've realized that that church has grown so much and has become so powerful and of influence in the entire country of Brazil. I believe they've earned that through perseverance along with determination, fasting and prayer. Their slogan is "Jesus Christ is Lord", and, in every single temple they have that slogan is displayed above their own church name on the marquees, in other words "Jesus Christ is Lord" always comes first and on top. 

The Universal Church of God's Kingdom now owns the second largest TV network in South America staying behind TV Globo only. Globo is still the largest TV network in South America. The UCGK owns more radio stations than any other organization in the whole world, and each major city in Brazil has at least one.  The majority of their church buildings are paid in full. This church is changing the reality of Christianity around the world. They have been giving Satan too much of a headache.

The Universal Church of God's Kingdom is now the largest and, perhaps, the wealthiest Christian church under the leadership of one man--Bishop Ed Macedo. They have the largest churches in some of the major cities around the world, such as: London, Los Angeles (Spanish), Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires. No wonder you hear "Good and Well-Known Christian Leaders", worldwide, say bad things about them. The main reason why is the fact that they are focused, very prosperous and are getting the job done. You may even hear Christian leaders saying that they ask for too much money when taking offerings, and so forth. Well, then tell me who doesn't? I have not yet been to any church in the U.S. that tithes and offerings are not taken. Have you ever been to any  congregation, evangelistic meetings or conferences where offerings are not taken? I have not yet seen any other biblical passage more read and talked about in churches than "Malachi 3:10", have you? Even children know that scripture by heart. Recently, I was told, while in Taiwan, of two well-known American preachers who ministered in Taipei. Well, I was told that one of them charged US$ 25,000 for each day he spoke, and the other one took six offerings in just one service. Now, how about some other cases that you don't even hear about. So, then, don't talked about others taking too much offerings.

Americans, let's get back to the basics! Let's get serious about God's work!

This is just a PREVIEW of this book. There are more chapters being added to it. Proof-read has not been done yet, so grammar mistakes may be found at this stage.