A new CD sermon is available at http://www.McCanlessMinistries.com/cds.htm. If you order this month, I’ll include the music CD of Easter – 2012 which includes the live praise and worship service, Watch The Lamb, and He’s Alive.

Two Doors – Two Births is a message I gave last night. A strong anointing was on the preaching – I trust that it will bless you. It includes prophetic words given to some there, but also uplifting words of new spiritual psalms as inspired by the Spirit of God.

John 10 speaks of Jesus entering into the sheepfold by the door. All who came before Him were thieves and robbers because they did not enter in by the door. Satan was not born here. He obtained his authority from Adam, and though it is legal, he obtained it illegally. But God still honors the authority that was given to Adam which was passed to Satan, who is now called the god of this world (II Cor. 4:4). Jesus came to get that authority back. But to do so legally and rightfully, He had to be born here. He came through the door … that is, the womb of woman. Jesus was not born of man, He was born of woman. The blood comes from the man. The sin-nature is passed down through the man. Jesus was not born of the male. He was born of a virgin. He did not inherit the sin nature. His blood came from His heavenly Father. His blood was and is holy and without sin. Yet, He shed His blood for us. He became sin for us. He became our sin-sacrifice for us so we could be cleansed and made righteous by His precious blood. In so doing, He became the door for us to enter into the Kingdom of God. The Bible says that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Jesus was made to be sin so that you would be made the righteousness of God in Him. There is a spiritual miracle that takes place. You change on the inside by the power of God. “Ye must be born again.”

There are two doors and there are two births. One is natural and one is spiritual. Have you entered in through the second door? Have you been born again? I invite you to listen to this message. Please write to me if you have any questions or comments.

God bless you,

Tony

Friends & Partners of McCanless Ministries:

Susan and I appreciate your love, prayers, and support. We want to keep you updated every few weeks or so with what’s happening at McCanless Ministries … praise reports, uplifting teachings, special offers, free downloads. We trust this is a blessing to you. Again, we especially appreciate and desire your prayers. Three times in Scripture, the Apostle Paul said, “Pray for us.”

1Th_5:25  Brethren, pray for us.
2Th_3:1  Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you:
Heb_13:18  Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly.

Pray also for the open doors of utterance … the ones the Lord would have us to go through. Our schedule is not as busy as we would like, but the ministry is expanding and growing. Our God is faithful. The finances are also coming in to allow us to go to any church of any size without any financial pressure on that congregation or pastor. The Lord spoke to me in the past, that He would bless those who bless this ministry … and the finances are here … and are coming! Will you agree with us?

This week we have a special offer. It’s a new CD … a teaching CD … “Do Something!” This month, everyone who orders it will receive a free CD of our live Easter Service Music. This CD includes a medley of “Celebrate,” Hosanna,” and “Jesus Is Alive & Well,” along with “Watch The Lamb” and “He’s Alive.”

Do Something!

“Do Something!”  is a teaching that explains some astounding statements that Jesus made in Luke 16. He said the children of this world are, in their generation, wiser than the children of light. The people of the world, sinners, are wiser than Christians, than God’s people? Jesus said that? What did He mean? Does it have to be that way? He also said in context, for you to make friends of the unrighteous mammon … or the world’s money. Again, astounding! We’re not to love the world; we’re not to trust in uncertain riches; we are to trust in God. But He said to make friends with the worldly money system. What did He mean? He meant that we are to do more than just pray and use our faith in God, and then just sit back and wait on God to bless us. We are to do something! He gave us the keys of the kingdom. The Scripture in Matthew 16 doesn’t say they’re the keys to the kingdom. So many misquote that. Peter got revelation from God. Jesus said that gave him keys. That’s not just for Peter, but it’s for anyone who receives revelation from God. Jesus said that’s how He’s building His church. Are you in His church? Then the keys are also for you … anyone in His church. And what do you do with keys? You lock things and unlock things. In the King James Version, Jesus called it binding and loosing. The Greek words for binding and loosing have many meanings, but in context, the closest meanings are, locking and unlocking. That’s what you do with keys. You allow access or you prevent access. Simply put, the keys of the kingdom are the promises of God, more specifically, the revelation of the promises … made real to your spirit by the Holy Spirit … God’s Word given to you. And you know it’s for you because you’re His child and it’s His provision and promise. So, with His Word, you are allowed access to His promise. You receive it into your life by unlocking it … by receiving it. Or you bind the devil’s activity … any demon … any opposition … you lock it … you prevent it from having access into your life. Or you prevent its continued activity. Submit to God and resist the devil. You can with the authority of God’s Word, by the key that locks up the devil’s activity. You cast out the devil and then lock his access of return in that specific area. You are limited in some areas. The devil has a legal right to be on this earth, but he has no right to dominate you. He will attack you, but you are equipped to hold up the shield of faith and quench every fiery dart. The Word of God is your defensive weapon. You can also resist him and cast him out. You can do this with the Word of God …, which as another metaphor, is called the sword of the spirit. The Word of God is your offensive weapon. It is your key … and there are many keys of the kingdom. They’re not to the kingdom. They’re the keys granted to you because you’re of the kingdom. As a Christian, you’re an ambassador of Christ, meaning you’re in this world, but you’re not of this world. You’re of the kingdom of God, and there are keys of the kingdom. As an ambassador in this world, you have the authority of the home country. You have the keys of the kingdom, the authority of the Word of God, His promises to you. These keys from God allow you to lock things and unlock things on the earth. You allow things or prevent things. You receive things or reject things. You put up with things or you decide you’re not going to put up with things. This is binding and loosing. This is locking and unlocking … which is what you specifically do with keys. You have this authority given to you by God, through His Word, by His Spirit, in the Name of Jesus, because you’re of His kingdom. As a Blood-washed child of God, born again and in His family, walking in His fellowship and in obedience, you have these keys.

But you have to use the keys. It is your responsibility. You have to be the one to do that. According to Scripture, you are blessed in what you set your hand unto. According to Scripture, you will prosper in what you do. According to Scripture, if you abide in Him and His words abide in you, you can ask what you will, and it will be done. According to Scripture, you are to bind things; you are to loose things. So many people just take what happens to them, say it must be from God, and they accept it. They say that since it happened, it must have been God’s will. The devil would promote that kind of thinking. That way the devil can do things without resistance. But Scripture tells us that God’s people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge. God’s people, the children of light, need to be wiser than the children of the world. We should get the knowledge of God, but also have some common sense. We have an advantage! We can use the knowledge of God and the knowledge of the world system. If I’m in an airplane, I don’t want the pilot to just be a Christian, full of faith and the knowledge of God. I want him to also know how to fly an airplane. The advantage would be to have both. We have an advantage over the world if we would use it! We have access to both realms. The problem is, the world is often using their knowledge in the one realm better than we are in both realms. God will bless what we do when it’s in line with Him and His Word, but we are to do something that He can bless.

Order the Do Something! CD this month and receive the free Easter Service Music CD.

Thank you! … and … God Bless You!

Tony

Click and Listen to the Prophecy: Timing With God

Prophecy could be defined as inspired utterance. It can contain the revelation gifts mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12, the word of wisdom and/or the word of knowledge. That is, it might contain supernatural revelation of something in the past or present, which would be a word of knowledge. And/or it can contain supernatural revelation of the future, which is a word of wisdom. But prophecy in a simple form, as explained by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 14:3, can simply be for edification, exhortation, and comfort. Later in 1 Corinthians 14, it is given that all believers can prophesy. This is more clearly understood in connection with Revelation 19:10 which says that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. When given from the heart, by the unction of the Spirit, even in the simplest form, the testimony of Jesus comes from the same unction of divinely inspired utterance, the spirit of prophecy. On the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2:17, the Apostle Peter quoted from the book of Joel when he explained that by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, sons and daughters would prophesy. Whosoever will receive Jesus is included.

Spirit-filled believers may know something about speaking in tongues, which should be divinely inspired utterance. But fewer, it seems, understand much about the interpretation of tongues. Indeed, as a prayer language to God, when not a message to the church or in ministry to a person, it’s likely that the speaking in tongues would not require interpretation. It’s a powerful form of prayer and praise and worship, but unless it’s a message from God, the interpretation might not be necessary. But even so, many Spirit-filled believers know something about tongues and interpretation. However, there’s more to the Spirit-filled life. The Apostle Paul said in Ephesians 5:18-19 to be filled with the Spirit, speaking in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. This is not just for those in the ministry, that is, what we might call the five-fold ministry. Rather, every believer can be filled with the Spirit and have divine utterance, including psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. This doesn’t mean you quote one of the 150 psalms in the Bible, from the Book of Psalms. But a new psalm would come forth by inspiration. In services, while under the anointing, I sometimes am inspired to speak or sing in psalms and spiritual songs. Sometimes when simply by myself and all alone, I encourage myself by speaking in psalms. I find that often, mine rhyme or sound poetic. Psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, prophecy, tongues, and interpretation are all inspired utterance. As a message and ministry to the church, not all would have the gifts of tongues and interpretation. This is explained in 1 Corinthians 12:29-30. Every believer can receive the gift of the fullness of the Spirit and speak in tongues as another means to pray, praise God, and edify himself. However, this isn’t a ministry gift as mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:30 that is only given to some. All Spirit-filled believers can speak with tongues in their personal spiritual lives. This edifies them individually. And all believers can prophesy. This edifies the church, which is of greater importance. When prophecy comes forth, it might not rhyme, though it could. It might not have an obvious poetic style to it, or it could. But it will do one or more of three things. It will edify, exhort, and/or comfort. Another important facet of prophecy is given in 1 Timothy1:18. Though it should never take a place higher than the written Word of God, as inspired utterance, it is also a weapon, with which we can war a good warfare.

Prophecies should be judged. Maybe a personal prophecy, that which is specific to you and your life, should more closely be examined. It should bear witness with what you already know in your spirit. It should confirm or be in line with what you already have in your heart, be in line with the Word of God and the will of God for you. If it’s new and something you’ve never heard before nor even considered, maybe you should be slow and cautious to act on that. But when it confirms what you were already hearing from God in your heart, then it’s a powerful weapon against discouragement and it gives you clearer direction in the way you were already prayerfully considering.

But all prophecy should be judged. It will never distract from Jesus. It may not always specifically contain the Name of Jesus, but it should always be consistent with the plan of God, be in line with His Word, and bring blessing to people. On occasion, there may be warnings and judgments given, but more often, prophecy is given to encourage and uplift the hearer. It can be misused and it should be judged. We’re taught in the Bible to try the spirits and to prove all things. Let the prophets speak and let the others judge. Is it in line with the Word? Does it glorify God and exalt Jesus? Does it bring blessing to people? Does it edify, exhort, or comfort?

The following is a prophecy that came forth during praise and worship, April 1, 2012. At the end, my wife, Susan walked past me while leaving the platform and she said, “That was for you.” I didn’t know all that I had said until I listened to the recording. At the time, I didn’t know what I was going to say next, but afterwards I did remember some of it. But it wasn’t until I listened to the recording that I realized, yes, God was encouraging me. But I believe this same truth can also encourage you. You might want to listen to it while you read it:
http://mccanlessministries.com/MP3/TimingWithGod.mp3

Tony McCanless

Timing With God

There is a timing with God, there is a timing; yes, it’s so.

Some things are hidden. They’re not yet for you to know.

But the timing of God will come into full fruition and then it will show.

And then … then that essence, that presence;

That unction … that motivation in your heart says it’s now time to go.

So, move. On occasion, be slow.

Wait upon the Lord and know;

It is His timing and it’s when He says to go.

This way, that way, but yet your eyes look right on;

Following God; walking in the Light of the Son.

Performing His Word and His will on this earth;

Letting others realize His value and His worth.

It is the testimony of Jesus in your heart mixed with praise;

And you’ll see hearts and lives changed; from spiritual death, they are raised.

So, be faithful to listen, to hear, and to do;

What the Lord God, your Father, by His Spirit and Word has for you.

Prophecy given by Tony McCanless
04/01/12

Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me. Mark 10:21

This is sometimes called the story of the rich young ruler. He asked Jesus what he needed to do to have eternal life. He was following God and keeping the commandments, he said, from his youth. But Jesus mentioned that there was one main thing in his life that he should consider and change. For him, it was the love of money that hindered his completely pleasing God. In your life, it might be something else. II Corinthians 13:5 says to examine yourself. As you do this, you should consider that Jesus said to take up the cross and follow Him. In other places in Scripture, He was clear to say that it was your cross you were to take up. In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed about the actual and literal cross that He would endure for our redemption. He resigned that He would do the Father’s will and not His will. This is the cross that you are to also take up. This gives insight as to why it is your cross and not just any cross. It’s personal. It involves your will. Like Jesus, we should always desire to do the will of God instead of our will. And we should examine ourselves and consider if there might be even one thing we’re lacking in our desire to please God.

With the rich young ruler, it was his love of money that was hindering his walk with God. That’s a problem with a lot of people. Too many people fail in their faithful giving of tithes and offerings to a good local church, to good ministries, and to the poor. For others, it’s their time. Many people are too busy doing their own thing instead of making sure that God is first in their lives. Contrary to the Bible, they do forsake the assembling of themselves together with other Christians. Many are not faithful to attend a good church regularly. Many do not take time each day to have a personal time of fellowship with God in prayer and the Word. Jesus said to seek first the kingdom of God, not second or third. With some, it’s personal desires and ambitions that hinder their growth in God. Others have bad habits, fleshly desires, and temptations. The devil will even tempt people according to their own physical desires. It’s personal. That’s why Jesus said to take up your cross … meaning, you decide that you’ll not do your will, but you’ll do God’s will in every area of your life. Even if there’s one thing you lack, you’ll also make that correction and decide to obey God in every area.

Hebrews 12:1 says for us to lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily besets us, and run the race before us with patience. The writer here in Hebrews is comparing our living for God to running a race for the purpose of winning a prize and reaching a goal. Our prize is pleasing God; our goal is being more like Jesus … and completing our life on earth as having done that throughout. You don’t run a race while wearing weights. People sometimes argue and reason that something might not be a sin, but I often ask, is it a weight? Does it hinder you from growing in God? Does it hinder you spiritually? Does it affect your testimony and your spiritual effectiveness to others? We should lay aside any sin that easily besets us, but that’s not all. We should put off weights … anything that hinders our living for God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

In Mark 4, Jesus gave the parable of the seed and the sower that sows the Word. He mentioned four types of ground, which are four types of hearts. Only one type of heart was called “good ground” and brought forth fruit. In many churches there are Christians that are not fruitful. Some are like the stony ground. They have hard hearts. At first they receive the Word with gladness. They start off excited about God and His blessings and His life.  But as Jesus said in Mark 4, they endure only for a time. When hardship comes, they fall away. Jesus said that the afflictions and persecutions come for the Word’s sake. The devil wants to attack and steal the seed of God’s Word in the hearts of the hearers. So, hardship comes in an attempt to test the integrity of the heart of the believer. Jesus said some are offended by this and endure only for a time. He called this the stony ground. We need to watch how we react when afflicted and persecuted. Some people quit under pressure. They stop believing the Word when something contrary happens to them. Some people stop coming to church because of how they were treated. We certainly should strive to treat people right, but we also should purpose to not be easily offended. It’s often best to decide to stay in that church, overlook some things, forgive some things, and grow in God. People with stony hearts often eventually stop living for God. But there is another type of ground, another type of heart, that doesn’t stop coming to church or living for God. These people do endure hardship. They are willing to stick it out, so to speak. But they have other things also in their lives that choke out the fruitfulness of the Word of God. In Mark 4, Jesus called these thorns. He said these thorns were “the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in.” These are three areas the Christian should examine very closely. Does the world pull at you and hinder your service for Jesus Christ? Is money, obtaining it and keeping it, more important than serving Jesus Christ? Do fleshly desires and yielding to those temptations hurt your heart, your growing in God, and your testimony for Jesus Christ?

In I John, there are three things mentioned we should guard against: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. I John 2:15-17

I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Revelation 3:15-16

Some people like to drink hot tea. Some like it cold. Some people like hot coffee and some drink iced coffee. There are drinks people have hot and others people have cold. Jesus said, when the Christian is lukewarm, He would spew him out of His mouth. It takes effort to keep a drink hot or to keep a drink cold. Leave a cup of tea sitting and do nothing, and before long it becomes lukewarm. And it will take more than some little half-hearted attempt to get it back hot or cold again. Take that cup of lukewarm tea in your hands and just blow a little warm air on it. That’s not enough to get it hot. It takes effort and desire to keep a drink hot or cold. Jesus doesn’t want His people sitting and doing nothing. Jesus doesn’t want His people lukewarm. We are to seek Him with our whole hearts. We are commanded to love God with all the heart, soul, mind, and strength. And if we love Him, we’ll obey Him.

Let’s examine ourselves and consider if there is even one thing that we lack in wholly serving God and our Lord Jesus Christ. We can humbly approach our God with true repentance, He will forgive us … every time … and also strengthen us and enable us to follow Him.

Tony McCanless

This is by no means an exhaustive teaching on the subject, but the thought I’d like to give here concerns your love life. I hear people sometimes talk about the deep things of God … growing in God … having deep revelations … having new revelations …, but there is no greater revelation than that of love. You’re not likely to grow in God much beyond your love walk. Again, this is not exhaustive, but to some it can serve as a reminder. Scripture tells us that God is Love. Jesus is God manifested in the flesh … as the Word made flesh, so Jesus is Love, the Word is Love. Jesus explained that the greatest commandment is to love God and the second is like the first, to love others. In John 13, Jesus gave a new commandment, to love others as God loves. In the Old Testament, the commandment is to love others as you love yourself, but in John 13, it’s new to now love as God loves others. Both are still commandments, but now through the new birth … that is, being born again with the Spirit of God on the inside through Jesus Christ, the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. II Corinthians 5:17 says the Christian is a new creation, that is, the spirit is created new by God the moment one confesses Jesus as Lord and believes in the heart that God raised Jesus from the dead. This new child of God, like a babe in Christ, needs to grow and develop. And now, the very love of God is on the inside … in the heart. In Galatians 5, love is the first listed as one of the nine-fold fruit of the spirit. Love is a commandment, but now one that can be kept from the inside … in the heart. The Bible says to put on the new man, which after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness. Love is a decision, apart from feelings and emotions, and now a commandment that the Christian can keep from the heart. Romans 13 says love is the fulfilling of the law and something we always owe and can never have paid up. James 2 calls love the royal law. I could go further and mention many Scriptures. I Corinthians 13 says that you can have all faith, have all revelations, etc., but without love, it’s nothing. Galatians 5:6 tells us that faith works by love. Many, many Scriptures speak of love and how we are to treat others.

How you treat people is very important to God, especially those with whom you have relationships, both spiritual and natural. Relationships are important to God. Your spiritual relationships, your brothers and sisters in Christ, your natural relationships, and even how you treat those outside of the Church … it’s all important to God how you treat people. I understand at times you have to be bold, sometimes confrontational … sometimes you shake the dust off your feet and leave people who will not receive your ministry and testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but that’s not my focus here. I do mention this, however. This writing is to remind you that overall, we should constantly monitor how we’re treating people … our motives, our emotions, our reasons, and let the love of God dominate and influence us. In 1 Peter 3, we’re told that how we treat our spouses can hinder our prayer lives. The very last verse of the Old Testament mentions relationships, specifically the heart of the fathers towards the children, and the heart of the children towards their fathers. That’s the closing verse of the Old Testament. That alone might indicate its importance.

So, how are you treating people? Is it with kindness? Is it with consideration? Do you wonder how your actions and reactions are making them feel? Do they get hurt? Do they wonder if they’re important or of any worth at all based on how you have treated them? Do they feel small and of little or no value to you? Do you give them attention? Do you try to make them feel like they have value, worth, and importance to you? Something simple like not returning a phone call or an e-mail can cause someone to not feel important to you. Is that something to consider? If you realize you’ve hurt someone, do you do the hard thing and apologize even if you don’t think you did anything wrong? Do you try to reconcile and restore? Do you try to make sure that person’s feelings are important and that person is valuable to you? This by far is more important to God … and to you spiritually … than many of the deep revelations that many are striving for. You won’t likely grow in God much beyond your love walk. I’ll mention here, I’ve been in a healing ministry for over thirty years. I’ve seen many people get healed, but sadly, I’ve seen more who didn’t. This is one reason … for again, faith works by love.

Healing, for example, when experienced through the ministry of another, is often a result of the combination of the anointing and faith. A greater anointing might require less faith. Greater faith might require less anointing. But even then, the healing is kept by the faith of the individual. And God expects more of the Christian who has been saved longer and should know more. He looks at the heart; He looks at the life. Thank God for His mercy! We can appeal to Him for forgiveness and mercy. We can purpose to make things right and have hearts ready to receive. Some, though, have never really learned Bible-faith and what that really is. They’re hoping God will do something some day, or they’re saying they believe that God can, or that He will sometime. So, that person would have difficulty in receiving and keeping their healing, for example. Faith is an important ingredient, absolutely! But again, faith works by love. So many people miss it here. If Jesus ever mentioned anything that would hinder faith, He mentioned unforgiveness. People are too cavalier and casual about their love life … that is, how they treat people … how they forgive people … their relationships … their actions and re-actions and how those affect others. Too many times I’ve seen people do things or say things … or neglect things … that hurt others … and they don’t even seem to consider it. And more importantly, when they realize it or it’s pointed out to them, they still do nothing to correct the situation. They don’t try to repair, restore, or reconcile. Too often, instead of repairing anything, they themselves get offended at the mere mention that they did something wrong and hurt someone else! Humility is clothing that would fit well at a time like this. We should consider the feelings of others instead of just our own emotions. We should act and react on love as a decision instead of our own feelings and emotions. We should consider how our actions affect others. We should use words that are uplifting and also have actions that correspond … to not love in word alone. Let’s love one another.

Tony McCanless

To order this and other tri-fold tracts: http://mccanlessministries.com/books.htm