If that was the only time we ate physically, would we be starving ourselves? Certainly we would. Would we be in poor physical shape? Would we be more prone to sickness? Would we be weak? You got it. As believers, never having quiet alone time with God is a sure recipe for spiritual starvation. In all actually, it is impossible to have real spiritual growth unless we make time to be alone.

Now, I will be the first to say that this is not easy. Especially depending on your own personal situation, you might be working long hours, maybe two jobs, raising a family etc. With all this, I can relate. Having raised a family of six kids and running a business for 16 years, I can relate. But, in all our responsibilities, we must deliberately cut out a time each day for this “quiet alone time”. For many, the only time that there  would be, would be at lunch time at work. But you say, ” I only get a half-hour lunch”. Is there any possibility of asking for an hour? If not, can you make your lunch at home so that you would have more time during that half-hour? Most of the time, “if there is a will, there is a way”.

Many mistake this alone time to be “church”, “group Bible study”, “listening to Christian music” etc. While these are good and certainly beneficial, they are not to be confused with alone time. Personal growth requires this time. In a day and age where busyness is the norm, and one feels deeply out-of-place or awkward if he or she has some quiet time alone, this still must be a practiced discipline. After making it a necessity in one’s life, after a while it becomes the norm. This is a good desire, and didn’t God say that he would give us the desires of our heart? What better desire! To be alone with Him? Does it sound like a selfish desire?

When personal growth is taking place through alone time with God and his word, one also finds themselves ready and able to share from this alone time. The Holy Spirit who is “the Teacher” gives us what we need personally and also gives us food to share with our neighbors. It’s not “regurgitated” food. It is straight from God himself through the Holy Spirit. We might say that it’s a “straight shot”.

So, in the end, if you desire that time, He will make a way. Like anything else in life, there must first be a “desire”.

What’s the definition of a “Hit and miss” life? Going through out life and always trying something new. Always running after something different. Always waiting for the weekend and thus miss living through out the week. Going from one job to the next. Going from one house to the next. Going from one relationship to the next. Always wanting, but never finding true peace, true contentment, true joy and satisfaction. In the end, it will be a wasted like.

Jesus said, “I have come that they might have life, and that they may have life more abundantly” (Jn.10:10b). The “abundant” life is living for God and experiencing Him while your on this earth. Then life takes on real peace, contentment, joy and satisfaction. It’s the only way to have and to experience it.

A few years ago, when I went back into my calling after traveling abroad, the Lord led me to hundreds of young guys in their twenties who God was calling and to whom he was speaking. Some of which, had not even yet been saved, and the things that were being said out of their mouth would blow most christians out of the water. Because of the shortness of time, God is preparing young people at rapid speed. They are being “downloaded” upon by the Holy Spirit. They are prophesying, they are doing the works of God by His Spirit. (see my post http://rjperalta.wordpress.com/2007/01/16/gods-army/

Even yet today, I am finding men and women in their twenties that are speaking spiritual things that if one is not totally filled and led by His Spirit, they will not even have a clue as to what is being said. It takes Spirit to receive Spirit. In other words, you and I have to be filled and operating in the Spirit at the moment, to be able to receive one that is coming and is going to be downloading upon you. If not, we will dismiss it, or not even get it, or even stand there with a blank look on our face.

The bottom line is that the Holy Spirit is moving out there, and its big time. So, if you are unaware of it, then you need to get on board with the Spirit. We don’t want to be apart of the many who will not see it, or will dismiss it as “not of God”. This is, and is going to be “God outside of the box”. It’s been happening out there, and will continue with “Revival” such as the world has never known. A “Street Revival” that was prophesied years ago by a brother who now lives in New Zealand is coming to pass. Are you preparing? Are you ready? Hurry, the Boat is soon to be leaving.

I had just sat down at the back of the bus, when along comes this guy and parks at the back, two seats away. I knew right off the bat that this was no “happen chance” here. So, I said ”Hi” and handed him a card. He looked at it and handed it back. (Most of the times when this happens, I smile and say “Ok” and or “God bless you”. I am so thankful that I didn’t this time)

After he handed it back, I said, “so you’re not interested in God?” Then the hour-long dialogue started. I love them. Dialogues are of course, you talk, I listen. I talk, you listen. How often do you see this? How often do you partake in one? Dialogues give the Holy Spirit time to operate, instead of “land-blasting”, then they look at their phone after about 10 minutes and say, “hey, I gotta go now”. While this dialogue is taking place, your listening to what the other person is saying, and the Holy Spirit is giving you something to say off of what they are saying. While he is listening, the Holy Spirit is moving upon his heart. It’s awesome!

Now, here was a guy who was no doubt, very intelligent. It didn’t take me very long to figure out what was going on with him. I have met many people over the years that have allowed their knowledge, their reasoning to get in the way. He was going to college to get a major in mathematics. Believe me, this guy had some smarts. He talked about stuff that was way off my charts, for sure. The Holy Spirit just had me listen, then He would give me some stuff to remind him of Christ. We went into the Gospels, and also shared a little regarding Solomon.

Besides being reminded about Jesus, we shared how God is Spirit, and that it takes a spiritual birth to enter and to understand His Kingdom. At times, he would grasp a little, then his brain would kick in and off he would go to another planet. That was OK, because the Spirit knew just how to circumvent his reasoning and bring it back to the basics. I am so thankful that it doesn’t matter how smart, or not how smart you are, God can deal with anything.

So, towards the end of our conversion, the Spirit had me ask him if He ever remembered being born again while he was younger. He could not pin-point a time, and seemed to not clearly remember a time where he knew for sure. So, I reminded him of the necessity again.

My stop came, and it was time to get off. The Spirit had me lean over to him and tap him on the shoulder and say, “In your quest for knowledge, don’t forget Jesus”. We both smiled, shook hands and parted. I hope to see him someday

Today, I handed a guy a tract, and he might have been around 14 yrs old. As I sat on one of the side seats, I peeked over occasionally to see if he was reading the tract. I kid you not, he spent probably 15 minutes reading the thing, twice over. This was after he began reading it on the train when I first handed it to him.

Last week, another guy, probably 15 or so, had similar thirst. The best I can tell it, is that God is placing a hunger into them. Most of these are raised in homes where there is NO Godly influence. Many have never seen a Bible. Just last week, I ran into a guy who appeared to be around 20, and he had never heard of “John 3:16′.

We need to all be aware that the generations coming up, know little if nothing about God. Of course, we are talking about the majority here, they don’t go to church, they don’t have both parents, they never hear anything about God unless it’s to degrade Him, or laugh at Him.

We need to wake up to this need. Godless generations are rising up. I don’t see it as a bad thing, in fact it could very well be a good thing. What I am seeing is like being on the “mission field” and finding people for the first time that have never heard about God. Yes, and it’s right here in good ol’e America.

This is nothing new for me, I do it all the time. And you might also do the same . But, tonight I was impressed to say afterwards, “when was the last time you heard that?” She smiled and said, “wow, I don’t think I have ever heard that since I have worked here”. I said, “really!”. She went on to say, “you don’t hear that anymore”. I said, “that’s really sad”. She smiled and agreed.

Can we put a value on telling someone “God bless you?” A couple of years ago, I had a vision of a lady that was a grocery checker and a customer said “God bless you” to her and she ended up re-commiting her life back to God. She went to lunch and into the lunch room and after it got quiet, she sat there and remembered when she was young and in “Sunday School” and how wonderful that was. Soon, she ended up confessing to the Lord, tears rolled down her face, and God met her right there in the lunch room. It was because God used someone to smile and say “God Bless You”. We will never know this side of eternity how valuable a few words spoken could be.

Like I’ve said before, “God gave us a mouth for much more than eating”.

“God bless you” is not the least we can say, and it’s certainly not the least we can do.

Of course, this takes lots of practice, patience and perseverance. Learning to operate in and of the Spirit is the great need of the day for all those who have been baptized in the Holy Spirit. This is the day of preparation before the real needs hit our land. If we wait, we will be like the majority who will have not taken the time to learn and prepare the ways of the Spirit in operation.

May the Spirit of God within us take precedence over our mind and body.

Quietness and alone time with God is the essential need of the hour. No real relationship, no real fellowship with God through His Spirit can be developed unless this time is being taken on a regular basis. You can’t learn of the Spirit unless time is taken with the Spirit. When the Spirit is ruling, leading and guiding our lives, then we go into and operate in the realm (the kingdom) of God. The realm of the Spirit is the kingdom of God. Remembering that, “God is Spirit”, His Kingdom is spiritual, and it’s takes a birth of the Spirit to understand this Kingdom, and to be able to operate in it.

If we don’t spend this “alone time with God“, no real foundation can be laid to operate in the Spirit. We will operate out of the intellect and the flesh. It will be easy to follow the ways of man and religion. We will fall into routine, familiarity and comfort. All three of these ways are ways that our flesh is well acquainted with.

We are reminded, that the biggest battle that the believer faces, is that of the “flesh versus the Spirit“, if indeed one is endeavoring to have the Spirit rule their life. If not, there will be no real battle taking place because the carnal mind will be ruling. Let us not forget that this kind of mind is “enmity with God”.

So, Spirit operation is the need of the hour. To be able to know where to go, what to say and what to do is going to be ever more so needed in the coming days. Let us not be left behind, because whither we want to believe it or not, God is busy assembling his “Army” of Spirit led believers that are going out into the world to do what the Spirit has ordained them to do. They are being equipped and trained while they are out and about practicing being Spirit led, and the power is being manifested in the fulfilment thereof.

“Rise up O Spirit of God!”

That’s what it was today, as I was riding the bus home. I went to the usual back of the bus, and sat on one of the sides seats. It was a particularly talkative bus crowd this night. Most nights, coming home, it is usually on the quieter side. Next to me in the back seats, were two young girls and one guy. In the seat across from me was a guy also.

For the next 25 minutes, I listened to their talk. It ranged from what they were going to do that night, to talking about having sex and drugs. Which is all typical, and of course came as no shock. They spoke of those of who they knew, who had “same sex’. One girl talked about being “bisexual” and might even go there tonight.

So, as this was going on, I was asking God when would it be a good time to bring in “Jesus”. I waited. I sensed that this was not to be the easy way of waiting till they “hit the ringer” to get off at the next stop, then give them a tract as they passed by me. No, I was to hand them each one as soon as things calmed down. I had time working for me.

The guy that sat across me, pulled the wire to get off at the next stop. By their conversation, I could tell that he would be the only one getting off. So I waited. The bus stopped, he said his goodbyes, and off he went. Then, a guy who was sitting a couple of seats up from me, came and sat in the side seat, across from me. They all knew each other. I could tell that they were planning to get off at a particular stop in downtown.

Five minutes later, things calmed down, and I reached into my pocket and pulled out the remaining cards that I had. I smiled at the guy across from me and handed him one. Then I handed one each to he girls. The last one was the guy next to the girls, who was closest to me. When He received the card, he immediately let out a “John 3:16 that’s my favorite!” I said, “Oh yeah!” He said that it is the one that he will never forget. I told him that just this week, I had run into a guy around 20 years old who had never heard of the verse before.

Now, the awesome thing here was that this guy was the “leader” so to speak. And here he was talking about the Bible. He had went on and mentioned how that Genesis was his favorite book. I said that I also liked it very much. Talk about how the conversation changed! It went from dirty sex and drugs, to Jesus and the Bible, within seconds!

Our stop came, and we all parted our ways. All four of them were reminded about Jesus once again. I prayed that in God’s timing and way, they would have alone time to read the cards. I even suggested to God that tomorrow morning after their Saturday night when they awake in the morning would be a good time  I even saw one of them lying in bed the next morning and having a discussion about Jesus and what the “John 3:16″ card had to say.

Sometimes, all God wants us to do is just be a “Jesus reminder”. God bless you as you do also.

Such was my experience the other day, as the Spirit led me to the local courthouse. He was a thin man standing there with a cane. He was maybe 4o yrs old. When I approached him and said hello, I smiled and handed him a card. This card said, “The free gift of God’s love”. When he looked down at the card he smiled and said, “Oh I know what this is about”. I said, “really”. He said, “I am not afraid to die, I know where I’m going”.

Then he began to share, as I stood there listening to him. He said that he had received Christ as his Lord and Savior a year ago. Then he went into his testimony about how that a few months ago the doctors had told him that he had only two months to live. He shared how that because of his past drug usage he had acquired hepatitis C, and because of his past drinking habit, together, his liver was giving up.

As he shared, such hope came out of his mouth. He shared how that Christ was the center of all he lived for now. He knew that death was certain at anytime for him, and that he was ready to go at anytime also. Each day for him was another gift from God.

Even though we know the uncertainty of life is always present, somehow we think we are going to be here for a while, don’t we? We know that death is certain, that is easy to comprehend, but when given the “bill of death” from a doctor, that would be rather final to some extent, wouldn’t it? But yet this man lived each day as a gift, and all the time knowing that death had been pronounced upon him.

It’s the same with us. Death has been pronounced upon us also. We just don’t know when. While we haven’t received word from a doctor, like this man has, we are certain to die. And, not knowing when, we should also be ready just like this man.

An old song goes like this, “Would you flee from sin and serve the Lord? He will soon appear with His reward. It is not His will that you be lost. Would you save your soul at any cost? Do you know the end of time is near? Can you live and die in sin’s career? There is awful danger in delay. Will you cast your only hope away?”

“Be ready when He comes. Be ready when He comes. Be ready, Be ready, Be ready when He comes”

“Take heed,watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is. It is like a man going to a far country, who left his house and gave authority to his servants, and to each his work, and commanded the doorkeeper to watch. Watch therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming- in evening, at midnight, at the crowing of the rooster, or in the morning-

lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping.”

“And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch!” (Mk.13:33-37)

As I share the Gospel of Christ on the streets and hear and see the rejection quite often, it hurts. Why? Because I know that God’s heart hurts. In His love, He has offered His Son at the ultimate price for their sins which results in death for eternity. The offer to escape death is still being offered to them because of His great love and mercy. But, for how much longer? Of course, we don’t know. But, we know that time is very short for them to turn. Eternity is a very long time to spend apart from God. Is the place where all who reject Christ going to be plush and comfortable?

If you are a believer, have you searched His word to find out what the place might be, and what it’s going to be like? Or, are you just taking someone elses thoughts. Are you just going by what you have been taught? Do you care? If you haven’t studied it for yourself, or you don’t care, then there is a good possibility that you don’t really care for the lost. You might even have the “got mine” kind of attitude. If one really knew what the final state of the “unbeliever” was, they would be out everyday sharing the Gospel, compelling them to be saved.

In these last days, one of the biggest deceptions that Satan has sold to the believers, and also the unbelievers, is that there is no real cost or penalty for rejecting God’s gift of His Son. Many are taught and believe that you just cease to exist.

The final end up place for the unbeliever is THE LAKE. This is hard stuff. This is the kind of stuff you don’t want to think about, believe or except. So, if one suggest another way, if course you would consider it. But, to swallow it, you have to receive some sort of deception through the twisting of the scriptures and not taking them for what they really mean.

Without taking a lot of time on this subject, and one really doesn’t have to be a “scholar” to understand it, it can easily be understood if one wants to believe what they are reading. One can dissect it into pieces if they want, and come up with another meaning to suit their liking if they so choose.

Just two portions of scripture come to my mind. The story of the rich man and Lazarus, and John’s description of THE LAKE.

Luke 16:19 through verse 31 explains the story of the rich man and his torment. How is this “torment” described? Well, let’s take a look. Verse 23 says, “And being in torments in hell, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom”. So here we see that the rich man was fully aware of what was going on in hell. We see that he was in “torment”. What does that mean? One of its meanings is “torture”

In verse 24, we see that this place of torture was a little hot. “Then he cried and said, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus (why?) that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame”. Sounds like fire to me. The word flame here means, “to flash or flame; a blaze, flaming”. Hot and in torment describes hell.

Verse 26, describes that in hell there is a “great gulf” or divide that separates, so that people cannot get out, or go back and forth. “And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us”.

Verses 27 through 30, lets us know that the rich man, while still in torment, still had some care and concern for his loved ones. Would this not be tormenting, in and of itself? The bottom line is that you would not want anyone to go to such a place. Anyone who would, has no heart, period.

How about THE LAKE described in The Revelation? We will start at chapter 20 verse 10. “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever. Now bear in mind, that we are talking about a place, and all who will go there.

Here we are at the Last Judgment, verses 11 through 15. What will it be like? Who will be judged? How will they be judged? And what will be the final resting place?

“And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened. And another book was opened, which was the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them. And they were judged, each one according to their works.”

Then, look what happens to Death and Hell after they get done dumping out the dead which were in them.

“Then Death and Hell were cast into the lake of fire”. Now what is this called? “This is the second death”. Now, is this it? Does this sum it all up? Lets see on. Verse 15, “And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire”. Now here is the very sobering part. The part that we don’t want to believe. These are PEOPLE! People that were not in the Book of Life! They were cast into the LAKE! Do you think it might be pretty important that our names and others are written in the Book of Life? Maybe that is why Jesus gave us the two greatest commandments, of which one is “love your neighbor as yourself”.

Now, do you think that we are done, as to the types of people who will be “cast into the Lake?”

I will not take the time to break down the other types of people who will be there. You can study the words contained in the 21st chapter, verse 8. It would do you good to break down the words such as “cowardly”, idolaters etc”. But one word that in cases a lot, is “UNBELIEVERS”. Could this be all those that have “rejected the Savior?”. All those who have heard of the Christ, and have rejected Him? Come on! This is serious stuff! What is going to happen to all the unbelievers! Check it out!

…….”shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone:” Which is what? “the second death”.

Now, if after you have read this, and know some unbelievers, does it move you? Does an urgency swell up in you? Or, in your mind, you are still wanting to not believe this? Believe me, I know, this is hard to swallow stuff. If someone would say, “Ah, don’t believe that. That’s not true”. Or, “How could a loving God have a lake of fire to send unbelievers?”

If you were God the Father, and people rejected your gift of Salvation that was your only Son, and that would save them from “Death”, what would you do? Well, there we go again, trying to figure out God on our human terms. Can’t be done, sorry.

The point is: There is a price to pay for rejecting the Savior, like it or not.