Community Immunity #2

General Deborah Green

P RAISE GOD. Welcome to part 2 of "Community Immunity". And God has been ministering and showing to us the coalition, or the correlation, between AIDS and compromise. Because you know, we're living in a time when men, and women, and children, are dying of the terrible plague of AIDS. And it's not just the AIDS that's killing them, but it's the accompanying diseases and sicknesses.

And we're finding out that there is a DIRECT CORRELATION between the condition, the spiritual condition OF THOSE WHO ARE MEANT TO BE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD, AND THE SINNERS. Or, we could say the ungodly, or those who do not know Jesus Christ as their Savior. And we, as Christians, are responsible for what has come upon this earth. We are responsible because we have departed from our first estate, because we've gone a whoring after the world, because we've sought for other lovers other than the Lord Jesus Christ.

And because we have done that, we have become contaminated, amen? And because we have been contaminated, the guard has gone down and Satan has rushed in to devour and to destroy! The Bible says that "The wages of sin is death". And if those who are put in the earth, to be the light of the world, do not keep their first estate, and do not keep that light burning, THEN THE WORLD IS INVADED. Say, "Well, what do I care? They're sinners, let them die!" Well, you'd better care because you were a sinner and nobody let you die. Amen?

AND WE NEED TO BE CONCERNED, WE NEED TO BE CONCERNED WITH THE CONDITION OF HUMANITY. Not that we are redeemers, but that He is the redeemer. And that if we will keep our first estate, if we will walk in the righteousness that God has ordained for us as His people, and if we will maintain the standard of holiness, then WE'LL SEE THAT THE COMMUNITY IMMUNITY RISES UP AGAIN.

And that even the sinners can be saved from death before they have the opportunity to come into Christ Jesus. See, we shouldn't get gleeful over the destruction of men's souls. Listen, I know it happens. I know people die left and right, left and right, left and right; they perish, they burn forever. But we should not be joyful over that, we should be joyful when one soul repents, when one soul cries out unto God, when one soul is freed from the burden of sin; that's when our joy should come. We shouldn't be as selfish, and malicious people, as Christians, but WE SHOULD BE CRYING OUT CONTINUALLY UNTO GOD FOR THE SOULS WHO ARE PERISHING.

You know, this AIDS is not a funny thing; it is destroying people throughout the earth. And we know that God is the One who has allowed it, because the wages of sin is death, because THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH. But let us unite ourselves unto God again, let us cry out unto God again, let us get our immunity in the proper perspective again, because compromise is as AIDS.

AND THE CHURCH IS COMPROMISED SO FAR-FETCHED WITH THE WORLD, THAT YOU CANNOT TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD, YOU CANNOT TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THOSE WHO PROFESS THAT THEY ARE THE BODY OF CHRIST, AND THOSE WHO ARE THE BODY OF SIN. Amen?

It's true. And the Bible says, as we found out in our key text, 1 John 2:15, "Love not the world, (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, the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world".

Ok, as we have observed, how much of what professes to be religious works, how much of what professes to be Christianity, is nothing more than the lust of the eyes and the pride of life? "I've got to have a huge mega-Church. I've got to beat people to give me money so I can build this Church. I've got to strut around. I've got to drive a fancy car. I've got to act as though I'm a goddess in this earth." That's nothing but the lust of the flesh, that's nothing but the lust of the eyes, and that's nothing but the pride of life.

It has nothing to do with the HUMBLE SERVANT who walked among men, who ate out of the corn-field, who was a servant of all. It has nothing to do with the man, the Jesus, who went to Calvary. It has nothing to do with the blessed and the beautiful, who was willing to die that we could be redeemed, who was willing to go down unto death, that we could find life. It has nothing to do with Him at all. It's vanity, it's a vain show.

YOU KNOW, IF YOU EVER REALLY GET A VISION OF JESUS, IN HIS HUMILITY GLORY, EVERYTHING THAT THE WORLD HAS TO OFFER IS GARBAGE. WHEN YOU TASTE OF HIM IN THOSE PLACES, HE IS SO EXQUISITELY PRECIOUS, AND SO BEAUTIFUL, THAT NOTHING ELSE COMPARES TO THAT. You know, He has shown me Himself in a lot of those humility positions.

He's shown me what it was to have His back so beaten. And He's shown me what it was when they put the crown of thorns on Him. He told me one day, "You know, they didn't just place it on me", He said, "They pressed it into me". And He's shown me what it was to be so shamed and spit upon that nobody even recognized Him as flesh and blood, because He was so disfigured.

And yet, He did it, and yet, He tasted it, and yet He went through it, and yet He endured it. And then when we say we're His, WHEN WE SAY WE'RE HIS, and we do all the deeds of the wicked, we put the crown of thorns on Him again, and we press them in. You know, when we hurt Him; when we're brutal towards the Lord, we crucify Him all over again. We do; we hurt Him.

You know, when you taste of His pain, if you haven't ever done it, ASK HIM, "Let me taste of it! Let me taste of it". He said, "Eat my flesh and drink my blood", what do you think it means? It means, taste of Him, for who He is and what He is.

When you taste of Him in those essences, you're not eager to hurt Him. And you're not eager to be carnally brutal. And you're not eager to bruise Him all over again. And you're not eager to drive the thorns into His head. And you're not eager to lacerate His back. And you're not eager to walk on the sacrifice that He laid down. But you get sensitive. And you develop in your sensitivity to Him. And you long to love Him, and you long to serve Him, and you long to please Him. And you don't want to please yourself anymore.

And you, for sure, don't want to please the world anymore. But you want to be ENGRAFTED INTO HIM. Because when you taste of that suffering love, and you find out how much He loved you; when you hated Him. And HE DID ALL THAT FOR YOU WHEN YOU DESPISED HIS NAME, IT RIPS YOU OPEN TO THE DEGREE THAT YOU CAN NEVER BE THE SAME, to the degree that you can't go on in your own carnality, and in your own brutality; doing your thing. BUT, YOU ONLY WANT TO BE FIT FOR THE MASTER'S USE, YOU ONLY WANT TO PLEASE HIM, YOU ONLY WANT THAT HE CAN BE GLORIFIED IN YOU, AND NOT THAT YOU BECOME A SHAME UNTO HIM.

You know, a lot of people won't let God break them, at all. They say they’re Christians, but they're not Christians; because their hearts are a stone. You know, IDOL WORSHIPERS HAVE HEARTS OF STONE because that's what they bow down to. But as Christians, we should have such tender hearts, that when He speaks to us, we don't have to be beat over the head with a baseball bat to hear Him.

And when He says, "You have offended me", that we will weep and cry in remorse, and repent, because we have offended Him. He wants a sensitive people, He wants a tender people. He wants a people that are molded in His image and likeness, He wants a people He can SHARE what's in His heart with. He doesn't want some kind of a brash worldly slut that calls itself Christian; full of the disease of the world. But He wants a beautiful, beautiful, wife that's sanctified, holy, undefiled, for His purpose, and His purpose alone, brought forth.

People are AFRAID to really love God. THEY'RE AFRAID TO ACCEPT THE CHALLENGE OF HIS LOVE. Because they want their own little world, they want to do their own little thing, and they want to say that they belong to Him. But you know what? When you let down all those things of self, and you let down all those rudiments of the world, and you abandon yourself to God, and you come into that love, it is a painful process. And not only is it a painful process, but it is a continuation of suffering. Because He suffers long. HE SUFFERS LONG THAT WE'LL COME FORTH. Amen?

So many people are so impatient; they don't even want to catch any glimpses of Jesus. You know what it said in Song of Solomon? It said, "He came for me and I didn't get up. I didn't get up. And then I ran out to find Him and He's gone". And what is that talking about? It's talking about that communion of love. When He calls you to come into Him, to partake of Him, to taste of Him, and YOU WON'T DO IT BECAUSE OF YOUR PRIDE, or you won't do it because of YOUR LOVE OF SELF, or you won't do it because of YOUR LOVE OF THE WORLD, and you miss, and you miss, and you miss.

And you miss the precious treasure, you miss the exquisite and splendid revelation, the Son of God. And you end up a DISEASE CARRIER because you've given yourself over to the world. And that's what we have in our generation. We have a generation of disease carriers who say they are Christians. But you know, God is saying that, "I will have a separated people. And I will have a HOLY people. And I will have a people who know me”. Who know Him, WHO KNOW HIM!

You know, sometimes I've had the Lord reveal Himself to me in such ways that I CAN'T EVEN REALLY PUT IT INTO WORDS and do Him justice. But I will say, that if He ever shows you Himself, as He is, there's no other love in all the entire gamut of human emotions that can even compare to it, or even come near to it; in touching the very depths of your being.

Because it is so INFINITE that you're just never the same. You're just never the same. And that's what He wants. He wants a people that are never the same. He doesn't want us to remain back in our old dead, brutal, carnal conditions—in bruising the Spirit of God. But He wants us to be broken to the degree that we can PERCEIVE THE SPIRIT OF GOD.

In first John, the 3rd chapter, the 3rd verse, it says, "Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure". PURIFY HIMSELF! You know, a lot of people originally get disease-ridden. If you know anything about health laws; they get disease ridden because they don't ever purify their bodies. And I'm not preaching holistic medicine. But I'm telling you the truth; that people take in so much garbage, so much contamination, so much foreign substance, and they never purify the body, and then the body gets diseases. And then the body VIOLATES the laws of God.

If you violate the laws of God long enough, and there is going to be a consequence, and then the wages of sin is death. But, the point is, because people do not purify themselves, they get overtaken, NATURALLY, with sickness, with disease, with all kinds of affliction, because they don't purify their bodies. YOU DON'T KEEP YOUR BODY CLEAN, YOUR BODY GETS DISEASED, YOUR BODY BECOMES A BREEDING GROUND FOR DEATH.

Ok, now spiritually, every man that hath this hope in Him, purifies himself. We need to continually come before God, we need to continually purify ourselves in prayer. A lot of people say, "Well, I'm going to do a work for God. I'm going to work for God. I'm going to work for God!" Oh, go work for God, that's great. It's great to work for God. But one thing you'd better make sure of is that you continually purify yourself. Continually purify yourself. Because when you mingle with the world, even in working for God, you can get CONTAMINATED.

Hey, if I go out here, and I dig a ditch where a pig has had its wallow, and then I throw a bunch of garbage on a truck, and then I, you know, go down to the chicken farm and get some chicken dung for the garden, and do all these things in one day.

And then I come back and say, "Hi everybody, how ya doing?" and you know, just like want to put my arms around everybody and kiss on them and everything, tell them I love them. They're going to be turning away from me because I stink, because I'm covered probably in wine smell, and chicken feces odor, and all kinds of things! And they're going to be turning away from me.

Well, how do you think God feels about us? If we are His hope, and we are His children, we need to learn to purify ourselves, we need to learn continually to come before God, ask God to sanctify us, ask God to purify us, ask God to burn away, to wash away, to cleanse us. Amen?

Now, you know, that was one of God's laws. GOD'S SET OF LAWS HAD TO DO WITH CLEANLINESS. And how come God wanted His people to be clean? He wanted them to be clean naturally, and He wanted them to be clean spiritually. Why did God want His people to be clean? Because it helped to keep their immunity. And they were a community. And you know, and I know, if you have a lot of filth, that it does breed diseased organisms. Amen? It does.

I mean, where there's open sewers, where there's all kinds of filth happening, where people don't take care of their toilet habits, you'll find the disease is much greater. Where people use the water supply to go to the bathroom in, the animals go to the bathroom in the water. You know, and the human filth, and the animal filth, goes back into the drinking source; you'll find the people are ridden with diseases! And their filth produced diseases!

So God in His laws wanted cleanliness. And that's what helped to keep them in immunity as a community. And yet, now we say, in our perverse generation, that “we can go and embrace all the filth of Sodom, all the filth of Egypt, we can let every vile thing be poured out into the Church”, and that's where the water of God should be coming forth.

We think all that filth can go into the water, then the babies drink it and it kills them. I said the babies drink it and it kills them. You know why there's such a high infant mortality rate in so many third world countries? It's not because they're aborting their babies like we sophisticated Americans are, it's because THE WATER SOURCE IS CONTAMINATED. And then the mother gets the filth spread disease, then the child gets the disease from the mother and on and on and on and on.

SO, GOD HAD HIS REASONS FOR HIS LAWS. And we need to get a holy respect for God's laws around us, and God's standard over us; that we can maintain COMMUNITY IMMUNITY. That we do not have to be overwhelmed with AIDS, and then overtaken by disease and end up dead, spiritually or naturally. Amen? Because God does not bring us forth to die, in that sense, God brings us forth that we can live and bring forth fruit. Amen? Praise God.

So anyway, going on here it says, "Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law". Say, "Well, oh, the law was for the Old Testament, the law was for the Old Testament". OH, THE LAW'S FOR RIGHT NOW! The law's for right now!!! We need to obey the law of God. STOP SINNING! STOP COMPROMISING! STOP EMBRACING THE WORLD!

"And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin." He was manifested to TAKE AWAY our sins. "Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not." It doesn't say "Whoso abideth in Him sins once in awhile”. Or it doesn't say, "Whoso abideth in Him sins on Saturday night and on Sunday goes to Church". Does it? Huh-uh? It says, "Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. He that committeth sin is of the devil". How many Churches are there in this land where the immunity is so far broken down, and the diseases of sin have so far invaded the congregation, the body, the people, the believers, that they are sinning continually? And it says that "Who that commits sin is of the devil". So you're doing the deeds of the devil, while you're saying you're children of God.

People, we have got to keep ourselves in a condition of community immunity. And what that means is, we have got to resist sin, we've got to refuse sin, we've got to say "NO" to sin! Because it says, "When you sin, you're of the devil! for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God".

You know, a LOT OF PEOPLE WHO CLAIM THEY'RE CHRISTIANS ARE NOT BORN OF GOD! There is no reason for us to continue in sin if we are born of God. You know, I've had people say, "Well, how did you kick this? And how did you kick that? And I can't give up my cigarettes. And a little beer never hurt nobody. And everybody knows marijuana's a safe drug for Christians" and on and on and on. "And a little fornication never hurt." Yeah, a little fornication did hurt. Huh? Huh? A little fornication did hurt. And you don't need the vices of the devil if you're children of God.

AND HOW DID I GIVE IT UP? I GOT BORN AGAIN! I WAS BORN OF GOD! You know, as soon as I took Jesus Christ into my heart, I was convicted of my sins! I didn't have to go to some rehabilitative counselor, and I didn't have to go to some therapist, and I didn't have to go to some, you know, teaching for 15 years. You know, what came into me was the seed of Christ! AND, YOU KNOW, WHAT BEGAN TO TELL ME "NO, NO, NO, NO!" WAS JESUS CHRIST LIVING IN ME. I said Jesus Christ living in me.

And I didn't have to snivel, and cry, and carry on, and put on a big show. God said, "Those cigarettes are abomination unto me!" I got rid of the cigarettes. He said, "How can you talk about me with those lips and then smoke that vile stuff?" I got rid of them. Like that, God delivered me. I didn't have to carry it on. I didn't even have to QUESTION HIM about marijuana, I knew marijuana was wicked.

I knew what I was before I started using marijuana, and I knew what I became after I imbibed in it. I KNEW IT WAS WICKED, I KNEW WHAT IT DID TO ME: how it broke down my morals, how it broke down my standards, how it made me lazy and laid back, how it opened me up to free love; fornication. I knew it. When Jesus saved me I KNEW IT. I didn't have to play around, and I didn't have to fondle it. I didn't have to hold my little dope bag. I got rid of it!

I moved into immunity. I didn't have to live in fornication, play with the world, play with the devil. I SEPARATED MY SOUL AND I CAME INTO GOD. Because I knew it was wrong, because I was born of God! I didn't have to play games with God. We need to know who we're serving, and we need to maintain our standard that we can be in immunity against sin, against death, against destruction.

James 4. We are living in a time when Christians want to wimp out, wimp out, wimp out, make excuse, make excuse! There's no excuse! When you stand before God, when I stand before God, there is NO excuse; plain and simple. You can't psychologize the truth. You either obey it, or you disobey it. Either you ARE, or your AREN'T. Either you WILL or you WON'T. You can't double-time God, period. Because He KNOWS everything we do, and everything we don't do.

 James the 4th chapter; James 4:7. It says, "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, (RESIST THE DEVIL) and he will flee from you". So there's one of the standards of keeping up the immunity. In fact it give us two things. It says, "Submit yourselves to God", which means obedience. Then it says, "Resist the devil, RESIST THE DEVIL".

So we get back to the basic tenets that God taught this body in the beginning: "Fight, fight, fight, fight, fight! Resist the devil. Fight the fight, fight the fight, fight the fight!" "Well, the devil told me to do it!" WELL, WHO'S YOUR MASTER? Huh? I said, Who's your master? Is your master God or the devil? Resist the devil. Submit yourself to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you; so you'll gain the victory as you resist. RESIST, RESIST, RESIST, AND YOU'LL HAVE THE VICTORY.

James the 5th chapter, verses 10 and 11, says, "Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience. Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy". So what is that saying? That's saying we have to patiently endure, patiently endure, patiently endure; that's another thing that will keep us in immunity; is PATIENTLY ENDURING. So many people are used to ticking off and taking off. Ticking off and taking off; "I don't like what they said to me. I don't like the look on her face. I don't like the color of his hair. I just didn't like it, so I just took off". Tick off, take off. Stop ticking and bow down. Amen? Bow down. Patiently endure, patiently endure, patiently endure.

Ok, first Peter 1:13 says, "Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance". In other words, STOP FORNICATING WITH THE WORLD! "But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy." So in other words, "be obedient and walk in holiness", be obedient and walk in holiness. BE OBEDIENT AND WALK IN HOLINESS. Amen? AND YOU CAN'T WALK IN HOLINESS UNLESS YOU'RE OBEDIENT.

First Peter 3, going quickly, 1 Peter 3:8, finally, "Finally, be ye all of one mind". Ok, here we have community, we have unity, we have God's people, "be of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous: Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing. For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil".

So what is it saying? It's saying, "Walk in obedience, walk in righteousness, for the eyes of the Lord are upon you". How do we maintain our community immunity? we maintain it by resisting, by fighting the good fight of faith, by being in obedience, by being in a willing heart with God, by having patient endurance, and by keeping ourselves in the stance of righteousness rather than unrighteousness. And we will prevail as we maintain our community immunity. Praise God.