By Chijioke Nwauche

(July 4, 2011, Mahomet, IL, USA)

[For a printable version click here.]
[Note: This message is an extended version of Baal in Our Midst.]

Father we thank You for You are the Great Physician. Lord You said that Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a (foul smell) stinking… (Ecclesiastes 10:1). Lord we come as a people, as a body we come to repent, we come to repent before You Lord. Lord we come to bow the knee, we come to bow our hearts. Lord we ask You to heal us of this foul smell. Heal us of this deadness. Lord we agree together, we join our hearts together to receive of your freshness.

It says: Love grew where the blood fell, where flowers of love, of brokenness, of Life might grow where there has been thorns and thistles.

Lord we ask that You will anoint the oil, the holy oil. Lord that there will be spices that will bring You, that will harbour Your presence, that which will dray You, the very core of Your being, that which will make You to come in and express Yourself fully in our midst. We ask today Lord that You let this glory which You said is about going forth, which is gone – let it be restored. That You …restore to you (us) the years that the locust hath eater, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm… (Joel 2:25). For this wastage Lord, today we receive healing, even the balm of Gilead.

We receive it Lord that You may heal the waters that have been quenched: the deep wells; the deep springs; the ministries that have been quenched; that You might heal and restore and release. The vessels that Nebuchadnezzar has stolen from the house of our God, even in our midst, that You might restore. Even those who may not be here with us, that You will restore. Restore bread in Your house O God that this will be bread to Him, the house of bread. …bread to the eater, and seed to the sower: (Jeremiah 41:1).

Lord, this will be Your house O Lord. Restore the gates. Restore the watchmen. Restore the vessels of ministry. Restore the feasts of the Lord, the first and the second and the last. Let the harvest, let the plenty be brought to Your house that out of Your house might go forth, that You …bringeth forth out of his (Your) treasure things new and old (Mark 2:21). Let the limits be taken off O Lord, that there be limitless provision in abundance.

We ask for healing: stop the cancers; stop the deaths; stop the decay O God. Lord we ask that You quench the plague and that You heal and restore. Restore! Give us the first and the latter rain. Cause us to be partakers of this great flow that You are releasing. We ask You for rain in the time of the latter rain. Let it rain, O God, let it rain.

Restore the altar. Heal relationships, O Lord. Heal the homes. Heal the rebellions. Even of that which You say, “It stinketh”, that You will bring Life. We pray Lord, that we will receive Life again and that we will receive our dead back to Life; brethren and friends and family who have wandered off.

Lord, let the news go forth that there is bread again in Your house. Restore our confidence in You. Restore the sweetness of fellowship, of brotherly love and fellowship. Restore. Restore. In the name of Jesus.

 (Chorus) Love grew where the blood fell
Flowers of hope sprang up for men in misery
Sin died where to blood fell
I’m so glad His precious blood covers me

See my Jesus on the cross – the people crying
Looking on a man would think it tragedy
But what the world could not see
Was when they nailed Him to that tree
It would break the chains of sin and set men free

Chorus

Thorns of violence thorns of hate were growing wildly
All the sorrow sin had caused was plain to see
But when the blood came streaming down the cross
Where my Jesus bled and died
It started blossoms of forgiveness growing free

Chorus

Brother George Herrig:

As we are singing this song, I just have to share what I saw. You know, to put it down into the reality, when we were singing: Thorns of violence thorns of hate were growing wildly – what I saw, it was growing in the church. I saw them, you know, instead of flowers there were weeds. Where it says: All the sorrow sin (they) had caused was plain to see – But when the blood… God shows and He shows the answer. But when the blood came streaming down the cross where my Jesus bled and died, It started blossoms of forgiveness growing free.

Brother Chijioke Nwauche:

Lord we bless You. We receive of Your blood. We receive of the healing, the atonement, the forgiveness, the cleansing that comes by the blood. Lord we open our hearts to receive this blood into the foundations of our being, of our gatherings and our coming together. You said we should take of Your body and eat. Lord we come today to receive one another. We receive one another with fear and trembling.

Lord we stand to make a fresh commitment to have and to hold, to receive one another with forebearance, with patience. It says that “He that repeateth a matter does not seek love” (Proverbs 17:9). Lord we come to cover, for it says that …Charity (love) shall cover the multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8). Lord we receive the Life and the vitality that You are bringing to us.

I just want us to sing that song: Cover me, let the life-blood of Your body flow through us.

Brethren let this be a new commitment as we reflect in our hearts, as we break bread, as we drink of His blood. The bread and the blood are tokens of the very blood of Jesus, of the very body of Jesus so He will nourish and cherish. It is the body of the Lord that He has purchased for Himself.

(Chorus) Cover me Cover me
Stretch the corner of Thy mantle over me
For Thou art my nearest kinsman
Cover me cover me cover me

Flow through me flow through me
Let the life-blood of Your body flow through me
For thou art my kinsman Redeemer
Flow through me flow through me flow through me

If you can just sit for a while. Hallelujah. As we were singing that song I just heard the Lord speaking. There are many who are worried about the signs of the times. I just felt the Lord saying something about covering, because of the darkness of the times, the tribulations in the world. I think it is a Word of the Lord to us that He is going to cover us in these times in the days to come. There will be covering from sickness; from disease. There will be coverings from the darts of the enemy. Hallelujah. Jesus. If you are afraid you can rest under the shadow of His wings for He is El Shaddai, the double breasted One. Hallelujah.

Scripture says in Romans Chapter 12:1: I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your (our) reasonable service. As we break bread, bread is made from the wheat, individual grains of wheat that must be broken and ground into powder. It speaks of a mixing. In the process of making the flour, any grain that refuses to be crushed, you pick it and you throw it out. It is really fearful because this is the time when any one; any ministry; any vessel, even at the family level; any child; will go out of the covering, because doing that will mean that the avenger of blood will have access.

God says that the fellowship is the city of refuge. A fellowship in someone’s house is not a city of refuge, but the God ordained local assembly is the city of refuge. It is God’s responsibility to guard it, to keep it and to bring a covering over it. It is part of His body and we must relate with one another in that fear and sanctification, not to break the body, not to go out of the covering of the body. The body should be our life. Our vision will be to sustain the body, because that is our salvation, our deliverance, our life.

My progress is in the body. If God blesses one part of the body, He has blessed me. If one part of the body is diseased, then I am diseased. I am strong as much and to the extent that the body is strong. In the Old Testament the body, or the offering was sanctified by blood. This body, His body He is also sanctifying and cleansing. It says He would nourish and cleanse by the blood. For those of us who are married it is a reflection of the care and the relationship between Christ and His body. He says it is His body and He takes it personal. He says the times of ignorance He has you know, He is putting it aside. I think that is a window of opportunity for recovery: recovery of relationships; of ministry; of the purposes of God that He has entrusted into our hands.

Before we break bread there is a little thought, something that a brother saw and he put it in the mail and he sent it to me. Brother Michael, he is from the Port Harcourt fellowship. He is somewhat anointed in the ministry and with the gifts. God speaks to him and shows him things. When Brother Burt and Brother Martin were with us, there were revelations from Czech and from the U.S. here, he also had a word, so it was confirmation that they were to leave that morning. So we were ahead and we will always be ahead of the enemy.

So he sent a word. He said that as they prayed for the meetings yesterday that God showed him Bel in our midst. Sorry, Baal. We call it Bel, you call it Baal. Bel is a god of sexuality, he is a god of materialism and a god of pleasures. I think it is something that he said he saw in our midst. It is not something that we are going to push it aside, but it is something that we are going to have to deal with. As Brother George was saying that as we go out, it is something that we will have to take to our hearts (and deal with).

Bel was recognized as the Lord. He is the life-giver, he is worshipped as the sun god. He is worshipped as the giver of life in the seasons of spring, in the seasons of summer and then worshipped as the sunrises.

I just came from England. Many people came from all over the world to the Stonehenge during the time of the summer solstice. But that is in the natural. It is very much something that is manifesting within and t speaks of altars.

In the house of the Lord there should not be Bel.

But there has been Bel, there have been Bel. There were men, Manasseh who brought in Bel into the house of the Lord, even within the holy place and the holiest of all. It has happened historically and it has also happened spiritually in the sense that Bel has come in. So God is speaking of altars in our hearts in different dimensions and these are things that we need to begin to turn our hearts unto. Some of those altars relate to nationality and today is special, is it not? Fourth of July. We thank God for the United States, you have been such a blessing to us in Africa, I’m sure to the Czech brethren, no? I know Sister Merlinda is blessed by you and by your ministry and it will continue to be so. Say “amen”.

“Amen.”

Hallelujah. It will continue to be so. We love you and we receive your ministry. But you know in Nigeria, God is not interested in the United States. He is not interested in Nigeria either. He is interested in the body. Hallelujah. So He is raising a body. He is not going to preserve the United States or even Nigeria or anywhere else. These are some of the altars that God is pulling down. So we have to pull down those altars so that the altar of the Lord will be raised up in our hearts.

The heart of man is the altar of the Lord and that is where the offerings must be brought and we must not allow other altars to be there.

One of the first thing that Elijah did was to repair the altar. Brethren there is a time to it, Brother Mark knows. Jesus was offered at the time of the morning sacrifice. Hallelujah. Jesus was offered at the time of the morning sacrifice. That was when He died. But between the morning sacrifice and the evening sacrifice many things have happened. It is a time of Bel. During the time of Elijah all through the morning they were jumping and shouting and rolling around, cutting themselves, making noise (1 Kings 18:26-29). Bel had a field day. The Bible said that …until (when) the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice… (1 Kings 18:29). When the time of the evening sacrifice came Elijah came up. Brethren I am telling you that the Elijah of God are coming. This is the time of Elijah. When Elijah came …he repaired the altar of the LORD that was broken down (1 Kings 18:30).

So he is speaking of our hearts, he is speaking in our culture. Brethren, dressing is very important, the clothes we wear. Why do you think God would spend one full chapter, Exodus 28, to talk about the clothes of the Levite? The clothes of Aaron were very detailed: the color, the tapestry, the flowers, the things. It was so detailed. The priest must put on clothes that reflect his personality. As you look at me you certainly know where I am from. Isn’t that so? Yesterday, the other day I was an American, I was wearing your jeans, I was wearing a t-shirt. I didn’t mean anything, but you would feel good, like you would think:

“This guy was dressing like one of us.”

But when you dress you manifest, you speak forth of your personality. So brethren, God will touch your clothes.

The priest, it says that these are the clothes that Aaron will wear for beauty and for glory. And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother for glory and for beauty. …That they may make Aaron’s garments to consecrate him, that he may minister unto me in the priest’s office (Exodus 28:2-3;). Every one of us, we are called to be priests. Would you dress in a manner that would not bring forth, or show forth the glory and the beauty of the Lord? The body you have was paid for by Jesus, it is not yours.

So the philosophy, the sexual revolution of the 1950’s and is come now, it has come with several things. There was a Frenchman that started trousers. He was a Frenchman and he was a Satanist. He was the one that started the trouser revolution in the world. Go and read your encyclopedia, check your history. They have gone all over, they are pushing the limits every year. What they are doing is to turn the men into women and the women into men. In the old times when they worshipped the gods they dressed like the gods. They dressed like the gods they worshipped and that is Bel worship brethren.

We are priests of the Lord, we must dress to reflect the glory of the Lord. We must dress to show forth that beauty of holiness. Men should be men, women should be women. I mean I would be such a wreck without my wife. Women are to be women in the household of God. But the Devil wants emasculate the women, to turn the women into men in the dressing and also in the behaviors, you know, in the functioning and it all goes with the clothes.

I’ll tell you something. When I was coming I had some rebellion in my heart. You know we Africans, we feel this black/white thing. It is real. We feel it.

So I said to myself, “Well if I am coming I am also going to show them that I am confident in myself.”

I was going to wear a t-shirt. I like the shirt. I said, “No, this doesn’t look appropriate. I should wear something that looks African so that when they look at me and they will say, ‘Oh yes, this is an accomplished African man.’”

So I put it on. But I noticed that I was aggressive in my heart nature. I found that aggressiveness. All true, in fact when I go through the customs with the chap, I had a rough time with him. I began to strive with him, because he was trying to take undue advantage of me because he felt that:

“This is an African. He might be a bomber trying to blow the plane.”

So I was reacting to that.

On the plane God said, “Well you started it. You went and put on something so that they would identify you as an African.”

Right on the plane I told God I am sorry. I repented and I became at peace. So brethren don’t let anyone tell you it is not important. The things that we wear, they transmit a spirit to you. As a Doctor, there is a spirit that goes with it. I know that. It is a personality and I don’t have the personality of a Doctor, because there is a pride that goes with it. So you choose: you want the pride, or you want the covering of Christ.

So the professions you are in, the clothes you wear, all those are the things you are in, they are things, you know. These are the things that when you worship Him, that this will revenge. Okay? Somebody killed somebodies mother and at the end of the day he went and he retaliated. What spirit is being transmitted? There is a spirit that is being transmitted. When you watch a tennis match or whatever it is and it all has to do with personality, with pride. It is not that you don’t do those things, but there are spirits that are being transmitted. That is the thing, that is the basis of what the Western Civilization has enveloped, has been built in.

The Romans, they go to the theater, they have got to have games. That is Neo-Roman and that is a fourth kingdom that they say it will rule, that this will rule over. They say it will …think to change times and laws… (Daniel 7:25). So they will be changing cultures. They will be changing the way people are relating, the way you live your life. You probably feel that if you don’t have a television, that is not a part of your life, not part of your regular routine. So the whole thing is, they have murdered our lifestyle to bring worship to Bel.

So God is saying that we need to look at all that and pull down those altars. We need to look at the way that we relate to one another in the church, at home and other places, it is everywhere. So we have to be a people that will see it and then reject it. It is not going to change us and make us… In fact what it will do is to make us be priests, you know, people that bring offerings unto the Lord: in the things that we do; in the things that we say; in our businesses; in our activities. Everything must be geared towards bringing an offering to God.

Have you ever wondered about the Jews. They have their Yarmulkes. Okay. The business ones, wherever they are they put it on and they are very proud. They are convinced about what God has given to them. Now that speaks of a people that have character. But what kind of character do we have? What values do we have? And how much do we hold it? And how much do we pass it down to our children? Are we a people that are easily swayed, that we don’t have any convictions? You know, people can see you and say:

“Yes. This is man (or a woman) of conviction.”

In England, the church, they have lost it. The Moslems are everywhere, it is a Moslem country and you must not allow it to happen here. They have money, they are buying up everywhere. I wondered about it, Brother Burt spoke of it. I was praying about it and God gave me a word.

The English people, they rejected Israel because oil money. In 1948 they turned against the people of God because of oil money. God is taking it personal. I wish and I pray that you will not do the same. For oil money they turned against the people of God, well we thank God that the U.S. is standing with Israel and that is why you are getting some blessings. We need to pray for the government, that God will put godly men there. You have the authority. If you say “Yes” it is real, if you say “No” it is “no” and nothing will happen about it. You have the authority and you have the power. You don’t need to go and converse anything, but you know, so these are all aspects of it. Bel is there, it is found nationally everywhere. You can see it. God is calling us to be awake and be alive, to speak, “to throw down and then to build up also” (Jeremiah 31:28).

So let us agree as a people that we will not serve Bel.

Women should be women and dress like women and behave like women. Hallelujah. In the eldership, the women are there. You know sometimes I used to be a hothead, Brother Pete knows. You know, men see things in straight lines. It is this way and that way and that way. But women, they see the corners, you know.

I remember dealing with someone that was going to get married in the fellowship and we were saying, “No traditional marriage.” We were pressing it and pressing it.

Then Sister Pat said, “Oh this, but these brethren have actually tried. They have come a long way. They have been able to do this. They have been able to do that.”

I was only concerned about one particular aspect. I was saying, “If they don’t do that it means….” You know.

When she said that, God began to speak to me. I could see the tenderness and it helped me to reduce my measuring and my thoughts at which I was coming at those brethren.

In the fellowship we need sisters. Sisters should not be men, you know and the men should not be women. Hallelujah. Say “amen”.

“Amen.”

Hallelujah.

An elder is the husband of one wife, but the husband is one with his wife, so how would you solve the mystery? The elder is the husband of one wife, the elder is one with his wife, so how would you separate them? So you cannot be an elder without your wife, but the wife is not an elder. Hallelujah. Say “amen”.

“Amen.”

So in functioning the two function together. Amen. I am telling you, without my wife I would be a wreck, I would wreck the house of God, but she is not an elder. When I am with Brother Burt I am talking, you wouldn’t know she would be kicking me. When I want to go very fast she will be kicking me so that I will know to slow down. J When I begin to rush she will just pinch me and I know I have to slow down. That is truth. Amen. Hallelujah.

So we need everybody on board because we are rising against the enemy and he will not shoot us. In Africa the women are strong. In Africa the women are strong.

I read the book by Brother Schnoebelen, Brother Burt brought a book to us. He said something. He said, “The AMORC that came to America, the Rosicrucian and their dilatory (idol worship) was manifested in the U.S. by the women rising up to be placed over the women. In the U.K. the women run the family, they own the family. They will give the rights to the women more than they will give them to the man. I don’t know if it is here? So the men are really put under and if you are watching television programs, they will run down the men. The advertising, it is calculated Satanism. So these are also two aspects of Bel worship that we find. The people of God, the godly women must be sensitive to know when to pull back and to know when to, you know. But you cannot throw the baby out with the bathwater. Is it not? Hallelujah. You cannot throw the baby away with the bathwater. You clean it again, that which is bad and then you keep that which is good. Amen.

So God is speaking about Bel. There are different forms of it. It came right down from Babylon and of course we know that the geographical mass divided. You could easily fit in Africa with South America, fit it in as one. So they are one people that divided, so the same cultures you find everywhere. Here Bel worship is subtle, it is symbolic. If you don’t look well you will not see it. But I am telling you Satanism is here and it is as alive as it is in Africa.

You know God showed me the English spirit one time wearing coattails. He had the hat with the coattails, so I say it was an aristocratic spirit and many of you came across the water. Your forefathers came across the water to come to this place. Hallelujah. So God will deal with things, as we go before Him He will begin to touch things and then open them up.

The human hair that the women wear that is sold in the market, they are dedicated. Human hair that you have as a wig, they are dedicated. I don’t know if anyone knows they are dedicated? Where they have the synthetic ones, fine. The sisters say that the human one is very expensive. Isn’t that so? It is very expensive, so it is something that you value it and you be very careful how you do with it. If you don’t have to wear it, then you don’t have to wear it. It may not be, but I do know that some of those things are dedicated as an offering. So they have gone into several things.

It is difficult for you to get into the shop and get the good clothes that don’t have a deep v-neck. It is difficult, you know, so everything is all down and it is going to go down further. They cut the sleeves off, it is sexuality, you know, there is sex involved. Hallelujah. It is flesh, you know. The body was not made for fornication, it was made for the Lord. Hallelujah.

Disembodied spirits need a body to manifest. If you give yourself to them they will manifest through you. They get life from you. The spirits need a body to express themselves, to get life – but my body is a temple of the Holy Ghost. Hallelujah. So it is worship. So when you yield yourself to a wrong spirit it will manifest. They don’t have a body, they need a body. Scripture, those spirits that were in the demoniac, it says: And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them (Mark 5:12). If they can’t get a human body they can suffice with pigs, but they needed a body. Hallelujah. That is why sometimes they do animal sacrifice, even in the musical festivals they do all those things.

So it is all sacrifice, blood and all that. Of course it goes with abortion and all those other things. They are all part of the Bel worship, you know. So sometimes you will have habitual abortions. Those are all aspects of Bel worship, dedication of children. If you make your children, if you dress them in a certain manner, they become worldly. You are offering them, you are dedicating them to the world. It is part of child sacrifice also.

So it is something that is very, very deep. So as you go before the Lord, don’t take it for granted. Some of us who have suffered things because we feel it doesn’t matter. IT MATTERS. Everything is important. So we don’t do it unless the Lord gives you a Word. Amen. So nobody is going to say to do this or to do that, but we have to be a spiritual people. Sometimes you go up to the shop and there are some things that the Spirit of God may not want you to buy. Don’t buy it. Amen. Because the money is blood, it is worship also. Isn’t that so? The money is from the Lord, it is from sweat and when you pay your money it is a form of offering. It is a form of offering, money is offering. Hallelujah. So don’t give your money to that which the Lord is not commanding, or when you do that you will be a partaker of other men’s iniquity, rebellion and sin. Hallelujah.

So we are going to break the bread. Just pray. Then we will share the bread and pray that the Lord will bring cleansing and healing to us.

Lord we bless You for how You have been so gracious to us, how You visited us. Lord we dedicate this bread and this wine as symbols of the breaking of the body and of the wine of Life. As we partake of it Lord, we are praying that You will bless our communion as brethren: that You would bless our assemblies; You will bless our gatherings; You will bless our homes; You will bless the children; bless the body. Hallelujah.

We bring the weakness in the body, we bring those who need Your touch and that we as a people would pray in one accord that You will heal the sick amongst us. In the name of Jesus. Lord, we ask that we abide under Your covering so that the enemy, the scourge of the enemy would not be able to break through unto us. That You will heal the hearts, heal the hurts, heal the offenses. Restore the brokenhearted, restore the bodies, restore the homes, restore our young people, restore. It’s time. Let the prodigal be restored back to the house of the Father. Let the ministries be restored. Let our ministries be able to bring forth for edification, for exhortation and for comfort. Restore unto us fathers in the house. Restore unto us mothers in the house. Let there be godly mothers, mothers in Israel. Let there be elders that are grave, sober, founded in the Word of Truth and Righteousness.

Lord grant us seeing eyes and the prophetic vessels. Restore. Cause their vision to be sharp. Let the vision not be dark. Let the day not be dark. Lord, open even the mysteries and the treasures of wickedness, let there be one even in the house of Ahab, or in the house of the kings or of the Gentiles revealing that which You are about to do. Lord that we would not be blind regarding that which You would say, even in this nation, even in the nations that we live in. Lord, that You would instruct us in the way to go and in the way to pray.

Lord, we just commit this unto You and we commit ourselves unto You that You will bless our communion: that we will partake of the figs; that we will partake of the wine, the new wine; that there will be healing amongst us.

Blessed be Your name Lord. In the name of Jesus.

Amen.