Podcast - Ray Bentley Ministries

From revelation, pastor Ray Bentley lays out the choice before us. As last days, believers engaged in the spiritual warfare going on around us. Either we overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil, or the world flesh and the devil will overcome us. That concept of overcoming is found by the Lord Jesus and all seven letters to the church.

Pastor Ray Bentley describes what's so good about the good news. Have you ever had a time in your life where you wanted maybe a new identity? And sometimes you go, look, I am who I am, and I like certain parts, but if I could just get rid of certain elements of my life, if that could just somehow be erased and I could be a brand new person, how awesome that would be.

Pastor Ray Bentley helps us examine Jesus message to one of the churches, a revelation, one that didn't keep herself sanctified. Pergamum has therefore represents the mixed marriage of the world and the church. Satan loves his throne in the midst of the worldly and in the midst of the wealthy, and the midst of the powerful. He likes to blend in, watered down, and really to bring compromise.

Coming up today, pastor Ray Bentley highlights one of Jesus messages to the seven churches of revelation. Pergamum was called the greatest city in Asia minor. Pergamum represents a period in church history when the church and the state became one and the devil, instead of going for outright victory, decided, well, if I can't conquer them, then maybe my strategy should be to get the church to compromise.

Pastor Ray Bentley says persecution doesn't dampen the growth of the church. Smyrna and the persecution it experienced set the stage for the next 200 years. The church was oppressed and persecuted by the Roman Empire. Ironically, today they say there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 2.5 billion. Whether it be followers of this man, Jesus. Smyrna had the fragrance of Christ

The Bible talks of returning to our first love. Today, pastor Ray Bentley explains what that is. First, love is the love of God. His love is burning. His love is consuming. His love is overflowing. His love is penetrating. His love is dynamic. His love is alive. His love cannot leave whatever it touches. The same as it was. That's the love of God.

Coming up today, pastor Ray Bentley points out the need for fellowship, especially during the last days. You and I, as human beings, were made for community. That's where we function at our best, at our premium, at our highest level. The greatest joy of the Lord is to be in the midst of his people and in the midst of the church.

Pastor Ray Bentley on Prophets and Angels, as explained in revelation. The word angel means messenger. Sometimes the messenger is an angelic being. Sometimes the angel or messenger can be a human being on behalf of God. And the chief mark of a biblical prophet is that he stands in the presence of God and in the presence of angels during the sessions of the Heavenly council spread.

The book of Revelation speaks to our generation today. Pastor Ray Bentley says we need to listen. My hope and my prayer is that pastors and churches would read. Just read the book of Revelation. Do you know the Book of Revelation was meant to be read to the body, to the congregations within the churches? The seven churches and the seven letters was to be read to them, and for the church to hear it and to have the hope of the coming of Christ spreading.

Pastor Ray Bentley points out how we identify with Christ through suffering. Each one of us receives our own cup of suffering. You will only know what you have physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually suffered. That's your cup. But it's to that degree that I drink my own cup that I'm able to identify with him and therefore love and appreciate his love for me and what he did for me there upon the cross spreading.

Pastor Ray Bentley reacquaint us with our identity as kings and priests and loved by our God Most High. You have not even begun to touch the edge of the surface of how much God loves you. You are the focus and the object of the creator of the universe. Love. He has committed himself in a covenant to bless you no matter what it takes.

Today, pastor Ray Bentley reminds us God is timeless. He's in the future. He's in the present. Even in the past. How could God be in the past? Every time you look up at the stars, you're looking at the past. The light you are seeing from those beautiful, twinkling little stars is from a long time ago. It was a long time ago.

God is a verbal God. He is not someone merely to be studied, but he is someone to be heard, a living voice. Today, Pastor Ray Bentley relates that to the Book of Revelation. It is to be read physically with a human voice by the various pastors in the churches, and then the congregation is to hear the voice of their shepherd reading out loud.

Coming up today, pastor Ray Bentley helps us appreciate the dramatic symbolism of the Book of Revelation. John could have written in the last days. There will be a dictator called the Antichrist who will rule over the world and the end of days. Instead, what is John actually writing? He says there will be this world governing empire that will be ruled by a beast.

Today, pastor Ray Bentley launches a revealing look at the last book in the Bible. I like to look at revelation as this big door and each one of us can get up to the keyhole and look in. And when you look through that keyhole, you look into heaven itself, and the glory and the splendor of all that's happened in the midst of all of that is the glorified, eternal picture of Jesus Christ spread.

Pastor Ray Bentley takes us to the big truth in the small book of Jude. God is committed to you, God, and all of his sovereign power is committed that you will make it and be in heaven, and that you'll be washed and cleansed and transformed, and bear the nature and the character of His Son, Jesus Christ. Putting it another way, he, God, is able to bring out the treasure within you.

Today, pastor Ray Bentley addresses the skeptics who say the Bible is anything less than the timeless truth of the Word of God. I want to assure you that the Christian life is not something that we have made up. This is not something that we have manufactured. It is something that we have received. Faith. Our faith. Christian faith is not someone's personal opinion.

Coming up today on Maranatha radio. Pastor Ray Bentley points out the importance of staying on fire for the Lord. Now, listen, I know that we're living in some strange times. We're living in a very prophetic hour. Now is the time not to hide our light. Now is the hour and the moment. To let our light so shine. That they may see.

Pastor Ray Bentley says. Be on the lookout for those who look to improve God's Word. Every once in a while, there's some new. Let's just use the word guru who says, I've got something that's never been discovered before. I have a new truth. Well, as I have said before, let me say it again. If it's new, it's not true.

Pastor Ray Bentley on the fall of a third of the angels of Heaven. These were angels who saw God not even in the earthly form of the cloud and pillar, but they saw the glory of God every day and every night. Heaven was their dwelling place, and yet they still rebelled. And this very moment, Jude says, and chains waiting for the day of their final judgment spread.

Today, pastor Ray Bentley points out the diligent efforts of our spiritual forefathers. There were many who were already in the early days of the church. Here's the half brother of our Lord Jude, who is saying that there are already apostates who have perverted or twisted or chain the gospel. And the reason that so dangerous is if you miss, that, you can miss salvation spreading.

Today, pastor Ray Bentley points out, the small book of Jude is big on passion and urgency. Jude is saying agonize. Don't let the basic truth of the gospel be changed. Don't let it be twisted. Don't let it be perverted. Don't let it be lost. The simple message of the gospel. The world needs Christ. They need Jesus Christ. Spreading news.

Pastor Ray Bentley on the message contained in the New Testament book of Jude and why it's so relevant to us today. Why did you write this letter? The purpose of the book is to address the apostasy that was creeping into the early church. And it's also, by the way, one of the great signs of the last days is that there would be much falling away from the faith of the simple gospel of Jesus Christ spread.

Today, pastor Ray Bentley points out, the path to happiness involves sanctification and holiness. Sanctification brings satisfaction, and the role of the Holy Spirit who dwells in you is to sanctify you and to make you more and more holy, and therefore more and more satisfied, and more and more like Jesus and the whole here we become, the happier we will be spread.

Today, pastor Ray Bentley brings us insight on the divine purpose of prayer. Prayer is God's way of solving every problem. You got a problem? Just pray. What should I pray? Just pray. God's will is done. It'll all take care of itself. Because God turns every problem into a blessing. When we pray, put it another way. God is on your side.

Some think effective prayer is praying with all our might and ultimately praying hard enough to change God's mind. Today on Maranatha Radio, pastor Ray Bentley corrects that perspective. Prayer does not change God's mind. It realigns us with his perfect will. So putting it another way, the purpose of prayer is not to get your will done. The purpose of prayer is to get God's will die spreading.

Our problems won't last forever. Pastor Ray Bentley points out, nothing that happens in this world is permanent. There's a joy that comes when you know that you're going to heaven, and that you're spending eternity with the Lord, and you can have heaven now on your way to heaven. So Jesus, he is our perfection. He is our holiness. He is our joy because he abides in us.

Who is Jesus? The answer is pivotal. Pastor Ray Bentley gives us the answers straight from God's Word. Christ means anointed One. Jesus came and he was born miraculously born of a virgin. He was God, manifest in the flesh. He was God, literally coming down to seek us and to save us. In him all the fullness of the Godhead dwelt bodily.

Something. The Christian life is one of rules frustration and stifled enjoyment. Pastor Ray Bentley says not true holiness is happiness. It is impossible to be holy and be a miserable, critical, judgmental, grumpy person. Holiness brings joy. Holiness bears the fruit of the spirit, which is love and peace and joy. It is an abundant life spreading. You see all of these people coming down before the King.

How do we grow in our faith? Is it through hard work and perseverance? Today on Maranatha Radio, pastor Ray Bentley answers that question. Many well-intentioned mistakenly think that Christianity is trying and trying harder and harder, and I want to erase that. I want to erase that from your minds and from your heart. It is not about trying or trying harder.

Pastor Ray Bentley says love magnifies our relationship with God. When you are growing in love, not just sentimentality, not just feeling, not just, oh, I feel bad to them. But when you are doing something practical as giving or doing something personal as in visiting, you have more confidence and your whole relationship with God. You experience this deep respect for your father in heaven and not a tormenting fear spread.

Pastor Ray Bentley explains what God wants the church to look like. God wants an entire family whose hearts are turned to him and adoring loyalty. That should change the way we talk to one another. He wants sons and daughters, for just like Jesus, truly loyal even unto death. That's the depth of what God desires for you and for me.

Are we in God's plan? Pastor Ray Bentley says it may be more accurate to say God's plan is in us. We are not merely spectators to the spiritual things and revelations of God. We are active participants in the drama of God's amazing and eternal love. From the very beginning, God's desire was that he might live eternally within us, spreading disease out of his people, coming down before the King.

Does God really love us? How do we know? Pastor Ray Bentley answers. I want you to know this God doesn't seek to prove his love for you and me except in this one place. And it's sufficient. It is sufficient that you never have to doubt his love again for the rest of eternity. And that one place and that one act and that one event is the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on the cross 2000 years ago.

God is love. We know that's true. The Bible tells us so. But today, pastor Ray Bentley clarifies. Love does not define God, but God defines love. Who God is in his character and his nature and his holiness and his spirit and and his light and his presence. He is the one who defines what love is and what true love is spread.

Pastor Ray Bentley warns us to be on the lookout for false prophets. How can you tell a false prophet it comes down to this. What is there witness or testimony of Jesus Christ? And secondly, what is the fruit of their ministry? And especially, let me say beware when someone says, hey, look, you know, the Bible is hard to understand and in fact, it's better that you don't read the Bible for yourself.

Sacrificial love. Pastor Ray Bentley points to the best example Love is Jesus, who I am sure would have preferred not to have nails pounded into his flesh and nailed to a tree to save you and me. But he did it, and he made the choice to do it, even sweating great drops of blood because it was the right thing to do and the loving thing to do.

Today, pastor Ray Bentley points out, love that doesn't affect our actions may not be real love. If you see a brother in Christ who is in need and you don't help him, oh, I just feel awful about those people. Well, you're, you know, sharing your words and you're having this great feeling inside of you. But that's not love.

What does it take to be a true disciple of the Lord? Pastor Ray Bartley says it comes down to love. Love for God. Love for others. Discipleship is very simple. It's not complicated. It's not. You know, you have to be a brain to figure it out. It is very simple. Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.

What does it take to be a true disciple of the Lord? Pastor Ray Bartley says it comes down to love. Love for God. Love for others. Discipleship is very simple. It's not complicated. It's not. You know, you have to be a brain to figure it out. It is very simple. Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.

The world and its lures can carry us away from God. Pastor Ray Bentley says God is waiting for real revival to stir our hearts. Genuine revival is when your heart changes, when you have an awakening and you realize it. What am I doing? My dad loves me. He wants to bless me. I'm doing. Knucklehead. Won't you sit down?

There's nothing in you that made God love you. Everything has to do with God. It's all in him. It's who he is. Secondly, there's nothing you can do. All your performance to make him love you more than he already does. Pastor Ray Bentley helps us understand agape, the kind of divine love that reaches us in spite of our humanness.

Pastor Ray Bentley clarifies the dual dimension of the life Christ offers. Eternal life is not only a duration of living forever, it's a quality of life that you can experience and feel and know here and now. So this is something that's immediate. If you are abiding in Jesus, you will begin experiencing more about eternal life here and now.

Pastor Ray Bentley takes us to First John for an important message in the last hours of the last days. We are living in an hour of crisis, and what John is writing this letter about is that believers must be on guard against the attacks of the enemy. And the last hour actually began in John's day. After the last hour started 2000 years ago.

Some choose not to follow Jesus. Today, pastor Ray Bentley answers their objections. There are many people who say the world, all that spiritual stuff, it's so hard. Yeah, it is, but it's not complicated. It's simple. It's just hard to do. But it's worth it and eternally worth it all. The world will never change. It will always be here.

Sin. A short word with long consequences today on Maranatha Radio. Pastor Ray Bentley helps us recognize its danger. Here's some words that describe what sin does to us. It destroys lives. It's misery. It's poison. The other thing to notice is that sins have separated you from God. And when we are cut off from him, something dies and shrivels within us.

Worldliness is not a matter of how much money you make or how many things you have. It's a matter of what your heart is actually in love with and what you are attached to. Pastor Ray Bentley points out, A heavenly perspective takes us to the bounty of God's blessings. The future is even better than what you've had up until now, and everything that God has blessed you with up until now has been merely preparation for the great blessings he has in store for you tomorrow.

Today, pastor Ray Bentley says First John is a book that encourages us but also holds us accountable. We need to know and understand that the Book of First John is a book of proofs. It isn't so much what I say, it's what I do. I can say one thing and do another. So what I say only carries so much weight.

Coming up today, pastor Ray Bentley reminds us of the primary job description of believers to display the love of God. What is love? To put it simply, love is to put others before ourselves. That's what love is. The world's idea of love is the world and universe revolves around me. And that's not love. That is selfishness. Love is when I put others needs first spread.

One an example of how to live the Christian life. Pastor Ray Bentley says, Look to Jesus. We can live the life that Jesus lived. He is a model for us. Think of the way Jesus lived. That's our example. That's our model of human life. You say, well, yeah, but he's a messiah and he's God. And. No, no, no.

Jesus paid the price for our sins. Pastor Ray Bentley explains the deeper meaning. Jesus died for the sins of the whole world. In a sense, do you know what I think that is saying to us is that when we go and stand before God, there's really only one sin that would separate you from God. The only sin that would separate you from God is if you rejected him, refuse his offer of love to cover you with his grace and his mercy, and wrap him with his own spirit.