Podcast - Ray Bentley Ministries

Pastor Ray Bentley on Jesus warnings to the lukewarm church. It lay out a sin. Here's what Jesus is saying. Just to say you're okay doesn't mean that in reality you are okay. It's possible to be religious and think you are the greatest thing since sliced bread. We're awesome. Look at all the things that we do. And yet the reality is that you are miserable inside.

Today, pastor Ray Bentley explains why the church at lay on Laodicea was lukewarm. If we believe that Jesus is God manifest in the flesh, and he's in us and in our hearts and lives as a community, there should be evidence of something supernatural, which ultimately means changed lives. What it means is that earlier this year was a church that kept meeting, but nobody.

Today. Pastor Ray Bentley on Jesus words to the church at Laodicea. I wish that you were either hot, passionate, on fire, in love with me, or I wish that you were like Colossae, where the mountain waters are so fresh and they're cold. I want my church to either be cold and refreshing or hot and healing. But you are neither.

Pastor Ray Bentley says we shouldn't wait too long to make our hearts right with the Lord. There's too much at stake. Jesus often gave this promise I am coming, and when I come, it'll happen like that. It'll happen in a moment. It'll happen like a thief in the night. You don't have time to adjust. There are many people that say, well, I'm going to wait until this happens, and then I'm going to get right with God and I'll be ready for the end.

Pastor Ray Bentley on Jesus message to one of the churches of revelation. I believe that Jesus not only spoke to the local church of Philadelphia, 2000 years ago, but he was also looking far into the future before the Second coming of Christ. That there would be a Church of Philadelphia with an open door of opportunity and and literally being able to bring the whole gospel to the whole world and fulfill the Great Commission.

Pastor Ray Bentley points out, Jesus had some words of observation about the Church of Philadelphia. Jesus also praised this church for being faithful to his Word. They were discipling in the word. They were evangelizing the word. They were sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. This church not only knew the word and the truth, but they were seeking to live it to the best of their ability.

Pastor Ray Bentley reminds us where to love our brothers and sisters in Christ. But there is another thing that distinguishes us from every other group Jesus said, you also must love your white enemies. How can we use all of our time, energy, money, resources, emotion, heart, passion, creativity to love those who are our enemies and love one another?

Pastor Ray Bentley. Every day is a gift from God. A day that we can rejoice. And may I add your setting. The patterns of your own life and nature character that will flow right into your first day in the Kingdom of God. No man knows the day that eternity will invade his or her life. Saint Augustine said the last day is a secret and that every day must then be washed.

Pastor Ray Bentley with insight on repentance. Is there a place, or are there situations or circumstances or even old relationships that need to be severed in order that you might be totally, completely given to the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you destroyed the Old Kingdom? You're totally sold out to him. That's what repentance really means. Does it mean to turn around and go in the opposite direction?

Today, pastor Ray Bentley highlights Jesus message to the church of Sardis, a warning that could well apply to some of today's churches. This church was not attacked from the outside. There was no persecution. Why? She wasn't a threat to the enemy. She was so lifeless she wasn't even worth attacking. The church was more interested in appearances than they were interested in faithfulness to the Word of God, more interested in what people thought than what God thought spread disease.

Today, pastor Ray Bentley points out how the Lord reserved some strong words of critique for the church of Sardis as recorded in revelation. Jesus wants the church of Sardis, and he wants every church to know that he desires to lead and guide his church by making the Word of God come alive and fitting into our lives and into our church life and community, to be led by the Holy Spirit.

From our study and revelation, pastor Ray Bentley helps us move forward along the path to holiness. Holiness is not a quality of our outward performance. Instead, it is the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit inside of our lives. And because he is holy, I am holy in him. He imparts his holiness to me as I abide in him.

The devil wants to isolate you. Everyone is in it for themselves. Pastor Ray Bentley warns us of the loneliness of letting Satan inflow into our lives. So what? The devil's plan for you is to isolate you and to get you away and alone. The gospel, on the other hand, the good news restores us and unites us. It connects us to others.

Just like our forefathers, we are tempted toward idol worship today, pastor Ray Bentley explains as we dig into the Book of Revelation. It's a heart problem, and the heart problem is that we need to be reconciled. Our real father, who is in heaven, the only true God and His Son, the son the way, the truth, and the life.

The Lord created us to worship him. The Lord wants to be number one in our lives. Pastor Ray Bentley says, if something comes before the Lord, that's an idol and that's a problem. An idol is not a piece of wood or stone. An idol is anything that becomes the major preoccupation of your thoughts, your energy, or your heart.

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.