Let's take a look at Mark 16:17-18 -

In facebook I've decided to do a study on these scriptures. I'm hoping that some of you in here will participate in this study with me. I'll try to add a little to it each day and am looking forward to your input.

17And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;

18They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

So the first obvious question is, are you a believer? If so, are these signs following you? If not, why? This is what I hope to discover during this study.

I believe we are living in the last days. I also believe that because of the times we're living in we are going to need more than we have now. We need to have the signs following us, but I don't see them. It is my hope that during this study we can find out exactly what is meant by these signs and what we are missing that we aren't seeing them in our own lives.

I hope to follow this study with you,if you post it here. I don't do facebook. I don't like all the stuff I've been seeing and hearing about it. So if you can post a copy here I will be greatful.
I'm sorry that I haven't been posting lately. But I've been really busy getting ready for this trip and the things to come. I've been doing some canning jams and preserves,as well as salsa. I've been getting some good deals at the local farmers market. And I hope to bring back a couple of 50# bags of dried beans from up north.
I have thought of you Katrina, have prayed for you.I'm glad you are doing well.

It's hard to get people to study with you these days. I didn't get much response on facebook to this. I would like to get into some studies. Is there anything in particular you would like to try to learn more about? Maybe that would be a good starting place for us.

Looks like a good study. I am hearing a lot of Christians talking about revival.

18They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them

Do you think these signs of not being hurt were more prevalant during that time because of the times? Today we have so many safety nets with our food and such that getting poisoned while drinking is rather slim. As far as the snakes go, I have a feeling you don't see them as much since we have built up so much around us. We did have a rattler on the other side of our fence a few weeks ago and we also have new construction going on not far from us. Am I making sense? LOL

I think part of the reason the signs aren't following, at least here in America, is because we have come up with so many cures and antidotes that people don't even consider trusting God to heal them should something detrimental happen. In essence, we have been talked out of it.

The issue of taking up snakes has been terribly divisive. Schisms have formed over it. The issue isn’t so much whether Christians can take up snakes and survive the effort, as it is whether Christians must take up snakes to prove their faith and fulfill their commission as servant to Christ.


I would find it safe to say that all Christians believe that in Christ nothing is impossible. So, certainly if all things are possible in Christ, we could take up snakes and drink poison and survive if it were necessary. But is that what the Bible is telling us to do?


Deuteronomy 6:16 says, “Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God. In Matthew 4:6-7 we see where Jesus is being tempted by Satan and Jesus' response to Satan was, “6 And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. 7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. “ Jesus didn’t have to prove his faith or commission by doing some deadly act even though that deadly act had scriptural support. Why would God find it necessary for us?

Actually, I don't think you have run off the path of the study. In too many churches today they have become lukewarm. The Bible warned us that this would happen. But we also have to remember that the church is not the building, it's us. I believe God is calling His children back to Him. Telling us it's time to get serious about our relationship and stop playing at a religion. One of the reasons I don't think we see the signs any more is because we have left our first love. Remember when you first got saved? It was like a love fest, at least for me it was. I couldn't get enough of the Word, nor spend enough time with the Lord in prayer. But life has a tendency to interfere in that relationship, because we allow it to. That's one reason that children fascinate me so much. Their faith is so pure, while most adults, myself included, have allowed our faith to become diluted. It's time to return to that childlike faith again.

Well, I've often been told that I march to the beat of a different drummer. My response to that? God has called a peculiar people, and I am definitely that.

In Joel it talks about dreams and visions and prophecies. I believe we'll start seeing more of these in the very near future. Throughtout the Bible God spoke to His people in dreams and visions. BUT, we need to make sure the dreams, visions and prophecies are from God. We have to test the spirits.

I keep checking in here to follow the study,but it seems we have stalled. I everything ok?

Sorry guys, looks like I've gotten lax. Ok, Dawn, you asked about the dreams and visions following believers. We know they will definitely be present in the last days, which I personally believe we are starting to see the fullfillment of, but I also believe that throughout time God has spoken to His children in dreams and visions. Remember Joseph, the dreamer? I know that God has given me dreams and visions. I haven't always understood what they meant, but when He gives me one, I always know it's from Him. I then pray for understanding.

I believe it would be, because it's something that comes directly from the Spirit. I also think the gifts of the Spirit and the fruits of the Spirit are all signs. Remember, the scriptures tell us that we will be able to know one another by this, that we have love one for another. Just about anything the scriptures say about what happens in a Christian's life would be a sign, wouldn't you think?

I believe that when we start seeing the gifts of the spirit in action in the Church it will be a witness to the unsaved. After all, many of those gifts were suppose to be for a witness to the lost. Having said that, I also believe the closer we get to the end, the more we'll start seeing satanic "miracles". Satan counterfeits so many things that the Lord gave to His children. That's why we are told to test the spirits. When we start seeing healings being done and man is taking the credit for it, that's when you have to walk lightly.

I also have had dreams and have prayed for understanding,because alot of the times I'm not sure what God is trying to say to me. Is the dream a warning, so that I won't get hurt. Or is he trying to tell me to do something.

I understand what you are saying about alot of the churches out there. Hubby and I were try to help a small church get started, but the so called preacher was talking out both sides of his mouth. And only seem to want people that were going to agree with him on everything. And of course give losts of money.
I'm starting to loose faith in organized churches. The Church is supposed to be the people,not how big we can make the bank account,or improve the preacher's lifestyle of living. Sorry just need to vent a little. We are now churchless. We are still meeting with a few of the other former church members, but that is only twice a month. And mostly because we want to remain friends. Dispite what has happened. We do pray and do some bible reading and discuss what was read and what it might mean to us. Then we eat and try to have fun. Next weekend Hubby and I will be the hosts. So everyone will be coming to our house. I'm not sure what we will do for fun..?,but knowing hubby it will probable be target practice. I hope not,I get nearvouse shooting a gun in front of alot of people.

Dreams, unless it is already very obvious, are something you need to pray for God to give you understanding. A few years before meeting Dawn online God had given me a dream. In it I saw one of the horses in Revelation, it was the horse of famine. Up until that point in my life, I never really read Revelation. I knew that I was taught the church would be raptured before any of the bad stuff happened, so I just didn't think it was important to know. I misunderstood the dream, well, in part I misunderstood it. Since we were approaching Y2K I assumed that God was telling me to prepare for that. I started stocking up on food etc, only to have Y2K come and go and nothing happen. I felt like an idiot. But not long after Y2K my DH was jobless. That was when we moved from Alabama to Florida. If I did not have the food storage I had, my family would have gone hungry. As it happened, the food ran out as DH found a job. Of course, then 9/11 happened and Joe was activated, and has been active every since and is now nearing retirement.

I thought about that dream a lot, and felt that God was trying to show me there was more to it than just my family being able to eat for a few months. I began studying end times and realized that I didn't agree with the pre-trib rapture of the Church, things just didn't seem to fit. So, that got me praying about what God wanted me to do, since I felt we would be here for at least part of the tribulation. I thought about stockpiling food, but that didn't seem quite right either. That's when I started studying homesteading. If all we do is stockpile food, we may be able to feed our immediate family for awhile, but what about our brothers and sisters in Christ that believed they would not have to go through the tribulation, so were unprepared? Homesteading seemed the logical solution, and I believe that the more I learn about homesteading, the more it's the way God has always intended us to live. In that way I believe the Amish have been true to how God wants us to live. Learn to take what the land gives us. God gave us dominion of the land. He gave us all we need to live. But for years mankind has been veering away from what God intended. When you grow your own food, and learn to forage from nature's supply, there's no reason for any of us to go hungry.

Ok, nuff preaching on why I chose the path of a homesteader. To your post about leaving your church. I see this alot. BUT, people have a tendency to forget that the building, organized religion, these are not the church. The church are the people. WE are the church. Anyone who has accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior are the church. I'm glad you are still meeting with others. The Bible tells us not to forsake the gathering of ourselves. There's a reason for that. We are referred to as sheep, and Satan is referred to as a ravenous wolf. A wolf will go after the lone sheep before going into the flock. He will find one that has strayed away, so as not to be trampled by a panicking flock. We need one another. Not in the sense that Obama says, with that collective salvation, but to bear one another's burdens. To encourage each other and to help one another learn.

I believe it's becoming more and more neccessary. I think one of the reasons we don't see the signs following the believers is because so many have become lukewarm. Listening to man, instead of studying the scriptures for themselves and not taking time to be with God. Satan knows that in order for a relationship to become strong we have to spend time with the one we want the relationship with. So, he finds ways to distract us. Satan really doesn't mind that we're Christians, as long as we don't do anything.

Also, and this is something I've been thinking a lot about, but if you will remember the disciples. Can't remember exactly where it's at, but the disciples had tried to cast a demon out, and they were basically laughed at. Why? Jesus told them that this kind only comes out through prayer and fasting. Something too many Christians don't do any more.

The Bible has to be taken in it's entirety. I like what Glen Beck is encouraging people to do with his 40 day challenge. Basically I think Christians need to wake up and really start working on there relationship with God. Spend more time with Him. If He leads you to fast, then do so. But too often there are areas in our lives that we have strayed from God in. It's time to make those things right. The time is coming that the Bible tells us that Satan is out to decieve even the elect. If we don't know the Word and the Author, we will be decieved. Now, more than any other time, is the time to really get into the Bible. Learn it, live it. It's time to get serious about our prayer time. Not just pat little prayers that end up being things we just repeat over and over again, but really talking to God and listening to Him. Prayer is communication. But usually, what we as Christians do, is just say a pat prayer by rout. Talk to God, about the good and the bad. We should be closer to Him than any of our human friends, yet to often we view Him as a stranger.