Sunday, November 23, 2014
Thursday, October 30, 2014
In the Meeting Place or in the Market Place?
This is from the blog My Dreams and Visions:
I had a dream back in January of 2011 that I feel led to post because I believe it demonstrates the shift that is taking place in what has traditionally been called church to what, I feel, the Lord is doing now.
I had a dream that me and a pastor I know, I’ll call him pastor K were in a kitchen in a house and it was on the 2nd floor. Two things worthy of note here was that it was a house and we were up stairs, “an upper room”, if you will. I was with Pastor K, and another pastor whom I know to be a very traditional pastor and not one embracing anything outside the traditional institutional church. He and I have had many discussions on the simple church concept so I know where he stands on the issue. With that said, the 3 of us were talking in the kitchen about the house church and Pastor H, the traditional pastor was very adamant about the traditional church and argued for it. I on the other hand quoted from Acts the following passage:
“However, the Most High doesn’t live in a house built by humans, as the prophet says: ‘The Lord says, “Heaven is my throne. The earth is my footstool. What kind of house are you going to build for me? Where will I rest? Didn’t I make all these things?”‘
(Act 7:48-50 GW)
It was after I quoted this particular passage that Pastor H left the house. In the second part of my dream Pastor K and I were both standing on the outside on an impressive cathedral-like church complete with stained glass windows. One thing worthy on note here is that the 2 of us were talking to people outside of the church and not inside the church. The ministry was going on outside rather than inside. From what I have read of the miracles of Jesus, most of them occurred outside the synagogue, the meeting place, and in the marketplace where the people were. In other words, Jesus brought the church to the people.
That was the end of my dream.
Something worthy of note here is that the book of Acts begins and ends in a house.
Saturday, October 25, 2014
California: The Great American Wasteland
Recently I read in a news article that the State of California is going to force Christian churches to pay for abortions. Because of the sins of abortion, homosexuality and earth worship, the Lord is turning California into a wasteland: look at the severe drought in California.
To the California Culture of Death: if you want to worship the god of death (Satan), then the Lord will bring death to your doorstep.
CALIFORNIA: YOUR LAND IS POLLUTED WITH BLOOD!
Psalm 106: 37-42:
"Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils,
And shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan: and the land was polluted with blood.
Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with their own inventions.
Therefore was the wrath of the Lord kindled against his people, insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance.
And he gave them into the hand of the heathen; and they that hated them ruled over them.
Their enemies also oppressed them, and they were brought into subjection under their hand."
California Drought
This is Sodom! This is Sodom!
Brian's Dream about the United States and Africa
Christian Exodus from California
The Land Vomits
Carbon Con
The Originial Enviro-Nazis
Something Prophetic is Happening in California!
Deuteronomy 28: 23-24: "And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron. The Lord shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed."
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Friday, October 10, 2014
The fire of God's glory
This is from the blog Daily Meditation:
Leviticus 9:24: And fire came out from before the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the pieces of fat on the altar, and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.
The earth has seen many manifestations of God. The first time it was recorded that God came to the earth, Adam and Eve ran away from the presence of the creator, because of their sin (Genesis 3).
At the end of time a similar thing will happen on the day of judgement when the bible says that the heaven and earth will flee from the presence of the great one who seats upon the throne (Revelation 6:12-17, 20:11).
When Jesus manifest for judgement in the sky the people of the earth will tell the mountain: fall on us, protect us from the wrath of the holy one. Sin in any shape cannot stand before the glory of God as the experience of Isaiah showed (Isaiah 6:1-8).
In the focus verse, the glory of God has manifested as fire to consume the sacrifice. But there was a fire from the presence of God, which consumed the two sons of Aaron (Leviticus 10:1-2), because they burned unapproved fire in the presence of God.
The bible says that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 10:31, 12:29), and our God is a consuming fire. Ananias and Saphira fell into the fearful hand of God (Acts 5:1-10). When they presume to lie to Apostle Peter, they fell down and died. An angel struck down King Herod who presumed to accept the title of god (Acts 12:21-24). He fell down and maggots eat him up on the spot.
Those are the manifestation of God in wrath. But there are manifestations of God in prosperity and provision in the bible also.
In the forty years of the journey of the children of Israel in the wilderness, the millions of them ate food prepared in the bakery of heaven, released to them as manna every morning (Exodus 16:35).
Elijah also had a similar experience. While running away from Jezebel (1Kings 19), famished and tired he slept under a tree. And twice an angel brought food and drink to him, woke him up for him to eat and drink.
While the food of angels was delivered from heaven to the Israelites in the wilderness daily, and it sustained them for forty years, the meals taken by Elijah sustained him for forty days of constant walking into an encounter with God, in supernatural experience of fire, earthquake, wind and the still small voice.
Though there was fire, but it was written that God was not in that fire. Though God manifests himself in supernatural fashion, he is not tied to any manifestation, but his word. The devil also have lying wonders (2Thessalonians 2:9) (wonders for the purpose of deception), so because something is amazing does not mean it is divine.
The ultimate revelation of the glory of God to us was in Jesus, who is God the word, the truth (John 14:6). John wrote: in him was life and the life was the light of men; we beheld his glory as of the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth (John 1:1-5, 14-17). He was the ultimate manifestation of God. God has decided to elevate his word above his name. He has chosen to confine himself with his word.
However, because the devil has some wonders of his own does not mean that God is not even much more superabundant in wonders. Jesus is even called wonderful (Isaiah 9:6).
When the Holy Spirit which Jesus manifested in the second chapter of the book of Actswas seen (Acts 2:1-4), it was as fire, when cloven tongues as of fire appeared and sat on all the disciples. When the presence of God manifested on Mount Sinai it was with lightning and smoke, and earthquake (Exodus 19:18).
He told Moses who asked God show me your glory, no one sees my face and live (Exodus 33:18-23). There is a fieriness to God that is beyond comprehension.
The fire of the presence of God can serve two purpose, to empower or to judge. What happened to Sodom and Gomorrah is an example of the fire of God judgment coming upon a place (Genesis 18:17-21; 19). They were noted for their sexual immorality, consumed with illicit passion they were therefore consumed by the fire of God’s judgement.
Isaiah experienced some positive things about the fire of the presence of God (Isaiah 6:1-8). When he met God in a vision. He wrote that in the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up and his train filled the temple.
He was confronted with the absolute holiness of God, he felt deserving of speedy judgment right there considering how unclean he felt. He said: woe is me, because I am a man of unclean lips in the midst of people who have unclean lips. Because he recognised his need, confessed his helplessness, he received grace. An angel came to him with a coal from the altar before God and touched his mouth with it to purge him of his iniquity.
Jesus was described by John the Baptist a one who baptised with the Holy Spirit and fire (Luke 3:16). And in the Book of Acts, the Holy Spirit manifested as cloven tongues as of fire. It was heaven fire coming to abide on all who expressed commitment to Jesus Christ at that time by obeying his word to stay in Jerusalem to be endued with power from on high (Acts 1:8, 2:1-4).
When Paul met a group of disciples, and they said they only knew the baptism of John, he found it necessary to instruct them about believing in Jesus before introducing the Holy Spirit to them (Acts 19:1-7). The Holy Spirit, the holy fire, manifested in their lives in the name of Jesus. He said that those who believe in him will speak in tongues, which is a gift of the Holy Spirit (Mark 16:15-18).
The Holy Spirit is the manifestation of the presence of God, which makes the reality of heaven available upon earth. He is the manifestation of the glory of God, just as Jesus was while on earth, where he introduced the Holy Spirit as another comforter, another helper, another one like himself (John 14:16-18).
The divine helper moves people to places in God where they cannot go on their own, in purity (away from sin), in knowledge (away from darkness), in power (away from being oppressed). All because it is not enough to just know the right things, you need to be the right person, through the changing power of the Holy Spirit.
The Pharisees knew the scriptures but they lost out of the person of Jesus. Because it is not just about what you know but who you know. And Jesus said that the scriptures point to him (John 5:39).
He defined eternal life as knowing the true God and Jesus whom he has sent (John 17:3). And knowing Jesus is firmly linked to knowing the Holy Spirit because you cannot respect Jesus and disregard his Spirit, the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9).
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Saturday, September 20, 2014
The 3 Dimensions of Time
This is from the blog Daily Meditation:
Genesis 21:2: And she conceived, and Sarah bore to Abraham a son in his old age at the appointed time that God had told him.
Time is measured in three dimensions. There is the chronological time, the process time and the appointed time.
The chronological time is measured by the clock, and determined by the movement of the earth around its orbit. It is the grid on which the other time dimensions are built.
Process time is developmental (progression) time. In describing the life of Jesus, the bible says that he grew in wisdom and favour with God and man. That shows that over a period of time he experienced progression (Luke 2:40, 52).
The appointed time is a jump in which a point in time is overloaded with significance of change. It is a leap in time. Jesus was born in an appointed time, he died in an appointed time, and the coming of the Holy Spirit on the earth was also on an appointed time. All of them were times over-loaded with significance, pregnant with meaning. For the appointed time, something extra, external is injected for extraordinary result.
While chronological time is linear, developmental time is progressive, while the appointed time, is a quantum leap.
The coming of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus after the baptism of John in the wilderness was an appointed time. With the ways things were going, with the progression of the life of Jesus before that time, there was nothing to suggest that at a point in time, he will be empowered by the Holy Spirit for extraordinary impact for a few years before dying a gruesome death.
This was a carpenter who from a young age had learned the trade. Plotting the graph of his life, you would have said he will get married and died a good old age with a good reputation among the people. But when the Holy Spirit came upon him, what happened was nothing less than a quantum leap.
When you become born again you become a new creature old things have passed away and all things have become new (2Corinthians 5:17). That is change in who you are, a quantum leap from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of life (Colossians 1:13). It is a change in who we are, from being earthly to being heavenly.
For Mary to get pregnant with Jesus was not a progression in time, it was a quantum leap (Luke 1:35). There was no way she could have planned for it or progressed into it. Such possibility was beyond what her mind could ever consider or conceive or even wish for. It was an appointed time heralded by Angel Gabriel.
The direction of Paul’s life up to the point on which he severely persecuted the church was progressive. He was increasingly led along by wrong zeal, having been taught well, on the religious preferences of his pharisaic order which was decidedly antichristian (Acts 8:1-4).
But at the appointed time, he had a supernatural encounter with Jesus and he started following him. He would later write: when (appointed time) it pleased God who separated me from my mother’s womb to reveal his son in me (Galatians 1:15-17), I did not confer with flesh and blood. The experience of his salvation was a quantum leap. No amount of learning could have achieved it, it was as a result of spiritual infusion.
When you become born again, it is not just an ideology that you buy into, it is a life. You come into a new life, a new life comes into you. Paul said that neither circumcision (having to do with a chronological time in the culture of Israel) nor un-circumcision count for anything but a new creature (Galatians 6:15).
Other ways of putting it are thus: neither literacy nor illiteracy count for anything but a new creature; neither bank account, nationality, or family background, count for anything. There is no progressive road that leads from hell to heaven, you make a leap in the portal called Jesus.
There was a big gulf between Abraham’s bosom where Lazarus was in a story related by Jesus and the torment of hades where the rich man was. You cannot take a walk from where the rich man was to where Abraham was (Luke 16:19-31).
Moses said that we need to number our days so that we might get our heart set for wisdom (Psalm 90:12). The sense he wanted to impress on us is that when it comes to making effort, we cannot afford to waste time, we need to make efforts towards making positive progress. We can therefore to an extent control developmental time. Jesus said I must work the work of him who sent me while it is day (progressive time), the night (appointed time) comes when no man can work (John 9:1-4).
We cannot afford to loaf around in life. In the book of Ecclesiastes the youth were charged to fear God and live for him being the whole duty of man (Ecclesiastes 12:1, 13). That is about using the best of the time for the best purpose, which is the pursuit of a progressive experience of God and expression of obedience to him.
When Sarah gave birth to Isaac. It was a monumental event. It was the faithfulness of God made manifest to both her and her husband. It was a day to remember, an appointed time. Isaac means laughter and it happened suddenly, almost unexpected, but for years Abraham after his name was changed was firm in faith, but though his stood in faith (Chronological time), the appointed time was in the hand of God (Genesis 18:18). God said a year before to Abraham, according to the time of life (chronological), I will return and Sarah will have a child (appointed time). And that was divine intervention, because according to progressive time, Sarah was past the child bearing age.
And in the life of the nation of Israel we have divine interventions in droves. It was an appointed time for God to send Moses to deliver them from the house of bondage (Exodus 3:1-12). There was no way Moses was going to grow into it.
Before the birth of Isaac, God had revealed to Abraham that his offspring, will be in a foreign land for hundreds of years and they will later be freed (Genesis 15). That was exactly what happened. God had committed himself for that to happen and sent Moses with his power, signs and wonders to get it done.
There was no amount of planning and progression that would have achieved it. They needed divine intervention and they got it because of God’s prior commitment to them. Similarly, it is because of God’s commitment that we will have our appointed time.
There is a prior commitment of God to you for a resurrected body in the order of Jesus (1John 3:1-3) and you will get it. God has promised a new earth and heaven, it will happened at the appointed time. When the disciples asked Jesus before his ascension: will you at this time return the kingdom to Israel? He told them that that is an appointed time in the hand of the father (Acts 1:6-7).
The flood that came on the earth in the time of Noah came at an appointed time, which came about as a result of the people’s bad use of chronological time as they went in the wrong direction of development in deterioration (Genesis 6). So the developmental time can be used for either positive or negative end.
Summary
The three times are interwoven. They are all about change. The chronological time is about age according to the calendar, the process time is about age according to the effort you have made, while appointed times is change produced by interjections on our path in life. Both progressive and appointed time can be for good or for evil, but for Christians we have grace for the two to always be positive. As it is written: all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28). And God is at work in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure (Philippians 2:12-13).
Friday, August 1, 2014
Resisting and Receiving God's Spirit, Experiencing His Teachings
The Letters of Isaac Penington
To Nathaniel Stoner
IT is a dangerous thing to resist God's Spirit; and
yet, very easy for a man so to do, who has nor
received a true understanding from the Lord, nor is
acquainted with the leadings and outgoings of Him
who is pure. He that is tender and truly sensible may discern when he resists, when he quenches, or
when he grieves the Spirit of the Lord; but he that
is not truly enlightened, nor in the true sense, cannot
do so. The Scribes and Pharisees, who were interpreters
of the law, and very strict in outward observations
and ordinances, who blamed their fathers
for killing the prophets, and said, if they had been in
the days of the prophets, they would never have dealt with them as their fathers did; yet, concerning these,
said Stephen, “You stiff-necked, and uncircumcised in
heart and ears, you do also resist the Holy Ghost; as
your fathers did, so do you.” For until the stiff will and
stiff wisdom is brought down in a man, he cannot
but resist God's Spirit, and fight for his notions and
practices, according to his interpretations of the scriptures, against the testimony of God's Spirit and power.
Paul walked according to the letter of the
law was blameless, yet he resisted the Spirit which gave forth
the law. Those who would be found not resisting
God's Spirit, must know the Spirit, receive the Spirit,
live in the Spirit, walk in the Spirit, and not fulfill the
lusts of the flesh. He who is indeed turned to the redeeming arm, to Christ the power of God, and gathered
into the power, and dwells in the Spirit and power
of the Lord Jesus, and is taught and led by Him from
path to path, and from pasture to pasture, as the
Lamb, the Shepherd, goes before and guides him; — he
is preserved from grieving the Holy Spirit, which
moves and draws, instructs and quickens, all that are
born of God. But, he that is only in the letter [the Bible], and in
the form of godliness, out of the inward life and power,
he is of that birth, mind, nature, and spirit, which cannot
but resist God's Spirit. He knows not, he heeds not, His drawings, His movings, His light,
His life, — the way thereof, — either in his own heart,
or in the hearts of others; and so, walks in a way of
rebelling against and resisting Him, who is the only
Saviour and Redeemer of the soul. See Job 38:1-4, and 24:13. Oh that you might learn to wait correctly
to learn these things, and come into the true sense
and discerning of the Spirit and power of the Lord,
that you might not any more resist it, neither in
yourself nor in others.
The Lord open your heart, and lay your spirit low
before him; that you may come into a right sense
and judgment, concerning the state of your own soul;
and may experience the Lord manifesting things to you, as they truly are.
I. P.
15th of the Fifth Month, 1671
15th of the Fifth Month, 1671
POSTSCRIPT
O FRIEND!
Wait to receive an understanding from the Lord,
that you may come truly to know, whether you
have resisted God's Spirit, or not; that you not lose the
advantage of making peace with your adversary, while
you are in the way with him.
I would not have you deceived about that virtue,
life, and power which redeems the soul. For, there
is no other Redeemer besides the Lord Jesus Christ,
and he redeems by the grace of his Spirit, and by
faith in his blood, which cleanses from sin; which
blood is sprinkled on the consciences of those that
believe,- and that, not in the darkness, but in the light;
as is said in 1 John 1:7. “If
we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one
with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin." Under the law, the blood of bulls
and goats was sprinkled outwardly on the outward
things, which sanctified to the purifying of the outward
things; but under the gospel the blood of the
Lamb is sprinkled inwardly, upon inward and heavenly
things. See Heb 9:13-14, 22-23, 10:22, and 12:24.
Oh that you truly understood the difference between your own claiming of Christ's blood to yourself, and the Lamb's sprinkling it upon you, and washing your soul within! Rev 1:5, and also, between your own believing, according to your own assumptions of things, and His giving you to
believe in the light of his Spirit! and, between your own
praying in your own spirit, and his giving you to pray in his Spirit!
Ah! the Truth of our God is precious! the knowledge
of his Christ precious! It is a precious thing,
to have the Son revealed by the Father to the renewed in mind. God himself is the teacher,
in the new covenant of all the true disciples of our Lord Jesus
Christ; and, Oh how the teachings of his Spirit differ, from all the
knowledge and learning men can attain unto of
themselves! The Lord give you the true understanding; and to
know what it is to begin your religion in his Spirit; and batter down
and bring to nothing the understanding in you, which is not true; that
you may not find your soul deeply deceived at last, as to the true knowledge of Christ and mysteries of God's kingdom, -- and so, perish forever!
This, in very dear, true, and tender love, from him, who most sincerely and heartily wishes well to you.
I. P.
17th of Fifth Month, 1671
[This is from the Missing Cross to Purity: Resisting and Receiving God's Spirit, Experiencing His Teachings]
[This is from the Missing Cross to Purity: Resisting and Receiving God's Spirit, Experiencing His Teachings]
Saturday, July 26, 2014
California Drought
 |
| Drought in California |
The severe drought in California is God's wrath on sin: the sins of abortion, homosexuality, earth worship and other sins. California also has its fair share of evangellyfish Christians.
I Kings 17: 1: "And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word."
Jeremiah 14: 1-7: "The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the dearth. Judah mourneth and the gates thereof languish; they are black unto the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up. And their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters: they came to the pits, and found no water; they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads. Because the ground is chapt, for there was no rain in the earth, the plowman were ashamed, they covered their heads. Yea, the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it, because there was no grass. And the wild asses did stand in the high places, they snuffed up the wind like dragons; their eyes did fail, because there was no grass. O, LORD, though our iniquites testify against us, do thou it for thy name's sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against thee."
For those who promote the sin of homosexuality by teaching it to children in public schools:
Luke 17: 2: "It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones."
Hollywood also loves to promote the sin of homosexuality through TV programs and films.
This is Sodom! This is Sodom!
Flee California!
Homosexuality is a Sin
Jackson, Wyoming
Brian's Dream About the United States and Africa
Monday, July 21, 2014
The Unpopularity of Jesus and His Doctrines
This is from the blog Christian Praise and Worship in Sermons and Songs:
A. W. Tozer Sermon – The Unpopularity of Jesus and His Doctrines
A.W. Tozer playlist: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=66987CD6E419E258
Because A.W. Tozer lived in the presence of God he saw clearly and he spoke as a prophet to the church. He sought for God’s honor with the zeal of Elijah and mourned with Jeremiah at the apostasy of God’s people. But he was not a prophet of despair. His writings are messages of concern. They expose the weaknesses of the church and denounce compromise. They warn and exhort. But they are messages of hope as well, for God is always there, ever faithful to restore and to fulfill His Word to those who hear and obey.
Shortly before his death, Tozer wrote: “Another kind of religious leader must arise among us. He must be of the old prophet type, a man who has seen visions of God and has heard a voice from the Throne.” I am convinced that Aiden Wilson Tozer himself was such a man.
In his 1948 classic The Pursuit of God, Tozer challenged the stiff and wooden quality of many Christian lives. He noted: “Complacency is the deadly foe of all spiritual growth. Acute desire must be present or there will be no manifestation of Christ to His people.” Indeed, Tozer believed that thirst for God was the sign of coming revival.
Tozer’s passion for a deeper knowledge of God led him to study the great devotional writers of the past. “These people know God, and I want to know what they know about God and how they came to know it,” he observed. Prayer and worship were the hallmarks of his life. One biographer states that his preaching as well as his writings were simply an extension of his prayer life. Another noted that Tozer spent more time on his knees than at his desk.
He called for a return to astonishment and wonder at the majesty of God. Then he added: “The God of the modern evangelical rarely astonishes anybody. He manages to stay pretty much within the constitution;very well-behaved, very denominational and very much one of us.”
In modern evangelicalism, contended Tozer, we work, we have our agendas–in fact, we have almost everything except the spirit of true worship. He defined worship as a humbling but delightful sense of admiring awe, astonished wonder and overpowering love in the presence of the unspeakable Majesty. He reminded the pastors, “We’re here to be worshippers first and workers only second; Out of enraptured, admiring, adoring souls God does His work. The work done by a worshipper will have eternity in it.”
Tozer believed that worship rises and falls with our concept of God and that if there was one terrible disease in the modern church, it was that we do not see God as great as He is: “We’re too familiar with God. …that is why I do not believe in these half-converted cowboys who call God `the Man Upstairs’.”
In the Preface to The Knowledge of the Holy, his last book, Tozer stated how important our view of God is: “The church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God and has substituted for it one so low, so ignoble as to be utterly unworthy of thinking, worshipping men. .. A whole new philosophy of the Christian life has resulted from this one basic error.”
Tozer addressed the state of the evangelical church even more bluntly in Keys to the Deeper Life. In a chapter entitled “No Revival Without Reformation”, he stated: “A widespread revival of the kind of Christianity we know today in America might prove to be a moral tragedy from which we would not recover in a hundred years.” The imperative need of the day, he affirmed, was not simply revival but a radical reformation that went to the root of our moral and spiritual maladies: “Prayer for revival will prevail when it is accompanied by radical amendment of life; not before.”
With revival, said Tozer, would come a renewed spirit of worship which was not the result of engineering or manipulation. It would come out of a high and holy view of God as portrayed in Scripture, not the God who has been “abridged, reduced, modified, edited, changed and amended until He is no longer the God whom Isaiah saw, high and lifted up”.
Tozer called the doctrine of the Holy Spirit “buried dynamite”. Yet he always insisted that the Spirit and the Word operate in harmony. He exhorted the overzealous to a warm heart and a cool head: “The history of revivals in the Church reveals how harmful the hot head can be….These are days of great religious turmoil. Let love burn on with increasing fervour, but bring every act to the quiet test of wisdom. Keep the fire in the furnace where it belongs. An overheated chimney will create more excitement than a well-controlled furnace, but it is likely to burn the house down. Let the rule be: a hot furnace but a cool chimney.”
--Walter Unger
Monday, July 14, 2014
Enoch: The Seventh from Adam
Genesis 5: 21-24: "And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah: And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: And Enoch walked with God: and he was not, for God took him."
Hebrews 11: 5: "By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God."
Jude 14 & 15: "And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him."
How did Enoch walk with God? How can someone be spiritually intimate with the Lord before the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ?
Very little is written about Enoch. According to the Bible, Enoch lived 365 years; the last 300 years of his life Enoch walked with God. The number 365 is significant. There are 365 days in a complete year. Enoch living 365 years is a foreshadowing of the complete man of God (man of faith or man of obedience).
Recently I have heard of a pastor who preached that Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden, not because they sinned against God, but because they did not repent of their sin. Scripture never tells us that Adam repented of his sin or that Adam walked with God after he and Eve were kicked out of the Garden of Eden. So why was Enoch different? Enoch was born with Adamic Sin. How did Enoch walk with God?
Enoch, no doubt, offered the required blood sacrifices unto the Lord for his sins and the sins of his family. This was before the Law, the Prophets and the New Testament. Not only did Enoch, by faith, offer an excellent sacrifice unto the Lord, but I believe, that Enoch truly repented of his sin and believed on the finished work of the cross before the fact.
Faith in God transcends time and space. The Lamb of God was slain before the foundation of the world (Revelation 13: 8): somehow Enoch knew this truth from oral tradition or from revealed knowledge. He put his faith in the coming Messiah, died to self-will and was able to walk with God.
Enoch, by faith, was translated and did not experience death. Before he was translated, his testimony was that he had pleased God. It is only by faith (obedience) that we are able to please God.
Enoch 1:9: “And behold! He cometh with ten thousands of His holy ones To execute judgement upon all, And to destroy all the ungodly: And to convict all flesh Of all the works of their ungodliness which they have ungodly committed, And of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”
The Reward of His Presence
Jewish Life After Death
Book of Enoch
The Alberino Analysis
Leonard Ravenhill - Hebrews 5, Abel and Enoch
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| Enoch |
The Reward of His Presence
Jewish Life After Death
Book of Enoch
The Alberino Analysis
Leonard Ravenhill - Hebrews 5, Abel and Enoch
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Christian History
Christian History
The Deathbed Prophecy of King Edward the Confessor, 1066
John Milton: Writer and Revolutionary
Pagan Christianity? by Frank Viola and George Barna
Quotes from John Knox
The Early Christians Were Intensely Christ-Centered
Gleanings from George Fox
English Bible History
Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky
President McKinley's Dream
Obedience to the Promptings of the Spirit
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Thursday, June 26, 2014
Monday, June 16, 2014
Watch and wait
This is from the blog Daily Meditation:
Micah 7:7: But as for me, I will watch expectantly for the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me.
Here the prophet expressed hope in God. He set out to look onto the Lord, to focus expectantly on him, because he was assured: “God will hear me.”
In the book of Acts (Acts 3) we see a lame man by the gate called beautiful in the temple looking intently at Peter and John as they came to the temple, but Peter said silver or gold I do not have but what I have I give to you, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. Though he did not seek for healing he got it, because both healing and almsgiving worked by the principle of expectation.
What the woman with the issue of blood had going for her was expectation (Matthew 9:20-22). She expected that when she touches the helm of the garment of Jesus, all the problems she had been facing for many years will be over. She could not be shaken from that belief. And she got her miracle by her faith. Her expectation held her on the path of faith, as faith is linked with expectation.
What Cornelius had going for him was expectation (Acts 10). While he was praying in his house and fasting, God sent an angel to him that he should sent for Peter who will tell him the next step to take. And from that day he did not eat till that happened.
Fasting is a statement of expectation. When Jesus was giving the disciples a perspective on fasting, he showed that not only is fasting attached to rewards from God (Matthew 6:16-18), but it is something the disciples was going to practice when Jesus leaves, when he is no longer in the flesh, as an expression of hunger (expectation of, desire) for his presence (Mark 2:20).
So Cornelius was fasting, his expectation had hit the roof and as Peter was sharing thoughts about Jesus, the Holy Spirit was magnetized by an amazing force of expectation and he came hard on the people in his house.
They all (Cornelius, his household and friends) busted out in tongues as they we filled with the Holy Spirit even while Peter was still speaking. That was the gentiles coming into the fold of the church. The manifestation of God is linked to desire, hunger in the people.
Elijah told God: I have been zealous for your name (1Kings 19:14). His hunger for God drew fire from heaven. He could spend time in prayer to see God glorified in Israel, in the midst of the idolatry and corruption that had ravaged the land. He was not going to join the idolaters but was going to stand with God, doing everything for the glory of his name.
He told the king Ahab, “As the Lord lives before whom I stand it shall not rain because I said so (1Kings 17:1)” to set up a confrontation a few years later with the prophets of Baal. He actively expected change in Israel and become the medium through which that change came. What he longed for became his mission.
He was hungry for God’s name to be glorified. He could not do anything, change anyone, on his own, but he could reach out to God who will cause things to happen and God sent fire from heaven, causing the multitude to proclaim: the Lord, He is God (1Kings 18).
In Acts chapter two fire came from the above, the fire of the Holy Spirit came on 120 people who were in the upper room in Jerusalem. They were with one accord in expectation of the promise of the father as Jesus had told them.
Jesus told them: you shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you (Acts 1:8). But for that to happen they had to watch and wait in the Jerusalem for it, for the glory of God to come down on them as it came down in the temple which Solomon built, in the same Jerusalem, hundreds of years before.
Waiting is a spiritual posture. Habakkuk said: I will stand upon my watch to see what God will say to me (Habakkuk 2:1-4). He did not want to come to his own conclusion he wanted to see from God’s perspective so he took a pause from his normal activities. The bible says those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength (Isaiah 40:28-31). When we wait upon him for the next instruction, we are strengthened to do his will and die to ours. Habakkuk moved from his own thoughts to God’s, from his own ways to God’s.
Jesus said: watch and pray so that you do not fall into temptation (Matthew 26:41). That is an appeal to seeking God so that we do not fall into the wrong conclusion and action.
The time used to seek God is well utilized. When we pray, in the eyes of the world nothing is happening, but in the eyes of God in the realm of the spirit much was happening.
Paul said: when we speak in tongues we speak to God in the Spirit (1Corinthians 12:2,4). In the physical it may not be much but in the spirit things are getting shifted. Demands are going up to heaven and answers are coming down to the earth.
Waiting can be trying, it is staying in one place and not resorting to self-help because you know that God will come through for you.
Saul was asked to wait for seven days for Samuel to make a sacrifice (1Samuel 13:4-14), but he was overly concerned about losing the battle against the enemy that he did the wrong thing in panic. Waiting is a sign of trust, Saul did not trust God and he could not wait, he decided to take action against divine instruction and lost out on the best of God.
But David said: I will lift up my eyes to the hills from where comes my help my help comes from the Lord maker of heaven and earth (Psalm 121). And that is why he will waited on God for his instruction, and was unshaken in his trust and belief in him.
He asked from God before taking steps to battle his enemy (2Samuel 5:17-25). He did not presume to know what to do. He asked. Jesus said ask and you shall be given (Matthew 7:7). To ask means you rely on him to do it. Solomon wrote: trust in the lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your path (Proverbs 3:4-7).
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
Obama Resigns as President of the United States
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| President Nixon Resigns, 1974 |
Dreams from the LORD 2011-2014
4 June 2014
Last night I had a dream where Barack Obama resigned as President of the United States. There was a meeting of Obama's aides in a room in the White House. They were all saying goodbye to Obama. A few of his aides left the room without saying a word. Obama was upset that they left without saying anything positive about his presidency.
Dreams from the LORD 2011-1014
Vladimir Putin on Barack Obama
Dead in the Water
Obama Will Leave the White House
Gorges Smythe's Dream
WaPo Headline, Late Final
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"The Watergate break-in was strictly based on one thing - the pedophile records that were being kept at the Democratic National Headquarters."
--Detective James Rothstein (NYPD, Retired)
[from Eyes Wide Open by Fiona Barnett, Chapter 1. "Watergate was Pedogate"]
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| This photo was from Pundit From Another Planet |