Why Jesus Never Believed in the Crowd

Why Jesus Never Believed in the Crowd

From this video:  "Jesus wasn't interested in converting masses. Jesus was interested in transforming individuals." (6:12)

Psalm 118:8:  "It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man."

Jeremiah 17:5:  "Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD."

John 2:23-25: "Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did. But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man."

It is God Himself that Nourishes the Soul

We take Christ's teaching -- but abolish Christ

Soren Kierkegaard

This is from the blog Dover Beach:

“…in our day Christ as the truth has… been abolished: we take Christ’s teaching – but abolish Christ. We want truth the easy way. This is to abolish truth, for Christ the teacher is more important than the teaching… Truth is not a sum of statements, not a definition, not a system of concepts, but a life. Truth is not a property of thought that guarantees validity to thinking. No, truth in its most essential character is the reduplication of truth within yourself… Your life expresses the truth in the striving… The Gospel says that this is eternal life, to know the only true God and the One Whom He sent, the Truth (John 17:3).”

--Soren Kierkegaard, Provocations

_____

John 5:39-40:  "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life:  and they are they which testify of me.  And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life."

Does Christ or Scripture Rule?

The Eagle's Fighting Tactic

This is from the blog Making It Glad:

Eagles are one of my favourite birds. Besides being so majestic, they mate for life, build one nest that lasts forever and they face storms head on rather than hiding from them. The most interesting trait is how they fight their enemy. Their biggest enemy is a snake, but eagles never stand for their attacks. They never fight the snake on the ground – they either pick it up and shake it to death or fly high and drop it onto rocks below.

By doing this, the eagle changes the battleground. As a result, the snake has no stable ground or stamina and is therefore weak and useless to fight back effectively.

God tells us to take note of “the way of the eagle in the air” (Proverbs 30:19), because Satan first appeared to people in the form of a snake. This snake works tirelessly to actively ruin our life-and that includes our thought life!

We change our battle ground when we take our thoughts captive and pray- it is then that God can step in and take over. Don’t ever fight Satan, and the thoughts he throws at you about your health, in his comfort zone. Claim the battle field.  Lift yourselves up by praying and then throw the enemy and his lies onto the Rock- which is Jesus:

“The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; The God of my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge; my Saviour, You save me from violence.” ~ 2 Samuel 22:2-3

Remember, we have been given authority to trample over serpents and scorpions in Jesus’ name (Luke 10:19). Snakes never survive a rock encounter! So there is never a need to ever entertain hypochondriacal thoughts- you throw it onto the Rock by fighting back with the promises of Scripture.

A Prayer Meeting
War in the Heavenlies

Eagle vs. Sea Snake

God's Storehouses in Famine

This is from the blog Grace and Truth:

God has been showing me that right now we are entering a new season. Right now we are leaving behind the years of “plenty” and entering into the years of “famine”.

In Amos 8:11 we read:

"'Behold, the days are coming,' says the Lord God, “That I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine of bread, Nor a thirst for water, But of hearing the words of the Lord."

I believe He wants me to share with you that whilst there is coming a wide-spread famine of the Word of God, He has a plan – a plan of mercy. And this plan is already well underway.
In Genesis 41 we read about another famine. One that spread throughout the whole world too. But of course back then God also had a plan.

God gave Pharaoh two dreams. When no one could interpret their meaning, Joseph was summoned:

“Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dreams of Pharaoh are one; God has shown Pharaoh what He is about to do: ²⁶ 
The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good heads are seven years; the dreams are one. ²⁷ And the seven thin and ugly cows which came up after them are seven years, and the seven empty heads blighted by the east wind are seven years of famine. ²⁸
 This is the thing which I have spoken to Pharaoh. God has shown Pharaoh what He is about to do.
²⁹ Indeed seven years of great plenty will come throughout all the land of Egypt; ³⁰ but after them seven years of famine will arise, and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt; and the famine will deplete the land. ³¹ So the plenty will not be known in the land because of the famine following, for it will be very severe.” (verses 25-31)

The first seven years were years of plenty. The second seven years were years of famine.

We know that seven in the Bible is used for perfection, divine completion. I believe God is saying now the first season of plenty is complete, it is over. Now we are entering the second phase: famine.

A famine of the Word of God.

However:

• Just as God had a plan of mercy for the famine in Egypt, so too God has a plan for this famine. Just as God sent a man, Joseph, ahead to Egypt to prepare for the coming famine, so too has God sent a Man to prepare for this one.
• Just as Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh to prepare for the coming famine, so too has Jesus Christ gone out from the presence of the Father to prepare for this coming famine.

If we look at Joseph’s plan, we see that it was quite simple. In the first season of the seven years of plenty, he stored up one-fifth of the food that was grown in local storehouses all across Egypt.

“So (Joseph) gathered up all the food of the seven years which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities; he laid up in every city the food of the fields which surrounded them” Genesis 41:48

In His sovereignty God knew this famine was coming. In His sovereignty God had sent ahead of it a man to bring about His plan of mercy, so that the: “food shall be as a reserve for the land for the seven years of famine which shall be in the land of Egypt, that the land may not perish during the famine.” Genesis 41:36

Likewise Jesus Christ, by His Holy Spirit, has been gathering and building into God’s storehouses during this past season, in preparation for this coming famine.

Whilst Joseph used Pharaoh’s stone or clay buildings to store away the grain, God has a very different type of building in which to store up His food.

It is us.

We are God’s storehouses. We are His plan for the coming famine. Into each of us He has been building day by day, year by year. Line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little.

“…we have this treasure in earthen vessels…” 2 Corinthians 4:7

Whilst Pharoah used earthen buildings, God uses earthen vessels.



Whilst Joseph used the local storehouses to hold the grain, God uses the local Body of Jesus Christ to store up His divine Life.   Every time we pray, we hear from God, we read the Word, we worship Him, we talk to Him, we spend time with Him He is building into us the bread of Life. He is storing away the grain in us of the Bread of God.

“For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” John 6:33

Remember: God always has a plan. He is in control. He is Sovereign.

When the second season began – the season of famine, the “famine was in all lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread.” Genesis 41:54

There is a time coming soon where there will be no bread for this world apart from what Jesus Christ has stored up in His own storehouses – in us, His people.

At that time Jesus will open up all of His storehouses and “all that is in them” (Genesis 41:56) will be given out to the starving masses.

Notice that it is the work of God to prepare for the coming famine. He is the one who gathers, who stores and puts away the food in us. All that is required of us is that we are there, receiving from Him.

Like Pharaoh’s buildings we just need to allow the food to be stored up in us, and when the time comes, we need to allow our Lord Jesus to open us up and to use us.



We will be emptied for the sake of others. But it is when we give out, that He is able to pour more of His life into us again.

I want to encourage you brothers and sisters that the years past of your time with Christ, of pain, of suffering, of being built into… it is not in vain. It is for a purpose. God has been preparing His storehouses for such a time as this. Take heart, God sees you, He loves you, He is about to use you.

Building in, building in….in order to give out, give out.

God bless you!

Broken Bread and Poured-Out Wine
Brian's Dream about the United States and Africa

Time, Timelessness and Jesus Christ

“Only through time time is conquered.”

–T.S. Eliot

This is a comment I left on the blog Richard’s Watch:

When I think on the word “saved” (as in, “I was saved twenty or thirty years ago” or “when were you saved?” and so on), as a Christian, it is probably an incorrect word or concept. To be saved implies the past. The Lord Jesus Christ is past, present and future. As a Christian, I abide in Christ right here right now.

Let’s say someone surrendered their life to Christ a number of years ago. This is the BEGINNING of being connected with the timelessness of Jesus Christ. As we take up our cross and die daily, our body and soul life are put to death, so that the spiritual life within us (Christ) grows stronger and stronger every day. As the passions of the body and soul life die, time dies. Think of the sinful, physical body as shackled to time: the physical body is born on a certain date (time), it lives for 85 years (time) and then dies on a certain date (time).

There is a point in physical time when someone surrenders to timelessness—the Lord Jesus Christ. Worldly people and lukewarm Christians are still bound to time; spiritual Christians are timeless.

The power and beauty of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is that that timeless event (it defied time and space) pierced human time and presented us with the possibility of living a life connected to timelessness and sinlessness (abiding in Christ)—if we act in faith and surrender our lives to Jesus Christ.

I John 1:7: “But 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 cleanseth us from all sin.”

The above scripture absolutely implies, not some historical event (time), but the timelessness of Jesus Christ. To an unbeliever, the phrase “and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” is totally insane: the death of Jesus Christ happened over two thousand years ago (time). To a Christian, what happened at Calvary is happening right here right now (timelessness). If we walk in the light (abide in Christ daily), the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us (not cleansed us) from all sin.

Enoch walked with God and then God took him because (after many years of obeying the Lord through proper blood sacrifices [dying to self] and believing in the future Messiah) he walked in timelessness and eventually timelessness (God) took him. Enoch was no longer shackled by time.

Prophets are very timeless because the timeless Holy Ghost inspires them to speak of future events as if they are happening right here right now.

Time to stop writing.

Enoch:  The Seventh from Adam
Never the Same
The 3 Dimensions of Time
The coming synchronization of heaven's and earth's clocks
John the Baptist (Chronos and Kairos time)
God is in THIS present moment
Richard's Watch
Prophets and Quantum Physicists
Dimensions 1 - Heavenly Coordinates

Time - Is Not - Linear

Time Assassins - Moving Through Time to Terminate Future Heroes

The Man Christ Jesus

Jacob wrestling with the angel

Dreams from the LORD 2003-2006
17 February 2005

Genesis 32: 28: "And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed."

I Timothy 2: 5: "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."

When the Lord changed Jacob's name to Israel, I always thought of it as a foreshadowing of the born-again experience. But as I look at the two preceding scriptures, we can see that Jacob/Israel foreshadows or symbolizes Jesus. All scripture points towards Jesus. Israel is Jesus. Jacob wrestled with God and became a mediator between God and men. His immediate son, Joseph, helped save the world from famine when Pharaoh raised Joseph up into a position of power. Jacob's distant son, Jesus, saved the world from sin (if we believe in Him).

I have always revered Abraham because he is the father of faith, but there is more written on Jacob than anybody else in the Book of Genesis. The Twelve Patriarchs came from Jacob (12 means "to rule"), so in Jacob you have a more enduring foundation for Moses, the Prophets and the New Testament. It is true that the Lord changed Abram's name to Abraham, but when Jacob became Israel, I believe there was a deeper transformation--from death to life--or maybe a deeper meaning (you can't pass from death to life without the Blood of Jesus). Jacob came from Padan-aram (a strange land, death) to Canaan (the Promised Land, life). Jacob had to change to Israel because now he had to live by faith in God and not faith in himself. Jacob means "deceiver"; Israel means "prince". The Lord now wants a prince to rule Israel, not a deceiver.

Jacob's words hold much power even to this day: look at Jacob's Prophecy regarding his twelve sons in Genesis Chapter 49. Verses 1 and 2: "And Jacob called his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days. Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob and hearken unto Israel your father." If we abide in Christ, we hearken unto Israel. Jacob's Prophecy over Judah was definitely Messianic, but Jacob also gave Joseph a powerful blessing that also points towards some future ruler: "But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel:)."(Genesis 49: 24).

Before Jacob could pass into Canaan (the Promised Land), he had to confront Esau. Before Jesus could proceed to accomplish his work on the Cross, die and rise from the dead, he had to confront Herod. Herod was half Edomite (Herod was a descendant of Esau). There was enmity between Jacob and Esau and there was enmity between Jesus and Herod. Jacob was a true son of Isaac and Abraham; Esau was a real heathen--he married two daughters of Heth. Jesus was truly Jewish--he fulfilled the Law and the Prophets; Herod was not truly Jewish because he was half Edomite. Jesus was a son of Jacob; Herod was a son of Esau. You can't mix heaven with hell or heaven with the world: the love of the world is enmity with the Father. Jacob/Israel ultimately overcame and defeated Esau (the world) when Jesus died and rose from the dead. Esau is a term of derision; Israel is a term of endearment. During King David's reign (1000 B.C.) there was a nation called Israel; in the year 2005 A.D. there is a nation called Israel.

Jacob came, Jacob saw, Jacob wrestled, Jacob conquered. Jesus the same yesterday, today and forever. Jacob still endures and Genesis Chapter 49 is just as alive today as it was when it was first uttered from Jacob's mouth: "Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob and hearken unto Israel your father."

Bereshith