When angels rush in . . .

Angels are watching us and it’s like a spectator sport. They’re watching and scrutinizing.

The most fascinating thing about the angelic creation is they want to learn all things about Grace Believers. Anything and everyone they can get an insight into!

In an old article on this subject (one that Jordan tackled just this evening to the intent interest of the angels, no doubt) he recalled how, “Daniel is just fascinated by this creature he sees and he begins to try to describe him to you. He writes in Daniel 10: 5-6, ‘Then I lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a certain man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz:
[6] His body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in colour to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude.’

“You know, you take your wife out on a walk in the moonlit night, maybe just out for a stroll, and you look down into her eyes and you say, ‘Your eyes are like stars. They’re like diamonds.’ You’re trying to be romantic and you begin to tell her how she compares with priceless jewels, and that’s what Daniel’s doing here. He’s looking at this angel and he’s comparing him with all these wonderful, fascinating, beautiful, precious things in the earth because the angel’s a fascinating creature and they are!

“Angels are (not made out of Carbon-14) but they wear clothes and eat. Psalm 78:25 is one of those funny little verses: ‘Man did eat angels’ food.’ Now you know what they drink? They drink Dr. Pepper. It’s the ‘elixir of the gods.’

“Asap says man ate angel’s food. Manna is the bread of the angelic host and Israel was able as the agents of God to participate in that. Angels know how to cook. Now that’s a blessing if you know how to cook good! In I Kings 19, Elijah comes out there and the angel says, ‘Get up, guy, and come over here and eat,’ and he goes over and the angel’s got a meal cooked for him!

*****

“Angels know how to drive chariots. They know how to ride horses and they know how to fight. They have activities to carry on and they can be visible or invisible. They can appear where people can see them or they can be invisible where you don’t see them. They can travel at incredible speeds. You see them in the Bible where there here and then they’re over there—zrrrooom! Incredibly fast-moving creatures. In fact, because of their connection with light, it is very possible and probable that their speedometer goes up to 186,000 miles per second; the speed of light.

“They can speak multiple languages. Paul said, ‘Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels . . .’ The angelic host can speak every language that is available to be spoken. In the Bible you never see an angel come up and have to talk to someone through an interpreter. No matter what language they might be speaking the angel can communicate directly to him.

“In Revelation 14 an angel stands and speaks to the nations of the earth and communicates to them. They have all these tremendous abilities.

“What you learn is the main thing you see them charged with is the Word of God and they’re charged with the well-being of the nation Israel. They minister to the nation, they care for the nation, they fight for the nation and they provide for the nation. We also saw how they don’t do those things for us. We don’t need what angels can provide.

“Angels are the agent of God to come and provide things and they do all these things for Israel, but what they do for Israel we don’t need them to do for us. Why? Because we have the completed written Word of God.

“While we don’t see angels today, they do see us. In fact, they do more than see us. They watch us, they observe us, and they pay close attention to us. In fact, they follow you home. They are fascinated by members of the Body of Christ.”

*****

I Cor. 11 says, “For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man.
[9] Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.
[10] For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels.”

Jordan explains, “Lady you ought to live in submission and under the authority of God. If you’re a wife, you ought to live under the God given authority of your husband. The angels are watching and they’re interested to see whether or not, and how it is, believers function under the authority of the Word of God. They’re wanting to see the impact that Word of God has in your life and whether it’s important to you and whether it works. And when it works, how it works.”

*****

There were things about the prophetic program angels, who watched the prophets write down, desired to look into. I Peter 1 says, “Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:
[11] Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.
[12] Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.”

 Jordan says, “The prophets would write down the information about the sufferings of Christ and then they would write down the information about the glory of His Kingdom. And then they would say, ‘Lord, we don’t understand what we wrote! What are we talking about here?! And how is this stuff going to work together?! How is it time wise gonna fit together?!’

“There’s something you need to notice in verse 11 very clearly. They didn’t understand what the sufferings of Christ was a reference to.  They write it down and then they say, ‘What are we writing?!’

“Now I know something from that. Nobody in time past in the prophetic program—Moses, Isaiah, Daniel, Jeremiah, David, any of the prophets back there—they were not looking forward in faith to the Cross, believing one day God would send the lamb to die at Calvary for their sin.

“When Isaiah wrote Isaiah 53, he didn’t understand he was writing about Calvary. That’s what the verse says. They were not looking forward in faith. What they did is they looked at what they wrote and said, ‘What is this?!’ and God told them, ‘It isn’t for you to know. It’s for people after it happens to know.’

“And the angels are watching the prophet write it and they’re saying, ‘C’mon, man, get it! Figure it out, would you! Study a little harder!’ They desired to look into that but they couldn’t get it because the time hadn’t come for it hadn’t been revealed yet.

*****

“In Acts 8 the Ethiopian eunuch has been to Jerusalem. He’s a proselyte to Judaism and he’s left Ethiopia and gone all the way to Jerusalem to worship, and he goes home and he’s reading Isaiah 53, and Philip says, ‘Do you understand what you’re reading?’ And he said, ‘How can I? I need somebody to teach me. I can’t get this.’ And he says, ‘Who’s he talking about here?!’ And that’s in Acts 8 that they don’t understand it!”

*****

Ephesians 3: 9-10 says, “And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
[10] To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God.”

Jordan says, “What the angels were curious about finding out about and couldn’t, now is made known and now they can learn it. Now they not just saying, ‘Well, tell it to us!’ and the prophet says back, ‘But I don’t know it yet.’ Now they’re saying, ‘Man, all those years we were trying to figure that out! . . .’

“They learn from us as members of the Body of Christ what they were looking for. What’s manifested there is the manifold wisdom of God. It’s important to understand what it is we’re demonstrating. They’re not looking at you and me to see a demonstration of the power of God. If they wanted to see God’s power, they were witnesses to the creation of the universe (look in Job for references).

“There’s something about His wisdom that WE’RE manifesting. The issue today is demonstrating God’s wisdom, not His power. You need to remember that in the details of your life-- it’s the wisdom of God that He’s manifesting!”

“No. 1 we’re going to be fellow heirs. Angels’ watch this and say, ‘What in the world?! Explain  this!’ They’re trying to comprehend what does it mean to be a ‘fellow heir.’

Romans 8:15-17: ‘For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
[16] The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
[17] And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.’

“I mean, we’ve been made members of the immediate family of God. Able to cry, ‘Abba Father!’ The only person in all of the Bible who ever addresses God the Father as Abba Father is Jesus Christ. We have the same relationship with him as Christ does. That intimate FAMILY relationship. Angels never … they don’t know anything about being a part of the IMMEDIATE family of God.

“They’re part of the creation, but to be a part of the immediate family and sit at His table and to call Him Daddy. They don’t know anything about that and they’re saying, ‘A bunch of old lost sinners? Wow, what is that?!’ That’s the wisdom of God through the Cross.

“In Galatians 3 He says were of the same body. When they see us standing as who we are in Christ as heirs, part of the family of God, and accessing into the presence of God and Abba Father . . .  They see you do that and they’re instructed about the wisdom of God that made it so.

“Galatians 3:27 says, ‘For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.’ That word ‘put on,’ it’s like this: Here’s my coat. I take my coat off the hanger and I put on the coat. What did I do? I clothed myself with the garment, didn’t I?

“When you look at me today, what do you see? You don’t see my t-shirt, do you? You see my coat. When God the Father looks at you today, you know who He sees? He sees His Son, Jesus Christ. You stand before God in the identity and accomplishments of His Son. Oh my friend, don’t waste your time trying to define yourself by your failures.

“That’s sure not the way God defines you today! And when He looks at you He sees Christ and the angels look behind and they see you! And they say, ‘Wow, man, look at this!’ and they see the wisdom of God manifested!”

Ant in winter

Recently Jordan reminded the congregation that no matter what a person’s age, this decade would be the most influential decade of their lifetime.

We’re now nearing the fourth quarter of this current winter cycle where the issues of decision-making and applying the will of God are crucial to an individual's future.

Proverbs 6 says, “Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest."

Jordan says, “Be like that ant. Be wise, redeeming the time. There’s a sense in which you and I have a responsibility to go out and rescue time from being lost. If these things about wintertime are true, and that life is seasonal, the time that you make the most difference is here.

“Once in a lifetime you go through the opportunity to live that once-in-a-lifetime privilege of making or breaking the heart of the future. Winter is an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to heal or to destroy the soul of a people who goes through that next cycle. It’s a critical time with critical opportunities.

“That last wintertime era is the one that gave birth to what we know as the ‘the grace movement.’ J.C. O’Hair became pastor of North Shore Church in 1924. He died in 1958 as pastor of the church. The heyday of the ‘Grace Movement’ as we’ve come to understand it was there. The big names you hear—C.R. Stam, Charles Baker and O’Hair—that’s their era.

“Now, I’m no J.C. O’Hair and you’re no Stam or Baker, but we don’t need to be. All we need to be is who we are. We just need to be where we are taking advantage of who we are to the fullest—to be for this season who it will need us to be.

*****

“Every springtime in this country has had a spiritual awakening. That’s the cycle in Anglo-American history in which the Reformation took place. The first reformation was a recovery of Pauline truth.

"The next great awakening was the Puritan awakening. The era of the Puritans, in the first quarter of the 1600s, produced the King James Bible. The fruit and on the vine. It’s the era of tremendous, wonderful activity in America. Jonathan Edwards and the great New England revivals changed the course of America—justification by grace through faith.

“The next great awakening in the 1800s was led by Charles Finney and had to do with the doctrines of identity. The next great awakening was the one that led into dispensational understanding. The fourth great awakening, in the 1960s, was called in history the ‘Conscience Revolution’ and it’s the first awakening in American history that wasn’t based on Bible. It was a New Age awakening. Historians call our world today Post-Christian.

“If you don’t know that, then you need to wake up and quit reading books written 50 years ago about reaching people 50 years ago, and look around you today. The best in Christendom today is so washed out and shallow, and sorry and flesh-oriented, that it couldn’t even get in the door 50 years ago.

“Unsaved men 50-75 years ago had three times the character of Christian leaders today. Christian people today accept low-living and character defects in fellow Believers, and give them ministries that when I was a kid people would have looked at them and sneered and said, ‘How in the world do you call yourself a Christian and do all that stuff? I don’t want to know what you have to say.’

“Today you’re involved in ministering to the first generations in American history that didn’t have some basic spiritual consensus or underpinnings that pointed them at least in the right direction.

“How you come out of winter into the next spring is up for grabs. It’s up for grabs during the winter.

*****

“If you want to see how nations operate, you’ll see it laid out in Genesis 8-10 and you’ll the satanic counter-attack in Gen. 11 (internationalism and getting rid of the pattern set up). Genesis 9 lays out the great ethnic divisions among the nations.

“Noah’s three boys—Ham, Shem and Japeth—are the progenitors of the three ethnic races that make up humanity. With each one of those boys and their descendants, Noah gives a prophecy about them and when he does, he gives a prophecy about the contribution each is to make.

“Those divisions are not designed to be divisions; they’re designed to be distinctions in the contribution. If you’ve done something, you know that one ingredient does one thing and another ingredient does another, and another, and then you have the whole. It’s the old sin nature that makes them divisions. When each division makes the proper contribution it’s designed to make then you have the proper functioning of the whole. In the ages to come in the millennial kingdom, that will be exactly what happens.

“That’s why when the gospel goes into any culture, no matter what culture it is, it doesn’t bring the culture of another group into it, it goes into that particular culture and purifies that culture and brings out of it all the best that culture can contribute.

“And instead of trying to go in and Westernize or Southernize or Midwestize or Californiaize, you come in and honor the dignity of who these people are and that God designed them to be that way, bringing in the gospel and the life of Christ, and the truth of God’s grace and what that brings out, and then the group is full and able to make the contribution to the whole that it’s designed to make.

“I’m telling you what the answer is to the ethnic, racial strife in the world! I’ve read accounts of missionaries, sociologists, anthropologists, etc., going into the most hinterlands of humanity, where people have had no contact at all with civilizations, and they sit down and say, ‘What are your dreams, what do you want, who do you think you are, what is it you desire?’ and you know what? The list they come away with is exactly the list you’d make! They say, ‘I want a better life for my children.’

“You say, ‘Hey, this people have never been civilized yet; touched with the blessings of the civilized world. How do they know all of our questions?!’ Folks, it’s because we all come from the same place. The same God made us and made us to operate on those four basic principles laid out in Genesis.”

Chariots of fire

Jeremiah writes in Jeremiah 4:23, ‘I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.’

“Where have you read that verse before?” says Jordan. “That’s the second verse in the Bible and I’ve said to you time and again, Genesis 1 describes the original creation. Between verse one and two you had a tremendous rebellion. That’s where Satan rebelled, and as a result of that, God judged the universe and the earth (the command center of the universe) became without form and void. It lost all of its previous structure and was empty.

“He ridded it of all those rebels just like He’s going to rid the land here of all who rebel against Him. The battle between Satan and Jehovah isn’t brought to a conclusion until the transpiring of the events we’re reading about here in Jeremiah and Joel, etc.

“If you can just get all that stuff in your mind, thinking about that, this is a colossal event going on here in Joel 2.

“Joel 2:4-6 says, ‘The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run.
[5] Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array.
[6] Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness.’

“You think of ‘Ben Hur’ when you think of a chariot, but these are vehicles of and implements of destruction.

“I mean, I don’t know what it looks like, but I’m sure it doesn’t look like anything Ben Hur was riding in because the Lord would have better architects and designers to build things.

“The noise referred to would be deafening. Have you ever heard anybody describe being in a forest fire? I read an article describing these guys in a forest fire in California that overran them. One guy said it was like 10 locomotives coming. He said they couldn’t communicate with each other it was so loud.

“Isaiah 13:6-8 says, ‘Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
[7] Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt:
[8] And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.’

“See how that expression ‘their faces shall be like flames,’ is like what Joel says about people whose faces turn black? I don’t know if you’ve ever seen anybody who burned up, but that’s how they look. If you don’t know that, if you watch NCIS, and nowadays they got dead bodies lying all around, every now and then somebody will burn up and be like charcoal and that’s what happened.

“Verse 9 says, ‘Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.’

 “He’s just going to rit them out like we saw in Zephaniah. This is the place where He avenges Himself and His cause of righteousness against all sin and evil.

“When you see the morning spread upon the mountains here comes the sun up behind the mountains and what you see on the mountains is just shadow; just darkness. And when you see darkness, you see the light coming up, it makes the darkness there all the darker.

“The coming of Christ is described as morning after a real black darkness. In fact in Hosea 6, His actual coming is described as the morning after a big rain storm and in connection with the Second Advent there’s all this atmospheric disturbance.

*****

"Revelation 19:14 says, ‘And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.’

“If they’re following him and they’re on horses, then you have to have horsemen. There not physical in the physical realm; they’re in the spirit world.

“When Elijah was caught up into heaven in II Kings 2:11-12 it says, [11] And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.

“Notice there’s a chariot and what’s it made out of? It looked like fire. You know, if I saw a chariot made of fire walk up, I wouldn’t be wanting to jump on board. But this is not a physical thing; this is something in the spirit world in a different dimension.

“The horses were of fire. They’re makeup was something different than just the ordinary Carbon-14 world that you and I live in. Verse 12 says, ‘And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces.’

“If you take fire out of that domain and put it into our realm, fire doesn’t consume them; it doesn’t destroy them. You put it in our realm, it destroys you.

“That’s why Jesus says in Matthew 25:41, ‘Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.’

“A  little later on in II Kings 6, Elijah has a companion, a minister, and he’s a little worried about the people against him being more than the people who are for him and so in 6:16, Elijah answers, ‘Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.’

“Now the boy thought he was nuts because he could see all them dudes on the hilltop out there fixing to come get them and it’s just him and Elijah. He was like, ‘What are you talking about?!’

 

"So in verse 17, Elijah prayed and said, ‘LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see.' 'And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.'

“Those are armies of angelic protection to assure Elisha’s safety. So when you’re reading in Joel about the appearance of this army as the appearance of horses and horsemen, go to Habakkuk, which does from just a little different perspective on the Second Advent what we’re doing in Joel.

“By the way, did you ever have anybody ask you where did God come from? I remember years ago at the rescue mission in Mobile, when I was just a young preacher, a bum interrupted Brother Reynolds while he was giving a gospel message, yelling, ‘Where’d God come from?’ Mr. Reynolds looked at him and said, ‘From Teman.’

“I learned years ago preaching on the street that when people heckle you and throw a question at you like that, if you just give an answer it doesn’t have to make any sense. You just give them an answer and put them back on their heels.

“Habakkuk 3:3 says [3] God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. God came from Teman, so Brother Reynolds was quoting Scripture. Now, he wasn’t talking about like how I came from Mobile. This is a passage that is describing the Second Advent of Christ.

“Notice He’s coming from Teman and Paran, and if you run those references, that’s down in Edom. That’s actually south of the Dead Sea and up on the side of it. So what you get is another description of the Second Advent itself."

Christ: 'Pass over unto the other side'

You ever hear anybody talk about Paul’s “missionary journeys”?

“Paul never took a missionary journey a day in his life,” says Jordan. “Paul was no missionary; he was an apostle. You see the first verse in the book? ‘Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ.’

“A missionary is a 19^th Century invention. Nobody called themselves that before the 1800s and the term was invented, by the way, along with the term ‘Great Commission.’ Do you know that term was created by a ‘missionary’ in India?

“I tell you what you do. Google the term and just get the information. It’s fascinating; it will scare you to death. This guy did it in order to raise money from home and that’s why it’s associated with missionary conferences—‘If you don’t believe in that you don’t believe in missions.’ That was the spiel.

“The first article I ever saw written about that was from a Lutheran who was mad at people for using it.

“A lot of the terminology we use that comes around and goes around, people get all bent out of shape about because they’ve never seen beyond the fence of the denominational group they live in and they don’t see over the fence to the things that are there.

*****

“In Mark 4:35 Jesus is with His disciples and they get in a boat and go across to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.

“Go back and read Psalm 89, Psalm 107, Psalm 67, and you’ll see that only Jehovah, the Creator, can calm the raging sea. Jesus demonstrates himself to be the Jehovah God of the Old Testament by standing and ordering creation to cease the rages and that lake turned into the face of a mirror; calm.

“Then He says to them, ‘Why are you so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith?’ There’s their problem. ‘Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.’

“Look what they forgot in verse 35: ‘And the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side.’ When they got in the boat, where’d He tell them they were going? To the other side. They get out in the middle of a storm-tossed sea and they’re jumping up and down, yelling, ‘What are you doing asleep?! Don’t you care?! We’re fixing to drown!’

“And Jesus gets up and says, ‘Peace, be still,’ and everything calms down. Then He says, ‘Don’t you dudes remember what I just told you? Have you forgotten that I told you we’re going to the other side? If you drowned out here in the storm my word wouldn’t be true, so if you really understood what I told you, and you believed it, you know what you’d be doing? You’d be down here sleeping with me, because I’m just resting till we get to the other side, because that’s where the Father told me we’re going.’

“When I was a kid we used to sing a song:

‘Master the tempest is raging. Master, the tempest is raging!
The billows are tossing high!
The sky is o'ershadow with blackness,
No shelter or help is nigh;
Carest Thou not that we perish?
How canst Thou lie asleep,
When each moment so madly is threatening
A grave in the angry deep?

Refrain
The winds and the waves shall obey Thy will,
Peace, be still!
Whether the wrath of the storm tossed sea,
Or demons or men, or whatever it be
No waters can swallow the ship where lies
The Master of ocean, and earth, and skies;
They all shall sweetly obey Thy will,
Peace, be still! Peace, be still!
They all shall sweetly obey Thy will,
Peace, peace, be still!

Master, with anguish of spirit
I bow in my grief today;
The depths of my sad heart are troubled
Oh, waken and save, I pray!
Torrents of sin and of anguish
Sweep o’er my sinking soul;
And I perish! I perish! dear Master
Oh, hasten, and take control.

Refrain

Master, the terror is over,
The elements sweetly rest;
Earth’s sun in the calm lake is mirrored,
And heaven’s within my breast;
Linger, O blessèd Redeemer!
Leave me alone no more;
And with joy I shall make the blest harbor,
And rest on the blissful shore.

He's the archer, calf, lion, ox, adder, dragon, cherub . . .

All through Israel’s history are angelic armies. In II Kings, for example, Elisha sees on the mountain the angelic armies there to defend Israel.

“In Psalm 91 is a passage people just go bonkers over, but if you understand the context of it, it’s a little bit different,” says Jordan.

“The passage reads, [5] Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;
[6] Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.
[7] A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.
[8] Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.
[9] Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;
[10] There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.
[11] For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.
[12] They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.
[13] Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.

“Who’s the lion, the adder, the young lion and the dragon? What do all those creatures represent? The dragon is Satan. In I Peter 5, Satan’s called ‘a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.’ And as he seeks to devour Israel (overcome them) they have an angelic protection provided them.

*****

“In the Bible, there’s this whole counterfeit spirit world of creatures. These creatures are real, they’re potent and they hate everything God stands for.

“Deuteronomy 10:17 says, ‘For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward.’ Over 200 times the God of the Bible calls Himself the God of Israel.

“Notice He’s the big ‘G’ of the little ‘g-s.’ The little ‘g-s’ is a reference to angelic creatures. If you back to Genesis 3, for example, they first show up ‘as gods knowing good and evil.’

“These gods are living creatures. They know good and evil. Eve is acquainted with them because, obviously if she hadn’t known who they were, there would have been no temptation at all.

“She sees these angelic creatures functioning on the earth; her and Adam's responsibility was to go out and have dominion in that earth—win it back from them, so she knows who they are; she knows they have knowledge and that they’re real, living creatures, not idols.

“Psalm 96:5 says, ‘For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the LORD made the heavens.’ When it says all the gods of the nations are idols, those gods are living creatures but they inspire their followers to make representative nations to them.

“In fact, you go to I Corinthians 10:20 you’ll see in their worship service they have cups of devils and a table. They’ve counterfeited God’s program with the nation Israel to the point they just don’t reproduce it but they corrupt it.

“In Job 48, ‘the sons of gods’ are there when God lays the foundations of the earth. They’re shouting during the six-day creation, being educated by what He’s doing.

“You remember Jesus told them in Matthew 25 that ‘hell’s prepared for the devil and his angels’? I mean, these creatures have been around for a LONG time and they function, some of them, with the Adversary Satan.

*****

“Outside of the godhead the top god in the world is Satan and he’s the top god of the world because people have made him so; they’ve chosen him. The rulers of the angelic rebellion went with him.

“Michael and Gabriel are the only angels in the Bible in the top echelon. Gabriel is the top diplomat and Michael is the commander of the armies of heaven. Everybody else in the upper echelon, the top-third in the ranks of the heavenly government, went with the Adversary; bought into his lie program.

“I mentioned the Iraqi army that abandoned all the war equipment for the terrorists to take. You know why they did that? An American veteran who trained the Iraqi army said in a TV interview, ‘Listen, the guys who ran could have stayed and fought. What happened was their commander left and when you have troops whose commander has deserted, you know what the guy sitting out on the front line does? He checks out too because he has no command and control.

“He said that if the commanders had stayed and rallied the troops, they could have fought, but the commanders were patronage commanders because the people who ran Iraq after we left, they wanted us out so they could just put their buddies in and, instead of having trained commanders and soldiers running the thing, they just had all these pansies and patsies there, and when the going got tough they left and everybody else left too.

“In the heavens, Satan took the commanders first and decimated the government of heaven that way. They chose him to be their God and humanity did the same thing.

“That’s why Satan could take Jesus up into a high mountain and show him all the kingdoms of this world in a moment of time and say, ‘These are all mine!’, because he’d usurped them.

*****

“Lucifer was a cherub. John gets caught up into the throne room and writes in  Revelation 4, ‘And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.
[3] And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.
[4] And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.
[5] And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.
[6] And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.
[7] And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.’

“Those four creatures have four faces and it’s important to follow those faces because those faces have an awful lot to do with the revelation of God in connection with these (demonic) characters.

“The first one has a face of a lion, the next one has the face of a calf, then the face of a man and then the face of an eagle.

“In Ezekiel 1:10, you’ll see this again. Ezekiel is caught up into the same throne room and sees the glory of God. ‘As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle.’

“Notice how he changed that? The calf becomes more specifically an ox. In chapter 10:14, he’ll change that one more time: ‘And every one had four faces: the first face was the face of a cherub, and the second face was the face of a man, and the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.’

“The one that gets changed there—Satan’s an anointed cherub that covers. That throne, if you took an aerial view and looked down at it, has four creatures on the four corners.

“But if you look at it like I’m looking at you, you’d see the one here and then there’s one up there that’s covering. The fifth cherub was Satan. That’s why five in the Bible, first of all, is the number of death.

“The Cross work of Christ turns that No. 5 from death into grace. So the No. 5 has two kinds of significances in the Bible.

*****

“In Genesis 3, it says the serpent who beguiled Eve is ‘cursed above all the cattle of the field.’ People say, ‘Well, doesn’t the Bible know the difference between a reptile and a cattle?’ Yeah, it does, but you see that serpent was really a calf because that’s who his character is. That’s his nature.

“He’s an ox. You ever make your fingers into horns are put them behind somebody’s head? The symbol of an ox is horns and that’s the symbol of Baal worship in anthropology and in Bible archaeology.

“You go to Revelation 6 and the first guy on the white horse is an archer. He’s got a bow, but he doesn’t have any arrows. You know what you do when you’re an archer? You hold back, and when you don’t have an arrow any longer, what did you just do? You let it go.

“When I studied archery as a teenager the instructor told us you always anchor at the same place and you let go of that bow, and I can still remember that teacher saying, ‘And that’s the sign of an archer,’ and I thought, ‘Whew! There’s that!’

“You say, ‘Where’d all that come from?’ You remember in Exodus 32, Moses goes up on the mountain and while he’s gone, Aaron builds a golden calf.

“What did we see show up in Hosea over and over and over? ‘Hear me, thy gods of Israel who brought ye out of Egypt.’ What was it? A calf. A representation, an idol inspired by Satan to represent him. That’s why Hosea 8 said, ‘IT is not God.’

“Genesis 6 tells us, [1] And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,
[2] That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.
[3] And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
[4] There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.’

“This stuff began in Chapter 4 because that’s when men began to multiply. When it says ‘the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose,’ there’s an awful lot of discussion about what that’s talking about, but if I said that somebody came along and took a wife, that sounds like abduction to me.

“When God says, ‘This thing’s gone far enough and you only got 120 years left,’ He’s now going to intervene and pick out Noah and tell him about building the Ark.

“Notice when the sons of god (the fallen angels) took these women for wives, they had progeny. Now, until recently you just took that by faith but today, in the last decade or two, there’s developed what’s called a ‘transhuman society.’

“I mean by that there’s a group of scientists promoting the idea of taking non-human entities, implanting them into humans and making them what that verse says, ‘The same became mighty men.’

“What did God call them in Joel? ‘My mighty ones.’ Satan has counterfeited that over in Genesis. When it says they ‘were of old, men of renown,’ that means they were mighty and had a superior intellect. This came through a satanic counterfeit.

*****

“Satan has always sought to take humanity from God. The great illustration of that is Judas Iscariot. In John 13, Satan put into the heart of Judas to betray Christ. He influence his thinking, his desires, his heart. But you down to verse 27 in John 13, and it says that Satan ‘entered.’ He didn’t just put it into his heart; he literally incarnated himself IN Judas because that’s what Satan’s desire is.

“That’s why Judas is called the son of perdition and the Antichrist is called the son of perdition. The Antichrist is called that because at the second half of the tribulation (in the first half he’s called ‘the man of sin’) he’s the beast that ascends up out of the bottomless pit.

“Satan has always sought to incarnate himself, take over, implant himself in God’s creation.

“In Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar sees this image that describes the times of the Gentiles from the beginning of the fifth course of captivity all the way to the Second Advent of Christ. So all the Gentile nations that are going to be given Israel’s position in the earth to rule, he sees them.

“Verses 40-43 say, [40] And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.
[41] And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.
[42] And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.
[43] And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.’

“The 10 toes are going to be the ten kings that reign with the Antichrist in Revelation 17. When it says they ‘mingle themselves with the seeds of men,’ that’s exactly what you read about in Genesis 6. That’s why Jesus says, ‘In the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the Son of man.’

“When you see that mingling of their seed, mixing, clay in the Bible is a description of man. In fact, in Isaiah 64, it’s specifically the description of the nation Israel who is the personification of man.

“Iron in the Bible is connected with the fallen angels over and over again. So what you have is a bunch of demonic supermen mingling with the seeds of men that produce supermen that will be ruling with the Antichrist, trying to bring out of that dimension . . .

“When you see all this stuff, the sensationalism that preachers build about it is to scare you to death and get you to buy their books, or their survival generators, or whatever they’re trying to sell.

“God says Israel doesn’t have to worry about it because when all this stuff comes about in connection with the Antichrist, He said, ‘I’ve got my mighty guys, too, and my guys are stronger than your guys. And when the times comes, they’ll come out of heaven, chase Satan and all of his host out of heaven and throw them down to the earth, and then they’ll come down here and deal with them.’ ”

Obama's wink and nod to ISIL

If you listen to Obama even on the most peripheral level you notice how he insists on calling the terrorists ISIL rather than ISIS. ISIL stands for "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. "
Levant (meaning “the rising of the sun in the east”) is the old-world European name used for 500 years to describe the Middle East territory controlled by Muslims, covering the Mediterranean coast of Turkey down to Egypt.

“When Obama and our government refer to the terrorists as ISIL they are giving the tip of the hat to the Muslim Brotherhood,” explained Jordan in his Wednesday night study. “The terrorists, by using the name ISIL, are saying, ‘Our goal is not just to have Iraq and Syria; it’s to have Lebanon, Jordan, Israel.’

“When our government uses the term ISIL, that’s a kind of code signal to those guys that says to them, ‘Hey, it’s okay for you to take Israel.’ They’re literally giving a wink and a nod to the terrorists’ goal of (controlling) more than just Iraq and Syria.

“The problem with that is right in the middle of that region is the only democracy and the only ally we have.”

*****

Earlier today it was reported on FOX that, “ISIS is looking for Armageddon-style battles.”

Interestingly enough, Jordan’s study Wednesday was out of Joel 2, which educates the “believing remnant” in Israel about how Armageddon is going to come and deal with the real enemy behind the scenes, using the supernatural armies of heaven to accompany the Lord Jesus Christ as He comes out of heaven at the Second Advent.

Joel 2:7-8 says, “They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks. [8] Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his path: and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded.”

“They’re going to be moving straight forward, not breaking ranks,” explained Jordan. “There’s just going to be one column of these soldiers following the Lord, undiverted.

“Mighty men is a special description of these guys. They can’t be wounded, they can’t be destroyed, and when they come they don’t leave anything behind them. When you read that, you know immediately this is no natural bunch of humans.

*****

The passage goes on, 9] They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief.”

“There’s going to be house-to-house urban warfare,” says Jordan. “They’re literally going to come back and swarm like ants over the territory as they go through, and they’re going to take out everything that offends and destroy it.

“Verse 10 says, ‘The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining:’

“We talked about the atmospheric turbulence that surrounds this army of thousands of soldiers, in all kind of battle armor, as they come through that region.

“I think about how in Arizona, when they have these sand storms come through, it looks like a big round wall that goes up about 15,000 feet in the air.

“When it says the earth is going to quake, the Book of Amos picks up right there. Amos 1:2 talks about an earthquake that, if you read the commentaries, nobody in history knows how to identify because it’s nowhere else in history or Scripture; this is prophecy looking into the future.

“Joel 3:11 says, 11] Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O LORD.’

“That’s the Lord’s attitude about the United Nations. Zephaniah 3:8 says, ‘Therefore wait ye upon me, saith the LORD, until the day that I rise up to the prey: for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy.’

“In the tribulation with the Antichrist, the Lord gathers up all these nations, gets them united against Jerusalem and then, as the prophet says, ‘There they are; come get ’em!’

“It’s important to understand this supernatural army is going to be required because they’re going to be fighting supernatural enemies. There’s a behind-the- scenes spiritual conflict being brought to a conclusion at this point.

“Isaiah 13 says, ‘Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain, exalt the voice unto them, shake the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles. 3] I have commanded my sanctified ones, I have also called my mighty ones for mine anger, even them that rejoice in my highness.

“A ‘sanctified one’ is called a saint. In the Book of Jude, when it says the Lord shall come with 10,000 of His saints, He’s not talking about coming with 10,000 humans. He’s talking about the sanctified, set apart elect angels who stayed true during the angelic revolt.

“Isaiah 13: 4-6 says, ‘The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together: the LORD of hosts mustereth the host of the battle. [5] They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the LORD, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.
[6] Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.’

“I love when it says he 'mustereth the troops.’ He literally goes out and gets all of the artillery, all of the weapons, all of the implements of war and gathers those angelic armies together.

*****
“Jesus says in Luke 11:20-22, ‘But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you. [21] When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace:
[22] But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils.’

“Notice Satan (the strong man from Jeremiah 31:11 who’s holding Israel captive) is armed. He’s carrying. He’s got an army that works with Him and these guys are ready to fight. They have armaments, implements, warfare kinds of things.

“The reason that army from heaven comes is there is a supernatural war in the spiritual realm of life.

“By the way, in Isaiah 13:2 is something interesting. When it says ‘shake the hand,’ it’s like, ‘Over here, guys, here’s the way to get in!’ But you see how it says ‘that they may go into the gates of the nobles’?

“There’s literally a portal through which these angelic host are going to come to get into the battle.

“It’s fascinating to me, we have a term in modern-day mythology and movie-making called 'Stargate.' There’s even a movie and TV series by that name.

“If you back into the ’60s, Tolkien and C.S. Lewis wrote these books (including Narnia) about the portal where you get into the other realm.

“In the old soap opera ‘Dark Shadows,’ there was a mirror where you’d go through it into a world where Lucifer (Leviathan) reigns. It was a portal from one dimension to the other.

“I read that verse and say, ‘Boy, they’re using that word right out of the Bible.’ In the Bible, like in Genesis 28, Jacob sees the gate of heaven and the ladder where the angels are and they go up and come down and he says, ‘This is none other than the house of God; it’s the gate of heaven.’ Here’s the portal, the passageway.

“Where hell is is in the heart of the earth and there are passageways from the surface of the earth down into hell. You understand, if you have a prison like hell is, when Jesus talks about the ‘gates of hell,’ that’s a place you go in to room. It has bars and locks on it with keys to the gates. So it’s an entrance way.

“This stuff’s real and the descriptions of it are real descriptions. Jesus is going to come with real armies because the enemy He’s going to deal with are real enemies and the armies are going to be angelic armies.”

(To be continued tomorrow . . . )

 

High degree in boldness

In I Chronicles 17 David is desirous of building the temple. God tells him, “No, you can’t build the temple, but I’ll tell you what I’m going to do. I’m going to build your house, the House of David, and I’m going to dwell in it. I’m literally going to live in your flesh and it’s your flesh that I’m going to use to sit upon the throne. The Messiah’s going to be your descendant.”

David’s response to this covenant God made with him is in verse 16: “And David the king came and sat before the LORD, and said, Who am I, O LORD God, and what is mine house, that thou hast brought me hitherto?”

Jordan explains, “That verse is an illustration of Proverbs 18: ‘Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, and before honour is humility.
[13] He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.
[14] The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?
[15] The heart of the prudent getteth knowledge; and the ear of the wise seeketh knowledge.
[16] A man's gift maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great men.’

“There’s a humble man’s heart right there: ‘Who am I? Lord, who am I for you to give this great honor to?’ I Chronicles 17:17 says, ‘And yet this was a small thing in thine eyes, O God; for thou hast also spoken of thy servant's house for a great while to come, and hast regarded me according to the estate of a man of high degree, O LORD God.’

“David says, ‘Lord, I see what you’ve done. You’ve placed me in a position of high standing in the congregation of Israel.’ Now, that’s the high degree kind of idea in I Timothy.

“He’s not talking about an academic degree; he’s talking about a man who goes out and does the work, and because of the work gets a reputation and earns--purchases for himself--a high degree and when he does that, he gets great boldness in the faith, which is in Christ Jesus.

“There’s a lesson there about where boldness comes from. You preach the Word with the clarity and understanding that right division gives it, but your life is also designed--that truth of grace is designed--to authenticate itself in the transformation that it brings about in the actions and attitudes of your life.

*****

“The deacon, as he goes about his work, among the saints, purchases a good degree. He purchases among the saints a standing in the eyes of the congregation, a spiritual standing of high esteem. That demonstration of the transforming power of God, the ability of God to work through him in the lives of the congregation, gives him great boldness. You see, there’s a power that comes into our ministry as our lives demonstrate the transforming power and reality of that grace.

*****

“Paul says you’re to ‘hold the mystery of the faith.’ Now that takes you to verse I Timothy 3:16, where he defines it for you: ‘And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.’

“So here’s the mystery of godliness that they’re talking about holding onto.

“Almost everybody that reads that verse, though, says immediately, ‘Well, that’s talking about Jesus, because Jesus Christ was God manifest in the flesh. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. So we beheld His glory, the only begotten Son.’

“There’s God the Creator manifest in our flesh and demonstrates deity in human flesh. There’s no question that Jesus is God manifest in the flesh. He didn’t quit being God, He just added on human flesh.

“But if this verse is talking about Jesus, look what it says: ‘Great was the mystery of godliness.’

“Now, a mystery was something ‘hitherto hidden but is now revealed.’ It was no hidden truth that Jesus Christ, the Messiah, was going to be God in human flesh. There are at least half a dozen clear passages in the Old Testament talking about the Messiah being God in human flesh.

“So it wasn’t a 'secret previously hidden, now revealed. Beyond that, when it says ‘God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory,’ you notice there’s an order to those things?

“Now, I can’t figure out how in the world you’d ever put that order onto the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

“I got a problem when it says, ‘Preached unto the Gentiles.’ When was He preached unto the Gentiles?! That doesn’t happen until you come to Paul.

“Then it says ‘received up into glory.’ When was Christ received up into glory? That’s Acts 1.

“ ‘God manifest in the flesh’ would be the beginning of His ministry, and ‘received up into glory’ would be Acts 1 when He’s carried back up into heaven. All those things in between there was He preached unto the Gentiles and was believed on in the world between His incarnation and Acts 1?
 

“No, He spent His earthly ministry saying, ‘But I am not sent but to the those of the house of Israel.’ You see where all of a sudden you got problems? The easier way to do that is to come with me to II Corinthians 4 and I Timothy 3:15.

“Great is the mystery about what God’s doing today as He forms 'the church the Body of Christ.' There is a hitherto, unrevealed truth about godlikeness working in a local assembly. The first thing in the local church is God is manifest in the flesh.”

Ignore Him but He won't go away

Jordan says, “People ask me (as a preacher), ‘Well, why’d so-and-so do that?’ I learned early on as a parent not to ask my kid, ‘Why’d you do that?’ I know why they did that. They’re sinners.

“But you see, we don’t want to admit that. We say, ‘Well, I wouldn’t do that.’ Yeah, you would. Maybe you wouldn’t do that, but you’d do something worse given the right set of circumstances.

“Anytime you see somebody say, ‘Well, I would never do that' . . . Look, given the right set of circumstances there isn’t anything anybody ever did that you wouldn’t do too.

“The moment you think you wouldn’t, you just lied to yourself. That’s how desperate our condition is, and that’s how wonderful God’s grace is because He says, ‘I’m not going to deal with you on the basis of what you’re doing; I’m going to deal with you on the basis of what I’m doing because of Calvary.’

“Because of Calvary, He comes in to dwell and He comes in to make us that habitation; that place where He is inhabiting. Not because we did something, but because that’s His intention and we enjoy it; we gain access to it.

“That’s that thing in Ephesians 2: [18] For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
[19] Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
[20] And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
[21] In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:
[22] In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

*****

“You understand what a high calling you have in your life? Paul has to rebuke some people for some real nasty, unworthy living. You been doing any of that lately?

“Any unworthy attitudes? Unworthy actions? There’s that old saying, ‘I don’t smoke and I don’t chew and I don’t hang around with the girls that do,’ but what you do is you swap that for pride and arrogance and irritability.

“One of the greatest definitions I ever heard in my life for sin—Brother Reynolds used to say, ‘You want to see sin? You watch somebody doing something that you know you could do better.’ That irritation, that impatience that you get. I thought, ‘Ooh, the thought of foolishness is sin.’

“You see, that’s how desperate our nature is. That’s why ‘it’s not I; it’s Christ.’ Because you can’t get away from the other, but in Him you’re free.

“He says, ‘Don’t you know your body is the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit? He’s IN you and He’s IN you to make you His habitation. I Corinthians 6:20 says, ‘For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.’

“Your life, your body ought to be filled with the glory of God. What’s the glory of God? It’s the outshining of His character.

*****

“Your body, when you trust Christ, the Holy Spirit comes IN you. The verse talks about the habitation of God. He comes to dwell in you the moment you trust Christ.

“In your body, the third person of the godhead takes up personal residence. That means everywhere you go, you take Him with you. That means anytime you think something, you’re in conversation with Him whether you acknowledge it, or pay attention to it, or even realize it or not.

“A lot of us go around talking to ourselves and ignoring God the Holy Spirit who’s right there listening. That’s what prayer is.

“When Paul says ‘pray without ceasing,’ he’s not talking about being on your face and on your knees and bowing your head and closing your eyes all the time.

“He’s talking about living in a constant, conscious union with God the Holy Spirit who resides in you in order to dwell in you. The idea of dwelling is not just, ‘I’m here, along for the ride.’

“When we use that word ‘dwell,’ you settle down and you’re at home. That’s why your body’s called a temple. A temple is a place where God comes to dwell.

“The Lord doesn’t say, ‘If you do this, this and this, I’ll dwell with you.’ He said, ‘I came to dwell! If you don’t take advantage of it, that’s on you.’

*****

“You see, when people tell you, ‘Well, if you do this, this and this, then you’ll have Him indwell you,’ that’s what we call legalism; that’s a performance-based response. That isn’t how it happens.

“You can’t make God settle down and feel at home in you. People say, ‘Well, if I do this, this and this, God will feel at home.’ Are you nuts? I keep telling you, the closer you get to the light the better you see the dirt.

“Anytime you think you can do something and get God’s positive response based upon what you did, you think you did something perfect. Let me tell you something, the best day you ever had wasn’t perfect.

“Is there a five-minute period in the last five days of your life that you’d like to base all of your eternity on?

“In your own resources, you always come short. Why? That’s what the Book says. ‘We’ve all sinned and come short of the glory of God.’ ”