Philosophy behind all the buzz w-o-r-d-s

When Satan quotes Scripture to Jesus Christ in His 40 days and 40 nights of testing in the wilderness, he uses exact w-o-r-d-s to try and trick Jesus. He misquotes Scripture passages, a primary tactic of his since tempting Eve in Genesis 3.

Satan and Eve subtract, add to and distort the Word, resulting in the fall. But when Satan comes against Christ, there’s no shaking Him.

In Matthew 4:4, Jesus answered Satan, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Then, in verse 7, He states, “It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” Basically, Satan says, “It is written,” and Jesus comes back with, “Yeah, but you missed a verse, brother. It's written again."

Jesus is quoting Deuteronomy 6:16, coming back at Satan the same way Satan comes at Him—quoting Scripture. Every time Christ quotes Scripture to Satan in Matthew 4, He quotes the Book of Deuteronomy (first, chapter 8, and then chapter 6).

Jordan explains, “There’s a reason for that. He's taking his place right where God is working. God's forming that faithful remnant inside the nation, and Christ is standing with that ‘little flock’ as the true vine: as the faithful Man in the earth. And when He does that, the Adversary can't touch him.

“The message for us is if you'll stand in what God's given to you today—not in Israel's place but in the position God's given you in Christ today—you'll find your ministry is attended with power when Satan tries to come against you.

“Satan says, ‘C’mon, Son of God, be scriptural, do what the Book says, just don't do it at the right time. Don't do it dispensationally.’ ”

*****

Of Hebrews 11:17 (“By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son”), Jordan says, “Boy, I tell you, folks, you could preach for a month off that one verse!

“There’s something extraordinary in that verse about the trying of your faith; about the expansion of your horizons; about taking that wonderful position you have in Christ and seeing it be a living reality in your life day by day.

“The whole issue in Hebrews is ‘by faith,’ and by believing what God said, Abraham offered up his son. Faith is to believe what God says to YOU. You'll never have faith if you don't have God's Word to you, and that's why you've got to ‘rightly divide’ it! It’s essential!

“You can't rest in something God didn't tell you in your dispensation to do, because if God didn't tell you to do it, it's unbelief. It's no more wrong for you to operate on the basis of human viewpoint and go out into the unsaved world and get its viewpoint and base your life on that—humanism, hedonism, materialism, and all the rest. That's no more wrong before God, for if God never told you to do the things you do...

*****

“Our culture today is totally dominated by man’s viewpoints and philosophies. There’s a complete rejection of God’s Word and God’s truth; human reason reigns supreme.

"People argue, 'Certainly we’re making progress; we’re moving,' but it’s like being on a cruise ship where you lose an accurate perspective on the fact you’re moving.

“Sure it’s moving—the planet we live on is moving—but that doesn’t make it a good, upward thing. Progress is automatic; it’s inevitable. But where science—or the human ability to cognitively design and think about what’s going on—sees us evolving from the puddle to paradise, the Bible says we’re ever-degenerating from paradise to the puddle. You’re moving all right; you’re just moving in the opposite direction!

“One of the great warnings in all of Paul’s epistles is, ‘Beware of profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called.’ He’s warning, not just of quote-unquote ‘science,’ but philosophy, which Paul calls ‘vain deceit.’

“The Psalmist in Psalm 39 says that ‘man at his best state is altogether vanity.’ That means the best you’re ever going to do with your human thinking processes apart from the Word of God, and what God has to say to you, is going to be empty, futile and delusional. It isn’t going to work. God says in Isaiah 55:8, ‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways.’

*****

“The 19^th century English poet Matthew Arnold wrote, ‘What is the course of the life of mortal men on the earth? Most men eddy about here and there—eat and drink, chatter and love and hate, gather and squander, are raised aloft, are hurled in the dust, striving blindly, achieving
nothing; and then they die.’

“You know what he’s saying? He’s saying exactly what the wisest man in the Bible, King Solomon, is saying: I think the first two verse of Proverbs 18 are the two most deadly verses in the Bible about the American education system: [1] Through desire a man, having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom.
[2] A fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself.

“Americans worship sex, education and religion, pretty much in that order. They’re the gods of America, especially the education system. You need to understand that the loving of human viewpoint won’t get you an education that’s of any value.

*****

“Solomon writes, ‘Through desire, a man having separated himself.’ When you separate yourself away, and you seek and intermeddle with all wisdom, there’s a word that comes out of that and it’s the word elitism. Another word is egalitarianism.

“That’s a way of saying everybody’s equal. That sounds good because, frankly, that’s a good attitude to have except for the fact it just isn’t true. You know that everybody doesn’t have the same faculties in life about different things. We’re not all equal.

“Of course, we’re all equally human and in Christ we’re certainly all equal; nobody blessed more than the other—but what egalitarianism is talking about is more political and it means one culture is not better than another.

“And when you hear people talk about multiculturalism, inclusiveness, pluralism, globalism, etc., those are all buzz words designed to say that the Bible is irrelevant; that God is irrelevant; that all truth is relative and one person’s philosophy, and one culture’s ideas, is just as good as another. And there’s no basis to decide that one thinking process is better than the other if there’s no God and no absolute, identifiable truth.

“The thinking is, ‘No, God, we’re going to decide for ourselves what we think is good.’ Well, the problem with that is there are people who think they’re right trying to blow other people up.

*****

“If deciding what’s right is based on some societal decision, which is the only thing left when you don’t have absolute truth (saying we as a culture, or we as a group, can come to a decision about what we think is good or bad), then things we think are decidedly bad are decided by others to be good and there’s no way to argue any of it if every process is just as equally valid.

“You see, the whole problem is they don’t glorify Him as God—they throw Him off the table. When the Word of God is irrelevant, what are you left with? You’re left with trying to figure out what you want to do. ‘Through desire a man having separated himself’ goes over here and intermeddles with all wisdom.

“He’s going in, seeking and working with, studying, figuring out, interchanging with wisdom. ‘A fool hath no delight in understanding.’ Solomon’s telling you the guy in Proverbs 18:1 is a fool.

“What’s the guy in verse 1 really want to do? ‘That his heart may discover itself.’ His heart wants to have its own way.

“But what does a fool say in his heart? Psalm 14 says, ‘The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.’ You see, the problem in Proverbs 18 is not intellectual honesty; the problem is moral corruption. The problem is the guy studies for just one thing: his heart to develop an alibi to do what he wants to do. That’s God’s evaluation of what’s going on.

“Psalm 10:4 says, ‘The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God.’ Verse 6 goes on to say, ‘He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity.’

“In his heart he’s saying, ‘Hey, nobody’s ever going to get after me! I can make it.’ Verse 11 reveals, ‘He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it.’

“What he’s saying is, ‘I’m gonna get away with it! God’s not looking!’ and that’s his heart’s attitude. You see this guy’s got a heart problem, not an intellectual problem?!

“It’s, ‘Get rid of God and I don’t have to give account. Get rid of God and I can do what I want to do my way.’ That’s who Paul’s talking about when he says, ‘Professing themselves to be wise they became fools.’

“The alibi to live the way you want to live is to convince yourself God isn’t real and that’s the whole push behind human philosophy—the whole impetus for its perpetuation.”

Perspective of being never-ending vehicle

Just like God used His hands to form Adam out of the dust of the ground and fashion him with an intricate cardiovascular system, respiratory system, muscular system, nervous system, etc., He’s going to do the very same thing with our resurrection body.

“That body you now have is literally going be beyond comprehension then,” assures Jordan. “If you think you’re fearfully and wonderfully made now, just wait ’til you see what’s coming—the systems of the new body will be SO far in advance beyond!”

*****

“Adam was given this garment of light, but the light Adam had wasn’t just this blazing white light coming off of him—‘Hold it back, I can’t see him!’

“In Ezekiel 1, when you see the appearance of the glory of God, it’s described as a rainbow. And you know what a rainbow is? The word is ‘refracted.’ Not reflected, but refracted. It’s bent light so that the colors of the light spectrum are seen.

“Literally, the throne of God in the ‘third heaven,’ when you see it, the light that comes around it is like a rainbow. It’s this dazzling array of light.

"God Himself lives in the ‘coat of many colors,’ as it were, and He gave it to His representatives in the earth—those special people who were loved and represented Him.”

*****

The Old and New testaments are sprinkled with references to God’s own body features—His head with hair, His face, His eyes, His mouth, His lips, His voice, His nose and nostrils, His hands, His fingers, His feet.

The Apostle Paul tells us in II Corinthians 5 that “we know if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”

Jordan explains, “That’s where you’re going to be for eternity and that’s why your body is important. Your earthly body is not just some cloth you exist in—some hapless prison, some meaningless abode that you live in. It has an integral purpose in the plan of God because it’s the vehicle in which He put you, without which you’re not complete.

“It’s a required part of your humanity and will be a required part of your glorification in order for you to function in the purpose God has for you. It’s the vehicle of your inner man; the home for your soul and it’s necessary to your soul’s full action and function.

“And that’s why in the intermediate state between death and the resurrection you’re found naked. That is, you’re not ready to go to work yet.

*****

“Paul tells us that what gave him a new perspective on what life was to be in his current body was the knowledge that the Lord will ‘change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.’

“He writes in II Corinthians 5, ‘For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.

[4] For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.

[5] Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.

[6] Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:

[7] (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)

[8] We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

“Paul’s saying, ‘This hope I have out here, it’s not making me have suicidal kinds of ideas; it’s not making me where I’m discontent with down here and can’t stand to be here. I’ve got a new perspective on what life here is all about. And my living here— I live with eternity in view; I live with the perspective of what’s real, lasting and never-ending.’ ”

ALL IN for an everlasting way

Jesus Christ defines eternal life in John 17:2-3, "As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.

[3] And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."

“Eternal life is not just living forever; it’s to KNOW the Father," explains Jordan. "It’s about the intimacy (in-to-me-see?!) of your relationship where you share His life. You’re to have a capacity for His character, His wisdom, His understanding, His knowledge. Where all that God is free to do for you through Jesus Christ is manifest in you.

“That’s the ministry NOW and you’ll have that capacity of what you know for the reigning with Him. So your hope of glory out there is Christ in you NOW! See why He wants you to know the riches of the glory?!

*****

“Paul said, ‘I want this stuff to get a grip on you that God would grant you the spirit of wisdom, revelation and knowledge of Him.' He writes in Romans 6:22-23, ‘But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

[23] For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.’

“That verse bothers people because they say, ‘Well, I don’t get eternal life until the end?!’ That’s because you think of eternal life as dying and going to heaven and living with God in heaven forever. There’s not a verse in the Bible that defines eternal life that way!

“Eternal life isn’t going to heaven and kicking up gold dust. In the end, the gold of it is that you know the Father in a personal, everlasting way.

“It’s coming to more fully understand day-by-day what the Father’s plan is, what the Father’s will is, why did He create the universe, what is His purpose behind it, what is His goal, why did He put man in the earth, why did He form the Body of Christ.

“You don’t just understand it, you say, ‘Woo-hoo, I got it! I got the picture! I LIKE it! I think I’ll just join in and do this! I’ll let the zeal of the Lord of host--the thing that thrills Him thrill me!

“It’s your faith resting in the truth of God’s Word, and when your faith rests in God’s grace, who God has made you in Christ, it will bring forth fruit unto God, righteousness unto holiness.

“Holiness is talking about your character. Talking about who you are. You’re someone who is set apart for the purpose for which God created you. That’s what the word ‘holy’ means. His character begins to express itself through you and the end is eternal life.

*****

“Look at Jeremiah 9. I try to drill this home to our folks in Chicago all the time. The passage reads, ‘Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches:

[24] But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD.’

“Glory in the fact that you understand the Lord and that you have an intimate personal knowledge of Him. You understand what He’s about, what and how He thinks and reacts and what He’s planning. You understand to the point it brings forth fruit in your life. If you’re going to rejoice in something, rejoice in that!

“That thing about ‘exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight’—the key to knowing the Lord, and to knowing God, is to understand what He delights in! What is it that thrills His heart? What He’s doing in His Son! If you ask the Father, ‘What is it that thrills you?’ He’ll say, ‘There He is at my right hand.’

“Psalm 40:7-8 is quoted in Hebrews 10 as being a reference to Jesus Christ, but I want you to see how it's said in Psalms: ‘Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me,

[8] I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.’

“When the Lord Jesus Christ came, He said to the Father, ‘I know what you delight in, Father, and you know what, that thrills my heart, too, and I’m ALL IN for what you delight in!’

“Paul says, ‘Let that mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus.’ He gives you the privilege of thoroughly, completely understanding what the Father’s thinking is; what thrills His heart.

“He says, ‘Come on and delight in that, too. You come delight in it!’ Get as thrilled about it as He is. In the Bible, that’s called ‘God likeness, godliness.’ Godliness isn’t just doing what God does; it’s DELIGHTING in it, buying into it. It’s being all into it like He is.”

(new article tomorrow)

Alpha and Omega

“Eternity” in the Bible is that time never ends; it just goes on forever and ever. It’s an unlimited time, but it’s out there in the future when everything is finally done.

Revelation 21 says, [1] And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
[2] And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
[3] And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
[4] And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
[5] And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
[6] And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
[7] He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

“See the terminology back like in John 1?” explains Jordan. “You know, ‘The Word became flesh and dwelt among us,’ as so forth. Here’s the ultimate accomplishment of that.

“When He says, ‘It is done,’ that's like the statement at Calvary when He said, ‘It is finished.’ That same statement you’ll find at the end of Psalm 22 when it talks about the Crosswork and the sufferings of Christ and the joy that will follow.

“There’s a goal God has in the prophetic program, a goal in creation, and at this point that goal is brought to fruition. And all the heaven and the earth, the government involved in it all and the reigning in it, is accomplished in Revelation 21 and 22, and the ultimate end, the original purpose that God had in creation, has now been accomplished.

“So at that point there’s no veil. There’s no holding back of all that God is and so they can see His face. But until then, there’s a veil and it’s a veil of sin.

"Without the Lord Jesus Christ you’d have no capacity to reach in and find God, understand Him, and have any understanding of Him, and so the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.”

Dr. J Vernon McGee writes,

“This is quite a remarkable statement in the Greek language. The alpha and omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. From an alphabet you make words, and Jesus Christ is called the ‘Word of God’ — the full revelation and intelligent communication of God.

"He is the only alphabet you can use to reach God, my friend. The only language God speaks and understands is the language where Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega and all the letters in between. He is the ‘A’ and the ‘Z,’ and He is the ‘ABC.'

“If you are going to get through to God the Father, you will have to go through the Son, Jesus Christ. Here the emphasis is upon the beginning and the end. In the original Greek, the Omega is not spelled out as is the Alpha. Why? Because Christ is the beginning, and the beginning is already completed. But the end is yet to be; so He didn't spell out the Omega in this instance. One day He will complete God's program. This is a very interesting detail in the Greek text.

" ‘The beginning and the ending’ refers to the eternity of the Son and His immutability. Concerning this, Hebrews 13:8says, ‘Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.’ When it says that He is the same, it does not mean that He is walking over yonder by the Sea of Galilee today. He is not. But it means that in His attributes He is the same. He has not changed. He is immutable. Since He is the beginning and the ending, He encompasses all time and eternity.”

Get unplugged, don't worry about form

In the “last days,” all the nations of the earth, including the United States (which will be so insignificant at that point it won’t really matter), will gather themselves against Jerusalem and against Israel. The Antichrist will rule the Middle East as he harnesses the influence of the nations.

“When the Antichrist tries to put ‘the last days’ together—you got to remember Satan doesn’t have a kingdom that’s made of peaceful, loving, sweet people,” says Jordan. “He’s crafty enough to keep all these different creatures--people who’d cut each other’s throats if they had a chance to get ahead . . . He’s crafty enough to stay ahead of it all. He sits on a boiling pot with the lid jiggling. The Antichrist is going to be that master craftsman putting this thing together.

*****

“Satan keeps up-to-date on what God’s doing so he can oppose it. He doesn’t shoot blanks and he doesn’t waste ammunition shooting at something God used to do and isn’t doing anymore. The Adversary knows God’s not trying to repossess the land of Palestine today. What’s He doing? He’s forming the Body of Christ.

“One brother said, ‘I fear for the future of our country.’ Well, I would, too, if I thought (the good times) were never supposed to end! What I fear about the future is (the Body of Christ) not being prepared for Winter.

“My answer to this guy is I’d say, ‘Get unplugged.’ By that, I mean what Paul says in Romans 12:1-2:

[1] I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
[2] And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

*****

“Don’t follow the cohort thinking. You go to get over seasonal thinking and learn not to evaluate the way things were yesterday, but understand the way it’s GOING to be.

"You know what we need to do? We need to get busy talking to people about the Lord and sharing the revelation God’s given us today.

“Be involved in getting that out and get over all the form issues that say it’s got to be done ‘my way or the highway.’ Understand the key is to take the truth and put it in people and let that truth in them do the work of the ministry.

*****

“Paul says, ‘Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;

“When he says one mind, the business way of saying that is we have ‘agenda harmony.’ We’re all on the same page about where we’re going and we’re striving, we’re working, we’re laboring together to the point of exhaustion to get there.

“And then he says ‘in nothing terrified by you adversaries.’ Because there is opposition. You and I have been called to radical risk-taking faith and service. We haven’t been called to living lives of ease. We've been called to lives of united, radical, risk-taking service for the gospel. That’s what you do in the Wintertime!

“It may look radical to the system, but if it’s based in the Book, it won’t be radical; it’ll be FAITH! In this Wintertime, you’re going to get the greatest privilege of your life, and if you’re older, people are going to need your wisdom. If you’re younger, you’re going to be building what you’re going to carry throughout the future."

(new article tomorrow)

'Pass over' to fill our spiritual horizon

Song of Solomon is often presented as a picture of the love affair between Christ and His Church, but it’s really about how the “little flock” in the “last days” will face the seduction policy of the Adversary; the devil as the Antichrist.

“Just as the Book of Proverbs sets forth wisdom the Believing Remnant will need in the ‘last days’ as they walk in the midst of terrible wickedness, Song of Solomon sets forth the relationship of the Shulamite woman, who is a picture of the Believer in Israel, and how she is being seduced away from waiting for her Beloved by the apostate religion that’s consumed Israel,” explains Richard Jordan.

“At the end of Solomon’s ministry he becomes a type of the Seducer; the ‘666 Man.’ There's this whole course of Israel where they start well but are seduced away, and in spite of what they know to the contrary, wind up in rebellion against God. The Song of Solomon is written from that perspective and it’s a love song.

“What you have is this Shulamite woman whose Beloved has gone away, but he's told her he’s coming back. In the meantime, King Solomon comes to her and, on two occasions, seeks to seduce her and draw her away from faithfulness and chastity to her Beloved. He's inviting her to come and join him and let him lavish upon her his riches, his wealth.

“We study through II Peter and I, II, III John and Jude about this seduction policy the Adversary has against the ‘little flock,’ and sometime we think of the persecution but forget how strong it is to be seduced.

“There’s going to wealth beyond imagination that’s offered to Israel, just like Solomon offers to this woman. In chapter 1, he takes her into his palace. In the second attempt, he actually takes her into his bedroom.

"He just lavishes gifts on her to make her succumb, to appeal to her, but she does the one thing that the Believing Remnant is going to have to do in the ‘last days’ to stay faithful in the face of it all and this woman does it in spades.”

*****

In her 1916 exposition on the Song of Solomon, Cora MacIlravy, in examining chapter 7:10-13 (starting with, “I am my Beloved’s; and His desire is toward me"), writes,

“We have been bought with a price, not with silver nor gold, but with the precious blood as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, even the Blood of Christ. Very close must we approach unto Him, with all our hearts must we yield to Him at every step, if we would apprehend that His desire is toward us. God would have us abiding in this place.

“ . . . No tongue can describe the joy and rejoicing that fills the soul that has really come to the Lord and tasted the uttermost salvation; into whose heart and life the Lord has come and taken full possession, taking up His abode there that He may work out His will in the life.

“There was a time when we did not want the Lord, when He had no beauty that we should desire Him, and we could see no form of comeliness in Him. As soon as we really accept Jesus Christ as our Saviour, our hearts rejoice that: ‘My Beloved is mine and I am His’ (ch. 2:16); our first joy is in the consciousness that He is ours.

"There is such satisfaction in knowing that He is ours in as real a way as though there were none else to claim Him and His love; although we know and rejoice that He is the Lord and Saviour of all other believers. And we not only rejoice that He is ours, but we rejoice that we belong to Him. We rest down in the satisfaction of claiming Him for our own, and we draw on His protection and working on our behalf.

“This is our first joy; and the joy of belonging to Him comes as the next precious thought. As we go on with the Lord, the relation between us grows more intimate; our love is drawn out because of Himself rather than because of what He does for us, and because of our possession of Him; and our hearts cry out: ‘I am my Beloved’s and my Beloved is mine’ (ch. 6:3).

"We begin to see that we have given ourselves to the Lord to be forever His. That He has not only given Himself to us, but that He requires from us yieldedness and separation, with the consciousness that we are no longer our own, but we have been bought with a price. Only this attitude can bring us under His control so that His purpose can be carried out and His name glorified.

“ . . . It is when we have been dealt with, and when we have passed through hard things; it is when, through some dealing with God, our responsibility toward Him breaks more fully upon our understanding, that the fact that we are His, also begins to fill our spiritual horizon.

“We are seeing more clearly that through Jesus Christ has bought us with His blood, and has given Himself to us, it is God’s supreme purpose that we shall be given over to Him. He has stretched forth His hand and laid it upon us, His is separating us from the world, and we begin to enter into the precious work of God in making us His own possession. These two passages (ch. 2:16; 6:3) set forth the first two steps in the life of communion between the soul and God.

“It is after the bride has been caught up into an abiding place of communion with the Lord, ‘Among the chariots’ of the Prince; and those about her have seen the glory of the Lord resting upon her; it is when they have seen the martyr’s crown upon her head and have beheld her eyes with Heaven’s peace and depth reflected in them, that she says: ‘I am my Beloved’s; His desire is toward me.’

“ . . . Much of the time in our spiritual babyhood, we have girded ourselves and have gone where we desired; we have not yet apprehended what it means to take up our cross and follow after Him; we have not yielded to Him, the Crucified, that He may take out of us every movement of our own desires. We do not yet discern that we are girding ourselves and going withersoever we will, and that if we join the blest company of the bride of the Lamb, our own girding must forever cease, and His girding must begin and go on until He decides all things for us, and we have no way nor say in our lives.

“ . . .We begin to realize that we belong to Him, as His constraining love and hands are stretched out and laid upon us until we have decreased and He has increased.

“We enter into the rest and satisfaction of belonging to Him, and we begin to taste the sweetness of suffering for His sake.”

*****   

Here is another passage from MacIlravy’s book, looking specifically at Song of Solomon 2:3 (“As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste”):

“The word, ‘apple,’ in this place, means orange, pomegranate, citron, as well as apple, and is applied to this entire family of fruit trees. Though one searched through all the forests of earth, he would not find one fruit tree; and though one searches through the whole forest of humanity, there is not one tree that can bear any fruit excepting that which is poisonous and bitter. ‘There is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved,’ excepting the Name of Jesus. Before the bride found the one fruitful Tree, Christ, she searched throughout the forest, seeking life, seeking food, seeking fruit; but upon no tree, did she find anything but leaves. . .

“Weary and worn, discouraged and hungry, she went from forest to forest, from tree to tree. She looked for peace, but she found it not; she looked for happiness, but she found it not; she looked for the ‘Daysman’ among the forest of men, but she found none. Neither in man’s theories and teaching, nor in their philosophy did she find peace. Neither in her own works nor in those of other did she find rest. How she traveled and looked for salvation and could not find it.

“At last, by the guidance and grace of God, she came to Him who is the only ‘Apple Tree’ in the whole forest of humanity; the Tree upon which all kinds of fruit grow. She came and tasted and found the Lord was good. She has partaken of the fruit of the Tree of life; she has found fruit, refreshing and sweet, both nourishing as food and satisfying to thirst . . .

“This is the tree that was in the bosom of the Father throughout eternal ages. This is the Tree that was planted on earth when Jesus hung on the Cross of Calvary; and God planted It here that we might have access to It, and upon It we find all we need . . .

“The bride is not standing under His shadow, which would show a lack of respect and permanency; but she has sat down under His shadow, which shows uninterrupted abiding in Him, and feeding upon Him. It is when she has been drawn near enough to experience a close touch with Him, not only at times, but a continual communion and abiding in Him, that she partakes of His precious fruit and is refreshed in her soul by deep draughts of life more abundant. She need fear no foe if she remains under His shadow for in that place, and there alone, she is safe. There she finds food, shelter and all she needs . . .

“It is when the bride dwells in the secret place of the Most High, that she abides under the shadow of the Almighty. It is when sitting under His shadow, that she finds delight; it is when she takes refuge in Him, that she is hidden away from the enemy, from the plottings of men, from the strife of tongues, from the heat of the day. It is a wonderful thing to make the shadow of the Almighty our dwelling place. It is a wonderful experience to sit down under His shadow, and let Him be our shade on our right hand, our Covert from the heat of the day, our Rock in a weary land, our High Tower and our Fortress . . .

“He is the beautiful Rose of Sharon, which gladdens and beautifies every desert and wilderness, which refreshes us in the times of our greatest trials and suffering for His sake. He is the Lily of the Valleys, which is the purest, the most fragrant and yet the humblest among the flowers. But He is not only the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valleys, He is the only fruitful tree among the trees of the forest. He is the source of all beauty, and the Storehouse of all fragrance, purity and humility, He is the only supple of all food and nourishment, He is the only Fountain of living water, He is the Water of life. He is the shade upon our right hand, we sit down under His shadow with great delight and His fruit is sweet to our taste.”

Israel to their guy: 'You talk so smooooth'

The reason you know the Antichrist couldn’t show up tomorrow is there aren’t the prophesied 10 kings in the Middle East today.

  

“That whole landscape over there in Palestine has to be reconfigured politically and those 10 kings get control so the Antichrist can come up and subvert them by taking over three and then taking ownership of all of them," explains Richard Jordan. "He’ll do all of that through a peace policy.

“Remember, the power of the state is in the police and military; that’s why they can be so dangerous. They are the enforcing arm of a government and that’s why you have to have a rule of law so they operate in an agreed-upon social contract.

“If you want to see the kind of guy this character the Antichrist will be, Daniel 7 tells you he’s an intellectual genius, a wizard at words and communication. It says he speaks with great swelling words. He’s a military genius, a political genius, a commercial genius.

“Daniel 8:23 says, [23] And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up.

“The Antichrist’s going to be a genius about understanding dark, difficult, hard, mystical sayings. He’s also that fierce, bloody, violent man.

“The passage goes on, [24] And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.
[25] And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.

“When it says ‘his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power,’ that’s saying he’s going to have Satan give him his power and his seat.

*****

“It says, ‘He shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and by peace shall destroy many.’ He’s going to come in and say, ‘Peace, peace.’

“Daniel 11:21-22 says, [21] And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.
[22] And with the arms of a flood shall they be overflown from before him, and shall be broken; yea, also the prince of the covenant.

“That’s all that stuff in Isaiah 30 about ‘speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits.’ His words will be smoother than butter. Deceit’s in his heart but he doesn’t say he’s going to obtain the authority. Israel’s going to literally surrender to him through a peace plan.

“Daniel 11:24 says, [24] He shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of the province; and he shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers' fathers; he shall scatter among them the prey, and spoil, and riches: yea, and he shall forecast his devices against the strong holds, even for a time.

“They’re going to think, ‘This guy, he’s a commercial, military, political genius and we’re getting RICH by helping him!’ As soon as they get there, though, he pulls the rug out from under them. He’s a deceiver.

*****

“In Daniel 8, Daniel sees another end-times vision in the third year of the reign of Babylon. It’s a subsequent vision to chapter 7. What he sees is a ram with two horns. Then, in verse 5, he sees an he goat come up and destroy the ram. Daniel then says, ‘What is this?’ By the way, after the he goat destroys the ram the he goat fills up the whole earth and then the he goat’s broken into four pieces.

“The interpretation of that starts in verse 8: [8] Therefore the he goat waxed very great: and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven.

“Come down in the chapter and look at the interpretation: [19] And he said, Behold, I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation: for at the time appointed the end shall be.
[20] The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia.
[21] And the rough goat is the king of Grecia: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king.

“Again, we’re talking about the ‘last days’; end-times prophecy. The he goat is the king of Grecia. The great horn between his eyes is the first king. The ram is Media-Persia. The horn that comes up is the first king of Greece. Who was that? Alexander the Great.

“Verse 22: ‘Now that being broken, whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his power.’

“So that king, the Antichrist, comes up out of one of those four divisions of the Greek Empire. The king of the north is Assyria. The king of the south is Egypt. If you keep reading, it’s the king of the north and the king of the south that battle in chapter 11.

“Out of those two nations, the Antichrist comes out of Syria. He doesn’t come out of Europe. He is the Assyrian by national origin. Daniel tells you that’s where he’s going to come from, so when you’re watching the politics of this thing, watch this guy. And when you see the guy take over the 10 kings by subduing three and rising up, you know you’ve got your man. So there’s descriptive prophetic details that will help a fellow.

“Daniel 11:30 says, [30] For the ships of Chittim shall come against him: therefore he shall be grieved, and return, and have indignation against the holy covenant: so shall he do; he shall even return, and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant.

“He’s going to break the covenant and blame Israel for doing it. He’s not going to take credit; he’s going to blame them.

“Verse 31: [31] And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate.

“Jesus talked about that in Matthew 23: ‘Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.’ Right in the middle of all that deceptiveness where the Antichrist’s lying to them through his teeth, the people who know their God shall be strong and it says “they that understand shall instruct many.”

“There’s a Believing Remnant who’s going to know what’s going on because they read these prophecies and say, ‘There it is, here it is; here’s what God says that is!’ So they’re the ones who trust God’s Word; they’re the ones the Antichrist is trying to persecute, eliminate and destroy.”

(new article tomorrow)