What growth costs is called suffering

“To engender confidence in Him and a healthy distrust of yourself is God’s ultimate reason for every experience He allows into your life.

“That’s II Corinthians 1: 8-10: [8] For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life: [9] But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: [10] Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us;

"You say, ‘Why does God let these things happen?’ says Richard Jordan. "Steve Jobs said that as a teenager he gave up on God when he saw sick and hungry children. Richard Dawkins, the egghead atheist of the 21st Century, says he gave up on God as a teenager because ‘a God who could let suffering exist the way it exists couldn’t be worthy of respect.’ And you say, ‘What’s the answer to that?’

“Well, you see, underlying that is a false assumption that everyone knows isn’t true. And that is it’s assumed there could never be any purpose in suffering. But you know if you go to the gym there’s a sign that says, ‘No pain, no gain.’

“You know that any growth that ever takes place costs something and what it costs is called suffering. The very fact of the existence of suffering is a part of the necessity of growing.

"For sure there can be purposes in suffering. There can be a redemptive purpose. But the God of all comfort comforts us in our suffering and He does that for two reasons. One is so that you’ll learn the only person you can really trust is Him.

“I learned a long time ago I couldn’t trust somebody like you. Why would I want to trust somebody who would lie to me? That’s me. Why would I want to trust somebody who would let me down? That’s me. And it’s you because you’re just like me. What I could trust is somebody who would never let me down and always tell me the truth, and that’s Jesus Christ. Didn’t take me a genius stroke of ‘Aha!’ to get that one right!

“The whole issue behind it all is so you learn to trust Him because, when you learn that He’s all you got, then He’s all you can trust. And when He’s all you’ve got to trust, you’ll find out He’s all you really need. And when you realize He’s all you really need, you learn a healthy distrust of yourself: ‘It’s not I but Christ.’ And in it is the excellency of the power of God’s Word that works in you and teaches you—and the truth of it.

“Otherwise you’re like a blind bat flying backward in a dark cave. You don’t know what the purpose of it is.

*****

II Timothy 3:15: [15] And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

 

“Boy, now there’d be a reason to preach the Word! Wouldn’t you like to be wise?! The salvation there is not salvation from hell. Timothy’s already saved from hell. It’s salvation from the deception and the difficulties we been reading about in the first 14 verses. Where do you find salvation from the perilous times? Where do you find salvation from the persecution and in the afflictions? You find it in God’s Word. That’s what deliverance from those things are.

“ ‘All scripture is given by God and is profitable.’ By the way, notice verse 16 when he says ‘all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness.’ Verse 15 says that ‘from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures.’

“Did Timothy have the original manuscripts? No! He had copies and translations. You see God’s Word is not simply located in the original manuscripts.

"A hundred years ago, when fundamentalism got into a big argument with the rationalists of the 1800s and didn’t want to look like a bunch of ‘Funnymentalists,’ they abandoned the historic faith the Christians had had up to that time and they began to come up with this goofball idea that the ‘Scripture quoted in their original writings were inspired of God and are without error.’

"And every doctrinal statement you’ve ever seen of any Christian organization you’ve ever been a member of, I bet you has that in its doctrinal statement!

“And before the late 1800s, NO doctrinal statement had any statement about the original writings! Did you know that?! Everybody loves the Westminster Confession. They didn’t say anything about the original writings being the only place God’s Word is!

“God’s plan has been when He wrote His word down He wrote it down so it could be preserved for every generation to come. And He preserved it through copies the saints would have and distribute out that they can take and translate into other languages so the Word of God is so ubiquitously available that it couldn’t be lost!” 

(new article tomorrow)

Profanity = reprobate mind

(NEXSTAR) – LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers has been fined $15,000 for making “an obscene gesture” during a game against the Indiana Pacers earlier this week. He was also warned for using profanity when discussing a previous penalty with the media, the NBA announced Friday.

From tonight’s study at Shorewood:

“With the meaning of the word profanity, the idea is there’s a threshold. You’re in the temple, you step out of the temple, you’re in a place that’s sacred and holy and has to do with what God’s doing and you step out of it and you’re leaving what is godly. You’re leaving what is right. That’s actually what the Greek word means too.

“Profane is the idea of disregard for anything that’s holy, anything that’s connected to God. We use the word ‘secular.’ That is, it just comes from man’s mind. That’s Romans 1:28: [28] And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;

“Profanity is just simply the exercise of a reprobate mind. Old wives' fables is just stories about superstitious things that take place that are just some kind of supernatural experience that you can’t explain. Stories that prove absolutely nothing that the people rest in.

I Timothy 6: [20] O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:

[21] Which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen.

“Vain babbling is just empty chatter; it doesn’t matter a bit. All it’s going to do is make you depart from the faith.

[15] And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid.
[16] And they that saw it told them how it befell to him that was possessed with the devil, and also concerning the swine.

Matthew 12: [28] But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.

“There’s a battle going on between the kingdom of God in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, casting out devils, and the kingdom of Satan, who’s captured the nation Israel. That’s why he says in verse 29:

[29] Or else how can one enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house.
[30] He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.

“How can someone come into the nation Israel, who Satan has captured, and spoil, take away, except he first bind the strong man?

“Before you can take away Israel from satanic captivity you have to bind Satan. So what am I doing? I’m casting out Satan’s control over the nation.

“I’ve said to you over and over, casting out devils had nothing to do with what just what you see people do today in exorcisms. You know, some person’s gone crazy in their mind or something. Alcohol can control you; crazy emotions can control you.

“Demonic position as it is in the Scripture isn’t designed to shatter the life of someone who’s doing good at shattering his own life with the sins of the flesh.

“Demon possession in the Bible, especially possessing the nation Israel, was designed to take the land of Israel into captivity so that the nation couldn’t function in the land; God’s holy land couldn’t be used for the purpose it was established for in God’s kingdom.

“God’s people couldn’t be used to establish His kingdom in His land and Satan’s captivity, just like He had them captive in Egypt, he sought to have them in captivity all through their existence, has them in captivity here.

“Christ comes, and when He cast out the devils, He’s showing them, ‘I can spoil Satan’s control over the nation.’ Christ was there to bind the strong man and take Israel out of the control of Satan; spoil his goods.”

(new article tomorrow)

How to get into God's treasure chest

The first verse of Proverbs 31 ("The words of king Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him") identifies the Book of Proverbs as a book of prophecy.

“Proverbs is not just a book of wisdom; it’s a book about some prophetic things Lemuel’s mother taught him," explains Jordan. “It’s talking about wisdom that, in the prophetic program, Israel is going to need to function in the Tribulation Period to distinguish between the vain religious system of Baal worship the Antichrist propagates and the true wisdom of God.

“In Proverbs, there are two women. There’s the virtuous woman, but there’s also the vile woman and she’s a picture of that vain religious system Revelation calls ‘MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.’

“The other one is that ‘virgin daughter’ of the nation Israel, as Isaiah calls her. There’s going to be that true remnant of God and Proverbs is written prophetically for them as a book to give them discernment—ability to discern between the true and the false--there’s a seduction program in the satanic attack against Israel and it’s to try and draw them away into error.

*****

“There’s nobody in the Bible named Lemuel, but a lot of times names are titles. There’s nobody named Caesar, for example; it’s a title. We call the president the president and the mayor the mayor. The name Lemuel means ‘devoted to God.’ Here’s the king who’s devoted to God and that obviously could be Solomon.

“Proverbs 30 and 31 are two chapters stuck on the end of the Book that are really weird, and I’m saying that reverently. People who teach Proverbs often do it without understanding anything about right division and they say, ‘For some strange reason God stuck this stuff at the end and here’s what a godly king and a virtuous woman look like.’

“The answer is He did it because the king and His bride, Christ and Israel, are going to function together and that’s who’s functioning here.

“He uses the issue of the virtuous woman to teach those things. Proverbs 31:10 says, [10] Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.

“This is not designed to present a dilemma; it’s a challenge, a declaration: ‘Let me tell you how you find her because her price is far above rubies.’ The idea is if you have a precious stone, the longer you have it, its value goes up.

“The value of a virtuous woman is the longer she lives the more her value increases. The word ‘virtue’ means ‘moral excellence.’ It’s the outward display of wisdom.

“When you try to define a word, the best way to look for a definition is to find a verse in the Bible that defines it for you, because then you know how the Bible uses the word. Sometimes a dictionary gives you six different definitions of a word and you’re not sure which one it ought to be.

“I used to be puzzled about (God’s) idea of virtue because of this really odd verse in Luke 8: [46] And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me.

“What flowed out of Him? Power to heal that woman, so virtue has to do with the strength that is produced by moral excellence. It’s not just that she’s correct, but it’s that there’s a strength; there’s an internal character of strength produced by the truth of God’s Word.

*****

“Isaiah 33:6 says, [6] And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation: the fear of the LORD is his treasure.

“God has this treasure chest and the way you get into it is the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. It tells you what’s in the treasure chest and it’s the key that unlocks it and allows you to begin to get out of it the treasure that’s in it.

“The wisdom and knowledge that’s in that treasure chest is going to be stability of the times and strength of salvation.

“You look at the world we live in today—is there much stability? Why, just look at the politics and how goofy everything is. Look at the economy. Everything’s turned on its head. Look at the social structure, all the stuff going on with transgender bathrooms, and you say, ‘Doesn’t anybody have any common sense?!’

“That verse tells you why. There’s no wisdom and knowledge; there’s no fear of God that lets you go into the treasure chest and bring out some understanding that would give stability to the culture you live in.

“If you want to see a nation go away, how a nation’s destroyed and what it looks like when it falls apart, look at the nation Israel. They were God’s nation, and when God sent them into captivity, destroyed their national government and sent them among the nations, He described what was happening to them and why. Isaiah 33:6 is one of the passages that tells you how to avoid the destruction.

“Isaiah 5 says there are five social events that tell you the nation’s crumbled. Verse 20 says, [20] Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

“When you can’t distinguish between light and darkness, good and evil, bitter and sweet, it’s over! It’s not going to be over; it IS over!

“What happened to Israel? Well, the fear of the Lord, honoring what God said above what man said, wasn’t there and so the treasures that trusting in God’s Word would have brought to them weren’t in their culture.

*****

“The virtuous woman is the one who understands how to have the stability and the deliverance. Where did her virtue come from? Proverbs 31:26 says, [26] She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness.

“Where did she get the wisdom from? Verse 30: [30] Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised.

“You see that? She understood how to fear God. She understood how to put what God said above anything else.

“The fear of God is an interesting thing. We usually think about it as running from God, but that’s a fool’s errand. How good did Adam and Eve do with that? You can run from God but you can’t get away from Him. Jonah fled from the presence of God, but how did that work for him? David said, ‘If I make my bed in hell, thou art there. No matter where you go, He’s there!’

“The fear of God is the ability to be afraid of running from God to sin in order to alleviate your problems rather than allow God’s word to alleviate them for you. That’s why in Ephesians 5, Paul says we’re to ‘submit ourselves one to another in the fear of God.’

“That’s why Paul says in Philippians 2 to you and me that we’re to obey God’s word ‘with fear and trembling.’ That is, ‘I understand that’s truth and I FEAR the results of not obeying it, because to not obey it is sin and I fear the consequences of sin and what God says they are, and I fear forsaking him, running to sin to solve my anxieties and my difficulties.’

“Proverbs 8:13, I think, is a great definition of the fear of the Lord. The verse says, ‘The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.’

“Please watch that. Notice the first thing he says he hates is pride and arrogance. That’s long before the evil way. Before the action is the attitude. Every action, every overt thing you do, out of the heart are the issues of life. Jesus said in Matthew 15 that ‘from within come the things that defile a man.’

“Proverbs 4:23 says, [23] Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. That’s saying, ‘Here’s how the inner thinking is to be designed,’ and proverbs is a book about wisdom.

“As Proverbs 1 explains, [3] To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity;
[4] To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.
[5] A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:

“That’s talking about counsel to handle the details of life in a way that accomplishes God’s purpose. Verse 7 says, [7] The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning; it’s the foundation stage. It’s not the summum bonum--the end--but it’s where wisdom BEGINS. It’s where real understanding and knowledge begins.

“Listen, if you want to know what’s going on in life, it starts with understanding what God says and saying, ‘That’s what is more important than what anyone else does.’ That’s what Proverbs is for; it’s purpose is to give wisdom and instruction and understanding so you can attain to wisdom."

Daniel and MyPillow

The latest ad for MyPillow shows company founder Mike Lindell sitting at a desk with a profile of Jesus Christ's head (including a crown of thorns) and a lion's head as background art.

Satan, in one of his many counterfeits of Jesus Christ, is represented by a lion in the Bible. As I Peter 5:8 warns, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.”

A children’s book that is always a huge seller is C.S. Lewis’ “Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.”

While church groups get together to study this book they revere as some sort of wholesome allegorical story in which the heroic lion is a “Christ-figure,” it’s obviously a dark tale steeped in the Occult. Aslan as an allegory for the Antichrist. We know from Lewis’ Narnia myth that Aslan is resurrected from the dead.

***** 

In his book, “The Apostasy of the Christian Church,” Bible authority R. Dawson Barlow informs, “(Satan) is also called ‘a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. The roaring lions, I have been told, are the old harmless lions (i.e. as harmless as a ‘baby’ lion), that roar and fuss so loudly they scare their prey into the clutches of the younger, more powerful and dangerous lions stalking nearby.”

*****

The charitable group Lions Club International was founded by a Mason and has ties to Free Masonry, as well as Planned Parenthood.

As an article on the internet states, “Masonry, a secretive brotherhood, uses social clubs such as the Kiwanis International, Rotary International, and others as feeder organizations or recruitment centers to enlist new members in addition to referrals by their own members.

“At the top end of the secretive spectrum are three interrelated organizations that capitalize on their low-key relationship with worldwide masonry. The founding group in Germany (Illuminati – University of Ingolstadt), the American group (Skull and Bones Society – Yale University).

*****

When Daniel was thrown into the lion’s den an angel went in just ahead of him and gave the lion lockjaw.  Daniel was actually able to make a pillow out of the lion and go to sleep all warm and comfy, safe in the knowledge that the ferocious beast wouldn’t bother him at all because an angel was encamped around him for safe-keeping.

Sanctified common sense from God

John 21:1: “After these things Jesus shewed himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias; and on this wise shewed he himself.” What sea was He on? The sea of Tiberias is the sea of Galilee.

John 6:1: “After these things Jesus went over the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias.”

“It’s just got two names," explains Richard Jordan. "Haven’t you ever been somewhere that had two names? Did you know there are four different names given to the sea of Galilee? Look them up.

“Can you figure out now how Mark 5:1 and Matthew 8:28 work together? What it is is two different localities right by each other on the sea coast. It’s no problem.

“You don’t have to tear pages out of your Bible; you just think about the thing awhile. It’s like over in Samuel. One place it says he’s got 4,000 horses, the next place it says he’s got 40,000. People get all worried about those horses over there.

“If you spend a half-hour reading Samuel you’ll see that in one place he’s talking about the horses pulling the chariots out into battle and in the other place he’s talking about how many horses he’s got in the stalls. Because everybody who’s got horses in battles will have a few spares around.

“If the Gentiles nations around did it, don’t you reckon Israel was smart enough to do it? Don’t you think a guy like David was smart enough to have a couple of spares?  Sure. Well, it’s just one of those principles of just applying the sanctified common sense God gave you to the problem.

“How about the thing where it says there are two possessed by devils? That’s something you’re going to notice in Mark and Luke as opposed to Matthew. Mark and Luke are going to focus on the one guy and Matthew’s going to focus on the two.

“Why would that be? What’s the number two in the Bible? How many witnesses do you have to have to have an acceptable testimony? Matthew’s presenting evidence; testimony. So he presents the number of testimony.

“Besides that, isn’t Matthew presenting the dispensational viewpoint? How many houses of Israel are there? How many branches in Israel? There’s two. Israel and Judah. The two branches and Matthew’s presenting the evidence of the thing here and the deliverance that Christ can bring for the both of them.

“Mark and Luke focus on the individual aspects, rather than these overriding dispensational things. That’s why they give you a lot more detail. That’s why they’re interested more in chronological order and those kind of things.”

(new article tomorrow for sure)

Corrupted from the inside

"Describing how the rulers are going to rob and pillage and oppress the people, Hosea 4:17-18 says, ‘Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone. Their drink is sour: they have committed whoredom continually: her rulers with shame do love, Give ye.’

“They’re going around trying to get more, saying, ‘Give me, give me!’ That’s the way they were. Always out to get more. Always about ‘Give me, give me.’ They loved their bellies.

“Hosea 5: [9] Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke: among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be.

[10] The princes of Judah were like them that remove the bound: therefore I will pour out my wrath upon them like water.
[11] Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment, because he willingly walked after the commandment.

“That’s not the commandment of God he’s walking after. He’s walking after the commandment to do what verse 10 says, ‘Remove the boundaries.’ It’s the commandment the false prophets have given him.

******

“You read some of this stuff in Micah, especially in chapter 6, and my blood runs cold when I watch what goes on in the news around us today. I’m so grateful to know my citizenship is in heaven, not on Planet Earth.

“Micah 6:16 says, ‘For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab, and ye walk in their counsels; that I should make thee desolation and the inhabitants thereof an hissing: therefore ye shall bear the reproach of my people.’

“After he’s talked to them about the bogus currency and all the other things that are happening, he says, ‘For the statutes of Omri.’

“Notice their walking in the statutes. When it says in Hosea that they ‘willingly walk after the commandments,’ it’s the commandments and statutes of Omri in the house of Ahab.

“Omri’s dynasty with Ahab and Jezebel made Baal worship the official religion of Israel. That nation’s in the complete and total grip of the Adversary and God destroys them from that internal destruction. This is this multi-generational problem; it didn’t just come up in one generation.

“What’s happened now is Israel is completely taken away into that apostate system and they willingly walk in these statutes, and they willingly give their allegiance to the Baal worship system, and there’s a dynasty of it.

“It’s not one generation; it’s a long-term infection and the only answer for it is to destroy the nation; the corrupt government established by it so they could establish a new government.

*****

“Hosea 5:12: [12] Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness. 

“God says, 'Because they’re in complete apostasy, I’m going to eat away; I’m going to destroy them.'

“A moth and rottenness. That’s stuff that corrupts you from inside. It’s not like somebody just comes along with a blowtorch and burns up your clothes. That moth is in your closet and you go to take something out of the closet and what happens? Now it’s all holes.

“When Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah saw his wound, we read that passage in Isaiah 1 about how the whole body is sick from the top of the head down to the bottom of the feet. There’s a spiritual sickness that’s overtaken them and when Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah saw his wound, they wept.

Hosea 5:13-15: [13] When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb: yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound.

[14] For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away; I will take away, and none shall rescue him.
[15] I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.

******

“Bible commentaries say that that name Jareb, if you count it out in numerics, comes out to be 666. Who would that be? The Assyrian (Isaiah 10, Micah 5) is identified as the Antichrist.

“So what does Israel do to solve their problem? They turn to Satan’s program. They turn to the wrong guy. The false messiah. ‘Yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound.’

“They’re going to look to the Antichrist for help and you know what they’re going to find? There’s no help there. Verse 14 mentions the lion. When Nebuchadnezzar comes against Judah, he’s described in the Book of Jeremiah 50 as a lion. I Peter 5 describes Satan as a ‘roaring lion.’

“The lion is the Antichrist and that’s what God’s going to bring against Israel to tear them; to devour them. He says, ‘I’m going to tear and go away.’ Now, that’s the point here. Verse15: ‘I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offence.’ You can circle that word ‘till’ because there’s the ‘nevertheless.’ There’s the hope.

“Notice what God’s going to do. He’s going to go away; ‘return to my place.’ II Chronicles 36:23 says, ‘Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath the LORD God of heaven given me; and he hath charged me to build him an house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? The LORD his God be with him, and let him go up.’

“God had said to Israel, ‘I’m going to give you a place where you can meet with me.’ That was the door of the tabernacle. Then when they built the permanent temple, it was at the temple.

“And God placed His name in Jerusalem; the place where He chose to put His dwelling. Now He says, ‘I’m going to leave and I’m going to change my place of residence from here to ‘my place,’ meaning heaven.

“He’s no longer ‘the Lord God of all the earth’; now He’s ‘the Lord God of heaven.’ The reason for that is explained in Hosea 5:14-15. He’s forsaken the earth and gone on exile.

“Where was God supposed to be? Jerusalem. Where was He? He’s in heaven. He told the disciples, ‘When you pray, say, ‘Our Father which art in heaven.’ That isn’t a good thing. He was supposed to be Emmanuel—‘God with us.’ "

(new article tomorrow)

17 linked with transition from old to new

In the second “miraculous catch of fish,” the apostles aren’t getting any bites fishing in the Sea of Galilee until Jesus tells them to cast the net one more time and Simon Peter draws 153 “great fishes.”

"Large quantities of ink have gone into explaining why there should be 153 fish,” reads one website on hermaneutics. “At the purely historical level, it is unsurprising that someone counted them, either as part of dividing them up amongst the fishermen in preparation for sale, or because one of the men was so dumbfounded by the size of the fish ...”

*****

“There are all kind of different meanings placed on that number 153 and the one most Bible teachers generally give is it represents the number of Gentile nations on earth that go into the kingdom,” says Richard Jordan. “What I think is fascinating is if you take the numbers 1-17 and add them together one by one you get 153.

“E.W. Bullinger explains that 17 is the seventh prime number and 9 times 17 is 153. You’ve got the numbers 9, 17 and 7 associated with it. 17 is 8 plus 9.

****

“The number 17 turns out to be a fascinating number in Scripture. There’s Revelation 13:17, talking about the Antichrist and the other beast, the false prophet.

“Verses 17-18 say, [17] And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
[18] Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

“So, if Israel’s going to have wisdom in its stand against the Antichrist, one of the things they have to do is count the number and the number is 666.

“I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be interesting to count the 666s in the Bible?’ You ever found the six hundred and sixty-sixth verse? The 666^th chapter in the Bible is Ecclesiastes 7. Verse 25 says, [25] I applied mine heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness.

“By the way, Ecclesiastes is a book written to instruct the ‘little flock’ in the ‘last days’ on how to identify the philosophy carrying the Lie program of the Adversary found in Revelation.

“What did Revelation tell you to do if you wanted to seek wisdom? 'Count the number.' So you come down two verses in Ecclesiastes 7 to 7:27 and it says, ‘Behold, this have I found, saith the preacher, counting one by one, to find out the account.’

“Somebody’s counting ‘one, two, three,’ and when he does, he’s seeking out wisdom. It’s a point of interest in Scripture that counting numbers, and the use of numbers, is something associated with getting some wisdom!

“Now, I realize this is sort of like climbing a tree, getting way out on a limb and giving somebody standing at the trunk a saw and saying, ‘Bet you can’t saw me off.’ They don’t have to; you’re so far out there nobody else wants to go out there with you!

“But what happens is the way you get up the tree and out further and further on that limb is you just keep believing the verses, keep believing the verses, and pretty soon the limb looks like it’s fixing to crack out from under you but it doesn’t. That’s sort of the way it is with these numbers kind of things.

*****

“The No. 17 is associated with change, with transition from the old to the new in the Bible. The first 17 in the Bible is Genesis 1:17: [17] And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,

“That’s the 17^th time since the beginning of the Bible that the term 'God' appears. It’s in the same verse.

“In Genesis 6:13 God’s going to bring an end to humanity in the earth save for Noah and his family. There’s going to be an end to the old and a beginning of the new.

“That expression ‘God said’ in verse 13 is the 17^th time the expression occurs in the Bible. Come down to chapter 7 and notice when the change takes place. 7:9 says, [9] There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.

“When it says ‘as God had commanded Noah,’ that’s the 17^th  time the name Noah appears in the text, and it appears in connection with the ending of the old world and salvation of life going into the new world.

*****

“Matthew 7:28 says, [28] And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine:

“That’s the 17^th time the name Jesus appears in the Book of Matthew, the first of the gospels. Now, what did He do? He ended those sayings. When Noah’s name occurs the 17^th time, it’s because God had commanded him. Both are connected with the Scripture.

“In John 2 you see Christ’s first miracle, where He turns the water to the wine, and John 2 happens to be the 70^th chapter in the New Testament. So these connections keep going.

*****

“Genesis 7:11 says, [11] In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.

“The world ended on the 17^th day of the 7^th month; that’s when the rain started. Genesis 8:3-4 says, [3] And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.
[4] And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.

“Like I’ve been saying, 17 is associated with the transition from the old to the new. Now, you’ll notice there’s symbolism that told him the new earth was there. One was a dove. What is a dove a picture of in the Bible? The Holy Spirit.

“When Jesus is baptized, the Father speaks from heaven and the Spirit descended upon Him in the form of a dove. Well, what’s the olive tree a symbol of in the Bible? The nation Israel. Hosea 14, Romans 11.

“It’s the spiritual life that God the Holy Spirit’s going to give to the seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, the nation Israel. So what we’re looking at here is how new life is going to be established in the new world. It’s going to be the Holy Spirit working through ultimately the nation Israel. And it’s connecting all of it.

“One of the ways you can help identify the thrust behind the number is the Book of Genesis has 50 chapters. Most of the chapters will kind of clue you into what that number is about and will give you some help and understanding.

“You understand, some of the numbers in Scripture are very clear. Like 13 is the number of rebellion because that’s what Genesis 14 connects it with immediately. Three and seven are divine numbers of perfection and completion. Twelve is Israel’s number. Those numbers are real easy.

“Nine is the number of fruit bearing. Eight is the number of a new beginning. Seventeen is the number of the old passed away, changed to the new.

"So what do you wind up with when you put those numbers together in a sentence? You wind up with a perfect transition of Israel into fruitfulness. You’ve got this perfect new beginning of fruitfulness in the kingdom that comes and you say, ‘Wow! How ’bout that?!’ " 

Answer to, 'Why aren't you doing more?'

II Kings 6:17: [17] And Elisha 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.

“Elisha’s facing the enemy and they’re all over the place and they’re coming down to get him and he says to his servant, ‘Don’t worry about it; they that are with us are more than they that are with them.’

“His servant looks around and says, ‘What did you have for supper last night because you’re not thinking very straight? Unless you haven’t noticed, it’s just you and me, Bud.’

“Elisha says, ‘Lord, open his eyes that he can see into the spirit world.’ The Lord opens the kid’s eyes and he sees on the mountains of Israel the horses and chariots of Israel. He sees the angelic host that’s there; chariots of fire in the angelic world ready to protect.

*****

II Kings 22: [18] And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, Did I not tell thee that he would prophesy no good concerning me, but evil?

“The king of Judah and the king of Israel have gone into battle together. King Ahab is a bad, bad dude. His wife made Baal worship the official religion of the northern kingdom and it was in total apostasy.

“He’s going to pull back the curtain and you’re going to see into the angelic realm. [19] And he said, Hear thou therefore the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left.

“Write down by verse 18 Daniel 7: 9-11, where you’ll see a very similar kind of assembly. Write down Psalm 82:1. You’ll see exactly the same kind of thing.

“Here’s the counsel meeting and he said, ‘I saw how the decision was made that I just gave you. I see the Lord sitting on His throne and all the host there standing about on the right and left [20] And the LORD said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead? And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner.
[21] And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said, I will persuade him.

“That’s a strange question, isn’t it? You see, if the Calvinist idea that for God to say it means it has to happen exactly that way, and no other decision needs to be made, that verse wouldn’t make any sense. Because the Lord is saying, ‘Here’s my will; now how do you guys think we ought to do this?’ You say, ‘What?!’ The Lord literally is asking these angelic people in the counsel to participate in how His will . . . He stated his will.

[22] And the LORD said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so.
[23] Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil concerning thee.

“The Lord invited all these people who were there to be a part. You see, the Father has always desired to have willing, free, intelligent, understanding participants, actively engaged with Him in the business of His creation. It’s never been, ‘You do this, you do that, I control everything.’

“Have you ever worked for a micro-manager? God doesn’t micro-manage in His creation. If He did, you wouldn’t have any freedom. God loves freedom so much that He gave it to you.

“There’s a thing going on right now on the internet about universalism. The argument: ‘How can you believe in hell and eternal torment and not get on your hands and knees and crawl through glass to EVERYBODY you know?! Why aren’t you doing that right right now?!’

“That’s an argument they use to say, ‘See, you don’t really believe in hell. You don’t really believe your friends, neighbors, co-workers, etc., are going to die and spend eternity in a devil’s hell and lake of fire. If you did really believe that you’d be out doing whatever. You wouldn’t be watching ball games, sitting around doing whatever it is you do. You’d be out there doing nothing but that!’

“Well, that’s nonsense. I think about that and say, ‘You know, if God Himself is willing for them not to believe, I’ve got to be willing for them not to believe, too.’

“Romans 5:8: [8] But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

“That’s the answer. The work’s been done. So, it isn’t really an issue of, ‘Why aren’t you doing more?’ It’s, ‘More has already been done.’ God desires our participation willingly, intelligently.

“When He asked the question in verses 20-21 in II Kings 22, have you ever been in a meeting like that? They call it brainstorming. Any idea, you write it on the board—good, bad. Get the ideas out there and then will go through them and figure out which ones are the best.

“That’s sort of what’s going on here. You’re trying to have participation from everybody. Behind that is the idea of training people how to think through problems.

“The Lord literally turn these things into training sessions. My point is, if you don’t understand how God has set up His creation to work, or you think everything’s got to be prearranged, this passage won’t make any sense to you.

“Philippians 1 says, [10] That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ;

“Your Father always wants you to be brought unto maturity so you can look at a certain situation and pick, not just what’s right or wrong, but among the things that are right, the things that are of the greater value at the moment.”

(new article tomorrow)

Portals and dimensions

"CRACKPOT conspiracy theorists have sensationally claimed that the tragic deaths of eight people at Travis Scott's 'hellish' Astroworld concert (in Houston) last week came as part of a 'satanic blood sacrifice,' " reads an online article from Nov. 9, published by The U.S. Sun newspaper's website.

"Conspiracy theorists believe a t-shirt worn by the star shows people becoming demons after walking through a portal. 'Anyone else notice that the stage is an inverted cross leading to a portal to Hell,' asked one TikToker, whose video has since racked up more than one million views. Many of the conspiracies highlight that the slogan for the festival was 'See you on the other side.' "

Occultists of every sort love to deal in portals. According to a website, “CERN is specifically building a stargate — a portal to another time or place —to allow the return of the Annunaki. The Annunaki were powerful ancient deities that once inhabited Earth. Some ancient astronaut theorists believe, instead, that they were extraterrestrials, the very same who assisted in early mankind’s progress.

“The only downside is we don’t know, if CERN were successful, whether or not the Old Gods would come in peace. However, portals and stargates may be the least of our worries. Some feel that during their experiments, in searching for extra dimensions, CERN may open the ‘wrong door.’ ”

*****

Isaiah 13:2 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.”

“In other words, there is a portal through which they’re going to come out of the angelic dimension into our dimension in order to be able to fight," explains Richard Jordan.

“Angels are not made of Carbon-14 and in Scripture there are passageways; we use the term portals. In literature, they use the term ‘stargates.’

"Fascinatingly, that’s what the Bible calls it. If you come over to Revelation 9, all the ones I know how to identify geographically are in the Middle East. One is described being in Egypt, one in Babylon, one in Palestine. They are doorways.

“If you think about in the angelic world, they’re just as real as you are. They’re just not made of the same physical properties. Life in their realm is just as real as it is in our realm.

“I’ve tried to show you that in heaven are farms and cities and manufacturing plants. We talk about the business of heaven. Paul describes the invisible realm and he uses exactly the same terminology to describe it as he does for down on earth. There’s work, there’s jobs, there’s life to be carried on.

*****

"Jude 6 says, referring to the days of Noah, 'And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.'

"II Peter 2:4: 'For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment.'

“The angels had a house built by God and they left it. They shifted their dimensional habitation. They literally came into man’s dimension to reside to participate in this experimentation, and that’s where those gates come in.

“Revelation 9 begins: ‘And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.’

"All these demonic creatures come out. Once again, there’s this coming in and going out."

(new article tomorrow)

Watchers are God's oversight board

Psalm 89: [5] And the heavens shall praise thy wonders, O LORD: thy faithfulness also in the congregation of the saints.[6] For who in the heaven can be compared unto the LORD? who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the LORD?[7] God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him.

“We’re talking about the angelic creation in the heaven, gathered together. That’s not an assembly of saints on the earth; that’s in the heavens. I don’t know if you ever thought about how, among the angels, there are saints," says Richrd Jordan.

“Daniel 4: [16] Let his heart be changed from man's, and let a beast's heart be given unto him; and let seven times pass over him.

“Nebby is going to go out and be like an animal for seven years in judgment because of his pride. That’s the decree in verse 16.

Verse 17: [17] This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men.

"Look at the last couple of words in verse 18: [18] This dream I king Nebuchadnezzar have seen. Now thou, O Belteshazzar, declare the interpretation thereof, forasmuch as all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to make known unto me the interpretation: but thou art able; for the spirit of the holy gods is in thee.

“That’s the angelic host. Satan has his angels and then there are what Paul calls the ‘elect angels.’

“Some of these guys, they’re out here watching. You know that verse that says the eyes of the Lord go to and fro in the whole earth.

“You know who the eyes of the Lord are? These people. I don’t know how you think God works, but He doesn’t have the universe in a place where He’s just got to be watching everybody all the time. He has emissaries, agents, looking over, in this case, the nation Israel.

“The watchers see what Nebby is doing, and by the decree of the watchers they’ve seen what Nebuchadnezzar’s doing as worthy of judgment and have issued a decree and a demand: ‘This has to be done.’

“They’ve made some decisions about what’s going on in Israel and in the Gentile kingdom. The decision to judge Nebuchadnezzar is said to be the decision that the watchers made. They’re over the business of these humans.

“Verse 24: [24] This is the interpretation, O king, and this is the decree of the most High, which is come upon my lord the king:

“Well, whose decree is it? One verse says it’s the watchers and one verse says it’s the most High. Easiest way to understand that is to say, ‘Yeah, it’s both.’ The most High God has a will and then the watchers go out and apply that will and they participate with the Father in the administration of His activity.

Jeremiah 23:18: [18] For who hath stood in the counsel of the LORD, and hath perceived and heard his word? who hath marked his word, and heard it?

“The counsel here is a group of people who He gets together to advise Him; to tell Him His Word and discuss it. It’ really an administrative body; it’s like a board of the angelic world. They are designed to work together with Jehovah to carry out His business in the heavens and in the earth.

“God has His creation set up with an oversight board, as it were. Watchers, eyes looking to administer His will.

“The great illustration of it is in I Kings 22. This passage is so strange that it gets people really jumping off the cliff, but it’s really not that strange."

Guidebook on unsaved's unthankfulness

New article tomorrow. In the meantime:

"In the Bible we learn the entire world is saturated with pride and we know why and we know why it hardens," explained Preacher Alex Kurz in his Thanksgiving message. "The mind becomes implacable and it's hardened in pride. It's difficult to penetrate it with light and truth and understanding; they have no means of access.

"Satan is a king over all 'the children of pride,' says the Bible. The unsaved humanity is a mirror image of their father the devil and he is the reigning authority over all his children. Pride courses through their veins and because of that pride, there is this ungrateful response to the things of God. They're not thankful.

"Satan has this proudful ambition to usurp what is rightfully God's; what belongs rightfully to the Creator, and ever since Genesis 3, unsaved humanity falls right into the lap of that prideful desire to achieve, to ascend, to make a name for one's self. Did he not offer to Eve, 'Ye shall be as gods'? He's saying to her, 'You see, you don't have to be inferior, you don't have to play second fiddle; you deserve better.' 

"The same individuals who are lifted up in self-adoration, self-love (Paul says they are lovers of their own selves), they're boasters, a bunch of braggarts. They're haughty, and not only that, they're proud.

"When you study what pride is, and surely we could go to a dictionary, pride simply is a preoccupation with self. There is this excessive desire to be the attention, to be appreciated and adored. There's this unhealthy desire to be admired by others.

"When you find pride in the Bible, you find this lustful desire to be the center of attention. What often happens as a result is you will see a proudful person begin to look at others with contempt. That haughty spirit of puffed up arrogance will lead one to begin to look down on others. There is this false sense of conceited superiority that leads toward looking at others as being inferior.

"Pride, by Bible definition, is extremely deadly, extremely dangerous, and there is this link between pride and unthankfulness. In Romans 1, right off the bat, as the Apostle Paul indicts humanity, [21] Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. [22] Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, when they knew god they glorified him not as God.

"In their attitude of unthankfulness and ingratitude they rely upon their haughty sense of professing wisdom. Notice, neither were they thankful, but they became vain in their imaginations. They replaced that spirit of thankfulness. They displaced any gratitude that should have been expressed because of the creative power and wisdom of Almighty God, and what they did is they suppressed any attitude of thanksgiving with vain imaginations.

"II Corinthians 10:5 says, [5] Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

"The idea here is that humanity--they presume, they assume they know what's happening. They assume they know what's going on. They assume they know how man came into existence. They assume they know how God thinks in some ways as well.

"Paul says meekness is the capacity to bring into subjection every thought to the obedience of Christ. It's not so much bringing my thoughts so that I'm always obeying Christ, but rather, just like Jesus Christ in meekness chose to obey His Father. Meekness is not weakness. Rather, it's the ability to restrain power, ability, strength. To restrain one's prerogatives. He chose not to exercise His royal rights and prerogatives as an equal co-member of the godhead. He chose to restrict His divine abilities.

"Jeremiah 49:16: [16] Thy terribleness hath deceived thee, and the pride of thine heart, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that holdest the height of the hill: though thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from thence, saith the LORD.

"Pride deceives and convinces you of something that just simply isn't true. It distorts reality. By the way, the idea of vain imaginations--again, Paul, when he talks about the imagination and every high thing, it's talking about prideful understanding and wisdom. So when you think about the deception, it's all imaginary! A proudful person convinces themselves, 'I am right; you're wrong.' Pride convinces that person of things that just simply are not true.

"Psalm 73:6 says, 'Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment.' Pride is bondage; it makes you a slave. it's like a chain of enslavement.

Proverbs 13:10: [10] Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom.

Proverbs 16:[5] Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished.

[6] By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil.
[7] When a man's ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.
[8] Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues without right.
[9] A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.

"Proverbs 6:16-17: [16] These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: [17] A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,

"By the way, that's No. 1 on the list. The No. 1 abomination is a proud look. When it says a proud look, it's not suggesting that somebody looks proud, or has the appearance of pride. It's talking about a pride-filled person who evaluates and sees everything or everyone as being beneath them, as being inferior; as being unworthy.

"It's not a, 'Look, man, he dresses proudly,' or, 'He looks proud,' but rather it's the way he evaluates, the way he perceives. The proud look is the way he interprets his surroundings. Again, there is that twisted sense of superiority of the one who has the proud look. He views things through the lens of that empty, vain, imaginative, haughty pride that would lift himself in exaltation against the knowledge of God; against what God is saying and against all that God is doing."

Getting the monkey off your back

(new article tomorrow. In the meantime:

"Why do we fear? Because we have this idea that our identity and our future resides in our own abilities, skills, qualifications, mental/physical resources.

“It’s not what you do; it’s what He did that makes you valuable," assures Jordan. "It’s not what you accomplish; it’s what HE’S accomplished that gives you worth and meaning. Because He’s given you HIS value.

“At the most basic level, sin is a refusal to trust God to give you what you’re looking for in Christ. Fear really is unbelief.

“If you can get that monkey off your back that you got to be ‘good enough’ to measure up and belong and have value, then you’re FREE to let His life produce His work in and through you. As soon as you do that, there’s that humbling of your mind, that ‘lowliness of mind.’

“Listen, being 'capable' doesn’t depend on you. Would you relax and realize that? Paul says, ‘You can do nothing against the truth but for the truth.’

“In Acts 20, when Paul talks to these elders and bishops at Ephesus--when he called them together and met with them at Miletus--he says about his manner with them, ‘Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews.’

“Notice he says, ‘Serving the Lord with all humility of mind.’ That’s the inside attitude he had: ‘It’s not about me; it’s not about me being right. I don’t have to defend myself, I don’t have to make it look like I’m okay and I’m ‘qualified,’ but ‘with many tears, and temptations . . . ’ He was willing to appear weak so that the power of Christ might be the real issue.”