What it means to be one

At the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11 “the whole earth was of one language,” and as verse 6 reports, “And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.”

“Man can accomplish and achieve anything he sets his mind to do unless God intervenes, as He did here. They had one world with one language and, in verse 4, they tried to create a one-world religion. It was globalism at its best.”

Biblically, No. 1 is associated with unity; it’s the number of God. No. 2 represents division and is the testimony of one divided. No. 3 brings one and two back together and gives completeness.

Paul writes in I Corinthians 12:20, “But now are they many members, yet but one body.”

“ ‘But one’ means ‘the united one; to unify or make one. It was because of the importance of the church’s unity that Christ prayed as He did for His followers just before His crucifixion. ‘I pray . . . that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, are in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us; . . . the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given unto them; that they may be one, even as We are One (John 17:21,22).'

“ . . . The only unity spoken of in God’s Word is divine unity and many do not know how divine unity is perfected . . . There must be an abandonment to the control of God and a putting away of the flesh . . . Only as we have the mind of Christ can we be of the same mind one with the other. When every thought is brought into captivity unto the obedience of Christ, we shall be brought into perfect unity with one another; standing fast in one spirit, with one soul striving for the faith of the gospel (Phil 1:27).”

*****

“If you want to learn something about really believing, start in Genesis 1 and let your Bible prove itself,” says Richard Jordan. “The number one, the number of God and the number of unity, is the foundation for all other numbers, because every other number is a multiple of one.

“The number one is a fundamental, foundational number, which makes sense why it would be God’s number. It first occurs in the text of Scripture in Genesis 1:9: ‘And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.’

“The waters He scattered out and now they’re gathered to one place. The idea with one is a gathering together in one place. In Deuteronomy 6:4—the great confession of Israel—Moses writes, ‘Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.’ ”

*****

“In Genesis 2 you see that the number two is a number of division. It’s interesting that it’s in Genesis 2 that Adam is divided. Genesis 1 says, ‘He created man and in the image of God created he.’

“Well, when did Adam become a ‘them’? In Genesis 2, God put Adam asleep, opened up his side, took out a rib and out of that rib He formed a separate person, Eve. Now there’s two.

“I’ve often thought about what it would have been like when Adam woke up from that sleep. I’ve never been anesthetized but once in my life and when I woke up from that I looked down at my feet and there stood a nurse with a Geiger counter. I said, ‘What are you doing?!’

“Well, when Adam woke up there stood Eve. I don’t know what you think he might have said—‘Whoa, where have you been all my life?!’

“And verse 24 describes what God did: ‘Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.’ We like to say, ‘Baby, I’m stuck on you.’ Do you see that word one there? It’s about uniting together.

“I Peter says they are to dwell together ‘according to knowledge,’ and when they do that, they’re one flesh. One complete humanity. One person.

“Marriage is the reconstruction of man; it’s the completion of man. Man has that part that was taken out of him and put back into him and they become one functioning unit.

"What Eve put back into Adam through marriage results in a reconstruction of the original item and an ability to function the way God created them to function. She’s there to complete him; to be his helpmeet, the one who mirrors him, the one who answers to him.  Adam is no longer sufficient and complete in himself; he needs this woman to come along and complete him.

“Neither the man nor the woman can be completely whole without the other because they’re interdependent, but since the Fall sin has so disrupted this divine order that the oneness is never completely achievable. You’re never going to completely, totally achieve it in this life, but you can get close, and the more compatible you are with walking in the Spirit the way God intends you to walk, the closer you get to it.”

Droppings of the honeycomb

Psalm 119: [103] How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
[104] Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way.

[105] Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

Proverbs 16: 23-24: [23] The heart of the wise teacheth his mouth, and addeth learning to his lips. [24] Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.

“…In the nineteenth Psalm we are told that the Word of God is ‘sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.’ The droppings of the honeycomb is the purest honey; and there is a thought also that the comb is filled to overflowing so that drops of pure honey hang from it; not continually dropping, but hanging there ready to drop at the proper time. Not only is the pure sweetness of honey under our tongue, but milk is found there, too.

“…The honey is sweet, nourishing and soothing; the milk represents nourishment and edification. It is as we discern and feed upon the sincere milk of the Word, that the Word is stored away in our hearts and is found under our tongues."

When Moses describes to Israel about what they’re to do when they enter into the "land that floweth with milk and honey," he tells them that when the king ‘sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites:

[19] And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them.’

“If you want God’s Word, the truth of who you are in Jesus Christ, the life of Christ, to work in you, you need to get into READING. If you want who God has made you—He called Israel to be somebody and if that was to work in them, they had to get those w-o-r-d-s, read them all the days of their life so those words would work in them," explains Richard Jordan. 

“You don’t operate simply on your memory. You don’t operate on what you heard a teacher or preacher say. You sit and read the words yourself.

“When Moses dies and Joshua takes his place of leadership, God advises, ‘Be strong and of good courage.’ He says in Joshua 1:8, ‘This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.’

“You see, they’re to take that book, they’re to read it, they’re to meditate on it, they’re to think about it, they’re to fill their mind with it.

“Joshua 8:34 says, ‘And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessings and cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the law.’

“When they’re going to be led into blessing, led into the land, they’re going to be corrected for their misbehavior, they’re going to look at verses in their Bible and read them. It’s that important, folks." 

(new article tomorrow for certain. I have been working every day this week, filling in for sick employees, and finally have a day off on Monday.)

Walking dead normalcy taught

"There is no proof that a zombie apocalypse could be on the horizon but anything can happen," informed a NY Post story last month. "Some illnesses mirror the traits of zombies, such as rabies and leprosy, which could mean we may end up having a 'zombie' variant on our hands."

From my last post: “If they get that 'mark of the beast', when the wrath of God comes out, for those birds that have that spot of the beast God puts a spot of leprosy on them. And it's in their garments. That’s why Jude 23 says, [23] And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.

In the Great Tribulation, when Satan’s cast out of heaven, the beast in the bottomless pit rises up to become the “son of perdition.”

“The Antichrist is killed in the midst of the week, and when a man dies his soul goes to hell,” explains Richard Jordan. “This beast out of the bottomless pit comes up and inhabits his body and he literally becomes ‘Satan incarnate.’ There’s an angel who’s king over the bottomless pit in Revelations 9, so there’s a lot of weird stuff going to happen.

“The Antichrist is described as ‘the beast who ascends out of the bottomless pit.’ That takes place in the midst of the 70^th week when he’s killed. If a man dies, he’s dead. Your soul dies and goes to hell and you don’t get out of hell and come back.

“Some people say, ‘Well, if Judas died and went to hell, he couldn’t have gotten out,’ but his body’s laying there. People don’t see what’s going on in the spirit world.

“This beast animates that body and so you have all these shows today about vampires and the walking dead. There’s this fascination with all that kind of stuff because that’s part of the mythology of man’s mind; it’s part of what’s there because the creative genius of unsaved people is satanically inspired.

“And if I want to prepare the world to worship me, what am I going to do? I’d take all the young people in the world and I’d teach them this is normal, common, ordinary kind of stuff."

(new article tomorrow)

Simple guide on Antichrist/M.O.B.

"As a matter of moral responsibility – and regional and global security and prosperity – we cannot abandon the people of Afghanistan,” said the U.N. Secretary today. "Afghans need peace, hope, and help, and they need it now."

Many Christians are now aware of the fact that a newly installed giant rainbow-colored animal sculpture outside the United Nations headquarters in Manhattan is similar to the end times beast described by John in Revelation.

"Revelation 13:2: [2] And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.

“Notice that when the Antichrist is described as an animal, he’s described as a leopard. He has the feet of a bear and the mouth of a lion, but he’s a leopard," explains Richard Jordan. "You remember what Jeremiah 13 said about a leopard? Verse 23 reads, ‘Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.’ You know how you identify a leopard? By his spots.

“If they get that 'mark of the beast', when the wrath of God comes out, for those birds that have that spot of the beast God puts a spot of leprosy on them. And it's in their garments. That’s why Jude 23 says, [23] And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.

"The 'mark of the beast' also has to do with worshipping this political leader who's going to take over the government. He's going to control the monetary system in the world, where you have to have this mark in order to have money to buy or sell.

"There's going to be monetary reset; a deliberate destruction of the money system on a global scale. These are going to be devastating times for the world.

"The 'mark of the beast' is mentioned eight times in Revelation and there are two beasts. As John writes in Revelation 13:11, [11] And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.

"The first beast is the Antichrist and the second beast is the false prophet. Of the first beast, Revelation 13 begins: [1] And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

"The first beast is not just one man; he has a whole system he's operating and he's the head. By the way, the leopard, bear and lion is the beast back in Daniel 7. When that fourth beast comes in Daniel 7, the residue of their kingdoms are all assimilated into the Antichrist. When he comes up in the earth to rule and reign he draws people together.

"He turns out to be a bad guy later in his career but he starts out by promising hope, wealth, power. In our day we would call it the Deep State, the elite, the cabal. He controls the governments, media and religion because he's going to be worshipped. He's this character that has this whole vast system of governmental global control.

"Then the next beast comes on and he causes the world to worship the first beast. You know how he's described like a lamb? Jesus is the lamb of God. We're talking about religion. He works miracles. In verse 13 he makes fire come down from heaven. He's a religious figure that professes to perform supernatural events to intervene in history, working miracles with demonstrable events and so forth.

"The first one is a political leader but the second guy, where the 'mark of the beast' comes from, is this religious leader to deceive people with this religious system he uses.

"Revelation 19:20 says, [20] And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.

"You see somebody doing miracles you need to watch out. People are going to do miraculous events to cause others to follow them into a religious system that's designed to make them worship someone who is a false christ.

"There is also a real conspiracy associated with the 'mark of the beast.' How does he deceive them? With religion. Paul says in II Corinthians 11, [13] For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
[14] And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
[15] Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

"Revelation 17 talks about this woman, this religious system the Antichrist uses to come to power: [2] With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
[3] So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
[4] And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
[5] And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

"You want a conspiracy, there's the real conspiracy! It allows the Antichrist to take over and develop the Deep State system he'll use to try and deceive the whole world.

"Revelation 17:8 says, [8] The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

"There's a spiritual conspiracy that goes on across the earth today to deceive people away from the truth of God's Word into a vain religious system designed to promote and deceive the human race into accepting what Satan's program is all about.

"Paul talks about the man of sin, the son of perdition, being manifested. He writes in  II Thessalonians 2:5, [5] Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
[6] And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
[7] For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.

"Mystery Babylon already works and is going today, but there's something restraining it, holding it back, and that something is the church the Body of Christ. Until God finishes forming the Body of Christ, this stuff can't take over. These things in the Book of Revelation, like the 'mark of the beast,' are part of the prophetic program."

(another post this evening for sure)

Complete inner tranquility

(new article tomorrow)

The great old hymn, "Safe in the Arms of Jesus," proclaims, "Free from the blight of sorrow, Free from my doubts and fears; only a few more trials, only a few more tears. . ."

The song was one of 9,000-plus spiritual pieces written by Fanny Crosby, who was blinded for life at two months of age in 1825 when a man falsely claiming to be a doctor treated an illness of hers with hot-mustard poultices applied to her eyes!

Crosby, who would go on to such success she was personally acquainted with all the U.S. presidents during her lifetime of 95 years, lost her father only a few months after going blind. Her mother was forced to take a job as a maid, leaving Crosby to be raised by her Christian grandmother.

Her first attempt at verse, at age 8, reflected her lifelong refusal to engage in self-pity:

Oh, what a happy soul I am,

Although I cannot see!

I am resolved that in this world

Contented I will be.

How many blessings I enjoy

That other people don't,

To weep and sigh because I'm blind

I cannot, and I won't!

Crosby once wrote about the doctor who unwittingly caused her blindness:

“I have heard that this physician never ceased expressing his regret at the occurrence; and that it was one of the sorrows of his life. But if I could meet him now, I would say, ‘Thank you, thank you, over and over again for making me blind.’ Although it may have been a blunder on the physician’s part, it was no mistake on God’s. I verily believe it was His intention that I should live my days in physical darkness, so as to be better prepared to sing His praises and incite others to do so.”

*****

There are two fundamental emotions humans deal with in life—one is love, drawing us toward things, and the other is fear, pushing us away from things, notes Richard Jordan.

“Fear is a debilitating thing; in John 14, the fear of men kept people from trusting and believing even when they saw the truth of God’s Word by seeing the Messiah in their midst!

“Jesus said, ‘Let not your heart be troubled.’ What does your heart do? With a heart man believes. Then He says, ‘Neither be afraid.’

“Without having that turmoil down inside, you have the ability to just go, ‘Ahhh,’ and let it all hang out and relax inside; relax in the truth of God’s Word about who Jesus Christ is and what He’s accomplished.

“Why should you trust it?  Christ says, ‘Look at me; I’m trusting it!’

“He says in John 14:28, ‘Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.’

“Christ is saying, ‘You know why you ought to have your heart trust me and not be afraid? Because you’ve heard my Word!’

“He already told His disciples, ‘If you love me keep my commandments.’ 'I’m living in complete total dependence on the will of my Father,' is what He’s saying. Paul has a great phrase for that—he calls it ‘the faith of Christ.’

“Jesus Christ entered into a plan and an agreement with His Father about what He would do and said, ‘Now, my peace I leave you.’ He’s completely at peace. He has complete inner tranquility even though He knows the agony He’s going to face on the Cross.

"In fact, when He says in verses 30-31 (‘Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.

[31] But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence’), He’s saying in the vernacular of our day:

“ ‘Let’s git-er done! . . . Let’s get on with it! The Adversary, the prince of this world, has come to fulfill the conflict of Genesis 3:15 where the seed of the woman and the seed of Satan will be in personal hand-to-hand combat. That day has arrived, so let’s go!’

“Because He’s got nothing . . . ‘There’s no weakness in me at all; I’m ready to go.’

“He knows what the Scripture says is going to happen to Him and yet He doesn’t hold back. In Hebrews 12, it says, ‘Who for the joy that was set before him he endured the cross, despising the shame.’

“He had in His mind an understanding of what God had promised Him and believed it and confidently trusted in it. There’s no rebellion, no hesitation; He has that complete inner tranquility.

*****

“There’s a fascinating passage in Philippians 4: 9: 'Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.'

“You want the God of peace to be with you? What does that mean? Well, look at verse 7: ‘And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.’

“Wouldn’t you get the peace of God from the God of peace? This is peace that BELONGS to the God of peace.

“When Paul talks in Philippians 4 about the ‘peace of God,’ that’s the peace that BELONGS to God. In Romans 5, he talks about ‘being justified by faith we have peace WITH God.’

"That’s the peace that God Himself has. God is at peace with His own will. He’s at peace with His own plans. He’s at peace with His own word. And God’s peace; that total tranquility and inner calmness over what He’s doing, He takes that and gives it to us when we trust Him.

*****

“By the way, when it talks about the peace WITH God and the peace OF God, Melchizedek was the king of righteousness and the king of peace. Righteousness is first, peace is second. Because peace can only be based on righteousness; things have to be dealt with righteously.

“James 3:17 tells Israel, ‘But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.’

“First you have the righteousness, then you have the peace.

“Isaiah 32 says, 'And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.

[18] And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.'

“Righteousness has to do with being right. God’s Word is right and I’m in relationship with it and the peace comes out of His righteousness.

*****

“John 14: 27 is the great illustration of the peace OF God.  Jesus says, ‘Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.’

“Jesus Christ is God in human flesh. Here’s God living in our humanity and He has complete and total peace—inner tranquility, inner calmness, a relaxed mental attitude in His heart that results in that faith, that total dependence on the Word of His Father.

“He’s going away to receive the kingdom. Remember the parallel in Luke 19? Remember the passage in Daniel 7 where the Son of Man comes before the ancient of days to receive the kingdom and the power and the dominion? He goes there to receive the kingdom and to return.

“Philippians 2:5 says, ‘Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.’ This is a truth that Paul followers should be very clear about and should rejoice in.

"Paul goes on, ‘Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: [7] But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: [8] And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.’

“He made Himself of no reputation. Who did that to Him? He did it to Himself. Voluntarily, He took up a position and took upon Him the form of a servant. Though He’s equal with the Father, He chooses to function in relationship to the Father as a servant. Did He have to? No, He willingly chose to.

“The next verse says, ‘He humbled Himself and became obedient.’ What does a servant do? He does what his master, his lord, tells him to do. So when Jesus Christ says, ‘The Father is greater than I,’ it’s in relationship to Jesus Christ coming as a servant. What He’s doing is owning His place as a servant.”

Dominant theme echoing in mind

Paul writes in Romans 12: [12] Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;

“This verse is really, in a lot of ways, one of those encapsulized statements, right in the middle of a passage, that sort of gathers together a description of the Christian life.

"It's Paul’s gathering together of the issue of, ‘Here’s the description of what the impact of God’s grace is designed to look like in the lives of Believers,’ and if you wanted to have a profile of what it is that the ministry of grace is seeking to produce in the lives of people . . . not just in doctrinal statements but what is it supposed to look like, it’s in Romans 12," explains Richard Jordan.

“The details of your service for Christ don’t really begin until you come to Chapter 12. It’s the idea of, ‘Okay, let’s get busy being who we are in the details of life.’

“Verse 12 is in the context of how we relate to other Believers. Verse 9 says, ‘Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.’

"In other words, the focus in our relationship with others is going to be on love. Let love be the real thing. Don’t ‘diss’ somebody when it comes to love. Be genuine.

“I John 4 is very clear: ‘If God so loved us we ought to love one another.’ Your love for others HAS to be based upon an understanding of God’s love for you. The reason the world can never love their fellow man . . . 

"You see, the world thinks if they can get rid of the differences between people you can get rid of conflicts. Consequently, you have an egalitarian society where everything’s equal. We call it ‘multi-culturalism’ and all that kind of stuff.

“The only way you get rid of conflict is to get rid of sin. The only way you deal with the sin issue is the Cross. The world thinks the Cross is foolishness, so they reject the only answer that’s really there.

“If you want to have some impact and influence in the culture you live in, teach the truth of God’s grace to people, get them saved and then they’ll know and understand how to love people. Otherwise they never will.

“You come to verse 12 and you’ve got this dominant theme now in love just kind of echoing in your mind. That’s why it’s essential, by the way, that you go back to verse 2 and ‘be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.’

“Verse 12, under that banner of love, Paul says, ‘Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer.’

"While I’m serving my brother and brethren, my attitude in it is I’m going to be rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation and I’m going to be instant in prayer.

“I’m going to be continually, constantly in prayer, all for the sake of loving others, loving our enemies as we ought. This is how Christ is designed to become visible and more real, and frankly more convincing to those who are about us. His life becomes a tangible reality.

*****

“II Corinthians talks about that living epistle. The epistle of Christ written in your heart and that life of Christ living out through you.

“You see, grace isn’t just a theology, and what he’s saying here is, ‘This is the way you think through . . . that renewed mind thinks through how to deal with the issues of life.’

“Romans 5 says, ‘And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;
[4] And patience, experience; and experience, hope:
[5] And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.’

“Our joy, hope, patience--they’re not found in freedom from trouble; they’re found in the midst of the difficulties.

“Tribulation works patience. So the tribulation has done its work. It’s taught you that there’s no other place to go but the truth of God’s Word. Patience is something that sustains you; keeps you there.

“Paul doesn’t just tolerate tribulation; he says, 'God, take this tribulation and make it serve you.' First, you’re rejoicing in hope. It’s important to understand what the hope is.

"The verse is telling you your hope is based in hope. Hope is the rock in which joy is rooted. It’s the soil out of which the rejoicing comes. The ground of our hope and the goal of our hope are all in Christ.”

(new article tomorrow)

Free course, free of obstacles

(new article tomorrow)

A great old hymn, "Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne," written in 1864 by Emily E. Elliott, includes the stanza:

"The foxes found rest and the birds their nest In the shade of the forest tree; But thy couch was the sod, O Thou Son of God, In the deserts of Galilee: O come to my heart, Lord Jesus, There is room in my heart for Thee."

"Prayer is constantly talking to God about everything going on in your life, applying what His Word says," explains Richard Jordan. “All of a sudden you’re making all of your life under this wonderful, intimate communion with a heavenly Father who loves you and desires you more than anything else. He desires that fellowship and active communion with you taking what He says and bringing it into your experience by walking by faith.

"Paul says, 'Pray for me; I’m excited about what we’re doing.' He writes in II Thessalonians 3:1: 'Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you.' Paul’s saying, ‘I want the Word of the Lord to be set free; run without obstacles. Run without needing to stop and be glorified.’

“When you glorify something you demonstrate how valuable it is; how much of a treasure it is. How important it is. How would you glorify the Lord Jesus Christ? How do you demonstrate in your life that you cherish Him more than anybody else; His wisdom, His thinking?

“When you make decisions in life, whose opinion is the most valuable? You’re choosing HIS thinking, HIS attitudes, having HIS actions. I can’t live the life but He gave me His life and that’s the life that’s going to count.

"I Thessalonians 1:5 says, 'For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.'

"The power is in the power of God. As chapter 2:13 says, 'For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.'

"Jesus says, 'The flesh profiteth nothing,' meaning all of our wisdom, our resources, aren’t the issue.

“You got to start there! You never want to glory in yourself. Galatians 2:20 says, ‘I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.’

“You’re constantly learning that it isn’t me; it’s Him. Jesus said, ‘The words that I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life.' The objective measure of the working of the Spirit of God in your life is God’s Spirit wrote a Book and it’s a physical, tangible connection between Him and you.

"You never appropriate that into your experience until you need that. If you don't know it, you can't appropriate it. The need is, 'Not I but Christ.' You're constantly learning that. You learn this at a different level; that's part of what maturity is all about.

"Jesus said, 'The words I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.' The words on the pages are the words of the Spirit, and when I believe that Word and put my faith in it, it WORKS; it becomes energizing activity and life in him who believes." 

U.N. art work

In connection with Baal worship, the ten demonic kings who reign with the Antichrist are cannibals. There’s a connection between the satanic religion and the eating of people’s flesh and their blood.

“The U.N. Security Council Chamber in NYC is the emergency room of the U.N. where the world leaders meet when there is a threat to peace. They decide the fate of nations. There is a giant mural that towers over the security council room. The central focus of the mural is the Phoenix bird that has risen. The bird is a symbol of Lucifer. Egyptians believe that the Phoenix symbolized a god who rose to heaven in the form of the morning star like Lucifer after his fire immolation of death and rebirth.

“Notice that the Phoenix bird is not standing above his own ashes. He is standing above his own skin. Like a snake, he has shed his old skin and is revealing himself as God at the center of the mural.

“At the top left there is a church steeple without a cross. The missing cross symbolizes the death of Christianity. Below, a woman receives the rays of the sun god while the man in front of her plays Pan’s flute.

“To their right are two pyramid symbols and people joined together by a long blue serpent-like cloth. Below the risen Phoenix a sword is driven through a dragon beast. This represents the killing of all beliefs and religions that depicted Lucifer as a beast. The new world religion worships him as beautiful.

"Behind the Phoenix, the ghostly figures of the walking dead are stepping into a void. They symbolize depopulation.

“On the right panel the pale horse from Revelation is the bringer of death to humanity through weapons, hunger and disease. The chained black man represents slavery. The whole top panel of the mural shows a technologically advanced white race that controls industry, art and science.

"In this mural the military man standing on the tail of the beast represents worldwide military power. He tips his helmet to the elite who are climbing out from underground cities where they safely hid from the apocalypse.”  

 (new article tomorrow) 

Walk with this attitude

“You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you,” said John Bunyan. "It is profitable for Christians to be often calling to mind the very beginnings of grace with their souls.”

People mistake charity for love in Paul’s epistles but it’s actually “love in action,” says Richard Jordan: “Charity is the motivation of the love of Christ and not all these other kinds of things constraining us in our Christian life.

“In Colossians 3, Paul says charity is the ‘bond of perfectness.’ It’s the thing that binds maturity together. When you have perfected saints, what binds them is the fact that they instinctively look out for the benefit of the other, not for themselves.

“To walk charitably with a saint means to put his needs, his concerns above your own. Now, where does the motivation for that come from? The motivation is an understanding of God’s charity to us. Charity has to do with the motivation behind your good works.

“Charity isn’t a braggard, it’s not proud, it’s not covetous, doth not behave itself unseemly. It’s patient and suffereth long.

“Boy, you read those things and you think, ‘Wow! That’s quite a mental attitude to have!’

“Paul says ‘charity never faileth.’ So what charity is is a complete lifestyle that puts the interests of the other ahead of your own.

“I Timothy 1:5 says, ‘Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned.’

“The heart is the mentality of your soul. It’s single-minded; it’s a heart that just goes on sound doctrine. It’s not living on emotions; it’s living on the application of the truth of God’s Word rightly divided.

“We’re to have a system of norms and standards that reflects God’s thinking. You’re able to walk by faith and not by sight. That verse is a beautiful description of a mature Christian walk. And not just an individual walking that way, but a group of people gathered together and working together in the work of the ministry.

“Paul told the Corinthians, ‘As unknown and yet well known.’ I love that verse because that’s exactly what you’re . . . your spiritual power and influence far outweighs your appearance.

*****

“When Paul talks about ‘in spirit,’ that’s the idea of your disposition; your attitude that you do something by.

“In Ephesians 1:17, for example, he writes, ‘That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.’

“He’s not talking about the Holy Spirit. That’s not the initial giving; it’s not a later ‘re-giving.’

“He talks about the spirit in the sense of the ‘spirit of slumber,’ or the ‘spirit of bondage.’ When you have the spirit of slumber, you have this disposition of being asleep at the switch. Bondage is the disposition of being controlled.

“Paul’s saying, ‘I want you to have the spirit of wisdom and revelation God has given you right here in this text. You get it in the Book.’

“The attitude with which you do things affects an awful lot. He’s saying, ‘I want you to walk around with this attitude and disposition that’s produced by understanding this great cosmic plan God has in His Son.’ ”

Realize, 'I'm here in His place'

(new article tomorrow)

A classic old hymn pleads, "More about Jesus let me learn, More of His holy will discern; Spirit of God, my teacher be, Showing the things of Christ to me."

Bible scholar E.W. Bullinger (1837-1913) once reasoned that the greatest need of a Christian—one many aren’t aware they’re lacking in—is to know God in truth: who He really is, how He really thinks, what His real plans are, what He really wants in our relationship to Him, etc.

As Bullinger points out, “Christians who don’t (truly) know God’s Word can rely only on their imaginations and thoughts to tell them who God is. God is therefore based on their own tastes. How boring and useless is that!”

“Paul says in Galatians 2:20-21, 20] I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

[21] I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

“What he’s saying there is that, in the Lord Jesus Christ, you see the way God designed man to live . . . when you see that obedience of faith in God’s Word that led to the ultimate sacrifice at Calvary, trusting in the Father’s Word, you see the way He created mankind to live. It’s the way He created you and me to matriculate through life today. The challenges, the excitements, the excesses, the necessities of life as we experience them . . .

“The Lord Jesus Christ had that kind of faith in His Father that He would say, ‘Of my own self I can do nothing.’ That’s the choice He made. He said, ‘I value and cherish my Father’s plan so much, I couldn’t even imagine being separated from it.’ You know what that is? That’s ‘the faith of Christ.’

“He was not out here on a journey doing His own thing. He came to do the will of His Father and that’s what ‘the faith of Christ’ is. It’s HIS faith in the Word and the will of His Father, and that’s what Paul says our life as Believers is designed to be.

“That’s what it is to worship God in the Spirit. That’s what it is to have Christ as our life. These are not religious clichés even though sometimes we use them that way. Sometimes we get to trafficking in unfelt truth, but they weren’t for Jesus Christ and if they get that way with you, you need to sit down and look back at Him and see in Him who God designed you to be, because He’s the one living in you.

*****

“In John 14:10, Jesus says to Philip, [10] Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.

“Philip doesn’t get it. He says to Christ, ‘We’ve been with you all this time and who you talking about?!’ You’ve had a bad day like that, haven’t you? You’ve looked up and said, ‘Lord, where in the world are you today?! Don’t you care?! Are you on a trip?! What’s going on?!’

“When you get that way, it’s because you’re not looking at Him. It’s because you’re looking at circumstances; self. It’s not because you’re trusting Him; it’s because you’re trusting your own resources. So don’t get too mad at Philip because you do this.

“Later in the same chapter, Jesus says to Judas, ‘He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me.’

“You see, He was so perfectly abandoned to the will of His Father that the Father dwelt in Him and SPOKE through Him. It was the Father’s wills, words and works. What Jesus Christ is doing is demonstrating the supreme, absolute value of the way He cherished His Father and He did it by putting His faith in the Father’s Word, so that the things He did in His life were what the Father gave Him to do.

“He’s in the Garden of Gethsemane praying and He says in John 17:18, ‘[17] Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
[18] As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.

“How did Christ come into the world? By faith in the will and the word of His Father. And He said, ‘So send I them into the world.’ The men were sent with the same commission as the Son received from the Father. To go live exactly the way He lived. Can I say the same is true of you and me as it was with them. Paul says, ‘[20] Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.

“The realization to make is, ‘I’m here in His place, doing what He’d be doing if He was here. In fact, He is here in me, living His life out through me.’

“That’s why we’re called the Body of Christ. We’re the vehicle through whom He lives and works today. That’s why Paul says, ‘I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.’

*****

“We’re not talking about religion; we’re talking about a RELATIONSHIP with the God of heaven and earth, the Creator. The one who made you originally. The one whom your sins have alienated you from. Your self-will has taken you off in a different direction. Paul says, ‘I’m dead to that.’ How? ‘Through Christ. I died with Him. But I didn’t just die with Him; when He put away my sin, He gave me His life.’

“Paul says, ‘A spiritual transaction took place on a supernatural level inside of me, where I received His life and so that the life I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God. I have His life and it’s Him living in me.’

“The way He does that is when I live in my flesh the way He lived in HIS flesh! How did He live? ‘Without the Father I can do nothing. The works I do, the words I speak, are the ones the Father gave me,’ and I just put my faith in the Father and I’m living the life He gave me.

“So how does Christ live in me? He lives in my flesh the way He lived in His own flesh, 2,000 years ago and faith is just the issue of depending. Whatever you depend on is going to control you.

“The Lord Jesus Christ, my friend, is most magnified, most exalted, when we’re satisfied in life with Him and He’s enough. All the other stuff, even if we lose everything else, we’ve got Him and we’re still ahead.

“Paul said, ‘For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.’ To live is to know Christ and to die is gain because now I just get more intimacy with Him. I’ve heard that word defined ‘in-to-me-see.’ That’s really what it is.

“More and more there’s the ability to see into Him, and Him to see into me, the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. In your life, when He is preferred above everything else, that’s how He’s cherished and demonstrated to be the treasure.

“When we’re satisfied with Christ, when we’re prizing Him, cherishing Him, treasuring Him as a prize, and His gain is our heart’s delight above all else, that’s what Paul means in Philippians 3:9 when he says, ‘[9] And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
[10] That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

“You notice ‘and be found in him,’ how that’s a passive voice? I’ve come to love the passives. The essence of life is not DOING! The essence of the Christian life is BEING, not doing! It’s who you are, not what you do.

“It’s who God has made you in His Son, and when that becomes the focus of your life, and you learn to just relax and enjoy life in the identity God has given you in Christ, rather than trying to do things and look over your shoulders and see if God’s happy with you, you’ll find yourself doing plenty. But it won’t be to gain something from God; it’ll just be because that’s who you ARE and that’s who people who ARE this, that’s the way they live.

*****

“When I had cancer several years ago, someone sent me an email saying, ‘You’ll never know if Christ is all you need until he’s all that you have and when He’s all that you have, then and only then, do you discover that Jesus is really all that you need.’

“If you don’t count all that you can do ‘but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ’ . . .  if you’ve never come to that point in your life and you’re still trusting something of yourself, can I tell you that’s a dead-end road?

“Maybe you haven’t learned that yet, but when you do learn it, can I tell you it’s a dead-end road, and when you really do do what the Psalmist said (‘I came to the end of myself’) can I tell you there’s one standing there at the end of your rope who is the answer.

“You go bloody your nose to learn, ‘It ain’t me.’ Whatever it is you hope to rely upon, whatever it is you hope to cling to, whether it’s in yourself, if you’d be honest enough in your own self to know you can’t trust yourself . . .

“We put the bravado on, but in your heart of hearts you know yourself. We kick at the slats, we don’t like to believe that, but the grace of God is only available when all of our resources are gone. You’ll never do it until you come to the end of yourself.

“Compared to everything else, He is the one who really is the treasure of your life. God help us to let that be the reality. Instead of screaming and hollering that, ‘But I’m going to lose it all,’ just say, ‘You know what, I’m really FINDING the real source of life.’ Paul said, ‘For me, Christ is gain. I just want to be found in Him, not having my own righteousness.' That old song says, ‘Oh, how I love Jesus because He first loved me.’ ”