What Time is It?

What Time is It?

So much unrest.

What did Jesus have in mind when He said “Nation shall rise against nation”? The Greek word for nation is: ethnos; Strong’s number: 1484. Ethnos can mean nation; it is also the word for ethnic groups.

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“Ethnos against ethnos.”

It is what we see in the Middle East between Israel and the Palestinians; the Pakistani against the Indian; and so forth. We see it here in the US too.

My spirit is stirred,

but so is my flesh.

What time is it? No, don’t look at your watch, rather look at the day, the tensions, and the climate in our country and around the world. What time is it? Remember how fast everything shut down over Covid-19 just a couple month ago? All of which now—in a day—has been literally swept aside for a new conversation. What happened to the FBI investigations? The impeachment(s)? Wave after wave is crashing against the shore of humanity.

How are we responding? 

Are we responding:

in the spirit

or

in the flesh?

It cannot be both.

This is a critical time in our country. It is a critical time for the church in our country. The church, I’m sure, should not go back to business as usual—both the Sunday gatherings and individuals who are the church. We must stop living according to the flesh and live by the Spirit of God within us. Ethnos against ethnos is living according to the flesh. The Bible says in Galatians 5:

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

Galatians 5:16-17

This may be common language to those who read this blog, but really, how many people who go to church or who would call themselves a Christian think in these terms: flesh verses spirit?

I think very few.

Before the Throne of God is every ethnos.

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation (ethnos), from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” Revelation 7:9-10

On the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2) God’s Spirit brought all nations together under the banner of His new people called The Church. This would be fully realized later in Acts by Peter. Peter encountered God’s plan through a vision. He saw God’s inclusiveness of all people through Jesus Christ (Acts 10).

As goes the church so goes society. We are the gatekeepers—the watchmen—to society. Remember the “If My people would…” Well, it’s true. We, the church, must—must—talk to God (humble ourselves and pray) and stop living by the flesh (turn from our wicked ways). God is the only One wo can heal our land.

When God is removed through disbelief and/or ignored due to worldliness and carnality what is left to take His place?

My dear friend,

chaos.


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Pre-tribulation Rapture Eschatology?

Pre-tribulation Rapture Eschatology?

Years ago I was in a Bible Study discussing the Book of Revelation. Our teacher was a hardcore Pretrib rapturist. His eschatology, along with every other Pretrib rapturist I have met, believe that there are two foundational reasons for their Pretrib belief:

1.   The “He” in 2 Thessalonians 2:7¹ is the Holy Spirit and when He is taken out of the way (removed from the earth) that He takes the whole Church along with Him. The Church and the Holy Spirit are no longer on the earth. Therefore sin and evil run rampant due to the void left on the earth when both the Church and the Holy Spirit are no longer on the earth.

¹For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way.

2 Thessalonians 2:7

2.   The Church (God’s people) are not appointed to wrath² and therefore are not present when the wrath of God is revealed in the Book of Revelation during the Tribulation.

²For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ… 1 Thessalonians 5:9

There is a problem.

Pretrib rapturists also believe that during the Tribulation many people will come to Christ. They believe that the unsaved, after witnessing the rapture, will be convinced about the truth of Jesus. This will lead to a great ingathering. They conclude these people are the martyrs who are under the alter asking:

“How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” Verse 11 continues: Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed. Revelation 6:10-11

Furthermore, they believe that during the Tribulation all Israel will be saved—the rapture of the church also leads to Israel’s salvation. Romans 11:25-26 states that all of Israel will be saved after the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

The problem continues:

To reiterate 1 above: Pretribulation rapturists believe that the Holy Spirit removes the Church when He Himself is “taken out of the way,” leaving a void for the most pronounced evil to run rampant upon the earth. If the Holy Spirit is removed “taken out of the way” from the earth, how will people get saved? It takes the Holy Spirit for someone to become born-again. Jesus is the threshold, but the Holy Spirit is the means to rebirth—one receives Jesus and the Holy Spirit comes into them, regenerates them making them a new creation in Christ.

So again I ask: If the Holy Spirit is gone, how will anyone become a Christian? Furthermore, if someone did become a Christian, the church would again be on the earth. The church is anywhere a Christian is, therefore if someone receives Christ the church again exists on the earth.

Food for thought.

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It's About Covenants

It's About Covenants

Confusion runs rampant within Christendom concerning the New Testament versus the Old Testament. Just the other day a man was over to do some plumbing at our house. Years ago I decided that whoever came to my house was going to hear the Gospel. As we discussed the Bible, he voiced his problems between the God of the OT versus the God of the NT. I shared with him how God is a God of covenants. The OT is mainly God’s dealing with the nation of Israel and the Covenant He had with them. The NT is the Covenant God made with all mankind through His Son, Jesus. God’s covenants dictate His dealings with mankind during the time of the current covenant.

The NT is clear that the New Covenant is in the Blood of Jesus Christ. All Christians would agree. In fact, to disagree means you are not a Christian. The Blood is central. Blood is a very deep subject from Genesis onward. However, Hebrews 10 clarifies the sacrifices under the OC (Old Covenant) compared to the Blood of Jesus Christ, establishing the NC (New Covenant).

7 “Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come — In the volume of the book it is written of Me — To do Your will, O God.’” 8 Previously saying, “Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them” (which are offered according to the law), 9 then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.” He takes away the first that He may establish the second. 10 By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Hebrews 10:7-10

As I explained the difference between covenants, the lights went on. For the first time he saw God as a God of covenant.

Why do so many Christians stand in the NC, while fearfully reaching back and grasping parts from the OC? I think many, if not most, do not know how to handle the Old versus the New.

Currently I am reading through Acts. In Acts 15 we find that these Christians were also confused over the role the Old Covenant Scriptures had in NT living. In fact, they, the apostolic leaders, had to have deep discussion about it. Acts 15:1 begins the chapter with: 

And certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” 

This caused a great dispute between these men from Judea and Paul and Barnabas. They decided to send a group to Jerusalem, to the apostles and elders, about this question (Acts 15:2). (In Acts 14 many Gentiles had become Believers in Jesus Christ.)

When they arrived in Jerusalem, verse 4 continues:

… they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders; and they reported all things that God had done with them. 5 But some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up, saying, "It is necessary to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.”

They again considered the Gentiles regarding the Law of Moses, specifically about circumcision. Verse 7 says there was much dispute among them as they discussed the subject. Peter finally rose up and said:

“So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, 9 and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.” Acts 15:8-9

He continues by emphasizing that no one has been able to keep the Law and furthermore, trying to mix Old and New is putting God to the test (:10). The apostles discussed in detail the wonderful things God was doing among the Gentiles and concluded this “apostolic session” by writing a letter stating:

(:24) Since we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words, unsettling your souls, saying, “You must be circumcised and keep the law” — to whom we gave no such commandment — … (:28) For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: 29 that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.

Interestingly, in Acts 16 Paul circumcises Timothy (Timothy was the son of a Jewish mother and Greek father.) before he takes him into ministry with him, because of the Jews. This coincides with 1 Corinthians 9 where Paul says that he became all things to all men so that by any means possible he might save some. Here Timothy became like a Jew, taking away any offense to the Jews by becoming circumcised. This had nothing to do with justification through circumcision.

1 Timothy 1:8 states that law is good if one uses it lawfully. The law’s intent was never to make mankind right before God, indeed it could not. And as stated above, God never took delight in sacrifices (Hebrews 10). All this was but a shadow of things to come, namely Christ.

All of the OT pointed to Christ! From Colossians 2:

13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us [OT], which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. [The OT Law was nailed to the Cross with Christ.] 15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, [All these are OC requirements.] 17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ. 18 Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, 19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.

Colossians 2 is vital to understanding the OC and its death upon the Cross with Christ. (You might want to read it again.)

The OT law was nailed to the Cross and died with Him there. People are justified freely apart from works through faith in Christ Jesus.

Romans 10:4 also clearly exemplifies this: For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

Do we not yet understand?

In Christ alone!


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A Significant Dream

A Significant Dream

This is a dream George, my husband, had on April 21, 2020. 

I [George] guess I am getting old because I never used to remember my dreams.  I still don’t dream much and only remember one once every several months and almost all have no significance, but last night was something different.

As the dream started, suddenly I was swept into a familiar setting, a Local Church I used to attend.  At once, I felt nostalgia, but then I also noticed some differences.  The decorations of the Church were very intentional and had nothing to do with Christian trappings.  In fact, they seemed to be geared to what is probably a large segment of that community which was a rustic western theme.  Anyone who knows me knows I do not typically care about decorations, but these were so different than when I was there before and so striking that it was jarring enough for me to remember this detail when I woke up.

Next, I was minding my own business and a Woman approached me.  I knew her but she was “generic.”  This was perplexing to me.  I later prayed about this and I believe Holy Spirit showed me that this was a representation of THE WOMAN, THE BRIDE.  When I got this revelation, I decided I needed to write this down immediately.  She told me that she could not preach today and said that I should fill in.  I was shocked.  Why me?  I mean I had not been here for a long time.  Maybe I was a leader there 25-30 years ago, but why me now?  She gave me some notes.  They were discombobulated and the message that she said to convey was just confusing and incomprehensible.  So after she walked away I looked at some of the scriptures she had listed and they were about “love,” but were taken out of context and applied to society in general, where the context of the scriptures were about love for God directly.

So, the pressure was on, the people were assembled, and I had to say something.  Fortunately, or unfortunately, a man got up and went on for what seemed like an hour listing all the programs the Church had going on that week or month or whatever.  As he was going thru his materials, I saw a scripture she had listed in Ephesians 3, which in part states that we are to be rooted and grounded in love.  I then remembered Revelation 2 where Ephesus is rebuked for having forgot their first love. 

When it was time to stand, I preached to this Church and proclaimed that they had lost their first love.  I commended them on how they discerned and rooted out false teachers (which this Church did in real life).  I commended them on how they try to serve the community, but I had to say with tears in my eyes (something else I do not do very often) that they had lost their first love.  I reminded them what it was like when they were first saved.  I reminded many of how they could not wait to read the Bible or talk to their friends about Jesus and how they worshiped and prayed.   The prescription is to remember and do the deeds that you did at first.  They at first had a communal relationship with God.  He was with them and led them by the hand, but now they had become cold and ritualistic responding with works to the community with minimal impact.  They were trying to make their gatherings geared to the community, but marginalized God in the process.  In their lives, there was little to no prayer or true worship and Bible reading was a drudgery. Even though they were not weary, compromise had seeped in and was undermining all the good that was once done.

Oh, the mighty Ephesus Church, founded by Paul, the Apostle, and once pastored by no less than Timothy and the Apostle John doing works and out in the community.  Trying to be a light to mankind, a leading Church, raising a standard, and yet utterly ineffective and in danger of losing the very light they try to be.  The only answer is to repent, remember, and redo what you once did!  If you go to Ephesus today, what is there but ruin?

So, after all this, when I woke up, I asked what was all this about?  Why so vivid where I could remember actual faces of actual people (people I chose not to mention here)? And that generic woman that is familiar, not anyone and yet everyone. 

The answer is there are multitudes of people in the Church of Ephesus.  What nature and the devil mean for harm, God can use for good.  Use this down time to pray, reflect and take inventory of where you really are with God.  Read Revelation 2-3 and ask the Holy Spirit to help you see.  Why Ephesus?  It’s because it is where I live and where millions of other American Christians live, but there are six other Churches.  To him/her that overcomes God will grant you to eat of the Tree of Life in the Paradise of God!  Eternal rewards are real and coupled with a true love for God, will cause you to do things and go further than self-will or religious discipline ever can.

Which Church do you go to?  I believe it is no accident there are seven listed, as seven is the number of completeness.  Is it Philadelphia or Smyrna who received no such rebuke?  Even if that’s your “Church,” there are still things you need to do.  Or it could be Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, or Laodicea; churches that are really messed up, but even now, there is a reward for those that repent and overcome. 

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.


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The Revealing

The Revealing

In a recent blog I wrote about the revealing of the person taking place through the coronavirus (C-19). Here are three points to further discuss:

1.   How C-19 surfaces and reveals what is hidden.

2.   After the reset, what remains?

3.   God’s enemies taking advantage of the instability in the world.

When you bump a glass whatever is inside comes out. We see this happening all over society, in governments, in the world, and in individuals. We are seeing the best and the worst surface in people. We see hording, fear, manipulations, and we see kindness, giving, reassurances, hope, and love. 

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Roots are bringing forth their fruit.

Hebrews 10: 24 says that we are to consider one another in order to stir up love and good works. Most of us really cannot effect world events (except as we agree with God and pray according to His will), but we can stir up those in our circle. Let me encourage you to stop for a moment what you are doing, ask God who needs a phone call. Ask the Holy Spirit to use you to encourage that person, then give them a call. Pretty easy, right?

Now let's move on to 2 and 3: 

After the reset, what remains? There is reset happening in many—most—parts of the world right now. In our country alone it's as if puzzle pieces have been thrown up in the air. How the pieces fit together when they land is up to the church. We can, as the church, stop the enemies of God from taking advantage through the instability in the world. We need to hear the Holy Spirit and then agree with Him in prayer. Previously misfit puzzle pieces need rearranging, while others, which are properly placed, could end up manipulated by the enemies of God. When we pray we have an audience with the King of Kings. He invites us to partner with Him through prayer as He rules and reigns. What an incredible invitation.

I have often thought about what Satan was up to after he tried to temp Jesus in the desert. There are some references of both Jesus’ and the disciples’ encounters with demons, but not about Satan himself. So what was he up to? My belief is that he was community organizing. He community organizes by influencing the minds of the human race. I also believe this is the purpose of the principalities and powers who are assigned to cities, governments, and nations. (As an example see Ezekiel 28 concerning the prince of Tyre.) Areas, large and small, seem to have groupthink and personalities of their own. Satan’s focus was to stop Messiah and His Kingdom come, which would mean his overthrow and imprisonment (Revelation 20). (I doubt Satan knew the plan of God otherwise he would not have killed Jesus.) Furthermore, I believe Satan always has a man ready to rule the world, since he does not know the time of or the events that will lead up to of Christ’s return. He therefore must always have his man ready to usher in the one-world-government (Revelation 13). There are two men who will have a one-world-government: the anti-christ during the tribulation and Jesus during the Millennial Age. 

Is it time for that man of sin to rise (2 Thessalonians 2:3)? I have no idea. But what I do know is that the enemy and his people will take advantage of every opportunity we, the church, allow them to. We want the puzzle to reflect the picture God has in mind when all the pieces land. And that is likely up to us.

Let’s stand in the gap for the world.

Let’s be the kind of people God can tell His secrets to.

Then, let’s talk to God about those secrets.

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Prophetic Lesson: Stalks of Corn

Prophetic Lesson

Sometimes things are just not as they appear at first glance. We need revelation from the Holy Spirit!

The other night I had a spiritual dream.

Photo: niklas_hamann on Unsplash

It was an undefined void I found myself standing in. As I glanced over to the side, there was a greenhouse filled with luxuriant plants and radiant colored flowers. The stocks of corn were so unseasonably large that they nearly blocked the other plants from sight. As I viewed the thriving plants within the greenhouse I felt like I had been living in deception.

Sadness gripped me in the morning as I considered the dream. I thought I was doing well spiritually, but I had to come face-to-face with the realization that maybe I wasn’t ok. Someone else had planned ahead and their growing had far surpassed mine. I was behind spiritually.

Later in the day I went into my closet—literally my closet—to pray. In my closet I keep a folding chair and a small light for prayer time. The darkness and seclusion is just the right ambiance to help me focus. After I had my prayer time and was getting ready to leave, I felt the Lord nudge me to stay just a little longer.

This time, as I sat in His Presence, He initiated the conversation. “Take another look at the corn,” He said. As I glanced again at the stocks, still vivid in my mind, I was startled; they really weren’t stocks of corn after all. They were some sort of bizarre mutant plant masquerading as corn. They didn’t have ears either, which they should have had for their size. 

Photo: Waldemar Brandt on Unsplash

The plants weren’t corn and they had no fruit!

Now my dream became clear. But had I not entered my closet, I would possibly never had understood it correctly. My mindset would have continued that I was behind in my walk with the Lord, I wasn’t really pleasing Him, and I wasn’t where I should be spiritually. 

A few insights from this dream:

Often we are comparing ourselves with something that isn’t real—at least the way we are evaluating it isn’t real.

If we compare ourselves with another person the Bible says we are not wise.  

Unless the Lord brings illumination we don’t see it accurately.

We, the body of Christ, need the gift of discerning of spirits. (Note that it is not the gift of discernment—it is the gift of discerning of spirits, whether human spirit, demon spirit, angelic spirit, or Holy Spirit.)

There are impostors in the church. The Bible talks about them in many places (2 Peter 2). We must be willing and bold enough to call things as they are. Love does not blanket everything in niceties.

Only staying close to the Holy Spirit will enable us to live in such a way that we don’t buy into mutant masqueraders of light, but are in reality quite dark.

We must pray, people of God!

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Revelation of the Heart

Revelation of the Heart

Today is likely a good indicator of your relationship with the Lord. Are you fearful today? Has fear of contacting the COVID-19 (C-19) virus paralyzed you? Or how about the plummeting economy, has that fear found a seat in your soul?

Or are you confident in Him?

Many scriptures reveal the heart of a person who trusts in the Lord. Here are some of my favorites:

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Isaiah 26:3

Those who trust in the LORD Are like Mount Zion, Which cannot be moved, but abides forever. Psalm 125:1

And then there is Psalm 91. A most beloved psalm. As you read through this psalm, consider that these promises are to those who dwell in the shelter of the Most High and abide in the shadow of the Almighty. Excerpts from Psalm 91:

1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High Will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. 2 I will say to the LORD, "My refuge and my fortress, My God, in whom I trust!"

3 For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper And from the deadly pestilence. 4 He will cover you with His pinions, And under His wings you may seek refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark. 5 You will not be afraid of the terror by night, Or of the arrow that flies by day; 6 Of the pestilence that stalks in darkness, Or of the destruction that lays waste at noon. 7 A thousand may fall at your side And ten thousand at your right hand, [But] it shall not approach you. 8 You will only look on with your eyes And see the recompense of the wicked.

9 For you have made the LORD, my refuge, [Even] the Most High, your dwelling place. 10 No evil will befall you, Nor will any plague come near your tent. 11 For He will give His angels charge concerning you, To guard you in all your ways. 12 They will bear you up in their hands, That you do not strike your foot against a stone. 13 You will tread upon the lion and cobra, The young lion and the serpent you will trample down.

14 “Because he has loved Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him [securely] on high, because he has known My name. 15 “He will call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. 16 With a long life I will satisfy him And let him see My salvation.”

Way back in the 1990s a man gave a prophecy about a leveling earthquake that would hit Portland, Oregon. He had many confirmations; the warnings rang out. Many people left the area. I called a friend who was recognized as a prophet in the Abbott Loop Family of churches. His answer was that God hadn’t told him about an earthquake. He assured me that God wasn’t required to tell him either. He further said that since the Bible says there will be famines and earthquakes in many places, and that hardships will come, and because of the clear warning in the Bible, he and his family had a storage of necessities for both his family and another family for two months. This is wisdom.

About a week ago, I believe the Holy Spirit spoke this to me concerning prayer.

The prayer that was initiated by President Trump on March 15, the National Day of Prayer, is to continue. It is to continue by Christians calling friends and family to pray. Short voice to voice prayers for our country, wisdom for our president and medical experts, for God to intervene and stop the Corona-virus, stabilize the world economy, and protection for our families and friends and the people throughout the world. I saw these as short 30 seconds to 2 minute prayers. It is a two-fold plan from God. First, we know God hears our prayers and that if we would pray God would answer. Secondly, this would also initiate communication between God’s people during the isolation many will feel during this time.

Please consider picking up your phone to call others for prayer. I don’t believe this has to be phone calls, face-time works and so do other means of voice communication. The point is to reach out, pray together, and communicate with your voice and not just a text. I have made some calls and every time there were tears and deep appreciation. So many people are lonely. So many needs, and not just due to C-19.

C-19 has revealed us on so many levels. It has laid out our hearts in full view to ourselves mostly. God already knows us, but we easily deceive ourselves. Trusting God is a choice. Choose the right thoughts and your emotions will follow. Again Isaiah 26:3 You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. God is already on the other side of C-19. He knows how to protect us. He is looking for our trust.

Who are you today?

What has C-19 revealed about you?

Do you trust God or are you living in fear and “hordation”?

Choose trusting God. 

And take some time today to talk to God and to others.

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