Genesis 3:1
“Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’”
“The serpent said to the woman, “YOU SURELY WILL NOT DIE! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil!”
(Notice that the Serpent directly and deliberately contradicted God’s Living Word and injected his violation of God’s True Authority into the receptive woman’s mind. There’s no other way to say this: The Serpent called God’s Living Word a liar… and Eve believed him.)
Beloved Family… note the way by which the satanic intruder drove a huge wedge into Eve’s heart that separated her from the One True Source who had created her, and also all the rest of Creation! Before this happened, the first two humans only had God’s Word as their source of revelation and government and reassurance that all of their needs would be met. So the Word of God was their sole Source of Life and Provision and Protection. Thus they had only one God that they were able to know and love and rely upon with all of their heart, soul, strength and might. And thus, they were equipped and able to serve as God’s Image and likeness.
But after the Serpent injected his enormous Lie into their minds and hearts, their spiritual connection with God was severed, and their pristine Beauty, Truth and Wellbeing were horribly contaminated and fatally corrupted. Now, they were trapped in the delusion that it was possible for every created thing under the sun to begin to serve as a possible source, upon which they could focus and into which they could place their hope and trust!
But yet, even after Eve and Adam did what they did, God’s Word faithfully continued to supply their every remaining breath, heartbeat and brainwave! Even though Death had entered their spirits, souls and bodies as soon as they rejected Him in favor of His demonic rival, nevertheless, in His Everlasting Lovingkindness, God and His Word did not abandon or forsake them. The Lord remained with them to do whatever would be needed to reconcile with them and bring them back to Him and to the original union they were created to have with Him. He kept them in existence and imparted as much Grace to them as the damage that Sin inflicted on them would allow. They continued to receive the ability to be able to experience God’s ongoing care and concern for them, and they remained covered by His everlasting Lovingkindness.
The Lie of Self-Determination
The first man and woman had, in fact, committed suicide as soon as they cut themselves away from their Life Source! Immediately after that, Death entered into their nature, and they passed that to all of their offspring. And had it not been for God’s Torah, we would know nothing about that ancient disaster and the condemnation of Sin and its death sentence that we all inherited at conception. We’d only know that the death of our bodies is inevitable, but we’d have no real understanding about why that has to be so; nor would we know what God has already done to redeem and save and restore us to being able to share in His Life and to serve again as His image and likeness. Nor would we be aware of the demonic rebellion that still remains part of our fallen nature and that continues to instinctively twist us in the direction of being radically independent from our Creator and Sustainer. And so that ignorance concerning the true Living God would ensure that we would naturally strive to do everything, not according to God and His Word, but according to the way we perceive things and as we think best, on our own self-determined terms.
So now, we know and encounter many people who think and live in that radically independent, self-adoring way. They may appear to us to be wonderful and excellent in many ways. They may be likable and endearing and talented and very capable in the ways of this world. Nevertheless, because they embrace the Serpent’s Lie that makes them believe that they have an innate right to live as independent, autonomous, self-determining agents, they are worshipping themselves in their heart of hearts and are thus light years removed from the Eternal Reality of the One True God. Because they’re spiritually severed from their True Source, they exist in a state of living death, a slow inevitable death. And because God is not on their ‘menu of options’, they can only regard other created beings and things as sources for provision, protection and fulfillment. In other words, they exalt other created things as substitutes for the one True Living God. They place such things in the highest place of their heart and soul. And that is why most of this fallen world ignores, derides and holds in contempt the Lord who created and continues to sustain them. Thus they grossly violate their Creator’s Perfect Standards of Righteousness, Truth, Order and Justice. And they remain under the condemnation and Death sentence that Adam and Eve passed on to us all. But God never gives up on us.
Ezekiel 34:11-16
“For thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out. As a shepherd cares for his herd in the day when he is among his scattered sheep, so I will care for My sheep and will deliver them from all the places to which they were scattered on a cloudy and gloomy day. I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and bring them to their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the streams, and in all the inhabited places of the land. I will feed them in a good pasture, and their grazing ground will be on the mountain heights of Israel. There they will lie down on good grazing ground and feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I will feed My flock and I will lead them to rest,” declares the Lord God. “I will seek the lost, bring back the scattered, bind up the broken and strengthen the sick; but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with Judgment.”
Deuteronomy 6:4-5
“Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God; the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with ALL your heart and with ALL your soul and with ALL your might!” (Emphasis added.)
The Truth is this: God receives enormous contempt, hostility and resistance from the humans that He loves and cares for so much. So instead of being His image and likeness by nature, our Sin-twisted tendencies take us in directions that enable us to reject and avoid Him! It’s actually natural for us humans to serve as the Serpent’s image and likeness! Our innate spiritual deafness and blindness make defiant rebels of us. And that makes it necessary for God to honor the free will He gave us, even if what we choose leads to our eternal perdition! But yet, because He loves and values us so highly, He never stops trying to get through to our Sin-hardened hearts and to gain our attention and cooperation so we can wake up and turn to Him and He can be legally free to save, cleanse and restore us to Himself… and allow us to share in His Eternal Life.
But because most of us refuse to acknowledge God and His Reality, we refuse to admit that we desperately need Him to redeem, save and regenerate us. So we willfully choose to remain in our inherited state of living Death. But God never stops trying to set us free from our Sin-murdered selves so that He can restore to us the ability and legal right to share in His Eternal Life. As psalm 136 says repeatedly, “His Lovingkindness is everlasting!”
Revelation 3:15-22
“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, I advise you to buy from Me Gold refined by Fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My Throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His Throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches!’” (Emphasis added.)
The virus that drives people to be radically independent of God has scrambled and reconfigured all of the original wisdom, discernment and mental sharpness that God originally imparted to Adam and Eve. So we humans, who are their offspring, are conceived with a lethal filter or veil that covers our spiritual ‘eyes’ and deeply skews and beclouds the way in which we perceive ‘reality’ and the way we habitually arrive at our judgments and conclusions. Now the human race is dysfunctional, maliciously selfish, predatory and self destructive beyond comprehension! And despite the many good intentions we believe we have, we continually produce results that are deeply flawed and deficient, thus we inflict devastating damage on ourselves, and on anyone who might be close to us!
To us, Evil appears to be desirable and good; but what truly is Good… appears to be Evil and deadly, and is to be avoided at all costs! So we continue to run and hide from our One True Source and Sustainer, just the way our first parents did. And thus, to this day, most of the members of the human race continue to deprive themselves of everything that is Eternally Real, True, and Good!
Beloved friends, please do not underestimate the advantage the powers of Darkness have over us. Even before our first parents fell, even while they were still in the beautiful pristine condition God had bestowed upon them… the Serpent’s ‘bait’ appeared to be irresistibly beautiful, real, and compelling! Even before Death devastated their God-given nature, they were unable to see through the Serpent’s scam and recognize his Lie for what it actually was! That’s why they swallowed it so eagerly! The ‘you can be as God Lie’ the Serpent put before them appeared to offer a wonderful and beautiful new possibility. And he made it seem to be utterly true and convincing and compelling in its appeal!
And that reveals the enormous advantage and superiority in intelligence the powers of Darkness have over fallen human beings. That is what makes it so easy for Satan to captivate and manipulate us into serving his deadly purposes. Despite how convincing he seems to be as he tries to make us think that he’s on our side, trying to do us a favor by letting us in on the ‘real truth,’ His cleverly disguised Lie actually kills the human spirit… and severely disfigures and twists the soul… and inflicts severe and lethal damage upon the makeup of anyone who falls for it! Nevertheless, despite the universal carnage the Serpent has inflicted upon us, we naive and spiritually blind humans continue to believe that the Sin bait he dangles in front of our noses is good and irresistibly alluring and wonderfully desirable:
Genesis 3:1-7
“When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. THEN (when it was too late, and the fatal damage had already been done to them) the eyes of both of them were opened, and THEY KNEW THAT THEY WERE NAKED; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.”
Dear ones… this is the satanic bait that lies at the heart of every temptation. There is so much revealed Truth packed into those seven verses from Genesis 3 that it makes my head spin! The deadly war that the Serpent decided to wage against God’s Living Word, and the damage he was able to inflict on the human race that God had designed and created to serve as the image and likeness of His Living Word, is still raging all around us, at this very moment! The destructive results that Sin and Death inflicted on our first parents continue to ravage us all, generation after generation!
This ‘you can be as God’ Lie has given rise to the false religion of Humanism… the idolatrous worship of Self that keeps producing the furiously defiant Anti-God rage and deluded self-destructive impulses that always simmer and boil deep within every human heart. Our race is a doomed conglomerate of ‘living dead’ people that are getting ever closer to their eternal perdition! Humans keep assuming that they’re doing very well and are about to gain total victory, prosperity and satisfaction, thanks to their own efforts, wits and devices! And so God keeps sending His Living Word and Holy Spirit to seek them and wake them out of their trances and summon them out of their hiding places. He yearns to show them the folly of their ways, so that they can finally come to Him for Salvation and Full Restoration while there is still time for them to receive His Grace and Mercy.
But, now the Story of God and Man is fast approaching its ultimate conclusion. We’ve entered the era of the Last Days climactic resolution of human history… that bitter War between God’s Living Word and the Father of Lies is about to reach the zenith, the highest level of its lethal intensity! And that enormous increase in the strife, enmity, rage, and murderous destructive intent on the part of so many among us will be the very thing that will present the Lord’s disciples with enormous unprecedented opportunities to serve and assist God in His quest to save the people of this fallen world. He will deliver and save unprecedented numbers of the confused, disillusioned and terrified people of the Last Days, who will become appalled at the chaos, rage, hatred and destruction they will see ravaging whatever may be in sight all around them!
Even the most worldly, self-adoring people of our generation can now begin to see that no matter how hard we try to fix ourselves and improve our lot… nothing we try to do even comes close to ‘working.’ The more we educate ourselves the crazier and more out of control we become! The more we religiously resolve to be and do better, the more like bulls in a china shop we continue to be! And because of this chronic failure… we are being forced to see that Man is bankrupt and utterly incapable of self-determination! So Humanism is being exposed for the demonic fraud that it actually is! This is why so many are becoming disillusioned and frustrated and angry and disappointed. This is why so many are filled with dread and fear and uncertainty. Confusion has replaced their former arrogance and the false assumptions they once entertained that they could do no wrong and would never fail, are crumbling and blowing away in the winds of change. The world is failing with unspeakable rapidity and inevitability… and more and more people are realizing it and do not have any clue about what they can do to find real answers and hope and relief.
And that presents the perfect opportunity that God is creating and laying before those of us who are disciples of God’s beloved Son! Scripture is revealing, by profound implication, that we Last Days disciples will have optimum conditions and opportunities to understand the times and understand what is happening and why. And the Holy Spirit will anoint and equip and motivate us to reach out to comfort and reassure the terrified people around us. Finally we’ll be be able to explain God’s Truth to them, despite their habitual hardness of heart and penchant for Sin. Unspeakable tribulation will force hardened human hearts to become humble and be softened and broken and made to be compliant, teachable, and cooperative. And God’s Light will fill His servants and cause them to stand out like bright beacons, shining in the midst of total Darkness! And as the frightened, bewildered, disoriented people see their world being shaken and disintegrating and collapsing, they’ll begin to look in desperation for some kind of haven… an oasis, a place of safety and relief. And they’ll begin to notice the reassuring Heavenly Light that will be emanating from the disciples around them. And their desperation will soften and humble and open up their hearts. And they will listen, and take God’s Word to heart, and repent of their Self-life ways.
The Reality of the Resurrection
So the task of ‘spreading the Gospel of Salvation’ is going to become very easy for us to impart and discuss. People will see, by the actual living demonstration and supernatural proof that God’s risen Word will display from within His disciples, that our Lord truly did rise from the dead and is actively present in our midst. And the Gospel that the Spirit’s anointing will energize us to proclaim will fill and surround us with so much eagerness, joy and gratitude… that Yeshua’s Perfect Presence will begin to touch myriads of people in stunningly evident and electrifyingly REAL ways! And then our Heavenly Father’s Covenant Family will begin to increase with mind-blowing rapidity and the number of those that will be saved will greatly increase!
And, just as that turbulent Climax reaches its highest, most intense point… THEN… the Living Word of God will finally return to Earth for His Ultimate Takeover. And after that, all human flesh will be forced to give an accounting to God for everything we have thought and chosen and done and failed to do… in relation to the Living and written Scriptures that revealed God and His ways, to us. God Himself will judge each human heart and span of existence in this world. No one will get away with anything. And God’s Perfect and Righteous Judgment will make everything to be right once again. Every debt will be paid in full. Either we will remain liable for our bankruptcy and our inability to pay our debts by insisting on remaining rebellious and independent and guilty. Or, if we admit the truth of what we are and repent, and look to God’s beloved Son, the Living Word made flesh to redeem our debt and save us from ourselves… then… by the Perfect Finished Work of the Word of God… the Lamb of God will cover and redeem and fully restore us to God’s Good Graces!
And then each of these two groups, the saved, and the lost, will enter eternity. One group will enjoy the benefits of their obedient faith in God/ But the other will face the endless desolation that their rebellion, when it is fully unleashed at the End, will finally be free to inflict upon them.
So dear ones, at this current and utterly serious stage of human history, none of what we’re discussing is mere theory. We will soon see for ourselves that everything God has revealed, commanded and promised in His written Word is actual Eternal Truth! And all flesh and all of Creation will see and experience Almighty God’s Truth for what it really is. What was prophesied long ago is now in the process of being completely fulfilled! And the Fruit of that Fulfillment is now beginning to clearly manifest itself and play itself out on every level of our existence. The Fruit of what God’s Word will produce will be seen in one of the two human races that cover the earth. And when that becomes fully obvious and apparent, God’s awesome Truth will become utterly inescapable as its reach and scope and ability to penetrate into human lives and hearts continues to reach ever higher, wider, farther, and deeper!
So look around… as this awesome Advance continues. Observe closely; look for the telltale signs that more and more people are no longer able to conceal. They are finally seeing and realizing what is really happening. And they’re feeling an unprecedented sense of ‘Homesickness.’ Many may still be trying to put up a good front… but despite how calm and cool they try to appear on the outside… on the inside, they are grieving and languishing because this fallen quickly disintegrating world and its systems have totally betrayed and disappointed them. They are being stripped completely of their former illusions and misunderstandings. So look more closely, and you will see the signs of their uncertainty and increasing depression and insecurity and hopelessness. It will be more and more difficult for more and more people to keep up their false bravado. We already see the truth of this in the ever-rising rate of suicide and the outrageous levels of self-destructive addictions… and the mindless, inane, shallow and distracting forms of ‘amusement’ – which is nothing more than desperate, mind-numbing, emotion-denying escapism.
We can see it in the chronic rage and frustration that continually boils just beneath the surface of many people. The rage of total frustration is spilling out uncontrollably in an increasing number of violent confrontations. And more and more people are insatiable in the terror they feel which fills them with lust for preeminence, control and power. So, beloved, as you observe all of this… I ask you to realize that these things are the very Opportunity that the Holy Spirit is setting before those of us who are called to be our beloved Lord’s disciples. There’s a huge Gateway of Opportunity opening up before us. It leads to a Last Days Harvest field that is packed full of fully ripened ‘fruit’ that is yearning and desperately waiting for the harvesters to arrive. Now it’s time for us to begin to gather the awesome yield that our Master’s suffering and Eternal Triumph has earned and is producing for us all, and deposit it safely into His ‘Heavenly Barn.’
Beloved friends, because of our Era of global shaking and insecurity, more and more people are waking up and becoming aware of the hypnotic lies that they have been fed. They are disheartened and disillusioned and cannot bring themselves to keep on embracing and living out what they now know to be utterly baseless and lacking in substance. They are now beginning to see through the fog and realize that they have been totally deceived and misled and abused!
So this is a D-Day hour for all of our Lord’s true disciples! And that’s what makes it an awesome and optimum opportunity for us to proclaim our Lord and Master to the world, by any means possible. I say this because, even though there are many who will despise and try to persecute and silence us, there will be many, many more who are wounded and bewildered and extremely needy. People all around us are beginning to realize what is happening and they are feeling the ever-increasing pressure that comes when you realize, and finally admit to yourself, that you are on a sinking ship and are about to go under!
Hebrews 12:25-29
“See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from Heaven. And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven.” This expression, “Yet once more,” denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we receive a Kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire.” (Emphasis added.)
At this time of unprecedented upheaval, people can no longer continue to try to kid themselves that ‘everything is going to be all right.’ So now fewer and fewer people are laughing at us and no longer will they continue to ignore and deride us as ‘bigoted crackpots.’ Now, because many are becoming profoundly shaken and unsettled, they are desperate for answers. They crave anything that might give them at least a shred of the hope and relief and peace and comfort that our intimate interactions with our risen Lord enable us to experience even in the midst of all the chaos that is going on around us!
So this is the time for us to provide the Feast that the Lord is to those who are His… and to lay it out and share it with them! The Truth of God, and the Living Reality it imparts, has not been part of the world’s list of ‘possible options;’ at least not until now. But the time has come for massive changes! The Holy Spirit is now getting myriads of people ready to consider what we have to offer. Now, it’s clear that their so-called ‘impregnable,’ ‘unsinkable Titanic’ is actually going down! And they’re desperately looking for some sort of buoyant ‘life raft’!
So, if we bring up the subject of Salvation and talk about the possibility of ‘safety and security,’ many, because of the peace, joy and rest they see emanating from us, will no longer scoff or resent what we have to tell them. Now they won’t see us as ‘bothersome pests.’ Instead, they’ll be drawn to envy and will gratefully open their hearts to hear what we’ve got to share… and gladly receive our help and support and guidance. The world is becoming increasingly desperate and God is getting it ready to listen to anyone who can shine with God’s Light in the Darkness… the way we disciples are equipped to do. Instinctively they will know that we know and have something that they desperately want and need. And we’ll have the privilege and honor of leading them directly into the arms of our Master… and He will carry them from there, all the way to His Heavenly Father’s Safe Haven!
John 14:1-6
“Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you, for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I AM, there you may be also. And you know the Way where I am going.” Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I AM THE WAY, and THE TRUTH, and THE LIFE! No one comes to the Father but through Me!” (Emphasis added.)
Dear ones… let this sink into your heart of hearts: The number of people that in the past have been enemies to God and His people… is quickly diminishing! The whole world is feeling enormous PRESSURE and UNCERTAINTY! So the number of desperate people that are grasping at straws, to try to survive, is increasing exponentially! Yes, the words of warning our Lord gave to His original apostles about the persecution they would encounter when the New Covenant was beginning, were absolutely true. BUT… look at what their efforts to obey His instructions were able to accomplish when they went out into the brutal, idolatrous Roman Empire to proclaim and demonstrate the Reality of the Resurrection Presence of the Living Word of God! The Light that was in them eventually overcame and destroyed the Darkness that surrounded them! In themselves, they were utterly weak and unsuited to change the world merely by talking about what God had given them to share. If that’s all they had to work with, the people that surrounded them would have, naturally speaking, been impossible to reach. But the disciples had a supernatural Ace up their sleeve that changed everything!
Matthew 10:16-23
“Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves. But beware of men, for they will hand you over to the courts and scourge you in their synagogues; and you will even be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles.
“But when they hand you over, do not worry about how or what you are to say; for it will be given you in that hour what you are to say. FOR IT IS NOT YOU WHO SPEAK, BUT IT IS THE SPIRIT OF YOUR FATHER WHO SPEAKS IN YOU.
“Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. You will be hated by all because of My Name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved. But whenever they persecute you in one city, flee to the next; for truly I say to you, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel until the Son of Man comes.” (Emphasis added.)
Dear ones, take note of what the Holy Spirit is telling us as we encounter this terrible increase in Last Days chaos and conflict. The Lord is reassuring us, letting us know that no matter how bad the Serpent may try to make things look, everything he says and does is nothing but a fog, a mist that has no true substance to support or back it up! Evil is based on a profound absence! The only foundation it has is made up of nothing but lies that constitute Unreality! Our demonic enemies have no real Truth to sustain and back up their malevolent efforts to deceive!
This was the way it was for Peter, James, John, Paul and the others, in the first century. The resistance they encountered appeared to be invincible! But somehow, the disciples remained faithful and strong and steadfast. They continued to multiply and spread out in all directions… and there was nothing that the false gods of their day that their human devotees invented for themselves, could do to stop Heaven’s Advance across this world! Despite what Roman emperors decreed, or what Roman legions were commanded to do, or what idolatrous Sin-loving activities the first century world was indulging in, nothing was able to stop the Advancing Invasion of God’s Living and written Word! The Roman Empire died long, long ago; but the Word of God LIVES FOREVER!
And so dear ones, if God’s Word was so effective in the beginning of the New Covenant process… how much more powerful and compelling and irresistible will the Holy Spirit cause Christ in us to become now? How much more will God work in us and through us and for us… as we prepare to fulfill the commissions He entrusted to us at the End of Days? Ponder the good news that I will paraphrase here. Our Master’s Truth as given to His disciples is embedded within. He told us in effect:
“When they hand you over, don’t worry about how you will control the situation. I don’t expect you to plot, scheme, control and manipulate anything! I’m ordering you to REST and REJOICE IN ME! Controlling and managing what will be going on will never be your concern. Not at all! I am the Lord of all Creation, the Living Word of God! I AM the One who is in charge of all things! I control and I judge over what exists and what does not. I am the one who disposes of what is evil and unreal! I have already done all of the work necessary for Creation’s Full Restoration! It is finished… and it is Perfect! I have already provided everything you will ever need! So abide in and with Me! Keep looking to Me! Expect My Father and the Holy Spirit and Me to be with you always! The Holy Spirit will exert God’s Omnipotent Power within you, at all times! And I will continually cover and protect and provide for you by My Absolute Authority! I AM the Lord that rules and reigns over all of Creation! What I open, no one can shut! And what I shut, no one can open! (See Revelation 3:7-13)
“So don’t obsess over what fallen men and women may do or say or threaten. All of that is only empty air! Stay focused upon Me. I am with you to take over in all things and on every level of the created universe! I am reclaiming for My Father, every situation and circumstance and reality in existence! Almighty God will speak and act from within your yielded, resting, and Peace-filled flesh! God’s Spirit is in you to make Me Real, and Alive, and Infinitely Productive within you! And through you, I can become flesh and work on the Earth once again. Yes, this time I will be doing it from within you and your situations and interactions! I AM here to be your Life… and you must think and act as one with Me, and serve as My living revelation and manifestation before the eyes of the panic-stricken people of this world. The world is, even now, being so shaken… that, in the End, only what is Eternally of God will remain standing! And that is the Rock upon which I have placed you…
“So rejoice… Wherever you go, and in the midst of whatever may happen. God’s awesome Presence will fill you and serve as the Power and Authority that will emanate from you. And what I have reserved for you in Heaven will soon begin to descend upon you. Until then, I will preside at all times… while you wait upon God and rest in His Absolute Perfection, and give expression to My Father’s Voice. God’s internal promptings and Eternal Initiative will become evident in and through your obedient faith! So follow Me into the Fullness of this Glory. I will lead you into the Totality of what My Father has planned for you to be and to do on Earth, in My Name!”
And so dear friends, let us respond to all of this in the same spirit that the Holy Spirit taught to us through David:
Psalm 23
“The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want! He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I FEAR NO EVIL, FOR YOU ARE WITH ME! Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever!” (Emphasis added.)
Dear ones… if there was ever a human that had to personally experience satanic temptations and demonic opposition and humanly impossible spiritual, mental, physical and emotional opposition, it was David! Scripture reveals all of his major flaws and character fault lines in his personal makeup. But it also reveals his military-level intensity of focus! He always kept his Spirit-given spiritual eyes upon His Covenant God, regardless of his personal failures and dire circumstances! He always followed the same ‘Marching Orders’ we’ve been given to follow! And God blessed and protected him for doing that. That’s why David was able to maintain that disciple-level, utterly fixed and determined mental and emotional spiritual sense of direction. And that focus enabled him to keep his heart’s concentration rooted deeply into the Presence of his Divine Blood Covenant Friend, and it enabled him to actually experience deeply the awesome Favor of the Living God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob!
Better than anyone, it was David who knew that he had no call or right to put any trust, hope or expectations upon himself. So he kept his focus locked in on Almighty God, regardless of what he happened to be seeing, hearing and experiencing at any given time.
Psalm 51:5-12
“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, and in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom. Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness, let the bones, which You have broken, rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your Presence and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your Salvation!”
Through all of the ups and downs, hopes, fears, disappointments, storms, betrayals, setbacks and blessed times of his days on Earth… He was able to remain on an ‘even keel’ because he remained perpetually focused upon, and rooted into, his awesome Heavenly Father. And in that sense, he was a prophetic Peace-filled revelation of Messiah Yeshua, the future Son of David, the Living Word of God made flesh! The Word is the One who will occupy David’s throne FOREVER! And, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, David knew this was going to happen. And with that utterly comforting understanding, David focused continually on his Father with the same kind of focus that Yeshua perpetually maintained as well. And that focus is what He wanted to demonstrate and instill into His Last Days New Covenant disciples:
Matthew 16:23-25
“But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s!”
“Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it!”
“For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was (according to them) breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.
John 5:18-23
“Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel!
“For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives Life to whom He wishes. For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him!” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
Beloved friends, this is truly a very serious warning that Scripture is giving to the entire world! Do you have a god that you claim to worship? Are you religious and do you purport to appear to be ‘pious’ in the sight of your fellow men? If you do, then take this to heart:
There is only one True, Living God! And He has given all Judgment and Authority to His Living Word. Messiah Yeshua is The Word! He is God’s beloved Son, in whom the Father is well pleased! And He has placed all of the Fullness that is within Him, and deposited what is His, into His Son, the Living Word! So forsake any earthly created device or initiative. Empty yourself of any reliance on such things. Let your personal makeup absorb and reflect the Infinite Indwelling Perfection of God’s Living Word!
Don’t try to talk ABOUT Him in the presence of other people. Reveal Him! Don’t merely deliver a spoken or written message to people that pertains to Him in some distant, theoretical way. Embody Him so that he can speak to them for Himself… through your thoughts, imaginations, actions, reactions and interactions! Let Him reveal His Reality to them through the way He makes Himself evident in your situations and circumstances and even in your heartaches! Because you and the other disciples bear His Living Presence, you must BECOME the Message that God has entrusted to you to convey! God must clearly be present and evidently working from within you… to validate and endorse the words and actions He will give you to proclaim, as He leads you into the Last Days Arena of Testimony.
Therefore, if you still are settling for a theological god that emerges in mere theory, from your own imagination or family lore… in these critical times, that lukewarm lifestyle will not be honored and endorsed in supernatural validating Power by the Living God. But, if you truly are aflame with the Living Presence of the Living Word of God made flesh, then you can fully expect that Father will validate and endorse and exalt His Son… in you and through you! And the baseless counterfeit substitute gods and lies that people around you are proclaiming, will be totally exposed, and discredited, and smashed and shown to be the meaningless smoke that they truly are! Talk that emerges from the fallen, Sin-contaminated, Death-ridden Self-life of earthly people will now be blown away. The Invincible Living Perfect Presence of the Lord, the only Source of all Reality, will overwhelm the fog of all this world’s Falsehood and Darkness with Almighty God’s blinding and unstoppable Eternal Heavenly Light!
God’s Word commands us to become one with Him… in all things… unreservedly… on every level! (You might do well to refer once again to our ‘Marching Orders.’) This is about the focus that Eve and Adam failed to maintain in the beginning. They made the fatal mistake of falling for the Serpent’s counter-claims and denials of God’s Truth. But beloved, look around you! Look at all the damage and desolation that Adam and Eve’s monumental Self-life blunder led us into! Consider the gross dysfunction and disintegration and discord that are strangling the entire planet at this time! And, listen to the spiritually naked and pathetic emptiness and inane shallowness that are contained in the best that the many voices contained in our ‘Pop Culture’ have to offer. They all compete for our attention and urge us to trust them and make them the focus our attention. They offer their form of Self-life ‘bait’… glitzy, glittering baubles and bangles they dangle before our eyes! And it amounts to nothing!
But beloved… realize that what we encounter today is the very same Self-life bait that the Serpent first dangled before the eyes of our first mother! How many of today’s ‘leaders’ and ‘experts’ and ‘superstars’ are completely wrapped up in themselves and their own God-rejecting opinions, perspectives and passions and desires? How many urge you to look to and adore and exalt yourself, just as the way they do? How many exhort you to assume that mankind is free to see and think and judge and choose as we all think best? How many create versions of reality that suit their own interests, passions and sensibilities? And how much of what they think, do, say and propose directly contradicts the Word of Almighty God? Do they embody the True God, or are they embodying the Serpent?
Revelation 17:14-18
“These will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful.”
“And he said to me, “The waters which you saw where the harlot sits, are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues. And the ten horns which you saw, and the beast; these will hate the harlot and will make her desolate and naked, and will eat her flesh and will burn her up with fire. For God has put it in their hearts to execute His purpose by having a common purpose, and by giving their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God will be fulfilled. The woman whom you saw is the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth.”
Beloved Family… this is the time for us to learn to press in continually to God’s Living Word. Avoid the Serpent’s trap! Do not look to yourself, or to anyone or anything else that was created. Don’t stop short of your Creator Himself! There are no real answers in anyone or anything that God has fashioned out of nothingness! But the Creator of all things IS the Ultimate Reality and Source for everything else! His Living Creative Word that He sent to you to be your Shepherd, is THE ETERNAL ANSWER! AND HE IS RIGHT HERE WITH YOU… RIGHT NOW… AND ALWAYS! SO KEEP YOUR EYES UPON HIM AND DRAW FROM HIM EVERYTHING YOU WILL EVER NEED!
Isaiah 55:6-13
“Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.
“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it!
“For you will go out with joy and be led forth with peace; the mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of the thorn bush the cypress will come up, and instead of the nettle the myrtle will come up, and it will be a memorial to the Lord, for an everlasting Sign which will not be cut off!”