PRAYERS

Welcome to this site. My prayer is that you take a look at the site and as you do, let the Holy Spirit speak to your heart and reveal what God wants you to discover. (in Jesus' name)

God tells us that if we see a brother (or sister) in need we should do that which is within our means to help. Prayer is always within our means but we never know what doors Father may open through them. Should you desire prayer for anything (healing, direction, etc.) or if you want supportive prayer along with your own please feel free to e-mail that request to sharbu3@gmail.com and be assured that there are others who will be praying with or for you.


In this blog, I share what the Lord shares with me. I reference scripture a lot in support of what is being said. I realize that what is in each entry is NOT a complete 'word' on what is being said, but is rather enough information to stimulate our spirits to dig deeper (remember the Bereans Acts 17:10-11) thereby gaining a fuller understanding for ourselves.

At the end of each post are the options to share, forward or make a comment. Click 'comment' to respond. Let us know if you like, don't like or are helped by what you read. Comments can be made or read by anyone. All you have to do is select the "comment" at he end of the entry.

Saturday, November 26, 2016

11/26 Church reconstruction
                        
                                               
                       The starting point, three stages of construction and finally breath of life 

Jeremiah 1:13-16        And the word of the Lord came to me (Jeremiah) a second time saying “What do you see?” and I said “I see a boiling pot facing north.”  And the Lord said to me “An evil will come upon the inhabitants of the land from the north.  I will call the families and kingdoms of the north, says the Lord, and they shall come and each one shall set his throne at the gates of Jerusalem, against all the walls and against all the cities of Judah.  And I will speak my judgment against them touching all their wickedness, those who have forsaken Me and burned incense to other gods and who have worshipped the works of their own hands.”

Ezekiel 37:1-14            The hand of the Lord was upon me and carried me (Ezekiel) out in the spirit and set me in the midst of a bone filled valley.  Then He caused me to pass all around them and there were many bones in this open valley and they were dry. 
Then the Lord said to me “Son of man, can these bones live?”  And I answered “Oh, Lord, only you know.” 

And again He said to me “Prophecy to these bones and tell them ‘Oh, dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.  Thus says the Lord God to these bones I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live.  And I will lay sinews upon you, lay flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you and you shall live and you shall know that I am the Lord.”

So I prophesied as I was commanded and lo, as I prophesied, there was a noise and there was a shaking and each bone come into is proper place, bone upon bone.  And as I watched, sinews (Strong’s 1517 thong, tendon) and flesh (Strong’s 1320 nakedness, self) came upon them and skin (Strong’s 5785 leather, hide, naked) covered them, but there was no breath in them.
Then He said to me “Prophecy to the wind, prophecy, oh man, and tell the wind ‘Thus says the Lord God, come from the four winds, O breath, O, breath and breathe upon these slain that they might live.’”

So I prophesied as He commanded me and breath came into them (the dry bones) and they lived and stood up on their feet and they were an exceeding great army.
Then He said to me “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel and behold, they complain that their bones are dry and our hope is lost for we are cut off from our parts.  Therefore tell them that I say to them ‘Thus says the Lord God, behold O my people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of those graves and I will bring you into the land of Israel.  And when I have opened your graves, you will know that I am the Lord, for I have said it and I have done it.  Says the Lord.’

Of course, Father is speaking to Israel in these two passages but He tells us that the principle still applies today.  His wrath is going out against the disobedient (Jeremiah) and today, that’s not just the world but Israel and it includes todays New Covenant Church, the church of the New Testament because we have not completely followed His word – as we should.
But, more importantly He is telling us He is repairing, reconstituting today’s church (Ezekiel) so we can perform and function as He has always intended.  He is restructuring His church, bringing us up out of darkness and bringing us into His glorious light and we will know that HE IS GOD.
Father’s reconstruction or resurrection of the church
For centuries, the church has hung on by its spiritual teeth, hanging on to the ‘hope’ of eternal spirituality with God because we have confessed Jesus with our mouths and believe God raised Him from the dead.  These are the dry bones the church has existed as since shortly after the apostolic period.

The following passages give us a little deeper insight into the church happenings since Jesus, issues that still persist in today’s New Covenant Church, the church of e New Testament.
Revelation 2 & 3

            Ephesus (Rev. 2:1-7)
God tells the church at Ephesus: acknowledges their works, ministries, patience and not putting up with evil, they’ve discover false apostles by trying them and have not faltered in service
However, they have left their first love (God), for if they don’t return to how they lived at first, their candlestick will be removed.  (They had forgotten about living for God).

            Smyrna (Rev. 2:8-11)
He knows their works, trials and poverty,
but they have allowed blasphemous Jews into their midst.  (False teachers)

            Pergamos (Rev. 2:12-17)
I know your works, where you live and where Satan’s seat is. They have held to the faith, not denied His name, even to the martyrdom of Antipas
However, they’ve allowed those who teach false doctrines into their members, allowed stumbling blocks, eaten things offered to idols and committed fornication. (False teacher & ungodly practices)

            Thyatira (Rev. 2:18-29)
                        He says I know your works, love, service, faith and patience
However, they have allowed a false prophetess to teach, seduce and commit fornication with the members and cause them to eat things sacrificed to idols. (false teachers, loose living style – unmarried sexual activity and ungodly actions)

            Sardis (Rev. 3:1-6)
Watch, strengthen what you have and which are ready to die.  Some walk in white
Because works have not been perfect before God.  I will come upon you like a thief in the night because you don’t watch. (hearts have strayed, right actions, wrong reasons)

            Philadelphia (Rev. 3:7-13)
I know your works, set an open door before you for you have a little strength, kept my word and not denied My name.  You have kept the word of My patience.  I will bless you for your faithfulness. (good actions bring good rewards)

            Laodicea (Rev. 3:14-22)
                        I know your works
However, you are neither hot nor cold so I will spew you out of My mouth.  You are self-sufficient and don’t even recognize your own shortcomings.  Try you works in fire and I will bless you and will chasten (refine) you in MY love.  (knowing the word of God but not taking a stand for it.  Our hearts shall be tried and if they are truly pure, we will stand, if not we will fall away like followers did in Matt.6:60-66)

Also, note, that Paul’s letters to the churches: Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians and the Hebrews nor to overlook the letters to Philemon (a Colossian slave owner) and Timothy (evangelist & Bishop at Ephesus).

As the angel did with John in Revelation, Paul always commends the good being done, but then addresses the ‘deficiencies’ noted.  God is doing the same today.  In Ezekiel He notes that the ‘Dry Bones’, the very rudiments, basics, of the church have ‘hung’ in there maintaining Jesus is Lord and the resurrection, but there have been occasions against today’s church as well. 
For nearly 700 years, Father has been addressing those deficiencies and is now breathing (true) life back into His church.

An earlier impetus for church growth may have been Wycliffe’s bible, originally translated 1380-1395, circulated & reedited in early 1400’s).  The bible was aimed at laity (the common man) and was declared heretical because it was not authorized by the church, nor was Wycliffe clergy.
So starting there and scanning the major movements in the church over the centuries we see

Protestant Reformation (1500 -1600’s) (sinews, tendons and ligaments)
Holiness Movement (1700-1800’s) (flesh, muscle)
Pentecostal Movement (1800-1900’s) (skin, outer covering)
Apostolic/Prophetic Movement (1900-2000’s) (true breath of life

Look at the centuries covered here, when the influence of Wycliffe’s bible is factored in the 14th, 15, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th and now the 20th centuries can be counted, making this the 7th century Father has been reconstructing His church.  Until Wycliffe, the Catholic Church and the Latin Vulgate were the core of Christianity.  The Wycliffe bible started shaking things up, a shake up which hasn’t stopped, even today.

Through Ezekiel (Ezek. 37:1-14) God shows how He has been  ‘remanning’ His church by taking dry bones, placing connective sinews to those bones so they can hold their proper place in the body.  He then adds muscle so these bones can move and be effective.  He then adds an attractive outer layer of skin so those old bones look like a body.  Finally He has Ezekiel to command the four winds to bring the breath of life into those old bones and they stand up and live.

Take note of the sequence used in Ezekiel.  God adds substance to the foundation, the dry bones, then he adds flesh or the very essence of a man, then He adds the skin, a covering form man’s nakedness
If you will, Wycliffe’s bible brought attention to those old bones in the valley.

The Protestant Reformation added ligaments, sinews and tendons so those bones could stay connected in their proper places.

The Holiness Movement added some muscle to those bones so they could move – the meat, for living a holy life for God.

The Pentecostal Movement added the skin covering.  With the ‘Baptism’ of the Holy Ghost, the church started looking like it was supposed to.

Through the Apostolic/Prophetic Movement, the church is realizing it needs to have “Just a Closer Walk with Thee”.  It’s not just doing works living a good life,  nor just speaking in our spiritual language (tongues) but it is indeed moving into a closer relationship with our Heavenly Father communing in Him, abiding with Him and realizing that this can be realized through Jesus Christ through obedience and surrender to the Holy Ghost, allowing Him to fully operate in our lives, not quenching Him (1 Thess. 5:19).

The early church KNEW who Jesus was and for a season lived like it.  But just as Paul had to write letters to remind the fledgling churches not to lose faith, man has slipped away over the centuries, eventually into the falling away mentioned in 2 Thess. 2:3.  Now, grant it, we haven’t seen the revelation of the son of perdition, yet, but the foundation for his coming is being laid – big time. 
Over the past several centuries Father has bought His church from bare, dry bones as the church has always known that Jesus is Savior, identifying and bringing our ‘bones’ into proper alignment and connecting them (sinews), through the solidifying of our foundation of faith to today by giving our faith the ability to be put into action (flesh), through to where He is breathing His Spirit back into His church (skin) so His church will come to know that He IS God and He can do ALL that He said He could/would from the beginning and that He desires a most intimate relationship with each one of us, individually.

God created all that is in six days and on the seventh He ‘rested’ and saw that which He created was good.  Well, it was ALL good until Adam & Eve disobeyed Him.
But Father has been reconstructing His church now for 600 years and we are now in the seventh.  What does the number seven mean?  Completion!  Spiritual perfection!  We are in the seventh season of reconstruction.

This is the season God is maturing His church so we can start acting and living like we truly know who He is, who we are and that we can now have a solid relationship with Him and in Him through Jesus Christ because the Holy Ghost is alive, well and operational within us (this is a growing season).

I’ve heard in some quarters that Jesus can’t come back until the world is ready to receive Him.  Excuse me!  If we could make the world acceptable to Jesus, why would we need Him to come back?  What Father IS doing is preparing His church, His body, His bride so no one will get left behind when the bridegroom does comes (Matt. 25:1-13).

Things are coming to culmination and awesome things are going to start happening.  But, where awesome things happen, so does awesome resistance.  So for awesome things to happen, God’s children need to be awesomely prepared – and that is exactly what God is in the process of doing.  Preparing us to be ready to meet Jesus when He does return so none (of His church) will be left behind.  Amen



Saturday, November 12, 2016

11-12-2016
ENTERING INTO THE KINGDOM OF GOD



When the time comes, exactly who will actually enter into the kingdom of God?

Jesus clearly defines, in the gospels, that there are those who think they are heaven bound but don’t have, or even come close to what they think they have. 

God tells us in Jeremiah 17:10 “I the Lord searches the heart, tries the reins and gives to every man according to his ways and the fruit of his doings.”  In other words, God knows our hearts, our intents, and ‘tests’ us to see if we are true and when we are, the fruit of our labor will bear it out.

And Jesus comments, in part, in Luke 15:16 “You are they who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts …” 

God knows our hearts!  He know our thoughts and what we need, even before we ask (Matt. 6:8).  ‘Nuff said?

OK.  God knows our hearts, but let’s take a look at some passages that show that what is in man’s heart is reflected by his actions.
  
Matthew 7:21-27

This passage starts out with Jesus declaring “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord’ shall enter into the kingdom of God”.  Many will say “haven’t we prophesied, cast out devils in your name and done many wonderful works?  And Jesus will reply to them “I never knew you, you who work in iniquity.”

Seemingly harsh words but Jesus goes on to say “The man who hears my sayings and does them, I will compare to the wise man who built his house upon a rock.
Jesus goes on to speak the parable which compares the man who built his house upon a rock and the man who built his house upon the sand.  Obviously, the man who built his house upon the sand had no real foundation (in his life) so when troubles came, his house fell.  But the man who built upon the ‘rock’ withstood tribulation because his heart was wise in the Lord. 

This is like the man who does all the right things to look like he’s saved, gone through all the right motions, but he has no real love for the Lord.  He has no true foundation in his life.  Only the actions he ‘performs’.  Consider Simon the Sorcerer (Acts 8:5-24) who was among the crowd in Samaria where Philip preached.  Peter and John came up to lay hands on the believers (of whom Simon was one) that they might receive the Holy Ghost.  Simon, seeing that by the laying on of hands brought this about, thought he could purchase this power but Peter told him (among other things) that his money would perish with him unless he repented the idea.  Simon said the right things, did the right things but he didn’t really understand.  His heart was still far from God.

Matthew 25:41-46

Verse 32 says the king gathered from all nations and separated them, one from another as one would separate sheep from goats.  Having welcomed the sheep into the kingdom of God, the goats were put on the left hand and the kings says

“Depart from me you who are accursed into the everlasting fires which is prepared for the devil and his angels.”

Whoa!  The king gathered all those who were dwelling in His kingdom and says this to the goats?  Isn’t that discrimination!  Read on.

The king goes on to tell them that when he was hungry, thirsty, a stranger, naked, sick or in jail they (the goats) did NOT minister to him.  Just like the priest and the Levite in the ‘Good Samaritan’ (Luke 10:30-36) who bypassed the man who was robbed and beaten as he lay on the roadside.
Jesus goes on to tell the goats “Because you did not do it to the least of these (children in the kingdom of God), you did not do it to me.”

James, the brother of Jesus, tells us that faith without works is dead (James 2:20).  As James explains to the twelve tribes scattered abroad (James 1:1), we show our faith by ministering to others (especially God’s children), otherwise our ‘faith’ has no witness and it is self-contained and people don’t see our witness because we ‘do’ nothing to show them.  Ergo, our faith is effectively – dead.  In the goats, Jesus tells us that the goats did nothing to show their faith and in this it wasn’t because their faith was dormant, it truly just plain wasn’t really there – they didn’t know Jesus – at all.  Not really, even though they were ‘in church’, they were just ‘bench warmers’!

Jesus expects us to minister to those whom He puts before us.

Matthew 15:1-9

Jesus becomes a bit more blunt in speaking to the scribes and Pharisees.  These men knew the law, but they worked the law to their own advantage.  But Jesus told them that they stole from their parents, justifying the act because it brought them personal gain.

Jesus reminded them of Isaiah’s prophecy “The people draw near me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.”

A people who praise God and say all the right things but their heart has no clue who He is.  Everything is done for personal glory and for show.  Look at me!  Look at how great I am!  They like the best seats in the church and all the praise for what little they actually do (Luke 20:46-47) While they cheat people ‘blind’.

All show and no go and for what?  So people will glorify them.  Who should get the glory? (Rom. 11:36), God!

And these people think that they are heaven bound because they say and do all the right things.

Matthew 25:1-12

Ten virgins were awaiting the bridegroom.  All took oil IN their lamps, but only five took extra.  As they all slept, the call came out “The bridegroom is coming!” and they all woke up.  Five trimmed their lamps with the extra oil they had and those lamps kept burning brightly but the other five found that their lamps had gone out and they had no oil with which to relight them.  They tried to borrow oil from the five who were ready to relight their lamps but were denied.  Again a seemingly harsh move by the five ‘wise’ virgins but look at verse nine “… no, unless there is not enough for us and you …”.  In other words, if we loan you oil none of us may have enough light to go out and greet the bridegroom.

The five foolish virgins went out and bought more oil but by the time they returned home, the prince had already come and returned to His home with the five wise virgins.  And what happens in verse twelve with the five foolish virgins when they came and knocked on the bridegroom’s door (yes, they knew where he lived)?  They asked to be let in and he said “truly, I don’t know you.”
The five foolish virgins assumed their oil would last until the bridegroom came and, apparently, didn’t bother to check their levels before going to bed so they might replenish the oil in plenty of time, if necessary.  They weren’t prepared when the call came out that the bridegroom was on his way.

In summary
The man who built his house upon the rock might be likened to a person who goes into a church founded and based in our Lord, Jesus Christ.  The man who built his house on the sand may be likened to a person who goes into a church which does not preach and teach the resurrected son of God, Jesus, neither does he search to find out for himself, but leaned on his own understanding.  And when the test came his house fell.
The goats discover that all they were doing was ‘putting in time’ in the church they attended because they didn’t put into practice what God teaches us thereby exposing a heart not truly committed to Jesus.

The scribes and the Pharisees represent those who are in the church, have no clue who Jesus really is and do things solely for personal recognition.

The virgins?  Do we toe the line and make sure we are always prepared to be received by Jesus?  Living for Him?  Doing for Him?  Or do we expose the true feelings of our heart and figure that there is always time to get things right before He returns to take us home?  Or do we run the race as if we expect to win it (1 Corinth. 9:24)?

In each of these examples, they all ‘knew’ that their eternity was secure but discovered that God looks at our hearts and just as Isaiah said – they say and do all the right things, but their hearts never took time to know Me, so they missed the mark.

So how do we make sure that we are on the right track?

Luke 8:21

The bible tells us that we are Jesus’ brothers (and sisters) (Romans 8:29) and in Luke, Jesus clearly defines who His relatives are “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the Word of God and DO IT.”

Just hearing the Word isn’t enough.  Even knowing scripture forward and backward isn’t enough.  Jesus expects us to be true witnesses for Him (Matt. 28:19-20).

The gospel of John, chapters fourteen, fifteen, sixteen and seventeen talk about our brotherhood with Jesus, how we can and should be one with the Father through Him.  The scribes and Pharisees were proof positive that it takes more than ‘just’ knowing about Jesus (or scripture) to gain entrance into the kingdom of God.  Remembering Paul when he declared that he was a Pharisee among Pharisees (Acts 23:6, Phil. 3:5), he knew the law but didn’t attain salvation until he learned to live it through Jesus Christ.

 We, as Christians, have to live for Jesus, with Him and in Him.  Jesus wants us to be one with Him as He is with the Father so we all can be one (John 17:21).  When this is our goal in our relationship with Jesus and we pursue it, the rest will fall into place – as we grow.

Let us not be slack in our walk with Jesus, but diligent, giving our hearts to Him, totally, so when we stand before Him (2 Corinth. 5:10), we will hear “… Well done, good and faithful servant …” (Matt. 25:21) because our names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life (Rev. 20:12-15, Rev. 21:23-27).