5-25-2019    Is it I, Lord?  Atonement = Outpouring

Matt. 26:20-23, Mark 14:17-21, Luke 22:13-23, John 13:16-30

In the combined accounts of the “Last Supper” from Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all the disciples were at the table with Jesus.   Jesus arose, got a towel and a bowl of water and washed their feet, then all sat again, down at the table.  Note I said “all”.  This included Judas Iscariot.  For after they were again seated at the table, Jesus told His disciples that He would be betrayed.  All asked “Is it I?” (Matt. 26:22).  When Judas asked “Is it I?” Jesus said “You have said.” (Matt.25).  The gospels tell us that this is the point Satan entered Judas and Judas left, leaving the apostles wondering had he gone to buy something for the poor. 

Think for a moment.  The timing of these events imply that Judas partook of the bread (the body of Jesus) but probably left before the cup (the blood of Jesus) was passed around.  We are ALL guilty of the body of Jesus.  That is, we are all the reason He had to go to the cross and die.  However, only those who truly believe partake of the cup, His blood, His life, which gives us eternal life.  Jesus tells His disciples that if they don’t eat His body AND drink His blood, they have no life in them.  But when we do, we live in Him and He in us (John 6:53-56).

Now, don’t get me wrong.  Every person who has ever lived, is living or will yet live is the cause for Jesus to have been crucified.  Everyone is guilty of Jesus having to shed His blood, why Jesus had to go to the cross.  So, being guilty of the blood of Christ, any who ask the question “Is it I, Lord?” the answer is yes.   We all have betrayed Jesus by falling short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23).

Father gave us His Commandments giving us a yardstick by which we could measure our relationship with Him.  So what are the His Commandments?  He gave Israel ten to be our guide.  What are those ten?  1) no other gods before God, 2) don’t make any graven images, 3) don’t take His name in vain, 4) Remember the Sabbath, 5) honor your (earthly) father and mother, 6) don’t kill, 7) don’t commit adultery, 8) don’t steal, 9) don’t bear false witness, and 10) don’t covet anything that is your neighbor’s (Exod. 20:3-17).

Basically, for us, this translates that we accept the fact that God created ALL things (Gen. 1:1-31).  We believe it with all our heart and live our lives accordingly. 

Graven image is more than just an “idol” of wood or stone.  It includes bowing down and giving our adoration and time to anything other than God.  That is, before giving God time, we devote that time, our possessions or desires like cars, activities, etc., even people (even our spouse), we have put that before God.  Get the picture.  When we put anything before God, it becomes a graven image (or idol) for us – physical or mental.  Again, God doesn’t say we can’t do things, just put Him first in our lives.  It saves us a lot of heartache, down the road, when we remember God and put Him first.  Father asks 10% of our increase (a tithe-Lev. 27:30) of our money, but it also includes our living, things we do, etc.  It is holy to Him.  When we don’t even remember God in our lives, we steal more than just money from Him (Mal.3:8).  Whether we believe it or not, Father is responsible for all the good things we have (Rom 8:28).  He blesses us either to get our attention or reward us for a ‘job well done”.  Reprimand only comes necessary once we become ‘pig-headed’ and don’t listen to God.  Read the whole story of Israel in the Old Testament.  They listened to Go, things went well, they didn’t, they fell into bondage.  Bondage is when someone else rules over us, whether it be another person or a devil.

Father set time aside, after creation, to sit back and enjoy what He had created (Gen. 2:1-3).  So He asks us to set a day aside to relax and bask in Him.  All day?  If that’s what you want, but at least to take part of the day to thank Him for who He is and all that He’s done for us.  Again, He doesn’t deny us time to relax and take it easy.  Believe it or not, He just doesn’t want to be left out (of our lives).  He loves us and He enjoys our companionship.   

He asks us to honor and respect our earthly parents.  You say this is hard.  Mine haven’t been so good or perhaps we say “Gosh!  Old folks just don’t know anything!”  Yet, as long as mom and dad don’t ask us to do anything contrary to God’s law (His Law explains love), we should respect and be obedient to our parents.  They’ve been through more than we have and they are responsible for us.  I realize that our parents, though they should, don’t always have our best interests at heart but God does (Heb. 12:9-10).  My personal feeling is that no one should remain in a truly abusive situation.  But consider, before David became king, he had the opportunity to kill King Saul who was trying to kill him.  But David didn’t.  He realized that even though King Saul did evil, he was still in God’s anointed seat of authority (1 Sam. 24:1-22).  He refused to bring harm to God’s anointed.  It may be tough, but honoring mom and dad should be our goal and as we do, Father blesses us with long life (Eph. 6:1-3).  Of course, parents do have a responsibility to their children (Eph. 6:4).  Consider, that even though mom and/or dad may not know the Lord, because of our faithfulness, they might enter into His salvation.

Don’t kill is pretty obvious, we don’t, for our own desire’s sake, take the life of another.  But Jesus intensifies this one.  Even if we hate a brother, we have killed him (1 John 3:15).  We have killed him in our heart by withholding life-giving sustenance (a chance to walk closer with Jesus) that he may need.

Don’t commit adultery sound clear enough but this is not just committing into a relationship with someone other than our spouse, it also includes fornication (1 Corinth. 6:9-10) which is a sexual relationship between two unmarried people.  How many people in the world today live in “co-habitation”?  Without a commitment, that’s not marriage.  Yes, I understand “common law”, yet it is not the same as marriage.  Common law can be broken at any time.  Marriage is a lifetime commitment (or at least should be).

Does anyone need an explanation on stealing?  If it doesn’t belong to you, leave it alone.  Even ‘borrowing’ without permission is stealing.

Bearing false witness is any lie.  And think about it.  Why does the bible speak ill of ‘gossiping’?  Gossiping is testifying against someone else about that which may or may not even be true.  We don’t spread ‘rumors’ because we want to be ‘part of the crowd’.  That rumor may unduly damage the reputation of another (Psalm 15:2-3, Prov. 16:28, Eph. 4:29).  We may change the truth a bit so as not to hurt another, a ‘white lie’.  That’s OK, right?  If you don’t want to hurt someone, keep the lip the zipped.  An untruth is a lie and a lie is a lie, even if it may be intended for good.  Ever hear of a “white witch”?  She supposedly does things for people’s good, but she still does it with things that are not of God.

When I was young, my mom and her friends had a saying: “He can park his shoes under my bed anytime.”  I kind of knew what it meant but not until later in life, did I realize what it really involved.  Coveting anything that is another’s means to actually desire it.  We want “it”, whatever “it” may be.  Desiring something that belongs to someone else, his TV, his car, his spouse, whatever.  It’s kind of like stealing, isn’t it?  It isn’t ours, but we want it.  Hmmmm.  Coveting leads to theft or worse?  No problem in wanting something “like” what our neighbor has.  We just don’t desire “what” he has.  Oh, do I have to go back and explain ‘shoes under the bed’?  I hope not.

Under the law, all Israel had to worry bout was not “doing” something against the Law.  Today, Jesus has intensified that.  Even if we think it, we’re in trouble.  In his letter to the twelve tribes of Israel, James gives us some insight to how serious God is about sin.  If you will, man can be seduced by evil.  God cannot, nor does God tempt us.  But, we are tempted by those things which remain in our hearts.  When we consider obtaining someone else’s ‘something’  (whatever), we have sinned.  Should we act upon it, that brings forth death (James 1:13-15).  The thought in itself is not sin, but once it becomes a ‘desire’ or maybe even an ‘obsession’, it is a sin. Satan can introduce all sorts of thoughts into our heads, but when we decide to do and/or act on it …..(dum de dum dum [an ominous sound]).  We fall.

Understand, Satan does tempt us, in his attempt to draw us away from God, by planting thoughts and ideas into our minds and our hearts.  When we see that gorgeous ‘babe’ or that handsome ‘hunk’ is one thing.  But when we desire them to park their shoes under our bed, we have considered being with them (in a carnal way).  We have sinned in our hearts. We need to repent.  Should we pursue the fulfillment of that idea and accomplish our intent, we can still repent (truly repent) and be cleansed.  Yet, should we wallow or continue in what we’ve done, that will draw us farther from God and eventually total separation (death), spiritually and literally.  So we follow Peter’s advice: Repent and be converted that our sins may be blotted out (by the blood of Jesus).   Being converted (turning away from that sin) brings us back into ‘right standing with God’ and our relationship with the Lord shall be refreshed (renewed) (Acts 3:19).   

Only those who ask forgiveness and put themselves under that cleansing flood, come back into eternal fellowship with the Father through His Son and into eternal life. 

Our sin(s) can be forgiven.  We have to confess them before Christ, repent (turn from and determine not to do it again) and renouncing what we’ve done, Father will forgive us our sins and put them behind His back (Isa. 38:17).  They’re gone as far as He is concerned.

Now what does all this have to do with the clip I’ve included?

On youtube, I watched the “Atonement Brings the Outpouring”, a Manna Fest episode (964) by Perry Stone.  This ties in with “Is it I, Lord?”.  Once we realize we have sinned, we need to repent.  Through repentance we receive forgives and Father puts us back in right standing (atonement) with Himself.

Perry talks about how true repentance brings about the manifestation of the presence of the Holy Ghost.  He ties it nicely with the Fall festivals of Jewish tradition beginning with Rosh Hoshana and how they relate to the early Christian Church.

It also leads into the fact that Father is readying His people for the Spiritual Explosion which lies just on the horizon. 

Father is preparing His people to carry His Word to the world, and more importantly back into the church (the church HAS gone astray). 

Rosh Hoshana is a time of cleansing and atonement, a repenting of and receiving forgiveness for sins.  This is the cleansing.  Those who are following the Lord’s leading are currently in a seven year period of cleansing and learning – learning how to truly live in Christ Jesus, in God’s love.  They will be going out in the next seven years (the next ‘season’) bringing God’s true love to the church and to all who would receive it, following the example of our Lord Jesus.

There will be a falling away (the church has already been falling away) before the coming (2^nd) of the Lord (2 Thess. 2:1-3).  Look at what’s going on in the church today.  Priests abusing children, pastors and noted preachers falling to sexual immorality, leaders of our churches living lavish lifestyles at the expense of their congregation.  Many may remember the Bakers (Jim & Tammy Fae).  They rationalized that they owned nothing, yet they lived in a very lavish lifestyle at the expense of the church.  Years ago I personally knew a pastor who drove a BMW and wore silk suits to their denomination’s conventions so as to impress the other pastors.  He may not have lived at the level of Jim & Tammy Fae, but the folks in his congregation were low income people.   This pastor just wanted his peers to see him as being very successful.

The church needs shaking up.  It is coming.  The current seven years began in Jan. 2015.  The Spiritual Explosion is coming when this season has ended. 

Is it I Lord?  We all have our part in being guilty, but we don’t have to live in that guilt.

We truly repent our sin, determine not to do it again and start (or return) to living in God’s love.  That means not ‘just’ reading the bible but asking the Holy Spirit to help us to understand it.  He does lead us into all truth (John 16:13).  We have to understand God’s love before we can truly live in it and God’s prime commandment is to ‘love’ Him above all else and our neighbor as ourselves.  Any other commandment is just a continuing explanation of that love.

We all have (and do) fall short of God’s expectations.  But, when we repent, we receive atonement and as Perry Stone shares with us, with that atonement comes an outpouring of the Holy Ghost.  And a fresh outpouring of the Holy Ghost is what we are expecting in the near future (the next season).  A spiritual explosion where the Holy Ghost rises to new levels in our lives!

So, do we ask “Is it I, Lord?” wondering if it is I who has betrayed Him.  Or can we say “It is I, Lord, the one who loves You.”?

Amen

5-3-2019          Prophetic?  3 timelines coming together

         

Three prophetic timelines

Last Monday in April (4/29-2019), I had to go to the gym in the evening instead of earlier as I am accustomed.  I ran into a friend of mine, Kathy, whom I haven’t seen for months.  She shared with me about what a she had heard from, a preacher who was describing a 2100 year cycle. The first beginning with Abraham, the second Jesus and the third starting today.  He was talking about our entering into that third 2100 year cycle and how it was leading into the end times.  Now, Kathy told me, the speaker clarified that 2100 years was approximate and not exact.  Being a “good boy”, like the Bereans (Acts 17:10-12), I received what she said and checked with my primary source (Father).  

This is what Father has shown me (so far).

According to the Archeological Institute of America, cuneiform was the wedge shaped writing the Sumerians used @ 3500 – 3000 BC and is the oldest known form of written material.  I have read arguments that cuneiform could go back maybe even another 500 years.  Even so, we may conclude that recorded ‘civilization’ preceded Abraham by about 2000 years (or more) or @4000 B.C.   Abraham came along about 2000 years B.C. And Jesus would bring us to year ‘0’, the crossover from B.C. to A.D.  We are currently exist @ 2000 years in the year of our Lord.  A.D. represents the Latin words “Anno Domini” which mean the year of our Lord.  Of course, B.C. stands for “Before Christ”.   

So, now historically, we are now concluding a third ‘season’ of @2000 years, starting with the Sumerians and moving into a fourth.  Look at the numbers and what those numbers represent in Christianity.  Three (3) represents divine completeness or perfection.  Four (4) represents creation or creative works.  So, we may conclude that God is completing 6000 years of work and perhaps beginning a new work (??).  How many ‘days’ did it take Him to create all that is (Gen.1:31)?  Or maybe e can say six seasons? Seven (7) represents resurrection or Spiritual completeness.  So moving into the 7^th season of 1000 years (after six seasons) suggests that God may be moving us into a time of “Spiritual completeness.  After creating all that is, on the seventh day God rested (Gen. 2:2-3). 

God created everything in six days, or six seasons (if you will).  The day is “as” a thousand years with the Lord (2 Peter 3:8).  The word “as” is a comparative term (see Strong’s GR 5613, 3739 & 3757) and not an exact indication. Often, in the bible, a “thousand” refers to countless or unlimited as the sands of the seashore (Gen. 22:17).  So, we don’t really know if Father created everything in six literal days (as we count) or six unlimited time periods or seasons (as we count).  I’m not about to argue this, but at least consider it.

This would also imply He just may be preparing us to go into a fourth 2000 year period or season or a seventh 1000 year period.  Does a thousand years of peace ring a bell with anybody (Rev. 20:1-15)?  Nonetheless, we may conclude that Father is preparing to move into a season of ‘fresh’ creative works as He is concluding a season of Spiritual completeness.  Now I didn’t say a season full of blessings and good things, but in Father’s timing, a completeness.  Bringing things to a conclusion in His timeframe.  Preparing to enter into what may very well be a fuller expression of the Holy Spirit (??) (read on)

Father has already shown me how we are also entering into an additional seventh season.  Of which the previous six were each 100 years long.  Beginning with the desire that man should each have his own bible as presented by John Wycliffe in the late 1300, early 1400’s.  Then through the Protestant Reformation  of the 1500 & 1600’s, through several “awakenings” of the 1700 & 1800’s, the Pentecostal Revival of the late 1800 and early 1900’s, the Charismatic movement of the mid 1900’s, Father has continued to grow His church.  Even now, we’re entering into a ‘prophetic movement’, where more people are ‘hearing’ more from God (in Christianity) which, effectively, began in the latter 1900’s up thru today.  All being six @ 100 year seasons and now, moving into this seventh (prophetic) season.  Six seasons basically completed of man (the number 6) and moving into a seventh (a season of God).  And this seventh season will lead into the number eight (8) which means ‘new beginnings’.  And that raises a question “What new beginnings does Father have planned for us?”

AND there is even one more cycle currently in progress.  Or should I say a series of three cycles.  In January 2015 (Hebrew calendar may take it back to September 2014, Rosh Hashana), Father started a seven year period of growth.  A time where He has been revealing Himself to His children through a deeper level of understanding.  A deeper level of knowledge of His kingdom.  A move into a closer relationship with Himself through His Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ.

The next seven year period is yet to begin, but it will begin at the end of this current seven year season.  This next will be a seven year season such as the world has never seen before.  A spiritual explosion which will shake the world to its core and (hopefully) a sleeping church back into awareness of who God really is and what our relationship should be with Him.

Remember the number three represents God’s completion or perfection.   Three seven year seasons complete the work God has been doing and will lead to a fourth season of “creative works”. Again, what creative works lay ahead?  Think “creative” and “new beginnings”.

We are in a time where three (3) 2000 year-long seasons drawing to completion.  In another 17 years, three (3) seven year periods will be drawing to a close, also drawing into completion.  Roughly, in this same time frame we have seven (7) 100 year periods coming to completion.  We have one cycle containing six seasons, each 100 years long, we have three season, each containing seven years and we have three seasons, each containing 2000 years all drawing to completion within the next twenty years or roughly (if you will) at about the same time.  We have two seasons preparing to move into a fourth season and on preparing to move into an eighth.  Might they add up to season of new creative works in a new Beginning?  Something to think about.  Yes?  

Don’t forget, every season has a ‘cusp’, a time of transition from one season to the next.  We normally don’t just jump from summer to winter and back (though at times it may seem that way).  We have spring and fall that interlude.  But there is (normally) a transition period even from summer to fall, fall to winter and so forth.  These events (seasons) won’t just happen all at once like cutting a piece of cake or pie, or turning a page, but they do blend from one into the next.

I can’t, nor will I guarantee the timing for what’s going to happen over the next several years.  I do know that our heavenly Father has given indications of what’s coming down the road or what lays ahead in the not so distant future.

I also know that Father wants His church to be ready.  Like the five wise virgins in Matthew chapter twenty-five who not only had oil in their lamps but also had ample reserve so they would always be ready for when the bridegroom did come.  Father wants His church ready for when He does return for us.  He doesn’t want anyone left behind.  He wants us walking in His love –always.  He wants us at the wedding feast – and beyond.

Father knows ‘man’.  He created us.  He knows that if we know exactly when He’s coming back for us we would probably live like the devil until 12:59, then, at the last second repent so we could enter into heaven.  Problem is, once our heart is set, we aren’t likely to change without divine intervention and Father will not force Himself upon us (read the bible).  We have to make the choice to be with Him.  Seeing impending death, people may say “Oh, God!” but they are not likely to repent.  Some may even curse God for allowing disaster to come upon their disobedient lives.  Can salvation occur at the “last second”?  Sure.  It’s just not very likely. 

Father wants His church, His body, His family, those who wait for the return of our “big brother” (Jesus – Rom 8:29) to be ready.  He wants none to perish (2 Peter 3:8-again).  He is bringing us into a time of preparation so we can be ready when He DOES return.  Father has always asked us to “live” for Him.  We do that by understanding what His love actually means.  Learning about it, then putting that effectively into our own lives.  The Holy Spirit is here to help us because it won’t be easy.  The “Comforter” will always be with us (John 14:16).  Each step we take towards God, in our relationship with Him, the enemy fights back.  So we press forward against the storm.  Our job is to persevere James 1:12).   

Three timelines are merging at approximately the same time.  Not necessarily on the same day or week, but in the same season.  God is getting ready to do something awesome.  Do we want to be a part of it or be apart from it?

PS:  a sign?  As I was finishing up the first editing of this post, I was washing clothes and was listening to my videos playing upstairs.  The music stopped, the washer stopped and I hit the save button all within @ a minute of each other?????

Amen?

5-8-2019    oops

Need to make a correction of the 4/27 entry.  I said the events occured in the third year of Jesus' ministry.  John chapter six actually occurred when Jesus was entering Jerusalem for the second Passover after His ministry had started.  Sorry for my confusion and hope this helps everyone else.