The Writing On The Wall, A Nation Weighed In God's Balances

The Prophecy Of Daniel Speaking To Us Today

Belshazzar, the king demands to bring the silver and gold vessels from the temple so his princes, wives and concubine's can drink from them. They drank wine in them and praised other gods of wood, stone, iron and gold. In that same hour came the finger of a man that wrote over the plaster on the king's wall in the palace. The king saw the part of the hand that wrote, Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin.

We're going to travel back in time to ancient Babylon to a royal banquet.  Babylon was the first world empire and its gardens were considered one of the seven wonders of the world in that ancient time.  Belshazzar, the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, is now the king of Babylon.  This young hearted king decides he will hold a royal banquet and he invites thousands of his lords and princes.  The palace was ablaze with light.  The candle lobbers shined upon the golden and silver vessels from the temple.

The most prominent people in the kingdom were invited to this banquet.  They were dressed in rich garments and precious jewels.  They were the upper crust.  They were the social elite.  They held high positions in that kingdom.  Babylon was a world empire.  Treasures were in abundance, in jewels, gold and precious stones.

A wild party was in progress with the scents of perfumes, music, and exotic dancers.  Laughter was heard as the dancers danced across the tables to perform their suggestive dances before them.. The king and his men were getting drunker and drunker, and bolder and bolder as each hour passed.  But as time went on things began to get dull and blurry from so much wine.

Belshazzar decided to do something to brighten things up.  In his drunken stupor he demanded that the vessels in Jerusalem be taken from the temple, the House of G-d, and to be brought in so that his princes could drink from them.

"Fill their cups," cried Belshazzar, "and drink to your king."  So they filled up the sacred vessels from the House of G-d and drank to their King and false gods.

Suddenly, a death-like hush fell upon the banquet hall and a hand appeared on the wall.  It was a hand without an arm, and without a body.  The hand was writing upon the wall.  Belshazzar became pale and he began to shake. Nothing like this had ever happened before and in his drunken state he began to wonder, what does this mean?  So he called for his wise men, and soothe sayers and magicians. But when they saw the handwriting on the wall they were unable to give the meaning. Nothing like this had ever happened before.

Queen mother came in and she knew Daniel personally, and upon her advise Daniel was called to tell the king what the writing on the wall meant.  Belshazzar promised Daniel all types of riches and treasures if he would only make known to him the handwriting on the wall.

Daniel was G-d's man, and he wasn't looking for riches and told the king to give those to others.  Daniel said, "but I will tell you what the writing means." Daniel said, "first, I'll tell you why it came. You have lifted yourself up against the G-d of heaven and have defiled G-d's vessels. You have desecrated them.  You have drank wine with your lord's and praised the false gods of wood, iron and gold, and of stone.  That's the reason why these things are written upon the wall."

Daniel continues, "and this is what the writings mean.  G-d has numbered the days of your kingdom. Thou art weighed in G-d's balances and been found wanting. Thy kingdom is divided and given to the Meads and Persians."

Belshazzar thought that perhaps if he treated Daniel with kindness that he could avert this catastrophe that had just been prophesied.  But that very night that prophesy was fulfilled.  While a party was in progress Cyrus and his officers were just outside the walls of Jerusalem at the Euphrates River digging a tunnel.  They diverted the course of that river into another direction. That night Cyrus and his army marched under the walls into the city and Belshazzar was slain.

I want you to think about the words that were written on that wall.  Thou has been weighed in G-d's balances and found to be wanting.  Belshazzar was not weighed by man's opinion, or his own opinion, his friends, nor his neighbors, but he was weighed by God's balances.  G-d examined him and said, in my sovereignty you are vile and an ungodly man.  Your time of grace is finished and your time of judgment is at hand.

There's people that we all know that ranks high in public opinion.  They are big and important people in our community and in the eyes of the world.  But they don't weigh one ounce when it comes to G-d and His balances.  This is so because they've never seen their need for G-d.  They've never turned from their sins to the living Savior.  They continually give their lives to this world.

We live in a deceptive culture, and if you'll look it becomes confusing because we go to church and read the word of G-d but we see people in the church not living by the word they read.  Their lives are not balanced with the word of G-d. Go do a survey and ask a 100 young people to name the 10 commandments, 90% will not know them or only live by one or two of them.  The first four commandments show our relationship with G-d, which is what I'm dealing with in this writing. The last six commandments show our relationship with mankind which I will address in another article.

Jesus summed up these commandments after a lawyer and ruler said, "What is the greatest commandment in the law?"  Jesus answered him "to love the Lord your G-d with all your heart, mind, soul and strength."  Jesus turned and said, "the second command is like unto the first, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."

I want you to know that G-d has some balances and these balances are found in Exodus 20.  We call them the 10 commandments.  I'd like for you to ponder and meditate on how your life measures up to these commandments. You must measure your life by these commandments.  If you look at the American culture it will confuse you because it is a corrupt culture.  The greatest nation on earth has strayed from our biblical standards and now our nation is being weighed in G-d's balances and it has been found wanting.

Thank G-d for the true church because its the only thing that is keeping G-d's wrath from this nation.  We need to pray for our nation and live a holy life. The first commandment is thou shalt have no other gods before me.  What are other gods? They are man's gods, the things he thinks the most of, and the things he thinks the most about. Let's take a closer look at some of the gods we set up in our lives.

1. The god of money.

It's been said that money is the god of America and sex is the goddess of America.  Lets look at money first.  Do you tithe to the Lord?  Do you love your money more than you love God?  I learned recently that only 3% of the people in the church tithe their 10%.

G-d doesn't need your money. It is a seed and harvest principle for you to prosper and be blessed.  You can't receive blessing until you sow something for it.  G-d said, "Test me and try me on this." G-d said, "I'll open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing upon you and there will not be room enough to receive it." You'll have to give it away to make room for more.

People in the church are afraid to trust G-d with their money.  We've got to allow G-d to have all of our lives, how we live, how we spend our money, and how we love others. You've got to just say, Lord, here am I and I'm willing to do it your way, not a little here and little there but 10%.  If you start being obedient to G-d's word, he'll turn every area in your life around.

If G-d has your heart, he's got you. Guard your heart, give it to nothing or no one except to G-d. 1 Timothy 6:10. Now here is the problem in the American church, "for the love of money" is an American god, and that is coveted after even behind the pulpit.

America has erred from the faith. You have erred when you rob G-d from his tithe.  Some of you say, oh that sounds harsh.  It's not harsh, its the word of G-d so all may go well with you.  I write G-d's word so that blessings can come upon you, and so you can prove G-d's word.  Some people will do anything to get money. They will steal, cheat, and lie.  Yet G-d says in Mal 3:10, how have we robbed G-d? In tithes and offerings.

Some people would just rather be recognized by man, and have no thoughts as to how G-d is weighing him.  Some men would rather get their names in a newspaper than in the Lamb's Book of Life.  Social recognition is put before G-d.  Don't be found wanting by G-d.

For some, sports is their god. Instead of being in the House of the Lord, they're perched in front of the tube watching some ballgame.  For some, its the golf course or race track. Some people are required by the system we live in today to work on G-d's holy day, but I say work your salvation out in fear and trembling. If you can get a job and be off on Sunday, I would opt for that for the sake of your blessings and keeping the Sabbath Holy.

2.  The god of pleasure.

We have become captive of the god of pleasure just like in Ezekiel 13:14. Here G-d is talking to Israel but the American culture is the same as the captivity of Babylon by its culture.  The Lord is saying, can my people inquire of anything of me when they've set up idols in their hearts?  Belshazzar was weighed and found wanting. I don't see much difference today in the American culture.

We are not to be a slave to worldly pleasures.  Sexual immorality rules this nation with its advertisements, in movies,in songs, and on bill boards. The sanctity of  the marriage covenant has been put aside and anything goes. And they were found to be drinking and being merry and marrying and marrying some more.

The honor and holiness of marriage has been discarded by an outcry for equality for same sex marriages. God has an order for the make up of the family, it is an eternal law that he set forth in the Garden of Eden. Americans sleep around and then when they get pregnant they suck the life's blood out of their babies, and this nation will answer to that blood on its hands. And they were found to be wanting.

Even some Christians put pleasure before God.  Where are the great Christians in our churches on Sunday night?  They're not there so they must be seeking pleasure or going their own way. It's easy for the world to deceive you when you neglect to be at church listening to the word of God on all these matters.

Place no other gods before Him, that is our first commandment. If you love G-d you are going to want to be in his presence on his holy day.  You will want to be with precious people of like faith.  Worshiping G-d in spirit and in truth.

A lot of churches operate on the world level. If you're not getting the truth of the word, and sometimes the truth is hard, because it weighs and balances our hearts and behaviors, then find a church that will preach the word, line upon line and precept upon precept.

3. Idols of graven images.

Now I'm not talking about having a cross and pictures of Jesus on your wall.  The problem is images that we begin to bow to and worship. I'm talking about horoscope charts and readers, fortune tellers you can call up 24-7, tora cards, Buddha and Mohammad.  The name of Jesus is sufficient to go to G-d in prayer.  You don't have to go through Peter, Paul or Mary.  There's no other name given among men whereby we must be saved.  Jesus said, I am the way, the life and there is no other way to the father except through me.


God gave Jesus the authority when he raised him from the dead and set him at the right hand of 
G-d. You can come boldly before His throne in the name of His precious son, Jesus Christ.  We don't need statutes or objects to approach the throne of G-d.

4. Giving your heart to the world and speaking worldly language.

Thou shalt not take the Lord your G-d's name in vain.  My Lord!  This is such a common sin in America.  It's a G-d defying profanity.  We can't even have a talk show on national t.v. without them blaspheming G-d's name.  We have filthy, vulgar language across the airwaves and our children are subjected to that daily.

Don't measure your life by the American culture.  Measure it by G-d's word only.  God has a problem with this kind of speech.  A Christian ought to be clean in his speech.  If a person hears you curse and then hears that you're a professing Christian you have caused that person to stumble.  Reverence for G-d is the foundation of Godly character.  A man, or woman's character is judged by their speech. Matthew 12:34.

I can spend five minutes with a person and tell what's in their heart.  Most devils won't spend five minutes with me, after one minute they're gone,  because my speech centers around Godly things. There's been even a few preachers uncomfortable in my presence. They will start to be closed mouthed in a social setting because they would rather be talking about a ball game or something of this world.  I'm wanting instead to know from them what G-d has put in their spirit lately. I'll put up with worldly speech just so long and I'm ready to talk about my favorite subject, the word. That's what my mind is stayed on daily.

Jesus called people with foul language a bunch of snakes. How can evil speak good things?  It takes only about five minutes and people will reveal what they love the most through their speech.

5.  Exchanging the Sabbath for the world.

Now there is a controversy with just what day the Sabbath is. Just when the Christians began worship on Sunday traces back to the new testament and became more prominent in the 2 century AD.

There is certainly scripture where we see the Apostle Paul meeting on Sunday for worship.

However there is evidence in other scripture where we see the disciples teaching in the Synagogue on Saturday Sabbath. For the most part the Christians worship on Sunday as a memorial to the day Jesus rose and appeared to the disciples.

Now you've got to understand that the Gentiles were a pagan group of people. They had just come out of the bars and sexual immorality and the like.  But they got saved and began to meet in different houses to worship on Sunday. G-d created the world in six days and he rested on the seventh day. The Sabbath is a day of rest before the Lord.11 Peter 3:9.

The Christians don't observe the Sabbath. They observe the Lord's Day. The church commemorates the finished work of Christ. 11 Corinthians 5:17

The issue of the Sabbath has a whole lot more issues and is another article. Here, it is to show how important it is to keep the Lord's day holy whatever day you worship, whether its on Saturday or Sunday, keep the commandment to keep it holy. Don't be found wanting with the Lord's holiest day. It's about honor and coming before him, and is a seed and harvest principle.

To see complete study and listen to audio on this topic go to www.westmorelandphc.org and listen to the sermon by Rev. Jerry Nelson

Separation of Church and State - Raleigh Christian Living

Separation of Church and State - Raleigh Christian Living

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Separation of Church and State

The Separation of Church and State The liberals have declared that Christians are the problem.  Amidst their cries of  "tolerance" it has become fashionable to bash Christians, attack anything of God's word they write and to deny our Judeo-Christian roots in this country.

What they really resent is how Christians constantly remind them, -- and to the American society that is unsure about following them -- that God has absolute standards of right and wrong.
This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. [John 3:19-20]
[Image]These are anti-Christian Socialist and they want to achieve a new, Godless America where our children will be protected from outmoded Christian ideas and will enjoy freedom "from"religion - not freedom "of" religion.  Socialists liberals throughout our government have made it clear that the foundations, the roots of this nation are no longer considered valid."We are redefining the ideals that have guided us from the beginning." - President Bill Clinton, Nov. 8, 1997"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." (1 Peter 5:8)Make no mistake about it... these hate filled anti-American enemies of your family will not give up their evil schemes until your children are destroyed. They do not respect God's definition of the family and are intent on discrediting His wisdom in raising children as they attempt to rewrite His guidelines for morality.

As the balance of power continues to swing towards a Godless agenda, Americans will be increasingly forced to adopt a new perspective of who we are: one based not on immutable ideals and values, truth, justice, personal freedom and the Constitution of the United States, rather one based on relative values, deceit, unequal justice, Marxism and a redefined globalist Constitution.

These social liberals believe man has the only answers for himself. They think that  man-made Gods eventually may be useful in managing the world -- but frankly would prefer that it not be a moralistic God with rules and absolute right and wrong. They certainly do not want the new society they are molding to hang onto any "biased" religion that proclaims Jesus Christ is the Only Way (John 14:6) or that all men and women are called by their Creator to have a warm, personal relationship with Him. We Christians irritate these social liberals when we proclaim the truth of God's liberating love. We infuriate them when we remind them of our Lord's true and steadfast faithfulness.

For those who know the Bible, this does not surprise us because Jesus told us... "All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved." [Matthew 10:22]The Whining Left Wing
The Leftist social liberals supported by the Godless ACLU continue to cry "separation of church and state" as justification for eliminating religious issues from public view.

The phrase "Separation of Church and State" has been bannered for so long that many Americans believe that it is actually in the Constitution. In fact, those three words appear nowhere in the Constitution.

Oblivious to the irrelevance of their arguments, and at the same time refusing to acknowledge that no document of state, let alone the Constitution, has ever proposed such a concept, those on the Left have tried to convince the American people that our  foundingfathers warned of the dangers of mixing politics and religion.
They have thus misled millions and worked against the public interest by damaging the commitment to ethics and moral values that come only through religious belief.

It must be remembered that neutrality is impossible. Some authority, whether it be God or man, is  used for all enacted laws. If a political system rejects one authority, it adopts another. If a biblical moral system is not being legislated, then an immoral system is being legislated. Any moral system that does not put Jesus Christ at its center, denies Christ:"No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other..." [Matthew 6:24]"He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters" [Matthew 12:30]"Our standard of right is that eternal law which God proclaimed from Sinai, and which Jesus expounded on the Mount. We recognize our responsibility to Jesus Christ. He is Head over all things to the Church, and the nation that will not serve Him is doomed to perish". (James Henley Thornwell)It was never the purpose of the Constitution to give religious content to the nation, rather, the Constitution was an instrument whereby already existing religious values of the nation could be protected with liberty and freedom.Facts:          1.  In response to a request that all reference to religion be removed from government, the House        Judiciary Committee Report March 3, 1854 said:"Had the people, during the Revolution, had any suspicion of any attempt to war against Christianity, the Revolution would have been strangled in the cradle. At the time of the adoption of the Constitution and the Amendments, the universal sentiment was that Christianity should be encouraged, not any one sect. In this age there can be no substitute for Christianity. That was the religion of the founders of the republic, and they expected it to remain the religion of their descendants. The great vital and conservative element in our system is the doctrines and divine truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ.2. John Quincy Adams, sixth president of the United States, said:"The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected, in one indissoluble bond, the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity."The First AmendmentThe assault on America's religious underpinnings is based on a distorted interpretation by biased liberals.
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ..." 

Only a lawyer could claim not to understand the plain meaning of those words. [Image]The Supreme Court has taken Jefferson's "separation" clause (divorced from Jefferson's own explanation of the phrase) and used it to create a new interpretation of the First Amendment.

In 1947, with the United States Supreme Court's decision in  Everson v. Board of Education, Justice Hugo Black construed the First Amendment in a more restrictive fashion, giving an absolute definition of the First Amendment Establishment Clause which went well beyond the original intent of the framers of the United States Constitution and paved the way for future cases that would further restrict religious expression in American public life. This ruling declares that any aid or benefit to religion from governmental actions is unconstitutional. As Justice Black said: "The First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state. That wall must be kept high and impregnable. We could not approve the slightest breach."Hardly what Thomas Jefferson meant or what the constitution guaranteed!
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" had always meant that Congress was prohibited from establishing a national religious denomination, that Congress could not require that all Americans become Catholics, Anglicans, or members of any other denomination.

This understanding of "separation of church and state" was applied not only during the time of the Founders, but for 170 years afterwards. James Madison (1751-1836) clearly articulated this concept of separation when explaining the First Amendment's protection of religious liberty. He said that the First Amendment to the Constitution was prompted because  "The people feared one sect might obtain a preeminence, or two combine together, and establish a religion to which they would compel others to conform."

The complete and radical disassociation between Christianity and the State that is sometimes advocated now is not what they had in mind. It's clear that they had seen entirely too many religious wars and religious tyrannies in Europe, and thus that they did want to make sure that no specific church or creed had authority over the State.

Recognizing their failure to win their arguments on fact, the lastest tactic among liberals is simply to deny the very documents that contain the facts.

Schools and courthouses in eastern Kentucky are removing their displays of historical documents - including the Mayflower Compact, an excerpt from the Declaration of Independence, the national motto, "In God we trust", and the preamble to the state's constitution - to comply with an order from Federal District Judge Jennifer Coffman, who said the displays are a violation of the First Amendment.  [Dr. Billy James Hargis, Christian Crusade, June 2000]When the First Amendment was passed it only had two purposes.
1. There would be no established, national church for the united thirteen states. To say it another way: there would be no "Church of the United States." The government is prohibited from setting up a state religion, such as Britain has, but no barriers will be erected against the practice of any religion. Thomas Jefferson's famous "wall of separation" between church and state comment was made in a letter to a group of Baptist clergymen January 1, 1802 in Danbury, Connecticut, who feared the Congregationalists Church would become the state-sponsored religion. Jefferson assured the Danbury Baptist Association that the First Amendment guaranteed that there would be no establishment of any one denomination over another. It was never intended for our governing bodies to be "separated" from Christianity and its principles. The "wall" was understood as one directional; its purpose was to protect the church from the state. The world was not to corrupt the church, yet the church was free to teach the people Biblical values. It keeps the government from running the church but makes sure that Christian principles will always stay in government.


2.  The second purpose of the First Amendment was the very opposite from what is being made of it today. It states expressly that government should not impede or interfere with the free practice of religion. The purpose of the separation of church and state in American society is not to exclude the voice of religion from public debate, but to provide a context of religious freedom where the insights of each religious tradition can be set forth and tested. As Justice Douglas wrote for the majority of the Supreme Court in the United States vs. Ballard case in 1944: The First Amendment has a dual aspect. It not only "forestalls compulsion by law of the acceptance of any creed or the practice of any form of worship" but also "safeguards the free exercise of the chosen form of religion." The First Amendment was a safe-guard so that the State can have no jurisdiction over the Church. Its purpose was to protect the Church, not to disestablish it.




Wilson voice:




The assault on America's religious underpinnings is based on a distorted interpretation by biased liberals. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ...Only a lawyer could claim not to understand the plain meaning of those words.




http://hubpages.com/hub/The-Commandments-The-Finger-of-God by Rev. Jerry Nelson

The Anchor For The Storms Of Life - The Cross

The Cros

Acts 27 tells the story of Paul on board a ship that is destined to crash. He has warned the Captain about the troubles that lay ahead if they sail out to sea. But the men aboard would not listen. Sounds like a lot of us that won't take Godly Advise knowing full well that we are headed for a crash. Now the storm has come. It looked like they were going to sink and everyone would perish.
Paul slipped away and began to talk to the Lord. The Bible says in Acts 27:20, "And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away."
It's important to get away from the noise of storms and talk to the Lord. In verse 27-29, Paul tells them, we're all going to be saved, "and sounded, and found it twenty fathoms: and when they had gone a little further, they sounded again, and found it fifteen fathoms. Then fearing lest we should have fallen upon rocks, they cast four anchors out of the stern, and wished for the day."
I'm going to tell you today how to get anchored. Everybody faces sterns in life. These men were in one of the worst storms ever. They had not seen the sun, nor the moon, nor the stars for about two weeks. Do you ever feel like the light of day will never come? A place where all hope seems to be gone? Have you ever had a midnight hour?
There's something about the midnight hour that makes you long for the day; to see the sun again. It's a bad situation and many times in your storms the devil will tell you that all hope is gone. You may be facing some dark situations, but if you'll put your trust in Jesus, you can make it through the storms of life.
I like that statement, they sounded the water, and they realized they were getting close to land. There were a lot of rocks out there, and the Bible says, "they cast out four anchors." Those four anchors were to hold that ship steady, lest it should be wrecked upon the rocks.
Do you have some anchors to throw out when storms come at you? We all need anchors when life's storms come at us. Look at our nation today. It looks like we have cut all the anchors loose that once made this nation great. We have cut the anchors and our nation is adrift on the sea of life.
We have cut the anchor of morality and kicked the Ten Commandments out the back door of our schools. We have kicked the anchor of the Bible and Prayer out the back door of our schools. When we did that, we opened the front door to knives, guns, bombs, drugs and lack of respect for authority. We have sown to the wind, and we have reaped a whirlwind. We have a crime epidemic because we have cut our nation's anchors loose.
I want you to make sure today that your anchor holds and grips the solid rock. His name is Christ Jesus. We need the Anchor of the Cross. The story of the cross is the story of Jesus, and the story of the cross is deliverance.
Life has its storms. The Bible says, man that is born of woman is few days, full of troubles. When you are born again, God delivers you out of all your troubles. The original wooden cross that hung on Calvary is no longer there. Our Lord that hung on that cross has ascended. He reigns as Lord and High Priest. He gave us a new and better covenant that he cut with his own precious blood.
The blood still has power and the cross lives on. In the reality of the cross, the lost, the suffering, and the broken hearted of every generation can find perfect deliverance. The cross is just as real today as it was when the multitudes saw it with their physical eye. The cross is a spiritual reality, and the plan of human redemption.
We live in a society today where the masses want a Savior. No one wants to die and go to hell. People want a Savior. but very few want to serve and give all of their life to the Lord. When Jesus becomes Lord of your life then you have to take up your cross and follow him.
The Bible tells us that the preaching of the cross is the power of God unto salvation. Because of the cross you can be saved, and you can be anchored to the rock that is Jesus Christ.
The storms of life will come, because the devil your adversary, he walks about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. He is watching to see who straddles the fence and who cuts their anchors loose. You can't half way serve God and have the fullness of his blessings.
You can't be a Laodicean Christian where you're neither hot nor cold. Jesus tells us he will spew you out of his mouth. You can't have one foot in the church and one foot in the world and make it through the storms. There are storms ahead, and we need the anchor of the cross to make it to heaven's shore.
Most people see the cross of Jesus, but they fail to see their own cross. Your cross is a place of separation. Your cross is a place of pain. Your cross is a place of suffering. Your cross is a place of death. We must all come to Calvary and die.
No one wants to die, yet the only way you can truly be born-again is to die. You've got to die to sin. You've to die to self. You've got to die so that you can be born-again.
Part Two of this series of eight articles in the anchor of the cross is what happens after we've been born again and how salvation raises us in the newness of life with Chri

Don't Lose Sight Of His Return

According to the signs of the times, we are in the last days!

Paul said brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. For this we say unto you, for those of us who remain alive in the Lord will not prevent those who are asleep to stop them from coming up from those graves."  1 Thessalonians 4:13.

For the Lord himself will descend with a shout, with the voice of the arch angel with a trumpet sound, and the dead in Christ shall rise first.  Those who remain alive shall be caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord.

The word rapture is not in the bible but the word caught-up is.  We are going to be caught up, so don't lose sight of his return.  Oh let us have the light of the word in our churches. I hope that in bringing some scripture in this teaching that it will give you comfort and joy, and a heart as a Christian.

When you lose your vision of the Lord's coming you lose your way through the wilderness of life.  When you lose your vision of the Lord's coming, you begin to live on a carnal, flesh level.  You begin to get caught up in the things that are going on around you in society.

If we knew that Jesus could come at any time or moment and we knew we must come face to face then every Christian would say, I must be a better Christian. They would admit that they need to live a better life because I can sense that the coming of the Lord is at hand.

We live in a troubled world and in troubled times.  Look at the problems we're having today right here in America.  We've got an oil spill that our government has not been able to stop and will be unlikely to have a recourse on the damage done to the earth.  We have economic problems, set backs, cut backs, and bailouts.  We are in perilous times like the Apostle Paul preached.  We're in the last days and the world system is being set up at this very moment for the Anti-Christ.  The world doesn't have any idea what's going on.  But I'm telling you, there is no man that can fix it.

The signs of the times show that we are in the prophetic days of the end.  So we had better make our calling and election sure.  Jesus said, I'll build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.  Don't lose sight of his return!

The Apostle Paul labeled this hour that we're living in as perilous times.  But there is a day that he is coming to deliver his church from it all.  He's coming for a glorious, triumphant, victorious church; a church without blemish, spot or wrinkle, or any such thing.  It's going to be a holy church. It's not going to be a prosperity church.  What's going to bring in the end time harvest is the gospel of Jesus Christ and ministers that will stand up and proclaim, Thus saith the Lord.

That same Jesus that died on the cross is coming. The same Jesus that rose from the dead is coming.  That same Jesus is coming back for his bride, the church.  Those who have been washed in the blood of the lamb is who he is coming for, and those who are looking for his glorious return.  Look at Hebrews 9:28.

Some people think that the true church will have to go through the tribulation but the bible says, God has not appointed us unto wrath but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.  The true church's appointment is to glory. Our destination is heaven.  When Christ appears, guess what, we're going to disappear.  When he comes we're going to leave this place, to a city that has no night.  It will be a city which has a foundation and whose builder and maker is God.

This is the blessed hope for the church.  This is why we're looking for him.  Because we know this world is not our home.  We're just pilgrims and strangers  passing through, sojourning here.  One fellow said to my Pastor, do you believe in aliens? I liked his answer.  He said, I sure do, cause I'm one of them.  I am an ambassador from the glory world and I'm on a mission for my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ to preach his word. Titus 2:13.

Think about it, right now Christ is in heaven and the Holy Ghost is at work here on earth.  There are two groups of people in this world.  You are either saved or you're lost.  It's just that simple.  Jesus is either your Lord or he's not.  You are either righteous or you're not.  You are either holy or you are unholy.  You are either ready to meet him or you're not.

You're either a servant of God or you belong to the devil.  There is no in between.  Bob Dylan sang a song once called 'You got to serve somebody."  When the Lord snatched me out of darkness and transferred me into light I know who I was going to serve from then on. It was like the song, "It was a great thing that he did for me."

I'm telling you how Christ did it, how he took all of that mess out of me; how he transformed my life after he flushed the filth out of my system.  I don't know, but I fell in love with him at that moment and I've been in love with him ever since.

The bible says, to set your affections on things above, not on things of this world.  For when he appears then shall we appear with him in glory. Don't lose sight of his return.

The next prophetic thing to occur on God's calendar is the coming of the Lord for his church.  First of all, when he comes there's going to be three great sounds. There's going to be a shout first, and it's going to be a mighty shout of victory and power.

Jesus stood at Lazarus' tomb one day and he cried, "Come forth."   Lazarus was dead but guess what, he heard the voice of the Master, and he came forth out of that tomb.  When Jesus descends with a shout, it will pierce the graves and penetrate the depths of the sea. It will be heard by every saint on this earth.

The bible says our body will be fashioned like unto his glorious body.  The body with it's aches and pains will be gone and we'll have a brand new body.  Secondly, there's going to be the voice of the arch angel. Think about this, Jesus will be leading a heavenly host of angels.  Then thousand upon ten thousand upon ten thousands of angelic beings.

You know, nothing can be around our Lord in heaven that does not reverence him and I believe the angels that surround him worship him day and night.  I believe they gather around him on the Sabbath and say, lets go to the earthly church and have a great camp meeting down there.  They've got some people over there at that church that likes to worship, sing and praise to me!

You know there's some churches that if Jesus was to show up the people wouldn't even know that he had even come.  I got something for my Lord, a Holy Spirit filled, fire packed gospel, and I'm going to hold on to it no matter who don't like it. I'm going to keep my sight on the things of God and on the coming of the Lord.

Thirdly, there's going to be the trumpet sound. Then we will see the appearing of our Lord.  The bible says the Lord himself will descend from heaven.  It's a promise, John 14:3.

Jesus loves his church!  He gave himself for it.  He looks upon the intent of the heart and he knows our lying down and when we rise.  The eyes of the Lord is running to and fro across the earth to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is perfect on him.

Jesus is coming back just like he left, with his disciples at the Mt. of Olives.  This same Jesus that was taken up before you will come again in a like manner as you saw him go into heaven.  He left on a cloud and he's coming back on a cloud.  He left with the arch angel and he's coming back with an arch angel.  He left in power and he's coming back in power.  He left in glory and he's coming back in glory. Those that are looking for him shall see him appear the second time, without sin unto salvation.

Aren't you glad you are saved!  If you are not fall on your knees with a contrite heart and ask his forgiveness and he will cover you in his blood.  Throw your anchor out for Christ and he will pull you into his marvelous light.

The heavens are going to burst open and Jesus will appear in mid air, suspended between heaven and earth.  Jesus was once before suspended between heaven and earth.  Cruel men hung him upon an old rugged cross yet Jesus loved them and he cried out from that cross, father forgive them for they know not what they do. Matthew 11:28.

He loved us so much he said, "all you who are heavy ladened, come unto me and I will give you rest."  For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross because he knew we would come.  He tells us, now go out and bring them in so that my house will be full. He's going to fill up that glory world.  He is enlarging it all the time but God is going to have a people in glory land and it's going to be the saints that loved him and overcame. That joy fills him, and his heart is filled with anticipation to be with his bride as he hovers between heaven and earth.  He can't wait to see the joy that fills us at his presence.

It's going to be a reunion the world will never forget! So don't lose sight of his return!

Let me tell you what's going to happen on this earth when he comes.  I'll give it to you straight from the word. The dead that were not saved, their grave will not open.  They will sleep on in their graves.  Those who have done good will come forth.  Those who have done evil will go to a damnation.  The bible says, blessed and holy is he that has part in the first resurrection but those who die without Christ are not blessed and holy.

The lost in their graves will sleep in the grave for another 1,000 years. Then the great tribulation period comes.  They will be raised and brought before the great white throne judgment.  Their fate is a lake of fire and hell damnation.  It's a time when all lost sinners will be judged and those who rejected Jesus Christ.  Those in the church who didn't obey the gospel and Christ will not make it either.  Wealth nor good works alone will not save you from this judgment.

The fearful, the liars, thieves, abominable sexual deviants, sorcerers, adulterers will all have flames of fire upon them in the judgment. Those whose names are not written in the book of life will be at the great white throne judgment.

This will be a final judgment, from its verdict there will be absolutely no appeal.  The bible tells us plainly that those whose name is not found in the book of life will be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone for eternity.  This is the sword of death.  Your body is dead and your soul and your spirit has no life to ever experience joy.  You will pray to die but can't. The sounds and the smells will torture your mind and senses forever.

This is the second death. This is what the devil has in store for you that listen to him and follow after sin of the flesh and mind and evil hidden in your hearts. The devil is a tempter because he knows we are weak in the flesh, but Christ's blood gives us power to give that up so we can overcome.

Hell is a place of darkness, a place of weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth.  Suffering night and day forever, and ever and ever.  This is a biblical truth, that all men without Christ are appointed unto death and that afterward unto judgment.  Sinners don't have to leave this world without Christ.  Backsliders in the church don't have to leave this world in that condition.

Never lose sight of what Christ has done for you or forget his promise of return.  It is those that are expecting him and looking for him that will see him.  Today is the day of salvation.  You better work out  your salvation with fear and trembling.  John said, blessed are the dead who die in Christ.  John 3:2, Col. 3:4.

This is why I sing and shout because I know he is soon to come and I rejoice in his sanctuary.  Are you living in his light and living holy for him night and day? Resist the devil! Draw night to Christ and righteousness will come and the devil will flee, for he will fear you with the anointing of Christ on you.

A Nation Under Fire In The Name Of Peace

Do you know what it means for a nation to be under fire from the enemy? I'll give you a picture of that from 1 Samuel 11:1-6. It means when you make covenant with the devil he destroys your children! Has America made covenant with a foul spirit of Satan's. Lets take a look through this teaching.

The Israelites had gone and encamped with the Ammorites.  Jabesh  said to Nahash, come, let us make a covenant with you people, and we will serve you.  "On this condition I will make a covenant with you, that I may put out all your right eyes, and bring reproach on all Israel. The elders of Jabesh said to him, "Hold off for seven days, that we may send messengers to all the territory of Israel. Then, if there is no one to save us, we will come out to you." So the messengers came to Saul and told the news in the hearing of the people. And all the people lifted up their voices and wept.

Now there was Saul, coming behind the herd from the field; and Saul said, "What troubles the people, that they weep?"  And they told him the words of the men of Jabesh. "Then the spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard this news, and his anger was greatly aroused."

Now I want you to remember these are Israelites, they numbered 300,000 with 30, 000 of them from Judah. They are asking the Ammorites to make a covenant with them. God brought a great miracle to these people when he had parted the Red Sea and freed them from bondage. Yet they were considering making covenant with the devil.  Saul was angry and God sent an urgency in his spirit to change this pact.

In this story, the King of the Ammorites was a vicious tyrant.  The Israelites were vulnerable because they were separated by the other Israelites and they didn't have much recognition.  They were in a vulnerable territory geographically.   They said we want peace, so let us make a covenant.

The King of Ammorites said, It's contingent and you will have to serve me and I will be your master.  I will pluck out the eyes of every child and woman in your nation.  He wanted them to know what his plan for Israel was. My friends, the devil has the same intention for America today.

No one is exempt from the fire that is going on in the world today. It affects your family and your future. The fire of terrorism, violence and the Spirit of Nahash is alive today. Drugs, sexual immorality and ungodly living will not skip your community.  It's called the fire of Humanism. It's removed prayer in our nation.  It's removed our original constitution. If you can destroy the foundation of a nation then you can rule it.

Our forefathers never meant to remove these values from our schools.  They drafted this great document to be permanent.  The separation of church and state meant that the states could never force a government religion upon the people. Now we see the government trying to silence Christianity and allow the building of huge Mosques in America.

There are four things that the bible describes as fire in Proverbs.  Fire is never satisfied.  If you think evil has not come yet to the world, just wait until Satan releases his end time spirit onto the world. The only thing that will put this fire out is God.

1.  The Fire of Morals:
Our morals are at an all time low, and our laws have been replaced with Anti-Christ laws, same sex marriage, abortion to the tune of 40 million. We have raised a generation of misfits and lawbreakers.  We see violence in thieves today.  They will steal from you and then kill you.

We don't give King Jesus any room in our schools.  How can you teach social studies without the law and God's word? Our children have ungodly counsel in the schools and are being taught a mentality of secular humanism. It's an intellect and cultural movement that's based upon Greek philosophy from the Renaissance and is concerned about self indulgence. The nation is teaching that man is his own God.  They call this progressive, but it's actually regressive and takes us back to the middle ages.

The US school system will be what the Anti-Christ uses to educate the mind to a trained mentality of the new age culture. This is making our children a menace to society instead of giving them morals and character.  When you substitute God for humanism, we are in for a fall.  Just like the King set out to destroy Israel, the devil is out to destroy us.

2.  The Fire of Child Abuse:
 The number one cause of death under the age of five is abuse. Their own mothers and fathers are killing them. Abusing them unto death is just like aborting your child.  I don't endorse abortion, it is for it goes against God's word.  The bible tells us to put off the old man and put on the new for you are created in the newness of him.

Within twelve days of conception there is a heart beat, and if there is a heart beat there is blood pumping. The life is in the blood.  Where there is blood there is life. Their spilled blood cries out to God. We have given our children over to Molech. Don't give your child over to this demon.

The 6th commandment says, Thou shalt not kill.  We have a generation of leaders in this nation that have turned their back on such destruction and many endorse it.  Our nation is rooting to the core.  Don't tell me you're a Christian and these things.  It's what you do that proves you're a Christian.

We've got to learn what sin is in this nation again, because leaving the commandments and the law out has become the norm and been replaced with a brand of grace that says you can live anyway you want to as a Christian.  The 10 Commandments are not optional.  The moral laws reflect God's character.  Every sin you commit has its origin in breaking God's laws and the first commandment.

Our leaders have sold us out by changing the laws our forefathers gave us to live by.  Christians have done the same thing with God's laws.  They stand behind the pulpit and say, I am this and that but are they washed in the blood and obedient to the word?

Any politician, church or preacher that doesn't endorse Jesus has violated the first amendment.  I don't care how popular he is, he has broken the first commandment.  The law must be understood if we're to remain a Christian nation.  Not Buddhist, not Mohammad, not Confucius, but the one that cometh by the Father.

Paul would stand and preach Christ to the Pharisees, and they hated him. Paul never sold out the word of God for fear of man.  God is our school master.  No one can make it to heaven with the commandments alone but you need the blood of Christ with it. You believe Jesus is a separate God, but the word says he God that came in the flesh.  Nothing but the blood of the lamb will wash your sins away.  No other fountain I know can save you, restore you and heal you or regenerate you into the newness of him.

Jesus died to make us holy, and set us free from sin, and who is set free by the blood is free indeed.  God is the source of life, and Jesus gives us that freedom to partake of that life force.

And your future is on fire!

3.  The Fire of Violence:
People will deceive you if you if you look the other way. Do you see a red light that is called rage. It's origins come from violent movies that are killing, raping and stalking women.  This is what our young men in this country watch and are influenced by.  The prisons are full of these men that were caught up in violence and their lives have been snuffed out by sin.

You don't break God's eternal laws, they will break you and I can tell you that the natural laws are much to bear, but you will follow God's law are he will turn you over to man's law.

We've got preachers that say, we don't know if you should take God's word literally.  But I've got a word for preachers like that and it's called the ALTER!  They need to get back down there until the blood covers them and the word of who Jesus is is in them.

We will all give an account to God in the offices he has placed us in for the benefit of his Kingdom.  Somebody has got to stand up and give a Clarine  call!

4.  The Fire of Pornography:
Pornography is addictive!  You think just alcoholics and drug users need help, but people who are obsessed with porn is in just as bad a condition. If your obsessed with porn then you have got a grip on you.  You've got some claws in you and you no longer are in control of yourself, but the spirit of Nahash has you.

That spirit says, I'm going to take my filth and put it in your nation, and I'm going to take your nation! Your future is on fire!

4.  The Fire of Addiction:

Drug addicts will rob their own Mother to get a fix.  I know a young man that killed his grandparents in order to rob them of their money to get a fix.  They will give their whole their whole pay check to a drug dealer.  The drug epidemic is real in this nation and it is right in your back yard.

Our Nation is on fire!

It's not just in the big cities anymore, it is the neighbor down the street.  You could have a drug dealer, next door or even in the pulpit.  Do you want this spirit to control your children.  We better get back to God and righteousness and teaching the commandments again.

The people cried, Oh Saul do something.  Can you imagine the urgency of that message?  Where is the urgency of that message in our nation today?  Where is "Thus saith the Lord" in our pulpits?

There will come a generation of preachers that will speak the truth that will set the captive free instead of coddle the people because they are more in love with their deep pockets than Jesus. Isaiah 58:10.

We are in a famine of the word of God.  You don't need a sermon on prosperity, but a sermon about how the blood delivers!  These are Shepherds, standing behind God's office and this grieves my soul. They need to be barking out, "Thus saith the Lord."

Our nation is under attack and preaching is a calling not a profession.  A preacher is called to preach the whole bible, and not just the up lifting words that send you home still walking in your sin and that only make you feel good for an hour. We are to rightly divide the word, that means teaching,correcting, rebuking and lifting up.

The pure in heart shall see God, the whore monger in the church will not.  Jesus will look them in the eye, with fire and there that will be a day of reckoning.  I hope you hear my heart today, because we have got to get back to the spirit of God. We need a spiritual awakening and feel good messages do not bring about great awakenings but conviction in the heart to turn from old ways that rip through the churches is what brings about spiritual awakenings.  Wake us up O'Lord!

We've got a lot of people leaving the church.  The church has got to come clean with God.  We need to be washed again in hyssop, the blood that cleanses us.  We need an outpouring of God's spirit, a radical change in the church.  When a radical change occurs in our churches then a radical change will take place in our nation.

We are not going to compromise on the spirit of Nahash.  He's not going to pluck out the eyes of our children.  Do you know what the Israelites did?  They went down and beat the living daylights out of Nahash. If they can do that, so can we to save America.

The Mystery Of The Blood Covenants

The Mystery Of The Blood Covenants

     You can never understand covenant until you get discernment of the mystery of the blood trail with the three blood covenants God made with man.  Make no mistake about it, the Jews always knew that God would present the unblemished lamb that would become our redeeming savior.  But they had become so dependent upon the law and legalism and passing their sin onto the red heifer once a year that when their appointed time for final redemption came in the form of a servant they had a hard time believing that he would have to become sin for them in the nature of a common criminal and hang on a cross, cursed. They expected a King to relieve them of the oppression from Rome.  You see, Christ's blood could not have become light had he not become as a humble servant,overcome the world and take upon himself sin and suffer and have to spill his blood on a cross with cursed of society.  But you can’t change how the light is to come, because that is a set given with the essence of God’s being. The Jews were expecting a King to come out of no where and, that he would be royalty without the price of pure unblemished (righteous) blood that ignites light.  It is to our fortune and the whole world’s really that the Jews rejected Jesus because God then blinded their spiritual eyes and for a time so the whole creation could have a chance to be saved. We are living in a set time where we are beginning to witness the blinds being lifted from the eyes of the Jews. A mass movement of Messianic Jews have arisen in the world and huge organizations of Christians and Jews have formed alliances.

     Now I’m going to take you into each blood covenant and I’m going to show you how they all unveil the mystery of the blood and how God operates as he revealed his end time plan beginning in Genesis and comes full circle in Revelation.   You will then see clearly what a veil of blindness the Jews have been under and what it means to the Gentiles and how it is going to work into a great Jubilee of the natural branch being en grafted back into the root and how and when the fulfillment of the number of the Gentile Christians is to occur.  Lets take a look at how God orchestrated this magnificent plan to be reconciled to his beloved and at the same time blow Satan’s mind in the process. If you are not in love with Jesus and coming into the presence of the King of the Universe by the end of this article then you need to get yourself to the altar and pray the sinners prayer until you weep with humility and a contrite heart.  God began with the law and he ended with capturing our heart through the son showing us the Father’s great love by becoming flesh to save us and reconcile us back to him from the fall of Adam.

     The blood has been a mystery since the beginning of time, but most importantly it has been a mystery to Satan.  Remember, blood means life, a pure light source.  God required a pure or unblemished life force in order for sin redemption, or to be able to come into His presence. The High Priest had to go through a cleansing process before he could step behind the curtain to present the offering.  If he wasn't righteous he would drop dead and that meant no sin redemption, so the people would gather outside of the Tabernacle and listen to see if the bells stopped ringing on the hem of the Priest's garment.

     When we think of the first sin, we automatically think of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, but the first sin was not committed in the Garden of Eden.  It was committed in heaven by Lucifer, also known as The Morning Star.  The sin committed was pride.  Lucifer was called a Son of God. (Job 38:4-7).  Ultimately, he defiled the throne of heaven and was cast down with a third of the angels with him.  Now, it is interesting to note that in Revelation Jesus is referred to as The Morning Star. Morning star means son, and Lucifer lost that status when he thought he could be as big as God and eventually defiled the throne of heaven with sin in his heart.

     Jesus said in Luke 10:18, “I saw Satan fall like lightening from heaven.”

     Still defiant after defiling the throne of Heaven, Satan intervenes in God’s creation to subdue mankind. So after Satan tempts Eve God lays out the foundation of redemption but withholds the mystery of the blood from Satan. He's really mad now because God calls mankind his sons. Lucifer was no longer part of God's family.

     The fight had begun for dominion of the earth and mankind, and the throne (or the temple) of heaven is the central stage and as it was in the beginning, the battle of Armageddon will begin with the ultimate Holy War for the throne in Jerusalem between to two Princes, the son, Jesus and the Satan’s Prince, the Anti-Christ.

     But the blood is still an issue. So let’s clarify how the blood has played out so far and how it will again in the end in this heavenly war against Satan over God's authority over his creation.

     After the sin in the Garden of Eden man was cut off from the tree of life and a curse was handed down to man separating him from his creator. God did not want this, but sin will not stay in his presence of pure light. (Genesis 3:15)  God said to the serpent, “I’ll put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers.  He will crush your head and you will bruise His heel.”  The “He” that God is referring to that would crush Satan’s head is Jesus, so we know from this that God is referring to a singular seed, not many seeds.  The ultimate blood sacrifice and  God’s word 'come in the flesh'  had been released in the Garden of Eden.  The seed of God’s word, Jesus, was hidden in the woman. (Luke 1:30-35). From that point God made the blood a mystery unto Satan. That truth of God becoming incarnate in the seed of a woman and in the flesh of Jesus baffled even the Pharisees, and Satan never saw what hit him.   Because the blood of Jesus would ultimately purify the heavenly altar that Satan had defiled.  Now if Satan had known this mystery of the blood he would have never killed Jesus. (1 Corinthians 2:7,8).

     As soon as the blood of the slain Lamb of God spilled and his death occurred the host of angels swooped down on that concrete, makeshift altar and rushed that pure blood life force up into the heavenly throne and poured it onto the altar. Jesus resurrected from the same power God used to create the earth, a spoken word and to us a Kingdom was established, with all the power and authority invested in Him by the Father as our final High Priest and redeemer. He then went to the depths of hell and took from Satan the keys of death and the power of sin that had separated us from our creator.  The arch angel swooshed down to the earth and clothed him in his high priest garment and he ascended to the throne where he sits at the right hand of God interceding for us.

     In a later article I will show you more about this powerful truth as I go into the the subject of divine intervention and the four works of the cross.

     You may be pondering right now, well, why didn’t God just send Jesus after the Garden of Eden?  Let’s look at an analogy of just what a Father is and how he thinks about his children for a minute.  God had created the angels for his pleasure and Lucifer was the most beautiful angel he had, and was called a Son of God.   He had authority in heaven. He had God’s presence and his ear.  Lucifer was the worship leader and it is said that his voice sounded like the 7 musical keys when he spoke. He had pipes coming out of his chest when he worshiped before God.  That's why King David was a man after God's own heart, he knew how to worship and please the Lord. Lucifer had it all and failed God because greed for power overtook his heart.  So God said, I’ll create my own family. He created Adam from the dust and breathed life into his nostrils. We all have God's likeness in us and he weeps for that communion with us, but sin separates us from his glory.  Adam failed him also, ah but Jesus, he sealed the covenant, a man without sin and he took the burden of sin on his shoulders and it was heavy almost to the point of killing him physically as he prayed in the garden of Getheseme and blood dropped from his brow as he pleaded with the Father, take this cup from me, but his will was to reconcile with his creation and it was not God's will to rescue his son.  Yes, you were bought with a heavy price. Righteousness always has a price.

     God wanted to commune with his creation again.  He wanted man to become righteous again, to reconcile back to him for the purpose of pure love and to be with us that had been created in his own image. The flesh has to be subjected to the spirit for righteousness and communion with God to come and the regeneration of the blood is the only thing that will work to accomplish that.  He wanted that part of us back that was made in his likeness. He began his plan of reconciliation through covenants. It’s all about free will that he gave us and if love has to be forced then it is not effectual.  On the other hand God could not commune with man in sin.  His righteousness, holiness, light and life force cannot mesh with darkness that is in the natural man.

     We are going to take a journey into learning righteousness through covenant. A covenant is contract and within a contract you have commands and then you have blessings.  We are going to learn just how God has a relationship with us through our covenant with him; how he operates, his seasons, his patterns and just how Holy He is.  Our minds cannot even comprehend the enormity of who our God is and the power and blessings he gives us through our blood covenant.  But you can get a glimpse of his majesty and what His presence is like through the tabernacle tent right and at Calvary’s Cross.  


You have to understand that when God makes a redemptive covenant he always seals it with pure blood.  First we will look at God’s first blood covenant after the destruction of mankind that had left only Noah, while Enoch was resurrected into heaven. God promised to never destroy his creation again. However, it is important to remember God’s wrath in Noah’s day for He will display that wrath again in the end, not by flood but by fire.  I see the world rampant with sin and dishonor of his word, immorality and idolatry just as in the day of Noah and in the day of Sodom and Gomorrah.  When covenant is lost in a society the first thing that falls is character and when character is absent immorality flourishes. Character and righteous living raises a standard and our nation was built on such standards and the bible was what our natural laws were based on.  When our nation returns to covenant with the God of Israel that blessed the United States and made us the most powerful nation in the world, then you will see God's blessing and strength in our nation again.

THE FIRST BLOOD COVENANT

     The first covenant God made was with Abraham.  God had destroyed all the people during Noah’s time because of corruption and sin among the people.  He chose Abraham to covenant with.  You may be asking, why did God choose Abraham? It wasn’t because he was an elite tribe, or even the largest.  There was something very unique about Abraham.  He was an inquisitive man, and although he had grown up around idols and idol worship, he began to question that kind of worship. How did it benefit man?  How could it improve our situations? How could it commune with us?  At the core of his soul he knew there was a living God, and he diligently sought the living God.  God saw this longing and character in Abraham and he chose him to make known himself through this desert man.  God did not choose him because he was a Jew.  Noah was a Gentile.  As Abraham developed his relationship with God and God spoke to him, God saw a thirst, faithfulness, and truth seeking substance to Abraham.  It was for these reasons, especially after Abraham passed the test of faith that God made a covenant with him, and sealed it with blood through the blood letting of circumcision of every new born male child at eight days old, and promised him that he would become the Father of nations.

     Abraham thus became a God-like figure. He would do something that later God would have to do himself; sacrifice his own son. A foreshadowing of God's final redemptive plan.  Abraham was the only man that ever lived that got a glimpse of the pain and despair that it took to sacrifice the loved and promised son.  This act was a foreshadowing of what was to come in the future, an act that God would do himself with his own son. When Jesus hung on that cross suffering and near death, and called out, “My Father why have you forsaken me?”  God had to look the other way for he could not look upon sin or bear the pain to see the unblemished son’s suffering. So never think that sin doesn't hurt God, for it takes his family away from him.  It hurt him to have to be absent as Jesus had to carry the world's sin on his shoulders on that cross. It is incomprehensible to even imagine the sin of the whole world upon one man who knew no sin.  God's essence could not blend with that, Jesus had it to do alone.  God could not look upon the incomprehensible burden Jesus was heavy-laddened with. That's just a peek of how dirty sin is to our Father in heaven.  Still Jesus took that dirt upon his life and was obedient unto death.  He could have called ten thousand angels. But Jesus was obedient till death. So never think that obedience is not necessary for a righteous life.  Jesus knew that if he called upon the Angels with the power of the spoken word, Satan would win, and he wanted to give the Father back his creation that he has longed for.  Jesus had spent a thousand years in heaven with the Father as one with him.  Reconciling his creation that he had breathed his very life into was a fixated desire of God, and Jesus gave that gift back to him.  So never wonder why Jesus is now at the right hand of the Father, given all authority and power over God’s creation.  It is for this reason that he is the only one worthy to open the book of life and to be the Prince of Peace and High Priest seated on the throne and to speak our futures at the Great White Throne of judgment.  He is the only one who truly understands mercy and justice and that is what he will judge us on.

     Abraham was the man that came closet to understanding the power of obedience as Jesus did.  Abraham is our patriarch Father that we inherit the promise of Christ from.

     Isaac became a chosen to inherit that promise and to inherit the land of Canaan which is Israel today, which includes Jerusalem.  I’m going to prove this to you as I discuss further the journey Abraham took to sacrifice Isaac.

     I certainly understand why Abraham did not announce that he was about to take his son upon a high mountain and kill him for the living God. These ex-idol worshippers would have assumed he was gone mad in the mind.  We have a lot more discernment now through the Holy Spirit and knowledge in the Kingdom that most of the time when God calls us to do a great work for him, it never makes sense to the carnal mind.

     Now Abraham had two sons, Isaac and Ishmael.  God also blessed Ishmael and promised to make him a mighty nation.  But Ishmael was not the son to inherit Israel or the promises. (Genesis 17:19-21) God did not make a blood covenant with Ishmael, in spite of Abraham asking God to do that before Isaac was born.

    Now the covenants that were sealed in blood were made with the Jewish patriarchs that carried the scepter to the everlasting throne in Jerusalem.  To have discernment about the end time Holy war with the Anti-Christ and Jesus over the temple throne in the battle of Armageddon you  have got to understand and follow the scepter of the blood line. I pray my fellow Christians for you not to be ignorant of this truth for it is the unveiling of the mystery of the blood that always confused religious folks and Satan.  The Anti-Christ will lie to cover up this truth in the end time, and many in our churches will believe him because most Christians don’t know the word concerning it.

     The Palestinian Muslims (Philistines) who are of the line of Ishmael will try to tell you that it was Ishmael who was the favored son and not Isaac.  Do not believe this because Isaac was a miraculous conception in the dead womb of Sarah who was ninety years old. The seed of the woman carries the mystery of the blood and that trail leads to the savior coming from the stump of Jesse, the young David. (1Samuel 16:12.13)  You will see as we go along here that God stayed with only one certain bloodline that led to Jesus being a direct descendant from Judah.  

     Now King David purchased the city of Jerusalem where His throne will never end, because Jesus, his descendant is the King of Kings forever. When King David killed Goliath, who was a seed of Satan, he dragged the head of the giant 16 miles to Jerusalem, to the hill we call Calvary or Golgotha Hill (hill of the skulls) where Jesus' blood dripped onto the evil seed and took away the sin of the world and stripped Satan of his power. David purchased Mt Moriah (Jerusalem) where his throne will be forever and Jesus will reign.  But let's get back to the promise for a moment.  God promised Abraham that he would be the Father of Nations and he clearly showed him on Mt. Moriah that Abraham saw far off, into a three-day journey, the unblemished Lamb of God that was to come. Mt Moriah is the temple mount in Jerusalem. (Genesis 22:14).  The ram’s horn became a symbol of the coming of Christ and was blown at the gathering of the people on the Feast of Tabernacles, the Jewish New Year, called Sukkot in Hebrew, and was a sign of the coming Messiah.  The ram’s horn  is called a shofar.  In fact Jesus was born during this feast time. On our calendar it is October.

     The stipulation of the covenant with Abraham was for the people to put no other God’s before them.  Idols and idolatry was forbidden.  So the first lesson God wanted to teach us was not to have dependence on anything self made that took us away from him.  You see, God’s jealousy is not the same as ours.  Our jealousy causes strife, but God’s brand of jealousy is to bring us in line with him.  So when he displays his jealousy it is to correct us and bring us back in line with him and he desires for us not to be led by things that lead us to death and away from the source of light that leads to life.

     God also established the first fruits law through Abraham, that is the tithe.  Abraham took a tenth of all he had to the High Priest Melchizedek.  He was to perform a bloodletting on every first born male by circumcision of the foreskin, and it was to be a sign of their blood covenant with God. 

     With every blood covenant God made he appointed a High Priest as well.  God anointed Melchizedek to be the first High Priest in the covenant with Abraham.  Melchizedek had no history and there was no beginning or end to him.  He is the foreshadowing of Christ's High Priesthood. Melchizedek was told by God to take bread and wine to Abraham which represents blessing and the the bread of life and the fruit of the land as well as the foreshadowing of Jesus who said, "I am the bread came down from heaven and no one goes to the father except through me, meaning his blood, the wine.

THE SECOND BLOOD COVENANT

     The second covenant God made was with Moses, a Christ-like figure who freed the Israelites from bondage. God set his word down to Moses to give to the chosen people to be the keepers of His Word and commandments.  God took Moses upon Mt. Sinai and there he showed him the Heavenly Temple and told him to build it and he would bless them and his presence would dwell among the people. The heavenly temple reflects the tent tabernacle, its dimensions, divisions and furniture.  The Ark of the Covenant is in Heaven and the temple is the throne. (Rev. 11:19) God instructed Moses to appoint the Levites as priests of the tabernacle in the line of Arron who would be the High Priest.  The High Priest was to sacrifice a bull and a red heifer once a year at the Feast of Tabernacles ( Yum Kippur) for redemption of the people’s sins.  An unblemished lamb was to be sacrificed at Passover each year. Passover is God's favor to smear you with his purified blood over your dwelling so death and the evil one can not pass through. Now, you get a glimpse of the power of Christ's blood over you.

      Let's look at the structure of the tabernacle and we’re going to be able to see the trinity and Christ in its layout and how it foreshadows the third and final blood covenant we have with Christ.  We’re also going to look at the seven procedures the priest performs that show the weapons of war against the devil, which represent the 7 places Jesus shed his blood for us.

     In Revelation, Jesus’ feet is described as brass, which is representative of the brass basin in the tabernacle, the water represents Jesus’ knees, his waist is represented by His spirit in the Holy of Holies, and His Head is the Holiest of Holies.  His right hand outstretched represents the Jews and his left hand outstretched represents the Gentiles.  The female cow represents the Bride of Christ. The red heifer ashes symbolize purity, the crucifixion of Christ (the scape goat for sin, Numbers 19:2)   In the Temple service the priest would mix the red heifer’s ashes with cedar, hyssop and scarlet and sprinkle it seven times to the right and seven times to the left, the right for the Jews and the Left for the Gentiles.  There is only one entrance to the Tabernacle, on the East side, the tribe of Judah, which is where Jesus’ bloodline is.  The trinity is clear in the layout of the Tabernacle as well, the Holiest of Holies is the Father, the Holy of Holies is the son, and water basin is the Holy Spirit.

     Rabbi Richmond who has a weekly Torah teaching from the Temple Institute says there’s no way to understand the mysterious purification of the red heifer but that it means a final redemption, and they believe Israel will be redeemed during the month of Nissan (Passover). Some Orthodox Jews believe the red heifer will play a role in the purifying of the 3^rd Temple that is to come.  The cost of a red heifer was 30 pieces of silver, the same that was paid for Jesus to Judas. (Lev. 27:4)  In Hebrews 9:13-14, Paul refers to the burning of the ashes as a symbol of Jesus.  The last red heifer that was sacrificed was just before the destruction of King Herod’s temple.  The Talmud (Jewish bible) states that the High Priest would stand in the temple facing the Mt. Of Olives when he sprinkled the blood 7 times.  The Menorah had to be brought out when sprinkling the blood, (the seven spirits of God in Revelation).

     So, yes there is discernment of the mystery of the red heifer and those whom the Holy Spirit gives discernment has no problem seeing that Jesus became the symbolic red heifer, and in the third temple he is the only one that can purify it from the abomination of desolation. The word says that 2/3 of the Jews will see that clearly when God opens their blinded eyes. Unfortunately, and it was to the distress of Daniel when Christ showed him how a 1/3 of the Jews will perish for their obstinate unbelief and like a third of the angels that fell from heaven, that third will perish at the hands of the enemy that will form against Jerusalem. The 2/3rd's remaining that run to the hills will survive and there will be a great repentance with weeping and wailing for Jesus, and all of Israel will be saved. God will split the earth and swallow the armies that come against Israel and onto his Holy Mountain. He is beckoning his enemy now in this day that we live, the enemies are forming and God is moving his people from the four corners of the earth. 

It Was Through Abraham That Our Inheritance Came 

     It is through this red heifer that we can see a far off (as Abraham did) the sacrificial blood of Christ, and that New Covenant earns us the presence of the Living God, dominion in the earth as the children promised to Abraham.  Through that blood covenant of Christ we have everything Adam lost for us.  We’ll get into just what our dominion is through Christ’s blood in the Divine Intervention article, but for right now I just want you to understand your inheritance through Abraham and where your placement in the Kingdom is in these end times. God has placed before us a duty toward the Jews and we'll get into that more when we discuss the beginning of tribulation.

GOD’S SEASONS AND YEARLY APPOINTED TIMES

     In the Jewish feasts there are lots of mysteries to be discerned.  Lets take a look at the 7 Feasts and how the timing of these feasts reveals the first and second coming of Christ.  Three of the feasts are appointed times God calls us before him.  The first is Passover, then Feast of Weeks (first fruits or Pentecost) and then Feast of Tabernacles (atonement). The Passover is called Yum Kippur in Hebrew.  The feast of weeks is called Shavuot in Hebrew. The Feast of Tabernacles is called Sukkot in Hebrew. The first four of these feasts were fulfilled by Christ’s first coming and represent his shed blood.  The final 3 feasts will be fulfilled by the return of Christ.  The trumpets represent his return, atonement will complete his judgment at the Great White Throne and the tabernacles represent the gathering of the Bride.  The last three means royalty, a king coming to claim his Kingdom.  (appointed times Lev. 23).

     It is important for Christians today to come before the Lord at His appointed times.  God is a seasonal God and he hands down blessings in His seasons, not ours. Passover is a time to celebrate the risen Christ and the redemption His blood gave to us, when he took us from darkness to light, from bondage of sin to freedom, more importantly it gives us entrance to the Holiest of Holies.  The feast of weeks, or first fruits is a time when we give to the widows, the homeless, the alien and to the priests that minister to us.  It is a seed principle that you must put into practice if you are to receive the blessings and promises.  The feast of tabernacles, which is known today as Sukkot, is called the season of our joy.  I believe Jesus was born during the season of Sukkot.  He obviously was not born in December, for Luke 2:8 records that at the time of Jesus’ birth there were shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.  From the biblical times to the present the shepherds of Israel leave the cold of the open fields and pen their sheep at night which would have been true in the month of December. Due to the nighttime cold there were no shepherds in any fields in December.  Jesus’ birth, then, had to occur  in early October since Shepherds were still in the fields. Also, the people were required to travel to Bethlehem to register for the new census that only occurred in a new year. That is why Joseph and Mary were traveling to Bethlehem. The Jewish new year is the beginning of October and not December.  The biblical facts point to Jesus being born during the festival of Sukkot, the season of Joy! That would make sense too of why all the Inns were full.

     In conclusion, the patterns of God were established long before man had a revelation of them.  I think a lot of times with Christians it is not that we are doing something wrong as much as we are not doing enough of what is right and required by God – understanding  the precise patterns and seasons of God.  Begin walking in the power of the promise and release God’s abundant blessings throughout the year and in all three of God’s seasons.  God has instituted principles for your victory and a wealth of promises, peace, protection, and everything to meet your needs.  First fruits in Hebrew is “bikkurim” and literally means “promise to come.”  First fruits is a principle of faith and obedience that God established from the beginning, it is an eternal law and it’s one of the most life-changing principles in Scripture.  The promises of God’s Blessings are based in the principle of the First Fruits.  You can plead promises all day long with no results when you violate God’s principles and His appointed seasons for the latter and former rains.  When people don’t see God’s fullest manifestation of blessings it is because they are not following God’s ordained patterns for blessings and provision. (Lev. 23)  This divine establishment of God’s order is actually the root, the foundation that governs the rest.  “For if the first fruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches.” (Romans 11:16).

     We have to understand God’s never-changing principles and seasons for possession to occur, we must work in the divine order, governed by the truth of the Word of God.  When you are obedient to God’s commands and appointed feasts these are the promises of your inheritance:  Exodus 23. 

Covenant Blessings

1.        Assign an angel to you.  “Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared.” (Verse 20)

2.       Be an enemy to your enemies.  “I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.” (verse 22)

3.       Give you Prosperity.  “So you shall serve the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and your water.” (verse 25)

4.       Take sickness away from You. “And I will take sickness away from the midst of you.” (verse 25)

5.       Give you a long life. “I will fulfill the number of your days.” (verse 26)

6.       Bring increase and inheritance. “Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and you inherit the land.” (verse 30)

7.       Give a special year of blessing. “For I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you.” (verse 31)

 

THE FOUR BASIC COMMANDS TO RECEIVING THESE BLESSINGS

 

1.        Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul

2.       Keep the Sabbath Holy

3.       Pay a tenth to the Lord

4.       Love your neighbor as yourself

     If you are still laboring to do the ten commandments then you are still on spiritual milk and now let us go to spiritual meat. It is time to look at what the Lord is saying to us and burn it into our minds, spirits and hearts of what it is that he desires in our walk with him.  If you do these four commands then you will not break the others.  Furthermore, there were 7 commands established for the Gentile believers.  In the council of Jerusalem, only 7 commands were laid out for the Gentile believers.  They were called the Noahide laws. These stipulations permitted Gentiles to worship with the Jews without having to do animal sacrifice, which was their blood covenant, and the Abrahamic circumcision, which included ritual cleansing laws. The law of Moses never became moot and Jesus said, "I have not come to abolish the law but to fulfill, or do away with the feasts but to fulfill it.

UNDERSTAND THAT IT IS FAITH THAT SAVES YOU AND NOT THE LAW / DEAD WORKS

Galations3: 8-29

     The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham (through the sacrifice of Isaac).  God told Abraham,  “All nations will be blessed through you.”  So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.  (So if you rely on the law without faith you are cursed.)  That means trying to attain righteousness by dead works of eating only certain foods,  sacrificing animals for redemption, wearing certain clothes, laying burdens on the children of God that enslave them to righteousness, man made doctrines, requirements of attending church 4 times a week, praying a certain rehearsed prayer  Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law and traditions that actually keep us from attaining true righteousness. 

      Jesus redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.  No one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case with the blood of Christ.  So, know what your covenant is through the blood and not what man tells you in order to maintain a certain image that robs you of a pure heart and love toward others.  The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed.  The scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to Your Seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ.  What I mean is this:  The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise to Abraham and his seed. Inheritance does not depend on law.  Otherwise the promise would be no good, but God did give it to Abraham through grace. The law was given for transgressors to be redeemed from their sins through blood sacrifice until the seed to whom the promise referred had come. Righteousness cannot come through the law.  The law was put into place to lead us to Christ and his blood redemption through faith. The law is a guide to show us how far off we are to righteousness and how impossible it is to attain through dead works.  So we are all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ.  There is neither Jew or Greek or Gentile, male or female, slave or free man, for we are all one in Christ and heirs to the promise. 

     No matter what denominational church you belong, or what color your skin, or what man made doctrines you’ve adopted, there will be many nations and races who enter in the Kingdom of God and we’ll get into the legalism that has slipped into the Christian church that has split us up into so many different denominations in a later chapter (Christian replacement theology.

 BLESSINGS FOR COMMANDS

Dueteronomy 28:1-14

     These are the blessings I give to you this day.  I will set you high above all the nations on earth.  All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God.

     You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.  The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and your crops and your flocks.  Your basket and you kneading trough will be blessed.  You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.

     The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you.  They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven.

     The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to.  The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.

     The Lord will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep his commands and WALK IN HIS WAYS.  God will give us the grace we need to walk in covenant. Then all the people on earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will fear you.  The Lord will grant you abundant prosperity, in the fruit of your womb, your livestock, and your crops, in the land he swore to your forefathers to give you. That would be Abraham and His seed.

     The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend money to many but borrow none.  The Lord will make you the head, not the tail.  If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I give you this day and careful to follow them, you will always be at the top and never at the bottom.  Do not turn aside from any of the commands I give you today, to the right or to the left or follow other God’s or serve them.