Eunuchs and the Tree of Life

With the discussion of the two trees in the Garden, we’re again discussing the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness. These are two different cultures at enmity with each other. Within the first two chapters of Genesis, we have the Kingdom of God expressed. In Genesis 1:16-8, we have the darkness being “ruled” over by the sun and moon. In Genesis 1:26-27, we have humanity being made in God’s image, that it might “rule”, or “have dominion”, over the creation. This ruling is described in further detail with the wording of Genesis 2.

The words of our English Bibles tell us that God God commanded the man that he would “tend and keep” the Garden. The Hebrew words denote something slightly different than what commonly comes to mind. In my mind, I always read that Adam was to “tend” the Garden, and I assumed that meant working. But God isn’t talking about work. He isn’t talking about labor. Rather, God is talking about a certain kind of building up, a certain kind of servanthood that takes into consideration what the creation needs, and then becomes that foundation that tends to the needs of the Garden. This describes nothing short of what it means to be apostolic or prophetic. Apostles and prophets are called the foundation, the very thing that holds up the building, and gets walked on without any thought or consideration.

Our word “keep” doesn’t work well anymore. It used to be that to “keep” something was to guard and cherish it, but it has now become simply possessing. For God to tell Adam to keep the Garden, He was telling Adam to cherish and guard it. This is also the word used for the commandments of God. We’re to keep the commands, which we’ve interpreted as flawlessly adhering to their demands. While it might be true that God expects we’ll live in obedience to Him, the word that he used was the same as here in the Garden. The Hebrew word shamyir means to guard, or to cherish. If you tell someone who loves God to guard His commands, they would gladly risk their lives to make sure that they do so. In fact, many of the traditions of the Jews come from this very thing. They want to guard the commands, and so they must rigorously ask the question of what exactly it means to covet, or to steal, or to bear false witness.

God’s Kingdom is expressed fully in the Garden of Eden. His rule is one of service, giving itself over to the needs of others. Indeed, just as Jesus taught, we should not be rulers in the sense of the Gentiles, who lord over one another. Rather, anyone who wants to be great must become the least, and anyone who wants to “rule” must serve. This idea of being a servant is scattered throughout the parables of Jesus. At one time He minces no words in telling us that some are made eunuchs out of their own volition, for the sake of the Kingdom of God.

To be a eunuch for the Kingdom is to strip away your own rights, your own thoughts, your own needs, and your own reputation. Eunuchs are servants who have no regard for their own households. Their only regard is for building up the house of their master. Just like the apostles wrote themselves as being “bondslaves” and “servants” of the Lord Jesus Christ, the apostle is one who fundamentally stands in adherence to the word of God. Every waking moment is a pulsation of desiring and coveting that God be served and get the glory in all things. Our life is no longer our own. “I must decrease so that He might increase.” Just as the prodigal son desired to come to the Father no longer deserving to be a son, but now coveting to be a servant, for the servants have bread and enough to spare, the apostolic man and Body does not seek their own fame and reputation, but rather seeks to train the sons in maturity and fullness, that they might become heirs.

What strikes me is that Scripture doesn’t say anything negative of the eunuchs, other than that in Leviticus they are told not to come near the altar. Every other mention, and certainly the concept of that lifetime devotion unto your master, is blatantly held in high regard. Isaiah claims that these eunuchs shall indeed come near the House of God, and shall even be given names better than sons and daughters. It is said of Elijah that he comes at the end of the age to restore the sons unto the fathers, and to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the sons. This heart is one that bleeds of that eunuch-type servanthood. It has laid down everything so that it might raise up heirs who will inherit the glorious City. As Paul said to the Corinthians, they have been prepared for one Husband.

The Elijah people are they who have given up everything of their own, they who see the Bridegroom and rejoice, preparing the Bride for but one Husband, decreasing so that He might increase, and jealously seeking to build up His house alone. For this reason, because they have no desire to build up their own name and household, they are entrusted with the secret things of God, and they are men of authority. These apostolic and prophetic men are they who God has created from the beginning. Adam was the first foundational man, expressing what it means to rule in the Kingdom of God, and was therefore the steward of the great mystery. This mystery is God revealed. Adam reflecting God outward to all creation, and bringing even the creation into fullness and maturity, that the way may be prepared for the coming of its King.

When we examine the two trees of the Garden, we must bear in mind that they are given as symbols as much as they’re real things. Yes, Adam ate a tangible fruit. Yes, there was a real and lasting death that took place. However, the two trees represent heavenly realities as well. To the tree of life we have full expression of overcoming and ruling in the Kingdom of God. To the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we have full expression of dwelling in death, choosing death moment by moment rather than life, and thus becoming the antithesis of “seek first the Kingdom of God…”

Love Fulfills the Law – Galatians 5:7-15

In this passage, there are a couple things noteworthy, but it all leads to the point: “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” What is it that leads to this “for” declaration? What is the “for” resting upon that is the so obvious conclusion of?

We noticed in the last segment how Paul is expressing “Christian liberty”. It isn’t that our freedom for freedom’s sake is given so that we can go out and live like we want to, but that we are not bound to a righteousness that demands we live according to what others conceive of being righteous. Our foundation is not upon a law, nor upon what we do, but upon Christ and what He has done. In that, we can rest in the fact that we are alive in Him, and that through Him we can be content simply in being His. One of my friends once told me, “We’re human beings, not human doings.”

It’s the proverbial Moses’ call to “come up the mount and BE there”. Don’t think about how your going to get down. Don’t think about food and water. Don’t think about the Israelites at the base of the mountain. Come up the mount, and be with me.

Now, we haven’t come to Sinai, which Paul so brilliantly already declared in Galatians 4:25-27, but unto Zion (New Jerusalem – Hebrews 12:18-24). The mount that we’re to climb is not one based upon “do this, don’t do that”, but upon faith and the grace of God. We’ve come to Zion, the very heavenly dwelling of God’s throne and glory. We’ve come to Zion, the very beauty that draws out the angel’s worship, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. The whole earth is filled with His glory.” We’ve come to Zion, the place where brothers dwell together in unity, and tears flow for the sake of God’s glory being established on the face of the earth.

Because we’ve come unto that, and not unto the mount that burned with fire, that caused for the people to declare that they were too afraid to hear God anymore, and even Moses declared, “I am exceedingly afraid and trembling” (Deut 9:19, Heb 12:21), the next thought is one of love fulfilling the whole of the Law. Between here and there, we have Paul asking again, “Who hindered you from obeying the truth?” Notice that this was asked before in Galatians 3:1 a different way.

Don’t you know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? And what exactly is that leaven? Jesus uses leaven in a couple different ways. He uses it in regard to the Kingdom of God, that even just a little leaven within the large batch of dough works its way through the whole lump, and this is how the Kingdom of God is (Matt 13:33). He also warns His disciples to “beware the yeast (leaven) of the Pharisees” (Matt 16:6). In both times, the leaven is neither good nor bad, but simply the very contagious mechanism that causes for the whole lump to become holy or unholy.

We can see how this pertains again to the foundation of our lives. Obviously the Galatians want to obey Christ, and obviously they are doing what they are being told will help to be closer to Jesus. So, it isn’t about making Jesus the center, as if that alone is all that is necessary. The question at hand is the very means by which we serve and worship Jesus. Does the way in which you perceive yourself before God stem from whether you have overcome that besetting sin or not? Do you determine whether you’re truly right with God by whether you have stopped getting angry so easily? Is it through your outward works that you determine where you stand before God, or is it through what God has declared?

Please don’t misunderstand me. We can’t simply cast off what Jesus and the apostles have said elsewhere about the way that we live and treat one another, but we also shouldn’t expect that if we’re somehow not living up to it that we just must not be saved. I’ve heard that kind of damnation on the Internet, really on just about every Christian video that you can find, which would conclude that your brother or sister is not actually saved because of what they believe or because they struggle. There is no room for arrogance in the Kingdom of God, and that includes a self-despising.

The leaven that leavens the whole lump is the basis by which you define yourself, and from there, it works its way through the whole lump. If you perception is “to God be glory in all things”, then it doesn’t matter whether you fall or not. With time, God will bring you through. What bothers me so heavily is when people start making statements with their theology like Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego, “God will deliver us, O King!” But, don’t forget the rest of the statement: “But even if He doesn’t, we still will not bow and worship your statue…”

Is it about God delivering you from suffering, from poverty, from sin, and from the difficulties of life, or is it about God gaining glory in all things? How can it be that Stephen would be stoned, and instead of crying out against the injustice he is able to reiterate what Jesus said, “Forgive them, for they know not what they do”? Such a heart of compassion and love, even for they who are killing him, does not come from a mind that is saturated in self. That kind of prayer can only be prayed honestly when you have no care for your own life, and your only care is God’s name and His glory. If it grants God the greater glory that Stephen should be martyred, and that Saul would behold this and later come to the faith through such a sight, then who are we to grumble that Stephen could have done great things? Nothing would have exceeded what we find in the New Testament, not because of Stephen’s incapability, but because it is about God and God’s glory alone.

When your heart pants for the glory of God in all things, and not that you would behold it or share in it, but that He would be glorified, you find that people get very upset indeed. “If I still preach circumcision, then why am I still being persecuted?” I could rephrase this for myself: “If I were still preaching the Kingdom of Jesus and me, then why do people get offended at my words?” It isn’t about “Jesus and me”, but about Jesus, and Jesus alone. Circumcision means nothing apart from Christ, and if through Christ you’ve been circumcised in heart, then why do you need to now get circumcised?

The fulfillment of the law is this: love your neighbor as yourself. You can’t do that apart from Christ, for it is only in having that disposition, “may Jesus be glorified”, that we have the possibility of this. If it is about myself, then I’m going to tend to my own wants and needs. But, if it is about Jesus, then it must also be about His Body. Therefore, if my brother has no coats, and we’re living in Ohio where the winter can get down to negative temperatures (Fahrenheit), then how can I not have compassion on him to give him one of my coats? If my sister has to decide between repairing the roof of her house or buying groceries, how can I not buy her groceries so that it’s no longer a decision? If my other sister is going to need to drop out of college because she can’t afford it, but we both know it is God’s will that she finishes, then how can I not send her thousands of dollars to pay for her tuition?

(I give these examples as things I’ve actually done)

It is love that matters. Knowledge will come to a brim, prophecy will cease, and even tongues mean nothing if we have not love, but love goes on forever. Paul never tells us to seek tongues, nor any other gift (except prophecy), but to seek love. Why? Because if you are truly doing the loving thing, you aren’t wanting the gifts that edify yourself, but the gifts that edify the Body. And, if an unbeliever were to be in your midst, and you have a prophetic word, or you have unction from the Holy Spirit to pray for their healing, why would tongues even matter at that moment? Tongues mean nothing, for you don’t know what you’re saying unless you also have interpretation, and they certainly don’t know what’s happening. Therefore, pray for prophecy, pray for interpretation of tongues, pray for the operation of healings and miracles, because in these gifts there is fuller expression of love.

Do you see how this is completely contrary to what modern Christendom teaches? The law of love is utterly different and distinct, as it should be. Unto which mindset have you come? Have you come to the place of “all to Jesus”, or are you still in the “kingdom of Jesus and me”? And, more importantly, what has stolen your joy that you had at the beginning? Why have you transferred from that first moment when you loved Jesus with all of your being, only to go back into the self-centered mindset? Who has robbed you of this joy? Return, thou sleeper, unto your first love. Arise, and shine, for the true Light is already shining, and He is alive in our hearts.

The Covenant Reaffirmed – Exodus 6:1-13

In Exodus 5, we left off with Pharaoh tormenting the Israelites, and Moses lamenting before God. Here in chapter 6, God is beginning to respond. He affirms to Moses that He shall indeed redeem and give inheritance. In verses 2-3, God even says, “I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name YHWH I was not known to them.” I have heard it said, and seen it written, that this verse is often interpreted that the patriarchs didn’t know the name YHWH.

Here is my contention with that: in Genesis, they address God as “YHWH”. Even within Genesis 2, we find LORD God, YHWH Elohim, and this is only in verse 4. So, if from the very start of human history recorded in Scripture, YHWH is being used, then how can we claim that the patriarchs didn’t know this name? To claim Moses wrote these books doesn’t cut it for me. Instead, I would like to suggest something else.

Associated with the names of deity are their power and character. We have something similar today. When you give someone your word, you are putting forth your reputation and everything that people know of you on that promise. We can even think of sayings like, “smeared his name through the mud”. To smear someone’s name is to smear their reputation, their esteem, through the mud. It isn’t about making their “name” ignominious, but but rather the very person and character.

What I want to posit is that this promise to the patriarchs was based utterly upon God’s character. God promised to Adam and Eve a deliverer (Gen 3:15), He promised to Abram a son who would inherit the land of Canaan (Gen 15:4, 7, 18-21), but He didn’t show them the fulfillment of that promise. In fact, when you get to the book of Hebrews, you find the author saying, “having obtained a good testimony through faith, all these did not receive the promise”. The next verse does not say, “But you…” Instead, it says something  better is presented to us, that together with us they might be made complete.

Unto the patriarchs, God has promised the inheritance of Canaan, which is seen in the Hebraic mind as being the very place where heaven and earth meet. This is the very place where God dwells – a Garden of Eden restored. But, the patriarchs didn’t receive the inheritance. Moses is being told here that God had given them the promise, but didn’t give them inheritance. Therefore, the patriarchs did not experientially know the power and glory of the name of YHWH like God will reveal to Moses and his generation. It is about God’s name, His honor, His power, and His character. It is about an experiential knowledge of that Name.

To trace this thought forward in the narrative, not just unto Sinai, but beyond Sinai, we find that God’s name is repeated throughout Scripture. For example, you have God revealing Himself through His name quite directly to the Hebrew children. They experience His power and majesty in the wilderness, and eventually in the Land itself. Joshua leads Israel to inheriting the Promise. Yet, we then find later that the psalmist declares, “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My works forty years. Therefore I was angry with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.’ So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest’.” (Psalm 95:7-11)

Let us think this through. The psalmist is not writing about this “today” in the generation of Joshua, who was promised to inherit that rest, but rather centuries after Joshua. The psalmist is writing this while in the land. Somehow, Israel is in the land, inherited the promise, and yet there is a promised rest that if that generation, paralleled with the generation that was killed in the wilderness, will hear God’s voice, they can enter into that promised rest.

It is then the whole point for the rest of the book of Hebrews to show how it is that we haven’t come to the physical promises, but the eternal, which are not separate from the physical, but are interwoven. It is the physical promise that reflects the eternal and heavenly. We have not come unto Sinai, the physical mountain upon which God came down, but unto Zion, the New Jerusalem, which is the throne of God, revealed to us in explicit detail in Revelation 4. It is not Sinai that the prophets envisioned with theophany, in places such as Isaiah 6 or Ezekiel 1-3, but the heavenly Zion.

And so, we see the “better” inheritance that we have, not exclusively as the Church, but together with “them” who are mentioned in Hebrews 11, the saints eternal, they who are called “Israel” by most theologians. There is an connection, then, that cannot (and certainly should not) be severed. It has always been that the prophets perceive beyond the physical and tangible into the spiritual and equally tangible. That is our inheritance as the saints. And, there is an eternal “today”, that if you are willing to humble yourself, ceasing from your own works (namely, righteousness through our own efforts), we can enter into that rest, which from the beginning has been established for all who by faith will enter.

Yet, we cannot conclude that this is the fulfillment. Remember that God put His name upon the physical inheritance – not the spiritual. There must be a physical that is coupled with the spiritual. It is for this reason that we read various texts in the New Testament about the “inheritance” at the end of the age. Jesus promises that His disciples will rule over all Israel upon twelve thrones (Matthew 19:28-29). Paul speaks about we, as Gentile believers even, who shall receive an inheritance with the “redemption of the purchased possession” (Ephesians 1:14). He then further explains what this means in Ephesians 3:1-6, in which he makes the statement that “Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, partakers of His promise in Christ through the Gospel…”

What is this “body” that is spoken of? It cannot be the Church exclusive, for that would demand a “new” body. The context of Ephesians 3:6 is that this body apparently is already in existence, and hence “same body” instead of “new body”. Don’t quote to me Ephesians 2:14-15, that Christ has made “of the two” “one new man”, and therefore the Church is new and distinct. That isn’t what Paul is saying at all, for only if you skip Ephesians 2:12 can you come to that conclusion. It is because we, even we Gentiles who were aliens and at enmity with God, have been brought near, and made to be partakers of the promise and covenants, being grafted in (to use the language of Romans 11) to the already existent House of Israel. We are not the elite, but the remnant.

Therefore, we know that we have received a spiritual inheritance, even being sealed by the Holy Spirit according to Ephesians 1:13, but that isn’t the fulfillment. It is only the guarantee of the future inheritance at the end of the age, which is not ours exclusively, but unto the whole House of Israel – both the natural and the wild branches. Interestingly to this study, one of the promises to the seven churches in Revelation is that “I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God, And I will write on Him My new name.” (Revelation 3:12)

That promise, in the context of what is written to the rest of the seven churches, cannot be understood as the New Heaven and New Earth, but at Jesus’ return. There might be legitimacy to saying that it is fulfilled to the uttermost in the New Heaven and New Earth, but don’t squash the beauty that is presented in that we rule with Christ for 1000 years. When you parallel the statements of Revelation 2-3 and Revelation 20, you find that there are certain things that are doubled.

Notice again Revelation 22:4. Here it is that having the name of God written upon our foreheads is coupled with seeing God face-to-face. There is a revealing of God intimately that cannot take place apart from the judgment that we experience during Tribulation (not judgment as in condemnation, but judgment as being within the nations who are being judged, and within Israel [the people] who are under judgment). Just as Elijah endured the judgment alongside of his fellow Israelites, and just as Joshua and Caleb had to endure forty years before being permitted to enter the land again, so too must we wait for the second coming – after seven years of Tribulation – before we shall see the fulness of our inheritance in Christ.

The blessed hope of Titus 2:13 is not rapture, as I’ve heard so many say. It is the coming of the King, and with Him the Kingdom of God. It is the redemption of Israel, and with them all the nations. It is worldwide peace. It is the obliteration of the kingdom of darkness. It is the inheritance of promise – heaven and earth becoming one. It is the climax of the covenant, the culmination of the ages, unto which we’ve been progressing since “God separated the light from the darkness”. The blessed hope is the longing of every heart, whether we know how to intuit it or not, whether we’re believers or not. It is a Kingdom that is ruled in justice, equity, and righteousness, instead of bureaucracy, greed, and patriotism. To then take that verse out of context completely, simply to hold that we’re not supposed to endure “wrath” (as if that is even what 1 Thess 5:9 means), is to cast down all hope and all eternal weight of glory that might make out suffering and affliction momentary and light.

 

We’re progressing to a climax. The age is crescendoing. It is our opportunity to work with God or to do our own thing. We can either play church, play Christianity, or we can be the saints in our own generation. The hope that God is giving to Moses in this passage is the very blessed hope that is to give us satisfaction and perseverance unto the end.

The Plagues Overview – Exodus 5-12

This section of Exodus begins with Moses and Aaron going before Pharaoh, and ends with the Passover and the declaration to leave Egypt. It progresses from confrontation to freedom. In this section, the significance for you and I is to recognize the plagues as more than plaguing Egypt, Pharaoh, or the Egyptians. Here is where the rubber meets the road in Christianity.

We cannot believe in systems, whether governments, religious, or academic. A system is an institution, a machine established to produce a certain result. For businesses, the machine is worked through marketing, management, and “customer service”. The workers themselves are merely numbers, and expendable at that. The workers are simply means to the end – growth in the company as well as wealth. For government, a system is even easier to recognize. For we Americans, we just have to look at Washington D.C. and how far outside of actual American culture it is. The famous quote by George W. Bush makes it clear, “Not everyone would pick lettuce for $50/hour.”

Over these systems, the principalities and powers rage. What the secular/pagans don’t know is that they aren’t simply devoting their attention to science. It isn’t about saying that science proves truth, but about devoting your entire existence to demons. They who are so naive to think that if you can’t test it, it isn’t real only show forth blindness that goes beyond human capacity.

Organisms are not this way. The Body of Christ is exactly that – a body. A body is not something that is mechanical. Our church services might be, but the Church itself is not. If we are indeed connected to the Head, who is the creator of the universe, then we should not find the boring and mundane repetition that characterizes our services. Truly, the problem is that our buildings and programs are not run out of the authenticity of the life of God, but rather from the expectancy that the “show must go on”. There is an agenda. The people come for a certain kind of biblical teaching, they want to hear some sort of moving music that they can sing along with (and they want to either know the words, or learn the words quickly), and maybe they want to then know that there are certain programs or events in place that “benefit the community”.

That kind of Christianity is Egypt.

Egypt is the definition of system. It builds an empire for itself, amassing great wealth and prestige among the other nations, and yet builds this empire upon the backs of slaves. Modern Evangelical Christianity has enslaved the pastor, which is why the pastor has to pay so much in insurance, is stressed almost daily, many pastors have been divorced at least once, and they are financially almost unable to stay afloat. We have erected a Christianity that is based upon self. I can prove this by the question you ask when you leave the meeting: “What did you think of the sermon? What did you think of the worship? What would you like to eat?”

Over Egypt are gods, which are not truly gods, but demons. It is these unseen powers that pervade our societies and cultures – including the Christian society and culture if we’re not careful. Whereas I thought for a long time that the principalities and powers was a subject exclusive to the New Testament, I am beginning to see it everywhere. Our understanding of what Paul is expressing as “the principalities and powers” cannot come from Ephesians alone, or from the handful of other passages that mention them either directly or indirectly. Where does Paul get his understanding? Is it strictly from the Holy Spirit, or is there a reference in the Old Testament that he would have been able to provide?

I think one of the places that Paul would have used is this very passage. In Exodus 5-12, we have the plagues of Egypt, but they are not sent in judgment upon the Egyptians, nor Pharaoh, for enslaving God’s people. Rather, these plagues are sent in judgment upon “the gods of Egypt” (Ex 12:12). Now, either the gods of Egypt are just wooden or stone carvings, not really anything at all, or they are indeed something. If they are nothing, which is certainly attested to in the Old Testament, then why would God send judgment upon them?

What is happening here we find explained in Deuteronomy 32:16-17. The idol itself is nothing. As Isaiah mocks, with half of the log they keep themselves warm, but with the other half they carve their idol. How can you be so ignorant to bow down to an idol that you yourself carved, even knowing that the other half of the log was used for firewood? What significance could your idol possibly have? Yet, what Moses is saying, and it’s ultimately God saying it here, is that the idol itself is only a representation of a demon that is truly being worshiped. That demon has the power to cause for titillations and “feelings” so that the worshiper will continue to bow down, completely convinced that they are indeed worshiping gods, because they can feel it.

Science is no different. Think of the many atheist scientists who are not willing to simply do their jobs. They have an agenda, and if you start to disagree with their beliefs, they must rise up in furor to defend “science”. That kind of zeal does not come from simply being devoted to your job, nor does it come from a love of your study. That kind of zeal only comes from a devotion to something beyond the physical world.

The Egyptians plagues are plagues against the demonic realm. We find this significance in multiple ways, not the least of which being that the plagues of Revelation mirror many of the plagues of Exodus. This is a pattern. God doesn’t combat the principalities by us “casting down strongholds” or claiming “in the name of Jesus”. This kind of dethroning only comes through plagues, which is attested to in 1 Kings 17-18 as well. For they who are desiring to overthrow the rule of the demonic forces at work in our nations, states, cities, or churches, we must understand that what we are asking for is a plague that neuters any possibility of that god being considered as having power.

Who Has Bewitched You? – Galatians 3:1-9

In Galatians 3:1-9, Paul essentially says the same thing that has been repeated in my first two posts from Galatians (here and here). Essentially, the question is asked, “If your salvation has come via the Spirit, then in what way do you expect to be sanctified?” Let me put it a different way. If the way that you know you are saved is by the new birth, which Moses called heart circumcision, which the prophets declared to be by the taking out of the old heart and replacement with a new heart, and the sealing of the Holy Spirit, then by what means did you receive that? Was it through your own efforts, or did God come into your life at a certain point and utterly change everything you knew about yourself?

If we claim that the new birth is effected by the Spirit, then why do we expect our sanctification to be by any other way? Ephesians 1:13 tells us that we’re sealed with the Holy Spirit. What could it mean that we’re sealed? We find a further explanation in 2 Corinthians 1:22, where Paul tells us that God has set His seal of ownership upon us, and put His Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. Again in Ephesians 1:14, we see that this guarantee is the inheritance we’ve been promised at the end of the age.

This taps us into an unfolding mystery. You and are are a part of something bigger than you and I. We’re part of the invisible cloud of witnesses, who are not complete (or made perfect) without us. We, too, shall not find our inheritance here and now, but must wait for Christ’s return when He shall grant us the City whose foundations are not built with human hands.

This is where it gets difficult, because the point of Hebrews 11-12 is that they did not receive it, but we have. Yet, the point that Paul is making over and over again when referencing this same principle is that when our Lord returns, He shall give us an inheritance. The two statements don’t conflict. As much as Christ Jesus has ascended to the right hand of the Father, and is seated in glory, so too are we granted access here and now to the eternal weight of glory. However, don’t think that this means what we experience is the ultimate; it is the penultimate. There is still a time when the Lord shall rule from Jerusalem, an earthly Kingdom of God being established by which all of the nations shall walk according to its light and rule.

We have been given the tremendous blessing of the Spirit, that we’re a part of something eternal, and not something boxed in the temporal. Because we’ve been granted access into heaven itself, and not merely to petition the throne, but to rule with Christ from heaven, seated with Him in heavenly places (Eph 2:6), ambassadors who know that this is not our home, consumed with that which is eternal and does not fade away, we are no longer in submission to the things that do fade away.

At one point in our lives, our focus upon the things of this world. Even if our story is much like Paul’s, that we grew up within the religious tradition and were righteous according to it, there comes a point in time in which we must recognize that such righteousness is not righteous at all. Our focus is utterly upon the things of this world, even while rejecting it. You don’t have to drink, be lewd, smoke, party, or entertain the more blatant outward sins to realize that you have focused upon temporality.

Temporality is anything that shall not last into eternity.

Leonard Ravenhill used to ask, “Is what you’re living for worth Christ’s dying for?” I’d put it a different way. Is what you spend your time thinking, doing, and teaching going to continue forever into eternity, or will it one day be obsolete? It might be incredible discipline to be able to throw a ball from 30 feet back upward to get it in a small ring without using the backboard. But, how much of that will last into eternity? Is that truly something that you can tell me you believe to have eternal significance?

I’ll address this another way.

Eternality is where heaven and earth meet. It is where what you’re doing brings you satisfaction to the uttermost. It is where contentment remains. It is where you are not condemned in Christ Jesus (and you don’t have to continually remind yourself).

Law is not simply Old Testament (or Leviticus and Deuteronomy). When you actually go back and read these books (instead of just accusing them without even knowing what they say), you find that the Old Testament is tremendously saturated with the grace of God and with salvation through faith. The first mention of heart circumcision is not in the prophets, as many suspect, nor in the New Testament, as even more suspect, but in Deuteronomy 10:16, and even before that in Leviticus 26:41. Heart circumcision is a New Testament phenomenon (in the eyes of most believers), and yet because we simply are in complete ignorance of the Old Testament, we had no clue that Moses said it.

Law is what we put on ourselves to come before God. It is to see our nakedness and wrap up in fig leaves, knowing that the fig leaf curls to hide fruit. The first instance of law is in Genesis 3, when the man and woman hid themselves in the bushes. It then continues through Genesis 4, when Cain brought of the ground, but it was Abel who had faith and knew what God desired. The act of Cain’s offering is not to show that God wanted blood (the Hebrew word is minchah, which is specifically the bloodless sacrifice of Leviticus), but to show that Cain did not act in faith, and the proof was that he succumbed to sin, slaying his brother in anger.

We have from this the first mention of a city. This city was named Enoch, and it is the root from which we can trace to the story of Babel. Babel is the beginning to the word Babylon, which is rooted all the way back in Genesis 4 – the exact earthly manifestation of the kingdom of darkness. It is that darkened city, the tangible representation of law, that we have all been a part of, desiring acceptance before God through our own works and our own ways of coming before Him. It doesn’t work like that, and the result is that we bind ourselves to other gods, whether music, cigarettes, violence, hatred, porn, or something else. Babylon is the system of politics and religion that offer freedom, but can never deliver. It promises something it lacks, but knows how to manipulate by causing to feel pleasure for a moment.

It is not to Babylon that we serve, which Paul will later explain to be the earthly Jerusalem (see 1 Peter 5:13, Matthew 2:2, Revelation 11, etc), but to the New Jerusalem, the Holy City, the heavenly dwelling, unto Zion that we have come. Ultimately, Jerusalem in the days of the apostles is much like the Jerusalem of modern day. It is to be the beautiful city of God, but instead it anguishes over the coming of her Messiah. The reason is because Jerusalem has become Babylon – the place that has slain all the prophets (Revelation 16:6, 17:6, Lamentations 4:13, Isaiah 49:26, Luke 13:33).

So, the question that Paul is presenting here is not of law, meaning Torah, and grace. It is of law, meaning humanly obtained righteousness, and grace. Our sanctification does not come through our works, as if our works were enough to save us. Our sanctification is not a matter of learning to do the right things and no longer doing the wrong things. Sanctification is a state of being, and not a matter of doing. It is a process of the righteous being righteous, learning what it means to do all things in faith, and to renew our minds through the washing of the word. Sanctification is about becoming what we already are, about realizing our true potential in Christ, and about laying hold of that potential. Sanctification is the outworking of the circumcised heart; it is the new birth enacted in life, mindset, attitude, and charity. By the Spirit we were given the new heart, and by the Spirit we live according to that new heart.

Defending the Gospel – Galatians 2

Often when we think of defending the Gospel, we think of the attacks from Muslims, atheists, Jews, or just secular men of the world. Defense of the Gospel is often associated with debates, with explaining why a viewpoint is wrong, and with declaring irrefutable acceptance that what you believe, as a Christian, is Truth. Here in Galatians 2, we have a different kind of defense. This is one that deals with actions, and not words.

The chapter begins with telling of what took place in Acts 15, where the counsel (or is it council?) at Jerusalem gathered to discuss whether Gentiles need to become like Jews. In the first century, the Gospel was not for the Gentiles first, as we have put it, but rather a Jewish phenomenon. Jesus was Jewish, a Pharisaical rabbi to be exact, who was born in Bethlehem of Judea, which was the city of King David, who taught 12 Jewish youth (somewhere between 14 and 25), spoke parables to the Jewish people everywhere He went, debating the Pharisees (which was common in-house debate as being a Pharisee), and speaking of a time when Jerusalem shall be judged and redeemed, and all of Israel with Jerusalem.

The Gospel is very Jewish.

By the time that Acts 10 comes around, we’re probably looking at around a decade of time that has passed since Pentecost. It is in Acts 10 that Peter visits a Gentile named Cornelius. As soon as Peter enters the house and begins to speak, the Spirit comes upon these Gentiles to the same degree that it came upon the disciples gathered together in Acts 2. Instead of rejoicing, Peter and his companions are flabbergasted. The shock is real. Questions of how it could possibly be that God would pour out His Spirit upon Gentiles arose quickly, but we also quickly responded to by baptizing these Gentiles. If God would grant them the Spirit, then why withhold from them anything else?

Peter comes back and receives scrutiny. How can he eat with Gentiles, when we know full well that Jews are not to associate with Gentiles? Peter tells the story of the vision he had, the whisper of God to go, the Spirit falling, and eventually the baptisms. The other apostles and disciples, in awe, admit that God must indeed be accepting the Gentiles, then.

What is interesting to me isn’t that they thought this was a Jewish thing, but that so many misunderstood the prophets. You have example after example of people who were not “Hebrew”, and yet dwelt among the Hebrews, lived like Hebrews, and died as Hebrews. For example, when Israel came out of Egypt, it is said that many Egyptians came with them. There is never an iota of separation mentioned between the Egyptians and the Israelites, all the way through past Sinai, until you have a half-Israelite, half-Egyptian curse God’s name in Leviticus 24. Even then, the point isn’t that he is Egyptian, but that he isn’t truly Hebrew, for if he were, he wouldn’t have cursed God’s name and blasphemed.

We see the story of Ruth, that she, as a Moabitess, declared, “Your people shall be my people, and your God shall be my God.” In this, she is no longer a Moabite, but now embraced as a Hebrew (even finding herself in the genealogy of Jesus). Bathsheba, from whom came Solomon, was also half Hittite. Her ex-husband, Uriah, was also a Hittite. Yet, there is nothing in the text of 2 Samuel 11 that suggests these two as anything less than Hebrews.

The prophets even declared things like, “Also the sons of the foreigner who join themselves to the LORD, to serve Him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be His servants… even them I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer” (Isaiah 56:6-7, but read the whole context).

So, the question for me isn’t so much of how they could think that it is exclusively Hebrew. God’s Kingdom has always been about Israel, and then Gentiles have been grafted in. What surprises me is that for years the first disciples found themselves practicing the same segregation of Ezra, who wouldn’t even consult the LORD when ‘foreigners’ came to help build the Temple of God. Instead, quite quickly and harshly, he declared that they should have no part in this work (not to mention forcing people to divorce, which God detests, because they married foreign women, but refusing to consider that maybe they would be like Ruth or Bathsheba, and embrace the God of Israel). In this, Ezra cemented the already long rooted separatist mentality, rather than the Deuteronomic mindset that would declare, “And the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you,, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates, may come and eat and be satisfied” (Deuteronomy 14:29, which puts the “foreigner” or “stranger” hand-in-hand with the Levites, orphans, and widows). Or even Deuteronomy 23:1-8 that declares even the ‘cursed’ Gentiles who shall not enter into the congregation of Israel are welcomed into the congregation of Israel after so many generations. Or what about Deuteronomy 32:43 that commands Gentiles to rejoice with Israel, thus putting the two hand-in-hand before Him?

For this reason, we have in Acts 10-11 and 15 the debate settled that Gentiles are indeed welcome into the Kingdom of God. The regulations that they are to uphold are mentioned in Acts 15:23-29. Here in Galatians, Paul is remembering these things, and reciting them to the churches in Galatia, so that they might also remember and hold fast to the faith. It is at this time that Paul also mentions how he stood up and rebuked Peter to his face, even in front of everyone, because the truth of the Gospel was at stake. Whereas some would call this arrogance in church today, for Jesus has told us to go to them privately, and then after that to take greater measures, Paul declares again later that those who sin are to be rebuked publicly (1 Tim 5:20).

This isn’t to go against Jesus, but from the example of Paul here in Galatians 2 we see that Peter knows better, he was the one who saw God move among the Gentiles first, and he is causing for others to go wayward through his actions. Because he is without excuse, and because of his influence, Paul wastes no time in taking him aside privately. It is for the sake of the Truth of the Gospel that Paul rebukes Peter to his face in such a confrontational manner.

We cringe at this. Something upsets us. He should have been nicer. He should have been less confrontational. Didn’t Paul recognize that Peter was a brother in the faith? Why was he so harsh? In these words, we’re asking without asking, “Why was Paul so unloving and cruel?” You know what I call such an action? Compassionate love. Paul so loved the man Peter that he could not allow another moment of him to live out the lie. What if Peter didn’t even recognize what he was doing? Did not Jesus even rebuke him in front of the other disciples, calling Peter Satan? No, what I think is transacting here is love that only the Spirit could have possibly breathed.

Which brings us to conclusions. For we in this generation, what does it mean to defend the Gospel? How might we take these words as a pattern to lay our lives according to, so that we might be the saints in our own generation? It isn’t about rebuking Peter to his face, as much as it might seem to be. Rather, it is about realizing that the Truth of the Gospel is not in our creeds. Truth is more than just words on a page. It is either the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, or it is simply not true. If our lives contradict our statements, especially if blatantly, then what we are preaching is simply not truth.

We might be saying all of the correct words, and we might even believe them on the fundamental doctrinal level, but how much of what we say and what we live go together? Can you actually claim that you have faith in Jesus Christ, only to then use His name as a curse word? Can you truly claim that you believe God is complex in His unity, being Triune, and yet then reject any hope of that unity in your own life with your husband, wife, Christian brother and/or sister across the street, etc? Can you honestly tell me that you are saved by grace through faith, and yet then continue to clutch onto the petty works that we’ve taught ourselves are “proper” in church-ianity?

What this means in our day and age is a reassessment. It takes effort, willingness, and discipline. It requires that we search through the pages of Scripture to first find out what God is like, and what God approves of, and to then implement it in our own lives. This process takes time, takes introspection, and takes community. When you have multiple people who are trying to live like this on a daily basis, seeing one another regularly, your flaws and faults will become obvious, and your need to change demanded on the basis of defending the Gospel. Change isn’t easy, but it is necessary.

The Call of God is Irrevocable – Exodus 4:10-17

In Exodus 4:11-17, Moses is arguing with God. Up to this point, there is no mention of God being angered. Thought Moses does say a few things that we assume displeased the LORD, ultimately Scripture does not attest to that. It is here, and here alone, that mentions Moses causing the Lord’s anger to be kindled. And what, exactly, is it that caused for God to be upset? Can we simply say that because Moses didn’t believe God could do this thing through him that God was angered, or is there another reason?

The import of this question is obvious. If Moses made God angry, what exactly was it that angered God, and how might we avoid such? I believe that what Moses kindled is the same anger that we will find later when God declares that the generation that comes out of Egypt shall not inherit the land, but shall die in the wilderness. The same thing that Moses is guilty of here is what Israel shall at a later time be guilty of. It is this selfsame sin that many today are guilty of.

What precisely am I speaking of?

There is a certain kind of unbelief that really irks God. It is the kind that can witness God manifesting Himself most impressively, and yet still refuse to be united with him. Moses’ disregard is not in that he simply doesn’t want to go to Pharaoh, nor that he fears what might happen to him back in Egypt. These things might be true, but that isn’t the driving reason why Moses is objecting. I know this because I’ve been the Moses who has objected to God’s call.

There is an inconvenience, a place of freedom that makes larger demand than our bondage, unto which God calls us. In Egypt you might have severe oppression, but at least you have figs, pomegranates, lush fields for your sheep, different meals every day, wine, and all of the things that represent our modern conveniences and luxuries. All the while we’re in bondage to such things, and even in bondage via other mediums.

But we don’t know our bondage. Who would know that they have an addiction to orange juice unless they come to the place where they can’t afford orange juice anymore? Who would know that they don’t simply like meat, but are actually in bondage to the need of having meat unless they come to the place that they can’t afford it? Who would know that they can’t tolerate spending day after day with their spouse, not knowing how to communicate with them anymore, when they both go off their separate ways for 8 or more hours of the day every morning?

It is not that Moses is objecting directly to going before Pharaoh, but that God is calling Moses to something beyond what he is capable. These reasons that Moses give are not the real issue, for if they were, God wouldn’t have gotten angry. I know God well enough to know that much. What really angers God is when we use silly excuses to cover over the real reason we don’t want to do what He has called us to. God has called us to community. Moses wasn’t supposed to speak to Pharaoh alone. We just read that God was telling him to go with the elders of Israel. God has called us out of Egypt, out from our sin and death, to come unto a mountain (in our case it is Zion, and not Sinai), where we might meet with God face-to-face.

Zion is heavenly. It is the throne of God. It is where brethren dwell together in unity. It is the beauty of holiness. It is the union of Deity and flesh. It is the place where we see God’s face and yet live. It is where we hear God speak directly to us. It is where angels cry in joyful chorus. It is where angels cover their faces. It is where the twenty-four elders lay down their crowns. It is where the congregation of the Firstborn, the eternal Church of Jesus Christ that stems from righteous Abel unto all generations future, gather in ecstatic worship and adoration. Zion is what the heart longs for, but doesn’t know how to express.

It is unto Zion that we have been called, and that is our problem. We don’t want Zion. Just as the Israelites told Moses to go speak with God, but they would rather not hear Him for themselves, we too have forfeited glory for shame. We have rejected eternality for temporality. We have scoffed the eternal covenant for the sake of law. We have cast off freedom for the comfort of bondage. We gnash our teeth at Zion, because Zion requires that we LIVE by faith. Instead, we desire Sinai, where we can say that Zion is too scary, too much to handle, but with these rules and regulations, and the traditions of our denomination, we might attain unto life everlasting.

Because Moses is now standing before God, speaking with Him as you would speak to a human being, and is coming up with lame excuse after lame excuse, God gets angry. Is He “the Lord”, or is He “your Lord”? Are you willing to heed the call, or like Moses are you going to banter? Ultimately, God doesn’t allow Moses to walk away. It almost seems like God bargains with Moses. I do believe something similar has taken place in our own day and age. We have rejected what God has called us to, that glory we read of in the book of Acts, and so God has allowed us the grace to continue according to our willingness. I do ask, though, where the saints of God are that they might reveal that what we’re doing is not the original intention of God, and therefore we need to reevaluate what precisely we’re doing.

Are you willing to live your life in convenience, a nice Christian culture, which has moral warrant, but lacks the authentic and apostolic reality? Are you willing to dwell in cliche and truism, while declaring that you believe there is truth beyond such cliches and truisms? Are you willing to embrace a social norm, a status quo, established by who knows who from centuries past, based entirely off of a Catholic and pagan tradition?

Are you waiting for the “or”?

There is none.

Either you are willing to embrace such things, or you’re not. If not, then why do you continue to embrace them? It isn’t like you have no alternative. The alternative is to seek through the Scriptures prayerfully to understand what God’s intention truly is. For Antioch it was that these men, who’s names suggest different backgrounds and races, would be able to gather together, and not simply next to each other, to worship the Lord in unity. For Jerusalem it was that the apostles would teach daily at Solomon’s Porch, and that the Church might go from house to house daily breaking bread. Paul’s letters to the Corinthians suggest that they were established with prophets, who Paul said were to be able to speak to the entire Body, but their words must be weighed by the other prophets, and not simply by the pastor, teacher, or layman.

My point is that every specific city seems to have its own nuance. Yet, the bare bones are the same. It is still coming unto Zion instead of Sinai. It is still perceiving the eternal covenant, eternal because it stems from before Sinai, and living according to that instead of law. It is still embracing the reality of God, that the just shall live by faith, and to every day, in every moment, live and move and have your being in God. This is what Exodus 4:11-17 speaks to us. Are we going to embrace what God has called us unto, or are we going to hesitate and argue? Ultimately, there will come a day and age when we will dwell in Zion. If you have built your life around Sinai, and utilized God’s grace as a means to live cheaply, then you will find yourself out of place, or outside of Zion altogether. As always, the choice is yours.

In The Beauty of Holiness

 

Because I’m excited about my work, I thought I’d share with you guys a cover I did of Robin Mark’s song “In The Beauty of Holiness”. I know that this style isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, and I know that the first verse isn’t the best vocal in the world, but if you’re interested, feel free to give a listen. I’m also planning on covering Hillsong United’s “Oceans”. If you have any suggestions of songs to cover (or not cover lol), I welcome them.

Grace and peace in Christ.

Mark of the Beast 1 – Rev 13:14-18

And it deceives those dwelling on the earth because of the signs that were given to it to perform before the beast, telling those dwelling on the earth to make an image to the beast, that has the wound of the sword and has lived. And it was given to it to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should also speak, and should cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast would be killed. And it causes all the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free and the servants, that it should give them a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, and that no one should be able to buy or to sell if not having the mark – the name of the beast, or the number of its name. Here the wisdom is. The one having understanding let him count the number of the beast. It is indeed man’s number. And the number of it is 666.

We spoke briefly previously about this image. The signs are warned of in Matthew 24:24 and parallels. Paul tells us to watch out for false signs in 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10. Something beyond dubious signs should be expected. It isn’t enough to consider that this man will come out claiming Satan to be god, and here is the proof! We can’t simply expect a Muslim Antichrist, and therefore these things will be done in the name of Allah. These signs are warned against. It would imply, therefore, that there is a seduction that can take place in beholding these signs. They aren’t fake. This man truly calls down fire from heaven.

The people who flock to televangelists and other phenomena, whether true or not true, are in danger at this point. What is it within the human mind that miracles and signs are the signet ring of heaven? There is something here that needs to be burrowed out. We identify heaven by the character, and not by the miraculous. The Antichrist and the False Prophet will give every sign of being authentically in God the Father, yet are not. They somehow are able to deceive, thus we have warnings of their coming, but at the same time blaspheme the very name of God and they who dwell in heaven. What is it that is so drastically neutered in our thinking to be so placated?

One thing is certain: they who are cheap in their walk with Christ are in far more danger than the devout. To read the Bible, whether New Testament or Old Testament, and to still be searching for what it says ‘to me’ is a grave disgrace. Herein lie the glory of eternity, and we would rather see ourselves. There is something calibrated within our souls. We hope to find a mirror instead of a pool. A mirror will reflect back to us what we are, and we’re happy with that. A pool reflects us, but also reveals what is beyond the surface. It is much better to find self in the Scriptures than to find God, for in finding God we are confronted with something much more grand than ‘me’.

The deception comes when we are not lovers of truth, as Paul would tell us in 2 Thessalonians 2:10. To love the truth is more than desiring truth. We can desire truth and hate it. We can seek truth and not love it. We can be content to ‘know’ truth, and yet not live by that truth. We might even delight in the knowledge, but as soon as requirement hits to live by that truth we show the reality of our condition. In the olden days, back when you used gold and silver for currency, one of the ways you knew whether it was true silver was by throwing the coin to the ground. It would hit the floor and make a *ping* that resonates for time after the incident. If the coin be fake, it would hit the ground with a *thud* and the ring would instantly stop.

Either we are true through and through, or the truth is not in us. Truth is something that we live, and not simply something we ‘agree’ with. Doctrine is a strange thing. It goes beyond what we believe. It reverberates into the very soul itself. It finds lodging in the deepest cracks, and from there it shows forth its reality. Whether we are truly believers will come through in all instances in life. For example, when you are in the midst of joy, that joy will overflow into praise unto God. When you are in the midst of trial, no matter how adverse the trial, that will drive you into the loving arms of God the Father. If you be true, you find in all things, in all moments, Christ is there. If you only have the outward appearance of silver, but lack the actual thing, you will find that no matter what circumstances life brings to you, you will continue to emanate your ‘self’, and not a new creation either.

I have often found it bizarre that in the midst of the Charismatic miracles and healings there is always a personality. In the midst of the prophetic, there is rarely a word. It is almost always characterized by ‘getting the Bible out of the way’. You give the quickie sermonette so that people will hear what the Bible says, but the real action is within the healings. The real action is within the prophetic word. Why do we so quickly pass by the Scriptures in order to come to something ‘more glorious’? Could there truly be anything more glorious? This isn’t a critique against prophecy or miracles, but against our mindsets.

This sort of quick grab-bag mentality stinks. It comes up into the nostrils of God and reveals our inner hearts. We don’t truly want Christ. We want manifestations. We want prophecy. We want excitement. We want something bigger, louder, more ‘hit you in the chest’. Our desire is tangibility, but the reality is not found there. How is it that the two witnesses perform signs explained in Revelation 11, and yet just across town people are lining up to get marked? Does this not blow the whistle on the whole thing? The true is abandoned because it is true. The false is embraced because it is easier.

Don’t think that by ‘easier’ it means without hard preaching. They who speak harshly against cults and leaders can be quite easy. Condemn the outward sin, but let’s not talk about the inward problems. Talk about death and death and death, but let’s neglect resurrection. Crucify the leaders who are wolves in sheep’s clothing, but let’s not mention that we too have our struggles. The preacher who stands on a platform lies to you. Any elevation is a lie. They are ‘over’ you only in their imaginations. The elevated platform perpetuates the lie, but Jesus has said that we’re all one. If that is true, that we are all one, then the person behind the pulpit is no greater than you are. To perpetuate that lie is to give yourself over to deception. It is the love of truth that will raise the banner. I cannot give myself to that performance. It is blaspheme to continue in the system called ‘church’ when we know good and well that it is only a building and a service. Calling it church doesn’t make it church. Gathering together doesn’t mean Jesus is in the midst. The whole thing is based off of pretense and error, and to continue in that is dangerous.

The False Prophet makes a monument unto the beast. This is much like when Absolom made a monument unto himself in 2 Samuel 18:18. The Davidic kingdom was orchestrated by God. It was given from heaven, and blessed by God. Yet, this man in his arrogance attempts to steal the kingdom with force. So it is today that they who would call themselves the ‘head’ of any congregation is perpetuating a lie. It is an Absolom anointing, which ultimately is an anointing of Satan. It is antichrist at the heart. We have kicked out the people of God in order to continue in our games and events and programs. We have neglected the Jewish people, some even calling them cursed, and in that have rejected David as king. We have run out the prophets and apostles from our midst, because they won’t allow the pretense. They who are Davidic, whether Jew or Christian, are shunned – even from the Messianic congregations.

The Davidic character is one of tears. It is one of authenticity. It desires truth in the inward parts and will not allow the lie to be perpetuated. David is humble. He is gentle. Yet, when you oppose the Lord his God, you will find that he can also be a man of war. For this reason they are considered rude and bringers of division. They goat kick and wolf back, but to the sheep they are lovers beyond what can be worded. They protect the flock and destroy any who devour. For this reason they are opposed most strictly by the leadership within the walls. They are an affront to anyone who would claim leadership as a job instead of a function in the Body. To receive income for your ‘calling’ is an abomination.

We see in Daniel 3 the story of Nebuchadnezzar building a statue. Why is it that only these three men were caught opposing it? The same question can be asked of chapter 1. Why is it in Daniel 1 that these four men are the only ones unwilling to eat the defiled meat? Did no one else know the Law? Or, more correctly, could no one else discern the abomination? Here it is that the other Israelites considered themselves as blessed and being taken care of. Daniel and his three friends could see that this meat is anathema. What was it that Daniel and his three companions had that the rest of the nobility lacked? What wisdom did they draw from?

I speak quite harshly in this post concerning the religious system that we’ve made. The reason for this is to shock you into reality. By what wisdom do you know whether what you are doing is right or wrong? How is it that you know that wherever your attending is not an Absolom? How do you know that the meat is not defiled? Is it because you pray? So did the rest of the nobles. Is it that you read the Bible? So did Absolom. What makes you so different? This is the heart. This is the nub of the argument. How can we discern whether the miracles are true or false? How can we know and recognize this deception? It is by knowing intimately the culture and character of heaven, because we’ve spent time with God in heaven.

Heaven is the place of intimacy with Christ. It is where you and I are one. From that place, where Christ revealed Himself to you, you are united unto Him and all the holy brethren. If you are unable to love the brothers and sisters of Christ, then you do not love Him. You cannot love Him and then despise His brethren. They who claim they love Jesus and then hate their brother shows themselves to be a liar, and the truth is not in them. This is your antidote. This is the litmus test. The man or woman who would willingly cast out or oppress someone else because they don’t get along together is antichrist. It is true that some people are difficult to get along with. Are they your brother? Are they your sister? Are they truly of Christ? If yes, then you have no excuse. If no, then you cast out the unbeliever from your midst. This is what is important, and not whether you all play nicely.

What will distinguish the Antichrist and False Prophet will be their words. With their lips they’ll claim one thing, but with their actions show fruit of something else. Anyone who opposes them will be vehemently opposed. How is this possible if the love of God is within them? Did not Jesus show us that God’s character is one of servanthood and gentleness? Does not David show us that he was unwilling to harm the Lord’s anointed? This is the character of God. He is willing to endure suffering on behalf of the other person so that they might receive greater glory. If that character is lacking, then there is a problem.

I’ll pick up next time examining the mark of the beast more specifically. Until then, grace and peace in Christ.

Rejoice in Your Suffering

Have you ever considered how nonsensical these words seem? Let us be honest. We’re all adults here. When was the last time that you rejoiced in your suffering? I’m not talking about the kind of suffering that you find normal. Someone cutting you off in traffic, stubbing your big toe in the garden, your computer running slow, and other “first world problems” are not sufferings. I mean really. When the phone rings and you learn about you father’s death. When you hear those words for the first time: “We think it is cancer.” When you see your child fall, and they don’t get back up. When you come to find out that your significant other is cheating on you.

These, of course, are still “first world problems”. It isn’t that they happen nowhere else in the world, but that when I talk about the sufferings of those in the Middle East, most likely cancer won’t be on the top of the list. Yet, these moments are real, and they are traumatic. Am I honestly supposed to rejoice? What about when I was in school and got bullied – such to the point that I had someone shoot an arrow at me in archery class. Am I honestly supposed to rejoice that day after day I get bullied in school, only to then come home to a father that yells at me all the time?

Instead of rejoicing I tucked myself away into a crevice that no one else could come in. I ran. I hid. I shut everyone out. I began to allow the feelings of anger and bitterness fester. It didn’t take long before I was turning to alcohol, porn, and anything else that wasn’t drugs and cigarettes in order to find some sort of escape. I had to find my way out of here. I was the joker, and my friends were the thieves I was talking to (Bob Dylan reference).

So, we’re all adults. Let us be really honest with ourselves and God right now. When was the last time that you rejoiced in suffering? When was the last time that you found the inner fortitude to sing hymns at midnight instead of licking your wounds like a dog? Has it ever been that you’ve even found the capacity to laugh and/or rejoice when your phone breaks? What is it about those first century apostles that they could tell us to rejoice in suffering, and yet we throw a tantrum when our food doesn’t come out of the kitchen hot and we’re on a date.

This question boggles my mind. Here is the thing. I can perceive of every reason why I’m supposed to rejoice, but I can’t understand how to get to that place where I do actually rejoice in stead of bitch and moan. Let me break it down for you. We’re in a cosmic war. There is a battle going on for the souls of men, and ultimately even for the cosmos itself. Lucifer has claimed that he wants to exalt himself to the place of the Most High, even to ruling from the mountain of the assembly (see Isaiah 14:12-14). The principalities and powers all around us tempt and taunt.

What are you going to do about it? When darkness rejoices over you, what is your response? Insert Ephesians 3:10 here. I would encourage you to go back and read the context. Essentially, Paul says in Ephesians 3:10 that God has destined all of creation so that there would be a people called “the Church”, and that this “Church” would manifest the wisdom of God on the earth. However, the apostle says something bizarre here. While we would think that we’re to manifest the wisdom of God so that all men might see it and repent, instead the apostle says that the purpose is to be a witness unto the principalities and powers. Why do demons need to see this manifestation?

There is a power released when the saints of God manifest the wisdom of God. What is that wisdom? It is selflessness, sacrifice, mercy, grace, love, hope, long-suffering, gentleness, joy, peace, patience, fortitude, faith, faithfulness, and all the things that make up the very character of God. How do we display that? First, you display it by being united. When you can love one another instead of fight with one another, you have broken free from the wisdom of darkness and into a higher ground. But the struggle isn’t over. Second: Rejoice in your suffering.

I leave this with a question. I can see ever reason why we should rejoice, but can’t figure out how to go from knowing why to actually doing it. What is it that the apostles had that is so bankrupt within my own soul? Do you ask this question of yourself? You should. We’ve established a Christianity that applauds Paul for the walk he had with Christ, but then reject it is possible for you to even come close to that proximity to the heart of God. On what Scriptural basis do you make that assumption? So really, what is it that they had that you and I are missing? Love? Baptism in the Holy Spirit? Trust in Christ? Obedience? For God’s sake, we better figure it out. Is it an eternal perception that we’re missing? Do you, my dear reader, have any clue to help me? I want to sing this song below, but I know that if I do, I would be a liar. How many of you would too?