We were so blessed this past weekend to have Pastor Emmanuel Eyim-Danquah speaking at our church. Every time he comes we are abundantly blessed. I did take some pictures of him and of the worship in our church, but my husband has not downloaded the camera yet, sigh. So here is a picture from the last time he was here.

Pastor Emmanuel Eyim-Danquah,
Christian Restoration Ministries Intl.
19255 NE 3rd Avenue
Miami, Fl. 33169

(305) 655-1923  

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The Shifting Blessing

God is about doing new things that we haven’t seen before. First God speaks, then He sends His prophets ahead. Before Jesus was born, John the Baptist and other prophets spoke about His coming. God’s word will go forth and bless us.

Genesis 48:1-5 Now it came to pass after these things that Joseph was told, “Indeed your father is sick”; and he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. And Jacob was told, “Look, your son Joseph is coming to you”; and Israel strengthened himself and sat up on the bed. Then Jacob said to Joseph: “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me, “and said to me, ‘Behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will make of you a multitude of people, and give this land to your descendants after you as an everlasting possession.’ And now your two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine; as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine.

Genesis 48:13-22 And Joseph took them both, Ephraim with his right hand toward Israel’s left hand, and Manasseh with his left hand toward Israel’s right hand, and brought them near him. Then Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on Ephraim’s head, who was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh’s head, guiding his hands knowingly, for Manasseh was the firstborn. And he blessed Joseph, and said:   “God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has fed me all my life long to this day, the Angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; let my name be named upon them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.” Now when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him; so he took hold of his father’s hand to remove it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head. And Joseph said to his father, “Not so, my father, for this one is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head.” But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know. He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great; but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations.” So he blessed them that day, saying, “By you Israel will bless, saying, ‘May God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh!’ ” And thus he set Ephraim before Manasseh. Then Israel said to Joseph, “Behold, I am dying, but God will be with you and bring you back to the land of your fathers. “Moreover I have given to you one portion above your brothers, which I took from the hand of the Amorite with my sword and my bow.”

The blessing is shifting from someone in the church tonight, from one level to another level. God is seeking to promote you.

God knows us by name. Regardless of how we feel or what our circumstances are, God will release fruit. The Word of God comes and blesses us.

In Israel (who used to be called Jacob before he wrestled with the Man) the blessing was transferred from the parents to the children and grandchildren. It is important to remember that, as parents, we are to speak blessings over our children.

Why were Jacob’s people so blessed, it was because God came to Abraham. God blessed Abraham by speaking, and before the manifestation of children came, God told Abraham that He was going to make him a great nation. It was spoken.

It was more than mere words spoken over Abraham, it was the blessing of God, and that blessing bore fruit. Abraham blessed Isaac, and Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau. The blessing is passed down from father to son. Esau was the first born and Jacob the second, but the father’s blessing passed to Jacob, Esau despised his birthright.

Remember, when Jacob (heel snatcher) was not acting as God wanted him to act, God called him “Jacob.” When he acted in line with God’s will, God called him “Israel.”

When God prophesies, open your spirit and drink in the blessing. When the blessing comes on  you it takes away all the years of trouble and can change your life permanently.

When your life turns around you then become a beacon of life to the world, and people see the light of God flowing through you. You may have been a nobody who people despised, but when God blesses you, your situation changes. God’s mercy comes toward you and shines through you.

Don’t let the enemy attack you with with the past, show him his future. God forgave us and put our sins into the sea of forgetfulness.God wants to bless us and change our destiny.

When Jacob/Israel was about to die he called his children to him to bless them, Joseph took his to sons to His father. Manasseh was the older and Ephraim was the younger. Joseph situated the boys so that the oldest was by Jacob’s right hand and the younger was by Jacob’s left hand. Jacob was tired and laying on the bed, but when the boys were brought to him ISRAEL strengthened himself and sat on the bed.

In Genesis 32 Jacob wrestled with a Man (God) until the breaking of the day. Jacob refused to let go until he received a blessing. The Man asked him his name, and Jacob answered, “Jacob” having to admit to being a heel snatcher. God told him, verse 28 And He said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have struggled with God and with men and have prevailed.

God is going to change our name, and bless us. People will identify you with a blessing.

Jacob now had a new name, Israel. The old Jacob had a sinful nature, and practiced deceit. But Israel obeyed God. Jacob is the carnal man, Israel the spiritual self, and when we see these names in the Bible we know how he is acting – obedient to God (Israel) or fleshly (Jacob).

Pastor Danquah asked us if we were Jacobs or Israels to our spouses. Do we come to church and put on our Israel nature, then get into the car and go home and become a Jacob?

So Israel strengthened Himself to put blessings on the children. The Spirit of the Lord is ready to bless you.

Jacob was old and blind, and could not see well, so Joseph made sure to put Manasseh by Jacob’s right hand for Manasseh is older, and Ephraim by Jacob’s left hand. To Joseph’s distress Jacob crossed his hands and put His right Hand on Ephraim’s head and his left hand on Manasseh’s. When corrected by Joseph, Jacob told him that he knew what he was doing.

Pastor Danquah pointed out to us that there are always people who are ahead of us while we are still struggling. But God can put us in front, he can shift the blessing.  This has nothing to do with what you feel, a word of truth is spoken to your heart and setting you ahead. God can set you ahead.

When Jacob gave Ephraim the blessing people may not have understood why he received the blessing over his older brother. It is not important that people know why he received the blessing, it is known to God. God has a reason and God’s will is sovereign. Pastor Danquah told us that in three months he is looking forward to coming back to our church and hearing the testimonies of all the blessings that have shifted.

Jacob INTENTIONALLY put his hand on Ephraim’s head. God also is intentional about the time when He is releasing the blessing.

Genesis 48:20 So he blessed them that day, saying, “By you Israel will bless, saying, ‘May God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh’ And thus he set Ephraim before Manasseh.

God has a set time to come to individuals to bless them. The anointing of the Lord means that there is a life transformed for good. Be open to the release of Grace from God.

We need to wait for the time when God blesses us. While waiting, don’t complain, just stay in Him.

Pastor Danquah then spent time praying over people, blessing all who were in attendance. It was an anointed time. I love seeing lives transformed before my eyes as the power of God moves through a person. We do serve an awesome God!!!!

Have a blessed day.

Heather

Ed Gabler came up to visit from Florida, and shared with us that he has a small Bible study in his home. One of the members of his Bible study goes to another church that believes that a person can lose their salvation. Ed shared with us some of the verses he used to minister to this person, and then Pastor Don added more information.

The first verse used was 1 John 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.

The people referred to in this verse left the group because they were not really saved, they were like wolves in sheep’s clothing. Had they been saved to the point where it touched their hearts AND minds, they would not choose to leave. What profession of faith that was made was superficial.

Matthew 7:21-23 Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord” shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in your name?” And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, when you practice lawlessness!”

People can be doing good deeds, claiming that they are of Christ, but not know Him.

Luke 8:13 This is part of the parable of the seed that is thrown into different soils But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away.

A secular example of this kind of believer is Bob Dylan, who at one point professed to believe in Jesus, but when his ratings fell, he came out saying I thought Jesus was the answer but I was wrong. His ratings meant more than his salvation.

When Jesus says, “I never knew you,” it shows that that person wasn’t saved. Jesus did not lose any of His own. God does not forget His children. If God knows you, He knows you, and you will not fall away.

We have to be clear about the Word of God, not listening to what men say.

Matthew 25:32-46 All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’ Then they also will answer Him,saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

There are people who do good works on earth that are not Christian. They do good works in the physical but do not feed the people the eternal Word of God.

At the end of the age Jesus is going to separate the goats from the sheep. Goats are stubborn, do not pay attention, they will eat anything – even things that are unhealthy and could kill them. Sheep eat what the shepherd leads them to. They know the shepherd’s voice and follow him.  Jesus is our shepherd.

We took a side journey to remember some of the information about sheep and shepherds that we learned in Israel. Even a goat can be used to help the shepherd. A goat, if trained properly can lead the sheep. Tethering a goat to a donkey, the goat runs its course, the donkey plods along, the goat wears itself out pulling against the donkey, and after a time the goat and the donkey work together. The goat learns to cooperate, and then will follow the shepherd, leading the sheep. Goats are more intelligent than sheep, and then the dogs bring up the rear, nipping the heels of the wayward sheep. Donkeys obey the shepherd because they know the source of their food. A young, wayward, disobedient sheep will have its legs broken by the shepherd, be carried by the shepherd as the legs heal, and in the time it takes for he legs to heal, the sheep forms a strong bond with the shepherd.

We also talked about the scapegoat that was brought before the priest in the temple, the scapegoat carried the sins of the people outside the camp. And Pastor Don mentioned how the mistakes, errors of our past keep nipping at our heels like the dog nips at the sheep’s heels, and that keeps us following our savior.

If we are looking over our shoulders toward the past, the dog of our mistakes nips at our heels. If we are walking forward, staying close to the Savior, then there is no need for the dog to nip at our heels. The more we profess our faith and stick by Christ, the less chance we have to fall.

Before we were saved, we could curse at a person and feel good about it. We could justify our words by thinking that they deserved it, we were right to do what we did. But as we come closer to Jesus, we find it harder and harder to justify sin. Even our tiniest sins look dark next to the light of Christ.

Jesus spoke a parable about servants given talents and told to multiply them while the master was away. The servants came back and shared what they did with the talents. The lazy servant came back with only the talent God gave him, and did not use the talent to multiply, this was the master’s response to the unprofitable servant:  Matthew 25:26-31 But his lord answered and said to him, “You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. Therefore, take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents. For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance, but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away and cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory.

Among those servants there were those who do not have the heart of the master, who do not intend to carry out his plan or intentions. There is no guarantee for those who do not have the heart of the master. The description that the unprofitable servant gave of God was a false description. He thought he knew God, but he did not know God. God called the servant wicked – God knew he was wicked at the start, but gave the servant a chance. This is very similar to when Jesus picked the 12 disciples. He knew one would betray Him (and Judas did betray Him.) God realizes we will make mistakes, we will not always obey Him. It is not that these people made mistakes in understanding God or in serving God, but it was a case of the sincerity of their hearts. Did they have a willingness to repent and get back up? Were they really in love with God? God knows our heart, we cannot see into the hearts of others.

Regarding the sower who sowed seed, this parable deals with what produces fruit. The true Christian will bring forth fruit. The rebellious person will not do what God wants him to do, and will not bear fruit. God deals with us according to our hearts.

1 Corinthians 3:1-2 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with  solid food, for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able;

Paul was writing to carnal Christians, who were still babes in Christ. They were not growing in Christ, and because of that Paul had to tone down the teachings that he had for them. They could not bite into the meat of the Word of God.

There are various levels of the revelation of God.

1. Revelation without understanding. It would be similar to what happened to Daniel when he had his vision, he heard and saw the vision but did not know what to do with it. The angel of the Lord had to come and explain the vision to Daniel. This would also be a person that understands that there is faith, but doesn’t know how to operate in faith.

2. Revelation with understanding. I hear something today, and I get the feeling “Whoa, I get this.”

3. Revelation with Experience. Something is revealed to you and you understand it. For example, you see why you had to go through all that, it wasn’t for nothing. You understand the principles of prosperity because you have gone through poverty, and gain an understanding how to overcome that and get to the point of abundance. You begin to realize that God tests you with little before he gives you much. Another example is if you went through a life of suffering you can understand the suffering of others in a way that a person with only an intellectual understanding of suffering can’t. God permits you to experience things so that you gain a deeper revelation.

People want to believe that everyone who does good works can have salvation. But salvation requires a revelation of God is good, satan is bad. And a revelation of how sin keeps us from holiness. When we have a deeper understanding of God, we realize that salvation is not about good works, but about an act of the heart. When God touches our hearts then we have a revelation of Him, and the same works that we used to do before we got saved are now done because of how much we love God, not as a way to earn salvation.

There is a revelatory experience to salvation, when we see His holiness and His love. God has a heart to save all who have a heart to want to be saved. Not all have the desire for deep salvation, some have a narrow salvation. They want God to forgive them, but they do not want to put God on the throne of their hearts. When God is not in charge of a person and they begin to rely on themselves for answers, then they easily fall away from God. People will say that they lose their salvation, but really they have not lost salvation, for they never really had it in the first place. Their sense of holiness was too small, not big enough to realize that God gives choice to us. God knows the heart of the person, and God is not fooled by outside affectations of salvation. We are not to judge another’s salvation, but God knows. He knows those who do not have a heart to fully repent of their sins (repenting meaning turing around, changing course to be in line with God’s will.)

God is God. Some people draw a line as to how far they are going to “permit” God into their lives. They say, “I am a good person, I feed the poor, give, do works of charity, but I am not going to let God be the Lord of my life. Their lives may look holy on the outside, but inside they are dealing with a sin of pride, believing that they can rule their own lives their own way, not obeying God. But God knows our hearts. We can be doing good things for the wrong reasons.

It takes a revelation of the truth of God and how much love He has poured out for us to truly change us. If we are truly saved, we will realize what God has done for us and our acts of service are done for love of God, not glory of man. It is not a works mentality, but a revelation, knowledge, and understanding of who God is. Revelation accompanied by expression.

Pastor Don said that he would not want to be judged by people who feel that a person can lose their salvation because they will judge by outward actions, not by the condition of our heart.

Psalm 37:23-25 The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD, and He delights in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down for the LORD upholds him with His hand. I have been young, and now am old. Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread.

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

1 Corinthians 3:2-3 I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?

God knows our frames, he knows that we are dust. He is not disappointed when we act the fool. He just wants us to pick ourselves up and grow and learn from the experience. There are some in church that are still baby Christians even though they have been in the church for years. God is wanting us to mature in Christ.

1 Corinthians 3:9-10 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building. According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it.

Paul laid the foundation of truth, but we have to be careful what we add to that foundation.

1 Corinthians 3:11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Pastor Don pointed out that the only foundation is Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 3:12-13 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay straw, each one’s work will become clear, for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is.

The quality of the heart is judged by what you do, is it lasting or will it be burnt by the fire of truth?

1 Corinthians 3:14-15 If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

The works that we do for the love of Christ do not determine our salvation, just our rewards in heaven. The saints build on the foundation of Christ, and it will be judged with a purification of fire. The dross will be burnt off.

Pastor Don reminded us not to go boasting about our works, unless it is guided to do that to teach others how to do good works for God, far better to do your good works in secret. Don’t let your right hand know what your left hand is doing.

2 Corinthians 4:5-12  For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed– always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us, but life in you.

2 Corinthians 4:13 And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed and therefore I spoke,” we also believe and therefore speak,

We read the words, “I believed and therefore I spoke.” three times outloud.

2 Corinthians 4:14-15 knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.

Ephesians 1:13 In Him you also trusted; after your heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.

2 Corinthians 5:5 Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

There is another aspect of faith, the time aspect of Eternity. We don’t know about the time, for the Spirit lives forever. There is a an error of translation for King James uses Aeon, and talks about aeonic time. Our Bible translates it as eternal. Eternity relates to our time but God’s timing is more based on seasons and parsnips of time. God is outside of time. God’s timing is at a different pace than our time. We count days, weeks, years. But God’s timing is based on events.

People look at Abraham and Sarah who had a child when Abraham was 100 years old and wonder why God made them wait so long to have a child. God was not concerned about their age, he was waiting until all events were in place so that the child was born at the exact right time. And when this child was born, Abraham’s joy was off the charts. It did not matter to Abraham that he was 100 years old.

Until we accept that what God wants us to put down is because He has a greater thing for us, we are still immature.

The devil introduces ideas into the church that weaken the faith of the believer, ideas like you can lose your salvation. The fear of losing one’s salvation has no effect on an unbeliever, but it can cause the believer to believe that they must work harder to maintain their salvation. The devil wants the believer to fear that their salvation is shaky. To think that salvation depends on works, on what we do or don’t do.

Jesus wants us to know that He loves us so much, that He will never leave us or forsake us.

If we are shaky about our salvation, Pastor Don suggested reading Philippians 4:4-9

Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice.

We rejoice not some of the time, not most of the time but ALWAYS.

Philippians 4:5 Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.

We need to be gentle. And know that God is at hand, He will not leave us or forsake us.

Philippians 4:6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

Give thanks to God, but God cares about our requests.

Philippians 4:7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Jesus helps us guard our hearts and minds.

And then we read as a group the following verses.

Philippians 4:8-9 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy–meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.

That is the way that we keep our hearts pure, by meditating on these things.

Of course, our group loves the Bible so much and this chapter a lot, we finished the Bible study with a group reading of a few more verses of Philippians 4:10-20, how could we not enjoy these rich verses.

Philippians 4:10-20 But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last your care for me has flourished again; though you surely did care, but you lacked opportunity. Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Nevertheless you have done well that you shared in my distress. Now you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me concerning giving and receiving but you only. For even in Thessalonica you sent aid once and again for my necessities. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that abounds to your account. Indeed I have all and abound. I am full, having received from Epaphroditus the things sent from you, a sweet-smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God. And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Now to our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.

What an encouraging Bible study, it is comforting to know that we cannot lose our salvation. And for me, it is comforting to know how much He loves us and helps us to learn to follow His way which is the best way for us.

Have a blessed day. I am slowly catching up in my Bible study notes – but it is pure pleasure to have so many more to share with you, and all so rich and filled with His Spirit.

Heather

Our church supports missionaries in many places, some foreign, others domestic. On Wednesday of last week Pastors Brian and Sarah Hampshire came to visit us and share what is going on in their life and with their ministry. They are affiliated with BCM (Bible Centered Ministries International). Their biggest prayer request is that the way is open for them to have a Bible Club on Fort Campbell. There are a lot of children connected to Fort Campbell missing their parent who was sent overseas. These children would benefit from knowing more about God and having a relationship with Him. Pastor Sarah spends many hours corresponding with MK’s (Missionary Kids) from around the world. She said that there are about 175 kids that she prays about and corresponds with. Some of them need special prayer because being a MK is not easy.

Three of their children are going to be headed overseas in the military – Michael to Iraq, Nathan to Afghanistan, and Stephen will leave for Iraq in March. Their other son Min is still at home.

Pastor Brian works at camps and leads studies for people. Their ministry is touching lives in a vital way. You can reach them at briansarahhamp@yahoo.com, their home/field address is 58 Hillsboro Road, Clarksville, TN 37042-6244. If you want to contribute, to help, or receive their prayer letter, let them know.  If you want to know more about BCM, the webpage is www.bcmintl.org

They are also musicians and sang and played a beautiful hymn on fiddle and guitar, pointing out that music can teach much about the Word of God.

Pastor Brian told us that the area where they are living is beautiful, the scenery is so wonderful that it gets him contemplating what the world must have looked like before the fall of man. He cannot imagine how awesome it had to have been in the Garden of Eden, but where he lives now gives him a glimpse of the beauty.

Pastors Brian and Sarah sang a hymn about Jesus seeking for the one lost sheep. Pastor Brian pointed out that in school if we got a 99 instead of a hundred we would feel pretty good. But we are so precious in His sight that He will go and search for the one lost sheep.

At one point when the children of Israel were under attack by the Amalgamates, Moses went up on a hill to pray. Exodus 17:11-13 And so it was, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalgam prevailed. But Moses’ hands became heavy; so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. And Aaron and Her supported his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. So Joshua defeated the Amalgam and his people with the edge of the sword.

We are in a great spiritual battle in this day and age. Spiritual forces, demons, dark forces are getting stronger and stronger. We need to keep praying and supporting those who are working against the dark forces in prayer. God desires people to be praying and working with Him to combat the darkness. 1 Samuel 17:47 …the battle is the Lord’s.

We as soldiers of the Cross do battle the darkness. It doesn’t take much to realize how much darkness and lawlessness has increased in our land. Just look at the change in the content of TV programs over the past 10 years. What was bad then is now considered good, and much of what is good is now considered bad.

Being near an army base opens up the door to the world, for there are many nationalities living in Clarksville; German, Korean, Chinese, and many others. So to teach the Word there has the potential to reach more than those in that one town.

When troops deploy it is difficult for the families. Pastors Brian and Sarah often walk in the local Fulmar and hear little ones asking, “When will daddy come home? Deployment is also difficult on marriages. For families with a member in the Special Forces the divorce rate is 90%.

He also told us that we need to keep praying for the peace of Jerusalem. That lately American weapons have been sold to the enemies of Jerusalem, and sometimes the Israelites have been shot at by American bullets. If we don’t back Israel, America is doomed, because it matters to God who protects His people.

Pastor Brian told us that we can find out what is going on in Israel by checking www.israelnationalnews.com. Pastor Brian pointed out that many in Israel now have a personal relationship with Hashem. Jesus once said, “Before Abraham was, I AM. That I AM is Hashem, the Jews just don’t know that yet.

How do we have eternal life?  John 17:3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

Sometimes people are confused looking for where God is revealing Himself. God showed Himself to Elijah not in a whirlwind, or a storm or a fire, but in the Still Small Voice.

God revealed Himself to Moses, and Jesus revealed Himself to Saul/Paul asking Saul why he was persecuting Jesus. Saul helped in the stoning of Stephen. He had a zeal for Hashem, and spent years seeking out Christians in this misplaced zeal, thinking he was doing God’s work. Jesus came and pointed out that He was not doing what God wanted him to do.

Yet, once Paul received the revelation from God, look at how God used him. Most of the New Testament was written by Paul.

God reveals Himself in His creation. Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.

Psalm 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork.

Pastor Brian pointed out that there is such a miracle in creation. We can look into the heavens and find galaxy after galaxy or we can look into a microscope and keep looking and find that atoms have vast space between the electrons and protons, that there is an order and even further divisions as we increase the magnification. Scientists do not know how the universe is held together so they speculate about Atomic Glue, but we know that God holds the universe together.

Just look at how two gasses Hydrogen and Oxygen come together to make water H 2 0. And this can be a gas, a vapor, a liquid or a solid. People are without excuse when it comes to knowing God through creation.

We need to believe the truth, to be true to God’s Word. Skeptics have tried to destroy the truth of the Bible, but their arguments fall flat. It is also important to remember that there is an 18 inch space between the head and the heart. Head knowledge does not give us the relationship with God– that requires heart knowledge. God wants us to have Christ in us, the hope of glory.

Those who know the Word of God must do the Word of God. God’s Word produces change.

Romans 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

The Word of God produces change. God speaks and change happens. God spoke, “Let there be light….” And there was light.

One scary statistic was recently published. In a Barna survey, pastors were asked how much time they spend in the Word of God. Many pastors spend 20 minutes or less a week. (Heather’s note, that was astounding to me, but perhaps that is why I count my blessings that we have Pastor Don and his teachings, for he spends far more than that in one day in the Word.) With such little time spent in the Word of God it is little wonder that many churches are weak.

2 Chronicles 7:14 My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

Believe what the Word says, and seek to join God in His work here on earth. God wants us involved in His work and His creation. He will use divine intervention to get people’s attention. He even used a donkey to get Balaam’s attention. God reveals Himself through creation and through His Word.

God created the nearest star to us, 93 million miles away (our sun), and he created that in six days, 6,000 years ago. Not only did he create that, but he created the whole universe. And the universe is spreading out. Yet, we are seeing that the universe is slowing down (second law of thermodynamics – entropy). Scientists are refusing to look at the facts and are holding onto their false religion of evolution, in spite of the fact that much of what they have concluded is rapidly being proved wrong.

Psalm 119:102 I have not departed from Your judgments, for You Yourself have taught me.

God Himself will teach us His truth. The Holy Spirit helps us to understand.

Pastor Brian gave us an example. In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke there is a passage that talks about Jesus casting out demons, and in Matthew it mentions two demons – but the same story in Mark and Luke it mentions one. This puzzled Pastor Brian, and he asked the Holy Spirit for clarification. It was brought to his attention that Matthew was written for the Jews, and for Jews the testimony of two witnesses was important. This is a possible explanation for the two demons.

This passage also shows us how Jesus was the Son of God in human body on earth. The demons recognized that and questioned Jesus’ authority at that time, but Jesus did have authority to cast them out because when He did so, He was fully human. After the demon was cast out the man was fully clothed sitting calmly and talking. Before that he was with the other demon possessed people, living in caves as outcasts. This man was chained and kept breaking out of his chains.

If we look at our lives, we are all chained in areas of sin, and we need Jesus to set us free. Once he was freed of the demon, the man wanted to go with Jesus, to follow Him. But Jesus told him to go home and tell the good news of his healing to the people in his town. We too need to spread the good news of how He has freed us. Our lives and the changes that God makes in them speak loudly to others who are observing us.

We will also know God through HIS NATURE. If we study His word, God reveals Himself to us. There is darkness around us, and it only takes a little light to dispel the darkness. We are the light of the World, we have Jesus within us, and as such are children of the light. Men love the darkness and flee from the light.

There will be a day to come when we will be persecuted for our faith. Church doors will be padlocked, and sermons will not be permitted that do not conform with secular thinking. We need to be people of the Word. To know His Word so that we can be lights in the darkness that will be coming.

We need to get out and share God’s Word with people. Not giving a TESTIPHONY (a testimony that is surface, not backed by deep change within), but a testimony of God. There is a lot of Christian fluff around, a lot of show, music, polish, and production, but without power.

When Jonathan Edwards preached about hell people were hanging onto the backs of pews fearful of being pulled immediately into hell.

We have taken the Holy Spirit and God and tried to put Him into a little box. But He is God and cannot be confined to a box. We need to be liberated, to live for God no matter if we are mocked or face the possibility of death.

We are all to be people of the Book (the Bible), it is not just up to our pastors, professionals, elders and leadership, but everyone in the pews needs to be people of the Book.

Prayer is vital. The fields are white with harvest. We are not to just do good, but to do God’s best. To walk through the best door God has for us and do His Will on the earth.

We want to see Jesus glorified, to see Him victorious.

Hoping this blessed you.

Heather

It is exciting to me to see others from Living Word Chapel starting blogrings and sharing their ideas. I am now going to introduce you to Barb, and her blog. Please go and say Hi to her.

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Before our guest speaker spoke at Wednesday’s Bible study, a member asked Pastor Don if it was really Samuel who appeared to the witch at En Dor. This brought us to 1 Samuel 28.

God forbids talking to the other side. Unless discernment is high, we do not know who or what we are talking to. Familiar spirits will speak, appearing to be loved ones or other famous people, but what they can share is only what they are familiar with. But these familiar spirits are demon spirits. The devil is a liar and will use partial truth to trick us. Satan is smart enough not to tell a bold faced lie, he will tell mostly the truth with a twist.

What a medium shares is one of two things. The devil will tell you what he is going to do to you in the future or the devil can masquerade as an angel of enlightenment.

Mediums cross over into the spiritual realm, and tell an answer that we have not discerned yet. But we can fall into trouble listening to this because discernment is needed. We do not want to react to what satan shows us, but to act according to God’s will.

When the witch of En Dor was asked to speak to Samuel she probably spoke to a familiar spirit, not to Samuel. Samuel would not violate the law of God and return to speak through the witch. Where would Samuel be? He would either be in Abraham’s Bosom where righteous who did not know Jesus went, or in his righteousness he was brought up to the throne room of Heaven.

Pastor Don pointed out that after Jesus died he went to Abraham’s Bosom and preached to the souls there, and then brought those saved to Heaven. Before that, Jesus spoke about Lazarus and the rich man and pointed out that there was no way for those souls who were in Gehena or the Bosom of Abraham to cross over to each other or to leave where they are at that time.

We cannot for certain say that Samuel was not with God, for the disciples did see Moses and Elijah speaking with Jesus on the Mt. of Transfiguration, that they went straight to Heaven, but with Samuel he was either there or in Abraham’s Bosom.

Is it possible for a familiar spirit to appear as Samuel and give information to Saul, yes. It is possible for a demonic spirit to know how Saul will die, if the demon spirit is to kill Saul. Saul was under the influence of demonic spirits. (Remember David had to play to ease the torment that Saul had when the demon spirits came upon him.)

The demons might have had Saul under their influence to seek an answer from the witch.

One thing that we know was that the witch was surprised when it was shown to her that it was King Saul who was seeking the information. She recognized that Saul was in disguise and was fearful of her life because Saul had made a law that any seeking information from mediums would be killed.

All we have to do to realize that it was not Samuel is to ask ourselves if God would permit what he has outlawed? No, he specifically stated that he did not want us to seek the spirits of the dead. God does not violate His laws.  So it is safe to assume that the familiar spirit that appeared to Saul was not Samuel.

Hope that helps with this question.

Have a blessed day,

Heather

Before you read, Go say “Hi” to my friend Pam from church. She has put up some neat Bible quizes.

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June 16 we had our monthly Women’s Luncheon. This is a blessed and anointed time and I am grateful that I got to attend. It is not always possible with three teenagers to get the liberty to attend, so I count my blessings. The speaker for June was Mary Winchell. Her website is www.amazingloveministries.org For your information here is her bio from her site:

Mary Winchell has been ministering since 1972 in the United States, Great Britain and the Far East. God has used her through teaching, exhortation, prayer, counseling, healing and restoration, as the Holy Spirit fulfills the Word in Isaiah 61 “To bind up the broken hearted and set the captives free”. Mary and the ministry team of Amazing Love through radio, conferences and retreats reach thousands of people with God’s message of hope, love, and change through Jesus Christ. Amazing Love Ministries is here for your life, to minister the Father’s love into your circumstances and the fresh Word of His Spirit for today!

Her message to us was inspiring and filled with God’s love.

Mary began by pointing out that we are all gifts in God’s Kingdom. God, by His Spirit, will surface a gift in us for the Body of Christ, and God stirs up gifts in us. We need to stir up the gifts in us that God has provided. God is waiting for us to expand the gifts He gives us. The gifts are not just for looking at or unwrapping, they are meant to be used beyond ourselves, they are given so that we can share the hope and glory of God.

She told us, “Break forth O daughters of Zion, in the name of the Lord.” Let this day be a day of New Women of Faith coming out of passivity, breaking forth. Come forth into your calling and take your place.

We might not be able to see beyond our situation and self conceptions, but God can see more than we. He has set us apart to be a new creation. We are not to live in yesterday, but to go forth. We need to let go of yesterday, not run the old VCR tapes in our mind, but to put in the new tape. God has created us as tabernacles, with the ability to be all over the earth, doing His will. He has given us the ability to communicate.

See within ourselves the new things God has for us. The old stuff will not help us to come into the new person. We do not want to let the words of the past annihilate us and keep us from God’s plan.

The emphasis is, do we LIVE or do we just put our time in life?  Without visions the people perish. We cannot live in our past circumstances. Excuses from the past keep us from claiming the new that God has for us.

The truth is that we have a limited amount of time on this earth, Are we just breathing in, breathing out? Are we going nowhere? We need to get out and do SOMETHING. Faith without works is dead. But we do not want to do work just for works’ sake, for that is empty works and then we are working for nothing. We want to do what the Spirit tells us and then the works that we do are significant.

Jesus told us that we would do greater works than he did, but we haven’t done that yet. At one point we did manifest His works in our lives, and if we have lost that, if we are running on idle and going nowhere. We need to go back to where we broke down, to find out what we need to change in ourselves. Some of us have broken down for so long we can’t find the last point where we were manifesting His Spirit. But His Spirit can help us reconnect, to where we are physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually manifesting Him. He can help us to know what wounded us, what is keeping us from doing His will.

Some think that obeying God means that we will live a boring life. Life is not BORING when we are doing His will. If we feel life is boring, it means that something has to change, and that something is ME. Did I lose the spark? Life in Christ should be exciting. Some of us need a jumpstart.

Our lives are consecrated to God. When we are not living consecrated lives, we need to ask God to reveal what is blocking us. We keep refining the consecration that God gives us, there is never an end of growing in God. When someone offends us it can indicate areas that we need to work on in our lives. Little offenses can block our love quota. His love is powerful. Choose to live a life in and through Him.

Some people, when hurt, shut down, blocking out close contacts, wanting to be more like a rock, not responding. But Jesus points out that even the rocks will cry out. Shutting out life is not a protection from hurt. There are songs to sing, words to say, smiles on faces, things to share. How can God use us if we are not totally alive, if we are walking deadmen?

We need to choose life, to be fully alive. Yes there will be hurts. But when someone hurts us and we shut down our selves, we are the ones who pay.

Jesus is God of the new, to be totally alive. Mary asked us, what is your drug of choice? TV, food, alcohol, drugs, what is it that you use to take away the pain? Our Healer is here and wants to heal us. He loves us each as if we are His only child. we don’t know how He does it, but He can. We do not have to compete with sisters and brothers for His love, He loves us individually. He knows the words we speak, and He speaks to us. He looks into our hearts, knows our every sin, and is waiting for us to let go so He can come in. We have free will.

Sometimes we want Him to knock us out and make the changes in us so that there is no pain. But often we have to walk through it, and take back the ground that we have given over to the darkness. Our fight is not a fight against the flesh, but against spiritual wickedness in high places. The devil has stolen much from us. Jesus came to give us life and give it to us more abundantly. What are we going to choose? Life with joy, peace, love; or death and destruction?

Women get emotional over situations. Men get over things more quickly. Women remember, keep laundry lists, with page after page of wrongs done. How easy it is to list another’s faults, but we don’t look at our own. Often when we are aware of something in another person that annoys us it is because we also do the same thing. What easily offends us is a trait that we often possess.

We often are seeking for a way to change – looking at self-help books, seeking other’s counsel, when only the Holy Spirit and our repentance can change anything.

We sometimes call our little annoying behaviors, idiosyncrasies, but they really are sins that are not our friends. God will deliver us not only from enemies, but from friends that are really enemies of us.

To get out of the cycle of sin and death we have to:

1. Recognize that I need to change
2. Cry out to Him to change us, and let Him come in and remove what needs removing.
3. Realize that we want to be free and not impaired by sin, learned behaviors and things that are doing nothing but hurting us.

That is what God is doing when He is freeing us. Women have held onto behaviors for years, bought into the culture. We have been taught things that women shouldn’t do, have believed that men do certain things, women others. We have been caught up into stereotypes, but what we need to focus on is what GOD WANTS US TO DO.

Men think differently than women. When women have a problem and bring it to a man, the man looks for a quick way to fix the problem. The woman wants to spend time talking about the problem, understanding the problem. God fixes things. Some things in  our lives no one can fix. If God doesn’t intervene, provide a miracle, or deliverance through His sovereignty, things will not happen. God builds our faith that way, especially if we consider ourselves a fixer and a doer – sometimes we need God to sovereignly intervene.

We cannot change our children at a certain age. We can try to reason, but often they are not willing to reason. So we pray, “Oh God, if you do not come through, where will we be?”

We live in time, space and situations. God is there in it all. He can go where we can’t go, he can travel instantaneously. Our prayers release God into places we can’t go ourselves.

2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. We need to keep this in mind so that when we get that phone call, instead of focusing on the situation, focus on God. Ask God to tell us what our part in the situation is and obey Him. We need to keep in mind that in some strange way all things work together for good. We don’t know the results of the situation, or how it will affect a persons’ life. But we do know our God is into redeeming, saving and restoration. Sometimes it seems that on the surface things are falling apart, but God is working things out for the person’s good. If your child hasn’t contacted you in years and you don’t know if they are dead or alive, believe in faith that someone else has come forward to take care of him or her.

Remember that it is God who does the things, he chooses the weak things of the world to confound the wise.  It is NOT US, but it is Christ who is the hope of glory. He heals, delivers, encourages, and gives hope to the hopeless.  Sometimes we want to see things change quickly, and we say that if we were God we would change it instantly. But we don’t see things from God’s perspective. We may not see the change in the external but that does not mean that change is not occurring. Faith is the substance of things not seen. We need to have faith that God is working in the situation even if we don’t see something in the external. God is faithful and He is outside of our time frame. We need to hold onto the promise that Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. That it is God’s nature to save, deliver, and care.

That it is not who we are but who HE IS. It is ok if we do not have all the answers. What is important is that I BELIEVE.

God is moving in a new way. He is coming again. It will not be like we think, it will not be according to our plans. He will be transforming us on the earth. We can see changes in Israel. He is making changes, and is calling us to trust what He is doing. We need to believe He is and that everything will be OK, even if you do not think He is doing anything. When things seem to be in chaos in the earth, watch the panorama, but don’t get caught up in the chaos. See what God is doing and join Him in his work. Pray, “Lord, show us what You are doing and what our place is in what You are doing.” We need to let God move us out of the box, to change quickly, and to not be afraid of change. God is stirring us up, the dross will float to the top and be skimmed off, so that the good remains. We need to let God do His work in us.

She then went around prophesying to the women and praying for the women at our luncheon. All left the meeting profoundly touched.

Hoping your day is blessed.

Heather

 I took a few notes to the best of my ability, but you may want to read a good history of this land for a complete study on this.

Someone asked Pastor Don about the Muslims. We had gone up to the dome of the Rock on our trip to Israel, and wanted to know more about the history of the Muslims and where they came from. Pastor Don pointed out that if you tell a lie long enough and loud enough people will begin to believe it. This is true in the case of Ishmael and the Muslims. The Muslims contend that they are part of Abraham’s seed as well as Israel is. They claim Ishmael, the first born of Abraham and Hagar, is the true heir. They claim Israel belongs to them. But that is not biblically accurate.

In our Bible we have a map called the Ancient World of the Patriarchs – the above map is the closest to that map that I could find on the internet.

If you read the account of Abraham in Genesis, you will see that he left Ur of the Chaldees (sort of near the Persian Gulf), and traveled to Canaan. During this time God promised him that he would have many offsprings (at that time he and his wife were beyond the age of childbirth and were barren). Initially, because he and his wife were old, his wife came up with having Abraham go into Hagar, an EGYPTIAN MAID. Hagar produced a son called Ishmael. Then God gave Sarah and Abraham a son whom they called Isaac. When Abraham was instructed to sacrifice his son, God told him to take Isaac, HIS ONLY SON, to sacrifice. Also God, when Abraham tried to get God to bless Ishmael as the first born God told him that he would make a great nation out of Ishmael as well but that Isaac was Abraham’s son of the promise. Genesis 17:18-21 And Abraham said to God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!” Then God said: “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him. And as for Ishmael, I have hard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall begat twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year.

It is clear that the line of Abraham runs through Isaac. Abraham & the EGYPTIAN maid’s son Ishmael will have offspring and rule great nations, but it is not the direct line that God wanted established toward the Messiah.

Now, Mohammed came from Mecca – which is in Saudi Arabia – not Canaan area. When the people come to the Dome of the Rock and it is time to pray, they do not bow to Jerusalem, they bow to Mecca. The Koran does not mention Jerusalem with the frequency that it is mentioned in the Bible, both old and New Testaments. Our assumption is that the reason the dome of the rock is wanted so much is because it is holy to the Jews and the Christians, not because there is a long history of sacredness to the muslims for the spot.

Here is a prayer rug lined up toward Mecca waiting for the person to pray.

But Pastor Don then went on to point out where Ishmael’s sons went when they went out from Abraham, they did NOT go to Mecca – they stayed in the Canaan area, down south. If you look at the map you will recognize city names. They settled from Havilah as far as Shur which is east of Egypt as you go toward Assyria (Genesis 25:18) This is the lower Canaanite region. They did not come from Saudi Arabia and Mecca or go there. The Medes and Persians brought the Jews into captivity in Babylon (again far to the East of Canaan). There is NO direct lineage or spiritual lineage to connect the muslims with Abraham.

The Ishmaelites were Jews, and stayed Jews.

Everything concerning these countries that God prophesied have come true. Israel has been restored as a nation, May 6, 1948. If you look at the world you do not find any Jebusites, Hittites, Amorites, etc. There is no one who speaks Hittite now, or Jebusite, or Amorite, these nations were all destroyed. The only ones who have any direct lineage and a living language are the Israelites.

This is another example of the Prophetic time crossing over in the Spiritual.

EVERYTHING promised in Prophesy will occur. When the events are ready to occur in the prophetic, and the Spirit is ready to receive them, then the prophesy will occur. We were struck by how the “sacred” dome of the rock was treated by the muslims. We saw soccer games played by kids and kids shooting the tourists with water pistols.

And, notice that the place is not teeming with muslim pilgrims, the two in the picture below are from our tour group.

Isaac had two sons – Jacob (supplanter) and Esau (red). Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of pottage. Jacob inherited the land, and Esau settled in Moab, Edom, and Ammon. He had 12 tribes.

So what of the Palestinians that claim that the land belongs to them? Israel, according to Mark Twain was a desert, there was no life in the land. Nomads would camp there, but no one wanted the land. After the Israelites left in the dispersion AD 70, God stopped the rain on the land and the land was a desolate wilderness.  Once Israel was again in the land (1948), the climate changed, and what was a dry desert became fruitful. Because Israel wanted the land God gave them as an inheritance, and because the land became fruitful, the other nations did not like that idea.

Satan knows his time is short, and he is doing anything he can to delay the second coming of Christ, something that is dependant on a temple being built and end times prophesies fulfilled. No one thought that the nation of Israel would be re-established, but God had it happen in a day.

To combat the resettling of the nation of Israel, the Arab countries sent gypsies, and other disenfranchised people to go in and kill the Israelites, with the promise that if they killed the Israelites they would gain the land they captured. Israel won this war with God’s help, and held Jerusalem for one day, but then bowed to world pressure and gave up parts of Jerusalem

For thousands of years there were no Palestinians. If you ask a Palestinian where they are from they will tell you from Lybia, from Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia. There is no 3rd generation Palestinian.

Jordan remains. They were the only country good to Israel. In the last Days God will spare Egypt and Jordan because of how they treated Israel.

There are events occurring today that seem to be fulfilling the End Times prophesy. If you want to know what the Spiritual time is, look to Israel.

Pastor Don spent some time sharing with us that in the area away from the mosque where we are standing (see picture below) there is a place that has nothing built on it. Pastor Don feels that it will be found that the Holy of Holies is not located where the dome of the rock is but a few hundred feet away from that where we are standing, and that some “peacemaker” will come up with a solution that will make peace between the muslims and the Israelites, and both will have their holy sites. And of course once that happens events from Revelation kick in. For some reason the picture I put in before has disappeared. If you just click in the blank space below these words, the picture comes up. I have the premium subscription, and am surprised that the picture is not showing up.

A personal note. To get up to the dome of the rock we had to relinquish our Bibles, and anything that appeared to be Christian. The guards grabbed the things with looks of disgust, told us that if we did not get back to the guardhouse in 30 minutes our stuff would be trash. We did get our stuff back, but it was a very uncomfortable feeling to have our things taken away. I suspect that as more and more times of lawlessness come, we may find our religious freedom curtailed, and this is a hint of what it might feel like to not be able to worship openly.

Have a blessed night, I am slowly catching up with my posts, but I have some incredible, wonderful Bible studies and teachings to come. Guess who was here this weekend? Pastor Danquah! But I am going to put up the studies in order so that I don’t miss any one, so stay tuned.

Heather

Someone asked Pastor Don what waiting on God meant. We read the Psalm 27:1-14 then started looking at individual verses to get an idea of this. For waiting on God does not depend on what the physical circumstances appear to be, it is dependant on what is occurring in the spiritual realm.

Faith is the correct perception of time.

In Psalm 27 David is speaking in faith concerning his situation, which wasn’t pleasant..

When David composed this Psalm he was surrounded by the enemy and to combat his fear, he spoke fact (spiritual truth) concerning his situation. The correct name for satan is “the adversary.” The spiritual adversary stirs up people in the natural against us.

Sometimes we see problems in life through a human perception of the flesh. But sometimes the problem is not from the flesh, the problem has a spiritual aspect. Pastor Don asked us if we ever woke up feeing great and five minutes later were plunged into a deep depression, to where you wonder, “Why am I upset now?” Our depression may not have a physical cause. We have spirits, demonic forces and angels in our midst all the time. We are seldom alone when we think we are alone.

While we are in the flesh walking around, the spirit man is picking up what is going on in the spiritual and that can have an emotional effect on you. Sometimes we fight the emotional effect and other times we acquiesce to it.

Pastor Don went on to point out that because you are saved doesn’t mean that you are converted. Salvation is a beginning, but we need to grow in the Spirit. The church is a hospital for sinners and a university for saints. Conversion is dependant on me surrendering to God, not to the flesh.

The measure of maturity of a saint is that they are quick to repent, how quick to realize when they are out of order. Responsibility is self-control.

People in trouble want to blame the church, to blame other people. The mature saint says, “I blew it, help me.” Help comes quicker when we admit that we are in error and need help.

The answer when we are in trouble is to SEEK GOD’S FACE, not solve my problem in my own strength. Before a priest could enter the Holy of Holies, they had to wash in the laver. The laver was polished to a mirror finish, and when the priest washed, he had too look in the laver, and see what was reflected back. He looked at himself.

Faith begins with the self. Spiritual maturity begins with the self.

Who is responsible for your happiness?

Pastor Don pointed out that we have a choice as to how we respond to situations. He gave an example, if you are a child and you watch your parents fight, you have various ways to look at the situation. You can see that they have a special way of fighting that doesn’t involve you, you can see that they are working out stuff that doesn’t involve you, you can decide that they are fighting because of something you did or didn’t do, you can tell them to stop fighting because it hurts your feelings, you can get between them in the fight and then they might turn their attack on you.

When you face a situation that is unpleasant you need to ask yourself, “What is my part in this?” and “How am I going to respond?”

(Heather’s comment, a few years ago I would have been up in arms about this teaching, for I viewed much of my life from a victim’s point of view, that everything happened TO ME. I am beginning in some areas of my life to now realize that even though things happened to me, I still have a choice on how I view it. Distance from the past helps me to begin to see that it does not have to control me, but I can still take lessons learned from the past and apply them to the present situations. Nothing is wasted in God’s economy. Now I want to learn the lesson quickly so I can move on. God is soooooooooo good!)

We can look at what our interpretation of the situation is, not letting it steal our joy. We can choose to be happy. Pastor Don then mentioned that sometimes a person who is co-dependant will stay in a situation and feed it, because they too get something from dealing with the tough situation.

Pastor Don pointed out that we really don’t leave an abusive situation until we own up to our part in it. He pointed out that often a person leaves one abusive situation only to end up in a similar situation with another person. They will keep doing this until they change. When we stand praying and ask God to forgive us for our part, then change can occur. Then we will not move from one abusive situation into another.

When we wake up, and find that our happy mood unaccountably has changed to one of depression we must ourselves, “Do I choose to be happy or am I going to permit this disgruntled mood?”  Something in my life is not permitting me to feel the joy of the Lord.

What is it that David knows to keep the faith with?

Pastor Don pointed out that God created time in the beginning. He created the sun, moon and stars. Adam and Eve were put in the garden in the realm of time. But God is outside of time and eternity. The Jewish calendar had 30 day months, based on the lunar calendar. But God does not function according to our calendars, for God bases His actions on a series of events within the time space continuum, a Spirit realm time frame.

God created time. But there is spiritual time and earthly time. When the carnal aspect of man and the Spiritual aspect of man arrive at a certain place in time God moves in a situation.

When God created man, he gave man the opportunity to choose. Man chose to disobey God and satan was given the ability to function in the world.

We explored David’s situation by looking at Psalm 27 verse by verse to see how David took his physical situation and willed himself to see it from God’s eternal perspective. This allowed David to have hope and faith that God will act in the tough situation and gave David the strength to wait on the LORD.

Events in spiritual time may have consequences different than what man sees in physical time. Man sees life as a series of events occurring in physical time, but God sees events from an eternal perspective.

In the Bible, people tried to force eternity into statements like forever and ever, Amen. We cannot conceive of what eternity is like; it is beyond our conception of clock time. The Jewish language talks about eons and eons and bits of events that never end but that does not give a picture of eternity because eons is still an element of earthly time.

Spirit time does not operate on an earthly time frame. God is looking at prophetic events and he will intersect on the physical based on prophetic events, not based on our clock time. That is why Jesus said that no one knows the day or the hour. But when the prophetic events in the physical come to pass in the season of the Spirit, then they will be fulfilled.

God can do more in a day with my life than I can do in years. God, when I am 90 can do more than I did in the previous 89 years. God brings about spiritual events regardless of physical time. (Remember Abraham and Sarah and Isaac.)

One member pointed out that Joseph Zietz gave an example of this when he spoke about how the rabbis decided when the month of ABIB – which is the first month of Spring occurs.  She reminded us that the rabbis would decide when the First of Abib was based on the maturity of the grain. Later the rabbis tried to make a calendar by adding and subtracting days to make the months come out right, but they did not decide Abib based on the grain, but on their calendar days. But in the old way of reckoning the first of Abib, God was in control, and it was based on a physical event.

God can change a life on a dime. Some people are saved, but not converted. God examines the heart, and can tell if something is done only in the physical or if it has touched the spiritual.

Pastor Don pointed out that sometimes the devil tried to tell him that he had missed his time to be a pastor, because he wasted many years of his life. That had he started preaching at 14 or 24 it would have been one thing, but because he waited so long to have his calling he had missed the mark. But that is a pack of lies. God does not wait for chronological age in a person to activate a calling. God is looking for certain experiences to have occurred so that when a person steps into the role God has for them, that they will not fail. We need to yield to the time frame of the Spiritual.

Remember, Samson in his last day did more destruction of the Philistines in one day yielded to God, than he did in his entire life before that. Although Samson lived the outward life of a Nazirite by following the rules, he was not converted according to spiritual time. He was self-absorbed, played around, tested the limits. It wasn’t until after Samson was blinded that he realized that he was out of God’s will. Then he asked God to help him, and God was able to use Samson in a big way once He yielded to God.

During the time of the writing of Psalm 27, David was in a tough situation calling on God. We looked at this Psalm to see if David was talking about God acting in the SPIRITUAL or the PHYSICAL.

Psalm 27:1 The LORD is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

This is ½ talking about God in the spiritual and ½ talking about the physical. He talks about God’s qualities, that God is his light and salvation, strength of his life. But in the physical David is afraid. David wants time in the Spiritual to interrupt the circumstances in the Physical. David reminds himself that the truth of God is above and beyond the circumstances in the physical.

God is God over every season and over every evil situation that may occur in the physical. Based on the strength and truth of Spiritual time, who can be afraid in the physical?

Psalm 27:2-3 When the wicked came against me to eat up my flesh, my enemies and foes, they stumbled and fell. Though an army may encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war may rise against me, in this I will be confident.

In plain talk, Pastor Don said that David was reminding himself that in times past in the physical God always kicked butt against David’s enemies from the Spiritual realm. So when things in the physical are coming against David, God remembered in the spiritual that God always delivered him, so there was no real need to be afraid.

Psalm 27:4-5  One thing, I have desired of the LORD, that will I seek; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in His temple. For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; in the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock.

David knows where his strength lies – seeking and dwelling in the house of God. And God sets him high on a rock. We know the rock to be Jesus.

Psalm 27:6 And my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me; therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in His tabernacle; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the LORD.

This is both physical and spiritual. David is confident of the Lord, seeking His face and dwelling in His tabernacle. Our life goal is to behold God. In the day of trouble, in the physical, God will hide us in the secret place of His tabernacle. In the physical David’s experiences were grim, but no matter the circumstances in the physical, the hiding place is in the Spiritual. When things were getting rough, David hid out by the Rock of His salvation (Jesus).  While David was hiding from Saul in the physical realm, he hid in God in the Spiritual.

I have to remember that there is another time moving in the Spiritual. That God is not defeated, that we are not alone. We can hide in eternity, even though we are in the physical. The help we need is from the Spiritual, the answer is from God, and that answer will help us in the physical.

If people try to fix problems in the physical their lives are a mess. Churches who try to fix people’s problems only in the physical are not effective. People’s problems are fixed by God, who operates out of time, and comes up with an eternal solution.

Some people come to church and their problem starts being fixed by God, things start going good in their lives, and then the people make the mistake of thinking that they don’t need to go to church anymore, that their lives are ok, and that worshipping God is not primary. They step out of eternity and get locked in the physical, and then they step out of the covering of God’s tabernacle. Their lives fall apart.

Pastor Don says that it saddens him when this happens, because often the people then decide that they can’t go back to the church that they left. He pointed out that it is where they really need to come, for in church the person can then get back to God, and God can then remedy the situation.

Some people are not able to believe that the spiritual exists, and they try to put everything into the physical. Only when God gets on our case, gets involved in our problems, can things change for us. We need to step out of the physical into the eternal.

Will it happen by the clock? NO. Change happens by a prophetic series of events. If we step out of the eternal series of prophetic events into the physical we can get lost in the physical time. Sometimes, if we miss the spiritual time, we cannot get it back. Pastor Don gave the example of how at 60 he is not able to have the body or physical strength of a 20 year old, so things that he could do at 20, he may not be able to do physically at 60. Then he pointed out that for an instant, if God needed him to act in a physical way that a 20 year old could act, God could supernaturally do this, for faith could interact and bring the spiritual into the physical.

We recently had a wedding at church of someone who was in her 50’s. Pastor Don said that  many people came to his office and said to him that why did she get married, they have been praying for a partner for years and years and God did not answer their prayers, telling Pastor Don that this faith stuff does not work. Why was it not working? Pastor Don pointed out that it wasn’t working because they said so. When they looked at the physical clock and made the determination that because they had prayed so long for a relationship and it hadn’t come that it wasn’t coming – they spoke unbelief, and got what they said.

God doesn’t operate according to our clock time – from eternity, God is looking at seasons of events in our lives, not at the passing of a clock. God is waiting for us to make changes in our lives, and when He sees those prophetic changes in our lives, then He opens the door of Heaven and pours out what we have prayed for. If we pray, and stay the same, He will not move, for that would not be in our best interest. Sometimes we need to change inside, then God can answer our prayer. If we pray, tap our feet, look at the clock, and say, “Faith does not work.” We will have what we say.

Do we have faith to believe in a Spiritual miracle? Do we have the belief to believe that the anointing of Elijah and the experience of Elijah can happen in our lives?  God’s anointing can cause us to act at any age of our lives. At the age of 62 Elijah outran a chariot. He could not have done it in his own strength, but the strength of Eternity (God) came into him and he was able to outrun a chariot.

Pastor Don gave another biblical example. Caleb at 20 knew that he could defeat the enemy in the Promised Land, and was one of the two spies that spoke the truth of God to Moses, did not give a bad report. When it was time to parcel out the land, Caleb, after living in the wilderness 40 years was an old man and he told Moses to give him the land where the Anak were, and he drove out the enemy at an old age. His strength was not abated, and he was as strong as he was in his youth.

Peter walked on water, saying, “Lord, bid me to come.” Peter knew that the Lord in eternity has dominance over the physical. Peter knew that if God told him to do it, he could do it. Eternity intersects the physical.

When we ask for what the will of God is in our lives we get this information outside of physical time, and by faith we begin to bring the Spiritual into the physical. As long as we are measuring time and waiting for God’s will by measuring hours, days, weeks, we can be defeated. Faith is hope and the expectancy of eternity intersecting the physical. God does not do this on the basis of you prayed for this last week. God looks at what events in your life have occurred, and when you get to the point in your physical life where you are ready for the Spiritual to happen, then God permits it to happen.  When we are looking at a clock and wondering why something hasn’t happened, we are out of faith.

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

The evidence is not in the physical, but in the Spiritual. If we are disappointed that the situation hasn’t occurred in the physical yet, we are out of faith. We need to keep hoping and expecting, even when we do not see it in the physical. Not speaking words of doubt and unbelief.

Romans 4:17  Speaking of Abraham, (as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations.:) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did.

You can’t be disappointed when you don’t see the manifestation, for if you are trusting God in faith, hoping and believing for what doesn’t exist yet, you have to act as if, feel like, believe that it is in the Physical. Not looking at what the reality seems to be, but waiting in faith for it to manifest. Once it manifests, then we do not have to believe in faith for it because then it is in the physical.

Concerning Abraham Romans 4:19-22 And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. And therefore, “it was accounted to him for righteousness.”

Even though the circumstances of his age seemed to imply that he could not father a child, Abraham never wavered in faith. He knew that if God said it, God could do it.

We need to hold to what God tells us in faith, not wavering or doubting. God will do what He says He will do. He is true to His word!

Have a blessed day.

Heather

Two times I tried to type this study and two times Xanga at this study. I finally composed it in Microsoft Word and brought it over to Xanga. I think this is a message satan is not wanting to have spread about.

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Israel is a tiny little nation, of about 7 million people. It’s land area is about the size of the state of Maryland. Who cares? There are 6 1/2 billion people in the world. Why is Israel such a cup of trembling?

Since 1948 when Israel became a nation, this tiny little nation has occupied the front page of the New York Times more than any nation but the United States. If a Jew buys a house it becomes front page news. There are 260 million Arabs. 1 billion Muslims. They have to hate someone, so they hate Jerusalem.

Israel, Who cares? There have been 6-7 wars in Israel in 59 years. Why? We live in a world that wants to ignore God, to do their own thing. We want to pretend that there is no creator for this creation. We don’t want to follow rules laid down by our creator. The creation needs to know who created it.

Yet, we seek to change the doctrine of the church. We don’t honor the one who birthed the world. We seek to participate in what God deems is bad for us.

God created Israel, the World, Adam and Eve. The World wants to ignore the fact. We have idols, abused children, sex, sin, carnality, religions that seek to deny God. We ignore God, we ignore our creator.

The 6 1/2 million Jews in Israel, in this tiny nation where it takes 30 minutes to drive across, for it is 12 miles wide in some areas, is not a vast nation. Yet it is a thorn in the world. They want to destroy Israel. Israel is a testimony that God is true, faithful, and sticks to His Word.

Israel shows the world that God is real, God exists, and God will do everything He says He will do, He is sovereign.

There was a doctrine that has been taught for many years called “Replacement Theology,” which states that because Israel missed the Messiah the first time around, that God has replaced Israel with Christians, and that Israel no longer is a part of the picture. But God does not lie, and He keeps His promises. He promised that God would gather Israel from where they had been scattered. And that happened as promised. Israel is now a nation again.

Jeremiah 31 promises the restoration of Israel. There is no way God will forget His children Israel. God has compared Israel to an unfaithful bride, but He has promised to gather His children and bring them back to the land. This occurred in 1948. God gives His Word and He keeps His Word.

Before 1945 Bible scholars had a problem. They looked at God’s promises in the Bible regarding Israel, but Israel was obliterated from the map. They tried to find a way to explain this, and came up with the theory of Replacement Theology which states that, because Israel did not recognize the Messiah when He came the first time, that God no longer includes Israel in the End Times plans. That Israel has been replaced by the Church.

Isaiah 66 asks the question, can a nation be born in a day? Most people would answer this question, “No.” They think that the prophesies regarding the regathering of Israel are symbols. They looked at circumstances, seeing that Israel, as a nation, was not in existence for 2000 years, so they had to come up with new theories to explain the passages in the Bible. But God did birth Israel in one day, with a United Nations Resolution.

What the replacement theologists did was make God too small. They saw God with their human eyes, heard Him with their human ears, and thought about what He said with their human understanding. They did not realize that God could birth a nation in a day. We can trust that what God says, He will accomplish.

Pastor Eddie stated that he did not want a god that he could put into a box of his own understanding. God can do the impossible. He will fulfill every word in the Bible. Every word in the Bible concerning Israel is YES and AMEN. God rules. He is the King and what He says will happen, will happen.

Israel is a testimony of God in the world. It irritates those who want to run away from God, or those who do not want to realize that God is in control of the World.

Spiritual resistance is needed. Messianic believers in Israel face many battles, and the world seeks to cut them off. There are 2 billion believers in the world. Israel has about 10,000 Messianic believers (and that is an optimistic number).

Why are the forces of darkness so intent on the destroying the spiritual believers of Yeshua in Israel? God has said that Yeshua will not come again until Israel says, “Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the LORD.”  The powers of darkness know that their days are numbered and to prevent Israel from being a nation is one way to prolong their time on the earth and prevent Israelites from having a change of heart.

Romans 11 and the prophets clearly stated that Israel will return to their home. All Israel will be saved. Jeremiah spoke of this as did the other prophets. Believers in Israel are a prophetic testimony of the End that is going to come. Satan hates Israel, satan hates that the Nation of Israel has been reestablished and that the Jews have gathered. Messianic believers are a spiritual testimony of the End of the Age, the Jewish remnant, Yeshua is coming back to the people who bless Him. Israel needs our prayers. It is an incredible time. As Bob Dylan said in a song, “You don’t have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”  If the Church does not know what God is doing, we have a problem.

Jesus ministered and prayed, walking among the people and taught God’s Word. Many around Him were not aware of what He was doing. We need to be aware of what God is doing in the world today. We are in the Kingdom of God, and God is doing something in the world, and He will use people to do it. If we are not aware of what He is doing, He cannot use us.

God uses men and people who hear and obey Him. Moses followed God, heard His words and led His people. We need to be attuned to where God is and what His purpose is. If not, we are lost. God cannot accomplish His purpose on earth if we are not willing to put our hand to the plow.

There are two ways to move with God. 1.) Horse cart – you need to expend a lot of energy going in the right direction and taking care of the beast. Religion  is like moving with a horse cart because religion doesn’t know God, doesn’t hear God, and tends to respond to outside influences. Or you can 2.) use Rocket power = The fuel and power (Holy Spirit) is used as the guidance system, the rocket, powered by God, does not need energy once it is on its way.

God has a purpose and Israel is a central player. God needs a people who know what God is doing, they are not playing yesterday’s game, eating yesterday’s manna, or listening to yesterday’s messages. He needs a people in tune to what He is doing NOW. It is not just a matter of fulfillment and excitement. He wants people filled with the Holy Spirit. Many think that life under God’s direction is boring, but it isn’t. It is moving from glory to glory, struggle to struggle, challenge to challenge.

Pentecost (Shavuot) falls seven weeks after Passover, at the end of the barley harvest and the beginning of the wheat harvest. At Pentecost God poured out His Holy Spirit, as Jesus promised. Everything we are talking about is contingent on this day.

The disciples gathered in the upper room and were confused, hiding. After Acts 2, the Holy Spirit produced a change in the people. When revival comes to a generation, it comes with a filling of the Holy Spirit.

Two things happen when the Holy Spirit falls.

1) The people are stirred up. The young men have visions, the old men dream dreams. Why visions and dreams? It is because our minds and heads are too small to contain God’s vision. We serve an awesome God, and it takes a vision to get us to move beyond ourselves. 1 Corinthians 2:9 But it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” God gives us a vision of what he is doing. It may not be a vision about the totality of what He is doing, he may direct us, like a missile internal guidance system, to point us to where God wants us to act in His universe.

God communicates to us what He wants us to do. He uses our giftings, callings, abilities, desires so that we can know His best for us. We can know that the vision is from God when we need His strength and power to complete it. At times the vision may take us to places were we are not comfortable.

Moses was comfortable in the desert. God came out and told Moses what to do, and that may not have fit into Moses’ “retirement” plan. It took Moses out of His comfort zone.

God has a specific plan for us, a vision for us. We want to seek what God’s plan is for us, see things through the eyes of God, not through the eyes of our own understanding. God uses us to bring forth His kingdom, and it will not be boring or humdrum.

2) The Holy Spirit comes with power. In Acts 1 when the disciples were told to go and wait for the Holy Spirit, they were hiding, scared. Once the Holy Spirit came, they were bold witnesses for Christ. But first they had to receive power from on high. They went to the upper room with expectation. They did not know what they were waiting for. The Holy Spirit in the past was given to just a few people, they did not know that God was going to pour out the Holy Spirit on all gathered in the upper room.

Everything regarding the Messiah was prophesy until John the Baptist came on the earth. Everything was pointing to something happening, the people expected the Messiah. On the Day of Pentecost the people were expecting something to happen. Expectancy does an incredible work. God does great things. When the power of God falls, people on earth can do what God desires them to do – not in their own strength, not on their own vision, but with the power of God.

A people who have power and vision, moving together in heart with faith, can do incredible things.

Saul/Paul was a religious zealot, he thought that serving God meant murdering Christians. He thought Christians were dangerous people. But Paul was interrupted by God – Acts 9 on his Damascus Road experience. God shows up and asks Saul, “Why are you persecuting Me? The glory of God blinded Saul and he was blind for three days. Ananias, at God’s command restored Saul’s sight, and Paul starts preaching the Gospel in power. The people wonder at this change because Paul used to arrest Christians. But once Paul had his vision, he never turned back.

VISION MAKES YOU DANGEROUS. God wants us to have vision. Where are we going, what are we doing? God has a precise direction for us to go. When we have vision, we are dangerous to satan.

We are the sons of God, He gives us vision, and the Holy Spirit gives us the power for establishing His Kingdom. The kingdom of darkness will be destroyed.

Our day and age is when the fullness of time has come, it is us. We are that Glory. We are at the end of the age, darkness is exploding. We are exhibiting all the lawlessness that Jesus said would appear at the end of the age.

God wants to put the center of his Kingdom in Israel. Satan want to put the center of his kingdom in Israel. But God is mighty and throws down strongholds and will establish His kingdom. God has created us for such a time as this. We need vision from the Holy Spirit.

Vision in the presence of God, face to face, God in you, and working through you, as you move from glory to glory. We will be given power to operate in this vision, to be radical.

We will not be bored in the Kingdom of God, taking steps in faith. We may go where we are afraid, but God is with us.

Elijah was sent to speak God’s words to the king. He prophesied a drought. He left a place of no bread, following a vision from God. He came upon a widow who had a little flour and oil to make a last meal for her son. Elijah told the widow to give him some bread, and as she acted in obedience, her oil and flour did not run out.

Elisha helped a poor widow who had a little oil as her only possession, borrow bottles from neighbors. As she poured the little bit of oil, the oil kept flowing until all the bottles were filled.

We don’t want to run out of bottles, we want more and more of His spirit (oil). When God fills us with His Spirit and we let Him use us, we will never be bored. We want to go beyond what we think we can do in the flesh, for it is not us, it is Him in us.

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I hope this teaching blesses you, it makes me all the more committed to praying for Israel. Having just finished a study on Daniel and seeing the end times revelations shown there, I cannot help but think that much of what was taught to Daniel is happening today. Pray and obey, let God direct you with His vision, and in His strength.

Have a blessed day,

Heather

When we were in Israel, we had a wonderful visit with two missionaries who moved from our area and are now citizens of Israel, Eddie and Jackie Santoro. June 10 they came to visit us in West Hurley and they preached two incredible sermons.

You can subscribe to a newsletter that they put out by emailing esant@netvision.net.il. And you can also volunteer to help support their ministry which reaches many Israelites for Yeshua. They were sharing how their group is growing, and how many come to their church who are Jewish because they learn the Jewish traditions better there than they do in the synagogues. While learning these traditions, many hearts are being touched by Yeshua.

Pastor Eddie talked about the move of the Spirit in Israel. I wish you could have been at the service to see the intensity with which this message was given, they have a love of Yeshua that is remarkable. Right now, Jerusalem in the Spirit is incredible, but Jerusalem in the natural is hard. God TV has been given permission to broadcast from Jerusalem, so Yeshua is being preached all over Jerusalem on the airwaves. This is exciting. Eddie encouraged us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. And talked about the global day of prayer. He pointed out that we need to, as Pastor Don said, stay the course regarding supporting Israel.

While we were in Israel there was a celebration called “Jerusalem Day” which commemorates the re-unification of Jerusalem in 1967. (Heather’s note: Below is a picture of little children getting ready to sing a song about peace. You can see the doves, and they also had flowers to wave. They were so cute. We were being hurried to the next stop on our trip, but I stopped to get a picture of them practicing.)

This year was the 40th anniversary of the Six Day War. Arabs from surrounding areas joined together to try and wipe Israel off the face of the earth. It was a war of annihilation. Israel went for help to the United States who argued caution, but Israel took the offensive. They destroyed the airforces of Egypt, Jordan and Syria. And recaptured the City of Jerusalem, the dwelling place of God, and for one day it was in the control of Israel. Bowing to public pressure they returned some of the land. They now realize that they should have held onto the land that God had given them so long ago.

Pastor Eddie told us that it is important for us to have a clarity about who we are, whose Jerusalem is, and the day we live in. God is sounding a clarion call. People are getting filled with the Holy Spirit, functioning in the anointing and the power of God.

We all have life and power and the anointing of God within us. Yeshua gave us a clear Word. He told us to go into the Kingdom of God and preach about the Kingdom of God. He did not say go and save souls (although that is part of retaking the kingdom of God). God wants to establish His Kingdom on earth. And God needs people to do it. We need to be a people who hear and know what God is doing.

The 12 disciples walked with Yeshua, heard Yeshua speak the Word of God, had quality time with Him, were counseled by Him, saw signs and wonders and still did not get it. People are not getting it today because no one is talking about God. Yeshua is God.

Matthew 16:13 Jesus asked his disciples, “…Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” His disciples answered John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah or one of the prophets. Then Jesus asked them, Matthew 16:15 …”But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered Matthew 16:16 “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Matthew 16:17 Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.”

We need to realize that an awareness of God and Jesus is bigger than our human mind can conceive. It takes a revelation from the Holy Spirit to reveal this truth to us.

The Jews expected a Messiah, but not what they saw in Jesus. They did not realize that Jesus was Divine, the Son of God, the Fullness of the Divine, the Glory of God, the Life of God.

In the Old Testament, Jesus appeared as the Angel of God sixty times, a pre-incarnate form of Jesus. Jacob wrestled with Him, Abraham served Him, debated with Him. The Jews, even more than the gentiles, want to make Jesus a little less than God. To do this takes the guts out of the gospel, and makes a weak gospel.

Matthew 17 – the transfiguration where Peter, James and John saw Jesus transfigured like the sun with brilliant white clothes talking with Moses and Elijah. Peter saw this, and said, Matthew 17:4 “…Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, let us make three tabernacles; one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”  Moses and Elijah are heavy hitters that the Israelites were taught about. Elijah was THE PROPHET, Moses led the people to freedom. Peter wanted to serve all three. Matthew 17:5-8 While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, Hear Him!” And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid. But Jesus came and touched them and said, “Arise, and do not be afraid.” When they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.

God made it clear to them 1. Yeshua was God’s Son and 2. In Yeshua God was well pleased. We need to serve Jesus with our whole heart. Every time you say His name, we get a revelation of how much God loves Jesus. God is not jealous of us saying His Son’s name. You get God’s attention when you say the name of Jesus. God says, “Somebody’s saying my Son’s name.” This brings joy to the Father.

Acts 4:12 Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

Matthew 28:18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.”

Philippians 2:10-11 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue confess that jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

If you can only say one word, say, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.”

Also, 3. Everybody (Elijah and Moses) is gone. Only Yeshua remained. It is all about Yeshua. All about Him. We are not to run after crazy doctrines, traditions, cults. The gospel is simple. The Gospel IS YESHUA.

Jesus said, John 12:32-33 “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” This He said, signifying by what death He would die.

Yeshua brought salvation to the Kingdom by being lifted up on the cross. We bring the salvation message to the Kingdom of God by lifting up Jesus. We are here to lift up Jesus. We are not here to seek prosperity theology, or chase a doctrine. Our task is to lift up the name of Jesus and share the Gospel with others.

The first commandment is Mark 12:29-30 Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment.”

When we love Yeshua with all our heart, soul, and mind the rest takes care of itself – we have prosperity, victory, anointing. We have to get that straight. The world has to get it, that IT IS ALL ABOUT HIM. I am NOTHING without HIM. If that is the goal, when people see Yeshua, they change. Seeing Him does the work of salvation – it is not what we do, it is what HE does.

Revelation 4:1 After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, “Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.”

That is the cry of Yeshua – Come up here! There is an open door! He wants us to have intimacy with Him, to come into His presence.

The Gospel is a repeat of the creation in Genesis.

1. Something lifeless (dust) was formed into a body.
2. God breathed life into man – breath and spirit and wind are the same word.
3. God spoke life.

It is the same with salvation – we are lifeless in our sin, dead in our sin, Jesus died for us and the when we accept His gift of salvation, the Holy Spirit breathes life (born again) into us, and God speaks life into us through His Word.

Ephesians 2:1 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins.

Pastor Eddie pointed out that he was saved in 1976. He said that before He was saved he was dead, the object of wrath, without hope, without God, foreign to the covenant and promises. I had zero. Then SUDDENLY God breathed the Word of God into his life. God found him, sent people to touch him and show him about Yeshua. Then he became alive again.

Ephesians 2:4-5 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).

God recreated Pastor Eddie into His image, the same way He recreates us when we are saved. Why?

Ephesians 1:9 having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His great pleasure which He purposed in Himself.

We need to remember what day we are in. All it takes is a look at what is going on around us, sexual immorality (gay rights, divorce), wars, violence, lawlessness. Darkness is increasing in the land, and the glory of God will shine in the darkness. He will let His glory shine forth through people who are doing His will on the earth.

When Israel went into the Six Day War, they went in knowing that the Arab nations wanted to kill them, knowing that it was a fight to the death, and that there would be little peace.

We too have to know that the day we are living in is also a battle. We are born again, have the power of God within us, are a new creation, and a new itinerary, a new commission. We are filled with the Spirit. We need to be prophetic people who know what day we are in. We need to be armed with the weapons of the Spirit, for it is dangerous out there.

What is happening today, to Israel is much worse than what happened during the time of Hitler. Hitler tried to wipe out the Jews and did kill many, but today Fundamentalist Islam is seeking even greater destruction of the Jews. The Battle of Normandy cost a lot of lives, sacrifice and suffering. We are still in a battle to preserve God’s people. The Gospel is good news, but it is also a Gospel of sacrifice, of pouring out, of giving yourself. Jesus died on the cross for our sins (the ultimate pouring out). In the Garden of Gethesemene he prayed that the cup would be taken from Him. Jesus was beaten, rejected, tortured, mocked, died for our sins.

Jesus did not walk away for the suffering to come. He realized the greatness of the moment and told God that He would do it. He knew what was at stake, and went on, knowing that the path would not be easy. The battle was fought and won in the garden. When Jesus accepted what God asked of Him, satan lost. God sent angels to strengthen Jesus. Jesus went forward from the garden and never looked back.

Paul had a vision, saw the third heaven, and changed. He went where God told Him to go, said that he ran the race and did not look back.

We need to run our races to the end, not looking back. Jesus never looked back. Paul never looked back. We must never look back. We need to know who we are, whose we are, and where we are going. We cannot get caught up in the natural, in circumstances, in the flesh. We need to focus on God.

Galatians 1:11-12 But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Pastor Eddie talked about Elijah and Elisha (whose names he told us are much easier to tell apart if spoken in Hebrew). Elisha served Elijah in humility. The best way to advance spiritually is to serve humbly. The prophets of the time informed Elisha that Elijah was to be taken up to heaven. Elisha chose to stay with Elijah, to not leave his side.

Jesus is coming back and will take us with Him. The prophets know the heart of God. The Spirit of God is prophesy. Elisha was filled with the Spirit of God, he knew what God was doing. We need to know the power of God, the anointing of God. and the reality of the battle. God has something to do with us. We will get a vision from God of who we are and what we are to be doing.

Elisha’s vision was so big he needed a double anointing to attain it. We too want to have our vision so big that we need God’s anointing to obtain it.

Remember the widow with the debt. The widow had a little oil. Elisha had the woman find jars, borrowing from her neighbors, then pour the oil out. The oil kept flowing until the last jar was filled than the oil stopped. We want to come to God with deep vessels that He can fill. God give me more. I want to be with You, doing what You want me to do, accomplishing what You want me to accomplish. Pouring out so that You can keep filling me.

Daniel was like that too. He kept seeking God, seeking His Word and obeying God, and God used him mightily.

How do we get to know where God is going, what He wants us to do? By reading the Word of God and by listening to the Holy Spirit.

A little bit of faith and the Word of God mixed together in the heart and you get a giant.

Caleb, Joshua, Elisha, Abraham, Paul were giants of faith.

Who are you? When you add the Word of God + the Spirit of God + faith = explosion.

We sometime think this happens instantaneously, not always. Look at Moses. He spent 40 years as a shepherd – humbly living in the desert land. Moses was the humblest man on earth. We cannot think we are too old, God used Moses.

When we are desperate for God, He shows up.

Moses had a vision in the burning bush that caused Him to leave his comfort zone. He was retirement age, had his sheep, a wife, a comfortable place to live, children, no demands, and God showed up – and put Moses into a place that wasn’t comfortable for him. Moses stuttered, told God that he wasn’t the man for the job. But Moses obeyed God and left his comfort zone.

There was a dying for Moses, a price to pay. When the gospel was brought forth, there was also a dying and a price to pay (Jesus’ sacrifice).

When we let God use us, there is a cost. Often we are put out in the middle of darkness to be a light. But when things are tough, when we are in the thick of it, God says, “I am with you.”

God was with Moses, with Giddeon, with Joshua, with Paul, with Deborah. Jesus told us that He would be with us.

Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt for 40 years in the desert, following a pillar of fire or a cloud. God provided for three million Israelites, and Moses dealt with the people complaining.

The vision of God is not popular, and it will bring us out into the mess. Most people would rather be in the camp, and don’t understand. But the Vision is a wake up call.

Moses viewed the Promised Land from Mt. Nebo, but was not permitted to enter the land because he broke faith with God by striking the stone to bring water when God told him to speak to the stone.  When we are used by God, He wants us to obey Him exactly, not to go to the left or to the right. He wants us to stay the course.

Pastor Eddie then told us,

1. Know your foundation – Jesus is the Son of God, and we are IN HIM.
2. Know the day we are in, it is a time to repent, a time of great darkness, and lawlessness.
3. Know who you are – you are not weak in God. God is stronger than we are. We need to believe it, and Know that God is stronger than the power of darkness. We are mighty men in God.

I hope this blesses you. The more I listen to the news and see what is going on in the world and in my community, I know that this is true. We are truly living out Matthew 24 and 25. Pray and obey.

You do not have to be a member of Xanga to comment. Please feel free to leave your comments and questions. I look forward to hearing from you!

Heather

We read Psalm 95 (A call to Worship and Obedience) Oh come, let us sing to the LORD!
Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. For the LORD is the great God, and the great King above all gods. In His hand are the deep places of the earth; the heights of the hills are His also. The sea is His, for He made it; and His hands formed the dry land. Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand. Today, if you will hear His voice: do not harden your hearts, as in the rebelion, as in the day of trial in the wilderness, when your fathers tested Me; they tried Me, though they saw My work. For forty years I was grieved with that generation, and said, ‘It is a people who go astray in their hearts, and they do not know My ways.’ So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’

Pastor Don pointed out that obedience begins in the heart and is made manifest in life. We then went to look at what this Psalm was referring to regarding the rebelion of God’s people.

Numbers 13:1-2 And the LORD spoke to Moses; saying, “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel; from each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a leader among them.

So God told Moses to pick a leader from every tribe of Israel.

Numbers 13:3 So Moses sent them from the Wilderness of Paran according to the command of the LORD, all of them men who were heads of the children of Israel. Verses 4-15 names the names of the men called from each tribe.

Numbers 13:16-20  These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun, Joshua. Then Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, “Go up this way into the South, and go up to the mountains, and see what the land is like: whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, few or many; whether the land they dwell in is good or bad; whether the cities they inhabit are like camps or strongholds; whether the land is rich or poor; and whether there are forests there or not. Be of good courage. And bring some of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes. 

We read out loud “Be of good courage. And bring some of the fruit of the land.” God wanted the people to see the harvest in the land, they were go go out for 40 days, checking out the land, the good land that God had provided. He even brought them to the land at the time of the first ripe grapes, so there would be sustenance for the people. So they went in and checked out the land and the people.

Numbers 13:26-27 Now they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. Then they told him, and said: “We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.

They showed the people the fruit. (Heather’s note, in one passage the vines of grapes were so heavy it took two people to carry one bunch of grapes.) God gave them the command to go and take the land – HE HAD ALREADY GIVEN THEM THE LAND. It was God’s to give. If God gives you something it is yours. You may not have it physically, but it is yours. God does not go back on His word, and if He tells you that it is yours, IT IS YOURS.

Pastor Don said, if only they hadn’t said the next word, “NEVERTHELESS.”

Numbers 13:28-29 “Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the South; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan.”

Paster Don said that when we say “nevertheless,” by our own words and mouth we are saying that we will never have more than the less.  “Nevertheless” is a word filled with doubt and unbelief. They saw giants there, these were the ones related to Goliath. Yes, they were giants, but GOD HAD GIVEN THEM THE LAND. They could not conceive in their minds how they could defeat these giants, but forgetting that GOD HAD GIVEN THEM THE LAND.

Numbers 13:30 Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.”

Praise God for Joshua and Caleb, someone the others thought was annoying. In the minds of the other 10 spies, Joshua and Caleb were a disruption. Pastor Don pointed out that at times when we want to throw a pity party, the “wrong” person comes. When you want to have a mollygrub (Pastor Don’s term) day, when you want to wallow in misery, and are happy to be miserable, pleased with displeasure, content with complaining, you want people like Joshua and Caleb to leave you alone. When a “Caleb” comes along and tells you to stop complaining, to be happy, to put on praise music, and give thanks to God. Who tells you, like our Praise and Music minster likes to say, “The first rule of holes is that when you are in one, stop digging.”

It may be bad, but God showed you something good, so why are you calling it “bad?”

Caleb quieted the people – who were questioning Moses. Moses was speaking for God, and when they questioned Moses, they were also questioning God. Moses was standing in the position of God before the people. Caleb was interceding for the people, interceding before Moses. Moses, could have called God’s judgment on the people casting doubt. If Moses had brought judgment, he could have in his anger, made a worse punishment for the people, and God would have honored that.

God wants His word obeyed, we need to act with reason, correction, and obedience. God wants us to intercede before judgment is brought.

Numbers 13:31-32 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.” And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature.

In the King James version, instead of “bad report” the words were translated “evil report.” When you contradict God it is evil. When God says to do something, you cannot think that it is OK to bring opposition to the Word of God. When you step from the Word of God, and say that it is OK, rationalizing why you cannot do what God has told you to do, that is evil, and the outcome will be “YOU WILL HAVE WHAT YOU SAY.” Numbers 14:28 God tells Moses to say to the people, “Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the LORD, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you;”

All the people with Moses who spoke against God’s word died in the wilderness, only Joshua and Caleb who brought back a good report, and the children of the people with Moses were able to enter into the promised land.

Numbers 13:33 “There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.

The people relied on their senses, they saw themselves as small. This is true, they were smaller than the giants, but they forgot that God was larger than their problems. They looked at their incapacity to deal with the problem, rather than God’s ability to deal with the problems

Don’t call to God and say, “Lord I am yours,” then look at your ability to do what He tells you to do. He looks for weakness, humility, and those that He can use to show off His glory. It is not your ability, but God’s ability in you that makes you capable. Do not speak in the negative. Don’t justify negativity as acceptable to God. If you speak it you will have it. Be quick to repent if you speak negativity in error.

STAY THE COURSE, stay on the path that God laid down for you. Don’t go to the left or to the right because of circumstances. Don’t change the course because the course seems too hard to you, just stay in the way God directed you. The path may be difficult, it may present obstacles, but do not change the course that is set in place.

Moses did not change his opinion because of the report of the people. What if Moses had had fear and decided to go back to Egypt, to turn around? He did not change his obedience to God because of the report of the spies. Moses chooses to do EXACTLY what God does.

In Acts, Paul set out on a mission given to him by God. He comes to a city, near the end of his mission, when he is going to Rome. Prophets came up to him prophesying that he was going to die if he went to Rome, one prophet bound his hands and pointed out that this would happen to him if he continued on to Rome. Paul continued onto Rome because that is where God told Him to go. Yes, the path would be hard and lead to death, but Paul chose to obey God and stay the course.

When you get a Word of God, don’t speak negatively. Don’t look at circumstances. God has a design, place, and position for you. STAY THE COURSE. Don’t get off track.

America is in trouble because our country wants to be compliant, to agree with everyone, moving with the winds of change. We need to get back to the place our founding fathers set for us. We are letting in a sea of confusion. Just look at what is happening in our country. When God is displeased often he permits a drought to occur in a country. Our midwest is facing one of the largest droughts in the history of the country.

In the last days persecution will increase. We, who follow Jesus, will face more persecution, and when times are tough, we know God is saying, CHILD OF GOD, STAY THE COURSE. Stay doing what God tells us to do.

Keep your eye on the prize.

Remember, God made it. God set it in motion. What God sets in motion will stay in motion until it happens.

Reading the books of Acts we can see how the disciples stayed the course, and when they obeyed God, God raised up miracles and many were saved. You can’t do these things unless you stay the course.

The church is a hospital for sinners and a university for saints. We get on fire for God, and stay on track. We speak positive and aim for the victory. When God shows us what to do - stay the course. If your work is to preach, to fix stuff that is broken, prosperity teaching, the children’s ministry, the praise team, continue doing what you are doing. If God tells you to prophesy, prophesy. Sing, sing, What God has placed into you, do until He tells you to do something else. At times there will be a shift, and then we need to go in the new direction that God shows us.

We spent some time praising and worshipping God, and before Pastor Don introduced the guest speakers, Pastor Don pointed out that it is important to state with clarity what is happening in this age and in the nations. God knows where we need to be to get a word from Him. When there was danger in Israel, the people would blow their trumpets to rally help. In order to do this, there needed to be a clear note sounded from the trumpets – there needed to be unity and clarity.

Hebrews 6 tells us we have to get past man’s traditions and rituals and doctrine, and get a deep revelation from God. The church has made mistakes, some tolerate anything, others tolerate some things, some make legalistic rules and regulations, others reject all to do with church. We need a clear sound from the pulpit. For example, it is not a debate about homosexuality, or divorce, or premarital sex – it is a call for sexual purity.

God wants us to have the Holy Ghost as our leader, and to have the church have a clear sound in the world.

Hope this blesses you. It is so true that we need to stay the course, and the only way we can do that is to trust God. Today a speaker at our woman’s luncheon spoke a word of prophesy to me, “Faith, hope, trust.” Little words that are sometimes so hard for me.

Have a blessed day,

Heather