December 23, 2007

• Revelation 9 by Pastor Don

  I am praying that you have a blessed Christmas.

  Here is a transcript, slightly edited, from Pastor Don’s teaching on the End Times Scriptures. I was permitted to type the captions for the Say Amen TV show that appears on TBN. All I have done is removed the congregation’s comments, and some of the repetitions to make it more readable – so this one is even better than my notes.

  Pastor Don offered to send people a copy of the scriptures. I had already put a copy of the scriptures on this site for you. (Heather’s note, I am leaving it in the tense that Pastor Don spoke, so instead of saying what Pastor Don tried to do, I am going to leave it as What I’ve tried to do) What I’ve tried to do in no significant order is to list the scriptures that relate to the end times, not all of them, there are many, many more. But these are ones that I think are fairly clear in what is being said here. So let me read my opening paragraph.

  “Below are passages, that in the light of current events and the greater revelation that God has permitted to us now to see the grand scheme that God has planned for His creation. To understand these events, we must accept the truth that God permits many things to occur in order to accomplish His ultimate goals. We can hasten the coming of the Lord, as Peter says, by completing our work and looking forward to the coming of the Lord. As you study these Scriptures, let your heart cry out, “Come quickly, Lord Jesus!”"

  So let’s run through these. I teach that you might understand. If you have questions, please, don’t hesitate to ask. (Heather’s note: even here on the blog if you have questions, don’t hesitate to ask, if I don’t know the answer, I often bring the questions to Pastor Don and he then tells me an answer to relay back to you!)

  Matthew 17:2 says “and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.”

  In this moment of transfiguration, what the Father is showing us is the glory of Jesus Christ. It is the same glory and likeness that, when He comes again for the rapture of His church, is what He is going to look like and the Mt. of Transfiguration was just a glimpse into that moment of time. And so that’s why that verse is there.

  In Mark Chapter 5 verse 39 we come across the concept of “sleep.” Some of the latter day churches are teaching soul sleep, that when you physically die, your body is dead in the earth, and your spirit is dead, and you have no consciousness, no nothing. That won’t hold up against scripture. When Jesus and Paul refer to the word, “sleep” they’re not talking about soul sleep. They are talking that the physical body is dead, in the earth, but the spirit is alive. He’s going to wake up or change the body and wake it up. So the body is called asleep when it is physically dead. Can you prove that? Yes, let’s look at this conversation Jesus is having. This is the story of Lazarus and it is also included in the story of Jairus’ daughter who died. And Jesus is speaking. He says, “Why make this commotion and weep? The child is not dead, but sleeping.”

  Well, we know for a fact that the girl was physically dead, but Jesus is speaking spiritually. And spiritually, listen, your body is going to die. How many of you figured that out? Unless Jesus tarries, one day you are going to die. But Jesus is saying, you’re really not dead in the truest sense because spiritually your spirit is alive. For to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord and therefore your spirit is never going to die. You are an eternal spiritual being. You’re always going to live. Your spirit then is present with the Lord but your body is considered asleep because He’s going to wake it up. But it may be deteriorated or whatever, but hey – He’s God! And so He’s going to restir that DNA, of that dead person and poof gonna give them a new spiritual body. And the spirit and the body will be reunited. But it won’t be the same body that you had, when you were asleep in the earth. Everybody got that? So don’t be confused. You’re not gonna sleep and then wake up when the millennium is over.

  In Luke chapter 8, verse 52 “Now all wept and mourned for her; but He said, ‘Do not weep; she is not dead, but sleeping.’” We must remember there is the spiritual realm and there’s something going on there. There is the natural realm and something’s going on there. When we put it together we can understand it in spiritual things.

  Now Luke, Chapter 20 verse 34-38 is very interesting. “Jesus answered and said unto them, ‘The sons of this age marry and are given up in marriage. But those who are counted worthy to attain that age, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage; nor can they die anymore, for they are equal to the angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. But even Moses showed in the burning bush passage that the dead are raised…”

  Somebody say, “Amen.”

  “… when he called the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For He is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all live in Him.”

  Well, show that verse to someone that’s trying to convince you of soul sleep and tell them to answer in light of that. If we are in the Lord, we are in the spiritual realm, alive, eternally. You cannot die again. There is no physical death for you again. But there is the sleeping of the body that will attain. Here’s what He’s saying, you will attain if you are of that age you will make the resurrection of the dead and then you’ll be there. Now what are you going to do about your husbands and your wives? Neither married nor given in marriage. I love my wife, but I will not be married to her in heaven. But I have gone before the Lord and said, “Can we at least hang out?” You know, I’ve hung out with her longer than anybody. I’m going to hang out with her when I get up there. Amen.

  Romans 8:23 “Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit…not only that, but we also who have the first fruits of the Spirit, …even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.”

  Now here’s what this passage means. It is saying that the Holy Spirit, when we receive the Spirit of God,when we get born again and we receive the infilling or the baptism of the Holy Spirit, it says that there should be a witness inside you that is groaning for the coming of the Lord. The rest of the world has no hope,they’re not expecting Jesus to return and, for the most part, don’t want Him to return. Alright? But we should have something on the inside of us that is saying, “Come quickly, Lord Jesus.” We should have an inner witness. I don’t know about you, but I wake up if I watch too much of the news, I begin to feel pain. I watch too much of the news, I begin to feel, “Oh come Lord, fix this!” Come Jesus. Only you can fix this. I don’t want to even recite some of the horrible things. If you’ve noticed, it says in the Last Days, Jesus said, in Matthew 24 in the Last Days, He said that the hearts of many would wax cold. There is no way people can be doing what they are doing to children and to others, and to each other unless that was so. You know what I am saying? Bad, evil things always happen, but you can turn on the television and the news, every day and hear of horrible things that are being done and committed. Amen! So it says that because of that there should be a witness in us. There should be something on the inside of us that is groaning and saying, “Come, Jesus, fix this. Only you can do it.” I know some people just don’t want to believe in the rapture, don’t want to believe in the second coming of God, but He’s coming. The Lord is coming, and He’s made us great promises concerning taking us out of here, at the right time. And we’ll look at that.

  In 1 Corinthians 15, this is a very long passage, but it summarizes what happens when the body is changed at the point of the time of the rapture and what happens at the end of the age. He says, “So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption...” Corruption means it’s going to fall apart, the body is going to decay, it’s got germs and bacteria in it and it is limited in terms of time. How long it can be used.  “… it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory...” Remember, that word “glory” is a constant reference to the presence of God and the power of God, changing us from the natural to the supernatural. From the mundane to the glorified. And so, He says, “…It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written,...” Now I want to get this very clear to you. We have so much teaching on what the Body is and what man is. And we say man is a spirit who lives in a body and becomes a living soul. Man is a spirit that lives in a body and becomes a living soul. But when your spirit leaves your physical body, your spirit has a body. God is a spirit and God has a body. God has a shape and a form. God has a head. He has hands. He has hinder parts. The Bible shows us all that very clearly. So therefore, a spirit being also has a body, but it is a spiritual body. It’s not a natural body like this (Pastor Don pointed to himself) but it is a spiritual body nonetheless. So God has a form and a spiritual body. And that is what Paul is talking about here. He is saying that there is a spirit body. Look again. “There is a natural body, there is a spiritual body. “And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam…” which is Christ “… became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural,...” in other words you have to have a natural body before you’re going to have the spiritual body. “…and afterward the spiritual. The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the Heavenly Man. So also are those who are heavenly. And as we have born the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the Heavenly Man.” Do you see that? You’ve got to realize you are going to carry that image. When God said He created us in His image, He’s talking not just about the physical, but He’s talking about the spiritual. “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God;...” What can’t? Flesh and blood cannot inherit it. “…nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery:” “Let’s read it together, come on [all read in unison] ” We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed – in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”"

  Well, whose victory? Our victory! Hallelujah!! Glory! Thank You, Lord! You should look forward to that day. I pray that you get the revelation of this and you stop going to funerals of people that are saved as if somehow you feel bad for them. What?!! You know they’re in glory! They’re that much closer. They’re going to be changed before us. They’re in their glory. They’re having a great old time. You know, they feel sad for you. They’re like, “Oh man, too bad for them.” You know they’re saying, “I can fly now. I’ve got no pain. I have no pain.” You know “I see all my relatives in a twinkling of an eye. I see the throne of God. Boy you guys down there, you don’t see that, down there.” You need to get a different idea.

  Then 1 John 3 “Beloved, know we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He…”When Christ “…is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”

  What a great promise, isn’t it? Isn’t it good? This is a lot that God has promised us.

  Alright, now there is a note at the beginning of this page (second page of the end times scriptures – see the link at the top of this study).

  It says, note…there are two wraths and two tribulations – that of satan, that of God. And sleep refers to death of the physical body, not the spirit. Some hidden hints of the Rapture and the 2nd Coming. We’re just going to touch on these, we can do these in greater detail.

  Jesus in Matthew 24 tells us, it will be as it was in the days of Noah. Now that could be confusing if you don’t believe in the rapture, because God’s rescuing of Noah is a picture of that very thing. He says in the days of Noah every man did whatever he wanted to. And it was a time of great trouble. People did whatever they wanted and devils and demons were very powerful in the earth. They had commingled themselves with humans, oppression and possession, to the point that they have brought forth demon seed. People called the nephalim, these are where demons come from. Demons are not fallen angels. Demons are the offspring of the mating of fallen angels and humans on the earth. And those nephalim, it says in the Anak, the nephalim gave birth to mythological creatures. These creatures had greater power than human beings but also were very evil and they were in the earth. For example, Goliath and his brothers, pictures and stories of Modessa, Odin and a number of other powerful beings. The Bible talks about them in Genesis Chapter 6 and 7, and if this sounds weird, you need to come to more Bible studies! (Pastor Don said with a smile.) In Genesis 6 and 7, it says that these were the great men of renown, that history talks about, that raised nations and destroyed nations. And God says these people were in the earth then at the time of Noah and will be in the earth later. What do you think happens when a guy like Hitler…do you think he is all human? No, powerful demons are working in his life that he can mesmerize a whole nation and walk them off into the abyss of sin and damnation. Well, how do you do that? There are great people that come on the scene, guys like Idi Amin, that have a magnetism, a charisma that is off the scale. And they mesmerize people by their powers. Well, glory be to God. But God says, hallelujah! Boy, oh boy. God says, they’ll be destroyed and put in chains of ever deeper darkness. So what we have is as in the days of Noah, these horrible and powerful beings are on the earth. You know, some of these mass murderers are not just humans gone awry. They’re having powerful demonic help. Hello! It takes powerful demonic help to be especially able to mesmerize people on that level and to do such great dirt on a massive scale. Read your Bible! Get to Genesis Chapter 6 and 7 and understand a few things. Look in Numbers Chapter 13 and 14. The Bible talks about these creatures, these beings. Now, He (Jesus) says, as it is in the days of Noah, it shall be near the end of time. And we are seeing, what? We are seeing great negative powers being released. We’re seeing horrible things happening in the earth. And it says it will be like that in the last days. That man will do whatever he thinks he should do, anyway that he wants to do it. We see that. But there’s another interesting thing, God tells Noah in his sixth day, his six hundred years, he tells Noah to build this ark. Well, what was the purpose of the ark? That God was going to bring his wrath upon the earth. But as it is in the days of Noah, God’s wrath was not for the righteous. The Bible tells us, that Noah wasn’t righteous because he was such a well, good guy. But it tells us that he was righteous because his lineage was perfect. He was perfect in his generations. In other words, his bloodline was still pure. It had not been perverted by demonseed. You could look it up. It says, Noah was perfect in his generations. Therefore, what was God’s intent? God’s intent was to save Noah, and the other seven that were righteous, under his covering and authority. As it is in the days of Noah when the earth is going to face the wrath of God, God’s wrath has not been determined for his righteous children. Ask yourself, what bloodline are you in? I’ve been washed in the blood of Christ. Therefore, if you’re washed in the blood of Christ, the wrath of God is not for you. The wrath of satan is looking for you on a daily basis. Come on now, the wrath of satan is in the earth now and it is multiplying and God is permitting it. God will permit it. He will permit it. Satan is going to even have the blockage removed, namely the Church is going to be taken out of the way and we’ll show you those scriptures. And then he’s really going to do some dirt in this planet. But, as it is in the days of Noah, so it shall be in the last days. Noah and the seven righteous were taken off of the earth. When God brings His wrath, He doesn’t rain it down on His own people.

  Let’s look at the next scripture. The next hint is the deliverance of Lot. When God’s plan was to rain down fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham asked Him if there was 100 righteous will you do it? He says, “no”. if there’s ten righteous would you do it? He says, “no”. But it turns out there’s just one righteous, and so what does God do? He removes Lot. He tells Lot to leave. We have a picture of Lot’s wife. What did she do? God said, “Don’t even look back.” Don’t even look back.

  Listen, you can test yourself. I’m going to put this out there. You can test yourself, if you love this world so much that you’re hoping that in your lifetime Jesus won’t come, or that He will postpone things, because you love this earth so much, you need at the end of this service come up here again and let me lay hands on you so that you can get born again, again. [laughter] Because, you’d be like Lot’s wife. It means that you just love this earth so much. Listen,  I’m telling you, these are the last days. If you’ve always wanted to go to, you know, Winddown, Texas, if you’ve always wanted to go to Fiji, get a ticket and go!! These are the last days! If there’s anything on this earth that you love, you need to do, if you wanted to go fishing in the St. Lawrence Seaway, get there, get it done because there’s work for you to do. Don’t be like Lot’s wife. Don’t be so longing for this earth that you’re hesitating to yield yourself to the truth of what’s coming. So Lot’s wife was turned to a pillar of salt, and Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. The archeologists have been discovering burnt up material by the Dead Sea. You can go see it yourself. I’ve been there, done that, looked at it. They even have a big pillar of salt that they point to and say, “That’s Lot’s wife.” She was ugly!  She needed to have her hair done or something. This woman was in bad shape. (Heather’s note, Pastor Don had us laughing as he was describing this pillar of salt) So another hint is the deliverance of Lot. God delivers them.

  Then there is the Jewish wedding service, ceremony. The wedding ceremony of Matthew Chapter 25 and the wedding ceremony that the Jews participate in is a perfect picture of the rapture. It goes like this. When Jesus says that nobody knows the day or the hour it is the same in the Jewish wedding ceremony. In the Jewish wedding ceremony when a man is betrothed to a woman, at that point he is married. They sit down. They have communion, if the, if the woman drinks the wine, then she is agreeing to marry this guy. If she turns her wine cup upside down, and leaves the table she is rejecting the offer, just as Judas Iscariot did, on the night of the Last Supper. He drank the wine and then left, that is a picture of the rejection of the groom. So we have to see that that is part of the wedding ceremony. But also, he leaves. The groom seals the deal with the bride, They’re going to get married, and then the groom leaves. In John Chapter 14, Jesus says, “And I go to prepare a place for you.” The groom would always prepare a place to receive his bride. It’s not like today. Now a days people get married and they both have nothing. Me and my wife, we had nothing. We had zip. First thing we bought, I think, was a Sony record player. And we didn’t have any money, we didn’t have any support from our parents or anything like that. We were just a young couple getting married. We moved to the Hudson Valley in the 60′s and we didn’t have anything. But, in the old days that was not permitted. In the old days of the Jewish wedding, I would have to leave her somewhere with her parents, and go get a job, get a house built, and so forth. Now to help me, the father would permit me to build an extension onto his home, to daddy’s house, or to build on daddy’s property. But until, daddy said, “Hey, looks nice, you know, the toilet flushes, the sink works, now go get your bride. Everything looks good. Now go get your bride.” So the father would be the one that would determine. That’s why the Bible says, no one knows the hour or the day. Only the Father. When what? When Jesus is going to come for His bride, the Church. So, Jesus is going to leave Heaven, John 14, He says, “I go to prepare a place for you, and I shall come again, to receive you unto myself.” So Jesus is going to leave Heaven, He’s going to come back to the earth, to what? It’s a picture of Him getting His bride. And He’s going to take His bride, for what? For a seven day feast. Where? At His Father’s house. What’s that a picture of? Seven days in this case represents a picture of seven years of the tribulation that is going on on the earth. The Bride and the Groom don’t have to be here for that. They’re at this celebration in Heaven. At the end of the party, He’s got to come back down and set a few things straight. Ok, so the marriage ceremony that the Jews participate in is a picture of the rapture.

  The story of the Good Samaritan, this guy has been beat up. The priest, the Levites, they all walk by. But, a Samaritan, comes by. He sees the guy all beat up, and he takes him. Now watch this carefully. He takes him to an inn. At the end, he says to the guy at the inn, I will give you two pence, or basically two denarii, and you take care of him. Why is this a picture of the rapture? Because a day is as a thousand years, a thousand years is as a day. Jesus is coming for the Church at the end of the sixth day. And I explained that to you in other teachings. Now there’s the end of the sixth day. So we have a 2000 year period from Adam, from Adam to Abraham. And then from Abraham to Jesus there is two days. Four thousand years have gone by from Adam to Jesus, then 2000 years of the Church age. The Good Samaritan him in the inn. This represents the Church, the Gentile and the Jewish Church, and he says, you are wounded and you are broken, and He puts them into the inn of safekeeping, into the Church for two days (2,000 years). Then he says, and I will return for him. Here are two pence, two day’s labor wages, or 2,000 years. Keep him for 2,000 years. And I’m coming back to get him. Lord have mercy!

  That was the end of the program. Praying your Sunday is blessed, I’m off to church!

  Heather 

  • 8:31 am
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