Our women’s luncheon was awesome – as always.  We begin with a pot luck lunch, go upstairs for praise and worship and have a guest speaker.  This month’s speaker was Cynthia Moore – Pastor Don’s wife – and boy did she give us a message that was so convicting – homework too!!! Our next meeting is November 21 and you are welcome – we begin at 1 and are pretty much done by 4.  It is a good group of women, and there is plenty of fellowship and friendship.

To begin the meeting we were each given an index card and told to anonymously write a recent negative event that happened, and record what we said at the time of the event and what we said to others after the event.  We passed those cards in to be used later in the meeting.

Cynthia held up the Bible and said, this is the Word of God.  We have it.  We need it.  It teaches us.  We need to hear and obey. God’s words are life to us. 

1 Samuel 15:22-23 So Samuel said: “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD?  Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. For rebelion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He also has rejected you from being king.”

When we do God’s word we receive blessing, favor, and He makes our paths more smooth. If we don’t do His Word our lives are not very god.

God tells us:  DO NOT WORRY, and He tells us to FORGIVE those who offend us.  We often say, “I can’t help worrying.  How can I forgive them?”  But when we don’t obey God in this we will find that worry and unforgiveness can lead to stress which leads to disease.  We need to obey what God tells us or we end up harming ourselves.

BELIEVE, KNOW, TRUST God’s Word.  When we do deal with our experiences through the truth of God’s Word, God works supernaturally in our lives. The more experience we have with God and following His Word, then we learn how beneficial it is, and we begin to trust God more and more, and know that He has our best interests at heart. We need to trust Him even in our bad situations.  He will get us through.

To follow God’s Word in our lives means we have to KNOW GOD”S WORD.  If we don’t know what the Word says, how can we follow it?  We need to read the scriptures so we know what to say and believe.  The Bible is the Living Word.  It is not imperfect, it is the pure Word of God - it is real and accurate.

If we don’t know what we should pray regarding a situation, seek the scriptures for a story or a verse that shows us what God has promised.  Cynthia also told us that when God repeats something in His Word it is for emphasis and should be taken to mean that God means it. 

Our tongues speak our words and thoughts, and we need to master what our tongues say. Look in a concordance to see what God has to say about the situation, believe God’s Word, speak God’s Word.  We want God’s Word to be the Word that comes off our tongues.

Even if we read scripture and know His Word, we don’t always speak it. Why?  Sometimes it is our upbringing. We might have spent our formative years with people who always viewed a situation as negative.  And without thinking we model ourselves after that kind of negative behavior and thinking.

God wants us to give the Glory to Him, for what He has done in us.

Cynthia shared how someone told her mother that Cynthia looks like her mom, and her mom’s reply was, “Oh poor thing.”  What kind of message did that send to Cynthia?  When she was growing up her best friend’s mother used to respond to every situation negatively.  That becomes a habit, and we need to break the negativity habit. 

Some people don’t know how to say something in a positive way.  Some think people don’t take them seriously if they are too positive, that they have to be mean, negative, or strong to be heard. 

We need to believe God’s Word and say what God’s Word says. Then, no matter our circumstances, we can have the peace that passes all understanding.

There is a big difference between TRUTH AND FACT.

They can run in parallel directions.  The worldly and spiritual are always going on at the same time.  When we perceive that something is wrong in the world, we need to put the WORD above the World.  The TRUTH of God’s Word in place of the fact.  The fact may be that it seems to be a bad day, but the TRUTH is that we are blessed and highly favored.

Cynthia read from a book called Hung by the Tongue Written by Francis Martin.  He tells us that to control our mouth we have to control our mind and what we think.  Proverbs 23:7a For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. There was more that she read from this source, it seems to be a good book, but may not be easy to obtain.

We need to accept that Scripture is literal.  These are spiritual principles that the Word contains that God set forth.  They are always operating. For example, the principle of sowing and reaping.  Sometimes knowing these principles does not make it any easier to follow them.  But God’s Word is truth, and as we follow these principles we learn that we cannot beat God at giving.

Luke 6:37-38 Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”

If you spend your time criticizing people, you will reap criticism and receive judgments yourself.  That does not mean that we don’t judge, but how we judge is very important, and God knows our hearts. 

If we want to be blessed, sow blessings to others and we will reap blessings.

There are three things that will help us with our tongues:  1) prayer; 2) awareness; and 3) work and yieldedness.

PRAYER- God helps us, we can’t do anything without God helping us.  It takes time and effort on our part to learn our scriptures and open up the Word, but God will use the Word to teach us, guard us, and help us to change.  Invoke God’s love.

1 Corinthians 13 is the Love Chapter – and it tells us that Love never fails. We can’t do anything without love. If our life is not moving the way we want it to, we need to check our love walk.  We want things to come from a heart of love. We don’t want to act out of anger and resentment.  Let our words be words of love.  If we have to say tough words to someone, we may have to say them a different way so that they can be received. Speak the truth in love.

AWARENESS:  We need to be aware of what we are saying.  Listen to ourselves, get a monitor (a friend or family member) who will point out when we are speaking negatively.  Ask their help. Tell them we are trying to learn to speak more positively and ask them to let us know when we are not.  It can be tough to have someone point it out, but if we really want to change, we need to be aware of when we are being negative.

Cynthia then pointed out that there are times when we need to vent – and the way to do that is to get with someone that you have a positive relationship with and let them know that you are venting.  It has to be a trusted person who can then pray with you, and one that you know that what you are venting will not be repeated to others. And when you vent, don’t do it with character assassination.  Hopefully they will help you to find constructive things to say or do.

When you do have a legitimate complaint and need to speak it to someone, be aware of how you are saying what you want to say. Don’t NIT PICK OR NAG.  Choose your battles. Sometimes things are not worth getting upset about.  Some things are so small you don’t want to let them get you upset.  Overlook the small stuff.

It does take work to change our tongues.  We have to do it though, to make the effort to retrain our mouth, learn how to say things a different way, and try to learn to use positive phrases. 

For example if you want your husband to take out the garbage – don’t nag and question him repeatedly, “Did you take out the garbage?” Or say something like, “You never remember to take out the garbage.” A more positive way of saying things is to say something like, “I love it when you take out the garbage.  Or thank you for taking out the garbage.”

And even if a person doesn’t do the perfect job, say nice things about the good parts that they did.  People are more motivated by complements than they are by negative things.

Avoid killer phrases such as:  You ALWAYS….. or I’m just sick of you when you…..

Ecclesiastes 12:11 The words of the wise are like goads, and the words of scholars^d]’>

Death and hades were where the spirits went – but then death and hades were cast into the lake of fire. That was the second death.  The first death is physical death, the second death is when those who desire to be placed away from God will stay eternally in bondage in hell, the lake of fire.

Revelation 20:15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.

If people do not want to be around God, their names are not in the Book of Life and they will be cast into the lake of fire.

It is our lack of spiritual understanding and spiritual immaturity that we do not realize the truth of God – even Creation shows God’s existence to everyone.

Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,

To go to hell you have to reject God, to deny the manifest truth of God, and that takes some doing for all of creation declare’s God’s existence.

Romans 1:19-20 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. 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,

What is here in the world is created – it didn’t just happen.

Romans 2:12-16 For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law (for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified;  for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them) in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.

Romans 6:19 I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.

Our flesh (mind, will, emotions) all of us is tempted and said, “yes” to sin and this was not to our best outcome. Our mind will sometimes lead us into dangerous places and cause us to make mistakes.  We want to become slaves of righteousness for holiness.

Romans 6:20-21 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.

The end of these things is death.

Romans 6:22-23 But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

When we get more spiritual our attitude toward death changes, we pray for people in a different way, and the desires of our heart changes. If we are earthbound we might pray for people to live even when it is to their detriment.  After 70 years some people are ready to be with God, and they look at their lives with different eyes than those who are not so sure about death, who want to keep the person around so that they do not have to be grieved.  Pastor Don said that his mom wants to live a long life only if she has her mind and her health.

We do not have all the answers and we need to trust God.

Deuteronomy 29:29 The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

Pastor Don described life as like a puzzle in pieces.  You may not even know if you have all the pieces to the puzzle and to build the puzzle you need to start at the outer edges – at the corners, and piece them together, then begin to build the middle.  We may not even have the picture on the cover of the box.

In faith we start with the outer edges and leave the rest of the puzzle up to God until we get there.  Your expectations can disappoint you, for your expectations may not be built on all the pieces of the puzzle.

Pastor Don’s father, Ivor Moore,  used to always say:  Life is a mystery to be lived, not a problem to be solved.

Our view of sin is not the end of all life and death, but it is part of our learning process.

THY WILL BE DONE.  God’s got the plan and the picture on the top of the box of puzzle pieces we have been given. 

Philippians 1:20-21 according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

We need to recognize spiritual maturity is a process that we go through.  Our will is important and our level of maturity is important, but we need to accept this growth toward maturity as part of the process.  We sometimes wonder why alcoholism, sickness, disease, dysfunctional families and things have happened in our lives.  Our flesh screams out that we want the perfect life NOW.  We have to die to self to attain the perfect life.  Why do we admire movie stars and give them accolades for their beauty – they didn’t do anything to achieve it – it was given to them by God.  And movie stars who supposedly have their beautiful lives end up doing ugly stuff.  It is as we die to self and mature and grow in Christ that we begin to build the character that really matters.  All the beauty and glamor without character is tarnished.

Romans 6:22-23 But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This is the conclusion.  We are set free from sin by the Blood of Jesus.  We have the faith that sin no longer encumbers us. Yes, we will mess up and make a  mistake, but our sins are covered by the blood of Jesus. Jesus has eliminated our sins. We can go before the bench and claim, “not guilty.”  The case is dismissed because Jesus paid the price.  If we accept this fact, we are set free, and as such have become slaves of God.  We should, as we grow in Christ, sin less, recognizing our new spiritual nature.  We have chosen a different master, and as a child of Christ, we do not have to sin over and over and over again.  We are not serving our old master Romans 6:19 I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness. Our old master is the flesh.  Our flesh is designed to kill us. we will sin in the flesh over and over and over and over – there is no way to stop the flesh meter, there is no eject button.  It is only by the spirit that we can stop it, by saying that we have chosen a different master – now we are a slave to God.

We need to take our thoughts captive to Christ.  Thought leads to sin, but it is not sin until it comes to our mouth.

We then read romans 6:23 – 7:1 Pastor Don pointed out that the Bible was not originally written in chapter and verse – and 6:23 runs right into 7:1.  For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?

As long as we are in the physical body the laws of the 10 Commandments exist.  Jesus conquered sin and death.  He lived under the law and obeyed the law without sin.  He has shown us it is possible to do this, and through Him we can.  As long as we are alive we are to live by the scriptures.  It is never ok to lie, cheat, steal, kill, commit adultery, use God’s name in vain, etc.  We are told to not be afraid or worry.  It is not ok to be stressed out.  Worry is forbidden. Jesus did not say, I wish you wouldn’t worry, He commanded DO NOT WORRY. 

We tend to fall into drugs, pills, drinking to escape from ourselves, and our self-imposed stress.  We have to volunteer to let the circumstances in our lives lead us to the pint where we feel we are stressed.  Some people say things are too much for them, and what they are saying is too much is what we consider basic life.  The worry and stress is self-made.  DO NOT WORRY.  It is not a suggestion made by God, but a command. Worry brings death. 

If we are fixing to stress don’t jump into the mess.  Pastor Don told us to make sure we pray and speak with God before we get out of bed so we don’t jump into a mess.

Praying your day is blessed.

Heather

Yvonne shared this with our Bible Study group on a Thursday night when Pastor Don was teaching about the authority of the believer.  I asked her if I could share her poem with you and Yvonne wrote this to me:

“I don’t call this a poem.  It came to me in one fell swoop one night. It has phraseology and terms, that I had never used.  I was struggling with unworthiness, and asked God for help.  I just call it a piece of writing.”

Well, this ”piece of writing” is powerful and a blessing to me.  I pray it also blesses you. 

UNWORTHINESS

Moving through life as unworthy IS the sin.
Unworthiness is not just a psychological or emotional block that has to be processed or worked through with therapy.

Unworthiness is against Jesus’ teaching.
Unworthiness is against Scripture.
Unworthiness is satan’s way into our soul.

Unworthiness is a trick of the devil to keep us from our spiritual inheritance.

If we feel unworthy, then we can’t stand in the authority of the believer.
If we feel unworthy, then we really aren’t able to receive the Love of Christ.
If we feel unworthy …..

Unworthiness is clever, it can look like humility.
It can look like we are caring more about others than ourselves.

Pastor Don began the Bible study by giving a recap about Isaiah because we had a lot of new visitors to the study.  He reminded us that Isaiah was a prophet who was prophesying that there was going to be a punishment coming on Israel because of their disobedience. The nation of Israel was divided into the Northern Kingdom (Israel) and the Southern Kingdom (Judah).  Israel (the Northern Kingdom) never had a king that did not resort to idol worship, and as a nation it was the first to go into captivity, but Judah soon followed.

After Solomon died, Rehoboam who was king of both Northern & Southern Israel chose to follow the counsel of young men, not the elders, and he caused a great tax to be given to the people of Israel, this caused the nation to divide into two.  But this created a problem for Jereboam who rebeled against Rehoboam and became the king of the Northern Kingdom (the 10 tribes) and he feared losing his power when the tribes would want to go to Jerusalem for the Feasts.  So he created two golden calves for the people to worship and placed them in the land – this was repeating the sin of the Israelites in the wilderness, for God did not want idol worship.  This lead to greater and greater sins, and more and more idol worship.  And ultimately led to the nation being led into captivity.

God gave the Israelites the Law as a tutor to show them their need for a Messiah, and ultimately God wanted to write the law on their hearts, but the Israelites turned the law into legalism, and persisted in their sins. 

There were a few kings in Judah who did “right” in the sight of God, but idolatry kept returning to the land.  But because of those kings that sought to obey God, Judah remained in tact a bit longer than the 10 tribes of the Northern Kingdom.  The prophets kept warning the people, but the people chose to ignore the prophets. 

The truth is that violating the law would kill them, but people felt that that would not happen.  Jesus took the law and boiled it down to two commandments – Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, spirit, and love your neighbor as yourself.  But the people kept rebeling.

Isaiah is prophesying to warn the people about the impending judgment of God for their disobedience and idolatry.  We picked up on Chapter 8.

Isaiah 8:1-3 Moreover the LORD said to me, “Take a large scroll, and write on it with a man’s pen concerning Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz. And I will take for Myself faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.” Then I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then the LORD said to me, “Call his name Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz;

The footnote at the bottom of my Bible tells us that Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz means “Speed the spoil, hasten the booty.” Principles in the Old Testament are clouded, but we see more what they are in the New Testament.

The real question is:  Is God sovereign or not? What happens is that we want God to be sovereign as long as God is good to us, as long as He is blessing us, and it is going well for us.  It is kind of like a teenager who is getting what they want.  But all that changes the moment things do not go our way.  Then we do not want God’s sovereign will.

The truth is God will use good and evil to accomplish His purposes.  He will permit the destroyers to come if people are not in obedience and if they remove themselves from His covering of protection by disobedience.   The devil is happy to comply, to kill, steal and destroy.  It is not God doing the destruction, but God can remove His hand of protection and destruction will come.  God will use the Assyrians to punish Israel for disobedience and idolatry.

Elohim, Adonai, Jehovah God, does want to protect His people, but if the people are in rebelion, in disobedience He is no longer responsible to protect them.  When evil comes because we have moved outside of God’s protection we often ask, “Where is God?”  It isn’t that God has moved, but we have moved outside God’s protection.  We don’t want God to be sovereign when things are not going well for us.

God will permit evil if it will help to bring about a good result (change that is beneficial for us for it brings us to obedience), and then after we get that good result, then God will turn and destroy the evil.  The devil will be destroyed ultimately because the devil permits himself to be used to hurt others.

Babylon will be used to destroy Israel, but a remnant of Israel will be saved, and we see in the end times that Babylon will be destroyed. If you read current events you see that the devil is again trying to raise up the city of Babylon, but ultimately that will not succeed.

God will never permit evil to attack us with a plan to destroy. Instead, God wants the evil to help to destroy the idolatry and evil, and bring us back to God.  We need to get the revealed truth of obedience.  We need to obey God whether we understand why or not.  We need to believe God.  As time goes by, we will look back on those periods of obedience that we do not understand, and God will reveal His purpose behind His desire for us to obey Him in that way.  All that happens to us is to fulfill a higher purpose and greater plan over our lives. 

Obedience is better than sacrifice. Obedience is better than knowledge.  Obedience is better than wisdom.  The only way to survive life on earth is to get the revealed truth of obedience.  King Nebuchadnezzar got taken up with pride and felt that he obtained power on his own, and as a consequence he spent many years living in the wild like an animal until he finally became wise and acknowledged that God was God and that he needed to be obeyed. That it is God who raises up kings and removes kings, that God is sovereign.

Belshazzar had no respect for God and for the things of the Temple.  In fact, he used the plates and cups from the Temple for a pagan party, God wrote on the wall that Belshazzar was weighed in the balance and found wanting and that his rulership was finished.  King Darius (the Medes and Persians) came in and took over. 

Those who came in and destroyed the Israelites were ultimately destroyed – the Babylonians and the Medes and Persians. 

We do not always want to confess up for all the things that we have brought upon ourselves.  There is no deliverance without repentance.  Pastor Don spoke about how he once attended a deliverance meeting and the spirits would leave one host person and before the people left the church parking lot, the spirit had found another host to reside.  Unless a person fills up the space where the spirit resided with the Word of God, and repentance, they are still open for the demons to return, and often the demons return with others and the person is worse off than before.

We are taught some bad theology in some churches.  Yes God loves us, and He is always there for us, but that does not mean that we can do whatever we want to do without repercussions.  God can remove His hand of protection and we can end up facing the consequences for our actions.  Consider Samson who God blessed.  Samson had taken a Nazarite vow, and as time went by he started violating the various parts of the vow until he ultimately began sleeping with pagan women such as Delilah.  He ended up blinded and in chains because he got out from under the protection of God. 

God can only be with you in a Godly way.  Jesus will never help you buy cocaine or do something that is outside the covenant relationship with God.  When we are outside the covenant relationship God cannot be with us the way we want Him to be – He is sovereign.  God is in the background and He will tell us things like, son if you keep it up I will remove the hedge of protection from around you and you will experience the consequences for your actions.

Jesus went to the Cross for us, and because of that we can understand the Covenant of God, the Promise of God and the trustworthiness of God.  If we go through a hard time, He is there to help us.  If we keep covenant, He will help us.  We need to trust Him, no matter what it looks like in our circumstances. 

God is the God of our circumstances. Even if you have a hard time believing that, He is there for you.  You need to believe that God will never leave you or forsake you.  No matter what people have done to you, you need to forgive and be quick about forgiving.  Obey God’s Word.  God will destroy the destroyer who comes against us.

Isaiah 8:14  He will be as a sanctuary, but a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, as a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

Pastor Don spoke about the duality in the heavens, the divine constellations in the heavens, that portray facts about Christ, even to those who do not have the Scriptures. 

The sanctuary is a place of divine miracles and peace.  Yet for those who do not accept Jesus, He is a rock of offense. Those in the new age water down God – they make God what they want Him to be – a rock, tree, or whatever they choose.  But that is not the real God, and when they are told about Jesus, they don’t want to hear about Him for then they would have to give up their idols and worship Jesus.  Jesus becomes a rock of offense to them.

If you speak Jesus’ name to them it strikes a chord, and often they do not know how to respond.  The Name of Jesus can offend those who do not understand.

Isaiah 8:15-16 And many among them shall stumble; they shall fall and be broken, be snared and taken.”  Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.

The law is sealed among the disciples.

Isaiah 8:17 And I will wait on the LORD, who hides His face from the house of Jacob; and I will hope in Him.

He will not show His face to covenant breakers.

Isaiah 8:18 Here am I and the children whom the LORD has given me! We are for signs and wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, who dwells in Mount Zion.

This is referring to the prophetic generations.  God will always preserve for Himself a remnant, even in the breaking of the covenant, he will reserve a remnant church.  God will not save all the people, just a remnant. 

Statistics show that 84% of people in America say they are Christian, but only 4% participate in Church on a regular basis and consider themselves born again.  Only 34% of Christians say they are Born Again, the rest claim they are Christian by cultural heritage, coming to church at Easter and Christmas and for some special occasions, but they do not participate in spiritual life on a regular basis.

Our job is to preach and spread the Gospel, so that people can hear the Gospel.  Whether they are saved or not is not our job – our job is to share the Gospel (good news), to cast our hooks into the pond of life and disciple those who choose to bite, those who God has called. 

Isaiah 8:19 And when they say to you, “Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter,” should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living?

There are those today who claim that they are talking to the dead when all they are speaking with are familiar spirits.  This is forbidden by God, and in the time of the Israelites, those who were mediums were taken outside the camp and stoned to death.  New agers think they are talking to God, but NO THEY ARE NOT!  God would have to violate His own law to talk through a medium at a seance.  It is satan and his minions who are speaking through mediums – and yes they will tell you the truth, but only so they can get you to buy a lie later on down the road.  Ultimately those who choose the new age will end up destroyed.  For example Dion Warwick spent time with the psychic network and she lost everything.  The author of the satanic bible – Anton Levy died from one of the worst types of stomach cancers, and died in great pain.  He never made his 60th birthday.  Anyone the devil uses he will ultimately destroy.

Isaiah 8:20-22 To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. They will pass through it hard-pressed and hungry; and it shall happen, when they are hungry, that they will be enraged and curse their king and their God, and look upward. Then they will look to the earth, and see trouble and darkness, gloom of anguish; and they will be driven into darkness.

Pastor Don brought us to Numbers 13 for an example of what these verses were talking about.  This was when Moses sent the 12 spies into the land to search out the Promised Land the spies were the cream of the crop from Israel, and they came back and told the truth – in part.  The grapes were huge, the land had much food and was developed.  10 people gave a bad report, reporting on the giants in the land and how the Israelites seemed to be like grasshoppers in their eyes, that there was no way for the Israelites to succeed in taking over the land.  But two people came back with a good report, saying that they could conquer the land because God was for them.  Those 10 with the bad report were guilty of idolatry and unbelief, for they spoke what was contrary to what God said.  Because of them, Israel spent 40 years in the wilderness, and only two people Joshua and Caleb from the original Israelites were able to cross over into the Promised Land – they believed God. 

We are not to look at our feelings or circumstances, but instead believe the Word of God and obey the Word of God.

Praying your day is blessed.

Heather

Here is a fantastic sermon by Pastor Don Moore that I closed captioned.  I made it a bit more easy to read by forming paragraphs. Remember what is in [brackets] is what the congregation says.  I seem to be having problems downloading the video onto Xanga from the dropbox videos I get. 

Say Amen
Show 131
Feast of Trumpets
9/13/09

Ah, it is the Fall, and those of you that are watching by television, by the time they release this it may be Spring, but [laughter] it’s a Fall message.  Amen.  We have a great, great  season here.  This is the Fall season. This is the time of the Fall harvest.  And the Fall harvest is a very jubilant, but it’s a very serious time.  The reason is because God, in the first of Genesis, in the beginning, He said that I give you these days, as for seasons of time.  But the words that He uses, and the way that He uses it, He is not saying that the sun and the moon and the stars are here just to do a 24 cycle.  What God is talking about is He gives us Sabbaths.  He gives us time periods.  There are seven Sabbaths of the Lord.  And they are all significant.  Those of us that read the Bible need to read it with a Jewish eye and get a Jewish understanding of Scripture.  He’s given us seven feasts that describe all time.  It is the literal fulfillment of these seven feasts that will result in the return of the Lord, and the presence of the Lord. 

Those that do not believe in the return of the Lord, or the rapture of the Church, and the coming of the Bride, and don’t understand God coming to Tabernacle with us, if you miss any of those parts, then you are in great darkness and confusion.  For the whole purpose of times and seasons is that we have a physical event that will be paralleled by a spiritual event.  And all history is marked by these spiritual events that have a physical representation as well as a spiritual representation.  In other words, what God does in the natural, by giving us seven feast days, and seven holidays, is He is saying to us, I am giving you these as a representation of prophetic truth.  That what I’m prophesying to you, it must come to pass and be fulfilled.  All of the holidays will be fulfilled, all of the Feast Days will be fulfilled by Christ Himself.  By the Messiah, the coming of the Messiah determines each and every one of those events. 

So, what we’re looking at today is the first of the Fall feasts.  The Lord Jesus Christ completed Passover, the spiritual representation of Passover was that Jesus Christ came as the Passover Lamb, and sacrificed Himself for the sins of the World, as the representation of a way for man to get back to God.  To have his sins covered.  And then the blood of the Lamb was put over the doorpost in the sign of the cross, and wherever the Angel of Death at Passover, please don’t use the word “Easter,”  in my presence.  It is the Resurrection of Christ that we are celebrating.  [amen]  Not the goddess oestara.  And Easter is a pagan celebration, so, throw out the Easter eggs, get the bunny.  Catch him, make him a pet, but let’s eat him because he tastes like chicken.  [laughter]  Moving right along, forget the colored eggs and all of that nonsense, it comes to us from pagan things, and you know, the fertility goddess and the eggs and the bunnies and the baby chicks. 

So, let’s remember, we’re celebrating the Passover Lamb.  [amen]  The Passover Lamb.  Jesus Christ is the Passover Lamb.  So, we had the physical holiday, and for centuries the Jews celebrated the Passover Lamb.  They celebrated it with a feast of eating and making unleavened bread, and they did all that and they completed it.  But, Jesus comes to fulfill it spiritually.  In that He comes breaking through history and time, breaking through the confusion of theology, and He comes to earth and He offers Himself as the Passover Lamb for the sins of the people and therefore the Angel of Death passes over wherever the Blood of the Lamb is in manifestation.  [thank you, Lord.  applause]  Lord have mercy.  Now, He fulfilled that. 

The next holiday coming up is that of Unleavened Bread.  The Feast of Unleavened Bread includes a number of things.   It is when the bringing in of first the barley harvest, representing that general people could come, and then representing the wheat harvest which was after that, representing that the Ecclesiastical body, the clergy could come, representing that the kings and the priests are acceptable to God.  Well what are the acceptable to God?  Because of the unleavened bread.  The Bread of Life, without sin in it.  And then He comes as a picture.  Christ comes as a picture, He comes as a picture of the perfect, pierced, but unleavened bread.  In other words, leaven represented sin, He was without sin.  And though He was pierced, and beaten, striped, just like that Matzo the Jews ate, even though all of that occurred, He represented the next Feast Holiday, that of the Unleavened Bread. 

And that Unleavened Bread Holiday is followed by Pentecost.  Pentecost.  The Jews believed that Moses ascended to the Mount, where God was.  And he received, at Pentecost, he received the tablets that gave man the Law.  That gave man a clear description of what is acceptable to God, and what is not acceptable to God. Abraham was the Father of Faith, and during the time period of Abraham, man could be saved only by believing God and therefore having a heart for God, being obedient to God in the way that the rest of the people on the earth during Noah’s time failed.  And during the time of Abraham, many failed also.  So God said, I have to obviously be more specific with man.  I will write down the Law.  I will give him the Law on tablets so that he can remember it, so that he can teach it to his children’s, children’s, children.  And so the giving of the Law on Pentecost is a physical event that did occur, representing a spiritual event that God was going to send the Messiah to come and fulfill the Law.  He was going to live by the Law and fulfill it in that He would not transgress it, showing that God’s Mercy and justice was necessary for those who did not keep the Law, but also proving that the Law was good and that it could be kept.  [yes, yes, yes] … It could be kept. 

But man is stubborn and thick headed and we are slow learners, and disobedient children.  And so, God said, they need help.  Can you say, “help?”  [help]  Come on, they need what?  [help]  They need help.  And so, He said, even though the Law, that Jesus came and fulfilled the Law, He said, they need help.  They need a Helper in order to keep the Law.  And therefore, we have physical Pentecost representing the Law being given, and then we have spiritual Pentecost that Jesus Christ comes and gives, what?  Help.  He sends the Helper, the Comforter, He sends the Teacher.  He sends the One that they need in order to live this life in victory in the earth.  [amen, thank you, amen]  Anybody get that?  So Pentecost then was completed and fulfilled by Jesus coming as the unleavened bread, as the Passover Lamb, and then coming at Pentecost, sending the Holy Spirit into the earth, completing what?  Those three holidays.  Completing them. 

Now, just to back up a little bit.  You’d say, well, what was the first Sabbath?  The first Sabbath was the keeping of a Day of Rest, keeping a Holy Day.  And that is called, “Keeping the Sabbath.”  We come to church on Sunday, but Sunday is not the Jewish Sabbath.  [that's true]  The Jewish Sabbath begins on Friday evening, as the sun sets, that is the Sabbath day.  And so, He says, you will keep that day holy, so on sundown on Friday into sundown the next day, which would be Saturday, it is a day of Sabbath Rest.  You very well would have gotten in a lot of trouble doing the lawn and watering the plants and cleaning the house on a day that was designed for the Jews as a holy Sabbath.  A day of rest. A day in which you were to do no work… It was a day of [rest].  Rest.  So we have the physical Sabbath which is fulfilled in the culmination of all the holidays in that they were given these regular weekly Sabbaths. 

We celebrate the Resurrection of the Lord on the Lord’s Day, which in this case is Sunday.  And since we’re Gentiles, most of us in this room, we are permitted to do so.  When Jesus Christ rises from the grave, He conquers sin and death, and He also completed the day of Sabbath, for it points us back to resting in Him, and then Hebrews tells us then that every day becomes a Sabbath Day.  [amen]  Christ’s purpose in coming was to tell us to rest and rely on Him everyday.  So, what day is a good day to sin?  [none]  No day.  What day is a good day to praise God?  [everyday]  Everyday.  And so, whether you are a Seventh Day Adventist, or a muslim or whatever you want to be, if you are a Born Again Believer, every day is a Sabbath Day of rest for the Christian.  For the believer in Yeshua, as your Jewish Lord, then you are to recognize the Day and you are to set aside a day as a Sabbath rest. 

You are to have a day where you say, “Baby, this is the Lord’s Day.  Let’s do something righteous and holy today.”  And she says, “Well, we’re going to clean the garage every day this week.”  [laughter]  And you have to say, “No, we’re going to have a Sabbath Day of rest.”  I want to point out to you that the violation of the Sabbath Day rest cost the Jews more than any violation of any other holidays.  [that's right]  It cost them more.  And so, I just want to encourage you, don’t violate that because you still need a Sabbath rest.  [amen]  Ok, now.  If we are wise, we would then realize that Jesus, the Messiah, has completed that phase of Sabbath rest during the physical seven day week.  Everybody got that?  During the physical seven day week, but there is a spiritual Sabbath that is to be completed, [that's right]. 

So when we look to the Fall Harvest Days, He has completed Pentecost – let me go straight, keep in order.  Passover.  He’s completed Unleavened Bread.  And He has completed Pentecost.  They’ve been completed.  Why would you think that God would go through all the effort to complete the Sabbath, to complete Pentecost, and those days, and that He’s not gonna fulfill and complete the Fall harvest? …  Is He a God of incompletion or does He finish things?   Doesn’t He put a period at the end of a sentence?  Doesn’t He say, every jot and tittle has to be fulfilled?  [yes]  Alright. 

Then, let’s talk about the Summer.  So, we have a physical summer which his hot, dry and is usually a fairly dead period of time.  The crops don’t need that much tending, they just need some periodic weeding.  Come on, somebody.  This represents the 2000 year period of the Gentiles where God has fulfilled certain things, and now we are in this long dry summer that is two months or 2000 years.  Everybody with me so far?   [yes]  So we have this period that represents two seasons, in this case two months of the Summer, out of the 12 months of the year.  And those represent the 2000 years of the time period of the Church.  And the Church is in that period.  We are in that period now of dryness, we’re in that period where life is difficult.  Where the forces that are lined against us are taking hostage to those who do not stand strong in the Blood of the Lord, or don’t stand strong in the Word of the Lord.  And during that time period, He is bringing us into a Fall season. 

Now, let’s talk about that Fall season.  The Fall season, the people call it the time of the Harvest… People get upset with Pastor Don because I keep telling them, and I’m going to tell them until Jesus comes, we’re not in the time of revival.  [right]  We’re in the time of awakening that will lead to harvest.  The prophetic time that we’re in.  The next event to occur on the calendar of God is that He must fulfill the Fall harvest.  The harvest, the bringing in of what?  All that has been sown in the 2000 years that the Church has been on the earth.  All of that is to be gathered.  Some from far away lands and some from this great land, and some close by. 

A lot of people go to church, been in church all their lives, but they are dry.  They are without sustenance, they are without the infilling of the Holy Spirit.  They’re without the water of the Word, because they’re just parched and dry. For the Jews it is a picture that is dry bones, Ezekiel talks about dry bones.  But the Jewish experience is what, a picture of what is the Gentile experience for Jew and Gentile cannot be separated as two different people, but they do have two different historical, written down, prophesied outcomes.  They’re different.  The timing of them is different. 

But, in the Fall, comes the harvest time.  And how do we announce it.  What do we do?  Well what happens is, right before … the harvest is complete, it begins with the blowing of the trumpet.   We call it the Shofar.  Originally they blew two silver trumpets.  They had to all be made from the same source or the same lump of silver.  And they made two silver trumpets.  And they blew that.  But over time, they switched and they began to use the Shofar which is made of a ram’s horn, so to speak.  Okay? 

Now, the blowing of the trumpet was significant, because God decreed it.  Man didn’t invent this holiday.  God decreed it.  Let me just read to you what God said.  “The Lord spoke to Moses saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, saying:  “In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a sabbath-rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets….a memorial of blowing of trumpets….You shall do no customary work on it; and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD.”"  So, we have in the Fall, the harvest is being gathered in from the fields and there comes this thing that we’re going to have a blowing of trumpets and the trumpets are supposed to declare something. 

The trumpets are to declare the beginning of a new year.  The Jewish New Year does not start in January. The Jewish New Year starts in the period called Elul and that is our late September, middle September, October, it swings around in there.  The reason it swings is because as Gentiles we’ve accepted a Gentile calendar that has 365 days, and one 365 1/4 days.  But the Jewish calendar is 360 days, cause it’s based on the lunar cycle.  So, periodically, the Jewish and Gentile days will be close, other times they’ll be 10, 20 days apart because of the difference in the cycle of 360 days verses 365… So, and that’s why, if you look at a calendar and remember Easter will fall on Passover but most of the time it falls close to it, but not usually lining up right on it.  We should have taken that as a sign right there, that should have been enough to say something’s wrong.  Okay. 

So, now what are we supposed to do then on this holiday?  There is a blowing of trumpets, declaring a New Year, a new celebration, declaring the gathering in of this harvest.  A completion of the fall harvest, gathering it in. They’re gathering in the harvest.  The trumpet (trumpet blowing sounds)  A New Year.   (brrrrp, trumpet sounds)  can you do that?  [brrrrp, trumpet sounds, laughter] …. People need help.  [laughter]  I know.  You know, sometimes when I’m in a warfare situation, and I don’t have my Shofar, I’ll be just in the car going (trumpet sounds)….. I’ll be blowing the trumpet, man.  I’m just, you know, I don’t take no mess.  [whew!]  Alright, so, let’s look at a few things. 

The main purpose then of the Feast of Trumpets is to announce that time period.  It’s to bring it in.  And what is it to prepare the people for?  The blowing of the trumpets is to prepare people for the next holiday, which is the Day of Atonement, which is followed then by Feast of Tabernacles.  So, God says, the fall harvest, blow the trumpet.  But what did this holiday look like?  It just says, blow the trumpet.  So the Jews would just start blowing the trumpet.  They’d blow it all day.  But they blow it different now.  They would blow a long blast, and blow with all the energy and force they could put behind it.  And they would blow all day.  So they say in ancient times, back in Jerusalem, you would hear the blowing of trumpets all over the city, blowing all day. 

Just all day signifying what?  It’s a new year.  [amen]  Signifying what?  The coming of the time of atonement when we will be forgiven for our sins, a time when the heavens are going to be opened.  That’s what the blowing of the trumpets are blowing and saying, God we know you hear us now, and the heavens would open so that man could atone for his sins, because the High Priest was going to go into the Temple, he’s going to atone for his sins, he’s going to pay for his sins, then he’s going to pay for the sins of the people, then he’s going to come back and he’s going to announce he’s been in the Holy of Holies with the presence of God and he’s going to tell them how the Shekinah glory fell.  The whole city would know it.  And the whole nation, all the Jews would know that their sins had been forgiven. 

And why would their sins be forgiven?  Because, the heavens are open, their sins are forgiven, now God is going to come and Tabernacle with man.  [glory!]  He’s going to live with man, He’s going to be with man.  So the blowing of the trumpets announce this is a new year, the King is coming.  Well, what’s He coming for?  It’s the same way of blowing the trumpets to signify He’s coming for His Bride.  [amen]  He’s coming for His Bride.  Blow the horn.  (horn blowing sounds)  Blow it all day.  Why?  So that heathen, unbelieving unbeliever, and every Jew would know that the time of atonement, it’s now time to get serious about all of your sins, for the whole year.  It’s time for you to think through your lifestyle.  It’s time for you to think about your servanthood.  It’s time to think about what you have failed to do, and what you’re believing God for because why?  When those heavens open in atonement, every prayer will be heard and God will hear the cry of His people. 

And when He hears the cry of His people, guess what.  Then miracles begin to happen.  Finances begin to change.  Healing begins to be distributed among the people.  Debts be forgiven.   People begin to realize, my God isn’t far away.  He is here.  And what happens then, the heavens open and He comes to dwell with His people.  [yes]  Glory, have mercy.  [hallelujah, amen]  It’s exciting time. 

If our spirits would just get a hold of this, then realize that God is completed these, He sent Jesus into the earth to physically complete those things, then why would you not believe that at some point in history, at some time in history, in the Fall Harvest, He will hear the blowing of the trumpets and He will fulfill His holiday and He will come for His Bride, and He will complete this series, our sins will be forgiven, and He will come and dwell with us.  [amen]  Glory to God! 

My heart breaks for people that have no hope of the rapture.  Have no hope of the coming of the Lord and the completion of things.  I don’t want to live a day without believing that what God said, He’s going to do… [hallelujah]  Especially when Jesus has given us so many ways of figuring it out.  He’s given us so many different ways.  The Fall Feast of Rosh Hashanah or Rosh Hashanah, it begins with the new moon.  But there’s a problem.  You can’t see the new moon.  It’s dark.  It’s all dark.  You can’t see the new moon cause it’s dark.  So, what the priests did, Jewish priests were wise.  And they would calculate the 30 days and they would watch the coming of the days and then one of the rabbis at some point said, you know, what if we miss it?  What if it’s so dark that we can’t see, we can’t tell that it’s the new moon?  What are we going to do?  So they came away, Jews love a party.  So they say, we’ll celebrate two days.  Then that way, either way we got it going on.  [laughter]  Now, how would they know what day to celebrate? … [count]  They would count.  But how would they know? 

They wouldn’t know, only until the High Priest would go in the tower, and says to the best of my ability I believe we’re going to start Friday. [laughter]  And what do we do on Saturday?  We’ll do it again Saturday.  [laughter]  That way, for sure, we’ve got it covered.  And they ask the rabbi, why?  And the rabbi said, because no man knows the day or the hour.  [hallelujah] … People get so confused.  Oh, you are a date setter.  You’re a this setter.  No man knows the day or the hour.  They’re saying that from a Gentile perspective, and they need a slap.  The reality of the situation is Jesus gave that in the telling of His return, the coming and the gathering of the Bride to Christ, in a Jewish context.  He was saying, I’ll be coming back in the fall, during the time of Rosh Hashanah, the blowing of the trumpets, will herald in my coming.  And because no man knows the day or the hour, because the High Priest would set the day, as the Father over the nation, he would set the time of His coming. 

The Jewish wedding is a picture of the rapture, in that the groom gets betrothed to the woman, leaves her to become a better bride, he goes off and prepares, He says, “I go to prepare a place for you and I will come again to take you unto myself.  For in my Father’s house there are many mansions, were it not so, I would not have told you.”  [applause]  He’s gone to prepare a place for His Bride.  And He’s coming again to claim her at the blowing of the trumpets which will announce His coming, because He plans to Tabernacle with His Bride and then Tabernacle with all other people. 

And so, Rosh Hashanah, was the hint He was giving us, He says, at the holiday that no man knows the day or the hour, until the Father sets it.  And so the groom is waiting for Father to look at the house He’s built, and say, “Nice house.”  [yeah]  “I like the two sinks in the bathroom concept.   I like the balcony overlooking, I like that.”  And the Father looks it over and He says, “You done good.  You done good.  Jesus, go down there and get your Bride.”  [amen]  And Jesus says, “Ah ha, thank you Daddy.” 

See, God told us in His Word.  He said, you’ll know the season.  Why would Jesus say, “Watch?”  What are you watching for if nobody’s going to know the day or the hour?  He says that the only people that will be fooled will be the unrighteous.  He says, He says for the righteous, He says He does nothing in the earth unless He tells His prophets.  What you talking about?  He wants us to know when He’s coming.  He’s coming at the blowing of the trumpets, the heavens are opened, till people atone for their sins, phfew, He’s going to come and Tabernacle.  [amen]  Pshew, this is powerful stuff.  Therefore, Rosh Hashanah, is the time period wherein the believer can, at the sound of the trumpet enter into spiritual warfare to destroy the successful acts of the enemy at a time when the enemy is weakest and God is strongest.  Because when the sounding of the trumpet blows, His voice trembles and demons shake. [thank you Lord]  Glory to God. 

 My husband took a few pictures of the Sukkah that Living Word Chapel’s youth built – one is by itself, then he took one of me.  I took some of him, but he seems to have “lost” them. 

Here is the Sukkah from the road.  Jim thought it looked beautiful.  The wind was strongly blowing and the cloths were just blowing in the breeze.

Jim liked this picture of me. You can see the decorations that the children made for the Sukkah – although many had blown away.

Here is the closed captioning for Pastor Don’s sermon.  What is in [brackets] is what the congregation says.  I broke it into paragraphs for easier reading.  It is slightly edited for readability. Have a blessed day !!! Heather

SAY AMEN
SHOW 130
SIX ENEMIES THAT ARE UNDER OUR FEET
9/6/09

We’re going to go to the book of Joshua today, it’s right after Deuteronomy there and all and Judges.  Right before the book of Judges is the book of Joshua.  Praise God.  [hallelujah]  I can’t wait to hear this message myself.  [amen]  I want to just summarize and bring you some light on this issue.  It appears that the Children of God have finished their 40 years in the wilderness. And Joshua is now the leader of the people.  And he’s come into a land that God has promised them.  The Canaan Land was the Promised Land.  And they were now effectively crossing over from Egypt into Canaan Land that had been promised to them as the great Promised Land and everything’s supposed to be going along really great. 

Up to this point in time, under Moses’ leadership, they’ve taken on great armies.  They’ve taken on nations that were in existence and they’ve destroyed everything in their path.  And so Joshua is now leading a victorious army.  Can you say, “victorious?”  [victorious]  He’s leading a victorious army and they are going in to Canaan Land.  In the 9th Chapter, by then, there’s an interesting scenario that begins to develop because there are other enemies in the land that God told them to conquer the whole thing.  The reason that we have so many problems coming to us from Israel is because they did not complete their assignment. 

Listen to me Child of God, if you don’t complete what God told you to do, if you don’t complete it, you are not going to be eligible to receive all that God has for you.  Now, what I want you to see is that God has this plan.  He wants them to possess the whole land.  [yeah]  But they didn’t follow His instructions.  And when you don’t follow God’s instructions to the completion, you don’t do exactly all of what God said, then you will end up fighting battles and confusion and hardships for a longer period of time than really is necessary.  And many of you know exactly. 

But let’s get a description of it, and see how it plays out in the Word.  “And it came to pass when all the kings who were on this side of the Jordan, in the hills and in the lowland and in all the coasts of the Great Sea toward Lebanon – the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite — heard about it, that they gathered together to fight with Joshua and Israel with one accord.  But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai,…”  Look out now.  “…they worked craftily, and went and pretended to be ambassadors.  And they took old sacks on their donkeys, old wineskins torn and mended, old and patched sandals on their feet, and old garments on themselves; and all the bread of their provision was dry and moldy.  And they went to Joshua, to the camp at Gilgal, and said to him and to the men of Israel, “We have come from a far country; now therefore, make a covenant with us.”  Then the men of Israel said to the Havites…or Hivites...”  Whichever way you want to call them.  “…Perhaps you dwell among us; so how can we make a covenant with you?” 

In other words they were saying, we can’t make a covenant with you if you dwell close to us, or if you are near around us, because why?  God told us to destroy all of the nations close around us.  So if you are of the people that are close around us, then we’re going to have to destroy you.  But these guys, they dress in these bad clothes, these poor clothes, they’ve got moldy bread, which to signify they’ve come a long journey, so they say to them, in verse 8, it says, “But they said to Joshua, “We are your servants.”  And Joshua said to them, “Who are you, and where do you come from?”  So they said to him:  “From a very far country your servants have come, because of the name of the LORD your God; for we have heard of His fame, and all that He did in Egypt, and all that He did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan – to Sihon king of Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who was at Ashtaroth.  Therefore our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spoke to us, saying, “Take provisions with you for the journey, and go meet them, and say to them, “We are your servants; now therefore, make a covenant with us.” This bread of ours we took hot…”  You know, they worked for Dunkin’ Doughnuts, they had the hot doughnuts, when they left they said, “we took hot for our provision from our houses on the day we departed to come to you.  But now look, it is dry and moldy.”  Lord have mercy.  “And these wineskins which were filled were new, and see, they are torn; and these our garments and our sandals have become old because of the very long journey.” 

I want everybody to just stand and read verse 14 with me.  I want you to just stand and read verse 14 with me.  Are you ready?  [yes]  “Then the men of Israel took some of their provisions; but they did not ask counsel of the LORD.”  Read it again, please.  “Then the men of Israel took some of their provisions; but they did not ask counsel of the LORD.”  You may be seated in the presence of the wonderful, kind and gracious God.  [hallelujah] 

Let’s look at this then from the standpoint of what is the Lord saying to each and every one of us.  I’d like to take a little bit of liberty with this scripture, right here.  Just to bring it a little closer to home, so that it has kind of a ring, a ring for you, and a ring for me to help us kind of remember something.  We see that these people, and it turns out that it’s interesting, there’s six different nations that these people come from.  And six we know is the number of man.  So I believe God is trying to tell us something.  That these six nations represent six different types of problems, six different types of peoples that come to us.  And it was to my surprise that when I looked up these names in the Scriptures, I realized that the sound of the name as well as the definition of the name had something to do with the type of person, type of place, type of curse, type of enemy, type of demonic personage and spirit, that these six represented something that comes to us. 

But I want you to focus again on verse 14.  “Then the men of Israel took some of their provisions;…”  [right]  They took provisions from these six different people groups or spirit groups that were represented, “…but they did not ask counsel of the Lord.” … Why would you take provisions from evil people?… That, not only are they evil, but they happen to be liars.  [laughter] 

Now, today’s message is for the mature, if you’re not mature, then please go sit out in the lobby or the hallway because I want to talk to people that have been through some stuff.  I want to talk to some people that, you’re beyond pabulum, but you’re ready to think with some meat and some maturity.  Can you do that?  Huh?  Look around and say, “I’m ready for this.”  [I'm ready for this.]  “I can handle this.”  [I can handle this.]  This is good stuff.  [This is good stuff.] 

Alright, let’s consider then, what do we have on our hands here?  We have Joshua who’s going to see great battles, and great things are going to be done.  We have the elders of the church, the leaders of the church, and all like that.  And the elders and all, and the wise people are sitting in the assembly and in come these six types of people.  These six types of people come in and they are liars.  Can you say liars?  [liars]  They are masqueraders, they are not what they appear to be.  And they don’t get uncovered for what they are because Joshua and the elders did not ask God.  [amen]  They didn’t ask God about it, they just were so busy. 

I just want to say that, in my flesh I get a little frustrated with the scenario that just keeps happening to believers in the House of God.  Asking God after you’ve created a mess is a whole lot harder, cause if you’d asked Him before you get in the mess, He would give you the answer before.  But we have to believe that by faith.  We have to know that if we seek counsel from the Lord, if a mess breaks out, He’s got it.  [yes! amen!]  Oh Lord have mercy.  Let me say it again.  If we ask counsel of God, and God gives us counsel, and a mess breaks out, then we know that since we asked first, then guess what?  When hell breaks loose, guess what?  He’s got it covered before it even hits the fan.  [thank you Lord]  Come on, somebody.  But, if we go forward too fast, or if we do like Joshua, when the deceivers come, and these people types and these spirits start getting mixed all up in here, we won’t know who they are or what they’re about.  Come on, do this with me.  [laughter]  It just gets all stirred up.  And you don’t know who you’re looking at and what’s going on. 

So, I broke it down.  Can I tell you what it is?  [yes]  The Hittites – you got to identify them.  Those are the people that are coming to hit you up for stuff [laughter]  the Hittites are coming.  They’re going….how many of you pick up the phone and it’s what?  Somebody begging for money.  [yes]  The Hittites… they are hitting you up.  The Hittites are hitting you up.  Looking for every crumb you got.  You got one loaf of bread and they’re coming for your last crumb.  [unh unh]  You know, Hittites.  There’s a million organizations out there.  How do you know which one to give to?  [amen]  You need to have a church with a group of elders and trustees that examine the charitable organizations to make sure they’re doing what they say they’re doing, with God’s money.  [amen]  You know, there’s some Hittites in the Church.  They never give you nothing but they’re always trying to get something.   [well, well, well]  Well glory.  Moving right along.  So, watch out for the Hittites. 

The Amorites, got to watch out for the Amorites, especially you ladies.  But a lot of the ladies are Amorites too.  You got to be careful.  Because sex is their goal.  Lust drives them so much that that’s what’s really, that’s their modus operandi.  They’re really about sex and lust more than they are about the things of God.  And so, how do they operate?  They operate because they’re involved in this idol worship, of romantic love.  Do you know what the idol worship of romantic love is?  I came out of the 60′s.  The worst thing that happened in the 60′s was this glorification of romantic love.  That basically said, if I get a guy I’m happy.  And if I get a girl, I’m happy.  And so, all the songs now are permeated with this – I am your happiness, oh baby, baby.  [yeah, right]  (singing)  “OOOOOOOh, baby, baby.  OoooOOOOooooh baby, baby. I want your love, my heart went out to play, but in the game I lost you, what a price to pay.  Heyaaaay, I’m crying,…”  [boooo hoooo]  See, I knew all the sinners were here today.  [laughter]  I know all the sinners.   Listen, that’s romantic love and it became a god to us.  It became an idol to us.  And we really, sincerely believed if I get the convertible car, and I get the babe, oh, life is going to be perfect.  And then she gets in the car and wants curtains.  [laughter]  You know, and then … you got to be careful about the Amorites. Be careful of people that say they love you but they never show up for you.  [that's right]  That’s an Amorite.  They love you as long as everything’s coming to them, but they’re not prepared to come out and do anything for you.  They’re an Amorite.  Watch out for the Hittites, people hitting on you.  Watch out for the Amorites, that worship and do what?  Worship love. 

And then we have the third group, the Canaanites.  I looked it up.  If you look up the definition of a Canaanite, here’s what it says.  It says, a merchant, a trafficker, a merchant or a trafficker.  In other words, a Canaanite are promises in the Promised Land.  But not the promises of God.  Canaan Land represents the Promised Land.  But a whole lot of people went to the Promised Land not looking for the promise of God, but looking for the merchants and the traffickers.  [amen]  The merchants and the traffickers.  You know, face it, I turned on the TV, hard to get away from all the traffickers.  [oh yes]  I mean they got, there are more QVS stations than there are Christian stations…. You know, QVC, what is it?  You all know what I’m talking about.  Cause I know you know.  I know that you know that you know.  Cause I’ve seen some diamond rings that weren’t diamonds.  I know where you got that.  [laughter]  Come on now.  Let’s be real, you know.  Some of us get on that thing and it become a gambling addiction.  If they can’t get you in a casino, or OTB, they’ll bring it right on your TV and you’ll be watching those numbers.  [yep]  Come on, those merchants, they’ll be, the guy says we have, we only have 15 of these.  Now come on, you know he’s lying.  He got a box back in there with 30 dozen.  [laughter]  I only have 15 of these at two ninety nine.  That’s $299 dollars.  And we’re going to slash, now check this out, we’re going to slash the price from $299 to $29.95.  [laughter]  Now tell me, who’s the fool?  [laughter]  Who’s the fool?  You better figure out, if he’s going to slash it from $299 to $29.99, it isn’t worth $9.99.  [laughter]  Merchants and traffickers, they distract us from the things of God.  [amen] 

We get distracted when we get this, I gotta have it.  I gotta have it.  I’ll admit man, the merchants almost got me.  I lost my boat.  I had a beautiful 24 foot boat.  I loved the boat.  I love being on the water.  I love riding in the boat.  I even love telling people I had a boat until I realized the more people that know you have a boat, the more people want to ride in your boat.  [laughter]  But I went a whole year this year with that voice saying, “You know you want a new boat.”  [laughter]  “You know you want a new boat.  Come, I’ll help you get a new boat.  Reach in your wallet, you have the plastic to get it.”  What do you mean I have the plastic to get it?  I don’t need no more debt!  [amen]  You can’t afford it, don’t buy it.  [amen]  Come on say, “If I can’t afford it”  [if I can't afford it]  “this year”  [this year]  “I don’t buy it.”  [I don't buy it.]  Say it again.  [If I can't afford it this year I don't buy it.]  Watch out, the traffickers, the merchants, the traffickers, they go, they got everything for you that you think you need.

And then there’s the Perizzites.  Perizzites.  I love this cause I’ve been in the church, yeah I know this.  There’s some Perizzites in the Church.  You know why?  They’re people that just come rubbing up on you with flattery.  [hmmn]  Just trying to make you purr.  [laughter] …  I know everybody rub up on me, “Oh Pastor Don, I love you Pastor Don.  I love you Pastor Don.  Pastor Don I love you.  You got twenty bucks?”  [laughter]  Moving right along.  Alright, so be careful about the people just flattering.  There’s some people that love me to death, flattery, rub on me just cause they want to get to the pulpit.  And I tell them there’s an easier way to get to the pulpit, without acting like you like me.  Act like you like Jesus.  [amen]  Moving right along. 

And then the next ones, I really like these guys.  Number five, you know, it’s the Hivites.  The Hivites.  These are the people that are over medicated and self absorbed.  [Oh, Jesus]  They’re just over medicated and self absorbed.  You know the people that walk around on an unnatural high… They just can’t cope with anything, they just can’t cope with anything, so they just get high.  I’m not talking about legal drugs.  Your doctor prescribes something to help bring down your blood pressure or something like that.  I’m not talking about that.  But I’m talking about, you know, we get high and we’ll escape in a heart beat.  The body of Christ, we’re no different than the people out there.  Sometimes we just have to admit when we’re escaping we need to call it like it is.  We need to just say, you know, right now, I can’t cope.  I’m going to drink the whole thing.  I know I should be past this, but I’m going to smoke the whole bag… I know I ruined this, but I’m going to the medicine cabinet and take it all.  I’m taking everything in there… And haven’t consulted God on any of it.  I told you this is for the mature.  Listen, life is hard.  I know that.  I know life is hard and sometimes we just get to a place where we just can’t take it, we just feel like we can’t stand it.  But I just want to ask you a question.  Before you get high, and substitute, before you get high on drama, creating a drama situation to feed your adrenalin, to escape.  And you know, some people will come home and start a fight just to get high, to escape the pressure of life. 

Some husbands will spend all the money, get home, start a fight cause they don’t want to ask that question.  Where’s the money?  Some women will go shopping, not because they need anything, but because they just can’t cope…  Come on, you all know I’m telling the truth.  Say, Pastor, go ahead.  [Pastor, go ahead]  You know, and sometimes we just substitute to get high.  We will do something either artificial outside of ourselves or whatever.  There’s some golfers.  I like to golf.  But there’s some guys that golf to get high, to avoid dealing with the reality that there’s two little kids at home that need them to roll around on the floor, and they just don’t want to do it… And we get high.  There’s some of you that won’t like this message, so your first trip is to the buffet today.  [laughter]  You’ll go like, you know, Pastor Don was good, he made some nice jokes or whatever, whatever.  But I can’t stand it.  Let’s go to the buffet.  I love going to the buffet.  But I don’t go there to eat the whole thing.  [laughter]  I mean, all of it?  [laughter]  I mean all of it until you hurt?  [laughter]  I mean, you should never be eating until you can’t stand it.  [amen]  But you’re doing what?  You’re getting high.  You’re just trying to escape.  You’re just trying to get high.  Ok, I’ll move along.  I’m not even going to talk about getting high on pornography or any of that stuff.  Or gambling or anything else.  Those are all highs that when we can’t cope we just go, we become a Hivite…  Well, glory to God. 

Look at this last one.  The last one is the Jebusite.  I looked it up.  I looked it up.  Did you know I was going to look it up?  [yeah]  You know what a Jebusite is?  A Jebusite is someone, to be Jebusited eventually, ever heard of a threshing floor?  [yeah]  A threshing floor’s where they would bring the material and thresh it, to get the wheat.  Threshing floor.  But part of it would be it would have to be trodden down.  To break up the kernels of the wheat, you’d have to trod it down and whatever, whatever.  I just want to speak to you sometime.  Sometimes the Lord is trying to call you into a new place and guess what?  The Jebusites come and they bring you back to the places where you were trodden down.  They bring you back to the threshing floor where the devil beat you before and redeposit  you there…  Some of us have been so hurt.  Some of you have had tragic childhoods, but right when you’re about to get your breakthrough and things are about to get good, the devil brings you back to some childhood memories and tries to remind you of the abuse that you took when you were trodden down and beaten so he can bring you back to that state, that condition. 

I spoke to a lady on the phone this week, where the devil was trying to get her depressed, he was trying to bring her back to past failures and I said, “My goodness, she’s dealing with a Jebusite.”  The devil was trying to bring her back to where she failed so that she couldn’t go on.  She’s about to drop out of school, she’s about to totally change her life.  She’d get off of her life plan.  How many of you all know you got a life plan?  [amen]  There’s somewhere that you’re going.  There’s a direction that you’re heading.  But the Jebusite will bring you back to the threshing floor where you were beaten before and trodden down.  Where you were crushed.  You’re believing for a new marriage and he’ll bring you back to all your failed marriages.  You’re believing for a business and he’ll bring you back to your poverty.  You’re believing for a happy relationship and he’ll bring you back to your failed relationships.  There’s some Jebusites, we have to be careful about them because they want to bring us back to places of being downtrodden.  You’re believing for health, and he’s trying to bring you back to consciousness of sickness.  He’s trying to bring you back to failure when you’re trying to get to success.  He’s trying to say God’s plan won’t work, you gotta go back to where you failed before and you might as well just accept the fact that I got you down, I’m going to grind you out.  [amen]  …  Lord have mercy.  Somebody say, “Praise the Lord.”  [Praise the Lord.]  They did not ask for counsel. 

I want you to look at verse 23.  Verse 23…  Go look at verse 22. … Verse 22.  By verse 22 Joshua’s beginning to figure some things out.  “Then Joshua called for them, and he spoke to them, saying, “Why have you deceived us,...”  Well, what did they do?  The convinced them that they were from far away.  They convinced them that they were not of the close brethren, and so, without consulting God, listen to me.  Without consulting God, they signed a covenant agreement with them that they could live.  Lord have mercy.  Joshua and them messed up.  They didn’t ask God…

But I want you to see something.  Even though the elders did it wrong, watch this.  God still blessed them.  [amen]  All six of these people groups became slaves and servants.  But I want you to see what Joshua did.  He made them slaves and servants eternally.  If you read your Bible, even when they get to the time of Solomon, those people groups are still cutting wood, delivering water, and are still slaves to the priests in the Temple.  [hallelujah]… 

So, let me ask you a question…. If they were defeated then… come on, somebody.  [amen]  If they were slaves then,… has God changed their status?  [no]  No.  These same types of people are still spirits that have been defeated by our God.  [amen, hallelujah] … Who’s in chains?  Come on, wave your hands around.  Who’s in chains?  Come on. [hallelujah]   Who’s God’s freeman?  You are.  Are you bound by addictions?  No!  Can gambling hold you?  No!  Can drunkenness hold you?  No!  None of those things can hold you!  How about jealousy and envy, can it hold you?  [No!]  How about greed?  Can it hold you?  [no]  How about poverty?  Come on now.  [no]  Can poverty hold you?  [no]  Can indecision hold you?  [no]  How about bad decisions?  [no]  No!  Can fear hold you?  [no]  Come on, you’ve got to say it like you really mean it.  [No!!]  Thank you, Jesus.  Fear can’t hold you… Everybody stand to your feet…

Pastor Lafayette Scales visited our church.  He is from Rhema Christian Center, Columbus Ohio.  As always when he comes, the message is spectacular, and the following teaching was a real blessing to me!  I kept it in one piece for the message could not be easily divided into two posts.

Acts 17:16  Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols.

In Chapter 13 of Acts, Paul and Barnabas were released and sent to minister to the Gentiles and Jews.  They were at the church in Antioch which was a Holy Spirit filled, gifted and multicultural church.  Paul and Barnabas separated and Paul and Silas traveled together teaching and preaching.

Paul and Silas go to Thessalonica and begin to teach and preach and a riot breaks out.  They send them away to Berea.

 Acts 17:10 Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews.

Paul has praise for the Bereans for they tested the Word spoken to them to see if it was true.

Acts 17:11 These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.

The Jews from Thessalonica found out that Paul was teaching in Berea and came to cause trouble.  Paul left Berea and went to Athens.

Acts 17:13-15 But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was preached by Paul at Berea, they came there also and stirred up the crowds. Then immediately the brethren sent Paul away, to go to the sea; but both Silas and Timothy remained there. So those who conducted Paul brought him to Athens; and receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him with all speed, they departed.

The city of Athens has been around from ancient times and was very pagan when Paul visited the city.

Acts 17:16 Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols.

Paul’s spirit was provoked when he saw the condition of the city.  When has our spirit been provoked?  We won’t change anything unless we notice what is provoking our spirit. We are not to coexist with evil, but to transform evil and transform lives.

Acts 17:17 Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there.

First he went to the synagogue.  When our spirit sees wickedness reign we need to go to church.  He asked them how could they have let this evil go on.  Paul regularly went to the synagogue.  We need to go and worship so that God can infill us.  But Paul didn’t stay at the church.  He took the influence that God placed in him into the market place daily. 

We go to work daily and go out into the market place.  It is in our daily lives in the marketplace that we can influence others and share our resources of wisdom and knowledge.  If we are successful in life, it is because God wants us to use that success for the church and also for reaching others in the market place.

Acts 17:18-21 Then^c]’> wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, (31) undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving,