Spiritcode

NOT UNTO DEATH

NOT UNTO DEATH 
Jesus and his disciples had fled Judea where the Jewish leaders had tried to stone him and had gone out to the rugged mountainous area far from Judea. It was only a few weeks till Passover and Jesus had set his course to be in Jerusalem for the Passover feast - where he would become the Lamb slain for all Mankind from before the foundation of the world. He had been doing many signs and wonders and crowds were following him everywhere and the Jewish leaders were becoming more and more agitated and threatened by his fame and popularity. While they were out there a messenger came to Jesus that his good friend Lazarus was sick and in need of help. The message was sent by the two sisters of his friend Lazarus in Bethany, which was close to Jerusalem in Judea.
We read the account of this in John’s Gospel.
John 11:1 Lazarus, who lived in Bethany with Mary and her sister Martha, was sick. So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling him, “Sir, your good friend is very, very sick.”
But when Jesus heard about it he said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” 
Although Jesus loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus, he stayed where he was for the next two days and made no move to go to them. Finally, after the two days, he said to his disciples, “Let’s go to Judea.” But his disciples objected. “Master,” they said, “only a few days ago the Jewish leaders in Judea were trying to kill you. Are you going there again?”

But that did not deter Jesus, and he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has gone to sleep, but now I will go and awaken him!” The disciples, thought Jesus meant Lazarus was having a good night’s rest and said, “That means he is getting better!” But Jesus meant that Lazarus had died. Then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. And for your sake, I am glad I wasn’t there, for this will give you another opportunity to believe in me. Come, let’s go to him.

It seems that Jesus had to remind himself that what he often said was not understood or even heard by those who heard it. And two days later when Jesus knew the time was right, he took his disciples to the place where Lazarus had been buried.
When they arrived at Bethany, they were told that Lazarus had already been in his tomb for four days. Bethany was only a couple of miles down the road from Jerusalem, and many of the Jewish leaders had come to pay their respects and to console Martha and Mary on their loss. When Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him. But Mary stayed at home.
Martha said to Jesus, “Sir, if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died. And even now it’s not too late, for I know that God will bring my brother back to life again, if you will only ask him to.” Jesus told her, “Your brother will come back to life again.” “Yes,” Martha said, “when everyone else does, on Resurrection Day.”
Jesus said, “I am the one who raises the dead and gives them life again. Anyone who believes in me, even though he dies like anyone else, shall live again. He is given eternal life for believing in me and shall never perish. Do you believe this, Martha?”
“Yes, Master,” she told him. “I believe you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one we have so long awaited.” Then she left him and returned to Mary and called her aside from the mourners and told her, “He is here and wants to see you.” So Mary went to him at once. Jesus had stayed outside the village at the place where Martha met him and when the Jewish leaders who were at the house trying to console Mary saw her leave so hastily, they assumed she was going to Lazarus’ tomb to weep; so they followed her.
When Mary arrived at where Jesus was, she fell down at his feet, saying, “Sir, if you had been here, my brother would still be alive.” When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jewish leaders wailing with her, he was moved with exasperation and deeply troubled. “Where is he buried?” he asked them. They told him, “Come and see.” Jesus wept. And some of the Jewish leaders saw that as a sign of how much Jesus loved Lazarus 
But some said, “This fellow healed a blind man—why couldn’t he keep Lazarus from dying?” And that caused Jesus to feel deeply troubled and he groaned inwardly at their unbelief in him.

Jesus indeed wept. This was a moment of deep and mixed human emotion for Jesus, not just for the grief that his beloved friends were suffering but also because he had agonised deeply within his spirit many times because of how little his disciples and other followers and critics understood what he said and did in bringing a new Kingdom Age to the earth. And not least he was confronting the reality of his own imminent torturous death and resurrection. He was creating a new spiritual age of faith and love and divine power, not one of human ability and materialism and political power. Noone realized that Jesus did not make up his own mind about when Heaven’s power would touch the earth, and whether someone would or should be healed. It was not done by his own reckoning. He had told his disciples on more than one occasion that he could do nothing until he heard his Father tell him to do it, but people interpreted his supernatural acts as being for people who in their opinion deserved them or were worthy of them. 

Then they came to the tomb. It was a cave with a heavy stone rolled across its door.
“Roll the stone aside,” Jesus told them. But Martha said, “By now the smell will be terrible, for he has been dead four days.” Jesus said, “But didn’t I tell you that you will see a wonderful miracle from God if you believe?” 
So they rolled the stone aside. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, thank you for hearing me – I know You always hear me, but I said it because of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent me”. Then he shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” And Lazarus came out, bound up in grave cloths and his face muffled in a head swath. Jesus told them, “Unwrap him and let him go!” And so at last many of the Jewish leaders who were with Mary and saw it happen, finally believed on him. But some went away to the Pharisees and reported it to them.
Then the chief priests and Pharisees convened a council to discuss the situation.
“What are we going to do?” they asked each other. “For this man certainly does miracles. If we let him alone the whole nation will follow him—and then the Roman army will come and kill us and take over the Jewish government.”
And one of them, Caiaphas, who was High Priest that year, said, “You just don’t understand - let this one man die for the people—why should the whole nation perish?”
This prophecy that Jesus should die for the entire nation came from Caiaphas in his position as High Priest—he didn’t think of it by himself but was inspired to say it. It was a prediction that Jesus’ death would not be for Israel only, but for all the children of God scattered around the world. Then the Jewish leaders began plotting Jesus’ death.
The death of this man Jesus would bring divine life into the world.
The Bible says Through the disobedience of one man, Adam, death came to all men, but through the obedience of one man Jesus life has come to all mankind. (Romans 5:18)
People had a wrong perception of what true faith was, and this constantly troubled Jesus - the Bible says ‘consider Him who endured such contradiction from sinful flesh against Himself, (Hebrews 12:3). Their thoughts were not God’s thoughts nor their ways God’s ways. People followed him out into the fields to hear this greatest teacher and prophet of their time. Many said that he was The Messiah and that he would set up the kingdom of God on the earth. But to the materially and politically minded Jews this meant an army with a leader sent from heaven that would overthrow the Roman Empire and free them from its oppression over them 
Jesus knew something about the resurrection of Lazarus that nobody else knew because his Father had revealed it to him by the Spirit. The consequence of the illness was death. But the purpose of the illness was not death, but glory to God – God on display for all to see - Resurrection. Jesus had spoken the words of life into the spirit of Lazarus and his spirit heard the voice of his friend Jesus saying to him ‘Lazarus come out ‘and his body received that lifegiving word and he came back to life. And something came to life in the spirit of all who believed in Jesus at that moment. The offence of Adam resulted in a mindset of separation from God for all of mankind and that is the pain that every human soul suffers throughout life. Spiritual death is the inner suffering of feeling separated from God. Jesus came to banish the curse of the separation mindset and he bring us into oneness with his life, resurrection life – the joy of the presence of God with us.

Jesus banishes all sense of separation between us and himself in our minds and hearts. There is no more spiritual death and no need to feel separated from the powerful resurrected life of Jesus within us. Jesus waited for his Father to speak from Heaven to call forth human life from Lazarus, and we listen for Jesus to speak from Heaven to call forth his spiritual life from within us. The Holy Spirit helps us pray our heartfelt prayer and Jesus intercedes from his heart and the Father brings about his good and perfect will. No prayer is wasted or discarded. From such a humble and heartfelt prayer healing and salvation for spirit, soul and body flow to us - and through us for others - and nothing is impossible with God.
So bless you all and I just want to pray now that as you go through this week when you feel that inner conflict, that is simply a little signal saying I'd like you closer to me. It's God allowing that to happen because we can't live with an inner peace if we're separated from the source of peace and love. He welcomes us home and it doesn't matter who we are - we say I'd like to be there, and he starts showing you that he is there - it's a miraculous thing. You just know all of a sudden that things change and you say to yourself, that couldn't have been a coincidence – but you think it must have been coincidence, and it happens again and God says that was a God incidence - keep asking and you will receive keep seeking and you will find. We're living in days when God is drawing us closer and closer from his big yes to our yes - as little as it might seem, our little yes, and that just needs to be a ‘thank you Lord for being there’. So thank you Lord for being with us this morning and drawing us closer to you. You are the resurrection and the life, and you live within us. Amen

 

THE PHARISEE AND THE TAX COLLECTOR

THE PHARISEE AND THE TAX COLLECTOR

This parable compares the prayer of a proud Pharisee with the prayer of a humble tax collector, and the parable highlights the fascinating mix of power and social status between the different groups that Jesus moved amongst on his journey into Jerusalem. The Roman governors and soldiers held the ultimate and most enforceable power base and made their powerful presence felt by everybody with their unforms and swords and spears. Next on the list were the Pharisees and Sadducees and other Jewish religious leaders who had a religious tribal power base, and they made their power status felt by their robes and rituals and blatant virtue signalling of their righteous adherence to the ordinances and commandments of the Jewish Law. 

Then there were Jewish landowners and traders and slave owners whose money gave them a self-satisfied sphere of influence. Then there were the general labourers and slaves in the community who went about their business of making ends meet. Then there were the poor and needy and lame and blind who were powerless and lived just to survive. Another group that was strangely alien to everyone were the tax collectors. They were Jewish men who acted as the puppets of the Roman officials under strict orders to glean as much revenue as they could and they were disliked and unpopular with the entire Jewish community – their only power base was intimidation. A unique group that had a peesence within the community were the disciples and followers of Jesus, which included his mother and other women who provided support and provision for Jesus and the twelve. 

Jesus had a particular relationship and influence with each of these groups. His relationship with the Romans was a little awkward and indifferent on their part but they sensed his inner power and authority and he had gained their respect because of his character and integrity, that brough supernatural healing and comfort to many people, even amongst their own, including a centurion whose son he had saved from dying. But in the end, it was a Roman governor that admired the stature and goodness of Jesus who came under pressure from the Jewish leaders and reluctantly ordered him to be crucified on a cross at Calvary.
To the Pharisees and other Jewish leaders Jesus was not just a rival but an enemy and a threat. They too saw his upright character and integrity, and they too sensed his inner power and authority that brough supernatural healing and comfort to many people, but this only made them feel more threatened and they were out to get him, to disempower him one way or another. And this was especially so because of the admiration and awe of the general Jewish community towards Jesus whom many believed was the Messiah they had been waiting for. The Pharisees were out to trap him at every turn and to prove themselves more righteous and knowledgeable of the Law and more approved of by God than Jesus was.

And Jesus had a strange but telling relationship with tax collectors. They were in a bind, caught in the middle of having to serve the military might of Rome and trying to hold their heads up in front of their fellow Jews who resented them as traitors or turncoats. But someone had to do the job, and Rome had all the say. Jesus saw into the hearts of some of these men and knew their shame and guilt and confusion and saw miraculous transformation in the hearts of three of them. Jesus called Matthew the tax collector to become one of his twelve disciples who loyally recorded the living words of Jesus for the whole world to read. Jesus touched the troubled heart of Zacchaeus the tax collector who climbed up a tree to get a glimpse of Jesus passing by. Jesus told him to come down from his tree and said he wanted to come into is home and called him a son of Abraham, which offended the crowd. But Zacchaeus then repented of any cheating and intimidation of any people in the crow and personally repaid them four times as much as they had paid in their taxes. The next tax collector that Jesus honours is the one who humbly prays his prayer to God in the temple – in this parable in Luke Ch 18.

Luke 18:9-15 He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed this about himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you that this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

This very straightforward parable speaks of how God despises pride and honours humility, and the power conscious Pharisees to whom it was directed would have felt resentful that Jesus was not honouring their religious virtue signalling. The things that they performed in accordance with the Law were in order, as was their criticism of the sinful acts of extortion and adultery and injustice. But after they heard this parable, they hardened their hearts and doubled down on finding a way to do away with Jesus as we see written in the following chapters of Luke.

Jesus is teaching us here that the greatest sin was their pride that compared themselves with others that they esteemed as less spiritual or honourable than themselves. The Pharisees who heard the parable not only despised the tax collector as being less spiritual than themselves, but they judged him as despised in the eyes of God as well. 
And Jesus knew they even judged himself in the same way. Pride can end up judging God as well as other people, just as the pride of Lucifer judged God and then caused Adam and Eve to judge God, telling them that God had deceived them and deprived them by withholding the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil from them. 

The humble tax collector in the temple was honest about what he had done and judged himself and not God. He took responsibility and asked God for mercy, humbly trusting God’s goodness and loving mercy and giving God the right place in his life. He got his relationship with himself and with God aligned with truth and with reality – totally unlike the Pharisee. That is why Jesus said that that man went home justified – true to himself and true to God.

The proud person lives in deception and the humble person lives in enlightenment.
When a humble person takes a lowest place God raises them into just the right place for their life. They come into alignment with God and are more likely to hear his truth and to understand it and to do it. They don’t have to compare themselves with others or judge them because they can leave that with God – that is having faith in a just God, and that is living a contented life.
In the Old Testament God calls himself the High and Lofty One. He is not being proud in saying this but simply stating the relationship between Almighty God and humanity. He says in Isaiah 57:15 For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

Jesus is the prime example. The Bible says he made himself of no reputation. He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death…Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name. (Philippians 2:5)

The apostle Peter says to us Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, 7casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. (1Peter 5:6-7)

That does not only mean he cares for you but that he is doing the caring so that you don't have to become full of care - not careless but carefree. And now bring all these things to God knowing that you're in alignment with him and see yourself as he sees you. That's not being proud, that's being grateful. He came down to hit that horizontal line and he says just go there - don't try and get up higher yourself and don't put yourself down so low that you feel too unworthy to connect with me. Get horizontal and be a human being as my son was and I'll meet you right at the middle and I'll align you with me vertically and everything around you on that plane in which you live will start working out for the things that I want for you. I have the final say and I bring all things together for good to you and you'll hear the truth and you'll know that you’re loved and you'll get understanding. And you’ll receive the healing that you need in spirit soul and body amen. 
How ignorant and unaware were those who put Jesus on a cross as the most shameful dishonourable death there was - that they were actually making an illustration of God as the vertical and the horizontal for all life - a place where God’s will cuts across the will of man, and there is a place in the centre of that cross where God meets us. When Jesus was on the cross the place where the vertical met the horizontal was right at his heart and that is his heart for us. He says all I desire is your heart for me at that spot and I'll get you there. Ask him to take you to that place and he will – Amen.

 

ENTITLED LABOURERS IN THE VINEYARD

ENTITLED LABOURERS IN THE VINEYARD 

We are looking at the parable of the labourers in the vineyard who all get a full day’s wages whether or not they worked a full day or just a part of the day. This caused some workers to get offended because they felt entitled to receive more than they were given.
We will study this parable of Jesus in a moment in Matthew Ch.20 that shines a light on today’s culture of entitlement.

We live in a world where many suffer at the hands of selfish and entitled power brokers. Disillusionment runs deep as political and corporate leaders make promises then fail to deliver. And while some leaders genuinely seek solutions, the complexity of societal issues and political manoeuvring leaves people uncertain about who they can trust.
Take Argentina as a present-day example. Years of soaring inflation (up to 100%) and massive government spending on healthcare, education, energy, and food led to a bankrupt nation with 40% poverty and unemployment. The new government responded with austerity—cutting subsidies and cash payouts—but now police are cracking down on raging riots as properties get burned and destroyed. Once entitlements are given, they are difficult to revoke.

Entitlement funding is not right or wrong – it’s a matter of how appropriate and how wisely they are applied. In many Western democracies also, governments pour billions of public dollars into entitlement programs, often seen as tools to secure votes yet these expenditures are unsustainable. Too many power-hungry factions and empty promises can end up causing cycles of corruption and overcorrection. And when drastic corrections are made, they trigger chaos, and amid the turmoil, loud voices clash, but real dialogue is rare, and solutions seem elusive.

To break this spiral, we need honesty, transparency, sound policies, and competent leadership—especially at local levels—to restore order and trust. The politics of the world respond to power - not logic, so follow the logic. If logic is being applied things will work wisely and problems will get solved and there will not be the waste of billions of dollars of public money. Power not only corrupts, it also creates confusion. 
In the Bible Jesus is called the logos - the logic - and when he is given the rule in our personal lives, things can get done wisely and caringly and effectively.

And therefore people who know their God can pray for the power of the Kingdom of God to be seen in the earth to reorder the chaos of a self-serving global culture. The Bible says Pray for one another and for rulers and all others who are in authority over us, or are in places of high responsibility, so that we can live in peace and quiet, spending our time in godly living and dignity (semnot??s) (2 Timothy 1:7). 
Our faith in this prayer can bring God’s grace into action for us and allows God to reorder our lives personally. Everything starts with us and God’s grace.

So let us read the parable of the labourers in the vineyard in Matthew Ch.20. 
Matthew 20:1 For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay them one denarius a day and sent them out to work. A couple of hours later he was passing a hiring hall and saw some men standing around waiting for work, so he sent them also into his fields, telling them he would pay them whatever was right at the end of the day. At noon and again around three o’clock in the afternoon he did the same thing.
At five o’clock that evening he was in town again and saw some more men standing around and asked them, ‘Why haven’t you been working today?’ Because no one hired us,’ they replied. ‘Then go on out and join the others in my fields,’ he told them.
That evening he told the paymaster to call the men in and pay them, beginning with the last men first. When the men hired at five o’clock were paid, each received a denarius. So when the men hired earlier came to get theirs, they assumed they would receive much more. But they, too, were paid a denarius also.
“They protested, ‘Those fellows worked only one hour, and yet you’ve paid them just as much as those of us who worked all day in the scorching heat.’
‘Friend,’ he answered one of them, ‘I did you no wrong! Didn’t you agree to work all day for a denarius? Take it and go. It is my desire to pay all the same; is it against the law to give away my money if I want to? Is your heart evil because I am good?’ That is why those who put themselves last end up being first and those who put themselves first end up being last. I desire to include everybody, but not everybody desires to be included.
What he is saying here that he wants to give his goodness and grace to everybody but not everybody wants to receive it. 
His response to the complaints of the early workers in the parable is to address their sense of injustice and entitlement. This parable of Jesus also speaks into the kind of self-serving confusion we see all around us today. His answer reveals the simple but deep eternal truths about God’s grace, and sovereignty, and the nature of his Kingdom.

Jesus forgave sinners and healed the sick and fed the poor in the name of his generous and sovereign Father. The leaders of Israel were resentful of this and felt entitled as having special claim on God and his kingdom because they had been performing and outperforming one another in the outward works of the Law for centuries. Who was this Jesus person to be so gracious to non-performers or even outsiders?
Jesus was preparing Israel and the world to receive the magnificent sovereign grace of God and become partners with him in his vineyard. And his word and his kingdom were about to come to everyone as a free gift. In Jesus, all has been accomplished, and we can confidently expect all good things from him. 

This parable teaches us that God speaks to us and makes faith and grace available as his gift, but it is our task to listen, and the word heard becomes the word received and then faith allows that word to be lived through us by God’s enabling grace. Grace is the power of God at work in our partnership with him, where God works far more powerfully and competently and productively within us than we could ever do on our own and we are entitled to receive his grace - Come confidently to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace in time of need Hebrews 4.16. We are actually the entitled labourers in the vineyard – what a twist that is – it is God’s Divine logic!

Jesus said to the complainers Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you.” The early workers were not upset because they were treated unfairly, but because others received generosity that they didn’t think was deserved, and this exposes a deeper issue - resentment towards God for extending his grace to others. 
Jesus said Is your eye (heart) evil because I am good?’. H is saying here ‘is your eye - your view or perspective of God - hateful because God is good and generous to everybody whether they deserve it or not. We can all tend to limit God’s goodness and grace.

Whoever receives the gift of grace spends time working together with a loving Jesus and not making comparisons or complaining about it. When we know that this grace is on offer from God through Jesus for everyone then we begin to rejoice and pray for it to abound everywhere. Where grace abounds in people there is more wisdom in the way they work and more agreement about how they work together. In the parable the workers received exactly what they were promised and so do we. God is fair and just, and his grace overcomes our human tendency to compare ourselves with others and makes us grateful to be working together with him. Our greatest reward comes from trusting in the goodness of what we have received and from trusting in the one who gives it to us. Be courageous and bold - we have an entitlement because we come under the title of our Lords name. We are entitled to work together with him. People might ask ‘what's your privilege in life? Our privilege is to work through the strength of Jesus. That may not sound logical to many people, but I don't believe that deserving it makes any difference to God. It is about believing it and asking. It is confidently saying Lord I need to know your mercy because I know I'm not I'm not there yet but your mercy is covering my insufficiency - but one thing I know that I can have from a heart that is as true as it can be to you Lord is your enabling power within - your life to do a thing that only you can do through me that I can enjoy doing. And not comparing - even compared to my own aspirations. We have a great and loving God, so never never limit that entitlement to his grace. Amen

 

 

GOD'S CHOSEN PEOPLE

 

GODS CHOSEN PEOPLE 

This parable sits between the parable of the cursed fig tree and the parable of the King who brought people in from the highways and byways to his son’s wedding - when the privileged guests rejected his invitation.
Today’s parable tells the clear story of how Israel ceases to be the expression of the Kingdom of God on the earth as a holy nation that was chosen and called to be a light to all the nations of the earth. They were to be the reflection of God’s love and goodness and salvation to the Gentiles. The parable show us how the New Testament Church was to become the holy nation chosen to express the Kingdom of God in the earth and to invite the rest of humanity to enter in. Holy means consecrated to God and set apart to reflect his love and goodness and uprightness in the earth.

Matthew 21”33 “Jesus spoke another parable: There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country. Now when vintage-time drew near, he sent his servants to the vinedressers, that they might receive its fruit. And the vinedressers took his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another. He then sent another larger  group of servants, and they treated them the same way. Then last of all he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’ So they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. 
Jesus then asked the chief priests and Pharisees “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vinedressers?” They said to Him, “He will destroy those wicked men miserably, and lease his vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons.” Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.
It was God who brought all this about, and it is a wonder in our eyes’
I’m saying to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of the kingdom. And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.” Now when the chief priests and Pharisees heard this parable, they realised that He was speaking about them. But when they sought to lay hands on Him, they feared the multitudes, because they took Him for a prophet.

That verse says that the stone that the builders rejected becomes the cornerstone upon which a holy and heavenly life on earth can be built. That is reflected in many places in the Bible, in Psalms, in the Gospels and in Acts, and in Isaiah and in Ezekiel. God’s desire was for people in the earth to bear the fruits of his Kingdom and to partake of his Divine nature and to have Jesus on display in their lives. This was available to happen through Israel and even to Israel, but they rejected Jesus as the cornerstone. 
God first spoke this plan to Abraham when he chose Israel to be a light to the nations, a people set apart to reflect his Divine nature and guide the world toward him. He also confirmed this through Moses, telling them “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession… you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”(Exodus 19). But he made it clear that this calling was never just for Israel’s sake - “It is not for your sake, people of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name… Then the nations will know that I am the Lord.” (Ezekiel 36:22-23). Yet Israel made it all about their name and not God’s name, and history shows that Israel struggled to fulfill this mission. Instead of looking outward, they mostly turned inward, focusing on their national identity rather than their divine purpose. They fell into idolatry and disobedience and ended up in exile and suffered under the tyranny of Assyria, and later Babylon, both of whom God used in judgement upon them (2 Kings 17:7-23).
But God was merciful, and he continually reaffirmed this calling through the prophets, because Israel was meant to serve as a spiritual bridge between God and the world as a priestly nation. A priest mediates between God and people, and Israel’s role was to bring His truth and his justice and his presence to all nations. “I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles. to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from prison those who sit in darkness.” (Isaiah 46). 
So God’s plan to bless the nations through Israel would still come to pass, despite their failure in that mission because God’s eternal master plan was for Jesus as a Jew to be the true light to the world. “The people living in darkness saw a great light.” (Matthew 4). Jesus embodied everything Israel was meant to be as the Light of the world (John 8), revealing God’s kingdom not only to the Jews but to all people, and before he ascended to heaven, he gave this commission to his disciples – not just to speak the Gospel but to Go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28).
The Church, made up of all who follow Jesus now carries Israel’s original calling—to bring the awesome light of God’s kingdom to the world. The Church is the new priestly nation as the apostle Peter writes in1Peter 2:9 – They are the new vinedressers in the parable of the vineyard and the mission has passed from Israel to the Church. But although the Church is now the messenger of the Gospel, Israel still remains significant in God’s prophetic plan, which speaks of a time when Israel would once again be at the heart of global events – and the Bible says that that all Israel will finally know their Saviour (Romans11). God’s promise to use Israel as a light to the nations was never abandoned—it was fulfilled in Jesus and expanded through the Church and today both Israel and the global body of believers have a crucial role in preparing the world for what is to come. Israel’s very existence today remains a testimony to God’s faithfulness, and despite intense opposition, they endure as a nation and the world’s attention is fixed on Jerusalem as they continue to fulfill prophecy. Zechariah prophesied concerning Israel that in the last days all the nations of the earth will gather against it (Zecharia 12)– as the Gospel continues to spread across the earth through the Church.
In this time of global upheaval, of wars, moral confusion, and a deepening divide between truth and deception God’s plan is still unfolding, and the Church is called to shine brighter than ever, bringing the message of Jesus to a world in desperate need of hope. As darkness increases, so must the light of God’s people. His kingdom will become more fully established and history will unfold and move toward the return of Christ in God’s good time. Until then, both Israel and the Church are called to be a testimony of God’s faithfulness in a broken world.
There was one thing Jesus said in the parable that held both warning and great promise both to Israel and the Church – ‘It is not for your sakes, people of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name… Then the nations will know that I am the Lord.’ (Ezekiel 36). Israel made it all about their name and not God’s name, and history shows that Israel always struggled to fulfill their mission. Instead of looking outward, they mostly turned inward, focusing on their national and religious identity and privilege and entitlement, rather than on their divine purpose. The same thing serves as a warning for the Church
The Church has been invited to live in the name of Jesus and that means more than adding his name to the end of our prayers – it means reflecting his life within us. Our name is in his name because our identity is hidden with Christ in God. We don’t do things in the name of our personal spiritual identity, or religious affiliation or reputation, or fame and success or in the name of the Church. We do things in the name of Jesus. God’s name portrays his nature and goodness and power to bless all those we know in our world. If we truly bear his name, we are empowered by his grace to reflect his nature, and when we do, he assures us that we will live the most fulfilled and meaningful life that can be lived – an abundant life. Amen

A FIGTREE LIVES AGAIN

A FIGTREE LIVES AGAIN God’s people Israel are mentioned many times in the Old and new Testament as his fig tree, and it reflects the spiritual and physical health of Israel, and we read in John Ch 1 where Jesus says to Nathanael, a young man who was sitting under a Figtree you are an Israelite indeed, without guile. And today’s parable is of Jesus cursing a fig tree because there was no fruit on it, only leaves, and this made a distinct impression on his disciples. We read the first part of this story in Matthew Ch 21  Matthew 21:18 Now in the morning, as Jesus returned to the city, He was hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, “Let no fruit grow on you ever again.” Immediately the fig tree withered away. and then the story is followed up the next morning as we see in Matthew Ch 22. Matthew 22:20-22 Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. And Peter, remembering, said to Him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree which You cursed has withered away.” When Jesus said Let no fruit grow on you ever again’ Jesus was prophesying here that in that age in which they were living the time was soon coming for the nation of Israel to cease to exist and to be scattered, and to exist only as communities and Orthodox religious Jews among the nations of the world. The prophesy of Jesus about the fig tree withering did happen in that age, and Israel were scattered and remained scattered and persecuted through the age that followed. But in 1948 after the most desolate of tribulations that came upon the Jewish people in World War 2 when Israel was able miraculously to return to their land. The nation of Israel was reborn and remains to this day against all odds. That fig tree miraculously began to live again. That miraculous coming back to life for the nation of Israel was also prophesied by Jesus in the same gospel of Matthew in Ch 24 where Jesus links the time of that fig tree living again to the to the signs of his coming at the end of the age.  Matthew 24:3 Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumours of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you (he is speaking to Israel here), and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake (happening now). And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another (happening now). Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many (happening now). And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold (happening now). But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations (happening now), and then the end will come. He was speaking to the nation of Israel then, but these apocalyptic events would come upon all nations. Jesus then says in verse 22 Matthew 24:22 Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see all these things (all of those global trials and events happening now), know that it is near—at the doors! Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place Today Israel lives again as a nation, but there is another extraordinary facet to this prophesy. It states that there will be a generation alive in and after that time. If we take the year 1948 to be the time of Israel being re-established as a nation it leaves open the possibilities of those things happening in these days. Many people have lived and died since 1948 and there will be many more that are yet to live and die before those major significant global events are over. The time frame of the finality of these things is left wide open because the final phrase that Jesus says is ‘and then will the end come’ the words ‘and then’ mean ‘and after that’ and nobody know how long ‘after that’ means. So I can only speculate on that aspect. All I can see is that our current global apocalyptic ‘now and not yet’ events are unprecedented. The only perspective I can take about living a here and now life in these days is to be living a prepared and ready life for God in Christ, through the truth and power of his Holy Spirit. Our times are in his hands, and we are in the protective care of his loving embrace. I sent out over 120 scriptures of the goodness of God recently and here are three of them –  The LORD is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in Him.” Nahum 1:7   How great is Your goodness, which You have stored up for those who fear You, which You bestow in the sight of all, on those who take refuge in You.” (Psalm 31:19).  He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings, you will find refuge. (Psalm 91:4) And there are many, many more. If God has allowed difficult things to happen in your life it is so you can show the people in your world that your God is great and that knowing Him brings peace and joy, even when life is hard.  It is also tempting to become disillusioned with the circumstances of our lives compared to others but in the presence of God, he gives us a deeper peace and joy that transcends it all. If life was stable with no needs and problems, we would never need God’s help. But since it’s not, we can reach out for Him regularly and be thankful for the unknowns and that we don’t have control, because it makes us run to God. David said in the psalms, I saw the prosperity of the wicked.… Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure.… When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me till I entered the sanctuary of God” (Ps. 73)  David went into the face-to-face personal presence of God and found refuge and strength. We can live in that place of refuge and strength, not only for ourselves but also to give comfort and hope to others in our world.
Paul O'Sullivan - pauloss@icloud.com

HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS

PARABLES 17 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS 
Today I’m sharing the parable of the king who invites many privileged guests to his son’s wedding feast, but they are all too busy attend. This is one of many end times parables that Jesus taught, after finishing two years and some months ministry in Galilee and then heading towards Jerusalem to begin the second part of his ministry. In Jerusalem he would begin to teach about his death and resurrection and ascension into heaven and his return to earth in the last days.  

This parable is prophetic of the wedding feast of Jesus and his bride the Church in the last days. It tells the story of a King who was arranging a wedding feast for his son and had invited certain privileged guests, and many of those guests did not honour the king with their acceptances but made excuses for why they could not come. Both Matthew (Ch.22) and Luke (Ch.14) tell the story and the stories each complement one another emphasising certain attitudes and values in one story, and not in the other, and giving detail in one story to supplement the other.
Matthew defines the man who was inviting the guests as a king, which makes the refusal to attend, a grave insult or rebuff. Luke makes the emphasis that the dinner tables were already set and just waiting to be occupied by the guests, which means that there was little or no notice for the guests to plan the event in their calendar, because the date of a wedding was never announced a long time beforehand as they are today. In those times the bridegroom would have to prepare a home for he and his bride to live in, and only then would he let people know when he was ready. And this all had to meet with the parents’ approval and when it was determined that the home was ready, the groom would gather his friends and go to retrieve his bride—often at night, with lamps and great celebration.
The bride and her companions had to be constantly prepared (as seen in the Parable of the Ten Virgins), and did not know the exact day or hour of his arrival. Once the groom arrived, the wedding celebration began and could last for seven days or more and unprepared, or unresponsive guests who were not ready for the announcement missed out on the feast.
When the king heard of the rebuffs to his invitation, he was furious, and he punished those privileged people firmly. Matthew writes. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Therefore, go into the highways (Luke adds the byways – (or hedges), and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.’ So those servants went out into the highways and byways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests. 
In the Gospel of Luke, the servants are to firstly go to the streets and lanes to the poor and disabled and the blind and the crippled. And when these had come in the servant said to the master that there was still lots of room left still n as room.’ Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. And those people came in, and they would have brought their friends with them. Compel may seem to be a forceful word, but the Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5 that the love of God ‘compelled’ him to reach out to bring others into the Kingdom of God.
God the Father wants a full house for the marriage feast of his Son Jesus to his Bride which is the Church, and this will occur at God’s appointed time, but if those in the Church are not prepared and ready, God will still get himself a full house. He will be sending the Holy Spirit (his servants in the parable) into the world to open peoples’ hearts to receive his invitation. There will be highways and byways people out there and streets and lanes people out there, that may be at different stages of spiritual growth or have some weird and wonderful ideas about God, but if they have hearts to know God they will be taught of the Lord and hear and receive the full message of Jesus, and their souls will be saved. And they will also bring their friends with them. 
The following words about God that we are about to hear are from two people who in recent times have become listened to by millions of people around the world day after day, and they influence people in the political culture or the philosophical or even alternate cultures. They are sincerely grappling to understand the mystery of faith, and I believe God has given them a voice as a trumpet sound to awaken unbelieving hearts to the goodness of God. And these people already proclaim Jesus as God and as our resurrected Lord and Saviour.
These two people are Jordan Peterson and Russel Brand who preach Jesus, and the transforming work of God in their lives. You will hear these if you listen to the podcast and in the PDF file of the notes you can click on the links to the video clips that we saw in church. 
Jordan Peterson – video clip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PbKxMnoCao&list=PLKki_g3WkrNeYJr2mUzjFh4B1lOzRp8bH&index=1
Russel Brand – video clip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQhznYoCeOc&list=PLKki_g3WkrNeYJr2mUzjFh4B1lOzRp8bH&index=2

God is speaking to us from Heaven in these days more than ever before in history. The Bible says in Acts Ch 2 that on the Day of Pentecost ‘Each one heard God speak in their own language’. 
This is not merely a spoken national language or dialect but it is the uniquely personal way that God has created the individual human spirit of every person on the planet to hear the Holy Spirit speak to them in a deeply personal way, using all kinds of communicational frameworks.  Many hear The Holy Spirit by reading in the Word of God, and some by hearing the heart of God through a song, whether spiritual or secular, and others see God in the awesomeness and beauty of his creation or even in a dream or a vision. For others it may be the prompting of God through a meaningful phrase that comes into our mind and that only we could personally interpret. When we have faith in the work of the Kingdom of God in Heaven, we begin to understand the spiritual reality that God’s will in Heaven is always waiting to happen on earth in our lives. That spiritual reality becomes our new reality for our hearts and minds – what we think and what we believe. And if we ask for the Holy Spirit to become active in our lives, we will be guided by the Holy Spirit to hear what God is saying to us though Jesus and see with eyes of faith what he showing us to do. We will pray prayers of surrender to receive God’s answers and get his results rather than our demands for our own wishes. 
In the days of Jesus, a wedding was not planned with a calendar. And a wedding feast will be prepared for God’s people before Jesus returns, and we don’t have a calendar for that either, but the same principle applies about being prepared and ready for the anticipated event – Jesus said that only the Father knows the day and the hour. This parable emphasizes faithfulness, and the expectancy of the joy of final oneness together, making marriage a powerful metaphor for God’s covenant love. God is stirring this love response in peoples’ hearts through familiar and unfamiliar ways and voices in these days. The Holy Spirit can use all of us as doorkeepers that can open the doors of peoples’ hearts to hear the voice of Jesus personally and offer their lives to him as he has done for us. Be open to engaging with the highways and byways people in your world - so that you can help them understand the hope that lives in your life concerning the reality of Jesus.

 

THE FACE OF GOD'S PRESENCE

THE FACE OF GODS PRESENCE 

When we look in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, we see that the word ‘face’ also means ‘presence’, and the same word also means ‘person’, and that word in Greek is ‘prosopon’ – beholding the eyes or beholding the look or gaze. And we’ll start with the following scripture
2 Corinthians 4:6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face (prosopon – the presence and person) of Jesus Christ
Jesus said ‘When you have seen me you have seen the Father (John 14:9). 
The word ‘prosopon’ in Scripture ties together physical reality (face), relational reality (presence), and personal nature (Identity). ‘Prosopon’s is God’s gift of connection between himself and us, and it is our gift of connection between another. When Jesus lived on earth, he was the prosopon of God, fully revealing God’s presence and personal nature. The Bible also says For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; (Colossians 2:9)

The Holy Spirit who is the ‘Third Person’ of the Godhead unveils for us the face and the presence and the personal nature of the Father and Jesus, as persons that we can come to know. That means that our lives can flow together with God’s, with an inner peace and expressing a Godly quality of life in our outward behaviour, as the Apostle Peter says ‘we become partakers of the Divine nature’ (2Peter 1:4).

THE FACE OF THE FATHER shining upon us means not just His presence but His nearness and favour and relational engagement. Numbers 6:22“The LORD bless you and keep you, The LORD make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you, The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace. “‘
The Father’s face reveals him as a person of loving care and provision and protection as he brings all of our circumstances together in the right and perfect time for his good will to be of greatest blessing for our lives.
There was an occasion when Moses asked God for assurance that he would be with him when he took Israel into the promised Land. God said to him “My presence (paniym) will go with you, and I will give you rest.” (Exodus 33:14)   At this time also Moses asked God  if he could see his glory – his ``face of radiant glory - and God told him that no one could see the face of God and live (Exodus 33:20) and he said to Moses ‘Here is a place by Me, stand on that rock, and, while My glory passes by I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by. Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen.” Moses stood on the rock and then God hid him in the cleft of the rock and Moses was allowed to see his ‘back, which means he saw that God had been with him and was doing ongoing wonders in his life. 
That was a prophetic picture of our lives in the New Testament where we stand on the Rock of Jesus and we are hidden in him as Moses was in the cleft of the Rock, and like Moses we also see his ‘back’ which means we also see that the Father has been with us doing ongoing wonders in our lives. 
But in two places in the Bible it also oddly says that God spoke to Moses ‘face to face’ (Exodus 33, Numbers 12). What does this mean? Here God was saying that he spoke to him ‘person to person’ so that he could experience an intimate relationship of love and trust with him. An example of this is as person to person phone call but not a Facetime call.

The Face of the Father can also express his wrath. The word wrath here means intense indignation. It is the firm face of the Person of the Father that looks with just judgement and grief upon the damage that sin causes, bringing harm and destruction to his children. The wrath of God is expressed in both the Old and the New Testament. God’s wrath is a protective strong disciplinary action upon harmful evil doers on behalf of those who are harmed, so that wrath is an act of love – and it  is ultimately redemptive for evil doers, which means that through that discipline they are made aware of their opportunity for repentance unto life and faith.
The Bible says that we who believe in the saving power of Jesus on the cross, will be saved from wrath through Jesus (Romans 5:9), We will be disciplined in a firm but loving way by our Father God while knowing his mercy upon us and his closeness to us through the times of trial as he reveals to us what needs to be transformed in our lives.   

THE FACE OF JESUS is joyful and encouraging and compassionate, unveiling his dedication in sharing who he is with us as being human as well as divine. Jesus has experienced every trial and test of faith and every temptation of sin that we have, and he knows our human weakness and limitations. He stands by us and he walks with us and he speaks his Words of life to us in times of trial and testing and in times of guidance and blessing, to increase our faith and trust in him and in our loving Father. ‘He will save, he will rejoice over you with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over you with singing.’ (Zephaniah 3:17). The Bible says that Jesus is not only a brother to us but also a loving friend who enjoys our friendship. 

THE FACE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
The Holy Spirit’s love and goodness are seen throughout the Bible in His comforting presence, intercession, guidance, and empowerment. He is not just a force but a personal being who grieves, loves, prays, and works for our transformation.
He is the person who is in and through the Father and Jesus and he flows from them to us. The Holy Spirit is the person who unveils the face of Jesus and the Father to us and he brings us into person-to-person unity of the spirit and one accord with each other. 
He also unveils our own face to ourselves as our true self that was created by God before the foundation of the world, as he transforms our nature into the likeness of Jesus.  
2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. 

The Apostle James said that if someone hears the life-giving Word but does not allow it to shape their life, they are like a person who glances into a mirror and catches a glimpse of their face — the face of the true self that God designed for them before they were even born. But if they get distracted by outward things they wiil forget who they really are. However, if they remain steadfast to the truth of the real self that they were shown, and live it out, they will experience blessing in all they do. (James 1:22)

The face or presence or person of the Holy Spirit is always unveiling God’s love, life, beauty, strength, and order and justice and mercy.  But the Holy Spirit also unveils the disorder in the world and everything and everyone in it. He makes clear the difference between darkness and light and of falsehood and truth. 
The Holy Spirit has been dividing light from darkness from the very beginning. 
Genesis 1:2 … The Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters (the dark disordered chaos). Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.

The Holy Spirit is always inviting us to enter into the presence of God. That does not mean secluding ourselves in isolation like some other meditation practices, where people detach themselves from everything to find the mystery of who they are through nothing else but an exercise of their own imagination. 
And with material things going on around us spiritual contemplation can seem for many people like holding their breath under water, but it is not hard at all if we know that we are coming person to person into God’s real presence. This becomes a simple practice of engaging with the real persons of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, all of whom are totally focused on us at all times. It is not hard for them to enter into our presence because we are vitally important to them. We are who they live for and they invite us to do the same. 

So what can we do? We can start by welcoming their real presence with us. The Bible says we enter into the presence (face and person) of God behind the veil of our own self-consciousness – our flesh (Hebrews 10:19-22) and we go into the place and space of God consciousness. The Holy Spirit weaves that gift of connection together for us by revealing the faces of Jesus and the Father, and then as we are touched by their presence and personal reality, he reveals to us our own unveiled face of thanksgiving to God. That becomes our true face. We share that face with the person (face) of the Holy Spirit. It is at that moment that our face and the face of the Holy Spirit become the same face.  

A THREE MINUTE REFLECTION
Our lives can become fruitful in the transforming work of the Holy Spirit by starting with a simple three-minute reflection where we spend one minute contemplating the face or really, the person behind the face of the Father and then doing the same with Jesus and then with the Holy Spirit and we keep saying thank you till we mean it. If our life before God can be one big thank you, we will know that we are in the faith. Our thanks in all things is our repentance and our acceptance of his will. It is our hope for his mercy and grace and our faith and trust in his goodness.

I have included a selection of about 120 Scriptures that speak of the love and goodness of the Father and Jesus and the Holy Spirit - and they take up eight pages. Read them and choose ones that speak to you, some more than others at any particular time. The Holy Spirit will guide your choices, and you will come to know your God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. (Paul O’Sullivan – pauloss@icloud.com)

 

1. Father’s Love for Us
• Exodus 34:6 – “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth.”
• Deuteronomy 7:9 – “Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; He is the faithful God, keeping His covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commandments.”
• Psalm 136:26 – “Give thanks to the God of heaven. His love endures forever.”
• Isaiah 54:10 – “Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed, says the LORD, who has compassion on you.”
• Jeremiah 31:3 – “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.”
• John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
• Romans 5:8 – “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
• Romans 8:38-39 – “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
• Ephesians 2:4-5 – “But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.”
• 1 John 3:1 – “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”
• 1 John 4:7-10 – “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him.”
2. Father’s Goodness Toward His People
• Psalm 23:6 – “Surely Your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”
• Psalm 27:13 – “I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.”
• Psalm 31:19 – “How great is Your goodness, which You have stored up for those who fear You, which You bestow in the sight of all, on those who take refuge in You.”
• Psalm 34:8 – “Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in Him.”
• Psalm 52:1 – “The goodness of God endures continually.”
• Psalm 86:5 – “You, Lord, are forgiving and good, abounding in love to all who call to You.”
• Psalm 100:5 – “For the LORD is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations.”
• Psalm 107:1 – “Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His love endures forever.”
• Nahum 1:7 – “The LORD is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in Him.”
• Matthew 7:11 – “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!”
• Romans 2:4 – “Or do you show contempt for the riches of His kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?”
• James 1:17 – “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”
3. Father’s Compassion and Faithfulness
• Lamentations 3:22-23 – “Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.”
• Micah 7:18-19 – “Who is a God like You, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; You will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.”
• Luke 6:35-36 – “But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”
• Deuteronomy 33:27 – “The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.”
• Isaiah 41:10 – “Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”
• Zephaniah 3:17 – “The LORD your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in His love He will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.”
• John 15:9 – “As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Now remain in My love.”
• 1 Peter 5:7 – “Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.”

1. The Love of Jesus
• Matthew 9:36 – “When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”
• Matthew 11:28-30 – “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
• Matthew 14:14 – “When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, He had compassion on them and healed their sick.”
• Matthew 15:32 – “Jesus called His disciples to Him and said, ‘I have compassion for these people; they have already been with Me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way.’”
• Mark 10:21 – “Jesus looked at him and loved him. ‘One thing you lack,’ He said. ‘Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.’”
• Luke 19:10 – “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
• John 3:16-17 – “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.”
• John 10:11 – “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.”
• John 13:1 – “Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.”
• John 15:9 – “As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Now remain in My love.”
• John 15:13 – “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
• Romans 8:35-39 – “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? … No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”
• Galatians 2:20 – “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
• Ephesians 3:18-19 – “That you may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
• Revelation 1:5 – “To Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood.”

2. The Goodness of Jesus
• Matthew 4:23 – “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.”
• Matthew 12:15 – “Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. A large crowd followed Him, and He healed all who were ill.”
• Matthew 19:14 – “Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.’”
• Mark 1:41 – “Jesus was indignant. He reached out His hand and touched the man. ‘I am willing,’ He said. ‘Be clean!’”
• Mark 6:34 – “When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, He had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So He began teaching them many things.”
• Luke 4:18-19 – “The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
• Luke 22:32 – “But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”
• Acts 10:38 – “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and He went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with Him.”
• 2 Corinthians 8:9 – “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.”
• Hebrews 4:15 – “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet He did not sin.”
• Isaiah 53:5 – “But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed.”
• Mark 15:37-39 – “With a loud cry, Jesus breathed His last. The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how He died, he said, ‘Surely this man was the Son of God!’”
• John 10:17-18 – “The reason My Father loves Me is that I lay down My life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord.”
• Romans 5:6-8 – “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
• Colossians 1:13-14 – “For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
• Hebrews 12:2 – “For the joy set before Him He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

The Holy Spirit, as the third person of the Trinity, is described in Scripture as loving, good, compassionate, and deeply involved in the lives of believers. 

The Love of the Holy Spirit - The Holy Spirit’s love and goodness are seen throughout the Bible in His comforting presence, intercession, guidance, and empowerment. He is not just a force but a personal being who grieves, loves, prays, and works for our transformation. Below is a collection of passages that highlight His love, goodness, and personal attributes, including His ability to grieve and intercede for us. 
• Romans 5:5 – “And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”
• Romans 15:30 – “I urge you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me.”
• Galatians 5:22-23 – “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”
• 2 Timothy 1:7 – “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and self-discipline.”

The Holy Spirit actively expresses love—both through His work in our lives and by filling us with divine love.
2. The Goodness of the Holy Spirit
• Psalm 143:10 – “Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God; may Your good Spirit lead me on level ground.”
• Nehemiah 9:20 – “You gave Your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold Your manna from their mouths, and You gave them water for their thirst.”
• Acts 10:38 – “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and He went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with Him.”
• John 16:13 – “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come.”

The Holy Spirit’s goodness is evident in His guidance, instruction, and empowerment of believers.
3. The Holy Spirit as a Person Who Feels Emotion

The Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force but a living divine person who experiences emotions such as grief, joy, and intercession.

The Holy Spirit Grieves
• Ephesians 4:30 – “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”
• Isaiah 63:10 – “Yet they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit. So He turned and became their enemy and He Himself fought against them.”

Just as a person can feel sorrow, the Holy Spirit grieves when believers sin, reject His guidance, or live in ways contrary to God’s will.

4. The Holy Spirit as the One Who Intercedes for Us
• Romans 8:26-27 – “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.”
• Zechariah 12:10 – “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a Spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on Me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son.”

These verses reveal that the Holy Spirit actively prays for us—even when we don’t have words—expressing our needs to God with deep, heartfelt groaning.

5. The Holy Spirit as Our Helper, Comforter, and Helper
• John 14:16-17 – “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you.”
• John 14:26 – “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”
• John 15:26 – “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—He will testify about Me.”
• John 16:7 – “But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.”

The Holy Spirit is our personal Helper, Counselor, and Helper, always working on our behalf.

6. The Holy Spirit Gives Life and Power
• Genesis 1:2 – “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”
• Job 33:4 – “The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life.”
• Ezekiel 37:14 – “I will put My Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.”
• Luke 4:18 – “The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free.”
• Acts 1:8 – “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
• 2 Corinthians 3:17 – “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”
• Galatians 5:25 – “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”
The Holy Spirit is the giver of life, power, and freedom, actively working in creation, salvation, and the daily walk of our lives as believers.

 

THREE MOUNTAINS OF PROPHETIC PRESENCE

THREE MOUNTAINS OF PROPHETIC PRESENCE 

Psalm 125:2 As the mountains surround Jerusalem, So the LORD surrounds His people
There were three mountains surrounding Jerusalem and they were Mt. Zion, Mt Gibeon and Mt. Moriah. Upon each of these mountains at one time or another there was either a tabernacle or a tent or a temple for priestly and congregational worship and sacrifice for Israel. Mount Moriah and Mt. Zion were so close as to blend into one mountain and Mt. Gibeon was about a one-hour walk to the west. We are going to look at when these places of worship existed on those mountains and how they got there, and today we will be focusing upon the tabernacle of David which was really a tent and not as structured as the tabernacle of Moses on Mt. Gibeon or the temple of Solomon on Mt. Moriah. The story of David’s tent (the tabernacle of David) has significant meaning for the Church today regarding the prophetic fulfillment of times of an abundance of the presence of God in and upon his people before the return of the Lord Jesus to the earth.

James quotes a prophecy in the book of Acts regarding the restoring of the presence and power of the Spirit that will come in the end days to God’s people. 
Acts 3:20 … And he will send you times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord and send Jesus Christ back to you as appointed. For he must remain in heaven until the final restoration of all things spoken through the prophets…
These times of refreshing of the presence of the Lord are linked to the final ingathering of God’s people on the earth amongst all the nations and there is a special mention of the ‘Tabernacle of David’ that will be rebuilt at that time. Reading on in ch.15
Acts 15:16 In that time I will return, and I will rebuild the tabernacle of David that has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it so that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the people who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things known from of old.’

I mentioned the Tabernacle of Moses. God commanded Moses to build that in the wilderness – it was about the size of half a football field with an outer curtain fence and with an inner tent of two chambers called the Holy place and the Most Holy Place. Joshua ended up taking the Ark and the tabernacle across the Jordan River and set it up in Shiloh where years later a foolish incident occurred where Israel took the Ark from the Tabernacle Just before the rule of King Saul, thinking that would give them victory. The Ark was stolen by the Philistines who were judged by God for doing this by having boils and tumors break out on their skin, so the Philistines finally abandoned the Ark and sent it back to Israel where it sat disregarded for 20 years in a place called Keriath Jearim. The Tabernacle of Moses finally ended up on one of those mountains surrounding Jerusalem, Mt Gibeon, but without the Ark of the covenant. 
David became king after Saul and early in his reign God put it in his heart to gather Israel together to bring back the stolen and then discarded Ark of the presence of God and he brought it back and set it inside a tent on Mt. Zion as the tabernacle of David, where it stayed for forty years as the place of worship and rejoicing. Meanwhile the Tabernacle of Moses on Mt Gibeon remained as a place of sacrifice for sin and priestly offerings but it never again housed the Ark of the presence of God.  
Unlike the elaborate Tabernacle of Moses which had three compartments – the Outer Court, the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place (where the Ark used to occupy).
David radically departed from tabernacle worship with its blood sacrifices for sin.
David's Tabernacle had only one compartment, the Most Holy Place - and there was no veil! Priests could offer sacrifices of praise and incense and attend to the showbread and the lighting of the candles but there were no blood sacrifices, and everyone could come freely to that tent to praise and worship the Lord – men, women, musicians and singers.
The ark of the presence of God was finally placed in Solomon’s Temple on Mt. Moriah by king Solomon after David had died. David had wanted to build a permanent glorious temple for the presence of God and God refused him and said that his son Solomon would build it. But David amassed materials, including stones, timber, and precious metals for its construction and also provided Solomon with the detailed plans and design for the Temple that God gave to him, and stones were being shaped in the nearby quarry. 
So the preparations for the Temple overlapped with the ongoing praise and worship and close fellowship with the presence of God in David’s Tabernacle. When Solomon began building the Temple he attended the tabernacle of Moses over on Mt. Gibeon for sin offerings and feasts just as Israel had been doing for all those years but without any experience of the presence of God in the Ark. And when Solomon’s Temple was completed the Ark was moved from David’s Tabernacle into the Holy of Holies of the Temple with great rejoicing and celebration.

I believe that the prophecy that James quoted in Acts about the rebuilding of the Tabernacle of David was referring to the days in which we now live as God’s people who have been made alive by the Spirit of the Lord, because God has put it into our hearts in these days as he did with David to seek after the presence of the Lord. And God has been releasing through the Holy Spirit in recent years the liberty and freedom of praise and worship that David saw in his Tent of God’s presence. In those times David wrote beautiful psalms and spiritual songs to the Lord which we still sing today.

And just as in the other tabernacle on Mt. Gibeon there were rituals and sacrifices but no Ark of the presence of God, this speaks of certain expressions of institutional Church (not all) or ideological religious activity that is not exercised to seek the life and liberty and truth of the Holy Spirit which burned in the early church and somehow fell away. 

And at the same time as those two tabernacle expressions were being seen – Moses Tabernacle on Mt Gibeon and David’s Tabernacle on Mt Zion - we see that stones were being quarried nearby for Solomons Temple. We are those living stones experiencing in these days the chiseling of God’s transforming dealings upon our lives. We are living stones being shaped in such a way that we will fit together relationally and functionally as his spiritual Temple to contain and express the life of Jesus through the Holy Spirit. 

Solomons temple was the final dwelling place of God upon the earth and is symbolic of a Church that will be made ready for the return of Jesus. There is symbolism of the two numbers that are repeated in the dimensions of this Temple which are the number 10 and the number 120. The number 10 speaks of the finality of the work of trials and testings of faith upon our lives (The 10 trials of Deuteronomy 8, 10 days waiting Acts 2 etc) and the number 120 (end of all flesh Genesis 6 and Acts 2) speaks of the end of human effort and the release of grace in the expression of Jesus through our lives. 
The Temple porch was 120 cubits high (2Chronicles 3) and was overlaid with gold, which speaks of the nature of God. There were 10 lampstands of gold instead of one in the tabernacle of Moses, and there were 10 tables of 12 loaves of showbread instead of one – that is 120 loaves of showbread speaking of the fulness of order and government (12) and communion and relational unity. This is the future promise of the expression of the final dwelling place of God’s people before he returns - relating in unity together in the earth - and we can look forward to the days when by the grace of God that gathering of God’s people all over the globe will emerge. Let God put it into your heart as he did with David to seek after the presence of the Lord and wait inh is presence and let him speak to you. One thing I give people assurance about is - God will answer that prayer. Amen

 

DANIEL AND APOCALYPSE NOW AND NOT YET

DANIEL AND APOCALYPSE NOW AND NOT YET 

The word apocalypse (Apocalypto or revelation) means ‘the unveiling of things that have been hidden or covered up’. God hides things from us until he is ready to reveal them to us, and people cover things up until God is ready to expose them. Both these meaning of apocalypse are occurring in our world at the moment - like never before. The idea of apocalypse occurs in two stages – first there is a gradual unveiling of many things being in the process of change at the same time without any clear indication of what they are going to change into – the winds of change – Now and not yet. The second and final change stage is a suddenness of something new happening that stops us in our tracks as the manifestation of a momentous change finally occurs. It was like that on the day of Pentecost. Jesus told 120 people to wait in an upper room for the ‘promise of the Father’ and they did. Jesus had told them that they would be ‘baptised with the Holy Spirit not many days from now’. Jesus had been unveiling to them in his teachings the wonder of things to come but they did not fully understand what he meant. They knew something was going to happen but they did not know when, or what it was going to look like. Then the day of Pentecost arrived And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:2). The entire world was changed that day and the rest is history.

I believe that we are currently living in the apocalyptic days where there are signs of great change occurring in all nations of the earth, but we do not know how many years it will be before God accomplishes his final purposes for the world and his Church and for each individual soul, and we don’t know what it will look like. But Daniel prophesied that there would be a coalition of ten nations or world rulers that will seek to rule the entire world in the end days. The 120 in the upper room had to wait ten days for the apocalyptic outpouring of the Holy Spirit, but they were not told it would be ten days – Pentecost - and the number ten speaks of times of faith and patience through times of trial and testing (Deuteronomy 8:2). And we are in times of trial and testing and patience on such a global scale like never before. 

I’m revisiting last week’s talk about Daniel’s apocalyptic prophecy in Daniel in chapter 2 about King Nebuchadnezzar having a dream where he saw a vision of a great statue that had a head of gold and shoulders and arms of silver and an abdomen and thighs of brass and legs of iron and feet and toes of iron and clay. And a stone was supernaturally cut out from a mountain, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and broke them in pieces. Daniel said to the king ‘There is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will come to pass in the latter days – the end times. (Daniel 2:28) This vision depicts the nature of the world kingdoms from Babylon down to the present day and history shows us the dates when these world kingdoms actually ruled. The Scripture goes on to say ‘And in the days of those rulers the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed…It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever’…The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure.”

The actual feet of iron and clay represents a multitude of global rulers that are already in existence and have been for some years with we don’t know how many years to go before the identity of the ten toes is fully revealed (Apocalypto). I believe that the overall ‘feet nations’ – not the toes - are current global nations made up of both harsh totalitarian governments and fragile democracies that are currently attempting to mix together through trade and political alliances but who cannot form a lasting bond. And in the meantime apocalyptic events are cascading upon the world at an alarming rate. Daniel’s prophecy was pointing to what would happen in the ‘latter days’ and he placed those ‘latter days’ events in the time frame of being ‘in the now and not yet days of those rulers.’ That means in the apocalyptic days of the global nations out from which would one day emerge those ten rulers who attempt to rule the earth. 

The great stone represents Jesus Christ over his Kingdom of faithful people. That Kingdom smites the image on the feet and ten toes of a ten-nation world empire destined to yet emerge at the end of the age, whenever that will be – now and not yet. The feet are present now but the toes have yet to emerge on the world stage and be identified. So I believe we are in the ‘days’ of preparation when God will set up his end time Kingdom in a new measure of spiritual power and authority to be revealed in greater measure in God’s people than ever before in the earth. Indeed, there is a wind of the Spirit blowing in the Church exposing much darkness in the Church and at the same time revealing more light and truth to the Church for those seeking God and his Kingdom. The Now and Not yet theme is mentioned four times book of Revelation where it refers to Jesus as the one who is and was and is to come. 

God’s people will be God’s living stones supernaturally cut out of a mountain and built together as God’s dwelling place in the earth – God’s House, the Church. The prophet Haggai said  ‘I will shake all nations… and I will fill my house (Church)with glory…The glory of this latter house (Church) shall be greater than the former, says the LORD (Haggai 2:6-9). In the days of Haggai that Scripture was prophetic not only for Israel and for the Church – but for each of us individually as his House, as temples of the Holy Spirit. The ’setting up’ of this Kingdom is a work in process – now and not yet.
The apocalyptic culmination of political darkness and evil in the earth will be the ten toed nations. The apocalyptic culmination of Spiritual light in the earth will be the Bride of Christ. These are both works in progress – now and not yet. One is a work of corruption and will be the work of man and one is the work of purification and will be the work of God’s grace.

Ephesians 5:15, because we live in times of much corruption see that you walk responsibly and diligently and wisely, redeeming the time thoughtfully, seeking to understand what the will of the Lord is. (NKJ)
On a personal level in this apocalyptic time of change this will mean thoughtfully assessing our way of seeing things and doing things and inviting God into the reordering and redeeming of what we might think of as the lost or wasted times of our past. We can now become aware of his appointed times of new beginnings for us with a new understanding of his will for an ‘all things new’ future for our lives.

This becomes a new way of living in the grace of God amidst the outer turmoil and darkness and disorder of the world. Paul must have asked himself at times ‘Why am I in prison, why did I get shipwrecked, beaten up, ignored and insulted? The answer for Paul was - that is where Jesus was. And we can be where Jesus is at any time by his grace, with all things working together for his design and purpose to come to pass in our lives. 

The world cannot take us to where only God destined us to be. God moves forward with his overall plan for the world, and he moves forward with his designated plan for our lives. There is an energy which directs us, moves us and carries us, even though we cannot see where it is taking us. That energy is the hidden power of the wind of the Spirit which blows where it wills, and God’s apocalyptic changes happen gradually and then suddenly, perhaps after times of enduring patiently through times of difficulty. 
We cannot see our final destination but with this kind of faith we see through the present disorder of this world system, and we can enter into the eternal order of God’s Kingdom. God’s grace lifts us across the bridge from the world of fear and stress into his world of stillness and rest where we can learn to trust that we are being carried by the power of his grace to becoming who we should be and doing what we should be doing. 
The true Church is out there somewhere – Now and not yet.
The Bride of Christ is in there somewhere – Now and not yet.
The true self God designed for you to be is within you somewhere – Now and not yet.

 

 

DANIELS PROPHECY OF THE END TIME KINGDOMS

DANIELS PROPHECY OF THE END TIME KINGDOMS 
I want to revisit my last talk about the Lord’s prayer which says ‘Your Kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven’. In that talk I mentioned prophesies from Daniel and Revelation about the disruption of worldly kingdoms in the end times. I’m discussing today the link between the prayer of ‘Your Kingdom Come’ and visions that Daniel saw concerning the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven in greater measure in the days to come.  

The Book of Daniel is a key book in the unlocking of revelation concerning the prophetic purposes of God, particularly concerning end-time events in the ‘latter days’ and there are other visions of Daniel and Revelation that enlarge upon this basic vision. I want to share these prophesies not as dogma but because I have a conviction about the meaning of these prophesies and their relevance to the days in which we live and my approach will be to let Scripture interpret Scripture – all I can do is submit this approach for your discernment.
Daniel was one of the Jews living in captivity after Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon conquered Jerusalem and took hundreds of thousands of Jews into captivity for seventy years. God gave Daniel favour in the court of the king who found Daniel ‘ten times better’ than all the magicians and astrologers that were in his realm in all matters of wisdom and understanding. We can compare how God gave Joseph and Moses favour with Pharaoh.

In chapter 2 Nebuchadnezzar had a dream where he saw a vision of a great statue that had a head of gold and shoulders and arms of silver and an abdomen and thighs of brass and legs of iron and feet and toes of iron and clay. And a stone was cut out from a mountain but not by human hands, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and broke them in pieces. This vision terrified the king, and he demanded that whoever was chosen to interpret the dream for him had to get it right or he would be killed. and when Daniel heard this, he prayed and asked for guidance and mercy from God and he offered to interpret the dream.

This vision may be one of the most important prophetic visions in the Bible since it lays the foundation for the rest of the book of Daniel and also the Book of Revelation or the apocalypse of John.  This vision also gives an understanding of many other end-time events. Daniel said to the king ‘There is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will come to pass in the latter days (ah???rîyt? yom – time of the end) (Daniel 2:28)  and the ‘latter days’ refers to what would happen to Israel and the Church and the world in the end times. This vision depicts the nature of the world kingdoms from Babylon down to the present day and history shows us the dates when these kingdoms ruled. 
Daniel gives the king the interpretation that God showed to him.
Firstly Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar that he was the head of gold, representing the Babylonian empire from 606 BC according to history(v.12)

Secondly He told the king that the two shoulders and arms of silver represented the cruel double empire of Medo-Persia which would overtake his kingdom (in 536 BC - history)

Thirdly Daniel told the king that the kingdom of the abdomen and thighs of bronze would defeat the Medes and Persians. And history show that this was Greece –Alexander the Great, (331-333 BC)

Fourthly There were two legs of iron which would break in pieces and subdue all the other nations. History show us that this was the Roman Empire which would defeat the kingdom of Greece in 63 BC and rule the entire known world. The significance of the two legs of iron is that the Roman empire would later be divided into the Eastern and Western Empires. And the political and cultural and religious disparity between East and West still remains.

The fifth and final worldly kingdom of the feet and ten toes of a mixture of iron and clay speaks of a ten-nation world power that will emerge at the end of the age. And we read the emergence of that divided and divisive kingdom in Daniel 2:41’And as you saw that the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron shall be a divided kingdom, but some of the firmness of iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron mixed with the fragile clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile. As you saw the iron mixed with fragile clay, so they will mix with one another in posterity (zera), but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay.
The iron in the feet is the expression of the ongoing nature of harsh dictatorial rule that represented the Roman empire in the statue. And the fragile earthly clay represents people. God made Man from the dust of the earth. And that clay speaks of government by the people for the people - democracy. This mixture of dictatorships and democracies mixing together but not holding together is a picture of the fragile nature of our global political and economic community that we see today and have for some years. This ten nation configuration of power is seen in the book of Revelation 17:12 And the ten horns that you saw are ten kings. 
These kingdom rulers will one day join forces from amongst the global prominent nations in Europe and Asia and Africa and the Middle east and the Americas and Oceana and the South Pacific – down under. It is a remarkable fact of history that there has never been a conventional war between two democracies, but today we see Russia as a dictatorship attacking Ukraine which is a democracy, and we see China threatening Taiwan, a democratic republic, and Israel being attacked by Hamas and other Islamic terrorist entitles. The differences between the ideologies and cultures of these two distinct rules of order will never hold together for long.  

The Scripture says ‘they will mix with one another in posterity  (Hebrew = zera = posterity which means planning together for a forever future. But we know they will not hold together despite the trade agreements and so-called treaties. So that ten toed kingdom is a configuration of ten nations that will plan to rule their world together forever, and this reflects their arrogance or hubris. The word hubris in the original Greek means an ‘insolent presumption towards God’. This is seen in the corrupt and oppressive political and financial power that is becoming rampant in these days. 
 
Then the vision goes on to say that a Great Stone smites the image on the feet (10 toed kingdom). And Daniel says ‘And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever’,
Daniel interprets the great Stone as the Kingdom of Heaven and goes on to say ‘just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold and it shall stand forever. A great God has made known to the king what shall be after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure.”
I believe that the ’days of those kings’ has already begun and I believe we are living in times of global events that even the media are calling apocalyptic. And who or what is the great stone?
The stone/rock represents Jesus Christ over his faithful people and the rock smites the image of a ten-nation world empire at this end of the age. Jesus said “on this rock I will build my church (Matt 16:18). God’s people will reflect the rule of love and faith and justice of the Kingdom of Heaven, and this stone is cut out of a mountain without human hands. This is in stark contrast to the building of the tower of Babel, where man-made brick (beno – baked gleaming white bricks) is used to build a kingdom that will rule forever and reach to Heaven, just like the 10 toed kingdom. And that kingdom was scattered just as will be the final man-made kingdom that plans to rule forever. 
‘In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed’ . I submit to you that means that at some time and I have no idea when, by the grace of God and through the Holy Spirit the Kingdom of Heaven will begin to be expressed in greater measure in God’s people than ever before in the earth. This will prepare a people who understand what it means to believe and pray ‘Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven’ they will desire the will of God in their lives more than their own. It is time to be guided by the Holy Spirit to hear what God is saying to his people corporately and individually and to see with eyes of faith what he is doing from Heaven and to be part of that being done in the earth.