Spiritcode

THE SEAL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

I’m reading from the discussion group session two weeks ago from Ephesians 1:11
Ephesians 1:11. In him we have obtained an inheritance (kleroo-share of possession), having been predestined according to the purpose (prothesis-set plan) of him who works all things according to the counsel (boul??- deliberate decision) of his will (thel??ma – what he delights to do). 12. So that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory, (People who live it first then share it with others, for them to also believe so that their lives too will bring glory to God, not themselves) 
Paul goes on to say…
13. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 
14. who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

We had discussed earlier (in Ephesians 1:3) that the Father predestined us to adoption as sons and daughters through Jesus Christ to Himself. And here in verse 11 today we see Jesus obtaining for us another predestined blessing from the Father - his inheritance, his dominion over all things, which he shares fully with us.

I have two major questions for discussion regarding today’s reading.
1. What is the predestined Inheritance?
2. What are the roles of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in our receiving the inheritance?

The predestined inheritance 

For those who believe, the Inheritance is sharing in the dominion over all things that Jesus has inherited from the Father, both on the personal level and the utmost level of all things in the heavens and on the earth. It is important to realise that that includes our authority over all the powers of darkness. That has huge significance and consequence for our walk of faith.
Furthermore, this inheritance is a legal and binding declaration. We will come to that shortly…Now we come to the second question.

The roles of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
There is a pattern of the work of the Trinity in this first chapter of Ephesians in the bestowing of all of these spiritual blessings that we receive. The Father is the origin of every blessing and the one who adopted us into his family, and Jesus is the beloved Son, in and through whom the blessings are shared with us. Jesus brought us in as being as accepted as he is in God’s family, and Jesus is also the one who obtains for us the Inheritance, his inheritance that we now share with him. 
The Holy Spirit, is the one who stamps his seal upon all our ‘Spiritual blessings’. (Ephesians 1: 3,14). He is the one who seals God's Covenant bond with us, as the guarantee and guarantor, giving us a foretaste of the fulfillment of all that God has in store for us 

As mentioned earlier, the inheritance is a legal and binding declaration.
In the terms of a Covenant of agreement between two parties, there is a contractual arrangement where one person makes a promise of something of value to the other person for a certain cost or sacrifice. They agree on those terms and the transaction occurs. However, another essential ingredient to the terms of agreement is that the Covenant is sealed with a unique seal or personal signature that guarantees full possession of the promise with binding power.

In the Old Testament (Covenant) the promise made by God to Israel his  Holy Nation included their deliverance from slavery to the Egyptians and ongoing deliverance and protection from any enemies that oppose them. It also included God’s countless  miracle material blessings and favour, and finally, occupation of the Promised Land. 

The sacrifice or cost to Israel was their obedience to the Law and Commandments and the sacrificial offerings offered by the priests.) The seal of the Old Covenant of Moses as the Sabbath rest (It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel Exodus 31). It was obeyed on a weekly basis on the seventh day but it was disobeyed totally in the failure to observe the Sabbath rest of one year in every seven years (Leviticus Ch.25), and this was the Sabbath of consequence that God judged Israel for. They disobeyed it for 490years since the reign of Saul and it had the drastic consequence of Israel being defeated in battle and taken into bondage in Babylon for seventy years (490÷7=70) Israel failed to sign off on the seal of that Sabbath rest of faith and failed to pay the Covenant cost or sacrifice of obedience to the law. 

Our sabbath rest is now the rest of faith.

Note that the Scriptures make it clear that the legal Covenantal sign of the Sabbath and obedience to the Law no longer apply to the terms of our new Covenant relationship with God as his Holy Nation through Jesus and the Holy Spirit. It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel (Exodus 31). The Bible says that we are to obey the spiritual rest of faith, and enter into the rest of the finished work of Christ – Every Day - (Hebrews 4:1,8) Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it…There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his own works as God did from His. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience

In the New Covenant the Promise is summed up in the promises of all the spiritual blessings that we see here in Ephesians and also elsewhere, as in the gift of reconciliation and mercy and forgiveness and the Law being written on our New hearts. (2Corinthians 5, Romans 5, Hebrews 8 and 10, ++). 

The sacrifice or cost of those promises has been fully paid by Jesus Christ in his sinless death upon the cross and his resurrection and ascension. The sign or seal of the New Covenant is the receiving of the Holy Spirit of Promise by someone who believes, as we read in verses 13 and 14. All of this is not just as a blessing to us but also through us to glorify God.
13. In him also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14. who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

Jesus said in Acts…
Acts 1: 4 Wait for my Father’s promised gift, which you have heard me speak about.
For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
Acts 1:8 you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

The Book of Acts also tells the story of Paul arriving at Ephesus and finding people there who claimed to be disciples and believers. Something prompted Paul to `question them concerning their spirituality, and he said ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And they replied No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.” And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. 

Tongues is not the evidence of receiving the Holy Spirit by faith, but simply ONEsign, like prophecy, along with other faith assurances ranging from quiet serenity to joyful exuberance. In the mid-seventies I was once sharing about the Baptism of the holy Spirit and a few of us would then pray for people to receive it, and many people spoke in tongues upon receiving it as that had also been mentioned. I prayed for one man who was a strong Christian and loved God’s Word, and when I prayed, he did not speak in tongues but began to joyously laugh and I felt a witness in my spirit that he had received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. But the deacon standing next to me said that the man had not received the Holy Spirit because he didn’t speak in tongues and he was taught that tongues was the evidence. I had to disagree, saying that the Bible did not say that tongues was the evidence, but that it was just a sign (1Corinthians 14:22). There are many signs and this fellow’s joyous laughter was a sure sign - and he laughed from that day on whenever we were gathered together in worship or whenever he was touched by the Holy Spirit. Some of you will remember him. Now and again someone would say I should have told him to stop laughing but I never did – it was real.

The activity of the Holy Spirit of promise is a seal of the promises of the New Covenant for a believer. However Jesus taught about another prior activity of the Holy Spirit for unbelievers, which was the Holy Spirit of conviction, which works in every person who comes into the world. Jesus taught the disciples that when he left them he would send the Holy Spirit into the world (not just the church) John 16:8.But if I go, I will send The New Helper (The Holy Spirit). And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me.

Conviction of sin is the truth about the sin of unbelief – guilt doesn’t convict or change people, conviction does, and righteousness is about the grace to becoming aligned with God’s will (righteousness), otherwise it’s self-righteousness –

 and the truth of Satan being judged is about having freedom from the bondage of darkness and the overcoming of Satan – as that is the other spirit that is at work in the world (Ephesians Ch.2). The Bible says that the people loved hiding and covering up in darkness more than coming into the light (who has never been there? John 3:19). However, the Bible also says that where sin abounds grace does much more abound (Romans 5:20).

So no matter how darkness may abound in these days, the more we can abound in the grace and truth that the Holy Spirit works in us through the Gospel of the love and goodness of God towards. One person working in the simplicity of that grace and truth will affect everything and everyone in their sphere of the world around them. That is the Holy Spirit’s work.

 

THE MYSTERY
I’m reading the first two verses from our discussion group Scripture reading last week.
Ephesians 1:9-10 making known to us the mystery (Mysterion – not just hidden but unuttered [mu??] or not spoken until its prepared or set time) of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10. A plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. (also expounded in Colossians 1.15-21)

Some scholars think Paul wrote Ephesians and not Colossians and some think he wrote Colossians and not Ephesians. However, Paul’s account of the ‘mystery’ and the Plan in both epistles is identical.

3 questions 
1. What is the mystery? The ‘Mystery made known’ is the life of Jesus living and speaking God’s will in us and through us. 

2. What is the Plan to unite all things in Christ? The plan of uniting every created thing in Christ is God joining himself to his own creation through Jesus. Jesus entered into to our humanity and we enter into his divinity. Heaven and earth are joined together forever in him

3. What is the Gospel? Ephesians 3:3 by revelation He made known to me the mystery, as I have briefly written already [CH.1]... that the Nations (Ethnos-all ethnic groups, cultures, mankind) should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ - through the gospel. THAT IS THE GOSPEL.

THE MYSTERY
Paul’s revelation of this mystery which is the life of Jesus living and speaking God’s will in us and through us by the Holy Spirit was spoken to the Ephesians and the Colossians and then written in 62 AD as his epistles to them from prison in Rome. 

Colossians 1:26-29 the mystery (mysterion) which has been hidden from ages and from generations but now has been revealed to His saints - To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles (or Nations ‘Ethnos’ - all ethnic groups, cultures, mankind) which is Christ in you, the hope of glory

THE PLAN
What is the plan of uniting all of creation together in Christ? 
The love between Father Son and Holy Spirit in Heaven before the time of creation was perfect and complete and They agreed together in all things in perfect truth (1John 5:7KJV). And that love and truth was compelled of itself (2 Corinthians 5:14) to overflow into the lives of all created beings to bless them. Firstly, the angels were created as pure spirit beings, spiritually higher than our physically limited humanity, (Hebrews 2:7). And no created being, angelic or human, possessed God’s perfect capacity of this divine love and truth. But angels could come before the face of God and communicate and hear God speak, and that is why one imperfect angel called Lucifer fell in his pride and deception, and also why he tempted imperfect Adam and Eve to fall. The angels would have heard God say ‘Let us make man in our own image and let them have dominion over every living creature and over all the earth… So God created man in His own image… male and female He created them.’ (Genesis 1:26,27). 

The angels saw and celebrated the material creation from beginning to end (Job 38:4) and for Lucifer, this privileged dominion over everything in creation being given to these puny humans was too much for his pride and ego to accept, and he was outraged – No! That’s my inheritance! And he took many other angels into his rebellion

And the Bible records God’s verdict upon his unjust claims.
Isaiah 14:1-15 How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart:
I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’ Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol,To the lowest depths of the Pit. 
(5 I wills + 5 Your will be done wounds of Jesus on the cross)

And so Lucifer decided in his darkness and deception to prevent puny mortals from laying claim to their just inheritance. He provoked these lesser beings - Adam and Eve into a presumptuous rebellion against a perfect God, tempting them to disobey God and inciting them to resent God for not allowing them to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil - believing that God was selfishly afraid that they would become like God if they did. So they ate the fruit and they took the darkness and deception into their souls, and from then on, our human souls were destined to live out from our discontented vulnerability, and to defend ourselves and justify ourselves and war against ourselves and other people. Human relationships drastically damaged

But God had foreseen all of this, and he had planned a perfect plan before creation even began. He had decided to join himself as God, pure Spirit being, to his creation, by coming as Jesus the Son of the Father to live within puny vulnerable human form upon the earth. The Bible calls this astounding truth Reconciliation, which is translated from the Greek word katalasso, a “mutual transformation” of God and humanity into an entirely New Creation. And God took the first step to reconcile humanity in this cosmic merging of Being through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, overcoming the distrust and separation and hostility in us to God that was caused by sin. 

Paul is the only one who explains Reconciliation in this way in verses like 2 Corinthians 5:18-2 ‘God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself. And Romans 5:10 about Jesus’ death on the cross and his resurrection. The Holy Spirit gives us grace and faith to accept and live in that reconciliation, enabling us to overcome sin and a self-centered mindset. The Holy Spirit infuses divine love and truth into our hearts and minds, and giving us the gift of a New Heart and a renewed mind to know the truth of who God is and who we are. This is our salvation – the healing of our soul, and this is what God desires for all of us.
God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1Timothy 2:4).

 

 

THE GOSPEL
The Gospel is the Plan of that mystery being declared to all the world as The Good News, as we read earlier in Ephesians 3. 
Paul never preached the bad news The bad news often shared as being the gospel. IE. if you repent from your sins and ask God for forgiveness you won’t go to hell. 

I went to a church growth conference in Seoul Korea in the 1990’s at Yonggi Cho’s church. There were 700 of us pastors attending his 500,000 strong church. Cho was a former Buddhist and a very disciplined man of great influence in South Korea. He told us that many Christian authors including Peter Wagner and others you would know had interviewed him to write their books on church growth. He said they asked how it started and he’d tell them ’I prayed to God ’ and they would write that down. Then they’d say, ‘what then?’ and he’d say ‘I taught the people in small groups to study the word carefully and obey it’ This was all written down.

Then he said ‘the authors have sold a lot of books, writing down the principles and enlarging each principle, but they are not going to give you church growth because even though the principles are good that wasn't the way the church growth happened. What happened was God touched my life. God had given me some signs and wonders in my ministry especially in the villages, so I often preached out there and many people came to my meetings. They knew my discipline and zeal and I wanted to see them getting to know God. But something had to change in me for me to reach their hearts. 
Cho told us what happened. He said he went out one day to a village and saw people on the side of the road and he said ‘are you coming to the meeting tonight?’ They lifted their weary heads up and said no Pastor Cho, we are miserable enough - And when you preach you make it worse for us because we feel so condemned. You are so strict and holy, and you tell us what sinners we are, and we feel too unworthy to get close to God. Cho then told us – that was when he realised he was preaching the bad news of what they must do to be worthy – he was preaching discipline and zeal, and not God’s goodness and grace. God changed him that day and everything else changed for him and for Seoul Korea.’

So the mystery of his will is to lovingly unfold to us his plan to join us to his divine life – and that is the gospel. Once we know it and believe it we cannot unbelieve it, because when we pursue that truth with our full heart and all our mind it pursues us into every corner of our lives.

As we now partake of our communion – the communion of the Body of Christ, remember how Paul admonished the Corinthian church because of internal factional disputing and judging of one another which finally created 36,000 denominations. Paul said they were holding their communion services in an unworthy manner. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged Rather than judge one another judge ourselves. (1Corinthians 13:30) We can be discerning of doubtful doctrinal emphases but not judge harshly. We can pray for more love and agreement and mercy, and pray for the Gospel of reconciliation, ‘Christ in us the hope of glory’, be preached in all the world for a witness. Amen.

TRANSCRIPT
What I'm calling today's word is predestination and grace and faith. I'Il read from Ephesians chapter one, verses five to eight,
which is the passage we read in our discussion groups a couple of weeks ago. Starting from verse five, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure or good purpose, Eudokia, of his will, according to the riches of his grace, which is made abundant toward us in all wisdom and understanding.
So recently in our group discussions, we began to discuss and explore the extravagance of God's love, and his powerful promises to us of what I've just read. Predestination and grace, and being adopted to belong to his family, partakers of his life through Jesus, partakers of the nature of God. The first chapter of Ephesians is a mighty trumpet blast of what God has done through Jesus Christ, and through the work of his unlimited atonement for humanity, never limit the atonement
work of God, for everybody.
If one died, all were dead. So I've got three questions today.
What is predestination?
Well, the short answer is, it's God's purpose for our life. What is grace? The divine energy that accomplishes our predestination.
What about faith? Predestination and grace only become our reality when we believe. So I've answered the three questions.
We can go home now. But really, I want to look at these three questions in greater depth. So we'll look at these three questions.
Predestination is purpose driven. It is God's foreordained plan for a person's life or role. It is not a statement about going to heaven or hell, as the Calvinists much later mistakenly interpreted.
You've got to search the scriptures to see this, and it's very clear. Through Christ's atoning work, when Jesus brought his divinity into all of humanity, we are also brought into adoption, becoming part of his family. We're then
transformed into Christ's likeness to become co-labours with
him in his work in the world.
There's our journey. Right smack in the middle of it is the grace of God. We try that journey on our own without the grace of God, and we can become very good citizens with a good conscience doing the best we can, but we need God's grace to be able to walk in his will for our lives, empowered by his life.
Grace is the divine energy that accomplishes this divine purpose, making this gospel of good news, that's what the gospel is, possible. That is then believed upon by us. And this displays God's wisdom and strategic brilliance.
And that was the last verse that we read when we did the discussion group. God thought that through and gave it to us.
He wants to express who he is through us.
That's his desire. So we'll look at the grace. The plan of being predestined is energized by grace from God's side.
All comes from him. The word grace is cardis, which means a gift. It's not primarily about emotionally feeling favored.
It is God's favor, but we don't often feel very favored going through tough times. But God's grace is still available. If it weren't, we wouldn't be able to go through them with him and being empowered by his Spirit in faith.
It's God's powerful and operative transforming presence that enables the purpose of our predestination to be achieved.
What does grace do? Is it like electricity?
No, it is a force. Is it just emotion? No, grace creates a relational bond in our hearts.
The Bible says, a new heart I will give you, in Ezekiel 36. That's the power of grace. It changes the disposition of our hearts.
We desire to do for God and with God. That's his gift, that's his covenant. And that works the transformative change of the new desires that God has willed for us.
Look at things relationally, then you're looking at God and what he does, why he does it, and how we can respond. But without faith, if we don't respond by faith and say, I believe that, that grace is there laying idle and fruitless. It's in vain.
Don't just think of it as something that may be available. He said, approach the throne of grace, receiving mercy, so that you'll find grace in times of need. We need the mercy because we don't do it very expertly.
We bumble our way through. And God says, I don't care how much you bumble your way through. I'm not looking at your human performance index.
I'm looking at your heart. Dispose to me, doing the best you can, and this grace is available. But tell yourself that I'm being merciful to you because you're not very merciful to yourself.
You're a bit hard on yourself. I've forgiven your sins, you know that. But you're worried about your performance, don't.
The work of atonement is operating on about eight and a half billion people on the planet right now. But the problem is that a scarce number of people, including many churchgoers, don't know that or believe it. That work can only become a reality for people who will hear it and believe it and respond to it by faith.
And today, we'll look at how we can respond to it by faith. Paul was saved from wasting his pre-destined future when he was struck down on the road to Damascus. He was pretty proud of his performance up till then, as a religious man, a Pharisee of the Pharisees.
But then, he was struck down by the Lord Jesus, and he believed, he was baptized, and he received the power of the Holy Spirit. In Galatians 1, Paul writes in verse 17, and here's the predestination part. It pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and invited me through his grace to reveal his son in me, that I might preach him amongst the Gentiles, or the nations, the unbelievers.
Paul knew that this was given by God's grace, but not only given by God's grace, it was to be lived through God's grace.
Paul said, his grace towards me was not in vain. Wasn't futile, but it can lie wasted.
I've already said, the scripture actually, confidently enter, come to the throne of grace. So we can see that all of this is God's doing. If that's God's doing, what is our belief?
It is our doing. It's believing everything that God is doing, and believing that what he's doing is true, and real, and personal for each one of us. It's always doing, the doing.
Now, my faith, my personal level, sometimes involves getting out of my own way, and to stop worrying that I'm not fulfilling God's predestined purpose in the ordinary, daily doing of what I'm doing. Do I have enough faith and grace? Am I actually doing just exactly what you want me to do, Lord?
I better try and think through this harder. God says, my goodness, I wake up then. I wake up to myself and decide to trust that God knows what He's done.
He knows what He's done for me, and what He is now doing for me, and He just wants me to trust Him in that I'm doing for you, in all the things that are happening. And when I trust God, simply, come to my senses, faith floods in. Not faith that I'm going to get what I want, but faith that God can now get what He wants.
The moment we start telling ourselves that we don't have enough faith, we stop having faith. It's a bad conversation.
Our soul's outward, disordered mindset of what is real has taken over from our God-ordained spiritual reality, what He's ordained.
Now, let me explain how God's ordered spiritual reality can turn into a disordered soul reality. That's very important to me. Everything that is spirit desires to be expressed in some outward way.
Spirit cannot just exist, isolated, doing nothing. Spirit wants expression, no matter what kind of spirit it is. And you can name hundreds of them.
The human spirit, a spirit of fear, God's spirit, a political spirit, a religious spirit. They all want expression in some way, and they manifest themselves through whoever's available to give way to that spirit. But we have our predestined spirit in us.
God, as a pure spirit being, lovingly desired to express himself through us. God as spirit wants far more to express who he is than any other spirit would. He is spirit.
The Holy Spirit yearns jealously for us. Let us be manifested, expressed through you. So God desired to do that, to express himself through humanity.
And that occurred perfectly through the life of Jesus. That was the one, the only one. That happened perfectly.
And the atonement of Jesus on the cross allows that expression of the life of Jesus through us by the Holy Spirit in us. That's how it happens. God's predestined purpose for us in Christ is our reality.
That's what God and God's spirit wants to express through us.
His purpose for us, him, with us, in that. It is our I am reality.
God said, I am who I am. In Exodus chapter three, Jesus said, before Abraham was, I am. John eight, Paul said, I am what I am by the grace of God.
1 Corinthians 15. Now, this is the key. We can become the expression of who God wants us to be, by the grace of God, if we believe it.
We are who we are by the grace of God. God is the source of our true I am spiritual being. He created it before the foundation of the world.
But what do we do with that spiritual reality? Well, the Bible says, in 1 Corinthians 15, that we generate a soul, genomai. We create a soul, a faulty expression of our spiritual being, which becomes flawed and damaged throughout our lives because of survival mechanisms that we create, starting from a young age.
That's our doing. Our spirit wants to express itself. We are spirit, soul, and body.
And we express, through our soul, an I Am that has had to react to everything that's going on around us. We learn, from a young age, to strategise, to defend, or to advance ourselves, through the difficult circumstances of our lives. We create another I Am in our souls.
And that becomes the I Am that other people see. They see that as who we are. Oh, there's that cranky person again.
There's that angry one. There's that difficult one. There's that one that seems to be always feeling shameful and guilty all the time.
Why do they do that? So that soul becomes the expression of who we are, to other people, and absolutely to ourselves, with all the reactions and hard to get on with behaviours that we wish we didn't have as well. The reactive strategies have become the soul's unhelpful helpers in times of difficulty and stress.
So we have to discover the true I am, whose source is God's reality for us. That's the journey of the soul. 1 Corinthians 2, 11 tells us, gives us the clue on how to go on this journey.
And I'll be doing this in the course later this month, the healing salvation of the soul. It says this, For what man knows the things or the parts, the things of a man, except the spirit of the man which is in him. And even so, no one knows the things of God, except the spirit of God.
So we can get to know, because our spirit, Bible says in Proverbs, the spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord that searches out all the inward parts. We can allow the Holy Spirit to help us search out and find out, what did I dump into my soul when I got into reaction at that time, when I was a little one, or when I was a teenager, or what I'm doing even now?
The Holy Spirit says, I'm gonna help you to stop trying to use your unhelpful helpers to help yourself.
We can be guided by the Holy Spirit who becomes the new helper. That Jesus promised, he said in John 14, I will pray the Father, and he will give you another helper, that he may abide with you forever. Jesus didn't have to make and create helpers.
He had the Holy Spirit full on, all the time, in the grace of God. He was the perfect expression of God in humanity, and he's saying to us, I'm giving you my life, and I'm going to get you back from that disordered soul into being able to express who you are, predestined to be in your spirit, by my grace. So the healing of the soul course, I'll be starting in our mid-week meetings, is based on this spiritual understanding of how to find our true I am, in a non-threatening way.
We don't go in there and say, oh, what a terrible sin. And we find a helper that we've created, and it's a helper that says, you're not matching up. You could do better than this.
It's called the, you can do better helper. You ever found one of them? Well, the you can do better helper is not a sin, but it does cause us to miss the mark, because we'll make errors of judgment, and we will start getting into things that become just us reacting, and our self-help, whatever other helper it could be, our anger helper, that will be the thing that wants to run things.
But there's the try harder helper. Just look at that for a sec.
We've all got one of them, but I've seen a try harder helper, when I was sharing with a person, I've seen that try harder helper cause that person to feel, when it was revealed that that's it, they felt, oh, well, that's a sinful helper.
I am angry, I'm gonna get rid of that. I say, no, no, no. That try harder helper has got you to where you are now, for your sake, trying to help you to get through the sense that you couldn't do things properly.
It was trying to help you get over the fear of failure. Don't get angry at it. It was doing the best it could.
You made it, you created it. But don't get angry, just say, you can move over now. I've got another helper.
You see, this course that I'm doing is not threatening. Oh, you'd better repent from that help. No, acknowledge it and say, thank you, bye.
And there's a process. We find the true I am. We get to know the things of the strategic helper parts in our soul.
We ask for wisdom from the Holy Spirit as our new helper that Jesus promised us. God's reality of who we are, not our concept of self that is lesser and smaller because of the awful things that have happened to us, the things that we wanted that haven't happened to us, all because of what? Certain people, our own mistakes, disappointing circumstances?
Well, suffering is part of life. But unnecessary suffering happens when we make these things that happened define who we are. They're not you, they've happened to you.
And that's, it's not God's purpose for your life to be defined by the things that happened to you, it's God's purpose for your life to be with him in the things that happened to you. So, the happenings, let's see these happenings as outside of us, and our soul reacting to them. But, what's inside of us?
That's the, who is inside of us? God is inside of us. The things are outside of us.
1 John 4, 4. Greater is he that is in you, than that which is in the world. So, I spoke about finding wisdom.
What wisdom do we need to get in order to understand our true reality? The fact that greater is he that is in you, than that which is in the world. Well, James tells us.
James 1, 5. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reprimanding, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith.
I tell people, you're gonna get the wisdom you need as you diligently apply yourself to what we're doing here. It will come, God will speak. I'm thinking, am I bold enough to say that?
I am, because I see it happen all the time, because the Bible says do it. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.
He's a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. Well here we are, the two mindsets. The mindset of the soul, or the mindset of the spirit.
Spiritually minded is life and peace. Carnally minded is death.
Bible says the carnal mind cannot please God.
It's hostile to God. Humanity. But the spiritual mind is in harmony with God.
And James here says, you're double-minded and you'll become unstable. Now double-minded is a good phrase because it's speaking about having a spiritual mind and a soul mind, the two I ams. But look, I want to open that word up to you.
Double-minded in the Greek doesn't have the word mind in it.
I still think it's a great phrase because the mind is in the soul.
And there is a mind in the spirit.
The mind that knows Jesus is in the spirit. The mind that bumbles around out here is in the soul. We'll talk about that later.
But the Greek word for double-minded is di-psychos. That means double-souled. It's soul.
It's a soul problem. It means a double-souled person. A soul in conflict with itself.
With a mind that is in conflict with the mind of the spirit. I continually see the Holy Spirit giving wisdom to people about their true being as they do the healing of the soul process. It's the grace of God doing that, and our faith receiving it, and believing it, and living it out.
So, what about faith? What is the goal of our faith? And here's a key scripture, 1 Peter 1.9, receiving the end.
The word there in Greek is telos, the purpose, the end of our faith. The salvation and healing of your soul. That's what your faith is for.
To get your soul back in shape, in alignment with your spiritual destiny. That's what the course is for. So, when I'm sitting in the presence of God, I want to come back, shake myself, wake myself up, and say, soul, move over.
I want to hear what God is saying about me, to be the l am that I know you say 1 am. And I bring scriptures to mind. I do a whole lots of, well, there are a whole lots of things I don't do.
I don't try and analyse myself. I just think about what God is doing and how great He is and He's wonderful at time. That's what I do.
But I bring scriptures to mind. I thank God I'm in His presence, even if I don't feel anything. I thank God that He's doing a mighty work in me and I don't even feel it's happening.
I can feel actually quite at odds with myself, but my spirit is saying, wake up, God's at work, give this time, be still, know that I'm God. You don't have to feel it. All right, thank you, Lord.
But here's some scriptures that I bring to mind, and I'll just leave it with this. Paul says in Ephesians 3.20, God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us. That's the power of the Holy Spirit.
Take out the book of Philippians and have a look in Philippians chapter one, chapter two, and chapter three. In Philippians chapter one, you'll find this. He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.
He's doing the work. Philippians 2.13. For it is God who works in you, both to will and to do what is his highest purpose for your life.
His good purpose. I mean, oh my Lord, you're at work in this, and I've been trying to do all the work. And he says, I told you, be still, know this.
And third, in Philippians chapter three, verse 21, according to the working by which he is able even to subdue all things to himself. You know, when I'm sitting there, I can feel restless, agitated. This is a waste of time.
And time goes by, and I start feeling subdued. I think I'm doing a pretty good job here of calming myself. I'm supposed to say, that's not you.
I'm subduing that restless heart of yours, that anxious, fidgety mind that wants to analyze. Give me some more time. Okay, Lord, thank you.
Ill be still and know you're God, and I'll leave the rest to God.
So, thank you, Lord. Help us to learn to let go of outward happenings, to let you happen within us at all times.
Amen.

 

 

 

I CANNOT DO ALL THINGS
Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through (en – in) Christ who strengthens me. 
That is a wonderful Scripture but what does ‘all things’ mean and what does ‘through’ mean? To get the full meaning of all this I need to mention something a little irregular in the English interpretation of that text. The correct English word for ‘through’ in that Scripture is ‘in’. The Bible uses the English word ‘through’ 119 times in Paul’s epistles, and the Greek word for through is always dia except in that one text here where the word en is used, and en means in, not through, so my reading of this would  be ‘I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me.
This brings home the point that Christ is the one doing the ‘all things’ that he wants to happen and I’m being strengthened in doing it with him. Am I being too pedantic, isn’t me doing it through Christ okay? think it through, because with Paul this is all about being IN Christ – IN Christ is relational, being part of God’s life, but doing things through Christ puts us in charge and not God, like us doing something through a lawyer - it is utilitarian and non-relational. You’ve seen sportsmen on TV signalling to Heaven that they are going to win this match through God – that seems a little presumptuous. But saying ‘I can do all things IN Christ’ puts God in charge, as he does the things with and through us as the earthen vessel, that the excellency of the power is of God and not of us and it’s a proclamation of yielded faith by us. What I’m saying is never going to change the way this verse is written or even said, probably even by me. But if I’m going to do something by faith I want to understand what I am really proclaiming and why.

Paul says in Galatians - it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live in the Son of God by faith, (Galatians 2:20). Being in Christ was Paul’s revelation, his message – Christ in you the hope of glory – his glory. (Colossians 1:27) – Christ in us and us in him. Paul said that he wanted to be found in him (Philippians 3:9)

I mentioned in my last talk that Moses was hidden in the cleft of a rock and only saw the glory of God after it had passed by because God had said you cannot see My face and live. (Exodus 33:17).  Paul says that rock was Christ. He said the rock that followed Israel through their journey in the wilderness was Christ (1Corinthians 10:4). Moses being hidden in the cleft of rock is us being hidden in Christ. The Bible says your life is hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3). God was prophesying to us that ‘In Christ you will see the work I have done and you will know that it was me that has done it from heaven and not just you on earth, and somehow, we have done it together!! 

Previously I also shared the story of God being with Paul in that shipwreck at Malta. No one was lost as Paul had prophesied to them ‘An angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me…not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed (Acts 27:23). The people of Malta then lit a fire for them because it was cold and raining, and as Paul gathered firewood, a viper bit his hand and the islanders expected him to die, assuming some kind of divine justice, but Paul simply shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects. They then think he is a god. Then Publius the magistrate of Malta hosts them generously and Paul heals his father who has a raging fever and the rest of the sick on the island came and were healed. 
Malta wasn’t Paul’s idea. God went to Malta and Paul was IN Christ seeing God at work through himself as the clay vessel. The Holy Spirit and Paul did it together! Even Jesus said Truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father do. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise”. 
I have two more questions today.
The first question is - What does it mean to be ‘in Christ’?’
The second question is how I can ‘do all things through (in) Christ who strengthens me’

There is a clue to understanding what being IN Christ means in what Paul said in that shipwreck incident at Malta. He says ‘An angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me.” (Acts 27:2). Paul knew he belonged to God IN Christ.
The way we know that that we are IN something is by knowing that we belong, like being in a family or a friendship or a group or a church community. We are accepted and we can be ourselves there and share the care there, as a part of it.

The Bible says that Jesus died for all of mankind because we all belong to him. Paul said We are held in (synech??) by Christ's love for us. We are certain that if one died for all, then all of us have died. (2 Corinthians 5:14).  
That means that because of what Jesus has done we all belong right from the start even if we do not know it or believe it - we are accepted in the Beloved (Ephesians 1:6.), forgiven in Christ and belonging to him. He didn’t ask for our permission he just did it. and we challenge people to believe it – that’s the Gospel.

Paul spoke of this as an eternal reality in God’s destiny for humanity when he spoke to the Athenians about their unknown God in Acts 17:26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times (Kairos) and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might search for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being…

When a person knows that they belong their hearts can open up to hearing and understanding and believing and finding new hope for their lives. So then belonging and believing lead to uprightness in behaving - belong believe behave – instead of ‘if you behave and truly believe what we believe we will tell you if you belong’. 

The second question was how can I ‘do all things through (in) Christ who strengthens me’
This requires that I ask myself three things when considering what lays ahead for me – a) what do I expect will happen? – then when something happens comes b) what actually happened? – then comes c) where was I surprised? 
I find that concerning point a) I overate my self expectations, and b) what actually happens confirms point a, then c) I am surprised at how much more God does than I could ever have expected. It is God that takes us into things IN Christ, not us that takes Christ into all that we plan. There are shipwrecks and Malta experiences. We do our upmost and we see God do his highest.
I will illustrate with a story.
I went to a pastors conference in the late 90’s with my old friend the late Hal Oxley. We had visited Toronto Canada and then visited the revival meetings in Pensacola and finally attended a pastors’ conference in Houston Texas in the Lakewood church now run by Joel Osteen but then run by Joel’s father John Osteen who was a very gifted and anointed man, with a healing and evangelical ministry and much wisdom and integrity. Hal had been a friend of John Osteen for some years. There were over two thousand pastors and leaders there and Hal received a warm welcome. He was also a storehouse of wisdom and experience and had conducted similar leadership events in Melbourne with a Q and A session at the end. Hal was the pioneer of the Christian School movement on the East Coast of Australia, and I visited his school before starting Northern Beaches Christian School – here in this actual building in 1981. 

At the end of John Osteens conference there was also a question-and-answer session which Osteen conducted single handedly, and Hal was riveted by the complex questions of the pastors, and I knew he would have answered their questions excellently. The questions dealt with problems of administration and church programs including youth groups and home groups and financial management questions and some weird legalistic ones about tithing and church discipline. John Osteen would quietly listen and pause and speak his wisdom and Hal and I were impressed. But we began to notice that time after time especially with the tougher complex questions John Osteen would give the same answer, over and over again. He would say ‘Do the best you can and trust the holy Ghost’ (he didn’t say Holy Spirit). All the while Hal was writing comments on his ever-present note cards and showing them to me – comments like Vision statement needed here, or delegated authority essential etc. And I would nod, thinking this is going to be quite some conversation later. 

Then right at the end one pastor said he wanted to start a Christian school, and his question was ‘what is the first thing I should do if I wanted to start a Christian school in Alabama?’ I looked at Hal and he leaned over to me and said ‘I’d love to answer this one, and I thought just what a blessing that would be. I said to him ‘what would you say?’ and Hal looked at me and said with a grin ‘do the best you can and trust the Holy Ghost’. I got the giggles, and we both had to hold ourselves in check and not explode laughing.

But that answer was strikingly enough the simple truth of faith for all those difficult challenges. Think of some major decisions you’ve made lately doing the best you could – and the ones coming up. We belong to someone who belongs to us and who gets things done perfectly with us in the midst of our imperfection. God says to us – ‘In Christ you will see what I have done, and you will know that it was me and not just you, but somehow we did it together!!’ So do the best you can and trust the Holy Ghost and watch as God brings his will to pass in your life. He will do the things, and we will give him the glory. 
When you are in thr midst of something, doing it the best you can and you have an outcome in mind, and something goes wrong and the challenge seems too great. I’ve found that the thig to do is to capture that moment and realise that that moment of challenge, of difficulty of self-consciousness – that moment belongs to God. He hasn’t dumped you in it and said ‘you sort this out’, no he’s in that and when you sort that out, however well or not you sort it out, God is there sorting it out for you in the world of the unseen, wanting you to know that and be conscious of that and believe that. You may not see an instant miracle happen but as you believe that God is at work it gets you out of your self consciousness and the moment belongs to God even though you may feel that this is still a real challenge for you. It is only afterwards that you realise that you don’t have to be the master of that occasion. You’ve been brought into it and God is in it and your faith is there. Then afterward God will say, ‘see, we did that together’ – we say who me? And od says ‘well done good and faithful servant’ – amen
Paul OSullivan – pauloss@icloud.com

WRITTEN IN THE STARS FOR SIGNS AND TIMES PART 2

Genesis 1:14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years.

Last week we spoke about the witness in the stars for signs, and today we are looking at the witness of the stars for times. When God proclaimed, "Let there be light," He initiated not only the existence of matter but also the unfolding of space and time itself. He had created an energy outside of his spiritual energy, the energy of light, the closest natural energy that can be compared and contrasted to his all-powerful Spiritual energy

Created light preceded the matter that was created to become the universe of galaxies of stars, and what lies between us and the stars is not just time and space, but an immense delay of emptiness and silence that stretches across time because sound cannot travel where there are no particles to transmit it. Time is limited by the speed of light, and space is also measured by that. One light-year is approximately 9.46 trillion kilometres. With a Hubble telescope we could see a protostar heat up and eventually ignite, and we would say it is a new star, but what we observe is in fact very very old. 
What we see and touch in our immediate temporal world is a familiar instant, close and graspable reality, but the stars teach us about the waiting and silence of time delay and that becomes a parable concerning our faith, as we shall see.

The Bible describes God’s essential nature as two things; God is light and God is love.
The power of the energy of God’s light brought into being the material and temporal world of matter with its beauty of created order. But the power of God as light is also truth which speaks into our spirit, and the spiritual energy of God’s light is not limited to time and space – It is everywhere at the one time. 

The power of the energy of God’s love brought into being the lifeblood of relational harmony and unity and goodness and blessing to all mankind through Jesus. 
For God so loved the world that he sent his only Son… (John 3:16)

I have two questions.
Why do we experience the delay time of God’s instant presence with us when we know he is there within us? 
Why do we experience an apparent distance between God and us even though we know he is closer than our own thoughts?

Regarding the delay time of presence - it does not take God time to get to us, nor does it take us time to get to God. 
The delay occurs because it takes time for us to get away from our soul self, and into our true spiritual self in Christ. We have taught our soul to live in the immediate temporal world, which is always instant, close and graspable. But the stars teach us a parable about the waiting of delay time, and the delay time is the often reluctant yielding of our soul life to our faith-ready spirit life. Putting off our old soul self and being renewed in the mind of our spirit and putting on the New Creation spirit self. (Ephesians 4:20)

Regarding the apparent distance between us and God - Our soul self lives in self-consciousness, which makes us aware of our own insufficiency of falling short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). That makes a separation between us and God (Isaiah 59:2) but it does not make a separation between God and us – he is always close. He says I will have mercy upon your unrighteousness, and your iniquities I will remember no more! (Hebrews 10.16)
The Bible tells us to exchange our idea of our self as an unlovable self, for God’s idea of us as his deeply loved child (1John 3:20) who grows into his likeness because of his love for us. Our self-serving soul life should not be allowed to take the mastery over our true spiritual reality as partakers of the divine nature - ‘God with us’. Our choice to receive.
Sometimes the honest thing to say is ‘I find that hard to do - Please help me Lord’.
We can trust that God’s plans are unfolding in our lives even in the midst of our own doubts and mistakes and suffering and the attacks of darkness upon us. 
David said in Psalm 139 ‘Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your intentional thoughts about me, O God (rêa). They cannot be numbered! (Psalms 139:16)

So there is a book about each one of us with our name on it and there are special times of grace arranged by God that he has purposed for us - to receive as an act of his sovereign grace or to access by persistent faith (Romans 5:2). There are two kinds of times in the Bible –Chronos time – clock time, with its seconds and minutes and hours and years of ordinary day-to-day time, and Kairos time - special times of grace arranged by God that he has purposed for us. Jesus lived in both Chronos time and Kairos time like all of us. Not everything in the everyday clock time life of Jesus needs to be in the Bible because the Bible is not just a history book but a book of revelation and faith and purpose. And so it is with us - God’s book about us is not just a history book but a narrative of the eternal milestones of purpose and meaning that he has planned for our lives. How many milestone opportunities have we missed? There are things we can do. It is called REDEEMING THE TIME

Ephesians 5:15 See that you live diligently, redeeming (getting back) the time (Kairos) because the days are evil.
I believe that we are living in a time when God is restoring his Kairos occasions for us that we may have lost or neglected throughout the Chronos minutes and years of our busy everyday lives. But the Bible says that God restores those years (Joel 2:25) – not in clock time but the times of his Kairos purpose and meaning to us through the work of God’s grace through the Holy Spirit. This grace can abound sovereignly in special times of the outpouring of God’s Spirit as at Pentecost and at times of spiritual refreshing in sovereign moves of the Holy Spirit. But we can also access this grace through our faith (Romans 5:2) That is for all of us – all of humanity – his grace includes his forgiveness to us and the restoration of his eternal purposes for us. This is what brings a renewed connection with God and the healing of our souls. 

We can’t get all our Chronos years back – they’re gone, but we can miraculously get the lost Kairos opportunities restored in a few Chronos weeks or months – and I’m seeing that happen in people in these times. The Apostle Paul saw one Kairos moment restore his entire past on the road to Damascus, and then he learned to manage living in both time frames in perfect harmony. God’s word from heaven shines upon us to unveil a life of fulfilment in God. It is time to let God begin to rewrite our narrative and we will have so much to be thankful for, living in a new spiritual energy not an old natural energy. 

I have found the following pathway of redeeming the time helpful   So note the Scriptural references. Every moment of chronos time is filled with something. But when we interrupt our busy clock time and ask God to awaken us to the present moment Kairos energy of loving partnership with him, we let God rewrite his eternal events back into our life. This waiting on God and waiting for God takes practice. Each moment of time belongs to God, and it is filled with his love for us – not because he just decided to do it because we turned up – no it is the very nature of God that his energy of love and light fills every moment of time.

We start to see by faith that the waiting time is not passive but active, being filled with the supernatural unseen activity of God, bringing his loving eternal purpose and meaning into ordinary daily things, even loss and suffering. 
I find it helpful to pray in this way. ‘Thank you for your loving presence Lord, and the powerful work that you are doing on my behalf in the world of the unseen’

That kairos consciousness invites us into living in him through Christ living in us. 
There are two delays - one is the delay of detachment from self-consciousness in our soul into our true spirit conscious self - this is what the ‘Healing of the Soul’ course is about, moving from the soul to the spirit - and the second delay is the delay of the eventual manifestation of Gods activity. We can bridge that first delay through faith and grace, but only God is in charge of the second delay of the manifestation of his activity. Paul speaks of having faith for God’s love to fill us and of how that brings the manifestation of God’s extravagant good will into our lives and glorifies His name in the earth.

Ephesians 3:17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Only He who is able to manifest such exceedingly great goodness is in charge of how and when he does that – and we wait in that glorious hope, day by day, and moment to moment. We discussed redeeming the time and I said we could interrupt the clock time but it’s not about snatch and grab if we’ve got a couple of spare moments here and there. 

No, it is setting aside time purposefully to practice the renewing of the spirit of the mind and learning to use the new operating system that God has spiritually equipped us with through the Holy Spirit, understanding God’s idea of who we are. And sometimes it can seem like a waste of time but it’s not. Our spirit will rise, as the Bible says They that wait upon the Lord will renew their strength, they will rise up with wings as eagles, they will run and not be weayl they will walk and not faint (Isaiah 40:31). Teach us Lord to wait.
We can put that into practice exchanging the soul life for the Spirit life, our time into God’s time, his energy into our effort. Amen.

Paul O’Sullivan  -  pauloss@icloud.com

 

 

WRITTEN IN THE STARS FOR SIGNS AND TIMES
Genesis 1:14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years.

Ancient Egypt and Babylon were the first civilizations to study the stars, and in Babylon around the time of the birth of Jesus, some wise men called Magi, who were scholars and astronomers noticed something extraordinary in the heavens. For centuries the Magi (where our word magic comes from) had studied the Jewish prophecies passed down during Israel’s captivity in Babylon, and those prophesies included the foretelling of a Messiah. When an unusually bright convergence of planets began to shine as an apparent brilliant star in the eastern sky, they interpreted it as the sign of a great ruler’s birth. 
The Bible says that the stars speak forth the knowledge of God, and we see that that includes the birth of Jesus. 
Psalm 19:1-4 The heavens declare the glory of God and his splendour is written in the stars. Day after day utters knowledge and the night sky unveils knowledge to us all. Their instruction (qaw - rule) has gone out through all the earth, And their words to the end of the world. - The life of Jesus, as the Word astonishingly revealed in the heavenly stars. 
And God said to Job, ‘Can you lay out Mazzaroth (from Nazar – divine purpose - Strongs Concordance says the 12 signs of the Zodiac- the path or the way) Do you know the ordinances (prescribed arrangement) of the heavens? Can you ordain their authority over the earth? (Job38:32)

The Godly significance of this cannot be ignored or dismissed. But this knowledge was corrupted in ancient times, firstly through idolatry to the Egyptian sun god Ra where calculations of the positions of the stars was used for the building and usage of the pyramids. And the popular use of the zodiac in today’s world is associated with superstition and fortune telling. Counterfeiting is robbery - robbing God of glory for the trickery of man.
But in the Babylonian main temple depictions of the zodiac reveal archaeological findings that the zodiac was associated with the biblical Tower of Babel. indicating that the current naming of the constellations was of Babylonian origin thought to be around 500 years BC – this roughly coincides with Daniel’s ministry to the king during the captivity of Israel and the Bible says that Daniel was ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers who were in all his realm(Daniel 1:20). I am only joining Scriptural dots there and inferring the Daniel connection, and there is no solid historical documentation of various other cultures and constellation names.

Remarkably however, the original twelve Babylonian constellations start with the sign of Virgo and end with the sign of Leo. The depiction of Virgo is a sphinx, with the face of a woman and the body of a lion, a clue to the beginning and end points of the life of Jesus, representing the virgin birth and Jesus returning as the Lion of Judah to complete the message of the Gospel - because remarkedly again the 12th zodiac sign is that of Leo the lion. The constellations in between tell the astounding story of the life and ministry of Jesus for humanity. The second sign is Libra, the scales that weigh humanity in the balance after the creation of Adam, followed by Scorpio, denoting the fall of mankind through the attack of darkness upon humanity. We may look at the compelling story of the other constellations more closely at another time. Back to the Christmas story.

The Magi (and the Bible doesn’t say how many) set out on a long journey westward to where this bright star shone. The Gospel of Matthew says In the days of Herod the king, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it arose and have come to worship him (Matthew 2:1).
Their inquiries about the “new king of the Jews” reached the ears of Herod the Great, the local ruler appointed by Rome, and he feared that this child might threaten his dynasty, a potential Messiah heralding a kingdom that could upend his tenuous grip on power. He called in his scribes, demanded answers, and they pointed to the ancient prophecy of Micah, which pinpointed Bethlehem as the birthplace of the Messiah. pretence, Herod craftily met the Magi, urging them to locate the child and report back so he could “worship” him too. 
The Wise Men continued following the radiant star, and Matthew writes ‘And when they were come into the house (oikia – family house – there is no mention of a  stable in the bible, only a manger – feeding trough), they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him:’ (Matthew 2:11). Inside, the wise men found the child, Jesus, with Mary and Joseph. And they reverently knelt and worshipped him, presenting gifts of profound spiritual significance:
Gold – Godly stewardship of material and entrusted with the spiritual. (Luke 16:11)
Frankincense - prayer and presence and spiritual devotion. (Psalm 141:2)
Myrrh - sharing the sacrificial suffering of Jesus for self and others. (Philippians 3:10).

Warned in a dream by an angel not to return to Herod, the Magi quickly departed, and then the same angel appeared to Joseph, instructing him to flee with Mary and Jesus to Egypt to escape Herod’s wrath. Herod was furious at being outwitted, and he ordered the massacre of all the male children in Bethlehem under the age of two, just as Pharoah ordered the massacre of all male children at the time of the birth of Moses. Pharoah, like Herod feared for his own dynasty, and Moses became the deliverer/saviour of Israel and here Jesus became the deliverer/saviour of the world.
But Herod died soon after, and an angel appeared to Joseph again, instructing him to return to Israel. But learning that Herod’s cruel son, Antipas, ruled Judea, Joseph was wary, and was guided by the angel to lead his family to Nazareth in Galilee. 

The journey of the Wise Men is prophetic of the precision of how God’s purposes unfold in our lives also, even in the midst of our own mistakes and frailties and suffering and attacks of darkness. Just as the life of Jesus was written in eternity, God has eternally written the narrative of our lives also. David said in Psalm 139 ‘Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! (Psalms 139:16).

God told Abraham that his descendants would be as the sand of the sea and the stars of the sky (Genesis 22:17). The sand represents Israel, of the earth, and the stars represent the Holy Spirit in the lives of multitudes of believers. So just as the witness of the stars was a witness of the life of Jesus, the Bible says that the witness of the brightness of the stars is a witness to the measure of the life of God on display in our lives as well. 

Daniel 12:3 Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the expanse of the heavens, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.

1 Corinthians 15:40 There are also heavenly bodies (soma - entities or things) and earthly bodies; but the glory of the heavenly is one, and the glory of the earthly is another. There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star 
differs from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. The bodily state of being is sown in decay and raised in immortality, it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory. 

The Sun is seen symbolically as the Father, and the Moon is seen as Jesus who reflected the light of the sun. The stars are seen as the Holy Spirit within our lives, from one measure of transformation into the likeness of Jesus to the next – from glory to glory.

2 Corinthians 3:18 All of us, 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 more we consciously behold Jesus by faith, in our lives here on earth, the more we become transformed to become like him. The way we are told to measure our faith in this life involves how much we know and understand the love of God for us, and how much we live a life of his love to others (1John 3:17-18). 
Paul describes the transformation process for our lives. 
Ephesians 3:22 put off your old self, which belongs to your former way of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds (repentance), and to put on the New Creation self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
This process is one of moving from our old self reality which is based on our idea of who we are to moving to our new creation reality in Christ, which is God’s idea of who we are. We will feel insufficient in ourselves and our own strength as we go through times of trial and suffering, but his loving presence is always with us, and that depends on our faith in God’s idea of who we are not on our idea, or how we feel. 
2 Corinthians 4:6-7 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 presence of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; That new mindset of faith in being partakers of the divine nature of God is the good news of the Gospel. And knowing that and believing that is our salvation.
Paul OSullivan - pauloss@me.com

 

PRELUDE TO THE INN CROWD

I spoke a couple of weeks ago about how God always steps in at critical times when God’s people are ready to come into a greater fullness of what God has prepared for them from the beginning. Just as he did with setting Israel free from their 400 years of slavery in Egypt. Before Jesus ascended to Heaven he prophesied that in the last days before his second coming that Israel would be hated by all nations.                                                                                                                                                                                                              
Matthew 24:5 … you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake (happening now). And then many will be offended and 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.
 
My prayer is that Australia will be a nation that will not hate Israel. It will mean a wake up call to our nation, which has failed in the last three years in curbing or disciplining the open displays of hatred towards Israel from their historical Middle East persecutors – and in our very own streets of Terra Australis – In 1606 the a Portuguese explorer, Pedro Ferdinand de Queros named the region La Austrialia del Espiritu Santo The Southland of the Holy Spirit - the Great Southland of the Holy Spirit. This may be a time when God is calling the Church to be in prayer for Israel.
I have looked at a couple of Scriptures over the years concerning the land of the South. I don’t have a revelation of this, but I ponder these Scriptures. I always come from a place of believing that nothing is written that does not have significance – I then ask God to reveal any significance in his time and in his way. I’ll submit these two Scriptures for you to look at. Jesus said 
Matthew 12:42 The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation (houtos – this or that) and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.
That of course applies to that generation in the time of Jesus, but it also applies to the last days when Paul said that because of deceitful signs and wonders even the elect might be deceived (2Thessalonians 2:9). As in most cases the word of warnings apply to both Israel and the Church. (1Corinthians 10:11)
Also Zechariah 9:14 Then the LORD will be seen over them, And His arrow will go forth like lightning. The Lord GOD will blow the trumpet,And go with whirlwinds from the south. The LORD of hosts will defend them;
And today, we find ourselves in a similar season of crisis in the earth when global darkness has never been darker upon a world of uncertainty, division, and spiritual disconnection. But in these times of empty-but-full silence, God speaks Suddenly - God’s people wait with hope as God is stirring the hearts of His people to hear his voice, knowing that God is never silent without purpose. Our silence can also be purposeful, and our waiting is with hope and faith that God is at work in reordering all things. 
God waits to speak.
Isaiah 30:18 Therefore the LORD will wait, that He may be gracious to you

THE INN CROWD 
Caesar Augustus as the emperor of Rome decreed that a census be held so that everyone in the empire could be taxed according to their property ownership and other possessions. They all had to go to their place of birth to be registered so Joseph who was of the house and lineage of King David had to take Mary to Bethlehem, to his family home. The Scriptures had prophesied that the true King of Peace would be born in Bethlehem at that very time, in a small village nearly five thousand miles distance from the palace of Caesar Augustus in Rome. And we read the amazing prophecy of Micah, over seven hundred years earlier that declared that Bethlehem would be the place of the birth of Jesus.

Micah 5:2. O Bethlehem Ephrathah, you are but a small Judean village, yet you will be the birthplace of my King who is alive from everlasting ages past!” God will allow his people to become subject to their enemies until she who is to give birth has her son; then at last these fellow countrymen—the exile remnants of Israel—will rejoin their nation in their own land. And he (The Son) shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God, and his people shall remain there safely, for he will be greatly honoured all around the world. He will be our Peace. 

Joseph and Mary were sent to the right place at the right time for the birth of Jesus, fulfilling the seven-hundred-year-old prophesy of his birthplace, and becoming the King of Peace.
Joseph walked beside the donkey that carried his wife. He was getting weary, and the journey was tiresome for Mary, and he knew he had to get his wife to the place of his family’s household and out of the cold, and the time was getting close for her to give birth. They finally arrived at the family home where they were warmly welcomed and invited inside. The dwelling complex was the usual cluster of rooms surrounding a central courtyard and it became clear to Joseph that the house was overcrowded, and that all the guestrooms were occupied. The word for guestroom in the Bible is kataluma, and this is the word for ‘Inn’, as in Luke 22:11 which states in the narrative that ‘There was no room at the Inn’. So we are not talking about two travellers trying to book into a local tavern that had already filled its quota in such a busy season, and they did not have to go and look for a stable in some paddock up the road. What the story is saying is that Joseph and his wife would have to stay in the stable of the family home, downstairs, in that warm place where the animals slept and fed. 
Joseph saw the signs of the oncoming birth in the drawn face and the discomfort in Mary’s eyes and he settled her as quickly and gently as he could.  Then Mary gave birth to her child, and a baby cried its baby cry as it entered the world. Father’s joy in heaven would be echoed by Joseph in the earth, and he would now adopt the role of the child’s earthly father. 
On earth it was the natural and familiar scene of new birth. In the universe it was the most supernatural of any birth in history. It was also ordained that this birth would become the most celebrated event for all time, being celebrated annually by millions upon billions down through the ages, many of whom have scarce idea of what is really being celebrated.

Nearby, where shepherds were looking after their sheep upon the hills a huge shining star reached its zenith and was lighting up the entire night sky. The shepherds looked up in wonder at this light and suddenly the lights of shining angels dazzled them, and they became terrified and ran and huddled together. The Angel Gabriel appeared above them, sent to tell them of the birth of Jesus. He told them not to be afraid, and that he had great and marvellous news for them, for all the world to hear. He told them that they would find a child, the Newborn King of the universe, God the Saviour, wrapped in simple clothing in a nearby stable. Suddenly Gabriel was joined by a multitude of angels as the brilliant night sky resounded with their voices singing, and they listened enraptured at the magnificent words. “The glory of God is being seen in the heavens, and his love and goodness is creating a new era of peace for all mankind.” The angelic song about this new creation in the world was the magnificent sequel to the angels’ song of the first creation of the world as we read in the book of Job after God challenges Job and says ‘Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you know so much. Do you know how its dimensions were determined, and who did the surveying? What supports its foundations, and who laid its cornerstone as the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy? (Job 38:4,7,8).

When the angels’ singing had stopped, the shepherds were guided to the place where this extraordinary event was taking place in the earth. These simple shepherds became the emissaries to the world of the birth of this king of kings, this child, and all who heard them were astounded and amazed.

A great light shone upon a newborn child who would bring light into this world, to every person born into this world (John 1:9). And this light would be contested by darkness as always, but the conflict now rose to a new height. Time waited for the outcome, the verdict, the final encounter between light and darkness on a cross that would come one dark and stormy day. Time would wait until Father was ready, then this light would be released into the earth with the power to overcome darkness in every single life of faith.

God with us means more than just alongside us. It means he is within and through our being, and more than that, we are within and through his being. Jesus had declared this mystery of the human/ Divine intersection of life and being when he prayed to the Father in front of the  disciples “I have given them the glory you gave me—the glorious unity of being one, as we are— I in them and you in me, all being perfected into one—so that the world will know you sent me and will understand that you love them as much as you love me. (John 17:22)
This Divine intersection of our being with God is how we get to ‘know God’. The Holy Spirit speaks into our spirit the mind and words of Jesus, and we ‘see and know’ Jesus in this way. Faith lets us speak to him as a person, person to person. 
1John 2:27 But you have received the Holy Spirit, and he lives within you, so you don’t need to learn another person’s personal perception of God to know what is true. For the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know, and what he teaches is true.
This does not mean we disregard Scriptural teaching. This Scripture simply makes alive and real the personal and individual whisper of God into our spirit as the wisdom and understanding of the mind and heart of God that we need in any given situation and at any given time. That is what Jesus accomplished for us. That becomes the light to our path allowing us to express our unique and truest self in the best possible way. That is our faith.
Christmas waits to be truly celebrated within this understanding. We need to understand the story of the human beginning of Jesus. We also need to know the story of his redeeming work in the earth and we need to knowthe story of his death and resurrection, in order to know him and love him and serve him and become one with him forever. Amen.

Paul O’Sullivan  - pauloss@icloud.com

A PREGNANT SILENCE
Many times, God has spoken after long periods of silence. There were 400 years of silence after the prophet Malachi spoke in the last book of the Old Testament, and then John the Baptist and Jesus were supernaturally born into the earth. there were also 400 years of silence during the time of Israel’s slavery in Egypt under Pharoah until God spoke to Moses to set his people free and prepare to journey into the promised land. The number 400 in the Bible speaks of these seasons of Pregnant Silence, which can be described as a time of silence when all communication is suspended and that time feels both empty and yet strangely full, filled with anticipation that something important is about to be spoken or revealed.

For about four thousand years after Adam when Jesus was born the earth had suffered under the weight of its brokenness. Humanity was lost, unable to heal itself. Suspicion and hostility toward Father God, sown by Lucifer, had led to a distorted view of God in the earth, and many saw Him as distant and judgmental, and even Judaism opposed itself from within through doctrines of legalism and hypocrisy and pride. This distancing of Israel from the love and grace of God caused Jesus to tell them at that time that they had ‘missed their day of visitation’ (Luk 19:44). 
Galilee of the Gentiles was the battlefield of good against evil and of light against darkness, as Isaiah had prophesied concerning the birth of Jesus as the light out of darkness and the new birth of life out of death.
In Galilee of the Gentiles the people who walked in darkness Have seen a great light.
Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined. (Isaiah 9:1-2. 
God had a greater answer—not a set of rituals or rules, but Himself. Jesus, as God and man, would bridge the gap between heaven and earth. He would step out of eternity and into time, exchanging pure Spirit existence for divine/human existence as the first New Creation Being in the earth. In this great mission, the Holy Spirit played an essential role. The Holy Spirit partnered with Jesus, sharing every moment of His earthly life. This partnership ensured that the Holy Spirit too would intimately experience human existence. After Jesus completed His mission, the Holy Spirit would continue the work of revealing God’s love - and drawing humanity into communion with the Divine so that we too could become a New Creation in Christ.

To begin this new chapter, God sent a divine Spiritual seed into the earth, choosing Mary, a young and humble woman, to receive it. The angel Gabriel appeared to her, announcing that she had been chosen to become pregnant and bear the God-child Jesus, and he reassured her that this was God’s will. Although Mary was initially confused, having never been with a man, Gabriel explained that the Holy Spirit would overshadow her, and she would conceive a child by divine power, and Mary, in faith and humility, responded, “Let it be done unto me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).

Mary was betrothed to a man called Joseph and in the cultural context of Mary and Joseph, betrothal was a formal, legal agreement between families, often formalized with a written contract (ketubah) and the couple was considered legally married, but if there was a breach of honour to that contract, either party could initiate divorce proceedings. 

When Joseph discovered that Mary was pregnant with child, he was deeply troubled, but he resolved to act with compassion, planning to quietly divorce her (Matthew 1:19). However, the angel Gabrielle also appeared to him in a dream, telling him that Mary’s child was conceived by the Holy Spirit and would save His people from their sins. Joseph obeyed the angel’s command, and he took Mary as his wife.

Six months earlier a priestly prophet named Zechariah was told by the same angel Gabrielle that his wife Elizabeth who was beyond the age of childbearing, would also supernaturally give birth to a child and the child would be called John. 
Luke 1:17-20 … a child who would go before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, and to make ready for the Lord a people prepared. 
However, Zechariah could not believe this, so the angel said I am Gabriel, I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time. 
This was another supernatural pregnancy and from this moment a supernatural pregnant silence occurred as the priestly prophet was struck dumb until the pregnancy was over and the baby John was born. Zecharia the priestly prophet being struck mute for a season of time was symbolic of Israel, who had not heard a prophetic voice since the prophecy of Malachi, the last prophet to speak until both John the Baptist and Jesus came to proclaim the supernatural birth of the Kingdom of God in the earth. 

Following Gabriel’s announcement to Zechariah and Mary and Joseph, Mary journeyed to visit her cousin Elizabeth, who had been with child for six months, the baby John, who would prepare the way for Jesus. And the baby leaped in Elizabeth’s womb as the two sisters shared the wonder of their supernatural pregnancies. Elizabeth finally gave birth to her son, and it was assumed the child would be named Zechariah, after his father. However, Elizabeth insisted he be named John, and when questioned, Zechariah, who had been struck mute for doubting Gabriel’s prophecy, wrote the name John on a clay tablet and immediately, his voice returned, and he praised God. The silence was broken for all the world to hear God and have his presence amongst them. When John the Baptist began his ministry of preparing the way for Jesus, many in Israel believed that he was Elijah whom Malachi had prophesied about.
The final words of Malachi’s prophesy came from the last verse of the last chapter of the last book of the Old Testament, and they declared that God would send the prophet Elijah before the coming of the Messiah and that he would turn the hearts of the children to their fathers and the hearts of the fathers to their children. 
 and even Jesus said that John had come in the spirit of Elijah - This is the one about whom it is written: “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you. (Matthew 11)

And today, we find ourselves in a similar season of pregnant silence from Heaven upon a world that is rife with uncertainty, division, and spiritual disconnection. Many voices in this global culture clamour for attention yet rarely do they bring clarity or wisdom. But in the midst of this time of empty-but-full silence, God’s people wait with expectant hope as God is stirring the hearts of His people to hear his voice and to awaken others and turn their hearts back to him. Just as John’s mission was to prepare the way for Jesus, the Holy Spirit is working in us who believe, to bring light and hope to the world. 

This preparation doesn’t rely on loud proclamations or dramatic gestures but on God’s people hearing his voice and responding with consistent acts of love and faith as he moves through our everyday lives inspiring us to reflect God’s mercy and truth in our daily interactions.
Zechariah’s regained voice reminds us that God’s word always comes at the appointed time. As we await a fresh movement of the Spirit, we can take comfort in knowing that God is never silent without purpose. Our silence can also be purposeful, and our waiting can be with hope and faith that God is at work in the world of the unseen on our behalf. The Bible says
Whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. (1John 5:4)
We wait in silence, but that silence is pregnant with the faith of bringing to birth God’s will in our lives and in the Church. When His voice breaks through, it will be with clarity, cutting through the confusion of the world. We wait to hear and God waits to speak.
Isaiah 30:18 Therefore the LORD will wait, that He may be gracious to you;
                                                                                                                                                                                                              
Malachi prophesied before the 400 years of silence that God would turn the hearts of the children to their fathers and the hearts of the fathers to their children before his return – in the days his first coming to Israel - and in the days of his second coming into the world. Today this means that there will be a grace upon families that will become reunited in the love of God and one another. This promise remains true for us today. In the midst of the darkness of today’s world of chaos, the light of God’s love is beginning to shine. As we choose to live in that love and its light, we will witness the hand of God bringing order out of chaos and bringing unity, hope, and peace to people in our own personal world. Amen

Paul O’Sullivan – pauloss@me.com

 

 

THE BATTLE IS NOT YOURS BUT GOD'S

The Bible gives the account of God speaking to King Jehoshaphat, who was a faithful king – the fourth king of Judah, and he was about to go into battle against the enemy, which was an ungodly alliance (I’m using that term from time to time today) of the armies of Ammon and Moab and Mt.Seir. 2Chronicles 20:17. You will not need to fight in this battle for the battle is not yours, but God's. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. Do not be afraid nor be dismayed; for the Lord your God is with you.”

In that battle of Jehoshaphat’s, that army was about to attack Israel to prevent them from entering into their inheritance of the promised Land. Earlier on, Israel were told not to attack these three nations when they first came out of Egypt. However God always steps in at critical times when God’s people are ready to come into the fullness of what God has prepared for them from the beginning. The people of Israel were in fear and terror and Jehoshaphat cried out to God ‘O our God, will you not execute judgment on them? For we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”

The Bible goes on to say ‘And when they began to sing and praise, the Lord set an ambush (âra? - to lie in wait and destroy) against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, so that they were destroyed.  God set the divided kingdoms of the enemy against one another (ungodly alliances turn against one another).
For the men of Ammon and Moab rose against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, and destroyed them first, and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, they all helped to destroy one another.’
So by the time Israel appeared on the scene ready for battle there were dead bodies everywhere and the fight was all over, and it took Israel three days to gather up all the spoil from the treasuries of the opposing armies. 
I believe we are living in a time such as this for the Church as the rebellion of ungodly alliances of darkness against the light of God’s people has also begun to reach its peak.
In ancient times, and up to the time of Jesus people worshipped a multitude of different gods and therefore could never agree on anything. There were no athiests. Today there are atheists but people have invented their own gods, or their own images or ideologies of what they believe will give them everything they want in life.

Over the last decade or more a cultural slogan called DEI or diversity, equity and inclusion has become a rule for social and sometimes educational and political and corporate life. If done in a godly way this slogan has a lot of merit, as diversity is an accepted fact of life, and equity means an appropriate sharing of privilege (it doesn’t mean equality), and inclusion means inclusion. Nothing wrong with that.
But when done in an ungodly selfish way, individuals or groups of people compete to be more diverse or different than anything ever seen or heard of before and demand to be applauded for their choices it can put a strain on the fragile cultural window of tolerance and confusion and resentment starts happening everywhere. Equity then becomes I/we want to be more equal than most other people and want to enjoy every privilege that other people have without responsibly earning or paying for or deserving. 

The ungodly nature of the DEI slogan is because it was based on an unspoken agreement in our culture to reject traditional Western values of Christianity which stood for a creator God with authority over human affairs through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Traditional values such as family order, freedom of speech, and obedience to the Commandments have been despised and rejected. This has caused ungodly alliances to form, and become set against one another, just as with King Jehosophat where God set the divided kingdoms of the enemy against one another (ungodly alliances turn against one another). DEI, diversity, equity, and inclusion then devolves over a short time into division, inequity, and exclusion (DIE). Identity groups compete for priority of privilege and within what looked like a united front of many identity groups fragments into different splinter groups cancelling one other out and leaving more conflict and hostility in society than there was in the first place. 
We might think that what is happening today is something new, but it isn’t, as we have seen with King Jehoshaphat, and Paul sums up the rebellious attitude of today’s culture when he wrote over two thousand years ago in Romans.
Romans 1:19-28 (Message Bible)
By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what normal eyesight can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a good excuse. What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn’t treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all but were illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap statuettes you can buy at any roadside stall.
So God said, in effect, “If that’s what you want, that’s what you get.” It wasn’t long before they were living in a pigpen, smeared with filth inside and out. And all this because they traded the true God for a fake god and worshiped the god they made instead of the God who made them—the God we bless, the God who blesses us.
Worse followed. Refusing to know God, they soon didn’t know how to be human either—women didn’t know how to be women, men didn’t know how to be men. Sexually confused, they abused and defiled one another, women with women, men with men—all lust, no love. And then they paid for it, oh, how they paid for it—emptied of God and love, godless and loveless.
Since they didn’t bother to acknowledge God, God quit bothering them and let them run loose. And then all hell broke loose: rampant evil, grabbing and grasping, vicious backstabbing. They made life hell on earth with their envy, wanton killing, bickering, and cheating. Look at them: mean-spirited, venomous, fork-tongued God-bashers. Bullies, swaggerers, insufferable windbags! They keep inventing new ways of wrecking lives and they ditch their parents when they get in the way. Stupid, cruel, cold-blooded. And it’s not as if they don’t know better. They know perfectly well they’re spitting in God’s face. And they don’t care—worse, they hand out prizes to those who do the worst things best!

The basis for Christian unity, a Godly Alliance, is found in Ephesians 4:1 walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
Paul sums up the Church’s confidence in our unity of trust in God’s power on our behalf.
1 Corinthians 8:4 we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords), yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live. However, there is not in everyone that knowledge;

Israel did physical warfare – we do spiritual warfare. We can receive peace from God, knowing that he alone can subdue all things to himself (Philippians 3.x) including the hearts of people, and that he is the creator God who alone can bring order out of chaos, and who speaks light into darkness. And as Paul explains in Ephesians 6:10 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the times of evil, and having done all, to stand. We do not fight against people but against dark spirits called principalities, which are social demographic regions where the culture of states and cities is expressed. We also wrestle against powers that buffet our personal souls. We wrestle against the rulers of the darkness of this age, that means the darkness that is influencing the collective mindsets and ideologies and attitudes of the global atmosphere that exists in this time of worldwide crisis. 
 
Paul writes about our strategic spiritual defensive pieces of armour such as a ‘helmet of salvation’ protecting the mind and thoughts, and he talks about a spiritual breastplate over the heart that protects us from fear. The head and the heart are the two most vulnerable parts of the body in warfare, and in spiritual terms the mind is the stronghold to where darkness directs his primary attack. We are directed in the Scriptures to bring our thoughts captive to the present moment that contains the ever-present presence of God with us through the indwelling Holy Spirit who reveals the reality of the power of Jesus to reorder our lives.This is being renewed in the spirit of our minds. We magnify the reality of God’s supernatural activity above the unreality of our anxious imaginations about everything that might go wrong. 
 
The other vulnerable area is our heart. That is where either fear or faith can dwell. Darkness fires darts of doubt and fear into this stronghold of our relationship with God, and we are given a shield of faith to protect ourselves from this kind of attack. The very areas that satan seeks to attack you are the areas of your strength as you enter this new season - and because you have paid a price and kept going, God is giving you access to the next step in your destiny - a short climb to the next place of rest and refreshment, where God will bring healing to the wounds the enemy may have inflicted you with.
Paul also mentions spiritual weapons, like the sword, which speaks of the word of God. 

The people under Jehoshaphat were told to ‘Position yourselves, stand still, and see, and to fear not.’ We Position ourselves – Our position is as partners together with God. We are partakers of his Divine nature - Joint Heirs together with Jesus. We do not earn this – it is a gift of God’s grace. But we dare not neglect it.
We stand still – We come into a place of readiness and alertness in our spirit, not passively but actively - mindful of the now moment of God’s ever-present presence with us. We See - That is seeing God at work by faith in the world of the unseen, as opposed to seeing things happen the way Israel did at the ambushing of the enemies in Jehoshaphat’s battle. Our outward ‘seing’ will come if we have been inwardly ‘seeing’ by faith. That lifts us into a present moment assurance of the greatness and goodness of God, and we magnify God’s greatness above our own weakness – ‘For The Lord your God is with you’. Amen