If Jerusalem can be made into an historical Palestinian city, then the Jews have no claim to Israel. But even more breathtaking, the Christians have no claim that a Jew named Jesus Christ was the Messiah. If Jerusalem is not the center of the Bible and the great history of Abraham’s seed, then both Judaism and Christianity is all fake. This is why the world, especially Islam, is determined to claim this God chosen city as their own. When President Obama is anxious to divide the city, he is attacking every Christian’s faith in this nation and the world. Palm Sunday is a special event when you understand the prophecy that sets this day over five hundred years earlier. It was Daniel that received this revelation of a seventy-week period of seven-day cycles. Sixty-nine weeks of this cycle were perfectly fulfilled as the Son of God rode this colt of a donkey into Jerusalem. The decree that sets this prophecy was issued by a pagan king named Artaxerxes in March 445 BC. To the very day, the four hundred and eighty-three years was fulfilled and is now a prophecy of a future celebration. The glorious and triumphant Christ will march with His multitude of returning saints into Jerusalem and free it for the last time. The Eastern Gate will be opened and He will enter the Holy Mount and cleanse it from the defilement of the Antichrist. This future celebration cannot occur until the Rapture and the Great Tribulation are finished. The seven years of “Jacob’s Trouble” is the same seven years that Jesus called the Great Tribulation. This is that seventieth week in the cycle of the seventy weeks. The Bible is the one perfect book.
Archive for March, 2010
Jerusalem, Celebrating Your King
Monday, March 29th, 2010Jerusalem: Capturing The World’s Attention
Saturday, March 27th, 2010The events surrounding Israel and her Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is perfect Biblical fulfillment. It’s ultimately a battle between God and the world, between Bible prophecy and those that are on the wrong side. If you are a Post-Millennialist, or Amillennialist or anything but a Pre-Tribulational believer, there is only one way for there to be peace in the Middle East. Israel must be destroyed, that is, unless the Bible is absolute truth. This is the very reason that the majority of the world is anti-Israel. When you view the world’s obsession with this tiny nation and the determined effort to divide their small piece of land into two nations, what can change? Every effort for peace is always against Israel. There are wonderful Christians among Palestinians, that is not the argument. It is the radical religion of Islam that says Jerusalem is our city and we will never give up until it is our capitol. Every fact of history says that Jerusalem is the Jewish capitol. The Third Temple will be built on its Temple Summit. Jesus Christ will return to this city and enter its Eastern Gate to establish His Millennial Kingdom. The Jews will inherit this city and it will be the world capitol for Christ’s Kingdom on earth. Nothing is going to change this because God has spoken in His Word. Next week, we will look at Jerusalem during the seven years of the Great Tribulation. On April 10th we will look at Jerusalem when it will be the world capitol for the one thousand years of perfect peace. Jesus Christ will reign from this chosen city. Oh, Jerusalem, peace has finally come to you!!!!!
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Dark Depths of an Undisciplined Life
Thursday, March 25th, 2010
The human temple is a marvelous, living machine. The human mind is a powerhouse of potential. But, it is scary to see the place where an undisciplined mind or life will finish its train wreck. The potential for greatness has a perfect balance in its capacity for disaster. All of these possibilities of living are decided in the conference center of the human will. The great capacity of the human brain is at the choice of our will. You can use your mind if you will and, once the will is set, the die is cast.
A sharp shooter is the result of a disciplined will. This individual has set their mind to train and harness themselves until shooting is more instinct than aim. The entire human body becomes tuned into the process. It’s a matter of disciplining the total person for the mastery of that skill. This is equally true of the world of art, the world of communication, the skills of a great physician, or a master athlete. There is no possibility of greatness until there is the presence of discipline. The human will must be harnessed and set for the dream.
God’s kingdom needs men and women that will discipline themselves to Christ with the same abandonment we see given to worldly goals. Read what Apostle Paul said by the Holy Ghost to the believers at Corinth, “And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway” (I Corinthians 9:25-27). The picture of discipline in that Christian mastery is breathtaking.
The Holy Spirit is speaking the language of self-control and selflessness towards the Christian life. “Striveth for the mastery” are words of passion to a soul that can dream. The dream here is of surrender and devotion to Jesus Christ and the incorruptible crown that a saint of God can obtain. The key words are “temperate in all things” or self-control. No one can discipline your heart and mind but you. Incarcerated prisoners can be forced to be disciplined through fear and intimidation; but, after a few hours on the street, they are wild again.
King Saul was heads and shoulders above his fellowmen. The Father chose him to be the first king of His people, Israel. When he was anointed, another Spirit came on him and He began to prophecy. Greatness was in his future because the Father had a plan for him. “And it was so, that when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him another heart: and all those signs came to pass that day” (I Samuel 10:9). But King Saul had a core problem. He could not discipline himself under the prophet of God. “And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept the commandment of the LORD thy God, which he commanded thee: for now would the LORD have established thy kingdom upon Israel for ever” (I Samuel 13:13).
The Bible never hid the failures of many potential success stories. The elder son of Adam and Eve followed in the path of his mother and refused to offer a Biblical sacrifice and became a vagabond. Esau, the elder son of Isaac, was crass and wild. Today, his heirs are the Islamic terrorists. David, who became a “man after God’s own heart,” brought shame on his life that never ended, even in his greatness. Judas Iscariot could have had his name on one of the foundations of New Jerusalem, but “by transgressions fell” (Acts 1:25). Every failure was the result of an undisciplined life. They never lacked in opportunity but they lacked self-control.
When I was saved in 1952, there was great pulpit mastery all over America. I can recall pulpiteers that fed my soul with powerful preaching that set my course to love the Word of God and to master its truths. The greatest drought in America and the church world is the absence of fearless preachers that can storm the gates of Hell. Some of these formerly great men are still alive but have become wimpy and frivolous. Instead of scaring the world, they are now scared by the world. Instead of longing for the mastery of a powerful anointing, they are pursuing the gold and silver of a “Name It, Claim It” gospel. They are train wrecks.
But, all is not lost. The human soul and mind can still be so surrendered and disciplined that Christ can be revealed to this lost generation. Your temple is a marvelous, living machine. Jesus Christ is challenging the present saints to “eat His flesh and drink His blood” until Christ is formed in your life. This is a depth that only the selfless and self-controlled can experience. If you are wild and a law unto yourself, you are close to being a castaway. Your train wreck is right down the sad road of self. The Holy Ghost is calling out to the humble souls that want the dreams of our Master. Believe me, there is no joy like the joy of our whole life being attuned to the deep life of Christ. Like the sharpshooter, when our temple is all surrendered and disciplined, the whole life is disciplined in the love of His will.
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Hallelujah Worship: A House Full Of Fragrance
Monday, March 22nd, 2010This great event where Mary anoints the feet of Jesus and dries them with her hair is the highest level of worship recorded in the life of Christ. The recognition of His Divinity had finally arrested His disciples and followers. The word is out from both the High Priest and the Pharisees that if anyone knows of His presence they must show it so that they can take Him. The supper at the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus was a risk to all present, but no one seemed to care. There can be a place in the true worship of the Son of God that all fear is cast to the wind. This event is a case in point. Lazarus was sitting at the table with Jesus because his resurrection had elevated him to a position of eldership. Martha’s worship was manifest in the great cause of service. She possessed a servant’s heart and the house and dinner table was a picture of perfection. Mary was a tenderheart and her entire being had eyes only for the eternal Son of God. She was arrested with Godly love for the Rose of Sharon. Judas, the betrayer, is present and reveals his ointment of malice. The possessor of the money bag can only think of the value of Mary’s sacrifice and its addition to his treasure. Spontaneously, Mary goes to find her richest treasure because her heart tell her its time to give Him her best. Her gift may seem a waste to someone that has not been “Born Again” to the life He offered. To Mary anything less would have been selfishness. This great truth is a picture of what we owe Him for what He did for us. Her example is the picture of a New Testament Church that has sold all to find “Treasure Of Great Price.”
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Jerusalem: President Obama’s Waterloo
Saturday, March 20th, 2010President Obama has clearly decided to take on the angels of God that defend Jerusalem. “I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence, And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. The LORD hath sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength . . .” (Isaiah 62:6-8a). Our president and his administration are doing several things that defy common sense. They are fighting with angels; rejecting God’s eternal plan; blaspheming Jesus Christ, the Jewish Messiah; joining the Islamic War against Israel and Christ’s earthly family; and defying God. When Titus, the Roman Emperor, destroyed Jerusalem, he stood on the ruins of Jerusalem and boasted that he had defeated their God; but, he did not reach Rome before the means of death had attack his body. Every person that is Born Again must spend time on their knees praying for the peace of Jerusalem. Israel was cut off because of their unbelief and today’s church is obligated to share their tribulation as God turns the prophetic clock back to His Chosen people. The Gentile hour is closing down as the Jewish time is at the door. “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins” (Romans 11: 25-27). What a future we have, both Jews and Gentiles!
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The Artistry of the Holy Ghost
Thursday, March 18th, 2010
The Son of God saw the sadness and gloom that gripped His disciples when He said He was leaving them. They were overwhelmed with the sense of disappointment and helplessness. As He felt their pain, He spoke some of His most powerful words, “But now I go my way to him that sent me; and none of you asketh me, Whither goest thou? But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment” (John 16:5-8). His purpose in life was to die and His death was going to produce more than just a sacrifice for sin; it was going to guarantee that His Spirit would come to men to affect everything His death accomplished.
His dying would have served no purpose if there was not a plan to supernaturally craft all of Himself and His redemption into all of us who would believe. The Holy Spirit has been appointed by the Father to the office of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Spirit is His eternal name, but the title of Holy Ghost is His office to absolutely represent another, even the Son of the Living God. The translators of Scripture in the King James Bible saw this great truth and translated “Holy Spirit” to “Holy Ghost” in each instance where His office of representing Jesus Christ was evident. The work of the Spirit is the “Artistry of His Cross” in redemption and newness of life. He takes the old, sinful, and debauched human life and crafts the new man of grace and redemption. The Comforter has come and His work is breathtakingly beautiful.
One of the eternal truths of the Bible is the helplessness of human flesh. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). Sin has robbed man of His expressions of likeness to God. Man’s spirit is bound in death and physical helplessness. He may pant after God and seek Him in many ways and in much religious action, but until the Holy Ghost finds the open door to his heart it is all in vain. Jesus said, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him” (John 6:44a). Humility is not a pious face but a broken heart before God. Until man is willing to accept the complete defeat of himself, even his search for God, and declare absolute surrender to God’s sovereign mercy; there is no salvation. We do not chase and find God, He reveals Himself as we follow Him.
Jesus knew what was in man. He said great things to express this fact, “But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man” (St. John 2:24-25). Three chapters of Saint John were almost exclusively given to declare the gift of the Holy Ghost and His unfailing value to His saints. The Holy Spirit is a person possessing every attribute of the Godhead and He was sent to perfect in the body of the church every value of redemption. The church world is so full of flesh and human activity — void of the spiritual manifestations of God — that it is all a laughingstock to Satan and his hordes. Our Father and our Lord is calling us out of this malaise back to His Book.
Almost everything we connect to the work of the Holy Ghost has to do with emotions, but His real activity is in the human spirit and human soul. The Holy Ghost indwells the saints to craft Christ into every aspect of our being. Jesus Christ said, “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (St. John 14:26-27). It is when Christ sanctifies our life, spirit, soul, and body that beauty replaces carnality and flesh. Even our faces reflect the deep work occurring inside. The Divine artistry of this redemptive work is heavenly. Apostle Paul said it perfectly, “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18).
The Scripture speaks much of our relationship to this deep work of the Holy Ghost. The Bible says that we are “sealed by the Spirit.” We are warned not to “grieve the Spirit” or “resist the Spirit.” In Thessalonica Paul wrote, “Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:19-24). Paul said, “…Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His” (Romans 8:9b). He, also, said, “In whom all the building (our temple) fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:21-22).
The redemptive process of our Lord Jesus Christ is beautiful. The Holy Spirit was sent by the Father to craft into His body, the church, the very image of Jesus Christ. The saints were called “Christians” at Antioch because this spiritual activity was glaring and life-changing. The world trembles when the Eternal Son has been recreated in the saints. The Holy Spirit has come to do the “Artistry of Calvary” in the lives of the redeemed.
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The Comforter Has Come
Monday, March 15th, 2010“If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you” (John 14:15-17). Two very important aspects of this message: the purpose of this promise and the people this promise is addressed to bless. There is not a human person that does not need a “Comforter.” The world has provided an endless list of agencies and professions just to comfort needy people. Their approach is not altogether bad or wrong, but it is very limited. The very people that do the comforting are often in need of what they are trying to give. The Holy Ghost is God. He is supernatural and has no need of a teacher or a comforter. He can move on the inside of every troubled life and comfort from the inside out. He does not practice comforting as a frail mortal man or woman, He breaks through the barriers and changes the life. He forgives sins that are often the cause. He heals relationships that have fractured the soul and He infuses life on the Divine level. But, you must not miss the second point. “The world cannot receive” this Comforter until there is a surrender to Jesus Christ. To receive this Comforter the troubled soul must turn from disobedience to God’s commandments. Broken commandments are always at the root of the need for a Comforter in the Divine scheme of life. If you want a band-aid the world can try to help, but a Divine fix will cost you your life.
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Jerusalem: The Antichrist Hates This City
Saturday, March 13th, 2010Any religious or secular spirit that hates or rejects Jerusalem as the capitol of Israel and the future capitol of the Millennial Kingdom is an Antichrist spirit. The Bible calls religious people that believe in replacement theology the “Synagogue of Satan.” ” Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee” (Revelation 3:9). How is it possible to be Born Again and not be a lover of Israel and a prayer warrior for the coming peace of Jerusalem? A spiritual war is being waged over this great Biblical truth. The Bible is perfectly clear that when Jesus Christ returns to fight the Battle of Armageddon, Jesus Christ will enter Jerusalem to the complete conversion of the Jewish people, “And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn” (Zechariah 12:10). He will be proclaimed the King of Kings and will sit on the Throne of David. Jerusalem will become the capitol of the whole earth for 1000 years of peace and righteousness. The six thousand years of man’s rule will be over. The Sabbath kingdom will show the kind of world that our God intended at the beginning of man’s earthly reign. The first six thousand years will end at God’s perfect design.
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The Best Wine At the End
Friday, March 12th, 2010
A marriage celebration is a wonderful occasion. It is God ordained to both meet the deepest physical joy of man and to prophetically portray the ultimate joy of the Lord Jesus. When Adam had finished naming all the created creatures, the Father saw that his highest earthly creation was lonely and without a companion. From Adam’s rib, God made woman and joined them by heart to each other. From the first memorial event until this day, wedding feasts have brought laughter, celebration, and union. Satan was furious and devised a foolish alternative called sodomy. Sodomy actually blasphemed the beauty of God’s pure plan both for man and for His Son. It is the lowest point of human depravity.
It is fitting that Jesus performed His first miracle at a wedding feast. Every aspect of this event was filled with prophecy, but nothing as beautiful as the miracle of the last wine. The wedding had progressed for days until the supply of wine was gone. Mary, the mother of Jesus, told Jesus and then said to the servants, “Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it” (John 2:5). Great containers for purification were available and Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the waterpots with water” (John 2:7). When this was done he commanded, “Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast” (John 2:8). The guests were astonished when they began to drink the miracle wine and explained, “Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now” (John 2:10). The wedding feast ended in a blaze of excitement because of this miracle and the “best wine at the end.”
This great miracle is prophetic of the day in which we live. Wine is a great type of spiritual blessing and the joy of the Holy Ghost. The Pentecostal experience has touched millions since the Day of Pentecost. We have witnessed the “early rain, moderately,” but soon, even any moment, the latter rain is ordained to begin. Joel said, “Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the fats shall overflow with wine and oil. And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you” (Joel 2:23-25). He firmly stated that this would occur in the first month. That is exactly the day which the Feast of Trumpets is ordained to occur. The Feast of Trumpets is the Old Testament type of the Rapture of the Church. The feast begins thirty days earlier with a daily trumpet and ends on the very first day of the first full month. Prophecy in Scripture is perfect, so it shall transpire.
I believe the Latter Rain is scheduled to begin a short period before the Rapture and then continue right through the Seven Years of Great Tribulation. It will then literally explode when the Jewish people are converted at the beginning of the thousand years of the Millennium. Isaiah proclaimed, “With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness” (Isaiah 26:9). The greatest harvest of all time is yet to come. The Pentecostal experience we have witnessed in our lives is but a shadow of this prophesied Latter Rain.
The best wine is saved until the end. The entire story of His first miracle is a story of the harvest in beautiful typology. The harvest started with His ministry, continued with the early church, and has been intermittent for two thousand years. It will explode in the End Time. We are privileged to live in this prophetic day and to be a part of the best wine of all history. The grapes are ripening for the final harvest.
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The Immeasurable Blood Of Jesus Christ
Monday, March 8th, 2010“And almost all things are by the law purged with Blood; and without shedding of Blood is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22). There was five points in the shedding of Christ’s Blood. At five times during the period of His arrest and suffering, our Lord and Savior was shedding His sacrificial offering for sin. As the song says, “Each drop of blood bought me a million years.” Not one drop of His Blood was less than supernatural. It was Divine Blood that had no Adamic sin. It was Blood that could not decay. It is just as powerful today as when it flowed from His veins. His first experience of sacrifice was in the Garden of Gethsemane. “And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of Blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44). Just the Blood shed in that garden was certainly sufficient to cleanse from sin. But then, in the courtyard before the Roman soldiers, His back was given to the scourging of terror from the roman whips. The vicious beating left His body ripped and torn. Again, Blood flowed from His sacred temple. Then a crown of thorns was pressed upon His head. They nailed Him to the cross and finally they thrust a spear in His side. He was wounded five times, and each time Holy Blood was released to redeem lost souls. To suggest that a person can be redeemed from Hell and the Lake of Fire without Christ’s Blood is blasphemy. We live in the Day of the Antichrist and his goal is to replace the crucified Christ with a new “christ” that treats sin with favor. The Biblical Christ will be back to get those washed in the Divine offering that paid the price demanded by God’s justice.
