Who was he? The Bible says he was king of Persia. But wait! Ezra 5:5 says he was King of Babylon! Which is it!
Both! He was indeed king of Persia but he was the very king who conquered Babylon. Once he did, he declared himself king of Babylon! Ah. So simple.
Thank You Lord.
before the Bride of Christ is raptured, then today is the day to consecrate your life to God if you are a believer, and to let Him sanctify you. If that’s the case, we only have 3.5 years to have an effect on our eternal state. What will we do in the millennium? Who will we be? We need to think about that. Once the Bride is caught up, that’s it. There are no more chances to be of use to Him. There are no more chances to gain treasure in Heaven. No more time to redeem; its finished.
There is a difference between consecrating ourselves to God ( not talked about much today) and sanctification. I would say that consecration is a place in the heart where I have set my mind, without waver or change to follow Jesus with my whole heart, mind and soul. Sanctification is that desire set in motion then sealed…worked out.
It is the sanctified who are raptured. These will be the Bride of Christ. If the peace deal signed this year, 2020 with Israel is the one mentioned in the Bible, then we have 3.5 years before the wrath begins. Today is the day to abode in Christ and bear fruit. Won’t you set your heart to do that today? Time is short.
Amen
It’s sort of an old-fashioned word. It’s a Biblical word; a Biblical concept no matter the word used.
God is always using this concept. I was listening to Missler and he made a wonderful observation concerning two other similar words.
He spoke of retaliation for a wrong done and retribution for a wrong done. The first is worldly and vindictive and the second is Godly and righteous. The first is a payback. The second is just.
So it brought another word to my mind: recompense. It is altogether different. I found myself asking the Lord for recompense and paused to wonder where that word came from. I didn’t know if I had the right word but God knew what I was asking for. I did not want a payback. I did not even want justice as that didn’t apply. But I longed for recompense. That is, I longed for God to come in and bless me in a big way that would undo the evil done to me and give me something to make up for the pain inflicted. That is beautiful recompense. God loves it. He says it all through His word. He says it is right to do it and He Longs to do it. My friends. He has done it so many times in my life.
It is a means of encouraging the believer who is the object of affliction from all angles on this walk. We are told that all who walk upright in Christ Jesus will be afflicted and oppressed. It’s so true. Now That won’t happen to worldly believers. They aren’t afflicted really because they are not at enmity with the world, therefore they don’t get punched as often. Maybe for doing wrong, they do but not by the enemy for doing what is right.
Retribution is something God returns upon the head of the offender, but recompense is a blessing, a gift that falls upon the afflicted, in payment for their affliction.
So remember that God recompenses the one who endures affliction. Look around…You’ll see it.
Recompense. It’s a beautiful word. Thank You Lord.
Amen.
Hebrews 12:10 says that God chastens His children for our profit, so that we MIGHT be partakers of His holiness. I show in the book how sanctification, righteousness, only comes through affliction which kills the flesh and leads to death to self-rule. He says here that very thing; that refining leads to holiness. We are not considered holy until self-rule is dethroned by death to self-rule. This is brought about through affliction, where self-will or self-rule is cut off…circumcised. Remember again that “we must through much tribulation enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14).
Hebrews 12:11 says that this chastening yields (produces) the peaceable fruit of righteousness. In other words, we don’t automatically dwell in Christ’s righteousness at salvation. We walk the walk of salvation and purify our hearts by submitting to affliction and crushing. This yields the fruit of righteousness because it allows Christ to be fully formed in us.
Remember that righteousness is attributed to us by way of faith, but this is sanctified faith and not saving faith. Abraham BELIEVED God; he was single-minded. Nehemiah honors Abraham is chapter 9:7 and says that God found Abram’s heart faithful before God. He walked in purity of heart toward God, not according to his own self-will. Nehemiah also notes that God changes his name, or gave him a new name. So He found Abram’s heart faithful toward God, and changed his name. Also, remember how God told Abram, after He made the covenant with him, that he should NOW, walk before Him and be PERFECT!
Let’s chew on all of this. More next time,
Amen!
We know from all the last day prophecy that during the 1000 year reign of Christ there will again be many nations. This confused me until I remembered that Noah, being one family, became many nations. So it still seems plausible to me that the 144,000 will repopulate the entire world during the millennium.
Paul tells us that not all who are of Israel are Israel. I am sure that even though the 144,000 believing Jews enter the 1000 year reign as Israel, that their offspring will become these nations of the earth during the 1000 year reign. Noah’s sons went out and settled the lands and made nations and people’s and many worshipped foreign gods. And think of this: Abraham was not a Jew. His offspring would become a nation claimed by God because of the covenant He made with Abraham, and this people would be called Israel, but Abraham was chosen to be the father of many nations (Gen. 17:4, etc) and he was. I believe this is just what will happen during the 1000 year reign. The 144,000 are not the bride of Christ but they are also the redeemed. “And all Israel will be saved”.
I believe that because so few believers will be raptured, they will hardly be noticed when they are. Isaiah, in chapters 56-57, describes this time. Isaiah says that the righteous (sanctified) are removed from the wrath to come and no one notices. The word “perish” here means “vanish”. ( I happened upon this on Whitestones Ministries website, looked it up, and it is correct). We have a strange representation of the rapture today. Some have thought that all of a sudden multitudes disappear. They say that all children will disappear as well and that would be an unmistakeable clue that the rapture has occurred. But hear this thought with me a moment and consider it with me. I don’t believe all children will go and here’s why: not every child will become a believer and God sees that. He knows every heart and every destiny. Hitler was once a sweet baby and a child but God knew who he would become… and he never would become a believer. Again, think back to the scripture that describes Jacob and Esau even before they were born… remember? Their destinies were already determined even before they could choose good or evil. “And all who were ordained to eternal life believed” ( Acts13.48). So while we see an innocent child, God sees the finished person. All are offered salvation but not all will receive it. Another truth: there are children in the tribulation. The church has been raptured but there are children still left. How do we know? All precise speaking of this time show us that there are children on the earth during the wrath. The rapture happens but not all children go.
More next time…
Within the heart of every believer, God is trying to grow us up into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. The lukewarm believer who lives according to the old man, won’t grow much and therefore Jesus is not fully formed in them. They are saved. This is not salvation I am talking about but sanctification.
I was just reading in John how the Father loves the Son. The Son in me. He shares everything He does with the Son. The Son in me. Isn’t that great reason to let God form Him fully in me? Don’t you want God to share these things with you as a confidant? He will. Let the Son be fully formed in you and see!
Amen Lord!
What a revolutionary and power packed, filled with dynamite, truth of the living God. Who will hear it? Let’s examine it: so God clearly says something here and it is gold. It is a hidden treasure. I’m certain of it. But don’t take my word for it, examine what I say here and check it out for yourself, in the words of Chuck Missler. Check it out for yourself.
So God doesn’t say, the thoughts of the lukewarm are right. He doesn’t say the thoughts of the intelligent are right…. on it goes. No, only the thoughts of the righteous are right. Let me show you what this means.
The righteous here are the sanctified. So what I’m about to say isn’t given to the believer who has decided to live in a double minded state with God. I elaborate on this truth in my book Crucified, getting the mind of Christ. In this book I illuminate and examine the Scriptures which show unequivocally in my mind, that there is a difference between a lukewarm and immature believer, willfully that is, and a single minded, mature, or sanctified believer. The sanctified believer is the righteous one here that God is speaking of. Now I know that many people would say all believers are righteous. This is true. But this is not the righteousness God is speaking of in this verse. God is not speaking of the righteousness that is attributed to us the moment we believe. There is another righteousness spoken of by James, by Peter, by John, by Paul, by Jesus, etc. This is a righteousness that is seen. It is a righteousness that now exists in a believer who has actually decided to dethrone self rule and now God reigns permanently and fully in their lives for eternity. But I will not argue that point here. Let’s just look at this incredible, powerful promise. So now I’m speaking to those who are single minded in Christ. I used to think, before God just revealed this to me after meditation upon this promise, that whatever thoughts I had about situations, people, events, etc, were right. And this is true. How? God shares truth with those with whom He is intimate…the single minded. That’s how these thoughts are correct, or right.
However, God has just let me see more. And it is so awesome, I’m going to have to spend the rest of the day trying to contain my joy. I have an option then as a single minded believer, to think right thoughts. What are right thoughts? Paul tells us in first Corinthians 13. Love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast, it’s not proud, it’s not rude. What else? It always believes the best. So this love, agape, is the highest law. If I follow the highest law, it trumps everything, correct? Indeed it does. So if I as a single minded believer, choose to order my thoughts and always believe the best, then these thoughts will also be right. Father in heaven what glory You have revealed today.
So, today instead of thinking on things and dwelling upon things that I suspect, based on what I see, but have no evidence of, I will choose to re-order the suspicious thought, based on the little information I have. Now, what I choose to think will be the highest, best thought in that situation, and you know what? God has told me that, the thoughts of the righteous right. Hallelujah blessed be the most high And holy God.
Now we know that Satan does know God. He knows His ways. He even knows some truth that God has permitted him to know. What does he do with it? He perverts it and makes it his own doctrine. So let me show how Satan has seen some of this truth I mention, but has lied and twisted it to fit his evil schemes.
Here is what Satan says: I have the power to alter my reality by my positive thought. This is a lie and is from Satan. But he has no ideas of his own. He steels God’s truth and perverts it. He has done that here.
All false religions and satanism, the occult, say that I can think what I want to be so, and it will be so. No. This is satanism and worship of the devil.
This is not the truth I am putting forth and here is how it differs: As a believer, I don’t just desire a thing and meditate on that thing or envision that thing and then it will come true. This is very wicked. Instead, as a believer I am to do what God says and then His promises come to me as a result. Period.
So here, concerning my thoughts, let me BELIEVE THE BEST. If I do I am in obedience. Then what? I have believed the best. I am already the single minded and am obeying God. What then? These thoughts that I am believing the best in are what? RIGHT. It’s that simple. Don’t pry. Don’t go further than God has led you. Stay right there and wait for further instructions.
1- Believe the best.
2-The thoughts of the righteous are right.
Now be careful. I cannot look at an established situation and believe it away. There are different instructions here. Plead and pray with God in the Spirit. Hoping the best. Keep praying. Act if necessary. Mourn if necessary.
But…if there is a situation that you do not have facts about and only appearances, STOP. Now is the time to obey and pray and not to fret and imagine evil.
Are we obeying God if we see some facts of a situation, choose to believe the most obvious evil conclusion? No! I have IMAGINED evil. Which is a thing God what? HE HATES! Don’t do it. Don’t add the details yourself that are evil. God hates it and you lose power in prayer.
Believe the best in that situation instead. See what happens. I am certain of it and bewildered at the notion of the dynomite given by God here.
You who are the sanctified, the righteous…
Think on it.
You who are the double minded. The lukewarm. The compromisers. The earthy. Not the spiritual believers but the natural believers…
Think on it.
Amen!
I just read where Jonathan ate the honey after a weary battle and it brightened him up. In other words it gave him a boost. Was it just a rush of sugar? Was it just that he needed anything in his stomach? I don’t think so.
I know God. I know that His word is full of hidden treasures for the searcher. As I was reading I felt that this is a tip for us. Try it. When you are exhausted and feeling beat, grab a bit of honey. Make it real, good, natural honey… the kind Jonathan found. Let it brighten your countenance and heart. Let it revive you. What a sweet idea today!
God bless you as you study His word.
It’s pretty simple. In 1 Samuel, we see that after David is anointed King in Saul’s stead, he is invited to be Saul’s harp player. God sent an evil spirit to torment Saul because he had departed from God and had gone his own way.
So whenever the evil spirit tormented him, David played the harp in his court and Saul was soothed.
Then one day Goliath threatened Israel. David came forward (because at this point the Holy Spirit was upon him, he had been anointed king) and said I’ll kill him.
He went to Saul and told him. Saul gave David his armor and sent him on his way. David before leaving, declined the armor, because he had not proved the armor. Saul said, ok, go. Godspeed.
So Saul knew David.
Now after Goliath was killed by David, Saul said, who is this one who killed Goliath? Bring him to me. So David stood before Saul and Saul said who are you? David said I am Jesse’s son.
Now why did Saul treat David like he didn’t know him? I don’t know. But there are many possibilities. Easy possibilities.
1-Saul was at this point tormented by an evil spirit so he could easily be out of his mind and not making sense.
2-David was playing the harp in Sauls court when Saul was tormented so we don’t know how incoherent Saul was during these episodes. He often tried to kill David as he was playing the harp so Saul could have been totally possessed or totally oppressed. I don’t know if Saul was a believer. That is kind of left open. He fell away into disobedience. We do know that.
3-It’s entirely possible that Saul paid no attention whatsoever to who was playing the harp.
4-When David came to Saul to ask him if he could go kill Goliath, it’s possible that Saul paid no attention to the boy, or to what he looked like or who he was. That is very possible. We aren’t given any details but the bare minimum. It could have been a huge loud commotion with many distractions. I can easily see that.
Anyway, I can see a lot more possibilities. So why didn’t Saul recognize David? Many many possibilities.
God bless you as you study His word!
Am I as a believer tearing down strongholds of the enemy or am I helping him build them up?
If I have compromised with the world, with the old man nature in me, in even the tiniest way that is acceptable to the world’s way, but not acceptable to God, then I am building up Satan’s strongholds in my life.
The sad thing is this: if I am building up strongholds for Satan, my children and grandchildren will suffer. How do we know?
Jesus said a tree is known by its fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit. A bad tree cannot bear good fruit, but a tree is known by its fruit. This is how. It’s very simple. It’s not confusing. God is not the author of confusion. He is very upfront and clear.
Look at your life. What surrounds you? Do you see good fruit? Do you see bad fruit? Don’t mistake God’s kindness and long suffering for weakness; or worse, for laxity. You absolutely will reap what you sow.
If you sow to the flesh then you will reap rotten fruit from the flesh. If you sow to the spirit then you will reap good fruit from the spirit.
God is not unholy. He does not put up with anything from the flesh. He said, “You thought I was altogether like you…”
Some believers imagine that God is unholy like they are. That is the reason we see so many tormented people who are never happy, never fulfilled, never joyful, always in chaos and tumult. Trouble. They live trouble. They breathe trouble, they create and inflict trouble.
Why? It’s because they have compromised with the world’s ways and are builders with Satan of strongholds. They are a curse to family and not a blessing.
God help us. Oh that believers would choose this day whom they would serve. Open eyes and ears to hear You Lord.
Amen.