Lift up Your Heads
Posted onLift Up Your Heads because Your Redemption is Drawing Near
Catastrophe
The Holy Spirit persistently warns that catastrophic events are about to come upon the whole earth
Category: OVERCOMING
The Lord Jesus Christ desires that all who would be His true disciples will prove to be overcomers in Him. Absolute surrender of all to the Lord by entering the narrow gate in Jesus is the starting point for all who overcome.
He Who Now Restrains
Posted on2 Thessalonians 2:3-10. Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things? And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.
Revelation 12:1-4. A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; and she was with child; and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems. And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child. And she gave birth to a son, a male child….’
The insight given by the Holy Spirit so long ago to the apostle Paul for the assembly in Thessalonica will shortly be fulfilled. No doubt ‘the man of lawlessness, the son of destruction’ is already somewhere on the world’s stage. As yet he remains hidden, awaiting his opportunity to come forth as some latter-day saviour. The present great global uncertainty is building up to the crisis that will provide the moment of his revelation widely across the whole world.
Almighty God is the one and only law giver, who formed all created things after His divine will and purpose. Lawlessness is that which denies and opposes to the utmost all that is the truth and reality of God. In this evil being there is no truth, only a deceitful opposition to all that is righteous, all that is holy, all that testifies to the love and the goodness of God.
I Will Come Again
Posted on“Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.” Acts 1:11.
“If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also’. John 14:3. The purpose of this article is to attempt to determine the likely date of the birth of the Lord Jesus and thus establish the year of His death, resurrection and ascension and to use this to anticipate the time of His return to receive His own.
The last article posted, ‘The Seventy Weeks given to Daniel’, provides a strong probability of the date of Jesus’ crucifixion as 25 April in A.D. 31. There is every likelihood that the return of Jesus may be precisely two thousand years after His departure into heaven and thus be within a very short time; namely in 2031. This post looks back from that event to postulate when the tribulation of seven years may commence and looks forward to the possible time (not the day or hour) when the feet of the Lord Jesus may stand once again on the Mount of Olives at His return to ‘reign forever and ever’.
The Day is at Hand
Posted onLuke 17:26-30. “And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark , and the flood came and destroyed them all. “It was the same as happened in the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building; but on the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.” It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed.”
Hebrews 11:7 By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
Noah and Lot were both righteous men living in the midst of very evil communities. One was faithfully occupied on a great work of God while the other was simply existing day by day, presumably doing largely much of what those around him were doing.
The Eyes of the Lord
Posted on2 Chronicles 16:9. For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support
- Those who are doing their very best to live a Christian life?
- Those who are always actively involved in their local church?
- Those who are ordained to be reverends, pastors or priests?
- Those whose heart is completely His?
‘Those whose heart is completely His’. This is the Lord’s one and only requirement. Jesus made this quite plain to all who have ears to hear. He told the rich young ruler, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” Matthew 19:21. NKJV. The young man chose his ‘great possessions’ rather than parting with them in order to follow Jesus.
If our heart is to be completely the Lord’s then it must be completely empty of everything that competes with Him for our attention – fame, fortune, friends and family, to name but a few.
God Raised Him from the Dead
Posted onIt is all too easy to leave the narrative of the death and resurrection of Jesus at His burial in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea and pick it up again on the resurrection morning, What information have we been given in the Scriptures of events in between?
- The repentant thief besought Jesus, “Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!” Jesus responded, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” Luke 23:42-43. Jesus entered Paradise not long after, then the forgiven thief entered also.
- For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah , during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the 1 Peter 3:18-20. While in the grave Jesus visited Hades, the place of the unsaved dead to preach to the ones who had peished in the flood. Did those who responded to His message get transferred to Paradise? Wow!
- “But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power….” Sometime after sunset on the Saturday (the start of the first day of the week) God raised Jesus from the dead and the great stone was rolled away from the mouth of the cave. In order for God to raise Jesus from the dead Jesus must be approved by God as His sinless Son. Thus death could not hold Him in ‘its power’.
- And so Simon Peter also came, following him, and entered the tomb; and he saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the face-cloth which had been on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself. John 20:6-7. What Peter beheld is a clue to what happened when God raised Jesus. Jesus rose upright. The wrappings that signified death just fell away and lay there. Jesus Himself unwrapped the cloth from His head* and ‘rolled it up in a place by itself’. Then it may be that God directed the two angels that guarded the tomb to roll away the stone. Although in His resurrection body Jesus could have walked through the great stone it must be that God who had raised Him set Jesus forever free – and us in Him.
*When Jesus raised Lazarus from death he came forth from the tomb wearing the head cloth and the linen wrappings and had to be released from them by others. Ultimately Lazarus died and like us will await the final resurrection and his imperishable body when Jesus returns to reign.
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The Earth is the Lord’s
Posted onMatthew 18:18. “Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.” Satan must be bound on earth so that he will have been bound in heaven. Then only can he be bound for a thousand years at the return of Jesus.
Revelation 12:3-5. Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems. And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child. And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne. Satan, the great red dragon, waits to devour the child of the woman as soon as he is born. However, the male child is composed of those who have bound him on earth. Thus Satan cannot touch this child and he is caught up immediately to heaven. God now has what He desired from the time of man’s creation, a representative from the human race who has overcome Satan and stood in the victory that Jesus obtained through His sacrificial death and victorious resurrection. Now God directs Michael the archangel and his angels to cast Satan and his angels out of heaven. Satan, the accuser, is cast down to the earth where he gives his power and authority to the beast and the false prophet and the great tribulation of three and a half years begins.
Revelation 11:15. Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.” At the sound of the seventh trumpet the great tribulation is instantly at its end and the feet of Jesus stand once again on the Mount of Olives.
The Precious Produce of the Soil
Posted onActs 1:13-14. When they had entered the city, they went up to the upper room where they were staying; that is, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.
James 5:7-8. Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the early and late rains.
Luke 10:2. And He said to them, “The harvest is great, but the workers few; therefore, beseech the Lord of the harvest that He would thrust out workers into His harvest.” Recovery Version.
The Lord is utterly consistent, in all His ways, in the types that represent His truth, and in the patterns He has established for mankind to follow. If we examine an event or process that God has set in motion, it will reveal something significant about how He works. Such is the case when we read the account concerning the clothing with power of the around a hundred and twenty on that long ago day of Pentecost. The pattern of Pentecost is a defining one.
Those gathered together, awaiting the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, had been born again when Jesus had breathed into them and said, ‘receive the Holy Spirit’. Prior to that, the faith of each one of them had failed during the time of Jesus’ greatest trial. However, it was through their experiences of failure that they had been prepared and approved by God to receive the outpoured Holy Spirit. They no longer put trust in themselves. On the great day of Pentecost, after they had been clothed with power from on high, there was the beginning of a great harvest and the church, the body of Christ came into being.
The Weapons of Our Warfare
Posted onGenesis 2:8-9. The Lord God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
2 Corinthians 10:3-4. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.
James 4:7. Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
Ephesians 6:11-12. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
When the Lord God created Adam, He ‘placed the man whom He had formed’ in Eden. The Lord laid upon Adam only one restriction; that he must not eat of the fruit of ‘the tree of the knowledge of good and evil’. Adam and his wife Eve had been gifted with freedom of choice. Their encounter with Satan and subsequent willful disobedience to God’s command brought sin and death upon all their descendants. The way to the tree of life was barred from them. Adam, in his creation is referred to as ‘the son of God’, Luke 3:38. But, following their rebellion the disobedient pair became orphans, having forfeited the right to call God, ‘Father’.
‘But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law….’ Galatians 4:4. ‘God sent forth His Son’. All who believe in Jesus may choose to follow their own inclinations or follow the leading of the Holy Spirit who indwells them. In Romans 8:14 we read, ‘For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God’. The ‘right to the tree of life’ and the right to be recognized as a ‘son of God’ have been given back in Christ to all who will continually devote themselves to ‘being led by the Spirit of God’.
One is Your Leader
Posted onCan you imagine a defense force in which there were Field Marshalls, Generals, Colonels, Majors, Captains and Lieutenants, all of whom knew a good deal about withstanding enemy attack, yet their troops were largely stay at home civilians? In this example, the troops are expected to put on their uniforms and assemble on the parade ground at the army base once a week. For most of the time while they are on parade, they are simply required to stand ‘at ease’ listening to accounts of bygone battles and army regulations. At the end of each lecture they are brought to ‘stand at attention’ before they are marched off the parade ground, dismissed and allowed to return home, remove their uniforms and resume their civilian life? If this description bears some resemblance to the organization and operation of much of the church on earth today it is the intention to do so.
So let us open our New Testament and take a look at how God really does intend that His church should operate and act as the testimony of Jesus Christ on earth today.
In the example above, only the Field Marshalls and Generals would have direct access to the Supreme Commander, whereas every member of God’s army, His church, is given the right to direct access to their Supreme Commander, at any time of day or night. Through Jesus we ‘have our access in one Spirit to the Father’. Ephesians 2:18.
Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus
Posted onHebrews 12:1-2. Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Matthew 14:25-31. And in the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea. When the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, ” Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.” Peter said to Him, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” And He said, “Come!” And Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, And Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him, and said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”
Proverbs 18:10. The name of the Lord is a strong tower; The righteous runs into it and is safe.
1 Corinthians 9:24. Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize?
From the very instant that we turned to God from our hopeless and sinful state, the Spirit of the Living God joined Himself forever with our human spirit and we entered ‘the race that is set before us’. For the first time, as we fixed ‘our eyes on Jesus’, He became to us ‘the author…. of faith’.
During the time Jesus dwelt among us He ran the race His Father gave Him to run. Knowing only the joy that was set before Him, He ‘endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God’. His race had been won. ‘For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father’. Philippians 2:9-11. What a Victor! What a victory!
It is No Longer I Who Live
Posted onGalatians 2:20. “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”
Romans 8:19-21. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
Galatians 2:20 expresses one of the deep heart cries of the apostle Paul, which many who love the Lord Jesus hold as especially dear to them. It describes a state that many desire to be their own experience. However, the importance of pressing on to attain to this degree of surrendered faith can easily be a goal in itself that doesn’t take into account its vital significance toward the achievement of the eternal plan and purpose of God. ‘For we are God’s fellow workers’. 1 Corinthians 3:9.
“I have been crucified with Christ….” At the moment that Jesus cried out “It is finished” and “Father into your hands I commit my spirit” all sins, all sinners and indeed all the works of the devil were forever dealt with. Henceforth, newness was made certain. ‘The old things passed away; behold, new things have come’. 2 Corinthians 5:17. Nevertheless, evidence of the old will linger on in the presence of the new until the dawn of eternity, when the new Jerusalem will be displayed as the centerpiece of new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness will dwell forever.
I AM, Stop Being Afraid
Posted onMatthew 14:22-33. Then He directed the disciples to get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent away the crowds. And after He had dismissed the multitudes, He went up into the hills by Himself to pray. When it was evening, He was still there alone. But the boat was by this time out on the sea, many furlongs [a furlong is one-eighth of a mile] distant from the land, beaten and tossed by the waves, for the wind was against them. And in the fourth watch [between 3:00 — 6:00 a.m.] of the night, Jesus came to them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were terrified and said, It is a ghost! And they screamed out with fright. But instantly He spoke to them, saying, Take courage! I AM! Stop being afraid! [Exodus 3:14.] And Peter answered Him, Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water. He said, Come! So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water, and he came toward Jesus. But when he perceived and felt the strong wind, he was frightened, and as he began to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me [from death]! Instantly Jesus reached out His hand and caught and held him, saying to him, O you of little faith, why did you doubt? And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat knelt and worshiped Him, saying, Truly You are the Son of God! AMP
John 8:56-59. “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” So the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them,” Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I AM.” Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.
As Jesus had instructed them, His disciples had taken a boat to cross the Lake of Galilee, ‘And in the fourth watch [between 3:00 — 6:00 a.m.] of the night, Jesus came to them, walking on the sea’. No doubt Jesus had to cover ‘many furlongs’ too, yet He did so ‘walking on the sea’. The reaction of the disciples when they saw Him was that ‘they were terrified’.
The response of Jesus to their fears was no gentle “It is I, be not afraid” as is the most usual translation, but as the Amplified Version has it “I AM! Stop being afraid!” This is both an affirmation of Jesus’ divinity and a command. “I am God. Trust Me and stop being fearful!”
All Things New
Posted on2 Corinthians 5:17. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
Revelation 21:5. And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.”
When our first parents, Adam and Eve, fell for Satan’s lie, sin and death reigned over all created things. Even the galaxies are terminal – in countless eons they too must all be gone. But when the Lord Jesus died, the works of the devil were destroyed so that when God’s great recovery plan shall have been completed, and time shall be no more, perfection and permanence will characterise all things as they were in the beginning. Satan and his fallen angels, together with death and Hades, will no longer have any place for them except in the lake of fire which will burn eternally. ‘….the old things passed away; behold, new things have come’.
God made the greatest sacrifice that could be offered when He gave His one and only Son. The purpose of this sacrifice was that what Satan had debased and ruined might be restored to perfection and newness. Within this mighty achievement and victory of the Lord Jesus the way was opened for man to repent and believe the good news and find entrance into the kingdom of heaven. So that all who had become corrupted by Satan’s lie might be recovered to be sons of God: For remember that Adam is referred to as ‘the son of God’ at his creation. Luke 3:38. Through the cross all the redeemed, united together as perfected ones, will become the centrepiece of a new creation in Christ, the new Jerusalem, the eternal dwelling place of God.
One Flock with One Shepherd
Posted onJohn 11:49-52. But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all, nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish.” Now he did not say this on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.
John 10:16 “I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd.”
Ephesians 2:14-16 For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity.
Can the high priest Caiaphas have known the real significance of the words he was given to prophesy? Almost certainly he did not. His prophecy was incomplete however, for the Holy Spirit through the apostle John added these words, ‘and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.
There exist countless divisions within the Christian church on earth today. Will it then be impossible for those who have believed unto salvation to ‘become one flock with one shepherd’ until eternity future, or is this Satan’s gigantic lie?
Narrow is the Way
Posted onMatthew 7:13-14. “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
This well-known parable of Jesus is so short in length yet so significant in substance. Perhaps the most striking aspect of it is to be found in the last few words which concern the small constricted gate and the narrow way. Jesus told His hearers, ‘there are few who find it’.
Matthew chapters 5 through 7 contain the longest recorded unbroken discourse of Jesus in the Bible. Those gathered immediately around Him at the time were His dear disciples, yet there were many others also there who also listened to His words with amazement. In these three chapters there are many revelations of heavenly wisdom from which countless numbers have received great benefit since His words were spoken. Almost hidden among these many treasures of wisdom are verses 13 and 14 of chapter 7. This short parable stands unique. There is no other like it. Though brief, it possesses a profound and vital message to all who seek Jesus with all their heart and choose to follow Him fully.