How much Power does the Word of God generate in your life? What effect does it have on your daily living? The example of the life of Samson is that when he obeyed God's Word he remained strong. If you want spiritual strength to overcome the world, the flesh and the Devil, you must keep the Word of God alive in your life!!
The Word of God is God’s Personal Communication with fallen Man. Now that Jesus Christ has come and died, shedding His Blood to wash away our sins, the Word of God keeps each believer clean from sinning again. That is One Powerful Application of the Word of God in a believer’s life, isn’t it ?!
“Now are ye clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.” [John 15:3]
Clean – no more unbelief,
no more doubt,
no more fear, or fearfulness,
no more guilt,
no more lust,
no more coveting,
no more selfishness,
no more arrogance,
no more pride,
no more self-centredness,
no more self-justification,
no more worldly desires,
no more fixations with this world,
no more worldly habits,
no more sense of lack, or loss
no more unclean words or habits,
no more spiritual blindness,
no more spiritual deafness,
no more lack of sensitivity to the movings of the Holy Spirit,
no more slothfulness,
no more complacency,
no more being self-opinionated
no more living for one’s self,
no more spiritual bondage,
no more being deceived, by Satan or men
no more deceitfulness,
no more hatred,
no more lies, or living a lie
no more hypocrisy
no more unrighteous anger,
no more lack of confidence in God your Father and in God’s Word,
no more listening to wrong doctrine,
no more depression,
no more bitterness,
no more frustrations,
no more foolishness,
no more insincerity,
no more deep sadness or sorrow
no more regret
NO MORE UNBELIEF etc etc etc… - CLEAN !!
These are the things we all need to ensure we are free from; that we are Clean by the Word of God.
So, if and when we are clean from these things – that is the Power of the Word in us!
The Word of God IS Powerful, regardless of how it is seen or understood or believed by Man!
It will accomplish that which it says, because GOD said it! We see that as being very obvious in Creation. The LORD spoke and it was so. The Spoken Word at Creation brought all things into being from nothing! The Prophets and the Psalms give many descriptions of the Power of that Spoken Word. All life depended and depends upon that Word. Nothing happens or continues to be without that Word! See Colossians 1:17, “… by Him (the Lord Jesus Christ) all things consist”. All is held together by His Word; everything continues in order, even despite the terrible effects of sin on our world.
Old Testament – for all time and Eternity…
Isaiah 55:8 – 13 “…. For as the rain … v11 So shall My word be that goeth forth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it…”
New Testament – since the Covenant of the Blood of Jesus Christ …
Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
VERY Powerful!
But here we want to understand the Practical Application of the Power of the Word in our lives …
If someone comes to Christ through faith in the spoken Word of God, delivered through the preached Written Word, that soul believes – or should believe – he is already forgiven of all his sin, and he should repent of living up to that point without Christ and the Word of God in his life.
That soul is born again – born from above – by the Word of God (the water) and the Spirit of God (the Holy Spirit) “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” [John 3:5]
James 1:18 “Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth …”
1 Peter 1:23 “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God…”
The new birth is therefore being explained in different ways: by the Lord Jesus, and by James and Peter by the Holy Spirit. Water, Truth, Seed.
The Water washes – cleans and refreshes;
The Truth illuminates, shows up the lies and deceit in our flesh and in the world through Satan;
The Seed grows and produces Fruit – the increasing knowledge in our hearts of the formation of the Life of the Lord Jesus Christ Crucified and Risen and Exalted in our lives.
(Christ has been given to us whole!! We receive His Life – the new Life to us. We have His heart and His mind to operate in our lives, by the Holy Spirit. We don’t receive a little bit of Him at a time throughout our lives until we die or are taken Home when He comes.
So the Word of God grows in us, instructing us of what we have already, and increasing our faith to believe it, receive it and live it out.)
The Scripture, “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” [Romans 10:17] then is fulfilled in that believing soul.
Isn’t that Power?! Every time a soul humbles himself before the Word of God to obey the Call to come to Christ Crucified, the Promise of God in Christ, written in the Word, is fulfilled in that life. Only the Word of God can Call us to Repentance and Regeneration and Redemption.
When teaching in a seminar I was moved by the Holy Spirit to say, ‘If you (or any preacher/teacher) fail to preach the Word by the Holy Ghost to reveal Christ as He actually is, and cause people to follow HIM, and His Ways and in accordance to His Will, then you or they are not making disciples of Christ, but of your / their own selves’…
Only the Word of God in a person keeps that soul clean, and being formed in the Image of Christ by the Holy Spirit. So we need to always encourage those in our charge to read, meditate, understand, believe and live by the Written Word of God.
That is the Power of the Word of God! Jesus Christ, by His complete and total Obedience, has fulfilled the Word of God in Himself – in that sinless, now terribly wounded, human Body. That is why His New Name is called “The Word of God” [Revelation 19:12 – 13, .2:17, 3:13]
God’s Written Word and the Living Crucified Christ are integral with each other. They cannot be separated!! It is IN Him, in His wounds, in His flesh and in His bones!!
So that is the Practicality of our / your spending much time in the Word of God, and encouraging your flocks and family members to do the same. We are to live “by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” [Matthew 4:4b]. If for no other reason that Jesus Himself lived like that!
Also, regarding the Holy Spirit – because Christ is now on the Right Hand of God on God’s Throne, the Holy Spirit has been sent to comfort, strengthen and activate us in the Life of Christ.
See John 14:16 – 17. The Holy Spirit is meant to be IN us. We are not meant to speak to, or teach the Bible, or pray for others without the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit alone is our Teacher in the Word of God [John 14:26]
(2 Peter 1:19 – 21 – “private interpretation” means interpreting the Scriptures outside of God’s knowledge – as in our own private closet where God is not invited!!)
So the Holy Spirit and the Written Word of God also are integral with each other. They cannot be separated. The Holy Ghost does not speak any other language to Christ’s disciples!!
I come now to a very practical issue regarding your understanding the Power of the Word of God in your every day lives…
Psalm 34:8 – 10 “O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in Him. 9. O fear the LORD, ye His saints: for there is no want to them that fear Him. 10. The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing.”
Are you truly “blessed” – full of the deep and full happiness of knowing that the Word which proclaimed Christ risen from the dead is true, and active in your lives, providing everything you need, no matter what, and at all times, no matter when… ?
Romans 8:32 “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”
If this is the Word of God, do you believe that you do have all things WITH Christ ?
John 20:29b “… blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.”
We, in our generation, have not physically seen the Lord Jesus Christ. We have believed the Word of God that revealed Him to us – His Eternal Origin, His Coming, His Ministry, His Suffering and Sacrificial Death, His Resurrection, His Ascension to the Right Hand of God, His Office of High Priest, His Coming Again for His saints, His Opening the Book of Settlement as The Lamb and the Judge, His Coming to Earth as Judge, and His Eternal Reign on the New Earth, in the Holy City.
Our belief, our faith, in all that He is and in all that He has done, for God and for Man, causes us to be in that most blessed state, having all sufficiency in all things…
So, going back to Psalm 34:8 – 10 and Romans 8:32 …
What do I as a single retired and disabled woman have to give – what do you know??! – The Word of God! My duty and ministry is to ENCOURAGE, to STRENGTHEN the saints of God in THE WORD OF GOD, to stir up and create in every heart a True and Pure Vision of the Lord Jesus Christ as The Lamb… so that the young or old, the rich or poor, PROVE the Power of that Word every day and in every hard circumstance.
You must SEE that CHRIST HIMSELF is your all in all.
Let the miracles flow!! Let faith loose!! Let the Promises be fulfilled in your lives!!
Remember that amazing verse about it being impossible for God to lie because of His own Oath?!! [Hebrews 6:18]
WITH Him, you have EVERYTHING you need. No lack, no sense of want. You must not think of yourselves as being in desperate need. Instead, you must look to The Lamb – the One, the ONLY One – who has made it possible for God to POUR out ALL His Wealth and Goodness over you, until you say, ‘Stop, Lord, I have enough. I have all I need’ !!
Remember you are deeply and greatly loved by God your Father, because you show deep devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ, to Him personally, and to His Cause in the Gospel… Remember you are kings and priests unto God and unto Christ, through His poured out Blood…
That will be the power of the Word of God IN you. Full and abundant faith in That Full and Abundant Life in Christ Jesus.
May the Lord our God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ “fill you with all joy and peace in believing”…. [Romans 15:13]
Sunday, 30 September 2012
Saturday, 7 April 2012
A Fresh Look At the Easter Story
Have you ever thought: "What did that Last Passover Supper mean to the Lord Jesus Christ?"
Here are three Scriptures which I hope will enlarge your understanding of the Lord Jesus Christ and His once-and-for-all Sacrifice for us all...
“take ye every man a lamb … a lamb for an house” – His Sacrifice to free His people.
“the sign of the prophet Jonah” – His Death and Descension into Hell.
“the lifter up of Mine head” – His Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven, after that time.
Exodus 12: 2 – 3 “This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you. 3. Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house.”
This was the occasion of the time called the Passover which was instituted that day by the LORD as He prepared His people to be delivered from slavery in Egypt… He passed over every house which displayed the blood of the lamb upon the door. No one was killed in that house.
This was what the Lord Jesus – that same LORD who spoke to Moses, now in a human Body – directed Peter and John to prepare the upper room for the twelve disciples to celebrate the Passover. Judas left before the Lord interrupted the ancient Feast and said, ‘All that has gone now. Now you celebrate Me, in remembering My Death and Resurrection, and coming again.’ (My interpretation of the Gospel records!)
When the Lord Jesus said, “This is My Body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of Me” [Luke 22:19] He ceased the ancient tradition, and fulfilled in Himself the Scripture “every man a lamb … a lamb for an house.”
He came to give His Life a ransom and shed His Blood for the sins of the whole world – past, present and future lives. What a Saviour!!
When His Sacrifice was complete; God was satisfied that His sufferings and His obedience and His Offering completely atoned for all time the sins of the world, He cried out …
John 19:30 “It is finished and He bowed His head and gave up the ghost”.
Later the next day, when the two thieves were also dead, His Body was taken down from the Cross, prepared for burial in the manner of the Jews, and laid in a tomb belonging to the rich man Joseph of Arimathaea, a member of the Jewish Counsel.
But His soul had already gone down into Hell...
Psalm 69:1 – 2 “Save Me, O God; For the waters are come in unto My soul. 2. I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing [it is a bottomless pit – spherical, no bottom]: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow Me.”
Jonah 1:17 “Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”
Chapter 2 reveals the terrible experience of Jonah in those depths – a foreshadowing of Christ going down into Hell.
Matthew 12:39 – 40 “… and there shall no sign be given … but the sign of the prophet Jonas: 40. For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” [Hell is in the centre / heart of the earth]
But then, our wonderful Treasure of God’s Word has also said...
Psalm 116:10 “For Thou wilt not leave My soul in hell; neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption.”
This Scripture was quoted by Peter on the Day of Pentecost (AD33) showing that it did not refer to David, as his sepulchre still contains the bones of David! No, Peter said, this refers to the resurrection of Christ whom they had crucified.
Psalm 3:3 “But Thou, O LORD, art a shield for Me: My glory, and the Lifter up of Mine head.”
The Lord Jesus, our Passover Lamb, gave God in Heaven all the praise and honour for raising Him from the dead! When He died, it says, “He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost”. He died at the time of the evening sacrifice was offered in the Temple at Jerusalem...
Three nights and three days later – the first day of the week which we call Sunday – the Lord Jesus Christ was raised again from the dead. He came out of that terrible dungeon of Hell and back into His wounded Body – just to proclaim that we are now able to be children of the True and Living God !
Hallelujah !
John 20:17 “...but go to My brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father, and your Father; and to My God, and your God.”
He proclaimed to Mary Magdelene, “Go tell My brethren...” No longer the son of Mary, part of an earthly family, but the Firstborn of God’s New Family; a Family free from sin !
Hallelujah !
“...and say, I go to My Father and your Father...” joined together with the Firstborn in one victorious, holy family of God !
Hallelujah !!
“...and My God and your God” - brought together under one New Creation, under one Authority of the True and Living God, the Lord God Almighty, who “liveth for ever and ever” [Revelation 4]
Hallelujah !!!
May this True and Living God to whom we have been given free access by the poured out Blood of The Lamb, fill your hearts this Easter as never before.
Here are three Scriptures which I hope will enlarge your understanding of the Lord Jesus Christ and His once-and-for-all Sacrifice for us all...
“take ye every man a lamb … a lamb for an house” – His Sacrifice to free His people.
“the sign of the prophet Jonah” – His Death and Descension into Hell.
“the lifter up of Mine head” – His Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven, after that time.
Exodus 12: 2 – 3 “This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you. 3. Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house.”
This was the occasion of the time called the Passover which was instituted that day by the LORD as He prepared His people to be delivered from slavery in Egypt… He passed over every house which displayed the blood of the lamb upon the door. No one was killed in that house.
This was what the Lord Jesus – that same LORD who spoke to Moses, now in a human Body – directed Peter and John to prepare the upper room for the twelve disciples to celebrate the Passover. Judas left before the Lord interrupted the ancient Feast and said, ‘All that has gone now. Now you celebrate Me, in remembering My Death and Resurrection, and coming again.’ (My interpretation of the Gospel records!)
When the Lord Jesus said, “This is My Body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of Me” [Luke 22:19] He ceased the ancient tradition, and fulfilled in Himself the Scripture “every man a lamb … a lamb for an house.”
He came to give His Life a ransom and shed His Blood for the sins of the whole world – past, present and future lives. What a Saviour!!
When His Sacrifice was complete; God was satisfied that His sufferings and His obedience and His Offering completely atoned for all time the sins of the world, He cried out …
John 19:30 “It is finished and He bowed His head and gave up the ghost”.
Later the next day, when the two thieves were also dead, His Body was taken down from the Cross, prepared for burial in the manner of the Jews, and laid in a tomb belonging to the rich man Joseph of Arimathaea, a member of the Jewish Counsel.
But His soul had already gone down into Hell...
Psalm 69:1 – 2 “Save Me, O God; For the waters are come in unto My soul. 2. I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing [it is a bottomless pit – spherical, no bottom]: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow Me.”
Jonah 1:17 “Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”
Chapter 2 reveals the terrible experience of Jonah in those depths – a foreshadowing of Christ going down into Hell.
Matthew 12:39 – 40 “… and there shall no sign be given … but the sign of the prophet Jonas: 40. For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” [Hell is in the centre / heart of the earth]
But then, our wonderful Treasure of God’s Word has also said...
Psalm 116:10 “For Thou wilt not leave My soul in hell; neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption.”
This Scripture was quoted by Peter on the Day of Pentecost (AD33) showing that it did not refer to David, as his sepulchre still contains the bones of David! No, Peter said, this refers to the resurrection of Christ whom they had crucified.
Psalm 3:3 “But Thou, O LORD, art a shield for Me: My glory, and the Lifter up of Mine head.”
The Lord Jesus, our Passover Lamb, gave God in Heaven all the praise and honour for raising Him from the dead! When He died, it says, “He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost”. He died at the time of the evening sacrifice was offered in the Temple at Jerusalem...
Three nights and three days later – the first day of the week which we call Sunday – the Lord Jesus Christ was raised again from the dead. He came out of that terrible dungeon of Hell and back into His wounded Body – just to proclaim that we are now able to be children of the True and Living God !
Hallelujah !
John 20:17 “...but go to My brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father, and your Father; and to My God, and your God.”
He proclaimed to Mary Magdelene, “Go tell My brethren...” No longer the son of Mary, part of an earthly family, but the Firstborn of God’s New Family; a Family free from sin !
Hallelujah !
“...and say, I go to My Father and your Father...” joined together with the Firstborn in one victorious, holy family of God !
Hallelujah !!
“...and My God and your God” - brought together under one New Creation, under one Authority of the True and Living God, the Lord God Almighty, who “liveth for ever and ever” [Revelation 4]
Hallelujah !!!
May this True and Living God to whom we have been given free access by the poured out Blood of The Lamb, fill your hearts this Easter as never before.
Thursday, 1 March 2012
Meditations on The Lamb
Revelation 22:1 + 3 “…the throne of God and of the Lamb” – One Throne, One Person on it. The Holy Spirit uses this language to emphasise that the Lord Jesus is both the One who died for us and the Eternal God. (vs3 – 4 “… His servants shall serve Him: And they shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads.”)
The Lamb is and always was God; equal with the Person of God who in the Book of Revelation is described as “Him that liveth for ever and ever” [Revelation 5:14, 10:6]. And equal, of course, with God the Holy Spirit.
Only as One equal with God could He function as The Lamb.
It required the sinless Blood of God to achieve man’s Salvation. We are told that “it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins” [Hebrews 10:4] – that is permanently. But take all the righteous men in the world according to God’s Word – Job, Noah, Daniel – could their blood have atoned for anyone’s soul? Not at all. So how could any other human being do that?
Let us consider the Principles of God’s Dealing with Man in his now fallen state –
Jesus Christ is “the Lord from Heaven” [1 Corinthians 15:47]. He came as God; “Emmanuel – God with us” [Matthew 1:23]. He remained God in whatever growing up stage He was in. Men saw Him as a Man, who was God in human form. His behaviour all the way through was that of God. The way He walked, the way He talked, His mannerisms, the way He looked at and reacted with people, were all in the way God did those things.
He was God upon the Cross. He was God in Hell. He was God raised from the dead – “My Lord and my God” exclaimed the believing Thomas! [John 20:28] !
Paul put it like this : “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh…” [1 Timothy 3:16]
Taking on human flesh did not change Him. He didn’t become anything else other than what He always was – God!
It was His own Authority as God that He put aside in order to be The Lamb. He was sent by God in Heaven and the Holy Spirit, as a Servant, to be totally obedient to the Will and the Word of God
Isaiah 48:16b “… and now the Lord GOD, and His Spirit, hath sent Me.”
Also, Christ repeated many times : “He that sent Me…” [John’s Gospel ].
John 18:37 “… To this end was I born…” This terrible end of being bound and dragged from one High Priest to another High Priest, of being beaten all night with rods and spat upon and reviled and pushed and shoved around, of being bound again and dragged away to Pilate the Governor, before whom He stands to tell him this. He still faced His audience with Herod in which He suffered terrible indignity, and the scourging and the crown of thorns and the nailing to the cross, and the suffocating agony of crucifixion… - and the horrible pit of Hell, as well…
And how did He react to all this :
“Let My sentence come forth from Thy Presence; let Thine eyes behold the things that are equal.” [Psalm 17:2].
Can you see that, this prophetic statement from Christ on the Cross? He waited for God’s Judgments upon Him on behalf of all Mankind to be completed. “Let My sentence come forth from Thy Presence”
“let Thine eyes behold the things that are equal.” He proclaimed to God in Heaven that He was willing for His terrible and violent sufferings and the pouring out of His Blood to be the equal Price to be paid for the terrible evil and wickedness of Man’s sin… The violence of His sufferings and Death had to be equal to the violent rebellion in Man against God…
The Lord Jesus Christ alone in the Godhead experienced death… The very Title “The Lamb” speaks of death. The Old Testament was by the death of a clean and innocent animal – the lamb being amongst those whose blood was poured out.
The New Testament is by the Blood of Jesus poured out – the perfect atonement for the sins of the world. The sin of unbelief in men’s hearts is corrupting and stifling; it bars man’s contact with his Creator. Atonement, cleansing for transgressions and our sinful nature is vital if we are to be saved from God’s wrath!
Only by the real Presence of the Holy Ghost within a soul [you], will that soul [you] fully understand the enormity of our sinfulness as a human being !!
He came to be our Lamb for a burnt offering – as Abraham foretold, “My son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering.” [Genesis 22:7]. He submitted Himself to the Will of God in Heaven. “Lo”, He said, “I come … I delight to do Thy will, O My God…” [Psalm 40:7 – 8].
He came giving Himself as a Perfect and Complete Sacrifice. The very reason for all those Old Testament laws of shedding blood was to teach us that “without shedding of blood is no re-mission” [Hebrews 9:22] – no sending away of sin; no forgiveness, no pardon from a Holy God. Please dismiss this teaching that says Christ's Death was not in Sacrifice! It is false teaching; false doctrine!
A perfect life, innocent from the crime committed must pay the price if the condemned is to go free. It is the Meeting of Justice and Mercy; the desire for Righteousness to have its Laws satisfied and at the same time for Love to have the sinner restored. Psalm 85:10 expresses all that…
Psalm 85:10 “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.”
Hebrews 9:25-28 “…but now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.”
Ephesians 5:2 “Christ … hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.” – If God punished us all as we deserve, He would never have the Family His heart yearns for, would He?!
So we should understand that as The Lamb, the Lord Jesus did NOT come of Himself. He came as One with no power over His own Life or Will.
A lamb is a creature that does not resist at the point of slaughter. It is entirely submissive and compliant. It remains silent; it does not scream or bellow as other animals do. It does not draw back, but gives itself to the inevitable death.
He willingly set Himself to fulfil that Will. He had a body prepared for Him [Hebrews 10:5]. And He gave Himself to God in that Body…
The Lord Jesus Christ as The Lamb means :
He Fulfilled the Scriptures
Mark 14:49 “I was daily with you in the [outer] temple teaching, and ye took Me not: but the scriptures must be fulfilled.”
Through His Death as the Lamb of God, He fulfilled God’s Eternal Plan for both Salvation and Judgment. From Genesis to Revelation God’s Word proclaims Salvation and Eternal Blessing for Obedience to God, and Damnation and Eternal Curses/Punishment for Disobedience to God. In this He revealed the Truth, for God’s Word IS Truth, and Christ is the physical expression of the Truth.
John 18:37 “… and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth… (Every one that is of the truth heareth My voice” – a statement worthy of notice!)
John 17:17 “Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth.”
Christ as The Lamb, giving Himself in total Willing, Loving Obedience has revealed in Himself the Way to achieve Salvation and avoid Eternal Damnation. Salvation is having Christ as your Lamb; Damnation is not having Christ as your Lamb…
He Came For Everyone
Exodus 12:3 “Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house.” – Translate that into New Testament times, our Church Age : “take every man a Lamb; a Lamb for an house”…
Revelation 13:8b “… the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”
Every one of us should have Him as our Life. Jesus Christ is absolutely right for every single human being.
Then the lamb which each household took was to be eaten – “roast with fire” [Exodus 12:8]. It provided a good meal to sustain them for the journey ahead.
Does He keep you going and growing daily, through His Word? Didn’t He say, “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you” [John 6:53] He is able to fill every life with the Joy, the Peace, the Love, the overflowing Blessings of Heaven…
He Has Broken The Finger of Accusation from Satan
Luke 22:31–32 “And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you [plural – ie. all of them, all of us], that he may sift you as wheat:”
Revelation 12:10–11 “… the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.”
The understanding that Satan’s finger of accusation is broken because of the Blood of The Lamb takes us a step further from the Balance between the Righteousness and the Mercy of God – the need to punish the crime while showing love to the criminal…
It is the Legality of the Substitute Death that has to shut the mouth of the Accuser. His accusing finger is broken! If we believe that God has put away our sin forever by the Blood of The Lamb, then we have the Victory over all the accusations. We overcome Satan by the Blood of the Lamb! The overcomer knows that the Justice of God demands punishment for sin, but he has faith in the Mercy of God which has placed it all upon Christ who gave Himself to that end.
The Lamb delivers us all from the same things as the Israelites were delivered from : the bondage of Satan, the pull of the world, the lusts of the flesh… Egypt represents the world, a Kingdom run by Satan. Egypt is the first “head” of the seven heads on the beast, the man we call the Antichrist, and Satan. None of this is insignificant…
Leviticus 20:26 is just as appropriate for us today in this very slack and fleshly Age...
“And ye shall be holy unto Me: for I have severed you from other people, that ye should be Mine.”
The Book of Revelation shows the Final End of the only Two Choices each one of us must make. We either serve the flesh, or we serve a Holy God by the Holy Spirit through the Poured Out Blood of The Lamb… And The Church of Jesus Christ has been called out exactly as that ancient Nation was called out.
God is Love, but He is Love and Just and True because He is Holy. There is no wrong in Him; no defect in His reason; no malice in His heart against any created being. All His Judgments are Right; no Punishment or Plague poured out will be unjust. In God’s New Order, every human soul and every created spirit will be in their rightful Eternal Place.
Revelation 22:1 + 3 “…the throne of God and of the Lamb”. So when all has been completed and settled, He will be admired and worshipped as both the Eternal God, and the eternally wounded Lamb.
There is a wonderful Future ahead of you. Make your Right Choice daily and you will be There!!
The Lamb is and always was God; equal with the Person of God who in the Book of Revelation is described as “Him that liveth for ever and ever” [Revelation 5:14, 10:6]. And equal, of course, with God the Holy Spirit.
Only as One equal with God could He function as The Lamb.
It required the sinless Blood of God to achieve man’s Salvation. We are told that “it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins” [Hebrews 10:4] – that is permanently. But take all the righteous men in the world according to God’s Word – Job, Noah, Daniel – could their blood have atoned for anyone’s soul? Not at all. So how could any other human being do that?
Let us consider the Principles of God’s Dealing with Man in his now fallen state –
Jesus Christ is “the Lord from Heaven” [1 Corinthians 15:47]. He came as God; “Emmanuel – God with us” [Matthew 1:23]. He remained God in whatever growing up stage He was in. Men saw Him as a Man, who was God in human form. His behaviour all the way through was that of God. The way He walked, the way He talked, His mannerisms, the way He looked at and reacted with people, were all in the way God did those things.
He was God upon the Cross. He was God in Hell. He was God raised from the dead – “My Lord and my God” exclaimed the believing Thomas! [John 20:28] !
Paul put it like this : “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh…” [1 Timothy 3:16]
Taking on human flesh did not change Him. He didn’t become anything else other than what He always was – God!
It was His own Authority as God that He put aside in order to be The Lamb. He was sent by God in Heaven and the Holy Spirit, as a Servant, to be totally obedient to the Will and the Word of God
Isaiah 48:16b “… and now the Lord GOD, and His Spirit, hath sent Me.”
Also, Christ repeated many times : “He that sent Me…” [John’s Gospel ].
John 18:37 “… To this end was I born…” This terrible end of being bound and dragged from one High Priest to another High Priest, of being beaten all night with rods and spat upon and reviled and pushed and shoved around, of being bound again and dragged away to Pilate the Governor, before whom He stands to tell him this. He still faced His audience with Herod in which He suffered terrible indignity, and the scourging and the crown of thorns and the nailing to the cross, and the suffocating agony of crucifixion… - and the horrible pit of Hell, as well…
And how did He react to all this :
“Let My sentence come forth from Thy Presence; let Thine eyes behold the things that are equal.” [Psalm 17:2].
Can you see that, this prophetic statement from Christ on the Cross? He waited for God’s Judgments upon Him on behalf of all Mankind to be completed. “Let My sentence come forth from Thy Presence”
“let Thine eyes behold the things that are equal.” He proclaimed to God in Heaven that He was willing for His terrible and violent sufferings and the pouring out of His Blood to be the equal Price to be paid for the terrible evil and wickedness of Man’s sin… The violence of His sufferings and Death had to be equal to the violent rebellion in Man against God…
The Lord Jesus Christ alone in the Godhead experienced death… The very Title “The Lamb” speaks of death. The Old Testament was by the death of a clean and innocent animal – the lamb being amongst those whose blood was poured out.
The New Testament is by the Blood of Jesus poured out – the perfect atonement for the sins of the world. The sin of unbelief in men’s hearts is corrupting and stifling; it bars man’s contact with his Creator. Atonement, cleansing for transgressions and our sinful nature is vital if we are to be saved from God’s wrath!
Only by the real Presence of the Holy Ghost within a soul [you], will that soul [you] fully understand the enormity of our sinfulness as a human being !!
He came to be our Lamb for a burnt offering – as Abraham foretold, “My son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering.” [Genesis 22:7]. He submitted Himself to the Will of God in Heaven. “Lo”, He said, “I come … I delight to do Thy will, O My God…” [Psalm 40:7 – 8].
He came giving Himself as a Perfect and Complete Sacrifice. The very reason for all those Old Testament laws of shedding blood was to teach us that “without shedding of blood is no re-mission” [Hebrews 9:22] – no sending away of sin; no forgiveness, no pardon from a Holy God. Please dismiss this teaching that says Christ's Death was not in Sacrifice! It is false teaching; false doctrine!
A perfect life, innocent from the crime committed must pay the price if the condemned is to go free. It is the Meeting of Justice and Mercy; the desire for Righteousness to have its Laws satisfied and at the same time for Love to have the sinner restored. Psalm 85:10 expresses all that…
Psalm 85:10 “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.”
Hebrews 9:25-28 “…but now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.”
Ephesians 5:2 “Christ … hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.” – If God punished us all as we deserve, He would never have the Family His heart yearns for, would He?!
So we should understand that as The Lamb, the Lord Jesus did NOT come of Himself. He came as One with no power over His own Life or Will.
A lamb is a creature that does not resist at the point of slaughter. It is entirely submissive and compliant. It remains silent; it does not scream or bellow as other animals do. It does not draw back, but gives itself to the inevitable death.
He willingly set Himself to fulfil that Will. He had a body prepared for Him [Hebrews 10:5]. And He gave Himself to God in that Body…
The Lord Jesus Christ as The Lamb means :
He Fulfilled the Scriptures
Mark 14:49 “I was daily with you in the [outer] temple teaching, and ye took Me not: but the scriptures must be fulfilled.”
Through His Death as the Lamb of God, He fulfilled God’s Eternal Plan for both Salvation and Judgment. From Genesis to Revelation God’s Word proclaims Salvation and Eternal Blessing for Obedience to God, and Damnation and Eternal Curses/Punishment for Disobedience to God. In this He revealed the Truth, for God’s Word IS Truth, and Christ is the physical expression of the Truth.
John 18:37 “… and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth… (Every one that is of the truth heareth My voice” – a statement worthy of notice!)
John 17:17 “Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth.”
Christ as The Lamb, giving Himself in total Willing, Loving Obedience has revealed in Himself the Way to achieve Salvation and avoid Eternal Damnation. Salvation is having Christ as your Lamb; Damnation is not having Christ as your Lamb…
He Came For Everyone
Exodus 12:3 “Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house.” – Translate that into New Testament times, our Church Age : “take every man a Lamb; a Lamb for an house”…
Revelation 13:8b “… the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”
Every one of us should have Him as our Life. Jesus Christ is absolutely right for every single human being.
Then the lamb which each household took was to be eaten – “roast with fire” [Exodus 12:8]. It provided a good meal to sustain them for the journey ahead.
Does He keep you going and growing daily, through His Word? Didn’t He say, “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you” [John 6:53] He is able to fill every life with the Joy, the Peace, the Love, the overflowing Blessings of Heaven…
He Has Broken The Finger of Accusation from Satan
Luke 22:31–32 “And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you [plural – ie. all of them, all of us], that he may sift you as wheat:”
Revelation 12:10–11 “… the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.”
The understanding that Satan’s finger of accusation is broken because of the Blood of The Lamb takes us a step further from the Balance between the Righteousness and the Mercy of God – the need to punish the crime while showing love to the criminal…
It is the Legality of the Substitute Death that has to shut the mouth of the Accuser. His accusing finger is broken! If we believe that God has put away our sin forever by the Blood of The Lamb, then we have the Victory over all the accusations. We overcome Satan by the Blood of the Lamb! The overcomer knows that the Justice of God demands punishment for sin, but he has faith in the Mercy of God which has placed it all upon Christ who gave Himself to that end.
The Lamb delivers us all from the same things as the Israelites were delivered from : the bondage of Satan, the pull of the world, the lusts of the flesh… Egypt represents the world, a Kingdom run by Satan. Egypt is the first “head” of the seven heads on the beast, the man we call the Antichrist, and Satan. None of this is insignificant…
Leviticus 20:26 is just as appropriate for us today in this very slack and fleshly Age...
“And ye shall be holy unto Me: for I have severed you from other people, that ye should be Mine.”
The Book of Revelation shows the Final End of the only Two Choices each one of us must make. We either serve the flesh, or we serve a Holy God by the Holy Spirit through the Poured Out Blood of The Lamb… And The Church of Jesus Christ has been called out exactly as that ancient Nation was called out.
God is Love, but He is Love and Just and True because He is Holy. There is no wrong in Him; no defect in His reason; no malice in His heart against any created being. All His Judgments are Right; no Punishment or Plague poured out will be unjust. In God’s New Order, every human soul and every created spirit will be in their rightful Eternal Place.
Revelation 22:1 + 3 “…the throne of God and of the Lamb”. So when all has been completed and settled, He will be admired and worshipped as both the Eternal God, and the eternally wounded Lamb.
There is a wonderful Future ahead of you. Make your Right Choice daily and you will be There!!
Monday, 23 January 2012
THE THINGS WHICH MUST COME TO PASS BEFORE
THE LORD JESUS CHRIST RETURNS PHYSICALLY TO THIS EARTH
Fifty years ago, when I first came to Christ, His Second Coming was commonly preached. He was expected to come as a thief, to come for His own, and that the world would wake up to the fact that many people had “disappeared”. This event was called “The Rapture” – the catching away of those who were watching and waiting for Him to come. Not a lot was taught of what would happen after the Rapture – but it was definitely this that was meant by the “Second Coming of Christ”.
Today, there are more and more high profile Christian teachers and denominations proclaiming that they are waiting for Christ to come back to the earth, completely ignoring the Rapture – the Day of Resurrection for the Church…
I would like to put to these who hold a non-Rapture doctrine certain Scriptural points that reveal clearly that if they are alive when Jesus Christ returns to earth, this is what they must expect :
The formation of a World Government with one Commerce and Financial System, one currency, one religion, under one world ruler.
After a series of world rulers, one man, an Assyrian – Iraqi – will emerge and be elected world ruler through his flatteries. He will behave as a man of peace. The Temple will be rebuilt and he will re-establish the Levitical Sacrifices under a Covenant with the Jews.
After three and a half years, this world ruler will break the Covenant. He will stop the sacrifices in the Temple, and enter it to proclaim himself God. As those Jews who realise he is not their Messiah back away from him, he seeks to destroy them.
The holders of this non-Rapture doctrine may witness or hear about the miraculous removal of these people – 144 thousand Israeli households to a safe place…
They may also be made aware of a ferocious battle between Michael and Satan, resulting in Satan being forced out of his dominion around the earth to the limits of this earth alone.
This will be the time when Satan, finding a “vile person” in the form of the then present world ruler, will occupy his body, giving the former man of peace the authority to proclaim himself God of the world. He is then officially the man of sin, called “the beast” in Revelation …
Having authority from the Lamb Himself, the man of sin, “the beast” – the lawless one – will force the inhabitants of the entire world to receive a mark upon them in order to buy and sell.
These holding this non-Rapture doctrine will have to comply with that.
They will also, as inhabitants of the world at that time, be made to worship this man of sin and the image of the man of sin which will be created (cloned).
Over the next three and a half years, they will also experience the fulfillment of the long-prophesied Plagues of the Sword, the Famine and the Pestilence with Wild Beasts.
Moreover, throughout this time, a series of Seven Plagues will trouble the earth, among which plagues the waters will be turned to blood.
In addition to these Plagues, the Two Witnesses will also prevent rain and administer Plagues as they will.
The lack of rain and the burning up of grasslands and trees, and cargo ships traversing the seas will all contribute to the Famine.
Will these people be able to cope with this?
Above all these catastrophes, millions of devils will be released over the earth. And this is a significant point – they are commanded (by the Lamb Himself) to hurt those adults who do not have the seal which those 144 thousand Jewish households received earlier!!! That is everyone else! Apart from the Two Witnesses and the Remnant of Israel in their safe place, of course.
My sincere question is, Are these people prepared for this? Do they really understand that this is the Program of God for this world, BEFORE the Lord Jesus Christ takes over this world as KING and GOD?
Jerusalem will be utterly destroyed before He returns with His Church and saints from the Old Testament. The Battle of Armageddon will ensue and the Great Slaughter, 200 miles of blood-shed, destroying all those who come to confront the Lamb.
All these above points are based on Scripture. The Prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Zechariah, etc, the Psalms, the Gospels – Christ’s own teaching of events before His Return to earth – Paul’s teachings to the Thessalonians and the Book of Revelation contain all these truths…
It will be no fun to be left behind when Christ comes to snatch His faithful ones away from what is to come upon the earth ! There is only ONE Resurrection unto Life. Please make sure you understand God’s Plan for the Future.
THE LORD JESUS CHRIST RETURNS PHYSICALLY TO THIS EARTH
Fifty years ago, when I first came to Christ, His Second Coming was commonly preached. He was expected to come as a thief, to come for His own, and that the world would wake up to the fact that many people had “disappeared”. This event was called “The Rapture” – the catching away of those who were watching and waiting for Him to come. Not a lot was taught of what would happen after the Rapture – but it was definitely this that was meant by the “Second Coming of Christ”.
Today, there are more and more high profile Christian teachers and denominations proclaiming that they are waiting for Christ to come back to the earth, completely ignoring the Rapture – the Day of Resurrection for the Church…
I would like to put to these who hold a non-Rapture doctrine certain Scriptural points that reveal clearly that if they are alive when Jesus Christ returns to earth, this is what they must expect :
The formation of a World Government with one Commerce and Financial System, one currency, one religion, under one world ruler.
After a series of world rulers, one man, an Assyrian – Iraqi – will emerge and be elected world ruler through his flatteries. He will behave as a man of peace. The Temple will be rebuilt and he will re-establish the Levitical Sacrifices under a Covenant with the Jews.
After three and a half years, this world ruler will break the Covenant. He will stop the sacrifices in the Temple, and enter it to proclaim himself God. As those Jews who realise he is not their Messiah back away from him, he seeks to destroy them.
The holders of this non-Rapture doctrine may witness or hear about the miraculous removal of these people – 144 thousand Israeli households to a safe place…
They may also be made aware of a ferocious battle between Michael and Satan, resulting in Satan being forced out of his dominion around the earth to the limits of this earth alone.
This will be the time when Satan, finding a “vile person” in the form of the then present world ruler, will occupy his body, giving the former man of peace the authority to proclaim himself God of the world. He is then officially the man of sin, called “the beast” in Revelation …
Having authority from the Lamb Himself, the man of sin, “the beast” – the lawless one – will force the inhabitants of the entire world to receive a mark upon them in order to buy and sell.
These holding this non-Rapture doctrine will have to comply with that.
They will also, as inhabitants of the world at that time, be made to worship this man of sin and the image of the man of sin which will be created (cloned).
Over the next three and a half years, they will also experience the fulfillment of the long-prophesied Plagues of the Sword, the Famine and the Pestilence with Wild Beasts.
Moreover, throughout this time, a series of Seven Plagues will trouble the earth, among which plagues the waters will be turned to blood.
In addition to these Plagues, the Two Witnesses will also prevent rain and administer Plagues as they will.
The lack of rain and the burning up of grasslands and trees, and cargo ships traversing the seas will all contribute to the Famine.
Will these people be able to cope with this?
Above all these catastrophes, millions of devils will be released over the earth. And this is a significant point – they are commanded (by the Lamb Himself) to hurt those adults who do not have the seal which those 144 thousand Jewish households received earlier!!! That is everyone else! Apart from the Two Witnesses and the Remnant of Israel in their safe place, of course.
My sincere question is, Are these people prepared for this? Do they really understand that this is the Program of God for this world, BEFORE the Lord Jesus Christ takes over this world as KING and GOD?
Jerusalem will be utterly destroyed before He returns with His Church and saints from the Old Testament. The Battle of Armageddon will ensue and the Great Slaughter, 200 miles of blood-shed, destroying all those who come to confront the Lamb.
All these above points are based on Scripture. The Prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Zechariah, etc, the Psalms, the Gospels – Christ’s own teaching of events before His Return to earth – Paul’s teachings to the Thessalonians and the Book of Revelation contain all these truths…
It will be no fun to be left behind when Christ comes to snatch His faithful ones away from what is to come upon the earth ! There is only ONE Resurrection unto Life. Please make sure you understand God’s Plan for the Future.
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