JOURNEY OF FAITH
Day Six
To whom will I compare You, Abba Father? Who is Your equal? I lift up my eyes and look to the heavens; Who created all that is there? You created them, Father; You bring out the starry host one by one, and call them each by name! Because of Your great Power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing! Do you not know? Have you not heard? My Father is the Everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the Earth! You do not grow tired or weary, Father, and Your understanding no one can fathom! You give strength to the weary and increase the power of the weak! Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall, but those who wait on You, Father, renew their strength! They soar on wings like eagles! They run and do not grow weary; they walk and do not faint! So I shall not be afraid, for You are with me! I will not be dismayed, for You are my God! You strengthen me and You help me, Father! You uphold me with Your victorious right hand! Glory to Your Holy Name!
It is good to praise You, Father, and to make music to Your Holy Name, Blessed Most High! It is good to proclaim Your love in the morning and Your faithfulness at night! For You make me glad by Your wonderful deeds! I sing for joy at the works of Your hands! How great are Your works, Father, how profound Your thoughts! My Father, You are exalted forever!
Revelation 6:1-17 [NIV; amplification in italics]
I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a powerful voice, like thunder, filled with terror and majesty, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and He was given a crown, and He rode out with sovereign power…swift and irresistible…as a bloodless conqueror bent on unceasing conquest, heaping fiery, burning coals of Truth and conviction upon this proud, guilty, unbelieving world. He will shoot them with arrows; suddenly they will be struck down. He will turn their own tongues against them and bring them to ruin; all who see them will shake their heads in scorn. All mankind will fear; they will proclaim the works of God and ponder what He has done. Your people will offer themselves freely as living sacrifices unto You on the day You lead Your host upon the holy mountains. From the womb of the morning like dew Your youth will come to You. For when Your judgments are in the Earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. Then will they realize that they have been excluded from the blessed rapture and high honors of the saints in the first translation, because their hearts were preoccupied with the things of Earth rather than longing after a heavenly citizenship, and there will be many penitent hearts finally subdued into submission to the Word and Sovereignty of God!
When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the Earth and to make men slay each other in a rampage of lawless and selfish human passion raging forth in all forms of wars, nations against nations; violence, bloodshed and bloody commotions amongst groups of citizens, neighbors, even families, all over the face of society; so that the daytime is spent in the shedding of blood, and the nighttime in fear! To him was given a large sword, with which to cause every man’s sword to be raised against his fellow man, and everyone’s hand to rise up against the hand of his neighbor; international slaughter, civil butchery, private revenge, and murder will be the order of the day! [Note: we are even now seeing every day in the news a preview of what is yet even more to come.]
When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a black horse, heralding the intense and unprecedented scarcity and famine the entire Earth was about to be plunged into! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand with which to carefully measure out meager portions of the bare sustenance of life during this time of unimaginable dearth and impoverishment. Then I heard what sounded like a voice from among the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat (enough for one person’s scanty daily sustenance) for a full day’s wages, and three quarts of barley (as a substitute for the wheat, due to its scarcity and lack of availability… the scanty allowance for a day’s sustenance for a slave) for a full day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine,” which will then become a necessity of life for people just to find food enough to keep themselves alive! The plenitude of oil and wine is in itself part of the judgment, forcing the inhabitants of the Earth to be glutted ad nauseam with the luxuries they had so recklessly indulged in during their times of affluence!
When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a pale, ghastly, death-green horse, prepared to sweep through the world and trample it under his dreadful hoofs! Its rider was named Death, and Hades…that dark region of the dead which remorselessly swallows up the living…was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the Earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the Earth, intensifying the work of their predecessors to still more horrible excesses, and adding to it death-plagues and the inciting of the animal kingdom to human carnage as well!
When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar of Yahweh’s temple on the Earth the disembodied souls of those who had been slain during this period of God’s administration of judgment because of the Word of God and the testimony they had so zealously maintained concerning the nature of this unfolding judgment. They proclaimed a powerful testimony which interpreted all the plagues, disorders, and horrors around them as the veritable inflictions of the Almighty, now risen up to pay off all the long-accumulating arrearages of His wrath upon transgressors. They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until You judge the inhabitants of the Earth to their final consummation and avenge our blood?” Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait and continue to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed during this tribulation period as they had been was completed.
I watched as He opened the sixth seal. There was a violent shaking of the heavens and Earth…as a great earthquake! The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, ceasing to give forth its light; the whole moon turned blood red… blood-dark, dim, sickly and portentous; and the stars in the sky fell to Earth in a fearfully spectacular meteoric display, as late figs overtaken and shriveled by winter drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place in the wake of the terrible cataclysmic convulsions shaking the heavens and Earth! Then the kings of the Earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man, stripped of their pretentious self-security and composure, now overwhelmed with inexpressible fear and dread, hid in abject terror in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. The full import of the awesome ensuing turmoil had dawned upon their souls…that God is on the Throne, that sin is a reality, that judgment is come, and that every guilty one must now face an angry Creator! Horror-stricken, they called out to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him Who sits on the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great Day of Their wrath has come, and who can stand in the great and terrible Day of the Lord?” [Revelation 6:1-17]
WHY DO I EXIST
CHAPTER 12
HOLY SPIRIT: AGENT OF NEW LIFE
ANECDOTES
Lord God Almighty…Where did I come from? How did I get here? Why am I here; why do I exist…for what purpose? Where am I going; where will I ultimately end up to be?
I was Personally known by name, in eternity past, within the Divine counsels of God! And it was God Who determined the day, the hour, and the year He would bring me into existence.
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Friends & neighbors; brothers and sisters…
If you remember nothing else from the pages of “WHY DO I EXIST”… never forget this: GOD LOVES YOU.
God’s Love 4 U is…
Unconditional
Unfailing
Unchanging
Unending
Beloved…I love you because of Who I am…not as a response to who you are, or what you do, or what you refrain from doing.
If only you would know in the depths of your soul, if only you would just fully embrace, the greatness of My Love I have lavished upon you…that the most intense desire of My heart is to gather you to Myself as one of My Own children, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. That is the depth of My love for you.
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WHERE DID I COME FROM
Lord God Almighty…Where did I come from? How did I get here? Why am I here; why do I exist…for what purpose? Where am I going; where will I ultimately end up to be?
Abba Father…You created me for Yourself, in Your Own image and likeness, Divinely crafted with the capabilities and capacity to be joined together with the Triune God in a Sacred Covenant relationship…a living union of oneness…the very crown jewels of Your Creation, and that, as a mirror of the Almighty, I would reflect Your Glory to the created universe.
I was not merely the result of sexual gratification…a random occurrence, an accidental happening, an incidental incident.
I was not merely…
The natural result of God’s provision for procreation,
nor the result of the physical impulse and gratification of the flesh,
nor the result of a husband’s decision to have children.
I was Personally known by name, in eternity past, within the Divine counsels of God! And it was God Who determined the day, the hour, and the year He would bring me into existence. Lord God Almighty, You had determined where on the face of the Earth I would be born. You determined who my human parents would be, whether by Personally causing them to be my parents, or by specifically, consciously, and deliberately allowing them to be so. And You knew the plans You had for me in eternity past…plans to prosper me and not to harm me, plans to give me a hope and a future.
GOD’S PROVISION FOR LIFE
Abba Father…Your provision for new life has never changed. When You created living beings on the face of the Earth…plants, fish, birds, animals, humans…You gave them the capability to grow and to produce seeds. Seeds where Your provision for new life of the same kind of living being to come into existence. When a seed is fertilized, a new life is conceived and comes into being. In this manner You provided for the continuing existence of living beings on the face of the Earth.
The principle of seed in the physical realm is the same principle in the spiritual realm. You plant Your seed…the Word of God recorded in Scripture…in the heart of a human being. When Your seed is fertilized by the consent of that person’s will, a new life in the spiritual realm is conceived and comes into being.
Just as in the physical realm flesh gives birth to flesh, just so in the spiritual realm Spirit gives birth to spirit. Humans can only reproduce human life, but the Holy Spirit brings into being a new spiritual life from Heaven. Just as in the physical realm a new life is born of human parents into the physical realm, just so in the spiritual realm a new life is born of the Holy Spirit into the spiritual realm.
You enter into My Eternal Purpose for you to be joined together with the Triune God in a Sacred Covenant relationship through being born into the spiritual realm by supernatural means…that is, by being born anew of the Spirit of God.
PHYSICAL LIFE
Every human being came into existence in the physical realm by birth. My physical human life began at the moment of my conception. The male human seed of a father has within itself the capacity to start a new life. When it is planted in a mother’s womb, it has the potential to bring a new life into existence.
My father’s human seed in itself, however, lies dormant; it cannot bring forth a new life on its own. Fertilization must take place through union with my mother’s female ovum. My physical human life began at that moment of fertilization…at that moment of my conception…at which time I was conceived from my father’s male human seed planted in my mother’s womb and fertilized through union with her female ovum. At that moment in time when fertilization took place, a new, genetically unique cell, a genetically distinct living organism…a new human being…came into existence.
Then the process of growth began. God the Father formed all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. In the fullness of time, I was brought forth from my mother’s womb and born into the physical realm…a newborn baby!
This is what God has said in His written Word: I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I chose you and set you apart for My Own purposes. I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you…plans to give you a hope and a future.
SPIRITUAL LIFE
My spiritual life also began at the moment of conception. The Divine seed of God the Father…the Word of God recorded in Scripture…has within itself the capacity to start a new life. When it is planted in the heart of a human being, it has the potential to bring a new life into existence.
God’s Divine seed in itself, however, lies dormant; it cannot bring forth a new life on its own. Fertilization must take place within my heart through the consent of my will…at which time a new life is conceived through the Power of the Holy Spirit.
I give the consent of my will when I make a solemn vow before God in giving myself to be the bride of Christ Your Son, receiving Jesus the Christ into my life in a spiritual marriage, promising to honor and obey Him as both Lord over my life and Savior of my soul.
At that moment in time when by a conscious and deliberate act of my own free will I gave consent to Your Word planted in my heart…
- by virtue of making a solemn vow before You, Father, in giving myself to become the bride of Christ Your Son,
- receiving Jesus the Christ into my life in a divine spiritual marriage,
- promising to honor and obey Him as both Lord over my life and Savior of my soul,
- to be joined together with Him in an Eternal living union of oneness as His bride…the bride of Christ…in a divine spiritual marriage, flesh of His flesh and bone of His bones…
fertilization took place and a new life was conceived in me, by virtue of the Power of the Holy Spirit sweeping over me and overshadowing me. I was actually and literally born into the Family of God! God Himself is my Father; I am His child by birth and by Blood…the Blood of Christ His Son, poured out on that cross at Calvary for the forgiveness of my sins and the restoration of my relationship with God that had been severed by sin.
The consent of my will takes place by my making a solemn vow before God…a solemn spiritual marriage vow…not by merely reciting a prayer or by acknowledging a belief. That is the moment when fertilization takes place, at which time a new life is both conceived and born in me through the Power of the Holy Spirit: the Holy Spirit will sweep over you and the Power of the Most High will overshadow you.
My spiritual birth is not a mental or a theological concept; it is just as literal and just as real a new birth as was my physical birth. A person is born into physical life through human parents, but is born into spiritual life in the Kingdom of God through Divine parents…by God the Father through the Power of the Holy Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.
THE HOLY SPIRIT: AGENT OF SPIRITUAL LIFE
Blessed Holy Spirit…Through Your Eternal Power, a new life was conceived within me and born…born again, a second time, this time into the spiritual realm.
I am now a child belonging to the Royal Family of God, through the regeneration wrought in me by the Holy Spirit…through the new life conceived in me by the Holy Spirit…born again of the Spirit! I am an entirely new creation; a fresh, new life…a spiritual life…has came into existence. I am no longer the same person I formerly was. My previous moral and spiritual condition has passed away. Behold, a fresh, new life has begun!
CHILD OF GOD BY BIRTH AND BY BLOOD
A distinct and uniquely new life comes into existence. I am literally a new creation…not in the physical realm where I already exist…but in the spiritual realm, where prior to this I did NOT exist. Prior to this, I existed only in the physical realm…but now I have been born a second time…born again…born into the Family of God in the Kingdom of God. I experienced a second birth…this time into the spiritual realm where prior to this I did not exist; I was born again… adopted into the Family of God by birth and by Blood. Now I exist both in the physical realm and in the spiritual realm. I became a child of the Most High God by birth! God Himself is therefore my Father and I am His child; I bear His spiritual DNA in my soul!
I am literally a uniquely new creation; I am not the same person I was before. What is born of the flesh through human parents is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit through Divine Parents is spirit. The person I am now, newly born of the Spirit, is NOT the same person I was that was born of the flesh…merely re-born. No…I was born again!; this time into the spiritual realm and the Family of God, in a manner similar in principle to my conception and birth into the physical realm… in the same manner as the conception and birth of Christ Jesus, the Eternal Divine Son of God, into the physical realm.
INCARNATION: PHYSICAL BIRTH OF JESUS
Christ Jesus was conceived in Mary His mother’s womb and born into the physical realm after the completion of her term of pregnancy, through the Power of the Holy Spirit. He planted a human seed in Mary’s womb, fertilized by the consent of her will when she said to the angel, “May it be done unto me as you have said.” Jesus, therefore, did not have a human father; God Himself was His Father in the physical realm, just as He has been for all Eternity in the spiritual realm within the Triune Godhead in which Christ Jesus is the Eternal Divine Son of God.
HOW THE BIRTH OF JESUS CAME ABOUT
The angel Gabriel came to Mary and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored!
The Lord is with you! Blessed are you before all other women! You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever; His Kingdom will never end.”
Mary was greatly troubled at the angel’s words, and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary…you have found favor with God.
The Holy Spirit will sweep over you and the Power of the Most High will overshadow you, causing you to conceive and give birth to a son. Therefore, the Holy Offspring which shall be born of you, pure and sinless, will be called the Son of God.”
Then Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaiden of the Lord; let it be done to me according to what you have said.” Then the angel left her. [Matt 1:18; Luke 1:26-38]
And Mary, filled with the Spirit, rejoiced: “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for He has been mindful of the humble state of His servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me…Holy is His name! His mercy extends to those who fear Him, from generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones, but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things, but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped His servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as He said to our fathers.” [Luke 1:28-46]
ADOPTION THROUGH BIRTH
Abba Father…From the very beginning, from Eternity Past, You made provision for the redemption of the children of men and for the adoption of the children of men into Your Own Family, as Your Own children. You made Eternal Provision for me…
Redemption through the Eternal Gift of Your Divine Son Jesus, and
Adoption through the Eternal Gift of Your Holy Spirit.
Abba Father, I was born into Your Family; I am Your child…Your son, Your daughter…by birth. My adoption was through birth, not through a judicial proceeding and legal documentation.
You did not adopt me into Your Family through legal means to then raise me as Your Foster child. You are not a Foster Father, Who has merely taken me into Your Family to be my legal guardian. I am not Your child merely by judicial decree proceeding from a court of law.
I am Your Own child by a literal and real birth; I was born again. The Holy Spirit came upon me, and the Power of the Most High overshadowed me. A new life was conceived within me; Lord God Almighty…You Yourself are my Father!
Beloved child…don’t you understand? You enter into My Eternal Purpose for you through being born into the spiritual realm by supernatural means…that is, by being born anew of the Spirit of God. You are thereby born again of the Spirit, and become a child of the Most High God; I Myself am your Father. Just as when I was born into the physical realm I bear my human parent’s DNA, when I was born again…born a second time, born into the Family of God in the spiritual realm…I bear God my Father’s spiritual DNA in my soul. “Therefore, the holy offspring born within me shall be called a child of the Most High God…a son/daughter of God.”
DEFINING CHARACTERISTIC OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD
The defining characteristic of My children is the Eternal Gift of My Holy Spirit literally dwelling in you. Your physical body is the very temple of My Holy Spirit, Whom you have as an Eternal Gift given by God to permanently reside in you… never to leave you, never to forsake you.
You are no longer your own…you have been bought at a great price:
I purchased you, by Myself and for Myself, with the Precious and Priceless Blood of My Divine Son Jesus…poured out on your behalf on that cross at Calvary for the forgiveness of your sins and the restoration of your relationship with God that had been severed by sin.
By virtue of My indwelling Holy Spirit, you have His Divine Nature abiding within you and available to you, and His Divine Power has given you everything you need for life and godliness, thereby enabling you to escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN TO ENTER THE KINGDOM OF GOD
Jesus Himself clearly stated, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot be in God’s Kingdom. I tell you the truth, no one can ever enter the Kingdom of God unless you are born of water and the Spirit. No one can enter the Kingdom of God without having been born both of water washing away your sins through the cleansing bath of the new birth, and the regeneration wrought by the Holy Spirit infusing within you a new and Divine principle of life. [Titus 3:4-7] A person is born physically of human parents, but you are born spiritually of the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised or astonished at My saying, “You must be born again.” [John 3:3-7]
LOVE BEYOND MEASURE
Abba Father, how great, beyond measure, is the Love You have lavished upon me…that I should be named a child of the Most High God! And that is who I am! How wide and long, how high and deep, is the love Christ Jesus Your Son has lavished upon me…a love that surpasses knowledge, that fills my inmost being to the richest measure of all the fullness of God…a soul wholly filled and flooded with God Himself! [1 John 3:1-2; Eph 3:18-19]
DIVINE PRINCIPLE OF LIFE
I have another Father, a second and different Father; God Himself is my Father! I have another DNA, a spiritual DNA; I bear God my Father’s DNA in my soul!
Therefore beloved…no one conceived of God and born into God’s Family knowingly and deliberately, continually and habitually, practices sin, for God’s nature abides within me. His principle of life, the Divine sperm, remains permanently within me; I cannot engage in the practice of sinning, because I am born into new life…I am a born again child of God! [John 3:9]
AGENT OF ADOPTION
Spirit of the Living God…You are the agent of my adoption, and You Yourself are the source of my strength and the Power of the new life conceived and birthed in me. You are the Eternal Gift given to dwell in me…never to leave me, never to forsake me. You are the One Who Personally lives out the life of Jesus in me…a life of obedience and suffering, self-sacrifice and self-denial…as I give You free reign to do so. And You are the One Who Personally works out the death of Jesus in me, conforming me ever more deeply into the likeness of His death… death to sin and death to self…in order that I may thereby attain, more and more, to the Power of His resurrection life out from the dead…the Power to walk through each and every day as more than a conqueror and with overwhelming victory!
Spirit of the Living God…Your Divine Power has given me everything I need for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called me by His Own Glory and Goodness. Through these You have given me Your very great and precious promises, so that through them I may participate in the Divine Nature now dwelling within me, and thereby escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
DEFINING CHARACTERISTIC OF A CHILD OF GOD
We know beyond the shadow of any doubt that everyone born into God’s Family is thereby a regenerated individual and does not make a practice of committing sin. How could I? God my Father’s DNA is deep within me, making me who I am! It’s not in the nature of the God-begotten to practice and parade sin. The Son of God carefully watches over and protects me…Christ’s indwelling Divine Presence preserves me against the evil one, and the Devil cannot lay hold of me. [1 John 5:16]
By this it is made clear who takes their nature from God and are His children, and who takes their nature from the devil and are his children: those who do not practice righteousness…those whose everyday manner of living does not conform to God’s will in purpose, thought, and action…are not children of God; neither is anyone who does not love his brothers and sisters in the Family of God. [1 John 3:9-10]
Blessed Jesus…my heart hungers and thirsts for purity, holiness, and righteousness in living out my everyday life. As such, I continually look to Your Holy Spirit to guard my heart, that there be nothing in my life I am aware of that I know to be sin…but like doing it, want to keep on doing it, and refuse to give it up for You. Forbid it, Lord; may that never be!
Blessed Holy Spirit…the Power of Your indwelling Presence continually guarantees and secures my capability to live my everyday life:
faithful to my solemn marriage vows as the bride of Christ;
faithfully within the Holy of Holies and the inaccessibly Light of the Glory of my Father’s unclouded Presence in our Sacred Covenant relationship.
This does not imply, nor claim, sinless perfection…but represents the heart attitude of a child of God that, so far as I know, I have no unconfessed and unrepented sin in my life. There is nothing I am consciously aware of that stands between myself and my Lord Jesus…a child of God yielded habitually to the Holy Spirit and living in close fellowship with my Lord as a faithful bride of Christ.
My beloved child, it is My desire that you pattern yourself after the likeness of My Son…blameless and pure, innocent and uncontaminated, a child of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and spiritually perverse generation, among whom you shine like a star in the universe! [Father God…Phil 2:14-15]
GIFT OF ETERNAL LIFE FREELY AVAILABLE TO ALL
Abba Father…You made it unmistakably clear in Your Word…You plant Your Divine seed in the heart of every soul whom You bring into existence. You have promised to every soul:
To all who receive Him [Christ Jesus Your Son], to all those who believe in His Name, You gave them the right to become children of God…children born of God…born-again, born a second time through the new life conceived within by Your Holy Spirit, born into the Family of God, children of God by birth and by Blood.
Blessed Jesus…You made it unmistakably clear in Your Word: “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. The only way to the Father is through Me. I tell you the truth, unless one is born again, he cannot be in God’s Kingdom. No one can ever enter the Kingdom of God unless he is born of both water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at My saying, ‘”You must be born again.'”
Lord Jesus…to all those who believe in Your Name, You gave them the right to become children of God…assuredly, to all those who believe in their heart that…
You are Christ the Messiah, the Divine Son in the Triune God, Whom God promised was to come into the world, fulfilling Your promised coming the world had long awaited;
You are the sacrificial Lamb of God Who came into this world to become the One only, all-sufficient, atoning sacrifice through Your death on a cross and subsequent resurrection, thereby securing forgiveness for my sins and restoring my relationship with God that had been severed by sin.
Believing this in my heart is the absolutely necessary starting point…I can go no further in entering into a Sacred Covenant relationship with God apart from embracing this Truth in my heart.
BELIEVING IS NOT ENOUGH
Believing Who You are and what You have done on my behalf is not enough, however…not at all. Do I hear you professing to believe in the one and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful?
Do you still think merely believing is enough? Well, even the demons believe this…and they tremble in terror! [James 2:19] No…it is to all who also receive You that You give the right to become children of God.
Receiving You is not just a theological concept, or by saying a prayer, or by acknowledging a belief. Receiving You is by…
- making a solemn vow before God to give myself to be Your bride…the bride of Christ,
- receiving You, Blessed Jesus, into my life in a divine and spiritual marriage,
- promising to honor and obey You as both Lord over my life and Savior of my soul;
- a solemn vow to have and to hold You, above all others and above all else this world has to offer, as the choicest, most precious treasure of my heart;
- a solemn vow to love and to cherish You, above all others and above all else this world has to offer, reserving for You alone my sweetest, most tender affections;
- for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, all the days of my life, until death of my body brings me to be together with You in Heaven for all eternity.
BLESSED ASSURANCE
I am a child of God, adopted by birth into the Family of God;
I am joined together with the Triune God in a Sacred Covenant relationship;
God the Father is my Father;
God the Son…Christ Jesus…is my spiritual Husband; I am the bride of Christ.
Jesus is also my Savior, my Lord, and my Brother.
God the Holy Spirit is my Master; I am His servant.
Everyone born into the Family of God is also my brother/sister;
Heaven is my eternal home;
Every day brings me one day nearer to my eternal home.
IT IS FINISHED
My beloved child…At that moment when you make a solemn vow before God to become the bride of Christ in a divine marriage
https://preservechristianfamily.org/2019/01/21/bride-of-christ/
you are joined inseparably together with My Divine Son Jesus in an eternal living union of oneness…flesh of His flesh and bone of His bones…through the regeneration wrought in you by the Holy Spirit.
IT IS FINISHED…The Eternal Power and Eternal Worth of the Blood of Christ has guaranteed and secured your Eternal Union with Him…now joined inseparably together with Him in an Eternal living union of oneness as His bride…the bride of Christ…in a divine spiritual marriage…flesh of His flesh and bone of His bones, as an accomplished and finished fact. [John 17:21-23]
GIFT OF ETERNAL LIFE
This is the only way a soul can be born again…born into the Kingdom of God as a child of the Most High God, through the Power of the Holy Spirit. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under Heaven given to men by which you must be saved. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will never experience eternal life, but will remain under God’s punishment.
My Divine Son Jesus has made it clearly known, “I am the way and the truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. I am the Resurrection and the Life. Anyone who believes in Me, though dying a physical death like everyone else, will rise again to an eternal life together with Me in Heaven.” [Acts 4:12; John 3:36, 14:6-7, 11:25-26]
SPIRITUAL SECRET
Brothers and sisters in Christ, here is an excerpt from Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret: The Spirit of God reveals to me the truth of my oneness with Jesus.
How to get faith strengthened? Not by striving after faith, but by resting on the Faithful One. If we believe not, yet He abideth faithful: He cannot deny Himself. [2 Tim 2:13] I look to Jesus, and see that He has said, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” [Heb 13:5]
Ah…there is rest! I have striven in vain to rest in Him. I will strive no more, for has not He promised to abide with me…never to leave me, never to forsake me?
As I thought of the vine and the branches, what light the Blessed Spirit poured direct into my soul! How great seemed my mistake in wishing to get the sap…all of His fullness…out of Him and into my puny branch!
I saw not only that Jesus will never leave me, but that I am a member of His body…flesh of His flesh and bone of His bones. The vine is not the root merely, but ALL…root, stem, branches, twigs, leaves, flowers, fruit. And Jesus is not that alone…He is soil and sunshine, air and showers, and ten thousand times more than I have ever dreamed, wished for, or needed! Oh, the joy of embracing this truth!
It is a wonderful thing to be really one with a risen and exalted Saviour, to be a member of Christ! Think what that involves! Can Christ be rich and I poor? Can your right hand be rich and your left hand poor…or your head be well fed while your body starves? Again, think of its bearing on prayer. Could a bank clerk say to a customer, “It was only your hand, not you, that wrote that check;” or, “I cannot pay this sum to your hand, but only to yourself?”
No longer can my prayers be discredited if offered in the name of Jesus (not for the sake of Jesus merely, but on the ground that I am His…His member), so long as I keep within the limits of Christ’s credit…a tolerably wide limit! If I ask for anything unscriptural, or not in accordance with the will of God…Christ Himself could not, would not, do that! But if I ask anything according to His will…I know that I shall have the petitions I desired of Him!
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Beloved…be dressed in readiness, and keep your lamps lit. Be alertly waiting for your master’s return from the wedding feast, so you may immediately open the door to him when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those whom the master finds ready when he comes. You also, be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect! [Jesus…Luke 12:35-37, 40]
When our God shall come, even Christ, to set up His Kingdom on the Earth…a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. Only the redeemed will walk there, and the ransomed of the Lord will return. We will enter Zion with singing, our heads crowned with everlasting joy! Gladness and joy will overtake me, forever free from sorrow and grief! [Isa 35:8-10]
Brothers and sisters in Christ…
In that soon coming Day of the Lord…Men’s hearts will be failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the Earth: for the powers of Heaven shall be shaken. When God spoke from Mount Sinai His voice shook the Earth, but now He makes another promise: “Once again I will shake not only the Earth but the heavens also.” This means that the things on Earth will be shaken, so that only eternal things will remain. When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. [Heb 12:26-27; Luke 21:26, 28]
The Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire. In that day, the Earth will burn as an oven. Everything in the physical, material realm will be burned up…EVERYTHING; nothing will remain.
Beloved…keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect Him. [Jesus…Matt 24:42-44]
Beloved…sow for yourselves righteousness and reap the fruit of My unfailing love! Break up the fallow ground within your heart! For it is time to seek Me, the Lord, until I come and shower righteousness upon you! Look off unto Me and My strength; seek My face and My Presence continually! Those who know My Name will trust in Me, for I have never forsaken those who seek Me! [Triune God…Hos 10:12; Ps 105:4; 9:10]
At that time the Kingdom of Heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and did not take extra oil with them. The wise, however, took extra oil in jars along with their lamps, and so were ready for his coming. Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour. [Jesus…Matt 25:1-13]
In that great and terrible Day of the Lord, Father, Your Divine Son Jesus will manifest the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God against all those upon the Earth who stand in rebellion to His Throne, and He will destroy all those upon the Earth who are enemies and usurpers of His rule and authority, until He has placed every one of His enemies under His feet. Then in that Day, Your will, Father, will be done on Earth even as it is in Heaven. [Heb 1:8-13; Isa 13:6-9; Joel 1:15; 2:11, 31; Zep 1:18; 2 Pet 3:10; 1 Cor 15:24-26; Matt 6:9-10]
Beloved…continually wash your robes in the Blood of Jesus; wash your garments that have been soiled with sin, making them clean again, dazzling and white. Wash your feet with pure water; wash the dust of sin off your feet. Continually and diligently do these things, that you may always abide with Me in the Holy of Holies, in My unclouded Presence. [Rev 19:7-9]
These are the days of the separation of the wheat from the chaff. I [John] baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come One Who is more powerful than I, Whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor, gathering His wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire. “Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the Lord Almighty.
“Not a root or a branch will be left to them.” [Matt 3:11-12; Mal 4:1-2]
But also in those days there arose false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among yourselves. They will subtly and cleverly teach their destructive heresies about God, even denying the Sovereign Lord Who bought them. Theirs will be a swift and terrible end. Many will follow their evil teaching and shameful immorality. And because of them, Christ and His true way will be slandered. In their greed they will make up clever lies and cunning arguments to get hold of your money. With eyes full of adultery, their lust is never satisfied. They make a game of beguiling and luring unstable people into sin. They train themselves to be greedy; they are doomed and cursed. But God condemned them long ago, and their eternal misery is on the way. [2 Peter 2:1-3, 14]
And so, my brothers and sisters, first of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. Even so…The Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire. Since everything on the Earth will be destroyed in this way, you ought to live a holy and godly life as you look forward to the coming Day of the Lord! Everyone who has this hope purifies himself, just as He is pure. So, beloved, since you are expecting these things to happen, be eager to be found by Him at His coming living a pure and blameless life and at peace… in serene confidence, free from fears and agitating passions and moral conflicts. Let me warn you therefore, beloved, that knowing these things beforehand, you should be on your guard, lest you be carried away by the error of lawless and wicked persons. I don’t want you to lose your own secure footing. But grow in the special favor and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as He Who called you is Holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am Holy.” [2 Peter 3:3, 10-12, 14, 17; 1 John 3:3; 1 Peter 1:14-16]
This is what the Most Holy, Most High, Triune God declares:
No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in Heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect Him. [Matt 24:36-39, 42-44]
“Behold”, says the Lord Jesus in His last warning for the last opportunity offered to mankind to be among His redeemed, “I come for the last time like a thief in the night to gather those who would be among the elect! Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, in watchfulness, prayer and readiness for the summons when it comes, so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed, eternally without remedy.”
PREPARE YOURSELF
We are in the Last Days; time is moving very quickly, and we are drawing near! And so, my brothers and sisters, first of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ He promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of Creation.”
Son of man, you’ve heard that proverb they quote in Israel: Time passes, and prophecies come to nothing. Tell the people, This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will put an end to this proverb, and you will soon stop quoting it. Now give them this new proverb to replace the old one: The time has come for every prophecy of Mine to be fulfilled! [2 Peter 3:3-4, 10-12, 14, 17; 1 John 3:3; 1 Peter 1:14-16; Ezek 12:22-23]
God is calling a holy remnant to Himself…to personal revival…a holy remnant of His children who will not bow down, who will not shrink back, who will not compromise, who will remain steadfast and immovable in their commitment to follow the Lamb whithersoever He goes. God’s holy remnant is called to a life of obedience and suffering, self-sacrifice and self-denial…to walk along the path that Christ Jesus dedicated for us, and to follow in His footsteps as our Forerunner. You cannot become part of My holy remnant without being willing to sacrifice your desire for anyone & all others, and for anything & all else this world has to offer. Obedience is what characterizes the life of My child…obedience continually and unceasingly day and night. You are called to a life of obedience. Obedience is better than sacrifice; rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft, and stubbornness as evil as worshiping idols. [1 Sam 15:22,23]
Wherefore brethren, having now boldness to enter into the Holiest by the Blood of Jesus, by the way which He dedicated for us…a new and living way to God through the veil, that is to say, through the veil of His flesh…let us then without further hesitation or delay draw nigh in fullness of faith; here let us continually abide in the fullness of faith. [Heb 10:19-20, 22] Those who abide in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. [PS 91:1]
Arise My bride, and prepare to see My Face
Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done.
Then the angel said to me, “Write this down: Blessed are those summoned to the marriage banquet of the Lamb…all true believers who are members of His Universal Church. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with Power and great Glory. And He will send His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect…God’s holy people…from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.” And he said to me further, “These are the True Words of God.” [Rev 19:9]
Blessed Jesus…I rejoice and shout triumphantly for joy! I celebrate and ascribe to You glory and honor, for the marriage of the Lamb draws near, and Your bride, the Universal Church and each of her members, has been preparing herself and has made herself ready! [Rev 19:7] Hallelujah!
Hallelujah! For our Lord God, Sovereign All-Ruler, reigns! Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him Glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready. The finest linen, dazzling and white, was given her to wear. Then the angel said to me, “Write: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage banquet of the Lamb!” [John…Rev 19:6-9; Luke 14:15-23]
The washing of one’s robes and the keeping of one’s garments relates to this very attitude and habit of looking for the return of Christ as an imminent event. Brethren, as you hope to walk those golden streets, and eat of those immortal fruits, see to it that you have your garments clean and your loins girded about like unto men waiting for their Lord. [Seiss…Rev 21:9-22:5]
Then the king said to his servants, “The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.” So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding garment. “Friend,” he asked, “How did you come in here without putting on the appropriate wedding garment?” The man was speechless. Then the king told the attendants, “Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are invited and summoned, but few are chosen.” [Matt 22:8-14]
ENDURE TO THE END
Behold, I am coming quickly. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will deprive you of your crown. Everyone who overcomes by means of their faith…I will make a pillar in the Sanctuary of My God. Never again will you leave it. I will write on you the name of My God and you will be a citizen in the city of My God…the new Jerusalem…which will come down out of Heaven from My God; I will also write on you My Own new name.
Holy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcx2O9WXvn8&feature=youtu.be
Preserve Christian Family 