CELL PHONE TO DESTINY

I recently turned on my phone but could not do a thing. The cell company had frozen the screen until I responded to the message about installing an update. I had no choice. I could not go back or forward or around the message without responding to it. 

Praise God that He does not treat us like Sprint or Samsung does. He both gives us choice and works in us. He has given us a brain, emotions, will, relationships (especially with Himself), desires, hopes, dreams, and a future, in which we will shine as stars in the heavens. The great thing is that His divine wisdom works out the perfect environment to align our hearts with His will.

God is Not A Dictator

It was for freedom that Christ has set us free. God wants the very best future for each of us but does not violate our will to make it happen. We must want it, ask for it, expect it, and obey, knowing that God is bringing it about. It's our destiny.  

We can only know what God has predestined us for through cultivating a relationship with His Son Jesus, by hearing what He is saying to us and being led by Him alone. If we seek the Lord with a single heart, hear what He says in His Word, and do what He says, we will fulfill God’s purpose for our lives. We will reach our final (pre)destination. Of all that we can do, whether in business or family, planning our day or planning our future, in anything, the key issue is the lord of our lives. To whom or to what is our allegiance?

Who or What Is Lord?

Some people believe the course of their lives is set in stone because somehow, like with my phone update, they are being coerced to comply with an impersonal force in their lives. They think that God predestined how their life is now, but this mentality does a disservice. It distorts the truth.

A person may feel his or her life, let’s say, is much less than hoped for. A spouse does not measure up, the right job did not come through, an unexpected death of a loved one pulled the rug out from under an otherwise perfect life. Regardless of everything that has happened or will happen, every single person still has a choice to draw near to God, overcome according to the promises of Christ, or fall away. 

Though it may be the most difficult choice to make in life, the decision to draw near to God through Christ, hear what He says, and just obey Him even though we do not understand will help us spiritually ascend His holy mountain and experience the blessings of heaven along the way starting today. 

How much of our lives then, if any part of it, is predestined? And what does that mean when it comes to our choices, our free will right now?

Predestined for A Glorious Future

According to Scripture, God has predestined us for His purpose. If that purpose conflicts with our present experience or mentality in life, we can still welcome God, no matter our age or circumstances, to work in us to bring about His glorious will.  Cry out to God to soften your heart to return to Him. In this scenario of life as we know it verses the immutable will of God, His purpose shall be victor, but we must be willing.

1 Corinthians 2:7 teaches that God predestined us to know Him through a wisdom that cannot be understood naturally. God calls us through Christ speaking in us. We hear His word by His Spirit. God foreordained us to glorify Christ knowing Him by His word instead of relying on our own understanding. Paul said in Romans 10:8, the message of faith is not far away but near, even in your mouth and in your heart.

The fact is that God has chosen me and you to be His if we come to Him through Christ. If that’s the case, being conformed to His will now will lead to our final destination. Predestination does not blind us to the realities of hurt and struggle, but because of our relationship with Jesus, the King of Kings, it gives us a future perspective that sets us free now to bear fruit for the Kingdom of God no matter what our outward circumstances.

True Freedom

 
Ephesians 1:11 cryptically indicates the true freedom that real predestination produces. Of Christ it says, "In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:"

We are predestined to know and experience God’s purpose according to our inheritance. As far as the details go, God orchestrates everything according to the counsel of His will. 

The Council of God

The council of God has deep roots back to Genesis and can be traced throughout Scripture. It is the kind of godly council out of which a voice arises and asks, who will go? Those who are humbly prepared by God are able to hear the question and authentically answer, here am I, I will go. 

Each of us who knows Christ has a role to fulfill in God’s plan. When we receive the words of Christ in the way that saves our soul, we can walk in line with our incorruptible inheritance based on His promises. The only way we can take up our part, or live in line with that purpose and fulfill it, is for Jesus Himself to teach us. He is the only way to the tree of life because He is the tree of life. 

All this taken together can help us better understand Romans 8:29 which says, "because those whom he knew in advance, he also determined in advance would be conformed to the pattern of his Son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brothers;”. The predestination bit is our being conformed to the image of Jesus and not to the status quo around us. Our being into Him exalts Him as preeminent. 

A Well-watered Garden

In the environment of knowing Jesus and learning to follow God as He did, the will of Christ contains our inheritance. We receive this will from Jesus Himself, and in doing so we begin fulfilling our purpose of becoming conformed to His image.

In the real world it is logical to trace back each of the four rivers in Genesis to locate physical Eden, but pursuing the four aspects of life (wisdom, power, esteem, wealth) that Rabbis say the four rivers represent is a dead end unless it brings us to faith in Messiah to welcome His Lordship in our lives. We have the need for enduring faith not to replace relationship with God with the gifts He gives or with the status quo culture ascribes us. The truth is that any substitute for the voice of God or anything that causes us to ignore it is an idol. God's authority and Christ’s Lordship in our lives provides all the blessings of life. 

Set Sail 

 
To everyone comes a time to grow up, to break the moorings of bondage, and in doing so, free ourselves from all the tether ropes that hold us down.

At twenty years of being a slave to Laban, Jacob finally decided enough was enough, and God showed him the way of escape from his slavery. As Israel could not have stayed one day more in Egypt before Jesus led them out, Jacob likewise could no longer stay in Haran. He was predestined, as we are, to achieve victory and fulfill God’s purpose in life.

How long before we say enough is enough, obey God, and discover the victory He has pre-ordained for us? What else will it take before we call upon the name of Jesus to raise us up to walk in the newness of life He has waiting for us? 

Even if our outward circumstances do not change over night, we can be renewed inwardly by daily walking with Jesus, and one day our life with Christ will be manifest. The Lord will ultimately transform our circumstances, if not now, then when God reveals us with Christ when He appears in glory. 

THE PLACE OF VICTORY AND REOPENING EDEN

Mountains and valleys —these describe daily experiences for many who have come to put their faith in Jesus Christ and have received the free gift of eternal life.  

They seek the Lord Jesus. They experience what appears to be victory over a certain obstacle, only to fall again into another valley, lower and deeper than the one they came out of. Although some may give up, many keep trying, trying and failing, but they never quit.

How many of us have experienced this pattern in our lives and have continued on the same course with very few lasting results except for feeling discouraged, reluctantly giving in to defeat, or apathetically defaulting to the status quo? 

Only the resurrection power of Christ can wake us up, transform our lives, and redeem us once again from all unwanted weights or entanglements. Instead of climbing another mountain in preparation for Christ’s return, we need the mountains leveled and valleys lifted up as had to happen when Jesus appeared the first time, but how does that happen? 

Only one mountain, according to the prophet Daniel, will be left standing, the mountain that destroys all other kingdoms or mountains. The question is, how do any of us attain that mountain of victory? And how can leveling mountains and climbing the mountain of God both be what God wants? How can that be?

Are we still determined to rely on our own understanding when it has never produced any good in us whatsoever? Isn’t it by faith we received Christ? So why would knowing and growing forward in Him be any different? We have to approach God by faith.

The New Testament records that Jesus led Peter, James, and John up the mount of transfiguration. In the Old Testament, we discover that only those with clean hands can ascend the mountain of the Lord. The invitation to go up the mountain comes from Jesus and He meets our deepest need to be made clean.

Is There Anyone Who Does Good?

The need for clean hands is not literal. It represents being clean before the Lord. An angel took a burning coal from the altar of God and touched Isaiah’s lips to make him clean. Prepared, he could then speak amid the divine counsel to fulfill God’s purpose with his life. When the apostle John fell down as dead when He saw Jesus in glory, Jesus touched His shoulder with His right hand and spoke the word John needed to hear to overcome. 

Therefore, John under the anointing wrote the letters to the seven lamp stands, the seven churches, through which God’s people achieve victory and Christ can bring the Church of all ages to maturity. 

The presence of Jesus must transform both the determination that prompts us to rely on our own strength and the desolation that so easily steals our hope.  May our faith, which is purer than gold, be fired into holy resolve not to live apathetic lives but to obey the voice of Christ no matter what the cost.

We must be laid bare before our inadequacies as Isaiah, John, Peter, and James were. Our deficiencies expose our great need for God’s word and merciful touch before we can ascend the mountain of God, where we need not only visit temporarily but live forever in God's tabernacling presence. 

Change of Real Estate

It is possible that victory requires our adopting a whole new paradigm, to ascend a whole new mountain, or to say it another way, to decide to no longer bark up the the same old tree.
Just as barking up the wrong tree means being altogether focused in the wrong direction, all we know and can know from earth’s perspective is the wrong tree, what the Bible describes as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

The answer to our great need is Jesus. God’s divine wisdom and plan has provided renewed access to the tree of life, though it cannot be found by earthly means. Finding it must be granted. The Bible, in fact, in describing how the rebellious one was cast out of the mountain of God also reveals the location of the Garden of Eden as upon the mountain (Ezekiel 28).

Jesus said those who gain the victory will be granted to eat from the tree of life in the paradise, garden, or orchard of God. They will also walk with Jesus in white. Jesus Himself is the tree of life. He is the Torah, known as the tree of life to the Jews, but if the tree of life is not on earth, then how can we eat of its fruit and live forever? Adam’s sin left us with a dilemma. 

Like the ark of the covenant in Solomon’s temple, the Torah takes up no physical space. God’s word comes to life in us and through us as we hear what our loving and kind Lord and Savior Jesus Christ says in us, and we humbly obey Him, though we do not fully understand.

Jesus died on the cross for our sins to deliver us from the pattern of standing up and failing, getting up and landing on our face again and again. As the psalmist said, the Lord has lifted us up out of the miry clay and set our feet upon the rock. The Kingdom of God is pictured as a place where each person sits under his or her own fig tree in peace and prosperity, fellowship and anointing, and not as an unending series of successes and failures.

Since the tree of life is hidden, we need to be shown the way to it. God Himself needs to breathe into us and make us stand according to His word of life, so we can get back to Eden. Please join me in offering this prayer: God in heaven, may you breathe life into your people across the earth and stand them to their feet in Jesus name. 

The martyrs showed us the way to stand before the throne of God in victory. They love their lives not unto death. Humbly acknowledging sin and our need for Christ in light of God’s holiness opens the way to the tree of life, granting us access to the oil that never runs out so we can shine continuously as lamps in the holy temple of God. 

This Section of the Park Now Open

The way to the garden of Eden, blocked by angels since the rebellion of Adam, has been opened once again to all who put their faith in Christ. God enlists His angels to minister to us for we are predestined for salvation, for those He has called those He has also predestined. 

The head of the four rivers of Genesis is no longer hidden. The waters of life flowing out of Eden lead the way back in. The river of life flows from the throne of God, and Jesus, as He called out to all those at the last day of the feast of tabernacles in Jerusalem, He calls out to all those who are thirsty today to come to Him. Drink freely from the waters of life He alone gives. He who drinks the water the Lord provides will never thirst again. He who overcomes serves God in His holy temple, tabernacled over by God, protected from the scorching heat of the sun.

We do well to obey the author of Hebrews who said if we hear God's voice today, whatever we do, we must not ignore it, as Israel did in the wilderness and experienced God’s displeasure for forty years and could not enter into the promised land because of disobedience/unbelief.

What accompanies those who hear and believe, however, is not disobedience but all the blessings associated with salvation. To those who believe, all the blessed promises in the Torah, the whole New Testament, and all the promises of God to all seven churches in Revelation chapters 2-3 are yes and amen.  
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TWO PARTS HEAVEN, ONE PART EARTH

When Moses built the tabernacle, he followed what he saw in heaven to build the model on earth, so the design reflects the Biblical cosmology God desires us to infer.

The Holy of Holies or Most Holy of the temple is modeled after the invisible heavens where God resides upon His Kingly throne. The holy place signifies the visible heavens where the stars, moon, and sun shine. The outer court of the temple corresponds to earth. Two parts heaven, one part earth clarifies the temple construction as it relates to both worshiping God in heaven and serving Him on earth.

Too Heavenly Minded?

To some, looking at the cosmos this way might be considered too heavenly focused to produce much good on earth, but that is not true. Look who identified how misunderstanding, or worse, rejecting the true nature of the temple, can lead to hypocrisy, while loving the truth leads to the right priority.

Jesus told the religious that because they were the sons of those who shed the blood of the prophets, they neglected what was most important in daily life. How they responded to the message of Jesus revealed their true nature, and what we make priority in life also reveals our blood line.
 
Jesus revealed how intertwined heaven and earth are when He said in Matthew 23:21-22, "and he who did swear by the sanctuary, doth swear by it, and by Him who is dwelling in it;”. By Jesus’ words we learn that God is present in the earthly sanctuary, which He was and which we are. Jesus continued, "and he who did swear by the heaven, doth swear by the throne of God, and by Him who is sitting upon it.” God resides on His throne in heaven while yet dwelling in us, His temple on earth.
 

God Only Appears to Be Distant

The conclusion is that God is not distant as people assume. He tabernacles over His own on earth as well as from His throne in heaven. Our actions on earth in obedience to Christ connect us to the reality of heaven for there is no longer anything separating us from God.

At Christ’s death and resurrection, the veil separating the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place was rent in two, not only on earth but also in heaven. Christ as High Priest went into the Holy of Holies in heaven and made a way for all to enter in to the Most Holy Place through His blood. By faith in Christ, God cleanses our conscience from dead works to serve Him, the living God. Through the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony, which unites our lives in the most holy place in heaven, we can stand before the Lord in total victory. This is the answer to Malachi’s question, "Who can stand at His appearing?"

Our presence in heaven and on earth seems ironic, but allowing for both to be true at the same time infuses our day to day conduct with meaning and allows events such as those in Revelation 11 to instruct us. The bringing together of all things in heaven and on earth under the Lordship of Christ explains how the witnesses of heaven and earth can be at the same time worshiping in the temple while apparently suffering and being killed on earth by the creature coming out of the abyss.

Heaven Now Opened

Stephen, while being stoned to death in the book of Acts, experienced this tension of suffering and glory. When he was about to die, Stephen saw the heavens opened and Christ standing at the right hand of the throne of God. He saw what nobody else did. 

Living life on earth while having a heart set in heaven also explains how the sun and moon can be darkened from an earthly perspective, while those achieving victory shine as lights around the throne in heaven. The witness of the two lampstands in Revelation 11 appears darkened on earth. The dead bodies were exposed in plain sight of peoples from all nations, until the Lord breathes life into them in the sight of all who are looking on. 

The witnesses of heaven and earth are seen yet not seen because while they are shunned as dead as if the enemy has triumphed, as stars in the unseen realm, they shine ever more brightly among the victorious and the angels worshipping around the throne of God. The nations’ disregard for the truth and their rejection of the anointed witnesses becomes so blatant that their death is a cause for celebration. This is the suffering of those who choose to obey the voice of Christ. 

Oil That Never Runs Out

The witnesses, according to Zechariah 4, are the sons of oil. They are the olive trees and lampstands. The oil from the trees pours into the lampstands, and the messages to the seven churches (see Rev. 1-3) light the way back to the tree of life in Eden.

The humility of suffering accompanying serving the Lord produces a far surpassing weight of glory until the twinkling of an eye when we all will be changed. Isn’t this the pattern we see in Jesus, in His shameful death followed by His resurrection in glory? We, too, have died and our lives are hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life is revealed from heaven, we shall be revealed with Him. Our suffering for Christ on earth is preparing us for that day we are revealed with Him in glory.

Distress the enemy desires for our destruction becomes the catalyst for our victory in Christ and His resurrection power in our lives. Although the enemy thought he had defeated Christ by putting Him to death, God turned the tables and overcame death once for all by raising Christ from the grave. Instead of derailing God’s plan, Christ’s death catapulted God’s redemptive purpose for all humanity to fulfill His command to the first man: be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

Life reflects a pattern of suffering through obedience to produce fruit that remains. For example, we cannot change those we love. We cannot deliver them from their distresses, but we can pray that they will escape through Christ the things about to come upon the world. Our prayers go up as incense to God, and He sends His answer from heaven. 

Our prayers are not in vain, just as the request of a son to a father is not in vain. Like a human father who will certainly give a fish to a son who asks for it and not give him a stone, our heavenly Father longs to give us the Kingdom. Those who go in with weeping will come out with joy. As Paul said, this present suffering cannot be compared with the far surpassing glory to come.

As great pressure extracts the finest quality olive oil, God uses the circumstances of our lives to produce what is best for His purpose. Through grace we can walk in His light to produce the fruit of Christ’s Kingdom. More and more people are being drawn to Him while we become less and He becomes more.

The deeds of the righteous are unquestionably a tree of life, and just as Adam’s obedience in Eden guaranteed His portion of the tree of life in the midst of the garden, everyone who attains victory by obeying what the Spirit says to the churches will be granted to eat of the fruit of the tree of life in the paradise of God. 
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THE DEATH OF THE WITNESSES IN REVELATION 11

People can only take so much. Like pressure buildup in the earth, something has to give. In geological terms, the result is an earthquake. 

When it comes to the message of the reign of God through Christ alone which confronts and convicts the world for its sin and corruption, at least one of two things must ultimately happen: people will either accept or reject Christ's reign and the message of endurance in their lives.

An angel roused Zechariah as if from sleep so the prophet could see that the two olive trees and the two lampstands he saw was God's message to Zerubbabel that he would build the second temple of Israel not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord. The Lord in heaven would build His temple by leveling the mountains on earth. Nothing, no human philosophy or plan of an enemy, would stand in the way of God’s will. 

Jesus cleansing the temple of Jerusalem from the stain of corrupt business practices illustrates the same power of God to move mountains by His word to grow us into His holy temple as His living stones. Telling this mountain, the corrupted earthly temple, be moved into the sea, is the preparation, the baptism if you will, to arise to stand with Christ on the Mount of Olives clothed with His heavenly temple not made by human hands, in the New Jerusalem that descends from heaven. 

Paul explains what happens when people reject the witness of heaven that declares God’s invisible power and divine attributes. They become captive to what they desire, which also enslaves others. The witness of earth is either a curse, as on land producing thorns and thistles for  people rejecting Christ as King, or blessing, for example, through abundant harvests or a strong national economy, for a people who love the truth. The earth witnesses against those who reject their Creator and worship the creation; they become blind to what they should be able to see and deaf to God’s voice speaking to them in the earth. 

In Deuteronomy 30 God calls upon heaven and earth as a witness to God setting life and death, blessing and curse, before His people. God’s word is clear in Deuteronomy 4 that heaven and earth were witnesses against the people of God that if they are in the land and become corrupt and make an image of anything, or do any evil thing to enrage the Lord, then they will be utterly destroyed from the land and scattered. Then in the latter end of days when the people of God seek Him with all their heart and turn back to Him and hearken to His voice, He will not fail them.

Moses said in verse 36 of Deuteronomy 30, “From the heavens He hath caused thee to hear His voice, to instruct thee, and on earth He hath showed thee His great fire, and His words thou hast heard out of the midst of the fire.” God can raise up as His new creation those who turn to Him with ears to hear and eyes to see, to empower them to serve Him in new life.

The creature that comes out of the abyss mentioned in Revelation 11 overcomes the two witnesses. Each of the three sections of the chapter inform the others, so that the witnesses that shine as lampstands for the Lord in the temple appear to be trampled and overcome as their Lord Jesus appeared also to be defeated before God raised Him up and sealed the fate of all principalities and powers.

The smoke coming out of the abyss darkens the sky. This darkened air blocks out the light of the sun which along with all the starry hosts of heaven give witness to God’s glory and power as jewels sparkle in a kingly crown. The locusts come out of the smoke and eat the green grass on the earth. Scripture specifically says, however, that the ones harmed are only those who do not have the mark of Christ upon their foreheads. God protects those serving Christ. We, who are overcoming, serve God as priests in His temple and He tabernacles over us. We shall not hunger or thirst.

The death of the two witnesses is closely connected to rejecting or trampling the message that declares, align your heart, return to God in preparation for the King’s arrival. This message is both declared in the heavens and affirmed upon the earth. Rejection of it leads to nations celebrating because they are no longer tormented by the truth (Rev. 11). This reminds me of a Hollywood awards show that flaunted the cultural acceptance of lesbians, homosexuals, bi-sexuals, and transgender people on national and international television. Without any regard for the one true and Almighty God who shall come again in the clouds of heaven to judge those who are destroying the earth and to deliver His own, an accompanying parade and song celebrated the glorious differences that characterize all people. To God, all such ungodliness and uncleanness is an abomination, and God will judge the nations who reject Him.

Accepting the message of Christ’s victory over all other gods and glorifying Him who is exalted above the ark of the covenant in heaven at the right hand of God brings life, peace, and protection from the Lord of Heavens Armies. Rejecting the call to life puts people in the crosshairs of God’s judgment coming upon the nations. 

The good news is that Christ Himself lights our way in the New Jerusalem so the light of the sun is no longer necessary. The promise to Joshua (Zech 3) standing before the Angel of the Lord, that if he obeyed Christ’s charge he would be able to walk among angels, prefigures Revelation 7, where those standing before the Lord are those who are coming out of the great tribulation through achieving victory.

As lampstands and olive trees, God’s anointed in some way stand in the Holy of Holies of heaven before the Lord of all the earth. We may be dead to the world and the world to us, but walking now in the light of God’s word prepares us to walk with Christ in heavenly glory. Heaven and earth will pass away, but God’s word will never pass away.   
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TWO GROUPS IN THE TIME OF ELIJAH FROM MALACHI 3

The heavenly event planner must go ahead of the wedding party to get everything set, so that when the groom arrives, everything is just as it should be, prepared for Him to occupy His place. 

In Malachi 3:1-2, the identity of the messenger sent to prepare the way before the Lord is intentionally unclear. The writers of the Gospels identify him as John the baptist, but what was most important then, and also now in these end times, is not the messenger but rather the preparation of a people, who can stand before Jesus when He comes, for they have been purified by the refiners fire.

Suddenly, (Malachi 3:1 says) the Lord, the Messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, comes into the temple. This happened historically when the people spread palms before Jesus as He entered Jerusalem on a donkey. Soon after, He entered and cleansed the temple in Jerusalem. This is a model or foreshadow of our welcoming Jesus as King and the purification of His people before His return in glory when He comes again into His temple, this time to overthrow and destroy the antichrist.

Jesus predicted the destruction of the second temple which happened in 70 AD and the raising up of His body, the true temple of God after 3 days.  In His power, with all authority in heaven and on earth on our side, Jesus sends us throughout the world to make disciples, baptizing them into Christ, making them part of His body being built up into the holy temple of God. 

In Revelation, overcomers given to the Lordship of Christ hold palm branches in anticipation of His arrival. The blood of Jesus cleanses and transforms each one of us from a dwelling place of sin to the dwelling place of God, reclaiming what the enemy thought was his territory. God has the power to  make our hearts the throne of Christ’s supreme reign. Cleansing and purification is what Malachi 3 describes.

Ongoing communion with God through His Son Jesus is integral to habitually walking with God. The house where God dwells is to be a house of prayer where only the one true God reigns and the light of Christ’s word shines. In response to the sense of His coming near in judgment, the call goes out to return to the Lord (Malachi 3:7) with the accompanying promise that God would, as well, turn to you.

THE ANGEL OF THE LORD AND THE COVENANT

Malachi 3 asks, who can endure on the day when the Lord comes since He is like a refiner’s fire? The day God appeared to Abraham in Genesis chapter 15 speaks of fire and contains four references to the sun going in and darkness coming (Gen. 15:12,17). The Day of the Lord is a day of both great light and darkness. The sun will not give its light before the great and terrifying Day of the Lord. The fundamental need for God once seemed obvious under the light of sun, but it is no longer visible to many. 

Those who can stand before the Lord are those whose hearts are prepared ahead of time.

The lamp of fire passing between the covenant pieces in Genesis 15 signified the deliverance of the seed of Abraham by the hand of Moses through the Red Sea, the way opened for Elijah and heaven, and the power of Christ’s resurrection to raise up His own into glory. 

Lamps light the way for the deliverance through the messages of Revelation 2 and 3, which go out to those who hear what the Spirit says to the churches and overcome according to His great promises. Fire itself symbolizes Yahweh, as did the pillar of fire guiding Israel through the desert, the burning bush appearance of the Angel of the Lord to Moses, and the eyes of Jesus described as flames of fire in Revelation 1.

Judges 6 describes fire in connection to another notable appearance of the Angel of the Lord. As God instructed Moses, so God instructed Gideon to go in the confidence of God sending him. We also make disciples under the power of the same promise that Jesus is with us even to the ends of the earth. As God overthrew the powers of Egypt and the gods of the Midianites to deliver Israel, Christ reigns supreme to deliver us from the gods of this age and call us from the four corners of the earth by virtue of His resurrection from the dead and His power to overcome sin and death.

The Angel of the Lord had Gideon place the meat and unleavened things on a rock and cover it with broth. The Lord with His staff consumed it all with fire from the rock. Elijah in challenging the prophets of Baal similarly covered the offering with water, and fire consumed the offering. This also led to the defeat of Baal. Likewise, victory through Christ leads to the kingdoms of this world becoming the Kingdoms of our God and of His Christ. We need a baptism of fire for cleansing and acceptance before God to prepare for Christ’s coming. 

Both texts of Genesis 15 and Judges 6-7 speak of separation as does Malachi 3. In Genesis, God separated Abraham to Himself and indicates that the deliverance of Israel from the darkness of Egypt would occur in conjunction with the fullness of the sins of the Amorites. Similarly, deliverance from the final exile and return to God of the last days is connected to the cup of sins of Babylon being filled to overflowing. The deliverance of believers in Messiah, called out of Babylon and purified from the influence of the gods of this age, flee its corruption so as not to receive its judgments. 

TWO GROUPS IN THE FINAL DAYS

The apostasy of the final days is a blindness brought on by deception. People no longer realize that they are even doing anything wrong. Deceit is reflected in the question, "How did we rob God?” as if the whole idea is a foreign concept, to which the Lord reveals, “in tenths…”. It is done by holding back from Him portions of tenths rather than giving Him whole. The right response no matter what we feel or perceive is to take action by faith based on truth.

We should turn in whole back to God to the full measure that who we are and what we have completely belong to Him. God promises to open the windows of heaven to pour out His blessings upon us when we truly turn to Him. Denying Christ’s Lordship happens in a life philosophy that detects no deficiency in our service to God and therefore no value in changing what we do. The unpreparing do not perceive what they are missing because apostasy blinds them even to the point of envying evildoers for how they live. That wrong perspective includes jealousy of the arrogant for prospering and getting away with putting God to the test, but they truly do not escape. God sees and He has the final word.

In contrast to those whose eyes were occupied with foreign gods and the lives of those who did not know God are the men and women who wholly devote themselves to the Lord of heaven and earth. Malachi 3:16 describes a people who feared the Lord and spoke often to one another. The Lord listened to their conversations and heard those who respected Him and thought upon His name. As these are speaking with each other, a book of remembrance was prepared in the Lord's presence.

God said these will be His on the day He makes up His jewels, the day He has put away to reward His people. God spares them as a man spares his own son who serves him. It is in returning to God that it will again be obvious who serves God and who does not. People will not get away with neglecting the Lordship of Christ. Those who love and serve God with all their heart will rejoice, while the once-envied wicked are as ash underfoot.

THE SECRET OF SUCCESS

​​​​​Look up success on Amazon and the results will show (as of this writing) 194,974 books on the topic. After the economic rug was pulled out from under me and my family at the beginning of the great recession, I read only about 80 of those on the list, and here is what I discovered.

Some philosophies of success reveal a dark side. The way to overcome poverty includes a willingness to give up everything in order to achieve riches and an invitation to enter a temple of hidden knowledge to climb the staircase to high achievement and wealth accumulation. There can be an argument made that this quest is not unlike the desire of humanity in the Old Testament to build a tower, the tower of Babel, to reach heaven. Yes, at its worst, pursuing riches can lead into an occult, antichrist system. The Old Testament term for making anything other than God the center of our lives is idolatry. That included worshipping Baal and serving foreign gods. The one true and everlasting God, the creator of the universe forbade it. After telling his readers in 1 John that they were in the last hour, the time of antichrists, the apostle’s final word was to guard yourselves from idols or false gods. 

On the other hand, popular success and self-improvement literature is rarely either completely evil or completely good. Often it includes a seductive mixture of both, so Christians reading it should exercise discernment not to be led into idolatry. God is able to bless a believer in Christ with great wealth without sorrow through honoring God in all things. Compromising his or her relationship with God is not required to achieve financial freedom. Godly principles, or principles that the Bible affirms, can be at the heart of sustained wealth creation. Even new age philosophies of success are laced with some concepts consistent with the Bible, but here is the problem. 

A little leaven leavens the whole lump. Jesus said to be seeking first, that means preeminently, the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. God told us to be holy, meaning wholly separated to Him and His purpose, as He is holy. Any presence of sin, evil, or selfish desire deceitfully corrupts the system entirely, which leads to why Christ came in the first place, to forgive us and establish the authority of God over all creation and put everything, every stronghold, every philosophy, under His feet.

As God come in the flesh, Jesus came to destroy every authority, principality, and power raising itself in opposition to God —those mountains must be made low— and equip people to live forever exclusively under Christ’s reign in the Kingdom of God, characterized by unblemished holiness and uncompromising truth. Christ came to deliver us from all the corruption that is in the world through lust, even the corrupting influence of the spirits of the age. 

The truth is that wealth can be part of success but all successful people do not have millions of dollars, and no matter how financially successful people become, they still must face death in the end. In that light, the ultimate success must involve somehow destroying the power of death, and there is only One who holds the keys of death and hades because He has overcome it. His name is Jesus. The culmination as Paul describes it is“...when he hands over the Kingdom to God the Father, after having put an end to every rulership, yes, to every authority and power. For he has to rule until he puts all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be done away with will be death,” (1 Cor. 15:24-26).

Jesus is the first-fruits of the resurrection from the dead, and before He destroys death, He will come back to make us alive in His presence. Up until He comes, we must be overcoming in obedience to and in loving relationship with Him. Christ must begin to reign in us and through us, making the kingdoms of this world (those of every rulership, power, and authority) the kingdoms of our God. This how we are made ready and can ready the way for His return.

The secret of success comes from winning the battle over the evil inclination that God cannot not tolerate but exists inside each of us and in the world. The good news is that Christ through His His resurrection from the dead after living a sinless life in complete obedience to God’s word including dying on the cross, has already defeated sin’s stronghold in the earth, and His will overcomes the sinful inclination in each of us. The blood of Jesus has the power to cleanse us from every sin and destroy all the works of the enemy.

We have to prepare for the success that God will, in fact, bring about in His perfect timing. To be prepared, every valley must be lifted up, every mountain must be made low. The way must be made straight for the Lord’s return.

A crucial issue, or deep valley (to continue the metaphor), is our being born of flesh and blood, which puts us all in the image of Adam and at a clear disadvantage when it comes to becoming pure as God is pure. Being born of flesh and blood is problematic because our being in the line of Adam having the experiential knowledge of good and evil means that in our present tainted state we cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Obviously, we need to be changed.

We need to be prepared somehow for that change to take place, in order to be welcomed into the holy presence of Jesus when He returns. The good news is that God has made a way for us to serve Him through Christ’s will in the Spirit through the love of the truth. This makes us ready, so we can be brought to perfection, though none of us has attained it.  

In the lowest valley of King David’s life, after coveting the beautiful wife of one of his soldiers and impregnating her while her husband fought against the king’s enemies, David sent a letter by the hand of that same soldier commanding his own murder. Carrying out David's deadly plan even put the army of Israel in harm’s way. After David’s blasphemy, he received a prophetic message and turned to Yahweh for forgiveness. God renewed a right spirit within him, and God will do the same for us.
 
King David asked the Lord to make him know truth in his innermost, so that others who sinned would know they too can be forgiven. This is the secret to success that the Lord in His mercy has allowed to come down to us in these last days through the example of David. Lord, make us know and love truth in our innermost. 

If God can forgive David’s selfishness, lust, adultery, and murder, the layer upon layer of sin, and restore the king's relationship with God, then God can forgive each one of us. He can also use the same power He demonstrated in forgiving us to forgive those whom we love, so we all can be brought to the goal. We can only reach the goal together.

The love of the truth is the secret. It is how we are saved. On the other side, deceitful unrighteousness works secretly in lawlessness leading to the destruction of the ungodly. We who come to know Christ, however, are as Paul said, chosen for sanctification and salvation, "to which He did call you through our good news to the acquiring of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thessalonians 2:14).

THE ROAD TO ACQUIRING GLORY

In the latter part of 1 Corinthians 15, Paul described the resurrection as the very heart of his habitual walk with the Lord and why the apostle was willing to die daily as he faced the hardships of doing God’s will. Daily dying is how we begin to experience the blessings of freedom from sin and our inheritance in Christ. It conditions us for the resurrection from the dead when our bodies will go from weakness to power, dishonor to glory, corruption to incorruption, natural to spiritual, decay to imperishability, mortal to immortality.

The resurrection power of Christ is how we will bear the image of Jesus from heaven instead of the sinful image of Adam. We will be the untainted image of God as Jesus is, and we will be the line of Jesus as we were in the line of Adam. At Christ’s appearing, instead of earthly we will become heavenly. We shall all be changed.   

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