Here’s an excerpt:

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 200,000 times in 2011. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 9 days for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

• Wage the good warfare
• I have given you the authority to ADVANCE the Kingdom
• How Jesus Christ built a long-lasting movement

Firstly, let’s find ways to stay in touch!! Hook up with me on FB, or Twitter, or Tumblr, or LinkedIn… or like my FB page. All my content from all blogs is posted to all of these places. Join one or more and let’s stay connected.

Im moving to a new blog, for a new season.

1. JOIN my new blog which takes over from this one: PRAY FOR YOUR CITY thats where all the teaching will be from now on
2. Like the Pray For Your City FB page

As we come to the end of 2011 I want to thank you for this… 696, 063 visitors. Wow. And check out the growth by month. Thank You Jesus Christ for what You did for us on Your cross!

Don’t be shy, connect to me on FB and get involved in the prayer movement that God is birthing called: Pray For Your City.  :)

Please sign up for email updates there, and please join the FB page so we can all stay connected.

“There is no economy in the world, whether low-income countries, emerging markets, middle-income countries or super-advanced economies that will be immune to the crisis that we see not only unfolding but escalating,” Christine Lagarde said in a speech at the US state department in Washington. – CNN

I would like to remind anyone listening that God has said He will help us rebuild afterwards. We saw His effectiveness in 2008. He did what He said He would. There is no reason to doubt Him now. He WILL help us rebuild.

• This world was create IN love, THROUGH love, FOR love (read this first)
• Marriage – in, through, for love (read second)
• You have been regenerated born again (read last)

I have an even more exciting message for those who have been through difficulties in their life and don’t feel that they were born in love, or don’t feel that their parents wanted them.

You were born IN God’s love

The idea for you to exist is God’s own idea. God personally chose YOU before this world began.

Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us – Eph 1:4

He prepared a path for you in life, a path that no one but YOU can walk.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. – Eph 2:10

You see, God showed me that you and I were formed IN His desire for love. It doesn’t matter if you natural birth was by accident or rape or whatever, God Himself formed you just as He formed Adam. Your spiritual birth was planned IN God’s desire to love you and be loved  by you.

You were born THROUGH God’s love

God personally formed you, like He formed Adam, in your mothers womb

“I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. – Jer 1:5

It doesn’t matter how your conception happened, God Himself formed you and me. We are born again of the Holy Spirit

²³You have been regenerated (born again), not from a mortal origin (seed, sperm), but from one that is immortal by the ever living and lasting Word of God. – 1 Peter 1:22-23

Not only did the idea of you and I existing come from God’s own desire, but we actually came about because He formed us in our mother’s womb. We were literally born THROUGH His love.

You were born FOR love

And we were born FOR love, because He desires to love us, He wants us to learn to love HIm – and His command is for us to love one another.

If your parents didn’t want you, it doesn’t compare to the truth that you were born again… IN the love of God, THROUGH the love of God, FOR a love relationship with God.

• This world was create IN love, THROUGH love, FOR love (read this first)
• Marriage – in, through, for love (read second)
• You have been regenerated born again (read last)

In the bible it gives us this high calling…

¹THEREFORE BE imitators of God [copy Him and follow His example], as well-beloved children [imitate their father].
and walk in love, [esteeming and delighting in one another]
as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us – Eph 5:1-2

We are to imitate God’s love.

What does that mean for families and marriage?

• Born IN love… Your marriage should come out of the love you and your wife/husband have for each other.
• The marriage should come about THROUGH love, just as God was so intimate with Adam and Eve, highly personal, shaping one another.
• The marriage should be FOR love. The love of each other, the love of God and a Kingdom purpose of loving others around us.

Children – in, through, for love

Children should also be born IN love… they need to be thought about and planned for well before conception. Just as God was already love and then He lovingly designed this world for us, our children need to come out of an overflow of love between a married couple. Children don’t rescue marriages, they are not crutches to distract unhappy parents and to give meaning to an otherwise empty life. Children are an expression of the love that a couple have for one another.

Should come about THROUGH  intimacy between the parents. A loving intimacy. The Message verse of the bible puts it like this…

Honor marriage, and guard the sacredness of sexual intimacy between wife and husband. God draws a firm line against casual and illicit sex. - Hebrews 13:4 MSG

The choice to have children should be FOR love. The love of those children, for the children to receive love from God, for the children to learn to love God… and for the kids to learn to loving others around us.

I believe that this is what God showed me, His heart for myself and my future wife and our child(ren). He is showing me His heart, His desire, His vision. I hope you can catch it before you are married. If you are already married, then catch it now and work with His Holy Spirit to make this your reality.

Through obedience this can be achieved, because with His help it will happen.

Through the power of the Holy Spirit I pray this post will provoke change in your thinking, just as this concept did for me. I have never been the same since He dropped this into my spirit.

• This world was create IN love, THROUGH love, FOR love (read this first)
• Marriage – in, through, for love (read second)
• You have been regenerated born again (read last)

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. - 1 John 4:8

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. - 1 John 4:16

Please read this slowly and prayerfully, letting this sink into you…

IN love

The idea for this world and the people in it came from God Himself. The idea for this world was born IN love… IN God’s desire to have and share love. This world was formed IN God’s desire for love, community and family.

THROUGH love

The world was brought into being when God spoke “let there be” and when the Holy Spirit hovered over the waters and when God created Adam from the dust. Just think… God Himself formed Adam – lovingly – and God Himself put His mouth up against Adam’s nostrils and breathed into them, giving Adam life

⁷Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath or spirit of life, and man became a living being. – Gen 2:7

Isn’t this amazingly personal? Not at all distant. Up close, loving, intimate.  Adam was born THROUGH the loving actions or a loving God. God mouth was pressed up against Adam’s nostrils.

FOR love

For a few thousand years God struggled to get humans to grasp how He wanted us to live.

Then Jesus Christ came and demonstrated God’s heart of love. He walked amongst us, dwelled with us, healed us, brought us back from the dead… and then He commanded us to do the same to each other. He gave us the command to love one another.

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.” - 1 John 3:16

This world was created FOR love. God’s intention is that we love one another. And of course that we love Him and believe Him. We were created FOR the purpose of love.

It’s all about love

The bible begins with a marriage between Adam and Eve which was created by God; and it ends with a marriage between Jesus Christ (God) and His bride (all of us).

The whole story of our human existence is a love story. It’s a story where a woman is captured by an evil person and kept captive, away from her husband. Her husband to be eventually marries her and they live ever after.

I asked leadership to learn from history and I gave the example of Martin Luther in the 1500s – but it appears that leadership have shut their eyes and ears to the call to embrace love and mercy as the engine for growth because these things are righteous and attract God’s blessing.

I have written many posts in this same vein, drawing attention to the words written on the side of the Statue of Liberty and trying to explain that it was this committment to mercy and love which attracted the blessing of God right from the start of this once great country.

Abraham Lincoln knew that people must come before profits…

Abraham Lincoln - people not profits

Instead the US Senate recently passed legislation that disrespects its own people…

The 2012 National Defense Authorization Act, if signed into law, will signal the death knell of our constitutional republic and the formal inception of a legalized police state in the United States.

Passed by the House on May 26, 2011 (HR 1540), the Senate version (S. 1867) was passed on Dec. 1, 2011. Now only one man — Barack Obama, a scholar of constitutional law — will make the decision as to whether the Bill of Rights he went to Harvard to study will be superceded by a law that abrogates it.

First, let’s be clear what is at stake. Most critical are Sections 1031 and 1032 of the Act, which authorize detaining U.S. citizens indefinitely without charge or trial if deemed necessary by the president.

The bill would allow federal officials to take these steps based on suspicions only, without having to demonstrate to any judicial official that there is solid evidence to justify their actions. No reasonable proof will any longer be required for the government to suspend an American citizen’s constitutional rights. – Huffington Post

Unsurprisingly there is a move now to impeach all the senators who signed this evil legislation.

5 Jan 2012 UPDATE

President Obama could have ignored the NDAA legislation and let it fail under the “pocket veto” rules. Instead, he signed it on new year’s even 2011/2012.

However, on the UPside, it’s one small step for the Justice John Paul Stevens, but one giant leap for the USA! Following on from a similar decision in LA and then Montana, in NY in a landmark decision “Corporations are not people”

Justice John Paul Stevens said “corporations have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires. Corporations help facilitate and structure the activities of human beings, to be sure, and their ‘personhood’ often serves as a useful legal fiction. But they are not themselves members of ‘We the People’ by whom and for whom our Constitution was established.”

http://nycprogressives.com/2012/01/04/ny-city-council-passes-resolution-declaring-that-corporations-are-not-people/

What does God (Jesus Christ) say?

Please let me remind you what I believe God promised as I wrote on 19 May 2009: An end to conflicts and revival.

• Claim 1: Revival everywhere
• Claim 2: The end of conflicts in the world

Claim 1… Revival everywhere… since that post we have seen:

• Churches and church leaders (home churches, groups, formal churches) all over the world are saying the same thing, which is that the Holy Spirit is moving everywhere. Prayer meetings are increasing everywhere. Thousands of groups are forming online where Christians support one another and pray for each other. There is no doubt revival has begun.

Claim 2… The end of conflicts in the world… since that post we have seen:

• Many dictatorships fall
• Democracy has increased in almost all countries, although it declined in the US Europe.
• The US is withdrawing forces from Iraq and Afghanistan – wars that we were told would never end
• Civil wars have ceased in Sudan, Nigeria, DRC and many other countries

Yes there is more to do. Much more. But just days ago I felt God confirming again to me that this – peace worldwide – is still going to happen and it will happen through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on His cross.

I want to add another quote. This time it goes back to my writing on the 14th May 2009 (as I recorded in An End to Conflicts and Revival 2) – this is the longer term vision for this world based on the book of Isaiah…

• I expect the Presence of God/Jesus Christ to increase in the world (Is 60:19-20, Is 65:24, Rev 21:3) and as a result, I expect that revival will begin to come to any part of the earth where people are using their faith to receive from Him
• I expect to see the healing of all the nations to begin and continue (Rev 22:2) and as a result, I expect that sickness, distress and wars will decrease and then entirely stop (Is 60:18, Is 60:20, Is 65:19, Is 65:25, Rev 21:4)
• I expect people to live a lot longer and for death and decay to cease to be a problem (Is 65:20)
• I expect everyone in the earth have a home and live in it, everyone will have work and enjoy their work (Is 65:23)

A last gasp tide of evil that must be resisted

The tide of evil knows the end if near and it wants to entrench itself all around the world.

Locally in South Africa the government is trying to bring in “Protection of Information Bill” laws to suppress the reporting of the media and another law waits in the wings to create a “Media Tribunal” to punish media/newspapers who write information that the government doesn’t want written.

Italy and Greece both had coups a few weeks ago where an elected leader was removed and an unelected official put in power. (In the case of Italy that unelected official is an ex-employee of Goldman Sachs!) In both Italy and Greece these are no plans to have an election to validate their appointments democratically. These were coups, plain and simple.

Sanity begins to prevail…

There seems to be some momentum building to put the life of people first and to devalue “me first” selfishness of our culture.

Three Republican presidential candidates, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Sen. Rick Santorum (Penn.), and Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minn.), signed a vague pledge sponsored by Personhood USA affirming their support for an anti-abortion, “human life” amendment to the Constitution. – Huffington Post

I hope they carry through with this and are blessed as a result.

On 12 Feb 2010 I wrote a post called The God Who keeps His promises and I explained that the snow storm the US was facing was in fact spiritual in nature and will result in change. That change was the emergence of the Tea Party from nowhere within 2 weeks after that storm.

In this more recent post (26 Sept 2011)  The feast of Tabernacles, the end of captivity, Sabbath rest I wrote that I felt that September through to October 20th would be pivotal. During that time the Occupy Wall Street movement sprang up.

It begins with us Christians

Governments do not HAVE to be bad. There is no rule or law demanding that leadership does the wrong thing. Governments can do the right thing and attract God’s blessings.

And because in a democratic country the government is an expression of it’s own people, it is the people who have to become morally conscious and begin to value human life and become active in social justice.

That is why I’m excited about the Occupy Movement – is the absolute commitment to put people before profits, social justice, caring for the poor and love in general.

This desire to do the right thing begins in prayer, revitalizes the church, forms social movements (like Occupy) and then results in democratic change.

Occupy is right to say “people before profits”…

the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. – 1 Tim 6:10

Whether they know it or not, they are fulfilling Jesus Christ’s one command, to love one another.

This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. - 1 John 3:11

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? - 1 John 3:16-17

Some more useful links…

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies – Psalm 23:5

How wonderful that God is preparing a table of delicacies and nourishment and tantalizing nibblies for you, faithful servant, to eat… but He prepared it right there, in front of your enemies.

Look at this image below. I know all those people are smiling, but just imagine for a minute they are the ones who secretly oppose you, who try to limit you, who frustrate you and put you down. There they all are! Right there! Scary huh?

Now God has put a massive feast right there for you. And it’s only for you. Is that going to make your enemies happier or even more upset?

Now… will you run away from them, or will you draw near to eat what God has laid out for you?

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies

If your desire to run and be comfortable overwhelms you, you will miss out on the yummy food God has prepared for you.

We greatly underestimate the strength of character needed to be a real Christ follower.

How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you,
which you bestow in the sight of men
on those who take refuge in you. - Psalm 31:19

In that verse the blessing is also given right there, in the sight of people who may be opposing you.

Why? Because as He was trying to do with the Israelites, He wants to make our enemies jealous. He wants them to see His goodness to us. He wants them to want the same for themselves.

Fear can cause indigestion. Anxiety can make the food stick in your throat.

But I have found that I can eat. And I eat well. And I enjoy my food. I don’t let them stress me out. I’m aware of them, but I don’t pay attention to them. My faith is in Jesus Christ. My hope is in Jesus Christ. My trust is in Jesus Christ. The solution to these problems is Jesus Christ.

As He said to Joshua in Josh 1:6-9

 ⁶ Be strong and courageous,
because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.

⁷ “Be strong and very courageous.

⁹ Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous.
Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”

• I believe that this is where we now stand

This is still waiting to happen when we get our faith sorted out…

• Armageddon, Gog and Magog

These events are completed way back in AD70…

• antichrist – Matthew 23, 24 and 25
• 666 the number of the beast
• antichrist – Luke 21
• antichrist

The bride of Christ, the church in all of it’s diversity, will be given beautiful clean robes to wear…

⁹ One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” – Rev 21:9

To me that means that we will grow in revelation and faith and in understanding of what Jesus Christ has done for us, and when we do that – keeping our eyes fixed on Him – God cleanses us by His Word.

Through our faith in Jesus Christ – in all that He did on the cross – vast changes will be released in this world and it will change utterly. All Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross will become manifest in this world, changing the world entirely, bringing in the 1,000 years of peace.

The motivation for change comes from Him alone and He permits us to wear these clean robes. And as we put them on (and keep them on daily) then all that He did for us on His cross manifests more and more.

The promise to Abraham – about to be fulfilled

The great promise made to Abraham and confirmed by many prophets will finally be fulfilled – to dwell with His people

then to the place that the LORD your God will choose, to make his name dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the LORD. And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male servants and your female servants, and the Levite that is within your towns, since he has no portion or inheritance with you. – Deu 12:11-12

That same promise was made to many descendants of Abraham. God tried again and again to achieve His plan. Let’s take a quick look through scripture at the times He tried again and again to start over with a group/family/person:

1. God tried to work with Adam and Eve, starting with just them.
2. God called Abram’s out of his idolatry in Ur (Iraq), starting again just with him.
3. God chose Noah, starting again with just Noah and his family.
4. Three times God promised to make a great nation out of Moses, but Moses refused each time. He never went into the promised land.
5. God eventually started again with just the youth of that nation lead by Joshua.
6. God sent the entire Jewish nation into captivity bringing back only the two tribes (Judah and Benjamin) who had been loyal to Him, starting again with only those two tribes.
7. In the book of Romans Paul says that it is possible that if the gentiles don’t cooperate they too could be “cut off”.

Then God spoke through the prophets and He said He would turn to those who had NOT called on Him and He would try through them – the gentiles.

The desire of God’s heart was (and is) to dwell amongst His people – in a place of His choosing. The strategy of the devil was to trap us under sin and use sin to drive away a perfect and holy God. In order to come close to people God had to resolve this, because as you can see (above) people are completely unable to resolve their own sin.

Jesus Christ did something awesome on His cross and reconciled God to His creation and through Jesus Christ is possible for God’s plan to be fulfilled…

And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst. - Exodus 25:8

I believe it will now be fulfilled…

“Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ⁴ ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” – Rev 21:3-4

Revival – a deeper revelation of what Jesus Christ did on the cross

What remains is for God to release the full revelation of Jesus Christ’s work on His cross to His bride – the church – through the Holy Spirit. That increase in revelation is what we call revival! The way we release it is by believing God’s words!

Every revival in history has been centered on Jesus Christ, because all prophecy is about Jesus Christ. And each revival gives us a deeper revelation of Who He was and what He did.

Nothing new is added, it’s just a deeper revelation of what we already knew was written in the scriptures. Instead of knowing it, we will live it. It won’t just be head know

• I believe that this is where we now stand

This is still waiting to happen when we get our faith sorted out…

• Armageddon, Gog and Magog

These events are completed way back in AD70…

• antichrist – Matthew 23, 24 and 25
• 666 the number of the beast
• antichrist – Luke 21
• antichrist

So far we have covered many aspects of end times beliefs and so far we have found that they all – without exception – point clearly to the dramatic events of AD70- when the Romans destroyed the Second Temple. Now let’s have a look at Armageddon and Gog and Magog.

And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. ² He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. ³ He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time. - Rev 20:1-2 ⁷ When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison ⁸ and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—and to gather them for battle. – Rev 20:7-8 But fire came down from heaven and devoured them. ¹⁰ And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever. - Rev 20:9-10

And then it is the end of this world’s history and the judgement begins.

¹² And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. – Rev 20:12

Now… unless someone edited all the history books of all the nations throughout history, we have not yet had the 1,000 years of peace. Agreed? In v1 the devil is seized and put in chains in order to stop him deceiving the world. After that 1,000 years during which time we Christians reign with Jesus Christ  See Rev 20:4-6.

• I believe that this is where we now stand

This is still waiting to happen when we get our faith sorted out…

• Armageddon, Gog and Magog

These events are completed way back in AD70…

• antichrist – Matthew 23, 24 and 25
• 666 the number of the beast
• antichrist – Luke 21
• antichrist

Let’s start first with Jesus’ words in Matt 23:36. After declaring 8 woes He said…

³⁶ Truly I tell you, all this will come on this generation.

That is pretty hard to get confuses, don’t you think? And yet somehow people manage to think these things are still coming in the future?! Let’s dig in a bit deeper… Matt 24

 ¹ Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. ² “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

“Do you see these things? He asked”… Jesus was literally pointing to the gleamingly beautiful temple. His words describing it’s destruction were literally fulfilled in AD70. For a complete discussion about the verses verses 4-26 pls read my post: antichrist – Luke 21.Then to wrap up Jesus Christ said this…

³⁴ Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.

That also is unambiguous. If you take the time to read this and other posts you will see time and again that all the scriptures and even historical facts point to all of this taking place around AD70.

• I believe that this is where we now stand

This is still waiting to happen when we get our faith sorted out…

• Armageddon, Gog and Magog

These events are completed way back in AD70…

• antichrist – Matthew 23, 24 and 25
• 666 the number of the beast
• antichrist – Luke 21
• antichrist

This is the passage…

¹⁵ The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. ¹⁶ It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, ¹⁷ so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name. ¹⁸ This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666.

In it we can read a few keys which we should look for

1. “it is the number of a man” – we are looking for a man, a flesh and blood man, not a spirit
2. that person’s “number” is 666
3. the number can be “calculated”
4. this person will stop people from trading unless they have his “mark”

Ok… so let’s find a “man” who has a “name which can be calculated”… and according to 1 John 2:18 was coming and according to 1 John 4:3 was ALREADY in the world AT THAT TIME.

666 or 616?

“The number of a man. That number is 666.” Really? According to the excellent Wikipedia article “Number of the Beast”  many manuscripts give a different number: 616.

666

The Number of the Beast is described in the passage of Revelation 13:15–18 and the actual number is only mentioned once, in verse 18. In the Greek manuscripts, the number is rendered in Greek numerical form as χξϛʹ, or sometimes literally as ἑξακόσιοι ἑξήκοντα ἕξ, hexakósioi hexēkonta héx, “six hundred and sixty-six”.

616

Fragment from Papyrus 115 (P115) of  Revelation in the 66th vol. of the Oxyrhynchus series (P. Oxy. 4499). Has the number of the Beast as 616.

Although Irenaeus (2nd century AD) affirmed the number to be 666 and reported several scribal errors of the number, there is still doubt by a minority of theologians about the original reading because of the figure 616 being given in two of the best manuscripts: C (Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus, Paris), by the Latin version of Tyconius (DCXVI, ed. Souter in the Journal of Theology, SE, April 1913), and by an ancient Armenian version (ed. Conybaere, 1907). … ” The NRSV translation for Rev 13:18 includes this translation note: “Other ancient authorities read six hundred and sixteen”. Around 2005, a fragment from Papyrus 115, taken from the Oxyrhynchus site, was discovered at the Oxford University’s Ashmolean Museum. It gave the beast’s number as 616. This fragment happens to be the oldest manuscript (about 1,700 years old) of Revelation 13 to date. Another manuscript attesting to 616, even before the P115 finding, is the later Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (C, a palimpsest). This text has 616 written in full: ἑξακόσιοι δέκα ἕξ, hexakosioi deka hex (lit. “six hundred and sixteen”). Papyrus 115 and Ephraemi Rescriptus has led some scholars to conclude that 616 is the original number of the beast.

NOTE: So now we are looking for a man whose name can be calculated to be either 666 or 616. Ok, is there anyone who was alive at that time (before AD70) who fits the bill?

Nero

Preterist theologians typically support the numerical interpretation that 666 is the equivalent of the name and title, Nero Caesar (Roman Emperor from 54-68). …

An Aramaic scroll from Murabba’at, dated to “the second year of Emperor Nero”, refers to him by his name and title. In Greek it is Nrwn Qsr(Pronounced “Nerōn Kaisar”). In Latin it is Nro Qsr (Pronounced “Nerō Kaisar”).

Nrwn Qsr

The Greek version of the name and title transliterates into Hebrew as נרונ קסר , and yields a numerical value of 666, as shown:

Resh (ר)	Samekh (ס)	Qoph (ק)	Nun (נ)	Vav (ו)	Resh (ר)	Nun (נ)	Sum
200	60	100	50	6	200	50	666

Nro Qsr

The Latin version of the name drops the second Nun o that it appears as Nro and transliterates into Hebrew as נרו קסר , yielding 616:

Resh (ר)	Samekh (ס)	Qoph (ק)	Vav (ו)	Resh (ר)	Nun (נ)	Sum
200	60	100	6	200	50	616

So Nero was man who had a name which can be calculated to be both 616 and 666.

St Augustine of Hippo

From the Wikipedia article on Nero

In 422, Augustine of Hippo wrote about 2 Thessalonians 2:1–11, where he believed Paul mentioned the coming of the Antichrist. Though he rejects the theory, Augustine mentions that many Christians believed that Nero was the Antichrist or would return as the Antichrist. He wrote, so that in saying, “For the mystery of iniquity doth already work,” he alluded to Nero, whose deeds already seemed to be as the deeds of Antichrist.

Shortly to take place

In Rev. 1:1 there is a warning about the events that were “shortly” to take place. This was before AD70 when Revelations was written.

Blasphemies against God

In Rev. 13:5-8, the Beast was given a mouth speaking in blasphemies against God and His Name. Inscriptions have been found in Ephesus in which Nero is called “Almighty God” and “Savior”.

7 kings

In Rev. 17:10 it says

They are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; but when he does come, he must remain for only a little while. – Rev 17:10

The phrase “Five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come” clearly shows that the book of Revelation was written during the reign of the “one is” – after the five and before the one which was still to come. If we can find a list of those kinds we will know for sure when the book of Revelations was written.

Suetonius’ and Josephus’ enumeration of the emperors was: Julius, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius (the five kings who have fallen at the time that John is writing), Nero (one “who is”), and Galba - one who “has not yet come, but when he does come, he must remain for a little while” – six months.

More about Galba from Wikipedia

Galba was Roman Emperor for seven months from 68 to69. After Nero’s suicide, Galba assumed the title of Caesar, and marched straight for Rome. Following Nero’s death, Nymphidius Sabinus sought to seize power prior to the arrival of Galba, but he could not win the loyalty of the Praetorian guard and was killed. Upon Galba’s approach to the city in October, he was met by soldiers presenting demands; Galba replied by killing many of them.

Therefore we now know that the book of Revelations was written in AD68 to 69 right before the destruction of the Second Temple.

7 hills and the harlot woman

The dragon stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name. - Rev 13:1 “This calls for a mind with wisdom. The seven heads are seven hills on which the woman sits. - Rev 17:9

Rome was known in antiquity as the city of seven hills

The Seven Hills of Rome (Italian: Sette colli di Roma) east of the river Tiber form the geographical heart of Rome, within thewalls of the ancient city. The seven hills are:

• Aventine Hill (Latin, Aventinus; Italian, Aventino)
• Caelian Hill (Caelius, Celio)
• Capitoline Hill (Capitolinus, Capitolino/Campidoglio)
• Esquiline Hill (Esquilinus, Esquilino)
• Palatine Hill (Palatinus, Palatino)
• Quirinal Hill (Quirinalis, Quirinale)
• Viminal Hill (Viminalis, Viminale)

Conclusion

The number of a man which can be caclutated, the 7 hills, the 7 kings,m the dating of those kings… it all points to Nero. Add in that St Augustine of Hippo wrote that Christians at that time believed that Nero’s behavior indicated that he was the antichrist.

• I believe that this is where we now stand

This is still waiting to happen when we get our faith sorted out…

• Armageddon, Gog and Magog

These events are completed way back in AD70…

• antichrist – Matthew 23, 24 and 25
• 666 the number of the beast
• antichrist – Luke 21
• antichrist

A spirit AND a specific person

Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. - 1 John 2:18

1 John 2:18 confirms the that it was the last hour at the time that letter was written and the antichrist – a specific person driven by that spirit – was coming.

every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. - 1 John 4:3

1 John 4:3 confirms that the spirit of the antichrist was THEN in the world at the time that letter was being written. That is an important issue. There is a spirit of the antichrist, and there was also a person who was coming and was already in the world AT THAT TIME.To find out if Luke 21 points to a date around AD70 or a future date we simply need to consider the scriptures themselves.

Sign – destruction of the temple

Now let us consider Luke 21:5-24 and work our way through this passage…

Some of his disciples were remarking about how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and with gifts dedicated to God. But Jesus said, ⁶ “As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down.”

Notice the words “As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down”. Jesus said it clearly… He was literally pointing at the temple which King Herod had built and which was standing there in front of them. The sign of the end was when that temple was in ruins. Not even one rock on top of another. According to the Wikipedia article “Siege of Jerusalem (70)“…

Now as soon as the army had no more people to slay or to plunder, because there remained none to be the objects of their fury (for they would not have spared any, had there remained any other work to be done), [Titus] Caesar gave orders that they should now demolish the entire city and Temple… but for all the rest of the wall [surrounding Jerusalem], it was so thoroughly laid even with the ground by those that dug it up to the foundation, that there was left nothing to make those that came thither believe it [Jerusalem] had ever been inhabited… And truly, the very view itself was a melancholy thing; for those places which were adorned with trees and pleasant gardens, were now become desolate country every way, and its trees were all cut down. Nor could any foreigner that had formerly seen Judaea and the most beautiful suburbs of the city, and now saw it as a desert

Signs – prophets, earthquake, famine

⁷ “Teacher,” they asked, “when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are about to take place?” ⁸ He replied: “Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not follow them. ⁹ When you hear of wars and uprisings, do not be frightened. These things must happen first, but the end will not come right away.” ¹⁰ Then he said to them: “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. ¹¹There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.

¹² “But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you. They will hand you over to synagogues and put you in prison, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. ¹³ And so you will bear testimony to me.

In the verses above we read about some signs

1. False prophets – The book of Acts records three false prophets – Acts 5:36, Acts 5:37; Acts 21:38
2. Earthquake -  The book of Acts records one earthquake - Acts 16:26
3. Famine – The book of Acts records two famines - Acts 7:11, Acts 11:28
4. Persecution – The book of Acts record the persecution of Stephen and many others - Acts 5:40-41, Acts 7:57-59, Acts 8:1,3
5. Brought before kings and governors – The book of Acts describes this, for example Paul being taken to Rome

All of this happened before AD70.

¹⁴ But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. ¹⁵ For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. ¹⁶ You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. ¹⁷ Everyone will hate you because of me. ¹⁸ But not a hair of your head will perish. ¹⁹ Stand firm, and you will win life.

Sign – Jerusalem surround by armies

²⁰ “When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near. ²¹ Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the city get out, and let those in the country not enter the city. ²² For this is the time of punishment in fulfillment of all that has been written. ²³ How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! There will be great distress in the land and wrath against this people. ²⁴ They will fall by the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations.

According to the Wikipedia article “Siege of Jerusalem (70)” the in AD70 Titus surrounded the city, with three legions (V Macedonica, XII Fulminata, XVApollinaris) on the western side and a fourth (X Fretensis) on the Mount of Olives to the east. As verse 20 says Jerusalem was literally surrounded and the time of desolation was near AT THAT TIME. There is no reason to believe that Luke will be fulfilled in the future, because Jesus Christ clearly showed it was at that time and history shows that to be true.

Sign – gentiles

I will never forget as I walked up to Jerusalem I heard God say to me “trampled” and I can honestly say that until this moment I did not realise what bible reference it referred to. It is this one. Ever since AD70 this has been true

Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

According to the Wikipedia article “Siege of Jerusalem (70)“ Josephus claims that 1,100,000 people were killed during the siege, of which a majority were Jewish, and that 97,000 were captured and enslaved. Since then Jerusalem has literally been trampled by gentiles. According the the Wikipedia article “Second Temple“

Jerusalem was razed by the Emperor Hadrian at the end of the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 CE when he established a new city called Aelia Capitolina. … But after Hadrian visited Jerusalem, he decided to build Aelia Capitolina which would be inhabited by his legionnaires. Hadrian also decided to never allow Jews to re-enter the city ever again.

The times of the gentiles are now almost fulfilled.  :)

Conclusion

Luke points to AD70 being the time period. It is not a future event.

• I believe that this is where we now stand

This is still waiting to happen when we get our faith sorted out…

• Armageddon, Gog and Magog

These events are completed way back in AD70…

• antichrist – Matthew 23, 24 and 25
• 666 the number of the beast
• antichrist – Luke 21
• antichrist

With great hesitancy Im writing about this. It’s a topic that comes up time and again and which the enemy uses to undermine the church and create fear. I hope to systematically and unemotionally work through each of the aspects of this issue, one by one. I plan to give a scripturally-based explanation of who and what is the antichrist and what we as Christians should be doing about this thing. Please note: The term “antichrist” appears five times in 1 John and 2 John of the New Testament — once in plural form and four times in the singular. The antichrist is also referred to as a spirit and as a person.

1. The antichrist will never prevail

Jesus Christ promised that His church (which is build on the truth that He is the Christ) will prevail and gates of hell will not be able to withstand a church built on Jesus Christ.

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” ¹⁶ Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” ¹⁷ Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. ¹⁸ And I tell you that you are Peter,and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades^[c] will not overcome it. ¹⁹ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be^[ bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” - Matt 16:15-19

The church which is built on the revelation that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God… not even the gates of hell will prevail against such a church. So if someone tells you that the antichrist will prevail in this world, they are contradicting Jesus Christ’s own words. Their words are against the Christ. They have the “spirit” of the antichrist because they deny the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

2. The spirit of the antichrist was in the world before AD70

Take a look at this verse

every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. - 1 John 4:3

If you take note of that verse it says “even now is already in the world” and as we know the books of the bible were written before AD70 when the temple was destroyed.

3. The antichist (person) is coming

Here is another verse which indicates a time period for the antichrist

Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. - 1 John 2:18

It is clear that the primary problem is simply a denial of Jesus Christ and at that time – before AD70 – there were many people with that spirit (of denying that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ). And clearly, today in 2011 there are countless people who deny Jesus is the Christ. This spirit is alive and well today.

4. Rapture – it will get so bad that God will have to rescue His children

Some people say it will get so bad in this world that God will have to rapture his people in order to save them. How is this consistent with the words of Jesus Christ? How is it consistent with the OT where it says that the Kingdom of Jesus Christ will increase forever? It is not compatible theology

Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist–he denies the Father and the Son. - 1 John 2:22

Don’t live in fear. The only person who wants you to believe that the devil will be victorious… is the devil himself. Te devil denies that Jesus Christ has come and conquered all sin and death and he wants to scare you into thinking the same thing. The devil denies Jesus Christ and he wants you to deny Jesus Christ too. Don’t do it. Believe what the bible says about Jesus Christ. If your church teaches you something different to what the bible says, then go to a different church. Don’t have your inheritance stolen from you.

Conclusion

The only condition under which the enemy could take over this world is if all Christians were raptured, then our faith in Jesus Christ would no longer be active, we who are the light of the world would no longer be giving light to the world – and only under those conditions the enemy would be able to overcome. Something similar to this situation occurred in AD500 when the Catholic Church removed the bible from the people and removed it from all local languages. The bible became available only in Latin and only in monastries. Consequently the people could not read about Jesus Christ, their faith was reduced and their light was dimmed – as a result literally darkness flooded the world in a time called “The Dark Ages”. Massive new world religions sprang up, massive diseases killed vast parts of the population of Europe, lawlessness prevailed. The situation was reversed when “The Dark Ages” ended in around 1500 when the bible began to be printed on printing presses in local languages. Faith in Jesus Christ increased and light flooded the world. A European revival occurred which is called the Renaissance and massive scientific discoveries were made. The bottom line is this: for as long as Christians are in this world a they believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, there will be light in the world and no ruler motivated by the spirit of the antichrist will be able to dominate. If believers were raptured – removed from this world – then such a person could rise up and dominate.

If we can figure out what Peter believed, then we can believe it too… and we also can walk on water!

So… WHY could Peter walk on the water? What was it he believed? And WHY did he sink when he doubted. What was it he doubted?

Peter believed that everything that Jesus says is true and He is Lord over all. So… if Jesus Christ said he could “come” then Peter knew he really COULD come!

Peter wanted to walk on water, so he ASKED Jesus to invite him to come!

“Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”

“Come,” he said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. – Matt 14:28-29

So simple. “Tell me to come”… “Come!”… “So Peter went”.

But Peter doubted and sank. While he believed that Jesus Christ had the authority to enable Peter to walk on water he could do it. When he doubted Jesus Christ’s authority, he sank.

Jesus explains the principle

You see Jesus Christ explained this principle three times…

Then He touched their eyes, saying, According to your faith and trust and reliance [on the power invested in Me] be it done to you - Matt 9:29 (AMP)

According to Peter’s trust in Jesus it was done to him.

Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! It will be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that very hour. – Matt 8:13

Peter believed that Jesus Christ is able to do what He said (“come!”) and it was done just as Peter believed it would.

When He reached the house and went in, the blind men came to Him, and Jesus said to them, Do you believe that I am able to do this? They said to Him, Yes, Lord. - Matt 9:28 (AMP)

If Jesus says you can come… you CAN come. Will you believe… and get out of the boat… and KEEP ON believing while you come? Ignore the waves around you. Ignore the negative voices of the people back in the boat. Ignore all your cultural expectations. Ignore all your geography and history lessons. Ignore the waves crashing around you. For as long as you believe His words spoken to you, you will be able to walk just as He said you can.

The only risk is that at some time in the future you stop believing and begin to sink.

What has He said to you?

The key thing is to believe and keep on believing what Jesus Christ says to/about you. If Jesus Christ (or God or the Holy Spirit) says “come and walk on the water” then believe what He says is true.

For as long as you believe, you will be do what He says.

Think back. Look through your journal. What is it He has said to you? Believe Him – and like Peter, keep on believing Him. Don’t doubt, or you will sink.

What does the bible say about you?

But it goes far beyond this… what does the bible say that Jesus Christ did for you on the cross? What does the bible say Jesus Christ did for the world on the cross? What prophetic words have you heard that you knew were right?

Just like Peter, for the time that you actively believe what God says, then just like Peter you are experiencing that – you are walking on water.

When you doubt, just like Peter, it stops. It totally comes down to faith in what God has said to you – and BELIEVING what He has said about you.

A clip from the first 7:14 in March, Parliament Square – London. 1200 people came.

THE VISION

All over the world, nations are shaking. Politically, economically, socially, environmentally. It’s a time of great challenge and change. In the face of such need, we can often feel powerless, wondering what difference we can make. At times such as these, God calls his people to pray. This is such a time. This is such a call. This is a call to cities. It’s a call to cities to pray for nations. Not just inside, within four walls, behind closed doors. But outside, publicly, in the heart of every city. A visible statement of faith.

Then I saw this verse

Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth. – Ps 127:4

I began to understand that children are like arrows, they can be aimed and then they fly in that direction.

So HOW do we aim our kids to go in the right direction? Movies, playstation, song lyrics and TV might aim my kids in the WRONG direction. How do I aim them in the right direction?

Aiming our kids – with love

I am convinced that I can ensure my (future) daughter (or son) is a safe young teen and young adult… by loving and showing respect to their mom.

As my baby boy or girl grows up and tries to figure out what is ok and what not to allow in this world of wolves, she will naturally come to me and sit on my lap and ask me many times “tell me the story of you and mom met and got married”.

Here is the key: if I can answer truthfully about how we did not do the wrong things before marriage, how I showed her mom respect, how we waited and made the effort to learn to communicate, to speak each other’s love language, learning to give and receive love from one another, learning about one another’s needs, growing together, talking things through and forgiving… then my daughter (and son) will want the same things for herself (or himself) and in this way they won’t settle for less than what her mom had.

She will be safe from harm, because she won’t settle for less, she will want the same for herself! If a man tries to consume her beauty to make up for a lack in his own life, she will refuse to be used. If a man or woman with unclean hands reaches out to touch my son, he will feel the uncleanness and he will find it unpleasant and he will naturally pull away.

But this only happens because they have experienced and observed the love and kindness and goodness of Christ in me and Christ in their mother and God’s Presence in our home.

Formed in their mind is the desire to be loved like her mother is being loved. They won’t compromise. They won’t settle.

The home

In that same way I will strive to have a home that is filled with warmth from love and the light of God’s Presence.

Why? Because if she (or he) grows up around God’s Presence and thinks that is normal, when she (or he) comes into contact with unclean people or an unclean place, she will immediately pick up on the change in atmosphere and she will know to move away from that person or place because it doesn’t feel nice to be there.

In my life the opposite was true. I was so used to being around anger and darkness that I did not know it was wrong. It was just how it always was. But no more, I stay in the light now. And the more I am in the light, the more I can stop when darkness tries to invade.

By turning this around, by showing my children – both literal and spiritual – that love is normal, that talking and a healthy exchange of views is normal, that respect is normal, that God’s Presence is normal… they will flee darkness and death if they sense a change.

This requires long term self-sacrifice

This will take a life-long commitment from me and it starts now. And then when my future wife comes along she has to see the vision and agree to work in that direction.

Just think, my future wife is not sitting here next to me, but I am already planning to love her and to love any children that we may choose to have. The way I treat my wife is not just for her, but for my son and/or daughter as well. Love is like this… it is the intentional giving of ourselves for others.

In that same way, long before you met Jesus Christ He was already praying for you

Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. – Heb 7:25

A prayer center

And it goes way beyond this.

Long time readers of this blog will know that I have repeatedly asked for financial support to create a prayer center where He will be manifest. I truly believe that God wants a place where people can come and taste and see that the Lord is good. A place where YOU – people of all shapes and sizes and importance – can come and experience what good and right feels like.

You see… the only way to change people’s behavior is by changing their world view. When you go to jail your world view changes – and your behavior changes, sometimes for the worst! When a person is abused their world view changes and their behavior also changes from then onwards. When abandoned children are adopted and loved for the first time, their world view changes and their behavior changes. When lonely people find love, or find a warm accepting loving church, or find God’s love… their world view changes and their behavior changes.

I believe that God wants a place where He will be manifest, a place where we can come to and experience His goodness, His Presence, light and love – and then by finally experiencing what is good, our world view can change and we can return home to our countries with our new world view and changed behavior.

In it I show why it is so important that we believe in Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of all of God’s promises. Sometimes seeing the raw facts helps us to come to grips with a new concept.

You know that the Old Testament is 2.5 times larger than the NT right?

• NT Pages: 430,
• OT Pages: 1070

But did you know that “faith” and faith related words are hardly mentioned in the OT, by comparison to the NT?

• Faith – NT: 230 times, OT: 27 times
• By faith – NT: 43 times, OT: 0 times
• In faith – NT: 10 times, OT: 1 time
• Through faith – NT: 14 times, OT: 0 times

It’s not that faith was not important in the OT, instead it’s that people refused to believe God’s words. Hebrews 11 says that all the great people of the OT had faith… but now in the NT we can see that the word faith and it’s related phrases are common in the NT. Why? Because God has spoken to us through His Son Jesus Christ

but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. - Hebrews 1:2

and it takes faith to receive from Someone Who is not right here next to us, but Who did His work 2,000 years ago in a country most of us might never visit.

For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God. – 2 Cor 1:20

Did you see that? No matter what the promises are, they are done through Jesus Christ on His cross.

And what does that scripture say is your contribution to this miracle? You simply add your AMEN. “Amen” means to say “I agree” (or “So be it; truly”, “heartily agree”).

¹IN THE beginning [before all time] was the Word (Christ), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself. – John 1:1

The enemy has deceived us into believing that the bible itself is the Word of God. It is not. It contains the words of God, it is perfect, infallible and that is a wonderful thing. But Jesus Christ is the Word of God. And this is an important distinction, please let me explain.

Here is a book titled Steve Jobs

is that book itself actually Steve Jobs? No. It’s a book about Steve Jobs.

Here is a book titled “The Word of God”

is that book actually the Word of God (Jesus Christ)? No. It’s a book about the Word of God (Jesus Christ).

This is a very sneaky trick the enemy played on us to distract us from understanding that the entire bible, from beginning to end, speaks exclusively about Jesus Christ,  not about itself. It has God’s perfect words about His Son, His relationship with His Son, and our relationship with Him and His Son Jesus Christ.

This trick even fooled the leader of major world wide denomination. I personally saw this man telling his congregation that the bible was a part of God and that it (the bible) was present before the world began. He had confused John 1:1 with the title on the front cover of the bible. He was leading his congregation astray.

The bible SPEAKS of Him

In Genesis after the serpent tricked Eve and then Adam fell, God said He will send Someone to crush the head of the serpent,

he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” – Gen 3:15

That Someone was Jesus Christ and He did it on the cross. We have to get that into our spirit. We must renew our minds. Don’t wait for it to happen… it happened! Don’t ask for it to happen… it already happened. Instead, receive it by faith.

When God was speaking to Himself about His creation, Jesus Christ was already present. The whole entire bible is about Jesus Christ, which is why it was titled “The Word of God” – and praise God it contains the words of God as well, and it is perfect and infallible!!

So why is it so important to get this right? Because a great truth is hidden from us until we get this sorted out…

so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. – Is 55:11

Who was that Word? Jesus Christ! And where is He now? He returned to the Father and is seated at the right hand of God right now. So look again at that verse… God’s Word that comes from His mouth WILL return to Him having accomplished that which He sent Him for. Jesus Christ ACCOMPLISHED what God sent Him for.

That scripture confirms that Jesus Christ achieved everything that His Father sent Him to do. Get it? Not one thing was left undone. Not one promise was left unfulfilled, for all people, for all time. Don”t wait for Jesus Christ to come again and do those things. God’s words in the bible are perfect and infallible. Jesus Christ DID what God sent Him to do, and “it is finished” – just as Jesus Christ confirmed as He hung on the cross.

Don’t lose all that He did for you!

Don’t let yourself be deceived and don’t faith to receive all your free gifts, your inheritance, which He made available to you!

For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God. – 2 Cor 1:20

Did you see that? They are done. And what is your contribution? You simply add your AMEN. “Amen” means to say “I agree” (or “So be it; truly”, “heartily agree”).

What is it when you heartily agree with something that God has said about His Son Jesus Christ? It’s faith. God once said to me: “Faith is what you agree is true”.

So let me ask you… DID Jesus fulfill the promise of God to send Someone to crush the head of the serpent? Answer: YES. He crushed the head of the serpent, just as God said He would. That is faith!

The reason faith is so greatly focussed on in the NT is because the promises that are  now fulfilled by God through Jesus Christ are RECEIVED by faith, an abiding faith, a daily active faith, confident declarations over situations, declaring the truth, standing firm until it manifestly comes to pass in your life.

Hebrews 11 says that all the great people of the OT acted because of their faith. They acted because of the words of God (rhema). Now we act because of the Word of God (Jesus Christ).

but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. - Hebrews 1:2

His work was perfect and complete. And everything He did is a free gift for all who receive it BY FAITH…

Without a fall, there is no restoration through Jesus Christ. Without sin there is no need for righteousness through Jesus Christ. If we didn’t fall and we cannot be restored… then recovery through Jesus Christ is not possible. If recovery and healing is not possible… then welcome to your cr@ppy life and welcome to this cr@ppy world.

However. There WAS a fall and an initial sin. And Jesus Christ IS the second Adam Who has restored all things. And that is the good news. Nothing has to remain as it seems to be. Marriages don’t have to suffer. People don’t have to suffer. Countries don’t have to fight. People don’t have to be addicted.

Some people need us to believe in evolution because then we won’t believe in Adam and Eve, we won’t believe in God and satan, we don’t believe in the love of God for us by sending His own Son to die for us. But let me say this to you – don’t be defrauded of your inheritance. Don’t be fooled into thinking that this is all that there is. That’s a lie.

So that is why I copied these 101 scientific evidences from creation.com and put them on here. The age of the earth is correctly dated by scripture – and here is the scientific evidence to back it up.

Enjoy

Biological evidence for a young age of the earth

1. DNA in “ancient” fossils. DNA extracted from bacteria that are supposed to be 425 million years old brings into question that age, because DNA could not last more than thousands of years.
2. Lazarus bacteria—bacteria revived from salt inclusions supposedly 250 million years old, suggest the salt is not millions of years old. See also Salty saga.
3. The decay in the human genome due to multiple slightly deleterious mutations each generation is consistent with an origin several thousand years ago. Sanford, J., Genetic entropy and the mystery of the genome, Ivan Press, 2005; see review of the book and the interview with the author in Creation30(4):45–47,September 2008. This has been confirmed by realistic modelling of population genetics, which shows that genomes are young, in the order of thousands of years. See Sanford, J., Baumgardner, J., Brewer, W., Gibson, P. and Remine, W., Mendel’s Accountant: A biologically realistic forward-time population genetics program, SCPE 8(2):147–165, 2007.
4. The data for “mitochondrial Eve” are consistent with a common origin of all humans several thousand years ago.
5. Very limited variation in the DNA sequence on the human Y-chromosome around the world is consistent with a recent origin of mankind, thousands not millions of years.
6. Many fossil bones “dated” at many millions of years old are hardly mineralized, if at all. This contradicts the widely believed old age of the earth. See, for example, Dinosaur bones just how old are they really?
7. Dinosaur blood cells, blood vessels, proteins (hemoglobin, osteocalcin, collagen) are not consistent with their supposed age, but make more sense if the remains are young.
8. Lack of 50:50 racemization of amino acids in fossils “dated” at millions of years old, whereas complete racemization would occur in thousands of years.
9. Living fossils—jellyfish, graptolites, coelacanth, stromatolites, Wollemi pine and hundreds more. That many hundreds of species could remain so unchanged, for even up to billions of years in the case of stromatolites, speaks against the millions and billions of years being real.
10. Discontinuous fossil sequences. E.g. Coelacanth, Wollemi pine and various “index” fossils, which are present in supposedly ancient strata, missing in strata representing many millions of years since, but still living today. Such discontinuities speak against the interpretation of the rock formations as vast geological ages—how could Coelacanths have avoided being fossilized for 65 million years, for example? See The “Lazarus effect”: rodent “resurrection”!
11. The ages of the world’s oldest living organisms, trees, are consistent with an age of the earth of thousands of years.

Geological evidence for a young age of the earth

1. Scarcity of plant fossils in many formations containing abundant animal / herbivore fossils. E.g., the Morrison Formation (Jurassic) in Montana. See Origins21(1):51–56, 1994. Also the Coconino sandstone in the Grand Canyon has many track-ways (animals), but is almost devoid of plants. Implication: these rocks are not ecosystems of an “era” buried in situ over eons of time as evolutionists claim. The evidence is more consistent with catastrophic transport then burial during the massive global Flood of Noah’s day. This eliminates supposed evidence for millions of years.
2. Thick, tightly bent strata without sign of melting or fracturing. E.g. the Kaibab upwarp in Grand Canyon indicates rapid folding before the sediments had time to solidify (the sand grains were not elongated under stress as would be expected if the rock had hardened). This wipes out hundreds of millions of years of time and is consistent with extremely rapid formation during the biblical Flood. SeeWarped earth (written by a geophysicist).
3. Polystrate fossils—tree trunks in coal (Auracaria spp. king billy pines, celery top pines, in southern hemisphere coal). There are also polystrate tree trunks in theYellowstone fossilized forests and Joggins, Nova Scotia and in many other places. Polystrate fossilized lycopod trunks occur in northern hemisphere coal, again indicating rapid burial / formation of the organic material that became coal.
4. Experiments show that with conditions mimicking natural forces, coal forms quickly; in weeks for brown coal to months for black coal. It does not need millions of years. Furthermore, long time periods could be an impediment to coal formation because of the increased likelihood of the permineralization of the wood, which would hinder coalification.
5. Experiments show that with conditions mimicking natural forces, oil forms quickly; it does not need millions of years, consistent with an age of thousands of years.
6. Experiments show that with conditions mimicking natural forces, opals form quickly, in a matter of weeks, not millions of years, as had been claimed.
7. Evidence for rapid, catastrophic formation of coal beds speaks against the hundreds of millions of years normally claimed for this, including Z-shaped seams that point to a single depositional event producing these layers.
8. Evidence for rapid petrifaction of wood speaks against the need for long periods of time and is consistent with an age of thousands of years.
9. Clastic dykes and pipes (intrusion of sediment through overlying sedimentary rock) show that the overlying rock strata were still soft when it happened. This drastically compresses the time scale for the deposition of the penetrated rock strata. See, Walker, T., Fluidisation pipes: Evidence of large-scale watery catastrophe, Journal of Creation (TJ) 14(3):8–9, 2000.
10. Para(pseudo)conformities—where one rock stratum sits on top of another rock stratum but with supposedly millions of years of geological time missing, yet the contact plane lacks any significant erosion; that is, it is a “flat gap”. E.g. Coconino sandstone / Hermit shale in the Grand Canyon (supposedly a 10 million year gap in time). The thick Schnebly Hill Formation (sandstone) liesbetween the Coconino and Hermit in central Arizona. See Austin, S.A., Grand Canyon, monument to catastrophe, ICR, Santee, CA, USA, 1994 and Snelling, A., The case of the “missing” geologic time, Creation 14(3):31–35, 1992.
11. The presence of ephemeral markings (raindrop marks, ripple marks, animal tracks) at the boundaries of paraconformities show that the upper rock layer has been deposited immediately after the lower one, eliminating many millions of “gap” time. See references in Para(pseudo)conformities.
12. Inter-tonguing of adjacent strata that are supposedly separated by millions of years also eliminates many millions of years of supposed geologic time. The case of the “missing” geologic time; Mississippian and Cambrian strata interbedding: 200 million years hiatus in question, CRSQ 23(4):160–167.
13. The lack of bioturbation (worm holes, root growth) at paraconformities (flat gaps) reinforces the lack of time involved where evolutionary geologists insert many millions of years to force the rocks to conform with the “given” timescale of billions of years.
14. The almost complete lack of clearly recognizable soil layers anywhere in the geologic column. Geologists do claim to have found lots of “fossil” soils (paleosols), but these are quite different to soils today, lacking the features that characterize soil horizons; features that are used in classifying different soils. Every one that has been investigated thoroughly proves to lack the characteristics of proper soil. If “deep time” were correct, with hundreds of millions of years of abundant life on the earth, there should have been ample opportunities many times over for soil formation. See Klevberg, P. and Bandy, R., CRSQ 39:252–68;CRSQ 40:99–116, 2003; Walker, T., Paleosols: digging deeper buries “challenge” to Flood geology, Journal of Creation 17(3):28–34, 2003.
15. Limited extent of unconformities (unconformity: a surface of erosion that separates younger strata from older rocks). Surfaces erode quickly (e.g. Badlands, South Dakota), but there are very limited unconformities. There is the “great unconformity” at the base of the Grand Canyon, but otherwise there are supposedly ~300 million years of strata deposited on top without any significant unconformity. This is again consistent with a much shorter time of deposition of these strata. SeePara(pseudo)conformities.
16. The amount of salt in the world’s oldest lake contradicts its supposed age and suggests an age more consistent with its formation after Noah’s Flood, which is consistent with a young age of the earth.
17. The discovery that underwater landslides (“turbidity currents”) travelling at some 50 km/h can create huge areas of sediment in a matter of hours (Press, F., and Siever, R., Earth, 4^th ed., Freeman & Co., NY, USA, 1986). Sediments thought to have formed slowly over eons of time are now becoming recognized as having formed extremely rapidly. See for example, A classic tillite reclassified as a submarine debris flow (Technical).
18. Flume tank research with sediment of different particle sizes show that layered rock strata that were thought to have formed over huge periods of time in lake beds actually formed very quickly. Even the precise layer thicknesses of rocks were duplicated after they were ground into their sedimentary particles and run through the flume. See Experiments in stratification of heterogeneous sand mixtures, Sedimentation Experiments: Nature finally catches up! and Sandy Stripes Do many layers mean many years?
19. Observed examples of rapid canyon formation; for example, Providence Canyon in southwest Georgia, Burlingame Canyon near Walla Walla, Washington, and Lower Loowit Canyon near Mount St Helens. The rapidity of the formation of these canyons, which look similar to other canyons that supposedly took many millions of years to form, brings into question the supposed age of the canyons that no one saw form.
20. Observed examples of rapid island formation and maturation, such as Surtsey, which confound the notion that such islands take long periods of time to form. See also, Tuluman—A Test of Time.
21. Rate of erosion of coastlines, horizontally. E.g. Beachy Head, UK, loses a metre of coast to the sea every six years.
22. Rate of erosion of continents vertically is not consistent with the assumed old age of the earth. See Creation 22(2):18–21.
23. Existence of significant flat plateaux that are “dated” at many millions of years old (“elevated paleoplains”). An example isKangaroo Island (Australia). C.R. Twidale, a famous Australian physical geographer wrote: “the survival of these paleoforms is in some degree an embarrassment to all the commonly accepted models of landscape development.” Twidale, C.R. On the survival of paleoforms, American Journal of Science 5(276):77–95, 1976 (quote on p. 81). See Austin, S.A., Did landscapes evolve?Impact 118, April 1983.
24. The recent and almost simultaneous origin of all the high mountain ranges around the world—including the Himalayas, the Alps, the Andes, and the Rockies—which have undergone most of the uplift to their present elevations beginning “five million” years ago, whereas mountain building processes have supposedly been around for up to billions of years. See Baumgardner, J., Recent uplift of today’s mountains. Impact 381, March 2005.
25. Water gaps. These are gorges cut through mountain ranges where rivers run. They occur worldwide and are part of what evolutionary geologists call “discordant drainage systems”. They are “discordant” because they don’t fit the deep time belief system. The evidence fits them forming rapidly in a much younger age framework where the gorges were cut in the recessive stage / dispersive phase of the global Flood of Noah’s day. See Oard, M., Do rivers erode through mountains? Water gaps are strong evidence for the Genesis Flood, Creation 29(3):18–23, 2007.

1. Erosion at Niagara Falls and other such places is consistent with just a few thousand years since the biblical Flood.
2. River delta growth rate is consistent with thousands of years since the biblical Flood, not vast periods of time. The argument goes back to Mark Twain. E.g. 1. Mississippi—Creation Research Quarterly (CRSQ) 9:96–114, 1992; CRSQ 14:77; CRSQ 25:121–123. E.g. 2 Tigris–Euphrates: CRSQ14:87, 1977.
3. Underfit streams. River valleys are too large for the streams they contain. Dury speaks of the “continent-wide distribution of underfit streams”. Using channel meander characteristics, Dury concluded that past streams frequently had 20–60 times their current discharge. This means that the river valleys would have been carved very quickly, not slowly over eons of time. See Austin, S.A., Did landscapes evolve? Impact 118, 1983.
4. Amount of salt in the sea. Even ignoring the effect of the biblical Flood and assuming zero starting salinity and all rates of input and removal so as to maximize the time taken to accumulate all the salt, the maximum age of the oceans, 62 million years, is less than 1/50 of the age evolutionists claim for the oceans. This suggests that the age of the earth is radically less also.
5. The amount of sediment on the sea floors at current rates of land erosion would accumulate in just 12 million years; a blink of the eye compared to the supposed age of much of the ocean floor of up to 3 billion years. Furthermore, long-age geologists reckon that higher erosion rates applied in the past, which shortens the time frame. From a biblical point of view, at the end of Noah’s Flood lots of sediment would have been added to the sea with the water coming off the unconsolidated land, making the amount of sediment perfectly consistent with a history of thousands of years.
6. Iron-manganese nodules (IMN) on the sea floors. The measured rates of growth of these nodules indicates an age of only thousands of years. Lalomov, A.V., 2007. Mineral deposits as an example of geological rates. CRSQ 44(1):64–66.
7. The age of placer deposits (concentrations of heavy metals such as tin in modern sediments and consolidated sedimentary rocks). The measured rates of deposition indicate an age of thousands of years, not the assumed millions. See Lalomov, A.V., and Tabolitch, S.E., 2000. Age determination of coastal submarine placer, Val’cumey, northern Siberia. Journal of Creation (TJ)14(3):83–90.
8. Pressure in oil / gas wells indicate the recent origin of the oil and gas. If they were many millions of years old we would expect the pressures to equilibrate, even in low permeability rocks. “Experts in petroleum prospecting note the impossibility of creating an effective model given long and slow oil generation over millions of years (Petukhov, 2004). In their opinion, if models demand the standard multimillion-years geochronological scale, the best exploration strategy is to drill wells on a random grid.” Lalomov, A.V., 2007. Mineral deposits as an example of geological rates. CRSQ 44(1):64–66.
9. Direct evidence that oil is forming today in the Guaymas Basin and in Bass Strait is consistent with a young earth (although notnecessary for a young earth).
10. Rapid reversals in paleomagnetism undermine use of paleomagnetism in long ages dating of rocks and speak of rapid processes, compressing the long-age time scale enormously.
11. The pattern of magnetization in the magnetic stripes where magma is welling up at the mid-ocean trenches argues against the belief that reversals take many thousands of years and rather indicates rapid sea-floor spreading as well as rapid magnetic reversals, consistent with a young earth (Humphreys, D.R., Has the Earth’s magnetic field ever flipped? Creation Research Quarterly 25(3):130–137, 1988).

1. Measured rates of stalactite and stalagmite growth in limestone caves are consistent with a young age of several thousand years. See also articles on limestone cave formation.
2. The decay of the earth’s magnetic field. Exponential decay is evident from measurements and is consistent with theory of free decay since creation, suggesting an age of the earth of only thousands of years. See also: Humphreys, R., Earth’s magnetic field is decaying steadily—with a little rythm, CRSQ 47(3):193–201; 2011.
3. Excess heat flow from the earth is consistent with a young age rather than billions of years, even taking into account heat from radioactive decay. SeeWoodmorappe, J., 1999. Lord Kelvin revisited on the young age of the earth. Journal of Creation (TJ)13(1):14, 1999.

Radiometric dating and the age of the earth

1. Carbon-14 in coal suggests ages of thousands of years and clearly contradict ages of millions of years.
2. Carbon-14 in oil again suggests ages of thousands, not millions, of years.
3. Carbon-14 in fossil wood also indicates ages of thousands, not millions, of years.
4. Carbon-14 in diamonds suggests ages of thousands, not billions, of years.
5. Incongruent radioisotope dates using the same technique argue against trusting the dating methods that give millions of years.
6. Incongruent radioisotope dates using different techniques argue against trusting the dating methods that give millions of years (or billions of years for the age of the earth).
7. Demonstrably non-radiogenic “isochrons” of radioactive and non-radioactive elements undermine the assumptions behind isochron “dating” that gives billions of years. “False” isochrons are common.
8. Different faces of the same zircon crystal and different zircons from the same rock giving different “ages” undermine all “dates” obtained from zircons.
9. Evidence of a period of rapid radioactive decay in the recent past (lead and helium concentrations and diffusion rates in zircons) point to a young earth explanation.
10. The amount of helium, a product of alpha-decay of radioactive elements, retained in zircons in granite is consistent with an age of 6,000±2000 years, not the supposed billions of years. See: Humphreys, D.R., Young helium diffusion age of zircons supports accelerated nuclear decay, in Vardiman, Snelling, and Chaffin (eds.), Radioisotopes and the Age of the Earth: Results of a Young Earth Creationist Research Initiative, Institute for Creation Research and Creation Research Society, 848 pp., 2005
11. Lead in zircons from deep drill cores vs. shallow ones. They are similar, but there should be less in the deep ones due to the higher heat causing higher diffusion rates over the usual long ages supposed. If the ages are thousands of years, there would not be expected to be much difference, which is the case (Gentry, R., et al., Differential lead retention in zircons: Implications for nuclear waste containment, Science 216(4543):296–298, 1982; DOI: 10.1126/science.216.4543.296).
12. Pleochroic halos produced in granite by concentrated specks of short half-life elements such as polonium suggest a period of rapid nuclear decay of the long half-life parent isotopes during the formation of the rocks and rapid formation of the rocks, both of which speak against the usual ideas of geological deep time and a vast age of the earth. See, Radiohalos: Startling evidence of catastrophic geologic processes, Creation 28(2):46–50, 2006.
13. Squashed pleochroic halos (radiohalos) formed from decay of polonium, a very short half-life element, in coalified wood from several geological eras suggest rapid formation of all the layers about the same time, in the same process, consistent with the biblical “young” earth model rather than the millions of years claimed for these events.
14. Australia’s “Burning Mountain” speaks against radiometric dating and the millions of years belief system (according to radiometric dating of the lava intrusion that set the coal alight, the coal in the burning mountain has been burning for ~40 million years, but clearly this is not feasible).

Astronomical evidence for a young(er) age of the earth and the universe

1. Evidence of recent volcanic activity on Earth’s moon is inconsistent with its supposed vast age because it should have long since cooled if it were billions of years old. See:Transient lunar phenomena: a permanent problem for evolutionary models of Moon formation and Walker, T., and Catchpoole, D., Lunar volcanoes rock long-age timeframe,Creation 31(3):18, 2009. See further corroboration: “At Long Last, Moon’s Core ‘Seen’”;http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/01/at-long-last-moons-core-seen.html?rss=1
2. Recession of the moon from the earth. Tidal friction causes the moon to recede from the earth at 4 cm per year. It would have been greater in the past when the moon and earth were closer together. The moon and earth would have been in catastrophic proximity (Roche limit) at less than a quarter of their supposed age.
3. Slowing down of the earth. Tidal dissipation rate of Earth’s angular momentum: increasing length of day, currently by 0.002 seconds/day every century (thus an impossibly short day billions of years ago and a very slow day shortly after accretion and before the postulated giant impact to form the Moon). See: How long has the moon been receding?
4. Ghost craters on the moon’s maria (singular mare: dark “seas” formed from massive lava flows) are a problem for long ages. Evolutionists believe that the lava flows were caused by enormous impacts, and this lava partly buried other, smaller, impact craters, leaving “ghosts”. But this means that the smaller impacts can’t have been too long after the huge one, otherwise the lava would have hardened before the impact. This suggests a very narrow time frame for lunar cratering, and by implication the other cratered bodies of our solar system. They suggest that the cratering occurred quite quickly. See Fryman, H., Ghost craters in the sky, Creation Matters 4(1):6, 1999; A biblically based cratering theory (Faulkner);Lunar volcanoes rock long-age timeframe.
5. The presence of a significant magnetic field around Mercury is not consistent with its supposed age of billions of years. A planet so small should have cooled down enough so any liquid core would solidify, preventing the evolutionists’ “dynamo” mechanism. See also, Humphreys, D.R., Mercury’s magnetic field is young! Journal of Creation 22(3):8–9, 2008.
6. The outer planets Uranus and Neptune have magnetic fields, but they should be long “dead” if they are as old as claimed according to evolutionary long-age beliefs. Assuming a solar system age of thousands of years, physicist Russell Humphreys successfully predicted the strengths of the magnetic fields of Uranus and Neptune.
7. Jupiter’s larger moons, Ganymede, Io, and Europa, have magnetic fields, which they should not have if they were billions of years old, because they have solid cores and so no dynamo could generate the magnetic fields. This is consistent with creationist Humphreys’ predictions. See also, Spencer, W., Ganymede: the surprisingly magnetic moon, Journal of Creation 23(1):8–9, 2009.
8. Volcanically active moons of Jupiter (Io) are consistent with youthfulness (Galileo mission recorded 80 active volcanoes). If Io had been erupting over 4.5 billion years at even 10% of its current rate, it would have erupted its entire mass 40 times. Io looks like a young moon and does not fit with the supposed billions of year’s age for the solar system. Gravitational tugging from Jupiter and other moons accounts for only some of the excess heat produced.
9. The surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa. Studies of the few craters indicated that up to 95% of small craters, and many medium-sized ones, are formed from debris thrown up by larger impacts. This means that there have been far fewer impacts than had been thought in the solar system and the age of other objects in the solar system, derived from cratering levels, have to be reduced drastically (see Psarris, Spike, What you aren’t being told about astronomy, volume 1: Our created solar system DVD, available from CMI).
10. Methane on Titan (Saturn’s largest moon)—the methane should all be gone because of UV-induced breakdown. The products of photolysis should also have produced a huge sea of ethane. As the original Astrobiology paper said, “If the chemistry on Titan has gone on in steady-state over the age of the solar system, then we would predict that a layer of ethane 300 to 600 meters thick should be deposited on the surface.” No such sea is seen, which is consistent with Titan being a tiny fraction of the claimed age of the solar system.
11. The rate of change / disappearance of Saturn’s rings is inconsistent with their supposed vast age; they speak of youthfulness.
12. Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, looks young. Astronomers working in the “billions of years” mindset thought that this moon would be cold and dead, but it is a very active moon, spewing massive jets of water vapour and icy particles into space at supersonic speeds, consistent with a much younger age. Calculations show that the interior would have frozen solid after 30 million years (less than 1% of its supposed age); tidal friction from Saturn does not explain its youthful activity (Psarris, Spike, What you aren’t being told about astronomy, volume 1: Our created solar system DVD; Walker, T., 2009. Enceladus: Saturn’s sprightly moon looks young, Creation 31(3):54–55).
13. Miranda, a small moon of Uranus, should have been long since dead, if billions of years old, but its extreme surface features suggest otherwise. See Revelations in the solar system.
14. Neptune should be long since “cold”, lacking strong wind movement if it were billions of years old, yet Voyager II in 1989 found it to be otherwise—it has the fastest winds in the entire solar system. This observation is consistent with a young age, not billions of years. See Neptune: monument to creation.
15. Neptune’s rings have thick regions and thin regions. This unevenness means they cannot be billions of years old, since collisions of the ring objects would eventually make the ring very uniform. Revelations in the solar system.
16. Young surface age of Neptune’s moon, Triton—less than 10 million years, even with evolutionary assumptions on rates of impacts (see Schenk, P.M., and Zahnle, K. On the Negligible Surface Age of Triton, Icarus 192(1):135–149, 2007. <doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2007.07.004>.
17. Uranus and Neptune both have magnetic fields significantly off-axis, which is an unstable situation. When this was discovered with Uranus, it was assumed by evolutionary astronomers that Uranus must have just happened to be going through a magnetic field reversal. However, when a similar thing was found with Neptune, this AD hoc explanation was upset. These observations are consistent with ages of thousands of years rather than billions.
18. The orbit of Pluto is chaotic on a 20 million year time scale and affects the rest of the solar system, which would also become unstable on that time scale, suggesting that it must be much younger. (See: Rothman, T., God takes a nap, Scientific American259(4):20, 1988).
19. The existence of short-period comets (orbital period less than 200 years), e.g. Halley, which have a life of less than 20,000 years, is consistent with an age of the solar system of less than 10,000 years. AD hoc hypotheses have to be invented to circumvent this evidence (see Kuiper Belt). See Comets and the age of the solar system.
20. “Near-infrared spectra of the Kuiper Belt Object, Quaoar and the suspected Kuiper Belt Object, Charon, indicate both contain crystalline water ice and ammonia hydrate. This watery material cannot be much older than 10 million years, which is consistent with a young solar system, not one that is 5 billion years old.” See: The “waters above” .
21. Lifetime of long-period comets (orbital period greater than 200 years) that are sun-grazing comets or others like Hyakutake or Hale–Bopp means they could not have originated with the solar system 4.5 billion years ago. However, their existence is consistent with a young age for the solar system. Again an AD hoc Oort Cloud was invented to try to account for these comets still being present after billions of years. See, Comets and the age of the solar system.
22. The maximum expected lifetime of near-earth asteroids is of the order of one million years, after which they collide with the sun. And the Yarkovsky effect moves main belt asteroids into near-earth orbits faster than had been thought. This brings into question the origin of asteroids with the formation of the solar system (the usual scenario), or the solar system is much younger than the 4.5 billion years claimed. Henry, J., The asteroid belt: indications of its youth, Creation Matters 11(2):2, 2006.
23. The lifetime of binary asteroids—where a tiny asteroid “moon” orbits a larger asteroid— in the main belt (they represent about 15–17% of the total): tidal effects limit the life of such binary systems to about 100,000 years. The difficulties in conceiving of any scenario for getting binaries to form in such numbers to keep up the population, led some astronomers to doubt their existence, but space probes confirmed it (Henry, J., The asteroid belt: indications of its youth, Creation Matters 11(2):2, 2006).
24. The observed rapid rate of change in stars contradicts the vast ages assigned to stellar evolution. For example, Sakurai’s Object in Sagittarius: in 1994, this star was most likely a white dwarf in the centre of a planetary nebula; by 1997 it had grown to a bright yellow giant, about 80 times wider than the sun (Astronomy & Astrophysics 321:L17, 1997). In 1998, it had expanded even further, to a red supergiant 150 times wider than the sun. But then it shrank just as quickly; by 2002 the star itself was invisible even to the most powerful optical telescopes, although it is detectable in the infrared, which shines through the dust (Muir, H., 2003, Back from the dead, New Scientist 177(2384):28–31).
25. The faint young sun paradox. According to stellar evolution theory, as the sun’s core transforms from hydrogen to helium by means of nuclear fusion, the mean molecular weight increases, which would compress the sun’s core increasing fusion rate. The upshot is that over several billion years, the sun ought to have brightened 40% since its formation and 25% since the appearance of life on earth. For the latter, this translates into a 16–18 ºC temperature increase on the earth. The current average temperature is 15 ºC, so the earth ought to have had a -2 ºC or so temperature when life appeared. See: Faulkner, D.,The young faint Sun paradox and the age of the solar system, Journal of Creation (TJ) 15(2):3–4, 2001. As of 2010, the faint young sun remains a problem: Kasting, J.F., Early Earth: Faint young Sun redux, Nature 464:687–689, 1 April 2010; doi:10.1038/464687a; www.nature.com/nature/journal/v464/n7289/full/464687a.html
26. Cometesimals. From his studies, astronomer Louis Frank says that 100 million tonnes of water is being added to Earth every year in cometesimals (small comet remnants). This has strong implications for the supposed age of the oceans, if confirmed. See: Bergman, J., Advances in integrating cosmology: The case of cometesimals, Journal of Creation (CENTJ) 10(2):202–210, 1996.
27. The giant gas planets Jupiter and Saturn radiate more energy than they receive from the sun, suggesting a recent origin. Jupiter radiates almost twice as much energy as it receives from the sun, indicating that it may be less than 1 % of the presumed 4.5 billion years old solar system. Saturn radiates nearly twice as much energy per unit mass as Jupiter. See The age of the Jovian planets.
28. Speedy stars are consistent with a young age for the universe. For example, many stars in the dwarf galaxies in the Local Group are moving away from each other at speeds estimated at to 10–12 km/s. At these speeds, the stars should have dispersed in 100 Ma, which, compared with the supposed 14,000 Ma age of the universe, is a short time. See Fast stars challenge big bang origin for dwarf galaxies.
29. The ageing of spiral galaxies (much less than 200 million years) is not consistent with their supposed age of many billions of years. The discovery of extremely “young” spiral galaxies highlights the problem of this evidence for the evolutionary ages assumed.
30. The number of type I supernova remnants (SNRs) observable in our galaxy is consistent with an age of thousands of years, not millions or billions. See Davies, K., Proc. 3rd ICC, pp. 175–184, 1994.
31. The rate of expansion and size of supernovas indicates that all studied are young (less than 10,000 years). See supernova remnants.

Human history is consistent with a young age of the earth

1. Human population growth. Less than 0.5% p.a. growth from six people 4,500 years ago would produce today’s population. Where are all the people? if we have been here much longer?
2. “Stone age” human skeletons and artefacts. There are not enough for 100,000 years of a human population of just one million, let alone more people (10 million?). See Where are all the people?
3. Length of recorded history. Origin of various civilizations, writing, etc., all about the same time several thousand years ago. SeeEvidence for a young world.
4. Languages. Similarities in languages claimed to be separated by many tens of thousands of years speaks against the supposed ages (e.g. compare some aboriginal languages in Australia with languages in south-eastern India and Sri Lanka). See The Tower of Babel account affirmed by linguistics.
5. Common cultural “myths” speak of recent separation of peoples around the world. An example of this is the frequency of stories of an earth-destroying flood.
6. Origin of agriculture. Secular dating puts it at about 10,000 years and yet that same chronology says that modern man has supposedly been around for at least 200,000 years. Surely someone would have worked out much sooner how to sow seeds of plants to produce food. See: Evidence for a young world.

But it’s time. And like David enjoyed smashing giants in public, I’ve been doing that too. But this is the biggie. This one has kept me in emotional and psychological chains all my life. In fact, I’ve used it to keep myself safe as well. I’ve used being over-weight as a way to avoid male-female relationships, because I didn’t want to get hurt. So this is a big, entrenched giant.

But do you know what? No giant, not even satan, is a match for what Jesus Christ did on the cross. And if you want to know more, you’ve come to the right place! I’ve blogged extensively about my search to understand what Jesus Christ did for us.

I have blogged many times about how I’ve interceded with scripture (.DOC) in various countries and situations with great success. I’ve also prayed those same scriptures at church and seen a sort of mini-revival break out with God’s Presence being manifest. I’ve prayed those same scriptures over local regions and seen the crime rate drop. Through  faith in Jesus Christ’s perfect and complete work on the cross rain has come to drought areas and hurricanes have been stopped in their tracks.

There is truly NOTHING that has not been renewed and restored back to God IF we will believe what God says about His Son Jesus Christ.

Why does this work? It’s because it is our daily faith which overcomes the evil of this world. Not just any old faith, but a daily overcoming trust and belief that Jesus Christ really DID do on the cross what the bible says that He did. No ifs ands or buts… He did it.

More recently I began to struggle with how to attain all that God did for me through Jesus Christ on His cross in my personal life. I wrote about this mental shift that was needed in my thinking here: Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you HAVE received it

And after I discovered that truth, God then spoke this to me: “Nothing will be impossible for you” – Jesus Christ.

Tackling this giant

Now I am tackling a new giant in my life. My weight. I have been overweight for most of my life and I’ve never liked it and I’ve never been able to do anything about it. When I got married – looooong ago – I slimmed down nicely, but that didn’t last long and by the end of the marriage I was much bigger than ever before.

So here I am… putting my faith to the test. I believe, I trust, I know, I have faith that Jesus Christ has healed me on His cross. He took it all. He paid for it all. He made me holy, pure and blameless. He made me healthy. I am in Him. He is in me. I am no longer a physical body, but a spiritual body. Etc.

These are the kinds of scriptures I will be declaring in faith 2-4 times a day – and all the while I’m also believing that Jesus Christ has crushed the head of the serpent, He destroyed the works of the devil, He slayed the serpent etc.

This combination of scriptures about the cross of Jesus Christ destroyed poverty in my life since I wrote that blog post: Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you HAVE received it

And I have no doubt that Jesus Christ destroyed all unhealthy sickness  in my life as well. I know that a double minded man gets nothing, so I won’t doubt what He did on the cross.

I began this prayer yesterday (20th Nov 2011) and on the 27th of Sept 2011 I took some pics of myself, because I knew that if my finances turned around, then I would tackle this next. So I took those pics and as of yesterday I have started declaring the truth of what Jesus Christ did for me. And when my body shape and my choices and my thinking changes over the next few months – which is something I have never been able to do in my own strength – you will know for certain that it was not me who did it. You will know Who did it

If it’s DONE, what is my role in all of this?

So let’s take a moment and think this through… when the Israelites crossed into Israel in Joshua 1, God told Joshua to go be strong and very courageous and take the whole land. He told him to conquer it and to NOT make any agreements with any of the inhabitants there. And that is my view too… as we cross over this spiritual Jordan let us NOT make any side deals with our secret addictions or our fantasies.

Instead let us be like the bride of Christ as described in Eph 4

¹²His intention was the perfecting and the full equipping of the saints (His consecrated people), [that they should do] the work of ministering toward building up Christ’s body (the church),

¹³[That it might develop] until we all attain oneness in the faith and in the comprehension of the [full and accurate] knowledge of the Son of God, that [we might arrive] at really mature manhood (the completeness of personality which is nothing less than the standard height of Christ’s own perfection), the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ and the completeness found in Him.

THROUGH JESUS CHRIST we are to come to a full knowledge of Him and become like Him. We become like Him ONLY because He first loved us and now is within us. It is no longer we who live, but He lives in us. That alone is the reason we become like Him. By ourselves we are fallen sinners without hope, but IN HIM we are able to grow and mature into the: the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ and the completeness found in Him.

As the bride of Christ what should we be striving to do? Verse 1…

¹THEREFORE BE imitators of God [copy Him and follow His example]

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and if we imitate God or Jesus Christ or the Holy Spirit we are using our very lives to flatter God.

How do you imitate God? How do you follow His example? By reading scripture, understanding what His heart’s desire is, what He deeply desires from us – and then acting on it.

So what does scripture say Jesus Christ wants from His bride?

He wants His bride to submit to Him, learning His ways, adjusting ourselves to Him…

²²Wives, be subject (be submissive and adapt yourselves) to your own husbands as [a service] to the Lord.

And in return, what did He do for us on His cross? He made us clean and beautiful…

²⁶So that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word, ²⁷That He might present the church to Himself in glorious splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such things [that she might be holy and faultless].

Wow, did you hear what He did for you on His cross? He made us spotless, without wrinkle on the cross.

And what does He want His bride to do in return? He asks that we admire Him, worship Him, honor Him, praise Him… exceedingly…

33 let the wife see that she respects and reverences her husband [that she notices him, regards him, honors him, prefers him, venerates, and esteems him; and that she defers to him, praises him, and loves and admires him exceedingly].

Considering all that He did for us on His cross – already done, simply waiting for us to receive it by faith – considering all that, I have absolutely no problem esteeming Him, loving Him, praising Him, admiring Him. He is worthy.

And do you know what, when we truly take hold of all He did for us on His cross, He sees the fruit of the travail of His soul and He is satisfied.

Eat from Him. Drink from Him.  :)

The first part of the passage speaks about the simply awful tribulation that Jesus Christ went through on behalf of the WHOLE WORLD. He suffered for everyone and everything. Whether you appropriate His suffering or not, He still paid the price.

Let’s look at His suffering, before I show you something you might not have seen or realized before…

Isaiah 53:2-10

²For [the Servant of God] grew up before Him like a tender plant, and like a root out of dry ground; He has no form or comeliness [royal, kingly pomp], that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him.

³He was despised and rejected and forsaken by men, a Man of sorrows and pains, and acquainted with grief and sickness; and like One from Whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we did not appreciate His worth or have any esteem for Him.

⁴Surely He has borne our griefs (sicknesses, weaknesses, and distresses) and carried our sorrows and pains [of punishment], yet we [ignorantly] considered Him stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God [as if with leprosy].

⁵But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our guilt and iniquities; the chastisement [needful to obtain] peace and well-being for us was upon Him, and with the stripes [that wounded] Him we are healed and made whole.

⁶All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has made to light upon Him the guilt and iniquity of us all.

⁷He was oppressed, [yet when] He was afflicted, He was submissive and opened not His mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth.

⁸By oppression and judgment He was taken away; and as for His generation, who among them considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living [stricken to His death] for the transgression of my [Isaiah's] people, to whom the stroke was due?

⁹And they assigned Him a grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in His death, although He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth.

¹⁰Yet it was the will of the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief and made Him sick.

Incredible descriptions of suffering.

And who did He suffer for? For one thing, Isaiah says in verse 8 that Jesus Christ was killed as a spotless Lamb of God for Isaiah’s people – who lived in 500BC. But in fact Jesus Christ died for ALL people across ALL ages of time. All that we need to appropriate what He did, is to believe and receive.

But while that is a great message, that’s not the message of this post.

Whether you know it or not, He paid the price to make you perfectly whole. If you accept it or not, He paid for your mental, emotional, physical freedom. If your marriage is suffering, it shouldn’t be, because He healed it on the cross.

Look again one more time at verse 5…

the chastisement [needful to obtain] peace and well-being for us was upon Him, and with the stripes [that wounded] Him we are healed and made whole.

And even as wonderful as that message is, it’s still not the point of this post.

Take a look at the next verse…

Isaiah 53:10-11

WHEN You and He make His life an offering for sin

[and He has risen from the dead, in time to come], He shall see His [spiritual] offspring, He shall prolong His days, and the will and pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.

¹¹He shall SEE [the fruit] of the travail of His soul and be satisfied;

When you… WHEN… when you make His life that He gave… an offering for sin… He SEES the fruit of what He went through… and His soul is satisfied.

Let me explain it another way.

A parent sacrifices everything for her daughter and then on day her daughter is getting married and she stands in front of everyone and says that you to her mom, because without her moms sacrifice she would not be here marrying someone wonderful. And in that (and many other beautiful moments) the parents feel quietly satisfied that their unknown sufferings, late nights, early morning, all were worth it.

The Message Bible says Isaiah 53:10-11 this way

Out of that terrible travail of soul,
he’ll see that it’s worth it and be glad he did it.

Do you see now?

Jesus Christ suffered for every ailment, but only 1 in 1,000,000 sicknesses are actually healed by through faith based on what He did on the cross.  But when we DO have faith in what He did, His soul is satisfied and He feels that His suffering was worth it.

I bless you to received, receive, receive. He paid the price for your freedom. Come out from the jail. Believe what He has done for you.

So long ago, before the Aussie election of Rudd vs Howard, I decided to pray that God’s will is done, because it’s not possible for me to know what the right thing is, because I can’t see all the factors, I can’t see inside people’s hearts.

This approach is great because it means I can stay neutral and simple pray and believe that the right thing gets done, because I am declaring the full and complete and finished work of Jesus Christ over the cities and country.

How do I do that? It’s simply this, I get a map of the country and I declare the truth of these scriptures (Key prayer scriptures DOC) over each of the cities of the country.

I’ve been doing this for bout 4 years, ever since those first heady days of praying over the drought in Australia (see 2008-9 Prophecies and Miracles v2).

Here are two countries that need prayer at this time:

Egypt

28 November – Egypt ,Parliament 1st stage 1st round
5 December – Egypt, Parliament 1st stage 2nd round
14 December – Egypt, Parliament 2nd stage 1st round

Democratic Republic of Congo (Kinshasa)

28 November – Congo Kinshasa, Presidential 1st round and Parliamentary elections

Both are strongly on my heart. These are pivotal elections both both countries. Will they go forward or fall backward? This election will change the lives of tens of millions of people.

The Democratic Republic of Congo has millions of exiles who would like to return home. Egypt has a democratic revolution that has stalled and the army is attempting to entrench themselves as above democracy and with a budget which will be secret and not available to either parliament or the people.

You are the light of this world

Before you launch into prayer on behalf of these tens of millions of people, take a moment to remind yourself who Jesus Christ has made you to be, and how He told us to go about these things.

He taught us that apart from Him – His righteous life, His atoning death –  we can do nothing. But WITH HIM, we are…

“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. – Matt 5:14

WITH Him, it is our faith that overcomes the evil of this world. We do not need to choose sides, we just need to know that He HAS (past tense, on the cross) crushed the head of the serpent.

WITH Him…

I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” – Matt 17:20

In this more recent post The feast of Tabernacles, the end of captivity, Sabbath rest again I said that I felt that September through to October 20th would be pivotal. During that time the Occupy Wall Street movement sprang up.

Check out this live map showing the more than 1,000-1,500 locations of protest all around the world.

Look at the sudden spike in protests during September 2011

And it’s worth noting that Tea Party founder backs Occupy Wall Street.

If you are interested, here is the back story for OWS and Day of Rage (see US Day of Rage)

Tim Eastman, a photographer who took part largely out of curiosity but left at about 23:00, says he was wary of becoming involved in yet another “cliched” protest. ”It didn’t seem at first like it would become the sort of monster it became. It looked like it might peter out after a few days.” Like Mr Bray, he returned to the camp when it became clear it was taking off, and is still involved with the Occupy movement. - Occupy Wall Street: The story of the first night - By Brian Wheeler – BBC News, Washington

If you want to follow some of the protest organizations on Twitter go here, to follow the majority of them follow this list and this list (NOTE: each list can only have 500 members, so check if he has a third and fourth over time).

View the financial statistics behind the complaints.

What would Jesus do?

Much of the church is paralysed by teaching which demands that they submit meekly to authority figures and the desire to look good and not lose tithes etc. So… many churches probably not organising the protests – which is a pity since it’s our God given mandate to look after this world.

But Jesus wasn’t like that, was He? If you think He was, you haven’t read the bible!

So… what WOULD Jesus do?

An Occupy banner outside St. Paul's Cathedral in London

This movement is astonishing for one main reason… and any Christian should already be focussed on it. What is God’s one command? To love one another. What did Jesus say we would be known for? For our love for one another.

Here is a great article by Reuters covering the current position of many faiths on the Occupy movement.

There is a growing and very impressive list of published authors from all around the globe who have signed on to support the Occupy movement.

What’s it all about… really?

What is this movement known for? Let’s let Naomi Klein capture this historic movement…

Yesterday, one of the speakers at the labor rally said: “We found each other.”

That sentiment captures the beauty of what is being created here. A wide-open space (as well as an idea so big it can’t be contained by any space) for all the people who want a better world to find each other. We are so grateful.

…

That is what I see happening in this square. In the way you are feeding each other, keeping each other warm, sharing information freely and proving health care, meditation classes and empowerment training. My favorite sign here says “I care about you.” In a culture that trains people to avoid each other’s gaze, to say, “Let them die,” that is a deeply radical statement.

- Naomi Klein

Lessons from the life of Martin Luther

Back in 14th December 2008 it was already on my mind to share what happened when Martin Luther sparked change. Way back on the 31st December 2008 I wrote about the changes that I thought were coming – which we are seeing now.

Let me explain the danger. When Martin Luther spoke truth to power – the Catholic Church at the time – he spoke about the awful corruption of religion and the power and wealth illegally acquired by the elite. This Occupy movement speaks the same truth to power about the same issues. It is abhorrent that so few people have so much, while so many die of starvation.

How incredibly wonderful that a movement now has sprung up to recalibrate and rectify. However. What Martin Luther did not realise at that time was that the peasants (the 99%) would go on a rampage and destroy the property of the elite. As they did this they were using his words as their justification for their rampage. And when he then realised was happening, he said this was “the work of the devil” and the elites (the 1%) used his words as justification to crush the peasants – and obviously that was ALSO the work of the devil.

My point is this… while pursuing the objective of equality and justice and equity – the very things I wrote about and used Lady Liberty and the plaque on the side of that statue to prompt us to rethink the direction we are going.

And now, here we are, dictators falling in the middle east, economic tyrants falling under pressure in between 1,000 – 1,500 cities around the world. Apparent coups have occurred in the last few days in Italy and Greece with the EU putting their own un-elected people in leadership there.

So Martin Luther’s lessons looms large to me.

Here’s what matters

Let me quote Naomi Klein again…

A few final thoughts. In this great struggle, here are some things that don’t matter.

- What we wear.
- Whether we shake our fists or make peace signs.
- Whether we can fit our dreams for a better world into a media soundbite.

And here are a few things that do matter.

- Our courage.
- Our moral compass. 
- How we treat each other. 

- Naomi Klein

Wow. Look at that… the key is to have a moral compass and to take note of how we treat each other. Not a word about money or amassing wealth or greed

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. - 1 Timothy 6:10

An ongoing struggle against corruption

But you know… this is not the first time that love emerged as a powerful force during human history.

• Jesus Christ peacefully confronted the Jewish establishment who were profiteering from religion, He asserted that we must help the poor and love one another and that His followers would be known for doing the same

Many other Christians (and non-Christians) have also overcome evil with non-violent behaviour…

• Martin Luther was a German priest who peacefully confronted the Catholic Church (which to it’s credit has issued a statement that the gap between rich and poor must be narrowed).
• Ghandi peacefully confronted a global political power and the result was two nations – India and Pakistan – were born and could determine their own identity and future.
• Martin Luther King Jnr was a Baptist minister peacefully confronted political power and the result was civil rights for all races.
• Archbishop Desmond Tutu is an Anglican priest who campaigned peacefully for change in South Africa.

All of this change came peacefully.

The science of war leads one to dictatorship, pure and simple. The science of non-violence alone can lead one to pure democracy…Power based on love is thousand times more effective and permanent than power derived from fear of punishment. – Ghandi

Naomi Klein again…

Something else this movement is doing right: You have committed yourselves to non-violence. You have refused to give the media the images of broken windows and street fights it craves so desperately.

And that tremendous discipline has meant that, again and again, the story has been the disgraceful and unprovoked police brutality. Which we saw more of just last night. Meanwhile, support for this movement grows and grows. More wisdom. - Naomi Klein

I urge all people involved in bringing a new sanity to this world to renounce violence, because we will lose the high moral ground and provoke a reaction. History shows that change CAN and WILL  occur peacefully.

“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall — think of it, always.” – Ghandi

The New York times recently wrote an excellent piece: The New Progressive Movement. In this article it shows how – over time – citizens have had to confront this same malaise of greed and power, each time winning more and more ground…

The first age of inequality was the Gilded Age at the end of the 19th century, an era quite like today, when both political parties served the interests of the corporate robber barons. The progressive movement arose after the financial crisis of 1893. In the following decades Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson came to power, and the movement pushed through a remarkable era of reform: trust busting, federal income taxation, fair labor standards, the direct election of senators and women’s suffrage.

The second gilded age was the Roaring Twenties. The pro-business administrations of Harding, Coolidge and Hoover once again opened up the floodgates of corruption and financial excess, this time culminating in the Great Depression. And once again the pendulum swung. F.D.R.’s New Deal marked the start of several decades of reduced income inequality, strong trade unions, steep top tax rates and strict financial regulation.

In both of those renewals, the change came peacefully. Let us learn from history.

The supremacy of non-violent love

Naomi Klein puts it in perspective…

We have picked a fight with the most powerful economic and political forces on the planet. That’s frightening. And as this movement grows from strength to strength, it will get more frightening.

Always be aware that there will be a temptation to shift to smaller targets – like, say, the person sitting next to you at this meeting. After all, that is a battle that’s easier to win.

Don’t give in to the temptation. I’m not saying don’t call each other on shit. But this time, let’s treat each other as if we plan to work side by side in struggle for many, many years to come. Because the task before will demand nothing less.

Let’s treat this beautiful movement as if it is most important thing in the world. Because it is. It really is.

Did Mohamed Bouazizi have any clue at all what he would unleash when he burned himself to death in Tunisia on 17 December 2010? There is no way that he could have known this action would result in such enormous change to the world we live in.

The last word goes to Naomi:

“Why are they protesting?” ask the baffled pundits on TV. Meanwhile, the rest of the world asks: “What took you so long?” “We’ve been wondering when you were going to show up.” - Naomi Klein

I recently looked at a tumblr (offline PNG version – 4MB) and was stunned by the depth of the sadness that this person appears to feel.

Is everyone not ok? It seems like it. I don’t think this is something new… I think that it’s just now with facebook, twitter and tumblr (etc.) that we are able to see what has always been under the surface.

People are suffering.

And what does God have to say about the pain in this world? I think that is a fair question, don’t you? And it’s a question I would like to answer – from the bible.

My story

Let me take a moment to talk about me so you can see where I have come from – and its not too different from where that person is who wrote that tumblr (offline PNG version- 4MB). If you read my post: What to do when you are feeling empty inside, you will know that I have felt those feelings.

I’m not proud of it, but I will admit that I’ve done many of the wrong things in order to try and make myself feel better. Drugs. Sex. Travel. Marriage. Religion. Worship. I’ve tried many things to try and fix myself. Yes I tried to fix myself using worship. It didn’t work.

As I’ve written many times in this blog, none of it worked. No, religion did NOT work. Get over it.  :)

Emo

This outpouring of emotional sadness and low self esteem that people call “emo”. Is all this venting of sadness helpful? Is it healthy? Is it harmful to the person sharing it? Is it harmful to society to become aware of how awful so many people feel?

I think it’s honest. Emo is short for “emotions”. Emotions are not bad.

But when I look at that tumblr (offline PNG version- 4MB), I get a feeling that what pornography is to hurt men, this stuff might be for some hurt women. I think it may be an emotional trap that people – particularly women – can get caught into. It can be like an addiction. More. More. More.

Honesty is good. Being honest about how you feel inside and how you see yourself is a good thing. But in the emo culture there is no way out, no hope, no solution provided. Hip hop lyrics also expressed hopelessness, but it was a positive message of hope, that through hip hop things can get better. But the emo culture seems to have no hope at all. Some people seem to just wallow in sadness, making a home of sadness, making an identity out of it.

I think it’s great that people are honest and they express the depth of their need, but don’t make a lifestyle and an identity out of it. Let me explain why not.

Take a look at the image below. Is this lady below a monster? I know she says she feels like that, but look at her… IS she a monster? No.

Someone feeling empty inside and worthless... broken

Just because this person is admitting to how they feel, doesn’t mean that IS their value.

God’s advice to you

You see, while this world may not think much of you, I can tell you that God thinks a LOT about you.

This is God’s advice to you and me…

Do not conform to the pattern of this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. – Rom 12:2

Religion tells you that God is angry with you. But the bible says this…

For God so loved the world
that he gave his one and only Son,
that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. – John 3:16

While this world send you messages about your value as a woman or a man in a hundred tv adverts and billboard messages each day… all of them telling you that you need some medication, you need to be thinner, you need to be more in control, you need more money etc.

So let me ask you… how thin is thin enough? Should this woman (below) really be worrying about her weight?

How thin is thin enough?

And all of that doesn’t help you, it just tells you that you are not ok as you are.

And we know we are not ok as we are. That’s the truth, isn’t it? Look at how many songs are called “Im not ok”. I did a search here http://www.elyrics.net/find.php for songs named “Im not ok” and found 3208. Wow.

But you know what? I’m not in denial about that. I know who I am when God isn’t holding me up. I’m an addicted mess. Without Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, I would be right back where He found me… and even worse off by now. I’m a sinner, ungodly and an enemy of God… just as the bible says.

Do you want to change?

I wanted to change. And Jesus Christ has changed me. And God accepts me. And now I have His Holy Spirit with me, holding me up, healing me, guiding me, changing me.

Holy Spirit holding me up

When I listened to what the world around me says about me, I felt like sh*t.

NOW I believe what God says about me and I see potential and courage and dreams and hopes.

I have healed, I’ve changed. I’m stronger. I’m healthier. I’m a better man. I’m a better person.

In future I’ll be a better husband and a great dad.

What about you?

Through Jesus Christ, the bible says that you are the bride of Jesus Christ.

Do you know how men feel about their bride? Take a look at the man next time you are at a wedding. He can’t take his eyes off his bride!

The bible says that Jesus Christ sees His bride  - that’s you and me – as beautiful.

He helps her dress in pure white clothing.

God says that His bride’s walls (her safety) is always before Him (in His thoughts).

Did you know that your name is written on God’s hand?

Yes, I have great worth in His eyes. You have great worth in His eyes.

It doesn’t matter to Him if you are not a Hollywood star or have never been on a magazine cover, but in the eyes of Jesus Christ, you are worth His life!

That’s why I have taken the time to write over 1,027 blog posts to try and explain that to everyone and so far 670,000 people have visited and I hope some of them have got the message.

Left to myself, my nature is awful. And it’s like this for most people. Let’s not kid around. LOOK at the world. Switch on your tv and watch the news! We rape, we fight, we are greedy, we grab oil and we loot cities and countries.

But when we come to Him, He redeems us, He shows us that we have value. He makes us His own children and shares what He has with us.

Jesus speaks lovingly about how God feels about the sparrows and the lilies of the field – and then He says to us that we are worth MUCH MORE than them!

Believe what He says!

Your life so far might have been awful. Perhaps people treated you like trash, like rubbish. Perhaps those who should have loved you, instead told you awful things about yourself. Their words should have given you warmth inside but instead it left you cold inside.

Don’t listen to them any more. Come to Jesus Christ and receive the Holy Spirit as your helper… and begin to discover that God loves us and He sees the worth we have. And then learn that He wants us to see our own value. He wants us to believe the words He says about us.

God’s ways are not our ways

If you have lived an isolated life in order to protect yourself, you will probably find God’s ways strange and unexpected.

You might be wondering “what is He doing?” a lot of the time.

I will tell you what He is doing. Are you ready? Got a pen and a paper handy?

Here it is. Drum roll please.

• He is building a family for Himself – to be around for eternity. 
• He is building a bride for His Son Jesus Christ - to be around for eternity.
• He is gathering the isolated sheep (who are lonely and vulnerable) back into the fold of sheep that are being loved and protected by Him.
• He is healing and cleaning up and bringing back to life the people who come to Him for help.

The bible confirms that we must take care of ourselves and take care of one another. We are all precious in His sight which why Paul prays that our eyes will become enlightened to see the potential that we have when we are united to Jesus Christ.

Do you know what happens? We become changed… we become God’s very own children! But yes, His ways are so different to our world and so different to what we have learned, that it can be quite confusing if we aren’t taught by people who have His heart.

He wants us to grow

The bible says that we can only love others in the measure that we love ourselves. Why is that? Because…

• If I have no regard for my own personal safety, then I will have no regard for your safety.
• If I do not care for my own emotions, I will not care for your emotions.
• If I do not see myself as precious in His eyes, I will not see you as precious in His eyes.

To take care of ourselves we might need to learn a LOT of new skills, for example what are good boundaries and how to place limits on other people’s behaviour. I share about this kind of thing in my post: Your personal bill of rights.

According to YOUR faith

If you come to Him, through His Son Jesus Christ, be prepared to learn and grow and change and heal. He won’t leave you as you are – broken, alone, sad. No. He will encourage you to make something of yourself. It happens slowly, at the pace set by YOU. So… fast… slow… you decide. It all depends on what you believe Jesus Christ has done for you.

Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that moment. – Matt 8:13

Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith let it be done to you” – Matt 9:29

Then Jesus answered her, O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you wish. And her daughter was cured from that moment. – Matt 15:28

According to WHOSE faith? YOUR faith. And don’t worry, you might not have much faith, but with the help of the Holy Spirit that can and will change. I am a living testimony to the power of God working through one person’s faith. He did it through me, He can do it through you.

God is perfect and Jesus Christ said on the cross “it is finished”. Now it’s us who have the speed limit in our faith – and God sent the Holy Spirit to help us grow in our faith in Jesus Christ.

Not pride

My writing is NOT to encourage self-idolatry or pride. In fact I doubt that anyone reading this blog has that problem. Instead the bible says…

think of yourself with sober judgment - Rom 12:4

and that is what I am encouraging. Sober judgement… not too high and not too low.

Not too high, not too low

Think of yourself with sober judgement… not too highly (proud, pompous) and not too lowly (worthless, devalued, hopeless).

Believe!

You know what you can and can’t do in your own strength. Now let’s see what you can do through the power of what Jesus Christ did for you on the cross and through His Holy Spirit within you.

Believe what God says He can make out of you.

Believe what Jesus Christ said when He walked this earth. Believe the kind things that the Holy Spirit says about your potential when He whispers to you.

Now, recently, I have been feeling to pray for Saudi Arabia. I don’t know when the prayer will begin, so I’m just putting this out there as a heads up

Hajj is expected to fall between November 4-9, 2011 depending on the lunar stage of the moon.

Saudi Arabian Cities

Joshua Project - Ethnic People Groups of Saudi Arabia

1. The Global Floods – part 2 (10 October 2010) – Spiritual focus
2. Increasing peace (10 October 2010) – Natural focus

First post: Scripture says that rain is/can be a sign of God’s increasing Presence in the word.
Second post: Shows the changes in this world from a natural point of view… increasing peace and change.

Back in 2009 I blogged that I believed that God was saying that the world would be coming into a time of peace – and He would bring it to pass.

I wrote these two blogs…

• An end to conflicts and revival (19 May 2009)
• An end to conflicts and revival… (17 Sept 2009) – “it’s … 4 months later. So how are things going?”

I began to blog the changes as they occured. Initially I wrote many posts on single changes such as Iraq, Afghanistan and the DRC. Those were big changes.

(I also wrote about the breaking of the drought in Australia and the ending of the Hurricane season in the Pacific during one specific year when things were going haywire. All of that is documented on this blog and I won’t rehash it here.)

Then things began to speed up and I began to write posts containing lists of places that were changing. instead of 5 posts about one change, it was 1 post with 5 changes!

Like this post:

• More good news… an end to conflicts too! Violence has also greatly diminished,  or disappeared completely, in places like Sri Lanka, Iraq, Nepal, Chechnya,  Congo, Indonesia and Burundi.

Where are we now?

Well… do you want the good news… or the good news? In addition to the places listed above…

Violence has greatly diminished,  or disappeared completely, in places like  Chad, Haiti, Nigeria, Ivory Coast. – Strategy Page

The war in Somalia has not stopped, but there has been a big change and aid agencies are able to get in and feed people. This change came IMMEDIATELY after God moved His people to pray for Somalia.

“MOGADISHU — African Union and Somali government forces on Monday seized strategic positions from Islamist insurgents in an offensive to flush out the last pockets of rebellion in Mogadishu.” – ReliefWeb

US troops are withdrawing from Iraq and Afghanistan. These are no longer “long wars” that will take multiple-generations to fight.

“Arab Spring” democratic movements

The list of countries that have entered into democracy – in one form or another – or whose citizens are clamoring for freedoms and democracy, is astonishing. These include at the time of writing:  Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Syria, Yemen, Israel, Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Morocco,Oman, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Western Sahara – according to this Arab Spring post from Wikipedia.

“Occupy” democratic 2.0 movements

Even in existing democracies there is a movement to greatly enhance existing democracy. In September 2011 a new movement broke out in the US. At this time of writing there are protest movements in 492 cities and I have no doubt that we are seeing the seeds of something entirely new being established in those democracies. I call it Democracy 2.0 (or Democracy+)

Here are two links that give you the back story of how it suddenly got started…

• Anti-Wall Street protests take off thanks to a Canadian idea – ROD MICKLEBURGH
• “This is just practice”—the story of the Wall Street occupation - by Nathan Schneider

“In a matter of weeks, Occupy Wall Street has grown from a small group of protesters squatting in New York’s Zuccotti Park to a national movement,” Mr. Olbermann said on his program Tuesday night. “Support from organized labor and progressive groups is increasing by the day, while the protesters — who were once sneered at by most national media and The New York Times — are now part of the testimony on Capitol Hill, part of the conversation on the campaign trail, and part of the calculations on Wall Street.” – NY Times

1) Wars ending 2) Increased turmoil 3) Less wars starting

So there is an increase in turmoil in the world and if we view the Wikipedia map of ongoing conflicts…

Ongoing Conflicts 2011

NOTE: I don’t think that Wikipedia map is correct?! It lists western Sahara as a conflict zone, but this Wikipedia article says there is a cease fire with no major disturbances. That is confirmed by this report written just 4 days ago.

I take encouragement that “only” 4 new wars have started so far in 2011… and if we look at the list, 3 of them are “Arab Spring” uprisings. These are not classic insurgencies or sectarian violence. The 4th is the South Kordofan Conflict within Sudan’s oil-rich area.

1. The Global Floods – part 2 (10 October 2010) – Spiritual focus
2. Increasing peace (10 October 2010) – Natural focus

First post: Scripture says that rain is/can be a sign of God’s increasing Presence in the word.
Second post: Shows the changes in this world from a natural point of view… increasing peace and change.

On 30 August 201o I wrote the post: The Global Floods. In that post I reminded that I believed that during 2008 God had said to  me

“Now will I arise,” says the LORD. “Now will I be exalted; now will I be lifted up. – Is 33:10

and in this post I wrote:

On Weds 29 Oct 2008 I prayed for Australia (as usual) and amongst many things I felt, I particularly felt Is 44:3-6 which is:

For I will pour water upon him who is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground.

and in that same post I wrote

Is 45:8 Let fall in showers, you heavens, from above, and let the skies rain down righteousness

and also in that post I again quote Isaiah

In these verses God basically says the same thing FOUR times – and issues a challenge to bear witness to it when it comes to pass!

1) You have heard [these things foretold], now you see this fulfillment. And will you not bear witness to it?

2) I show you specified new things from this time forth, even hidden things [kept in reserve] which you have not known.

3) They are created now [called into being by the prophetic word], and not long ago; and before today you have never heard of them, lest you should say, Behold, I knew them!

4) Yes, you have never heard, yes, you have never known; yes, from of old your ear has not been opened. – Is 48:6-8

Have those things come to pass?

Was there rain and floods? I’ve documented the rain and floods of 2008-2009 Australia extensively, so I won’t go into that again. But the change is beyond just Australia. It’s all over the world.

Scrolling through just this one page shows me the intensity of what people living far away from me are experiencing in 2010. I know and can see in those pictures that there has been a devastating economic cost to countries and there has been loss of life through the inundation. That is the downside and it is a terribly sad aspect to what is happening.

NASA says that in 2010 it rained so hard that the ocean levels fell.  In NASA’s report, worldwide rainfall and snowfall were so extreme, in so many places last year, that sea levels fell dramatically. (Link: NASA report)

It rained so hard the sea levels dropped

And 2011?

“The year 2010 was one the worst years in world history for high-impact floods. But just three weeks into the new year, 2011 has already had an entire year’s worth of mega-floods. “ –Meteorologist Jeff Masters (link to full article)

So did those words come to pass? Let’s recap. On Weds 29 Oct 2008 I shared that I believed that  God said that He would 1) let fall in showers, 2) pour floods on the ground and 3) let the skies rain down. Did that happen? Did it come to pass?

• “Nothing will be impossible for you” – Jesus Christ (October 2011)
• Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you HAVE received it (October 2011)
• How does faith work? (Nov 2006)

You have heard this teaching by Jesus Christ…

Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?“

He said to them, “Because of your little faith.

Look again… why could they not cast it out? Because of their little faith. Their “little faith” was the problem.

For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” – Mat 17:19-20

I often hear people teaching that a small faith like a mustard seed is all we need. Really? Is that what Jesus Christ taught us? He taught that the PROBLEM was that we have a little faith. It’s not desirable, it’s a problem!

NOTE: Do you know what a mustard seed and a mustard tree looks like, click to see.

In Albert Barnes Commentary he says this…

It has been supposed by some, therefore, that he meant to say, If you have the smallest or feeblest faith that is genuine, you can do all things…

It has been supposed by others… to mean, if you have increasing, expanding, enlarged faith, growing and strengthening from small beginnings, you can perform the most difficult undertaking… this is probably the true meaning.

Who plants the seed?

Now let’s take a look at a second parable that Jesus taught about mustard seeds.

He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows - Matt 13:31-32

Now here is the first thing I’d like you to take on board… who plants the seed? God or you? Jesus said: “a man took and planted in his field”. You see, God offers you the seed… for example when you read about Jesus Christ or while reading the bible or as your worship or listen to sermons etc.

But who plants it? You do!

Now we need to figure out – scripturally – how to make our faith grow big. It starts out small, but we need it to grow big

Do you meet the pre-conditions?

First, let’s take a look… have we met the pre-conditions to be able to ask for anything and receive it? Wait. What? There are pre-conditions?

When Jesus and Paul taught about being absolutely garuanteed to receive whatever we ask for they both said that these teachings are for people who are doing the will of God, those who please God.

Ok, so what is the will of God, or what pleases Him? Three scriptures come to mind…

1. Someone asked Jesus Christ “what shall we do, to do the will of God?” and He answered: to believe in the One that He (God) sent“. THAT is the will of God, or as that verse says “the work of God that He desires”. Another verse says that whoever really believes in Jesus Christ WILL love one another as a result. We show our faith by our works. What God wants is faith… and true faith will result in changed behaviour… love for one another.
2. Jesus Christ also said we should FIRST seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. If you confess and believe that you are IN Jesus Christ and He is IN you… then you are righteous in God’s eyes. Done and dusted. According to Rom 5:21 God’s grace and favor now reign over you, influencing all aspects of your life. But you have to believe, in order to receive. His influence will undoubtedly result in changes to your life as you become more like Him.
3. Without faith it is impossible to please God. Or, conversely, WITH faith in what God says about Jesus Christ you ARE pleasing God.

If any of these 3 descriptions match you, then you meet the criteria to be able to ask and receive.  :)

Let’s plant a seed!

So… are you ready? Based on Luke 8:4-15 which is the parable of the sower, let’s learn how to plant a seed and get it to grow into a big tree.

Wait… remind me… who plants it? God or…

v5 “A farmer went out to sow his seed…

v8 other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.”

Ok, so you plant it. And it has to fall onto good soil. We will need to find out what is a seed and what is good soil.

A few verses later Jesus Christ explains the meaning of the parable…

v11 “This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God.

So what we need to do is “plant” the word of God. What is the word of God? It’s two things. One thing is scripture. The other thing is Jesus Christ Himself, because HE IS the Word of God (see John 1:1).

I tend to plant both… scriptures about Jesus Christ AND scriptures that describe the promises Jesus Christ spoke over us all (His followers).

For example, Jesus Christ said we can ask for anything. I believe that. BY confessing that with my mouth and believing that in my heart, I’m planting that seed, it will grow.

How to get a seed to grow into a big tree

Now let’s refocus back onto what Jesus Christ taught about planting a seed of scripture and how it grows…

v12 the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.

¹³ Those on the rocky ground are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away.

¹⁴ The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature.

Take note that Jesus Christ says: “They believe for a while”. The thing to note is that time passes.

Jesus also makes a very very important point… it takes time for the seed to “mature” (see v14).

Over time the seed – the scripture or the promise – is stolen. We forget. We lose courage. It’s taken away from us “as they go on their way”. Scriptural promises – like health and unbroken fellowship with God – can be killed of or taken away… sometimes life’s worries or riches or pleasure, or by testing.

You have bags and bags of seed!

You have lots of seeds at your disposal!

Just think of the potential! EVERY promise God EVER made is YES in Jesus Christ. But unless we plant it and protect it as it grows, it never matures. Think… we may never actually GET it.

This is one of the things that drives me nutty about Christians. Why are we so content with so little? Is it because we are blissfully unaware of the promises about Him in the OT?

Why aren’t we more upset at the unnecessary state of the world? Why aren’t we upset that we don’t have their full inheritance? When we see a promise in the bible, why don’t we immediately plant it and tend it and help it grow into a massive tree?

Each and every one of us has a bag FULL of seeds. Why are we content with seeds? Shouldn’t we be growing them into a massive forest of trees?

From the tiniest seed into a massive tree!

Three things we must do

It’s terribly important to be aware that we do three things…

1. Plant a scripturally-based promise… and there are SO MANY since every promise is YES in Jesus Christ
2. Keep believing, every day, all day, despite life’s challenges and even testing
3. Keep believing until that seed (the promise which is planted under ground and out of sight) matures into a big tree

Abram protected the promise too!

Do you know that the bible says we are to have the same faith that Abram did? He simply believed God’s words, and it was counted to Abram as righteousness. In that same way we simply believe God’s words about His Son, Jesus Christ and when we do that, we are counted righteousness.

Well… when God was making a covenant with Abram because of Abram’s faith in believing God… do you know what Abram did? Abram cut the sacrifices in half so that God could walk between them… this was the way they made covenants at that time. But what did Abram do? Look…

And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. – Gen 15:9-11

You see, Abram’s role was much like ours, to believe His words and then to protect what is about to happen. It had not happened yet, but Abram believed it would and he protected it. I’m not going to try and stress this point too much. It’s meaningful to me to see that Jesus says we must safe-guard the seed – God’s promises – and to see that Abram safe-guarded the covenant God was making with him.

Why grow a tree?

Earlier I emphasized the aspect of love. This is not just about collecting goodies for ourselves.

Do you remember in the movie “Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader” when they came to Deathwater Island where they could have anything they wanted? Some chose food, some got entrapped by gold.

Deathwater Island - desire temptation

If you really grasp that you can grow any seed into a tree, then please take this to heart… scripture says…

³¹He put another parable before them, saying, ”The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. ³²It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree,

so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” - Matt 13:31-32

Do you see? We plant in our fields SO THAT we can bless others. We are not denying ourselves, but our goal is to love others.

“HOLY”
Kim Walker-Smith
(Jesus Culture, album: CONSUMED 2009)

Just one look – on Your face
Just one glance – of Your eye
My whole world – is changed
My whole world – is changed

Oh I seek, only to see Your Face
I don’t want to go anywhere
without You God, without Your Presence
Oh let me see Your Face
The beauty of Your Holiness, God
Take me into the Holy Place

And only one word comes to mind
There’s only one word, to describe
And only one word comes to mind
There’s only one word, to describe
HO-LY
HO-LY
LORD GOD ALMIGHTY
HO-LY
HO-LY
LORD GOD ALMIGHTY

And only one word comes to mind
There’s only one word, to describe
And only one word comes to mind
There’s only one word, to describe
(just one)
And only one word comes to mind

There’s only one word, to describe
And only one word comes to mind
There’s only one word, to describe
HO-LY
HO-LY
LORD GOD ALMIGHTY
HO-LY
HO-LY
LORD GOD ALMIGHTY

(yes)
There is
No one
Like You
You are
Holy
HO-O-O-LY
(You are yes)
There is
No one
Like You
You are
Holy
HO-O-O-LY
(ye-ah)

HO-LY
HO-LY
(yea)
LORD GOD ALMIGHTY
(You Reign)
HO-LY
HO-LY
(yea)
LORD GOD ALMIGHTY
(yea, yeah)

We join with all of Heaven singing
Holy, Holy
Holy, Holy
Holy, Holy
(yeah)
Take Us In
Take Us In
Take Us In
Tonight
(Ohh, Ohh, yeah)

HO-LY
HO-LY
LORD GOD ALMIGHTY
HO-LY
HO-LY
LORD GOD ALMIGHTY

Take us into the Holy Place
Take us into the Holy Place
Tonight
Take us into the Holy Place
Take us into the Holy Place
Tonight

Purify Our Hearts
Purify Our Hearts
Purify Our Hearts God
(ohh)
Let the flame of Your Heart
Become the flame upon our heart tonight God
(ohh)
Take us in

There is
No one
Like You
You are
Holy
HO-O-O-LY
There is
No one
Like You
You are
Holy
HO-O-O-LY

(hmmm, hmmm, ye-eahh)

*worshipers worshiping… singing*
That’s right, just sing out in your own words, just sing out in your own words
*HOLY chorus*
(oh..)

Let us be a generation
Marked with Holiness
Oh, a generation
of people who know Your Love
who know Your Holiness God
Carriers of Your Presence
Carriers of Your Presence God

A generation marked by Your Love
Generation – purified -set apart
Holy Unto You God

(Holy)
HO-LY
HO-LY
LORD GOD ALMIGHTY
HO-LY
HO-LY
LORD GOD ALMIGHTY

• God wants to take them into the wildnerness
• God wants them to come aside
• God wants them to be alone with Him
• God wants them to be isolated for a while

If that is you, then bear with me as we explore if this is God or not.

One of the best ways to figure out if something is God or not, is to study scripture. We agree that scripture contains the words of God and God does not contradict Himself. So let’s look at some scriptures to get a feeling for when God might call someone aside.

Is God Himself isolated?

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. – Gen 1:1

That word which we translate “God” in the Hebrew is ’ĕlôhı̂ym and in the Strongs Concordance it is H430 and it is a plural word. So the 4th word in the English bible is describing God in terms of being a plurality.

Which explains why He says “let US make man in OUR image”, also plural words.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” – Gen 1:26

That’s why we say God-Father, God-Son, God-Holy Spirit. They are individuals, but are so closely knit together in community that Jesus Christ said of His Father that they are “One”.

And Jesus Christ’s connection to us is also a mystery, which the bible compares to a marriage.

For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is very great, but I speak concerning [the relation of] Christ and the church. – Eph 5:31-32

In marriage two separate people choose to become one flesh. I once read a rabbi’s writing where he described intimate love in this way:  he wrote that when a husband and wife are being intimate and it’s a real and deep and meaningful connection, to them it feels like their skin is getting in the way. What a wonderful image!

They (God) are in submission to One another, and yet they are equal. Their connection is so close that Jesus said if you have seen Him (Jesus) then you have seen the Father. They are equal and yet Jesus says the Father is greater than He is – the is the humility They share toward each other.

It’s all wonderfully confusing and intimate and connected.

Is God isolated or surrounded by others?

In the prophetic books of the bible people see visions of Heaven. They see a wide variety of creatures surrounding His throne, and God interacts with countless millions of angels, plus He has elders.

God gives out crowns and people love Him so much that they willingly throw their crowns down at His feet!

So what I am saying is, God is not isolated, He is surrounded by those Whom He loves and Who love Him!

Does God isolate people or connect them?

Jesus taught this parable

Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ – Luke 15:3-6

God doesn’t just save the one sheep and leave it alone, but He connects that one sheep into the flock of 99 other sheep who He also found.

In the prodigal son story the father rejoices when his son comes home and throws a feast and re-integrates his son back into the family. The other son gets upset, but that doesn’t stop the father from creating a larger family again.

God is all about building a family! Right now He is preparing rooms in His house for us.

Who wants us to be isolated?

Let me say that it is the enemy who wants us to be isolated. He walks around like a roaring lion. Do you know why a lion roars? Because it scares the herd of buck and they scatter, leaving one or two alone, so he can pick them off.

Are there instances of God isolating people?

For a while God took Elijah to the Cherith Brook, but only for a while and then He took Elijah to the widow’s house. Having Elijah with her blessed her, as it blessed him too.

When Jesus went into the wilderness, He was led by the Holy Spirit. He always had a very real communion with God. So He wasn’t totally alone. And when He went into the wilderness, He knew it was a time of testing and He was willing to go through it. It was for 40 days. It wasn’t years, it wasn’t alone and it wasn’t without a defined reason and goal.

Moses left Egypt to go for 40 years to tend sheep in Saudi Arabia. Was he alone there for 40 years? Probably not, since he got married and got to know the locals.

Joseph was thrown into jail for at least 2 years before he began to interpret for Potiphars but after that he was taken into Potiphar’s own house for 9 years and then promoted and made overseer of Egypt.

The big picture

The bible begins with a perfect marriage before the fall, before sin, between Adam and Eve.

And it ends with a perfect marriage… between Jesus Christ and His bride – the church, all of us who believe in Him.

Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. – Rev 21:9-11

Just pause for a moment. This whole story, the fall of mankind, the rescue at the cross… it’s all a love story written in Heaven. The story begins and ends with a perfect romantic marriage.

In between its all about an intimate connection with us

And between the beginning and the end, in the middle bits, God is protecting His people – sometimes violently – and He is desiring they to trust His words. He is encouraging them, and warning them. He says clearly that He prefers the intimate tent that David had when David sang and danced before Him, rather than the big expensive house of cedar up on the impressive hill.

Church is meant to be like a warm family

So I think the evidence is in! Scripture is that it is possible that God is calling you into a wilderness, but it would only be a for a short time and for a defined purpose that you have agreed to.

However, scripture shows clearly with overwhelming evidence that God is relational and He wants us to be in relationship with Himself AND with one another. That’s why He gave us so much advice on how to behave towards one another.

God sets the lonely in families – Ps 68:6

Church is meant to be like a family, that’s why the bible says that a person who leads a church should already have been a husband and have had a family. Why? Because it’s really good practice!

My point is… God is not isolated. He is in an extremely intimate community. And we are made in  His image – so therefore we will work best in an intimate community too! This is why a massive glamorous modern church can leave you both feeling excited AND feeling empty at the same time. So many people, but so little intimate connection.

Getting into a small warm intimate home group is often a better way to go for some people. Jesus had a “home group” of Himself and 12 disciples!

Words of caution… boundaries and safety

Now let’s be careful. Let’s take another look at this verse…

God sets the lonely in families – Ps 68:6

Is it just any old family? Will any old relationship do? What if the people are abusive? What if the church I am going to leaves me empty and I don’t feel loved?

By far THE most important thing to understand about emotional healing is that it was a lack of healthy relationships that resulted in us getting hurt. And it’s the restoration of healthy relationships that heals us – and then keeps us healthy.

The key word there is “healthy”.

• “Nothing will be impossible for you” – Jesus Christ (October 2011)
• Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you HAVE received it (October 2011)
• How does faith work? (Nov 2006)

This is a story about some aspects of my journey over the last few years. Don’t gloss over this post, as it contains what I consider to be significant breakthrough that will help anyone progress in their Christian walk. The fruit is there for all to see in my life.

I’m not perfect, but I’ve come a long way and this post explains the major milestones of my journey in the last few years.

Learning to break darkness through Jesus Christ

Going back to around 2007 God was showing me various scriptures. He gave me great insight into what Jesus Christ did on the cross and in His resurrection to the right hand of God. I wrote many posts about this process of discovery on this blog.

During that time I had the pleasure of seeing great miracles in Australia and in various countries and situations around the world. Most of that is documented on this blog too. I am delighted by how God used me and all the fun stuff I got to be involved in.

But the thing is, despite having a very clear understanding of how to practically break darkness and see it manifestly retreat from a physical location and out of a person’s life, I was not prospering and living an abundant life. I had assumed that would naturally happen. But it wasn’t.

For others too!

I met people and showed them how to speak out the truth of what Jesus Christ has done for them and then when speaking to them later I’d find out that darkness had retreated from them completely. But they still struggled in other areas, for example with a lack of income. The darkness was broken but blessing had not come to them. I could not understand it, but I persisted.

Let me clarify that again so it’s 100% clear what we are investigating.

By believing what the bible says Jesus did for me, the darkness had fled from me. I was sleeping well. My dreams became enjoyable, sometimes I even woke up laughing. Oppression was completely defeated. Any spiritual warfare I got into I would win very very easily. My own personal addictions were decreasing rapidly. And yet… in Australia my business failed and I lost my visa to be in Australia and I lost my pets, my loved ones and many other people (and hopes) that I held dear.

Let me say it again, darkness had been broken through Jesus Christ on the cross, there was no doubt about that. But I personally was not flourishing. Where was the abundant life? It was nowhere to be seen!

I stuck at it!

Now… if you have been a regular reader over the years, you know I am stubborn when it comes to God and Jesus Christ… you know I don’t give up when God has said something. So… during the last two years (2009-2011) I just kept hammering away at those scriptures despite me running out of everything and often having nothing.

I pressed into the things Paul spoke about, such as…

• To count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
• To count all things as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him,
• To have a righteousness that comes through faith in Christ,
• To know him and the power of his resurrection
• To attain the resurrection from the dead (here in this life, already)
• To press on to make these things my own
• To forget what lies behind and strain forward to what lies ahead
• To press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God IN Christ Jesus

Then one day…

Then one day, in a prayer session God told me to ask for something for a friend of mine who was having a hard time. She makes toadstool chairs. So I asked for some things for her, and she got them right away! But somehow I just couldn’t apply that to me. Perhaps I thought it was not for me. Or perhaps… to be honest… I really don’t know why I could not just ask and believe.

I was intensely believing these other scriptures, but I somehow did not see the way for me to believe for things for myself. So I kept believing those scriptures that God had shown me.

I was relentless. And yet I went through such barrenness. My income was sporadic at best. I often ate bread with spread or toast and tomatoes. We only had hot water for one hour every two days. These last two years were awful from that perspective. Before that I had gone from having so much money that I could bless many people, to having almost none or at times none.

Why wasn’t it working?

I couldn’t understand it… I was spending SO MUCH time in prayer, I was SO dedicated, I was seeing such great things happen, God was SO real to me… He showed me His heart… He changed me right around. My journals are full of God’s words to me. People prophesied to me.

But still… where was the abundance? Jesus Christ came to give us life and life abundantly, right? But I just couldn’t seem to grab hold of all that He had for me. And yet I was convinced…

the LORD is upright and faithful to His promises: He is my Rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him. – Psa 92:15 (AMP)

As a side note… I think my stubbornness (to struggle with a problem over many YEARS until I master it and am able to teach it to others so that it works for them) is very typical of people with my gifting. We hear from God and then we cannot and will not deviate. And I guess my dedication probably can also drive other people crazy. I prefer to suffer for years rather than give up and not get my inheritance. Hehehe.

But anyway… back to the story… I was very confused. So much dedication, so much prayer, so much believing what Jesus Christ has done for me. And nada, no income. My shoes ran out. I lost weight and walked around in clothing that was 4 sizes too big for me.

Learning to have a different kind of faith

Then earlier this year God began to prepare me to move from my home. And He told me that September was going to be a big month. And indeed it has been if you look at the world stage. But also for me too. And much more recently He gave me a dream in which I was forced from the place I was staying. And lo and behold I was forced out from there, quite suddenly, on a Saturday night.

So picture this… I was out, with a single bag, a blanket and no money at all. I had a phone, but no airtime (credit). What would I do? I had no option but to ask God for what I needed. And then the scripture “believe you have received” (Mark 11:24) came to mind.

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. - Mark 11:24

And so… I decided to believe that I had received.

There are other verses that back this up. For example: faith is the SUBSTANCE of the things hoped for. And walk by faith not by SIGHT (what you can see). Jesus Christ said “be of good cheer I HAVE MADE the world safe for you”. And in Revelations He said “I HAVE made all things new”. And Matt 21:22 “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

NOTE: There is some fine print to all of this. God is not an impersonal vending machine. I cover those issues later in this post.

I was well aware of these scriptures, but I had never made the shift to actually believing in this way.

So I sat on a bench and wondered what my choices were. After a while I decided to pass time watching some rugby in a public spot. Then while doing that I decided to go visit a friend. And after a while that friend invited me to stay with him for a few days. I kept believing, but not so much, because my needs were being met. Sort of. Then that ended after a few days. I met with the church pastor, but that was not fruitful in terms of me getting significant help.

So I kept on praying and believing. Then I had to move out of where I was staying. Again I was on a sidewalk and the  on a bench, wondering what to do. I prayed, asking for help and I decided to believe I had a place. And another friend took me in, on her couch. This time I was there for a week.

A new style of prayer emerges

By now my style of praying had begun to change, I was doing a lot more believing. On that couch I began to declare with determination that I HAD received.

Again that place ended and I was outside again. I stored my stuff behind a wall where people hang their washing… and I wondered what I would do. I had posted a request to FB for prayer as a last resort about 2 nights before. Out of almost 600 friends, no one had come through for me. Despite my situation, I defiantly declared that I believed I HAVE received.

Literally at that moment I got a text message from a friend I had not heard from in a long while. So I went to visit that friend. We patched up some things, and that was God’s grace right there! She told me that I had come to mind a few times so she sent me the message. Cool… God was now moving behind the scenes.

I popped out and went to someone else who I thought might be able to put me up. He said he didn’t think his wife would agree… I was down hearted. Where was I going to stay that night? Sunset was 2 or 3 hours away.

Fighting back the discouragement and possible tears, I defiantly declared that I believed that I HAD received what I was asking for, because God keeps His promises!

I was quite specific about what I wanted. A warm place. A safe place. A friendly, relational place. And at that moment while walking along, holding back tears and mild panic, defiantly declaring God’s goodness and that I HAD received… a text message came through. “Do you have a place?” I replied no. And he invited me to stay with him for a few days.

Yikes! Awesome!

A trend emerges

So I went back to my friend, and she offered to lift me to my new digs. God was providing right before my eyes. So I asked her… when did she decide to contact me and why? She told me, and it turned out that God brought me to her mind just as I was believing Him. I was seeing a trend! When I moved into my new temporary digs I again asked them, how did they come to ask me if I needed a place? And again, God brought me to mind just ask I was believing Him.

I began to see a pattern.

“For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His. – 2 Chron 16:9 NASB

Quite literally, at the times that I believed His words, that I placed my trust in Him, that I believed His provision was absolutely so certain that I could see it with eyes of determined faith… at those times He was speaking to people and bringing me to mind and creating a way where there was no way.

Believing I HAVE received

So now, safely ensconced in my new digs I began to see blessing happening. Small stuff that has not happened in years begins to happen. So I kept believing I have received… and wouldn’t you know it, I got a message from an absolutely unexpected person who invited me to stay with his family – for more than a month.

Again, when I got there I asked them how this came about, and again it was just as I was believing that I had received from Jesus Christ – my “husband” – that God was prompting them to find out how I was and they saw on my FB wall that I needed assistance.

Time and again, from when when I first believed for that friend of mine who makes the toadstools, right through to now – today – I am astonished at how God moves when I believe Him.

I broadened my requests

So… with evidence like that… I broadened the things I asked for and believed I HAVE received! Who wouldn’t?

These days I have been believing for a healthy body. Do you know that the moment I began to believe that I HAVE received a healthy body from Jesus Christ’s provision on the cross, that same day I went from someone who struggled to say no to yummy food, which is in ABUNDANCE here, to someone who can happily have 2 Tim Tams waved in his face and say no thanks. Now THAT is a miracle my friends!!!  :)

And just today I was believing that God HAS made me whole, inside and out, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and tonight as we drove in the car I suddenly had insight into my failed marriage from 10+ years ago… and I saw in such clarity and depth… and I went in a moment from a feeling of repressed hatred (which I had to face up to earlier this year) through to complete forgiveness. In less than a minute all that was washed away and with NO pain at all. I cannot express to you the clarity I have towards her now.

And the story goes on… I decided to believe that Jesus Christ HAS given me a specific amount of money. Do you know that in the whole of last year I have not earned as much as I have earned in the last 3 weeks? I even went shopping the other day!  :)

What if I am believing about the wrong thing?

I am currently believing that I HAVE received in 5 areas. If I am wrong about any of them, I know that He will tell me, I will feel His prompting. Instead, when I began to believe that He HAS made me healed – and I’m specifically referring to being overweight – I heard Him audibly speak to me “this is My will”. So, rather than hearing Him discourage me at all, instead I’m hearing encouragement!

But still… what IF I’m wrong, or asking out of wrong motives? Well… even if I am wrong about some of these things, the good news is He doesn’t give bad gifts…

Or what man is there of you, if his son asks him for a loaf of bread, will hand him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will hand him a serpent? - Matt 7:10 AMP

Most of God's work is unseen

I know now from all these stories that as I believe, God is working in unseen ways. I know, because when the thing comes, I ask the person or people involved and they tell me how God prompted them.

I have it clearly in my head now… when I ask and believe that He HAS provided… then His work occurs where I can’t see it. It’s like a root system, most of the initial work is underground, out of sight.

I am believing for 5 things and in two of them I have not yet seen any visible movement above the ground.

But I won’t doubt. By the time I can see it in my hands, God has done a lot of work unseen by me

And I like it this way. I can relax. Trust. Wait.

Different kinds of prayer

Over time I have come to realize that there are different kinds of prayer.

Intercession is what I was doing and it’s not relational, it’s declaring the truth and being rather like a policeman. You don’t make the laws, you just enforce them. When we intercede we simply enforce the truth, the words of God, with the sword of our mouth.

Pushing darkness back was simply enforcing what happened on the cross. But now I needed to have a different kind of prayer. It’s more personal, more relational. It can be deeply understood when we consider the kind of relationship that God wants between a man and a woman in marriage. It’s the same from Jesus Christ, He wants His bride to trust Him to do what He says He will do. Selah.

Different kinds of faith

I also once heard a teaching that there are different kinds of faith. For example: at one time Jesus said He could see that the man “had the faith to be healed”. Another scripture speaks about “saving faith”. I have also heard of “overcoming faith”.

I had grown in the kind of faith that accepts what Jesus Christ did on the cross. Now I had to grow in a kind of faith which is more relational. I had to ask and receive from God.

Thanks for reading

Although this is a very long post, I hope this has helped someone in some way.  :)

Modern day Sukkah Roofs

“On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the produce of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the LORD seven days.

…

when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.” Thus Moses declared to the people of Israel the appointed feasts of the LORD. - Lev 23:39-44

It was created after captivity (Ex 23:16) but before the wanderings in Saudi Arabia. It is a reminder to the end of the captivity in Egypt.

It depends on faith

However, despite what God had done in their sight, they did not place their faith in Him, and He rejected that generation.

The “wanderings” began for 40 years until that generation had passed away. After the wanderings they turned north towards the promised land…

Rest, pasture, Sabbath in the promised land

In the beginning there was a very clear connection between the “rest” and the promised land as the Psalm confirms…

For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.” Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.” – Psa 95:10-11

The promised land was simply the location of God’s rest.

Do you know what it means to enter His rest?

for you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that the LORD your God is giving you. But when you go over the Jordan and live in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies around, so that you live in safety, – Deu 12:9-10

So it’s a place of safety from all enemies, a place of safety.

The next few verses promise being in God’s very Presence!

then to the place that the LORD your God will choose, to make his name dwell there,

there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the LORD. And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male servants and your female servants, and the Levite that is within your towns, since he has no portion or inheritance with you. – Deu 12:11-12

The word rest was first used in Genesis when God rested. Then came the sabbath rest which God connects to the end of captivity…

You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. – Deu 5:15

In that same psalm which spoke about the people not entering His rest, just 2 verses earlier, God talks of His sheep and His pasture…

For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, – Psa 95:7-8

It was not only abour rest, but also inheritance…

for you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that the LORD your God is giving you. – Deu 12:9

God’s focus was giving His people (sheep) who believed in Him their inheritance, rest, Sabbath and pasture, His focus is not so much the actual physical land, but the benefits. The land was where He was going to give them rest. His goal was rest.

Abram-like faith resulting in righteousness

Entering the rest did not simply depend on entering the physical land, but on Abram-like faith which resulted in righteousness.

The first captivity was in Egypt. Sadly, they were to experience a second captivity in Babylon, and then a third exile and dispersion after the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

Being in the land did not guarantee His Presence, inheritance, rest and pasture.

The location of God’s Presence changed due to sin

Please take note that the location “the place that the LORD your God will choose” is chosen by God Himself. All of these scriptures make reference to “the place where the Lord chooses”…

Deu 12:5, Deu 12:14, Deu 12:18, Deu 12:21, Deu 12:26, Deu 14:23, Deu 15:20, Deu 16:2-8, Deu 17:8, Deu 18:6, Deu 23:16, Deu 26:2, Deu 31:11; Jos 18:1; 1Ki 8:13, 1Ki 8:29; Psa 78:68; Jer 7:12; Joh 4:20-23

Given how much He stresses it, it is clear that the choice of location is His and His alone.

And please take note that He initially chose one place (Shiloh) and then after that moved the location to another place (Mt Zion)…

Then the whole congregation of the people of Israel assembled at Shiloh and set up the tent of meeting there. The land lay subdued before them. - Jos 18:1

He forsook his dwelling at Shiloh, the tent where he dwelt among mankind, and delivered his power to captivity, his glory to the hand of the foe. – Psa 78:60-61

but he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loves. – Psa 78:68

Feast of Booths/Tabernacles

Jesus Christ said He is the doorway to that pasture for the sheep…

we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, – Psa 95:7-8

“Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.  – Joh 10:7

I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.  – Joh 10:9

Jesus Christ connected the Feast of Booths/Tabernacles to Himself…

Now the Jews’ Feast of Booths was at hand. – Joh 7:2

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”

Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. – Joh 7:37-39

On this final day of the Feast of Tabernacles, the post-exile tradition was to pour water!

John Gill explains:

“the pouring out of water was after this manner; a golden pot, which held three logs, was tilled out of Siloah, and when they came to the water gate, they blew (their trumpets) and shouted, and blew; (then a priest) went up by the ascent of the altar, and turned to the left hand, (where) were two silver basins—that on the west side was filled with water, and that on the east with wine; he poured the basin of water into that of wine, and that of wine into that of water.”

I think it’s very interesting that Jesus’ first miracle was turning water into wine. He was pointing to Himself being the fulfillment of the Feast of Booths/Tabernacles… the end of captivity!

John Gill explains:

“Says R. Joshua ben Levi, why is its name called the place of drawing water? because, from thence שואבים רוח הקודש, “they draw the Holy Ghost”, as it is said, “and ye shall draw water with joy out of the wells of salvation”,  Isa 12:3.”

Although it is truly wonderful to see God regathering His chosen to Himself in the land of Israel that He promised to them, but as I showed earlier, simply being in the land doesn’t guarantee peace, pasture, inheritance etc.  We enter as Abram did, through faith…

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus,  – Heb 10:19

by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh,  – Heb 10:20

The Jews understood

Scripture says that the people welcomed Jesus Christ as their King, they welcomed Him with Messianic quotes from the Psalms and they laid branches of palm trees out in front of Him…

The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!” – Joh 12:12-15

The branches of palm trees were a reference to the Feast of Tabernacles…

And you shall take on the first day the fruit of splendid trees, branches of palm trees and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days. – Lev 23:40

The people believed He was the Messiah Who would end their captivity under the Roman empire. They believed that He was the manifestation of the Feast of Tabernacles, the end of captivity.

But when He died on the cross seemingly as a common criminal, they did not understand that He was the Lamb of God which was prophesied by Abraham, they did not understand that He was defeating sin and death and creating a much greater end of captivity.

They did not receive the promise because they did not add their faith…

but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith – Heb 4:2

By dealing with sin (which brings death into this world) Jesus Christ ended captivity. The Jewish people had entered the promised land physically on many occasions, but they too failed to have faith, they then received no peace and eventually they went again into captivity.

In that same way, we who hear the message of Jesus Christ but do not combine it with our faith, will not receive the benefit… it is of no value to us. That is why 2000 years later the world is STILL in a mess… because most of what He did on the cross is still largely not being taught and believed.

Feast of Tabernacles 2011

I believe that from September through to the Feast of Tabernacles (12-20 Oct) will be a momentous time in human history.

Add your faith by declaring these scriptures…

• The God of peace will soon crush satan under your feet
• You satan are like a dead body trampled underfoot

• The God of peace will soon crush satan under your feet
• You satan are like a dead body trampled underfoot

If you declared in faith the Isa 14 scriptures which I provided in the previous post: You satan are like a dead body trampled underfoot then here are a few more…

Jesus Christ has destroyed the one who held the power of death – that is the devil (Heb 2:14).

Jesus Christ has bruised/broken/crushed the head of the serpent (Gen 3:15).

Jesus Christ has struck the twisting serpent, struck the fleeing serpent, Jesus Christ has slayed the serpent that is in the sea (Is 27:1).

I had the feeling to search for trod, or trodden and I found this…

You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot. – Psa 91:13

The “Treasury of David” commentary on the book of Psalms says this…

Psa_91:13 “Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder.” Over force and fraud shalt thou march victoriously; bold opponents and treacherous adversaries shall alike be trodden down. When our shoes are iron and brass, lions and adders are easily enough crushed beneath our heel. “The young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.” The strongest foe in power, and the most mysterious in cunning, shall be conquered by the man of God. Not only from stones in the way, but from serpents also, shall we be safe. To men who dwell in God the most evil forces become harmless, they wear a charmed life, and defy the deadliest ills. Their feet come into contact with the worst of foes, even Satan himself nibbles at their heel, but in Christ Jesus they have the assured hope of bruising Satan under their feet shortly. The people of God are the real “George and the dragon,” the true lion-kings and serpent-tamers. Their dominion over the powers of darkness makes them cry, “Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy word.”

Matthew Henry says this in his commentary…

That the powers of darkness shall be triumphed over by them (Psa_91:13): Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder. The devil is called a roaring lion, the old serpent, the red dragon; so that to this promise the apostle seems to refer in that (Rom_16:20), The God of peace shall tread Satan under your feet. Christ has broken the serpent’s head, spoiled our spiritual enemies (Col_2:15), and through him we are more than conquerors; for Christ calls us, as Joshua called the captains of Israel, to come and set our feet on the necks of vanquished enemies.

And I found this…

The God of peace will soon crush satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. – Rom 16:20

Amen, I believe that Jesus Christ has crushed satan on the cross. Amen.

• The God of peace will soon crush satan under your feet
• You satan are like a dead body trampled underfoot

In line with the following scripture…

His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms – Eph 3:10

I believe that there are a few people who have the right and the faith to speak these scriptures out in faith, declaring them to be true… please note that this is directly out of scripture in Isaiah 14 and the words inserted in (brackets) are my own, added in for clarity…

When the LORD has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service with which you were made to serve, you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon:

“How the oppressor has ceased, the insolent fury ceased! The LORD has broken (on the cross) the staff of the wicked, the scepter of rulers, that struck the peoples in wrath with unceasing blows, that ruled the nations in anger with unrelenting persecution.

The whole earth is at rest and quiet; they break forth into singing (against you satan). The cypresses rejoice at you (satan), the cedars of Lebanon, saying, ‘Since you were laid low, no woodcutter comes up against us.’

Sheol (the place of the dead) beneath is stirred up to meet you (satan) when you come; it rouses the shades (dead/ghosts) to greet you (satan),

all who were leaders of the earth; it raises from their thrones (in sheol) all who were kings of the nations. All of them will answer and say to you (satan): ‘You too have become as weak as we! You have become like us!’

Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, the sound of your harps; maggots are laid as a bed beneath you (satan), and worms are your covers.

“How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low!

You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’

But you (satan) are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit. – Isa 14:3-15 

Those who see you (satan) will stare at you and ponder over you: ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, who made the world like a desert and overthrew its cities, who did not let his prisoners go home?’

All the kings of the nations lie in glory, each in his own tomb; but you (satan) are cast out, away from your grave, (you are) like a loathed branch, clothed with the slain, those pierced by the sword, who go down to the stones of the pit, (you satan are) like a dead body trampled underfoot. You (satan) will not be joined with them in burial, because you have destroyed your land, you have slain your people.

“May the offspring of evildoers nevermore be named! Prepare slaughter for his sons because of the guilt of their fathers, lest they rise and possess the earth, and fill the face of the world with cities.”

“I will rise up against them,” declares the LORD of hosts, “and will cut off from (spiritual) Babylon name and remnant, descendants and posterity,” declares the LORD. “And I will make it a possession of the hedgehog, and pools of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,” declares the LORD of hosts.

The LORD of hosts has sworn: “As I have planned, so shall it be, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand, that I will break the Assyrian in My land, and on My mountains trample him underfoot; and his yoke shall depart from them (believers), and his burden from their (believers) shoulder.”

This is the purpose that is purposed concerning the whole earth, and this is the Hand that is stretched out over all the nations. For the LORD of hosts has purposed, and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back? – Isa 14:16-27

• How to receive God’s grace, His unearned and undeserved favor
• What reigns over you?

One of the first instructions that God gave to people after they were outside the garden that was in Eden was this:

And the Lord said to Cain, Why are you angry? And why do you look sad and depressed and dejected? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin crouches at your door; its desire is for you, but you must master it. – Gen 4:6-7

Take note of these words: sin crouches at your door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.

Now that we are outside the garden and sin is active in our lives, ruining everything, God says you must “master sin”.

The question I pose to you is… how will you do that? Will you try your best to overcome sin? Will you beat your body into submission? Will you take medicine to suppress your desire to sin? Will you accept sin and just go with it – embracing it and reveling in it?

Come on… how do you plan to overcome sin? And not just sin, but the power of death which is empowered by our sin.

Here is the scriptural way to overcome sin and death…

So that, [just] as sin has reigned in death,

[so] grace (His unearned and undeserved favor) might reign also through righteousness (right standing with God) which issues in eternal life through Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) our Lord. – Rom 5:21

Through faith, through the acceptance of the full and complete sacrifice of Jesus Christ, declare this over your life every day. God’s grace and favor reigns over my life, because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

So… now… because of your acceptance of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice – the Lamb of God – you are choosing to be a beneficiary of God’s favor and grace… and the righteousness made available by Jesus Christ pours down on your life.

It looks – with eyes of faith – something like this…

God's grace reigns over us

Just as sin reigned in death, now God’s favor and grace reigns in righteousness.

Imagine a life which is saturated with God’s favor, instead of being saturated with death (sickness, poverty, isolation). You need it. I need it. And through Jesus Christ it is available to us as a free gift to be received by faith!

Make this your daily declaration. Make sure you take a deliberate stand to position yourself under His free gift of grace which Jesus Christ has made available to you.

God bless you… for real!  :)

That’s why I remind people to rinse and repeat, because until we get to Heaven we will keep changing and understanding His ways more deeply.

His ways are not our ways

And it’s absolutely so true that His ways are not our ways. Why not?

We grow up in this world learning a few basic fundamental truths about this world which we need to UNlearn when we come into His Kingdom. Some of those untruths may be

• God helps those who help themselves, or,
• that we humans have to do stuff if it’s to get done at all

And there IS some level of truth in those things because in the faith chapter, Hebrews 11, the people showed their faith by the things that they DID. Almost all of the verses start with “by faith x did y”.

But still… despite that… we must unlearn the ways of this world, because His ways are not our ways:

For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts. – Is 55:8-9

Do you know why His ways – and His Kingdom – is so utterly different to our ways and to this world? Here are some obvious reasons why we struggle to comprehend His motives and His strategies and His choices for us…

• God is Spirit, not flesh like us
• His Kingdom is based in Heaven, not in this natural world – even though in future His Kingdom will be here, right now in 2011 it isn’t completely manifest here
• His most prized value and motivation is love, ours is survival of the fittest

The breakthrough that changed my understanding so that I could hear Him more clearly and so that I could comprehend His motives far more deeply… was… forgiveness.

Why is forgiveness the key?

In the Lord’s prayer it says that we are forgiven AS we forgive others (Mat 16:12, 16:14). Scripture warns that those who have hatred are walking in darkness and cannot find their way (! John 2:11). I have counselled so many people and I have found this to be true. When people say they cannot find God, cannot hear Him, cannot find what He wants for them… all of the time it turns out that the person has suffered terribly over many years and now has built up long term anger and maybe even hatred towards the other person, or God or the world.

But great things happen when we forgive. Recently I counselled someone and after we spoke he went for a walk and he spoke the truth because the truth sets you free and then when he had spoken the truth enough he felt it was time to forgive.

So he spoke out that he forgave God, he forgave his family, he forgave himself.  He told God that no one owed him anything. Right away he began to receive the Holy Spirit and massive peace and joy flooded his body!

God rewarded him for his choice to extend grace to those who had hurt him. But to understand this we must ask ourselves… WHY did this happen? What is it about forgiveness that releases such a dramatic connection with God?

The reason is that Jesus Christ extended grace to us all… and He expects us to extend grace to each other.

It’s as if there is a lock on God’s door and the key-code on that lock is “forgiveness“.

Why is it about our heart?

Ask yourself… why does God set the key-code to something so heart-felt? Why is it about our heart?

When my heart changed that day – because of forgiveness – I immediately began to understand God’s ways so much better. My understanding is incomparable to what I knew before. And do you know what has changed the most? My faith.

My understanding of faith has entirely changed. Before I had a vending machine view of faith and God. If I believed, then I got stuff from God. Now my understanding is totally different. The outcome is the same, but my understanding of the relationship between me and Jesus Christ is totally different.

See with the eyes of your heart

I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened – Eph 1:18

If you can grasp this all in an emotional way, with the eyes of your heart, then you will begin to see the depth of Jesus Christ’s love for His bride - the church. (Not just the bride in a building, but all who believe and have faith in Him).

Now we can see why the people who are saved have done two things:

• spoken with their mouth
• believed with their heart

Now we can also see why religion and law kills… because a series of laws has nothing of the heart in it.

Now we can see why God declared Abram righteous when Abram simply believed the words of God.

[Urged on] by faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed and went forth to a place which he was destined to receive as an inheritance; and he went, although he did not know or trouble his mind about where he was to go. – Heb 11:8

So let’s look at this scripture

let the wife see that she respects and reverences her husband [that she notices him, regards him, honors him, prefers him, venerates, and esteems him; and that she defers to him, praises him, and loves and admires him exceedingly]. – Eph 5:33

To understand what God wants from us, let me describe that scripture in a much more natural and human way.

Imagine a woman comes to her husband and says that she needs ABC money and suport in order to take care of her needs and the needs of the children that they have together.

Let’s say that the man makes a commitment to earn that money and bring it to her.

If his wife then goes around to her girlfriend and moans about her useless husband and what a bad provider he is and how she doubts he will ever amount to anything and that he won’t bring her what he said he would… pretty soon he will be demotivated and eventually he might become unwilling to keep his part of the arrangement.

But.

If while he is toiling away on the farm or at work in a building somewhere, he knows she is praising him to her children and to her friends, telling them how much she admires him and believes that he can do anything he sets his mind to – and she is saying this even before he has brought home the money that she asked for – then any man will move Heaven and Earth and be massively motivated to excel in his work and to perform for her and for his kids.

The issue – from a man’s perspective – is does she believe in him, does she see the best in him?

You see, God/Jesus Christ also feels this way about us. I wrote a post describing

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church… – Eph 5:25

You see, this is God’s behaviour in the OT as well… take a look

to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him.” – 2 Chron 16:9

So now we can see that the kind of faith that Jesus Christ wants is very heart felt.

He wants worship NOT because it’s our duty, but because we admire Him. What man wants a wife who decides it’s her duty to be intimate with him? Men want their partner to admire them, to see the best in them!

Jesus Christ wants us to be like that towards Him too. If we ask Him for something, He wants us to believe we HAVE received it. The reason for us believing that so confidently is not legalistic, it’s because He is a Man (God) of His Word. What He says, He will do. He doesn’t break His promises.

Can you see how highly relational God is?

See with the eyes of your heart

I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened – Eph 1:18

If you can grasp this all in an emotional way, with the eyes of your heart, then you will begin to see the depth of Jesus Christ’s love for His bride - the church. (Not just the bride in a building, but all who believe and have faith in Him).

Now we can see why the people who are saved have done two things:

• spoken with their mouth
• believed with their heart

Now we can also see why religion and law kills… because a series of laws has nothing of the heart in it.

Now we can see why God declared Abram righteous when Abram simply believed the words of God.

[Urged on] by faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed and went forth to a place which he was destined to receive as an inheritance; and he went, although he did not know or trouble his mind about where he was to go. – Heb 11:8

While we must endure the work of growth, we can’t bear it alone. To be comforted and strengthened we need God and people with us. Jesus was dependant on God and people.

He taught us to be like Him and ask God for our daily bread (Matt 6:11).

Yet he also asked His closest friends to be present with Him in His dark hours (Matt 26:38).

We can’t bear life on our own, nor were we created to. Jesus did not model independance, but dependance.

This quote is from a superb book: How People Grow: What the Bible Reveals About Personal Growthby Dr. Henry Cloud, Dr. John Townsend

I first wrote about this book in 2006. You can check out my post here: Book: How people grow

This is how Wikipedia describes learned optimism:

Learned optimism is the idea in positive psychology that a talent for joy, like any other, can be cultivated. It is contrasted with learned helplessness. Learning optimism is done by consciously challenging any negative self talk.

• How to receive God’s grace, His unearned and undeserved favor
• What reigns over you?

In line with the last post, I must ask you this… what reigns over your life, your home, your country?

So that, [just] as sin has reigned in death,

[so] grace (His unearned and undeserved favor) might reign also through righteousness (right standing with God) which issues in eternal life through Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) our Lord. – Rom 5:21

Take a look at your life. What is it that reigns down over you?

1. Sin and death, or
2. Jesus Christ’s righteousness and grace (favor)

The righteousness of Jesus Christ is a hedge of protection over your life. The righteousness of Jesus Christ is a free gift that can be received by anyone and it results in the grace of God – favor – which you cannot earn or buy, you can only receive as a free gift.

What is it that reigns down over your life?

This morning I heard “I will repay into their bosom”. That is the following scripture

Behold, it is written before Me: I will not keep silence but will repay; yes, I will repay into their bosom – Is 65:6

The context of the scripture is

I WAS [ready to be] inquired of by those who asked not; I was [ready to be] found by those who sought Me not. I said, Here I am, here I am [says I AM] to a nation [Israel] that has not called on My name.

²I have spread out My hands all the day long to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, after their own thoughts–

³A people who provoke Me to My face continually, sacrificing [to idols] in gardens and burning incense upon bricks [instead of at God's prescribed altar];

⁴Who sit among the graves [trying to talk with the dead] and lodge among the secret places [or caves where familiar spirits were thought to dwell]; who eat swine’s flesh, and the broth of abominable and loathsome things is in their vessels;

⁵Who say, Keep to yourself; do not come near me, for I am set apart from you [and lest I sanctify you]! These are smoke in My nostrils, a fire that burns all the day.

⁶Behold, it is written before Me: I will not keep silence but will repay; yes, I will repay into their bosom

⁷Both your own iniquities and the iniquities of your fathers, says the Lord. Because they too burned incense upon the mountains and reviled and blasphemed Me upon the hills, therefore will I measure and stretch out their former doings into their own bosom. – Is 65:1-7

Myself and one of the people where I live could actually feel the physical peace descending last night. It was a distinct moment when peace descended. Then late last night I saw a vision of a hedge growing up and over me. This morning I woke up (still with the same sense of peace) and I felt God going into what I call “warrior mode”. Then I heard that verse “I will repay into their bosom”.

There is more that I perceived, but this is sufficient information. I believe that this is the final notice that God intends to take action.

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. – Matt 16:15-18

Jesus asks YOU (dear reader), who do YOU say that He is? If your answer is “You Lord are the Christ” then you are in a good place.

But let me ask you this. Do you know what it means for Jesus to be the Christ?

What were the Jews expecting when they welcomed Him into Jerusalem?

They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,

“Hosanna!”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

“Blessed is the king of Israel!” - John 12:13

They called Him the King of Israel. They were right!

They shouted Hosanna which means “Save us!” both of which is a reference to Psalm 118:22-27. They were right!

The palm branches means that they believed that Jesus was the fulfillment of the the Feast of Tabernacles – the ingathering of the harvest. They were right!

With such potent expectations, I can just imagine how they would have been shocked to see the King of Israel dying on the cross like a common criminal.

The problem was that their expectations were incorrect. They expected a King who was literally in the style of King David.

Instead they received Someone much greater, who took away their sin and the sin of the world, thus defeating the devil who trapped the world in the Garden of Eden.

What were some of their expectations?

The Christ is the same person as “the seed of the woman” (Gen 3:15), “the seed of Abraham” (Gen 22:18), the “Prophet like unto Moses” (Deu 18:15), “the priest after the order of Melchizedek” (Psa 110:4), “the rod out of the stem of Jesse” (Isa 11:1, Isa 11:10), the “Immanuel,” the virgin’s son (Isa 7:14), “the branch of Jehovah” (Isa 4:2), and “the messenger of the covenant” (Mal 3:1).

That’s just a few things… in fact the Old Testament Scripture is full of prophetic declarations regarding the Great Deliverer and the work he was to accomplish.

I have compassion on the Jewish people who welcomed their King into Jerusalem… and then saw Him die on the cross as a common criminal.

What they did not recognize is that He was dying for them, in their place, and IN THIS WAY He was fulfilling ALL that scripture foretold that He would do for them!

If you can grasp that… then you are grasping the most immense world-changing truth.

If you will take the time to actually work through all the promises that the OT scriptures make about the Christ, then you can understand two things:

1. When Simon Peter said “You are the Messiah/Christ” he was saying he believed that Jesus was the Christ and was going to fulfill all the promises in the OT.
2. When Jesus Christ said to Simon Peter “on THIS rock I will build My church and the gates of hades will not overcome it” Jesus was saying that a life, a family, a ministry and a church built on the rock of the truth that He is the Christ… will not be overcome, it will survive and prosper in the face of adversity.

I wish I could explain how key this is. This is the foundation of anything that lasts. Absolutely no other teaching is as sure a foundation.

The key is this… Jesus is “the Christ” that was promised in the OT. And MOST importantly, the core issue is that HE DID achieve all that the OT promised that He would.

He did it!

He didn’t die a criminal, instead, He defeated sin, defeated death, defeated poverty, defeated sickness, defeated divorce, defeated isolation, defeated separation from God, defeated every addiction… Jesus Christ on His cross defeated everything bad which came from the fall.

Where the Jewish people received their King and then saw Him dying as a common criminal and they became disillusioned. They lost their faith in Him.

We must not do that. We must choose to see that He overcame. He came into Jerusalem as a King and He died to bring freedom to His people. He died as the Lamb of God, a Sacrifice, and in this humble way He saved His people from harm.

The people in Jerusalem were absolutely right to shout “Hosanna” because it means “save us!” which He did! How? He undid the fall. Jesus Christ undid the separation between God and man. He made all things new!

But they didn’t have faith. They didn’t believe… and so they didn’t receive. What we have to do is receive what He did.

Their disappointment meant that they did not have the faith to receive their deliverance.

We must not make the same mistake. We must believe that He has overcome. We must believe that He made all things new.

What do we need to do?

• Walk by faith, not by sight.
• See with the eyes of faith.
• Believe, in order to receive!

• Christian forgiveness (used to be called “The truth will set you free”)
• How to forgive someone
• Forgiveness releases us to be healed and whole
• Forgive to be forgiven

They were based on the level of forgiveness I had managed to achieve at that time. Those posts were written years ago. Now more recently God showed me how to forgive in a way that is simple and very powerful. Thank you for giving me a chance to share it with you here.

It’s hard to under-estimate how important forgiveness is. If you refuse to forgive, the Lord’s prayer says you will not be forgiven. It’s really just that simple. If you refuse to forgive… you are harming yourself.

So… in a nutshell… here’s how to forgive.

It’s a two step process.

1. Tell the truth (what happened, what went wrong, what should have happened)
2. Release that person

Rinse and repeat.

Step one is based on what Jesus Christ said “the truth will set you free”. He was utterly right. You need to tell the truth about what happened.

We all have secrets and some secrets can harm us, our families or other people. So who should you tell the truth to? Well… you can tell a person… OR… you can blog it, you can write in on your FB wall, you can email me, you can tell God, OR you can even get a picture of the person and put it on a chair in front of you… and then you tell the truth to that picture.

It doesn’t matter who you tell… just speak it out.

You don’t have to tell it all at one time. You can tell the truth in small doses. Don’t over do it! Take care of yourself.

Tell the truth of what you felt when it happened. That’s what is most important. Tell the things you have never admitted before. Say “when you did ABC, I felt XYZ”. Tell the truth about your hurt. Get it out.

If you are lying in bed talking to God or talking to a picture, then there is no risk that you are hurting someone as you tell the truth… so go right ahead and tell the whole truth… because as you tell the truth, you will find freedom.

When you have told some truth you may feel some tiredness if you have kept that heavy secret of what happened and how you feel for a long long time.

Step two. Say “I forgive you for doing ABC” to me. If you cannot yet forgive them, then take some more time to talk it all out. Really get it out. When you have talked and talked and talked until you are tired of talking about it, then try again to forgive. Remember, you must forgive in order to be forgiven.

Forgiveness can come in layers. At first it might be very shallow, you might not be able to forgive from an emotional perspective but you might be able to forgive from a spiritual perspective.

Here’s my story

The truth that I had to speak about was how I felt when various things happened to me in my past. So I told the truth about those events, so that I could untwist my own thinking.

It was just me in my room, late at night. I began to speak quietly in my own thoughts about the hurts I had felt. I spoke about the pain, the suffering, the sadness.

I spoke about what should NOT have happened… and spoke about what SHOULD have happened. I spoke about how these events had damaged my life. I spoke about how life SHOULD have been if these things had not happened.

It was then that I could forgive and let go. I even found the grace to admit that the person who hurt me had also been hurt in their own past. They were also hurt and that’s why they had hurt me. I was able to extend grace, because I had told the truth.

I did this for all the times I got hurt. In all the cases I argued back against what had happened and I told the truth.

I told the truth that the abuse should NOT have happened. I told the truth that I should have been protected. I told the truth that I could not protect myself. I told the truth that I was not to blame. I told the truth that I would not let that happen to my children in future.

I set the record completely straight. I broke through.

And then I was able to forgive. It was very very easy. One by one I worked through the hurts and I forgave all who had hurt me.

I got so much freedom in that evening. My life has literally changed ever since then. You see, there is another truth that we greatly under-estimate which is this one:

Proverbs 4:23 – Guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life

Try telling the truth and then forgiving and see how much your heart improves  

What progress have we seen since? And especially, what happened last year and what has happened in this last year?

4 January 2009

Violence shall no more be heard in your land, nor devastation or destruction

Violence shall no more be heard in your land, nor devastation or destruction within your borders, but you shall call your walls Salvation and your gates Praise. – Is 60:18

14 September 2010

Do you remember this post? Peace is increasing! on 14 September 2010.

The good news keeps on coming in SA, posted on 25 September 2009… in this post I showed the crime stats had declined by over 10%!!!

SAPS Crimes stats – while extremely high – show decline, some by over 10%! (local copy of PDF file)

8 September 2011

Now one year later I am delighted to let you know it has happened again!!

The SAPS Crime Statistics were released today and guess what?

• Murder down by 5.3%
• Attempted murder down by 11%
• Common Assault down by 5.8%
• Robbery with aaggravating circumstances down bvy 10.8%
• Theft of motor vehicle or motorcycle down by 10.1%
• Stock theft down by 6.9%

“General” Bheki Cele must have faced a lot of questions about what God is doing in this marvelous country, because he saw the need to set the record straight that he did NOT think it was God who was doing this.

“Prayer could have been part of it, but the bigger portion is the effort made by people on the ground,” Cele said in Pretoria at the release of the annual crime statistics. What the minister [of police Nathi Mthethwa] is announcing here did not happen naturally. It was not the descent of the Holy Ghost in the hearts of the criminals. Some people have worked for it.” – Hard work behind drop in crime

Crime decrease 2010-2011

And if you want to view a multi-year comparison then click the small image below to open a larger version…

Crime in SA 2011