Such is our goal if we are wise!.
Such is our goal if we are wise!
"Defense" and "song" are alternate readings of the text. Both are true. When Christ has become our Life, then we are safe from all the attacks of Satan and his warriors. When they attack us they are attacking God!
I favor "song" as the reading of Verse Two. There is something about it that suggests to me the joy we have as we trust confidently in the Lord Jesus.
We are not panicked when the demons come to terrify us at night. We sing, because we know Jesus Christ is vastly more powerful than any of the dark forces. Christ is not moved by their threats. Christ knows and trusts the power of the Father. So may we, when Christ is our life.
God is our Salvation. God does more than save us in every circumstance. He Himself has chosen to be our Salvation. He Himself is our Salvation. How much more authoritative and powerful is this fact.
For God to save us is understandable. For God Himself to be our Salvation is so marvelous, so extraordinarily wonderful, that one scarce can comprehend the scope of it all!
With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
Can you picture what it will be like when God leads us to men and women, boys and girls, and charges us to issue eternal life to them? As we draw out from our inmost being that incredible righteousness, love, joy, and peace, and see them begin to radiate the Divine Life of Christ, we will experience a joy that cannot be equaled in any other circumstance.
In that day you will say: "Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name; make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim that his name is exalted.
That day, as I stated previously, occurs when we grow in Christ to the point that we always are exalting the Lord.
It can be a temptation to give praise to a religious organization, or to some system of faith that we have found helpful. We need to listen to our speech and see if we are glorifying something or someone other than the Lord.
God becomes jealous when we become infatuated with something or someone other than himself, and He will take steps to free us from bondage and turn our attention back to Himself.
Today, more than ever, the nations of the earth are oblivious to the greatness of God and His love toward people. Nations compete with one another for money and power. But it all means nothing and less than nothing.
I hope that in our time God will restore the working of miracles in Jesus' name, restoring sight to the blind and raising the dead, and moving mountains, until the nations tremble at the name of Jesus Christ.
I believe such supernatural events are going to take place in our day. The problem will be that people who are seeking glory for themselves will attempt to pervert the work of God for their own benefit. We will have to be careful that we are not involved in any activity, unless we are positive that Christ is directing us.
It is not enough to do a mighty work in the name of Christ. We must be certain that Christ Himself is doing this work.
"Only one life, 'twill soon be past. Only what's done by Christ will last."
"On this rock I will build My church." "I will build My church!
Sing to the Lord, for he has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world.
It certainly is true that spiritual darkness is increasing in the world. The temptation will be to spend our time fretting and cursing the darkness.
The Apostle Paul counseled us to keep our mind fixed on that which is lovely. The events of our day are anything but lovely. They are wicked and ugly beyond anything we can imagine. It is the work of demons!
What are we to do? We are to remember that if we truly have received Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we are seated with Him in the heavenlies at the right hand of the Father, having fellowship with the Father and the Son no matter what takes place on the earth.
The Muslim soldiers are cutting the heads off children if the little boys and girls will not renounce Christ. What the soldiers do not know is that the moment they kill the child, the little one is playing with other children in the Presence of Jesus.
When the true Christian dies, he or she goes to a place of peace and joy with our Lord.
When a Muslim or a Christian soldier or anyone else dies, who has cut off the head of an innocent child, he or she is judged as a murderer and is taken to be with other murderers that he may suffer the same sentence of Divine judgment.
"Oh, but he murdered the child in the name of Allah." This makes no difference. He or she is a murderer, and that is that! A crime is a crime no matter in whose name it is committed.
As Jesus said, it would be better for anyone who harms a child that trusts in Him to have a millstone chained to his neck and be thrown into the sea.
If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. (Matthew 18:6)
All of us, Muslims and Christians alike, ought to understand this.
But religion has a way of perverting common sense.
So we sing in the midst of the demons because God has become our Salvation. We eat from the table prepared for us in the midst of our enemies. We sing and dance on Mount Zion when the world is in flames, when the people who have rejected Christ are screaming in their fear and agony.
We keep our mind on that which is lovely.
Why should we fret about the wicked? Our God will see to it that the wicked are punished and the righteous are exalted to inherit the land. The abortionists, the sodomites, and the rest of the evildoers, will come to their end, and no one can prevent it.
Let us continually remind the world that righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.
God has done and will continue to do glorious things!
Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you."
I will tell you when we will shout aloud and sing for joy. It is when the Father, the Son, and the Spirit of God take up Their eternal residence in us.
As we wait for this experience to happen to us, we must be careful to keep all the commandments given by the Lord Jesus and His Apostles. If we will do this, the Light of Israel will dwell in us forever. We then will live in righteousness, love, peace, and joy, and assist all who hear us to do the same.
Jesus replied, "Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. (John 14:23)
I would like to add one thought, if I may.
I see the rise of the False Prophet among the Charismatics in America. The False Prophet is composed of Pentecostal people who are led astray by "prophets" who are telling them that they are supposed to be anointed with power, and find places of great authority in the cultural centers of the world. They are self-centered and not Christ-centered. This is revealed in what they say and do.
They do not wear the "sackcloth" of humility of the two witnesses!
The new covenant is in the mind as well as the heart. When it is only in the heart, the believers give themselves to unscriptural, unprofitable, convulsions. This is the behavior of the False Prophet.
Such people are moved by their feelings; not by what the Lord Jesus is speaking to their mind, or what the Scripture says, or what is decent and in order, or what will profit the unlearned. They feel good and that is all that seems to matter!
The true saints of the last days will recognize that the shakings, convulsions, falling on the floor, and other unscriptural, unprofitable manifestations are not coming from the Holy Spirit of God.
Can you imagine the Lord Jesus, or the early Apostles, giving themselves over to such emotional demonstrations of the flesh, if not of unclean spirits?
Jesus and His Apostles spoke the word of power and the sick were healed. They did not accompany the word of power with unfruitful, repulsive gyrations.
In the present essay I have spoken of the removal by crucifixion of the desires of our soul, that we might be subject only to God. God Himself becomes our Soul, so to speak, the Source of our motivations and guidance. He leads us in paths of righteousness for His Name's sake. Then we move in a power unknown to the members of the False Prophet.
We then do not seek positions of prominence in the present world system. The world leaders of today will not accept true men and women of God because they will realize their own positions of leadership are being threatened by the coming of the only true King of kings and Lord of Lords.
Remember, the true new covenant enters the heart, that we might desire to do God's will; and also the mind, that we might understand God's will. We must keep our emotions and spiritual pride in check and always listen to the Lord Jesus for our guidance in all matters.
"This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds." (Hebrews 10:16)
If you will allow the Lord Jesus to govern your life, you will change, a little bit at a time, into a life-giving spirit.
The Framework of Understanding from Which </p> "The Life-giving Spirits" Was Taken </p>
Oaks of Righteousness The Sins of the Flesh
The Sins of the Soul
Forgiveness Preached at the Beginning
The Day of Redemption
Oaks of Righteousness
I realize I will be repeating many of the ideas I set forth in the essay above. However the concept of complete deliverance from the world, from sin and from self-will, and of the maturing of the life-giving spirits, is essential to Christian understanding of what is taking place in the Divine redemption.
In addition, we must know how to prepare ourselves for the ever-increasing danger in the world. Therefore I am repeating much of what I already have said so there can be clarity in our thinking.
Every Christian is by their calling a member of the Royal Priesthood that shall inherit, judge, bless, and give eternal life to, those individuals of the nations whom God deems worthy of citizenship in the new world of righteousness.
Since our Christian traditions place all saved people, the royal priests as well as those from the nations who are not called to the Royal Priesthood, in one group, it may take a while before we understand that we, along with our Lord Jesus, shall inherit the saved who are not called to be part of the Priesthood.
Our inheritance is not ornate mansions, it is people. We may not realize it at this time, but people, young and old, are a vastly more valuable inheritance than is true of buildings and treasures of gold and silver.
It may be that the truth of this has to come to us by revelation. I know it has come to me that way.
Notice the pattern in Isaiah 61:1-3. These verses tell how the Lord Jesus will build up the members of His Body.
For example:
And provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor. (Isaiah 61:3)
"Those who grieve in Zion," that is, in the Church. Christ began His work with the Jewish people and has added Gentile believers to His Church, His "called out" people, of whom the Jews were the first.
Christ's goal is to produce "oaks of righteousness," that is, believers who will show forth honesty, truthfulness, purity, faithfulness, and all other forms of integrity, in their conduct. The members of the Royal Priesthood are the firstfruits of such people.
We have wickedly defeated Christ's work by perverting Paul's teaching to mean that God has issued "grace" as an alternative to growth in godly behavior. But God is giving us understanding today so we realize that as we look to the Spirit of God, He will deliver us from the world, from the sins of the flesh and from the sins that proceed from our warped soul.
Notice that as soon as we have become oaks of righteous behavior we are faced with the task of rebuilding the institutions of Antichrist that were destroyed after the victory at Armageddon. In those days the saved people from the nations will assist us.
They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations. Strangers will shepherd your flocks; foreigners will work your fields and vineyards. (Isaiah 61:4,5)
The sixtieth chapter of Isaiah has fascinated me for years; but I find it difficult to place it in a time frame. I have come to the conclusion that the setting for this outpouring of Glory is the next return of our Lord Jesus from Heaven.
I believe also that the separating of the goats from the sheep will take place at the time of the final resurrection of the dead, not when the Lord next comes.
Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
In world history, there never has been a revival like this one.
Next Part But when will it take place?