This came to me as I was waking up this morning, and speaking to the Lord about all the evil that is plaguing this world.
I mentioned to Him (as I do every day as I wake up) how much I’d rather be HOME with Him, than be here, and that I cannot wait for That Day.
His exact response at that moment was, “YOU fight FIRE with FIRE; The consuming fire of God fights against the fires of Hell.”
As I started my morning routine and continued to think more about this and discuss this with the Holy Spirit, I felt led to make this statement.
We ARE in a fight for eternal souls; either mankind ends up in “the lake of fire and brimstone” (Rev. 20:10) because they have chosen NOT to follow God and His Word, or They will become a child of the Living Eternal Godhead while here on Earth, and have the fire of the Holy Spirit of God living and working within them, for the remainder of their time here on Earth.
Again, the choice is up to each individual human spirit, WHERE they end up, and what kind of FIRE they give themselves up to.
I ready today’s “Days of Praise” devotional from ICR, and it rang loudly in my heart and spirit. This is what I have been seeing happening in the churches more and more as the decades have gone by. More church leaders are willing to give up the very callings of God on their lives, and no longer teaching the truths of the Bible, in order to change with the times and follow Satan’s lead instead of God’s. It is creating a recipe not only for spiritual disaster, but imminent JUDGMENT from the Almighty that is prophesied to happen. This is the time of “mercy” that the Lord God has given this generation, since the time of His Son Jesus’ death on the Cross, and resurrection. But this time will not last forever.
Judgment WILL come, and as St. Peter wrote in his letter, “For it is time for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do NOT obey the gospel of Christ?” (1 Peter 4:17). The judgment will start with God’s own—His leaders of the Church, and those who have at one time, committed themselves to teach His Word. Then will be all those who say they are Christians, from whatever branch of Christianity they hail from.
For the Lord Jesus, it will be both a time of happiness and sadness, because He will end up condemning some who have said, “Lord, Lord” (Matthew 7:21), but never really followed Him due to their fear of being “offensive” and hurting people’s feelings with the truth of His Word. They will find out the hard way that there was always to be division and offence in this world, because the truth of the Word of God is exactly what it is written as in Hebrews 4:12–“For the Word of God is LIVING and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, PIERCING to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” God’s Word is hated by those who follow the evil ones who deceive them and turn them away from His Truth, and the father of lies himself—Satan.
May we always strive more each day, to have an ear to “Hear what the (Holy) SPIRIT says to the churches” (Rev. 2:11a), so we do not get caught up in either learning or teaching wrong doctrines, and causing more division between the Body of Christ. Allow the Holy Spirit to do His job here—“When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth, for He will not speak on His own authority, BUT WHATEVER HE HEARS (from the LORD God) HE WILL SPEAK, and He will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take what is Mine and declare it to you” (Jn. 16:13-14).
TRUTH offends. TRUTH of God’s Word causes divisions, BUT those who are OFFENDED by those truths, are not really looking to be humbled by His Word. Their hearts are hardened like Pharaoh in Moses’ day. We all know how THAT turned out for him.
A major part of what the LORD God has been doing with me these past few years is written right in 2 Timothy 3:16–learning the right doctrine, for reproof, correction, for instruction in righteousness…”. He has shown me were my errors were, the corrections that needed to be made in my spiritual walk with Him, and now, after “maturing” over these past 6+ years, I will now be able to speak more about it, and pass on the information to you. But truth always comes with some pain—the “faithful wounds of a friend” (Prov. 27:6). I’d rather offend with the loving truth of God’s Word, than deceive someone with the hateful lying tongue of the enemy.
The Body of Christ has been split thousands of times over, that shreds of the Truth of Scripture has been spread out amongst the Body; some have much of the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but are lacking in doctrine, while others have the richness and beauty of the liturgical truths, but do not pray through the Holy Spirit as they ought, leaving them powerless against demonic attacks and also personal growth and maturity in the Word of God.
The Body of Christ has been too busy fighting with one another, causing divisions, making their own gains in this world, and forsaking the reason why they were called to preach and or teach the Gospel of Christ to begin with. Satan loves that, and he makes sure that he keeps them chained up with just enough of the worldly lusts to make them a vessel of dishonor, instead of one to be honored by the Lord Jesus, at the end of their time serving Him on Earth (Romans 9:21-23; 2 Timothy 2:20-22).
Decide whether or not you will be the one who will cause divisions because you want to live in the worldly sense while saying you are a Christian, not becoming a vessel of honor, or–
Be like JESUS, Who caused divisions and offences BECAUSE He not only spoke the truth of the Word, but taught it and LIVED it.
I choose to be like JESUS. If I am to cause divisions, it is only because those who do not like to be called out for their sins of the flesh, the world, and all the lusts they love to live with, hate when I speak the TRUTH. It is “offensive” to them. TOO BAD.
I’d rather be right with the LORD God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit at the End of Days and the Judgment Seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10) as a true believer and servant of Elohim and His Maschiach, than standing naked before Him at the White Throne Judgment Seat (Rev. 20:11-15), hearing those words, “DEPART from Me, for I never knew you” (Matthew 7:23).
I had to share these verses with you all. In order to do so, I had to divide them up into three frames. It all comes from Ezekiel 3. I suggest you read that chapter in its entirety. The Holy Spirit will share with you through me whatever else He feels pertinent at this time in this post. I highly suggest you take His Words in this post very seriously.
🙏🏼Lord God my ✡️Father, please allow every person who truly does seek You out, to find You, and no longer be part of the wrath and judgment that is to come. I plead with You, Abba—hear their cries of conviction, and see how they humble themselves finally before You, to accept Your ✝️Son and Your Word into their lives. 🕊Holy 🕊Spirit🕊, please enter into them, and teach and guide them into all 📖Your truth, with whatever time remains. I ask You this in the name of Jesus, my Lord, my Savior, my Master, and my King—Amen.
You will also see in that chapter, how the Spirit of God LIFTED Ezekiel up in vv. 12 and 14, and in verse 24 it actually says, “But the Spirit ENTERED INTO me (Ezekiel) and set me on my feet, and He SPOKE to me…” He did the same to the Apostle John in Revelation (4:1-2).
The Spirit of God has always been at work within His people-those who He has chosen to speak the very hard things that most people—sometimes even the ones He has chosen (like Jonah!) do not want to hear.
But sooner or later, we realize it IS all TRUTH—He and His Word IS the way, the truth, and the life—so we accept whatever that call is in our lives, and allow the Holy Spirit to ENTER into us, and do His work, until that particular work is finished, or our time here comes to an end.
For Ezekiel, it was not any different. He had a choice—to allow the LORD God to use him as an instrument of WARNING to the people of Israel (“to the Jew first and also to the Gentile”-Rom. 1:16), to turn from their wicked ways, and also warn them of what was to come in the future.
Most did not heed the warnings. Unfortuately, that is still the case to this very day, thousands of years later, and even AFTER the Father sent the Son AS THE ”Stone of offence and Rock of stumbling” (Isaiah 8:14, Jer. 6:21) to the House of Israel. Later on, it was to the Gentiles, to provoke Israel to jealousy (Deut. 32:21) as Paul the Apostle stated in Romans 11:11 and verse 14, having that verse in Deuteronomy come to pass.
Why would the LORD use His own Son as a Rock of “offence” and stumbling? To get every single human being to hopefully realize that they cannot make it in this life without Him. And also, that once this life is over, they do NOT want to spend eternity, writhing in pain, agony, weeping and gnashing their teeth while in the eternal fires (Matthew 13:42).
It was not going to be an easy job for anyone whom He called to give out such warnings to the masses, whether they were Jews or Gentiles. But the warnings needed to be given, along with the blessings of peace with God, and eventually, eternal life for those who would accept Him and His Word.
Much would be lost along the way for these people, who dared to ”pick up their cross” (Luke 9:23), and follow the LORD God whether it was prior to the Son being born of that virgin (Is. 7:14), the very sign the LORD Himself gave mankind, so to know what was to be. And yet, humans STILL chose not to listen, and rejected the Very One who would be able to save them from those eternal fires.
The messages of warning still go on today. The LORD still has much in His Word that needs to come to pass. There are many like myself, trying to get people to “hear what the Spirit has to say to the churches” (Rev. 2:11).
But as the Lord Jesus said in that verse which was repeated throughout Revelation 2 and 3, and even WAY back in Deuteronomy 6:4, which started the Shema—“HEAR, O Israel,…”, one needs to “have an EAR—meaning, they need to be LISTENING to what the LORD God is saying through His Word, and through the people, His prophets, who are trying desperately to get these humans TO listen to what He is saying.
You are being given a loving warning, from the Most High God, and His Son, my Lord, my Savior, my Master, and my King, to HEAR what the Spirit of God—the HOLY SPIRIT is saying and warning to you all about what IS to come.
I do not want blood on my hands. I have done enough wrongs in my life, that thankfully, the Lord has forgiven me for, since I have confessed them before Him. YET, I also do not want to waste any more of the very little time we have left here, to go on living my life as a superficial Christian, barely doing or speaking anything, and worse yet, doing all that I have done, HALFheartedly, as the Father plainly told me I was serving Him beforehand.
That was said to me a little over six years ago, and I have been a believer all my life. But He wanted me to WHOLEHEARTEDLY serve Him, in the way and manner HE chose to do, NOT my way. Hence the life I have been living in these last six plus years.
There are always “consequences” to serving the LORD; those consequences are always in our favor eternally, but here on Earth, for those who are closest to us especially, there may be many “losses” along the way. I have had my share of those recently, and unfortunately, those losses which produce a broken heart is par for the course when serving Him.
People must make their own choices—“free will” is a gift from God, and He cannot overstep His own “prime directive”; it must be honored, if one chooses to reject Him, and the very people He has chosen to spread His Word, and give out His warnings. He is a very fair and Just God, although those who refuse to get to know Him think exactly the opposite.
Warnings will continue to be given, even when the most horrible time the world will ever face, will begin. It is being set up now, with certain pieces of that puzzle being put “into place” even as I write this out.
For those who desire to know, and to be prepared, do what the Scriptures tell you to do, and “SEEK the LORD” now, while you still have time, in THIS “time of grace” that has been given to us, but WILL soon end (Deut. 4:29; Jer. 29:12; is. 55:6-7; Ps. 14:2; 2 Chron. 7:14; Ps. 63:1; Ps. 9:10; Matt. 7:7; James 4:8).
I will end this with Psalms 119:2, and I beg you, dear ones, to PLEASE consider seeking the Lord, humbling yourselves before Him, and accepting Him into your lives, now, while you still have breath in you, and before the judgment of God begins (and no, we do NOT know the “day or hour” (Matt. 24:36).
For thousands of years He has been patient. He has sent His Son, Jesus, to be the perfect sacrifice-the spotless Lamb that was slain (Rev. 5:6), to save people from their sins, and from the WRATH that eventually has to be poured out (Is. 51:17; Ps. 11:6; Ps. 75:8; Matt. 13:41-42, 49-50; Luke 3:7; Rom. 1:18; 2:5; 5:9; 1 Thess. 1:10; 5:9; Rev. 6:16-17; 11:18; 12:12; 14:19; 15:1, 7; 16:1, 19, 19:15). God always keeps His Word. He has been gracious to give us this time to seek Him, and many warnings to heed.
But that time is running out. The “day” and the “hour” will SOON come upon this Earth, for the Lord Jesus Himself said that He IS the Alpha and Omega (Rev. 1:8; 21:6; 22:13), the First and the Last, the Beginning, and the END.
There WAS a beginning (Genesis 1:1), and there WILL be an end (Zech. 14:1-21; Matt. 24:14; 2 Peter 3:10; Rev. 13:1-18; 20:1-15).
“Blessed are they that KEEP His testimonies, and that SEEK Him with the whole heart.” Psalm 119:2
Shalom and boker tov (good morning)everyone! I HOPE you all were able to watch Episode 8 last night!! If you haven’t, and/or have not kept up with The Chosen for Season 3–OH MY GOSH—what are you WAITING for?
It was amazing! Seriously, I always loved S1E4–that was my “all time” favorite episode, and right behind that was S1E7-Jesus and Nicodemus. Of course, as the seasons continued, it was getting harder and harder to pick favorites; every season built upon the previous, and this one, in ONE word can be describe as “INTENSE”.
There were so many things going on at one time, and many of us can relate to at least one issue within S3’s episodes. But E8–that moved into FIRST PLACE position for me! I won’t say much more, in case you have not yet seen it-or any of them, for that matter.
Some people, I understand, don’t like TV shows or movies that are not “word for word” right out of the Bible. That is okay. BUT—even John the Apostle told us at the end of his Gospel, that “There are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written” (Jn. 21:25).
There were MANY things, many situations, many “human” emotions from the disciples themselves, their families, friends, etc., that very likely went from low to high, to everything in between. They did NOT all get along all the time-that we SEE for ourselves in the Scriptures! LIFE was still going on for these people as they served the Lord Jesus during those three and a half years He ministered in the public eye. Dallas Jenkins and the other writers have done a most excellent job of character development, writing a lot of very believable “what if’s” into the scripts, showing us how 1st century people were living, what they were dealing with-especially the Jewish people. They WERE and ARE STILL, God’s people!
All I will say of the last two episodes (7-8)—what an EXCELLENT example of the Body of Christ arguing with each other over petty things that in the eyes of the Lord Jesus, did not matter! Now, those people were yet to be believers, but as I first watched those scenes with the Jews, Greeks, Phonecians, etc., the immediate word that came into my spirit FROM the Spirit was, “this is the BODY of Christ today”🙄😞🙁. All too true. We definitely need to come together and UNITE as ONE as the Lord Jesus prayed to the Father about 📖in John 17.
Many testimonies from viewers from all over the world have possibly for the first time were not only able to finally see a very real side of the Lord Jesus in His humanity being portrayed by Jonathan Roumie, but how all who were with him, both family, friend, and foe, also possibly reacted when Jesus did (or did not do, in the case of Simon and Eden via the TV show) his miracles, or preached to the masses.
My prayers from 2018 were definitely answered when I came upon The Chosen for the first time in April, 2020. Finally, there was a TV show dedicated to Christ and His followers and their family members, showing just what could have happened during that time, when THEY were called to serve Him. It wasn’t easy then, nor is it any easier now. In fact, we know as per 📖Scripture it IS going to get worse! But we are getting amazing “what if” illustrations of how it very well could have been for them all back then, WITH many obvious 📖Scripture references wrapped around those very possible scenarios that Dallas and the writers chose to address to the viewers.
I thank God my Father for answering that prayer of mine (and so many others!) to make a show like The Chosen. It has drawn people BACK to their 📖Bibles, and more importantly, to their knees, having them look up and pray, repent, and ask the LORD God for forgiveness, and accept the Lord Jesus into their lives, finally having the 🕊Holy Spirit dwell within them. THAT, my family in Christ, IS the main reason why Abba said, “YES” to that prayer. He saw how many people that would come to Him via this series. It does not have to be perfect; it has been created by imperfect people, with imperfect writers, producers, cast and crew. And, every single viewer is also imperfect!
BUT, a PERFECT God oversees it all, to ensure that people ARE coming to Christ and His Word through it; and THAT is the miracle that keeps on happening every episode and in every season that has been made so far. Baruch HaShem for His chesed-lovingkindness!
May the LORD God keep blessing The Chosen, and using it to bring more people to His Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19:9)—that table WILL be filled, with people from every tribe, tongue, and nation, and we ALL will be able to cast down our crowns before Him (Rev. 4:10), Who is worthy to receive glory, and honor, and power (Rev. 4:11), because He has called EVERYONE to His Table. 🙏🏼✡️📖✝️✨
I saw a devotional this morning, that spoke about how we have peace with the LORD God when we are awake, but especially, when we lay down to sleep. It quoted Psalm 4:8, and the prayer taken from it that my Godmother Helen used to have us kids to say before we were put to bed each night when I visited my cousins—“Now I lay me down to sleep…”.
But the verse that stood out to me this morning was from Psalm 23:4. As I read the verse over and over again, the words “valley of the shadow of death” resonated within me. For David, who had many enemies, being under attack by his king, and even by his own son at one point, I can see how this Psalm poured out of his soul and onto paper.
I looked up the verse, and the specific word צלמות “salmavet”, which in Hebrew is “of the shadow of death”. It is also defined as “death-shadow” (of distress, extreme danger), “deep shadow”, and “deep darkness” (of place of the dead). Even though they are mostly used figuratively, I sense there is a more literal meaning of it than we would like to admit.
This world has become more and more “the valley of the shadow of death”. In fact, I dare say that literally walking in this world right now IS like walking through the “shadow of Death”—the same Death that is mentioned in Revelation 20:14–the Greek word for death being θάνατος = “Thanatos”, the name for the ancient Greek god of Death (in Rome, the god was “Mors”). Thanatos may sound familiar, since in recent years the Avengers movies had a supervillain character named “Thanos” which first appeared in the Marvel comics. He most certainly lived up to the name in those movies.
Some other Bible verses that include “the shadow of death” or the other definitions of it are in Psalm 107:10–“There were those who dwelt in darkness and in the shadow of death, Prisoners in misery and chains…” Boy, does that sound a lot like the people who basically are the “walking dead” on this Earth right now, who deny the very GOD who allows them to still have BREATH in their lungs.
Another verse is from Matthew 4:16 which is taken from Isaiah 9:2, “The people that walked in darkness (חשׁך)- kho-shek’, which means “darkness, obscurity”; “darkness”, “secret place”, “death”, “misery”, “IGNORANCE”—!, “sorrow”, “wickedness”. Hmm, very interesting how that is “figuratively” used, because the way our world is right now—actually, it has BEEN that way, but MOST of us have been ASLEEP, eating the “Lotus cookies” (some of you will 😉get that), busy with our own lives, not paying attention to what really has been going on in the world, both physically and SPIRITUALLY.
We human spirits have partaken in “panem et circenses”—“bread and circuses—a WHOLE lot of distraction from what has really gone on in this world—the work of the evil ones who “steal, kill, and destroy” (John 10:10)—the HUMAN PUPPET AGENTS of SATAN who have continued his work for millennia, because he vowed to himself to take as many with him as possible to the Pit and ultimately, to “the LAKE WHICH BURNETH WITH FIRE AND BRIMSTONE; which is the SECOND DEATH” (Rev. 21:8). That “second death” is WORSE than the first, because it is PERMANENT and ETERNAL.
WHAT needs to happen if one wants to avoid that “valley of the shadow of death”? You cannot avoid that, for WE ALL who are living ad breathing, are walking IN that valley right NOW—it is HERE on EARTH; it IS EARTH. Hence the reason why David wrote it the way he did, “Even though I WALK THROUGH the valley of the shadow of death”; David realized he was IN that valley throughout his lifetime. This entire life is about HOW to walk through that valley of death, misery, destruction, evil works, etc., and come out FROM it, with the help of the ONLY ONE Who can “deliver us from evil” (Matt. 6:13) that we see, hear, smell, touch, and taste of every single day of our lives. THAT Person is within the Eternal Triune Godhead—the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord Jesus DEFEATED Hell and Death (very real evil spirits) at the Cross, and OWNS the keys (Rev. 1:18)!! He is the ONLY ONE Who was RESURRECTED, and because of His victory at the Cross, as Paul stated in 1 Corinthians 15:55, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” The Lord Jesus has made a way back to the Father—the ONLY way, for He IS “the way, the truth, and the LIFE” (Jn. 14:6), and there is NO OTHER WAY out of eternal DARKNESS, the shadow of DEATH, or DAMNATION, except one who acknowledges Jesus as LORD and SAVIOR of their life (Romans 10:9-10,13).
If you want out of the “valley of the shadow of death”, you first must REPENT (Ez. 14:6; 18:30; Matt. 3:2; Mk. 1:15; Lk. 13:3,5; Acts 2:38; 8:22). The Lord Jesus warns once again of what will happen if people do not repent of their sins and wickedness: “Therefore, repent. If not, I will come to you SOON and war against them with the sword of My mouth” (Rev. 2:16). The “sword” IS His Word, and He, Jesus, IS THE WORD OF GOD.
SEEK the Lord and His Word out. BE HUMBLE and ASK Him to forgive you of your sins, and LIVE as a child of the King, Who WILL hold your hand and walk WITH you, “through the valley of the shadow of death” here, UNTIL the “appointed time” (Dan. 8:19; 11:35; Hab. 2:3; for Him to come back and “redeem His people” (2 Sam. 7:23; Job 5:20; Ps. 69:18; Is. 50:2; Jer. 15:21), and I will end with Hosea 13:14a: “I SHALL ransom them from the power of Sheol; I SHALL REDEEM them from DEATH…”
“And when He had spoken these things, while they beheld, He was taken UP; and a CLOUD received them out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward Heaven AS HE WENT UP, behold two men stood by in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand you gazing up into Heaven? THIS SAME JESUS, which is TAKEN UP FROM YOU into Heaven, SHALL SO COME IN LIKE MANNER as you have seen Him go into Heaven.” Acts 1:9-11
(The Apostle John writes) “And I saw Heaven opened, and behold a White Horse; and HE that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He does judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns; and He had a name written, that no man knew, but He Himself. And He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and His Name is called THE WORD OF GOD. And the armies which were in Heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of His mouth goes a sharp SWORD, that with it He should smite the nations: and He shall rule them with a rod of iron: and He treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He has on His vesture and on His thigh a Name written, “KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.” Revelation 19:11-16
Walking in the Dark with Faith 