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soon coming God has given us the Revelation warning. God's good purposes will be accomplished in as many lives as possible, may his warnings be heard, and may the grace of Jesus Christ bring salvation to the lost. God's total and complete knowledge of all future events; His ability to make these events come to pass; his love which drives him to warn us of them; and His peculiar people to whom He has made these events known are to be shared with the wise. May the Holy Spirit give us understanding and faith. This country’s true history is being revealed. Every aspect of turmoil that is happening is the consequence of failing to acknowledge God’s law and the ill-gotten gain accumulated through the evils done against God’s people. This country has sinned. God will not allow this place to persist in its pursuit of sin. He would be letting pain and suffering persist upon His people and the world. A holy and loving God can't and won't do this! We are in the very last day of this Babylon. The word of God tells us that this land shall be a land of immigrants and people of mingled racial descent. Think on how such was purposed by God ever before the first pair was created. God has begun the gathering of His temple people between the seas in His glorious holy mountain, His church; yet this place shall come to its end, and none shall help this nation with coasts on both oceans. Its destruction has begun from within. Its extensive seaports are failing, its wealth is no longer owned but borrowed, its government is no longer regarded in admiration. America’s military might is no longer invincible. Its self-policing is mired in hate for those considered lesser people. Her skies are no longer fortified. Its daily journals evade and malign truth. America’s forged birth certificate as a Christian nation has been uncovered as she has become a nation of religious confusion being led astray by political and religious leaders who have turned to cannibalism while promoting the occult. These liars have brought apostasy in every form conceivable. Its courts and educational institutions are filled with demonic spirits and are reprobative in all their considerations. But God’s love placed a people here to carry forth a most severe warning... Americans curse God and use his name in vain by the tens of millions everyday and rarely does anyone get worked up about it, but if someone doesn't stand during the pledge of allegiance or burns an American flag, people will come unglued. God’s word designated America as the dragon nation. God purposed Christopher Columbus to falsely claim America as an unoccupied and barren wilderness and he directed the Pilgrims to settle the new land. These were the first European types to travel here following the excursions of the people known as Vikings. There was the First National ready here who were first isolated in Asia before migrating from the disbursement of people through the Bering land bridge. But while America was still a youth, the occult invaded the land. As the seventeenth century drew to a close in this country, so enfeebled had the affluent christianity of the Puritans become, that the manifestations of Satan's power - occultism, witchcraft, demons at mischief - were coming out into the open. Witches began hanging out shingles, as it were, letting it quietly be known that they could cure warts and straighten toes and mix love potions, all white magic; the black magic - the hexing, the cursing, the spellbinding would come later. And the gullible, the unwary, the hopeless turned to this source of power, and more and more people began to come to so-called “knowing ones” for advice and counsel. This paganism is today a fast growing religion in America. A false god can be anything that you put faith in other than God. It can also be anything that keeps you from serving and obeying God. In America people have gods of wealth; millions of Americans have put their trust in wealth rather than in God. These people have movie star gods, sports star gods, golf gods, football gods, basketball gods, baseball gods, soccer gods, etc. Most of the nation is too busy with sports, entertainment or other worldly pleasures to worship the God of heaven. Americans don't trust in God, his dietary laws and his healing herbs for health; they trust in man-made drugs. By and large, Americans have made a god of their government, when they are stricken with disaster or misfortune, it is the government to whom most turn and in whom most put their trust, not in the God of heaven. They trust in their wickedness and knowledge. Today’s leaders within the world church are directed to not be so strict. To not be so narrow minded, to recommend that there are other truths in religion that lead to salvation. To be more open- minded – suggesting that perhaps your interpretation of scripture is wrong. They change their positions as to what is right according to the biblical way of living. People are in an “anything goes” mindset when it comes to faith, morals, values, and lifestyle. Americans are creating unique, highly customized worldviews based on feelings, experiences, and opportunities. Most people say that the objective of life is feeling good about yourself; that all faiths are of equal value; that entry into God’s eternal presence is determined by one’s personal means of choice; and that there are no absolutes to guide or grow them morally. America has never been “one nation under God.” This country has ridiculed the truth of God’s Word and called it pluralism. This country worships false gods and called it multiculturalism. This country has neglected to discipline its children and called it the building of self-esteem. It has polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. It has institutionalized perjury and deception in government and called it politically correct. The United States is a nation of knowledge, of higher education, of technology, and of science. It is the world's leader in scientific discovery, innovation, and invention. It leads the world in computer technology, manufacturing technology, construction technology, space and aeronautical technology, engineering, medicine, pharmaceuticals, etc. And she trusts more in her science and technology than most do in God and His word. They've taken creationism out of school and teach evolution instead. They hide and eliminate true history to deceive its citizens. They trust more in man's drugs than in Gods power to heal. They trust in their construction technology to protect them from the storm rather than obeying God and trusting Him to protect. They’ve built the most technologically advanced military in the world. They have aircraft carriers, nuclear subs, stealth jet bombers, nuclear missiles, cruise missiles, smart bombs, spy satellites, global communication, tanks, armored personnel carriers and body armor. They don't need God to protect them because they have the most advanced technology in the world. They have made science their God. The God of heaven says that Babylon's technology won't save her: “Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from me shall spoilers come unto her, saith the LORD.” Hasn't the America fortified her strengths in the heavens with its space, missile, satellite, and aircraft technology? God says that this won't make a difference when He brings his judgment upon America. In the church in America today there is every sin imaginable. As a nation, America has rejected God's commandments, both his moral and religious laws: over 95 percent have rejected His Sabbath; 87 percent have rejected the Ten Commandments; and 85 percent of Americans have rejected all moral absolutes. When one considers these statistics, it is amazing that 85 percent of Americans consider themselves Christian in contradiction to the fact that they have rejected God's law. Fornication, adultery, divorce, abortion, homosexuality and false doctrine are rampant in the church in America. Much of the church has embraced New Age occultism, they have rejected salvation by faith and many church leaders are declaring that Jesus Christ is only one of many paths to salvation. Church leaders are leading many astray today. The great multitude of sin in the church is largely a result of pastors who have failed to preach the truth, and/or have polluted and compromised the truth and/or who have lived a life of sin and debauchery as an example to their congregations. There is a famine of hearing God's pure uncompromised word in America. Many church leaders have also failed in the following areas: many in America are extortionists; many are engaged in adultery; a growing number are homosexuals; and we've got church leaders engaging in sexual abuse of children. Church leaders are compromising and corrupting the truth; they're declaring the commandments of God have been done away with; and they're teaching salvation by works. It is church leaders who are bringing the occult into the church; many are declaring that all religions are equally true and some are even declaring that they are gods and teaching their congregations to do the same. The history of this country’s besiegement of the rights of God's people, is a clear model of what America, the Babylon, will do to the people of God. Many government documents and court rulings have already identified truth believers as the enemy and government detention centers have already been set up. These detention centers aren't conspiracy theories or speculation, they're documented facts. The only speculation is the purpose for which they will eventually be used. God's word clearly reveals that these detention centers will be used for the incarceration of his people who do not accept the mark of the beast. The treasures in the temple were all carefully crafted according to God's design. They each represented certain truths from God's word and for his plan of redemption and plan of salvation. When these treasures were taken away and the ceremonies came to a halt, Gods truths were carried away with them. This is symbolic of the carrying away of the truth from God's church in America. There have been several attacks on biblical doctrine in public schools in America. First evolution began to be taught; then prayer was removed in 1962; the following year the Bible was removed; in 1968 a law requiring creationism as an alternate theory to evolution was declared unconstitutional and in 1980 the Supreme Court said the Ten Commandments had to be removed from the classroom. And now that the entire truth of history is being biblically and rationally unfolded the elimination of these courses is being government sponsored. When these truths were carried away from schools, they were carried away from society and in turn they no longer exist in a great many places of worship in America. The establishment of the one-world government, will also be responsible for the establishment of the one-world religion; both of these makeup the New World Order. The mark of the beast and the image of the beast will come about as a result of the one world state religion in the New World Order. Prophecy speaks to a particular of importance; it says that Babylon would be as when “God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.” Sodom and Gomorrah was burned by fire and brimstone but Babylon was never burned at all. The city of Babylon was taken in tact. Since this prophecy is not about ancient Babylon, it is obvious this prophecy is meant for the end-time Babylon - America. Babylon was filled with immigrants who would suddenly fight against her before her destruction. There are currently as many as 20 million aliens in America. The Immigration and Naturalization Service estimated that in 2003 there were 78,000 aliens from countries of ‘special concern’ due to the war on terrorism. Others have used the government's own statistics to show that the figure is actually closer to 150,000 undocumented immigrants from the Middle East. An estimated 115,000 immigrants are from China and 55,000 from Korea. Legal immigration between 1981 and 2002 amounted to over 18.5 million. Among these were over 1 million from former eastern bloc countries; 981,500 from the Middle East; 551,800 from Korea; and 931,100 from China. Prophecy has more truth...almost all of the continental United States is located south of 48º latitude and almost all of the former Soviet Union is located north of 48º latitude. This places Russia north of the US. The significance of this is that Jeremiah and Daniel prophesied that Babylon's destruction would come from the north. Prophecy says that along with this nation from the north will come an assembly of great nations from the coasts. China, North Korea, and Iran are coastal nations, and they are each hostile towards the US. The bible prophecy of Revelation says that Babylon’s destruction comes in one hour. The only possible way that the great nation of America could be destroyed in one hour is with nuclear missiles. Russia, China and North Korea have nuclear missiles and Iran is working on acquiring them. There is a sound of war in the land...great destruction! They are assimilating themselves into extinction. Watchfulness, not dispiritedness fostered by the mistaken notion that Christ's return must be far off in the future, must characterize the true believers constant posture. Observing the signs has a positive significance for life in the present. They serve as a reminder of God's call to watchfulness, holy living, and service to Christ. the signs of the end do not belong necessarily to the category of the extraordinary or spectacular. The exhortations to be watchful, given by Jesus and the apostles, presuppose that the signs will be a part of the ordinary course of history and therefore that discernment is necessary. Such discernment is also required, of course, in the case of the extraordinary; counterfeit "signs and wonders". One sign is the proclamation of the everlasting gospel to all nations. Another, divine judgments in nature. And another, increasing opposition to God. The most important sign – the carrying forth of the three angels’ message with particular and intense focus on the first angel’s message. It gives to our present age its primary purpose and significance. The period between Christ's two advents is preeminently the messenger age, the time when God graciously calls all people to choose to be saved, a time foretold by the prophets. Disruptions in nature are reminders of the fact that the present fallen world is under God's curse, but not yet His wrath. They are signals emphasizing the need for all sinners to repent. However, the people of God are urged to regard these signs as "birth pangs" of a time like nothing ever known and to take comfort in the fact that God promises to protect and preserve them in the midst of this suffering. The opposition of the world to the word of God is expected to increase in various persecutorial methods against God’s people prior to the end. We are called to endure in faith until the end. The bible predicts heightened persecution against God's people such as has not been since the beginning of the world. Consider the effect of truth on the end times. Learning the truth will challenge the misplaced feelings of peace, comfort, and security that most people have. But knowing the truth, living the truth, will cost everything in the last day. Everything will be fulfilled, everything will happen, what the prophets of God has announced...nothing will be cut off from their words. As we contemplate the time we’re in, our study of prophecy produces peace and hope in the heart of every believer. And remember, no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. God’s people must study the entire panorama of prophecy. Prophecy tells us that the intense pains of a dying world, cannot be avoided. This country is reverting to its founding roots...proposing legal edicts to mass murder human rights, to place in bondage preferred cultural and faith observant individuals. The court’s attitude is folding back to historical eras. Unwilling to hear and accept challenges pertaining to the status of certain groups. It has abdicated its duty to justice. Emerging tactics today are weakening the moral interests based on decisions of the political, educational, legal, and civil institutions. It can be concluded that these decisions together have served to entrench the interests of political incumbents and economic elites at the expense of isolated peoples living here, especially the multitude of immigrants of color, voluntarily here or forced to be here. There are two court sessions in play – the U.S. Supreme Court and the Supreme Being’s Court. The soundness of the Supreme Being’s Court differentiates truth from political, sociological, philosophical, and the “merely personal” preconceived opinions not based on reason or actual experience. The critical need for reform by this country has passed. Most of earth’s inhabitants parrot the world’s perspective, which is based on a humanistic philosophy that stands in direct conflict with God’s will as revealed in His Word. According to His Word, these have already fallen away and do not have the light. When the Supreme Court of the United States declared same- sex marriage to be a constitutional right, it was a slap in the face to the laws of God and man. It was a direct frontal assault on both religious freedom and the Constitution of the United States, undercutting the very foundations on which they claimed to stand. Every people will suffer under the very tyranny of the usurped authority of man. Some will suffer for righteousness sake while obeying God...others, choosing to obey man rather than God, will suffer the penalty of unrepentant sin. These lack the sound foundation of biblical truth. This nation is being cast into an abyss not to arise from. The overreach of the world’s governments have put every earthly country in great jeopardy, and in recent years it has divided the people of the world into factions instead of uniting them. Too much of the world looks like Sodom and Gomorrah. A growing chorus of nations are preparing seriously for war, and this is a very real probability to happen tomorrow. The Lord gave us His written Word so we could see the world, mankind, and ourselves as He does. To see as He does is to see the truth. As the Lord said through Isaiah the prophet, those who do not speak according to His Word do not have the light in them. We are in the time to expect that those who will be standing on the truth and wholly following the Lord will be paired down to a very small number. Some are waking up to the profound differences between what the scriptures actually say and what they have been told they say, often even by their own compromising pastors. This is the purpose of the first angel’s message. Regardless of how small a number the faithful become, their faithfulness will ultimately turn the tide. There will be a gospel sounded with a loud voice. As the divisions in this country become more clear and pronounced than ever, a great unity will grow in the small and persecuted company of the faithful. It is always worth it to stand on our convictions without compromise. We will also find out that those we did not think we had any common ground with will stand in Christ together with us. We will obey Him regardless of the consequences. Every soul to ever walk the earth are all similarly tried...by faith. The soon coming of the end will see many of our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ risk their lives every day to worship and obey Him. Now is the world’s people time to be tested. The hedge of this country is being removed. Its sowing is ready for reaping. We must not put limits on how long we will stand or what cost we will pay to stand for God and His truth. We do not just stand for truth because it is the truth, but because truth is what our God is. God’s truth will win, but for His own reasons. We know that the Lord often allows setbacks to test His people. Truth will win over all deception and lies, but we all may not get to see that in our lifetime; however, our life can help lead to this victory if we live by the truth. We stand because it is the right thing to do. The churches are dividing today. And its not upon theological questions. The sharp divide is because of political differences. And this marks the end of man’s government. The liberty of man is not safe in the hands of any church. The whole world is at an inflection point. Shattered peace in Europe has impacted stability everywhere, and reckless nuclear threats endanger the global non- proliferation regime. Autocrats are working overtime to undermine democracy and export a model of governance marked by repression at home and coercion abroad. A nation’s power springs from its people. And every people, in every land is divided. This is the first of the division spoken of by Jesus. Jesus gives some details as to how this division will look. He begins with a family in which, perhaps, two of the three children come to belief and are born spiritually. Maybe it is the mother and a child that believe. They may be able to hide their conversion for a while but soon a change in behavior will be seen by the other three and it will be determined by various means that they are believers. That will result in pressure from the three to encourage the two to denounce their faith and return to the religion of the family. Jesus details the division further by saying, “They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” This division can produce conflict that is severe enough to result in beatings and even in martyrdom. This persecution against believers is clearly not limited to family members but may involve neighbors or others who hear of someone becoming a believer. These may become so incensed over this spread of faithfulness that they in mob action act to remove the enemy from their midst. In many cases the government acts resulting in imprisonment and possible torture and in some cases death. Just as Jesus was hated and hung on a cross to die, so will his followers be persecuted in most areas of the world. The most bitterest division ever is nurtured in the dragon nation of America. Divisiveness based on politics, religion, ethnicity, group identity, gender preference, financial status, ignorance, education, and history. The truth to remedy all division...who is on the Lord’s side. For a time, God’s people were hedged here in the west, free of open persecution and not having to suffer the way our brothers and sisters do in other areas of the world. This was a place of God’s interest and blessing because of the message to be brought forth by His scattered Israel. This began with the loud cry of 1844. And our social experiences and purposes were prophesied in tables. America’s acts of aggression against other nations in its determination to retain and expand slavery and in pursuit of its “manifest destiny” to govern the continent from sea to sea showed it to be heaven-daring, soul-destroying, slave-holding, and a neighbor-murdering country. The gathering prophesy told of the woe to come upon this country. The United States was lamb-like only in its pretensions and surface appearance. This nation was founded not as a democracy but as a slavocracy. It was, it is, and will be the hypocrisy of independence. There is no mention of slavery in the final Declaration of Independence. When it came time to draft the Constitution, the framers carefully constructed a document that preserved and protected slavery without ever using the word. And this is the country that makes the case for freedom to the world? They did not want to explicitly enshrine their hypocrisy, so they sought to hide it. Their Constitution contains 84 clauses. Six deal directly with the enslaved and their enslavement, and five more hold implications for slavery. The words are dark and ambiguous; such as no plain man of common sense would have used, and are evidently chosen to conceal the long range plot to bring forth the 2025 Project. This is the sin that is America. Fifty-nine percent of Americans say they want to just start over. Corrupt practices are commonplace in this country. Americans prefer today a divided government. So called democracy in the US has become alienated and degenerated, and it has increasingly deviated from the essence of democracy and its original design. Problems like money politics, identity politics, disputing between political parties, political polarization, social division, racial tension and wealth gap have become more acute. All this has led to the failed functioning of democracy in the US. This world leading nation is gravely ill and so rooted in endemic racism that God purposed one who possesses power to manifest evil in the world through influencing people and commanding demons. This ideology, is reinforced not just by laws but by racist science and literature, maintained that “other” people are lesser in being. This is the belief that allows designated Americans to live with their betrayal. How wonderful are the purposes of God. It was the bondage in Egypt that brought forth a nation chosen by God and it is the continual bondage in this Egyptian styled land from which the peculiar people of God will be made Israel. Faithful believers who commit themselves to following God’s laws could expect trouble, persecution, and even death for those who resist religious laws as well as civil statutes. Its churches coercive tendencies are all upheld by the laws of the land. They are oppressive when possessed of civil power. Look at its Declaration of Independence and its Constitution; and then look at its institution of slavery, the darkest and most condemning sin upon this abyss of a nation, and its laws of continual bondage, look at the religious intolerance, the corruption and oppression existing throughout this land. But will our faith grow strong eror weaker as a result? Are we willing to suffer and possibly die for our faith? When we face persecution would we be willing to risk our life to keep the bibles we have? Do you think you would grow spiritually, or do you think you would instead deny your faith? The soon coming is the end. Nothing has changed concerning the true nature of this country and the warnings found in Revelation still remain pertinent. It is still vital to live out an unwavering allegiance to God, realizing that this will bring disfavor and even negative sanctions as we follow scriptural injunctions to be inclusive in our love. Faithfulness to the call to be a true “son” of God, one who reflects His image by modeling his inclusive love, sometimes means breaking with social conventions and even national laws. It means not being caught up in the nationalistic impulse which encourage others to put the welfare of America above the well-being of the rest of the world. It does mean denying America’s claims to be pure, innocent, and “Christian,” while telling the truth about the underside of America’s practices: its willingness to oppress religious groups and races that it sees as a threat to its goals, to deny equal rights and respect to minority groups, to pursue wealth at the expense of the poor and vulnerable both at home and abroad, deport undocumented immigrants back to certain death in their countries of origin, as well as many other sins. We must still recognize that the nation’s vaunted Christianity and Republicanism will not restrain its punitive response to defiance of its policies. The vast majority of American churches at the denominational level, both Roman Catholic and Protestant, are still joining hands in an effort to force their systems of belief on the nation through the changing of laws. They preach that the financial setbacks, natural disasters, and various tragic events America has recently suffered are God sent as punishments for departing from bible law. They teach that the heavy hand of God’s discipline will not be removed until the laws of the nation are consistent with God’s laws, as they perceive them to be, and enforced. America is beginning to experience its demise. It is too far gone to be redeemed by mercy. There’s a reason God gave us the first three verses in the Revelation. That we might discover in our investigations of Revelation 13 and 14 the true perspective of American realities. We must commit to living out our calling as messengers of God’s love recognizing that our purpose is that of proclaiming His truth. The overwhelming signs of the last part of story include the weakness of democratic values among key elite groups and the general public; severe economic setbacks, which will intensify social conflict and enhance the popularity of remedies that could be imposed only by authoritarian governments; social and political polarization, often produced by leftist governments seeking the rapid introduction of major social and economic reforms; the determination of conservative middle-class and upper-class groups to exclude mainstream and leftist movements and lower-class groups from political power; the breakdown of law and order resulting from terrorism or insurgency: intervention or conquest by a nondemocratic foreign power: triggering the collapse or overthrow of democratic systems in this and other countries. The world is witness to a global economic collapse, the dangerous increase of Iran’s nuclear power capabilities, Israel’s facade as God’s people and revealing their moral and spiritual corruption, China’s quest for world dominance, the skyrocketing rate of suicide, the rising threat of socialism, the anarchy spilling into the streets, the attack on this nation’s capital, and the mounting death toll due to the coronavirus. God’s true people will be comforted in the prophetic scriptures, which confirm that God is still on His throne and will reign in power and glory. The prophetic scriptures shout from every book in the bible. We may be sojourners in this strange land, surrounded by foreign faces, hearing unfamiliar voices, witnessing hordes of people worshiping pagan gods. We have a choice to either focus on dire circumstances or stand with the God of our fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and His Word. God wants us to understand why He does what He does. There is a vast difference between knowing about God and actually knowing who God is. When we personally know God and have a close relationship with Him, we can better understand what He does and why He does it. God’s people must anoint their eyes. They must have the mind of Christ knowing when and how, if at all, to answer accusers. America knows about God, but a vast number has no comprehension of God’s character. The Supreme Being of the bible is a God of majesty, wisdom, truth, love, and grace, and He is jealous over His children. He is also a God of judgment and wrath, and He does not change. Nothing can alter the character of God. He will judge sin, He will finish His work. What He planned in eternity, He will carry out in time. God’s people must anoint their eyes. 📖 Applying the Study For ongoing spiritual encouragement and prophetical insights, visit Higher Learning.

covenant faith Please allow me to peak your inquiry into what we read, and may I begin with this, hoping that you feel no shock or disdain in this day and age of political correctness…God made a racial choice in His forming man and He made a divine choice concerning the exclusivity of God’s covenant with His people. God shows His people their own particularity that they may affirm God. God began with man being created with the privilege of bearing His image, not His color, for no amount of intelligence can determine what, are even if, God has color seeing as how God is a Spirit. The mention of physical differential appears with Isaac and Rebekah’s sons. All were to share their mental and spiritual faculties with God. This is why we must understand the covenant that we may better understand the word of God. God created man that confirms that God is God. And life is to confirm His righteousness. It is for a certainty that Adam and Eve were ethnically generic and in God’s wisdom and in God’s time He would do that which serves His purposes for the creation that gives Him pleasure. If we only knew what God has in store for us. I pray that our consciences are clear with God not allowing any human prejudices to depreciate the power to love as Jesus loves. But our conversation around the covenant of God must be inclusionary of all diversity resulting from the ministry of Jesus Christ who died for all. Do not allow shades to move us away from the ultimate mission assigned. Not all will conform to the will of God to receive of the benefit. It is in our faith in God’s covenant promises that all injustice is repaired. Jesus’ presence is power and we pray that our descriptor is that we are one with him. God’s covenant does not make us like a new Adam…it is designed to make us like the last Adam, transformed by the word of God. What is that like…the new covenant finds its fulfillment in Jesus Christ who is the true seed of Abraham, the true Son of God. The new covenant promise of forgiveness of sins is fulfilled in Jesus himself, and thus he pours out his Spirit on his people so that they are enabled to do God’s will. God’s covenant addresses the two greatest measures of life in our day; SIN and racial conflict. God in His unsurpassed and infinite wisdom resolves both measures in the divine purpose we learn from the twin births of Esau and Jacob. In God’s wisdom His people find great courage and comfort. God’s wisdom knows ALL things and He foreknew ALL things before there was ever anything. The covenant sharpens our definition of God’s wisdom and shows its relevance in our lives today. Everything must be considered in the wisdom of God. God could have created a “tree of wisdom” instead of the ”tree of the knowledge of good and evil”. We learn tree of good and evil from God’s word that wisdom is not “knowing good and evil, wisdom is knowing good from evil”. It is disobedience that causes us to know evil. And what was evil became good in their eyes. Then, after experiencing through disobedience what was thought good became evil. Nakedness was good until disobedience. Walking with God was good until disobedience and hiding from Him was sought. They were tempted to be like God, knowing good and evil. Their sin became like Satan’s…trying to be like God. Sinning can never by any way make man like God. The tree was created because God wanted Adam and Eve to be wise concerning what is good and aware of what is evil. Creation was to be the lesson book for God’s people. Wisdom is a “tree of life”. God’s covenant, when obeyed, gives life. God’s wisdom is revealed through His covenant of faith with Israel. God promised Abraham that in him, in his seed, all the nations of the earth would be blessed. It seems this would have taken place through the entire world, but history makes it clear the world will not be subject to God and will persistently resist and rebel against God. It was not through the plural seed of Abraham that God brought about the blessing of the world, but through the seed singular of Abraham - Jesus Christ. This is why we are in awe of the covenant of God. God brings about what He has promised in ways we could never imagine or even believe if we were told in advance. God’s wisdom is seen in His dealings with Israel as demonstrated in two manner of people. God’s wisdom is realized in Christ. God’s purpose was a mystery. Christ’s first coming resolved the mystery of the seed. And God’s eternal purpose is to reveal His wisdom to the celestial beings as well as to His people on earth. God is still accomplishing His purpose, which will culminate in the establishing His covenant in His people and the second coming of His Son. When this purpose and program is completed, the full scope of God’s wisdom will have been revealed, and this wisdom will be revealed as so great it will provide the fuel for the praise of God throughout all eternity. God promised to bring salvation and blessing not only to the chosen people but also to the Gentiles who believe. He promised a Savior who was a man, the seed of Eve and of Abraham and of David, but also One who was the divine Son of God. It is this lengthy mystery that will assure that sin will never again come to be. It is the privilege of the covenant that effectuates the marvel of the wisdom of God in saving us. Before God begins this talk with us let us place our hearts and souls where we know we are now in God's perfect timing. It is His timing that grows our faith as we are obliged to wait and trust in God and His timing makes certain that He, and He alone, gets the glory and praise for pulling us through the time that we may be fashioned without sin. Psalms 31:15 God’s covenant was very explicit in stating the promise to Abraham that God would have a visible people made forever perfect through sanctification and is made able to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. And the bible sanctions this promise. Hebrews 10:14-19 Revelation 7:3, 4 These are not the total number of Abraham’s descendants, but are a very elect group from among that number who will in the latter times have a special mission to fulfil. Revelation 12:17 Revelation 14:1, 4, 5 Let’s move to the light that the shadows be not seen. This “better” covenant… Isaiah 42:1, 6, 7 The “new covenant” is not just a promise waiting to be fulfilled but a person who embodies its fulfillment. God’s covenant word is the Word made flesh. Thus, from Adam through Noah, from Abraham through Moses, and from David to Christ, to his elect, God’s people are being defined, united, and shaped through an ever renewing and developing covenant bond. God’s covenant promises have been unveiling since He clothed Adam and Eve. Genesis 3:21 Notwithstanding their sin, God cares. These coats of skin had a significancy. The beasts whose skins they were must be slain, slain before their eyes, to show them what sin cost, to show them what death is. It was as though they were slain for sacrifice, to typify the great sacrifice, which, in the latter end of the world, should be offered once for all. Their admonition for having committed sin: the first thing that died was a sacrifice, or Christ in a figure, who is therefore said to be the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The sacrifice did no wrong, but clothed the sinner. They put on the Lord Jesus. The New Covenant comes into focus whenever the Lamb and his blood are mentioned in the bible, and it speaks to a new relationship with God. According to Revelation, God will be faithful in fulfilling His promises to Israel. God’s word offers priority of clear texts over private interpretation and priority of spiritual illumination over obscure conjecture. Why say this…let’s reason brothers and sisters…we accept the truth that the 144000 are of Israel as biblically stated. Now read in Galatians… Galatians 3:26-29 The descendants of Abraham; Ishmael, Isaac, Keturah’s offspring and their bearing, Esau’s descendants, Jacob and all his bearing, and where there was faith in Christ that proceeded Abraham – Adam, Abel, Noah, and the other faithfuls, these are that innumerable great multitude. Everyone represented by Jesus, the ideal king and Israelite, is considered part of true Israel and therefore shares in the blessings promised to Abraham. Yet not all of Abraham’s physical seed belonged to his spiritual seed. Some became the synagogue of Satan. Revelation 7:9 spiritual seed The identification is evident…count the stars. Revelation 2:9; 3:9 Jeremiah 31:31-34 Hear the complete fulfillment of the new covenant. For none to need being taught implies that such a condition as this can only exist after the binding of Satan. Does the new covenant bind to Revelation? The new covenant is stated prophetically as the ongoing relationship between true believers and God that will be in full fruition in the end of days. The connection between the blood of Christ and the new covenant is the power of that mediation that Jesus is finishing in the heavenly sanctuary. There will be the occasion when Jesus finds no fault with them. Daniel 9:27 This new covenant is designed to break the curse of sin from that first brought through Adam…for the judgment proceedings will be complete before Christ returns…it is purposed to return us to the image of God. This spiritual Israel is based on the faith of the patriarch Abraham even before he was circumcised who was ministered by the Melchizedek priesthood, which is understood to be the type of the believers’ faith in Jesus Christ. As there is no precedence to Melchizedek, there is no precedence to Christ, and neither will there be precedence to God’s final living people. They are people of the promise. These have salvific knowledge of the word and have no need to be taught of the ways of the Lord, they lack need for exhortation regarding reconciliation with God. These will show there to be no abrogation of the law. These will evidence by emphatic declaration of the immutability of the covenant. These are now reckoning with sin. These show the new covenant to be present reality. Abraham, Sarah, Ishmael, Isaac, Rebekah, Esau, Jacob…these players and their characters are all in place in God’s plan. And as it is the covenant of God that establishes His people, the question is where are we? Let’s look at the covenant particulars with Abraham and with Jacob. Genesis 12:1-3 Genesis 28:13-15 There is not only the land promise and the promise of numerous descendants, but also the promise that God will be with Jacob wherever he goes. This is God’s presence that is the final fruit of the covenant relationship. This is God’s presence with the scattered of Judah. Because God has undertaken to be our God, He will do that for us which will answer the compass and vast extent of our engagement as He orders and disposes what is best fitted for our deliverance. Whether God lengthens or shortens, embitters or sweetens, as He pleases, our confidence must be according to the counsel of His determination, His will. The highly controverted discourse of Esau and Jacob was prophetic in its consequential revealing of the purpose of God’s covenant. Throughout the bible, God relates to His people through His covenant. It is through this covenant relationship, which serves as the foundation for God's promise to bring redemption to His people, that we can understand the advancement of His kingdom. As passions of violence have been released upon God’s scattered people, against humanity, our most powerful response must be to counter with a passionate revolution of purpose, with greater passion and drive than that which the wicked wages against us. The covenant, if believed in, and adhered to, will purpose us with the will of God, as is the truth of God, through the spiritual faith that is of Christ. Spiritual faith involves the recognition of a belief that there is something greater than ourselves, something more to being human than mere sensory experience, and that the greater whole of which we are part is divine in nature…and the opening of the heart is an essential aspect of true spiritual faith. And so, our brothers, sisters, and friends to the east, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon will be brought into the covenanted faith in Jesus Christ. In this covenant faith is found forgiveness, God making us perfect in Jesus, God’s will done in us, our inward journey, our unique and distinct purpose, our reward. God’s covenant is not brought forth to coerce or manipulate, but to be freely received with the faith of reason. And this faith is centered in love for God, so it strives to act as God wills and is, therefore, manifested in more than just words but also in our respondent actions. And because the enemy of all righteousness accuses us, the function of our faith must be related to the covenant of God. The covenant discussed is our commitment of believing God's promises, trusting in His faithfulness, and relying on God's character and faithfulness to act. All the while accepting, receiving, and resting upon Christ alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life. The purpose of this covenant is to authenticate our change in character and conduct based on the person of Jesus and his work of atonement accomplished through his death on the cross and his work in the most holy. What does this display to every observer? That our works alone do not have any value for obtaining a positive final judgment, but that a positive final judgment depends on faith alone in what Christ will conclude according to the origin of things in God. Think on the incredible implications of this question… Luke 18:8 What responsibilities do God’s covenant people have to the nations of the world? Faith gone from earth! If not for God’s covenant promises…for it is the covenant of God that moves us from human faith to the faith of Jesus Christ. What precisely is this human faith to the faith of Jesus? Human faith is that demonstrated in the courtyard. It is our expression of belief that leads to imputed righteousness. But all to often this belief falters and we must again return to the courtyard to again confess that which we have not totally forsaken. But the faith of Jesus is just that, as his righteousness is imparted unto us and our spirit is commended unto God, our faith is now in what God can and will do for us; heal us, answers to our prayer, we receive of His blessings, deliverance in a trial, guidance in a difficult decision, and, most importantly, receiving salvation. Obedience to the law of God is purposed in the covenant and yet covenant faith reaches beyond the law. The purpose of the law has never been to forgive sin or bring justification, no law could do this. This is what the covenant blood of Christ is for, and it is why mankind needs a Savior. The two-fold purpose of the law is to point out sin that we might know the wrong and then to point us to Jesus Christ that we might do the right. Establish this thought in your mind; it is covenantal carelessness that brought forth hatred between the two manner of people, a very unusual birth, a birth that was so different that Isaac favored the oddity, and God determined this would bring forth some very ungodly actions, and where we are embarrassed to think of these people as our spiritual ancestors. Although the texts about Jacob and Esau are ostensibly speaking about individuals, each brother represents an ethnic group. Let’s better reason with God concerning the 2520. Leviticus 26:40 The iniquity of our fathers??? How are we accountable? Isaac must have trembled violently with great force as reality dawned upon him. As covenant head and father, he gave the blessing, so full and rich, to someone not his firstborn son, Esau. The deed is done; the word had been spoken, and that oral contact was now legally binding by covenant. No turning back now. Isaac tells Esau concerning Jacob, his brother - “I blessed him…and indeed he will be blessed.” This is God’s reality. How the truth is handled establishes our standing with God. Proverbs 19:21 The enormity of our faithlessness in the covenant promises of God is reflected in this pathetic scene. Reason with the word of God. Hebrews 12:16, 17 We are to reject all ungodliness…all ungodliness…all ungodliness! Esau and his descendants would prove to be the prime example of this. He sold his birthright, despising it, rejecting his high calling, privilege, but also his important responsibility. Yet he wanted the material prosperity. In other words, he wanted all the benefits of God’s kingdom but none of the serious effort. Does this sound familiar in our day as well? Esau had forfeited his claims to the blessing, but he retained a strong sense of entitlement. Here is where covenantal faith will always place us in the presence of God. Please hear this; Esau could have enjoyed God’s blessing if he had submitted to God’s will. Jacob has the great patriarchal blessing. If Esau had submitted to Jacob, thanked the Lord for His guiding hand, and lived in obedience to God’s will from then on, he could have enjoyed the Lord’s goodness in the ascendancy of Jacob. In God allowing Isaac to bestow a blessing upon Esau, Isaac uses many phrases from his earlier blessing to Jacob, but now they have a slightly different nuance. The land of Edom would not be as fertile as Canaan would be. The Edomites would be forced to submit to the Israelites, but they would fight back, often revolting against Israel and living in the utmost hatred toward the Israelites. This “blessing” indicates that the Edomites, Esau’s children, would not be a weak nation, but in the end, they would always be a restless nation. What began in the conflict of Esau and Jacob continues…bitterness, disappointment powered by hatred can grow roots that sink into the soul. Weeds are easy to uproot when they first appear, but if weeds are neglected and are allowed to grow, the roots sink deeper into the soil, and weeds become more difficult to spiritual weeds become difficult to uproot uproot. The same is true with the roots of hatred. Genesis 27:41 Esau hates Jacob. Notice that Esau does not identify Jacob as “my enemy”, but he calls him “my brother.” We clearly hear an echo of the Cain and Abel story and even an echo of Ishmael and Isaac’s conflict. In Genesis chapter 4, we read that two brothers are divided by God’s righteous favor as well as unrighteous jealousy and hatred against the other. Cain killed righteous Abel in cold blood. Esau prepares to do the same to Jacob, the man whom God loves in His covenant. God loves Jacob, not on the basis of Jacob’s actions, but on God’s own sovereign choice, His own mercy. With covenant faith must come the reasoning with what God reveals. God had shown to both Isaac and Rebekah the early rising of the faithlessness of Esau. Genesis 26:34, 35 And even yet did Esau show contempt for the rites of the covenant. Genesis 28:6-9 Esau’s descending character has left his people so “spiritually stunted” that the fostered hatred exists in ways yesterday and today that show direct conflict with God’s truths. Jesus descended from Jacob. Who sought to kill him? Is Herod descended from Esau’s lineage? Obadiah 10 Esau himself never knew that his descendants would claim to be the superior race over all humanity, and in the name of white supremacy would commit such inhumane atrocities. The book of Obadiah explains in detail the fate of Edom, and how he will eventually pay for his sins, pride and atrocities against humanity but especially against his brother Jacob, the chosen one, to whom he is a servant. Numbers 24:14-24 Amalek was the leader among Esau’s princes. This is talking about the Byzantine Empire. It controlled the Mediterranean Sea. Chittim is plural. God is trying to point to all of the Islands on the Mediterranean Sea and their coastlines. God is describing the Byzantine Empire, the ancient name for Cyprus. Lamentations 4:21, 22 THE LAND OF UZ is Armenia. Genesis 32:3; 36:8, 9, 21 Esau is the ancestor of the Edomites who live on Mount Seir, southwest of Judah. Ezekiel 35:15 Present day Esau, which is Edom, which is Idumea. Genesis 14:6: 36:21 Now let’s follow the word and see what we resolve… God has declared this about His name. Psalms 138:2 How very careful then should we be to give diligent heed to His written word. It is, therefore, of the utmost importance that we become acquainted with the genealogy of the Gentiles, who are Esau, or Edom. What does God declare? Obadiah 9, 18 God confirms this… Genesis 36:9, 12 Numbers 24:20 Amalek was son of Eliphaz, and grandson to Edom or Esau. If these words of God be true we cannot, and should not, spare any pains, however great, in order to ascertain who Esau, or Edom, is. The Spirit of God identifies Edom with Babylon. Psalms 137:7, 8 We will see this verse again. It means to make bare or destroy the Temple. Chaldea, or Babylon, was re-established by Assyria. Isaiah 23:13 Ezekiel 12:13 Ezra 5:12 The Assyrian empire embraced the country on both sides of the Tigris. Babel, was founded by Nimrod. Genesis 10:9, 10 The Assyrians descended from the Caucasus, conquered and destroyed Jerusalem. II Kings 17:1-6; 18:9-11 The bible tells us that Babylon conquered Assyria and Medo-Persia conquered Babylon and Greece conquered Medo-Persia. And plucking from Greece history identifies a “little horn” becoming the Roman Empire. Could Rome be “Mystery Babylon” Mother of Harlots? Revelation 17:3-6 Luke 3:1 From the east Rome, peopled all the west; first Italy, France, Germany, England and America. Christianity became the established religion, under Constantine; hence Babylon, Edom, Rome, and Christianity are synonymous. Remember, the Edomites sided with the Babylonians. Psalms 137:1, 7-9 Because of these bearings Esau is historically typed as the ancestor of Rome. Thus, we can begin to reason with the “new covenant”. We can see how this relevancy makes the most powerful nation in the world (Rome) into one that fears, or at least respects, the God of Israel. Moreover, the “real” battle in this world is one between Rome and Judah, i.e., between Esau and Jacob. Oh how wonderful is the covenant power of God to reverse the hatred of Esau for Jacob to reconciliation and the final gathering unto God by us in the last day. So, when the Babylonians were to destroy the temple, it was Esau/Edom who took advantage of that fall, establishing the Roman Empire, and chased away the remnant of Israel, who fled to West Africa in which was the end of them being a nation. The Edomites, the Roman elite then converted the Ottoman Turks, their fellow Edomites to Judaism, replacing the vast black Hebrews with imposter Jews who hated Jesus. We are aware that the Southern Tribes of Israel were in Africa in 1747 AD and the historical maps prove the Tribe of Judah and Benjamin were in Africa. I believe the word of God presents a case of mistaken identity today among those who say they are Jews but are the Synagogue of Satan. Are Jacob’s descendants not living in the United States of America today? Is there a difference between African Hamites and Black Israelites? Why are there historical maps, which prove the Transatlantic Slave Trade was responsible for the scattering of the Southern Tribes of Israel? It is in the covenant that God gives us the genesis of the revelation. This is the continual covenantal truth of the faith of expectation. It is understood as “confident expectation.” It is looking to the future with confidence because God is a faithful provider of all that we need. There is motivational power in one's expectations when the word of God shows itself to be all truth. God isolates faith, which means “trust,” or “confidence,” as the single most important element of relationship with Him. How does covenant faith show Jesus in us…trust is best evidenced by the life of Jesus Christ, who did all he did by way of his unflagging trust in his heavenly Father. Ephesians 4:22, 31, 32 Restorative justice, through sacred reconciliation on the part of Jacob in his wrestling with God is our admonition in the last day…are we people of the covenant by faith whereby our birthright comes directly from our God? God chooses His people because He can…He is God…and God showcases His sovereignty, His power, His love in fulfilling His promises how He so determines. The full enfolding of the covenant will not be done in this natural temporal domain, yet we are the people in this time, this place, and this situation where God’s will can truly be accomplished...in earth as it is in heaven. We must “faith the truth”. God’s truth supersedes worldly facts. And faith-full actions can change the world. The time is nearing where God’s people will have the courage to know the hopelessness of circumstances and yet remain expectant that God will provide a way. Christ knew he was to die on the cross and hope did not present his coming forth, yet he expected his Father’s acceptance that had been given him. SOP - Amid the awful darkness, apparently forsaken of God, Christ had drained the last dregs in the cup of human woe. In those dreadful hours He had relied upon the evidence of His Father’s acceptance heretofore given Him. He was acquainted with the character of His Father; He understood His justice, His mercy, and His great love. By faith He rested in Him whom it had ever been His joy to obey. And as in submission He committed Himself to God, the sense of the loss of His Father’s favor was withdrawn. By faith, Christ was victor. {DA 756.3} This covenant perspective thrills our hearts because we realize that we have been caught up into Christ’s grand, ages-long project. It gives us a sense of identity—we know our roots. It brings us a sense of stability. Faith, is not a power in itself, nor of merit to us; it requires an object, someone or something to trust in. Faith points us to God who is the object of our faith, but to trust Him we must know something about Him, that is, His character and His promises. It is in God’s covenant that we find the transcript of His character as written in the law and it is in our obedience to His commandments that we find the sureness of His promises. And Jesus Christ is the all of God’s promises. That is why we must have the faith of Jesus; he knows the way, he is the way. God’s words prove that He has every resource necessary to do all that He promises. The new covenant 11fingered in the heart, in the mind, is struck by flint; faith with no compromise, love with no compromise, obedience with no compromise. God’s covenant signifies that Christ will never have to do it again. we know our roots 📖 Applying the Study For ongoing spiritual encouragement and prophetical insights, visit Higher Learning.

Know Thyself God wants us to know Him. God has placed a desire in our hearts to know him. We are uniquely made to give the Holy Spirit sanction to search our heart. Knowing God is a profound privilege. And the only way we can know ourselves is to know God’s Son. God wants us to be secure in His love and in ourselves. And it is by the Holy Spirit that we have a deep sense of self before the Father. The Holy Spirit uses the scriptures to be our spiritual telescope with which we can look deeply into ourselves. The scripture is a series of narratives disclosing the relationships between God and His people. It is for us to discern what the implications are for us, and then to listen to what is for us and how we should respond. The scriptures were not only written to us, but they were also certainly written for us. We are to know what the Father has given us to do as did Jesus. We are individuals, uniquely important to God and His purposes for the world. Consider God’s creative work in us up to the present. We are to know who we are in our true self. And we are to know the living God. God has made us as whole people in His image. That image includes physical, spiritual, emotional, intellectual and social dimensions. We are to become holy in character, become like Christ. Everything is valuable for the purpose it serves. Nothing is valuable by itself, except the one content of everything which we call the Omnipresence of the Lord. And we cost God everything. That is the only thing that is important by valuables itself. All the other things are valuable for the purpose they serve and any purpose is valuable only when it serves the purpose of God-awakening in us. The value to God of his people knowing themselves is that it allows for a deeper relationship with Him, as understanding one's own strengths, weaknesses, and motivations enables a more authentic approach to faith, leading to greater humility, repentance, and personal growth, ultimately reflecting a closer connection to God's love and grace; essentially, "knowing yourself" is seen as a key step towards "knowing God”. Herein is the reasoning to recognizing the potential for self-deception as it highlights the need to seek God's wisdom in understanding ourselves. It is how we are to examine ourselves, to know whether we be in the faith; able to prove our own selves as not just us how that Jesus Christ is in us. We say self must die. Self-dying is not a final act. It is coming to self-knowledge. Understanding our own awareness, thoughts, beliefs, assessments, our merits, and behaviors as they are to reveal Christ working in us. It's about discovering ourselves in God. Our identity should never be based on a hope or a guess. God gave us His Word, the bible, so we can know Him and know who He is making us to be in Him. God’s word should fulfill our consciences so as to associate self-discovery, self-expression, and self-actualization. There is purpose to God wanting His people to know who they are. Having self-awareness gives us the power to influence outcomes by our choices; helps us become better decision-makers and gives us more self-confidence. We can communicate with clarity and intention, which allows us to understand things from multiple perspectives. It frees us from assumptions and biases and makes truth the only thing spoken in love, helping us make spiritual sense of our experiences. We earnestly study to understand ourselves within a larger context of just being. This involves practices like meditation, mindfulness, connecting with nature, and examining our significance to discern our deeper purpose and connection to something beyond ourself, allowing us to live more faithfully and with greater meaning as we give full attention to every present moment without judgment. Reliance upon our spiritual senses; the conscience, which is an inherent sense of right and wrong; intuition, a sense of God’s revelation, knowledge, and wisdom; and communion, a sense of God’s presence, orients us to that higher purpose or significance, that connection, that “something” that gives us a higher perception of reality. Our expressions are honest and sincere while reflecting kindness and compassion, essentially conveying important information while maintaining a caring and respectful attitude towards others, signifying a genuine connection built on both uprightness and empathy. As we come to know ourselves, we transcend the material realm and human comprehension. Knowing thyself is life-giving; it is a source of consciousness; it has intention and purpose; it connects us to all beings, it is connects us to all beings an aspect of our deepest essence. Knowing ourselves involve constituting ourselves as a spiritual subject. Seeing ourself as being a soul having a spiritual nature, and nurturing our soul - to consider that the dimension of reality that is often called “spiritual” is the most important part of who we are. This is God’s grace allowing us to construct ourselves when self dies. We come to Christ with an eternal mind, nurturing our spirituality in a specific way - as someone who is engaged in self-transformation, discovering or attaining our essence as being more than mortal flesh, and living in, interacting with, and aligning ourselves to a heavenly bearing that extends deeper and beyond the immediate materiality of the world as it appears to the humanly senses. We have access to full meaning truth. The key idea here to knowing ourselves is that spirituality is a search for truth, and that this search involves a process of transformation of oneself. Spirituality is an access to truth that comes through self-transformation rather than through the accumulation of knowledge. We move away from ordinary life. We have a quest toward truth and its ultimate meaning. Our life now involves knowing the spiritual sense of our whole self. Knowing our intention through trust in God. He knows we are to live our lives daily. He sent His son to die for us that we might live for him, allowing God to use us and our uniqueness - to do His work. We have a better perspective on who we are and how God continued humanity in us for His purposes. T o know thyself is to know that we do not measure up to the qualifications for God’s love. That we don’t measure up to being perfect. But to know thyself does mean that we are the recipients of His grace and mercy! That mercy, that grace, is at work as we run through the filter of God’s word to bring us filter of God's word to God in the righteous perfectness of Jesus Christ. To know thyself grants us sight of how God and His word are our framework and foundation for worth and worthiness in the plan of God. Know thyself is written in every scripture. The omnipresence of God teaches us that He is not ashamed of being present in His created beings. It is this quality that makes Him God, and it is the absence of this quality that makes us human beings. We are made in His image, we are expected to imitate God and fill up the gap. We are to behave in the terms He behaves, so that we may not be ashamed of the testimony of Jesus. To do this, we go through a process of knowing what is 'I am', and what is not 'I am'. That is the difference between the 'self' and the 'non-self'. So, we start with ourselves hearing the admonition of the ancients warning us…"know thyself." Know thyself means, 'know God'. We should know ourselves as in God, existing in God, coming from God and going into God. This is Jesus calling for us to be “one”. To know thyself is to know that our creation is an opportunity, not a privilege. We are to make the best use of time, of life. Let us transcend to the height time of use to understand God’s reason for us to know ourselves. Jesus came in the fulness of humanity and the fulness of divinity. He came to be that example for man that we may be restored to the image and likeness deemed to us at creation. We are to understand both humanity and divinity in regard to our purposes. The word of God counseling us to know thyself is considered important because it allows us to understand our strengths, weaknesses, and motivations, which in turn enables us to better align our lives with God's will, make informed decisions, and grow spiritually by addressing areas where we need to change or develop further; essentially, by understanding who we are at our core, we can better serve God and live a life that reflects His image. He who does not know himself does not know God either. And he who does not know God does not know the truth and the nature of things in general… He who does not know himself continually sins against God and continually moves farther away from Him. Self-knowledge is one of our foremost duties. We were made a being of lofty rank and has been destined to become like God, in Whose image we were determined, and a participant in divine goodness and blessedness. But in order to become a divine likeness, good and blessed, and to commune with God, we must first of all know ourself. Without self-knowledge we go astray in our thoughts, we are dominated by diverse passions, tyrannized by violent desires, troubled about many and vain things, and lead a disorderly, distracted life, erring in all things, wandering on the way, staggering at every step; and we stumble, fall, and are crushed. We drink every day potions of sorrow and bitterness, fill our hearts with grief, and live an unbearable life. We must learn to be concerned about things eternal. There is in us the power of self-knowledge – being a spiritual and morally free being, having free will and the power of knowing. But in order to acquire perfect knowledge of ourselves, we must first will, and then move toward self-inquiry and make ourselves an object of study. Without willing, none of the things that ought to be done can be done. The faculty of the will, strengthened by the faculty of reason, and that of free choice and self-control, overcomes all obstacles and succeeds in everything: ‘I will’, becomes, ‘I can’, in us, that acts with knowledge and freedom. We ought to will, to know ourself, to know God, and to understand the nature of things as they are in themselves, and thus become an image and likeness of God. With us being well advised comes wisdom. In knowing thyself we our neighbor know our duties toward ourself, toward God, and toward our neighbor, and that piety, justice, truth and knowledge should be for us the touchstone on which we test all our acts that have reference to God, to ourself, and to our neighbor… We are never to be puffed up, never to be filled with pride, but first of all we are to know our shortcomings and our faults, always comparing ourself with the ideal prototype, Jesus, in the likeness of which we ought to develop ourself, inasmuch as we see how much we fall short of his example. Let’s behold Jesus… What consequence might we see in him? What mystery might we learn of concerning ourselves? This mystery may be difficult for us to comprehend. Right at the outset I lodge a warning - we will consider written revelations that may disorient our mind. They are revelations of God. If it’s a revelation and we don’t understand it, we mustn’t argue with it, it’s a revelation. Do not become disturbed by the realities of God’s word that we cannot comprehend. Pray the Holy Spirit. The mystery is of the incarnation, God manifest in Christ, His only begotten Son. This is a subject that we need to study and yet it is beyond our understanding to comprehend. Yet, we can fathom this mystery through the subduing of the heart to the Holy Spirit. Christ could have done nothing during His earthly ministry in saving fallen man if the divine had not been blended with the human. The limited capacity of man cannot define this wonderful mystery - the blending of the two natures, the divine and the human. How can we enter into this mystery? Because of Christ we are privileged to be a partaker of the divine nature, and in this way we can to some degree enter into the mystery. We need to study Christ’s life as given in God’s word. Christ died for us, and he is the way that we die to self. Reason this statement to see what is meant - truth is so large, so far- reaching, so deep, so broad, that self is lost sight of. To know thyself, we are to contemplate Jesus Christ. He is the representative specimen that came to know himself just as we are to come to know ourselves. It is a solemn reality that Christ came to fight the battles as man, in man’s behalf. His temptation the Pattern and victory tell us that humanity must copy the Pattern; we must become a partaker of the divine nature. Close study must be brought forth that no confusion concerning our partaking is allowed to enter our reasoning with God. Jesus was tried in all points like as we are. Being tried is being enticed. It is a deep and strong desire, but being not conceived neither is sin. This was the experience of Jesus. Was Jesus a man? He was tempted as every man is. This pure wonderful God coming down into human flesh as a babe, as a youth, through to thirty years of age suffering as every man. Temptation is the phase of everyone’s experience. This, the human nature of Christ must endure being actually tempted all through his life. He was, in terrible reality, tempted as we are, and because He successfully resisted temptation under every form, He gave us the perfect example, and through the ample provision Christ has made, we may become partakers of the divine nature. In Christ is how we can know ourself. He was placed on probation, with liberty to yield to Satan’s temptations and work at cross-purposes with God. If this were not so, if it had not been possible for Him to fall, He could not have been tempted in all points as the human family is tempted. For a period of time Christ was on probation. He took humanity on Himself, to stand the test and trial which the first Adam failed to endure. Had He failed in His test and trial, He would have been disobedient to the voice of God, and the world would have been lost. Unless there is a possibility of yielding, temptation is no temptation. Temptation is resisted when man is powerfully influenced to do a wrong action and, knowing that he can do it, resists, by faith, with a firm hold upon divine power. This was the ordeal through which Christ passed. He could not have been tempted in all points as man is tempted, had there been no possibility of His failing. He was a free agent, placed on probation, as was Adam, but not like Adam, and as is every man so too unlike Adam save in the affect and effect of sin. Adam and Eve received their old sin nature by an act of negative volition. We receive our old sin nature by an act of physical birth, the first birth. In His closing hours, while hanging upon the cross, He physical birth experienced to the fullest extent what man must experience when striving against sin. This is the revelation of the mystery by which we may be able to strive against sin and conquer as did Jesus. By looking to Jesus, we can know ourselves in him, and experience that divine nature. This is how we are to comprehend the significance of the word to be like Christ… “to know thyself”. Sin must be made hatefully painful to us. Jesus is that great and good truth to say the image of God is within us. The substance of our soul is the essence of that infinite and eternal Spirit from whence all life, all power, and all things proceed. Because of this truth, the most terrifying words we can hear are “ye of little faith”. We do not believe in an imaginary or man-made God. Because all things are possible with Him, we can know ourselves as did His Son…we can partake of the human and the divine. It is our faith in God that with Him all things are possible that we can, through and by that belief, control ourself to such an extent that we bring ourself to a literal realization of that which we desire…to be like Jesus. To know ourselves is to know that we were born spiritually dead. When man partook of the forbidden tree, his negative volition led to his acquiring a sin forbidden tree nature. So, the original man was created. Everyone else is perpetuated. This is a very important distinction in knowing thyself. Volition is the power of choosing, the power of determining. But we have that gifted of Christ – we have the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. And by Him we are instructed having the mind of Christ. The human spirit with the Word, the Holy Spirit teaches the human spirit. ‘‘The Spirit beareth witness with our spirit.’’ When the Holy Spirit puts the Word into the human spirit, this is when we are hearing and listening to the teaching of the Word. Then we have something on which to use our free will beside what we have in the soul. The thinking in the soul is human viewpoint. But the Word of God is divine viewpoint by which we come to know ourselves by the consciousness of God. Because we were ignorant of self we sinned. But because of this spiritual experience in knowing ourselves we can stop sinning…by volition…by choice. We can now have the thought pattern of grace. Jesus Christ had compassion because He was God in His Deity, which is an extension of His love. In His humanity He had compassion, because He had not a sin nature. He was minus of any mental attitude towards sin and therefore He had the capacity for love. His compassion was an expression of the capacity to love. He was born of the Spirit. Knowing thyself is knowing how to open to God that we may be born of the Spirit. Jesus knew who he was to the extent that rather be made a king, which was contrary to the mind of our Lord Jesus, he departed. Herein he has left us a testimony of sober judgment according to the measure of faith given us. To know ourselves reveals the magnitude of God's presence in our lives as He examines the depth of our hearts. We are to be defined by the word of God. Our self-concept, also called self-construction, our self-identity, our self- perspective or self-structure is an assembling of principles about ourselves. We must know these things that we not deceive ourselves. We are known of God. And by His purpose we are brought to the knowledge of self. We are thus recovered out of the ignorance and bondage under which we before lay. By owing to ourselves this account we are more under the greater obligation to know that all purposes assigned us by God begins with Him. We know Him, because we are known of Him. This is how we come to know ourselves. The knowledge of self will never lead us to the knowledge of God, whereas the knowledge of God will reveal to us what it is that we are to learn about ourselves. We begin to recognize our divine selves being awakened to the truths revealed by God. We no longer define ourselves in terms of our limited human nature as a desecration of the image of God within us. We must learn to identify ourselves with that which is real in the eternal part. We contemplate the part of us made in the image and likeness of God, and claim our born again right. For, as we know thyself as His elect-child, we become empowered by all we have inside. So, we make it our purpose to know ourself. For, within us is hidden the treasure of treasures…the likeness of God. Through this realization, we can confidently and boldly declare with certainty that “I in Christ, and Christ in the Father, are one!” I in Christ 📖 Applying the Study For ongoing spiritual encouragement and prophetical insights, visit Higher Learning.

Bible Courses - 70 Core Classes - 1 2 3 4 5 1 ... 1 2 3 4 5 6 ... 6 Introduction Isaiah 28:10 Price Duration $0 13 Minutes Read More What is Truth? 1 John 4:16 Price Duration $0 9 Minutes Read More Father, Word, and Holy Ghost - Part 1 Matthew 13:45, 46 Price Duration $0 5 Minutes Read More God, the Father - Part 2 Proverbs 1:7 Price Duration $0 12 Minutes Read More Creation of Time - Part 3 Galatians 4:4 Price Duration $0 20 Minutes Read More The Son, Jesus' Name - Part 4 Psalms 138:2 Price Duration $0 9 Minutes Read More The Son, the Creator - Part 5 John 1:1-5 Price Duration $0 9 Minutes Read More The Son, who is Michael? - Part 6 Exodus 3:2 Price Duration $0 33 Minutes Read More The Son, the Angel of the Covenant - Part 7 Malachi 3:1-3 Price Duration $0 15 Minutes Read More Who the Holy Spirit is, Active Agent - Part 8 Hebrews 11:3 Price Duration $0 6 Minutes Read More Who the Holy Spirit is, the Breath - Part 9 Psalms 104:30 Price Duration $0 9 Minutes Read More Who the Holy Spirit is, Baptism - Part 10 Luke 2:40 Price Duration $0 9 Minutes Read More 1 2 3 4 5 1 ... 1 2 3 4 5 6 ... 6 Download

OnlineBibleCourse: Deepen your search for truth in the bible and learn about Christ. Sounds of Manna -Hymn 10 - Jesus Paid It All Play Video Free books! Play Video Be Transformed Play Video The Truth Watch Now Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tumblr Copy Link Link Copied Close DISCLAIMER: PLEASE NOTE ALL INFORMATION PROVIDED ARE EXTRACTS, EXCERPTS, OR COMPILATIONS AND ARE NOT COPYEDITED. MANY WORKS OF VARIOUS AUTHORS ARE USED. THERE IS NO AUTHOR HERE…IT IS A COMPILATION FOR YOUR LEARNING Schedule Learn at your own pace. Grade your own quizzes. No schedule. No deadline. Contact He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone , and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it. Revelation 2:17 KJV Online Bible Courses No Cost *New Blog Entries Added Weekly* Bible Prophecy Charts & Maps Learn where we are in the stream of time Bible Helpful Links From reputable sources About About White Stone Bible Study Online/OnlineBibleCourse Have you had questions about the Bible? Perhaps you just want to know more about the life of Jesus or how to become a better person. Or, rather, you have come here to learn more about prophecy and the events that are coming upon this earth. Well, put on your seatbelt, because you are about to have a bumpy ride; these studies may cause you to question long-held church traditions that might make you ponder and wonder...

Bible Maps, Prophecy Charts, Bible Images, Bible Charts, 1844 Chart Learning Tools For Bible Study Online In this area, you will find a treasure trove of bible maps, charts, images, and videos that we have collected over years from various vetted sources. Please feel free to take a look. If you need any explanation for anything, just contact us. Principle Policy Practice "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." Psalms 119:105