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#election God’s call is not arbitrary but part of his grand plan of salvation and grounded in his eternal wisdom.   God elects and predestines his people “in love” . Deuteronomy 7:6-8 For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Those who have the privilege of being elected to receive God’s grace have the responsibility of living according to God’s word. Redemption has a divine purpose and intended result. God desires not only to forgive our sins but also to conform us to the image of his beloved Son. When God chose his people, they were not holy and blameless. They deserved his judgment and wrath. Because of his great love and electing grace, he chose us, and through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, is transforming the thoughts and actions of his people. Ultimately, all of God’s purpose in election is done “to the praise of his glorious grace”. Why God chose whom he chose is left to mystery. Here the door of revelation is closed, and we are left only to worship him for it. The basis of his choice was his own good pleasure. Election is according to grace, and its reasons are found in God alone. It took twenty years for Isaac and Rebekah to receive God’s answer to prayer. Look at the second sons; Abel is chosen over Cain. Isaac is chosen over Ishmael. Jacob is chosen over Esau. Joseph is chosen over his older brothers. Judah is chosen over his older brothers. Ephraim is chosen over his older brother Manasseh. David is chosen over his older brothers. Solomon is chosen over Adonijah. God is setting up a picture about how he is going to accomplish his purposes. The 2520 – the Israel of old and we the remnant of Revelation. Psalms 22:30 A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. This is the seed that shall serve Him. These will keep up the solemn worship of Him, profess and practice obedience to Him as Lord. God will have a people in the world at the end of time, in order to that there shall be a succession of true believers from generation to generation. And there is this remnant, to whom shall pertain the service of God to whom God will give grace to serve Him. Perhaps not the seed of the same persons, but each the seed of Abraham as they be the seed of Christ. For grace does not run in a blood for it is the seed, Christ, that preserves. We are acknowledged and accounted for Him as this generation as He will be the same to us, His children, that He was to those who went before us, our fathers, in His kindness though we will not die with them, but shall be drawn out as heirs of some better thing that will make all His perfect. We all shall be acknowledged to be a seed. We will rise up in this day to keep the virtue of the generation that is past, to do the work of our own generation to honor Christ as his pure and entire deposit for the people who will be born again. These two things we will declare; the everlasting righteousness which Jesus Christ has brought in…his and not any of our own and that he is the foundation of our very faith for the work of our redemption is the Lord’s doing and no contrivance of ours. God does this in the wisdom and the mystery of His purpose. God chooses by divine grace and not by who we are, what race we are, what lineage we belong to, what wealth we have, what power we have gained, or why any ability or merit we think we have achieved. Friends, we rejoice in this! God was showing again and again through history that belonging to God’s family and being children of promise would never be by who you are, but by God who chooses by grace.   Please notice that the argument is not that God determines one person to be saved and determines for another person to be condemned. This is not the issue being addressed at all. Rather, the point is that God determined the means by which the promises of God would come. If God says the promises will come through Isaac, then so be it. If God says the promises will come through Jacob, then so be it. If God says the promises come to those who come to Jesus by faith, then so be it. This faith is that Word Jesus. For from the beginning of my days I realize that my sadness is a reflection of something deeper…all my doings. For holiness sake, what is this faith that God finds? I have walked the path of some whose faith has fallen away. They are many. It is as though a tree has fallen. May I not be counted in that number. Why does it hurt so much to see someone renounce the truth. It creates a sense of personal loss, but I grieve for more than broken fellowships. I grieve for the loss of their relationship with Jesus. Oh, God cause me to not be of these. Luke 1:1-8 And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? This truth is both sobering and encouraging. It is sobering because it strips me of a naïve view of my walk with God and the work of the gospel. The time to come is not all bright. Time reveals one’s faith, and it will ultimately be proven when Jesus returns. It is heartbreaking to think that Jesus knows of the countless people whose faith will wither. The realities of this world are resultantly dispirited. He knew all this before he died on the cross. To have the faith to know that God will bring justice to end all things that are not to be…I will not be ashamed to wait on my God. The world has known darkness before but not like that which is and is coming. It is a new phenomenon. We are in the form of a juxtaposition of two groups of people. There are selfless servants, who love Jesus, suffer for him, and put other people above themselves. And there are those whose teachings and lifestyles, if followed, could jeopardize the work God and leave Jesus altogether for the love of the world. Our faith must be Jesus’ universal authority as the determined and purposed reality that exists outside of our human will. It is not us who make Jesus Lord. His power and authority are established before any beginning as he subjects all things to himself and revealed to the world by our exercised faith. We must reason prayerfully to show the superiority of Christ, and disciple believers to live a narrative centered on Jesus.   Choose wisely whom to follow. Look for godly truth in those who say the word of God. Listen to hear if what is said is true, no matter what. So, walk in the light of the truth of God's Word not your feelings. Listen to your thoughts and your emotions. They are intense and important. But ask God to help you trust His Word above believing your emotions, and choose to believe what the word says. Titus 1:1-4 Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness; In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began; But hath in due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Saviour; To Titus, mine own son after the common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour. Though we may be troubled by what some are doing, we are to have faith in God to make a perfect judgment on these things. In Jesus, our faith powers us, helps us to not judge others in areas that are not for us to judge and to accept others even when they do things differently than we, for we are not their judge…God is. Our faith tells us that there is a “forever”. Present conflict is as vapor. We have the volume of the book that enrolls us in the faith of Jesus. God knows where faith is. He created it, gave it, and sustains it. He knows our faith looks to Christ to see Him for everything. And because Christ looks to faith, he is sure to find it out. Our experiences are swelling the waters of testimony to the faithfulness of God.  Every word is to confirm our confidence in the eternal verities of our God and our Savior. I speak not to us all, but I speak to those whom the Lord has specially favored, to whom he has revealed his secrets, and made known his covenant; for us to question his faithfulness is wickedness. What should His elect believe? If it were possible for us to quit our faith, we would crucify our Lord afresh. By faith, we know that our God knows us. We are resolved upon this. Settled in our minds is our faith. Nothing is questionable about our God. He is in contact with our soul knowing that our whole faith rests in Christ and the merits of his cross. Our faith is not speculation, it is revelation. It is not a probability; it is a certainty. Divine truth grounded by faith is what Jesus looks for. Prayer is not an experiment with us. We find confidence in the efficacy of prayer. It’s an expression of our faith giving us power with God. By way of petition, we are to be confident of our expectations. God says to us “concerning the work of my hands command ye me”. Longsuffering will be with us a little while longer. Sin is not fiction. And the peace we received through faith in Jesus is no dream. Holy calm is due us in the time of trial. The more God reveals Himself in our reasoning in truth, we receive utmost confirmation, that our faith will be such a rarity on the earth that we become the visible church of God. You cannot believe in God too much. Believe without measure and without reserve. Hang your all upon the truth of God. We are His prevailing Israel. Guard well our faith. Note: There is this challenge for ministry; Darkness has been illuminated. None today can be deprived of learning. Delights of tyrannizing human beings was a plan of Satan. Provocation from the true people of God will be met with the greatest of cruelty. Christ alone holds the title to every human soul. We of truth must resolve to stand under the banner of rebellion against all sin in this closing hour of mercy. God and His truth make all who are in the Word free. We are the workmanship of God, a special work. There is much to be thought of in this disagreeable troubling time. This thing is coming again. PaM 93 and 22LtMs, Ms 196, 1907. Another subject that might be treated is the condition of the poor whites, and another is the present condition of the blacks. 22LtMs, Ms 196, 1907, par. 5. If the story of the poor whites could be told, and how they came to be what they are, and the need of doing work amongst them was set forth in a simple historical tale, it would have a tendency to interest the people of the North, and they would heed your appeals more than if there were just your appeals alone. 22LtMs, Ms 196, 1907, par. 14 E. G. White: Yes, there must be something to help the people to make the application. 22LtMs, Ms 196, 1907, par. 15 P. T. Magan: And I have thought that the same things were true about the blacks. You know, years ago you made the statement that the time would come when there would be a terrible race war in the South. I do not know whether you ever said it in so many words, but you intimated that slavery would exist again. 22LtMs, Ms 196, 1907, par. 16. E. G. White: Just as soon as people begin to make any kind of movement to educate the blacks, there are some who are determined that it shall not be done. 22LtMs, Ms 196, 1907, par. 17 E. G. White: There will be slavery just as verily as it has been, only upon a basis that is more favorable and secure to the white people. 22LtMs, Ms 196, 1907, par. 19 P. T. Magan: More secure, because they do not have to feed the negroes and care for them. Then if the negro has got outside that district, or if he is loafing and not working, they can put him in the chain gang for a year. Now they state in their plan that if anyone is caught, whose teachings excite theblacks to foolishness, that he can be taken and put in the chain gang. Senator Tillman has printed that; he has printed it in the leading magazine in the South, and he has spoken it in Chicago and also in Atlanta, Georgia. There are many of the negroes today who are selling their property and hiding their money in the earth for fear that their land and houses, if they were known to own any, would be taken from them. 22LtMs, Ms 196, 1907, par. 20 E. G. White: Then intelligent blacks may read from cause to effect. 22LtMs, Ms 196, 1907, par. 21 P. T. Magan: There are some blessings coming with this present agitation. Now there are a number of very good men in the South who see the trouble coming, and who are trying to stop it. There is ex-governor _______ of Alabama, a man who has been a friend to the Negro. He is advocating now, (contrary to the southern customs), that the blacks shall be taught by white people. 22LtMs, Ms 196, 1907, par. 24 E. G. White: That is the right way. It ought to have been done from the time of their emancipation. 22LtMs, Ms 196, 1907, par. 25 P. T. Magan: And there is an ex-governor in Northern Georgia. He is known as the preacher governor of Georgia. He is a very good man, and is stumping the state at his own expense, preaching to both classes, to try to bring about reconciliation and peace—the proper way of looking at things. So there are openings that will help us at the same time that these other things are closing down. There are some very good things mixed in with the terrible things that we see coming. 22LtMs, Ms 196, 1907, par. 26

#election Hebrews 6:1 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God. Faith is always exercised toward God, but it is Christ who makes this possible. We are to examine every principle of the doctrine of Christ. Everything that is of God, we ought to know what He says about it, not being concerned about the opinions of people. Human beings accept knowledge that they have received through the five senses: seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, and tasting. These senses all involve physical information, physical knowledge. The mind receives and processes this information in order to draw conclusions about circumstances; things and events taking place around it. Faith is spiritual, not physical. It is a confident assurance, which comes from the Spirit of God in the mind of a born again human being. The election understands that it is the faith of Jesus…his actual faith in us, that justifies us, makes us righteous. The doctrine of unconditional election should have a tremendously humbling effect on us. What did we do to deserve faith…nothing. God gives it by grace, we don't deserve it. The ultimate ground of our standing before God is God and God alone. God never meant for any of us to go through life in this world alone, that is, in our own power and understanding. God has tremendous power just waiting and available for us to access, and the result is an enormous resource that we never thought possible. We were chosen in spite of what we are and do and not because of it. Forever then, give all credit and glory to God for every aspect of our salvation. We don't believe so that we will be elect. We are elect so that we would believe. That's the doctrine here. Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. Luke 17:5 And the apostles said unto the Lord, increase our faith. Because election is unconditional, it never has, nor ever will it be dependent on our righteousness. And so we have confidence in election that no sin pattern is ever so great that God's grace and mercy cannot forgive.   The grace of our Lord was poured out on us abundantly along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Faith came with the package. Yes, it did. It was poured out on us as a gift. And what we are to realize is that we need more faith to have the power needed to effectively live this life. And here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the worst. But for this very reason, I was shown mercy, so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on Him and receive eternal life. And because of Jesus we know, no amount of sin disqualifies us. God's grace is so powerful, we can be forgiven, we can be saved. II Thessalonians 2:13, 14 But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is a calling which secures our justification and glorification. God effectually calls us and we come. If God is foreseeing our faith, he is simply foreseeing something he has given, and something which he gives us on purpose. In other words, there is really nothing for God to foresee that is not already included in his eternal purpose which he sovereignly brings to pass. God gives faith, and gives it unconditionally, so that in the end, God’s purpose of election is an unconditional election. There is a remnant made up of individuals according to the election of grace. This is given to believers before the world began – this is what it means to be elected. We are chosen in Christ, and we are called to salvation, a calling which springs from God’s gracious choice.  I t is not our works, but God’s call that is determinative in our salvation. We are called to eternal life. We, as believers ourselves are such only because we were predestined to this grace as God's gift. We are expressly taught that both faith and repentance originate from God, not from ourselves. Romans 12:3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. Ephesians 2:8, 9 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. II Timothy 2:25 In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. Do not think that this does away with the freedom of the will, by which we earn the esteem of God by the good of piety, or offend him by the evil of impiety. God loved the one and hated the other before either was even born and could have done either good or evil. We answer that God did this by His foreknowledge, by which He knows the character even of the unborn… Therefore God did not elect anyone's works by foreknowledge, but rather by foreknowledge He chose faith, so that He chooses precisely him whom He foreknew would believe in Him; and to him God gives the Holy Spirit, so that by doing good works he will as well attain eternal life. Here's how the 2520 prophecy prepares the very elect of God. Israel was the seed of Abraham and heirs of God's oath-bound covenant of grace. Yet Israel is under judgment because of disobedience and their possession of the law is of no profit whatsoever if they are found to be transgressors under the cruel and relentless dominion of sin. Will God then thoroughly annull His covenantal commitment to Israel? Will God now eradicate them? This takes us deep into the divine purpose of God. Does predestination make God unjust? Israel was entrusted with God's oracles; to her belongs the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the Law, the priestly service, and the promises. And the unspeakable condescension, the incarnate Son of God himself deigned to be born as a son of Abraham, not as the son of any other tribe. And so, through the vast stretches of eternity Abraham will be known as the father of all the sons and daughters of God. And Jesus by his incarnation as the seed of Abraham and as the Root and Branch of Jesse has sanctified that Israelite rootstock. But sonship in the Abrahamic line does not guarantee that one is a child of God, an Israel of Israel. Romans 11:16; 9:6 For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches. Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel. Privileged Israel betrayed the true import of her inheritance through unbelief and disobedience. But God has a promise. And being found in elect Israel has always depended solely upon God's personal election of individuals. Romans 11:1-8 I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life. But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work. What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day. These are said to be such as He foreknew, that is, had thoughts of love to, before the world was; for whom He thus foreknew He did predestinate. Here lies the ground of the difference. These are called the election, that is, the elect, God's chosen ones, whom He calls the election, because that which first distinguished them and dignified them above others was God's electing love. Believers are the election ,  all those and those only whom God hath chosen. Now, this chosen remnant is really more and greater than one would think it is, which intimates likewise that it is no new nor unusual thing for God's grace and favour to Israel to be limited and confined to a remnant of His people today; for as it was in Elijah's time. There was a remnant, seven thousand, left under the Old Testament, when the displays of grace were less clear and the pourings out of the Spirit less plentiful, much more now under the gospel of Christ, when the grace of God, which bringeth salvation, appears more illustrious in our day. We are such as were chosen from eternity in the counsels of divine love to be vessels of grace and glory. If the difference between them and us be made purely by the grace of God, as certainly it is, then it must needs be according to the election; for we are sure that whatever God does He does it according to the counsel of His own will. Now concerning this remnant which we are, we may observe, first ,  from what source do we take rise…from the free grace of God, and that grace excludes works. The eternal election, in which the difference between some and others is first founded, is purely of grace, free grace; not for the sake of works done or foreseen; if so, it would not be grace. It is not grace if it be not perfectly free. Election is purely according to the good pleasure of His will. Faith has a peculiar fitness to receive the free grace of God. This faith gives us justification and acceptance with God. We are of this election because of faith. For we see that Israel of old did not this faith that we have. For we know in whom we are found. Romans 9:31 But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Philippians 3:9, 12, 20 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. If we trust only as far as we understand, then we have every reason to worry about the various trials and hardships that come over our life. After all, we don’t know what their purpose is. We don’t know what the outcome will be, or what long-term effect they’ll have on us. And as for the morrow? There’s a whole lifetime of unseen circumstances over which we could agonize. But if we choose to have faith, to trust in God, then we are freed from worrying about our life. God has a perfect plan for us in everything He sends our way. He sends us trials and He tests us, so that we can overcome sin and the virtues of Jesus can grow in us. He knows the end result. He has planned our whole life out, with love and care. When we truly believe that, we don’t have a single reason to be anxious. We can cast all our care on Him and focus our energy on doing His will instead of worrying about everything past, present, and future. What gives us confidence in our trials is the faith that we have in the scriptures. In us the promise of God has its accomplishment, and God's ancient kindness for that people of old is remembered. God calls us, the remnant of believers, not the elect, but the election. This shows that the sole foundation of all our hopes and contentment is laid in election. We are the persons whom God has in His eye in the counsels of His love; we are the election; we are God's choice. Such is the favor of God toward us…the chosen remnant.   Some are chosen and called, and the call is made effectual. But others are left to perish in their unbelief; they are made worse by that which should have made them better. The gospel, which to those that believed was the savor of life unto life, to the unbelieving was the savor of death unto death. These held not the truth being in accord with reality. They held truth as being what they believed. Truth is the experience of fact, and a fact is indisputable. Where belief and fact conflict there cannot be the truth. These failing to reason were blinded. They could neither see the light, nor experience the touch of fact, of gospel grace. Blindness and hardness are expressive of the same senselessness and stupidity of spirit. They shut their eyes, and would not see; this is their sin: and then God, in a way of righteous judgment, blinded their eyes, that they could not see; this is their punishment. This seems to be harsh doctrine. Let the Holy Spirit qualify it. Isaiah 29:10-12 For the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered. And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed: And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned. II Thessalonians 2:11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie. Isaiah 66:4; 6:10 I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. Matthew 13:15 For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. John 12:39, 40 Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. II Corinthians 4:3, 4 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. The eternal benefits of God's covenant of grace have always been assured only to those upon whom God has from eternity chosen to show mercy. Jacob, not Esau, was the heir of the promise. And this promise cannot be broken, because all of God's promises are fulfilled in Christ Jesus in whom all elect Israelites, whether Jew or Gentile, become children of promise. God does not answer to us or to any other human standard of justice for his actions. Romans 9:19-29; 11:33-36 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved. And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God. Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved: For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth. And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counseller? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

#election Ephesians 1:11, 4-6, 12 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. The counsel of God’s will, has to do with the wisdom, the plan, the thought processes of God. The very word “counsel” suggests intelligence and an intelligent reason for acting, and God never wills, apart from His own counsel. First, not just our calling but also our predestination is “according to his purpose.” So, God’s purpose governs his predestination. Second, the word says that it is a free and sovereign purpose, according to the good pleasure of His will, not governed by anything outside of God.   What’s the point of saying that this Purposer “works all things after the counsel of his will”? The point is that he governs all things, and that he does not base his governance ultimately on anything in man or in nature, but only on himself. “He works all things after the counsel of his will.” We are not finally decisive in turning the will of God; God alone is decisive. Hear how the informing of the 144000 is referenced…to the end that our ceasing to sin brings us to the fulfilling of that hope, that we who were the first, seeing this hope in Christ would be to the praise of his glory.” In other words, he does all his works to this end. Follow the words, step by step, in verses 4-6. All election, all predestination, all calling, and all redemption is according to this purpose — for the praise of the glory of his grace. God performs the unconditional election of Jacob over Esau. God’s purpose is to be seen and savored as infinitely glorious in his free and sovereign grace.   This is the purpose that governs all the works of God. He elects, predestines, calls, redeems, justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies to this end — for his purpose.  It is perfectly beautiful and immeasurably great.  T he final reason for all events in the universe is in himself and not another. The decisive influence of all that happens in the world, is God’s. He works all things, not just some things, after the counsel of his own will. He alone in all the universe has the freedom of ultimate self-determination, self-purpose, and self-election. Nothing can thwart what he wants most to do. God’s purpose is to be known and enjoyed and praised as infinitely glorious in his free and sovereign grace. And this purpose is according to election — it is an electing purpose — because if God did not elect unconditionally he would not be free, he would not be sovereign, and he would not be glorious. Not free, because then men would determine their own election, not God. He would be bound to conform to their own self-determination. Not sovereign, because instead of doing successfully what he wants most, he would be hindered again and again by self-determining man. Not glorious, because God’s absolute freedom and sovereignty are the essence of the glory of his grace. Man is negated, God is affirmed. Let’s reason the negation first. God chose Jacob over Esau “not because of works.” This adds something important to the first part of Romans 9 verse 11 where the word says, “for the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil.” Those words stress that God chose Jacob before birth and before virtue or vice. But now the word goes farther and says that this choice was not “on the basis of works.” Here the time is not the point. The foundation is the point. God did not choose Jacob because of works he had already done. Nor did he choose him because of works that he would do later.  The word rules out foreseen good deeds that Jacob will do, and foreseen evil deeds that Esau will do. And God is saying: MY election is not based on deeds in any way — not deeds already done, not deeds undone and foreknown, and not deeds undone and not foreknown. MY election is free. That is MY glory. Therefore, MY purpose accords with that kind of election, because MY purpose is to be known and enjoyed and praised as infinitely glorious in MY free and sovereign grace. Now, let’s reason the affirmative. Why does the word say, “so that God’s purpose according to election would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls? This is heavenly sounding. The word’s ordinary contrast with works is faith. Reason the following… Romans 9:32; 3:28 Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone; Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Galatians 2:16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. When we hear the word say, “Not by works” we naturally expect it to also say, “but by faith.”   But that is not what it says here. It says, “not because of works but because of him who calls.” Why? Because faith is a condition of justification, but it is not a condition of election. Election is unconditional. But justification is conditional. Before we can be justified we must believe on Jesus Christ. But before we can believe on Jesus Christ we must be chosen and called. God does not choose us because we will believe. He chooses us so that we will believe.   Hear again how inspirationally the word says it. “That the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth.” Notice it does not say: his purpose stands because of his calling. It says because of Him who calls. God is calling His elect. But his election is not based on that calling. It is based on Himself and His free and sovereign will to call.   God’s electing purpose will stand not because of any foreseen deeds, and not because of any foreseen faith; but simply because of Him — because of God. The ultimate ground of God’s election is God. This is simply another way of saying: for God to be God He must be free and sovereign. This is His glory. This is what it means to be God. How is our striving for the very elect co-signed in God’s purpose? The application to our lives is clear. If the purpose of God — flowing from the very essence of what it means to be God, is that He be known for His free and sovereign grace, then the meaning of our existence is to display the glory of that free and sovereign grace. And underneath this meaning for our lives is the massive assurance that this purpose will stand, and we who are in Christ by faith will stand in God’s purpose.  I so enjoy the repetition of this truth - t he Lord in his gratuitous election is free and exempt from the necessity of imparting equally the same grace to all; but, on the contrary, he passes by whom he wills, and whom he wills he chooses. God chooses people for salvation according to His good pleasure and not because of anything in them. In fact, He chooses to save repentant sinners in spite of the sin we’ve done. We should be eternally grateful that He does this; otherwise, no one could be saved. God is not an arbitrary God. Those who are arbitrary do what they do without any reason.   God has no impetuous or motiveless behavior. We must make a distinction between God’s doing something for no reason and His doing something for no reason found in us. We say clearly that His grace is given not for any reason in us. But the fact that there is no reason in me for my salvation does not mean there is no reason behind God’s action. Scripture actually tells us over and over again that God has a reason behind His choice of some for salvation and His not choosing others for redemption. It reveals something about His marvelous character, which His grace certainly does. It makes manifest His awesome, marvelous, beautiful mercy. There’s also this purpose, and that’s the purpose of honoring Christ. Remember His promise to Christ. Isaiah 53:11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. According to His own counsel, God determined from the foundation of the world that the cross of Jesus Christ would yield its appointed fruit and that Christ would be satisfied by the results of His pain, suffering, and death. Our being purposed, our being elected, our being accepted is in the beloved Person of Christ. This is God the Father bestowing His glory, love, and affection on God the Son. Do we see the intersection here of grace and justice? It is right or just that Christ should receive an inheritance, and we are that inheritance. That we are that inheritance is grace for us and justice for Christ. Here’s the thing of God’s predestining according to His good pleasure. What’s good to God must give Him pleasure. This is why His very election pleases Him. His choices take no pleasure in any form of evil. Any sin is unpleasurable to them. There is no temptation, no enticement to defend any error or anyone holding to untruth. These cast away all human sentiments, views, attitudes, feelings, thoughts, beliefs, approaches, emotions, passions, tactics, responses that weaken the mind. God has a good purpose for choosing His elect. Nothing happens apart from the purpose of God. Everything fits in to God's purpose in all of creation. He's a purposeful Being. To me, that's most encouraging. That means that history has a purpose.  That means there's a purpose in my own history…your history. The things that we go through are not just random. Only knowledge based on God's word will produce a genuine experience of God and His power. God's word gives us an eyewitness, truthful, and detailed account of things about God and human existence that we could never know otherwise. God's word is a standard against which all philosophies, ideas, and proposed solutions for the human condition which can be measured for accuracy. If God's word approves it, we can run with it; if the word rejects it, nothing we can do will make it work, make it acceptable, or make it right. The reason for this is that the power of God is revealed and experienced in His word. To know His word is to know and experience His power. This power called purpose governs over everything in salvation, it's bigger and more important than any and every component part of our salvation. Because of purpose, God foreknows, because of foreknowledge, He predestines. Because of predestine and predestination, He calls. It all starts with the purpose of the Determinate Counsel. The Counsel is a before the beginning of time purpose. Its mystery is how it is so intensely focused and centered on Jesus Christ, the God of humanity who became human. In Christ we see an absolute harmony between God's purpose and His grace. This grace really is a servant of the purpose. God has a purpose and then the grace comes to accomplish that purpose. He has saved us and called us to a holy life. Not because of anything we have done, but because of His purpose and grace. God does everything after the council of His own pleasure and will. His purpose is not governed therefore by anything outside of God, it's all within Him, not governed by effects coming from the outside into God, but it's inside God. What is this purpose inside God? Bringing to us salvation. In that God desires His own glory above all things. That He would get the glory, that He would get the credit, that He would be seen to be a glorious and majestic and powerful Savior, that is His central purpose - that He gets the glory for our salvation. And very much related to that is that the elect of His purpose would get the joy and that none of them would be lost.   That of those whom He called, He chose. He has connected His name, He's put His name on us, He's tied His reputation to us. God is to get all the glory for our salvation…we can’t do it. He is the ground, the power, the strength for that salvation. Now pause because you are going to need the mind of Christ to come to God’s reasoning with what we are about to learn. Hold this thought…you can’t do you. You had no choice in you coming. You had no choice in you being male or female. You had no choice in you being Black, you being White. You even had no choice in who your parents would be. Let’s pray… Remember, not of works. Jacob was chosen over Esau. Neither having done any good, any evil. What works could they have done? They were in the womb. In the bible verse we see no works, then the purpose, the election, no works again, then the call. Why? We see that Jacob and Esau hadn't done any works yet, but maybe there's the issue of foreseeing good works. Maybe God is able to look ahead into the future and see the kind of lives that Esau and Jacob would live and on the basis of foreseen good works, He would choose, He would elect. That’s ruled out. The word says not past work, not present works, not future works, not good works and not bad works. No works came into election at all. It is totally unconditional, it's not based on works at all. Not because of Esau's bad works, because he traded his birthright for deer meat. And God looking ahead through the hazy corridors of time saw that and said, "No, he's out." Not by bad works, neither by good works, looking ahead and seeing that Jacob valued the promises of God or was a man of prayer or wrestled with the angel or any of the good things that he did. Neither one, not by works. Brothers and sisters. This is so hard for us to accept. It is so tough. It is woven into the fiber of our rebellion against God, that we are self-determining independent people and we get to choose and therefore good things that happen to us happen at least in some degree, because we did something good.   Nothing comes from nothing, nothing ever could. So somewhere in my life I must have done something good. Remember who it is that gets all the glory. We will not say, “God, I did such and such.” If election was conditional it would breed arrogance. If it's because we did something good that God picked us, then it makes us boastful. God sees something good in me…I’d better keep doing it. Romans 9:32: 4:2-5, 20 Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone; For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Galatians 2:16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. What of forseen faith? Now, what about faith. God is looking down the corridors of time and He is looking for faith. And He is discovering faith in people He's going to create later. Looking down through the corridors of time, He's finding something. He's finding faith inside us. The contrast is usually, not by works but by what? Faith. The contrast is usually faith that works. God, looking on all ages, from the creation to the consummation, as a moment, and seeing at once whatever is in the hearts of all the children of men, knows everyone that does or does not believe, in every age, in every nation. Yet what God knows, whether it’s faith or unbelief, is in nowise caused by his knowledge. So, God knowing if we believe or don’t believe is not caused by what He knows. Men are as free in believing or not believing as if God did not know it at all. God gives to every man the measure of faith and then God discovers if we use it. And when He discovers it, then He justifies us, based on it. But the word does not say by faith. It says but of Him that calleth. We are left here with Him that calleth. We are left with God and God alone. The call is a sovereign call. Now we understand why God gives to every man the measure of faith. Let there be faith and there's faith. That's the call of God. It's not by works, but by the call to discover faith. We end up with what God gives us. So, what then is the basis of our salvation? God and God alone. We might be justified by faith, but we are not called by faith. We are called because of faith…the faith given and discovered by God. The One who chooses, the One who calls. Faith is the thing inside us that God chooses. Thank you God. Total humility in salvation. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Notice that faith involves “evidence” of things “not seen”. This “substance” is “assurance.” Faith involves an assurance “of things hoped for.” But, if something is hoped for, that something has not yet been received. Therefore, where faith is involved, there is an assurance that it will be received! But how can evidence be related to something that is not seen? Don’t we think of evidence as involving things that are seen or demonstrated? How then can faith involve evidence that is invisible - not seen? Faith involves evidence in the following way. Real faith, in any promise made by God, is actually the evidence. It is the belief that is the evidence. If God promises to do something, it is impossible for Him to lie. Our evidence that He will perform it is the very unwavering faith that we hold. Remember, “faith is the evidence.” We do not need to search for the evidence - we already possess it!

#purpose #election Let us not seek any self-satisfying, self-deception concerning God. Let our motive be the theological study and the pursuit of knowledge about God and His will as revealed in scripture. May this be the mean by which we are drawn closer to God.  W e can only know God by entering into a right relationship with Him through Jesus Christ. If we are faithful, this will not be a phenomenon that happens secretly, though unexpectedly, it will happen on the plane of reality. We will have greater thoughts of God, showing great boldness for God, and having great contentment in God. God is unchanging in His truth, in His ways, and His purposes. So, the 2520 is purposed to have God’s people “ready” as we meditate on the greatness of God, being guided by the Holy Spirit. The world is digressing into a state of wicked evilness. Conflict and moral decline are promoted. God’s people mindset is no longer just contemplating the last days…we live as today is our last day. We have a most beautiful pregnant message to give, but the labor pains of delivery will increase in frequency and intensity. Prophecies are fulfilled in relation to the first coming of Christ, the life of Christ, and in relation to His second coming. God’s purpose and election confirms the gathering promised in the 2520 prophecy. Prophecy revealed that four great empires would emerge in history: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. Preceding these historically were Egypt and Assyria, which figured largely in the history of Israel before Babylon. In all, six world establishments were described in history and prophecy. Yet we are told of eight. We now see America and the U.N. And one that was, is still. Another purpose and election of God is His plan for Israel. This began with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the twelve tribes descending from Jacob’s twelve sons. Christ is restoring Israel spiritually. Our function in this time is to reveal God’s sovereignty and infinite power, and as Israel we are to make known God’s faithfulness, love, and righteousness, so the people of His election may illustrate the grace of God. The 2520 prophecy presents God’s people where they are. We are in the time of tabernacles. The gathering is a call to come and worship the Lord, while corporately posturing together to hear what the Spirit is saying to the people of God. It is a time of gathering the family of God to move according to the Jesus' prayer in John 17 for unity with one another and with Him. The warning to heed is to not let your feelings stretch you so far from the truth that you are drawn out from the truth and left scattered. To God, gathering is a purposeful and overt reversal of the distressed situation brought on by disobedience. Upon seeing Israel's changed or maybe we should say changing attitude - our repentance - God reciprocates by calling us His elect. Zechariah 3:1, 2 And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. And the LORD said unto Satan, The LORD rebuke thee, O Satan; even the LORD that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? This brand is us as we are allowed a glimpse into the temple court. It is our daily moan as we are a sinner. But Christ quiets the accuser for he knows that we are more than this. He makes the declaration in the form of a question. Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? We are what he means us to be…chosen. This is the gathering of the remnant souls rightly divided by the truth of prophecy. Isaiah 19 The burden of Egypt. Behold, the LORD rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it. And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians: and they shall fight every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbour; city against city, and kingdom againstkingdom. And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof; and I will destroy the counsel thereof: and they shall seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards. And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts. And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and dried up. And they shall turn the rivers far away; and the brooks of defence shall be emptied and dried up: the reeds and flags shall wither. The paper reeds by the brooks, by the mouth of the brooks, and every thing sown by the brooks, shall wither, be driven away, and be no more.The fishers also shall mourn, and all they that cast angle into the brooks shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish. Moreover they that work in fine flax, and they that weave networks, shall be confounded. And they shall be broken in the purposes thereof, all that make sluices and ponds for fish. Surely the princes of Zoan are fools, the counsel of the wise counsellers of Pharaoh is become brutish: how say ye unto Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings? Where are they? where are thy wise men? and let them tell thee now, and let them know what the LORD of hosts hath purposed upon Egypt. The princes of Zoan are become fools, the princes of Noph are deceived; they have also seduced Egypt, even they that are the stay of the tribes thereof. The LORD hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof: and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit. Neither shall there be any work for Egypt, which the head or tail, branch or rush, may do. In that day shall Egypt be like unto women: and it shall be afraid and fear because of the shaking of the hand of the LORD of hosts, which he shaketh over it. And the land of Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt, every one that maketh mention thereof shall be afraid in himself, because of the counsel of the LORD of hosts, which he hath determined against it. In that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan, and swear to the LORD of hosts; one shall be called, The city of destruction. In that day shall there be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the LORD. And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt: for they shall cry unto the LORD because of the oppressors, and he shall send them a saviour, and a great one, and he shall deliver them. And the LORD shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the LORD in that day, and shall do sacrifice and oblation; yea, they shall vow a vow unto the LORD, and perform it. And the LORD shall smite Egypt: he shall smite and heal it: and they shall return even to the LORD, and he shall be intreated of them, and shall heal them. In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land: Whom the LORD of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance. Give prayerful consideration about the incredible importance of the things that we're learning. Meditate on the value, the priceless value, the precious value that we place on knowledge and what’s truth in every area of life. Now know that nothing compares to knowing and understanding God. We must stay very close to the text. Consider the importance of our spiritual commitment to the covenant in resolving the following texts. I John 2:7, 8 Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth. I write no new commandment unto you, a new commandment I write unto you. Both are truth. As a people of God we are to reason truth from the beginning. We were made to love one another as being of one blood, made to dwell on the earth, as being God's offspring, and bearing His image.  And even i n the state of sin because of God’s promised recovery, we are to love one another as related to God our Maker, as always related to each other by blood, and as involved together in the same hope. The law of love must be conveyed with new obligations by the new Israel of God being the privileged people, who are of the covenants and the adoption. We are constrained to do this duty the more. The Old Testament covenant established promises that look forward to fulfillment. The New Testament covenant shows how Jesus Christ fulfills these covenant promises and what life should look like for a people living in the law inaugurated in their hearts and minds. Jeremiah 31:31-33 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. If we fail to reason with God, we enter upon a potential crisis of confidence concerning the Word of God. The darkness of our prejudiced unconverted minds, our deplorable ignorance of God and of Christ, is now past. Pretended conversion is darkness. Scripture is not symbolic; God actually creates with words. Let there be light…He spoke creation into existence to include also that which He used to form man, and the substance of His faith manifested into what we can now see. It is in the new covenant that with a clean and recreated heart, a right spirit can be us. It is old as having been taught and heard from the beginning. New, that in the true Light, we have grace and virtue comformable to the Son of God. The deeper should our subjection be to the commandments of our Lord. The first by obedience, the second by purposed love. The Word of God has unlimited power. Each word is a power filled with faith waiting for us to release it in our hearts and speak it with our mouths. Faith is a divine sense that functions in the articulation of the word or better stated…in the testimony of Jesus. And faith is most justified when we infer this proposition – God loves me. It was sin that alienated us from God. It is the faith of Jesus that apprehends the determination by reason alone of our intense desire to dispose of all sin. By this is shown our willingness to take great risks to decisively be solely purposed in the overarching truth that unites the entire self to God. By this, our faith consists in submission without evidence to the authority of the ideal that God is. And our faith governs how we respond to His every word. Faith in God extends beyond just taking God to be an authority, but it includes doing so. Faith is the response to God being God. God tells Noah to build an ark. God tells Abraham that he will make him the father of many nations and that his wife Sarah will bear a son. God tells Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. God tells Moses to lead his people out of Egypt. God tells Moses’s people that there will be manna to eat every day, and not to store any for the next day. God tells Jonah to journey to Nineveh and tell the people that it will be destroyed for its wickedness. God gives Samuel a vision about Eli’s family. God speaks through the prophets and tells his people that bad things will happen if they do not repent. God tells Hosea to marry Gomer. An angel of God tells Mary she will bear a child. God says that Jesus is God’s beloved son. God says that He has a peculiar people. And so forth. God’s story reveals that God is truth and that following God’s commands has proven better than not doing so. Evidence this - an old couple or a virgin will have a child, or that food will appear in the desert every day except one, liberate unarmed people from a nation with an army, take steps to sacrifice one’s son. And so, we have God’s promise to save His people as the key component of God’s cosmic plan to unite all things in His Word, in Christ. The Lord never promised to save all those who can trace their beginning back to the first pair. He will save those of His election according to His purpose. These children are those who trust only in Christ for salvation. God is continually moving and orchestrating our lives behind the scenes to lead us to those discovery points in which He reveals His love and purpose for us. He is the ultimate power and source of love. When we are certain of, and compelled by God’s love for us, our faith becomes unstoppable. Our faith in God grows when we discover how passionate and determined he is to be in a relationship with us, and understand what it cost Him to make this possible through the cross. This faith is what compels us to love others — inspiring us to give our hearts, serve, and sacrifice to help others discover and experience this same love and relationship with God. Acts 17:26, 27 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us. God is continuously nearby, determining our very times, moving us to be closer in proximity to discovering Him, and revealing His purpose to us. Let us reason with the unconditional election and the invincible purpose of God. This is a huge task in considering the truths of the 2520 prophecy. It requires a mindful approach beyond the sense of feeling. The aim is simply to understand and apply to our lives the reasoning secreted in the word of God to be revealed to whom He chooses. We want to understand why God’s purpose according to election stands. I exhort us to caress the weight of this sentence. When God tells us why He does something as eternally fundamental as unconditional election, He is giving us information about the nature of ultimate reality — namely His reality — that is more foundational and more important than all other human knowledge.   Nothing is greater to know under God, than why He does His most fundamental acts. And here is one of these massively important sentences. We ask “why, God, do you do this great work of unconditional election?” And God answers: “So that MY purpose according to MY election would stand, not because of works but because of ME who calls.” What does the phrase “God’s purpose according to election” mean? It is defining the purpose. What purpose? The according to election purpose. The according to election purpose would be “the electing purpose.” In other words, the purpose of God is in part defined by election. The purpose of God that would not be what it is, if there were no election. The purpose that consists largely in election. But what is it? How can we state God’s purpose according to election — God’s electing purpose? Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. There is something behind that call, namely, God’s purpose, guiding whom and how He calls. We are called “according to his purpose.” So, God’s purpose has to do with guiding His saving work, in this case His calling. II Timothy 1:8, 9 Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God; Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. First, God’s purpose is eternal — before the world began. It doesn’t originate or respond to anything. It is eternal. Second, God’s purpose is related to Christ from all eternity. Christ is not an afterthought. God’s purpose was in him and through him from all eternity. Third, God’s purpose is linked with grace. It is a gracious purpose. It’s a purpose to exercise power to not sin. There is a direct correlation between faith and power. The more faith we put in God, the more we allow God to direct our lives, the more power and blessing we’re going to have. Fourth, the purpose of God rules out works as the basis of his saving call: He saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose. His own purpose is the basis of his call, not our works.

#purpose #elect God is building up to something and He is slowly preparing humanity for it. For that reason, our learning must rise to a spiritual purpose. Through spiritual learning, we develop a deep sense of self-acceptance and compassion, not only for ourselves, but also for others. We experience a deep sense of belonging and oneness with all beings, transcending the boundaries of race, religion, and nationality. This, in spite of the world becoming less inclusive and less harmonious where understanding is void and disregard and denial for truth prevail. There is a transformative journey that experiences truth, that allows for transcendance. This transcendance declares why we exist. It captures the heart of why we are on this earth and why Jesus died for us. It defines our life - not in terms of what we think, but what God knows. It clarifies the non-negotiables. It identifies God’s purpose about who we are, regardless of circumstances. It anchors our life in the character and call of God. We must focus more on our “being” than on our “doing”. The biblical narrative is about God, His revealed works of creation, provision, judgment, deliverance, His covenant, His purposes, and His promises. The bible sees what happens to mankind in the light of God's determined, righteousness, faithfulness, mercy, and love. Remember the bible is one unified story. And it teachs us how to know the difference between descriptive and prescriptive passages. Descriptive passages describe what happened: they give us the historical accounts and the stories of the events that took place. Prescriptive passages give us clear commands and instructions as to how we are to live our lives. We are to reason the original purpose of the passage, whether positive or negative. We are to ask how it points to Jesus. The complete universal plan of the Sovereign God is being worked through His creation. The key aspects of God's plan center around God's people - Israel. The word of God is composed of hundreds of individual narratives that provide the content for the story that is ultimate truth, crucially important, and often complex. Their purpose is to show God at work in His creation and among His people. The narratives glorify Him, and give us a picture of His providence and protection. The people of learning will approach God’s truth from the perspective of spiritual individualism and spiritual collectivism, reasoning solely with spiritual dialogue. Individualist spirituality is centered on the within. Collectivist spirituality is centered on the effects of events upon the whole of the people. For these reasons spiritual dialogue in truth will demonstrate our understanding. It will show our failings and where we veer from God’s way. Ignorance doesn’t make us less wrong, nor does it save us pain. It is far better to know for certain what is truth, even when it is unpleasant, because that gives us an opportunity to move in the right direction. Truth is the aim of reason. Without the truth, there is no hope. This is why we must learn the power of truth now and make a right use of the words that conviction by the spirit of God is revealed. And what makes the truth the truth? Actual reality of experiences and observations. Make a commitment to yourself to accept the reality of a certain situation. Remember truth isn't desirous for its own sake, it serves a higher Master. The purpose of truth is rooted in the purpose of life itself. And if any truth offends you, it is because you are afraid of truth. There is a huge amount of freedom that comes to you when you take nothing personally. One of the purposes of the 2520 is to make God’s people immune to hard sayings. We are not to set ourselves up to suffer for nothing. If we be a servant of God, our boundaries are not feelings, but rather acceptance of spiritual responsibility. We are given the power of the spirit over esteem. Our value is in the word of God. When we have insight into the truths of God, not taking anything personally gives us immunity in the interaction that we have with other people. We contend for the truth without contention. Now, I pray that we are prepared to accept the truth of prophecy. It is divinely inspired actualization of the measure of faith, of the purposes of God, of the revelation of Christ, fulfilled in God’s people. There is a reason that God is going to take this point really deep. It is to take us to a place theologically that many people are not comfortable going. God wants to show us something incredibly important about Himself and His plan of salvation. What is God revealing about Himself? What is the big take away that He wants us to see? These are theological waters to swim in. Let’s do this! Let’s gain insight from scripture. Let’s understand this first. I Peter 2:21 For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an   example, that ye should follow his steps. We are thus encouraged in our patience. A sort of people called to be objects of woundings. We recognize the kindness and the love when one who is chosen offers that which will profit us: correction, rebuke, reproof, instructions for our learning, and therefore we must expect it; by the terms of our faith we are bound to deny ourselves, and take up the cross. And if we suffer in these offerings we are brought nearer to God. We are called by the commands of Christ, by the dispensations of God’s providence, and by the preparations of divine grace; and, by the practice of Jesus Christ. We are being gathered for eternity. It is by instruction that we become knowledgeable. We must have wise souls. Isaiah 42:1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold;   mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. Isaiah 45:4 For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me. We are chosen for purposes by divine counsels. We are the elect; an outcome of God’s unconditional, irresistible, and irrevocable grace. We will always seek to glorify God in all we do, because of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives and our love for God because He first loved us. Theologically, our election is tied to Christ before any event happened. There are deep penetrating messages in the bible that we are responsible for hearing. Messages for our salvation. Messages that will “seal” us. It is when we understand who the elect are, that we can then understand the meaning of “the world” as a mindset of societal order. We are to do nothing to remove the chance for someone to believe. The atonement of Christ is not limited. The election, the chosenness, is influentially set in the word of God as evidenced by the recurring sibling rivalry stories in which one sibling is specially favored. God's granting Israel special status entailed both unmerited privilege as well as an expectation of a proper human response toward God. God is Sovereign in His purpose and His election. Let’s reason. Two nations, Edom and Israel. Israel was chosen to perform a particular type of service to the world, so also Edom was chosen to perform a particular type of service to Israel. Not all Israelites have eternal life, so also, not all Edomites are destined for eternal condemnation.   Any Edomite has opportunity to believe and receive eternal life from God. God chose Israel so that they might be a blessing to the nations, and God chose Edom to help Israel in this task. God will reveal hatred for what it is and make known His power of love. He does this not to destroy any, but in the hopes that they would see His mercy and become vessels of honor.   We must reason concerning our role, our function, and our purpose within this life individually and corporately. We are not seeing some strange act of God. Through the election God is calling the whole world to come to Him. God’s promises do not fail…man’s faith does. This thing is purposed by counsel. Romans 9:1-5 I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen. Hear the man of God sharing his broken heart for his fellow countrymen, Israelites, who did not know Jesus. He even went so far as to say that he would give up his own salvation in Christ if he could secure it for them. Of course this is not possible, but shows his heart of love for the lost people. The word begins to set up a question to be answered by rehearsing all that Israel was given by being God’s chosen nation: they were given the law, they had the temple, they were given promises from God, the patriarchs came through them, and even the Messiah Himself, Jesus. However, despite all of this, most of Israel was on the outside looking in. They had not put their faith in Jesus as the Messiah. So, the question that naturally arises is, has God failed? God chose Israel as a special people for Himself, so why are the vast majority not in a saving relationship with Jesus? Romans 9:6-9 Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son. God’s Word has not failed by any means. It goes on to point out that just because someone was born in the line of Abraham and was an Israelite by race did not mean that they were children of the promise. In other words, your family line does not guarantee you a relationship with God. So, what group will find salvation? The word says it is the children of promise. Who are the children of promise? Jacob and Esau illustrate that for us. Romans 9:10-13 And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. So what group will find salvation if not all of Israel will? It is the group of God’s elect, the children of promise, those whom God has chosen. What was the significance of God choosing Jacob’s over Esau? That His purpose of election might stand. That God could show that in salvation it is His choice that matters. That God is sovereign over salvation as well as every other aspect of life. The principle that God established in the choice of Jacob over Esau carries over into the salvation of all who come to know Christ today. Let’s pause for a considerate moment to reflect on our day. The twins were not merely struggling in the womb. They were warring. Never in history has this demonstration of hatred been shown. Two infants, not yet even drawing breath. Not having uttered a single word. In the closest proximity possible. The prophetic message God is giving here is fruited in our day…the last day. Hatred of the two manner of people has so ripened that the word expresses it. Romans 3:10-12 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Please capture the truth in these verses. All of this culminates to teach us something critical about election. Without election, heaven would be empty and the lake of fire would be flowing over its banks. Election is not fair, justice is. God’s choice to save some is gracious, it is loving, it is merciful, and it is our only hope in finding eternal life! But we are responsible for our faith. And it is by faith that we trust God because we have the realities of an infinite God being expressed to finite minds. The Triune Community, Divine Sovereignty and human responsibility, the Incarnation and many other things in scripture are things that we accept by faith and that we trust God with the unknown details with. It is by faith that we give weight to the full testimony of scripture. God’s ways are taught throughout the word and so are our responsiibilities. We must reconcile our faith to God’s Word. The reality is that we don’t know who God has chosen to salvation. But faith knows that God has a people chosen to election. Does our faith share the truth about Jesus and trust God will work out the rest in the hearts and lives of His people? With that said, may we advance to the ending purpose of God before unveiling the historical path left for us to travel to our featured heritage. Let us know this as it is to be revealed by God in a most arresting episode in human history...it’s the final faith that matters – it will be the ultimate test. We have a very serious message, a word from God. Even if we have achieved other huge victories of faith in our walk with the Lord, it won’t matter, because if our faith does not remain till our final days on earth are at an end, then without that final faith it will have all been in vain. We are in the time when our evening, morning, daily prayer life is to reflect a most excellent spirit in this most difficult time of our whole life. We need the faith that will bridge us from here to eternity. There is this attack on our first faith…the attempt to cause us to leave our first love, Jesus, by spigoting silken threads of fondness to idol worshippers. The enemy’s final faith’s attack is centered on our very salvation. Are we willing to be martyred for Jesus’ sake, having faith that will take us through death? Our faith is to satisfy the eternal, not the temporal. The magnitude and significance of the 2520 prophecy is it prepares God’s people for the transition from who humanity is and was, and who and what we can become if we choose Jesus Christ as our Savior.   It’s the vision given to us of the glorious, worldwide event like nothing we’ve ever seen before. It’s the culmination of what Jesus did for us by dying on the cross. This prophecy connects our existence and events which overwhelmingly affirms the historicity of God’s purpose for His people. To maintain a coherent biblical theology, it is vital that we learn the narrative of the integrated whole of truth. We learn more of God. Not comparatively but reasonably. Who are we to attempt to examine God? Isaiah 40:25-28 To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth. Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God? Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.

There are the ones who take the Lord seriously enough to put aside their own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, and yes, even their own life, in order to follow Him as He commands. These are a new nation not formed by physical descendants, but of those born of the Spirit. And these are qualified because they respect every word of God. It is absolutely essential that God has a nation prepared that could inherit the kingdom. It has to be a nation bonded together with a deeper commitment than mere family ties or blood relations. Being part of that nation is what being a chosen people is all about this very day. Do not be puzzled about this notion of a holy nation. Do not regard the biblical passages as merely symbolic. God has placed you as a light for the nations, that you should bring salvation to the end of the earth. God has a new covenant Israel united together by the Holy Spirit. Hear the biblical reference…who is this writing to? James 1:1 I Peter 2:9, 10 The bible is addressing a newly-formed people who were once not a people. Something is changing in their life to warrant them being called a people, for if they remain in their same old houses, working for the things of the world, and only believed in Jesus, they would still be not a people. They would still remain integrated into society as so-called christians are today. The appointed time has come. No longer strangers, no longer rootless, a nation is being gathered. No longer separated, no longer alienated. This is not just some denominational titled group. This is a people actually dwelling together in unity, so as to be a light to the nations, though living in every geographical area on earth. Mark this as your learning…God has a unique people typed as being scattered for purpose. These answered the call for who is on the Lord’s side. God makes distinctions and divides and separates and elevates. These are so exceptional that the Lord is their inheritance. Numbers 35:1-8 Deuteronomy 18:1, 2 God is shifting us into positions for the promise that we’ve been praying for. Sometimes a God shift looks like chaos. We will understand why we have to go through what we’re going through. Wave after wave of tests will make us feel like we’re being tossed from a cliff. In order for God to shift us “into” position, He has to shift us “out of” conditions that prevent our shift. God is putting exclamation points where we had question marks. God is closing wrong doors to wrong plans, wrong relationships, wrong decisions, and even some wrong places that have taken us on a detour from His plans. Put this in your spirit…you know it’s a God shift because the Holy Spirit has been whispering to you. Situations that would have made you break, are giving you peace. You’re saying, “Yes God.” We should pray for the wisdom to keep our shift on the divine low. What God is now positioning us for, requires silence as we walk around the walls that need to fall. All drama in our lives is to be put in timeout. Detach from relationships that God has shown you are not validated by truth and faith. Cease allowing temporary emotions to make permanent decisions. God sees the work you put in your faith and the faith you put in His word. He sees the prayers and the hopes that you’ve been watering with tears. We need to be true with ourselves. Because even in the “wildernesses of our lives;” where we are, is “determined by God.” And in His “governing sovereignty,” there’s a divine shift,” for our life is ready to take place. In other words, this “spiritual shift” that must happen, must extend beyond the good words we speak in order for us to receive the permanency of God’s eternal promises. We must cease complaining, disobedience, murmuring, and sinning. We must move from complacency to spiritual contentment. This spiritual shift advances our character, our conduct, to show as polar stars in the celestial journey of inheritance. Because God is entirely consistent in His holiness, His every change of mind is entirely consistent with His character. His holiness nor His character cannot waver one iota. So, His treatment of us is in response to our choices. The shift that we are to undergo is supported by the truth of our obedience. This means divine qualitative and quantitative empowered changes, consistent with the will of God. All that we do must give way in the name of Jesus. Prayer is the platform for this sustainable empowerment. Our every endeavor will dwell in the word of God. We will teach and admonish one another with grace in our hearts. Nothing we do will cause God to be stranded. God has given us the free will to make our choice for life. We will be engraced like no other. New encounters, new revelations, better understanding, increase of wisdom, outstanding testimonies, will yoke our lives to the solitary family of God. All things are determined by the counsel of God and still we are granted the power to participate by choice to shift our destiny. God’s time is moving forward and there are some who did not recognize the time of their visitation. God’s time is the right time, right now, and they missed it. Remember when God said “let there be light”, there was light. What means He, when He says, “cease from sin”, “be ye perfect”, “love one another”? We need to understand the timing that God ordains for our lives. The purpose for study, is God wanting us to understand and recognize the spiritual shifts in our lives, marked by a deeper understanding of the grace of God and the cross of Christ. If reformation is about anything, it is about getting back to what Jesus died for, and being true to the apostolic mission that carries it on. So, while some focus on still trying to predict every facet of the end times or redefining what grace and the cross means, those who are truly reformational will be about the Father’s business of advancing the good news, making disciples, and bringing transformation to cities and nations in the process. There is this spiritual whispering being heard by God’s people who have ears to hear. Spiritual shifting is the preparation, the acceleration, and the expectation for the divine alignment for the harvesting of souls. We must be in the right place to receive the scheduled outpour from God of the latter rain. When we pray, when we petition God, we by faith know that He hears us. That’s well and good. But do we remain for a time in prayerful mode to hear what God says if He chooses to answer right away? And if we don’t get an answer quickly, do we just forget the prayer? God’s answer may not be audible. He speaks in different ways. Listen for the still small voice. Listen with expectation. Discern situations brought to you. The last day true faithful people of God are appointed for not only the movement of the Holy Spirit, but also the moment of the Holy Spirit. In these maturing sons and daughters, there is an intricate work of “overcoming”, being released in them to bring forth the manifestation of true kingdom life, power, and love, into the darkness that is covering the earth. The Holy Spirit is revealing in us now, that the reality of Jesus’ return is at hand. This spiritual shift is like God saying, “let there be light”. The Lord is making this changing work available now to those who will hear what the Spirit of God is speaking presently. Let none tell you that you cannot be like Christ. His mind is the truth pattern proposed for our imitation. It is a mind that understands God’s purposes. The mind of Christ stands in sharp contrast to the wisdom of man. The mind of Christ involves wisdom from God, once hidden but now revealed. The mind of Christ is given to believers through the Spirit of God. The mind of Christ cannot be understood by those without the Spirit. The mind of Christ gives believers discernment in spiritual matters. These build their faith through the study of every truth in the word of God, to know the deep things of God. They do not conform to the traditional assigning of the word as does the world. What in essence does spiritual shift mean? Spiritual shift is about the quality or state of being one. What that means is that as Christ is in us, we are all connected. Spiritual connection is our ability to intuitively understand something that impacts our soul and gives meaning to our lives by having a relationship to and with the Creator. There is a constant sense of communication with spirits together. You begin to show up in the same places. You are extremely secure in the truth. Your gratitude for prayer reflects your recognition of just who God is. And the more like Jesus God conforms you. It is here where the truest self is created. It is this work of God that opens our minds to enable us to respond in a godly way - that is, by faith - to the manifestation of Himself through His Word. It is God giving us His wisdom to see as He sees. We now begin to righteously connect with others who are assigned. Truth is a crucial part of strong relationships based in faith. And the only way to ensure what is the truth is to find truth in every word of God. The fact that a great many people believe something is no guarantee of its truth. Too many are satisfied with where they are and do not hunger for truth. Why? Because they don’t like the taste of it. Let none erode your faith in the word of God. We must refuse to disarm any part of truth. Once truth is removed or ignored, separation results. To be in Christ, we must not only know the truth, we must love the truth. Truth will always be truth, regardless of lack of understanding, disbelief or ignorance. Relations will fall away as spiritual awareness shifts connections, but you will recognize friends on the spirit and the soul level. And there will be no gaps. Spiritual shift will keep happening to you in one way or another on the spiritual journey, because truth and light are the reasoned reality of the revelation of Jesus Christ. Truth and light remove the shadow of ourselves. We navigate this journey by taking full accountability of our every thought, word, and deed. We have deeper reflection with God that aligns us to our higher selves. We work toward suffering into wisdom and peace as we will encounter portals of grief. Yet, made able to live in the present moment with the hope in our tomorrow. Spiritual shift is one of the glorious things about God's secret purpose, which is the restoring of the life of God to the spirit of man. It encourages us to be sovereign and whole within, no longer deferring to other people's opinions, ideas, and untruths. We willingly choose to choose, only in alignment with God’s own personal truth, rather than the truths of our culture, families, friends, and religion. We willingly choose to choose, based on our aligning with Christ, in our highest knowing of the highest truth rendering the highest consequence. We begin to realize a self that is different from who we thought we were and what we thought we were. Our spiritual awareness is now found in the utilization of the known truths of God. We reason with every revelation. The Holy Spirit reveals to ourselves what could have been known before this moment, that we might find the comfort with the truth that we are 100% potentially perfect in Christ. We are upleveling to knowing and being with the existence of the Divine. We are chosen individuals who have experiences of divinity, of sacredness, of the presence of God within all existence. As participants in spiritual foundations, as well as some of us who are mavericks in our own exploration of the big Truths, we ourselves have either directly experienced the truth that everything is sacred and divine, or we are growing ourselves toward that knowing. Faith is the practice in which we grow our capacity to be with what is unknown, yet at the same time is known within every one of us. Faith is here, because I believe it is at the core of the practice of letting go of what no longer is in alignment with our highest knowing, and our highest good. It is a necessary practice in order for the spiritual shift to occur. I pray that each of us has this testimony…it has taken me pretty much my whole life to come to the direct experience of myself as an aspect of the divine as Christ is bringing me to God. God is love and that says, God dwells in me, as me, as I am in Christ. We have practiced faith for years to come to God, to know of Him through the reasoning He Himself offers continually to those who want to be without sin. It has taken me decades to own for myself, that we are continually awakening to the truths of our sacredness and our union with all. And this testimony is found in my faith in the faith of Jesus. Through our lifetimes, each of us, through every event we experience, grows our ability to know ourselves more fully when we measure each moment of each event with the truth and the faith of Jesus. Each moment is a revelation…an ah-ha moment, an experience to realize that we are on the path to the righteousness of God in Christ. In essence, in this final time, God makes us the bridges on the path that allow for the integration of what is to be known and proclaimed as the opportunity for eternal life. God’s grace toward us is so sufficient that it is all part and parcel to the knowing of who we are! It is all one extraordinary practice of waking up to our all-ness!!! This is our deepening in our conversion. This spiritual shift is so profound that it is a decisive break with every pattern of sin and the world and embraces new life in Christ by faith. It involves many changes in a person. It involves a change of mind, which is a spiritual approach unto the mind of Christ; and a change of a higher recognition of God, a critical view of self, a capstone discernment of sin, and a willingness to follow Christ. It involves a change of affections, and a sorrow for sin committed against a holy and just God. It involves a change of will, which is a deliberately, determined, decided, and chosen volitional change, an intentional turning away from sin and a turning to God through Christ to seek forgiveness. The entire person; mind, affections, and will, is radically, completely, and fully changed in conversion. God’s sovereign activity by the Holy Spirit in the soul causes us to embrace the cross in its whole purpose to bring men and women into a right and reconciled relationship with God. This matters! Now there comes the anointing of the Holy Spirit that we might know all things…all things concerning Christ. We are secured in his interest. Our hearts and minds are enlightened and strengthened for understanding. We are true to Christ. We know that in Christ there is no possibility of blending the truth with error. God purposes in us a conscience of conviction. We know we’re being called to something more significant and expanded. A profound transformation readying for a spiritual shift on a sacred journey. We are threads in the hand of God weaving us into the cloth that is the robe of righteousness. We are as one…together in Christ. We are coming into the stature of Christ and in this last day we are also susceptible to feeling more of the world’s darkness too. There will be winters in our life - hibernation and death. We will welcome the spring for growth, for rebirth. We will experience the sun of summer to bring the light of truth to others. And we will embrace the autumn of harvest in preparation for the coming of our Jesus. Everything is happening in divine order and right on time. The rest of the sabbath is intuitive to us in our devotion to God. It is woven into the fabric of our being to remind us that we are image-bearers of God, called to emulate the pattern He established for us at creation: to live within a rhythm of work and rest, to be after His likeness. We come to hear clearly that still small voice that speaks the power of truth. We come to better understand the meaningful purpose that the spiritual shift holds in our lives. This is the real calling to us. We begin to live by the unifying, creative truth within us. We set our every intention to honor God. We give authority to the expansive will of God to take full control of our lives. We let the authentic word of God resolve all dissonance between how we live our lives, and the core truth found in every word of God. By truth we free ourselves to be deeply connected to God in Christ. By this we are led to trust Him, to follow Him, and to get out of the way. We say “no” to the coercions of the world. We seek that which accords with God as divine principle; that which is, has been, and ever will be; that which eternally is. The verities that truth abides in fullness, at the very core of our being when found in Christ. What we are to be is but the unveiling of what was determined. We are placed on the straight and narrow path along which the Spirit directs, and as we are in Christ, proves so smooth and safe that we refuse to allow ourselves to be misled by habit into trusting sense perception. God is a special, personal Father to all His children. God's thought projecting into our mind, builds spiritual consciousness like that of Jesus. The Spirit of truth watches every detail of our life. When we ask and by affirmation proclaim its presence, it moves us to the spiritual shift. God has made us for something more, and His truth has given us the way to real freedom. Now, with a quiet mind and deep breath, we answer the call of God to come to be higher in Christ.

How many of us know that one of the most basic cries of an individual is for significance? It's a God-born drive. It’s a value that's not a wrong desire—it’s just in us. There are certain essential ingredients that make up a pleased person, and one is affirmation. Everybody needs to be affirmed and loved. Every person needs to have some measure of significance. Now understand, when I talk about significance, I'm not referring to being famous or popular. You can be very famous and be totally insignificant. Significance has to do with its effect on humanity. Do we understand that the greatest tests you and I face in life, we don't know about when we're facing them? When we are under pressure for a decision, those are tests, but they're not as big as the ones we're unaware of. What is really valuable is examining our values, for example, as David talked about “being tried in the night.” How can we be tried in the night? We're sleeping. It's just that the Spirit of God is working on the heart of the person, working to discover what the makeup and the value system is, that's been ingrained into that individual. Some of the great tests that we go through in life, really have to do with how fast we drive through town at night, when nobody's looking, or when nobody's there in the room and we've got the TV changer to see what entertains us. The tests are when we don't know we're being tested. When someone tells us a rumor, what do we do with that rumor, what do we say to the one bringing the rumor? It’s the little things that oftentimes are the most significant. When God’s word tells us to hear that our temples may be fit, yet we elect to not listen to God’s directions and instead listen to the preacher or the friend. As with David. Go to Psalm 16. There is a passage here that is also quoted in Acts 2. Let’s read both of them. Verse 7: “I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel. My heart also instructs me in night seasons. I have set the Lord always before me. Because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.” Look at verse 11: “You show me the path of life. In Your presence is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Back to verse 8: “I have set the Lord always before me.” And because of that, “I shall not be moved.” I'm stable and circumstances are not going to move me. Now in Acts 2 it’s quoted this way: “David says concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face.” Another version says, “I saw the Lord always before me.” This is a huge principle. In this particular passage David is saying, “I set the Lord before me.” But how many of us know, we can't set God before us? What we can do is set our eyes on the presence of God, who's before us. We can't bring Him and put Him here; He's here. What we can do, is adjust our heart as we realize that He's already here. The ongoing realization of the presence of the Lord is probably one of the most, if not the most, vital elements to the believer’s life. It is the awareness of God in me, upon me, and with me. David became the great leader over Israel and led them into their greatest hours of prosperity and blessing. They had the greatest military victories. They finally got all the land that was promised to them through David. All the years from Joshua onward, were just dormant until David came and brought them into their inheritance. He was the greatest of warriors; he was the greatest of worshippers. He wasn't even a Levite (the tribe in Israel that served as priests), but he was the ultimate priest. He was at the top of his game in all these important areas. Notice this one thing he said, “I always, every day, I set Him before me. Every day, I set my eyes on the presence of the Lord who is with me.”   Now, the confidence level of people reaches an unprecedented level, when the presence of the Lord becomes more manifest to them. How many of us know that if we saw a fiery cloud above us and heard the voice of God coming out of it saying, “I'll heal whoever comes into the cloud of all maladies,” all of us would be praying for wings to get into that fiery cloud? The more clear the manifestation of His presence is, the greater the dimension of faith we operate by. To live by the theory of His presence is wrong. It is not good enough to say, “Well, I know He's always with me.” No. That truth must launch us into an experience or we're violating the truth. The truth was not given to equip us with concepts and ideas to debate and to discuss. The truth was given as invitations for divine encounter so we would know by experience that God is upon me, and He is with me. David's entire life as a warrior, as a priest, was focused on this one thing. This is one intimation we get out of his life. Take time before Him, until you can see Him . Can you think of a place where He isn't, then know He is with you. So, David gives us the key, which was the absolute heartbeat of his life. It’s kind of like he's saying, “This is how I make it. Every day I behold Him with me.” When God is silent He is still with us… The story of the deluge begins with an awful roar and ends with an awful silence. Genesis 7:11, 12 is a powerful statement of the beginning of the awful event: “In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.” Downpour and darkness and the thundering of rushing water shook the earth, for forty days and forty nights of awful, frightening uproar. Then it ended with silence. Look at 7:23, 24: “And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark. And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days". The statement at the end of verse 23 is instructive: “And Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.” The text could have read, “Only Noah, Shem, Ham and Japheth and their families were left.” The statement as written declares something about how it felt for Noah. Everything was gone. Death was everywhere. Now there was only silence. Noah was left with the awful difficulty of no movement, no answers, no word from God. As Noah floated on the water in this great wooden structure, there was no explanation, no prompting, no voice of hope from God. Noah faced what so many face in their spiritual life: the period of wilderness and struggle that comes after the great salvation, the great act of God, the great beginning, the powerful word of release and hope. Let's review a couple of things. First of all, the giant wooden ark in which Noah found himself was closed in everywhere. It was thirty cubits high and covered with pitch. Genesis 6:16 has an ambiguous phrase that is probably describing a small window. It was covered over during the storm. The door through which the animals and people entered the ark was closed by God and covered over with pitch. Noah couldn't see out, he could look only upward from himself. Noah was told very little about what would happen to him as he began this adventure. In 6:18 God spoke to Noah and said he was the only righteous one in all his generation, the only one who had a heart for God. So God gave him this word: “But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee.” The ark was the source of salvation for him; he would be protected from the storm. But what Noah didn't hear was any word about getting out of the ark, about the end of the story. Would he ever be allowed out? What would be the conclusion of this adventure in following God? So now Noah was in this period of silence, encased in a place where he couldn't see out, or get information. He wondered what was going to happen next, but he had no word from God as to what the end of the story would be. Time went by. Noah was in a period of self-discovery. One of the important questions to ask at this point, and at similar points in the Scriptures is, why God allows for these silences, these periods in the wilderness. Why does he set us on our way and then seem to withdraw his hand from us? Why are there times when he gives us no answers? What are we supposed to learn in those kinds of times? Why was the nation of Israel allowed to experience the powerful, miraculous salvation of God in the Exodus through the Red Sea, and then wander in the wilderness, obediently for three years and then disobediently for 40 more? Why was David anointed king and then driven into the wilderness by Saul? Why was Jesus driven to the wilderness after the dove descended on him at his baptism, and forced to undergo that time of testing and temptation? Why did the apostle Paul, after his conversion, spend months in Arabia? Why this pattern? What does God achieve in the silence when he doesn't seem to be doing anything, and we're not sure that he remembers us? We consider always the beginning of our hope… We're going to come back to that question, but that's exactly where Noah was in this story. That's why 8:1 is so powerful: "And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged;" There are a number of points in this account where God is described in human terms. The Bible does that frequently. In fact, the Lord had not forgotten Noah. But Noah's experience was that he had been forgotten, and so he described what appeared to be God's renewed interest in him as a remembering. The same thing will happen later in the story when we read of God's smelling the aroma of the sacrifice that Noah offered, and making a decision based on that. That again is a human way of describing something much more complex--God's decisions and actions. But we can observe important truths about God in human language. Read verses 2-12: The region in Turkey where Mount Ararat stands has a number of hills and peaks. Presumably the ark landed on the promontory that had higher peaks available around it, which Noah could see out of the window of the ark. After floating silently for 110 days without being able to see where he was going, having no idea of the conditions outside the boat, wondering if it would ever come to an end, the hope began to come in stages. The first thing God did was send a wind. Just the simple facts that the wind was blowing the ark was beginning to move again, and the water would eventually recede, were reminders to Noah that God had not forgotten him. As the water receded, the ark came to a place where it rested. The ark moved by the breath of God, and then stopped by the purpose of God. And Noah realized that indeed God hadn't forgotten him, that there was going to be an end to this story, he didn't know what. In trying to discover what the world outside was like, Noah sent these two birds off as an experiment. He was using them to get information, and reading that information for knowledge. But this is also a parable. Bible students see the story of the two birds as instructive of spiritual things. The raven was a member of the family of birds that were carrion-eaters. It was at home with dead things. Noah wondered whether death and destruction still reigned. The raven went out, and there were enough carcasses floating in the water that it could survive outside the ark. The death bird didn't tell Noah anything about what was out there. So he sent out a bird that needed life to survive, a living tree to set its feet on, fruit growing from the earth to eat. It came back with no information, but at least it came back. Then the second time, it came back with a leaf in its beak. The dove of Noah with the olive leaf in its beak has been one of the most profound symbols of peace in every place, and every age, where the Bible has been known. Something good was going to happen. You can imagine Noah's relief to know that the end of the story was not destruction, and that the ark was not going to be his home forever. We consider lessons learned in the wilderness… Read Chapter 8 verses 13-22: There are two important comments about Noah's behavior that we ought to look at, and then we'll try to answer the question of why God had required this period of silence. Noah removed the covering of the ark and saw that the ground was dry. That was on the first day of Noah's 601st year, ten-and-a-half months after the flood began. But he didn't come out. Then a month and twenty-seven days later, he could see that it was growing increasingly dry. But what he saw was devastation. The result of the flood was not a cleansed, beautiful, green, thriving world. He sat in the ark and realized that the lessons he had been learning gave him no information about what would happen next. Noah would not come out of the ark until God spake to him. The first thing Noah did, upon disembarking, was worship God with a sacrifice. Cover chapter 9:1-22, we won't read it here. I ask you to read it in your own Bible and reason with it in the presence of God. In this passage we hear language that recalls the creation to us. Noah knew that as Adam, his great forefather had been, now he too was the man whose family would populate the earth. Now he too was the one who was caring for animals as Adam had been told to care for the living things of his day. Noah knew on some level that what God had done in Adam, he was going to do another time through Noah's family. But Noah knew, too, as he examined himself in the dark, repetitive, quiet, forgotten days that he had nothing of the innocence of Adam. His flesh, his sinfulness, his capacity for anger and lust and lies, became increasingly apparent to him. Think about what it must have been like as Noah built the ark. He was the only righteous person on earth that would go through the deluge, the preacher of righteousness, as II Peter 2:5 says. And as long as he had all his wicked contemporaries to compare himself to, he would never see his own heart. He must have felt that there was something special about him. He was also busy building an ark, the first, only and last one of its kind. It was difficult, and it required attention. He was so obedient to the cause as his custom was, that he didn't discover anything new about himself during that period. But when he floated in the ark with nothing to do except the repetitive work of feeding animals, when he seemed forgotten by God, he realized the tensions that existed between him and his sons and their families. He thought on the great burden placed upon him of showing forth the truth of the word of God, and our life’s dependency upon always being faithful unto His word, regardless of the obstacles, regardless of the jeers snorted from those who say they are family members or friends, in spite of our feeling a need to succeed and bring about individual accomplishments; we must recall God’s purpose for us every moment, knowing that we must watch, and be sober in all our doings, we must be ready now to give up all and every thing, and trust God. He realized all his capacity for anger at God, for feeling sorry for himself, for when we pray and beseech God for that which we think we need, and He in our understanding, does not grant it, we think ourselves slighted because we see the material reward of the wicked. But the flood was for the cause of the wicked. Where now should we stand, seeing the tempered wrath of God. The awful realization dawned on Noah that the world was going to be started again by him, and his heart was as much in need of grace as anyone else's. He was not a good specimen from which to build a new earth. He was as capable of tawdry and angry and embarrassing and godless behavior as anyone else. Doesn't God often teach us that lesson about ourselves when he's quiet? As long as we can compare ourselves to other people, we can fool ourselves. And as long as we can be active in God's work, we don't have to discover anything about ourselves. But when we are put in some kind of wilderness, and there's nothing but the spiritual reality of who we are on the inside to occupy our thoughts, the awful discovery begins to take place: “I'm capable of anything. I'm not as great and courageous and godly as I thought I was.” We discover weakness and inadequacy. We discover our undoings. We search for something, anything good in us, and with each assessment we find filthiness. We discover that we know good, but are incapable of good, we know right, but prefer wrong, we speak goodly words, but harbor ungodly motives. When the day finally came to see the world, Noah was a man who had discovered his own inadequacy; and he was looking out on a world that was still suffering the effects of a terrible destruction. This had to be an extraordinarily low point for him. He would not come out until God invited him out. There wasn't presumption in Noah. He didn't leap into the arms of his Lord, because his own failures were ringing in his thinking. He didn't dance around on the newly dried earth, because it was still reeling from the destruction, and it was not a place of beauty and splendor. So Noah sacrificed to God. It may have been a thank offering or a sin offering; it was probably both. At the invitation of God, Noah walked out into his presence and said, “I need help. Thank you for saving my life. Now please save me from the sins I've discovered in my heart.” He was the man on whom God would rebuild human experience, and he was a man who was not up to the task in his own strength. God’s loving commitment is always present with us… The Lord had been silent but now we hear him speak again. At the end of chapter 8 God reveals His thoughts to us and in chapter 9 there's a conversation with Noah and his sons. God's thought of the human predicament was contemplated. He had judged them and brought Noah, the only righteous man, with his family into the ark, and now as Noah offered a sacrifice for his own sins, it was clear that there was no fixing the human race. Time wasn't going to fix them. They weren't going to educate themselves to become righteous. Each generation would repeat the problems of the previous generation in a deeper context. In the context of the sacrifice, the Lord made a promise: “I won't destroy them again.” But he didn't say how he would answer the problem. What could God do for a race like this? This counsel of God with himself is instructive. The problem of a righteous God and a sinful population, and his refusal to destroy them completely, leaves him ultimately with only one determined choice - its the greatest story of all, the story of how God would take our punishment on himself. The conversation God made with Noah and his sons is in 9:1-17. He was using the same language that he had used with Adam. He was deliberately saying, “We're starting over now. You be masters of the earth as the first human pair were.” But it’s an awful dimming down of vision. In the first case, when God made everything, he saw that it was beautiful. At the end of every day of creation he said it was good, and finally very good. God delighted in the things he had made. Here he would only say, “I refuse to destroy the things I've made.” He told Noah to be the master of the animal kingdom that was coming out of the ark, but he gave him permission to eat designated animals, whereas he had required Adam to care for them. And he assumed that human beings were murderers; it was impossible that this race would not be; so laws were required to deal with killing. And so we have the re-establishment of human life, but with a broken heart. This is a broken people who will live far below the beginning point of the first human couple. Then, contrary to all the discouragement, the bad news, Noah's discovery of his sinfulness, the blight on the earth, the need for an animal sacrifice to atone for Noah's sins, and the unfortunate commentary about the human beings who would replenish the earth, eat the animals, and kill each other; God interposed this promise in 9:8-10: The promise of God, standing in marvelous and immense contrast to the hard news and the struggle, is the basis on which we live our lives. That is the way every generation has survived since, not deserving God's mercy but being given God's mercy. The covenant with Noah was only the first one. God would restate in better and better terms his unwillingness to destroy us, his compassion, and his insistence on love. It contradicts all expectations. He shouldn't have acted this way, and yet he did. What he had to work with wasn't worth it, yet he had fallen in love with us. He cannot, and will not, act destructively toward human beings that choose His way again. We can choose destruction for ourselves, but he means good to us. Though this account doesn't tell us what will come after, it’s the beginning of the story that leads to the cross. God would take on himself what we deserved. He made a promise with a beautiful witness (the rainbow) because the story was going to be beautiful. His refusal to judge us meant that in the long run, he was going to bless us. The promise of the love of God is the extraordinary thing in this story. The dove flew back with a leaf in its beak, and it was offering a hope that has inspired people ever since. The rainbow repeats the theme of hope. Peter refers to “His precious and magnificent promises” (II Peter 1:4). Do you reflect very often on God's word to you? Do you read the announcement of his love and believe his commitment to people who are broken? Are they love letters to you? Do you believe God can intend good even when we don't deserve good, that he can bring blessing in the lives of people whose self- discovery is of tragic insides? Are the promises of God believable to you, though they contradict everything we know about ourself? This love story of God for failed people began as Noah disembarked the ark. God made a promise. It was only the promise of God, not the beauty of the earth, that Noah had to cling to. It was enough. And we have the same promise.

I Samuel 3:21 Isn’t it awe-inspiring how much more God becomes, as we study and reason with Him according to His word? Because what we long for is something more. We want to be near God and to encounter Him more. We want to hear Him teach and discuss with us the things of truth. The more our exposure to God and His word, the more our pace of obedience. A familiar and accurate grasp of God’s word is only as good as our behavior and determined belief in it. If our closeness to God is not where we want it, if our slowness to obey is outpaced by the word, we are to reason that there truly must be more. There is more of God to know, more of God to love, and more ways we can deepen our trust and intimacy with Him through faithfully studying, reasoning with, and keeping His word. This is bringing us to the more of God… Jeremiah 31:34 When we are learning about God there are so many different directions in which we can go because of the vastness of who He is. While we can focus on many different aspects of God’s character and nature, and His names are all relevant in their own way. Yet, there is one name where the moreness of God means exceeding greater than. Isaiah 9:6 We know him in his exaltation. This child, this son, this Son of God, this Son of man, that is given to us, is invested with the capacity to do the infinitude beyond deterministic limits. So advanced in dignity, with the name above every name. His people shall know him and worship him by these names; and, as one that fully answers them, they shall submit to him and depend upon him. He is both God and man. His love is the wonder of angels and glorified saints; in his birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension, he is wonderful. A constant series of wonders attend him, and, without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness concerning him. He is intimately acquainted with the counsels of God from eternity, and he gives counsel to the children of men, in which he consults our welfare. It is by him that God has given us counsel. As a King, he preserves the peace, commands peace, he creates peace, in his kingdom. He is our peace, and it is his peace that both keeps the hearts of his people and rules in them. He is not only a peaceable prince, and his reign peaceable, but he is the author and giver of all good, all that peace which is the present and future delight of his subjects. Our default is to call Him God, to call Him Lord. We ask that we not slight the appreciation and distinguishing as to a thing terrestrial. I Corinthians 8:5 What He is, is more than we are sure He is, or can be. For He is the Father and He is the Son and He is the Spirit. He is not the “We Are”, He is the “I Am”. His love is the wonder of angels. Everything of the triune is by Him. He is the wisdom of, and the wisdom to, and the wisdom for, all things. He effects and performs the highest attainable continuation of all things. His doings are the upmost creativeness of the utmost of all possibilities. He is all that peace that will preserve the holiness of eternity until there is more than God. What is referred to in the book of Isaiah eclipses what is revealed to us. We see in the word, “Jehovah” and “Jah”. We recall the name “Elohim”. These names could not be more seizing and prehensive. One who is always and forever. Isaiah introduces us to this name of God who is the mighty God. This is El Shaddai. So important, because there is an all-inclusive aspect attached to that name. The word almighty is having absolute power over all. The word El Shaddai is not the word used for God in the scriptures. It is God’s self introduction to Abram. Genesis 17:1 And as we reasoned with Isaiah’s words, we see the all-encompassing of the far-reaching power of God. We see this God in the interpretation of Isaiah, who is moved by the Holy Ghost. We see this God to be all the more God, as He is the God, the name by which Israel knew their God. Until Elohim, Jehovah, Jah, and El Shaddai took on flesh. Genesis 1:1 Exodus 6:3 Psalms 68:4 Isaiah 7:14; 9:6 Matthew 1:21, 23 Acts 4:10-12 Therefore, when the Spirit rises within us, we find ourselves crying more than, “God!” or “Lord!” For the God whom we worship is no vague deity, but the one who revealed Himself as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We too, cry Abba, Father. God is always immeasurably more than our thoughts can reach...our minds can think. The holiness of God is of such an absolute distance from all that He has brought forth, that it shows up in His closeness to all that He has created. The theme of His holiness expounds in unexpected ways with the gift of the advent of Jesus His Son, coming so near to us as to be made as we are, and the gift of the pentecostal experience of the Holy Spirit, coming so near as to fill us with the power of witness. Divine holiness closely attaches in mysterious ways to both divine justice, and divine mercy, and is the clearest explanation of how God is always more. Hear the exclamation… Isaiah 6:3 It is this great distance that shows the love of God that brings Him ever close to us. The holiness of God refers to the absolute moral purity of God and also the absolute moral distance between God and His human creatures. Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty is the description of God repeated in the three-fold formula to bring great emphasis. God is not just a little bit holy. God is REALLY, REALLY, REALLY holy. This is God’s reminder to us of His presence. That God’s holiness is a matter of enormous spiritual significance. It also serves as a warning that we humans are not holy. Holiness is a central marker of the fundamental divide between God and the sinful human creature, but most especially, in our condition of being redeemed, we are entirely dependent upon God for any holiness that might reside in us. God is always more than even holiness. He is the very source and standard of holiness that will reach into the traverses of a never-ending eternity. Israel had a fear of getting too close to God lest they be overwhelmed by His holiness. God’s presence was a great comfort to Israel, while at the same time being a great threat to their own unholy lives. One did not lightly or superficially come before God. We would need a mediator. God is so always more, that He manifested His Spirit by coming into the world as a sacrifice, and an offering, in a body prepared Him that He might be as close to us as He is to His Son. This is the most awe-inspiring experience ever for God’s creation…when God “showed up”! He is the real holy of holies. And the intensity of His presence was entailed by only that proper representative that could be as He is…that Jesus Christ! For this, we are to all the more worship God in Spirit, for that is what He is, and in Truth, for that is what our Jesus is! God is always more, as divine holiness is most clearly attached to the Spirit of the God who is the Only Potentate. The holiness of God is now lodged in the person of the triune by which God’s holiness took up residence in human hearts. The Holy Spirit brought holiness where there was none, and he is the means by which believers participate in the holiness of God, personally. God is always more, even in His creation. God’s driving passion from the beginning of Genesis, to the end of Revelation, is to make the universe a holy dwelling place for us with Himself. The consummation of that motive is the new heavens and new earth. And this consummation completes that which was lost in the garden, and which was redeemed most fully in Jesus. This consummation, namely, is the people of God’s own possession that would be “at home” in His presence and His holiness. We must have an appropriate response to this. There should be no allowance for us to continue sin. That mystery of godliness when fully reasoned with, and understood, will present the reality of how there is no change in God to fully satisfy divine justice, with the full display of divine mercy. God’s holiness marks out the remarkable appearance of God into human history in the way that is mysterious and stupendous. It is the underpinning to the entire narrative arc of scripture. Christ gives life to our greatest hope – to see God. Yet, without change, our greatest fear would be to see God. The holiness of God runs through the entirety of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. It is why so few of Jesus’ professing followers understand him on the pages of the gospel truth. When God shows up in history, His presence is an inscrutable change. The first reaction is unbelief. But with the desire to worship God in spirit and in truth, and the beauty of holiness with gratitude, afterwards, may a modicum of understanding emerge. God is always more than measure. All He wills is providential. And that we might have no fear to approach unto Him, God gives us the faith in Jesus, whereby we can behold the holy God in the face of Jesus Christ. The highest holiness we will ever be, is to be like Christ. We were created after His likeness. Knowledge is the path of our renewal to His image. We must practice Jesus in the life. God is always more to us when we model the love of Christ, the humility of Christ, the steadfastness of Christ, and the obedience of Christ to the Father. Christ is always more, but never less, than our beautiful model of holiness on display for us to watch. We focus on Christ. The Holy Spirit flowing us into union with him. God in Christ in us is always more…we need simply remember His name. It is in Christ that God is always more to us. It’s because we humans need a constant reminder of who we serve, how we need to prioritize God in our lives, and how He is insurmountably higher than all other beings in the universe that clamor for our attention. High and lofty, exalted above all others. God is always more, as the beauty of His wisdom presents us with both the most sublime of possible thoughts that our reasoning reveals more knowledge of Him, and the most difficult of theological understandings bring us closer to the foundation of creation. When we speak of God in unity, we see the three Persons. When we see the unity intended in the first pair, we see three persons. God is always more, as the harmonies of relationship and truth bring meaning to life in significant ways. We affirm the truth of God though we struggle to articulate it in a way that is meaningful to us. Can God be more? He is absolute completeness. Then how is God always more? As we come to understand truth, God becomes more of all things right to us. More holy, more loving, more merciful, even more godly. He lacks nothing but what He possesses in His character, is everything. Try to conceive of this. God is absolute perfection: the perfection of power, the perfection of love, the perfection of justice, and the perfection of faithfulness. Perfection is simply the attribute of everything that He is. And all He is corresponds to, more than we could ever come to know. God is always the more because He has no limits, no bounds. He possesses all of His perfections to their fullest potential degree and yet in His endlessness, God allows us to reasonably understand that His infiniteness is personal. All expressions of God are eternally situated in His self-giving love, with eternal results to be always in the three Persons and in those with whom He will dwell. This love expression of God becomes more in the drama of the incarnation and life of Jesus. We have given to us an unveiling of the inherent self-giving glory of the Son. This is even the more of God that we come to see. The cross was so profane that we learn of it from Moses structuring a serpent upon a pole and in connection with the purpose of the counsel asking “who will go for us”. The cross would seem completely out of place in a discussion of beauty. How could there be any beauty in it? The essence of the beauty of it, is self-giving love. This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. This is God being always more, than we can come to know. The cross gives finite human beings a taste of what it is like to be a member of the triune family. In the moment of his sacrificial death, Jesus gave to us what he had given to the Father for all eternity: everything! The total surrender of self. The cross is love’s highest expression and beauty’s ultimate source. If we could but reflect our life in the cross, we could once more intertwine humanity’s capability to reflect the image of God. Our faith in Him would be of a different and more wonderful kind. Rather than seeing God in Christ, we would be preparing to see God in His Person. It is in Christ that God is always more…Jesus is the exact representation of what God is like. Jesus doesn’t show us what God is like by being similar   to Him; he shows us what God is like by being the same as Him. Similar to the way a sunray carries the essence of the sun, Christ is of the same essence as God. He is an extension of God’s glory. He is the radiating glory through a human nature like ours. What a beautiful change. God became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory. This is the more truth that God reasons with us. When we see and know and understand Him as scripture reveals Him, we are actually seeing and knowing the essence of God’s character. We reason this to be a wonder that grips our soul. A wonder that leads to the truth of worship. This is 'veiled' from the carnal understanding of sinners. God is always more because He brings us full circle to our created purpose…to be like the One who is God.

God is the most dominant power of supreme authority, and He rests in His exercise of love toward all His creation. He is Creator of the universe and knows what's best for all things. He understands we are a three part being, spirit, soul, and body, and that for us to be the healthiest and happiest, all three of those parts need to be in harmony with each other and with Him! With love, we are to celebrate this magnificent reality.   And it is with divine sight that we who love to learn to know Him, discern that He is more than sovereign. He is higher than the heavens and though we use God’s sovereignty as a monocle that does enhance our vision, even significantly, it’s not enough, He is more. God is powerful and authoritative to the extent of being able to override all other powers and authorities. The fullest picture of necessary reality is revealed to His chosen in the cluster of divine attributes, deserving special focus. He is the triunity of sovereigness: the source of all knowledge, all understanding, all wisdom. This is formulaic. Nothing is left to chance. Ephesians 1:11 Proverbs 16:33 Any that deny His sovereignty, because they refuse His good, will come to know unholy terror. But what we think does not matter unless it’s a reflection of what the bible says. In these final days, the word of God introduces and raises subjects we may not think to discuss. The word that cast new light on our approach to reason. God is increasing the value of His words to apply biblical truths to new situations we may experience in this final world. When we study together, we simultaneously gain a glimpse of God’s character through love in the act of reasoning together. He shows us the qualities that make Him to be God. His charge means that everything happens according to His plan and intention. Authority means that all His commands ought to be obeyed. His Presence means that we encounter God’s charge and authority in all our experience, so that we cannot escape from His justice or from His love. We partner with the text of every word, to incarnate the truth in His covenantal presence. God is so much more...that nothing can prevent Him from accomplishing His purpose. Psalms 115:3; 135:6 Isaiah 14:24, 26, 27; 43:13; 55:11 Daniel 4:35 It is also universal; that is, it covers all the events of nature and history. This includes the natural world. Psalms 65:9-11: 135:7 Human history. Acts 17:26 Individual human life. I Samuel 2:6, 7 James 4:13-16 God even governs the free decisions of human beings. Proverbs 16:9 Our attitudes toward others. Daniel 1:9 Ezra 6:22 More problematically, God even foreordains people’s sins. Exodus 4:21 Deuteronomy 2:29, 30 I Kings 22:23 Romans 9:17, 18 II Thessalonians 2:10-12 But, as sovereign Lord, he also ordains that some will come to faith and salvation. Ephesians 2:4-10 So, salvation is God’s work from beginning to end, doing for us what we could never dream of doing for ourselves. We should always remember that God’s saving grace in Christ, is part of His charge over creation, as the Lord. But God is more. On the basis of who He is, even the winds and the seas obey Him. He utters to us His commandments that we may obey Him, not wavering in our obedience, that by His absolute sovereign authority He has right to save us. God’s sovereign lordship is His covenant solidarity with His creatures. The covenant Lord is one who takes us to be His own. And He declares His intention in scripture. Exodus 6:7 II Corinthians 6:16 Genesis 17:7 Exodus 29:45 Hebrews 11:16 Revelation 21:3 God takes us to be His people, He fights our battles, blesses us, loves us, and sometimes, as a loving Father should, gives us special punishments for our sins. Amos 3:2 He summarizes all this by saying that He is with us. He places His name upon us so that He dwells with us and we with Him. Numbers 6:27 But God’s presence is not only for His chosen beings. For God’s whole creation of beings is also able to be in covenant with Him. If they so choose. He is the Lord of all creation. We should not think of God’s sovereignty as an impersonal, determinism. God’s sovereign lordship is deeply personal. As Lord, God has charge over everything, efficaciously, universally, and He also utters words of life, that graciously govern the ongoing life of His creatures. And as Lord He has made a sovereign commitment to be “with” those who are His. God’s sovereignty is a broad concept, including all that God is and all that He does, even embracing His love. The two vast truths of God’s sovereignty that are more than we can grasp are the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways. Everything is governed by the deepest divine wisdom. God never does anything or allows anything that is meaningless, random or without an infinitely wise purpose. That’s huge. That is a big thing that we must come to terms with when we think about God’s sovereignty. His sovereignty is governed by His justice and His mercy. God never, never wrongs anyone. All that He does is righteous and just, but even justice is not the final and highest aim of God’s wisdom. The ultimate aim is that He be glorified for His mercy, His goodness, His love, and His grace toward undeserving rebels. He sovereignly planned and accomplished salvation for sinners by the death of His Son. Because of that, we get an assignment through Jesus Christ to go to all nations in order that any who choose might come to God. In this truth we can have all of God that we want to have. Reason with the statement that you can’t love someone you do not know, and you might conclude that knowledge must precede love. That’s profoundly why God wants us to know Him more…that we might love Him. But God does not say “if you know me”, He says, “if you love me”… God says this in drawing upon that image created in us. God is love. Suppose that Adam would’ve loved God more than he thought of Eve. The deep love of this relationship with God is the door to even deeper knowledge of the Creator. Intimate friends entrust themselves and so disclose more of themselves to each other. So, there is an intimate knowledge accessible only through the deep love that results from and produces even more profound trust. Would the seventy have left Jesus if they had come to know that he was the Holy One of God? To those that were with him, this knowledge wasn’t merely intellectual; they had come to love him and trust him, even when he confused them. And because they trusted him, Jesus disclosed to them“mysteries of the kingdom of God” that he didn’t disclose to others. To really know Jesus, is to really love Jesus, which is the door to knowing Jesus more. John 14:17-23 Notice the simplicity in those words. The way to know the triune God intimately, to experience the relational communion promised, is not complex. As we more deeply know, love, and trust God by faith, and to persevere through the difficulties, God will use these opportunities to manifest more dimensions of Himself to us. We come to know that His grace is sufficient. It is in our encountering the reality of these opportunities that God’s love is true to His word. It is shown that His love, His word, is more than just proposition, it is revelation…it is the Person Jesus Christ with whom we are coming to know.

Stars were learned for seasons, for travel, for conveying location, and messages the limitlessness of God. Throughout the ages, satan has inspired man to pervert and misconstrue the constellations, and today we have Bernice’s hair and the Dog, all distortions of the truth because their foolish hearts were darkened. Satan offered astrology to replace the true meaning of the stars, which is the salvation message, and by this seemingly harmless little distraction, has led many away from the truth. There are many who view astrology as seemingly harmless entertainment...that is because they have become lazy and numb and ignorant of the ways of the enemy. The truth is as simple as a clear night sky. Within every zodiac sign there are actually four images, forty-eight images in total, that expand our learning and further instruction. We begin with Virgo, the first sign of the Mazzaroth, and the Head, Christ Jesus as the Savior of His church; the Woman. Virgo means “virgin” in Greek, which depicts Jesus, who was born of a virgin. Matthew 1 [23] Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. A virgin, literally, means that this woman is not bound to an husband, that she has not entered into a carnal, earthly relationship. A virgin, spiritually, means that she is bound to her Father in heaven, that she careth for the things of the Lord that she may be holy, both in body and spirit (1 Corinthians 7:34). Revelation 14 [4] These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. Virgo Here are manifold applications: both the beginning of the prophecy, with Virgo, the virgin, and also those whose body, mind, and soul are dedicated to their Lord and Savior, the 144,000. The woman in the image is holding a branch and a shuck of corn. The brightest star in the shuck of corn is called “spica”, which means “seed”. This refers to the prophecy in Genesis 3:15 that the woman would bring forth the Seed, Jesus. Genesis 3 [15] And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. On Virgo’s right is a woman carrying a baby called “Coma”. The baby has a star called “the desired one”. Haggai 2 [7] And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts. Virgo has a man on his side, called Arcturus who is holding a shepherd’s rod and a sickle. This is a picture of Jesus, who harvests souls and then shepherds them. The star at the tip of his rod is called THE BRANCH. Zechariah 6 [12] And speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD: We follow the prophetic circle, to Libra, the scales, where Jesus is seen equal to His God and worthy to redeem His people from sin. Christ the God, balanced against Jesus the Savior, and the balance is even. Philippians 2 [6] Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: Libra is represented by a pair of scales, a picture of justice and equity. This constellation contains three bright stars in the Hebrew called “mozan” which means “to weigh”. Psalms 62 [9] Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity. When God put man on the scales, man was completely sinful. Right below the scales, there is a cluster of stars which forms a picture of a slain animal. That animal is a lamb, which represents Jesus as the lamb of God. Next to the lamb is the cluster of stars called the Southern Cross. What balances the scales of justice, is Jesus on the Cross. Philippians 2 [8] And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Scorpio consists of a mighty man holding a snake and stepping directly on a large scorpion. The Hebrew word for scorpion is “aqrab” which means “the conflict” or “war”. The brightest star is stepping directly on the heart of the scorpion, and it ominously glows red. Both snake and scorpion are depictions of the devil and demons. How is it that we see both at the same time? Deuteronomy 8 [15] Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint; These are outward manifestations of the inner character, revealing that they are servants to sin, servants to satan, members of the synagogue of satan and in the context, we see an aspect of a deadly enemy. Then we move onto Sagittarius, the one with two natures, Man and Horse, set on war. For horses represent war in the bible and this man is carrying a bow and arrow to enter upon a spiritual battle. Psalms 45 [3] Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty. [4] And in thy majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness; and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things. [5] Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies; whereby the people fall under thee. In Capricorn we have a half-goat and a half-fish. In the Goat we have the Atoning Sacrifice, in the Fish we have the people for whom the atonement is made. Leviticus 16 [21] And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness: Aquarius represents the pouring forth of the Holy Spirit and the living waters of blessing poured forth for the Redeemed. Isaiah 35 [4] Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you. [5] Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. [6] Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. [7] And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes. The star in the right shoulder means “the record of the pouring forth” and the star in the other shoulder is called “who goeth and returneth”, or “the pourer out”. Numbers 24 [7] He shall pour the water out of his buckets, and his seed shall be in many waters, and his king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted. Pisces represents a catch of fishes, souls that Jesus brought to the heavenly shore. Romans 8 [17] And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. Aries represents the Ram or Lamb slain, head bowed for sacrifice, bruised, yet living for evermore. Revelation 5 [6] And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. Taurus is a picture of a bull. In the gospel of Mark, Jesus is depicted as an ox, which represents a tireless, powerful servant who never ceases in serving us. Pleiades and Orion are in the cluster of Taurus. Pleiades means “seven stars”, and they are found on the neck of the bull. In the book of Revelation, Jesus holds the seven stars, representing the seven churches, in His hand. Jesus carries us. Taurus, The Bull, the highest sacrifice, represents the Messiah come to rule. Acts 2 [30] Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; [36] Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. In the constellation Gemini we have the twins which represent divinity and humanity, His two-fold nature as God and Man, His twofold work of suffering and glory, His twofold coming in humiliation and in triumph, and Christ’s image reflected fully in His people. John 1 [1] In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [2] The same was in the beginning with God. SOP – It is not possible for the heart in which Christ abides to be destitute of love. If we love God because He first loved us, we shall love all for whom Christ died. We cannot come in touch with divinity without coming in touch with humanity; for in Him who sits upon the throne of the universe, divinity and humanity are combined. {Christ Object Lessons, Page 385 excerpt} In Gemini we see Castor and Pollux, named for a ship in Acts 28:11. Both stars are located parallel on the head: the name of one is called Apollo, which means “ruler, or judge”; while the other is called Hercules, “who cometh to labour, or suffer”. However, one appears to be a man while the other appears to be a female. The Greeks called them twin sons, but the root word for Pollux is “maiden, damsel, girl”, indicating that this star formation represents masculine and feminine attributes. Together they are referred to as “united” or “peace”. Together they exemplify love and the law, the image and character of God. They complement each other, for love requires another. Genesis 2 [21] And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; [22] And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. [23] And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. [24] Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh . Psalms 85 [10] Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Over the century’s astronomers have focused on the Crab and her pincers which hold her people tight in her arms with the millions of eggs that she carries, which represents souls. But they have omitted the weightier matters in that constellation. In the constellation Cancer there is also Argo, that ship which carries the precious cargo of souls; also, the Little Bear and the Great Bear (Ursa Minor and Ursa Major), which is a clipped version of the Big Dipper and Little Dipper, and which is actually a Lesser Flock and a Greater Flock. Luke 12 [30] For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. [31] But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you. [32] Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. The Lord here, is referring to those who hear and follow Him. It is a prophetic sky picture representing two different flocks: a large flock and a smaller flock, the smaller flock, or sheepfold, is representative of the 144000, the Little Dipper or Ursa Minor. The constellation Argo is the largest of all the constellations containing sixty-four stars spreading out like a canopy in the sky. And for good reason, for it represents “a great multitude which no man could number”. Isaiah 60 [4] Lift up thine eyes round about, and see: all they gather themselves together, they come to thee: thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side. [5] Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee. [8] Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows? [9] Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name of the LORD thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because he hath glorified thee. And finally, Leo. Leo is the last sign of the Mazzaroth and reveals God's wrath against iniquity and transgression and sin. It is expressed as a lion, which is Jesus, the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Whose voice shakes the earth and those therein, who thunders and the people like grass withers, who roars like a lion and the seven thunders peal across the sky. The brightest star in this constellation is found on the lion’s foot called “Regulus”, which means “the foot that crushes”. Romans 16 [20] And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen. The constellation Leo not only envelopes the Lion of the tribe of Judah as ruler, but also the divine Cup of wrath, the Raven to devour up all filthiness, and the wonderful finale: The Serpent destroyed. Ezekiel 39 [17] And, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD; Speak unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood. [18] Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan. [19] And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you. [20] Thus ye shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord GOD. [21] And I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them. [22] So the house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God from that day and forward. The star pictures are in constant, slow motion and correlate with the angels of heaven, God’s people on earth, the twelve tribes, the twelve apostles, the events that transpire, the gospel, and all by the working of God’s invisible hand. Isaiah 40 [21] Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? [22] It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in: [25] To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. [26] Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.

God has a people on earth that He is making His own forever and ever, whose hope is in the grace of God. These move farther and farther away from the temperament of this socially conflicted, confused, spiritually impoverished, and tragically paradoxical world. These are not to be anxious about materialism, knowing that God will meet all their needs. These will be given a divine calling. They will move with tender humility and quiet patience. They will be faithful to guard the sweet harmony of the Holy Spirit. All immaturity will end! These will not be easily shaken by trouble, nor led astray by novel teachings, or by the false doctrines of deceivers. They will remain strong and always sincere in their love to acknowledge and express the truth. Unlike the world, God’s sojourning elect will not let the passion of their feelings lead them to sin! They will have no anger controlling them or to be fuel for revenge, not for even a moment. They will not give the slanderous accuser any opportunity to manipulate them! Ugly or hateful words will never come from their mouths. Instead, their words will be as beautiful gifts that encourage others; this done, by speaking words of grace to help them. The Holy Spirit of God has sealed us in Jesus Christ until we experience our full salvation. We will never grieve the Spirit of God or take for granted his holy influence in our life. Laid aside will be bitter words, temper tantrums, revenge, profanity, and insults. God has graciously forgiven us, and we will graciously forgive others in the depths of Christ’s love. God’s true people must abandon feelings, and seek God’s comfort to sacrifice, allowing reactions to rule their decisions. Psalms 142:1-5 Proverbs 4:23 Feelings are self-contained expressions that live on selfish desires and selfish will, that cannot obey God, nor does it want to. Feelings can be long lasting. It is, however, about denying self. It is attempting to save yourself in your own strength. Feelings don’t trust God. Feelings respond to thoughts that lack confidence in reasoning. Thoughts are mental processes. Our brains associate one bit of information with another and create frameworks such as beliefs, perspectives, opinions, judgments, and ideas. A feeling is an automatic and temporary reaction to a stressor in a part of the brain not connected to thinking and reasoning. Thoughts trigger our conscious processing of an emotion, where we assign the emotion meaning. God’s people will have manifested emotion for discerning judgment toward the mindfulness of purpose. The world will walk in their empty delusions. Their corrupted logic has been clouded because their hearts are far from God. Their blinded understanding and deep-seated moral darkness keeps them from the true knowledge of God. Christ was only here for a little while. Our time together in these final days will be very different from what they used to be. We will have to follow Christ all the way home, or we will be lost. Every day is as we are in a different world. Greetings, hanging out with friends, dining out, and shopping are not safe and don’t work any longer in this world anymore. The world we knew, seems to suddenly have turned into a strange place in which invisible danger lurks everywhere. So, we feel that we are standing in a strange wilderness. Earth is not our home. God is using this situation to illuminate ignored or forgotten truths. No matter how much you think you have achieved in this world, and no matter how familiar you’ve become with it, if Christ is working in your life the days here are but a shadow. We own no property in this world. We have had certain things lent to us for use while we are here, and we have to give an account of how we use them. And what of our character. It is not to be as that of worldlings. We are born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God. No longer a mere natural man, for we have a higher and spiritual nature imparted to us. Our ways and manners and customs are not as those of the people of the world who have their portion in this life. Our speech is to have a peculiar sound. Expect to be treated as though you do not belong here. Our motives will be misconstrued, and our words wrested and twisted as we are slandered and abused. For certain, we have various interests and occupations here, and we seek to be a blessing in the land where we are, but our hearts are with Christ in heaven and we can never be fully satisfied until we are there. We are here in our mortal spirits with hearts full of anticipation of the time when we shall be at home with the Lord, and find in Him, all that our capacious souls can desire. We are very cautious where we go. That arch-rogue, the devil, petitions to plot against us every day, and all his legions are constantly seeking to rob us of our sacredness or of our peace of mind or in some way or another to lead us astray. We are in enemy country. We must keep our sword unsheathed, ever have ready for use that two-edged “sword of the Spirit which is the word of God,” and hold as with a death-grip the great “shield of faith. What is said to one of us, is said to all of us…watch. We should always have our graces in active exercise. If we do not, we will bitterly regret the folly and sin that besets us. We will find that we have no sufficiencies here of material worth. Our adequacies must be our spiritual dependency upon God for everything. In this waste howling wilderness, our bread must drop from heaven day by day. Thank God, there is a short duration to our sojourn here. Though the days of our pilgrimage should be seventy, or eighty, or even ninety years, how swiftly they come to an end. There will be some who will enter their chambers sooner because God will have them finish their service earlier. There are those who are here as strangers to God and there are some who are here as strangers with God. What is the difference? Psalms 39:12 Being with God is being under His constant eye and care. We enjoy peculiar fellowship with God. We walk with God in hallowed and intimate union and communion. He has told us some of His greatest secrets. He has given us the high privilege of dwelling in the secret place of the Most High and abiding under the shadow of the Almighty. In this world that God created, He too is treated as a stranger. Here is His handiwork all around us, most fair and beautiful, yet the fool says in his heart, “there is no God,” and proves himself to be a fool by saying it. Here are signs on every hand of the working of God’s gracious providence, mysterious but wondrously wise, yet worldlings cannot see any traces of the finger or mind or heart of God, for He is a stranger to them. And as God is a stranger here, we need not marvel that we, who are His children, are also strangers on the earth. He was despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief—spit upon, scourged, hounded out from among men, and at last crucified. I Timothy 3:16 This God, who is a Spirit, manifested Himself in the flesh. This is that determined change that even the more enhances the honor, the praise, the glory due God. And look what mystery is given us as sojourners here…our life is hid with Christ in God. What can there be here for us? Nothing that need trouble us. God wants us to be so dissatisfied with this world that we long for a better one. This being the case, we long to get home. But we ought not to long for home from any work-shy motives. We are to be as good laborers for God, that we may be worn with carrying His ministry, that we eagerly look forward to the joy of His Sabbath rest to renew our strength for service on the morrow. Our rest here for God is to be a rest that shall know no end…a rest in untiring service. What a wonder that we who are all sojourning here, too often treat one another as strangers. There is an essential unity to holy discipline. Quick ears are so ready to misinterpret and misrepresent words seeking to find one word awry, dwelling over it. Let us muzzle the mouth, open the heart, and reason with the mind of Christ, that we may be nearer to going home. Ill words make texts for sinners, and thus God is blasphemed out of the mouths of His own beloved children. Let it not be so with any of us, beloved. Weep, if need be, tears have ever had great prevalence with God. But do not restrain your grief; find espression in reasoning. Only before the wicked, are we to have nothing to say, we hold our peace. If we are God’s chosen people, how should we relate to the world around us, and, in particular, how should we respond to the world’s animosity and rejection? In a habitable practice we are truly sojourners and exiles in the moral and ethical sense. The lives of those who long for heaven are to be nourished by and are to reflect, the principles and practices of that place to which they are heading. And there is such a difference between this world and that place that it is inevitable that each scene should produce a very different way of life, a difference so fundamental that it ought to be distinctly visible and impressive to unbelievers. This is one of the reasons why unbeleivers feel such contempt against God’s people on many occasions. While here, we must give life a different appearance. It is to show love, purity, self-denial, kindness, and generosity, humility, courage, honesty, patience, and integrity. These are the facets of a character dominated by the love of Christ and a commitment to his kingdom. It is a life of bearing witness in word and deed, to the love and holiness of that God who has called us out of darkness into His wonderful light. We have a faith response to the grace of God. We live now as though already saved. All that we do, should be in the interest of our Father. Do we think about other people the way we are taught to think about them here, or the way we are taught to think about them there? It will make a difference whether our sense of heaven is fitful and weak or clear and powerful, powerful enough to produce a living expectation to others who wonder at a life of peace without hate, love without prejudice. Too much of the time for many who say they are believers, the sense of the heaven is vague, and so incapable of producing a powerful effect. Task yourself to ponder what it means to be a sojourner here on earth. Is it truly a conviction that you have to be in heaven? It is the great honor of Jesus Christ, and it is the immense privilege of human beings and of sojourners especially, that such a place exists, and that there is a way to it from this world. How will we want to have lived and loved here when we are there? We should be daily feeling our spirit leaving this place.

Adam and Eve are the only humans who have ever lived in such a marvelous world as was created in the beginning. They lived when and where to whom ‘the glory in the grass and splendor in the flower’ continually revealed the diviner miracle of a Heavenly Father's munificent love and care. How would the Savior, our Jesus, have seen the world through the lens of sinless human experience? With a heart full of delight at the manifestation of the glory of God in the intricately created plants, trees, animals, fish, sunsets, oceans, seasons, minerals, gems, rocks, scents, food, and drink, it was the sinless Son of God incarnate who knew the beauty that was intended. And yet, there was another world that the Savior viewed from the side of sinless humanity. These two worlds collided when the Son of God entered the world in order to redeem men. The mystery of the incarnation is that “He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him” for he was not of the world. Jesus declared the essence of what He had come into the world to do. In addition to coming to atone for the sins of His people, and in addition to conquering the evil one, Jesus came to overcome the world. He told us that in the world we will have tribulation. We must reason with truth to know that there was nothing inherently evil about creation. We will learn that there are two worlds – a world that God’s true people are in and a world that God’s true people are not of. Allow me to be very emphatic with the following statement…God’s people do not love the world or the things in the world! It is the world   under the sway of the evil one to which Jesus referred when he spoke of overcoming it. He had come to conquer the prince of the power of the air, the (little r) ruler of this world, and to overthrow the dreadful results of the rebellion into which the evil one had led mankind. It is in the world where its power and might, its knowledge and wisdom, its commerce and industry, its culture and civilization, without God and in opposition to Him, is the abode of Satan. The world with its pride and self- exaltation, its trust in man and in the power and wisdom of man, its hatred for God and of one another, its covetousness and lust for power, and for the glory of man; the world with its lust of the flesh, its idolatry and adultery, its profanity and deceit, its striving after pleasures and treasures, its vanities; it is this world, with its strife and debate, its unrest and revolutions, its wars and destruction that is “crossed” out of the heart of God’s people by what transpired from Gethsemane to Golgatha. This world is fallen. How then is the judgment of this world already come? John 12:31 The answer is found in the already, but not yet, of His finished work on the cross. In the death of Jesus, the world was put on trial. When the Son of God was being condemned before human judges, the Judge of all the earth was condemning this fallen, evil world. When Jesus God hung on the cross, He was tearing away the facade of goodness with which the world masks its idolatry, pride, foolishness, self-righteousness, and lawlessness. When we see Christ crucified, we see the world as it really is, in all of its rebellion and deceit. We, who are in the world, are in the day in which the verdict, which was rendered at the cross, is being fully and openly manifested. In our day, all of the world’s deceit and hypocrisy, falsehood and wickedness is being laid bare and viewed in light of the righteous judgment of the Son of God. As the sabbath is our sign, the cross is that post upon which it hangs. As we are in the world, the cross is our meeting place. All who are drawn out of the world must come to the cross. The implications are magnormous for those who have been united to Christ by faith alone. In the first place, the true believer, not any who refuse to reason with every word to come to truth, must learn to live his or her faith in light of the relationship that he or she now sustains to the world that is overcome. And this done by “overcoming”. If anything of the spirit of this world is found in individual believers, or the church, then, to the same extent, they will be incapable of seeing things in the light of God. They will judge spiritual truth with a heart that is prejudiced by the spirit of the world that is in them. A twice finished crucifixion must be envisioned here. I pray that you hear this with the ear of the mind. Here stands the world, and here stand we. And between the world and us stands the cross. The world views us as crossed out, because of their sin they hate the cross and have no care, concern, nor time for us. Viewed from our side, the world is crossed out, for through our faith in all that is Christ, we have also died to the world; so that we and the world are agreed on one thing, and one only; that through Christ we have equally and mutually no time for each other. Galatians 6:14 There is a promise to true faithful believers that no matter how much the world may persecute, oppose, oppress, scoff at, and deride us, Christ is the victory for those he has chosen out of the world and for whom He gave himself on the cross. So, in Christ the victory is ours…already won. There is nothing that the world can do in all of its persecuting malice to separate us from the love of God in Christ. If we only really reasoned to come to know the fullness of the dimensions of the cross, the mightiest of spiritual weapons. It is the way we continually overcome. The people of the world function apart from God. These who are of the world are bound to sin in some degree. If they were to rightly consider the depth of the defining sin they know nothing of, they would wonder at the opportunity for repentance. God’s people are in this world physically. We must not have either a social or a spiritual presence here…no part of its values…set apart, separated unto the gospel. Let us not retain the insipid, corrupt mind that being of the world creates. Rather, let us be conformed in our minds, to that of Jesus Christ. Deuteronomy 14:2 I Peter 2:9, 10 We must also understand that being in the world, but not of it, is necessary if we are to be a light to those who are in spiritual darkness. We are to do life in such a way that those who do not know how, to measure the God-given faith, see the good He works in us and our receptive manner of all He does and know that there is something “different” about us. We witness that being “in” the world means we can enjoy the things of the world, such as the beautiful creation God has given us, but we are not to immerse ourselves in what the world values, nor are we to chase after worldly pleasures. Pleasure is no longer our calling in this time, but rather the true worship of God, for we know that God so loved the world… This is the place of intrigue and opportunity. For it shows the redeeming love of God in the darkest of places; an orb set for occupation by the rebellious of heaven, a place where light was brought to disrupt darkness in the mind of God’s crowning jewel of creation. It is here that God would send the unexpected gift of His Son. It was this act that plumbed the depths of God’s love to show that His love is infinitely extensive. When Jesus used the terms “in the world”, and “of the world”, he was making exception between peoples. This is the essence of the truth he was saying. God loves the world, and that means He loves every person, head for head. The logic goes something like this: God loves every person; Christ died for every person; therefore, salvation is possible for every person. However, it’s not that God’s love is impotent, and Christ’s death is ineffectual, it is the choice made based on which “world” one’s mind is in. God loves every person, and Christ died for every person, and God’s love is not impotent, and Christ’s death is not ineffectual, salvation has been secured for every person who chooses Jesus over this world. So we come to understand that it is not the extension of God’s love, but the intensity of how we accept His Son. For it is God the Son who manifest God the Father and God is love. No person, no matter how honest his intentions are, no matter how earnest his thoughts are, no matter how much intellectual power he has, can understand and receive God's truth any farther than the Spirit of Christ and the Cross has expelled, or is truly sought after, to expel the spirit of the world in him. The Holy Spirit, when He is carefully waited on and yielded to, is the only Light that can open the eyes of the heart to see and to know what is of the world and what is of God. What is happening in our world today is beginning to make sense to me. The world, unrepentant sinners, causes havoc in their pretense to worship. How are we to interact with these who are influenced and influence others by disbelief? As followers of Christ, we are to actively engage our principles, having good intentions, without allowing the culture’s ungodly morals, values, attitudes, and behaviors to infiltrate our lives. Not even to the point of straddling the fence. If even one word of God’s truth is maligned by a misguided attempt to be relevant, it is sin. We are commissioned to go into the world, not be of the world. The truth, the full truth of God’s word known, will keep us from the schemes of the world...from becoming worldly minded. The world is such a great danger to our souls that this danger caused Christ, the Son of God, to go to the cross to deliver us from it. If you are an unbeliever in any of God’s word, you will hate the truth when brought to you. But if you are a child of God and you hear the evidence of reason, then you identify with Christ. Many of the elect will be deceived when they fail to distinguish between that which is spiritual and that which is worldly. Friendship diversions, entertainment diversions, spiritual diversions…these are the powerful regards that defraud your relationship with truth. Matthew 24:24 We will come in contact with the world, yet we are to retain our distinctive character and refuse to let the world press us into its mold. We should not hold the world in contempt. The many who know not God are ignorant of His redemptive grace. They know not the lines being drawn for joy or for woe. We are to help these come to know the course of this world. They are in the undertow to the will and way of God. We are to let them know they are involved in a spiritual conflict. This is a battle between the forces of God and the forces of Satan, and we and they are involved in it. All are asked to choose sides. Our relationship with the world is to be redemptive, not social. We are not of the world, but we are sent unto the world. As we embrace Jesus, we embrace the souls he died for. We are summoned to advance his cause.