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God Stopped Eternity There is no time in eternity. It is an eternal, unchanging state where there are no intervals, no succession of moments. The essence of eternity is that all things are present simultaneously. Eternity is the complete, simultaneous and perfect possession of everlasting life, meaning that in eternity every experience is fully present at once. However, eternity is not static. It is timeless perfection in God. Eternity is not merely an endless extension of time described as sempiternity, a perpetual property, but rather a state of timelessness. Eternity is “the complete, simultaneous and perfect possession of everlasting life,” meaning that unlike our sequential, ever- changing experience of time, eternity is a unified “now” where past, present, and future are all present at once. This timelessness is associated with the divine. And with that said, our prayer now is to come to reason with God in the highest level of understanding that we are afforded. Let’s reason: Jesus is understood to be not only the path to eternal life but as the very embodiment of that life. Everlasting life isn’t simply a future promise after death – in Christ it’s a present, transformative reality that begins when one enters into a relationship with Him. Jesus declares, “I am the resurrection and the life,” indicating that through Him believers experience life beyond physical death. He defines eternal life as “knowing the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom He have sent,” highlighting that eternal life is about an intimate, ongoing relationship with God. Jesus isn’t just a mediator for us now; He is the very reality of everlasting life. His life, death, and resurrection restore our broken relationship with God and empower us to live in the light of His eternal kingdom right now. Can we reason that “eternity” and “time” are both filled with every eventful moment possible - past, present, and future are in a present actual continuation of existence “all at once?” Having been created in the very image of God, with the possibility of eternal life, our existence wasn’t limited to a fleeting present; rather, our entire life, with its many temporal parts, was laid out in a dimensional spacetime. In this sense, existence is both “in time”, since events are ordered by temporal relations, in tme and “eternal”, since all those moments exist equally, regardless of their “presentness” for us. In this understanding there can be reality outside the present moment. God’s knowledge and being are “eternal” while still engaging with temporal creation. And because of that “image” the eternal is realized in our lived, temporal present. The power of the presence of God where there is nothing of sin invites us to consider that the ultimate reality may not be a flowing sequence of events but an eternal state in which all events are interrelated, transcending our ordinary temporal experience. Here is where only God can move our minds; under the aspect of eternity, we are given a vision perspective to understand a vast, unified whole beyond the transient concerns of existence. Eternity’s reality to us today remains something of a mystery - a profound ground of being that underpins and transcends our every moment experience. It challenges us to ask whether our most deeply held notions of time, change, and existence are limited by our perspective, and whether the true nature of reality might be found in a realm where time, as we know it, simply does not apply. We will come to learn that eternity isn’t just a measure of endless time - it’s a journey into the timeless truths that shape who we are and what we can become. As we learn of eternity, we explore concepts that go beyond our everyday moments: questions of purpose, the nature of the soul, and our destiny in a reality that transcends the temporal. We will possess such an attainment of spiritual insight the decisions we make now can echo into eternity. Eternity deepens every dimension of life. Growth and change is not sequential, but constant always. Advancement in an eternal realm might be understood as the continuous unfolding or deepening of an inner perfection that is already complete. That is, while there’s no temporal change, there can be an experiential or qualitative enrichment - a kind of “growth” that isn’t image by Unsplash measured by change over time but by the fullness of being. We redefine advancement as the realization of complete, eternal perfection, then “growth” in eternity becomes a different kind of process; one that is not temporal but reflective of an ever-deepening awareness or perfection that is already fully present. A mystery ever beyond human understanding is the core mystery of the doctrine of the Triune relationship. Truth teaches that there is one God in essence, one divine substance or nature, and that God exists eternally in three distinct persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We can reason this considering the One Essence of which God is - the single, unified divine nature. This means that God is not divided; He is one in His being. Three Persons in context denotes distinct centers of consciousness or relational identity. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are distinct in how they relate to each other and to creation, yet they share the same divine essence completely and perfectly. These are not three Gods: but rather one God who has a threefold personal existence. The relationships within the Triune, the Father sending the Son, the Son offering redemption, the Spirit sanctifying, highlight different roles and relationships without compromising the unity of God’s nature. A truth mystery of the wonder of faith. The doctrine of the Triune is ultimately considered a divine mystery that goes beyond human logic and fully comprehensible explanation. It is accepted by faith as a revealed truth about the nature of God.God the Son has always been the Son - eternally begotten of the Father, not created - and the Holy Spirit is the power, presence, and love of God who proceeds “from the Father and through the Son” to work in the people of God. So, although God is One in His divine nature, the eternal relationships within the Godhead reveal three distinct persons who are co-equal and co- eternal. The distinctions are relational rather than in the divine substance: the Father is the source; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father. This formulation preserves both the unity of God and the reality of the three Persons who relate to one another in love and communion. In short, the “coming forth” of the Son and the Holy Spirit does not imply that they are separate or created gods, but that the one divine essence is expressed relationally as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - a mystery that, while ultimately beyond full human comprehension, is revealed in scripture. Begotten of God expresses that the Son is eternally generated from the Father - sharing exactly the same divine nature and substance. There was never a time when the Son did not exist; His Being is a timeless, spiritual act that reveals the unique, eternal relationship within the Godhead. This does not mean that the Father and the Son are the same person - instead, they are distinct persons who nevertheless share one undivided, singular divine nature. This doctrine was established to affirm the full divinity of Jesus. Thus, when we say the Son is the very essence of the Father, we are expressing that in His divine nature, Jesus is completely and entirely God, just as the Father is, even though they are distinct as persons. Eternal generation is that power of love whereby God the Father eternally begets the Son. This isn’t a temporal event but an eternal, unchanging relationship within the one divine essence having no beginning…no ending. And thusly, the eternal procession where similarly, the Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father, expressing an unending outpouring of divine life. Preceding every particular event and time is God’s existence. Incomprehensive of any temporal sequences exceeding the full grasp of human reason. The totality of God’s infinite and transcendent nature remains beyond complete human understanding. Our finite minds can catch glimpses of the divine through analogies, symbols, and partial revelations, but the fullness of God’s essence - His omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, and mystery - is ultimately ineffable. We can reason divine truth but will fall short of encapsulating the entire mystery of the Godhead. And even so does the word of God invite believers to embrace both the revealed knowledge and the mystery, trusting that the divine reality, though partially knowable, is inherently and wonderfully beyond the confines of human comprehension. How did the bible writers, both of the old testament and the new testament tell others about Jesus? Most of the writers never had direct personal interaction with Christ. Those who did receive the blessing of abiding in his presence, were not of the faith to present his testimony in the light of the truth that he lived until the Holy Spirit brought inspiration to their lives. John, the hearer who revealed the words, the thoughts, the scenes, the purposes, the times related both to prophecies and eternity, that God purposedly called him up to heaven to write for our understanding of things to shortly come, admonishes God’s people to write, that their personal understanding of God’s working His will in their lives through the indwelling Holy Spirit by the commonness of life shared with Jesus can witness to those who choose to read that a glimpse into the mystery of how the word of God affects His people. So, God gives us time...to think about eternity. So, let this be said here for those of us who by faith, and that means the faith of Jesus, have a somewhat knowledge of things existing in the Determinate Counsel. Before creation, God in His sovereign wisdom and foreknowledge convened a divine “council” in which He determined that humanity would fall into sin and that redemption would be provided through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ. This affirms that Jesus’ crucifixion was not a tragic accident or a mere human conspiracy - it was the fulfillment of an eternal plan. Before this plan was “established” in time, God had already foreordained every detail necessary for our salvation, ensuring that even events like the cross were part of His divinely orchestrated design. That implies eyes capable of envisioning eternity past...eternity future, we might say even while understanding that in eternity there is no past, no future. Life in eternity is usually considered a future experience. However, truth emphasizes eternal life as a "present possession" existing outside of time. Eternity in the past and eternity in the future...in eternity past God planned and purposed, and in eternity future everything will have been accomplished. When does God accomplish His work, then? Between the two sections of eternity is the bridge of time, and it is here that God accomplishes all that He wants to accomplish. Again, so, God gives us time. And does that mean that eternity is waiting for us sometime in the future? And because eternity is always in the present tense, God gave us time to understand things that must be resolved before moving forward. Because our being was created in the first of time, we are temporal beings. And because we were created in the image of God, we are likewise touched with eternity. And so, we are in the now, yet able to consider a past and a future. All peoples are eternal...that is we all were in the mind of God. But time, that event created to deal with sin, will determine who among us will continue into eternity. The purpose of God stands. There is in this a great mystery. Spirits return to God indicating eternality. The mystery is that of godliness. For it is only in Christ that the body changed can enter into the kingdom of God. What can the almighty power of God not effect? He will change faithful sleeping and the living that will not die. Because flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. This is the mystery. This is the reason why we need to think intentionally about eternity. And because we do reason the truth, we are able to give correct answers to those who ask us about it more than when we are not being mindful about it. But whether we intentionally think about it or not, we naturally will have to think about it even without being mindful about it, just because our very nature knows about eternity past and eternity future. We are yet to see the complete beauty of God’s providence. Faith tells us of the wonder of eternity. The bible says we must wait with patience for the full discovery of that which to us seems intricate and perplexed, acknowledging that we cannot find out the work that God makes from the beginning to the end. We are in the midst of God’s counsel...we are in time. The veil will be rent soon and time will be no more. God has a people who are spiritual beings. This will be our powerful witness in these final days. It is our greatest testimony that we are but spiritual beings, longing for that eternity future with Christ. This idea, which expresses the essence of the body under the form of eternity, is, as we have said, a certain mode of thinking, which belongs to the essence of the mind, and is necessarily eternal. Yet it is not possible that we should remember that we existed before our body, for our body can bear no trace of such existence, neither can eternity be defined in terms of time, or have any relation to time. But, notwithstanding, we feel and know that we are eternal...existing in the mind of God from the beginning. For the mind feels those things that it conceives by understanding, no less than those things that it remembers. For the eyes of the mind, whereby it sees and observes things, are none other than proofs. Thus, although we do not remember that we existed before the body, yet we feel that our mind, in so far as it involves the essence of the body, under the form of eternity, is eternal, and that thus its existence cannot be defined in terms of time, or explained through duration. Thus our mind can only be said to endure, and its existence can the womb only be defined by a fixed time, in so far as it involves the actual existence of the body. Thus far only has it the power of determining the existence of things by time, and conceiving them under the category of duration. The power of the mind of eternity tells us that God knew us before the womb. He wrote our members in a book. Purposed before the womb to call those whom would be His servants, predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, to be holy, without blame before Him in love. This from dust called forth in the beginning. If you are reading this, you were made for the last days. Our mind, in so far as it knows itself and the body under the form of eternity, has to that extent necessarily a knowledge of God, and knows that it is in God, and is conceived through God. The reality of eternity is in God. We are living out events that are already finished in eternity. There is no rebellion against God; there is no question of God’s sovereignty, power, dominion, rulership, or His love. It is all settled, complete, final. All that John sees and hears in the transport to heaven is done from God’s perspective. The bible speaks of us who love Jesus and trust in Him here on earth, it describes the finality of our existence in terms of the eternal duration of eternity: we are already there as citizens, united in heaven, and our place is reserved in eternity. These terms describe us already in that eternal domain, while we live out our temporal lives here on earth. With this faith in every word of God, may this writing set forth our touching the mind's power over the emotions and the mind's freedom. Now to us let it appear how potent is the wise man, and how much he surpasses the ignorant man, who is driven only by his envying. For the ignorant man is not only distracted in various ways by external causes without ever gaining, the true acquiescence of his spirit, but moreover lives, as it were unwitting of himself, and of God, and of things, and as soon as he ceases to suffer, ceases also to be. He has no thought of eternal things. Whereas the wise man, in so far as he is regarded as being wise, is not disturbed in spirit, but, being conscious of himself, and of God, and of things, by a certain eternal necessity, never ceases to be, but always possesses true acceptance of his spirit. Eternity involves judgment. Not just the contemplation of it, but the discernment necessary to understand the standards of separation principled by God in Christ. Therefore, even if we cannot be sure of how eternity exactly looks for our life from where we stand, step by step we can be sure that the intended way to live would be a step-by-step choice to choose God’s way above our own, laying down our natural inclinations in exchange for His - this is to be our daily spiritual act of worship. The tension of living for eternity in mind continues as we persevere knowing that it is God who guides and directs our steps. God grants us the grace to construct this vision of eternity. God stopped eternity for the beauty of allowing His people to witness the beginning of eternity again and to involve us in it. This time with higher understanding. With love. And not in His determination, but in His presence. So, in our day we see more how God has made all things beautiful in its time. This earth is but a cemetery. Time will cease. But it is beautiful, as in it, God reveals His mind in time. History consists of all the generations of men and their experiences fused into a whole. This concentrated time in which all the generations of man are fused and from which all things come is called eternity paused. It is a complete compression of every conceivable thing that man could ever do, all in just one compressed section of time. The old testament is that block of beginning whereby the wise begin to understand. Every frightening thing in the world is openly described in the bible. There isn’t a crime that we read or hear about in the media, not a war, that isn’t openly described in the bible. Talk about rubbing out a whole race, that’s described in the bible; a whole country, that’s described in the bible, a people set apart to sound a trumpet of warning for the whole world, that’s described in the bible. Eternity exists, and all things in eternity, independent of creation which was an act of mercy. We do realize that revelation means something was hidden, right? So, the word of God tells us that we must be waiting for something, that was concealed. God gave us grace that we might search and inquire about our salvation. This - why the reference to the old testament as that block. The prophets who prophesied of the grace that was to be ours searched and inquired about this salvation. They inquired what person or time was indicated by the spirit of Christ within them, and to be in us, when predicting the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glory. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but us. All these characters of the old testament were all in us. They were serving not themselves; they were serving us. They were writing for our admonition for when the fullness of time arrived. They asked, “what person or time was indicated by the spirit of Christ within them when prophesying this state? We are in the fullness of time. Now can be revealed which was hidden in the minds of man. Here is what is hidden. Jesus Christ as the personification of God; seen as the glory of God. Now, think of humanity, God’s love, and who personifies humanity...this same Jesus. When we his humanity, God’s love, God’s beloved – we see his love with mankind, with humanity. This is eternity personified reflected in Jesus. Take the block and fragment it. God has hidden eternity in the mind of man. Christ in man is the hope of glory. There is to be the unveiling of God, an act of God in self-revealing: He unveils Himself in us as us. God sets up events in time to reveal Himself in His people. He is revealing eternity, and this takes time. Now the time will fulfill itself in that too. All things take time. Time is a facility for change in experience; space is a facility for experience. This is necessary because the day will come when we will be called to testify to the truth of God’s word. That’s all that we are going to testify to: it is truth. We will have the experience. We will go into the world and testify to the truth of his word. The contemplation of God eternally is incomprehensible. We are from the beginning lost in the wonder of His infinite greatness. When we turn our thoughts to God’s eternity, His immateriality, His almightiness, His absolute sovereignty, our minds are overwhelmed. While incomprehensible in His totality, God has not left us completely in the dark, but revealed certain truths about Himself in His Word. These truths should teach us humility, caution, and reverence. God is all-sufficient in Himself and to Himself. He can receive nothing from another nor be limited by the power of another. There was nothing before God. It is He who created eternity. God is before “beginning”. But God wants His people to reverently inquire with prayerful strivings to apprehend what He has so graciously revealed of Himself in His Word. Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, so magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continued, investigation of the subject of the Deity. The most excellent study for expanding the soul is the science of Christ and Him crucified and the knowledge of the Godhead in the glorious Triune. The fitting study of the believer is the Godhead. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can engage the attention of a child of God is the word, the name, the nature, the person, the doings, and the existence of the great God which we call our Father. There is something exceedingly improving to the mind in a contemplation of the Divinity. It is a subject so vast, that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep, that our pride is drowned in its infinity. If we could only come to a right reasoning first among ourselves and then approaching by invitation unto God, He would give us a true report of Himself, but not a full. We could then secure ourselves from error and from ignorance. We could think on the perfections we discover of His Being. Then, all our thoughts can be attributed to Him. There is a difference indeed that is great between the knowledge of God which we may have in this life and that which we shall have in Heaven, yet, we should not undervalue what we learn here even in its imperfection. We, by faith magnify nothing above its reality. Though we will be like Christ, we will be glorified, not made Divine. In the heavenness of the new creation we will see God with the eye of the spiritual mind, for He will be always invisible to the bodily eye. We will see Him more clearly than we could see Him by reason and faith, and more extensively than all His works and dispensations have so far revealed Him. Though forever learning, forever attaining, our minds will not be so enlarged as to be capable of contemplating at once, or in detail, the whole excellence of God’s nature. To comprehend infinite perfection, we must become infinite ourselves. Even in Heaven, our knowledge will be ever growing but partial, but at the same time our happiness will be complete, because our knowledge will be perfect in this sense, that it will be adequate to the capacity of the subject, although it will not exhaust the fullness of the object. We believe that it will be progressive, and that as our views expand, our blessedness will increase. But it will never reach a limit beyond which there is nothing to be discovered, and when ages after ages have passed away, He will still be the incomprehensible God. Consider this viewpoint if you proceed to hear this...God could have dealt with sin in eternity destructively from the beginning. He stopped eternity and brought forth time. Yet it was not in order to supply a lack, but that He might communicate life and happiness to angels and men, and admit us to the vision of His glory. We are to see a glimpse of the perfectness of His love – God commands the faithfulness and services of His intelligent creatures, yet He   derives no benefit from our offices; all the advantage redounds to ourselves. God makes use of means and instruments to accomplish His ends, not from a deficiency of power, but to more strikingly display His power through the feebleness of the instruments - us. No dominion is so absolute as that which is founded on creation. He who might not have made anything, had a right to make all things according to His own pleasure. God's nature and existence aren’t contingent upon His acts of creation. In other words, God is defined by His own self-existent, being of and from Himself, aseity, not by what He has made. God is the uncaused, eternal Being. He is the “I Am” regardless of whether creation exists or not. God is God even if he had not created anything underscores that God’s essence is self-sufficient and not dependent on the created order for His existence. Even if nothing existed except God, He would still be God because His identity isn’t derived from creation—it comes from Himself. God with eternity, and eternity with timelessness, is the essence of spiritual life. God made man, and to these He added in man the gift of reason, and an immortal spirit, by which we are connected to a higher order of beings who are placed in the loftier regions of creation. God chose the path of love to demonstrate His wisdom, His power to overcome the one-time only contempt for His Godship. Eternity is vastly grander compared to time. God’s placement of human beings within time is generous. It is necessary for preparation. Fortunately, the believers’ concept of God as triune commends the divine becoming through time, for our advantage. What was it that made the fall of the rebellious angels so devastatingly harrowing to them...they resigned themselves to be in the deep for all eternity. They had no knowledge of the concept of time. But that would mean that the darkness brought into the light of eternity with God for the unfallen would forever be a contamination to the wellness of the accord of creation. The triune view that God is three persons united through love can now be revealed which demands divine eternality. There is now distinction between His attributes and His essences of divine simplicity. Relationality relies on change for its content. The divine attributes of God Himself was to show in the humanity of His Son and those same attributes and essence had to be impersoned in the Holy Spirit as the only Person of the three which could be holy and dwell in all humanity without ending life. So, for the gift of God, eternal life, to be bestowed to humanity two unknown dimensions had to be brought forth...time and space. We needed a continuum special construct that is measured in terms of events which succeed one another from past through present to future with probational limits. This was needed that we might experience a type of oneness with God. Eternity had to be stopped. A merely human Jesus could not save us. Because today will never come again, we make precious our time with Christ. It is the key by which we can realize life, and answer the call to a higher possibility. For God to be internally related, God must be internally timeful. Moreover, to assert that the triune persons relate through time places a high value on human relationships. Created in the image of God, we are called to create ever-closer community through time. This effort sanctifies time, rendering kairos of chronos. Kairos is the experience of time as sacred, whereas chronos is the experience of time as purposeless. For the three persons of the triune, all time is kairos. For us, every moment contains the potential for kairos because God sustains the universe continually. Through faith, the moment by moment progression of time can become the grace by grace gift of God. Will this be the transformation of time in eternity? Man was not spoken into being. We were created for growth. Every living thing brought forth in the concept of time and space has the ability to recreate its likeness. And this mystery is that power contained in life, and that life is that spirit of God, breathed into man that returns to God in the occasion of death. That spirit breathed into man was a crucial point in creation that would instill in man God admiring thoughts. This, that worship may be the act of understanding essentially who God is. Worship is an act of understanding, applying itself to the knowledge of the excellency of God, and actual thought of His majesty, recognizing Him as the supreme and sovereign lord of the creation, and beholding the glory of His attributes in the Redeemer, Jesus Christ, His Son. In truth we cannot comprehend eternity, yet we may comprehend that there is eternity; as though we cannot comprehend the essence of God, what He is, yet we may comprehend that He is as we see Jesus. Though the eternity of God be one permanent state without succession, yet the Spirit of God, suiting Himself to the weakness of our conception, divides it into two parts, one past before the foundation of the world, another to come after the destruction of the world. God’s eternity means in particular the eternal life promised to those who are in Christ. God’s eternity is “His own” eternity; God has life in Himself, by His essence. And in that God is without beginning and the essence of this is the unchangeable resolve of God to save man. The gospel is not preached by the command of a new and temporary God, but of that God that was before all ages. Though the manifestation of it be in time, yet the purpose and resolve of it was from eternity. Christ is God because eternity is an attribute of God that is clearly ascribed to Christ as he is before all things, and by him all things consist. This truth goes forth in Christ’s promise to believers. Christ’s eternity is an eternity of “actual possession” not merely “of decree.” This applies both to His glory and His preexistence. Christ speaks of a glory that he had “with the Father before the world was”, when there was no creature being; this is an actual glory, and not only in decree; for a decreed glory every believer has, and why may not every one of us say the same words, if it were only a glory in decree? It cannot be said of any man that he was before the world was. Christ speaks of something peculiar to him, a glory of actual possession before the world was. The eternity of Christ is clearly of fundamental importance to our faith. There is no hope for sinners such as us without it. Why would eternity need to be halted? God has perfect wisdom deriving from a perfect foreknowledge. If God is in heaven and we are on earth, then God is elsewhere. If God is in eternity and we are in time and space, then God is elsewhen. But God stopped eternity that His Son may occupy time and space with us that we might know God and worship God in truth and in Spirit and attain life eternal. Love cannot express itself without an object. All love is love of; hence all love is relational. God is persons united by love. In time and space God can be with us here and now though not limited to here and now. God’s character never changes. But God’s character expresses itself in different ways due to the change that time required. Time is a creation of God. And time is relevant to prophecies. Time and prophecies will end. This speaks to why God stopped eternity. He takes sin very seriously. He takes sin so seriously in fact, that in the fulness of time He sent a Savior for us. Eternity is an interesting subject. What does it have to do with God’s relationship with time? Eternity is “a time” with God. For God is the beginning and the ending. And eternity is like a rope with one end. There was a law in heaven in the government of God. Could God have done in eternity unbounded what He does in time limited? Immateriality is a quality of state that can lack a relation between something and matter. This is how after the change of body of Jesus at the resurrection he was able to appear in the midst, the doors being shut. This we know – sin can exist in eternity. Choice can exist in eternity. Suffering could exist in eternity. The wage of breaking the law is death. But could death exist in eternity? That would imply “an end”. God had to deal with the results of sin that started in eternity. God had to stop eternity and bring forth time and space to fulfill His determined purposed plan. The punishment of the wicked is not endless. That signals that God’s entire plan for creation is based in His universal love that is unconditional and directed at all of existence and transcending the boundaries of having a subject. That should give us something more to think on. Let’s say time for an individual is the space between birth and death. Time described by God is from the moment His word says, “let there be light” and “I make all things new”. But God created us in His image. We are eternal beings. We are beings who pass through a mortal existence while we are becoming what we were meant to be. This is both a reality and a source of sorrow. For not all beings will pass through. But Christ is purposed to bring us home with him for all eternity. He has experienced mortality. And so, if we have the mind of Christ we learn to think in terms of eternity rather than just time. Until we step into eternity our God’s divine providence must be our path in faith. Death is relational with time. And in time death spreads to all mankind because of sin. The gospel revolves around the life, the death, the majesty of Jesus. The apex of his ministry and of his life was that he died. That was the apex of his achievement. The resurrection was absolutely essential, absolutely glorious, and confirmatory of the apex of what he achieved in dying. We have this faith...Christ died. There is no one to whom the gospel message is irrelevant. All meagerness should be ignored. There is something so massive that our attention must be set on. The great central truth of the gospel, that God sent His Son into the world to die and rise again, to overcome the problem of death. God uses the reason for death, sin, to focus our hope on heaven. Death has a way of keeping us from putting any hope in this world. Seeing the loss of life can help transform the character. God’s foreknowledge is just that. There is nothing that God does not know. Death, that strange act foreknown by God to come, however was not part of God’s plan...time was. Eternity had to be stopped to ensure the continuing of eternity. Heaven is not God’s ultimate destination for us. If the bible is the revelation of truth, we look forward to living on a new earth, in a new creation and dwelling with God. But we must deal with the reality of the Genesis account. God made man a combination of spirit and flesh with the intentions of man living in a physical state upon the earth forever! Death only came about as the result of sin. And death in the bible is never extinction; it is always separation.God's purpose for saving us is to restore us to His original plan, fulfilling His purpose which was before sin. This purpose is based on His hidden plan from eternity past, and includes: cleansing us from our sins, bestowing God Himself in Christ as the Spirit into us, revealing and magnifying his glory showing his goodness to the world, teaching us about his mercy and encouraging us to be workers of righteousness. All creation learns there is no sum total to His divine perfections, His attributes, His intrinsic glory. Where God’s timing is perfect, His eternity is set in our heart that none can find out the work of God from beginning to end. We have a God who sees all time, and sees our circumstances in the forever continuing context of all of eternity. That sin and suffering and hurt and pain and despair, and even the meaninglessness, the struggles and toils that we experience in this world, that they will not have the last word. Why? Because God, the Lord over time, has come to us in the person of Jesus. He has lived the life we couldn’t live. He’s died the death we deserve to die, on a cross, and he has conquered the enemy we could not conquer, death itself. He has risen from the grave. He has ascended on high, and he is bringing all who trust in him to be with him for all of eternity. What a picture, that God has put in all of us a sense that this world is not all there is, that there is more beyond what we see, both in the past and in the present, that lasts for all eternity. We are not complete in our understanding by the fact that we are constrained in time. Every aspect of our being is ordered by time, so it is a task to rationalize anything outside of time. In the same way, it is challenging to imagine anything outside of our physical universe, because we have no rational context into which it can fit. It is not a vacuum, because a vacuum is still a function of matter and energy, time and space. It has to be something totally different than anything from our physical and temporal existence. It is eternity. In each of us, there is a part that seems to know that there is something “out beyond” – a realm we cannot directly access, but a realm that can still touch us. The bible is a message from one who dwells there, as incomprehensible as eternity itself, but none-the-less real and significant in our lives. We were created for eternity, yet fell from eternity and became bound in time. But God stopped the eternity we were to dwell in and reached into time from eternity, touched us and is drawing us back. God Himself paid the price to bring us ever forward into eternity. We see that even though eternity exists outside of time, it permeates all of time. Time may be thought of as a subset of eternity. This concept helps us understand God’s ability to operate in and out of time, His ability to be everywhere all at once. God can place His finger into time at any point and turn the flow of history in the direction He has purposed from eternity. He can permeate all of time and all of the universe at once. Stopping eternity was not a random act by God. The determinate counsel has all the wisdom, all the understanding, every insight, the deepest penetration, the holiest of judgment, the experience of things created...everything. God is not constrained to effect His will only sequentially in time, thus He is able to deal with our free will and still ensure that His plan unfolds as He has purposed. He can see our every future acts as clearly as He can see our past acts. God is so God that He knows not only everything we do, He knew everything that everything would do, including every consequence ever before there was anything created. And He can reach into what we consider our past and tweak what we call our history to bring us to the point of decision we reach today or tomorrow, building the sequence of events in our past that will allow us to see His best for us today. He is able to bring us to a point where we agree with His will for ourselves and freely make decisions in keeping with that agreement. He is sovereign – yet we are free to act as we see fit. Predestination and free will need not be in conflict! Long ago, even before He made the world, God chose us to be His very own through what Christ would do for us...His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His family by sending Jesus Christ to die for us. One day very very soon God will gather everyone who's put their full faith in Him, and we will live together with Him in the new heaven and new earth. Life here on earth is preparation for eternity. The bible says that God has “set the world in our heart”. That means we were made to last forever. We were made for eternity. To be ready to stand for God, the first thing we need to do is understand the purpose of our life. God made us to be part of His family. He made us so He could have a relationship with us - to love us and to be loved in return. But there’s only one way to become part of God’s family: through faith in Jesus Christ. Not only does God want us to be part of His family but he also wants us to spend eternity with Him. This is His purpose: that when the time is ripe He will gather us all together...to be with Him in Christ forever. History is moving to its climax. The time given to us in this life is a time of opportunity for us to prepare for the eternal kingdom of heaven. We should find the meaning and the purpose of our life in service to others in this world and go back together with many people to the kingdom of heaven which God has prepared for us. Living by faith must be our purpose. Having a sure faith and living in obedience to the pleasing will of God...that is our life of faith. We will willingly endure hardships and persecutions. We diligently walk the path of faith knowing there are much severer trials to come than our ancestors of faith endured...having the assurance that nothing would be able to separate us from the love of Christ. Nothing will persuade us to deny Jesus Christ. We are now preparing ourselves for glory. We should wholeheartedly give thanks to our Elohim, for calling us into the truth and giving us the hope and joy of eternity with Him. We are to thoroughly preach the everlasting gospel diligently, keeping God’s commandments faithfully, and achieving beautiful unity among us, brothers and sisters of Zion, according to the teaching of the bible which is a spiritual preparation for our fulfilling our purpose and completing our journey. God stopped eternity for our preparation. He determinately called with purpose His election to stand in the last days. He created time and space that we may come to know His Son personally, intimately who was made so much as we are yet without sin that we may be as he is. The eternity that we will dwell in is like no eternity ever. Eternity has been designated as having no time, no special limitations. Yet, our God tells us of our worship of Him. We will have a celebrated Lord’s supper and a sanctified holy Lord’s day. Will this supper in eternity and this day in eternity be monthly, weekly. How so can time measurement exists in eternity? The Sabbath is a day that celebrates time and holiness, and is a metaphor for paradise and eternal rest. It's a day to become attuned to time, and to share in what is eternal in time. The Sabbath is also a time to spend in intimate fellowship with God, and to rest in God's loving care. It is marked in the world by an even to even event. Evening in heaven?? The bible shows that the Sabbath has been ever since this world was created. And it shows that it will remain even in eternity, when the Redeemed will worship God every Sabbath in the New Earth. Time differs from the divinity of eternity because time is based upon change while the divine eternity is unchanging. The Sabbath on earth foreshadows the rest God will give to us who love and honor Him once our purpose for Him on earth is done. The eternal Sabbath is the goal of all who proclaim Christ as Lord. We observe the Sabbath to remind us of our place in God’s creation. Taking this day to recognize our smallness and acknowledge God’s power reorients our perspective and aids in shedding any pride that may have been building inside us. As we enjoy the rest, we remember it is only a precursor to an eternal Sabbath when we will worship in the presence of our Creator and Lord. Jesus Christ hung on the tree of life in time. Jesus Christ is the tree of life in eternity. The street is the way. The Holy Spirit feeds the roots on either side of the testament, the covenant, the truth. The river of water of life proceeds out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. For the water of life to flow out of the throne means that it flows out of God Himself. In the New Jerusalem, we have God in the Lamb, and out of the redeeming God flows the river of life, the life-giving Spirit. This is the dispensing of the Triune God. Before God could dispense Himself into us, He had to redeem us. Thus, the picture reveals that the redeeming God is the life-dispensing God. The Lamb signifies redemption, and the river of life signifies the dispensing of life. For eternity, our God will be the redeeming and life-dispensing God. In the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and the new earth, our God will be in the redeeming Lamb, flowing out as the river of life, the life-giving Spirit, to dispense His life into every part of the city. The tree of life grows in the river of life, and the river of life that flows out of the throne reaches every part of the city. This indicates that the flow of the Triune God waters the whole city. Every part of the city receives the life supply because the tree of life grows in the river and the river reaches every part of the city. The tree of life, as a vine, grows on both sides of the river, following the flow of the river. Wherever the river flows, the tree of life grows. The supply of life is in the flow of life. This is a picture of God’s dispensing. Christ as the tree of life is the life supply available along the flow of the Spirit as the water of life. Where the Spirit flows, there the life supply of Christ is found. The entire city of New Jerusalem, which will be constituted of all the redeemed people of God, will be watered by the river of the water of life and nourished by the tree of life. This is the dispensing of the Triune God in full for eternity. This was the message at the cross. At the piercing of our Lord flowed forth water and blood on the earth. The Holy Spirit in the life of God. How richly we are fed! The flesh of God’s own Son, the leaves of the tree, are the spiritual food of every heir of heaven. He is the water of life. He is the balm of Gilead. Will God create a sacredness of time in eternity? A creation that transcends time? What will be the greatest of heights in this eternity? As the Oneness of the Godhead is one, so will be the people who are the New Jerusalem. This New Jerusalem is a body of teaching based on divine truth. This is because divine truth is what the Lord refers to as “holy.” And the Word says “the New Jerusalem” for much the same reason that it refers to the earth as new. That is, “the adorned bride” means the church and New Jerusalem means that church in regard to its body of teaching. It is described as coming down from God out of heaven because all the divine truth that gives rise to a body of teaching comes down out of heaven from God. Love will be the highest acclamation of praise to the One who is love. The people who make up this city...what are they like? Namely, that they are of one mind, because when we live a life of Christ and caring we love our neighbors as we love ourselves, and love that is mutually felt joins us to them and them to us. This joining is reciprocal and mutual because in the spiritual world of eternity love is a joining together. So, when all beings are acting on the same principle, then a single mind arises from the many - from countless individuals, in fact, who are gathered in harmony with heaven’s form. Peoples of every form in creation become one in this way because there is nothing that separates or divides them; everything connects and unites them. No longer will there be heavens as they are, an earth as it is. Eternity will see new heavens...new earth. And still, all these heavens make one heaven because of an indirect inflow and a direct inflow, which come from the Lord. At the end of our journey through time is a destination we can scarcely imagine - a destination called Eternity. Everything in scripture points to Eternity, and everything within us cries out for it. God’s work with us is not finished in this life. God has prepared something incomprehensibly beautiful for those who love Him and trust Him - something that lies beyond time, something so beautiful and vast and breathtaking that only Eternity is big enough to contain it. And His description of eternity gives us grounds for confidence and courage as we face the trials and pressures of the present time. There are aspects of our present experience as believers which indicate that something much greater is coming. The increase of wisdom and the mellowing of love which mark the spirit of one who walks with God. What was Jesus saying when he said, “I go to prepare a place for you”. Did this mean that heaven was not yet ready and needed some additional work before we could be brought there? But hear the further explanation which Jesus gave. “If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.” Jesus’ way of preparing a place for us was to send the Holy Spirit to us. The Spirit, when he came, would give us the power to handle the pressures and pains of life, "hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; struck down, but not destroyed", and in the mystery of redemption, transmute each trial into a corresponding glory. So, the trials are preparing the glory; the hardships are preparing "the place" for us. Jesus was doing this by means of the Spirit. Eternity and time are not the same. Time means that we are locked into a pattern of chronological sequence which we are helpless to break. For example, all human beings sharing the same room will experience an earthquake together. While there are varying feelings and reactions, everyone will feel the earthquake at the same time. But in eternity events do not follow a sequential pattern. There is no past or future, only the present now. Within that “now” all events happen. An individual will experience sequence, but only in relationship to himself, and events will occur to him on the basis of his spiritual readiness. No two individuals need, therefore, experience the same event just because they happen to be together. This helps us to understand how we have the Sabbath and the new moon in eternity. Reason this...Jesus is referred to as "the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world." Now the cross occurred at a precise moment of time in history. We know when the Lamb of God was slain. But the bible says it occurred from the foundation of the world. How can an historical event, which occurred at a certain spot and time on earth, in the biblical reckoning be said to have occurred before the earth was even made? The passage does not say that the Lamb was foreordained to be slain before the foundation of the world, but it says He was actually slain then. That means that the cross was an eternal event, taking place both in time and eternity. In time, it is long past; in eternity, it occurs now. God stopped eternity to give us time. Time to consider eternity. Time to understand that God is the God of love who desires for us to spend eternity with Him. Time for us to choose Him over all things. So, God makes His word deeper, higher, broader, and amazing that we who study might grasp the concept of eternity. God lives in eternity and He always has. He is not bound by time - He lives outside of time. For God every part of time is in the present. He created time. He carved out a section of eternity, gave it a specific starting point and ending point and called it time. Our past, present and future is all the same to Him. That is one reason He is called I Am. He need not move forward or backward in time, He sees all as if it is happening now. Recall how we spoke of Jesus being called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. That statement showed that God already completed the work of redemption before man even sinned and needed to be redeemed. He could do it this way because eternity is of Him. Having an understanding of eternity, even if it is a limited one, will change how we see life. Plan a trip from Marietta today. Where are you right now? Open a virtual online map showing the total areas between Marietta and your destination point. Can you see where you will be tomorrow? God has a written map for us to get from where we are to eternity. The bible is virtual in its spiritual presentation of how God shows us the gift of eternal life in Christ. We see beyond of where we are. Understanding God’s entire work from before time began to after time ends is beyond our current limited comprehension, but once we who are born-again come to reason with God, we will be able to understand it much better. “In time” and “in eternity” are united by being purposed by God. We are chosen to be God’s in both time and eternity. In truth, all of the words we read form pictures that are limited by the existence with which we are familiar – time. There is no description of eternity that we can describe. Eternity is not really like anything we have experienced. It is only by revelation from God that we can get glimpses of eternity and His nature. Even then, our nature only allows us to see a tiny glimpse of what it must be like – not what it really is. He is able to express it in language we can relate to, but our understanding will still be limited. Know that if we are faithful, we will have a view from the vantage point of eternity. We will see time as God does. This will be that we may understand how history had to flow and how we fit into that flow. This is why there will be no more tears of sorrow. We will see that everything did indeed unfold according to a plan that brought God glory and brought us to that blessed place with Him. Because of our experience with time, eternity will be an entirely new experience, one filled with the wonder of discovery and understanding of things we can only hope about while we are bound in time. Yet there is a part of us that can relate to eternity, even though we have no language with which to describe it. Time is spiraling downward. And many are going down with it. Only those of true faith know that it is God who directs and drives history forward towards a climax and a conclusion that He has prepared before time began. Life is not futile, it can have purpose and meaning because God is drawing us back into eternity to fellowship with Him. There is a purpose for all that we experience, and once we are free of time, we shall see it and rejoice. Too many will regret that they did not accept His offer of grace. Having this revealed understanding about eternity helps us anticipate some of what heaven may be like. And knowing how limited is our understanding of eternity, assures us that heaven is undoubtedly far greater than all we can hope or imagine. But it also convinces us of the horror of separation from God, after having clearly seen all that He created us to be, and all He did to draw us back to Him. The flames of the lake is the realization of what will be forfeited by foolish choice. Even if we do not fully grasp eternity, as faithful and true believers, we have already entered into eternal life. It is not just a future reality, it is here and now. It was always here, but we were deceptively unaware of it while enslaved to sin. Time, as related to sin can be so cruel. Because of time we know of the reality of eternity. We have an eager anticipation of it. It is with this frame of reference that we place proper perspective upon waiting for the Lord. Our treasure, our hearts are in heaven. This eternal perspective brings true humility. We play a significantly purposed role in God’s plan. We have a deeper urgency to help others come to Christ. At this moment, knowing of eternity, suddenness to the irrelevance of all things earthly is made clear. Eternity is the way God reasons all things. God’s will was to see the culture of eternity in heaven realized in the earth. Discord in heaven and man’s sin on earth introduced God’s plan of redemption for His creation and salvation for man. For this to be a reality, there must be an example of the Father’s character in the earth. Jesus was this example. He is the only person who could represent the character of the Father in the earth - in a way that was acceptable to Him. This is a very important point because before one can be a part of the culture of heaven, he or she must also be exposed to the character of the kingdom. Again, we must be reminded that God thinks from the perspective of eternity. What did God have in mind? God did not intend to provide a temporary solution to an eternal challenge. His plan was based upon His always present knowledge of all things possible. Jesus was proclaimed in the Determinate Counsel as the Father’s will to be manifested in the earth. The heart of God was to see the hearts of men and women changed by one man’s example of what kingdom character is like. Jesus went on to reveal the mind of the Father - “that His will be done on the earth.” The Father knew that this would not be accomplished without there being a culture change in the earth. This is the purpose of God according to election. This is the finishing of His people. This one reality validates the existence of the church spiritual in the earth today. God has never changed His mind, nor altered His will. He still wants heaven’s culture on the earth. The people of God must be challenged to think eternally. This simply means that the church must think beyond reaching the lost, and go further to change the culture of this world! There is no way the culture can be changed without the people being changed in the process. And so, God stopped eternity that His people could in time come to the fulness of that solution determined before the foundation of the world. God is so loving that His love extends beyond those who will be saved. If we abide by sound biblical teaching then we know that God loves all humanity including the non-elect. God’s expressions of hatred such as was spoken concerning Esau was unrelated to Esau’s conduct or character. It was rooted in God’s eternal, sovereign purposes determined in eternity before ever there was anything. If we understand the wisdoms of God in revealing His higher ways, His higher thoughts then our spiritual fervency for love, time, and eternity will be sorely tested in caring for those who will not see eternity. Love makes time of no consequence. Time is not to matter where love is in play. This is why God stopped eternity that we might experience time in relation to love. And so we learned that even time stops being so important when love is displayed. That explains why being in eternity where love is perfected, time will be totally irrelevant. Eternity is the place where we lose all consciousness of time. We will be in the deepest embrace of love that minds can conceive. What makes love so powerful? God is love. Love always gives and that is why God created time for us to love to give. This is how we begin to enjoy eternity now. We are to love even those who crucify our Lord daily that we may be sons of our Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. The implication...we are to love as God loves. Consider this: Jesus perfectly fulfilled the law in every respect, including this command for universal love. His love for others was surely as far-reaching as His own application of the commandment. Therefore, we can be certain that He loved everyone. He must have loved everyone in order to fulfill the law. After all, the whole law is fulfilled in one word, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself’. He reiterates this theme: “he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law”. Therefore, Jesus must have loved His “neighbor.” And since He Himself defined “neighbor” in universal terms, we know that His love while on earth was universal. Would God command us to love in a way that He does not? Would God demand that our love be more far-reaching than His own? And did Christ, having loved all humanity during His earthly sojourn, then revert after His ascension to pure hatred for the non-elect? Such would be unreasonable. Jesus is God. Stopping eternity gives us the chance to learn vital truths about the character of God. He has lived our yesterdays, our todays, and our tomorrows, the past, present, and future. God is the Alpha, the Omega. We redeem the time. We warn the wicked. In time, eternity is future...in eternity, time is now. Though the actual possession of eternal life in eternity cannot be now, and at the same time, a future gift our faith makes it a reality. It is a promise of God. A promise conditional and dependent on our being faithful. That which is before set forth by God in His counsel, for His interests for things that are due Him, according to the act of His free will by which before the foundation of the world He decreed His blessings to certain persons through Christ by grace alone, whom He judged fit to receive His favors and separated from the rest of mankind to be peculiarly His own and to be attended continually by His gracious oversight so that the ground of the choice lies in Christ and his merits only to remain as one called by name. The truth and certainty of this blessed state are ratified by the word and promise of God, and ordered to be committed to writing, as matter of perpetual record. The subject matter of this time-eternity vision is so great, and of such great importance to the church and people of God, that we have need of the fullest assurances to understand it; and God therefore from heaven repeats and ratifies the truth thereof. Besides, many ages must pass between the time apportioned. It is done already. God will leave nothing imperfect. We may and ought to take God's word as present. As His power and will were the first cause of allthings, His pleasure and glory are the last end, and He will not lose His design; He is the beginning and the end! He is the source of all life, existence, and purpose. God is the goal and fulfillment of all things. All creation finds its purpose in Him, and history moves toward His divine plan. In Him all things are fulfilled. With God all things are possible. God is the ultimate reality where everything is completed, for all creation finds its purpose in God. Every part of existence, every event, process, and purpose, finds its complete meaning, culmination, and realization through God. In this view, God is not only the originator but also the ultimate end of all things; everything in creation is directed toward and finds its fulfillment in His will, love, and divine plan. It means that whether we look at the unfolding of history, the fulfillment of biblical prophecies, or the personal growth and moral development of individuals, all these aspects of life are ultimately woven into God’s grand design. Even the challenges and sufferings we encounter are understood to be part of the process that leads us closer to the perfection and completeness found in God. Nothing is accidental but part of a larger, divinely orchestrated plan. It is God’s presence in perfection with all its diversity and complexity.

What kind of great witness could the church be if its people were willing to reason with God to come to what the reality of truth is and align their minds to that which is revealed? When we are humble enough to hear and secure enough in our identity in Christ to be wrong, we are modeling a law of love that pursues the kingdom of God through “righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.   If we really want unity in the church, we have to be humble enough to learn from other believers that may see something scripturally that we do not. And that means hearing. Really hearing, not for flaws in the argument, but for understanding.   Conscience is a gift from God. But it’s not God. Can conscience grow with truth when one is fully convinced in her or his own mind or can it be better achieved with the mind of Christ? What are we offering to God? The Holy Spirit is specifically assigned to aid our growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and having our minds renewed by the Spirit of God. He will also speak to us when our thinking becomes contrary to God’s will. Suppressing this prompting is ignoring the voice of God through your conscience. God does speak through His Spirit. God creates us with a capacity to know and love him, and we have a natural desire to seek the truth about him. We don't search for God unaided; he calls us to himself to help us draw closer to him. Conscience helps us hear the voice of God; it helps us recognize the truth about God and the truth about how we ought to live. Conscience is "a judgment of reason" by which we determine whether an action is right or wrong. Hearing God deepens our relationship with Christ by following him, and in doing so, we become more fully ourselves.   Wherever we are on our journey with Christ, we can grow deeper with him by continuing the work of forming our consciences well, so that we may follow him ever more closely. The conscience is the God-given inner voice that either accuses or excuses us in terms of what we do.  It is the “divine sense” that God puts into every person, and that divine sense is a significant aspect of God’s revelation to us.   God’s revelation may be common revelation or unique revelation. Unique revelation refers to that information given to us in the scriptures. Not everyone in the world possesses this information. Those who have heard it have had the benefit of hearing specific information about God and his plan of redemption. Common revelation refers to the revelation that God makes available to every human being on earth. It’s common in the sense that it’s not limited to any specific group of people. It’s global, and it can extend to every human being. The audience is general, and the information given is general as well. It doesn’t have the same level of detail that sacred scripture does. But here’s a mystery of knowledge to better understand the conscience. With common revelation, we must distinguish between interceding common revelation and direct common revelation.   Intercessory revelation refers to the revelation that God gives through a mediator: creation, in which God reveals his invisible attributes. Common revelation mediated through creation is clear enough that every single person knows God exists and, therefore, is without excuse as stated in the book of Romans. Unique revelation is revelation that is transmitted to without external assistance. It’s internal. It’s the revelation God plants in the soul. God reveals his law in the mind by framing a conscience within each of us. The crisis here is that we learn how to turn the volume of our conscience down so that our ethics align with how we want to live and not how God tells us we should live.   We prefer silence from God rather than being reminded that what we do is under the condemnation of Almighty God.   Here is the supreme irony and tragedy of sin: the more we repeat our sins, the greater the guilt we incur, but the less sensitive we become to the pangs of guilt in our consciences. This is how we store up wrath for ourselves. Some people have so seared their consciences that they believe it really doesn’t matter what they do as long as it is consensual, and they can see no harm. In a deluded fashion we find new ways to accept sinful behavior, both as individuals and as a culture. There is no collective conscience left in this country.   W e practice things deserving death and approve of others who practice them as well. When people destroy their own consciences, they do everything in their power to destroy the consciences of others. It is so important to keep our hearts tender to the testimony of God’s word in our conscience.    Our minds must be in captivity to the scriptures. The only antidote is knowing the mind of Christ. We need men and women whose consciences have been captured by the word of God. Thank God for his word. It exposes the ploys of the enemy. A taste of judgment is now in part, through our consciences, as a gift from the God who desires all would come to repentance. The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, and with that conviction comes a certain tender mercy that leads us to repentance and forgiveness so that we might walk in his presence. It is the blood of Christ that gives the true believer a clear conscience – hence the admonition: let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.   If we know the free grace of Christ in acquitting us before God, and then his ongoing grace each day, we will possess something very precious – a clear conscience. So important is the conscience that even one that is ill-informed is to be respected. Conscience is not our final authority; there is something above it - for if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.   All humanity possesses a conscience bearing witness to the law of God which is written upon all our hearts. Even those who refuse to believe the claims of Christ are not devoid of conscience. Conscience can provide us with the capacity for accurate self-examination, particularly when used in the light of God's truth. We should realize that it is not a dictator of our beliefs, but a response that reflects our current values. Conscience means “with knowledge”.  The conscience is not an audible voice, but it is a sense that echoes responsibility and obligation to do right. It can be a wise counselor. Do not permit imagination to muffle the conscience. As the Spirit educates the believer’s conscience with the things of God, the personal standard formed by the conscience begins to align with the standard of revealed truth. As a result, the renewed inner man becomes increasingly in tune with the will of God.   An important question arises, though. If the nourishment of God’s Word by the Spirit is the means through which our conscience is properly trained, then how do we discern whether or not we are indeed being illumined by the Spirit? Answer: by comparing what we believe the Spirit to be communicating with what God has said in His Word. This is how we know that something truly is from God – comparing scripture with weight it in the balance with God's Word scripture. We take what we believe the Spirit to be teaching us, and weigh it in the balance with God’s Word. This is the way in which the Spirit teaches, “comparing spiritual things with spiritual”. Our conscience is to be in agreement with godliness…confident that we are in His will. Underneath our actions, thoughts and emotions, in a quiet mode, there is an utterance that continually attempts to guide us towards love and spiritual influence. Oh, to sense the wind of this whisper. The more knowledge of God’s Word, the more sensitive the conscience is to sin. Conscience is a most important part of our inward man, and plays a most prominent part in our spiritual history as we pray to have our minds enlightened by the Holy Spirit. It is our principle within. No longer as a true believer can we sin with impunity. Let conscience open its ears and eternal hope sounds the refrain of heaven. The strongest evidence of God's eternal truth, is the universal conscience of mankind. It is that clear understanding of who is our peace. Christ answers every accusation. He calms every fear. No thought of past sins and present failings and future judgment can refute blood of Jesus. Scarcely anything seems to approach the work of grace so nearly as the deepest convictions of conscience bringing a divine power into the heart. Peace of conscience is a fruit of reconciliation with God. The blood which reconciles, when sprinkled on the conscience, produces a sweet peace which can be obtained in no other way. If the atonement of Christ satisfies the law which condemned us, and we are assured that this atonement is accepted for us, conscience, which before condemned, as being the echo of the law, is now pacified. We have peace with God. The conscience must be continually enlightened and developed by an exposure to God’s Word. By it is the judgment which we pronounce on our own conduct. Conscience singles us out as though nobody else existed. God has given us a faithful witness inside of our own being. It is able to single a man out and reveal his loneliness, the loneliness of a single soul in the universe going on to meet an omniscient God. That’s the terror of the conscience. Conscience never deals with theories. Conscience always deals with right and wrong and the relation of the individual to that which is right or wrong. Remember the conscience is always on God’s side! It judges conduct in the light of the moral law, and as the scripture says, excuses or accuses.   The conscience of man, when he is really quickened and awakened by the Holy Spirit, speaks the truth. It’s that barking dog. Turn over to sleep if you like but that dog barks again and again, the wrath to come...the wrath to come...the wrath to come! Let’s lay this revelation out. Not a soul needs to witness our sin. Not a soul needs to know of it. We cannot hide the truth from the eyes of our conscience. In the end, what is important is not that other people know, but that we ourselves know. And heaven will know. Conscience is knowledge together with oneself. That is to say, our conscience knows our inner motives and true thoughts. It is above reason and beyond intellect. We can rationalize, trying to justify ourself in our own mind, but a violated conscience will not be easily convinced. God calls a people who sins neither in thought nor deed, and is fair and just, who gains enormous courage and strength to stand every fiery trial. The convictions of their mind are encouraged and sharpened in accordance with God's Word. The wise wants to grasp biblical truth so that the conscience is completely informed and judges right to co-operate fully and in accord with true holiness. Conscience is a thing that is inseparably united to the soul, and is essential to it. In what part of the soul is this conscience seated? It has a place not only in the understanding, in the will. The place of conscience is in the whole soul, in what we say references the body—that it is wholly in the whole, and wholly in every part. That which may be truly said of conscience in reference to the soul, is that it is not only a part of the whole, but wholly in every part. Conscience is in the understanding and acts there. It is in the will and checks there. It is in the affections and governs there. It is in the memory and records there. Conscience makes the understanding practical, and the will obedient, the affections spiritual, and the memory faithful. These are all the workhouse of conscience. Here it sits, here it acts, and from here it sends forth its influences into all the actions of a man's life. It extends itself over the whole man, and is concerned in every interest, and every motion, from first to last.  C onscience, it runs through all our duties and practices. Faith looks to the promises, fear looks to the threatenings, obedience looks to the commands, repentance looks to sins, but conscience looks to all. Conscience has a very high and solemn power in its respect of God. Conscience is God's repository, where the revealed will of God is kept and preserved. God wrote his law on tables of stone, and he writes it also on the fleshly tables of man's heart. This is the book of record. God never revealed more of his will, than he has written in conscience. The declaration of his will in the moral law, is no more than what was written on Adam's conscience. And the declaration of God's will in the covenant of grace, is no more than what is written in the believer's conscience.   As c onscience takes counsel of God, and we take counsel of conscience, we are led into the divine presence. Conscience is a witness of God's own appointing. God has ordained it, and set it up to give evidence both to the found and to the lost. It is a faithful witness that will not lie. Conscience stands indifferent between God and man, and therefore more fit to be a witness. Self-interest leads to partiality, but that which is indifferent, is the more likely to be for the equity of the cause. Conscience is a thing between both parties; it is not so of God, but it has something of man. Neither is it so of man, but it has something of God in it, and therefore the fittest to give evidence. Divine irradiation is that book of conscience in the last day. It is a solemn and fearful consideration—that every sin is written in the book of conscience, and that book must be opened in the great day of judgment. We are in the day where we must hold communion with our own consciences and do search that acquits us from hypocrisy and reigning sin. Then we have confidence towards God and liberty of access now, and boldness in the day of judgment. The consolations of conscience are most sweet…but its condemnations are very terrible and dreadful. Thank God for a tender conscience.   📖 Applying the Study For ongoing spiritual encouragement and prophetical insights, visit Higher Learning.

Lesson Learned Ask of us our denomination and we say we are His election, purposefully called to perfect obedience and the keeping of the faith of Jesus. God has already bequeathed a portion of our inheritance to us in this world that we become not disheartened at the complicated scenes of human misery that awaits us. He has each of us right where He wants us at this time…we must know this! We must be committed to living out God’s specific will for our life. His provisioning for our past is to illuminate His purposes for the overwhelming possibilities that will bring about our uniqueness. Do not think too comfortably on this call. God will move us to a new place and season in our calling to serve Him just as faithfully there. His ultimate purpose is to glorify Himself. So long as we are glorifying God where we are, we are where He wants us. In our contentment we are arriving at this “final stage” of service to God. There is this one thing that is worse than sin…worse in what way? In terms of consequences. It is worse when you cause another person to sin than when you sin yourself. Causing another to fall away is exceedingly grave. Woe to the world because of offenses. For offenses will inevitably come, but millstone woe to that person by whom the offense comes. One who incites another to sin, bears the heaviest of judgment, which explains why a millstone should be tied around his neck. We need Jesus in more ways than language can express. Too many who think themselves adventists are devoted to their gross ignorance. These will go out from us but they are not of us. If our teachings are not core spiritual principles, and reality reasoned orientation to the word of God, then we are engaging in verbal proposition only. Every truth that we teach must be centered on the personhood of Jesus. The truth of John 8:32 is the same truth of John 14:6. May I suggest this; let’s make our discussions a way of teaching “how to think”, rather than “what to think”. Have you ever heard this; if you make people think they’re thinking, they will love you. But if you actually make them think, they will hate you. What does that mean? When we think we’re thinking, we’re really not thinking at all. We are mechanically repeating the words or acts of others, frequently without full understanding, or reproducing or repeating a passage or statement of another. Few people reflect on, reason about, work out, and critically decide about something that challenges the mind. The only authority we should defer to is God. When you’re listening to what is written – think! When you’re reading – think! When someone is stating a position – think! There is a role for trusting the judgment and insight of another, especially when you discern wisdom and experience are the guiding lights. There are times where choices are required in situations where you can’t think it out alone. You know an important area where this is the case? The bible, especially belief, faith, and trust. It’s not inappropriate to act on faith and trust, if you have thought things out to the limits of your ability and experience—but it may be inappropriate if you first didn’t bother to think things out as best you could. God gave us eyes, ears, and a brain to think with and intervenes in our lives more than we fully realized or thought! Think about that! Brothers and sisters…we must be sustained by theology, not ideology. We must be appreciative rather than critical of the insightfulness offered by reason. Love must be demonstrably indiscriminate and authentically felt. We must access the head through the heart. The question we absolutely must ask ourselves everyday is; “is everything we are studying and is everything I am hearing the truth, based solely upon truth from error the word of God and the spirit of prophecy, which is the testimony of Jesus? The testimony of Jesus means words spoken with authority, recognized as characteristic of a prophet. Words spoken in the imperative, with the voice of command and authority. Words that provoke. Words that make our Lord’s truth, truth. We must keep our eyes opened to the ark of the testimony. To the word of God, to the precepts of God, the law of God, the statutes of God, the commandments of God. No theatrics. Jesus’ testimony sifts truth from fiction. We make the case for Christ. This represents God’s heart desire, God’s requirement - or may we say it…God’s standard revealing Himself. And the testimony of which we have been given to speak cannot be given by man: it has to come from God Himself. Hence to testify for God requires of us that we touch God, so as to be able to speak the words which God bids us to say. We can speak only after God is known, seen and revealed to us. Only when we have touched this ultimate reality are we able to open our voice and testify for God. If we have not touched this reality, we will have no words to say and therefore no testimony to give. Now think on the question we must ask ourselves everyday. To neglect asking, considering, and examining the answer to this question is opening yourself up to deception and to hinder your judgment. We cannot afford to be loose with any truth. Be sure to evaluate all that is coming to you with eternal values, not temporal values. The bible is an amazing wealth of testimony about the Lord. How blessed we are to have the stories of the Lord at our very touch. We must seek to turn all to righteousness. But let’s not settle there, let’s do even more. God is still at work, and let’s never stop receiving additional light to the testimony of the goodness of God. We make no attempt to supercede the bible. But there are yet secret things that belong to God to be revealed to whom He will. Let the bible speak for itself! Even a child can learn. If you have not a prophetic reckoning in your heart, you are teetering on being lost. We’re not all writers, but we should all have our testimonies on the tips of our tongues. We should be ready in season and out of season to proclaim the truths recorded in the bible. Do you recall that verse in the bible that speaks to God’s purpose? Are we really spiritually enlightened by what it is saying? God is trying to remove us away from bad religion. If we don’t come to know God, misrepresentation of the divine character is the inevitable result. Too many today are saying there is no God. Let’s think on this. Certainly the idea that there is no God is a discouraging thought. If there is no God, then we have no future beyond this life. Worse yet, the here-and-now is basically meaningless. All there is to life is an animalistic scratching and clawing for survival. But wait a minute. At least when it’s over, it’s over. There is something more terrifying. What if there is a God, an actual superior being out there somewhere, but he is not completely good? If the universe is governed by an all-powerful being who is anything less than perfectly good, that is horrifying news. But consider not another possibility, but this certainty. What if there is a God…and what if He is infinitely powerful and at the same time infinitely good? One cannot imagine a more comforting and glorious reality! The character of God matters. He happens to be the Person in charge of the universe, you and me included in that vast domain. Eventually we are going to find ourselves in His immediate presence…and He wants us to understand His purpose for His election whom He calls. The envisioned thought He gave me as I lay distraught, had me asking Him why He purposed the opening text to point to the sorrow associated with wisdom. He showed why His return was delayed; if our witness is prompted to teach the words of the bible connecting people to a church rather than teaching the life of Jesus, causing one to come to God, they will see themselves instead of Jesus. They will follow America’s discourse, Isaiah 5:20-24. There are not yet a 144000 made ready because we believe too much in our knowledge rather than faith, enabling the working of God to occur where things seem impossible. Faith is stronger than our knowledge, logic and all human abilities, because through faith we show we believe and trust in God. That’s enabling faith. Where is our peculiarity? Hear what every word of 9:11 is saying. God assigns His reason for intensification to affirm the nature of a thing. His purpose is the aggregation of many individuals of the same nature to come into existence and made finished by any means, no matter how great, how much, how many, because of the possibility of something undesirable happening. That thing that is undesirable is that much too many are in the game of life for temporal purposes, while God has determined life for eternal purposes. Few are caused to arise and appear in history and as a further matter neither undertaking or accomplishing anything themselves in order that only significant renderings other than "the" counted are set forth to be looked at as was the shewbread, as determined by God according to His free will, by which before the foundation of the world He decreed His blessings to certain persons. The decree made from choice by which He determined to bless certain persons through Christ by grace alone. Choosing out for Himself one out of many whom He judged fit to receive His favors and separated from the rest of mankind, to be peculiarly His own and to be attended continually by His gracious oversight. These He set apart from the irreligious multitude as dear unto Himself, and whom He has rendered, Loud voice call through faith in Christ, citizens in the Messianic kingdom: so that the ground of the choice lies in Christ and his merits only. These He calls by name to cause to speak, to teach, to exhort, to advise. These will continue to be present, not to perish, but to endure and remain as one awaiting one. These heard the utter in a loud voice call them by name to receive the name of and to bear a name of commandment. The faith of these is the end and perfection of the character of Christ. A people with strong faith, confident in their knowledge that they can do anything they set their minds to and weather the toughest times by the grace of God. Their faith should be as much more perfect than the faith of those of a good report; for their status and special consideration are more perfect than the former, and are indeed the perfection and completion of those before them. Only perfect beings are fit for the presence of the holy God, and only perfect beings will come into the realization of that hope which is laid up in heaven. Thrice holiness is our striving in Christ. This reasoning is strong, and should be effectually prevalent with us all. Now hear the testimonies 9, pages 11-18… We are living in the time of the end. The fast-fulfilling signs of the times declare that the coming of Christ is near at hand. The days in which we live are solemn and important. The Spirit of God is gradually but surely being withdrawn from the earth. Plagues and judgments are already falling upon the despisers of the grace of God. The calamities by land and sea, the unsettled state of society, the alarms of war, are portentous. They forecast approaching events of the greatest magnitude.The agencies of evil are combining their forces and consolidating. They are strengthening for the last great crisis. Great changes are soon to take place in our world, and the final movements will be rapid ones. The condition of things in the world shows that troublous times are right upon us. The daily papers are full of indications of a terrible conflict in the near future. Bold robberies are of frequent occurrence. Strikes are common. Thefts and murders are committed on every hand. Men possessed of demons are taking the lives of men, women, and little children. Men have become infatuated with vice, and every species of evil prevails. The enemy has succeeded in perverting justice and in filling men's hearts with the desire for selfish gain. "Justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter." Isaiah 59:14. In the great cities there are multitudes living in poverty and wretchedness, well-nigh destitute of food, shelter, and clothing; while in the same cities are those who have more than heart could wish, who live luxuriously, spending their money on richly furnished houses, on personal starving humanity (photo by Unspash) adornment, or worse still, upon the gratification of sensual appetites, upon liquor, tobacco, and other things that destroy the powers of the brain, unbalance the mind, and debase the soul. The cries of starving humanity are coming up before God, while by every species of oppression and extortion men are piling up colossal fortunes. On one occasion, when in New York City, I was in the night season called upon to behold buildings rising story after story toward heaven. These buildings were warranted to be fireproof, and they were erected to glorify their owners and builders. Higher and still higher these buildings rose, and in them the most costly material was used. Those to whom these buildings belonged were not asking themselves: "How can we best glorify God?" The Lord was not in their thoughts. I thought: "Oh, that those who are thus investing their means could see their course as God sees it! They are piling up magnificent buildings, but how foolish in the sight of the Ruler of the universe is their planning and devising. They are not studying with all the powers of heart and mind how they may glorify God. They have lost sight of this, the first duty of man." As these lofty buildings went up, the owners rejoiced with ambitious pride (photo by Unsplash) that they had money to use in gratifying self and provoking the envy of their neighbors. Much of the money that they thus invested had been obtained through exaction, through grinding down the poor. They forgot that in heaven an account of every business transaction is kept; every unjust deal, every fraudulent act, is there recorded. The time is coming when in their fraud and insolence men will reach a point that the Lord will not permit them to pass, and they will learn that there is a limit to the forbearance of Jehovah. The scene that next passed before me was an alarm of fire. Men looked at the lofty and supposedly fire-proof buildings and said: "They are perfectly safe." But these buildings were consumed as if made of pitch. The fire engines could do nothing to stay the destruction. The firemen were unable to operate the engines. I am instructed that when the Lord's time comes, should no change have taken place in the hearts of proud, ambitious human beings, men will find that the hand that had been strong to save will be strong to destroy. No earthly power can stay the hand of God. No material can be used in the erection of buildings that will preserve them from destruction when God's appointed time comes to send retribution on men for their disregard of His law and for their selfish ambition. There are not many, even among educators and statesmen, who comprehend the causes that underlie the present state of society. Those who hold the reins of government are not able to solve the problem of moral corruption, poverty, pauperism, and increasing crime. They are struggling in vain to place business operations on a more secure basis. If men would give more heed to the teaching of God's word, they would find a solution of the problems that perplex them. The Scriptures describe the condition of the world just before Christ's second coming. Of the men who by robbery and extortion are amassing great riches, it is written: "Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you." James 5:3-6. But who reads the warnings given by the fast-fulfilling signs of the times? What impression is made upon worldlings? What change is seen in their attitude? No more than was seen in the attitude of the inhabitants of the Noachian world. Absorbed in worldly business and pleasure, the antediluvians "knew not until the Flood came, and took them all away." Matthew 24:39. They had heaven-sent warnings, but they refused to listen. And today the world, utterly regardless of the warning voice of God, is hurrying on to eternal ruin.The world is stirred with the spirit of war. The prophecy of the eleventh chapter of Daniel has nearly reached its complete fulfillment. Soon the scenes of trouble spoken of in the prophecies will take place. "Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof. . . . Because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate. . . . The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth." Isaiah 24:1-8. "Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. . . . The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down, for the corn is withered. How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate." "The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men." Joel 1:15-18, 12. "I am pained at my very heart; . . . I cannot hold my peace, because thou has heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled." Jeremiah 4:19, 20. "I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down." Verses 23-26. "Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it." Jeremiah 30:7. Not all in this world have taken sides with the enemy against God. Not all have become disloyal. There are a faithful few who are true to God; for John writes: "Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Revelation 14:12. Soon the battle will be waged fiercely between those who serve God and those who serve Him not. Soon everything that can be shaken will be shaken, that those things that cannot be shaken may remain. Satan is a diligent Bible student. He knows that his time is short, and he seeks at every point to counterwork the work of the Lord upon this earth. It is impossible to give any idea of the experience of the people of God who shall be alive upon the earth when celestial glory and a repetition of the persecutions of the past are blended. They will walk in the light proceeding from the throne of God. By means of the angels there will be constant communication between heaven and earth. And Satan, surrounded by evil angels, and claiming to be God, will work miracles of all kinds, to deceive, if possible, the very elect. God's people will not find their safety in working foundation (photo by Unsplash) miracles, for Satan will counterfeit the miracles that will be wrought. God's tried and tested people will find their power in the sign spoken of in Exodus 31:12-18. They are to take their stand on the living word: "It is written." This is the only foundation upon which they can stand securely. Those who have broken their covenant with God will in that day be without God and without hope. The worshipers of God will be especially distinguished by their regard for the fourth commandment, since this is the sign of God's creative power and the witness to His claim upon man's reverence and homage. The wicked will be distinguished by their efforts to tear down the Creator's memorial and to exalt the institution of Rome. In the issue of the conflict all Christendom will be divided into two great classes, those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and those who worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark. Although church and state will unite their power to compel all, "both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond," to receive the mark of the beast, yet the people of God will not receive it. Revelation 13:16. The prophet of Patmos beholds "them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God," and singing the song of Moses and the Lamb. Revelation 15:2. Fearful tests and trials await the people of God. The spirit of war is stirring the nations from one end of the earth to the other. But in the midst of the time of trouble that is coming,--a time of trouble such as has not been since there was a nation,--God's chosen people will stand unmoved. Satan and his host cannot destroy them, for angels that excel in strength will protect them. God's word to His people is: "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, . . . and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters." "Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." 2 Corinthians 6:17, 18; 1 Peter 2:9. God's people are to be distinguished as a people who serve Him fully, wholeheartedly, taking no honor to themselves, and remembering that by a most solemn covenant they have bound themselves to serve the Lord and Him only. "The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily My Sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: everyone that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord: whosoever doeth any work in the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested, and was refreshed." Exodus 31:12-17. Do not these words point us out as God's denominated people? and do they not declare to us that so long as time shall last, we are to cherish the sacred, denominational distinction placed upon us? The children of Israel were to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations "for a perpetual covenant." The Sabbath has lost none of its meaning. It is still the sign between God and His people, and it will be so forever. Sabbath Rest (photo by Unplash) 📖 Applying the Study For ongoing spiritual encouragement and prophetical insights, visit Higher Learning.

Logic Faith involves reliance and trust and it will endure in the very face of doubt or inquiry, whereas belief is simply something most take to be true. Belief may be sounded by information. Faith is known by application. Faith in its truest form is when we have confidence in God to the point that it causes us to undertake His will, which reinforces our assurance in all He does and performs our certainty in all He says. Belief in its most elementary form is about what we accept to be true, not what we do with it. Beliefs are things we take to be true based on our logic and experiences. If we learn new information, our beliefs can change. When someone’s beliefs are challenged and changed it sometimes deepens and solidifies their faith — which is what our Heavenly Father wants to happen. Faith is similar to belief in that it is a specific kind and deeper intensity of belief. A person can believe in something and not have faith. Faith requires a personal inspection. Many have believed in God, but their faith in His ability to come through was lacking. Even though we know God’s promises and can sing about His faithfulness, we often struggle to act in faith because we were unsure. This does not deny our belief, it simply reveals our humanity. In reality our faith remains unchanged even as it grows because the word does not change. However, it is not that our faith must grow. It is in whom do we have faith. And with that faith in Christ, it will grow. Faith grows with every new revelation of truth. So, does faith and truth change our lives…we answer in the affirmative. God wants to move us from belief to faith and He wants our faith to grow. He desires this so that as our faith grow we will trust Him to control every purpose of, and for our lives. But this is a process, and it does not happen all at once. The beautiful part is God is gracious and will give us opportunities to demonstrate our faith. In God’s plan for our life, there are more things He has for us to do, but to get there we are going to require more faith. For this reason, He will graciously help us turn our belief into faith and all we have to do is ask for His help. Faith is layered with so much reason that even with the most familiar of thoughts and purposes we strive to grow deeper to discover a much richer meaning or treasure contained. The stronger our faith is; the more extraordinary things will occur as His spirit leads us. If we believe only, we do not plunge beneath its surface to ask, “is that all there is?” Faith is fidelity to the Word even when we don’t see the object of our belief. Faith does not come from humans but only from God. Faith is God’s energy, a gift not one of us deserves, a gift given to us by Christ to wash away our iniquities, one that makes Heaven our inheritance. Faith enables us to search our minds and our hearts for God and to come to God to reason in humility and obedience to His will, not our own. Understand how love is the only aspect of holiness that covenants us by faith with God. Remember hearing that God so loved and that He gave? Most of us believe that. But to really know that requires faith in the One whom God gave and it requires that love for the One who gave. If you love Me…keep My commandments and live by the   faith of the Son of God. We love with   faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith is more than just intellectual knowledge. It is more than just a mental assent. Faith is not halting between two opinions. It is to accept God’s word on all matters. Accepting God’s choice, His purpose. Faith is the principle of separation. The concept of being set apart as sacred. Meaning belonging to God. This is a recurring theme throughout the bible. Holding to that understanding is how our faith will cease to wax and wane. Faith must be grounded in the always faithful God and His will being done and not upon some specific outcome that may or may not serve God’s purpose. It is trust without reservation. Trusting is what brings the promises of God into our lives. Faith is our choice as to whom we will serve in sincerity and truth. And truth is found in the word of God. And so, faith is that light in God’s promises. It is God behind us and God before us. Our faith has a way of revealing our worst days, or weeks, or months, or years. Faith has a way of uncovering the purposes and the mercies of God in our past, and giving light to the promises of God for our tomorrow. The past becomes a list of hopes deferred, relationships lost, opportunities squandered, all telling the story of how we were elected. God has so sanctified every sorrow we’ve experienced that it has become, in His hands, an upward step in His purpose. Our past is but our wilderness experience. Christ himself has walked there. If the children of Israel had learned from that experience they would have been as the peculiar people spoken of. No matter how much guilt and grief is buried in the years gone by, the ground bears the footprints of the God who works footprints of the God who works... wonders. When we rehearse the bitterness behind us, then, we need to tell ourselves about this day that we were awakened. But that is not yet the full story. True faith has a different interpretation than what our worst moments would suggest. True faith is knowing of God’s wondrous deeds and thoughts toward us. No matter how many sorrows await us, faith tells us that God knows the thoughts that He Himself thinks toward us to give us an expected end. And the sum of them is great! Our mourning these days is great. It will increase. But so will our faith in God. What will come from our mourning, our suffering is a deeper understanding of the character of God and His thoughts toward us. This provision is purposed by God. Consider Jeremiah…lamenting actually deepens our gratitude, building our capacity for belief in the promise of His presence and blessing in the midst of it. We have greater faith. It is this greater faith by which we are secure in God’s love for us, when we know how He really feels about us, we are free to come to reason with Him and to ask and tell Him anything. Faith will keep us from faking fine in life. True faith strengthens us to approach God with what is really going on with us. God thinks of us as His. He tells us of His experiences of anger, of joy, of compassion, and even of jealousy. Why would we not choose to be wholly honest with Him…He already knows. It just so amazes Him when He sees our faith becoming so full that He wants desperately to make us whole. He wants us to know that this wholeness is the only way to have the fullness of faith and that is to have the fullness of the Holy Spirit, the fullness of the life of Christ, and the fullness of love from and for the Father. Our belief is that He’s got us! We cannot limit what God can do, but we can limit what we accept. When we truly believe, the equation of our faith will fill us up. God tells us how evil the days are and how so much worse they will be. So, He admonishes us to redeem the time, understanding what His will is for us. That we be filled with the Spirit. In our reasoning we understand that means we must be empty of all things of this world. And because God’s thoughts are toward us, He tells us of this greater faith we come to. Faith to know the love of Christ that we may be filled with all the fulness of God. Glory!!! The fullness of our faith is not determined by our ability to reach it but to receive it. We cannot add to our faith, Christ asks that we yield to faith that it can be added onto us. If we want to believe for more, we must trust for more. Trusting is not done out of strength but out of surrender. There is nothing that God can’t do if only we would let Him. Every circumstance we go through is an opportunity to hear Him, to seek His face in everything that happens. Do faith is our constant connection to God-thinking not do anything to play down faith. Faith is our constant connection to God- thinking. This is the mind of Christ. God’s way is the grace way. We give Him glory and He gives us grace. We give Him praise and He gives us peace. We give Him worship and He gives us confidence. This is the way of God. Our faith is to move us beyond the temporal world unto eternal thinking. We cannot teach God anything, but we can understand the things of God. We are but a faith-step away from being made perfect in Christ Jesus. Faith gives us an advantage. Ignorance is torn down while passionate truth builds up. Faith says test what you believe and see if it withstands the scrutiny of critical thinking, that is, critical thinking based on the Word of God. Faith is not established on what we think however, faith is built of what God knows of us. He knows when we make His ways our ways. As our faith is, so will God continually unfold new dimensions of His grace, His love, and His kindness, and His wisdom. By faith we are to expect days of troubled serenity ahead. If there be any lingering wreckage of our sin, God will clean it up. There will be days that will reveal more constellations of God’s goodness and glory to us, even as we more constellations of God's glory must walk through deep darkness to see them. By faith whatever else we see when we look ahead, then, see the grace and the mercies God has multiplied for us. See also the God who will never fail to preserve us with His steadfast love and faithfulness. If only we had a believing faith to see. We are hemmed in by the things behind us and the hopes before. We know of God’s wondrous deeds of the past. And our faith tells us of the merciful wonders to be. Both of these are marvelous and more than can be told. With such a God behind us and before us, we need not allow the past to swallow us, nor tomorrow to worry us. The past and the morrow belong to Him…and most importantly, so do we. It is believed that faith by both biblical and spiritual definitions needs no evidence. Faith is something that is certain but not yet fully realized in our present experience. It is the conviction of the reality of what we do not yet see. It is the characteristic of those who live “as seeing him who is invisible. We might even suggest that faith is ventured trust that is in no way contrary to reason. If faith bypasses reason why would God give us a written document. It is not just believing in God, it is believing God. It is belief that may not necessarily rely on empirical evidence. Can faith provide a connective understanding as to why our own belief must be based upon historical reality historical reality? Therein is the highest mystery that spans the truth of faith…faith always has an object. That is, one cannot have faith in some unclear way. There must be some thing or person, one has faith in. Most people do not understand how to place faith in its characteristic order. Faith cannot be “belief without evidence” since it is not a belief to begin with. It is a condition that may involve beliefs or may be caused by beliefs, although it is not itself a belief. Rather, it is a state of trust. And so, faith embraces testimony. Measure our faith by the Word of God and make sure we are assenting to the reasonable, historical testimony of the prophets. Faith is not something of a distance. Wow! What? Some have faith of being in the kingdom. Millennium has past and we’re not there yet. Do we believe these words: thy faith hath made thee whole, the kingdom of God cometh not with observation, the kingdom of God is within you. Is that faith? And how near is the kingdom? an entrusting ourselves where we risk ourselves and our wellbeing to something or some person. Trust is exemplified in a deep and mutual relationship. Faith requires not trust from a distance but God becoming man might qualify for such a demonstration. Everyone has faith, in this sense, insofar as they entrust themselves. So, what is the very distinctiveness of our faith? Its object is Jesus Christ, God Himself. And we venture on the reason, the truth, the revelation of every word of God. We place our faith in Christ as Savior and Lord. It is not merely the truth of the gospel, and it is not merely the evidence and reasons constitutive of the knowledge of the gospel, but we are literally entrusting ourselves to Christ. And here is the essence of the mystery: we might know some truths of the Creator’s determinative purpose by reason and evidence but, at a certain point, reason and evidence run out and faith takes over and the Spirit of God gives us what the mouth of God has spoken in secret. This moves us beyond the measure of faith. Beyond becoming convinced by the preaching of the gospel, the testimony of the Spirit, the richness of scripture, a work the Lord has done in our own lives, answers to prayer, a world that appears designed and finely tuned, needing an explanation for purpose and hope. We engage the life of the mind of Christ and being careful for nothing, considering and weighing out our reasons as we grow in faith and prayer letting our requests be made known unto God. Many that hear do not believe, yet those that believe have first heard. Faith cometh by hearing. The beginning, progress, Faith cometh by hearing. and strength of faith are by hearing. The word of God is therefore called the word of faith: it causes and nourishes faith. God gives faith, but it is by the word as the instrument. Hearing is by the word of God. It is not hearing the enticing words of man's wisdom, but hearing the word of God, that will befriend faith, and hearing it as the word of God. Think about how hearing the word of God reflects in the meaning of our lives for God. Others are made to witness faith in the relationship we have with God through Jesus Christ. We become a model of how a person of faith should live their faith out loud. People need to be encouraged and know others are praying for them, that they are loved and not forgotten, that they are loved by God and that He desires them to experience the grace, love and peace of God. There is a purpose behind God’s calling us to come to Him. We see the necessity of reason in bringing us to the threshold of faith. It is this vital collaboration whereby we believe that God will reveal to us the truth in the words of Jesus and his divine works as recorded in the bible. As such we become eyewitnesses of truth. We were not there, yet our reliance, our trust is in the One who makes known the strength of the evidence…it is faith in God. None of this violates our free will , for our faith in God depends on our personal “commitment” to Christ. For those of us who allow ourselves to be touched by God’s grace, for faith is nothing short of a gift, then we can make faith is a gift an act of faith that God does indeed exist and that He reveals Himself through His Son to bring us into the fullness of life. When we come to God to reason, we do not come to be rational, we come to be transrational, we go beyond the realm of reason. We trust God and that is faith! Faith and reason become like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of divine truth to believe all that is God. God wants us to know what we believe and why we believe it. We are to have a well reasoned, evidential faith that we can articulate to those who may have doubt. We do not share opinions. God either is, or He is not. Jesus is that God, or He is not. Salvation comes through Christ alone, or it does not. This is not a personal preference. Historical reality points to determined providential purpose. Ensamples, patterns, admonitions are for our benefit. Yesterday is a collection of ideas, choices and possibilities. Faith is that event that creates a wise narrative weaving our experience to hope and having that confidence that the work God began, He will perform. This is the how and the why we can know why we are the called. We are dramatic proof of the accuracy of the Old Testament. How did Mary know what she heard was truth? It was written. It is written How did Jesus know he was the Son of Man? It was written. Has your life been transformed? You know your experience to be true because you understand, on separate evidence, that the one in whom you trust is Himself trustworthy. And because God is God, His every utterance about the future is to be utterly trustworthy. Believing faith is discernible. It emits a spiritual light. Jesus perceived the strength or weakness in the faith of those around Him. We hear him say, “thy faith hath made thee whole.” “Great is thy faith.” He lamented to another, “O ye of little faith.” He questioned others, “where is your faith?” And Jesus distinguished yet another with, “I have not found so great faith.” The measure of faith is given by God, but faith in Jesus Christ is a gift from heaven that comes as we choose to believe and as we seek it and hold on to it. Faith is a principle of power, important not only in this life but also in our progression beyond the veil into the most holy. By the grace of Christ, we will one day be saved through faith on His name. The forthcoming of our faith is not by chance, but by choice. We must realize that if we fail to reason with every word, with any of God’s word, it is a sign that the adversary is destroying our faith. Remember the words of Jesus, “I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not”. We view life’s events through the divine prescription that enables us to have spiritual vision in this world because we view it from the perspective of another world. When we reach perfection we realize that faith has been leading all along to the person of our Lord Jesus, the author and finisher. With believing faith we defy the wisdom of the world that tells us to live for today. Instead we live in the present in the light of the future, and handle everything that is visible in the light of the invisible. To live by faith is not to live by what we can see and feel and touch on the basis of our sense experience, but to live on the basis of what God has said and promised. That is believing faith. It has its epicenter in our Lord Jesus Christ. It takes its practical shape from what God has said and promised in His Word. Learning, understanding, embracing, digesting, and applying every last word of scripture. Everything about us will be assessed by our faith. The basis of our expectation, the proof of what God has prepared. The word is written…we know there is an election…we know the wise will understand…we know the sealing is certain…we know of the time of trouble…we know there will be great plagues, the coming of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords…we know of the thousand years…the lake of fire, the new heaven, the new earth…and by faith we know it is done. 📖 Applying the Study For ongoing spiritual encouragement and prophetical insights, visit Higher Learning.

We share Christ died for every individual in the whole of God’s creation. We all share him because without him there would be no anything. We are hidden with Christ in God. We were known before the creation of the world. We are each of us given the measure of faith needed to be saved. We have the power of choice to love, to hate, to forgive, to repent, to live or to die. The wonder of it all is that God has a people who so desire to share spiritual belief founded only upon scriptural truth. God does not count how many people we lead to Jesus. He measures our faith through our living our lives and how we demonstrate our faith. When we share truth with others our hope is aid in their overcoming difficulty and doubt. We share that we care. We stress spiritual vigil around the heart to keep it from the evil of unbelief. Guard what you read. Guard what you watch. Guard the things you think about. Avoid people, places, and things that will lead into sin. Take care of your heart with all vigilance brothers and sisters. Exhort one another to be faithful. That’s why God puts us in community. As long as there is life in the lungs, there is grace to be had at the cross. We are admonished to go therefore and teach. Let’s not overcomplicate this counsel. Love is even greater than faith and hope. Faith and hope are vital. Faith is what pleases God. And hope is what gets us through life in a fallen, often hopeless world. But love is what fuels our faith. We have faith in Jesus because we love him. And love is what gives us hope. Death may take the body. It will resolve us into our first principles – the first principles are self-evident truths that are the foundation of what we know to be true. They are basic reasonings that cannot be deduced any further, they are priority arguments to the creative power of God. We are a light of heaven united with clods of clay, the dust of the earth. At death these are separated, and each goes to the place whence it came. The spirit does not die with the body. These principles are the first basis from which a thing is known. God holds the spirit of the soul that waits. Our mind holds the memories. Our heart keeps the love. Our faith lets us know we will meet again. Faith is the real knowing of knowledge. It is real certainty of Christ. We know that one day we will see, face to face, the One we love. It is for these principles that we share truth. We are to become aware of and follow the deeper spiritual wisdom that God has placed within us, called the Comforter by Jesus. Love is established in the faith of Jesus. Can this love be shared? The bible is the real word of God. It's His message of love for us and hope and salvation. God is love and Jesus is the Word who is God. We understand him to be “love” in human flesh. Love is what Jesus says will reveal that we are His true disciples. He says this is what we will be known for. Love is what we try to share. It is what we do. There are a lot of issues that are important, a lot of doctrines people like to discuss, to argue over, and theological positions that people might break fellowship over, but Jesus is saying over and above all those things, if we love the people in whose life we are invited, if we love the other people who loves him, it will be clear that we are a follower of Jesus. People don't know us for our love. That’s not what they think of when they think about bible teachers. Jesus tells us that we will be known by our love because that’s not really what we’re known for. Most know us for what we’re against. They think to know us by our theological rules. They know us by what we accept and don’t accept. Most say we’re not like Jesus. We must get better at letting God love others through us. God is raising up a people who are so close to Jesus and so into His word, who are so full of the Holy Spirit, that people will know that Jesus is real because of the love, the caring, the peace that is flowing in our lives to those around us. That is what makes us so different from the world. We are learning to share God’s love like Jesus does, and to love them with the love that He has loved us with. Obedience to the first and second greatest commandments shows how great God is, and how He works through our weaknesses, through our flaws, through our imperfections. We understand that the hand of God is on our life. And because we know that much, we know enough to share Jesus with others. God is ready to use us who are available, who will love Him and are prepared to reach other people. As we sincerely care about people, God will work through us and move in our life in areas that we would have never imagined. God is working in the hearts of His people to fill us deeper with His love and then to bring it to the surface for all to see. What He’s wanting to do in these days is for His people to be serious about truly caring about people and loving them as Jesus loves us. We are given a different kind of love. A love that is not dependent upon return. We become a work in progress. We’re going to be learning and we’re going to be growing, and Jesus is going to be manifesting himself in us until the day we leave this earth to go on to Heaven. It takes the Holy Spirit to love like Jesus. Why? Because it’s not in our nature to love like that. When we love like that, it changes our priorities, it changes our agenda. It changes our friendships and other relationships. It makes our lives different as we begin to love others the way Jesus loves us. With all the means we have today to reach people, to help people, to understand people, how much more does our God have to do to get us to let Him work in our whole lives, in our whole hearts. We need God’s love for our faith to work. As we speak with others, to share what God has been doing in our life, and how He isn’t done with us yet it speaks to people that we’re still being worked on. We don’t have it all together yet, but that doesn’t mean our sharing is without benefit. But we have the confident expectation of God’s faithfulness and future promises. God promises that He will have a finally perfected people. God has predestined His people to be conformed to the image of His Son: that is, to become like Jesus. We all know that when Adam fell he lost much - though not all - of the divine image in which he had been created. But God has restored it in Christ. Conformity to the image of God means to become like Jesus: Christlikeness is the eternal predestinating purpose of God. We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness. What a vision...what a promise, becoming like Christ. From eternal predestination to present transformation. We will be like him. We are to be like Christ in his love. We are to be like Christ in his mission. We are to share biblical truth with those we love. That’s the truth that glorifies Jesus. We must make much of Jesus. We must share difficult truths in a gentle, kind, inoffensive manner – in love. Rather than be spiritually immature and easily deceived, we are to speak the truth to one another, with love, so that we can all grow in maturity. We are to train one another in truth - the foundational gospel truths, truths about who God is and what He has called us to do, hard truths of correction, of doctrine - and our motivation to do so is love. A self-sacrificial love that works for the benefit of the loved one. We speak truth in order to build up. Share what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit listen those who listen. Our words should be beneficial to the hearers of those words. We should share truth in love. We are not to attempt to hide things about ourselves out of shame or in an effort to manage our images. Rather, as those who are part of the same body intended for the same purpose and united by the same love, we should be characterized by honesty. Those who love must speak the truth, must share the truth. We must be characterized by grace and truth. We are called to love those who do not know Christ. The best way we can show love is to share with them the truth of the gospel. We have a message that we must share. We must unapologetically impart knowledge about both truth and love. Remember the question, “what is truth”, and the phrase, “what manner of love”? The truth that God’s people share is “divine revelation”. It is reality that cannot be hidden. Truth is not how we know; truth is what we know. Truth is always there, always open and available for all to see, with nothing being hidden or obscured. Truth is that which corresponds to reality. Truth is that which matches its object. Truth is simply telling it like it is. Truth is unaffected by sincerity. Truth is impervious to desire. Why is it so important to understand and embrace the truth in all areas of life? Because life has consequences for being wrong. Nowhere are the consequences more important than in the area of faith and religion. God is eternal and eternity is an awfully long time to be wrong. In our sharing the truth we must give earnest attention to the enthralling theme of the Father’s love. Though the subject of the greatness of God’s love exceeds all human comprehension, God nevertheless exhorts us to look at it, ponder it, study it, weigh it, meditate upon it, marvel at it, seek to grasp the full meaning of it, and rejoice in it - because out of the mercy of God through our Lord Jesus Christ we have already experienced upon ourselves the bestowal of it. The greatness of God’s love is seen in the manner of that love. What kind of love is this? This love is not the general kindness of the Creator, which in His wise providence He mercifully exercises towards all His creatures. There is a great difference between God’s dealing with us as Creator and His dealing with us as Father. God is not the Father of all men, though He nevertheless is the Creator of all men and all men are under His providential care. But He is the Father of all those who have been born again and who have truly believed in His Son. He is the Father of only these and none others. What, then, is the manner of this love? It is that love which God peculiarly exercises in regard to His own children. It is a love that finds no other cause outside of God. God is gracious to whom He will be gracious. God hates sin and sin is in us. His love for us is not based on any merit on our part. What manner of love? God’s love is without beginning, without end...it is everlasting. Ponder that prayerfully - we unworthy ones are loved with a love that had no beginning and will have no ending. What manner of love! Share this; tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword, death, life, angels, principalities, powers, things present, things to come, height, depth, nor any other creature! If these cannot separate us from that love, nothing can, for nothing else exists outside of this list. What manner of love! From eternity and out of His free and unchanging grace, the Father appointed His Son to be our Savior. “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” What manner of love! If we would know the manner of God’s love to us and give thought to the depth of it, we must not ignore this wonderful, though mysterious aspect of it. His love towards us is distinguished by being electing love. Our Father has not tried to hide this truth from those whom He loves, for He has written about it plainly in His Word. Scripture says that God has chosen us to salvation. In the face of this great truth all we can do is wonder what manner of love is this. This love could not allow us to lie under the curse and bondage of our sins exposed to the penalty of the holy law. Christ redeemed us. What manner of love! God’s elect experience redeeming grace of the Father’s great love from day to day and are brought to know the meaning of progressive sanctification in their life. The abiding presence of the Holy Spirit - with all His strengthening, guiding, and purifying graces; ever making effectual to each believer the blessed benefits of redemption - assures the constant growth in true holiness of every one of us. The prayer of Christ to the Father, requesting Him to “sanctify us through thy truth”, is sure to be answered in every believer’s experience. What manner of love! We are to share and to teach that the objects embraced by this love is us who are God’s election. We share this hard truth –“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us.” Those who are included in the pronoun us - and only those - are the objects of this great love. It is a sad mistake, as well as a dangerous twisting of scripture, to make this passage refer to everybody in general. We can by no means read every son of Adam into this text; and though we are aware that as we share this truth we shall certainly lay ourselves open to the charge of being narrow and uncharitable in our interpretation. We are compelled by the plain truth to say - and say it with emphasis - that this passage clearly limits the love of God to His chosen election. This great love will never be viewed by us in its proper setting until we have been brought by divine mercy to realize what terrible sinners we are. Then, and then only, shall we who are the predestined stand in wonder that God did not consign the entire lot of us to the second death. Then, and only then, shall we find ourselves utterly amazed that a holy God should so condescend as to be willing to take upon Himself the task of saving us from the ruin of sin. Then, the thing that will forever clasp us in holy astonishment is to discover that such sinners as we were included in that number to be the everlasting objects upon whom He would bestow His Sovereign love. “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us!” This love exceeds and excels all loves, for it is the Father’s love - divine love, out of free and sovereign grace. God loves righteousness and truth. There are three effects of this love that we love to share as the truth. The first – right now are we the sons of God. The word says, “beloved, now are we the sons of God.” The second – as sons we purify ourselves. First made pure by the redeeming blood of Christ applied to our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Then, by God’s grace. A key truth and thirdly - the   world knows us not, because it knew him not. The world will despise our witness. Sharing charitably the truth in love is communally and commonly reflecting upon the experiences of others with doctrinally correctness and that which proceeds from a biblically committed life to a person who wants to know Christ. It is done in love for the benefit of one who needs our commitment to sacrificing life-time to share the treasures of heaven. Sharing the word of God is an act of love for God and others. It helps us to connect more fully with our own faith. Inviting others to share scripture and hearing their histories are effective ways to share the gospel. The spiritual welfare of others matters. We have a responsibility to share the truth in love not only because it is a command, it is saving a soul from death, helping a soul to come to truth, that’s a worthy reason for doing this. We also cover a multitude of sins, which means that the sinning stops instead of it continuing and being exposed before others. We love and because our love is the love of Christ there is no fear of losing friendships or straining relationships. We cannot be judgmental or fear rejection. In sharing the word of God we too are helped to be better people because the words we share are words spoken to our hearts. We must be right with God to help others. We must be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks us a reason of the hope that is in us. We all belong to Christ. We pray before, during, and after our conversation with others. We pray that God would open their hearts to hear truth, we pray while we’re sharing that our words would not fall on a hard heart, and we pray afterward that the dear Holy Spirit would do the work of conviction of sin and convincing of truth to lead those who hear to repentance. We share the word of God to others to give God glory. We are in the last days and they are darkening the hope of far too many people. Dire consequences loom on the horizon of a setting sun. Prophecy fulfilled. The last steps are now being taken. Many are stepping into darkness...few into light. The dark times are blackening. While faith sustains darkening times God’s people, hope for much people is fading. Our sharing can cause them to remember that even in this hostile world they are part of Christ’s family. They can be of one mind in unity, in belief, and purpose. Our choice to submit humbly and share the truth is because it is Christ we are submitting to, loving and serving him through our sharing with others. We set him apart as Lord. This is to recognize his purity, goodness and distinctiveness. He is exalted over creation. This is also clear evidence for Christ’s deity. It is in this life that the decision about Christ and repentance must be made. The truths that are to be shared will be bound in sorrow for the suffering to come. Our words have the sound of tears. Thoughtfully considered and examined, there is no outward manifestation of emotion. These tears have a far different purpose. We weep for the intensity of the trials to be faced. There will be no contention that tears and weeping are only artificial for they will not be seen. These tears will be placed in a bottle. God keeps watch over them. No matter how much of our sorrow goes unnoticed by others, not one moment has escaped the attention of God. Our words are bound up with these unseen tears. As Jesus wept some saw the tears...we heard the tears sharing the word to snatch the people back from death. Jesus stays with us in our sorrow – he comes down into our valley of tears and walks alongside us. He knows every word that is shared by faith. The truths shared will be pure, genuine, containing in themselves the sorrow for a soul lost. The truths that we share are the promises of God to them who receive them that whither they are going, there will be no more sorrow or sadness, and it is a curious circumstance that in the bible wherein are contained all of these promises, the very last time that the word tears is used, as though it would emphasize the fact that they would be done with them forever, is in an assurance that there shall be a place provide where there will be none and no occasion for any. We will keep on sharing the word and gathering with God’s people, even when they don’t understand what we’re going through...what they too will have to endure. We’ll keep on serving others, even while we carry our sorrow wherever we go. And we’ll keep on sowing the seeds of truth and grace into our barren souls, waiting for the day when God takes us home.

fracture The prophetic weight of this moment calls for deep humility and prayer. Leaders must not see themselves as masters over brethren, but as servants washed in the same blood. Families must guard their homes against seeds of resentment, knowing that division in the household multiplies into division in the church. The scattered and the grafted-in must learn to bear one another, not as competitors for honor, but as co-heirs of grace. It is in this crucible of unity that God will prepare a people fit to stand in the time of trouble. The seal of the living God is placed not upon isolated individuals, but upon a body that has learned to love beyond the fractures of race, history, and personal offense. If the adversary succeeds in dividing the last-day family of faith, then he need not enslave them by outward force, for they will have bound themselves with the chains of disunion. But if, by God’s Spirit, they rise above division, then no power of earth or hell can subdue them. Their unity will become their fortress, their love their weapon, and their covenant loyalty their unbreakable bond. And in that unity, the prophecy will be fulfilled: a people once scattered, once enslaved, now risen, now sealed, now unmovable in their devotion to God and one another. Thus, the call is urgent. The family of faith must weep before the altar for healing. They must refuse to let division steal their destiny. They must guard the sacred trust of unity as though it were life itself. For in truth, it is life: the life of the final witness, the life of the sealed remnant, the life of God’s own testimony in the earth. And when they stand, healed and unbroken, the world will behold what no empire could extinguish: a people who cannot be divided, cannot be enslaved, and cannot be silenced, for they are one in Christ and sealed forever in His eternal purpose. Division within the spiritual family is not a passing inconvenience; it is the adversary’s last and most dreadful attempt to break the remnant people of God. As the nations rage and the powers of the earth align for their final assault against truth, Satan knows his time is short. He cannot strip away the faith of those who have been sealed by God’s Spirit, but he can attempt to rupture their bonds of love and scatter them in spirit though they stand together in body. Division is a silent plague, more destructive than persecution, for it tears at the very heart of covenant unity. The deepest betrayals do not come from strangers, but from brothers and sisters, and it is this weapon the adversary aims to sharpen in the last generation. If the family of faith can be fractured from within, their testimony will lose its force, their strength will wither, and their witness to the nations will dim. This is the last-day danger…internal discord. History testifies to this reality with sobering clarity. The wilderness generation, despite witnessing God’s mighty hand, faltered again and again through murmuring, jealousy, and suspicion. Their greatest enemies were not Amalekites or Moabites, but their own tongues and hearts that resisted unity under God’s leading. Later, when Israel was divided into northern and southern kingdoms, the rift was not born from outside invaders but from mistrust and ambition within. The fall of Jerusalem was hastened by the corruption of its leaders and the betrayal of its prophets. Even the early church, filled with the power of fracture Pentecost, was continually threatened by disputes over leadership, doctrine, and cultural identity. Paul’s letters groan with the burden of urging believers to hold fast to the unity of the Spirit, for he knew that division was the surest path to ruin. The testimony of Scripture resounds with this lesson: when God’s people fracture, they become vulnerable; when they stand as one, they are unshakable. This lesson carries prophetic urgency for the scattered people of God in the last days, particularly for those of Black descent whose identity as descendants of the ancient Hebrews has been long suppressed, denied, and obscured. Their history is marked by centuries of exploitation, captivity, and systemic oppression. Yet the prophetic promise declares that never again will they be enslaved, for God has broken the yoke. The awakening to this identity brings not only dignity but also responsibility. To refuse exploitation is a sacred act of obedience to God’s justice, but to avoid division is a sacred act of obedience to His love. Both must be embraced together, for the power of the remnant lies not merely in their liberation from physical bondage, but in their liberation from spiritual fragmentation. The proclamation “never again enslaved” must be matched by the vow “never again divided.” Still, this vow is costly, for wounds run deep. Centuries of betrayal, injustice, and systemic exclusion have left scars that are not easily healed. The temptation is to allow memory to fuel resentment, to turn the testimony of survival into a weapon of suspicion. The adversary would seize upon these wounds, whispering that unity is impossible, that differences are irreconcilable, and that mistrust must remain. The danger is subtle: even as God’s people rise from physical exploitation, they may fall into spiritual enslavement to bitterness and division. It is in this delicate space that reflection must deepen. The remnant cannot afford to confuse vigilance against oppression with hostility toward brethren. They cannot allow the remembrance of pain to eclipse the vision of unity. Healing must not only acknowledge the truth of history but also lift the family of faith beyond it, into the realm of covenantal love where scars become testimonies rather than barriers. The final generation must embody a unity that transcends race, culture, and personal history, without erasing them. This unity does not demand sameness, but harmony. It requires that every tribe, nation, and tongue bring their distinct beauty into a symphony of witness to the Lamb. It demands that the descendants of the scattered Hebrews, while never forgetting the cost of their history, embrace their restored identity with humility rather than superiority. Likewise, those grafted into the covenant must honor the heritage of their brethren without resentment or envy. The strength of the remnant lies precisely in this diversity made holy by love. To fracture along lines of race or culture would be to undermine the very purpose for which God has gathered His people. The nations must see in the remnant not merely individuals who serve God, but a family healed and made one, a living testimony that Christ has triumphed over the divisions of humanity. For this reason, leaders in the final generation bear a sacred responsibility. They must reject the temptation to lordship, for leadership in God’s kingdom is service, not mastery. They must guard against favoritism, knowing that even a hint of partiality can fracture the fragile bonds of trust. They must guide with patience, teaching the people that forgiveness is strength, that humility is power, and that covenant loyalty is the foundation of endurance. The remnant will not endure because they are free of conflict, but because they are free to forgive. They will not overcome because they are free of wounds, but because they are willing to heal together. This is the test of their sealing: to hold fast to one another when every earthly pressure urges them apart. The time is coming when the remnant will stand alone against the powers of the world. Persecution will strip them of outward supports, and the pressure will be intense to turn inward in suspicion or blame. Yet if they are bound together by covenant love, they will not fall. Their unity will be their shield, their harmony their fortress, and their love their unbreakable testimony. The adversary will rage, but he will find no foothold, for his oldest weapon— division—will have been disarmed. The remnant will stand not only as individuals sealed by God, but as a family whose unity bears witness to heaven’s eternal purpose. The reflection required at this hour is therefore both sobering and hopeful. The danger of division is real, but so is the promise of unity. The scars of history are deep, but so is the healing power of grace. Never again enslaved must mean never again divided, for both are chains broken by Christ. If the people of God embrace this truth, they will stand as the unshakable witness of the final generation. They will be a people whom no empire can conquer, no deception can fracture, and no hatred can silence. Their very existence will declare to the world and to the universe: this is the family of God, scattered yet gathered, wounded yet healed, diverse yet one, sealed forever in covenant love. The great controversy that spans the ages has always hinged upon the unity of God’s people. From the beginning, when Adam and Eve fell into disobedience, the harmony of creation was fractured, and the history of humanity became a story of division. Cain’s jealousy of Abel was the first manifestation of that fracture in the human family, and the centuries that followed bore witness to how envy, rivalry, and mistrust spread like a contagion. Yet God’s purpose has never changed. He has always sought to bring forth a people who reflect His own image, not in isolation, but in covenant fellowship with one another. Division, therefore, is not merely a human weakness; it is a direct assault on the fracture divine purpose. To disrupt the unity of the spiritual family is to mar the likeness of God in the earth, and this is why the adversary exerts every effort to sow discord. As the last days unfold, this battle intensifies, for the remnant is called to bear the final testimony of God’s character before the watching universe. Their unity, or their division, will decide whether the testimony shines in brilliance or flickers in shame. The scattered people of God, drawn from every corner of the earth, carry within themselves a history written in suffering and endurance. Among them, the descendants of the Hebrews who were torn from their homeland, sold into slavery, and dispersed through the transatlantic slave trade bear a particularly heavy story. For centuries, they were told they were nothing, stripped of name, culture, and dignity, and reduced to commodities in the markets of men. Yet through it all, God kept the thread of His covenant alive, hidden in their resilience, in their cries to heaven, and in their spiritual songs that carried coded hope. That legacy has awakened in these last days with prophetic force: a people once enslaved now rise to claim their true identity as heirs of the covenant, children of Abraham, and participants in the final work of God’s redemption. The declaration that they shall never again be enslaved is not mere rhetoric; it is a divine verdict rooted in the justice of God and the restoration of His scattered family.  There remains the deeper trial of inner freedom. The adversary knows this, and so his strategy has shifted. He will seek to turn brother against brother, sister against sister, congregation against congregation, until the body of Christ is torn apart from within. This is why the danger of division in the spiritual family is more dreadful than persecution from without. In light of this, the call for reflection is urgent. The remnant must not only celebrate their liberation but also guard their unity with reverence. They must understand that identity without unity can devolve into pride, and freedom without forgiveness can harden into resentment. To truly fulfill their destiny, the people of God must embody a love stronger than memory, a humility deeper than pride, and a loyalty greater than grievance.  The final unity of the remnant is not uniformity, nor is it the erasure of culture and heritage. It is the sanctification of diversity in the light of covenant love. Just as a body has many members with differing functions, so the family of God is designed to contain a multitude of voices, traditions, and experiences. The strength of the remnant lies not in the flattening of fracture these differences but in their consecration to a single purpose: the glory of God and the testimony of Jesus. When every tribe, tongue, and people stand side by side, not as competitors but as companions, then the world will see the reality of the gospel. That sight will itself be a judgment, for nothing so condemns the spirit of this world as the witness of true unity in Christ. This unity requires sacrifice. It demands that any who lead out lay down ambition and refuse the lure of self-exaltation. It calls for all to put aside rivalry and choose forgiveness over resentment. It insists that grievances be laid at the cross, and that personal offenses be swallowed by covenant love. The remnant cannot be sealed while clinging to division, for the seal of God is the imprint of His character, and His character is perfect love. The Spirit will not descend upon a fractured family, nor will He empower a divided body. Only when the people of God resolve to stand together at any cost will they be fit to bear the final message to the nations. The hour is coming, and indeed is upon us, when this unity will be tested as never before. Laws will be passed that threaten the liberty of conscience. Economic and social pressures will mount against those who remain faithful to God’s commandments. The hostility of the world will intensify until the remnant stands stripped of earthly support. In that moment, the temptation to turn inward with suspicion will be fierce. Some will be tempted to accuse others of betrayal, and some will abandon brethren out of fear. The adversary will whisper that trust is dangerous, that love is naïve, and that survival demands separation. Yet if the remnant holds fast to love, if they refuse to let division take root, they will endure. Their unity will be their armor, and their fellowship their fortress. And when the dust of persecution has settled, the remnant will stand. They will not stand as a collection of individuals but as a family, sealed by God, bound together by covenant love, and radiant with the testimony of Christ. Their witness will ring across the earth: a people once scattered but now gathered, once divided but now made one. In them, the universe will behold the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose, and the adversary will see his last weapon fail. Division will have been defeated by love, and the family of God will shine as the eternal proof that His kingdom cannot be shaken. In these closing days, when the world convulses with its ancient complaints and modern inventions of fear, the most urgent peril facing God’s people is the invisible fracture that wounds the soul: division inside the household of faith. It is a quiet, surgical affliction. It is another order of suffering altogether.  Memory lies at the center of the struggle. Those whom God has scattered and preserved across continents carry memories not only of divine mercy but of deep, often generational wounds. This memory produces necessary guardianship: a vigilance against any echo of exploitation. Such vigilance is righteous and must be honored. Yet memory can harden into a stone that cuts. The very recollection meant to secure liberty can be turned by pride or fear into a new cord that binds the heart to suspicion. The work of reclamation must be matched by the work of reconciliation. The spiritual dynamics that give rise to division are subtle. They begin in the ordering of affections. When worship becomes more about proving who is right than about becoming who is made right, charity withers. When theological distinctives are brandished as testaments of opinion rather than invitations to holiness, the stage becomes a battlement against brothers. When grief is exposed only as grievance, testimony degenerates into accusation. And when the language of identity is seized to secure advantage rather than to steward calling, the body fractures along lines that the gospel was meant to heal. These movements are not always loud; often they sound like careful reasoning, righteous indignation, or necessary protection. The devil is most cunning when he convinces the remnant that division is actually preservation. Yet scripture and the history of redemption teach another way. From the earliest pages, God’s design was relational: created male and female, called into covenant with one another, summoned to reflect the triune communion that is the foundation of being. The Bible’s central story is of a God who gathers, unites, and heals. The prophets demanded justice, but always in the context of restoration: Israel’s wrongs were named not for the sake fracture of shame but so that the family might be reconciled. The cross itself is the supreme demonstration that the route to vindication is not triumphalism but self emptying love. If the final generation is to be sealed, it will not be because of doctrinal sharpness alone, nor because of cultural ascendancy, but because of a love that resembles the Savior’s— costly, patient, humble, and truthful. To refuse the possibility of future exploitation must be a settled posture for those who have known bondage; this is not negotiable. That resolve, however, must be disciplined by spiritual maturity. Courage must walk hand in hand with the humility that asks, “How may I be instrumentally useful in repairing what was broken?” The measure of a people’s freedom is how devotedly it pursues reconciliation with those who have offended, failed, or misunderstood it. There is a prophetic responsibility in how memory is carried. When remembrance is animated by mercy, it becomes a river that waters justice. When remembrance hardens into judgmentalism, it becomes a dam that drowns fellowship. Those who lead must understand this delicate stewardship. Leaders are called to discipline the flock toward truth and tenderness, to teach how to remember without weaponizing past hurt, to model the courage that both insists on justice and remains open to sacrificial reconciliation.  This work is spiritual. Corporately cultivated disciplines—regular corporate lament, communal confession, shared meals that cross cultural lines. These rhythms are not social niceties; they are spiritual inoculations. They teach a people how to bear the weight of another’s grief without making it their own burden alone, how to listen without immediately correcting, how to honor without capitulating to false guilt. They form a communal imagination in which diverse gifts do not compete for spotlight but combine for testimony. In such a household the healed become healers, and the freed become gardeners of freedom for others. There will be tests that reveal the depth of such cultivation. When pressure increases, when resources shrink, when fear multiplies, the temptation to hoard influence and privilege will grow stronger. Under such pressure some will reach for power; others will retreat into isolation; still others will perform piety while allowing private resentments to fester. The settled discipline of the remnant will be seen in small, unglamorous choices: the willingness to sit at the same table with a sibling who misunderstands you, the decision to speak charity into a rumor rather than fuel its spread, the readiness to forgo a platform for the sake of a brother’s dignity. It is these quotidian acts of humility that will build an unassailable unity when storms hit. Furthermore, the remnant’s final witness will not be an alliance of homogeneous thought but a mosaic of redeemed difference. Diversity will not be a problem to solve but a testimony to the breadth of God’s mercy. When historical narratives are honored as part of the body’s beauty—subject always to the cross and to truth—the resulting chorus will more faithfully reflect the glory of God. The boasting of any single group diminishes the whole; the mutual exaltation of one another magnifies the Master. That is why the work of unmaking division is also the work of creating new habits of mutual celebration through the sharing of resources that concretely repair brokenness. We must also name the spiritual enemy. Division is not merely a sociological phenomenon; it is a tactic of the adversary. He will mask slander as discernment, pride as principle, and withdrawal as wisdom. He will use legitimate grievances to seed permanent estrangement. fracture The family must resist his smokescreen with spiritual weapons: earnest prayer, prophetic clarity that refuses partisanship, and a doctrine of forgiveness that is neither sentimental nor cheap. Forgiveness is not forgetting; it is the decision to voluntarily disarm the ledger of hurt so that it can be restored to productive relationship. To forgive without seeking justice is to ignore truth; to seek justice without forgiving is to harden the heart. Both must be pursued together until reconciliation is real and durable. There is a cost to be paid in this labor. Reconciliation requires humility, and humility often looks like loss. To choose covenant loyalty over vindication is to surrender the intoxicating elation of being “right” in order to bear the burden of relationship. Yet this surrender is not defeat; it is a form of resistance to the enemy’s plan. The true victory of the remnant will be found not in triumphal assertion of identity but in the cruciform posture that loves even when love is costly. When the family of faith embraces this costly love, it reflects the character of God so vividly that the watching world will be confronted with a truth no political demonstration can equal: the gospel reconciles enmity by giving a new heart to hold two truths at once—justice and mercy, remembrance and release, dignity and humility. Finally, the demand of conscience is immediate. The essay that moves a reader to reform must not merely inform but evict complacency. Each conscience among the faithful is called to examine how memory has been carried, how wounds have been fed or healed, and what small, daily choices might be made toward rebuilding covenant connections. The work does not begin at the highest altar of policy but in the private chambers of apology, in the phone calls that bridge estrangement, in the willingness to be mentored by a brother whose skin and story have been different, and in the resolve to redistribute not only resources but honor. These are the acts that will, by God’s Spirit, constitute a new reformation of the heart. If the remnant heeds this call, the reward will be the establishment of a people whose unity is a living sermon. They will stand when empires fall, not by the might of arms, but by the unshakable testimony of mutual love forged in trial. They will be a people who can say with integrity: never, never again divided. They will be the proof that God’s covenant is not a theory but an enacted reality, a family whose cohesion reveals the character of their Head. May conscience be quickened, may repentance follow, and may the spiritual reformation begin now, in every heart willing to choose the cost of unity for the sake of the final, world-changing witness.   Solomon offers the first and perhaps most striking portrait of revelation, reason, and wisdom in harmony. At the outset of his reign, God revealed Himself in a dream, inviting Solomon to request whatever he desired. Solomon’s reasoning in that moment was sanctified—he did not ask for wealth or power, but for “an understanding heart to judge thy people”. His reasoning flowed from humility and recognition of his insufficiency, and God rewarded him with wisdom unlike any before him. That wisdom was not mere intellectual brilliance but a lived discernment, evident in his famous judgment between the two women who both claimed to be a child’s mother. Revelation set the stage, reason weighed the matter, and wisdom issued forth in a decision that displayed the character of God’s justice. Though Solomon later stumbled, his early reign shows how God’s weighing of these three realities can elevate a man into a vessel of divine truth. Daniel provides another example, one forged in trial and exile. In Babylon, revelation came to him through visions and dreams, mysteries hidden from the wise men of the empire. Yet Daniel did not merely receive revelation passively—he reasoned within himself, sought understanding, and humbly petitioned God for interpretation. His reasoning was never divorced from dependence; he acknowledged that “there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets”. The result was wisdom displayed not only in interpreting dreams but also in his conduct before kings, rulers, and enemies. His wisdom was practical: refusing defilement from the king’s table, speaking truth in perilous moments, and governing with integrity. In Daniel, we see revelation feeding reason, reason birthing prayer, and wisdom shaping a life that stood blameless amid corruption. Paul illustrates the mature culmination of this harmony in the New Testament. Revelation struck him dramatically on the road to Damascus, shattering his former reliance on human tradition and self-righteous reason. Yet God did not discard Paul’s intellect; He sanctified it. Paul’s reasoning, sharpened by Scripture and illumined by the Spirit, became a tool for unfolding the mystery of Christ to Jew and Gentile alike. His letters breathe this balance—soaring in revelation - “caught up to the third heaven”, disciplined in reason - logical argumentation in Romans, and rich in wisdom - practical exhortations to live by the Spirit. Paul shows us that revelation without sanctified reasoning can lead to fanaticism, and reason without revelation can harden into unbelief, but when both are fused and borne out in wisdom, the gospel becomes irresistible. In these three figures, God demonstrates that He weighs revelation, reason, and wisdom not in isolation but in their harmony. Solomon shows their flowering in leadership, Daniel shows their preservation in exile, and Paul shows their transformation in mission. Each testifies that God’s people are never called to choose one over the other, but to walk in their fullness, where divine disclosure, sanctified intellect, and holy living converge. In the final generation, the union of revelation, reason, and wisdom will reach its highest and most urgent expression. Revelation will come in the form of God’s final messages to the world—the everlasting gospel, the three angels’ messages, and the sealing truths that distinguish His remnant. These are not human inventions but divine disclosures, truths too weighty for speculation and too urgent for indifference. Yet God entrusts these revelations to human vessels, demanding that they not only receive them but rightly divide them. Here reason assumes a sanctified role, for the last generation must discern between truth and deception amid a flood of counterfeit revelations, false signs, and distorted teachings. Reason, submitted to the Spirit, will enable them to test all things, to recognize the difference between the voice of God and the subtle whispers of the dragon, beast, and false prophet. But revelation and reason alone will not suffice in the time of crisis. Wisdom must crown their testimony, for the world will not be persuaded merely by words or arguments but by lives that embody God’s truth. Wisdom in the final generation will appear as holy living under impossible pressure—patience in persecution, purity in corruption, love in a world grown cold. The sealed remnant will manifest wisdom not only in what they say but in how they endure, how they love their enemies, and how they reveal Christ in their character. This wisdom is not of the world, nor is it detached philosophy; it is the Spirit of Christ dwelling within, turning revealed truth into lived reality. It is this union of revelation, reason, and wisdom that will make them God’s final witnesses, living epistles read by all nations. Thus, in the last days, God weighs these three not as options but as essentials. Revelation will cut through the lies of Babylon, reason will steady the mind against confusion, and wisdom will silence the accuser by the testimony of holy lives. Together, they form the unbreakable seal of God upon His people. Just as Solomon, Daniel, and Paul each embodied this harmony in their time, so the 144,000 will embody it in fullness, becoming the living proof that God’s ways are just and His truth sufficient. The final generation will not exalt one above the other but walk in their unity, reflecting the image of Christ Himself, in whom revelation, reason, and wisdom perfectly converge. Unbreakable

Fracturing I ask that we inhale as we allow the words to breathe as the Spirit speaks to us through them in this writing. In the closing drama of earth’s history, the greatest danger that threatens the people of God is not merely the power of their enemies, nor the oppressive systems of the world, but the subtle and destructive spirit of division within the spiritual family. The adversary has long understood that no external force can overthrow a people bound together in divine unity; therefore, his most insidious weapon is to sow distrust, rivalry, suspicion, and self-centeredness among those called to be one body in Christ. Division is not simply disagreement, for differences of perspective are natural; rather, it is the rupture of covenantal love, the refusal to yield to one another in humility, the laying aside the counsel of God to reason, and the collapse of shared trust in the God who has knit His people together. This fracture, when allowed to mature, becomes more devastating than persecution, for the wound is inflicted not by strangers, but by those who should be keepers of one another’s souls. The history of God’s people is filled with lessons that reveal how division opened the door to defeat. Israel in the wilderness fell into murmuring and rebellion, not because their enemies were too strong, but because their unity was broken by complaints and fear. The kingdoms of Judah and Israel alike collapsed, not merely under the weight of foreign invaders, but under the crushing effect of inner strife and betrayal. Even in the early church, Paul’s letters are filled with earnest pleas to “be of the same mind,” to “bear one another’s burdens,” and to “endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”. The enemy has no new strategy; his oldest tactic remains his most effective. He knows that if he can fracture the spiritual family, he can silence their witness, empty their courage, lessen their faith, and disarm their authority. The mystery of spiritual relations often lies in the way God chooses to dispense His wisdom. While His Spirit is available to all who seek in humility, He bestows greater measures of understanding and discernment upon certain individuals according to His divine purpose. This unequal distribution of wisdom is not evidence of favoritism but of calling. God places within His chosen vessels insights that prepare them for service, endurance, or testimony at a particular time. Yet, this very bestowal of higher wisdom becomes a dividing line within spiritual relations, for not all hearts are ready to receive the depth of light revealed to some. Division arises when those who have not been entrusted with such wisdom respond with resistance, skepticism, or even envy toward those who have. This pattern is visible throughout Scripture. Joseph’s brothers despised him not simply because he was loved by their father but because he bore dreams from God that revealed a higher destiny. Similarly, Moses, though called to lead, faced constant opposition from those who could not perceive the wisdom God had given him. Spiritual relations fracture when the gift of divine insight becomes a stumbling block to others who prefer the comfort of familiarity over the challenge of revelation. Another cause of division is the weight that higher wisdom places upon relationships. Those who walk in deeper spiritual insight are compelled to live with greater accountability, and their words and actions often expose hidden complacency or unbelief in others. This exposure unsettles relationships, for truth confronts the heart. When one speaks from the wellspring of wisdom granted by God, it carries authority that unsettles the status quo. The hearer must either embrace the light or recoil from it, and in that moment, relational unity either deepens in shared faith or fractures under the weight of spiritual disparity. Yet, the root of division is not the wisdom itself but the human response to it. God does not intend for wisdom to breed pride or separation but to cultivate obedience, humility, and service. However, when wisdom is received, it alters the balance of fellowship. Some will see fracture the one gifted with higher insight as arrogant or presumptuous, even when that person walks in meekness. Others will silently withdraw, feeling unworthy to walk alongside one whose vision seems clearer. Still others may attack outright, mistaking divine wisdom for human ambition. Thus, relationships once close become strained, not because love has disappeared, but because the light has revealed a hidden disparity in faith. This dynamic carries prophetic significance for the final generation. As God seals His remnant with the mysteries of His covenant, division will intensify. The greater the light, the sharper the separation from those who resist it. Families, churches, and friendships may divide because of the measure of truth entrusted to a few. It is not that God desires separation, but that the presence of higher wisdom inevitably sifts the hearts of those around it. Some will be drawn upward into deeper faith, while others will recoil, fulfilling Christ’s own words: “I came not to send peace, but a sword.” Ultimately, spiritual relations are divided not because God is unjust, but because His wisdom is both a gift and a test. It tests the humility of those who receive it and the receptivity of those who witness it. Those who accept the light grow closer to the one who bears it, finding in them a brother, sister, or guide for the journey. Those who resist, however, create distance, for the wisdom of God cannot be contained within human expectations. Thus, division becomes the inevitable consequence of God’s sovereign choice to bestow higher wisdom upon some, revealing the true nature of every heart and proving that fellowship rests not in blood or friendship alone, but in shared submission to divine truth. The repercussions are far reaching leading to a collapse of trusting one with the truth. And the aftermath of events are spiritually significant. When a spiritual fracture opens because people stop reasoning, the break is hardly ever about doctrine alone — it is about the collapse of a shared way of approaching truth: careful listening, testing, humble questioning, and mutual accountability. Failure to reason turns revealed truths into catchphrases rather than living guides, so when someone interprets scripture impulsively, dogmatically, or to protect an ego, the stewardship of truth is suspected; trust erodes because truth is no longer being handled responsibly. Scriptural revelations that were sought in unity ceases and thought begins to read one another’s motives instead of Scripture, substituting apprehension for charitable inquiry. Over time this produces parallel gatherings of conviction — each convinced of its own transparency — and the work of reconciliation becomes harder because claims are defended emotionally, not tested by reasoned exegesis, prayer, and communal wisdom. Repair begins where reason and humility return together: transparent explanation, patient dialogue that prizes both truth and the person who bears it, consistent practices for testing teaching, and leaders who model intellectual honesty and moral vulnerability; only when people see truth handled with integrity will trust be rebuilt and the spiritual fracture begin to close. The principle of division caused by unequal measures of wisdom is seen clearly in the relationship between Samuel and Eli. Eli was the established priest, experienced in the rituals of Israel, yet the voice of God came to Samuel while he was still a child. This reversal of expectation produced tension. Though Eli eventually acknowledged the authenticity of the boy’s calling, it exposed the fading of his own spiritual vision. Samuel’s rise as a prophet illuminated Eli’s failure, and thus their spiritual relation was marked by a transition that carried quiet strain. In this, we see that God’s choice to impart wisdom to the humble over the established can unsettle bonds and draw hidden lines of separation. Daniel’s life offers another profound witness. When Babylon took him and his companions captive, they were set among many others from Israel, all of whom shared the same heritage and upbringing. Yet God gave Daniel and the three Hebrews “knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom,” and to Daniel specifically, “understanding in all visions and dreams”. That unequal bestowal created both elevation and division. Among the wise men of Babylon, jealousy brewed; among his fellow captives, Daniel’s unique insight set him apart. His wisdom preserved the lives of others, yet it also created an invisible chasm, for few could comprehend the depth of what God entrusted to him. Wisdom both unites through service and divides through its rarity. fracture The New Testament continues this pattern in the life of Paul. Once an opponent of Christ, Paul was granted revelations surpassing those of many apostles who had walked physically with Jesus. His letters reveal the extraordinary depth of understanding given to him, yet that very gift strained his relationships. Some questioned his authority, others accused him of boasting, and still others distanced themselves because his vision seemed to outpace theirs. Even among the apostles, Paul’s calling to the Gentiles was not fully embraced at first, and his confrontation with Peter over hypocrisy displays how higher wisdom disrupts unity when truth pierces comfort. The division was not born of hostility alone but of God’s deliberate choice to elevate one voice with a sharper measure of revelation. Even within Christ’s own disciples, unequal measures of understanding produced both intimacy and fracture. Peter, James, and John were repeatedly drawn aside to witness deeper mysteries, such as the transfiguration and Gethsemane’s agony. Their proximity to Christ’s inner revelation distinguished them from the others, and this distinction fostered questions, rivalry, and even resentment. John, “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” bore a unique closeness that culminated in the Revelation of heavenly mysteries at Patmos. That special entrustment, while glorious, set him apart from others, revealing again how spiritual relations shift when God’s wisdom flows in unequal measure. These examples reveal that division is not accidental but divinely permitted. God uses it to sift motives, to humble pride, and to refine both those who carry wisdom and those who must respond to it. Eli was humbled by Samuel’s calling; Daniel’s peers were tested by his revelations; Paul’s apostleship forced the early church to wrestle with God’s surprising choices; and the disciples had to learn that proximity to Christ’s wisdom was not about competition but about surrender. Division, therefore, is not merely a breakdown of relations but a stage upon which the hearts of men are proven. In the last days, this same pattern will climax. God’s sealed remnant will be entrusted with mysteries that the wider body of believers may resist. Families will divide, congregations will fracture, and friendships will strain, not because love has failed, but because unequal measures of wisdom create a separation between those who yield and those who recoil. Just as Daniel was lifted before Babylon, and Paul before the nations, so too will God’s chosen be lifted to carry a wisdom that will both save and divide. In this, the wisdom given is not only a light to the faithful but also a fire that tests the hidden allegiances of every heart. In the final generation, the division caused by God’s imparted wisdom will reach its climactic expression. Those who are sealed by the Spirit will carry a depth of revelation that is both illuminating and separating. Just as Samuel’s voice distinguished him from Eli, and Daniel’s insight set him apart from Babylon, the faithful remnant will bear knowledge of divine mysteries that the world, and even the broader church, cannot fully receive. This wisdom will not only expose hidden unbelief but will awaken hearts prepared to respond, sifting the faithful from the lukewarm. Families will experience strain, churches will wrestle with dissent, and friendships will be tested, for the presence of God’s higher insight cannot be ignored or contained. Yet this division serves a holy purpose. God does not grant wisdom to isolate; He grants it to purify, to align, and to prepare His people for the weight of their calling. Those who embrace the light will find intimacy, unity, and strength among others who walk in the same revelation. Those who resist will reveal their hearts, and their separation, though painful, will preserve the integrity of the mission entrusted to the remnant. The sifting is fracture both protective and preparatory: God uses division to guard the vessel from compromise, and to ensure that His truth is carried without distortion into the final hour. Prophetically, the wisdom bestowed upon the remnant will not merely distinguish them in perception but will empower them to act decisively in the outpouring of God’s plan. They will discern deception where others are blind, they will speak courageously where others remain silent, and they will live in obedience where others compromise. Just as the apostles, Daniel, and the disciples bore gifts that altered relationships, the final generation will carry a revelation that transforms their communities and draws others into alignment with God’s purposes. Division, in this sense, becomes the mechanism by which God separates the vessel from the world’s entanglements, preparing a people who are holy, faithful, and wholly dependent upon Him. Ultimately, the division wrought by higher wisdom reveals the true nature of every heart. In the last generation, as in Scripture, God’s choice to bestow insight will illuminate the faithful and expose the unfaithful. The separation will be painful, yet necessary, for it will protect the integrity of the remnant and fulfill the divine promise that a purified people will stand in readiness to complete God’s redemptive plan. In this context, division is not evidence of abandonment but of preparation; it is a holy refining, a crucible in which the faithful are made ready to walk in the fullness of God’s light. The wisdom entrusted to some, thus becomes both a sword and a shield—dividing hearts where compromise remains, and guarding those who are called to carry the fire of truth into the final hour. As the last days approach, the division caused by God’s imparted wisdom will manifest with unprecedented intensity. Families, churches, and spiritual communities will face testing unlike any in history. Those who receive deeper revelation—those who walk in the mysteries of God’s final counsel—will be increasingly distinguished from those who cling to comfort, tradition, or halftruth. The final generation will experience relational strain because the light they bear will expose hidden compromise, unfaithfulness, and spiritual blindness in those around them. This division, though deeply painful, is part of God’s sovereign plan to sift hearts and prepare vessels for His ultimate purpose. In families, the strain will be intimate and unavoidable...particularly spiritual families. Parents who have long guided their children may find themselves challenged by the younger generation’s deeper spiritual understanding. Children in the remnant may perceive truths their parents cannot yet see, or parents may walk in revelation that distances them from children unready to embrace God’s higher wisdom. These tensions are not a sign of divine rejection but of necessary purification. God allows relational separation to protect the integrity of the remnant, ensuring that His truth is neither compromised nor diluted in critical moments before the coming of Christ. Division will be both doctrinal and spiritual. Leaders who have walked in revelation will be tested by congregations unwilling to follow beyond familiar boundaries. Just as the apostles faced skepticism, resistance, and even hostility from both believers and unbelievers alike, the final generation will confront similar challenges. Misunderstanding, envy, and subtle opposition will arise because higher wisdom often threatens human pride. Those who remain in the light, however, will find spiritual alignment with one another, forming a holy nucleus capable of bearing God’s end-time messages with authority and love. In this crucible, relational division functions as a means of divine separation—ensuring that the faithful are insulated from compromise and positioned to fulfill God’s ultimate plan. Spiritually, the end-time sifting will extend beyond the visible church into the broader societal realm. The remnant, sealed with divine understanding, will be called to discern deception in governance, culture, and media, revealing spiritual realities that the majority cannot yet perceive. The higher wisdom imparted to them will act as both illumination and separation: illumination for those ready to embrace it, separation from those who resist it. Just as the seven thunders and the sealed scroll in Revelation are reserved for the elect, so too will certain divine mysteries remain inaccessible to the world until God’s purposes are fulfilled. The very insight that enables the remnant to stand firm in truth will simultaneously produce friction, misunderstanding, and isolation from a society enslaved to its own error. fracture Yet this division is always purposeful. God’s wisdom is never given for pride or alienation; it is given to prepare, protect, and empower. The trials of relational separation cultivate humility, dependence upon the Spirit, and a refined character in those entrusted with higher knowledge. Those who yield to the light, despite the strain it brings, will emerge as the vessels capable of proclaiming the three angels’ messages with clarity and authority. Division, therefore, is a crucible—a spiritual mechanism by which God separates the faithful from compromise and purifies the remnant for the final proclamation of His truth. Ultimately, the prophetic significance of this division is redemptive. It will reveal the true nature of hearts in every sphere: family, church, and society. The sealed remnant will stand distinct, not out of human ambition, but because they have received God’s wisdom and responded with obedience. Those who reject the light will be sifted away, while those who receive it will find deep unity, intimacy, and power among one another. In this final separation, God’s purpose is revealed: a purified, wise, and faithful people, prepared to endure the time of trouble and complete the mission entrusted to them. Division, though painful, becomes the instrument through which God preserves His truth, safeguards His people, and ensures that His wisdom is carried forward without compromise, illuminating the final generation for His glory. This danger is magnified in the last days, for God has declared that He will gather a people from all nations, tribes, and tongues who bear His seal and carry the everlasting gospel. These are not a people bound together by geography or culture alone, but by covenant identity in Christ. Yet within this chosen remnant lies the temptation of mistrust, especially as the scattered descendants of the ancient Hebrews awaken to their true identity. The reality of centuries of exploitation, slavery, and oppression cannot be ignored, and with that awakening comes the unshakable conviction that never again will Black people, as heirs of this sacred lineage, submit to enslavement or exploitation. This is not a matter of mere pride or self-assertion, but of prophetic destiny. The yoke of oppression has been broken, and a divine boundary has been set: the scattered people shall rise, and they shall not be bent again under the weight of another man’s chains. Yet herein lies the place for sober reflection, for the refusal to be enslaved outwardly must also be matched with a refusal to be enslaved inwardly. Division in the spiritual family becomes a hidden chain as heavy as any iron yoke. While no empire will again bind God’s scattered people in physical slavery, there remains the peril of emotional, doctrinal, and spiritual bondage through suspicion, bitterness, and rivalry within the household of faith. The adversary would gladly exploit wounds of the past to sow seeds of present discord. He would take the memory of injustice and twist it into resentment. He would tempt the rising generation to mistrust their brothers and sisters in Christ, and to fracture the very unity that gives the remnant its power. In this way, division becomes a subtle form of enslavement — not by whip and shackle, but by distrust and alienation. The final generation must, therefore, walk with profound vigilance. They must recognize that unity is not uniformity, but a holy weaving together of differences into one fabric of purpose. They must learn that love does not erase scars, but it does heal them into testimonies of strength rather than festering wounds of bitterness. The greatness of the remnant is not that it will avoid conflict altogether, but that it will transcend it through forgiveness, patience, and covenant loyalty. To refuse exploitation outwardly but to embrace envy or rivalry inwardly is to accept bondage in another form. Only by refusing both can God’s last-day people stand free indeed. fracture

Faith Faith involves reliance and trust and it will endure in the very face of doubt or inquiry, whereas belief is simply something most take to be true. Belief may be sounded by information. Faith is known by application. Faith in its truest form is when we have confidence in God to the point that it causes us to undertake His will, which reinforces our assurance in all He does and performs our certainty in all He says. Belief in its most elementary form is about what we accept to be true, not what we do with it. Beliefs are things we take to be true based on our logic and experiences. If we learn new information, our beliefs can change. When someone’s beliefs are challenged and changed it sometimes deepens and solidifies their faith — which is what our Heavenly Father wants to happen. Faith is similar to belief in that it is a specific kind and deeper intensity of belief. A person can believe in something and not have faith. Faith requires a personal inspection. Many have believed in God, but their faith in His ability to come through was lacking. Even though we know God’s promises and can sing about His faithfulness, we often struggle to act in faith because we were unsure. This does not deny our belief, it simply reveals our humanity. In reality our faith remains unchanged even as it grows because the word does not change. However, it is not that our faith must grow. It is in whom do we have faith. And with that faith in Christ, it will grow. Faith grows with every new revelation of truth. So, does faith and truth faith grows change our lives…we answer in the affirmative. God wants to move us from belief to faith and He wants our faith to grow. He desires this so that as our faith grow we will trust Him to control every purpose of, and for our lives. But this is a process, and it does not happen all at once. The beautiful part is God is gracious and will give us opportunities to demonstrate our faith. In God’s plan for our life, there are more things He has for us to do, but to get there we are going to require more faith. For this reason, He will graciously help us turn our belief into faith and all we have to do is ask for His help.   Faith is layered with so much reason that even with the most familiar of thoughts and purposes we strive to grow deeper to discover a much richer meaning or treasure contained. The stronger our faith is; the more extraordinary things will occur as His spirit leads us. If we believe only, we do not plunge beneath its surface to ask, “is that all there is?” Faith is fidelity to the Word even when we don’t see the object of our belief. Faith does not come from humans but only from God. Faith is God’s energy, a gift not one of us deserves, a gift given to us by Christ to wash away our iniquities, one that makes Heaven our inheritance. Faith enables us to search our minds and our hearts for God and to come to God to reason in humility and obedience to His will, not our own. Understand how love is the only aspect of holiness that covenants us by faith with God. Remember hearing that God so loved and that He gave? Most of us believe that. But to really know that requires faith in the One whom God gave and it requires that love for the One who gave. If you love Me…keep My commandments and live by the   faith of the Son of God. We love with   faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.    Faith is more than just intellectual knowledge. It is more than just a mental assent. Faith is not halting between two opinions.  It is to accept God’s word on all matters. Accepting God’s choice, His purpose. Faith is the principle of separation. The concept of being set apart as sacred. Meaning belonging to God. This is a recurring theme throughout the bible. Holding to that understanding is how our faith will cease to wax and wane. Faith must be grounded in the always faithful God and His will being done and not upon some specific outcome that may or may not serve God’s purpose. It is trust without reservation.  T rusting is what brings the promises of God into our lives. Faith is our choice as to whom we will serve in sincerity and truth. And truth is found in the word of God. And so, faith is that light in God’s promises. It is God behind us and God before us. Our faith has a way of revealing our worst days, or weeks, or months, or years. Faith has a way of uncovering the purposes and the mercies of God in our past, and giving light to the promises of God for our tomorrow. The past becomes a list of hopes deferred, relationships lost, opportunities squandered, all telling the story of how we were elected. God has so sanctified every sorrow we’ve experienced that it has become, in His hands, an upward step in His purpose. Our past is but our wilderness experience. Christ himself has walked there. If the children of Israel had learned from that experience they would have been as the peculiar people spoken of. No matter how much guilt and grief is buried in the years gone by, the ground bears the footprints of the God footprints of God who works wonders. When we rehearse the bitterness behind us, then, we need to tell ourselves about this day that we were awakened. But that is not yet the full story. True faith has a different interpretation than what our worst moments would suggest.    True faith is knowing of God’s wondrous deeds and thoughts toward us. No matter how many sorrows await us, faith tells us that God knows the thoughts that He Himself thinks toward us to give us an expected end. And the sum of them is great!    Our mourning these days is great. It will increase. But so will our faith in God. What will come from our mourning, our suffering is a deeper understanding of the character of God and His thoughts toward us. This provision is purposed by God. Consider Jeremiah…lamenting actually deepens our gratitude, building our capacity for belief in the promise of His presence and blessing in the midst of it. We have greater faith. It is this greater faith by which we are secure in God’s love for us, when we know how He really feels about us, we are free to come to reason with Him and to ask and tell Him anything. Faith will keep us from faking fine in life. True faith strengthens us to approach God with what is really going on with us. God thinks of us as His. He tells us of His experiences of anger, of joy, of compassion, and even of jealousy. Why would we not choose to be wholly honest with Him…He already knows. It just so amazes Him when He sees our faith becoming so full that He wants desperately to make us whole. He wants us to know that this wholeness is the only way to have the fullness of faith and that is to have the fullness of the Holy Spirit, the fullness of the life of Christ, and the fullness of love from and for the Father. Our belief is that He’s got us! We cannot limit what God can do, but we can limit what we accept. When we truly believe, the equation of our faith will fill us up. God tells us how evil the days are and how so much worse they will be. So, He admonishes us to redeem the time, understanding what His will is for us. That we be filled with the Spirit. In our reasoning we understand that means we must be empty of all things of this world. And because God’s thoughts are toward us, He tells us of this greater faith we come to. Faith to know the love of Christ that we may be filled with all the fulness of God. Glory!!!    The fullness of our faith is not determined by our ability to reach it but to receive it. We cannot add to our faith, Christ asks that we yield to faith that it can be added onto us. If we want to believe for more, we must trust for more. Trusting is not done out of strength but out of surrender.   There is nothing that God can’t do if only we would let Him. Every circumstance we go through is an opportunity to hear Him, to seek His face in everything that happens. Do not do anything to play down faith. Faith is our constant connection to Godthinking. This is the mind of Christ. God’s way is the grace way. We give Him glory and He gives us grace. We give Him praise and He gives us peace. We give Him worship and He gives us confidence. This is the way of God. Our faith is to move us beyond the temporal world unto eternal thinking. We cannot teach God anything, but we can understand the things of God. We are but a faith-step away from being made perfect in Christ Jesus. Faith gives us an advantage. Ignorance is torn down while passionate truth builds up. Faith says test what you believe and see if it withstands the scrutiny of critical thinking, that is, critical thinking based on the Word of God. Faith is not established on what we think however, faith is built of what God knows of us. He knows when we make His ways our ways. As our faith is, so will God continually unfold new dimensions of His grace, His love, and His kindness, and His wisdom.    By faith we are to expect days of troubled serenity ahead. If there be any lingering wreckage of our sin, God will clean it up. There will be days that will reveal more constellations of constellations God’s goodness and glory to us, even as we must walk through deep darkness to see them. By faith whatever else we see when we look ahead, then, see the grace and the mercies God has multiplied for us. See also the God who will never fail to preserve us with His steadfast love and faithfulness. If only we had a believing faith to see. We are hemmed in by the things behind us and the hopes before. We know of God’s wondrous deeds of the past. And our faith tells us of the merciful wonders to be. Both of these are marvelous and more than can be told. With such a God behind us and before us, we need not allow the past to swallow us, nor tomorow to worry us. The past and the morrow belong to Him…and most importantly, so do we.   It is believed that faith by both biblical and spiritual definitions needs no evidence. Faith is something that is certain but not yet fully realized in our present experience. It is the conviction of the reality of what we do not yet see. It is the characteristic of those who live “as seeing him who is invisible. We might even suggest that faith is ventured trust that is in no way contrary to reason. If faith bypasses reason  w hy would God give us a written document. It is not just believing in God, it is believing God. It is belief that may not necessarily rely on empirical evidence.   Can  f aith provide a connective understanding as to why our own belief must be based upon historical reality? Therein is the highest mystery that spans the truth of faith…faith always has an object. That is, one cannot have faith in some unclear way. There must be some thing or person, one has faith in. Most people do not understand how to place faith in its characteristic order. Faith cannot be “belief without evidence” since it is not a belief to begin with. It is a condition that may involve beliefs or may be caused by beliefs, although it is not itself a belief. Rather, it is a state of trust. And so , faith embraces testimony.  M easure our faith by the Word of God and make sure we are assenting to the reasonable, historical testimony of the prophets.   Faith is not something of a distance. Wow! What? Some have faith of being in the kingdom. Millennium has past and we’re not there yet. Do we believe these words: thy faith hath made thee whole, the kingdom of God cometh not with observation, the kingdom of God is within you. Is that faith? And how near is the kingdom?   Faith requires not trust from a distance but an entrusting ourselves where we risk ourselves and our wellbeing to some thing or some person. Trust is exemplified in a deep and mutual relationship.   God becoming man might qualify for such a demonstration. Everyone has faith, in this sense, insofar as they entrust themselves. So, what is the very distinctiveness of our faith? Its object is Jesus Christ, God Himself. And we venture on the reason, the truth, the revelation of every word of God. We place our faith in Christ as Savior and Lord. It is not merely the truth of the gospel, and it is not merely the evidence and reasons constitutive of the knowledge of the gospel, but we are literally entrusting ourselves to Christ. And here is the essence of the mystery: we might know some truths of the Creator’s determinative purpose by reason and evidence but, at a certain point, reason and evidence run out and faith takes over and the Spirit of God gives us what the mouth of God has spoken in secret. This moves us beyond the measure of faith. Beyond becoming convinced by the preaching of the gospel, the testimony of the Spirit, the richness of scripture, a work the Lord has done in our own lives, answers to prayer, a world that appears designed and finely tuned, needing an explanation for purpose and hope.   We engage the life of the mind of Christ and being careful for nothing, considering and weighing out our reasons as we grow in faith and prayer letting our requests be made known unto God. Many that hear do not believe, yet those that believe have first heard. Faith cometh by hearing. The beginning, progress, and strength of faith are by hearing. The word of God is therefore called the word of faith: it causes and nourishes faith. God gives faith, but it is by the word as the instrument. Hearing is by the word of God. It is not hearing the enticing words of man's wisdom, but hearing the word of God, that will befriend faith, and hearing it as the word of God. Think about how hearing the word of God reflects in the meaning of our lives for God. Others are made to witness faith in the relationship we have with God through Jesus Christ. We become a model of how a person of faith should live their faith out loud.   People need to be encouraged and know others are praying for them, that they are loved and not forgotten, that they are loved by God and that He desires them to experience the grace, love, and peace of God.   There is a purpose behind God’s calling us to come to Him. We see the necessity of reason in bringing us to the threshold of faith. It is this vital collaboration whereby we believe that God will reveal to us the truth in the words of Jesus and his divine works as recorded in the bible bible. As such we become eyewitnesses of truth. We were not there, yet our reliance, our trust is in the One who makes known the strength of the evidence…it is faith in God. None of this violates our free will , for our faith in God depends on our personal “commitment” to Christ. For those of us who allow ourselves to be touched by God’s grace, for faith is nothing short of a gift, then we can make an act of faith that God does indeed exist and that He reveals Himself through His Son to bring us into the fullness of life. When we come to God to reason, we do not come to be rational, we come to be transrational, we go beyond the realm of reason. We trust God and that is faith! Faith and reason become like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of divine truth to believe all that is God. God wants us to know what we believe and why we believe it. We are to have a well reasoned, evidential faith that we can articulate to those who may have doubt. We do not share opinions. God either is, or He is not. Jesus is that God, or He is not. Salvation comes through Christ alone, or it does not. This is not a personal preference. Historical reality points to determined providential purpose. Ensamples, patterns, admonitions are for our benefit. Yesterday is a collection of ideas, choices and possibilities. Faith is that event that creates a wise narrative weaving our experience to hope and having that confidence that the work God began, He will perform. This is the how and the why we can know why we are the called. We are dramatic proof of the accuracy of the Old Testament. How did Mary know what she heard was truth? It was written. How did Jesus know he was the Son of Man? It was written. Has your life been transformed? You know your experience to be true because you understand, on separate evidence, that the one in whom you trust is Himself trustworthy. And because God is God, His every utterance about the future is to be utterly trustworthy. Believing faith is discernible. It emits a spiritual light. Jesus perceived the strength or weakness in the faith of those around Him. We hear him say, “thy faith hath made thee whole.” “Great is thy faith.” He lamented to another, “O ye of little faith.” He questioned others, “where is your faith?” And Jesus distinguished yet another with, “I have not found so great faith.” The measure of faith is given by God, but faith in Jesus Christ is a gift from heaven that comes as we choose to believe and as we seek it and hold on to it. Faith is a principle of power, important not only in this life but also in our progression beyond the veil into the most holy. By the grace of Christ, we will one day be saved through faith on His name. The forthcoming of our faith is not by chance, but by choice. We must realize that if we fail to reason with every word, with any of God’s word, it is a sign that the adversary is destroying our faith. Remember the words of Jesus, “I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not”.   We view life’s events through the divine prescription that enables us to have spiritual vision in this world because we view it from the perspective of another world.  W hen we reach perfection we realize that faith has been leading all along to the person of our Lord Jesus, the author and finisher. With believing faith we defy the wisdom of the world that tells us to live for today. Instead we live in the present in the light of the future, and handle everything that is visible in the light of the invisible.  T o live by faith is not to live by what we can see and feel and touch on the basis of our sense experience, but to live on the basis of what God has said and promised. That is believing faith. It has its epicenter in our Lord Jesus Christ. It takes its practical shape from what God has said and promised in His Word. Learning, understanding, embracing, digesting, and applying every last word of scripture. Everything about us will be assessed by our faith. The basis of our expectation, the proof of what God has prepared. The word is written…we know there is an election…we know the wise will understand…we know the sealing is certain…we know of the time of trouble…we know there will be great plagues, the coming of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords…we know of the thousand years…the lake of fire, the new heaven, the new earth…and by faith we know it is done.    by faith we know that it is done

for one another God has our best interest at heart. So, He commands us to pray for ourselves and for others. In our prayers we find confession as a source of healing. And when we pray in the name of Jesus, we do it according to his will. And his will is that we come to know and to understand God. Now we begin to see why praying for others is important. Prayer is not about getting everything we ask or keeping others safe, healthy, and problem-free. Prayer is a powerful way in which we get to know our Savior, and it also brings us together with other believers. Effective prayer for others will bring us closer to God because effective prayer is based on a knowledge of His will. We pray for their faith, we pray against temptation in their lives, we pray for their unity, and we pray for their sanctification. We pray for the salvation of the lost; we pray that the brothers and sisters would stay on the right path; we pray that believers would be strengthened by the Spirit, rooted and grounded in love, able to comprehend God’s love, and filled with the fullness of God. These are our prayers for spiritual blessings; they are all “in Jesus’ name” and according to the Father’s will. We pray that these prayers warrant finding a “yes” in Jesus Christ. Praying for others gets our focus off of ourselves. Strengthens us to “carry each other’s burdens,” as we “fulfill the law of Christ”. Praying is supposed to be like breathing, easier to do than to not do. Our praying is a form breathing of serving God. God knows when the intent of prayer is to be the means of obtaining His solutions to the many situations we encounter. It may be that we not receive what we ask for, but because of God’s wisdom our prayers are never in vain for He has promised that when we ask for things that are in accordance with His will, He will give us what we ask for. We are to be diligent and persistent in prayer. For prayer should not be seen as our means of getting God to do our will on earth, but rather as a means of getting God’s will done on earth. God’s wisdom far exceeds our own. Often it is prayer that will position us to discern God’s will. Our connection is to be of such a consciousness of God’s presence in our lives that even thoughts unprayed will be prayers calling out to Christ. Prayer demonstrates our faith in God, that He will do as He has promised in His Word and bless our lives abundantly more than we could ask or hope for. You want to see God work in others lives…pray for them. Oh, what can fervent prayer accomplish. Try not to pray in anxiousness nor with eloquence. Present your prayer from the content of your heart as an expression of your love, your gratitude, and your worship to God. Memorization and recitation avoid. Prayer is to be real and personal. Pray for the things that God’s word talks about, using our own words and ordering them to our own journey with God.  power of praying Have you ever felt the power of praying, not prayer, but praying as you take someone’s hand or sitting facing one another with knees touching while holding hands or walking in nature and peering upward or cycling through the many people God has brought to you. Have you ever just let your thoughts flood your praying, adding to the heaviness of spirit for the souls you love. Have you ever felt God relieve the heartache. Do you often find that sacred space where you can pray in isolation. And do you sometimes long to share that space that another might join you in taking the hearts to God in silence or out loud.   What a powerful gesture it is to seize the moment and pray with a friend. We might ought to pray soberly, watchfully, knowing the end is at hand. We might want to check some of our desires knowing this. We are at the time where every incident in life should suggest a prayer. We might see the end of things at any moment. God's dealings with mankind will not see another consideration for salvation. Our present state is itself even now the end. We ought to pray for endurance to stand under every hardship, while maintaining an attitude of patience as we stand. It is to be an attitude of humility and magnanimity and gentle forbearance. It is enduring without finding fault. We have a common duty to pray for one another. We should be aroused from the indifference shown toward the truths of God and have a view to perseverance in prayer for the coming of our Lord. Praying that God will work in the life of every person, of His people in a way that will bring them to the end of themselves, to recognize their lostness. This is endurance in faith. Prayer has this great reason…it establishes a right relationship with God. Never neglect how much of Himself God puts in our prayers. Prayer is a result of the reality of God’s omnipresence. There is only one thing that can keep you from coming before God in prayer…your choice…Jonah prayed from the ocean depths. The seriousness of prayer enhances our hearing God. Let nothing distract us during prayer. Our circumstances are brought to God, but they are not the focus. God is. We must focus on God else our prayer is idolatrous. Prayer is our access to a resource beyond human limits or even human understanding. God’s power and resources are offered to us to do His service. This is how the truth and the soundness of every word of God transform our prayer spiritually to bring our hearts into intimate harmony with the person of the Holy Spirit and enhances our surrender to His control, wisdom, and power for our prayers. The Spirit’s groanings then enables us to worship more fully as we are assured that intercession with God is made for us. Intercession is the continuing enfolding into Christ’s ministry. Christ’s ministry did not close with his death. His atoning work was finished then, but when he rose and ascended to the right hand of the Father, he entered upon other work for us just as important in its place as His atoning work. It cannot be divorced from His atoning work; it rests upon that as its basis, but it is necessary to our complete salvation. What that great present work is, by which Jesus carries our salvation on to completeness…wherefore Jesus is able also to save us to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for us. Unto entire completeness, absolute perfection, because he not merely died but because he also “ever liveth.” For what purpose he now lives…“to make intercession” for us, to pray. Praying is the principal thing he is doing in these days. It is by his prayers that he is saving us. Prayer through Christ takes us before God. It is this whereby we come to understand prayer as did Jesus. If we then are to have fellowship with Jesus Christ in his present work, we must spend much time in prayer; we must give ourselves to Prayer through Christ earnest, constant, persistent, sleepless, overcoming prayer. I know of nothing that has so impressed me with a sense of the importance of praying at all seasons, being much and constantly in prayer, as the thought that that is the principal occupation at present of our Jesus. We can have part in this. We can intercede for our brothers and sisters. We can come boldly, confidently, outspokenly approaching the throne of grace, the most holy place of God’s presence, where our sympathizing High Priest, Jesus Christ, has entered in our behalf. It is a transforming experience in the Holy of Holies. Infinite grace is at our disposal, and we make it ours experimentally by prayer. If we only realized the fullness of God’s grace that is ours for the asking, its height and depth and length and breadth, I am sure that we would spend more time in prayer. The measure of our appropriation of grace is determined by the measure of our prayers. In His presence is the fullness of joy. It is the bowing of the innermost spirit in deep humility and reverence before Him. Often in prayer it is prudent to let God begin the conversation rather than discharging our own thoughts. After all He abides with us more than we do with Him. Hearing Him ignites our heart with truth, wisdom, direction, focus, and passion in our prayer experiences. Worship-based prayer seeks the face of God before the hand of God. God’s face is the essence of who He is. God’s hand is the blessing of what He does. God’s face represents His person and presence. God’s hand expresses His provision for needs in our lives. If all we do is seek God’s hand, we may miss His face; but when we seek His face, He will be glad to open His hand and satisfy the deepest desires of our hearts according to His will. Let us not be content to simply pray from our own intellectual framework of understanding.   O ne that delights in biblical truth about God’s character, seeks the empowerment of the Spirit for application and articulation being surrendered to God’s word in intimate pursuit of His will. Prayer is not just about making requests of God. But what do we in our deep heart conceive God to be like. What comes to the mind as we think about God. We leave far behind our needs and wants, even our transformation. Here we give to God the various difficulties and trials that we face, asking Him to use them redemptively. We also voluntarily take into ourselves the griefs and sorrows of others. In this last day we are to pray in suffering and be changed. The language of ​“they” and ​“them” is converted into ​“we” and ​“us.” Together we stand at the cross. stand at the cross Faith tells us that we are about to be baptized into the sacrament of suffering. And as did Jesus in entreaty offer up prayers and supplication, with loud cries and tears, so will we. Our triumph in Christ goes through suffering, not around it. We pray for holy obedience. In the reality of prayer is God giving us both the grace to repent and to forgive. Earnest prayer proves our faith. Prayer isn't a place for us to be good or right, and it isn't a place for us to perform or prove our worth. It's a place for us to be honest, to be present, and to be known. We need not posture before God. God does not partially love us, He fully loves us. God made us to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this life, and to spend all eternity with Him in heaven. Is this the purpose and the substance of our life? And so, prayer is a time and a place for us to offer ourselves to God and to receive of God in turn. Communion with each of the divine persons is the entry of God’s creatures into the perfect unity of the eternally existing Triune. The ultimate end of the whole divine economy. This truth is infinite in scope and the human mind can only process that which is finite and limited in scope, and even then it often struggles. We don’t pray to three Gods. We pray to One God in whom there are three persons. That’s a faith relationship. According to God’s divine self-revelation, according to scripture, God is one in essence, and three in person. Prayer is that breath that sustains our spiritual life. Prayer fills the mind with truth and gives hope to the heart. Prayer deepens our moral life by taking it from the shallowness of the sensate, to an increasing experience of the divine life. Through prayer our mind is renewed, our soul is purified, our heart is converted, and we radiate the perfect unity of the family of heaven. In short, God informs us in prayer, the Spirit reforms us in prayer, Jesus transforms us as we become conformed to the image and likeness of the Us in God. This is the attractiveness of the light of truth. A light that leads us into the Divine Mystery. Prayer helps our minds to understand what our spirit knows. Prayer is a dialogue like no other. It heals and soothes, convicts and forgives, unbinds and sets free. It brings light to our understanding and illumination to our soul. It can do all this and more because this dialogue is conversation with God.  O utside of time and space Jesus is waiting for us to converse with him. He so wants to attract us to the truth of who his Father is and to reveal to us the truth of who we are in Him. He desires to engage us, to captivate us, and gently to unfold the petals of our heart with tenderness and unfold the petals of our heart care. He wants to pierce our darkness with the light of his love. He desires to transform us.   This is what true prayer is all about. Imbuing all that we do, indeed all that we are, with the life of God Himself.  Prayer takes the traumatic — such as seeing the reality of our condition — and makes it life changing. It takes our pain and our sorrow — such as broken relationships and unhappy decisions — and gives them eternal value. It takes our suffering — such as rejection, betrayal, and misunderstanding — and fills it with joy. In the end, prayer takes us — weak as we are — and makes us instruments of light and truth by transforming us into the object of our desire — Christ Himself. And we are sent forth to share the way, the truth, and life with others. we are instruments of light Mysteries remain, but in spite of them, let us persist in prayer and then rest in the sovereignty of God as we ask how came we to be so like our Jesus…our prayer life explains the mystery.

God is reproducing Himself God's purpose is something far bigger and far more important than we can totally comprehend. He is reproducing Himself. In broad generalities this purpose is shown in the opening chapters of Genesis. Right from the beginning, God wants to make sure that we understand where He is headed with His Word so that we can begin to process the information that comes along as we are guided into changing behavior and ingraining new spiritual objectives that the powerful truths of His purpose present. Spiritual objectives such as increased compassion, the certainty of faith, and sacrificial worship. The first most important clue…we are created in His image. Embedded in this image is the accommodating power of choice. This empowers us to heed God’s instructions in the very beginning, to choose life consciously, to avoid sin and death with the utmost of energy. Here is the intent of this purpose: that we be transformed from glory to glory - from the glory of man to the glory of God.   What truth can give us the confidence that we know and are fulfilling God’s purpose for our life? After all we are in a chaotic and unsettling time. It is sometimes hard to understand what God’s purposes may be and especially how God’s purposes are being worked out in our lives. This may not be yet revealed to us but this we do know…that God is indeed working out His plans in our lives. He uses His sovereign authority to determine the revelations His purposes contain and the sequence in which they are given and brought forth.  May we hear this suggestion: we can’t work it up on our own through human intellect and positive thinking. Rather, it is produced by the Holy Spirit, who works primarily, though not exclusively, through the holy scripture, which He uses to enlighten our minds and kindle faith in our hearts.    It’s as though God presents us through reasoning His character, purpose, and plan. We must intricately approach our need for guidance in the present time, which seem so urgent, in the context of God’s larger purpose. We must situate ourselves in a spiritual framework, whereby we can more readily discern and embrace God’s purposes in the unique circumstances of our lives, keeping uppermost in our minds that the God of the bible is our God of purpose. Specific purposes. And His purposes extend from eternity past to eternity future, encompassing not only the ultimate destiny of His creation, but every aspect of our personal lives, as well.   Specific purposes Everything was set determinately clear, fixed, and exact in counsel from the beginning. Then the employment of immense power and wisdom gave notice of the purposes by staging in the beginning, defined limits, periods of time, orders of precedence, essential events, settled consequences, certainty of truth. Before ever anything was brought forth, the Triune, in accord declared, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose’. With that, the forever faithful has assurance and comfort of knowing that God is more than simply a purposeful, all-powerful Creator; God is good! God is going to reveal Himself in deeper ways by demonstrating more of His sovereign purposes and power by calling those who accept the gift of His Son to be as saviors of the world. God…has purposes and performs particular actions,…does one thing and not another, is a choosing, commanding, prohibiting God with a determinate character. Have you ever consciously wondered why God ceased a previous system, an array of disparate parts, an earth without form, void, and dark and fashioned them into a form appropriate for His next step? Supreme order and direction in what He will reveal originates in and from Him. Though normally invisible to humanity, He is clearly in control, initiating what will happen and also continuing to completion what He began. God readies His purpose for man that was determined. The orderly progression of time began, and activity continues as God arranges the environment in which purposed intentional events will take place in both a natural and spiritual progression. First, there must be light. From this point on, everything coming into view is made new. The “let there be” is purposefully instructive. His purpose is that we become as fully manifested in His image as He was when He made that pronouncement and remains to this day. The Father and Son are eternal spirit Beings of awesome intellect, character, power, and purpose. Being in the image of God does not mean becoming God. We were to choose to not know evil. And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever. But what had the first pair reasoned to be the full effect of what was said. God implies that from the beginning, He intended that mankind live forever! He means “forever”, even as He and the Son live forever. From the beginning in counsel, God providenced the “in the beginning”. It was His ultimate purpose that, when His creative efforts are complete, those whom He created would live forever in His image. And God made sure that the first pair was not ignorant of the truth. Let’s offer a conceptualization of this performance; divine love shall be brought to its most glorious perfection in every faithfilled individual ransomed by Christ. Then, in every heart, that love which now seems but a spark, shall be kindled to a bright and glowing flame, and every ransomed soul shall be as it were in a blaze of divine and holy love, and shall remain and grow in this glorious perfection and blessedness throughout all eternity.   In spite of sin, God’s purposes continue to move toward fulfillment through His elect, then finally and supremely through Jesus, God’s own Son. We are commissioned to go into the world and teach the word of truth to people where they are. If called by God, they will be born again. This begins the process of transformation designed to conform them to the likeness of Jesus, displaying His grace and glory in this present time to make them fit to live in His presence. These will come to know that they are God’s works of art, created in Christ to do good works, which God has prepared in advance for them to do. These will manifest the change of heart and character that comes from the new birth - the process of becoming holy in daily life through grateful, spirit-empowered obedience.   Being “holy” is the unfolding of a metamorphosis as we follow the teaching and example of Jesus, drawn forward by a grateful love. It is guided by holy scripture, empowered by the Holy Spirit, and manifested in the fruit of the Spirit, as we contend against the world, the flesh, and the enemy of God. The position of being set apart as God’s child, which is conferred upon us through new birth, justification and adoption into God’s family, and the process of change, sanctification, makes that position a progressively experienced reality. The goal of this process is to “be conformed to the image of His Son”, and it happens as we “present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is our spiritual worship” and seek to “be transformed by the renewal of our mind”.  T his involves every area of personal and moral and spiritual life, whether one is educated or illiterate. We were known, consecrated, and appointed before formed in the womb. And now God has purposed to reveal His Son in us. God’s calling us is predicated upon this: that we embrace His grace and love through faith in Jesus His Son Christ and that we respond to His grace with wholehearted surrender and the pursuit of Christlikeness. God calls us by a direct word or in rare cases, a word through others, or through an unusual circumstance. But normally, He works through a process using His written word, by which any other guidance must be judged. This process, which we usually find too slow, is purposeful, for it serves to draw us closer to Him in prayer, to keep us dependent on His word and Spirit, to help us surrender to His will, and to teach us about Himself and His ways and to so grow our faith as to have complete dependence upon Him. In a word, it is for our maturing.    process of growing in Christ is slow Think of the choices that we make each moment. How they forge the context in which God’s purposes are worked out; more important, they shape our lives and contribute to our transformation. It is an inescapable law of life that we make our choices, then our choices make us. Choices are transformative - for good or ill. This is why God calls us to reason. Every time we make a choice we turn the central part of ourselves, the part of us that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before the choice was made. It is so very important to reason with God for wisdom and guidance that unfold truth that establishes faith. We gain much insight and wisdom from the relevant biblical precepts and promises of God. Humility of heart and reverence for God are essential in God’s guiding us. He counsels us with His eye on us, indicating a more personal level of guidance. So, this is not a automated process of studying the bible as a book of rules, regulations, policies, and procedures, then coming up with the right answer. Rather, God is personally guiding and directing us through the Holy Spirit opening our understanding to the meaning and application of His word to the circumstances of our lives and the situations we face based upon His purpose for us. Choose not to be spiritually dull and rebellious to His guidance but rather docile and surrendered. We are to have wholehearted surrender and active faith in our commitment and trust to do His will whether we like it or not. We must resist the tendency to rely on our own understanding and instead seek God’s wisdom. We are to subordinate our understanding to God and His wisdom and never default to “what feels right”. Trusting God means waiting in the posture of faith. God sometimes uses delays to work deeply in our lives, testing our motives, deepening our faith, developing our patience, and aligning the circumstances required for His answer. Only then will we be in a position for Him to direct our paths.  T here is also a place to “listen to wise counsel and accept good instruction” from spiritually mature believers, parents or friends, who are known to be wise, godly, and well grounded in scripture, who have your back and want the right for you. All of this must be done with serious prayer and sometimes fasting and sometimes journaling your discourse with God. Have the confident assurance that in everything God has a purpose.     There is a caveat to the purposes of God that is so confounding. It is truly a mystery. Let’s reason here with God…we are always living in God’s purpose. God is God and He works all things, including our life, according to His purposes. Nothing can happen without God ordaining it. He has numbered our days and will fulfill every purpose He has for us. He has numbered our days However, our choices also really matter. In some ways, this is a mystery not fully understood, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true. God’s purpose already determined, yet my choice matters…? We are created so uniquely that the pursuit of God is not optional. It is not an “extra” that a person might grow into after he comes to faith. God knows this and from a relationship, not choosing God renders you purposeless. See, God wants to give us purpose. He wants to bestow divine wisdom on us. He gave us faith that we would expect Him to give us purpose to begin to understand the heart of God.    God's mind is absolutely undivided. This means that His sovereignty can never be separated from His love; His grace cannot be separated from His omniscience; His judgment cannot be separated from either His mercy or His wrath. God is absolutely and constantly purposing change that was determined in His counsel because His faithful providence cannot be separated from any other of His attributes. God is whole and complete. Under every circumstance, He is never confused or uncertain about what to do. He is always headed in the right direction, which is to complete His purpose. It is absolutely impossible for Him to do anything that is not wise and at the same time loving. It is He who tells us how to live and how to be like Him. What God is has awesome ramifications for us because we are so different, and He wants us to be like Him, to be one with Him, to be whole, to be complete, to be undivided in mind with Him. Becoming this way requires a measure of cooperation from us. And God gives every person that measure. Note this spectacular performance. God is always working two things at once: He is performing His overall purposes for His creation, and simultaneously working His specific purposes for us as individuals and for His people. Out of this comes a principle. God is Jehovah-jireh, Jehovahnissi, Jehovah-shalom. He is Jehovah God, the Eternal who sees, the Eternal who provides.    Many have not yet heard the call. But God is certainly manipulating events to His own ends in their world as well as ours. God determines their preappointed times as well as where they will come to where we are to hear of Him. This means that He has predestined when they will rise to understanding and when they will fade from self. God has overseen the path of every person, the coming and going of every kingdom, the ploys of devils, and the gathering of His Israel nation over millennia, and has kept all of them moving toward the successful conclusion of His purpose! What kind of God is this we serve? How awesome His mind, purpose, wisdom, and love! Man does not merely owe his life to God's creative acts, but his movements across time are to the very extent ordered by our Sovereign God. Almighty God works in this manner to the end that all might seek and find Him. God's purpose is all that counts! In addition, since He is God, He can bring it to pass. God has the right, the will, and the loving nature to do anything He pleases to anybody at any time - and good will result. God’s sovereignty and involvement with the details of events persist from beginning to end; everything happens when, where, and how God planned. Our acceptance shows our faith in God. Through it all we trusts Him, not fully understanding every detail sometimes until after it is over. But God works throughout moments, days, years and in all the details toward a purpose and a time He has determined in advance.   The need for a relationship with our Creator is beginning to emerge. A spiritual creation, a creation process begun in Eden continues. Not as an expression of newness in the sense of “makeover.” The sense of being completely and newly formed. God’s hand forming every part how He wants it and determining how every part would function with every other system in His creation. A purposed person as a new individual with a new family, a new set of values, new motivations, and new possessions. Nothing new in this sense creates itself. But in Christ we have an idea what it is we are in the process of becoming. Are we making ourselves spiritually? We are no more making ourselves spiritually than we did physically. However, this creation is far more difficult and important because it requires our mindful and willing cooperation   with our Creator. God’s determination is of such a high purpose that He clearly and precisely allows us to foresee where our spiritual Creator is headed. To say it bluntly, without God's calling to His election, found in His purpose which creates the relationship with Him, there is no possibility whatever of knowing anything meaningful about what God is in the process of creating, and therefore no eternal, spiritual salvation would exist. God is purposing us for everlasting life. Therefore, it is our responsibility always to do whatever is necessary to seek Him and glorify Him, helping to keep the relationship going and knowledge increasing. Without the relationship that He invited us into, there is no possibility of ever accomplishing the end that He is heading toward and yielding to what He desires. It is as though He has removed the cherubims from the eastward entry of Jesus to allow us back into the Garden of Eden, right into the very source of every good and perfect gift that will enable us to glorify Him by fulfilling our responsibilities to Him. It is as if He says, as He opens the gate, “now there, let's begin the next step in My overall purpose!”   We are to take certain factors into consideration, because they affect our lives. And God does have an overall purpose. How near is Jesus’ return?  Might there be occasions when God deeply tests our faith because other people's situations whose lives touch on ours must be resolved first? We may be called to suffer mightily in the process, not really understanding what is happening. We appeal to God, but we hear no answer because other things were being worked out through, around, for and about someone in our sphere, of which we are totally unaware. We are not privy to every purpose God has for another. The individual may not know until the episode is resolved. We may have to endure much emotional anguish while the whole situation plays out. For a while, God was a God from afar. But faith tells us that God was near because He strengthened us. We limit not God. He can work from afar for our good while always being nearby. As we think on God and His intent, remembering His purpose, we no longer think and act from an earthly point of view. Our minds open the possibility of an "above the sun" perspective of life that can teach us that God is to be considered in all things. By being a means of helping Him to form us into what He desires, our internal disgust with self can motivate cooperation with God and produce growth to maturity. God's calling, His reasoning with us, and the revelation of Himself and His purpose are favors beyond calculation. We have only one opportunity for salvation. Tremendous gain rests in what the called children of God are experiencing. We must choose to direct our lives to follow an "above the sun" perspective so that our lives are not meaningless. The choice lies between searching out earthly imaginings or submitting to what God has revealed. Understanding God’s purposes reveals much about our consideration for Christ. God's concern is for events in life involving moral, spiritual, and ethical choices. Whether one chooses a red or blue car makes no difference morally, but red car or blue car? whether we buy a car when other family needs are more pressing is another situation altogether. This choice may shape character and therefore purpose. Too many today are stiff-necked, opinionated, and self-willed. Sometimes this occurs because of ignorance or cultural influences. Far too often however, the cause of our poor moral and ethical choices is pride and self-righteousness. So much so, to the point that some will actually choose the lake of fire! Others, though their inferior works burn because of their poor choices, God will mercifully spare them.  In this we come to know that prayer's major purpose is to give us an additional, effective way to draw near to and harmonize with the Spirit. We must have access to God…to His nature to live right, to live according to His purpose. So what is meant as God says He changes not. He has never altered His purpose from the beginning. Because God has a purpose that He has been working out from the very beginning, He looked beyond what people do to destroy and remove themselves from His purpose. God, in a sense, overlooks what people do all the way to the last day, to the conclusion of His purpose for them. He did not carelessly call us. We may want to consider more deeply how valuable our conduct and attitude are to the entirety of the purpose of God. No challenge in our life is without divine purpose and approval. God's providence is in control in every aspect of our lives. We understand, if we are His election, that God assigns a place in the outworking of His purpose to everyone He calls. We must respond to God's grace, to His calling, to His gift of Christ, to His gift of the Holy Spirit, to His gift of revealing to us knowledge and understanding of what is happening. We must respond - that is, love God in return. We must be one of "the called according to His purpose," one of the elect.    God is reproducing Himself. He will not limit His options to avoid offending a humanity that lacks His Spirit and is therefore wholly incapable of sharing His perspective. He will bring His purpose about. His purpose and plan, is a mystery, a secret that is impossible to penetrate except by reasoning with God Himself. Man would never find out what God intends, except that God gives it to us by revelation. We have in no way earned this revelation. We have it because it pleased God to give it to us. He withholds it from others, but He has given it to us. He is in no way beholden to us, as if He owed us something. We could dig in His Word over our entire lifetimes and never come to what He freely gives to us for His purposes, for His own reasons. Had we not responded to and accepted His command to come we would never have caught the vision of His purpose. If you are called as His election in His purpose you are as the one man among the many at the Pool of Bethesda. Why was this one purposed? It was God’s will. Clearly, He treats and responds to individuals according to the counsel of His own mind, and He answers to no one. He does this even in the lives of His children. What right do we have to murmur about the discomforts He creates for us to endure and grow within? He could rescue everybody in every uncomfortable circumstance, but He does not. Have we fully accepted that He may choose difficult things for us? Pay attention intensely to what God is doing in our lives! What we see going on in the world during our time has not been brought to pass by men but by the invisible God. This unseen unseen hand hand is manipulating events so that the person of faith can understand that history is not an endless cycle of repetition; it is getting ready to end. God is drawing things to a conclusion. When we come to understand the design of His purpose we will come to the wisdom to understand the overall subject is the return of Jesus Christ. Then will be revealed to us the whole panorama of God’s purpose. God has the whole process planned out, and He is so confident of His ability to accomplish it that He perceives it as already done!   He knows the end from the beginning…

the Direst Time In God’s mysterious plan each of us has a precise role to perform. Contribution to the fulfillment of God’s providential will, will be those whom God prepares to serve Him. God has a purpose in all that He does. And He calls forth in us full trust, a total abandonment to His divine plan. Nothing happens by chance in the history of salvation. Know that if you be God’s, you will not be relegated to the background in these final few days of time. Much self giving will be required of us. This is as an invitation to our humility in the last moment of time. We are to persist in studying the word of God knowing that scripture does not yield up all its riches, while having aspects that escape our understanding, and we must progress patiently without forcing the text into a ready-made framework. We must be cautious with hazardous assumptions. But let us welcome God’s mysteries as we are called to continually reason to understand His revelations. Let the Holy Spirit introduce us into the purposes of God through scripture. Full clarity will be given us when we faithfully walk in the truths offered to us. Truly scripture will serve to return us to our Creator Christ who unlocks the wisdom of the purposes of God for us, in the shadows of his return. He is the incarnate word. The wisdom and the truth that comes down to the night that is engulfing the world. We are coming to know him as he is one like us that we may know ourselves. Christ is the culmination of God’s purpose. We must contemplate his ways ceaselessly in the direst time. Brothers, sisters, what a mystery of this crazy love…God making Himself near, coming out from His inaccessibility to make Himself visible, tangible, knowable in Jesus. This uncreated light enters into the darkness. Such is the good news, the heart of our faith. He has shared our human condition and given himself that we may follow him in this final determination of time.           Extremely serious, calamitous, violent, ruinous, and dreadful are but the sane words of description for the time that is so very soon to come upon the world, and have a most distressing effect on God’s people. The world will come to know a clear link between disobedience and devastation.   They will attempt to offer human explanation for what takes place to deceive the masses while God’s people will proclaim a divine causation. We must get ready for the invasion that's coming from sin. We must do some sackclothing and some serious weeping.   Satan really isn’t that creative.  Demonic forces exercising their power over susceptible human beings will cause these to oppose truths. Had they reasoned with God’s word and His people they would be under the safeguard of Christ. Defiant rejection of God's Spirit will result in the complete removal of His restraining power. The world is in unrest. The surety of war is enraging the people of all nations. And when the story reaches its worst, it will only get more worse from there. There will be a darkness that can be felt. God is going to get everyone’s attention. This will be God’s forsakenness. This is a mystery beyond our human ability to understand. The earth will be turned upside down.   earth will be turned upside down Truth will reside only with those who source the bible as their only truth. The human mind has become so seared that it cannot contend with the pace of technological change. Mass manipulative narratives will cause broad swathes of people to simply give up on being informed. People are too polarized for any and every reason conceivable. We are in the country that promotes divergent points of view based on political and social subcultures; that champion false information. Belief systems – not ‘truths’ – help to cement identities, forge relationships, explain the unexplainable. Hatred has obliterated common knowledge. Sudden judgment is coming upon the earth, and it will change everything in a single hour. Within that short span, the whole world will witness fast-falling destruction upon cities and the world will never be the same. There will be no cure for the judgments of God. Utter chaos will erupt. All civic activities will stop, and society will descend into massive disorder. Government agencies will be helpless to restore any kind of sanity. No state troopers, no national guard, no army will be able to bring order to the upheaval. With certainty, this time will see calamity clearly beyond humankind’s capacity to respond. The economy will be devastated. In the midst of the terrible time, God’s people will message a truth and its sound will grow steadily stronger. The truth will be heard from the uttermost parts of the earth. East, west, north, and south — from Arab lands to China, Indonesia, Africa and all parts of the earth. Hypocritical veils are going to fall away. But God has a people not appointed to wrath. We are not to tremble or sorrow as the world does. Instead, we are to comfort one another in faith, knowing that God rules over every aspect of our lives. God has forewarned mankind of a great and terrible chastisement. Think not that these things are far-fetched and severe, but rather in face of so much impiety; blasphemy; desecration; corruption and immorality pervasive in our time; it wouldn’t be superfluous to surmise that the world indeed deserves such grave punishments. Thus, while the world faces a fearsome and terrible destruction in light of mankind’s insolence and impiety, God assures us that He will not abandon those who are faithful to Him. But let us understand this time. Central to our vision must be God on the mercy seat where His mercy met our sin and God judged it blotted out there. The mercy seat concentration of force against us will come with such cruelty and treachery that men will hate God and consequently those who remain faithful to Him, until even the atheist will acknowledge God’s existence, but question His sovereignty. There is going to be this seemingly suspension of order, as if God steps out of His creation and a cloak of darkness appears. Nothing in creation could have produced the darkness of these dimensions that will spiritually reflect the total abandonment of the spirit of God from man. Prepare my friends, for a silent sudden somber as we witness the last breath of many as God draws the curtain across His Holy of Holies so no outsider could see or hear within our cries. We will know of the desolate isolation and loneliness of persecution. This kind of loneliness – knowing our responsibility for what God is calling us to do no matter what, is an absolute truth of our faith. None of us will think to escape it. There is a unique burden that comes from knowing that God purposed this - that there is something that has been given by God for us to do, and that to renege would be akin to Jonah hiding out in the bottom of the boat trying to pretend that Jonah hiding from God he had not received a call from God. We can do what God purposes, but it may not leave us with much life. We are at the point where we can no longer distract ourselves from the disquiet sorrow that fills our inner being as we seek God in the here and now. Because this is the moment when we know to the fullness of our being that the nearness of God is for our ultimate good and we are not willing to sacrifice that for anything. The goodness of the Lord - which fills all emptiness - is with us. We will have faith to meet ourselves and to meet the infinite love and riches of God dwelling inside our beings. This transforms all loneliness. The sorrowfulness of the time will be extreme anguish of spirit. We will not seek community with others. This, that we be drawn intimately with God first and then wait to see how God meets us and who God brings us to, or to us. Prepare ourselves…the spiritual suffering we are asked to endure is to be so intense and terrible that God will hide it from the eyes of sinful people. Our cries will declare the unfathomable woe as such suffering is humanly inconceivable. But my God! Never before in our lives have we been more pleasing to the Father than at this hour of obedience to come to this climax and for Christ’s sake suffer grief, sorrow, and pain. This nation specifically intends to provoke collective fear and uncertainty among all peoples. This fear is today spreading rapidly and is not limited to those experiencing the events of today directly. Soon many more will be affected as God’s people are exposed through broadcast images showing the attempts of psychological suffering broadcast news before they revert to physical injury that leads to death. These events will produce individual responses. Some, few, will come to Christ. Societal functioning will be completely disrupted. Erosion of the sense of humanity will void all cohesions. The racial or ethnic, economic, and religious cracks that exist in our society, as evidenced by an increase in hate crimes, will so broaden the aftermath until adolescent persons will manifest traumatic violence against relatives, friends, schoolmates, rescue workers, witnesses who stand for godliness. Prepare yourselves; neither gender, age, experience, or personality will ward off the worse events to happen to God’s people until the retributive plagues of God befall the wicked. There will be no hoaxes and copycat events, actual terror will reveal the preparedness of God’s people to so identify with Christ that this purposeful act of God will bring conviction to the people who questions the severe tactics put upon a people of prayer. These will note the apparent shift in intensity from conflict to unprecedented concern for life or death toward targeted people. The wicked will all be devoid of any ethical compass. It is this critical moment in time that God knew our faith. We show to be no contradiction to His law, His love. This is the faith that sees eternity made real.    We are in an astounding time. God’s people must be strengthened by greater faith in the word of God. Our salvation cannot lie in addressing and alleviating the grievances being exposed by hatred. Consider the Israel-Hamas situation…is there a right side? The american people are being governmentally directed by a constant trickle of angry, bloody-minded individuals and groups, often in the grips of crazy ideological constructs, eager to kill and destroy for some ideal or cause. This will soon turn to what binds this country – worship and hate. Today, we are witnessing the unravelling of humanity. God’s people are about to face a very real and serious dilemma. Civil liberties in the sense we have known them, are inconceivable in this country. Government has the power to undertake secret investigations of individuals and groups that give off warning signs; bible studies, talk of Christ in the workplace, personal witnessing in public areas, sabbath keeping. Government thinks to have the power to collect information about what individuals are doing on the basis of mere suspicions or indicators that correlate with a disposition to differ from the norm. National and global instability are transparent. Sin is no small act. It is not a little thing. It was magnified greatly at the cross. God is done with sin. What Jesus went through, we could never go through. Salvation is not universal. Yes, God so loved the world but that does not automatically save anyone. If you have not the faith of Jesus in what Jesus did by faith, then you don’t believe. We have the end of the story. We know the difficulties we are to face in this lifetime. There is a deep mystery to suffering. While the bible makes it plain that we must expect to encounter times of sorrow and loss, of trial and grief, we often don’t know the full extent of this time to come. We do know however, that God is weaving together a marvelous God is weaving together a marvelous tapestry tapestry that will wondrously display His glory, we also know it is a time we will fully appreciate only when faith becomes sight and substance. Please understand this brothers and sisters, why would God choose this for us, and why would God choose us for this? Because we have friends who are alive and who have died, that we come to know through the book and through the studies that counsel and console us. This was purposed by God in His calling for those to endure loss, suffering or sorrow, not because there is any particular good in them, but because the Lord needs their witness to answer the question of faith. What is this question? Lovest thou me? In every age, we hear of professed believers who abandon the faith as soon as they are called to suffer. They are glad enough to express confidence in God as long as His will seems perfectly aligned with their own, as long as His providence decrees what they would choose anyway. But when they are called to lose instead of gain, to weep instead of laugh, to face poverty instead of prosperity, they quickly turn aside and fall away. Even we, as sincere believers wonder whether our faith is sufficient for times of deep sorrow, whether it could withstand a dreadful provocation. But here is our faith…being   confident that God has important purposes for our suffering, and we can be equally confident that one of these purposes is simply for us to stand strong by faith. From the valley of the shadow of death we affirm faith in the comfort of God, for we know that His faithfulness is great. God does not have to account to us for His providence. Our faith rests not in His explanation but in His character, not in what He has done but in who He is. He has been true to His every promise. In this time we love Him more now than ever.    as evil escalades As evil escalades, those of us who are in Christ will cling to the truth. And God will not rescind the Holy Spirit. Throughout the entire history of the world, we can identify times of cruelty and periods when the most horrific deeds are perpetrated by evil men against the people of God, but the period that precedes the last plagues will be so intense that half of the world’s peoples will die by the sword, famine, pestilence, or demonic entities, except that number that was heard to be sealed. This time that God puts us through are trials such as no others go through. There will be such a spiritual dryness that we must learn to recognise. We must also accept that when we endure such dryness of soul that it is for a reason. The reason is to save souls through such suffering.   Very few of us respond to suffering with resolved faith and hope. Pain and frustration are coiled together like thorn bushes, pricking us, drawing out blood. And with the sting fresh and the blood meeting the open air, we ask, “God, are you really   in control? Are you really   letting this happen right now? This is precisely when Christ, through the Holy Spirit, is closest to us.  He draws near to our experience. He says, “I know…I know…I know.” It’s not a knowing that comes from some detached knowledge of human pain. It’s an intimate, personal knowledge. It’s a with-us knowledge.   It’s the knowledge that will bring others to him as they hear, “why are you persecuting me?”   That’s how close he is to his people. He identifies himself with us. He suffers with   us, even though he’s already suffered for   us.   T here is the external persecution we will suffer because of our work. Then there is the physical suffering, offered freely to us, as a gift, to be a witness to save the souls of many. Then the worst suffering of all is the spiritual emptiness where we cannot feel the love of Jesus, as we experience the trial he endured when he cried “my God, my God”. We will know what it feels like to be despised and rejected, to be someone acquainted with grief, to be a person of sorrow. We will think no amount of praying releases us from the prison of desolation. This will be the trial of our faith! Try as we will to feel love and compassion for others, we will struggle. This is the appearance of spiritual abandonment where we seem to be so far away that we can no longer reach out to Jesus. What we do not know is this: this suffering is a gift, a grace from God. It raises us up in His eyes and the trials and sufferings we endure are purposed and allowed by God because of our generous and pure love to save blackened souls.  Keep in mind that our trials can be separated by not just days or weeks or months. It may seem unfair but the closer we come to Jesus, the more we will suffer persecution, because of the sins of mankind. This is our knowing the fellowship of his suffering and becoming like Christ. Only those with pure humble hearts, with no personal regard for themselves, when we place God before all that is of this earth, can endure what God purposes for our good. Such souls are chosen divinely by God and will work with Him, through the gift of suffering, to help Jesus in God’s plan of salvation.  Our faith must be such where n ever fear enters our thoughts. We may not feel God’s presence in the darkest of trial, see Him or understand the deep love for us as we would do in normal times, but He is with us. Always trust in Him, even when we find it hard to pray in the depth of sorrow or pain. Trust in God when we have a longing for Him, which cannot be satisfied or quenched, no matter how hard the trial. Know when this happens that He is much closer than we realize. Know that it is at these times that He elevates us to become a true friend. Never feel disillusioned. The day will come when the suffering will be forgotten. In its place will be a joy which will surge through the creation and which will only be possible because of our sacrifices, for all of God’s children who need our help in the last time.  In this world, in this direst of time, suffering will be inescapable. Suffering is much broader than physical pain. Yet, we must not allow suffering to become a threat to our spirituality. Suffering will focus our attention on the moral evil of the time, while our spirituality will thrive upon truth and goodness. We are not to lose sight of the purpose of God, for that is to lose sight of the truth, and to open ourselves to the lies of suffering; that is, that evil is all-encompassing, that our life lacks meaning, that there is no benevolent God. Our faith defeats this lie, that others may view God’s goodness in strengthening us to endure, to overcome. When we defeat the lie, the killing begins. The enemy will seek to put us to death. And so we say, “whatever God allows”, and if this be the means of God saving others…then our suffering becomes a means of grace.  Spiritual growth is a path we walk, not a moment we arrive at.  We know this path spiritual growth to be an extended experiment, offered to each one of us, with its twists and turns, dips and descents. Our entire life is a holy experiment as God’s hand shapes us into the image of His Son.  A holy, Son-shaping experiment, that’s what’s happening. Right now. As we trod the path of our day, our spirit is being tended and pressed in the ordinary moments. As we walk, we’re molded. We’re shaped. We are being purposed.   And suffering plays a major role in this divine experiment. We are coming to realize that our spiritual growth’s attainment is due, without question to God’s holy calling. It is our response to that calling that claims us as His election. It is our faith first to reason, secondarily to come to the revelation of his truth that, lastly positions us to enter upon to enter upon the suffering for God's sake as did His Son. This willingness to suffer for the purposes of God draws out true thoughts, attitude and desires of the heart, to not show what we want to be, but who we are. Suffering is the mirror that reflects our soul. That doesn’t mean we’re excited about suffering, but it does mean that if we can see what’s happening by faith, we can benefit God from it in ways we otherwise couldn’t. All of this resonates with our experience as being His election. And so, our eyes turn to others who might need the wisdom and encouragement we can offer. This is one of the ways in which God shapes us into givers after His own heart. He lifts our face and turns our eyes to others. As Christ encouraged us, we encourage others. We testify to the hands of the potter, even as we’re still wet from the water of suffering, even if we are meeting death. hands of the Potter We show others just how God can take something wretched and make something beautiful, how the muck and mire of pain can be shaped into a vessel that carries God’s beauty and redemption to someone else. We become cups of grace and hope, and the offering in the hand of God to those who thirst. We know the potency of the gospel message: even the worst things of the world can't ultimately destroy us. Our faith know who God is, and who we are in Him. When it's all said and done, the Holy Spirit within us holds us up.

Human Cruelty Now let’s look at the providential reality of Revelation 22:11. The scattering of God’s covenant people into lands where they would be despised, enslaved, and regarded as less than human is one of the deepest mysteries of divine providence. It is not explained simply by human malice, though human cruelty has filled its pages with horror. Rather, it is explained by the sovereign hand of God, who in judgment, discipline, and hidden mercy allowed His people to be sown into foreign soil so that His ultimate purposes could ripen in the last days. When Israel rejected the covenant through disobedience, God’s word in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 foretold their dispersion among the nations. The curse was not random but measured, for He determined not only the scattering but also the land of their exile. In the transatlantic passage and the bitter history that followed, God’s people found themselves in the very heart of a civilization that would exalt freedom in word only yet deny it the darkest soil in practice to them. In this contradiction—where men who claimed to be Christian could reduce others to chattel—the testimony of heaven was preserved. For only in the darkest soil can the seed of God’s truth shine so sharply. By being made “less than human” in the eyes of men, His people bore witness to the dignity heaven placed upon them, a dignity no chain or law could erase. This mystery of placement was not accidental but prophetic. Just as Egypt revealed both oppression and deliverance, so the land of hatred became both the crucible of suffering and the stage for God’s vindication. The very hatred poured out upon them became a furnace of refinement, stripping away false glory and worldly identity until what remained was the incorruptible testimony of divine election. Their suffering was not purposeless—it was a mirror of Christ, who was “despised and rejected of men,” yet in His rejection bore the world’s redemption. This brings us to the solemn word of Revelation 22:11. In this final decree, final decree God announces that humanity’s moral direction will reach its completion without reversal. The unjust and filthy will be sealed in their rebellion; the righteous and holy will be sealed in their consecration. The scattering of God’s people into lands of hatred prefigures this division. For in their degradation, the nations revealed what was already within their hearts—a hatred that could not see the image of God in their fellow man. In the same way, the last generation will reveal its true character when confronted with the witness of God’s sealed remnant. Thus the hatred against God’s people was not only a judgment upon them but also a revelation of the nations. By placing His people where they would be most despised, God exposed the depths of human corruption and prepared a stage upon which righteousness would stand in sharp contrast to iniquity. The suffering of the scattered was therefore prophetic, pointing to that hour when humanity would be polarized forever. In their abasement, the pride of the nations was unmasked; in their endurance, the righteousness of God was preserved. When Revelation 22:11 is fulfilled, it will be seen that God’s purpose in the scattering was to bring all things to a head. The nations that hated will be revealed as unjust and filthy still; the remnant that endured will be revealed as righteous and holy still. Nothing will remain hidden, for God’s design in history has always been to bring truth to its final unveiling. Therefore, the mystery of being despised as “less than human” is not the negation of God’s covenant but its confirmation. For in the land of hatred, His people bore the weight of prophetic identity until the hour when God Himself would declare the irreversible verdict. Their journey from chains to consecration embodies the very movement of history itself—from scattering to sealing, from judgment to glory. the cornerstone The story of God’s scattered people does not end with oppression. What begins as abasement culminates in exaltation, for God allows the cruelty of men only to magnify the glory of His redemption. The land of hatred, where His people were treated as less than human, becomes the very soil out of which His final testimony grows. This is the divine irony: the stone which the builders rejected becomes the cornerstone, and the people whom nations scorned become the vessels of His end-time witness. The great reversal is a theme woven throughout Scripture. Joseph was sold as a slave but became ruler in Egypt. Israel groaned under Pharaoh’s taskmasters but walked out as a nation with God’s presence. Christ Himself was crucified in weakness but raised in glory to sit at the right hand of God. Each of these is a pattern pointing to the final generation. The scattering of the covenant people into lands of hatred fits this same design. For what appeared to be their destruction was, in fact, the setting of a stage upon which God would reveal the surpassing greatness of His power. Revelation 22:11 reflects this very turning point. The decree that fixes destinies forever is not arbitrary—it reveals the outcome of the long struggle of history. Those who hardened themselves in hatred, justifying injustice and refusing repentance, are sealed in their filthiness. But those who endured suffering, clung to the promises, and were refined through tears are sealed in holiness. The very contrast that was sharpened in the land of exile becomes eternally ratified by God’s word. Here the beauty of the reversal shines most brightly: the people once dehumanized will stand as the most human, for they reflect perfectly the image of Christ. They who were denied identity by men are given the very name of God in their foreheads. They who were shut out of earthly citizenship are welcomed as citizens of the New Jerusalem. They who were forced into silence by chains and oppression will sing the new song that no other company can learn. Their rejection prepared them for consecration, and their humiliation became the womb of holiness. This reversal also serves as God’s answer to the great controversy. Satan sought to erase the dignity of God’s image-bearers by reducing them to property, declaring that they were unfit for divine election. Yet God allowed this history to unfold so that, at the end, He could vindicate His covenant people as the very ones chosen to reflect His glory most perfectly. The despised ones become the final evidence that grace is stronger than hatred, that truth is stronger than lies, and that love is stronger than the chains of history. In this light, the scattering was not abandonment but positioning. God placed His people in the center of the world’s stage, where the contradiction of freedom and slavery, Christianity and cruelty, humanity and dehumanization could be seen most clearly. When the great reversal is revealed, the nations will recognize that those whom they counted as nothing were the hidden jewels of heaven, prepared for the crown of eternal life. Thus the prophetic arc bends toward vindication. The hatred of men sharpened the contrast; the decree of Revelation 22:11 seals the result. The ones who endured contempt will shine with glory; the ones who perpetuated contempt will be left in darkness. In this final unveiling, all of history’s questions will be answered, and the God who scattered will be seen as the God who gathers, who turns sorrow into song and ashes into crowns. ashes to crowns The scattering of God’s people into the land of hatred was not simply a judgmental punishment; it was a school of refinement. In chains, on plantations, under laws that denied their humanity, the scattered remnant learned to cry out to God in ways the prosperous never could. Stripped of worldly honor, they clung to the eternal. Denied dignity by man, they found it in the presence of their Maker. Suffering became their tutor, pressing upon them the reality that this world held no lasting city, but that a kingdom not built with hands awaited the faithful. This process matured them into the very righteousness and holiness described in Revelation 22:11. Holiness is not forged in ease but in fire. The endurance of unjust suffering without retaliation, the preservation of faith while surrounded by hatred, the refusal to let bitterness consume the soul— these are the marks of a people refined like gold. Their chains became the crucible in which their faith was purified, their tears the baptism that consecrated them for God’s final purpose. In this way, the despised became prepared to be sealed as righteous and holy still, embodying the mystery of godliness in its highest expression. Indigenous peoples But the same history that refined the oppressed also exposed and condemned the oppressor. America’s treatment of its Indigenous peoples and enslaved Africans became a monumental revelation of its moral failure. By stripping Native nations of their land, erasing their cultures, and treating their lives as expendable, the nation revealed its willingness to sacrifice righteousness for greed. By reducing Black people to chattel, justifying slavery with distorted scripture, and institutionalizing racial hatred even after chains were broken, the nation displayed the spirit of filthiness that Revelation declares will one day be sealed forever. This dual history cannot be separated. For while the oppressed were forced into humility and dependence upon God, the oppressor was hardened in pride, greed, and cruelty. The very systems that dehumanized others also dehumanized the perpetrators, robbing them of conscience until they could no longer discern right from wrong. By refusing to repent, by clinging to privilege at the expense of justice, multitudes sealed themselves in the very condition Revelation 22:11 describes: unjust still, filthy still. Herein lies the paradox of divine purpose: the same history that became the refining fire of the righteous also became the condemning evidence of the unjust. America’s record toward Indigenous and Black peoples stands as a prophetic witness. It shows how far humanity will go when blinded by the love of power, and how deep grace can reach when sustaining those crushed beneath that power. The contrast is eternal. In the end, the righteous and holy will shine all the brighter for having endured hatred, while the unjust and filthy will stand condemned for having inflicted it. This is the mystery of God’s judgment—that through suffering and injustice, the final division of humanity is revealed. And when the decree of Revelation 22:11 is spoken, it will confirm forever what history has already made plain: the oppressed who clung to God are righteous still, and the oppressors who refused repentance are filthy still. The scattering and the hatred were the furnace in which this eternal testimony was forged. America was a beacon of promise Let us lift the veil on the present. In the final hour of earth’s history, America stands as both a beacon of promise and a monument of hypocrisy. Its leaders drape themselves in the garments of liberty, democracy, and faith, yet beneath these robes lies a spirit steeped in wickedness. The same nation that once justified the chains of slavery and the dispossession of Indigenous peoples now justifies oppression through polished rhetoric and policies cloaked in respectability. What is presented as “security,” “progress,” or “freedom” often masks the spirit of control, greed, and deception. The tragedy is not only that such leaders exist, but that multitudes cling to their every word as though it were truth itself. This is why spiritual discernment has never been more necessary. Only those who have been refined in the school of suffering, who have learned to hear the voice of the Spirit above the noise of propaganda, can perceive the evil power at work behind the throne. The outward show of patriotism and religion conceals a darker reality: leadership animated by the dragon’s breath, guiding a nation ever deeper into rebellion against God. Without discernment, many are blind to this power; with discernment, the righteous see that the stage is being set for the final conflict between the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of antichrist. And here the words of the apostle Paul find their dreadful fulfillment: “For this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness”. Because the heart of the nation has so long resisted repentance—because it has exalted its leaders’ lies above the plain truth of God—divine justice allows delusion to take root. Men and women who once had the capacity to discern right from wrong are swept away by the torrent of deception. They believe lies about race, lies about justice, lies about God Himself, until their very consciences are seared. Thus, in America’s present condition, Revelation 22:11 becomes increasingly visible. Those who drink deeply of these lies are hardened—unjust still, filthy still. Their leaders speak, and they follow blindly, their trust misplaced in human power rather than the living God. But those who are righteous, who have endured hatred and oppression yet held to truth, perceive the deception for what it is. They are not seduced by the outward show of power. Instead, they cling to Christ, whose word alone cuts through the fog of delusion. They are righteous still, holy still. Christ's word alone cuts through the fog of delusion This is the great unveiling of the end. Leadership that appears noble is exposed as wicked; a nation that claims liberty is revealed as enslaved to lies. Yet out of this environment of deception, God’s remnant shines with greater clarity. Their discernment, born of suffering and sharpened by the Spirit, testifies that God’s truth stands unmoved while the world falls under delusion. America’s treatment of the oppressed revealed the heart of its injustice; America’s leaders in the last days reveal the fullness of its filthiness. And through both, God prepares His final witness: a people so refined in holiness that no lie can deceive them, a people sealed forever in His truth. There is a reason for your hearing truths repeated…truths enlarged. Repetition and enlargement of God's truth build faith and wisdom by embedding and deepening divine principles within a believer's heart and mind. Repetition reinforces the foundational truths of scripture, while enlargement expands upon them, revealing greater depth and complexity. This process transforms spiritual understanding from superficial knowledge into a confident and deeply rooted trust in God. Major themes are highlighted. Spiritual challenges build spiritual minds and reinforce memory. Understanding is expanded. It moves knowledge from the head to the heart: enlargement helps spiritual truths move beyond mere intellectual assent to become a transformative, internal reality. It broadens a believer's understanding of God's character and plan while increasing spiritual capacity to receive more from God. Your foundation is principled, and your understanding is structured to give you wisdom. Repetition here is not vain. It is deliberate to create enduring minds and spirits to focus on God’s truth. Before continuing study II Peter 1:12 and 13. Engaging with God's truth in a deeper way strengthens theological convictions and equips believers to discern the greater light of truth. This is the difference between having a shallow faith and a robust faith that can withstand life's trials. The scattering of God’s covenant people into lands where they would be despised, enslaved, and counted as less than human is one of the most painful yet purposeful mysteries of divine providence. Human cruelty wrote the chapters, but divine sovereignty permitted the story. God allowed His people to be carried into the heart of nations that would strip them of dignity, for in that very soil of hatred His plan for the last generation was planted. Their abasement was not their end, but their preparation. When Israel rejected the covenant, their judgment was measured: God transatlantic passage Himself determined both the dispersal and the lands of exile. In the transatlantic passage and the bitter centuries that followed, His people endured the paradox of being planted in a land that proclaimed liberty yet denied it most cruelly to them. In this contradiction—freedom for some, bondage for others—the testimony of heaven was preserved. In this place of the darkest deception God’s truth shines in piercing contrast. Being brought to this land the scattered generationally bore witness to the indelible dignity that heaven had placed upon them. No lash, no law, no lie could erase the fact that they were chosen. Their humiliation became their refining fire. Holiness was forged not in ease but in affliction. In today’s America, this contrast grows sharper still. This is the strong delusion foretold in Scripture. Because the people have so long resisted repentance, God allows deception to overtake them. Lies are no longer perceived as lies; they are embraced as truth. Falsehoods issuing from the mouths of corrupt leaders are believed as gospel. Consciences grow dull, and the love of power blinds the heart to justice and mercy. In this condition, multitudes are sealed—unjust still, filthy still—because they prefer the comfort of deception over the cost of truth. Now let us reason with the other “still” in the cosmic trial. The still of America’s enduring hatred is to expose how the same permanence is manifest, though in a darker form. The still of America’s nature is the refusal to repent of a sin woven into its fabric from the beginning—the hatred of God’s chosen and the contempt for His image in oppressed peoples. Despite centuries of bloodshed, struggle, reform, and appeals for justice, the still of hatred endures. It mutates in form, but not in essence. The spirit that once justified slavery still justifies oppression. The voice that once cried for segregation still whispers for exclusion. The arrogance that once denied humanity still mocks truth and dignity. This is the unrelenting still that testifies to the prophecy of strong delusion: America is still settling into her historical sins, confirming her character before the Judge of all the earth while still clinging to the hidden venom of hatred. The still of hatred that has never been repented of. The two stills—one sealing holiness, the other sealing enmity— move side by side toward their appointed end. One is the fragrance of Christ unto life; the other, the stench of rebellion unto death. The solemn word “still” is the word that settles it. From the first Indigenous murder to the first lash laid on enslaved backs to the last unarmed child gunned down in Minneapolis, America has shown that her deep wound is not healed. The outward forms of progress shift, but the inward poison remains. Hatred is still here. Racism is still whispered into policy, hidden in systems, preached from pulpits of nationalism, and justified under banners of freedom. It mutates, disguises, reforms—but it does not die. It is still. This still of America’s nature stands as a fearful counterpoint to Revelation’s promise. Where holiness matures in God’s people, cruelty matures in the oppressor. Just as the saints grow into the image of Christ, so too the wicked ripen into the likeness of the adversary. Both are reaching fullness, each under the influence of a master—one Spirit of life, one spirit of death. The tragedy is that America as a nation persists in believing the lie. The deception is strong because the desire for truth is weak. And so God allows delusion to prevail, that those who love not the truth might be judged. The hatred that was once excused as ignorance is now willful, stubborn, and unyielding. It is still. Therefore, the two stills—the holy and the hateful—stand as witnesses in the last generation. The righteous are still faithful though despised; the wicked are still cruel though warned. The sobering truth is this—America’s refusal to release its sin is not just a blemish on her history but a prophecy of her destiny. The land of freedom will be revealed as the land of strong delusion. The still of Revelation is the dividing line of eternity. And the still of America’s hatred proves how close that line is. The closing decree of Revelation 22:11 is more than a verdict; it is the final verdict crystallization of character. America’s history bears witness to this strange providence. By absorbing hatred without returning it, the people of God are conformed to Christ’s likeness. By being despised, they are driven deeper into the secret refuge of divine intimacy. Thus, the still of hatred is permitted, for it sharpens the still of holiness. The wicked are blind to this mystery. They believe their cruelty crushes the righteous, when in truth it sanctifies them. Every slander teaches the saint the language of silence before the Lamb. Every act of injustice teaches them to lean more heavily on unseen promises. Every threat exposes the hatred that still dwells in the nation, while confirming that the righteous are still unmoved. In this way, the furnace of hatred becomes the forge of eternal righteousness. And so the two stills advance together: the wicked still hate, because their hearts love the lie. The righteous still endure, because their hearts love the truth. At the end, America’s unrepented hatred matures into open hostility against God’s people, sealing her under delusion and judgment. The word still in Revelation 22:11 is not merely the closing of human probation; it is the conclusion of the great controversy itself. It signifies the moment when the universe beholds two peoples, fully matured, their characters set in stone—one in righteousness, the other in rebellion. No middle ground remains. No mask can cover what has ripened within. America’s enduring hatred, unrepented and unhealed, is not an accident of history but a testimony of prophecy. It is the soil in which the adversary’s seed has grown unchecked. Where open slavery ended, systemic oppression worsened. Where strange fruit hanged from trees, veiled hostility is the rope of underlying prejudice and animosity – rooted terrorism. What was once codified segregation has become cultural exclusion. And yet, beneath every disguise, the same venom still flows. This persistence is not only evidence of human stubbornness—it is the mystery of iniquity reaching maturity. God, in His wisdom, allows this hatred to remain until it is fully ripe, for the same reason He allowed Egypt’s cruelty, Babylon’s arrogance, and Rome’s violence. Evil must be revealed in its naked form so that the universe may see its true character. The hatred that is still alive in America becomes the stage upon which the final scenes of the controversy unfold. anvil of hostility But here lies the paradox of God’s design: the still of hatred becomes the very catalyst for the still of holiness. The saints do not mature in times of ease, but in the furnace of contradiction. Their patience, their purity, their discernment, and their unshakable faith are hammered out against the anvil of hostility. Without an enemy’s hatred, the elect could not display the depth of God’s love. Without the world’s rejection, they could not embody the fullness of Christ’s cross. The unrighteous are still hardened by hatred; the righteous are still softened into love. Thus, the two stills reveal the climax of the controversy: Satan’s kingdom reaches its apex in delusion, hatred, and violence. God’s kingdom reaches its perfection in faith, endurance, and holy love. The still of hatred and the still of holiness together declare the eternal answer: love has triumphed over hate, truth has outlasted lies, and the Lamb has conquered through the very cross that the world despised. In this way, the persistence of America’s hatred does not overthrow God’s plan—it fulfills it. The universe sees with perfect clarity: sin matures into death, but holiness matures into life. O world, the decree is spoken. Choose your still, for the hour is late. And then comes the voice from the throne— final, irreversible, and eternal: “It is done” . Prophecy compels us to look deeper. The still of righteousness does not emerge in a vacuum, nor does the still of wickedness. Each is matured under pressure, ripened through conflict, revealed in contrast. In America especially, the hatred that has persisted is a dark testimony of this truth. Despite centuries of light, appeals, and opportunity, the nation is still steeped in unrepented hatred. This persistence is not accidental—it is prophetic. It shows the ripening of the mystery of iniquity, preparing the stage for final judgment. The maturing of holiness can be traced through the seven thunders—the hidden dimensions of divine intimacy is given only to those having the mind of Christ. Each thunder unveils a stage of transformation by which the righteous are prepared to stand “holy still” when the decree is spoken. And in each stage, the opposition of hatred serves as the backdrop against which holiness shines. The journey begins with the indwelling of Christ within the believer. Hatred still surrounds, but the saint learns that the true temple is not in human approval but in the heart where Christ abides. America may still scorn their identity, still deny their worth, still mark them as “less,” but in this pressure they discover the unshakable presence of Emmanuel. They are becoming holy still because Christ is dwelling still. As hatred condemns and the world accuses, the Spirit writes God’s law upon their minds and hearts. Every lie spoken against them—every “you are nothing,” every denial of justice—meets the inner witness of forgiveness and cleansing. Though the world still accuses, the blood of Christ still speaks better things. In this collision, they become a people who no longer live under shame, but under divine acquittal. Their conscience is clean, their identity secure, their holiness sealed deeper. eat the Word Here the remnant are sustained by bread the world cannot see. Hatred denies them access, strips them of earthly security, and mocks their need. Yet in their wilderness, God feeds them with hidden manna. America’s hatred may still deprive, still oppress, still withhold, but the saints eat the bread of heaven. Their survival no longer depends on the world’s systems, but on Christ Himself. This hidden sustenance matures their faith to stand independent of earthly provision, holy still in famine and rejection. Hatred provokes retaliation, yet the remnant are drawn into the ministry of intercession. They learn to pray for their persecutors, to carry the sorrows of the oppressed, to plead for mercy even on those who hate them. The wicked are still hardened, still cruel, but the saints are still compassionate, still burdened with Christ’s priestly heart. This thunder lifts them into heavenly places where their prayers mingle with Christ’s own, shaping them into His likeness. Hatred crucifies, but here the remnant embrace the mystery of the cross within. They accept not merely the cross of Christ for them, but the cross of Christ in them. As America still despises, still mocks, still oppresses, they learn the deeper truth: to die with Christ is to live with Him. Their lives are no longer their own, and even in death, they are still faithful. Thus the cross becomes the seal of unshakable holiness. bride awaiting her Groom The remnant are not only purified but betrothed. Hatred seeks to isolate, to make them despised and forsaken, yet it drives them into bridal intimacy with the Lamb. The more the world still rejects them, the more Christ claims them as His beloved. They are adorned with the beauty of holiness, entering into covenantal union that hatred cannot sever. In this union, they become holy still—faithful as a bride awaiting her Groom. At last, the remnant stand with the Lamb on Mount Zion, having the Father’s name written on their foreheads. Hatred is still burning in the world, but they bear the seal of divine identity that cannot be erased. America may still deny their heritage, still obscure their history, still despise their existence, but heaven has revealed their true name. They are sons and daughters of the Most High, sealed for eternity. Here the contrast of the two stills reaches its perfection: the wicked are still hardened, and the righteous are still holy. When the decree of Revelation 22:11 is spoken, the seven thunders will have completed their work. The remnant will have passed through the furnace of hatred, refined into vessels of eternal holiness. At the same time, the world will have ripened in rebellion, clinging to hatred as its final testimony. The still of wickedness will prove that sin matures only into death. The still of holiness will prove that God’s love is stronger than the grave. Together, these two stills form the eternal answer to the great controversy. The universe will see with perfect clarity: hatred cannot destroy holiness; instead, it forges it. Lies cannot silence truth; they only reveal its power. Cruelty cannot erase love; it becomes the backdrop against which love shines brightest. Thus, the two stills meet at the end of the age—the one sealing rebellion, the other sealing holiness. And in this final collision, the mystery of God is finished, and the Lamb is vindicated forever. We speak the final testimony as we stand as witnesses before heaven and earth. “O world, you are still hardened. Your hatred has endured every call to repentance, and it is still burning. You clothed it in laws, you baptized it in nationalism, you whispered it in policies, and you sang it in hymns of pride— but it was hatred still. You chose lies over truth, cruelty over mercy, self over God. Your end has come. But we are still here. Hated, yet faithful. Despised, yet beloved. Rejected, yet sealed. Through your fires, we found His presence dwelling within. Through your lies, we heard His blood cleansing our conscience. Through your deprivation, we ate the hidden manna. Through your hostility, we prayed as intercessors. Through your cruelty, we bore His cross. Through your rejection, we entered bridal union. And now, through your denial of who we are, the Father has revealed our true name. Nothing you did could turn us. Nothing you withheld could starve us. Nothing you accused could shame us. Nothing you inflicted could silence us. We know whose we are, and we will not be moved. We are in the end of the controversy: your still condemned you; our still vindicates our God. The universe beholds the answer—love triumphant, truth unbroken, Christ is all in all.