Words of the Holy Spirit

The blessed Holy Spirit says to “Build the Temple” and “Consider the trees how they put out buds and leaves. They do so by the authority, power of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Yet sternly God says “Israel has sinned” and the sign of it is the eagle overhead, the mass surveillance cameras everywhere, heralding of wars and planning of wars. So love God with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength and all your mind. And with all your voice!

Years ago I was pondering a question that came to mind about why so often, if people became a serious threat to my life or family, a catastrophe befell them suddenly foiling their threat. Maybe it is this, I thought “the Angel of the LORD encamps around those that fear Him”. Suddenly the Spirit told me “Daniel 3”. It was a crystal-clear voice. I guessed it was a biblical reference so I went into the next room where there was an open Bible that someone had given me and I looked up Daniel chapter three and right at the end was the word “Angel” and it had a reference beside it, a cross reference to that verse in the Psalm “the Angel of the LORD encamps around those that fear Him”. Now I keep that Bible open on that verse now to honour the Holy Spirit.

Oh there is joy in living life to obey the vision from heaven that the Holy Spirit gives some believers. “Build the Temple”, He says. He means the body of believers and the tasks He gives to do will build them up into the Temple of God. That is what I happily spend my life doing. Doing tasks given by God to feed Christ’s people spiritually to build them up into a Temple for God. King Solomon the Wise relished the task. King David his father was bowled over at knowing his son would have this honour. Kings have longed for such a life.

The Lord so small yet becoming all in all

Can God truly care for something as small as a tiny cell? Sure, especially when that cell is His beloved Son in the womb of the virgin Mary.

Children of Satan

Being a child of Satan does not mean you are a Satanist. I used to be a liar when in my teens before getting that fixed by the gospel. John chapter 8 tells that Jesus called liars ‘Satan’s children’. So even though I had been baptised, my compulsive lying characterised me in God’s eyes and in the testimony of Jesus Christ as a child of Satan still, until the gospel message was preached to me effectively that Christ died for me and in subsequent prayer the compulsion was drummed out of me. Lying that God does not exist and that Jesus is neither Christ nor risen from the dead is a compulsion spell that the gospel can break when received with conviction and the Holy Spirit’s power gets to work in the inner being. The child of Satan can become a child of God. You simply have to start somewhere but need not stay there.

Churches during lockdown

In the matter of churches during lockdown it is a matter of focusing on what really constitutes a church meeting, not merely a building and pulpit and pews and people but rather a coming together of two or more just to honour God and Christ, speaking words of God and seeking that God’s will be done in Jesus’ name. Even outdoors is fine. No need for organisation. No need for seminary or ordinations. Even the current lockdown does not prevent two meeting out in public, telling God’s words and contemplating God’s will because even there the will of God and words of God can fill the ones involved with the Holy Spirit as they are built up by God’s words. This stripping away of fabrications of Man to leave what is of God can be the future of churches. I hope so. 

Opinion: Archangel Names

How did the archangel names come to be aligned across scriptures written thousands of years apart in different languages? I theorise that maybe Daniel had the Book of Enoch and knew Babylonian languages well enough to translate it. He might have referred to it in his writings when spelling archangel names Gabriel and Michael. If he translated the Book of Enoch from Babylonian languages into Hebrew and Aramaic others such have Tobit and Esdras might have referred to it in their spellings of archangel names which though possibly having variety of spellings (standardising spellings is a modern phenomenon not so common in ancient times) would be closely aligned enough to enable later translators and scholars to recognise the correspondences. 

Ezekiel and Daniel, Babylon and the Book of Enoch

The Hebrew prophets of scripture living in exile in Babylon several centuries BC are exceptional because they give details other scriptures do not give about heavenly beings, archangels. The names of archangels are mentioned in Daniel: Michael and Gabriel. The distinctly manlike heavenly being who has direct access to God is mentioned by Daniel. Did these two prophets have access to the Book of Enoch and was it hidden from other prophets? The names of angels are found in the Book of Enoch: Gabriel, Michael and five others. The Son of Man is much mentioned too, having special access to God and being called by God “My Son”. Was God starting with this book and clarifying the Son of Man’s human nature when He repeatedly started calling Ezekiel Son of Man? Showing that Son of Man means a real human like Ezekiel. Centuries later both Jesus and His brother Jude mention this book too. Was it all preparation for Jesus showing He is human and is this Son of Man?
 Once we get to believing that the Son of Man is, we can get to keep in mind His teachings. That is the way to salvation He taught.

Way of Salvation

Once we get to believing that the Son of Man is, we can get to keep in mind His teachings. That is the way to salvation He taught.

What kind of evidence do I find most compelling?

I tend to deep down believe my human nature is ready-made to be able to discern reality in this universe around me. So when evidence manifests to that nature I tend to think that nature is a compass to tell me that the evidence has a certain reality behind it. However there is some evidence which utterly bypasses that sensory human nature and instead manifests directly to my inner immaterial being, my spirit and soul if you like. That is utterly compelling in a way material evidence cannot be. 

Stop the world, I want to get off? See it is stopped. Get off now.

Stop the world, I want to get off? See it is stopped. Get off now.

The Circle of Life

If you believe Jesus is, you tend to obey Jesus’ teachings more. As you do so you find Jesus’ promises are fulfilled. So you tend to believe the teachings are truly and faithfully recorded. And you tend to then believe Jesus’ saying that they are teachings from the Father. So I have found.

Magna Carta

Not sure about other countries but for Britain at least I hope and pray something like a new Magna Carta will come into this to protect churches in future, to list valid reasons for closures, to limit or curb government and police powers, as a document of the people by the people for the people. England does not even have a written constitution. I pray that from this trouble will come not zero churches like now but just one Church, the head of it Christ Jesus and the churches all united as one body of this head.

What about the airports?

Are any measures anywhere actually working at all? The authorities seem to run scared when faced with two major factors in this thing: airports and the rich. Rich people flee one country to holiday homes in others. They use airports. Shut airports and they cannot travel quickly to the second, third, fourth homes, some risking taking the virus with them. Ignoring this makes failure of other severe measures seem inevitable. 

JOEL THE PROPHET AND THE MANDATE FOR CHURCH MEETINGS

At a time when we are prudent to stay at home and especially not attend meetings, what is the actual reason Christians and Messianics want to meet? The Book of Joel is a mysterious book in the Bible whose time of writing is unknown. It contains a prophecy (chapter 2) which provides the heavenly mandate for meeting as churches and synagogues and being led by the Holy Spirit through spiritual gifts. The backdrop to this mandate is veiled in mystery too. An army not of Earth but the army of heaven is about to march like a swarm of locusts destroying but unhindered by anything physical: unstoppable. The only hope is prayer and to be replenished when it has passed. For readiness and prayer God counsels gatherings for prayer blessed by gifts of the Holy Spirit. The army will turn the sky black in dreadful destruction. It will happen in the time of Jesus Christ’s return. For this time which needs to be over quickly or all are doomed, we need to have meetings and build one another up as the spiritual gifts work in us in love.

The mysterious unity with Jesus Christ

Jesus is. Believe it. He can turn it around for you. Believing is first step to following. By believing that Jesus is, and then keeping the teachings of Jesus, His crucifixion becomes yours. He died for sins once and for all. Believers who follow Him and hold to the teachings of Jesus and the teachings of those Jesus sends are beneficiaries of the death Jesus died on a cross for sins. His death effectively becomes your own death because you become part of Him. He shares Himself with His followers, His disciples who keep His teachings. They become united with Him spiritually so the crucifixion He suffered and death He died is theirs too. It is then as if they themselves died that death for their sins. The death sentence for any serious sins is something that already happened for them. It is as though they have already been executed for their sins. This is how He turns it around for them so even though God requires a death sentence, that death sentence has happened in the past. They are executed. Now they can live to obey Jesus. Jesus says “Go and sin no more”.

Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather

There is, right now, a springboarding of a global joined up society akin to the Roman Empire of the first millennium.  Asked where the end times signs will appear, Jesus answered “Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather”. It might have been a common idiom of the time but it might be foretelling that as end times appear and their signs are seen, it will happen at a time when location is no longer important or significant. That might be now. The vultures gather where there is a body, irrespective of locality or man made boundaries. Boundaries and locations are irrelevant to vultures. What matters is the dead body. So, today, we see the first times when you can be anywhere in the world and the same principles apply to you as anywhere else. Global singularity. The signs could appear anywhere right now and the location would be irrelevant. It would appear on globalised media wherever it happens. 

Religion or Hope

Religion is one reason people lose all hope. Religion tells us our deeds warrant death. Religious zealots even condemn us for enjoying our bodies. Religion even condemns us for our thoughts. Extreme religion could even condemn us to death for our dreams given the chance. Even our tastes in music get condemned. Then we find condemning texts are written in scripture too so it is set in stone and sanctioned. Much of it gets twisted but who is there to say whether it is twisted or whether we are squirming against it. Some argue for moderation but their voices do not reach remote areas such as Northern Nigeria and Afghanistan and remote parts of Pakistan and cut-off regions. So extreme views get enacted in actual executions and maimings in the name of God. What hope does religion provide us if we are habitual in our failings? Instead of condemnation we need a wise saviour. Who on earth can counter such sanctioned and empowered religion which condemns us. One man. Jesus Christ. He is. Believe it. He turns things around. He even died to do so. And rose to keep doing so - forever. Hold to this.

Why do people become atheists?

Our failure to live up to moral/ethical standards is a path to atheism because we give up hope of what religion promises and fear what religion warns about, so we lose faith, and for some atheism looks like the only alternative. Jesus knew that and opened a doorway to being with God, and eternally living without death, not only by teaching better religion but by dying the crucifixion death which took the place of the death religion dictates for ethical failure. So Jesus turned it around that way and can turn it around for us over and over in all our trials when we believe that Jesus lives risen from the dead and is alive now and we hold to Jesus’ teachings. Eternity will always be with Jesus and that crucifixion will always forever in eternity pay for life instead of death. So we can and should stop falling short.