How to Discern The Master's Voice

To know God's voice you love His Son and get to know God's will by following His Son in step with His Spirit - and then by praying in line with His will and seeing His answers - "God is love" - and by loving each other and seeing how He helps in it - "he/she who lives in love lives in God" - then you'll know His voice by the love in it - love for you and for others like you - and by how what He says to you supports you in loving others whom He loves - and Jesus' voice is like the Father's voice in its full alignment with the Father's will and Jesus' support for you as you do the Father's will by doing what Lord Jesus taught - He practices what He preached.

Children of God

For people prepared to believe it happened, the historical resurrection of Jesus Christ shows the existence of a higher power who is fatherly to Jesus: The Father, God. Then for these people something called spirit, someone called Holy Spirit, reveals truth about Jesus and His identity as the Logos known to the ancients, whose name is in authority over all things, fully become a human being. These people then have power by this Holy Spirit and this name over all things to become children of God.

The Logos of Whom The Ancients Spoke

Heraclitus was a Greek philosopher five hundred years before Christ came. He taught of the great Logos in the universe that is 'the account which governs all things'. This is extremely scary, when you grasp it as reality, but to allay our fears this Logos became a human, flesh and blood breathing man we know as Jesus Christ so we could know the truth without being overwhelmed by it. When this Christ died on a cross and rose in three days it showed all people the existence of an even greater person than Jesus because someone raised Jesus from the dead and this is the person Jesus called The Father, God.

Theology in the Sun and Moon

Surely you were told when young that the light of the Moon is actually the light of the Sun reflected off the Moon. God made the Sun and made the Moon and did so through Jesus the Son of God. Genesis tells us the Moon was put as a ruler of the night and the Sun as ruler of the day. God had the opportunity here to teach us some theology and surely God, with His Son, made the most of it. The Moon is a lesser light to rule the night because the light needed at night needs to be lesser to be gentle on the living things that walk in this nightly light or sleep beneath it. The day is bright already so a Moon would barely be visible as a ruler and the Sun can fill the sky with awesome rays. When God spoke directly to Moses and Moses spoke to Israel the awesome glory was too much and the people grew weary of awe. They pleaded to Moses to  ask God to stop speaking to them this way. So God told them He would send One who would come, Jesus. This Jesus is like the Moon with lesser light and the light is reflected greater light of God in the face of Jesus the Son of God. So the Moon and Sun are pictures of The Son of God and of God respectively to help us understand.

The Wisdom of Honesty and Honesty of Wisdom

Is it wise to be truthful? Yes, if wisdom is about having the mental skills to enable living a long, full and best kind of life, extending that to include others where possible. Regard for others is going to be part of that - doing to others as we would that they do to us - so since we need people to be truthful in their communicating with us then we too would be wise to be truthful in communicating with others. Another factor is the power others, if they are in authority over us, have to curtail our happiness and even shorten our lives, so wisdom will avoid displeasing those with such authority and power over us. Of course that is most pertinent to the most authoritative of all who many call God who can curtail this life and the next and curtail our happiness and fullness of life even while letting us live now or in any afterlife. So pleasing God is key in wisdom for those believing in God or gods. This too entails truthfulness as do all matters pertaining to those with power over us who usually look poorly on our dishonesty. When we are made wise enough by God to realise God is truthful and hates lying we get to desire strongly to be truthful somehow. In John's gospel (chapter 8) we find a hugely wise discourse in which Jesus Christ describes God's primary focus on truthfulness and the wise counsel that lying and truthfulness are like opposing languages, lying being native to Satan and children of Satan but God only owning as children those who speak the language of truth and desist permanently from lying.

God's Nightmare

Does God have nightmares to endure? His are real and ongoing. Sometimes it is us. We can be a nightmare for God and for Christ. Here is how God put it through Isaiah the Prophet:
     (from Isaiah 5)
       A song of my beloved concerning His vineyard.
            My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill.

     And He dug it all around, removed its stones,
            And planted it with the choicest vine.
            And He built a tower in the middle of it,
            And hewed out a wine vat in it;
            Then He expected it to produce good grapes,
            But it produced only worthless ones.

     “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,
            Judge between Me and My vineyard.

     “What more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it?
            Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes did it produce worthless ones?

     “So now let Me tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard:
            I will remove its hedge and it will be consumed;
            I will break down its wall and it will become trampled ground.

     “And I will lay it waste;
            It will not be pruned or hoed,
            But briars and thorns will come up.
            I will also charge the clouds to rain no rain on it.”

Bones of John the Baptist

Why, if a person were fictitious, would anyone try to preserve their bones? Bone fragments supposed to be of John the Baptist were tested for authenticity by scientists fairly recently. See National Geographic article: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/06/120618-john-the-baptist-bones-jesus-christ-bible-bulgaria-science-higham/ Rather than finding them spurious, the evidence of testing, even DNA testing, is consistent with the likelihood they really are from the body of John the Baptist. So it is plausible that John the Baptist is historical. This leads to the likelihood this DNA is from a very close relative of Jesus of Nazareth, his cousin, and therefore close to Jesus' own DNA, there beyond our world's reach, resurrected.

Reality

John the Baptist; Saint Peter; Caesar Augustus. Real people? More ancient: Alulim; Enmendurana; Abraham; King Hezekiah. We each have been convinced by experience and factual knowledge differently , having been to different places, met different people, read different things. I have been convinced all those people are real. Even Santa Claus is Saint Nicholas of Roman times. How about Jesus Christ, God the Father, spirits such as the Holy Spirit, real angels, a real devil? We might be convinced of these when reading scripture and hearing preaching. The Holy Spirit becomes known as real to some when reading about the crucifixion and resurrection and true spiritual identity of Jesus of Nazareth; how the lifeless form of Jesus Christ, Son of God, nailed to a cross of wood hung there dead with its blood on the ground below and the water and blood from the puncturing of His side by a soldier washed the cross; how such death brought life for those who believe and let the spirit words Jesus Christ spoke change them into children for God; how Jesus, ever alive having risen, has only the purest form of God-given life within and creates a flock for whom He ever lives  as Shepherd.

The Spirit Gives Life

Not just bones but even stones can live when prophecy from God is breathed on them. John the Baptist, the famous religious leader from the first century AD Roman occupied Province of Judea, preached: "God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham". He was cousin to the even more famous Jesus of Nazareth who said: "The Spirit gives life - the flesh counts for nothing." This means we need not think it matters whether our biological heritage is good or bad; the word of Jesus is spirit and life and raises us from biological advantage or disadvantage to all that His blood has bought for us. When the lifeless form of Jesus Christ, nailed to a cross of wood, hung there dead with its blood on the ground below and the water and blood from the puncturing of His side by a soldier washed the cross, this body of death brought the beginnings of eternal life for those who believe and let the spirit words Jesus Christ spoke change them into children for God. This same Jesus, who is now alive having risen, has only the purest form of God-given life within Him and He creates a flock for whom He ever lives as Shepherd.

Testimony

My own testimony is that as a teen I habitually lied and could not speak without adding lies to make it sound better. The church thought me a true believer and yes I had accepted Christ and believed that Jesus Christ is from God but the lying showed I was still not fully His. The church saw me as evangelist material and a kind lady sent me for a George Verwer OM weekend of evangelising in Birmingham UK. God opened my heart to Himself there and then a real evangelist spoke in the 'bull ring' shopping area with words written on a white board 'CHRIST DIED FOR YOU' and it sank home for once. I went and told him the words had sunk in for the first time even though I was meant to be already 'saved' so he took me into a nearby church and at the front he prayed with me and I prayed. As I prayed when my prayer was honest a holy power made my voice surge with unworldly stength but as soon as I wandered from honesty it stopped. I tried to keep my honesty to keep this power. I went and prayed and sang with the evangelist believers and over the whole weekend this power thing continued till I learned that truth sits well with God who is true and lies do not get His support because He hates them. I learned by this Holy Spirit.

Will there ever be time travel? No. How can I say that? One of the greatest achievements of the medicinal science wizardry of our time was surely the eradication of smallpox. Efforts to do the same with other diseases might prove equally successful over time. Yet the eradication would surely become a terrible failure if somewhere in the future humans could ever travel in time. Humans are inherently unruly and tell a wannabe time travelling human of the future to never use it to go into a time and place where there was smallpox and they might just do it just because they can. Intrepid humans spread smallpox around the world nearly wiping out a large percentage of it a few hundred years ago and the spread carries on until recent times when the vaccination against it was made to succeed by global concerted effort. All would be spoiled if a time traveller went to a time before its eradication and picked it up and carried to a time since its eradication still in our past. Clearly it has not happened which leads to only one conclusion which is that time travel will never be possible.

Rome

What makes the city of Rome so bad that it is judged separately with attention drawn to its demise in Revelation in scripture even before it will happen? Clearly Jesus who said 'shake the dust off as you leave' of cities and towns who persecuted and rejected those He sent out to preach, to Jesus the record of the city of Rome is that it has killed Peter and Paul in the time of Nero and many Christians then and since then. Yet it is renown for the luxury fashion clothes it sells and the allure it has to the wealthy world rulers when they visit even to this day - no sackcloth and ashes to repent of its crimes and sordid past. The religion is not the factor here. And this is surely the same with the revived empires that once preceded it and will arise to support it again - not their religion but their persecution of believers in Jesus and the anger of God they arouse and the use God will have for them as tools of His wrath on the earth's destroyers and the sorcerer scientists and medical wizrds and witches and their followers and idolaters and all who lie and all who live according to instinctive human nature rather than His Spirit of truth.

For Posterity

Having been a believer in Christ, what would I pass on for posterity - for those who come after? That there is a real Holy Spirit we have found to come into our churches. There are poor imitations of the manifestation of this spirit yet despite these decoys and distractions there is a real way we find He makes Himself known in real and beneficial spritual gifts that reveal the mysterious wonders of God and the marvellous name of Jesus Christ and how it is that Jesus is Lord. The simple truth of how He is given us from God is that we must first believe the message God has given through His Son and must let the fact of the crucifixion of Christ for us turn our hearts in hope towards God.
It is real - this I saw for myself - and it was foretold hundreds of years BC in prophecies of the Prophet Joel as starting to happen after one apocalyptic time (the centuries until Christ came) and continuing up until another apocalyptic time still to come soon "After all of this
I will pour out my Spirit on all kinds of people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy.
Your elderly will have revelatory dreams;
your young men will see prophetic visions.
Even on male and female servants
I will pour out my Spirit in those days."

Not sure anything about the prophecy in Revelation of the Beast and Babylon the Great ponts to a religious element, perhaps more likely atheist. The Beast might not exist yet. Iraq and Iran and Albania/Macedonia/Greece are separate nations still (leopard with lion head and bear feet - the modern or future version of those three pre-Roman empires). While two parts are currently Shiite and Albania/Macedonia partly Sufi there is nothing in the vision to say their religion will be significant. Note how close the Greek literal characters translated 666 (symbol of one head of the Beast that revives after a mortal wound) are to the name of the tyrannical dictator of Albania who made it the first ATHEIST state and made religions a criminal offence with years of imprisonment as punishment - those letters are HXS. So maybe atheism will pervade this Beast Empire to come. And when it comes it will be out of chaos like the beasts before it. They arose out of stirred up sea and this comes out of Abyss too (Daniel 7) - metaphorically signifying anarchice consitions preceding it. Maybe it is this chaos we start to see appearing.

A Nuclear World War?

Is Revelation 8 describing a nuclear world war? Some clues
- previous chapter implies a finality about it
- as such all believers are first sealed by God
- preceded by much prayer yet it goes ahead
- thunder lightning and blood symbolise it
- mystery symbolised by seven thumders
- with it comes hail fire blood
- burning of a third of trees, all grass
- worldwide poisoning of a third of all sea fish
- third of all ships at sea destroyed
- mention of a star called Wormwood falling and opening the abyss is reminiscent of Chernobyl (meaning Wormwood) nuclear disaster - perhaps a clue to us now to warn us of nuclear nature of what is coming in a way only we will understand today (so maybe this is very near in our lifetimes)
- the final result is darkening of sun and moon by extreme global atmospheric effects (as foretold first by the prophet Joel then reiterated by Jesus Christ

The Death Problem

in various ways death is a real very serious and complex problem for humans - you get used to life and how best to live it and it suddenly gets snatched away - even if you try passing on lessons still death curtails that endeavour - you get a great teacher but then they die - you need a permanent help but God who is most suitable choice is upset with you for your blunders - you could have a mediator or priest but they die - you need a long living teacher mediator priest but even then you both die  eventually and then you have to see what happens about being judged - you ideally need God to provide something eternal so you eventually learn to live but when you know the life of excellence can keep going - only a God who understands and loves and is real and eternal can help - and a mediator priest teacher needs to be just as eternal to keep that relationship with this God going forever - and death needs to be temporary - and survivable spiritually so you need the priest to have endured it - solved but a complex problem required a complex and costly solution

What Mankind Needed

what Mankind needed was a high priest of God and not one who would last but a few decades but one who would be unceasing so the people can live forever with God as their God - so God gave this man - the Son of Man - the one who God would never cease to love and keep alive - the one who is forever the firstborn to God - so Jesus is ever the high priest mankind needs to have God as the one God - and the sacrificial death provided for us by this highest ever priest is that of His own body and blood - and the resurrection back to life - eternal life - proved that He is most precious Son to God who raised Him - Isa al-Masih, Jesus Christ, Yeshua HaMashiach - Lord

Getting it Right

Bible Scripture nowhere calls Jesus 'God the Son' and this is because scripture writers focused on the truth that all things were made THROUGH Jesus but were made BY God. So Jesus is Lord and the Father is God. Since there is a real Jesus and a real God we should get this right and beware lest we be found to be false teachers in the eyes of God. 

Finding Truth

Search for truth: In the end of my own search I find there is a Son of Man in history appearing first in known history (the true history I find to be part of this truth I found) in the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age seen in Sumer (before it was known as Babylon and lately as Iraq) seen in prophetic visions by Enoch who saw this Son of Man together with God the Lord of Spirits. Then later this Son of Man appears to another prophet, Daniel, in the  same part of the world. Later again the Son of Man fully made flesh appears preaching in the Holy Land and known to us now as Jesus. So this Jesus is what I find in searching for truth and holds the power to make a person truthful and giving such people knowledge of truth that makes them ever truthful. And at last I find this Son of Man still is, now, despite having been crucified, so is resurrected and ever sustained by God and able to continue to set free those who hold to the teachings God gives this Jesus to pass on to us and there is a Holy Spirit who does this in the Name of this Lord Jesus the Christ. This Jesus knows truth and knows truthfulness and imparts it to the true followers.

Va ye û daran bibînin, ew derxistin derve sêvik û pelên; bibînin, ku ew vê yekê ji aliyê hêza, desthilatiya Name ji Xudan Îsa Mesîh.

Isa Kurê * Mirov. Îsa Mesîh. Serokkahîn mezin. Mesîh ji bo me mir.   Va ye û daran bibînin, ew derxistin derve sêvik û pelên; bibînin, ku ew vê yekê ji aliyê hêza, desthilatiya Name ji Xudan Îsa Mesîh.

He Had Come

Even after he was a fully grown adult even his natural  brothers still took him to be ordinary - all until things people had longed for for centuries were starting to be seen in him as he turned water into wine and spoke words like nobody else could speak and commanded human-possessing spirits to leave their victims and they conceded. This was the long expected person appearing before their eyes in someone they all thought a nobody. Yet it was some time yet before they would realise fully who he was, the Son of Man known of from Sumerian times who had always been with God and was now there with men.

Ultimate Judgment

People don't like it that there is judgment. There has to be someone who judges all things and everyone. There is just so much wickedness. Fortunately the creator of all things does it and does it justly. He expects all things to adhere to what is commanded of it the Son of Man's name. If it will not by the time of judgment then the judgment will fall on it. Everything in nature has to abide by this physically but humans have to obey spiritually and in mind and heart too. That is why it was so bad that they crucified this Son of Man. That is why it means so much that God resurrected Him.

A Reason For My Certainty

The reason for my certainty about God is as follows. I wanted spiritual gifts all my life and eventually God heard my prayers and a local leader back in the mid nineties took me to a church where he said I would receive what I so earnestly sought. At the meeting a leader gave a message at the mic in tongues. So beautiful the words and not babble but real angelic sentences in a definite language but out of this world. (Years later I learned a technical term for it is xenoglossia.) I had a feeling of pressure on me which was the Holy Spirit and as each sentence was spoken it inspired pictures and English words in my mind which were a glorious prophesy about the glory of the power of the Lord Jesus' name and authority and how trees bud and produce leaves by it. It went: "Look at the trees how they bud and produce leaves; they do this it by the name of Lord Jesus Christ." It continued about planets or the like but I cannot remember that part. I'd never heard such things. Then the speaker stopped and started speaking in English and his words were the very words I had heard as a translation of the message. I'm certain this was a manifestation the Holy Spirit. Since then I heard Him speak to me too and prove to me it was Him.
A little later I saw a book, The Book of Enoch translated by R H Charles, in an SPCK bookshop and opened it and flicking through saw words almost matching the words I heard in tongues with interpretation so I knew I must accept that this book was a work of this same Holy Spirit. In reading it I might have had that faith sorely tested though were it not for the archeology I had studied. Here is the kind of thing I read in it that first look: "Observe how the trees cover themselves with green leaves and bear fruit: wherefore give ye heed with regard to all, and recognize how He that liveth for ever hath made them so. And His works go on from year to year for ever, and all the tasks they accomplish for Him, and change not, but according as hath ordained so is it done."

My Reliable Sources and My Certianty

The Book of Enoch states that Enoch was "seventh from Adam" and in the first century was quoted by the natural brother of Jesus Christ in saying this. Then thousands of years later archeologists discovered several versions of the Sumerian King List some of which were near extant tablets and these state that Enoch (Enmendurana who received the calendar and other knowledge by angel visitations and was taken to be with them) was seventh in succession from Adam (Alulim the first ever king of Sumer who had no parents or predecessor becauses he was created) - how would that have happened unless simply it was true and these texts all preserved that truth. I rely not on scientific source but I rely on the Book of Enoch and the Holy Spirit (saying the same things through xenoglossia) but get help from the archeology I already knew. But here is what I really rely on:  I wanted spiritual gifts all my life and eventually God heard my prayers and a local leader back in athe mid nineties took me to a church where he said I would receive what I so earnestly sought. At the meeting a leader gave a message at the mic in tongues. So beautiful the words and not babble but real angelic sentences in a definite language but out of this world. (Years later I learned a technical term for it is xenoglossia.) I had a feeling of pressure on me which was the Holy Spirit and as each sentence was spoken it inspired pictures and  English words in my mind which were a glorious prophesy about the glory of the power of the Lord Jesus' name and authority and how trees bud and produce leaves by it. I'd never heard such things. Then the speaker stopped and started speaking in English and his words were the very words I heard. I reckon this was interpretation of tongues. It is a gift. It is not itself tongues but was great and certainly the Holy Spirit. Since then I heard Him speak to me too and prove to me it was Him. I never spoke in tonges but it sure is the Holy Spirit God gave me.
A little later I saw a book, The Book of Enoch translated by R H Charles, in an SPCK bookshop and opened it and flicking through saw words almost matching the words I heard in tongues with interpretation so I knew I must accept that this book was a work of this same Holy Spirit. In reading it I might have had that faith sorely tested though were it not for the archeology I had studied. Here is the kind of thing I read in it that first look: "Observe how the trees cover themselves with green leaves and bear fruit: wherefore give ye heed with regard to all, and recognize how He that liveth for ever hath made them so. And His works go on from year to year for ever, and all the tasks they accomplish for Him, and change not, but according as hath ordained so is it done."

Modern Wisdom

Modern knowledge mainly comes to the West (and rest of the world) through Moor traders travelling through Timbuktu and leaving books in libraries there translated into Arabic from other languages plus adding other works of accumulated knowledge from the golden age of Islam and many of the works were preserving the writings of the ancient Greek philosophers like Aristotle and these reached Europe and were translated by monks into Latin. They were read in cities in Europe throughout the early centuries of the second millennium AD until in the middle centuries the flourishing of knowledge of the Ancient Greeks and Arabs from these books developed into the Rennaissance and then the Enlightenment as mathematicians and philosphers like Leibnitz and Newton built in those foundations of Aristotle and Plato. There were roots of a new kind of magic arts as part of it too, alongside the Christian influence, such as Hermeticism and alchemy and medicine especially around 1500. So today we have sciences and humanities incorporating a mix of sorcery and religion. And here we are. Like Daniel had to grapple with in Neo-Babylon and Medo-Persia. In fear of God he must have learned to reject the magic and sorcery and embrace godlier wisdom. We must do so too if we would escape our doglike godless ways and be what God would have as children.

God's Awesome Love

That awesome love of God, if it were embodied anywhere else we would fear it could be out of reach of us - but it is embodied in its entirety there in the wonderful person who our Lord Jesus Christ is so it is always there and always in reach and never overcome by our enemy. He has died and lives so death has no power to remove Him and the love of God for us embodied in Him.

Reductio ad Absurdum

With the exponential progress of technology and science in the last five hundred years and exponential exptrapolation for five hundred years into the future it is reasonable humans could make planets (if they didn't wipe themselves out first) - and in a universe so old as science says and so large it is absurd that aliens would not exist millions of years let alone hundreds or thousands of years more advanced than humans - so it is logical absurdity to deny the extremely high likelihood there are many planets in the universe made by aliens - so it is absurd to deny the likelihood this planet and us on it are created. Reductio ad absurdum. Then looking at alternatives to the absurd but popular idea: An alternative is that the creator or creators did not only create this world but all of the universe and this world is first of their creations and so no other creations or creators exist other than this creation of which humans are aware along with the invisible aspects of it such as what we call spirits. It is a small step to believe that the creators have made themselves known as the One who created the universe and us in it (as God) and the One through whom all things were created (as The Lord, The Son of Man, The Word of God, The Son of God, The Elect One of God).

Mystery Revealed

Ancient man knew of something called 'the oath' and how it controlled the universe and life on earth. Ancient wisdom associated it with a spirit over all other spirits and a spirit called the Son of Man with this Lord of Spirits. Ancients were like eastern cultures which have a concept of 'nomos' which is similar to the western concept of reputation or name and combines the teachings, laws, customs and traditions of a family (house). The 'name' of this Son of Man is associated or indentified with 'the oath'. It controls the universe so wherever you are in the universe this oath is there. Pythagoras the ancient mystic mathematician noticed that logical rules expressible in maths exist universally everywhere in space. The Gospel writer John seems to have taught too that this is a feature of all the universe in all time past because this set of logical principles and laws existed before anything else as brought forth first and foremost by a creator spirit embodied in a humanlike person called the Logos or Word or Son of Man and all things were created through this person by God making Him Lord over all the universe and making His name and teachings Law - Laws of Nature as we call it. This Logos became Jesus and the rest is history. 

Searching For Truth

The history of Jerusalem has much to offer an unbeliever seeking help in searching for truth or refutation about God, Jesus and Holy Spirit. The next place to note is Rome where the bones of Peter lie buried beneath the present day Vatican. Worth a visit or at least a look at the evidence about Peter. Then another area to study is Sumeria and the Calcholithic finds of Palestine and Predynastic Egypt and then a look at the Early Dynastic periods of Uruk and the like and comparison with the Book of Enoch from the greater Ethiopic bible canon (compare with extant text of 'The Instruction of Shurrapak' for example). Then look at the texts found in ancient first and second century AD ribbish tip archeology sites outside Cairo, etc where some texts include mention of Jesus. You have to join the dots in your head and judge for yourself because with vested interests in atheism the scientists won't do it for you.

Light and Darkness

If you are a habitual liar you might also be a hater - hating without justification for it. Even if you are in company of people unlike all that who are influenced by light and not such dark forces, you can still stay like that. It can be like being caught in a vicious circle - you hate and lie and cannot be loving so you loathe yourself for it and get jealous towards those who seem to be free of it. What broke the cycle for me was being apart from my peers and while away hearing this preached in a public shopping place: "Christ died for you" Then being able to go into a church with the preacher and pray with him there and feel the power of God within me teaching me truthful speaking instead of lying and then going back to people of the light and learning to speak truthfully to them.

be fully influenced by the forces of light lest you be influenced by dark forces

Dark Forces

If God doesn't influence your life, dark forces will.

The Day of Iran

Daniel chapter 7 tells of a prophetic dream about Persia rising as an empire "“Then look!—a second animal resembling a bear followed it. It was raised up on one side, with three ribs held between the teeth in its mouth. Therefore people kept telling it, ‘Get up and devour lots of meat!’ " Today Persia manifests as Iran and Revelation 13 warns it will return as an empire along with the return of the ancient Greeco-Macedonian and Neo-Babylonian Empire all combined into one empire. Things will doubtless get far worse.  "And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast."

Understanding Through Faith

By my UK citizenship I understand that HRH The Queen is the UK monarch and HRH The Prince of Wales is next in line to the throne but a son and a subject of the Queen. By my faith I understand that The Father is the one sovereign God by whom all things were created and have existence and His Son Jesus Christ is the one Lord over all creation through whom all things were made and have existence and Jesus worships and is subject to God His Father and His God. I have seen that over shop doors in the home village (Tetbury) of the Prince of Wales a sign saying 'By appointment to HRH Prince of Wales' because services by this shop are permitted to be rendered to the Crown Prince. By faith I hear that every bud of every tree is produced through the name of the Lordship of Jesus Christ so it is as it were each tree is by appointment to Lord Jesus Christ and all planets and stars and all things in all this Universe and such is His glory with God since the beginning of all things.

Why Do Bad Things Happen?

Why do bad things happen to people? Because they are bad? Not always. Look at deciduous trees; they lose their leaves every year, but it does not make them bad trees. They glorify Jesus when they grow new ones later in the year because it is all in Jesus' name and by His Lordship authority that they do it: Glory He had with God from before the foundation of the world.

The Tower of Babel

Clearly humans built towers using bitumen mortar to protect lower course bricks against floods. This was the also starting when the Tower of Babel in scripture was recorded as being built and stopped by God and spirits with God. People still try to deny the history and say the use of bitumen started over a thousand years later. What people are opposing is the real possibility of intelligent invisible forces, especially ones affecting human history. It's too much of a wake up call, too startling. Then if you realise they exist, next step is what can you do about them since you cannot see them? Easier to deny they exist and deny any history like this that points to their existence. Then you can go back to normal routine and forget about it. But that is surely folly and the bill could be huge. So whar can we do? Well in history there was a certain cross on a hill: Start there.

The Truth Will Set You Free

If the truth that sets free is the truth that Jesus is and that He died and rose for us then we cannot afford to keep it at a distance but must let it reach our hearts even though that makes us dead to the world.

Logos Teaching

Ancient man knew of something called 'the oath' and how it controlled the universe and life on earth. We might call it 'laws of nature'. Ancient wisdom associated it with a spirit over all other spirits and a spirit called the Son of Man (Logos) with this Lord of Spirits. This name of this Son of Man is associated or indetified with this oath. It controls the universe so wherever you are in the universe this oath is there because wherever you go it will be even there true that the Logos is. Just like wherever you go on earth today murder is wrong and lying is wrong and law is law - there is a universal governance and morality on earth today so there are laws of nature true wherever in the universe you are. There are aspects of this law of nature like speed of light and gravity that exist all over. The Logos exists in one place but the laws coming from this Logos are present in all parts of the universe because of that existence and the name of this person who is the Son of Man. Pythagoras noticed this - that logical rules expressible in maths exist universally everywhere in space. The Logos teaching is that this is a feature of all the universe in all time past because this set of logical principles and laws existed before anything else as brought forth first and foremost by a creator spirit embodied in a humanlike person called the Logos or Word or Son of Man and all things were created through this person making Him Lord over all the universe and making His name and teachings Law - Laws of Nature as we call it. So the humanlike nature of this Son of Man make these laws comprehensible by humans made in His likeness and we can write symbols to describe the laws and use them as mathematics. This Logos became Jesus and the rest is history. That is the Logos teaching - my take on it. Many through history have taught these things because there are spirits from the Lord of Spirits sent out to teach it.

God Has Spoken

God spoke to Moses giving the ten commands to Israel by His own mouth. So Jesus later said "Do this and you will live". Now He has spoken again to John and all of us should heed it: 'And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” And then he said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.” And he also said, “It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life. All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children. But cowards, unbelievers, the corrupt, murderers, the immoral, those who practice witchcraft, idol worshipers, and all liars—their fate is in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”' Revelation 21:5-8

Love Your Enemies

"Love your enemies" said Jesus Christ. I personally would apply this loving of enemies command in this way; if there is something I can do which will benefit others but it will benefit my enemies too with no reward from them back to me, I should not let that thought stop me doing it. Personally that is the best I can do because I do not have the means to buy food for friends and enemies who are hungry or even visit them in prison or hospital and God knows that. We can give to charities that feed everyone poor and hungry indiscriminately because of this teaching of Jesus to love not just our friends but also our enemies.

A great example of the teaching of loving enemies is the Book of Jonah where Ninevah was a mortal enemy of Israel and yet Jonah was commanded to preach to it what God would give him - he initially went far away from doing it because, he later said, he knew the preaching would save Ninevah and he could not bear that outcome. God taught him the lesson he needed by comparing Ninevah to a shade on a hot day that would be a loss to God if it perished so God can love an enemy city because even an enemy can be a blessing in extreme circumstances and would be missed by God. So in loving our enemies we are loving our God who made them and then God is indeed our God. Easier to say than to do though, as Jonah experienced. So when our saving message is preached to people who include our enemies we feel it turns our stomach bitter even though it is sweet in the mouth to speak it.

To achieve love (holy love) we have to work at our personal development once we believe and are forgiven: 2 Peter 1:5-9 "For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins."

1995

It was 1995 when the word came to me "Israel has sinned. This is the sign" and an eagle was flying overhead in the vision with a great white eye. The same day a police helicopter service started and flew later over my local church. It had a search light and camera like that eagle. They called it Operation Vulture. The same day the news showed spy planes black like the eagle. The wars that followed were shown in my vision. This is real and God still speaks how He spoke in Bible times. Those months of the end of 1994 and beginning of 1995 were huge for me. I had been seeking God while living all on my own in my first house while working as an office junior. God came in a dream and spoke to me in December 1994. Then weeks later in January 1995 Jesus met me invisibly out in the street. I found God and Jesus are just as they are described in the Bible. This was just before I had an experience of an interpretation of a message in tongues in a church meeting. There was significance of this being Father and Son and Spirit because I had been asking for this in earnest because of my calling to preach. But most striking is how Jesus is just how the Gospels say He is. And it was by following the promise of Jesus recorded in the gospel of John that I could ask for this.

War of Words

Why this war of words between humanists and the Bible? Personally I found in my own life that you get to a stage where your little faith and awareness of real Christianity turns into enough faith and earnest seeking after God and a real Christian experience that God gives the Holy Spirit as a genuine undoubtable reality. This leads to learning stuff, amazing stuff. At this point you want to develop what is learned (at least I did) when you discover relevant scriptures and they take you to the next level. It just so happened with me that those scriptures I discovered that let me develop what I had learned from the Holy Spirit were not part of the Bible (The Book of Enoch, which I came across in a Christian book shop while looking for a particular translation of the Old Testament to buy someone as a gift) but Bible passages like Isaiah and Daniel and John and Revelation have helped me go further too. So Bible and other scripture is very much part of Christian development and learning if you find a need for reality in your Christian life. How would anyone know about the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ without the scriptures and written texts of that time? We have to keep such a vital testimony because our faith rests upon it firmly as regards the message of God through Jesus that it vindicates. Receiving this message is what leads to our life in God and in Jesus that the Spirit gives us that leads to us loving and obeying Jesus Christ and knowing Him with us and God the Father with us and the Holy Spirit eventually within us.
Because Jesus is, the faith of intelligent hearers of scripture will surely be built on the God-sent misfortunes of humanists and scientists and atheists and medics who oppose scripture and faith but may God in mercy grant all these people time to repent and believe and God spare them. In Jesus Christ's name.

The Good Fight

Here is what we must each fight for our lives to escape: from Revelation 21:8 "But the cowardly (meaning: those without moral backbone), the unbelieving (amplified: those who reject the faith God puts within them), the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral (lit: gigolos), those who practice magic arts (Gk: pharmakoi translated online: medics), the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”
Various things we are prone as humans to do are sins that lead to death and the lake of fire if we do not stop doing them before we die. To stop we need (John 8) to believe in Jesus being the 'I am' who was with God from all time and is sent by God as Messiah to be salvation from these sins. Then we need to grasp this salvation by holding to the teachings that come from God through Him. This is the way that leads to freedom from these mortal sins and therefore on to a life of being saved and being free of fear of that lake of fire because we do better things in our lives and do not live the way of life of those whose end is that end.

Prophesy Today

you will find YHWH saying today "Israel has sinned" just like He said to Isaiah and through Isaiah (chapter 2) so clearly He does not want people He calls Israel dying in their sins and will do what it takes to save them from it

The Thing Is

The thing is, whatever secular pressure groups and think tanks and government departments and politicians say and do, there is a spirit over every spirit who is God who made all this and is about to unmake most of it and do it anew and He is currently preparing people to be saved and be part of the new thing He does and these secular groups cannot stop Him. 

To Humanists

It is what God thinks that matters and He has summed it all up in His beloved Son so the Bible is a great set of scriptures but destroy them or suppress them and Jesus Christ remains and all truth is summed up in Him by God Himself.

Rome and the Gospel

If you go to Rome and look around you might find the tomb of Augustus and then at the heart of the Vatican you might realise under the ground there is buried the body of St Peter. What was Peter doing in Rome? In the time of Augustus being Caesar of the Roman Empire there was tax of everyone introduced so to be registered there was a couple in Judea who had to go to Bethlehem and while there a baby was born who had been produced by the Holy Spirit of God in the womb of a virgin mother and this baby grew up to be Teacher in Judea. Peter had followed this Teacher Jesus and believed Jesus to be the promised, prophesied coming Messiah. The Messiah made Peter a leading disciple and sent Him to preach after a crucifixion and resurrection back to life of Jesus caused by God who is Father to Jesus. Peter ended up preaching there in Rome in the power of the Holy Spirit sent by God in Jesus' name. Peter too ended up crucified and his body was buried by his own disciples there where the Vatican is today. The preaching was to give up pagan idolatry and licentious living and turn to this God and Father of Lord Jesus the Messiah who can save through His Son. The preaching was to receive the Holy Spirit as leader and empowerer in this Kingdom of God.

Tomorrow's World

When a person knows both the infinite and the infinitessimal in all dimensions it is suddenly their identity that becomes primary in importance because that is all that is never lost despite huge leaps in development, awareness and learning and that power that comes with it. Other people are identities to such a person too and you still either love them or not no matter how great your knowledge and understanding. A person on a par with gods in such knowledge and wisdom and therefore power too is potentially of stellar proportion in their influence so could appear to be like a black hole within a stellar dust cloud provided that influence is given free reign by others with similar or greater knowledge and power and wisdom but a pecking order will still exist. Such will be future human beings. This might sound 'New Age' but it is a projection of current progress of the human race with the added insight God gives through revelations to humankind over humanity's history. Not sure I'd want to become like a black hole or super star in a dust cloud for billions of years - I'd prefer a place as a priesr of God in His city.

The Bodyguard

Once when pondering things of God, I thought about how often with enemies I made in day to day life bad things happened to them when they became a serious danger to me. It dawned on me that it was as if an angel was guarding me. A verse in a Psalm came to mind that might explain this but I could not think where it came from and wished it were confirmed to me that this was indeed what explained my experiences. "The Angel of the LORD encamps around those that fear Him to deliver them in times of trouble". Moments later a kind of voice of words spoken directly into my mind said simply "Daniel 3". So because it was so clear and striking I went to the lounge to see my Bible to look up Book of Daniel chapter 3. This Bible was one I was not at all familiar with having been given it as a gift. There was no mention in Daniel 3 until right near the end where the word "Angel" has a margin reference next to it. I looked up the reference and what did it say? I guessed already. A reference to the Psalm where it said "The Angel of the LORD encamps around those that fear Him to deliver them". So I knew this was an actual Spirit who gave me the simple words "Daniel 3" and so wisely proved to me that He was not a figment of my imagination.

Liability

When involved in a traffic accident that might have been your fault the usual advice given in my experience is to admit nothing regarding liability for having perhaps caused it because that might incur liability to pay recompense and affect your own insurance claims. They say "tell the truth and shame the devil" but in this case it is likely the devil will stand proud. So how did God set about destroying the devil's works since so much of life is like the accident scenario? He sent Christ Jesus His own Son from eternity into the world to tell the truth then pay the price of real sin so we need not be hindered forsaking sin and confessing it and telling the truth and learning to live a better way, His honest loving way.

Only Hope

There is only one hope for each of us and that is the hope that came along two thousand years ago in the Holy Land. Even still today we are all too bad to fix ourselves without the help that appeared back then. We are born and find ourselves badly broken and as we grow up we find we are in a broken world but Christ is presented to us, sometimes very poorly with misinformation right left and centre but we realise this Christ is the only sensible hope option there is that isn't broken except that His body was broken so we can be fixed so we rush (when the time in our lives comes that we can) to grasp this lovingly held out hope.

Honesty Towards God

God is only ever honest and invites us so to be and this is part of becoming a child of His. How is it honest if we let people force us to say things that we think are erroneous and unlikely to be true? Even in church this happens (and mosque and synagogue). To continue in God's way forward we cannot go their way too. How is it ever honest to be the person forcing another to say what they believe is unlikely to be true? Causing another to sin is something Jesus Christ warned very sternly about indeed. I always suspected as a child growing up in various churches that it wasn't as real as in the first century where people to whom the new testament scriptures were written lived out what we read happened. Nowadays churches are attended but in that time church was a life lived for real. I hope others get hungry for reality today and want firsthand knowledge of God and His Son and Spirit instead of all this speculative guessing at what Bible verses might mean.

Many Keep Saying Jesus is God

People are not wrong to point out the divine nature of the Word of God who is the divine Son of Man who became fully human and was born and named Jesus and recognised as Christ sent by God. It gets a bit ambiguous for people to start saying He is God because there is a danger they are replacing the Father with Jesus in their thinking and maybe do not know what they mean by it and whether they are denying the Father. Once God appeared to me in a dream and this was after I asked earmestly to see God like that but also to see Jesus too in some way (not with my eyes - He could blind me like He did Saul of Tarsus) - and the Holy Spirit too so I would preach with real knowledge of the heart and not just the head. God said in the dream "I am God" and told me things to happen that proved it was God. Weeks later Jesus worked a miracle out in a nearby street that showed Himself to me. Then the Holy Spirit gave me interpretation of tongues in church. It means I now know it is the Father who says He is God but Jesus appears as Son of God and the Holy Spirit proclaims and reveals Jesus is Son of God and by God answering my prayer this way He too showed me Jesus is His Son. Jesus never sought to usurp the place of the Father who is God but God gave Jesus the authority of Lord and Christ which is the highest honour given among men and Jesus has obediently become fully man to take our humanity to the height of the Father's throne where the Father will let Him sit till every tongue confesses Him. He has exalted priesthood to the highest place combining it with royal kingship in ultimate submission to God the Father.
"For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”), yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live." -- Apostle Paul writing to one of his churches.
Scripture nowhere calls Jesus 'God the Son' and this is because mainly scripture focuses on the fact all things were made THROUGH Jesus but BY God so Jesus is called Lord but the Father is called God - this is a real Jesus and real God we are describing so we should get it right and scripture writers believed this.

What is Tough about Who Jesus Is

What is tough is that we are told Lord Jesus Christ is the new coming king over all world leaders. The gut reaction is to recoil because we did not elect Him and are rightly scared of Him. When He left it was after the world killed Him - but He rose. What He is today is the top boss drenched in the blood of judging the enemies of God including people close to us. This Lamb of God slain now has robes drenched in the blood of pressing the winepress of the wrath of God. He will rule. He is ready for it. Nothing will stand successfully against Him when He comes and that includes nuclear weapons and political and technological wizardry such as we have not even yet seen today. He will rule as God's own Son on God's own throne and the world has been His enemy and has to be put down under His feet. Then the throne will be given by Him back to God and God will be all in all. This will happen and has already started to happen. Some see Him exalted now.

Facts

Fact - the archeology of the Chalcolithic Age supports the introductions of technologies described in ths Book of Enoch as having happened at that time - predynastic egyptian eye painting started, writing started, new metal alloy production started, weapon production of maces and the like started, magic divination started, astrology started, sorcery started, terror started. All there is archaeology. All there in the Book of Enoch. All these truths about the Son of Man and God are there in this Book of Enoch and Jesus identified Himself as the Son of Man and the Dead Sea Scrolls include this Book of Enoch showing the Son of Man term was known from that book (quoted by brother of Jesus in a scriptural epistle - Jude). 

Where is the proof?

When someone says they are married to so and so there is never a scientific proof of it but it is true for them nonetheless and they live by that truth. A marriage ring and certificate are not scientific proof. God said of the Son of Man that God Himself regards Him as Son. Jesus is that Son of Man made flesh. God said so at Jesus's baptism and the Spirit of God says so by the things He reveals within believers. God does not need to prove it scientifically but would do so if He wished but He hides it from the 'wise' and reveals it to the child. Ancients knew such revelations and though science was regarded highly they regarded these revelations highly too. Modern wisdom is so much of it folly in God's eyes.

Mysterious Spirit

It is not so much the Spirit in a believer so much as the believer in the Spirit like being in a place. The woman of Samaria at the well was concerned she did not worship in Jerusalem but Jesus prophesied the place to worship would soon be 'in the Spirit'. John was in this sense 'in the Spirit' on Patmos when Jesus' angel came to him. Jerusalem on earth is a heavy rock and weighs on the soul and likewise the Spirit of God is a heavy rock and when He weighs on your soul you are in the Spirit. Judah of old was tethered to Jerusalem for site of worship whereas Israel and later Samaria broke the tether. Jesus foretold a new tether in worship tethering the worshipper not to a site but to the Spirit of God for worship. Spirit and truth. This must be why the disciples had to remain tethered to Jerusalem until the new tether for worship came - the Holy Spirit from above. At Pentecost. See how blind Israel tribes became compared to Judah who stayed in Jerusalem's vicinity and worshipped at the Temple. So the Spirit keeps believers who worship attached to Him in their spirit from becoming blind and wandering from truth. In practice this tethering works by gifts of the Holy Spirit whose leadings and resulting revelations of truth and into truth along with other manifestations of the Holy Spirit such as a still small voice like Elijah and Peter heard all is to be kept for reference and guidance and a prompting for the inner man and spirit which brings back that sense of being attached to the holy and to truth and to Spirit in worship and meditation. This is how I discerned then wrote this. And of course the Spirit attaches us when our spirit is connected to Him (to the seven Spirits) to the throne of God in the exalted heavenly Zion. Mixing metaphores it seems to me our own spirit is like a lightning conductor conducting the Holy Spirit to us once God gives us a visit from Him when we are believers of His message. (I could sense myself under influence of influence of and tether to that weighty rock of the Spirit when those things came to me. It is real.) Here is my own testimony that might help some to believe and understand. I wanted spiritual gifts all my life and eventually God heard my prayers and a local leader back in athe mid nineties took me to a church where he said I would receive what I so earnestly sought. At the meeting a leader gave a message at the mic in tongues. So beautiful the words and not babble but real angelic sentences in a definite language but out of this world. (Years later I learned a technical term for it is xenoglossia.) I had a feeling of pressure on me which was the Holy Spirit and as each sentence was spoken it inspired pictures and  English words in my mind which were a glorious prophesy about the glory of the power of the Lord Jesus' name and authority and how trees bud and produce leaves by it. I'd never heard such things. Then the speaker stopped and started speaking n English and his words were the very words I heard. I reckon this was interpretation of tongues. It is a gift. It is not itself tongues but was great and certainly the Holy Spirit. Since then I heard Him speak to me too and prove to me it was Him. I never spoke in tonges but it sure is the Holy Spirit God gave me. Here is how He proved He is real. Years later I was arguing on LinkedIn and had a lie down to think what I had been saying and contemplate things about God. I thought about how so many times the enemies I made at work and in day to day life got judged by God and bad things happened when they became a serious danger to me. It dawned on me that this was peculiar and as if surely an angel was guarding me. It popped into my mind that there was a verse in a Psalm (in the Bible scriptures) that might explain this but I could not think where it came from and wished it were confirmed to me that this was indeed what explained my experiences. "The Angel of the LORD encamps around those that fear Him to deliver them in times of trouble". Moments later a kind of voice of words spoken directly into my mind said simply "Daniel 3". So because it was so clear and striking I went to the lounge to see my Bible to look up Book of Daniel chapter 3. This Bible was one I was not at all familiar with having been given it as a gift. There was no mention in Daniel 3 until right near the end where the word "Angel" has a margin reference next to it. I looked up the reference and what did it say? I guessed already. A reference to the Psalm where it said "The Angel of the LORD encamps around those that fear Him to deliver them". So I knew this was an actual Spirit who gave me the simple words "Daniel 3" and so wisely proved to me that He was not a figment of my imagination. Now after years meditating on and pondering in my heart what the Spirit says over time to me I realise first hand that the Father (God) is wanting me and each disciple to have it from Him Himself that He regards Jesus Christ the Son of Man as His own Son who is righteous enough and faithful and true enough for the Father to say it with certainty and own Him for sure as His Son and wants it to be that we too become what He cam call His children through what Christ has done and does and will do and by our obedience in puttting away what is in our behaviour that is akin to God's enemy Satan the enemy of what is right.

Who Jesus Is

It is confusing to people who know little about Jesus and about God the Father if we simply state that Jesus is God without saying other things too such as that what is usually meant by God is the one Jesus calls The Father who Jesus also calls His God. The fullness of deity that is in Jesus does not mean He is not human and does not make Him a deity like the deities of the ancient Greeks but it is deity which stems from who Jesus has always been since time began - the Son of Man who is to God God's only begotten Son - and the fullness of the way in which God the Father fills Lord Jesus and gives Him all authority in the Universe. Also He has the Spirit without limit. There is no lack of deity in Jesus both from the fact He is the Son from of old from everlasting and from the relationship He has with God The Father whose fullness fills Him forever. Yet we need to avoid those who know none of this with certainty getting confused over our words because we are not denying The Father is truly the one even Jesus calls God. Jesus is not Son of Himself, which is what it sounds like to the ignorant to say on one hand He is Son of God and on the other He is God. I prefer to not say He is God as a logical doctrinal statement because of this possible misunderstanding it creates. It is wonderful though what we have in Jesus who has completely become human born in history to die and rise again and ever live in human body filled with the fulness of deity. We can truly know the very Son of Man who has been from everlasting Son of God and ever will be. The One who truly knows God His Father and makes God known to us. The Christ by whom God saves the people of God from sin and teaches what is right and acceptable to God.
[Acts 17:18 shows Luke did not consider Paul to be proclaiming Jesus as a deity like the deities of polytheists because Luke reported it as a misumderstanding that some thought Paul was preaching Jesus as a god foreign to the Greeks; clearly Luke reported this negatively as a misunderstanding of Paul's preaching.] If a spirit within you is assuring you that Jesus is fully human having become flesh like all humans though before that He was in heaven with God and was with God from the beginning then you listen to that spirit. We each have to find truth that Jesus Himself gives rather than any mere human philosopher. Then live that out. The truth I get from Him is that whatever He did on earth we too can do with faith like a mustard seed. He is so human the people who knew Him growing up did not know Him as anything special - even His close family. It is written in John 9:35-37 that Jesus asked a man if he believed in the Son of Man and said "He is the one speaking to you". I believe the only way Jesus might have expected the man could have already believed in the Son of Man would have been from the Book of Enoch manuscripts in circulation at the time (quoted by Jude in his epistle) and these tell of the Son of Man being the Son of God but tell of Him being with God, so not Himself actually God.

The Man Still

I do learn from what I preach. Now I know for sure that the Apostle Paul believed that Christ is still a resurrected man with fullness of deity living within His still existing and ever existing body - from Paul's letter to the Colosians. This is why Christ is the Teacher to heed above all others.

The Final Judgment

The final judgment by God will be final against many things normal to lives of normal people worldwide now and future and past. All sorts of things in society are morally wrong enough to warrant this lake of fire judgment. Salvation from it requires we find things to do in life that will not incur this judgment and requires we have actions we do in life that warrant being recorded in the Book of Life rather than the other books that will all be opened at that judgment. We need a source of motivation and direction that leads towards such actions. Christ was sent to provide this and to provide a sacrifice for things we did before we knew about His way of life. He taught and the Spirit teaches things that can motivate us and direct us aright in such veracity and genuine morality that is acceptable to God who will be Judge. The Good Samaritan is an example of such a teaching. The promises of Christ can motivate us to act according to such directives.

How I know

Here is how I know. My eyewitness testimony. I was arguing on LinkedIn and had a lie down to think what I had been saying and contemplate things about God. I thought about how so many times the enemies I made at work and in day to day life got judged by God and bad things happened when they became a serious danger to me. It dawned on me that this was peculiar and as if surely an angel was guarding me. It popped into my mind that there was a verse in a Psalm (in the Bible scriptures) that might explain this but I could not think where it came from and wished it were confirmed to me that this was indeed what explained my experiences. "The Angel of the LORD encamps around those that fear Him to deliver them in times of trouble". Moments later a kind of voice of words spoken directly into my mind said simply "Daniel 3". So because it was so clear and striking I went to the lounge to see my Bible to look up Book of Daniel chapter 3. This Bible was one I was not at all familiar with having been given it as a gift. There was no mention in Daniel 3 until right near the end where the word "Angel" has a margin reference next to it. I looked up the reference and what did it say? I guessed already. A reference to the Psalm where it said "The Angel of the LORD encamps around those that fear Him to deliver them". So I knew this was an actual Spirit who gave me the simple words "Daniel 3" and so wisely proved to me that He was not a figment of my imagination.

Secrets of the Kingdom of God

I tell you a secret: In the kingdom of God we learn by miracles and other kinds of works of the Holy Spirit which are not necessarily always meant to be put into words - truth comes by more than just words, as does faith - then we are bound to live by such truth and copy the love that made it known to us.  We find God points us to scripture too but it is a combination of this and words of grace and power that leads us.

Good News

Some good news. God loves a good wedding. "Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb" says God. And He is not going to let His Beloved Son miss out on one. It is not too far in the future to look forward to it now. The wait is going to be worth it but don't miss it. It is only for the ones who are not going to be part of the bad news:   "But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death." Wake up and make sure you don't miss this wedding!

Be Baptised

A baptised believer dies to sin and, risen out of commitment to sin, is able to offer themselves to belong to God and be led by the Spirit of God.
Baptism as an induction was not unique to Jesus. It is what you are inducted into and who that matters. Baptism into the teachings and 'name' ('name' being reputation and honour but also teachings, laws, commands, traditions and customs; see Wikipedia article on 'nomos') of Jesus is only unique insofaras Jesus is unique. Jesus had and has real authority in His name, as the miracles show. Other rabbis in the time Jesus was publicly teaching gave teachings the same as His, like that about praying in secret not for men to see but towards God. Jesus did live a real life in real times with real context and presented what He knew intimately of God 'The Father' to people who already had teachers who weren't all that bad and knew their stuff too. Even 'Messiah' is not reserved by God for Jesus alone but was also used to describe Cyrus as a Prince appointed by God to save His People. What is unique about Jesus is "Before Abraham was, I AM". And He will be forever as God's firstborn over all creation who before He came was with God at the very start of ALL creation. Who will be with God forever. From of old even from everlasting. Whose Kingdom and Throne will endure forever. Who will ever get to sit on God's throne with God the Father. Who was therefore unique in being sacrificed by the Father for sins of the world.

Christ died for us

Christ died for us. Imitate good. Do not imitate evil.

Mesîh ji bo me mir

Mesîh ji bo me mir. ¸Cev baş. Tu çavê xwe nede xerab. 

The days of visitation have come

"The days of visitation have come.
    The days of reckoning have come.
Israel will consider the prophet to be a fool,
    and the man who is inspired to be insane,
    because of the abundance of your sins,
    and because your hostility is great.
 A prophet watches over Ephraim with my God.
    A fowler’s snare is on all of his paths,
    and hostility in the house of his God." -- Prophecy given through Hosea

"Israel has sinned", says the LORD. "The eagle" [mass surveillance] " overhead is the sign."

"Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb" says God.

To Believers

We must imitate what is good; not what is evil in churches and church and synagogue and mosque history. I hate it that there are teachers that teach we are all children of God and can hope for the best if we just carry on living like we always did with no need to change or need to think there is any judgment to be feared in the future because Jesus taught differently - you find what Jesus taught in Gospel of John chapter 8 that if we lie we are children of the father of lies who is Satan and those who sin are slaves to sin and need to be set free if they are to become children of God with real hope - you have to actually stop lying and let the truth set you free from sinning and believe there is Jesus alive today to set you free or else you will die in your sins. I hope churches will teach this instead of the usual lies and their hearers will be saved from their delusions. But some will carry on. Some will perish who have deserted the truth and the means to truth - Jesus Christ's teachings and name. There will be a lake of fire.

The Promise

A person descended from Abraham can look back in history for comfort to a promise by God. The promise was to descendants of Abraham so it seems to many of his descendants that this is enough. The news is that it is not enough but spiritual descent from Abraham is needed which is what Jesus came to bring - both to blood descendants and, wondrously, to blood non-descendants. I don't know which I am but I know it won't matter as long as He makes me a spiritual descendant as I follow Him and the Holy Spirit sent by God in Jesus' name.

Christ died for the sins you stop doing

The Crux

You can seek to put an end to your sin since Christ has provided His body and blood as sacrifice for you.

Come out and be Separate

"Come out and be separate" The Lord over all, Jesus Christ with God the Father, surely sees the kings and rulers subject to Him when He foretells how rulers will fawn with what seems so clearly to be Rome in Revelation. The city that rules over the kingdoms of the world, in a present tense written in Roman times yet still it has all that fashion luxury and sells luxury goods everywhere. Let us come away before it receives its end. Revelation 18 starts:
"After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory. And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird! For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.” And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Render to her just as she rendered to you, and repay her double according to her works; in the cup which she has mixed, mix double for her. In the measure that she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, in the same measure give her torment and sorrow; for she says in her heart, ‘I sit as queen, and am no widow, and will not see sorrow.’ Therefore her plagues will come in one day—death and mourning and famine. And she will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her."

Balance

So many different understandings of the gospel message are preached today and even lived out yet few seem to grasp this as Jesus preached it in John 8 but the balance is between being by nature children of flesh and ways of Satan but being transformed by Christ and the spirit in Christ's teachings into children of God. We do need Christ to do this in us and keep us in it. That is why we hold to Christ's words and let the Spirit sent in His name lead us.
Jesus knows condemning people for their sins will not stop them sinning nor will lying to them and pretending the result of sin will not be severe. He told them stop and leads us to the truth that frees us to stop; He and the Spirit of God leads us when we believe and hold to the teachings God gave Him to pass on.

Because

Christ died for you. Because this is coming: "But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death." - Revelation 21:8

The 'cowardly' keep losing their moral nerve,

'unbelieving' reject God-given faith,

'the vile' are repulsive in moral character,

'murderers' kill or hate without justification,

'the sexually immoral' sell their purity away,

'those who practice magic' sell illusions,

'idolaters' rent out worship for money,

and 'all liars' knowingly keep misrepresenting.

Academic curiosity takes a back seat when the real Holy Spirit of God starts directly revealing things of God when we individually take it to heart that Jesus of Nazareth, The Christ, really did die on that cross for us. Then sin gets relegated in favour of the righteous sinlessness revealed to be in God and in His Son and in His Holy Spirit. Then the words of Jesus need to be taken on board "Stop sinning". If you want academic confirmation there is the fact there were scrolls around in Jesus of Nazareth's time like the Dead Sea Scrolls among which were passages of ancient Apocalytic scripture such as this translated not too long ago from the Book of Enoch (ch 89:34ff) "... presence, who was one of the seven white ones, saying, Take those seventy shepherds, to whom I delivered up the sheep, and who receiving them killed more of them than I commanded. Behold, I saw them all bound, and all standing before him. First came on the trial of the stars, which, being judged, and found guilty, went to the place of punishment. They thrust them into a place, deep, and full of flaming fire, and full of pillars of fire. Then the seventy shepherds were judged, and being found guilty, were thrust into the flaming abyss. At that time likewise I perceived, that one abyss was thus opened in the midst of the earth, which was full of fire. And to this were brought the blind sheep; which being judged, and found guilty, were all thrust into that abyss of fire on the earth, and burnt. The abyss was on the right of that house. And I saw the sheep burning, and their bones consuming. ..."But these warnings only reach a few and those reached might not have time to escape. Escape if you can. You can seek to put an end to your sin since Christ has provided His body and blood as sacrifice for you.
Revelation is a precious book indeed because it is a testimony of the risen Jesus about the most holy revelation God His Father gave to Him. I have tried to quote it faithfully as it represents God better than any representation coming as it does from the very Son of God with God since before all the creation was created (a very long time) who truly knows God. I said too that Christ died for you and others too. This represents God by the very work God gave to Jesus the Christ His Son to do in dying for our sins we stop doing. This is therefore the representation God has given of Himself as it shows what He is and shows what His Son is, the Lamb of God.

A Great Prayer of Praise to God

"Blessed art thou, O Lord, the King, great and powerful in thy greatness, Lord of all the creatures of heaven, King of kings, God of the whole world, whose reign, whose kingdom, and whose majesty endure for ever and ever.

From generation to generation shall thy dominion exist. All the heavens are thy throne for ever, and all the earth thy footstool for ever and for ever.

For thou hast made them, and over all thou reignest. No act whatsoever exceeds thy power. With thee wisdom is unchangeable; nor from thy throne and from thy presence is it ever averted. Thou knowest all things, seest and hearest them; nor is anything concealed from thee; for thou perceivest all things."

     -- The Book of Enoch, chapter 83 verses 2-4

The Meaning of Life the Universe and Everything

I suggest there is no more meaning in our lives with God than without but I do have a reservation on that. Maybe Solomon didn't mean this when he famously proclaimed "Meaningless, meaningless, everything is meaningless!" but life on earth does have a curious mysterious meaning to it as the Spirit who inspires some and inspired Enoch in ancient times reveals. The Enoch passage that shows the meaning that life embodies, I think, is this: "They consider how the trees, when they put forth their green leaves, become covered, and produce fruit; understanding everything, and knowing that He who lives for ever does all these things for you: That the works at the beginning of every existing year, that all his works, are subservient to him, and invariable; yet as God has appointed, so are all things brought to pass." -- Enoch ch 6:1-2
I would say the meaning in life is in how living things show a constancy in submitting to the authority that God puts over them and later Enoch describes revelation given him of what gets translated The Oath which seems to embody that authority and both then and today the Spirit seems to say this is the Name of the Son of Man. This might equate to Laws of Nature and might be what Pythagoras believed he discerned in the logic of the universe describable using maths. The Logos is maybe somehow a discernment of an almost human quality in the Laws of Nature such as in the unexpected reality that they can be discovered by human experiments and expressed by human thought. Hence the person embodying that logic is called The Son of Man and is maybe the reason God has made us in His image, so that this Son of Man could become flesh and blood as the Messiah or Christ. So here if ever is meaning in life itself and all things and that meaning is a rebuke to us that we do not constantly obey and submit to the wisdom of the commands of God and love this Son of Man whom God placed in authority over all things including us.

Why I Speak Out

I was once working in an office during a run up the a bank holiday when most would be leaving early and onto my desk came a card to sign. It was a wedding card for a dear colleague, a great gifted guy, and the card was in a circulation envelope that said the card had to back with a certain person by 4pm sharp. I guess if it was late they might not get it to the recipient in time before everyone would be away and the card would miss their wedding. It was 4pm. This taught me we are not islands but things need to circulate and be taken notice of and that includes things from God too like commands and prophecies from Him that people need on time. The time is short. When God showed all this to me and told me "Israel has sinned and the sign is the eagle over the house" meaning all His people and the eagle of surveillance, I realised the people need to remember His commands and the important one most of all so I was given resoonsibility to shout it from the mountain top. I realised later this eagle sign would not stop with surveillance but without any repentance would follow to worse and worse things worldwide, wherever the people of God are sinning and not stopping. That message came before me and like the card I must pass it on because the time is short and God is speaking. Jesus Christ is alive and is ever the answer and the Holy Spirit God sends in Jesus' name to reveal the things of Jesus which are the things of God.

Who Will Perish

Revelation 21:8  is translated "But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death."
The 'cowardly' keep losing their moral nerve,
'unbelieving' reject God-given faith,
'the vile' are repulsive in moral character,
'murderers' kill or hate without justification,
'the sexually immoral' sell their purity away,
'those who practice magic' sell illusions,
'idolaters' rent out their worship for money,
and 'all liars' knowingly keep misrepresenting.

Reality

The reality of God requires a reality in our love towards Him. The reality of The Lord, Jesus, who came as a human two thousand years ago and lives today and forever, this real man Jesus, died for you, this Jesus who is the Christ who God showed is His Son by raising Him from the dead two thousand years ago.

Covetousness and Greed

Covetousness and Greed: In my understanding covetousness is wanting what is not rightfully ours and giving that want free reign whereas greed is giving free reign to a want of whatever we can get that we feel is rightfully ours so greed is even harder to reign in and guard against because we feel we have a right to what it can gain us. This is where leaders can fall because they feel they have a right to their fair share of the income of those they lead. If they wanted what was not their right that would be covetting and the command of God forbids that. Yet against greed there is no commandment among the ten commandments so it takes devotion to Christ and the word of prophecy to counter it. "Be on your guard against all kinds of greed for a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions" said Jesus when asked to tell a man's brother to divide an inheritance with him. Leaders beware. Nobody can impose a law upon us telling us to guard against greed and serve reasonably with pure minded reason: That is a yoke of Christ we take upon ourselves as we choose willingly (bond service) to keep and guard His teachings and let the truth that comes from them flow out into our actions and lifestyles. With this yoke we find it is light because there is a teaching of faith too that nothing is impossible to those who believe in God to make good what is asked of Him. This is a victorious yoke.

Unity Truth and Truthfulness

Do not sacrifice honesty for the sake of unity. A lie is a lie, whether you or I or the whole church tells it. The light of Jesus and life of God dispel lies but not necessarily with all people all at once so some have His light in them more than others. We who commit to this gradual dispelling of darkness are committing at the same time to a unity with each other as each is tied to the same Spirit of truth who brings this light. As with marriage, unity is based on commitment and covenant. We commit to God's covenant in Christ. This unites us. If any denominational position prevents repentance from lying this kills unity too because unity depends on keeping united with Christ and Christ commands first of all that followers stop lying (John 8, Ephesians 4-5). If a church forces attenders to lie you cannot attend it and stop lying too. Unity starts with The Door into which all must enter to be in Christ and united with the true Body of Christ.

I just missed a bus today because it was already pulling away and did not stop for me. Church leaders are mostly, probably like that bus driver who probably was not being mean but merely had to weight my need against the need of other passengers. That driver lost a customer because I walked and spent the money on a morning coffee. Churches cannot afford to lose members of Christ though. God wants nobody lost. So a leader cannot force one disciple to lie and stop them entering into life through Christ The Door just to please the rest of the congregation. If you force someone to affirm what they believe is false or do not believe is true then you force them to lie and hinder their unity with Christ for the sake of unity with you.

Why is love towards God put last?

What is most striking in the message of Jesus is that love of neighbours is not top of His command of God priority list; love towards God is. This should be a test of whether we have been listening to God's word or merely our own thoughts. If we listen to Jesus we will find love towards God tops His agenda and if we love Jesus we will love God the Father too. God is not just about love of each other but wants love towards Him to be top priority. We might want to spend all our time finding ways to please each other and friends and family and work colleagues and country but Jesus said love towards God is the first commandment. We have to set aside time, even occassionally perhaps for a little while apart from closest family, to set our compass how best pleases God and to prioritise our love for Him. This leads to life. Then love towards others will be better because it will come from a pure heart and sincere faith and clear conscience.
I so love this God: "Vengeance is Mine, and recompense;
Their foot shall slip in due time;
For the day of their calamity is at hand,
And the things to come hasten upon them.’" (Deuteronomy 32:35)
The same God in scriptures of old and new testaments: "Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord." (Romans 12:19).
When He does act it is so decisive and incisive and wise and perfect, you just have to love Him, in awe of Him. 'Love you LORD'. I wait for that day to come around again. Well worth the wait. As Psalm 18 starts: "I will love You, O Lord, my strength.
The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer;
My God, my strength, in whom I will trust;
My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised;
So shall I be saved from my enemies."
Acts 13:8-12 "The proconsul, an intelligent man, sent for Barnabas and Saul because he wanted to hear the word of God. But Elymas the sorcerer (for that is what his name means) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul from the faith. Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said, “You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord? Now the hand of the Lord is against you. You are going to be blind for a time, not even able to see the light of the sun. Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand. When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord."
I personally do have very real enemies living near by and the prayer I pray to God when they triumph over me is that God my Saviour will judge them. God is judge. Enemies of the message God gives me that I pass on as faithfully as I can are for God to judge too. I will love this God when He rescues me and even when He delays. This God commands all to love Him who know that He is God and He commands all to know this: 'He says, "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."' (Psalm 46 verse 10). As for judgment of believers: 1 Corinthians 5:10-12 (New American Standard Bible)
"... I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world. But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church?"
I am reminded that love for God means 'guarding His commands'. That is a great translation: 'guard His commands' of a tricky phrase of scripture to translate, where the translation 'keep His commands' is a bit ambiguous. Love towards God does indeed compel us to do some serious guarding, inwardly and outwardly. Inwardly our sinful ways trick us into downplaying what God has commanded, perhaps when we are too lazy to want to change those ways if it takes a long period of concentrated self-adjustment. We can love God such that we overcome this laziness by reasserting to ourselves those commands and seeking understanding of them. Outwardly the commands and guarding of them results in backlash from believers and unbelievers who either have forgotten them or been overcome in their own battle and object when we still persist in guarding things of God. We have to be ready for this and overcome it too by persistence in our faith.

Key Questions

Have you ever believed? Ever been baptised? Ever received baptism in the Spirit? Ever devoted your life to God? Ever repented? Ever prayed? Ever spoken in tongues or prophesied? Ever sought to build others up?

How I Personally Follow Jesus

Someone asked me: Do I bother looking things up as I try to always follow Jesus? All I 'bother' doing is trying to keep in memory the teachings of Jesus taught me since my mother taught me 'on her knee' as it were and try to obey all the commands within my power and lean on all the promises that seem to apply. I rarely look things up because I think few today do the same who write articles online so online definitions are often unreliable or worldly. I prove the reliability of what I have been taught in church and reading scriptures like interlinear translations over the years because in response God and Lord Jesus keep up their side of the promises such as those in the Gospel of John and Revelation. God one or two times spoke to me in visions and a couple of times the Spirit spoke to me and once even Jesus Himself spoke to me from heaven. They can keep pointing me in the right direction and helping me point others too.

The Anguish on the Cross

"About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”)." Matthew 27:46

When a baby looks for his/her mother and cannot find her usual comforting presense, the baby cries. A righteous adult instead of crying like a baby can use words of the holy psalms to express those same feelings toward God as a baby has towards a mother sometimes even of dismay mingled with love. Jesus is the most righteous adult of all and God gives Him as an example to all (even an example to angels) of how to stay holy and stay right with God even when under extreme stress when that relationship gets pushed to the limit. Like Job, Jesus did not accuse the Father of wrong doing and trusted Him still but did not deny the anguish of the absence of God's usually present comfort and salvation in trouble. Sometimes God has to withold it but always for a righteous reason in love for us all. Jesus has been there and can sympathise now with us. He also shows how the scriptures can be a comfort to us even when other comforts are taken away because there was a sense of someone else having been through the same turmoil giving a sense of company and fellowship that Jesus needed and we need at times, and the scripture He quoted kept Him encouraged not to sin, which it can do for us too.