The New Song - Part 2
The phrase "new song" is talking about the end-time restoring of David's Tabernacle globally. The Bible is actually clear that the end-time 24/7 worship movement will be global. This is because Jesus is coming to "drive evil off the planet" globally. Wholehearted abandoned love for Jesus is a crucial element to this plan. The new song...and the building of this night and day worship movement...is about wholehearted love expressed in a practical way. Sincere love for Jesus is not the same as wholehearted love for Jesus!
This idea of driving "evil" off the planet is really important to understand. Evil isn't a force equal and opposite to God that He needs to defeat in one last show of strength. Evil is actually VERY EASY for God to destroy, because evil isn't a force at all...evil is the absence of God.
God is the light...the power source, to use a crude analogy...for mankind. Evil is the absence of God's light...the Bible likens this to the relationship of dark to light. God is light, evil is darkness. Darkness is simply the absence of light. That is why the tiniest light destroys darkness. A little "something" is infinitely more than nothing. The more dark a place is, the more powerful a tiny light becomes!
God is the light of man (John 1). God made everyone to live forever in His presence...the power source of life. God is the ONLY true power source, nothing can exist apart from His will for it to exist. He created ALL things and by His will they exist. Nothing that was made can exist apart from Him (Colossians 1:13-20). BUT, this is the crux of the problem the earth faces...the source of tribulation: God made certain things to dwell with Him in love! Specifically, God made people and angels to love Him. So, in order for love to be real, God had to give people and angels free will...so they could CHOOSE to love God back.
No free will = no love. But free will is risky! Not everyone wants to be with God forever. 1/3 of the angels chose evil...the absence of God's perfect leadership of light...they chose darkness. Many people, at the prompting of satan, the first one to rebel against the light, also choose to try to live apart from God, the power source of life.
Because God chose love, EVERYONE will get what they really desire in the end. God gets what He wants, which is a creation that lasts forever and also "lives" in love, and people either get life in the presence of that love, or the absence of life eternal...while still "lasting" forever.
God calls this awful condition of lasting forever apart from the source of life a "lake of fire"...consumption and decay that never ends:
Revelation 20:15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.
So, this is the main purpose of the new song: to demonstrate to all the earth what a wholehearted connection with the author of life really looks like. In one last generation, God will demonstrate to all of creation that wholeheartedly...with all of your time, money, emotion, and faith...making Him your strength is what will sustain people forever. He does this by making the consequences for this choice manifest on earth over a period of seven years...called the tribulation.
The point of this plan to release tribulation is very simple: God uses the least intense means necessary to reach the greatest number of people, at the deepest heart level, without ever violating their free will. God refuses to violate free will, because He refuses to violate love. BUT, He is a good Father who also refuses to sit idly by and watch His beloved creation elect to live forever in a state of death...the absence of life. For the wages of sin IS death. That will never change. So God will "turn up the heat" in sevenfold (perfect) increases three (fully...complete) times. This is described in the Book of Revelation as seals, trumpets and bowls. These are all intended to convince the last generation to choose to live in the light of man before that choice is made permanent.
Sin is the choice for the absence of God and His leadership, and the consequence...the cost...of that choice is darkness, the absence of the source of life. This is what the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was all about!
Adam and Eve were created with the knowledge of good. God is good...every good thing flows out of His very being. He is an infinite well of goodness and beauty...every good and perfect thing flows from Him continually:
James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
Adam and Eve walked and talked with God face to face. The knowledge of GOOD was fully available to them at the time of creation! The one choice for free will, or the choice to say "no" to perfect love was the tree of the knowledge of good AND evil. This was the choice to contrast that knowledge of good with the knowledge of the absence of good.
The choice to eat from the tree was the same as saying "lets find out what life apart from God looks like." This is the same as saying "thanks, but no thanks" to life in the fullness of God's unending light and love....which equals a choice for death...the absence of the light of man.
Adam and Eve didn't want God's absence...they wanted what they thought was "more" than God had given them, which was the knowledge of life apart from Him. This was actually "less" than God had given them, because they desired the knowledge of what life would be like in less light...which is evil, the absence of God.
This choice was really a choice for a "half-hearted" relationship with the infinite source of life. They were created with a perfect capacity to dwell in the presence of an infinite God...they were infinite in their capacity to encounter Him. When they chose to agree with the knowledge of life away from God, they chose some measure of darkness. Suddenly, there was a limit to the amount of light they could experience. Anything less than infinite, is "infinitely less", and suddenly God's infinite bright glory became deadly to them...the same way a flashlight is deadly to darkness. The wage of sin IS death.
Half-heartedness is a serious problem!! Half-heartedness is what introduced death to God's infinite creation. Trying to connect part of your life to God, while still attempting to remain at "arms length" from His leadership is the most dangerous proposition.
Obeying God is coming under His leadership. The law was given to Moses to show mankind what that looks like. The law will never change. What God calls good is good forever. Many modern Christians don't understand this, and think they can have God's presence without His leadership. Because of love...because of free will...God has always allowed this "less than full" relationship with Himself. Everyone gets what they want, and many have attempted a half-hearted relationship with God, some even successfully...they will forever be "least" in God's kingdom:
Matthew 5:18-19 For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
At the return of Jesus, there will be "great" and "small" people in the kingdom. They will all have the same legal position, but their living condition will be vastly different. Just like there are many citizens in the USA, but they don't all share the same living condition:
Revelation 19:5 Then a voice came from the throne, saying, “Praise our God, all you His servants and those who fear Him, both small and great!”
This has been allowed in the past, and will continue to be an option until the day Jesus splits the sky, BUT, this choice is the problem facing the CHURCH in OUR generation!!
The Bible vividly describes God "turning up the heat" in one generation to force everyone into a choice: Love Him wholeheartedly and find safety in His presence NOW...or approach Him casually and "fall away." This is called the "valley of decision" in the Book of Joel:
Joel 3:14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord (His second coming) is near in the valley of decision.
Many are unprepared for this. Half-hearted..."luke warm"... Jesus followers are actually the most common kind in the non-persecuted Church (the western church). Luke warm believers are people who have their legal position set...they are actually in the church...but they measure their life and desire to build their comfort and security in the WORLD. Jesus is VERY against this living condition:
Revelation 3:15-17 “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked—
The building of the new song, the rebuilding of David's tabernacle is the context which Jesus will use to draw out and express wholeheartedness. You have to be wholehearted in your love for, and faith in, God to make your primary plan to weather the worst trouble to ever hit planet earth "to sing and pray to Jesus." Right now, many are getting more and more alarmed by the events happening in the earth. Singing and praying...making God your strength...is a hard choice to make, but it is what God will use to demonstrate a difference between His people and those bound for a lake of fire:
Psalms 37:5-6 Commit your way to the Lord , Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light...
This idea of driving "evil" off the planet is really important to understand. Evil isn't a force equal and opposite to God that He needs to defeat in one last show of strength. Evil is actually VERY EASY for God to destroy, because evil isn't a force at all...evil is the absence of God.
God is the light...the power source, to use a crude analogy...for mankind. Evil is the absence of God's light...the Bible likens this to the relationship of dark to light. God is light, evil is darkness. Darkness is simply the absence of light. That is why the tiniest light destroys darkness. A little "something" is infinitely more than nothing. The more dark a place is, the more powerful a tiny light becomes!
God is the light of man (John 1). God made everyone to live forever in His presence...the power source of life. God is the ONLY true power source, nothing can exist apart from His will for it to exist. He created ALL things and by His will they exist. Nothing that was made can exist apart from Him (Colossians 1:13-20). BUT, this is the crux of the problem the earth faces...the source of tribulation: God made certain things to dwell with Him in love! Specifically, God made people and angels to love Him. So, in order for love to be real, God had to give people and angels free will...so they could CHOOSE to love God back.
No free will = no love. But free will is risky! Not everyone wants to be with God forever. 1/3 of the angels chose evil...the absence of God's perfect leadership of light...they chose darkness. Many people, at the prompting of satan, the first one to rebel against the light, also choose to try to live apart from God, the power source of life.
Because God chose love, EVERYONE will get what they really desire in the end. God gets what He wants, which is a creation that lasts forever and also "lives" in love, and people either get life in the presence of that love, or the absence of life eternal...while still "lasting" forever.
God calls this awful condition of lasting forever apart from the source of life a "lake of fire"...consumption and decay that never ends:
Revelation 20:15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.
So, this is the main purpose of the new song: to demonstrate to all the earth what a wholehearted connection with the author of life really looks like. In one last generation, God will demonstrate to all of creation that wholeheartedly...with all of your time, money, emotion, and faith...making Him your strength is what will sustain people forever. He does this by making the consequences for this choice manifest on earth over a period of seven years...called the tribulation.
The point of this plan to release tribulation is very simple: God uses the least intense means necessary to reach the greatest number of people, at the deepest heart level, without ever violating their free will. God refuses to violate free will, because He refuses to violate love. BUT, He is a good Father who also refuses to sit idly by and watch His beloved creation elect to live forever in a state of death...the absence of life. For the wages of sin IS death. That will never change. So God will "turn up the heat" in sevenfold (perfect) increases three (fully...complete) times. This is described in the Book of Revelation as seals, trumpets and bowls. These are all intended to convince the last generation to choose to live in the light of man before that choice is made permanent.
Sin is the choice for the absence of God and His leadership, and the consequence...the cost...of that choice is darkness, the absence of the source of life. This is what the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was all about!
Adam and Eve were created with the knowledge of good. God is good...every good thing flows out of His very being. He is an infinite well of goodness and beauty...every good and perfect thing flows from Him continually:
James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
Adam and Eve walked and talked with God face to face. The knowledge of GOOD was fully available to them at the time of creation! The one choice for free will, or the choice to say "no" to perfect love was the tree of the knowledge of good AND evil. This was the choice to contrast that knowledge of good with the knowledge of the absence of good.
The choice to eat from the tree was the same as saying "lets find out what life apart from God looks like." This is the same as saying "thanks, but no thanks" to life in the fullness of God's unending light and love....which equals a choice for death...the absence of the light of man.
Adam and Eve didn't want God's absence...they wanted what they thought was "more" than God had given them, which was the knowledge of life apart from Him. This was actually "less" than God had given them, because they desired the knowledge of what life would be like in less light...which is evil, the absence of God.
This choice was really a choice for a "half-hearted" relationship with the infinite source of life. They were created with a perfect capacity to dwell in the presence of an infinite God...they were infinite in their capacity to encounter Him. When they chose to agree with the knowledge of life away from God, they chose some measure of darkness. Suddenly, there was a limit to the amount of light they could experience. Anything less than infinite, is "infinitely less", and suddenly God's infinite bright glory became deadly to them...the same way a flashlight is deadly to darkness. The wage of sin IS death.
Half-heartedness is a serious problem!! Half-heartedness is what introduced death to God's infinite creation. Trying to connect part of your life to God, while still attempting to remain at "arms length" from His leadership is the most dangerous proposition.
Obeying God is coming under His leadership. The law was given to Moses to show mankind what that looks like. The law will never change. What God calls good is good forever. Many modern Christians don't understand this, and think they can have God's presence without His leadership. Because of love...because of free will...God has always allowed this "less than full" relationship with Himself. Everyone gets what they want, and many have attempted a half-hearted relationship with God, some even successfully...they will forever be "least" in God's kingdom:
Matthew 5:18-19 For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
At the return of Jesus, there will be "great" and "small" people in the kingdom. They will all have the same legal position, but their living condition will be vastly different. Just like there are many citizens in the USA, but they don't all share the same living condition:
Revelation 19:5 Then a voice came from the throne, saying, “Praise our God, all you His servants and those who fear Him, both small and great!”
This has been allowed in the past, and will continue to be an option until the day Jesus splits the sky, BUT, this choice is the problem facing the CHURCH in OUR generation!!
The Bible vividly describes God "turning up the heat" in one generation to force everyone into a choice: Love Him wholeheartedly and find safety in His presence NOW...or approach Him casually and "fall away." This is called the "valley of decision" in the Book of Joel:
Joel 3:14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord (His second coming) is near in the valley of decision.
Many are unprepared for this. Half-hearted..."luke warm"... Jesus followers are actually the most common kind in the non-persecuted Church (the western church). Luke warm believers are people who have their legal position set...they are actually in the church...but they measure their life and desire to build their comfort and security in the WORLD. Jesus is VERY against this living condition:
Revelation 3:15-17 “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked—
The building of the new song, the rebuilding of David's tabernacle is the context which Jesus will use to draw out and express wholeheartedness. You have to be wholehearted in your love for, and faith in, God to make your primary plan to weather the worst trouble to ever hit planet earth "to sing and pray to Jesus." Right now, many are getting more and more alarmed by the events happening in the earth. Singing and praying...making God your strength...is a hard choice to make, but it is what God will use to demonstrate a difference between His people and those bound for a lake of fire:
Psalms 37:5-6 Commit your way to the Lord , Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light...
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