Dominion
God has given great dignity to mankind. Because God gave dominion of the earth to mankind, our choices to obey or disobey the leadership of God directly impact the condition of the earth. Adam and Eve's first choice to rebel against God's leadership had terrible and massive implications for God, for their relationship with Him and proximity to Him, and for the earth itself, since they were the appointed stewards of the earth.
Genesis 3:17-19 And to the man he said, “Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains. By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return.”
The entire creation cannot exist outside of the light of God's glory. God's glory...His light...is the light everything needs to have life. Without the light of His glory everything would die. The earth and God's people are meant to live in the fullness of the glory of God. We actually can't go on like we are, barely living on a thread of glory leaking into creation...a lifeline...just enough to keep it all alive, but not living. The trees were supposed to produce fruit once a month...now the earth barely produces enough to live on...but we happen to live in a place it has been heaped up. Most of the world does not.
Right now, because of love, God has withdrawn from the physical realm while He remakes all of creation that wants to be remade. In our current state we could not handle the glory of God. Even words about God's glory have to be released "in time" as we are able:
John 16:12-14 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.
Partnering with the Holy Spirit to take us deeper into knowledge of the Holy One is what makes us able to bear the next release of glory. This process of reaching for more glory with my desire, and God releasing it into my heart as an expression of His desire, first with words, then in understanding, then in partnership by releasing the power of that glory into the earth around me through words spoken in faith, is the process Jesus has selected to bring heaven to earth...to remake, first the stewards of the garden, then the garden itself, through the glory invited by creation. Faith transforms the physical realm back into the way it was always meant to be, by inviting more glory...more of the light of God...to allow earth to live again. This happens small, as we...and consequently the earth...can bear it.
Luke 17:5-6 And the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.” So the Lord said, “If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.
This is the trouble: God won't wait forever for the inhabitants of earth to agree with this process. There is a time called "that Day." That day is the day God says enough is enough and advances the events of the earth to get everyone to choose in one generation...the generation that will see glory arrive with their physical eyes still intact. This is brighter than the sun landing on earth...I am going to need a frame capable of handling this kind of glory.
This process God has selected has gone on for thousands of years. The earth is defiled. It does not produce enough for its inhabitants to live on, and so 80 percent of the planet scratches the surface of the ground just to get enough to live on, meanwhile...here where we live, we have an overabundance so we are blind to our true condition. Apathy about the condition of the earth reigns in our hearts mostly because we don't literally have to scratch at the dust of the earth to live. We are content to live in little glory because we have settled for the abundance we experience in our little pocket of the dying earth. This is all about to change...suddenly. Jesus is done waiting...the Father is done waiting....the Spirit is moving....the Spirit is done waiting. But God wants no one destroyed by His glory...He wants everyone ready. His plan is to incrementally turn up the heat to get all to move now...while there is time.
BUT, God won't force anyone to agree with Him. He will not violate free will. God refuses to violate love. So, God has initiated a series of events described thoroughly in His word, designed to remove the false life that exists apart from His glory. The comfort is intentionally being removed. This is resulting in this very reality just beginning...it is already burning in many places and is coming here very soon:
Isaiah 24:1-13 Look! The Lord is about to destroy the earth and make it a vast wasteland. He devastates the surface of the earth and scatters the people. Priests and laypeople, servants and masters, maids and mistresses, buyers and sellers, lenders and borrowers, bankers and debtors—none will be spared. The earth will be completely emptied and looted. The L ord has spoken! The earth mourns and dries up, and the crops waste away and wither. Even the greatest people on earth waste away. The earth suffers for the sins of its people, for they have twisted God’s instructions, violated his laws, and broken his everlasting covenant. Therefore, a curse consumes the earth. Its people must pay the price for their sin. They are destroyed by fire, and only a few are left alive. The grapevines waste away, and there is no new wine. All the merrymakers sigh and mourn. The cheerful sound of tambourines is stilled; the happy cries of celebration are heard no more. The melodious chords of the harp are silent. Gone are the joys of wine and song; alcoholic drink turns bitter in the mouth. The city writhes in chaos; every home is locked to keep out intruders. Mobs gather in the streets, crying out for wine. Joy has turned to gloom. Gladness has been banished from the land. The city is left in ruins, its gates battered down. Throughout the earth the story is the same— only a remnant is left, like the stray olives left on the tree or the few grapes left on the vine after harvest.
This is happening all around us. In the Ukraine, in Venezuela, in Gaza, in Thailand...throughout the middle east...this is just the beginning. God is going to use the least intense means necessary to engage as many people as possible in His plan to bring glory to the earth...because glory is coming. One way or the other....the wait is over. But anything not remade....not able to bear the glory...will be consumed. It really will. Glory is coming incrementally, but so is death. Death is coming because many inhabitants of the earth refuse to respond to the clear signs that Jesus is done waiting. A response is necessary, because we have been assigned to the vineyard. It is our job to bring the glory as our main priority. If we don't actively pursue the release of glory into the earth night and day, it will come outside of us being ready for it. That is why Jesus said "be ready."
God is a consuming fire. I cannot BODILY...physically...live in His presence unless I have gotten myself ready, yet heaven IS coming to earth. Quickly. This presents quite a dilemma. One way or the other, the bright burning presence of God is going to shine again on the earth, but anyone not ready for the opening of heaven will be utterly consumed. It will happen incrementally though, by each person's own choice to respond in repentance to the intensity, and then begin expressing wholehearted desire for the glory to come. The other choice is to resist the changes in the earth because I am expecting to get a life apart from the glory of God returning. To resist the coming glory is to choose to be consumed by it.
The earth is not ready for all of this. The plan of the Lord is to force it into readiness by handing mankind over to itself. For thousands of years God has restrained the evil heart of man. Man is being released to himself slowly in this hour. Can you feel it? If what you desire is God...all in desire Him...you are going to get glory in great measure. If you desire anything less, you are going to get increasing trouble.
That is why the Book of Revelation describes things that scare most people. If I was ready, the events of Revelation would be something I would long for...because they mean God is coming back into His garden and glory is coming! Every believer is somewhere in process...in between ready and not ready.
My Spirit was ready the moment that I got saved, but my heart...my mind, will, and emotions...they need to be gotten ready by an act of my will! Love requires I choose it. I choose to participate in the release of glory by "watching," "praying," and being ready...just like the disciples did in Acts 2 in the upper room....as a lifestyle. Living like this...forgoing what the rest of the world calls life in order to get ready for glory requires a "Sermon on the Mount" lifestyle.
The Sermon on the Mount is the answer to the intensity of Revelation. The Sermon on the Mount is the process of dying now, to get ready for the glory...as opposed to dying later, when the glory comes.
If I am not all-in voluntarily choosing to live the Sermon on the Mount right now, God has a series of very intense things He is going to allow to happen to get me to choose it....to force the choice...for love. He desires none perish, but few are actively getting ready. By comparing the news to the Word, it is plain to see that time is done waiting. The day of Lord is at hand.
Genesis 3:17-19 And to the man he said, “Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains. By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return.”
The entire creation cannot exist outside of the light of God's glory. God's glory...His light...is the light everything needs to have life. Without the light of His glory everything would die. The earth and God's people are meant to live in the fullness of the glory of God. We actually can't go on like we are, barely living on a thread of glory leaking into creation...a lifeline...just enough to keep it all alive, but not living. The trees were supposed to produce fruit once a month...now the earth barely produces enough to live on...but we happen to live in a place it has been heaped up. Most of the world does not.
Right now, because of love, God has withdrawn from the physical realm while He remakes all of creation that wants to be remade. In our current state we could not handle the glory of God. Even words about God's glory have to be released "in time" as we are able:
John 16:12-14 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.
Partnering with the Holy Spirit to take us deeper into knowledge of the Holy One is what makes us able to bear the next release of glory. This process of reaching for more glory with my desire, and God releasing it into my heart as an expression of His desire, first with words, then in understanding, then in partnership by releasing the power of that glory into the earth around me through words spoken in faith, is the process Jesus has selected to bring heaven to earth...to remake, first the stewards of the garden, then the garden itself, through the glory invited by creation. Faith transforms the physical realm back into the way it was always meant to be, by inviting more glory...more of the light of God...to allow earth to live again. This happens small, as we...and consequently the earth...can bear it.
Luke 17:5-6 And the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.” So the Lord said, “If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.
This is the trouble: God won't wait forever for the inhabitants of earth to agree with this process. There is a time called "that Day." That day is the day God says enough is enough and advances the events of the earth to get everyone to choose in one generation...the generation that will see glory arrive with their physical eyes still intact. This is brighter than the sun landing on earth...I am going to need a frame capable of handling this kind of glory.
This process God has selected has gone on for thousands of years. The earth is defiled. It does not produce enough for its inhabitants to live on, and so 80 percent of the planet scratches the surface of the ground just to get enough to live on, meanwhile...here where we live, we have an overabundance so we are blind to our true condition. Apathy about the condition of the earth reigns in our hearts mostly because we don't literally have to scratch at the dust of the earth to live. We are content to live in little glory because we have settled for the abundance we experience in our little pocket of the dying earth. This is all about to change...suddenly. Jesus is done waiting...the Father is done waiting....the Spirit is moving....the Spirit is done waiting. But God wants no one destroyed by His glory...He wants everyone ready. His plan is to incrementally turn up the heat to get all to move now...while there is time.
BUT, God won't force anyone to agree with Him. He will not violate free will. God refuses to violate love. So, God has initiated a series of events described thoroughly in His word, designed to remove the false life that exists apart from His glory. The comfort is intentionally being removed. This is resulting in this very reality just beginning...it is already burning in many places and is coming here very soon:
Isaiah 24:1-13 Look! The Lord is about to destroy the earth and make it a vast wasteland. He devastates the surface of the earth and scatters the people. Priests and laypeople, servants and masters, maids and mistresses, buyers and sellers, lenders and borrowers, bankers and debtors—none will be spared. The earth will be completely emptied and looted. The L ord has spoken! The earth mourns and dries up, and the crops waste away and wither. Even the greatest people on earth waste away. The earth suffers for the sins of its people, for they have twisted God’s instructions, violated his laws, and broken his everlasting covenant. Therefore, a curse consumes the earth. Its people must pay the price for their sin. They are destroyed by fire, and only a few are left alive. The grapevines waste away, and there is no new wine. All the merrymakers sigh and mourn. The cheerful sound of tambourines is stilled; the happy cries of celebration are heard no more. The melodious chords of the harp are silent. Gone are the joys of wine and song; alcoholic drink turns bitter in the mouth. The city writhes in chaos; every home is locked to keep out intruders. Mobs gather in the streets, crying out for wine. Joy has turned to gloom. Gladness has been banished from the land. The city is left in ruins, its gates battered down. Throughout the earth the story is the same— only a remnant is left, like the stray olives left on the tree or the few grapes left on the vine after harvest.
This is happening all around us. In the Ukraine, in Venezuela, in Gaza, in Thailand...throughout the middle east...this is just the beginning. God is going to use the least intense means necessary to engage as many people as possible in His plan to bring glory to the earth...because glory is coming. One way or the other....the wait is over. But anything not remade....not able to bear the glory...will be consumed. It really will. Glory is coming incrementally, but so is death. Death is coming because many inhabitants of the earth refuse to respond to the clear signs that Jesus is done waiting. A response is necessary, because we have been assigned to the vineyard. It is our job to bring the glory as our main priority. If we don't actively pursue the release of glory into the earth night and day, it will come outside of us being ready for it. That is why Jesus said "be ready."
God is a consuming fire. I cannot BODILY...physically...live in His presence unless I have gotten myself ready, yet heaven IS coming to earth. Quickly. This presents quite a dilemma. One way or the other, the bright burning presence of God is going to shine again on the earth, but anyone not ready for the opening of heaven will be utterly consumed. It will happen incrementally though, by each person's own choice to respond in repentance to the intensity, and then begin expressing wholehearted desire for the glory to come. The other choice is to resist the changes in the earth because I am expecting to get a life apart from the glory of God returning. To resist the coming glory is to choose to be consumed by it.
The earth is not ready for all of this. The plan of the Lord is to force it into readiness by handing mankind over to itself. For thousands of years God has restrained the evil heart of man. Man is being released to himself slowly in this hour. Can you feel it? If what you desire is God...all in desire Him...you are going to get glory in great measure. If you desire anything less, you are going to get increasing trouble.
That is why the Book of Revelation describes things that scare most people. If I was ready, the events of Revelation would be something I would long for...because they mean God is coming back into His garden and glory is coming! Every believer is somewhere in process...in between ready and not ready.
My Spirit was ready the moment that I got saved, but my heart...my mind, will, and emotions...they need to be gotten ready by an act of my will! Love requires I choose it. I choose to participate in the release of glory by "watching," "praying," and being ready...just like the disciples did in Acts 2 in the upper room....as a lifestyle. Living like this...forgoing what the rest of the world calls life in order to get ready for glory requires a "Sermon on the Mount" lifestyle.
The Sermon on the Mount is the answer to the intensity of Revelation. The Sermon on the Mount is the process of dying now, to get ready for the glory...as opposed to dying later, when the glory comes.
If I am not all-in voluntarily choosing to live the Sermon on the Mount right now, God has a series of very intense things He is going to allow to happen to get me to choose it....to force the choice...for love. He desires none perish, but few are actively getting ready. By comparing the news to the Word, it is plain to see that time is done waiting. The day of Lord is at hand.
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