Following Jesus
The Bible is very clear about what God is doing in the earth. It is very clear about what to expect. The great test of our hour is related to who we are more willing to believe: God or man.
We are in the last days. Many in the Church agree this is true. BUT, many who believe we are in the last days rely on other people to tell them what that means.
Because many in the western Church will not search out the Bible for themselves in an active conversation with the Holy Spirit, but rather rely on what other people tell them, they are very confused about the end time attitude that pleases God. This is warned about in the Bible:
Isaiah 29:9-14 Pause and wonder! Blind yourselves and be blind! They are drunk, but not with wine; They stagger, but not with intoxicating drink. For the Lord has poured out on you The spirit of deep sleep, And has closed your eyes, namely, the prophets; And He has covered your heads, namely, the seers. The whole vision has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is literate, saying, “Read this, please.” And he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” Then the book is delivered to one who is illiterate, saying, “Read this, please.” And he says, “I am not literate.” Therefore the Lord said: “Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths And honor Me with their lips, But have removed their hearts far from Me, And their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men, Therefore, behold, I will again do a marvelous work Among this people, A marvelous work and a wonder; For the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, And the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden.”
There is a great cost for not coming to God for understanding YOURSELF. Many in the Church lack confidence that they can understand the Bible on their own. This is not humility, but rather arrogance. Jesus Himself said everyone needs to be taught by the Spirit individually, as that person was ready to "bear" more information. We are all at different places in our walk with the Lord. He is saying something different to you than He is to me:
John 16:12-15 “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. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.
The community...Jesus' body... growing up together into Jesus as the head is very important. God has appointed apostles, pastors, prophets and teachers to help us, but these helpers do not absolve each individual of abiding in God...which means we take all things to Him and let Him teach us through them in His Word. You will be held responsible for how seriously you took Jesus and His Word. Not knowing something because your favorite teacher didn't teach it will not be a valid excuse. Saddling another person with responsibility for your preparedness to endure is too much weight to put on any teacher or any "collective" of teachers. "Group think" is not a good thing in Jesus' body. Psalm 14 describes this dynamic in the end times:
Psalms 14:3-7 They have all turned aside, They have together become corrupt; There is none who does good, No, not one. Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, Who eat up my people as they eat bread, And do not call on the Lord ? There they are in great fear, For God is with the generation of the righteous. You shame the counsel of the poor, But the Lord is his refuge. Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion! When the Lord brings back the captivity of His people, Let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad.
Psalm 14 is an end time Psalm. This end time Psalm is describing "collective" thinking resulting in great fear among God's people as the return of Jesus occurs. The Psalmist says "you despise the counsel of the poor, but it is the Lord that is talking to Him." This means "don't disregard what the lone voice is saying"...that lone voice might be the only one willing to find out what God is actually saying. He might be the only one loyal enough to say the thing no one on earth wants to say. The consensus opinion is rarely the actual opinion of God:
Luke 6:26 Woe to you when all men speak well of you, For so did their fathers to the false prophets.
The point is, you need to think for yourself about what Jesus is doing, especially in the end times, because the promise is that false teaching is going to increase to a whole new level. It already has. This is what Jesus promised:
Matthew 24:9-12 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.
"Lawlessness" means operating in the spiritual realm apart from the leadership of Jesus. Many "anointed" teachers act out of the teaching of other people...they aren't abiding in Jesus for leadership of what to teach and when to teach it. Many mistakenly think there is safety in the "conservative" thinking and teaching they were taught. There IS wisdom in the "multitude of counselors" (Proverbs 11:14), but you must be discerning in understanding how big of a pool you are drawing from, and what you are to do with the counsel you are taking in. Many times what seems like "conservative" Bible understanding is simply a very small pool of group-thinkers. Sometimes. The only standard that is reliable every time is "what does YOUR Bible actually say when you and the Holy Spirit read it together."
The simple truth is that you cannot "abide" in a pool of people... even really smart ones. You have to abide in Jesus to bear the fruit of His kingdom. If you abide in teachers, you will bear their fruit:
John 15:5-6 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.
Many think they are right, simply because they think their opinion is shared by the majority. The truth is, the majority of believers in the west hold many NEW teachings as "conservative." For instance, the belief in a pre-tribulation rapture is incredibly liberal, but many mistakenly think it is a conservative view, simply because most of the people they know seem to subscribe to it. If you really look into the historical beliefs in the Church for the last 2,000 years, you quickly and easily find this is NEW thinking.
Another commonly held belief is the "imminent return of Jesus"...or believing Jesus could return any second. He could, but He simply won't. The Bible is clear that Jesus won't return until the Bride is sifted (made pure, spotless, and united by sanctification) and the antichrist is clearly present in the new temple on the temple mount. Paul warned that not believing the truth of the Word on this would be a point of deception:
II Thessalonians 2:1-5 Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things?
Group think has invaded the church in many ways. It has left a wake of confusion in its path, and what has resulted is very wrong attitudes about the return of Jesus. Many have mistakenly come to believe that the "group" that is waiting to be raptured are the safe ones. The self-appointed safe ones then begin to falsely judge the un-safe... they are "glad that they are not like the rest" who will be left behind. This is directly CONTRARY to what Jesus taught:
Luke 18:6-14 Then the Lord said, “Hear what the unjust judge said. And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Have you ever thought of that parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector as an "end-time" parable? The Bible is clear that Jesus taught it in the context of His return!
The return of Jesus demands a response of humility and repentance. This is a major part of the sifting. Falsely evaluating yourself as "in" and leaving the "rest" to be annihilated is the exact wrong attitude. Confidence in salvation is a wonderful gift, but it should make us tremble for the unsaved...to the point our lives become all about living like Jesus that our light would shine before all men and our "salt" would work:
Matthew 5:13-16 “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
The practical application of valuing my salvation, and then desiring that none would be lost is to "pray always." There is only so much time left. Prayer is the power behind evangelism. Therefore, I only have so much time left to pray and look for opportunities to walk through the doors prayer opens!
The correct attitude that pleases God is responding to the hour we live in with day and night prayer. Ironically, The Bible is clear that those who respond THIS way will be safe.
Luke 21:36 Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
But, it isn't an "in or out" kind of thing, it is about faithfulness...abiding...tapping into true power and keeping it flowing.
The ones who take the Lord seriously on what the Bible says is THE plan...these are the ones who will be safe, not by their superior position but by their humble agreement with God's very specific and clear plans.
Many mistakenly are grateful they aren't like those "left behind sinners over there" while not realizing the hour is leaving THEM behind because they won't respond and start crying out day and night for Jesus to come back. They are leaving themselves wholly unprepared to deal with the tribulation coming., because they aren't humbly recognizing the need to draw on true power now, while there is time.
God is going to sift His people...Israel and the Church...and there is only one safe place: David's Tabernacle. That is where you will find the true grains. The Tabernacle of David is the barn for the true grains. Saying you are safe when you clearly are not, according to the Bible, is a recipe for death:
Amos 9:9-11 “For I will give the command and will shake Israel along with the other nations as grain is shaken in a sieve, yet not one true kernel will be lost. But all the sinners will die by the sword— all those who say, ‘Nothing bad will happen to us.’ “In that day I will restore the fallen house of David. I will repair its damaged walls. From the ruins I will rebuild it and restore its former glory.
Don't just believe what the group around you does. No one is going to "wander" through the end times. Everyone is going to choose their way through it. You are actually choosing right now, whether you intend to or not. You want your choices to be well thought out and in agreement with the HUNDREDS of end time chapters in the Bible.
Find out for yourself. It is as easy as being diligent to ask Jesus "is that what the Bible says?" and then watch for His answers with a Bible open on your own lap.
We are in the last days. Many in the Church agree this is true. BUT, many who believe we are in the last days rely on other people to tell them what that means.
Because many in the western Church will not search out the Bible for themselves in an active conversation with the Holy Spirit, but rather rely on what other people tell them, they are very confused about the end time attitude that pleases God. This is warned about in the Bible:
Isaiah 29:9-14 Pause and wonder! Blind yourselves and be blind! They are drunk, but not with wine; They stagger, but not with intoxicating drink. For the Lord has poured out on you The spirit of deep sleep, And has closed your eyes, namely, the prophets; And He has covered your heads, namely, the seers. The whole vision has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is literate, saying, “Read this, please.” And he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” Then the book is delivered to one who is illiterate, saying, “Read this, please.” And he says, “I am not literate.” Therefore the Lord said: “Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths And honor Me with their lips, But have removed their hearts far from Me, And their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men, Therefore, behold, I will again do a marvelous work Among this people, A marvelous work and a wonder; For the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, And the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden.”
There is a great cost for not coming to God for understanding YOURSELF. Many in the Church lack confidence that they can understand the Bible on their own. This is not humility, but rather arrogance. Jesus Himself said everyone needs to be taught by the Spirit individually, as that person was ready to "bear" more information. We are all at different places in our walk with the Lord. He is saying something different to you than He is to me:
John 16:12-15 “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. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.
The community...Jesus' body... growing up together into Jesus as the head is very important. God has appointed apostles, pastors, prophets and teachers to help us, but these helpers do not absolve each individual of abiding in God...which means we take all things to Him and let Him teach us through them in His Word. You will be held responsible for how seriously you took Jesus and His Word. Not knowing something because your favorite teacher didn't teach it will not be a valid excuse. Saddling another person with responsibility for your preparedness to endure is too much weight to put on any teacher or any "collective" of teachers. "Group think" is not a good thing in Jesus' body. Psalm 14 describes this dynamic in the end times:
Psalms 14:3-7 They have all turned aside, They have together become corrupt; There is none who does good, No, not one. Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, Who eat up my people as they eat bread, And do not call on the Lord ? There they are in great fear, For God is with the generation of the righteous. You shame the counsel of the poor, But the Lord is his refuge. Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion! When the Lord brings back the captivity of His people, Let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad.
Psalm 14 is an end time Psalm. This end time Psalm is describing "collective" thinking resulting in great fear among God's people as the return of Jesus occurs. The Psalmist says "you despise the counsel of the poor, but it is the Lord that is talking to Him." This means "don't disregard what the lone voice is saying"...that lone voice might be the only one willing to find out what God is actually saying. He might be the only one loyal enough to say the thing no one on earth wants to say. The consensus opinion is rarely the actual opinion of God:
Luke 6:26 Woe to you when all men speak well of you, For so did their fathers to the false prophets.
The point is, you need to think for yourself about what Jesus is doing, especially in the end times, because the promise is that false teaching is going to increase to a whole new level. It already has. This is what Jesus promised:
Matthew 24:9-12 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.
"Lawlessness" means operating in the spiritual realm apart from the leadership of Jesus. Many "anointed" teachers act out of the teaching of other people...they aren't abiding in Jesus for leadership of what to teach and when to teach it. Many mistakenly think there is safety in the "conservative" thinking and teaching they were taught. There IS wisdom in the "multitude of counselors" (Proverbs 11:14), but you must be discerning in understanding how big of a pool you are drawing from, and what you are to do with the counsel you are taking in. Many times what seems like "conservative" Bible understanding is simply a very small pool of group-thinkers. Sometimes. The only standard that is reliable every time is "what does YOUR Bible actually say when you and the Holy Spirit read it together."
The simple truth is that you cannot "abide" in a pool of people... even really smart ones. You have to abide in Jesus to bear the fruit of His kingdom. If you abide in teachers, you will bear their fruit:
John 15:5-6 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.
Many think they are right, simply because they think their opinion is shared by the majority. The truth is, the majority of believers in the west hold many NEW teachings as "conservative." For instance, the belief in a pre-tribulation rapture is incredibly liberal, but many mistakenly think it is a conservative view, simply because most of the people they know seem to subscribe to it. If you really look into the historical beliefs in the Church for the last 2,000 years, you quickly and easily find this is NEW thinking.
Another commonly held belief is the "imminent return of Jesus"...or believing Jesus could return any second. He could, but He simply won't. The Bible is clear that Jesus won't return until the Bride is sifted (made pure, spotless, and united by sanctification) and the antichrist is clearly present in the new temple on the temple mount. Paul warned that not believing the truth of the Word on this would be a point of deception:
II Thessalonians 2:1-5 Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things?
Group think has invaded the church in many ways. It has left a wake of confusion in its path, and what has resulted is very wrong attitudes about the return of Jesus. Many have mistakenly come to believe that the "group" that is waiting to be raptured are the safe ones. The self-appointed safe ones then begin to falsely judge the un-safe... they are "glad that they are not like the rest" who will be left behind. This is directly CONTRARY to what Jesus taught:
Luke 18:6-14 Then the Lord said, “Hear what the unjust judge said. And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Have you ever thought of that parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector as an "end-time" parable? The Bible is clear that Jesus taught it in the context of His return!
The return of Jesus demands a response of humility and repentance. This is a major part of the sifting. Falsely evaluating yourself as "in" and leaving the "rest" to be annihilated is the exact wrong attitude. Confidence in salvation is a wonderful gift, but it should make us tremble for the unsaved...to the point our lives become all about living like Jesus that our light would shine before all men and our "salt" would work:
Matthew 5:13-16 “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
The practical application of valuing my salvation, and then desiring that none would be lost is to "pray always." There is only so much time left. Prayer is the power behind evangelism. Therefore, I only have so much time left to pray and look for opportunities to walk through the doors prayer opens!
The correct attitude that pleases God is responding to the hour we live in with day and night prayer. Ironically, The Bible is clear that those who respond THIS way will be safe.
Luke 21:36 Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
But, it isn't an "in or out" kind of thing, it is about faithfulness...abiding...tapping into true power and keeping it flowing.
The ones who take the Lord seriously on what the Bible says is THE plan...these are the ones who will be safe, not by their superior position but by their humble agreement with God's very specific and clear plans.
Many mistakenly are grateful they aren't like those "left behind sinners over there" while not realizing the hour is leaving THEM behind because they won't respond and start crying out day and night for Jesus to come back. They are leaving themselves wholly unprepared to deal with the tribulation coming., because they aren't humbly recognizing the need to draw on true power now, while there is time.
God is going to sift His people...Israel and the Church...and there is only one safe place: David's Tabernacle. That is where you will find the true grains. The Tabernacle of David is the barn for the true grains. Saying you are safe when you clearly are not, according to the Bible, is a recipe for death:
Amos 9:9-11 “For I will give the command and will shake Israel along with the other nations as grain is shaken in a sieve, yet not one true kernel will be lost. But all the sinners will die by the sword— all those who say, ‘Nothing bad will happen to us.’ “In that day I will restore the fallen house of David. I will repair its damaged walls. From the ruins I will rebuild it and restore its former glory.
Don't just believe what the group around you does. No one is going to "wander" through the end times. Everyone is going to choose their way through it. You are actually choosing right now, whether you intend to or not. You want your choices to be well thought out and in agreement with the HUNDREDS of end time chapters in the Bible.
Find out for yourself. It is as easy as being diligent to ask Jesus "is that what the Bible says?" and then watch for His answers with a Bible open on your own lap.
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