Stand
STAND
Psalm 48:1A Song. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.
Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised
In the city of our God,
In His holy mountain.
2Beautiful in elevation,
The joy of the whole earth,
Is Mount Zion on the sides of the north,
The city of the great King.
3God is in her palaces;
He is known as her refuge.
4For behold, the kings assembled,
They passed by together.
5They saw it, and so they marveled;
They were troubled, they hastened away.
6Fear took hold of them there,
And pain, as of a woman in birth pangs,
7As when You break the ships of Tarshish
With an east wind.
This is a strange Psalm until you grab ahold of what it is describing, which is the New Jerusalem on earth again. The kings of the earth will bring the wealth of their nations to Jesus in the New Jerusalem:
Revelation 21:23The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.
24And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it.
25Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there).
26And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it.
There is an important principle in Psalm 48: the New Jerusalem is either glorious or terrifying, depending on your perspective, or where you view it from. From the ground level it is too big...to beautiful...it is terrifyingly glorious... Like the process of giving birth:
"6Fear took hold of them there,
And pain, as of a woman in birth pangs,
7As when You break the ships of Tarshish
With an east wind."
Everything about the New Jerusalem coming, which is really the story of Jesus coming back to earth, shares this same reality...it is great and terrible, entirely depending on where YOU are. In this passage from Joel 2, God takes credit for using the antichrist army to accomplish His goal, and then tells us how to respond to that great and terrible reality:
Joel 2:11The LORD gives voice before His army,
For His camp is very great;
For strong is the One who executes His word.
For the day of the LORD is great and very terrible;
Who can endure it?
12“Now, therefore,” says the LORD,
“Turn to Me with all your heart,
With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.”
13So rend your heart, and not your garments;
Return to the LORD your God,
For He is gracious and merciful,
Slow to anger, and of great kindness;
And He relents from doing harm.
Your heart position relative to the return of Jesus will determine how you experience His return. For many it will be terrible, because they would not adjust their position....they wouldn't "come up" to faith and the "terrible" beauty of Jesus' return. Many simply will not humble themselves and take a stand for truth. The truth is, Jesus is going to allow some offensive things to happen, but they are only offensive to people at "ground level" who refuse to be shown the beauty of Jesus' plans from His perspective. This refusal causes offense. Jesus warned that offense will produce a falling away:
Matthew 24:8“All these are the beginning of sorrows.
9“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake.
10“And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.
11“Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.
12“And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.
13“But he who endures to the end shall be saved.
Endurance requires vision and determination...you have to know where you are going and mentally begin living in that place. Right now, I hear the Lord say many are undecided. They do not STAND for truth. Knowing what you think might be true, and actually taking a stand...living into that truth by choosing to be confident in it, and warn others about the true nature of Jesus' coming... are two totally different things. One is lukewarm, and the other is red hot. One leaves you "safe" with men, but in a very dangerous position with Jesus:
Revelation 3:15“I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot.
16“So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.
17“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—
18“I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.
Standing for truth is required, because it is good for you to decide what you believe and start living into the truth...actually LOVING what you believe is true. Knowing what you "think might be true" is different. You can't love truth from a distance, you have to decide to own it. Something you love is either yours...accepted by you...or it is simply someone else's and is admired by you, or curious to you, or interesting...but not loved. You MUST love the truth...make it yours...or you will actually eventually choose lies that will destroy your salvation:
2 Thessalonians 2:5Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things?
6And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time.
7For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way.
8And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.
9The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders,
10and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie,
12that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Who are these sad ones...heathens? Unbelievers?...no, they are tares (false wheat) among the wheat...they are believers who simply wouldn't go all the way into loving the truth...that is why they fall away in the time of tribulation:
Luke 8:13And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away.
The time of testing is intended to find out if you are wheat or tare! This entirely depends on whether or not you love truth enough to stand for it...with your words and actions...and let it bear fruit in your life. False wheat, or tares, look just like wheat, but they never bear fruit. You don't find out the difference until harvest...until the very end.
Are you producing the fruit of what you think is true? Do you believe that trouble is coming enough to warn others, or to simply be quietly warned yourself, standing on the edges of the camp of those taking a stand for what is true? It isn't enough to know the people that stand with Jesus...you have to be one of them...you have to learn, and then love, the truth. Your love will be tested harshly unless you stand now, while there is time:
Revelation 3:9“Indeed I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but lie—indeed I will make them come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you.
10“Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.
11“Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown.
Over and over in the Bible we hear of the false believers who would not love truth. They don't know they are false...a synagogue of Satan. In the beginning of the church, to accept Jesus was thought to have become Jewish (read Acts 15). Many say they are in Jesus', a Jewish man's, family and under His leadership, but they lie...and mostly they lie to themselves. This hour will test them. Do you stand with those who lie about really loving the truth of His return, or do you stand with those who love and live in that very truth? It is very important that we all see where we stand, and, if we are not standing, actually repent and move into the proper position. The spirit of the antichrist comes out of the church!
1 John 2:18 Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour.
19They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.
20But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things.
The antichrist spirit simply takes all of the things "Truth" (Jesus) will accomplish without compromise, and turns them into what mankind can accomplish by compromising truth.
Truth requires a stand...for love...to resist the devil, so he will flee.
The more I take this stand, the more slander is thrown at me and the truth about who I am. For decades I took very few stands, and even then, only the popular ones, and I received no slander. As soon as I started to talk about Jesus' return...the truth of it...and the intense realities of that truth, suddenly slander came into my life.
That is the beauty of the process. The more I am slandered, the more I have to search and decide:. Where do I actually stand? Do I love the truth enough to fight for it and my place in it? Or, am I open to everyone's "truth" in a humanistic ideal of being "fair" and "open"...
Humanistic thinking tries to equally value every side of a story. That isn't a love of truth. Humanism only loves one person: self. Humanistic love that accepts all truth is simply an emotional mechanism to never actually stand for one truth so that reputation is never at risk. But what is true only occupies one position...and you have to learn to love it enough to stand in it, and for it. Truth is a man, and He is coming in a very offensive way:
Luke 12:47“And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.
48“But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.
49“I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!
50“But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished!
51“Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division.
52“For from now on five in one house will be divided: three against two, and two against three.
53“Father will be divided against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”
54Then He also said to the multitudes, “Whenever you see a cloud rising out of the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming’; and so it is.
55“And when you see the south wind blow, you say, ‘There will be hot weather’; and there is.
56“Hypocrites! You can discern the face of the sky and of the earth, but how is it you do not discern this time?
John the Baptist stood for truth. Sure, he was a curiosity. Yes, he was intense. The multitudes went out to see him. But, those who did not love truth...those who simply didn't want to miss what was happening...they missed the entire point of John. He violently stood for truth, and he was actually credited with beginning a movement that would " take the kingdom" right out of the hands of Satan, who had stolen it with lies:
Matthew 11:5“The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.
6“And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.”
7As they departed, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?
8“But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses.
9“But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet.
10“For this is he of whom it is written:
‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face,
Who will prepare Your way before You.’
11“Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
12“And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.
Now is the time to stand. If you won't stand now, you simply won't have the strength to stand later. This is entirely about what you say...what you call good, and what you call evil. What do you say? What do you know? Do you love the truth enough to stand for it?...enough to own it?...enough for it to be yours?
Isaiah 5:20Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness;
Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
21Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,
And prudent in their own sight!
22Woe to men mighty at drinking wine,
Woe to men valiant for mixing intoxicating drink,
23Who justify the wicked for a bribe,
And take away justice from the righteous man!
24Therefore, as the fire devours the stubble,
And the flame consumes the chaff,
So their root will be as rottenness,
And their blossom will ascend like dust;
Because they have rejected the law of the LORD of hosts,
And despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
Matthew 7:20“Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
21“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
22“Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’
23“And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
24“Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock:
25“and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
26“But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand:
27“and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”
28And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching,
29for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.
Psalm 48:1A Song. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.
Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised
In the city of our God,
In His holy mountain.
2Beautiful in elevation,
The joy of the whole earth,
Is Mount Zion on the sides of the north,
The city of the great King.
3God is in her palaces;
He is known as her refuge.
4For behold, the kings assembled,
They passed by together.
5They saw it, and so they marveled;
They were troubled, they hastened away.
6Fear took hold of them there,
And pain, as of a woman in birth pangs,
7As when You break the ships of Tarshish
With an east wind.
This is a strange Psalm until you grab ahold of what it is describing, which is the New Jerusalem on earth again. The kings of the earth will bring the wealth of their nations to Jesus in the New Jerusalem:
Revelation 21:23The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.
24And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it.
25Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there).
26And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it.
There is an important principle in Psalm 48: the New Jerusalem is either glorious or terrifying, depending on your perspective, or where you view it from. From the ground level it is too big...to beautiful...it is terrifyingly glorious... Like the process of giving birth:
"6Fear took hold of them there,
And pain, as of a woman in birth pangs,
7As when You break the ships of Tarshish
With an east wind."
Everything about the New Jerusalem coming, which is really the story of Jesus coming back to earth, shares this same reality...it is great and terrible, entirely depending on where YOU are. In this passage from Joel 2, God takes credit for using the antichrist army to accomplish His goal, and then tells us how to respond to that great and terrible reality:
Joel 2:11The LORD gives voice before His army,
For His camp is very great;
For strong is the One who executes His word.
For the day of the LORD is great and very terrible;
Who can endure it?
12“Now, therefore,” says the LORD,
“Turn to Me with all your heart,
With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.”
13So rend your heart, and not your garments;
Return to the LORD your God,
For He is gracious and merciful,
Slow to anger, and of great kindness;
And He relents from doing harm.
Your heart position relative to the return of Jesus will determine how you experience His return. For many it will be terrible, because they would not adjust their position....they wouldn't "come up" to faith and the "terrible" beauty of Jesus' return. Many simply will not humble themselves and take a stand for truth. The truth is, Jesus is going to allow some offensive things to happen, but they are only offensive to people at "ground level" who refuse to be shown the beauty of Jesus' plans from His perspective. This refusal causes offense. Jesus warned that offense will produce a falling away:
Matthew 24:8“All these are the beginning of sorrows.
9“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake.
10“And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.
11“Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.
12“And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.
13“But he who endures to the end shall be saved.
Endurance requires vision and determination...you have to know where you are going and mentally begin living in that place. Right now, I hear the Lord say many are undecided. They do not STAND for truth. Knowing what you think might be true, and actually taking a stand...living into that truth by choosing to be confident in it, and warn others about the true nature of Jesus' coming... are two totally different things. One is lukewarm, and the other is red hot. One leaves you "safe" with men, but in a very dangerous position with Jesus:
Revelation 3:15“I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot.
16“So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.
17“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—
18“I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.
Standing for truth is required, because it is good for you to decide what you believe and start living into the truth...actually LOVING what you believe is true. Knowing what you "think might be true" is different. You can't love truth from a distance, you have to decide to own it. Something you love is either yours...accepted by you...or it is simply someone else's and is admired by you, or curious to you, or interesting...but not loved. You MUST love the truth...make it yours...or you will actually eventually choose lies that will destroy your salvation:
2 Thessalonians 2:5Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things?
6And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time.
7For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way.
8And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.
9The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders,
10and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie,
12that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Who are these sad ones...heathens? Unbelievers?...no, they are tares (false wheat) among the wheat...they are believers who simply wouldn't go all the way into loving the truth...that is why they fall away in the time of tribulation:
Luke 8:13And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away.
The time of testing is intended to find out if you are wheat or tare! This entirely depends on whether or not you love truth enough to stand for it...with your words and actions...and let it bear fruit in your life. False wheat, or tares, look just like wheat, but they never bear fruit. You don't find out the difference until harvest...until the very end.
Are you producing the fruit of what you think is true? Do you believe that trouble is coming enough to warn others, or to simply be quietly warned yourself, standing on the edges of the camp of those taking a stand for what is true? It isn't enough to know the people that stand with Jesus...you have to be one of them...you have to learn, and then love, the truth. Your love will be tested harshly unless you stand now, while there is time:
Revelation 3:9“Indeed I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but lie—indeed I will make them come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you.
10“Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.
11“Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown.
Over and over in the Bible we hear of the false believers who would not love truth. They don't know they are false...a synagogue of Satan. In the beginning of the church, to accept Jesus was thought to have become Jewish (read Acts 15). Many say they are in Jesus', a Jewish man's, family and under His leadership, but they lie...and mostly they lie to themselves. This hour will test them. Do you stand with those who lie about really loving the truth of His return, or do you stand with those who love and live in that very truth? It is very important that we all see where we stand, and, if we are not standing, actually repent and move into the proper position. The spirit of the antichrist comes out of the church!
1 John 2:18 Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour.
19They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.
20But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things.
The antichrist spirit simply takes all of the things "Truth" (Jesus) will accomplish without compromise, and turns them into what mankind can accomplish by compromising truth.
Truth requires a stand...for love...to resist the devil, so he will flee.
The more I take this stand, the more slander is thrown at me and the truth about who I am. For decades I took very few stands, and even then, only the popular ones, and I received no slander. As soon as I started to talk about Jesus' return...the truth of it...and the intense realities of that truth, suddenly slander came into my life.
That is the beauty of the process. The more I am slandered, the more I have to search and decide:. Where do I actually stand? Do I love the truth enough to fight for it and my place in it? Or, am I open to everyone's "truth" in a humanistic ideal of being "fair" and "open"...
Humanistic thinking tries to equally value every side of a story. That isn't a love of truth. Humanism only loves one person: self. Humanistic love that accepts all truth is simply an emotional mechanism to never actually stand for one truth so that reputation is never at risk. But what is true only occupies one position...and you have to learn to love it enough to stand in it, and for it. Truth is a man, and He is coming in a very offensive way:
Luke 12:47“And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.
48“But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.
49“I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!
50“But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished!
51“Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division.
52“For from now on five in one house will be divided: three against two, and two against three.
53“Father will be divided against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”
54Then He also said to the multitudes, “Whenever you see a cloud rising out of the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming’; and so it is.
55“And when you see the south wind blow, you say, ‘There will be hot weather’; and there is.
56“Hypocrites! You can discern the face of the sky and of the earth, but how is it you do not discern this time?
John the Baptist stood for truth. Sure, he was a curiosity. Yes, he was intense. The multitudes went out to see him. But, those who did not love truth...those who simply didn't want to miss what was happening...they missed the entire point of John. He violently stood for truth, and he was actually credited with beginning a movement that would " take the kingdom" right out of the hands of Satan, who had stolen it with lies:
Matthew 11:5“The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.
6“And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.”
7As they departed, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?
8“But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses.
9“But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet.
10“For this is he of whom it is written:
‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face,
Who will prepare Your way before You.’
11“Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
12“And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.
Now is the time to stand. If you won't stand now, you simply won't have the strength to stand later. This is entirely about what you say...what you call good, and what you call evil. What do you say? What do you know? Do you love the truth enough to stand for it?...enough to own it?...enough for it to be yours?
Isaiah 5:20Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness;
Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
21Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,
And prudent in their own sight!
22Woe to men mighty at drinking wine,
Woe to men valiant for mixing intoxicating drink,
23Who justify the wicked for a bribe,
And take away justice from the righteous man!
24Therefore, as the fire devours the stubble,
And the flame consumes the chaff,
So their root will be as rottenness,
And their blossom will ascend like dust;
Because they have rejected the law of the LORD of hosts,
And despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
Matthew 7:20“Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
21“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
22“Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’
23“And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
24“Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock:
25“and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
26“But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand:
27“and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”
28And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching,
29for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.
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