(Message given on June 1, 2008 in Schenectady, New York)
[For a printable version click here.]
Here we are going to talk about “the day star.” Let us begin by reading from 2 Peter 1, verse 19.
19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:
20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
Maybe we should go back to Verse 14 here and just kind of get the context of this again. Peter is apparently an older man now. He says:
14 Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me.
Peter knows that his days are coming to an end in the natural flesh and we know that Peter became a martyr. He knew that his time was coming and yet he is writing very positive.
15 Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.
This was his last will and testament. Amen.
16 For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
There are words that are being preached today under the name of Jesus Christ which are
really “cunningly devised fables.” It is not the word of God. Peter was apparently reminding them, as this was apparently going on already at the time of Peter. Men were twisting the Word of God to their own benefit. They were misleading people. Already in that day there were those who were taking advantage of people. “We have not followed these cunningly devised fables.” Peter is saying that we have held steadfast and true to the Word of God.
16 For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
Peter is also teaching an “end-time coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The promise of Christ’s coming is not a fable. It is a reality. It is a truth. “Though the vision tarry, hold on to it. It will come.” (Habakkuk 2:3) Amen. He will come!
Peter said, “We were eyewitnesses of his majesty.” Isn’t it funny that they didn’t really know that they were eyewitnesses at the time? I mean Peter is the one that rebuked Jesus and said to Him,
“Nay Lord, be it far from thee.” (Matthew 16:22) “You are not going to go to that cross. You are not going to die. We are not going to lose you.”
Then it says that Jesus turned and rebuked Peter,
“Get thee behind me, Satan… for thou savourest not the things that be of God (and of the Spirit) but those that be of men.” (Matthew 16:23)
Amen! They didn’t realize the majesty.
What would you do if you thought you had the opportunity of walking three and a half years and receiving a college education with God? With GOD! Wouldn’t you probably
behave differently than they behaved? They didn’t see it, did they? But now Peter sees it.
16 For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
He says, “We had that privilege!” “The word that we are bringing to you we heard from Him. It is not a fable! It is a sure word of prophesy, and this voice that came from heaven, we heard it! We heard that voice from heaven.”
2 Peter 1
17 For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
18 And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.
Peter was one of the three that were there with Jesus on that mount. “We have a more sure word of prophecy. A prophetic word made more sure.” Amen.
19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:
Can you see a picture of a light in a dark place? What happens in a dark place when a light
is turned on? It’s gone! The darkness is gone! But there is no way that you can turn darkness on and cause the light to flee.
I don’t know how it happened but Satan must have decided that there must be a realm of darkness. I don’t know what went through his mind there when he was that anointed cherub in heaven. Somehow he got to thinking about it.
“God is the KING OF LIGHT. There must be something opposite of light that has no king. If only I could be the king of that other side. I’ll bring a balance to all this thing. I’ll be the KING OF DARKNESS. Maybe I can even overcome the light with my darkness?”
Obviously he had to have been deceived by some of this thinking to believe that he could
actually pull this off and win. But going back, Peter says that, “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed… until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:”
What is going to happen when that day dawns? Do you brethren really realize that we
don’t know what “day” looks like? I don’t think we have really had a decent taste of day. We get little glimpses of light, but I don’t think that we have really seen the reality of “day.” As I look at the history of my generation, I believe that all of my generation has dwelt in some kind of a dim darkness. I suppose that some generations before me would probably say the same thing. I don’t think that we have ever seen the true reality of the true dawning of the light and the coming of the Day Star. I think it has been hidden. I think they saw a little bit of it back there in the days of Peter. But I think that already as Peter is writing, darkness is coming over already again. They didn’t really get the whole light. But there is a promise of that light! I think that it was Sister Joanne that was sharing at the prayer conference Saturday morning that she had a dream. She looked out the window at the brightest most beautiful sunrise that she had ever seen. I took it as a vision or a dream, although a sunrise is something that does happen. You know God has given us our sun and
our natural sunrise so that we will know what is the contrast and what it is really going to be like in the spiritual realm. When I said that I don’t think we have ever lived in light (in the reality of “day”), I was saying that I don’t think that we have ever seen the fulness of the brightness of spiritual light on this earth. Now I enjoy seeing sunrises. I don’t always enjoy waking up, but sunrises are nice. The beauty of the sun is just a beautiful thing.
So what are we talking about here when we talk about “the day star”?
…”until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts.”
We are talking about Jesus, of course! Now the day star technically is our sun. Our sun is a “star.” It is a natural star. When you go out at night and it is dark and you see those stars, except for the planets all those other stars are suns. Everything in the sky has a
meaning and the ancients understood this. Men like Abraham and Job, it is believed that they understood what all those stars meant. The ancients said that God wrote the history of salvation in the patterns and positions of the stars. It was understood by men of old, but it is something that I do not have an understanding of. But give us some time and we can look into it and we can understand it. The stars actually belong to God. They don’t belong to the devil. The devil may have corrupted these things to use for witchcraft or astrology, but they belong to God.
Let us go on. I want to further define this day star for you. Let us read from what Jesus promised to the overcomers in Revelation 2:
26 And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations…
28 And I will give him the morning star.
Again we need to take a little context of what this is all about. The morning star is the rising star that brings in the new day. So if we are going to have the morning star or the day star as a gift (a reward, if you please) for being an overcomer, then He is not going to give us a natural star from the sky. It is a spiritual picture here of Jesus Christ.
…”until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts.”
Now let me go back to this promise given in Revelation 2:
28 And I will give him the morning star.
This is to the church of Thyatira. Thyatira is a very interesting church, because here is the church that had to overcome the spirit of Jezebel. (Revelation 2:18-29) Now you know that the spirit of Jezebel is quite a thing to overcome. We have the spirit of Jezebel, I’ll tell you, in New York State. We have more spirit of Jezebel than any place I know of. My goodness, it was sixteen years ago when George Bush Senior was running against Bill Clinton. It was in the fall and I told the Lord (you have heard me say this before), but I said to the Lord, “Boy, it doesn’t look good for Bush.” (This was the Senior Bush.)
To my surprise the Spirit of the Lord spoke to me and said, “No. You are going to have Jezebel.”
I was shocked at the Lord saying something like that. I thought to myself, “Jezebel? There is nobody running for President named Jezebel?”
He let it sink in for just a minute and then He added, “And her husband.”
So you can see from the Lord’s point of view who was really running the show and who wants to run the show again. I don’t know how long that prophetic word is supposed to
last? I hope it doesn’t last again for another so many years and I hope it is not prophetic for what is to come. I hope it’s time is over.
You know, some of these prophetic things do have an end. But here in New York we have still have Jezebel. Now that is out in the world, but the sad thing is that Jezebel gets into the church. This spirit of “ruling over and taking dominion over other people” is the spirit of Jezebel. It doesn’t have to be a female that manifests a spirit of Jezebel. Men can manifest that spirit just as well. However it is best expressed I suppose in a natural female.
Back in Verse 20, Jesus had this to say to the church in Thyatira,
20 Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.
“Sufferest” means that you “allow” this woman Jezebel, who “calleth herself a prophetess.” Now this isn’t just some worldly woman coming into the church, who is wicked, unrighteous and obvious to everybody. She comes in with a spirit of religion and she holds
herself out to be a prophetess. In other words, she is going to have a prophecy for everybody. “Oh, thus saith the Lord, here is a word for you.” You know? Also she puts butter and sugar and cream on everybody with her prophesies.
I don’t want to go into the whole thing. I just want to tell you that here is a church that has to overcome Jezebel.
21 And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.
He gave her space to repent of her what? Fornication! “Spiritual” fornication! Often when
there is spiritual fornication, there ends up being natural fornication as well. So we see that we are also dealing with the spirit of porneia [the word “fornication” in this verse is the word “porneia” in the Greek; #4202 in Strong’s] (spiritual as well as natural).
22 Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great
tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.
What is spiritual adultery? How do you define spiritual adultery? It is being unfaithful to the Lord Jesus Christ and going after other lovers, other gods, other Christs, other charisma’s. Do you follow what I am saying? Jesus said in Matthew 24:24,
“For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.”
Jesus said “Many shall come in my name….” False prophets, false Christs! I remember at one time thinking, “Well, who in the world would buy this if somebody stands up and says, ‘I am Christ’?” But that isn’t quite the way that they are going to do it. They come with this great charisma, this great majesty, and they want you to buy the person of man with the great charisma. This is spiritual adultery when you start following and looking after that spirit rather than Jesus Christ Himself. Okay? You are in bed with someone else, in other words.
Revelation 2
23 And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.
So the spirit of Jezebel, like the spirit of harlotry, also begets children. There are “carbon copies” that come out of these things. My goodness, in the church world there are so many carbon copies. Somebody gets a big thing going somewhere in some city in Florida, or some city in Texas, or some city in Canada, somewhere; and Pastors come from all over and say, “What is he doing?” “What is he doing? Let’s do it like he does. We are going to have the same thing going.”
What it is doing is—it might be a spirit of harlotry, and they are making children of it and they all want to carbon copy the same thing. Why would we want to do that? Well, because they are drawing hundreds and hundreds of people. So if we do the same thing we will get hundreds and hundreds of people. That is what man wants.
So I am talking about overcoming Jezebel; and He comes down here to Verse 26:
26 And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:
My goodness! What is happening in the nations today? Go to the last paragraph of the report that I just passed out and read that last section: “The Coming of the New World
Order.” [Note: Referred paragraph is appended at the end of this document.] When we were in Ireland what got me asking questions was that every lamp post had this big sign on it in the town where we were staying that said,
“Vote Yes! Make Europe work better!”
Then on the next lamp post there would be another sign that said,
“Vote Yes on the Treaty! Make Europe function better.”
Finally I said to the brethren, “What kind of a vote are you guys doing here? What are you voting on to make Europe work better?”
They said, “Oh, that is the Lisbon Treaty.”
I asked, “What is that all about?” So one of them got me a printed flier. They had fliers everywhere, and they gave me the flier and I began to read what it was.
It started off by the Treaty of Rome initiated by the Pope quite some years ago. Then it
became the Maastricht Treaty. Then it had another name, the European Union Treaty or something like that. It has 27 members now. So what is this new treaty about? Well apparently everybody didn’t completely ratify everything the last time that they went to vote. Also it seems that Ireland is the only country where the actual population is going to vote. In the other countries, just their big-shot representatives are going to be the ones to vote. This is supposed to make the final European Community a reality January 1, 2009.
One of the biggest changes in comparing this treaty with the current agreement is that presently every one of these nations has a six month rotation in which their representative serves as President for six months of this European Community. But this new treaty would give them a President for 2 ½ years and then he can run for another 2 ½ years. Also this President will be elected from the Council of their own representatives, not by the people.
I suppose there are a number of men who would like to be President? Tony Blair is one of the chief contenders. But the bylaws state that the President has to be a Catholic. So I am looking in the Time magazine that just came and there is a major article about Tony Blair and Tony Blair’s faith. It seems that Tony Blair has converted to Catholicism. It was convenient to be a Protestant while he was the Prime Minister of England, now it will be convenient to be a Catholic. By the way his wife has been Catholic all along and his four kids have all been raised as Catholic, so what difference does it make as far as Tony is concerned? Just another religion!
Anyway, they are going to have an opportunity for a powerful leader. The boundaries are all gone, except in Ireland of course. Ireland kept their boundaries. We drove from Germany to Czech and we went flying through the border. The booths are still there where the passport guards used to stand. Now they are empty, vacant. This is just like what happened when we went from West Germany over to East Germany in the days when the Iron Curtain went down. All of those great big guard towers that were there when we went through the first time were now just big old empty guard towers where the guards used to stand with their machine guns looking to see who was going to try to escape. Now they are empty. Now the border patrols are gone. They said that you can drive today all the way to Hungary and there are no borders. You can fly now right through. It is just like going from New York to Pennsylvania, to Ohio, to Illinois, whatever. You know, you just keep right on driving.
In earlier years, when we rode the train back, every other time that we crossed the border
from Czech to Germany they would bang on our door: “Passport control!” Now there is nothing! Nobody interrupted us at all, and when you come on back to Germany it is the same thing, no borders.
I’ll tell you what, brethren. Something is happening in Europe. But, do you hear this on the news here? Does it get on the 6 O’clock news on the television? No! Do you know what they tell us all about? They spend days telling us about somebody that misused their dog or didn’t feed their horse, or something like that. They will go on and on for three or four days, every episode about this event of somebody that mistreated some animal. Which is bad, but come on—give us some real news! You know? Tell me what is going on in this
world.
They don’t want us to know. They don’t have to have passports now over in Europe, but now we are going to have to have a passport here just to go over into Canada. Tell me that something funny isn’t going on? You do not hear that in the news either, about what their plans are for our country.
Anyway, let me get back to the word here. Okay? Please save a few questions for the end. It
says here:
Revelation 2
26 And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:
Do you understand? In the end, it isn’t going to be these military officers and bankers and politicians that are going to rule the nations. It is going to be the people of God (the body of Christ) and they are going to rule with and under the headship of Jesus Christ in the new kingdom of our God.
27 And he shall rule (shepherd) them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.
The “rod of iron” is the shepherd’s rod by the way. It is not meant to be something to beat them down.
28 And I will give him the morning star.
29 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
This is a message to the churches. Brethren, I think this is a message of hope. We are going to have “the morning star.” That is going to be our reward. How many of you want the reward of “the morning star”? Oh my, I do! I’ll tell you what, I want the “morning star.”
Let’s get another picture of this same thing over towards the end of the Book.
Revelation 22
16 I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.
Jesus said “I sent mine angel.” The word angel means “messenger.” [“angel” is #32 in the Strong’s; “aggelos”: “a messenger; esp. an “angel”:] An angel can be a human messenger, an angel can be a heavenly messenger. How many of you believe that Jesus has His angels now preaching the word in the churches? They could be human messengers. We could be an angel of the Lord if we are following His instructions and bringing His Word. Any one of us could be the messenger of the Lord. We could be sounding the trumpet of the Lord. A trumpet that is sounding is making an announcement.
“I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.”
That sounds like the Alpha and the Omega, doesn’t it? The plant starts with the root. The offspring of the plant is the seed, isn’t it? In other words, “I am the beginning and I am the end of David.” What does David represent? Kingship! Authority! Dominion! Amen.
He said “I am….” Don’t you love it when He says, “I am”? I love it when He says, “I am.” My goodness! That is who He is: “I am.”
17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
Oh, bride of Christ, are you not saying “Come, Jesus!” When you see this darkness that is around us sometimes don’t you just cry out, “Oh come, Jesus!” When you see this deterioration of this mortal flesh, “Oh come, Jesus!” “Come, Jesus! Either You come to me, or I want to come to You, but I want You to come. I want the redemption of this world.” Isn’t that what you were praying today? We are praying for the redemption of all that we have corrupted in this world, “This earth, Lord, let it be redeemed, let it be restored.” It is going to be done by the bright and morning star.
You know, there is Verse 15 that comes just before this. He is talking about that which is “in” and that which is “without.” Amen! The bride, the holy city New Jerusalem would be that which is “in.” But He says here in Verse 15 who it is that would be “without.”
15 For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.
…”and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.” My goodness, that would include just about very politician, wouldn’t it? Do you know why I said that? Because they will say whatever they have to say to get what they want. One of the candidates running for president this year, though he says he has genuine faith and was a member of a church for so many years and he hung on to this pastor of this church so long, that he was the hero—how can he now (because of political ambitions) just leave that church and say, “Oh, I’ll leave that church and now I will go and join another one”?
To me this is “making a lie.” If you believe something, you believe it. If you don’t believe something, you don’t believe it; then get out of it. But don’t get out just because somebody criticizes it. If you believed it all along, stick with it.
“Dogs,” the term actually really means homosexuals. If you go back into the Old Testament and look in the Book of Exodus and look in the Book of Deuteronomy, that is what that term means. “Dogs and sorcerers,” the word “sorcerers” here is a form of the Greek word “pharmakos.” Do you know what “pharmakos” represents? Drugs! The drug business! Do you know the percent of American people who use drugs today? Illegal drugs? Do you realize that it simply flows like a river up from Mexico? We don’t want to close the border. No. We want the drugs to come. You have seen the report of that poor fellow (the president) down there, he is trying to stop it and his police chiefs are getting shot. The man’s life is being threatened because he wants to stop it. He has made an attempt and some of his chief men are resigning because their lives are threatened; they will not live if they continue to do what they are doing. He has lost some good men. Cocaine from Columbia flows right up through there.
Brethren, the whole business is “making a lie.” We had a former President that was shipping the stuff in to a special airport to make money for his campaigns. He was a drug dealer. A former President, who “maketh a lie”; the Lying King.
Anyway, among those who will be without are “whoremongers.” We are talking about the word “whoremongers” here. What it means is sexual immorality. By the way, there is another interesting statistic that I read. Hugh Hefner’s business is now being run by his daughter, and it said that because of the economy her business is down 30%. Isn’t that interesting? So when it comes to a choice between food and porneia, maybe people will make a choice. They said it was because of the economy. That is the business that we are talking about.
“Murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.” The thing about making a lie, track it over here to Verse 27 in Revelation 21.
27 And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
Apparently this is really a big deal with God, this thing about being honest. Where does
honesty reside in man? In his heart or is it in his tongue? It is really from the heart, isn’t it?
Now do you want another witness? Go back again in Chapter 21 to Verse 8. First, let us go
back to verse 7 and see the positive side of this.
7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
So there you have everything to overcome if you are an overcomer. But here in Verse 8 is a
list of the ones that won’t be in the holy city. Isn’t it interesting that three times in these chapters He lists the classifications of those that will not be in.
8 But the fearful, and the unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
So you can track this thing, this whole thing about the liar.
Now it has come to me recently, the picture of the throne of God. Remember the scene earlier in the Book of Revelation where they saw the throne and it was sitting on crystal. It was completely on crystal. Now brethren, I think this is a description of heaven. I am also reminded of this in the prophetic word that came through Brother Campbell, that very thing is going to be open and naked and exposed. There will be nothing hidden. There will be no fig leaves to cover.
You see, what happened when Adam and Eve fell is that everything in them became open. In other words, they stepped into the crystal, so to speak. So they saw it wasn’t so much the flesh that was the problem, although that is what they tried to cover. It says that their eyes were opened, and now they became aware that God saw everything and what they were aware of is that what God was seeing was their pollution. They had disobeyed, they had rebelled, they must have seen a lie in there somewhere. You see, they had bought THE LIE of the devil. So now THE LIE became a part of them; the lie of their rebellion that they could be as God – that they could be God. So do you see why we have to allow the Lord to purge us of all of this that I have listed? All abomination, all porneia, all idolatry, all lying. Why? Because we are going to a place where it is crystal. If you come into heaven with these things it is going to show up like a neon sign.
Repentance, brethren, cannot be in word only. We must cry out to God, “Change my heart!” “God, if I have a lying heart, I don’t want a lying heart.” “I don’t want a deceiving heart. Purge me of it.” “If I have lusts and longings of things that are contrary to the kingdom of God, purge me of it, Oh Lord.”
Then be ready to put up with the fire. I am telling you, brethren, I don’t know any other way into the kingdom than repentance. Repentance is not just coming up and getting on your knees and making a confession. That is a good start. You cannot be bringing these things into heaven without it polluting all of heaven. You see, we are talking about the “day star.” If you are going to be a recipient of the day star” then your heart has to be just as crystal clear as what we are defining right here. You cannot be wishy-washy this way and then the other way.
Revelation 4
6 And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.
…”four beasts full of eyes.” This is a picture of the human soul in that crystal clear place before the throne of God, with eyes everywhere—seeing, observing. There is nothing of pollution, nothing of abomination, nothing of idolatry, nothing of lying—total honesty, total openness! Can we deal with total honesty and total openness in a spirit of love? We haven’t been used to that, have we? In love is the only way we can deal with it, isn’t it?
Let me go over into Isaiah 58 just to pick up a few things about this “day star.” I love Brother Isaiah. We are talking about fasting here in Isaiah 58. Let me just kind of skip on from that.
Isaiah 58
6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
Some of this oppression and some of this yoke, we have to help somebody break free by our fasting. Amen. Some of these stubborn spirits that don’t want to let go.
7 Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not
thyself from thine own flesh?
In other words, you are going to have to get honest with yourself. So many times I ask God, “Oh God, do you find anything in me?” The problem is that I can’t find it in me. Why? Because I am so immune to my own flesh. I mean, my personality isn’t a problem to me, why should it be a problem to you? I live with it pretty well, it shouldn’t bother you. Well, maybe I should be more observant? Maybe it is bothering somebody else? Maybe somebody else is really finding it obnoxious. This is supposed to happen when you fast by the way.
All right, let’s get down to the good news here. Okay. This is when we are not hiding from our own flesh.
8 Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward.
…”and thine health shall spring forth speedily.” Hello? We want our health to spring forth speedily, don’t we? And the glory of the LORD, it shall be thy “rereward” (which is thy rear guard). How many of you would like to see righteousness going before you? I mean, here you are walking through the mall, and going before you is this great big bright ball of righteousness going before you. I say, can you imagine just seeing how people are reacting to this. I mean, you are just walking along in the darkness of the world. The glory in you just hits the darkness of the world and they just pull to the side, and some will want to
flee or hide themselves from it. Others may want to fight or destroy it.
“What was that?” “What is in that guy?”
“Wow, righteousness is going before him! Wait, there is something going behind him too!”
Brethren, I think this is going to happen in our generation, just like when Moses opened up the Red Sea. Yes!
9 Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thy shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;
How many of you want the Lord to answer? Do you want answers to your prayer? How many of you want power in your prayers? The key, the secret here is, …”thou shalt cry and he shall say, Here I am.” (There it is again—“I AM”!) Who are you going to be calling to? “I AM.” “Here I am.”
All right, there are some things here that have to be done too. Here are some negative things that have to be gotten rid of:
“If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity.”
What is the yoke? The yoke is “bondage.” Do we want to put yokes on people?
“Oh you can’t do that!”
“You can’t go there!”
“I didn’t approve that!”
My goodness we were talking to a young man just recently, a young man that found a beautiful woman to be his bride. He went to an elder in this group that she was a part of. The man said, “If you want the girl, you’ve got to come through me!”
My goodness! That is a yoke! That is putting a yoke on people. That is bondage, and that is the worst kind of discipleship. It is bondage. God says if you want to get your prayers heard, take away the yoke. Let people be free to hear the Spirit of God themselves. Now sure, if they are going the wrong way, warn them; but still they have the freedom to go the wrong way if they want to. God gives us that liberty.
Also, “…the putting forth of the finger.” What does “the putting forth of the finger” mean? The putting forth of the finger is “accusation”: “You did thus and thus.”
Oh, we don’t just say it. We point at someone else, and say, “Do you know what I know about them?” It says in Revelation 12 that the accuser of the brethren is going to be cast
down. Let us cast down the accuser of the brethren in any ground that he has in us. It is not our business to accuse the brethren before the throne of God! The brother belongs to God, let God take care of him.
Rather than accuse, let us pray to God, “Lord, I think this brother is in trouble. Help him.” But we don’t need to go around to others with our spirit of accusation. It is a terrible spirit. It sometimes works in families. And do not force your will upon others in your prayers. No, don’t force your prayers on them, that is witchcraft.
10 And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall
thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday:
It says that if you will do these things then your, “light will rise in obscurity.” How many of you think we have been maybe kind of obscure? What does “obscure” mean? Well, it’s where nobody knows anything about you; it’s where you are kind of hidden away. Apparently God wants you less obscure. He wants your light to be shining in such a manner that it can be seen so that others will be drawn to it.
Then He says, “…and thy darkness shall be like the noonday.” We have talked about the darkness, even of our own soul. He says it is going to be like the noonday.
Now, now let us go over to chapter 60, which to me is almost on the same page here.
Isaiah 60
1 Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.
Now we are talking about the “day star.” In the natural, we can see the sun rise and we see the sun set. Usually when the sun sets there is often a beautiful sky, isn’t there? Sometimes the clouds are so beautiful, and there are colors in the sky. What we are doing here is that we are observing it. We are only seeing it. We are seeing the glory of it, but that glory isn’t upon us, is it? We are just observing it. What place do you want to be? Do you want to just observe the glory of the kingdom of God? Or would you like the glory to be upon you? That sounds better, doesn’t it?
1 Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.
2 For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.
So it is not just earth, it is people that are full of this darkness. Amen. So it says, “the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee,” and “his glory shall be seen upon thee.” Now that is Old Testament yet; but it gets better than that. Do you want to stick with just having that glory upon you? Where do you want it? Yes, you want it inside you. Inside you!
Let’s go to Romans 8. I don’t understand why Romans 8 is so offensive to some people. I
just can’t understand it. I don’t understand why the mention of the phrase “sons of God” gets some people so angry.
I was out in the West years ago in a little fellowship and I just mentioned “sons of God”
and some people got so angry at us. They said, “Who are you? We thought we got rid of that talk about sons of God around here.”
I said, “Well brother, what do you want to do with it? Here it is in the Word of God. I can’t cut it out.”
The enemy has again corrupted the doctrine of the sons of God. He made something out of
it that God didn’t say. He made a yoke of bondage out of it; but let’s see what God really did say about it.
Romans 8
14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
There is here the definition of “the sons of God.” It is not an objectionable term. All it says is that you have to be “led by the Spirit of God” to be “the sons of God.” If you are led by something else, or someone else, how can you be the sons of God? If you are led by your pastor, if you are led by your bishop, if you are led by your whoever, whatever—you cannot be the sons of God. “Sons” mean that they relate directly to their Father. If you have another father… that is why Jesus said to call no man “father.” [Matthew 23:9] He did not want any substitute between us and the Father. Come directly to the Father; there is no other mediator or mediatrix between us and God.
All right, let us go on the Verse 18.
18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
In where? “In” us! It is not something where you are going to just be an observer; it is not something that is just going to be on you, but it is something that is going to be “in” you. There are three positions that you could be in:
You could be just an observer to be in position to see this glory when it is revealed,
You could be one whom this glory would come upon when it is revealed
Or you could be one who when this glory is revealed, it would be revealed inside a people, of whom you were a part.
Somebody was talking to me the other day and we were talking about a wedding. Where would you want to be in the wedding? Would you want to be in the audience? Would you want to be a bridesmaid? Or would you want to be the bride? You see, in the audience you are just being an observer. Those in the audience are just looking on. The bridesmaids, well they are participating, but they are not the one that is going to go home with the bridegroom when it is over with. Are they? They are not going to be joined to him. They are not going to be one with him. They are not going to be married to him.
I want to be “in the bride.” I want to be a part of those who are in the bride; it is just another way of saying the same thing (The glory of the Lord revealed within us). My goodness. I can just see that picture again now, the one where I tried to describe the way the glory of the Lord could be manifested in the world of spiritual darkness in which we currently dwell. I don’t know how to better define it. I wish I could.
What does it mean to have the glory of God within me? Imagine, I am going about my business, going to the grocery store—and the glory of God is in me! That means, I am not going in there with a striving nature or anything like that. I want to come in here with the “glory of God nature” in me. When I talk to the man that puts the vegetables out, if I have communication with him, I would like to do it as if Jesus were encountering that man. Amen.
I don’t want him to think, “Well who was that crank?” I want him to think, “Man! Wow! I
never met anybody like that!”
“Who was that lady? Oh wow! I like her!”
“I could make a friend of somebody like her.”
Then when difficulty comes—yes, we are going to see disasters come, and somebody is going to stand up and say, “STOP! Stop in the name of Jesus! You have come far enough,
you terrible tornado! Stop now! You are not coming any further.”
And it is going to stop! Why? Because the glory of Jesus in this day that we are in commanded the storm to stop. In Mark 4:39, Jesus commanded the storm to stop. He didn’t have to strive about it. He didn’t have to jump up and down and work up some
anointing or anything. He just stood up in a boat and said, “Stop!” That was it! And do you know something? The glory didn’t come and go. He didn’t have to work it up. He didn’t have to call it down. It was there. You know what, He could sleep with it. The disciples thought it was dead or perhaps asleep – it wasn’t.
I keep hearing that verse,
“When once the master of the house is risen up…” [Luke 13:25a]
It says that in Mark 4, Jesus was asleep in the boat when the storm first began. But “when
once the master of the house is risen up,” what is He going to do? He is going to manifest His authority, as He did in this situation.
Revelation 2
26 And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power (authority) over the nations:
This means that He is going to give authority to some. Oh, we are not going to take it on
our own. I mean how much authority does my hand have to hold the rod? No more authority than the head gives it. My hand is under dominion of my head. My brain tells my hand what it has authority to do with that rod that is in my hand. That is where the authority and the glory is going to emanate from.
Do I have time to go to John 17? Yes it is the Lord’s Prayer, but it is not the one that the religious authorities call the Lord’s Prayer. But it is the real Lord’s Prayer.
John 17
20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
How many of you believe that Jesus is talking here about us? In other words, His prayer is
going forth for us. It started nearly 2,000 years ago and there is a prayer that is still going forth in power.
21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
How well have we done on that in the last 20 years? Not very good have we? We have been
striving with one another, misunderstanding one another, quarrelling with one another, full of animosity and Oh, my goodness! So in other words, this prayer hasn’t been fulfilled yet? How many of you believe that Jesus got every one of His prayers answered? That means that He is going to get this prayer answered. It is going to happen one way or another. We are either going to submit to the Lord in this or we are not going to be in His body. I suggest that we had better submit to the Lord that we might be one.
Do you know that we are going to have to get a whole different attitude about people that
are different from us a little bit, and those in the body of Christ that do things a little bit differently than we would like to have them done. I think we are going to have to make some changes. I think we have room for repentance, don’t you? Do you know what? I have a feeling that maybe God is going to have us repent before He starts filling those empty chairs. We are going to love one another.
I am going to ask God to change my idiosyncrasies and I am going to put up with yours and I am not going to complain about them. That is the way it ought to be. When your idiosyncrasies bother me I am just going to say, “Lord, I don’t understand my brother, but He is Yours so You take care of him. I am going to try to love him, Lord.” Really, isn’t that all that I owe my brother?
Romans 13
8 Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.
John 17
21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
What kind of strife did Jesus and the Father ever have with each other? What kind of
misunderstandings did they ever have? I mean, did they ever have a problem putting up with each other? Why not? Because they are ONE. Does my soul or my flesh have a problem with each other? Well they had better not, or I am going to be in a lot of trouble. My mind and my flesh ought to agree with one another. When my mind says, “I want to go down here and go down the steps and get into my car, my flesh ought to be in agreement because it is one with me. I am one with me! My spirit, my soul and my body are one. The Father, Jesus the Son, the Spirit, they are One. There is no way that I can separate them. That is the pattern of oneness.
…”that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.”
Do you know what is going to convince the world? Oneness! Oneness! A brother at the German Conference was saying, “Preferring one another… What does it matter who is
first or who is last? What does it matter? Let the guy go first if he wants to go first.” Yes, this was spoken in the Conference in Germany. It was a Scot brother that was preaching, but I think it was the theme that was going forth at the conference: “What does it matter who is first?” Well it is one thing to say it, but it is another to believe it. Let’s not just say it, but let’s believe it. Let’s practice it. Amen.
John 17
22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
He didn’t say, “I will give them.” He said, “I give it to them now.” “It is theirs. They can take it. All they have to do is to be one and they will have it.” Guess who is working against us being one? The one that took over the place of darkness, he wanted to be a king of darkness. Satan fights our being one in our fellowships, in our families and in our marriages.
23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
Hallelujah. Let me just give you one more definition of star in a very positive aspect. By
the way, you know that the stars are going to fall. From Matthew 24:29, Mark 13:25 and other verses in the Scriptures, we know that stars are going to fall. Religious stars too are going to fall. It says that they are going to fall from heaven. Stars are going to fall. But there is a very interesting verse in the book of Daniel that I want to leave with you. Let’s read the first four verses in Daniel 12, it will be a good place to end. This is talking about the end time.
Daniel 12:1
And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
Who are God’s people? It is us! We are God’s people. We can also claim Michael, the great prince. Amen. Yes, Michael belongs to us too.
We are talking about a time of trouble. Brethren I am saying and I want to repeat it: The darkness that is coming is incomprehensible! You cannot now comprehend it. I cannot comprehend it; I know that it is something that I cannot clearly see or understand at this time. I just see little pieces of it and when I see these things coming together in Europe, I know that it is at the door. I know that they are again ready to put that thing in Europe into place January 1st, 2010. In 2008 when the Irish people voted they rejected the Lisbon Treaty but there was another vote in 2009 and this time they got what they wanted. Is it possible that the Holy Spirit has used this small nation to restrain the coming forth of the “man of sin”? Frankly, I believe that in order for them to get the full endorsements that they really will need to pull it off and to become the global ruling power, there will have to be some major traumatic event of some sort that will cause the people and nations to submit themselves to this voluntarily. Even the great nations of the world will bow and give themselves to this power. Something as traumatic as a nuclear war, the total destruction of the economy and the lack of food to eat would certainly do the job.
The prophet Daniel saw it all already in his day. Let me read on, beginning from Verse 1.
“…and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.”
You see there is always a place of deliverance. Brethren, make sure that your name is in the Book. Now this next verse talks about the resurrection.
2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting
life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
He has a thousand years wrapped up here in one sentence, the beginning and the end of
the thousand year millennium.
Now here is the verse that I was looking for:
3 And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.
My goodness! You can’t imagine what God has for us. Can you imagine shining like that? Can you imagine the glory of the spiritual being that you will be with that kind of glory? It is more than just a nice smile on your face. It is more than that. When you have that glory you don’t have to ask for power, you’ve got it. It comes with the glory.
…”and they that turn many to righteousness”
What does it take to turn somebody to righteousness? It is more than just an argument, isn’t it? It is more than just a debate. Brethren, isn’t it only the unction of the Holy Spirit that can turn people away from sin and to God? If you have the unction of the Holy Spirit, you have the glory.
And they will shine “as the stars for ever and ever.”
4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
“Shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end.” In other words, Daniel didn’t understand what he was writing here.
“Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” How many of you believe that this prophesy has been fulfilled in our time? Man, running “to and fro.” Think about it. We get on a plane and a couple of hours later we are on the other side of the ocean. Think about the knowledge. I don’t think there is anything that you would want to know that you couldn’t just go to the computer and find by going “click,” “click,” “click.” Google and Yahoo are search engines for any knowledge that you want to have. Do you want to know how to grow apples? Type in “grow apples,” you get the information. If you want to
know how to cook something, type it in and it will give you a recipe how to cook it. (Yes, any information on any subject can be found in just a few seconds.)
We are living at the time of the end, brethren. That means that we will also have the other thing that Daniel prophesied, “…a time of trouble, such as never was.” nor has ever been. Daniel also said to make sure that your name is in the book, because those are the ones that will be delivered.
The glory of the Lord shall be in us. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Hallelujah.
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Update to comments as of October 5, 2009
Other Comments – New World Order
There are things happening in Europe that our news media are not telling us about. Perhaps they presume it is of no interest to us, while they spend days giving us ongoing episodes of a case of someone accused of abusing a dog or not feeding a horse properly. When we were in Ireland in the Spring of 2008 we learned that they would be voting on accepting a new constitution for the EU in what is called the Lisbon Treaty (Originally the
Treaty of Rome, then the Maastricht Treaty). It seems Ireland is the only country where the population will actually vote for this acceptance and a lot of propaganda is being disseminated there. In the other countries the vote will be by the government official representatives. They had planned to have their new EU order in place by January 1, 2009, but the Irish people turned it down. I was sent a report yesterday telling that the Irish have now approved the treaty and the new date for implementation of the new EU is to be January 1, 2010. As of now they are only waiting for the presidents of Poland and the Czech Republic to sign off on the document. The current presidency of the EU is held on a 6 month rotating basis among the 27 member states. The new charter will call for a president to hold a 2 ½ year term from which he can run for a second 2 ½ year term (an opportunity for a powerful and charismatic leader to emerge). His “election” will be made by the European Council (not by popular vote by the people). I see this as a potential slot for the man of sin (the antichrist) to come forth. We were told that Tony Blair is considering this position and has recently converted to Roman Catholicism in order to meet the requirement that the president must be a Catholic. He said he was really a Catholic at heart all along.
Another thing that has happened in Europe is the absence of borders. The former border crossing from Germany to Czech Republic is now nothing but empty, deserted control booths. The brethren said we can drive all the way to Hungary without any border stops or passport checks (and here in the US we will soon need a passport to travel through Canada). There are very few exceptions, of which Ireland is one (they didn’t give up their border). Almost all of the money is now the Euro Dollar (exceptions still hold in some Eastern Europe countries (i.e. Czech, Switzerland, the UK and a few others with a weak currency). The Euro had once overtaken the value of our US dollar by 150%, the British pound by 200%, but they are weaker than that now, also having suffered in the global financial crisis of the past year. You do the math and see where we are headed.
The brethren that live under this system tell us that the controls of the EU are worse than they ever had under communism. It is nearly impossible for a farmer to operate in this system. The agriculture controls go so far as to define how many apples of what color can be produced and sold. Before picking time some of the farmers must go out and do things to their apples so they will meet the color conditions. It is against the law for any family to have and raise their own personal cow. A family is allowed only one pig. Fishermen are allowed only so many fish of a certain size (others must be thrown back, wasted). I could go on but from what we heard I think we have a flavor of this beast. The darkness that is coming is incomprehensible.
A nuclear exchange, a financial crash, a deadly pandemic, massive civil unrest or other great disaster would be the perfect event to cast this beast into its prophetic end time place for their plans. I wouldn’t be surprised that they would be the actual behind the scenes instigators or at least enablers of such a spark to ignite the thing. Then when the world (including us here in the US) are screaming for food and fuel and wanting our lifestyle back at any cost, the great man of charisma (false Christ) will offer peace and safety…and food and money, if we will submit our sovereignty and everything else to him. Our new
federal administration is working hard to set the stage for such a new world order, including the destruction of the United Stated as a great world power and the removal of freedoms from her people, bringing them more and more under total control. It is about to happen, brethren, and we must run into the secret place of the most high.
End-Time Kingdom of God 