For I say unto you, Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist: but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.   Luke 7:28

If we will accept the testimony of Jesus, John the Baptist was really a prophet. The list of Old Testament prophets reads like a who is who in God’s word. The comments of Jesus about John challenges our understanding of what a prophet really is. If Jesus had not said this, most people would likely chose Moses or Elijah as the greatest of the Old Testament Prophets.

The Old Testament prophets spoke of the Messiah as someone who would be operational in their future. John the Baptist actually went beyond Elijah and Moses in prophetic ministry – He prepared the way for the hearts of the Jew to receive Jesus by bearing witness to the light that walked on earth in the person of Jesus.

We know from the word of God that while John performed no miracle (See John 10:41), Moses and Elijah moved strongly in the miraculous. Jesus however insists that John is the greatest Old Testament prophet. This must mean that miracles are not the proof of true prophetic ministry. Moses, Elijah and others would speak of the Messiah in a futuristic sense – in a sense, they could only say “Jesus is coming, he is not here yet but we assure you that he is coming”. John however came bearing direct witness to the light. He could point his finger and declare – behold the Lamb of God. He could say “Jesus is here in my presence, that is him”

When Jesus said that he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than John he was showing that while it was true that John the Baptist was the greatest of the Old Testament prophets, he was not born again. No one could be born again until Jesus had risen from the dead.  The one who is a son through the new birth is greater than the greatest prophet in the Old Testament.

Many Christians today function in the mindset of Moses and are unable to press into that of John the Baptist – Yet we are to operate beyond that of John. They speak of certain spiritual activities that bring Jesus to a meeting for until those activities Jesus was not present in their world but elsewhere. In their world, Jesus is never really present but always needing to come. In their mindset Jesus is never really there when a situation requires his attention, thus there are a number of spiritual activities that are used to bring him from the future. John would not speak that way; John was the greatest because unlike Moses he could say “Jesus is here right now”. The thing to note though is that John still had a disadvantage, he saw Jesus as external to himself, as someone coming towards him, standing in his presence, and afterwards walking away from him. Thus in John’s world we can speak of Jesus coming and going.

As sons, we think in the light of the New Testament. We are greater than John the Baptist simply because we can confidently say that Jesus does not come and go away from us. He is always with us. In fact, stated more factually, he is always in us. This would mean that the Christian could manifest the presence of Jesus at anytime for he is the temple of God and the holy of holies today where God abides.

14 And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.
15  And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. Ex 33:14-15

Moses was correct to pray that the presence of God would go with him. He was aware of the fact that the presence of God was not always with him. Under that dispensation he was right to say that if the presence of God would not go with him he would not go.

15 Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.
16 What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.
17 But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. 1 Cor 6:15 – 17

When it comes to the presence of God, we do not make it a thing of prayer like Moses did. The Christian is to know.  We do not pray that the presence of God go with us. The Christian is a Son of God, and he knows that not only is he the temple of God but our very bodies are the members of Christ. In simple terms this means that when our bodies are present, Christ is present. we have him always.

We do not watch him come and go even if it appears that way to our senses. We are truly one spirit with him. In our spirit nature we are one with Christ in aspiration, in goals and in directions! In reality the two have become one and his Spirit multiplies and magnifies that which our spirits stand for.

….watch out for more

When we speak of our dreams, we often speak of our pursuits, goals and deep-seated aspirations. This is not the sense in which we are considering dreams in this article. We are examining dreams and referring to the images and emotions that occur during our sleep.

The guy who lives for 90 years, and sleeps 8 hours daily, if all his sleep hours were aggregated into one lump, he will have slept 30 years at a stretch!

This is true irrespective of your religious bias.

For 99.9% of Christians who fit the profile above, it is not only true that we sleep away the equivalent of 30 years at a stretch, but equally more baffling is the fact that the stuff that constitutes our dream life is shrouded in mystery and most of us never make any meaning of it from birth till death.

Sleep researchers tell us that a typical night of sleep follows a pattern of drowsiness where our eyes move slowly, followed by light sleep where our eyes stop moving, and then deep sleep when our immunity increases and finally REM sleep where we have rapid eye movements and the body behaves as if we are awake! This cycle occurs at least 3 times each night. (* REM means rapid eye movements)

The reason for the rapid eye movements while dreaming is because though closed in sleep our eyes are seeing something. They are focusing as they would if we were watching a movie.

Sleep Researchers and Scientists have found that we dream during REM sleep. They have discovered that depriving people of REM sleep affects their entire body’s immunity, creativity and mental balance. This means that not only is sleep a necessity, what sleep researchers call REM sleep is important for man’s psychological well being. It is a fact that you cannot tell the difference from afar between a man who is drink driving and another who is driving while sleep deprived for they are both accident-prone!

It is said that if REM sleep is disrupted one night, our bodies will experience more REM sleep the next time we sleep in order to catch up.

The word of God has vital information for us concerning dreams and we need not be baffled as to its purpose. God’s word will dispel any fears  that we have in this area. Firstly, I must remind you that we do not base our lives on dreams – We base our lives on the word of God. There is nothing that remains a mystery when exposed to the light of God’s word. If you are not full of the word you are full of the wrong stuff. I encourage you not  to subscribe to the superstitious stuff most people believe and teach when it comes to dreams, for there is no word basis for the things believed.

There is no use responding to a dream that contradicts the word of God no matter how enticing its message nor does it matter how many ‘prophets’ confirm it to you.

¹⁴ For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not.

¹⁵ In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed;

¹⁶ Then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction,

¹⁷ That he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man.

¹⁸ He keepeth back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword                                                                    Job 33:14-18

We all dream. Many who think that they do not dream have really forgotten the dream.

In starting I must stress that not all dreams are divine in origin. It will take all the maturity at your disposal to be able to distinguish between a dream from God, a dream from your daily tasks and a dream that is really a demonic intrusion. The word of God will supply you with this maturity and wisdom – nothing else will.

When you walk in the word you are cleansed from the debris that the enemy uses as a handle into the dream life. This means that as we walk in the word most of our dreams will be from God or from ourselves as a result of our daily experience. Your greatest task then becomes distinguishing between when God is speaking through your dreams and when it is your inner man communicating stuff to you (see Ecclesiastes 5:3). Do not be confused about the fact that the spirit of man is also capable of picking up and transmitting spiritual communication. You see, your spirit is also aware of things that pertain to you and is therefore capable of communicating them to you.

There is a thin line between a vision and a dream asides the fact that you only experience dreams when you sleep otherwise the two experiences are similar. More properly the type of dream spoken of in this passage is a vision of the night. It was only called a vision of the night because in bible times, societies were structured such that those that work do so during the day while they sleep at night. In our day the lines are blurred and for a doctor who works overnight his dreams will most likely be “visions of day”.

For example the dreams of Daniel are not direct dreams but parabolic. He saw animals in his dream and by interpretation we know that these were not dreams instructing him to become a game warden or to get into the animal trade. The dreams were about kingdoms. Therefore in those dreams the animals were symbolic of kingdoms. (See Daniel 7)

Through those dreams the Lord was showing Daniel the destiny of certain nations. You do not need to bother yourself as to whether your dreams are about the destiny of nations though. This is because God will speak to you about nations if you have a ministry to nations. God speaks to you within your sphere of influence.

Joseph, who was the husband of Mary, had different instances in scripture where his dreams are recorded. Many of his dreams included reference to angels. This was not symbolic. They were actual angels that ministered to him in his dream. The information conveyed to him through the ministry of angels in his dreams was to be obeyed. His dreams were direct dreams.

If Joseph had been careless with dreams the whole of the New Testament would have been written differently!

I want you to notice that it would have been counterproductive for Daniel to receive his dreams as direct dreams just as it would have been foolish for Joseph to copy Daniel and assume that his dreams were symbolic. Thus it takes great scriptural maturity to understand dreams.

In the bible we see three types of dreams – The direct dream, which means exactly what it says, the parabolic dream, which uses one thing to represent another, and the third type, which conveys a message.

As far as God is concerned, man is still fully human whether asleep or awake and he communicates with us as he deems fit. God does hold us accountable whether we disregard our dreams or follow through intelligently to obtain the meaning and its message if any. Some folks are of the opinion that any message received through a dream absolves them of their responsibility to follow through. This is myth. Solomon’s encounter with God where he was asked to request for anything happened in a dream – it changed his life forever.

It appears that God does not use dreams as the primary way to get through to man. Most men are extremely busy in their whole being all through the day. We are mostly busy focusing on things that draw us away from sensitivity to God therefore we do not perceive as we should.

When we fall asleep, our conscious mind is no longer in charge. When the sleep cycle gets past the deep sleep stage, we have different things dropped into our dream life. Don’t forget that dreams have different sources. I am merely concentrating on the one that any smart word-taught fellow ought to concentrate on – dreams that are not a result of demonic intrusion.

In Job 33 we have the record of a discussion between Job and Elihu one of Job’s four friends.

¹⁴ For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not.

¹⁵ In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed;

¹⁶ Then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction,                         Job 33:14-16

It seems that from the word of God, Elihu is instructing us about a significant fact – When God speaks to us through our dreams, he is communicating to us information that we have missed as we went about the stuff of everyday life. God’s primal method of communicating instructions to us is not through dreams. As we get into our busy schedules, our conscious mind tuned us off such that we did not pick up the information that God was transmitting to us and so there is a repeat transmission of sorts when we are asleep. God is making it hard for us to fail. We actually dismantle a lot of blocks that God puts in our path before  we manage to fail!

The bible tells us about one of the dreams of Nebuchadnezzar and how Daniel was used to bring forth a correct interpretation of this dream.

²⁸ But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these;

²⁹ As for thee, O king, thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed, what should come to pass hereafter: and he that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass.

³⁰ But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living, but for their sakes that shall make known the interpretation to the king, and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart.

³¹ Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible.

³² This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass,

³³ His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.

³⁴ Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.

³⁵ Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.

³⁶ This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king.

³⁷ Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory.

³⁸ And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold.                                                                                          Daniel 2:28-38

Nebuchadnezzar forgot his own dream (Hmm this means that you are not the only one that forgets his dreams). This king is tenacious. He is not frivolous with spiritual things, he pressed on till he got his dream and its interpretation.

If you study this out carefully you find that God caused Daniel to sleep and during Daniel’s REM sleep while Daniel was dreaming God gave Daniel a dream to know Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and then another dream to interpret it! This is proper Hollywood stuff. (See Daniel 2.19)

Now we learn that the fact that you dream does not mean that you know its interpretation! It is one thing to dream and a totally different thing to obtain its interpretation. The truth is that most of us don’t have a trouble dreaming – the challenge is in failing to see that dreams need to be interpreted correctly. If God gives you a dream, only he can give you the interpretation. In the New Covenant, you don’t call the psychic hotline to obtain interpretation to your dream – you yield to the spirit of wisdom and revelation. The more you pray the Pauline prayers the easier it will be to interpret you own dream!

Here is another fact – Nebuchadnezzar saw a great image with a head of gold. So, Nebuchadnezzar was there and so was the head of gold. According to Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar was the head of gold. Said differently, Nebuchadnezzar did not see Nebuchadnezzar as himself in this dream yet he was there. He was the head of gold!

Do not forget this fact.

You will be equally amazed how your dreams often speak to you about you. The trouble is many superstitious Christians think that they are seeing their Mother-in-Law chasing them in their dream and so conclude – My mother-in-law is a …..

Let me assure you that God is not in the habit of only discussing other people with you either when you are consciously awake or when asleep. In reality most of the things he tells you is to the effect that you might transform. Many people loose sight of this fact and they succumb to the cheap idea that all their dreams are about other people.

Except as he ministers through you to others, God will mostly speak to you about you. Thus your dream life, if it conveys any message at all from God, will mostly be about you and not about others

To be continued …

S. SEKOU ABODUNRIN

We have on record an encounter between God and Moses. I want you to be sure that God is the one giving the instructions in this portion of scripture. This is part of the law that God gave to Moses for Israel. It was the law of redemption for men whether rich or poor they were to give exactly the same amount – half a shekel as an atonement for their souls. There are many lessons that can be drawn from this instruction.

This was religiously kept by Israel throughout the generations. We have an account of how the ordinance was kept in the days of Jesus’ earth-walk.

This is a most interesting passage. It is interesting for many reasons. Firstly I want you to notice that the subject matter was the collection of temple tax. This temple tax we have shown above did not start in the days of Peter and the Lord Jesus.

God appeared to Moses and from the conversation that transpired there was no loophole for any adult male Jew.

When the temple tax collectors (auditors more like) came to Peter concerning the spiritual tax compliance status of his master they were supported by the whole weight of the Mosaic law. The truth is that Peter was aware that the Lord Jesus paid the temple tax as demanded by the law of Moses but he did not know why. Likely Peter assumed that the Lord Jesus also paid it as a ransom for his soul – but appearances can be so deceptive and he was in for a shocker!

The Lord Jesus in paying this tax brought out some interesting thoughts that would never have crossed the mind of any Jew. We can glean some important points from the conversation that the Lord Jesus had with Peter. The conversation that Jesus had with Peter was unveiling of the heart of God. It was the very heart of the conversation that God had with Moses when he was giving the law of the temple tax to Moses.

Did the temple tax collectors expect the Lord Jesus to pay the temple tax? Yes they did.

Were they right in requesting this of the Lord Jesus? Yes they were, for it was demanded by the Mosaic law.

Did the other Jewish men pay the temple tax? Yes they had to pay the temple tax for this was an atonement for their souls.

Did every Jew pay the temple tax? No, not at all. Only adult men were commanded to.

Why did they need to pay the temple tax? Because they needed an atonement for their souls.

Did Jesus need to pay the temple tax? Actually he did not!

Did Jesus pay the temple tax? Yes he did.

Why did Jesus pay the temple tax?

This is where is gets interesting. In paying, the Lord Jesus poses some questions to Peter for Peter’s consideration.

The Lord Jesus brought out the fact that this was some form of spiritual taxation. He basically shows that spiritual taxation can be understood by observing the mechanics of secular taxation. In the days of Jesus kings were the highest form of government so they were the ones receiving taxes at that point in human history.

There were three parties implied in Jesus’ line of reasoning – There are kings who receive tax. Then we have the subjects that are taxed. We also have the officials of the kings that collect the tax.

The Lord Jesus brings out the well known secular fact that the members of the household of the king do not pay tax. In simple terms then the Lord Jesus shows that the kings require all non-family members to pay taxes. Following the logic of Jesus then the whole issue is not firstly about taxation but about family. If the king sees you as family his officials do not receive tax from you, if however the king does not consider you to be family he sends his officials after you to collect tax. Paying (or not paying) the spiritual tax was proof of not belonging (or belonging) to the king’s family.

The children of the King are therefore free from spiritual taxation. When the Lord Jesus said this he did not have Peter in mind for Peter was a sinner – Jesus is the child of the king. What God commanded Moses was not binding upon the Lord Jesus but binding on Peter as well as Moses. Through the eyes of revelation knowledge one could see that the Lord Jesus was not breaking the law by not paying the temple tax but would in fact be upholding the original lesson that God was teaching through the instrument of the temple tax.

We are going to see shortly that both men are going to pay their temple taxe but for totally different reasons.

This what the Lord Jesus meant when he said  …. Then are the children free

According to the Lord Jesus the whole matter can be reduced to this – The children of Israel pay the temple tax because they were not in the king’s family. The Jew, by paying the temple tax affirms that he is aware that he was not a child of God.

John brings out the fact that Jesus, in his earth walk, was the only begotten son of God. Therefore according to the divine logic Jesus was God’s child and thus free from the temple tax commandment that was binding on all Jews.

Jesus was another type of Jew – He was son of God while all other male Jews were simply sons of Abraham who was in need of a ransom himself. Peter should pay the temple tax but not Jesus. However the tax collectors required both Jesus and Peter to pay. They were spiritually ignorant when they required this of the Lord Jesus but spot on when they required it of Peter.

The conversation that the Lord Jesus had with Peter unveils the whole heart of the matter. Jesus had exposed Peter to the thinking behind the temple tax as it existed in the mind of God originally. The temple tax was proof that the whole nation needed a ransom and the temple tax served as that ransom until Jesus came on the scene. Every Jew should have known this, but this truth was lost on the whole nation as they got bogged down with the legalistic observance of the commandments of the Mosaic law.

We are still left with the question - why did the Lord Jesus pay the temple tax?

The answer is in Mt 17:27 – Jesus paid the temple tax so as not to offend the tax collectors. He did not pay it as a ransom for his soul for his soul needed no such ransom. If the Lord Jesus had not paid the temple tax, he would have been 100% accurate but would have confused both the tax collectors and the whole religious system in no small measure. in order to help them keep their sanity he instructed Peter on how to obtain the tax money for both of them.

I should point out again that the tax in question is religious and not secular in nature. When it came to secular tax Jesus said to give to Caesar what is Caesars (Mt 22:21)

You notice that the fish that Peter caught had the money that Peter and Jesus should give as temple tax.

There are some people, christians mostly, who are unaware that only earthly governments are authorised to print money and that all other money “sources” are counterfeit.  We know therefore that God is always legit and did not print the roman coin for he is not a fraudster. The roman coin in the mouth of that fish was minted by Caesar thus bore Caesar’s image. The coin in the mouth of the fish came from some minting press in the Roman world. God miraculously caused a fish to locate coins that had dropped into water. This coin was not minted in heaven.

There are still many christians today who fail to see the point that a believer does not live by or under the Mosaic law. The  Mosaic law does not exist for him nor was he the intended recipient of the law. The Mosaic law has sinners in mind not sons. A son freely acts. a sinner needs stringent rules.

Those Jews paid the temple tax so that as a merciful provision from God under that system the tax provides a ransom for their souls. Sons, who are members of the family of the king, are free from the tax-provides-ransom commandment.

…to be continued (Happy new year in advance!)

When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment.
For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.
And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. Mk 5.27-29

This is a famous story. The woman had spent all that she had. I want you to see that she had economic problems as well as her sickness.

This would mean that disease is a powerful channel through which satan steals prosperity and drains God’s people of their abundance. All her resources was sunk into combating this disease. Sickness ultimately robs you of the joy of using your resources as you would want to. It is controlling and limiting.

When this woman started out, she was rich and healthy. As time progressed she became rich, but sickly. Ultimately she became poor and sickly.

This woman determined to touch Jesus because of what she had heard about him. She spoke out what she will do. She spoke out what the power of God will do. The crowd operated differently – they were thronging Jesus.

This story details how the woman with the issue of blood received healing. According to Jesus, this woman’s healing involved the outflow of the power of God – Her faith had made her whole.

You see, when it comes to healing, there are two factors at work. The first is the power of God and the other is faith. Faith and the power of God go hand in hand and should never be separated.

This power was operative in the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. The power of God in a ministry gift is really a power that functions through the minister by an anointing upon. In the New Covenant, since after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, man can now function by an anointing resident in the reborn human spirit.

In simple terms the power of God is made available to the believer through the anointing within the spirit of that believer or through the anointing upon a ministry gift that the believer is exposed to.

The case of the woman with the issue of blood involved the woman’s faith. In this story we find that faith can receive healing through the operation of the anointing upon.

How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him. Acts 10.38

We see that Jesus was anointed. He was anointed with healing power. The healing power is an anointing upon a minister’s life that heals. It also ends demonic oppression. We are told that the Lord Jesus, in his earth walk went everywhere and communicated healing through this healing power.

And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes?
And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? Mk 5.30-31

There were many people pressing hard upon Jesus when this woman’s miracle occurred, but it was only in the case of this woman that Jesus knew that power had flowed out of him. What does this mean?

When the others were pressing Jesus he could feel the force of their pressure. In the case of this woman, he did not feel a thing – he knew something flowed out. The woman’s touch did what the crowd’s sustained pressure could not do. There is nothing spectacular in the level of physical pressure exerted or how many people are exerting the pressure for you. The woman touched the hem of Jesus’ garment. Just a touch was enough.

Jesus said, “Your faith has made you whole”. Previously Jesus had also said, “Who touched my clothes” – This means that the woman’s touch was an act of her faith. The other people pressed Jesus because he was around them. theirs was a touch born of curiosity, but she was not just touching; her touch was a means of releasing the faith that she had.

Jesus attributed the healing to the woman’s faith. The power of God was involved in bringing this healing to pass.

Since Jesus did not know of any power flowing out of his body when the crowd pressed him but knew of the flow of power when the woman touched him clothes, we can safely affirm that the healing power does not flow in the absence of faith. Some people suppose that the anointing upon does not require faith, but this is not so. The woman with the issue of blood obtained healing to reverse the condition that had troubled her through faith. Her faith was involved. Her’s was a case of receiving healing by exercising faith in the anointing upon another.

Lets notice some facts about the faith that receives through an anointing upon.

The woman said, “If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole”. This is valid faith. This type of faith is established upon a condition that depends on the presence of the one who carries an anointing upon. If you were to receive healing through the operation of the anointing within you would fail if you impose such conditions.

Faith in the anointing upon declares that the healing occurs in the future. The woman said, “I shall be whole”. If you were exercising faith in the anointing within you are not to affirm that you are going to be healed. If you are exercising faith in the anointing within and you go about saying, “I am going to be well”, you might as well forget about healing except you are counting upon coming in contact with the anointing upon another believer.

Since the woman was placing herself to receive from the healing power in the ministry of Jesus through faith, she had to say something. Faith speaks the end result. What did she say? She spoke the things that will happen when she comes in contact with the healing power. If she was exercising faith in the anointing within, having nothing to do with the healing power in a minister, she will have to declare that she knows her healing to be a past tense reality.

When it comes to receiving healing by faith through an anointing upon, we see that the one needing healing needs to release that faith through an act. This act is the point of contact. The healing power of God starts working when this point of contact is established. There is contact through the act of faith and there is transmission of power as a result of that act of faith. As the woman approached Jesus, she exercised her faith by using a point of contact. If she did not have a point of contact, she would just be like the multitude pressing hard upon Jesus. Jesus would not diminish in power but that power which functions by an anointing upon would have done nobody good!

What if she did not touch the hem of Jesus garment? She would have to exercise faith without the benefit of the anointing upon. She would still get well, but her healing would have taken longer to manifest. Healing comes faster through the anointing upon than through exercising faith in the anointing within.

Receiving healing by faith and the anointing within causes the power of God to seep into your body from your spirit where the anointing is resident. It is between you and God. Receiving healing by faith and the anointing upon causes the power to come in contact with your body bypassing your spirit and your mind. This involves another human.

…watch out for the continuation

Right from the Garden of Eden, satan’s greatest ploy has been to mess up the human’s conception of God. He has largely succeeded at this. The things we believe about God can free us to receive of his good or prevent us from embracing his goodness. Our traditions can successfully do what no demon can do – they can render the word of God ineffective.

God yearns to be known, understood and embraced. This is the singular explanation for the 66 books that make up the bible. If God does not want to be known he would never have given us a revelation of himself.

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: Rom 5.12

Sin was able to enter by one man because that man, Adam, had the authority to permit such an occurrence. If Adam were just a puppet, God would have suspended that which Adam has permitted. God did not do this because he had truly given the earth to Adam.

When Adam sinned he and he alone, let sin into this world. This act opened the door for death. In effect man is responsible for death running rampage on earth. Some people not understanding this principle falsely accuse God as being responsible for all the suffering and pain experienced on the earth today. In the final analysis God gave the earth to Adam and Adam subsequently allowed other tenants like sin and death into the world.

Why didn’t God just waive away Adam’s sin and prevent death?

When Adam let sin in, he became a twisted man or what the bible calls wicked. Man became something distasteful spiritually speaking. In a sense man became a spiritual monster. If we could see what Adam looked like spiritually we would find it repulsive. Adam needed more than a waiver. His act had distorted him beyond recognition. God needed to remake his man until he became beautiful.

Consider the emotional effect on Adam if he were still alive today? That would be a miserable existence seeing all the genetic disorders, wars, murders, famines, world wars throughout human history – this will wreck his psychological wellness. Imagine a world where every despot, every bandit, murderer, fraudster, Hitler, Stalin that ever lived are still alive? Add to this every emotionally troubled, mentally disturbed, heart broken human. The world would be the last place you want to be in under such conditions.

It is good that man as he is in the current state of affairs is not living on earth forever. It is really a good thing that God has prevented man from living forever in the conditions introduced by Adam.

And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever

Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. Gen 3.22,23

The conversation above did not take place between God and man. We do not know how much of God’s reasons that Adam knew. We do know that God did not act on impulse. He had his clear reasons. He was reasoning from a position to do Adam good.

God analysed the situation on earth after Adam’s sin, which had let death into the world. His conclusion was that Adam could still make matters worse! If Adam had eaten of the tree of life after he sinned he would have triggered laws that would make Adam (and humanity’s) state irreversible. In other words Adam would have been foolish and hardheaded enough to eat of the fruit of the tree of life.

Can you picture a world where all the felons that have ever lived will never die no matter what means is used against them? Imagine a little child born with a genetic disorder that will never ever go away!

God mercifully provided a way out of Adam’s condition by blocking his path to the tree. This is a hindrance imposed by God. It is a merciful hindrance. God made sure that this would not happen by sending man out of the Garden. In addition he placed cherubim’s, a special class of Angels, to guard the path to the tree.

Why did God go to all this length to prevent Adam’s access to the tree? He is mercifully preventing man from reaping the full consequences of events that man is able to bring upon himself.

In simple terms then, it is incorrect to say that God drove out Adam from the Garden because God was angry with man! Adam had thrown caution to the wind; God was deeply interested in Adam’s welfare. Adam was made to vacate the garden because God cared. This was an act of mercy and not judgment.

You see, if we are not careful, we accuse God wrongly. This is always because we try to make God fit into our theology rather than adjust our theology to fit into the word. God is good. God is just. He is never unjust.

For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Rom 5:13

Not only does the word show us how things came to be on earth the way that they are now, it continues by showing us the link between the imputation of sin and the law.

This is referring to the Law of Moses, as we know it. Adam lived and died without the Law of Moses. The Law did not bring sin into the world, Adam did. The word is letting us into a secret here. The fact that Adam sinned does not mean that God was imputing that sin against Adam!

This means that Adam did not face the judgment due his sin even though he had sinned. When the Law was introduced about 2000 years after Adam, God started imputing men’s sin. This is because the Law brings the sinner into a clear knowledge of his sin.

Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God Rom 3.19

The sole purpose of the Law was to cause every boastful mouth to be stopped and to cause the whole world to become conscious of their guilt before God.

This means that men were so far gone in sin that they no longer knew what it meant to feel guilty or remorseful. The conscience of man was dead. God therefore provided an artificial conscience for man. This artificial conscience allowed a sinner become aware of his guilt and stopped the man from his empty boast before God.

Said differently, until the Law was given, men were committing sin, but God was not imputing this against man. The spiritually dead man then interpreted this to mean that his works were good and that the goodness of God was a payment for man’s deeds. God stopped this boast by introducing the Law. The Law awakened the men to guilt and men started having their sin imputed against them. This provoked some measure of judgement.

Man became aware of the harsh reality of his sin. Yet, the truth is that men have never reaped the full consequence of their sin.

Before the Law, Abraham married his half-sister while Jacob married two sisters. If Abraham and Jacob had lived under the Law they should both have been killed! (See Leviticus 18:9,18, 29)

God blessed Abraham and Jacob. This is not because they were angels, but because God is good! The children of Abraham and Jacob did the same thing that their fore fathers did and got killed. God did not become mean. The introduction of the Law caused men to become aware of their guilt and man started reaping a partial consequence of his sin.

….To be continued

“But I have all, and abound: I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God.”            Phil 4.18

Every student of the New Testament should pause long enough to take in the sheer force and beauty of the passage above. God, through Paul is presenting the divine viewpoint and concept of the believer’s giving.

There are four parties here – The church at Philippi, Paul, Epaphroditus & God.

Epaphroditus gets special mention. We do not know that he has given any Philippian dollar, but we know he has given himself. We do not even know what it cost him not to be about his own business. Traveling back then was not as easy and safe as it is today. It takes a special kind of person to deliver money to a man in prison who cannot do anything to stop the misuse of the funds. Epaphroditus is that type of Christian. Paul mentions him by name – such a man deserves our utmost respect!

Firstly, I want you to notice that Paul is not like many Christians today who assume that whenever they are in some tough situation it is because God is angry with them or judging them. Paul received the provision of God through the Philippians, but this did not mean that he left the prison! He was still in prison when he sent back the response to the saints. How on earth could a man be in Paul’s situation and yet talk about the sufficiency of God?

Giving is an important outflow of our new nature in God. This is because love gives and being the sons and daughters of Love that we are, there is something within us that rejoices in giving.

The apostle Paul admits that the gifts of the Philippian church brought him to a place of abounding. Paul received from the Philippians that which met his need. Paul treats their giving as a form of ministry from them to him. Responding to love is the greatest ministry that there is in the entire universe.

Paul is conveying a beautiful truth. God supplies all our need. However, the very context implies that though God is omnipotent, He rarely supplies our physical need directly – he supplies our material need through a material medium. God uses practical means. In this instance, God through the Philippians supplied the need of Paul.

A fact that stands out is that the actual material given never makes its way out of the earth. Our gifts stay in the earth and should meet the need here on earth. That is God’s pattern.

The material given is immaterial to God.

Paul lifts the curtain and describes the heavenly aspects of this whole love-exercise. He speaks of that which is acceptable sacrifice that is well pleasing to God. This borrows from the idea of incense rising from a sacrifice in the Old Testament. He describes giving as an aroma, a sweet smelling aroma that reaches up to heaven.

We recall the sacrifice of Noah after he came out of the ark. It was described as a sweet smell to God. It would be sacrilegious for Noah to think that he was buying his safety by offering the sacrifice to God or that by that sacrifice he was standing on his covenant with God. Noah would be suffering from spiritual dyslexia – he would be having things in reverse. Clearly Noah did offer a sacrifice, but there was no saving power in it. He was simply worshipping God. Without that sacrifice, God saved Noah and provided protection for Noah from the raging storm.

The art of giving is a means of releasing worship to God. This describes the heavenly aspects of giving. God derives satisfaction when a believer yields to the love nature of God within his reborn spirit.

This means that a Christian responding to love within him can find any material medium to use to meet the need of another. There is the grim possibility that you might fellowship with a group of saints that vehemently forbid you to give what they perceive of as your smelly pounds sterling in church, but rejoice in the fact that God does not see or watch out for the pound sterling, he watches for the yielded heart of a love being.

“But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
Phil 4.19 King James Version

“But my God shall supply all your need according to your consistency in releasing the pounds and dollars towards supporting my ministry.”
Phil 4.19 Prosperity Rediscovered Version

I was somewhat shocked the first time it dawned on me that Paul did not say “But my seed shall supply all my need“. My seed is not my God – it is my God that supplies all my need. I use seed wisely, but my gaze is on my God and on him alone.

That is a most profound statement from Apostle Paul. At the heart of it is the gospel itself. Accordingly here, Paul is dealing with how God supplies all our need. I encourage you to accept that wholeheartedly. There are some that believe that God has altogether abandoned the idea of supplying all our need, and this group sort of fight for their right to suffer. These maintain that the fulfillment of this apostolic affirmation of truth passed away with the dear old apostles.

There are others who maintain that the KJV rendition of it is altogether untrue – many of these go with the PRV (the prosperity re-discovered version). According to these, God monitors the church or para-church ministry’s bank account before pouring out his blessing upon the Christian. God is presented as playing catch-up, while the believer sort of starts the cycle by his giving.

The plain old KJV makes for a different reading though. It brings to us the fact that the Father God is able to bless us on the basis of Jesus’ becoming a curse for us. He was made poor, so that we through his poverty might be made rich.

But “Nay! Nay!! says some PRV-quoting believer – God supplies our need based on the riches of the pounds sterling given”

According to the PRV, the emphasis shifts from the sufficiency of Christ Jesus to the chequebook of the believer. In it, we see presented a solid case of how to “activate” God by giving or, as sometimes said, we fulfill our own end of the covenant by our financial giving.

Expounding from the PRV, some will affirm that Philippians 4.19 is actually a private promise spoken out by the Apostle for the benefit of the saints at Philippi. It is maintained that this is not even for every fellow at the church at Philippi, but the guys that gave specifically to Paul. This is Paul speaking to his partners, pulling out a specific word for their benefit.

“Now ye Philippians know also, that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only. ”   Philippians  4.15

Since the dear apostle also affirmed that no other church transacted with him in this way, and it is affirmed that the promise stated is only for those who gave to Paul, it would mean that God was not supplying the need of the Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians, and the fellows that gave in support of Peter’s ministry! In fact, if that were the case, since we do not know how to contact and give to the apostle Paul today, Christians today have no opportunity to join the Philippians. Nay! Says the PRV-totting preacher “just send the pounds sterling to my bank account, my ministry can convey to you the private blessings of Paul”

The truth is that neither our chequebooks nor Paul died for any believer. It is Christ that died and who was raised again.

We cannot stand on our chequebook or what we give from our chequebook. We stand on the finished work of Christ. We have to affirm with the apostle that God supplies all our need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus! The phrase is mind boggling for God has put all his wealth in his son and he supplies my finite need out of the depth of his measureless supply in Christ. God is not only going to meet the need, he is going to do it in glory or according to a manner befitting his status.

Let us notice what the apostle does not say. Paul does not say “I know that my God has supplied my need because I gave some temple shekels at the last seminar that Peter organised”. He knows about giving and receiving, but is careful to recognise that it was only in Christ Jesus that he had a full supply.

God has actually given us His Son – in this Son we have His full supply for our every need.

My faith is expectant that God will honour what he has said. He will supply all my need. There is abundant supply flowing out from the father towards me based on union with Christ! You see, union with Christ does not only provide justification or righteousness, it provides everything needed by the believer – union with Christ penetrates into and changes everything.

God supplies our need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. We are to believe this. In reality because we are aware of this basic fact, we are not giving in order to get. We are giving in order that some other believer might get!

Clearly the believer should live in the expectancy of God’s ability and willingness to saturate him with benefits out of his riches in Christ. We however do not give because we are hoping that God will then give back to us as a result. This is a deadly trap – an easy one to fall for.

The fact that two things go together does not mean that they are one and the same thing. I fully expect to receive from God. This is based on what He said about Himself in His word. He said He supplies my need, so I trust Him to do just that. As a believer I am to grow in my awareness of His willingness and ability to supply my need and yet I must not expect him to do this because I give, for then it would be that my supply is from my giving and not from His benevolence in Christ Jesus.

I do not give to ensure that I will receive. I give because I have a new nature in God through which the love of God flows out to be a blessing to another in a practical way.

When the Philippians gave, they ensured that Paul would be able to receive his need met! I give out of love and as a means of acting on the word. I get my need met by fully expecting God to be a father to me. The two are not the same. I live in fervent expectancy; on tiptoes that God is my full supply because the very word of God guarantees this and not because I give.

Paul also brings out some important fact – He is not using some reverse psychology to get the Philippians to give more. He is not praising them so as to cause them to part with more of the pounds sterling. If that were his aim, then he would be using praise, or really flattery to manipulate them.

… to be continued

How can we as christians hold together as a healthy unit or body of believers when we see certain issues from divergent standpoints? What are we to do when others try to force us to live by their convictions?

As a Christian parent, would you allow your child participate in Halloween day celebrations? What about Easter eggs or Easter bunnies, are they not pagan? What about Christmas day celebrations? What about rock and roll music is it not from hell – is it not sinful to have it in church? What about tattoos? What about movies? Some would say movies are worldly and sinful and to be avoided completely. Others will say that family sitcoms are acceptable but nothing more, the list goes on and on.

If Jesus came and met you at the cinema what would you do?

In reality what does the word of God say about going to movies?

Absolutely nothing.

Should you hold a view about such? Definitely yes! … but do not confuse your personal opinions with the word of God… and em … do not teach it as doctrine.

A Christian is not supposed to be divorced from society. In cases where we discover that we hold personal convictions that conflict with what other Christians hold as a rule of life, a principle to remember is that, we should be able to obtain an answer to the question “Is it peaceful in my heart?” If the answer is a yes, then you are free to act on that which your heart has peace about. It is distasteful when a Christian conducts his life in such as way as to have an agenda to have everyone live by his own idiosyncrasies or face the axe.

Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.

For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs.         Romans 14.1

The whole chapter of Romans fourteen is worthy of our study.

We notice some surprising conclusions from this amazing portion of scripture where God, through his apostle, deals with how believers can get along when they hold views that are opposite to that of others. He divides the believers and their views up into two broad categories – rather than view them as  believers  who are right versus believers who are wrong, or as sinner versus saint, he views them as those who are weak in faith and those who are strong in faith. Since we know that faith is Christ-exalting, we see that God is affirming that both views, while glaringly opposite, can be scriptural expressions of faith!

If a religious mind reads the whole chapter through, such would rather Paul had described them as sinful brother and non-sinful brother. In reality the things covered here are not categorically sins but matters of weakness or strength.

The amazing thing concerns that which Paul says about those who are weak in faith. He places them in the category of those who don’t eat meat and don’t drink wine. This is obvious for he says that the weak person eats only vegetables. This will be considered politically incorrect in our day. Ah! You swallowed a few bucketfuls of air just then

This fellow is not perceived as weak because he thinks that all should steer clear of eating meat. He is perceived as weak because all that matters to him is his view and his sensitivity to his view is such that he can dispense the fellowship of other believers – he holds tenaciously to his view at the expense of getting along with other brethren.

The strong person is one who is fully aware that there are no restrictions preventing him from eating meat or drinking wine. The strong person is aware that he is able to eat meat while shunning gluttony, drink without getting drunk and is able to control his appetite such that he can choose to deny himself this liberty just so he can honor a fellow around him who doesn’t eat meat or drink wine.

He is not just strong because of his dietary habits, but because of his exercise of self control in his dealings with other Christians.

The weak person will insist that because his viewpoint is “no wine and no meat”, then all such as receive meat or wine are sinners whose feet are very close to the slippery sands of hell. His view of fellow believers is distorted and the love-walk thrown out the window because his conviction is superior to the word of God and all must bow to his personal conviction or risk excommunication from his circle of friends. He is weak. We are to understand this and refrain from arguing with him on these matters.

In both cases where one is restrictive and the other freer, God through Paul, admits the presence of faith. He does not consider either of the two stances as zero faith

The man that does not eat meat and does not drink wine is perfectly acceptable to God because their action is called weak faith. Somehow Paul locates faith in their actions. It is however not a thing of faith to get judgmental about those who don’t see his view point of total abstinence from meat, wine or all such things.

Usually people legislate the conscience of other believers with a lot of religious sounding ideas that are added to the word of God with the aim of helping to keep the Christian away from sin.

As far back as the Garden of Eden, Eve said, “We cannot eat it neither can we touch it lest we die”. Gen 3.3

On the surface, those are harmless looking words, but they contain an issue as old as religious man – Legalism.

There are four characters at that time in human history – God, Adam, Eve & Satan. In order for Eve to say what she said, she either made it up or Adam told her. We know that God did not tell Eve this and neither did the devil.

God said that they should not eat. He did not say anything about touching or not touching the tree or its fruit. Why then would Eve say this? Your guess is as good as mine. It is the religious need to add restrictions where God has imposed none.

Between Adam and Eve they had developed additional restrictions to God’s initial commands, likely with an aim of keeping themselves and other people from breaking God’s original command. We are therefore faced with an addition to God’s word that has been held so tenaciously, it has now become elevated above what God actually said!

Consider the classic case of Dancing. A number of Christian establishments frown upon dancing outside church. I guess that the holy atmosphere of the church service sanctifies the dance, while the worldly atmosphere of the club, where the Pastor cannot watch over the saint, taints the dance and makes it unholy and distasteful. Really, the idea is that dancing might inflame latent passions; and since we don’t want passions inflamed, we are forced to say that you should steer clear of dancing. This gets said often enough until farther down the line it filters down as a sin!

There are things that are clearly sins. We know they are because the bible clearly says so. Every other thing that the word of God does not talk about, we are not to impose our rules about these on others. We are to become aware of the fact that God trusts that we will make decisions that will not violate our conscience. When we do not violate our conscience, God trusts our heart.

We are faced daily with situations where the Christian is bound by traditions that he presupposes to be God’s commandments. A number of these are hangovers that we bring from our upbringing, which were imposed for our well-being but later get elevated to become a measure of spirituality or basis for associating with and accepting others as Christians or sinners.

Kings James calls these type of things doubtful disputations. “The faith” is a phrase for his maturity in the word. This fellow is mixed up in a number of things. The reality is that the word of God makes allowance for the fact that there are things that we believe tenaciously and might even throw fits about. The challenge is that on these matters, we often think that our traditions are equivalent to the word of God and in many cases that these traditions supersede the word of God.

When we meet believers who do not see eye to eye on such matters, we do not bring them into our fold to straighten them out or expose them to ridicule, argument or censor. In these matters we are to allow for the fact that as each believer is exposed to the word of God over a period of time he becomes stronger in his walk with God and forms healthy convictions that minister peace to the heart.

Historically, there were houses of prostitution back in cities like Corinth in the day that these things were penned. There was a ritualistic value to these orgies. The people that participated brought meat along that was later sold to the restaurants in the city. The meat was given during ritualistic prostitution – the question arises “do we eat this meat?”

This is often choice meat and so is often the finest meat in town. The piece of meat did not come from demons but from cattle. In reality a piece of meat is just that – a piece of meat. How do we handle these emotionally charged religious issues? This is the context within which a chapter like Romans fourteen was written.

The Christian today faces similar situations.

Anyone who has a background in the church can relate to the plethora of religious rules that govern the life of the Christian. Often these rules become mistaken for the life of relationship that God has in mind. We often don’t have problems with whatever point of view that we find acceptable. We usually pick sticks with those points of view that are not agreeable with us.

Should we meet on Saturdays or on Sundays? Christians are polarized over these issues, but in reality both Sunday and Saturday are appropriate for meeting. The trouble starts when we try to legislate other believers and prevent them from acting on their convictions but insist that our conviction is that which others must live by.

The fellow trying to force other Christians to adopt meeting on Sundays is as much trouble as the fellow aiming to force other Christians to meet only on Saturdays. In reality there are no sacred days.

It is the things that God says that give us a clear conscience on any matter. If we do not use the word of God to cleanse our conscience, we will accept any view and have none of ours even when the word permits us to.

I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean. Romans 14.14

There is nothing unclean of itself. By this we understand that if the word of God does not say that a thing is unclean, we are required to arrive at our persuasion on the matter. God allows us this privilege – we can abandon our rights and privileges or choose to be babies who borrow other people’s consciences to live by. We have the freedom from God to take food, receive it as a pure provision from God with a thankful heart. Today, many are going around saying that certain types of food are to be avoided. Watch what you eat but do not become ensnared by the prohibitions that some zealous people try to impose upon others.

..to be continued

And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.
And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,
Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.            Rev 7.1

Even though religious thinking would have us focus on the antichrist & the false prophet in the book of revelation, the truth is that it is the revelation of Jesus.

We see that the  four angels were already standing ready to release the four winds of the earth. Before they act, our focus shifts to yet another angel rising with a loud voice telling the four angels to wait until the servants of God are sealed. This angel ascends from the east. This angel obviously has a higher rank than the first four angels.

We are to understand and receive this as a picture of the mercy of God waiting in long-suffering and patience. The four angels are to hold back in order that the servants of God can be sealed, this represents time for whatever it is that is represented by the sea, earth and tree to respond to the patience and long-suffering of God. God is holding back as long as he can, before men receive the effects of their choices. He is merciful but he cannot prevent men from reaping the harvest of their choices if they reject his offer of mercy.

Men will feel the effect of the wind but would often fail to see that behind the scenes there is a lot of activity going on in the spirit realm.

Since the servants of God are the sealed ones, we know that the earth and the sea are representative of that which is not sealed of God. The earth and the sea are going to be hurt.

Reading through revelations seven, we find that the emphasis is strongly Jewish. It centers on Israel.

Right about the time most of us believers get to the book of revelation (if ever we do) every rule of bible interpretation is thrown to the wind and we are at a loss how to piece together the scriptural jigsaw puzzle.

The truth however is that the book of revelation is really an epistle. The language through which its revelation is brought forth is however symbolic. You see, we must realise that God is a consistent God. He is predictable in a beautiful way. God uses biblical symbols in a consistent way. If this is not the case, we will forever be scratching our heads wondering what they mean. We can know what a symbol means if we encounter it in an obscure passage of scripture by understanding how it is used in a clearer portion of scripture.

John saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth. The earth is really a globe or sphere-like object and in literal terms it does not have four corners. What he is referring to is the well-known idea of North, South, East & West.

The angels were holding the four winds of the earth so that the wind should not blow on the earth, sea or tree. About this time we should realise that the language is no longer literal but deeply symbolic. We are hopelessly confused except we know for sure what is meant by wind, earth, sea or tree.

We are given clues right within the things that John said. The fifth angel says not to hurt the earth, sea, or trees till the servants of God are sealed on their foreheads. In other words the trees will get hurt, as well as the sea and the earth, but not the servants of God. There is therefore a strong clue that servants of God, earth, trees, and the sea are all referring to people or groupings of people.

But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.
There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.        Isa 57.20,21

Prophet Isaiah gives us a clue. In prophetic scriptures, the wicked are like the troubled sea. The idea is that of a restless sea. The reason for the restlessness is because they have rejected the peace of God and have embraced wickedness.

We see that since the wicked are like the troubled sea, it must mean that the non-wicked are like a calm sea. In reality seas are not men nor are men seas.

I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt, and gather them out of Assyria; and I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon; and place shall not be found for them.
And he shall pass through the sea with affliction, and shall smite the waves in the sea, and all the deeps of the river shall dry up: and the pride of Assyria shall be brought down, and the sceptre of Egypt shall depart away.            Zechariah 10.10,11

The lands of Egypt, Lebanon, Gilead, Assyria are going to be judged. This is here referred to as passing through the sea with affliction. Therefore the wicked of Egypt, Lebanon, Gilead, Assyria are part of what is referred to in prophetic scriptures as “sea”.

Concerning Damascus. Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea; it cannot be quiet.                    Jeremiah 49.23

The prophet Jeremiah shows that the confusion in Damascus is likened unto sorrow on the sea, which has lost its rest or calm. Now we have a definite name mentioned in relation to the sea – Damascus which is the capital of Syria.

The overriding idea is that sea in prophecy refers to the nations around Israel.

Son of man, speak unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude; Whom art thou like in thy greatness?
Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of an high stature; and his top was among the thick boughs.
The waters made him great, the deep set him up on high with her rivers running round about his plants, and sent out her little rivers unto all the trees of the field.
Therefore his height was exalted above all the trees of the field, and his boughs were multiplied, and his branches became long because of the multitude of waters, when he shot forth.        Ezek 31.2-5

This is a prophecy that the Lord commanded Ezekiel to deliver to Pharaoh, the King of Egypt.

The Lord is using the rise and fall of the king of Assyria to give the Pharaoh a warning of what awaits him. The Assyrian is a man, yet he is referred to as a cedar in Lebanon. Cedar is a type of tree. The high stature of the tree is used to convey that the man referred to in this prophecy was a great man, a leader of leaders.

The height of the tree is exalted above all the trees of the field. This means that the other men in his world are not to be compared to him. He is an exalted man.

The fact that he shot forth means that he expresses and exercises a measure of authority beyond that of the ordinary man of his day.

The point is that if we take this literally it would be a lie, for men do not have branches nor are they trees.

To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.        Isaiah 61.2

Again the Prophet Isaiah gives us a clue. He is describing the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. God conveys through his prophet that the redeemed man is actually called a tree of righteousness planted by God himself in order that God’s glory might be fulfilled on the earth. The believer is likened to a tree. God plants this tree. In literal terms of course a tree is neither a man nor a man a tree. Therefore this can only be understood as symbolic language.

We have here clear indication that in these prophetic scriptures men are trees.

The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that was the first year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon;         Jeremiah 25.1

The prophecy was sent from God through Jeremiah. It concerned all the people of Judah. Since we are plainly told who sent it and to whom, we do not have the liberty to say it refers to any other set of people asides the people of Judah.

Further down in verse 29 we read –

For, lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished: for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith the LORD of hosts.  Jer 25.29

He is still prophesying to the people of Judah. The city, which is called by his name, is clearly Jerusalem. He is judging the people of Israel. This, he refers to as a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth! Since the people of Judah are the inhabitants of the earth, then Judah or Israel is the earth.

Thus saith the LORD; Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word,
And say, Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, that sittest upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, and thy people that enter in by these gates:                        Jer 22.1-2

God is exact with his instructions to Jeremiah. He tells Jeremiah where to go to – He is to go to the house of the king of Judah. The message is for the enthroned King, the Kings servants, and the people of Judah.

So we know that Jeremiah has been sent with a message for a specific people.

O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.
Thus saith the LORD, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.        Jer 22.29,30

Jeremiah, while standing in the presence of a thoroughly Jewish audience boldly declares “o earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD” – clearly then the king of Judah, his servants and the people constitute “earth” in this prophecy. Jeremiah has not changed his message, he merely borrows a symbol to express it.

Reading through the bible, it is obvious that the capacity for intense strife is greatest in the Middle East region of the world. There are words of propaganda that are spoken to this very day by all sides that show that the area is ripe for some monumental show of violence. For some reason however, that area of the world has not really expressed the scale of violence that it is possible of manifesting.

There is enough strife, hatred and propaganda in the very airwaves. Why has the whole area not been erased from the face of the earth?

There is a restraint behind the scenes. The winds are being held back.

Winds as used in the bible could be agents of revival or could be representative of confusion. What we glean from the opening of revelation 7 is that in mercy, the angels have been despatched to that region of the world and have been instructed to hold back and supernaturally hinder the people of that region from reaping the effects of their wicked intentions.

Angels are involved.

The fact is that God has given us the means by which we can understand the symbols that he has chosen to use to bring forth his revelation.

… to be continued

Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.
they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.    Rom 16:17-18

Oh dear – The Lord Jesus Christ, through the apostle Paul, says to avoid them!

We are to mark them. Who are we to avoid? It is those who have learned the word but cause divisions and offenses to the word that we have learned.

Clearly if a baby Christian acts like one we cannot choose to avoid him, for a baby will act like a baby and as such his flesh will rise above his spirit and dominate his walk until he develops in God.

We will be examining the proper response from believers towards other believers within the specific context of love’s judgement. In our day, believer avoids believer for no reason other than that they do not belong to the same denomination or see eye to eye on some pet doctrine or the other. While that is unscriptural, we find that the word gives clear instruction about when the proper response of love is to avoid another believer.

Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:    1 cor 5:6-7

We glean some important truths from this passage. Usually the focus is on the Christian fellow who felt that the only woman for him was his father’s own wife. Now, you realise that it is only a Christian that dreams up this kind of shameful stuff; only a Christian is capable of being worse than an infidel.

Paul however shows us that it was not only that young man that was responsible for the state of affairs that warranted Paul’s letter. The whole church at Corinth was proud of what the young guy had done. They were glorying! This glorying is not good. When this happens, it is the whole church that needs to renew their mind and return to fellowshipping with God and siding in with his word.

Was this the only guy that was out of order in Corinth? Certainly not! The Corinthians were a most notorious bunch.

Why then was his case singled out?

The issue at Corinth had moved beyond the guy’s act, but how his act was inspiring the whole church to take sides against the word of God and start glorying in such a shameful act.

This we know to be the case because his emphasis was on how the little leaven affects the whole lump getting leavened. He refers to the man’s action as little leaven. Leaven is not a positive bible symbol. It means wrong doctrine. It also carries the idea of the influence of sin.

Paul was conveying a deeply important point. In order to force us to pause and hear him out, he resorts to using a figure of speech. He is not giving advice to the baking industry for his subject matter has not suddenly changed. He is saying that if sin is encouraged in the gathering of saints, it works so as to destroy or wound their conscience individually and collectively. It dulls their resistance to sin and effectively empowers their flesh against their spirit.

This shows that the fellow at Corinth was a great influence and as such was able to draw followers and dull the people’s spiritual stability.

When we deal with matters of this sort, we need to stay cognizant of this fact – the same action from two believers will not be handled in the same manner in all points. This is because believers are at different stages in the maturity continuum. This is also coupled with the fact that all believers  do not have the same level of influence.

The way we respond to a Christian’s failings is not just dependent on what he has done, but on his ability to sway other people into following that lifestyle. In other words we are not only conscious of what the believer has done, we stop to ask ourselves “Who gets influenced by what this believer has done?”. When we know the answer to this we are able to respond intelligently in love.

Love crowds a believer out of a fleshly walk and so rescues him out of a wayward lifestyle.

The aim is not to be punitive, vengeful or wrathful. We must respond in love.

But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolator, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.            1 cor 5.11

We can learn from Paul’s inspired judgement on this matter.

He is describing love’s response – do not forget that. To shun means to avoid with deliberate forethought. This means that things had progressed to a stage where the scriptural response for the guys at Corinth was to avoid this fellow. This runs amuck to our understanding and practice of love.

It is one thing when a fellow acts out his ignorance and simply responds to issues at his level of maturity – we have all been there. It is however a different issue when a Christian shuns all the help and counsel of mature believers and remains glued to his chosen rebellion to the word.

Judge not, that ye be not judged.    Matthew 7.1
For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already …. 1 cor 5.3

Paul said I have Judged. Christians today will frown at such a stance for we respond “Does the bible not say Judge not?”

Really, the bible does not say, “Judge not”. Jesus does however say, “Judge not that you be not judged”. These two are not the same thing.

What are we to do when a Christian lives in open rebellion to the word of God?

What are we to do when a Christian man, a father, shuns his responsibility and blatantly refuses to care for his family? Typically, the answer goes something like “Keep praying for this man and leave the matter in God’s hands” – a perfect spiritual copout!

A Christian is positionally a member of the family of God. When he does not function as a family member we have to protect him and yet at the same time protect others.

And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed.
Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.    2 Thess 3:14-15

Those words are clear. There is an important caveat though; we are not to treat or count these erring brethren as though they are enemies, for they are not enemies but the sons of the Father who are ruled by the flesh.

In the divine thought, a fellow does not stop being a brother just because he is not living like one. It is a shame that he is not living like a brother, but God still owns him as son while we love him enough to responsibly and lovingly choose not to keep company with him.

We are using the power of the fellowship of saints to bring him to a place where he feels irreversibly ashamed for taking a stand against the word in his lifestyle. If he does not feel and respond to this sense of shame, he will return to the lifestyle once again.

We must be careful and mature about this important distinction that Paul maintains – an erring brother is not an enemy and we are therefore not judging because he is an enemy even if his actions are like that of an enemy.

The reason for responding this way is so that the erring brother may be reproved.

Conventional wisdom says to disregard these instructions for love does not judge.

The bible actually nowhere states that love does not judge. Love judges, but judges kindly while rejoicing with the truth and refusing to rejoice in iniquity.

The truth however is that when we disregard such a clear bible teaching, we expose the fact that we ourselves, and not just the erring brother, are conformed to the world’s way of thinking and thus are in dire need of a renewal and retraining of our mind to walk in the word.

God as the Father of the family has said that this is the way to show love to the brother living in open rebellion to the word if our intention is to rescue him from such a lifestyle.

Pastor Timothy was instructed to do the same by Paul.

Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear    1 Tim 5.20

Paul’s instruction to Timothy is insightful and actually shows the matter in clearer light. Pastors are the one to do the reproving. The reproving is NOT to be done in a corner. The reproving is to be done before ALL. The “all” is a reference to all believers.  Paul is insistent on this – we know that he speaks the mind of God when he says this.

The reason why this reproving is to be done before all is so that the other Christians who have seen this Christian live in open rebellion may also have a healthy respect for the word of God!

A Pastor therefore does great disservice if such matters are not handled. Love is concerned that all learn to reverence God and his word. This is why the brother is handled so decisively.

It stands to reason that the intended effect is lost if the brother to be corrected is part of a fellowship of saints where the flesh runs riot. If one is in such a company, brethren are consistently harsh on one another in a survival of the fittest and a myriad of hidden agendas. It is therefore redundant to administer proper, scriptural discipline for it just looks like a continuation of status quo!

The instructions of Paul require an atmosphere of love for maximum impact.

Now we must remember that the word already tells a Pastor what to do in such circumstances.

Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.
But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.
And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.        Mt 18:15-17

The first step is to go to the brother alone.

The next step, if the brother refuses to budge, is to take one or two other elders along so that there is agreement among the mature ones that the brother is truly in error.

The next step is to take it to the assembly of saints for consideration. The aim is for the brother to yield to the collective contribution of all the saints.

If he persists, the Pastor is to do what Paul instructed Timothy to do in love – He is to openly reprove the brother so that all may learn how a Christian should walk in the light of eternal life and not by the lusts of the flesh.

The key is that the church is the visible expression of the risen Lord and the body of Christ on earth.

As a believer allows his spirit rise above his flesh he is rescued from living in open rebellion to the word. He is walking in fellowship with God. The church does not have a right to hold back fellowship from him.

If a man is walking in the light of the word, he has fellowship with God and by extension he has fellowship with the body of Christ. This is why the church must be careful in the message sent out to the brother and other believers.

Love constrains us to receive the brother who was once walking in the flesh warmly in the compassion of Christ.

And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight        Col 1.21-22

We are to remember that such a brother, through the death of Christ, is presented holy and blameless before Christ himself! Therefore he is received as holy and blameless.

… to be continued