Ebook: The Unveiling

by Kenneth Wayne Hancock

Contents

Dedication:  To the future sons of God

Table of Contents

Illustrations

Preface

Introduction

Section One—The Need for the Sons of God

1  What the World Needs: The Sons of God Revealed

Section Two—The Purpose

2 The Eternal Purpose

3  The Sovereignty of God

4  Believing in His Sovereignty Brings Rest

5  Grace and the Elect

6  Grace—The Spirit of Truth Leading Us into All Truth

7  Way of Truth Based on Sound Doctrine

Section Three—Origin and Environment of the Sons of God

8  Not of This Earth

9  The Spirit World of Yah

10  The Adornment of the Spirit World

11  The True Church

12  Words—Invisible Movers in the Spirit World of Yahweh

13  Prayer—The Portal

14  Invisible Spirit World of Yah

15  The Kingdom of Spirit–Where the Sons and Daughters of God Live

16  Casting Out Evil Spirits in Yah’s Spirit World

17  Agape Love Is the Answer

18  But God Was Not in the Waves and Waterfalls

Section Four—The Faith of Yahweh

19  His Faith—Once Delivered to the Saints

20  Walking in Faith—Our Enduring Heavenly Substance

21  Contending for the Faith

22  About the “Messianic Israel” Message 120

Section Five—Knowing Him That Is From the Beginning

23  The Mystery of the One God

24  The First and the Last

25  The Way

26  The Right Hand of God

27  Proof That the Father Is the Invisible Spirit

Section Six—Walking in His Name

28  Believing in the Name of the Savior

29  Receiving Him is Believing What His Name Means

30  For His Name’s Sake

31  Called by His Name

Section Seven—The Unveiling

32  The Veil 

33  Waiting for the Unveiling of the Sons of God

34  The Order of Melchisadek

35  Apokalupsis—The Unveiling

36  Peter and the Apokalupsis

37  The How and the When

Works Cited

About the Author

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Preface– Concerning the Use of the Hebrew Names of God

Over 6,700 times the Hebrew name of the Creator is mentioned in the scriptures of truth.  But the translators of the King James Version of the Bible chose not to transliterate His name from the original Hebrew into English.  They chose instead to replace it with the title  “the LORD.”  They should have written down those 6,700 times “Yahweh” and the shortened form “Yah,” for that is the sound of His name, written out into English.

Better make that 6,699 times, for only one time did the translators leave in the KJV God’s original Hebrew name.  It is found in Psalms 68:4.  “Sing unto God, sing praises to his name: extol him that rideth upon the heavens by his name JAH.”  Praise Him by His name JAH.  And since the letter “J” did not come into the English  alphabet until medieval times,  the spelling came from “IAH” with the “i” coming from the “Y” in yod, the Phoenician letter for “i”.  So YAH would be a more correct  transliteration of His name.

In fact, that is exactly how it is spelled in the New King James Version.  “Extol Him,” it says, “who rides on the clouds, by His name YAH.”

Quoting the editors on page iv of the Preface to the New King James Version of the Holy Bible: “The covenant name of God was usually translated from the Hebrew as “LORD” (using capital letters as shown) in the King James Old Testament.  This tradition is maintained.”  Maintained except in Psalms 68:4.

Furthermore, the Son of God’s name was the same as the patriarch Joshua.  It was not Iesus or Jesus.  It was very close to the name Joshua, or Ioshua, or Yehoshua or Yahshua. The name means “Yah is Savior” or “Yah is Salvation.”  The  Son did say that He came in His Father’s name.  Somewhere in the Son’s name must be the Father’s name.

For the above reasons among many others (please see the author’s previous book Yah Is Savior: The Road to Immortality—ordering information is found in the back of this book) I will use the names Yahweh, Yah, and Yahshua in place of “the LORD” and “Jesus.”

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Introduction

The thoughts expressed in this book explore the deep things of God—things that can only be spiritually discerned. These things pertain unto our perfection and how we get to that perfected state.  These deep things of God explore what He desires to do with us, His sons and daughters, after He takes us to where he wants us to be.  And all of this will be done right here on earth.

This book has been written as a tool for the future manifested sons and daughters of God.  Its subject matter is of a mature spiritual nature.  It is not for children who are “tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine.”  This book is for those who have been called to partake of the strong meat of the word.  It is for those who are tired of “playing church” and want the real plan of God operating in their lives.

The inspired author of the book of Hebrews had much to say concerning perfection, but it was difficult to teach his readers, for they were “dull of hearing” and “slow to learn.” What he had to say was not what they thought in their own wisdom to be true.  For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food…Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God…Hebrews 5:12; 6:1. NKJV.

And so it is today.  As long as the first principles of Christ’s teachings are not solid as a rock in a person’s life, the deeper things will not be understood by them.  The foundation of any house must be solid, built upon the Rock.

This book is for those who have a solid foundation in the first principles of Christ’s teachings: repentance from dead works and faith toward God.  It is for those who are “going on unto perfection.”

I can already hear the cries coming forth. Perfection?  Did you say perfection?  Wait a minute.  You are talking about perfection, and I am still grappling with sin in my life?  No way.  No one can be perfect.

A typical response, and yet, the Savior Himself told us to “be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.”  The apostle Paul says that God’s gifts to us were the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers.  And they are for the “perfecting of the saints…till we all come…unto a perfect man…and no more children, tossed to and fro” (Ephesians 4:11-14).

Many sincere Christians earnestly desire to walk with their Master like this, yet they cannot even think about their own perfection while still grappling with the sin question in their lives. They will justify their circling Mt. Sinai by saying, “Nobody can be perfect.  You can’t be like Jesus!”  To which I will reply, “Okay, but will you let me be like Paul or Peter or John?”  They are the ones that taught that we are to go on to perfection and not be children anymore in the word.

Yet, many questions abound in many hearts concerning sin.    What is sin?  What do we do about it in our lives?  Can we overcome it in our lives?  Is it possible to have the victory over sin while still here on earth?  How do these questions relate to “repentance from dead works and faith toward God”?

What is Sin?

What is sin?  Sin is the breaking of the law.  Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for  sin is the transgression of the law. I John 3:4.  “But which law?” someone will ask. There are hundreds of laws in the Bible and hundreds more made by man.  Which law is John talking about?  It is the ten command-ment law of God.  How can we be sure?  Paul clears up the matter irrefutably.  I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. Romans 7:7. “Thou shalt not covet” is one of the Ten Commandments.  Coveting or desiring your neighbor’s possessions is prohibited in the Ten Commandments, given to Moses on Mt. Sinai.  So sin is the breaking of these ten commandments.

And we have all broken them.  All have sinned and  have come short of the glory of God.  Our old carnal fleshly nature is corrupt and sinful and depraved.  A person cannot please God if they are led around by its selfish ways.  Paul flashes back to this sordid state in Romans 7, letting the reader know that someone out there does understand what it means to be in bondage to the sinful nature.  When we were in the flesh…You mean when you were in that old carnal nature?  You mean, Paul, that you are not now in the flesh?  …the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. Romans 7:5.  For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. Romans 7:5, NIV. He goes on in that chapter to relate the utter confusion and frustration that a sinner feels when they want to do good, but the sin within them prevents them from being the righteous person they really desire to be.

Preachers for ages have erroneously taught that Paul was talking about his sinful present state at the time of the writing of the letter to the Romans.  No!  The apostle Paul  had  seen  the  risen Savior, had been on at least two missionary journeys over the space of twenty-four years, had raised the dead, healed the sick, and cleansed the lepers—no, we had better get this right—Paul in Romans 7 was not speaking about himself in 57 A.D!  He was flashing back to that time when he was a slave to sin.  He was sharing in the sinner’s sad plight, with great empathy.  He was feeling a sinner’s seemingly hopeless condition without the Savior.  He is explaining in Romans 7:14-24 just how hellish it was to be in the bondage to sin.  He has flashed back and writes in the present tense in order for the reader to feel the immediacy of the horrendous bondage the sinner is in.  He mentions being in bondage to sin, a slave to sin and sinning.  The thing that he hates to do (sin) is the thing he does.  In this sinful state he has no power in and of himself to stop sinning, even though he knows that it is wrong and wants to stop it.  That is bondage; that is a slave to the sinful nature.

But just before Paul’s description of a sinner caught in the bondage to sin, he contrasts two states of being.  When we were in the flesh, the motions of sins which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.  But now we are delivered from the law…Romans 7:5-6. He contrasts the two states.“When we were” in bondage to sin, and “now we are delivered”—these are the two contrasting conditions of a human being.  One is before the Spirit of God comes into a life, and the other is after.

Our Old Nature Must Die on the Cross

So how does one get out of the bondage of sin and sinning?  How do we deal with this sin problem in our lives?  The scriptures say that  “He shall save His people from their sins.”  How does this happen?  Can we ever get in a “right” state with God?  What must we do?  There is only one thing to do with the carnal sinful self and that is to confess our depraved state, identify it with Christ on the cross, and let it die.  There is only one way for the body of sin to be destroyed for the old sinful Adamic nature; it must be crucified.  But we cannot really do anything to bring this on.  It is a total work of God that has already been done—at the cross.  We cannot do anything to deserve this wonderful deliverance from this death caused by sin and sinning.  All He wants us to do is believe what He has already done to deliver us from the bondage of sin.

First, we must know this one thing: our old man, our old ego, our old self, our old nature, our old heart, our old carnal nature, the flesh, the depraved body of sin within us—it is put to death with the sacrificial Lamb.  Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. Romans 6:6.

Paul did not say that our old sinful nature was going to be taken care of some day when we all get to heaven.  No!  He said that it is dead, already put to death on the cross! That is not a misprint or a mistranslation.  The sacrificial Lamb of God took our sins upon Him at the time of His death.  He was our scapegoat, as when the Levitical priest laid hands on the goat transferring the sins of the people onto it.  Christ died as a sinful lost man that day, for He “was made to be sin for us, who knew no sin that we may be made the righteousness of God in Him” (II Cor. 5:21).

He wants us to believe this—that our sinful nature died with Him on the cross, and that we were buried with Him, and that we were raised up with Him as well.  For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. Romans 6:5.

Is this hard for us to believe?  Is it hard to have faith in this teaching?  Yet the elect will believe this word.  The others will fall as the children of Israel did through unbelief.  For you see that God is not asking us to do anything except believe what He has already done for us.  He first believed in His work in us long before we got here on this earth.

Entering the State of Being Right with God

And if we believe His word on this, then He will reckon a righteous status unto us. He will lay to our account that we are righteous in His eyes.  For it is God who makes the dead-in-sin come to life and imputes righteousness unto them because they believe Him.  Even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.  Romans 4:17.

Our part is to surrender our old sinful selves unto the cross.  Because of our faith in His redemptive sacrifice by surrendering unto death our own sinful heart, then He says, “You are now my child, and you are now righteous in My sight.  You are welcome into my arms of love and mercy.  Just walk in it by forgiving others and doing my words.  For it is not you that are doing it, for you are dead now, my sons and daughters.  It is the Spirit of the living God that I have dispatched into your hearts.  It is the Spirit of Christ within you who I recognize as the one motivating spirit of your life.  And soon you will be able to truthfully say what Paul said to the Galatians.”  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. Gal. 2:20.

When we simply believe His apostle’s word and identify  our  depraved  carnal  nature with the Lamb that day, and surrender to the punishment of death to that old selfish way of life, then He is pleased.  That faith pleases Him very much, for we believe the report that He has given us concerning the Savior.

“Righteousness” is the upright walk in God’s ways and laws.  If one is righteous in God’s eyes, then He approves of their walk of faith.  Our old carnal Adamic nature can never please God, for it cannot keep the ten commandment law.  But there was one who did, even the Savior Himself.  Our part is to just believe that He is living within, for He is the Spirit, and His Spirit within keeps us in that righteous condition in God’s eyes.  Remember that He is the one who “calls those things that be not as though they were.”  He believes in His own sacrificial power; He can’t go back on it.  If we believe what He believes about us in our redeemed position with Him within, then we are walking in faith.

But, oh, some are so afraid that they are going to sin, or that someone will use this precious truth as cheap grace and as a license to sin.  Some think that if they believe this, that they can do anything and it will be all right with Him—that we can continue sinning since His grace will pick up the tab.  No!  That is not what God is saying at all.  Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?  God forbid.  How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?  Romans 6:1-2.

The true delivered ones believe that their old carnal nature has been crucified with Christ, and that they have been buried with him, and are now risen with Him to walk in a newness of life.

How He Rids Sin from Our Lives

How do we get rid of sin in our lives?  Get rid of the “we” in the question and we will get rid of the sin.  For the

Answer  to  the sin problem is the knowledge that we have everything we need to completely overcome it in Him.  He is the head of all powers in heaven and in earth.  He has power over evil spirits and wicked intents.  He is totally in control of Satan, who is the prince and power of the air.  Satan could only do what God allowed him to do in the first chapter of the book of Job.  When His Spirit lives within us, then we have everything needed to completely overcome sin in our life.  And you are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power.  Colossians 2:10.

He conquers sin in us when we just believe by faith that He has taken out our old hearts and given us new hearts.   When we believe the word of His apostle that He has performed a spiritual operation on us, we are delivered from sin.  For through the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, God has performed an invisible spiritual operation on our old carnal heart and has gotten rid of our old sinful nature thereby.  The operation is a spiritual circumcision.  “Circumcision” means “cutting all the way around.”  First, He cuts our old sinful heart out, all the way around.  Then we are buried with Him in the baptism into His death.  In God’s eyes He buries you with Christ, interring our old carnal nature with the sacrificial Lamb.  Then, we believe that we are raised up with Him to walk in a brand new life with His Spirit as our life within.

This is all by faith.  We cannot see Christ literally dying and being buried, and we cannot see our old carnal, sinful self die, either.  We must simply believe having not seen these things, receiving this truth by faith.  When we do this, God looks on us with approval, for faith pleases God.  In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision   of   Christ:   buried  with  him  in  baptism,  wherein  also ye  are risen with  him  through  the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.  And you…hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses.  Colossians 2:11-13.

Belief in the Resurrection is the Key

Our victory hinges on our faith in the resurrection of the Savior—not just that the resurrection historically happened, but that along with Him we were raised up from the dead as well.  Then we can believe that we, too, can “walk in a newness of life.”  We can then believe in His resurrection in us!  His resurrection is our resurrection, for it is now Him living in us.  All we have to do is believe it.

Our belief in this truth puts us right with God.  He looks down on us and says, “Well done,” and then He imputes our belief as righteousness onto our account with Him.  He “reckons” us as righteous.  He counts us righteous in His sight, apart from our clamoring around trying to keep the law.  Only Christ can keep the law.  Therefore, when we believe that it is Him living in us, we then in God’s eyes are right with Him.  We believe having not seen with our eyes, and this pleases God.

We can never please Him by trying to clean up our old carnal nature and thereby trying to keep the ten commandments on our own strength.  This does not please Him, for it cuts Him out of the action and does not acknowledge Him for our deliverance.   It is an attempt to clean up our lives without Him and His way of doing it.  After realizing that we cannot keep the law successfully, we must confess our sins and surrender to our own deaths.  We must put our old lives on the cross with Christ.

We  then  believe  in  God’s  word when He says He will give  us  a “newness  of  life” where  old  things  are passed away and where all things are become new.  How can we fulfill that if we are still in the bondage to sin?  This newness of life comes as we believe that it is in us.  All we have to do is believe what has already been done.  We cannot “do” anything for this new life.  It is a gift from Him.  We can do nothing for this new life, except believe in what Christ has done for us, and now in us.

For the culminating spiritual feat of Christ is Him coming down into our inner being, giving us a new heart, a new spirit.  This is what God wants for us—a new life.  But it won’t come by us working for it.  It will not come as a reward but as an undeserved gift.  All of our striving here on earth to “do this” and “don’t do that” in order to please Him will never work.  For our deeds of the old man cannot please Him.  It is our walk of faith as Christ in us doing this or that—that is what pleases God.  We must die to bring the life of Christ to life within us.  This is what God looks down on and is pleased.  In His eyes, this is what really counts.

And yet, this is only the beginning.  This right state with Him is just the first step on the road to completeness in Him—on the road to perfection.

Since we are now risen with Him, we are in a position to seek those things that are above.  If we listen carefully, we just may be able to hear Him say, Come, let me show you a more perfect way…

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Section One—

The Need

Chapter 1  What the World Needs— The Sons of God Revealed

This world has one major need right now at the beginning of the 21^st Century.  The world doesn’t need another politician telling the people what they want to hear.  The world doesn’t need a steady robust economy to help it through the hard times that have been prophesied upon it.  No.  The world needs the sons of God to arrive on the scene.  They must come forth for these last days.

The whole creation, the apostle Paul wrote, (whether it knows it or not), is anxiously awaiting the sons of God to come upon the world stage.  For the sons of God will have something that all mortals walking the face of the earth must have.  They will have the key that will set the whole creation free from the chains of a certain physical death.  These children of the Most High are God’s elect, His sons made in His image, and they are what this world needs.  They are the ones who will have cut through all of the deception and vice in this world system.  They alone will see the Spirit and walk in the Spirit and be filled with the Spirit of the living Yahweh.  They will build the old waste places and build the spiritual walls to the heavenly city.

Why the World Needs the Sons of God

The creation has purposely been subjected to mortality by its Creator God. The impending gloom of a certain death is no accident or aberration of God’s  original  plan.  It  has  been  His  will  all  along  for  death  to  come to all living.  And then, a few mortals will be brought by Him to an awareness of the abiding power of His spiritual presence and will become His actual spiritual children. He will change them and will engulf them with immortality one day soon.   And it is through them that the whole creation will finally come to know this glorious liberty from a certain physical death. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.  For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. Romans 8:19-21, NIV.

Every living thing on this planet will die; the whole creation will decay and go back to dust.  And we, this earthly creation, are “in bondage of corruption,” as it says in the King James Version.

The word “corruption” is translated from the Greek word phthora, #5356 in Strong’s.  It means “decay.”  Its root comes from #5351 phthio, to waste, shrivel, or wither.  We, the creation, are bound to become decaying matter someday.  And all of us, be we religious or not, are groaning under the impending physical doom that awaits us.

All of us have a built in desire to live forever.  Every ancient culture, without exception, was concerned with this impending gloom of an early exit from life.  All the ancient religions were concerned about how to secure immortality  for  the  mortal.   And  so  it  is  with religions today.  Man keeps on waiting, waiting, waiting for something real that will happen in order to deliver them from a certain death.

The creation is like the wife of the Creator, who is in the  deep  pains  of childbirth.  She is struggling to deliver her  children,  the  sons  of God.  For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.  And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. Romans 8: 22-23, KJV.

The whole creation is anxiously awaiting the arrival of the sons of God because they are the first ones who will be released from mortality’s chains.  They will be the first ones who will not have to taste death.  And then after they are made known, the creation can look forward to its redemption.  That is how important the sons of God are.  When they are adopted or placed as sons, then a new era begins—an era where immortals will stride the earth, showing forth God’s way.

We Who Have Some Truth Also Desperately Need the Sons of God

Just look around us.  What do we see in every corner?  We see lurid trash in political high places, filthy-minded  movies and TV.  There is no shame to the world system.  And it is not getting any better.  So we try to lock in on the word of God.  We endeavor to glimpse a truth here, a truth there.  Some of us are trying to lead a holy life.

But even if some of us have some of the truth, we can’t seem to agree with other groups who have some truth.       Many of us have been blessed to have the true Sabbath day revealed to us (Friday evening to Saturday evening).  Some of us know about His covenant to us, the lost sheep of the House of Israel.  Some have the feast days, the commandments, and yet…we can’t get it together to agree.

As  a  large  body  of  people,  we  can’t  see  eye  to   eye enough to get together.  Divisions abound.  We, if we are blessed, have a place to meet with a few other people who share some of our own beliefs, but something is dras-tically missing.  The unity of the Spirit is only a dream, for one group does not see eye to eye with another.  We are to be in one mind and one accord, and yet, who is to say just what that one mind is?  Who has the authority to say for sure anything?  Who has a sure word? There are several thousand “Christian” denominations, and they are growing exponentially daily.  There is probably a different concept of God and His plan for every one of His professing followers.

And it appears that the enemy is gaining ground, and we, the body of Christ, because of our disagreements and lack of unity, are seemingly losing ground as far as any “great move of truth” is concerned.

So what is the answer to this dilemma?  It is as if Yahweh Himself is needed to come down and just flat appear to His select few, whoever they are!  That would clear up the dim vision of those He has chosen.  They would definitely “get on the same page” after that shared glorious experience.  In the light of His own countenance and glow filling the room each would be in, He would straighten out off-concepts, purge out old leaven, old hypocrisies, and false concepts of Himself.  There would be no self-delusion if the King Himself came down to a handful!

Then a fire would well up from out of their bones!  Then they would cry to His people in His stead.  They would be His voice with his word welling up and out as springs gush out making rivers where dry land once was.

That is what we all need.  We need a sure word.  We need the Captain of our faith Himself to get a cadre of His brothers to catch on fire and, in turn, ignite the world.  We need a group of people baptized with the Spirit and with fire.   We need them!   We groan within ourselves, longing for someone to stand in the gap between God and the world.

I was sickened to see how thousands turned out in a football stadium to see a comatose eleven-year-old girl whose “statues were oozing oil.”  They took this as some sign from God.  People brought their sick and afflicted in hopes that their faith in this would be honored!  What would they do if a true apostle of God Almighty with the power of the Savior Himself were to come in their midst?   You talk about people clamoring to be healed!  They would be bringing the blind-from-the-womb, the palsied, the lepers, the impossible ones to the disciples for healing.

That is the only thing that will ever turn this world upside down—if the people of the world were ready and knew they had a need for God in human form, had a need for the sons of the living God.

This whole creation is crying and groaning looking for someone sincere and true to believe in.  The heroes are gone; the people run to their idols of music and movies.  Those are their gods—gods who cannot see or hear them and their longings and needs, for their gods can see no one but themselves.  The whole creation does not know it, but they are groaning and longing for the manifestation of the sons of God.  And these sons will walk with the Lamb wherever He goes, for they shall be like Him.  These are they who will do the greater works that the Master spoke of.

It All Hinges on the Sons, But Do They Know Who They Are?

Yes, the manifestation of the sons of God is of extreme importance in God’s plan, but do they know who they are?  Do they realize their calling that He has placed on them?   Do  they  know  that  He  knew  them  long  before

their earthly sojourn began?  Do they at present realize that  He  has  already  given  them  a  glorious   destiny—a destiny that has them justified from sin, set apart for this special work, and also glorified from heaven?  Does God’s elect, His chosen ones, know these things?

Have they called on His name and restored their heart back to Him?  But if they haven’t believed on Him, then how are they to call on Him?  And how can they believe on this God if they have never heard Him, never heard His Spirit, never heard Him who is the Word?  They are going to have to hear Him being spoken out of the mouth of another son in order to believe on Him.  And how shall these prospective sons hear unless there be a preacher?  And who is really going to be effective as a preacher?  The world is full of preachers.  Anyone who thinks they have heard from God calls himself a preacher.  The future sons will be reached by those who proclaim the truth.  And these proclaimers will be sent.  For whosoever shall call upon the name of Yahweh shall be saved.  How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?  And how shall they preach, except they be sent?

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Section Two—

The Purpose

Chapter 2

The Eternal Purpose

The thoughts and intents of the Father’s heart are without beginning and end.  His purpose has existed through all time and has never wavered, has never changed. His intention toward His creation is everlasting.

It is forever the same and will always be true and valid.  His purpose will always go on; it will never stop.  It will come to pass; nothing can prevent His eternal purpose from finding full fruition in this earth and in the heavens.  His purpose is, of course, the perfect example of the  definition of “eternal” (Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language, 2^nd College Edition).

God not only has, but is the definitive word on what will transpire here on earth and in the entire universe.  “In the beginning was the Word…and the Word was God” John 1:1.  “Word” is translated from the Greek word Logos, meaning “(1) a thought or concept; (2) the expression or utterance of that thought” (note, Scofield Reference Bible, p. 1114).  Therefore, in the beginning was the thought or concept, and that thought or concept was the Supreme Being.  And that thought, that Word, became an utterance of that thinking.  And that Word, that Thought, would unfold into a living reality through-out the universe.

Those thoughts, expressed in words, comprise the purpose of God.  His purpose is the road His creation will travel.  His thoughts are His counsel, and they shall stand forever and will come to pass.  The counsel of Yahweh standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations. Psalms 33:11.

Both “purpose” and “thoughts” are words in English translated from the same Hebrew word machashabah, #4284 in Strong’s Concordance.  His thoughts are His purpose.  They express His intentions, His plan, His purpose.  And these thoughts, this purpose, are an intention directed personally and deliberately by God toward His people.  It is a plan that involves people right here on earth.  David knew this intimate truth that God hovers in thought abundantly over his people.  Many, O Yahweh, my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward; they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee; if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. Psalms 40:5. David was well aware of God’s purpose, which definitely concerned him and all of Israel.

And the Word, the Purpose, the Thoughts of God “became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth” John 1:14.  The Word/Purpose/Thoughts of God was made flesh; He is called the Son of God, and He is full of grace and truth.  If we can tap into the truth of God’s purpose, if we can conceive of His plan, then we will know the thoughts and intents of His heart.  And when we think those thoughts, and have the same intention and purpose that He is and has, then we are well on the way of pleasing the Father.

Knowing of God’s eternal purpose, which is the grace and truth that the Word-made-flesh was full of, will bring light to us.  For the Word-made-flesh is Light.  That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.  He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.  He came unto his own, and his own received him not. John 1:9-11.

The Purpose Incarnate was walking around on the earth He created with the people He had chosen to reveal Himself through, and the majority rejected Him.  But some will receive Him, and they will receive power to become like Him.  But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. John 1:12.

Received Him?  Who is He?  He is the Word, the Thought, the Purpose of God from the beginning put into earthen vessels.  Receive His thoughts and intention and purpose and you are receiving Him.  And you will then receive power to become His sons.  And the sons will have believed on His name.  The sons will not only know His real Hebrew name Yahshua, but they will believe what His name means.  More on that later.

His Purpose Is Sharing Himself with His Offspring

Yes, Yahweh has a purpose.  He has thoughts toward certain chosen vessels, His sons and daughters to be.  To get them into His camp, He deliberately contacts them or calls them.  He lets them know He is real in some way.  He puts a desire and a hunger in their hearts to know the truth as to why they are here.  He feeds their hunger with small portions of the truth, and they grow.  And soon they begin to realize that everything seems to work out for them.  Even through the bad times, the times of suffering, both of their making and through no fault of their own, God seems to bring some good out of it.  They realize that they are maturing and becoming less selfish.  They begin to love this invisible God who has provided a plan to deliver them from their sinful selves.  Where once they were destroying themselves and their families, they now are enjoying more peace and harmony in  their  lives.   And  we  know   that   all  things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.  Romans 8:28.

At first, his offspring may not realize that they are a special creation descended fromAdam, who was created some 6,000 years ago in God’s image.  Other men had been created by God earlier.  We know this because Cain was cast out to the east of Eden after murdering his brother Abel, and there he took a wife from those people. But the descendants of Adam had a special destiny in God’s heart.God had His eye on a few of these Adamites  before they ever were born on earth.  Unknown to them at first, He would call and choose out a few whom He knew beforehand.  And He gave them a destiny before their entry into a mortal earthly fleshly existence.  He pre-destinated them to be made into the exact image of the Son of God, the Word-Thought-Purpose of God.  They are to be His siblings, his brothers.  For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be con-formed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. 8:29.  For God knew his own before ever they were, and also ordained that they should be shaped to the likeness of his Son. 8:29. NEB.

And those that He predestinated to be exactly like Himself, those are the ones that He first contacts or calls.  And, as far as He is concerned, it is a done deal.  It is His Thought toward them that they should be like Himself.  What He has purposed, who can prevent it from coming to pass?  To those that He called, He gave them a new heart that does not sin against Him.  He justified them.  They are in His sight justified from all of their despicable past actions.  They, of course, must witness this on earth by believing the word of God about His Son, who is the sacrifice for our sins, whose shed blood slays the sin within us.  It is already done and over with in God’s mind before it ever happens here on earth to His children! And to those called ones who He has justified, He in His thinking,  in  His heart, has already glorified!  More-over, whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. 8:30.  He chose them long ago; when the time came he called them, he made them righteous in his sight, and then lifted them to the splendour of life as his own sons. 8:30. Phillips.

This is God’s Doing and Not Ours

God the Word has thought it all out and has purposed it and planned it to happen according to His predetermined counsel. Nothing accidentally happens.  He is calling, justifying, and glorifying His elect, the chosen few.  They will be “conformed to the image of His Son.” They will shortly be glorified and have their mortality swallowed up by His miraculous eternal life!  God is for them!  He helps them to do His plan, and this personally pleases Him. He gives them what they need and when they need it to become what He has pre-determined for them to become.  In the face of all this, what is there left to say?  If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not grudge his own Son but gave him up for us all—can we not trust such a God to give us, with him, everything else that we can need?  Romans 8:31, Phillips.

Not According to Us, But to His Own Purpose

 We cannot do anything to become a part of His purpose and plan.  God is saving some and calling some with a holy calling, but it is not because of anything “good” or “evil” that they have done.  You cannot work at it  in  order  to be accepted as a son or daughter.  You cannot give enough offerings or go to church tirelessly and endlessly and expect to be one of the chosen ones by your efforts.  To be called to be like Him, to be chosen as one of his sons is not according to our own works.  It has nothing to do with what we have done, do, or ever will do.  He calls us to be His immortal sons and daughters in accordance with His own purpose that was given to us in Yahshua His Son before the world began.  Who has saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Yahshua the Messiah before the world began.  II Timothy 1:9.

Our perfection and sonship in Him was given to us before the creation of the world.  Therefore, we were in existence before the world began! We had to have spiritually been with Him in the beginning in order to have received the holy calling of sonship from Him.  It is he who brought us salvation and called us to a dedicated life, not for any merit of ours but of his own purpose and his own grace, which was granted to us in Yahshua from all eternity. 1:9. NEB.

The Inheritance

The sons and daughters of God have obtained an inheritance.  Our destiny is to inherit all things and to reign with the King of the Universe.  Now this inheritance that some are to receive is a destiny that He has prearranged for that elect few.  He has predestined them for greatness.  He has selected these chosen few before the world ever was, to be like Him.  And their lives—their destiny as His sons and daughters—have been predestinated in accordance with His own purpose.  He  thought  it  through  before  the  world  ever  was,  and He purposed and planned it all out to the finest detail.  He then began to work all things after the counsel of His own will  and  purpose.   For  God has allowed us to know the secret of his plan, and it is this: He purposes in his sovereign will that all human history shall be consummated in Christ, that everything that exists in Heaven or earth shall find its  perfection and fulfillment in him.  And here is the staggering thing—that in all which will one day belong to him, we have been promised a share (since we were long ago destined for this by the one who achieves his purposes by his sovereign will), so that we, as the first to put our confidence in Christ, may bring praise to his glory! Ephesians 1:9-12, Phillips.

Summary

The great Creator, the Giver of life, has a definite plan and purpose in creating all things.  He has revealed His purpose over the last 6,000 years to only a few human beings.  We call them apostles and prophets, and they by inspiration of the Spirit of God have left us some writings that tell of His purpose.

They tell of His promise to humankind of a life everlasting—an eternal life where our frail, flimsy earthen bodies will be replaced by a glorious spiritual body in which those blessed ones will live with the Heavenly Father as His spiritual sons and daughters, His heirs of His kingdom.

The apostles and prophets speak of the following concepts that are a part of the perfecting of His sons and daughters:

• Purpose—No accidents.  He has an eternal purpose in reproducing Himself in His children.
• Predestination—He has given a royal destiny to a few human beings before they were ever born here on earth.
• Foreknowledge—He knew who they would be before they were born into this earth.
• Election—Same word as “chosen.”  He chooses or elects certain human beings to fulfill His will.
• Grace or Favor—He favors the ones He has chosen.  They are predisposed to respond to Him, and He showers great grace on them, or He favors them with a depth of knowledge about His purpose and how He is going to perform his plan.
• Kings and Priests—The elect or the chosen ones will acquire immortality according to His will and become like Him.  They will do the “greater works” as His ruling royal family.  They will be His immortal offspring, able to mediate the glorious blessings of His Spirit to the rest of creation.  They will be His inner circle, His cadre, His round table of rulers in His exact image, able to love mankind in the same powerful way that He did.
• Sovereignty—He is sovereign and can do whatever He desires to do and whenever He decides to do it, in order to accomplish His purpose, plan, intention and thoughts.

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Chapter 3  The Sovereignty of God

To fully understand the vision of the immortal sons and daughters of God, one must comes to grips with God’s sovereignty.  God is totally in control.  He is sovereign.  He rules.  He is in complete charge of every-thing that is happening in our respective lives.  He is the Supreme Authority in everything that is happening to any and everyone here on earth.  And He does as He pleases without our permission.

     God is in complete control of everything that is taking place in and through the governments of man here on earth.  He is ruling as I write this and as you read this.  Nothing is happening at this instant here on earth that He is not aware of and that He has not ordained and pre-determined to happen.

     He is in total charge of the powers that be here on earth.  “The powers that be are ordained by God.”   He has provided for their rise to power and has helped them to accumulate wealth and influence.  Everything that is happening at this instant, or that ever has happened, is a result of God’s sovereign desire and control.

     The old hymn goes, “Thou art the Potter, I am the clay…Have thine own way…” We sing it, but what His awesome sovereignty entails escapes our little finite minds.  Our Creator is the Divine Potter at His wheel.  He sits down, and with the earth He has created, He fashions containers from clay, vessels to be used at His conven-ience and His discretion.  He is in charge of making the vessels   and  pots.   He  molds  and  shapes  these  human beings in accordance with His own desires and purposes.  They, for the most part, do not understand most of the time what He is doing, for His ways are difficult for His creation to comprehend.  He is the Potter  and is fashion-ing from the same lump some pots to be used for everyday water containers and wash pots.  And some are done with the Master’s finest touch to be beautiful and of fine design, fit for the use of being kings and queens.  And some clay vessels may never make it to the kiln for firing.  Some are shaped and then returned to the original large lump, never to be fashioned like that again.

     But some people do not like the way life is treating them.  In other words, they do not like the cards that God has dealt them.  When they find out that God is the one in control and has mercy on whomever He desires to have mercy, they do not like it.   They lash out at Him and His sovereignty and say, If He made us this way, “then why does God still blame us?  For who resists his will?”  To which the apostle Paul replies, “But who are you, O man, to talk back to God?  Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, Why did you make me like this?  Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?” Romans 9:18-21, NIV.

     Remember.  He is sovereign and can and does do what He wants to do with His creation.  But we humans think that we are in charge of our own lives.  No matter how insignificantly we stride upon the world stage, we think that we are formidable and of great importance.

     And those humans whom He  has chosen to be kings and rulers in the world system—how high and lifted up they stand.  Take King Nebuchadnezzar as an example.  He was the famous king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire that ruled from 605-562 B.C.  His experiences with Yah-weh are written down by Daniel the prophet.  Through these  experiences,  Nebuchadnezzar  learned  that  God is sovereign.

     The king’s pride had puffed him up.  He was the absolute   ruler   of  an  incredibly   rich   empire.   His city Babylon was itself a wonder of the  world.  But the source of all of those earthly blessings was lost upon him.  He did not acknowledge who had enabled him to acquire untold wealth and power as the “head of gold” of the Babylonian Empire.  Nebuchadnezzar actually thought that he had on his own strength gotten all the power and riches.  “Is not this great Babylon; that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty,” he boasted one year after being warned in a dream that he would go insane and become beast-like for seven years.  This warning was “to the intent that the living may know that the most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomsoever he will, and sets up over it the basest of men.”  Daniel 4:17, 30.

     God had given him warning in a dream and the dream came to pass.  Nebuchadnezzar was smitten with insanity for seven years.  And at the end of the seven years of living like a beast out in the courtyard, he began to sing a different tune.  “I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation: and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?” Daniel 4:34-37.

     Here was the most powerful man on earth exclaiming that God is sovereign and that we earth-dwellers better realize that He rules right here on earth.  He found out the hard way.

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Chapter 4  Believing in His Sovereignty Brings Rest 

     “For we which have believed do enter into rest,” it says in Hebrews 4:3.  Believed exactly what, for there are many things to believe in the holy scriptures?  Believed that Yahweh is behind everything—that He has designed everything, that He created it all and is in total complete control, that He is sovereign and completely in charge and rules in man’s every waking hour—that He is all-pervasive and that it is all in His hands—everything—every “good” thing and every “evil thing.”

     We enter into His rest when we believe that He is doing it all for His own reproduction’s sake.  His works were finished from the foundation of the world so we enter into rest when we cease from our own works—when we stop trying to inject our will into the everyday scenes of the play we call “our life,” but He calls the play “My Plan and Purpose.”

     “Although the works were finished….”  He set it all in motion; who are we to find fault with what He has already done and established?  He is the wise master-builder who with great painstaking planning and fore-sight has created and set in motion a pre-determined outcome.  He is sovereign, and our part in all of this is to just realize that He is in control and get into the flow of what He has already set in motion and, consequently, is doing here on earth.

     When  we  believe,  really  believe  that  He is  in  every action and incident of our own lives and in the lives of our fellow human beings, then this does give us great rest—rest from trying to manufacture responses and actions in others the way we want them to act.  We would cease to expend energy in being the mastermind of other people’s lives, although through good intentions.  We would finally realize that their Creator is the architect of their lives.  We try to take God’s place when we strive to get people to do what we want them to do.  That is the hardest work on this earth—trying to get other people to do what you want them to do.  This type of striving, or rather strife, is brought on by not believing that God is in charge of every one of His created beings.

     By us trying to micromanage things and change everybody on our own strength, we try to take God’s place.  And with this striving going on, no rest can take place.  When the Savior said that they were going to the other side of the lake, He rested in the fact that they would wind up on the other side in due time.  In fact, He rested so comfortably that He fell asleep in the boat and was not the least bit concerned when a storm threatened their very lives.  The disciples woke Him up and cried, “Don’t you care that we are perishing?”

     And He responded, “Why are you so fearful?  How is it that you have no faith?”  Fear came to them when they did not believe in His word when He said that they were going to the other side of the lake.  They did not believe that He was in control of the situation.  In fact, they questioned His care and love of them in what was to them a dire circumstance.  They were relying on their own abilities to micromanage the situation, and they were full of fear and strife, and this was giving them no rest.

     And so He said to the sea, “Peace, be still.  And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.”  A great calm and rest came to their minds and hearts when they experienced that He was in control, even of the very elements of nature. Mark 4:35-41.

Works Finished from the Foundation of World

     This is a great mystery: Even as it is written already in our genes what we physically are to become, even so Yahweh has in His original works of creation set forth the end from the beginning.  I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. Isaiah 46:9-10.  It is written in everyone’s “spiritual genes” just what we are to become, even that which He wants us to serve as while here on this earth.   For we all are His “servants.”  He uses us to either become His spiritual manifested children, or He uses us in the big picture to help bring His children to perfection.  Either way, we are all serving His purpose and design for His created beings in the environment He has fashioned for them to operate in.  I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I  have purposed it, I will also do it.  

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Chapter 5   Grace and the Elect

       We have learned that God showers great grace upon His elect, the ones whom He foreknew and predestinated.  To learn more about this grace—what it is and what it will do in our lives—we turn to Paul’s writings.  He is endur-ing a severe trial which has caused him great suffering.

     False prophets at the church in Corinth are slandering  him.  They have said that he is a false teacher, that he is taking for himself the offerings that have been collected for the poor believers in Jerusalem.  They are challenging his apostolic authority.

     And so he feels that one more letter is necessary to help those there.  This second letter to them will be, among other things, a vindication of his apostleship, for he knows that if they do not believe him about the Savior, then they will be the losers.

     But Paul will not be caught in the trap of appearing to be bragging in a carnal manner.  He will tell them about the visions and revelations that he has had of Christ without boasting according to the flesh.  Speaking of himself he says, “I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven.  Whether it was in the body or out of the body, I do not know—God knows.  And I know this man…was caught up to paradise.  He heard inexpressible things, things that a man is not permitted to tell.  I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses” (2 Corinthians 12: 2-5).

     Paul also relates to them that he realizes that God sent to  him  a  messenger  of  Satan  to  torment  or buffet him “lest he become exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations” that God had given him.  God first blesses him with wonderful visions of Him and then out of love uses Satan to keep Paul humble (v. 7).

     Paul says that he asked God three times to take the evil agent out of his life, but was only told by Him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” NIV.  The spiritual strength that I want to demonstrate through you cannot be perfected unless you are weak, according to your flesh, God was telling him.  So Paul resigned himself and really rather relished being in a difficult bind here on this earth so that his power would rest on God.  “Hence I am well content, for Christ’s sake, with weakness, contempt, persecution, hardship, and frustration,” he writes.  For all these things afflict the physical body, reminding a human being of the weakness of the fleshly body.  “For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

What Is “Grace”?

     But Yahshua had said to him, “My grace is sufficient for you.”  What is this “grace” that is our sufficiency?  “Grace” is translated from the Greek word charis, #5485 in Strong’s.  Definition: “Of manner or act, especially the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life, including gratitude: Ie—acceptable, benefit, favor, gift, grace(-ious), joy, liberality, pleasure, thank.

     In 2 Cor 1: 15 charis is translated “benefit”—“I was minded to come unto you before, that ye might have a second benefit.”  Charis is also translated “favor” six times.  To Mary the angel said, “…Thou art highly favored,” or graciously accepted, or much graced.  “Thou hast found favor with God” (Luke 1:28, 30).  Luke later says that the Christ “increased  in …favor with  God  and man,” still using  the word “charis.”

     The word for “gift” or “gifts” is directly from this same word and is used more than twenty times.  It is #5486, charisma.  It is used to speak of God’s gifts unto men and the spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12: 1-31.

“My grace is sufficient…”

      So we see that God’s grace to us is his favor to us, his goodness to us in giving us the truth, in leading us when we don’t even know that He is doing it.  We must begin to realize what Paul realized, that it is only by His favor shining upon us, that we can amount to anything, as we walk humbly with our eyes upon the majestic Invisible One.  We realize that no amount of striving, struggling, and endeavoring to do something in our own fleshly strength will please Him or ever do the job to get His approval.  He is pleased by only one thing—faith.  And this is how it works.

How faith works—how pleasing Him works

     The Eternal Spirit Yahweh chooses out certain individuals to reveal Himself to, and they, in turn, become a witness for Him.  He chooses them out through no merit of their own.  There is nothing they can do before the fact to warrant His election of them.  They have already been selected before they ever came out of their mother’s womb.  It is not to the strong or swift in this world.  He elects or chooses, in fact, those who are weak in this world’s eyes.  In other words, when He was choosing out His disciples, He did not choose the emperor Caesar, the Roman governor, or the Jewish High Priest.  He chose out lowly, “uneducated” fishermen from Galilee.

     He does the choosing; we don’t.  “You have not chosen me,  but  I  have  chosen  you  and  ordained  you  that you should go and bring forth fruit.”

     So He chooses out certain people in the earth to reveal His plan and Himself to.  He “favors” these people by revealing Himself to them.  He gives grace unto them—spiritual gifts.  He deals with them and shows them of Himself.  Without this favor, they are nothing.  Without His favor (grace) they remain the walking dead.  Without Him favoring them by showing them His plan, they would remain lost in the daze and maze of this world system.  Without His grace, gifts, and favor man remains in the guilt and depravity and bondage of his sinful carnal nature—remaining there in that prison until the light of day deliver him—by His grace, or favor.

     How do we find this favor, this grace?  It is to be found in the Savior, who was “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).  “Grace and truth” came by Him.  Knowing who the Savior really is and what He accomplished for His people is the key in understanding His favor.  But the kicker is that one can’t comprehend His favor unless He has given that person favor.  One has to have His favor in order to eventually comprehend it.

     Some human beings are “predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son.”  These are the “greatly favored” ones.  They have a singularly marvelous calling, a magnificent fate in Him.  And yet, all of us who are called and chosen share in God’s favor.  For the “manifestation of the sons of God” is the final harvest of the Tree of Righteousness that Yahweh the Husbandman has planted some 6,000 years ago.  When the 144,000 sons of the living God stride forth in their resplendent immortal glory, they will be the final harvest that all of the prophets, patriarchs, apostles, and us have sowed toward for all these millennia.  We all have shared in and have been blessed by Yahweh’s incomprehensible favor or grace.

     For  He  is  the Potter, and He makes the human vessel the way He wants to.  And to be created a vessel unto honor—for Him to mold us, a mere piece of clay, into something that could hold the living spiritual water that is His essence—is humbling, yet thrilling.

     The Savior was “full of grace (favor, gifts) and truth.”  Our favor is found in and emanates from the Savior.  For “grace and truth” came by Him.  It is a favor, a gift, a benefit, a grace from Him that our sins could be blotted out, that we could have “no more remembrance” of past sins.  “Your sins and your iniquities I will remember no more,” He said.  “And I will write my laws upon your heart.” That is a promise and a favor unto us.  Deliverance from darkness is a gift, a grace, a favor from Him to us.

 The “Hitch”

      So what is the hitch?  Why is it all so difficult?  What is the problem with all of this?  The difficulty lies in man’s unbelieving heart and mind.  For all of the above—His favoring us with the truth about His saving us from sin, darkness and decay—all of this hinges on us believing it.  It depends on faith—believing in all this that we have not seen with our eyes.  “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Master Yahshua the Anointed, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand” (Romans 5: 1-2, NIV).  “For by grace {by His favor to us} are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2 :8-9).

     And it was already done in His mind that we should do this before the foundation of the world (v. 10).  But then, it is only by Him helping us to believe that we can receive His favor.  For He said, “Without me you can do nothing.”

His favor, His gifts to us, His grace is sufficient

     Paul wrote in another place, “If God be for us, who can be against us?”  If He is indeed favoring us by His truth, presence, a new life in Him, why would not that be sufficient for us to become what He wants us to become?   His favor on us is enough to balance the buffetings by Satan to keep us humble during our maturing process as His sons and daughters.  Paul knew this and tried to share these things with those in Corinth in defense of his apostleship.    

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Chapter 6   Grace—The Spirit of Truth Leading Us into All Truth

     “My grace is sufficient for you,” the Master told the apostle Paul.  His grace/favor—His shining down on Paul was really all Paul needed.  It was sufficient for him.  It is all that counts.  With it we can do all things.  Without Him smiling down and helping us with His kind touch we can’t do anything.

One of the most important aspects of the Truth that the Father will reveal is the Son.  He will make it known and will shed light as to just what He  is talking about when He says the word “Son.”  And the Father will reveal the mystery of His Son to whomsoever He will!  And the Son will reveal just who the Father is to whomsoever He will! (Matt 11: 27). If Yahweh has our names written in heaven, then He will show us the way.  He will show us that He (the Great Spirit-in-human-form) is the way, the path to get to the Spirit/Father.

Oh, to have our names written down in heaven!  Oh, that He is so benevolent, so merciful and forgiving of all of our sins and iniquities, that He is so quick to forgive our short comings, so quick to encourage, for He knows our frame is dust, that we are weaker than water.  Oh, that He knows us before we were ever born, before our mothers ever moaned and cried to bring us into the world, He knew us!

We were in His heart, in His vision of what would take place here on earth, that He would personally redeem a small  remnant  of  people from the vast catalog of human flesh and that He would lead them on a right path for His name’s purpose or cause, for His name’s sake, for the showing forth and making known of what His name means.

He leads us on the right way, helping us along every step of the way so that the purpose of what His name means will come to light: He, Yahweh, is the Savior of a needy people, of a people who, furthermore, know they have a need, and that need is His presence within.  And when He comes inside us, His temple, then the mystery begins to lift, and we see that with Him we can do something that is lasting and meaningful.

“Few there will be to find this way of truth,” the Master said.  He spoke in parables, dark sayings, so that multitudes could hear the words about the timeless precious teachings about His kingdom, but not perceive what the mysteries of the kingdom were all about.

The disciples asked Him about this.  The crowds can’t understand the mysteries you are talking about.  Why do you teach this way—in parables?  And He replied that it was given to them to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven but to those who are without the gift from above which contains the understanding of the mysteries of the kingdom—without that favor of the Father above, the favor that you have been given—a person just cannot receive the light.

The parables, we’ve been told, are little stories to make it easier to understand biblical principles.  That is wrong; it is just the opposite.  He taught in parables so that those who were supposed to understand would, and those who were not meant to understand, would not.

And so it comes down to the present truth at hand—in your hand right now.  We have to believe that we are one of the chosen ones that He is revealing truth to.  The following truth contained herein is not for the masses; it is only for a few.  Prove all things here in prayerful pose.

Be slow to reject at first glance.  When the Spirit of truth is come He will lead us into all truth.  And He, the Spirit, Yahshua the Messiah said, will speak of Him, Yah in human form.  If we believe that we have “all truth” right now, then if the Spirit of truth were to show us more truth, we would reject it thinking we had it all!

But if we confess that we don’t have but the little bit that He has been so gracious to give us, then when the Spirit of truth shares with us, we will be less likely to reject the truth about the “Son”.  For the Spirit of truth, when He shall come, shall speak of Me,” said the Son of God.  That is the litmus test as to which “Spirit of truth” is the real one: “When the Spirit of truth is come, He will speak of Me.”

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Chapter 7   Way of Truth  Based on Sound Doctrine

       The sons of God will know that when it comes to truth, it all comes from above.  Those called and chosen to be made into the likeness of the Savior know that they are in the walk of a lifetime.  They know that all truth is heaven sent.  The truth about who we are and why we humans are here in the first place all comes from on high.  The truth about who put us here and for what purpose, the truth about the Supreme Being’s plan for us—all this is from above.

       If our Creator so desires, all truth about all of these matters and more is there for us to grasp, but there is also a strong delusion or deception out here in the world.  In fact, He is the one who has created and sent a “strong delusion” out into this created realm.  He has allowed this evil to be here for our good.  For “there is a way that seems right unto man,” but it is not the right path and eventually leads to death.

       The truth is that there are two roads that lead to life and to death.  The Son of God said that He is the road, the way to life.  If we go His way, if we learn just how He is the way, then we will end up in the right place.

       And yet, “a man can receive nothing (of the truth) except it be given him from heaven.”  Without the favor from above, a person cannot receive any truth.

       Many appear and are outwardly religious.  They have their incantations, rituals, customs, traditions, and holidays,  but  they  cannot  receive  the  truth  unless  it is given by God, the great eternal Deity/Spirit.

       The very fact that we have met on this page probably puts us in the category of being hungry for the truth.  But the truth does not come to us in one day or in one revelation.  He has to mold our minds so that we can be able to receive his doctrine at various levels.  After our initial awakening, He will give us a bit of truth.

       Whole denominations have been built upon that one initial bit of the truth that was given to a person.  God has always been faithful to shed bits of light to certain individuals down through history.  But what happens?  That person becomes so enthusiastic about that one piece to the puzzle that he runs and builds an entire organization based on one little sliver of truth, one doctrine.  One denomination is built upon a “sinner saved by grace” and “once saved always saved.”  One is built on “speaking in tongues.”  One is built on the “infallibility of the pope.”  One is founded upon keeping the sabbath day and feasts days.  One is built on the oneness of God.  One is built upon using sacred names, the trinity, or grace, ad infinitum.  Many, not all, have a bit of truth to them.  If one denomination has, say, the righteousness of the law, then they are in error on the true Sabbath day.  And then some sabbatarians may not have the sacred names of Yahweh and Yahshua.  Those that do may not have the revelation of Yah-in-human-form.

       We must begin to put it all together.  We must sift through all the doctrines.  It is a formidable task even with His help, but a necessary one.  For if we are lacking a major teaching, a major truth, then we will not be able to take that next step on the road to immortality.

       Each bit of truth lightens a step on the path, the way.  Error blinds our eyes and confuses our equilibrium so that we get confused and lose our balance and get off the path.  We then stop walking on the way of truth and get off onto paths blazed by man’s wisdom.

       False doctrines cause humans to get off the path that leads to immortality.  One may begin sincerely down the true path but error in knowledge of Him causes that person to get off the path and onto another road that is not heading in the same direction.  Falsehoods about God’s true nature and ways enter in and the foot goes down their path and that road leads to destruction.  “He that abides not in the doctrine of Christ has not God.”

       If we follow a false teaching, we head down a path, taking a step that has not been ordered by Yahweh.  This leads us into a place where He won’t be.  We then lose His presence.  We can’t get any closer to Him because we are heading, in this scenario, in the wrong direction.

       So we must find out which doctrines are true and which are false. Some denominations are built upon the concept that “doctrine” is a dirty word and is not central to the walk of the Son of God.  Feelings are very important to them.  “Feeling the Spirit,” speaking in tongues, being “slain” in the spirit—all things seemingly “doctrine-less.”  But that is not true, for everything is based on some teaching.

       Doctrine is a good thing.  True doctrine is contained in the scriptures.  “All scripture is given by God and is profitable for doctrine.”  A sure way to go down the wrong road is to not know the scriptures.  “You do err.  You neither know the scriptures nor the power of God.”  In fact, you cannot have God without staying in His doctrine.  “Whoever transgresses and abides not in the doctrine of Christ has not God.”  Yes, doctrine is important to Yahweh.  Sound doctrine is extremely important to God, but is of the utmost importance to us, or should be, because our lives depend on it!

       Case in point: the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection; it was not one of their doctrines that they taught and lived by, and the Master said, “You are in error.    You  are  off.   You  have  gotten  off  on the wrong path by an incorrect teaching somewhere.  And the Sadducees were in trouble, for they simply did not believe in the “writings of truth.”

       For the scriptures speak of a spirit world, a world of immortals, a supernatural realm which they did not believe in.  And they did not believe in the resurrection—that it was possible for the dead to be raised.   And every spring they had witnessed with their own eyes the earth coming back to life.  And so, with that unbelief, their fates were sealed; they could not attain immortality.  They had gotten off the path of truth, and it had fatal consequences for them.  They had rejected a piece of truth—the resurrection—and it had cost them dearly.

     But the Spirit of Truth has been promised by the Savior to those who follow Him, and the Spirit of truth will lead us into all truth.  “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”  And the Spirit of truth that will come to us will speak of the Son of God, the Savior, Yah-in-human-form.  The Spirit of truth is the Spirit of the Master, the Messiah, for He said, “I am the truth.”   So the Spirit of truth is the Savior’s Spirit, which is truth.
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Chapter 8  Not of This Earth

     The origin of the sons of God transcends any location on earth.  They are strangers to earth.  Earth is not their home.  They are sojourners and pilgrims during their earthbound travels.  Their roots go back to the beginning, locked deep down in their Father’s heart.  They are not earthlings.  They are not of this earth.

     For God’s true offspring, life on earth is not really about earthly things.  Invisible heavenly things, spiritual things, are driving what is happening for the sons of God while here on earth.  But most of God’s sons and daughters do not know their destiny as of now.  Their main problem is that they do not know how to walk in the heavenly calling that they are called to.  Their problem is that they are thinking from a fleshly, earthly, natural point of view. 

Man sees everything this way.  He sees it all through the eyes of his own carnal senses.  If it cannot be seen with the eyes or heard with the ears, or touched with the fingertips, or tasted with the tongue, or smelled with the nose, then it must not exist!  That is natural man’s thinking.  But, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things that God hath prepared for those who love Him.”

Natural minded man does not realize that this earth is not just about earthly things!  The truth is that the things that are happening here on earth have been put in motion by things that cannot be seen from earth, nor seen by earthlings.   This  earth  is  about  heavenly   things!    This earth is not really about earthly things.  This earth is about spiritual things.  This earth is about invisible things.

This earth is not about things that can be seen right now by the naked eye, nor with telescopes, for that matter.  All earthly things, including man, are only temporary things.  There is nothing lasting or enduring about them.  Nothing of this earth lasts.  Everything based on earthly vistas—what can be experienced by the senses—not only will not last, but cannot endure!

Of course, man proves this everyday, for men, women, boys, girls, and infants die daily.  They do not endure.  Their bodies daily return to dust from whence they came.  And their spirits return to Him that passed them out at the first.

Earthly Things Cannot Fulfill a Spiritual Being

This is the reason that the Preacher said in Ecclesiastes, “Vanity of vanities.  All is vanity and vexation of spirit.”  Everything here on earth vexes a spiritual entity’s being.  Earthly things cannot fulfil a spiritual being.  Man, a spiritual being, created by God to house Him fully, in vain tries to live a fulfilling life by the acquisition of earthly things, when earthly things cannot suffice a human being, a being designed to be the glory of God, who is an invisible Spirit.

Yet, unregenerate man slugs on in the slop of misguided desires and lusts.  These passions are for things that will not satisfy nor endure.

The sons and daughters of God realize that they were put here by a Being that is not of this earth.  They see that reality is not earth-based.  They realize that they cannot see true reality by looking through earthly eyes.  Man can only endure by seeing things other than earthly things.

It is a heavenly vision, a heavenly faith, a heavenly destiny, a heavenly plan, a heavenly purpose, a heavenly blueprint, a heavenly design, a heavenly way, a heavenly thought of a heavenly Father, who is above all this on earth and is in us whom He has called.

To think earthly is to be in darkness.  He has called us out of darkness into the heavenly light.  To be earthly-minded is sure death in the darkness, for what seems to be our earthly life is really only a walking death.  Remember when the Savior told them to let the dead bury their dead?

To continue to think in an earthly way is a recipe for death.  “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires.  But those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires” (Romans 8:5, NIV).

As long as our earthly bodies dictate what we do or say, we walk in death.  That hold on our minds by the fleshly desires of our earthly bodies only will pass when we believe that our old carnal heart at its core is crucified with the Savior.  When He died, we died.  When He rose, we rose.  But that is very difficult to believe because we cannot sense it with our five senses.  It takes a spiritual sixth sense to see from whence the miracle is derived.  It is something that must be believed without seeing the evidence before hand.

To even get out of the old and to get into the new life, we must believe in a spiritual being who does the saving.  We have to believe in a Being we cannot see with our earthly eyes.  We must believe in someone who is invisible, who is not of this earth, someone who calls us somehow with a calling that is not of this earth, calls us with a heavenly calling, and urges us in mysterious ways to appear to choose His heavenly way against the better judgement of our earthly unbelieving senses—a someone who brings us into a place where we will repudiate all that we see here on earth and count it all as dung that we may win an invisible race for an invisible heavenly spiritual Supreme Being.

An enlightened man takes in this light—light that nothing earthly is as it seems.  Everything is tricky here, slippery, treacherous, hypocritical, deceiving.  Man is crooked, undependable, self-centered and prideful.

There is a group of human beings who are beginning  to realize that this walk here is a spiritual thing and not an earthly thing.  They realize that they are in the world but their spirit is not of the earth.  They realize that they are really strangers here on earth, that they are not really from the earth, that they are heavenly and spiritual, that they have become blind to the earthly desires and temptations.

They realize that they are looking for their home which is a four square city full of light that has 12 foundations where it never gets dark.  That city, the New Jerusalem, is their home, which one day will literally come down out of heaven and set down right here on earth.  And they believe this having never seen it with their earthly eyes.

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Chapter 9   The Spirit World of Yah

We are embarking on a new leg of our spiritual journey.  We are now entering into the spirit world of Yah.  This is that invisible environment that God has for His sons and daughters.  It is that special place where they must look toward, and not to the visible and tem-porary things of the earth.  It is that invisible, spiritual domain of God, reserved for His children.

If you examine the words of the Messiah carefully, you will see that He spoke incessantly about spiritual things.  He said, “The flesh profits nothing.  It is the Spirit that quickens, that makes alive, that gives life.”  We are entering into a realm that does not derive its power and authority from things that can be seen or heard with our earthly eyes and ears.

This is the world of invisible spirits—both evil and good.  And we know that there is “none good but one, that is God, who is that one Spirit.”  “God is that Spirit.”  “There is one Spirit.” And we are told to “be filled with the Spirit.” Ephesians 5:18.

As we walk in the Spirit, we will begin to put on the Spirit as one puts on protective armor.  It is, of course, invisible spiritual armor, put on through believing and trusting the Eternal One, the Great Spirit Yahweh, the Father, the Word.  This is how we protect ourselves from the invisible evil spirits that may attack us.  “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge  of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ”(II Corinthians 10:4-5).

We give them permission to attack by us walking around as if we were not in a world controlled by spirits. If a person walks on this earth not regarding this walk on earth as being influenced by invisible spirits, then they will be subject to attack by the evil spirits.  It is because they are unaware of the truth that earthly matters are ruled by invisible spirits.  

Humans are influenced by invisible spirits—usually evil spirits.  That is the truth of the matter.  And to walk around not being aware of this is walking around as lost men. This is walking around in darkness—spiritual darkness.  It is darkness because they cannot see what is really happening.  If a human being cannot see that invisible spirits are dictating their actions then they are spiritually blind; they are walking around in darkness.  “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” II Corinthians 4:3-4.  There is no light to illuminate their steps upon this earth.  If they are not aware of the spirit world that the Creator has made, then they are condemned to walk around all of their days here on earth in darkness.

In John 12:35, the Master Yahshua gave testimony of what the light is.  Actually He was answering this question: “Who is this ‘Son of man?’”  He tells them that the Son of man is actually the light.  He told them to walk in the light, to walk in the Son of man, so that darkness would not overtake them.  If we put our trust in the light, then we can become the children of light.

He is saying that in the Son of man, the Savior, can be found the spiritual light that will deliver man from the darkness  and  blindness  of  being lost, of walking around this earth unaware that evil spiritual forces are dictating his moves here on earth.  The Son of man is the light.  In him was life; and the life was the light of men.  And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. John 1:4-5.

The Great Spirit, the Father, dwelt bodily in the Son.  This knowledge is spiritual light.  It is spiritual knowledge.  The light is Spirit.  This light is knowing that the Eternal Spirit dwelt in Yahshua of Nazareth.  Light is knowing that the Spirit can dwell and rule over the weaker evil spirits that roam this earth.  And that the Great Spirit, who is Master of all the other inferior spirits, who  is  King  of  the  spirit  world,  can  pour Himself into certain human bodies who have surrendered to Him.  And His Spirit can fill them up.  We can be filled with the Master Spirit who has total dominion over every other spirit in Yah’s spirit world.  And if the Master Spirit in us has dominion over all the inferior evil spirit subjects, then He, ruling through us, has total dominion over them wherever they dwell.

The Master Within Us Has Complete Dominion Over Any Other Spirit Found Here on Earth

If an evil spirit dwells within a human being that we come in contact with, then the Master Spirit within us has complete dominion over that invisible evil spirit within that human—even if that person is in darkness and has absolutely no idea that he is controlled by that invisible  spirit within them! 

We then, in His stead, must be merciful unto the lost, unto those who sit in spiritual darkness.  The Master of the spirit world, the Master Spirit within us, wants to walk this earth and humbly minister unto the real need of the lost—which is to, first of all, be freed from the bondage  of  the evil invisible spirits.  Until they are freed, they cannot receive the light.  The light of the Master Spirit of truth must first free them.

But those in spiritual darkness, those who are controlled by evil invisible spirits, do not want to come to the spiritual light of truth; it is the evil spirit that possesses the reins of their actions.  But the Master will give us of His Spirit and with it power to help release them from the clutches of the darkness of sin so that they can return to their Father and His plan for their life.

The Master Spirit within us is the Deliverer that shall come to the lost sheep of the House of Israel, and He shall “let the oppressed go free, and He shall break every yoke of bondage off of His people.”  His Spirit within us is the light of this world.  And the people sit in a great darkness  that covers the land.  For they do not know that they are being ruled by evil invisible spirit beings.  Ye are the light of the world.  A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid…Let your light so shine before men…Matthew 5:14, 16.

God’s Gifts to His Body of Believers—For Their Perfection

But the Master Spirit who rules in the spirit world wants to give the people gifts to show them that indeed they are living in an earthly environment that is governed by the invisible.  He will use His body here on earth. His body are certain surrendered human beings who are filled with the Master’s  Spirit.  And these surrendered individuals are God’s gifts to lost mankind.  They were once held captive in the darkness of sin on this earth, but the Master has delivered them and has captured them and has led them up on high to the heavenly calling, far above all earthly dominion.  They have ascended with Him in their thinking and in their hearts.  He descended to earth to deliver them, and now He is  giving  them back as gifts to the rest of the captives here on earth.  Wherefore He saith, When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men… And He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.  Let no one say that we cannot be perfected.  Perfection is what He gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers for—for the perfection of the church, the called out ones.   Why cannot the body of Christ get along?  Why are most still unstable children?  Could it be that they either have not had one of these gifts of God stand in their midst or that they did not recognize them when they did come to them?

The Spirit will manifest Himself through His five-fold ministry offices (His gifts to men).  By this they will know that He is the Master of the spirit world.  They will give, by His Spirit, messages of wisdom and knowledge, gifts of faith and healing, miraculous powers and prophecy, the discerning of spirits and the speaking of other languages and the interpretation thereof.  Then they will know that  His Spirit rules in the kingdom of earthly men.

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Chapter 10  The Adornment of the Spirit World

We learned before that every thing we can see is not the foundation of reality.  This earth is transitory.  This world is governed by invisible things—by spirits.

We are admonished by the apostle John to not love this world.  “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.  If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”  I John 2:15.  You cannot love the Father, who is an invisible Spirit, and love the world, too.

The scriptures say that the whole world system lies in wickedness—that Satan deceives the whole world.  Man also has the propensity to deceive himself and get the big head.  Man thinks that everything is going his way yet is deceived in the way that seems right in his own eyes.  The truth is that man is wandering around in a foggy delusion of what he thinks is reality, but that fog is a grand illusion.  And with all deceivableness of unrightousness in them that perish…And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie…II Thes. 2:10-11.  The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? Jer. 17:9.  Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all…for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.  Revelation 18:21-22.

Satan uses three things to spin an illusion that we exist  as  personages  of  grand  importance: the lusts and passions of the flesh, the lusts and desires of the eyes, and the pride of life.  We humans have very real desires triggered by our earthly bodies; we are creatures of abundant appetites of the flesh, especially sex and food.  We also look out over our worldly environment and see things that we want to possess.  Our eyes soak in sights that create hunger for those very objects.  And the human being, who has so much greater potential in that he is to house the Eternal Spirit-Creator, is intoxicated with his own being, his own life.  “I am alive, therefore I am great” seems to be the pride that man carries about in his waking hours.  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.  And the world passes away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. I John 2:16-17.

In Eastern thought one finds a concept of maya, which is that everything is a great illusion; everything is not what it seems.  There seems to be an element of truth in this, for because of the three things mentioned in the above quote, man thinks much too highly of himself than he ought to think.  He thinks that he is the Great One, when in reality, the scriptures speak of man as a worm, a blade of grass, and nothing.

The painful truth for some is that man, apart from the Spirit, is a very temporary piece of protoplasm, miraculous in its living earthly form, but still only a shadow of the reality that it could be.  It is for man to come to grips with this truth that we are nothing.  Nothing.  Yet we strut around as though we were something really grand.  Humility escapes us.  The realization of our own earthly intelligence intoxicates us, and we prance and preen the feathers of our worldly accomplishments seeking momentary adulation  from other  humans  so  stricken  by  the  same illusion.  And where will we be at the time of our end, when we draw that last breath?  If our name is ever mentioned 50 years after our death, our legacy, if any, molders into misty memories of someone that no longer resembles the real us.

This illusion that we are somebody is the major flaw in Christians coming to real service to God.  The truth is that God seeks people to worship Him in Spirit and in truth.  In Spirit means they realize that they are nothing in and of themselves, that there is no lasting goodness in them, that they are temporary, temporal bodies of earthly moist dust playing out on the world stage a futile charade of self-importance—when we humans are powerless to say to ourselves in the throes of death, “Live on!”

True worshippers of the Father realize this about themselves and surrender and let that ego die and by belief throw themselves upon the Supreme Being’s offer of a new spirit—His Spirit that enters into this present earthly body, to become a habitation of God.  Those who walk this way of belief later have been promised  an immortal spiritual body at the resurrection return of the Son of God.

 The True Worshipper

A true believer/worshipper is one who sees themselves as part of a spiritual body of God, the Spirit.  They see themselves as a dwelling place of the Spirit.  They wrestle against the illusion aforementioned and through prayer attain a realization that it is “no longer I that lives but the Messiah that lives in me.”  The illusion is then broken.

The true worshippers of the Supreme Being realize that they are part of a group of vessels who know that they are a spiritual body.  They are  Messiah’s body, the Anointed One’s body.  His body is whoever His Spirit lives in.  Through His presence in us we transcend the illusion of the world; we rise above the weak and beggarly elements, and become eventual spiritual offspring—just like Him!

It comes down to this: Those who will attain unto immortality by the change He will work in us at the resurrection—they will be “doing it before they get it; they will be walking as if He walks in them fully; they will be walking as if the change were already here!  That, in fact, will effect the change from mortality to immortality.

The World Is an Outward Adornment

So, no, we are to “love not the world.”  The word “world” is translated from the Greek word kosmos, Strong’s # 2889.  “Orderly arrangement; ie. Decoration.  By implication, the world:–adorning, world.”  The same word in Greek is used for the noun “adorning” in I Peter where he is talking literally about an outer decoration.  This adorning or decoration concept of cosmos has come down to us in the word “cosmetic,” which is an impermanent adorning of the decoration of the face.

So what was John really trying to tell us?  He was saying that the cosmos or the world, the things we see around us, is merely an adorning, an outer decoration, an impermanent cosmetic applied to the invisible spiritual world.  What we see with our earthly eyes is the spirit world’s adornment.  The world is the outer appearance of an inner spirit world.

 “For all that is in the world…”

Consequently, we are not to look at any man after the outward  appearance,  after  the  flesh, but after the spirit.  To  further  prove  that  this  is   what  John  is   talking about, he is saying when you talk about cosmos (the world), you are talking about fleshly, palpable, earthly things. “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father (The Invisible One), but is of the world (the visible adornment).  “And the world (the visible, the tangible) passes away, and the lust thereof: but he that does the will of God abideth for ever.”

We should not be attached to the visible fleshly outwardly visible things, for they are not of faith.  They only seem real, for earthly eyes see them.  But we should set our affections on things above.  All of the things we see and hear with our senses, all the things of this world, are not of the Father!  For He is Spirit.  His gifts to men are spiritual things: healings, miracles, faith, discerning of spirits, speaking in other languages.  And all these gifts of the Spirit are just that—invisible workings of a Spirit Being who is using a human being to witness His invisible power.

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Chapter 11   The True Church—The Place in Yah’s Spirit World Where He Dwells

     Dictionary definition of the word church: “An edifice for public Christian worship; also, the whole body of believers in Christ; also any division of this body professing the same creed and acknowledging the same ecclesiastical authority.”

   Some believe that the church is a religious organization that holds meetings once, twice, or three times a week.  Some believe at church one can learn about God and the people in the Bible.  By going to church one can make sure of their final destination after death, whether they are going to heaven or hell.  Most people hold this concept or something very similar.

     The more enlightened may see the “church” as a group or body of believers, human beings who have found each other compatible in their beliefs and concepts about God.  They consider themselves the church, a body of followers of the true God.  They put less emphasis on the organization.  But by our words we are justified; by our words we are condemned.

     Our words betray our  concept of what “church” really means to us.  “Are you going to church this weekend?”  The concept in the heart which comes out of the mouth is that “church” is either a building or a collected group of fellow believers assembled in one place that we go to!

     Someone is asking about now, “Well then, what is it?”  First  of  all,  church  is  not  an  “it.”  Many  know that the word comes from the Greek word ecclesia, meaning called out ones.  But what does the scriptures define “church” as?

     We have all read the passage in Ephesians 1:22 that the church is His body.  Is your body part of you?  Yes.  Well, then, His body is part of Him.  As our earthly body is the dwelling place where the mind and heart, the seat of our being, resides, even so, His body is the place where the essence of His being, His Spirit, resides.  Paul goes on to tell us that the church is not only His body, but also the fullness of Him, the completeness of Him who fills all in all.

      First, the church is His body.  Human beings have the opportunity to become His body, to become the place where His Spirit dwells, to become His temple, His house, where He (the Spirit) takes up His residence.  That is our calling—to be His body.

     In order for this to happen, we human beings must surrender our old selfish lives to an early watery grave, reckon them dead, and by believing that the Father (the invisible Spirit) raised the Son (“the image of the invisible God/Elohim”) from the dead, we too can walk in a newness of life by that same Spirit that He raised Him with and has given us.  We then by belief/faith walk in that new life, reckoning our old selves “dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God.”

     This walk of faith that it is no longer us that is living, but rather Him living in our earthly body—this walk of faith is a pre-requisite, a figure of the resurrection walk of life that we will receive after He changes us from mortals to immortals (I Cor. 15).  If we can’t believe that now in this earthly mortal life He is capable and has delivered us from sin and sinning in this present life, then how are we ever to really, truly believe that some day we will obtain from Him immortality and everlasting life?

     Which  is  easier  to  believe:  that  He  is  able  to really change us by the power of His Spirit  and to keep us from sinning, or that He is able to change our perishable earthly bodies into immortal spiritual bodies in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, at the last trump?  Which of these two is more farfetched, incredible, way out there?  The tougher assignment is the latter, of course.

     So if we can’t believe that He  can take our old life and change it into Him-in-us-doing-righteously by His Spirit within us, then our unbelief is not some day going to mystically disappear when the end comes.

     Now is the acceptable time!  We must start believing that we are His body, His church, His dwelling place.  We must start believing that He in us is the fullness of Him that fills all the universe!

     This puts us right smack dab in the middle of the power of the universe!  He will use our beings as the way for Him to fill the whole universe with His essence.       We must start to look at ourselves this way.  What would hinder us from really believing that we are His body, not His body-of-believers, but His actual body—the place where His Spirit dwells?

      The answer is threefold.  First, secret desires for our  self—us believing that our old lives are still around, still the center of our everyday longings.  That is a description of the lusts or desires of the flesh.  Second, our eyes and minds are tainted with old leaven of insincerity and untruths as to what the truth is about the body of Christ.  We have to speak it and walk in it the way Paul did. “It is no longer I that lives, but Christ that lives in me.”     Third, we must not trust that our justification (that which gets us right with God/Elohim) comes through anything we can do for our own lives or clean up in our own lives.  That is the point!  If it is “us” doing this or not doing that in order for us to get right and stay right with God, then we are still there!  And that is the problem!   The problem lies definitely with us the created beings and is this. We have an erroneous concept as to what His body the church is, and our relationship to Him as His body.  And this fundamental problem is spiritual.  His body is a spiritual body.  Look at the definitions widely held for what “church” is and you will see that they are all through fleshly eyes!

     Man in all his splendor and grace in so many things is a bumbling idiot when it comes to the spiritual things.  This passage comes to mind when the Master said, If I have told you of earthly things and you believe not, how shall you believe if I tell you of heavenly or spiritual things?

     The true church is a body of followers who have surrendered their lives to the death of the cross.  They then receive His Spirit and become His temple.  They are, in fact, “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people” (I Peter 2:9).   They are that special place upon this earth where Yahweh’s Spirit dwells.  They realize that it is no longer them that lives, but Christ that lives in them.  It is through them that the Spirit of the living God will fill all of this universe with His presence.  They are Yahweh’s special abode in His spirit world.

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Chapter 12   Words: Invisible Movers in the Spirit World of Yahweh

“The words I speak, they are spirit and they are life…”

Words play an extremely important role in the life and growth of the sons of God.  The sons of God are to look on the invisible, and words are just that.  They are intangible, difficult to put your fingers on.  Words are often spoken, but they don’t have to be.  They can be formulations of the mind, the building blocks of thought.  They do not have to be heard by the earthly ear.

The Master was speaking some words about Himself in John 6:47.  He was telling them that those who believe on Him have everlasting life.  Those who believe the words that He was speaking about Himself, they are the ones who will obtain immortality.  “I am the bread of life…And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.

The Flesh Profits Nothing

Later, after they had murmured at this statement, He said, “It is the spirit that makes alive; the flesh profits nothing.”  He, in so many words was saying to them, You think that I am telling you that you should literally eat my earthly fleshly body.  No.  You are to ingest spiritually into your belief system the things I tell you about my body and blood.  “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.”  It is the word about His flesh that gives us eternal life; it is the word about His blood, and what He does for us through it, that matters.

He goes on in John’s account and tells them that He is that bread that has come down from heaven that brings eternal life to the world.  They grumbled and said to Him, “How can you have come down from heaven?”  Of course, they were only looking at His body of flesh when they asked that.

But it is the spirit of the thing.  The words said about His flesh is what counts.  It is the invisible actions that God does concerning the sacrificed flesh of the Lamb of God—that word is spirit and is invisible and has a great effect on man—if man believes it!

Man must believe in the word that God has spoken about the “bread from heaven”—the flesh of the Lamb of God.  That is what makes alive.  Believing His words and what His apostles wrote about Him is what will grant us everlasting immortality with Him.  Believing the word about His set-apart fleshly sacrificial body and what He says it will accomplish—that will give life to believers.  It is not just the flesh itself.

Words are spirit and are invisible

Rather, it is the invisible spiritual power invested in the sacrifice of the Lamb, the power that God said about that flesh and blood—that is what will make us alive!  The word about the Savior, the Master, the One, the invisible Spirit/Father sent from heaven—that word is spirit, is action, and is invisible, and is powerful.

Words are spirit.  And a spirit is invisible.  Words, therefore, are invisible.  The words that God has spoken to us are what moves things in the invisible spirit-kingdom of Yah.  The words of God invisibly accomplish His will.  The invisible words of the Spirit  portray His power  in  this  invisible Spirit Kingdom.  It is the word of faith.  It is the believing of His invisible words that bring life and immortality.  It is faith in His invisible words of Spirit that shows forth who He is and the nature of His invisible spiritual kingdom.

His word is invisible.  His word is spirit.  Only by faith, which is believing the Invisible One’s words, can one please God and enter into His invisible spiritual kingdom.  Words are invisible.  Words are spirit (“the words I speak, they are spirit and they are life”).  And the Invisible Word made Himself known in human flesh.  The eternal Word, which is Spirit, yes, was invisible to the masses as He moved around upon this earth, speaking about His Invisible Spirit Kingdom.  Because they could not see the Spirit/Word within His human body, they rejected Him.

And herein lies the danger of only looking on the outward earthly things that can only be experienced by the five senses.  We humans will miss Him, the Invisible One, as He makes His last manifestation of His Invisible Spirit here on earth.

We must look to the Spirit.  Look to the things not seen.  Look to the Word, which is Spirit and truth and is no lie.  Words are spirit, and His words spoken and believed on by us, having not seen the Original Speaker, will show His resurrection power, and will give a testimony of Him in these latter days.

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Chapter 13   Prayer—the Portal into Yah’s Spiritual World

How do we make contact with the Great Invisible One?

     We have seen that words are spirit; they are invisible, and they are powerful.  We have seen that God is Spirit; He is an invisible Spirit-Entity that manifests Himself in human beings as He sees fit.

     We are admonished by Yahshua the Master to worship this Invisible One.  In fact, the Father is seeking people to worship Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:23).  He said that we should worship the Father, not just in spirit, but in spirit and in truth.  So how do we worship the Father in spirit and in truth?  How do we enter into His invisible spirit world?  How do we make contact with the Great Invisible One?  We communicate with Him through words.  It is called prayer.

     “Prayer” is a word itself that carries a lot of baggage.  Every religion and every denomination in Churchianity has a different concept of prayer as to what, when, and how to do it.  But stripped of all of its negative conno-tations, simply put, “prayer” is communication to the Invisible Spirit God.  Prayer is made up of invisible words spoken from the heart, either audibly or silently.  These words are offered up to the Eternal Spirit and are likened to a kind of incense that smells sweet to Yahweh in His spirit domain.

     Prayer demands first that we humans believe.  Prayer exercises belief.  We find it difficult to communicate to an invisible  Spirit  if we don’t believe that He is there or that He is listening.  One-sided conversations are always limited.  Messages left on answering machines rarely shine like live feedback conversations.

     Nevertheless, we are shut up to worshipping God through word communications.  This helps our faith to grow, for when we speak to Him, we must believe that He exists and that He listens, and that He will reward us with answers to our prayers. Ask and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Mt. 7:7.  What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. Mark 11:24.

 And what are we to ask for?  “One thing is needful,” and there is no better thing that we could ask for than His Spirit.  How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? Luke 11:13.  We should ask Him for His Spirit.  He expects us to.  He understands that we know how to give good gifts unto our own children when they ask of us.  And He loves us more than we love our own children.  So He wants to give us His Spirit, which is the greatest gift that could ever be given to us.

     In other words, when we communicate with our invisible Spirit Father, we thank Him for His blessings to us; we praise Him and praise His name; we ask Him to grant desires that we have; we then believe that we are receiving those things we ask in prayer; then we receive them.

     It is through prayer, then, that we enter into the Spirit World of Yah. We make contact with our invisible Father.  We start the spiritual processes in motion; we touch eternity.

     This all sounds so simple and good, but why is it so difficult to put prayer into practice?  He has promised us His very nature and Spirit.  But we find it hard to receive. We  either  lack  enough belief, or we do not want to make the sacrifices needed in order to effect it.  You mean that we can partake of His very nature, His divine nature?  That is what the scriptures say.  Passages about prayer are a key part of the knowledge we need in order to receive the Spirit.

     The Messiah was praying.  The disciples saw Him and asked Him to teach them to pray.  It was at this time that He gave them a pattern prayer, whose components outline how we all should approach the Creator.

     First, we are to address Him as “Father.”  This was clearly before the life-changing experience they would have several months later after the Messiah’s death, burial, and resurrection.  Our Father which art in heaven. Luke 11:2.

     Second, we learn in this special prayer that the Father’s name is “holy,” which means “set apart.”  The Father’s name is very special.  Something in that name holds great significance.  His name is not of this sinful world system; it is separate from the fleshly clamoring of this present world.  Carnal man in his death throes comes short of the glory of what the Creator wanted him to be.  Man seethes in his own lusts for himself—desires that can never be fulfilled.  And we are reminded by the Messiah in this special prayer that our Creator, who is our Father, has a name that is above this strife here on earth.  It is hallowed, holy, and set apart from the insanity of mortal man…hallowed be thy name.

    Third, our Father has a kingdom.  A kingdom is a form of government with a king as the ruling executive.  It is a political or territorial unit ruled by a sovereign.  The Father is that King.  He has His own kingdom that shall come to this earth.  The Messiah models this in the prayer, expressing the longing for it…Thy kingdom come.

    Fourth, the King has deliberately chosen and decided upon an exact course of action that will take place here on this earth. Things are going His way in heaven, and they will go His way here on earth.   Nothing takes place by accident.  He is totally in control.  The Messiah is praying here, showing us how to get into one mind, one accord with the Father’s “pre-determinate counsel of his own will.”  What the Father has determined, that is what shall come to pass…Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.

    We are to ask Him for our daily spiritual food.  He said for us to not think about the physical necessities that we must have to sustain our lives here on earth.  But we are to ask Him for the spiritual sustenance.  Give us day by day our daily bread…Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.  And we are to forgive, and we will be forgiven by Him  [For much more in depth study on prayer as the portal, read this series of articles https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/?s=lord%27s+prayer ].

      Right after this prayer, in Luke 11:5-13, the Master shows in a parable just what we should ask the Father for.  One thing is needful, and that is what we should be asking for.  The physical, earthly things—He already knows that we need those things to survive.  He knows our temporal fleshly needs, for He put us here in the flesh and has no need that any of us tell Him how it is being human.  For He partook of flesh and blood.

     The story: Your friend next door comes over around midnight, after you have gone to bed.  He pounds on your door.  “What do you want?” you ask, rather perturbed.

     “Could you give me some food.  A friend of mine has come over and I do not have any food in the house to give to him.”

     “Come back in the morning,” you say.  “I’m already in bed, me and all my family.  I’ll get something for you in the morning.”

     But he keeps on pounding on the door.  And keeps on.  And because of the constant knocking, because of the bold  and  shameless, repeated  and  urgent  requests, you will get up finally and give him what he asks for.

     And so it is with us.  We must keep asking.  We must ask like this friend.  We must keep banging boldly, not fearing what the owner of the house, God, thinks.  Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.  For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened…Your heavenly Father shall give the Holy Spirit to them that asks Him. Luke 11:9-10.  The Master is saying that the Father will give us the Spirit because of our importunity, our urgent and repeated requests, desiring His Spirit in our lives in order to help others.

     We must not be discouraged by delayed answers.  Daniel prayed 21 straight days, expecting an answer.  And finally, Gabriel came and said that he had been hindered and delayed by Satan.  God allows delays to test us, to try us.  So we must persevere and never give up, and He will give us His Spirit.

Why Settle for a Part of the Creation When You Can Have All of the Creator?

     Prayer is the portal through which we enter Yahweh’s spiritual world.  Through prayer we not only make contact with God, but we put forth petitions in order to receive more of His Spirit.  For He is all that we really need.  Why ask for only a part of the creation, when we can have all of the Creator?  We must pray according to His will.  But first we must know the truth about what His will is.  If we ask Him to reveal the secret truths of His will, will He give us a false reading?  We have to believe that He is faithful that promised and will never lead us astray.  All of our concerns can be allayed through true prayer.

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Chapter 14   Invisible Spirit World of Yah—Where Eternal Life Is

     In order for us, the sons of God, to attain unto our destiny of immortality, we must look at the invisible things and not the things we see with our eyes every day.  The Master said that we must worship God in spirit and in truth—not with the outward appearances of earthly things.  God can only be worshipped in the invisible spiritual places of the heart and not in outward visible show.  “Judge not according to the outward appearance, but judge righteous judgement.”

     Visible things of worship such as offering plates, rich church buildings (or any church building for that matter), clothing, candles, altars, pulpits, incense, poll-parroting of prayers to be seen and heard of men—all these things will not do the job to obtain immortality, for they are things seen outwardly.  They are the visible things, and we are admonished by the apostle Paul to not look on the things that are seen.  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 2 Corinthians 4: 8, NIV. 

The Invisible Spirit Inside Us Must Be Nurtured

     All the trappings of worship according to man’s wisdom, will keep one away from the invisible things, the spiritual things, the needful things, the things that take faith to see and realize.  It is the “hidden man of the heart” inside of us that must be nurtured and looked unto.  It is that little portion of the Spirit of God within us that must be thought about and believed on.  We must take our eyes off of the mundane worldly things that only clog our spiritual arteries and will lead us to a certain death.

     We must meditate on faith, that ephemeral hard-to-grasp attribute of the Great Spirit Father.  Of course, it is hard to grasp, for our worldly minds are crammed full of sensory impressions from this earth, when in reality, the truth lies in an invisible dimension of godly faith and love.

Our Invisible Body Comprised of Spirit in Heaven

     Our Father loves us and has laid up for us in His abode a spiritual house or body.  We now are passing the time of our earthly sojourn here until we fully awake unto that time when He will grant us to be clothed with our invisible spiritual body that is now in heaven.  Through His great love to us do we have these “exceeding great and precious promises.”  Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2 Corinthians 5: 1, NIV.

     But in order to begin to appreciate this love that the Father has bestowed upon us, we must believe, having not seen the reality first.

     This is only fitting, for God is an invisible Spirit.  And they that worship Him must worship Him in invisible spiritual worship.

     We as His spiritual sons and daughters must hope against hope, believe having not seen, walk in a glorious invisible reality having never laid literal eyes on the heavenly crown.  

Only the Pure Shall See God

     It takes a purity to see the invisible.  For it is difficult  for  the natural  man to be rewarded with things that can’t be seen.  Carnal man’s flesh dictates to man’s mind that it needs rewards of a visible nature—food, sex, drugs, music—stimulants to appease the senses.  “Only the pure in heart will see God.”

     Purity means having no fleshly carnal intent.  The intent of a pure heart looks, by belief, to an invisible truth.  A pure heart is not tainted by carnal desires and yearnings for self.  A pure heart believes in the invisible nature of all eternal things.  Having not seen as yet, a pure heart believes without reservation the invisible words of the Spirit—that Spirit that spoke through the prophet Paul of Tarsus and said that God has reserved for us at the Resurrection a new body, an immortal spiritual body, that will at that time swallow up our old earthly bodies.  For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Our mortal earthly bodies will be swallowed up by the new spiritual body He has prepared for us.  Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.   II Cor. 5:4-5.

Our Assurance That We Shall Receive Our New Spiritual Body

     We can be assured that our heavenly invisible spiritual body is coming to engulf us at the Resurrection, for He has given us His Spirit as a down payment, an earnest, a deposit toward the fullness of what He has for us.

     His Spirit has put to death our old carnal spirit and has already taken up His abode in our earthen bodies.  If this has not taken place in your life, then immortality will not come to you.  For we must receive His Spirit first.  This is a  foretaste  of  the  glorification that will come at His coming.  Those that are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God.

    If we are still living according to our old sensual carnal natures, then we have not taken that first step toward eternal life.

    But it takes faith to receive His Spirit, for it is an invisible change of the heart, of a person’s attitude, of a person’s spirit.  That same belief in the invisible will bring down from heaven our new spiritual body—a body that is invisible now, but will one day shine forth on this earth as the stars of heaven.

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Chapter 15   The Kingdom of Spirit—Where the Sons and Daughters of God Live

“The kingdom of God comes not with observation”

The phrase “kingdom of God” has been used so much by so many people from so many different religious backgrounds that its real meaning has been lost for most.  Heretofore, most have understood the phrase to mean “God’s kingdom,” or the kingdom that belongs to Him.  And this is true; it does belong to Him and His children.  However, there is another way to look at that phrase, and that is “the kingdom of the Spirit.”

     It says in John 4 that “God is Spirit.”  Therefore, “kingdom of God” can be construed as “kingdom of Spirit.”  Or, in other words, it means a form of order and government headed by a Sovereign entity that is comprised of Spirit.  The Master did say that “the flesh profits nothing; it is the spirit that makes alive.”  “All is vanity,” in other words, except the invisible spiritual things.

     We are admonished that we should seek first this invisible spirit kingdom.  Also, the only true worship of the Father is in spirit and in truth.  It is not any old spirit worship, but it must be spiritual and truthful. It won’t be anything remotely having to do with earthly natural things.

    True  worship  is  an  invisible  connection  between our spirit  in  the  human heart and the Eternal Creator Spirit.   It is the connection you cannot see.  You cannot legislate it, tax it, or build fine buildings in order to coax true worship into your midst.  It is an invisible agreement between the Creator and His special spiritual creation, Adam.  “The true worshippers must worship the Father in spirit and in truth.”  They must find out the truth about His invisible Spirit reign within, for “the kingdom of God (Spirit) is within you.”

     It is a realm of the heart, an inner sanctum full of true thoughts about the true nature of things.  “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation.”  You can’t see it with your fleshly eyes.  It is not of this earth.  Conse-quently, when we look out over this earth, anything we see, be it ever so religious, cannot be or have anything to do with the kingdom of Spirit (God).

     “Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights.”  The kingdom of God is a dimension and realm that our five senses don’t pick up on.  It is not of this earth.  It must first be believed on, and then it will begin to manifest itself to the understanding of our hearts.  We will never see it first with our earthly eyes and then believe.  Faith must be exercised—believing having not yet seen with the fleshly eyes.   The kingdom of God is a government of God, who is Spirit, and who rules in our hearts by His very essence, which is spirit.

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Chpater 16   Casting Out Evil Spirits in Yah’s  Spirit World

     We have called God’s Realm many things thus far: the Spirit World of Yah, the Kingdom of Spirit, the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven, the spiritual realm of Yahweh.  We are really speaking of the same thing—the spiritual dimension that the Spirit is operating in.  He has turned us out into this nasty little planet full of evil and deception.  It is this wicked brutal laboratory where the King is testing, trying, and nourishing His sons and daughters.  They will reel with utter confusion until He reveals enough of His plan and purpose to them to stay the torment.  Then through many trials and tribulations, He will send them back out to do spiritual battle with the evil spirits that He has created.  Through contact with them, His offspring will grow and flex their spiritual muscles, much like young princes and princesses are trained and tested to become worthy of one day acceding to the throne.

     To get them ready, they must grow up into Him.  To grow they must fight the good fight of faith.  So, their Father sends evil spirits to the earth to be cast out by His children.  He created them for the express purpose of having one of His spiritual children cast them out of other human beings.

     Unclean spirits, devils, demons—they are all here on earth for one major purpose: that God’s Spirit would be recognized as all-powerful whenever one of His children casts one out by His Spirit!  It is not, as most things of God, what they taught you in the pews every Sunday!

     The Son of God said that the man with that terrible sickness was there for the glory of God.  He was put there by God so that God’s glory might be seen.  Why are there evil spirits possessing people?  So that God’s glory may be seen when by His Spirit a devil is cast out of a person.

     When a devil is cast out, all see that the kingdom of Yahweh is supreme and rules!  When an unclean spirit is made subject to the word of the Spirit coming through a disciple’s mouth, then God’s governing presence is come very near.  All present must shut their mouths and agree that only God can cast out a foul, evil spirit!

     Do we believe that evil spirits are actually in the world?  If so, do we really believe that they are in subjection to God’s Spirit?  If yes, then do we believe that we have God’s Spirit?  Paul says that “if we are Christ’s then we have His Spirit.”  If we assent to this, then is it a big stretch to say that it is conceivable that true followers of Yah, using His in-dwelling Spirit, can, could and would rule over the base and unclean invisible spirits our Father has created and sent into this earthly dimension?  Is God the Ruler and Master of Satan, or not?  Is God in us, or not?  These questions should try our faith; they should check us to see if we really believe that God is living in us of a truth.

     Is it a big stretch to believe that by God’s Spirit within us that we could utter a command to an unclean spirit and that that spirit would come out of a poor human being bound by that devil?

     Scripture is full of examples of just such deliverance.  In fact, casting out devils is a sign that the kingdom of God is come.  But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.  Mt. 12:28.  Conversely, if devils are not being cast out of people, then the kingdom of God is no where around.

    Unclean spirits are ailing mankind.  They foul his attitude  and  drag  him down to nothing.  But the Saviour said that they will come out.  When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man…Mt. 12:43.  This shows that not only are unclean spirits in men, but that those spirits can and do come out of them.  The unclean spirit after coming out of a man “walks through dry places, seeking rest and finds none.”  Then eventually that spirit will take other more wicked spirits with him and re-inhabit that original man.

     Unclean spirits, devils, and demons know who the Master is, and they know when His Spirit is close to them.   In Mark 1:23 the unclean spirit was afraid of being destroyed by the Spirit of God in Yahshua.  The Saviour told it to be quiet and come on out of the man.  The spirit then “tore him, and cried with a loud voice, and came out.”  That evil spirit was and is in obedience to the Spirit of God.

     The spirits knew who He was and said so.  “I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God.”  But He did not allow  “the  devils to speak, because they knew him” Mark 1:24, 34.  He did not want the devils to tell the world at that time that He was Immanuel, God with us.  Point: the devils know their Creator!  Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also be-lieve, and tremble. James 2:19.

The Master, the Maniac, and the Evil Spirits

     The maniac of Gadara in Mark 5:2 definitely had an unclean spirit.  People considered this man as a crazy lunatic.  He lived in a burial tomb.  He was combative and could not be tied or chained down.  Many had tried, but he could not be tamed.  This madman filled his days and nights in the mountains and the tombs by “crying, and cutting himself with stones.”  Modern psychiatrists would come up with many diagnoses containing very long words, but the Master  cut  to  the  chase  and said, “Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.”  He did not talk to the man, to the poor destitute creature sitting there.  He spoke to the spirit inside the man.  But even before He got to the man, the spirits inside of him spoke out with a loud voice to the Saviour, not wanting Him to torment them by casting them out of the man.

    The maniac suggested for Him to cast the legion of evil spirits into a herd of swine.  So He cast them into them and they “stampeded down the cliff into the lake and was drowned.  The swineherds took to their heels and spread their story in the city and all over the countryside.  Then the people came to see what happened.  As they approached Yahshua, they saw the man who had been devil-possessed sitting there properly clothed and perfectly sane—the same man who had been possessed by ‘legion’—and they were really frightened” Mark 5: 13-15, Phillips.  The mad-man was now a different person with his full faculties.     He was found “sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind.”  The devils take possession of a human’s mind.  “Losing  one’s  mind” is tantamount to having spirits take over one’s mind.  The Master helped the man repent by casting out of him the evil spirits that had possessed his mind.

Casting Out Spirits Was the First Power Given to His Disciples

    The very first power that the Saviour gave His disciples (Mark 6:7) when He was about to send them out to preach was “power over unclean spirits.”  And so “they went out and preached that men should repent.  And they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them.

    Our Master Yahshua came to His people, and the first thing that He did is cast out the unclean spirits from them.   He  did  not  discuss  high  brow matters of church dogma.  He got right to the point and set things in order, and the top priority was to let the captives go free.  Loose the bands of wickedness.  Release those in bondage—spiritual bondage!  Question: Why don’t religious people today cast out evil spirits?  Oh, I don’t know…Could it be that they don’t want the Master casting out spirits around them for fear that their spirits might be ejected as well?

     If someone’s mind is possessed by an unclean spirit, then they cannot think rationally.  They are deceived by the deceiver.  Until they are, like the demoniac at Gadara, delivered and “sitting clothed and in their right mind,” they cannot receive any light.  The house of the mind has to be cleaned out before the word of truth and light can come into that person.

     God has equipped us with the truth about His Spiritual essence.  He wants us to walk out there into the world, believing that this is the Spirit world of Yah!  Believing that Yah is that Spirit that created not only this earth, but also the heavens and all that is in them.  And that includes invisible entities called spirits!  And He, with His indwelling Spirit, has given us power over the unclean spirits.  But, first, we are to take dominion over them in our own life and then go out and deliver others.

     We do not fight against the human being who is possessed by a spirit.  We are rather to take dominion over the invisible entity, “for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds.”  All this will come in time.  We must wait on Yahweh; He will give us the strength and power to accomplish what He wants to do through us.

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Chapter 17   Agape Love Is the Answer

Casting out evil spirits and performing healings of the mind and body are wonderful manifestations of the presence of the Spirit of God within us.  And Paul tells us that we are to desire to be a channel for these gifts of the Spirit.  We are told to “covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way” (I Corinthians 12:31).  They are the means to the end, not an end in themselves.  The end product in the hearts of God’s sons and daughters is the divine nature of our Father. The “more excellent way” Paul spoke of is agape love.

The Greek word agape is translated in the KJV as “charity” and “love.”  In fact, 95% of the uses of “love” in the King James is from agape.  Furthermore, agape is used as the very definition of God.  “God is love,” that famous line by the apostle John, uses agape as the word that epitomizes the essence of God’s being and nature.

Because the translators used the English word “charity” for agape in I Corinthians 13, we get a clouded picture of the description of God’s nature.  Paul is making it clear how we will act, what we will do, when the Spirit is perfected in us.

For agape love is the beginning and the end; it is perfection.  It is what we will all be when the Spirit of God is fully formed in us.  It is the fully matured essence of God within us after He has grown up in us.  Agape, translated “love” and “charity,” is what God is and what He is about.

Agape love in and through us is the end result of God’s reproduction process of Himself.  Agape love is the end product of all of the other attributes and facets of His plan  and  purpose. All roads in Him lead to agape love.

Faith, hope, spiritual gifts, miracles, every promise, every covenant, every single scriptural catch phrase used by God to describe any thing in His plan, leads to being like Him, which is agape love.

Faith and  hope  are out there in  God’s  plan  and  are extremely important. But agape love is His perfect nature and Spirit. Speaking in other languages, having the Spirit of God move our tongues to speak in a foreign language which we have never even heard before—that would be a wonderful experience, but it must come out of agape love or it is meaningless.  It would be in God’s eyes a senseless clanging sound with no heart, no feeling, and no love.

Without agape love, none of the spiritual gifts have any meaning.  Love is the thing that makes every other good thing meaningful.  Love, God’s love, His very nature, is the whole package.  It is His divine nature.  And Paul lists in I Corinthians 13 the attributes of His nature.  It is patient and kind.  It does not envy, nor does it boast. It is not proud or rude, is not self-seeking, nor is it easily angered.  It keeps no record of wrongs, which is a forgiving heart.  It does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres.  It never fails.

What is agape love?  The answer is to be found in I John 3:16, NIV: “This is how we know what love is: Yahshua the Messiah, laid down his life for us.  And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.  If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?”  Agape love is not just loving with words only, but with actions and truth.  God’s love put it on the line.  He did something concrete and real for us to show His love for us.  He came in human form and took that Lamb to the tree and sacrificed it there for our sins to be blotted out.  And   now us   loving   with   our  actions  and  not  just  in mouthing words is how “we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in His presence whenever our hearts condemn us” (I John 3:18-20).

The whole message of agape love is this: God is agape love.  God showed His agape love nature to us by coming down in human form and laying down His life for us so that we could be reconciled to the Father.

And because the Father so loved us, we ought also to show this same kind of agape love in loving everybody.  Loving everybody?  He rains love down on the just and the unjust.  If He had not loved us when we were in an unjust, sinful, and unlovable state, we would have never been delivered.  We then should love friends and enemies, good and bad.  Letting the light of love shine unto all here on this earth is what He does; it shows His presence within us.  Love is the answer.  Let love reign in our hearts.  For if we love only those who love us, what good is that, the Master asked.  Even the hypocrites do that.  So if we want to be like our Father in heaven, we should agape love everybody.

Finally, it will be us tapping into His true agape love nature and channeling His love through us to others that will open the doors for the other gifts to work.  For without the love of God all the other gifts have lost the reason they were being given.

It will be compassion and love that will move us to heal someone.  That will show the Father’s presence in the situation.  He will be shown forth, magnified, and glorified.  He will have reproduced Himself by pouring Himself forth, showing forth agape love to a love-starved world.  Yes, agape love is the answer.

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Chapter 18   But God Was Not in the Waves and Waterfalls

“I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of…a humble spirit…”

     We have been talking about the spiritual environment of the developing and growing sons of God here on earth.  We have talked about their spiritual world their Father has provided here on earth. They must look to the invisible and not the temporary vistas here on earth if they are to find the true way to immortality and godlike-ness. The earth and the world system sprawling upon it are constant lures to the sons of God and must be overcome.  On a recent vacation we experienced some of this.

     The crashing, craggy coastline of Big Sur was luring us to stay and embrace her beauty.  The wonder of Yosemite’s waterfalls and canyon bluffs were tempting us to remain in Nature’s most revered cathedral.  Even the obscene lights of Las Vegas made a pathetic attempt to put Linda and I under their spell.

     But God was not in the whispering waves.  Nor was He found in the echoes of Yosemite’s expanses.  And He certainly was not in Vegas, who appeared as a painted high dollar hooker who had just had her nails done.  Such was our vacation—seeing some of God’s most breath-taking creation and some of the gaudiest of man’s artifice and architecture.

     Our main objective, however, was to see our daughter Sara.  We drove straight out to the Monterey Peninsula in time for the Memorial Day weekend last year—a weekend we could spend with her.  She was in the Navy there, studying Chinese at the Defense Language Institute at the Presidio in Monterey.  We had a great time visiting, camping, hiking, and sightseeing at two different state parks on the Big Sur coastline.

 Big Sur—A World Class Setting

    It was truly a world class setting.  For people from all over the world were there.  Without exception they were all being wooed by the charms of central California coastline.  And in a few short days, I was thinking at the time, all of them would stumble back to their familiar surroundings and go back to the rut of their daily existence.

     And yet, the joy and exhilaration of the natural earth is real and full of wonder and should be experienced by all.  But it is only temporary, as evidenced by the temporary effect it has on mankind.  The joy derived from nature is only temporary, for nature itself is only temporal.  It is not permanent.  It is shifting, volatile, changing, not to be trusted.  The four seasons confirm this.

     After four delightful days with Sara, we drove across the San Juaquin Valley to Yosemite National Park.  The Valley is a wonder in itself, especially to one living in the Ozarks where one is blessed to have six inches of top soil to plant a garden.  For I saw arroyos cut through 12 feet of rich black top soil, and it was still going on down.

 The Prettiest Part of God’s Footstool

      But it is at Yosemite that God’s natural creation shines the brightest.  The Yosemite Valley’s waterfalls, cliffs, rivers, and giant redwoods and pines should be seen by everyone, for it is a truly beautiful place in the earth. Nevertheless, it is only the prettiest part of God’s footstool.  For He said, “Heaven is my throne; earth is my footstool.”  Earth is merely the place where He places His feet, where He walks around.

     But what does man do? Man either exploits the earth—loots it, rapes it, plunders it—or man worships it.  The exploiters of the earth serve themselves of her physical treasures, looting her wealth for their own vain worship of themselves.  The environmentalists, on the other hand, worship the earth itself and thereby worship themselves as the noblest of the human usurpers of the god Nature.

     Both are sadly mistaken.  We humans must see past what our eyes see here on earth.  We must see through the enchantment of earthly vistas and get to the Invisible One who created all of this.  That is Adam’s calling—to be master over the creation in God’s stead—or rather to have God live fully within him and have Him walk on this earth in the earthly body of Adam.  Because man’s perspective is earthly and flawed, he cannot see his position on earth as God intended it.  Man callously leaves his Creator out of the picture and does not see the earth as a place for the Invisible Spirit to walk on—in man!  He rather either selfishly exploits the earth or worships it.

     Finally, reflecting on our vacation, I looked in the waves, but God was not in the waves.  And I looked into the majestic rocks and canyons and mighty trees and roaring rivers, but God was not in them.  He created them, but they are not Him, nor is He in them.

     Yahweh taught this lesson to Elijah on Horeb, the mount of God.  He was not in the “great and strong wind.”    Neither was He in the earthquake and fire that followed—all  things  of  the  earth.   But then came a “still small voice”  (I Kings 19:11-12).

     So if He is not in nature, then where is He?  “For thus saith  the  high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones” (Isaiah 57:15.).  He is Spirit, dwelling in a spiritual dimension called heaven, and He has given a portion of His Spirit to those who have renounced and repented from their earthly carnality and sin.  He dwells in them and refreshes them daily.

     And these He dwells in are in His children, His delight, His love.  They will be His witnesses.  They will show the rest of the world what their Father is all about.  And these sons will walk humbly before their invisible Father.  They will walk because of something that their spiritual Father has delivered to them.  They will walk by His very own faith—not theirs.

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Chapter 19   His Faith–Once Delivered to the Saints

We have seen that we are to look upon the invisible things and not on the things that are seen with our earthly eyes.  Faith is one of those spiritual things that is invisible.  But there are many misconceptions as to what faith really is.  Everyone has their own imagination as to what faith is.

    But faith is an invisible spiritual thing that has already been given to God’s elect.  It is a special gift from Him to His future sons and daughters that will help them grow up into Him.

    It is the “faith once delivered to the saints.”  Jude 3.  Faith is a spiritual commodity that has been delivered to the people of God.  Who delivered it?  The Creator Yah-weh did.  Faith is not something that has to be mustered up by us His people.  We rather must receive it from Him.  It is something that originates from out of His nature and is given to us.  “For every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights.” That includes faith.

    It is His faith that is transplanted into our hearts.  It is not something we muster up and finally believe about Him.  His faith in us is the first part of His divine nature to enter into the human heart.  But what is it exactly?  Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1. 

    “Things hoped for…” What does Yahweh hope for?  What are the desires of His heart?  What has He purposed?   Long  before  we were ever born, He saw us in our down-trodden state of sin and misery.  He also saw us rise with Him by His Spirit to vanquish sin and death in our lives.  He believed that this was a reality—that this was substance—having not yet seen it come to pass.  He believed and so therefore spoke and said that it was so.  He believed the best about us and His plan—not having seen the evidence yet of its fruition.  We as changed individuals are evidence that the invisible Supreme Being is real.  We are His witnesses that He is God.  And if He believes in His work in us before it comes to full fruition, then we should, too.  He is our example.

    His divine nature is positive, full of faith and power.  All of His promises are “yes.”  Nothing negative flows from His heart.  He is positive; His attitude is positive.  In fact, He calls those things that are not, that do not exist as yet, as though they did exist.  He said that He will be all in all eventually.  We should then, right now, begin to walk around as if He already is all in you and me.  This will take belief that “it is no longer I that lives but Christ that lives in me.”

    He is positive, giving “life to the dead and calls that which does not exist as existing.”  This is He.  This is how He thinks.  He is positive about His capabilities.  He has absolutely no doubt about His reserves and His resolve to get done what He wants done.  And what He wants done is the multiplication, the reproduction of Himself, within His creation.  He is an invisible Spirit; He wants to see Himself in action in human form.  This is the witness that He talks about in Isaiah.  We are to be His witnesses that He is the invisible Spirit/God.  His faith believes that not only we can change, but that we will change—that we are changed!  He seeks people to worship Him in this spirit and attitude and in this truth.  He needs people to worship Him in this way—to believe the way He believes.

    A key scripture regarding the nature of His faith is Romans 4: 17.  It  sometimes is advantageous to read it in  several translations.  God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. KJV.  God, who gives life to the dead and calls that which does not exist as existing.  The Scriptures.  God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.  NIV.  God who brings the dead to life and whose command brings into being what did not exist.  TEV. 

    Nothing good exists within us—except His Spirit, if so be that we have received His Spirit.  By believing that He is—not only that He exists, but also that He is where He hopes, intends, and expects to be—in us.

    Tapping into this faith of His will bring His Spirit down into us.  You cannot receive the Spirit by just keeping the law, or trying your best to keep the law.  Human effort in trying to keep the law (the ten commandments) will not bring His Spirit down into us.  The work of our selves, of our flesh, profits nothing in the end.  After all, it would be just us trying to accomplish a spiritual law made for a spirit to keep.  It is the spirit that makes alive…the flesh profits nothing.  The words I speak, they are spirit and they are life…Does God give you His Spirit because you observe the law or because you believe what you heard?  Gal. 3: 2.  NIV.

    Paul is trying to tell the foolish Galatians that no amount of us trying to keep the letter of the law will bring His Spirit into us.  Trying to keep the law in our own strength will never perfect us.  Are ye so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?  3:3.

    No.  We shall receive the Spirit by believing what we heard—by faith.  We have to be like Abraham, who believed in the promises without wavering.  “Abraham believed God and it was accounted unto him for righteousness” (Gal. 3:6.).

    Abraham believed the promises.  But what promise?  “I will walk in them and will be their God and their sins I will remember no more.”  Hebrews 8:12.  The promise we are to believe is the promise of God giving us His Spirit.

    Some of us are so afraid of being like “them”—the mainstream denominations with their cheap grace.  But Yahweh is saying to us that you are not like them.  You have respect to my laws and ways and precepts and you know my name.  But although your conscious effort to keep my laws and honor my sabbaths are good intentioned, that alone should be the fruit of the state I want you to be in.  And that state is a state of your old nature not being there in the temple of your body, but rather my Spirit, my presence.  I have promised you my Spirit, my presence.  That is all you need.  When I am there in you, I’ll keep my laws in you. If any man have not the Spirit of Messiah he is none of His.  You do not have to worry about that.  My servant Paul kept the feasts and preached law keeping.  He forbad sinning.  Shall we continue in sin that grace (favor) may abound? God forbid. Romans 6:1-2.

     It is absolutely not the way to go to try to keep the torah and 10 commandments without first seeking to receive the promise of His indwelling Spirit.  The law, the torah, was given 430 years after the promise to Abraham—the promise that God would live in us and help us live righteously and godly. And the law cannot “set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise.  For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise…” (Galatians 3:15-18, NIV).

     What was the purpose of the torah (the law)?  It was added because of transgressions until the seed to whom the promise referred had come.  We are that seed—rather Christ in us is that seed.  When we believe, the seed germinates and grows within us.  The promise is receiving His Spirit by believing that He has given it to us—as we follow on in His steps.

     We do this by faith.  We do this by believing His word about His faith, His nature. His faith works both ways.  If He has confidence in us before we ever bring forth the fruit, then we should believe in Him even though we have not seen Him in the flesh.  This is our trial of the faith.  Whom having not seen, you love; in whom, though now you see him not, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. I Peter 1:8.

     And during the time of our sojourning here on earth, we are to add His divine nature to the faith that He has delivered unto us.  His divine nature is built upon His faith.  No wonder not many have added it, for they have tried to add it to their own faith in Him instead of adding His divine nature to His faith. Peter says that we are “partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

     The Word is the seed.  And that seed is growing in us by us believing His word that says that His word is growing in us.  This is the faith once delivered to the saints.  This is the way He thinks about His power to change our lives—by His Spirit.  Now we walk in His faith/belief when we believe the same thing about ourselves that He believes about us.  That is His faith.  That is His faith which was once delivered to the saints.

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Chapter 20   Walking in Faith—Our Enduring Heavenly Substance

     One of the hardest concepts for the sons of God to grasp is the concept of faith.   What is faith exactly?  Paul in Hebrews 11:1 defines it as “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”   “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see,” says the NIV.    “Substance” is translated from a Greek word meaning “essence, assurance, confidence.”  We can think about these definitions of the English and the Greek word, but it is still difficult to understand what it means.   We need akey to open its meaning.

     A passage six verses before Paul’s definition of faith may be that key.  The apostle is saying that we know we “have in heaven a better and an enduring substance” (10:34).  He is talking about something that believers have that is in heaven that is better than anything we have here on earth and that endures.  This substance that Paul is referring to is something that is eternal, enduring, ever lasting, always going to be there.  It is not something temporary, temporal, ephemeral, or fleeting.

     Paul speaks of this “enduring substance” in another passage.  “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (II Corinthians 5:1).  The heavenly “enduring substance” that believers have is a spiritual body reserved for us.  And it is just waiting till the first resurrection, to come down and swallow up this earthly mortal shell of a body we are walking around in now.  The reason we have the Spirit, the treasure, in mortal can-die earthly bodies is so that we will eventually learn in this sojourn that it is God who is and has the power, and not us in this earthly state.

     We are to feel the sufferings of mortality.  It is a fellowship that we are invited to join to be worthy to partake of His resurrection power.  We are to conform to His death.  When He died, sin died and every evil attribute of man died along with it.  We are to carry this knowledge around in our thinking—never forgetting from whence we have received this new abundant life (II Cor. 3:7-10).

     “If one died for all, then were all dead…” so that they could live unto Him and not unto themselves.  We are a new creation in Him.  “All things are become new” (II Cor. 5:15-17).  Through His sacrifice we now yield our hearts to Him, letting our old self die with Him, and by faith we are now walking in a newness of life.

     “He now has committed unto us the word of reconciliation.”  We are now His representatives, His ambassadors.  We must let God through us beseech the world to be reconciled to Him.  He wants to use us to reach the world.

 To Walk in Faith Now Is to Act as if We Already Have Our Immortal Spirit Bodies

     Now “walking in faith” means to keep the “substance” in the forefront of our minds.  We should walk here on earth mindful that we do have an immortal body waiting to engulf us and swallow us up into eternal life.  It is there!  He said it was there for us. “Walking in faith means  to  act  as  if  we  already  have our immortal spirit bodies!  If we are to believe the scriptures of truth written down by the holy apostles and prophets, then we should walk in this knowledge.  We already have an eternal house in the heavens just waiting to swallow our mortal shell up.  We are to walk in the Spirit by walking as if we were already made immortal (“do before you get it as you would if you had it…”).

     This power comes when we walk in full humility, which is not believing that we are still there as the object of God’s blessings.  When we refute all our own earthly worthiness and self-justification, then it will come.  We do this by always carrying around in our earthly bodies  the realization that our old nature died with Yahshua.  We carry around in our earthly bodies, in our hearts and minds, that He died and with His death He made a way for us to sacrifice our old life.  And with His resurrection He made a way for us to walk in a new life.  This is how we are partakers of His divine life.  We must suffer our own death in order to be counted in the resurrection, when our old earthly mortal bodies will attain immortality.  Walking in faith is keeping all this in mind.  It is looking to the invisible.

 Looking to the Invisible

     Doing this is difficult for us, for we are earth bound, chained to fleshly pulls.  We need to be able to talk and listen to a sage, a prophet—someone who has been there to the other spiritual side that can help us.

     What if you could talk to someone who had been to heaven—I mean really had been to the throne room of the God who had created everything in the universe?  What if you could sit at the feet of someone so privileged—someone who had seen the risen Saviour, who had listened to His voice and heard His wisdom firsthand, in the  very  heaven  of heavens?  What if you could sit down and read and study that fortunate person’s writings about going into the very presence of God and living to tell about it? Is there such a person who has left us a substantial catalogue of writings?

     The apostle Paul says that he is the witness.  Speaking about himself, he said that he “was caught up to the third heaven…into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.” II Cor. 12:7.

     And so we have this man, and we see him going through great trials and persecutions.  He wrote about physical death in II Corinthians 1:8-9.  “We despaired even of life: but we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead.”  Knowing that we are going to die a physical death keeps us humble.  For even if a human being is blessed to have received His Spirit, knowledge of one’s impending demise shows us that we cannot trust in ourselves to have power to change ourselves from mortals to immortals.  We rather must look to the invisible things of the Spirit for our change; we must look forward to a future resurrection when we will be changed into an immortal being.

     For we know that if our earthly house…were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.  II Corinthians 5:1. This is a spiritual body or building or temple that now is in heaven, Paul is saying.  We cannot see our new body; it is invisible.  It takes faith to believe that it is there waiting till that great day when He dissolves this mortal flesh and swallows us up with our glorious spiritual body at the resurrection of the dead.

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Chapter 21  Contending for the Faith—Avoiding “Jewish Fables” Will Lead to True Hebrew Roots

Paul’s Admonishment for Us Today

     We are to “earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints.” But who are we to contend with?  We are admonished to contend, but where is the battle today?

     Once we truly realize what His true faith entails, we will have to fight for it!  For there are many false teachers out there who seem to know what they are talking about, but they know just enough “key phrases” to confuse their followers.  It was that same way the first century after the resurrection, during the age of the apostles.  We can learn from their dealings with those who would bring in another gospel.

     Paul is concerned.  Timothy, “his own son in the faith,” newly filled with the Spirit, needs to be strengthened for the battle ahead in Ephesus.  Some there have departed from the sound teachings of the apostle about God our Savior, and have gone back to the hypocritical traditions that the Master warned against.

     The apostle admonishes Timothy to charge them that “they teach no other doctrine” (I Tim 1:3).  These people who were teaching another doctrine, what were they teaching?   What  were  they doing that was so wrong that God would send an apostle’s word in writing to help straighten them out?  Find this out for then, and we find out some of the false teachings for our own day.

     In verse 4, Paul was telling him to tell them not to give heed to fables.  “Fable” is from the Greek word muthos, a tale, fiction (myth)—a fable.  So don’t pay any attention to the myths, tales, and fictions that they are spewing out.  But who was putting out these fables?  Who was teaching these falsehoods that were so against Paul’s writings and were “another doctrine?”  Who were they?

     They were those who were “desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.”  Paul goes on to say that the law is important.  The law is made for the lawless and disobed-ient to show them their sin (I Tim 1:7-10).

     Paul also states in Galatians 3:23-25 that we were kept under the law until faith came.  In other words, in our old Adamic state we could not keep from sinning; we could not but break the law.  But when His faith comes in our heart, faith that He through His resurrection power can keep us from sinning—when His Spirit comes to abide in us, then we are no longer “under the law.”  The law was our schoolmaster—TO BRING US TO HIS SPIRIT.  “The letter (the law) killeth.”  By it we can know sin and know the death sentence on a sinner.  But after we die with the Lamb of God, by faith we receive His Spirit within our hearts and HE within us helps us to keep His Ten Commandment law. Therefore, we are no longer under the law!  You are not under a law unless you are breaking it.  The law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified (just-if-I’d-never-sinned) by faith.  But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster (the law), which shows us like in a mirror our sins.  If our sins are gone, washed away, and we are indeed walk-ing  in  the  Spirit,  in  a  newness  of  life,  then  we are no longer under the law because we are not breaking it.

     Paul was telling Timothy to beware of those who desire  to  teach  the  law.  They  had “swerved and turned aside unto vain jangling”—vain babblings that cannot bring the truth of the Spirit’s perfecting presence to their listeners.  These so-called teachers of the law were teaching “another doctrine” than the one Paul preached.

     Paul tells Titus to beware of the “vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision.  Whose mouths must be stopped” (1:10-11).  Paul tells him to “rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith; not giving heed to Jewish fables.”

Jewish Fables were teachings that said a person can work to keep the law and be accepted by God because of it

     What were these fictitious teachings, these fabrications, these myths that were coming out of Judea at the time of Paul?  They were the teachings that a person can work to keep the law and by so doing, God will say, “Well done.  You are in.”  They were saying, “You have to do this.  You have to keep that.  You have to keep the feasts here or there.  If you don’t, God will not be pleased.

     But Paul taught that the only thing that pleases God is for His Spirit to reside and take over a human being.  And that can only happen by believing what God said that He has done for us.  Faith pleases God; it comes after our surrender to Him.  He likes us relying on His Spirit to overcome things and do things.  Us trying to do our best to keep the law, to do the torah—that doesn’t please God!  He is not impressed with us working for His approval.

     He knows that we cannot keep the law or any part of it on our own strength.  He said, “Without me ye can do nothing.”  Yet, look at us.  We are trying to please Him by our  works,  by our good deeds, by our keeping His feasts.  Concerning the feasts:  How does Yahweh look upon observing a feast of tabernacles when no one can agree when it should take place, or where, or with whom.  Does He just say, “Well, you don’t have the right date, but at least you are trying”?  Somebody will observe the Feast of Tabernacles on the wrong date.  Why?  Because there are many different dates and calendars. It may be that nobody  observes it on the right date.  Does this occur to anyone, or is it just me?

     If more time and effort were spent by Yahweh’s people in learning to walk in His Spirit and learning to become the sons of the living God shining forth as lights in the midst of this perverse and wicked generation—in other words walking like His elect, like His chosen ones—then this world would have what they need to fulfill His plan of reproducing Himself in this earth.  This is what the whole world is yearning and groaning for, waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God!  Not a bunch of people, unsure of what they are doing, trying to keep a feast that is only a shadow of things to come—heavenly things, which heavenly things are we!

     Paul made that extremely clear: “And you are complete in Him…” Watch out for traditions of men, which are after the elements of this world, and not after The Anointed One (Col. 2:10, 8).  After we have been buried with Him and our old selfish nature has died with the Lamb/Sacrifice, then our old self is dead, and through the “operation of God that raised up Yahshua from the dead, we too [Halleluyah!] can walk in a newness of life (Col. 2:12-13).  “He that is dead is freed from sin.”  “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?  God forbid.  Dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through the Spirit that we receive by faith in His resurrection!  Glory to Yah!  That is something to shout about!  And why, pray tell, doesn’t someone teach and preach that?

     That is the reason that Paul said, His Spirit within us is the reality—the reality that all those things in the law pointed to.  “Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.  These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ (Colossians 2:16).”  And Christ is found in us.

     Does this mean we can’t look at the shadow (the calendar, the feasts, etc.) and learn more about the reality of the Spirit within us?  Absolutely not!  However, I believe that we should put things in priority.  Since it is obvious that Yah’s people can’t agree on a date for the feasts, and everyone pretty much believes that they are right, then let’s put the emphasis on what mattersmost: His Spirit and His truth.  And then look at the feasts, not as the crown of our year, but as the shadow of our Reality (Spirit) within.  We should put our center on Him and not turn His feasts into a vacation with religious overtones, which is what it has turned into in many circles.  But, by all means, we should “keep the feasts,” even as Paul said, but he also said, “Let everything be done decently and in order.”  Let us remember that He in us is the reality of the feasts spoken of in the old books.  So let’s keep the feasts,  waiting on Yahweh to renew our strength. If we are trying to keep the feasts to please Him then we have missed it, for only faith can please Him.  Let us remember that we are complete in Him.  He in us is the Master of the Sabbath and certainly, the Master of the Feasts.  Let us wait on Him.  For me, I will not judge as to the feasts, for we all have a ways to go to get to the unity of the faith.

       This trying to do things to please God is the danger that Paul warned Timothy and Titus about.  Watch out for those who point people to using their own strength in order to please God.  The teaching of the law will do just that.  The law brings us to a knowledge of sin, but once sin  has  been  repented  of,  and  we  believe  that  He  has given us a new heart and a new spirit, then we keep that law by His Spirit within—through us just believing that God is doing it.  “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”

     Abraham became righteous in Yahweh’s eyes by believing Him.  When we do this we are the children of Abraham.  Only one thing pleases God—our old self dying and receiving His Spirit into our hearts.  We are complete in Him.  We cannot do anything to please Him except believe Him when He says we can walk in a newness of life.

It Is Not What We Can Do, but Who He Is in Us

     This “working hard to be sure to keep the law in hope that He will accept us”—these teachings are part of the “Jewish fables” Paul warns us to avoid.  For they will lead us away from His Spirit, or even seeking His Spirit.  Look at our conversations.  If they are not worldly, then they have to do with what we can do to please God.  When was the last time you heard someone yearning aloud for the gifts of the Spirit to operate in their lives.  Who shouts with joy, “It is no longer I that lives but the Spirit of Yahweh living inside me!”  Who talks that way?  Our words betray us.  The point: there is nothing we can do to please God!  This is the Jewish fable. The core of Judaism’s teachings is “Try to keep the law of Moses, and because we are God’s chosen people, we are special and will rule the world someday.”  There is nothing about the Spirit in its message.  It takes the Spirit out of the picture.

    This teaching will lead you to seeking out, on your own strength, things you can do to be pleasing to Yahweh.  That is not sound doctrine!  That’s not what He wants!  It is not what we do in and of our own strength, but who He is in us. 

    So the whole “Back-to-our-Hebrew-Roots-Movement,” though seemingly harmless, has some pitfalls, if it is not based on sound doctrine.  It can be dangerous—especially for those who do not know the difference between “Hebrew” and “Jewish.”   Many think   that “going back to their Hebrew roots” means studying Judaism!  Judaism is not the religion of Moses, David, and all the prophets in scripture!  Judaism, in Paul’s time and in our time, is based on the Babylonian Talmud, which is totally against our Savior and King Yahshua.

     The Savior denounced Talmudic teachings, and He pronounced woes upon the Pharisees who taught them.  They had asked him why did not His disciples walk according to the tradition of the Jewish elders by eating with unwashed hands.  He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypo-crites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.  Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.  For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tra-dition of men…Mark 7:6-7. To the Pharisees, the Saviour was explicit as to what He thought of them.  Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.  He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.  When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the  father  of  it.  And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not. John 8:40-41. Here we see the Master Himself  exposing  Jewish  fables  and  falsehoods.  “In vain you do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men,” He said.

     The Talmud is vulgar and blasphemous.  Because of what we have been taught, the following may seem preposterous.  Here are some quotes from it.  It says that the  Savior’s  mother  was a whore: “She who was the desendant of princes and governors played the harlot with carpenters” (Sanhedrin 106a).  It says also that the Saviour was a sorcerer (Sanhedrin 43a).

     The  point is  this:  We  must  not be deceived by Judaism’s trappings, thinking that by learning of them that we are getting closer to Yahweh.  If we want to look at our Hebrew roots, then we need to trace out the true descendents of Abraham, who are a multitude of nations in the earth today, according to the promises to Abraham in Genesis 17:1-8.  “Many nations and kings shall come out of you and your offspring, Abraham.”  The Israelis make up only one nation today.  Who are these “many nations” who are to receive the Abrahamic Covenant?  You want Hebrew roots?  Dig that one out, and you’ll get to the Root of the true Hebrew tree.  Our true Hebrew roots will lead us to the Spirit of Yahweh Himself, who is taking up His latter day abode in us, His temple!

       Let us avoid Jewish fables, for they will lead us away from His Spirit.  Our true Hebrew Roots are traced back to the faith of our father Abraham who just believed God.  And Yahweh through His grace and mercy, began to look at Abraham as righteous in His sight.  And Abraham, moved with profound awe and reverence of Yahweh, did those things that were pleasing in His sight; he obeyed by faith, by Yah’s abiding presence within.

     To illustrate this erroneous teaching, I am enclosing a letter I wrote to Angus and Batya Wooten concerning the “Messianic Israel” message  they teach.  It is not based on sound doctrine and is a Jewish fable.

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22 Letter Concerning the “Messianic Israel” Message 

The following letter was written in love without any animosity out of concern for the truth. 

Angus and Batya Wootten

House of David

Saint Cloud, FL 34770

July 24, 1999

Dear brother and sister,

I rejoice and salute your efforts in re-uniting the two sticks of Judah and Ephraim. Truly, that is what the Father has in mind for these last days. I inquired and received about a month ago your House of David Herald.

I especially enjoyed reading on the back page from the article, “The Hope of Messianic Israel,”: “Yeshua is Yahveh Elohim appearing in the flesh.” I totally agree that Yahshua is Yah-in-human-form—Yahweh being that great invisible Father who dwelt fully in the Son’s body (“Show us the Father and it will suffice.” “Have I been so long time with you and you not know Me? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father”).

And yet, I found in your statement of beliefs about the “The Hope of Messianic Israel” some glaring omissions concerning Judah and concerning “the lost sheep of the House of Israel.” First, your article declares, “Messianic Israel affirms that the Jewish people have been kept identifiable as a remnant of the patriarch Jacob, Yahveh’s covenant people….” A remnant is a part of the same cloth, so you would mean that they are of Jacob’s true fleshly lineage.   I agree that they have been kept identifiable as a people, but according to many imminent historians, the vast majority of modern Jewry do not come out of the loins of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob/Israel.

Arthur Koestler, one of the most famous Jewish writers of this century (Commander of the Order of the British Empire, one of the ten Companions of Literature, elected by the Royal Society of Literature), is the author of The Thirteenth Tribe: The Khazar Empire and Its Heritage, Random House, Inc., New York, 1976. In it he proves through meticulous research that his own Eastern European Jewish ancestors were not from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob/Israel, but rather from an ethnic Turko-Mongol people called in history the Khazars. They converted to Judaism in the early Middle Ages, was conquered 300 years later and migrated to Eastern Europe. It is here that they multiplied and became not only the cradle of Modern Jewry but its great majority at 85%. (The 15% are said to be the Sephardic Jews of Spain and beyond, some of the royal seedlines of Western Europe, etc). “Here, then, we have the cradle of the numerically strongest and culturally dominant part of modern Jewry,” states Koestler on page 141. The Encyclopedia Britannica’s article under “Khazar,” 1970 edition, volume 13, p. 328, confirms this conversion to Judaism.

Also, the article mentioned that the Jewish people have been kept identifiable “…to preserve His Holy Torah (Law), Feasts, and Shabbat (Sabbath).” You made no mention, however, of the Babylonian Talmud, Judaism’s holiest book on which the religion is based. “My son, be more careful in the observance of the words of the Scribes than in the words of the Torah (Old Testament),”says the Talmud, Erubin 21b, Socino edition. Surely I don’t have to quote here some of the passages of the Talmud that try to “make void the commandments of God.” This is the very reason that the Messiah condemned the traditions of the Mishnah (early Talmud) and those who taught it, the scribes and Pharisees. Judaism is as far from the true faith that Abraham and Moses taught as main stream denominationalism is from the early church—perhaps farther. We are admonished to not call evil good and good evil. (See Jeremiah’s discussion of the good figs and   bad figs—“figs” being citizens of the Kingdom of Judah).

Secondly, I found no mention in the Messianic Israel article about the “lost sheep of the House of Israel.” You know, of course, that they are the ones that the Messiah said He was sent to. Ephraim was one of Joseph’s two sons born in Egypt, and they were awarded a double portion, a double blessing upon entering Canaan land. Yahweh referred to the 10-tribed Northern Kingdom of Israel as “Ephraim,” for they were the dominant tribe among the 10. Yes, the 10 tribes were dispersed “north and west” of Jerusalem. The Ten Lost Tribes of Israel are known in scripture as “Ephraim,” and they will be regathered along with the two-tribed Kingdom of Judah people, Judah and Benjamin. The ten tribes were scattered, but all prophecy states that they will be strong and be the leaders of the world and “possess the gates of their enemies” (Read Jacob’s blessings on his sons in Genesis 49 and Moses’ blessing of the tribes in Deut. 33—especially of Joseph and his offspring in verses 13-17). I personally have never read in scripture a more profound and thorough blessing of any people by Yahweh! I have visited five continents and many countries, and there is only one nation that could even come close in fulfilling those blessings, and that is the United States of America. Anyone, I don’t care who it is, who has ever traveled the world, will tell you how blessed this country is.   Even the USA’s enemies have to admit it!

So, yes, I feel that the true modern day Israelites, the Western European stock peoples, are an integral part of the story. In fact, they are the “Israel” in “Messianic Israel.”

Finally, these things are written not through an agenda of any group, for I am not affiliated with anyone.   We are to love each other. Vengeance is only for Yahweh to think upon. We all are to get the large chunks of wood out of our own eyes and

then start helping each other see more clearly. That is what I think you are trying to do, and I hope that you believe the same about me.

Sincerely,

Wayne Hancock

122

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23 The Mystery of the One God

“I and my Father are One…”

A major pre-requisite in becoming a son of God is knowing Him that is from the beginning. The sons of God will truly know Him and the power of His resurrection. They will have solved the puzzle, the mystery of godlikeness.   “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh.”

Things kept secret from before the foundation of the world will be understood by the sons of God. “The secrets of Yahweh belong to them who are in awe of Him, and He reveals His secrets to His servants the prophets.” Yes, the sons of God are destined by Him to know all the mysteries of Deity; they will know their Father that is from the beginning. They will be just like their Father and will, in fact, be spiritual fathers to nations and kings.

Paul told Timothy that he had fathered him in the gospel. We are admonished to no longer be children “tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine.” We are to “grow up unto Him.” We are to “go on unto perfection,” not laying the foundation again and again like children, not circling that same old mountain again, but to go on unto sonship. The sons of God will realize that they cannot be children in their spiritual growth anymore.

These levels of spiritual growth are a great mystery; they are spoken of in the parables. But a parable is not a nice little story to help us understand a Bible principle better.   To the contrary.   A parable is a “dark saying,” deliberately spoken by a representative of God, to make it difficult for those who are not supposed to understand to comprehend this vital spiritual concept.

The disciples asked Him just why did He speak to the multitudes in parables (Mt. 13:10).   “Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.” The Saviour is explaining to His chosen ones why He spoke in parables. The parables, first of all, contain the mysteriesof the kingdom of heaven or His governmental realm of the Spirit. And these mysteries are being revealed to a group of followers that He has calledoutfrom the world. He has chosenor elected certain individuals to give(grace, favor)this knowledge to.

The question, “Why do you speak to the multitudes in parables?” is answered with, “Because knowledge of the mysteries is given to you, but not to them.” God is selective as to whom He reveals things to. This is not politically correct in man’s secular humanistic 21^st Century New World Order society, but then His ways are not the world’s ways.

For Whosoever Has—Has What?

In the following verse 12, the Master continues explaining. “For whosoever has, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance.” Has what? Certain people will have something, and it is to those that He will give in abundance. But what is it that they have?

The answer is found three verses earlier in verse 9. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. KJV. The man who has ears to hear should use them! Phillips. He who has ears, let him hear. NIV. All translations are saying that everyone will have ears, but only a few will have the kind of spiritual ears that can hear and perceive and understand the things concerning the truth about His kingdom.

He had just told the parable of the sower. A sower of seed goes out and sows seed that falls on four types of ground—wayside, stony places, thorny ground, and good ground. The first three types of ground did not bring forth fruit. The good ground did, however, yielding three levels of fruit production—some one hundred fold, some sixty and some thirty.

He goes on to explain that the four types of ground in the parable are four types of the human heart. The seed is the word of the kingdom (v. 19), and it tries to get into the first three hearts, or types of ground. Now listen to the parable of the sower. When a man hears the message of the kingdom and does not grasp it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is like the seed sown by the road-side. The seed sown on the stony patches represents the man who hears the message and eagerly accepts it. But it has not taken root in him and does not last long—the moment trouble or persecution arises through the message he gives up his faith at once. The seed sown among the thorns represents the man who hears the message, and then the worries of this life and the illusions of wealth choke it to death and so it produces no ‘crop’ in his life. But the seed sown on good soil is the man who both hears and understands the message. His life shows a good crop, a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Matthew 13:18-23. Phillips.

The disciples were the good ground and understood the message about God’s spiritual kingdom of righteousness. They had “ears to hear.” And today some have ears that can hear and understand the mysteries of the kingdom. Some of His disciples today are understanding that they will bring forth spiritual fruit. Some will become fully-grown manifested sons just like their Apostle and High Priest. They will be like Paul who fathered many in the gospel. They will be like the apostles who were the fathers of the faith, showing forth the fruit of fatherhood—raising the dead, healing the sick, and preaching the kingdom of God in many cities. They will know that these are the 100 fold fruit bearing children of the most High for these last days, the manifested sons of God.

And they will understand that not all in God’s kingdom will bear 100 fold fruit; some will bear 60 fold fruit. These will be the young men, strong in the faith of their Father, but not in the spiritual growth of the 100 fold fathers of the faith. And some will be children bearing 30 fold fruit. They will be still circling that same old mountain of old leaven, never growing up unto perfection.

The sons of God, however, will realize that God has sent a strong delusion and that many will deceive with lying wonders. They will realize that the walk of the Spirit, the worship of the Father, must be in spirit and in truth. They will strike upon the truth of who the Father is. They will believe upon Him “as the scripture has said.”

Children, Young Men, Fathers

 The apostle John wrote of this same 30, 60, and 100 fold growth levels in Christians. John addresses three different groups of people in the body of Christ. He writes to “little children, young men, and fathers.” I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake. I write unto you, fathers, because you have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I John 2:12-13. Then in the next verse he repeats why some are fathers. I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning.

Twice he says that the fathers have known Him that is from the beginning. We see here that he makes a definite distinction among little children, young men, and fathers—30, 60, and 100 fold Christians.

The sons of God for these latter days will be the fathers that John is writing to. You fathers will know Him in a pure unadulterated state—knowledge of the Self-Existent One prior to fallen man’s false concepts about who God is. You fathers, you manifested sons of God, will know Him as He really is and was. There will be no false concepts or imaginations seeping into your minds about the truth of God’s nature and Godhead. You will have purged out all false teachings and the old leaven of man’s thinking as to who God really is and what He is really like and is about. You, sons, will know Him as He is from the beginning. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. I John 3:3.

The sons of God will not have false concepts of who the Holy One of Israel is. They will, therefore, become just like their Father. Each seed bears its own kind. Like begets like. They will become fathers and, yea, kings on the same throne as their Father King. They will, in fact, be able to engender others with this great power and essence from above. They will have everlasting life generating in and out of their new spiritual bodies. They will be fathers like their heavenly Father. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name. John 1:12.

David knew Yahweh well. In fact, Yahweh said that he was a man after God’s own heart. Let’s learn from this pattern son about Him that is from the beginning.

David is pouring his heart out to the Father Yahweh all the way through Psalm 102. He talks to Him throughout, expressing his faith in the great One who created all things. What is astounding about this is that this very same passage is quoted by Paul referring to the Son of God!

“Hear my prayer, O Yahweh” (rendered “LORD” in most versions). Hear me, please, he is saying, in my hour of need, for I am in trouble. His enemies are all around him; he fears for his life. His literal time here on earth is running out; the sun is going down to the dark night of the grave. His flesh is soon to be consumed and turned back to dust. “My days are like a shadow that declineth; and I am withered like grass.”

But he says that Yahweh (v. 12) shall endure forever. He is from forever and shall go on forever. Yahweh will appear (v. 16) and hear the prayers of His people. “The people that shall be created shall praise Yahweh.”

David Goes Back to the Beginning

 And then David remembers and acknowledges Yahweh as the One who looks down from above and hears our groanings because of our mortal state and comes down to loosen us from this death (vs. 19-20). It is Yahweh who gives us this hope of transcending our mortality. And then David reaffirms his belief in the One who has “laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands” (25).

Paul quotes this very same passage from Psalms in Hebrews 1: 10. He establishes early on that he is talking about Yahshua the Messiah. First he says in verse 2 that Yahshua, Yahweh incarnate, created all things. He mentions the Savior purging our sins (3).   And then he quotes Psalm 102: 25, speaking of the Savior: “And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands.”

Paul is quoting the psalmist who addressed all of 102 to Yahweh. And David said in that psalm that Yahweh created all things. But Paul in Hebrews 1:2 says that the Son created all things. Now there seems to be a contradiction here. If Yahweh, the Father did create all things, then how can Paul, and the apostle John also, say that the Son created all things?

The answer is that both are right. Yahweh did create all things, while He, being the Spirit that He is, resided in the glorified vessel we know as the Christ, the Anointed One, the Son. Yahweh, the Spirit/Father dwelt bodily in His “expressed image,” the Son, and created all things through Him. For Yahweh did create all things.

This is the mystery of God. This is the secret; this is the enigma. Our finite natural thinking minds have difficulty in conceiving the answer to this mystery because we want to see two Gods up there. That is the way we deal with this problem as to just who did the creating. If there are two up there, the Father and the Son, then which did the creating of the worlds? The scriptures in many passages state that Yahweh did the creating. And in many other passages, the apostles say that the Son did the creating. So we begin to think, Well, the Father delegated the creating for the Son to do, by just telling Him to do it.

But this is natural thinking. Could we not just as well believe the scriptures and have the Father be this invisible Spirit who resided in a form, a human looking form, a form from which human beings were patterned? And this form with Yahweh the invisible Spirit/Father dwelling within—could not this One God have done the creating? There is no contradiction in this concept of the Creator. Both accounts are correct and do not contradict anything. You have Yahweh inside a special vessel doing the creating. This concept coincides with the scores of times that He is called the “Holy One of Israel.” It confirms all the times that the prophets said that Yahweh is not only the Creator, but also the Savior! It confirms all the times that the NT writers said that the Messiah did the creating. In fact, it does not contradict anything at all.

In this concept of the Godhead, the Father and the Son are one. Is not that what the Messiah said? “I and my Father are one…If you have seen me you have seen my Father.” The Father is in me and is doing the works. This is the central core message that will solve the mystery of God: the eternal Spirit Yahweh was in the Messiah, reconciling the world unto Himself. This is the great mystery.

Paul speaks of this mystery of God to the Colossians. He says in chapter 2: 1 that he is concerned. Something is already at work to corrupt the vision of the Holy One of Israel in their eyes. He longs for their hearts to be as one in love, “to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ.” Here we have God, the Father, and the Anointed One all mentioned together as making up the mystery. And then he goes on and says that “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” are hidden in the Messiah.

Just what was in the Son, the Messiah? Whatever that was, was “all the treasures.” Christ said that the Father was in Him. Paul said that “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself.” Other apostles said that the Son was full of the Spirit of the Father. This is an important point to Paul—for his brothers in Colosse to know this mystery of the Godhead. In fact, he warns in v. 8 for them to beware of the traditions of men that will come in with man’s philosophy and vain deceit. And then he drops the bombshell in v. 9: “For in him (the Messiah) dwells all of the fullness of the Godhead bodily.”

He said all. “All” means that there is not any more to be placed in there. All of the Spirit, all of the Father, all of God, was in the Messiah. But man’s philosophy teaches that the Father is still sitting in heaven in some kind of form watching the proceedings below. Traditions teach us that there are really two up there now. But Paul teaches us that all of the Deity dwelt bodily, that all of the Great Father/Spirit God Almighty was comported about in the body of the Son of God. It is difficult for people today to agree with Paul just as it was hard for the Pharisees and Sadducees to believe, too. It is just unbelief that tricks a heart into not admitting and believing that the Father was fully in Him.

Be that as it may, the mystery of Elohim/God is that the Son has all of the fullness of the Godhead dwelling bodily. For in Messiah all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form. Col. 2:9, NIV. For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. KJV. For it is in Christ that the complete being of the Godhead embodied, and in Him you have been brought to completion. NEB. For in Christ there is all of God in a human body, so you have everything when you have Christ. Living Bible.

No matter how you slice it or dice it in whatever version of the Bible, it still comes out the same. All of Deity was in the Son of God. Period. And the Father Yahweh, the Great Spirit, “was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him.” Col. 1:19.

Back to Col. 2:3, speaking of Yahshua, Yahweh in human form:   “All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge was hid in the Son.” The Father Yahweh, was Himself in the Son, the Anointed vessel who was to carry Yahweh around in on earth.

The mystery is this: Yahweh, the Creator, poured Himself into the Messiah. Everything that that Anointed One did, it was Yahweh Himself doing it. Yahweh created everything, in His pre-existent form, which is Yahshua. Yahweh is an invisible Spirit; He is not a man sitting up there. The only place He resides is in the high and lofty place and with those of a broken spirit and a contrite heart.

Moses confirms that Yahweh created all things. In the song of Moses, Deuteronomy 32, he begins by praising Yahweh. “He is the Rock, his work is perfect.” And in v. 6, “Is not Yahweh thy father that hath bought thee? Hath he not made thee, and established thee?” Right here in the torah we see that Yahweh is the Rock that created the children of Israel. But I thought that the Son created all things.

A contradiction? No, for Yahweh, the Great Spirit Father “was in Messiah, reconciling the world unto Himself.” It is Yahweh in human form that did the creating. The Father was in the form, the Son, doing the creating. “And his name shall be called…the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.” Isa. 9:6. How can this be? Only with the invisible Father/Spirit residing in the Son (“all the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily in the Messiah”) can this be.

The Father dwells in the Son, “who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.” Col. 1:15. Yahshua the Messiah is the visible image of the invisible Father/Spirit Yahweh. Yahshua cried and said, He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me. And he that seeth me seeth him that sent me. John 12:43-44. Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been   among   you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father…don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?…Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. John 14:9-11.

I believe that it is the Spirit of God within me at this moment that is writing down these things. But how does the reader know that these things are really true? How can the reader be sure?

     The scripture reveals a sure way to tell if someone has the Spirit of truth—a sure way to know if a person is of the truth and is telling the truth.

You will know you have really come in contact with the Spirit of Truth because the person who has the truth will speak about the Savior as He really is. The Master said so. “When the Spirit of truth is come He will testify of Me.” John 15:26. When someone receives the Spirit of truth within themselves, they will speak of the Savior. But the Spirit of truth will speak of the Savior truthfully. The Spirit of truth will tell the truth about the Savior. The Spirit of truth within a person will tell of the true nature of the Savior.

But that is tricky because everyone speaks about the Savior. Everyone speaks of Jesus Christ. Some even speak of Him using His true Hebrew name Yahshua. There are thousands of denominations and organizations speaking about a savior, and they all have different concepts of who He is. Consequently, they all could not have the Spirit of truth. Yet everyone thinks they have the Spirit of truth.

How can one be for sure? The Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, will guide us into all truth; He will show you things to come; and He will glorify the Savior; He will receive the things about the Savior and will show us them (John 16:13-16). You will know that you really have the Spirit of Truth because He will speak of Yah-is-Savior; He will testify of the fact that the Self-Existent One-is-in-human-form and is Savior. The Spirit of truth = Comforter = sent to us by Yahshua = proceeds from the Father = the Spirit of truth shall testify of Yah in human form. The Spirit of Truth shall lead us into all truth about just who the Savior is, which is Yah-in-human-form.

And it is by that very same Spirit of Truth residing within us that we will be a witness of just who the Savior is. And you also shall bear witness, or testify, of Yahshua by that same Spirit of truth within us. The Spirit of Truth is the Spirit of Yahshua. Yahshua the Savior said that He is the truth. And God, the eternal Spirit, dwelt bodily in the Savior, the Anointed One.

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24 The First and the Last

We are learning that the future manifested sons of God will “know Him that is from the beginning.” John says that “I write unto you, fathers, because you have known him that is from the beginning.” “The beginning” is important to the apostle John. It is on his lips, and he includes “the beginning” in all his writings to us. John knows that “knowing Him that is from the beginning” is of the utmost importance. He talks about “the beginning” in 1 John 1:1. “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life…” Of course, he is talking about the Messiah Himself, the Son of God. John’s greatest desire is to help the sons of God get to know Him that is from the beginning. And during John’s hardest trial as an aged apostle toward the end of his days, he teaches us just who this One from the beginning really is.

The apostle John is banished to the barren rock pile in the Aegean Sea called Patmos. It is around the turn of the first century A. D., and John does not have long to go on this earth. Sixty-five years ago he had walked with the Saviour and had heard and seen first hand the Master’s plan for His followers. The scene is set for the Son of God’s final recorded appearance to the beloved apostle. The apostle will now become a seer who, aided by the Spirit, looks through time and space to the end of this present age.

He will see the total mouth-stopping vision of the end time.   He will see and record for us the way the evil world system will finally come down.   He will witness its final destruction and also the establishment of all that is good.

But the most important thing that he will see is the risen Savior again.   It is a sight that would dumbfound him and take him to a deathlike state.

“I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me,” John writes in Revelation 1: 12. “And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lamp- stands was someone ‘like a son of man,’ dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.”

And then the Master comforted John by placing his right hand upon him and saying, “Don’t be afraid. I am the First and the Last” (v. 17).   Fear had stricken John to the point that he didn’t know whether he was alive or dead. And the very first thing that the Savior said to him to get him back on the right path, to get him up on his feet, to get himself ready to receive what the Master was about to tell him—the very first words were for him to not be afraid, that it is I, “the first and the last.”

Knowing that He is “the first and the last” must have a profound effect on Christ’s followers. It must have an extreme amount of comforting power. Upon first glance at this statement, however, one could wonder just what is the revelation about this statement—what makes these first few words that He spoke unto John so special—that He is “the first and the last,” the beginning and the end.

For those words sound familiar. In fact, the prophet Isaiah wrote down those same words no less than three times. Can we get the revelation about Christ being the “first and last” by going to the prophet Isaiah?

“The God of Israel; The LORD of hosts is his name” Isaiah 48:3. Capital “LORD” is the title that the translators inserted for the name “Yahweh.” This passage in Isaiah should read, “Yahweh of hosts is the name of the God of Israel.” The Spirit Yahweh continues to speak through Isaiah on down to verse 12: “Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last.”

Here Yahweh, the great Creator, the great Father of Israel and all the prophets, is saying that He, Yahweh, is the first and the last! But I thought that the Son of God just told John that He, the Son of God, was the first and the last! How can this be?

If these two passages only appeared one time in Revelation and in the book of Isaiah, then they might be overlooked or forgotten. But the words “first and last” appear at least three times in each book! {Rev. 1:11, 1:17, and 22:13. And in Isaiah 48:12, 44:6, and 41:4}

The Problem

      The Son in Revelation says three times that he is the first and the last. And the Father Yahweh in Isaiah says that he is the first and the last. If there are two up there in heaven, then how can they both be “first”? Is not a father by definition before his son? Then how can the Son of God tell John that He is the first? If there are “two beings up there,” then which are we going to believe? Which is telling us the truth?

The Solution

      There can only be one plausible answer to this enigma. There is only One, and He is telling the truth. That is the mystery. We must look at this enigma after the spirit and not through natural thinking. It was Yahweh speaking through one “like the son of man.” Christ is the Son of man and walked with the sons of men. It had to be Yahweh, the great eternal Creator Spirit who appeared in human form to John on that sun-bleached rock of an island 1900 years ago and comforted and strengthened him with the pre-requisite revelatory truth of the day: “I am the First and the Last. I am the Alpha and the Omega. I am the Root and the Offspring of David.” Yahweh made the full circle from eternal Spirit, pouring Himself into human flesh, and taking that body on up to the full glorification of immortality. John saw the face of God that day on Patmos, and the Spirit spoke and encouraged John with this truth: “Don’t be afraid. I am the First and the Last.” That is all the nourishment John needed to receive the rest of the vision.

The Answer

The answer is that the Father and the Son are one. The Son said that they were one.   “I and my Father are one.” The Father is the invisible Spirit, who inhabits His body, the Son. It is Yahweh, the Spirit, the Father, speaking through Isaiah, and it is the invisible Father speaking through the Son in Revelation.

God spoke to us through His prophets in times past, but has in these last days spoken to us by His Son (Hebrews 1:1). God spoke to His people through the old prophets with the same Spirit that He spoke to the Israelites through Christ.

There is only one God; there is only one Spirit. And God, who is a Spirit, is invisible. Yet, He resides in a spiritual body, a human looking prototype form, and it was that form who we call the Son. And it was that form that John saw on Patmos in Rev. 1:11 and 17. And it was Yahweh Himself who spoke through the Son to John. For the Son is “the brightness of the Spirit’s glory and the express image of the invisible Spirit’s person.”

The Pharisees could not see past the flesh of the Son, the body of the Anointed One. They did not believe that the Father Yahweh was living in a human form fully. And that is what we all must do; we must see the invisible Father Spirit by seeing Him move through His form/His Son, which is His spiritual body.

The True Father/Son Relationship

The apostle expounds on this most intimate picture of the Father and Son relationship in John 14. It is here that the Messiah explains the most baffling mystery in Scripture. It is here that He rends the veil and shows just who the Father is.

It is difficult to understand just what He is talking about because of our pre-conceived ideas of who or what the Father and Son are. We have been taught or led to believe that there are two distinct physical looking beings up there in heaven. We are encouraged to believe that one is the Father and that He has a different heavenly body than the other Supreme Being, the Son. We are taught that there are two beings, distinctly different from each other. But He is the Holy One of Israel. The prophets wrote that title concerning Him no less than 40 times! He is either One or two.

Yet, here on earth, the Messiah openly declares that the Father is residing—present tense, right now—in him! In fact, the Messiah implores us to believe what He is saying about the whereabouts of His Father. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me. 14:11. It is the Father who is dwelling in Me that is doing the great works you see me do, He was saying to them. How can the Father be in Him and yet have a human looking form at the same time? The answer is that the Father is an invisible Spirit that resides in the Son. In fact, “the Son” is the form that the Father, the Spirit, is residing in. We must get past the veil of the Son’s flesh and get to the invisible Spirit, the Father who resides in His body, the Son. And we are a part of the Son’s body, are we not? The body of Christ? The body of the Messiah?

The Messiah in that same passage of scripture said point blank to the disciples that right now, they have seen the Father and know the Father! Philip, having the same trouble as us modern end time disciples in seeing the invisible Father, said, Show us the Father and it will be enough. We just want to see this Father you keep referring to. And then the Messiah said something quite astounding. “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” Philip, you have already seen the Father. When you see me move around here on earth, it is the Father moving around and doing the mighty works.

But the Son had a transition, a transformation to make. He would have to ascend on high and go back to the Father in His original spiritual body. He would then send the invisible Spirit, who is the Father, back down to his disciples to empower them so that they could work the works of Him. He that believes on me, the works I do shall he do also, and greater works, because I go to the Father. 14: 12.

The Father is not another person “up there in heaven somewhere” that the Son is going to “go to,” to be by His side. The Father is the great invisible Creator/Spirit that was and is dwelling in the man Yahshua, the Messiah. So the statement, “Because I go to the Father” does not mean that the Son is off to visit his dad. It means that the earthly vessel, the man called the Messiah, would have his body glorified, changed into a spiritual body. He would   then   ascend   to the throne in heaven. And He would then send His essence, His Spirit, back down to earth to take up an abode in the hearts of His children.

Yahshua, the man, who was filled with the Father, the Spirit, was a source of great comfort to his disciples. He said to them, “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.” We are given another Comforter, the Spirit of truth. Because “all of the fullness of the Godhead dwelt bodily in the Messiah,” He had to leave His disciples in His earthly body and ascend to His throne in heaven in order for Him to send the Comforter, the Spirit to us.  And to top it off, He was telling them that all who believe that the Father Yahweh is dwelling in Him of a truth, the works that I do shall you do also. And His name shall be called “the Everlasting Father…” Isaiah 9:6.

And now the Son, the Spirit’s body, is growing. Trees of righteousness are growing. The Spirit is beginning to fill more sons and daughters. The invisible Spirit’s express image is growing. God is choosing out certain human beings who are surrendering to the Spirit—humans who are deliberately giving up their old life, and being raised to walk in a newness of life by belief in the resurrection. These people have been already chosen by God to express His person in a grander way than what happened 2000 years ago. That was the former rain of His Spirit. Now comes the latter rain of His Spirit which will fall more abundantly!

The Pharisees 2000 years ago missed that former raining down of the Spirit. Why? Because they constant- ly only looked on the outward appearance and not on the Spirit. They had no faith in the invisible Spirit. They limited the invisible Spirit Yahweh, boxed Him into a “law” and said, “This law is what we have to do to get right with God.” But they did not know that the keeping of the law comes after we begin to walk in the Spirit—not we attain righteousness in our life by us keeping the law. No. That’s backwards. And that backward thinking comes from looking at the things of this earth—and that includesanything and everything our eyes can see. For all earthly things—ALL things are merely shadows and types of the hidden invisible heavenly things! And the core, the heart, the Spirit of the chosen ones—their heart is a heavenly thing that resides in these earthly tabernacles. Yet they are not of this earth!

 

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25   The Way

 “Do you know the way?”

“Which way? For there are many ways.”

“The way to the Father is the way I am talking about. There is only one way to know Him that’s from the beginning.”

“Which way is that?”

“The Son of God said that He is the way.”

The Saviour is preparing the disciples for His imminent departure. He has already told them that He will be delivered up and killed and resurrected, but it has not soaked into the minds of His followers. The disciples know that the political climate in Jerusalem does not bode well for their hopes of establishing the Kingdom of God by overthrowing the Roman government.

Something is wrong they feel. Their Master is telling them that they cannot come with Him, that He is going away. He’s telling them that one of them is going to betray Him. Their joy, which reigned supreme when He was sending them out with power, now is non-existent. They are worried. They do not understand what is happening. (See John 14:1-11)

So He tells them to cheer up. Don’t let your hearts trouble you. I must go and prepare your place so I can return and receive you once again. Then where I am, after I return to you, is where you will be. And you know where I am going and you know the way.

Thomas says, We do not know where You are going, so how can we know the way?

 Thinking Natural Thoughts

 Thomas thought “the way” was a path with earthly directions. He thought that the way to the Father was a literal line from point a to point b in this universe some-where. He had it in his mind that the Father was some-where other than where the Son was standing. And then the Master straightened out his fleshly, worldly wisdom. “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me.” This statement proves that the way that the Master spoke of was the way to the Father. But He said that He was the way to the Father.

“If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also: and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.” He was saying that right now, you are seeing the Father standing in your midst, for I am the image of the invisible Father.

Then Philip says, Now, Master, I only see you standing here, and You said that you are the Son. I don’t see the Father anywhere. You are going to have to show us the Father. If we could see the Father, it would be enough for us. That would be all we would need. Wow, to see the Father! We would have it made spiritually then!

“He That Has the Revelation of Who I Am, Has seen the Father”

 Then Yahshua says to them, Have I been such a long time with you and you still don’t know Me, Philip?   He that has seen Me, he that has really seen who and what I am and what I am about, he that has the revelation of just who the Son of God is, has seen the Father. For the Son is the Father Yahweh, the invisible eternal Spirit, clothed in human flesh! I have already shown you the Father, for it was He that has done all of the mighty works that you have seen me do! (v.9). Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, in His Spirit, His will, His purpose, His way and manner of life, and don’t you believe that the Father is in me? The Father is in Me! He is Spirit and He lives in Me, and I do what He wants done. In fact, it is the Father, the Spirit, that is doing whatever I do (v. 10). The words that I speak to you, they are not my words. I don’t speak them of myself, but the Father that dwells in Me, He is doing the works. Whatever works that you have seen Me do (the acts and words spoken), it really has been the Father who actually has done and said everything, He was saying.

And then the Master gives us a direct commandment, one of those directives that is so crucial for us to keep: Believe me that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in Me. We are commanded by our Saviour and Master Yahshua to believe that the Father is in the Son. That is an order. Or, He is saying, believe me because of the works that I do. A mere man cannot do what I have done. But with the Father within—that is what makes it marvelous!

And so the Master continues on comforting them by saying, If you believe on me like I have just told you, if you believe that the Father is in Me and I am in the Father, then the works that I do shall you do because I go to the Father so that the Spirit can come back to you to fill you up.

You know the way to the Father, He was saying. By all that you have seen Me do, you have to realize that it was not the man doing it but the Father within him. The way to the Father is through Me. You can get to Him if you believe Me when I tell you that the Father is invisible and He is in Me. The way to the Father you know, for I have been with you since the beginning.

This unveiling of just who the Father is remains of supreme importance to the nourishing of the future sons and daughters of God. It is so important, in fact, that our promise of eternal life depends on it. Knowing who the Father is and where He resides is paramount to becoming one of His immortal offspring.

It Is All in the Son

 Who is it that really has eternal life? He that has the Son has life. Only those who have the Son have true eternal life. But not just any Son. Not just any old concept of the Son. But he that has the true concept of who the Son is—who the Spirit says He is—that person has Life.

Ah, but therein lies the problem. For almost everybody thinks his concept of the Son is correct. I can hear the old song wafting through the Sunday morning air, “Everybody ought to know who Jesus is.” The trouble is that everybody thinks they know who He is. But do they really “have the Son?” God has given to us eter-nal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. I John 5: 11-12.

The Son said, “Unless you believe that I am He, you shall die in your sins.” Also, “He that believes on me as the scripture has said…” You mean that there is a way to believe on Him other than how the scripture has said? Evidently. It doesn’t count that we believe that the Son exists. “Even the devils believe there is one God and tremble.”

Oh, that is the very point that Satan has it over many aspiring followers of the Son. The devils believe there is one God. Not two, not three. Not a family of Gods—but one God.

So, who is this Son, the One I must have in order to have eternal life? And the life is in His Son.

The apostle Paul either really knew Him or he was an imposter. Paul said that “all the fullness (the state of being full) of the Deity, of the Godhead dwelt bodily in the Son Yahshua. If I were to tell you that all the fullness of a two liter bottle of Sprite dwelt bodily in me, would there be any Sprite left in the bottle? Sprite is, of course, a symbol of the Spirit. If all the fullness of the Spirit (God is Spirit)—if all of the Deity was dwelling in the Son, then that means that all of God dwelt in the Messiah.

So then, where is the Father, the Spirit? Don’t you know that the Father is in me? He that has seen me has seen the Father…For He is the expressed image of the invisible God.

And that Great Creator/Spirit’s name is Yahweh in Hebrew. And when we see the Son—when we see just who He is, then we will see Yahweh come down, pouring Himself full in the vessel, the Son, whose name in English means Yah-Is-Savior, or in Hebrew Yahshua, the Self-Existent-One-is-Savior.

Yah Coming in Human Form

 It is like when He spoke through the prophet Isaiah in chapter 40. Thus saith Yahweh, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of Yahweh. And sure enough, Yahweh came right after John the Baptist’s announcement; John preaches and announces, and who shows up? The Messiah. I thought that he was announcing, “Prepare ye the way of the LORD?” Prepare ye the way of the Old Testament God of the patriarchs. He was, for we know that “the LORD” is a title that the translators put in for His name “Yahweh!” Note: John came in the spirit of Elijah or Eliyah. The name “Eliyah” means “mighty one of Yah.” John’s spirit points to Yah. And Yah came in the human form of a servant. He came in the form of a humble man acquainted with grief.

And He cried over His creation, for He had created them, and they had gone astray and were scattered as a sheep without a shepherd. And He would have gathered us up in His arms as a hen gathers her chicks, but we would not have Him to rule over us.

Who will believe that it was the Father Himself who walked in human form among us?

 And so it goes on today. The Eternal is reaching out to whomsoever will come. But who has believed this report? And to whom has the arm of Yahweh been revealed? Who will believe that it was the Father Creator God Himself who walked in human form among us, sacrificed His own pure human blood for us all, and then raised it up again and changed it to the same immortal spirit-body pattern that He created everything else in in the beginning. Few there be to find this way of truth.

Worshipping the Father Must Be Done in Truth

 So, this is important. The Messiah said that the only way to worship the Father is in spirit and in truth—the truth about the Supreme Being, His nature, where He is found, how He reveals Himself—all this is the truth. And the Son said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. I John 5:12-13. And the Son’s name is Yahshua, and His name means Yahweh-is-the-Savior.

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 Chapter 26  The Right Hand of God

But many will still say that the Father and Son are two distinct individuals “up there” in heaven.  Some say that there is only one God but when pressed, they invariably will see two in their mind’s eye.

For example, I was talking about the Godhead the other day with a pastor of a small Baptist church who is from a Trinitarian background. I asked him, “Donnie, if the heavens were to open up to you right now and you could see into the throne room of the Most High, would you see one or more than one individual sitting up there?”

He said, “I would see more than one.”  So much for the Holy One of Israel.  Trinitarian doctrine, which most of the mainline denominations teach, breeds a multi-godhead concept—either two men or two men and a bird (the dove being a symbol of the Holy Spirit).

This is easy to confirm by doing your own survey.  Just ask several people that you meet at random the same question, and you’ll get similar results from those who are of a Trinitarian background.

“Well, Donnie, I thought that the Father was an invisible Spirit. It says that the Savior ‘is the image of the invisible God’ in Colossians 1:15.”

“But what about Acts 7:55,” he countered, “where it says that Stephen sees Jesus at the right hand of God.”

“But, don’t you see that if God is invisible, then you can’t see His  literal  right  hand,  for  He  cannot be seen.”  I didn’t have my Strong’s Concordance with me, but if I had, I would have turned to “right hand” and showed him in the Greek, #5495, that it means “power.”

An example of this use of “right hand” for power is found in Psalm 16:8.  Peter quotes this passage in Acts 2: 25, using the phrase “right hand.”  Strength and power are derived, David is saying, by keeping Yahweh’s Spirit close at hand.  He is, in fact, at David’s right hand, much like a sword would be kept by a warrior-king close by his right hand.  I keep Yahweh always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. NRSV.  Yahweh’s Spirit is, in fact, the Sword that we should have handy, at our right hand.  This is our strength and our power to fight and destroy the thoughts that come against us.  Believing that Yahweh’s Spirit is near, at our right hand, we will not be moved from the hope of His word.  We will not be tossed about by the onslaughts of this present life.

Now going back to Acts 7:55, where Stephen saw Yahshua “standing on the right hand of God.”  The right hand is the power position.  Yahshua is the invisible Father’s sword, at His right hand, so to speak. How else could the  Savior say, “Know ye not that the Father is in me?”  How are you going to get another physical being inside Yahshua? That is natural thinking. The Father is Spirit.  God is Spirit. The only body that the Father has is the body that He has prepared for Himself, which is the Son, or Yahshua.  God is only visible when we see Him move through the flesh body of Yahshua, His body, His Son.  And now we are part of His body!

The Messiah is Yahweh’s arm.  Everyone will agree that Isaiah 53:1 speaks of Him.  Who has believed our report? And to whom is the arm of Yahweh revealed?  The Messiah is the arm of Yahweh, the arm of the Father.  He is the only arm the Father has.  The Father’s   body   parts   are   only   seen  when  we  see  the Messiah.  And since Yahweh’s arm is the Messiah, then the phrase “the right hand of God” has to mean the power position for the Father Yahweh.  The right hand is merely an extension of the arm which facilitates it in picking up the  sword,  for  example.  O sing  unto Yahweh a new song; for he hath done marvelous things: his right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory. 

Going back to the word for “hand” in the Hebrew—it is yad, # 3027—“used in a great variety of applications, both literally and figuratively…power.” This same Hebrew word yad, #3027, is translated “power” in the English 14 times.  “Hand” and “power” are synonymous.  Here are a few examples of how the two are used interchangeably.  And Yahweh said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power…Job 1:12 (KJV, Nelson’s Reference Edition, 1972. It has a footnote center column reference on “power.” It says, “Hand”).  In famine he shall redeem thee from death: and in war from the power of the sword. Job 5:20. Again, footnoted “hands.”  And Yahweh brought us up out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Deut. 6:21. (“Hand” is from the same word that “power” was translated from, yad).  Into thine hand I commit my spirit. Psalm 31:5.

So there you have it, Donnie.  “Hand” and “power” are interchangeable in the Hebrew.  Even when “right hand” is used as right side, it is an object of being close or being readily available, denoting power.  And we saw where “hand” and “power” are from the same concept—power or strength.

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27

 Proof that the Father Is the Invisible Spirit/Creator

Nevertheless, despite all of the scriptural documentation presented above, many people when they pray, still visualize a throne room in heaven where two main Supreme Personages sit on two different thrones.  And many would say, “Well, what of it.  What’s the difference anyway?”  It would not make any difference if He had not said that the true worshipers must worship Him in spirit and truth.  We must acknowledge that the true God is a Spirit-entity that is invisible.  But there are many spirits and “gods many,” so we must worship Him in truth.  We must know the truth about Him.  Is there one or two up there?  It is important for true worship.

But most see in their mind’s eye the Father God, who by His very nature, is the oldest of the two.  And then they visualize the Son of God—a God Himself, the offspring of the Father who sits on another throne to His right. Now this is the way it seems to many, and this spiritual scenario would be acceptable except for one thing: the scriptures of truth say that the Father is an invisible Spirit.  And by definition an invisible entity cannot be seen by the eye.  Also, the Saviour said that the Father was inside of Himself. The Father is referred to as “God” in both testaments.  By watching the usage of the word “God” we can begin to see just what is the essence of the Father.

The apostle John says point blank that God (Theos) is a Spirit and that that Spirit is the Father.  God wants people to worship Him in spirit because He is a Spirit. We, His creation, can only worship Him in spirit.  Anything else dwells on the outward temporary things of the earth.  Everything earthly will be done away with in the end.  Only the eternal will survive.  But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.  The Father is seeking true worshipers who will worship Him in spirit and in truth.  God is a Spirit; and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.  Jn.4:23-24. 

In v. 23 we see that the Father wants people to worship Him in spirit.  Why?  Because He is Spirit, and those that truly worship Him will do it spiritually.  In v. 24, same breath, it is God who is to be worshipped in spirit and in truth.  It is Theos/Elohim/God who is to be worshipped in spirit and truth.  It is obvious that the Father and Theos/Elohim/God are the same.

So we see that the Father is Spirit.  But is He invisible according to the scriptures?  The Messiah is the image of the invisible Theos/God.  …the image of the invisible God (Theos), the firstborn of every creature. Colossians  1:15.  And we know that Theos is the same as Elohim in the Old Testament Hebrew, translated “God.”  Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God (Theos), be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.  I Tim. 1:17.  God is an invisible Spirit.

But how can we be sure that this invisible Spirit/God Paul is writing about is the Father?  The answer is not far behind.  Paul writes of Theos/Elohim/God a bit later in Timothy, spelling it out plainly that He is the Father.  For there  is  one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Messiah Yahshua. 1 Tim. 2:5.

Here  we  have  the three principals.  We have man on one side and God (Theos) on the other. And in the middle we have the Messiah Yahshua. The Son is the mediator between man and God, who is the Father.

By definition, a mediator is “one who stands between two parties or sides and is the medium for reconciliation between the two.” This is from Strong’s #3316, mesites, “a go-between, an internunciator, reconciler, intercessor, mediator.” So then if the Messiah is the mediator, then to whom is He mediating man to? It has to be the Father.

Furthermore, we as the Messiah’s body, now have that very same ministry of reconciliation. “To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself” (II Cor. 5: 19). But while all this reconciliation is going on, where is God the Father? The Father is in the Messiah.

So now we see that Theos/Elohim/God, who is a Spirit, is invisible, the sovereign eternal King, and is the Father. And the Father is in Christ. And the Father-in-human-form is called the Son of God, the Messiah Yahshua.

Where is God the Father in His relationship to the Son? The Son says this: “Know ye not that the Father is in me and I in the Father…I and my Father are one.”

And who is our Father? Who is this Spirit God, called Elohim in the O.T. and Theos in the N.T. “Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God is one LORD” (Deut. 6: 4). “LORD” all in capital letters is what the translators put for “Yahweh.” It should read, The Yahweh our Elohim is one Yahweh.”

So we derive that Yahweh, Elohim, God, Theos, Father, and Spirit are all One and the same. And this One God dwelt bodily in Christ, thereby reconciling man to Himself. The Father is Elohim/God, an invisible Spirit, and He dwells in His temple.  And the temple is God’s body, which is the Messiah and the Messiah’s body, His true followers.  There is one body, and one Spirit…one hope of your calling, one Master, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.  Eph. 4:4.  Here we see that there is one Elohim/God, who is the one Father of all.  This Spirit-God is the Father who engendered us all.

And Elohim/Theos/God, whose name is Yahweh, is the Saviour.  Yahweh is God and He said Himself that He is the Saviour and that there was no saviour except Yahweh.  I, even I, am Yahweh; and beside me there is no saviour…Thus saith Yahweh, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am Yahweh that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone.  Isaiah 43:11; 44:24.

Yahweh says that He created all things, the vast heavens, alone!   And yet, the apostles say that the Son “Jesus Christ” created all things.  How can this be?  Yahweh, the great invisible Spirit dwelt in the glorified spirit body Yahshua and created all things!  They were one!  God…hath…spoken unto us by His Son…by whom also he made the worlds.  Hebrews 1:1-2. 

Look at what Paul wrote Timothy.  Paul, an apostle of Yahshua the Messiah by the commandment of God our Saviour…I Timothy 1:1.  We have proven by the scriptures that God is invisible and that His name is Yahweh and that Yahweh is the only Creator and Saviour.   Therefore, the invisible Saviour Yahweh dwelt bodily in the man some call Jesus Christ, but whose real name was Yahshua, which means “Yahweh is the Saviour.”

Believing this Oneness of God is knowing Him that is from the beginning and is a major prerequisite in becoming His sons and daughters for these latter days.  So is believing in His true Name.

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Believing in the Name of the Savior

 

The sons of God, who are to be unveiled in these latter days, must have a special understanding and relationship with the true name of God.  They will have cut through the weak, baseless utterances of the words “in Jesus’ name” and will have arrived at a solid understanding of God’s true name.  They will know that His name is much more than a tag or handle to distinguish Him from Buddha or Osiris or Apollo.  They will not only know what His name means, but they will have incorporated the power from its meaning into their lives.

They will know that because of His own name and what it means, He will perform acts of mercy upon the downtrodden.  They will also know that they share His name, that He as their Father has given His own name to them.

The Lost Sheep Don’t Know His Name

      But the masses of God’s people, the lost sheep of the whole House of Israel, don’t even know who they are, much less who He is and what His name is and what it means.  They do not realize that the Anglo-Saxon, Germanic, Celtic, Scandinavian peoples of the earth are the fleshly descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel and are possessors of the birthright blessings of their forefathers  Abraham,  Isaac,  and Jacob whose name was changed to Israel.  These peoples of Western European heritage are the only group of people that can fulfill the prophecies given to the twelve tribes of Israel by both Jacob in Genesis 49 and by Moses in Deuteronomy 33.  And of Joseph he said, Blessed of Yahweh (the LORD) be his land, for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that coucheth beneath.  And for the precious fruits brought forth by the sun, and for the precious things put forth by the moon.  And for the chief things of the ancient mountains, and for the precious things of the lasting hills, and for the precious things of the earth and the fullness thereof, and for the good will of him that dwelt in the bush: let the blessing come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the top of the head of him that was separated from his brethren.  His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns; with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh. Deuter-onomy 33:13-17. 

     The blessings given to the twelve tribes of Jacob/Israel by their father by inspiration of God in Genesis 49 reads in superlatives concerning Joseph.  Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb: the blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren. Genesis 49:25-26.  And Jacob was giving this as a prophecy as to what would happen to his offspring “in the last days” (Genesis 49:1).  There can only be one country and one group of people who could fulfill all of these astounding prophecies for these last days.

And the sons will know their own genealogical roots; they will know where they are from and where they are going.  They will know their Father, the God of Israel.  They will know His true name and they will know what His name means.  And they will believe in what His name means.

Definition of “Believe”

The definition of to believe as found in the New Century Dictionary is “to have belief in; credit; accept as true.” To believe, then, is to credit that something is true.  If I believe in something, then I believe in what that something means.  If I believe in the Constitution of the United States, then I put credence in what the Constitution says and means.  If I say that I do not believe in the Communist Manifesto, then I am saying that I do not  accept as true what it says and means.

In like manner, if I say that I believe in the name of the Savior, then I first need to find out what His name is, then find out what it means, and then believe in its meaning.

We are commanded by the Savior to believe in His name.  And this is His commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son…I John 3:23. But then the translators of King James do us all a terrible disservice in carrying over the Greek name for the Savior, Iesous/Iesus/Jesus.  We have been led astray by this.  For if you try to extract any meaning out of the name Iesous/Jesus, you won’t get any.  It has no meaning in the Greek, Latin, or English.

Jesus” Was NOT the Name of the Saviour—Four Concise Proofs

 First, would devout Hebrew parents name any of their children a Greek name—much less the long-awaited Messiah, a child conceived miraculously by a virgin and announced by none other than the angelic being Gabriel himself?  All Bible encyclopedias and dictionaries witness to the fact that “Jesus” is derived from the Latin, which in turn was taken from the Greek.

Second, the name “Jesus” simply cannot be the Savior’s name because the letter “J” was not in the English alphabet until the 1600’s. “J” was derived from the consonantal “I.”  “Iesus” was the Roman Latin spelling, which is from the earlier Greek “Iesous” (See the Encyclopedia Britannica, 11^th edition, under “J.” Also the Encyclopedia Americana article entitled “J”). Third, the Savior said, “I am come in my Father’s name.”  Do you honestly believe that the Father in heaven is named after the Greek god, Iaso/Iesous?

Fourth, in Psalms 68:4 David flat out tells us what the Father’s name is.  Sing unto God, sing praises to his name: extol him that rideth upon the heavens by his name JAH.  Since “J” did not exist as a letter until the 17^th century, and since it took the place of “I,” then that would make the Father’s name “Iah.”  But we know that “Y” is used interchangably with the letter “I” in scores of words in English.  That makes the Father’s name YAH.  At least that is what King David called his God.  And David was a man after God’s own heart.  David knew what he was talking about! The question that we must ask ourselves is, do we know what we are talking about, especially when we call the Creator a name other than what David, Moses, Abraham, and all the rest of the patriarchs and prophets called Him.

We  would all do well to  start calling the Father by the name that David commanded us to praise Him with.  And the Messiah came in His Father’s name, Yah.  In fact, the Savior’s name means, Yah-Is-Savior.  And His name is Yahshua.  At least that’s what Jeremyah, Isayah, Nehemyah, Obadyah, Zephanyah, and Zecharyah called Him. Halleluyah!

Hebrew Names Have Definite Meanings

“In the oriental world (of which Israel is a part) a person’s name is more than a label to call him by.  It is actually a description of that person or object.  In other words, it describes its nature.  Therefore, when the Bible says ‘in the name of’, it means ‘in the manner or nature of’” (Bruce G. Warr, Ph.D., U. of Maryland).  Or else why would they say, “Thou shalt call His name __________, for He shall save His people from their sins” in Mt. 1:21?  In so many words it is saying, “His name means Savior because He shall save His people from their sins.”  The word, the name “Jesus” does not mean anything, much less “Savior.”  The person that they tagged “Jesus” means something very precious, but the name the translators  gave Him does not mean what His life represents—which is Savior.

First, what is the Savior’s name, and does its meaning have anything to do with savior, salvation, saving, or the like?  If you look up “Jesus” in Strong’s Concordance, it will point you to #3091 in the Hebrew text.  Looking that up, we see the Hebrew characters transliterated into Yehowshuwa’, yeh-ho-shoo’-ah, or Yahshua, as it came down to us at the time of the birth of the Messiah.  “The fact that the Greek Dictionary (No. 2424) refers the reader back to the Hebrew section of Strong’s Concordance clearly shows that the name “Jesus” stems from the Hebrew Yahshua.”  (“The Mistaken J,” Yahweh’s  New Covenant Assembly, p. 21.  This booklet can be obtained from them at P.O. Box 50, Kingdom City, MO 65262).

The Savior’s name Yahshua means “Yahweh is Salvation” or “Yah is Savior,” or “The Self-Existent One is Savior.” No less than seven times does Yahweh say through Isaiah that He Yahweh is the Savior! See Isa. 43:3, 11, and 45:15, to name a few.  Yahweh is the Savior! Period.  That is the revelation that He wants us to get.  When  is  somebody  going  to  shout  “Praise Yahweh the Savior!”  I want to hear that come out of somebody’s mouth pretty soon.  If we will praise Yahweh as the Savior, then we will soon get into Isaiah’s spiritual walk-category.  Now that would be something!

Do we believe that the prophet Isaiah knew something that we don’t know?  He is the one that saw One sitting on a throne in heaven, and he said, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, Yahweh of hosts. 6:5. 

Do we honestly think that the prophet Isaiah knew what he was talking about?  I for one am going to cast my lot with him.  He saw Yahweh, the King, and Yahweh said through Isaiah, “I am the Savior, and beside me there is no savior.”

“In the name” means “inside the name of Yahshua.”  I write a mystery here; go to the meaning that is found inside His name.  Go inside what His name means and you’ll find the whole plan of God.  You will find “Yahweh is Savior—Yah coming down to earth saving us.

Therefore, believing in His name is believing what His true name means; His name Yahshua means “Yah, the Self-Existent One, is Savior.”  Walking in His name is really believing in His name.

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29   Receiving Him Is Believing What His Name Means

 “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in His name, he gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1:12, NIV).

      We have seen that His name Yahshua means “Yah is Saviour.”  This is what we need to receive into our hearts!  Our hearts are hard, and we are set in our ways, and we just do not want to give up our old teachings about His name.   We do not want to take in the new wine; we want to hold on to the old concepts about His name.  And we do have old concepts  about His name.  Most believe that His name is “Jesus” and that magically, all one has to do is say the magical words, “In Jesus’ name” and, poof, we will get our desires.  We call Him “Jesus,” and that is not His real name!  And, besides, the name “Jesus” has no meaning.  His real name “Yahshua,” however, is full of meaning in the Hebrew—FOR OUR OWN HEARTS!  Yahweh is the Saviour, and we must take this meaning into us!  We must receive Him.  For this is believing in His name!  Believe what the name “Yahshua” means!  And then He gives us the right to become His sons and daughters!  His true Hebrew name is Yahshua, and that Hebrew name means, “The Self-Existent One Is Saviour,” or “The Self-Existent One Is Salvation.”  Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given whereby man must be saved.  Acts 4:12.

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     If you say that you believe in the Constitution of the United States, what are you really saying?  You are saying that you assent to its tenets and articles, that you agree with its precepts and ideas, that you put credence into what the Constitution says.  In other words, you simply believe in what it means.

In like manner, if you say that you believe in the name of the Son of God, then you are saying that you believe in what it means.  But, in order to believe in what the Master’s name means, you first need to know what His true name is and then acquire its meaning.

It is now known that the Master’s true Hebrew name is Yahshua. As in most biblical Hebrew names, this name has a specific meaning. It means “The Self-Existent One Is Savior.” In order to “believe in  the name of the only begotten Son,” one must believe in its meaning: The Self-Existent One is Savior.

To do this will bring you to a awareness that Yahweh  is the Savior. All the way through the book of Isaiah Yahweh says that He is the Saviour.  For I am Yahweh thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour. Isaiah 43:3.  Now, wait a minute.  How can the Creator Father Yahweh of the Old Testament be the Savior?  Yet, Yahweh declares many times that He is the Savior.  I, even I, am Yahweh; and beside me there is no saviour. Isaiah 43:11.  The revelation is that Yahweh, who is invisible, manifested Himself in human form in the man called the Messiah.  “I and my Father are one,” He said.  Paul said that “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.”

All of this is inherent in the name Yahshua.  This is what His name means.  It is all inside the name; the meaning is inside His name.  Go inside what His name means, and you will find the whole plan of God!  You will find Yahweh as the Savior, coming down to save His people from their sins.

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He gives authority and power to become His children to those who believe on or in His name. John 1:12.  To receive  Him  is  to  believe  in  His name, to believe in His nature, His character, which is what His name speaks of.

Many believed in His name, when they saw the miracles which He did.  John 2:23.  Why would they believe in His name when they witnessed the miracles?  The Master Himself said that the miracles He performed were not done on His own, but the power was given by the Father within Him.  So when the people saw the miracles, some of them realized that the Father was dwelling fully in Him and that it was the Father who was doing the works.  They believed in His name “Yahshua” because they saw in action that it had to be Yahweh doing the wonderful works.  They realized that it was Yah, the Self-Existent One, who was healing them and raising their dead.  And which is easier to do—to forgive sins or to heal the sick?

The miracles showed that it had to be the very Father clothed in human form (which is what the name Yahshua means).   Yah-is-Savior  is  His  name.   Our  salvation  by Him is a miracle.  In John 3:18 it says that they that “believed not are condemned already.”  Why?  Because they have not “believed in the name” of the Savior, Yah in human form.  It is a code—“believe in the name.”  Inside the true Hebrew name of the Saviour is found the central revelation that God wants His sons to get.  In fact, the future manifested sons of the living God are the ones who will get the revelation as to the meaning of His name.

He Came in the Father’s Name

In John 5:43 the Master said that he came in His Father’s name, and “you receive me not…How can you believe…that seek not the honor that comes from God only?”  In the same verse (44) John mentions how people honor each other and seek that honor but do not seek the honor that comes from God.  People honor one another’s name, in “honor preferring one another.”

A hypothetical example:

“There’s someone here to see you.”

“What’s his name?”

“Mr. Smith.”

“Oh, I’ll see him, then.”

In this scenario the man’s name represents who or what the man is.  The name is a symbol of who that person is inside.  When any name is spoken, images as to what kind of person he is will arise in the mind of the hearer.  The person above who saw Mr. Smith, saw him based only on a predetermined reputation encapsulated in the name “Mr. Smith.”

The name “O.J. Simpson” does not bring up images of a fluid hall of fame running back anymore.  That name now is synonymous with a lying, cold blooded murderer.

If the name spoken is one of a great man, his name tells people of his nature, character and achievements.  All of this about this person is “in the name,” in his name.  The great man is Mr. Smith in our example.

Now, let’s replay the above scenario.  It is not Mr. Smith personally who comes calling.

“Someone’s here to see you.”

“Who is it?”

“He says his name is Joseph Johnson.”

“I don’t know him.”

“He says he is Mr. Smith’s executive assistant and has a message for you from Mr. Smith.”

“Oh, in that case, send him on in.”

In this scenario Joseph Johnson comes in the name of

 

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his employer, the famous and honorable Mr. Smith.  It is the strength and weight of Smith’s reputation that opens the  door  for  Joseph Johnson.  The host welcomes John-

son as if it were Smith himself.  Johnson is afforded the honor afforded his employer Smith.  Johnson is only honored because of Smith’s good name.  Johnson is received as if he were Smith, because of Smith’s good name and reputation.

Joseph Johnson would not have been received by the host in a different scenario.  For instance, if the host had not believed that Johnson was really Smith’s secretary, he would have rejected him.  Or, if the host did not believe that Mr. Smith had an assistant or had sent him, he would have rejected Johnson.  Either way, it hinges on the host’s belief in the name of Smith.

Now, to make the analogy real to us.  Yahshua of Nazareth said that He came in the Father’s name.  He said that the Father  had sent him…

“There’s someone here to see you.”

“Who is it?”

“Says his name is Yahshua.”

“Really?  Never heard of him.”

“Says he’s the Son of God and has come in the Father’s name.”

“No.  The Son of God’s name is Jesus and the Father’s name is Jehovah.  I never heard of anyone by the name of Yahshua.”

“He says that his Father lives inside Him and that His Father is Yahweh.”

 But to as many as received Him to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them who believe upon His name, who were born not of the will of man but of God.  John 1:12.  We must know His name and who sent Him and who dwelt

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within.  Believing in His name is believing in what His name means.  And receiving Him is believing in what His name means.  And the Saviour’s name YAHSHUA means this:

Yah {The Self-Existent One}

Is

The Savior.

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30

 

For His Name’s Sake

 

We have seen that the sons and daughters of God, soon to be revealed to this world, will know their Creator and Father by His name Yahweh. They will realize what the prophet Isaiah made so clear, that Yahweh is the Savior and beside Him there is no savior.  They will then begin to comprehend that when Immanuel, God with us, came on the scene some 2000 years ago in the Anointed One called the Christ, that His name was Yahshua.  For the Anointed One came in His Father’s name.  The offspring of God will see that “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.”  They will see that Yahweh is the Savior, and He came in human form to deliver His creation from the depravity of sin.  And the sons and daughters of God for these latter days will realize that the very name of God-in-human-form, Yahshua, means Yahweh is Savior or Yahweh is salvation.  And knowing all this, they will implore their Father to save and deliver their people for His name’s sake.

Many times in scripture the words “for thy name’s sake” are uttered by the people of Yahweh when they get into desperate situations and need to be saved or delivered.  “Sake” means “for the reason of” or “because of.”  “Because of your name, Yahweh, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great,” cries David in Psalm 25:11.  I am a sinner, he is saying, and my sin is great, and because you are the Savior, Yahweh, and because your name as we reach through a thousand years to your incarnation when you are called Yahshua or Yahweh Is the Savior—because your  name  means  that  you can and do save worms such

 

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as I out of the miry mud and slime of sin, pardon mine iniquity.  You are the Savior.  Even your name declares that you are in the business of saving wretches like me.  So, for your name’s sake, because the meaning of your very name declares that you, Yah, are the Savior and do save, I ask you to save me from this wretched state that I am in.

Every time the phrase “for thy name’s sake” is used, the people of Yahweh are fervently longing for a great salvation.   Another example is in Psalm 31:3-4.  “For thy name’s sake lead me, and guide me.  Pull me out of the net that they have laid privily for me: for thou art my strength.”  My enemies, David is saying, are about to catch me in a net, but you are the Savior, and you can save me and deliver me out of the net and snare they have set for me.  Your name means “the Self-existent One (Yah) is the Savior (shua).  So, because your name spells out through its meaning that you save, please save me because of your name’s meaning, for your name’s sake.  This process is “calling upon the name of Yahweh”—what some would refer to as “calling on the name of the LORD.”

Knowing that the Savior’s name is Yahshua and means “Yahweh is Savior” opens up the meaning of the phrase “for thy name’s sake.”  In Psalm 79:9 the psalmist comes right out and says that it is sin that the Savior will take away because of God’s name and what it means.  “Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name: and deliver us, and purge away our sins, for thy name’s sake.”  There it is.  Because of the very meaning of your name, because your name declares that you are the Savior and because of the glory of your name in that you alone do save, take away our sins.

In these passages and many more the prophets of old appeal to the Father because His very name in Hebrew alludes  to  His  saving  power.  His readiness and willing-

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ness to save those who have need is woven into the very meaning of His name.  If we think that “Jesus” is His name, then we lose all of this profound meaning  and  power.   For the power from on high comes when we worship in spirit and in truth.  Because the Savior’s true Hebrew name Yahshua means “Yahweh is Savior,” then the passage in Matthew 1:20-21, spoken by the angel from heaven really takes on meaning.  And you know that the heavenly messenger did not speak to them in Greek  when he said, “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name YAHSHUA: for he shall save his people from their sins.”  In the King James Version it says the Greek name “JESUS,” but there is a footnote to that word.  In the center column the editors of Thomas Nelson Publishers have placed this clarification, “That is, Savior.”  The Savior had the same name as the patriarch Joshua, or Yahshua, which means Yah is Savior.

Question:  How else are we to “have life through His name?”  John says that these things are written in his gospel, that we might believe that He is the Anointed One of God, “and that believing you might have life through his name.”  We receive “life through His name” because of what His true Hebrew name means—Yahshua, The Self-Existent One is the Savior in human form.  The meaning of His name has life-giving properties!  He saves us from sin and sinning.  Then we are free from sin’s consequences, death.

The children of God will believe in His name which is the same as receiving Him.  But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. John 1:12.  To believe on His name is to believe what His true Hebrew name means.  John wrote down the account of the Savior incarnate “that you may believe on the name of the Son of God” (I John 5:13).

To  prove  to  all  of us that believing on Him is equal to

 

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believing the meaning of the Savior’s name, John quotes the Savior Himself in this statement.  He that believes on Him is not condemned: but he that believes not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. John 3:18. Here the Savior in His own words says that believing in Him is believing in His name.  And believing in His name is receiving Him, and receiving Him is receiving the testimony that His name proclaims. And the testimony of His name says that the great God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob came down to earth and lived   in the seed of these patriarchs and grew up into the fullness of the Godhead dwelling bodily in the man they call the Messiah.  And that that pure vessel offered Himself as the Lamb of God as a sacrifice for our sins.  When we truly believe in His name, we believe in His saving power inherent in the meaning of His name—Yahweh is the Savior.

With all of this in mind we literally can call upon God for help in time of need.  Because He is the Savior, and because His name means as much, we can call upon Him and ask for His help in our times of need.  Oh, Father, help us in our hour of desperation for thy name’s sake, because of what your name means.

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31     Called by His Name—Receiving Our “New” Name

“Thou shalt not take the name of Yahweh in vain.”

 Being “called by His name” for most means that God has magically and mystically contacted us in a very spiritual way, and He has used His name somehow to do it.  Bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth; even every one that is called by my name. Isaiah 43:6-7.  He definitely wants to gather His offspring from all over the earth.  Does He mean that His name is the way that He will call them, thereby letting them know that He is gathering His spiritual chicks?  Or does He mean that His children are literally called by His very own name—that His name has literally been given to us, and as far as He is concerned, we His children have the same name as He does.

Do we not call our sons and daughters by our very own surnames?  The son, any son, receives the name of his father.  That surname stays with him for life; it will not change.  The son has the same name as his father.  If you are born of the same seed, then you take on the progenitor of that seed.  Interestingly, the woman, though bearing the surname of her father for the years before her marriage, takes on eventually the name of her husband, being joined to him in one body.

Just as a child takes on the last name of its father, even  so  we  spiritual  children  take  on  the  name  of our spiritual  Father,  Yahweh.   We are His offspring.  He has

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known us from ages past, before we were ever brought forth upon this earth in this current earthy dimension.  We are His; we are special to Him.  He formed us for His own purposes and glory.  He named us from of old.  We are “called by His name.”  He desires above all else for His sons and daughters to be gathered from the ends of the earth—those sons and daughters who are called by His name.  He is the only one who could have named us with His own name Yahweh.  Therefore, Yahweh is their name, too.   We are yours from old; but you have not ruled over them, they have not been called by your name.  Isaiah 63:19.  Those that He rules over, He calls them by His own name.  And those that He does not rule over, He does not call them by His name.

Moreover, think of the faith that the Father has in us!  You talk about faith!  We came out from Him, the Father of spirits.  Each of us is one of those spirits that now inhabit a earthy, fleshly body.  And we have a new name written down before the world ever was—its last name is Yahweh.  We are named after our Father.  Yahweh is our “new” last name.

 He Has Given Us His Own Name

Is it a big stretch to believe that He has given us His own name and that He calls us by it?  Just like my son’s name is Noah Hancock, which is my very own surname, our surname with Him is His surname.  And His Hebrew name is Yahweh. When He was manifested in the flesh, He was named Yahshua, “of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.”  But have there been any of Yah’s prophets go by His name?  The answer is “yes”: Yeshayahu or Isayah, Yirmeyahu or Jeremyah, Obadyah, and Zekaryah.

The  apostle  Paul  talked  about us having the Savior’s name.   I  bow my  knees to  the  Father of our Messiah

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Yahshua, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.  Ephesians 3:14.  He calls His children by His own name!  Just like we call our children by our own name.  He calls us by His name Yah!  He has chosen us to not only reveal His name to, but also give us His name.  Yahweh, the Supreme Spirit Being of our fathers, has a spiritual family, and He has given His name Yahweh to His family members.

We were with Him before the creation of the world, and we were called by His name Yahweh then.  We are His offspring, spiritual ones who have now gained a foothold in this earthly dimension.  We are like an invading invisible spirit-entity, not of this world, who are taking up residence in earthly bodies.  We are spirit entities who have come out from the Father Yahweh. We are spiritual sons and daughters who have been chosen by Him before the foundations of the world.  “Yahweh, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.  Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.”  Psalms 90:1-2.  “If my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would fight.”

The Father is reproducing Himself in the earthly incubator called the human body.  He is Spirit and He is looking for a few good vessels to place His Spirit-Seed into.  Now, “He has chosen us in Him” long before the earth ever was.  Our job is to believe this report of what is happening and walk in His Spirit that He has given us.

By believing His word of His plan of reproduction, then we become that integral part where His Seed, His Word, first believed upon, grows in power until it becomes Him in a fullness.  But we, the human host, if you will, must surrender to this process, must acquiese to  His  master  plan  for  us.  We as humans must nullify our plans  for  ourselves.  We must negate all of our grandiose

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schemes and dreams for personal glory in this brief wisp of an earthly life, and rather give up the old ways and old life of acquiring wealth and trinkets for ourselves.

 We Must Change Our Thinking

We must allow our minds to be changed into His mind, which is His desire for us.  Those who do this are doing His will.  His will is His desire, His plan and purpose for us.  We are to give up, putting old attitudes and thinking down, and take on the truth of what He is really doing, which is reproducing Himself.  He wants to use us as a channel of love.  We cannot be used this way by Him if we are busy glorifying our old selfish natures. In fact, our old Adam, our old self, our old ego, in a word, must die.  We must “reprogram” our thinking to come into the “mind of the Messiah, by “casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge” of His plan in reproducing Himself.  In a word, there is no room for “Me” in Him.

We have been chosen by the Creator personally for all of this.  He knew us before.  He knows already what we will do, how we will respond. For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight.  Ephesians 1:4. NIV.

Now, since we are placed into an adoption of spiritual sons unto God, we now take the name of Yahweh our God, for He has given it to us.  But what if we don’t believe in His name?  What if we say that it really does not matter whether we use a substitute name like “Jesus Christ” taken from the Greek and Latin for His true Hebrew name.  But ancient Hebrew is Yahweh’s language, and if He calls us by His name, then we had better believe that it will be a Hebrew name and not a Greek name that has no meaning.  What if we refuse to call  Him  by His name, Yahweh, and refuse to accept that

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He calls us by that very name?  We would then be taking or regarding or receiving His name in vain, for it does us or Him or anybody else no profit.

The word “take” in  “Thou shalt not take the name of Yahweh in vain” is the Hebrew word nacah, translated in other places as “receive, regard, and accept,” among others.  It is used frequently in the phrase like “taking a vow,” meaning, “assuming the responsibility of.”  If He has not given us His name, then it is difficult to regard it in vain.  But if He does indeed “call us by His name,” then we are in serious trouble with Him if we regard His name as a vain thing.

By rejecting His true name “Yahweh,” we are really cutting our own spiritual throats, for He has said that He calls His beloved children by His very own name, whether we realize it or not.  Isaiah cries to Yahweh, putting Him in remembrance that those of us who He calls by His own name are His; the others are not.  Yahweh…we are thine; thou never barest rule over them; they were not called by thy name. Isaiah 63: 17,19.

We are not mystically called by God when we are “called by His name.”  He literally calls His children by His own name just like our children are called by our own last name.  He has given them His name as their “new” name.  Those who regard His name to no profit break one of the ten commandments.  Thou shalt not take the name of Yahweh in vain.  If we reject the truth about God’s name being Yahweh  in the original Hebrew and disregard that He has named us with His very own name, then we disobey our Father and break His commandment.  The sons and daughters of Yahweh will, however, receive this truth, and it will sink deep into their hearts, and they will fully realize that they have been given a new name, the name of their Father, the Creator Himself.

The  sons  and  daughters  of God will then realize how

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important Yahweh’s name is to Him and to them.  They will see that believing in His name is believing in what His name means, which is that Yahweh is the Savior who came in human form some 2000 years ago.  Believing this meaning of His name is receiving Him.  And He now has a many membered body of sons and daughters who are walking on the way to perfection in Him.  They realize that they can pray in His name by praying with the knowledge of the revelatory truth contained in His name.

And they will realize that He is tenderhearted toward His children and will answer their prayers as they pray in the truth of His name.  His words  will ring in their ears, If you ask anything in my name, I will do it for my name’s sake. 

The sons and daughters of God will walk on in the Spirit until their change come—until that time in a few short years from now when they shall be unveiled here on earth as the very immortal family of their Father, the Creator Yahweh.  They will come to have His patience as they wait for the time of their manifestation to the world.  They are their Father’s great trump card and will be His witnesses that He is God.  They are waiting, even as you read this—waiting for their unveiling to the world.

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Section 7   The Unveiling

 

Chapter 32     The Veil

 

     A veil covers things.  It hides objects.  In some societies veils shield women’s faces from prying eyes.  Veils have always been used to cover things since the days of antiquity.

When Israel came into the wilderness just out of Egyptian bondage, God commanded them to build a tabernacle, a tent of worship.  A veil played an important role in this ancient worship, separating the Holy of Holies into which the high priest was allowed to enter only one time per year.  The veil hid the ark of the covenant in that holiest of places.  Also, the ark was covered with a veil that was draped on occasions over the mercy seat.

After Moses came down from Mt. Sinai with the ten commandment tables of stone, having communed with Yahweh Himself for 40 days and 40 nights, he deliberately put a veil over his face to prevent the children of Israel from seeing the glory shining from his face.  And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him…And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone: and Moses put the vail upon his face again, until he went in to speak with Him. Exodus 34:30, 35.

     The apostle Paul alludes to this very event and expounds on its meaning to us.  The receiving of the ten commandments  was  a  glorious  event,  so  much  so that

 

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Moses’ face did shine.  Yet, Paul calls this receiving of the Ten Commandments the “ministration of death.”  By the law is the knowledge of sin…I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet…Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. Romans 3:20; 7:7; 5:20. 

     No man, in other words, can successfully obey the Ten Commandments in his own strength, or in the flesh, as Paul calls it.  If anyone is trying to obey the law by works, deeds or actions in and of their own selves, they are under a curse.   For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.  But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.  And the law is not of faith…Galatians 3:10-12.

     The Ten Commandment law was given to show us vividly our sin and to show us that we cannot on our own strength live a life without sin.  It was imposed officially upon the children of Israel so that we could be made to see our pitiful need for the Saviour to deliver us out of the degradation and depravity of sinful behavior.  It is to instruct us concerning our despicable actions and our need for change.  Then we realize that the only way we are to ever change our lives is to believe in the sacrifice our Saviour made for us.  But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.  Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.  Galatians 3:23-24.

     When we are convicted of the sin in our lives, we realize  that  the  end result of that evil human behavior is

 

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death.  We realize that we are not and cannot obey those commandments in our own strength because something grabs hold of us in the sinful state, and we cannot help ourselves to become permanently better.  For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death…For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. 

God’s use of the law to convict us is a very necessary step in His perfection process.  But it still remains just what Paul calls it, “the ministration of death,” for death is what it brings; it ministers death, and rightfully so.  But now, Paul is saying, those of us who have died with Christ and have been risen with Him are the ministers of the new covenant.  Our hearts have had sin completely cut out of them by the Spirit of God.  In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.  Colossians 2:11-12.  Where once sin generated evil actions from within us, now the Spirit in our hearts generates righteousness.  And righteousness is that very keeping of those same Ten Commandments that were impossible to keep in our sinful state.  Our belief in the resurrection of Yahshua the Messiah from the dead regenerates us with a new spirit, a new heart, a new life!

And so, Paul can write that God has made us able ministers of life…ministers of the new testament; not  of  the  letter,  but  of  the  spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.  But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel

 

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could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: how shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?  II Corinthians 3:6-7.

     Moses, he goes on to explain, put a veil on his face so that they could not see the glory of the law’s bringing them to the knowledge of sin and eventually death in their inability to keep it.  And this glorious knowledge of sin would be abolished in each believer when Christ’s Spirit came into their hearts, for the law then would no longer be needed, for they would have already repented of their sin and received the Spirit.  But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which veil is done away in Christ.  3:14.

     Those who have not believed in Christ’s ability to put to death their old sinful self through crucifixion with Christ have a veil over their minds.  They cannot see that the Ten Commandment law is an effective tool used by God to get us to repentance from the sin in our lives.  They do not realize that by believing in His resurrection, they, too, can walk in a newness of life.  When they read about the Ten Commandment law, they believe one of two things.  Either they believe that they can keep it if they try real hard, or they believe that they do not have to keep it because the law “has been done away with.”

But the apostle Paul clears up that latter misconception with a simple question and its answer.  Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?  God forbid.  How shall we, that are dead to sin, live  any  longer  therein?   Know   ye  not,  that  so many of us as were baptized into Yahshua the Messiah were baptized into His death?  Knowing this,  that  our  old man is crucified with him, that

 

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 the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. Romans 6:1-3, 6. If we have truly been baptized in a spiritual reality with Christ, our old sinful nature has been put to death, and we have been raised to walk in a “newness of life.”   Period.  End of old nature.  End of old story.

The veil is upon their hearts—those who have not had this experience.  But when their hearts turn to the Spirit of the living God, then the veil shall be taken away from their minds.

There is a veil upon the hearts and minds of the masses and multitudes of peoples of the earth.  But there is a time in the near future when that veil will be re- moved.  It is a time when the sons and daughters of God will herald in a new kingdom that will fill the whole earth with His righteousness.  After He deals with the organized nations of the earth, He will fill this earth with His goodness.  And He will use His sons and daughters to take the veil away.  And He will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations.  He will swallow up death in victory; and Yahweh will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for Yahweh has spoken it.  Isaiah 25:7-8.

     Yes, a veil is for hiding things.  But sooner or later those things will be unveiled, and the hidden things will become known.  So it is with the sons and daughters of God who are hidden right now from the sight of natural man.

 

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Chapter 33

Waiting for the Unveiling of the Sons of God

Yes, a veil is for covering and hiding something.  Yahweh even hides Himself in the earth so that the eyes of mortals rarely get a glimpse.  Only those who are in awe of Him will He permit to see His secrets.

To fully understand His ways, we must remember that He is sovereign and can do anything He desires to do. Because Yahweh is a Spirit, He can hide behind a veil of flesh here on this earth, if He so chooses.  He is Spirit and He pours Himself into that veil of flesh, which is His body.  The sons of God are that body.  Their spiritual Head is Yahshua the Anointed One, the first begotten from the dead, the King of kings.  He is the Head of His body, but it will be through His body of many sons that He will multiply Himself and fill the whole creation with His own essence.  The head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.  Ephesians 1:22-23.  The true church is the body of believers that Yahweh fully resides in.  They will contain all the fullness of Deity, just like their Head, Yahshua the Anointed One.  And it will be through these chosen ones that God Almighty will fill all the galaxies with Himself, the Spirit of Agape Love.  His children will not only be just like Him, but they will fill everything up with His radiant light that then will reside fully in them.

And yet, now, the galaxies and all that is contained in them, all of the entire created realm—every plant, animal, mineral,  human being and every heavenly being—is waiting and longing to be filled with this Light-in-human-form.  The universe is “groaning and travailing, waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God.”

The whole earth, indeed, will be groaning in its anticipation of the arrival of God’s spiritual children.  The rocks and depths of the earth will literally be gasping and belching because of the cataclysmic labor spasms that the earth will be enduring.  People all over the earth will be moaning and screaming, terrified of all the cosmic commotion this earth will be undergoing just before the sons and daughters of God will be unveiled.

It will be a time of trouble that this earth has never seen before.  It will be the time of the sixth seal in the book of Revelation.  The sons of God will be brought forth through much earthly pain.  Mother earth will bring forth God’s immortal children through the cries and agonies of a colossal man child birth.  Revelation 7 declares that 144,000 will be sealed from the 12 tribes of Israel—not one tribe—after the sixth seal is unleashed upon the earth.

Heavenly bodies will fall into the earth.  And… when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth…and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth…Revelation 6:12-13.   Asteroids and/or comets will collide with such force that this earth will roll out of its place.  The systems of man’s governments will be shaken in pieces to the ground.  God did say, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” and this is payback time.  Hast thou seen the treasures of the hail, which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war? Job 38:22.  All-out chaos will fill the earth as the children of the wicked one will try to capitalize  on  the  calamity to further enslave the remainder of the earth’s inhabitants.

 

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But it is through the ashes of this initial cosmic collision that the hearts of some on the earth will respond to the preaching of righteousness of Yahweh’s soon-to-fill-the-whole-earth kingdom.  Yet, many, many more will only harden their hearts against God through the disasters.

Before this momentous event—before the revealing of God’s children to the rest of the world, His offspring will have come through a growth in the Spirit.  They will realize that this manifestation, this revealing of God’s elect sons and daughters, is the culmination of the entire promises of God.  It is God’s salvation.  This granting of immortality to his firstfruit sons and daughters is God’s crowning creation.  For God has taken the Seed-Son and has planted Him in the earth, and by raising Him up, God has energized a harvest of “many sons unto glory.”

This unveiling will be the revealing to the rest of the world the “heavenly things” that have been “kept secret from the foundation of the world.”

The sons and daughters to be are those “heavenly things” that in this present year of 2,000 are being prepared by the caring hand of the Almighty.  He is fluttering about them, helping them here, overseeing a suffering there, in order that they may be “partakers of His holiness.”

Yahweh is building a spiritual house.  At the house warming, when He will show His spiritual house off to the world, He will unveil them and reveal in them an immortal glory not seen on earth before. Yet, now, His offspring hold this treasure of the Spirit in an earthly body.  They are waiting until their change come when their earthly mortal body will be changed into an immortal spiritual body.  Now, they are still covered by a veil of flesh until that time when they are changed by that very Spirit that resides in them.  

 

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Chapter 34

 The Order of Melchisedek

Our Father Yahweh has placed within the hearts of each and every one of His sons and daughters a hope.  This is the hope of becoming just that – His immortal sons and daughters.  They cannot see the end product of His handiwork in them, for, at present, they are still mortal.  But this hope of becoming like Him drives them to purify themselves.  And this hope will help them enter that within the veil.

They are anonymous now.  They are hidden from view behind mortal earthly bodies.  At the time of His coming back to earth, He will grant to them immortality.  Their present body will be changed into a body composed of spirit.  But it is this hope that one day they might become His manifested, glorified, immortal offspring-this is what will press us on through the veil.  …Who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.  This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Yahshua.  Hebrews 6:18-20. NKJV.

      Leading up to this passage, we have Paul talking about Christ.  He was called “after the order of Melchisadek.”  Now Melchisadek was the King of Salem, the King of Peace to whom Abraham gave a tenth of all.  He was “without descent” and had immortality.  For this Melchisadek was “without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, remains a priest continually” (Heb. 7:1).

The Order of Melchisedek

       And now we have Yahshua the Son of God who has become a High Priest after the order of Melchisadek.  This “order” is from the Greek word taxis,  #5010 in Strong’s.  It means “regular arrangement, ie. (in time) fixed succession “ of rank or character), official dignity: order.”  This word is derived from the verb tasso, #5021, meaning “to arrange in an orderly manner; ie. To assign or dispose (to a certain position or lot).”

We see that this “order” of Melchisadek is something assigned and arranged by God for certain individuals.  It is a fixed thing in the mind of God; He will bring it to pass.  This same word tasso is translated “ordain” in many places and has this same connotation.  And as many as were ordained (tasso) unto eternal live believed. Acts 12:48.   In other words, those who were not ordained by God to eternal life did not believe and make it in.  Those who were not assigned or appointed unto eternal life did not believe to receive it.

The powers that be are ordained by God. Romans 13:1.   He has established them here on earth.  He rules in the kingdom of men, it says in Daniel.  He gives the orders, and it is done.  That is power.  God has placed the political and economic leaders in power.  He arranged it that way.

So we see that the order of Melchisedek is an arranged assignment by God Almighty to inherit immortality–in His own time and place.  It is not a calling that we earn.  It is something He does of His own accord.  There is an order for receiving immortality.  It has been preordained and predetermined who will come into His glory.  First Yahshua the Anointed One, then afterwards those that are His at His coming.  He is the first from the dead.   Then we come in the first resurrection.  Then those at the second resurrection.  There is a definite arrangement of those who will receive eternal life.

And Paul in Hebrews would have liked to expound more on this order of immortality, which is perfection or completeness.  This message about the immortal Melchisedek, of just who this entity is, is something that babes in Christ cannot get into.  This message of immortality is likened to strong meat, solid spiritual food, and cannot be given to those who cannot discern that God uses both good and evil to bring His sons to perfection.

Good and Evil Both from God

     He had written earlier that the Saviour “learned obedience by the things He suffered.”  A certain amount of “good and evil” was ordained for Him to come to His full fruit-bearing capability as the Son of God.  He realized that good and evil things come from the Father and are meant for our perfection.  A babe in Christ wants only “good” things to bless him; he is still self-centered like a human baby and has not got the revelation that God uses the “evil” found here on earth to bring on sufferings, which in turn, brings us unto perfection.  A spiritual babe still does not believe that the evil which attacks us comes from God.  “All things are of God” is quoted but rarely believed.  But the sons and daughters of Yahweh will begin to realize this, and they will know of a surety that they need the sufferings in order to perfect agape love within.

To prove beyond a doubt that evil and suffering are “things of God,” go with me to when the Saviour was preparing to go to Jerusalem, “and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.”   In Mt. 16:21-23, Peter proclaims that this is not going to happen to you, Master.  We won’t let them do this!  To which the Saviour replied, “Get behind Me, Satan!”  And Peter thought that he was doing the right thing in preventing the crucifixion, but it was the spirit of Satan using Peter.   “You are an offense to me, for you  are not mindful of the things of God.”  The things of God?  The evil elders and chief priests of the Jewish religion, bringing on  the betrayal and suffering of the crucifixion?  Those things are the “things of God”?  Yes.  The sufferings were foreordained before the world ever was by a loving and kind Creator for His Incarnation as Immanuel, God with us.

Peter was like a babe and could not discern that evil and sufferings were things of God that must be endured by his sons to bring them to perfection.  And still, most “followers of Christ” are not ready for the message of immortality because of this.  Paul did have many more things to say about all of this, but the readers needed to grow up in the word.  They were only ready for the milk of the word, for they were inexperienced and unskillful in the word of righteousness.  The meat of the word, the word about immortality and how to achieve it, is for those who are mature and experienced in enduring good and evil for His sake.

Be all of this as it may, God did promise immortality to His elect and swore by an oath to perform it for them.  God will bring us to perfection!  He will grant us immortality!  God confirmed this promise by an oath.  He could not swear by anyone greater so, He said it first and then swore that He would bring it to pass.  These two unchangeable things–His spoken promise and then Him swearing an oath to bring that promise of immortality to pass–insures to us that He will do what He has said He will do.  And this gives us great hope!  I am talking about a hope to live forever!  To never taste of the vacuum of death.  To always be able to laugh with our children and grandchildren forever and ever!  What a precious promise that God has given unto us!  Our hearts should leap with praise and gratefulness!  HalleluYah! Praise Yah!

It is this hope of defeating death right here on earth–this hope for immortality in Him–that is based on our belief of His word to us.  This hope of eternal life is a strong consolation and helps us flee worldliness “for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.  Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil” (Hebrews 6:18-19), where our forerunner has already entered, Yahshua the Saviour-a “High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”

Yes, our hope is in God’s promise to grant to us immortality.  And this granting of immortality to His sons will be accomplished at the end of these latter days.  Yet this granting of immortality does not just happen at the time of the apocalypse; it is the apocalypse!

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Chapter 35

Apokalupsis—the Unveiling

The apocalypse—the very word conjures up visions of end-time destruction to most minds.  We equate it with the four horsemen in the book of Revelation who bring death and despair to the inhabitants of the earth during the latter days.

Yes, these things are coming.  But in the common understanding of the word “apocalypse”, something huge is left out.  An event of monumental proportions will take place during the time of this destruction.  The apocalypse is the unveiling of the sons of God to the world.  This event is a stupendous revealing by God of His glory in a body of many sons.  The true apocalypse will happen at the time of the catastrophes contained in the prophecies of Revelation, but it is not those catastrophes.

Wait a minute, you are thinking.  I’ve been told all my life that the apocalypse is the destruction of evil by the good that will take place at the end of the world.  Even the dictionaries and commentaries say this is so.  Now you are saying that it is something else.  What’s going on?

 

“Apocalypse” Is Taken from the Greek Word “Apokalupsis”

The English word “apocalypse” is derived from the Greek word apokalupsis.  Apokalupsis is never translated “apocalypse” in the Bible. It is #602 in Strong’s Con-cordance and is translated in the King James as “appearing, coming, manifestation, and revelation,” to name  a  few.   Apokalupsis  is  from  the Greek word apo-

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kalupto, #601.  Apokalupto, in turn, is derived from two Greek words.  The first, apo (#575), means “off.  In composition (as a prefix) it usually denotes separation, departure, cessation, completion, reversal.”  The second word is kalupto, #2572.  It means “to cover or to hide.”  When the two are put together in apokalupto, it means the end of the covering, to separate the covering, to cease with the covering, or, simply, to uncover or to reveal.  Since a veil is a scriptural covering, then it means to unveil. Apokalupsis is the noun form of the verb apokalupto, and it means “the uncovering, the unveiling, the appearing, the manifestation, the revelation.”

Consequently, when we now read all of these different English words in the scripture, they are all pointing to the same thing—to the unveiling or the revealing or the revelation.

Paul Wrote of the Apokalupsis in Romans

The apostles were always using these two words, apokalupsis and apokalupto, and invariably, they were referring  to the sons of God coming upon the scene in the latter days.  In Romans 8:5-14, for example, Paul is speaking about this glorious event when the sons and daughters are changed from mortals to immortals.  They shall have put away all carnal thoughts and actions.  They can and will do this, for the Spirit of God is dwelling in them.  In fact, he says that if a person does not have the Spirit of Christ dwelling within, then they are not Christ’s offspring.  And if you have this Spirit in you that raised Christ up from the dead, then He will also make your mortal body alive, by His Spirit that is within you.  And it is by the Spirit within us that we can put to death the old fruitless actions of the body.  This is being led by the Spirit of God, and only those so led are, in reality, the sons of God.

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Glory Shall Be Revealed (Apokalupto) in the Sons

Paul continues to say that we have this spirit of sonship that resides within us, and it helps us cry unto our Father for help.  For the sufferings while in this fleshly body are many.  But they are nothing compared to the glory that is to be revealed in us, Paul is saying (8:15-18).  “Revealed” is  translated from apokalupto.  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed {unveiled, uncovered} in us. Romans 8: 18. 

     Paul is saying that the whole created realm is laboring under this curse of eventual decay and physical corruption.  It is the hope of the Creator that even the whole creation itself will be liberated from this bondage to decay by the immortalizing of the sons of God.  They will have the veil of their corruptible flesh bodies dissolved, and they will be transformed and translated into immortal spiritual bodies by their Wonderful Spirit Father Yahweh (8:19-22). But now, we must wait patiently for our Father to help us in this weak state that we currently find ourselves in.  Paul then speaks of his utter confidence and faith in God that He will help us complete what He has already written about us in the Book of Life in the heavens. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.  For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.  Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.  Romans 8: 28-29.

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The  above  quote proves the following things concerning the manifested sons of God: (1) Foreknowledge—God knew them before their current earthly life; (2) Predestination—He had a destiny for His children already predetermined and pre-set before their arrival here on earth; (3) The Calling—The predestined ones are those who He will call into this first resurrection; (4) Justification—These, among others, He will justify or “render innocent” or forgive and forget their sins; (5) Glorification—He will glorify those destined for this “high calling,” for He redeems and forgives and renders them innocent from all of their transgressions and sins.  And the glory Paul is talking about is the sons of Yahweh receiving immortality! And this glorification process is the apokalupsis—the revealing, the unveiling of the sons of God at the time of the end!

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  Chapter 36

 

Peter and the Apokalupsis

The apostle Peter uses this Greek word apokalupsis all the way through his first letter, which is written to the “strangers throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect…”  He was writing to the elect, the chosen of God Almighty.  And these chosen ones are selected in agreement with the Father’s foreknowledge (1:2).  The Father knew beforehand who would be His spiritual offspring in the earth—who would be just like Him.

And these chosen ones are set apart by His very Spirit whereby they obey Him (1:2).  This mercy is shed on the elect through which they obtain a hope within their hearts that someday soon they will, according to their Father’s promise, receive the eternal inheritance of immortality—that they might become His immortal children in a reality.

The Elect Are To Be Revealed in the Latter Days

Peter goes on to say that through belief in God’s power, they are delivered from a certain physical death, “ready to be revealed in the last time.”  “Revealed” is translated from the Greek word apokalupto, meaning “unveiled.”  Yah’s sons and daughters will be prepared by Him to be unveiled, revealed, uncovered, made manifest, and made known to the world at the time He puts an end to the world system and establishes His kingdom here on earth.

Later, Peter mentions that these elect “might be found unto  praise  and  honor  and  glory  at  the  appearing of Yahshua.”  The word “appearing” comes from the noun form apokalupsis, meaning the unveiling.  Here we see that the elect will be glorified at the “unveiling.”  This is the identical Greek word translated “manifestation” in Romans 8:17-19.  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.  For the created universe waits with eager expectation for God’s sons to be revealed. NEB.  The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. NIV.

     Using apokalupsis, the unveiling, Paul says that God’s elect, His very own sons and daughters, will be “glorified together” if we suffer with Him (8:17).  He says that this glory “shall be revealed in us”!  And he uses that same root word apokalupto.  This glory will be unveiled in us.

The whole creation is just waiting for the apokalupsis of the offspring of Yahweh. The whole creation is just biding time until the unveiling of the sons and daughters of the Most High here on earth.

So now we see that the glory we are to shed forth at Christ’s “unveiling” or appearing, is the same glory that shall be revealed in us!

The Apostles Spoke of Our Glorification

During the Latter Days

These apostles are trying in their letters  to communicate to us, the elect in these last days, that God Almighty has given a few humans the destiny of becoming His manifested sons and daughters!  They will be changed!  Glorified!  Their old earthly bodies will be translated, transformed into a bright immortal covering that will no longer “veil” or cover or hide the Spirit within.  Now, at this present time we have this Spirit-treasure in these corruptible earthly bodies—bodies that can and will die!  But at the time of  the  apokalupsis,  we,  His  chosen  ones,  will  receive this

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change and become His immortal children—children of light.  This change is the manifestation or the revealing or the unveiling of the sons and daughters of God.

The elect are being asked by God to continue this sojourn here on earth, walking by the faith that their Father has given them and being tried and proven all along the way.   We are to walk on, believing the report about our Saviour, “having not seen” and yet, loving Him (I Peter 1:8).  And having persevered, the elect shall receive the end of their faith, “even the salvation of their souls.”

Now, if we elect persist in looking at “salvation of our souls” through old leaven eyes, then we will miss this utterly astounding truth prophesied upon us here by the Spirit of God through the apostle Peter.  “Soul” is not to be seen as the “immortal soul” that is preached in Babylonian pulpits across the land.  “Man became a living soul” when he drew breath.  We are a soul; we do not have a soul.  Big difference.  The living, breathing physical entity that we, as a spirit, reside in is the soul.  And this soul shall be saved at His unveiling or appearing when Yahshua returns in His glory, and “man is the glory of God.”  At this time will we be glorified with Him.  This is when our mortal souls “shall put on immortality.”  We are mortals now and are living souls, “for the soul that sins shall surely die.”

The Prophets of Old Inquired about This

Granting of Immortality

Peter continues to say that the prophets of old “inquired and searched diligently” for this salvation, this obtaining of immortality.  They spoke and wrote of the great favor that God would bestow upon His elect in these last days.  “The Spirit of Christ which was in them” showed them that Yahweh would come in human form in  the   future—that   this  man  would  hold  God fully

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in His vessel—that He would be called Immanuel, God with us—that He would be the Savior come in a flesh body and would take that body to the tree and sacrifice it to atone for all of our sins.  And that through these sufferings Christ would be glorified.  And that He would thereby open up this immortality, granting the glorification process to those who He had foreordained unto that blessed privilege of being His sons and daughters.  And they would then dwell with their Father and rule with Him in an immortal state of existence (1: 10-11).

Peter goes on to say that these prophets of old were searching for the timing of this great event—the unveiling of the sons of God.  And it was revealed to them that it was not going to be in their own lifetimes, but in a time reaching far into the future.  It would be a time after Yahweh would pour Himself fully into a human being called the Messiah, the Saviour, the Lamb of God, the Son of God.  The prophets indeed did tell us in the scriptures about this immortality promised to God’s offspring. And Peter says that that message of the unveiling of the children of God has been reported unto us by the apostles who “have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven” (1: 12).  Since “Ghost” and “Spirit” are translated from the same Greek word pneuma, we can see that the Spirit of the living Yahweh will preach and teach us of Yahweh’s crowning achievement, the unveiling of His immortal sons and daughters in these latter days.

Peter goes on and admonishes us to be sober-minded and “hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Yahshua the Messiah” (13).  Here again we have the word apokalupsis, translated “revelation.”  As we have seen, the word means a revealing, an unveiling of Yahshua in the latter days.

For the revelation or unveiling of Yahshua at the end time is  the unveiling  of not only Him,

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but also the rest of His body.  For He is the head, and we are His body.  When the head is unveiled, then so will His body be unveiled in glorious splendor.

Seeing we have this precious calling that has been given to us in our undeserving state, Peter admonishes us to sojourn here on earth “as obedient children.”  We are not to continue on acting like we did in our previous ignorant sinful state, but we are to be set apart for the Master’s use “in all manner of conversation.”  The words of our mouth should reflect the new life we have been given.  We should be obedient to His command in Leviticus 11:44, “Be ye holy, for I am holy.”  In other words, because you are now my children, walk as such, gratefully expressing out of your mouths the great things that the Father has bestowed upon us all (1: 15).

We Are To Walk As Sons and Daughters of the King of the Universe

We are to walk here on earth in awe of this great God who has chosen us to be His sons and daughters, through no merit of our own.  Realizing that our old lives and our old conversations were vain, of no profit, received by the traditions from our earthly fathers.  We now realize that we have been bought back to our Father who has paid the ultimate fee for our deliverance from the bondage of sin and decay—“the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1: 17-19).

This sacrifice of the Lamb of God was ordered up “before the foundation of the world” but was unveiled “in these last times for you” (20).  It was only through the Lamb that we could ever believe in God, for we see God’s love in sacrificing the Lamb for us and then raising Him unto glory.  It is through this that we may put our faith and hope in Him that someday we will be unveiled as the immortal sons and daughters of God, His very body (21).

 

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So, because of all of this, Peter admonishes us to put away all the negatives of the old life—“all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings.”  We are to lay aside any bad intents on our part, any deceptions and insincerities or hypocritical actions, jealousies and slanderous speech (2: 1).

But you are God’s “chosen generation,” his “royal priesthood,” his “holy nation,” his “peculiar people”—all the old titles of God’s people now belong to you.  It is for you now to demonstrate the goodness of him who has called you out of darkness into his amazing light.  I Peter 2: 9. Phillips.

     The apostle Peter, as were the rest of the apostles, was well aware of Yahweh’s plan of the glorification of a chosen precious few in the latter days.  He knew that God’s saving-us-from-the-moldering-grave was our only hope as human beings.  All of the prophets were involved in seeking out the details of God’s crowning achievement, the granting of immortality to His elect.  “The first [the prophets and apostles of old] shall be last [they are still waiting to receive their immortal bodies], and the last [us in the 21st Century] shall be first.” And now we must set our hearts and minds upon His business of doing this.  We must reach out by sharing this good news of His kingdom of life, light and immortality.  It is all in Him.  He has prewritten it all down, and He shall perform it, for He has promised it, and He has made an oath, and He cannot lie.

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Chapter 37

 The How and the When

In a few short years, the sons of God will appear on the scene at the end of this age.  There are many signs that have already taken place, but many have not happened as of yet.  The rebuilding of the Temple, for example, is a huge sign.  Also, the destruction prophesied in the book of Revelation must come, for it will be the setting of the manifestation of the sons of God.  Most everyone thinks that the rapture will occur taking all the saints out of the earth.  This is not true because several righteous individuals mentioned in Revelation are still on the scene during the Tribulation Period.

These righteous ones are the sons of God who will rise like a phoenix out of the ashes of Mystery Babylon the Great, the present world system.  They will come forth in the midst of terrible turmoil and trouble.

As to exactly how these events will come to pass, many mysteries remain.  This we do know: they will be changed in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye.  Their mortal bodies will be swallowed up by their immortal bodies that are reserved for them in heaven, as seen in II Corinthians 4 and 5.  Their resurrection will take place, and they will receive a new spiritual body as outlined in I Corinthians 15.  And they will stride forth upon this earth as immortal heralds and ambassadors of the soon to fully arrive Kingdom of God.  They will do the “greater works.”

When will these things be? The year 2000 on the Roman calendar is here.  According to the genealogies in the Bible, it has been roughly 2,000 years since the Savior

 

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was born and 4,000 more since Adam was created.  That is 6,000 years.  We know in our hearts that the time of the Saviour’s return is soon.  We want to ask, Why hasn’t He come back?  6,000 years of recorded history has elapsed.  What is happening?

And some of us think back to 10, 15, 20, and even 30 or more years ago when our flesh was young and soft and our teeth were sound and our hope was strong, and we think, Oh, how our hearts yearned for His kingdom to come to this earth!  We did everything in our power to make it happen when we thought it would happen—and yet, it did not come in then.  The thousand year reign did not start when the numbers and figures and calculations said that it would.

And this has been a supreme trial for some of us, as it evidently was for the early apostles.  They just knew  that their time was the time!   The Messiah was walking upon this earth!  He was doing miracles daily, incredible spiritual feats.  They were thinking, Would it not be just a few days when Christ would set up His kingdom by destroying the evil Roman world system and setting us up, along with the Master, as the rulers during His 1,000 year reign of peace?

But they did not savor the things of God.  It was not for them to know in their then present spiritual condition “the time or seasons which the Father has put in his own power.  But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.”  They did not understand the timing, as we have not understood the timing for the time of the end.  But like a faithful sentinel gives warning in advance, we were given knowledge of impending events to come upon the earth.

Still, the “day is  as a 1,000 years” passage just won’t go away.  It has been approximately 6,000 years, and still He has not come back.  Some say that He could come back  tonight.   Some  say  that He has already come back,

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and we are living in the 1,000 year reign of peace already.  The scriptures say that we will not know the day or the hour of His return.  It did not say, however, that we could not know the year. {Come to think of it, Noah knew exactly when the flood would come, for God told him, “Yet seven days and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights…” (Gen 7: 4). And Christ said, “But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matt. 24: 37). Noah knew!}

I am proposing the following, not as a prophecy, but as something to ponder.  The 6,000 year reign of natural man has always been figured from Adam’s creation in 4,004 B.C.  What if in God’s eyes the 6,000 year period starts with Adam’s fall instead of Adam’s creation?  Where in the Bible does it say that we should calculate every date from Adam’s creation?  Should we presume that Adam sinned in his very first year of existence?  We do not know for sure when he sinned in the garden, but what if that year was a few years after his creation.  What if the year of Adam’s fall is the starting point of sinful man’s 6,000 year span of time on earth.  A day is as a thousand years.  Six days shall God work with Adam—in Adam’s sinful lost state!  There is a 1,000 year sabbath day period of rest coming to this earth.  It is prophesied.  But when does the six day 6,000 year period end?  What if the starting point of the 6,000 year period begins with Adam’s sin?

If, for instance, Adam fell, say, 33 years after his creation by God, then the first 4,000 years ends in the year 29 A. D., which is the time when Adam’s sin was placed upon the Lamb of God’s shoulders on the tree.  It was at the death, burial and resurrection that the curse was lifted, empowering Christ, the last Adam, to rise in us.  Since that time, only 1,971 years would have elapsed (as of the year 2,000, the year this book was published). In this scenario, we would lack 29 years till the 1,000 -year reign, or 22 years before the Tribulation Period starts. So that would make the date the year 2029.

This is, of course, a supposition at best.  No one knows for sure.  In fact, it may not be for us to know the year when He is coming back, but He puts that wondering in our hearts.  And another thing—it may not be for us all to be alive when He comes back to set up His reign.

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The point is this: We need to lay up for His sons that are coming.  He said that they are coming, and they shall come forth.  We may just have a role to play like the prophets and apostles who saw these things from far off and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims here on this earth.  And they laid up for their children and grandchildren the truth of this heavenly city populated by us.  They laid up this truth for you and me.

WE are the “heavenly things” that were purified by a greater sacrifice than the blood of animals (Hebrews 9:23).  Yes, we are those “heavenly things,” His prodigal sons and daughters.  And some of us will be last and some will be first to be revealed to the world.

All this notwithstanding, it is going to be a while yet before He comes back.  All the signs are pointing to the prophecies being fulfilled, but there are many things that has to take place, which to expound upon is beyond the scope and space of this book.  Nevertheless, we need to occupy till He comes, walking in the vision that He has revealed unto us through the writings of the prophets and apostles—the vision of the soon unveiling of the sons of God.

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