Could there be a greater blessing?

A few weeks back I had someone contact me in regard to something I had said in one of my previous blogs.  I wanted to finish the series on love prior to addressing their questions.  I knew that “love” would ultimately take us through a more thorough understanding of accepting God’s plan, understanding His plan as righteous, and realizing that His plan has taken all things into consideration.

I knew that before I addressed their question I would have to pave a foundation of accepting that we simply do not love God with all our heart, mind, soul, or strength if we do not accept His plan, His purpose, and His ways.  Accepting these fundamental aspects of this journey is foundational to our ability to be joyous in all things and to love our enemies as we love ourselves.

It is of the utmost importance for us to come to understand that “all things” includes letting Him properly prepare us to be “His Bride".    The greatest change comes when we realize that the greatest blessing in the universe is to be chosen to be "His Bride".  It is in this realization that we come before Him as a lump of clay ready to fully embrace His use of the things of this world, the people of this world, and Satan to change us into a bride that is not only pleasing to Him, but into what is necessary to be truly His.

The question this blog addresses ties back to the blog “Anything but that please”.  The focus of that blog was to bring into light how we tend to “seek God” while “rejecting” what we hear from the Spirit when it pushes us to move beyond our current comfort zones.  The following is the section of the blog that stimulated the question.

So, the easy out when I don’t want to change, is to tell God I got this one on my own.  The reality is, I am doing this because I trust my current patterns of life and thought more than I trust God to His word.  The questions are:  Is this something new?  Is it that big a deal?  Who am I hurting anyway?  What does all this mean?

Let’s answer the questions:

1—Is this something new?  No, it is the exact same thing His chosen people did that forced Him to establish the New Covenant,

2—Is it that big a deal?  I have to say yes.  I mean really….God took it so seriously with the Chosen people that He felt it necessary to put them in time out for 2,000 years, take their commission from them, put the salvation of the world into the hands of the very people He was trying to reach through His Chosen, extend a New Covenant, crucify His one and only son on a wooden cross, and make it easier for us through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. How could it not be a big deal?

3—Who am I hurting anyway?  Myself, everyone I love, everyone God puts me in contact with, Him, …  Need I say more?

4—What does all this mean?  Honestly, I think we already know the answer to that question.  We just don’t want to see it.  We can’t look at it.  We listen to our flesh centered theologies as they explain away what we know to be true.  We embrace them because we choose to. 

The question came in regard to point #2.  “Do I subscribe to replacement theology”?  For those of you who do not know what that it is, it is a theological stand point that believes that the church has replaced the Jewish people as “Israel”.

I am not going to answer that question right off.  The problem is that we tend to see things in only one way.  We see things as yes, or no.  We have a choice between this and that.  Things are either one way or the other.  In God’s plan nothing is that simple.  We must step out of our flesh driven theologies, away from what we have been taught, and away from what we have come to understand.  This blog addresses some tough stuff.  It summarizes what I believe God has revealed to me, and quit honestly is the foundation to what I believe God has asked me to bring to His people (anyone desiring to serve Him, be His bride, and find complete joy in this lifetime).  I hope you find that it will provide an immense sense of well-being, understanding, and motivation toward growing your relationship with Him.

"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," declares the LORD. 9 "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts. 10 "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, And do not return there without watering the earth And making it bear and sprout, And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; 11 So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.

Let’s take a moment and pray for God to open up our minds to understand His thoughts, to embrace His ways, and to gain a deeper understanding as to what He has told us in His word.

1. How do God’s thoughts differ from our thoughts?
2. How do God’s ways differ from our ways?
3. What analogy could God be making through Isaiah with the “rain and snow”?
4. What analogy could God be making through Isaiah with the “seed to the sower and bread to the eater”?
5. How does your view of this statement change if you allow yourself to see “the Word” as the complete and total story of God’s redemption plan?
6. Can we open up our hearts to embrace that the “Word” is the story of God’s plan?  Can we read it as if we were reading a script for a movie?  Can we read it in such a way to understand where we are in the “movie” and understand what will happen in future scenes based on what our “role” is in the current scene?
7. Can we open up our hearts to allow God to show us that we cannot change the “movie”, the sequence of the scenes, or the roles of “religion” or of various “people groups” that are critical aspects of the sequencing?
8. Can we open up our hearts to allow God to motivate us to read what He says in future scenes regarding what is happening right now in this scene?
9. And Finally; You might want to read this twice:  Can we allow God to speak to us today, through words that were written in the past, about what He will say about our generation in the future?

It is in the application of this last question that we find the keys to:

• Being joyous in all things, 
• Loving our enemy as we love ourselves, 
• Being able to provide Christ like sacrificial love to those we are led to “love”, and 
• Allowing God to speak to us in such a way that we are led away from the destiny of our religion, away from the destiny of our “people group” and into a life of honoring Him, doing life His way, being His disciple, and being set free from the chains this world holds upon us.

This is a very difficult blog to bring into summary.  The truth is what I am attempting to convey is the message of the entire totality of the scripture.  Here is a quick summary of how God took me through the beginning steps of this journey:

First He led me to Luke 21. 

and they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. 25 "There will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, 26 men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27 "Then they will see THE SON OF MAN COMING IN A CLOUD with power and great glory.

From there He took me to Leviticus 26: 15-46, and Deuteronomy 28:1-30:20.  When I read Deuteronomy 30:1-2, I began to understand what I am sharing.  Here is what I read:

"So it shall be when all of these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind…..

As I read these verses He showed me three things:

1.       That everything that God laid out, the blessing and the curse, are all required aspects of the spiritual journey of His people and His plan to use them to bring salvation to the world,

2.       That we are living at the end of the “curse” period and are at the brink of this transition,

3.       That “the times of the Gentiles” is this time period that we are living in.  It is the time period of the Jewish people being scattered across the world.  It is the time period between the destruction of Jerusalem and the beginning of the last of the end days.

The journey that God has taken me on since He showed me these few basic precepts has been simply amazing.  He showed me that in His wisdom He has given us examples of the story within the story.  This really helps.

Let’s look at Joseph.  He was His father’s favorite.  He was given a dream that He would rule over his brothers.  He shared his dream with his brothers who plotted to kill him and then sold him into slavery.  Ultimately he ended up falsely accused, living in a foreign land, in prison, and through the miracles of God brought into a position of power where he could be used to save God’s people.

Let’s take a moment and pray that God will show us another example of this story within His greater “story”.

1.  Can you think of a biblical example of someone who was destined to be used by God, had to suffer to the point of it appearing as if they were abandoned by God, only to have their commission fulfilled at a later time?
2. With this in mind think about the story of the prodigal son.  What spiritual lessons are we to gain from the life of the prodigal son?  What lessons are we to learn from the son who stayed home?
3. What happened in the story that brought the heart of the son who stayed home into the light?
4. If one son represented the Jewish people and the other represented the Church which would be which? 
5. In thinking about that last question did you have an emotional response to wanting to be one over the other? 
6. Does it really matter which represents which?  Don’t we all need to learn and understand the lessons of both children? 
7. Do we have a tendency to want to believe that even though we might not be getting it totally right, somehow we are doing a better job than those that came before us.  Is this really true?  And does doing “better” really make that much of a difference in the big picture? 
8. Does this mentality lead us to believe that we are not going to “need” the spiritual refinement they have been “subjected” to? 
9. Would seeing ourselves as spiritually dead help us approach the challenges, conflicts, and dramas of life in a different way?  To the point of embracing them for the spiritual growth they provide?

There are some common themes in the stories of God’s people and the parables told by Christ.  What I would like to highlight is that nothing catches God off guard.  He has a plan of salvation for this world and within that plan there will be successes and failures of those that He has called to do His work.  His plan took this into consideration from the very beginning.  Here is how I see the story is playing out:

• He chose the Jewish people to be His bride, 
• He knew that they would fail (as a people) to lead the world to Him, 
• His story took this into consideration,
• The consideration manifested itself into him blinding them to Christ for a time, 
• During their spiritual blindness He would give the Gentiles a chance to lead the world to Him, 
• He knows that the Gentiles (as a people) will fail in leading the world to Him,
• His plan takes this into consideration too,
• Per Isaiah 53 and other scripture references there will be a time in the future, concurrent with end time events, where God will open the spiritual eyes of the Jewish people,
• This will bring them to the humility necessary to accept Christ and see God in a new way,
• Per Isaiah 59-66 the Church will be confused over their still being here during end time events, and go on their knees before God in confusion.  This will be their humility,
• God will use end time events to prepare His bride for serving Him during the millennial period,
• During end time events God will establish a final covenant with the lost and hurt of the world where He promises that “His people” (Israel and the church) will finally disciple “His way”,
• This covenant will be fulfilled during the millennial period.

I understand that what I have shared here is challenging to read.  I understand that you probably won’t find a single commentary that supports it.  At the same time, you may find various commentaries that share bits and pieces.  What I have shared in this blog is where God has brought me thus far on this journey.  It is what He has shown me and it is what He has asked me to show His people.  I am going to share a few more scripture references for your consideration:

From 1 Thessalonians 4:

For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.

1. What signals will anounce the "coming of the Lord"?
2. What is the order of these things:  Dead rise, living rise, coming of the Lord, trumpet of God, voice of archangel?

From 2 Thessalonians 2:

1 Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, 2 that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. 3 Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.

1. What does Paul tell us about the order of these things:  our gathering to Christ, man of lawlessness revealed, Coming of the Lord, apostasy, man of lawlessness taking seat in temple of God and displaying Himself as God.
2. Why is Paul telling the Thessalonians how this progression will take place?
3. Will there come a time when this scripture has GREAT significance to those who have put their faith in a pre-tribulation rapture?

From Revelation 7
9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; 10 and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, "Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb." 11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures; and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, "Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever. Amen." 13 Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, "These who are clothed in the white robes, who are they, and where have they come from?" 14 I said to him, "My lord, you know." And he said to me, "These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

1. During John's time with Christ in the future he was shown this vision.  What is the timing of this part of the vision?
2. Who are the people that John sees clothed in white robes?

From Revelation 9

When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; 10 and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" 11 And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed also.

1. What form of these people were underneath the alter of God?
2. When they asked "How long" what were they told?
3. Does the term "would be completed also" have any significance?

From Revelation 19 & 20

Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, "Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. 7 "Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready." 8 It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. 12 His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. 13 He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. 15 From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. 16 And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, "KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS." 17 Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice,

And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 5 The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years.

1. What sounds will the people of the earth hear during the events of these chapters?
2. Does the terminology of verse 7 speak to you?
3. Who do the clouds open up to let through?
4. Who's "souls" "come to life" so that they may "reign with Him for 1,000 years?  What is their common experience?
5. Is it possible that this common experience is what it takes for human beings to move beyond our flesh to the point of perfection in Christ;  to be His bride?
6. At this point, what happens with the remainder of the souls that are held in the various realms?

Later in Revelation 20 we come to a much deeper understanding of these things as we are given a glimpse of what will take place at the end of the thousand year reign:

12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. 13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

1. If the only souls that "the second death has no power over" are those that are Christ's bride during the millennial period, could you think of a greater blessing than to be one of those chosen to be His bride?
2. To be chosen to be His bride what time period in God's plan must you be alive during?
3. Given the opportunity to prepare your heart, mind, and soul for a per-tribulation rapture or a post tribulation rapture what would make the most sense to your eternity?

Re-stating something I said at the beginning of this blog:  “ …..we simply do not love God with all our heart, mind, soul, or strength if we do not accept His plan, His purpose, and His ways.  Accepting these fundamental aspects of this journey is foundational to our ability to be joyous in all things and to love our enemies as we love ourselves.”  I ask you a few simple questions:

1.       Do you have any greater desire in life than to be God’s bride?

2.       To be by His bide during the millennial period?

3.       To serve Him for now and forever?

4.       Could there be any greater blessing than to be honored with whatever it takes for God to prepare you for that day?

Here is how I see it:  I understand that God will bring an enemy against His people because we (Israel & the church) have failed Him.  I understand that this is our humility and what we must endure to progress through the spiritual growth necessary to be His bride.   I also see that He will lead them (our enemy) into knowing Him based on their own issues and the humbling that they must endure (see Ezekiel 34-35).  I can be joyous in this because my spiritual growth is my hope, not my comfort.  I can pray for my enemies because I know that it is my spiritual lessons that God is using them for, that I will grow as the result of the conflict, and their spiritual lessons will be much harder than mine.  There is no mention as to what will happen to them as the result of the humbling they will experience with the exception of the judgment prior to the second death.  All I can do is pray for their awakening.  We are not called to change the world, we are simply called to respond to God and allow Him to change us.  Through us HE will change the world.

I pray that this blog has blessed you, brought a deeper understanding to God’s plan of salvation, and given you peace in light of the circumstances of the challenges of life.

I have prepared the following for those of you who would like to take the time to gain a better understanding of where God has led me in seeing the deeper understandings of what He will bring into the minds of those who will be “His Bride” and why End Times events are critical for their preparation.

Take a few moments to read Isaiah 63-64 as a conversation between God and “a people” and pray that He will help you with the following questions:

1. Do the first two verses of 63 give you a picture of a people praying to God for answers regarding what they are seeing taking place?
2. Do verses 63:3-6 give us God’s response?  Do the references support end time events?
3. Do verses 63:17-14 help us clarify who this is talking to God?  Who is “us” and who is “them”?
4. In verses 63:16-19 what understanding are we told this conversation with God brought to these people?
5. With this revelation in mind how do these people respond to God through chapter 64?

From there read Isaiah 59.  Try reading this again as a conversation between God and “a people” and ask God to help you with the following questions:

1. As you read verses 1-8, who do you think God is speaking to?
2. In those same verses, who is God referring to as “they”?
3. Verse 3 speaks of “hands being defiled with blood”.  Who’s blood is God telling this people is on their hands?  Could it be the people He is talking about in verses 4-8?
4. What do verses 9-14 tell us about the understanding these people come to through this discussion with God?
5. As we read verses 15-20 do we see God telling these people what He will do or what He has done (is it recorded as pretense or past tense?)
6. In verse 21 God makes a covenant with “them”.  Who are “they”?  Who does God act upon in this End Times covenant?
7. Isn’t this why Christ went to the cross?  Why will God have to do something supernatural in the future to provide the hurt and lost of the world what they should have already had?
8. Does this help us understand why our hands are defiled with their blood?

Again, I pray that this study has been as heart felt for you as it has been for me.  I pray that your week is blessed and that you allow God to shine His light in and through you as you go about life doing His work.