The end time scenario is uniquely custom designed by God to convey a clear message of warning, because God has always desired that nobody should mistakenly miss the implication of the future Judgment that is coming upon the earth for its wickedness. In the Bible, the end times signs are uniquely described by part upon part in which the intensity of the sorrows of each part’s devastation will increase upon mankind (Matt 24:8, 20-21). In other words it will be more like a pain of birth pangs that will keep on increasing until it ends at the climax. Jesus described a particular period of time after the rapture of the Church in which “there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.” (Matt 24:21). This is the climax of the whole end time signs from God, which will end with never before seen or heard judgment of God on earth. This is the only one tribulation wrath of God described in the end time. There is no scriptural basis for a greater and lesser tribulation as people wrongly believe these days. This is the reason Jesus called this unprecedented tribulation wrath of God as the ‘great tribulation’ (Matt 24:21). All the preceding signs are like wake-up call for mankind to avoid this one great tribulation which will start after the event of the ‘abomination of desolation’ (Matt 24:15-22). The intensity of each signs will increase in greater dimensions till the great tribulation ends.

Statisticians of world population growth tell us that earth’s population at the time of Christ was about 250 million. It took over eighteen hundred years, or until about the year 1850, for the total population to reach one billion. Eighty years later, approximately 1930, world population rose to two billion. By about 1960 [i.e. only thirty years later] the world population climbed to three billions. Four billions was reached about 1975. By the end of 1986 we pass the five billion mark and the Six billion mark was reached about 1999. [Note: World population did not reach one billion until 1804. It took 123 years to reach 2 billion in 1927, 33 years to reach 3 billion in 1960, 14 years to reach 4 billion in 1974 and 13 years to reach 5 billion in 1987. It has taken just 12 years for the world to add this most recent sixth billion people. This is the shortest period of time in world history for a billion people to be added - (UNO data).]

World population is projected to cross the 7 billion mark in 2013. It is really breath-taking to see the population of the world explode in the last fifty years. This has not happened since men were created in this planet earth. How did this happen. Is it because of the latest invention of medicines that this was achieved? Of course God has released wisdom in man particularly before the end for the fulfillment of all His end time scenarios, but really because of God’s preordained end time purposes to be fulfilled this population explosion is happening now. It is God’s specific command of blessing which multiplies and fills the earth with people (Gen 1:28). That means someone may ask the question, Does this population explosion has to do anything with the end time scenario that God has foretold in the Bible? The answer is yes. In the Book of Revelation God has spoken and appointed a time for a 200 million combined army of the kings of the east [i.e. nation of India, China, etc] to march through the Euphrates river to fight the battle of Armageddon against Christ and His saints from heaven because God will make the river get dried up during that period of time (Rev 16:12-16). Apostle John wrote about this huge army in Revelation 9:15-16, “15 So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind. 16 Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them.” and also in Revelation 16:12 he wrote about them saying, “Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared.” At that time when John the Apostle has written this revelatory prophetic information, the world’s population itself was only 250 million. For most people who must have read these prophecies in the first century must have looked at it more like a fiction story? But see how it is exactly fulfilled in our generation after nearly 2000 years had passed.

The combined population of both the country of China and India which is described as the kings of the east, together today holds more than one third of the whole world’s population. Is it by chance? By no means, it exists because God has claimed that He had prepared this end time event “for the hour and day and month and year” (v 15), so that nothing at the time of the end happens by chance. The end time scenario is perfectly controlled and planned by God. Always remember to say to yourself in such a distressing times like ours,” My God is in control of everything that is happening around me in the world.” As we move into the 21st century, India and China — the two most populous nations on earth —are both moving in to a category of the rising powers of the east. Both are economically competing each other in various ways and are economically moving in to a kingly zone of newfound riches. Half a century and before that time in the past, both these countries were in a very backward state compared to the western nations which were the only back bones of the world’s thriving economy and very technologically advanced ahead of these eastern nations. But now these eastern nations are building a very huge army of millions and equipping itself with all the latest advanced technology weapons because of a booming economy. How is it possible for these eastern nations to come up suddenly as the rising powers of the world? It is because God has planned this two hundred million combined army from the east which has been a sort of fiction in the past is possible now because I believe the time is up for the end time scenario to be orchestrated by God’s sovereign plan! Why they are economically booming? It is because in the end time scenario God has called these nations as the “kings from the east” (Isaiah 41:4). God calls each generation uniquely and designs it for His eternal purposes to be fulfilled. Praise the Lord!

2) Increasing knowledge

The knowledge of people around the world is increasing phenomenally day by day in an unprecedented way. Today’s latest technology is becoming obsolete by the same time tomorrow because someone is coming with a better technology within this period of time. The internet which was unknown to most countries of the world before just a decade and a half are today connected to the amazing world of web information technology. Almost all nations are amazingly increasing their usage of internet like never before. The whole world is connected together at just a touch of a button and cell phones are becoming more as an all in one web connected gizmos. The memory storage of these devises has increased in an unimaginable way in the past few years and thus the cost has come down and the usage is becoming universal. It is becoming affordable even to the least paid people in the most economically backward nations of the world. If we ask ourselves the question, why has these information technologies which have not been available to people from the beginning of creation [approx for the last 6000 years], are only available now in our technology minded generation? Has not man thought about interconnecting the world through silicon technologies all these centuries? Why just hardly the last two decades only? The answer is because God is the one who gives man the knowledge to get breakthrough’s in his life, He has released the knowledge only now in the end time for His purposes to be fulfilled (Isaiah 28:23-29). This purpose of God has been foretold thousands of years ago in the Book of Daniel 12^th chapter 4^th verse which says, “… [at] the end; knowledge [i.e. information] shall increase.” In today’s language we call this knowledge as information. Knowledge is nothing but collection of information. Thus arriving at the conclusion that the Information Technology we use today has been foretold nearly two and half millennium before itself. Very soon when Antichrist will arrive in the world stage, he will make all the people of the earth to register their biodata in a centrally connected computer network from which he will have all the information of all the people of the world and their back ground at his finger tip. He will forcefully make people to enroll themselves by receiving a silicon seal as a tattoo on their right hand or on their forehead which will identify them as a loyal worshipper of Satan and his son Antichrist where ever they may be in the world, in order for them to buy, live and trade to survive because of a one world government which will be established by him (Rev 13:16-17).

Violence is increasing all around the world due to lack of love in the heart of human beings. Two thousand years ago itself Jesus exactly predicted an upsurge of violence during the end time by saying “And because lawlessness [i.e. violent, insane and aggressive behavior] will abound, the love of many will grow cold.” (Matt 24:12). Because of urbanization the community life are totally becoming nonexistent in our days. The process of leaving the country side to live in the cities due to lack of opportunities to prosper economically is a part of God’s end time agenda for the propagation of the gospel of Jesus Christ (v14). But these things are being used by Satan to accelerate his end time catastrophic agenda for mankind because the love of mankind is growing cold. Where there is no love, there is no opportunity for God to intervene, dwell and bless (1 John 4:12). Children are the closest replicas of the kingdom of God (Matt 18:2-5; 19:14; Luke 18:16-17). Children don’t naturally kill; they learn it from violence in the home and most pervasively, from violence as entertainment in television, movies, and interactive video games (Prov 22:6). The technological invention of the end time which has been released by the wisdom of God through man has been effectively used by Satan for the destruction of mankind which is his eternal desire. Murder rate are increasing in the cities rapidly with a vertical surge. If not for imprisonment and availability of medical technology it would have been still worse. Most murders are left unsolved and closed because of the magnitude of the work which is very much higher than the available infrastructure and man power in populated countries of the world.

The media plays an important part in the life of the children in our end time generation. Most of them when they come to home, the entertainment they prefer is viewing television rather than physical extra-curricular activities. Children are always amused by what they see and they are sight-driven. Without parental oversight because of their extended city based work timing, the children end up watching all kinds of violent and immoral things. Because what they see gets recorded in their mind, and what they think will be based on what is stored in their mind (Prov 4:23; Mark 7:20-23). This is the reason for their aggressive behavior. There are also many more factors involved, and none should be discounted: for example, the prevalence of guns in our society. But violence is rising in many nations with draconian gun laws. And though we should never downplay child abuse, poverty, or racism, there is only one new variable present in each of these countries, bearing the exact same fruit: media violence presented as entertainment for children. Let us learn and also teach our children to love God and others by being an example before their eyes in this end time generation. We cannot love anyone without the person of love emanating His unconditional love through us. God pours out His love in to our hearts when we maintain a consistent daily relationship with Him through His Holy Spirit (Rom 5:1-5). Praise the Lord!

The increase in transportation is a sure sign of the end times. The Bible says, “[At]… the time of the end; many shall run to and fro [i.e. travelling will increase].” (Dan 12:4). Ships on sea and horses, donkeys, bullock carts on road and camels on deserts were the primary means of transportation since the olden times. Only in the last two to three centuries new inventions such as trains, planes and cars have played a tremendous role in increasing the appetite of humankind to travel around the world. Trades between countries have increased in leaps and bounds because of increased transportation with in a limited period of time. Why such fast transportation have never struck man’s mind to invent it for all these millenniums except for a couple of centuries before? God gives the answer by saying, “3 “ I have declared the former things from the beginning; they went forth from My mouth, and I caused them to hear it. Suddenly I did them, and they came to pass. 4 Because I knew that you were obstinate, and your neck was an iron sinew, and your brow bronze, 5 Even from the beginning I have declared it to you; Before it came to pass I proclaimed it to you, Lest you should say, ‘My idol has done them, and my carved image and my molded image have commanded them.’ 6 “ You have heard; See all this. And will you not declare it? I have made you hear new things from this time, even hidden things, and you did not know them. 7 They are created now and not from the beginning; and before this day you have not heard them, lest you should say, ‘Of course I knew them.’ ” (Isaiah 48:3-7).

Apostle Paul by divine inspiration spoke describing a particular generation of the last days in which he said, “1 But know this, that in the last days perilous times [i.e. extremely stressful and dangerous times] will come: 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!” (2 Tim 3:1-5). Exactly as he had prophesied all these character traits are together seen in this end time generation like never before. Truly these days are fierce, dangerous and troublesome. In today’s world the billboards on the road says slogans like, ‘You deserve the best, you are the master of your own life, etc…’ which makes people more inclined to become lovers of themselves, destroys love and instills selfish survival at any cost. The end result of these above false concepts propagated usually results in lawlessness, loveless acts of selfishness and rebellion in the society which hates other people’s opinion even when it is good. As a result there comes an ‘I know everything’ attitude of rebellion which destroys order in the society, families, work place and worshipping communities.

All the described signs of the end times which are described above will steeply increase till the great tribulation starts in which all these signs will reach its zenith. These signs are not given in the Bible to make us fearful, instead to make us confident that our God is in control of all these uncertain times. These signs can be symbolized more as like birth pangs. Once it starts, it will end only at the pointed finish line. Until it reaches the finish line, each time it will keep on increasing in greater intensity after a period of time. The end time sorrows will be exactly like the mentioned birth pangs (Mark 13:8). Jesus described these various periods of time using different phrases. The following are some of it, “all these things must come to pass, the end is not yet”(Matt 24:6), “All these are the beginning of sorrows” (Matt 24:8), “ For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.” (Matt 24:21-22). This tribulation is planned by God not for the righteous people, but for the wicked. So only as the Bible says, “The righteous is delivered from trouble [i.e. great tribulation], and it comes to the wicked instead.” (Prov 11:8). The righteous people of God will be raptured to heaven in their brand new resurrected spiritual body and then all the wrath of God will come upon the wicked people who will be corrupting and destroying the planet earth.

In schools and colleges, we usually have time table for every period to maintain order and ambiance, how much more a God who is in control of this world will have his time tables set, to orchestrate things in order, especially during the end time where lawlessness in increasing day by day?

Right now we are living in the times of the end. You may ask me how do you know that? Jesus always clearly pointed to the signs that he gave as the absolute evidence to the nearness of His coming to take away the saints of God to the place prepared for them by Him (John 14:2-3).

Apostle John said to the Church in the 1st century, “18 Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour [i.e. eleventh hour to the end].” (1 John 2:18). Many antichrists in the first century showed that it was the last hour before the end starts, now the arrival of Antichrist will give indication to the starting time of end in itself. Note the interrelationship between the last hour that John emphasized and the coming of Antichrist in the preceding verse. If Apostle John felt that the first century in itself was the last hour, we can safely say that the time that we now live are the last few minutes before the clock strikes the end. In other words, John the Apostle said that the time then was eleven o’ clock. We can now surely say that the time now is eleven fifty five. When the clock strikes twelve, the end will start with the tribulation sorrows.

Signs that we are in the end times can only be know by exactly evaluating the signs that Jesus gave for the end time generation to look toward,

The disciples asked Jesus two most important questions about the end time,

The Great Deceivers

Many deceiver’s will come in Jesus name and will say “I am the Christ [i.e. the anointed messiah of the World]” (Matthew 24:5), and will deceive many.

The Wars

You will hear of wars and rumors of wars – [World War 1, World War 2, Terrorism, Mid-East Palestinian crisis, Rumors of World War 3 and the end of the world].

Exhortation to the believer’s living at this time

• Make sure you are not troubled by these things.
   

• These things must come to pass. In other words God has custom designed these things for us to understand that we are living before the end times.

NOTE: Here we see Jesus speaking, as though he is one who has designed the set time table of the end time in the eternity past. The fact is He is! (Colossians 1:15-18).

• Even when all these wars and rumors of wars are heard, Jesus had told clearly the end is not yet.

Beginning point of the sorrows of the End times (Matthew 24:7)

This will be a short period of time, say in a decade or two; there will be consistently a steep surge in all the things given below.

• Nation will rise against nation. [More local, regional, tribal wars between various dialects and sects even with in a particular religion and nation. Peace less unrest between nations due to suspicion of one’s motive].
   

• Kingdom against Kingdom [God’s vs. Satan’s in the spiritual realm. In the natural realm between major continental superpowers]. There will be famines, pestilences and earthquakes in various places. In other words these things [i.e. famines, pestilences and earthquakes] will cause consistent devastation around the world over the whole period of time.

• Jesus is calling all these preceding events and signs only as “the beginning of sorrows”; just imagine the kind of sorrows that will come in greater intensity after these events upon the whole world.

I believe we are exactly in this time of the beginning of sorrow, as we see before our very eyes all these events consistently happening around the world in various places like never before.

Exhortation to the believer’s living at this time [i.e. beginning of sorrows] (Matthew 24:9-14)

• The Church will be persecuted (v9), tribulation and killing of professing believers will happen all over the world, the true believers and the Church will be hated by all nations.
   

• They [i.e. the national leaders] will deliver you up to a national and international head hunting organizations of all Christians (v9). For example because of constant famines, virulent diseases and earth quakes an international body like United Nations Organization which usually helps and supplies the local governments to ration food will suddenly start to head hunt and kill the Christians openly because of wrong influence and leadership at the top (Rev 6:5-6). All the people groups of the earth will hate Christians for Jesus name’s sake. The very spiritual atmosphere will become oppressive and hate infested around the world.

• As a result genuine Christians will be killed all over the world. All the people groups of the earth will hate Christians for Jesus’ name’s sake.

• When this happens, even brethrens will be offended because of persecution and will betray and hate one another (Matthew 24:10).

• Many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.

• Because of lawlessness and sin love of many will grow cold. For example the children who are growing in our generation are becoming so insensitive and immoral because of the constant bombardment of voilent, immoral images in to their mind through mediums such as internet, television, etc. This makes their childish mind to grow cold and insensitive to the needs of others.

• He who endures to the end shall be saved (v13).

• But the good news is, this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the entire world as a witness to all the nations in spite of all oppositions, persecutions and killings (v14). This will be done by the manifestations of the mighty power of God like as in the first century and even more powerfully.

[If signs and wonders followed the true apostles in the 1st century, how much more God will work powerfully to substantiate the truth of God’s word through the end time apostles and His Church when deception will be at its zenith during the end times].

The zenith of the sorrow of the end time will start at the time of tribulation [i.e. the end]

Once Antichrist seats himself as God in the Temple, the end time clock will proceed rapidly to the end point. This was what Jesus described exactly as “the end will come” in Matthew 24:14. We see from the verses 3-14, Jesus spoke about a particular time as ‘the end’ in three places in which He pointed toward a particular set end time which He said will start with a mysterious event.

The first verse is in Matt 24:6 – “And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.”

The second verse is in Matt 24:13 – “But he who endures to the end shall be saved.” In other words Jesus was exhorting the believer’s that no matter how hard the persecution they may face while being a witness for His name’s sake, if they will somehow persevere till the specific point of ‘the end’ they will be saved or raptured from all the wrath of tribulation that will come upon their generation.

The third verse is in Matt 24:14 – “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.”

The whole context of these verses from Matt 24:3-14 was looking forward to that point of the time which Jesus described as ‘the end’. The whole context ends with two ‘Therefore…’ scriptures. The word ‘therefore’ points to the conclusion of ‘the end’ point which Jesus pointed toward in all the preceding verses. In other words this is the bottom line event of the whole section.

a) The first conclusive ‘therefore’ of ‘the end’ starts with Matt 24:15-25 – “15 “Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand), 16 “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. 18 And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. 19 But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! 20 And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. 21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened. 23 “Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it. 24 For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. 25 See, I have told you beforehand.”

The most important things we should understand from the preceding verses are,

1) The true Messianic believers should flee Jerusalem when the moment they see the initiation of the ‘abomination of desolation [i.e. when Antichrist will first stand in the Holy place and then after a period of time will seat himself as God in the temple, after this event he will through the instruction of his assistant the false prophet will place a statue and make everyone to worship it or face death]‘ (Matt 24:15-16). Those escaping people of God should not look back or even take a second thought to take with them any material things for them to use when in the mountains [i.e. from where they will be raptured by flight] (Matt 24:17-18). Luke wrote the same warning of Matthew with a material perspective referring to Lot’s wife saying, “31 In that day, he who is on the housetop, and his goods are in the house, let him not come down to take them away. And likewise the one who is in the field, let him not turn back. 32 Remember Lot’s wife. 33 Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.” (Luke 17:31-33). In the preceding verse Luke mentions about a particular day saying “In that day…” If we ask the question which day he is speaking about, he is speaking about the day in which “…the Son of man is revealed.” (v30) and “For as the lightning that flashes out of one part under heaven shines to the other part under heaven, so also the Son of Man will be in His day.” (v24). In the preceding verses we see the revelation of Jesus Christ to the Saints which we call usually as the rapture. We see this day of rapture portrayed as the lightning flash on the sky from one part under heaven to the other. It will be clearly felt only by those who will be watchful towards the sky (Matt 24:42-44, 50; 25:13; 1 Thess 5:6; Luke 12:35-48). In other words it will be felt only by those true Holy Ghost filled believers who will be living a God fearing radical lives by being a witness to the world [i.e. building the ark of the end time which is the Church (1 Peter 3:21)] in the mist of the wickedness of this end time generation just like Noah and his family members who were building the ark until the end. This above verse surely speaks about rapture because Apostle Paul described the resurrection of believers in the second coming using a similar phrase in 1 Cor 15:52, “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” See the similarities of resurrection phraseology. Then Luke compared this rapture event as the starting point where God will begin to release His wrath on the wicked by describing the suddenness of the event of tribulation comparing it with days of Noah’s and Lot’s days saying, “…the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.” (Luke 17:27) and “…the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all” (Luke 17:29). This gives us a clear idea that the tribulation will start exactly the moment rapture takes place. This is the set time that God has already fixed. But if a individual believer is not watchful for this glorious day by getting involved in lustful activities, they will be left behind individually as Jesus previously warned. Prayer is the spiritual material that God will require to push forward his end-time purposes that He has already planned for individuals as well as the corporate Church (Rev 8:3-4; 4:8-9; 15:7). So only prayer of individuals will decide their participation in the glorious event of rapture. Jesus said in Luke 21:34-36, “34 But take heed to yourselves [i.e. the voice of God in your spirit man], lest your hearts be weighed down [i.e. do not let the soulish voice to diminish the Spirit’s voice inside you] with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day [i.e. the day of rapture] come on you unexpectedly. 35 For it will come as a snare [i.e. trap to get caught in the tribulation wrath of God] on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36 Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy [i.e. may have strength of revelation] to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

So only many lukewarm people of God will only realize after the rapture that they have been left behind in the same way the sons of God realized during Noah’s days (Gen 6:1-7; 7:16; 1 Peter 3:18-20; 4:6). The God fearing believers during Noah’s days because of mixing with the unbelievers, got so engrossed in their [i.e. unbeliever’s] evil lifestyle of self-fulfillment and materialism so that they did not seriously take the warning of Noah the man of God (Luke 17:27, 28). But once the flood came they must have realized their folly and must have cried out to God in repentance, so only as a result of it Jesus went to the prison [i.e. Hades] and preached the gospel to them so that even though they were judged in their flesh [i.e. through the flood that destroyed their life physically during Noah’s days] according to men [i.e. as like every man (Rom 6:23; Heb 9:27)], but they lived eternally in their spirit man according to God’s righteousness which was gifted to them by God through Jesus Christ (Rom 5:18-19,21). The same will happen to those lukewarm left behind believers too after the rapture takes place. They will be judged in the flesh with the tribulation of the wrath of God along with unbeliever’s but will be saved in their spirit man to get resurrected at Christ’s second coming if they die as a martyr during the tribulation of those days. From this we can easily conclude that the phrase “your flight” in Matt 24:20 with which Jesus exhorted the believers directly points to the rapture of the Church. In other words it means Jesus was speaking about the believer’s rapture in which Jesus is wishing every believer not to be left behind on the Sabbath [i.e. the time after the rapture, on 'the day of the Lord' which will start with rapture and will continue on] or in the winter [i.e. the time in which the wrath of God will start to be poured in to the earth]. Just before describing this rapture event Jesus felt compassionate toward those who are pregnant and nursing babies in those days [i.e. when abomination of desolation starts to unfold] and expressed His concern saying how hard it will be for them to escape from Jerusalem and its surrounding regions to the mountains for rapture so that they may avoid Antichrist capturing them and killing them even before the event of rapture happens (Matt 24:19).

2) During the time of winter or Sabbath, there will be great tribulation (Matt 24:20-21; 13:18-19; Dan 12:1; Rev 12:13-14). The winter is symbolic of the gloominess of the season of tribulation (Mark 13:18-19). The Sabbath is the ‘day of rest’ for the Holy Spirit of God from the restraining activities of lawlessness like in the days of Noah, since the beginning of the world the Holy Spirit has restrained man from lawlessness and selfdestruction as a agent of God’s grace (Gen 6:3). ‘The day of the Lord’ is one in which the Church will be raptured out and the Lord God will not restrain lawlessness but will directly intervene from heaven and will punish the lawlessness of man through His wrath (1 Thess 5:2-3, 9; 2 Thess 2:7). Because of the harsh oppressive weather of tribulation wrath of God, the persecution of saints from Antichrist and the resting of the restrainer [i.e. the person of the Holy Spirit] which will start on the day of rapture [i.e. this time after rapture will be a time of God sent strong delusion in which many will be deceived in to believing Anti-christ as God because of lack of the restrainer's conviction (2 Thess 2:6-7, 11; John 16:8)], Jesus is exhorting each believer individually to pray so that their flight of rapture might happen before the tribulation wrath of God starts [i.e. during the apostasy time itself in which Antichrist will seat himself in the Holy of Holies as God]. This tribulation wrath of God and the persecution of the saints by Antichrist in response will increase day by day and until it will reach its zenith before God stops it or else no flesh on earth will be left on planet earth if the wrath of God continues. For the sake of the left behind saints [i.e. elect’s sake] surely tribulation days will be shortened. The autumn season of Apostasy will peak before this winter season of tribulation sets in. Even though Antichrist will reactively kill the saints because of the wrath of God during tribulation, even that reactive stance of the wrath of the Antichrist will praise God because he will only be fulfilling the events of God’s timetable exactly at God’s timing without him even realizing it. So only the psalmist wrote in Psalm 76:10, “Surely the wrath of man shall praise You…” In other words, human defiance only enhances God’s glory because He will always use it as a weapon to fulfill His exact purposes.

3) The great mistake that God’s people usually make is reading in to the verses of the Bible with what they already have stored in their mind regarding end-time eschatology. People say that the tribulation will start when Antichrist breaks the covenant, but there are no verses that support this view point. The Bible only says that “He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, Shall persecute [i.e. Persecution is not tribulation. Persecution against the saints by Antichrist is the only a counter effect to the wrath of God released from heaven during the set tribulation time] the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time [i.e. approximately three and half years].” (Dan 7:25). The Antichrist will break the covenant he has made, exactly after three and half years of making that covenant with the nation of Israel (Dan 9:27). What will be the content of the covenant? It will be the right for Jews to conduct temple worship [i.e. sacrifice and offering] independently once again as in the Old Testament days. Temple land will be legally authorized. Breaking of the covenant is the time from which this freedom to worship ‘Jehovah’ will be cut off by the intrusion of Antichrist in to the temple and controlling its independent event. This is the starting point of ‘abomination of desolation’ that Jesus exhorted the Messianic Jews to look for and flee immediately from Jerusalem and its surroundings to the mountains expecting the rapture to take place. When this happens, a zealous Messianic Jewish priest will suddenly get furious and thrust a sword in to Antichrist for his violation of the covenant, when he would try to take control of the temple by entering in to the Holy place. Antichrist will revive from this attack miraculously by Satan’s power through the false prophet his co-equal assistant (Rev 13:3, 14, 12). From this point of time Satan will completely take control and possess Antichrist’s body and will begin to boast that Antichrist is the incarnate son of God. After this the false prophet will do a miracle of Elijah’s magnitude which will be granted by God to do in the sight of Antichrist and will deceive the Jewish people and the world to accept the Antichrist as their Messiah and make a memorial statue to worship the image of the Antichrist which will be placed inside the Holy of Holies (Rev 13:13-14). After this event God will grant the false prophet the power to give breath to the image of Antichrist to make it speak, the image of the Antichrist will then say to the entire world to worship it or else they should be killed. In the image of the beast, Satan will literally sit and speak like a human through it as he spoke through the serpent in the Garden of Eden (Gen 3:1, 4, 14-16; 2 Cor 11:3-4; Rev 12:9), thus making the whole world to worship him which has been his desire since the fall from heaven (Rev 13:15; Is 14:12-15, 16-17). Satan always craved for worship from man so only he set his heart as the heart of a god (Ezek 28:6). He knew that he could not be like God in heaven so he planned a similar government at least in the earth so that he could receive worship from every man on earth (Matt 6:10; 4:8-9; Rev 13:15).

4) From the abomination of desolation to the starting point of tribulation from God, there will be a time gap left for all the believer’s to escape getting caught by the evil clutches of Antichrist (Matt 24:15-16, 20-22).

5) At that time the false prophet who will become as Antichrist’s assistant because of a conspiracy between them, will make fire come down from heaven and many Jews will believe him to be the coming Elijah that God had promised Israel (Malachi 4:5-6; Rev 13:13). Here Jewish people will get deceived by the false prophet because of the fire that he will make to come down from heaven as Elijah did before the worshippers of Baal in the Old Testament (1 Kings 18:36-39), thus boasting himself to be the Elijah who has come from heaven. What the Jews will fail to realize will be the fruit and direction in which the false prophet’s miracle will direct them to (Duet 13:1-5; Matt 7:15-20). Actually in this miracle God will be testing all the true Jewish believer’s and the whole world with them whether they are seeking the real God or just amusing magicians. Accepting this false prophet will eventually lead them to worship idol which Jehovah hates (Exodus 20:1-6). These Jews will be deceived by the false prophet because they would have rejected the person of the truth who is Jesus. Because of this reason they will get condemned in the delusion that God will send at the end time (2 Thess 2:9-11). Once the Jews will believe the false prophet to be the Elijah that God has sent before the Messiah’s coming, he will tell all the Jews to accept the Antichrist as their Messiah sent by God and make a statue for him and worship it, which they will eventually (John 5:43; Rev 13:14-18). The moment this manifestation happens, Antichrist will declare himself as God and will seat himself over the ark of the covenant which he will consider as his throne (2 Thess 2:3-4). This will be the time from which severe persecution of saints will start from Jerusalem and will spread around the world. This false prophet will start from the desert of Judea and will end up with the Antichrist using his authority because of a conspiracy stuck between them (Matt 24:26; Rev 13:11). The false prophet will gain the attention of Antichrist because of his great charisma to work great signs and wonders as a religious sect leader of Israel, during which the temple worship will be restored by the charismatic political world leader Antichrist (Rev 13:12-13; Matt 24:24). The false prophet will start to influence the priests of the temple during this time and will gain entry in to the temple as the so called prophet of the Highest (Luke 1:76). Because of this gelling connection between the false prophet and the Antichrist, the conspiracy for world dominion from the temple of Israel will be pursued which at that time people will expect because of the world’s need for peace and safety and Israel’s Messianic prophetic expectations (1 Thess 5:3; Luke 3:15; Mal 3:1).

These Jewish priests in the temple will play an important role in the end time events and they will hate true Christians because of the power of God manifested through their life openly through the latter rain of the end time (Rev 3:7-10; Matt 24:14). Because of this scenario they will embrace the false prophet as their hero who works similar and equally powerful signs and wonders. These temple priests and the false prophet will be driven and used as the very instrument of Satan to fulfill his wicked agenda of one world government without God as in the days of Babylon under Nimrod (Gen 11:1-9; 10:8-12). Literally this temple will be used as a synagogue of Satan (Rev 3:9). Three unclean spirits which are spirits of demons will co-ordinate the events of end time and will perform signs by possessing these three people who will be the frontline performers in their rebellion against God. They are Satan the dragon, Antichrist the beast and the False prophet. Each unclean spirit will possess them and will reside in them until the time before the battle of Armageddon (Rev 16:13-14). Once the sign of the Son of Man appears in heaven it will come out of the mouth of these three persons to gather together the kings of the earth to battle against Christ and His saintly army from heaven (Matt 24:29-30; Rev 16:14-16).

6) Once tribulation from God starts, the Antichrist will get furious against God and will steadily react to the situation by beginning to seal people with the number 666 as identification to find out the true believers. Those who receive the 666 mark on their right hands or on their foreheads will be those who would have already agreed to worship the image of the beast kept inside the temple as a memorial to Satan and his power (Rev 16:2). See Satan knows that people cannot be pressurized to worship him and bid for his purpose unless he holds the key to their economic and physical survival. This is an open manifestation of what he has done in the past behind the scenes (Rev 13:14-18; Matt 4:8-9; Ezek 28:5, 18).

7) When Jesus referred to ‘winter or Sabbath’, He was referring to the time of tribulation wrath that God will pour upon the wicked (Matt 24:20-21). He does not speak about the persecution of the saints from the Antichrist because tribulation in itself is for the wicked and not for the righteous (2 Peter 2:9). So only Jesus exhorted the left behind believers not to stop praying through the tribulation for deliverance because God will intervene and will shorten the tribulation time for the Left-behind lukewarm believer’s, so that when He will come to the earth at His second coming He will be able to see faith on earth (Matt 24:22; Luke 18:1-8). Zephaniah 1:14-18 heaps together a cluster of terms that characterize the future Day of the Lord. Verse 14 labels this time as “the great day of the Lord” and “the day of the Lord.” Then verse 15-18 describe this time with the following descriptions: “that day is a day of wrath,” “a day of trouble and distress,” “a day of wasteness and desolation,” “a day of darkness and gloominess,” “a day of clouds and thick darkness,” “a day of the trumpet and alarm,” “I will bring distress upon men,” and “the day of the Lord’s wrath.” The context supports the notion that all these expressions apply to the Day of the Lord. Thus this text plainly says that the Day of the Lord is a time of both tribulation and God’s wrath. This above verses shows clearly that the tribulation in itself is mainly God’s retribution of wrath to the wickedness of the world system of governance which runs under the direct influence of Satan and his evil cohorts.

People usually connect these two verses in Dan 7:25 and 9:27 to say that the tribulation will be there for three and half years, but it actually says that the saints will be given in to the control of Antichrist for the three and half year period. It does mean that the Antichrist may start the persecution of saints from the day one subtly. But saying that there will be three and half years of tribulation is absolutely wrong because only God orchestrates the starting time of tribulation and ending time of tribulation. The persecution of saints in reality is only a counter-effect from the Antichrist to the wrath of God which He will pour out on the wicked Antichrist and his company of earth-dwellers during tribulation. In other words, tribulation was not designed by God for the saints but for the wicked earth dwellers, as a final opportunity for them to repent (Rev 16:10). This is the reason Jesus assured for the left-behind believer’s sake “….the great tribulation….days will be shortened.” (Matt 24:21-22).

Jesus said to the believer’s to concentrate on praying for the rapture so that they as a individual might be raptured at the appointed set time before tribulation starts. This is the reason Jesus exhorted, “…pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath.” (Matt 24:20). In other words Jesus said to the believers to pray so that they as a individual may not be left behind after God starts the winter time of tribulation against Antichrist, during which Antichrist will begin to manhunt for every believer and will kill them if they will not worship his image on the face of the planet earth starting from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth (Rev 13:14-15). At what specific time the tribulation starts and ends, only God knows because Jesus said that the length of tribulation will be shortened for the left behind lukewarm believer’s sake or else nobody will be left alive on planet earth (Matt 24:21-22). In other words only God knows the set time of tribulation that he has planned in his timetable of the end time. The tribulation is a test from God to the whole humanity to find out who they will follow [i.e. whether God the creator or Satan the tyrant] (Rev 3:10).

Here we see the first sign of ‘the end’ that Jesus spoke about was the abomination of desolation referring to the book of Daniel 9:27 which says, “27 Then he [i.e. the Antichrist] shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the week [i.e. one week is equal to seven years; middle of the week is three and half years] he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, even until the consummation [i.e. War of Armageddon where Christ will defeat Antichrist and will throw in to lake of fire (Rev 16:12-16; 19:17-21)], which is determined, is poured out on the desolate.” The “abominations” will start with ‘the abomination of desolation’ in which Antichrist will put “an end” to the sacrifice and offering inside the temple. In starting this one abomination Antichrist will start a series of successive abominable events, until finally he will make the temple desolate by seating himself as God in the temple. So only the Bible says, “…on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate”. The desolation [i.e. desertion, lifelessness and barreness] of the temple will happen bit by bit until at the end Antichrist will show his real face and motive towards the nation of Israel when he will come with a global army to destroy the nation of Israel and its temple to make it desolate forever. The same abomination was clearly described by Apostle Paul in 2 Thess 2:3-4, “3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” Here what Paul says as ‘that day’ is the ‘day of Christ’ (v2) or in other words rapture (v1) which he has previously taught the Thessalonians in his first letter which he wrote. This clearly points that rapture will happen only after an apostasy of autumn season will come upon the Church to make them spotless and pure and then the son of perdition who is Antichrist will be revealed who will seat himself in the temple as God (2 Thess 2: 3-4; Eph 5:27). Some people using the name of Paul brought some false letter which said that ‘the rapture has already happened and that they were now living in the day of the Lord under the tribulation of Antichrist’. These false teachers did deceive them using the influence of some deceptive spirit influence and tried to teach them false doctrines. Many of the Thessalonians were shaken in faith totally because of this false teaching. Paul corrected their misunderstanding about the rapture timing. And then he gave them two signs about the timing of rapture or the rapture season. He said to them that the “the falling away” [i.e. comes from the root Greek word ‘apostasia’ which means ‘apostasy, defection from faith, a falling away’. The origin of this apostasy will be false prophets and false christs who will do great signs and wonders to deceive even the elect (Matt 24:24).] will come first, then secondly Antichrist will seat Himself as God in the temple of God.

Some people of God reason out that looking and understanding the time of Antichrist’s desolation of temple raises the issue of what we are to be looking for. In other words the Church should be only looking for Christ and not the signs of Antichrist. The Bible commendably shows that during David’s time in Old Testament, “…the sons of Issachar…had understanding of the times, to know what Israel [i.e. people of God] ought to do…” (1 Chronicles 12:32). O what a commendation! How much more the end time Church should know and understand the signs of the end times exactly! They believe that nowhere believers are told to watch for the appearance of the Antichrist. But the truth is Jesus Himself exhorted his end time disciples to flee from Judea [i.e. Jerusalem in which the end time Jewish temple will be situated], those people who will see ‘the abomination of desolation’ take place in the temple (Matt 24:15; Mark 13:14). They say that we are told to watch for Jesus Christ, yet it is Jesus who expected his end time disciples to understand this issue of ‘abomination of desolation’ when it will manifest. They say in Titus 2:13 Paul says we are to live “looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus.”, yet it is the same Apostle Paul who gave a detailed description about the rapture to the Thessalonian Church making them understand about the Antichrist in 2 Thess 2:1-12. Likewise they say that Peter urges us to “fix our hope completely on the grace to be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13), to that I say that it is Peter who humbly confessed that “some things [which Paul wrote in his epistles were] hard to understand” (2 Peter 3:16). They say that John similarly urges us to “fix our hope on Him” at His appearing (1 John 3:2-3), yet it is the same Apostle John who taught about a single person who will come at the end time which will be the very sign of the ticking end time clock’s final moment (1 John 2:18).

Again many people of God reason out that Matthew speaks of watching for the Antichrist (Matt. 24:15), because he is speaking to the Jews living in Israel in the middle of the Tribulation when the Antichrist desecrates the rebuilt Temple. My question to them is ‘If Matthew has written to just the Jews, why is He writing out a universal great commission at the end of it in chapter 28:19-20. If it is just Matthew it is ok at least, what about Mark 13:14 in which he wrote the same Jesus’ exhortation word to word which also ends with the great commission “…Go in to all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” (Mark 16:15). This shows that this is not written to just the Jews but for all nations and the world!

I believe that this Apostasy was the main theme of warning that Jesus gave to the believing elect to be careful of when He said “For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand.” (Matt 24:24-25). In other words Jesus is telling the end time believer’s to remember what He has already said about the apostasy of the end time and reject it.

The people who will see this abomination from Judea, Jesus is exhorting prophetically to flee to the mountains. If we ask the question why should those in Judea flee to the mountains? Because it will be a strategic time in which they will have enough time left to escape the clutches of Antichrist who will make everybody to compulsorily worship the image which He will have kept in the temple or else face death (Rev 13:4, 15). Jesus is telling the Messianic Jews to flee because it will be the time for the rapture to take place, so that they will not be caught up by Antichrist and hence be going through the torture of being killed just moments before the rapture will be taking place. If they flee to the mountains and start praying and watching because God would have already revealed them in their spirit that the Antichrist is boasting as God in the flesh, then they will be a part of the flight that escapes tribulation.

The term, Rapture, comes from a Latin word that means to catch up, to snatch away, or to take out. It is a Biblical word that comes right out of the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible. The word is found in 1 Thessalonians 4:17. In the New American Standard Version, the English phrase, “caught up,” is used. The same phrase is used in the King James and New International Versions. The Greek word used for the phrase “caught up” is ‘harpazo’ which means ‘1) to seize, carry off by force 2) to seize on, claim for one’s self eagerly 3) to snatch out or away’. This shows that at the time of rapture Christ will carry out or snatch away the Church by force out of the tribulation because Apostle Paul assured all the believers in 1 Thess 5:9-11, “9 For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. 11 Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing”. This is the reason Paul having realized that power is needed to raise up dead bodies alive again and to snatch them away wrote, “And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power.” (1 Cor 6:14).

At the same time to the unbelievers who persecute the Church Paul said in 2 Thess 1:6-10, “6 since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you, 7 and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, 8 in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, 10 when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed.” Tribulation is God’s repayment of wrath for the persecutors of the end time Church. When tribulation starts God promises rest for the persecuted end time Church which will be propagating the Gospel in all the world as a witness to all nations in spite of all persecutions from the unbeliever’s (Matt 24:14). Paul also wrote in Romans 5:9 that “we [i.e. the Church] shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him [becase Jesus will reveal Himself through His power of resurrection to the Church during the rapture].” Again Paul said in 1 Thess 1:10 that Jesus is coming to “deliver” us from God’s wrath. The next thing that Paul speaks in the preceding verse is about the “flaming fire…vengeance” which will take place at the second coming of Jesus Christ. The conclusion is, first the tribulation will be imposed upon Antichrist and his followers when he will seat himself as God in the temple at Jerusalem and after that the total annihilation of Antichrist at the second coming of Christ to this planet earth (Ezekiel 38:22-23).

b) The other sure sign which substantiates that Jesus spoke about the rapture of the Church in Matt 24:20 when He said, “…pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath.” is through the succeeding context of the second bottom-line conclusive ‘therefore’ statement of ‘the end’ theme that starts with Matt 24:26-28 – “26 Therefore if they say to you, ‘Look, He is in the desert!’ do not go out; or ‘Look, He is in the inner rooms!’ do not believe it. 27 For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 28 For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together.” There is a connecting scripture which has nearly the same word for word phrase in Luke 17:37 for the verse in Matt 24:28 which literally shows the rapture event described in the same context preceding it. Luke 17:34-37 says, “34 I tell you, in that night [i.e. in Jerusalem time zone it will be night time] there will be two men in one bed: the one will be taken and the other will be left. 35 Two women will be grinding together [i.e. evening time at a different time zone of the earth]: the one will be taken and the other left. 36 Two men will be in the field [i.e. morning time at the other time zone of the earth]: the one will be taken and the other left.” 37 And they answered and said to Him, “Where, Lord?” So He said to them, “Wherever the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together.” Comparing these above two different gospel verses which was spoken in the same end time context, we can conclude that it is pointing to the rapture of the Church of Jesus Christ. Also Jesus spoke that “the eagles will be gathered together”? If we ask the question who is He speaking about in the context of the rapture? Who are the eagles? Which body Jesus is referring to saying “Where ever the body is”? The answer is, Jesus is speaking about the resurrection of believers symbolically as eagles gathering together. The believers are identified as eagles in the Old Testament scriptures. So in other words, Where ever the bodies of the believers are, there those who waited for the day of resurrection will gather together as young eagles. Eagles are represented in the Bible for royalty, strength and flight (Matt 24:28; Luke 17:37; Ezekiel 1:10; Isaiah 40:31; Proverbs 23:5; Rev 12:14). The new resurrected body of all the believers will have royalty, strength and flight. Hence the preceding warning not to be deceived by believing the people who will tell the believers to go to the desert to see the False-Elijah the false prophet who would have just then declared the Antichrist to be as the messiah, just like John the Baptist declared Jesus in the Jordan river which was situated in the wilderness desert, at that time the believers should not believe the lie that Christ is seated in the inner room of Holy of Holies in the Temple. If the believer’s will once go to see and verify these things during that end time and believe the lie that Christ is seated in the temple, they will be deceived and will miss the rapture surely. They will be caught under the clutches of the Antichrist and will go through tribulation.

Here we need to consider certain important aspects of ‘the last sign of the end’ which will start according to Jesus with the sign of the ‘abomination of desolation’ after which the real end will start with the rapture of the Church. Both these conclusive ‘therefore’- statement in Matt 24:15 and 26 points to a single event ending. You know what it is? It is the rapture of the Church. It is not about tribulation, false prophet, Antichrist or anybody else that is projected in the end time context of the important gospel Book of Matthew chapter 24, but the revelation of Jesus Christ to the believer’s during the rapture (Matt24:27; Luke 17:24, 30; 1 John 3:2). Praise the Lord!!!

——————————————————————————

Fruit or Gifts, which is more important? 

– Part 2

By Abraham Israel

To read more of my articles please visit :  www.apostolicrevelation.blogspot.com

As we have come to understand that the development of the fruit [God-kind of character] is more important than to just excel in the gifts that God has given to every one of us. We must also understand that the gifts of God should be active in our lives perpetually in order for us to be prosperous in every area of our lives. As the Bible says in Proverbs 18:16, “A man’s gift makes room for him, and brings him before great men.” At the same time the Bible also says, “He who loves purity of heart and has grace on his lips, the king will be his friend.” (Prov 22:11). In other words, your gift will take you to a place of honor where only your love for the purity of heart can keep you in that elevated place. As Jesus Himself said in Matt 5:8, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Only experiencing the character and activity of God’s goodness, His nearness and the consciousness of His perfect destiny-purpose will keep a person with a passion for the purity of heart in this impure world. A person who loves purity of heart [i.e. development of God-kind of character in his life] will be positioned by God to be a leader and positive influence to the people in authority and governance (Genesis 39:9-10; 41:37-44; Dan 1:8-9,17,19-21; 2:45-49). Apostle Paul who was one of the greatest gifted person to live in the kingdom of God said to the Corinthian churches, “1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant: 2 You know that you were Gentiles, carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led…4 There are diversities of gifts [1 Cor 12:8-11], but the same Spirit [i.e. the Holy Spirit]. 5 There are differences of ministries [Eph 4:11], but the same Lord [i.e. the Lord Jesus Christ]. 6 And there are diversities of activities [Rom 12:3-8], but it is the same God [i.e. God the Father] who works all in all. 7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all:” (1 Cor 12:1-2,4-7). Ignorance will make the gift present within us to be dormant and will make us to be unproductive in all our ways. Next Apostle Paul was reminding the believer’s how they were powerless to oppose and act against evil spirits influence in the past but now Jesus as the Master over their lives, has given each one a particular manifestation of the Spirit for the profit of all. When the Body of Christ comes together to minister to one another in unity, there will be no lack but only prosperity in the Body of Christ. It is up to us individually to strongly, earnestly and consistently desire after His spiritual gifts (1 Cor 12:31). There are no gifts less person in the Body of Christ because as Paul reminds us “the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one”. When the Spirit manifests all the above gifts, the Church will be the most successful, prosperous, beneficial and the most profitable to all its members. So the activity of all the gifts of the Spirit should be stirred up in each church individually in order for it to be relevant and profitable in its activity.

Without the gifts of God in our lives we cannot do much of all that we are called to do for in the kingdom of God. Without the fruit of God in our lives, God will not do much of all that he has promised to us in our lives. If God empowers a person with the gifts of the Spirit who has no desire to grow in the fruit of the Spirit, he will soulishly desire to bring glory to himself and not to God who has given him the gifts (Isaiah 42:8; John 17:22; 15:7-8). This is the main reason Apostle Paul advised the Corinthian church to “Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts…” (1 Cor 14:1). Here we see Apostle Paul exhorts in the above verse, Love should be the first and foremost fruit of the Spirit which should be pursued in our lives and then we should desire to strongly excel in spiritual gifts (Galatians 5:22-23). So the first priority in every believer’s life should be to develop oneself in fruit of the Spirit and then to excel in the gifts. Both fruit and gifts are equally needed in order to bring the full plan of God for your life to fruition. The following truth is one of the most important differences between fruit and gifts. Fruit can grow only as we earnestly surrender our own will to God and strongly desire for God’s will to be fulfilled in our lives. Producing the fruit of the Spirit takes a certain period of time in every seasons of life as we work in tandem cooperation with the Spirit of God day in and day out. Fruits are developed. God-kind of character will begin to come out of our lives as we start to do good by opposing evil consciously every time a trial, temptation or tribulation comes our way (Rom 5:1-5). Gifts can be acquired when we are boiling inside us with zeal to pray, receive, learn and use it with humility and love for the profit of all (1 Cor 14:13, 31, 12, 37). Gifts are more like a onetime transaction that comes to us through laying on of the hands and various other ways according to the call of God in one’s life (1 Tim 4:14; 5:22; 2 Tim 1:6; Deut 34:9; 1 Kings 3:5-15). Gifts are imparted. Those who operate with the spiritual gifts should do in a more excellent way of love towards others or else the gifts will profit others, but it will not profit those who use it and they will have no satisfaction in operating in the gifts (1 Cor 12:31; 13:1-3). Just operating in the gifts and manifesting the Spirit without the fruit of the Spirit is very dangerous because it will surely profit others as you operate in the gifts that God has invested in you individually but on the other hand it cannot profit your own Soul and will not bring you in favor [i.e. salvation from all evil] with the Lord especially if you are personally practicing lawlessness and living in sin (1 Cor 12:7; 13:3; Matt 16:26; 7:23). Your gifts will neither give you the power to live righteously, nor will it give you the rights to enter in to the eternal life of bliss which is given as a gift based on one’s living-faith relationship with Jesus (Matt 7:21-23; James 2:26).

A person may be very gifted in variety of areas to influence others, yet if he is not exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit [i.e. God-kind of character] consistently in his life, he may not be of much use to God. A person who does not exhibit the God-kind of character in his life will not bring glory to God with the gifts that He has given to glorify Him (John 14:13; 15:7-8; 5:41; 7:18; 1 Cor 1:31). Only when you are in Him and He is in you, you can truly glory in the Lord (John 17:22-23). Those who live their life in the glory-realm of God and speak the word of God can only truly give back the glory to God because the source of their words will have their beginning from the Holy Spirit of God who will release it through their spirit-man. Any words that have their source from the soulish realm of any man will always seek his own glory (John 7:18). Always the spirit of man is God conscious, the soul is self conscious and the physical body of every man is world conscious. God desires every man to live in the glory-realm [i.e. weightiness, consciousness and nearness of God’s tangible presence] of the Spirit of God through their inner spirit man, thus making the spirit man to strongly rule over their soul and body. This is original God’s order for man to live the God-life in this planet earth.

We see in Matt 7:21-23, Jesus said, “21 Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day [the great white throne day of judgment (Rev 20:11-15; 5:24-30)], ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”. If we ask the question, were these men genuine men of God and if so how could they give prophesy, drive demons, and do many miraculous deeds and finally end up with the unbelievers in the white throne judgment? The answer is yes but at one time in their lives past or else they could have never been able to operate with the power of God using the name of Jesus (Mark 9:39). Only delegates sent by God and called by Him through believing in the name of Jesus can operate with such power. When God gifts a person He will not immediately take back the gifts that He has given even if that servant of God uses it wrongly with a motive other than for the sole glory of God. The scripture also agrees saying, “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” (Rom 11:29). Instead of judging people immediately, He will either meet them at the marriage feast of the lamb or at the judgment of nations at the beginning of the millennium rule on earth during which He will reward those who have worked for Him and bore good fruit in various degrees (Rev 19:6-9; Matt 25:31-46; 13:36-43; 13:23; 10:40-42). For those who will work for Him with wrong motives and continue in lawlessness which is practicing sin, these He will meet only at the white throne judgment (Phil 1:15-16,18; 1 John 3:4, 6, 8-10). At the same time slowly and surely He will withdraw His precious anointing from that person who continues to sin without repentance perpetually, thus crucifying again for himself the Son of God and putting Him to open shame (1 Samuel 16:13-14; Judges 16:20; Psalm 51:11; Heb 6:4-8; 10:26-31). God will wait for that person to repent for a long period of time which only He will know, if those servants who are called by God still reject the voice of God continuously, there is only a very faint hope for them to be saved from eternal destruction (2 Peter 3:9; 1 Tim 2:3-4; Heb 6:4-8; 2 Peter 2:9-10, 12-17, 20-22; Matt 24:45-51).
As discussed previously, we see in Matt 7:21-23 that those who operated powerfully in the miraculous realm were standing in the final white throne judgment and were trying to justify themselves and asking for a passage in to the kingdom of heaven [i.e. a inter-connected new heaven and a new earth under the ruler ship of God the Father (Rev 21-22; 1 Cor 15:24-28)]. These people have got deceived by rejecting the voice and the word of God (Matt 7:24-29). Because of denying the Lord and His transforming power, these have got settled in to a religious work-mode where they have started to believe that because they were doing the work of God and experience the anointing of God over their lives, God will not judge them for their wrong doing because of the grace of God over their lives and the work they had done for God in their lives (Matt 7:21-23; 1 Tim 3:1,5-7; Jude 4; Rev 20:11-15). These people must have at one time must have been good men who must have started to reject the voice and the word of God by beginning to sin habitually and practice it without repentance. As they continue to do such things without godly sorrow, their very motive for doing the ministry will be driven for the fulfillment of the flesh (2 Cor 7:10; Gal 5:19-21). This is the time in which they will harden their hearts knowingly and these wrong decisions will lead them still further in to the mire of lawlessness, out of which it is impossible for them to come out and it will surely lead them to death eternally (1 John 5:16-17; Heb 12:16-17; Matt 27:3-5). Jesus told these people in Matt 7:23 “…I never knew you…” because they did not follow His voice and instead heard and followed the voice of Satan and his demons [i.e. strangers and enemies inside the kingdom of God] by practicing lawlessness in their personal lives (John 10:3-6; 1 Thess 4:3-8).

What we are is God’s gift to us (Eph 2:8; 1 Cor 15:10; Galatians 2:8-9), what we become is our gift to God (Rom 12:1; Matt 25:20,22; Rom 8:29). What we are is the gifts that God has invested in everyone of our lives, but what we become is the outcome of the fruit of the Spirit that we develop by letting God to work and live in through us day in and day out (Phil 2:13; 1:6). The reward that we will receive from God in the present and in the future will be determined based on the motivation with which we work. The Bible says that the motive of every man in doing anything for God and His kingdom cannot be know by anybody other than the spirit of man which is in the innermost being of every human (1 Cor 2:11). God judges everyman not by outward appearances [i.e. the physical appearances and activitives we do] but by the motives in the spirit of every man, and next to the spirit of man only God knows the motives of each human heart (1 Samuel 16:7; Ps 7:9,11-13). The work that we do for God will be tested by the fire of God’s word in the Judgment for salvation before we will receive the eternal glorious reward for it from God (1 Cor 3:13-15; Jer 23:29; Heb 9:26-28). God will check how much of work a believer has done by His own strength and zeal, how much of work he has done by the strength of God for His glory in obedience to His voice and reward each one according to it (2 Cor 12:7-10). At the same time those people who serve God with ulterior motives practicing lawlessness will not stand in the judgment of the righteous which will happen during the marriage supper of the lamb (Ps 1:5; Rev 19:7-9), these people will be judged only at the end of the millennium at the white throne judgment (Rev 20:11-15).

For example Judas was a man who was truly called by God to be one of the twelve apostles. Some people think that because Judas fulfilled the prophecies in the Old Testament regarding the Messiah, they think that Judas was pre-destined with fate to die as a traitor (Ps 41:9; 109:8). But the Bible nowhere gives a picture like this. Instead it says, “15 And in those days [i.e. after Christ’s ascension and before the day of Pentecost] Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples

(altogether the number of names was about a hundred and twenty), and said, 16 “Men and brethren, this Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke before by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus; 17 for he was numbered with us and obtained a part in this ministry.” 18 (Now this man purchased a field with the wages of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his entrails gushed out. 19 And it became known to all those dwelling in Jerusalem; so that field is called in their own language, Akel Dama, that is, Field of Blood.) 20 “For it is written in the Book of Psalms:‘ Let his dwelling place be desolate, And let no one live in it’; and, ‘ Let another take his office.’ …… 24 And they prayed and said, “You, O Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which of these two You have chosen 25 to take part in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.” Here we see a lot of lessons to be learned regarding the life of Judas. The first underline in the preceding verses says “…the Holy Spirit spoke before by the mouth of David concerning Judas…” A lot of people misinterpret this line saying this shows that Judas was predestined to hell. In fact Jesus called and chose all the apostles at the beginning of His ministry, men who in the natural soulish way without Him all these were destined to Hell (Luke 6:12-16; Rom 3:23-26). These people who think wrongly about predestination and the unavoidable fulfillment of fate of Judas must read the scripture after this line and should the read the most important word ‘became’,“…Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus….”. This shows that initially Judas was as originally called to the apostolic ministry as any other eleven apostles, but he became a traitor. As an apostle He not only flowed with all the gifts of the Spirit and drove demons, cured diseases, preaching the gospel and healed the sick as any other apostles did, but he was also a gifted financial administrator who had the control over all the offering and contribution that was given to support the apostolic ministry of Jesus and His disciples (Luke 9:1-2,6; 8:1-3; 9:1-2,6,10). Judas is in fact a wonderful example for those people who tried for an entry in to the kingdom of heaven by their great spiritual works in Matt 7:21-23 at the white throne final judgment of the whole world. These men also were initially called and gifted with mighty ministry gifts [i.e. apostles, prophets, teacher… (Eph 4:11; 1 Cor 12:27-31)]. Yet somewhere down the line in their ministry life they began to be deceived in to thinking that their ministry works done for God using His name by delegated authority will give them a sure place in the kingdom of God. Because of this deceptive pattern of thinking these men of God began to practice sin and lawlessness as their way of life and began to nurture wrong motives in their spirit man as Judas, and deteriorated with the wrong motives until their final doomsday when Satan completely entered them and controlled them fully to fulfill his evil purposes to make them doomed forever (John 13:21-30; 12:3-6; Matt 7:23; Rom 6:16). This deception happened to these people because of neglecting to do the word which they professed and heard (Matt 7:24-27; 2 Tim 3:1-5). This is the greatest deception that is still today destroying many genuine ministries.  

To read more of my articles, go to : www.apostolicrevelation.blogspot.com 

Fruit or Gifts, which is more important? –

 Part 1

By Abraham Israel

 

 

Both the fruit and gifts that we receive from God are given through the chief executive agent of heaven who is the Holy Spirit of God. In other words without the Spirit of God you cannot experience either the fruit or the gifts which comes from God the Father who is the source of all good things (James 1:17). This is the reason the Bible calls these things ‘fruit of the Spirit’ and ‘manifestation [gifts] of the Spirit’ (Gal 5:22; 1 Cor 12:4-11). The other meaning of ‘fruit’ in this context is ‘the pleasant or successful result of work or actions’. There must be somebody working in us 24/7/365 to produce all the pleasant and successful actions in our soulish realm. That somebody is the person of the Holy Spirit who works all these successful actions in us. We don’t have to strive to produce these works; we just have to be attached to Jesus in Heaven through the Holy Spirit who connects us in the now-realm of time (John 15:5). Jesus directly works from heaven to produce these works in us through the Holy Spirit (Eph 2:18; Mark 16:19-20; John 14:13-14). These varieties of successful actions or work by the Holy Spirit in our soul are listed in Galatians 5:22-23 as, “…love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…” If we are experiencing these works in our lives because of the God-connection we have through the Holy Spirit, it shows that we are living in the glorious realm of God’s Kingdom (Rom 14:17). This is the type of works or outward evidence of the inward work of God that Apostle James demanded from those who professed themselves of having faith (James 2:15-16, 21,25). He in fact said to them “….faith without works [i.e. fruit or character of God in manifestation] is dead…” (James 2:26). The works described here in the above verse is God’s character manifestation in us because of whole heartedly yielding our will to Him by His strength. It also means ‘the actions we do in obedience to His voice even though it might be dangerous or risky to our natural soulish mind, just by depending on the goodness of God’.

These fruit of the Spirit which we have seen is the very essence and character of God. In other words, as you allow God to control your soul more and more, His purity and holiness will begin to manifest through your life as His child. Just as a child in the natural world develops its character when it grows under the guidance and discipline of its father, we too as God’s children are disciplined and guided by God (John 1:12), so that all these above character of the Father God will begin to manifest in us (Heb 12:9-11). When the child grows up to be an adult it will begin to be a reflection of its father’s character (John 14:9). This fruit of God’s character that you bring forth in your life will only bring true glory to God and only this quality will make you inherit as much of God’s property of wealth both in the now and future realm (John 15:8; Rev 21:7). These fruit cannot be seen in an instant. Does a baby child grow to become a mature adult in a day? The baby grows under the comforting care of its mother and the discipline of its father for years constantly until it becomes a mature adult. In the same way these fruit will grow in us as we work together with Jesus [Jesus is metaphorically describing this relationship of believer’s life to Himself with a vine branch [i.e. believer] attached to a main stem [i.e. Jesus Himself] which is the reason for the production of fruit in the branches. Jesus also speaks and emphasizes this growth attachment of the believer’s life to Himself using the word ‘abides’. “…He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit…” (John 15:5). The Greek root word for ‘abide’ is ‘meno’ which means ‘to remain, abide a) in reference to place { to sojourn, tarry, not to depart, to continue to be present , to be held, kept, continually } b) in reference to time { to continue to be, not to perish, to last, endure, of persons – to survive, live} c) in reference to state or condition {to remain as one, not to become another or different, to wait for, await one}’. This word ‘abide’ points to a continuing living relationship of the believer with Jesus like the disciples had relationship with Jesus two thousand years ago when He was present on the earth. Just as a branch grows when the sap flows in to it giving it life and vitality, the words of Jesus spoken to our hearts personally from heaven will invigorate us with the fresh life and energy of God, cleansing us from all impurities constantly (John 15:3; Heb 12:24-25)] under the comforting care of the Holy Spirit (John 14:26; Acts 9:31) and the discipline of God the Father (Heb 12:9,10) on a day to day basis for years together until we really become as a mature spiritual adult or son of God. The more we will yield our life to Him willingly, the faster we will grow and become as the sons of God.

We must not forget that the devil is also waging war against our soul 24/7/365 to destroy it completely though fleshly lusts, if we give space to him by not abstaining from it (1 Peter 2:11; John 10:10). These fleshly lusts which are demonic seeds when conceived through us will produce fleshly fruit, which will be bad in its taste and characteristics. If we yield our will to the earthly, sensual and demonic suggestion’s and let it influence our soul rather than be guided by the Spirit of God who resides in our inner spirit man intentionally and in a perpetual manner, we will soon be set in the pathway of the eternal destruction of our soul (James 3:14-16; Galatians 5:19-21). This is the essence of the message that Apostle Paul reminded the Corinthian believer’s who were playing with sin carelessly by exhorting them saying, “Do you not know that the unrighteous [i.e. those who willfully enjoy and practice sinning (Is 55:7)] will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals [i.e. of a male who submits his body to unnatural lewdness], nor sodomites [i.e. homosexuals and lesbians (Rom 1:26-27)], nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Cor 6:9-11). In the above verses, the literal Greek word for the English word ‘unrighteous’ is ‘adikos’ [pronounced ä'-dē-kos (Key)

] which means ‘descriptive of one who violates or has violated justice and is unjust, unrighteous, sinful, of one who deals fraudulently with others, deceitful’. This clearly describes a person who knowingly, intentionally and deceitfully practices and continues in sin, without a least bit of repentance, regret, remorse or godly sorrow for doing it. In other words Apostle Paul was saying to these sinning believers, ‘Let not the devil deceive you to sin habitually and willfully by saying that God will look over your sin even if you continue sinning. Instead know you were washed from all sin when Jesus was baptized taking all your sin upon Himself, making you free from the guilt of sin and because of Jesus, God has declared you to be righteous.’
 

 

 

 

From the above clear exposition, we see that God has freed us from evil and sin to help us live victorious lives and not to be again entangled in sin which is a bondage which leads to death spiritually, soulishly and physically (Gal 5:1). This is the reason Paul also asked the Roman believer’s this question, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” (Rom 6:1-2). In other words a true believer in Christ will hate to continue in sin because he cannot sin without restraint. The soul will feel convicted because of the guilt that will come to him from his spirit man the moment he sins (1 John 3:9; John 16:7-11). Guilt is a God-given natural mechanism that will make us and nudge us to confess the wrong things we do to God immediately, thus making us feel accountable to God (Deut 19:13). God is not mocked if a person decides to walk intentionally in sin by his own wrong willful recurring choices, because he is already deceived in to thinking that God does not care even if he sins intentionally (Gal 6:7). The enemy, who supplies those evil thought seeds to that person, will surely come to harvest it after a period of his deceitful lullaby is over. He will have absolute rights over that person at that time because it is his evil seed that has come to fruition harvest. After that time that sinning person will be used as a pawn by Satan to fulfill his wicked destructive intention from which that person cannot come out like Judas was, until he finally died in his wickedness (Matt 13:24-30;13:36-43; John 12:3-8; 13:21-30; Matt 27:3-10). Those who knowingly sow their strength, money, talent and time to the flesh “…will of the flesh reap corruption…” (Galatians 6:8). The corruption reaped in that sinning person’s life will be manifested openly during the harvest season, which will bring disgrace to him, his family and to the God whom he had professed, unless and until he humbles himself before God and repents by the mercies of God. “…Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Gal 5:19-21). Sin is like a deadly poisonous serpent which will bite and inject its deadly venom in to the body of those who play with it thinking that it is harmless as long as they handle it rightly and will cause them to die one day suddenly.

Christianity is not a religion to just profess with one’s mouth, it is a relationship that needs to be continued in order to inherit the kingdom of our Heavenly Father. This relationship with God the Father will grow in greater intimacy as we receive more and more of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. God has pre-planned a kingdom for his children who will rule over the earth in the future as the spiritual replicas of Himself who is ruling over the heavens and the highest heaven (Ps 115:16; Luke 12:32). So only when the rich young ruler asked Jesus, “16 …Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have [i.e. inherit (Mark 10:17)] eternal life?” (Matt 19:16). Jesus answered to him saying “….Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is God…” (Verse17). Jesus in other words told to him that we cannot be good and perfect unless we become the Heavenly Father’s children. And then Jesus pointed him to keep the commandments. When he again asked Jesus, “…Which ones?”. Jesus did not immediately point him to the vertical commandment of loving God which is the first and the greatest commandment which fulfills all commandments. Instead Jesus pointed to the horizontal commandments of loving his fellow men because Jesus wanted the young man to understand his inability to fulfill God’s commandments based on his own religious workings apart from God’s strength. Jesus wanted the rich young ruler to also understand that only with a relationship with God as His children, he will be able to inherit the kingdom of God and its power to do good things (Luke 10:25-28; 12:30-34; 11:20; Acts 10:38). Jesus pointed this rich young ruler towards horizontal commandments [i.e. vertical commandments (Man towards God) => loving God with all its related commandments, horizontal commandments (Man towards Man) => loving man with all its related commandments] because his deceptive wrong thinking was trying to do things for God rather than be in love with God as a loving Father. Actually Jesus knew that this young man’s heart was not in love with God and instead he loved his riches more than God (Matt 19:21-22; 6:19-21).

This young ruler was trying to justify himself and his thirst for God’s eternal life within him with his wrong thinking and religious pious life of doing for God. He knew in his heart that he was missing God inside him despite his strictly religious life from his childhood. He has become blinded to the truth that man can only have relationship with God as his children, because of his covetous heart attitude which blinded his view of God. When this young rich ruler somehow wanted to justify himself he said to Jesus, “All these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?” 21 Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect [(Matt 5:58; 6:9-13)], go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” 22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions” (Matt 19:20-22). Only perfect people can enter the kingdom of God. Those who have received Jesus Christ in to their hearts as their Lord [One Master (Matt 6:24)] and Savior of their life, and follow Jesus everyday are those who are considered as perfect by God because of a divine exchange of substitution that happened at the baptism of Jesus and got culminated at the cross. These are the people who will really love God in spite of the circumstances and the hardship they go through in their daily lives as the members of the family of God (Matt 19:23-30). Those guys who are truly living a religious life with riches have the last and least probability of getting qualified in the kingdom of God because of their utter dependence on their wealth and doings rather than in God. But with God working with them in their lives, it is possible for them to change their attitude towards God even being rich, but only if they seek after God (Matt 19:23-26; 6:31-33).

Only a true son or a daughter can inherit his father’s property in the future (Rom 8:14, 19; Gal 4:1-7). It is also the same with God. Heaven, salvation and its benefits cannot be earned because it is God’s property that can only be inherited [Note: Cannot be earned by working our way which always demands wages to those who have worked]. To inherit is to be legally born in a family or be adopted in to a family and then develop in the same characteristics of the Father of the house and become pleasing to him so that at the end because of his own benevolence he will give his property to his children as he wills. In the same way we can only inherit [Note: not earn our way as though God in indebted to us] the kingdom of God because Father God has only a family and not a religion. So only as the Bible says, We have been adopted in to the Heavenly Father’s family and He expects us to grow in His likeness so that at the end, he will reward us with his property which is the kingdom of God which will be established in the future (Rom 8:14-17,29-30; Matt 25:34). Jesus was the first person who exhibited the perfect character of the Heavenly Father on earth for us to follow after Him and be like Him in the family of God (John 14:9-11; 17:20-23; Rom 8:29; Heb 2:10-11). Jesus became like us humans physically [i.e. the image of the man of the dust] so that we can become like Him spiritually [i.e. the image of the heavenly Man] (Heb 2:17-18; Phil 2:5-11; Eph 2:5-6; 1 Cor 15:42-49). In other words Jesus put upon Himself an earth suit of dust so that we may be able to wear a heavenly suit of revived, God-connected dominion-spirit inside of us. This is the reason that the character of our Heavenly Father must be lived out by us essentially rather to just serve Him with the gifts [i.e. possessions] which He has given us. It is the Father’s character genes in us which gives us the right to enter His home in heaven as His very own child (Luke 15:11-32). To be separated [i.e. dead v32] away from our Heavenly Father symbolically represents those of us who practice sinning which God hates which is the state of the Heavenly Father’s Lost son before he was found alive, and those of us who live with the heart attitude of repentance everyday are those who are the once lost son who are found and are alive again (Luke 15:32; I John 3:9). The repentant son of God will not again go in to the sinning mode of life rejecting all the restraint of the restrainer who is the Holy Spirit of God (Ezekiel 36:27; 1 John 3:6-8; Gen 6:3; 2 Thess 2:7), leaving the Heavenly Father again who hates sin but loves the sinner (Isaiah 59:2).
    

The repentant sons who have returned to the Father God will start to hate sin and will start to love their Heavenly Father’s character (Prov 8:13; 14:2; 2 Cor 6:16-18). One has to start loving the head of the family and his loving character in order to continue in the adopted family which the father runs and provides. We too as the sons of our Heavenly Father need to train ourselves to love our Father’s character of righteousness and hate soulish evil, wickedness and lawlessness of Satan which He hates (Heb 1:9; 1 John 3:4,8). In this way, loving the character of our Heavenly Father and letting it out of our spirit to influence our soul is more important than using his gifts [i.e. gifts of physical, soulish and spiritual ability] and possessions that He has given. As we see that this character of our Heavenly Father is supplied by the Spirit of the Father who lives in us (James 1:17; 3:17-18; Matt 10:20). This is why the most essential thing in the life of a believer as a part of God the Father’s family is to bring forth the fruit of the Spirit for the glory of God the Father. This is the reason Jesus emphasized that He as the keeper of the vineyard of God revealed that God has come seeking through Him for fruit [Note: God distributed gifts of sustenance and nourishment for the growth of the tree though Jesus, but was seeking for fruit in return] in the nation of Israel (Luke 13:6-9). When God did not find fruit till the end of the ministry of Jesus, the nation of Israel got symbolically cursed by God through Jesus for not at all bearing fruit by rejecting Jesus as their Savior and Messiah (Mark 21:18-22, 42-43). In the same vein Jesus emphasized the need for fruit in John 15: 1-2, 5-8 saying, “1 I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit….4 As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me…5 He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.” When we abide or dwell in the words of Jesus, we will bear much fruit. As the followers of Jesus, only when we bear much fruit, our Father is glorified. The branch [i.e. believer] that does not bear fruit, God the Father takes it away from the Vine and he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they [i.e. angels of God (Matt 13:40-42)] gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned (Matt 7:17-20). Every branch that bears fruit Father God will prune and cut it further. In other words the person who is obedient to God may find the going tough in His spiritual journey. But the tough goings will be working together for good in the life of a God-lover because he is called by God according to His purpose (Rom 8:28). As a true Father corrects his children in the natural world for his good so does Our Heavenly Father will allow trials in the life of His obedient children for building them up further spiritually (Heb 12:4-11). This will bring forth still much fruit in the lives of the sons of God. So we come to the conclusion that fruit bearing [i.e. God-kind of character development] in each person’s life is more important than the manifestation of gifts through their ministry in the Body of Christ. Praise the Lord! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christianity is not a religion to just profess with one’s mouth, it is a relationship that needs to be continued in order to inherit the kingdom of our Heavenly Father. This relationship with God the Father will grow in greater intimacy as we receive more and more of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. God has pre-planned a kingdom for his children who will rule over the earth in the future as the spiritual replicas of Himself who is ruling over the heavens and the highest heaven (Ps 115:16; Luke 12:32). So only when the rich young ruler asked Jesus, “16 …Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have [i.e. inherit (Mark 10:17)] eternal life?” (Matt 19:16). Jesus answered to him saying “….Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is God…” (Verse17). Jesus in other words told to him that we cannot be good and perfect unless we become the Heavenly Father’s children. And then Jesus pointed him to keep the commandments. When he again asked Jesus, “…Which ones?”. Jesus did not immediately point him to the vertical commandment of loving God which is the first and the greatest commandment which fulfills all commandments. Instead Jesus pointed to the horizontal commandments of loving his fellow men because Jesus wanted the young man to understand his inability to fulfill God’s commandments based on his own religious workings apart from God’s strength. Jesus wanted the rich young ruler to also understand that only with a relationship with God as His children, he will be able to inherit the kingdom of God and its power to do good things (Luke 10:25-28; 12:30-34; 11:20; Acts 10:38). Jesus pointed this rich young ruler towards horizontal commandments [i.e. vertical commandments (Man towards God) => loving God with all its related commandments, horizontal commandments (Man towards Man) => loving man with all its related commandments] because his deceptive wrong thinking was trying to do things for God rather than be in love with God as a loving Father. Actually Jesus knew that this young man’s heart was not in love with God and instead he loved his riches more than God (Matt 19:21-22; 6:19-21).

This young ruler was trying to justify himself and his thirst for God’s eternal life within him with his wrong thinking and religious pious life of doing for God. He knew in his heart that he was missing God inside him despite his strictly religious life from his childhood. He has become blinded to the truth that man can only have relationship with God as his children, because of his covetous heart attitude which blinded his view of God. When this young rich ruler somehow wanted to justify himself he said to Jesus, “All these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?” 21 Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect [(Matt 5:58; 6:9-13)], go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” 22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions” (Matt 19:20-22). Only perfect people can enter the kingdom of God. Those who have received Jesus Christ in to their hearts as their Lord [One Master (Matt 6:24)] and Savior of their life, and follow Jesus everyday are those who are considered as perfect by God because of a divine exchange of substitution that happened at the baptism of Jesus and got culminated at the cross. These are the people who will really love God in spite of the circumstances and the hardship they go through in their daily lives as the members of the family of God (Matt 19:23-30). Those guys who are truly living a religious life with riches have the last and least probability of getting qualified in the kingdom of God because of their utter dependence on their wealth and doings rather than in God. But with God working with them in their lives, it is possible for them to change their attitude towards God even being rich, but only if they seek after God (Matt 19:23-26; 6:31-33).

Only a true son or a daughter can inherit his father’s property in the future (Rom 8:14, 19; Gal 4:1-7). It is also the same with God. Heaven, salvation and its benefits cannot be earned because it is God’s property that can only be inherited [Note: Cannot be earned by working our way which always demands wages to those who have worked]. To inherit is to be legally born in a family or be adopted in to a family and then develop in the same characteristics of the Father of the house and become pleasing to him so that at the end because of his own benevolence he will give his property to his children as he wills. In the same way we can only inherit [Note: not earn our way as though God in indebted to us] the kingdom of God because Father God has only a family and not a religion. So only as the Bible says, We have been adopted in to the Heavenly Father’s family and He expects us to grow in His likeness so that at the end, he will reward us with his property which is the kingdom of God which will be established in the future (Rom 8:14-17,29-30; Matt 25:34). Jesus was the first person who exhibited the perfect character of the Heavenly Father on earth for us to follow after Him and be like Him in the family of God (John 14:9-11; 17:20-23; Rom 8:29; Heb 2:10-11). Jesus became like us humans physically [i.e. the image of the man of the dust] so that we can become like Him spiritually [i.e. the image of the heavenly Man] (Heb 2:17-18; Phil 2:5-11; Eph 2:5-6; 1 Cor 15:42-49). In other words Jesus put upon Himself an earth suit of dust so that we may be able to wear a heavenly suit of revived, God-connected dominion-spirit inside of us. This is the reason that the character of our Heavenly Father must be lived out by us essentially rather to just serve Him with the gifts [i.e. possessions] which He has given us. It is the Father’s character genes in us which gives us the right to enter His home in heaven as His very own child (Luke 15:11-32). To be separated [i.e. dead v32] away from our Heavenly Father symbolically represents those of us who practice sinning which God hates which is the state of the Heavenly Father’s Lost son before he was found alive, and those of us who live with the heart attitude of repentance everyday are those who are the once lost son who are found and are alive again (Luke 15:32; I John 3:9). The repentant son of God will not again go in to the sinning mode of life rejecting all the restraint of the restrainer who is the Holy Spirit of God (Ezekiel 36:27; 1 John 3:6-8; Gen 6:3; 2 Thess 2:7), leaving the Heavenly Father again who hates sin but loves the sinner (Isaiah 59:2).
    

The repentant sons who have returned to the Father God will start to hate sin and will start to love their Heavenly Father’s character (Prov 8:13; 14:2; 2 Cor 6:16-18). One has to start loving the head of the family and his loving character in order to continue in the adopted family which the father runs and provides. We too as the sons of our Heavenly Father need to train ourselves to love our Father’s character of righteousness and hate soulish evil, wickedness and lawlessness of Satan which He hates (Heb 1:9; 1 John 3:4,8). In this way, loving the character of our Heavenly Father and letting it out of our spirit to influence our soul is more important than using his gifts [i.e. gifts of physical, soulish and spiritual ability] and possessions that He has given. As we see that this character of our Heavenly Father is supplied by the Spirit of the Father who lives in us (James 1:17; 3:17-18; Matt 10:20). This is why the most essential thing in the life of a believer as a part of God the Father’s family is to bring forth the fruit of the Spirit for the glory of God the Father. This is the reason Jesus emphasized that He as the keeper of the vineyard of God revealed that God has come seeking through Him for fruit [Note: God distributed gifts of sustenance and nourishment for the growth of the tree though Jesus, but was seeking for fruit in return] in the nation of Israel (Luke 13:6-9). When God did not find fruit till the end of the ministry of Jesus, the nation of Israel got symbolically cursed by God through Jesus for not at all bearing fruit by rejecting Jesus as their Savior and Messiah (Mark 21:18-22, 42-43). In the same vein Jesus emphasized the need for fruit in John 15: 1-2, 5-8 saying, “1 I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit….4 As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me…5 He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.” When we abide or dwell in the words of Jesus, we will bear much fruit. As the followers of Jesus, only when we bear much fruit, our Father is glorified. The branch [i.e. believer] that does not bear fruit, God the Father takes it away from the Vine and he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they [i.e. angels of God (Matt 13:40-42)] gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned (Matt 7:17-20). Every branch that bears fruit Father God will prune and cut it further. In other words the person who is obedient to God may find the going tough in His spiritual journey. But the tough goings will be working together for good in the life of a God-lover because he is called by God according to His purpose (Rom 8:28). As a true Father corrects his children in the natural world for his good so does Our Heavenly Father will allow trials in the life of His obedient children for building them up further spiritually (Heb 12:4-11). This will bring forth still much fruit in the lives of the sons of God. So we come to the conclusion that fruit bearing [i.e. God-kind of character development] in each person’s life is more important than the manifestation of gifts through their ministry in the Body of Christ. Praise the Lord! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We must not forget that the devil is also waging war against our soul 24/7/365 to destroy it completely though fleshly lusts, if we give space to him by not abstaining from it (1 Peter 2:11; John 10:10). These fleshly lusts which are demonic seeds when conceived through us will produce fleshly fruit, which will be bad in its taste and characteristics. If we yield our will to the earthly, sensual and demonic suggestion’s and let it influence our soul rather than be guided by the Spirit of God who resides in our inner spirit man intentionally and in a perpetual manner, we will soon be set in the pathway of the eternal destruction of our soul (James 3:14-16; Galatians 5:19-21). This is the essence of the message that Apostle Paul reminded the Corinthian believer’s who were playing with sin carelessly by exhorting them saying, “Do you not know that the unrighteous [i.e. those who willfully enjoy and practice sinning (Is 55:7)] will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals [i.e. of a male who submits his body to unnatural lewdness], nor sodomites [i.e. homosexuals and lesbians (Rom 1:26-27)], nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Cor 6:9-11). In the above verses, the literal Greek word for the English word ‘unrighteous’ is ‘adikos’ [pronounced ä'-dē-kos (Key)

] which means ‘descriptive of one who violates or has violated justice and is unjust, unrighteous, sinful, of one who deals fraudulently with others, deceitful’. This clearly describes a person who knowingly, intentionally and deceitfully practices and continues in sin, without a least bit of repentance, regret, remorse or godly sorrow for doing it. In other words Apostle Paul was saying to these sinning believers, ‘Let not the devil deceive you to sin habitually and willfully by saying that God will look over your sin even if you continue sinning. Instead know you were washed from all sin when Jesus was baptized taking all your sin upon Himself, making you free from the guilt of sin and because of Jesus, God has declared you to be righteous.’
 

 

 

 

From the above clear exposition, we see that God has freed us from evil and sin to help us live victorious lives and not to be again entangled in sin which is a bondage which leads to death spiritually, soulishly and physically (Gal 5:1). This is the reason Paul also asked the Roman believer’s this question, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” (Rom 6:1-2). In other words a true believer in Christ will hate to continue in sin because he cannot sin without restraint. The soul will feel convicted because of the guilt that will come to him from his spirit man the moment he sins (1 John 3:9; John 16:7-11). Guilt is a God-given natural mechanism that will make us and nudge us to confess the wrong things we do to God immediately, thus making us feel accountable to God (Deut 19:13). God is not mocked if a person decides to walk intentionally in sin by his own wrong willful recurring choices, because he is already deceived in to thinking that God does not care even if he sins intentionally (Gal 6:7). The enemy, who supplies those evil thought seeds to that person, will surely come to harvest it after a period of his deceitful lullaby is over. He will have absolute rights over that person at that time because it is his evil seed that has come to fruition harvest. After that time that sinning person will be used as a pawn by Satan to fulfill his wicked destructive intention from which that person cannot come out like Judas was, until he finally died in his wickedness (Matt 13:24-30;13:36-43; John 12:3-8; 13:21-30; Matt 27:3-10). Those who knowingly sow their strength, money, talent and time to the flesh “…will of the flesh reap corruption…” (Galatians 6:8). The corruption reaped in that sinning person’s life will be manifested openly during the harvest season, which will bring disgrace to him, his family and to the God whom he had professed, unless and until he humbles himself before God and repents by the mercies of God. “…Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Gal 5:19-21). Sin is like a deadly poisonous serpent which will bite and inject its deadly venom in to the body of those who play with it thinking that it is harmless as long as they handle it rightly and will cause them to die one day suddenly.

Christianity is not a religion to just profess with one’s mouth, it is a relationship that needs to be continued in order to inherit the kingdom of our Heavenly Father. This relationship with God the Father will grow in greater intimacy as we receive more and more of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. God has pre-planned a kingdom for his children who will rule over the earth in the future as the spiritual replicas of Himself who is ruling over the heavens and the highest heaven (Ps 115:16; Luke 12:32). So only when the rich young ruler asked Jesus, “16 …Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have [i.e. inherit (Mark 10:17)] eternal life?” (Matt 19:16). Jesus answered to him saying “….Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is God…” (Verse17). Jesus in other words told to him that we cannot be good and perfect unless we become the Heavenly Father’s children. And then Jesus pointed him to keep the commandments. When he again asked Jesus, “…Which ones?”. Jesus did not immediately point him to the vertical commandment of loving God which is the first and the greatest commandment which fulfills all commandments. Instead Jesus pointed to the horizontal commandments of loving his fellow men because Jesus wanted the young man to understand his inability to fulfill God’s commandments based on his own religious workings apart from God’s strength. Jesus wanted the rich young ruler to also understand that only with a relationship with God as His children, he will be able to inherit the kingdom of God and its power to do good things (Luke 10:25-28; 12:30-34; 11:20; Acts 10:38). Jesus pointed this rich young ruler towards horizontal commandments [i.e. vertical commandments (Man towards God) => loving God with all its related commandments, horizontal commandments (Man towards Man) => loving man with all its related commandments] because his deceptive wrong thinking was trying to do things for God rather than be in love with God as a loving Father. Actually Jesus knew that this young man’s heart was not in love with God and instead he loved his riches more than God (Matt 19:21-22; 6:19-21).

This young ruler was trying to justify himself and his thirst for God’s eternal life within him with his wrong thinking and religious pious life of doing for God. He knew in his heart that he was missing God inside him despite his strictly religious life from his childhood. He has become blinded to the truth that man can only have relationship with God as his children, because of his covetous heart attitude which blinded his view of God. When this young rich ruler somehow wanted to justify himself he said to Jesus, “All these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?” 21 Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect [(Matt 5:58; 6:9-13)], go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” 22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions” (Matt 19:20-22). Only perfect people can enter the kingdom of God. Those who have received Jesus Christ in to their hearts as their Lord [One Master (Matt 6:24)] and Savior of their life, and follow Jesus everyday are those who are considered as perfect by God because of a divine exchange of substitution that happened at the baptism of Jesus and got culminated at the cross. These are the people who will really love God in spite of the circumstances and the hardship they go through in their daily lives as the members of the family of God (Matt 19:23-30). Those guys who are truly living a religious life with riches have the last and least probability of getting qualified in the kingdom of God because of their utter dependence on their wealth and doings rather than in God. But with God working with them in their lives, it is possible for them to change their attitude towards God even being rich, but only if they seek after God (Matt 19:23-26; 6:31-33).

Only a true son or a daughter can inherit his father’s property in the future (Rom 8:14, 19; Gal 4:1-7). It is also the same with God. Heaven, salvation and its benefits cannot be earned because it is God’s property that can only be inherited [Note: Cannot be earned by working our way which always demands wages to those who have worked]. To inherit is to be legally born in a family or be adopted in to a family and then develop in the same characteristics of the Father of the house and become pleasing to him so that at the end because of his own benevolence he will give his property to his children as he wills. In the same way we can only inherit [Note: not earn our way as though God in indebted to us] the kingdom of God because Father God has only a family and not a religion. So only as the Bible says, We have been adopted in to the Heavenly Father’s family and He expects us to grow in His likeness so that at the end, he will reward us with his property which is the kingdom of God which will be established in the future (Rom 8:14-17,29-30; Matt 25:34). Jesus was the first person who exhibited the perfect character of the Heavenly Father on earth for us to follow after Him and be like Him in the family of God (John 14:9-11; 17:20-23; Rom 8:29; Heb 2:10-11). Jesus became like us humans physically [i.e. the image of the man of the dust] so that we can become like Him spiritually [i.e. the image of the heavenly Man] (Heb 2:17-18; Phil 2:5-11; Eph 2:5-6; 1 Cor 15:42-49). In other words Jesus put upon Himself an earth suit of dust so that we may be able to wear a heavenly suit of revived, God-connected dominion-spirit inside of us. This is the reason that the character of our Heavenly Father must be lived out by us essentially rather to just serve Him with the gifts [i.e. possessions] which He has given us. It is the Father’s character genes in us which gives us the right to enter His home in heaven as His very own child (Luke 15:11-32). To be separated [i.e. dead v32] away from our Heavenly Father symbolically represents those of us who practice sinning which God hates which is the state of the Heavenly Father’s Lost son before he was found alive, and those of us who live with the heart attitude of repentance everyday are those who are the once lost son who are found and are alive again (Luke 15:32; I John 3:9). The repentant son of God will not again go in to the sinning mode of life rejecting all the restraint of the restrainer who is the Holy Spirit of God (Ezekiel 36:27; 1 John 3:6-8; Gen 6:3; 2 Thess 2:7), leaving the Heavenly Father again who hates sin but loves the sinner (Isaiah 59:2).
    

The repentant sons who have returned to the Father God will start to hate sin and will start to love their Heavenly Father’s character (Prov 8:13; 14:2; 2 Cor 6:16-18). One has to start loving the head of the family and his loving character in order to continue in the adopted family which the father runs and provides. We too as the sons of our Heavenly Father need to train ourselves to love our Father’s character of righteousness and hate soulish evil, wickedness and lawlessness of Satan which He hates (Heb 1:9; 1 John 3:4,8). In this way, loving the character of our Heavenly Father and letting it out of our spirit to influence our soul is more important than using his gifts [i.e. gifts of physical, soulish and spiritual ability] and possessions that He has given. As we see that this character of our Heavenly Father is supplied by the Spirit of the Father who lives in us (James 1:17; 3:17-18; Matt 10:20). This is why the most essential thing in the life of a believer as a part of God the Father’s family is to bring forth the fruit of the Spirit for the glory of God the Father. This is the reason Jesus emphasized that He as the keeper of the vineyard of God revealed that God has come seeking through Him for fruit [Note: God distributed gifts of sustenance and nourishment for the growth of the tree though Jesus, but was seeking for fruit in return] in the nation of Israel (Luke 13:6-9). When God did not find fruit till the end of the ministry of Jesus, the nation of Israel got symbolically cursed by God through Jesus for not at all bearing fruit by rejecting Jesus as their Savior and Messiah (Mark 21:18-22, 42-43). In the same vein Jesus emphasized the need for fruit in John 15: 1-2, 5-8 saying, “1 I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit….4 As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me…5 He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.” When we abide or dwell in the words of Jesus, we will bear much fruit. As the followers of Jesus, only when we bear much fruit, our Father is glorified. The branch [i.e. believer] that does not bear fruit, God the Father takes it away from the Vine and he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they [i.e. angels of God (Matt 13:40-42)] gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned (Matt 7:17-20). Every branch that bears fruit Father God will prune and cut it further. In other words the person who is obedient to God may find the going tough in His spiritual journey. But the tough goings will be working together for good in the life of a God-lover because he is called by God according to His purpose (Rom 8:28). As a true Father corrects his children in the natural world for his good so does Our Heavenly Father will allow trials in the life of His obedient children for building them up further spiritually (Heb 12:4-11). This will bring forth still much fruit in the lives of the sons of God. So we come to the conclusion that fruit bearing [i.e. God-kind of character development] in each person’s life is more important than the manifestation of gifts through their ministry in the Body of Christ. Praise the Lord! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christianity is not a religion to just profess with one’s mouth, it is a relationship that needs to be continued in order to inherit the kingdom of our Heavenly Father. This relationship with God the Father will grow in greater intimacy as we receive more and more of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. God has pre-planned a kingdom for his children who will rule over the earth in the future as the spiritual replicas of Himself who is ruling over the heavens and the highest heaven (Ps 115:16; Luke 12:32). So only when the rich young ruler asked Jesus, “16 …Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have [i.e. inherit (Mark 10:17)] eternal life?” (Matt 19:16). Jesus answered to him saying “….Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is God…” (Verse17). Jesus in other words told to him that we cannot be good and perfect unless we become the Heavenly Father’s children. And then Jesus pointed him to keep the commandments. When he again asked Jesus, “…Which ones?”. Jesus did not immediately point him to the vertical commandment of loving God which is the first and the greatest commandment which fulfills all commandments. Instead Jesus pointed to the horizontal commandments of loving his fellow men because Jesus wanted the young man to understand his inability to fulfill God’s commandments based on his own religious workings apart from God’s strength. Jesus wanted the rich young ruler to also understand that only with a relationship with God as His children, he will be able to inherit the kingdom of God and its power to do good things (Luke 10:25-28; 12:30-34; 11:20; Acts 10:38). Jesus pointed this rich young ruler towards horizontal commandments [i.e. vertical commandments (Man towards God) => loving God with all its related commandments, horizontal commandments (Man towards Man) => loving man with all its related commandments] because his deceptive wrong thinking was trying to do things for God rather than be in love with God as a loving Father. Actually Jesus knew that this young man’s heart was not in love with God and instead he loved his riches more than God (Matt 19:21-22; 6:19-21).

This young ruler was trying to justify himself and his thirst for God’s eternal life within him with his wrong thinking and religious pious life of doing for God. He knew in his heart that he was missing God inside him despite his strictly religious life from his childhood. He has become blinded to the truth that man can only have relationship with God as his children, because of his covetous heart attitude which blinded his view of God. When this young rich ruler somehow wanted to justify himself he said to Jesus, “All these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?” 21 Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect [(Matt 5:58; 6:9-13)], go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” 22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions” (Matt 19:20-22). Only perfect people can enter the kingdom of God. Those who have received Jesus Christ in to their hearts as their Lord [One Master (Matt 6:24)] and Savior of their life, and follow Jesus everyday are those who are considered as perfect by God because of a divine exchange of substitution that happened at the baptism of Jesus and got culminated at the cross. These are the people who will really love God in spite of the circumstances and the hardship they go through in their daily lives as the members of the family of God (Matt 19:23-30). Those guys who are truly living a religious life with riches have the last and least probability of getting qualified in the kingdom of God because of their utter dependence on their wealth and doings rather than in God. But with God working with them in their lives, it is possible for them to change their attitude towards God even being rich, but only if they seek after God (Matt 19:23-26; 6:31-33).

Only a true son or a daughter can inherit his father’s property in the future (Rom 8:14, 19; Gal 4:1-7). It is also the same with God. Heaven, salvation and its benefits cannot be earned because it is God’s property that can only be inherited [Note: Cannot be earned by working our way which always demands wages to those who have worked]. To inherit is to be legally born in a family or be adopted in to a family and then develop in the same characteristics of the Father of the house and become pleasing to him so that at the end because of his own benevolence he will give his property to his children as he wills. In the same way we can only inherit [Note: not earn our way as though God in indebted to us] the kingdom of God because Father God has only a family and not a religion. So only as the Bible says, We have been adopted in to the Heavenly Father’s family and He expects us to grow in His likeness so that at the end, he will reward us with his property which is the kingdom of God which will be established in the future (Rom 8:14-17,29-30; Matt 25:34). Jesus was the first person who exhibited the perfect character of the Heavenly Father on earth for us to follow after Him and be like Him in the family of God (John 14:9-11; 17:20-23; Rom 8:29; Heb 2:10-11). Jesus became like us humans physically [i.e. the image of the man of the dust] so that we can become like Him spiritually [i.e. the image of the heavenly Man] (Heb 2:17-18; Phil 2:5-11; Eph 2:5-6; 1 Cor 15:42-49). In other words Jesus put upon Himself an earth suit of dust so that we may be able to wear a heavenly suit of revived, God-connected dominion-spirit inside of us. This is the reason that the character of our Heavenly Father must be lived out by us essentially rather to just serve Him with the gifts [i.e. possessions] which He has given us. It is the Father’s character genes in us which gives us the right to enter His home in heaven as His very own child (Luke 15:11-32). To be separated [i.e. dead v32] away from our Heavenly Father symbolically represents those of us who practice sinning which God hates which is the state of the Heavenly Father’s Lost son before he was found alive, and those of us who live with the heart attitude of repentance everyday are those who are the once lost son who are found and are alive again (Luke 15:32; I John 3:9). The repentant son of God will not again go in to the sinning mode of life rejecting all the restraint of the restrainer who is the Holy Spirit of God (Ezekiel 36:27; 1 John 3:6-8; Gen 6:3; 2 Thess 2:7), leaving the Heavenly Father again who hates sin but loves the sinner (Isaiah 59:2).
    

The repentant sons who have returned to the Father God will start to hate sin and will start to love their Heavenly Father’s character (Prov 8:13; 14:2; 2 Cor 6:16-18). One has to start loving the head of the family and his loving character in order to continue in the adopted family which the father runs and provides. We too as the sons of our Heavenly Father need to train ourselves to love our Father’s character of righteousness and hate soulish evil, wickedness and lawlessness of Satan which He hates (Heb 1:9; 1 John 3:4,8). In this way, loving the character of our Heavenly Father and letting it out of our spirit to influence our soul is more important than using his gifts [i.e. gifts of physical, soulish and spiritual ability] and possessions that He has given. As we see that this character of our Heavenly Father is supplied by the Spirit of the Father who lives in us (James 1:17; 3:17-18; Matt 10:20). This is why the most essential thing in the life of a believer as a part of God the Father’s family is to bring forth the fruit of the Spirit for the glory of God the Father. This is the reason Jesus emphasized that He as the keeper of the vineyard of God revealed that God has come seeking through Him for fruit [Note: God distributed gifts of sustenance and nourishment for the growth of the tree though Jesus, but was seeking for fruit in return] in the nation of Israel (Luke 13:6-9). When God did not find fruit till the end of the ministry of Jesus, the nation of Israel got symbolically cursed by God through Jesus for not at all bearing fruit by rejecting Jesus as their Savior and Messiah (Mark 21:18-22, 42-43). In the same vein Jesus emphasized the need for fruit in John 15: 1-2, 5-8 saying, “1 I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit….4 As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me…5 He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.” When we abide or dwell in the words of Jesus, we will bear much fruit. As the followers of Jesus, only when we bear much fruit, our Father is glorified. The branch [i.e. believer] that does not bear fruit, God the Father takes it away from the Vine and he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they [i.e. angels of God (Matt 13:40-42)] gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned (Matt 7:17-20). Every branch that bears fruit Father God will prune and cut it further. In other words the person who is obedient to God may find the going tough in His spiritual journey. But the tough goings will be working together for good in the life of a God-lover because he is called by God according to His purpose (Rom 8:28). As a true Father corrects his children in the natural world for his good so does Our Heavenly Father will allow trials in the life of His obedient children for building them up further spiritually (Heb 12:4-11). This will bring forth still much fruit in the lives of the sons of God. So we come to the conclusion that fruit bearing [i.e. God-kind of character development] in each person’s life is more important than the manifestation of gifts through their ministry in the Body of Christ. Praise the Lord! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Original Purpose of God in the Creation of Earth

By Abraham Israel

To know the original purpose of God in the creation of earth we have to turn back to the ‘Creator’s Manual’ in order to find it. As we know only the creator knows the purpose of His creation. And anything that is written in the Creator’s Manual is the only truth that can truly reveal the purpose for which it is created. This is the reason God’s instruction Manual is called ‘the Bible’ which means ‘the Book’. In other words it is not to be considered as a book among other books, but it in the only unique book that in itself has authority to defend itself because of the One who wrote it through His appointed scribes [i.e. one who copies and writes things]. In this way the Creator’s Manual has been written by God ordained men who have been inspired and instructed word for word by God who has given it for us, to learn more about the purpose of the creation of earth and all that is in it, especially in relation to the Creator Himself (2 Tim 3:16-17). Thus the more we come to understand the original intent of God for creating the earth and its legal inhabitants [i.e. We humans], the more we will be able to identify our self with the original purpose, which will not only give meaning to our lives but also make us more productive, efficient and enjoy our lives now as long as we live in this planet earth.

Why God created the earth?

The Creator Himself is answering in His Manual saying “18 For thus says the LORD, Who created the heavens, Who is God, Who formed the earth and made it, Who has established it, Who did not create it in vain, Who formed it to be inhabited:“ I am the LORD, and there is no other.”” (Isaiah 45:18). Here the Hebrew word for ‘inhabited’ is ‘yashab’ which is the root key word which gives the following meanings such as ‘1) to dwell, remain, sit, abide a) (Qal) 1) to sit, sit down 2) to be set 3) to remain, stay 4) to dwell, have one’s abode b) (Niphal) to be inhabited c) (Piel) to set, place d) (Hiphil) 1) to cause to sit 2) to cause to abide, set 3) to cause to dwell 4) to cause (cities) to be inhabited 5) to marry (give an dwelling to) e) (Hophal) 1) to be inhabited 2) to make to dwell’. Thus the word ‘inhabitate’ means ‘to dwell, abide, to remain, stay, have one’s abode, to continue to dwell forever in a set way’. Here God Himself affirms that the reason He created the earth is to dwell in it forever. This is the original purpose of God in creating the earth.

When God created the earth to inhabit, He set the legal entities which are to inhabit the earth and set a man in charge ‘to tend [cultivate] and keep it’ (Gen 1:15). Man was given absolute dominion. It is described in the first act of creation when God began to create the whole order of earth. The scenario during the creation is described in Genesis 1:26-27, “26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all^[a] the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” Here the most important thing that we must notice here is,

1) God said, “ Let Us make man in Our image…Our likeness….let them have dominion over….”. From the preceding verse we can understand that God wanted man to be made with a dominion image of Himself [To know more about the dominion image of God, read the following article ‘Dominion-Image of God in Man’]. In other words God wanted to replicate a Spiritual image of Himself [God’s image is a Spiritual image because God is the Spirit in essence and material (2 Cor 3:17)] in man who will rule and take care of earth as God rules from heaven, that is the reason the Lord God formed a dust body from the earth and breathed in to his nostrils the breath of life which is from heaven [i.e. the Spirit which supports life of the spirit to exist in the dust body of man]. From this we understand that the dust of the earth [material-physical man] and ‘the breath of life [non-material spirit man]’ from God who is in heaven meets through the living being [i.e. a individual conscious personality of soul that connects both the spirit and body realm].Once the Spirit of God entered the dust body of man, he became a living being [i.e. a Soul (Ps 104:29-30)] which can relate both to the Spirit world of God and the physical world of man. This indicates that the original purpose of God’s design was for man to be able to connect to the Spirit world of God and be a co-regent with Him over the earth. This connection was set up by God in his spirit man through the Spirit of God. He expected the conscious man to willingly submit to Him and by that connection rule over the earth.

2) God created man in His own image when He said “Let Us make man in our image…”. Then after that He did not say ‘let us have dominion’, But He said, “…let them [i.e. male and female] have dominion…” If He had said ‘let us have dominion’, then God would have put himself in dominion position over the earth along with man. But He did not. Instead He has given to man His delegated authority of dominion over all the earth. To have dominion over something is to rule over it. Man’s original purpose of creation is to rule over the earth [note: not over the heaven]. This is God’s eternal purpose and it will not fail.

3) The extent of man’s dominion is “…over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all^[a] the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” Notice here that dominion is not over other human beings but over the earth and its environment. Man was not designed to be ruled over and be dictated by other human being in the original design of creation. So only we naturally resist when someone tries to rule over us. Actually every human [i.e. male and female] have an innate desire to rule from the moment they are born in this earth. It is perfectly according to God’s design that it is present in human beings. This desire cannot be achieved without the God-connection in our spirit man, which is the source of our dominion power. In other words the moment we learn to hear a command from our ‘King of kings’ who is seated on the throne of heaven and start to execute it on the earth according to our original design (Rom 10:17; Luke 22:69), the kingdom power will start to manifest through us because as the Bible says the “Where the word of a king is, there is power;…” (Eccl 8:4).

Thus once dominion agenda for man has been set, then God began to execute His original purpose for man. When the original purpose has been set in place, then God blessed man [i.e. both male and female] saying “…Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Gen 1:28). What does it imply to us? If we start to put our focus to the God’s original purpose of creation and start to live it in our lives by renewing our minds through the Creator’s Manual for living [i.e. God’s Word], then God’s blessing [i.e. empowerment] to be fruitful and multiplying, to fill the earth and rule over it, to have dominion over the environment that surrounds us will come in to activation in our lives as the sons and daughters of God (Galatians 4:4-7; Rom 8:14). Don’t think wrongly in unbelief that it cannot happen today as in the days when Jesus walked on this earth when He drove demons out of people, healed the sick, walked on the water, multiplied food for the multitudes, flowed in all the gifts of the Spirit…. The Apostles modeled their lives after Jesus and the result was tremendous which turned the world upside down (1 Cor 11:1; Acts 17:6). We must also model our lives after the life of Jesus who is our perfect example to live the kingdom life on earth. Only then this original blessing of God which was released during the creation will come and empower us to be successful in this world for the glory of God which will make us be a living witness of Jesus Christ (Acts 1:8). This is the true kingdom living that is the need of the hour. Too many people desire to ‘fly to heaven and sing about it’. But God has not kept the kingdom citizens on earth to be powerless and weak, longing to escape to heaven. Do not continue to live with an escapist attitude, but rather be a warrior. Heaven is just a transitory lounge to keep us until Jesus comes back again to establish the original plan of the kingdom of God on earth during His second coming (Rev 19:14-16; 20:4-6). This is the reason even the twenty four elders in heaven were singing in Revelation 5:8-10, “8 Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. 9 And they sang a new song, saying: “ You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, 10 And have made us^[a] kings^[b] and priests to our God; And we^[c] shall reign on the earth.” These redeemed saints were not dreaming to reign in heaven but on the earth, which has been naturally made for the saints to have dominion. Even while the worship goes on before the throne of God, these redeemed saints were bringing to remembrance before God the original purpose for which the Lord designed the earth.

In the Old Testament the office of the priest and kings were separate because once a person in authority becomes oppressive because of a hardened heart against God, it will be very hard for people to go through such oppression because both the religious and political system would together cover both their devotional life and civil life in a nation. But in the original purpose of the kingdom of God since creation everybody is called to be a kingly-priest unto God (1 Peter 2:9; Rev 1:5-6). As a priest we have the rights to supplicate and offer gifts and sacrifice of praise with thanksgiving intimately with God, which will release the power of God from heaven by enthroning God over the physical natural bodies of the saints (Heb 8:3; 13:15-16; Rev 5:8; Ps 22:3). Because we are also kings we will be able to receive the power that comes from heaven as an answer to our every prayer and praise, and will be able to manifest it on earth through the authoritative words that we speak through our mouth (Eccl 8:4; Matt 8:8-10; Mark 11:23-24). Hence every believer in Christ is a kingly-priest who represents God on earth as His children.

Our God is a God of order as the Bible says (1 Cor 14:33). When God sets a law, it is not only a law to us His creation but it is to Him too because of the unchangeableness of His character (Malachi 3:6; James 1:17). This is the reason God says to His children, “…Be holy, for I am holy.” (1 Pet 1:16). In other words God is saying, ‘the holiness you should be is I am already’. God does not tell others to do something that He never does Himself (1 John 4:19). Once He says He never changes the word that has gone out of His mouth, such is the set apartness of God’s word (Isaiah 55:11; Matt 24:35). As a creator, God has the absolute sovereign rights over all his creations. He orchestrates events over the entire universe for His own purpose to be fulfilled (Isaiah 46:9, 10). Yet He never breaks His word.

God has clearly said in His word in Psalms 115:16, “The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD’s; But the earth He has given to the children of men.” According to this verse the earth has been given to men to have dominion over the works of God (Psalm 8:6). This is the reason God Himself because of His faithfulness to His word did not step in to correct the mistake that Adam did by choosing to disobey the Lord’s command (Gen 2:16-17). If He had stepped in to judge Satan immediately for deceiving Adam, Adam too would have been judged to death immediately and the whole creation would have got wiped out (Rom 6:23). He could have wiped out everything and had the ability to create a new project planet earth and heaven, but because of His love towards us He chose to show mercy towards us sinners through Jesus Christ (Gen 3:15; Heb 2:16). And thus the Lord God made a tunics of skin and clothed both Adam and Eve instead of fig leaves [which easily got dried off and brought their consciousness of nakedness again and again] which they made for themselves to cover their nakedness, as a symbolic gesture of redemption that He will achieve through Jesus Christ in the future (Gen 3:7,21).

When Adam fell from the glory of God (Rom 5:12, 18), He did not lose heaven but He lost His authority and dominion and rulership over the earth and its environment because of a dead spirit in Him. God told to Adam that if he disobeys His command to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil, it will result in death [the word death means separation] (Gen 2:16-17). We see that after eating the forbidden fruit, He did not die immediately physically. But the Holy Spirit of God who dwelled inside him, left him from his spirit man and hence man lost his God-connection in this earth. In other words man died spiritually by getting separated from the Spirit of God who dwelt in Him. This is the reason Adam and Eve were not able to walk with the presence of the Lord after their fall, in this way death [separation from God] truly came to the spirit man of all human beings from then on. Because the spirit is eternal it began to work in one way which is shining God’s light in to man’s soul (Prov 20:27). But he was unable to use his spirit the other way around, which means man lost the ability to reach out to God’s presence, lost the conscious nearness of God and the power to dominate over his own soul, body and his environment. Sin began to take dominion in the natural and condemnation came as a result of it (Rom 6:12; 5:16). From then on only those who had faith were only able to experience the God-connection of the presence of God (Heb 11:4). Even God longed to fill people like Cain with the presence of God. But because of his sinful inclination he chose to walk away from the holy presence of God (Gen 4:16). Cain began to hate God’s presence because he had already started to practice sin in His life (Gen 3:10, 12). The carnal soulish mind is in enmity against God [because of Satan and his demonic legal influence in the soulish realm due to Adam presenting his obedience to evil (Rom 6:16;5:19;1 John 3:8)] and thus will hate God’s presence (Rom 8:7; Gal 5:17). Instead of God’s Spirit ruling our spirit and in turn influencing the soul, Satan directly began to influence the soul with His sin of lawlessness which is against the truth of the character of God (1 John 3:2). Man became mentally damaged to such an extent that he lost the understanding and ability to really identify the truth of God’s existence and His pure thoughts, but the spirit of man inside him was always directing Him to seek the Lord (Rom 1:28; 2:14-15; Ps 10:4; 14:1; Eccl 12:5-7). But the irony is, even though he knew what is good and evil, he lost the ability and power to do good because of the lost God-connection. As man lost his God connection and hence lost his authority, Satan subtly took the dominion that Man had by claiming it illegally by influencing man (Matt 4:8-9). [To know more about the Satan’s fall and his deceit ever since, read the following article ‘The War- Saints against Satan'].

Then Satan began to bully people’s mind with all His lies and perversion constantly and started using them as a pawn to fulfill his own evil desires. So responding to God’s open invitation of faith in God put the connection back with God for those who really hated doing evil in their natural soulish state and sought after God who was reminding them of Good from the spirit of man (Ps 145:18; Prov 8:13; 3:7; 12:5; Gen 6:3,5-8). When man loves wickedness more than the truth of God, he starts to harden his heart which will make him still more disobedient to the voice of God (Exod 4:21; 9:35; 14:5,8; Ps 95:8; Acts 7:51; 2 Thess 2:11-12). Thus the men of old by faith maintained God-connection by which the Spirit of God who will come upon them and stay with them until they disobeyed God and grieved Him (Judges 16:20; 1 Samuel 16:14; Ps 51:11). But the indwelling Spirit of God was not given to them until Jesus gave it first to the apostles after His resurrection and then to all believers (John 20:21-23; 1 Cor 3:16; Rom 8:9; Heb 11:39). Thus at last Jesus came redeemed man from lawlessness and finally restored the God-connection through the Spirit indwelling inside the spirit of man. The original purpose of God’s restoration had been done for humans and it is upto us to live by faith in the kingdom authority realm through our spirit man.

Thus the original purpose of God for redeeming us was not to populate heaven, but to make us kings and priests to Himself, so that we can reign on the earth and populate it with God’s replica which is the born-again renewed dominion spirit of man which rules over sin, sickness, death and over the environment of the whole earth under God. Thus Jesus commands us His disciples who have this dominion spirit-connection with God to “7 … go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ 8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.” (Matt 10:7-8). The kingdom of God has already come to us and we are the replica and embodiment of it, now it is up to us as kingdom ambassadors to proclaim and invite others to join in, to live and experience this great kingdom life on earth just as Jesus did. As we keep exercising our dominion in our spirit man, the original purpose of God in the creation of earth will be fulfilled through us as a part of the original plan. O what a privilege to be part of God’s great plan for the ages! Praise the Lord!

Already understanding the context of the baptism that John gave, we are coming to the main question, ‘What’s so special about the baptism of Jesus?’ The Apostle Matthew wrote clearly about the event of the baptism of John to Jesus saying, “Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him. When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”” (Matt 3:13-17).

Here we can notice a parallel to what has been done in Old Testament. We must understand that Old Testament is New Testament concealed and New Testament is Old Testament revealed. In the Old Testament on the Day of Atonement as the Bible says, “He [i.e. the High Priest] shall take the two goats and present them before the LORD at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. Then Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats: one lot for the LORD and the other lot for the scapegoat. And Aaron shall bring the goat on which the LORD’s lot fell, and offer it as a sin offering. But the goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make atonement upon it, and to let it go as the scapegoat into the wilderness.” (Leviticus 16:7-10). These two goats after it is separated [i.e. one as a sin offering and the other as a scape goat], will fulfill the requirement that God has set forth to fulfill according to His ceremonial law once a year. As the Bible says, “Then he [i.e. the High Priest] shall kill the goat of the sin offering, which is for the people, bring its blood inside the veil, do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and before the mercy seat. So he shall make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions, for all their sins; and so he shall do for the tabernacle of meeting which remains among them in the midst of their uncleanness. There shall be no man in the tabernacle of meeting when he goes in to make atonement in the Holy Place, until he comes out, that he may make atonement for himself, for his household, and for all the assembly of Israel.” (Leviticus 16:15-17). The Bible points out prophetically in Isaiah 53:14 that Jesus’ soul will be made as a sin offering by God the Father. As the Bible says in Leviticus 17:11, ‘For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.’ Hence the blood of Jesus was finally offered as a sin offering to God on the cross where this atonement for the soul of everyone of us has been fulfilled (John 19:30, 34; Col 1:20). Thus it is clear from the Scripture that without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins (Heb 9:22).

Then for the other scape goat, “Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man. The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to an uninhabited land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness.” (Leviticus 16:21-22). All the gifts and offerings in the Old Testament was substituted by one “…sacrifice for sins forever…” in the New Testament which is Christ Himself (Heb 10:12). Christ’s baptism also indicates that Christ came as a High Priest of the order of Melchizedek, because God Himself testified Him as His Only Son (Matt 3:17; Heb 9:11-12; 7:3,15-16). Thus “….In the likeness of Melchizedek [i.e. God the Father]…another priest [i.e. Jesus Christ]… has come…according to the power of an endless life.” (Heb 7:15-16) and Jesus as the High Priest “…offered up Himself” as an offering for sin (Heb 7:27). So as the Priest Himself was considered as the scape goat, the Father God as the Heavenly High Priest “…has laid on Him [i.e. Jesus] the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6), during the time of the baptism of Jesus. [Note: To know more about the mysterious kingly-priest Melchizedek, read the following article - Who is Melchizedek?] While John the Baptist immersed Jesus in to the water [i.e. which symbolically refers to death for soulish righteous-self (Rom 6:4; 1 Cor 15:29)], God placed the sin of many at this point of time upon Jesus to bear and instead exchanged the perfectness of Christ’s righteousness and began to impart it in to all those who believed Jesus (Heb 7:28; 2 Cor 5:21; Matt 11:11-12; Rom 4:5-6,11; Gal 3:8). So only as the scape goat was sent away bearing all the iniquities of the nation of Israel in to the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man in the Old Testament (Lev 16:21-22), Jesus was sent and driven by the Holy Spirit in to wilderness bearing all our iniquities and sins to be tempted by Satan in the Wilderness (Matt 4:1; Mark 1:12-13;Luke 4:1). If it is not for this divine exchange, Satan would have had no rights to tempt Jesus as He had done no sin at all (John 14:30). Hence it was a demonstration of the love of God that He has shown us to deliver us from all our evil conscience (Heb 9:13-14). So with confidence always say, “I am the righteousness of God [in Christ Jesus].” (2 Cor 5:21).

The goats, bulls, heifers and all the gifts and sacrifices in the Old Testament symbolizes the one perfect offering of Jesus Crist in the New Testament (Heb 9:12-13; 10:1-4, 8-10, 12). The symbolic act of placing the sin of every one of us upon the scape goat’s head by the High Priest, through laying his hands on the head of the goat and confessing the sins of the people over it is represented by the baptism of Jesus where the hand of the Lord represented by the Spirit of God was placed upon Him (Ezekiel 1:3; 3:14; 37:1; Luke 1:66). Then God placed the sin of the world upon Him by confessing over Jesus from Heaven by saying ‘this is My Son who is the one perfect Specimen of sacrifice for eternity, with which I am well pleased’ (Matt 3:16-17; 4:1-2; Lev 16:21-22). The Hebrew word for the English word ‘scapegoat’ is ‘`aza’zel’ [pronounced az·ä·zāl' (Key) {masculine noun}] which means ‘1) entire removal, scapegoat a) refers to the goat used for sacrifice for the sins of the people b) meaning dubious’. Knowing this act of transferring of sins over the scape goat through the laying on of the priest hand over it and confessing our sins will free us from the condemnation of the enemies accusation, when we sin by the weakness of the flesh. This is the reason Apostle Peter spoke about this baptism in 1 Peter 3:21 saying, “There is also an antitype [i.e. original fulfillment of Old Testament scape goat] which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,….” In other words Apostle Peter was saying, ‘You can have a good conscience [i.e. a conscience which cannot be condemned by the enemy of our souls {i.e. Satan and his evil demons} because of the divine exchange that happened at the baptism of Jesus] toward God because of knowing and applying by renewing your mind through the doctrine of baptism in your daily life, hence thwarting the continuous accusation of the enemy. Baptism does not mean that you are removed from the evil soulish nature which inclines towards sin.’ (Eph 4:23; Heb 6:2). Nearly the same way Apostle Paul too described about this baptism by saying in Rom 6:3-4, “Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” Here Apostle Paul is not talking about the water baptism that every believer takes but is talking about the doctrine of the baptism of Jesus that happened at the river Jordan as a lifestyle to be lived. You may ask me, how do you know that? Because in the context of this baptism Paul was telling later in the same chapter 6 in verses 17-19, “But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.” In other words Paul was saying, ‘Because you have believed the doctrine of the baptism of Jesus [i.e. “…buried with Him through {His} baptism in to death…” (Rom 6:4)] and the cross of Jesus [i.e. ‘knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him…’ (Rom 6:6)] you have been set free from the legal penalties for walking in the soulish nature and its impulsive activities though the divine exchange that happened at the baptism of Jesus which got culminated at the cross. I am speaking to you like this because you still have the soulish sinful nature which inclines you to sin always, which will bring the accusation of Satan once you sin. So don’t give in to the soulish desire to sin but rather fight against it through the perfect righteousness that you received through believing the divine exchange that happened at the baptism of Jesus which will set you apart and position you from soulish wickedness for God’s purpose to be fulfilled through your life.’ As we know more about this divine exchange and its implication toward freedom from sin through our perfect righteousness we received from Jesus, the more we will be able to walk in the liberty of the Spirit (Luke 4:18; 2 Cor 3:17; Gal 5:1). As the Bible says, “[this] …righteousness [is] in the [presence & person of the] Holy Spirit.” (Rom 14:17) who resides in us as a gift from Jesus, who is building us together with Himself to be a dwelling place of God in the Spirit for eternity (2 Cor 1:22; Eph 2:22; 1 John 3:24). All believers will have the person of the Holy Spirit within them at least in ‘salvation-measure which is a fountain-measure (John 4:14)’ [if not in river measure which is the baptismal measure of the Spirit (John 7:37-39). If a person is not a born again believer, he will not have the Holy Spirit with in Him and he does not belong to Christ (John 3:3-8; Rom 8:9). It is the promise of God that the Spirit of God will never ever leave a believer nor forsake him for eternity because of what Jesus has achieved for the believer (Heb 13:5-6)]. This is what Paul described as the “….walk in the newness of life.” (Rom 6:4).

The Doctrine of Baptisms
By Abraham Israel

(a) John’s Baptism

In those days the Jews baptized the Gentile convert for purification to become a proselyte Jew (John 3:25), but John insisted that whether a Jew or a Gentile, everybody need to be baptized (Luke 3:3, 7, . This was the reason they were questioning him about his authority to baptize people (John 1:19, 24-25). In the early chapters of the four Gospels and in Acts 1:5; Acts 11:16; Acts 19:4, it [the word ‘baptizo’-“to baptize”] is used of the rite performed by John the Baptist who called upon the people to repent that they might receive remission of sins. Those who obeyed came “confessing their sins,” thus acknowledging their unfitness to be in the Messiah’s coming kingdom. Many lived by faith in the doctrine of John’s baptism (Acts 19:1-7; Matt 3:5-12). John also had disciples and taught them about praying and things about God and his ways (Matt 11:2; Luke 11:1).And some of the disciples who followed Jesus were formerly John’s disciples, when John the Baptist pointed to Jesus as the Son of God [Messiah the Christ] and the Lamb of God, they started following Jesus (John 1:34-42). John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, which is the first step to enter the kingdom of God (Luke 3:3; Matt 3:6; 11:12). It was God’s will for every one to get baptized by John and those who rejected John’s Baptism also rejected Jesus Christ (Luke 7:29-30).

(b) John Baptizes Jesus

John always pointed people to messiah who will come and baptize them with the Spirit (Matt 3:11). John also baptized Jesus to make Him be known to Israel as the perfect Lamb of God (Matt 3:15). It was at this point of time when Jesus became a sin for us when the God the Father placed on him the sin of the world and as he voluntarily gave himself for our cause, a divine exchange took place there (2 Cor 5:21; Isaiah 53:6; Matt 3:15, 17; John3:17). From there he carried our sins to the cross of Calvary (John 1: 29, 36; Isaiah 53:4 “Sorrows – effects or results of sin”; Matt 8:16-17; 16:21; Mark 10:38, 45; John 18:11). And even Jesus acknowledged that He was distressed until the baptism is fully accomplished on the cross for us and through His resurrection (Luke 12:50; Rom 6:3-6).

After Jesus was tempted in every way by Satan, coming out from the wilderness, Jesus was declared as the “lamb of God” (John 1:35-36), by John the Baptist. A perfect lamb will always be tested before it is announced as with out blemish. When Jesus was tested by God, He stood perfect in all the temptations till Satan had no more way to tempt Jesus and he left, showing that he cannot find even an iota of any imperfection (Matt 4:1, 11). John himself said, the reason he baptized people with water is to reveal Jesus the Messiah [Christ] as the Son of God and the Lamb of God to Israel. This he said when he was giving baptism beyond the Jordan at Bethany and not at the Jordan where Jesus was Baptized (John 1:29-34; Matt 3:13). Immediately after Jesus was Baptized He was led by the Spirit in to the wilderness to be tempted by the devil (Mark 1:12), and this clearly shows that John the Baptist declared Jesus as the Lamb of God not immediately after He baptized Jesus in the river Jordan, but only after He returned from the wilderness forty days later victoriously as the Lamb of God (Matt 4:1).

He declared Jesus as the Son of God because John heard the voice of God from heaven and saw the Spirit of God descending upon Jesus like a dove when He was baptized by him and when He came out of the wilderness after 40 days, still the Spirit of God remained upon Him testifying that He was the perfect lamb of God and John declared the Truth that he saw before his very eyes (John 1:33; Luke 4:14).

(c) The Spirit of God baptizes the believer in to that one body [universal body of Christ] when they are born again (1 Cor 12:13; 1 Peter 3:21; Col 2:12; Rom 6:4-5; 1 Tim 1:19 (c.f. Heb 10:14-18)).

(d) The believers will baptize a new believer in to the body of Christ.

 

 

This type of ‘baptism of identification with Christ’ started right after the baptism of Jesus which He received from John the Baptist. John the Apostle wrote about this in his Gospel where he says, “And they [i.e. the Jews] came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified—behold, He is baptizing, and all are coming to Him!”….. Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples), He left Judea and departed again to Galilee.” (John 3:26; 4:1-3; Matt 11:12).

It is done as a confessional testimony before every one that they [the new believer] have received Christ as his/her personal savior (Mark 16:6; Acts 2:38). This is the “baptism” enjoined by Christ, Matt 28:19, a “baptism” to be undergone by believers, thus witnessing to their identification with Him in death, burial and resurrection, e.g., Acts 19:5; Rom 6:3,4; 1 Cor 1:13-17; 1 Cor 12:13; Gal 3:27; Col 2:12. The phrase in Matt 28:19, “baptizing them into the Name” (RV; cp. Acts 8:16, RV), would indicate that the “baptized” person was closely bound to, or became the property of, the one into whose name he was “baptized.”

 

(e) Jesus baptizes the believer’s with the Holy Spirit

The Greek word for baptism is ‘baptizo’ which means ‘to get immersed or overwhelmed’. Jesus baptizes the believers with the Holy Spirit just as John the Baptist announced. This happened on the day of Pentecost after the ascension of Jesus and it has been happening ever since that day, and the outward sign or manifestation [of the inward work] is speaking in new tongues (Matt 3:11; Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4-5,8; 2:1-4; 19:2-6).

 

 

Greetings to you in Jesus Wonderful Name! I personally invite you to join our free weekly newsletters. These news letters are very anointed and are full of apostolic revelations. The topics range from anointing, doctrinal foundations, end time, faith, God-kind of character, healing and deliverance, kingdom of God, prayer, question and answer, revelatory meat, the apostolic church, word inspirationals and much more. These apostolic articles when applied in your life will begin to edify you spiritually, empowering you to live in Christ-likeness and evangelize others, thus fullfilling the command of Christ as an apostolic end time warrior of God’s army. This will also fill you with the knowledge of God which will make grace [i.e. anointing of God] and peace [i.e. prosperity of God] to be multiplied in your life (2 Peter 1:2). May God Bless you and make you a blessing to many more people in the coming days!

Blessings,

Abraham Israel

————————————————————————————–

To receive a free weekly “Apostolic Articles for Kingdom Living” Newsletter, register your e-mail address below by clicking the inJesus Groups image and filling out the form,

Subscribe to Apostolic Articles for Kingdom Living

———————————————————————–