Life in Descent

Recently a family was driving at night along the Pacific coast when without warning an inferno next to the highway sent flaming embers down around their vehicle. Police and fire trucks were nowhere to be seen as the automobile sped close by the Solimar fire. In the end, though the experience took only a short time, Mrs. Maks, one of the car’s occupants, said it felt like an hour. 

It would be ludicrous to ask that family in their moment of terror, "How do you feel?” or “How is it going?"

When someone asks those same questions of a family after they finished a satisfying dinner, the answer to the first one might be, "I’m full or I’m satisfied." The second question might elicit a similar response, something like, “It’s going well. We had a great meal together."

Experience conditions our response. Our reference point determines our perspective. 

When friends and I were hiking part of the Appalachian Trail in New Hampshire, we ascended and descended, ascended and descended for hours. Several times I thought just maybe we had reached the peak only to discover we had to hike several more valleys before reaching the highest point of the range. I viewed my actions and effort in light of my destination.

The return was different, all downhill. I did not understand how time could speed by so quickly as we departed the mountain range back down to ground level. Though time itself had not changed, I felt like it had because of my frame of reference.

All of us are blind to certain realities beyond our limited experience. A popular business appears to spring up out of nowhere while actually it has been growing up for years. It simply never appeared on our radar. We look for something in the refrigerator and become convinced it isn’t there only to admit we missed it when someone else points to the item on a shelf in plain view. 

In the true story Rocket Boys, Homer Hickham began carving a dream as a teenager.  He chose to see hope in the apparent hopeless nature of obstacles. This is what God does in our lives through teshuvah (return to God). He completely changes our reference point.  All our past becomes the fulfillment of God’s perfect will, and His will transforms our present into what He always meant it to be.

This is not a mind trick or imagination. Science confirms the truth of the experience.

Quantum mechanics proves that a person’s presence in the moment transforms entirety, so that all past moments and present reality become integral. In the two slit experiment, what is viewed responds by becoming. The act of observing makes something that was not true previously true objectively in the present moment. The fire mentioned above completely shifted how the family experienced time, and Mr. Hickham can look back and see how very difficult and challenging circumstances made him the man he became. 

The experiences of the Old Testament prophet Abraham living in Egypt would have produced a very different outcome had the Lord God not promised that Abraham's descendants would number as the stars. Soon after the promise, Abraham descended in both circumstance and morality. Almost immediately, the Egyptian culture influenced Abraham’s thinking. He recognized his wife Sarah’s beauty to other men and lied about who she was to save his life.

The key point, however, is God’s promise above and beyond Abraham’s descent and moral shortcomings. Circumstances do not change reality from God’s perspective. He will transform our lives and, through us, the world around us if we recognize Him when He comes to us in the stillness of our heart and speaks our name.

We say a person is a descendent of George Washington if her or his bloodline traces back to the founding father of America. Likewise, but by faith, Abraham is the father of those who recognize Jesus as Messiah. Abraham rejoiced to see the Lord’s day.

God causes this same joy to come alive in a person’s heart as he or she becomes joined to God by the same faith as Abraham. By implication, all who believe become kings along the line of David. They are also made priests to serve God forever, 24/7 through the gift of Jesus, our High Priest, who is not a priest through natural bloodline but through the eternal priesthood of Melchizedek.   

Recognizing Christ as Emmanuel, God with us, infuses meaning and purpose into present reality, the same way God’s purpose for Abraham transformed his life and made him the father of the faith. When Jesus looks toward us with His mercy, goodness, and love, and our eyes meet His, He changes us. God blesses us, not because we exalt ourselves in pride but because He loves us and wants to use us to bless others. He has the best plan involving only good for our lives.This brings total satisfaction in life, provides endless motivation for business, and becomes the unshakeable foundation for all enjoyment in the world.

Fire will both melt the elements and purify those who are called according to God’s purpose. As He called Abraham for His purpose, He is using every descent to bring about His final redemption.  Through the shed blood of Jesus, who sacrificed Himself to transfer us into His kingdom, He will reign forever and cause the collapse of every other kingdom. This will happen similar to adding an observer to the two slit experiment in quantum mechanics, which causes one reality and ceases the other. This is how the Kingdom of God destroys all other governments. Everything that is not made new will not survive, and everyone who will not accept the reign of Christ and His unearned offer of forgiveness will be cast into the Lake of Fire. 

The mountains we climb and the valleys we trek do not need to define life. They must be razed and lifted as happened before Christ came the first time. Similarly, the way must be prepared before His second appearing. 

While we cannot stop earthquakes, fires, and other natural weather events, each of us can be free of the terror brought on by them and other terrifying events coming upon the nations. Christ, by hiding us under the shadow of God’s protection, has become our shield and defender. Strengthened daily in our connection to God through Christ and His word, He delivers us from the fear of what is coming upon the earth. His purpose transcends our circumstances. 

God turns all the previous descents into uncut stones paving the way for His blessing upon our lives in business, in relationships, and in every other area. In the process, we need only to hear Him and trust what He says. Then when all other foundations around us crumble, we will continue to stand.   

New Awakening and Great Reset from Political Correctness

Insider trading will earn you time in prison. Telling people all about your winning weekend at Coney Island won’t get you jail time but it may not strengthen your friendship very much if the listener just lost his shirt playing Black Jack.

There are people we can talk to about certain subjects while other topics are best avoided. Sounds like a recipe for political correctness but it is just the opposite. Wisdom is the antidote for only saying what’s politically appropriate and for saying something just to show that we will not follow the spirit of the age. Being quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger sets us apart to achieve a far greater eternal purpose. 

When I was playing tennis every week, I loved talking about it. It was a shared experience especially with my teenage sons but also with anyone who had an inside appreciation for the game. Compare that to horseback riding. I like horses, but without a strong personal connection to the sport, I can only appreciate it as an outsider. 

Do not be deceived. The guise of political correctness clouds the issue of right and wrong, seeks to censor and make a fool out of anyone who fights it, and is leading to authoritarian demands and persecution. However, forcing others to listen to what we consider indispensable knowledge on any topic is not the way to fight the sinister presence of political correctness. The fact is that the power behind it has already been defeated. Asserting self just serves as oil for the fire. We must be led by the inner voice of God in every circumstance.

The existing social, economic and political landscape across the earth points to the need for a new great awakening that, like the earthquakes coming upon our planet, reflects a tectonic shift.  

In Weakness is Our Strength

It is wise to do what we do well and not to pretend that because we excel in one area, we are an expert in others. In general don’t expect doctors to give financial advice, and do not ask your financial advisor to perform surgery. God’s word wakes us up and gives us life within borders established by God and to expand His blessing exponentially. The amazing thing is how this practically works out in the real world.

An enemy of the nation of Israel in the time of Elijah in the Old Testament looked at the nation and saw water turned to blood. This rallied the Moabites to attack only to be routed by the Jews. Though reality was completely different than their understanding, the enemy could not perceive it. 

Before the Lord fulfilled His word, Israel had no water. Elisha said God would not send rain. Instead, God caused water to flow into the land which provided for the people and their cattle. For people who hear and obey the voice of Christ, God has prepared blessing and protection. To others, those same people of God may appear weak. Though their strength is unseen, it is infinite. 

Deliverance

Great social changes in the past such as voting rights for women and African American men came from lives changed by God’s word, as people shifted from allegiance to self to allegiance to God through Christ. Unfortunately, past awakenings gave way to unprincipled living.

With this new awakening of ultimate allegiance to God comes the ultimate deliverance from every thing that would ever cause our disconnection from our Creator. Denying ourselves and taking up our cross daily unites all of us who in honor of God willingly lay down our lives in obedience to Christ. 

The Anointing of Elijah

More important than gratifying selfish whims is doing what Jesus leads us to do—the ones called by His name know His voice. This wisdom to live comes as Jesus the Messiah Himself strengthens our personal bond with God. His shed blood makes the way for every heart to embrace God’s will because we delight in it. 

It is a blessing to be able to walk through a sea on dry ground while towering impenetrable walls line the way. It is a pleasure to be caught up with the dignity and eminence of the Savior of the world. 

While the hearts of some melt with fear, a place of safety, security, faith, and love very few know about is being built just beyond what they can see. The door is opened and the invitation is going out to come in and join those who are being delivered from fear. 

A place is being prepared for each of us in the heavenly Jerusalem. We just have to claim the home God has prepared for us and tell Him we want what He wants for us. 

Every Tribe, Every Tongue, Every Nation

There is a role in this unseen place for every person on earth whatever country they are from, whatever their native tongue or nation of birth. Great awakening happens deep inside where we become united to God and He infuses us with the same power he used when He raised Christ from dead.

His power overcomes our slavery to fear, frees us from every accusation, fulfills the depths of our being, and destroys the power of death with the never ending power of life, the source of our obedience to the voice of God. 

May each of us be hearing the true voice of Messiah, do His will, and be found faithful. 

Getting off Most-Traveled Road for The One With Your Name

A teenager hanging out for the first time with an acquaintance from school attends a party with strangers who are drinking and doing drugs. Then the police arrive. The young man must face the consequences of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. And when a young couple buy a house for nothing down, default on the loan, and lose the home because they cannot make the payments, they, too, are not in a place they want to be.

Each person’s destiny depends on decisions he or she makes. They could continue making foolish decisions or they could change the process. 

Life is further complicated because some people wish they were on another road for financial reasons. Others want out of a relationship because it no longer satisfies.

The common factor of each of the examples is that life is not always what we planned or anticipated, but what can be done? Many do not believe change is truly possible. Others wish to be on another road, but hoping and wishing does not solve the dilemma, neither does imagining what life would be like if I had not made a particular decision or if I had made a better choice when I was 24, if I turned left here or right there, if I had only moved to a certain country when I had the chance. 

Are people then slaves forever to the road they chose? Not at all. The voice we listen to determines the road we travel. Up to a point, different roads can appear identical, just as the 60 and the 57 freeways run together for a stretch here in Southern California, but one gives way to the other. Many people overcome poor circumstances. While a photo of a small section of highway gives the impression that two different roads follow the same route, actually the destinations can be as different as night and day.

The highway we are on can lead to freedom depending on our choices. Reliving history is no more possible than going back to our childhood neighborhood can make us a kid again, but the choices we make today can transform the road we are on now, redefine our past, and determine our course for the future. We must not allow circumstances define us no matter how contrary to our hopes our environment appears. 

A New Economic and Geo-Political Counterculture

Governments rest on certain values. For the United States, the foundational ideals in the Declaration of Independence form a collective past, but now they are being corrupted. A government that goes on forever, however, must defeat all its enemies and be incorruptible. Only one government rests on the shoulders of a faultless person, the Lord Jesus the Messiah, who defeated sin and death. His reign and rule will never be subject to the influence of worldly military, economic, or social agendas. 

The God-given inalienable rights of life, liberty, and and the pursuit of happiness sustained America for over 200 years, but popular wisdom—actually pseudo wisdom—is decimating those rights. Something must happen, but since we cannot literally go back in time, we must transform the present and move forward.

National governments around the world and a new hidden economic and geo-political reality characterized by humility, righteousness, and wisdom are running concurrently like the proverbial shared stretch of highway. The new revolutionary government, however, is guaranteed never to wear out and will extend forever in every direction into the future.

Christ’s governance expands through the judgment/discernment of His followers through the study of Messiah's teaching and responding to His voice by faith working in love. The authority of this government is iron and its expanse limitless. This also has huge economic implications for the communities and nations in which we live.*

Anytime people question conventional knowledge, they run the risk of being misunderstood, but this is the means of true success, not rejecting anything for rejection sake, but making choices based on truth. Following the beat of a different drum may mean buying when others are selling as Warren Buffett did when finding and buying undervalued companies, which is a foundational wealth creating strategy. It may mean starting a business as Mattel did ahead of a business expansion cycle after many closed their doors because of business market contraction. Some may choose serving the needs of people in a small town being led for the eternal promise of a harvest while others head for the big city.

Though we cannot be dogmatic about this, the fact is that most businesses fail in the first three years shows that following prevailing wisdom leads to failure. In the big picture, failure is integral for success, but a person who starts a business on a whim with the hopes of a big payoff is in a very different place than a person who chooses a business based on perceived market need and so forth. For a short time, the two roads look the same.

The 80/20 rule in nature reveals that 20% of the pea pods produce 80% of the peas. In the business of the Kingdom of Heaven, the parable of the sower, shows that 3/4 or 75% of the seed did not produce because of ground conditions. 25% (the seeds that were planted in good soil) produced thirty, sixty, or one hundred times as much grain as had been sown. Three actions open the door to highest yields: understanding the message of the Kingdom of God, establishing roots in ourselves, and being strengthened by faith in opposition to worries of the world and the glamour of wealth. Faulty ground conditions hamstring growth and lead to poor decisions.

Taking one or more of the actions above depending on the need will put people on the path to be one of the 25% who produce a one hundred, sixty, or thirtyfold increase. I shifted the percentage from 20% to 25% to highlight a difference between between the Pareto Principle (the 80/20 rule) and the parable of Jesus. The three actions mentioned before—Seeking to understand what Jesus teaches, establishing roots in ourselves which re-connect us through Christ to God our Creator, and relying on His voice instead of what we see or feel —all these put whoever-will-listen on the road to infinite returns and guaranteed fruitfulness.

Pareto failed to discover the eternal aspect of the 80/20 principle, which Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of lords embedded in His parable. People who follow the voice of Christ wherever He leads are guaranteed more than money for life after 60. Along the way, they have transformed their past, redeem their present, and created an eternal exit strategy. The Most-Traveled Road fades as a new day dawns over the open road ahead. 

The Stuff of Life

Life happens in the between times. Businesses do not bloom overnight. All the choices along the way compound into what looks like overnight success. Wise choices define the road we are on without letting it defining us.

Jesus said He would come at night, the time obviously between one day and the next. If we are awake, or of the day, we can hear His voice. He spoke to the Samaritan woman in the middle of her daily activities, which distracted her so much and quenched her thirst so fully that she did not even fill her bucket with water from the well. 

Right now, at this moment, is one of those between times to transform one road, the wide road most everyone travels, to a unique road focussed on the eternal and paved for us with the purpose God has for our lives. 

Transformation happens inside before it is visible to others around us. To people looking at a clear plastic cup, it may appear wet because of the illusion that the inside is the outside, when in reality the inside is completely dry. It takes a while for outside conditions to correlate with inward change. 

For the prisoner who plays 18 holes of golf every day in his cell, he has already overcome his environment until outside reality catches up. When freed from his chains, his improved golf game validates the truth of his experience. 

The great thing about an inner life and thinking conformed to eternal truth is that truth reaches into the past. It was always true. It also lives in the present moment and is just as reliable now as it was throughout history. Additionally, truth stands the test of time, so that decisions based on truth carry forward into the future. Alignment with the truth brings satisfaction to life because it integrates our past, guides our present, and assures our future. A life truly lived establishes integrity. 

The Road to Success: You’re On It or Not

Seeing success as our road and being truly successful requires us to change our thinking. Is success based on getting what we want, all we can get, taking for ourselves what belongs to someone else? This kind of selfish thinking shows the need for discernment about boundaries and explains why some people do not experience God’s best in their lives. How can they receive what God says about the matter when the ground of their thinking is thorny and rocky, when their mind has been made up? We need to be conformed to Christ not to our false assumptions. No stone will be left on another. All must fall, so all can be raised up new. 

True success unselfishly benefits those we serve. Repentance (changing our minds) leads to discovering the means of success not giving them up. As a matter of fact, repentance frees an individual to succeed at a whole different level because its foundation is sure.

Mt. Sinai, or physical Jerusalem as a philosophy, perverts the word of God into rules and regulations which always bind and cannot set free. This is slavery to a system which always has the last word, but when we hear from God above, the founder of the New Jerusalem, the miracle working power of God is at work in us to make good on all His promises and produce fruit that remains forever. This is true on earth as it is in heaven.

God’s word instructs not to move the ancient boundaries of another established by God, but God also promises to expand the boundary of the territory of His people. How can both be true?

The secret is that the infinite returns produced by obedience to the voice of God never encroach on His purpose for another person. This is how we who serve Christ by being empowered and changed by our connection to God participate in a glorious and ever expanding Kingdom which has no end. The blessings we experience as a result of our obedience are ever increasing. The blessings are furthermore compounded as each person, re-connected to God under the reign of Christ, together produce unparalleled glory to God and the manifestation of His governance in the lives of men and women across the earth.

All this is being done undercover, a glorious remnant being raised up underground. This hidden Kingdom will be fully manifest at the glorious appearing of Christ, the one who defeated death, empowers each one of us to overcome through His promises, and reigns until God puts all His enemies under His foot. Then death itself is thrown into the Lake of Fire with all those who refused to turn to Christ, the beginning and the end of all things, and give all the glory of God. 

Will we be able to hear when Jesus is calling whenever that may be? If we allow His voice to transform us inwardly and respond to His call to life, we will not only be led on the road tailor-made for us, but we will have the name of Jesus and the name of the heavenly Father and the name of the New Jerusalem written upon us. We are also given a new name that only Christ knows and the person receiving it.

When He calls us by name, we can walk the road He has chosen, regrets and accusations banished forever, and in the matter of time, we will all be walking heavenly streets paved with gold. 

 

*Study the life of Israel’s son Joseph for more about this. 

Life in A Garage

Uh oh.

I can almost hear the embarrassment as the realization settles in. The door’s too narrow. I'll have to break down the whole thing, every brick.

Henry Ford swung the ax, broke down the wall, and released for the first time into the public his gasoline powered automobile. 

While Ford envisioned people everywhere driving affordable cars, his plan did not include how to get that first vehicle out from its confinement. In a very real way, though, his vision to improve life for the average person had already obliterated any obstacles to its success.

Some of the most famous businesses in the world were started in somebody's garage. This inauspicious room, often annexed to the house, sometimes under, beside, in front or behind it, has a reputation as an entrepreneur’s workshop to produce great things, forge destinies, and help dreams come true, but the truth of the matter is not glamorous.

Before each business broke out into the world, there was nothing extraordinary about the place it started. Far from looking like fertile ground for growing life-changing ideas, each garage is common and ordinary. They store memories in old boxes. They house everything from Christmas decorations to boogie boards, saws and drills, bicycles and dolls, not to mention cars themselves. Having established how un-extraordinary these places are in no way dismisses how surprisingly important these places turn out to be, so much so, that I have to say this. If you do not have a garage, do not wait. It is time to build one. 

Standing inside looking out of a garage, it’s easy to see two nearly contradictory worlds at the same time. Fresh air blowing in through an open bay door battles to drive out the smell of poured concrete. Inside, there is the reality of confinement and potential, and outside, the place where ideas expand to make a wide-ranging, genuine difference in the world.  Looking in from outside, labels on boxes hint at their contents like chapter titles in a book. The more private people close off the details of their lives behind locked cabinet doors.

The inherent value or potential of a garage cannot be discovered by perusing their shelves, pulling open drawers, or climbing pull-down folding stairs to see what's above the ceiling. Doing so, for example, would not have unveiled the secret to the amazing success of Bill Gates, Michael Dell, William Hewlett, or his partner Dave Packard. Ironically, its value rises—as all world-transforming endeavors do—out of obscurity. A garage is relatively unimportant compared to other rooms such as the kitchen, living room, and bedrooms, that is, until something happens within it to potentially change the world.

Every one of us sit today in a place of lived and not yet realized potential. There is no better place to be. 

When someone lives in a cave, the garage of an earlier day, the expectation for success is low. Who expects greatness to emerge from a cave anyway? As a matter of fact, us cave-dwellers cannot just go out of our caves with what we think are our greatest ideas and inventions, unless it is the right time to do so.

 

Elijah, the Old Testament prophet knew this, and we can learn from him.  While outside experienced extreme winds, an earthquake, and fire, the prophet would not leave the cave, even though the Lord, blessed be His name forever, told Him to go out and stand on the mountain, the same mountain by the way where Moses stood in his generation and beheld the glory of the true and everlasting God. 

Elijah had heard the word of God but did not step out until He heard the voice of God speaking in His still, small voice. Less like a fierce wind and more like a gentle breeze, the voice of God to come out speaks to us in our innermost place where He dwells by His Holy Spirit and where we must welcome Him.

Elijah was alone with God. Maybe, that is the reason why he was wrong in his estimation of the numbers of true servants the Lord had also kept for Himself. Elijah really was not alone. The Lord told him 7,000 people of Israel had not bowed their knee or kissed the mouth of Baal. In addition, the Lord had instructed Obadiah, who hid 100 prophets of God in groups of fifty. They hid in a cave where they were safe and food was provided for them. Everywhere, as a matter of fact, where Elijah walked in obedience to the voice of God, the Lord provided for him as well, sometimes, often times, in miraculous ways. 

God is not in what makes us afraid, not in a tornado, not in an earthquake, not in a fire or flood. God speaks in obscurity and rewards in public. 

Will a tornado potentially devastate a believer in Christ? One thing about a garage is its resemblance to a tabernacle or tent. The great thing is that if a whirlwind does come, we who are being tabernacled over by the Lord will be carried up into the clouds to be forever with Him.

Is there any place we would rather be? 

Confluent Factors And A New Command for A Post Christian Culture

While in high school, I visited The Lord’s Gathering, a church where I had my first and only vision for many years. The body of Christ was coming to maturity. I cannot explain how it happened or how I saw it except that it was like a picture in my heart. 

I have not seen how God would bring about the maturity of His people being built up in love with each member contributing by the grace God gives—until now. 

What Once Was Is Again

The 1980 winter olympics arrived against a landscape of national crises and a mood of pessimism. Muslims had taken hostages at the American Embassy in Iran. Service stations rationed gas because of fuel shortages. Social unrest spotted the nation, drugs were rampant, a president had resigned in scandal, and high tensions accompanied the cold war with Russia and their troop deployment in Afghanistan.

The goal of defeating Russia on ice drove coach Herb Brooks to handpick college hockey players for what they could uniquely bring to the USA team. All the players were young. Many were cocky. In order to stand a chance at competing with the Soviet Union, the coach believed his team had to adopt a hybrid style of hockey completely foreign to the style the boys had been playing all their lives.

The goal was to deeply instill a team mentality, demand exceptional fitness, and teach the players a whole different philosophy of moving on the ice. The question was how to get the players to be better than they thought they could be. First the coach had to destroy the fiercely independent attitude of the American players before they could coalesce into a team with the ultimate winning chemistry. Out of brokenness, the players arose together with an unparalleled combination of talent, heart, and skill that produced the first gold medal for the U.S. hockey team in 20 years of olympic competition.

Our nation today faces even worse obstacles than it faced in the 1970’s but in many of the same areas. Social unrest in the streets of the United States is happening frequently. The moral fabric of society is unraveling. Increasing numbers of the general public do not trust politicians and understand that most if not all of them are behooved to their donors whether or not those lobbies are backed by groups with ties to radical Muslims, socialists, communists, or others with nefarious motives. World geopolitical issues range from the slaughter of Christians to mass migration of Muslims. Terrorism is also spreading like fire, and more and more signs appear daily that the American economy is on the verge of collapse.

Collapse and Rebuild

Against this backdrop of today's collapsing western culture is the spiritual condition of believers in Jesus Christ. The Christian martyrs mentioned above who have gone before us in heaven having been killed for their faith in Jesus Christ, His death on the cross and resurrection from the dead, and who did not love their lives unto death, inspire those of us who remain and aspire to live faithfully for Jesus our Savior. 

Two things appear to be happening simultaneously. As the world watches tragic events unfold across the earth, God is using the events in the lives of His people to bring us to life and maturity. 

A New Command

The love we have for God either shows itself or does not show itself in our relationships. Self-will, the antagonist to God’s love, disregards the line God sets between our relationship with Him and our relationship with others. It negates the word of God in exchange for exaltation of self. 

Self-will strikes with a stick, says it will never deny the Messiah, wants to call judgment down on others. It imposes its own desire upon situations and circumstances instead of fully trusting in God, who brings life by His word. It sees a culture that no longer shares its values and so reacts with its own thinking. With  the goal of self-preservation, it runs and hides, hordes and prepares, maybe demonstrates and takes up arms. On the other hand, God leads His own to speak what He gives us to say, do what He says to do, and completely trust Him for the results without the false crutch of self-reliance or concern for self-preservation. 

God chooses the specific situations and circumstances we must experience to extricate us from all that is not from Him and to reveal our true nature as His servants with faith as a mustard seed. Only a specific confluence of factors can bring about the maturity in love God desires and make us His people who shine as lights in the world. 

We cannot do much, but what we can do is place our lives in the hands of our Creator.  We can accept that whatever experience in life He allows, He is working out His great plan and preparing us for our role in it. We can trust that His will is being done on earth as it is in heaven. 

The heart must in connection with Christ respond in obedience to His word. The heart softened and changed by the grace of God leads the will. Peter learned this the hard way. He discovered that his determination was no substitute for the grace of Jesus to feed His sheep. Watchman Nee writes about our need to experience the cross to overcome exaltation of the human will. Jesus Himself leads us to carry the cross, die to self, and be reborn by connecting to God.

The new command is to love one another, which is possible because the love of God is far greater than the highest mountain, deeper than the deepest valley, and wider than east is to the west. God knows that what is coming upon the world and in our lives is required to bring to life a totally different mindset to trust and obey when we don't understand. We cannot control circumstances or people, even our own loved ones. Our love for them is expressed in our love for God and obedience to Him. This takes relinquishing control.

Trust and Obey

Moses overstepped when he struck the rock the second time in the desert to make water flow from it. Our love for God must lead us to obey Him even if we think we should be doing something else, something more, to bring about God’s will. These times in which we live are unlike any other. They demand sole allegiance to Christ.

Had Moses trusted and obeyed God, he would have glorified God as holy among the people. With Miriam’s passing, her well along with her care for the people no longer traveled with Israel. We now have to realign our hearts with the hearts of those we love in order to help them experience the life-giving flow of God’s Holy Spirit, the water of life. This is how others come under the influence of Christ's reign through us.

Speaking, as opposed to striking with a stick, sanctifies the Lord in the presence of others. Jesus invites all to come to Him to drink freely from the well of life, and for all who respond to this invitation, out of their innermost being will flow rivers of living water.  For this to flow, hearts must be softened like the heart of the woman at the well with whom Jesus spoke but the disciples would have ostracized. Striking with a stick does not accomplish the purpose of God to soften the heart of stone. Prayer does. With our laying down our lives before the Lord, let us lay down the lives of those we love also at the foot of the cross. 

Christ speaks life into people at their point of need. He does not snuff out a wick or break a bending reed. His word spoken small in the stillness of the heart feeds the flame of faith and causes the flow of living water. We shouldn’t be discouraged if the water of life in what we perceive is a heart of stone starts as a trickle. Rather we can pray for those given into our care, and we can entrust them to Christ who loves them more than we could ever express.

Is our will better than the Lord’s to accomplish His purpose? Of course not. It is only right and appropriate, then, that Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith, receive the glory due His name for the process. It must be made clear to everyone that the word of God, and not forced submission to it, gives life. There are no proxies for God. Each has ears to hear in the hidden person of the heart what the Spirit says to the churches.  

Shortened Days for Second Chances

A hypothetical person made some bad choices, starting with taking a job at a firm with a notorious reputation. To him, the idea to step out on his own away from the family business meant taking personal responsibility for his life. 

His thoughts blinded him to problems others close to him could see. He personally did not commit any crimes, but he eventually became aware that the upper tier of investment managers were stealing from investors in a huge Ponzi scheme, yet he chose not to go to the SEC. 

To make a long story short, the young man was indicted and sentenced. His rich father bailed him out and he accepted a plea bargain, which left his wife with a decision. Would she give him a second chance?

For the man in the story, from a recent movie by the way, time grew short. Darkness closed in fast, and he could not deny what was happening in his life, but a way out appeared. Though he had disappointed his father, his father’s love provided the way of escape for him. Figuratively, the young man was delivered from exile, and that deliverance reconnected him with his family.

Only one letter stands between exile and redemption. Adding the letter aleph in Hebrew transforms the former to the latter, exile to redemption. No matter what our circumstances, God has ordained them to lead us back to Him in preparation for our ultimate redemption. God is a God of second chances.

Exile is a continuation of God’s redemptive purpose for the ones He loves. The main purpose is not to punish but to cause us to return to Him in such a way that He remakes our past into the present and future He always desired. 

The Hebrew calendar offers two beginnings, one is Nissan, the first month of the year, when kings were traditionally crowned, when God showed Himself as King by delivering Israel from oppression in Egypt. The mighty hand of God to deliver pointed to the future, to the one act of redemption when Jesus sacrificed Himself as the passover Lamb opening the way to deliver all from ultimate exile back to God.

The second beginning is Tishri, the seventh month on the Jewish calendar, indicating the beginning of creation, which is roughly September through October. The days after Tishri are shortened heading toward the winter solstice. Jesus told us this would happen for the salvation of the elect; otherwise, even we wouldn’t survive.

Rabbis teach the shortening of the days after Tishri was seen as the sign of God’s wrath, yet it highlights God’s great mercy. The shortening of the days is said to have brought Adam awareness of his sin, as the coming darkness brings fear, until the fire which God gives provides light in the darkness.

The days must be shortened for the sake of the elect, for if the elect don’t become whom God has called them to be, then the whole earth must be condemned. This may not be a comfortable process for the elect, but it’s to prepare us as a spotless bride for the return of Christ. 

The point, then, of God shortening the days or bringing a sense of impending darkness, is not to cause harm. If we feel fearful, God wants to deliver us through Christ from all our fears as we put our trust in Him. He saves all who open their hearts to Him and listen to His voice in the word of God. Jesus has the keys to death and hell. He has overcome them both, and He empowers us to overcome as well. 

The glorious truth is that during these shortened days a new light dawns in our heart to transform the world which is experiencing growing darkness. Christ truly is the only hope of the world before whom we shine as lights. 

The Thrill of Victory and The Apparency of Defeat

An old television program called Wild World of Sports opened with a heart-wrenching sequence showing a professional skier’s harrowing accident as an example of the agony of defeat.

In high school while working on my car in my driveway, I witnessed an out-of-control, unlicensed driver skid around a corner, slam into a female crossing guard, throw her like a rag doll into the air and onto a yard a good ten feet from where she once stood in the street.

The competitive skier from Wide World of Sports and the crossing guard from my childhood both lived, even though it appeared that they could have died.

Looks can be deceiving. A snapshot does not show the whole story of what happened before and what life is like after a single event.

Out of Babylon

Nonbelievers act without regard to Christian beliefs, not seeing the church as a threat to the global agenda but as a speed bump to drive over on the way to establishing a new world system. 

Look at how many Christians have fallen by the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. The United States of America, including much of the church, has come to represent what Babylon in the Bible stands for. Babylon in Revelation goes up in flames, and similarly, some have seen visions of America burning. Even now, the once thriving culture of the U.S. and the prominence it once enjoyed in the world appear to be going up in smoke. 

The Lord tells believers in Messiah to come out of Babylon. By listening to God’s call, the true church comes out or is coming out of the deceitful Babylonian system. This guarantees we will not be judged along with the whore who has corrupted the world with her whoredom. 

War Against the Beast 

Fleeing Babylon frees us from the influence and consequences of following Babylonian customs. Christ also grants us victory over the beast system, which, unlike Babylon, is characterized by violence, death, terror and destruction. 

Victorious Christians are being raised in righteousness, a righteousness that has defeated the antichrist spirit and rejects the deceitful tenets of Islam. The unwise only see in snapshots distorted by the lens of unprincipled thinking. They are either not willing or unable to distinguish between war against people verses war against an evil philosophy of murder and terror.

Victory on Behalf of the Saints

The remnant church not only experiences the victory of coming out of Babylon, which rose to power on the wings of lust, but also overcomes the image, mark, and number of the beast by the blood of Jesus the Lamb of God, the word of their testimony, and by not loving their lives unto death.

This brings us back to where we started. 

Those intentionally or unknowingly living godless lives do not realize that the things they see are not as they seem. Christians must not fall into the same trap. We must obey the voice of Christ not to be blinded by the increased darkness, especially when we are tempted to get caught up with all that’s happening in the world rather than being caught up with Him. 

People of the world fail to look beyond their own desires, but we who trust in God must forsake what we so easily and selfishly hold to. The unbelieving and disobedient cannot see the reign of righteousness God has established through Christ, but the truth is that God is preparing His bride without spot or wrinkle no matter what may appear to be.

Neither the new world order nor the beast system will win. The Kingdom of God will prevail until all the enemies of Christ are under His feet. Messiah’s reign will crush all other kingdoms. It will become a mountain far above every other mountain, and all people will be drawn to it. 

Christians have been the victims of the world, but God comes to declare victory on behalf His people, not because of our righteousness but on the basis of Christ’s death and victorious resurrection from the dead for us. This is the deliverance from the time of Jacob's troubles. This is also what drove the enemy out of heaven and frees us eternally from his accusations.

Glorious Triumph of The Lord Jesus Christ

God’s gift of redemption is the scarlet thread connecting every believer from the age of creation to the present age and into the age to come, the age of the new heavens and the new earth wherein righteousness dwells. 

We have nothing to fear. Instead, we have an everlasting basis for confidence. Christ has overcome the world, and in righteousness by faith in the blood of the Lamb, so do we. 

Those who are overcoming have died and their life is hidden with Christ in God. He has purchased our victory, raised us to life, and has forever defeated the enemy on our behalf. We are called to be caught up with Christ and trust completely in Him for the grace to be given us at His revealing.

Transformation of All Things

The apostle Peter said, “The consummation of all things is at hand”, which some translate as, "the end of all things has come".  The disciples asked Jesus about this, and many today ask the same question? When will be the end of the age and the sign of the coming of Jesus in His Kingdom?

Jesus told Nicodemus if he truly returned to God, to connect with Him on the most basic human level as the source of life that he could see the Kingdom of God. We will look at that more below, but the hard fact is that when we see all that Jesus said would happen begin to transpire as it is today, Jesus has told us that the first priority is to resist deception. This is the first step to transformation.

The temptation is to allow deceit to dictate our perception of reality. If that’s the case, we have no reason to change. On the other hand, we can listen to Jesus and keep listening to Him until the day dawns and the morning star arises in our hearts. This shift from lies to truth is crucial during these times of rapidly unfolding world events.

Some in the past such as Lot and Noah understood what was coming upon the world, while others living at the same time assumed life would continue as usual, so they gave no place to what God was saying. People following their own desires so much want to be right that they ignore the truth because it contradicts what they want. This eliminates in their minds the need for change. Peter, by the time he wrote his First and Second book, had become convinced the end was near. In his writing, he emphasizes living in anticipation of the new heavens and the new earth to come, despite the truth escaping the notice of others. 

The question, however, is not whether or not others will follow their own thinking, but rather, will we follow our own desire or God's voice? 

We All Need to Be Changed

Has anyone of us made all the right choices in life? Even one mistake can produce a series of unintended consequences, and with the compounding of one mistake upon another, where does that leave us? Comparing our lives as to the work of a master potter, is life as we know it taking the shape of a perfect vessel, or do we wish it could be re-fashioned?

Jewish leaders teach that every day God remakes the world and everything in it. Why can't He recreate us? He continually transforms nature, which appears dead in winter yet yields new life in spring. He seemingly brings life from nothing. How can we be transformed and conformed to His image?

Plain and Simple, God’s Word Transforms  

Jesus always wants what His Father wants, and the heavenly Father tells us to listen to Jesus because He is always pleasing to God. At the glorious transfiguration of Jesus, the heavenly Father in the hearing of two witnesses from heaven, Elijah and Moses, and three witnesses on earth, Peter, James, and John, revealed what is essential for our transformation. We must listen to Jesus. 

Could transformation be that simple?

Getting Israel through the sea of weeds didn’t take monumental effort by the people of God. They didn’t have to untangle their own dilemma. Yahweh is the one who transformed the sea so it became solid wall on both sides of Israel and dried the ground so the people could walk on through. They only had to listen to Moses and walk. 

Jesus reminded Nicodemus that when Israel were stuck and ensnared, God used their apparent detour to lead them to life. Yeshua explained that He had to be lifted up in order to draw all people to Himself, just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness.

How did Moses lift up the snake? It was a matter of simple obedience. He did what Jesus said to do. He told those bitten by a poisonous snake where to look, and God healed all who listened. It didn’t matter if they understood or not. Obedience for them was not academic. It was a matter of life or death. So it is with us.

Simple Obedience Draws Attention to Jesus

How do we know if we are transformed? Paul indicates that the test is whether or not we are able to approve God’s will (Romans 12:1-2). The extent that we are able to approve God’s will shows the extent of our return to God. We are transformed, meaning being prepared to see Jesus, to the extent we are doing what He desires and not what we want. This is the baseline for transformation in the Kingdom of God: discovering the glorious grace and will of God in Christ Jesus. 

Here’s an example.

Jesus said, “The greatest among you must be your servant…” If I understand the words of Jesus to mean I can be great in God’s Kingdom if I learn to be servant of all, I have missed the boat. This perception takes what Jesus says and packages it as nothing more than a western philosophy of success fit for the consumption and deception of the masses.

But is that really the message Jesus intends to convey? Not at all. What Jesus said completely eliminates greatness from the equation because the Kingdom of God is not self centered. The Kingdom of God is not about me and it never will be. It's not about greatness except for the greatness of our God, the Creator of the universe. It’s all about being a true servant of Jesus by doing what He says.

Shifting Sand is Underfoot  

Transformation becomes possible when we are willing to truthfully acknowledge all our weaknesses, reject life lived according to our faulty terms, and ask Jesus to lead us to bear the fruit He desires for all eternity. Lifting our eyes to humbly look with faith past our faults connects us with God in a way that nothing else can.

It’s the place where God’s great love for us opens the exit door from all our entanglements. God is prepared to restore to us all we have missed, given up, and lost. In the process of forming the new heavens and the new earth, He is leading us as His perfectly formed vessels, completely whole, lacking in nothing. This is the shalom of Christ's Kingdom.

God transforms us through our obedience to Christ. That is how we are conformed to His will, and He uses us to impact and change the lives of others by simply being obedient to Him. We show that we love Jesus not only by hearing His voice but also by doing what He says in the world. Living in line with the will of God guarantees our bearing fruit for His Kingdom and our appearing with Jesus in glory when He comes in the clouds with His holy angels.

The New Leaders of The New Economy

Pakistan, where the San Bernadino terrorists had ties; Syria, where Muslim tribes fight for supremacy and other nations seek to annihilate them; Turkey, who may or may not be aiding the transportation and refinement of oil from ISIS; and Israel, who stands against both Iran and Syrian-based Hezbollah —of all this, what can be said? The one to solve the problem of world evil and the evil inclination needs the proverbial wisdom of Solomon. 

None of the leaders on the world stage has that wisdom, and if they say they do, we must question the source. The Babylonian system based on lust, the beast system based on war, and the new world order based on false peace each stems from the corruptive forces of evil. The answer will never be man nor the image of man but only the glorification of Christ and complete allegiance to Him.

He is the only one who continually sustains creation, and therefore the only one who can transform it, for all things were made by Him and for Him. He is the one true King, the wisdom and manifest glory of God. 

Every knee bow to Him! Christ has overcome the world —the great news for the well-being of His followers. He alone has overcome death and raises us up. He inspires confidence to listen to His voice and do what He says in a world tilting off its axis. 

The world is the field where God uses tribulation and troubles to facilitate redemptive change.  The truth is that Jesus leads us with something far greater than the wisdom of Solomon, and wealth is not the goal. Though God added riches to Solomon (and he did not seek it by the way), not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like the flowers of the field. How much more will the heavenly Father clothe those who seek Him first and His righteousness. The discernment Christ gives exposes evil inclinations, so we can abandon and overcome them to get about the business of transforming the kingdoms and economies of the world.

The connection between the problems in the world today and life under the reign of the sovereign King of kings is the security and provision that the people of God experienced while Solomon ruled. David’s enemies had been put under foot, and that victory made the way for the construction of the House of God under Solomon. Now that Christ, through His shed blood, substitutionary death, and victorious resurrection, has forever defeated the enemy of our soul, we, too, are being built up as living stones into a holy temple in Christ.

Transformation accompanies victory. Now that Christ Himself is ruling on the throne of David, God tabernacles over us in our service to Him with the wisdom of Christ day and night in His temple. 

This wisdom, which Revelation 20 calls the power to judge, is what God gave Solomon to administer justice in his kingdom. Remember how king Solomon decided to cut a baby in half? The response of the biological mother revealed her true identity and exposed and condemned the liar. The ability to judge appears in connection with God declaring victory on behalf of the saints and the ultimate defeat of the enemy with his being thrown and locked in the abyss, no longer able to deceive. Those who overcome the evil one experience firsthand how the kingdoms of this world are becoming the kingdom of our God and of His Messiah.

While reigning with Christ does mean dwelling in the House of God in repentance (as Ninevah turned in the face of judgment) and listening (as the Queen of Sheba came to hear the wisdom of Solomon), it doesn’t mean complete freedom from troubles. Even after Jacob freed himself from Laban (a type of antichrist), reconciled with Esau, and met God at Bethel, he still faced difficulties, even the apparent loss of all he hoped for.  

All Jacob’s problems, however, would lead to fulfillment and fruitfulness for the remaining years of his life. Likewise, Christ has ordained all the craziness we see around us, all our present difficulties and past mistakes, all the wrong turns and poor choices, to prepare our hearts to be led by Him. 

Jesus said it is His will that we experience life in superabundance and bear fruit for the glory of God, and He teaches how this is to happen. Though Jesus taught about holy prayer and charitable giving, the heart of His message in Matthew 6 is coming to God (teshuvah). Doing so overcomes the evil inclination to be noticed by others. Look how many times Jesus in Matthew 6 exhorted us to take action in secret, whether charitable deeds or prayer or giving.

In the secret place, where we find our sole source of life connecting back to God our Creator, everything that has come to define us from our past, from what we should never have experienced to all the consequences of what we should never have done —all somehow becomes God’s perfect will as communion with Him transforms our soul.

What merits the role of leader in the new economy is teshuvah. Return to God. It is the place of change. That’s the only way for our souls to be transformed, and the only way for us, the leaders of the new economy, to transform the soul of the earth. 

The New Currency and The New Economy

What if there were no time, no time limits, no time constraint? What if the eight hour per day five day work week was not the restraining factor upon a person’s life and happiness? 

It’s not.

Many financial analysts have been talking about something called the great reset. They say all the fiat economies (ones, like that of the U.S., which are not tied to a physical commodity such as gold) must collapse in time. Banks cannot just keep printing money. When the world economies finally implode, people expect a new currency to emerge.

We do not have to wait. We can now exchange one currency for another. Jesus told those who will overcome to buy from Him gold refined by fire. This is the new way of doing business, far surpassing the dying system of buying and selling. We receive gold from Jesus in exchange for giving Him our lives. 

 

Why would He give us gold? Why would He do that for us? It’s His gift for our coming to Him truly realizing we are poor, wretched, blind, and naked. Along with gold, Jesus as part of the exchange gives us a new wardrobe, a white garment to wear (Revelation 3).

The exchange rate of our old heart of stone for a new heart of flesh is obedience to all God says, because we love Him and know His voice. This currency is good for use in all existing markets, from the Shanghai Composite to the Mumbai Sensex. Of course, the Sensex is off over 10% for the year.

Make sure you consult with Jesus and know His true voice for every action in any market. The comments expressed here should not be taken as advice to invest, except in the Millennium Reign Market (MR) that is fast approaching. All acts of obedience should always be done only in response to Jesus, the voice of truth.

The Millennial Reign rests upon a Kingdom that will never be destroyed. As a matter of fact, the prophet Daniel describes it this way in Daniel 2: "But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.” This will and is certainly coming to pass. The great thing about this new economic system is that since it’s not the creation of man, it exists completely separate and above the manipulation of shadowy influences, banks, governments, or world leaders. 

Seize the opportunity now as an early adopter and don’t miss this guaranteed offer. Earlier investments —the earlier, the better— assure amazing results. 

The Kingdom of God will consume all other kingdoms, and Christ will reign forever, but what does this have to do with time?

God exists apart from time. He’s not bound by it. What does this mean for us? 

Our obedience to God transcends time and joins us together with all, from Abraham to Noah, from Daniel to Micah, who living in loving relationship with Jesus, have gone before us. 

As Jewish scholars believe the Sabbath exists beyond the wall of time, the rest that God has for us His people is a place beyond our perception of time that may seem to bind us. Jesus promises this rest and provides it as a gift from our unlimited investment account in His name established and underwritten by the Messiah Himself for our use now and into the Age to come.  

Days of Noah, Vertical Economics, Guaranteed Returns, and Infinite Growth

What is vertical economics?

First off, it’s not to be confused with voodoo economics.

Genesis 6 tells us: 8 And Noah found grace in the eyes of Jehovah.

Only after this does the Scripture describe the births of Noah.

⁹ These [are] births of Noah: Noah [is] a righteous man; perfect he hath been among his generations; with God hath Noah walked habitually.

And what is this births of Noah about? Is it only about his sons? Credit to the rabbis for seeing something very obvious. Righteousness is the posterity of Noah’s life lived in relationship with God. 

Walking with God on an habitual or daily or moment by moment basis is the perfection God desires and the life blessed with grace. The perfection of Noah transforms his generations. As we are the generation of Noah, the light of Christ shines out through us as we walk with God. He is the sun and we are the stars. Grace is passed on through us into this world to change it. Righteousness isn’t transferred primarily by what we say but rather by walking with God, that is, knowing and loving Him in what we do.

Noah had first hand experience of the vertical economy. He lived it daily. The earth was corrupt and violent, yet Noah was not. God said the time had come for the end of all flesh. Flesh is earthly or horizontal. Walking with God is heavenly or vertical. God said, the time is come to destroy the earth and all the people who were corrupt along with it.

What was Noah doing as society got worse? He obeyed God. Noah built the ark which God would use to save him and his family. Obedience to Christ is salvation. If a man says he has faith but has no works, can that faith save him? Isn’t that what the book of James teaches?

The vertical economy is not about avoiding the world or world economies. God may lead us to do so, or He may not. Life in the Kingdom of God is about being obedient to the voice of Christ as we walk with Him. That means doing whatever He says. He may lead us to invest or to build or to write or to move or to do something else, but no matter, the return on our obedience is guaranteed and the growth of our investment, infinite.

A Different Voice

When Jesus in the voice of a trumpet spoke to John, He spoke from behind the apostle, and John fell down as dead. Jesus touched John with His right hand and told him not to be afraid. 

What voice are we listening to?

Voices are saying the economy is about to collapse, World War III has started, and our planet is nearly uninhabitable because of geo-engineering. 

Jesus in Matthew 24 told usto be careful that we are not deceived, and He said, 

32 “Now let the fig tree teach you its lesson: when its branches begin to sprout and leaves appear, you know that summer is approaching. 33 In the same way, when you see all these things, you are to know that the time is near, right at the door. 34 Yes! I tell you that this people will certainly not pass away before all these things happen. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

It is understood that the fig tree represents Israel and the sprouting indicates the blossoming of the land of Israel, and there is truth to that. God has caused the land to flourish. The fig also represents God’s blessing and covering as in the Garden of Eden and when Solomon began to reign in place of his father David. As 1 Kings 4:25 says, "Judah and Israel lived safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan to Beersheba all the days of Solomon."

Why did Jesus say over and over again not to be deceived? Jesus, I believe, is drawing our attention to the need for believer in these days to practice great discernment just as Solomon walked in the wisdom given by God in order to conduct his kingly affairs. 

Not one of God’s promises has failed. That was the blessed experience under Solomon’s reign, and Micah prophecies similar blessings connected to the fig tree under the reign of Messiah. 

No wonder Jesus says heaven and earth will pass away but none of His words will. He is referring to the salvation coming to those who know Him. When we see the appearing of His covering over us very much like a tabernacle, this generation will not pass away without seeing happen all the things Jesus spoke of.