Hannah's Prayer

Hannah’s Prayer

1 Samuel 2:1-10

And Hannah prayed, and said, My heart rejoiceth in the LORD, mine horn is exalted in the LORD:

 my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies; because I rejoice in thy salvation.

There is none holy as the LORD: for there is none beside thee:
neither is there any rock like our God.

Talk no more so exceeding proudly;
let not arrogancy come out of your mouth:
for the LORD is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed.
The bows of the mighty men are broken, and they that stumbled are girded with strength.
They that were full have hired out themselves for bread; and they that were hungry ceased:
so that the barren hath born seven; and she that hath many children is waxed feeble.
The LORD killeth, and maketh alive:
he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up.
The LORD maketh poor, and maketh rich: he bringeth low, and lifteth up.
He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill,
to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory:
for the pillars of the earth are the LORD'S, and he hath set the world upon them.
He will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness;
for by strength shall no man prevail.
The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces;
out of heaven shall he thunder upon them:
the LORD shall judge the ends of the earth;
and he shall give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed.

A Cautionary Word

A CAUTIONARY WORD


“… You are weighed in the balances and are found wanting” Daniel 5:7.

“And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these” Mark 12:29-31.

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” John 15:13.

“IF I [can] speak in the tongues of men and [even] of angels, but have not love (that reasoning, intentional, spiritual devotion such as is inspired by God's love for and in us), I am only a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

And if I have prophetic powers (the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), and understand all the secret truths and mysteries and possess all knowledge, and if I have [sufficient] faith so that I can remove mountains, but have not love (God's love in me) I am nothing (a useless nobody).

Even if I dole out all that I have [to the poor in providing] food, and if I surrender my body to be burned or in order that I may glory, but have not love (God's love in me), I gain nothing. Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily. It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God's love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong]. It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail. Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening]. Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end]. As for prophecy (the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), it will be fulfilled and pass away; as for tongues, they will be destroyed and cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away [it will lose its value and be superseded by truth].

For our knowledge is fragmentary (incomplete and imperfect), and our prophecy (our teaching) is fragmentary (incomplete and imperfect). But when the complete and perfect (total) comes, the incomplete and imperfect will vanish away (become antiquated, void, and superseded). When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; now that I have become a man, I am done with childish ways and have put them aside. For now we are looking in a mirror that gives only a dim (blurred) reflection [of reality as in a riddle or enigma], but then [when perfection comes] we shall see in reality and face to face! Now I know in part (imperfectly), but then I shall know and understand fully and clearly, even in the same manner as I have been fully and clearly known and understood [by God].

And so faith, hope, love abide [faith--conviction and belief respecting man's relation to God and divine things; hope--joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation; love--true affection for God and man, growing out of God's love for and in us], these three; but the greatest of these is love” 1 Corinthians 13:1-13.

“Now about food offered to idols: of course we know that all of us possess knowledge [concerning these matters. Yet mere] knowledge causes people to be puffed up (to bear themselves loftily and be proud), but love (affection and goodwill and benevolence) edifies and builds up and encourages one to grow [to his full stature]. If anyone imagines that he has come to know and understand much [of divine things, without love], he does not yet perceive and recognize and understand as strongly and clearly, nor has he become as intimately acquainted with anything as he ought or as is necessary” 1 Corinthians 8:1-2.

“We love him, because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also” 1 John 4:19-21.

How much of the time do we actually… ‘practice what we preach?’ How does our daily walk….match up with what we say we believe? It is much easier to ‘talk the talk’ than it is to ‘walk the walk.’ Knowledge in and of itself is only a tool, it is incapable of imparting LIFE.  It requires application… implementation on the part of the hearer to effect change. It is not enough simply to ‘know’… if we do not act on what we have learned. When it comes to learning spiritual realities, we discover that in order to implement them into our lives, the death of self is the chief requirement. "Till not I live, but Christ liveth in me…”; “For in him we live, and move, and have our being.”

If we would honestly examine our own hearts, we will have to admit that we are in possession of far more knowledge about God, than we are walking in the Power and Spirit of Christ in us. Hence, if we were to be judged this moment, we would be out of balance as the graphic illustrates; our accumulated knowledge about the things of God outweighing the Christ living in and through us.

We are not going to be rewarded for how much knowledge we possess. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” Galatians 6:7.  Our actions speak louder than our words. Our reward will be in direct correlation to our obedience and the surrender of our will to His. It is the “Christ in you” that makes us acceptable to a Holy God, not our adherence to religious rituals, formulas or beliefs. Our duty is to love him that first loved us, and gave himself for us. As the above verses illustrate, LOVE is the deciding factor. As long as we are living according to the ways of the world and our flesh, we are incapable of loving those who despitefully use us; and we love ourselves more than we love God.

It is a sobering thing to consider the ramifications of the following….“But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” Romans 8:9. One must honestly deduct from this passage that if the Spirit of God is indwelling us, we can no longer live according to our fleshly desires and carnal thinking. Our flesh is very adept at convincing us that our carnal desires are in fact the Spirit of God.  Jesus told us in John 3:6 “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”  The two are distinctly separate. They can not be blended any more than oil and water. We are the servants of one or the other. If we are doing what seems right in our own eyes, we are operating from our flesh and not by the Spirit of God, and are in danger of being counted among those who are ‘none of his.’

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” Ephesians 2:8.  

May we always be reminded….“Knowledge puffeth up, but love edifieth.” And continue to “… grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever” 2 Peter 3:18.


Amen.

Cathy Morris
8/28/2010

Deuteronomy 32 - Paraphrased

Deuteronomy 32

- Paraphrased -

Mary Lois Burns

Listen, you who think you have already entered into Heavenly places in Christ Jesus, to what God is saying about your position with Him. Pay attention, and act on what I am saying if you want to come out of your earthly life, into new life in Christ. What I am about to instruct you will be like the rain and dew which brings life and growth to the tender new shoots that the Lord is planting in you. I have been charged to address you by name, and to remind you that the honor, authority and character of the Lord Jehovah is very great, even though what He is doing in you seems very small.

God’s work in us and for us is perfect. He is our refuge, as well as the cliff off which we must jump, if we want to follow Him. He calls us to walk down a road which he has gone before and marked out the way. This way of life and mode of action will pass the sentence of death on all our old ways of thinking and acting. We cannot walk two different roads at once. We must choose and stay on one or the other. This way of life requires faithfulness, trustworthiness and fidelity to God first, and to all those with whom He has given us a relationship. He furnishes all that He requires, as we obey Him and look to Him for what we are lacking. His life in us cannot be involved in any injustice, perversion, lawlessness or betrayal.

Those who call themselves God’s children have spoiled themselves and each other. This blemish is not characteristic of God’s life in us. They have distorted and twisted the truth of God’s redemption into a cover for their sins. O wicked, vile and unwise people! Remember the time when you first knew that the Lord was moving in your life. Distinguish between that time, and where you find yourself now. Ask the Lord, and He, as your Father, will explain to you about the death of the natural life to prepare the way for the New Birth of spiritual life.

We have not treated Him as a loving and rich Father, which supplies abundantly all that He requires of us as His children and representatives. Remember how the Lord dealt with the children of Israel? While they were still Gentiles and heathen, He appointed the place and time of their deliverance. He separated them from the sons of the old Adamic nature, and called them to come out to a place unknown. The life of Christ in us is the portion of God’s peculiar people. He takes the schemer and manipulator in each one of us (Jacob) and turns him into one who has the very life of God dwelling within. This life of Christ in us is a measuring line. What we can’t measure up to, He does in us, as the occasion demands. He comes to us in our dryness, deadness and lonely efforts to make something worthwhile of our lives. When we cry out and howl because of our failure, He comes to us to change us. We are turned around from the course we were taking, as He directs and protects us, in the same way we protect and direct the pupils of our eyes.

Just as the mother eagle shakes up and wakes up her nestlings to get them to open their eyes, so God must allow adversity to come into our lives. The eagle forces her young out of the safe nest into the air, then catches them on her wings, so they can find out what it is like to fly. The Lord must transport us into the spiritual, by cutting us off from all the supports and strengths we had in the natural. The Lord carries us on His wings to high places on the earth, and gives us fruit to eat of His word to us. He teaches us how to receive His love, forgiveness and patience when we are pressed into a hard place by others. His sweetness comes forth when we are up against the stronghold of the enemy. God’s anointing came as we stood against wrongdoing wherever we encounter it. “God has anointed him with the oil of gladness above his fellows, because he loved righteousness and hated iniquity” Ps. 46:7. We had butter to eat made from the milk of the Word, curdled as it was churned by difficult circumstances. The richest, choicest part of our relationship to the sheep and lambs of the flock of God, is the character and faithfulness that God gives in the midst of betrayal and disappointment.

We had our chance to grow in the Lord as we dealt with those who desired to follow God, but who had never seen, much less gone through, the death to self of the Jordan River. We have given up our own carnal minds (fasted from our own understanding) as we tried to teach God’s way to those who are still carnal and uncircumcised. We had opportunity to drink the blood of Jesus, and eat His flesh, as we sought God desperately for our hearts to be made right and kept right with each member of His Body.

Then we became impressed with our own urightness and fidelity. Our thinking that we were full of God’s goodness and righteousness, and couldn’t fail, made us stupid and dense. We took credit, and thought our flesh had been transformed. We left off the careful seeking and trusting and depending on the Lord, day by day. We hid God’s glory under our tent, and turned around to follow and serve our own idea of what God wanted us to do and be. We put our image as a wonderful Christian, and our ministry to the Body, in the place where Jehovah God belongs. Our one goal in life was to prove that we were God’s people, in His will, and doing His will. We perverted everything we had learned, and became very religious and pious.

When the Lord saw that we were giving all our love, devotion and energy to this strange god we had created (our idea of what He wanted), He could not continue to reveal Himself to us and in us. He let us choose our own delusion, and empty ourselves, trying to make our god real. He gave us time to eat the bitter fruit of our own devices, and reap the faithlessness and betrayal of those, like us, who were serving the Antichrist, and calling him Jesus. We grieved the Lord with our zealousness for this false god. Now, He says in order to wake us up to our deceptiveness and betrayal of Him, He has put us in association with others who have left their First Love, and gone a whoring after other gods. We see it in them and hate it. A fire is lit in us, as we seek God for the key to their deliverance. This fire eats up and consumes all the earthly life we called spiritual, and what it produced of religious fervor and spiritual pride.

While we are seeking God for their deliverance from error and false gods, our own ideas of what is good and evil, or right and wrong, or spiritual or unspiritual, are burned up. As the distress over the situation mounts, God says, I am preparing My thunderbolt (burst of light) that will open your eyes, and set you free once more to follow Me. If you refuse the light, you will become exhausted and intensely hungry to make war on the burning destruction. I will appoint one you consider unlearned and not fit to teach you, to prick you and point out the poison of the false love (based on fear) and the untempered mortar (relationships held together by the manipulation of man). The drought and famine of your earthly relationships, and the idol set up in your heart, will cause the life of Christ in you to abort before My New Birth comes. They will rob you of your position as My chosen one, My Bride, My child, My full grown son.

I am able to remove even the remembrance and stain of your infidelity, if you will turn from it, and come back to Me, and enter into My rest. The grief and vexation brought on you, by the one who hates Me, will turn you back to Me, and to the right road once more. The enemy which pretends to be Me and demands your loyalty to him, will afflict you and bring you into great tribulation. The fruit of his work in your lie will be to exalt your own power, means and directions on how to follow God. You will say, The Lord hasn’t done this to me, it is the work of the enemy! As long as you refuse the counsel of the one I send to show you the way back, you will be as heathen, wandering away from My plan and purpose for your life, without any realization of your actual condition. Oh! If only they would be wise in mind, word and action, then they would become skilful and intelligent enough to distinguish between what they had when they started out with the Lord, and the emptiness in which they are living now. How would any of us be able to come out of this Babylon of serving other gods, except the Lord had sold us into a marriage relationship with one another in the Body of Christ? The Lord shut us up together in a relationship based on loving one another as He loved us, and gave Himself for us. As we obey His commandment, we are freed and cleansed from our own idolatry and religious deceptions.

Our hard situation is not like their difficulty. Our adversary is an intercessor. Their vine is not like our Vine. Their vine is fired by zeal for religious causes, and their way of life is to buy and sell one another for gain. The fruit of this religious zeal is like the juice of the poppy. It lulls you to sleep by assuring you that you are right with God and man. The end result of eating it is total blindness to your own spiritual adultery. You become intoxicated with your efforts to ‘win souls’ for Jesus, and twist the truth of God’s plan of redemption into a ridiculed and despised way.

God says that all these things are stored in His treasury. He will require their treatment of us to be right, or they will never be right with Him. The revenge and punishment for these offenses can be salvation to those who will see and hear and repent of their hatred of Christ in us. The time will come when their walk with the Lord will be carried off course, for the day of bending down by oppression is at hand. The prepared future treasure is ready. The Lord will rule over and judge His people. He will avenge all that was done to His servant, as soon as He sees His strength fail, his rejection of the false assembly and false teachings. And He shall say, Where are the gods in whom you trusted, which consumed the richest part of your sacrifices offered to Me? These false gods became drunk on the fermented fruit juice poured out for My sake. Let them confirm your way, and help and protect you from My search light.

Look carefully, and recognize that I, Jehovah, am the only True and Living God. There are no other gods besides Me. I put to death, and I cause to live. I pierce through the lies and bondage, and I mend by renewing your relationships My way. There is no one who can snatch you out of My power, means and direction for your release, for I bring them forth by My Spirit, and I live forever. When the power, means and direction of your release, is the sentence pronounced judicially against something that is wrong in your life, I sue the drought of removal of My presence and blessings to prepare you for the lightning bolt of the truth. You must act on what I show you to break its hold on you and yours. Whatever has you bound hates Me and My light. This bondage is occupying a place in your life that I want to live in. Cooperate with My Spirit in My Body, and this vengeance on My enemy will bring you back to the First Love experience you once had with Me.

This piercing wound (the accusation) can be healed only by the Blood of Jesus, being applied as you admit the awfulness of the sin in your heart, and seek Me for deliverance. Don’t try to defend yourself, or excuse yourself. Fully agree with Me. Love righteousness more than your own integrity. This hatred of My Son (truth) in you, will hide behind all kinds of sacrifices and accusations against My messenger, but don’t be deceived. This is the Antichrist sitting in the temple of your own body, pretending to be Me. He has caused you to take the mark of the Beast (do whatever you have to do to keep doing business in your old world). You think you will lose your chance to serve Me if you are cut off from what you are doing now. Accept this mortal wound from My hand. Agree that no fleshly effort to serve Me can produce eternal life. Lay down your life for My sake, and receive My forgiveness for all the idolatry and unfaithfulness done in My Name. Jesus did no wrong, but He submitted to the crucifixion of the flesh by the religious community. He rose from the dead, no longer under their authority or control.

This is the land the Lord is calling you to enter. You must cross Jordan to get in. Jordan means to go down. God down into the waters of death to everything you are and have done to serve God. Follow Jesus there, and put the stones of your efforts to do and be right in a heap in the middle of the river. Consign them to be covered with the waters of death forever. Then bring out the twelve stones from the midst of the river of Death to Self, and set them up as a reminder to you always, that you are not walking in the land flowing with milk and honey, by your efforts, faith and obedience, but only by the grace of God.

God’s servant is speaking to you. You must commit your heart to hear and obey all these instructions which I am giving you from the Lord. This will be a wall of protection for you and your children, if you will hear, obey and teach them. This is not just an option which you may or may not choose to heed. This is the way of Life in Christ Jesus. There is no other way to continue in Him and in His Kingdom.

- end of paraphrase –

New Posts

Although these postings are new to this site, they are old in both when they were written as well as in the plan of God.  If God's plan is not challenging us to let go of all that we 'think we know'... then we are following a diluted plan devised by men, and not God's plan at all.  1 Corinthians 8:2 And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.

Promise To The Bride

Proverbs:  Chapter 1 Paraphrased

Transparent

In this hour of gross apostasy and rampant deceptions, may we all seek the Lord with our whole heart, examine ourselves, whether we be in the faith, and work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.

FYE - For Your Edification

The Destruction of Passion

by James F. Jarjou

There is a... "More Excellent Way"

There is a…. “More Excellent Way”


When we have consecrated all to the Lord, we must trust in His ability to make us a fit dwelling place for His presence. He will send you to others with words. If you have not experienced God's love for this person, and His intense desire to draw them closer to Himself, you will not be able to speak freely and clearly.

1 Corinthians 13 - Paraphrased

In case I utter God's words to you, whether in the language of men, or the speech of a messenger of God, and I have not demonstrated by actions that I really love you, and am burning with a desire for you to prosper an excel in God's Kingdom, then I turn myself into an empty loudmouth, shouting about judgments I have never experienced. And even if I prophesy to you, have awareness and perception into the secrets and mysteries of all religious rites and ceremonies, and if I have complete understanding and demonstrated miraculous faith which has removed a mountain of difficulties from your life, and a not held and possessed by God's kind of love for you, I am nobody you need pay attention to. Even if I feed the poor with all my substance and offer to give my body as a burnt sacrifice, if I have not experienced God's love and longing for you to be right with Him, it will not buy me favor with God.

God's love is enduring and gracious. It doesn't disappear when the first difficulty arises in our relationship. God's kind of love is not possessive and envious of your relationships to others. God's love doesn't allow me to exalt myself over you, to make you my slave and totally dependent on me for your spiritual food. God's love in me will not allow me to mistreat you, without my having to confess to you and ask forgiveness. God's love gives me the patience to overlook faults that He is not dealing with at the time. It keeps me from assuming the worst about you or anyone else the Lord is drawing to Himself. Even when the hidden darkness is uncovered, I cannot rejoice at the discovery, but am grieved in spirit and body at that which grieves the Lord. Only if the uncleanness is confessed and forsaken, and truth and forgiveness established in its place, can God's love rejoice and celebrate.

God's love enables me to endure and patiently forgive all kinds of accusations and attacks on my credibility until He comes to deal with the offender. His love keeps me resting entirely on His wisdom, grace and provision for the situation in which I find myself because I spoke the words He told me to speak. God's love gives me what I need to love you in spite of the rebellion against God's authority, and His word to you. I expect fervently that you will come through this darkness, into His marvelous light.

God's love will never allow me to be driven off the course He set for me. Prophecies can be made of none effect by the failure of the one spoken to, to act on them. Words can be stopped when the hearer refuses to listen and accept these as coming from God. All knowledge that the person thinks he has about God will become useless to him, when he rejects the message and messenger God has sent to set him on the right course. All knowledge is partial. All prophecies are but a segment of God's great plan. When we come into a full grown son relationship with the Heavenly Father, through obedience to the Son Jesus, we will see that our obedience to the part revealed, has led us beyond it, to a more complete and full understanding of, and wholehearted cooperation with the Lord.

Just as a child perceives his relationship to his parents one way when he is growing up, and another way entirely when he is full grown, so the religious exercises and attitudes toward who God is and who we are, will have to change with Spiritual growth. By clinging to the old vision, given as a spiritual babe, we are like the child who keeps looking at his own image in a mirror, instead of seeing the Father, who is waiting to show him all about His House and His kingdom.

Through God's love we are enabled to take our eyes off our selves long enough to see Him in His body (those He has called and chosen). We will never see Him face to face, or person to person, until we acknowledge Him in one another, and love one another with His kind of love. All the things we think we know about God from our religious training and practices will pass away, as we go on with Him. Only three things we will bring us out of our religious experiences. They are; the faith and trust in Jesus as my Savior and Lord, the hope and expectations that He is making a fit vessel of my life to dwell with Him, and the Love of God shed abroad in your heart, by the Holy Ghost. The greatest and most important of these is God's love manifest through us to others. This is the more excellent way to find God's will for your life.
Mary Lois Burns

The Birth of Jesus Christ

This writing follows 'THE SEAL OF GOD' (previous post)... 

Conclusion

THE BIRTH OF JESUS CHRIST

While we are busy celebrating an event of almost two thousand years ago, or looking forward with anticipation to some future coming of Christ, we are missing out on the truth that God says, I AM THAT I AM. He is not saying, I was or I will be, but I AM right now, in your particular circumstances, THE WAY, THE TRUTH, and THE LIFE (John 14:6). Consequently, our failure and frustration to figure out our own way is our great opportunity to learn of His way for our lives. “He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).

Conception is an act. Birth is an act. It is not just some idea that we believe. Faith is an act of obedience to the perfect will of God. As we agree to trust God with ourselves and all concerning us, He sends the Holy Spirit to give us the desire and ability to do the will of the Father. Jesus’ whole life on earth was as a fore-runner, a firstborn among men, who would choose and perfectly do the will of the Father, at all costs. The enemy has robbed us of this simplicity by giving us all kinds of confusing and conflicting ‘teachings’ about God… who He is, and what He wants from us. We have drunk the golden cup from the hand of Mystery Babylon (religion), and been so busy with religious rituals and sacrifices that we lost our First Love… the simplicity of God is my Father, and I am His obedient child.

Abraham had to go to a place that was unknown to him, and go at God’s direction and God’s time. He obeyed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. He was not required to give himself to some institution to be used like a piece of merchandise. He had to obey God when He spoke to him. He is known as the Father of the Faithful. The way to eternal life is through Jesus Christ, but not in some mysterious sacrifice that we cannot quite understand. Jesus is the Way. We have to follow His footsteps and walk in complete obedience to the Father, His Father, God Almighty. All who hear and obey the will of the Father are the brothers, sisters, mother and Bride, the counterpart of Jesus here on earth (Matt. 12:50).

The New Birth is not an opportunity to try my way under different circumstances. The New Birth is simply a new ability to hear and obey the will of the Father. You will not find it in churches, ministries, prayer groups, or great meetings. All these religious exercises soothe you, and fascinate you in some way, and make you think that you are pleasing God. It is a deception. You are being robbed of your rightful place as a son, by putting men, doctrines, ministries, buildings, organizations, and the works of your own hands before the Lord. It is the Antichrist spirit sitting in the temple, making himself to be God (2 Thess. 2:4). We must overcome this mark of the Beast if we want to enter into the rest, joy and true son relationship with the Father. Renounce this idolatry that has bound you, and kept you from your loving, long-suffering, and forgiving Heavenly Father. He will forgive and cleanse you, and redirect your life. You will find true rest for your soul in Jesus. May the truth open your eyes and lead you to the true New Birth of Jesus that the Father wants you to have. Psalm 40:6-8 and Hebrews 10:5-7 both say:

Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened; burnt offering and sin offering has thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do Thy will, O My God; yea, thy law is written in my heart.

If the desire to do God’s will is not in your heart, you are not Born Again by the Spirit of God. The New Birth is life, not some idea you believe, and then as you submit to man’s teachings and religious sacrifices, it will grow and produce life. If you don’t have life right now, you don’t have the Son, and He doesn’t have you in His hand. Rise up out of the dust of the yokes of others, and take Jesus’ yoke upon you, and learn of Him. He is meek and lowly in heart, and you will find a resting place for your soul.

He will not allow any lies or deception to remain in your life. You will know the truth, and act on it, and the truth will set you free from your bondage in this life, and prepare you for eternity with God. No lie is of the truth. No pretense and self-righteousness is going to be in God’s Kingdom. No flattering and seeking the favor of man, and elevating one above the other. Jesus will be elevated, the head, and we will each be an equal part of His Body. We do not need a priest or mediator other than Jesus Christ Himself manifested in His Body. He says, “Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life, freely…. And to all who are thirsty, they shall be filled” Rev: 22”17, 21:6.

THE SPIRIT AND THE BRIDE SAY, “COME!”

Mary Lois Burns

The Seal of God, Or The Mark of the Beast

A friend sent me a copy of this paper, written over thirty years ago... may we have ears to hear.

Introduction

 

The Seal of God, Or The Mark of the Beast

A seal in Bible days was a blob of wax into which the particular mark of the person sending a letter or document was impressed. The sealing wax was soft enough to receive the mark, then it hardened so that no other impression could be made on it. In the same manner, our lives are receiving the seal of God, or the mark of the Beast.

The seal of God is the character of the Holy Spirit working in the very human life of the Believer. The seal of God will produce Likeness to Jesus Christ. He perfectly displayed the Life of God in man by perfectly obeying the will of the Father. Don’t rely on what someone else has told you about Jesus. Look in the Bible for yourself. Read the Gospels over and over again, until you get rid of all the religious ideas you have believed. Then you will begin to see the real Jesus. We don’t know Jesus as He is, because we have been given a substitute and told that it was the real thing.

Whatever or whoever controls our lives is our idol. It may be an idea or a philosophy. It may be a person, or an image of the kind of person we want to be. This image controls our behavior and molds us one way or another. The extreme fanatics, those with total dedication to a leader, religion, rock music, rebellion against the established order, or the perpetuation of the established order, have a distinct life-style. They dress a certain way. They adopt certain words and expressions that those outside the group cannot understand. They cling to one another and shun relationships with “outsiders” because they cannot play the same game with them. They don’t know the rules of their particular group. There are some in every group who are driven to be leaders, and who must have control of other peoples lives. These leaders must display more loyalty to, and knowledge about their idol than others. They must outgive, outdo, and outstrip the common ones in extreme behavior which proves how faithful they are to the ideals of the group. The greater the sacrifice, the more devoted they appear to be. It is as true of all religious groups as it is of rock music freaks. They become 1ike what is most important to them. The mark, or seal, of what they admire most (worship) begins to be indelibly fixed in their character. God knows that we are like that soft wax. We wi1l take the imprint of what we desire and crave the most. That is why God forbade His people to worship idols of silver, gold, wood or stone. He knew that their character would be stamped with whatever they called “God.”

There are some who come into the group just to have fellowship with the people in the group. They only conform outwardly to the minimum they can. We call them hypocrites because they pretend to be one thing with the group, and can still live a different life-style with others. These are not in as much danger spiritually as the real fanatic. These fanatics are determined to give their “all” to the cause, and will go to extremes to prove their loyalty and devotion. It is these that are the real victims of the false shepherds. Look at what happened in Guyana. One man ordered the deaths of nine hundred people. You think it couldn't happen to you, but many have been ordered into spiritual suicide because they had to obey man, and conform to the standards of some group.

Every religion has its own standards and rules which are different from those of every other group. Some speak in tongues, some do not. Some preach salvation through acceptance of theology and baptism. Some require rigid diets, meditation and separation from all those who do not believe as they do. All require that you continue with them, or you are considered “back-slidden” or “in error.” They hold the keys to Eternity’s Door. If you lose favor with them, you lose your chance to please God and go to Heaven.

God told me that no man can give or withold His blessings to another. Those who tell you that if you give to their ministry, or join their crowd, that God will bless you...are false shepherds. God will bless you if you obey and fo1low His will for your life. Some of those blessings look like curses until the Lord has accomplished His purpose in you. The Lord gives...the Lord takes away...Blessed be the Name of the Lord! It is His perogative. When any man or woman tells you that they have the power to give God’s blessing to you, or to take them away… Beware! They are serving a different god, and you must not have anything to do with spiritual voo-doo and fortune telling. God will be God, and His glory will He not give to another (Isa. 42: 8). Do you remember what caused the nation of Israel to run before the enemy at Ai? (Joshua 7.) It was one man’s coveting and taking what God had set aside for Himself. The whole nation suffered because of one man's sin. When we try to do or be what God has reserved for Himself alone, we cause our brothers
to stumble, and to look to us instead of directly to Jesus.

Hebrews, Chapter 10, describes the difference between the sacrifices under the old covenant, the Law, and the “new and living way” opened up for us by Jesus offering Himself to God, without spot or wrinkle. Because He became our Great High Priest, we do not need, indeed cannot have, any other mediator between us and the Father.

Let us right now, renounce everyone and everything that we have put between us and the True and Living God, the Creator of all things...our God and King forever. This will include all sacrifices, all good works that we have done trying to earn our salvation. It will also include all the religious services we have attended to please God and insure our place in Heaven, all the money we have given (supposedly to God) to pay our way in, any preacher, teacher, church, group, or spiritual leader that we look to instead of Jesus. Let us turn away from these things, and return to our First Love. Let us recover what we had when we first, came to the Lord - that wonderful, child-like dependence and joy of fellowship with Jesus. Let us once more experience the awareness of His presence and direction each day, in simple terms that we could understand and obey, without anyone else interpreting God to us.

Break off all other yokes, and take the yoke of Jesus. His yoke is easy, and His burden is light (Matt. 11: 28-30). You will have to choose His will for your life, and realize that it is best. You will have to obey Him at all costs. But what He requires, He furnishes. If He tells you to stand up against lies and oppression, He will give you the courage to act and the words to say. You will have to choose to obey, each step of the way. God will not force you or use you like a mindless robot.

All domination and manipulation of one person by another is Satanic and demonic. You must not do this to anyone else, even your own children. God will establish your authority where it is proper, as you get right with Him, and do right by others. You cannot pick and choose the ones to whom you want to be nice and tell the truth. God requires truth and right treatment to ALL. When you have allowed God to deal with what is not right in you, then He will use you as an instrument to deal with what is not right in others in their relationship to you. God’s judgment begins at the altar. Those closest to Him must go through the fire first. His judgment is His mercy, since what He judges and deals with, you need to be rid of. The greatest thing we can do at this time is to ask for a New Birth of Jesus in us. He came to do the will of the Father, and if we have the life of Christ in us, we will have the desire and ability to become true, obedient sons of God.

Which do you choose? Will you choose the seal of God (the character of Jesus formed in you by the Holy Spirit, as you obey God’s word to you), or the mark of the Anti-Christ (the surrender of your will to anyone, to anything: persons, creeds, doctrines, philosophies, organizations, your own idea of good and evil, etc., other than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself). You will have to choose. Will it be reality or religion? Truth or lies? Freedom in Christ, or bondage to man and doctrines? Do not delay your choice. The Anti-Christ is already sitting in the temple… declaring himself to be God. Jesus said, “Not one stone shall be left upon another” Matt. 24:2. The temple of religious ritual and all the sacrifices we think we have made for God must be counted as dung… if we would see Jesus… and walk in His light – the Truth. There are hidden works of darkness in every religious exercise. We hide behind our own good works (service to the temple) rather than have our darkness brought out in the open, where we can see it, confess it, be cleansed and turn from it. We have misunderstood what the New Birth is. What many have experienced is merely conception. You are not born until you come out of the womb and the cord is cut. You are not born-again until you can come out of your dependence on the church and religious exercises, and learn to walk and choose and grow. You cannot see God as long as you have to be fed by someone else. It is a stage of babyhood, but it is not a full grown son. We must be weaned from the mothers breast, so that we can have a chance to know the Father.

You were living in the house with your father until you were fully grown and responsible for your own behavior. Many hard things you hated as a child, you understood when you became a parent. You see your father in a different light when you feel the responsibility for the safety, provision, training and discipline of your own children. In the same way, we misunderstand the workings of God in our own lives when we are “babes.” We want blessings and attention. We would even steal them from our brothers and sisters in the Lord if we could. We often resent it when they are blessed and we are not. We despise the chastening and correction which is so necessary if we are ever to be counted worthy to stand before the Lord in His Kingdom as full grown sons.

We must learn what is of God, and what is a counterfeit of the enemy. There is a false repentance – lots of apologies and promises, but no change in behavior. There is a false confession - we think that by admitting that we did wrong, God wipes it out. There is a false cleansing – the blood of Jesus wipes out my sins, even though I go on sinning. There is a false surrender – this is not to God, but to someone or something that is supposed to be God’s representative. Everywhere, we encounter the false love – this is manifested by covering up the truth of how I really feel about what is going on, and pretending to approve and accept what I actually hate. Only the grossest behavior will arouse us out of our lethargy. We close our eyes to the evil in them because we don’t want it judged in ourselves. This pretense of brotherly love is just like Judas. We draw nigh with our lips, but our hearts are far from one another. True love demands the truth in our relationships, so that we can be cleansed and transformed by the power of God.

Try taking seriously the commandment of Jesus that you love one another as He loved us. This love is cleansing and transforming, not an “I’m O.K., your O.K.” acceptance of the status-quo. God cannot change what we do not ask Him to change. We don’t ask because we don’t see. We don’t see because we refuse to hear and act on the truth when it is pointed out. We defend our righteousness, confirming the fact that we have not submitted ourselves to God’s righteousness (Rom. 10:3). We refuse to rebuke and admonish one another in the name of Christian love. Our idea of love is corrupt and must be changed by obedience to the whole word of God. God hates sin and injustice. He hates lying, stealing, oppressing others, and exalting ourselves above others. This kind of activity characterizes every church or group I have had opportunity to worship in. The strong oppresses the weak, and rob and use them. Envy and strife is the normal condition, yet they call themselves the Body of Christ. God forgive us, and help us to come out of lies, so that we might be able to walk in the truth.


Mary Lois Burns

The Conspiracy of "Church"

An excellent post... not to be taken lightly.

The Conspiracy Of "Church"

Jessica Landrum: Testimony

Jessica Landrum: My Father Was Satan (A Testimony of Salvation)


I want to share my testimony with others, because it is a miracle when God gives you a revelation of who you really are and where you belong. It is also a miracle when he shows you that you don't have to spend eternity in the lake which burns with fire.

Background Info

I didn't grow up in a Christian household, but I went to a local church for a short time when I was about 7 years old. Sadly, I don't think anyone taught me about sin, righteousness, judgment, or even repentance. Some of the Christian-based beliefs at home that I was taught, however, included that sex out of marriage was bad, and that you weren't supposed to lie or steal. I was just one of those people who said, "I'm a Christian" without really knowing what that meant. I thought you just had to say "I put my faith in Jesus", and superficially believe that he died for your sins. However, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9). I was a false convert who had made a false profession, but at the time I did not know it, nor did I care.

My Ideas

I always had a fascination with religion, and I always considered myself spiritual. I always sensed a presence that there was 'something else' out there. In fact, I even have had many experiences involving what I thought at the time were ghosts and even UFOs (no, I am not crazy)and so have other people that I know. I now know these things were demonic. Essentially, I believed that when we died we went to another dimension, which fit in with my scientific ideas about life, time, and space. This meant that the god I believed in didn't really have any control nor did he really communicate with his people. This same god I prayed to off and on when I felt really guilty about something or when I wanted something.

As far as the Bible is concerned, I remember having a conversation with a friend that I had when I was an adult that the Bible was written by men (and only men) who were not only sexist, racist, but homophobic as well. I remember saying that men err, and so the bible is full of errors. I didn't have the slightest clue how a book so old could be the true word of God. I also thought there were many ways to God - I believed that all the religions were true. However, I still called myself a Christian. I remember one time specifically in a hotel looking at a bible and wondering how strange it was that I considered myself a Christian, but had little to no desire to read what people said was God's word. "It's hard to understand," I told myself, and this eased my conscience. The Bible says in 1 Peter 2:2 that we are to be "like newborn babies, long[ing] for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation,". However, I did not crave God's word. "Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied" (Proverbs 27:20). I did not long for God, but for the world. I had no idea that the world would never satisfy the emptiness within me that is and can only be filled with Jesus Christ.

No Peace

I worried a lot about money, my health, and dying. I would stay up and worry about having cancer or other illnesses. Interestingly enough, I knew that my fear of death wasn't normal. When I went to sleep at night I often worried about dying in my sleep and wondered, "where will I go?" I didn't have eternal security and I didn't trust in the Savior who I claimed to have put my faith in. Essentially, I had created an idol, another Jesus, and this was who I claimed to worship.

False Conversion

I remember wondering how to be saved when I was about 15. Someone told me that all you have to do is accept Jesus into your heart. I probably thought, "wow, is that it?" So, just like many of you probably have done before, I said the sinner's prayer....Before I said it I thought to myself, "wow, something dramatic should happen afterward". I probably thought that at the very least I should feel differently. However, after saying this meaningless and heartless prayer, I felt dismayed and disappointed that nothing had happened. I was still the same person who was dead in her sin and my stony, black heart remained inside me. Of course, being true to my real, sinful nature as a natural man, I leapt quickly and eagerly back into my same old sins again. There was no contrition, no real remorse, and no change in my life. God was very distant.

The Evidence Against Me

Now I can look back and I realize that I truly had not repented and put my faith in Christ. Nor was there any evidence of Christ knowing me after-the-fact. Now, the Bible says in Acts 2:21, "And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." Again, in Romans 10:9-10 the Holy Spirit says, "That if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved". In Acts the Holy Spirit through the same Paul who wrote Romans preached "... to both Jews and Greeks [and spoke] of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 20:21). It continues, "...that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds appropriate to repentance" (Acts 26:20). Deeds, or works, are a result of faith - the expression of faith. They are done as a result of being in Christ Jesus. In Romans we are taught that if we are a Christian we are a wild olive shoot grafted onto the vine (who is Christ). Jesus himself said, "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5). I wasn't producing deeds that shewed that I was born again in Christ. I had no reason to trust my profession of faith, but then again I didn't question it because I was blind.

I was a Christian in name only. I didn't hate my sin or truly feel unworthy of the gift of salvation and so the free gift of eternal life didn't seem like such an appealing gift. It became something I deserved, as if I had earned it somehow. Jesus didn't really become my savior because I didn't understand why I needed to be saved or what he saved me from. I didn't feel grateful and joyful that God had saved me. In fact, I probably could have reasoned that it made sense that Jesus died for me, after all, I was a good person, or so I thought. This is contrary to what the Bible says, because it teaches "as it is written, "THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE;" (Romans 3:10).

Who I Was

I was a self-righteous, judgmental, hypocritical, Pharisee. I condemned others for doing the very same things I was guilty of. It is that simple. I claimed to be moral, good, and I believed I was worthy of praise. I was deceived. When I was young I prided myself on the fact that I was 'morally pure' and didn't really drink or do drugs. I would look at girls who were sexually promiscuous and I would condemn them in my heart and feel utter, pure hatred for them. I even wished them dead. I would think, "I'm better than them because they are filthy losers who pollute their bodies. They are nasty". My thoughts were very bitter and I was filled with unwarranted, self-righteous anger toward anyone who did not meet up to my 'standard' of living. However, when no one was around or watching, I was doing the same things they were, just in a different form. I had my own secret sins of my own and by judging them I was condemning myself, but I didn't know that at the time.

Jesus said in Matthew 5:28 that anyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her. I was just as guilty as anyone else. I put on a mask of goodness around other people so that others would believe that I was 'good' and 'moral'. I continued to do things that I knew were wicked, vile, sinful, and that troubled my conscious. I did these things instead of truly repenting before God. My heart was hardened and I continued on in my sin. My conscience was pretty seared at that point, because the things I did that were sinful I could easily rationalize, felt little need for forgiveness of, and repeated again and again. I didn't care about God watching me because the true God did not know me. I was alone in my own body and I thought I had no master but myself. I did not feel God judging me, warning me, or guiding me, because at that point he was like an absentee parent to me. I simply did not feel his presence in my life.

God's Grace
Setting the Stage for Change: Conviction

When I was about 26 I was looking for a school, and so I chose a Christian-based school which forced me to read the Bible for two of their classes in March of 2008. I reluctantly and unenthusiastically studied the Bible, although I barely understood much. My interest was jump-started and out of boredom and I started watching You Tube videos about atheism and Christianity. I started thinking about my god and praying to my god more, which made me feel like going to church was a good idea - I didn't go. Out of curiosity, I felt compelled to start watching purported testimonies by men who claim to have died, went to Hell, and come back again. All though I don't believe these now, at the time these frightened me immensely. Around the same time, I came across videos on the Internet of Christians holding signs that said "God hates you." Even though I thought they were crazy at the time I started thinking, "why does God hate me?" I needed to find out why....

About that time the Holy Spirit started convicting me of things that I had been desensitized to-things that I didn't even feel guilty about anymore. It was as if a supernatural force came and shaved off a top layer of dead skin, revealing living skin underneath. I could feel again, and I hated it. I began to sense my sin again, and I was troubled deeply. At the time I didn't know that I was under conviction, and it made me feel weird because I began to question, "why am I all of sudden feeling guilty?" I remember having conversations with someone about how weird and crazy the level and depth of my guilt was. I was truly horrified about what was happening to me. All I knew was that I started feeling really guilty, vile, and disgusted with myself, and the things that I had been doing I wanted no part of anymore. Even after stopping some of the things I was doing my guilt remained, and so I felt helpless and had no idea what to do to ease my conscience. I don't think I realized that Jesus was the solution at the time because I thought I was a Christian already.

Repentance and Salvation

I couldn't take the guilt, fear, and feelings of despair that consumed me. It came to a climax one day on my knees when God opened my eyes and allowed me to see myself for what I really am and was. My feelings of despair were so strong that I went into another room crying, telling someone something to this effect: "I don't want God to hate me. I feel so guilty. I am tired of feeling guilty. I just want to be forgiven."

I could feel the Lord's burning hatred toward me, and I wept because the revelation was so real, so disturbing and truly frightening. At that moment everything disappeared into darkness and all that was left was myself floating in darkness, and I was given the feeling and pure knowledge, even the vision that God's perfect, burning hatred was on me. I was a child of wrath.

John 3:36 says, "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." At that time I knew that I had not fully obeyed the Son by putting my faith in him.

Furthermore, I was a barren tree, not producing fruit in keeping with true repentance. 1 John 1:6 says, "If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;". I wasn't loving God, but I was showing my hatred toward him by defiling myself and and not crying out to him for salvation. I was deceived. In John 1 3:8 it says, "the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil." Waves of this revelation overtook me and I knew at that moment before Christ came into my life who my father was. He was revealed.

My Father was Satan. He was my master. I obeyed him and knelt at his feet, eager to do his bidding. I loved him, deeply, even though he offered me nothing but lies, deceit, and destruction. He had always been there, with me, since I was born, waiting. I was his captive yet until now I didn't know it. God pulled back the mask off of Satan to reveal his true nature, revealing his ugly and horrible face. Immediately I realized I had been and would continue to be under a delusion, and that I was blind, helpless, vile, without hope, and at the mercy of my father the liar. The Holy Spirit says in 2 Thessalonians 2:11 "And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie." That was me. God allowed me to realize that I was no different than a blind person, walking around in the dark, headed straight for a fiery abyss where there would be no escape or peace, where there would be weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth for all of eternity. My mind could not fathom such a fate as this. Even still, God gave me the ability to see myself in the light of truth as an unclean thing before him, worthy of burning in the fire and nothing more.

Facing the Truth and Renewal

I knew I belonged in Hell, and I imagined myself in that horrible place. In it, I felt that God was justified in sending me there because I was filthy before him. He was righteous and holy for placing me right where I belonged. It was my eternal home. I knew he was holy and perfect and beautiful, and I knew that I was the complete opposite. As I sat there, on my knees in the living room, probably with my head down, I realized that not only did I belong in Hell, but that God was justified in sentencing me to go there. I considered it righteous to put me there, and I glorified him. However, he let me realize at that moment, that my destiny was not to end up in Hell. At that moment I thought, "no, Lord, I don't want you to hate me, and pour out your wrath on me for all of eternity. It doesn't have to be that way because you made a way out. There is a way out." At that moment the Savior, my Lord, became real, and he came into focus as the way out, the gate that leads into Heaven. I remember saying something to this effect: "Jesus, I love you, I want to follow you. You saved me. I know that if I don't trust in you and I trust and merit in my own goodness to get into Heaven, that I will be denied because I am wicked to the core. I won't have any power over my sin in my life, and I will be controlled by the Devil as long as I live if I don't have you protecting me, shielding me, and guiding me." I knew that there were two paths, one that one lit with the light of the Lord of Glory (Christ) that leads to eternal life, and another, which was dark, miserable, deceitful, and leads to the Lake of Fire. I didn't want to be a slave to Satan anymore or under the power of his lies (by the grace and mercy of God). I didn't want to be lied to anymore. Jesus said in John 8:32,"and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." I wanted the truth, and I knew Jesus was the way, the truth, and the life, and so I wanted him. I also remember saying something to this effect , "Lord, take my life, it's yours. Nothing exists but you. Please let me follow you. Keep me and protect me all the days of my life and teach me. I love you." After that, God changed me.

I don't remember if it was the next day or directly after that but I remember looking around and it was as if I could see with a brand new pair of eyes. I could look around and see a lot of the wicked things I was doing in my life, well beyond the things that God had been convicting me of which let me see how vile I was. Of course, he didn't open my eyes right away with every tiny thing. In this past year and five months, he has revealed things slowly, and it has been painful, and still is. I know I am not perfect, but I know that Jesus is, and that he died for me, so I could be forgiven, so I could enter eternal life as be adopted as a son of God through His Son, Jesus. I know he is molding me into the image of Jesus, and I trust that he will keep me and allow me to continue in him, in faith, expressing itself through love.

Only in Jesus Christ can be have power over our sin because in Christ we die and are born again. According to the New Covenant mentioned in Ezekiel God takes out your old heart and gives you a new heart, one that loves him as a Father and wants to obey him. If you have had an experience like this then I am sure you understand. If not, I pray God gives you a revelation of your sinful state so you will run to Jesus and flee from the wrath to come. He is your only hope.