Edition 404: February 13^th 2018

The leopard’s spots:

Introduction:

The leopard can’t change its spots! (Jeremiah 13:23)

2 Peter 3:14 “Be diligent to be found by Him in peace without spot and blemish.”

“The glorious church will have no spots or wrinkles, and be holy.” (Ephesians 5:27)

“Spots,” represent sin, unrighteousness, evil, error and the like.

The word “Spots” is Strong’s G4694, “Spilas.” Meanings: “Hidden rocks in the sea.” Or “Conduct causing wrecked morality”.

Spots in our lives then, are like rocks just below the surface of the waves. You’re not aware of them until you end up damaged! Many times people get so accustomed to their spots that they don’t even see them as a very real danger.

But there’s another side to this story: As we move closer and closer to the entire end-time storm, so more and more rocks just appear right out of the water. Or we could say that suddenly we become inundated with spots!

Like a leopard, we all have spots. We are pure and holy in spirit, through the new-birth, but spots dwell in our soul, thought-life and body. Can we get rid of them? Jeremiah says the leopard can’t change his spots!

The answer is a bit complicated! Here it is: No we can’t, yes we can, and yes we must!

The plum line, the wall and the whitewash:

Amos 7:8-9 “The Lord said to Amos, ‘What do you see? And I said ‘a plumb line.’ Then the Lord said: ‘Behold I am setting a plumb line in the midst of My people Israel; I will not pass by them anymore.’”

A plum line is used by builders to build a straight and accurate wall. In type, it is God’s word of accuracy, holiness and righteousness.

Ezekiel 13:10-11 (To the false prophets) “Because they have seduced My people saying ‘peace!’ when there is no peace, and one builds a boundary wall, and they plaster it with untempered mortar (whitewash)- sayto those who plaster it with untempered mortar, that it will fall down...”

Untempered mortar is cement made with an incorrect mixture, making it weak. It is also the same original word for “whitewash.” (Ezekiel 13:11)

This whitewash is the masks of superficiality that people build up around themselves. They try to hide the fact that they were not built with a plum line. God will bring it all down.

There is a shocking vision revealed in Ezekiel 8:7-18. Ezekiel is brought by God to a wall with a hole in it, and a door. He is told to go inside, which he does. He is take note of all the abominations and idolatry being done, hidden behind this wall. He then goes deeper in and sees even worse abominations. He goes further in and approaches a door into the temple, and he sees people worshipping the sun. God then says to Ezekiel that He will act in His “fury and anger” towards all these things. He will “have no pity on them” and “will not hear their cry for mercy”!

We’ve seen a consistency in the analogies, I’ve used so far:

We’ve seen hidden rocks under the waves, whitewash or a veneer of untempered mortar. We’ve seen a wall with a hole in it and a door. The consistency lies in the fact that what happens in these places is hidden. It is in the deep, dark recesses of people’s lives, out of view and sight.

The analogies refer to hidden sin or spots that are the cause of “shipwreck.”

We have also seen the plumb line of God, which if used by the believer, would have eliminated all the hidden sins – the spots!

We must break down the door to the inner courts of our own lives, and get rid of all that is offensive to our Lord. If we don’t do it, He will at a future time – our reward time! Many will regret that they cleaved onto their spots, now going up in flames.

Ask yourself these questions, now before the Lord comes:

●Do you have an all consuming desire to have a life honourable to God? ●Do you really desire His holiness? ●Do you desire to be cleansed and reconstructed by the cross? ●Do really desire to advance and move forward with our Lord and do you desire that for others? ●Has sin, Satan and his demons lost their power in you? ●Has the attraction of the world died to you? ●What consumes your thoughts? ●What do you do with off-time, leisure time and what do you spend money on? ●What friends do you keep? ●Where do you go when no one is looking? ●Do you have a keen sense of humour, but clean?

Isaiah 30:15 “In returning (repentance) and rest, you will be saved. In quietness and confidence shall be your strength, but you would not.”

Proverbs 28:26 (Amp) “He who leans on and trusts confidently in his own heart and mind, is a self-confident fool, but he who walks with skilful, godly wisdom, will be delivered.”

The spot remover:

It all begins with your thoughts, your words, your confessions, your beliefs and spiritual gifts.

So, let’s break this down:

All spots (sins) begin in the thought realm. You can change your thinking. The Bible says: “Cast down thoughts that exalt against the knowledge of God.” (2 Corinthians 10:5)The Bible says: “Think on these things...” (Philippians 4:8)

That’s where we begin the spot removal process. Thoughts then, become actions and words either evil or holy. This is all based on our belief system – our plum line!

But now we have a problem! Many times, (and I mean many) a person’s spots are a result of demon activity. You can’t deal with demons the same way you do other things. You can’t repent and expect a demon to leave you. You can’t cast out the flesh nature, but you can cast out a demon.

You must accurately identify the source of your sin or problems to be dealt with.

You need specific, spiritual weapons to detect and then defeat demons and cast them out.

This is a huge subject, but briefly, here is a list of some of the main characteristics of demons:

Demons ●entice, ●compel, ●enslave, ● harass, ●defile, ●torment, ●deceive, ●make sick, ●kill, and ●destroy. They cause a ●spirit of slumber, ●they make people ignorant, blind and stupid. ●They cause rebellion and fear. ●They always operate through witchcraft and the occult, bringing curses. ●They keep you from the cross.

Not every one of these is a result of demon activity.

Once you have identified demon activity, with your spiritual gifts, then you need to use your spiritual weapons to bind their works and throw them out. Sorry, if you don’t believe in the gifts of the Spirit, you can’t be helped.

If you don’t have a supercharged spot-remover you are stuck with a bit more than a spotty face! You will never get rid of your spots. O yes, you can get rid of some, superficially, but they will be back tomorrow, bigger and worse!

You can also change your spots for another group of spots. You can paint over your spots, with whitewash, but you can’t get rid of them in your strength...Jeremiah said so!

Your thinking can and must change. Here is a terrible example of someone who won’t, or can’t change his spots:

Hebrews 12:15 “Be careful, lest anyone fall short of the grace of God and a root of bitterness springs up causing trouble and many are defiled.”

Sink or swim:

►As we move closer to the rapture, the tribulation and all the end-time dramas, a dramatic increase in spiritual and supernatural activity will take place. I will be sharing with you a lot more on this subject. It is relevant now, but it will soon blast onto the stage and overwhelm all the unprepared.

The Bible teaches that a great many will be swept away by evil forces in these days.

This is not the time to try and be clever in your own strength, avoiding the supernatural!

When you hit a hidden submerged rock that “spot” can sink you! You can swim away to calm waters. But please remember that in most cases you need to swim against the flow of the tide, which is towards hell.

1 Timothy 1:19 “Wage the good warfare, having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck.”

Note again, our second key verse for this edition: “The true, glorious church will have no spots or wrinkles or any such thing.” Do you think that would be there if it was impossible? It’s not impossible even in this day. Yes it is very rare today, but it’s quite possible.

The Bible presents us with a seemingly impossible verse: “Be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48)

Some people say that this just means, ‘be mature’. Well it says be perfect as your Father is! That is the comparison. Can you do it? Yes you can. When you give our Lord full unrestrained access to every area of your life, and you open yourself to His spiritual power – wonderful things happen.

But don’t compare yourself to other believers, churches or ministries, especially on YouTube! Navigating around YouTube and ministries on the Internet is like sailing through a rocky coastline in a storm.

Your standard of comparison is the holiness of God! You can’t say to God – “others are like this too”.

As you stand before the Lord on your judgement day, the voice of your reasoning will be silenced. You will have no friends to defend you. All voices of all descriptions will be silent before the living God. It’s wise to be silent before God now in your preparation to stand before him.

Beloved brethren, growth in grace sees the coming of the Lord, Satan, heaven and hell. Today many believe that God loves them so much they have nothing to fear. Their pulpit-wolves are rocking their cradle, keeping them asleep.

The problem with worldliness in all its forms, especially in the church, is that it has a veneer of attraction to it, and people suck it in, not realising that they are consuming poison, which blinds their eyes. They accept the world and its sin and then love it more and more.

Today, many Christians don’t get their prayer answered because it’s a worldly abomination to God!

The way of the world:

What people are not aware of is how far the world has moved from the word. The further you move from God the darker you become spiritually. Your life is full of hidden sin in the dark. Society today is totally in the darkness with growing sin. Darkness is the food on which sin grows and thrives.

In the dark, the unbeliever can’t see that even his good is sin.

Today, even music is a reflection of a world of darkness and sin. By the way, music is made up of melody, rhythm and beat. That must be the order of the strength, priority and participation of each of those elements. When beat or rhythm takes pre-eminence, it all goes wrong.

There is a wonderful teaching out there on the true, holy make-up of music, based on the Psalms.

Satan and his world is making sin more and more acceptable in the darkness, particularly through music and the entertainment world.

World economics are out of order, and not what they should be. This has occurred gradually since the world left the gold-standard. That standard brought some consistency and stability to world economics. In a sense the gold-standard was like the God-standard for the whole world.

There was a time not too long ago when many nations were under God in the sense that they recognised that God and the Ten Commandments were above their nation’s constitution, and the values and virtues of mankind.

The world is changing and getting worse fast, but the kingdom of God is the same - stable and holy.

The depths of the depravity of modern man are so shocking. The degree of spiritual ignorance is just as shocking.

Proverbs 28:4 “Those who forsake the law (word) praise the wicked, but such as keep the law, contend (angrily) with them.”If you forsake the word you will praise the wicked.

Psalm 119:53-54 “Indignation (Lit=horror) has taken hold of me because of the wicked, who forsake Your law. You statutes have been my songs.”

Can you agree with that verse? Are you horrified at the world today? If not, you need to get saved!

You can and must change your thinking. If you don’t you will be following Lucifer pretty soon as he exalted himself. But note his end!

Isaiah 14:13-15 “Lucifer: I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will also sit on the mount of the congregation. I will ascend above the clouds. I will be like the Most High, yet you shall be brought down to hell.”

See how Lucifer’s self exaltation spread:

Genesis 3:2 “The woman said to the serpent, ‘We will eat of the fruit of the trees...’”

Obadiah 1:3 “The pride of your heart has deceived you...”

Psalm 10:4 “The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God; God is in none of His thoughts.”

The second law of thermo-dynamics states that everything runs down, morality too! Why does everything run down – because Satan is around! Well, that won’t be for much longer and then that law will eternally change!

►If holiness is the “righteous acts of the saints” then the unrighteous acts of sin are the commodity of the unsaved. If holiness is a commodity and is required for the kingdom of God, then sin is the commodity required for the world.

James 1:27 “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.”

The way to victory:

1 Timothy 6:11-14 “Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith...Keep this commandment without spot and be blameless until our Lord’s appearing.”

Job 11:13-15 “If you would prepare your heart, and stretch out your hands to Him, if you put far away your iniquity, and let not wickedness dwell in your tents; then surely you could lift up your face without spot and you could be steadfast with no fear.”

The New-birth is the great instant spot remover for the spirit-man.  The cross is the spot-remover for the soul.  

It is the cross that breaks you and remakes you – right with God. Brokenness makes you whole. The devil’s brokenness puts you in a hole.

The verse below is one of my favourites. It is filled with such wonder and power:

2 Peter 1:2-4 “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of Yeshua the Messiah, as His divine power has given to us to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him, who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” Verse 10 “If you do these things, you will never stumble or fall!”

God has provided everything we need for life, but few know it or grasp it – to their own detriment.

Hebrews 10:22 (Amp) “Let us draw near with true hearts in unqualified assurance and absolute conviction, trust and confidence in His power and wisdom, having our hearts sprinkled and purified from a guilty evil conscience...”

In these days, on our journey to victory we have to avoid the hidden rocks under the waves, but unfortunately we also have to avoid a fast growing chorus of false teachers, led by evil spirits!

Know your teacher! Know the fruits he exhibits. Know his rightness or wrongness on many issues. Does he intimidate or use manipulation. Is he a testimony of stability and holiness?

Is he a legalist? Does he have a track-record of doctrinal accuracy? Does he know well and preach and teach the entire doctrine of Messiah? (Hebrews 6:1-2)

2 Peter 2:12-13 “These (false teachers)like brute beasts, made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand and will utterly perish in their own corruption, and will receive the wages of unrighteousness, as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots, and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you.”

Error is on a journey to cult-hood and ultimately - hell. Many teachers are at the helm of this doomed ship!

I tell you, in this day there are many teachers out there you want to flee from otherwise you will pick up fleas!

►Beware the blind prophecy teachers and watchers – you will know them by their failures.

Finally

A leopard with no spots is an odd creature! Are you odd and strange? You had better be in this day!

Are you ready for eternity? Spots are flammable! They will go up in smoke! (1 Corinthians 3:15)

Remember this: Holiness lasts forever. Sin has a short time stamp on it. Holiness is a choice. There is no such thing as sanctified sin!

Remember this: True peace in spotty sin is impossible!

I took these pictures of lichen on a rock and superimposed the tree at sunset over it and added the feather.

Shalom and grow in His Grace!