Edition 449: December 25^th 2018

Throwing off weights.

Introduction:

Hebrews 12:1 “We are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”

2 Corinthians 5:10-11 “We must all (believers only) appear before the judgement seat (Lit=reward seat) of Messiah that each one may receive the things done in the body, whether good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men...”

Surprisingly, the verse above, speaks of the need for believers to “know the terror of the Lord.” Amazingly, this “terror” is found amongst the rewards being distributed to believers for their works!

How can that be a terror? It is a terror because this reward judgement includes the loss of rewards people would have had. And also because the reward-state is eternal! Some will be saved, “so as by fire” (1 Corinthians 3:15), but with no eternal rewards at all – forever.

Today people mock and scoff at Christians who use these severe tactics in evangelism. As a result, their coverts are nearly always, spineless, useless, half-baked, worldly sell-outs.

A world imprisoned and weighed down.

The world is racing blindly to its soon coming catastrophic end. Darkness is spreading.

You see light much more intensely when you are in darkness. But only if your eyes are open to see the light, and that’s the tragedy of the day. The ways of the world have rubbed off on believers, so much that their spiritual eyes have become dim.

“I am the light of the world”, said our Lord. He then transferred that light to the church. “You are now the light of the world” This light has supernatural qualities and power! But Satan knows that, so he comes as an “angel of light”, deceiving many, which removes the power from the light!

The church has become full of non-biblical ways. It’s just about impossible to de-paganise the church, but it is easy to de-paganise yourself. You may end up being a bit of an oddball compared to some churches, but you will be right on the mark with the kingdom of God!

It’s not really a matter of how you see things, but through whose eyes you see things. When you see things through the enlightened eyes of our Lord’s word, led by the Spirit, there is bright glory!

We are ambassadors for Messiah in this world. We are called to be successful representatives of our home, not our host country – the world.

Today the church is a consumer customer of the world! The church is called out of the world. When the world beautifies the church with a nice haircut, it’s like Samson losing his power.

Today, the church has lost the fear of the Lord.

What follows are some principles in contraposition of the fear of the Lord. I’ve compiled this list this way to give a deeper look into this profound subject.

When people have no active fear of the Lord, (which comes by choice) Here are some results:

●They will have unanswered prayer. ●They will not find the Lord. ●They will have no godly counsel in their lives. (Proverbs 1:28-30) ●They will be full of pride and arrogance and have no fear of evil. (Proverbs 8:13) ●They will be pulled down by evil. (Psalm 115:13) ●They will be lacking in godly wisdom, knowledge and understanding. (Proverbs 9:10) ●They will have no life of reward. (Proverbs 13:13) ●They will have a perverse, foul mouth. ●They will not be enduringly clean and holy. (Psalm 19:9) ●They do not change. (Proverbs 19:23) ●They will have no secret counsel with God. (Psalm 25:14) ●They have no overall blessing on their lives. (Psalm 55:19) ●They will not have the mercy of God in their lives. (Psalm 147:11) ●They will have no stability and strength in their lives. (Isaiah 33:6) ●They continue their former rituals. (2 Kings 17:31-33)

There are very many more!

If there is one big take away from this list, it is that no fear of the Lord creates people with no fear of evil or sin.

You cannot fear a God you don’t know. But you can and must begin by your determined choice. As you get to know Him in reality, (not just words), the more your fear of Him increases! Only those who know God and fear Him are eternally safe and in a glorious position.

►Don’t mess with or try to dilute the fear of the Lord. Don’t try to redefine it as most minsters do. That will compromise you in many areas.

When you compare yourselves among yourselves, your standard becomes “yourselves,” and not the word of the living God, led by the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 10:12)

Error does not become truth because the whole world believes it. Mixing error with truth does not sanctify error – ever! (Isaiah 5:20)

The soon-coming antichrist sits on the throne of the temple declaring himself to be God. (2 Thessalonians 2:4) Satan has always desired worship and to be enthroned in people. He is already enthroned in the lives of the unsaved and many shallow and counterfeit Christians.

Today our Lord is calling the radical Christian to a unique, deep relationship, in which He alone is enthroned, and served by His own.

Job 17:9 “The righteous will hold onto his ways, and he who has clean hands will be stronger and stronger.”

Proverbs 15:24 “The path of life winds upwards for the wise, that he may turn away from hell below.”

Guard your eyes, ears and heart:

I really can’t add one word of explanation to these verses below. They are so profound and simple! Read them and digest them.

Jonah 2:8 “Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own mercy.”

Psalm 119:37 “Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, and revive me in Your way.”

1 Thessalonians 5:22 “Test all things; abstain from every form of evil.” (Even the appearance of evil)

Psalm 97:10 “You that love the Lord – hate evil.”

Ephesians 5:11 Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness.”

Psalm 119:18 “Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your word.”

Psalm 69:32 “The humble shall see this and be glad; and you who seek God, your hearts shall live.”

 Psalm 145:18 “The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth.”

Today, the world is ripe for judgment, and we know it is coming soon. But much of modern thinking has seeped into the church almost unnoticed.

Below are the major avenues used by the devil to infiltrate the church. These are psychological terms, but they offer incredible, accurate insights. These are perpetrated by the mass-media, the world of entertainment, and the like:

As you read these terms and descriptions below, just think of how many situation you know, where they apply perfectly.

●Sublimation is the term for unacceptable behaviour being transformed over time into acceptable actions and impulses.

●Naive realism is the psychological term for the human tendency to believe that what they see and hear is real and true and must take precedence. Those who disagree with them are branded irrational, biased or heretics. Naive realism entrenches systematic error based on false majority consensus. They believe that they are the only really objective ones. It is similar to “Availability heuristics,” meaning that he more times a topic has been in your face, the more important it must be. Content or truth is not important.

Group speak, is simply crowd psychology, which produces a false confirmation bias.

●Blind spot bias is the failure to see the impact of one’s own error and judgment, while seeing only their own view, through tunnel vision. It is ever more evident as God and the devil blind more and more people. Their blind spot grows and soon becomes a blinded life!

●The devil says good morning! There’s nothing wrong with “good morning” but coming from demon possessed or oppressed people – it’s a manipulation to gain respectability before administering the poison! Of course I’m not referring to “good morning” literally, it’s the overall principle. People often use all sorts of manipulative techniques to gain respect, while they really have ulterior and hidden false motives.

It’s good to have these things above defined, because you can then more clearly see and identify them when they appear – and they are worldwide.

You shall be holy:

As mentioned above, the fear of the Lord is one of the ingredients that produces holiness. But there is another most powerful factor involved. It is a “trembling”!

2 Corinthians 7:15 “...How with fear and trembling you received him. (Titus)

Philippians 2:12 “...Work out your salvation (from inside to the outside) with fear and trembling.”

Isaiah 66:2 “...On this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word.”

Here we see that a product of the fear of the Lord is “trembling”. In these early church examples, they were to sanctify their walk with trembling. They were sent out and ministered with trembling. (There are more examples too)

Fear and trembling before God, produces holiness! In fact, trembling, further defines what the fear of the Lord is.

Compare this attitude to the modern proud, prouncing preacher and the weak shallow church of today. (In many cases)

Again, don’t try to dilute “trembling.” One of my spiritual fathers, Derek Prince often said: “The fear of the Lord means to fear Him.” The same applies to “trembling.” This is one of the ways true biblical holiness comes into your life.

Holiness is directly linked to your true success as a believer. It is also linked to the corporate success of the church. Holiness is linked to the success of your spiritual warfare and that of the church.

Joshua 7:13 “...Thus says the Lord God of Israel: There is an accursed thing in your midst O Israel; you cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the accursed thing from among you.”

Deuteronomy 23:14 “The Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp to deliver you and give your enemies over to you; therefore your camp shall be holy, that He may see no unclean thing among you, and turn away from you.”

Isaiah 43:12 “I have declared and saved, I have proclaimed, and there was no foreign god among you; therefore you are My witnesses, says the Lord.”

2 Kings 17:33-42 “They feared the Lord (appeared to) yet served their own gods, according to the rituals of the nations. To this day they continue practising the former rituals. They do not fear the Lord...So these nations feared the Lord, yet served their carved images; also their children and their children’s children have continued doing as their fathers did even to this day; they do not fear the Lord...”

Exodus 23:1-2“You shall not circulate a false report. Do not put your hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness. You shall not follow the crowd to do evil...”

The verses above show what caused Israel to fail and fall many times. It is also the reason why Israel and the counterfeit church, will fall for the antichrist when he appears. It is remnant Israel that will quickly make right!

This is all a powerful lesson.

One powerful destroying verse:

Isaiah 66:5 “Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at His word: Your brethren who hated you (those in replacement theology), who cast you out for My name’s sake, said, ‘let the Lord be glorified, that we may see your joy. But they shall be ashamed.’”(Verse 8 speaks of the nation of Israel being born in a day.)

Who is the “brethren that hated Israel?” Who are these brethren who tried to “cast Israel out”, who will be ashamed later on? This is a perfect description, prophetically speaking of the churches of replacement theology and anti-Semitism!

Shame is coming their way. These churches have no fear of the Lord and no trembling at the word! They are dangerous counterfeits. When the pressure really heats up – beware!

This evil, demonic replacement theology has become an accepted tradition in many churches today. It is a weight that needs to be rebuked, cast out, cast down and thrown off.

Psalm 114:7 “Tremble O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob. (Israel)”

Often you can tell what a church believes by its decor! Israel is the thread that runs through time. Now, the “middle wall of partition” between Jewish and Gentile believers has been broken down, but God’s final act will be His completed work with Israel again.

A church that has only Christian decor normally has no heart for God’s plans for Israel. A church with some Christian decor and some Hebraic decor speaks volumes and is welcoming to Jews.

The power of traditions:

There is a particular blinding force that operates in traditionalism and customs, especially those born in the occult and pagan devil worship, like Christmas and Easter.

At Christmas time, Christians put up a tree and decorate it with lights and little gold and silver balls, which originate from Babylonian pagan customs of worshipping the sun and the moon gods. I dare you to ask your minister, why the Christmas tree?

Numerous other pagan-born practises are done. You can look up the occult origins of every single Christmas tradition by simply typing in “Pagan origins of Christmas and Easter.”

Mark 7:13 “You make the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

Churches that celebrate Christmas and Easter always have the same chant, which is actually a lie. They say: “We don’t serve the Babylonian gods of Christmas and Easter, we just use the names”. Well actually, they use the names and numerous pagan practices as well!

I’m not getting into this now, but be aware that these traditions originate in Baal worship.

It’s worth bearing in mind that Catholic church originally introduced these pagan practises essentially to keep the Jews out of the church. How successful they have been at that!

I heard one minster actually say that’s it is okay to mix pagan traditions into the church, because that gives it a wider audience.

For all its life, the Catholic church has lied about the Jews and presented a Jew-less gospel. For 2000 years rabbinical Judaism has lied about the nature of the true gospel. And in both cases their people have bought it all and it’s become tradition.

Note below, that the coming salvation of the Jews will be Christmas-less (No trace of Baal.)

Zephaniah 1:4 “...Against the inhabitants of Jerusalem, I will cut off every trace of Baal from this place, the names of the idolatrous priests, with the pagan priests.

Exodus 23:13 “Be circumspect and make no mention of the name of other gods, nor let it be heard from your mouth.”

Jeremiah 10:2 “Do not learn the way of the pagans.” (This goes on to condemn the cutting down of the fir tree and decorating it with gold and silver balls.

Can you now see clearly how Naive realism, Group Speak and Blind-Spot bias have duped nearly the entire church? These are all weights that weigh you down spiritually.

Romans 13:12 “The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.”

Ephesians 4:22 “Put off concerning the old man, which grows corrupt...”

The following two verses speak of the sin of homosexuality, but could also apply to other sinful things becoming traditions.

Romans 1:18-21 “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness...For they are without excuse...And their foolish hearts were darkened.”

Romans 1:24 “Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness in the lust of their hearts to dishonour their bodies among themselves.” (“God gave them up,” also in verse 26 &28)

The easy, cheap way – to failure!

The modern church tries to find acceptance with the world by participating with it in its traditions. Much of the church today has created an environment of easy-believism. This is why there is very little deep biblically identifiable, radical change in modern jelly-Christians.

Be aware of this: That, which costs you nothing, does nothing and it has no value. So, we have a church full of happy little nothings! The curse of the modern church is mixture of truth and error, paganism and purity, right and wrong and wishy-washy, non-descript doctrine.

Yeshua said: “count the cost” when you come to Me. (Luke 14:28)

There’s a big problem in church evangelism today. “Come into my life Lord.” is all wrong. If your thinking is: “My life must come into Your life, Lord,” that’s right!

When we appear before the judgement seat of Messiah, we will be stripped of everything. Those who think that they can pull the wool over God’s eyes will find out how wrong they are. Those who have blindly followed the ways of the world will pay for it.

How wise it is to fall before the Lord in total surrender now and cast off weights that beset.

Finally

The raised anchor allows the boat to move forward. The ballast released from the balloon allows it to go up. The opened handcuffs and shackles of prison allow you to go free.

Galatians 5:1 “Stand fast in the liberty by which Messiah has made us free, and do not be entangled again with the yolk of bondage.”

There are so many weights that the modern church has to cast off. I know, according to scripture that most people will not cast them off. Don’t let that be you. The price is too high!

I took the background picture in the beautiful Namaqualand Desert and superimposed one of our pincushion proteas on top of it.

Shalom and grow in His Grace!