Tag Archive: Covenant


A VISION OF A ENLARGING SUN

Filed under: Jesus, Possess the Vision, Spirituality, spirtual warfare — 2 Comments
February 28, 2011

The Morning Star Rising on the First Day

Read my story by ordering my book, “Possess the Vision”

A VISION OF A ENLARGING SUN

Our church had an annual conference that had become a tradition over its twenty-five-year history. Men of God came from all over the world to teach and preach. The conference was intended for more than just the congregation as the church invited members from the general Christian community as well. The conference would draw people from all over the country.

One Sunday after the service, the pastor engaged my wife and I in a discussion about the conference. He indicated that they needed a picture for the conference pamphlets that needed to be mailed soon. It just so happened that God had given me a vision just a few days prior to this, and so I communicated it to the pastor. He liked it and had an artist draw it up for the pamphlets. Here is a description of what I saw.

I saw a star that generated multiple sets of uniquely colored light beams that radiated from its center in all possible directions. All of the color spectrum’s were visible for extended distances. Some reached the earth extremely far away and were sharp and penetrating.

Jesus the Light of the World is Transfigured before His Disciples

Then, the star expanded several fold in its size and brightness. This verse from Isaiah confirms the idea:

Moreover the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD binds up the bruise of His people and heals the stroke of their wound (Isaiah 30:26.)

Because of this massive growth the sun scorched the earth with its light. Afterward, the light of the star dissipated into a soft cloud-like light that encircled the earth and covered it in a canopy.

I believe that this is prophetic of the things that must happen prior to the achievement of God’s plan. Here is the interpretation:

In the beginning, God is touching His people from far away. The Word of God, although distant, is pointed and focused on God’s intention. However, a time will come when we will realize that God is much closer than ever before. His words will be much more evident and will ignite more involvement and support from His people. The Word of God will become obvious to everyone on earth. The people whose roots are growing deep in the earth and can reach the living water of life will flourish, but the others will be scorched and die. The following quote from John helps reinforce this concept:

Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:13 – 14.)

Once this scorching is completed, only God’s people will remain. Then, God’s love will encircle and protect the earth, and His people will flourish under His soft and gentle love.

Read my story by ordering my book, “Possess the Vision”


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PREMONITION OF AN AUTOMOBILE ACCIDENT

Filed under: Covenant, ESP, Faith, Ministry, Possess the Vision, Spirituality, spirtual warfare, the Holy Spirit — 5 Comments
June 4, 2010

The Morning Star Rising on the First Day

PREMONITION OF AN AUTOMOBILE ACCIDENT

In my previous posting (Possess-the-Vision) I communicated that I was going to present the spiritual experiences of my life that led to the creation of the Possess the Vision Mission Statement (PTV Mission-Statement.)

The experience I am about to communicate to you took place while I was in grade school. It will prove to be quite unbelievable to most people, and to be perfectly honest, would have been disregarded by me as well if it were not for all of the other unexplained spiritual experiences of my life. It is the story of a warning that comes from God in the form of a dream and then is followed up by an intervention from God.

My mom and dad would take us to visit my aunt’s family from time to time. We looked forward to these trips because we got to play with cousins our age.

Their house was about an hour’s drive across town and we were driving home late one night after one of our visits. I was tired and was trying to get some sleep in the back seat of our car. I had my head propped up against the interior wall on the driver’s side when I started to doze off. Then suddenly, I quickly awoke with a start sensing that another car was about to crash into us at the precise point where my head was resting.

Thinking about my feeling for a moment brought me to the conclusion that I was just imagining things and so I ignored the sensation and tried to get back to sleep.

But when I did I found that the experienced just kept happening over and over again and so I told my mother about it. She reaffirmed that I was in fact just imagining things and recommended that I dismiss these thoughts from my mind and try to go back to sleep.


So, I made another attempt to suppress my fear and get some sleep but the fact was that the sensation of an impending crash became very strong again and I could not help but pull my head away from the side of the car. This time the result was different however, as an auto came crashing into our car exactly at the point where my head had been resting just a second before. The accident turned out to be minor, and thankfully no one was hurt.

Still, I had to wonder about what the outcome may have been if I had not pulled my head away at the last second. The jolt of the collision was substantial so who knows what had been avoided. I suppose I could have sustained major injury to my head or neck, or perhaps even worse.

In this case, I heeded the warning and made the right choice. Still, at the time I can remember about wondering about where these warnings were coming from and why.

Just to make things clear, I now know that these were warnings from God who was protecting me from harm. I know that each of us is born with a purpose and that the devil will try to abort that purpose in any one of a multitude of ways. So please pay attention to these messages from God and act on them. Your immortal life may depend on it.

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I DREAM THAT I WAS LIKE A SUPERMAN

Filed under: Faith, Ministry, Possess the Vision, Spirituality, spirtual warfare — 4 Comments
June 1, 2010

The Morning Star Rising on the First Day

A VISION OF A JESUS-FILLED WORLD COMING TO PASS

 

In my previous posting (Possess-the-Vision) I communicated that I was going to present the spiritual experiences of my life that led to the creation of the Possess the Vision Mission Statement (PTV Mission-Statement.)  The experience I am about to communicate to you took place while I was in grade school. It will prove to be quite unbelievable to most people, and to be perfectly honest, would have been disregarded by me as well if it were not for all of the other unexplained spiritual experiences of my life. It is the story of a warning that comes from God in the form of a dream and then is followed up by an intervention from God.

THE ESP EXPERIENCES

After I entered elementary school, I started to encounter things that could not be explained by the laws of physics. Some would call these strange experiences extrasensory perception (ESP). For example, I would dream things that would come true and know things that were to happen before they occurred. You know, I would have a premonition of things to come. Here is an example:

I DREAM THAT I WAS LIKE A SUPERMAN

One night I had a dream that I was standing in the middle of the street where I lived, and an oncoming car drove toward me at a high rate of speed. Rather than run out of the way to escape, I braced myself and extended my arms toward the car to absorb the impact. The car sped directly into my outstretched hands where amazingly, it was stopped dead in its tracks.

The car was a gray 1940’s model with a V-shaped hood that culminated in a rounded point at the exact point where my hands contacted the car. I could see my hands against the gray automobile just as one would see them through their own eyes, and I was in awe of what had happened. I remember having the feeling of extreme physical strength and I imagined that this is what Superman must feel like—knowing that you can muster unbelievable power and use it to achieve incredible feats. I truly felt invincible.

A few days later, I was playing with one of my friends who lived down the block. We were flying a new helicopter/saucer toy that he had just received. The helicopter was simply a bladed saucer sat on top of a handle that launch the saucer into the sky when the string was pulled.

We were having a great time; my friend would launch the helicopter, and I would try to chase it down and catch it before it hit the ground. On his last launch he pulled the string with all the strength he had, and the saucer soared high into the air, high above the house tops. Just then a strong breeze kicked up that carried the saucer out into the street. Being totally focused on catching the saucer, I started running after it as fast as I could.

As I was not paying much attention to where I was going, my friend’s mother started shouting to me, “Joe, don’t go into the street. Joe, stop!” I remember hearing her words, but they seemed faint and very far away. I was in the middle of the street by the time I caught the saucer. It was then that I could hear my friend’s mom screaming for me to come back. I turned and looked up the street and there it was, the gray car of my dream had now turned into a nightmare, as it speed toward me. There was no time to get out of the way, so I simply held my arms out in front of me, just like I did in my dream. I could hear the tires squealing in response to the locked brakes. The car hit my hands and stopped. Unlike the dream however, it was evident that it was not my power that stopped the car. I realized that I was not all-powerful as I believed in my dream. The car had knocked me backward even though it just barely touched me. I stood there and watched the hood of the car rock back and forth in reaction to the sudden stop. I did see my own hands against the hood of the gray car just like in my dream though. I then realized I just looked death square in the eye.

My friend’s mother ran toward me screaming at me to listen to her. Somehow her voice grew distant again as I wondered about my dream that had become reality. How could a dream possibly come true? Why were the real-life details being so accurate on one hand while the feelings of power and strength are so wrong? Something stopped that much sooner than it otherwise should have, but it sure was not me. I did not know what to think about this when it happened. As fast as the car was moving, how could it have stopped so quickly?

 

The body of Christ – On Earth as it is Heaven

Was it possible that some power that I did not understand stopped the car? Was it possible that this power also tried to protect me from this circumstance by giving me the dream in the first place? Or was it a notice to me that that there was a power here to protect me? If so, was it possible that nothing could harm or hurt me? If so, then the big question had to be why?

Well, being like many young boys, I spent about five minutes thinking about it before I filed it in the back of my mind where it was not thought about again for quite a long time.

Looking back on this event now I can say that God intervened in my life and that it was His spiritual power that protected me. If one were to take this event as one single isolated incident, then I would have to say that perhaps this was simply just a coincidence. But as it turns out, it was far from an isolated event, but rather was just one of a string of unbelievable experiences that either communicated a message to me or protected me from harm.

So, what does this have to do with the vision? Fundamentally, it shows that we have a heavenly Father who loves and cares for us and who is willing and able to use His power to protect us. This is especially true of those who put their trust in Him and follow His direction (I did put out my hands like I saw in the dream.) I believe that it teaches that spiritual discernment can be achieved if we have faith and pay attention, and I believe that our decision based upon our discernment are critical to our overall welfare and relationship with God.

I know that much of this may be a stretch right now to believe this tale but stay tuned as we share more about what happened to me in future postings.

 

May God’s blessings be upon you!

Papa Joe, and remember to:

A VISION OF A JESUS-FILLED WORLD COMING TO PASS

 

 

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Seeing the Devil at a Young Age

Filed under: Ministry, Possess the Vision, Spirituality, spirtual warfare, The Meaning Of Life — 6 Comments
May 26, 2010

Seeing the Devil at a Young Age

The Morning Star Rising on the First Day

In my previous posting (Possess-the-Vision) I communicated that I was going to present the spiritual experiences of my life that led to the creation of the Possess the Vision Mission Statement (PTV Mission-Statement.)

The experience I am about to communicate to you took place prior to the time that I started grade school. It will prove to be quite unbelievable to most people, and to be perfectly honest, would have been disregarded by me as well if it were not for all of the other unexplained spiritual experiences of my life. It is the story of the first time I saw the devil and it was a warning that there was evil hiding out there trying to undermine my life.

Jesus Tempted in the Wilderness by the Devil

My sister Kathy and I happened to be playing in our front yard one day. Near by, a number of older boys were just hanging out on our neighbor’s lawn. Looking back at the event now, I suspect that these boys were bored and wanted to have some playful fun with us by telling us scary stories about the bogeyman, hoping to get a rise out of us.

I did not buy into any of their stories and boldly proclaimed that there was no such thing as a bogeyman. They contended that they in fact, were witnesses to each of the stories they told. When their personal assurances did not sway me, they told even scarier stories than the first ones. After listening to them patiently I continued my defiance by simply restating my assertion that there was no such thing as a bogeyman.

But these boys sensed that I was not as positive in my belief as I let on and they called my bluff. They told me that the bogeyman was hiding between two of the houses near the end of the block. They told me that if I had the courage to walk down the block and take a look for myself, that I would find the bogeyman waiting there for me. I was very scared; after all, I started thinking that perhaps they were right. I resisted their challenge at first, but after they taunted me with words like, chicken and Fraidy cat, and used a few other words I did not understand at the time, I decided that I had to go and look for myself.

Despite being quite frightened, I took the time necessary to develop precautionary tactics. I thought that if there was a bogeyman between the houses that he had to be hiding there so that he could capture me if I got to close. So, I formulated a plan in my head where I would run across the street on a diagonal in order to get a view from a safe distance on the other side of the street. I knew that I had to start immediately so that the bogeyman, if it existed, would not have any warning to prepare for my arrival. So, without any hesitation I bolted out into the street running with my head down as fast as I could.

Much to my surprise, I could hear my sister running right behind me. When I got to the targeted position where I could see between the houses from across the street, I stopped and quickly turned for a look. To my horror there it was, right where the neighbor boys said. It had been hiding between the houses, hunched over to avoid detection as it was taller than the houses. Somehow I knew that it was waiting for unsuspecting kids like my sister and I to come by so that it could pounce and devour them. It was a monster, looking something like the dinosaur, Tyrannosaurus Rex. It just stood there stooped over between the buildings looking at me in obvious in obvious anger and disgust. For some reason it was apparently unwilling to come out from between the houses to get us.

Upon seeing this monster I lost all control and started screaming in horror. I began running back across the street as fast as my legs and flailing my arms in the air. I could hear my sister screaming as well as she followed behind me. Since I ran with reckless abandon, keeping my head down, I was shocked at what I found when we finally returned to our starting point.

The boys who induced us into this adventure were literally lying on their backs and were laughing so hard that they could no longer stand. There they lay, holding their aching stomachs in pain due to the extended laughter.

My first reaction was that they believed their deception had worked. But, I also thought that they did not know what I knew—that there was a devil just down the block and that it was waiting for innocent kids like me. What they had projected in apparent jest, turned out to be the truth. I knew that what I saw was real and this fact would be verified by later life experiences.

Jesus is Tempted on the Mountain

I did not tell this story to anyone for almost fifty years. How could I? People would certainly think that I was nuts. In fact, it never would have been told if it was an isolated event. However, it was definitely not an isolated event, as you will find out in subsequent postings. Rather, it was a warning of the truth that the devil is real and is out to destroy us and the purpose for which God created us. I should have heeded this warning of truth about the existence of the devil. Unfortunately I did not and had to suffer the consequences that will also be described in subsequent postings.

Please do not make the same mistake I did. Be careful of what you believe, and be cautious about the choices that you make because your life hangs in the balance. Do not be careless in disregarding the spiritual messages that you receive, but rather seek for an explanation. Know that God is trying to communicate to you in various forms and that these communications are often unbelievable by our physical world’s norms because they are spiritual truths. Also remember that even Jesus was tempted by the devil so expect that we also will have to make choices that demonstrate our belief in God. We will go deeper into all of this as we progress with our postings.

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TAKE A LEAP OF FAITH

Filed under: Covenant, Faith, Jesus, Ministry, Spirituality, spirtual warfare — 3 Comments
May 4, 2010

The Morning Star Rising on the First Day

TAKE A LEAP OF FAITH

In my previous posting (Possess-the-Vision) I communicated that I was going to present the spiritual experiences of my life that led to the creation of the Possess the Vision Mission Statement (PTV Mission-Statement.)

My story of my first leap of faith is very unusual and yet it contains a spiritual message foundational to the PTV Mission. Like the prior posting (Dad-Comes-Home,) I recommend looking at this story as a parable, which is a story told in earthly terms but designed to communicate a heavenly message. The message is that we have a heavenly Father that wants us to step out in our faith for Him. When we do so He will support our initiative and protect us from harm. With that said, here is my story:

One day not long after my father’s arrival home my dad was taking care of me while I ate lunch in my high chair. Having had enough lunch and not liking to sit still for very long I squeezed out of my seat and stood up on the high chair tray. My dad was all the way on the other side of the kitchen when he noticed what I had done. I was very excited about achieving this feat and started jumping up and down on the tray of the chair. My dad’s first reaction was to freeze, not wanting to do anything that might make me fall. While he was looking straight at me I grinned and jumped once more just for fun. He said, “Don’t you dare.” For some reason, I thought it would be great amusement to jump and have my dad catch me as there was no doubt in my mind that he would. So, I jumped from the tray as if it were a game and when I did my dad took several quick steps before diving into a slide on the floor, catching me just in time to keep me from being seriously injured. It would seem that I had a natural trust in my father’s ability from the very beginning.

This story communicates that God wants us to act on the faith that He has given us. He wants us to take action on the desires that He has placed in our heart. Most importantly, He wants us to know that He will be there for us if things don’t always work out as planned. I offer the story about Peter walking on water as support for this message. Here is that story.

Immediately He made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side, while He sent the crowds away. After He had sent the crowds away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray; and when it was evening, He was there alone. But the boat was already a long distance from the land, battered by the waves; for the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea. When the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.” Peter said to Him, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” And He said, “Come!” And Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him, and said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” When they got into the boat, the wind stopped. And those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying, “You are certainly God’s Son!” Matt 14: (22-33)

 

 

Jesus Pulls Peter From the Water

 

So, the moral of this story is do not doubt. Get out of the boat and do what God has put into your heart. Pay no attention to all the evil winds that will blow around you, but rather have perfect faith in your Father in heaven, knowing full well that even if your faith fails that your loving Father will be there to rescue you.

 

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Jesus is the Choice of Love

Filed under: Christian Love, Faith, Jesus, Ministry, The Meaning Of Life — 1 Comment
April 8, 2010

Jesus is the Choice of Love

The world is a stage where we demonstrate our choices for either good, or evil. God stopped eternity to give us time (there is no time in eternity) to give us an opportunity to demonstrate where we choose to spend eternity.

Things are not like they we in the Garden of Eden where the perfection of God was everywhere. In the garden all but one choice was good. In addition, there was no knowledge of evil except for the forbidden Tree of Good and Evil. So, I would think that things were easier then. We only had one thing to avoid.

Adam and Eve in the Garden

Things are much more difficult now. God’s perfection is continuously being destroyed by the activities of man. There is only one choice for good and that is the Tree of Life that is Jesus. One the other hand the knowledge of evil is everywhere as people seem do evil without conscience. People seem egger for the evil choices that make them feel good, or that lead to riches or that make them seem important in the eyes of others. All of these can become stumbling blocks for Christians as well. Even Jesus was tempted by these things.

Jesus Tempted in the Wilderness by the Devil

But one thing is certain and that is we all have the power to choose and we demonstrate our choices every day. We choose to either love or to hate, to reveal the truth or lie, to save life or to kill, to be a friend or an enemy, to help others or to help ourselves, to live for God or to server the devil. The choices are all up to us. The power is in our hands.

Our choice to follow Jesus is the difficult road, the road less traveled; the narrow path if you will. It is the choice of love (see our postings on love). It is a difficult path to walk down because the world does not understand why anyone would do it. It makes no sense to them. They see self giving love as illogical. Since they live in darkness they can not comprehend the light of God.

Those who take the road less traveled will find themselves on a genuine search to find God by following the pathway to His door. They will find themselves doing His will, attempting to become like Him, knowing Him and having a personal relationship with Him that lasts forever. In this relationship they become one with Jesus. They will find that our life here on earth is to prepare the way for His return in a similar way to that of John the Baptist, who prepared the way for His first coming.

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The Meaning of Life Is Found In Love

Filed under: Christian Love, Jesus, Ministry, Spirituality, The Meaning Of Life — 5 Comments
March 26, 2010

Read my amazing true life story about how the forces of good and evil battle for my life and the vision that God has given me. My book, “Possess the Vision,” communicates my supernatural experiences and as a result, provides insight into the realm of the spiritual warfare that is raging for our souls and our purpose. This is a must read for all Christians. Learn more by following this link: Possess-the-Vision-at-Amazon

The Meaning of Life Is Found In Love

Our core purpose here is to better understand Jesus so that can direct our life toward becoming more like Him.

Jesus while healing a young man, who is Demon-possessed, with no hearing

In this regard we have revealed the core fundamentals of Christian Love in previous postings.  Now we hope to initiate a series of postings that will help us better understand of the meaning of life.

In this posting we will seek to tie the two concepts together by proposing that the meaning of life, which is founded on our life choices, is found by choosing to love, which is to give ourselves away out of compassion for others. Out of this come some insights on how to demonstrate love properly in our lives.

Today we will cover the first of these insights. It is based on the proclamation by Jesus not to judge on another less we ourselves be judged. This judgment on the last day is in turn a key component of the meaning of life, so let’s start with some background material prior to delving into the main subject.

Jesus is the Light of the World

The law has been fulfilled with the advent of Jesus Christ which means that we are no longer judged in accordance with the letter of the law or mans interpretations, but rather in accord with the love in our heart. Jesus will be the judge of our heart.

I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. (2 Timothy 4:1 – 2)

In addition, His judgment will be perfect because He seeks not His own will but rather, that the will of the Father be done.

John 8:15 – 16 You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. And yet if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me.

Jesus taught us to love God and to love one another, and if in fact we have God’s love in our hearts then our choices will reflect that love.

Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:29 – 31)

In addition, if in fact we act in accordance with the love in our hearts, then no man can judge us. For this reason Jesus taught us not to judge.

Do not Judge

We will now look at judgment and investigate why Jesus taught us not to judge others. Prior to diving into this subject however we must start by defining judgment precisely.

There are two major components of judgment. The first component is making a decision of the innocence or guilt of the suspect. The second component is determining the appropriate punishment for the offence.

We will address the first of these two components of judgment now. Our current legal system provides us with a good example of one way to determine the innocence of guilt of the person charged with a crime. This judgment is man’s best attempt at ascertaining the truth about the matter. This type of judgment often requires that we use imperfect or uncertain information in making the decision. Because of this the judgments of man are often imperfect because we only see the circumstances and have no visibility into the hearts of men.

While it is true that we all will be judged on the last day, this type of judgment will not be required because the Lord will know the truth by simply looking at us (at our garments).

You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. (Revelation 3:4 – 5)

Our judgment on the last day will be as simple as separating goats from sheep for the Lord.

When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; (Matthew25:31 – 35)

The point to be made here is that the Lord knows the truth because He has perfect knowledge of the facts of our lives.

My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. (1 John 3:18 – 20)

Since our judgment is imperfect and the Lords in perfect, we should defer all judgment to Him and not speculate about others based on circumstantial evidence.

This brings us to the second form of judgment wherein a decision is made about the appropriate punishment of the guilty. This is component of justice is also well demonstrated in our court systems. For example, the court judge often decides the sentence to impose based on the rule of law and the nature of the grievances.

In a like manner the Lord will judge us on the last day.

And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: (Matthew 25:33 – 35)

If we are followers of Jesus (sheep) then we will spend eternity forever with Jesus. If on the other hand we are followers of our own self interests (a goat) then we will be cast into the everlasting fire along with the devil.

Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’ (Matthew 25:41 – 43)

Now we will return to the reason that we do not judge others. Because the judgment of the Lord is perfect and ours is not we should withhold all forms of punishment upon others, understanding that appropriate punishment will be executed on the last day by the Lord. Restricting our judgmental punishment on others is an acknowledgment of our limitations and is a form of Christian love.

Clearly, the meaning of our lives is to demonstrate the love of Jesus to those around us such that we will then be called by Jesus into His kingdom on the last day. One of the ways that we demonstrate that love is by eliminating judgmental punishment of others as Jesus demonstrated to us. We will present an example of how Jesus achieved this in our next posting, so that we can all have a reference to His real world actions in this regard.

Until then, may God bless you all!

Papa Joe Gordon

These things I command you, that you love one another. (John 15:17)

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How Can God Forgive What I Have Done

Filed under: Christian Love, Faith, Jesus, Ministry, Spirituality, spirtual warfare, The Meaning Of Life — 3 Comments
March 16, 2010

How Can God Forgive What I Have Done?

The evil influence of Satan can be seen everywhere in the world (see our prior post) and so many of us have been fooled. In fact, many of us have been making poor choices for such a long time that we believe that God could never love us again. In many of these cases the though that God could forgive us for all of the things that we have done is just not comprehendible!

But we must challenge these beliefs. The truth is that God is a loving and compassionate Father who longs for us to repent of our sins and to return to Him.

Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him. (Luke17:3 – 4)

In fact, God is proactive in His quest to restore all men to what was lost in the Garden of Eden. In this regard, God has sent His profits and priests to speak His truth to us. They have proclaimed the coming of God’s Son and their prophecies have been fulfilled in Christ Jesus, the Son of the Father.

In Jesus, the Father was able to demonstrate His true nature, His love for us, His desire for our good health, His wish for our prosperity and for all of us to be free of the devils’ bondage.

Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.” Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? (John 14:5 – 9)

The Father has communicated to us through the words of Jesus all the things that are in His heart,

All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day. (John 6:37 – 40)

for Jesus said; “as I see the Father do, so I also do.” God communicated that He wants us all to turn away from evil, repent and set our hearts on Him. He even sent His Son to give His life on the cross so that the bondage and domination of the devil would be broken.

Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name. And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. (Luke 10:17 – 19)

The Power of Prayer

Through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, God demonstrated to the world how deep His love is for us. For in the shedding of blood of Jesus, God redeemed His people. By the stripes on the back of Jesus we are healed. The suffering of Jesus was the price that had to be paid for the forgiveness of man’s sin.

Jesus Nailed to the Cross

Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:4 – 5)

In essence, Jesus did for us what we could not do for ourselves; He exchanged His life for ours.

Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many. Matthew 20:28

He broke the curse of the law, which was that man could not live in accordance with God’s law on his own merit and with his own effort.

Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. (Galatians 3:13 – 14)

The love of Jesus therefore ended the age of man’s interpretation of God’s laws and the creation of his own rules.

Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. Romans 13:10

God replaced all of this with the infilling of the Holy Sprit who now leads man into God’s love, truth and perfection.

The Holy Spirit

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. John 14:26

Rather than rules and laws we are called by Jesus to change our hearts.

You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Matthew 5:27 – 28)

So, the answer to the question, “how can God forgive me for what I have done,” becomes much simpler. It no longer is a matter of what we have done in our lives because the ransom has already been paid by Jesus on the cross. The work of reconciliation with the Father has been reestablished as Jesus has taken our just punishment upon Himself on the cross. He has defeated Satan and freed the captives who were under Satan’s dominion at that time. He has risen into Heaven where He sits at the right hand of the Father, and He will judge the living and the dead.

And we are witnesses of all things which He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree. Him God raised up on the third day, and showed Him openly, not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God, even to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead. And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead. To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins. Acts 10:39 – 43

All He is looking for is for us to choose Him, to repent from our sinful ways and to follow in His footsteps.

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works. Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom. (Matthew 16:24 – 28)

The Transfigured Jesus With Moses And Elijah

So, if you have not already done so, please do it now. Speak with your lips the following words. Say: sweet Jesus, I declare you to be my Lord and Savior. I repent of all my evil ways and I renounce the devil. Sweet Lord, come into my heart and my life. I surrender to you Lord, take me into your arms and protect me for evermore. Let all my life choices be in one accord with your Holy Spirit. Help me choose good over evil, light over darkness, right over wrong, life over death, love over hate and God the Father, Son and Holy Sprit over all others, always and forever.

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Why our Choices are Important

Filed under: Christian Love, Faith, Jesus, Ministry, spirtual warfare, The Meaning Of Life — 2 Comments
March 11, 2010

The Morning Star Rising on the First Day

Why our Choices are Important

Our previous post communicated that the meaning of our lives is manifest in the choices that we make here on this earth. A perfect example of this is the loss of Eden (as well as a perfect relationship with God) that resulted from one bad decision by way of the trickery of the devil. The result is that we live in a world that is drastically different it was in the Garden of Eden.

 

The Garden Of Eden

 

Our world is filled with evil temptation around us and only one good choice, that of Jesus the Tree of Life. I would say that this is exactly the opposite environment found in the Garden, where goodness was everywhere and only the tree of Good and Evil presented an evil temptation for us.

In America today we have evil in our TV programs (and this is getting worse with time), in our movies, in our songs, on the internet, in our dance, on our streets, in our governments, in our businesses, in our friends, in our families and even in our churches. The devil is a deceiver who is trying to get us to buy into his lies so that he can place us under his evil domination again. He tried it with Jesus so why not you?

His goal is to deceive us into giving up on our destiny with God, to sidestep our purpose in this life, and to deny that we are children of the living God. Again, this is what he tried with Jesus.

The devil uses trickery to deceive us like he did in the Garden. He has a number of strategies he likes to deploy. He may for example, try to influence us by convincing us that God does not exist, or that he (the devil) does not exist so that there is no relevancy to the choices we make. He will try to trick us into thinking that is nothing wrong with having an affair, or that there is no harm done by aborting a pregnancy, or that murder can be justified. The devil even invents catchy slogans to get the masses to buy in to his evil programs. Here are a few of them for your reference: What ever feels good baby! If it feels good, do it! He who dies with the most toys wins! Wine, women and song! Sex, drugs and rock and roll! You got to play the game, right? What the devil does not tell you is that the choices you make for self indulgence and the gratification of the flesh will ultimately result in your perpetual agony under his domination. Therefore, it is easy to see that it is to Satan’s advantage to defeat you in this world with his trickery.

Let’s take a look at what Satan gets from your defeat. First of all, he will get great pleasure from your bondage and torture because he hates you with a perfect hatred. This hatred loves to see you sick, broke, homeless, depressed, high or living in sin. After all, if you are in these states then you are ignoring who you are and your purpose for being here. Secondly, by deceiving you now he bypasses the obligation to worship you in the eternity to come. Thirdly, by choosing his evil a second time, you will suffer the second death of which we previously communicated as living forever without God in perpetual agony. If this is what you choose, then you will once again fall under the devils domination and be subject to him in the Pit of Fire and Brimstone forever. In effect, this would nullify the work that Jesus did on the cross for you. Your defeat would be a double win for Satan and a double loss for you. So choose Jesus and live with God forever in eternity.

 

Jesus is the Light of the World

 

So, the major difference between today’s world and the Garden of Eden is that in today’s world there is really only one good choice, while there was only one evil choice in the Garden. Our good choice is Jesus, “The Tree of Life.”

And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. (Revelation 22:1 – 3)

If we believe in Jesus and eat of that tree (via communion) we will live with God forever.

Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”; therefore the LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life. (Genesis 3:22 – 24)

Those who believe in Jesus reject the self centered and carnal activities of the world. Instead, they choose to abide in the Holy Spirit of Jesus and seek to do His will. They choose to love, to forgive, to pray, to preach, and to feed the hungry, to heal the sick, to be a friend, to defend the poor and downtrodden, to strive for justice and mercy and do the things that Jesus taught us through the actions of his life.

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The Meaning of Life is Manifest in our Choices

Filed under: Covenant, Faith, Jesus, Ministry, The Meaning Of Life — 1 Comment
March 6, 2010

The Meaning of Life is Manifest in our Choices

The meaning of life has been touted as one of our great mysteries of our time. There are most likely millions or perhaps even billions of people who are in the dark about the true meaning and purpose of our lives.

The body of Christ - On Earth as it is Heaven

I am also quite sure that devil’s lies and deception are at the heart of this lack of knowledge. My posting today is to communicate to everyone that I can that the meaning of life is clearly communicated in the Bible. The bottom line here is that the meaning of our life is manifest in the life choices we make. These choices will be decisive in our ultimate destination in heaven or hell. Our decisions will reflect a choice between God and the devil. If our decision is to choose God then we will live forever with God in paradise. Otherwise, we will die forever in torture, pain, and agony in the Pit of Fire and Brimstone under the domination of the devil.

Jesus Tempted in the Wilderness by the Devil

The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:10 – 15)

All of this should bring us to a reflection of the types of decisions we have been making on a daily basis. Are they choices for good or for evil? Will we choose to save lives or to kill115? Are we choosing to help those in need or focus on our own pleasures? Are we choosing God or the devil? The choices we make in life are what this life is all about!

If we love God then we choose to do the good things that he places in our hearts. If we do not love God and ignore His desires of us, then we reject the love of God and forfeit all of the good things that come His favor. If we reject God then by default we choose evil and evil will seep into our thoughts and deeds. This is the way it worked in the Garden and to a large extent it works the same way even today.

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