In
this very unusual world we live in there is twisting, spinning and continual
fighting for control of others. In this series on witchcraft I’ve pointed out a
few different ways this happens. One reason people twist and spin the truth as
we saw in part one is in covering for their own mistakes and not being man (or
women) enough to admit the truth. The
second way we looked at witchcraft was with the King and Queen who were greedy
and lusted for what was not theirs. The
Third way we saw witchcraft’s twisting was with rulers who wanted to subdue a
perceived enemy. The forth way of
witchcraft included drugs and fortunetelling, again in an attempt to rule over
others. The fifth way we looked at
witchcraft is in fear motivation, attempting to get someone to do something or
buy something they would not originally want to. That leaves us with a
summation that is twisted and spun in every direction and in everyday life. The
only truth on this earth is Jesus Christ.
This is where our focus should be every day, not on anything or anyone
else which includes church activities, political parties and good causes. Now that I’ve offended just about everyone,
I’ll proceed to explain why our focus should be on Jesus Christ.
We
have to travel skyward, to the 40,000 foot view of the earth. When we get there the earth looks very
different. If we could stay there,
suspended in the sky, while we read our Bibles’ we might be able to understand
God’s governmental plans and Kingdom plans a bit better. When we read from Paul
how we are to share what we gather with those who cannot gather as much, from earth
it seems rather socialistic, and from the grand social experiments of socialism
on earth, we can see why socialism doesn’t work. But from our perch skyward how would it work?
It would work if we were all on the same page with God as our focus, not
motivated by sin but love, that’s how 2nd Corinthians works. When we read Peter telling us to obey all
ordinances, on earth we dig our heels in, refusing to obey what secular people
impose on us. But again from sky high we
can see how it would work if again everyone knew God and was not motivated by
sin. As we read the Acts of the Apostles,
we then would see why dunimas (power) is connected with salvation. The inherent
power of the Holy Spirit is manifest when people are getting saved, not for
what we want to use it for, or when we think we should use it. From our view point we can now see why
healings are most times hit or miss, we distort the things of God to fit our
understanding and then try to do what we think is best in operating the gifts
of the Spirit. But from 40,000 feet up,
the things of earth look small and insignificant. Yet God’s Kingdom comes to us, on that little
ball when we believe, and we then have a different citizenship. While the problems and pressures on earth can
seem overwhelming living on earth, from the heavens we realize something
important. We’ve been lied to. There is no other purpose for believing
believers of the Lord Jesus Christ but to make disciples of the unsaved. When we witness, we have dunamis, and then we
have added to the Kingdom of God on earth.
This in turn makes the saved/unsaved scales on earth tilt in favor of
God Almighty. Who would lie to us?
Ultimately the burden falls on the father of lies, the devil.
John
8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.
He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there
is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a
liar, and the father of it.KJV
As
Jesus spoke with the Pharisees we can see he was speaking from firsthand
knowledge. In this section He told the
Pharisees’ that they were not of His Father but that their father was the
devil. Jesus also said that whoever sins is a servant to sin. Keeping this in mind let’s look at a few
cultural spins that can bind us if we allow it, then we will see our victory in
our Savior Jesus.
Personally
I hate the doom and gloom prophets that just tell us all the bad news and make
us feel hopeless and helpless. That is
not my intent; stay at 40,000 feet, cruising altitude, while we see the schemes
of the father of lies and put them into perspective with who we serve, the Lord
Jesus.
Throughout
history there have always been those who dominate people and try to overtake
them. In past blogs I wrote about what
happened with Cain and Able, some of the historical stories that we can see
from Jasher and Jubilees. Remember
Rikayon the first Pharaoh, he was the smart guy who came from Babylon to Egypt
and figured out a way to tax people by setting himself up as a tax
collector. Today we might look at him as
a smart business man; incidentally it is surprising how many searches people do
for Rikayon, which lead them to my blog.
Fast forward a bit to Constantine who made a one world religion by
combining a few religious sects. Rome was also the governing authority of the
world, ruling from Rome and Constantinople.
When Rome fell apart, Constantinople continued under Byzantium. Some think Constantine was a smart ruler,
uniting and unifying religion.
Jumping
ahead to more modern history, there was a man with the last name of Bauer. He had a bright idea, he would loan people
money and charge interest. His son took
that a step further and decided to lend money to governments and charge
interest. Well someone today might say
that they were smart businessmen, as they made a fortune. To insure their continued wealth these men,
who now had changed their name to Rothschild had to influence and at times
strong arm governments. Numerous secret
societies popped up worldwide to promote the interests of these
individuals. While the free market
countries are under this ruling authority there are those nations that are not
under this arrangement, and there is conflict, sometimes manufactured conflict,
to eventually bring us all together in a one world government. At least that’s someone’s great idea. Mix in with this free market capitalist
culture, religion, and now we can see the mixing, spinning and twisting of
propaganda by the devil to distract us from the one thing.
If
you’ve ever seen the card game Illuminati:
New World Order (you can view the playing cards on line) you will understand
how the devil has set up spinning and twisting in every direction of our world
culture to keep us from the mission of the one
thing. On one hand we have greedy big business (boo they are bad). Then there
are militant counter big business groups that fight the big business’ (yay,
they are supposed to be the heroes). Yet both are propagated and supported by
the same people. Surprise! Here’s another example. On the one hand there are the scientists who
are attempting genetic engineering to find ways to help human sickness using
animals for testing (boo more bad guys).
And on the other hand there are the animal rights activists who don’t
want any animal testing (yay they are the heroes again). But both are supported and funded by the same
group. Surprise again! We can now see
how the song Crazy Train by Ozzy
Osbourne makes perfect sense!
Just
like we talked about with genetic engineering in Part 5, sometimes this is very
beneficial to people, yet some fight against it because of the testing on
animals. Then there are people who call
themselves Christians who try to scare people into thinking scientists are
building the Nephilim. Then there are
the sick people who are trying to raise money for funding to help with
scientific advancement for their sickness.
Then there are the desperate that are willing to be the guinea pigs in
testing. And of course there are the
scientists and doctors with the ideals of relieving human suffering with
genetic advancements. Some have died
without treatment. And sadly there are those who tried the approved medications
or surgeries who did not benefit from it.
Then there are the heartbroken families who wish a cure was available
for their loved one who died. I think of Michael J Fox and his life with
Parkinson’s disease. There are so many aspects to each issue, whether that of
medicine, world politics, world religions, world economies, this is the devil
twisting spinning, and setting up witchcraft to keep us away from the one thing. If you hear a one sided diatribe on a
subject, before forming an opinion, do some research to find out for
yourself. Better than being gullible to
every lie of the devil.
As
long as we are at it, here is another one.
There are groups that come out of the Church that say they are like the
church, because they believe in the Bible.
But sometimes they don’t believe in many parts of the Bible because they
think there are forgeries in the Bible.
Big Church is bad (boo). Small group that has odd ideas is good
(yay). I’ll share a story of some
friends of mine here so this makes even more sense. Once there were some people who were
heathens, they accepted Jesus as their Lord.
Now they are called……Christians, right.
But somehow they got disgruntled with the church so they made up a new
name for themselves, indicating that they believe in Jesus but not the New
Testament. They decided the New
Testament is all made up so therefore people should follow them. Some of these folks even changed their birth
names. Then they attack the church and
bash the church for the things the church believes. Yet they take people out of
the church to make them their followers.
Now those new people support the ones who are the church bashing name
changers. What is even more ridiculous
is that this unusual group misses the one
thing. They don’t get anyone saved;
heathen, Jew, Gentile, or any other category of personhood you can think of. The
followers of this group give money to the name changing church bashing leaders
for them to live on, instead of the churches who have missions and outreach
programs to get people saved. I have to
ask, why would anyone follow these people? It is another way the devil creates a spin to
make you distracted so you forget the one
thing.
Another
area of spin is the false prophetic ideas that make the United States of
America the center of the universe to God. Everything regarding our prosperity
is because God likes us, or if something goes wrong its God punishing us as a
nation. The best determination of the
America’s in scripture is in the usage of the outer islands. How did we push the USA up next to Israel?
Spin. While God does not like abortion
(and let me say I am against it), He is not going to just punish just the USA
for that, what about mass genocide in Rwanda, starvation deaths in Somalia and
Sudan, or planned abortion according to gender in China. How about the awful news report of late that
the Chinese capsulate processed fetuses and sell them to South Korea for sexual
enhancement. Who gets punished? The Chinese,
the Koreans or both? We have to take the
global view of the world. We are all
sinner nations. There are no Godly
nations, just Godly people in those sinning nations. But wait, where is our
citizenship? Is it in the USA or the Kingdom of God? Since the time of Jesus
walking on the earth does God look at entire nations or individuals. Good
questions. From 40,000 feet what does it
look like to you?
Now
we are getting somewhere. The devil has
twisted world events, world leaders and religious groups in every direction
imaginable to keep everyone off balance and contentious with everyone else. The truth in anything lies somewhere in the
middle of the mess. And again we are not
under the kingdom of any man, but of God Almighty, therefore as we live under
His authority we do not fulfill the sins of the nations. We are saved from the
wrath to come.
Rev
18:3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication,
and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the
merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.KJV
Rom
5:9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from
wrath through him.KJV
1
Thess 5:9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by
our Lord Jesus Christ, KJV
Somehow
the other side of this type of superstitious thinking is when you go to the
mall and get a parking spot in front, God is obviously blessing you, right? Sure he blesses you in America but is looking
the other way in Syria. Really? Have we become that superstitious that we
believe God is only concerned with how far we have to walk while others are
murdered and starved, obviously forgotten by God? Wait don’t they have
Christians in other nations? Simply put we prosper here because of the
structure of our society and governance that allows individual prosperity.
People can invent, and work hard, and figure out a way to make money. But God
is not rearranging the parking lot at the mall just for you; that is called
hyper spiritualism, attributing good events to God and bad events to the
devil. Look we have bad weather and storms
all over the world, but we’ve only been tracking them for 100 years or so. That is simply not long enough to tell
anything. And 100 years ago, one would
be lucky to find out if there was a storm somewhere they didn’t live, forget
about details. I think a key is when
Jesus said we would hear of commotions or war etc the key word is “hear”. One hundred years ago we might hear or might
not hear of things happening in a timely manner. Today we hear almost instantly about a newsworthy
event. The key is in the efficiency of hearing, not the event itself. Note Luke
21:9. One hundred years ago we or may not have heard about the happenings in
Uganda, but with mass media, we’ve all heard about what has been taking place
there.
There
are people who say the Bible is full of forgeries or mistakes and we cannot
trust it. If you hear someone say that,
they are either working for the devil or they are very uneducated. Here is why. God protected his word with
codes and structures that could not have been engineered by any man, ever. Even
today with the usage of computers I challenge anyone to duplicate what God did
in the Bible, Old and New Testament. One
type of coding by God is equi-distant letterings, but another is heptadic
structure. I’ll include sites for your
consideration in the end notes. Can you
write a paper today, and use only a number of words that are divisible by
seven? Then in your paper make the
number of consonants divisible by seven as well as the vowels divisible by
seven. Then make sure the number of
repeated words in your paper is divisible by seven, as well as proper nouns,
verbs, etc. Get the point?
Jesus
made it clear who he was while he was on earth. He told us plainly so let’s explore the book of
John. These are the things he said about
himself; about who he is and was, but the people didn’t all believe him. His biggest fighters were the religious
leaders who were concerned with rules, laws and their public appearance. I’ve broken these things down into sections.
There are seven plain explanations of who Jesus was saying he was using the
phrase “I am”. Then there are seven
figurative “I am” phrases, that then there are fourteen different “I am”
phrases which I did not include. One of
the fourteen was his declaration as to himself being from the beginning. As we look at the verses, we can see that
some were restated several times. In
E.W. Bullingers work “Numbers in the Scripture”, we have an explanation of the
numbers in scripture. I will site them
following this section.
Who He Is
1. Name: John 5:43 I am come in my Father's
name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye
will receive.KJV
2. From Him: John 7:28-29 Then cried Jesus in the temple
as he taught, saying, Ye both know me, and ye know whence I am: and I am not
come of myself, but he that sent me is true, whom ye know not.29 But I know
him: for I am from him, and he hath sent me.KJV
3. Above: John 8:23 And he said unto them, Ye
are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of
this world.KJV
4. Son: John 10:36 Say ye of him, whom the
Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I
said, I am the Son of God? KJV
5. Father: John 14:10 Believest thou not that I
am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I
speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.KJV
John 14:11 Believe me that I am in the
Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works'
sake.KJV
John 14:20At that day ye shall know that I
am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.KJV
6. Not Alone: John 16:32 Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is
now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me
alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.KJV
John 8:16 And yet if I judge, my
judgment is true: for I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent
me.KJV
7. World: John 17:11 And now I am no more in
the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father,
keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be
one, as we are.KJV
John 17:14 I have given them thy word; and
the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am
not of the world.KJV
John 17:16 They are
not of the world, even as I am not of the world.KJV
Jesus
tells us about himself in figurative language so that we can get a picture of
what he was saying about who he is. We
have seen paintings of Jesus offering bread or as a shepherd. These descriptive
words tell us in images that stay in our minds’.
1.Bread: John 6:35And Jesus said unto them,
I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he
that believeth on me shall never thirst.KJV
John 6:41The Jews then murmured at him,
because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven.KJV
John 6:48 I am
that bread of life.KJV
John 6:51 I am the living bread which
came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever:
and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of
the world.KJV
2. Light: John 8:12 Then spake Jesus again
unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me
shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.KJV
John 9:5 As long as I
am in the world, I am the light of the world.KJV
John 12:46 I am come a light into the
world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.KJV
3. Door: John 10:7 Then said Jesus unto them
again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.KJV
John 10:9 I am the door: by me if any
man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.KJV
4.
Shepherd: John 10:11 I am the good
shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.KJV
John 10:14 I am
the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.KJV
5. Resurrection: John 11:25 Jesus said unto her, I am the
resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead,
yet shall he live:KJV
6. Way: John 14:6Jesus saith unto him, I
am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by
me.KJV
7.
Vine: John 15:1 I am the
true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.KJV
John 15:5 I am the vine, ye are the
branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much
fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.KJV
The
over encompassing “I Am” statement comes after discussing with the Pharisees
who he was. They did not believe on
Jesus and therefore Jesus said they were of their father the devil. What Jesus was saying is that he is the I AM,
the one who spoke to Moses.
John
8:58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I
am.KJV
To
give us a few more clues in this section Jesus tells the Pharisees that before Abraham
was, He was I AM. Now remember in verse
56 Jesus told them Abraham saw his day and he rejoiced. The Pharisees responded by saying that Jesus
wasn’t even 50 how could he see Abraham.
Who was it who walked and talked with Abraham as a friend, during the
time of visitations before Sodom? Who
called Abraham a friend? The same one
who gave Moses the commandments is also the same one who stood before them
testifying of himself.
John 8:18 I am one
that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of
me.KJV
I Am He John 8:24 I said therefore unto you,
that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye
shall die in your sins.KJV
John 8:28 Then said Jesus unto them, When ye
have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that
I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these
things.KJV
John 13:19 Now I tell you before it come,
that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am he.KJV
John 18:5-8 They answered him, Jesus of
Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am he. And Judas also, which betrayed
him, stood with them.6 As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he, they
went backward, and fell to the ground.7 Then asked he them again, Whom seek ye?
And they said, Jesus of Nazareth.8 Jesus answered, I have told you that I am
he: if therefore ye seek me, let these go their way: KJV
Jesus
bears witness of himself and by His coming we can have eternal life. This is the one we have to keep our eyes
on. This is why nothing else matters in
the world, with all of its spin, and twists, and lies. Remember walking in love is concerned with
the here and now, not on what possibly may be or could be some day. We see that Jesus said things multiple times
in some instances. He calls Himself the vine twice and the bread four times,
while saying ‘I am he’ five times. Here
is a look at what some of the repetitive numbers mean.
·
One
denotes unity and commencement
·
Two
denotes difference
·
Three
denotes completeness
·
Four
denotes creative works/earth
·
Five
denotes divine grace
·
Six
denotes the human number
·
Seven
denotes spiritual perfection
·
Eight
denotes resurrection, regeneration
·
Nine
denotes finality of judgment
·
Ten
denotes ordinal perfection
The
Spiritual Significance of Numbers , appendixes 10, page 14, The Companion
Bible, EW Bullinger, Zondervan Bible Publilshsers. Reprinted by permission of
The Bullinger Publications Trust 1964,1970,1974.
The
conclusion to the matter is that our focus should be on Jesus, and if God gives
us a passion about something then we should pursue it, be it politics, causes
and the like as long as we keep in mind along the way the one thing. The Devil will make us crazy trying to figure out the
way things are but we are dead to the world.
Colossians
3:1-3 Therefore, if you have risen with Christ, seek what is above, where
Christ sits at the right hand of God. 2 Think what is above and not what is on
the earth, 3 for it is dead to you and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Aramaic Peshitta New Testament Translation, Janet M
Magiera, Light of the Word Ministry, LWM Publications, Copyright 2005, 2006.)
Now
for the one thing.
Matt
28:18-20 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me
in heaven and in earth.19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:20
Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I
am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.KJV
Mark
16:15-20 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel
to every creature.16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he
that believeth not shall be damned.17 And these signs shall follow them that
believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new
tongues;18 .They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it
shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall
recover.19 So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into
heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.20 And they went forth, and preached
everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs
following. Amen.KJV
Luke
24:46-49 And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to
suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:47 And that repentance and
remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning
at Jerusalem.48 And ye are witnesses of these things.49 And, behold, I send the
promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye
be endued with power from on high.KJV
Acts
28:30-31 And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received
all that came in unto him, Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those
things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man
forbidding him.KJV
Rom
11:25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery,
lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened
to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.KJV
The
one thing is to call people to repentance
and make them disciples. If we get
distracted with the world, and the fears of the evil people ruling the world,
we will miss the one thing. If Luke
were here today he would be writing Acts chapter 29 and following about what we
have done since. According to Romans
there is a number of Gentiles that has to be fulfilled, we are not privy to the
number but we have the obligation to keep adding to the church. Therefore keeping our eyes on Jesus is the key.
And if we are fighting and contending with each other, we are not keeping our
eyes on Him. The things of this earth
are dead to us so now we can live as though they are truly dead. We have
victory over witchcraft.
End
Notes:
Heptadic
structure in scripture.
History of Money
