The Biblical feast of Second Passover begins this week on the evening of Tuesday, April 23. The Passover Lamb itself for this feast this year would be sacrificed in the afternoon of April 24 and the prophetic Passover of the firstborn sons of God would occur during the night of April 24 into April 25. I have now come to believe that God will “birth the manchild” at this particular time in some particular year. Please see my recent series on the Feast of Passover to understand what I am talking about if you don’t already. Also read my previous posts concerning Second Passover. (You can use the search bar at the right)

My point is this, Jesus prophetically fulfilled First Passover by resurrecting from the dead as the firstborn son of God. The Manchild, the overcomer first fruits sons of God, will, I believe, fulfill second passover by being “passed over” by the death angel and will then be changed “in the twinkling of an eye” into their immortal bodies. All of this will, I think, happen on some future week of Second Passover (which also includes the second week of unleavened bread). This could happen this year, but I have no specific word from the LORD about that. I actually do not think it will happen this week, but I do believe the year is near when it will.

As always, then, keep your spiritual house in order and free of leaven, without sin and hypocrisy.

The LORD be with you this beautiful day!

The LORD introduces the Feast of Unleavened Bread in Exodus 12-13, especially in Exodus 13:3-16. First, in Exodus 13:6-7 he focuses on keeping the feast by eating only unleavened bread during those seven days. We now know that that rule means that God’s people are to keep themselves from the false doctrines of religion and from hypocrisy and the sins of the world. Just after giving this instruction God says that the keeping of this rule “shall be to you as a sign on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes, that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth. For with a strong hand the Lord has brought you out of Egypt” (Ex. 13:9) God told Israel to obey his word and that such obedience would become literal memorials to them. In other words, the doing of God’s commands would affect what their hands did, what their minds thought, and what their mouths spoke!

Then, after giving the basic instructions for keeping the Feast of Unleavened Bread the LORD again states that he is consecrating all of the firstborn males to himself. He is thus establishing this feast (along with Passover) as the feast of the manchild, the firstborn of creation. And, he summarizes his reservation of the firstborn to himself with this statement, “Therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all the males that first open the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.’ ¹⁶ It shall be as a mark on your hand or frontlets between your eyes, for by a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt.” (Ex. 13:15b-16) Not only will the doing of God’s commands affect all we do; now we see that God’s reservation of firstborn shall become signs and memorials to others. The reason for this has now become clear. At the time of the first Passover the LORD himself “by a strong hand” delivered his people “out of Egypt.” But on a coming day, a day which will fulfill “Second Passover,” God’s overcomers, the manchild, will deliver mankind out of an entire world’s tyranny and dominion. This is why they wield a rod of iron.

Now let’s consider another name which God calls these firstborn sons. These sons of God, named the manchild in Revelation 12:4-6, will also be called the firstfruits of creation. The very first of the firstfruits was, of course, Jesus himself who fulfilled the firstfruits offering which was part of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Feast of Unleavened Bread itself is the seven day feast which follows the day of Passover. The Passover lamb was killed on Nisan 14 and the actual passover of the death angel first occurred in Egypt on the night of Nisan 15, at midnight (soon after the changing of days from Nisan 14 to Nisan 15). The Feast of Unleavened Bread began at the beginning of Nisan 15 and continued to the end of Nisan 22. See Leviticus 23:4-8. Also, according to this section of Scripture the barley firstfruits offering occurred on the day after the regular Sabbath day during the Feast of Unleavened Bread which alway occurs on a Sunday. Moses wrote,

⁹ And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁰ “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them,When you come into the land that I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest, ¹¹ and he shall wave the sheaf before theLord, so that you may be accepted. On the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.¹² And on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb a year old without blemish as a burnt offering to the Lord. ¹³ And the grain offering with it shall be two tenths of an ephah^[b] of fine flour mixed with oil, a food offering to the Lord with a pleasing aroma,and the drink offering with it shall be of wine, a fourth of a hin.^[c] 14 And you shall eat neither bread nor grain parched or fresh until this same day, until you have brought the offering of your God: it is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. (Lev. 9-14)

Jesus rose again early Sunday morning, the day after the Sabbath after the Passover on which he was crucified. Before he could be touched by men he had to ascend into heaven to present himself as the fulfillment of the firstfruits offering which always occurred during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Paul mentions this in the following verse:

²⁰ But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. (1 Cor. 15:20)

The rest of this passage concerns other human beings who will one day experience a similar resurrection from the dead.

²¹ For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. ²² For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. ²³ But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. ²⁴ Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. ²⁵ For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. ²⁶ The last enemy to be destroyed is death. ²⁷ For “God^[c] has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. ²⁸ When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all. (1 Cor. 15:21-28)

I understand that verse 23 above makes it sound like there is only one group of Christians who will be resurrected, i.e. those who belong to Christ at his coming, but I am convinced from other Scriptures that at least two to four or more other groups will also be resurrected from the dead. First, I believe a group known as “Christ the firstfruits” will be resurrected. After that I think the Bride of Christ will experience the “rapture” she has always longed for.  ”Those who belong to Christ at his coming” in 1 Corinthians 15:23 evidently means the Bride of Christ who makes herself ready prior to his coming. And, as mentioned in the previous post, the manchild comes to maturity and fruition before the Bride. Also, a group of Christians which must have their part in the Lake of Fire and will not receive their glorified bodies until their souls have been purged of leaven appear to be resurrected into mortal bodies shortly after the Bride is glorified. Their glorification probably occurs at the end of the millennium at which time a fourth group enters into its time of judgment and purification. Revelation 20 mentions these things, but a further discussion of these four groups is beyond the scope of this article. Finally, then, let’s consider one more prophetic word concerning these firstfruits of creation.

Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. ² And I heard a voice from heaven like the roar of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder. The voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps, ³ and they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. ⁴ It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. It is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb, ⁵ and in their mouth no lie was found, for they are blameless. (Rev. 14:1-5)

These “144,000″ have now become totally identified with the Lamb (the real Passover Lamb) and his Father, so identified in fact that their spiritual names are “written on their foreheads.” This implies that their heads, their minds, their wills have become one with the Lamb’s and his Father’s minds and wills. Notice also that these redeemed from the earth are now perfect, just as Jesus taught them to be. This is because they have now been fully conformed to God’s image. Another way to think of this is to see them as the first people to have grown into full maturity according to God’s creative mandate he declared in the beginning.

²⁶ Then God said, “Let us make man^[h] in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

It is because the 144,000 mentioned in Revelation 14 are the first to be fully conformed to God’s image that the he calls them the “firstfruits” of creation. This is the goal of creation; this is why God created man. God’s work on earth is nothing less than procreating himself. This explains all the marriage imagery in Scripture between God and his people and it also explains why God considers man so important that he would literally incarnate himself in human flesh and suffer humiliating death on the cross in order to ensure man’s salvation and ultimate completed creation.

The third song of ascent begins,

I rejoiced in those who said to me,
“Let us go to the house[b] of Yahweh.”

Now we have reached the third step of ascent. Now we begin to gain a glimpse of what God calls us to. All of us rejoice when we first repent of our sins and believe in Jesus as our Savior. Most of us believe at that time that heaven is surely ours because most of the Church erroneously believes that once a person believes he immediately becomes the “Bride of Christ” and will automatically be raptured into the presence of God at some point in the future.  The question presented here, though, is will we take the step toward the “House of God” or not? Will we continue to ascend into the actual presence of God, or will we return like a dog to our vomit (to the ways of the world)?

I have a sense that I may not be able to finish writing about these songs of ascent before something occurs which prevents me. I want to encourage all you readers to purchase the English Standard Version “Classic Reference Bible” this week so that you can continue studying and taking these steps of ascent in faith. This particular Bible has the best references I have ever seen. They do not always take me to the place I think I should go, but often they take me to verses which add light to the one at hand. Such is the case with the references given to Psalm 122:1. First it takes us to Isaiah 2:3. This passage reads,

It shall come to pass in the latter days
that the mountain of the house of the Lord
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and shall be lifted up above the hills;
and all the nations shall flow to it,
3 and many peoples shall come, and say:
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.”
For out of Zion shall go the law,[a]
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
4 He shall judge between the nations,
and shall decide disputes for many peoples;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war anymore.
5 O house of Jacob,
come, let us walk
in the light of the Lord. (Isaiah 2:2-5, ESV)

Isaiah’s prophesy deals with the “latter days,” these days. It concerns the “mountain of the house of the LORD,” the mountain you and I now climb as we ascend into God’s presence. The ESV’s second reference is to Micah 4:2 which is an exact quote of this passage from Isaiah. These passages tell us that the house of the LORD is a “mountain.” Yesterday I suggested that that mountain is Mount Zion which is also called Jerusalem. The Book of Revelation reveals that its name is actually “New Jerusalem” and is a spiritual city rather than a natural one.

The Book of Hebrews also sheds light on this “house” saying,

Therefore, holy brothers,[a] you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, 2 who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s[b] house. 3 For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. 4 (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) 5 Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, 6 but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.[c] (Hebrews 3:1-6 ESV)

To take this third step we must identify with Christ and his Father in that we ourselves belong to the same house, the same family. We must see ourselves as having been created in his image and as now being conformed to his perfect stature. To take this third step we must move beyond the elementary doctrines of Jesus Christ and embrace the teaching about righteousness. Remember the words of John,

28 And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. 29 If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.

3 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears[f] we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. (1 John 2:28-3:3, ESV)

This third step is the critical step for this is the necessary step of moving on into the maturity of a son of God. Thirty five years of walking with God has taught me that most Christians never take this step. When you take this step you will begin to be called “legalistic” or “judgmental.” This step is the step of separation, the step out of Mystery Babylon and truly toward God’s House, New Jerusalem. Thus the Psalmist declares, ² Our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem—

It is at this point that God begins to reveal Jerusalem (spiritual Jerusalem, New Jerusalem) to us, saying,

³ Jerusalem that is built
as a city that is joined together,
⁴ where the tribes go up,
the tribes of Yah^[c] as a testimony for Israel,
to give thanks to the name of Yahweh.
⁵ For there the thrones sit^[d] for judgment,
thrones of David’s house.
⁶ Pray^[e] for the peace of Jerusalem:
“May those who love you be at ease.
⁷ May peace be within your walls,
security within your palaces.”
⁸ For the sake of my brothers and my friends,
I will say, “Peace be within you.”
⁹ For the sake of the house^[f] of Yahweh our God,
I will seek your good. (Psalm 122, Lexham English Bible)

The first two steps in our ascent to finally behold our God demand that we revisit the very foundations of our Christianity. We must examine ourselves without guile and hypocrisy and repent of our sins. And we must continue walking by and in faith in God. The third step takes us beyond the elementary doctrines of Christ to consider the very goal of our salvation, the city we sojourn toward, New Jerusalem.

When most people consider this psalm they think of the old city of Jerusalem in the Middle East. When they read verse six they mechanically pray that God will bring perpetual peace to that besieged carnal city. There was a time, the time when God still dwelt in ancient Israel, when this prayer did apply to natural, old Jerusalem. That time is long past. Today this prayer, like the entire 122nd psalm, concerns New Jerusalem. Today we choose: do we remain in man’s city of Babylon or do we take the third step, separating ourselves from Babylon and climbing up toward our new house, our new city, New Jerusalem?

I believe the songs of ascent deal with preparing God’s people to ascend into his presence just as Moses ascended into the mountain burning with fire. But, why is this the first of these songs? What is it about Psalm 120 which demands that it be placed first among the steps into the presence of God?

As I thought about this I noticed that the psalm which precedes Psalm 120 sings the praises of God’s Law for 176 verses. Psalm 119 is the longest psalm and includes profound insights into the grace and loveliness of God’s Law. Anyone who has not yet learned to love God’s Law will not be able to begin the ascent into his presence we must now begin. Again, if you do not already love his law then you cannot begin to ascend into God’s presence. In that case you should read the series on Psalm 119 which you can find by clicking here.

But even if you do love God’s Law you realize that you fail abysmally to obey it. That is what Psalm 120 is all about. This first song of ascent deals with understanding your personal condition, a qualification for continuing the climb up the ladder to God’s throne.

The psalm begins, saying,

In my distress I called to the Lord,
    and he answered me.
² Deliver me, O Lord,
    from lying lips,
    from a deceitful tongue.

Until reading this psalm yesterday I had always believed that the psalmist was praying and asking God to deliver him from the lying lips and deceitful tongues which constantly assaulted him. Interestingly, my wife had also seen these verses the same way. This morning she asked me why this was the first song of ascent and as I began to explain it to her I told her that I now believed that verse deals with our lips and tongues, my lips, my tongue. She said, “When I read this verse this morning that’s the way I read it too. Until then I had always read this as applying to other people.”

So, the first key to understand this song, the first necessary requirement for ascending the ladder into God’s presence, is to rightly judge ourselves, to take the plank out of our own eyes. Although I want to walk perfectly in truth my lips and tongue still do not perfectly obey my inmost desire. Therefore, in my distress at my continuing imperfection I cry out to the LORD, and he answers me,

What shall be given to you,
    ^(B)and what more shall be done to you,
    you deceitful tongue? (Psalm 120:3)

And I say, “I don’t know LORD. You know.” And he says,

^(C)A warrior’s ^(D)sharp arrows,
    with glowing ^(E)coals of the broom tree!

“What is that, LORD, I ask.”

“Search the Scriptures and find out,” he replies.

So I found the reference to the warrior’s sharp arrows in Psalm 45, a glorious song the Bride of Christ, God’s overcomers, sings to her King, her God, her Mighty One. The Bride says,

In your majesty ^(I)ride out victoriously
    for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness;
    let your right hand teach you ^(J)awesome deeds!
⁵ Your arrows are sharp
    in the heart of the king’s enemies;
    the peoples fall under you. (Ps. 45:4-5)

Psalm 119 is all about understanding and coming to love this King’s truth, meekness, and righteousness. Yet, we all continue to fail miserably in walking in those ways. In that sense, even though we believe in Jesus, we (our flesh and carnal souls) remain enemies of God. And so this King-Warrior shoots his arrows into our hearts in order to change our hearts, to make them like his pure and perfect heart. Job said,

For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit: the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me. (Job 6:4 KJV)

Job knew that God ordered all things that came to him. Although we may chaff at the judgments of God against us we must remember that he disciplines the son which he loves. So, the arrows of God represent his disciplines in the life of the one who would go up the steps to see him as he is. But, what if we actually do see God? Yes, what then? Shall we die as Isaiah feared when he saw the Almighty? This is why he provides the coals of the broom tree as well as his arrows. Isaiah says,

In the year that ^(A)King Uzziah died I ^(B)saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train^[a] of his robe filled the temple. ² Above him stood the seraphim. Each had^(C)six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. ³ And one called to another and said:

⁴ And ^(F)the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and ^(G)the house was filled with smoke. ⁵ And I said: “Woe is me! ^(H)For I am lost; ^(I)for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the^(J)King, the Lord of hosts!”

⁶ Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. ⁷ And he ^(K)touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” (Isaiah 6:1-7)

Isaiah correctly saw himself. He knew he was unworthy to see God and to stand in his presence. Thus he bemoans his carnal self, his unclean lips. He realizes that he and all he dwells with cannot dwell with God in their current condition. Neither can we, and we must realize this. We must desire the baptism of fire which burning coals upon our lips represents. Isaiah describes it further, saying,

This is our first step of ascent, understanding our present personal carnal, sinful condition, and the condition of an entire world which can never come into the presence of God.  Until we understand this and take this first step we can never ascend unto his throne.

There are fifteen psalms of ascent in Scripture, Psalms 120 through 134. There are now fifteen days until the Feast of Trumpets, Rosh Hashanah. Many of us expect the LORD to do a mighty work on or about this date, September 16-17, 2012. I just happened to read a psalm today, Psalm 130, and suddenly got a feeling that these songs were important for us to read and assimilate in the coming days. It just seemed like a “now” word from God to me. Then I thought, “I wonder if this is one of the psalms of ascent?” I looked and it was.  Then I thought, “we who diligently wait for Him are waiting to ascend to him, to see his face, to be like him. I bet these psalms are important for us right now.”

I felt the importance for us as I read verses 3 and 4 from Psalm 130 today. They say,

The “rapture” doctrine is misunderstood—- by ALL camps— and it has served as a “divide and conquer” strategy of the enemy for too long. As long as the saints are arguing over who is right and who is wrong (and obviously, if you believe one side or the other, it must mean the other side is completely blind, deceived, and “not chosen”), then the enemy is prevailing. If I can be so bold as to say—- NEITHER side has it fully understood correctly, because all flesh is corrupt, and any true Word given by the Holy Spirit is filtered through a VEIL that OBSCURES anyway. Do not trust too dogmatically in doctrine about the rapture, whether pre or post— b/c it is not rapture doctrine belief that saves…. It is KNOWING HIM that saves. Too many people focus on the wrong things.

Who really KNEW God intimately? Moses? or the Israelites?

“He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.” Ps. 103:7

Moses knew God in a way that the Israelites, who only knew God by the external evidence of His existence, did not. The Israelites only knew God by out outward evidence— the “signs”. Moses knew God “as a friend” does:

“And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend.” Exo. 33:11a

We all have ‘acquaintances’ and others we call ‘friends’. There is a difference.

What was the difference between Moses and the Israelites? Let’s look at this, but let’s begin with where Moses began.

Like a lot of zealous children these days, Moses began as a zealot for God and for those whom he saw as his ‘brothers’….even going so far as to kill an egyptian’ — in the name of God’.

Does this occur today?

Certainly it does. There are a lot of zealots for God these days who believe they must prove their love of God by slaying all the egyptians (“enemies of God”) out there. The enemies of God are more numerous than we, and we are in bondage to a very oppressive world babylonian system. But how did the Lord God deliver them? Was it through the great and zealous acts of Moses as a young and impulsive young man? A young man with much bravado, courage, and faith in his OWN flesh? No. God will not honor a man’s intentions, even it be “for the Lord”, if it is not done according to the WAYS of the Lord, i.e., His Will.

God is not surprised to see new Christians to act impulsively– this is how we all act in the beginning, for we are but babes in Christ at that point, and eager to save the world. But it is not by our might and power (the “horses of egypt”, the FLESH) that it will occur. It is only by going through our OWN wilderness experience first that we are trained in the WAYS of the Lord and humbled in realizing that we are but nothing and able to do nothing pleasing to Him if it is done outside His Will. Until we have determined what His Will is, we are simply as the Israelites were— spectators of His ACTS in the World today, rather than knowing Him intimately as a friend.

When Moses was exiled from Egypt, it was as though he was called out of the world… a sojourner in the wilderness, and learning through personal trial and tribulation what it means to NOT depend upon his own human flesh and ability, but rather, to depend upon God. To eventually get to the point that he does nothing but that he pray about it first and find the Will of God in the matter. Forty years it took him to finally be “emptied” of his own soul– his own soulish and fleshly pride, ego, and ability— to finally get to the point that when God called him to go “back to Egypt” (the world) to deliver the Israelites from THEIR bondage (as Moses had been– i.e., his bondage to his own flesh), that Moses felt completely inadequate and worthless to be of any service to God.

Do you see how before God will use us in a situation or calling to deliver others, that He will first work on US? We can do more harm that good to others if we go wielding a sword upon whom we perceive as God’s “enemies” when we have not had that “enemy” in us poured out as an offering first. The Israelites did not “thank” Moses for killing the egyptian slave, and neither will brothers and sisters thank you in your attempts to cut away the “egyptian” in them either. Thus the reason we are to work on removing the mote in our own eye before attempting to remove a speck we see in another. God knows how to deliver. But a true son, a true ‘manchild’ as Moses was a type of, will heed the calling to go into the wilderness alone with God and allow God to work on him/her first.

When the Lord God revealed Himself to Moses as a voice speaking from the burning bush. Do you know this ‘baptism of fire?’ There is a counterfeit and there is the true. It is the spirit of burning within our very soul that “burns away the chaff”– the FLESH within— that is the true revelation of God presence in you. The Holy Spirit baptism of fire is this:

“Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?” (Jer. 23:29).

When a TRUE WORD from the Lord is heard, whether through dream, vision, or Word of Knowledge, it will have the effect of burning within. For our God is a consuming fire (Heb. 12:29; Deut. 4:24; Isa. 33:14; etc.)— He consumes the flesh within us by burning it out of us. In a sense, it is the “brightness of his coming” that destroys the man of sin within. It is this that empowers a person to become an OVERCOMER. They overcome the sins that so easily beset them before, and are able to ONLY because they listen and obey the true Word, the consuming fire that leads them. They, like Moses, are not afraid to approach God. They are not afraid to approach the thick darkness and infolding fire atop the Mount… They are not afraid like the Israelites (the rest) were afraid, because they trust God and know that “if I perish, I perish” but at least I know and believe the WAY of God is more righteous than I, and knowing that, I can lay down my life and approach the consuming fire that is God:

“And the sight of the glory of the LORD was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel. And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights. And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,….” Exo. 24:17-18; 25:1.

Moses knew God’s WAYS because he OVERCAME the fear of approaching God. He understood perfectly that to approach God without reservation certainly meant that he would DIE… The Israelites were to hear the Voice of God as well. But all they could handle was the first Ten Commandments (and is it not interesting that all know these, but know little of the others that were given?). When the fire of God’s presence approached each Israelite individually (as a flame of fire) to speak the words of the Law, they could not “hear” for the “fear” that welled up within them:

“And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.” EXO. 20:19).

The Israelites were afraid to die. They did not understand that this was the whole point. The flesh, the carnality, the evil in our own hearts, must DIE. We must pick up our cross and follow Him– dying DAILY and resisting the temptation to sin with the sword of our mouths as so many do. Unless we receive this baptism of fire, approaching God without reservation and asking HIM to BURN it out of us from WITHIN, we will only know God EXTERNALLY…by His ACTS.

So… is KNOWING the rapture or arguing over timelines or whose right more important? No. It is simply fighting the egyptian in others. Let us rather move past that. Seek the Lord while He may be found and ask Him to reveal His consuming fire, His WORD to you. Do not be afraid to hear. It will burn. Your flesh will die. But YOU shall live.

by a Faithful Christian

A Prayer of David

1 Hear a just cause, O Lord; attend to my cry!
Give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit!
2 From your presence let my vindication come!
Let your eyes behold the right!

3 You have tried my heart, you have visited me by night,
you have tested me, and you will find nothing;
I have purposed that my mouth will not transgress.
4 With regard to the works of man, by the word of your lips
I have avoided the ways of the violent.
5 My steps have held fast to your paths;
my feet have not slipped.

6 I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God;
incline your ear to me; hear my words.
7 Wondrously show[a] your steadfast love,
O Savior of those who seek refuge
from their adversaries at your right hand.

8 Keep me as the apple of your eye;
hide me in the shadow of your wings,
9 from the wicked who do me violence,
my deadly enemies who surround me.
10 They close their hearts to pity;
with their mouths they speak arrogantly.
11 They have now surrounded our steps;
they set their eyes to cast us to the ground.
12 He is like a lion eager to tear,
as a young lion lurking in ambush.

13 Arise, O Lord! Confront him, subdue him!
Deliver my soul from the wicked by your sword,
14 from men by your hand, O Lord,
from men of the world whose portion is in this life.[b]
You fill their womb with treasure;[c]
they are satisfied with children,
and they leave their abundance to their infants.

15 As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness;
when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness. (Psalm 17, ESV)

Click here to link to my book entitled When We Awake, which is my theological perspective on the “salvation of the soul.” The salvation of the soul is not the salvation of the spirit which most Christians only know about and teach.

Today, May 27 2012, is the Day of Pentecost, the day which Christians commemorate as the day upon which God first gave the Holy Spirit to his people after Jesus rose from the dead. When Peter explained this strange occurrence in Acts 2 he quoted from the book of Joel, chapter 2, verses 28-32a. Peter did not quote the second half of verse 32 which reads, “for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call.” He omitted this because it was not then time for this aspect of the prophecy to be fulfilled. It is time now.

The book of Joel mainly prophesies about these days we live in right now. Chapter one begins with four groups of locusts which come upon God’s land to destroy it. That which the first group of locusts does not destroy, the second group eats. Anything left by the second invading army is eaten by the third, and everything left by the third is consumed by the fourth. The result is this:

He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white. (Joel 1:7, KJV)

Now remember that Jesus cursed the fig tree, causing it to die, just before his crucifixion. He cursed the tree, which represented the Jewish nation, because it bore no fruit. Thus it is today. The fig tree still represents Israel, God’s people who today comprise the Church. But the Church, like Israel of old, has failed. She bears no fruit. She refuses to leave her love of the world’s ways; she refuses to “come out of Babylon.” Through her fornication with the world she has become one with Babylon, which is a mystery, and rides the beast of satanic world governments. See Revelation 17-18.

One fulfillment of the four groups of locusts in Joel 1 is that they represent the four generations of Christians beginning in the early 1900′s which presided over America’s fall from a Christian nation to the most evil people ever known to the world. Today’s news, for example, reports of a naked “zombie” eating the face of a living man. Can we get more disgusting than this? Well, unfortunately the answer is yes. Satan has some plans in store for all who refuse to obey their Creator which even exceeds this in horror. Yes, in four generations America fell from a relatively faithful form of Christianity to become the haunt of every type of demonic activity. Four generations of locusts destroyed our entire culture.

But that is not all that the locusts represent. If you compare Joel 1:4-7 with Revelation 9:1-12 you will see that their final prophetic fulfillment comes with the demonic locusts released from the abyss in the fifth trumpet judgment. There are four keys for understanding that these two chapters describe the same locusts: 1 ) both passages deal with the time period just before or at the “Day of the LORD,” 2) both passages deal with locusts, 3) the locusts have teeth “like lions’ teeth,” and 4) the locusts damage certain types of plants, which Revelation 9:4 clearly shows represent people. Revelation 9:4 specifically commands the locusts “not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.” These three types of people represent the three types of fruitful Christians Jesus described in Matthew 13:23. All fruitful Christians will be sealed by God before he gives the key to the abyss to Satan. All of them will be fully protected by God from demonic assault when they are released.

On the other hand, the fig tree of Joel 1:7 represents all Christians who hold the truth in unrighteousness and have, therefore, become unfruitful and unproductive in their walk with Jesus. Joel says that these trees become splintered, stripped, thrown down, and made white (naked). They did not seek God to become clothed in his righteousness; they accepted the world’s definitions of righteousness and his way they do not know. They chose not to walk the narrow path which Jesus warned we all must take. But, note that God restrains the locusts (demons) from killing them in Revelation 9:5. For “five months” they will be severely tortured and will want to die, but death will elude them. What does all this represent?

Joel 1 and the fifth trumpet blast of Revelation 9 depict God’s judgment upon his church, for judgment begins with the House of God according to God’s word. This explains why Joel addresses his prophesy to the “elders,” the leaders of God’s people and also why he calls those leaders to repent in 1:8-20. God commands the locusts not to kill these lukewarm, unbelieving Christians because he graciously grants them one last time to repent, one last time to believe the prophets who have spoken and spoken and spoken.

The end does not come as these Christians were taught. They will not be miraculously whisked away to their pie in the sky heaven prior to all hell breaking loose upon earth. They will learn that they walked in deception, that they called evil good and good evil and that they accepted the demonic for the divine in their church services and gatherings. Many, I believe, will repent, but these will be difficult, trying times for multitudes who called themselves by the name of Christ and yet walked in the dens of Satan.

Continuing on with Exodus 19 with respect to the time we live in and the soon-coming Day of Pentecost, we see another important fact. The LORD called both Moses and Aaron by name before they presumed to come up the mountain into his presence. I believe this sets a prophetic pattern for the people of God who eagerly await Christ’s second coming, that event which many call “the rapture.” This prophetic parable in Exodus 19 (although it is historically accurate God still designed it as a parable, a hidden teaching) shows us that most people will not be ready to come into God’s presence, will not be able to see him face to face, when he comes. Even Moses did not climb the mountain into God’s fire until God called him by name. Similarly, I believe, God will call each of us individually “up the mountain” by name. Scripture teaches that every overcomer receives a new name.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it. (Revelation 2:17)

He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name. (Revelation 3:12)

It may be that Jesus calls 144,000 names or more simultaneously when the time arrives, but I think that each of us, when we are ready, will hear our name called, both our current name and our new name. This will be similar to Jesus calling to John in Revelation 4:1, saying, “After ^(A)these things I looked, and behold, ^(B)a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, ^(C)like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, `^(D)Come up here, and I will ^(E)show you what must take place after these things.’”

Now, however, God is warning us to not be presumptuous concerning coming into his presence. We need to remember the admonition of Moses to the people of Israel:

²¹ And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to the Lord to look and many of them perish. ²² Also let the priests who come near to the Lord consecrate themselves, lest the Lord break out against them.” ²³ And Moses said to the Lord, “The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for you yourself warned us, saying, ‘Set limits around the mountain and consecrate it.’” ²⁴ And the Lord said to him, “Go down, and come up bringing Aaron with you. But do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the Lord, lest he break out against them.” ²⁵ So Moses went down to the people and told them. (Exodus 19:21-25 ESV)

 How, then, do we ever prepare ourselves to meet this Holy God who even caused Moses to tremble in fear?

“Now I will arise,” says the Lord,
    “now I will lift myself up;
    now I will be exalted.
¹¹ You conceive chaff; you give birth to stubble;
    your breath is a fire that will consume you.
¹² And the peoples will be as if burned to lime,
     like thorns cut down, that are burned in the fire.”

Look at the verses in bold lettering above! Do you walk righteously and speak uprightly? Do you rob or steal or oppress others so that you can gain more money? Do you take bribes to do certain things without understanding the rightness of the cause? Do you listen to bloodthirsty music or watch movies filled with violence? Do you look upon evil depictions of lust or any other thing? Only those who put away these things and long to walk in God’s holiness will be able to see the King in his beauty.

The LORD will come as fire to his mountain, but dare not to touch it unless he invites you to come up into his presence by name. For our God is a consuming fire and he will consume every aspect of every thing that does not portray his purity.

¹⁵ O Lord, thou knowest: remember me, and visit me, and revenge me of my persecutors; take me not away in thy longsuffering: know that for thy sake I have suffered rebuke.

¹⁶ Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts.

¹⁷ I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of thy hand: for thou hast filled me with indignation. (Jeremiah 15:15-17)