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hearts for the truth, and
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"Israel" Tagged Sermons (Page 2)

THE SAME GOD STILL REIGNS

Jonah was sent back by the Lord to fulfill his ministry to the arch enemy of Israel. Remember, Jonah was a patriot. He was a prophet to Israel. He knew that their God is in the business of restoring Israel no matter how bad they treated God and how often they followed idols. But that same mercy and forgiveness did not belong to those who invaded Israel and where bend on destroying them for good. But a prophet of God has no business to formulate his own message. If we like the message or not does not matter.
Remember, the Apostle Paul was once a persecutor of God’s people, the follower of Christ, just as the Assyrians who lived in Nineveh where enemies of Israel. Never forget, God is in the Restoration business. 40 days and it’s all over was the message. You deserve judgment for your wicked deeds. And Jonah liked the message. He understood the meaning of the number 40.
Jonah is watching all this unfold before his very eyes. He cannot believe what he sees and hears. Must be a foxhole conversion. I know these people. They are evil to the core. Their ancestors are evil and their founding father is no other than Nimrod. Impossible!
God looked at the heart of the people in Nineveh. They genuinely repented and sought the Lord for mercy. Jonah could not believe such a thing. Salvation in done in the heart of people. Jonah was not long ago resurrected from the dead by God’s power, he was in Sheol and yet he did not see what God was doing in the heart of men. That’s God’s business. God decides where he is reigning. The people of Nineveh repented and because of that their hearts were right with God. As a matter of fact, God gave this city another 100 years before they finally were defeated in the famous battle of Carchemish, 605 B.C.
Jonah knew how merciful God is because he himself experienced that mercy on many occasions. But extending that mercy and compassion on his enemies was more than he could handle. Jonah had his own plan how God should reign in the lives of those inhabitants of Nineveh. Now Jonah changes his prayer. He asked God to let him die. This time for good. He has done his job. He made it to Nineveh and he preached God’s message. I am done, he said to God. Jonah rather would die than see the enemy of Israel experience God’s compassion. In other words, Jonah believed that moment that it would be better to die than physical life in a world dominated by the hated Assyrians.
I am glad God reigned in the life of Jonah and he still reigns in our life. Jonah once again experiences God’s mercy and compassion. The Lord was not finished yet with his prophet. God gently rebukes his prophet with a question: “Is it right for you to be angry?”
Then God teaches his prophet another lesson. Jonah knew how to prophesy and how to preach God’s messages. But he did not yet understand God’s love and God’s grace. So God uses a simple plant and a tiny worm to teach his prophet the next lesson. With great compassion, just as the Lord PREPARED a great fish, He also PREPARED a plant, He also PREPARED a worm, and He also prepared a strong east wind. Who do you think reigns supreme here? Jonah or God Almighty?
God prepared all these things just for Jonah. He calling and his ministry was never in question. What God was doing is showing Jonah how compassionate he is towards all people, towards Jonah as well as the people in Nineveh. He has a purpose for everyone.
Why did Jonah not get it? He was more interested in BEING RIGHT than being a tool in God’s hand.
The same God that called Jonah to go to Nineveh is the same God who calls us to be witnesses unto Him. He still reigns the same way He did during the time of Jonah. We have been set free, but we are not free to do what we want to do, but rather what HE has commanded us to do. Doing His will is experiencing absolute FREEDOM. HALLELUJAH!!!

BEHOLD, I Am Coming!

Today, we will cover plagues 2-6. The danger we face when we study those plagues is the fact that most people are more interested in the details describing these events then they are about the great announcements that JESUS IS ABOUT TO ARRIVE ON THE SCENE. Always keep this important truth in front of your spiritual eyes when studying the Word of God.
Richard Wurmbrand titled chapter 8 of his book ‘PROCLAIM THE TRUTH’.
“Some years ago while in Norway, I dreamed I heard a voice that said, “You will not always have a God.” For a long time the dream troubled me, until finally I grasped its meaning. Meister Eckhardt had a similar intuition: “The man united with God has no God.” The verb “to have” does not exist in Hebrew, the language of the Bible. Even in modern Hebrew no one can say “I have money”, “I have a car”, I have a house”; neither can one say “I have a god.”
We are never intended to have a God. We were meant to realize our high calling by being one with God. Jesus says, “You are gods” (John 10:34}. We are meant to be overcomers, to whom Jesus gave this promise: “To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne” (Revelation 3:21).
Only God sits on God’s throne. This is also my final destination. Then evidently I will no longer have God. I will be WITH God.
Everything less than becoming godlike is unworthy of a child of God. It is a shame for a prince to be only a good shoemaker.
Realize your calling and you will not ask such questions as to why rivers overflow, volcanoes erupt, children are in hospitals, and tyrants reign. You will sit on the heavenly throne from which universes are created and ruled. You will be above these things.” Richard Wurmbrand in “The Oracles of God”.
In other words, when we study the bowl judgments today, we must look at these events from a heavenly throne room view, not from an earthly view point. Why is that so important? Because looking at these events from an earthly, worldly viewpoint, we will react just like everyone else reacts on this earth, with fear, uncertainty, preparing for the worst, paralyzed by what we hear, or denying what the text says by spiritualizing its meaning. While others simply try to ignore the prophecies God spoke long ago, believing that such ignorance would protect them from the judgment of God.
BEHOLD, I AM COMING, Jesus announced long ago. He is coming to this earth, and so are all the saints with him. Remember, we are WITH GOD and God is WITH US.
HIS PROPHESIES WILL BE FULFILLED TO THE FINEST DETAILS
HIS PREPARATIONS WILL BE DONE ACCORDING TO THIS WORD
HIS POWER WILL BRING EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE UNDER HIS AUTHORITY.
The question is: Are you willingly under His authority?

Preparing Christ’s Second Coming – Part Two

Some people believe that Jesus’ Christ will come back to this earth without any precondition. Others believe that there is no second coming of Christ. They spiritualize the second coming of Christ by teaching that when you are being baptized by their church, the second coming of Jesus has just materialized. And there are those who believe and teach that God is done with physical Israel, and that the church has replaced physical Israel. Therefore, they say, the modern state of Israel is an invention of Zionist zealots and that they have no right to claim any connection to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
When the disciples asked Jesus the question:
“Lord, will You at this time RESTORE THE KINGDOM TO ISRAEL?” Acts 1:6b Jesus did not answer: You have no clue. Israel’s kingdom is done. It will never be restored. I will start a new work not many days from now and that work is called Ecclesia, aka as the church, and it is this church that will inherit all the blessings I have promised to Israel. THE FATHER AND I ARE DONE WITH ISRAEL. Just forget it.
Listen to what Jesus really said:
“It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.” (verse 7)
In other words, all the promises found in the O.T. regarding the restoration of the kingdom to Israel will happen at a time which the Father has ordained. How and when it will happen is determined by the Heavenly Father alone.
That Jesus will come back again to this very earth, this very place they were standing on when this conversation took place.
There should be no question about the fact that this same Jesus, the resurrected Son of God, will COME BACK TO THIS VERY EARTH IN LIKE MANNER. HE WILL JUST APPEAR THE SAME WAY HE DISAPPEARED. People will watch Him coming back. He will not come back as a ghost, he will not be a political leader, he will not be a military leader, he will not be an economic leader, He will not be a religious leader. HE WILL COME BACK AS THE SON OF GOD AND WILL ESTABLISH HIS KINGDOM ON THIS EARTH IN VISIBLE FORM.
The entire book of Revelation is dealing with Christ’s return to this earth.
The book itself makes no sense whatsoever if we loose sight of this important fact. That’s the reason why the book is called THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST. While John saw Jesus in heaven, sitting at the right hand of the Father, this aged apostle also saw what God the Father has ordained to happen to this earth and His creation, BEFORE HIS SON WILL RETURN TO THIS EARTH TO SET UP HIS KINGDOM.
Before Israel will receive the cleansing of her sin, they must first look ON HIM, the very one they have rejected at His first coming, and they must plead for His return. Israel will have to be brought to a place of desperation, where and all the nations of this earth will go against them during the final years before Christ’s return. They will not prepare themselves to welcome their Messiah UNTIL THE PRECONDITION HAS BEEN MET. And that will not happen until Israel as a nation will go through Jacob’s trouble, where God Almighty will have to pour His wrath upon this entire world.

WRESTLING with God

The life of Jacob covers HALF OF THE BOOK OF GENESIS. His birth is recorded in chapter 25 and his death is recorded in chapter 49. What we find between those two chapters are quite amazing stories about this man and the struggles he faced, because they are all pointing towards the struggles our forefathers faced and reveal the struggles or strongholds which we face today. Certainly, studying this man’s life will give us plenty of insight how NOT TO DO CERTAIN THINGS, and HOW TO DO CERTAIN THINGS IN LIFE.
God reveals Himself to Jacob and reaffirms the covenant He made with Abraham, Jacobs grandfather, promising Jacob that his offspring will be many and that the Promised Land will one day belong to his descendants. In this dream, Jacob sees something like a ladder or a stairway leading up to heaven. The Hebrew word translated “ladder” is SULLAM which simply means a connection between God and man.
What an encouragement to all of us who have been justified through faith in the work of God Himself through His only begotten son, Jesus Christ, who has become our ladder to heaven. Even after we became children of God, running from trouble, trying to ignore our strongholds, God comes along with a great encouragement, reminding us of the promises made long ago to our forefathers, reminding us that His promises and His covenant with us cannot be negated.
Jacob found out how the universal law of sowing and reaping is working its way through his life. He did not know that he had a stronghold of lying and deceiving, until he had to be on the receiving end of it. You see, our very own strongholds are not admitted as such until we are on the receiving end of it. Until someone else does the same thing to us and all of a sudden we can feel the pain, the hurt, the disappointment.
Jacob was still dealing and wheeling. Anxious for his life, he came up with the idea to bribe his brother with gifts of a caravan of goodies. He hoped he can pacify his brother. Once everything he could do was done, finally Jacob was physically exhausted and alone in the wilderness. He feared for his life. He was convinced that he would face death after the messengers he sent out came back to Jacob saying: We came to your brother Esau, and he also is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him. At this moment Jacob realized that he is powerless to control his fate. With his father-in-law behind him and Esau before him, he was now too spent to struggle any longer. In the process, Jacob the deceiver received a new name, ISRAEL. But that is not all. The most important part of this struggle comes at the end. It was when God wrestled with Jacob that Jacob’s stronghold was taken down and demolished. And it was after his stronghold was demolished that GOD BLESSED HIM.
“… Jacob’s divine encounter at the Jabbok River was a magnificent defeat of the human soul at the hands of God.” Frederick Buechner

God’s Glory In Prophecy

In John 1:14 the people were able to behold the glory of the Father at Jesus’ first coming. When Jesus returns the second time with the same glory of the Father, the glory will be seen by all people. The Sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven just before Jesus will set foot on this earth again. This sign will be the SHECHINAH GLORY.
The greatest manifestation of the Shechinah Glory, especially to Israel, will be in the messianic kingdom. God’s glory will be a visible manifestation in the holy of holies during the millennial kingdom.
The new Mount Zion, described in various parts of the Bible, will be an exceeding high mountain with a 50 mile square plateau on top with the new city of Jerusalem on the south side and the millennial temple on the north side. But over the entire mountain will be the visible manifestation of the Shechinah Glory just as this glory was over Mount Sinai in the Old Testament period.

God’s Glory – Part 2

No one will be able to enter the temple of God UNTIL THE 7 PLAGUES of the seven angels are completed. That is, at the end of the 7 year tribulation period.
We traced the appearance of God’s glory from the Garden of Eden, through Moses’ life and eventually ended up in the wilderness Tabernacle where God’s glory was manifested among the Hebrews.
Now, we pick up from there and jump to the Joshua and Judges period in the Old Testament.
After Joshua’s time came the period of Judges of which Samuel was the last ruling judge of Israel. It was Samuel that was chosen by God to eventually anoint the first King of Israel. And it was Samuel that anointed King David, the man after God’s own heart.
Just as the first King of Israel was chosen by the people, and eventually rejected by God, so will be the first world ruler, the antichrist, chosen by the people, but rejected by God. It will be the second world ruler, the man after God’s own heart, that will be God’s chosen one.
However, just as Moses prayed earlier that the visible manifestation of God’s glory would dwell in the tabernacle forever, so did Solomon here pray to God that the visible manifestation of His Shechinah Glory would dwell in the temple forever.
But God would not answer the prayer of Moses and Solomon at their time.
What happened to the glory of God? Today, people get all excited about the arch of the covenant, asking the question: WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ARK OF THE COVENANT? Well, that piece of furniture is just that. The real question should be. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SHECHINAH GLORY?

Under His Provision and Protection

Let me give you an outline of this entire chapter which will help you to put everything into its context:
• Verses 1-5 are a summary from the birth to the ascension of Jesus Christ.
• Verse 6 shows the Jews on a constant run.
• Verses 7-14 reveal the reasons why the Jews are on a constant run during the second half of the tribulation period. Satan has been cast down to earth.
• Verses 15-17 describe Satan’s persecution of the remnant, the believing Jews.
GOD ENTERED INTO A COVENANT RELATIONSHIP WITH ABRAHAM, the father of Isaac and grand-father of Jacob. It is Jacob which wrestled with God until God changed his name to ISRAEL and blessed Israel.
I need to explain at this time what a COVENANT RELATIONSHIP MEANS.
But first, let me say what it DOES NOT MEAN:
The covenants contained in the Bible are absolutes, which means, that they cannot be changed. God initiated them and chose the people with which he entered into a covenant relationship. This covenant relationship HAS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH THE THEOLOGICAL COVENANTS PREACHED AND DEFENDED BY THE COVENANT THEOLOGIAN OF OUR DAYS.

Your Heavenly Father Knows

The Book of Revelation is primarily about REDEMPTION, RESTORATION, not about DESTRUCTION.
The first horse, white in color, will bring a false peace upon this earth, a man-made peace that cannot endure for long. The second horse, a fiery red one in color, will bring wars upon this earth.
So what is the significance of the DENARIUS in Revelation 6:6?
The scales in the hand of the one who rides the black horse are EVENLY BALANCED by the DENARIUS, which is a picture of Jesus payment for each people group, the Wheat and Barley, on each side of the Scales. The word translated “Scales” means “Yoke”, such as the yoke used on oxen to keep balance.
Now Revelation 6:6b makes sense: …And do not harm the oil and the wine. Protect those who are my anointed ones, those who have been blood washed under the NEW COVENANT.
We have been weighed in balances, Jesus paid for us with his death and we are protected by His Spirit and His Blood. The Black horse in Revelation is the Horse of the Harvest.