"BRING MY LITTLE ONES HOME

 

BRING MY LITTLE ONES HOME - AUDIO

 

Today’s devotional is a very special devotional.  I believe it will be encouraging, and for some of you it will have great significance.  At the same time the topic is heartbreaking.  I would like to first paint a bit of a backdrop to this devotional and the word I received from Father that goes with it. 

I gave my life to the Lord when I was 14 years old.  It was a very bumpy ride from there as I went through typical teenage years of rebellion right up until I turned about 21 years old.  Round about this time, I decided once and for all that I was not going to play Christian anymore, but commit with all my heart to His ways.  It was also then that He gave me the scripture that would be the very process that He would take me through.  Little did I know at what cost, which at that stage I probably would not have agreed to it.  But He was faithful all these years to fulfill this scripture in my life.  Much of it I thought was not necessarily applicable to my life, only to find out that it was, as my life went on.  When I read it, it always overwhelms me to see His faithfulness towards me through all these years.  That scripture is Isaiah 54.  I am aware that many out there may have received the same scripture for their life.  And for this reason I would like to say that it does not necessarily mean that what is written in this devotional, will necessarily be for you, nor am I saying that it will not.  You will have to do your due diligence and wait on Him.  At the same time, should you not have received Isaiah 54 from the Lord as a personal scripture for your life, this too does not disqualify you.  The only reason I mention this scripture is because of its significance to my life.  I am only reading some of the verses applicable to this topic, but you may of course read the whole chapter at your own time if you should feel so.

Let’s read Isaiah 54

Isaiah 54

1 Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord.

² Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes;

³ For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.

⁴ Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more.

⁵ For thy Maker is thine husband; the Lord of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.

⁶ For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God.

⁷ For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee.

¹³ And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children.

¹⁴ In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee.

¹⁵ Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not by me: whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake.

¹⁶ Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.

¹⁷ No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.

 

You will notice that this scripture starts with a promise of many children.  I have a daughter and we were unable to have any more children.  So for me I thought this meant that we would adopt children.  But things just did not work out quite that way.  All the doors closed.  We moved to a little town in Moorreesburg, in the West Coast of South Africa, known for its beautiful wheat fields.  My house overlooks these golden wheat fields, surrounded by beautiful blue mountains.  This also meant that I was away from all my city friends.  But there was one thing that caught my attention, an orphanage walking distance from our home.  I decided to introduce myself to them and offered to help them by specifically focusing on the children who had learning abilities and disorders with regard to their homework.  They were desperate as they just did not have enough staff to help out with this as well.  The need was great.  However, this door closed too, not because of the need met, but it somehow got placed in “file 13” so to speak.  I was also not going to force my way in, as Father alone knew whether this was the children He promised me. 

Five years after this I went to stay on my Aunt’s farm just to get away and to seek the Lord earnestly.  I have gone through an almost 12 year period where I have been hidden.  During this time He turned my whole life around and changed just about everything about me.  During the second half of these 12 years, was the time I went to my Aunt’s farm.  The Spirit started to awake in me a longing for children, but spiritual children.  He told me that He would bring them to me.  I was so ready to be used by Him.  I remember being next to the bed on my knees as I cried out to Him, reminding Him of His promise to me that I would have many children.  In fact, I told Him that as my Husband who have promised me children I was looking to Him for these children.  That as my Husband, I long to give Him offspring.  It was a strange and different encounter with the Lord, very much like Hanna, crying out to the Lord for a son, being barren.  That is how I felt.  Barren.  I was angry, I was sad, and my heart was breaking to give Him these children.  The next morning I got up to make myself some coffee and went to sit in the morning sun, just talking to my aunt.  She did not know the reason why I came to the farm and also did not ask me about it.  She is a lovely Child of God and have been there for me in so many ways.  I love her dearly.  At one point during our conversation, she stopped abruptly and said, “Pietra, I do not know what it is, but it is as if you are highly pregnant in the spirit!” Well, that did it for me.  I just burst into tears and started telling her about my prayer. 

From that time on, Father started bringing people to me to whom I could minister to and slowly but surely a steady stream was flowing in the dry desert of my life.  New life has come after many years of great drought.  And it has not stopped.  All over the world people started contacting me and Father has used me to speak into their lives.  This is the wonder of Him. None of this is to toot my own horn, my boast is in the Lord.  For I know that I am nothing. 

As of late I have been reading about and watching information about child trafficking.  I will be honest, I obviously felt very heart broken over these poor children all over the world.  Everybody knows about these children, unless you have been living under a rock.  But, even knowing about them did not disrupt my life.  I was sad about it, even prayed about it, but not as one outraged.  Almost like all those hungry children in Ethiopia.  Our hearts go out to them, but we feel powerless to really do something about it.  The inclination is to go on with your life in spite of this horrible reality. It was just not something I chose to get the details of, not willing to be devastated by that which I could not possibly change.  But of late, I have been doing research and watching documentaries.  I really do not know why I started doing this again.

Friday evening I was watching a movie, just to relax a bit, obviously not the same topic.  Right in the middle of the movie the Holy Spirit brought an immense sadness over me.  I am used to this, because this is the Spirit of Intercession, which is His drawing me to come away alone with Him to pray.  I never know what He wants me to pray about when this happens, so I pray in tongues.  This sadness will only part from me once I have prayed it through.  I stopped the movie I was watching and started to pray.  The sadness started to overwhelm me and in an instance, I knew the Holy Spirit was praying for these children that are so abused and murdered.  It went on for a while and when it stopped, a resoluteness came over me that was never there before.  I prayed that He would, once the escape (rapture) has taken place, use me as a worker specifically to rescue these children.  That He would send me in this time all over this world into the deep underground facilities and every other area where they are held captive, to bring them to Him.  To bring His children home.  Many people believe that the Lord will take the children under the age of accountability home once the escape takes place.  I believe this is true for the children of the saved, but not the unsaved.  It seems cruel and contrary to our view of our loving Father, but the reality is that He is still the same God.  The same God that told the Israelites to utterly destroy Canaan, which included every living thing, child and beast.  However, this does not mean that He is heartless towards these children, because He is well aware that they are victims of society and also born into different cultures that do not worship Him.  And for this reason, He will come and save them.  

Word I received 3^rd April 2021

BRING MY LITTLE ONES HOME

I will send you out to the highways and bi-ways, into the alleys clothed in darkness, in the prisons filled with children.  I will send you to answer the cry of my little ones.  Those who cry from someone to defend them.   Those destitute and alone.  Those who have been tormented and searching.  Those who have not tasted of My love and have not been comforted.  For is this not why I have come and have been anointed for?   To preach good tidings to those who are in prisons and to set the captives free?  To comfort those who mourn and to heal the broken hearted.  To say to those without hope, “Behold I come to save you”.  For this you will be My hands to take up the broken and bruised.  Those raped by society, those torn in despair.  For I see all things and vengeance is Mine.  I will surely repay.  Nothing passes My all seeing eye.  I see and I watch over them.  At the right time I will send you.  So be not slack in your focus.  Do not be as those who drink with both hands in the river, forgetting their shield and sword.  For even right now the enemy will advance, for he knows that his time is short.  But I will do a quick work through you, to hasten their deliverance.  For this I have prepared you.  For this My valiant warrior, to go out and save the lost.  To go out and declare My word so that those who are in darkness may live.  Surely as your heart breaks, it breaks in Me, for I long to take those little lambs into My arms.  To anoint them, to bless them and make My face shine down on them.  I will not leave them destitute.  Tell them I come, tell them I love them.  Tell them peace, be still. 

Behold, I will have a company assigned for this purpose.  There will be gladness and rejoicing in My Kingdom over these little ones.  Behold, where there were sorrow and mourning, a new song will be sung and rejoicing in My Kingdom.  Because unto such is the Kingdom of God.  To such as these.  Indeed it would be better for those to have tied a millstone around their necks and be thrown into the sea, than to harm one of these little ones.  I will repay.  For as I have assigned unto the little ones My Kingdom, so I have assigned unto those everlasting damnation and fire.  There will be gnashing of teeth and with strong crying they will cry, but no one will hear. 

Therefore, know that I have called you, prepared you and will fill you for this purpose…to bring my little ones home.

I am forever changed by this word.  I feel as if the children are enscribed on my heart and that I will never be able to forget them.  Not because of what I have seen, but because of what He has done in my heart.  I know my assignment now, at least this assignment.  For this, He has prepared me.

Jeremiah 31: 1 - 17

1At the same time, saith the Lord, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.

² Thus saith the Lord, The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.

³ The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.

⁴ Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel: thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry.

⁵ Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria: the planters shall plant, and shall eat them as common things.

⁶ For there shall be a day, that the watchmen upon the mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto the Lord our God.

⁷ For thus saith the Lord; Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations: publish ye, praise ye, and say, O Lord, save thy people, the remnant of Israel.

⁸ Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together: a great company shall return thither.

⁹ They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.

¹⁰ Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock.

¹¹ For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he.

¹² Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all.

¹³ Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men and old together: for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.

¹⁴ And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the Lord.

¹⁵ Thus saith the Lord; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.

¹⁶ Thus saith the Lord; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.

¹⁷ And there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again to their own border.

BRIDAL DEVOTION

 BRIDAL DEVOTION - AUDIO

In a vision I had this week, I saw Jesus standing before me.  I could not see His face, but my focus was upon what was in His hands.  He had dinner plates in His hands.  Counting them one by one.  Five in total.  The next moment I saw the table set.  The five plates now neatly set on a round table, close to one another.  The most beautiful pure white lace draped over the table and the best silverware neatly placed in their proper place.  Crystal glasses accompanied each plate.  It was a five course meal, served by Him. 

This vision came in the middle of writing  this devotional, obviously knowing that He wanted me to include it. Words have a special and important place in my heart, as it have been defiled and butchered by the enemy through the ages. We hear it used out of context or abused in order to create affect.  In the process words are cheapened and in a way fall to the ground.  Devotion is such a word that has fallen by the way side, undervalued by ignorant application.  It is portrayed as a deep love and loyalty, but few are able to grasp the depth of it.  So instead of leaving it be, it is used in songs, one’s commitment to a project or person.  However, devotion is so much more and cannot be explained unless the Spirit reveals it to us and in us. 

The reason for the vision of the table, is to show that devotion is the result of eating the whole of the five course meal.  It is the outflow of having been filled and satisfied by Him.  I have thought for long on what the five courses could be.  I know now that this five course meal is the table He sets for us before our enemies, spoken of in Psalm 23.  This table represents our Christian walk and journey with Him, where He feeds us daily and as often as we come or stay.  He sets the table, and serves us.  This morning  He showed me with pure gold name cards, placed in the middle of the plates, every course by name.  They are in a particular order. 

SALVATION, JUSTIFICATION, DELIVERANCE, SANCTIFICATION, and GLORYFICATION.

Each meal served by our Beloved, of which every last drop on the plate has to be eaten.  No diets here, but a feast at the table He sets for those who are called.  Just like a meal from the greatest Michelin chefs, the depth, height, length and breadth of each course is to be savored and to become part of our being as we feast at this table all our life.  And with it, the deep red wine that He has mixed to compliment the meal, with the freshness of His living water. 

The joy of this meal is that it is not a “dinner for one”, but the table is shared with the Father and the Groom  Each meal chosen specifically according to what Father knows is needed.  We dine with Royalty.

Revelation 3: 20

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear My voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me

John 14: 23

Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

 

Just like there is nothing symbolic of these scriptures, there is nothing symbolic of the five course meal He serves us.  It is reality, it is Him.  I suppose through the course of life we often get up from this table, excuse ourselves and being beckoned, go eat at the table of the world.  Only to see Him patiently waiting for His adulterous Bride to return.  So patient, long suffering and loving, and desiring that you will feast at this table, “The five course meal of your life”, dining with your Beloved.

In writing this devotional I will be expressing the heart of the Bride, which is devotion.   I can only write of that which has become so vitally part of me and in a way putting myself out there in a very intimate way.  I asked Him why He wants me to write this.  It is so personal.  His words to me, "They need to hear it”.  This devotion is in a sense the eternal bridal flame of love burning in her heart that not only consumes her, but has become the life of her life.  I pray that this devotional will inspire you, draw you to Him and cause you to sit and stay at the table He has set, as we read in Proverbs 9.

Proverbs 9: 1 - 5

1 Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars:

² She hath killed her beasts; she hath mingled her wine; she hath also furnished her table.

³ She hath sent forth her maidens: she crieth upon the highest places of the city,

⁴ Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him,

⁵ Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled.

 

Devotion is not something you just do but it is a disposition that He wishes to bring us all into.  It is not just love, but love and loyalty unto death.   The Bride has come to a place in Him where she no longer strives to do her best for Him, but have enteted into a rest, in Him.  She no longer belong to anyone, but Him.  When she says that she is His, it is not from out of her commitment or choice she made to be His through all His dealings with her, but rather that He has claimed her for Himself.  No longer belonging to husband, wife, child, family or friends.  Completely His.  Having lost all, He has now become her all in all.  It is not a will that has to be given over and over, but a will that has been given over once and for all.  This creates in her such a sense of security and roots her identity in Him.  All she knows is that she is His.  Whatever way He chooses, He moves her, speaks through her…loves through her.  A restful submission where she has ceased from all her works to take up only His.  All desires swallowed up in Him, leaving only His will as her foremost desire.  Completely given over to His will alone.  She is incapable of resisting Him, not because she cannot do wrong, but she finds herself helpless to resist Him.

A devotion that sees no distinction between judgment and mercy.  Between pain and joy, suffering and peace.  She is equally willing for both as all has now become Him. She knows that whatever He chooses will be for His glory and to her that is all she desires.  There is no consideration for self, no consideration of how she would be perceived by others.  The watchman look upon her as strange and plain, asking her where they can find this Beloved of hers, Him who they know not where to find. 

There is no more I or Him, but only us.  She no longer search for Him or even longs for Him as all her springs has been shut up in Him.  She no longer runs after Him, because she has found Him.  In all her seeking, she has forsaken all to be only His.  However, no longer are even that which she lost or forsaken no longer remembered, having no longer a past or even a future, but all have been swallowed up in His presence.  A peace that transcends understanding envelopes her, not only in storms, but forever.  For being the Prince of Peace, she has been consumed by Him.  Being lost and at the same time found, in pain but with joy, in coming and going, in poverty but riches.  He in her, and she in Him. She gladly bears what He causes to come over her in His divine wisdom and providence. 

Her love, is His love.  His love, is her love.  Her peace is His and His peace is hers.  There is no beginning or end in His infinity and so being in Him, she finds herself in His infinite bounty, having all her needs met, which is only to please Him.  She asks nothing, simply because having given and forsaken all, possesses nothing and in the same way nothing posesses her...only He. She has returned to His bosom and is held eternally in His embrace.

Such is the mystery of Christ and His Bride.  Flesh of His flesh, bone of His bone, one in Spirit and mind.  She does not long for Him just as a river lacks no water once it is taken up in the sea.  Only her capacity to receive Him is enlarged as she goes deeper into the unknown of Him.  For she is never empty, always full.  As His love increases in her, so she increases with it, so to contain the endless bounty of the pleasures, treasures and gifts He lavish on her.  She is safe, hidden, secure, loved and at rest.  She has found Him whom her soul loveth and He has brought her into His chamber.  He fills her continually, daily, so that like Paul in Ephesians 3 she knows the depth, width, length and breadth of His love.  She has her being in Him.  Eternally satisfied and fulfilled, never lacking.  And in this place of bliss, He is fiercely jealous over her, being of kindred heart and mind.  The love He feels for her is poured out as a continuous fountain, only to be returned to the source from which it came.

In Song of Solomon 4:11 He says to her, “Thy lips O my spouse, drop as honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue; and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon.  A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.  In verse 15, A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters and streams of Lebanon. 

She has walked the way of the cross and her garments, like Him, is fragrant with spikenard, saffron, calamus, cinnamon, frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices.  The cross and her union with Him in His death, caused the fragrance of the spices to permuate her burial clothes of white linen, which ravishes His heart, her token of her love for Him, as His death a token of His love for her. 

Song of Solomon 5: 1 - 2

I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.

² I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night.

In union they have kissed, where her lips have tasted the milk and honey on His lips and He has tasted hers.   Such is the feast He has brought her to.  Such is the feast she continually feast on.  Living from every word that comes from His sweet lips. 

And having been brought to this feast, although only a Shulamite, she is His Queen.  Dressed in fine, pure gold and white raiment.  She has drunk deep draughts of the wine He has mixed for, intoxicated with His love, eating from the milk and honey of His wisdom and continual revelations.  She has tasted the fruit and they are her delight as they are the very essence of Him.  In mutual love they have feasted on each other and have come to rest not just from strife, but a rest of the Spirit.  It is in this place of feasting that He reveals to her His deepest secrets and hidden ways.  Together they plunge the depths of Him, always more.  There is no where she will not go, even to the depths of hell, for even there He will find her.  Her trust in Him secure that should He will to leave her side, she would embrace the unbearable suffering as pure joy. 

Her liberty and freedom in Him is expressed in her devotion in that it is not slack in doing nothing in this rest.  But rather she runs with Him and in Him.  As the love He has for those He died for is continually before Him, so in her.  His desire is her desire.  Going out into the highways and bi-ways, feeding the hungry, calling the prodigals, giving wisdom and understanding to the foolish.  She is clothed with His glory and she is ravishingly captivating in beauty as she is clothed with wisdom, a diadem set secure on her head.  Yet to the world, she is plain and forgotten.  Where she previously sought Him and now having found Him, she tell the young virgins where He can be found.  Drawing all unto Him.  Teaching them the ways that leads to this table He has set, into Her Beloved’s embrace. 

Nothing can separate her from His love, for they are no longer two, but one.  Joined in Spirit, the Spirit of God, who expressing with utterances through her that which no man can speak, speaks to Him in pure adoration.  No depth, height, darkness, nor light can separate them, for He has become all.  She loves Him now not with her own love, which was always limited, but with His love that He increases, as He increases her capacity more and more.  And being His Queen, she stands in full orbed authority, fearless in battle, virtuous and strong.  She rides with Him in battle, His Body clothed in His righteousness, the essence of holiness of His coming, to establish His Kingdom on earth. 

The devotion she has for Him is not that which comes from a choice of being faithful or being worshipful, her devotion is His devotion.  And this devotion has no end.  This is the heart of the Bride.  This is who she is, purified by fire, tried by trials, tested through sorrow and suffering, and raised from the dead.  This devotion is not a feeling, but a person.  The two have become one…the Bride and the Lamb of God.

Revelation 19: 7 - 9

7Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.

⁸ And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

⁹ And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.

Song of Solomon 8: 6 - 7

⁶ Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.

⁷ Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.

Please Read

Psalm 45

SONG OF ASCENT

EPHESIANS 5: 19

Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;

SONG OF ASCENT - AUDIO

TRANSFORMED

TRANSFORMED - AUDIO

 

What is man without God, but a brute beast.  Equally true the humanity of man is found through his divinity.  It takes God to be man, as He intended.  The issue of our humanity is in our divinity, which is Christ in us.  Without Christ in us, we are beasts.  

Consider Adam in the Garden of Eden where he had to name every animal.  How was this even possible that he could do this?  Adam before he sinned, is the first revelation and therefore one of the most important revelations of the Garden of Eden.  We look at Adam and our immediate thought is "the one who blew it".  But this is not God's first intention.  His first intention is that we may see man as He intended man to be.  The only reason why Adam could name all the animals, and I am sure much more, was because of being one with the Tree of Life.  And when that source of life was cut off, Adam died a slow death, like a branch cut off and left to the side.  It takes God to be man, man as God intended.  

This is also the reason why the enemy is ruthlessly trying to break down the truth of who God is in all the earth, but at the same time, ruthlessly breaking down man.  In reality causing an identity crisis as to who God is and who man is.  To the extent that all are free to make Him into their own image, and consequently themselves as well. Our understanding of who God is, as well as who man is, has been marred by the enemy.  And what man is left with when God is taken out of the equation is a beast.  The same beast that will rise up in him at the end of days to collectively war against the Most High God. Can you believe that of yourself?  Peter thought that there was no way that he would deny Christ.  In fact, just like us, he believed that he would give his life to Christ if need be.  However, when it came to that ultimate point, he denied Christ three times.  Without Christ, we ourselves will give Him up to be crucified, again and again.  This is the reality of man without God.  This is your reality without God.

Just as we collectively form the Body of Christ, so those without Christ form the Beast collectively.  Two systems not only within, but that which will have its final manifestation at the end.  For this, Christ, just like He did with Peter, has to show us who we are without Him.  This is the purpose of the Law, which is to show us our sinful nature and depravity, that our hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17).  He brings us to total depravity, even if it takes "three" times, like Peter, to the point of giving up on ourselves completely.  So that we may truly have no confidence in the flesh.   This is what the law does.  It strips us of our delusion and lifts the veil, that we may see the grotesque beast we are without Him.  He has to show us first who we are without Him, before He shows us who we are with Him.  

The mere ability to repeat a verse like "I am more than a conqeuror through Christ Jesus" will not surfice.  This has to go from recognizing, to revelation, to reality, and for each there is a corresponding practical application with a significant spiritual outflow.  Hence our wilderness experiences in order to bring us into Canaan, where we live by faith.  Not DO by faith, but LIVE by faith.  It is a mode of being.  This sounds simplistic and logical, but the reality is that it takes a lifetime to come to this point.  We do not die easily.  Once that final nail is pierced, the spirit committed into the hands of its Creator, the body laid in the tomb for 4 days, and the cry to come out of this tomb has come forth, we are raised like Lazarus, to walk by a new way of being, which is by faith.  

It is a vital transition from one mode to another, that of doing to being.  This is shown to us when we see the metamorphis of a worm into a butterfly.  The dictionary defines metamorphis as, "a change of the form or nature of a thing or person into a completely different one".  The transformation is radical.  When we see a butterfly emerging from a cacoon, we see it struggling as it tries to extend its wings, looking weak, pathetic and off balance.  This is because it has never been here before and now has to learn how to fly, having been a worm all its life.  And so it is with those who have come from death into His resurrection life, having always been a worm, but now finds itself in complete new territory all together.  How do you live from this new life?  How do you fly?  For this Jesus came to show us how to fly.  

He came as this new being, born of the flesh, but being divine.  Humanity in harmony with divinity.  Ask the butterfly who or what she is, and she will say, "I am a worm, but I am also a butterfly".  The two have become one.  You cannot be fully man the way God intended without Him.  This was the ultimate confrontation with the question that the Angel asked Jacob after a whole night's wrestling.  "What is your name?".  To which Jacob replied, "Jacob".  The name Jacob means surplanter and deceiver.  The moment he acknowledged who he truly was, the declaration came of a new name. "You shall be called, Israel".  

Genesis 32: 28

And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.

Other translations says, you shall rule as God.  And yet, many years later God addresses Jacob, as a worm.

Isaiah 41: 14

Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.

And so Christ, comes as the Word made flesh, and identifies with our humanity not because He is God and is omniscient, but because being made a man, He understands our weakness and depravity in reality and in a real felt way.  David cries out as a type and shadow of Christ, in the Messianic Psalm the following...

Psalm 22: 6

But I am a worm, and no man, a reproach of men, and despised of the people.

Right here He is confronting our perception of who He was as a man, where we make Him to have been this super human, which we can adore and worship.  We elevate his humanity above that which He intended, which is that we would know and see that He became flesh and just like us, in human form had to learn obedience by what He suffered as it is written in Hebrews 5: 7 - 8.  

God's every intention is that we be brought to both realities.  This is why Jesus told the rich man, "Why callest thou me good?  Only God is good".  Have you even pondered on that statement?  Jesus was saying this from out of His humanity, knowing that as a man, He has no good in Him.  Not because He is God and He knows all things, but as man, He knows.  He is saying, I am a worm.  At the same time He tells Philip, "When you see Me, you see the Father".  When Jesus said that what He says is what the Father tells Him to say and the works He does, is the Father through Him, it was not just an issue of dependency, but of unity.  "I and the Father are one".  Jesus did not only start to live from resurrection life after His resurrection, but He has always been the Resurrection and the Life.  This is why He confronted Mary and Martha with the issue of resurrection, the fact that it is not only future, but also present.  He says the following in John 11.

John 11: 14 - 15

Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead.

And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe; nevertheless let us go unto him.

Jesus was not flexing His spiritual muscles, as to say, "Check what I can do".  He was saying "Look what I can do through you!"  Lazarus death was not for Jesus' sake, but for the sake of His disciples that they may believe.  This is what will glorify the Father, Christ in us, the Resurrection and the Life!  Tragically we are all too human and way too little divine.  To the degree we have died to ourselves we will live in divinity.  Every act of obedience of Jesus was a statement of His dying to self, in order for us to see the cross as the sum of all His obediences, that He could say to Mary and Martha, as the Son of Man, I am the Resurrection and the Life even before being raised from the dead.  The word says that He grew in stature and though He was a Son, He learned obedience by what He suffered.  When one learns something, you are growing from one level to another.  

Though we long for Him to resurrect us soon, He longs to resurrect us now.  The whole of creation longs with Him for this manifestation of the Sons and Daughters of God, in the flesh even now, just like Him.  To no longer walk after the dictates of the flesh, but controlled by the Spirit.  Resurrection now.  This is the fullness of adoption, the Spirit of adoption by which we cry "Abba Father!".  It is not just knowing that we are adopted into the family of God, it is what we receive when we have the Spirit of Adoption, which is the very essence and reaility of being a Son or Daugther of God, His Spirit in us.  

Now we see dimly, but then face to face.  The face of man looking into his reflection, but seeing the face of God, Jesus Christ in you.  There is an ultimate price we pay, which is a life of obedience through suffering. The same way as He did, born of the flesh, growing in stature through obedience as the Son of Man.  As Romans 8 tells us...

Romans 8: 17

And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

Ours is a journey back.  As in the first Adam we die.  This death has to be walked through in the spirit until the first Adam in us die, that the second Adam may live.  For we have always been the Sons and Daughters of God, but in the first Adam became enemies of God.  However, in the second Adam, we become co-heirs and adopted anew.  Brought back home where we belong.  It is to this reality He is calling us to live, the reality of being the Sons and Daughters of God.  

That God became man is beyond our understanding.  He took upon Him flesh.  He became a worm.  But as a worm came to show us how to fly.  Just as He was conformed to our mode of being, which is the flesh, we are to be made conformable unto His death, to know the power of His resurrection.  Unfortunately we often miss the point or see the tree for the forest.  We think dying is the ultimate goal, whereas the point is resurrection life through us.  As His Body we can never do this from within ourselves.  This ultimately means full control and for full control there cannot be two masters.  The flesh must not only be brought into submission, but is must die.  In the light of His divinity in us, we can never lose sight of who we are...a worm.  But equally we cannot lose sight of who we have become...divine.

"Blasphemy!" you might say.  But even in saying this, it is nothing different that those who said during Christ's time on earth, "Is this not Joseph's son?"  And yet, was Christ not fully human and divine?  If He was only divine, how could he possibly ask us to emulate Him or require us to walk as He walked?  In 2019 He said to me, "Walk in the knowing that we are one".  Unfortunately we subconsciously want others to be like us and want them to fail on the same grounds as us.  We can believe Him when He said "The words I speak is My Father's words' but can you believe that the words I write here are His and not my own?  We fail to note that His purpose with His Spirit in us is not only infilling, but fusing. That we may be Sons and Daughters of the Most High God!  There is nothing more that the enemy wants than for you to subscribe to this in theory, as long as you do not live out the reality.  Paul is that very example of the Christian who lives by the resurrection life of God.  This also the reason why the demons cried out, "Jesus we know, and Paul we know, but who are you?" It was Christ in Paul and Paul in Christ whom they feared.  Man as God intended.  Some Christians stay so long in the wilderness, mostly due to disobedience, that they never leave and transition from their worm identity to butterfly.  They are continually humbled and this is not necessarily bad or wrong, but it is not all He intended.  There is a place of transformation - the grave.  Where it is dark, extremely lonely, and you are brought to death.   The same as we would find the mother's womb where He fashions us in secret.  He alone makes all things new.  There He transforms, there He speaks life, and there He gives us wings.

"Oh darling, that is just simply divine!", we hear and so the word is made into a catch phrase and stripped of its essence.  Do you know that you are divine?  Do you know that He is calling you to the same life He lived?  Not that you should try your best to be like Him, but rather that He should live life through you.  This new life can only be done through faith.  The just shall LIVE by faith.  It is a way of being He desires to bring you to.  Though you may be a work in progress, He already sees you as the finished product.  

Ephesians 2: 10

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Saved by grace through faith.  Any painter or sculptor or whatever creative process out there, always sees the finished product and never lose sight of that.  You are His.  He has invested so much in the making of you, at great cost for you, but an even greater cost for Him.  He will never give up on you, because His Son lives in you.  To give up on you is to give up on His Son.  He will never leave you or forsake you.  However, you can walk away from Him and through disobedience reject Him, causing separation between you and Him through habitual and willful sin.  But He will never reject you first.  His desire to deal with your sin has always been that you and He may be one, and not because He rejects you and think you are not good enough...even though we are worms.  He rejects the sin, but loves you.  Unfortunately there are many who are not willing to go all the way, the cost too great for this unity in Him.  

Like Christ who is now at the right hand of the Father, fully the Son of Man and the Son of God, so we are too fully sons and daughters of man and Sons and Daughters of God.  Worms turned into butterflies!  This is what glorifies the Father, that many sons and daughter are brought into this reality.

John 17: 21 - 26

21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:

23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

24 Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.

25 O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.

26 And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.

What glorious words spoken from the heart of Jesus, praying the will of the Father.  Through Christ, and by Christ, unto Christ, be all glory unto the Most High God. Amen.