THE PROMISED HONEY

 

THE PROMISED HONEY - AUDIO

About a week ago Father have been bringing the subject of honey to my attention.  My daughter, being the typical teenager, asked me whether it is good to drink milk, because according to “others” it is not.  I told her that if milk was bad for us (the hormone free ones), then why would God have said to the Israelites that He is giving them the land of milk and honey?  Not long after that I burned my finger, and she asked me why don’t I put some honey on it?  Then during the week there were 3 other occasions when honey came up as a subject again.  By now I knew Father was saying something, but still no clue.  On Sunday I woke up from a nap, and as I woke, I heard the words “The promised honey”.  This reminded me of a dream I had about 8 months ago.  In my dreams, 99% of the time, Jesus is represented by my husband.  In this dream I asked my husband to buy me honey.  When I opened my fridge, to my surprise, I saw two white containers.  One filled with milk and one filled with honey.  Last night I had this craving for milk before I went to bed, and thought I would like some honey with it for a change…and finally I knew what He was saying.

We know that milk and honey is synonymous with Canaan.  But what does Canaan stand for?  There are various ways of looking at it.  When we leave Egypt, the system of this world, we have to go through our wilderness period like the Israelites where we learn to take up our cross.  We go through the Red Sea to find entrance into this wilderness.  The Red Sea being symbolic of our dying in Christ, our identification with Him as the one whom we follow, as His presence goes with us on this journey through this rough terrain.   In His faithfulness He breaks us down in this wilderness, removing the Egyptian way of thinking  and in the process renewing our minds, exposing the idols we have picked up along the way and then He starts to build us.  Constantly breaking and building the whole time, as we are His workmanship and are changed from prostitutes of this world to priests of the Most High God.  And then we reach the Jordan.  A new crossing.  The setting changes slightly.  The Red Sea is a sea, whereas the Jordan is a river.  By itself it is saying that many are called, but few are chosen.  Chosen to go into the Promised Land of milk and honey.  This crossing over to the Promised Land can also be seen as heaven, where we will find our eternal rest in the Lord, which is soon to take place.  This will be the resurrection of those who are alive in Christ, the Bride who has made herself ready.  But I want to talk about another resurrection, one that Father has laid on my heart.  I was reluctant to write this post, simply thinking that there is so little time left, but it was on His heart. 

This Jordan River is not only different to the Red Sea in size, but also in what it stands for.  Where the Red Sea is the identification with His death, the Jordan is the entering into His death.  A real felt death in all your categories.  Where, like Lazarus, only the Resurrection and the Life can raise you up.  In His time.  Canaan is also synonymous with rest.   When we go to Hebrews 4 we read that the Israelites could not enter due to their unbelief.  Faith and rest goes together like a hand in a glove.  But what is this rest?  What does it look like?  We read the following in Hebrews that explains it nicely. 

Hebrews 4: 10 – 11

¹⁰ For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.

¹¹ Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

The reality is that only He can bring us to this Jordan where we are to cross by faith and enter into His rest.  Our focus has been so much on ceasing from our works that we have lost focus on the why He wants us to cease from our works.

This is the reality of the incarnate Christ in you, the Spirit of God having full control over your life to the extent that you no longer live from the life source you have always lived off, which is self, but only from Him.  As David said, Lord, all my springs are shut up in you.  Where He wants to be the life in you, Christ living through you.  The reality of it.   True rest, now.  This is why the Lord told them to circle Jericho and with a shout of victory the walls came down, not lifting one finger.  They were in His rest, where they obey, but He does. 

Twelve spies were sent into Canaan to go check out the land.  As you know only two of the twelve had a good report.  The other ten were just not up to the task, seeing themselves as grasshoppers to the likes of the inhabitants of the land.  Two had the faith and courage to take the land, whilst the majority was just not up to it.  Father asked me a question.  Do you believe?  He took me back to where this fast started, right back to Lazarus.  We read how Martha came running to Jesus and cried, saying that if only He was there her brother would still be alive.  Jesus tells her the following…

JOHN 11: 22 - 26

²² But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee

²³ Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again.

²⁴ Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.

²⁵ Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. 

²⁶ And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?

In these few verses Jesus confronts Mary with what she believes.  At that time there was the belief amongst some that there would be a resurrection at the end of the age.  Jesus knew that this is what Mary believed.  So He was not confronting her whether she actually believed in the resurrection, that which is future.  He was confronting her with whether she believed it now.  This is why He told her even after she said that He will cause all the dead to rise in the end, with the words…I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE.   Present tense.  If you read carefully you will find two categories mentioned by Jesus in his statement.  He refers to the dead and He refers to those who are alive. 

²⁵ Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:

²⁶ And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.

He was confronting her with the fact that she believed the one, but not the other.  Asking, “Believest thou this?”  And this is what He is confronting us with today.  Because we believe that He is about to take us out of here.  This is good and we should be prepared as the Bride by now.  And if you are not, I suggest you get your house in order. However, I want to refer this back to the Jordan and Canaan, which speaks of living from the life of God in us. The dead are raised, and those who are alive shall never die…life!  I have said this so many times, you cannot have a resurrection unless there is death, and the life that you live having been raised is that eternal life, not longevity only, but quality life…resurrection life.  Believest thou this?  This is that milk and honey.  No longer the manna.  We read that once they entered Canaan, the manna stopped, and they lived off the fruit of the land and the milk and honey.  This fruit is the fruit of the Tree of life…Christ in us.  To live off Him.  The milk speaks of the Word of God and the honey is revelation.  We read how Saul called for a fast and how Jonathan ate honey.

1 Samuel 14: 24 - 27

²⁴ And the men of Israel were distressed that day: for Saul had adjured the people, saying, Cursed be the man that eateth any food until evening that I may be avenged on mine enemies. So none of the people tasted any food.

²⁵ And all they of the land came to a wood; and there was honey upon the ground.

²⁶ And when the people were come into the wood, behold, the honey dropped; but no man put his hand to his mouth: for the people feared the oath.

²⁷ But Jonathan heard not when his father charged the people with the oath: wherefore he put forth the end of the rod that was in his hand, and dipped it in a honeycomb, and put his hand to his mouth; and his eyes were enlightened.

Honey is used for medicinal purposes, and not just to sweeten our tea.  It also speaks of strength and wisdom.  David said the following of the Word of God, comparing it to honey.

Psalm 119:103

¹⁰³ How sweet are thy words unto my taste! Yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

I call honey “Liquid Gold”.  Just by these few examples, one can see that it is a precious commodity.  It is universally known that if you do not eat, you do not get to live.  We all need to eat.  Or what about, “You are what you eat”?  In this case, eating from the Tree of life’s fruit, drinking milk from the Word, and sticky lips from the pure honey of the wisdom and revelation of God, which is completely different than living from manna.  Never looking down on the manna, because He knows that we cannot enjoy the one, without having eaten first of the other.  This is an example of the resurrection life of Christ in us.  Not for future, but now.  Resurrection life now!

Galatians 2: 20

²⁰ I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Paul, having completely died to self, has been risen from the dead, his Jordan River, having been buried with Christ, not in theory, but reality, into new life, which is that Resurrection life.  I have to ask at this point, knowing that Lazarus eventually died, “With what life did Lazarus go on living when he was risen from the dead?”  A good example to us to know that even before we leave this earth, He desires to make this a reality to us.  He wants us to know that He is I AM.  Even now He will resurrect you like Paul, like Lazarus.  He will remove your grave clothes of white linen and clothe you with His glorious life, with His righteousness and He will do it by being that very life in you.  We already have this life in us.  It is the Word, the incorruptible seed that will never return void, having grown all along during the wilderness.  And to the degree that you still eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that self, to which the ax has not been laid to the root, is the degree that you will walk in His rest, in this Resurrection Life.  He has not just come to take us out of here.  He has come to lay the ax to the root.  And this is why He is confronting us with “Do thou believest this?”  Do you believe that I can give you resurrection life now?   You may ask me, “Why is this important Pietra?” 

We read the shortest verse of the whole Bible in John 11, the account of Lazarus’ resurrection.

35. Jesus wept.

The people around Him thought that He was crying over Lazarus, but right before He and His disciples went to Lazarus grave, He told them that Lazarus would live again.  He even began His prayer with “Thank you Father, I know you always hear my prayer”.  So why was Jesus weeping.  I submit to you that He is still weeping.  He is weeping because of unbelief.  The very crux of this chapter is not the resurrection of Lazarus, but who Jesus IS and what we believe.  Do we believe, really believe that He wants to give us this resurrection life now?  Because your whole journey through the wilderness is in preparation of this reality.  To bring you to this point where you will live from Him, the Tree of Life, with His promised honey.  Some believers believes Him for a future resurrection.  This is good.  We should believe that He will take us out of here.  But He is still weeping over those who do not believe in the resurrection life that He wants to give now.  They pay lip service to it.  They say they are raised with Christ, that they have died in the baptism water and are a new creature.  This is all true.  We are all that.  But we are that by degrees to the extent that we have actually died.  He is not asking us whether we believe He can change our circumstances. 

He is asking us, “Do you believe I AM in you?  Do you believe that I want to live through you?  Do you understand why you have to die?  Because like Paul, there cannot be two.  We have to become one.  All of you for all of Me.  This is why I came.  Not just to save this world from the coming destruction, but to be the Patterned Son for you to emulate.  For you to live, like I did, from the life of the Father, which is Resurrection Life.  For I only spoke what He told me to speak and the works that I did, He did through Me.  This is why I say, “When you see Me, you have seen the Father”.  For we are one.  In the same way, My desire is to be one with you as I was and is one with the Father.  I AM the Resurrection and the Life and I have been preparing you for exactly that.  That I may live through you as the Father lived through Me.  Believest thou this?”

This we also read in John 17, His High Priestly prayer. His purpose has always been that we are to experience resurrection life now.  We all groan together with creation for the adoption of the sons of God, to be resurrected.  But there are two resurrections.  The one of the body in the future and the one of the spirit now.  God knows how I long for both equally.  How I long to be one with Him, even now on this earth.

Does He know this about you?  Do you long more for the rapture, than you long for union with Him?  Do you long more to be taken out of this world, which is not wrong in itself?  How much do you yearn for His resurrection life now?  Or are you waiting it out, not really pursuing His purpose in this regard?  We look to ourselves and there is no hope.  Nothing.  We cannot do it and without knowing it, we try our best, and really hope for the resurrection of the body at best.  Jesus wept.  Two resurrections…that of the future, even if it is a close future, and that of the spirit to live now from His life.  Are we not to believe both and trust for both?  Paul says the following in Philippians 3.

Philippians 3: 7 - 16

⁷ But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.

⁸ Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,

⁹ And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

¹⁰ That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

¹¹ If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

¹² Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.

¹³ Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

¹⁴ I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

¹⁵ Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.

¹⁶ Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.

Paul is wanting to apprehend that for which also he was apprehended for of Christ Jesus.  He is saying, my eye, my focus, is on why He saved me, which is to know Him, the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death.  This speaks of a process, a goal, a purpose.  Why He came to save us…which is that He may fully live through us.

We are in a race against time. Time is up so to speak.  However, the question remains, “Do thou believest this?"  If anything, I guess this is where the prize comes in.  To run this race with endurance and long suffering.  Not so that we can make it and somehow be lucky enough to be accounted worthy as Luke 21 says, but running this race by Him and through Him.  His life in us.  To still strive to be like Him in this race, right up and until He comes and takes us out of here.  Though we look forward to the future resurrection, may we today believe for it now, that we who live may have eternal life now.  Yes, we enter into Canaan by faith.  But there is a reason why we first have to go through the wilderness to reach the Jordan and there to die.  So that the faith that we live by, even that faith, is not our own.  We read this in Paul’s statement, showing us that there is a  time that He brings us to not live by our faith, but by His. 

Galatians 2: 20

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

When He becomes our all in all, it is not a statement of how we have died to everything as much as it is a statement of how He is now our life.  There is a promise made to us.  A promise of an inheritance for those who have died, risen by His life, to no longer live in the wilderness, but to enter into His rest and live from the Land of milk and honey.   

Let us therefore labour to enter into the rest of God, and eat honey!

I am adding this after I did my audio recording, thinking that I would look up the meaning of the Strong's Concordance number, 2227, which is the length of the audio. It is self-explanatory... God is faithful!

zóopoieó: to make alive

Original Word: ζῳοποιέω
Part of Speech: Verb
Transliteration: zóopoieó
Phonetic Spelling: (dzo-op-oy-eh'-o)
Definition: to make alive
Usage: I make that which was dead to live, cause to live, quicken.

HELPS Word-studies

2227 zōopoiéō (from 2221 /zōgréō, "alive" and 4160 /poiéō, "make") – properly, make alive (zōos); i.e. "quicken," vivify ("animate"); (figuratively) cause what is dead (inoperative) to have life; empower with divine life.

2227 /zōopoiéō ("make alive, enliven") is particularly used of God infusing His life in the believer. The Lord infuses eternal life (zōē) into us each time we receive (obey) faith from Him. This enables living with God – not just for Him (cf. Gal 2:20; Ro 8:28-30; 1 Jn 5:4). His self-existent, all-powerful life overcomes all the deadly effects of sin.

(1 Cor 15:36,38) seed, come to life – The resurrection-body of the believer will be characterized by continuity with diversity – i.e. reflecting the physical-spiritual life we lived here on earth in a supra-physical fashion (Phil 3:11-21). Both of these aspects of glorification are illustrated in 1 Cor 15 by the metaphor of seeds.

WHEN I AM WEAK...

 

WHEN I AM WEAK...AUDIO

At this present time this is exactly where I am.  Very weak.  I know that I am not alone, and I am not looking for sympathy.  It is just serves as an opening statement to the foundation to this post, but also as the foundation of my life.  This is no new rodeo for me, just that the ride has become bumpier, with a lot of blue marks on the way. 

This morning I was reminded of an important question we all often forget to ask…”Why is Father allowing this?”  This made me think of the autobiography I started reading again of the late George Muller.  For those who do not know him, he lived during the 1800’s and opened many orphanages and was known for his great faith.  Not once did he ever ask anyone for money.  He only looked to God.  Those who worked for him in the orphanage was under a vow to never divulge to anyone on the outside of the need of the orphanage or the needs of George Muller himself.  He raised 1, 500 000 pounds in his lifetime without ever asking anyone for any money.  This is not to mention the book made of many volumes about the everyday miracles, even those who were at the last second.  He was truly a giant in the faith!  In his journals he often told of his struggles with sin and how much he despised these weaknesses in him.  I think if I had to give two words to describe him, it would be humility and faith.  The same can be said of a late 1600 century monk called Brother Lawrence.  Both these books are in my Recommended Books page and many more.  Brother Lawrence never wrote a book, but he wrote letters to someone who later made a book of it, called “Practicing the Presence of God”.  I cannot recommend it enough.  It is a small book that will stay with you all your life.  I have read it probably 5 times, if not more.  The last few chapters speaks of this man’s great faith.  But everything before it, speaks of his humility.  The foundation of great faith.

At this stage you may ask me why I am mentioning these two men of great faith.  Well, as I was reading the autobiography of George Muller, I came to the part where it spoke about the struggle he had with sicknesses all his life.  Father did heal him of many ailments, but he often went for surgeries and was never healed completely.  I can see how this was also the case with many other men of great faith, even Paul.  God truly knows how to humble us on this journey in faith.  Art Katz my mentor, once mentioned in one of his sermons how he was suffering from hemorrhoids, unbeknownst to those around him.  A young man came up to him after a service and asked him how he remained humble in all the revelations and wisdom Father gives him.  His answer, “Oh God has His ways…He has his ways”.  As I am sitting here slowly understanding what is happening, I once again see Father’s provision in my daughter.  He knows exactly which iron will sharpen the other.  What it will take to constantly bring me to my knees.  He knows in His wisdom how to keep me low.  And now knowing this, I can walk more focused.  Knowing that the next time I see her, having to face the abuse or endless barrage of questions, that through her, His loving hand is on me.  His hand on me to humble me, to keep me dependent on Him in my weakness. 

We often want strength when we are weak.  It makes perfect sense.   What does He do?  He gives me something that I cannot handle.  He gives me something that overwhelms, humanly impossible and that I cannot control.  Sounds to me like a recipe for faith.  He told me a while ago on a previous fast that the things that will not help me on this journey He is taking me on are: dreams, visions, revelations, friends or family.  What will help me on this journey are patience, long-suffering, endurance and faithfulness in love.  Remember, faith worketh by love.  That list in itself should let major warning bells go off.  At this I am reminded of two verses in Hebrews that is close to my heart.

Hebrews 5: 7 – 8      

Who in the day of his flesh, when he offered up prayers and supplication with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save him from death and was heard in that he feared.

Does that sound like a strong and courageous man?  It sounds to me like a weak and desperate man.  With strong crying and tears he prayed.  The fear He had was not to sin against the Father in this time of weakness, which is in the flesh.  Subject like us to not only sin, but terrible weakness.  In verse 8 we read the following –

Though he was a Son, he learned obedience in the things that he suffered.

Faith is not for the strong and courageous.  Faith is for the weak and desperate to make them strong and courageous.  It just so happens that by the examples I have given, you cannot have the one without the other.  There are many out there with bold claims, and even those with wonderful testimonies, but it seems very interesting to me the path Father takes His great heroes of the faith on.  The following is said in George Muller’s autobiography:

“But in faith and in the filial spirit, he always continued to be a little child.  Mr. J. Hudson Taylor well reminds us that while in nature the normal order of growth is from childhood to manhood and so to maturity, in grace the true development is perpetually backward toward the cradle; we must become and continue as little children, not losing, but rather gaining, childlikeness of spirit.  The disciple’s matures manhood is only the perfection of his childhood.”

The more we grow in Him, the more He shows us our weakness and baptize us in it.  Unless He does this, we will depend on ourselves.  We will be as a crooked arrow that keeps on turning to our own understanding, even our spiritual understanding.  We will inevitably go our way and forsake His.  Ask yourself why He would allow Paul this thorn in the flesh we read of in 2 Corinthians 12.  This “thing” of which many speculate about what it is, often missing the whole point.  Why such a great man of faith, next to Jesus, the Apostle?  Did he not go through enough already?  Think of what he endured: shipwrecked, beaten, running for his life, fought with beasts, imprisonment, lashed.  The list goes on.  Just take the time of what it would feel like to be bobbing around in an ocean?  How would that affect you?  What about being lashed and being thrown in a prison.  Not our neat prisons, but a dungeon crawling with insects, mice, excrement and the likes?  Not for a night only.  Think of what it cost for him to have written the epistles that we so freely can read.  And in spite of all that, God decides, “Paul, I think you did not have enough suffering.  I think I will give you something to be your constant companion.  It will never leave your side.  In fact, you will call it a thorn in your side.  I will keep you under the baptism of suffering to keep you in weakness.  Because Paul, I know your heart.  I know you have gone through so much for the gospel, but Paul, even the suffering can be an idol. Even the suffering can be a pedestal for you to stand on and secretly boast about what you have suffered for the Kingdom.  And because I will not share My glory with anybody, I have provided a means to constantly humble you.  How you look at it, how you perceive and deal with it in your life will either humble you or make you bitter.  How you deal with it will either cause you to with strong crying and tears depend more on me, or cause you to lean on your own understanding.  Your obedience is taught to you through the suffering of my choice, because I know what you need.  Will you embrace it or reject it?  My wisdom is not like yours.  You want to take it away, I want it to stay.  You want it to be light, I want it to cause you to bow your knee.  Not for a day, not for a season, but as a disposition.  For unless I do this, you will take My glory.” 

This reminded me of something I wrote down in my journal during a previous fast. I wrote:

“Unless I allow Him to fully use me, I will inevitably use Him.”

This post is for someone out there that has been fighting the same battle that is not of their choosing.  Meaning that it did not come because of any sin they have done, but rather by design.  God’s design.  It takes wisdom to know the difference.  The importance of knowing your season cannot be stressed enough.  We need to walk by the Spirit.  We need to ask “Why are You allowing this Father?” Because unless we know we could be kicking against the goads, against that which He has allowed.  The same goes for the opposite.  Unless you know for sure, you might allow something that He wants you to fight.  Wisdom remains the principal thing, and in all your getting, get understanding (Proverbs 4: 7).

Oh the wisdom of our Father!  This world do not know Him.  They cannot know Him, but He gives us His Word, His Spirit and His love.  In all His dealings, sometimes very cruel in our eyes, He never cease to amaze us.  Not all will necessarily fall into this category concerning what they are presently going through.  But I know that nobody is exempt.  If Paul had to go through it, and Jesus had to go through it, what makes you think you do not have to?  The key is recognizing when you are there, then to lean in the arms of the One who holds you, and ride the storm.  Let the pain, the sorrow, and agony wash over you as you surrender to the humbling of your soul.  For out of the soil of your heart will rise a new song, a sacrifice of joy to the One who holds you in His hands. 

Father reminded me of a word He gave me last year that I think will encourage you.  May you be richly blessed by our Father’s compassion and love amidst the making of great faith in you, through humility.

 

WORD RECEIVED – 27 November 2020

THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE…

It is I who establish the boundaries of all habitations.  It is I who have commanded the sea to go no further and set the mountains in their place.  It is I who have placed the starts in the sky and have called them by name.  It is I who call the sun by morning, and raise the moon at night.  Yes, it is I who hold the cradle of this earth, I who was and is, and is to come.  It is I who have placed all in order and have set the boundaries of all living things.  And it is even I that have made the destroyer to destroy. 

Yet, as I look upon this earth, and search the hearts of my children, in the cradle of My hand, even so, I search for faith.  For I asked My disciples, “Will the Son of Man find faith on earth when He returns?”  Surely My children you know that by My Word I establish, create and destroy?  Surely you know that by My word and My word only all things came into existence?  Yet the enemy has taken your eyes from the Creator to the creation as you start to see her travail.  Even as Peter looked at the waves and lost sight of Me.  Without faith it is impossible to please Me.  Therefore, faith, your most important commodity is what keeps you above water.  Faith in Me.  You in Me…in the cradle of My hand.  The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.  I have you in the cradle of My hand and even this world, which I will rock.  Those who are not in My hand shall fall to and fro and be overwhelmed.  But those in the cradle of My hand will not be shaken.  Examine yourself in this day.  Are you in the cradle?  Are you overwhelmed?  Are you afraid, are you seeking ways to secure when I alone am your fortress and defense?  Does a child not rest in a cradle and fully depend to be cared for by his father? 

Even so I that am your Father, will I then not provide?  Have I not said, “Do not fear”?  I know your weaknesses, I am your strength.  I know your shortage, I am your provision.  I know your heartache.  I am your comfort.  I know your pain, I am your healer.  Is My arm too short that I cannot save?  Faith, My children, faith is that which pleases Me, for I am all that you need.  I will give wisdom to those who ask in faith.  But always come as a child.  I hold the cradle of the world in My hand, and I determine what is, what should be and all to come.  Never losing sight of My little ones. 

Your level of faith is in your infancy with Me – weak, dependent and trusting.

Not in worldly wisdom.  Trust Me My children.  Trust that He who is the Alpha, who created all, is also the Omega, who will finish it all.  The beginning and the End…Your Father.

 

PLEASE READ:

2 Corinthians 11:18 – 30

2 Corinthians 12: 6 - 10

LIKE A ROARING LION - WORD FROM THE LORD

LIKE A ROARING LION - WORD FROM THE LORD - AUDIO

I received a word from the Lord this morning.  Usually I wait for confirmations after I receive a word from Him, before I send it out.  However, this time it was different.  I received the confirmations beforehand. A book on my bookshelf fell over and the name of the book is "Roaring Lion".  Somehow it arrested my attention.  Then later the day I visited my mother, during which she started to talk to me about a sermon she was listening to called "The Roar of the Lion of Judah".  I still did not make anything of it, not connecting the dots as yet, but then I woke up this morning and heard in my spirit, "Brave and Courageous One".  That made me think of how the Lord encouraged Joshua and the ones that were to passover into the Promised Land.  Still not making too much of it, I walked into my art room, and was arrested in my spirit by the painting I made last year called, "The Coming King" of the Lion of Judah.  At this point I was keenly aware that Father wanted to say something, but still no idea what.  Reading my Proverbs of the day, one of the verses is about the wrath of the king that is as the roaring of a lion.  I received two more confirmations after this.  Needless to say that He wants us to take note.  As the morning progressed, He gave me this word.  But before we get into this word, I want to tell you of a dream I had, which He reminded me about this morning, that I had about 5 years ago.  I knew the interpretation of the dream, but not the timing or for who.  I believe that today is that timing, the kairos moment that He has preordained.  So let's start with the dream and the interpretation.

DREAM

I dreamed that I was walking with my husband, my daughter and with other people going up a very steep hil.  I was ahead of my husband and my daughter was right at the bottom, riding a tricycle.  The reason my husband was behind me was because he was completely engrossed with what people around him were saying to him.  Not at all focused on where he was going.  The other thing that was strange was the fact that my daughter was riding this tricycle, which was completely inappropriate for her age, being 11 yrs old then.  She was right at the bottom of the hill and riding in circles.  As I reached the top, I saw these two massive lions sitting.  They were both a dirty red color.  I was very aware of them and made sure that they did not see me.  As I turned the corner, a whole crowd came up walking in my direction.  I immediately started to warn them about the lions and that they should turn left into the other road to avoid them.  Most of them immediately turned left. However, some of them got so frightened that they ran to the side, fell to the ground and proceeded to throw red dust on themselves, as to camouflage themselves.  Somehow in my dream I was aware that my husband and daughter would not listen to my warning.  End of dream.

INTERPRETATION

The dream as a whole is talking about a specific time, which I believe is now.  The hill speaks of the highway of holiness, which is indeed a very steep hill.  Our growth in the Lord so to speak.  My husband and my daughter are types and shadows of the church.  Some are not focused on their growth with the Lord in holiness.  My husband resembles those that are not focused, but the cares of this world and what this world has to offer is the most important to them.  My daughter represents those who have stagnated in their growth, enjoying life on their "tricycle" and riding in circles, never going from strength to strength.  They were left behind so to speak, also not having the ears to heed the warning.  The two lions speaks of destruction.  Not one, but two that is about to come upon this earth.  We often see lions in a case like this as the enemy, which very well could be the case, as the Lord uses the enemy to excecute His judgment on this world.  The people coming from the other side of the hill resembles the church who has matured in Christ, as they were on top of the hill.  They will heed the warning as they were quick to "change their way" and to avoid the coming attack.  Those who went from out of them to dive into the sand and to camouflage themselves, are those that when destruction will come, will fear and this fear will cause them to compromise, hence why they covered themselves in the same "color" of the two lions.  

And now for the word Father gave me this morning.

 LIKE A ROARING LION

Warn My people that I am about to roar. Just as the earth shakes and trembles at the roar of a lion, so I now, the LION OF JUDAH, is about to roar.

My bold and courageous ones will not fear as they stand in the midst of the Jordan to passover.

Passover into the promise that is only by faith. For the waters will not overwhelm them as My ark goes before them. For I am the Ark and I am the LION OF JUDAH. Once more I have said that I will shake the earth. That which is built on Me will stand, but that which is not will be shaken by My roar. For My wrath is kindled against the earth. It is kindled against the bloodshed and rebellion - against Me.

No one takes heed to the hour, for whilst they say, peace and safety, sudden destruction will come! Those that are asleep will be caught off guard. But you my HOLY ONES are not of the night. You who have watched and prayed will see Me soon.

Prepare! Prepare! Watch and pray until I come. For soon this earth will reel and all will be shaken by My roar. They will tremble at My roar when they should have trembled at My word.  They will be forsaken in My judgment and cry out to Me, but it will be too late.

Prepare My Bride for I am about to roar.

I come.

Scripture ref:

Hosea 5:14

For I shall be unto Ephraim as a lion and as a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear and go away. I will take away, and none shall rescue him

Hosea 13:7

Therefore, I will be unto them as a lion, as a leopard by the way will I observe them.

Proverbs 23: 13

The slothful man saith, Thete is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets.

Proverbs 19: 12

The Kings wrath is like the roaring of a lion, but His favor is as the dew upon the grass.

Hebrews 12: 25 - 29

See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh. For if they esacaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven.

Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.

And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reference and godly fear:

For our God is a comsuming fire

WHO IS GOD?

WHO IS GOD? - AUDIO

 

The more I have to do with God, the more I am confronted with who I am.  As someone once said, “It takes God to know man.”  Our view of ourselves is drastically changed the moment He shows up.  Like Isaiah we say, “Woe is me, for I am a man with unclean lips”.  Why did the Spirit lead him to write, “I am a man”?  It is not as if he did not know this.  But the moment He came into God’s presence, he was confronted with the fact that he is a man, standing in God’s Holy presence. 

Apparently it is hard pressed on the Father’s heart for me to bring this post.  I have not been able to get it out of my mind ever since I wrote it, and the confirmations I have received that He would like me to post it has been overwhelming.  Considering the subject matter I can only think that it has eternal consequences and that it is not only for now, but for what is to come.  It lays heavy on my own heart as well, as I see that this world is even now increasingly being confronted with this very same question.  Can we truly define God?  Yes, I suppose we can quote some scripture about how He is Spirit, He is love, holy and more.  But in itself if we are to define Him, that would be making Him less than what He is, which is God.  And because as man, who cannot define God, He has forever been showing us exactly who He is.  But have we heard Him?  Have we seen?  And can we be the same once we have heard and seen? 

One of those occasions in history that He has clearly spoken is during the holocaust.  We have been inundated with literature and documentaries and interviews about it.  After all these years it has in fact never stopped.  And somehow the overall focus has been the struggle, agony and extreme loss in the face of death at the hands of a dictator and his people.  It is always heartbreaking to listen to this.  When the Jews came out of the camps, there is one creed that they have said and have ever been holding on to.  “Never Again!” This was their solemn proclamation over themselves as a nation after the devastation of the holocaust.  And not only “Never Again!”, but it seems through all the years it is also “Never Forget!” And so I have to wonder why the question that may or may not have been on their minds were never answered.  A question they did not dare to consider, because it would ultimately devastate all their categories and who they are, even now up to this point. 

And this question is, “Why was God silent?”  or in other words, “How come God allowed this?  It is said that even their babies were thrown into the air to be caught on the baronets of the soldiers as their entertainment.  How their scientists and scholars were made to lay in the middle of the street so that a tank could drive over them, crushing them whilst still alive.  And there are so many more accounts with the same level of cruel and violent rage.  And to answer this question of “Why was God silent and why did God allow this?” was maybe addressed by secular and religious scholars, but not by the Jews.  How does one consolidate the heartache of this world with a loving God, who calls Himself our Father?  Many were disillusioned and many an atheist was born as their view of God changed during this horrific time.  They did not understand the “why?”

And in the same way this question has to be raised about the greatest holocaust ever, the holocaust of the Son of Man.  We are in danger of answering this question from a doctrinal view and not from the reality that it was.  A slaughtering of a son by His own Father.  It is easier to put a religious ring to it and hold the type and shadow of the Passover Lamb right next to it, and ascribe to the doctrinal truth, yet be devoid of the reality of it.  And yet it behooves us to sit with this question and to take it apart.  To meditate on it and ask ourselves what this says about God.  To allow Him to undo our romanticizing of the cross and ask the pertinent questions of “What does this say of God?” or more importantly, the question He wishes to bring to you…”Who do you say I am?” 

As I said at the beginning quoting Isaiah, that it takes God to know man.  Because when you know God as He truly is, the same cry will come from your innermost being…”woe is me, I am a man…”  The holocaust of the cross is the statement of my sin in the same way that the holocaust of the Jews were the statement of their sin.  The magnitude of the suffering on the cross is relative to the magnitude of my sin.  Our presumption upon God, deciding what we think He will allow or not allow is the issue of our pride, and therefore the holocaust.  The fact that we have made Him in our image, to the point that He has to say…

Psalm 50: 21

²¹ These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.

And so to disillusion us from this image we have made of Him, He devastates us in judgment, of which the Cross is the supreme expression.  And in His wisdom by this demonstration we may both know His judgment and mercy.  But we refuse to want to see God like that.  Maybe on sinners and those who deserve it, but surely not His children. Surely not those who love Him, who has given all and forsaken all? Surely not those who live in holiness?  The issue is not whether we have done something wrong and now deserve the discipline as His children.  There is a time for this.  What He is addressing is His judgment on our image we have made of Him. 

We refuse to consider Job.  We want to take that account apart and bring a cause and consequence to the table.  After all, is that not how this world works?  But God is not like us.  His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are higher than ours.  We would like His wisdom to comfort us as our Father.  However, there is also the wisdom of God that exceeds our understanding that even devastates our view of Him.  And that is the intention of His judgment, also the one to come upon this world. 

The failure to receive the statement of God in the death and resurrection of Jesus and every subsequent suffering in my life, lies at the heart of why we do not know Him as He is, and therefore it must happen again and again in our lives.  Every issue of suffering raises the issue of God.  Your divorce, the illness that racks your body, suicide, murder, child abuse, poverty and rape.   They all ask ‘Why?”  And “Where was God?”  How can a God who is just, righteous, all seeing and all powerful allow these things to happen?  And in order to settle our distaste and disappointment in God for not intervening, we revert back to cause and consequence.  I or they did that, so therefore this must happen.  Linear thinking.  But God is all together other!  As my close friend said after her husband died in her arms of a heart attack, leaving her with her broken hearted teenage girls that adored there father, “And He calls Himself loving!  He could have stopped it, but He chose not to!” And for her at that moment it defined Him and not her.  Because she did not consider that as God, by definition He can do so without her ever understanding why.  In fact in that very moment when she cried out to Him to revive her husband’s lifeless body lying in her arms, whilst bargaining and making promises of doing whatever He asks as long as He gave her husband back, the answer came.  “You may not know why now, but one day you will understand”.  And anybody who have gone through such trauma knows that, that answer will just not “cut it”.  We want answers.  We want an explanation.  And so we fail to see what is said the loudest in what has happened – BECAUSE I AM GOD. 

Our pride riles against this.  We cry foul and search for answers, but refuse to believe this.  Refuse to accept this because when there is a wrong, there has to be accountability.  But God is God!  How many people turned their back on God because they were unable to console there view of God with who He is in the time of the holocaust?  Unable to accept that God can do as He wants, answers to nobody and is sovereign in all He does.  And does this not actually shed the light on whether we truly believe and know that our lives are not our own? 

Let’s go back to Job.  When all was said and done, when he lost house, family, friends, possessions and was scraping scabs of his body, racked with sickness too terrible to look at, and cursing the day he was born, he came to an ultimate conclusion, written in chapter 42.

Job 42: 5 – 6

⁵ I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.

⁶ Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.

At the heart of the book of Job is who Job is and who God is.  And this is the heart of all God’s dealing with you.  Nominal religion, which is God in our own image, constitute the rejection of God whilst at the same time seemingly celebrating Him as God.  This is why He has to shatter our illusions. This is why He judge.  And this is also why some Christians fall apart at the seams at ordinary times, but cannot stand in the face of calamity.  Their house is built on the sandy false perceptions of God and fall the moment the storm comes, like my friend who lost her husband.  We want God to make nice.  We want Him to fit into our paradigm, our box.  And in just whose box of all the Christians out there, should He fit into? 

The question we need to ask ourselves is, “Am I serving God as He truly is, or in the image that I have made of Him?”  “Have I swept this question under the rug of religious normalcy as all others, or have I wrestled as Jacob with God?  Has He won and confronted me with my name.  The Angel asked Jacob what his name is.  It is not that God did not know what Jacob’s name was, it was that Jacob had to acknowledge his name and the meaning of it.  Evidently it took him wrestling right through the night with God.  And what does Jacob mean?  Deceiver or surplanter.  In another chapter in Isaiah, God says, Oh Jacob, thou worm. 

We hear the following spoken over Jacob.

Genesis 32: 28

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.

As a prince he has power with God.  It took him wrestling with God to have as a prince power with God, which speaks of favor and authority.  But what did it take?  And so Jacob left with a new name.  Israel, meaning “he has prevailed with God” or “He shall rule as God”.  Have you wrestled with God?  Do you have the limp as He touched your side, your side that resembles your strength?  Has he crippled you?  That limp in Jacob’s walk will forever remind him that there is One greater who spared his life.  He is not His equal, but a worm.  And God, is God.  Make no mistake about this.  This is the issue of the last days. 

God is fitting us now and building our characters to be able to stand in the coming holocaust of this world.  That when the hour comes, and it is very soon, our view of Him will not collapse, because we have allowed Him to be God as He in fact is in our lives, and not in our own image.  Now is the time to devastate us. We need to anticipate what is soon coming.  Just because we know what is coming does not constitute that we are ready for what is coming.    We will either find ourselves in apostolicity or in apostasy.   Either in our faith or more and more compromising.  And how we view God lies at the heart of it.  And it is at this time that we ought to be in our inner chamber allowing Him to search our heart and willingly allow Him to confront us with this issue.  As He asked Peter, “Who do you say I am?”  And once Peter told Him, He replied, “Flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but the Spirit”.  Is your image of God based only on your correct doctrine or does it include His dealings with you?  And equally important, have you set the limit to those dealings?  Willing subconsciously that He may take your husband, but not your child.  Willing subconsciously that He may take your job, but not your house?  Willing to lose and forsake your friends, but not rack your body with sickness?  Please do not think I am saying we never have a say or part in our sufferings.  Sin opens doors and Father disciplines as well.  But what if it is not discipline, but a demonstration of who He is?  As is all His dealings with us.  Can God be God as He in fact is in your life or have you subconsciously determined the boundaries of His full expression of who He is, in your life?  Look at the cross.  The cross is the full expression of who He is – judgment and mercy. 

Are you celebrating your security and peace in the Lord, how your marriage is good and all is going relative well?  I think that is exactly where Job was.  And still God had an issue with how Job saw himself and God.  He had security with the hedge of protection around his life, but when that security was taken away, he was instantly confronted with who he is, and who God is.  Do we know Him as that?

God does not see as we see.  Our whole view of justice and responsibility is very different from His.  As my mentor Art Katz says, “Suffering reveals and ultimate suffering reveals ultimately”.  This is the place Job was brought to.  And how tragic it is to have suffered ultimately, like the Jews, and have not seen ultimately, which is the failure to understand the intention of God in His dealings.  How much more for us in our consideration of the cross and His dealings with us?  We attribute these dealings and suffering coming from man or even the enemy, when we should understand that it is coming from the hand of God.  To say it was Hitler is much easier than to say it was God. 

Nothing of this will make sense if we do not see this in the way that God sees it, which is an eternal perspective.  Art also says, “If the fire of the gas chambers will save us from the eternal fires of judgment, it has an eternal perspective”.  In the context of time itself it will not have its full meaning.  And God is eternal.  And so, in His dealings with us, eternity is at stake.  It will be an eternal loss if we do not get it in the here and now.

God has an issue with our perception and view of Him. At the heart of it lies that we want a God of our choosing.  At the heart is our pride.  Like Job, Jacob and many more, He has to bring us to nothing, to ashes, so that we may as a prince have power with God.  We serve an ultimate God that cannot be defined on the basis of our own understanding, but only on His terms.  To be dealt with by God in this manner is know Him as He is, as He intended, and central to this is the holocaust of the Son of Man on the cross.

Hebrews 12: 25 - 29

²⁵ See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:

²⁶ Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.

²⁷ And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

²⁸ Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:

²⁹ For our God is a consuming fire.

Psalm 103

Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

² Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:

³ Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;

⁴ Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;

⁵ Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.

⁶ The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.

⁷ He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.

⁸ The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.

⁹ He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever.

¹⁰ He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.

¹¹ For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.

¹² As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

¹³ Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.

¹⁴ For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.

¹⁵ As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.

¹⁶ For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.

¹⁷ But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children;

¹⁸ To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.

¹⁹ The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all.

²⁰ Bless the Lord, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.

²¹ Bless ye the Lord, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure.

²² Bless the Lord, all his works in all places of his dominion: bless the Lord, O my soul.