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God’s Presence Within

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged , , , , on July 24, 2024| 1 Comment »

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Scripture reading: Exodus 30:1-10

I pray that God might open our eyes that we might see His work in this hour, for I believe that those who behold will receive. I believe that God is making us to see the thing, and then to walk in it and receive it. I believe that He has begun to tell us in direct terms that we can now enter in. Formerly, we looked forward to the firstfruits and the resurrection of the Christ within us as something in the far future. But I am seeing that it is being offered to us as something that has already been done in the heavenlies, and that we are being encouraged to enter in.

Today, I want you to remember the Day of Atonement in the Old Testament times, when the priest would go through the veil. He had been preparing for this moment for a whole year. The day had come when he should go through the veil, and it was a fearful place. He had done all that was necessary in the tabernacle: the lamp was lit, the bread was changed, and he was now before the golden altar for the last time before going into the Holy of Holies, into the presence of God.

The Golden Altar was the place of the offering of the soul. The priest takes out a handful of incense and places it on the fire. The incense goes up into smoke, which tells him that God has accepted his prayers; and he says to God, “This is for my sins and for the sins of Israel.” He was offering his soul, because Israel had laid their hands on him to be their scapegoat, and he became their sin bearer.  He was now ready to give up all, totally, to go through the veil. He might not return alive, because he was going into the very presence of God. He wanted to see God manifest His pleasure in his offering by shining forth in the Shekinah glory. It would shine from between the cherubim, but he was not able to look upon it. He would fall upon his face and worship God when the power of God came upon him.

We should notice that there is a deeper, inner work being done now in the hearts and lives of believers. Those who are really going on with God are going into a fullness they have never experienced before. The lamb was chosen ten days before he was offered and so there seems to be a selection going on in the Spirit as never before. Something in the individual seems to be saying, “I do not have much interest in the things of this life anymore.” It seems to me that there is something more important among the brethren, that their hearts are turning away from the world and turning more to God.

The hand of God is offering the people of God that fullness which we so long prayed for. “THY KINGDOM COME, THY WILL BE DONE…” seems no longer to be in the far future, but is being activated by the Spirit right now. I see God getting His people into shape, because He must have a people without spot or wrinkle.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, April 1997, pg. 1-2)

Thought for today: Let God’s deeper, inner work be done in your heart and life so that you may experience the fullness that is awaiting His people just round the corner. May your prayer today be, “Not my will, but thine be done.”

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The Perfected Soul

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged , , , , on July 23, 2024| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Revelation 5: 11-14

In this passage of the scriptures all the creatures were shouting together without rehearsal. Revelation 5:12-13, “SAYING with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. 13 And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever.”

John is saying that “every creature…in heaven…on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea” heard not just him, John, saying, “Blessing and honour” and glorifying God, but a whole company of saints in his position who he refers to as “I.” When they went to arrest Jesus in the garden and they asked if He was Jesus, He replied, “I am,” and they all fell backwards. I believe John and all God’s people shouted with the voice of God so that even hell heard them.

When we really praise God from our hearts, many things happen. Your heart opens to God and when the praise reaches to a certain height, it opens the hearts of the other people of God.

Ezekiel 28:13b and 14, “The workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. 14 Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.”

God said in these verses that He made music in this angel whose name was Heylel. God made his pipes in him. We are talking about something probably much higher than what we understand to be music. There are sounds that can be made which are too high for our ears. For instance, the dog can hear a whistle that we cannot hear. In spiritual realms, sounds are much greater and more powerful than the things we hear in this realm. This cherub that covered heaven had the power to lift the whole of heaven into praise.

When he began to praise, heaven began to praise with him. When your praise gets to a high place in God, the angels of heaven are commanded by your praise to come and praise with you. In our congregations, when our praise leaves that earthly realm and begins to rise into the heavenlies, God pays attention and the angels of heaven praise with us. We actually command them to praise with us by our power. Here in Ezekiel, God speaks of an angel He had set over heaven to bring music and deliverance and praises in heaven.

John is telling us that when he (John) began to praise, his soul was lifted up to a height where every creature heard the praise, even the fish of the sea and those in heaven and those in hell. Heaven hears and rejoices! Hell hears and trembles because they know what will happen – their time is very short.

Revelation 5:14, “And the four beasts said (in response to John’s praise) Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever.”

(Excerpt from The Book of Revelation, Volume 1, pg. 96-97)

Thought for today: Let our praise leave this earthly realm and rise into the heavenlies that even the angels are commanded to praise with us.

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Elijah Forerunner Ministry

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged , , , , , , on July 22, 2024| 1 Comment »

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Scripture reading: Malachi 4:5-6

It is God’s way to send a “forerunner” or watchman to warn His people whenever great happenings are to take place. At the advent of Christ, John the Baptist was sent as a forerunner, and Jesus Christ described him in Matthew 11:14 as “…Elijah, which was for to come” before the coming of Messiah. There is, however, a prophecy (Malachi 4:5) that said that there would be yet another Elijah coming, “…before the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” This Elijah is a body of people or a watchman church which is sent to awaken the Church.

I first began to hear this voice in 1948 through the prophetic ministry of a man named William Branham. (Note: 1948 was also the same year that the state of Israel was reborn.) It would be very easy to find a lot of faults and weaknesses in any one of us, but when we divide the “Thus saith the Lord” word from the man, we find that God did indeed speak in 1948, which was also the time of the birth of the “Latter Rain” movement. This prophetic, Elijah forerunner ministry began to grow from that time, which I would classify as the beginning of the trumpet call to the Church to awake, until now which I would classify as the end of the trumpet call to the Church to awake.

We see many true prophets arising today in the Church, and also many false ones and many pretenders. Besides all this, there is the voice of prophecy within the Church itself, so that every true child of God is receiving some sort of signal from the realms of heaven concerning the end of time. At this time, therefore, God has sent and is sending into the Body of Christ, prophets and prophetesses. It is Zion that we are speaking about, and He said,

“The Lord shall roar out of Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem” (Joel 3:16, Amos 1:2).

These are people who have paid the price, and have maintained their foothold on the mountain of God so that they may be watchmen to see above the heads of the people and warn them of the good and of the evil.

Let us read from Matthew 25:6, “And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.” 

Who made the cry? Was it the sleeping body crying out to herself? It was the watchman who never slept. I see this as the prophetic ministry which God has placed in the Church. We note from history that God always had someone to cry aloud no matter how dark it was in Israel. This then is what we are dealing with at this moment. The ministry that “…sighs and cries” (Ezekiel 9:4) in the earth is none other than that Elijah ministry.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, August 1996, pg. 1-2)

Thought for today: Let us hear the prophetic utterances in the midst of the Body of Christ. Let us obey the Voice of God and be ready for the great and dreadful Day of the Lord.

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Praise Opens the Hearts of Men

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged , , , , , on July 16, 2024| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Revelation 5:8-10

The beasts and the elders in Revelation 5 had “harps, and golden vials.” When we look in the Hebrew language, we find that JUDAH means PRAISE. The harp is made for praising God. Harps mean God-harps that are praising Him. Many ask if God really needs us to praise Him saying that He is a wonderful God or that He is great and marvelous. No. That is not praise. You could say “God is marvelous” all day and all night and you would not spend one hour praising God.

Praise comes from the heart and heals the heart. It is an instrument of God to create the glory of God within the individual. When the angels in heaven praise God, it is like their dinner time. When they open their hearts to praise God and to glorify God for the things He has done and for who He is, then the glory of God flows in. Praise is a KEY that opens the hearts of angels and of men. When we apply the key to the heart, God flows into it. It is not possible for the devil to come in when we are praising God in Spirit and in truth. There is a contact and a flow of energy which comes from God to man when man opens up his heart to God and the enemy, Satan, cannot interfere. He has to keep far away. This is why God says we are to pray and praise. “Praise is comely,” the Bible says. It is not everybody who can praise. Your whole being must be attuned to God and to praise. There is a praise, and there is a Praise, and there is a PRAISE! There is high Praise and glorious PRAISE.

I remember years ago, some brethren brought in a thing they called “high praise.” It grieved me because it was the lowest form of praise I had ever heard. The kind that takes you down emotionally rather than up. It was the kind of thing you could see for years and years in some of the churches. People would stomp their feet, bam, bam, bam, and everyone began to go bam, bam, bam. Drums began to beat together and the people began to jump together and there were no words. Brethren, man cannot praise God without words. We must have words to praise God. If we begin to sing a song and we are only going by the beat or by the music, we are shutting out God. The only way to have God join you in your praise is for your heart to respond to God and to His Word. You start singing a song “I thank you Lord, I thank you Jesus” – a simple song without many words to it. “I thank you Jesus, for you have brought me out a mighty long way, a mighty long way, thank you Lord.” When I begin to sing, I begin to remember the depths of hell I was in and how God reached down and pulled me out.

This thought brings me back to a vision I had in the days just before salvation, when I found myself down in this GREAT PIT. It was hopeless. I could hardly see the sky for the distance; I was down in the pit. The sides were sheer and straight and I would fight and claw my way up only to reach a point and then I would fall back down. It was hopeless, but I was still fighting. Then suddenly there was a sound like a wind and it came down into the pit, swooped me up like a whirlwind and threw me way up on the side of the pit. As I clung on, still only half way up, another surge came and took me up and carried me right out. I landed in woodland where great big globs of honeycomb were up in the trees, and the honey was just dropping from the trees.

I remember these things as I sing a song thanking Jesus. It means something to me. It lifts my soul and the energy of God begins to flow into me, because I am praising God.

(Excerpt from The Book of Revelation, Volume 1, pg. 90-91)

Thought for today: Let us use the key of praise to open our hearts up to God.

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What Is Life? – Part 2

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged , , , , , on July 11, 2024| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: John 1:4-5

The devil must be really mad to know that there is such a thing named LIFE! It is written in John 1:4-5, “IN HIM WAS LIFE AND THE LIFE WAS THE LIGHT OF MEN. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.” 

In this passage, the word translated “comprehended” could be better rendered “overcame.” The devil cannot overcome life for the life is the light. We are actually taking in more and more of the light and the life, which is more and more of Christ which is our resurrection. BY OUR DAILY SPIRITUAL GROWTH, WE ARE ACTUALLY TAKING IN CHRIST. WE ARE TAKING IN OUR RESURRECTION. THE MORE YOU OPEN UP TO GOD, THE MORE THE CHRIST COMES IN. CHRIST IS OUR LIFE! (See Colossians 3:4.)

Imagine a picture of the Great Almighty God, Author and Possessor of this great reservoir called LIFE. The name of God’s LIFE is Christ (Messiah). He dipped into His bosom and took out “Messiah,” and let Him loose in the earth. The life came down as an entity in the person of Jesus Christ. God can divide Himself in as many parts as He wants to since He has power over all things and all things are subject to His will.

In Luke 1, the Holy Ghost overshadowed Mary with her consent. The conversation that the angel had with her was designed to get her consent. When Mary accepted what the angel said, he departed. He was only the messenger. The Holy Ghost then came and overshadowed her, meaning to say that the Holy Ghost planted the seed of Life in her, and she became pregnant, because that was the will of God. Some ignorant people felt this was a sexual thing. God is the Creator. He created Adam and Eve. He created the first man, and He was in the process of creating the second man. The first man, “Adam,” was a full-grown man; the second man was born in a manger, sired of God, born of a woman. The first man, “Adam,” was a natural man, and the second man, “the Lord from heaven.” (See I Corinthians 15:47).

May God bless our understanding. God put Jesus into Mary and Christ into Jesus. Therefore, when Mary birthed Jesus as a babe, she brought forth Christ in the earth. Since Christ is the Messiah, the second person of the Godhead from before the foundation of the world, then the birth of Jesus Christ was the entrance of God as a member of the human race.

When we receive Christ in us through the action of the Holy Spirit, then we are on par with Jesus when He was born of Mary in Bethlehem of Judea. Jesus, therefore, did not need to be born again, since He was never born of corruptible seed. Because we were born of corruptible seed, we need to be born again.

You were first born in Adam, then you were born in Christ. A charge of LIFE came into the earth in Jesus Christ, and then the charge came into you as an individual. This life is eternal; it cannot die.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, June 1996, pg. 4-5)

Thought for today: Let us grow daily in God in order to take in Christ, to take in our resurrection. The more you open up to God, the more the Christ comes in. Christ is our life!

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