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Scripture reading: Ezekiel 9:6

Ezekiel 9:6, “Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house.”

The picture of Ezekiel 9 is the same picture of the Ten Virgins in Matthew 25 from another angle. In the dark hour of God’s judgment He will make a difference between sheep and sheep and shepherd and shepherd. While one group is protected and safe with the Lord, the other will be out in the darkness probably sealing their testimonies with their blood. In the verse quoted above, the situation is put in all its rawness and for the person who does not understand the language of God, it would be hard to see in these words a loving and merciful God. In spite of this the explanation is however, that those who are outside of OBEDIENCE to God in the moment of crisis, stand in an indefensible position, and not even God Himself can break His own rules to save them. This is the reason it is written in Revelations 11:2 that the “Outer Court” will be utterly destroyed. THE MARK IN THE FOREHEAD, which in symbolic language means the Mind of Christ in our minds, will be the saving portion in the day of God’s judgment.

Many times the Scripture describes God’s judgment as nothing more than retribution being brought upon man by his own actions, and in some cases the army of the heathen coming against his people who were not able to win because their God had withdrawn from them. Actually, they were not better fighters than the heathen around them, and their victories only came through their obedience to God. It would therefore be natural that when the Lord withdrew from them that the enemy would overcome them, and that would be their punishment for disobedience. NEVERTHELESS IN GOD’S JUDGMENT ON HIS CHURCH there never was utter destruction and there never will be. “God will save her and that right early.” (Psalm 46:5).

The judgments of God are upon us, and there will be a continuous increase of God’s judgment upon the church unto a final cataclysmic end, when the church will be purified:

Malachi 3:3, “And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: And he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.”

It is not all bad news – THE GOOD NEWS FAR OUTWEIGHS the bad. This will produce the greatest revival of righteousness in the earth.

Daniel 12:1, “And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people:  and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that time:  and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.”

I believe we are living in the time when the Great Accountant of Heaven is making a final balancing of His accounts. Any of our work, which is not motivated by righteousness, will be burnt up as hay, wood, and stubble. Those works, which are ordered and directed by the Holy Spirit, are gold, silver, and precious stones; that is all that matters. Many little Christians shut away in some non-descript corner will be receiving great rewards for their obedience in prayer, while some of the mighty men in the limelight of Christianity will only be saved as if by fire. May the Lord bless you to be among those who God honors at the final summation.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, June 1982)

Thought for today: Only those works, which are ordered and directed by the Holy Spirit, are gold, silver, and precious stones; that is all that matters.

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Scripture reading: I Peter 4:17

The children of God who believe in justice and mercy, must agree that a loving God who is abundant in mercy must judge the children of His household before He judges the world.

I Peter 4:17, “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?”

God’s judgments take many different forms, some of which include the allowing of His enemies to come against His people to punish them. One of the staunchest laws of God is the law of Sowing and Reaping.

Galatians 6:7, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”

Only the Blood of Jesus Christ remits sin, otherwise all sin must be punished. Sometimes we only see the effects on the outward man, and we tend to wonder why would God allow this? But we should never forget that God is righteous and whatsoever is done of God is righteousness.

As an accountant it is very easy for me to understand that there must be a time of reckoning when all the accounts must be balanced. At the end of the business year there is a time of reckoning, but if the business is being liquidated, then all the accounts must be closed at the same time. This concept is the one which the Scripture speaks of in I Peter 4:17.  – The time is come – for what? – for the judgment of the Church.

It is not enough to accept Jesus as Saviour, we should know him as Lord and follow Him. The majority of Christians dwell in the realm of accepting Jesus as Saviour, but following foolish shepherds who are not following the Lord or who follow Him afar off. The present darkness into which the world is entering demands that we follow Jesus the whole way in order to overcome.

Midnight, as mentioned in Matthew 25, is going to separate those who had the work of God done in their souls from those who frustrated the Holy Spirit, not allowing him to do the transformation within the area of the soul. Jesus Christ redeemed our souls by His death, and he came to save our souls. If in the final analysis, we reject the completion of this work in the soul, then the mind and the emotions will remain unregenerated and we will fail to overcome Satan in the power of his strength.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, June 1982)

Thought for today: It is not enough to accept Jesus as Saviour, we must know Him as Lord and follow Him.

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Scripture reading: Romans 5:1-5

One day I went down to the Ford factory. No place on Earth reminded me of hell more than that foundry where they smelt the metal. We walked along, watching the metal being changed, and I could imagine if I were that metal I would be complaining all the way. They put it in a terrible furnace; it was glowing so brightly that you couldn’t even look at it. Then they began to push it through rollers. One roller flattened it a little. I thought it was flat enough, but the other roller flattened it again. They kept on stretching and flattening that one small piece of metal until it was 3,000 feet long. It started at the length of about 20 feet, but they flattened it and stretched it to 3,000 feet. I said to God, “Lord, isn’t this what you are doing to us?” Some of the metal complained so badly that they had to discard it; it just wasn’t up to the mark. They had to take it off and throw it away. May God help us to realize that the circumstances of life which beat us, the ones that hit us hardest, are the things which are transforming us into the image of Christ. Every one of us has something that we hate. We would almost prefer to die than for some things to happen to us. But sometimes these are exactly the ones that happen to us.

One of the things that I feared most was my family being in want. When God sent me out on the mission field, I had no church behind me, no congregation behind me, and yet He commanded me to give up my profession, go out and preach to a people who I didn’t even know. I lived with people who never had a meal for a day; the area was so poor. They would boil a bush tea, take some sugar (sugar was easy to get in a sugar country of Jamaica) and give it to the baby. And that is what the baby and the parents lived on. We had to weed a field of about 10 acres with a hand hoe. There we were weeding all day so thirsty and so hungry that at about 2 o’clock we prayed that God would send us some food. Then we looked around the rocks and saw a little tray coming. It was a sister who said the Lord told her to bring us water and food. This is how those people lived. They really had a faith in God that was above the faith of those who had something. Sometimes they would eat one little dumpling and a little coconut oil for all day, but then  when we got home from the fields in the evening, we would go off to service and God would meet with us. God taught me to live with those people to learn what it was to really trust God and to know Him.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, February 1978)

Thought for today: May God help us to realize that the circumstances of life which beat us are the things which are transforming us into the image of Christ.

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Scripture reading: 1 Peter 1:12

God could not allow any human being to go to hell without having rejected Jesus. When you preach to people you must have this consciousness and this understanding. When you preach to a man, he does not have to say, “Yes, I accept Jesus,” at that moment. But you are putting him in a position that between your time with him and his death he is going to meet Jesus face to face and will have to say, “Yes, I accept Him.” Do you know what happens? You, the preacher, come right before him at the moment of his death. The witness that you give to a human being will last with him forever until he reaches the end of life. That witness will come back to him just as powerful as you gave it. This is why we must obey the Spirit. Don’t look for results. What about Brother Noah? He more than likely thought that he had no results. But Noah must have been the greatest evangelist in the entire world. His witness saved millions of people for eternity! We will never know how many until we reach heaven and begin to look up the records. He thought his preaching was in vain, but God said, “Preach!” and he just kept preaching. He visibly saved eight souls and thought, “Well, Lord Jesus, when I get to heaven my crown will only have eight little stars.” Then he was surprised. You also are going to be very surprised. That is why it is so absolutely necessary to remain in the perfect will of God. I will tell you something about that.

You are working with spirits that are working in conjunction with you. There are certain things that you can do but spirits cannot. Spirits cannot preach the gospel. They don’t know as much as you in the gospel. In 1 Peter 1 it says that the angels are inquiring about the message that God is giving you, the Church. He speaks about the prophets having received this great message but having to preach in the dark because they did not know what they were preaching. Yet they were not preaching to the people who lived then, they were preaching to us, who were not yet born. Would you like a job like that? Having to preach to a congregation who isn’t yet born? But this is what is happening.

In 1 Peter 1:12 it says, “Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.”

The things of God are being revealed to the Church. The revelation of the Spirit is to the Church and not to the angels. The worse part about it – or the best part about it – is that we have the Church divided into two. One part of the Church is in the spirit, in the heavenlies with Jesus, and another part of the Church (the militant Church) must meet the devil and fight him face to face on earth as the heavenly people cannot fight the devil.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, February 1978)

Thought for today: The witness that you give to a human being will last with him forever until he reaches the end of life and this is why we must obey the Spirit.

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Scripture reading: Romans 8:28

Let us look at Romans 8:28, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

Some of us do not know that all things work together for good. The only difference between those who know and those who don’t know is that those who don’t know grumble when they get hit but those who know rejoice. Every soul has problems sometimes. Some of us have them all the time. But some people know that their problems are deliberately designed by God to lift them into a higher realm. Others don’t know. And that’s the difference between the person who can rejoice over problems or whatever happens in his/her life and the one who cannot rejoice. Whether you do or you don’t know, all things work together for good to you.

Somebody may say, “There is a qualifying phrase here, ‘to them that love God.’” But there is a qualifying phrase to that qualifying phrase, “to them who are the called according to his purpose.” So from the time God called you, even before you were justified, all things began to work together for good to you. You were like the bull, outside of the Tabernacle, when those men threw the rope over him and began to haul him towards the gate of the Tabernacle. You too were hauled to the brazen altar to be born again. All things began to work together for good. There you were cursing and saying, “Oh, I have the worse luck. Why did it have to happen to me?” But God is very much pleased with the progress. Remember, “…all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, February 1978)

Thought for today: Let us be among those who know that all things work together for good to us. It will help us to rejoice in our problems, which are designed by God to lift us into a higher realm.

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