Healing the Mind – Pt. 1

Ron Weinland

Feb. 6, 2010

This date was set aside for God’s Church as a time to include fasting, and not necessarily through the entire Sabbath as I mentioned before but to be done in part in the Sabbath whether it be going on into the first day of the week, or starting on the 6th day of the week, just depends on your particular schedule, but it was to include fasting on this day here; a time of fasting.  It’s a special time for us for focusing upon what God is now granting His Church at the beginning of a great time of healing for mankind; and that’s exciting to understand scriptures about healing, the things that are going to take place... is so incredible – what God’s giving to us and where we’re headed.

This sermon will be the first of a new series entitled: Healing the Mind.  People, oftentimes, when they go through and talk scripture in a particular subject...God used something very physical to point to something far deeper, far more important and that has to do with the mind.  Prophecies over and over again dealing with that subject matter have to do with the end-time, especially as we go into the millennial period and the Great White Throne later on because that’s when God begins to grant that en masse to the world.  It hasn’t been offered to the world, only to a few through time when you look back at 6,000 years...

It was only a year ago that we had a very special fast in God’s Church, actually a two day fast at that, and one that will be recorded and spoken of through time when God’s people fasted for the world so that great mercy could be granted the world at this end-time.  It’s going to be exciting later on when we’re able to look back.  I think those that’ll be a part of the 144,000 will have a greater understanding of some of those things obviously, but everyone who continues on and is able to live into a new age is going to be able to look back and have a greater appreciation later on.  There are things we go through sometimes and do sometimes that we don’t grasp the full magnitude and the full importance of until we’re able to look back; and then we recognize what God did... then we begin to recognize the things we lived through.  When you’re living through some things, sometimes we just don’t grasp the magnitude of what God’s doing in our lives, we don’t realize the time in history that we’re in and we don’t grasp the magnitude of the time in history and what God is literally doing in our lives that’s far greater than any other time in 6,000 years.  This is a most awesome time, it truly is and the closer we get to some of these things coming to pass, the more incredible this all becomes because God is sharing with us, more and more, revealing more, giving more because it is a time of doing exactly what our name says: Preparing for the Kingdom of God.  Just like the prophecies talk about, making straight paths, making a way, if you will, for the return of Jesus Christ and for the Kingdom of God, and that’s what God is doing in and through His Church.

We’ve been living in that time of mercy that we fasted about a year ago when we had that 2-day fast, yet the world doesn’t know it.  They don’t see it, but we see it, perhaps to varying degrees but we see it in God’s Church.  One day it’ll be recognized, this time of mercy if you will that God has granted, in a great way.  And I think about that – that people’ll be able to see it as a time of mercy that it’s been, instead of the tribulation.  What an incredible contrast!  Hardly a day goes by where I don’t think about some of these things – thinking about where things could have been if we’d started out with that big bang that we used to think it was going to start with on the very first day.  Thank God it hasn’t been like that!  Thankfully we’re able to meet in a nice building here with heat, able to have gas where we can drive back and forth from services, able to have plenty of food still.  Saw in the news some of the areas out east because of all the snow storms their having... when they know a really bad storms coming in (of course this was a two-fold whammy because of Super Bowl weekend) but the store shelves are stripped in some cases.  It’s like before a hurricane comes down south and they go in and raid the shelves.  I remember a time in Toledo when a bad storm was coming through and before long some of the basic things of milk and bread – they were all gone off the shelves and when you don’t have trucks coming in any more it’s amazing how quick that flow can stop and what is left disappears.  And we live in times when that’s going to happen eventually here.  So we are in a time of mercy where we’re still able to live much like we always have, physically, and I know we have mixed emotions about some of those things but candidly, the longer some of this can go the better it is... the only part and I know God’s going to grant that to us to whatever degree needs to be done to accomplish what needs to be done... but the time that is really exciting to recognize is the time for a work that we’re going to be able to do in a very powerful way that will last from the 2nd Trumpet into the 5th; at least the beginning of the 5th.  Because that has to do with the time of humbling in this world and a time when we’re going to be able to begin to reach out in a very powerful way because that’s when things are going to begin to come together in the sense of what we’re preparing for right now, organizing, preparing for the kinds of things we’re going to be doing as a Church and again, preparing for God’s Kingdom and in a very powerful way for His return: far greater than His first coming. Far, far, far greater than His first coming.

There are things we can see but the world doesn’t and that’s the way it’s always been.  There are things that God’s people can see because it’s a spiritual thing.  We can understand but you can’t give it to the world, you can’t explain it to them, they can’t understand, they can’t see it.  And as I’ve stated in context, speaking of ‘in context’, that everything in ‘2008 – God’s Final Witness’ will come to pass.  The context being that the events will come to pass, but the timing has been altered – thank God.  And so much of that has to do with what we went through in the time of fasting a year ago...a time of mercy that God has granted.

Today is a unique time period, we’re in a unique time period now. When you talk about ‘time, times and a half a time’ – it’s divided up into 7 areas, ‘half a times’ if you will, 7 phases.  Today, this is a period of time of the crossroads of that – half way through the first ‘time’.  It’s going to be interesting to see how things transpire as we go through a ‘time’ and then ‘times’ and then ‘half a time’ – what God does.

So again, the timing has been changed and there are people who cannot accept such a change, just as we’ve had troubles in the Church... we had some difficulty when we came to the 50th Truth.  We had a bit of a bump in the road, but it was a great thing for the Church when it was all said and done because it helped us to see things in a great way in ourselves that we weren’t able to see except for going through that.  It’s a blessing to go through trials.  It’s a blessing to go through things that we have to go through sometimes so that we can see things in ourselves and that has a great deal to do with this sermon series right now, the ‘Healing of the Mind’, because if we can’t see things in ourselves then we continue to go on the same course, the same road, the same path without change; but when we go through some difficult times, when we go through some hard times then God uses that to help us to see things in ourselves that we otherwise couldn’t see.  It’s like putting a mirror in front of us; all of a sudden we see something that we weren’t able to see before and He reveals it to us, He manifests something that’s always been there, but it takes trials so often to bring those things to the surface.  It’s like the gold being refined.  What a beautiful picture!  Or silver being refined... you take gold and you heat it up and the dross comes to the surface; silver primarily; you have silver and the way it comes to the surface and because of the heat and so forth and the weight...and then you can skim off the things that are not good, the things that are not pure and it’s a beautiful picture, but it takes heat, it takes fire to bring that to the surface so you can see it, to purify it.

There are great examples throughout scripture that God gives so we can learn from those things. Heat, fire, trial, those things help us and they’re not easy to go through.  I feel badly, I hurt inside when I see people go through various trials; but then I know its how we’re going to be able to grow more.  God moulds and fashions every one of us.  What an awesome thing to understand.  If He’s called us, He’s moulding and fashioning us, and if He’s moulding and fashioning us you can take it to the bank that you’re going to have some difficult times along the way.  You’re going to have some trials where God is not going to intervene and answer your prayers – see?  Because that’s not what’s good for you.  If He came through and took care of everything for us like we, with our human nature, would like God to do... isn’t that our human nature?  Yeah, we’ll fast, we’ll pray, we’ll do whatever so God’ll remove something from us – take it away, take this trial away...and it doesn’t go away until we learn how to deal with it, sometimes to put it in a part of God’s plan to understand it and see it better, perhaps sometimes to see something in ourselves that can change.  What a blessing!

I’ve often remarked there is not a single trial or hardship of life that I would change that I’ve gone through if I had the ability to because they have made me who and what I am.  God moulds and fashions each and every one of us and if we yield ourselves to God He does the moulding.  See?  He does the moulding and the chastening and that’s a large part of our life.  So again, I think about this matter of ‘time has been changed’ in the sense of certain events – when they will transpire, when they will take place, how they will begin and when they will begin and the longer they’re postponed, the longer they’re put toward the back the better it is.  It’s awesome!  You’ll see that as we go along later on when God does what He does in the order that He does it.

But again, as I mentioned, there are people who cannot accept such change and sometimes that becomes a great trial for some.  Some few have left because of such change.  Thankfully it’s only been a few.  Some have become weak spiritually because of such a change.  It’s akin to the example of Jonah who became angry and upset that Nineveh was granted mercy.  You don’t want to be like that because it’s not about self.  It’s not about our looking bad, our being made to look bad because we told people certain things, because we said things to certain friends and certain relatives and because it didn’t transpire in that way and then if you go back and then you tell them, “Well, we were given the 50th Truth.”  Whoop tee doo!  What does that mean to them?  It didn’t mean anything to them what you were telling them in the first place, but now all they see is: “You were wrong!  Just admit it!  Just admit you’re a false prophet!”  You know?  Can’t give them that satisfaction because it’s not true – you know?  But they can’t understand that.  It’s like when you go back to the times of Christ and the ministry of Christ – I marvel sometimes in things He said and the things He did and how people responded, always trying to find fault, always trying to say, “You were wrong about this,” or “You were wrong about that!”  So they could have some justification then for not yielding to, or listening to what He had to say...even though so often they knew what he was saying was right.

So again, we don’t want to be like a Jonah who became angry, upset that Nineveh was granted mercy.  What a blessing to be granted mercy in this world, in time.  It’s all going to happen soon enough.  It’s not about our being made right or being made to look right.  That’s horrible and yet we’ve had that kind of thing happen in the Church.  With Jonah it became a personal matter, one of embarrassment, one of pride, self-will, hardness of heart rather than him having mercy.  He should have been jumping up and down for joy, thankful that what he did, and how he was able to serve, saved thousands of people.  It helped to save thousands of people.  Incredible, but that wasn’t his attitude, he had to go through some attitude adjustment there and even became upset because of his skin being bleached out because of the gastric juices inside the great fish for the three days as he was in there and the gastric juices that bleached out his skin like it did.  He wasn’t doing really well, but it was a great thing as far as the people of Nineveh were concerned – especially with some of their religious beliefs and ideas about the fish.  And you think about some of the traditions that even the Catholic church has to this day, that the pope wears on top of his head – the big ole fish head.  What is that?  The mitre?  A mitre on top of the head – it’s a great big fish head, that’s where it comes from, you know?  Wish they’d use a real one!

What a horrible thing, rather than being thankful and grateful that he was able to suffer for the benefit of others; because that’s what Jesus Christ reveals to us - the ability to suffer for the benefit of others is what God’s love is all about in us, living in us.  You have to suffer to love others because it’s about self, it’s about bringing self into subjection to God’s ways and taking it, taking what others throw out at you, and fighting against attitudes of embarrassment or pride or self-will or hardness of heart that is so commonplace within all of us as human beings...rather than being merciful.   We must learn the way of mercy, to have that kind of a mind.  Judgement will come soon enough.  Judgement is promised; it will be there; it comes soon enough.  Hard times, difficult times, correction, chastening will come in time.  This is not about us and how well we look.  So I think about him when he was sitting there under the vine that grew up there and God gave a vine for him to have shade because the sun hurt his skin.  If you’d gone through that, gastric juices, the wind blowing, your skins ultra sensitive – he got upset.  He got upset with God.  He got upset at the vine that dried up and everything, “Why isn’t God taking better care of me?”  ...type of thing.  “Why do I have to go through this?  Oh woe is me.  Get out my violin...”  We don’t have time to play violins.  If we have to play violins and we feel sorry for ourselves and we’re moping around we’re not thinking about what God is doing, we’re not thinking about what this world has to go through, we’re not thinking about the blessing of being able to suffer for the benefit of others.  What a blessing to be able to serve God in such capacity, to suffer – whatever that might be  - for the benefit of others, because that’s what it’s all about, it truly is!  And so it’s not about self.

When I think about Jonah – where was the thankfulness and joy that God had given such mercy to so many through his suffering?  That really should have been what his attitude should have been and it should be our attitude, every one of us.  A willingness to go through whatever it takes; I would rather receive that then see others receive it.  That should be the attitude.  The hardship, the pain, the suffering...

So where’s your mind in all this that we have experienced over the past year?  Because there are different things we can go through and different things we have gone through and that different ones have gone through.  Are you drifting?  ...just waiting around for Christ’s return?  ...kind of on hold?  ...kind of like a flight pattern, just kind of circling around waiting before you’re able to land?  ...waiting for the things to end?  This isn’t a time just to sit around and wait!  Are you preparing?  That means looking forward, going forward...are you preparing in the best ways you can... now sometimes we can’t, sometimes we come up against every obstacle imaginable, but you’ve got to work at it, you’ve got to try, you’ve got to keep working at it.  So are you preparing for the Kingdom of God in every way you can by becoming stronger spiritually?  That takes work.

The tendency can be, very much as a follow up to Laodicea even in this time, because that attitude and spirit that was in the world that caused the things that Laodicea experienced... that same attitude and spirit is what we all have to fight – that of complacency, that of letting down, that of becoming lukewarm, of drifting, of coasting... you can’t coast!  You’ve got to fight for this way of life, you truly do!  All the time!  Seeking to become stronger spiritually.  Don’t ever think you’re there!  Don’t ever think you’ve arrived! Don’t ever think that you’re okay!  Don’t ever get in the frame of mind that you’re really doing pretty good and that you’re in pretty good shape!  Cause we’re not!  As long as you’re in this human body, you’re not in real good shape, you have a lot of baggage... that I look forward to fully dumping one day because I won’t be in it anymore – this body.  The more you’re in the Church, the more you grow, the more you see the baggage, the more you see the mind and that has it’s battles as well, because then you see the world more, you see the haughtiness and pride of mankind more, you see the arrogance, you see the attitude.  The more you can see self, the more you can see human nature, the more you can see the world and loathe it and be thankful that God is getting ready to bring about a great change in it.  So you have to be careful how you judge and how you deal with certain things that you’re able to ‘see’ in a greater way.

So again, are you battling?  Are you preparing for the Kingdom of God by becoming stronger spiritually, working more so that you can give more?  Not less?!  Studying and improving ourselves so that we can become more qualified to serve in greater ways in the future?  And I’m not talking about just sitting around listening to sermons or studying the Bible!  There’s a balance in that as well in the Church.  We have a lot of new people that have come along and I appreciate the hunger and the thirst but take it from me... You have been able to see things and grow in things much faster because of technology than any of us ever were!  I was recently sharing with someone of when God started calling me in the summer of 1969, talking about writing out to headquarters and how long it would take to get a booklet back.  You’d have a question and they’d send a booklet back to you.  You might wait around for 4-6 weeks.  Today we don’t have to wait around for anything, its right there on the internet you know?  Wow!  Wham, wham, wham!  It’s kind of like today, having an oven rather than having to go out and cut your wood and then start the fire and then go out and clean the animals and grind up the corn and the grain.  Because life used to be that way where people had to spend all day just preparing meals and food oftentimes and today, the analogy of that, we have an oven, we have gas, we have electricity, we can do things quickly – fast food!  Well, you’re awesomely blessed... and seek to have balance in those things because this is widespread.  This is everywhere as people have come in so quickly into the Church and you need to recognize that you’ve been given so much very quickly.  Seek not just to receive it in the mind, but ask God for help to see it in order to live it!  That’s the greater thing.  To live it, to apply it to your life – therein is the battle – see?  Takes a lifetime of living, conquering, growing, overcoming...   So seek to do those things.  And so when I’m talking about studying, education or whatever, I’m saying that we need to be involved in one of the two.

It’s a common place thing that we thought things were maybe going to happen sooner so what’s the purpose of going on to college?  Yes, if that was your purpose, vocational school or college – DO IT!  DON’T STOP!  I don’t care if it happens next month!  Don’t stop! Keep planning ahead, keep going ahead!  Work!  Jobs!  That’s how God’s Church is taken care of in the sense of being able to do the work we’re doing in reaching out and helping others.  So whatever we can do, keep striving to do it, fight for it!  And if you can’t do those things, if the doors are closed, so be it, because we live in a tough time economically, but work at it, fight for it, DO what you can do!  Because these questions come up all the time – every area we‘re in as a whole, every area we go into these kinds of questions are there, “What do I do?  Should I continue...?”  Absolutely!  You keep moving ahead because we’re just going to move from one time period into a new time period but we’ve got to continue to work at and prepare for those things.  And I’ll tell you what... I’ll give you an example... the jobs I had before I ever came into the ministry prepared me for the work I was going to do later on.  Principles, truths, different things that are there as a part of dealing with, working with...in companies, corporations, it doesn’t matter... the principles of business, the principles of relationships – they’re all there and things I learned there I didn’t realize God was training me, preparing me for what I was going to be doing later on.  I have often looked upon some of those things that I learned there, sometimes more than I did from the ministry.  Some of the main training I had in the ministry was what not to do – that was my main training in the ministry; what wasn’t right and how to work with people because of where we were in time and what was happening in Laodicea.  But I learned far more in many ways, in the sense of what God taught me, on the job, before I worked for the ministry.

So don’t ever feel like “if I’m not doing this or not doing that that I’m not being moulded and fashioned and prepared for something”... yes you are!  God has the power to prepare you.  The principles, the truths and what you live is what it’s about.  How you live it, this way of life, is what it’s all about.  And it has everything to do with the healing of the mind – it truly does.  As we get into this you’ll come to see that more and more.  We’ve got to be careful and seek to understand and think about what it means to prepare for God’s Kingdom.  We have a lot of work in front of us, we truly do.  It’s going to be a quick work – see?  But we’ve got to plan, we’ve got to prepare, we’ve got to work hard and continue right up to the very end – as long as we can, to the very last breath if need be.

So, are you growing spiritually?  Becoming more excited about what you see God doing in this end-time?  I am.  There are things that God has blessed me to see now – where we’re going, where we are that so dumbfounds me that I can’t give it all because of what we’re going through.  Do we see what God is doing?  Do we grasp the magnitude of what’s happened this past year and what’s happened in the last few weeks and months of where God is thrusting us, pushing us forward in a very great way, in a very powerful way.  I am immensely excited about what we’re blessed to do in a greater way – for the Church!  It’s not just two witnesses!  It’s the Church!  The Church is involved in doing the same thing in large part, in a time period while we have freedom in this country primarily and within nations of Israel.  And so when we have that period... that’s why I mention from the 2nd Trumpet to some point in the 5th we’re going to have a great window opened up to us.  We’re going to have the heavens opened up to us in a very powerful way to do a great work – as the Church.  That which was prophesied, which started in small part with John the Baptist, but the greater fulfillment of it – far greater fulfillment of it and the meaning of it is in what we’re getting ready to do.  See?  And the Church is going to help out.  Everyone who can is going to be able to help out – every one who can, in the sense of where people are located or whatever takes place.  There may be some remote areas where some may have greater difficulty or because of what happens in a certain region some may not be able to serve and help in some situations.  But as a whole, the entirety of the Church is going to be able to help out.  That’s an awesome thing to understand... in what we’re getting ready to do.  We’ll talk about that later on as we go forward.

Are you praying about our ability to reach others, warn others, enlighten others, as much as we can through every phase of what we’re going through?  ...because there are a lot of seeds being spread around out there, there truly are – all over the place and God is going to use that very powerfully so.  I’m amazed sometimes to find out how many people there are out there who still, since 1986 when Mr. Armstrong died...people who remember hearing him, people who remember seeing him when they were a child or at some different stage of their life, reading ‘The Plain Truth’ or whatever it might be – certain things are planted in their minds that haven’t gone away, and then when it comes time and God ignites that, what was there, what was planted, it’s an awesome thing and far more right now, and some of these things are being added to it.

So, our ability to see is a spiritual matter that concerns our true relationship with God – to see spiritually and the healing of the mind has everything to do with our ability to see.  It involves coming out of sin and knowing what each of us can do to change self.  Our ability to see, our ability to grow in what we’re able to see has everything to do, in so many ways, of coming out of sin, of knowing what each of us can do to change self, not others.  Not others!  Our job is not to change others.  Our job, our calling is to change self.  That’s a big one right there if we can grasp it – truly is.  Because so much of our lives in the beginning of our conversion, in our growing that we have to go through in life... so much of that is going through this process of coming to more deeply understand that.  Sometimes deep into our calling our minds can still be very focused upon others and what they need to do in the Church, what others need to do because we can see different ones and what they need to do and what they shouldn’t be doing and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah... whereas if we can just see self more, what we are like more, that will help our vision in dealing with others better, the way God wants us to and we’ll be fully focused more and more on self and what we can change.  Everything that comes about as far as change in the world is about what each person can do in changing self and drawing closer to God.  That’s our power.  That’s our strength.  Now, that can have a greater influence and impact upon other people as they see example, as they see certain things that they admire, as they see qualities and so forth there that they can take with them, that they can bring into their life, that they can add to their life, but as a whole... that’s example.  First of all and foremost, we have to seek to change self, to repent, to grow, to better understand what needs to be changed, and that’s a lifelong battle, it truly is.

And if you take nothing else out of the sermon... and if you go back and listen to it, just listen to what I’ve said in the last 5 minutes.  That’s a thousand sermons.  It’s a thousand sermons in God’s Church because it’s so spiritual; because it’s the nitty gritty of everything that God has called us to.  What we’re to do, how we’re to do it, what our focus needs to be... amazing!  Not to change others; to change self.  You do not have the power to change others.  Only God does!  True change comes from God.  Now there are times you have to become involved in certain situations when it’s your responsibility and we grow in balance in that as well.  There are some things that you have to address in life in relationships with others – that’s another matter.  But your primary job, your primary function, each and every one of us, is to look full time into this and what needs to be changed and yield to God in the process so that we can ‘see’ better spiritually.  So, all this involves a healing process, that’s what it’s about.  Your entire life, the change that’s taking place in your life is about a healing process of something that God is doing by the power of His spirit in your mind.  It’s your mind.

You have a spirit essence, as a human being, that God has given all human beings, but when God gives His holy spirit, begotten of that spirit – it’s an awesome thing that begins to take place and for the rest of your life, as you are able to yield to the process and as that spirit continues to come into and dwell in your life – a healing process of your thinking occurs.  Because our thinking is wrong!  Our thinking is screwed up royally – truly!  We are so inward, we are so selfish by nature – inward, inward, inward!  Pride, pride, pride!  That’s us!  That’s what we are!  That’s what I am, that’s what you are!  You are filled with pride; I am filled with pride... as a human being!  And conquering, overcoming at different levels, different stages in our life depending on where we are and how much we’ve grown... but our physical self is still... we are filled very much as human beings, motivated by ‘lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and the pride of life’.  That is what we are in a nutshell as human beings and that’s a constant battle as long as you’re in this body.  It doesn’t stop.  As long as you’re in this physical body – there’s your battle.  Truly is!  And if you don’t believe it...fast more!

Ask God for help that you can see yourself because it’s a matter of humbling.  Fasting is about humbling yourself before God in repentance, because the reason for humbling yourself before God is with the attitude of repentance, because you want to see those things that you need to change in your life so that God can work with you to help you to see what you need to see and then seek the help to change to overcome it, to conquer it, to fight against it.  It’s not about trying to change others.  Fasting is about changing self, repenting, drawing closer to God, asking God for help to see what we need to see so we can draw closer to Him, so we can be healed more, more fully healed.

This is a healing process, a healing of the mind that does not happen overnight but takes years of work and fighting. It’s a very spiritual thing as I mentioned, the essence of spirituality, if you will, when we speak of a healing of the mind.

Fasting, when used correctly, is a great tool brethren, it truly is, a great tool for breaking through the hardness of the carnal mind because it’s all about humbling ourselves before God.  It’s about a willingness to learn things from something very physical, to grasp something on a spiritual plane.  It’s like when you get close to Unleavened Bread.  Its amazing how God has given us certain things that are very physical to be inspired by, motivated by in understanding and growing in understanding and having something deeply embedded in the mind about leaven; what leaven is like.  Sin is a matter of leaven and it leavens the whole lump.  It’s something that spreads so quickly and it doesn’t take much to hurt, not only ourselves but others, and so God wants us to see those analogies and the taking of unleavened bread, the unleavened bread of life – Jesus Christ, the Word of God into our life, into our being, and desiring to live by every word of God, indeed, seeking to be at one with God.  And so we learn great things around Passover time, we truly do.  We’re deeply motivated by what we see at that period of time and so is this matter of, if you will, of fasting, of going without food because, especially last year, I think it probably got driven home very well what we’re like as physical human beings without food and liquid.  We become weak very fast.  And it never fails, every time I enter into a fast there’s something psychological there about drinking something...that as soon as you start it and you know you can’t, that there’s a battle that goes on and you realize, “I can’t.”  And you want to...it’s like there’s something within you that just wants to get a drink just because you know you can’t!  And so you have this battle on your hands.  But think about that spiritually.  We learn lessons there that are driven home to us of a desire that should be within us and an understanding that without staying close to God we become weak spiritually.  You’ve got to fight continually, day by day by day, and you can’t let up.  How much greater and how much more important is it spiritually than it is physically to be without food and water, if we go without the bread of life, God’s spirit that fills our life, to drink in of God’s way of life.  Those analogies should be driven home very powerfully so.

Fasting is a very powerful tool for breaking through the hardness of the carnal mind and being able to address the truths about healing that require a genuinely humble and meek spirit, because that’s what’s needed.  When we really want to see self; when we want to see and be honest with ourselves before God about the change that I need to make in my life, because it’s a teachable spirit... God’s going to teach me, God’s going to show me.  I need to be of the right spirit and mind to receive it and a genuinely humble attitude before God.  And humility goes with seeing what we are, seeing the shame of our thinking and our... and so often how we treat others.

And of all time right now, where we are in time, we are now speeding into rapid revelations from God and greater favour and mercy being offered by God to each and every one of us.  We are at a great pinnacle in time.  To me, it’s so awesomely exciting because of what God’s giving to us, because He’s preparing for the return of Christ, because there are going to be so many things restored once Jesus Christ is here.  When you read in Acts about the restoration of all things, and it speaks of the One coming to do that... it is about Jesus Christ’s return – when everything indeed is going to be restored through the Millennium and into the Great White Throne in a very powerful way.  But we’re going to start out with a bang once Jesus Christ has returned and once the government of God has been established in 144,000.  And once that’s set up on the earth, we can’t even begin to imagine the awesomeness of what it’s going to be to have one world government.  I am so looking forward to that because of what I see in the world today.  It’s like God is giving us an incredible view of what government is like today and with the kind of news we have today and the stuff that’s constantly out there, it just makes your stomach turn over.  Man is incapable of governing himself!  It is such a farce.  It’s sick!  It really is!  I hope we see that and are convicted of that in the deepest of our being.  The world’s governments – every government is a farce, it’s so far removed from what God wants for man!  And the world has to get it’s full of it.  And it’s getting it’s full of it.  Every place you turn, the oppression, the harshness... the selfishness of it all – the pride in it – reeks!  I look so forward to all this being changed; thankfully we’re so close to getting rid of that point in time.  But right now, because of this, God’s accelerating things; He’s giving things more rapidly.

I never imagined in my mind in any fashion or form that we would ever have more truths given to the Church and yet we’re there and the excitement of that, the excitement of understanding things about family. How much more exciting can it be...to understand that God is having us focus more on family because that’s it!  It’s all about family!  The Family of God and how to become a part of that is so important to understand.  The human family – that which was taken away from the very beginning, that which was robbed from the very beginning, that which was distorted from the very beginning and has gone out into many different peoples in different parts of the world where people have been oppressed all over the world – starting right in the family!  How sick!  You know, the very thing that God says should be the greatest joy and fullness of life and it doesn’t exist in the world as a whole!  It’s just not there!  And yet people crave certain things.  People grow up with distorted lives because their relationships weren’t right with different family members and they carry that hurt and pain with them all their life.

So can each of us receive what God is offering right now?  Because He’s offering us a lot, He really is, but our ability to see it, our ability to grab hold of it depends so much upon where we are.  He’s revealed that the family unit can now become much stronger, happier, filled with greater joy because this curse upon the family is now going to begin to be removed in a far greater way than it ever has been, even over the past 2,000 years.  I’ll tell you what...God has been showing, even in things written in the New Testament by the apostles and so forth, that because of what we’re seeing now – there is so much that was written there because society was so bad in so much of this that the Church had to conduct itself in a certain way even in the relationships of certain things with men and women.  That’s why it makes such a big to-do at different times there.  When you read certain things and you come to a certain point when it talks about baptisms that were taking place and it says, ‘men and women’ – it makes a point of it.  This was a big thing that was happening in the Church.  It wasn’t just about some of the things of the truth going out the Gentiles.  There was a big change taking place here, but even there, there were still some of those things that were difficult and prejudices still existed because God hadn’t brought them to this point in time because we had to go through a great deal as far as the world is concerned, certain things that had to still take place in the world, and that wasn’t the time to change it, couldn’t be changed yet – not even in God’s Church.

So we’re at an exciting time in history because everything is going to be straightened out.  Look at  racism.  Just because someone is a different colour or whatever in life – that’s a small crux of the matter.  In reality it goes back into families!  It’s not a matter always of racism.  Sometimes that’s what comes out of some of the things that is in society and it exists obviously, and it’s sick and perverted and distorted, but I think of things between peoples in the same races who hate each other’s guts – who kill each other on this earth!  In all the races!  There’s no one immune from it!  Israel is in the same pack, you know, things that have happened in history, things that have happened through time – people within their own families that can’t get along. The North and the South!  We were talking about that this morning, regarding Manasseh, there were two wives involved, two different families involved here and they had a river that separated them.  And there are some who have speculated that even Manasseh, when God brought peoples of Manasseh to the United States as a fulfillment of prophecy, something prophetic that God promised and gave this country to one of the tribes...that even Manasseh still had those same proclivities and still had that river separating them.  We call it the Mason-Dixon Line.  Amazing!  The North and the South – because there’s just a little bit of difference.  And then you take the other two brothers, Ephraim and Manasseh...so not only did Manasseh...and didn’t get along with each other in the family there and kill each other off into the thousands and thousands and thousands in a sick time in history...  Ephraim and Manasseh haven’t gotten along all that well at different times either.

The War of 1812?  They’re still fighting that up there.  I was dumbfounded!  We went to the Feast of Tabernacles several times in Niagara Falls and I was amazed – some of the sermons and things that would come out in times and people talking about some of the differences there on the border. The war of 1812 and some of the sentiment and the feeling that was still there, just like in the South. North people don’t think about it but in the South in some cases the war’s still going on.  And the North doesn’t care.  Why?  Because they won, you know?  You think of the foolishness of human beings.  So it’s families!  Families that don’t get along.  Ireland!  Family!  They don’t get along!  So I don’t care where you go in Asia, Africa, South America, you just take a tour around the world and there are people in families that have killed each other off in large droves because of prejudices, because of hatred – see?  And religions?  Doesn’t matter!  Throw up your hands... thank God His Kingdom’s about here!

So I look forward to everything being straightened out between families, races (that’s a part of it) but it’s family and especially the foundation of the family which is the mother and father, the husband and wife.  We must have that vision in a very powerful way right now within the Church because this is what God wants us to see in a far greater way, and the more we’re able to change ourselves and see things in ourselves, the more we’re going to be able to help in the future.  That’s what God wants us to do.  He wants us to begin learning these things in a very powerful way so that this help and this revelation can go out in a very powerful way, a far stronger way into the future because that’s what’s going to happen and we’re blessed to be a part of it – truly!

God has revealed that the family unit can now become much stronger, happier, filled with greater joy and a curse upon the family is now going to begin to be removed in a far greater way than it ever has been over the past 2,000 years – even within the Church!  And where does all this begin?  How does such healing take place?  Hope we understand it now in a greater way, in a stronger way...point every finger at yourself because that’s where the change comes from.  Not in someone else...someone else may not change, but God requires you to change and He’s going to give you more to see more so that you can change more.  And so you must apply and practice various things in your life for change to take place in your mind.

Let’s start out in Isaiah 52 in this series. It’s a progression of certain things that God has revealed as we get up to Isaiah 58 where it talks about fasting – but let’s pick up a little bit of the context here before we ever get there – and especially in the context of things that God is revealing now at this particular time in the Church that we’re so blessed to have the time to go through these things, that we’re blessed to have this time to grow in these things and become stronger and draw closer to God.  We’re going to built upon what we’ve touched upon in some recent sermons here.  Isaiah 52:1 - Awake, awake; put on your strength, O Zion; it’s about the Church.  Zion is a spiritual matter.  It’s not a physical place, it’s a spiritual one and it’s everything in scripture that leads up to Zion that God brings about when it’s completed and the first phase of Zion; holy Jerusalem if you will, different things that are used.  It has to do with the 144,000, the beginning of the Kingdom of God, but before you get to the Kingdom of God, it’s the Church.  And so, here is a time, here is a cry that goes out; put on your strength; what is our strength?  Its truth, through God’s spirit, because that’s what happens when He begins to strengthen our lives, that is our strength – living by faith, the ability to believe what God gives us through the power of His spirit.  So, put on your strength, O Zion, put on your beautiful garments; what does that mean?  It’s beautiful because God says, “You have garments here to put on.  Here’s what I want to offer you...now put them on.”  See, you have to respond.  Each one of us has to respond to put on what God wants us to put on and to get rid of what we must get rid of – to be clothed in a certain way means that there are things we must get rid of and things we must put on, in what He tells us to put on when it comes to being clothed spiritually.  So again, put on your beautiful garments , O Jerusalem, the holy city: So that’s an individual thing; it depends upon our response as to what we put on and whether we put it on and how soon we’re able to and to what degree and so forth, for the uncircumcised and the unclean shall no longer come to you.  That’s what happens through the Church.  It’s a beginning process of coming out of the world – that’s another way of stating some of these things, of being brought out of the world and being brought out of uncleanness and being made clean.  ...(put on the beautiful garments) – being made white and pure, yielding to that process, but it takes a long time, it takes a lot of a process to go through here and eventually it leads to the very time when finally, within God’s Kingdom there’ll be no more of this at all.

It says, shake yourself from the dust; arise, sit down, O Jerusalem: loose yourself from the bonds of your neck, that which binds you like yolk, or like a heavy load, or like some of the things that it leads up to in Isaiah 58 here, the things that hold you down, the things that keep you caged or bound to slavery.  That’s what it says here!  ...loose yourselves from the bonds of your neck, O captive daughter of Zion.  That’s the phase we go through when we’re in the Church.  It’s coming out of slavery, if you will, it’s coming out of captivity, because that’s what we are as human beings when it comes to sin; it’s coming out of the world, coming out of those things, being made free.  And right now God is blessing us to be made freer when it comes to understanding about the family!  I can’t tell you the kind of freedom that God is offering.  I hope we grasp and are grasping more and more of what God is placing before us in all this and how much the world has been hurt for 6,000 years because it hasn’t been there!

For thus says the Eternal, you have sold yourselves for nothing; that’s what we do.  We put value on things in this human life that we shouldn’t put value upon, you know, self, self, self, self preservation, self this, self that. ...and you shall be redeemed without money. What does that mean?  Well, we understand.  Jesus Christ.  God freely gives to us.  He freely gave His life, that’s what it talks about in the New Testament.

Going on in verse 6 - Therefore My people shall know My name: therefore, it says, they shall know in that day that I am He who does speaks: behold, it is I.  That’s the day we’re approaching.  This is the time we’re approaching; it all builds up to this...and how much more for us now?  So God’s people at different times have read these things and been inspired by these things and have sought to change and receive what God has for them, but this is far more meaningful and far more fulfilled in our time now because this is the time that’s ahead of us now, we’re right at the doorstep.

Verse 7 - How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of Him who brings good news, who proclaims peace; who brings news of good things, who proclaims salvation; who says to Zion, Your God reigns!  It begins in the Church as we yield ourselves and desire that He reign in our life.  It’s what we do at baptism.  We say that to Him, in essence, we want Him to reign in our life, to govern our life, not our ways but His ways.  But how much more in the fulfillment of it all especially as we draw close to the end of 6,000 years here when God is going to reign in and through Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ makes it clear that everything, all power has been given to Him in heaven and in earth – everything has been given to Him.  And that has to do with the earth obviously and the angelic realm when it comes to government, when it comes to the greater phase of God’s plan and bringing so many more into the Family of God.

So again here, speaking of Jesus Christ in large part, as well as anyone that God calls that is a part of the Body of Christ, the Church of God.  That’s what God says about what we have, what we’ve been given to share.  That’s why John said, has there ever been a greater man... No.  What an incredible thing he had to do because he was at the time when Jesus Christ was right there with him; and he was called to introduce Him and to lead people to Him, to point people to Him.  That was the time period having to do with His first coming, but again, incredible!

Your watchmen, it says, shall lift up their voices; with their voices they shall sing together: beautiful how this is expressed.  Why is it stressing this?  And it says, for they shall see eye to eye, that’s what happens to us in God’s Church.  We’re all blessed to be a part of that, to be a part of fulfilling such things as this, to be blessed to ‘see eye to eye’.  You know, that’s a good phrase.  Why do we do that?  Because of God’s spirit; God brings us into unity and oneness with Him.  We’re able to sing together – sing in the sense of what comes out of us in our life in melody before God that God receives as melody, as singing to Him because we are in unity and oneness and agreement and that’s beautiful to God; the music of it, it’s like music.  And we’re together in it.  God has brought us to a greater unity right now and oneness because of how the Church is being worked with today than ever before – truly!  More than any time, because of technology and because of what He’s doing and because of what’s being given at the end-time.  More than the time of the original disciples – they were scattered all over the place.  Took them months sometimes and there might have been occasions where it was years before they ever saw each other again and sometimes some of them never saw each other again. Never had the opportunity...so spread out, so scattered over the earth as some went into Spain as the scripture says...as some went into different parts of Europe, as scripture says...to the isles. It’s very likely it was Great Britain – evidence of those things that are there; about Peter being there.  Amazing!

Verse 9 - Break forth into joy, sing together, you waste places of Jerusalem: the waste places?  Some of the greatest waste places of what God has intended for man to have has been right in the home, the family.  That’s where the greatest waste has been throughout history, 6,000 years of it because it starts with the family unit and it gravitates out into the world. The greatest problems we have on this earth today have to do with family.  Hope you understand that.  Look at what came out of Abraham; two great families that went in two different directions; teach different things about Ishmael and Isaac; and a family that couldn’t get along because of the way the world was at that time, because of the way society was at that time, because of the influence that was upon the world that God allowed to a point in time of things that He allowed in the Old Testament, that when it came time for the New Testament: no more, not in the Church.  And there are things that were allowed because of the hardness of mankind, because of the hardness of the world and because of society and because of the way man was on the earth.  And those are hard things to come to understand oftentimes for people.  Do you understand what I’m talking about?  Today we have troubles in the world, the Middle East, because of what came out of one family that was very dysfunctional in one respect?  Because what happened?  An entire group of nations – it says 12 nations came from there – that God blessed as time went along, just as He did with Israel.  Both groups of 12 were going to be blessed.  12 Princes.  And He promised them certain blessings.  Today we pay for it every time you go to the gas pump.  That’s their great blessing, in the desert a lot of oil and they keep finding more. And all of the power that goes with that.  Amazing the world we live in today because a family couldn’t get along.  And that’s just repeated over and over and over again throughout history because in a single family unit the family couldn’t get along.

I don’t care where you look.  I don’t care what part of the earth you look at, everything that’s been handed down from generation to generation to generation, things have come out of a family where they didn’t get along, where there were jealousies and envying and so forth that were just magnified then as people went out from them.  Attitudes and so forth that just carried into society for hundreds of years!  And we think, “How could that be?”  That’s why I love the example of the snake that’s wrapped around the pole – that’s how easy it is to pass something down generation after generation after generation for hundreds of years.  700 years later they had to destroy the pole and the serpent and grind it up and toss it away, wash it out but even then it didn’t disappear because by this time everybody made their own little duplicates of these things and they had them in their homes and they had buried in different places and put up on their walls. A snake on a pole that supposedly still had the power to heal.  Pshew!  Things are passed down in families – sad.  Families that don’t get along.

And so God calls us into the Church to begin to make a change in some of those things, but you look back through time and sometimes there weren’t great changes made in some of those things.  Look at the life of David, a great man of God, a great prophet, used in a mighty way by God: family so dysfunctional, so messed up, so fouled up...and a lot of generations that followed after that carried with them things that started with David – truly.  And the worse some became as time went along the worse some of those things were magnified.  So given enough time, what would come out of your family?  Thankfully God has called us to change.  Thankfully God has brought us out to change so that it’s going to be different.  God has blessed us to reverse the flow.  The change starts with us and we’re able to take it into a new age.  That’s what God says, and He says later on, in essence, your sons and your daughters are going to be able to carry on and grow more and do more and accomplish more in the healing and the healing of family if you will.  What a blessing!  Because the world is getting ready to be changed in a very powerful way.  It’s amazing when you go back and look at family – what’s happened.  Every culture in the world – everything - everyone has been affected by it over and over again.  It’s astounding – truly is!

So again it says here - Break forth into joy, sing together, you waste places of Jerusalem: for the Eternal has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem. The LORD has made bare His holy arm in the eyes of all nations; this is a beautiful thing because it says something here that God is revealing now that He hasn’t revealed before.  There are things that God is going to reveal that have not been seen and He says to the nations... not just to a few people throughout time, not just to a few people over 6,000 years, but now to the nations He’s going to reveal His purpose, His ways, everything about Him is going to be revealed as we enter into this next thousand years.  And that’s what it’s talking about here prophetically.  ... all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.  And the beginning point of it here is an incredible focus on family where healing can begin to take place all over this earth; where the things that were done from the time of Abraham, the times of Noah, I don’t care, it doesn’t matter, things have spread out through human beings all over the earth and in the Church a reversal  in required – because everyone has to come into the Church to begin this reversal.  But it begins with us and God is giving more to us to show us then of setting things right that were wrong from the very beginning during the days of Adam and Eve – truly.  Curse in the family where men and women were both cursed.  It isn’t just a curse upon women; it is upon both, upon the mind, because the mind was hurt from the beginning and everyone else adopted that same sin and became worse in as time went along and as the sin was multiplied.

Depart, depart, get out from there, touch no unclean thing; go out from the midst of her; be clean, you who bear the vessels of the Eternal.  Beautiful!  The change begins with us.  That’s what God is saying here.  Who bears the vessels of the Eternal?  What do you bear in your life?  You bear the name of God Almighty – The Church of God that’s why it’s so important what we bear.  We bear the name ‘the Body of Christ, the Church of God’.  That’s why when we talk about not taking God’s name in vain...see, it is not just looking at it as a physical thing but understanding what it means that we don’t take God’s name, that we have become blessed to become a part of it, in how we live our life – that we seek to change and yield ourselves more and more to God so that we can, through our life, brings honour to God’s name, to God’s Church, to the Kingdom of God.

Chapter 55:1 - Listen, everyone who thirsts, do you thirst?  I know you do.  How much?  Ask God to help you to thirst more, to have a spirit that is one of thirsting for His way, of a desire for more, to draw closer to Him, to love what He has given, to what He places before us.   ...come to the waters, and you who have no money; see, some of you are thinking about... let me get a drink here... that’s why I did this, because it’s easier on me in speaking... to drive the point home.  See, some of you may have a desire for water more than others right now and God’s using this on a spiritual plane – how much do we want water?  And you might want some physical water right now, but how much more should we want spiritual water that God offers.

So He says, Listen, everyone who thirsts, we must thirst constantly before God, spiritually.  That should never cease in our life and if you’re not thirsty, if you get to a point where we drift or we relax and we coast, then we’re not thirsty, something’s wrong with us.  So Listen, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and you who have no money, come, buy, and eat; that’s what God wants.  ...yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. God gives it freely.  When He’s called us He’ll give to us freely, but our ability to receive it is another matter, even when we’re called our ability to receive what God has given or offers us is dependent on various factors of life that we’ll get to as we go along here obviously.  Why do you spend money for that which is not bread? and your wages for that which does not satisfy? Where is our focus in life?  How do we live as human beings?  How do we think?  Is our mind truly and deeply just focused on God and God’s way first and foremost?  ...listen carefully to me, and eat, in other words, consume/digest what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance.  God offers abundance and He’s blessing us right now with incredible abundance.  Incline your ear, and come to me: hear, and your soul shall live.

Verse 6 – dropping on down - Seek the Eternal while He may be found, call upon Him while He’s near:  Beautiful, because I think of right now...He’s very near!  He’s giving us more, speeding up the process of what He’s revealing and what He’s giving to us, getting ready to be thrown into, launched into a particular time period here where we’re going to be able to do a great work in a very fast way, a very quick way.  But then, there’s going to be some tough times.  We’re not able to come together in Sabbath services like this, where things are going to be tougher – see?  Where this nation is not going to be able to govern itself anymore when it’s occupied by that which is foreign.  It’s coming; it will be here one day and so what we grow in, what we build up right now is that which God will bless us to sustain through that period of time, but it’s going to be a tough time in the sense of that which is spiritual.  We’ll have plenty of motivation of things we see around us and what’s taking place knowing how much time we have left and remaining, because one thing that’s not changing is the time of the return of Jesus Christ.  It’s there – its set.

Verse 7 – So, how do you do these things, that might be a better question... Seek the Eternal while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near; How?  Let the wicked forsake his way, Now we can read from something like this and miss the message because we think, “I’m not wicked.”  Oh yes, your human nature is.  My human nature is wicked.  It’s vile.  Everyone’s is; human nature.  So sometimes our ability to grow really depends on our ability as to what we see in ourselves, as to what we can truly see in our nature.  Do we loathe what we see that’s a matter of our human nature?  Because if we don’t something’s wrong with us spiritually.  If you don’t loathe what your human nature is like; if you don’t see your human nature – then something is wrong with you spiritually and you think better of yourself than what you should.

So it says here, Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and then it talks about returning/turning, if you will, to the Eternal, and He will have mercy on him; It’s a matter of turning to God continually.  We do this on a continuing basis, turning to God.  It’s not just a matter of returning, it’s a matter of continually turning toward God, and He will have mercy on him, so it’s a matter of God having mercy upon us if we humble ourselves before Him, if we go before Him with a meek and a humble spirit – then God can work with us; but when we don’t have that He cannot work with us.  It’s an amazing thing that takes place in the human mind and our ability to be healed.

...and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. Goes on to say here, He says, For My thoughts are not your thoughts, do we all understand that?  That God’s thoughts are not our thoughts?  That which comes out of self is not from God and that must be conquered and overcome because it’s wrong?  Sometimes if we’re not careful we can think that we have answers.  We all have answers to things, we all have opinions about things – many things, and sometimes we can be so wrong.  Quite often as human beings...because we must be convicted that the answer we have indeed comes from God; that indeed it’s in agreement and unity with the mind of God.  That’s a growing process and a process of truly being at one with God and having a confidence you then know.  You know when you’re wrong, you know when your mind is wrong, you know when your thinking is wrong, you repent of those things because you know what is right with God and you are in unity, you seek to be in unity and oneness with God.  ...and He will have mercy on you, God will have mercy, God will abundantly pardon.  He says, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways My ways, says the Eternal.  And so often in life we can begin to think our ways, what we think, how we see something is right and sometimes we’re just totally wrong.  Whenever it disagrees with anything you’re being fed and given its wrong, wrong, wrong.  Because I hear often, and less now thankfully than what I did a year ago, less now than what I did six months ago, less now than what I did a couple months ago.  But there have been many occasions, not a few, where I have heard where people are in disagreement with what I have given in sermons, with what I speak, with what I give.  Who’s wrong?  Are you right?  Are you justified before God?  Are you just before God?

It’s like Paul when he gave the revelation there about certain things and before it was over with, if you remember the account here... because I love it... he let the men have it because he knew what their attitude and response would be about women.  He made the comment, “You feel/believe that you’re able to prophecy?  You have inspired speaking amongst yourselves?  Then can you perceive that I and what I have written to you comes directly from God?  And that if you can see this then you had better do it and not be in disagreement with it, because if you do then you’re wrong!  You’re not a prophet – you’re not able to prophesy, you’re not able to have inspired speaking if you’re not in unity and agreement with me.” Paul said.  That’s what he told them!  And that’s calling a spade a spade!

So it’s not me, its God’s spirit and understanding how God is working in the Church.  And the more we become at one with that, the more God can use us.  The more humility we have in those things in realizing I’M WRONG if I’m not in agreement with what God gives...IF YOU’RE IN DISAGREEMENT WITH ANYTHING THAT COMES IN SERMONS you’re just dead wrong and you CUT YOURSELF OFF from the flow of God’s spirit and I can’t help you... God can’t help you! ...until He brings you to repentance.  And sometimes when He brings you to repentance it’s not going to be fun, especially now, because we don’t have time to mess around!  We’re either with the program or in essence we’re not.  We’re in unity and oneness or we’re not and God wants us to be in unity and oneness so He can use us in a more powerful way and anything that’s not in agreement or will not remain in agreement is going out the door!  That’s where we are in time and it’s already happened in some cases – see?  Some who have not fully come through the door are on the outside and that’s a shame.  There is a way that God works – has always worked and if we don’t understand those things...  See, you can’t give this way of life to anyone and I cringe when I hear such things because I realize that some are going to have to go through such hard things in some cases unless they come to deep repentance and hopefully... Hopefully we all have, but I’d say there are probably some situations that haven’t fully yet and I hope that through this sermon series you’re able to so you can share in what we’re getting ready to do.

So, I hope everyone’s excited!  I hope every MAN is as excited as I am about what God is revealing about women and what’s being offered to women within the environment of the Church – see?  And that they don’t have little doubts in their minds or thinking, “well, I don’t know about that one, or, there’s still this difference...” and whatever.  What difference?  What difference? Someone better than someone else?  I don’t get it!  Are we not all in the same Body?  That’s what God says, “neither Jew nor Gentile, male nor female, bond or free, we’re all made one...One in the Body of Christ, in the Church of God.”  And if we don’t see that in each other and love each other in that same oneness of mind...we’ve got some major things to conquer and overcome – that’s what God says.  So, hopefully we’re on the same page, hopefully we see ‘eye to eye’, all of us in the Body and before it’s over with we will.  See?  All who come through this see ‘eye to eye’ and those who don’t – won’t... in the Church.

It’s just tough to see self, it truly is.  That’s our battle – the ability to really see ourselves and what we are and what we’re like and to be able to acknowledge it and to understand the grace and the mercy that God gives to us and the importance of being at one with God.  It’s so important because it’s about government, it’s about how God works and if we’re not in one with that then we haven’t started down the road too well.

Anyway, it goes on to say...as it says here, For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. And see, that’s the challenge; that we seek to repent of our thoughts and come into unity with God’s thoughts.  And how does God think?  He teaches us every Sabbath how He thinks.  He gives us revelation of His thoughts.  That’s what the word ‘logos’ means; the logos that was made flesh is the very revelatory thought of God Almighty that was made flesh, who is now the Son of God – Jesus Christ.  Everything!  The epitome of everything that is God is in His Son; that mind, that oneness was in His life from the very get go, throughout His life to the end and continues on.  And we, only when we’re called, begin to partake of that mind and so we have to go through a healing process.  Jesus Christ didn’t have to go through a healing process.  Every one of us does.  We have to go through a healing process, a healing of the mind through the power of God’s spirit because we’re able to begin to partake of that spirit in our life so that we can be of that same mind, of what God gives to us – that revelatory thought to where His thoughts become ours, to where ours come into oneness with Him.

There are many things I’ve stated in times past that have to do with the Thunders that aren’t mine.  Some of those things are stated in there, candidly, to give some people a hard time, to let people trip where they will, to find fault, to stumble where they will.  So much is written, so much of what Jesus Christ had to say, if we understand the author ...that’s why I used to be uncomfortable when people said, “Oh you sound... that sermon sounds just like something Mr. Armstrong would say.”  I used to cringe when I’d hear that. I don’t want to hear that, and then finally I came to... well, duh, it’s the same spirit, you should sound like that!  You should in the things that come out because the author is God, the truth comes from God.  It’s not from a human being – see?  And so when we see those things and we understand those things, well, what a blessing.  Incredible!

And so there are some things written in there that are a matter of oneness with God, the mind of God that God has granted, that God has blessed.  It’s just the way God’s doing things, the way things are going to happen and the way things are... see, it’s in the Bible... it’s all there.  Anyway... amazing sometimes what we do as human beings.  Everything comes from God.  No one does anything that is a part of God’s work but by the will of God, meaning we need to be in unity and oneness with the mind of God, the oneness of God.  That’s what it’s all about, and the more we grow, the more we do that, the more we come into that unity and oneness with God.

For as the rain comes down, and snow from heaven, and do not return there, but waters the earth, and makes it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth: in other words His word in the form of what’s revealed through His truths – that’s how it comes to us...in truth in what God gives to us through the power of His spirit because that’s what makes it come alive, that’s how we’re able to see it, because of God’s spirit.  So that truth, the revelatory thought of God that comes into us... when God sends that out and gives it to us it has to produce fruit.  If we continue to yield ourselves to God and continue to humble ourselves before God and cry out to God for chastening, for correction, for guidance, for direction, for ability to follow, to be at one with Him; we’re going to be repenting, we’re going to be changing and He will produce fruit in our life.  It’s God that does it through the power of His spirit.  We’ll grow and grow and grow and grow and become stronger and stronger and stronger.  I’m excited by what I see happen in the Church over the past 3 years...the growth, spiritually that’s taken place.  God’s accelerated the growth in all of us.  He’s given to us more.  He’s poured out more and He’s given us more of His spirit.  He’s sharing more, He’s excited!  And I’ll tell you if we’re not plugged in, if we’re not excited... we’re not plugged in properly!  If you’re not getting more and more excited about where we are and what we’re doing and what’s taking place you’re not plugged in properly.  Why?  Because right now God is ULTRA EXCITED!!!  I don’t know how to describe it any better.  When God is excited, and it comes through the power of His spirit to us and we receive of His spirit – you’ll be excited!  Because of where we are!  He’s waited so long ... I can’t begin to comprehend.  I marvel at God – that He’s gone through 6,000 years with human beings.  I truly do... the more I see, the more I grow, the more I truly marvel at that one.  The love that has to be there, the mercy, the love for His plan of what He’s going to bring to pass – but yet giving that time for man to multiply on the earth... what patience, what mercy.  PATIENCE!  Blows my mind!

But we’re not too easy, the pride, the selfishness, the evil that’s taken place on this earth, the way God has watched His creation destroy one another, destroy the earth, take advantage of the earth, doesn’t care about the earth – even in the smallest of things.  When I drive down the highway and I see people just pitch things out of a car I cringe inside...no care for the earth, no care for other people on the earth, no care for beautifying things, keeping things beautiful.  That’s why as long as I have a yard and things in my yard I’m going to work in it until I can’t because it’s a matter of that mind, of yielding to God, of wanting to maintain whatever portion of life I’ve been given.  It’s a mindset, it’s how we think...to enjoy God’s creation, to enjoy what God has given – not just to sit around and twiddle my thumbs and sit back in my rocking chair and rock around all day long and wait for it to come.  On the contrary, live life to its fullest.

Anyway, going on here...so he talks about, just like with rain and the snow and the growing process of what God has given on this earth for things to grow so that we can eat and the sower that goes out to glean it and receive it then.  He says... So shall My word be that goes forth out of My mouth: it shall not return to me void, It’s amazing how this works.  As we respond to God’s love and live His love, it returns to Him.  My ability to love God first came from God.  No human being can love God.  No human being can love God the way God says that man must learn to love, or seek to love because we’ll never attain to it fully, to love your neighbour as yourself... woo-hoo-hoo don’t deceive yourself.  No one loves their neighbour as themselves – no one has the capacity, because that takes the mind of God.  No one loves God with all of their heart, with all of their soul and with all of their being.  There are people in the world who think they do – they don’t because they don’t know God.  They don’t know that God tells them you should keep the Sabbath... you shouldn’t work on the Sabbath... “It’s not my God.  I can work on the Sabbath.  He wouldn’t... God wouldn’t surely care if I work on the Sabbath to feed my family...surely...surely that’s justified.  He wouldn’t expect me not to work on...and give up my job...because I can’t feed my family... God wouldn’t expect that of me would He?  Not a loving merciful God!”  The mind of man and how it can justify disobedience to God.

So God says ... it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please,  it’s an awesome thing, the power of God’s spirit that He gives to us.  ...and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.  If we yield to that life within us...if we’re doing the things that this whole story tells us we must do, in the sense of seeking to change and repent and draw closer to Him.  And the more He gives us, the more we have, the more we grow so that we can give more.  That’s what God says...in our life!

Verse 12 - For you shall go out with joy, and be led out with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth into singing before you, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.  The mountains, the hills... that’s where we’re headed: the governments of this world that become one.  All the different smaller governments throughout the world that become a part of one government, one order, one world in the sense that comes from God. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree, and instead of the brier the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the Eternal for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.  So again, it’s all about His Kingdom, all about working in that direction, working toward those things.  So again, God has chastened and, if you will, corrected people by... people, when we trust in ourselves... let’s just continue on...

Isaiah 57. There’s a flow here of things that God is revealing.  So, again, after God has chastened and corrected people for trusting in themselves and others instead of Him, which is what we’re getting into now in these verses here, which includes His own Church... then He reveals the only true course that’s to be followed and that’s what we go in through here – it says verse 13 - When you cry, let your companies deliver you; so He’s saying here, in essence, for all those who trust in themselves and don’t trust in God as a part of life – and sometimes we have to go through that within the Church because it’s a matter of what we’re coming out of, learning not to trust in ourselves, not to rely on self, but to trust in God, to look to God in faith, in confidence; to understand, to know with all of your being your life is in His hands.  Your life is in His hands.  Do you go through tough things?  Absolutely, but that’s how you grow.  Is life tough?  Yes!  Welcome to reality in the Church of God.  We tell people when they’re baptized, in essence, at some point in time, this is when your trials really begin.  You think different things in life have been tough?  You know why they become more difficult, in the sense of the mind?  Because God reveals things to you about yourself and about human nature and about the nature of mankind.  He reveals more and more to you and the things you go through, the difficulties you go through – He doesn’t take away the trials, the hardships of life.  And so you learn to suffer for the right reasons; you learn to suffer for keeping the Sabbath.  You learn to suffer to obedience to tithing.  You learn to suffer in all the different things that are out there in life.  You learn to suffer when you resolve a situation in family and swallowing your pride to make peace, to do whatever you have to do, strive to do it.  And that gets into another whole sermon which hopefully in time we’ll get to in some of these things to give more balance in some of it.  But we always battle with these things, always battling... even Sabbath – how do you observe the Sabbath?  How do you keep the Sabbath?  You go through things throughout your life in those things...with every facet of your life, and that’s the way it should be.  If we’re not doing those things then something’s wrong with us.

When you cry let your companies deliver you, but the wind shall carry them all away; vanity shall take them: but he that puts his trust in Me shall possess the land, and shall inherit My holy mountain; become a part of spiritual Zion, be able to become a  part of the Kingdom of God, the Family of God...but we can’t trust in ourselves, so, so much of what God brings us to is learning not to trust and rely upon ourselves – and that’s deeply embedded within all of us as human beings.  We tend to trust in ourselves.

Verse 14 - And shall say, Cast you up, cast you up, I love this, because in the Hebrew it’s literally about making a road.  If you’ve ever seen somebody start out in the middle of nowhere to build a highway or to build a road, what do they do?  They go down in the ditches, they cast up, they pack down the surface of the road, make it higher so that the water goes down on the sides and so forth because they’re making a road to be travelled on, a way to be travelled on and that’s what it’s talking about here.  ...cast you up, cast you up, build up, in other words, the road that you’re going to be travelling on.  You have to work at that.  That takes a lot of work.  I think of those that were brought into Australia and some of the prisons and I think of some of these places we saw when we went up through the north side of Sidney at one time and there’s this area here of some of these roads that are still there and some of the places where they had to build rock walls and so forth and places for water to run and the people that died building it.  The numbers of people that died and those who were able to serve out their prison terms, they gave them a piece of land in some of these areas, wherever they built the roads to and the roads continued on.  A lot of work!  A lot of work.  A lot of people have died building the roads and I think of the roads that have gone before us, that people have died, sacrificing to prepare the way, to get us to where we are today.  Amazing!  All the things the apostles went through to make the way easier for us, and they have.

I think often of things that Paul was given, that if he hadn’t have gone through the things he had, experienced the things he did, said the things he did that God inspired him to say, my journey would have been so much harder – truly.  Because God has helped me to see some things there so I can learn lessons from it and grow by it and it’s made my way much easier, it really has.  And we have it easy today compared to what they had it, we truly do.  We have it so easy.  Turn on a computer... people can listen by computer, some are still connected the old way, 20th century telephones, but we’re in the 21st century now, most have computers thankfully now.  I’m just giving some a hard time out there.  But anyway... incredible what we’ve been given, how we’re blessed and that’s a typical example of how easy things have been made for us, even on a spiritual plane – especially because of where we are.

Cast you up, cast you up, prepare the way, that takes work!  What we’re doing involves work – every one of us has a part of it.  ...take up/take away the stumbling block out of the way of My people.  Because this has so much to do with preparing the way and especially now because of new understanding and truth that God has given to us in a greater way, to take away the stumbling block that’s been there since Adam and Eve!  ...that’s caused problems in families from the get go!  ...where children haven’t seen the right example in their lives!  So that they know then by example how to experience a greater richness in life, and truly that’s where it starts because we, individually make changes in our life to respond to God, and then by example others can begin to learn from that, from God’s way, the right way, a better way.  That’s why Mr. Armstrong said it’s going to take 3-4 generations into the millennium...and it truly is, just to establish this matter of family even with what we now see and understand in a greater way. Truly!  Everyone desires this in life; to have close family, to have mother and father who love them, who are willing to sacrifice for them...and this isn’t the world we live in today.  People are so selfish!  The world is so selfish!  It’s getting so sick out there, things that in times past were unheard of today have become so commonplace because the mind of man has become so degenerate, so sick when it comes to family and how people should think.  And He’s blessing us to see and to learn and to see self and to see what must be changed and what’s being taught wrong in the world and society around us so we can be a part of helping to bring about this change – see?  And it is all the matter of the family – it’s where the building block is and the building blocks start there and everything that branches out from it.

A husband and wife relationship – that’s where it is!  That’s where it starts!  And we can’t still fully have that yet in this world, in this age because sometimes individuals are called where there’s only one called and they can’t fully have that yet because it takes two to respond to God’s spirit, but we can still work on ourselves and make changes in ourselves and sometimes stand up to certain things that we must stand up to in putting God first in our life so that others understand and know that, within the family, whether it be children or mates or parents; that they know that God is first.  I love when I see different ones standing up out there and doing some of these things; young people and new people coming along and standing up – meaning everything’s going to be cut out from underneath them.  Parents that will threaten their children with being kicked out of the home.  We have a lot of young people that have been threatened with such things – some have had to go through some of those things.  “You don’t do this, you don’t do that, if you don’t quit talking to this Church, quit having communication with anybody in this Church – we’re going to cut you off!”  Sad!  Sad. They’re the ones God’s called to change the world.  What a wonderful thing when the family comes to see and understand how awesome it is, what’s been given to them.

So, sometimes it’s tough, isn’t it?  It’s hard.  It’s not easy, but you’ve got to put God first.  But again, husbands and wives – God wants us to take a giant leap forward in our appreciation of one another, in our love toward one another...to change.  Do you have anything to change?  Do I have anything to change?  Absolutely!  Ask God for help to change, to continue to see things in self.  See?  It doesn’t matter where you are, or what stage of life you’re in... You have things that can be changed that aren’t fully right with God because you still have human nature in you.  If you get up on the wrong side of the bed... Sometimes I wake up happier than others and sometimes what we tend to do as human beings if we’re not careful, we can say something to a mate that is not filled with love and appreciation and thankfulness because of our own selfishness. All the different things sometimes, you come home from work, you’re tired, you’ve had a bad day and there are certain things you don’t want to deal with – guess what – you have to deal with them...men and women.  And so much of those things have to do with relationships and sometimes those things pull at us, they try us.  There’s never excuse, never a reason to ever speak an unkind word, to say something in an unkind way, to have anything that’s a matter of impatience.  Any of us guilty of that?  I hate it when I’ve said something or done something that’s a matter of impatience on my part or I don’t want to be bothered right then, and if happiness doesn’t come out of my mouth and appreciation at the moment.  I repent of those things.  I hate it, I seek to change.  And you know what?  God blesses us in those things, helps us in those things, helps us to have a better spirit and a better mind and a better attitude.

So every one of you who is married, I hope every day of your life you’re praying to be able to love your mate more, to ask God for help in knowing how to do it, knowing how to respond, knowing how to sometimes just speak and respond to various things, sometimes what not to say, and sometimes what to say – that sometimes isn’t pleasant, but you’ve got a responsibility in it.  Hopefully those occasions are few and far between but the kind things, the things that are a matter of love and appreciation... because it comes back to matters of appreciation.  You know, if you don’t appreciate, not thankful for things in your mate – as a whole, I’m talking within the Church - okay?  Because we have different situations...but as a whole, first and foremost...but even in that, there should be things we should be able to see and appreciate and be thankful for and thank God for, and then respond in that manner out of appreciation to our mates of nice words, kind words, appreciative words, words that are filled with love and kindness.

So again, where does everything start?  With us.  Now, multiply this over because not everyone is in the same situation, not everyone has mates; different ones in different family situations.  So how do we live toward everyone else?  Because the same principles are true in life.  Do we appreciate one another in the Body of Christ?  If we don’t appreciate one another... see, you just multiply a principle.  Starts in family...of all places that should be the strongest within family and then multiply it outward.  That’s how it works.  That’s why I said I know that God had prepared me for things working in different jobs in the world before I ever became a minister – of what God was training me for and preparing me for, for the ministry.  Principles, truths, applications of things and so many of them have to do with relationships and how to work with people – see?  And so you just multiply this over because even within the Body – whenever, IF ever, and too often it happens too many times – you have a wrong thought, wrong feeling toward someone else in the Body that is not appreciative, that is not looking at the good, the right that God is doing in their life, the change, the growth – to hold onto that, to grasp a hold of that – and we’re looking at the negative, we’re looking at the things so often as we do as human beings when it comes to judgement – you should have done this, you should have done that.  And if people are doing that in their marriage and that’s just multiplied out into the world as well and multiplied in the Church – we’ll do it in the Church too.  So again, it goes back to everything we do and how we treat one another.  Do we love each other?  Are we thankful for each other?  Do you have anything against anyone in the Body of Christ?  I don’t know how anyone can!  When I say that, with tongue in cheek in part, because I know how we can, but that isn’t good that we can.  It’s so foreign to what God says should be and I appreciate deeply the changes I’ve seen take place over the past year in God’s Church in that area.  I’ve seen a lot of growth in a lot of people’s lives and it’s very rewarding, it’s very enjoyable to drink that in, because I know that there are people who’ve worked a lot in their lives to have better responses and better relationships and have been seeking to make things better within the Body and better within the Church and better in their relationships and that’s such a beautiful thing.  I think of when Mr. Armstrong talked at the Feast of Tabernacles – he’d always use the example of the oil that ran down Aaron’s beard – the unity, the oneness in the Church when we’re able to have that, because there should never be any jealousy, any envy, any looking down on anyone else, but I’ll tell you what – every week as a whole, I hear of some place where some rumblings have happened.  I don’t think a week goes by where somewhere within the Body someone has a wrong attitude toward somebody else.  You’re never justified in that.  No one is ever justified with being upset with someone else.  When you become upset you’ve allowed yourself to enter into something that should never exist.  If we can’t learn this within the Body how can we live it in the world?  How can we think right toward the world?  We can’t.  How can we think right within family?  Well, it may be a problem then, maybe because we don’t see ourselves as we should.  I know you understand what I’m saying to varying degrees.   Blows my mind when anybody ever becomes upset with anybody else in the Body, it really does, it hurts.  I just hate it!  I wish it didn’t exist, but I can’t give it to people not to have that attitude and spirit, not to have those wrong responses because I see something... I know what’s happening in their life then.  I know they’re cutting themselves off from the flow of God’s spirit and unless or until they repent they’re not growing.  On the contrary they’re going backward and digging a big hole for themselves – see?  And you don’t want that in life.  You want to be right toward everyone.  You want to think right toward everyone.  There should never be anything that comes out of a person’s mouth about someone else in the Body that’s negative, that’s not right, that’s not uplifting, that’s not good.

Again He says; take the stumbling block out of the way of My people. That’s how we prepare the way and especially now for the return of Jesus Christ even more so that we seek to take away the stumbling block and the primary stumbling block that God is showing us is in the foundation of the family having to do with husband and wife, mother and father, and that then branches throughout the Church and then into the world.  It’s something that’s just magnified over and over again.  And again, it starts with self – that’s where the change comes from.  For thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place,  I have read this verse so many times in the Church. I love them!  I love it!  It says so much!  It’s so beautiful!  It’s so powerful!  Because it reflects the spirit that God loves, that God works with.  For thus says the high...it reflects a spirit even within the Church in the ministry that God – that I’m able to work with!  Because I’ll tell you what, when the spirit’s different, I can’t help anybody.  Where God’s spirit can’t help, I can’t either.  See?  God can’t.  And if God can’t, if God’s spirit can’t then I can’t and so I have to sit back and remove myself and just watch and hope that things change and sometimes I have to get involved in some things.

For thus, again, says the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, God Almighty, Yahweh Elohim, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite, you know what that word means?  ‘A contrite spirit’ – it’s an attitude of mind that is able to feel shame, to be ashamed of things that are done wrong, regret, the ability to see those things, to feel those things – because if we don’t then we don’t see where we’re wrong.  We’re justified... I can’t tell you how much I loathe and I hate the spirit of justification.  I can’t stand that one.  “Yes, but...” That’s right – big butt,  that’s what happens to us when we justify, that’s what we make ourselves.  Because the reality is we’re not accepting personal responsibility, we’re not accepting personal blame for some things.  I think of one individual not too long ago who I wanted to help, spent several hours with, reasoning with, who didn’t see a thing because he was justified in everything he was doing.  Found fault with others in the Church, found fault with other elders in the Church and felt like he was being treated unjustly and he couldn’t see.  He couldn’t see the simplest of things of robbing from God and so forth in his life.  Sad what can happen to us spiritually.  We can so justify ourselves that we can justify our own sins because we see others that aren’t meeting a standard either and so that somehow makes us okay because we sin against God?  Directly against God?  ...let alone others in the Body, in the Church?  Had a reason for everything; had a justification for everything.  It’s so frustrating because you can’t help anyone like that.  When we left that visitation I told my wife he’ll never be back, haven’t reached them, they can’t repent, too much pride, too much haughtiness.  It’s a shameful thing when you can’t feel shame and regret and see self and instead seek to justify self.  It’s the totally opposite spirit.

So God’s showing something beautiful here.  He says, I dwell in the high and holy place with him also...where does God dwell?  Jesus Christ died so that He could dwell in human beings, so that God the Father could dwell in human beings, so that human beings could be forgiven of their sin, so that God could dwell in us; because God won’t dwell in sin!  And so if we’re able to have sin forgiven us, starting with baptism and then continual repentance, then God will continue to dwell in us, live in us and we’re blessed then to live and dwell in Him – see?  And so this then reflects that kind of spirit that is able to acknowledge sin, be of a repentant spirit in attitude.  So, I dwell with him that’s of a contrite and humble spirit, that’s the kind of spirit God can work with.  Everything else is a matter of pride and justification – selfishness, will not accept correction, cannot acknowledge sin, will not repent, can’t acknowledge shame for things that are done.  You have to see what you do that hurts others to be filled with shame, to be ashamed of it.

...to revive the spirit of the humble, so when a person goes before God in a humble spirit, because we see ourselves, because that’s a part of the process there, humility, knowing what we are; so much of humility is a matter of seeing ourselves for what we are and just having a humble spirit before God because we want to be led by Him, guided by Him, directed by Him and what a beautiful thing when we have a humble spirit, when we’re ready to be taught, when we want to be taught, we want to be moulded and fashioned, we’re willing to acknowledge blame and fault and accept our own personal responsibility for mistakes and things we do that are wrong and the hurt we cause others and God works with us, He loves that!  He says He works with them to revive the spirit of the humble, because when we’re able to do that before God, you know what?  He lifts you up!  When you humble yourself God lifts you up, but as human beings we try to life ourselves up.  That’s the example I gave a while ago of an individual who so lifted himself up he couldn’t be reached, was so high in his own mind and his own self justification it was beneath him to say, “I have sinned.”  He couldn’t say it!  He couldn’t say, “I have sinned before God!”  On the contrary, “Well, I know this minister who said this, I know that minister who did that and...” distorting some of those things totally out of context anyway.  But so twisted in the mind because the mind wasn’t allowing itself to be healed anymore.  What a horrible thing that we do sometimes as human beings!  And sometimes we do that in marriage!  And sometimes we do in family!  And sometimes we do in the Family of the Church!  When we’re justified in our own mind for things we do, or think, or say to someone else...instead of being of a repentant spirit.

So God says here He dwells with them, to revive the spirit of the humble, to revive the heart of the contrite ones.  Because when you’re of that spirit it doesn’t last long.  You know, God just lifts you up.  You’re able to leave it... I’ll tell you what...when you sin and you know that shame, you’re ashamed of what you’ve done, you’re crying out to God, you acknowledge what you’ve done and you say, “Father forgive me...” and you mean it with all of your being, with all of your heart, you know what?  You grow in the ability to walk away from that knowing that God has put it away from you, that it’s forgiven, it’s gone.  You don’t have to beat yourself up; you just go out and change, be different than what you were before, strive to keep fighting and seek to keep changing in what God offers you.  To yield yourself to the change.  Does that mean you won’t stumble again?  Oh, you might stumble in the next hour again...and you go before God again, say, “Father, hasn’t been long since I talked to you has it... Please forgive me.  I want to change.  I don’t like this!  I don’t want this in my being, in my mind and what I’ve said and how I’ve said something...” or whatever it might be you’ve done toward someone else that’s caused any kind of hurt; and you just ask God for forgiveness and in sincerity and truth, truth and in spirit...accepting your responsibility.  And you get up and it’s gone!  And God lifts you up and strengthens you; He truly does, and you’re able to grow through that process and grow in many other things as well.

It’s a matter of being able to humble ourselves before God and fasting has a great deal to do with that,  doesn’t it, the ability to humble ourselves before God.  Still building up this sermon series because it is a sermon series that we will be going through.

He says, I dwell with him that’s of a contrite spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones, and if our spirit is like that then it’s one of really desiring to draw closer to God and the desire to see, spiritually, ourselves because it begins with seeing self.  So often in our growth the ability to see self and seek God’s help and His desire and His living within us, we really have to see self and things in self that must change, in order to better see what He gives to us and what He’s giving to the Church.  Our ability to see where we are in time, our ability to be at one with where we are in time, our ability to go through everything we’re going through right now is so dependent on our ability to see ourselves because the more you’re able to see and change and repent and seek God’s help in your life, to grow spiritually, the more God can give to you so that your vision, so that your focus is sharper and stronger.  He’ll make you stronger.

He’ll revive the heart of the contrite ones, He revives the heart of the humble, for I will not contend, with mankind, forever, neither will I be always, the word here is wroth: in Old King James, but it means ‘provoke to anger’ because of man’s sin and his defiant ways.  God says it’s not going to be that way forever because that’s the way it’s been for 6,000 years.  God’s had to deal with man according to his sins because that’s the way man has been, except for those few that God has drawn out.  And so much of that He’s pulled back and allowed certain things just to exist and to be; but He has stepped in at different times in human history.  He says, I’ll not contend with mankind forever, in other words, for the spirit should fail before me, in other words, there’s a time limit on it!  Thank God it doesn’t just keep going on like this into thousands of more years, because God says if it were to do that there’d have to be some intervention like the days of Noah... because of what we do with technology.  We are sick on this earth, we truly are!  How we misuse everything that man has ever come up with or that God has ever given us to have.

Verse 17 - For the iniquity of his covetousness was I provoked, and punished him: I hid Myself, and was provoked, and he went on forwardly, in other words, ‘defiantly’, in the way of his heart. This is the history of man.

Just like it says in Isaiah 59 as it talks of where God says, ‘I hid myself’.  We have to understand what that means.  Isaiah 59:1-2 – it says – Behold the Eternals hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither His ear heavy that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you that He will not hear.  So when you’re talking about the world and sometimes even our own lives, until we’re able to come to repentance because that’s a process through which we’re able to grow.

Isaiah 57:18 - I have seen his ways, oh has He seen the ways of man – 6,000 years of it!  I can’t imagine!  There are times that I am so inflamed by what I see and I do... by the attitudes that are out there, the haughtiness, the pride, the things that are on TV, the things that are in government, I am so sickened by the injustices in this world, the lying in this world, the lying that takes place in human beings lives.  It is a sick, sick world and God’s blessing us to see that so we’re totally put off by everything to do with the selfishness of human nature, the injustice of mankind toward others of mankind, for their own ends, for their own self will, to get what they want to get, even at the destruction of others.  People don’t care.  It’s a sick, sick world we live in – selfishness is so great.  I’m so thankful we’re about to correct all that – God is about to correct all that, we’re blessed to be a part of it.

I have seen his ways and I will heal him: because God has something greater.  There’s a greater purpose in it all, thankfully, and that’s what keeps us going, that’s what keeps us focused, it’s what keeps us focused in the worst time of all human history that’s coming upon this world because we’re going to see what God’s doing.  We’re going to be a part of what God is doing.

I will lead him also, and the difficult thing for us is to follow.  God says He’ll lead, He’ll heal us, but we have to follow His lead.  And there’s a way God always leads us.  ...and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners. I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace, God is the one who brings peace.  His ways show the way of peace and within family God is showing the way of peace in a very powerful way.  It’s an awesome thing.  Man doesn’t have it.  United Nations is a joke!  Governments of the world are a joke!  Sanctions on Iran?  What a joke!  Sending military into Afghanistan?  What a sick joke!  Just sending people into harm’s way to be killed.  There’s no glory, no glamour in those things and I am so enraged by some of that stuff, the hypocrisy of government to want young men to think that war is glorified and that you’re going to do some good thing when you go off to war?  And then they go off to war and something happens to them... and how does their LOVING GOVERNMENT take care of them then?  Some of the kinds of hospitals they go to and the way people are forgotten.  And do they receive help financially in their trials and their troubles?  No!  It’s a sick world!  And this government is sick in those things!  Truly is!  They’d like to shut my mouth and they’re working hard on it and they can only do what God gives them to do!  And they’re going to hear that a whole lot more as we go forward when God gives greater power.  It’s a shame what this nation has done and a shame what every nation does, but of us, of all people, being who we are, being the richest of the world... we want to take our peace into the world.  What is our peace?  It’s not too good, it’s not too nice!  It’s hypocritical, truly is, filled with hypocrisy, filled with pride and who cares about the rest of the world – just print more green.  Let the rest of the world pay for it, that’s our attitude.  I get so sick sometimes... I’m sorry, but I’ll tell you what, you think God is filled up with this world?

China?  And we get people on TV, leaders, economists, different ones... “It’s China’s fault!  They ought to do this and they ought to do that, and they’re not doing it, and they’re causing problems for us!”  What a bunch of garbage!  We’re the ones that have caused all the problems for them!  We’re the ones.  I hope you’re filled up to the full with sickness of this world and the governments of this world and see the need for God to come, for Jesus Christ to return.  There is nothing out here worth saving.

Any of you listening out there today, some of you that listen for the wrong reasons too...  What is there that’s good out there that you want to save, that you would like to have saved in going into a new age?  You don’t believe there’s a new age coming, but if there is a new age coming – What is it you want to see saved?  What is it you want to have continue on that you think is great, that you’d like to see continue on for a thousand years?  Whew!  Wow!

I have seen his ways... ...and I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners.  I create the fruit of the lips, God is the one who gives peace.  Man doesn’t know how to give peace.  Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, says the Eternal; and I will heal him.  So God’s plan is for all people of all times, 6,000 years, the next thousand years, the Great White Throne and the 100 years where everyone is resurrected and God grants peace.  Not everyone chooses it, but God grants peace to everyone.  He says, I will heal them.  So God offers to heal our minds, to heal us from what we are.  It’s about healing of the mind.  But the wicked are like the troubled sea, there’ll be wicked in the Millennium, there’ll be wicked in the Great White Throne.  It won’t be tolerated to the same degree it is in this earth today.  There are things that are going to be dealt with quickly.  There are things in the Millennium that are going to be dealt with quickly, that are not going to be carried out in long detailed court cases that cost millions of dollars for someone who killed people.  No, it’s just a quick matter of taking them out and killing them.  You kill, you die.  That’s God’s way.  “Oh, that’s just too harsh!”  Well, the God Family will know full well who is guilty of murder; there won’t be a need for long trials.  But the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters stir up mire and dirt. That’s what people do.  That’s what amazes me; what people are willing to believe out there about God’s Church; trying to find the worst.  Trying to twist and distort things and it’s been that way forever!  Incredible the way it’s been!  They try to stir up dirt and mud and that’s just the picture they want to paint of God’s beautiful way of life.  What a shame!  But God says...There is no peace to the wicked.

I feel sorry - I truly do, and they don’t understand it in the slightest way.  I feel sorry for people who find fault with God, with God’s ministry, with God’s Church – because they don’t believe its God’s anyway and they’re about to learn a very harsh lesson.  But you think, “they have no rest.”  When we become their life and what they thrive on...and if it’s so bad and so wrong – what a sick mind!  But they can’t see how sick their minds are.  What a shame.  But God says He offers to heal the mind of everyone.  What a blessing!

With that we’ll stop for today and continue on as this is probably going to be a rather long series.

~~~end

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