A Passover Fast

Ron Weinland

April 16, 2011

Today’s sermon is indeed one of a kind, as the subject matter covers information that is unique for all time.  This sermon is entitled ‘A Passover Fast’.  This sermon is being given to guide us into the kind of focus we need for the upcoming fast that begins tomorrow after sunset as we begin to observe Passover.  And the only thing we will partake of during this time is the bread and the wine of the Passover service, for those who are baptized.

I thought I would mention as well that this fast is primarily for baptized members of the Church (and I believe we did that for the two-day fast as well if I remember correctly), primarily for baptized members, it is not required that children or teens participate.  That’s an individual thing and a thing between them and God as we do in our relationships in fasting or in prayers, it’s a private thing.  As a whole, it’s really geared toward people who are baptized in the Church because of the meaning and the spiritual intent of what we’re doing and why we’re doing it.

Thinking about this, I think of what an incredible picture this is for God’s people.  Truly is one of a kind.  Never been a time in God’s Church where people have fasted on a Passover; on the contrary, in the Old Testament they were not to do so, they were to have a great meal in the sense of what takes place in that particular evening after sunset on the 14th.  This is quite unique for God’s Church.  So again, an incredible picture to partake only of that which freely frees us from spiritual Egypt; to only partake of Jesus Christ who died for us so that we could be forgiven of sin.  Has a great deal of meaning in it in a spiritual plane, it really does; and this for the purpose so that God the Father and Jesus Christ Himself can dwell in, can live in us.  It’s quite a picture, truly is; very, very meaningful.  It should be very meaningful on Passover night as we sit through that service that we have every year that we’ve been in God’s Church, whoever you are, whenever you were baptized, from that point forward.  So this should have great, great meaning.

So again, a very unique Passover that we’re going to be observing.  We’re entering into a unique fast on Passover.  It will be a time to, as always, humble ourselves in a very meaningful manner because that’s what fasting is about.  It’s about our desire to humble ourselves before God on a spiritual plane; and we do it physically by what we participate in, by not eating and drinking.  We humble ourselves before God, a desire that we be able to draw closer to God.  We understand an incredible tool that God has given to us, above and beyond prayers.  Prayer is a powerful tool that God has given to His people to draw closer to Him, to be more at one with Him; but fasting is that much more powerful in the sense of a tool that God has given to us on a spiritual plane.  It was never a physical thing, yet God honoured and gave honour to those who would humble themselves, just like we have read about in times past and have referred to many times now, like the time of the fast in Esther’s time and Mordecai and the Israelites at that particular time, the Jews, and what they did.  And so again here, very, very meaningful for us to understand this on a spiritual plane.

Let’s consider that meaning for this period of time in this year.  Exodus 12: this is going back to the period of time where God gave instruction to the Israelites how to keep the Passover, how it was to be observed, and especially at this particular time a very unique Passover for them because of what it pictured for the Israelites who were in captivity in Egypt and what God was going to do to free them from captivity, from Pharaoh and from Egypt.

I couldn’t help but think as we tend to see in this region of the country (and Johnny has referred to it a few times as we’ve been travelling around here),  all the sheep that are on the hillsides here.  Beautiful country because it’s so green, and that particular area alone, thinking about the sheep and reminding us of this time of year when God said to take a lamb of the sheep, or of the goats, and to save it, set it aside four days in advance of Passover.  And so again, thinking about that, how that you get accustomed to, especially for children, they were to take it out; and you can’t help but think about that at this time of year, especially when you see so many sheep in this part of the world, in New Zealand.  We don’t see that many around the Cincinnati area, if ever, but here you do, so it’s very meaningful then to think about how families back then didn’t have some of the large herds like you have here. At that time they were smaller and they would have to go and pick out a lamb and save it for four days.

You get attached to animals and children get attached to animals and that’s the very purpose of it; that we have a relationship in a spiritual plane with Jesus Christ and understand in a more meaningful and a deeper way what He went through for us, to give Himself for us.  There should be that close relationship so that it should prick us in the heart when we sin, that we should be moved and motivated of wanting to repent and understand what we did, how we took lightly the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  And we’re all guilty of this day by day, every one of us; and so we fight this fight because of this relationship we have and it should be very moving to us.

And so we come down then finally to Exodus 12:5 - Your lamb shall be without blemish, picturing Jesus Christ – no sin, no blemish in His life.  That’s what it was to picture on a spiritual plane.  This was very physical.  They were to pick out a lamb without blemish; we see from this as well that this is what we’re to become like through time, without blemish.  We’re to grow in that.

...a male of the first year: you shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats: And you shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: when I read scriptures like this I am a little bowled over sometimes when I think about the Jews and what they have done, to keep it up until the 15th day of the first month.  So they kill it on the 14th, at the end of the 14th.  What does that mean?  And they have this Seder meal that they have on the 15th.  Totally polluted, even from a physical standpoint, the meaning of Passover!  And many in God’s Church did exactly the same thing because they began to believe that the Jews today must have some understanding about Passover that we lack!  Ignorance!  Mr. Armstrong gave very powerful scriptures, three basic scriptures in the Old Testament to show when the Passover’s to be observed, and yet people got intellectual and they went off and did their own thing and they began to observe Passover in a wrong way.  It’s as bad as people keeping Easter, believing that Jesus Christ was resurrected on Sunday morning.  He wasn’t resurrected on Sunday morning!  He was resurrected at the end of the Sabbath day. But the world is ignorant of those kinds of things, things that are simple and basic to you as God’s people because God’s blessed you to understand it.  It becomes clear to you only because of God’s spirit. But the world is ignorant of those things.

And you shall keep it up until the fourteenth day; it’s very specific, God is very specific in how He leads, guides, and directs us, gives us instruction of how we’re to live our lives and how we’re to respond to Him.   And you shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it: powerful what this says!  Says in the English here, ‘in the evening’, but it’s the word ‘bane ha erebyim’ in the Hebrew, which means ‘between the two evenings’.  That’s how we keep every Sabbath, that’s how we keep every day, but especially observance before God is between two specific evenings, between two specific sunsets.  We understand that about the Sabbath.

I marvel when God gives the instruction about the day of fast, the Day of Atonement.  He is very specific, that the very moment on the ninth day at sunset to the very moment of the sunset of the 10th (...if I’ve got my bearings right since we don’t really use the Hebrew calendar), but the point being is He makes it very clear that that day, awesomely important to God to humble ourselves to fast during that entire period of time – is to be done between two evenings.  That’s where the meaning is contained.  And so God uses that same word, that same kind of expression over and over again here about Passover – things that we never really came to the point of grasping because God hadn’t yet given it to us within the Church, of the importance of Jesus Christ fulfilling everything that He did between the two evenings, the Passover night and the Passover day.  He fulfilled the entire time from sunset to sunset completely as our Passover!  It’s beautiful!  It’s exciting!  It’s inspiring when you see how God does things and lays everything out like He does!  It’s moving, meaningful!

...between the two evenings; And they shall take of the blood and strike it on the two side posts, of the upper door post of the houses where they shall eat it. It’s about being saved, it’s about the blood of the Lamb, it’s about what’s been given to us: very physical, something they did to be freed from physical Egypt, to be freed from Pharaoh’s grasp, from his hold, from his tyranny.  To be made free as a people, completely and entirely free, to be taken out of Egypt...and it’s going to be done by the blood of the lambs, and the Lamb, a Lamb.  And so again here, that which pictures something spiritual that we understand very deeply and very moving as we observe the Passover ourselves then.

And they shall eat the flesh in that night, they’re to partake of it.  Now, we partake of the blood and the bread, the body, the life, if you will; but again, it’s about the Bread, the Unleavened Bread of Life.  It’s about Jesus Christ.  That’s what we eat, a small portion and we partake of that wine which is symbolic of the blood of Christ, of what was spilled for us, and we do it in the night.  We do it in a period of time in our lives that light isn’t in this world yet. It isn’t yet God’s world, it’s still in the dark. Egypt is still in the dark, this world is in the dark.  You don’t have to go very far, you turn on the news – the world is in the dark.  They don’t understand where we are.

Interesting, my wife was reading to me a little bit of some of the paper here this morning in New Zealand about China.  Starting to get a little worried over here about China, but the world is still in the dark.  They don’t understand how worried they should be about China in this part of the world.  Your worry here isn’t Europe, truly, and because you are so prosperous that may be to your advantage as time goes on because of so much that can be used here to support them, to help them.  And so this world doesn’t understand what’s coming, but as she was reading those things I was struck to the core of my being in thinking how this sounds like pre-WWII.  This sounds like reports that were going out and in the newspapers at times about what Germany was doing and what Japan was doing pre-WWII.  Things that were in the news and the world didn’t grasp it, but they were beginning to be a little more concerned, truly, and now the world is just barely starting to be a little more concerned about a rising power over there flexing its muscles, surprising the world.  They have stealth bombers – surprise, surprise, surprise!  Surprised our CIA didn’t know about it?!  I’m not surprised at all, and maybe they did, but I doubt it.  And the kind of military they have, the kind of ocean going craft that they now have – powerful weapons they have.

And not just them but this is about Russia as well.  You don’t hear much about Russia...oh, Russia’s right in there in the midst of it and Russia’s going to be really behind it in a more powerful way.  Prime Minister Putin is a force to contend with.  He is a shrewd man.  He knows what he wants and he’s coming closer and closer to the end of his life.  He’s going to make a name for himself.  That’s what’s in his mind...and the world is ignorant to all this that’s going on behind the scenes.  And yet, if you keep tuned to, in God’s Church, you begin to hear things that he’s saying and what’s happening in Russia, because he’s kind of behind the scenes.  He won’t stay behind the scenes.  Incredible what’s going on in this world and the world doesn’t see it.  It’s in darkness.

And so we are in a process of coming out of darkness spiritually; that’s what we go through as we partake of the bread and the wine on Passover night.   They did this in a very physical way; what we do is in a very spiritual way; and this Passover is going to have more spiritual significance to God’s Church than it’s ever had ever.  That shows growth, that shows where God has brought His Church.  The glory and the honour is to God and His Son Jesus Christ.  That’s what it’s about!  That’s why it’s this Passover and not next Passover.

And they shall eat of the flesh in that night, roast with fire; things we learn...fire.  Because it has meaning!  Fire and trial, things we go through in life.  These things that Christ did for us, very reflective of what we enter into, the bread, the blood, the wine and so forth that means something spiritual to us.  This means something spiritual to each and every one of us.  We know that we don’t go through this easily; we know it’s a struggle; hence a little bit later here eat it with bitter herbs.  It’s not easy!  It is bitter in this life!  It is hard!  It wasn’t meant to be easy!  And so all these things that are very symbolic physically of what they did we do on a spiritual plane in our lives as God is delivering us out of Egypt.  But now.... now we are so close to the world being delivered out of Egypt, not just a few in God’s Church.  We live in an awesome time!  We live in the most unique time of all human history, hence a very unique Passover that God has granted His Church.

They shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; again, this matter of being unleavened, being without sin.  We partake of the Unleavened Bread of Life of Jesus Christ, without sin, we want to become like Him; we want to follow that example.  We seek to grow in that.  ...with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Human life is a struggle, wasn’t meant to be easy.

Verse 11 – In this manner you shall eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste: it is the Eternal’s Passover. Going to go more into that during the Holy Days.  It is the Eternal’s Passover; that which God has given to us.  Shows an attitude of mind, of our desire to leave quickly when we leave – to get out of Egypt!  When you sin, repent quickly; seek to get out of that.  Don’t continue in it, don’t let it become a norm in your life, fight against it!  Seek God’s help to be forgiven!  Kneel on your knees and ask God, cry out to God to forgive you of your sins!

This is going to be the last great Passover observed together by God’s people before Jesus Christ returns, as the Church will not be able to keep the one in 2012 in this manner that we do today.  We’re not going to be able to do it in the same organized fashion as we are now.  Everybody’s going to be pretty much on their own in different ways; maybe some together in some areas but as a whole it’s not going to happen that way.  And what is pictured here for us is that we are now, on this Passover, being prepared to be thrust out of Egypt over this period of a ‘Time and Half-A-Time’ that we have already entered into.  Powerful what God is showing us!

This is deliverance for the world, not just God’s Church.  There’s already been deliverance for God’s Church when the sealing took place, for the last 6,000 years, but especially the last 2,000 years, because that’s where the majority were called; the 144,000. That’s already set but the Church continues on, and what’s exciting and inspiring to understand is that we are at a time when the whole world now...  That’s why God speaks of in scripture, about an exodus that makes the exodus back here in this Bible small in comparison, puny in comparison.  And God says that this is the one, that we’re now entering into, that people are going to be talking about – because it’s about the world now, it’s about all mankind being delivered out of Egypt.  We are at that time and the time we’ve entered into is about Passover!  It’s about deliverance, finally, for the world!  It’s powerful, it truly is.  I can’t give that to you, how powerful this Passover is.  It’s more than what I can express to you in meaning and purpose and what people will one day look back on just as they did this Passover in Exodus 12 that we’re reading about and they’re going to talk about the Passover you observed this year, a time for deliverance for God’s people and for the world, because everybody’s being called into the Church.  Through a period of time, the primary part here being shaken up for scattered nations of Israel through this time we’re headed into, as well the rest of the world because of what God does on that last day, sobering the world, humbling the world.  God’s going to grant humility to mankind through power, through might.  Awesome times we live in!

Sometimes it’s hard when you’re living it to grasp what you’re living.  I’m just going to tell you... you cannot grasp the magnitude of what you’re living today as God’s people, you just can’t, because it’s normal to you.  It’s your normal routine of life.  So those of you who’ve come in the last few years, three years, two years, one year, whatever it is, that’s just your normal way of life.  We were talking about that last night; your normal way of life is truths coming at you constantly!  That’s not my normal routine of life, that’s not for those who’ve been around for a long time, 20-30-40 years, being bombarded with truth after truth after truth, things that God has been giving because of where we are.  Not because of how ‘good’ we are but only because of where we are in time and what God has blessed us with because Jesus Christ is about to return so He’s giving far more to the world!  Awesome times we live in right now, truly, and that’s hard for us to get it, truly is.  If we really got it we would never sin!  You would never, never sin if you really got that!  But I still sin.  I still have to repent.  Because I’m working on that, to grasp and comprehend even deeply, more deeply what this means.  And God’s giving that to us more and more, but we’re so weak as human beings, we truly are.

Verse 12 - For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast;  Not nice things! Not pleasant things! This is why Moses got so upset with Pharaoh, because he told him in the very beginning, before all this started he said what God was going to do and that God was going to destroy the firstborn of Egypt if they weren’t allowed to go out and offer sacrifice to God, if they weren’t let free to do that.  And so every plague that came along, everything that happened, Moses knew full well where it was headed, that eventually it would come down to that, that Pharaoh’s own son would die because Pharaoh was so filled with pride and haughtiness that he held out thinking he could change things and all of a sudden Moses finally had to tell him and he got upset with Pharaoh.  And Pharaoh got upset at him because of his attitude, “How do you speak to Pharaoh like that!!  Next time you see my face you’re a dead man!”  And Moses said, “You have spoken well, you’ll not see my face anymore Pharaoh.”  Amazing!  Powerful, powerful things that took place back then.  Sometimes just reading through a story we don’t get all that but it was there.

And I think of this world.  I think of the scattered church and the resistance that’s there, being told but nobody believes.  The world doesn’t believe, Pharaoh didn’t believe, and the scattered church doesn’t believe; on the contrary, they look at me with distain.  They look at this Church organization with incredible distain. “Who do you think you are?”  With impunity they look in that manner, so filled with pride, just as much as Pharaoh did upon Moses, looked upon him as a measly little worm.  “Who do you think you are?!”  And after all he experienced he still had that attitude.

...and will strike all the firstborn of the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Eternal. And God did it righteously so.  They didn’t deserve life – God gave them life, God gives us all life.  God doesn’t owe us anything.  The first time we sin we’re not owed very much are we?  Well yeah we are – death – but we don’t get it, we don’t understand the power of our God and the love of God and the patience of God and the mercy of God.

So we have entered a time now that God is executing judgment to thrust all of mankind out of Egypt and into the Promised Land.  Because it wasn’t about the land of Israel. The promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when they were taken out of Egypt and they eventually after 40 years were brought across the Jordan River...that was not the Promised Land.  It was ‘a’ promised land on the way to the Promised Land, if you understand what I’m saying.  It was a place.  It was a physical place of physical nations and things that were going to rise up there that God was going to work with to teach lessons to.  But the Kingdom of God, the Promised Land is about what God is bringing to this earth and what God is doing with human beings, the Kingdom of God that we can all, in time, enter into; and it starts out small.  It started out very small with one, Jesus Christ, and then 144,000, and now we’re getting to a point where it can be millions upon millions and billions by the end of the Millennial period, that can enter into the Kingdom of God. But they enter into a new age along with that; just because it’s a new world it’s not about the new world.

That’s not the ‘Promised Land’ totally and completely!  It’s a far better world beyond measure than what we have today because God’s Government, the Kingdom of God, is governing now.  It’s the Kingdom of God that’s governing the earth that makes it different and the teaching that comes out then to the Church of God that’s always the same throughout the Church of God: all 144,000 that will be out there administering the Church and government on the earth will speak the same thing.

Total unity, something the Church couldn’t have when it got real large, because human beings are human beings and in time human beings will sin and go astray and leave and think that they have something different to give than what Mr. Armstrong, the way God was working through the Church, should give.  And so we’ve gone through a lot to learn those lessons.  Man can’t govern himself!  Neither can the Church of God fully govern themselves; righteously so before God in this kind of world.  Philadelphia proved that.  I hope you understand that; and you understand it to varying degrees. Especially those of you who lived through it, you understand in a very deep way what that means.

And so what makes it unique, the world we’re headed into, is that God’s Government is going to reign on this earth both as far as government and as far as the Church is concerned.  And once everyone becomes a part of God’s Kingdom they have entered what God has always promised from the very beginning to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  The physical things fill in along the way and they become greater and greater and better and better – the Millennium awesomely better than the previous 6,000 years of time!

And so God is executing judgment to bring mankind out of Egypt and into the Promised Land.  Not the total, but so close, because the greatest work is going to be done during the Millennium and the Great White Throne, to bring people into the Kingdom of God. That’s what it’s about!

Verse 13 - And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where you are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt. So a very physical thing, but teaches us those thing that are very spiritual, that we have a relationship with God Almighty.  I think about things in the future and where we’re going and the blessings that God has given to His people and the protection and the favour that God gives to us; even there, to enter into a new age and for those of you in the Church to have special blessings during the time we’re going into.  But please don’t ever make the mistake that God owes it to you or that just because you’re baptized that God owes it to you.  It’s about your relationship with God and where you are spiritually in your relationship with God as to your deliverance.  This isn’t some carte blanche thing you’re carrying around in your wallet that, “Hey, I’ve got a pass, I’m baptized.  I’m going to live into the new age!”  No, doesn’t work that way!  It’s about your relationship with God, because some have become confused about some of that.  But you live right before God and repent and seek to be at one with God, and that’s your heart and that’s your mind and that’s your being – God promises deliverance.

There are great reasons why God has led His Church to grasp the greater meaning of Egypt being likened to sin and Pharaoh likened to Satan. Because it’s amazing how God led His Church to grasp and understand those things and how God gave understanding of the spiritual part of Israel being taken out of Egypt, of coming out of sin and out of Pharaoh’s grasp likened unto Satan’s grasp and hold because of sin.  Because his power is sin.  The power he has over mankind is sin, truly is.  And more and more that’s going to be stripped away from him.

Mankind has been held captive, enslaved to spiritual Egypt and God is getting ready to free us.  I think of one thing alone; I just think of the freedom of the truth, what that means for the world. No more ignorance when it comes to all the Protestant teachings out there!  And some who are Protestant, when they listen to me they just love me for that, but I don’t care!  You’ve got to come to repentance if you want to come through all this!  All the Catholics that are out there and the deception that’s there!  Hindu, Muslim, Judaism, it’s all wrong!  It’s all in error!  Everything’s in error!  Every religion out there is in error except for one small group of people on the earth; isn’t that amazing?!  And that just dumbfounds the minds of people and they can’t grasp it until they’re brought to humility and will receive help from God, when they seek help from God.  And we’re at a stage in time now where God’s going to grant that if people will simply humble themselves.  It takes a lot to bring people to humility though.

Interesting too, the very root word for Egypt is the word in Hebrew that means ‘to bind, to confine, to besiege’.  That’s what Satan has been doing through sin to mankind from the beginning; ‘to bind, to confine, to besiege, to shut up, to enclose, to lay siege’.  He hates God’s plan!  He hates human beings and he wants to hold us in sin because he knows what that means.  And the root here means even ‘to show hostility to, to be an adversary toward’.  Isn’t that amazing?  That’s the way Egypt is to us, spiritually.  Sin is that way to us; it’s an adversary indeed, great hostility indeed stirred up by spiritual Pharaoh, Satan.

So, incredible meaning in this season of the year and coming out of sin and all the different stages God gave beginning back there in Exodus 12 bringing us up to a period 2,000 years ago, the time of Christ when the true Passover came, bringing us up to now when He’s ready to return a second time, and now we’re getting ready to launch into an age without that power of Satan around anymore.  Satan not around, Pharaoh not around any longer, pulled out of Egypt, brought into an age, a world that the truth only exists.  Awesome!  Awesome indeed!

Let’s turn over to Romans 8 where it talks about some of these things about bondage and so forth and lessons that are there for this time of year and things we understand.  So we’re now entering a time, if you will, when the world is going to begin to be delivered out of Egypt.  This is a great Passover!  It’s a great Passover!  It’s another incredible great step forward, just as that was a great step forward in time, of God launching into a time when He’s going to work with some physical nations of people.  And now God’s getting ready to... and that being of old, now it’s on a spiritual plane; the Israel of God that He’s getting ready to work with, launch into that period of time.  This is a great time, a hallmark in time, it truly is.

Romans 8:15 - For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; when God calls us and draws us by His spirit, but you have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. We begin to develop a relationship with God, with our Father.  We begin to understand God.  He gives us a blessing of learning more and more about Him, how He’s different. He doesn’t have human nature, He doesn’t have all the hang-ups of things we normally relate to in any man that’s ever a father.  On the contrary, He’s so far above and beyond those things, the kind of love of God, the mercy, the power to deliver us.

The spirit, speaking of God’s spirit, itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: What an awesome thing when we’re blessed to have God dwelling in us; and that’s why Jesus Christ died.  That to me is such a profound thing to grasp when you come to understand that on a greater plane spiritually; but it’s not just to be forgiven of sin.  That’s where the Protestant world stops as a whole, and they don’t even understand that and what it means to be under grace and so forth, what grace is spiritually in the Bible.  He died so that He and His Father could live in us; because that’s the only way you can come out of sin.  Just being forgiven of it is not enough, just having the blood of Christ is not enough, you have to have the bread of life as well, you have to have Christ living in you to come out of sin, to become purified and cleansed by their life dwelling in us.

So, incredible lessons here about Pharaoh and about Egypt and how God has blessed this world and how God is blessing this world now.  God is blessing the world to bring this world to humility and that’s something we have to see.  That’s why we have had the sermons we have had before this time, so that we could come to grasp it’s a merciful thing, it’s a matter of love, it’s a matter of blessings for the world to be chastened in a powerful way so that man will have a humble heart; because otherwise this age, this time of 6,000 years would just go on and on and on without change...and God’s not going to allow that, thankfully, so that we can be blessed massively around the world, so we don’t have to have this confusion around the world, so that everyone you bump into knows the truth, they have access to the truth.

Verse 19 - For the earnest expectation of the; Old King James has ‘creature’ here, but the word is ‘creation’ and the context is about a creation that’s ongoing.  It didn’t stop when the earth was refashioned, remoulded, and man and animal and plant life was placed on this earth in the first 6 days.  In the 7th day God rested.  It’s an ongoing creation and it’s about us becoming a part of God’s Family, and this is used by Paul to express, to explain; he says, For the earnest expectation of the creation, of God’s Family, the Kingdom of God, waits for the manifestation of the sons of God, and we’re almost there!  ...it waits for the manifestation, the revealing of the Sons of God/the God Family. Even Jesus Christ has been away for 2,000 years.  He’s been up in heaven; He hasn’t been here on the earth.  It waits for Him to come back as King of kings, and Lord of lords; to come back as a Lion and take charge and not put up with mankind and his attitude and spirit of defiance, because defiance has to be destroyed, mercifully so, lovingly so in order to have the Kingdom of God ruling on this earth.

For the creation was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who has subjected the same in hope, it’s a process whereby we’re able to grow and mature, be moulded and fashioned. Because the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption, and you are when that change comes. It’s a lifelong process, conquering and overcoming self, human nature, yielding ourselves to God dwelling within us, to Jesus Christ and God the Father dwelling within us, partaking of the true Bread of life, the true Unleavened Bread of Life, of Jesus Christ in our lives day by day by day.

Because the creation itself, the Kingdom of God, shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty/freedom, freedom; this is true freedom.  When the Israelites crossed the Red Sea it was just a picture of something into the future; and it was a big change for them, it was a great freedom for them not having Pharaoh and Egypt being over them anymore, not being in slavery anymore; but it was a very physical thing, very physical partial fulfillment of something that had far deeper meaning.  Where we are now!  Because the creation itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty/freedom of the children of God/the Family of God.

For we know that the whole creation groans and labours in pain together until now. How much more meaning does that word ‘now’ have than it did when Paul wrote these words?  That was barely 4,000 years into the scheme of things; they’ve got another 2,000 years.  ‘Now’ has more meaning to it than what it did in his day because it’s continued to groan; for the following 2,000 years nearly it continued to groan in labour pain until we could get to this point in time that’s hard and difficult, but not near as hard and difficult as we thought it was going to be, going back a couple of years.  Thank God.  Awesome what God has taught us about Himself!  Awesome what we’ve come to grasp in a greater way!  Awesome the confidence and boldness we’ve grown in, that others would have been destroyed by!  Because it’s a matter of God dwelling in us that gives us the boldness and confidence, and we see Him, we see Him and His Son; we see what He’s doing.  He’s given us the ability to see what He’s done and why He’s done it.

Verse 22 - For we know that the whole creation groans and travails/is in labour, in pain together until now. It’s an ongoing process through time.  And so what an incredible time we’re at now, to be able to be where we are, to be at a time where there’s going to be incredible deliverance in this world, but it’s not going to be done through easy things.  Passover, on Passover night...was not an easy thing for Egypt.  They’d had several things happen to them already and now the final things had to take place that were going to be hard, difficult; and even then it wasn’t over, because during the Days of Unleavened Bread, when you picture that and what took place and when they came up to the Red Sea and finally had deliverance when they got through all that period of time...even the Egyptian army had to be fully destroyed.  Powerful lessons in all that of a continuing process of what God was doing to deliver; things that had meaning, even for what we’re going through now.

‘Now’ has a great deal more meaning whenever we talk about deliverance for mankind into liberty and freedom for the children of God, the Family of God and finally the whole world gets to be a part of the Church.

We’re going to fast, as always, to humble ourselves before God that He and His Son might dwell more fully in us; because that’s what fasting is about, humbling ourselves before God so that the Passover and the purpose of the Passover can be more fully seen, accomplished in our lives.  You do that when you pray.  You desire His life to live within you; you develop a closer relationship with God that they might more fully dwell in your lives. You repent in your prayers of sins as well, that God might dwell more full in your lives.  And we fast for that purpose even on a higher plane because of humility and our desire to humble ourselves before God, so that, again, they might dwell more fully in us.  Please understand; every fast we’ve ever had in God’s Church is about that first and foremost, about ourselves and our relationship with God, our humbling ourselves before God so that they might dwell in us more fully, to be more fully at one with Him indeed in every way.

So again, we are going to fast, as always, to humble ourselves before God so that He and His Son might dwell more fully in us; the very purpose of Passover being more fully accomplished in our lives.  And on that Passover in Exodus God was preparing to execute judgment upon Egypt, to deliver, to free His people, and that’s what this Passover’s about very much so, very powerfully so.  After two years... after two years we’re finally there!  We’re at that point where the world can be humbled, mercifully so by God, and to be at this stage, at this moment in time of a final great Passover that God’s people can observe in an organized fashion together in peace.  You’re not going to have that in 2012.

This Passover is about delivering, freeing God’s people, all mankind, from the power of Pharaoh and Egypt!  Thank God that being is finally going to be brought to a halt in his evil working against God and against mankind and the purpose God put mankind on this earth.  I am so thankful!  I rejoice over that being, I truly do, over what God’s granting us and what God’s granting the world; that he is finally going to be shackled.  What he’s done toward mankind is finally going to be done toward him; he gets to experience it for a thousand years.  Incredible, finally at a Passover where God’s people, all of mankind, are going to be freed from the power of Pharaoh and Egypt, from sin; and doesn’t mean that man won’t have sin in the future, but this world is geared toward leading you into sin because it’s Satan’s world.  In the false teachings of every religion on the earth except one – God’s true Church; everything else seeks to deceive people and lead people deeper into sin and confusion and chaos; everything out here, everything about governments and their wanting their way, what they do.

‘Peace Keepers’ sent off to war; bit of an oxymoron there, truly.  Peace Keepers!  I understand mankind.  I understand there are times that man has entered into the things he has in order to continue on, but we’ve entered into much very corruptly so, very selfishly so in this world; and thankfully God is saying and bringing us to a time where He said they’re not going to learn war anymore.  He’s not going to allow war to raise its ugly head on the earth again, and the one that tries to at the very end of a thousand years, God puts an end to it before it ever happens.  He just lets it be kind of like a gathering event to gather that which is bad to be destroyed; but they’re not going to have any effect on anyone to destroy.  Incredible the power of God, the plan of God.

And so back then and now, as we understand it spiritually, God is preparing to powerfully execute judgment upon the world.  That’s where we are!  I marvel at that!  I marvel at the sermons we’ve had!  I marvel at where we’ve gone!  I marvel at where we were two years ago and yet we came to a point where God didn’t let us go any farther but we went into other things, to focus upon other things that we needed as a Church, that we needed in preparing us and things we needed to learn in ourselves.  And now we’re brought back to where we were a couple of years ago, to a point where God is proceeding forward because this is the time. We’re a part of it.

So we’re fasting for great purpose.  It’s not to get something from God.  Many fasts, even by people in God’s Church over time, have been done to get something from God, as though God were to owe us something.  No, it’s about humility, it’s about humbling ourselves before God and crying out and seeking to repent of our sins and asking God for help to conquer and overcome those sins so that He and His Son might dwell more fully in us!  That’s what is right!  Its right to receive God the Father and Jesus Christ more fully in your lives, but it’s a matter of your petitions and your desire before God that that’s what you choose, that’s what you want!  You don’t want your own selfish human nature!  You don’t want this world and what it broadcasts out here every place you turn!

So we’re fasting for great purpose; not to get something from God for our own selfish motives, to get something from God in order to enhance our physical security or prosperity.  People have fasted about those things!  “I’m having a tough time, God bless me with this...or with that so I won’t have these battles, so I can have all this money to take care of all my problems!”  No, your problems aren’t a matter of money!  We learn that through time!  We think that’ll solve all our problems.  No, you can win the lottery and have a whole lot more problems; that’s generally what happens to people, they have a whole lot more problems when that happens.  Money doesn’t solve your problems; it’s the mind, it’s your relationship with God, it’s obedience to God’s way of life is what it’s all about.

And so fasting is to be used in a proper way before God; not to get something selfishly for ourselves, and not to get something to help lift us up above others!  ...because that’s happened in the scattered churches, which I’ll mention a little bit later here: to get something from God!  Incredible!  And yet God says in Isaiah those aren’t the right kind of fasts, to get something from God?!  Where’s the humility?  To raise yourself up so that you’re seen as ‘the main group of people’, of scattered people out here?  What kind of a sick mind is that?  It’s distorted!  It’s not right with God!  Or to be blessed physically?!  To get something from God, that somehow we use this as a tool to get something from God, to lift us up in that regard?  That’s not what it’s about!  That’s distorted!  It’s all about a humble spirit before God for the right reasons; to receive what God wants us to have – Him and His Son dwelling in us.  That’s why a lot of the prayers of fasting are about repentance – because He can’t dwell in sin.  And so it’s seeking to humble ourselves to get rid of sin, to be honest with God, to be truthful with God.

He knows what we’re like!  Sometimes it’s just hard for us to be truthful with Him.  Sometimes it’s just hard for us to see what we really are...and candidly that’s what a lot of it is about – God helping us to see ourselves, because without His help we can’t even see our own motives, what they’re about!  People can’t!  God has to show you!  God knows the heart! It’s an awesome thing to understand!

So this fast is very much about what Passover pictures, indeed, deliverance from sin, deliverance from Egypt; and we’re asking God to bring plagues upon Egypt, upon all that fights against and resists the life of our Passover to dwell in mankind.  All of that must be destroyed!  That’s a matter of love; that’s a matter of mercy.  Anything that resists God must be humbled or destroyed.  It has to be before God’s Kingdom is on this earth.  That’s what the world has to be brought to to have God’s Kingdom govern and rule on this earth. And one of the greatest things for God’s Church to come to understand – it is a matter of mercy for it to be that way, because it’s a matter of deep cruelty and lack of care and concern and great selfishness because we want to hold onto something that’s wrong to let this world continue the way it is, to let the stock market recuperate at this point and the United States, as an example, to recover fully and influence the world the way it is today – that’s wrong!  ...or from some other nation to step in and do the same thing, for China to rise up (which it would do in time if God were to allow time to go on), if man didn’t destroy himself; but that’s what would come first God says, but in time China would rise up and it would become the dominant power.  It’s almost there anyway along with Russia and some of the things that happen.

But you know what would happen there eventually?  Do you know human nature?  Do you know that Russia and China in time would turn against each other because they don’t get along when it comes down to who rules the world!  Amazing human nature!  Incredible human nature!  People see a certain enemy right now and then later on enemies change, allies and friends change.  It’s a sick, sick, filthy, evil world and everything that resists God’s way must be destroyed and that is a matter of mercy so that we can have a Millennium, and so that we can one day have the Great White Throne. A time of great peace on this earth, a time where it’ll be great for babies to be resurrected and live in a beautiful world and not in this sick world and spend a lifetime then conquering and overcoming what they learned in this world.  Even though that’s what many are going to be doing in the hundred years.  But God’s spirit is going to be poured out very powerfully so in a very powerful way in ways we can’t even begin to understand, to give people that help to conquer and overcome.  We live in a world right now that is still a matter of (a lot of it)... so much of it today is about training, moulding and fashioning, still, until it’s over, the 144,000.

And so again, we are asking God to bring plagues upon Egypt, upon all that fights against and resists the life of our Passover to dwell in mankind.  It is very much about pride being changed to humility! We enter into fasting willingly through humility; but man does not automatically enter into that, does he?  He has to be brought to that!  And that’s what God is going to do; and that’s a matter of a blessing and that’s a matter of mercy.  It’s a matter of mercy to come to a point in time where the attitude, the mind changes and you say, “God, if there’s a God, help me!  Help me!”  I came to that.  “God, if you really exist, help me!”  I didn’t know if He did for sure.  I didn’t know how He existed.  I thought maybe He used evolution, little bit of scientific thing in there and stupidity that I got in schools thinking, “Well, maybe He used that way...”  I sure didn’t believe the way my great aunt thought about God and some of her Pentecostal ways and rolling around and hollering out numbers.  It just didn’t seem like a relationship with God.... speak a little facetiously.

We have to learn things and we come to that point where we have to be humbled.  Now, what a great blessing it was in my life, hard as it was, to come to a point where I finally wanted God’s help.  That’s love and that’s mercy from a loving God and if He hadn’t loved me that way, I wouldn’t be here today and neither would you.  We have to go through many things to get us where we are and we have to understand that what we’re going through right now, what we’re getting ready to go through right now, as bad as it is going to be on this world, is a matter of mercy and love.  This can’t be allowed to continue on!  And if anybody wants to hold onto any part of it, something’s wrong in the mind in understanding about God.  There’s nothing out here to be kept, save the truth and the Church of God.

So this means that we’re praying to God during this fast to begin destroying the power of Satan, to bring him down.  I’m excited about that, because that’s where we are!  That’s what God is going to begin doing and we’re a part of that through our prayers to God, to bring him down through this next ‘Time and Half-a-Time’, to begin causing the power he uses against God’s creation to begin imploding on himself, which is what’s going to happen.  To begin imploding on himself and that God’s great power now begin to be magnified in His servants, in His Church, in this world...and in millions to be called out of this world.  That’s exciting, to realize where we are in time, no longer working with a few through time but now millions.  All who will live into the Millennial time have the ability to know the truth and to come out of Egypt.

And so, yes, this is the time to be even more earnest in praying for Thunders and Trumpets to become deafening in this world, truly!  This is it!  This is where we are!

Since the time of fasting we entered into on two different occasions back in January of 2009...we had two different occasions, the beginning of January as we talked about, and one at the end, the two-day fast at the end, and two periods of fasting we’re addressing in this period of time that we’ve just gone into, the one we’ve had and the one we’re getting ready to go into, many prayers have gone up before God and they’re described, powerfully so, in the book of Revelation.  It’s amazing how God has revealed this over the last several weeks more and more to bring us to today and where we are now.

Revelation 8:  It’s within that period of time beginning with the first fast on the week, the first week of 2009 and culminating in this fast on Passover, that a very specific moment in time has been covered here in this book of Revelation.  It’s very much what this is about. And some have wanted to know more about this subject, some have asked questions about it...told them they have to wait; but now’s the time that we’re going to more fully digest it and I want to go back and review some of the sermon where this was recently covered.  It was in the sermon entitled ‘Pray for Judgment – Pt. 3’ that was given on March 5th.  I’m going to go back through and repeat a part of that and add to it as we go along.  And frankly, God’s going to give us the ability to see it more clearly.  It takes time to digest things.  We don’t always digest something the first or second time we hear it so God’s giving us more of that ability now.

I mentioned in that particular sermon....

As we had briefly touched upon these scriptures before, in this sermon we’re going a little more deeply into them.

...referring to these scriptures in Revelation 8.  We had already touched upon them once and now we touched upon them a little bit more in this particular sermon here.

...so it is expedient that we pray more fervently concerning these matters...

In other words, the context was the execution of God’s judgment on this earth.  I hope you’re dumbfounded by the order of sermons and where we are today and what God has given us to cover in the last few months here, last two months especially.  It’s awesome, truly is!  Totally dumbfounding!

...so it is expedient that we pray more fervently concerning these matters as was given in that particular sermon; and for that reason we are again going to go through the verses in Revelation 8 that are very much about the time we are living through right now.  This concerns our prayers that are to be ascending up before God and being added to all the previous prayers of God’s people; but these indeed are more specific because they are very much about the Thunders and Trumpets.

Revelation 8:1 - And when He broke open the Seventh Seal, which was November 14, 2008, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. [Which brought us up to December 14, 2008] And I saw the seven angels who stand before God [or as another translation puts it] who are in the presence of God; and to them were given Seven Trumpets. ‘Seven Trumpets were placed in their hands,’ [that’s what’s described there]...And, [or as it is] then, speaking of that particular time, another angel...

Now here are these seven, but now there’s another angel in the midst of them; totally different function but connected in timing here.  But now God is changing from focusing on those seven to focusing on this one and explaining his function.  And everything is not mapped out for us in the book of Revelation in a nice, tidy, timely order.  God just reveals them when it’s His time.

Then another angel came and stood at the altar, having [holding] a golden censer; and there was given unto him much [or as it is here, more] more incense...

Because it’s referring back to another time...we might even turn back over there again just to remind ourselves back in Revelation 5.

...was given unto him more incense that he should offer it, [or as some translations even have it ‘added to’] (with) the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was [is] before the throne.

This is something different from Revelation 5 where it speaks about this incense in verse 8; so let’s read that to be reminded of it.  Because on this occasion here, amongst those seven that were given Trumpets is a totally unique situation indeed, different from chapter 5 here.  Let’s pick it up in verse 8 as it goes through and talks about this and talks about the one who has the ability and who was going to open all the Seals that no one else could; and John’s describing some of this.  Revelation 5:8 - And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and the four and twenty elders/24 elders, (the four creatures as it is, four great creatures there and the 24 elders) fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, had censers filled with incense, that’s what the word is here. It’s the same word ‘incense’, which are the prayers of the saints.  So God’s Church has always understood, through Philadelphia, ever since I was a part of it and on into time here, that the censer full of incense, the incense that goes up before God’s throne is symbolic of our prayers.  In the Old Testament that’s what it was symbolic of; something very physical that was done back then and the offerings and so forth and that which was cast upon in the fire and the incense that rose up before God, sweet smelling incense beaten fine, how they had to do it, how we’re to beat fine our prayers before God and all those analogies of things we’ve heard sermons of in times past.

This is what it’s talking about here and it says, these offered it up, which are the prayers of the saints.  And they sang a new song, saying, You are worthy to take the book, and to open the Seals thereof: so it’s talking about something here that’s prophetic, but it goes through time too, it’s showing something that’s prophetic in time but notice what it says: You were worthy to take the book and to open the Seals, for You were slain, and have redeemed, notice what it’s about here, it’s about the 144,000.  ...and have redeemed them to God, it’s about the 144,000.  It says ‘us’ in the Old King James here but it’s talking in context here about the prayers of ‘the saints’ in this context here, so it’s referring back to verse 8 grammatically and correctly so here; and have redeemed them to God by Your blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; later on it talks about the 144,000, but it’s about that process that God has been doing for 6,000 years bringing us up to this point in time, this moment in time of all that God has done and what their picture is.

And have made them unto our God, takes us all the way up to a specific moment in time.  And have made them unto our God kings and priests: and they shall reign on the earth. 144,000: and that was all finished, that work was all finished at a specific moment in time 1335 days before Jesus Christ returns; the people that were sealed, the final.  All the sealing that had taken place, brings us all the way up to the end picturing that, all the prayers of the saints.  It’s looking forward in time, not just at this moment here, but looking forward and saying this is what You have done.  You have accomplished this and these are the prayers of the saints through time that have accomplished this great thing that God has done; His Government that’s going to come back and return with Jesus Christ as King of kings.

And that’s why when we come on the scene here toward the end, at the time when the Seventh Seal is finally being addressed here and things are taking place, that we come on the scene in Revelation chapter 8 and it talks about ‘more prayers being added’, or ‘more incense’ and this is what it’s talking about, that which continues on, that which is something that still has to be accomplished, even after the sealing has taken place.  Yes, the sealing has already been accomplished, God has done His great work, but He’s still working in our lives to mould and fashion us, there are still things that are to be done in us.  But God knows there’s a specific number sealed and that was done in a specific moment in time.  That’s awesome to understand!

And so we go back here to Revelation 8:3 - And this other angel came and stood at the altar, holding a golden censer; and there was given unto him more incense, it says ‘much’ meaning ‘more’ as well here, more incense that he should offer it with/add it to the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which is before the throne.  So God’s work continued on after it was already accomplished concerning 144,000, concerning all those, it says, by all those twenty-four elders when they kneel down there before God and they said what they did there in those verses.

Awesome here with what was being given deeper understanding in this. The comment was made in what was covered in that sermon....

So God’s is only now beginning to reveal more that’s contained in the meaning of these verses and there is more to come...some that can’t even be yet covered;

God has a way of revealing and a time of revealing things.

But this/the other angel comes in at a time after the seven angels had been given their Trumpets and he begins to do something: (he begins) taking the incense and it goes on in the next two verses to explain all that this angel does....

And as I talked about even there....

...but it all covers a longer period of time and so it’s recorded in this specific manner.

So it’s just addressing what this angel does, it doesn’t give a time flow here of what happened with the seven angels that were given the seven Trumpets.  It comes back to that in a moment and then continues on.  But again here, truly has to do with all the prayers that have gone up since that period of time and those prayers that have become more intense since the times of fasting because we focused more at that time.  God gave us a stronger focus at that time between the fastings that took place before and the fastings that are taking place now.

Going on here in Revelation 8:4 - And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand.  And as was mentioned there, this is not an instant event but one that’s ongoing, just like smoke of the incense that goes up, it continues on; something that began at a specific moment in time, actually for over two years now and it began as soon as we were launched into this period of time.  God’s work continued on, prayers continued on but our prayers became more intense when God gave us a focus on fasting, because it was about where we are now.  That’s what the fasting was about back then, that’s why we have reviewed those sermons, because it had to do with where we were going and what God was going to accomplish and what God was going to do; but we had two years to wait. And so again here, just as smoke ascends our prayers ascend up before God.

And then it was also brought out in this particular sermon here....

...this does not change the reality that addresses the beginning of this angel’s actions with the First Trumpet sounding and what is stated about this angel beginning to offer up the smoke of the incense.

....the First Trumpet sounded and in the midst of this its prophetic fulfillment began.

Because when it comes back on the scene after it talks about this angel...the Trumpets were given and then it talks about this angel, then it comes back to all seven angels then in sequence talking about them sounding and what they did.

...but by revelation, as with so many things that God has given to us, we understand, we have been told that the Trumpet sounded at a specific moment in time.

But other things were stated about that Trumpet, which we’re going to get into.  Verse 5: again as a part of this sermon it was stated...

Now let’s read the next action of this angel who came into the midst of the seven who were given the Seven Trumpets.

And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire (on) of the altar and cast it to the earth: or better (meaning here) poured it out upon the earth...

Just as the incense goes up, this is poured out; it’s a continuing action just as much as prayers go up and this is being poured out upon the earth when it happens, when it begins.  It’s poured out upon the earth, an action similar to smoke ascending up.

...and there were, (as we read about,) [or as its stated in places in the Greek as well...and there followed] voices/sounds and noises and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake/(shaking) [or ‘shaking’ as the word means in Greek].

It’s not just an earthquake. It can involve earthquakes but there’s a lot of shaking that goes along with things that happen in the end-time here.

So the fire from the altar is very specifically about the execution of God’s judgment upon the world and that’s where we are now.  And so when it talks about those prayers that go up and He takes finally, at a moment in time, the coals from off the fire (as it talks about here), and fire from off the altar, and he pours it upon the earth - that’s about destruction.  It’s about destruction; power of God to destroy, and it’s connected with the prayers of the saints.  What could be more meaningful from what we have experienced?  From what we started to focus upon, what God gave us to focus upon two years ago with one fast and then a two-day fast; that’s why we’ve reviewed that.

And I hope it’s deep in your mind what those fasts were about, because that’s what these fasts are about – except we have matured and we have grown in deeper understanding, and indeed in an understanding to be at one with God, because this is about God’s will, it’s about His mercy, and we have to see that mercy and be at one with God in His mercy and His love to this earth.  Because I have heard things that individuals have expressed and questions they’ve asked, and sometimes at the beginning of all this there is that question and that concern that’s still in the mind about such prayers, about the ability to pray about such things that are happening and are going to happen on this earth, and about understanding God’s mercy in it and that it’s a matter of God’s love.  Because sometimes by the questions and by the comments I have come to realize that there is a misunderstanding or a lack of understanding that this is a matter of God’s mercy, or this is a matter of God’s love and we’re not in unity yet with His love and with His mercy.  I hope you understand what I’m saying.  Does that make sense?

And so God has given us time to grow in that over a two year period here to come to better understand that this is what the world needs.  He’s let you experience... two years with a belly full because your focus has grown to a point where it’s so great.  You see that the ugliness in this world is so great in a way you couldn’t before – and especially you who are new, you’ve grown in an ability to see that in a magnified way in your life.  How much more those who’ve been in God’s Church for many, many years now?  I can tell you, they’re filled to the full. They’re filled to the full because those things have been magnified in our eyes of how corrupt, how sick, how filthy, how evil this world is.  I have seen that more in the last two years than I saw in all of the previous time being in God’s Church, just to let you know.  We’re filled with it and God’s let us be filled with it because we understand now more deeply the matter of mercy and love in that it has to end – every bit of it!  Get rid of it! No matter how bad it might seem to human beings!  Death is not a pretty thing but there are times it’s a necessary thing, and that’s where we are.  It’s very necessary in order to have God’s Kingdom ruling on this earth.

And so the fire from off the altar is very much about the execution of God’s judgment, and that being is about ready to start doing that, to pour that out upon the earth.  And so over the past two years and into the future the smoke ascended up ...because it starts at a specific moment in time and comes up through this fast we’re getting ready to go into.  From that moment on is a time that pictures a continual pouring out of those things upon the earth.  That’s where we are in time.  That means that not everything happens on the day after Passover, please understand.  It’s a beginning, okay?  Our prayers didn’t ascend up before God in one day. Our growth and our understanding of these things did not mature in one day; but God is using the ‘Time and Half-a-time’ to finish His work, to finish what is described here.

Going on in what was said in that particular sermon... Revelation 8:6 –we then read about the seven angels again.

Verse 6 - And the seven angels who had the Seven Trumpets prepared themselves to sound. [In other words, the seven angels who had the Seven Trumpets were ready to blow them.] (Another translation says, ‘Now the seven angels who had the Seven Trumpets made ready to blow them.’)

So again, not a matter of time sequence here, don’t get confused in thinking, “Well, wait a minute, this other angel here and what he’s doing... because what he does, he does for 3½ years... talking about the incense that are gathered together and then talking about the fire from off the altar, it’s covering a span of the entire period of time.  And the Trumpets... and especially the first one, covers the entire period of time!  How many times have I made comment about that?  That the First Trumpet is fulfilled over and over again in a more powerful way through all the Trumpets that follow.  It’s a complete process just as much as the First Seal was an ongoing process as the other Seals were opened by God.  Same sort of thing.

The first angel sounded/blew his Trumpet and there followed/there was, same as verse 5 in (the sense of what’s being said here,) [and there was/there followed] hail and fire mingled with blood, or in other words, that’s talking about that which appears, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.

And the second angel sounded and it was as it were a great mountain...

Again, something that happens quickly.  But what happens with the First Trumpet continues on through all the rest.

And how do I express this next part....?  What if the first angel sounded his Trumpet the equivalent of twice?  Not that it sounded twice.  But please understand something here about being the equivalent on a spiritual plane in the sense of what it fulfills and what it accomplishes.  (I might as well just throw it all out here....)  He sounded once and very likely only once, but the fulfillment of it is more than once, of what he did.  There is a period of time that is fulfilled, that is very specific about the First Trumpet, but as it’s always been said, what he does, what he did, when it began, it goes through all the rest of the Trumpets.  It’s a cumulative process.  But there are other things that are yet to come from the First Trumpet.  That’s what God is giving to you today, to let you know there are still more to come from the First Trumpet that’s only about the First Trumpet and not about the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Seventh.  It’s about that Trumpet alone.

So it has something that was given in the beginning that is fulfilled through all Seven, but it’s also separate in that there is something that it does that it fulfills by itself only.  I hope that makes sense to you.  The Second is all about the Second.  The Third is all about the Third...and so forth. But there’s more about the First Trumpet that’s very powerful and in time you become more in awe of what God has done even there, because of even this interjection here of this other angel and what he’s done and what he’s doing.  It’s a beautiful thing!

Everything that God does is beautiful.  Everything that we’ve been talking about from the beginning of the sermon – when you understand physical Passover, coming out of Egypt, things about Pharaoh; when you understand the analogies that are there spiritually for us...  When you understand that Passover and this Passover more on a spiritual plane and where God has brought the Church and the world to this point in time, it is awesome!  And everything is so beautiful!

I think of Mr. Armstrong when he talked about the pieces of a puzzle and God was giving him pieces to fill in, and more and more the picture was becoming clearer and clearer.  And that’s the way it is today.  God has given us much more to fill in, and the more you see the more awesome it becomes, and candidly the greater God becomes in your mind!  You become more in awe of God and what God is doing and the beauty of it all.

That’s why the Seventh Thunder is so incredibly powerful and beautiful, because it’s about God being manifested to the Church and to the world in a greater way than He ever has been.  He’s revealing Himself, His power and His might to mankind and to the Church in a way He has never done before, truly.  He’s given us so much brethren, He truly has.  We’ll probably come back to this; I have more to cover here.

But this is exciting!  It’s exciting for me!  It’s why all of these sermons that we’ve been going through, going back in time and looking where we’ve been and where God’s brought us since all of this began, to be at this point today is moving to me, is exciting to me, is inspiring to me, it gives me greater boldness and confidence...and you will grow in those things as well more and more and more.

We can look back to the beginning of this year and we see a continuing increase in the intensity of the Thunders, but not in all of them... and so we see what’s been happening, we focused a great deal on one, two, three and four as we’ve gone forward and there’s one that’s not yet been intensified. It’s had some rippling in the beginning even as the book was being written that we’ve talked about, but one that we need to be praying about so that many more can be awakened within the scattered church.  And so this is something specific that’s going to be a part of this particular fast that we have, and a desire that we have just as we did back then at the beginning in some of these fasts and that two-day fast; but this one’s going to become a little more specific in what we’re going to petition God for, in what we’re asking God for and why we’re doing it and why God’s brought us to this point.  We’re blessed to be able to make an even greater petition to God concerning Passover on this Passover, because it’s very much about those who were set apart, who had opportunity before and now are spiritually asleep.

We’re at a point in time that Trumpets and Thunders are going to have an incredible impact on the earth, because we’re now at a time for the deliverance of the scattered nations of Israel and for the rest of the world with what Biblically would be referred to as all ‘Gentile’ nations, all the rest of the world.

So we’ve talked about, again, the first four Thunders increasing over the past couple of months and now it’s time for the most important part of the next Thunder to sound and I’m going to read to you about this beginning in page 100 of the fourth chapter of ‘2008 – God’s Final Witness’.

The Fifth Thunder

The next three thunders have a duality that includes both the Church of God and the world. It has already been explained that the Sixth Seal is a time of transition from end-time tribulation on the Church to end-time tribulation on this world. The last three thunders are a direct part of that transition.

Some of this obviously began in small part earlier on, but now it’s time that they increase all the more so all the way to the end.

#5 The Fifth Thunder is death.

The first three thunders obviously include a marked increase in death from escalation in worldwide devastation. This thunder is in addition to that destruction and will occur in a specific manner.

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In small part, the Fifth Thunder has already begun within the Church of God that was scattered. The world will be fully unaware of the first phase of this thunder because they do not know God’s Church. However, the Church that was scattered will become fully aware of its reality!

This Fifth Thunder is divided into three specific phases of death. (1) The first phase is death within the Church of God that was scattered. It will be specifically about a marked increase in the death of its leadership (the ministry). (2) The second phase will be a sudden escalation in the death of notable people in the world.

It blows people’s minds when they read some of this; to think, “How could a prophet of God say such things?!”  Go through the pages of this Bible and read what God’s going to do to this world and why.  Amazing!  But man doesn’t understand.

(3) The third phase will be a sudden escalation of death in the world from plagues.

This happens much later on as a result of two witnesses, but much later on, past this period of what’s called a ‘Time’.  It doesn’t happen until much later on toward the last period of ‘Half-a-Time’.  Going on here with number 1....

1. This first phase of this Fifth Thunder has already begun in a very small way upon the Church of God that was scattered, after the prophesied apostasy (2 Thes. 2). This phase of the Fifth Thunder is given as a great chastening to those who have been scattered so that they can be shaken from the deep spiritual sleep....

And what will it take to shake people, to shake them out of sleep?  ...in larger numbers let alone being shaken out of sleep.  This!  Just as what it’s going to take for the world to be humbled before God and the return of Jesus Christ.

This phase of the Fifth Thunder is given as a great chastening to those who have been scattered so that they can be shaken from the deep spiritual sleep where they so proudly rest. Sadly, spiritual arrogance and pride are so deeply entrenched in the hearts and minds of those who have been refusing to hear God’s warnings....

Who listens?  Who would listen to me?  Who am I?  They have their mind made up, I understand that.  If I were in their shoes I’d feel the same way...and so would you.

(...that many will not be able to humble themselves enough to accept what God’s end-time prophet is telling them.) They will not acknowledge his words, which are from God to them, because they do not like the way they are being addressed. Instead, these will stubbornly cling to their own ideas of how they believe God should teach them through their own organizations.

If they didn’t believe that they’d be someplace else.

This phase of the Fifth Thunder is one of my own choosing...

Some get upset by hearing that one and they don’t understand it was my own choosing but it has to do with the mind that God has given and moulded and fashioned that’s at one with Him, because this is God’s will.

This phase of the Fifth Thunder is one of my own choosing, which God has granted me as part of His own will and purpose for the Church (this will be clarified more fully in the Sixth Thunder).  The method of this one last great chastening, that is for the purpose of helping to awaken some from the spiritual coma they are in, is one that God has left for me to determine as one of His end-time witnesses, who will be given far greater power to pronounce plagues “as often as they will” (Revelation 11:6)....

And they don’t ‘will’ any more than what God wills.  Do we understand that? Nobody goes out here and does anything fully on their own will apart from God.  If we understand spiritually what this means we’ll understand this is because it is a matter of God’s will.  Moses didn’t do anything that wasn’t a matter of God’s will.  Elijah didn’t do anything that wasn’t a matter of God’s will.  Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jesus Christ... He made it very clear, ‘It is the Father’s will...’  We must understand that!  It’s a matter of God’s will; it’s a matter of being at one with God, doing His will, not our will.

... “as often as they will” (Revelation 11:6) in order to help humble mankind so they will repent and turn to God.

This is what our fasts are about.  This is what we have willingly chose because God has blessed us to be able to do so, to enter into fasting.  And now we fast to ask God to help give the spirit of fasting, of humility to others so that they can be blessed, so that they can have a relationship with the Great God of this universe.  There is no other way.  When pride is there they can’t have a relationship with God.  It’s mercy and love that they come to be able to have that relationship, just as it was for you.

This specific phase of the Fifth Thunder is given in order to awaken brethren (spiritually) to the last opportunity they will have to repent, in order to enter the promised time they have been taught about ever since their minds were first opened to God’s word. All who fail to repent will die...

It’s not from me, it’s from God.

All who fail to repent [of that scattered body] will die in the final tribulation and be awakened to judgment at the end of the 1,000 years of God’s reign on earth.

God has already shown the number of those who will respond. It is given in the form of a percentage from the fifth chapter in Ezekiel.

I could go read all this but we’ve gone through that many times, you’ve read this many of times.  It goes through and talks about some of those...and yet what has our desire been?  What did God show us our desire should be in that first fast and then later in that two-day fast?  What did God show you that your heart and your desire should be in your fasting?  That whatever it takes, however it can be done by God to bring more than the prophecies of Ezekiel to pass.  How great that more could be brought to repentance.  It’s a beautiful thing!  Our desire in those fasts, our desire now in these fasts is whatever it takes to bring more to repentance then let it be.  If tribulation had started over two years ago we’d be held more fully to Ezekiel.  It is because of those fasts that there is opportunity and blessing for far more, not only in the scattered church to be saved through all this, but far more in the world, far more in the scattered nations of Israel.  How awesome is that?  In whatever way...and God has shown us what that way is. We’ve been living through it; two years of incredible mercy and patience and growth to His Church.

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God has shown that He has taken His protection away from His ministry that was scattered (those ministers who have not repented). This began to be made manifest less than a year ago.  Although it was news in many parts of the world when it happened (I was in Australia and it was in the news there).... [at that particular time], the world did not take much notice of an event that happened in one of the scattered groups less than a year ago.  On March 12, 2005, in a hotel in Wisconsin where some had gathered for Sabbath services, a disgruntled member of their congregation entered the meeting room and fired 22 bullets from a 9mm handgun within a minute, killing seven people. Before the shooting stopped, the pastor, the pastor's son and five other church members were dead and four others were wounded. Then, the disgruntled member killed himself.

It was a horrifying thing!  The world didn’t pay much attention to it.  It was in the news because it was a church... but it revealed something very powerfully for those who had ears to hear and eyes to see.

This news thundered throughout the scattered Church. Many asked how this could have happened, [especially in that group], since nothing like this had ever happened in any Sabbath service meeting in all the history of God’s Church. The answer to this is not one that the scattered Church wants to hear—God has removed His protection from all who have refused to repent!

It’s as simple as that.  It’s a very powerful thing.  God blesses us, just like He talks about two witnesses at the end, He gives them protection.  Just like your relationship with God, how you come through everything that comes to pass has to do with your individual relationship with God, it truly does.  But when sin exists, unrepented of sin, if we fall spiritually asleep, if we’re not living what we know we should be living, if we’re not striving to live what we should be living, if we’re not fasting and praying about the change that we know needs to take place in our life and asking God over and over again for the help to live what we know we must live....  You don’t want God’s protection taken away, especially in this time period we’re getting ready to go into, nor any time in life, truly.  You want God’s protection, you want God’s favour, but your relationship with your God is an individual matter.

And so it’s been with the scattered church.  And because of things that have been done God has removed His protection, His blessings, and there are certain things that God has shown and revealed, but saving, not doing it back then, but showing at different times here, making it very clear that He’s indeed removed that protection of things that hadn’t happened in that manner in times past that were allowed to happen so that we could learn from it and understand the need for it to be repeated many times over far greater, in a far greater way in the future.  And that’s what we’re praying about in this fast for Passover.

I’m praying about this very thing that was written about back then, in a more intense way so that more can be saved!  Not for the sake of destruction!  Not for the sake of pain and suffering that people are going to go through when ministers die!  Not for that at all!  And people have a hard time understanding this is not a time for nice pleasantries in the world.  This is not a time for healings to take place in the world!  This is not a time like the time of Christ!  This is not a time like Philadelphia and what God gave to the Church at that time!  We’re at a different time and people have to understand the distinction; you have to understand the distinction and be at peace with it.  Not only be at peace with it, but to be in full agreement with it because you agree with God and what God’s doing and how He’s doing it.  You see the necessity, you see God’s love, and you see God’s mercy, even if it means some whom you love do not come through this.  And that’s what tears people apart and sometimes causes problems with being at one with God.

When you were baptized you gave everything to God; first and foremost your will.  That’s what you told God.  God knows what’s best for your family, for your loved ones, for people whom you love; and if it be the hundred years...that’s what’s best.  And if you don’t agree with that and you’re not in unity with that then there are some problems there that need to be repented of.  Now, that can sound hard to some people. God loves us more than you can love anyone!  God loves those whom you love far more than you love them.  You think you love someone a lot?  You think you don’t want to see them go through difficult things... you don’t want to see them die in what’s coming?  You think God’s love isn’t far greater than that?  ...His desire for them?  God knows what’s best, we don’t; and you don’t.  What’s best for them can be totally different from what you might desire or think, what your will is.

So sometimes these things force us to examine ourselves, it truly does.  Where are you in your relationship with the judgments of God on this earth at the end-time?  And it begins with self; always understanding God doesn’t owe it to us, nor anyone else, but His love is far greater than ours and ultimately His desire is that every one of us is going to be in His Family.  That’s God’s love!  And you just have to be patient.

God’s been patient for 6,000 plus years to bring us to this point, to bring us to the first phase of His Family being on this earth!  His patience has been great through time!  His desire to see the thousand years, His desire to see that last hundred years is way beyond yours!  ...that everyone who has ever lived is going to have an opportunity to be resurrected and then have the opportunity to become a part of His Family!  We can’t understand those things very well sometimes.  Massive love!  Far greater than yours and mine, truly.

Sometimes we take things as being harsh and cruel when they’re merciful and a matter of God’s love and patience, because we’re human and we think selfishly and we don’t get it.  We don’t get sometimes what God is doing and the power He’s doing it to accomplish His Family.  You just have to wait a little longer.  I wish I had more time to explain some of these things that go along with this.

I think of when Abraham will be resurrected.  I think of when Moses will be resurrected.  I think of King David and when he’s resurrected.  Most of their families...they can’t be there during the thousand years.  They have to wait until the thousand years is over to finally see them.  And just because you live right now doesn’t mean that it’s owed to you, that everyone you love and all your families, and everyone connected throughout whatever that means in lineage; you may have to wait a thousand years too.  Do you understand what I’m talking about?  ...that we have to wait for God to do His great work sometimes?  It’s a matter of His love and mercy and kindness to us all and that there’s a purpose being worked out in our lives that we yield ourselves to and we are at peace with understanding God knows what’s best far better than what I do, far better than what you do.  I could expound on that more but I don’t have the time.  Going on in this....

In the same organization, only three months later...

See, what God was showing and doing was that he was helping me to understand what was happening in the Church and why it was happening so that I could write about it, so that I could come into greater unity and oneness with His will and what was taking place and where He was leading these things to be written about and what He wanted the Church to grasp and comprehend.  That’s what this is about; so we could see what was transpiring then to prepare us for a time that is now ready to begin in a greater way and needs to begin in a greater way.  I have great desire, immense desire; if there was any way to do it I wish that everyone who was scattered could repent and come on into this new age, but they can’t.  And so whatever it takes in order to bring more, to offer that at least, to make it possible...that’s what God has granted.  More!  ...and that’s wonderful!

I am so looking forward to every person that I don’t know to come back, and those that I do know that I’ve walked to God’s house side by side and council blended sweet, that we had fellowship in the past, and to be brought back into that fellowship... I can’t tell you how exciting that is to me, but I understand that not all can accept that and receive that from God.  With loved ones, people I love, that I know for them they have to wait a thousand years; so be it!  And I know they’ll be very zealous when they’re resurrected!  They’ll be incredibly zealous at that time and respond to God; and they’ll learn things and come to deeper appreciation and understanding of things that they can’t right now, couldn’t in this age.

In the same organization, only three months later, one of the three television presenters, a long time pastor of the Church, died from a staph infection. This too rattled this organization and others. This man was beloved and respected by many, including myself. He performed the wedding ceremony for my wife and me. A few years later, he was among the ministers who laid hands upon me when I was ordained into the ministry of God’s Church.

In addition to this minister’s death, the very minister that assisted him died from the same kind of staph infection only two months later.

See, this meant more to me because of something that happened with some of us in God’s Church, what this individual did.  The other one who performed the wedding, highly respected and looked up to.  I had great respect for him; truly a shepherd, one you call a shepherd in God’s Church, one that I learned a great deal from.  The other individual who had been a full time minister was made an assistant minister to this individual who died.  He was there to anoint him and caught the same staph infection.  But it wasn’t too much before that, when God’s Church didn’t know what to do, when I didn’t know what to do, when we knew we couldn’t stay with the same organization we were in and felt it was very presumptuous to have our own Feast of Tabernacles, we went to this particular organization’s Feast site to attend with them, asking God to help us to see if this was the one we should become associated with or not, to make it clear to us what we should do.

It’s kind of interesting of how some people who are a part of our group were there at that Feast and they were excited about introducing this man to my wife and myself, who were in that same region of the country serving people, and when they brought him up to introduce him to us, as soon as he heard my wife and my name he turned around and walked away.  Shocked the people who were there, thinking, “How could a minister of God turn around and not even say hello.”  It’s because he had certain feelings toward us already, and yet we were there seeking help.  So you see, this doesn’t mean as much to people as it does to me and my wife; and so I can see something that God did here and I could tell you some other stories, in the same thing where ministers have died and relationships that were there in the past of things that were done wrong.  And so God has made it very clear here that there are some things that are of great necessity sometimes in order to honour Him, in order to honour His name, in order to live this way of life truly, faithfully, before God, in a right way before God, and that means so much.

And so God’s revealed a great deal through some of these things that have happened and I hate it when they do happen.  I don’t like those choices that people make.  I didn’t like the choice he made to make a scene and hurt other people’s feelings. At that time a minister with God’s spirit to do something like that to others?  ....to hurt his own congregation?  There’s a lot to learn from that and he has to wait a thousand years; and that’s what’s best for him.  And when he’s awakened he’s going to be able to swallow a lot of pride real quick like and he’s going to be zealous toward God.  I can guarantee you, he’s going to be zealous toward God; repent big time!  And so will everyone else who at this age can’t repent, who used to walk to God’s house side by side and council blended sweet.

So what we’re getting ready to go through, I see as a great matter of God’s love and mercy.  And if you can see it within the scattered church you can also see it for the rest of the world; and for those whom you love, that sometimes you don’t want to see them suffer or go through hard times or die in what we’re getting ready to go through.  Who does?  Did I receive any pleasure in this when it finally happened? Not one iota!  On the contrary, it was very sobering to me individually in my relationship with God.  We all have choices to make.

These three ministers, who died within the past year, were part of the same organization, the Living Church of God. The significance of the death of two of its ministers from an infectious disease should not go unnoticed in the environs of the scattered Church because the prayers of the congregation for the healing of both ministers went unanswered.

Powerful!

This is important to understand because the leader of this group, Mr. Roderick Meredith, has requested that all people in his organization fast before God, asking Him [speaking of God] for the gift of healing upon their ministers for the purpose of helping people in the world see that they are the organization that God is working through to do His Work on earth.

That isn’t the right kind of prayer, that isn’t the right purpose of fasting. Like I mentioned earlier... to get something, to lift you up, to raise you up?  That’s not what it’s about.

...Mr. Meredith has asked this of his membership on several different occasions over the past few years.

The same thing, to fast so that they could have the gift of healing.  That’s not what fasting is about, to get something for yourself, to raise you up or to give you prosperity, or to give some blessing to raise you up above other people...on the contrary, it’s about humility and humbling yourself before God and praying for people for the right purpose and reason.  I could go on and read some more of this, but I won’t... I’ll read one part of it.

...The last era of God’s Church must be humbled so that it will repent and return to Him, and this world must also be humbled in order to receive Him.

It’s the same thing, the desire that people be humbled, because pride and haughtiness and anything that resists the King of kings cannot be allowed to continue on in order for the Millennium to become a reality.  I hope that all of us are at one with that!  ...and see the glory and the mercy and the love of God in all of that, because if we’re not we need to examine ourselves in fasting and ask God for help to truly be at one with Him so that we can pray about such things boldly and confidently.  You can’t tell the world this, they’ll think you’re nuttier than a fruitcake.  They already do.  But to have such a prayer, to understand the difference in time, to understand what we’re getting ready to go through, they’re going to have to hear a lot of things they don’t like; and they will be humbled one way or another!

We’ve also talked about how the story of Elijah is going to be repeated, but I want to go back into and finish with some scriptures here (Isaiah 58), because this is what it’s all about.  This is what fasting is all about.  Our desire is contained here in Isaiah 58, it truly is in a very powerful way – first of all for ourselves, that we respond to God properly, and then to others, toward others; that our heart go out to others in the same spirit!

Isaiah 58:1 - Cry aloud and do not spare, God says. People don’t like to hear what is true, but more and more as we get closer and closer they’re going to hear things that they don’t like; but their choice and their only choice within the scattered church and within the scattered nations of Israel is that they will come to repentance.  That’s their choice that God is offering them; and if they don’t make the right choice it’s better for them to wait a thousand years.

Cry aloud, do not spare, lift up your voice like a trumpet, and show My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.  That’s going to be accomplished far more powerfully in the period called the ‘Time’ that we’ve now entered.  The ‘Half-a-Time’ isn’t about the scattered nations of Israel.  The ‘Half-a-Time’ is more specifically about the rest of the world.

Verse 6 - Is not this the fast that I have chosen?   So He chastens them for the wrong kind of fasting – to gain something from God, to get something from God; and He says, Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen? In other words, isn’t its purpose To loosen the bands, ‘to open’ as the Hebrew means here, or ‘to undo’ the bands... What do these Days of Unleavened Bread picture?  Coming out of captivity!  What could be more momentous and more meaningful than what we’re doing right now, where we are in time, and this Passover, and this fast that we’re getting ready to enter into...  What could have more meaning as we think about things like this? ...to undo the bands/fetters/cuffs/shackles, is what this word means.  In other words, that which is to hold people captive; the bands of wickedness; to undo, to loosen the bands, the fetters, the shackles of wickedness, evil that’s on this world  ...to undo/remove the heavy burdens, that churches have put on this world, that false religions have put on people!  I think of the big churches that are built throughout Europe; oppression that built those things, hardship on people to give their wealth to build something so ‘luxurious and beautiful’ so that everyone could see that they were ‘the church’.

... and to let the oppressed go free... Is that your heart and your desire?  ...for everyone ‘to let the oppressed go free’?  I love this, it’s beautiful.  We’re coming out of Egypt.  The world is being brought out of Egypt!  Finally, the oppressed will go free!  The world’s been oppressed, religions have oppressed, governments have oppressed people, people have oppressed people, corporations and businesses oppress people.  You look at anything out there and people oppress people all across the board.  Men oppress women in the world, race oppresses race, neighbour oppresses neighbour.  It’s the incredible selfishness of human beings!

So is that our desire?  To enter into a fast in that spirit and that mind?  That first of all we want to see ourselves and repent of the things where we’re guilty of this in our lives and that now we desire this for the world?  ...and to let the oppress go free and that now you break/tear down... you are blessed to be a part of tearing down every yoke?  The word in Hebrew means ‘oppression’.  You’re blessed to be called at an end-time to help break down, to tear down every oppression on this earth.  How is it going to be done?  Thunders and Trumpets and what’s remaining!  That’s what’s going to do it!  That’s how God’s going to accomplish it!  I’m at one with that.  Bring on the day, mightily so, to save this world, to save those who are willing to be saved.

Verse 7 - Is it not to deal/divide/share, to share what you have.  Isn’t it to deal/share your bread to the hungry?  Who’s hungry?  The whole world is and they don’t even know it.  They’re starving and they don’t even know it!  ...and we’re blessed to be a part of helping to feed them.  ...and that you bring the poor/weak/afflicted who are cast out of your house? Whether it be in the church who were cast out, who are not a part with God because we were all cast out and God brought some of us to repentance and we’d be doing the same thing if it weren’t for the mercy, the grace, the purpose of God; ‘but by the grace of God there go I’ and mean it with all your being and know it with all your being!  That you see yourself first and then you have desire toward others!

I have great desire to see them come back!  I am so looking forward to it!  So it’s not hard to fast and pray, truly, for my brothers and sisters who are scattered!  It’s a mild thing to have done.

So that when you see the naked... Who’s naked?  Sometimes in our own midst someone who doesn’t see something and you have patience with them, you give them time.  You give them time for God’s spirit to work with them.  You don’t have to work with them and change everything in people’s lives.  I don’t have to.  But you let God’s spirit work with people and so you have patience with things in different ones in God’s Church, to give them time to repent and change and respond to God’s spirit.  That’s your spirit and your desire...those who are naked, because you see their nakedness.  Thank God you’re clothed if you can see someone’s nakedness, because that’s the only way you can see someone’s nakedness; is if you’re clothed in that area.  You’re probably naked somewhere else and don’t see it!  Isn’t that amazing how it works?  So we’ve got to see ourselves first and then those who are naked, the scattered church...they’re all naked and they don’t even know it.  Does our heart go out to them?  ...and to the world; they’re totally naked.  They’ve never been given a chance to see the truth!  Thank God they’re going to be humbled now to be brought to the truth.

Think about that when you’re fasting and praying.  Think about Isaiah here when you’re fasting and praying on Passover day, mightily so, and pray about these things with all your heart, with all your being, with all your soul, to a very loving and merciful God, because we’re blessed to share in what is coming, to be a part of it, to be at one with God.

...and that you hide not yourself from your own flesh? Do we hide ourselves from the suffering of the world?  Do we hide ourselves from the church that was scattered?  Do we sometimes hide ourselves from one another and don’t have the kind of proper care and concern for each other that we should have?

Because we’ve been blessed to see these things and God’s blessed us to grow in these things He’s led us to the verses living in us.  Verse 8 - Then shall your light break forth in the morning, and your health shall spring forth speedily: God has blessed us so much, because as a whole within God’s Church there’s been repentance over and over again, the desire to draw closer to God, and through those fasts and through the past couple of years.  And we’ve been blessed mightily.  God has given us much more.  I never dreamed that we would have more truths.  I was convicted when the 50th came along – that’s it!  I was deeply convicted no more!  Little did I know God had a surprise there for us: 7 more great big ones!   Powerful!  Mighty!

Then shall your light break forth as the morning, and your health shall spring forth speedily; spiritually your life, your spiritual health, and your righteousness shall go before you, and it’s God’s – we’re blessed to share in it because He shares with us.  And we want to share with others!  That’s what grace is.  ...and your righteousness shall go before you and the glory of the Eternal shall be your rearguard.  God’s always there on every side of us, truly.

Then shall you call, and the Eternal shall answer; We’ve been so blessed to be so close to God, truly.  ...you shall cry, and He shall say, Here I am. When you take away from the midst of you the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and the speaking of vanity; So we have to apply these things first, and as we apply them God then gives us more and more of that life and that power that comes from Him and we’re able to see more and more, a blessing and an ability to fast, not just for ourselves to conquer and overcome, to be freed from slavery, to be freed as these verses are talking about; but for others.  We want them to be ‘freed from the bands of wickedness’ as well, to be a part of that, to fast for them.

And that you draw out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; that’s where we are, it’s what we’re doing in this fast; drawing out your soul, digging deep, fasting for others, to the hungry, to satisfy, in other words ‘seek to satisfy’ the afflicted soul; that’s what we want for this world.  We want God’s Kingdom.  We’re asking God constantly with deeper meaning and understanding than ever before, “Holy Father, Your Kingdom Come!”

...then shall your light rise in obscurity, and your darkness shall be as the noonday: Can’t even begin to put that one into words; where we are...and some who are going to fulfill that in an incredibly awesome way as soon as Jesus Christ returns, to be changed, and others of you then into the future to be changed to do an incredible work during that last hundred years as a part of the Kingdom of God.

Verse 12 – Then, this is what follows... they that be of you shall build the old waste places: and you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; and you shall be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.  How blessed are you to share in the fulfillment of that in a very powerful, powerful way?

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