Pentecost to Pentecost

Ron Weinland

May 27, 2012

Pentecost 2012 is here and we are still here. As Willem Henderson said to me yesterday, “We move forward.” That is true!  As a matter of fact there is a great deal in the sermon here today that’s about that.

For those who have heard the pre-recorded sermon I wanted to mention this, because I did pre-record a Pentecost sermon that was put online for Australia, New Zealand, and Europe because by the time this would come around it would be too late for them, so I did pre-record a sermon, it is this sermon here, but for all of them I’m just letting them know that there’s more, quite a bit added to this sermon today.  I’m not sure of the amount of time it might take but I’m going to take whatever it takes to get through all of this.

So, I thought I’d just mention that because I’m sure the word will spread in Australia, New Zealand, and Europe, they might want to go back to this, especially the last half and listen to it again.

You have gone through a lot; a lot of thoughts and emotions over the past day... and although disappointing that Jesus Christ has not appeared in His return to this earth, He is still coming. There is simply more that we have not understood that God will reveal to us, for we are God’s people and He does love us so very much as I mentioned in the pre-recorded sermon that was given on Sabbath.

At first, as the stark reality drew nearer yesterday, my heart was heavy because of you—all of you in God’s Church and all who are in your families, children, etc. But as the time has gone forward, I am becoming more excited about what God has led us to experience. These moments are not fun to live through.  We have lived through a lot of things in God’s Church, especially those going back to the time of the apostasy and all the struggles we’ve had since that time, because it hasn’t been an easy road to travel and God reveals to us those things we need as we need them.  There is a great spiritual war that continues on.  There are those things that God does not let everyone know all at one time.  And yet the events and those things that He says are absolute, just as in the sermon on Sabbath, they are certain, they will come to pass!

And so, what we are experiencing, we need to understand, is important to God and it is important to moulding and fashioning us.  God is not finished with us; we have some more moulding and fashioning.  There are things, that when you go through it, if you will yield yourself to the process – because not everyone likes to yield themselves to the process and obey God exactly the way God says to obey Him – to wait on Him, to wait until He gives what He wants us to see and know.  We have to be careful about those things, we truly do.  But God will always bless us and always give us what we need in His time, and if we yield ourselves to the process we grow.

We have opportunities that God has given us in times past – how many times in sermons have I made comment about the hard battles that I’ve gone through, that you’ve gone through – but I can only tell you firsthand for myself and my feelings and what I’ve experienced.  Everything I have gone through I wouldn’t trade for anything, because those are the things that have made me who I am, those are the things that are a part of my being, that wouldn’t be there otherwise if I hadn’t gone through them. It’s a beautiful process!  It isn’t an easy one!  It was never meant to be easy, but there’s a process for the transforming of the mind through the power of God’s spirit that works through us that if we will yield ourselves to the process the way God tells us to yield ourselves to the process, we will grow and we will mature and we will become far greater than what we were.

So I look back on the hardships, and they have been hard!  This weekend wasn’t easy!  It’s been hard!  Some of you that are new over the past year, two years, three years, four years – you’ve never experienced anything like this.  You heard about the 50th Truth…that was minor compared to this!  These are the things that can mould and fashion you if you’re faithful to God, truly, if you yield yourself to the process.  They are powerful and there is nothing you can exchange for their value, there is nothing you can give for their value of what they will accomplish in your life.

So, no, they’re not fun to go through, but they are needful.  God is the master potter, we are the clay!  He is our Father, as we read in this past pre-recorded sermon.  And so we yield ourselves to the moulding.  We had better yield ourselves to the moulding and fashioning that God does, because that’s how we grow.  If we resist Him we’ll not grow, we’ll not gain from the opportunity as we should.

So we have to see it for what it is and latch onto it with all of our being.  This is an important moment in God’s Church.  This Pentecost… this past Sabbath and now this Pentecost is a very important time in God’s Church for God’s people.  And so again, what we are experiencing is important to God and it’s important to our moulding and fashioning.

Yes, we move forward and God will grant us even more strength, more power, especially because of where we’re now headed, and inspiration, indeed, to continue the path that we are traveling.

But before we address some of these things, there are a couple of things that need to be mentioned first. One is the title of the sermon today. The sermon is entitled, Pentecost to Pentecost.

Secondly, we need to address why we are gathered before God today, as He commands that we address this on every annual holy convocation.  So let’s turn over there, Leviticus 23.  Let’s turn to that basic foundational truth that God has given to His people.

Leviticus 23:4 - These are the, again, that word that is not the word for ‘feasts’ in the Old Testament, it’s the word for ‘appointed times.  These are the appointed times of the Eternal, they’re God’s appointments that we’re to keep with Him, even holy convocations, commanded assemblies where we’re commanded to come before God’s presence, whether it be individually or as a group, to come before God in spirit and in truth.

...even holy convocations which you shall proclaim, not ‘seasons’, it’s the same word as ‘feasts’ before in the Hebrew, you shall proclaim these in their appointed times.  So again, it’s about the appointed times.  So that’s what we’re to talk about.  Ministers are to talk about that whenever they preach on High Days and Holy Days.  There is something to be there that is about the meaning of why we’re gathered together on those High Days.

Jumping on down to get to this period of time: Verse 15 - And you shall count unto yourself, from the morrow, or the ‘day’ in other words, after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering; so this is talking about the period of the Days of Unleavened Bread, it’s talking about the process that begins the count for this particular day, this particular observance, and it speaks of a Sabbath and a beginning of a counting when the wave sheaf was brought.  And the wave sheaf was brought after the Sabbath, after a weekly Sabbath, and the wave sheaf had to be offered always within the Days of Unleavened Bread otherwise it has no meaning.

So, we’ve gone through these things in times past.

It says, seven Sabbaths shall be complete: forty-nine days, 7 times 7. Even unto the morrow, or the day after the seventh Sabbath shall you number fifty days; so you add one more day that next day, it’s a part of it, to get to Pentecost – 50…fifty days; and you shall offer a new meat offering unto the Eternal. You shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deal and they shall be of fine flour and they shall be baked with leaven; beautiful picture here.  Two wave loaves.  Before it’s the wave sheaf picturing Jesus Christ, now it’s two wave loaves – they have leaven!  We have leaven!  It’s about all whom God has worked with over a period of 6,000 years.  One during a time before Jesus Christ’s coming, the other that which was afterwards in the Church; all whom God had worked with through time.

And so it’s addressing these and it goes on to say then, these shall be baked with leaven, they are the firstfruits unto the Eternal.  The firstfruits of God’s plan!  So again, we understand what these things are but we’re to reflect upon it today.  It’s about the 144,000 who will be resurrected on Pentecost!  That doesn’t change; God has given us that.

Verse 20 - And the priest shall wave them, speaking of the previous verses then about the animal offerings, the sacrifices just mentioned in the previous verses.  It says, and the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits for a wave offering before the Eternal, with the two lambs: they shall be holy to the Eternal for the priests.  And you shall proclaim on the selfsame day, that it may be a holy convocation to you, and you shall do no servile work therein: it shall be a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations.  And so God has given us much to understand His Holy Days.  Very basic things to us now as we have gone on through time and we understand those things, and those of you who are new you learned them very early on, about God’s weekly Sabbath and about God’s annual Sabbaths, things that you did not know before as you come to know the plan of God that’s revealed first of all in the weekly Sabbath, but expounded upon in the Holy Days, in the annual Sabbaths.

So through times past, through Herbert W. Armstrong, God revealed that the Day of Pentecost contained meaning concerning the firstfruits of God and it contained the meaning of giving of God’s law. That’s contained in this day as well, the giving of God’s law when they came up to Mount Sinai, the children of Israel.  Awesome!  And then it contained the meaning of the pouring out of God’s spirit on the Church on this day.  God revealing very powerfully so that Israel didn’t have what it needed!  They were given the law but without God’s spirit you can’t live this way of life and that’s their witness, that’s their testimony through time.  The Israelites couldn’t live this way of life!  You have to have God’s spirit to understand the spirit of the law!

So again, everything that God gives is so awesomely beautiful in what it pictures and what it portrays, that which we learn once God begins to call us and draw us to His truth.

And then Acts 1, let’s consider that occasion when God fulfilled another portion, this portion, if you will, of the meaning of this day as He began to pour out His spirit upon the Church; this is that occasion.  We’re going to pick it up from the very beginning here as Luke began to write.  Acts 1:1 - In the former treatise, speaking of the book of Luke, O Theophilus, I gave account of all that Jesus both began to do and to teach, so he’s referring back to that period of time when the first was written, Until the day in which He was taken up, so Luke is letting him know, he’s continuing to write here, the book of Acts now, as he had left off with the book of Luke, and he continues the story, writing this around 61 AD now when he’s writing this particular book here, the book of Acts.

So until the day that He was taken up, and He through the holy spirit had given commandments unto the apostles whom He had chosen, to whom also He showed Himself alive, after His endurance/sufferings, by many infallible proofs, I think about things like this and realize where they were.  They didn’t have God’s spirit yet, they were disciples that God called, worked with, that Jesus Christ walked with, worked with, and preparing them for this awesome occasion, but they didn’t yet understand things, not until the holy spirit was poured out, and then finally they began to see and understand and it began to make sense, it began to fit together for them.  And so it says here, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of those things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.  So He continued to teach them and work with them.

Verse 4 - And being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, physical.  When God works with us He tells us the same thing spiritually, “Don’t depart!  Don’t depart!  Understand how you are led, guided, directed, worked with, moulded and fashioned, and never leave it and never lose it.”  It’s powerful!  …but wait for the promise of the Father, we have a promise that we look forward to, a promise given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  We understand that the height of you will, of those promises given at that time, that we’re going to experience awesome things in our lifetime as God’s people, especially those who are part of the 144,000 and others who have the opportunity of living on into a new age – just not yet – but we’re close, brethren, we are so very close.  We have a little more to do in front of us and it’ll become exciting to you as you go along; it truly will be, as you go forward.  God’s way of life is exciting and fulfilling, it truly is.  And if we yield ourselves to the process we will benefit and we will grow and God will use us, truly, mightily.

He says, but wait for the promise of the Father which you have heard from Me. For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized/immersed with/in the holy spirit not many days from now.  Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him saying, Lord, will you at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? “Is this going to be the fulfillment now of those things that have been promised?  The Messiah?  The coming of the Messiah where you will take reign and be King of kings…is this that time?”

And He said to them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, it wasn’t given to them and it wasn’t given to any period through the Church eras until the end-time, which the Father has put, set/appointed in His own power.  God gives us what we need when we need it.  It’s not me.  It’s not by my whims, my desires; it’s by whatever God gives to us in His timely fashion.  That’s the way it works.  Everything you have been given in God’s Church since the apostasy, everything has come to you in a very specific way!  What part of it would you abandon?  What part of it would you give up?  What part of it should be thrown away?  What part of it will not come to pass?  …save some timing of some things that are in God’s hands as to how He does it and when He does it.  And when that happens…that’s why we talk about ‘the present truth’.  The events will still take place, the timing is very minor.  Not to us sometimes as human beings, especially when you have your heart set on something and you plan everything around it.  Nobody’s the lone ranger in this; we’ve all shared in this, haven’t we?  People quit jobs – thankfully so many I have heard have been able to get them back.  Our finances, things we have planned for, and everything else… some are beating themselves up because of certain things and choices they made.  You can’t do that!  This is what you look to because this is what God had given you to this point in time – because there is a battle going on out there, and it is in God’s hands.  You cannot tell the potter how to lead and guide and direct your life.  You receive it and you move forward, just as we talked about in the post, and it’s inspiring when you come to those moments in time and God shows you what it’s all about and why - just as He’s going to do now.

So, which the Father has put/set/appointed in His own power. It’s God’s!  It’s God’s power!  It’s His prerogative, isn’t it?  Who do we blame?  We don’t blame anyone – we follow God – the way it’s always been in God’s Church.

What about us? Pentecost 2012…I wrote down here as I was reading this last night or yesterday and into the night….Pentecost 2012 is proving to be incorrect, well, it’s not just proving to be, it is now incorrect as far as the time of Christ’s return and the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth, the millennial reign of Jesus Christ, because there’s more that God is giving to us, that He’s reserved in His own power to be given to us at His time.  Who do we blame?  I understand you don’t, but I understand there are some battles out there too and you have to be careful how you think toward your God – exactly what we covered in some of the sermons preceding this period of time when we went through and discussed about the Church called Egypt and Sodom.  We have to be careful what we say toward God, truly.  Sometimes we don’t see God in the picture; we put God out of the picture.  God’s very much in the picture in His Church!

So again, it has proven to be different.  It isn’t this period of time; it’s not going to happen.  “If there is any other way”  – I prayed that a lot this weekend – “if there is any other way, Holy Father, please take this cup from the Church.”  There wasn’t.  There was a different way but not the one I want, not the one I’d like to see.  No, the one I had my hope in and my desire for - that would have been a whole lot easier to not be in this body any longer and all the things that go with human nature.

So, does this make everything else untrue? Does this negate the fact that I am God’s apostle and I am God’s prophet for this end-time?  Absolutely not!  Did the fact that we came to understand a truth about Trumpets change the fact that I am God’s prophet? In the beginning… now I know the overwhelming vast majority (and I’ll get to that in a little bit) are there and have grown mightily through this process.  I know that there is still some struggling and I understand that.  But we have to be careful.  Because I desire, God desires to see the Body at one more than ever before, and that’s what He’s offering to us in a more powerful way than ever before.

So, in the beginning, again, we believed that Christ would return on Trumpets 2011. That’s where some of this all began. When God began to reveal there’s a countdown coming, things are zeroing in on a specific moment in time, and so before we went very far early on, when God began to reveal some of these things we came to understand things about when Jesus Christ would return – the 50th Truth in other words.  So we came through that, we came to understand that Jesus Christ is going to return on a Pentecost, and that moved things forward from Trumpets of 2011 to Pentecost 2012.  So yes, things moved in the present truth that God had for us. We. Move. Forward.  We live by the present truth that God reveals to us.

When the Church kept Pentecost on a Monday for several decades during the Philadelphia era that did not negate the fact that Herbert W. Armstrong was God’s apostle.  When everybody met together every Pentecost on a Monday – and God judged them according to that – and if you’d done differently you would have been judged [as] wrong.  That’s something that sometimes has been hard!  Ever since 1974, for some in God’s Church to grasp the rebellion that would have been there if they had done otherwise, because there’s a way that God works in His Church through His servants, through Mr. Armstrong!  And if someone, even if it’s the truth, had been presumptuous to place themselves there, which some did and began to observe it on Sunday, they’re not with us today.  They weren’t with us long after that either in the Body of Christ.  We’re judged according to what God gives us when He gives it.  It’s been that way from the beginning of time.  Been the way from the beginning of time; we’re judged according to what He has given us.

The fact that the Church believed up and to the time and through Mr. Armstrong’s death that Jesus Christ had eternally existed did not take away from his being an apostle. It didn’t take away from that at all; because you see, that’s God’s prerogative, that’s God’s responsibility, it isn’t any human being’s to take such a thing upon themselves.  That’s why I never preached about it until I knew that it was given to me from God to do so.  That’s why I stopped early on as I began to see some of those things that God was giving to me way back then, and I learned a very powerful lesson – government, in a very strong way in God’s Church.  There is a way that God works, and no matter if you don’t know it until the time of Christ’s return, even though you may see a glimpse of something, you better hold on and have some reservation about it until you know.  Because to tell anyone else… that’s a horrible thing!  To tell someone something that has not been given to God’s Church is a horrible, horrible thing to do, truly is.  God does not hold it lightly, truly.

And so now all have had to examine (perhaps re-examine) where they are—where is God—and where is God’s Church. I hope there hasn’t been a whole lot of that, but for some I know there are.  Now, there’s one that has been disfellowshipped already because they weren’t fully there in the first place for a period of time, and I don’t know if they started out that way or not, I can’t judge that, I don’t know.  But they’re not here now because they opened their mouth and began to spread things to others against God’s Church, against God’s government, against God’s truth…and God doesn’t tolerate that.

And candidly, the Church has fared quite well through all this time! That’s the exciting part to me, inspiring-inspiring-inspiring!  I am so inspired by what I see has taken place. It has been very pleasing to God that we stand as one because we are stronger now than we were on Sabbath.  We are much stronger as God’s Church now, today, than we have been in the previous months.  Because when you come to these plateau’s of something so major… I think of 2005 when that was given about Jesus Christ not eternally existing.  We jumped!  We jumped in growth as God’s people, and God brought us all to that point in time where we could do that together.

God’s brought us to another momentous time of growth and ability to become stronger, more deeply convicted of what is right, to move forward.  And that’s an awesome thing when you see it, when you see it come together like this.  Not enjoyable, not always fun, but when you see the fruit of it it’s a beautiful, beautiful thing.  And so it’s been very pleasing to God that we stand as one, as a whole, as it’s always been. I think of 2005, not everyone did, but the Body became stronger and became more at one.

So, where are we going now?  Well, God will show you and it will become more alive than ever, for we are God’s people and we are God’s Church, and He will make us stronger through all this and we will be prepared for more—to accomplish more.  I’ve wondered about some things.  I know that God, if it was His desire, His choice to have everything wrapped up in an hour, so be it, but it sure left some gaps in some things that didn’t come to pass and weren’t fully in there and didn’t give very long to experience or live and it seemed to take away from the potential of power that I understand now is going to be there, that God is going to give, that we have believed for a long time already anyway – events - events that we’re going to share in and be a part of in a very powerful, powerful way.

So, let’s continue in Acts 1:8 - But you shall receive power, strength, power; that’s exactly what it’s talking about, after the holy spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in Judaea, and in Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth. That’s where we are today.  All through time God brings these things to us and we grow and become stronger and stronger and stronger.

Verse 9 - And when He had spoken these things, while they were yet watching Him, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, Who also said, You men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into the heaven?  I was hoping some of us would...obviously the firstfruits, wherever we are, would be experiencing this at the end of the Sabbath, but it didn’t happen.  And so we read this story of what happened to Jesus Christ – but it’s still going to happen.

This same Jesus, who is taken from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into heaven.  Then they returned to Jerusalem from the Mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a Sabbath day’s journey.

Verse 13 - And when they had arrived, they went into an upper room where they were staying: and it goes and mentions the different disciples here then.

Verse 14 – it says, These all continued with one accord, you know to be of one accord, one mind, is a beautiful thing with God, truly is.  It’s very pleasing!  And the stronger we become in that the more pleasing it is to God.  And we are there today.  I feel we’re more at one, stronger.  There may be, again, a few things here and there, but as we get through this sermon you’ll be stronger – those who yield themselves to the process.

So, these all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, I can guarantee you through the Sabbath we were of one accord, we were searching our lives, we were searching different things in our life and asking for answers, looking for answers and pleading with God, crying out to God, “Father, if there be any other way…” just as Jesus Christ did.

You know, you look back on that, it gives you a deeper understanding of what He was going through, in a human body, living a human life; perspiration… so real in His mind that there were droplets of blood in it.  You have never agonized like that!  You didn’t agonize like that on the Sabbath because of what you knew!  He did, because He knew what was going to happen to Him.  And He asked, “Father, if there is any other way take this cup from Me!  Nevertheless not My will but Yours be done.”  Awesome, truly is.

And so it says, there were with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.

Acts 2:1 - And when the Day of Pentecost had come, they were all of one accord, still of one accord, together, in one place.  And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all of the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like fire, God performed something here, a miracle for them to grasp, to see something, to experience something, to give them encouragement and a boost.  They weren’t worked with like you were, drawn into the truth through truth given to you through inspiration that God has given, and opening your mind and then a process as He worked with you and helped you to grow.  They had something to happen to them immediately because they didn’t have God’s spirit, they weren’t drawn to that point yet.  They were now going to receive it, and so God performed an awesome miracle here of something they could experience, to give them a focus, to give them a boost, to give them encouragement.  This is something new!  It had never existed before!  The Church was now starting!  And so God gave this incredible boost on the Day of Pentecost in a very powerful way.

We do it more by faith.  In a way, if you can look at Mr. Armstrong’s life and realize how God has brought the Church to this point in time where God works with us and opens up these words to our mind and we see them and we are inspired by them and we grow by that, not by physical miracles or things that take place around us, spiritual by God.  I’m talking about things that we see or experience, it’s a matter of what we believe, more so today than ever before. That’s the maturity. That’s where God has brought the Church to here today in a very powerful way – to the glory and honour of God.

That’s why I spoke of those things, about how you look around the world and God has brought so many to this moment in time to experience, to exercise something like this.  That’s been well pleasing to God.   It wasn’t time yet!  God knew, but He wasn’t going to give it to us yet until we went through this experience of being of one accord and one mind and being there because we have been led to it.  We have been led to it and then we’re tried and we examine ourselves and then God gives us an opportunity for greater growth and greater accomplishment to fulfill and share in greater things – not less, more.

And they were all filled with the holy spirit, and began to speak with other languages, as the spirit gave them power to speak. God is the one, God does it all; we just yield ourselves to the process.  We don’t come up with these things!  We don’t work these things up!  We yield ourselves to a process and then God gives us what we need.  We just yield ourselves to the process; we can’t take a bit of credit for it save that we do what God tells us to do, we obey and we desire what He offers us.  But He is the source of it all, He is the master potter, He does the moulding and fashioning.  And I have seen God’s Church in times past take the credit to themselves, think they understand a different way, a different truth, and God doesn’t take that lightly.  And so He brings us all to one by His great power; it glorifies God Almighty.  That’s a beautiful thing, it truly is!

So it says they were all filled with the holy spirit and began to speak in tongues as the spirit gave them power to speak. And so this awesome fulfillment was taking place, as it was taking place, after the disciples began to speak and be heard in different languages, there was a common reaction of some about them, which they did not understand that which was happening before them, but a common reaction.

And after listening, the many different peoples of other languages, it says of those who were hearing this, notice, verse 12 - …because, into the verse there a little ways; because we can hear them speak in our own language the incredible works of God. God had prepared a group of people to be able to hear and they heard in their own language and they were in awe of it.  Now, there were others who weren’t in awe of it; but the ones who were in awe because of what was being said.  Now, how could they know what was being said in the sense of being in awe that God was giving this?  Because of God’s spirit!  It was starting to, as He does with us, to draw us, to help them experience something.  “This is awesome what I’m hearing, and I’m hearing it in my own language, in a perfect tongue.  And the words that I hear...” They were moving to them, it moved them because God was drawing people that day, 3,000 to be baptized.  3,000 who had been drawn along to this moment in time to receive what God was going to do in His Church, to start the Church.

And they were all in amazement and greatly perplexed, saying one to another, What does this mean? They didn’t understand it all, this event that’s happening.  They were seeing things that they’d never seen and inspired by things they never grasped before, the wonderful works of God.  And then there’s this other group. Yet, others mocked saying, These men are full of new wine. It wasn’t a matter of what they heard.  They weren’t ready, they weren’t being drawn.  And we have that; we’ve always had that around God’s Church.  There are those who can hear, because God gives His spirit, not because we’re special or good or great; it doesn’t come from us, it comes from God.  The glory and the honour goes to God Almighty and His Son, and we are blessed to partake of it and yield ourselves to the process.  And those who are not called to that, they don’t like what they hear... especially those who go so far as to mock and have to come up with something to discredit, something to tear down.  You think, “What a horrible thing of the human mind!”  But it’s always been that way around God’s Church!  It’s always been that way!  And so they said, these men are full of new wine. Crazy!

Verse 14 - But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice and said to them, You men of Judea, and all you who are dwelling here in Jerusalem, let it be known unto you, and listen to my words, For these are not drunk, as you suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day, it’s 9 am. But this is that which was spoken of by the prophet Joel; now, they still couldn’t hear that, but a few could, those who were being drawn.  They were able to receive these things because they came on to baptism in that day.

And it shall come to pass in the latter days, said God, I will pour out My spirit upon all flesh: God has the timing of it but here’s where it began.  Here’s where the pouring out of God’s spirit in a lot of people began, in the disciples first, through their preaching and teaching, and then finally upon those who were being drawn to baptism, to be immersed in God’s spirit.  An awesome day!  And so this is the beginning of Joel being fulfilled but there is much more to Joel that goes all the way through to the Last Great Day when it’s all finished.  And so there are things here that get accomplished, or are accomplished in various phases and through time.

...and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. I’ve gone through in times past explaining what this is talking about.  It’s talking about those things that we can finally see once we’re in God’s Church, once God’s spirit is given to us, of things that we couldn’t see before, of things we grasp in God’s plan about the Holy Days and what it pictures, to envision, hope, of something in the future, to envision a millennial period, to envision a Great White Throne that we couldn’t before.  That’s what’s being spoken of here!  Not as something every once in a while we get some goofy, dumb, off the wall letters of, “I’ve had these dreams and I think it’s a part of Joel...” type of thing, “...and this is what I’ve been dreaming.”  People need to be careful of their dreams.  People need to be careful of their dreams!  God, as I have said over and over again, at the end time is not working through dreams to God’s people!  Beware of them and where they come from.  Don’t mess around with them!  Reject them and understand that God isn’t doing this.

And I will pour out My spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams. And on My servants and on My handmaidens I will pour out in those days of My spirit, when it’s their time to be called God will pour out His spirit upon them, upon His servants, because that’s what we become when God draws us into the Church, into a relationship with Him.  We become servants to God’s way of life; we want that way of life with all of our being!

And I will pour out in those days of My spirit and they shall prophesy, that word that means inspired speech/speaking where we’re able to have fellowship with one another and we speak the same things, what we have been taught, not something new and not something different, but we believe and we’re able to speak and share and it’s exciting.  People talk about sermons, they share in the things that God is giving to them and it’s inspiring what they speak on that God has given to us, that comes from God.  Anything else you need to be careful of.

And so I think of where we are in time and something that God began to give to me very early on a long time ago that I know came from God to prepare for this time and to prepare for the things we’ve gone through, because of how God moulds and fashions, because it’s a matter of God’s will, and if we yield ourselves to the process He’s the one that puts us in the Body where He wills.  It’s not us!  It’s not by competition as sometimes  has happened in times past in Worldwide when deacons are competing with deacons, and elders are competing with elders, and deacons are competing with elders and elders are competing with ministers and ministers are competing with ministers!  I am sick of that kind of thing; rejected it long ago, got my belly full of it, hate it, loathe it, because I know God does.  Because that’s not of God’s spirit, it’s lifted up with pride when people do those things.  We’re not of those people!  We’re not of that mind!  We recognize that everything comes from God!

And one thing that God began to teach very early on through Spokesman’s Clubs, (some of you don’t know what Spokesman’s Clubs are), but I remember the first one I went to.  I was brand new in the Church, just baptized in September 1969 and I moved away from the college, I went back to the college I was in in Kansas, and when I went back there the same people I had been with all that time, the life I was living, I knew that if I stayed there I couldn’t do it.  I knew I had to get away so I moved away and I moved down toward Wichita and found a job down in Hutchinson, KS, which is about 60 miles out of Wichita.  And they had a Church down there of 600 people – whew!  I grew up in a town of 100 people spread over several miles and we had one of the largest graduating classes in high school I went to, it was one of the largest graduating high schools since the 1930’s.  And it was the largest because I skipped a year, I went through in three years, I wanted to get out, I wanted to get away, I had other ideas of what I wanted to do in life.  And so I went through in three years, and so we had eight in our graduating class.  We tied with the 1930’s, and here I am, I find myself in a Church of 600 people and I was quite naive for a time, almost six months. I’ve told this before, how that I thought everybody was perfect.  Six months later we were invited to a place to eat, a few of us, and the husband and wife got into a knock down drag out.  I was... “How can this happen, everybody’s perfect?!  How is this God’s Church?!”  I was knocked out of my sense of... anyway, but it was good for me because it gave me the time I needed to get away and become established in what God was giving, to change my life so that when I did go back I was different, my life was different, and those other things that would have been pulls before they were no longer there at all.

But Spokesman’s Club; I had a friend that I got to know there, about my age, a little bit older, and He talked me into joining Spokesman’s Club.  All of you who’ve been around and know what Spokesman’s Club is, it’s where you go to this club, you have a session where they have topics and people can put up their hand and answer what various types of topics were, world news and Bible and so forth, and you’re supposed to volunteer and get up and speak in front of these people. There are thirty maximum to a club and that club happened to be maxed out.  And then you give speeches as well.

So there were five speeches, I think, every time that there was a club meeting together, and the first one... you go through twelve speeches before you graduate – the first speech I gave was an ‘icebreaker’.  They called it an ‘icebreaker’ – you’re supposed to get up and talk about your life.  Pshew... what am I going to talk about?  I’d lived 19 years and what am I going to talk about, it’s just a blah life, blasé, what can I say in seven minutes time?  So I got up to give a speech and I’ll tell you what, within a minute’s time my tongue, my mouth was as dry as dry could be, I was scared, literally, spitless!  There was absolutely no moisture there whatsoever.  But one thing that God – I’m just giving that story as a part of a side story of what Spokesman’s Club was – I was scared to death because of pride.

But anyway, as time went along we began to be taught some basic things, and one was that in this topic session when you would get up and answer various questions and so forth, you’d volunteer to put your two cents in.  I think you had a minute in reply to a topic and we had like twenty minutes, I think, in topic sessions (it’s been so long ago...), but anyway, you could give your idea, your thought of what something meant in a scripture.  And one thing we learned very quickly on that was taught, and at Ambassador College as well is that that there is nothing in the Bible that conflicts.  There is nothing that conflicts with anything else in God’s word.  There is never any disagreement.  Everything... there’s always an answer that works perfect, that fits as a glove on a hand perfectly! And so if there’s ever anything that seems to be wrong or doesn’t seem to fit, there’s an answer.

And to make a long story short, that has proven to be so valuable through time.  It proved to be valuable at different times in things that God gave to Mr. Armstrong and revealed to the Church, the things that I learned.  But I think of the time of the apostasy, one, as an example here, is when the apostasy came one of the things in this area was, “How could this happen?”  There is no disagreement in God’s word, there is no conflict in God’s word - we’re God’s Church.  “How did this happen in God’s Church if we’re God’s people?”  How did something like this happen where the one who is to lead and guide and direct us under Jesus Christ can get up and say you no longer have to keep the Sabbath or the Holy Days, and now you can go out and eat all the pork you want to!  *oink, oink, oink*...and start snorting.  Crazy!  Insane!  But it happened!

But see, there’s no conflict, so what’s the answer?  What happened to us?  And God used that to give an answer, because God blessed the process of searching.  What fit?  There were only certain answers that came about; Laodicea, for one, became lukewarm, was spewed out of God’s mouth, 2nd Thessalonians, a great falling away!  And that, to this day, in so many ways blows my mind, but I understand because we were so asleep that unless God awakens and shakes someone to reality they can’t accept that most basic thing that happened to us.  But you see, there’s no conflict.  God said there would be an apostasy in His Church, a great falling away, and the evidence was all around us.  A third of the Church that had gone to Sunday.  A third of the Church that just gave up.  And another third scattered all over the place.  Did an apostasy take place?  Does the word of God fit?  Absolutely!  And so we learn through things like this.

And so today, we’re going through a process.  There is no contradiction in what happened.  There is no contradiction in God’s word.  There may be things we don’t grasp and see at various phases, Trumpets, the 50th Truth – there’s no contradiction!  Maybe, obviously, an enlightenment of something that we haven’t fully seen that God brings us to, but there’s no contradiction!  Where there is, where we haven’t understood, God takes care of that, if you understand what I’m saying.  God removes the contradictions through time.  That’s why I like the expression ‘the present truth’, from where we are, because the contradiction of Jesus Christ having eternally existed... we didn’t know it was there and so we based things upon what we knew to that point in time.  At least the Church did, Mr. Armstrong did, and wrote accordingly.  And then in time God revealed to us that’s not there, it is a contradiction, and so we repent and we change.  Present truth.  God purging the Body.  God making us stronger, more at one, standing more in Him than ever before as we grow, as we mature.

So we go through this process and in this process here what do we come to?  There’s only one answer.  There’s only one answer of where we are in time as to what God gave to us, of where we’re being led to, of what God is giving us to see and to understand because of going through this process of, again, drawing closer to God.  The more we get rid of what is in error the stronger we become, the more at one we can become, the more power God can pour out upon us.  It’s always been that way.  It’s always been that way in God’s Church, a beautiful, beautiful thing, truly.

Acts 2:19 - And I will show wonders in heaven, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, vapor of smoke. Hasn’t happened in the past 2,000 years, hasn’t happened since this was written, hasn’t happened since the time of Joel before that when it was written in the book of Joel, that which is being recorded here in the book of Acts by Luke as Peter’s referring back to these times. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and notable day of the Lord come. And it shall come to pass, that whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Promises from God.  How do you call upon God’s name?  Well, you have to be drawn to God, there’s things you have to see, you have to come to see the truth, you have to know what to call upon and why and what it’s about.  It has to be in unity with God and so God says He will hear those things, and as people repent – and it’s mostly about repentance – then God will hear those things for those whom He draws and works with.

There is so much given here in this verse, so much given here that God has brought us to today!  And it is awesome…awesome, inspiring and revealing!

So what has God brought us to on this Day of Pentecost 2012? It is indeed about the coming of Jesus Christ. It is indeed how God is going to do it. The process has now begun and He is coming; not today, but it’s started.  Not just literally on this specific day. There is more that God is doing.  So, let’s look at what God is giving us contained right here in Acts 2.

Acts 2:19 - I will show wonders in the heaven above, signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke. Those things that have not happened that God said would happen before Jesus Christ returns.  The sun shall be turned into darkness, the moon into blood, could it happen in an hour?  Yes, there are things that can happen in an hour, but is that what this is about? Is that what this is focusing upon? ...before the great and notable day of the Lord come.

Now, I’m going to go through an exercise here that’s a little difficult in some respects because it’s about Greek.  We’ve talked about certain grammar before and I want to read some things, but I’m going to tell you too where we’re going and why, and there’s a reason for going through all of this.

There are different uses of the expression of the ‘day of the Lord’ and they have different meaning according to the context. So, just because you read about the ‘day of the Lord’ doesn’t always mean it’s the same event or the same thing being spoken of.  There are different places and different usages that become obvious by context it’s something different. Here it is very specific. We are going to pause here and focus on where we are now and what God is giving to us… (more of which will be expounded as we move forward in further sermons because I can’t go into everything yet today).

To cut to the chase and let you know where we are going, it is about the ‘day of the Lord’; as to how God has defined and purposed it to be.  Just getting to the point. We have just gone through a period of time where God has revealed that Christ had a seven day ministry to accomplish – a seven year ministry that was cut in half, 3½ years and 3½ years.  God has shown us that the two witnesses had a job to do for 3½ days – 3½ years, and that time has just passed. The job of two witnesses is over – they have done their job!  There’s more work but not to fulfill the role of two witnesses and what God gives.  So that job is complete.

Just like when we came to a point in time and Laodicea was complete and we went into a new period.  We’re at a period of time God gave 3½ years for everything to be complete that would be a witness...and it would be over.  It’s powerful!  I get chills just thinking about this right now, the scriptures we’re going to go into.

So, the job of two witnesses is complete; God has been and is now revealing what is to follow.  My job continues as a prophet and as an apostle, nothing changes in that, and now we’re moving forward from this Pentecost to next Pentecost – ONE DAY – ONE YEAR.  That’s what it’s about.  That’s what God is leading us to and has led us to at this time, to understand there is something that’s called ‘the day of the Lord’ that’s very powerful as something He’s going to accomplish and fulfill and do, some things that just haven’t fit in yet that we thought, well, we’re there so it must be going to happen maybe in the last hour, and just all be crushed together.  And God, if that’s what God wanted to do, so be it, and that would have been an easier way.  But that’s not what God is doing.

One Day – One Year.  I marvel when we go through things.  I marvel when we’ve gone through the book of Daniel, we were talking here earlier about some of the things that God has given, and as we went through Daniel He just gave more and more.  And then as we went through Revelation 11 about the two witnesses God just gave more and more and even in timing of things; and to lead us to this too, to understand there’s more in how we count and what we’re counting and God giving His definition of what He’s showing us to understand and to see about what He’s doing that’s beautiful.  It’s awesome!  Not always easy but it’s powerful.

So, let’s read verse 20 again… The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and notable day of the Lord come. Now, this is written pretty poorly in Greek because by reading this we can think, by reading this that the sun is turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the day of the Lord comes.  That’s not what its saying!  And I’m spending some time explaining that so as we go through some Greek things here for those who like, and for those who don’t, don’t worry it sounds like Greek, it is Greek.

So, what is ‘the day of the Lord’?  That’s what God has brought us to, to see and to live.  We’re going to live it, those who will yield themselves to the process.  So in order of these words in the Greek, in other words they’re literal order as they’re given in a vast majority of English translations here it’s literally missing a word.  How many times have we run into this recently?  They don’t even translate all the words because they don’t understand what’s there!  And then what you come up with; with almost the best of what man can do it still isn’t what it’s all about and we’re going to have to look a little bit farther, as we will in this sermon, but there are some unique words and how they’re given here.

Again, there is a word missing and it’s the word that’s translated as ‘before’.  There’s another word missing that is the word ‘than’, but even that doesn’t capture what’s being talked about here.  It’s literally saying, in actual order of the words in the Greek, if you actually go to a literal translation as they’re in order, ‘than before the coming of the day of the Lord, great and glorious.’  You know, what God does is great and glorious.  It’s for the very purpose of glorifying God.  It’s for the very purpose of what God is doing here at the end, as we’ve gone through recently, where God says, ‘and you shall know that I am the Eternal, when no longer,’ as I wrote about in the post here, talking about those things, ‘no longer will you be able to say the days are prolonged and the prophecies haven’t come to pass!’  There is a time when God brings them to pass and glorifies Himself...and that’s powerful!  And we’re going to see that as we go through the rest of the sermon here today.

So again, just a little difficult to perceive in the Greek but there is a lot shown here. The word ‘come’ in the Greek is incredibly awesome when you come to understand its usage.  I want to read to you a little bit about the Greek grammar, again for those who like it, and those who don’t, just click it off, because we’re going to come to the definition of it all in a little bit.  It is ‘Aorist Infinitive Active’.  The definition…

“First, being active it is about action being accomplished by the subject of the verb ‘come’. It is about the ‘Day of the Lord’ being spoken of here. Next, the Aorist Tense which means this here; it refers to the reality of the event of the action, not to the time in which it took place.”

That becomes important as we go along.

“Of the term ‘Aorist Infinitive’ it states that this refers to punctiliar action—action that is of or relating to a point of time, but it does not signify the time of the action.”

Finally, concerning the specific ‘infinitive’ it says.... and I’m rushing through this very rapidly because this is Greek to me too but it’s interesting because of what it’s saying and what finally we’re going to come to.

“In Greek it has many more uses than it does in English, most of which are idiomatic and difficult to translate properly. In many instances, the infinitive is translated using the English word ‘to.’”

In other words the word ‘to’ is added to the word to give clearer meaning in English.  And again, it goes on to say then in the King James here, the word ‘to’ should be added to clarify what is said—at least somewhat.

Acts 2:20 - The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, again, ‘than before’, but that’s an awkward translation, a great and notable day of the Lord ‘to come’. It’s literally talking about a period of time, that all these events are to happen in that day.  It’s not talking about an order of a timely matter in the sense of certain events have to take place and then ‘the day of the Lord’ will be here, as though something happens at the very end in one day.  That’s why some of these things have been hidden or difficult to grasp and comprehend what God is saying.  He’s saying here that these events are going to happen in, basically, ‘the day of the Lord’, during this period of time.

During the whole year there are going to be things that God is going to do that culminate or climax, if you will, in the more awesome of things, because that’s what He’s read here, that’s what He’s given us to see toward the end here.  But not like we had zeroed in on because we didn’t have anything else.  So it’s easy to come to certain conclusions because of the present truth.  We didn’t know more so what is the only answer?  Things we have thought about the five months – there are things we’re going to re-examine in some of that and still what we understand, but now things that are going to happen in another time period, not in the one we’ve had, because tried to understand all that’s happening within the time-frame that we had to this point in time for what we knew.

Does that make sense to you? To strive to understand why it’s this way with the present truth, with what we have, and so we try to understand God’s word.  How did this happen to us?  We come to see bits and pieces as God gives it but He uses that process to teach us.  I hope you understand what I’m saying; it’s a process you go through when God’s spirit is working with you.  It’s how He teaches us.  Most of everything that God has given as far as all the truths to this period of God’s Church has been through this process because of what we had, where we are, things are examined, God gives us His spirit.  We see things, not everything all the time, and that which is not clear yet He will give to us in time.  He will give it in His time because it’s in His power to do so.  And so we respond and we react to what we know at the time we know it.

Let’s go over to Joel where this is mentioned because here it’s very clear.  It’s like the example of Jonah.  You know, there are those in the world who try to use the Greek language only and say, “See!  You can have three days in a day and a half!”  There are arguments like that out there because of the words in the Greek and they misuse them, and that’s why I’ve mentioned some of the things I have here in some of the things that are stated already in the Greek.  It’s just a matter of the words and how they’re used.  But Joel explains it just as the book of Jonah when it says he would be in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights. That is exact, you can’t get around it!  In Hebrew it’s exactly 72 hours!  That’s why Mr. Armstrong was inspired to go back there to show the definition of what was given in the New Testament!  And so that’s what we’re doing in the book of Joel, we’re going to the book of Joel where this is quoted from.

Joel 2:30 - And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars; in the King James it says, ‘vapours’.  Well, they’re vapours all right, but ‘pillars’, ‘columns’ in the Hebrew describes it immensely well...of smoke.  So again, this isn’t about the 7 Last Plagues and it’s not talking about that particular day, it’s not talking about when God does those things, this is a day that is a year of things that God is going to fulfill and do to show, to prove, to reveal that He is God and that His words are true.

The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible/fearful day of the Lord come.  This is, again, not about a single day it’s about a prophetic day, and it’s not saying that all these events happen ‘before’ as a matter of time.  Becasue that’s how we read it.  Isn’t that how you read something like this?  ‘before the great and fearful day of the Lord come,’ it sounds like an orderly thing, that’s why I read some of the things I did in the Greek, because it’s not about that.  And so we read this as a matter of timing, before this event can take place these other events must happen.

And this word is unique in the Hebrew. It has nothing to do with ‘time’ as ‘before’ an event can take place, as a matter of order. It means that not at all… The word is translated most often as ‘face’, as ‘face of angelic beings’, ‘before the face of God’, ‘a face of a person’, ‘presence’...in the presence of, the sight of...  That’s how the words are translated; and ‘before’ if you understand what it means, not a matter of order in time.  Not as a factor of time at all. The word ‘day’ is a matter, again, that of time that God has to reveal what that time is.

So again here, this word is translated this way as a matter of ‘being in the presence of’, ‘being in the sight of’, ‘being before’ or ‘in the face of something or someone’. Being before someone, in someone’s presence. That’s what it’s talking about.  It’s talking about something that’s going to be in the presence of this day that’s going to take place in this day, in the face of this day.

A great way to see how this word is used is in a couple of scripture we already read… Leviticus 23. It says, Leviticus 23:11 - And he shall wave the sheaf before the Eternal, not a matter of time, not a matter of sequence but a matter of coming into God’s presence, before the Eternal, ‘in the face of the Eternal’ to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.

Verse 20 - And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits for a wave offering, this is the one we read earlier... before the Eternal, in the face of, before the presence of.  That’s how the word is in the book of Joel, that’s the word that’s used later on that the meaning is so scrambled in Greek in how it’s used.  ...with the two lambs: and they shall be holy to the Eternal for the priest.

So again, reading it again… Joel 2:30 - And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars  or ’columns’ of smoke.  The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the presence of the great and terrible, or the fearful day of the Eternal come. In other words, ‘when’ it comes in the presence of that day, in that day, in the face of; in other words that’s when it’s going to take place, that’s when it’s going to happen, before the  presence of the terrible/fearful day of the Eternal.

We are there.  What it’s showing is that there are many things to be accomplished in over a year’s period of time that has to do with these events that are in our mind, and in the respect of Joel, the way it’s written, the most horrific, the most revealing, the things that happen more toward the end, but not in the last hour fully.  There are some things that have to happen in this nation.  There are things in ‘2008 - God’s Final Witness’ that have to take place.  They could have all been crunched together again in a short period of time but what is learned from all that? What is seen from all that? There is so much more here right now, there truly is, of how God is going to unfold all this, how God is going to perform all this in this period of time – from this Pentecost to the next.

So again, we’re there!  The day of the Lord has come, not as we thought but it is the day God has brought to us—from this Pentecost to the next - to when indeed Jesus Christ will begin His return to the atmosphere of the earth and then to stand upon the Mount of Olives – which it says He is going to do on that day, that’s where He’s going to be.

I want to read to you something that was covered in Daniel 12, covered in a Feast sermon of 2009, just to go back and look at some of this.  I think about where we are and what we’re doing and where we’re going and certain things just jump out so powerfully so.  There are Trumpets to sound.  Yeah, they could happen in one hour – looking back now it seems a little goofy but you know, we wanted that, I wanted that.  I wanted to see it happen quickly. I wanted to see us not have to suffer.  I wanted to see the world not have to suffer very long, and the reality is in various parts of the world there’s going to be some suffering yet.  There are going to be some things take place and you just have to wait and see how it unfolds.  God’ll take care of His people!  You yield yourself to the process, God will take care of you.  There is nothing to fear!  God has given us great blessings of protection already, of mercy, and He’ll continue to do that through the following year.

When it all begins?  God hasn’t shown, but it’s going to be an eventful year when it’s all said and done.

Daniel 12:7 - And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and he swore by Him  - better stated it was given in an oath by Him, by God who lives forever that it shall be for a time, now that word, appointed times, times, and a half; And then in another sermon before the Feast of 2009 this verse was covered and it was discussed how that this period is divided into – this is where we started talking about what these periods of time are and how God used this to reveal that which He wanted us to come to grasp in a very powerful way, His mercy upon mankind, that it isn’t for 3½ years.  I think back to the Feast, the Last Great Day, it isn’t for 3½ years but there is that which will happen within a year, it’s just a reality.  It’s a reality!

And so we talked about how this is divided into seven divisions of a half a time, if you remember the story of what we went through, times that we would march around Jericho.  That’s what we’ve been doing, in a spiritual sense of how we’ve lived our lives we have been marching around Jericho.  And the children of Israel in the seventh day they marched around it even more – quite a day, quite a period of time as they got closer and closer, built up to the momentum and then God is the one who brings the walls down.  God is the one!  When it comes time, when it’s His time, but during that period of time we just did our marching.  It’s during this period of time we’re entering into that God brings the walls down, that God leads His people out of Egypt, that God glorifies Himself as we go on and look at some of these other verses and what’s given here.

Verse 7 - and when He shall have accomplished, ‘finished, to make an end, to have fullfilled’, to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished. That has never fit together perfectly.  We have understood with what God has given us to a point in time but it’s never fully gelled in the sense of being crystal clear.  I don’t know if you feel that way but I always have.  It seemed like there was just something here missing yet.  What is it?

What we have recently addressed in the book of Revelation about the two witnesses, concerning the definition of ‘power’ given to them – what’s it about?  It’s about the truth; ‘to scatter the power of the holy people’, then, candidly, this shall be finished.  It’s what God is doing and it’s how God is doing it.  There is that which has to be accomplished first.  There is a job that God had for the end-time, a job of a witness of 3½ years, a reflection on 6,000 years of mankind, of how they have looked to God, of how they have treated God, of things that God gave.  And I’ll just tell you very candidly so, that which is written in ‘2008 – God’s Final Witness’, those things that I have wondered about, why, which I think some of you probably have as well – “How can this all fit in?”  will fit in, because it’s what God is using to glorify Himself.  It is what God gave for a purpose of things He brings to pass, things that will be accomplished.

I’m excited because of all the ordinations we had!  I’m excited because of all the planning we had!  And I thought, well, maybe it was just to keep us focused, that’s what I said, because what else was there?  This is the present truth so why we’ve been brought to this point, so it’s kept us focused, it’s kept us organized and some of these things will be able to be used in the future, in the Millennium, and there are certain ones who are going to continue on doing it, but we’re not done yet...  We’re not done yet!  There’s more to come!  There’s more work to be done!  It’s not the same as the 3½ years, it’s different, a  different focus, a  different purpose of something that God is working out that to me is awesomely inspiring – how God does it, what God is working out.

And so, when He shall have accomplished to scatter the power…the truth!   What does that mean?  You remember Revelation, when we went through Revelation 11, ‘and power was given to them’, what we discussed what that power was?  It’s in the truth!  That’s what He gave!  That’s what He gave that’s in the book!  That’s what He gave!  So often, what do people in the news talk about?  2008! 2008! 2008 and where the world is now, constantly going back and talking about why and what has taken place since and where are we now.  It’s truly awesome, it truly is!

So, what’s ‘scattered’?  The word carries a dual meaning, and this is what’s been a little bit of a puzzle, that’s used differently according to the context.  It can mean ‘to shatter’, ‘to break in pieces’ in other words, and it can carry the meaning of ‘scattering’, ‘to disperse’, ‘to overspread like in planting seed’ – scattering it, spreading it, overspreading the land, whatever, used in different ways.  But it carries with it, depending on context, these two meanings, and I think, “How awesome!”  How awesome that both are contained here in what God is talking about, that which took place that we’ve just gone through in talking about two witnesses and Revelation 11 and what all these things mean that are contained there.

We, those of the Temple, spiritual Jerusalem, have scattered the truth, the power that God has given to us.  That’s what God has done!  We’ve spread it out, we’ve dispersed it in the way that God has given it to us, primarly first and formost through the book, ‘2008 – God’s Final Witness’.  We have other things on the internet and so forth but it’s about that witness, it’s about the two witnesses, it’s about what that represents, it’s about the entirety of the Church.  I’ve mentioned that – we’re all a part of that, we share in that; it’s an awesome thing, and we have been awesomely blessed, espeically toward the end here!  I marvel!  We had an incredible burst here for a while – some of it we had more poured into this period of time than what we did back in 2008.  I’m looking forward to the fruit that’s going to come of it.

Do you realize there’s fruit going to come out of what we’ve just done?  ...what has been poured into this.  As much as we tried to pour into it more just kept coming in.  I had it figured out over a three month period of time, trying to plan, trying to use the best that God had given to us, to drain it all, to throw it out there, to disperse it, if you will, different languages, all the different languages, massive promotion of the book in AOL and Google and so forth – massive – and the more that was thrown out the more that kept coming in and I had to re-adjust and add more to it – far more than we’ve ever done!  And we get to the end and we think, “Man, oh, man, God knows we tried, we tried to get rid of every bit of it!”  But He’s put more there, and then we come to realize, oh, there’s more to do.

But I marvel at what’s been dispersed as a result of this, all the downloads – awesome!  ...the different languages of peoples out there that God will use in His time that will spread, powerfully so.  Do you realize there are so many people out there still that every once in a while come up with and we come in contact, even in the world, that remember Mr. Armstrong, watched him on TV, remember ‘The Plain Truth’ magazine.  It’s still out there – all that that was spread abroad to the degree God wanted it to be.  And so it is here...and so it is here.

Thunders that have not yet thundered.  We’ve had some Thunder, but there’s a lot more coming.  Trumpets that haven’t even blown yet that have to be blown, and God’s going to give people time to think about those things – they’re not going to happen in a quick hour.  See, some of that didn’t make sense but there was no other answer within the present truth and so all we could strive to do what to understand it within that realm, in the truth that God gave to us.  That’s the way it’s always been in God’s Church, and we grow through that process.  And what we lack, if God wants us to have more He’ll give us more, if there’s a purpose in it.  And thankfully He has through time.

So, we, those of God’s Temple, the spiritual Jerusalem, have scattered the truth, if you will, the power given to us, that power, the truth, the scattering of the power of God’s people!  ...dispersed to the degree God granted this work through two witnesses, primarily, again, through the message of ‘2008 – God’s Final Witness’, however there is a second usage of the word ‘scatter’ that applies to the Jerusalem that is Sodom and Egypt as they believed this power has been ‘shattered’. They have believed for you that they have accomplished something, to break you, and they’re not going to understand – they don’t understand.  Have you had any conversations yet?  “Yep, still going this way...”  “Oh, you are?!  You must be really stark raving mad!”  It’s made us stronger, that’s what’s exciting!  We’re more determined... the letters, the things that have come in, the things I have been hearing out there are more powerful...  I’ll tell you what, I have never known a time like this in God’s Church, where something so powerfully happened, to where so speedily going through something so traumatic, truly, because it gets to the core of your being, and then to rebound with the kind of power and response that I have been blessed to witness.  It’s been awesome, that’s all I can say!  I’m going to read some letters after a while, just absolutely awesome.  I can’t read them all.

That’s why I started out this sermon talking about how that this is so pleasing to God!  Because this is what God has done, this is what God has brought us to, that we are stronger than we were before, that we’re stronger this Sabbath, or this Holy Day, this weekend, than what we were last weekend.  YES!  Much, much more!  And it’s a beautiful thing to God because it’s a spiritual thing, it’s something He has moulded and fashioned and brought us to.

I refer back to 2005 so often because that was a momentous time for me in the ministry, as a servant of God, to know that I had certain sermons I was supposed to give, to know the very last I’d be giving something about Melchizedek that I did not yet know the answer to but I’d gone through this so much I knew God was going to give it because I know how He works with me.  And so going through this process that’s been so encouraging because I saw God bring a Church together to be at one, that I  haven’t experienced to that degree, except for something that was given in a smaller plane back in 1974 when Mr. Armstrong addressed Pentecost was no longer on Monday but it’s on a Sunday.

This was far, far, far more massive of a change, about Jesus Christ not having eternally existed.  And I witnessed, and you witnessed, God brought the Church to a point of receiving that, that when we left the Feast we were powerfully at one.  And that was so pleasing in God’s sight.  That was His work. It was pleasing to His Son!  And it was so pleasing for me to witness and experience that, it truly was, because that kind of unity and oneness, that kind of conviction through the power of God’s spirit, is something you have to experience and it’s a beautiful thing.

What we have just gone through hasn’t been easy but it’s a beautiful thing – beautiful before God!  It has lifted me up mightily so to give me that boost I need for what’s ahead.  And for me I don’t know what’s ahead fully, but I know whatever it is it’s a part of God’s will.  Win or lose, by the end of June I’ll know, for me, what God’s will is, and I understand that and that’s much easier to go through than what I thought was going to happen for 3½ days.  We’re so blessed, awesomely blessed!  And what God has brought us to, again, isn’t always easy (and I’ll get to some of that later, let’s just go on...)

So again, the other usage of this is those who think they have broken God’s people in pieces, they have broken, this scattering, this power.  They are... both things are involved here in what God is saying, at what’s taking place because it’s still about the Church, it’s still about the Church that was scattered.

Again the last portion …and when they shall have accomplished/finished/to make an end of… End of what?  God has just brought us to a point where He’s brought an end to something - 3½ years of a final witness.  We have gone through a period of time that’s 3½ years, yes, as far as two witnesses, and we’ve also experienced amongst ourselves a period called ‘Time, Times, and a Half a Time’ where God through that 3½ years revealed from the very beginning by that which He gave to us of a definition of it, of powerful mercy and grace that He’s poured out upon this world and upon us.  We have been so blessed not to have to suffer for 3½ years in the way that we had previously thought.

…and when He shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things, which is what it’s talking about, shall be finished.  God will finish this now in this day, ‘the day of the Lord’.

So yes, people will mock, but God has prepared us to go through things in this past age of wearing sackcloth.  We know how to wear sackcloth now.  I’m getting a little more accustomed to it; it doesn’t itch as much.  I guess I’ve gotten used to the itching, but it doesn’t agitate me as much and I don’t respond in my spirit and my mind toward others in the same way.  And I’ve talked to a lot of you today here, and that’s really been something that’s been a highlight of all this, you’ve learned too.  You’ve learned that they can’t help it, and so it’s not a matter of our pride that we were right or we were wrong, you know, because I said this and I did that, and I told them I’m not coming back to work and this is going to happen and that’s always a matter of pride – well, we have to wear this sackcloth and that’s a beautiful thing before God.  Don’t wear pride, don’t wear haughtiness, wear the sackcloth and thank God for it that you get to wear it.  Not many get to wear it.

And so again, all this and what others say, little does it matter, the aspersions and slander that will be thrown, we move forward and it’s a beautiful thing!

Just thought in passing here I’d mention this too, we’re going to begin planning for a Feast immediately!  And some say, “Oh, but this money I spent travelling to and fro and going all over the world...”  Well, we’re planning for all that.  We’re going to have an eight day Feast, that’s what we’re planning for.  So everybody that’s worked on these different Feast sites, starting right away Monday start trying to acquire exactly what we had last year, try to duplicate everything as much as possible and we’re going to get it out as quickly as we can so you can begin preparing and planning for where you’re going to observe the Feast of Tabernacles.  And then I’ll give you more information later on as to how God’s going to accomplish all this and to help you...but you’ve got to do your part, and you will, to start planning immediately, to do what you can, and where you can’t God will help.

God has brought His people together now in greater unity of spirit than ever before. Our work is not done, but it does change from one focus to another during this period of time. It will not be easy and it will not be, obviously, an easy period of time that we go through. The world is about to heat up. The Trumpets are yet to sound and more of ‘2008 – God’s Final Witness’ will now come to pass more powerfully than ever —much more!

What follows the work of two witnesses, now having been fully completed, we move forward into a final phase of God’s end-time work, truly, the day of the Lord.

I want to read the posting, ‘The Present Truth’.  I want to go through this and discuss a little bit of this with you; some out there who perhaps didn’t receive it can hear on the phone hook up today; but I want to make a few comments as we go along because it’s good to understand the process, it’s good to see how God works with us, and so this last posting was entitled....

THE PRESENT TRUTH

May 26, 2012

The term “present truth” has come to mean much to God’s Church over the past few years, and it is possibly going to mean more to us now.

The “present truth”—truth that we have at this moment in time—truth that is “presently” with us is a possible reality that is not easy to carry. We have believed that Jesus Christ would begin his return in the atmosphere of this earth today, the Sabbath day of May 26th. We have believed this to be a matter of timing for sundown in Jerusalem toward the end of May 26th.

As I write this, that time is just about here and nothing has begun in the world that would signal the need or purpose for that reality—Christ’s return. Yes, it could still take place, as the timing in this present day of a worldwide observance of God’s Sabbath is still ongoing. Such is fully in God’s hands and according to His will, as to what comes to pass and when. It is true that after the captivity of Judah in Babylon that the Jewish people began using the Babylon system of counting time and God did begin to deal with them more according to the type of system they had begun to use. Certainly the weekly Sabbath and annual Holy Days were still counted according to God’s calendar of timing.

So God allowed that for the Jewish people.  I don’t know if you understand all those things that happened, but God allowed that for Judah when they went back, they continued in the new system that they’d picked up in Babylon, and we have those things to this day.

So today, I will still look for the possible fulfillment of all those things we have looked forward to right up to the end of the Sabbath day in Hawaii...

...and actually a little beyond, because that’s where it would end as far as the world is concerned today.

... as that is the timing used today in this modern world.

Yet I feel compelled to write this post, as I strongly feel it is necessary for God’s people right now.

You know, I was being drawn to this before we got to this point.  I knew in the morning – I’m going to read some of this in a minute – but I’d been through this too many times. I know how God works with me.  The things that were coming into my mind, I didn’t really want them.  I wanted the 26th to be the return of Jesus Christ in the atmosphere.  I wanted to leave this Body.  I wanted to see many of you leave the bodies you have and be in a new one.  I took this suit in last week with the full purpose that when we went back to pick it up, I believe on Thursday, that I would never have to wear it again.  Here I am wearing it again.  Amazing what we go through.  Going on....

Yet I feel compelled to write this post, as I strongly feel it is necessary for God’s people right now. I will still look for the possibility of Christ’s coming right up until the very end of this Sabbath on earth. For the sake of all God’s people, I hope that there is not more we must learn concerning Christ’s return, but it appears we likely do have more to “see.” We know there is much that God has been revealing, in the manner that He has, which is due to a great spiritual war that continues right up to the coming of Jesus Christ.

...speaking of Satan and the demonic world and that still goes on.  So some things happen and are revealed because of this.

We have come to “see” (by experience and revelation from God) that God reveals to us what we need when we need it, especially during this end-time and the closing out of this age of mankind, with the process of bringing to an end Satan’s influence and rule in this world.

A Heavy Heart

The expression that best describes some of my emotion and empathy toward God’s Church at this time is that of a “heavy heart.”

I didn’t want to write this but I knew I was supposed to and I began the process and I knew where I was being led in it and I, candidly, resisted it.  I didn’t want this any more than you wanted to go through more time... wanted to go back and tell your employer, “Umm, is my job still there?”  Whatever!  ...any more than you wanted to have to go back and deal with some things of finances.  We all dealt with things differently because we fully believed, we were fully convicted this was it, and we were judged.  You were judged according to that too, just as individuals who kept Pentecost on a Monday.  Something to learn.

Though many ridicule and shake their head in disbelief of what we have published for this world over the past few years, and they will undoubtedly become worse after this time, I understand their disbelief. I also understand our belief and our holding fast to the truth God has revealed to us.

As the hours progressed this morning toward what we have looked to as a final countdown to Christ’s coming, there have been those things that have been flooding my mind that I have not wanted to address, but felt I should. I have experienced this every time in the past when God has begun revealing His will and purpose to me—revelation of more truth—understanding and clarification of truth already given.

We have indeed gone through many mixed feelings over the past few weeks as we have approached this Pentecost of 2012. The anticipation of such an event right up to the last minute reminds me of Abraham when he was about to follow through with the sacrifice of his own son.

You know, you go back and look at some of those stories, things that we read about as a quick story and we don’t grasp what they went through.  And you think about the promises that were given to him, all the things they went through, even things that they did.  My wife was talking to me about that on the way here, about some of those things.  We were discussing some of that, about what Abraham went through and how that Sarah and himself were told... and so what did they do?  Well, it wasn’t quite working out in the way and the timing that they wanted.

They believed what God said of them, the son, and they kind of worked it out a different way through Hagar, and then they came to find out that’s not exactly what God was talking about.  And so a few years more up the road when it comes to a point in time when they really can’t have children anymore Sarah starts laughing... Isaac comes along.  Incredible story as you go through it.  And then to have that son that you know through whom God is going to fulfill these promises, it comes to a point where you believe you’re to sacrifice him... how hard was that?  How difficult would it be to bring yourself to a point of living in such an experience in such a time of mankind, to do something though you believe that God has the power to resurrect, still to do that...that was something that we can’t fully grasp, but we can appreciate more now than we ever have.

And on and on it goes with people who live by faith...and things don’t always go the way you think, but God always provides a way.  Incredible!  Maybe not the way we want, and that’s why we have to pray...maybe we don’t like that way and we say, “Father, if there is any other way...” Christ set that example, “...nevertheless not my will but Yours be done.”

The feelings and emotion of such a time cannot be understood nor appreciated until having experienced something similar in faith. We now relate more to Noah than we ever did in the past.

We do!  You know, you read those stories in the past and they’re a story and they’re inspiring and it’s dumbfounding to think what he went through and what the rest went through and what happened to the world but to understand the emotions and what Noah went through?  You have a better understanding now, you truly do.

Such is pleasing to God that people remain faithful to the end when God intervenes to fulfill His word or to reveal another way. God revealed another way to Abraham. As I consider these truths, I understand the outrage that some will manifest by these words. I also understand the relief that God is giving me to “see” what He is revealing concerning “another way,” or an addition and clarification of “His way” to bring the end-time to a close.

By the end of this day, in the last time zone for this Sabbath day, if Jesus Christ has not begun his return to this earth, then we will do as a minister in the Netherlands said to me today concerning what God admonishes His people to do, “We move forward.”

It’s been a rallying cry!

“We move forward.” Indeed we will, for we know God’s Church.

And I just thought of something of encouragement that I would pass along today, something that I called this individual about and told him this morning, because it was decided earlier that something should take place, when we were in Australia.  Talked to Johnny Harrell about it later but didn’t follow through with it because there was such a short time by the time we were in Europe.  But today I told him he is an evangelist, Willem Henderson.  Inspiring!  Another evangelist in God’s Church!  To me that’s exciting and to me it was exciting that of all things he is the one that sent this, because we didn’t follow through with it because what would be the purpose, because we’re almost there.  So we’re in Europe and we only have a couple weeks left so we’re not going to follow through with it.  So I didn’t tell him about what we had already decided, what had already been purposed.  And then come to find out we have more work to do and it was meant to be.  To me that’s exciting, it’s inspiring, uplifting.  There is so much more to come, more things to take place, more to be made ready for the work that’s in front of us.

So again, when he talked to me, said, “We move forward.” That’s what they were doing.  I thought, “That’s right! That’s exactly what it’s all about!”  So going on here in this post....

So candidly, I am disappointed that Jesus Christ hasn’t begun his return.

We’d be crazy if we weren’t even though some think you’re crazy for believing it.

But I am also excited to know that there remains a short work in front of us. That will be explained in the Pentecost sermon that I will be organizing and prerecording as soon as I finish writing this post.

I already knew where I was going. I knew where God was leading me in it.  I resisted it for a while but I had to keep writing and God kept giving to me what had to be there.

I wasn’t disappointed when God revealed to us that the two witnesses are not literally killed and then lie dead in the streets of Jerusalem for 3½ days. That revelation was easy to receive.

Some things are easy to receive!

That which God is now revealing is a little more difficult because we had our hope so set on Christ coming on this Pentecost. Knowing that he may not is indeed disappointing, but it is not something to shake our faith in any manner. Instead, we take the good with the bad and we move forward!

We don’t argue with God, we don’t tell God, “This is unfair!  You can’t do this!  Did you bring us out in the wilderness to die?!”  That’s what the Israelites did.  Anyway, we’ll come to that later.

That which is most important is that we follow God where ever He leads and however He leads us. The reality is that due to what God is now revealing, I am also encouraged to see that much of what was written in ‘2008 – God’s Final Witness’ will become more meaningful and more powerfully revealed.

That’s what God is using.  That’s what God gave and that’s what God is using during this ‘day of the Lord’.

These things I am writing at this moment are being done so quickly in order to inform all God’s people that we are to “be strong and of good courage.” What we are living is not easy, but it is all for a very great purpose. Do not become discouraged, even though we know what is ahead will be difficult. People will have to face matters of employment, humility...[but we need to do that...], finances, ridicule...

But God has prepared us for this – truly has!

...etc., but we move forward ever thankful that the past 3½ years were not of great physical tribulation on this earth with the suffering it would have brought with it. But what is ahead is not easy. It will be difficult, but God will see us through.

Having said all this, I am now going to begin working on the Pentecost sermon that will be posted as soon as it is finished...

So that was just to inform people what was taking place.  Later on it said...

This Pentecost sermon will explain much. God has been merciful to us and has revealed so much to us over the past few years. He continues to do so. Wait on Him for He will not forsake us nor leave us.

So again, ending here....

Through all this my initial hope remains the same, as the sun has not set on the 26th in all the world.

So, right to the end…Some were hoping, well, maybe it’s really then tomorrow... well, not really.  I even thought, “Well, maybe while the sermon’s being given...is there a chance...” anyway... Whew!

But if we must go forward, then so be it! God’s will be done.

That brings me to some news articles.  This world – we have seen it coming. We have seen the gathering together, the storms. We have seen the things taking place.  People send these emails back and forth to each other, news items, sabre rattling – it’s out there!  It’s going to take a little more time for some of these things to come together.  There are certain things that are going to take place in Europe, there are certain things that have to happen in the United States yet, and I am prayerfully thankful to see this process unveil, if you will, because it gives people time to respond, repent over a period of time, whatever that is that God gives, and so much about the scattered Church.  That’s where God’s leading us to see, even more so, it’s about the world but it’s still very much about the scattered Church that parallels this entire time we’re going through.  It’s there.

Here is a headline; it says:

FROM JOSEPH FARAH'S G2 BULLETIN

China to neighbors: Drop plans for missile shield[1]

Plan could set up interceptors in Australia, Japan, South Korea

Published: 05/20/2012

Just like the Russians, not happy with NATO and what’s started, what they’ve put in as a process taking place over there now.  Russia’s not happy.

WASHINGTON – Chinese officials are not amused with U.S. plans to collaborate with Asian allies to develop a ballistic missile shield to protect Asia...

So, they have plans; they’re already in motion.  Another one:

BBC

Russia tests secret missile after NATO shield launched[2]

23 May 2012

A new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) so secret it has no name yet has been successfully tested in Russia, the defence ministry says.

The new weapon is designed to penetrate Nato's European missile defence shield, Russian defence sources told the Interfax news agency.

Another article....

DEBKAfile – May 24, 2012

Israel revives military option after Obama rejects its nuclear demands of Iran

Over and over, we are just bombarded with these things week by week by week.  We just get a little closer and closer and closer and at some point there are going to be some things that happen here yet in this country.  I think of things that are getting ready to take place in Europe.  In some point, in Great Britain... the Olympics, an absolute royal nightmare during the Queen’s Jubilee, the diamond jubilee of her sixtieth year, celebrations taking place and the massive numbers of people coming in there that they can’t even deal with.  Not a good time for this world.

Telegraph

For the Eurozone the worst is yet to come[3]

By Liam Halligan

6:35PM BST 26 May 2012

Do you think people are stirred up over there in Europe?

Across the single currency zone, fears are rising and, even in the most moderate nations, populations are becoming more restive.

Another article:

Financial Times

May 24, 2012

Russia turns up the nuclear rhetoric

By Charles Clover in Moscow and Geoff Dyer in Chicago

Incredible what they’re saying, the things they’re saying!

Before Dmitry Medvedev’s valedictory speech earlier this month, the outgoing president awarded medals to dozens of Russians, including a theatre director, a policewoman and the chairman of the Russian hockey federation. Then, taking the podium in a glittering Kremlin ballroom, Mr Medvedev declared that Russia’s younger generation needed positive role models to inspire them towards “success in literature, art, education, and” – he paused wistfully – “nuclear weapons”.

“They may still come in handy,” he said, apropos, seemingly, of nothing. “We’re not going to use them, but let’s still keep them around, because we have a big country, a complex country. We must value it and protect it.”

You think people’s minds aren’t being prepared for certain things that are going to come to pass in certain places?

Here’s one...

Spain: 5 banks downgraded, Bankia seeks 19 billion euros in aid[4]

25 May 2012

By Tiffany Hsu | The Los Angeles Times

It’s not looking good for the Spanish banking system. Standard & Poor’s just slashed the credit ratings of five banks and said the country is headed into a double-dip recession. One of them, Bankia, just asked the government for 19 billion euros in aid – a roughly $23.8 billion boost.

....

The ratings agency dropped Bankia, Bankinter and Banco Popular Espanol into junk status, all with a BB+ score. Banca Civica and Bankia’s parent company, Baco Financiero y de Ahorros, also were lowered.

Things are bad!  Things are bad in Europe!  It was bad enough as far as Greece.  Here’s another one...

Now Spain circles the Drain[5]

Forbes - Tim Worstall, Contributor

This is, again, an article from yesterday from Forbes.

Much of the news about the impending doom of the eurozone concentrates upon Greece: but Greece has never really been the problem. It’s 2% (and falling) of eurozone GDP, it leaving and defaulting will be expensive but not fatal to anything other than the idea of ever closer union within the European Union.

What really has people worried is contagion: that if Greece goes then so will Italy and or Spain...

And you can add to that Portugal and Ireland...

...and those are problems that are not so easy to shrug off. However, it’s becoming a little clearer that contagion is not really Spain’s problem. It’s not that Greece potentially leaving is leading to people pulling their money out of Spain. Rather, Spain’s problems are home grown and are really only now becoming apparent. A little of Warren Buffett’s point that it’s only when the tide goes out that you can see who has been swimming naked.

In other words, they can’t hide everything very long, and when certain events happen it becomes clearer and then the world panics.  It’s a worldwide economy.

Another one here...

Los Angeles Times | World

Investors hold breath for run on Spanish banks, but no line ups yet[6]

May 26, 2012

Now, we’ve talked about runs on banks and things that will happen.  It’s already happened in Greece.  Massive amounts of money have been taken out of Greece already, people have lined up in banks taking their money out and they’re worried it’s going to happen next here in Spain.

That’s just in a few days, three days; you think, “What an incredible world we live in.” We’re still there; it’s not a single event that just happened to bring everything together in one hour.  There are some massive things that happen quickly when God does have to intervene, when China and Russia does some of the things they do, but there are really a lot of things to take place before that, and that’s what God is showing us now.

And how has the Church responded to not knowing fully where we are going, but moving forward nevertheless in faith as we do?  I want to read a sampling of some letters here, make some comments as we go along because I find this awesomely inspiring, truly do.

The anticipation was a killer!  Now I’m more relaxed, at least until it dawns on me what a financial hole I foolishly dug for myself.

No, it wasn’t.  Now, nobody needs to beat themselves up over various things and no one should judge one another for decisions and choices, because I’ve heard some of that in the past, of people finding fault with something that certain ones have done and we’re not to judge those things.  Everybody has been different, how they’ve addressed some of these things, and we all have to face them, things that have happened, not beating ourselves up but it’s because we believe the same thing and made various choices.  And just because you made a choice doesn’t mean that’s the same choice everyone else should make.  We should have love and compassion toward one another and understand we’re in this together and we all have things to be worked out.

This individual went on to say...

It actually isn’t even over yet, we haven’t even started Pentecost here yet, but no matter what the outcome I still with all my heart and being believe everything as I did before.  This is the true Church of God and you are the true apostle and prophet.  Nothing changed!  The Last Great Day sermon keeps coming to mind, there is no other place to go.

No one poured more into this but you and no one has more to lose but you too.  We love you and we’re still here, God hasn’t forgotten us.

And I think, that sentiment is coming toward me but our sentiment is toward you.  And then the individual said...I thought this was good at the end.

I send this message in the presumption that I’m not the only one still sitting here.

Another one…

No matter what happens or doesn’t happen, I know that this is God’s Church and that you both are God’s end-time witnesses.  I didn’t call me to come into His Church fifty years ago for nothing...

In other words they understand that God is the one who called them fifty years ago.

Where else would we have learned all these truths?  Nowhere else!  Like you say, we stand firm and go forward.

To me these things are beautiful.  As we go through these letters and realize this is early on in a great trial.  This is not an easy thing we’ve been through.  It’s understandable – it rocks you...but then you address it and you do what God says, move forward.  This is God’s Church.  God prepared us on the Last Great Day to address this period of time.  And some have to examine their lives.  We all have to examine our lives but this puts some of you newer, younger, into a unique situation because you have never addressed anything to this caliber in your life.  You see, I have talked a lot about the apostasy and what the Church went through – that was massive in comparison to this!  Massive!  Heartrending!  Pulling your heart out of your insides!  Turning you inside out for days and days and days, and weeks of turmoil and pain and suffering...but we knew there were things we had to do as God’s Church and we strove to hold onto, at least portion did and God was bringing us, some of us, to that point anyway because He had a purpose.  And now you have a taste.  Please understand it’s a small taste.  Now, an opportunity to exercise faith in a way that helps you grow.

That’s why I’ve said so many times, I wouldn’t exchange anything for any of my experiences in the past!  They have made me who I am!  They have brought me to where I am today, to where I’m able to go forward in the manner that I am.

Another one...

We are here and we’re not going anywhere.  Of course we are disappointed that Jesus Christ is not returning now but that is only temporary because we know it is God’s will and there must be something of great importance in His plan yet that we don’t see.

That’s right, another ‘day’, another year, a time for God to bring all these things to pass!

We’ve had an amazing and exciting past 24 hours and it’s something we will never regret nor forget.

Beautifully spoken.

We are excitedly looking forward to tomorrow’s sermon.

Another one…

We have learned today, indeed, how to be more sober and more vigilant.  We love God even more because we believe that whatever happens, it has a purpose, and as you always teach us through God’s word and inspiration that we will always have trials until the very last moment, and that should lead us to be wise and learn more.

That’s right, we can learn through these things that God gives to us.

Because God’s way of life is so awesome and extremely perfect we know and we believe that if God says go right, then we should go right, and if He says go left, then we should go left also, because God knows us inside out and He knows the best way to teach us, especially when He allows us to go through some trials so we may learn and be thankful.

That’s absolutely true!  Reminds me here at this point, Daniel 12:12 as I read through some of this.  This came to mind this morning and I wanted to add this to it.  Blessed is he who waits and comes to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days, better rendered...  ‘Blessed is he who waits and comes to the thousand three hundred and thirty fifth day.’  We are blessed!  Not fully of all what we thought, but it is about God’s people and those who are part of the 144,000.  We are very blessed to come to this period in time because something has been accomplished and finished, and now God will proceed forward to complete it all, to do it all, to finish the rest of what He said He would.  That’s what is being told here through these verses.

So, from the 50th Truth to now we have been given great power, great truth, we have spiritually arrived to God’s final day – that’s what this is all about – filled with power, boldness, and confidence to move forward and follow God the remainder of the way.

Another letter...I want to read this one here...

Incredibly there is so much to learn from God’s own statement, ‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are My ways your ways.” says the Eternal.

So God has to show us, we understand that, everything that we don’t always see and know, and yet in time God will reveal them to us.

I am sure this sermon will be akin to that given on the Last Great Day, nevertheless we move forward.  Yes, there is some disappointment, I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t, but I move forward.  If there is sin involved I repent before God asking His mercy and forgiveness and move forward.

And so again, this thing that we sometimes do, and it’s always good to do that, to look at our own lives and ask God if there is sin.  But this is not about sin.  God is well pleased with what we have done – this is not because there is some great mistake we have made or you have made, it’s a matter of God’s revelation and His timing.  Going on....

Although God led the Israelites through the sea they still had no clue as to what to expect as they went forward – neither did Moses for that matter – but forward they went.

It’s a beautiful story when you look at it in the context of what we’re looking at here today.

They had Moses and Aaron, they had proof that they were who God was working through, so they moved with them to the left and to the right.

....

I know who you are and I am confident that where God leads you is where He wants you to lead us, even if we are led to our Red Sea.  The enemy is there thinking we are cornered.... and God will open to us another way.

So what if we’re faced with ridicule?  I lost my job in faith and hopes that this would occur today.  It is still today and like you said, it still may happen, but if it doesn’t it’s not because God’s timing was off, it’s not because you misunderstood or were presumptuous, but as you said such is pleasing to God that people remain faithful to the end when God intervenes to fulfill His word or to reveal another way.

God’s way is the only way to be safe and right. If we term it another way, it’s still God’s way.

And then finally here, toward the end...

God did not reveal these truths and bring us all the way to this point to throw us under the bus.

I thought that was good, because that’s a little bit what the Israelites felt when they addressed certain things, “Did you bring us out here to die?  Why did you bring us all this way for to this point?”  So this is well put.  Going on...

The world needs this as much as we do, how much more do they?  And we need to live (speaking of them and we) to live in this cesspool.  If it doesn’t happen today, whenever the last sunset is, we’ll have to wait until next year? ...because we know it will happen on Pentecost?

That’s the truth; that’s what leads you to it.  That’s what led to understanding more fully ‘the day of the Lord’.  He returns on Pentecost.

The truth is the truth.  God has to give us understanding of it more clearly and we wait for Him to do that and not be impatient with Him.  He will bring all things, all these things, about just as He led you to write them.

True!  Let’s turn over there to Exodus – and notice what it says.  Awesome scriptures here, especially as we apply what we have gone through now and what happened to them, and we see this in a deeper way than we could have before, we understand things in a more profound way than we did before. With that story they’re coming up there and it says, Exodus 14:1 - And the Eternal spoke unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn and encamp before Pihahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, over against Baalzephon: before it shall you encamp by the sea.

We’ll just go on here; talks about seeing them entangled and that they were shut in because they have these two ranges beside them and then the sea and then Pharaoh’s going to come up.

But anyway, let’s notice verse 10, jumping on down; And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, beheld, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid: sometimes you go through things and things are fearful, there are things that happen, “Well, what do we do now?  What do we say?  How do we address certain things?” and certain things that come flooding through your mind sometimes.  Is everything wrong then?  ...and you are brought back to realize this is God’s Church, these are the truths of God.  You go back to everything that is basic and you build upon it, to come right back to where you are and you move forward, remembering the sermon on the Last Great Day.

...and the children of Israel cried out unto the Eternal.  And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? You brought us out here to throw us under the bus?!  Well put!  God doesn’t do that!  There’s a purpose in how He leads us and why He leads us and He loves us. And He’s pleased with us, especially more so now than ever before, indeed.

Wherefore have you dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt? It’s like, look at what we’ve done, look at what we’ve done the last three years.  Now, this is the last thing that should come into a person’s mind, but maybe it has, I don’t know, we go through different things.

Verse 12 - Is not this the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians? It would have been better if we’d just continued with what we were living and never started this.  Horrible, horrible things that happen to carnal people. For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness.

And Moses said unto the people, Fear not, stand still, a spiritual principle for God’s people of all time, but even for us!  Stand still!  Stand firm, in other words, in what God has given to you, where God has led you.  He’s led you there for a purpose.  He didn’t lead you there to throw you under the bus!  He didn’t leave you there to destroy you!  We understand God leads us... then look to God to continue leading.  He won’t leave us nor forsake us.

So he says, don’t fear, stand still and see the salvation of the Eternal, I think of where we are right now and because of that I’m excited, because there are awesome things in front of us now, truly, that won’t happen quickly.  We’re going to experience them more fully over a period of time, whatever that is, ever how God does it, but we’re going to see some awesome things, we’re going to be a part of something that’s incredible.  ...stand still and see the salvation of the Eternal which He will show to you today: for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will see them again no more forever. The Eternal shall fight for you, and you shall hold your peace, you hold your place.  And that’s where we are, for us.  God is going to fight for us!  This is about God’s battle now – this is ‘the day of the Lord’.

We have done our part as far as what we have lived through and God has brought us to this point now to just go the rest of the distance here, to continue following where He leads us.  And things will be different, and our focus will be somewhat different, and things are going to happen in a different way.  What we’ve experienced we’re going to be experiencing it in a little bit different manner.  You will see as time goes along!  And God will fight battles for you, over and over again, in what we’re going to go through because it’s about God and it’s about what God is giving now.

And the Eternal said unto Moses, Wherefore do you cry unto me?  Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward:  What does that mean?  Yesterday, what did that mean?  Where do you go?  Where are we going?  What’s happening?  Has this all been in vain?  No, we go forward.  God has a ‘day’ we’re to live, it’s just that that ‘day’ is a year from Pentecost to Pentecost, of things that God is going to do very powerfully so in this world.

He says, But lift up your rod, and stretch your hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground in the midst of the sea. Incredible!  God shows another way!  He’ll show us what that is, and He’s done that to us, He’s shown us the way that He wants us to go now.  And we see it for what it is, not knowing fully everything that’s there but we go forward; that’s the message.

And I, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them: and I will get Me honour upon Pharaoh, and upon his hosts, and upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen. And that is very much spiritually what this is all about right now!  It’s about God receiving His honour and glory as He said, as I wrote earlier in a post, that this is about God revealing that He is Yahweh Elohim, He is God Almighty and what He has said will no longer be prolonged and He will do what He said.

Prophecies will come to pass, things will happen the way God said and inspired them to be written.  We will see them and we will experience them and they won’t be crammed together in one hour time.  But that’s all we saw at the present time, because time had run out, what else could it be?  And until God shows us we don’t know, so we lift up our hands and we ask God, “Where do we go.”  You know what?  God has shown us, and these letters, you understand we go forward.  We go forward whatever that means, and we know how we do it, we know how we will go forward because God will show us in the same way He’s always done it – through His servants, through His servant now, through me.  That’s how God works, it’s a reality.  It’s just the way it works.

And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Eternal, the Egyptians?  This world... God is going to reveal things to this world.  They will know that He is the Eternal.  That’s what He’s bringing them to, to the very end, and even still those things that happen at the very last; but more and more we’re going to see a process here of things that are written in ‘2008 – God’s Final Witness’.  And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Eternal when I have gotten Me honour upon Pharaoh and upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen.  Because there is a war that’s going on and it’s reflected in the way of this world and the way this world is deceived, what they follow.

Another letter...  I’m going to take the time here, we’re going to keep going because this is a special sermon, special Pentecost.  I DO NOT PLAN ON SPEAKING ON THE NEXT PENTECOST...we’re going to fit more here.   I know where God’s leading us – I know, and I hope you know.  I hope you have had boldness and confidence.  This is what God has brought us to, this is where we are.

Another letter

I find this whole process very exciting and more along the lines of what I would expect ever since you gave the sermon where you announced that the two witnesses would not have to physically die in the streets of Jerusalem and that our deliverance would be like that of the Israelites deliverance at the Red Sea.  I have wondered just how much of what is left is spiritual, how much was physical.

Things that go through our minds; we wonder...what’s...?

I do know that if things had just started off at the beginning of Pentecost in Jerusalem like we thought it might, where would be the Red Sea and where would be the ‘not seeing our escape’ and not knowing how we should be delivered.  I fully expected to not understand or know how God could be delivering us and the world, and it gives me great comfort to know that it is happening just the way you said it would.  Praise our Father, and I for one....

See, ‘2008 – God’s Final Witness’ – it’s not being bypassed, it’s not going to be crunched into a few minutes time.  It’s going to be seen.  God brought us here for a reason; not to destroy us, not to throw us under the bus, but to accomplish a great work.

Praise our Father, and I will for one wait until He reveals how He is going to bring His plan to pass, however that is.

Beautiful!  We wait!  We wait upon God!  That’s our life.  When we come to a Red Sea moment we wait on God and He’ll show us, He always has.

Please do not be discouraged; things are going exactly as God planned and as you have told us.

Love and Peace to you.... to the Church.

Another letter....

I’ve been in God’s Church for 37 of my 52 years and I’m more convinced today this is where God is.  I wait on Him to fulfill His plan according to His timeframe.  Christ will return!

Another one….

First of all we 100% contemplate that it may still happen today, and if not this is still God’s Church!  Like Willem said, we will move forward.

Beautiful spirit over and over again here of these things that are here.  Another one....

Not what if… following God to the end

In other words, that’s what they’re going to do, not a matter of ‘if’.  Another one....  Rather long, and I’m talking the time to do these things, to read them....

Before I sat down here to write you I had so many thoughts going through my head, now my mind is empty. In a way that’s nice.  All week there have been so many thoughts, so many ideas of how or what today would be like; now we find ourselves where we do.

We’ve all gone through so many things, so many gamut’s of things.

Right now was like reliving the last sermon of the Feast.  During that sermon I went through many emotions and thoughts of what to do and had decided to follow God no matter what.  Today I have been thinking much of the same.  We know where God’s truth is, where it comes from.  I have witnessed God’s mercy in my life; I have seen great truth revealed by God through His Church, Church of God – PKG; there is nowhere else to go for such things.

Yes, I battle in my human mind trying to wrap around the idea of why would God bring us so close and still have more for us to see.  I know I have to wait on God, not fully understanding how He is fulfilling His plan.  I know I have to pray for strength, the patience, for the eyes to see and the ears to hear what He is doing and where He is leading us now.

Beautifully said!  It’s exactly how you follow God.

I do not want to deal with tomorrow or Monday or Tuesday... I so wait for this world and its ways to come to an end.  With that said, I’ll strive to follow God.  I know only God can give what is needed to each of us to make it through this.

God truly has been merciful to me in ways I do not fully grasp.  He has shown me things about me that only He can.  He has given us all truths that can only come from Him through you.  To end, God grant us the strength to follow Him wherever He choose.

Mr. and Mrs. Weinland, stay strong and of good courage, God is in control.

See, the feelings that people have toward us, and I understand that, we share with each other, we have this desire.

We have to fight and just move forward.  We look forward to seeing you both again soon.

I thought I had some more here.  Just a moment... Taking the time to do all this.  I think it’s important we do this.  Here is one I’m not going to read the entire email because it’s kind of a personal one and I didn’t ask the individual, but it’s been forwarded to me by a senior elder and I’m certain that this person doesn’t mind that I read parts of his email.  It says....

I was glad to hear from you, [speaking of the senior elder], I’ve been up early reading the posting again as I’m sure many brethren have.  I first want you to know that even though I was surprised by the email, the way that I received it, and I’ll explain it to you in a moment, I was not shaken.  I know where the truth is and I know that I see only because my God has been merciful to me and blessed me with revelations of His power before my very eyes.  I have been a witness to many things in my incredible short 3½ years in the Church.  Although I was very disappointed when I realized that Christ might not return I know what my next thought was in my mind, one of peace and steadfastness that I still had all the truths in my mind and God gave me great comfort.  It came from Him, I know, not of myself.  I do look forward to what God will reveal to His Church today.

A universal spirit, as a whole, through God’s Church.  It’s beautiful.  And finally toward the end it says...

Anyway, with great faith I move forward allowing God to guide and direct me through His end-time prophet.

Another one...

Just a short note to thank you and Laura for all that you have done and continue to do on behalf of God’s Church.  The verse in Joshua, ‘Be strong and of good courage’, takes on new, exciting meaning as we march forward.  I read Joshua over and over yesterday thinking if they can keep marching then so can I.

We are completely certain that this is God’s Church and you are His prophet.  There is nowhere else to go.  We fully realize that you and Laura are under the kind of pressures that cannot even be imagined and that we’ll keep you in our prayers.

We are refocusing and looking forward to seeing how God acts to tear down all of man’s system.  A day for a year?

I marvel sometimes at how God just prepares us for things and works with us and we go through it and it all comes together.  If we press forward, we cry out to Him, He never leaves us nor forsakes us, He continues to lead us.

It should have been obvious that God was not ready to let us see it yet, so we trust in Him and we move forward.  Our Rock, our Petra has not moved and we need to be sure we are moving in the right direction as well.

Another one...

I know you’re being flooded with emails right now but I just wanted to let you both know how truly thankful I am for you and for the opportunity to continue to grow in truth in God’s Church.  I love you and have so much respect for you.  I am also so very thankful to have had the opportunity to grow up in God’s Church and understand that His truth is ever progressive and there is always more.

And I believe this is the final one here…

I’ll only take a few lines as I am sure you have received so many emails. I just want you to know...

And by the way, how do I say this?  You know, if you want to send an email you’re not always going to get a reply because of the numbers of emails sometimes, but don’t feel that you’re interfering. That’s fine to do, there’s not a problem with that.  But sometimes people will hold back and not do those kinds of things and I just wanted to mention that in passing...and I’ll get more than I can read.  No, I’m just kidding. 

I know you receive so many emails.  I just want you to know I was disappointed at first when I realized Christ probably wasn’t returning this Pentecost, to put it mildly.  But I can tell you for a certainty that I am more excited now than I ever thought I could be on this day.  I feel I am at the Red Sea.

Isn’t that amazing?

I truly believe God has inspired sermon after sermon to prepare all of us for this day.

And He has!

I didn’t listen to the sermon that was pre-recorded for the overseas brethren even though I have to admit I thought of listening, but I wanted the spirit that is in me to be greater than that which is in the world...

In other words a personal thing and what they’re looking at.

I had to find out by waiting on God these last few hours if I trusted Him, even though I didn’t have the answer or if I had to have the answer first.  Now I know without doubt I trust Him.

I know there is another way and now I am ready to hear the answer because I know it doesn’t matter, my trust is not in the solution, it is in God and my eagerness to do it His way.

We are totally wiped out financially and it’s strange but I am not worried.  No one can repossess what I have spiritually and I would not trade it for anything!

I hope you have a great High Day and I can hardly wait to hear the sermon that’s been prepared.  I am fully prepared to move on.  I thank God and I thank you both, along with others that I have observed to be faithful, for the preparation we have received.

Awesome!  Many more to be read that we’re not going to go through anymore, but over and over again...  And that’s what I’m talking about; God is well pleased with where He’s brought His Church and the response of His people to Him; because it’s about a response to Him, not to me...to Him.  Awesome!

And that brings us to where we’re going to conclude for the day, Revelation 11.  Because you see, God is still adding, God is still adding more to what He’s given to us and this portion in Revelation 11 is what this is still all about and He’s just giving us more and more to understand what He’s doing because this is what we’ve come to, we’ve come to the end of 3½ years, we’ve come to the end of a witness, of two witnesses that God gave that’s primarily reflected in the book, ‘2008 – God’s Final Witness’, because that’s what it’s about.  And then God gave us understanding of these things in Revelation 11 and He’s giving more.

Revelation 11:10 - And they who dwell upon the earth shall rejoice, in other words, be glad, over them, and celebrate, and shall send gifts one to another; what’s happening?  It’s happening more now than what it did even during that period of time, because these two prophets tormented them who dwelt on the earth.  And with all their being they believe, no more, they’re dead, they’re gone, it’s over with.

“After three and one-half days [prophetic 3 ½ years] the Spirit of life from God entered into them...

I’m quoting some of this in the previous posting.

...[not physical life, but spirit life as the two witnesses are changed from mortal to immortal at Christ’s return]...

Now God has given us more understanding of that, speaking about at Christ’s return.  It leads to that, it’s about those things that are a part of this picture, but there’s more in between that leads up to this.  That’s the conclusion of it all.  So this is what it all leads to when it’s all concluded and God is now showing us when ‘the day of the Lord’ is concluded, in other words, this is what takes place.  It is literally at the end of ‘the day of the Lord’.  It is a literal event that finally occurs but it’s used by God as a symbolic representation, if you will.  Because that’s what this is about, because it’s about  a symbolic representation of what He accomplishes through this period of time by what’s stated next.  Notice....

...and they stood upon their feet [were made to “stand” in God—in His truth—in the sight of others once God shows all the scattered body irrefutable proof of their “standing” with Him through this resurrection]...

Yes, but again, symbolically leading up to that God is going to show, is going to give, if you will, evidence and proof now that has not been there in that respect, that that which is written is absolute until it is fulfilled, until it’s finally accomplished.  It’s kind of like what it says in Joel; what’s given there, what we read, shows what happens toward the very end, but all those things it’s about something that happens and occurs within a period of time called ‘the day of the Lord’, and we understand what those things are – Trumpets – Trumpets that have to be accomplished and fulfilled yet, other things added to and magnified as far as Thunders are concerned that go along with the Trumpets that we haven’t experienced...but we will.  But now there’s more; it’s how God will reveal His... this throughout this period of time in ‘the day of the Lord’.

...and great fear fell upon them who saw them” (Rev. 11:11).

So, when do they see? At some point.  Because we didn’t know any more about this we believed that this is going to happen immediately after the resurrection, that immediately after a physical thing takes place – because this is what we were looking for – and that finally, speaking of 63,000, something would happen to 7,000 and 63,000 would be left and this would happen over whatever period of time, but quickly and soon after.

But God is revealing there’s more that’s going to happen throughout this period, at different intervals, at different times, because, see, it’s when people are finally brought to an awakening.  What might awaken one person that God gives, and He’s going to do that in a progressive manner as well, it’s somewhat as what we believed in times past, candidly.  But it’s a progressive thing whereas it becomes more and more, as Trumpets sound on the earth, there are things that people can’t deny any longer, and more and more people will repent.  That’s when they give... that’s when fear....  When you have fear it’s because you see something, because people don’t fear right now.  But when they come to understand they’re right – made to stand.  God is the one who makes us to stand in the sight of others – that is what this is about, and it ends in a certain way at the very end but now we understand at the end of another year ahead of us.

But through a period of time people come to see – we are made to stand in their sight – different ones will be brought to repentance at different times.  It’s still about the Church!  And it is about the world and there are things that are going to take place where those of you who are ordained were not ordained in vain before the return of Christ.  Because we came to that point in time and thought, well, it’s going to be afterwards, that’s the only answer... that’s the only answer!  Now we understand better.  God prepared us for a purpose and for a reason – there is a work yet ahead of us.  So it says....

...great fear fell upon them who saw them” (Rev. 11:11).

So, incredible here, what we still see; things about what God’s going to accomplish, verse 12 – and then finally this all leads up to this - And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up here. In other words, again, a conclusion, the very end of the matter, where it finally ends up.  But God is showing us now there’s a lot in between, there’s a lot that takes place in between yet.  And they ascended up into heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.  So again, a final conclusion, but all this is used in a language here before to show something else.  It’s about being ‘made to stand’.  Please understand that’s the subject here, that’s the focus God wants us to have, to understand what He’s going to do even for you.

Do you understand that in time here, can we begin to see a little bit, that those right now who think you’re nuttier than a fruitcake – there are some who are going to be brought to a point where you are made to stand in their sight.  That’s what this is about!  You don’t have to do it, God’s going to do it because He makes us to stand, that which is picture by two witnesses is something the entirety of the Church will experience at various times, at various moments, where the heart and mind of people will literally change toward you, because of fear, because of a reality of something that all of a sudden is in their mind that they didn’t have before and God is going to begin pouring out His spirit upon this world as we approach the finality of it all.

Verse 13 - And the same hour, literally in the Greek it’s a word that means, ‘time’ or ‘period’, but we’d focused on an hour because we were at the end.  But it’s a word that literally means, ‘in a period of time’ or ‘a time’ and it can be a day, or it can be a period of time being spoken of, and it is a ‘day’, it’s ‘the day of the Lord’ but it’s a year.

It says, there was a great shaking, it doesn’t happen at one time, it’s a shaking, shaking of a Body, shaking of a people, shaking of something happens, shaking of God’s people – what it takes to shake them - and the tenth part of the city, not all at one time, not in a moment as we have thought because we were out of time, because it had to happen that way. No, during ‘the day of the Lord’ – shaking.  Some will die at different time periods, not all at the same moment, but in ‘that day’, and when it’s all said and done God tells you exactly how many by name have died. 7,000. That’s what this is about.  It’s awesome, it really is, of things that God is going to do and accomplish over the following year to bring others to repentance.

So, we get to experience something that I’ve always wanted to experience – to still have people who will come along at various phases in time to be able to share in this.  And it’s progressive because it becomes the farther you go – especially by the time we’ve always understood – by the time you get to the 5th Trumpet the greatest number begin to move there.  And all along the way God’s still shaking some at different points because what is written about the ministry is going to come to pass, different ones at different times.  Not within an hour, not within a moment, but to give people time to think and time to respond and time to share in this as they repent.  I find that exciting!  I hope you do!

You know, to finally realize some of these pieces just don’t fit into one hour, but if God wants to put them in one hour so be it, because that’s where we were, because we didn’t know any better.  It’s over more time, over a ‘day’.

And so a great earthquake, it talks about 7,000 – you know the rest of the story – but there’s more to come, brethren, there’s a lot more to come of what God is giving to us, of where we are, of where we’re going.  And you know what?  Now we wait; we wait on God.  We wait, we go about what we have to go about as we have in times past, but now we have another focus of something we have already experienced and lived, understanding there’s something now that God is going to do differently that He hasn’t done in the past.

You know, it’s always kind of boggled my mind why certain things haven’t happened.  We’ve had certain things take place at different times and I’ve thought... I won’t go there right now.   I understand now, because it was to happen in ‘the day of the Lord’, because it’s a time that God magnifies His power on the earth and it wasn’t to be spread out over 3½ years, it’s to be spread out over a year – slowly more and more and more until it culminates, climaxes, comes to a point of all these things being fulfilled. So there’s more to come, brethren, and this is about ‘the day of the Lord’.  It’s about a year, from Pentecost to Pentecost, when God makes His two witnesses to stand.  We’re going to hear a lot more about that, ‘to stand’.  He’s going to make you ‘to stand’ in the sight of others.  I look forward to that.

I look forward to that, that people who at this time, and family, and others who are against you, when they change, their heart changes toward you.  What a beautiful thing when all of a sudden they no longer look down upon you, no longer are you an ‘ant’ or a ‘slug’ in their sight, an obstacle of offence because you’re offensive to them because they’re kind of embarrassed that you’re even in the family.  And some of us have that, embarrassed you’re in the family.  You embarrass the family! That’s the feeling.

What a beautiful thing that God brings people to a point in time because it is about this focus; this is the subject of all this – God makes us ‘to stand’.  It’s fulfilled finally in an actual resurrection and He focuses on the use of the terminology of the two witnesses, but as we’ve talked about before, it’s something we’re all witness to.  We’re all a part of this, we’ve all shared in this...and you will share in this, that there are those who look down upon you....what a beautiful feeling when you can share with them this way of life and now you have a relationship with them that’s like what we share with one another, of those right now who presently look down upon you as you’re kind of beneath them.

I look forward to that.  Those are beautiful moments in time.  There is nothing more beautiful than when someone comes to genuine repentance.  It begins with fear and God is going to provide the fear factor (and I don’t mean the show...).  He’s going to provide the factor of fear in their life that they’re missing right now.

And when they come to that point it’s a beautiful thing, when people repent before God and cry out to Him. And all of a sudden God’s way is ‘made to stand’ and you’re there, you’re the one who represents God’s way, the truth, and you are ‘made to stand’ in their sight.  What a beautiful experience that’s going to be.  I look forward to you sharing in that.

~~~end

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