The Greatest Means, Pt. 3

Ronald Weinland

March 28, 2020

This will be Part 3 of the series entitled The Greatest Means.

It was stated in both Part 1 and 2 that the greatest means we have of drawing closer to God and of becoming far more prepared and ready for the kinds of events that are building up around us in this world, that we are being admonished by God to fast.

Certainly, we’re looking forward to that period of time. There is much to be said about it. Just jumping ahead a little bit here it reminds me of 2009 when we had a two-day fast; now we’re coming up to a one day fast. To me in some ways this is moving and inspiring because it’s covering some of the same kind of thought, the same kind of purpose as what we did back at that time. We had no idea then what was taking place. We did not understand that it had already been determined by God that obviously 2012 would not be the time. And we’re still looking forward, not knowing exactly when that will be. What kind of a process are we in? What’s going to take place? We don’t know.

But it is a time indeed to draw closer to God, to realize the timing of events that are taking place knowing that something definitely of a very great scale has already begun. Either this is a great Thunder—which it is a great Thunder, but a powerful one around the world—but it’s a very sobering one as well. How close everything might be behind that, we don’t know. We just keep looking forward and certainly focusing in on this fast and the purpose for it (and there’ll be a lot more said about that as we go along here).

So again, I mentioned a three-day fast because in some respects, cheating a little bit, because we had a two-day fast and mentioned that certainly we didn’t want to do anything that would in any fashion or form have something that would take away from the fast we read about in the book of Esther. I imagine there are quite a few people that were glad at that time it wasn’t three days, because two days is pretty tough in by itself for those who were able to do that. So, we’re tacking on the other day now. We just have several years in between to prepare for this one here. Because, again, the focus is very much the same, very much perhaps even time wise of what we were looking for. Who knows? We don’t know yet.

That Church wide fast is next week and it’s to be observed, again, sometime within the period of April the 3rd through the 5th, somewhere in there, whatever your choosing is, whatever works best for you as an individual or as a family.

So again, as in both Part 1 and 2 we read parts of the book of Joel that speak of a time for setting aside a fast because of a specific time that’s about to come to pass. Again, we thought it was at that time. Again, we’re focusing in on, zeroing in on that same time period again. We’ll just read a couple of those verses again back there that we have already read in the first two portions, but now here again in Part 3.

Joel 1:14-16—Sanctify a fast. I love that just by itself because it’s not something being done individually, it’s something as a Church, to sanctify is to set aside for holy use and purpose. Indeed, that is our focus because of what it says here in the book of Joel.

Call (proclaim) a sacred assembly. So again, more than something individual, it’s about the Church. It’s something that can be done, is to be done within the Church. The timing is very significant as well. So all of this flows together, has incredible meaning for what we’re addressing here today.

Again, proclaim (call) a sacred assembly. It’s sacred because God is in it, because especially here it’s about a timing for a fast of God’s people for a very specific purpose, something that God wants us to focus on at a very specific time.

So it says, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Eternal your God. Again, we know where the house of God is. We know where the Church of God is. We know where the temple is and we make that temple up. But we really do, as a part of our lives, as God’s spirit lives and dwells within us. So it’s a calling together, a sacred assembly, if you will, that’s being called together for a very specific time, for a very specific purpose of a fast. That’s sobering and it’s inspiring.

...and cry out to the Eternal. Alas for the day! Well, what we’re experiencing right now is extremely sobering, hitting nations around the world where nations are completely shutting down. In some cases all traffic, all buses. India, what is it, 1.3-4 (I can’t remember exactly what the figure is) billion people? Busses, trains, airplanes, borders shut down. That’s massive! That’s unheard of, of something like that being done. It’s never been done like this. Nation after nation. Russia, though, claiming that it’s not an epidemic there but closing down there as well.

So again, nation after nation taking extreme measures of doing something that is, again, unheard of, with incredible fear that’s out there as well. But also, still incredible pride, incredible pride that exists. There is a process that the world is going to be taken through and as a part of this fast I hope and pray it’s going to be a short one and not a long one. It would be exceedingly nice, it would be exceedingly good if it could be very soon, if those things could happen.

I think at times like this of the flood, forty day and forty nights, and think of the devastation that happened as all mankind and animal life and the like was destroyed except for one family. A time of humbling for the earth. For those who remain, very few. But now it’s a little different.

But what in incredible thing if it could be done quickly and not over a long period of time. But if it’s necessary that we go through more, that the world go through more in order to bring about the kind of humility, in order to mold and fashion something within the thinking of people to be able to learn from the process, to experience that in a way that doesn’t happen quickly, I can easily see where God would bring that along over a period of time of a few years.

So again, it depends on God’s purpose and how it’s to be accomplished because the coming of His Kingdom, the establishment of His government is no small thing and the world must be prepared for it. How much it has to go through in order to be prepared? How fast that can be? We don’t know. God knows. So He’ll lead, guide, and direct us and we’re being prepared.

I think of how in some ways what’s taking place right now is a very merciful thing, because if the world were just cast into a period of time without any preparation whatsoever the ability to deal with some things would be lessened far more than what it is. But right now there are people who are not making so much fun anymore of stocking up on food and other items. Governments are not thinking that way. They’re thinking more of the need and the realization that a lot of things haven’t been prepared as well as they could be and probably should be for things of this nature or something far worse, and we know that something far worse is coming.

So if there are those who because of what’s happening right now have more of a stockpile that could go through something then that’s going to turn out to be an incredible blessing for them and for us. Because there is coming a time when people are going to go out and look for food and it’s not going to be a pleasant time in what takes place.

Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Eternal your God. Today we understand what that means, starting with those who went through the Apostasy, starting with those who have been in the Church for some time and those who have been around for a long time that have experienced the majority of things of this end-time that led up to the Apostasy and after, and then all the others who have been blessed to come along since that time. All gathering together for the same purpose and for the same objective.

...and cry out to the Eternal. Alas for the day! For the day of the Eternal is at hand, is near. That’s what that word means in the Hebrew, it’s near. Well, we know that now. We’ve known that for a while. We just haven’t known how near, but now we realize that it’s a lot nearer than what it was back in 2009, and things that are happening in the news today that make that look pretty small and insignificant back then, and understandably so. But what’s happening in the world, the position of the world, the position of countries right now is it’s there. It’s just a matter of the moment and the purpose that’s yet to be worked out.

“The day of the Eternal is at hand.” Sometimes we want to know when it talks about things happening in God’s time in the sense of the “day of the Eternal,” or “the year of the Eternal.” There are some things that talk about God doing certain things in the “year of the Lord,” and we wonder, well, what does that mean? We’ve looked at different things. We’ve seen different things used at different times in scripture, different periods of time. So it all comes back to God’s purpose and what He’s going to work out as to what that would be or will be.

Before we looked at a period of 50 days, we’ve seen periods of time that have been a year. It doesn’t mean that some of those things can’t be changed or altered because of still being able to fit prophetically within what needs to be done, but to understand it’s coming down to a time that is God’s time, when He begins to do what He’s going to do, where He has, in that respect, hands on to intervene in the affairs of mankind.

I believe with all my being this is a major one right here, and where it leads, how much time that has to be in we don’t know. It can happen within a year. It can be at a specific time there can be certain judgment poured out that only happens over a small period of time within that year, but it’s His year, it’s His time to do it. So we have to wait and see exactly what’s coming. We have to be alert, on guard, and prepared.

It will come as a destruction from the Almighty. God is going to humble this earth. There is so much said in the book of Isaiah. I think of that, things we’ve read at a Feast of Tabernacles at times and talking about the haughtiness, especially of Israel, the pride. Even yet to even now people are talking about, “We know we’re going to come through this. We are great!”

I understand that, if you don’t have God, if you don’t have the truth. But even with God they have certain ideas and beliefs in the sense of they think about their relationship with God and what it is, though we understand what that really is and that they’re blinded to it. But I understand that thinking. We should understand that thinking.

But there is so much pride in it. “We’re going to do this. We’re going to accomplish that,” and it’s not going to happen. They’re going to go from one fire into another fire. We’re in that time.

Is not food cut off before our eyes? And this is to us. We understand that there are going to be physical things, but there are things written here that are specific to God’s Church. ...and joy and in gladness from the house of our God? Well, we’re already experiencing that because we can’t come together in fellowship. There are some people who can get together at times on the phone or by Skype perhaps, or Facetime or some of those other kinds of programs out there.

I’ve had some questions about some of that. It’s fine to do, but use it wisely. Our experience in the past has been, sadly, in the vast majority of the cases of people who have gone on the systems where there are many involved is that too often it’s misused. People use it as a platform sometimes to be a teacher, having teacheritis, wanting to speculate. It’s just a carnal thing of human nature that isn’t healthy in God’s Church.

So it’s fine to talk about sermons and discuss some of the things like you might after Sabbath services but be careful how far that goes. Be careful. You know, fine to share news of things you hear, news items and things that are going on, but be careful how far you go. Be wise. That’s all that can be asked at this point.

So I encourage people to get together, especially one on one. It’s good that people think about people in your own area, people in some other areas, but especially in your own areas that you normally get together with, to be able to phone them at least on occasion, to get on Skype or Facetime, to have a few others around if you want to from time to time. That’s fine. But again, the larger it gets you have to be careful because you have to be wise in how it’s used. It should be a time of the kind of fellowship we might have in Sabbath services. Again, be wise. Ask for God’s help. Ask for guidance and direction that those tools be used wisely.

So again, Is not the food cut off from our eyes and joy and gladness from the house of our God? So again, as a matter of something that is something that we just can’t experience right now, some of the gladness and the joy of fellowship, it’s been cut down a lot. We just aren’t able to have what we’ve known in the past. So it’s a beginning process.

Anyway, toward the end of Part 2 we were focusing on part of what was given as instruction concerning the fast outlined in Joel 2 (that we just started through in part of this), and it was stated that part of that process had to do with what God said in verse 12, that we are to “turn to Him with all of our hearts with or in fasting.”

So this is a part of a process. It’s something that we have to reach deep down inside, a desire to really cry out to God, a desire to humble our self in ways that are stronger and better focused than in personal fasts we might have at other times throughout the year. Understanding that everyone in the Church is doing the same thing within the same timeframe for a great purpose. A time of humbling ourselves, a time of really pouring out our hearts before God, a desire to use this fast in the manner that we’re talking about or is being talked about in this sermon.

Anyway, we ended Part 2 in Proverbs 3 and we’re going to pick up the last two verses that we covered there in Proverbs 3 so let’s pick that up and continue on today.

Proverbs 3:5—Trust in the Eternal with all your heart. We’re going to learn to do that more and more because of the time in which we live and because what the world is experiencing right now is pretty small...pretty small. Knowing the kind of fear that exists out there, knowing the kind of resources that are being expended upon something, the kind of fear that exists, and realizing that there is so much that’s unanswered here, so much that’s messed up and it’s not going to turn out very good by the time this is all over with, it really isn’t.

So “trust in the Eternal with all your hearts.” We’re going to learn to trust in God, looking to God in things in our life, in our relationship with God concerning things that we’re going to experience, a lot of them physical things. So, to have a little bit of what we’ve gone through right now is, again, pretty puny in the scheme of things.

We talk about preparing and being prepared for things that are coming, but we haven’t experienced anything yet. This is so small, it really is, but it’s a part of preparing us and helping us to realize this is pretty little yet, this is pretty small. We’re looking down the road for things that are going to be far, far, far worse.

So again, Trust in the Eternal with all your heart, and do not lean to your own understanding. So again, that’s an admonition I just gave a moment ago concerning Facetime and Skype and things like that, and getting together in groups. Be careful. Be careful how they’re used. Look to guidance and direction that’s given as far as the Church is and has been through time here, and especially in the last many years using such things out there, and be wise and don’t lean to our own understanding in how to do things and thinking we can do things in a way that’s different from what we’ve been guided and directed and told.

In all your ways (verse 6) acknowledge Him. So it’s a matter of our desire, of our heart. We want to turn to God in everything, not to hold anything back, to look into our own lives first and foremost, to repent of things, to look at the matter of repentance, and especially as we prepare now for the days of Unleavened Bread and the Passover period a desire to get rid of sin, a desire to be cleansed, a desire to be stronger in spirit, drawing closer to God.

In all your ways acknowledge Him. What does that mean “in all your ways?” Well, we do a lot of physical things day by day and it’s a matter of looking to God, it’s a matter of remembering God in things we do, including God in things we do, praying about those things. Sometimes just in walking or moving or whatever from one thing to another and depending on what you’re addressing and what you’re dealing with, whether it be on the job or being at home or whatever. Include God in what you’re doing in your life in all your ways, in things you’re doing.

It says, acknowledge Him; He should be a part of it. We should welcome Him in. ...and He will direct your paths. So often that has to do with kinds of decisions we make and what we should do and when we should do it. So it’s a matter of looking to God, not just relying on our own selves and our own thinking, that in everything we’re making all the right decisions.

In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes but fear the Eternal and depart from evil. Well, that’s the story, isn’t it, of Unleavened Bread and coming up to the Passover. We need to apply that in our focus right now. It’s a good time to be fasting and having a Church fast this close now to Passover.

Matthew 6. We’re now going to continue where we left off. Matthew 6:19, it says, Do not lay up or store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust corrupts and where thieves break through and steal. So hopefully we understand these things. It’s a matter of being wise. It’s a matter of looking to God always in our lives in things we plan and prepare in our lives. We learn from things like this.

There is no amount of goods, water, or anything else you can store up to save yourself for what’s coming. But to do as the Church directs, to do a portion of that, if we can then that’s a good thing. But everyone out here at some point in time, those who have savings, the stock market, gold, gold certificates—question came up about gold certificates the other day—think anything that is on paper is paper. Anything that has a bunch of zero’s and ones, that’s all it is. Gold, what good is that when it comes down to a point in time when you can’t eat it and food becomes more important?

That’s why we live in a very unique time because that’s exactly what is going to come to pass. Sometimes these things even try us as to what we really believe. Is our trust and confidence in the fact that we’re going to go on another, you know, ten, twenty years? It’s not going to happen. Yet there can be that kind of thinking out there. Should we prepare for things? Should we be wise? Absolutely. But to think we’re going to be able to prepare for everything that’s in front, we’re not.

You know, I think of some of the scriptures, of things that people have done in times past, some of the parables. You can prepare everything you want and have everything set and then you die. You know, you go out here and killed in a car wreck, you know, whatever, different things can happen quickly, your heart quits, whatever it might be, and everything you try to prepare for comes to naught. But especially because of the end-time and the times we live in. We need to think that way and realize where are my priorities? Where are my priorities? If they’re in things you’re able to do yourself physically, there is a balance in that. Hopefully, we’re growing in that balance.

...but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. So what does that mean? Well, things like fasting, things like praying, looking to God, including God in our lives. It says, “in all your ways,” as we read in Proverbs, “acknowledge Him.” You know, include God in everything in your life. If we’re not doing that, if we don’t think that way, something is wrong with our thinking. So those are the kinds of things we need to examine. Those are the kinds of things we need to pray about, that our minds be right, that our thinking be right toward God.

“Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven,” to draw closer to God. Because when it’s all said and done what really matters? That’s why I marvel when things are done where God is left out, where people begin to disobey God and begin to focus on something else because their treasure is somewhere else – in some thing, a place, a building, a car, a relationship, whatever that is, rather than God.

It says where neither moth nor rust corrupts and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is... Well, that’s what we have to measure. That’s what we have to look at in our own lives. Sometimes it’s difficult for people to really look at themselves in the mirror spiritually because we have this image of something we think that’s there or that we’re trying to project. Yet to be honest with ourselves and to really look at ourselves and realize that every thought in our mind God hears, everything we’re thinking, everything we do. Then to think about the things we do and are we really including God and where is God?

Is it indeed here, what it says, Where your treasure is, there will be your heart also? Is that where our heart is? Is God first in everything in our life, first and foremost? There is where sometimes you just have to pray to God to reveal those things to you, to reveal the truth of that to you. Because so often human nature, carnal nature, deceives itself into thinking it’s okay.

Matthew 22:36. So again, it’s about our heart. “Rend your heart, not your garments.” In fasting it’s about drawing closer to God with all of our heart.

Matthew 22:36 it says, Master, which is the greatest commandment in the law? And we know these things, but again, good to be reminded of some of these things that sometimes seem to be simple but carry so much meaning with them.

Joshua said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your life, and with all of your mind. We are not able to do that as physical human beings. We are not able to do that as physical human beings with the impregnation of God’s spirit. We can’t fully do this. We can’t do it perfectly by any measure. “To love God with,” as it says here, “with all of our heart, with all of our life, with all of our mind?” Well, we can’t do that. We can strive to do that. We can cry out to God for help to accomplish that, to grow in that, but there is always going to be battle there.

There is always going to be things that the mind can’t see, that the mind doesn’t want to see, doesn’t want to face, doesn’t want to address. It’s always going to be there. There are going to be things carnally in our thinking. There are things in our minds that we resist and fight against God. The more we surrender, the more we give, the more we humble ourselves – because there’s where the problem is, between pride and humility. There are measures of pride in our mind, in our thinking that we still hold on to, and sometimes we don’t see them.

Well, the reality is there will always be some of that in all of our lives. The desire is, is to work on that and to ask God for help to continue to whittle away at it. We need His help to do it. So this is a part of what this process is. It’s a part of what this thing of fasting is about as well, to draw closer to God with all of our heart. That’s our goal.

It says, That is the first and greatest commandment. The second is like it; that You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Again, something we really are unable to do. We fall incredibly short of that. We’re to grow in what that means spiritually, but sadly, we’re not real good. Now, we’re better than the world around us (or we should be) because of what we see and because of the relationship we have with others in the Body of Christ. We should be growing in that. But there is a lot of growth that always needs to take place in that very area alone, our relationship with others. And candidly, that reveals our relationship with God and the first and greatest commandment. It truly does.

On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets. Incredible! Everything just boils down to things that are a matter of something that might seem simple but aren’t, but they’re very spiritual in nature.

2 Timothy 2:19 it says, Nevertheless the foundation of God stands sure, and has the seal: That the Lord knows those who are His. Well, we know that God knows those who are His. I think of services, Sabbath services, and sometimes when there are people that are out in the courtyard and not in the temple. Well, if they’re out in the courtyard they’re not God’s because those who are God’s have to be inside the temple, otherwise they’re cut off from the flow of the spirit, God’s spirit, and if we don’ have the flow of God’s spirit in us then we’re cut off and we’re not where we should be.

So again, God knows those who are His, those who are not cut off, those who are being drawn closer to Him and who are working, fighting that battle.

So again, Nevertheless the foundation of God stands sure and has the seal: That the Lord knows those who are His and, Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity. So again, what an incredible time to have a fast before we approach Passover and the days of Unleavened Bread. We’ve already started the focus then. Rather than the previous fast that had two days in it that were clear back in January of 2009, now we’re right up next to the period of time that a fast has so much to do with, a matter of desire to repent and draw closer to God, a desire to be freed from sin, a desire to come out of sin, to depart, as it says here, from iniquity.

So if we name the name of God and the name of Christ and we’re speaking of that way of life then if those things are coming out of us and being spoken of and we’re carrying those names even physically, we better be right with God and striving to cleanse our life of sin. That’s what this is about.

Verse 20—But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, and we know that, as it says here, but also of wood and earth. We know some of the lessons that are taught in Corinthians there about there is something that everyone does and doesn’t do, but in the process of doing something they’re either building with or have the building materials of gold, silver, and precious stones, or they’re using wood, hay, and stubble. I love that analogy because it uses the wood, hay, and stubble to show that the wood, hay, and stubble are things that can be burned up and nothing left, nothing remains. But if you have the gold, the silver, and the precious stone it can go through incredible heat and be burnt and it’s still precious, still has great value. Not only that it’s with fire it can be enhanced and made stronger, but that which is of the earth, that which is physical, not the same story. So it uses this example.

Even back there in Corinthians, wood, hay, and stubble. Everybody is building with something. I love that example because it shows no one is really sitting on the sideline. Somebody is building in something and it all depends on one’s thinking. You know, straw is one thing, stubble, wood, hay, stubble – wood is stronger, but it’s still going to burn up. So might be putting a little more effort in some things but it’s getting nowhere because it really is playing games. Then it just gets weaker and weaker and the substance gets weaker and weaker.

Anyway, here is the same thing. In every house there are vessels of gold and of silver, and also of wood and of earth, and some to honor and some to dishonor, in the sense of that which is physical and learning that which is spiritual from it. There are those things that have greater purpose and meaning and value and there are other things that don’t. It’s drawing that analogy here, some things that are lasting and some things that have value that will continue on and some things that don’t.

I guess because it’s so much in the news right now and what people are doing, I saw one thing here in the news. Let me get that one because it’s kind of a humorous thing in one way, goofy things that are going on out here. But it was about someone who had stolen toilet paper. It says, “Florida Man Faces Five Years For Stealing 66 Rolls Of Toilet Paper.”[1]

We live in a crazy world. I was thinking the other day they’ll probably have some video on TV before long, because there are different spoofs that come on every once in awhile (people have a lot of time on their hands), and someone that works at Brinks is probably going to have a thing where these guys come up and have Brinks guards standing around and open up the door and you see rolls of toilet paper. That’s about how some of the thinking is going out there, that that’s a lot more precious to people right now. One of those kind of vessels to dishonor because value wise it’s not going to last, it’s going to get used, and you really don’t want it once it is type of thing.

So anyway, maybe a little gross there, but you know, that’s the reality of life. Yet people are willing to spend a lot for it or go into debt for it and put that as their priority, go into a grocery store and not come out with food, but you can be sure if they can get several big things of toilet paper they’re going to do it. Crazy!

Anyway, it says he worked for a company that provides cleaning services to the Marriot when he tried to make off with the TP, the toilet paper. The individual that sent this had a little fun here and said that “If he’s in prison that long, for five years, won’t he actually use up that much government issued TP? So maybe it would be better just to give him a term of no toilet paper for five years.” Anyway, I thought that was pretty cute.

So that’s about the way some of the systems are out here. Some things make more sense, that might be humorous, that make more sense than the offence themselves sometimes or the penalty of the offence.

So we live in that kind of a world where there are some things that within the Body it’s always been that way. Everybody has to decide, what are you building? Where is your heart? Where is your heart? All the way to the end it’s going to be this way because there are going to be those who haven’t fasted as they should, where they’ve cried out to God to reveal to them those things that they are secretly deceiving themselves in.

It would be better to have to go through a horrible trial in order to learn what sin is keeping you from God. It would be better to go through a horrible experience and be able to be shaken to the core of your being so that you can be awakened and see and then have the desire that goes with that, because of how horrible the trial is, to be shaken out of it and to come to repentance, to be able to come to see it. That would be a good prayer to have. Whatever it takes, whatever it takes to break through. If there is that which is keeping us from a right relationship with God, from growing spiritually, from perhaps even having God’s spirit, deceiving ourselves into thinking we do and maybe don’t. Because sometimes when people get outside the temple and they’re out in the courtyard, it starts getting dark and the ability to see begins to go by the wayside and the mind begins to be darkened and people can’t see clearly because you have to have God’s spirit to see things spiritually.

So that’s something that has to come from God and from a relationship with God and/or that we get to a position, that a person is in a position to where one just cries out, “Shake me! Do whatever it takes to wake me up. I don’t want to be in that category. I don’t want to be one who comes right up to the point of Christ returning and then be rejected and have to wait until the last 100-years because I’m blind, because I’ve been out in the courtyard for so long that I can’t see.”

That kind of a prayer in a genuine spirit would mean so much more to God. Crying out for mercy and for help and for the shaking if it needs to be there, whatever it takes.

It says again here, In a great house there are vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and earth, some to honor and some to dishonor. Therefore, if anyone cleanse themselves of the latter... In other words, that which is likened here to wood and earth isn’t of the quality it could be and should be. Because we have a choice in this, just like the ones who build there in Corinthians on wood, hay, and stubble, or gold, silver, and precious stone. We have a choice in that as to how we’re building and what part we’re in it and whether our heart is in it truly with God, in a right way.

So again, fasting is a time to rend our hearts and not our garments. Fasting is a time to seek to have our hearts cleansed and strengthened in the power of God’s spirit.

Therefore, if anyone cleanse themselves of the latter they will be a vessel unto honor. See, if it’s a matter of yielding to what God offers and a desire for our part to be in it, to get cleaned up, to be cleansed and not play games, and sometimes people know they’re playing games and they know they’re sinning!

There are people out there right now that I know they know they’re sinning. There are certain things they know they are doing that shouldn’t be done, that you’d better be praying about and crying out to God. When it says cry out to God, it means cry out to God, and crying out to God to be able to escape to be free, to be freed from it and to be jarred, whatever it takes to get the mind right, to be able to come to a greater and genuine repentance and to keep up the fight, to be in the fight. Not to give up on it but to really fight.

So anyway, of the latter then they will be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, you know, set apart for holy use and purpose. Because if we’re filled with sin that we should be repenting of and getting rid of then God can’t use us. If we’re out in the courtyard, God can’t use this. His spirit can’t flow through us to be used! Because God’s spirit that flows through us—even just the molding and fashioning of itself is incredible, that that power that lives through us that molds and fashions our minds because we’re yielding ourselves to God, that transformation that’s taking place in our thinking—if we’re yielding ourselves to that then were setting aside our lives for holy use and purpose. That’s what it means, for God’s spirit to work in so that God can use us now, but primarily for the future, for what’s coming, because that’s why the mind is being transformed. There may not be the kind of opportunities right now except in prayers and things we might pray about in unity and oneness with God.

It goes on then and says ...and useful for the Master’s use, for God’s use, for Christ’s use especially in the future because that’s what it’s about. That’s the primary purpose. ...and prepared (Preparing for the Kingdom of God), prepared for every good work.

So when is that good work? Well, sometimes we have those opportunities in our life now toward one another in how we think and how we talk and how we judge and things of that nature, in how we communicate with one another especially now at a time when people need communication, that we’re reaching out and doing those things. That’s a time for good work – prepared for every good work. Right now it’s needed more.

So we can’t just close up in our houses and become recluses. Where we can we need to reach out to others in the Church. Just because we can’t come together in a service doesn’t mean that we are cut off from one another, so we need to utilize what God has made available to us where we can. That’s a part of this, a part of good work.

If we have the opportunity of working on a job or how we treat others or thinking about others, of being wise about trying not to hurt others as far as the spreading of this. Even if we do various things, that we want to take the precautions and be wise as to how we’re doing in our own lives in trying to protect others. Because it’s not just about ourselves, it’s about others.

Anyway, on and on.

And flee youthful lusts; and instead follow after righteousness. So, it’s a thinking. Do we yield to pride and lust, “lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, the pride of life” or fight against that and instead follow after righteousness, God’s righteousness, being right with God. Because that’s what righteousness is; being right with God, living God’s way.

...follow after righteousness, faith... You know, to believe God. Just like we read a moment ago in Matthew, don’t put your trust in the stock market, in gold, in your savings. Should you have them? If you can, that’s a blessing. But if you think that’s going to save you you’re nuts. We realize that everything we have is going to come to some point here where it’s going to be absolutely useless—except for the most valuable things that we will have will be food, water. Those are going to turn out to be the most valuable things, they really are.

Also flee youthful lusts, and instead follow after righteousness, faith, believing God. This has to do with believing God. Do we believe what we’ve been told for a long time now in the Church? God’s just giving us a little bit of taste right now.

To have a little bit of stock; was it smart? Is it a good idea? Well, we haven’t had to use it yet. Maybe some have and that’s good you have some. But as a whole, people are still able to go out, be wise when they do it to, or have someone do it for them, have it delivered, whatever it might be, various kinds of food items and so forth and not get into the stock.

Because there’s going to come a time, not too distance future now, where you won’t be able to go to the grocery store, period. That’s when you’re going to have to have and use something that you’ve been preparing for. So is it smart to prepare? Well, everyone has to be the judge. It’s a matter of whether we live by faith, whether we really believe what was given and then we live by it. If we haven’t done those things, if we haven’t prepared in those things, then we didn’t really believe on a physical term, on a physical plane what God told us in the first place.

He’s been telling us this for a long, long time, and if we just listen and don’t do anything about it what do you think that means? You think, “Well, that doesn’t have anything to do with faith. That doesn’t have anything to do with faith in the Sabbath, the holy days.” Oh, yes, it does. Yes, it does. God gives warnings. He gives us things physically in our lives we’re to do as well and whether or not we believe what God gives us in the Church.

God led us in a very timely fashion to say we’re not coming together next Sabbath. We were just a teeny bit ahead of the curve – not much, but we were there – we were right on spot because that’s where we were supposed to be. God will lead us in that way all along the way, just right on time. Whatever that timing needs to be, that’s where we’ll be, that’s what’ll happen.

I think of the Feast of Tabernacles. I have hopes if we go past Pentecost this year. You know, I’m going to liken this a little bit to running again, jogging, or in a race, a marathon. Let’s make it a little shorter because I don’t like marathons. 3½ miles, something like that. Anyway, because if I had to run that right now... Well, I can’t talk about that. But anyway, let’s just say walk it maybe at a fast gait.

But when you look up the way and you’re going through, let’s say, a very wooded area – I always think about Bricket Wood that was the 3½ mile race and it was around these winding little roads they had there in England around the college and all kinds of shrubbery on the side. You couldn’t see from one curve around another and then going down into a hill where there was a little bit of grass up by the chicken coop area and where the cattle were, and then coming down another area and then coming up toward where we knew the auditorium, the gymnasium, and of course the track was where the finish line was. So we knew where it was, basically, but when I was going through that little race area out there I didn’t know where everything was because I’d never been on that particular road. So many of the people running out there didn’t.

I think of that when I talk about some of this because races are similar. When you’re looking at markers and you want to get to a certain point, you just look up the way a ways to the next bend. Maybe sometimes it’s just the next bend, what’s going to be around that bend. I can make it to that corner. Then go on to the next one.

I think of perhaps a place where you’re coming up and you don’t know exactly where the finish line is because you’re not familiar with the terrain and the path of the race and maybe you see a few banners. But you’re not sure yet if that’s the place where the finish line is, or is it just some banners out there of some people that have gathered there that have a few banners, but that’s your marker and so you’re running toward that.

That’s kind of the way right now Pentecost is for me. It’s kind of a place, there are some banners, I kind of see some things that could potentially be the finish line, but I don’t know. I hope that it is, but it just depends on God’s purpose and God’s plan and the 144,000 and whether we’re there and whether we fit into that yet. If it can be done in a short length of time, forty, fifty days, what an awesome blessing that the world wouldn’t have to suffer longer than that.

That’s going to be a lot of my prayer during this fast – for the sake of the world, for the sake of others crying out to God, not just for ourselves. We’ve been prepared. God is there. God is on our side. We have blessings and favor and help that the world can’t imagine. So to pray for things about the world because this is real to us and we want to see as little suffering as possible but knowing full well that there has to be suffering to a point. We know that there has to be to fulfill prophetic things, to bring mankind to a point to understand what they almost did to themselves, to annihilate themselves. That God’s very specific that He’s going to allow a third of mankind to destroy itself. How much worse it gets past that, hopefully, it’s not much worse. Yet it could be far, far worse.

So those things depend on human beings. But if it could be done quickly over a short length of time what an incredible blessing.

But that goes back to us. What is our heart and our desire toward what is taking place in the world? Toward what the world is going to have to go through? How deep is that inside of us? How much do we really feel it? How much? It has a lot to do with how we think toward others and those around us and then to cry out to God.

Then also always in that prayer, “Nevertheless, not my will but Yours be done. If we must go through it because we’re not ready, if we must go through it then whatever it takes to continue to humble the world so that we can have the Millennium, so that we can have a new era, so that we can have a world that is more desirous, willingly so, to learn things that are true and to realize what mankind did to itself.” Anyway, a lot to pray about.

Verse 22—Also flee youthful lusts, and instead follow after righteousness, faith, agape, God’s love, peace... So in how we think, in how we think toward others, how we think about ourselves in the scheme of things and what God is doing. ...peace... Are we peacemakers? Do we strive to do that?

...along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. That’s the kind of heart that we need to look at ourselves and see if we have, a pure heart. How pure is it? Where is it impure? Where is there sin? Where is there a secret sin? Where are there things that we continue to do that are just wrong that need to be changed? Those are the things we need to zero in on and cry out to God to cleanse us and to repent of so that when the least little smidgeon of it begins to perk up in our lives we’re able to say, “I need help to fight this. No, I don’t want this,” or to be able to repent more quickly when we see it, to ask God to help us to see those things more quickly. That’s what it’s about.

One of the most important aspects of fasting is the connection God desires we make with that of humbling ourselves before Him. It’s a matter of humbling ourselves because pride is the thing that gets in the way. Pride is a thing that holds on to things that we somehow justify or ignore or whatever it is the carnal mind does at times that still resists and fight against God. Each one of us have areas in our life that we resist God, and it’s up to you to go before God to cry out for help to be able to see those things and to work with them.

Because no one is perfect. Everyone has a carnal mind; everyone has a measure of “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” in their brain. It’s just there in the spirit of man, of mankind that’s in us. Yet there is this war that’s going on inside and we want to yield to, we want to be humble and have and receive more of the spirit of God. We want His mind. So that means we have to be in a battle, we have to enter into it.

So battling against pride and instead seeking a spirit of humility which is an essential part of fasting. So we really need to focus on that as we come up to the fasting we’re going to be going through and that we’re setting aside, that we’ll all be entering into, that we do so in a spirit of humility, that we cry out to God to help us to see humility and to see pride in our life, that we be of a spirit of humility, and where we aren’t that He be able to reveal that to us.

Anyway, in the book of Hebrews there is a strong admonition given by Paul that always applies strongly to what we’re covering. I should say it applies strongly to what we’re covering and it’s in Hebrews 3. We reviewed the first few verses of this in a Part 1 in a recent sermon entitled To Build For God. So the first few verses are going to seem a little familiar because we went through those in that particular series, and then we’re going to go on and talk about some of these.

But again, it’s about what’s in our heart, what’s in our mind, as we went through in that series, what is in our heart to build unto God? Right now, the things we need to look at more deeply is that heart, is that mind. Here is an opportunity of humbling ourselves, of asking God to see the pride that’s there, to battle against that, to get rid of the uncleanness that’s there, to cleanse ourselves, to be vessels to honor instead. To be vessels to honor. That’s what we want, we want to be vessels to God’s use and purpose, for transforming of the mind, and yield ourselves to that process.

Hebrews 3:1—Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling... What an incredible thing. Very few on earth over 6,000 years have had the opportunity to be partakers of a heavenly calling. Very few. There are a lot over a large period of time, 4,000 years, who didn’t have other brethren. They didn’t have others that they could go and speak with about certain things on the same plane that we’re able to.

We’re able to have a fellowship with one another that’s on a spiritual plane in the sense of we see and know the truth and we can discuss things and hear things on the Sabbath that others can hear but never would grasp nor understand nor even want. We want it. We desire it. We discuss some of those things, about the fast coming up, about certain news that’s going on in the world and things we’re experiencing, that this is alive right now. It’s real in our lives and we’re experiencing something that’s unique that has to do with the end of an age, a very powerful Thunder that’s rippling around the earth.

Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Joshua the Christ, who was faithful to Him who appointed Him. We’re to follow suit. We’re to be faithful. We’re to learn in the deepest part of our being what that means, to be faithful to God, to be in the battle, to fight to the end, whatever that end might be in our lives. ...as also Moses was also faithful in all His house.

For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, Joshua was, inasmuch as He who has built the house has more honor than the house. Incredible. We’re part of a structure. But you think of God and Christ doing the building of it, incredible what’s taking place.

For every house is built by someone; but He who builds all things is God. God Almighty for 6,000 years has been building a structure and preparing to build even greater in time. We’re blessed to be at the forefront of all that. How incredible is that?

I think about this so often, that we really cannot grasp the full depth of that, but we should strive to appreciate it more and more and more, what we have, that we’re a part of something so incredible that God is building now.

So, “and he who builds all things is God.” In the past 2,000 years it’s been God and Christ that are building because Christ has been brought into that, doing that building process, playing a major role, in that building process within the Church. He’s the head of the Church, the head of the Body. It’s called the Body of Christ. God has given him all power and authority to do those things in a very powerful way.

Verse 5—And Moses truly was faithful in all His house, in all of God’s house in what God had given him to do, you know, in those things that had to do with the children of Israel and with the tabernacle being built and with the priesthood that was there and so forth. It talks about him then as a servant to God for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken of after. All those things that he did pictured things that were to happen in a greater spiritual plane later on.

...but Christ as a Son over His house, over God’s house. He’s the Messiah. He is the Son of God. That’s what it’s talking about here. So it’s focusing in on a very powerful thing that God wants us to grasp, wanted the Hebrews to grasp in the beginning back there, that here is Christ who is so much greater than Moses. He’s a part of one who’s building the house as well now.

Again, it says, but Christ as a Son over His house, over God’s house, whose house we are. So we’re a part of that house, we’re a part of that structure and we’re to yield ourselves. We’re involved in the building as well but we have control of self in the building; we don’t have control of others in the building. We might have some influence at different times and have a part in that in a small way, but it’s God and Christ and the power of God’s spirit that’s doing the constructing and the building.

Yet each one of us has a part in yielding ourselves to that and being a part of this battle like we’re talking about today so we can grow spiritually because that’s what has to be in our heart, to build unto God, that we yield ourselves to the process, fight against iniquity, fight against sin, cleanse ourselves of those things, seek to get rid of pride and the things we hold on to that resist God.

...if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. So again, it’s a confidence we should have. We should be bold in that confidence, thankful for that confidence that God gives us, of where we are, of who we are, of what we’ve been blessed to be a part of, and be able to rejoice in the fact that we’re able to see what we can see today. Not in pride but just to rejoice that we’ve been given such an opportunity and a hope that we have that the world doesn’t have.

They don’t know fear yet. I think about this often right now, that we know what’s coming. It should never be any part of pride whatsoever but of absolute humility. We should hurt and feel for the world around us because of what they’re going to be thrust into because it’s a matter of them coming to a point where they can begin to have their pride, the pride of human life in a massive scale around the world, brought down so that humility can begin to enter in, so that they’re able to receive more willingly so God’s Kingdom when it comes, so that they can come to understand there is no government, no religion that can save them, no church in the world, no religion in the world that’s going to save them.

You know, there are a lot of people right now talking about fasting. It’s on the news. It was on the news the other day where different churches are talking about coming together and fasting because of all this. Yet they fast for a totally different purpose than what we are because of knowledge, because of an understanding. Because we know that there are certain things that are not going to be taken away. Whether there is a reprieve in some of this, we don’t know yet. But we know that something worse is going to happen later at some point. It’s not going to get better.

We already understand that. We know it’s going to get worse, that one thing is going to turn into something far worse. One after another in order to bring down the pride of mankind and to begin to bring in humility in people’s lives so that they will receive God’s Kingdom in a far better spirit, so that the Millennium can start out in a manner that gives it a huge boost, if you will, of a willingness of masses to receive God because they see something greater than mankind. Because they have come to a reality that we nearly destroyed ourselves and to realize that there was no printing of money, there was no fake things being done that don’t really take care of things. Because we’re limited. There are things out here far greater than what we are. That’s where they’re going to have to learn.

So let’s continue on from these verses and what was continued on from that February the 8th sermon, as I mentioned.

Verse 7—Therefore, as the holy spirit says: Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion (the provocation). That’s what it was, it was a rebellion.

Yet we’ve seen rebellion in God’s Church. I’ve seen so many rebellions since the Apostasy even that it just boggles the mind! I see individual rebellion taking place in some people’s lives even now. Hopefully, this period is starting to sober some people up more that maybe they can come to see some of these things and repent and share with all of us then in the temple what God is offering.

Do not harden your hearts as in the provocation, in the day of testing in the wilderness. So again, this never gets old. We should continually be in a process of becoming more refined.

So if we come into this fast thinking we don’t have something to work on we’re sadly mistaken! Every one of us has things to repent of before God. Every one of us has things that we need to come to see that we don’t yet see. God will help us to come to see those things more deeply if our heart is in it, if we cry out to God and believe what we’re being told right now and really search out our hearts and cry to God to help us to see what we can’t see right now so that we can repent of them. Things that we already know that we’re playing around with, that we be brought to repentance, that He will shake us in mercy. Hopefully, you pray that way. But pray, yes, indeed that God will shake you to see if you need to see something that you’re blind to so you can see it. If He can do that in mercy so be it, but if not, bring it on!

So again, as in the day of testing in the wilderness when your fathers tested Me and tried me even when they saw My works forty years. So how long have we seen God’s works? How long have you been around? I’ve been around since 1969, September of 1969. It’s a long time, long time. I think of others, how long have you been around? We’ve seen things that are far beyond what they saw. They saw some physical things. They saw things that God did and physically on a physical plane were without excuse for rebelling against God on a physical plane, because God nurtured them, took care of them, led them in the promised land and they still murmured and complained. Because that’s the way our human spirit is.

There are things that we don’t see as clearly as we can. That’s why I say there are blind spots in our lives we don’t yet see. Whatever those are you want to see so you can fight against them so that you can become more fully transformed and perfected. That’s what we should want. That’s what should be in our heart.

Again, it says “when they tried me, even when they saw My works for forty years.” I think about especially in writing this book, just now am going through and going through some of the things about the holy days. Discussing that with someone this morning and talking about how writing this Chapter 9, which I am up to in the Feast of Tabernacles right now. But basically, using some of the format that we had in the first book because it went through God’s holy days and I felt compelled that in this particular book that we should have that chapter in there, that anyone who makes it all the way through eight chapters may well be able to be drawn into and blessed with what they read in the ninth, which is about God’s plan and purpose revealed in the holy days. If their mind is opened up as some will be toward the end here then what a blessing if they can begin to see and understand things about God’s plan and purpose.

But I was thinking in going through some of this, as I’ve gone through it I’ve had to rewrite a lot of things and tweak a lot of things because we have grown a lot since that time. There are so many things that God has revealed since that book was written, and just in the holy days alone. It’s absolutely incredible, but it’s absolutely inspiring and exciting because we see things so much more clearly. That’s why I love this book now because God has brought us to a point where there are things that are so clear now, that with this book I feel good about carrying it into the Millennium and it being there, that people be able to read it and see what God did and what God led the Church to and the level it has come to to this point in time in the journey that was there and the clarity of truth of what God has done, the marvels.

I think of the chapter before that in talking about the timing of events and the things taking place. I know some people don’t like counting, but it’s a marvel. If we see those things that are mathematical, the kind of probabilities that are there that have happened with dates and time, they’re so far beyond anything that’s probable without God’s hand in it. To me, I find those exceedingly inspiring on a physical and a spiritual plane because it reveals the author and the one who leads and guides and directs it all, God Almighty.

So I think of things that we have seen through time and growth that we’ve had. Yet sometimes choices that people make still all the way here to this end-time. So how long have we been witnessing things that God has given on a far greater plane than what the Israelites ever did?

Verse 10—Therefore, I was grieved with that generation. So I think of how God has been grieved with so many before the Apostasy and then after it. I can’t imagine seeing what human beings with the impregnation of the holy spirit have done, of what we did—we all fell asleep—and what we’re capable of doing, and realizing and learning from that that this in itself in this human body, being impregnated with God’s spirit, is far, far, far from being in Elohim—it’s not there until it’s there—and what we’re capable of as long as we have any small measure of the carnality and the human mind and the spirit in man that we have.

Again, those with whom God has been grieved, and some grieved with today. Because I’m grieved with some today and I know what that means. ...and said, They are constantly... It’s not a word that means “always.” It just means “constantly.” Because as human beings we have the measure of carnality within us, but it all boils down to what each one of us is doing, whether we’re fighting against it, whether we’re crying out to God to help us to see it more clearly and helping us to repent of it more fully, which is what much of this fast is all about next week.

They are constantly erring in their heart, and we are, all of us. We all have weaknesses and we’re not perfect by any measure. There is so much imperfection in us and we need to grasp a hold of that which is perfect – God, God’s spirit, Christ living in us – and to cling on to that with all of our being.

...and they have not known My ways, God says. So we’ve been blessed to know God’s way, but still we fall into this on a spiritual plane in part, and therein is our battle.

Verse 11—So I wrote in My wrath that they shall not enter into My rest. Well it’s, again, a matter of judgment. It’s a matter of God’s judgment, that there comes a time for judgment and the execution of judgment. In this case, it was that they should not enter into His rest. I hurt for people to think that there are going to be some all the way up to the end who aren’t able to enter into that rest even in a physical way going into a new age.

Verse 12—Take heed, brethren. So that’s what we’re to do and fasting has a lot to do with that, taking heed, being on guard, realizing each one of us has something to work on. If you don’t see something to work on you’re not hearing me today, you’re not hearing what’s being said, you’re not hearing what God is giving to us.

Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief. So is there anywhere that anyone does not fully believe what God says? Because, you see, the reality and the truth is, yes there is, it’s just you don’t see it yet because of that carnal nature that’s in us. There are still things in us that we’re blind to. There always will be. That’s why we can always grow.

That’s why I love the example of something that’s like a block of rock, you know, just hewn out, but it has to be chiselled away on for a long, long time to get it to look like a statue that is beautiful, that resembles something that is beautiful. The block of rock doesn’t but what it can be made into is awesome. I think of what God is doing with us in a way that’s so far beyond that. But the analogy fits in our lives, that there is always something that can be whittled away and refined.

Even on any statue, it can always be made better. There is always some intricate part that could be done a little bit more, but people have to stop at some point, but there could always be something, another line, another line in the face, another mark, something.

That’s the way it is in our lives and it will be that way until the time we die or until we’re changed or whatever. There will always be some other part that can be made better, more refined, more beautiful, just better in God.

Again, Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. So we should never be going the other way. That’s where we need to put on the brakes. Not only that, but we should always be in the process of becoming more refined.

...but exhort... That means “to call beside.” It’s an expression that means “to call beside to encourage and exhort,” to strongly encourage someone to do something. That’s what the word means, the word “exhort.

Sometimes we can help one another. Sometimes we can encourage one another when there is the need, not to always keep closed mouth. So there are times for that and we have to pray to God for wisdom and help when to do that.

Again here, but exhort one another daily while it is called today. Well, we don’t have those opportunities much anymore. Sometimes in Sabbath services you have the ability to fellowship and we don’t have that right now. Maybe we’ll have it again. I really don’t know and you don’t know.

I know last week I was far more sober because of what was taking place and the kind of news that was coming out. But then we see this whole thing again. Because we don’t know the timing. All of a sudden $2.2 trillion. It’s not in the bank somewhere, but all of a sudden, it’s going to go out to everybody, as a whole. You think, “Ummm...?” It’s so nuts because the system was messed up well before that and now it’s getting worse. Everything else out here that’s happened has magnified this many times more. And to come out of this, well?

Again, so could this be another bit of a relief, what the world sees as relief and when that happens the stock market goes up and everything else goes up and all this pride goes back up, and then God will do something to bring it back down.

So whatever that process is, whether it’s going to be over a short period or long period right now, we don’t know. But I kind of cringe when I see some of those kind of things happen because I realize that mankind is able to deceive himself powerfully so. But it boils down to one thing – what kind of time is God going to allow in that process before something else comes along? So, we’ll see. We keep going forward.

...but exhort one another daily while it is called today so that none of you become hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. So again, that’s why I cry out about certain things that I do so that we don’t deceive ourselves. Where there is certain sin—and sometimes have gotten very specific about what some of those sins are—and if anyone is engaged in some of those things, now is the time it better be coming to a complete screeching halt, some of those things that are very outward, in that respect, that people are doing secretly in their lives, lying about or whatever it might be. But even in the things where we don’t know and we don’t see in the matter of refining, every one of us need to focus in on and cry out to God for help to see and understand so we can grow even more, to become an even better tool in His hands, a better servant in His hands.

For we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end. So whatever that end is you just continue to do it all your life. It’s just the way of life. It’s what we’re called to.

Verse 15—While it is said: Today, if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation. So it goes back to this matter of hardening our hearts.

I’m going to stop there for a moment because I do want to read some news things because, again here, I think these things are good from time to time, to read some of them, and I don’t want to continue on much longer with the sermon here today. But I just want to go through some things that were as a matter of the news.

But again, be careful that we not harden our hearts, but that we’re seeking to rend our hearts, as it says, when we fast, to examine our hearts more closely when we fast, to really cry out to God in spirit and in truth in a way that hopefully and prayerfully we never really have to this degree yet.

So let’s make this a really special fast that we’re coming into. Utilize it. Use it wisely. Think about it before you get there. Focus on it. Seek to humble self. Seek to cry out for things that are in this world, that we know we’re in that particular time as Joel talks about. Because we’re there. It’s near. It’s at hand. There are certain things already started. We’re just there and certain humbling that’s going to take place in this world.

So again here, various articles. I just want to read a few that are pertinent because some of them jump out more than others. I’m not going to go through all the coronavirus things. You’re hearing plenty of that out there. I’ll read a few because it’s quite incredible, in one respect, but those that have to do with nations and peoples and things that move people to think in a different way than they have in the past, to perhaps, in that respect, speed things along to a certain point, they’re out there.

Here is one: “North Korea launches two short range ballistic missiles.”[2] Well, why? Well, because that’s what they do. I didn’t mean it that way. In other words, that wasn’t the answer. The reality is there is thinking going on there and it’s not by accident. They may end up playing a very big role in what takes place in the First Trumpet. Time will tell. There are some other nations out there that could do the same thing. But they have a lot of potential there of what could take place.

So what God does specifically, those things aren’t revealed because it’s not just one thing that can happen. There are many things.

Another one here: “10% Of GDP”: US Coronavirus Stimulus Package To Total $2 Trillion.”[3] Well, it’s $2.2. So what does that mean, 10% of GDP? Well, it’s not a good thing. That was last Sabbath, news that came out.

Now, this one here on Sunday: “COVID-19 has exposed our financial fragility.”[4] “We are at a watershed moment: the coronavirus Covid-19 is a catalyst fast bringing many long simmering problems to the boil.”

Yet it’s like people are just blind. They just don’t care. It’s like, “Well, we can do it, it doesn’t matter.” It’s just ignoring things all around us. The reality is you can’t always ignore things. Sooner or later you have to pay. How long can you go without paying your mortgage? How long can you go without paying your credit card? How long can you go without whatever? How long can you go without working? How long can you go? How long will you last? Well, there comes a time when payment has to be made. There are physical laws in motion, and spiritual laws in motion, if you will. Often those work together in a very powerful way in God’s purpose.

It goes on to say here, “It is exposing the creaking financial systems around us and it will change the way economies function.” That’s an important thing even though sometimes people don’t really know how important or true those things are. Because the reality is what’s happening right now is changing the entire world. Things are always started in certain things about trade and so forth, but this here is pushing it into a different category, especially with China and other nations and how this nation here exposed itself to something because of greed. Now people are going to have to address some of these things, and because they’re going to address it other nations know it – primarily China and some other nations. This affects everybody.

What’s taking place with oil right now? Unheard of. The price of oil! You get down in the twenties, mid-twenties and low-twenties, it’s insanity. Sooner or later something has to give. That’s where we are. It’ll give all right, in God’s time. Candidly, God is the only one who can hold it together because when it’s time to go He’s going to let it go. But it’s not yet so there are things to learn, there are things the world is going to learn from it. The world is going to be humbled and God is doing the humbling. So things are already started.

It says, “It is exposing the creaking financial systems around us and it will change the way economies function. Economic and financial pundits, however, have been focusing almost exclusively on the short-term effects of coronavirus and so are missing the much bigger themes at play.” So true.

Another one: “Australia shuts down. Scott Morrison orders all restaurants, pubs to close down.”[5] That was last Sunday. Wayne had sent us an email about that one there and talked to him and things are shut down over there. It’s going all around the world; nobody is escaping this, as a whole.

Another one here: “‘New tactical guided missiles’ tested by North Korea’s recent launch.”[6] So it was a new tactical guided missile they know or believe now that was taking place. So why that? Well, because there is a certain thinking that takes place in their thinking and certain objectives. These objectives may work into a bigger scheme of things for the end-time here and what takes place.

Another one here, farther down on Monday: “The crash of the ‘Everything Bubble’ is here...” Because it’s like pay everybody, pay everything, take care of this, take care of that. Oh, $2.2 trillion is just the start according to some. There are going to be many more trillion that go out here because of all this right now. That’s what they’re talking about, “We need to take care of a lot more because 2.2 doesn’t cut it. It just initially takes care of this right now, but there is a lot more that has to be taken care of.” You think, okay, where does this come from? It says, “– and it’s not going away anytime soon.”[7]

Another one here: “Stocks soar after FED announced opened ended QE.”[8] Open ended all right. It’s like there is no end to it. It’s like there is money in the bank, there is so much gold and we can use this. You think, no, no, it’s not even about gold anymore. It’s about other nations and them buying into it and keeping their systems going because they’re locked into it, and it’s like a catch-21. So who breaks the catch-21? Sooner or later someone will and it cascades after that. Anyway.

Another one: “Israeli doctor in Italy, “We no longer help people over 60.”[9] Well, glad I’m not living in Italy and have the coronavirus. So anyway, it changes people’s thinking. You know that’s nothing yet because it’s going to get to a time when hospitals won’t be able to do anything. I mean, we’re going to go into times when hospitals will not be able to answer anything.

I saw, I think it was in Italy in a Catholic Church, where a priest was going down a huge aisle of a huge Catholic Church and sprinkling water over the caskets one after another. You know, they can’t get the other to do, people can’t bury people anymore. Not even in this country in so many places. They’re shut down and bodies in caskets and so forth and people that can’t do what they’re normally able to do.

Well, that’s nothing. That’s nothing compared to what’s coming. What people are going to see, this is nothing. They talk about some of these refrigerated places that are behind some of these makeshift hospitals or even around hospitals because they can’t store all the dead bodies. You think, that’s horrible but it’s nothing yet. There is so much worse that’s coming so far beyond that to where there won’t be an ability to use refrigeration for those things at all. So we’ve just barely started to see something.

Can you imagine the kind of fear that people are really going to have when this is all said and done? Because right now there is fear, panic, and nothing has happened in comparison to what’s coming.

Another one: “In unprecedented move Fed unveils open ended QE including corporate bonds.”[10] A lot of people think that’s good news. A lot of people understand it’s not.

Tuesday: “Iceland finds 40 coronavirus mutations causing fears of new pandemic prospects.”[11] Now, if that’s all true, which it may well be because flus change, viruses like this are known to mutate and change, we don’t know what might be behind this. We don’t because people don’t grasp something out here, they don’t grasp we’re at the end of the age. They don’t grasp why this is happening. There is a purpose why this is happening. There is a purpose why this has been allowed to happen.

So as people are going to gather together to fast and pray in different churches around the world, we fast over a different purpose entirely. It’s not to say we’re better than, it’s just that we understand and look forward to the day that the rest of them understand. They want it taken away.

Well, they don’t know where we are. They don’t realize what’s coming behind this is going to be far, far worse than any pandemic – or there could be a greater pandemic. There could be mutations. We don’t know what we’re going to experience yet.

Another one here: “Asia risk reprieve in play”[12] ... “Overnight the Fed went all in and launched a tsunami of rescue measures to help shield the US economy from downside presented by the COVID-19 outbreak and the measures to contain its spread and guarantee sufficient flows of credit through the financial system, in attempt to forestall a global credit crunch.”

You might play around a little bit with QE, like it goes on to say here. It says, “QE infinity and beyond...” I think that’s well put, “QE infinity and beyond,” because that’s how it’s being treated. It’s like we can keep doing this and we can keep going. But that’s not true.

“QE infinity and beyond, encompassing unlimited purchases of Treasury debt and mortgage-backed securities, is just one part of the new measures.” At some point it’s going to stop cold in its tracks and there is going to be a whiplash in the world. And generally, that’s when wars begin. It’s when nations determine it’s time for war.

That’s why this nation is going to experience the first four Trumpets. We don’t yet know from where it’s going to begin because God hasn’t revealed that. Could be someone like North Korea. Could be immediately from Europe. We don’t really know, but it’s going to happen. There is going to be that which starts initially and that which builds up in time until it becomes something really great and powerful even more so.

Whether it be this year, up the road toward 2023, we don’t know.

Another one here: “India announces nationwide lockdown to stop spread of Coronavirus.”[13] I already mentioned that but that’s incredible to see something like that of that magnitude.

Here is another one: “1929 Redux – This is not your ordinary crisis.”[14] “And don’t compare it to 2008. That ship has already sailed. This beast here is much more ferocious in speed and impact than 2008.”

So there are economists out here that know what the fed is doing, it knows what the government is doing. It sees what nations are doing and it realizes that this is so far, so much worse than anything that happened in 2008 already and that everything is about to blow up or implode, if you will.

Another one here (just a taste of things): “Los Angeles Mayor shutting off water and power for ‘non-essential’ businesses that haven’t closed.”[15] Well, there is coming a time when there is going to be a lot of things considered non-essential, and they’re not even going to have the choice of turning it off, it’s going to be turned off anyway. There won’t be electricity. There won’t be flow of any kind, not even of water.

“Los Angeles Sheriff orders gun stores shut down amidst rising gun sales.”[16]

Another one here: “Ammo data study: Sales have risen 720 percent in response to coronavirus panic.”[17] Why? Well, it’s not good what human beings do when they get in a crunch and can’t go down to the supermarket anymore and get what they want. They will take.

Several here about the locust again, so much so in one area photography showing footage showing the ground’s moving there in Oman. Different places that are being hit by this, wave after wave.

It says, another one: “Unprecedented collapse: US Airline traffic currently just 10% of normal.”[18] Insane what’s taking place out here. It’s absolutely incredible. We live in incredible times. What’s amazing is most people don’t realize just how incredible it is.

I could go on and on here. So many things happening in the world, so many things out here being said that even the military, different ships, different things happening where even the military is being hit by this and reacting in a way you think, man, you talk about vulnerability and talk about something else that can happen over this country if it were to take place. Anyway.

Nation after nation in lockdown; different articles here about some of those things. Well, it affects people’s thinking. It affects nations and there are some articles coming out now about how nations are starting to pull away from certain things and taking sides in matters in a way that they haven’t to the same degree before. It’s pretty much the nations we know, but anyway.

I wish I had more time to read some of these but not going to take it.

There is one that I wanted to mention. It’s an article out there. You could just probably look it up on your own. But it says, “Should America fear a North Korea EMP attack in 2020?”[19] It goes on to say next, “It's the threat no one talks about.” “EMP Threat from Satellites.” Well, they show here the stupidity in some of the thinking and reasoning of some people who are supposed to be experts, who at one time grasped certain things that were taking place with North Korea and their missile programs, who are now switching tracks and saying that an EMP is not a threat.

Then the article goes on to show how an EMP and the kind of weapon or nuclear capacity or nuclear devices they have is more of an EMP threat than ever before according to experts and so forth who have studied these things for ages and ages.

So again, things are coming. It’s going to happen and there are things that can cripple this world in a manner that make this particular thing we’re going through right now look small.

So again, we have a lot to be sobered by. We have a lot to focus upon. Right now we’re supposed to focus upon the fast and the purpose for it. Let’s do that with all of our heart, with all of our being, and truly follow the admonition of what it gives there in Joel about crying out to God Almighty, and most of it focusing on ourselves and what we need to change and grow in to become more at one with God.

[1] https://www.zerohedge.com/health/florida-man-faces-five-years-stealing-66-rolls-toilet-paper

[2] https://thediplomat.com/2020/03/north-korea-launches-two-short-range-ballistic-missiles/

[3] https://stillnessinthestorm.com/2020/03/10-of-gdp-us-coronavirus-stimulus-package-to-total-2-trillion/

[4] https://unherd.com/2020/03/covid-19-has-exposed-our-financial-fragility/

[5] https://internewscast.com/australia-shuts-down-scott-morrison-orders-all-restaurants-pubs-close-from-tomorrow/

[6] https://sputniknews.com/asia/202003221078663630-new-tactical-guided-missiles-tested-in-north-koreas-recent-launch--report/

[7] https://www.birchgold.com/news/crash-of-the-everything-bubble-is-here/

[8] https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/stocks-soar-after-fed-announced-open-ended-qe

[9] https://www.jpost.com/International/Israeli-doctor-in-Italy-We-no-longer-help-those-over-60-621856

[10] https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/fed-unleashes-unlimited-qe-will-buy-corporates-munis-cmbs

[11] https://sputniknews.com/europe/202003241078688388-iceland-finds-40-coronavirus-mutations-sausing-fears-of-new-pandemic-prospects/

[12] https://www.home.saxo/content/articles/equities/asia-risk-reprieve-in-play-24032020

[13] https://www.axios.com/india-coronavirus-lockdown-fd753cb9-efbd-45b0-9008-16d51272c961.html

[14] https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/1929-redux-not-your-ordinary-crisis

[15] https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/03/los-angeles-mayor-shutting-off-water-and-power-for-non-essential-businesses-that-havent-closed/

[16] https://theunionjournal.com/los-angeles-sheriff-orders-gun-stores-shut-down-amidst-rising-gun-sales/

[17] https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2020-03-24/covid-19-data-study-ammunition-sales-continue-soar-response-coronavirus-panic

[18] https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/unprecedented-collapse-us-airline-traffic-currently-just-10-normal

[19] https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/should-america-fear-north-korean-emp-attack-2020-104922