It Is God Who Redeems Us, Pt. 3

Ronald Weinland

February 13, 2021

We are continuing in the current series It Is God Who Redeems Us.

I love this particular series here as we go through some of these things that we’re going to discuss as we continue on. But again, it’s always exciting to me to see how God’s been leading us and even referencing back to different things we’ve already gone through, because it all ties together, and to see now that we’re headed toward the Passover period, which this is very much about. So again here, this is Part 3 today.

We ended Part 2 after reading the account of Jacob returning to his family, to the land of his father. We read the account that during the trip there where Jacob wrestled with God and God manifesting Himself in human form. Those kinds of things in times past, of Melchizedek, things concerning, knowing that it was God who spoke to Abraham, and some of the different ideas people have had about Yahweh and Yahweh being Christ—which we know that he wasn’t now—but again, all those kinds of things that were so confusing in times past. It’s an awesome thing when God begins to clarify things and things fit into place so perfectly.

You can see how God had to work differently with human beings at different times. There was no Church, there was no one to teach them and show them at different times as well. Just like with Abraham, once he left the land where he was, where his great-great-great-great-great grandfather Noah had been (and on we go). But incredible how God indeed has worked with different people in different ways at different times. It’s inspiring to see that process and to realize it’s progressive.

They had so little in the sense of what we have now as far as a picture, an ability to see a plan that God has for mankind. We are so blessed, we truly are. I feel that it’s so difficult for us to keep that in the forefront of our minds, to really grasp how blessed we are to know and see the things that we do. No one in time, in 6,000 years, except Joshua, has known and seen the things that we’re able to see now. It’s awesome.

So anyway, he wrestled. Jacob wrestled with God, and it was at this point here that God then gave him a new name. All of this planned! All of this as a part of a purpose that God is working out. It wasn’t like all of a sudden here, “Oh, now I can give him the name. Because this is what I’m planning; I’m planning to give him this name, so this is a great opportunity for that.” It doesn’t work that way. God works with people, inspires certain events, works with people.

If His purpose is for an individual to fulfill something, He’s going to accomplish it. He’s going to do it. He’s going to mold and fashion, correct, guide, lead, whatever it takes to get a job done. As far as even going back, with what I believe in every fashion or form, in the womb if need be, that that individual is of the mind, is of the type of person that God is going to work with.

God has that power to work with family lines, whatever it might be. He created us! To see to it that the kind of personality, the kind of person that’s going to be born there is going to be a specific type of individual. It’s incredible.

So again, these things aren’t left to chance with God. When God has a purpose to do something, He’s going to do it, and then He does it. He gives opportunity to people, chances to people to prove various things, just like He did to Saul, but Saul didn’t have what it took, obviously, to continue on. God knew that about Saul. This was not an accident either.

His working with David at a very young age, again, from his mother’s womb, as he talks about. So, something else was planned at that point in time, a lineage that was going to continue on, a lineage in which the Messiah was coming from. God doesn’t leave those things to chance. It just doesn’t work that way.

To understand the power of Almighty God and His purpose and His planning to do those things in a certain way, it’s so incredible, to learn that, to understand that.

He gave him the name “Israel,” which has to do with “prevailer; one who perseveres, one who strives.” We find the word has a great deal to do with God Himself and what He has done through time in His working with mankind, His plan and His purpose to fulfill. Then others that are brought into that, that they too must develop certain characteristics, certain qualities in life to battle what they must in this kind of a world. So again, “Israel.” It means so much from God all the way through His entire Family.

In this particular section here we, before we even got into the story a little bit about Abraham, then talking about Isaac a little bit, but especially about Jacob because that’s where the focus was, and then we had gone into a verse in Isaiah, in Isaiah 43 before we ever started the story of Jacob. There was a reason for that.

Let’s turn over there again and start there again today. Isaiah 43:1—But now, thus says the Eternal, who created you, O Jacob… So again here, I hope that it was impressed upon your mind as we went through that, a difference between Esau and Jacob, a uniqueness here of individuals, both from whom great nations were going to come. As a matter of fact, twelve and twelve. Great nations were going to come out of both.

God had that all purposed, all designed that was going to be fulfilled through time, through hundreds and hundreds, and even thousands of years, brings us all the way up to the end-time. Those great nations, though we don’t necessarily know all of them, who they are throughout the Middle East as far as Esau, those having to do with the lineage then of Jacob and on down through time, Israel, the nation of Israel that carried that name.

Because God was working with them in a different way, in a unique way in the sense of revealing to a people His law, revealing to him through their lives His plan and purpose to be fulfilled on a spiritual plane. They lived through a lot of physical things.

One of the greatest things they were able to be an example of is that no human being, even if you’ve been given such treatment, such favor, given lands of such riches and so forth, God being on your side destroying armies, Egypt, entire military of Egypt and their leader, all these things that God did because of favor that He gave, because of a purpose that He had; but even as He worked with them for forty years in the wilderness, had their attention for forty years, though they didn’t necessarily want it, showing the carnality that’s there, but the great lesson of all that is you can have all that and work against God. Because that’s our nature.

They are, rather than a people that turned out great, they were great because of God, they were great because of God’s plan and purpose and how God raised them up and gave them favor. But they themselves, like any other peoples, in the sense of carnal human nature.

That’s why sometimes people have made the great error that some people are better than others. That’s just sick, perverted, and distorted. Okay? There are those through time that are going to have time, opportunity, that have never had those kinds of opportunities as they did. But they didn’t do well with the opportunity they were given.

That’s why it’s such a thing to understand how most of the people, even when we have received God’s spirit (looking at the Church), that the vast majority have turned against God even with God’s spirit. That’s far more heinous and evil and sick than what the Israelites ever did.

The Israelites just did what they did because they had carnal human nature, so they resisted God along the way. They’d get into trouble then they’d cry out to God to deliver them and God would send judges and then God gave them different kings. God worked with them at different times because they would turn to Him again. So, there was this kind of unique kind of relationship in that regard.

Then we see the Church and the comparison of what happened to the Church. That’s why it’s such a sick, sick thing that even when we have God’s spirit to refuse, to resist, to not cling on to, to be grateful for what God gives to us, offers us. We have to learn some hard lessons the hard way.

That’s why I love what it says in the Great White Throne. There’s going to be a lot of weeping and gnashing of teeth for a lot of people. The main people who are weeping and gnashing their teeth are those who had opportunity for this way of life, those who were in the Church who had opportunity and turned against God. They’re the ones that are going to be weeping and gnashing their teeth when they realize a stark reality of what they gave up, what they didn’t continue to fight for, what they did not prevail, as the name “Israel” is about. To prevail. To persevere. To strive.

That’s what we have to do all of our life if we really want this way of life. It isn’t just handed to us on a golden platter and you can do whatever you want to do. We have to change. Awesome, to understand these things. Awesome to understand so many people through time haven’t.

So, just in that little bit we’ve covered some of the major lessons given to mankind that mankind can learn from. From ancient Israel, from spiritual Israel, that even there in the womb, speaking in the sense of not yet born again spirit, not yet born spirit but only begotten of God’s spirit, as Mr. Armstrong used to talk about. It’s like being in the womb of the mother, the Church, but not yet born. People can become a miscarriage. They miscarry in life, in a spirit life that God has offered them. Some so turning against God they’ll never be given the opportunity again because they’ve committed the unpardonable sin.

There’s probably way too much of that that happened during the time of the Apostasy even because they so hated Herbert Armstrong, they so hated everything he represented, which means they hated God. They hated that way of life. They didn’t want it. They didn’t embrace it. You have to love this way of life, otherwise it’s not true, it’s fake. Why would we be there then? All those things God sifts through time.

He said to Jacob, Thus says the Eternal who created you, O Jacob, showing He is his Creator. All of us, for us, our Creator. We’re not here without Him.

…and He who formed you, to fashion, like a potter, O Israel. So, that was the next step. What an incredible thing that an individual had physical life, God worked with him, began to work with him, mold and fashion certain things within him, but far more so once He began to have a relationship with him. That’s where the real change takes place when you become a part of spiritual Israel. Because that means far more than the physical one.

He might carry the name but it’s the relationship with God that becomes important, of what God is molding and preparing in you to be able to be a part of something greater later, His family.

He went on to say, Do not fear, for I have redeemed you. This has been a long process through time, 6,000 years up to now, when it’s all done, 7,100 years of redeeming mankind, working with mankind, struggling with mankind, persevering with mankind, striving with mankind, striving to reason with mankind!

Just like right now—getting into the next section we’re going to be going into next week—I am dumbfounded by human nature, to realize it doesn’t matter what we go through. We can go through COVID and millions could die if that be the case. We can go through another series of some other disease or some other thing take place and millions more die and people will not be humbled and turn to God and want answers. They just won’t.

We’re so far down the tubes now it’s incredible where this world is right now. There is absolutely no interest, in a sense, of turning to God. It just isn’t there. People don’t have that kind of fear. It’s starting to grow a little bit but not where it needs to be. So, the end can’t be until that comes.

So, my prayer is, my hope is, is that it won’t be long. Because there is no point in all of this, there is no point to go through years and years and years of different plagues coming along, because people don’t give a flip. They’re not going to change. Only when they’re literally brought to their knees because they are so afraid of what’s happening all around them.

If they think for one inkling in one way that they can work through this and get past this and “get back on our feet again and get back to normal,” if there is some way of doing that, they’re not going to humble themselves at all. That’s pride. That spirit is incredibly strong.

I hope we’re learning, because that’s what this is all about. It’s about learning that this doesn’t even begin to tweak the scale in the sense of turning mankind toward God. It’s not doing it.

Everything is so inflated as far as the worldwide economy is concerned it’s not even funny. It’s scary. But they’re not afraid because they’re holding it up. Bitcoin sells for $48,000 now. Insane! Some predicting it’s going to soon be at $100,000. Insane! It’s out there in computer land.

What was it? One article said about the police had confiscated so many millions of bitcoins but couldn’t access it because there is no password, they’re not going to give it to them. I wish I could remember the percentage of people who forget their password for things like that and it’s lost. All that money, millions and millions and millions out there that are just lost. So, yeah, the money, it’s going to go up in value for others because they can’t get theirs, so, let’s divide it up. Anyway, sick world. It’s a joke!

Where was it? Some place was talking about Visa or Mastercard, somebody is going to start taking bitcoin or some of these kinds of cryptocurrencies for payment. Okay, fine. Create something that’s fake, that’s not real. It’s mind boggling. It’s insanity.

It’s like people in the stock market or people who buy gold, but they buy certificates. Hello! If you don’t have the gold it’s not doing you a bit of good. And if something comes along and the bucket comes out, everything falls out from underneath and you don’t have the actual stuff itself, it didn’t do you a bit of good. It’s like having all these ones and zeros, again, on a computer. They’re worthless.

I hope you understand what I’m saying. This world is so inflated right now compared to even 2008 it’s not even funny. It’s so far beyond that. You think, one little prick of a pin and it just all explodes worldwide.

Different nations right now discussing alternatives of reset and how that’s going to be accomplished. Literally, war. But we don’t hear. It’s like we don’t believe anybody would ever do anything like that because we know. It’s kind of like that movie War Games. All of a sudden, this computer is going back and forth, and nobody wins. It’s like, okay.

So, the thought is in this country is nobody could win it so nobody would ever think to do it. Bull. Bull, bull, bull, bull, bull-bull-bull, bull. We’re so stupid, naïve, foolish, haughty, proud, arrogant! Makes me sick.

So, people aren’t afraid. So, what are we witnessing right now? We’re witnessing the fact that nobody cares. God is making it very clear. He’s making it very clear that there is corruption and evil from the top to the bottom in everything in society. Everything has been polluted by greed and selfishness and haughtiness of human beings. They don’t care.

You think, what a horrible mind we have as human beings because we’re so selfish. How far we’ll go with that selfishness, it really is evil. It’s the same mind of Satan. It’s the exact same mind. And God wants us to understand that.

We’re learning the only thing that’s going to humble them is when the things begin to go off and people are crippled, no longer have electricity, no longer have semis running up and down the highways. Then some might think, “Well, that’s going to be a good thing.” No, cause you’re not going to run up and down the highways either because your cars aren’t going to run, as a whole, in most cases. Where are you going to get the gas if you don’t have electricity to get it out of the ground in the first place? And if things are melted inside electronically like can happen in some cases, what are you going to do?

People have no idea. They think staying, having to be restrained and stay in a certain area, lockdowns are bad. That’s nothing, nothing!

Still have the faith “we’re going to get it back to normal. It might take another year. It might take until 2024, might take that long to get all these vaccines out and everybody is okay, but we’re going to get things back to normal.” This world is never going to see “normal” again.

To understand that that’s what has to happen, the events of the seven Seals, the first six Seals have to take place, because that’s the only thing that’s going to even begin to humble mankind. Even when the first four take place the rest of the world is still filled with haughtiness and pride, and in some ways, happy and rejoicing because they’re no longer bullied by the greatest bullier that’s ever existed on earth. Incredible.

Some of this reminds me of what it says back in Revelation. He says, Do not fear, for I have redeemed you. I have called or proclaimed, as it is here, your name. God gave the name. It’s not a matter He’s just calling them by that name, “I’ll call you Israel.” No, He gave the name. “I have proclaimed your name.” In other words, we’re His. If we’re a part of Israel, especially spiritual Israel, we belong to God.

Verse 2. I want to read verse 2 before we go into Revelation. Verse 2—When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. God uses a couple different things here. So much of what He gave throughout the Old Testament has to do with that which is physical – the name, the nation of Israel, all physical. But all leading up to things to teach that which is spiritual along the way, like David, the king, the temple, different things that came along, all to lead to something that would teach something far, far greater about what God’s plan is all about, that He would reveal from the time of Christ on, primarily. Because a lot of those things were written but never grasped nor understood what they really were about, obviously.

He says, When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they will not overflow you. We read this, and we look at that and tend to, as we should indeed, think back to what events took place that make this such a pronounced type of thing that God has stated here.

Indeed, “when you pass through the waters,” we understand what happened when God freed Israel from Egypt and the waters were opened up and they were able to go through on dry land. We understand when they went over the Jordan River and how that the waters were held back and again they went through. So, even by the rivers or by the seas or by the great waters, if you will.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned. We might think of different things. Perhaps the three, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and what happened to them. We can think about those kinds of physical things.

But it’s about spiritual things! It’s about those who become a part of and are begotten to become a part of spiritual Israel, if you will. Those things mean so much more when we understand them.

When you walk through the fire, you’ll not be burned, nor will the flame consume you. We understand what fire is about. We understand what it’s talking about, about passing through the waters, at least if you talk about passing through a sea like the Israelites did.

Here, seas, if you will, and waters, oceans, if you will, but they’re referred to basically as “seas,” but large masses of water like that it’s like masses of people. The sea of humanity. We even use expressions like that.

But biblically that’s how some of those things were used in context. It’s about mankind. It’s about the sea, just so much, or the sand of the sea even. But when you talk about the sea it can be about the sea of humanity and you’re going to pass through, especially when God begins to work with you, the sea of humanity, if you will, but different. You’re going to be different. You’re going to be able to pass through it in a different way because you’re going to be living God’s way. You’re not going to be living the way of the world. They’re all going their own way and they’re consumed with it and filled with the drama of it.

We’re not and we’re not supposed to be, are we? We are to be different. We begin to walk in a different way and we’re able to pass through, if you will then, whether it be something small or great as far as mankind is concerned and nothing consumes us.

Even as it talks about the fire. We can go through the worst trials of fire where even as so many did give up. The apostasy. That was a great fire. That was a horrible fire, if you want to look at it as far as the Church was concerned. On a scale of that nature, really nothing like it ever before that, nor since, obviously. Because it can’t be because of the numbers involved and the scale of everything that was taking place.

Again, horrible, horrible trial and many were, in that respect, consumed by it because of choices that were made. But those have to do with choices that people make.

But it says, When you walk through the fire, you’ll not be burned. That’s a matter of faith and what we believe then and how God is working with us.

In this case here, all of us in this particular fire, that would have been it. All kinds of trials we go through in life, but that was one of the greatest, if you will, as far as the Church is concerned, because of what God allowed Satan to do and that began to happen going way, way back into the 70’s, individuals who began to lead in that direction, think in that direction. Took them a long time to finally come to that power, but Satan was working with them for a long time.

When you walk through the fire, you’ll not be burned. In most all cases that’s exactly the case, unless God has a purpose for you, when you talk about the Apostasy. Because the Apostasy was the only kind of fire that came upon the Church, if you will, trial that came upon the Church that God had to give immediate deliverance from and begin working with different ones out there.

For that 3½ years a lot of people had opportunity, a third of the Church was being worked with in different ways. And finally, came down to what God was going to do through all that. He was only going to save a remnant from all that. Not because of how good we are or anything of that nature, just because God had a plan.

Whenever God has a plan for you, He’ll make the way for you and then if you choose along the way and cry out to God for help and for deliverance in those things and keep fighting the fight and strive, if you will, with God, with yourself, if you’ll persevere, if you’ll prevail in those things, in the sense of how you’re thinking, and keep fighting, keep wrestling, God’s always there. Awesome!

I can’t help but think of Revelation 12 which talks about some of this, of what happened to us in our history. Revelation 12:10—Then I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, Now salvation, strength, and the Kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ has come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before God day and night, has been cast down.

So again, tend to believe what I feel that God gave to Herbert Armstrong to believe, that that process began in earnest and power, as far as that being is concerned and what God allowed him to do, when California did what it did in trying to take over the Church and try to destroy the Church. Which was really from within because it had to do with different evangelists from within who were traitors, who were evil, whose purpose was evil because they wanted power, they wanted to take over.

So, those kinds of things started at that time in earnest, and a lot of people, and thankfully in many cases we didn’t realize what was happening, we didn’t know the magnitude of what was going on, that there were that many evangelists and ministers who were working against God’s apostle. It was leading into something far, far worse as time went along. But that was the beginning of it and God allowed it.

God allowed Satan to have power at that time, but He preserved, took care of the Church and brought it through that because what was to happen later on, again, was for later on, when you talk about the Apostasy and not in Herbert Armstrong’s day. You go back and read about Philadelphia and what it says. Basically, told what he wasn’t going to see, that. Awesome.

This, in that respect, was a beginning of a great sign to the Church. You start reading in Matthew 24, of some of those things that were going to happen. I think of the word about earthquakes. I’ve mentioned this many of time. Because that’s how human beings think when they see something about the word and how it’s used. But it has to do with a great shaking, a powerful shaking. But because it could only be seen, so many of those things could only be seen on a physical plane they were interpreted as physical events.

Just like the Seals of Revelation, they were all seen as physical events having to do with the Church and spiritual in that context, but still physical as what was happening in the world. Again, if you have that history and know what I’m talking about. Not going to go into all that.

But anyway, so here God is saying, “Now salvation, strength, and the Kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ has come.” We like things to happen quicker. Our lifespans are unique because they’re not that long. We tend to think they are when we’re younger because we don’t even think about it. 30’s, 40’s, people don’t think about things like life insurance or whatever, as a whole in the world, nor in the Church, and what might happen in the future and preparing for things in the future.

Or that thing of you see older people but you don’t see yourself there, ever being there. You don’t think about what it’s going to be like when you’re there until you’re there, and then you know, and it puts a whole different perspective on things. It’s like anything.

Like when people first come in the Church and everybody is talking about the Feast of Tabernacles and 2nd tithe or whatever. You might learn in the very beginning. You hear this excitement, and you see this excitement, especially when we were larger and we knew certain areas had 10-15,000 people in it. You saw this excitement, you heard about it, but you didn’t know what it was like because you’d never been to one. Until you were there; then you had the experience.

So much of life is like that. You don’t know until you have the experience. You can learn about certain things, but you don’t know until you’re there. Then you can learn a lot more. And so, this is talking about God’s Kingdom that is coming. It’s on it’s way now. We’re at the end.

I think of what God began to give Herbert Armstrong back in the late 40’s, early 50’s. It was already taking place. Some of these things were starting to happen as far as molding the sixth part, if you will, of what was taking place was over with, we’re getting closer here to another thing, event taking place if you want to talk about different revivals. We’re getting close to the next one. It’s coming.

That’s what this is talking about. We’re now in that time period. It’s coming now. The others are past so the only thing in front of us is exactly what God gave to Herbert Armstrong to talk about, what’s going to happen in Europe, because that’s going to be at the forefront. They’re going to have ten nations eventually, their own military, their own currency, and blah, blah, blah. But it happened over a long period of time before they were fulfilled – long after his death, as a whole, for most of it.

But we want things quickly. Well, there are times we have to wait, and right now we’re in a waiting period and nothing is being given to us about where we are except to see what’s happening in the sense of what we’re witnessing that I just mentioned. COVID. Maybe other kinds coming as well. I don’t know how long this is going to be, but it’s proving a great truth. Nobody cares. They’re filled with pride. They “are” going to get “back to normal,” even though they might curse and swear and fight with each other in the meantime, because people are being driven nuts a little bit and going a lot nuttier. But this is helping to stir up that as well.

But as far as humility, not even close. Not. Even. Close. So, at some point the witness of this is over and it begins. At any time, candidly. We don’t know when.

For the accuser of our brethren, who accuse them before our God day and night has been cast down. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb. We understand this is the word for “conquering,” “to overcome” in the Greek. You have to fight. To conquer something, you have to fight. You have to strive. You have to truly want to be a part of spiritual Israel to stay in it, to stay in the Church.

They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb. What does that mean? The only way you can. Exactly what we’re talking about, about being redeemed, this whole process of how we’re able to be a part of Israel is only because of what He did, because of that sacrifice and being able then to be forgiven of sin.

That’s what it’s all about, our ability to be able to be forgiven of sin so we can stay in the fight. That’s the only way you can stay in the fight, is to continue to fight against sin, which is this. Not others. Not so much focused on others, just focused on self, primarily.

They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, again, how we’re redeemed, and by the word of their testimony, that witness, the word of God, and they did not love their lives to the death. So, in other words, it’s an understanding that you’re in this for your whole life.

You’re not in it for part of the time. You’re not in it until you get to a certain point and things aren’t going well in your marriage or whatever and you begin to lust after someone else, as has happened to so many people out there who then go and commit adultery and leave the Church. Because they can’t stay in it if that happens.

So, you can’t have both. You love one more than the other. These kinds of things have been prevalent in God’s Church because that’s human nature because people want something different or whatever it might be.

Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and to the sea! Because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has but a short time. He’s been pretty busy, especially since that point on, since what happened in California and on as far as the Church is concerned, to where he grew in power and influence within the Church, within the ministry, slowly diluting the truth, because that’s what you have to do if you’re him.

You have to dilute the truth, make it weaker and weaker to where different ones begin to hit at the very thing that we’re talking about—the very beginning of it all is our Passover—and begin to pollute it with a bunch of crap about a 14/15 Passover.

How many ministers sucked into that? How many people in God’s Church began to play around with that and thought they were intellectual and that they can figure this out. “Oh yeah, why didn’t Herbert Armstrong see that?” Because Satan will give them a different interpretation.

God gives us a true interpretation. If you’re close to God and you want God, God will help you see and know the truth. Not because of your intellect but because of His holy spirit. He puts it in your mind and you just know. You just know, like you do in the beginning. You know the Sabbath. It rings true. The Holy Days. That’s amazing!

You try to share that with someone else and they don’t know it. They think you’re nuttier than a fruitcake. “You’re really gone off on a religious tangent. Guess we lost them!” They don’t have anything to do with you anymore because you’re a little bit of a religious whacko. The only thing they can do with it is, basically, “You must be part of a cult, because that is so wacky and so far out there it’s got to be a cult. It’s got to have some kind of power over you. They don’t know it’s the truth of God.

Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and to the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time. He knows his time is about up. He keeps fighting against God, trying to subvert, trying to pervert, because he has such a perverted mind, distorted mind.

But he’s known enough time to know that what God says God’s going to do. So, he’s been told he has but a short time. The Millennium is almost here. He knows the Messiah is going to come and establish God’s Kingdom because everything he’s ever seen since his beginning rebellion is whenever God says something, it’s accomplished, it’s done; He’s all powerful. Though he hates that, and he will not succumb to that. He will not give into that. He doesn’t want that. He wants his own way.

That’s the way some human beings are going to be. That’s why so many just in time are not going to want this way of life because they really don’t want it. They would just as soon die.

Come to the point of death? “Well, if that happens, I’m going to do that to the death!” You know, there are different ones. I think of different peoples who have fought each other in wars and so forth, “To the death! I believe in it so much! If this doesn’t work don’t tread on me, because if you do, well, to the death! We’re going to do what we need to do!” You think, whew, okay. But when it comes to God and God’s way of life it becomes a lot more real as to what this is all about.

So, this being knows he has a short time. People have to make choices.

Verse 13—Now, when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male. We know what this is about. We know it’s about God’s Church and what he began to do, began to work with different ones, as I just mentioned a moment ago because it had to happen over time. It doesn’t happen overnight. He began to work with different ones a little bit at a time, help them become weaker and weaker, watch the Church because different ministers and different leaders in the Church, different evangelists were getting weaker and weaker and things that they were saying and doing, and after a while the Church becomes weaker and weaker.

That’s why I talk about this being such a dangerous time. You’ve got to fight. This is a dangerous time when you can’t be together in fellowship. You have to recognize that. It is incredibly dangerous. It can give that being a foothold in your life if you allow it. That’s why you’ve got to strive now, persevere, prevail now more than ever before. Because we’re there! What a horrifying thing to think that some would give up at the very end here!

But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle. Awesome, what God has revealed to us and shown us what He did. Meaning protection, safety, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and time and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. The Church did have exactly 3½ years before the Church became established again after the Apostasy, and we finally came up to Pentecost of 1998. Incredible, the timing of various events, exactly that period of time.

To realize that, what an awesome thing that we were given some time, for the Church to be re-established because so much had been lost. There was so much confusion, so much diversity, so many different ideas that God had to work with a group for that long to help them become established. Awesome! Then He began to reveal to us incredible things and understanding of things.

So again, “nourished for that period of time from the presence of the serpent.” Satan was kept away for that period of time, because otherwise, we couldn’t have been re-established. We were too weak. When this whole process began, we were incredibly weak. That’s why we were all a part of being Laodicea and guilty of that in the sense of what we did, basically, and didn’t do in our lives, and we succumbed to that weakness.

Even as the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood… God talks about this, tells us about this. Here in this case here, using water in a different sort of way, but a way to sweep people away. A flood will sweep people away, kill people. It uses this analogy here. God says that, especially by this time here then, if we understand what took place and what was taking place during that time, God was going to bring people through it to have a remnant.

Even as the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. So, a massive flood took place as far as the Church was concerned. Different ones died all along the way, in the sense of that which is spiritual. Falling asleep is like a death unless God wake you up.

Verse 16—But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. I think, what an incredible thing to know what happened. Some here, some there, but so far apart and so spread out not a threat to anyone else, so much so that Satan couldn’t even see what had taken place. By the time he was able to come back and have more effect upon different ones that were out there and what was taking place and they continued then to dilute the truth, and others had gone so far that they were already gone before that 3½ years was up.

But as far as the rest that were out there scattered, he had a lot more power again. But not with one group that God was going to continue to work with. And so, it’s not by coincidence that God desired, by design, that we be very small. Little pocket here, little pocket there, a little pocket there; they’re no threat to anyone.

So, the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went to make war with the rest, the remaining or the remnant. And so, it took some time but that’s what that being did. He knew where God was and where God wasn’t. It’s obvious to him as a spirit being.

…he went to make war with the remaining, or the remnant, as it is, offspring, descendants, those who descended, those who came down, in other words. We have that which happens within the Church, those who come in at different times, those who were a part of Worldwide and other generations that came along, and others who were called. That’s what this is talking about. It’s about a continual growth that has taken place through time.

…the descendants who keep the commandments of God. Now, it’s kind of interesting to know that this was what one time was looked upon as being the one that Satan was going to go after, the Laodiceans. “Because both eras were going to exist all the way to the very end, Laodiceans and the Philadelphians. God was with the Philadelphians but not those lazy Laodiceans. They’re just lukewarm. They’re the ones that Satan is going to go after.”

And yet, this is what it says about them, they keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Joshua. Incredible! What does that mean? The evidence in their life that God is with them, the truth is with them. That’s what it’s about, the witness of Joshua is in our life is that he dwells in us, God the Father dwells in us, we in them, and we see what we see, we have the truth that we have because of this. That’s the witness. It’s in our lives; it’s reflected in our lives.

So again, it talks about floods in different ways and ways that God will take care of you, but I couldn’t help but think of this when I think of what it says back up here in verse 2 of Isaiah.

Reading it again, Isaiah 43:2—When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned, nor will the flame consume you. If God has a purpose for you and God is working with you this is exactly what’s going to happen. He’s there all the time. We just have to make choices along the way as to how we’re going to respond to that kind of mercy, to that kind of grace, to that power that seeks to redeem us.

Verse 3—For I am the Eternal your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior. It’s amazing to me how the world has not recognized God as being our Savior. Christ is looked to as being our savior, but that’s a term, a word, a place, a position that God gave to His Son. But it goes to God first and foremost.

Just like the word for king that we went through, and sermons that we’ve discussed as well, that He is the King of Kings. God Almighty is. He makes it very clear in the Old Testament. He is the King of Kings, but He’s given all authority and all power to His Son. Those names he bears as well because of his Father.

Notice – I gave Egypt for your ransom. That’s different. “I gave Egypt for your ransom?” In Hebrew it literally means that, “a ransom or the price of life.”

God making it very clear here all belongs to Him, and if He chooses as God Almighty to see the destruction of a nation, to see the destruction of peoples, to see their lives come to an end, so be it. It’s His judgment. He gives life. He created life. We can’t tell Him what to do with that life. His plan is perfect, and He has a purpose in everything He does.

They’ll have a resurrection in time and have an opportunity for this way of life, all who lived at that time. They’ll be able to learn that everything they believed as far as the different gods they had was a bunch of weird, goofy, sick, perverted ideas. They’ll come to see those things in time and be exceedingly blessed.

Sometimes people judge God, make a huge mistake in that. Even in God’s Church people have judged God. “Well, how could God tell them to go in and kill everyone, man, woman, and child? How could you kill babies and children?” Well, we’re God’s creation, and if God has purpose in that for people to learn from that, for people to come to understanding of certain things in life, that nothing is owed to us? You think, “Well, that’s a cruel God.” No, it isn’t. It’s a very loving God. Because His plan extends into the Great White Throne, and that’s where they’re going to have salvation.

Left to themselves what do they do? They kill. They destroy, rape, pillage, steal, everything human beings are good at as far as selfishness is concerned, argue, fight, debate, everything that is opposite of God’s way of life. Live drama, want drama, thrive on drama, can’t live without it, TV, news, drama-drama-drama, can’t live without it. “Give me my fix!” “What do you think about this, what’s happening right now?” “Oh, let me tell you what I think about this because I have wisdom!” Sorry. That’s how people are.

You can write an article in a newspaper and they’ll get you on and say, “That was an awesome article you wrote. What do you think about…” something that was totally different, “this happening?” “Well…” and they give their opinion. And people, “Oh.” Others look at them and think, “You idiot!” Because people judge all kinds of things. They believe what they want to believe.

Only God can convict of what is true in life and when you don’t have that you have nothing but absolute chaos and confusion. That’s why it’s called Babylon. Babylon, Babylon, Babylon. I am so thankful that God is bringing Babylon to the surface so everybody can have a big whiff of Babylon and learn what it’s all about. Because it’s sick from it’s head to it’s toe.

Where is the care? Where is the concern? Where is the mercy? Where is the compassion? Well, we understand it has to come from God if it’s going to be true and right because it doesn’t come out of human life, out of human beings. To a certain point and certain things that people might do, but always a get in there somewhere.

So again here, I gave Egypt for your ransom… For the price of your life. An entire army, all kinds of people who died in the plagues, especially toward the end there, and the firstborn, and then Pharaoh and an entire army killed, destroyed, swallowed up in the sea. Amazing!

Gave Egypt because Israel was more valuable, because of what God was going to give in Israel was about salvation. It was about redemption. It was about the ability to begin to become reconciled to God. Not for them yet, but for that name, of what God was going to do with Israel, spiritual Israel.

A lot of things had happened physically for so long, several thousand years. Incredible, how God has progressively revealed such things and gave a little bit here and there. Israel was so valuable that He gave Egypt for a ransom. Incredible.

Do we grasp that? Israel is so valuable to God. That’s why the Church, the Israel of God, is so incredibly valuable to Him. Nothing, nothing on earth is not going to be given to accomplish that. God has the power to do it. God’s Kingdom, when it comes, is so valuable, the importance of it is so valuable for mankind, to have that thousand years of that reign for those who are going to live in that period of time. It is so incredibly valuable and important for mankind, for the salvation of mankind, for the beginning of a turn, finally, for the ways of mankind on a massive scale.

It’s so valuable that God is going to allow the earth to destroy itself by one-third in the very beginning, just by one great army alone. There’s going to be a whole lot more done a little before that and when Christ returns a lot more is going to be destroyed again because he’s going to destroy those who are destroying the earth.

His Kingdom is so valuable – it’s Israel, spiritual Israel, the coming of spiritual Israel to reign on this earth, and then to offer that up to all mankind that’s living that will continue on in the Millennium. Then the Great White Throne, everyone who has died, no matter what period of time it was, has opportunity—Awesome!—for Israel, their opportunity to be part of Israel.

God says, “I gave Egypt for your ransom.” So, we should question what does that mean, and understand what it means, and learn the value then of that sacrifice.

…Ethiopia and Seba in your place. Since you were precious in My sight, you have been honored. Israel was precious in God’s sight.

They fought against Him. They resisted Him. They murmured and complained about Him. They murmured and complained about His servant Moses, and on and on it went throughout that forty years. But because of God’s purpose they were precious in His sight, because of what He was molding and fashioning. Because this molding and fashioning of those things that were done on a physical plane to teach things in a greater spiritual plane are incredibly needful. It teaches us. We learn from it. We’re able to be inspired and moved and motivated by it. God has done many things through time to give us this.

Since you were precious in My sight, you have been honored. God shows honor when He gives favor to someone. He did to a physical nation. They were honored. Not because they deserved it, but because of God’s purpose. All He called were honored, the ones He worked with were honored because He had a purpose for them and taught them and saw that they were taught in specific ways, that they were given specific instruction because He was going to give them of His spirit and draw them by His spirit and work with them.

Not the rest of the world, because it wasn’t time for them. Because much has to happen for people to learn, for mankind to learn and make a choice, “I don’t want my ways. I don’t want the ways of mankind. I don’t want the ways of selfish, carnal human nature. I want God’s ways because it’s the only way of peace and truth and happiness and fullness of life.”

…you have been honored and I have loved you. He didn’t love the rest of the world in the sense of showing love to them, because they couldn’t be given that yet. To show that kind of love is a matter of grace. It’s a matter of a calling. It’s a matter of a relationship. God’s purpose has not been to do that with all of mankind. Just 144,000, basically, up to this point in time, and now more who are going to have an opportunity to continue on. But basically, that focus has been about the 144,000 through time. Israel, the manifestation of the real Israel.

You have been honored and I have loved you, therefore I will give men for you, and people. That’s what He’s talking about. He gave Egypt, the leadership of Egypt, the army of Egypt.

I gave men for you, and people for your life. Do you not grasp what’s been given to you? That’s why we need to grasp what’s been given to us. Because all that has happened through time, all those things that have happened through time, it’s about us, it’s about spiritual Israel and what God is creating, and what God is molding and fashioning.

To have that opportunity now or at whatever time different ones have been called, how blessed is that? The Great White Throne is going to be an awesome blessing for all of mankind who will receive it. But this is more.

Do not fear, for I am with you. Over and over again, to understand that, not to fear even though we live in things that are going to be very fearful. We don’t know that level yet. We’ve never experienced that kind of level in our lives yet. But we will and we’ll grow in this one here, faith in God, trust in God, stronger conviction, that we don’t have to fear that which is around us. Because God loves us. Because God has a purpose for us. Awesome!

I will bring your descendants from the east and gather you from the west; I will say to the north, Give them up! I think of the end-time here and what’s going to happen. “Give them up! My Kingdom is going to be established. Israel is coming!” Israel is going to reign on the earth for 1,100 years. The Kingdom of God is going to reign on earth.

That’s what this is about. It’s about Elohim and it’s about the first part of that, the firstfruits of that. “Give them up! If you don’t give them up, I will destroy those who destroy the earth. You want to continue to be arrogant and destroy mankind and kill because you want your way and you don’t care about human life, you’re so perverted in your thinking?”

There are perverted minds in this world who will go that far to this country and some other countries. It’s like an abhorrent thing, “Nobody would ever do that because they know nobody can win it.” In a sick way, yes, they can. Yes, they can …if God allowed it.

Give them up! To the south, Do not keep them back! Bring My sons from afar, and My daughters from the ends of the earth. So, wherever God’s people, wherever people are being worked with. Awesome, what it’s saying here.

Everyone who is called by My name, whom I have created for My glory. Elohim! His glory. What He creates. It’s not about a physical universe. It’s not about a physical earth and everything that’s on it, though it’s beautiful if mankind were able to treat it accordingly rather than pollute it and hurt it. But with the right mind, it’s so beautiful. Incredible, what God has created, all to His glory. But His family, so much more because that’s the purpose of it all, to have the God Family.

I have formed him, yes, I have made him. Bring out the blind people who have eyes, and the deaf who have ears. Awesome. Blind and deaf. Because only God can give what is spiritual, to truly see and to truly hear. Because mankind is that way. They can’t help it.

Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled. Who among them can declare this, and show us the former things? Let them bring out their witnesses, that they may be justified; Or let them hear and say, It is the truth. So, you have something else you want to show, you have something else you want to do than what God gives, to follow something else than what God shows and God gives? No one has the power to accomplish these things, of whatever their plans might be. But God does. That’s what His point is.

You are My witnesses. Those whom God calls. This is about the Church. We are His witnesses, says the Eternal, and My servant whom I have chosen. Every one of us, to understand what that means. We have God, the mind of God and of Christ able to dwell in us. To be able to become reconciled to God, which means to become of the same mind, to be at one with God, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Joshua.” Who would want anything less when they understand what it’s all about?

…and My servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me. It’s the only way that anyone can come to know and believe God. God has to show us. He has to convict us. He has to begin working with us. He draws us, and He teaches us, but He gives us His holy spirit to accomplish it all. He gives us access to His mind, to His thinking on a spiritual plane that inspires us and lifts us up, that you can’t explain to others.

And so, when you’re moved by something, when you’re excited because you see something and God has shown you something more, and you just continue to grow in those things, it’s a personal relationship because it’s something you know has happened to you. You experience it in your life. You only know the truth because God gave it to you.

You can’t go out and talk to anyone out here and give it to them. To tell them, “We had an apostasy, and here are the proofs of what took place. Wrote it in a book.” Who gives a flip except God draw them and they begin to be humbled by it and they begin to see it? It’s the only way they can see.

Right now we live in a world because of technology and the way the world is, it’s so much worse than it was ten years ago, twelve years ago. So much worse. We can compare those times back and look at that. You lived through those things and remembered the kind of news, the kind of things that were taking place, and you see it now and how mankind is, and they’ve become prisoners to things like Facebook and Twitter. All these kinds of things.

God gave us a blessing of a warning, don’t be a part of it. Don’t let it engulf your life. And look what it’s done to people in the world. Engulfed their life. So much so they’re up in arms now and they’re finally getting smart. Well, I don’t know about smart, but…? It’s a monopoly! It’s control! It’s powerful! And yes, it is. There’s a being behind it all because it’s all being misused, as a whole. Truly is. Very little being used right. Except what’s on PKG and some other sites.

The world misuses it to their advantage, for the wrong purposes, for the wrong reasons. Incredible. And people are in love with themselves and if they can’t stay in love with themselves and tell what they think and have all these followers and be these influencers…

They’re influencers. And you think, they’re so in love with themselves and they want others to be in love with them, and then I get paid for it, too. How great that you can be in love with yourself and have all these people listening to you just because of technology. You’re an influencer because, man, you’ve got it going! Woo!

Sick world. Turn more inward? More selfish? More unbalanced? People have to have that in order to have someone to look up to, to follow. Why are you doing that? That’s why I loathe such things, when people have to look to something in order to feel good about themselves, that if I’m associated with them, I’m a better person.

We’ll get rid of all the others who don’t agree with us. Anyway. What’s that called? Cancel culture. Is that the right word? Yeah. Some of the things that go on out there. You think, this world is turning more evil all the time. It really is. It’s more and more evil. Things being misused more and more all the time.

Unity? Harmony? What does that mean? It’s division, divisiveness, war, fighting. That’s what leads to war. We look like easy pickings right now.

So again, God gives us everything. A lot has gone into redeeming us through time. Because it wasn’t a one-time event. There’s been a lot of things that have happened in the past 6,000 years to redeem us and we get the greater benefit of it now than at any other time.

Precious to God then? Do we grasp that? The price that’s been paid? That we’re that important to God? It’s not a small thing.

Again, verse 10—You are My witnesses, says the Eternal, and My servant whom I have chosen. God does the calling. God chooses. Why? We don’t know. But it’s God’s calling and God’s choosing, and when He has a purpose to fill you into that area, what a blessing to have that opportunity of life now.

…that you may know and believe Me and understand that I am He. We know that. God has given us that in our minds, to know, to know Him, to understand Him. I think of what He told Moses about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and different ones. “And they have never known Me by My name, Yahweh.” What an incredible thing that was given at that time. We’re so far beyond that. Incredible!

Before Me there was no God formed, nor shall there be after Me. I am the Eternal, besides, or as the Hebrew is, apart from Me, or without Me there is no Savior. If God’s plan and God’s purpose weren’t there, there would be no salvation, saving for mankind, no redeeming for mankind.

I declared and saved and proclaimed. Then it says, “and there was no foreign god among you.” That’s not even in the scriptures. Some of these translations are so poor and they lead people down a wrong path of thinking.

I have declared and saved and proclaimed. God’s done these things. what is actually being said is, here, the actual translation of it is, There is no stranger with you. In other words, God revealed Himself. He’s not a stranger. He’s opened our minds to see things that others can’t see. To the rest of the world, they don’t know Him. In that sense, He’s a stranger because He hasn’t brought them in, He hasn’t chosen them, He hasn’t called them, He hasn’t begun to mold and fashion them yet.

We have a fellowship, a relationship that we’re able to have, so God wants us to know that: “I am no stranger with you,” in essence.

Therefore, you are My witnesses, says the Eternal, that I am God. Because we believe that. We know that. We see those things. We recognize the value, the importance of His life and that of His Son dwelling in us. It’s the only way we’re able to have the truth and remain in the truth.

Before the day was, I am He. And there is no one who can deliver out of My hand. If God has a purpose in something it’s going to be done. He had a purpose in Abraham. He had a purpose in Noah. He had a purpose in Abraham, on down the line, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He had a purpose in wrestling with him, had a purpose in him leaving his father and going into another country, being married and starting a family and learning the things that he learned there and God working with him. Then on the way back.

On and on it went, and all the way down to the time they went into Egypt. Then God gave them time, till He remembered His promises – in other words, brought them to remembrance once again. They were always there, things He was going to do as far as beginning to introduce Passover, that which would point to His Son one day and the sacrifice of His Son.

Who can deliver out of My hand, and who will reverse it? If God has a purpose, it’s going to be done. Thus says the Eternal, your Redeemer, The Holy One of Israel: For your sake I will send to Babylon, and bring them down fleeing, as the words really mean here. It’s this “bring them down as fugitives,” sick translation.

And I will send to Babylon, and bring the down fleeing. In other words, they’re going to flee before Him and before what He does. The Chaldeans, who sing, rejoicing in their ships, in other words, rejoicing in their great commerce.

When we talk about Babylon in Revelation, “Babylon has fallen, has fallen,” and it talks about the merchants and the trading, and this world is consumed, eaten up with and about to go to war because of worldwide commerce and battles and fighting that have been taking place and people being positioned in different areas, things that are going on as far as the financial markets and community and everything else. Incredible.

This is telling how God is going to bring it down, in essence, and how people are lifted up with pride. “The rejoicing in their ships,” in their merchants, in their ability to have commerce in such a massive way. There were nations that were great. They started building ships around the Mediterranean, and that’s some of the greatest nations in times past. Powerful.

That’s why we talked about some of those things in recent time. It hasn’t been that long back, talking about some of the kinds of ships they had back then that they’re discovering and have found on the ocean floors, or the Mediterranean. Incredible power and huge, humongous.

And you think, the knowledge they had back then of some of the things they built and did, and it was all about commerce. It was all about power. Who’s going to control all that commerce. Who is going to become greater and the greatest?

I am the Eternal, your Holy One, The Creator of Israel, your King. Awesome. God reveals Himself for who He is, for what He’s doing. It’s all made possible by Him.

Thus says the Eternal who makes a way, or who is giving a way in the sea, a path in mighty waters. So again, this matter of humanity. All of humanity going a different way and yet God shows us a way, just like He did when He went through and took the Israelites through the sea. He does that on a spiritual plane with us. All the waters of humanity and God takes us through it showing us His way, the only way.

Who is giving a way in the sea, a path in mighty waters? Who brings forth, or makes it to come out, the chariot and horse, the army and their power (strength) (They shall lie down together; they do not rise.) The power of God to take control, to do whatever He does at any time for His purpose, for His purpose concerning Israel.

(They are extinguished, like a wick is quenched.) In other words, put out. It’s like it’s using the expression here it’s like to God to destroy armies, if need be. A wick on a candle; putting your fingers together and the flame goes out. It’s just that simple. God performs it. God does it. Destroy those who are destroying the earth. Small thing with God.

Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Whatever time period that might be, the greatness of certain things and what mankind strives for and wants to do something bigger and better.

Just like now, “we want to get back to normal” and do things bigger and better, and our economy. Look at the stock market. Oh, that’s just so beautiful, isn’t it? It’s really getting up there and gold prices are going up and these are all good signs, aren’t they? Anyway.

But look at the new that I will do. Man strives for different things. God shows us what’s important, what He’s doing. To be blessed to be a part of it, it says that’s your focus.

But look at the new that I will do. It is now springing up; Will you not know it? It’s been springing up for the last 6,000 years and God has helped us to know it a little bit at a time. All of it important. Every step of the way giving more and more and more until we have everything that we have now, which is so incredible because His Kingdom is about to be established. Because it has to be established on this earth. Small as it is, it’s here.

But look at the new that I will do. It is now springing up; Will you not know it? In other words, you have that ability. In other words, would anyone not want to know it, not want to hold on to knowing that? Embrace it with all their being?

I hope that’s the case throughout the Church because every year some wrong choices are made, some wrong lust, some wrong whatever it might be, “lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, the pride of life,” gets hold.

And now, at a time like this, when people aren’t together in fellowship on a regular basis? We’re so incredibly blessed here because we have that, but a lot of areas can’t. That’s hurtful and that’s harmful. You need to pray and ask God for help to be able to go through the storm better, to be able to have more of that within the midst of this COVID thing, if He will grant it. That will be a great blessing to you.

Because not a few, but I know a lot of you are getting weak and you’re letting down. That’s by the spirit of God Almighty. Okay?

It’s not a good thing, and if we have those situations around us it’s a very dangerous thing and something that Satan can use very easily against you, to where your focus becomes distracted and you go to other things and you become consumed with some of the stupid news that’s out there and other things that might be going on in the world around you and you kind of pull back (as we have as a nation), and you kind of get into a corner.

Because this is what’s important. And if you’re not careful, you turn inward too much instead of turning more to God and crying out to God for the things you need to be spiritually strong, to set God apart in your life more fully in your life, crying out to God.

The example of Jacob is so needed – to wrestle for this way of life, to not let go! He didn’t let go and God had to touch his thigh to bring it out of whack so that he limped, so that he couldn’t be as strong as he was before and we have to be that way regardless of what we go through. You hold on, you hang on, and you fight! And if something is being taken away from you, you fight harder for it.

How do you do that? You cry out to the Great God of the universe and you say, “Father, please help me because I know the dangers involved in what’s going on right now and I don’t want it to overpower me. Help me to keep focused!”

Strengthen your prayer life. Fight against your sins, the one, two’s, and three’s. Make sure that God is first in your life. That’s a choice, and you have to fight for it. It doesn’t just happen. You have to fight for it, week after week after week, day after day after day.

That’s why we’re trying to get back out, to help some places get back together again. Trust in God. Look to God. Even if you get the COVID! Who do you trust in? You understand what I’m saying? What’s more important? Your life? Yes, I’d like to continue on, but if God takes my life, allows my life to be taken, so be it, the Church goes on. God goes on. It doesn’t stop.

If you are taken, what does that mean? Well, it means you have a resurrection coming. Hopefully, it’s the right one. Okay?

I hope you grasp what I’m saying here. Do you fear COVID so much? Can you not take certain precautions? Then look to God and say, “God Almighty, protect me, help me. I’m doing all I can physically. My life is in your hands.” It’s as simple as that, and if we understand the greatness of Almighty God and trust in that there are times you take steps and you do what you need to do for your spiritual life.

It’s a fight and you’ve got to fight for your spiritual lives. So, I’m crying out to the Church right now, truly, because I know what’s taking place is weakening the Church horribly.

Fasting? When is the last time you fasted? Because that will tell you reams right now as to where you are spiritually in your thinking. Because it’s a powerful tool to humble yourself before God and just cry out to God and say, “Father, I do this because I know without You, I can’t last long. Without the food that I need on a daily basis spiritually I don’t have the strength. I won’t make the right decisions. I won’t do the right things. I won’t have the power to fight and resist. I need Your help every day in my life.” And you’ve got to fight for that!

So again, the power of God to deliver.

So again here, the last verse here, But look at the new that I will do. Are our eyes focused on the new that God is doing and what’s coming to pass, where we are in time of all times? These things even coming to pass? These are the times we live in now, the time of salvation in a greater way in the world than ever has been, one that’s growing and coming to a peak, to a great momentum in order for God’s Kingdom to become established? And we’re blessed to be of that part of that time?

But look at the new that I will do. Is that our focus? Are our eyes fixed on that? Do we recognize some of the things taking place in the news? Probably read some things next week just to keep you a little bit up to date of some of the kinds of headlines that are out there because it’s mind-boggling how the world thinks. It reveals how the world is thinking right now. It’s so far along it’s mind-boggling, it really is.

But look at the new that I will do. It is now springing up. It’s springing up now more than ever. We see that, powerfully so. Will you not know it?

If you let down in your prayer life and your fasting in your life, you’re not going to know it. You will be conquered. This is a time to conquer. This is a time to fight. This is a time to wrestle as you have never wrestled before.

I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers (waters) in the desert. All power is God’s. That’s what He’s done for us. He’s made the way for us. We just have to follow and fight for it.

We’ll stop there and pick it up next week.