Being Molded By God, Pt. 1

Ronald Weinland

September 11, 2021

In the last couple of years I have been becoming more and more in awe of how God molds us, how He fashions us in our lives. It’s an incredible process really, and the more we come to grasp and comprehend what God is doing and why God is doing it the more we’re able to begin to see this process actually work in our own lives and the lives of others as well and be more encouraged by that, to be more in awe, again, of God and His great power to do what He’s doing. So again, it’s a process whereby God is transforming our very minds and the way we think, and that in itself is a miraculous process, it truly is.

So, this sermon is Part 1 of a new series entitled Being Molded By God.

As I began to organize this sermon, knowing that this was the subject matter that I was to address, I went back and did a word search, as oftentimes I’m prone to do depending upon the subject matter of a new sermon, to see what has been said in times past or how something might have been addressed in times past. In this particular case I did a word search on the word “mold” in order to see how I, again, may have addressed this subject in times past.

What I came to find was to me very inspiring and very exciting and incredible in so many ways because one can’t just plan these things, but there is a God who does, and that’s what I find so inspiring and encouraging as well.

So again, I was amazed the first thing to pop up, and actually the only thing concerning any past sermon that was given where this came up in the word search, and it was in a sermon entitled Tithes and Offerings that was given back in the summer of 2010. Well, we just went through a sermon series on God’s law on tithing, and I was amazed to find out it had been eleven years since the subject matter had even been addressed. So, understandably so, to see why that length of time and different things were being done, different ideas that existed out there, and so, it was time to address it once again, and we did.

Since we did cover that particular series eleven years ago, and then a new one here concerning God’s law of tithing and addressing it in a different format in part, but still addressing certain things that were discussed before. Because there are certain places where God makes it very clear concerning when tithing began to be addressed, obviously, with Abram and then on through, and we went through some of those examples again. Again, addressing some of the same kinds of subject matter but in a little bit different way this past time.

But there was a very powerful similarity (which to me was very inspiring), and I thought about that process because some of the things that we had addressed back in 2010, again, was still about some of the same process here about building relationships and how that was tied into this matter of being molded by God in this particular series that we’re going to go through. It’s there. That was addressed back in 2010 but wasn’t addressed in this past series at all, of the tie in between being molded by God in this matter of building a relationship.

So, I want to quote a few of the things that were stated back there in 2010 and show how this was referenced at that particular time. I’m just going to read these quotes. So, here is the quote from 2010. It was stated in a sermon, “When we began this series we addressed it differently and didn’t jump into the subject by simply covering the basics of God’s law regarding tithes and offerings. Instead, we have been blessed to focus more fully on the how, the why, and the way God has used this subject matter to help mold and fashion us and build a relationship with us.”

We focused more last time on this matter of a relationship, but back then, eleven years ago, we spoke as well about this process of where God uses this in a very powerful way to mold us as well, which is about a relationship because God desires to have a relationship with us and we choose that and want that in our lives, and fight for it in our lives, because it is a fight. It is a battle. It’s a battle against our own human nature because we made a choice that we want God, that we desire God in our life, that we desire His way, and so we come to that point where we make a commitment. So much of that is a matter of when we begin to tithe and begin to give offerings to God.

That is a powerful commitment that says much about our thinking. God honors that in a very powerful way because if that commitment isn’t there then we go back and forth. Hopefully, in time individuals will be brought to that time of making a commitment, which I have seen take place. And so, we can just prolong that sometimes in our life and go through a lot of turmoil, a lot of heartache. But if we can do that, the quicker we can do that (I should say), obviously the better it is because it’s about a relationship with God Almighty.

So again here, what an incredible statement in that particular time in 2010. It says, again, “Instead, we have been blessed to focus more fully on the how, the why, and the way God has used this subject matter to help mold and fashion us and build a relationship with us.” It really all goes together. But again, I was very moved when I went back and saw this and thought how incredible that we just went through a series like that and now we’re addressing the very matter about being molded by God!

Again, sometimes it’s so incredible to see the process whereby God teaches us, molds and fashions us, because one of the primary ways is by what He gives to us Sabbath by Sabbath, Holy Day to Holy Day, and the instruction, the guidance, the direction, the knowledge that He gives to us. It’s so incredible.

Then a few paragraphs later in this same sermon back in 2010, it says, “The first account we focused on was where tithing was first mentioned in the account of Abram, later Abraham, when he gave a tenth of all the spoils to Melchizedek. This is how God chose to begin working more fully with Abram in order to begin molding him.”

So again here, a calling, God calls us, He has a purpose for our lives. He molds and fashions certain things in people’s lives just like with Abraham (Abram at that time), to bring him to a point like this so that He could begin to more fully engage in a relationship then with him. So much of what He had done already, as far as Abram was concerned, he was responsive to God, he desired God, but now something is done in earnest on both sides – with God and with Abram – to continue in this process and to become stronger in this process because of binding and solidifying a relationship in a more powerful way so that the mind can begin to be transformed more fully, more completely. It’s an awesome thing that God does in our lives in this. What an awesome way, what an incredible thing to come to understand even more fully that so much of it does center around this process of tithes and offerings. It’s quite incredible, it truly is.

I think of some of the things – I’d thought I’d interject this about what I’d said toward the end of or within the last sermon series there, because by the time individuals hear this particular sermon there will be a sermon in between about preparing for the Feast or being prepared for the Feast. I made a comment about giving offerings to God three seasons of the year, but that we need to specify the seven times. We don’t record it that way, personally, as far as recording is concerned, but it’s there in the system and it’s very obvious when those things are done in a particular period of time, in the first season, the second season, and finally in the fall Holy Day season.

But as far as a relationship with God, it’s good for us, it’s healthy for us spiritually, and in our relationship with God to communicate that. It isn’t enough just to say, in essence, “This is what I’m doing,” it’s a matter of setting it apart. You know, that really has so much to do with something that is holy. It’s set apart. The word itself, “holy,” “set apart,” in essence, “for holy use and purpose.” It entails more when you think of the word and how it’s used in scripture. So, God makes it clear to us that He has set apart the tithing system to be holy. The tithe is holy. The system is holy. God’s law is holy.

But here in so many ways is where a relationship begins or becomes more solidified because it reflects a commitment, a commitment by God as He calls us, as He draws us and brings us to this point in our life, and then our response, and if our response is there we will make that commitment to God in response to God, thanking God that we have such a blessing to be called out of this world, thanking God that we can change and conquer and overcome and become something different from what we are.

So, this is what so much of this is about, that we need to grasp in our minds, to understand what we have set apart before God. So, in those seven Holy Days we specify. Not that we have to have that, but that you have done it because it’s your communication to God, “This is what I’m doing. I have thought about this. I’m not just putting money in three times a year (or once a year) without thinking about it, of all the seven Holy Days.” It is about the seven Holy Days. It is about the plan of God and our desire to participate in that, to be a part of that. We’re communicating to God just by a note or something written on a check, and so, it needs to be communicated. It helps us too. It’s a blessing to the Church to be able to realize that people are dedicated, that people have set things apart and that it’s specific to them.

Again, as I mentioned in that sermon, whether it’s once a year or three seasons of the year, but it’s specified for each Holy Day. Now, if people haven’t done that this time around and they already sent things in, don’t panic. You’re still sending it in at a particular time of the year, and if you haven’t done each one exactly that way; but from now on it’s a good and a right practice to have in your own life, in your thinking toward God.

Then a little farther in that sermon, a little farther down in that same sermon where I’ve given these two quotes here, in the sense of two different paragraphs, here is another one: “These two stories of how God began to work with Abram, and then the last story of Jacob (Israel), are powerful as both are tied to their response of a faithful and loyal response to their God by stating their commitment to give back to God that which is God’s. It reflects the kind of spirit with which God can work to mold and fashion those who are committed to His purpose and His calling.”

It really is a mouthful. It says so much. Then going on: “Faithful tithing and giving of offerings to God reflects the kind of spirit one has and how one truly sees God.” A relationship. Do we see that? Are we seeking to build that? Is that what we want? Is that what we desire? Because it’s what God desires, or He wouldn’t have called us. He calls us to a relationship, to begin changing, and in time to have that for all time in Elohim. Incredible, truly is.

Let’s begin looking more closely at this process and what God has to say about what He is molding, in essence, what He is creating. Because it’s all about an ongoing creation that’s been going on for the past 6,000 years. Not of physical things in the universe. Not of physical things on the earth. But of that which is greater, a spiritual creation that He purposed all along. The earth is here to facilitate that spiritual creation. It’s all about God’s desire for Elohim.

So, let’s turn over to Isaiah 45. Now, in the story of Isaiah 45 it begins to talk about Cyrus. It mentions the word “Cyrus,” and it has a dual type of fulfillment in the sense of what happened with a ruler by that name and how God specifies certain things that took place there, giving his name. He was able to read this, to have it read to him and to know that this was stated long, long decades before when it was recorded. Then to have it spoken to him, it’s quite an interesting piece of history of what took place.

So anyway, let’s break into verse 5 here now as it gets more specific what it’s talking about. Isaiah 45:5—I am the Eternal. Continually throughout scripture God identifying who He is, the Everlasting Eternal God. No beginning and no end, just always existing. Something our physical carnal minds cannot comprehend. We cannot fully comprehend that with God’s holy spirit in us. That hasn’t been given to us. We can’t see it. We can’t comprehend such a thing. But we believe it.

There is no one else. No one as the Eternal Everlasting Self-existing God. All that is contained in the meaning of the word concerning Yahweh.

There is no God besides Me. So, when this is recorded, there is no one else. “There is no God besides Me.” I think of the trinity. I think of our misunderstanding of things about Christ in the beginning, not understanding he hadn’t eternally existed. Then God brought us to that point of understanding he has not eternally existed; he had a beginning. Anything else would take away from the fact that he lived in a physical life, began his life physically, lived on this earth, suffered because of the human flesh. Because it isn’t an easy thing being in a physical body compared to that which is coming, to that which God offers us.

Then to recognize that process, that he lived righteously, he lived a righteous life never having sinned, because that mind that was in him, the mind of God, the Word made flesh was so strong, so powerful. We only have access to it, but it was in him from the beginning. So, we have access to it through God’s holy spirit and that’s why we have the kinds of problems and difficulties in life that we have, but it was in him from the very beginning, that mind. Incredible.

He says here, “There is no God besides Me.” The fact that we know this. Who knows this? The scattered Church? The Church that was scattered after the Apostasy, do they accept such a thing or are they still lacking in comprehension? God has given us so much and continues to mold and fashion us, which is about growing, transforming the thinking in the mind, which includes giving us more knowledge and understanding as we grow. Then so much about our response determines that ability to continue to be transformed into whatever God is molding and fashioning in us that is unique to each of us.

What an incredible thing that before the 6,000 years is over there will be those who have come to know and see certain things in their physical life that have never been given in the previous 6,000 years, never understood in the previous 6,000 years as it is now. And so, I marvel, and I think how incredibly blessed we are and how few we are. Because the Church continues to be cleansed. It continues to be worked with, and that which is not committed, that which is not seeking as it should be, fighting the battles as it should be, because of a lack of commitment, because of that will not be there, will not be a part, whether it be in the 144,000 or whether it be of those who live on into the Millennium as the Church.

So, what we’ve been offered, what has been placed before us, what words can you use to describe how great, how grand, how glorious, how mighty this is. If it escapes us, how special this is that we have such an opportunity to have these things molded and fashioned in us. Because we’re all different. We all have a different purpose. We all have a different place in the structure of God’s Family. God designs, plans His Family, and He works to fulfill that. Just as with the 144,000, it’s a specific number because there are specific places of function and of work that are to be accomplished in the next thousand years especially, and then continuing on in the Family of God. We should be in awe of that.

We’re not all being molded and fashioned to be put in the same place. That’s one of the things, as I said, in the last few years I’ve been becoming more and more in awe of how God is working in individuals. To think of what He’s preparing in us is awesome because it’s different; we have a different place to fit within the structure of the temple, of the Family of God, of the government of God, the Kingdom of God. Incredible.

I gird, or as it means, “to surround; to secure.” I gird you, surround, secure you, protect you. Because when we come to a point in time where He’s working with us, which is what this is about, it’s about His creation, it’s about what He’s going to do in our lives, He gives us special blessings and favor and help that we don’t even really comprehend fully.

We learn about it as we continue on but there is so much in this, help, that the spirit world can only have so much ability to harass, if you will, or to broadcast to us. But God allows it in a very delicate fashion. And what is it about? Molding and fashioning us, the mind, the thinking. He allows certain things at different times because it’s through the experience that we’re brought to see and grasp things in a deeper way, in a different plane totally, and we grasp and comprehend those things that are a part of changing this.

I gird you, although you have not known Me. So, on a physical plane God blessed physical Israel, but this is about that which is beyond that because that was only for a period of time. It was very much just on a physical plane of a relationship. It wasn’t really, in many regards, much of a relationship except for those whom God called out of that to be worked with to become a part of the 144,000. That’s a relationship because it’s on a spiritual plane, not on a physical one.

God took care of them, blessed them, let them go through a lot of things at times in order to come to repentance again so He could lead and guide and direct them. Then finally it came to a point where Israel couldn’t even be worked with as far as the ten tribes, and they had to be taken captive, and even lost their identity, as a whole. That’s what happened.

Judah was taken into captivity, brought back because they held on to the Sabbath and the Holy Days, and so God had mercy upon them and worked with them again and had purpose for that.

He says, I gird you, although you have not known Me. So, even before we’re called in this age that we’ve all been called in there are things that God has done. It doesn’t just happen in thinking, “Well, this position, this place needs to be fulfilled.” Or “Need to call some more, have some more numbers here, so who are we going to call?” Or “Who am I going to call?” It doesn’t work like that.

God predetermines certain things. We don’t know the entire process there but we’re learning and know now in a greater way than ever before that He begins to work with us when we’re very young, in so many respects, at some phase of our life; sometimes from the very beginning of life He has a purpose. There are things He blesses us to be born with. Because there are a lot of little things swimming around there and God can give favor to one that succeeds.

He works with us, He allows us to have different experiences before we’re ever called, but all as a part of a design, all as a part of a purpose. Sometimes that doesn’t mean there aren’t many others. Herbert Armstrong used to talk about how there could have been a hundred others easily that God had been working with through a period of time on a physical plane to bring to a certain point but then chose him to continue with. That’s very possible, very likely exactly what God does, works with different ones, and then to a certain point makes a determination, “This one.” We don’t know fully unless there’s an even greater purpose for an individual like David and different ones who were worked with at different times, Moses, and so forth.

So, let’s continue here. So again here …although you have not known Me. Yet they will come to know from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides Me. So again, there is this thing about a time that people are going to have the opportunity to come to know God and that there is only one God, in the sense of Yahweh, the Everlasting Eternal Self-existing God.

I am the Eternal, and there is no one else. What an amazing thing that we just could not see that going through Philadelphia and Laodicea until God blessed us to see it, until God gave it to us in the mind, because that’s how it works. When it has to do with the truth and God’s plan and purpose there may be certain parts of something that someone may come across and see something in writing and think, well…but everything else is muddied in their life because they’re not being worked with by God, something in scripture they’ve wondered about.

But when it comes to God’s Church, when it comes to God’s people and the ones with whom He works, this is unique, this is powerful because God has to give it. It’s kind of like something I’ve been addressing in the book here about an individual who before the Apostasy ever began had been put out of the Church, a minister, started his own, and then declared that Joe Tkach was the man of sin, and then kind of went back on that because he died, and it didn’t fit into his scenario. But that was a presumptuous act. It wasn’t done, something within the Church that God revealed and gave. There’s much to learn from that, there truly is, to understand the order of things, to understand how God’s government works, to understand how He reveals truth to us and how it must be given.

Going on: I form, the word “fashion,” form the light and create, “to shape, to create” darkness. God established everything from the beginning, that which is is on a physical plane, but also through time those things that so much of that reflects on a spiritual as well.

I make, the word meaning “to do; to carry out; to perform” make peace… Peace. That word “shalom,” and create, in other words “shape,” create evil. Now, we were given greater understanding of this in a Feast season. Again, what an incredible thing to come to understand. People have not understood. “Well, what do you mean God creates evil? Is He responsible for evil?” In part. But He doesn’t do it. He doesn’t make anyone do it. It’s by choice. He made us the way we are.

He made angelic beings the way they are for a purpose, minds that could choose, and in time there was a mind that began to change. It began to turn inward, concerned about self and what self thought it deserved, something greater and more than what God was offering, became jealous of what God was creating. Didn’t want it done that way. Rebelled and took a third of the angelic realm with him; deceived them into believing the same thing. What an incredible thing that something like that could happen, but it happened. Evil started. Evil began.

Then mankind, the same thing. We are created in a fashion to be able to have and experience things of that mind. Selfishness, “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,” it’s that mind. It’s that thinking. Selfishness. Without God’s spirit. Incredible.

I make peace and create (shape) evil. I, the Eternal, do all these things. So, we know the process of how this was accomplished.

So again, we belong to God and His good pleasure. Whatever God determines. Whenever God determines something in our lives, whatever we go through. The world is in God’s hands. All of mankind is in God’s hands and God can do with His creation as He wills and as He purposes, and He does. We are able to learn from that, we’re able to watch those things take place all for a purpose.

And what is that? What is the main purpose? To mold, to fashion, to transform the minds of those who will receive Him. That’s a horrible thing to think that so many are going to be of a mindset that they’ll never receive Him, never really want Him. It’s hard to grasp and comprehend because that’s an unsound, insane kind of mind. But that’s the thing about an unsound and insane mind, you can’t understand it.

So again, how blessed are we to know His purpose, and that it’s to save us and bring us into His Family, Elohim.

So, continuing on here in Isaiah. Verse 8—Rain down, from you heavens above, and let the skies pour down righteousness. So, it’s more than something physical here about rain and so forth. We learn from this process here, of that which God desires to fill the earth, to nurture life, to nurture mankind and where mankind is heading.

Let the earth open up, let them bring forth salvation. That’s what God desires. Let the earth open up and receive this like that which is in rain and then plants begin to spring up and life is there and flourishes and the cycle and the things that take place in life. How much more when it’s something on a spiritual plane?

“Let the earth open up, let them bring forth salvation.” So, God’s way, God’s mind, what is true and right, when it begins to come into human life and we have choices to make, and then this process then of salvation begins to come forward as we make choices.

And let righteousness spring up all together. So, that is God’s desire, that righteousness in our lives, of a right way of living, that’s about agreement with God. I, the Eternal, have created this. God has created the means whereby selfish human beings can come to a point of being changed in their thinking and come to a point that in time they can have that same mind, the same thinking, to be in oneness and unity with God for all time.

Woe to anyone who strives, contends, as it is, quarrels with their Maker! Now, so often I’ve seen within God’s Church people wouldn’t think they would ever quarrel with God or strive with God. But that’s our basic human nature. Paul talks about that, this carnality that’s within us and this battle we fight. There is so much to be learned with that about self being able to be molded and fashioned by God, which we’re going to look at, part of it, in Part 2 of this series.

Again here, God says beware, woe. So, when does this come on the scene? Well, primarily, for those whom God calls and begins to work with and desires to mold and fashion, and if individuals begin to fight and resist that, to turn against that, become antichrist. Because the vast majority of everyone who’s been called over 2,000 years have fought against God, have turned antichrist, against Christ, which is against God. Against Christ living and dwelling within them, not living in a way that would allow that life to continue on, not repenting as they should of sin, and therefore, being cut off. It’s a part of the process of either being molded by God, of making a choice to be part of that, or to reject it.

So, it says “woe.” Why? Because evil is going to come. Woe, I think of the Three Woes toward the end here, and it’s talking about massive destruction of human life. Toward the end it’s the destruction of human life for all time, for so many who will never be resurrected again.

This is a part of that process, to comprehend how we can be as human beings, to recognize the path, the way that God has given us that’s so awesome. To be able to repent when sin is clear, not to imagine sin or try to figure out what sin might be that we don’t see or don’t know. You know, God doesn’t hold that against us. If we don’t know and see certain things, if we come to a point where we know something or have been told something and we’re not addressing it, that’s another matter. But if we’re addressing certain things and asking for help in certain areas God continues to work with us.

Sometimes, certain individuals, their mindset can be to just beat self up. That’s not believing and trusting and relying on God when you, if you, start doing that. Because the reality is when you come to a point and you’ve repented of a sin you know you have and you ask God for help, it’s gone, you’re free. We should feel that; we should know that “I am free. I don’t have to carry this around.” That’s a matter of believing God.

Woe to anyone who strives with their Maker. Yet to one degree or another we understand our human nature does do that in part, in large part. We have to comprehend our nature is to resist God. Our human nature is “lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” There’s our battle. What a beautiful thing to be able to see and know your battle.

The world doesn’t see that battle, and they’re conquered then. They don’t see the enemy, and they’re conquered by it. They don’t have a chance. We have the ability, the chance then to come out of that, to be free of all of that.

Then it goes on to say, A potsherd, which is a fragment of pottery; it’s a piece of pottery that’s been broken. There’s potsherds on the ground, just pieces of pottery. It’s been broken. A potsherd, that’s what it says, with potsherds on the ground! A piece of pottery hits the ground, it breaks, it spreads out, and it’s of no value anymore. It’s just pieces of pottery.

Shall the clay say to him who forms it… So, if we have a mindset to refuse God, to quarrel with God, to strive with God, if we refuse to repent when things come our way… I marvel sometimes of how, well, look at the series about tithing and offering, and yet just trying to think here, probably the majority of people who have been disfellowshipped over the past couple of years especially, are individuals who have lied to God. They’ve lied to the Church. They’ve lied to the ministry. They deceive themselves into thinking that they can continue on. At least that’s what they try to do. Because they get cut off from God’s spirit the moment they begin to steal and rob from God and they don’t set aside the tithe that is holy to be holy themselves.

It’s just like the mind of attitude that we should have toward God, that we have to sanctify God in our lives. God sanctifies us, sets us apart for holy use and purpose when He calls us, and then we have to do the same thing in response toward God, to set apart everything in our life, in our thinking, to set it apart in a relationship with God for holy use and purpose. That’s our life. Everything we live should be based upon God, God’s plan, yielding ourselves to that purpose of change, of conquering, overcoming so we can have that creation take place within us that He wants, that He desires.

Shall the clay say to him that forms it, What are you making? You know, questioning God. Now, usually people don’t think that they’re questioning God. They may question the Church, they may question a teaching of the Church, they may question me, which is generally the easier thing for human beings to do, to look to the individual, to look for fault. We all have plenty of fault. I do. The way we do various things in life, we’re not perfect. People can try to find something that they think is wrong and generally it’s something that isn’t wrong. But that’s the mind. It tries to find something because it has to justify itself.

Just like that expression that sometimes I just hate when I’ve heard it in times past, “Well, the Church isn’t as friendly. Where is the love in the Church?” It’s like, well, where is the love in you? What have you done towards others to be loving and caring? What kind of actions have you shown to others that reflect your love of brethren in the Church? What is it on a physical plane that you’ve done?

Because usually they haven’t, and that’s the problem, not trying to build a relationship as they should with others within the Body and judging others in the Body instead and being a bit of a busybody or holding on to something we want to hold on to and continuing this kind of thinking that is a matter of disagreement with things being taught in the Church. Holding on to something, a little pet idea we have, something to do with Covid or masks or whatever it might be. It can be as simple as that if it’s not in unity with the Church.

It says here, to question God, “What are you making?” Questioning God. Basically, questioning the Church, questioning the ministry.

Or shall your handiwork say, He has no hands? You don’t have any ability, in other words, to do. Looking down on someone.

Woe to him who says to a father, What are you begetting? Or to a woman, To what are you going to give birth? Can’t do that. I mean, but this is people’s attitude. If you wouldn’t think of doing that on a physical plane, why would we do it on a spiritual plane in a relationship with God, in a relationship with God’s Church?

Verse 11—Thus says the Eternal, The Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, our Maker, the one who makes us. The one when He calls us begins to mold and fashion us. He gives us physical life, but when He offers us spiritual life then even more so a unique and an incredible creation on a miraculous plane begins that takes a long time to create. It doesn’t happen overnight. Physical things can be created quite quickly, but not the change in the mind.

Will you ask Me of things to come concerning My sons, and command Me concerning the work of My hands? So again, as a whole people don’t think that way. They are not able to toward God. They would think that “Oh, I would never do that toward God.” But they do it toward the Church or toward the ministry and become very free at it sometimes, things that should be feared because that’s toward God or toward others in the Church, toward God’s children. And so, if we do something like that toward God’s children we’re doing it toward God. That’s where we’re tried and tested to see what our relationship is really like with God.

Tithing, it’s about a relationship with God. It’s a physical thing. But if we’re not doing it?

So again here, Will you ask Me of things concerning My sons? In other words, are you going to question things about others, of why are they in the Church or why is God working with them or why do they have this particular opportunity at this time? Or why is this one given favor and I’m not, or whatever it is that sometimes goes through people’s minds. Because we don’t see things, the miracle, the awesomeness that God is working with each one of us individually if we respond to Him properly.

Or command me, as it says here, And command Me concerning the work of My hands? What God is doing in each person’s life. That’s why we have to be so careful with judging within the Body, within the Church. It’s God’s! God’s people, God’s children.

I have made the earth and created man on it. My hands stretched out the heavens, and the host I have commanded. I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways. What does it mean “raised up in righteousness?” Well, God does everything He does in righteousness without question, but if He raises us up in righteousness, what does that mean? Truth. He’s given us truth. He’s given us the ability to make a choice to either believe God or not. If we believe God and live accordingly, that’s what faith is all about. That’s faith.

If we believe God, what does that mean? It’s accounted to us for righteousness. Like it says about Abraham when it started with this, Him working with his life, in his life. It’s a matter of a relationship. It’s a matter of believing God. Isaac, Jacob, on and on it goes. They believed God. They believed what God said about the promises that were before them, not fully grasping and comprehending all that that meant about a seed that would be there as well and certain things that began to be understood as time continued on about a Messiah, a Christ, if you will. They believed God and it was attributed to them for righteousness. Awesome!

He shall build My city. So, who? Well, we understand first and foremost that’s about Christ. Christ is the one who’s working to build right now within the Church, within the Body, and will continue in the next thousand, one hundred years, and continue to work until the work is complete, that God’s Family has been completed. So, very much so here this process of a city, Mount Zion, if you will, holy Jerusalem being built, being constructed. Again here, what an incredible process.

“He shall build My city.” So, we’re all a part of that building whenever we’re called. We’re a part of helping to build, we’re helping to support one another, just like in a building, different things that are helping to support each other to continue to be able to be fit into place because we need each other in this process.

I have raised him up in righteousness. I will direct all his ways. He shall build My city and let My exiles, this word meaning “to be barred from their own country,” whatever is preventing them. So, what is ours? Mount Zion. Holy Jerusalem. That which God is creating, the City of God. God has removed the barriers from being able to enter into that. The way is open for us when He calls us. But it takes a long time to be made, to be molded and fashioned to be able to receive that, to become a greater part of that.

…and let My exiles go free, “as to send away,” again, or “to send forth,” Not for price nor reward, says the Eternal of hosts. It’s done because it’s right, it’s a part of God’s creation.

Then let’s go over to Isaiah 64. Let’s pick that up. So, it’s all about God’s molding and fashioning and creating and a city He is building and constructing. All of this part of it that God is in control of and brings us into a relationship with Him in order to be molded and fashioned.

Isaiah 64:1—Oh, that You would tear open the heavens! That You, speaking of God Almighty, would come down so that the mountains might shake before Your presence—as when fire burns brushwood and when fire causes the waters to boil—To make Your name known to Your adversaries. Now, this is quite a thing that’s being said here because it’s referring back to a time when a mountain shook. We read that recently, where Moses said he feared because of what was taking place before them physically, and the cloud, the burning and the things they saw, the heat, the boiling of water, as it were, steam coming up and things that were burning there to a certain point, and showing the greatness, the power of Almighty God to do something, to cause such fear to come into people because of what they were seeing.

It’s saying here, Oh, God Almighty, that You would do this so that your adversaries and the nations might tremble in Your presence! But that’s not what God does. Now, in part that will happen toward the end here, that they will come to fear, and they will come to tremble, and they will be shaken to the core of their being. But through time, no, man’s way is to just ignore God and follow the way of selfishness in ourselves, to turn away from God, and even with the Church so often individuals come to that point of making such choices to turn away from God.

A person can be coerced to do something for the wrong reasons, but to come to a point where a person makes a willing choice. So, a person could have the “you-know-what” scared out of them and all of a sudden say, “Yeah, if you’ll get me out of this foxhole I’ll do this for the rest of my life.” Then once they’re out of the foxhole, what happens? So, a person can be coerced to think in a different way for a short time, but for the wrong reasons.

We have to make choices that this is something we want with all of our being by free choice without coercion. So, in other words, this isn’t God’s way to cause something of such magnitude to scare the tar out of people to such a point. I mean, they saw miraculous things. They saw the sea open, and all the Egyptian army destroyed. What did that do? So, basically here this is what it’s revealing.

You did fearful things we did not expect when You came down and the mountains shook in Your presence. Even from ages past people have not heard nor perceived when hearing, neither having eyes that have seen any God except You who prepares (works) for him who waits. So, what’s it saying here? Basically, that no one is able to recognize, to know, to see things that are truly God, of God until God begins to work with them, until God begins to mold and fashion them, to work in them.

…except You prepare (work) for him who waits upon You. Who waits upon God? Who looks to God? Who wants God in their life? Those whom God calls. They want His way. They’re patient until it’s accomplished, until it’s fulfilled. They believe God.

You meet those who rejoice and work righteousness. To rejoice, to be thankful. I mean, God’s way is exciting. We’re given so much. We recognize, especially in the world today, we don’t want that. We don’t want to be in that. We don’t want to be caught up in that. We don’t want to go back into that kind of captivity where people don’t have the only kind of direction and way that is out of it. God gives us that opportunity to get out of it, to stay out of it, though we are in it. We are in the midst of it, but we have chosen not to be a part of it. We’re so thankful for that. Awesome!

You have been angry when we have sinned, yet over a long time (duration) we shall be saved. So again, this is a matter of judgment. We have to go through things like this and we have to be judged. It doesn’t mean like on a physical plane that God’s just angry with us, mad at us and wrathful toward us. He’s very patient and very loving, but when it’s time for judgment to be meted out He will allow it in our lives if we continue to refuse Him. If there are certain things we want, sometimes He says, “Okay, you can have it,” and we’re gone, an individual is just gone. They’re cut off from God, they leave. That’s a matter of judgment.

Is God pleased with that? Absolutely not. It makes it very clear in scripture only those who live God’s way of life, who seek Him, who desire His spirit in their life and have their spirit in their life, to dwell in them, when that spirit is dwelling in them that’s pleasing to God. Why? Because it’s fulfilling the process of being molded and fashioned that He can work with us.

Because if we resist, He can’t work with us. How can anyone be worked with if they don’t tithe, if they don’t give an offering? How can anyone be worked with if they’re secretly doing other things, of various kinds of sins, whatever it might be, and not repenting of them as they should be, not fighting them as they should be? And what can be done? God can’t work with them though He may try to correct at different times, which He does, different ones so that they’re not caught up with the world again. But there comes a point in time where judgment has to be meted out and no more, no more time.

Yet over a long duration, or a long time, as it says here, it means “a duration of time,” we shall be saved. It doesn’t happen overnight. That’s a great truth that God has given us in the Church and a great understanding that God has given to us. I’ve referred to this many a time, the young man who just barely been baptized down in Houston, Texas, two weeks later was killed in an automobile accident. Not going to be a part of the 144,000. He didn’t have time to grow and mature and conquer and overcome because he had quite a few things he needed to start working on. He had that opportunity but, anyway, it was cut short. So, he’ll have that opportunity again later on to continue on from that point.

But we learn, God helped teach me so I could teach others, that something was wrong with the scenario of those who believed at that time he’s going to be in the first resurrection. He wasn’t even close to being ready. How could that happen? Because we have to go through a lot to change, to have experiences in our life and choices that we’ve made that reflect and reveal our commitment to God’s way of life, that we want it, we’re willing to fight for it, and to not give up in fighting. That which must be reflected in our lives that we persevere. If we’re not persevering, fighting battles, seeking to conquer and overcome self, how long can God work with us?

Laodicea, how long can God work with that? He can’t. He had to spew it out of His mouth. We can’t be kind of lukewarm, neither hot nor cold. It doesn’t work that way. God can’t work with an individual like that. We have to desire God’s way. We have to be zealous toward God’s way of life. We want it. We cry out to God for help in that. We want to build a relationship through prayer and so forth with God. We want to keep God’s way in our mind. We want to be able to fear the pulls that are out there that would lead us away from what is true and succumbing to them or giving into them, things that are known, we understand, are sin.

Verse 6—But we are as unclean. All of us. All our righteousness is as filthy rags, and we all fade as a leaf. And our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. So, we know that about ourselves as human beings. We recognize, especially within the Church, we’re able to see these things as we’re called, but then are we engaged in the battle? Because we have to acknowledge our sins. That’s the beginning of a process, of a repentance. That’s what repentance is about. But you don’t have to repent of something you don’t see or that you don’t recognize that is wrong in your life. There may be periods of time that you don’t come to see certain things and so, yet we still have a nature that resists God. Sometimes we don’t recognize all the thoughts that come into our mind, but in God’s time He’ll bring us to the level, to the point of being able to see even some of those things so that even more deeply within the mind things can be searched out.

But again, sin is obvious, and sometimes we don’t see it. In time, in God’s time, He’ll bring us to see other things in our thinking that are wrong and then we can address them. But if we don’t see them, if we really don’t recognize them? But things that are blatant and obvious, that’s another matter.

There is no one who calls on Your name, who stirs up themselves to take hold of You. For You have hid Your face from us. So, this is referring to then that mindset of individuals as far as the world is concerned; and the world is not looking for God. God is not drawing them. But He is us, and we grasp that. Or when an individual is in sin then so often what happens, an individual just ceases to be stirred up. They’re not stirred up and desiring to hold onto God’s way of life and asking God for help to continually do that. In other words, praying daily for His holy spirit to be within us. We need it. We want it. There is no other way to conquer and overcome. If we don’t do those things what’s going to happen?

…and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquities. So, those things have happened in times where if we aren’t repenting, if we’re not seeking God what happens? God lets us experience the pain of sin. Hopefully and prayerfully, depending on the situation we’re able to come to see it and repent. Hopefully, not over a long period of time but a short period of time because the sooner the better we repent so we’re not cut off.

But now, Eternal, You are our Father. We can say that. You are our Father. We are the clay. Now, when we know this and we can say this, then we’re going to be repenting, we’re going to recognize more clearly what we are. We’re the clay. He is God. This is His Church. I am His minister, and we listen, and we seek to grow in the things that are given.

If things are given and we don’t change and respond to them, sometimes simple physical instruction because it reflects something spiritual, get a shot before the Feast, to be able to attend the Feast. Pretty simple. Pretty clear. But we can look at that and break it all down to physical and say, “That’s just him. That’s what he feels about it. But I have done some other research and I see some other things and so, I’m going to do it a little bit differently.” It’s to your own harm.

Sometimes we just have to learn the hard way. But at some point hopefully then, we will be shaken and come to a point of repentance and come into agreement with God, His Church, and His ministry. Because that’s how we’re judged, truly is. “We are the clay.” We don’t make the decisions. We don’t decide certain things as far as things that are instituted within the Church to bring about harmony and unity and oneness and that we’re all working in the same way. But we’re most assuredly judged by those things when we’re going against the tide of that. That’s the history of God’s Church.

…and You our potter. So, whatever God says, whatever God gives to us, whatever one who is given the responsibility from God to set certain things, to establish certain things within the Body, we’re going to do it because we see God, we see how God works in our lives. We see what God says concerning His government. But yet human beings fight and resist that.

And we are the work of Your hand. Incredible! So, either we yield to that, or we resist it, and we fight it. And if we do, there is something in the mind that we’re supposed to come to see if we will acknowledge it. But if we continue to resist and refuse, in other words, to hold on to our own way, what happens? We’ll get cut off, we won’t grow, we can’t grow anymore. God can’t work with us. That’s in God’s hands. That’s His judgment. It’s His Church. He will work with each individual according to His will. In the midst of all that is His ministry, is His Church, and He supports that. It’s a part of the government.

Jeremiah 18:1—The word which came to Jeremiah from the Eternal, saying… Now, it’s an amazing thing to come to understand how those who serve God, those whom God has given certain responsibilities, whether it be the prophets of times past or apostles through time and different ones whom God has given to work directly with the Church, how He works. Now, I’ve gone through much training. If we come to grasp that, if we come to know that… Because I’ve been blessed to know it. I experience it. I see it. I have learned much from that.

The word which came to Jeremiah from the Eternal, saying, Rise up and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear My words. Now, sometimes God has directly spoken to someone through sound. But one of the primary ways that God has worked with individuals is right here, through time and through experience to come to know what He’s doing, what He shows us.

It’s just like sermons. I know where they come from. I’ve gone through this so often, different kinds of counseling with different ones and how certain things come to the surface. When I know certain things, it’s something you know. It’s like when you came to know the Sabbath and the Holy Days. It’s there. You know it.

Rise up and go down to the potter’s house. And there I will cause you to hear My words. So, I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something at the wheel. So, he’s to watch this and he’s to think about what he’s seeing, and then to record the story.

So, he went down to the potter’s house and there he was, making something at the wheel. The vessel that he was making of clay came to ruin in the hand of the potter. God told him to observe, to watch, and to see what happens. Then you know what happened? He revealed something in his mind on a spiritual plane at that time that he was able to see. Incredible. Otherwise, he’s just watching a potter and it’s a physical thing. But God’s in this.

So, the vessel that he was making of clay came to ruin in the hand of the potter, so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good for the potter to make. So, here it is, it falls down or it’s a lump. As the wheel is turning it’s not being molded into what He wanted, and so it’s like, “I can’t use that,” so he starts in again, same lump, starts working with it, gets it back to it’s basic position, basic place to start the work.

Then the word of the Eternal came to me, saying (in the mind), O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter? That’s what God was giving to Jeremiah at that time. “Watch this,” something very physical, “but learn something spiritual. Here is what it is.” So, it came into his being, into his mind.

O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter? the Eternal said. Look, as the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel! So, he came to see something. We’re clay and God works with us. So much then depends upon us, of how we’re molded, of how God chooses at any time to work with us or not.

The moment I speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom, to uproot it and pull it down to destroy it, then if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will change concerning the disaster I thought to bring upon it. In the moment I speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom, to build and plant it, if it does evil in My sight so that it does not obey My voice, then I will change according to the good with which I said I would benefit it.

So, all this from this being molded. There are times that God will continue and be able to continue to work with it because it’s responding in the way as it’s being molded, in the way the one, the potter who is there, is doing it. If not, then it has to be squashed down and worked with and start all over, because that can’t work there.

That’s the way it works in our lives and that’s what He’s showing Jeremiah. Look, if this happens and I begin to work with someone and, as it says here, “If I speak concerning a nation or a kingdom, to build up and to plant it, to offer it blessings, and it does evil in My sight” at some point there along the way, “so that it does not obey My voice,” turns from God, doesn’t obey, “then I will change concerning the good which I said I would benefit it.”

That happens in our lives. It’s happened to so many. “Many are called, and few are chosen.” God began to offer something to people, but then they turned to something else away from God or became lukewarm and just wouldn’t change in that, wouldn’t repent of that, was satisfied with kind of being on the fence, kind of being sluggish and being around Church, the people in the Church but not working on themselves, not crying out for God’s holy spirit to continue in their life and repenting as they should when sin arises, when they see sin, or finally, becoming oblivious even to it.

Now, therefore, speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says the Eternal, Behold, I am fashioning a disaster and devising a plan against you. Return now everyone from their evil way and make your ways and your doings to be good. It’s what God tells us how to live our life. And if we begin to sin?

That’s why I’ve been really encouraged by another aspect that I see in God’s Church. We’ve had different ones through a period of time here now, more than normal, who have come to a point of correction, of coming to see certain things brought to their attention that they needed to change in their life, and they’ve been repenting and doing it. When people do that it’s amazing the change that takes place and the bust forward in growth as individuals seek to do that. And then sometimes others just don’t respond and go back and then it comes to a time where God will get to a point where, “No more. I can’t work with you. The good that I would give to you, I can’t. You want the evil? You can have it.” Because it’s everywhere around us in the world.

And they said, This is hopeless (useless)! You know, God offering something. What a horrible thing to have that kind of attitude. Because we don’t look at it that way as human beings and those who have ever been separated from the Church don’t think in that way, in those terms, but that’s basically what they’re saying, “What’s the use that I’m doing this and I’m doing that, and what am I receiving from this? What am I benefitting?” Talk about a wrong spirit, a wrong attitude. You’re not in this for what you can get, you’re in this for what you can conquer and overcome.

So we will walk according to our own plans, our own devices, our own thinking. There are still some in the Body that still do this. I can give a sermon and within that week something comes to the surface to reveal they’re not listening. They want to continue on with their own thinking. They won’t accept what’s being said. They’re going to hold on to something different. Again, what an amazing thing that physical things can happen to reveal an attitude and a spirit in our lives. God uses that very powerfully.

Covid. Covid has been a powerful tool to begin cleansing the Church to another level. We either respond or we don’t. We either come to see or we don’t. Choices all along the way.

So, we will walk according to our own plans, our own devices, our own thinking, what it is we want to do and regardless of what the ministry says, regardless of what God’s apostle says. …and everyone will obey the dictates of our evil heart. That’s what happens. When people don’t listen, and they insist on their own way, they’re growing in an evil heart and an evil mind because it’s against God. It becomes antichrist and that’s just evil.

Following the stubbornness of our own evil heart. What a horrible thing to have that in us. Yet it still exists in the body, and I know God is going to cleanse it in His own time, whatever that might be, bring it to me to deal with when I know that I deal with it at a particular moment in time, or He will. I’m seeing more of that in the Church. Which in some ways I’d like to go into, but I can’t.

So indeed, we know our nature. What a blessing! What a blessing! Because the world can’t see their own nature. If you try to talk to someone, to tell them what their real nature is like, whew, man oh man, but with God’s spirit we can receive that and recognize it’s true, “The carnal mind is enmity against God.” But we can change, be transformed as we yield ourselves in pliable clay to God Almighty, to do with us as He wills. Awesome!

So, we know our nature and that only God and His Son Joshua can mold and fashion us into something different, create in us a new heart to help get rid of this stubbornness of an evil heart. Because the way of selfishness is evil. It just is. It’s against God.

It’s for that reason that we cry out to God in the manner that we must. We know what we have to do. We have to engage in the battle.

Psalm 51:1. The cry here, which we go through in our lives on a spiritual plane at times and do this, it’s a part of the process. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your steadfast love. God doesn’t change. His love, that’s the way He is. Agape, ever how you want to pronounce it, that’s the way of God, a sacrificing kind of love, an incredibly giving kind of love, never changing in that. The only thing that can bar that is in ourselves, to refuse it. But God is steadfast in it. Once He calls us His purpose is to be steadfast in it until we’re changed, until He has created within us what His purpose is for calling us. Only we can change that course. That’s really sad is that that can happen toward the end of a long process of time that He’s worked with us.

What a horrible thing to have something almost completely made the way you want and then it begins to sag in different places, or it doesn’t respond, and you have to start with something different in order to build it, whatever it might be, replace it, begin again. But not with that lump, not with that piece. It won’t work. So, analogies of some things can only go so far, but we get the picture, hopefully.

According to Your steadfast love, according to the multitude of Your tender mercies. God is incredibly merciful, incredibly patient.

Blot out my transgressions. What a blessing to know that when you’ve sinned and you’ve repented of it, it’s blotted out. It’s just absolutely gone. You don’t have to carry it. You don’t have to beat yourself up anymore. You’re free. You’re just free.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. That’s our desire. We sometimes have that prayer, especially after a certain sin we’re battling. We want to conquer it. We want to overcome it. We want to be washed clean, made white. We don’t want this world. We don’t want the way of carnal selfish thinking that turns antichrist, against Christ.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin, for I acknowledge my transgressions. What a blessing to be able to acknowledge our transgressions, to know that we have the ability of the sacrifice of Joshua the Christ to be put in our stead by just simply saying, “Forgive me. I’m repenting. I don’t want this. I don’t want any kind of thinking like this to be in my mind that would lead me to wrong actions of any kind. Forgive me through my Passover, Joshua.”

“…acknowledge my sins.” So, it begins by acknowledging. What does that mean? We accept responsibility for our own choices. Some people won’t do that. Some people won’t accept responsibility for their own wrong choices. Instead, their choices of things they have researched or delved into and have come to believe something different than to what’s being given to them from here, and insist upon holding them, are not acknowledging that they have any sin. They’re righteous! They’re righteous! What a horrible deception. Well, it can’t last.

For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. We, as a whole, know our major weaknesses in life. What a blessing as you grow that you come to see God working in you to help you to have a different thinking toward sin, to where you begin to see things in a clearer way, to where you know that your mind is being purified and cleansed because you see certain things disappearing, certain “lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride of life.” You see those things disappearing. What a beautiful part of our growing, to see that process at work as God molds us.

Against You, and You only have I sinned. So, we might say something wrong to someone else, in a wrong way. We, within the Body, we may resist certain things that are given to us in sermons, and yet we can never be able to say, in that regard, that “they did wrong or that what was given to me was not the kind of information that I’m researching and finding out.” See? It doesn’t work that way. It’s a matter of coming to this point of being able to say, “Against You, and You only, have I sinned. I’m wrong. You are right.”

If it’s toward someone else in the Body, it’s toward God. Especially if it’s toward the ministry. Wow! Is that toward God or isn’t it? How can we deceive ourselves then? If we can’t see that, if we’ve gone to a point where we can no longer grasp that, can God continue to work with us? Repent and it’s over, it’s gone, and we’re able to be worked with again.

Against You, and You only, have I sinned, and done evil in Your sight. Now, the next thing it says, that You may be found just when You speak and blameless when You judge. That’s not what the verse is saying at all. Some of these translations are really poor because they don’t know how God works. They don’t know how God molds and fashions. They don’t understand the things we’ve just gone through in scripture so far in this sermon. They don’t grasp that.

What it’s saying is, is You are just, righteous, in other words, You are just in Your words. It’s an acknowledgement of that toward God. You are pure in Your judging. What an awesome thing to grasp and comprehend. God inspires that within the Church. “You are just, righteous, in Your words. You are pure in Your judging.”

Verse 5, another one that’s poorly written here. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,

and in sin my mother conceived me. Again, I’ve heard different things about this over times past in the Church and it’s a very awkward and misapplied scripture, verse, in how it’s applied as a whole.

Here is what it’s saying, Behold, I was brought forth, born into iniquity. “Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” at birth. What an incredible thing to be able to watch a baby and you see it growing. As they get older, as they grow you see human nature develop, selfishness that’s there. Selfishness first and foremost. They can’t help it. That’s the way of the mind, that’s the way of a created human being. That’s what it’s talking about here.

Behold, I was brought forth, born into iniquity, and in (into) sin my mother conceived me. So, the fact of being begotten and then born into the world. It doesn’t mean, it’s not talking about their sin. It’s talking about that which is being created, that which is on a physical plane, that which is growing in a mother’s womb and then finally born. So, it’s a matter of something that’s formed in human life, physical human life.

Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts. What an awesome thing to know what God wants. He wants truth to be there, to get rid of the lies, to get rid of the lying, to get rid of things that are false.

You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You shall make me to know wisdom. So, as this process works in us, this process of creation, of creating Elohim, of this process of being molded and fashioned, transformed in the mind, there is this which is taking place in us, and we’re able to have more truth in our life. God blesses us because it’s a matter of growth and He’s able to give us more then because that’s His desire. Look how much He’s given to us toward the end here before Christ returns.

And in the hidden part You shall make known to me, wisdom. Wisdom, the mind of God. That’s what wisdom is. It’s the mind of God. The more we come to grasp that, the more beautiful it is. It’s awesome!

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall become clean. So, we know that’s not just physical. We know that it’s spiritual. But we want it to work like that in our lives. Wash me, and I shall become whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness. Because joy and gladness comes from a right relationship with God. It comes through that which is experienced in obedience, of experiencing and living things that are right and good for us, that aren’t a matter of “lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride of life,” they’re a matter of giving and harmony and unity and being at one.

And the bones which You have broken may rejoice. So, we have to go through things at times, and sometimes it’s very difficult to come to a point where we break of our own way and surrender to that which is from God.

Psalm 51:9—Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. So, we desire that as God works with us, but we grow in confidence to know that’s exactly what He does when we repent and ask for the sacrifice of Christ in our stead as our Passover.

Create, meaning “to shape and mold” in me a clean heart. Only God can do that and Christ through the power of the holy spirit. So that clean heart, that which is right in our lives is able to be created within us through this continuing process. …O God, and renew, as the word mean, “to repair” a right spirit. So, we’re flawed in physical carnal life and God can heal, repair what’s wrong in us through the power of His spirit.

…a clean heart, O God, and renew (repair) a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Your presence, and do not take Your holy spirit from me. That should be a part of our prayer in life because it shows our desire. When God knows your desire He’ll not leave you, He’ll not forsake you. God isn’t like that. He’s with us. He wants us to succeed. But we have to express these things in our thinking so often because then we’re mindful of it and we’re aware of what God tells us then, and it shows a greater thankfulness and gratitude on our part that this can work in our lives, that we want His holy spirit.

That’s why we pray as we do. We should pray daily and cry out to God for His holy spirit, to acknowledge on a daily basis “I know I can’t change and conquer and overcome without Your spirit, without Your mind working in me.”

Return, or Restore, as it says here, to me the joy of Your salvation. Mankind doesn’t have that. But as God works with us we can grow in that; we can have something in us that God intended that we be able to have in time.

So again, when we sin we cut ourselves off from that as well, but if we repent then we want this, the joy of God’s salvation, of living right, of doing things right. The joy, just the joy alone of knowing “I’m forgiven. I don’t have to carry this weight with me. It’s gone!” You still might remember what you did but it’s gone, and you’re determined, you go before God regularly praying that it never happens again. You’re praying for help to fight it, to engage in the battle.

And uphold (support) me, as it is here, with Your willing spirit. It’s free. Free to us, yes, but willing. It reveals God’s will. It’s God’s will to live in our lives, to dwell within us. What a beautiful thing to understand. So, we have that access, we have those blessings.

Isaiah 65:17—For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth. We learn that’s not about something physical, it’s something that God is creating new. We’re that new creation. His Family is that new creation. It’s not a physical creation.

And the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind. Or as the Hebrew is, “to come upon the heart.” The struggles, the pain, the suffering. Because we have to go through that. It’s just a part of how we’re created, because there is no other way to be able to have this kind of creation work in us except this. That, understanding that in itself is an absolute marvel. It’s awesome!

But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create. That’s our joy. The Feast of Tabernacles, what God is creating, a Millennial period where so many are going to have the opportunity for salvation in a way that was never offered in the previous 6,000 years. The way is going to be so much better and easier. The Great White Throne for all those who did live before, who are going to have the opportunity to have that take place within them.

So again, to be glad and rejoice in what God creates, to look forward to those times because it’s a part of that joy and excitement of the God Family.

Behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing. What an awesome thing! It’s full of life, all that’s good, nothing that’s evil, nothing that’s bad. We all experience bad in this world every day. That’s all you hear on the news or what’s called news. It’s just bad everywhere around us. Sometimes we see that so clearly that it’s so frustrating. But that helps us to moan, to groan more inside that we want, we want what’s coming, we want God’s Kingdom to be established on this earth and to be able to rejoice in Jerusalem, peace. It’s about peace. To get more and more away from the drama. There is so much drama in life it just depresses life, it hurts life, it tears down life, it robs of life, it steals life. That’s why I hate drama.

And I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. A joy to God and a joy to one another.

Verse 19—And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in My people; and the voice of weeping shall no more be heard in her, nor the voice of crying. Is that worth fighting for? Is that worth the struggle? Is that worth the battle? And to thank God that He molds us into being able to experience that, to work toward that, to be able to receive that. It’s awesome. It’s beautiful in every way.

1. Chapter 1