In God’s Presence, Pt. 2

Ronald Weinland

January 1, 2022

Last Sabbath we began a new series entitled In God’s Presence. Today is going to be Part 2.

Last week we were going through the Psalms, and to me this is inspiring. When you go through different things, especially considering David and the things that he was inspired in, he is referred to as a prophet in scripture, he wrote Psalms that are very prophetic in nature. Some of the Psalms are about the life of Christ. God inspired David to write those things.

That’s why I’d mentioned about the one Psalm there, for people to try going through that this past week and using it in prayer because when you go through a Psalm so often there are things that you can begin to read and talk to God about that apply to you. Because we’ve got to understand, God inspired them for that purpose. That’s why they’re there.

They’re there for the fact that they can be used in song as well, but they’re also to be able to be used in prayer, personal to an individual because it brings out things, it taps upon things that God’s spirit will work with you to help you to see in your life in a way that—how do you describe that?—it’s something that God does by His spirit, of things that are personal to us, that we can pray about them. It sparks something in the mind. God will help bring things to mind to help you see yourself, or things about a relationship, or things you need to think about in your life with God.

So, it’s exciting to be able to use Psalms once in a while in that regard as part of a prayer life. If you’ve never done it, try it, and then go back and try it again later on and you’ll grow in that, in that ability which enhances your own prayers, which enhances your own relationship to Almighty God, and that’s what it’s about.

Okay, we’re going to pick up the last few verses from Part 1. We’ll review two verses and then continue on with a few more Psalms.

Psalm 105:4—Seek the Eternal, and His strength. So again here, that’s something we should want to do. We should want help, strength, life, power, if you will, strength that we want, that we know we need from God, to be blessed by His holy spirit.

As it says here, “Seek the Eternal.” In other words, you’ve got to put work into it, you’ve got to put effort into it. When you seek out something there are things you have to think about in a directed manner in your thoughts. There are things in that regard that you have to ask about or pray about as well. This is very specific here concerning His strength, His life, His power to dwell within us. That should mean so much to us, to have that desire, that God and Christ dwell in us and we dwell in them.

Seek His… It says, “Seek His face.” It was brought up, that isn’t really a good translation. It’s about the presence of God, being in the presence of God. Expressions tend to change over time. I think it’s the particular word here, but anyway, it says, Seek His presence evermore. That’s what it’s saying, “Seek His presence evermore.” In other words, to be in His presence. Whenever you pray you want to be able to be in God’s presence.

Then we start thinking about those things and think, what an awesome thing that God has given us the ability, the blessing of being able to do that whenever we want, to be able to come before God’s presence. Not many people in 6,000 years have had that guarantee or that opportunity to do it, not even the knowledge to know how to do it.

Remember His marvellous/extraordinary works. And so, so often when you go through Psalms it refers to certain things that have happened in history past, especially when God began to work with Israel and bring them out of Egypt. “Remember His extraordinary/marvellous works.” And how can you not at different times, even if you think about the awesomeness of the universe or the awesomeness of things man is coming to understand in deeper ways.

It doesn’t matter where you look, in things getting smaller or things getting bigger, and you can look out in the universe. It is awesome the knowledge that mankind has today. But when you put it in the perspective of God, put it all there, and we’re just able to learn more about it now, it’s incredible.

…extraordinary, as it says here, marvellous and extraordinary works which He has done, His wonders, and the judgments of His mouth.

Let’s continue on now with Psalm 119. So again, that’s where we were last week, but just, again, reiterating the fact that we should want to seek, work at coming into God’s presence, and how blessed we are to be able to do that.

Psalm 119:162—I rejoice at Your word. Consider that in a prayer. What does that mean to you personally if you were going through that in a prayer before God and you start going through these words and then think about your own life? “I rejoice in Your Word.” And so, we have to ask ourselves, do we? To what extent do we?

…as one who finds great treasure. Do we? Because we should. When we learn something new, perhaps something we haven’t seen in the same way before and we grow in a matter that God helps us to comprehend in a better way, that should be exciting to us. That’s what this is talking about, “as one who finds great treasure.”

That’s a matter when it comes to God’s word, do we treasure what we are able to see? I marvel at that sometimes, how much we’re given to see and comprehend that the world doesn’t have. They don’t have such things. We do. Awesome.

I hate and abhor, as it says here, lying. I think of so many places where God speaks of this, how God hates lying, He hates a lie. Proverbs talks about that; hits it pretty strong. We should. We shouldn’t want anything like that to come out of us, to understand the damage and the hurt and the pain that comes from lies and people lying. There is so much of it in this world. It’s just a natural thing that’s done. It causes incredible damage.

And candidly, we have to hate things before we stop, if we have an inclination toward something, sometimes it might be a matter of lying. If that be something that a person has grown up with and sometimes just a matter of environment, sometimes certain things are inherited of things we have to fight because they’re more natural within a person. If that is one of them or other things that might be there, you have to hate it before you’re going to fight against it. There are things we have to learn how to hate that are contrary to God.

And so it says, I hate and abhor lying, but I love Your law. What an awesome thing, “I love Your law.” That’s something to pray to God about because if you don’t truly love it and you can’t say that to God… Because He’s going to know. God knows what’s inside of us. He knows the thoughts in our mind, and if we can’t say those words, “I love Your law?”

It has to be genuine, it has to be true, and if it isn’t, ask God for help to love all of His law, to really love it. He’ll give you help. If it’s genuine and true that’s what God wants, what is genuine and true. He wants people to worship Him in spirit and in truth as it says. That’s a part of this.

Then it goes on to say, “Seven times a day…” It’s not a right translation at all. The word “times” is added in there. It’s their interpretation of what it’s saying. That’s not what it’s saying at all. He’s saying, Seven days I praise you. In other words, “I praise You every day.” But God gave the weekly cycle, the seventh being the Sabbath. That’s the term that was used here: “Seven days I praise You.” In other words, “Every day I pray to You, come before Your throne. I come into Your presence; I seek to be in Your presence.” Awesome!

Seven days I praise You for Your righteous judgments. So, if we don’t have that as a part of our life now in going before God every day we wouldn’t be able to say that; that wouldn’t be true. It says here, “I abhor lying.” Well, that better be true. If we’re not, then hopefully that will spur us to want to do it. If we’re praying to God then ask for help, “Help me, that this is in my mind everyday, the importance, the need to come before Your throne, to come before Your presence. I’m so blessed to be able to do that.”

Seven days I praise You for Your righteous judgments. Those who love Your law have great peace. That in itself is something a person can pray about, to have that conversation, that relationship with God. “Those who love Your law, they’re blessed.” What an awesome thing. “How blessed they are that they’re able to even know and see Your law, the truth that You have given to them.” Because of that peace is a by-product, it’s produced, as a result of the mind that grasps that. So, on and on it goes.

…and nothing causes them to stumble. So, if there is a right relationship with God, a person has a peace of mind because of understanding the blessing of being able to live right and the blessing of being able to repent when we make a mistake, when we fall, when we slip, whatever, and we can repent of that and be behind us. That in itself gives great peace.

Those who love Your law have great peace and nothing causes them to stumble. Eternal, I, it says “hope” here, but it’s about waiting. I wait upon Your salvation. So, in other words, we have this life we’re to live, this physical life we live, and we’re awaiting that, we’re working toward that, we desire that salvation that God has offered to us, to be in His Family.

I wait upon Your salvation and do Your commandments. So again, puts us on the spot. We’ve got to be truthful to God: “I do Your commandments.” So, if someone has certain sin in their life and they’re not doing His law then that’s something to be addressed because God knows it anyway so it should bring a person to a deeper repentance.

Verse 167—My life is in keeping Your testimonies. This word is about a witness. What does that mean, “witness?” Well, our life should witness what it is to live God’s way of life, what takes place in our thinking, our mind, what’s produced as a result of that. So, if God is in us, which we’re so blessed to have that life live within us, it helps us to change, it helps us to be transformed to think differently. Again, my life is, it should be our life is in keeping, in wanting to live God’s way of life. That’s what it’s talking about. That we’re able to reflect, “This is my life.” We’re not living like the world. It reflects something different.

That’s something that people should see on the job, wherever it might be. I think of a Feast site. That’s easier sometimes for people to see. They see something that they don’t generally see in people. When people come together the way people act, the way they behave, the way they treat others, they see something that’s unique and special. Awesome! They’re drawn to that. They admire it, candidly.

My life is in keeping Your testimonies and I love them exceedingly. Do we? Can we say that to God in spirit and in truth? “I love them exceedingly.”

I keep watch. Some translations they have “kept” but it’s the same principle here. “I have kept,” or “am keeping.” But I keep, this is our life, I keep Your precepts and Your testimonies. Now, I hope we picked up on this. Over and over again, what’s it saying? “I rejoice in Your word.” “I love Your law.” “I praise You for Your righteous judgments.” “Those who love Your law.” “I hope, I wait in Your salvation and do Your commandments.” “My life is in keeping Your testimonies,” to be a right witness, in that respect, as far as what our life is reflecting. “I keep watch of Your precepts and Your testimony.” So again here, it’s about God. It’s about a relationship with God over and over again. Powerful, it really is.

I keep watch of Your precepts. In other words, to watch over it. What does that mean? It’s the word for “guard.” “I guard; I keep watch.” It’s like the sentry in a night watch keeping guard of a city at the gates or whatever it might be, and this is the kind of mind we have. “I guard for myself and my being able to live it.” That’s what it’s about. It means we’re fighting self.

So again, I have kept Your precepts, your word, Your testimonies, for all my ways are before You. Let my cry enter into Your presence, is what he’s asking. “Let my cry.” You know, especially if we cry out to God and we’re going through something that is difficult, we want help, we need help, we’re going before God praying to Him about a matter, even more so “Let my cry.” We want to be heard. We should want to be heard all the time, but especially at a time like that.

Then for us in God’s Church to be so thankful, to know and to have a peace about that and a calm and an encouragement God hears. If we’re striving for His way of life He always hears us.

Let my cry enter into Your presence. In other words, “Hear me now! Hear what I’m saying.” …into Your presence, Eternal.

Then it goes on to say, Give me understanding according to Your word. When it comes to God’s word again here, His word, we should always want understanding, to be able to glean what we hear Sabbath by Sabbath. Because I can tell you, every Sabbath you’re given something you haven’t known before. And if we’re not careful, which I saw happen in Worldwide through time, especially in Laodicea, we can become kind of numb and take for granted what we have. We hear certain things and certain concepts, precepts repeated, and if we’re not careful after a while we can kind of zone out at times in a relationship with God.

But the reality is to grow we’re shown, we’re told, that wherever God’s spirit goes it has to produce fruit. If fruit isn’t being produced something is wrong with us. If we’re not growing, if there is not something that’s on a continuing basis enhancing our life, growing in our life, if that’s not taking place we really need to cry out more to God for help to break through that whatever it might be that we’re doing or need to see or need to understand.

So again here, Give me understanding according to Your word. So, that’s why we should pray in advance of coming to a Sabbath service, praying to God for help to be able to hear what is given to us because there are things that happen in peoples lives. It’s amazing the kind of subjects we go through from time to time. You have to understand here, God is working with people in different parts of the world. Not a lot, but with all of them, with all of us.

We’re going through different situations in our life and there are things that we need to see at a particular moment in time more than another because God’s molding us. He knows what we need at the specific times, and as He’s doing the building, the constructing in our lives we’re all being worked with differently, in one respect, but we’re being worked with in the same, in one respect, in the sense that God is doing the building and He knows what we need as a body.

We’re a body, a single body, and God knows what that body needs in order to grow in that unity and oneness of spirit. And so, so often it’s like, “That’s what I needed. I needed to hear… I need that. That applied to me this week.” And if it doesn’t apply to us, if there is something we can’t glean out of something, we need to ask God help, “Help! Help me to glean out of what’s given. Give me understanding of Your word.” So, awesome prayers before the Sabbath, before the Holy Days, before the Feast of Tabernacles, as I so often pointed out.

Verse 170—Let my supplication, in other words, my petition, which is a matter of prayer. So, these are things about a prayer and prayer life and our relationship with God. He wants to develop a relationship with us. He’s our Father, and we are His children.

Let my supplication, in other words, my petition enter into Your presence. Then, again, that awesome thing that should be in our minds of thinking, “How blessed am I because I know that He is hearing me?” He wants to hear. He wants to work with us. He wants us to speak to Him about various things in our life that affect us.

Let my supplication enter into Your presence. Deliver me according to Your word. So again, so much said there. A sermon could be given over what I’ve just covered.

Psalm 139:1—A Psalm of David. Eternal, You have searched me, and know me/have known me. So, we know that. God’s called us. He knows us inside out. He’s called us for a purpose. He’s given us the impregnation of His holy spirit. We’re like a child in the womb waiting for a time then that we’re going to be born into His Family. God knows us inside and out. He knows the thoughts. That’s what this is going on about as David goes through it.

Again, please understand, David was inspired to write these things. This isn’t something just for David, this is for the Body of Christ. This is for the Church of God, that God wanted individuals as they’re called to be able to go through things like this and to build upon a relationship with Him by focusing on things like this because these are the things we need to see, these are the things that need to be a part of our relationship with Him.

You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up. What’s God saying? He’s saying that to every one of us, “I know you. I’m with you. I’ve called you for a purpose. I’m working with you. I’m not working with several billion people on earth. Their time will come. But I’m working with you.” How awesome is that? How blessed are we that the Almighty Eternal God of the universe has opened up our minds to see and understand His plan and purpose, and we’re given the opportunity now, not a thousand years from now or not some time in the Millennium.

You know my sitting down and my rising up. You discern/know, in other words, the purpose, my purpose from afar. In other words, the word has to do with the intent, the motivation. “You know what’s in my mind before I ever do it or speak it. You know how I think.” So, that should take care of lying, if we really understand it. Why go before God and hide something?

I mean, that’s as dumb as Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden trying to hide from God in the thickness of the brush and the tree and everything else. It’s like, don’t you get it? He made you. He’s the Creator. He has created everything around you, and He knows where you are. But they thought they could hide, going to hide from God. It’s a human trait. Sometimes we just try to hide from God, we try to hide things from God. Doesn’t work.

You discern my purpose from afar off. In other words, this recognizing God is great, He’s afar. We don’t know where that is. We don’t know where, we just know He knows and sees everything, and we can’t comprehend that. The New Testament talks about how He knows when a bird falls to the ground. We can’t comprehend that. Look at all the birds that are in creation, yet God knows when they’re dead, when they die. Everything.

Every hair on our head, as Christ said, and that changes daily. Not that he wants to… but He knows it, He has that mind, that capacity. We can’t begin to grasp that. Can’t even try because it’s not going to do you any good. Just accept it. It’s true. That’s the Great God.

You scatter, translated “encompass or know,” but it’s a word that means “to scatter.” Sometimes they translate things, and they don’t know what’s being said because it doesn’t necessarily make sense to them. It’s a word that means “as to winnow or to separate,” like winnowing when you have the grain and you’re in the barn area or an area where there is wind blowing through and you throw it in the air and it comes back down and you catch the seed and you let the chaff and so forth be taken out of it.

And so, beautiful expression here. We know what that means. We know what that means in our personal lives as far as a calling and getting rid of the chaff. God does that in our lives. He works with us to get rid of the things that don’t belong so that what remains is the fruit, something that’s beneficial and useful. That’s what this is basically talking about for us on a spiritual plane.

So again here, it says, You winnow/separate my path/my way. That’s what God did to us in the beginning when He first started calling us. He put us on a different path. He helped us to get out of the way we were going, on our path, and put us in a new way, a new path. That’s what this is talking about. A part of that process there is this winnowing, if you will, this separating of the chaff.

So it goes on to say, You have scattered my path/my ways, in other words, for my ways to be profitable, as the words are here. “From my ways in order that my ways to be profitable.” In other words, if we continued in our way we’re not profitable for anything as a part of God’s plan and God’s purpose. But if we can focus on and be changed to—as God takes us through this transformation process on His way, His path—the path He tells us what is best for our lives, what an awesome thing.

And so, this is being discussed here as a part of prayer, so that we can be profitable as a part of His Family. Because we have to change in order to produce fruit, in order to produce things that are going to be productive in the future. That’s what it’s asking for. In order for us to, in essence, to become profitable as a part of God’s Family, to be productive.

Verse 4—For there is not a word on my tongue, Eternal, but you know it. In other words, before it ever comes off God knows, knows exactly what you’re going to say because He knows the mind. He knows the intent and the thinking and the purpose and the things that have to be changed that are inside self. Why? He knows them anyway, but especially with the impregnation of His holy spirit, that portion that we have, even more so. He’s focused on it more because He’s working to help us change. He hasn’t given His holy spirit to the world, the impregnation of it nor access to it.

So again, “For there is not a word on my tongue, Eternal, but you know it.” Awesome acknowledgement to God. “You know me. You know me inside out.” It’s time to be truthful, totally open, totally open with God. I mean, we’d be stupid to be otherwise, than to be absolutely open with God about everything.

Then it says here, the translation says, “You have hedged me about/behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me.” Basically, he’s saying here, Your hand has laid siege behind and before me. But you have to understand what these words are about. In other words, God has blessed us, He helps us in battle, He helps protect us, but when it talks about this “behind and before,” it’s basically talking about time – in the past and in front, moving forward.

So, we’re blessed. God is concerned with our lives. Obvious. In our past He’s been with us and in the future He’s set the way for us. The way to live, the way to go, shown to us how to do it, and He’s fighting battles for us, He intervenes for us constantly in things… There are things that God does we don’t even know, and protections and blessings and favor and help in life that we have no idea of. We won’t know for a long time, and then we’ll learn.

Again here, You have laid siege behind and before me in knowledge incomprehensible. Just what I said. We don’t even know to the extent. Which we’re able to experience a life, basically, that has meaning here that is wonderful because of that, because of our life in God’s hands. It’s hard for us to grasp how awesome that is, how blessed we are to have that.

…that is too high to grasp or “to attain” it says here, but it’s to grasp. It’s something we can pray about, and we can think about and just thank God. Because we don’t grasp it all, we don’t see it all. But to focus on the things we do see – we’re called, we’ve received the impregnation of the holy spirit, of God’s holy spirit in our minds, of the Great God of the universe. How could we grasp that fully? But to appreciate what we do understand on a limited ability of a human mind? Awesome.

And to think then if we know that He loves us, He’s working with us, we’re His children. Right now the world is, in a physical sense, but not for the future. It’s only for the here and now. They’re His creation, in a sense children, but not the kind of children that God’s going to work with. Once He begins to call them and draw them that’s the relationship that God seeks and wants in His time. For most, it’s going to be in the Great White Throne.

What an incredible thing to think you didn’t have to wait for another thousand years to have an opportunity, along with all the rest of mankind, to be given the opportunity to see the truth, to know the truth, to begin to change. You have it now. Do we grasp the value of that? If we do it’s so slight because we just don’t have that ability. But we should strive to. Again, that’s a part of praising, thanking God, rejoicing before God in our prayers and things that we talk about. It’s glorifying God that we have this opportunity now just to be thankful.

Verse 7—Where can I go from Your spirit? Or where would I flee from Your presence? God’s there, everywhere. That’s the point.

If I ascend into the sky, You are there. Now, I don’t know how many or how that would have struck David at the time because “What do you mean, ‘If I ascend into the sky?’” He’s making a point that he’s inspired to say this, but he had no concept of what was going to come in the future. He’s talking about this, and this is something he’s inspired to say, “If I ascend into the sky,” in other words, “If I was to ascend into the sky. Don’t know how I’m going to get there or what…but if I were, You’re there. You’re everywhere.” That’s basically what he’s saying.

But we see this in another way, in a personal way. You get on a plane. A lot of people don’t like to fly. It’s like shut the windows, take a… Don’t take anything. And there’s a peace. Your life is in God’s hands. Incredible. Nothing to fear. If we want to pray to God there at 20,000 ft, 30,000 ft, fine. Not out loud, but in your mind to God. He hears you.

If I ascend into the sky, You’re there. If I am stretched out in the grave, You are there. What does that mean? Well, God knows it. He knows our state. He knows every individual that’s been a part of 144,000 inside and out. He knows where their dust is. He looks forward to the time that they’re going to be resurrected out of the grave and given a new body. It’s a personal relationship with God Almighty. God’s there. That spirit essence that was in their mind is with God.

What an incredible thing when that was given to Herbert Armstrong to understand and comprehend in a deeper way, when God inspired him to write The Incredible Human Potential. Some thought at that time “You’re teaching the immortality of the soul.” He wasn’t teaching that at all. He’s saying that there is an essence in us that returns to God when we’re dead. It isn’t alive.

The best thing we can grasp and comprehend about it is like, well, it’s like the SD card in the computer or, you know, in the camera. It’s everything, except it’s spirit, and it has everything we ever were, everything we’ve ever done, everything about us of our life. Our entire life God has ready to be put back into another body. Everyone who’s ever died that’s going to be in the Great White Throne, that resurrection, they’re going to remember things of their life just like we do when we get up.

Every morning we’re awake we remember our life. They’re going to remember their life because that is all there. Not alive. But when God puts it back into a body, what an incredible thing to think the Almighty God has such power, and it’s with Him.

I take the wings of the morning, and abide in the uppermost part of the sea, or “If I do.” Now, this word here has to do with wings like a protection as a covering, or even protection as we’ve talked about at other times, even the Church in Revelation and so forth, and we look at things like this and it’s about protection.

Your hand guides me, and Your right hand holds me up. So, if I’m deep out at sea. Now, today it’s not the same because of the kinds of ships and so forth that are there. But back then it was a lot hairier. We read some of those stories about Paul when he was shipwrecked, was it three times? Bobbing around in the sea, for a day and a half one time? I don’t know. I have to go back and read them and brush up.

But anyway, it wasn’t like us getting on a plane and having to wait an hour in Atlanta in order to get the flight because it was an hour late and thinking, “Oh, when is this going to get here? And when is this going to take off?” It’s like, “Shut up! Remember Paul.” Have you ever had to have something like that when you’re going somewhere? I think of travel. I oftentimes think (can’t help it), when you’re going somewhere within the Church or whatever, we get in a vehicle, we go hundreds of miles sometimes to be someplace or whatever.

In the Church, just like in visiting various areas, we don’t have to follow behind a donkey, if we were so blessed to have one back then or walk long distances in dirty areas where you’re pretty dirty by the time you get there and hot. We have all the conveniences when we get to where we are. They didn’t have the kind of running water, hot water, cold water, soaps provided by a hotel. You think, no one ever has a reason to complain. You just go back a few hundred year and people of God went through things so much harder than we did.

You don’t have to worry about going out and trying to find something in order to eat, you know… Anyway, incredible. But if we’re not careful we can murmur if we get the wrong thing that comes to us at a restaurant. Like I did this morning. I had to watch my attitude. The wrong thing came.

But what an incredible thing that we can do something like that and be so blessed, and yet we can look at something like that and be inconvenienced for a little bit, in what, fifteen minutes for your food to get out there? Oh, boo-hoo. You have to start putting things in a proper perspective and of the attitude that was there, that maybe was expressed in my expression at first, like, “Where’s the fruit? It’s the wrong ones.” They were very nice about it, took it back and got the right ones.

Well, again, have to look at myself in situations like that in life. Because we all have situations in life where something will happen to us that we take for granted, and if we’re not careful we’ll gripe about it or murmur about something that we shouldn’t be negative about. To realize how blessed we are that we’re even able to do it, what an awesome thing.

Just like going back home. Some were asking about, because of the delays and so forth that are there. If they’re there, they’re there, we will get back. We’re blessed. What an incredible thing we can get on a plane, anybody can get on a plane, go to a Feast site like different ones are going to do this year, things that for hundreds of years mankind has had a horrible time getting from one place to another, even close by, let alone going part way around the world or whatever it might be. How blessed are we as God’s people in this age?

Again, things that should be in our mind when we come before God. To thank Him. To thank Him. To thank Him. To be thankful to Him. And when we see ourselves not in that mode, not in that thinking, then we have to repent and get back in that mode because that’s what it’s about.

He goes on to say, being at sea, God is there. We’re in God’s protection. That’s basically what he’s saying, “Your hand guides me and holds me up. Nothing to fear; You’ll take care of me.” Just like God did with Paul.

We take the ease of things today for granted so often, like we can for God’s word if we’re not careful. The reality is we are blessed more than any people have ever been blessed on this earth. We are richer in wealth, and sometimes we think, well, we’re not. Yes, we are.

Psalm 141, Another psalm of David. So again, prayers to God. Your thinking and you’re praying as you go through words like this, and it helps us to look inward to ourselves, to see things that we need to change and make sure that we stay on the right path in our thinking in a relationship with God and how blessed we are.

Psalm 141:1—I cry out. Again, when you do that, a matter of prayer. I cry out to You; to speedily hear my voice, when I do cry out to you is what it’s saying here. When we pray we know that God’s going to, He’ll speedily hear us. It’s a confidence we have. We don’t have to wonder about it, we know it.

Let my prayer be in Your presence as incense. So, we want to make sure that our prayers are even right before God, that we’re not just a matter of repetition but that we’re talking about different things at different times, striving to improve our relationship with God in our prayer life with Him. In essence, there are some things we will repeat in life, but to be repetitive, we don’t want to do that. We want to be different.

And so, to do that in how we go before God in a right spirit and right attitude, to be as incense. That’s one thing that was like in the offerings and we recognize that as a part, the symbolism of when the incense was thrown on the fire that it had this aroma that went out, this smell. That’s why they were made the way they were, in order that when they hit the fire this smell went out that it was good, it was a nice aroma, a nice smell to it, in other words. This is what it’s talking about, that it comes up before God as a sweet-smelling aroma.

And so, that puts an impetus on us to strive to improve our prayers where we can when we can, to think about those kinds of things and make sure we don’t get into a rut of repetition or of something of that nature. Not just saying, “I,” “me,” “I,” “me” but learning to broaden our prayer life and what it should be like and including others and thinking about brethren in the Church. On and on it goes, things that should be a part of our life.

Let my prayer be in Your presence as incense. So, it’s not just something you can pray and say. You could say that all the time if you wanted to, but it’s like, okay, what’s going to make it happen that way? Well, I just mentioned that didn’t I?

Set a guard, Eternal, over my mouth. Now, what I was getting ready to say is you think God’s going to do that? Set a guard? What does that mean, “Set a guard over my mouth?” In other words, you don’t want to say the wrong things. You want to say things that are right. You don’t want to have the wrong kind of conversation with people. You don’t want to be offensive; you don’t want to talk about, you don’t want to gossip, all the other things that would be a part of that.

But it’s asking God for help to set a guard over our mouth. That’s what’s being asked here. Because God is not going to just come down and shut your mouth when you start saying something wrong, like you can’t open your lips all of a sudden. That’s not what you’re asking. This is about help, that we need help to set a guard, we need God’s help to be alert to certain things.

I hope we pray like this on occasion, that we want help even in matters like this, that we be able to see something quickly. That’s what you’re asking for. “Help me to see something quickly when I have done something, when I’ve said something wrong or if I start to say something. Help me catch it quickly so I don’t say it.” God can do that by the power of His holy spirit. He can help prod that within your mind. Well, not a shock, but all of a sudden to come into your mind.

There are things that God can give you to think about. You prayed about it, and all of a sudden, “I don’t want to do that.” It’s better to catch it before it happens then afterwards. Afterwards you’ve got to repent. Afterwards you’ve got to go through that process. What an awesome thing when you can catch things before you do something that’s wrong. That’s what the prayer is about here. What a beautiful thing to ask God for.

So, basically that’s what he’s asking, Set a guard… So much of these things are like that when you pray about them. They’re things that we have to see ourselves in. We have to look into a mirror and see ourselves and what’s being said and pray about it in that context.

Set a guard, Eternal, over my mouth, and keep watch over the door of my lips. It’s the same thing. In other words, “Help me so I don’t flap them without purpose, that I don’t say something that is hurtful or wrong but that I’m able to see it before it’s even stated.” That’s a place to catch it. And generally, that begins in our lives when we see something we’re doing wrong or have done wrong and that we want to change and that we’re asking God for help. “I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to get caught in those kinds of situations and say something that is hurtful or something that is demeaning to someone else in any fashion or form.”

And so, if you’re praying about those things and you’re more alert to them, this is what it can produce, the fact that you’re going to be able to catch it quicker. It’s a process.

Do not incline my heart to any evil thing. So again, what is one asking for? For help. To help me to see if something, whatever it is you might be battling in life or whatever your thinking is of your mind, of what you’re trying to overcome. Because we all have things that we’re working on in life and striving to overcome; our one, two, three, whatever. They should be in our mind, and the more they’re in our mind the more alert we can be to them and more on guard we can be. The same thing here, to help us so that our heart isn’t inclined to anything that’s wrong. But on the contrary, to loathe, to hate.

So again here, Do not incline my heart to any evil thing, to practice wicked works with men who work iniquity. So to see things in our life where we’re not doing what the world is doing, that we’re not going along with things in the world, and on and on it goes.

And not to eat (consume) any of their delicacies. So what does that mean? So again, it’s the same sort of thing here. It’s not about food and eating of things, it’s about what’s in our minds and how we think.

Now, there are a lot of lessons that can be learned from how God worked with Israel. I mentioned that earlier in the beginning, toward the beginning of the sermon, and especially when He, obviously, called them out of Egypt. There are some incredible stories that go through this entire process here. To recognize that God was working with them as a nation as they were being drawn out of Egypt and how blessed they were. How many nations have ever been worked with by God? One, in the sense of the purpose that God had, that stories are written about, to bring them along, to bring them into the future, that things would happen in the end-time.

Yes, other nations in the world, but not worked with as a part of a plan. There have been wars. There have been things that have happened, but there are things even in prophecy that are very specific about following a particular course here through history and through time.

So again here, don’t take that out of context, of what I’m saying here about, “God didn’t work with other nations.” He has a purpose for all people. But again, as a whole He’s let mankind go out to all the earth to live in different parts of the world, to experience different things. But He hasn’t called them to receive His commandments, as the Israelites were. He didn’t work with them in the same way, of performing miracles to help them, to encourage them to have a kind of a relationship with Him (which was very physical). But He did with Israel and the remnants as well, even of the ten tribes that went up into Europe. Especially this country and the commonwealth of nations, there is a purpose of things that God is working out even toward the end of time here. But it’s not spiritual.

With us, what an incredible thing that we’re called to a spiritual relationship with God. God worked with a physical people, a carnal people, a carnal nation, if you will, a physical nation. But for us it’s a spiritual one that we’re blessed to be a part of.

Some of the stories here, we’re going to begin going through Numbers and looking at some of the things that took place with Israel and how God worked with them. But all along the way here there are things to learn or focus upon that have to do with our calling, that have to do with our relationship with God as far as the Church is concerned.

Again, there is one primary nation that is known in time to have had God’s presence with them. Israel. He began to work with Moses, God’s presence was with him, had some things that took place. Finally, he separated, things that were happening between Egypt and the plagues and the Israelites. They were just happening to the Egyptians and God’s presence was there. They were being made aware that God’s presence was there, of things that He was doing that people had never heard of nor seen before and yet they were taking place.

Then Passover. What an incredible thing. People throughout the land of Egypt, their firstborn dying – all the firstborn of everything living was dying, and yet this protection. What an incredible thing to experience. Then to begin moving out of a country like that and moving down toward the Red Sea. Awesome!

Again, they were being made aware of God’s presence. I mean, we can’t comprehend what it would have been like to have this huge fire by day, by night, by day, by night. But anyway, the cloud that gave cover as well by day, and then the fire by night. To see something of that massive of a thing physically, the mind can’t comprehend it. But they were seeing it. Then to have the sea open up like it was, the Red Sea open up, I mean, God’s presence was there.

But it didn’t do a whole lot of good. To me, that’s an awesome story, to go through that. Even by the time they got on the other side here they’re already complaining. You think, “Man!” but God’s presence was there. They were seeing things, experiencing things that people never experienced. Even when God’s presence was there it didn’t do much good. It really didn’t. It’s just there were things that happened through time that was a benefit to them.

But I think about God’s presence with the Church, God’s presence with people who have been called. And candidly, in a lot of ways, it hasn’t helped because the vast majority have gone by the wayside. Ever since there’s been a calling, of different people called. It’s kind of mind-boggling.

So, let’s go through some of the story because, again, we can think about how Israel rebelled over and over again, and we’re going to focus on some of those. But yet our history, the Church, is in there all the way through it because we haven’t fared much better. Think about it.

The majority have rebelled since the time of Christ. The majority of who’s been called have rebelled. So, there is much to learn from both here, a physical people who had a presence of God with them on a physical plane and a people called on a spiritual plane for a spiritual relationship with God.

Numbers 13:26. This is at a point where the spies were sent out to spy out the land. So part of the history is going through here talking about this process where the spies were sent out to have a report, to look over the land that God had promised to them. These were sent out and here is a point where they had returned. So, we’re talking about that at this point.

Verse 26—Now they departed, in other words, after spying out the land, and came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran, in Kadesh. They brought back word to them and to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land. So they brought some back with them to show people, “Look at what’s there!” Now, you have to understand where they were. It wasn’t very nice. There weren’t vineyards, there weren’t a lot of things growing. It was a desolate, dry area of the world. What they came out of wasn’t too peachy keen either; pretty tough part of the world being brought out of Egypt like they were.

And so again here, they were showing the fruit of the land, and when I read this I think about the fruit that God’s given to His Church through time. I think of the different eras of the Church and opportunities that people had. I think of Philadelphia and the incredible opportunities in an age of modern technology that people had, and then Laodicea had the benefit of all that that God had given to Herbert Armstrong to give to the Church. Awesome! Then what happened? The betrayals. The lying. Incredible.

Verse 27—Then they told him, and said, We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. So, they told part of the story. They were truthful in part of it and then it starts to change, acknowledging certain things. Now, when I read that I think, I think of those who later on used to refer back to Herbert Armstrong and say, “You know, I learned a lot from him. He was a good teacher.” That’s kind of what this is, you know, like here is all the fruit, and that’s the way it was with so many people in Laodicea and toward the end especially and the kind of attitudes that existed within a Church, the Laodicean Church. Awesome! Laodicean era, if you will.

Then they told him and said, We went to the land that you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Nevertheless, the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land to the south; the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan.

So, it’s like this is too much; this is too great. Yes, it’s a land that flows with milk and honey, but this is just too much, it’s too hard. A little truth and a little deception, mixing it together.

Verse 30—Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it. In other words, take it, as it means here, to have power over it as the words mean in the Hebrew.

But the men who had gone up with him, in other words, with Caleb and Joshua, said, We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we. So again here, coming back with this negative report. These ten who were really giving a false report of something that they just didn’t get, they didn’t grasp. It was too much for them. They didn’t see God in the picture, that God was going to give them the ability to go in and conquer it; He promised it.

Look at all the things He did to get them to this point, and you think, why can’t you keep your eyes on it. Two people did, Caleb and Joshua. They had the confidence they could go in and take it. God is with them. He opened up a Red Sea. I mean, He can take us into a land like this. But there were others who were negative about it, who said it couldn’t be done, were fearful.

I can’t help but think of things of our history in the Church. Really can’t. It’s easy to read through a physical story and think, “How could they have done this? How could they have been like that?” And yet I think of things that have happened in the Church over and over and over again, things that happened in 1972 in the Church, things that happened in 1974, things that happened in 1977-78 period, over and over and over again. Incredible. Horrible things, ugly things of people who weren’t faithful. So, rebellion? Yeah, they had it, and the Church has had to deal with it over and over and over again.

“We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.” It’s just leaves God totally out of the picture. What it is, it’s looking more to self and what we can do and how we can do it. That’s been the trouble within the Church for so long. “We could do this better.”

That’s what some began to think about Herbert Armstrong. “He’s getting old. He’s going to die soon. He can’t handle this as well as we can.” His own son telling him, “More have come in because of me than you.” “More people are coming into the Church, more people are being called, more people are being reached because of me than you.” Mind-boggling.

Then it goes on to say, verse 32—They gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw the giants [Hebrew: nephilim] (the descendants of Anak that came from giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.

In other words, “We felt like it and that’s how we appeared to them, small. We’re nothing, we’re no threat.” They’re no threat. So, this was a way of saying, “We’re like grasshoppers in front of them.”

Numbers 14. So again, two things seen here. One was what God said it would be to them, but the other was how hard it was going to be. It’s this negative thinking, this mindset that worked against what God told them they could have.

Numbers 14:1—So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. Now, this is an amazing thing to me about human nature. They chose to believe. Whatever reason why, how we think we do, everybody chooses to believe whatever they want. In this case here ten outweighed the two so the judgment is surely two must be wrong, the ten must be right. They’re all saying this so it must be too hard to go up against them. We can’t do it.

And so, this is their thinking, and this is what’s such an incredibly dangerous thing that has happened in our past of different ones who would come along and start something and say something and others begin to think the same way and take a side. Where is God in the picture? God is always to be first regardless of what anyone else says or does. God’s way of life, the truth, always to be first.

So it says they chose to believe what the ten said. Then all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron. What an incredible thing. After everything they’d seen, things that human beings had never seen because of God’s presence with them. Incredible! The Passover! Mind-boggling. To be saved from that? The Red Sea? I mean, and everything before that, everything after that. It’s really hard to comprehend sometimes

But it’s a whole lot harder to comprehend how people who have God’s spirit can do the same things but worse on a spiritual plane. Because when it comes to having that blessing, of having access to God’s holy spirit, there are no excuses because it’s able to be seen spiritually. It’s our wrong choices, people’s wrong choices, and they should know better.

“Then all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron.” I think of all the things that have happened at different times. Hindsight, sometimes you get 20/20 vison, but you don’t see necessarily as they’re happening how horrible, how serious it really is and where it’s all leading.

And so, my sight in some of these things is thinking back to the journey from the time I was called and seeing the things that Herbert Armstrong had to deal with within the Church. We were spared, as a whole, as a Church, of not really knowing all that was taking place because the battles were first and foremost within the ministry of God’s Church. They’re the ones who had sway then over people because of being able to teach and not having an oversight in the sense of they’re trusted to be out there to serve and to teach things the way they have been taught but didn’t do and self got in the way.

That’s what’s happening here in a physical story. What happened to us as a Church is on a spiritual plane. There are different times that people began to complain against Herbert Armstrong, not realizing what a stupid, horrifying, evil thing it is before God to do such a thing. And candidly, how people were judged as soon as they did it, and so often the mind changes and they’re cut off from God in their lives and what they begin to do and how they begin to do it and the impact they then have on others to—what an incredible thing— to hurt people, to mislead people who have God’s spirit. It’s one thing what they did physically, but to do something like that spiritually that takes life or has the potential of taking spirit life because of choices, far more serious.

And so the congregation said, as it says here, And the whole congregation said to them, If only we had died in the land of Egypt! In other words, “If only we’d gotten old and died naturally in Egypt instead of starting this journey.” People don’t outrightly say that sometimes who have been a part of God’s Church, who have made choices, wrong choices, but that’s the result. To go back to that? Don’t you know what you’re saying? To go back to that? You want to go back to that? To come into God’s Church and then to go back to something else, something you think that you want to have out there, and you can somehow continue to have God, “Because God’s working over here. He’s working over there. And God will still be with us and…”

If only we had died in the land of Egypt! or If only we had died in this wilderness! In other words, it’d be easier. Why? “Because if we go up there, marching up there, we’re going to die in a horrible way. War, fighting, and being conquered by such people, it’s a horrible way to die. It’d be easier just to die naturally back in Egypt, old.” That’s what they were saying.

Verse 3—Why has the Eternal brought us to this land? Now, we can look at something like that and think, now, that’s just downright appalling! After everything God has done, after all the miraculous things that have taken place that you have seen on a physical plane that should tell you in volumes the power of God Almighty and you’re talking like this? And you think, that’s happened in the Church over and over and over again. How?

Why has the Eternal brought us to this land to fall by the sword…? So easy sometimes we forget. …that our wives and children should become victims? So, it’s this thing again, “without parents they’re going to become victims of all this. We’re going to go and have a war and they’re going to beat us; they’re going to conquer us” and Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt? So again, people in the Church have done this over and over again in a worse way.

Any time a person begins to leave what they have been given, any time a person begins to leave… I think of the truth. I hope we all have this perspective. The Church today is, because we haven’t had an influx of people coming in since 2008 and on (because God does the calling), but we’re to learn from this. We’re to learn that there’s a repetition of these things that have happened through time.

We are so blessed to have what we have but we have to fight for it. Because it comes by fight. It comes by desire that this is what we want. You have to keep fighting until this is finished, but sometimes people think it’s too hard to do this fight.

“What are we? Look how puny we are!” That’s what Israel was starting to say. “We’re going to go up against giants. Look how puny we are! You want us to go up there? We’re going to get slaughtered and we’re going to leave children behind. They’re not going to have parents to raise them. I’d be better if we never got into this in the first place.” So, people nonchalant too often, because of whatever it might be in the world.

We’ve had many times more than what we have today who have been a part of PKG since 1998. Mind-boggling. Many times over who have come and gone, who have been able to see things, been awakened to truth, many who came through the Apostasy, and chose to go back. Same thing, except worse.

The whole point of this is we’ve got to grasp what we have. We’ve got to be able to thank God for everything. We’ve got to be able to see how blessed we are, that God is concerned with us being in His presence. It’s not about how many thousands or how many hundreds, it’s about what is there. It’s about each one of us in our thinking toward God and that we’re fighting this to the end, whatever that end might be.

Why has the Eternal brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt? So they said to one another, Let us select a leader and return to Egypt. I have experienced this on a spiritual plane so many times it makes my head spin. “Let’s pick a leader. Let’s go with him.”

I think of one area of the world, an individual given every opportunity, every benefit, every help, given responsibility to faithfully work with a group of people as a minister and deceived a whole bunch into following him. Where? Well, it wasn’t a pleasant journey. I mean, you leave the Church you leave what you have been given that is true because you don’t like certain things and you go out and do something different. Mind-boggling.

So, people tend to do this type of thing. There is going to be someone who leads. I think of what took place in 2013 where even in Cincinnati a certain leader, certain one that was willing to speak up and speak against, and all of a sudden you have few more. So, a few ministers and a few, just a few because there were some other areas that were part of this whole thing as well, go by the wayside. Mind-boggling.

This is the exact same thing except they did it spiritually. “Let’s follow them. Let’s go this way because this has got to be right because what he’s saying is wrong; it’s just wrong. What he’s done is wrong.”

Verse 5—Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel. They knew what was taking place. They knew how serious this was. This is why they did this, “God isn’t going to take this lightly.” So, every time I’ve ever seen something like that I think, if only you could see what you’re doing. If only you could grasp, anyone who has ever left for whatever reason, for whatever sins (because it’s always sin), if they could only see where that’s going to end up, where that’s headed. Horrible.

And yet they can’t because people become spiritually weaker in those situations. Moses and Aaron here, they went and laid out before God, cried out for the people, not to destroy them. Because it says, “All the congregation murmured and complained against Moses and against Aaron for bringing them there.” It wasn’t against Moses and Aaron. God knew who it was; it was Him. He brought them there. But people leave God out of the picture to justify themselves.

Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel. But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes. They got it too. They knew what was going on. They were appalled; they were abhorred.

So we’ve had different times within the Church that we’ve had the opportunity—because it’s an opportunity—to cry out to God, for God to know we’re in this for good. “This is it. Regardless of what comes our way, regardless of what happens around us we’re not going that direction. We are Yours,” speaking to God. “We are Yours.”

…and they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying: The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. Well, that’s the message. Sadly, sometimes spiritually things that people can’t see, what it is that God’s placed before us, how blessed we are.

Verse 8—If the Eternal delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us. “He’s doing it. It’s God! It’s not Moses and Aaron; it’s God. God’s going to give it to us. That’s why He brought us. That’s why we’ve seen all the things happen that we have and the power of Almighty God, and He will give it to us! What do we have to be concerned about? Are we going to have to war, battle? Absolutely. But God will give it to us.” Incredible. We have to war, and we have to battle, and God’s going to give it to us. It’s absolute as far as God’s concerned, it’s just what do we believe.

If the Eternal delight… Again, we’re going through these things because this is not over. It isn’t over until it’s over. Every year! It sometimes just gets so frustrating that people let up spiritually, they let down spiritually and they begin to go by the wayside. Why? Every year! Cry out, show what the road is, but you’ve got to love it, you’ve got to want it, and you’ve got to fight for it. It’s about a relationship with God. It’s about a thankfulness to Almighty God. To be thankful means you believe it and you’re thankful because you see it and you know it. That’s why you fight.

So, I know there are those who are fighting, and I know there are those who aren’t, and that’s frustrating. It just goes on and on and on. That’s why I said a long time ago this is going to happen until Christ returns. You think it surely won’t happen once this nation experiences what it’s going to experience! Yes, it will. Yes, it will.

If the Eternal delights in us, then He will bring us into this land. Where are we going? We’re almost there. They were at the doorstep, almost there. It’s right next door, ready to go in. That’s where we are as a Church. We’re at the doorstep.

Writing this book, going through these things again it’s like, man, it’s amazing what’s going on in the world. It’s mind-boggling. In the news day in and day out, Thunders one after another. Many Thunders taking place. It’s like, hopefully, we’re hearing them, everybody is hearing them. That’s one of the things Chapter 7 is about, Seven Thunders. Incredible. Brought up to date. It’s amazing what we’ve been through and where we are now.

So, we’re right there and this is where they were, right there ready to go into the promised land. They’re just right across, right across over there. And you think, that’s where we are. Just have to keep going forward.

Only do not rebel against the Eternal. So, that was their plea, “Don’t rebel.” That’s my plea. It’s God’s plea with all of us, “Don’t rebel.” Because doing something different than what we’ve been given, whatever is pulling us away, whatever reason some are letting down, whatever that might be, whatever it is – perhaps you’ve been on the journey so long that you’re just tired. Well, ask God for strength. We’re all getting older, those who have come through the worst part, the Apostasy. But even after being on a long journey and a long battle it’s easy to begin letting up if we’re not careful. You’ve got to fight until this is over with.

Only do not rebel against the Eternal, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them. “They’re to be eaten up in front of us.” What an incredible confidence, a boldness to know this. This is what they felt, Joshua and Caleb. That’s why they were so incredibly blessed by God, because they took this stance, did the things that they did, lineage was blessed because of them. Incredible, the things that took place. Gives me chills.

That confidence. It’s in front of us, it’s ours to have, for the right reasons – because God’s given it to us. How blessed are we?

Only do not rebel against the Eternal, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the Eternal is with us. Confidence!

A lot of what we’ve gone through in the last series and this series is about understanding this – we are so blessed to be every moment of every day in the presence of Almighty God. The world isn’t, if you understand what I’m saying. We are literally in a personal spiritual presence with God all the time wherever we are, and God awaits every moment that we pray to Him and have a conversation with Him. Short, doesn’t have to be a long, long time. Whatever it might be, at anything that comes into the mind and you talk to God about it, say something to God about it, He wants that. He desires that. Gives us strength because of those things. It’s pleasing to Him.

Do not fear them. And all the congregation said to stone them with stones. I mean, what an incredible thing! They stand up and it’s like, “Kill them! Put them to death.” I mean, what kind of rage is that? What kind of thinking is that? Well, we’ve experienced those kinds of things in a different plane than the world as far as the world is.

Just like with the title of the book and when it comes out there are going to be some people that don’t like what they see and what they hear just because of what’s been said. So, not going to be pleasant. It’s going to become harder. There are going to be some battles that are going to be harder because of it because this is it.

If you know that, you understand that, you realize that there is going to be some backlash because of those things because the world doesn’t want this. The world, especially this country…and not going to be popular. So, the mind has to be so set we’re there. We’re almost there. It’s just right around the corner, just right across the border and we’re there. What an awesome thing. Battle? Yeah, there’s going to be a battle.

So, that’s a part of what God is telling us right now, there is a battle ahead of us. It’s not easy; you’ve got to fight. We’re going to have some of the greatest fight we’ve ever had since you’ve been in the Church. Truly are. Because again, it’s a new phase we’re about to go into. Because when these things begin happening this is when it gets harder. But God’s there. He’s there to give protection, He’s there to give help, and your confidence and your peace of mind in that, you can be so strengthened in that in ways you don’t comprehend yet.

You’re going to be able to experience things that you’ve never even thought about that are going to help you to feel that closer, stronger relationship with God than ever before because of the victories, because of the things He’s going to give you and intervene for you in your life. But you have to be determined that you’re going to fight.

Israel, they weren’t ready to fight. They were ready to head back to Egypt. “Give us another leader, let’s head back. Stone, kill those that get in our way. We don’t like what Joshua and Caleb have to say. Just put them to death!” Mind-boggling.

Then the glory of the Eternal appeared in the tabernacle of the meeting before the children of God. It happened before, something that no human beings had ever seen. Now He, God, manifested things in a physical plane because that’s all they could see, so He had to deal with them on a physical plane. Just like Mount Sinai, had to be on a physical plane that scared the you-know-what out of them, where their legs would shake, and probably did, a few of them. That’s how scared they were when they saw these things taking place because they’d never seen that kind of power. And to think “This is God? This is the God that led us out of Egypt?” And so, here is what’s happening, this is starting to manifest certain things that they can see right there at the tabernacle again.

Then the Eternal said to Moses, How long will these people reject Me? Well, we learn, don’t we? We learn that these things just go on. They even happen in God’s Church. How long will people continue to reject? How long? It’s just the way it is and so we have to be determined, “That’s not going to happen to me. I know it’s not going to happen to me.” Conviction. Absolute conviction no matter what happens it doesn’t matter what happens, and it’s going to get bad.

How long will these people reject Me? How long will they not believe Me? That’s what it comes down to. I think, I hope we understand with us it’s far, far worse because we have that power living within us, that mind, the spirit of God Almighty. Not just baptized and given the impregnation of God’s holy spirit but we have a supply of His spirit day by day as we cry out for that help.

So, we have no excuse, truly. But if we get cut off because of something else and begin to turn away from for whatever else, the battle is too hard, it’s too long, whatever it might be…? You keep fighting.

How long will they not believe me, with all the signs which I have performed for them?

We’re going to stop there today because I’ll tell you what, what is mind-boggling to me is all the truth that God has given to us. Because it’s the truth that reveals what God is doing, and if we grasp those things we’ve been given so much. I hope we can comprehend that, that what Paul, what Peter, what the apostles had, what the Church had at that time, they didn’t have what we’ve been given in this age because it wasn’t time for that yet. If we could just grasp how richly blessed we are and to have that confidence that goes with it then this is it, we fight and we keep moving forward.