Revelation (d) The Rapture

This part of my article is going to focus on part #2 only.
Remember Part #1 of the three-part division is "the things which thou hast seen,' (which was about Christ).
Part #3 is 'the things which shall be heareafter,' this is everything that happens after the church is raptured, which includes all the chapters from Rev. 4-22.
Part #2 of the three-part key to the book of Revelation (which is what we're looking at in this article, using Rev. 2 & 3)  is, "write the things which are," (those things concerning the churches at the time he was writing, and all the churches throughout the Church age up to the rapture.
Remember in the book of Revelation, the word "church", or "churches" isn't used after chapter 3 and then but once in chapter 22 and it is used only as closing remarks. Why is the word "church" or "churches" not used after chapter 3? It is Biblically simple and scripturally noted..... because it is raptured, gone, snatched away. 
This is the only part of the entire book of Revelation that is now being fulfilled.  Is that crazy or what? All of the two thousand-or-so year history of the church, and all of the many events and happenings of the church have taken place in only these 2 chapters.  Geez talk about brevity.
Ok, so let's move on. Since we are still here, it is safe to conclude that the rapture has yet to take place.  While we are all to look forward to the coming of the Lord, there is still a perspective that we must maintain as earth dwellers. So I want to put the rapture into a perspective.
The greatest thing that ever happens in the church is what happens everyday throughout the world---it's when a sinner receives salvation. Nothing can ever top that. That's the purpose of the church and is also the highpoint of the church. Bringing forth new life, birthing new believers!
But the greatest unfulfilled event that will happen to the church is the 'rapture' of the body of Christ.  Jesus coming forth in the heavenlies, and saints being lifted off the earth into heaven within the twinkling of a eye is an "off the charts" experience. It is also called being translated, snatched away, the parousia, the rapture of the church. The idea of God transporting people off the earth to heaven is not limited to the one New Testament event we call "the rapture"; no, things like this happened in the Old Testament as well.
The first and most astounding example of this involves a man named Enoch, in the book of Genesis.  He was such a friend of God and a man who was righteous and holy in his lifestyle that he "walked with God 300 years and then...." he was not, for God took him"(Gen. 5:23-24). He did not die, he was not killed. God took him. He was translated from earth to heaven without dying. Being a good boy for 300 years is unimaginable for someone like me. I really think Enoch must have been a very special man. How did he stay out of trouble for 300 years and, here I can't do it for 365 days. Geez!
Later on in the book of 1 Kings, there was another man, Elijah. He was a great prophet who was also taken back to heaven by God without the instrument of death.  When Elijah was taken, he and Elisha his servant had been walking together when a fiery chariot came down from heaven and snatched him from earth and away he went as Elisha stood there watching him vanish into the heavens. This event is unique in that it involves an eyewitness account, which is pretty neat.
In 1 Corinthians 15:50-53, the apostle Paul tells us; "What I am saying, dear brothers and sisters, is that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. These perishable bodies of ours are not able to live forever. But let me tell you a wonderful secret God has revealed to us. Not all of us will die, but we will all be transformed. It will happen in a moment, in the blinking of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, the Christians who have died will be raised with transformed bodies. And then we who are living will be transformed so that we will never die. For our perishable earthly bodies must be transformed into heavenly bodies that will never die."(NLT)
 Here the scripture tells us that the remnants or ashes of christians who have gone on before us will be translated into new, heavenly bodies and will be joined to their spirit which is in heaven with the Lord. At the same time, in the twinkling of an eye, all living Christians will also be translated immediately, with them, to meet Jesus in the 'clouds' and together they will go into heaven (1 Thes. 4:17). Is that kool or what?
Let's conclude this article with Hebrews 11:5, where the apostle Paul makes it clear that even in the Old Testament this translation (or ressurrection, rapture, snatching away, parousia) experience was dependent on one special factor - 'faith.' The verse says, 'By faith Enoch was translated so that he did not see death, "and was not found because God had translated him," for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God'.
Enoch & Elijah were just normal human beings, and in one second, God simply and suddenly
snatched them away to another place. It will not be any more difficult for Him to perform such an event for every living Believer - in the twinkling of an eye - as it was for them.
(the next Revelation (e) article will explain the difference between the second coming of Christ and the rapture).

Duck Dynasty and Phil Robertson? part # 1of 5

Is America trying to rewrite the Bible? Various groups and individuals made a stink over Phil Robertson's statement characterizing homosexuality as a sin. Many of the homosexual organizations are claiming that Phil didn't accurately represent the Bible or the faith he professes. This attack is the latest in a "pro-homosexual trend" to discredit the accuracy, infallibility and authority of the Scriptures.
The problem is that what they are doing is to invalidate the need for repentance, forgiveness of sins and eternal salvation through Jesus' death and resurrection.
A person speaking on behalf of a group called GLAAD, a leading lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocacy group, said: "Phil's lies about an entire community fly in the face of what true Christians believe".  Liars, liars are they.
So we have a group of people who represent a sin, which God calls an abomination, telling us what the Bible means. Interesting?
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said in a news release, that Robertson didn't represent "people who consider themselves followers of Christ." Are they now speaking for me? They never asked me, and I am a follower of Christ? I agree with Phil, he represents me on this matter.
The new push to get people to accept this sin, against God's law of marriage, is to say that we are misusing the Bible and that the true interpretation of the inspired Word of God is that it is pro-homosexual. (Really?) Or maybe, and more truthfully than I want to admit, the gays have figured out that many of the people who "say they are Christians", do not know their Bibles very well at all, and the reason they are able to say whatever they want is because most of those so called Christians don't know what it says anyway.
Throughout the Bible, homosexuality is absolutely forbidden. We are told that those who practice it will not inherit the Kingdom of God, and that they are hell-bound in their homosexual practices (1Corinthians 6:9-10).
The Bible clearly tells us, in no uncertain terms, how God expects man to conduct himself. He has never requested that GLAAD, or some animal group, or any group explain what He has clearly written. The men responsible for giving the world God's Word are His holy, called men. We are not called to interpret His Word, we are called to preach it as He gave it. To teach it as He gave it to us. We are an ambassador of His Word and an ambassador does not redefine who he represents, he speaks only what is said by the one he represents. An ambassador never speaks for himself, only for whom he represents.
The problem in the church today is that pastors have grown too accepting of sin. The church is ducking the moral issues and the silence is advancing our moral decline. There are sins of comission and sins of omission and I believe that many of these cowardly pastors will be held accountable to God for what they are not saying.  Many people will die and go to hell from that silence, and the blood of those individuals will be on those Pastor's hands. Those who are truly called men of God need to stand together and teach what God has truly said. Let the words fall however they will on the members of the congregation. God's Word is a sifting word. It will sift out the true believer from the unbeliever.  His Word does that. We should all be modern day Lots who, in christian love, vex our souls because of the sins of men.
God places what He has to say on whom He wants and trusts to say it, (Romans 10:14) "How can they hear without a preacher"? How can God's Word bring conviction if it is not applied to the transgression by holy men who speak for God, with His impressive and unflinching anointing behind them.
The Bible says that the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be an offense to many. It says that the message of Christ in 1 Pet 2:8 is "a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence." We can now ask, to whom is God's Word a stone of stumbling or a rock of offense? The answer is "even to them which stumbled at the word, being disobedient."  This applies to homosexuals or anybody that finds God's Word has no sympathy with their transgressions and sins.
 We must face the bad news of our sin and depravity before we can receive the Good News of His loving forgiveness through repentance and faith in Christ. We must, in love, find the sinner, teach them God's hope, pray and lead them to forgiveness, and then go back out and do it time and time and time again. (next message: a scriptural explanation on the subject).

Revelation(c) - The Key to Revelation

Rev 1:19 Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter (KJV).
The (NLT) says it this way....."Write down what you have seen-- both the things that are now happening and the things that will happen later."
   Everything we do has a key to it. Cars require it to be engaged before you can start the thing or even get into it. We use keys to lock up our valuables. Songs are written in it. Without the key to a song,  you don't sing or play it properly. Well, the book of Revelation is no different. When God had the Apostle John write the apocalypse He gave him a key. Like an automobile, this literary key will help you unlock this marvelous book and provide smooth intellectual and apocalyptic understanding of what God is teaching in this study.
Thanks for joining me in this walk through the Word. Let's put the key into the book of The Revelation and open it for our understanding. The key is the three part division found in Rev. 1:19. "Write down the things, (first) which thou hast seen, (second) and the things which are, (third) and the things which shall be hereafter."
Because the book of Revelation is a succession of consecutive events from beginning to the end, the events are to be taken in the order as God gave them, and not according to some person's own whimsical or preconceived idea as to their occurrence. God clearly uses His written 'key' to explain the three time periods of how things will happen, as well as what will happen in each time period.
  Part#1 of the key to Revelation is, the things "which thou hast seen.' This is what John was seeing at the time of this vision. I believe it was so that John knew with certainty and unmistakable conviction that what he was about to write was given to him from the mind of Jehovah God.  So John's first vision is meant sell him on the magnanimity of the Author Himself, and the dependability of that source. This is no menial dream, make no mistake about it.  Jesus is saying to John, "you are writing about Me, and you know Me, but the Me that you know will be an obstacle as we proceed.  What you know of Me as Jesus the Messiah, the earthly Savior, will obstruct you concerning the universiality of the apocalypse - and the apocalyptice events forthcoming." So, Jesus appears to John in so much grandeur, and with so much glory and power, (and blows him up inside is head). John sees the magnificent vision of Christ in the midst of the candlesticks (Rev.1), the beloved of the Lord saw the cosmic Creator, the Alpha, the yesterday, today and forever; maybe we can call it a glimse of the Shikinah glory, and it was magnificent to him. So this first division of Revelation is 'the things which thou seest.'  Rev.1:19; 4:1.
Part #2 of the key is, "write the things which are," that is, the things concerning the churches then and those which should exist throughout the Church Age up to the rapture. This Part #2 includes Rev.2-3.  Special Note: This is the only part of the entire book of Revelation that is now being fulfilled. When the church is raptured  before the begining of the fulfillment of any detail of Rev. 4-22, the messages to the churches that exist at this time will cease to apply to the those left behind from the Rapture. The Church age will be finished and the things which must be fulfilled after, will begin to be fulfilled.
Part #3, the last part of the key is, "write the things which shall be hereafter." These are the things that take place with the churches remaining who have not been raptured. Everything that starts from Chapter 4 to the conclusion of the Book is considered in Part 3 (which is quite intense and something, I am certain, that none of us want to be here for!!)

Revelation (b) - About the Name

It is startling to me, that so many commentaries, studies and books name the book of Revelation: 'The Revelation of St. John the Divine', (after a man instead of Christ). I guess many of those authors never noticed that God, Himself, named the book in the very first verse, Rev.1:1, 'The Revelation of Jesus Christ.' The word 'revelation' and the word 'apocalypse,' are synonymous and are both derived from the Greek work apokalupsis, which means 'to unveil, reveal or uncover, lay bear, make naked' {Lu 2:32; Ro. 2:5; 1 Cor.1:7; 2 Cor. 12:7; Gal. 1:12} and numerous other references. The Hebrew origin means 'to lift up a curtain,' so as to clearly show what has been covered.
The Revelation had its beginning in the very mind of the Godhead. The Godhead is the trinity and this consists of the Father, the logos (the Son, Jesus), and the Holy Spirit. So Jesus had a part of the revelation in eternity past. But when He was born in the manger as the, 'baby Jesus,' He took on human flesh, emptying Himself of His divine position.  The word used for this is 'kenosis' which means 'to empty'. Our Savior set aside His power, knowledge, authority, His position as the logos, the creator and maker of everything that exists. For a time here on earth in the flesh He (Jesus) had no heavenly authority, He was simply human in His nature.  The Son of Mary and Joseph the carpenter, was born in Bethlehem and lived in Nazareth, giving up His heavenly position for the purpose of Calvary, so as to become the human sacrifice for the sin of Adam in the Garden of Eden. The whole purpose of His birth was to break the curse of sin and death.
I chose two scriptures to help our understanding of this 'kenosis', this emptying. The first description is found in Hebrews 2:7, "Thou madest him a little lower than the angels," and the other in Hebrews 4:15, "but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin".  These aren't exhaustive but they do capture a little of what He did, the 'emptying' we are explaining. The following are some other references on this subject; Rom8:3; Gal. 4:4; Phil. 2:7-9; Isa. 7:14, 11:1-2; Heb. 5:3; Isa 53:2-10; and last but not least Heb.10:5, (Is that a boatload of periods, commas and semi-colons or what)?
 Those thirty three and a half years of His life here on earth are referred to as His "Sonship." Before those 33 1/2 years, from eternity, He was the Logos, the Word. (Read John 1:1-14). As God, in the Trinity, He had no beginning (Mic. 5:2; Jn. 1:1-2). But as a man, He had a beginning, was begotten, was born and had a birthday, and became known as God's Son. Many scriptures tell us that the prophets foretold a time when God was going to have a son and where he would be born.  It would be through a virgin in the 'fullness of  the time,' (Gal. 4:4). He would be the son of humans and emptied for a time of His divine everything.
Now, Christ will always be referred to as Jesus, and numerous eternal titles for Him such as Prince of Peace, Messiah, Lamb of God, will eternally reference His work as our Savior on earth. But when God, in His time, works out all the details for the consumation of the ages, Jesus will return to His glorious position in the Trinity as "logos", to be adored by the universal family as 'the King of Kings and LORD of LORD's, of which we belong.
What's in a name? Well, let's just say that at the name of Jesus, EVERY knee will bow! (Phil 2:10)
(Next: 'The Key to Revelation'.)

Revelation (a)

I will be writing this blog series intermittently along with my regular blog, but this will be as a series on the book of 'Revelation'.  I hope you enjoy this series of writings and that they help you to begin your life as a 'watchman'. Yes, a watchman. He is the one assigned the task of looking, searching and penetrating the nothingness in order to observe the predator who has moved within it.
 A watchman's job is to watch and warn so that appropriate measures can be taken with reasonable speed and preparation.  Without an observant watchman, the enemy can come down quickly and we would find ourselves unprepared to take the proper measures, whatever those measures would be.
   So the word for you today, dear reader, is to be a 'watchman'! You are to have your saved and sanctified eyes on Jesus. Everything you do in life is to make sure that if Jesus comes, your reservoir of oil is with you and your lamps are filled to the brim. 
?What are you watching for you may ask? It might be better to note some of the things you are not watching for......you are not watching the nations. The news will never hurt you so long as you're not in it. The Jews in Jerusalem, or your personal friends are also not suspects. You are watching for the most dangerous enemy you will ever encounter other than the devil's minions themselves.
The enemy you are looking for is the one who will fail you in trials, will abandon you when he has sworn to stay beside you, or has gone to sleep when he has promised you he would stand guard faithfully for you...that enemy is as dangerous and unscrupulous as Judas, as deceitful as Tamar, as controlling as Jezebel and as unpredictable as the Pharisees and Sadducee's. The enemy you have to watch is, 'you'.....
There are seven churches in Revelation 2-3, each one receiving various warnings, but common to each one of them is this fact: they are all filled with 'you's.'  Yes 'you'...the born again and many times Pentecost-filled believers. And to each church there is a warning of a blight with those dear ones in those churches. God has something He needs to straighten out within those houses of worship. The 'you's' have stopped watching, lost focus, something has captured them other then Jesus Christ.
In this present "Church age" (which I believe is drawing to a close), you are responsible to guard your heart; to endure to the end, to hold fast, run the race, gain the prize. The Bible is filled with phrases teaching us that we are to be responsible 'watchman' to 'watch' our personal faith so that it stays strong against predators. 
So, before we begin Revelation, the warning must be to you, that little in Revelation and the study of it matters if you are not transformationally sound. If you are not right with Jesus and have less than an intimate, personally close, deep and warm relationship with your God, your Savior, then it would be wise for you to sit down and forget Revelation and get right first with the God who wrote it.

(Next article is "About the Name".)

Missing Our Greatest Breakthroughs? part 2

We left Part I of this blog by asking if we could be missing some of our greatest needed breakthroughs because we fail to fast. Earlier in the article we had talked about a three-twain cord (Eccl. 4:12). Well if you turn to Mark 4:8, 20, you can read of another three-twain reference which starts with a 30, 60 or 100 fold return. I like to think of it this way, when we pray, we get a thirty-fold blessing and when we give and are generous we get a sixty-fold blessing but if we pray, give and fast as a normal part of our lives, the hundredfold return can be released. If that is the case, you have to wonder what blessings are not being released.  What answers to prayer are not getting through? What bondage's are not being broken because we fail to fast?
Matthew tells the story of a father who had a demon possessed son.  I am sure many of you readers know the story, but if you don't and want to refresh it in your mind, it is found in Matthew 17. There were years of suffering for that father who stood by terror stricken as he watched his son suffer with severe convulsions.  As the boy grew older, the attacks became so brutal that the boy would often throw himself into a fire or at times try to drown himself. A spirit of suicide tormented him constantly. The whole thing came to a crisis point where it was life threatening.  He brought the possessed son to the disciples but those men knew only what Jesus had taught them to that point. I'm sure they prayed the best and hardest and with the most compassion that they could muster but it was to no avail. They didn't have a full tool box. You can only do the things you know...what you don't know, you can't do. Enter a perfect teaching opportunity where Jesus is in the vicinity and the
desperate father takes his son to Him.  He approaches Jesus and says, 'Lord have mercy on my son: for he is a lunatic, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water. And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him" (Matt.17:15).
At this time, Jesus, His heart full of love and filled with compassion and just about ready to burst out with mercy, tenderly greets the father.  Now the father is on edge because Jesus is a rabbi, and he himself a lonely broken and worn out old man. Jesus comforts that father, and the father now is drawing strength from the warmth and tenderness of the Messiah who welcomed him. Jesus asks him what it is that he is so distraught and in tears over and the father looks at the Master with lips quivering and eyes weeping, turns and points to his son who is now in a state of agitation because the devil in him knows who Jesus is!! (Remember this "bondage maker" is a created being from yesterday past and this devilish thing knows exactly who Jesus is.) The Lord goes over to the boy, "rebukes the devil; and he departed out of him, (v.18).
But what made the difference? After all, Matthew 10:1 tells us that Jesus had given the disciples power to cast out evil spirits and to heal every disease.  So why couldn't they cast out the demon and cure the son from this terror? The disciples came to Jesus later that night and asked Him.  Lord, why not us? Jesus told them, "Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting" (Matt. 17:20-21).
OK, we have all read this section many times and if you ask most readers they will focus on the statement, "and nothing shall be impossible unto you." I have preached on this same thing before as well. Jesus told them they needed faith and with that, just the faith of a mustard seed. But that wasn't the whole of the matter.  A while before this incident at the beginning of Jesus' ministry the Holy Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert for forty days and forty nights. ?Do you remember that? What did Jesus do while out in that desert?  He prayed and fasted...He the Master miracle worker, the Creator of all things, was in the desert for forty days and nights fasting...giving up food and comfort. Yes, He just didn't give up food...he fasted companionship, a soft, comfy bed and blanket, He fasted social happenings and friends....come' on work with me here. What is out in the desert that's fun?
......"howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting."  For our Savior, casting out that stubborn demon wasn't impossible at all.
But here is the lesson for us...if Jesus could have accomplished all that  He came to do among men without fasting, why would He fast?  The Son of God fasted because it powered Him up! He was juiced after and during a fast. Supernatural things were released that way...The hundredfold was released in him so that what He did in private (fasting) was seen openly in (miracles).
see you in part 3of 4.

Missing Our Greatest Breakthrough part #1 of

We all have some things that cause us to miss the greatest breakthroughs needed in our lives. During this series of articles that I'll be doing during the weeks of January/2014, I will be blogging my little fingers off about fasting.
I believe in it...I believe it is a powerful tool to help God's people receive a bunch of blessings. Yeah....a bunch. Fasting is good for the body...it is tremendous to the soul, it is impressive to God and it is even better as a game changer in life.
Let's clear the air about what a fast is. Refraining from food is not a fast. That is a diet. But refraining from food for a spiritual purpose.....that dear one's is a fast. From a biblical perspective, fasting has and is to be a normal part of a strong and vital relationship with God. David, the Goliath killer,
communicates that to us in Psalms 42 where he credits fasting (42.1-3) as the means to having a deeper(42.7), more intimate and powerful relationship with the Lord.
When a person deliberately, and with a purpose for spiritual growth, eliminates food from his/her diet for a given period of time, that person's spirit becomes uncluttered by the things around them and super sensitive to God. As David stated, "Deep calls unto deep"(Ps 42.7). David was fasting. His hunger and thirst for God exceeded his basic desire for food. That kind of want for God made it so that he could find God's presence and comfort in any situation. Even when Absalom forced David into a short term exile from his God-appointed throne in Jerusalem.
For anyone who has ever experienced an intimate relationship with the Lord and the numerous blessings that come with His favor--your whole perspective of life changes. You are not a victim anymore and you will never be conquerable anymore. You realize that His favor has come, in a huge part, from fasting. 
During Jesus' ministry on this planet, one of things He did was to teach and demonstrate to His disciples the principles of the kingdom of God. If you've spent any reasonable time in your Bible, you know that those principles conflict with the worldly life of today - and of back then. Jesus taught a tremendous message titled 'the Sermon on the Mount' (Matt. chpt 5-7). In chapter 6, He teaches us the pattern by which each of us is to live as a child of God.  That pattern deals with three main issues of a Christian's duty: giving, praying and fasting.  The Bible records Jesus' words this way, "When you give..."When you pray"....and "When you fast." Making it perfectly clear to everyone, that fasting, giving and praying are to be a normal part of a Christian's life.
King Solomon, earlier in biblical history wrote a book for all of Israel to read and learn from. In that book he made a very special point about strength. He uses a rope(cord,wire) for his example. You can find this illustration for yourself in Eccles. 4:12, where Solomon says, "a person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord(rope, wire) is not easily broken" (NLT). And that is the way it is when giving, praying and fasting are joined together in the life of a believer. It creates a trilogy of actions and efforts, a three-twain cord that is not easily broken. Do you remember when Batman was on TV every week? They would put up the words; "Bang, Bam, Boom" when he and Robin were in a skirmish. These three words described-with excitement- Batman and Robin's conflict and their beating up on their opponents.
Well to the Devil,  it is not "Bang, Bam, Boom",  it is praying, fasting and giving. Through these three, we open the pathway to victory in our lives. To the victor goes the spoils, [so we get to drive off in the batmobile!] Could it be, oh lover of Christ, that we may be missing our biggest breakthroughs because we fail to utilize all three of these amazing tools? More specifically: fasting.
C u in part 2.