Can These Bones Live?

Ezekiel the prophet (7th C BC) records in his Book that he was taken in a vision to a valley full of dry bones. And the Spirit of the Lord was upon him.

The Spirit took Ezekiel on a tour, so he could appreciate the vast numbers of bones lying scattered in this valley:  ^“He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry.”  (Ezekiel 31:2)

Then Yaweh asked probably the scariest question ever asked from the halls of heaven: “Son of man, can these bones live?”

Mindful of his skin, Ezekiel prudently replied, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.” (Ezekiel 31:3)

The Prophetic In Action

The Lord responded, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!  This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life.  I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.”  (Ezekiel 31:4-6)

Ezekiel prophesied to the bones as he was commanded, and while he watched, the bones were re-united and were covered in flesh, tendons and skin.  But the bodies were still dead.

Then Yaweh ordered the prophet to prophesy again.  “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: ‘Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’  So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.”  (Ezekiel 31:9-10)

Two things are demonstrated here:

• The fruits of obedience – even (and most notably) in situations where all appears to be lost.  God requires our participation in His workings in our world.  The fruits of that participation are immeasurably beyond anything we could conceive – or achieve – alone.
• “God appears at midnight”.  This phrase has a special meaning for me personally, but it is true for all of us.  The Almighty will oftentimes allow things (that the world brings upon itself) to get really messy before He steps in.  Sadly, as was demonstrated time and time again in Old Testament history,  when all was going well, the nation backslid and sought other ‘gods’.  Then when the results of that dishonor overwhelmed them, they were ready to turn back to Him.  That is true of us all.

The Father requires us to honor Him.  Those intent on rebellion hate this prospect because their fixation is upon honoring themselves – a truly futile pursuit.  They do not realize that Jesus knew precisely what he was saying when he said to the Jewish elders, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  (John 8:32)

In this encounter, Yaweh explained to Ezekiel that he was showing the restoration He would bring upon Israel – which at the time was in total ruin, and its people exiled in Babylon.  That restoration has taken place.

Today’s World

Such is the situation in today’s world.  The bones of great nations are being brought to the ground under the weight of the dry dust of a deathly ideology.  We are standing on the edge of a precipice in which true freedom is being challenged as never before.

The Presidential election in the USA – always a bastion of freedom no matter what leftist indoctrination is trying to teach – hangs in the balance.  And where the USA goes, ultimately goes the rest of the world.  That is the plan.  Saddest of all, Mainstream Media and the Education System are completely indoctrinated with it.

We need to prophesy and declare the opening of the eyes of those blinded by leftist propaganda and lies.  Education has slipped to the point where young people in America today have no knowledge of the heritage of their nation.  Sure, that heritage is not perfect, but unquestionably it is far better than the leftist alternative  Just look at the histories and present condition of ordinary people in those nations under Socialist aka Marxist domination – Venezuela, Cuba and China for example.

These ideologies talk ‘freedom’, but ironically all they bring is all-pervading graft, and slavery and suppression for the masses.

There is a penthouse in this ‘One World Order’ building – inhabited by the elite.  The masses live in poverty-stricken ‘equality’ in the basement.

We need to prophesy and declare the will of God in our present circumstances.  We need to declare revelation, and wise counsel for all mankind going forward.

An infusion of truth and wisdom is the only thing that will save.

PS: Free yourself from deception by totally avoiding the following media outlets which have now become leftist propaganda machines – CNN, MSN, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and many anchors on Fox. Do not pollute your mind – and note that the following platforms are heavily censored by leftists: Twitter, Facebook, Youtube. Google also tweaks results politically. That was abundantly evident even during the run-up to the 2016 US Election. Also beware of The New York Times and The Washington Post – both have lost all commitment to independent reporting (USAGM video).

Instead, check out NewsWars, Newsmax, The Epoch Times, One America News, Voice Of America, USAGM – for starters. Also Tierney Real News Network aggregation of news (a private site but WELL WORTH LOOKING AT). Especially their post HERE. I see their Facebook page has been closed down – that speaks for itself. Look also at Deep Capture – classical liberal overview from a tech perspective.

Christian: Breaking Christian News, CBN, Victory Update,

If you want a less censored social media platform, try Xapit (Christian based, no censorship – only general rules of good manners apply).

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My Word

Many of the most encouraging passages in Old Testament scripture are to be found in the Book of the prophet Isaiah.

Although there are many passages of ‘doom and gloom’, aimed at the stiff-necked, ever wayward Israelite people, Isaiah also came across with the most lyrical, heartwarming and encouraging of his prophecies for those that honor the Father.

“For as the rain comes down, and the snow from Heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”   (Isaiah 55:10-11)

There come times for all of us when we wonder if the Father is listening.  “Are you there, God?”  “Did you hear my cry?”

It pays to remember two things:

• Firstly, we are told to be careful  what we ask for, and what spirit we ask in:   “You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war.  Yet you do not have because you do not ask.   You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.   You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?    So whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”  (James 4:1-4)
• Secondly, we need to submit to the Lord’s timing.  “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.”  (Isaiah 55:8)    It is indeed helpful to do this: remember, God’s viewpoint is much wider than ours and – assuming our request is a good one – he may delay its manifestation for a very good reason that we are not aware of.  Have you never in hindsight thought, “Thank goodness that didn’t happen when I wanted it.”?

This is where it helps to remember today’s scripture.  God has promised that His Word will not return to Him void.  If we have not prayed amiss, we need to bear in mind that according to Jesus, our Father wants to give us beneficial things:

“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”  (Matthew 7:11)

So, search your heart and ask the Holy Sirit to show you if anything within you needs dealing with, then wait in patience and thanks-giving, knowing that His decree will not return to Him without achieving His purpose!

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Sun Of Righteousness

“But for you who fear my name, the Sun of Righteousness shall rise with healing in His wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.” (Malachi 4:2 – written 400 years before Jesus walked this earth)

Here we are in 2020, following an unprecedented Passover, with areas of the world still locked down and the roaring lion of Covid-19 still stalking abroad in search of someone to devour. We need to remember that on Easter Sunday the Lord fulfilled His promise and rose again, and that in the words of the beloved disciple, “greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.” (1 John 4:4)

This was probably the closest the world has ever yet been to Egypt at that first ever Passover, just before the final Plague was unleashed, and Pharaoh relented.

History tells us that Egypt was never the same again.

This scripture – and the image are very encouraging and, yes – take heart!

However, pay attention also to the fact that the scripture says “who fear my name“, and not “who once feared my name”.  There is a difference and its importance is crucial.

‘Once Saved, Always Saved’ – ?

Do not be deceived.  In the middle of the night a few nights back, I was suddenly struck with the need to create something along the theme of ‘Once Saved, Always Saved’.  I sat up in bed with a pen and paper and wrote down 10 scripture quotes and keys relating to this topic that came immediately to mind.

I know I shall have to create an image for the theme, and I have not done that yet, but twice in my brief Internet wanderings since then, this theme has resurfaced: so I must regard it as important, even urgent.

The urgency that comes to me over this is that many people are now being deceived by Bible quotes presented with deliberate intent to mislead, and by statements from lukewarm churches, into thinking that ‘all’s right with the world’ IF they have said the Sinner’s Prayer at some stage in the past, and/or if they “believe in God” and turn up at Church, regardless of what happens in their lives during the rest of the week.

An increasing certainty that this is yet another of the enemy’s end-time deceptions is fueling my sense of urgency on this.  Souls are at stake.

More to follow.

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Upon His Shoulder

In the 8th Century BC, the Judean prophet Isaiah foretold an inescapable time of trouble. His statement begins with a wail of anguish:

“Here I am with the children the Lord has given me. The Lord Almighty, whose throne is on Mount Zion, has sent us as living messages to the people of Israel..” (Isaiah 8:18)

One can almost hear him saying, “What on earth am I doing here among these stiff-necked people?”

He continues:

“But people will tell you to ask for messages from fortunetellers and mediums, who chirp and mutter. They will say, “After all, people should ask for messages from the spirits and consult the dead on behalf of the living.”

^“You are to answer them, “Listen to what the Lord is teaching you! Don’t listen to mediums—what they tell you cannot keep trouble away.  The people will wander through the land, discouraged and hungry. In their hunger and their anger they will curse their king and their God. They may look up to the sky  or stare at the ground, but they will see nothing but trouble and darkness, terrifying darkness into which they are being driven.   There will be no way for them to escape from this time of trouble.”  (Isaiah 8: 19 – 9:1)

Is this applicable to the inhabitants of Judea?  No doubt!  It came to pass for them a number of times.  It is even more applicable to the whole world situation in the present day.  Serious troubles have fallen upon the world in 2020: we are in a parlous state.

And what does ‘parlous’ mean, for those that know not? 

It means ‘full of danger or uncertainty; precarious‘.

How has this come about?  It has come about because over the past 50 years, Marxism has been making a stealthy, determined push to finally take over our world, under cover of a cloak called ‘Socialism’.  I have seen this (starting in the ’70s, though I did not know what it was at the time) in my own country – which is not USA.

Seeking God’s word and salvation is being ousted in favor of listening to the mutterings of ‘fortunetellers and mediums’ – the greatest of these being the popular Media: Note!   Make no mistake, what Isaiah describes above, translated into today’s setting, is called “Anarchy” (with a capital ‘A’): an outcome now being openly advocated and pushed shamelessly.  America is the current target, because from its very foundations (in 1620 – yes!) America has always stood for freedom – and believe me, Marxism, Socialism and Anarchy have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with freedom.

The upcoming election in America marks a clearer divide than ever before between the Abortion-pushing, Death-pushing policies now promoted by the Democrats, and the Republican policies that value Life and Freedom.  I am being ‘political’ here, for a purpose – because make no mistake, if the Abortion/Death platform wins in America, the next stop will be the rest of the world. 

And in NO COUNTRY that has ever been under the heel of Marxism (in whatever guise) has EVER been a blessing to its people.  Plenty of promises – ideology – yes;  but real benefits for the people?   No! 

Speaking of blessings, Isaiah goes on to prophesy the ultimate saving of the people by God’s gracious hand of mercy:

“For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.   Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end,”  (Isaiah 9:6)

No doubt the Judean hearers and readers of this prophecy understood it as applying to the nation of Israel.  It was part of the prophetic corpus of the Old Testament pointing towards the ultimate coming of the Messiah. 

But as with many prophetic passages of the Bible, there is an ongoing application that even now today is approaching its climax…

The prophetic Book of Daniel in its final chapter points clearly to a future fulfillment of prophecy:

“At that time the great angel Michael, who guards your people, will appear. Then there will be a time of troubles, the worst since nations first came into existence. When that time comes, all the people of your nation whose names are written in God’s book will be saved.   Many of those who have already died will live again: some will enjoy eternal life, and some will suffer eternal disgrace.  The wise leaders will shine with all the brightness of the sky. And those who have taught many people to do what is right will shine like the stars forever.”

 He said to me, “And now, Daniel, close the book and put a seal on it until the end of the world. Meanwhile, many people will waste their efforts trying to understand what is happening.”  (Daniel 12:1-4)

Do not YOU waste your efforts, Dear Reader.   Do not be misled in these crucial times.  As the above passage from Daniel, and many statements of Jesus and His apostles show, being saved into the Kingdom of the Prince of Peace at the end times is NOT automatic.  Any preacher or church that tells you it is, is completely off the rails.

Avoid them, for your own salvation.

Please hear me:   Seek the Lord while yet ye may!   (Isaiah 55:6)

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My Peace I Leave With You

“Glory to God in the highest, Peace on earth and goodwill towards men.” (Luke 2:14)

The first announcement of Jesus’ birth on earth was made with the blessing of Peace and goodwill.  Apart from the exegetical dramas that have ensued about who exactly is included in this blessing, the importance of the first heralding of peace is the attention it draws to who Jesus is and what He came for.

Having said that, Jesus Himself at one point appears to countermand this early promise:

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.  For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.  And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household.  Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.  And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.”  (Matthew 10:34-38)

What is going on?  Is the Bible not consistent?

I believe the Bible is totally consistent when we recognize that it represents 2 themes:

1. The love and care of the Creator God for His creation;
2. The wayward nature of man, who was granted free will and used it time after time (and continues to use it) in contravention of God’s plans and precepts for good.

These 2 themes run consistently throughout the Word.  Anyone who reads scripture with this conflict in mind has to come away with a true sense of wonder at how Father God has put up with us over the centuries, still puts up with us today, and still has plans for our redemption.

Jesus was in no way a man to compromise.   He knew that while His coming to earth was the fulfillment of His Father’s love for creation, the gift even of his own life would not be accepted by all.

Through the centuries, the prophecy he gave in Matthew 10:34-38 has been fulfilled over and over again.  Mankind has squabbled, fought and killed over His coming, over His words, and over their own doctrines about the meaning of what the Bible talks about.

Heaven help us!

Peace The Key

Peace is and always was the key.  In the Beatitudes, Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”  (Matthew 5:9)

Today, the world hungers for peace – at least, most people hunger for peace, although there are those who are hell-bent on pursuing anarchy and destruction.  Additionally, many don’t know that Jesus IS peace, and many don’t accept the need to follow Him in order to attain it.

But He said many times that peace and redemption begin in the heart – not in external things.

Although Jesus appears from scripture to use the greeting, “Peace be with you,” (recorded three times) – only after His resurrection, he gave an interesting instruction to His disciples on sending them out to preach the gospel for the first time:

“Now whatever city or town you enter, inquire who in it is worthy, and stay there till you go out.  And when you go into a household, greet it.   If the household is worthy, let your peace come upon it.   But if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you .  And whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet.  Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!”  (Matthew 10:11-15) 

This seems to indicate that the greeting He instructed them to give was indeed, “Peace be with you,” and that it was a greeting He used regularly.

Final Gift of Peace

Above all there is the well-known passage from John where Jesus at the Last Supper gave a blessing of Peace to His disciples:

“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”  (John 14:27)

We haven’t taken the necessary steps to fully accept and guard this gift of Peace  The world must pursue the Peace that Jesus was born with, and that He left to us just before He died for our sake. There is no substitute.

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Crying In The Wilderness

The prophet Isaiah (8th century BC) foretold the coming of a forerunner to Jesus Christ in the following words:
A voice of one calling In the wilderness
“Prepare the way for the Lord;
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” (Isaiah 40:3)

Isaiah’s 700 Year Prophecy – Gabriel

About 700 years later, an elderly, childless priest of Jehovah named Zecharaiah was ministering in the temple at Jerusalem when the angel Gabriel appeared standing at the right side of the altar. Gabriel spoke:

“Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God.   And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” (Luke 1:13-17)

Zecharaiah was filled with doubt, because on the facts before him this was a most unlikely happening – both he and his wife were old.   So he questioned the angel, who spoke the message again and then added,
“And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.”

Ouch!  It doesn’t do to doubt the word of the Lord!

Gabriel’s Prophecy Goes Ahead

So Zechariah was struck dumb – but the prophecy’s fulfillment continued. And when the promised child was born, Zecharaiah remained unable to speak until a controversy arose about naming the child. Then Zecharaiah called for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John,” and at that moment he was able to speak again.

John grew up, and “developed in body and spirit. He lived in the desert until the day when he appeared publicly to the people of Israel.” (Luke 1:80)

John The Baptist and Jesus

Meantime. Elizabeth’s cousin, Miriam, had given birth to a boy named Jesus – and John was to be His harbinger (forerunner).   John’s special ministry was to preach repentance to a nation spiritually in the wilderness, because their religious leaders, instead of leading the people in the spirit, had sold out to ‘The Law’ (Pharisees) and Mammon (Saducees).

In due course, “in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.   He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” (Luke 3:1-3)     

Note, Luke is very precise about the timing. Thanks to a number of excellent, contemporary Roman historians, the facts he quotes here can be verified historically to provide the dating for these events.

“People’s hopes began to rise, and they began to wonder whether John perhaps might be the Messiah.”  (Luke 3:15)

John replied:
“I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”  (Luke 3:17)

When Jesus began His ministry, John recognized Him publicly, and the story of Jesus being baptized by John is one of the best-known passages of the New Testament.

The Ultimate Fulfillment of John’s Prophecy

John The Baptist’s prophecy about Jesus is still in the process. At the end of Jesus’ 3 years of ministry, He foretold the coming of the Holy Spirit upon believers (John 14:21, Acts 2:1-4), and gave ‘the Great Commission’ to go forth and preach the Gospel.

When Jesus returns again, (Matthew 24:30-31) He will return not only as Victor, but as Judge – and “His winnowing fork will be in his hand”.   [my edit]

 

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Troubled Times

“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 7:1)

The questions that people were struggling with in Jesus’ day were in many ways just like the big issues we deal with today – oppression, poverty, inequality, racism, rioting and lawlessness, making ends meet, the future, how to live uprightly – let alone how to stay alive at all.

Israel was under the heel of the Roman Empire – a regime of unsurpassed cruelty, foreseen by the prophet Daniel in one of his night visions as “a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns. (Daniel 7:7)

Roman rule of its subject nations was harsh and uncompromising. The presence of its military must have been a continual cloud of oppression on the people – made even worse by by the alien religious beliefs of Rome, and a coinage that displayed the emperor as a god.

Any form of protest or rebellion was stamped out mercilessly, and it was this aspect of Roman rule that the Jewish religious authorities appealed to in persuading Pilate to crucify Jesus.

Roman taxes were levied on a populace already obliged to pay a tax to the synagogue.  Under this double burden, many people struggled to eke out a living.    In addition, small farms and horticulture were being swallowed up or outmaneuvered by rich landowners who could afford to buy or hire workers. Chicanery and double-dealing were rife in the market-place – neither Rome nor the synagogue elders were even remotely interested in fixing THAT problem.

The Jewish people hoped the Messiah would come on a white horse and lead them in battle to conquer their enemies, like Joshua and Gideon of old.   Instead, the Messiah came preaching that change must take place from within the heart.   The passage of time has brought a perspective that was lost on most people of the day:

“Together, the Beatitudes present a new set of ideals that focus on love and humility rather than force and mastery; they echo the highest ideals of Jesus’ teachings on spirituality and compassion” (Wikipedia).

To many of His hearers, the style of Jesus’ ministry came as a total shock.  Indeed, many followers started to fall away when He began to reveal the hard truths of his coming death.  You can almost hear ‘the worldly’ saying, “What good is a Messiah who is going to be put to death?”

Yet, in the 2000 years since Jesus proclaimed His message, some of the world’s greatest and most influential humanitarian thinkers and activists have adopted and followed His teachings – Ghandi, Tolstoy, Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela. 

Their examples, great as they were, have not been enough.

We need to return to the basic tenet of Jesus’ message – change must begin in the heart of every single one of us.  It is our individual responsibility – not someone else’s.

Blessings,

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