WIGD – WEEK ONE
W.I.G.D. – an acronym (blame me for one more acronym) for WHAT IS GOD DOING – in these days, in the saints individually as well as corporately, and in the world as the clock ticks towards the end of this age.
These are NOTES from a SPOKEN class, and as I’ve written them as such, please bear with me re some typos or strange numerations, etc. But I did want to get the notes posted for folks who like written notes.
The audio recordings are following up, for now available at ez3728.podbean.com
They might eventually be available on the facebook page ez3728 as well.
These are the notes from the first of four planned class sessions.
What Is God Doing These Days?
THE PLAN is for us to look at the word of God, for the next 4 sessions, and learn what our great God has told us HAS TO HAPPEN as the end of this age comes upon us – and from that place I believe we will be able to get a clearer picture re what is happening right now.
THE PLAN is to not necessarily point to ISIS, the decay of Western society, corruption in world govt, bizarre weather patterns, increased plagues, moral decline in society, etc as symbolic of the end of the age coming upon us – but all that and more are wake-up notices straight out of scripture to both:
ALERT THE SAINTS to get them praying and on-track w the work of the Lord in these times; AND
WAKE UP THE UNSAVED to recognize their desperate need for salvation.
MY HOPES are that you become more and more convinced of the glory and beauty and accuracy and power of the Word of God – that you become addicted to it, so that it takes over your mind, and your thought processes – that you don’t just look AT IT or get INTO IT, but that it overwhelms and GETS INTO YOU so that your thought processes and the mind of Christ become nearly inseparable, so that HIS word overtakes YOUR philosophy. That’s when things get great!
SOME FOUNDATIONAL STUFF – re this class:
1. PACE OF THIS CLASS – There is no POINT A or POINT B – other than POINT A being where we are in God’s timeline, and POINT B being the return of our Lord – so when FOUR WEEKS are done, we’re done. That means I definitely ought to be able to NOT TALK at break-neck pace.
I am trying to deliver this message as a progressive and flowing revelation as opposed to charting out “Let’s look at Revelation chapter so-and-so-to-chapter-so-and-so”.
Instead, I am praying that there will be a flow of revelation into this teaching as we ourselves flow and transition to and from multiple related issues pertaining not only to the TIME in which we are living, as if they were organizational bullet points, but rather that the revelation of the class will be to initiate us and acquaint us w how the Spirit would want us to peer into and digest ANY scripture on ANY matter.
A BIG BOTTOM LINE FOR THIS CLASS:
I believe that what God is doing NOW is to try to get the Spirit-led sons (and daughters) of God to become more acquainted w actually being Spirit-led, Spirit-obedient, and Spirit-driven.
THE END TIMES PLAN IS ABOUT PEOPLE. Events and Shakings are the tools to get to the People. That means US as well as the UNSAVED.
Our gathering together for these times, IN PART, is part of that process.
IN FACT, I BELIEVE PAUL TELLS US THAT THIS ENTIRE AGE IS ABOUT PEOPLE. GOD IS ABOUT PEOPLE:
Acts 17:26-31
” 26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings,
27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;
28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’
29 Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising.
30 Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent,
31 because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.””
THAT, is the gospel..
(We’ll go deep in Matthew 24,25,26 next week or so…)
MATT 24 – Keystone for End Times. But remember about CHAPTERS… 25 and 26 are part of the same conversation. They reveal not only “END OF AGE” but going into the next Age, whic I believe is the very next millennium – The Kingdom Age.
But for now:
Matthew 25:19-23
” 19 After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them.
20 “So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’
21 His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’
22 He also who had received two talents came and said, ‘Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.’
23 His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’”
There are many more scriptures re our reward, and positions w the Lord after His return. I believe they are all telling us the same thing: once He returns there will be plenty to do. The government will be upon HIS shoulders, but the prepared, the trustworthy, the refined, the humble and the trained will rule w Him to varying degrees. Well plan to build on this later weeks.
God is working IN US and ON US to craft, test and grow our STEWARDSHIP, so that we can enter the joy of the Lord in the fullness of our destiny reward…..
TO THAT END, for us to understand and embrace a little more of the whole plan..
There is a place of revelation available to us that literally goes beyond facts and figures and a timeline. THAT is where I want to get in this class.
This is not intended as a cop-out to my lack of preparation (a good of prep) or structure, but rather I am looking for us to get to a place of revelation, in many ways akin to how I believe God has even chosen to write things out for us, through the entirety of Scripture. God is into mystifying us w the unveiling of His plans:
Ps 72:18
Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, Who only does wondrous things!
THE CONCLUSION OF THIS AGE – OF COURSE we would be wise to anticipate that the very most important event in the history of this age will be WONDER-FUL. FULL OF WONDERS.
ISA 9:6
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful
2. LIST – If you are not yet on the class list and want my notes, write your name and email address clear enough so it can actually be read, and I will add you to that list.
If you are already on the class list, no need to write your name again.
3. NEWBIES ALONG THE WAY – If you know anyone who wants to come to later classes, that works fine for me. I also know that some of you will not be able to attend all four sessions. I am crushed. Seriously – I get it. It is what it is.
4. BIBLE VERSION – I will be teaching from the NKJV of the bible. Bring w you whatever you like. BRING SOMETHING.
There will be LOTS OF BIBLE taught here.
LOTS OF BIBLE is the safe place. All the other stuff that is proclaimed over the pulpits will come and go. If it is bible-centric, fine. If not, toss it out. Philosophy will bow to the word of God some day. All the rhetoric, theories, good arguments, etc. are ETERNALLY worthless.
Tremble at WHAT IS WRITTEN in the Word of God.
BUT don’t tremble about reading or understanding it. Like everything else in your walk, plunge into it in faith.
And DONT TREMBLE at goofy stuff you hear in church. If it ain’t Bible, it ain’t worth trembling over.
That’s yet another reason why you want to know what’s in your bible, so you can know what’s NOT in your bible…
GOD wants you to know His word. His Spirit will open it up to you, as a reward for your diligence and humility and teachability.
NOTES – I will try my best to get my notes to you PRIOR to the class, and that way to you can read them and track along. THEY MAY MORPH WEEK TO WEEK, if I happen to send you notes in advance…
Pardon the typos. Each time I read my own notes I find more…
Also – if You like I can send you updated notes either after each class or at the end of the last session, since they’ll contain more stuff or modified stuff. In those would sometimes be (NIYN) notations. Not In Your Notes.
BOLDS, and LITTLE WORDS, etc in my notes: If you are reading my notes, then the LITTLE words are scriptures I’ve included in here for your reading convenience, but don’t necessarily plan to be speaking, since they are not specifically necessary w my teaching point. Also, most all of the underlining and emboldening is for MY convenience, as I teach and speak – in hopes I don’t miss something I want to point out or emphasize.
OVERHEADS – As of the time of this preparation, I DO NOT plan to present my notes as overhead slides – it makes for a lot more work and since you ought to have the printed notes, you’ll do fine.
5. THE “IN THE SAME BOAT” DISCLAIMER: ME – I always say this but want to say this again – I am not presenting information, or revelation, as if I have somehow attained completion.
I am in this w you all. As a teacher, God has blessed me w a certain level of understanding of the things of the Kingdom, and the Scriptures. And I do choose to dig, appreciating there’s opportunity as well as serious need to increase my understanding.
That goes for any/all of us who’ve been in the Kingdom any length of time – we’re invited to use our time wisely.
But anything I might understand, or even teach well, doesn’t mean that I personally have this wired, and the fact that I MAY understand some of these principles pretty clearly actually makes me MORE ACCOUNTABLE to be living them out.
So do pray for me. I don’t take teaching lightly, and I am painfully aware of my own shortcomings.
I AM GETTING WORKED OVER PREPARING THIS CLASS. I’ll pray and write and read etc, and AFTER THAT the Lord will speak to me more. I know He’s stretching my ability and willingness to flex and continue to receive input AFTER “I’m done”.
Still, God is good to me and He is good to you – so we all know that as we continue on this
Journey-Of-Discovery, we will all be blessed and we will all be transformed, by Him. THAT is why we are here – to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, to have our minds renewed, to be transformed by His Spirit as we dig into the glorious things of the Kingdom, knowing by faith we will find the King there.
OK?
ONCE AGAIN – THE PLAN is for us to look into the word of God, for the next 4 sessions, and learn some of what our great God has told us HAS TO HAPPEN as the end of this age comes upon us – and from that place of understanding HIS OVERALL PLAN, I believe we will be able to get a clearer picture re what is happening right now.
God’s end time plan is not an easy plan or a simple plan, or something anyone will simply skate through – nor easily absorb on some “fly-by” approach. It wasn’t intended to be that way – so the matter of quick “take-aways” from this class might be frustrating, although there will be some.
Because what God has laid out for us is not an easy or simple plan, that opens the door for all sorts of silly, easy doctrines. But the safe place is for us to want accuracy, even if it is tough to hear .
We’re not out to make things HARD for “HARD’S SAKE”. But at the same time, anything less than biblical accuracy will eventually place us into the most difficult situation imaginable – un- preparedness, and even being susceptible to us taking offense at God.
RE: end times – There’s a GLIB DOCTRINE called: “Pan-Millennialism” – meaning – IT WILL ALL PAN OUT. This is actually true – what God has determined to happen, will happen.
But the concept of Pan-Millennialism is sadly simplistic, sarcastic, and naive.
The Scriptures clearly tell us some believers will fall from their steadfastness, some will stumble, some will be deceived, some will be discouraged – all of which ARE avoidable.
PETER LAID OUT A PROGRESSIVE-maturing process in 2 Peter 1, and then said: ” if you do these things you won’t stumble”. Mr. Pre-Holy-Spirit-Stumble said that! by the time. He wrote his letters, he understood stumbling was avoidable…
Others, in ignorance or having been taught wrong, will be offended by what God is doing because they themselves did not bother investigating IN ADVANCE what the Word tells us.
Others will even turn on their brethren. Much of the global church will become aligned w the plans of satan and morph into the Harlot of the book of Revelation.
So “PAN-MILLENNIALISM” is true in that it all WILL HAPPEN, whether we know what’s happening, or not.
But in that “truth” lies another sobering truth – THE OUTCOME OF OUR FAITH, our success or failure, our good or poor decisions, and/or our realizing our full potential for Christ, can and will be affected.
QUITE IMPORTANT FOR US TO KNOW is that the end-times plan of God is not simply FOR US or HAPPENING AROUND US, but it actually a plan that has to occur IN US. He is all about preparing the saints for our victory. We’ll look at that time and time again as we get into Zephaniah and other places to see what kind of people we simply HAVE TO BECOME in order to inherit the earth.
Look at this END OF STORY REVELATION ( not in your notes):
Revelation 21:2-3
“2 Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
3 And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.”
And look at this (also not in your notes):
Deuteronomy 4:34-36
“34 Or did God ever try to go and take for Himself a nation from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?
35 To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord Himself is God; there is none other besides Him.
36 Out of heaven He let you hear His voice, that He might instruct you; on earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words out of the midst of the fire.”
The end-times plan of God is about PEOPLE, not about signs and wonders. He has always been about people.
He manifests signs and wonders to accomplish His goals of crafting for Himself A PEOPLE…
ANOTHER POINT RE PAN MILLENIALISM and us either knowing, or doing, nothing – knowing nothing, and/or doing nothing, is not a plan for success. It has always proven to be a plan for failure.
THERE IS NO “DUMB CARD” to play. “I didn’t know” (when we COULD/SHOULD know) is not good.
Peter tells us this (we’ll be in this epistle in depth, during these coming weeks):
2 Pet 1:2-11
2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,
3 as His divine power has given (NOTE: TENSE) to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, (and how are “ALL THINGS” realized?) through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,
4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
(A WONDERFUL PROGRESSION THAT WE WILL NOT LOOK AT IN DEPTH)
But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge,
to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness,
to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.
For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in
the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.
10 Therefore, brethren (he’s writing to saints, who can be short-sighted to blindness, by their choices), be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; ( there it is!)
11 for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
There is a place of diligent pressing-in that will assure us of our success. It is linked to an “IF” on our part. “IF you do these things…….”
And we want to make it, successfully, and we are told that will take a prepared, sanctified, sold- out and ready people.
THE REALLY GOOD NEWS is that:
1. The ones who are IN Him, WIN; AND
2. God has already laid out for us everything we need in order to be successful; AND 3. He is working w us for us to win
(Matt 12:20-21) A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench, till He sends forth justice to victory; AND
4. In His word is the entire ACTION PLAN – both for God, and also for us.
THE PLAN FOR THIS CLASS is for us to identify what God has told us HAS TO HAPPEN, so that we might be a more knowledgeable, more rooted and grounded in His Word so that we are
less moved by CIRCUMSTANCES and SITUATIONS and
more moved by His HOLY SPIRIT as He moves upon us.
THE END TIMES PLAN OF GOD includes the active participation of the saints.
It is not simply about us not falling away and/or not being offended. He has chosen to INCLUDE us IN THE ACTIVE PLAN. It is actually quite amazing – because God does amazing things – and because His desire is for His people, His bride, to share in the work of glory.
It’s funny – sometimes we think about the concept of “KNOWLEDGE OF GOD” and we have this emotional knee-jerk response, as if knowledge and faith or knowledge and being spirit-led are polar opposites, and that “knowledge” means “intellectualism”.
That is a lie.
“KNOWLEDGE”, biblically, has a way deeper meaning that facts and figures.
HEBREW –
yada” means knowledge, as in Abraham knowing Sarah and her getting pregnant w Isaac. There is an intimacy and an emotional bond that comes w biblical knowledge.
I KNOW the NT was not written in Hebrew, but let’s see how Paul and Peter addressed the “knowledge” issue, and whether they wrote it off as intellectualism:
2 Pet 1:2
2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,
Col 1:9-10
9 For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
10 that you may have a walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
(Gr – epignosis – implying an understanding of things that were divine)
PAUL – who totally KNEW the scriptures, but without divine revelation concluded it was righteous to persecute and kill believers in Jesus, got to this place re REALLY KNOWING, and Really Knowing the value of KNOWING:
Phil 3:7-15
But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.
Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ
9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;
10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,
11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
So: LORD WE WANT TO KNOW!
We want to know You, Your living word, Your plans for this age.
Part of our preparedness is our DAILY understanding that we are not living in a passive or static spiritual environment.
“SATAN” is a Hebrew word. It means “adversary”. (h7854 – Strong’s) EXAMPLES of “adversary” beyond the fallen angel we call Satan:
IKing 11:14
14 Now the LORD raised up an adversary (“h7854 – “satan”) against Solomon, Hadad the Edomite; he was a descendant of the king in Edom.
Num 22:32
32 And the Angel of the LORD said to him, “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to stand against (h7854 – be “satan” against) you, because your way is perverse before Me.
FOR OUR PURPOSES and most purpose of scripture: Satan is a title for the devil – who comes before God in the book of Job, to accuse Job, and continues to relentlessly come against all the works of God, oftentimes coming into the church w bad doctrines and philosophies.
THAT IS ANOTHER REASON FOR US NEEDING TO KNOW what the Word DOES SAY, so we can identify what the Word DOES NOT say, when goofy stuff gets presented to us.
We cannot anticipate success if we do nothing.
We have an active ADVERSARY who is so disobedient to God that he takes no Sabbath, and is therefore coming against God, and all of the plans of God for His people, 24/7.
Unless we determine to be fully equipped, we will not be fully equipped. HENCE – our being here, and our pressing in.
ARMOR OF GOD verses conclude w this:
Eph 6:12-13
12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
(ACTION-RESPONSE to the revelation of v 12)
13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Satan has schemes. God has plans.
GOD’S PLANS are in SOME WAYS very CLEARLY laid out, and in other ways, NOT VERY CLEARLY laid out. Both are purposeful.
He wants us understand what He wants us to understand: WHO HE IS
HOW HE OPERATES, and
WHAT HE EXPECTS OF US.
Some of those understandings are “SCRIPTURES” themselves – you can simply READ A VERSE and understand the point.
EXAMPLES of absolute clear directives:
QUES – do I need to be holy?
1 Pet 1:15-16
15 but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,
16 because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”
QUES – can I get saved by bowing and worshipping anyone else?
Acts 4:12
12 “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
QUES – can I worship another god? Would our God be OK w that?
Exod 34:14
14 ‘for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God,
The ABOVE verses are reasonably clear and inarguable.
LESS OBVIOUS – NOT-one-verse-truths
There are other things that God wants us to know that purposely MIGHT NOT be as obvious as being laid out word-for-word in a scripture, and yet they become obvious when a person chooses to dig deeper and press into the word of God and then discovers HOW God has continued to operate over the ages.
There are revelations and understandings that God has determined would be mined by those choose to dig a deeper.
SIMPLE EXAMPLE: Escalated Action By God.
I don’t know of any ONE VERSE that says:
“BEHOLD, I AM A GOD WHO ESCALATES MY ACTIVITY IN DEALING WITH PEOPLE”, and yet time and again we see this happening both by SITUATIONAL EXAMPLE and also by DECLARATIONS AND WARNINGS that clearly point to this truth.
EXAMPLES of escalated action by God:
Lev 26:13-46 – A WARNING OF ESCALATION
13 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves; I have broken the bands of your yoke and made you walk upright.
‘But if you do not obey Me, and do not observe all these commandments,
and if you despise My statutes, or if your soul abhors My judgments, so that you do
perform all My commandments, but break My covenant,
16 I also will do this to you: I will even appoint terror over you, wasting disease and fever
which shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for
your enemies shall eat it.
17 I will set My face against you, and you shall be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you shall reign over you, and you shall flee when no one pursues you.
18 ‘And after all this, if you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.
19 I will break the pride of your power; I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze.
20 And your strength shall be spent in vain; for your land shall not yield its produce, nor shall the trees of the land yield their fruit.
21 ‘Then, if you walk contrary to Me, and are not willing to obey Me, I will bring on
you seven times more plagues, according to your sins.
22 I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, and make you few in number; and your highways shall be desolate.
23 ‘And if by these things you are not reformed by Me, but walk contrary to Me,
24 then I also will walk contrary to you, and I will punish you yet seven times for your sins.
25 And I will bring a sword against you that will execute the vengeance of the covenant; when you are gathered together within your cities I will send pestilence among you; and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.
26 When I have cut off your supply of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall bring back your bread by weight, and you shall eat and not be satisfied.
27 ‘And after all this, if you do not obey Me, but walk contrary to Me,
28 then I also will walk contrary to you in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven
times for your sins.
29 – 39 – (LOTS OF TROUBLES DESCRIBED)
29 You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters.
30 I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars, and cast your carcasses on the lifeless forms of your idols; and My soul shall abhor you.
31 I will lay your cities waste and bring your sanctuaries to desolation, and I will not smell the fragrance of your sweet aromas. 32 I will bring the land to desolation, and your enemies who dwell in it shall be astonished at it.
33 I will scatter you among the nations and draw out a sword after you; your land shall be desolate and your cities waste.
34 Then the land shall enjoy its sabbaths as long as it lies desolate and you are in your enemies’ land; then the land shall rest and enjoy its sabbaths.
35 ‘And as for those of you who are left, I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies;
36 the sound of a shaken leaf shall cause them to flee; they shall flee as though fleeing from a sword, and they shall fall when no one pursues.
37 They shall stumble over one another, as it were before a sword, when no one pursues; and you shall have no power to stand before your enemies.
38 You shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.
39 And those of you who are left shall waste away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands; also in their fathers’ iniquities, which are with them, they shall waste away.
40 ‘But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, with their
unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me, and that they also have walked
contrary to Me,
41 and that I also have walked contrary to them and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if their uncircumcised hearts are humbled, and they accept their guilt–
42 then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and My covenant with Isaac and My
covenant with Abraham I will remember; I will remember the land.
43 The land also shall be left empty by them, and will enjoy its sabbaths while it lies desolate without them; they will accept their guilt, because they despised My judgments and because their soul abhorred My statutes.
44 Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, nor shall I abhor them, to utterly destroy them and break My covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God.
45 But for their sake I will remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am the LORD.'”
46 These are the statutes and judgments and laws which the LORD made between Himself and the children of Israel on Mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.
ANOTHER EXAMPLE:
Amos 4:6-12 – NOW GOD GIVES A RECOUNT OF PAST ESCALATION:
6 “Also I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities. And lack of bread in all your places; yet you have not returned to Me,” says the LORD.
7 “I also withheld rain from you, when there were still three months to the harvest. I made it rain on one city, I withheld rain from another city. One part was rained upon, and where it did not rain the part withered.
8 So two or three cities wandered to another city to drink water, but they were not satisfied; yet you have not returned to Me,” says the LORD.
9 “I blasted you with blight and mildew. When your gardens increased, your vineyards, your fig trees, and your olive trees, the locust devoured them; yet you have not returned to Me,” says the LORD.
10 “I sent among you a plague after the manner of Egypt; your young men I killed with a sword, along with your captive horses; I made the stench of your camps come up into your nostrils; yet you have not returned to Me,” says the LORD.
11 “I overthrew some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a firebrand plucked from the burning; yet you have not returned to Me,” says the LORD.
12 “Therefore thus will I do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”
This is good to understand, so that we might learn to respond quickly to correction.
THIS IS WHY you want to PERSONALLY COMMIT to digging into the Word of God.
I assure you – you will find more than you are looking for. You will be overpaid by God.
This kind of “umbrella understanding” as to how God works assists us greatly in understanding some of the challenging portions of scripture, btw.
We’re ACCOUNTABLE, AND INVITED TO LEARN FROM WHAT HAS BEEN RECORDED FOR US – not necessarily by A SIMPLE VERSE that describes WHO GOD IS, but rather by a digging-deeper mindset and attitude to LEARN what GOD HAS DONE IN THE PAST, so we can move forward more effectively into the future.
A Favorite portion of scripture for me:
Jer 9:24-26
24 But let him who glories (boasts) glory in this, that he
A. understands and
B. knows Me,
(AND HERE’S WHAT HE NEEDS TO KNOW AND UNDERSTAND)
that I am the LORD, exercising
A. lovingkindness,
B. judgment, and
C. righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,” says the LORD.
END OF WEEK ONE…..
All scripture NKJV
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