Podcasts about lord's spirit

Protection And Provision For Man-child And Bride (3)  (audio) David Eells –10/15/23  The Man-Child Escapes  Anonymous – 2021 (David's notes in red)  I had a dream where I was watching in third person, a young man who had blonde hair and blue eyes. (This man represents the corporate Man-Child ministry who is submitted to the sun/Son with heavenly sight.)  The man stood in the lounge room of my Gramps. He was speaking the Real Good News to Gramps and the Holy Spirit moved upon him, and he fell to his knees looking at the ground, crying a godly cry and begging God for forgiveness and thanking Him for Jesus. He saw his sin and realized his desperate need for Jesus, and he called on our Lord with all of his heart, soul and body.  It was made known that he had surrendered his life to God. I then saw gold and white sparkles all around Gramps. This blonde man knew in spirit that he had to quickly leave. He left Gramps there with the Lord and went to go walk out the door. I felt that Gramps was about to be taken up to Heaven. (Heavenly places in Christ)   (Taken up to heaven represents being born from above in order to return there and given a new Spirit to be a new creature in Christ. Joh 1:12-13 But as many as received him, to them gave he the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.   Eph 2:4-6 but God, being rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace have ye been saved), 6 and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus:)  Just before he got to the door, he looked down the corridor to his left and saw Gramps' wife standing there with a furious facial expression. It felt that she had such hatred for him and wanted to kill him. Her eyes were red (meaning danger, violence and aggression) and the demons could be clearly seen in her.   The man quickly went out the door as she chased after him screaming at him in utter rage. I watched this man run down the street, and every person came out of their houses to try and get him. (Coming out of their houses and going after this man represents that they can no longer hold back the contempt they have for God. They are no longer being restrained.) All the people had either green (meaning envy or jealousy) or red eyes and the demons were clearly seen in them. They were all so angry and had such hatred. They were screaming and threatening. Some of the people had shovels, pitchforks and other items and acted as if they were ready to kill him.  (All these people represent those who are of the world with an antichrist spirit who hate the Word, and righteousness, like the factious, the apostate harlot church, those with a Jezebel spirit, and the beast. They are all used to persecute the Saints of God. In the Gospels, the Pharisees, and all the religious leaders plotted and sought to kill Jesus because of their jealousy. Jesus told His disciples that as they hated me, they will also hate you, because of me. Joh 15:18-25)  NENT Luk 6:22 Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall ostracize you and reproach, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake.  Rev 17:6 And I saw the woman [the harlot] drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. And when I saw her, I wondered with a great wonder.  All the people were acting like zombies, sort of like the zombies in the movie ‘I Am Legend'. They were fast and had so much supernatural energy and they could smell that this man was close and that's how they knew he was there. (Zombies represent all the ‘walking dead' who are of the worldly Beast; they are “dead” without eternal life because they do not believe in Christ. 1Jn 3:14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not abideth in death.  And in the Harlot church, Rev 3:1….I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and thou art dead.)   The blonde man was super-fast and no one could catch up with him. He ran past them all, not looking to the left or right or behind him. (Luk 4:28-30 And they were all filled with wrath in the synagogue, as they heard these things; 29 and they rose up, and cast him forth out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might throw him down headlong. 30 But he passing through the midst of them went his way.)  The man's presence felt pure, innocent, peaceful and he was calm and gentle. I felt that he had compassion for everyone. He felt bad for those that were against him, but he was so grateful to God for His grace. (The Man-Child body will manifest the complete nature of Christ in them, walking as He walked.)  I watched this man as he ran through the streets where the people came after him in anger acting like zombies. The man ran to a street where no one was yet out in the streets, when a woman came out the front of a house and she was acting normal. He spoke the Word to her and she fell to the ground praising and worshipping God and began thanking Him for Jesus. I saw the same gold and white sparkles go around her. I felt that she too was about to be taken to Heaven.  (Heavenly places in Christ) The man knew he had to leave now so he left, not looking back as he knew he had done what God wanted him to do. He was done in this town. (The Man-Child ministry and disciples of Christ will fulfil the great commission to go into all the world and preach the Gospel from town to town. Mar 1:38 And he saith unto them, Let us go elsewhere into the next towns, that I may preach there also; for to this end came I forth. Mat 10:23 But when they persecute you in this city, flee into the next ...)  Multitudes of people all came out of their houses chasing after him in anger. I was zoomed-out so I could now see a larger area. I saw thousands, maybe tens of thousands of peoples in different hordes, all chasing after this man, but none could catch up to him. (Joh 7:30 They sought therefore to take him: and no man laid his hand on him, because his hour was not yet come. Joh 10:39 They sought again to take him: and he went forth out of their hand.)  I saw the spots that the sanctified lady and Gramps, were now just a little light in a bubble. Apart from them everything else was dark with zombies all running. (God's children are protected in a bubble and seen as lights of glory in the spirit realm. Mat 5:14 YE are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid.) NENT 2Co 4:6 Because it is God that said, Light shall shine out of darkness, who shined in our hearts, unto enlightenment of the knowledge of the glory of God in Christ's face.  The man ran out of this town and into another. When going into town he spoke to a few people about the Lord and then went into the center of the town. (Luk 4:43 But he said unto them, I must preach the good tidings of the kingdom of God to the other cities also: for therefore was I sent. Mar 16:15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to the whole creation.)  On the front of a building, it had a ‘Wanted' sign with a picture of what the man looked like in the previous town. But now he looked like a completely different person. He still had blonde hair and blue eyes but his face and hair style looked different to how it was in the previous town. (Col 3:3-4 For ye died, and your life is hid with the Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also with him be manifested in glory.)  But it seemed like his face would change every time he went into a new town. (The Man-Child is a corporate body of many brethren who are manifesting the life of Jesus in their own bodies. He will appear to be a different person every place these men minister the Gospel.) So, people couldn't recognize him unless they heard what he said. (Mat 15-17 He saith unto them, But who say ye that I am? 16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. 17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah:for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven.    Luk 8:8 And other [seed] fell into the good ground, and grew, and brought forth fruit a hundredfold. As he said these things, he cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Luk 10:16 He that heareth you heareth me; and he that rejecteth you rejecteth me; and he that rejecteth me rejecteth him that sent me.  Joh 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father that sent me draw him:... Joh 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by me.)   It felt that everyone in the country knew about this man and they were all trying to find him. He went inside a public building packed with people. He spoke to one man about our Lord in front of everyone, and a few guys overheard and went and grabbed a security guard. The security guard arrested the man and took him upstairs and locked him in a room and called ‘federal police' or something high-up like that. NENT Act 21:33 Then the colonel came near, and laid hold on him, and commanded him to be bound with two chains; and inquired who he was, and what he had done. (Like the Romans did to Paul) The guard left him alone in the room but before he even finished closing the door, I saw the man walk through the wall on the other side and went out of the room and walk straight through the building out onto a balcony where he just jumped off. (The Man-Child corporate body will be walking in the anointing of the latter rain and in the Spirit. They will be able to walk through solid substances, like as Jesus passed through the midst of those trying to take him. There will also be many translations out of harm's way, and we have examples in the Bible of the angels setting the disciples free from prison by chains falling off and doors unlocked and opened before them.)  No one even knew that he was gone. (Like when an angel sprang Peter out of prison before they could kill him.) He went on walking though the town speaking to those he knew would listen. Soon there were groups of people again chasing after him and he left the town. (Paul was chased from town to town.) NENT Act 5:19-20 But the Lord's angel by night opened the doors of the prison, and brought them out, and said, 20 Go ye, and stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this Life. 25 And one came and reported [that] Lo, the men whom ye put in the prison are in the temple standing and teaching the people.  The next town he came to, he didn't speak to anyone, but he walked through the city. My perspective then zoomed-out and I saw three missiles shoot and destroy this entire area where the man had been. It destroyed the buildings and many people died. I saw the people in this country and the reaction to everyone that had tried to kill him; they were all cheering and they were so happy. (This is how they felt and reacted to the death of the ‘Two Witnesses' because they hated their righteousness and preaching the Gospel. [Rev 11:3-12] Rev 11:10 And they that dwell on the earth rejoice over them, and make merry; and they shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwell on the earth.)  Then I saw the man appear in a bush in the middle of nowhere. I felt that he had been translated to this area just in time for the missile to go off. Everyone else was convinced he had died, and they were celebrating and stopped looking for him. (The Lord will translate His people out of nuclear blasts and all kinds of destruction and troubles. We have a Psalm 91 Passover.)  NENT Act 8:39-40 And when they came up out of the water, the Lord's Spirit caught away Philip; and the eunuch saw him no more, for he went on his way rejoicing. 40 But Philip was found at Azotus: and passing through he preached the gospel to all the cities, till he came to Cesarea.  I watched the man walk over in the bush to this barbed wire fenced enclosure. There were many people behind the fence, it seemed that they had been captured and being held there. (This sounds like the many FEMA camps that are being set up for the rebellious Christians and others.) Most of the people inside came running over to him as if they knew who he was and they were desiring to hear him. He spoke the Word of Truth to them and many believed and repented. (Many people in captivity will be repenting and ready to hear the Good News of the Gospel.)  I then saw the man standing on top of the highest mountain (On top of Mount Zion.) looking down towards all the towns and places where he had travelled, and I felt he had done everything he needed to do.     Our Heavenly Protection  Marie Kelton 8/11/22 (David's notes in red)  I had an open vision of the Lord sitting next to me. He said, “Eat from the hand of God.” He then opened his hand and I saw food in it. (We have been given this time to eat the Bread from Heaven which is life to our soul. Joh 6:51  I am the living bread which came down out of heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: yea and the bread which I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world. Pro 9:4-5 Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: As for him that is void of understanding, she saith to him, 5 Come, eat ye of my bread, And drink of the wine which I have mingled. This represents the body and blood of Jesus.)  I then saw two big angels standing by the side door with spears in their hands in the living room.  I was asking the Lord about the demons that attack my mind all the time. One of the angels walked up to me and I could hear the clacking of his armor. I knew he was there to help me. (Yes, the angels are here to minister to us in our need. Heb 1:14 Are they (angels) not all ministering spirits, sent forth to do service for the sake of them that shall inherit salvation?)  I asked him to help me with the spirits who were attacking me. (Mat 7:7-8 Ask, and it shall be given you... 8 for every one that asketh receiveth... Joh 14:14 If ye shall ask anything in my name, that will I do.)  I then saw a huge demon to my right. The angel took his spear and stabbed the demon with it. When the angel pulled out the spear, I saw black liquid on it. I then saw two angels walking with a demon in between them. They were holding it up. The angels then stopped, and the demon was kneeling.   (Php 2:9-11 Wherefore also God highly exalted him, and gave unto him the name which is above every name; 10 that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.  Eph 6:12 For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Col 2:15 having despoiled the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.)    Zion Will Escape Captivity  Scott Davis - 07/24/2010 (David's notes in red)  I had this dream, I believe it was early morning. In this dream, I was standing in a very large city, so wide and deep I couldn't see its edges. (Christianity) I was looking into it from the north to the south, so I could see east, west and south as far as I could see.   I saw little off-white rectangular buildings. The city was set on a hilly surface but not mountainous, and the rectangular buildings were different in height - some were taller, some smaller and some were higher up than others because of the hills they sat on within the city. (This represents different levels of maturity in the sects of Christianity.) I was deep into the city, I believe more north, when water began to rise. Now I couldn't tell if the water was rising or the city was sinking or a combination of both, but it didn't matter, as the only way to survive would be to make it to higher ground. (This represents spiritual growth and maturing in Christ, walking in a more heavenly life.)  The floor of this city was made of small rectangular stones perfectly set and arranged without cracks or imperfections. (This represents the simple foundation that Jesus is the Son of God Who gave His life as a sacrifice for us. Describing New Jerusalem in, Isa 54:11-13 …I will set thy stones in fair colors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. 12 And I will make thy pinnacles of rubies, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy border of precious stones. 13 And all thy children shall be taught of Jehovah; and great shall be the peace of thy children.)   As I looked out into the city, the water began to flood the city, swiftly and steadily filling the lower areas first. (The beast enemy coming in like a flood with those living on a lower level coming into captivity first.) I was alarmed but not in any panic and just began to move to higher ground that was behind me. (Isa 54:9-10 For this is as the waters of Noah unto me; for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah shall no more go over the earth, so have I sworn that I will not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. 10 For the mountains may depart, and the hills be removed; but my lovingkindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall my covenant of peace be removed, saith Jehovah that hath mercy on thee.)  As I turned to look north into the city and move toward it, I walked about a few feet when I saw a majestic building I had never seen before because I hadn't been looking in that direction. Now I saw this sight: This building had stairs that surrounded it that slowly rose to its doors, and it looked like a library, a monument and a temple -- all in one. (Zion/New Jerusalem) As I stepped onto the grounds of this building, I noticed the water stopped rising and everything else was submerged and under water, except for this majestic building and its grounds within the city. I was in awe at the sight and at the fact the water stopped at the building's grounds. Then I woke up.  I believe this is Zion and the Man-child (Revelation 11:1). The most wonderful thing about the dream was I was standing at least on the building's grounds and was safe from the rising waters. (This looks like Christian City with Zion in the midst. The areas being flooded is the same area the Beast conquered in the Assyrian invasion of Israel and Judah [2 Kings 18:11-13; 19:20-37]. Like this wonderful building, only Zion, which represents holiness, faith and maturity [Psalms 15; 24; 125] escaped. So it will be. Christianity will go into captivity but Zion, a type of the Bride with the Man-child at her head, will escape. Zion is a library of the knowledge of God, a monument of witness to God and the temple of God, all in one.)    Supernatural Provision Travel  Samuel Fire 3/20/23 (David's notes in red)  I had a dream that Tianna and I were in a car, or a large van, in the back seat. I didn't see the person driving. Tianna was sitting very close to a newborn child which felt like our second child, and David was in the far backseat in a child's seat. There was only one child's seat in the vehicle (Except you become as a child, like the David Man-child body, you will in no wise enter the Kingdom of Heaven.)    David and Michael were sitting with Tianna, and I was sitting across from them. We were altogether as a close group.  The police then stopped us and they saw us all protecting and caring for the baby, but since we had no spare child seat, I thought we were in trouble and going to be fined. They saw the very cute child and commented how it's okay as you are all doing your best and the police let us drive on. (God always has favor on His righteous people and because we were in God's will He protected us and showed us favor through men in police authority.)  (Pro 16:7 When a man's ways please Jehovah, He maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him. Rom 8:31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 1Jn 3:22 and whatsoever we ask we receive of him, because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight.)  Next, we were sitting in a train with many carriages. We had all our belongings with us and other people on the train had theirs, and we were going somewhere, but I didn't know where. People kept leaving and getting on at each train stop. Each time the train stopped we were witnessing to people all we could.  One guy was a tattoo shop owner and did drugs and alcohol. He was drawn to the truth and repented, and he wanted to give something to us in return. So, he asked, “How do we get money?” and I said, “God provides. I used to do stock market trading but now we live by the Word.” He said he would draw an image on the back of my white shirt. I was like ‘Okay' as I didn't want to offend him by refusing his request, and it is only ink and a shirt.  Afterwards I asked Tianna what was written on the shirt as I couldn't see it. She said, “Stocks in Scriptures gets you blessings.”  (Investing our lives in the Word and seeking the Lord and His righteousness, He will bless in all we need to do the work of the Kingdom. It is all done by His grace and faithfulness. Eph 1:2-3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ: Psa 37:3 Trust in Jehovah, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on his faithfulness.)  Then another guy, who didn't say anything at all as we witnessed to him, and I felt he was German. He nodded a lot while both of us spoke to him. He had no emotion or facial expressions but just kept looking at us. Then after we talked to him, he suddenly got up and went to his belongings and just grabbed everything he had, which were really expensive items and gave them to us. He kept going back and forth carrying loads of items. (By seeking Father and doing His will, He provides all of our needs. Luk 12:31 Yet seek ye his kingdom, and these things shall be added unto you. Php 4:19 And my God shall supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.)   NENT Luk 10:7 And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such as they have: for the laborer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house. Luk 6:38 give, and it shall be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall they give into your bosom. For with what measure ye measure it shall be measured to you again.  The train then had a lengthy stop and I felt I should go find bags for all these items we were just given so we could take them off the train when we got to our destination. I asked Tianna and she said, okay. I was worried if I left that I would not make it back and miss the train and be cut off from Tianna and David. (Some people will miss the last train out because of worrying over stuff or trying to bring it all with them.) When the doors opened, I saw market stalls, but nothing was set up yet. (A great setback to the marketing of buying and selling is here. Giving here brings it back multiplied when you need it later.) There were tables and shading set up, but the workers had not yet set out any items to sell. I ran out and asked the people at the first stall if they had bags. The first lady said no, but the office does. Another lady, who was like a manager, said the office is this way and pointed. I then ran to the office and said to the man there, “I need bags and I'm on that train and I can't miss that train!” He said, “Calm down.” (An answer to stress and anxiety. Jesus said of the flowers and birds, how they are provided for and they don't store up.) Just as he said this, the manager lady came in and spoke up for me saying, “It's true, he needs them now.”  The man started to give me paper bags and I thought, no I don't like paper bags, they tear and break so easily, why not strong plastic or garbage type ones. (The people of God took what supplies they could to go into the wilderness. No doubt this allayed some of their fears so they could go but shortly it was all gone and faith had to bring them through.) Just as I thought this, they found a roll of plastic garbage bags and I reached out my wallet to pay for them and saw that my wallet had thousands of dollars in it! I had no idea how they got there. I was going to give a $100 to the man for the bags, but I felt that Tianna would ask why I gave him so much. I was then given the roll for free, and they smiled; then I ran and I made it back to the train. Then I woke up. (Jesus said, Freely you have received freely give. We can do this because it will be there multiplied when we need it.)   New Jerusalem – The Restoration of David's Throne  We read in the Bible that God always repeats history: (Ecc.3:15) That which is hath been long ago; and that which is to be hath long ago been: and God seeketh again that which is passed away. What we will study here is Biblical evidence that God is bringing again the Kingdom of David. Of course, He brought it in Jesus' time and He's bringing it again in our time. I'd like to look at a few parallels, so we can learn more about the Man-child and the Bride.  We know that when Jesus came, that was the Son of God coming in the body of a Son of David. That would be the Man-child body in these days. As we're going to see, this was in order to manifest through that Son of David His presence upon the earth and to bring forth the Covenant. (Act.15:14) Symeon hath rehearsed how first God visited the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. (15) And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, (16) After these things I will return, And I will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen…. “I will return” is speaking of the Lord's return. But also, it says here, “I will build again the tabernacle of David.” Why “the tabernacle of David”? Why not just “the tabernacle” that was used by Israel since the time of Moses? He said that because He is identifying a restoration of the time of David and, of course, Jesus came as David. “I will build again the tabernacle of David,” not the Temple as a building, but the tabernacle.   In the time of David, there was only a tabernacle, which represents the temporary, mobile dwelling place of these bodies as a temple for the Lord. Also we are headed into the wilderness tribulation where a mobile tabernacle is needed. He goes on. (16) … And I will build again the ruins thereof, And I will set it up: (17) That the residue of men may seek after the Lord, And all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called. So this tabernacle of David is for the restoration of the Gentiles, to bring them into the Kingdom, make them a temple/tabernacle for God and to restore again the time of David. He's restoring everything about the Kingdom concerning David, which was a type and a shadow of Christ's time and of the end-time.   And, as we're going to see, not only was He restoring the tabernacle of David, but He was restoring a city of David. (Heb.12:18) For ye are not come unto [a mount] that might be touched, and that burned with fire, and unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest. He's speaking here about the restoration of Mount Zion. This was in general to the Hebrew Christians, not just the Hebrews at Mount Zion or in Jerusalem. He tells the Hebrews in that day that he is not talking about a physical Mount Zion in Jerusalem because this text says, “For ye are not come unto a mount that might be touched.” He continues, but ye are come unto mount Zion (22). So it's not a physical mountain that we can touch; it's a spiritual mountain made for a spiritual people.   We're not physical Jews, we're spiritual Jews, born-again Jews. The spiritual man is a Jew, “Christ in us”, not the natural man. We have a King David being raised up over us and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. So you see that we have come unto Mount Zion and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which [voice] they that heard entreated that no word more should be spoken unto them (19). The Israelites told Moses, “Don't let God speak to us. If He speaks to us, we'll die. You go up there and talk to God for us.” (Deuteronomy 5:23-25). They wouldn't touch the mountain. Moses was the one who climbed the mountain; Moses was the one who received, as the firstfruits, the glory of God. In fact, he came down with the glory of God all over his face; he shone. Moses even had to put a veil upon his face in order to deal with the children of Israel. The veil, the New Testament tells us, is the flesh. Moses was glorified in spirit and soul underneath that veil of flesh.   The Israelites didn't want any more Word to be spoken to them and they were fearful. (20) For they could not endure that which was enjoined, If even a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned. Of course, the beast represents the old man, the carnal life. They knew that to climb that mountain they would have to lose their old life to enter into the presence of God because the mountain represented holiness; it represented death to self, death to flesh. (22) But ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable hosts of angels.   So we see the heavenly Jerusalem is being restored for the heavenly people, the spiritual Jerusalem for the spiritual people. The spiritual Tabernacle is not physical anymore; it is God's people, the people who will be traveling through this coming wilderness. That's why we need the Tabernacle, because we'll be traveling through the wilderness. (23) To the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect. That's what this mountain represents. On top of Mount Zion is the heavenly Jerusalem. The mountain represents the city in which David was king and in which the presence of the Lord dwelt.   We know that Jerusalem itself represents the Bride. John was told, Come up hither, and I will show thee the things which must come to pass hereafter (Rev.4:1). He was shown the heavenly Jerusalem: (Rev.21:2) And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. … (9) … Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the wife of the Lamb. (10) And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It was coming down out of heaven from God, as it is today.  As a matter of fact, Revelation chapter three says the same thing. That's very important because some people don't believe that Jerusalem is coming down now. We need to know that God is rebuilding Jerusalem in spirit, soul and body because Jerusalem is the Bride and right now the Bride is upon the earth. Jesus said to the Church of brotherly love, Philadelphia, in (Rev.3:12) He that overcometh, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go out thence no more: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God, and mine own new name. The name (Greek: nature, character, and authority.) of the Lord will be on this Bride. We see the city “cometh” (present tense). It's coming down out of heaven. It's still going to be coming at the end, down out of heaven, except at the end, the Bride will have her new body and she'll be visible to all creation as she is coming down out of heaven upon the earth.   Right now, the Bride is being born from above, spirit and soul, but we don't see those things. We see that God is restoring this Mount Zion, which is the Kingdom of God on earth. For 2000 years we've been in a falling-away state, a backslidden state. God's people were taken captive to Babylon, to false religion, false ideas. They missed out on the true Gospel that they need to cause them to walk as Christ walked in the Kingdom. Right now, once again, just as in Jesus' day, God is restoring the tabernacle of David. He is restoring the Kingdom of God. He is restoring the New Jerusalem, which is the Bride, and He's restoring the place of David as king.   The virgin Mary was prophesied by the angel Gabriel, God's chief messenger angel, that she was going to bring forth the fruit of Jesus. (Luk.1:30) And the angel (Gabriel) said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favor with God. (31) And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. In Revelation 12 we're told the exact same thing. The woman arrayed with the sun with the 12 stars over her head brings forth the Man-child. So this is a parallel, except in our day we're talking about a corporate birthing of a Man-child because every time history repeats, it repeats with larger groups of people. This individual woman, Mary, brought forth an individual Man-child.   The woman in Revelation 12 represents the Church and she is bringing forth a corporate Man-child. She is corporate and the Man-child is corporate. (32) He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David. So, once again, we see the restoration of the kingdom of David, the tabernacle of David, the city of David, the mountain and now the King.   In the last chapter, we discovered that God was going to raise up a Man-child, a corporate Man-child of David in these days and that they were to lead the Bride, to be the head of the Bride. We know that Jerusalem was the Bride, according to Revelation. We also know that David dwelt in Jerusalem and he lived and ruled over the people in Jerusalem, which is, in general, where the leadership of the 12 tribes dwelt. The representation of the leadership of the 12 tribes was there and so was the tribe of Judah. David led them; he was their head.   There are many similarities between the Man-child and the Bride, like being caught up to the throne and all the parallels that they're all caught up to the throne. But we also discovered in the last chapter that there are two thrones. There is a throne of David and there is the throne of the Bride. (Jer.3:17) At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the Lord…. Of course, Jerusalem is a lot bigger throne than the throne of David because we're talking about a much larger group of people. The Bride is not all of the Church. We've been lied to about that because in every other place in the Scriptures the types and shadows prove that this is just not the case.   As we know, Jerusalem wasn't all of Israel. There were the 12 tribes that were spread throughout the kingdom and there were the other mountains throughout the kingdom. These were not all members of the Bride. Obviously, we have to make room for the bridesmaids, the friends of the Bridegroom and all the others who join the Marriage Feast. So we see that the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David (Luk.1:32). Now wait a minute – He's the Son of the Most High, but He gives unto Him the throne of His father David. That means He has two fathers!   We know from John, That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which born of the Spirit is spirit (Joh.3:6). Jesus was the Son of God in His Spirit (Romans 1:4) and He was the Son of David according to the flesh (verse 3). In other words, God used Mary, through the seed of the woman, to bring forth the Man-child, to bring forth Christ. So He was truly Son of man and Son of God, and so it is also in the end-time.   Just as in Jesus' day, when God sent the Son of God into the flesh of a son of David, so it is that God once again is going to send the Son of God to earth to dwell in the flesh of a son of David. It isn't the flesh that the people can glorify, it is the Son of God Who dwells inside. He can use any flesh. Man gets neither the credit nor the glory, but the Son of God Who is coming into our midst is not only coming into His Davids, He's coming in His Bride and He's coming in His people everywhere through their ministry. (Col.1:27) … Christ in you, the hope of glory.   The Scripture also tells us to “see” Him in the mirror. (2Co.3:18) But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit. This means, of course, that as we walk by faith, we believe that we've received Christ in all of His nature, all of His righteousness and all of His truth. We believe that there has been a reconciliation, an exchange, as we walk by faith and see Him in the mirror, reckoning that we don't live anymore, but He lives in us. Then righteousness is imputed to us and God brings it to pass.   The firstfruits of these, of Christ coming to be manifested in His people, is the David Man-child ministry. Gabriel goes on to say, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end (Luk.1:33). When Jesus came in a body of the son of David, that was the beginning of the time that Jeremiah 33 speaks about, when “David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel” (Jer.33:17). That was not fulfilled before Jesus came along because there were thrones that a seed of David did not sit upon and, even at Jesus' time, Israel was being ruled over by the Roman Empire.   But we know that when Jesus came, from then on forever, He is the One Who sits upon the throne, the One Who rules over the House of David. That He ruled in a body of David at that time was a sign, a symbol, that He is going to rule through a body of David in our time. He says, “And of His Kingdom there shall be no end.” That makes Jesus the One Who is the very center of importance.   The Bible says, He that sayeth he abideth in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked (1Jn.2:6). How is it that we are members of the body of Christ? It's when we walk in His steps. The Lord has shown me in the New Testament that that's exactly the way everybody brings forth their heritage because we can only abide in Jesus when we walk in His steps. Different people are called to different ministries in the New Testament and we are spiritual offspring because we have received their spiritual seed into our life. So that heritage has been passed on to us and walking in the steps of Jesus is the only way we can prove that we are His seed.  Now what is the throne of David? We're told more about the throne, for instance, where the Queen of Sheba visits the son of David, Solomon, the prince of peace, representing Jesus Christ. Solomon is a symbol here of both Jesus Christ in His day and Jesus Christ in this day. He's coming in both cases as a “seed of David,” not a physical seed of David in our day, but a spiritual seed of David. The Queen of Sheba says to Solomon, Blessed be the Lord thy God, who delighted in thee, to set thee on his throne (This is speaking about the throne of the Lord. We think about a throne up in heaven but we see here that God has a throne on earth.), to be king for the Lord thy God: because thy God loved Israel, to establish them forever, therefore made he thee king over them, to do justice and righteousness (2Ch.9:8). In other words, God is going to use vessels down here as His new leadership for the Church. He is delivering God's people from the Saul leadership and He is bringing them this time to the David leadership.   This is not going to be anybody glorifying flesh here; this is going to be the Lord, once again, coming in humble flesh in order to do His work and to be the spiritual leader over His people. When Jesus came to sit upon the throne of David, the people around Him didn't see flesh being glorified there. Obviously, they expected someone to come as a king and rule over flesh but they were very mistaken, so they did not recognize, nor accept, Jesus for Who He was. Once again, I believe that the Lord is coming in humble means, not the kind of king that the world would look for.   Notice, “to set thee on his throne.” That term is also used here: (Rev.12:5) And she was delivered of a son, a man child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and unto his throne. Well, can we suppose that the Man-child is not caught away to heaven, as we think of heaven, but to heavenly places? This does not exclude THE heaven either. This Jerusalem that God has restored, that Paul said the Church had come to, was “heavenly Jerusalem.” It's a spiritual place on earth, in a mountain, a spiritual mountain called the Kingdom of God on earth. And now we see that the David whom God raised up, both in Jesus' time and in this time, is the one in whom the Son of God lives.   That David is sitting upon God's throne on earth. He said, He that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with me in my throne, as I overcame, and sat down with my Father in His throne (Rev.3:21). Jesus overcame and He sat down on the throne of God, which, once again, is an earthly place though a spiritual place. The kingdom of David has been restored, both in Jesus' day and in our day. Of course, Jesus, the Son of God, rules in both bodies of the son of David.   The Bible says that the Lord will shepherd His sheep. How is He going to do that? He spoke specifically in Ezekiel 34 of David doing it, but at the same time He said that He would shepherd His sheep. How is He going to do it if David does it? It's very simple: He's coming in David to do it. And He's coming in all of us who love the Lord and depart from unrighteousness. He is coming in us; He's coming in a firstfruits to rule and to reign, to lead God's people back to the ways of righteousness, to rebuild the tabernacle of David and the kingdom of David.   The Queen of Sheba said, “to set thee on His throne, to be king for the Lord thy God.” In other words, this Man-child leadership is coming as the seed of David and it's going to be God, in them, ruling. I previously pointed out, At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord; and all the nations (Gentiles) shall be gathered unto it, to the Name of the Lord, to Jerusalem (Jer.3:17). Jerusalem represents the Name of the Lord, which is the nature, character and authority of the Lord. So, we see a throne within a throne. We see David's throne in Jerusalem but we see all of Jerusalem as the throne and also the Bride. This is what God is restoring. He is restoring the kingdom of David; He's restoring the Bride and He's restoring the Bridegroom. Yet again … the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride (Jer.33:10- 11) will be heard in Jerusalem.  John the Baptist verified Who Jesus was. (Joh.3:25) There arose therefore a questioning on the part of John's disciples with a Jew about purifying. (26) And they came unto John, and said to him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond the Jordan, to whom thou hast borne witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come to him. (27) John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it have been given him from heaven. (28) Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but, that I am sent before him. (29) He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, that standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice….   Jesus was the first-fruits, but there was a first-fruits unto Him. The disciples John saw following Jesus at the time, those first-fruits unto Christ in those days who followed Him out of apostate Judaism, those are who the Bride was in that day. “He that hath the bride is the bridegroom.” Jesus, Who was the Man-child born of the virgin, was also David as King and all these types and shadows are coming together to show us that He was the Bridegroom. David was the head of Jerusalem and was the head of the Bride while being a member of the Bride, as he ruled in Jerusalem, which the Bible says is the Bride. Here we see Jesus leading His disciples, who were the Bride that He was raising up and teaching, as the firstfruits and head of that body. He was raising up the firstfruits from out of the apostate denominations of Judaism.   Once again, God is going to raise up a Bride and the Bible says in Song of Solomon that she's one, she's the choice one of her mother. He called her there the Shulamite, which means “perfect one.” He's once again raising up a body of believers that are one, not defiled with all the women that Revelation 14 speaks about. This body of believers is not broken up into sects, divisions or strifes, which Paul said in Galatians chapter five was the work of the flesh.   Once again, God is bringing together a Bride out of the apostate denominations of Christianity, parallel to those in Jesus' day who were coming out of apostate Judaism. God is doing His awesome work again. Once again, we're about to see the Bridegroom guiding the Bride, raising up the Bride, being the head of the Bride. Who is that Bridegroom? It is Jesus Christ, coming to fellowship with His Bride, in another seed of a son of David, which was what Solomon represented as the seed of the son of David.   Remember that Jesus, John and Paul all spoke about a great “falling away” that would immediately follow those days in which Jesus raised up the kingdom of David on earth again (Acts 15). What does a great “falling away” mean? It just means that when they were walking in the power of the Spirit, in the truth of the Son of God, in repentance and all the things that we call the full Gospel, there very quickly came a backsliding, a “carrying away to Babylon.” This is according to type. All through the Scriptures, when God's people backslid, their city Jerusalem was destroyed. This happened following the Book of Acts, where it talks about raising up the tabernacle of David.   Not very long after that, in 70 A.D., natural Jerusalem was destroyed. Spiritual Jerusalem was destroyed, too, when they departed from the spirits of just men made perfect (Heb.12:23), as he called it. They fell into the Dark Ages and there was a falling away of the power of the truth, a falling away of the power of the signs and wonders of the full Gospel in the people who were His Bride. The people in our day who are members of the body of the Bride are going to look just like those people who followed Jesus. There won't be any difference. Jesus is coming again to restore all things that have been taken from us over the years. He's going to restore, once again, the kingdom of David. He's always been King on the throne over His true people, but now He's going to restore the kingdom of David on earth.   Now let's look at Jeremiah again: (Jer.33:10) Thus saith the Lord: Yet again there shall be heard in this place (He's talking about Zion in Jerusalem), whereof ye say, It is waste, without man and without beast, even in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, that are desolate, without man and without inhabitant and without beast. God is going to restore that city. He's bringing His people back to this born-again city because the city is the Bride. That city will be born spirit, soul and body, just like the individuals who make up the body of that city. It's going to be restored spirit, soul and, ultimately, body at the end when they see the Lord Jesus return.   We see here in Jeremiah that after a time of falling away, a time of the destruction of that city, God is going to restore it. (11) The voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that say, Give thanks to the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good…. The Lord is very plainly saying that once again in this city, these things are going to be heard; these things are going to be seen.   How is it that the voice of the Bridegroom is going to be heard? The Bridegroom is Jesus Christ, so how is His voice going to be heard? His voice is going to be heard because He has come once again in the body of the Man-child and the Bride which have come out of the denominations, the sects, the apostate teachings of Babylon. They're coming back to Zion. Babylon represented a falling away into captivity, an apostasy. Now they're returning out of that apostasy to the true Zion, which is returning to the Word, returning to the gifts, returning to the Giver and returning to the presence of God. The presence of God, His Temple, was in Jerusalem; it wasn't in Babylon. And once again, in these days, this is what God is restoring. He's given me visions of it over the years.   Now we see that, once again, the voices of the Bridegroom and Bride will be heard in this city. Not only that, He also promises us this: (12) Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Yet again shall there be in this place, which is waste, without man and without beast, and in all the cities thereof, a habitation of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down. Once again, we're seeing the parallel, the Bride and the Bridegroom, the shepherds causing their flocks to lie down. Then He goes on to talk about the restoration of the kingdom of David in our day. The rest of this chapter is all about the shepherds that He's raising up, called the Branch.   In Jeremiah 23, they're called the New Shepherds that God was going to promote over His people and they're called the Branch there, also. And here in Jeremiah 33, He speaks about the Branch of David in verse 15. The corporate name of this body of the Branch of David was called “The Lord Our Righteousness.” “Our” meaning, of course, that it's a corporate body.   Up until the time that Jesus came, the following verse was never fulfilled: (17) For thus saith the Lord: David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne the Son of David. He has come, once again, in a Man-child, in order to raise of the house of Israel. And now there has always been a David because Jesus, from generation to generation, is the head over His people. He is the eternal Son of David and so David shall never lack a man to sit upon the throne of Israel. There have been good shepherds who ruled according to Jesus the Word in their hearts. As we've seen, thrones can be very corporate in the end-time.   We discovered in Jeremiah 3:17 that all Jerusalem is a throne. That's a big throne! And when He says, He that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with me in my throne (Rev.3:21), what do you think that means? Some people think, “Oh, it's just talking about a throne up there in Heaven somewhere.” But no, there is a very present manifestation of this because the Bride is going to sit down next to the Groom on the throne and Who is the Groom? The Groom is Jesus Christ manifested in His sons of David in this day. God is raising up the Kingdom of David again.   Jerusalem, the Tabernacle, the King – He's raising it all up. Is it a spiritual thing? Yes, of course. It's not physical because we don't pass on our seed the way natural Israel did. Our circumcision is of the heart and not of the flesh, Romans 2:29 tells us. Once again, we see that David will forever rule upon his throne. It doesn't matter what vessel he rules through.   (Jer. 33:20) Thus saith Jehovah: If ye can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, so that there shall not be day and night in their season; (Notice here: As long as there is night and day, God is never going to break His covenant to have a seed of David upon His throne. (Jer.33:21) Then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he shall not have a son to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites the priests, my ministers. (22) As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured; so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites that minister unto me. Notice: He's going to multiply the seed of David to sit upon the throne, to be new leadership and a head to the Bride.  Esther is a really good example of the Bride, who represents Jerusalem, being used by the Lord to save the rest of Israel. The capital city of God's people is Jerusalem, so we see here the same thing. Here is a very interesting passage about the Jewish marriage feast from the Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, under “Marriage” (page 97): Note: My comments are outside the double quotes. I've also added some underlining for emphasis.   “The bridegroom was the king for a week. This is talking about the last week, Daniel's 70th week, because the marriage feast was the last seven days before the bride and groom went to the groom's home. Where is the Groom's home? Well, it's in Heaven. The last seven days are the most important seven days, or seven years, as each one of these days in Daniel's 70th week represents a year (Daniel 9:27, a shabua, a “seven” or week).   But the last seven days are very prominent because the last seven days that God's people were in Egypt were called the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Now, once again, we are coming to a seven day-year Marriage Feast, which is the last seven days before going to the Groom's home and the last seven days of unleavened bread before they leave Egypt, a type of the world.   During the last seven days, the Jews also celebrated Succoth, which means “tabernacles,” so the last seven days also represent seven days in a temporary tabernacle before they tore it down and went to their permanent home. We are also going to our permanent home. God has given us a permanent body. This body is just a temporary tabernacle and we'll only have it until the end of the seven days. Then God is going to give us that new tabernacle.   So this last seven days is very important all through the Scriptures. In fact, all of the feasts have something to do with the end times.   “The bridegroom was the king for a week” (the seven-day marriage feast). This time it's seven years.   “During the whole week, their majesties wore their festal clothes” (as they obviously sat upon the throne) “and did not work, and merely looked on at the games, except that now and then the queen joined in a dance. Accompanied by his (the bridegroom) friends.” (John the Baptist called himself the friend of the Bridegroom and, by the way, the friends of the Bridegroom are not the Bride) “with tambourines and a band, they went to the bride's house.”   Where is the Bride's house? We know that the Groom's home is in Heaven, so we know that the Bride's house is here on earth. Where is the Bride now? Here on earth. She is being born from above – spirit, then soul and then, ultimately, body, right here on earth. So the wedding party goes to the Bride's house, “where the wedding ceremonies were to start.” The ceremonies went on for seven days (representing seven years).   “The bride, richly dressed, adorned with jewels, usually wore a veil which she took off only in the bridal chamber.” The veil represents several things: In 1 Corinthians 11, the veil represents a woman's submission to her husband, but a veil also represents not being able to see this husband clearly until a certain time. Isn't that something? In other words, they're going to the groom's home and at the very end she is able to see clearly, without a veil, what the groom looks like.   “Escorted by her companions, the virgins,” (The virgins are not the Bride, but the virgins have a part in the ceremony at the end.) “they take their lamps at night, usually very late at night,” (like the parable in Matthew 25 says) “and they escort the bride and the bridegroom to the groom's home.” That's their part in the marriage ceremony. The home is obviously in Heaven.   Let me explain here that the bride, during the time of the marriage feast, is betrothed to the husband. She has all the rights of a wife, except she has no personal contact with the groom. The Bride, during the seven days of the Marriage Feast, is a story of the Book of Esther. The Book of Esther is all about her exercising her authority over the Beast and over the people of God to deliver them, in a time when the Beast was seeking to wipe them out.   That is an awesome story that we'll study in the next few chapters. But the Bride has all the rights of a wife who is the queen and who is under the authority of the Groom. And she will exercise her authority the same way Esther exercised her authority to save the people of God. Mordecai said to her, Who knoweth whether thou art not come to the kingdom for such a time as this? (Est.4:14). What time was that? It was the time to save the people of God from the Beast. We have a surprising thing that's about to happen.   Purim is a celebration of events being turned around. The Beast, Haman, was going to destroy all the people of God and he had raised up all of his kingdom to do this, yet the authority was given through Esther the Bride to all of the people of God to make a stand for their life. Many of the people of the kingdom under Ahasuerus became Jews because the fear of the Jews had fallen upon them. We're talking about a great revival of people coming out of the world and becoming members of the body of Christ, becoming God's people. The whole story is in the Book of Esther, from beginning to end, of a great revival and a saving of God's people.  We have the idea of nothing but a massacre during the Tribulation. Yes, there will be a massacre of a lot of people who are tares among the wheat and goats among the sheep, but of the true people of God, the ones who are actually spiritual Jews, we're going to see God's salvation manifested in many powerful ways as they “stand for their lives”. He will deliver His people in a time much like when Moses came to deliver God's people out of Egypt with great manifestations of God's power. Moses represented the Man-child in his time, Jesus and David in their times, and Joseph in his time, so we see that more than one Man-child has been manifested to bring the knowledge of God's salvation.   When Jesus led the Bride (“he that hath the bride is the bridegroom”), He led them into the knowledge of God, for instance, such as the knowledge of provision in the wilderness. When Jesus multiplied the fishes and the loaves, it was because He led the Bride into the wilderness, like Moses led Israel into the wilderness and there they received the supernatural provision of God. There is nothing to fear about these days to come. The Lord is sending a leadership; He's sending the power to multiply the fishes and the loaves, and for manna to come out of Heaven. Jesus said that He was that provision from God; He was the manna (which, actually, is translated “man” in one place in the Old Testament). He was the Man Who came out of Heaven, Who gives life to the world. Moses was a provision in his day.   Don't worry about the time to come. Put your faith totally in the Lord because the Lord is raising up a provision and the Man-child is the beginning of that provision that is going to be passed on to the Bride. The authority of the Bride, which is a much larger group of people, is going to be felt throughout the world. The fear of the world, as they see God's provision and His angels round about His people, His protection, will come upon them so that many of the people of the world are going to want to become “Jews”; they're going to want to become Christians in the coming days. We have a great revival coming, folks, and things are going to be turned around.   Many have thought that the only thing we're going to see is a massacre, but I have news for you: the Feast of Purim is going to be fulfilled, the great celebration of the salvation of God's people from the Beast. That's what Purim is all about. Read it – it was a great surprise.   Many people read that and they wonder, “How does this fit with all the terrible things I've heard about the times to come?” Well, we need to put our faith in the living God. If you don't have faith in God, the devil will take advantage of you. He will be able to conquer you. If you believe what the devil says, what your carnal mind speaks to you constantly, he is able to take advantage of that. You are giving him permission to rule over you. What we have to have is a renewed mind. We have to take up the shield of faith to quench the fiery darts and the destruction that is coming. 

Fr. Mike explains the significance behind the mention of bones in Jeremiah and Ezekiel. In Jeremiah, we learn that the bones of God's people are scattered because of their worship of false gods. In Ezekiel, we see the prophet prophesy over the valley of dry bones and the Lord's Spirit restoring and moving within them. Today's readings are Jeremiah 8, Ezekiel 37-38, and Proverbs 14:33-35. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hear the Spirit-inspired song of victory as everyone celebrates the supremacy of the Lord their God. He can always outsmart the devil's schemes! Listen carefully to the voice of the Lord's Spirit, as you mature in your ability to hear His specific instructions to you. He desires to personally care for all your needs, and will act in surprising ways to intervene for your protection and healing.

Grow in the knowledge and spiritual strength of abiding in the presence of the Lord's Spirit within you now, so you will be able to hurry along His second coming. Stay blameless and pure, resting in His peace, during the times of great trial and desperation about to fall upon those who are still choosing to be independent of Him. Your salvation draws nigh! Keep the faith during spiritual warfare against your beliefs!

I. When This Was To Be Fulfilled-II. What The Spirit Comes To Bestow-III. Where He Is To Be Found

In today's sermon, we traced the journey of a ‘scattered witness', Philip, and his interaction with an African. Rev. Boateng spoke on how it was the Lord's Spirit orchestrating and leading the move, enabling relationships and sparking gospel conversations. We, the church of today, must follow The Spirit's lead as we plan and strategise on […]

Because of King Saul's disobedience, a new king was anointed, and Saul faced a dilemma: the Lord's Spirit departed from him, and an evil spirit began tormenting him. Learn about the ironic solution to Saul's suffering, on Truth For Life with Alistair Begg. 1 Samuel 16:1323 To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/163/29

Because of King Saul's disobedience, a new king was anointed, and Saul faced a dilemma: the Lord's Spirit departed from him, and an evil spirit began tormenting him. Learn about the ironic solution to Saul's suffering, on Truth For Life with Alistair Begg. Listen...

October 27, 2022 - Inspired by J.C. Ryle's treatise on Prayer. We have the sweet savor from our Redeemer, and added to that is our comforter assessing our groaning too deep for words and praying for us while He comes along side us, helping form our words lifted to the Father. Romans 8:26-27 And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; 27 and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. “There is the Holy Spirit ever ready to help our infirmities in prayer. It is one part of his special office to assist us in our endeavors to speak with God. We need not be cast down and distressed by the fear of not knowing what to say. The Spirit will give “us words if we seek his aid. The prayers of the Lord's people are the inspiration of the Lord's Spirit, the work of the Holy Ghost who dwells within them as the Spirit of grace and supplication. Surely the Lord's people may well hope to be heard. It is not they merely that pray, but the Holy Ghost pleading in them. Reader, think of this. Is not this encouragement?” "What a man is on his knees before God, that he is and nothing more." Robert Murray M'Cheyne Assistant Editor: Seven Jefferson Gossard www.frponprayer.como freerangeprayer@gmail.com Facebook - Free Range Preacher Ministries Instagram: freerangeministries All our Scripture quotes are drawn from the NASB 1977 edition. For access to the Voice Over services of Richard Durrington, please visit RichardDurrington.com or email him at Durringtonr@gmail.com Our podcast art designed by @sammmmmmmmm23 Instagram Season 005 Episode 027

Judges 6:30-40 The enemies of Israel band together creating a threatening force. God's response is to clothe Gideon with the Spirit of the Lord. God will make good on the promise to be with Gideon, making him a mighty warrior. The coming of the Lord's Spirit upon Gideon doesn't override his consciousness. The Spirit's power […]

Saul Calls a Prophet – This story is crafted from 1 Samuel 28 where King Saul was in a war with the Philistines and did not know what to do since the Lord's Spirit left him and Samuel the great prophet had died. To find out how you can support this ministry by visiting our website at https://lizardtracks.net. My stories can be fond of your favorite podcast, App, or Alexa, search for Podcast Lizard Tracks.

Zechariah set a scary stage in the previous context. The setting is the nations marching against Jerusalem. The nations were meeting for the battle at the mountain of the assembly. This is not assembly for worship, but assembly with the intent to destroy God's city. God's holy mount Zion is being reclaimed as the mountain of war. The Lord promises to secure his holy mountain and his holy city. The Lord is going to establish his "vision of peace" or what we know as Jerusalem. History is moving to the goal of the Lord's heavenly city where God dwells with his people forever. Zechariah continues to describe the "Day of the Lord" with the assurance that the Lord's Spirit will be poured out. His people will repent. Idolatry will be removed. His people will grieve that they have pierced the messiah. However, the Lord's people will dwell in peace in the Lord's heavenly city dwelling in the presence of God himself.

Fr. Mike explains the significance behind the mention of bones in Jeremiah and Ezekiel. In Jeremiah, we learn that the bones of God's people are scattered because of their worship of false gods. In Ezekiel, we see the prophet prophesy over the valley of dry bones and the Lord's Spirit restoring and moving within them. Today's readings are Jeremiah 8, Ezekiel 37-38, and Proverbs 14:33-35. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Micah 2 NLT read aloud by Simon MacFarlane. 1 What sorrow awaits you who lie awake at night, thinking up evil plans. You rise at dawn and hurry to carry them out, simply because you have the power to do so. 2 When you want a piece of land, you find a way to seize it. When you want someone's house, you take it by fraud and violence. You cheat a man of his property, stealing his family's inheritance. 3 But this is what the Lord says: “I will reward your evil with evil; you won't be able to pull your neck out of the noose. You will no longer walk around proudly, for it will be a terrible time.” 4 In that day your enemies will make fun of you by singing this song of despair about you: “We are finished, completely ruined! God has confiscated our land, taking it from us. He has given our fields to those who betrayed us.” 5 Others will set your boundaries then, and the Lord's people will have no say in how the land is divided. “Don't say such things,” the people respond. “Don't prophesy like that. Such disasters will never come our way!” 7 Should you talk that way, O family of Israel? Will the Lord's Spirit have patience with such behavior? If you would do what is right, you would find my words comforting. 8 Yet to this very hour my people rise against me like an enemy! You steal the shirts right off the backs of those who trusted you, making them as ragged as men returning from battle. 9 You have evicted women from their pleasant homes and forever stripped their children of all that God would give them. 10 Up! Begone! This is no longer your land and home, for you have filled it with sin and ruined it completely. 11 Suppose a prophet full of lies would say to you, “I'll preach to you the joys of wine and alcohol!” That's just the kind of prophet you would like! “Someday, O Israel, I will gather you; I will gather the remnant who are left. I will bring you together again like sheep in a pen, like a flock in its pasture. Yes, your land will again be filled with noisy crowds! 13 Your leader will break out and lead you out of exile, out through the gates of the enemy cities, back to your own land. Your king will lead you; the Lord himself will guide you.”

"Micah Stands Firm For God" Micah 2:4-11 Visit our linktree: https://linktr.ee/IATCMJuly 10, 2022 "Micah Stands Firm For God" Micah 2:4-11 Time: Between 736 and 722 B.C. Place: Judah Golden Text - "Day by day the Lord takes care of the innocent, and they will receive an inheritance that lasts forever" (Psalm 37:18). Outline I. Nothing To Cling (Micah 2:4-7) 4 In that day your enemies will make fun of you by singing this song of despair about you: “We are finished, completely ruined! God has confiscated our land, taking it from us. He has given our fields to those who betrayed us.[a]” 5 Others will set your boundaries then, and the Lord's people will have no say in how the land is divided. 6 “Don't say such things, the people respond.[b] “Don't prophesy like that. Such disasters will never come our way!” 7 Should you talk that way, O family of Israel?[c] Will the Lord's Spirit have patience with such behavior If you would do what is right, you would find my words comforting. II. No One TO Believe (Micah 2:8-11) 8 Yet to this very hour my people rise against me like an enemy! You steal the shirts right off the backs of those who trusted you, making them as ragged as men returning from battle. 9 You have evicted women from their pleasant homes and forever stripped their children of all that God would give them. 10 Up! Begone! This is no longer your land and home, for you have filled it with sin and ruined it completely. 11 Suppose a prophet full of lies would say to you, “I'll preach to you the joys of wine and alcohol!” That's just the kind of prophet you would like! #SUNDAYSCHOOL #UNIONGOSPELPRESS 00:00 Introduction 00:16 Intro Music 01:38 Welcome to IATCM Church School 02:35 Subscribe to IATCM YouTube Channel 03:07 Introduction of Teachers 03:18 Greetings to everyone across our social media platforms 03:38 Prayer by Katherine Rice-Smith 03:59 Introduction of the lesson 04:34 Reading Golden Text Psalm 37:18 04:48 Two Outlines 05:40 Background information to the Lesson 10:33 I. Nothing To Cling (Micah 2:4-7) 22:43 II. No One To Believe (Micah 2:8-11) 27:17 Golden Text Explained 28:06 Verse 11 explained 30:54 Conclusion of the Lesson 31:30 Invitation to participate in other IATCM activities 32:47 Encouraging Safety on the Holiday

Today's Scripture and Sermon were given by the Rev. Anders Edstrom at Greenfield Presbyterian Church, Berkley, MI. The Scripture Reading is Acts 8:26-40 Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch 26 An angel from the Lord spoke to Philip, “At noon, take the road that leads from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a desert road.) 27 So he did. Meanwhile, an Ethiopian man was on his way home from Jerusalem, where he had come to worship. He was a eunuch and an official responsible for the entire treasury of Candace. (Candace is the title given to the Ethiopian queen.) 28 He was reading the prophet Isaiah while sitting in his carriage. 29 The Spirit told Philip, “Approach this carriage and stay with it.” 30 Running up to the carriage, Philip heard the man reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you really understand what you are reading?” 31 The man replied, “Without someone to guide me, how could I?” Then he invited Philip to climb up and sit with him. 32 This was the passage of scripture he was reading: Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent so he didn't open his mouth. 33 In his humiliation justice was taken away from him. Who can tell the story of his descendants because his life was taken from the earth? 34 The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, about whom does the prophet say this? Is he talking about himself or someone else?” 35 Starting with that passage, Philip proclaimed the good news about Jesus to him. 36 As they went down the road, they came to some water. The eunuch said, “Look! Water! What would keep me from being baptized?” 38 He ordered that the carriage halt. Both Philip and the eunuch went down to the water, where Philip baptized him. 39 When they came up out of the water, the Lord's Spirit suddenly took Philip away. The eunuch never saw him again but went on his way rejoicing. 40 Philip found himself in Azotus. He traveled through that area, preaching the good news in all the cities until he reached Caesarea.

1. Jesus is the Lord's Spirit-filled Servant2. Jesus is the Lord's simple Servant3. Jesus is the Lord's saving Servant4. Jesus is the Lord's superior Servant5. Jesus is the Lord's successful Servant

His perfection to His River Flow for man says, "Do not be afraid, I Calm the Storms...", Any storms we are in, He calms the waves that disturb our way. For He is the way (The Truth, Life, and Way) He is a light into your feet, you are of Christ, having the mind of Christ and you stay your mind upon Him and He supplies all your needs even in the storm; it's His different path, the path that leads you out of the wilderness, out of the dark shadows of this world. ( Note: You may hear ruckus in the background...that is my 1 year old pup who is joyful and playing without a care. Be of good cheer- the Lord's Spirit is here! Blessings ❤️

Today's Reading: Numbers 25; Psalm 68; Isaiah 15; 1 Peter 3 Today on the podcast, we are called to look at our Christian conduct as it is a vehicle that the Lord's Spirit uses to save and transform this world.

Ep #63 Arise, Son, Victorious!  Behold Mother, Your Wounded Warrior   This episode is for those who love any man who is struggling whether it is your son, father, brother, husband or beloved friend.  Many a "happily ever after" is interrupted when the man you love keeps his sorrow carefully concealed.  Post Note: March 29, 2022 The day this show aired on March 27, 2022, my amazing son was going through one of the most challenging trials as he helped one of his dear friends through “the dark night” of his soul.  I had felt prompted to prerecord this program without knowing that days later, I would be praying with all the energy of my heart, for my precious son and his amazing friend. Questions to Ponder: How can you show forth an increase of love to those who have harmed you? How can you become an instrument of healing in the Lord's hands for your wounded warrior? How can you remind the man (son, brother, father, husband) you love,  of his infinite true worth and value? How do you keep your own heart buoyant when you are aware of his inner pain and conflict? How can you set boundaries to preserve your own self-honor during the darkest hours? How do you keep the Lord's Spirit when working with a wounded warrior? How can you look upon the heart of your wounded warrior and support him in his journey of discovering the best within himself without getting hurt or harmed in the process? How do you cherish a man who is wounding you? Never, never, never give up hoping, praying and pleading that your beloved son will be healed. Listen to this podcast and enjoy "The Heroine's Welcome" found at the end of this journey.  Songs by John Canaan and Karyn Lynn Grant are included in this episode.   Whether you are new to "The Stories She Sings" podcast or a loyal fan, please support our mission by rating, reviewing and subscribing to the show on Apple Podcasts or wherever you prefer to listen. Your support and your reviews mean a lot to me and to help share this empowering message to women everywhere. Plus, it provides me with valuable feedback, so that I can continue to provide the best listening experience possible.   I love hearing from fans and listeners. Please share your feedback, guest suggestions, or ideas for show topics with me on social media. (See links below)  Connect With Karyn on Social Media: facebook or Linked In     Visit Karyn's Website: JoycoachingAmerica.com   Listen to Karyn's other Podcast: "Joy Coaching America"  karynlynngrantpodcast.com   Check out Karyn's albums: "Arise, Daughter, Victorious!" and many more all on Apple Music Listen to all Karyn's wonderful faith-filled music: on Apple or Spotify        

In 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2, Paul writes, "where the Lord's Spirit is, there is freedom." But what exactly is this freedom? We have been taught to understand freedom in certain ways, but is our understanding of freedom what Paul is talking about? This sermon seeks to answer these questions and considers how the freedom of the Spirit is not just a freedom FROM, but a freedom FOR something. 

I was born in Maryland in the year 1766. My parents were slaves. Both my father and mother were religious people, and belonged to the Methodist Society. It was my father's practice to read in the Bible aloud to his children every sabbath morning. At these seasons, when I was but five years old, I often felt the overshadowing of the Lord's Spirit, without at all understanding what it meant.   This short story is sponsored by our friends at 5amily.com

Rev. Davis JohnsonScripture2 Corinthians 3:12 - 4:2 So, since we have such a hope, we act with great confidence. We aren't like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the Israelites couldn't watch the end of what was fading away. But their minds were closed. Right up to the present day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. The veil is not removed because it is taken away by Christ. Even today, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts.  But whenever someone turns back to the Lord, the veil is removed. The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Lord's Spirit is, there is freedom. All of us are looking with unveiled faces at the glory of the Lord as if we were looking in a mirror. We are being transformed into that same image from one degree of glory to the next degree of glory. This comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.This is why we don't get discouraged, given that we received this ministry in the same way that we received God's mercy. Instead, we reject secrecy and shameful actions. We don't use deception, and we don't tamper with God's word. Instead, we commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God by the public announcement of the truth. Givehttps://secure.accessacs.com/access/oglogin.aspx?sn=90290Get connected with a ministry area.https://forms.gle/nG2ttsfAh6jcf8Xv6Request care from our pastors. https://forms.gle/vFUnGUCGfpEizGwc6 

Ep #57 Speak Softly Spirit- Lessons in Cherishing - In these “Love Letters from Heaven”, Karyn shares from her own experience in seeking the Spirit, that “Loving Oneself and one's neighbor as thyself” is an on-going process. Learning by the Spirit is something that we strive for daily in our early morning meditations and middle of the night worship times with the Lord's Spirit. Learning to Love as God Loves becomes the Practice.  These are excerpts from Karyn's volumes of morning meditations, a selection of her “Love Letters from Heaven”.

Are You An Actor?By Tammy Lacock Warren Litzman is a follower of the Apostle Paul as Paul is a follower of Christ (1 Corinthian 1:11). The Apostle Paul was the only man God ever dealt with in the Bible regarding the Gospel of Christ to the born-again believer. God raised him up to bring us the final gospel, that is, Christ living in every believer. Throughout his epistles, the questions Paul answers for believers are, who am I, and how am I to live? Warren explains that Paul was the greatest psychologist of our time. He understood the mind of human beings because, he, himself was growing up in Christ and finally understanding, through the help of the Holy Spirit, who God created him to be in Christ. Warren explains that if we don't know who we are, our true identity, then we're going around as an actor in this world and Christianity will never work. Through Paul's epistles, Warren helps us understand that our true identity is Christ. We are Christians because we are Christ-persons. We are not the church building we go to. We are not the things we do or even the titles and labels we give ourselves. We are not sinners trying to act Christ-like. As born-again Christians, we are entirely new creations. As Warren explains, humans are tripartite beings made up of three distinct parts: a spirit, a soul, and a body. When we believed on Jesus Christ as our Savior, our spirits were saved by being joined to the Lord's Spirit. His Spirit overwhelms our spirit, and we become one Spirit “He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:17). In God's eyes, we are now perfect in spirit because He sees Christ as our righteousness, our new life. There is nothing we can do or not do to be saved because Christ did the work on the cross and by God's Grace we are saved. Yet our souls—our minds, will, and emotions—are not yet transformed to our new life. Our minds, as Paul says, must be continually renewed if we are to grow up and learn of our new life in Him. Our souls are being perfected (matured) as we get to know Him and love Him as our new life. Christianity is union, a love affair, a marriage to Christ, in operation. “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” (Ephesians 1:4) So the question remains: Who are you? Are you an actor or a true Christian? As a born-again believer, the real you is Christ. As you grow up in the knowledge of Him as your new life, may you drop the pain and suffering that comes with acting and let Him, your true identity, shine through.

Grace and double portion to all the earth that looks to the Lord for the redemptive story of fulfillment will be done. It's in process as never before...we are weak but He is strong...grasp hold of the strength of the Lord. He gave His Holy Spirit to the 120 in the upper room the day of Pentecost...He has given His Spirit through these messages...all 120 episodes for an entire year. This is my last episode as coming through this dwelling place with the Lord's Spirit

JUDGES: A Faithful God in a Broken World"Othniel: The Ideal Judge"(Judges 3:7-11)For the bulletin in PDF form click here. Message SlidesThe Meaning of the Minor Judges - WayModern Idolatry - YoungerThe Idol of Self - YoungerIntroduction: A Survey of the Twelve JudgesIsrael's Idolatrous Rebellion and the Lord's Righteous Wrath (3:7-8)God will discipline His people when they do not worship Him exclusively.Israel's Cry for Help and the Lord's Gracious Salvation (3:9)God graciously saves His people when they cry out to Him.Israel's Evil Oppressor and the Lord's Overpowering Strength (3:10-11)God empowers willing leaders to do great things for Him.Though God may discipline us with the humiliating consequences of our sin,He is willing to deliver us by demonstrating His powerand showing His right to our loyalty and worship.Next Steps • Truth: God is faithful to discipline us and deliver us in order to teach us to worship him. • Warning: God will allow us to experience the humiliating consequences of our sin. • Challenge: God graciously delivers when we cry out to Him.This Week's Growth GuideGod's Word is both central and critical to your spiritual growth. We invite you to utilize the Growth Guide during the week to further your application of the Truth from the message.• Monday - Leviticus 26:1-13• Tuesday - Leviticus 26:14-26• Wednesday - Leviticus 26:27-39• Thursday - Leviticus 26:40-46• Friday - Judges 3:12-30Home ChurchOur Home Churches meet weekly to facilitate quicker relational depth, study the same passage taught Sunday to help apply Scripture in the context of community, and pray with one another. Home Church helps our body seek God's best for one another. Home Church Questions • Read Judges 3:7-11.• What stands out in this passage or from the message?• Why do you think Othniel is not one of the major Old Testament characters we talk about?• How do you know if you have an idol?• How is God's anger both good news and bad news?• How have you experienced the discipline of God in your life? Is there a difference between God's discipline and the natural consequences of sin?• The Lord's Spirit was "on Othniel." What does that mean? Is that different than the indwelling Holy Spirit we studied in Romans 8?• What is God's ultimate purpose in both His discipline and deliverance?• What is the difference between crying out and repenting?FinancesWeekly Budget 28,846Giving For 09/05 22,587Giving For 09/05 34,967YTD Budget 317,308YTD Giving 302,404 over (14,905) Generations CampaignTotal Pledge 1,535,065Received-to-date 1,608,752Get Equipped at Fellowship Fellowship invites people to enter God's story, equipping and releasing reproducing disciples of Jesus Christ. Let's get equipped! • Church History: Resurrection to time 325 A.D. - October 10 - November 7 • Financial Peace University - September 13-November 8, 6-8:00 p.m. • Discover You - September 19 - October 31, 9:00 a.m For a full description and to register go to fellowshipconway.org/equipped.New to Fellowship?We are so glad that you joined the Fellowship Family to worship this morning. If you are joining us for the first time or have been checking us out for a few weeks, we are excited you are here and would love to meet you. Please fill out the “Connect” section of your bulletin, tear it off, and bring it to the Connection Center in the Atrium, we would love to say “hi” and give you a gift. Getting Connected with GirlfriendsFor a full description and to register go to fellowshipconway.org/womens-ministry • Ruth: Loss, Love and Legacy - Tuesdays, September 28 - November 9, 11-12 Noon • Girlfriends Conference - Friday PM, October 8 & Saturday AM, October 9 2021 fellowship Women's ConferenceJoin us October 8 (PM) and October 9 (AM) for fellowship, fun, snacks, and some amazing speakers as we discuss “A Spiritual Mindset for Handling Life During Covid: Communication, Candid Conversations, and Collaboration.” For more information, pick up a flyer at the Connection Center. Men's Systematic Theology StudyThis study is open to all men Thursdays, at 6:00 a.m. in the Library/Conference Room. Contact Will Morgan for more information at 501-733-0692. Join a Small GroupFellowship's Home Church Ministry has launched, but there is still time to join a small group of believers focused on connecting, growing, and serving together. For more information, go to fellowshipconway.org/homechurch for more information. A Place For YouFinding just the right area to serve can sometimes be intimidating, but knowing what opportunities are available and what the time commitment is to fulfill the role could help you make the right connection. Go to fellowshipconway.org/serve to see current and ongoing service opportunities for a good fit and try out what interests you. Fellowship Kids BaptismSeptember 19 & 26 and October 3 & 10 during the second service. Has your child been asking questions? Are they ready to take the next step in their faith? If you have a child in kindergarten through fourth grade join us for baptism class during the second service in Room 2101. Email Lisa Gerdes at lgerdes@fellowshipconway.org to register.Fellowship Kids Pumpkin Patch - October 16, 10-12 NoonBring the family and join us at Schaeffers/Collins Pumpkin Patch for some good family fun with hay and horse rides, animal petting barn, pumpkin picking, and concessions.

The Lord's Spirit will be poured out on the descendants of Israel—Idols of wood are as fuel for a fire—The Lord will gather, bless, and redeem Israel and rebuild Jerusalem. The post Isaiah 44 appeared first on Sacred Text Daily.

Fr. Mike explains the significance behind the mention of bones in Jeremiah and Ezekiel. In Jeremiah, we learn that the bones of God's people are scattered because of their worship of false gods. In Ezekiel, we see the prophet prophesy over the valley of dry bones and the Lord's Spirit restoring and moving within them. Today's readings are Jeremiah 8, Ezekiel 37-38, and Proverbs 14:33-35. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Baptism within a Long History Lk comes to Jesus' Baptism. Only 2 verses! Focused on 2 signs: Holy Spirit and Voice from God: Jesus as God's beloved son, God's delight. As with birth and crucifixion, Lk interprets it by the narrative surrounding it. Here, John's ministry and arrest and a long genealogy. Wider, Recall Jesus in Nazareth (Lk 4): Reads Isa 61: Lord's Spirit, Anointed. Gabriel to Mary (Lk 1): Mary's Son, Son of Most High, Throne of his father David, Holy Spirit, Son of God. Glory & promise surround his baptism/plunging in water. Lk puts John's arrest before Jesus' baptism. Not to distance Jesus from John, but the glory of God's Son like the greatness of the prophet doesn't protect from suffering. Like Mary isn't protected from the sword through the soul. Jesus is baptized to affirm & embody the “change of heart & mind” that John proclaimed for God's people. Son of God, Son of David, Son of Mary and Joseph Baptism brings together Spirit & Father around Son: comm-unity of Love in “Trinity.” Spirit is power in God embodied in Jesus. Power in Jesus' ministry, Power in Acts. Signs are important: Dove (Jn 1), Wind, Fire (Act 2, Jn 3), Gift to include all people. “You are my Son whom I love” echoes deep in scripture. Back to Isaac & Abraham (Gn 22); Israel in Exodus. David's Son/Messiah (2Sam 7); Servant in Isaiah. Here the voice of God gives a simple emphatic statement: “In you I take delight!” What does it mean? Nothing bad can happen? The whole Gospel is answer! That's the journey! God's delight, Jesus' delight, the Spirit's power includes God taking on human sin & suffering, conquering death, creating new Life, bringing all peoples into one body. Standing on the Shoulders of the Past After 2 verses on Jesus' baptism, 15 verses on genealogy. 76 generation back to Adam. Important for people then, also for Lk. It adds to the meaning of Son of God. Note: We can't know the source. People compiled gens. We have gen. also in Mt 1. Overlap in names before David, but David to Joseph almost entirely different. Both gens. of Joseph as supposed father. Human kinship is important but challenging. In relation to Mt, notable that in Lk, David is the only king in the list. Not a royal line but ordinary people, like Simeon, Anna, Mary, Joseph. The royalty comes from God. But through Joseph we look back on names, most unknown after David, that span Israel's life with God. Then extend before Abraham to “son of Adam, son of God.” Jesus embodies all humanity's relation to God as beloved children, God's delight. Those unknown names stretch out across history to tell of all that flows into Jesus. Pompey, Maccabees, Alexander, 2nd Temple, Babylonian exile, Temple destroyed, time of prophets, divided kingdom, etc. So many broken hopes wait on Jesus' life!

The Lord's Spirit will be poured out on the descendants of Israel—Idols of wood are as fuel for a fire—The Lord will gather, bless, and redeem Israel and rebuild Jerusalem. The post Isaiah 44 appeared first on Sacred Text Daily.

Series: Judges Speaker: Dr. Jon Akin   Be willing to offer all you have as gratitude for God's love not bargaining to get it.   1. Be convinced of God's great love for you!   Pattern: 1) God raises up savior 2) Israel rejects him 3) Gentiles accept him 4) He saves Israel   2. So be willing to offer God all you have out of gratitude NOT bargain   2 Options: 1) Human Sacrifice 2) Tabernacle Dedication   Jephthah's response to the Ammonites in 11:12-28 shows that he is well-versed in the Pentateuch so vowing a human sacrifice would be strange for him given how strongly it's denounced in the Pentateuch.   He is empowered by the Lord's Spirit right before he makes the vow (11:29).   The loss of his daughter's virginity is the emphasis when the vow is carried out not her death (11:38ff.).   2 Kings 3:27 shows that the Bible is willing to describe child sacrifice, which it does not here.   Jephthah is commended in both the OT (in the same list as Samuel; 1 Sam 12: 11) & the NT (Heb 11:32-34).   Vows for victory in battle are legitimate things that God responds positively to in the OT (Numbers 21:-3).   There is a provision in the Pentateuch to cancel out rash vows (Lev 5:4-5) & certainly someone who could rehearse the minutia of Pentateuch history would know this & rescue his only child from death.   Animals didn't stay in the house in the ancient world, so it's dumb to think that Jephthah thought an animal would come out to “greet” him   Judges 10:6-16 ESV 6 The people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the Philistines. And they forsook the Lord and did not serve him. 7So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the Ammonites, 8and they crushed and oppressed the people of Israel that year. For eighteen years they oppressed all the people of Israel who were beyond the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead. 9And the Ammonites crossed the Jordan to fight also against Judah and against Benjamin and against the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was severely distressed. 10And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, saying, “We have sinned against you, because we have forsaken our God and have served the Baals.” 11And the Lord said to the people of Israel, “Did I not save you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites, from the Ammonites and from the Philistines? 12The Sidonians also, and the Amalekites and the Maonites oppressed you, and you cried out to me, and I saved you out of their hand. 13Yet you have forsaken me and served other gods; therefore I will save you no more. 14Go and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress.” 15And the people of Israel said to the Lord, “We have sinned; do to us whatever seems good to you. Only please deliver us this day.” 16So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord, and he became impatient over the misery of Israel.   Judges 10:11-17 ESV 11And the Lord said to the people of Israel, “Did I not save you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites, from the Ammonites and from the Philistines? 12The Sidonians also, and the Amalekites and the Maonites oppressed you, and you cried out to me, and I saved you out of their hand. 13Yet you have forsaken me and served other gods; therefore I will save you no more. 14Go and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress.” 15And the people of Israel said to the Lord, “We have sinned; do to us whatever seems good to you. Only please deliver us this day.” 16So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord, and he became impatient over the misery of Israel. 17Then the Ammonites were called to arms, and they encamped in Gilead. And the people of Israel came together, and they encamped at Mizpah.   Judges 11:29-40 ESV 29 Then the Spirit of the Lord was upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh and passed on to Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he passed on to the Ammonites. 30And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord and said, “If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, 31then whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites shall be the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.” 32So Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to fight against them, and the Lord gave them into his hand. 33And he struck them from Aroer to the neighborhood of Minnith, twenty cities, and as far as Abel-keramim, with a great blow. So the Ammonites were subdued before the people of Israel. 34Then Jephthah came to his home at Mizpah. And behold, his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances. She was his only child; besides her he had neither son nor daughter. 35And as soon as he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you have become the cause of great trouble to me. For I have opened my mouth to the Lord, and I cannot take back my vow.” 36And she said to him, “My father, you have opened your mouth to the Lord; do to me according to what has gone out of your mouth, now that the Lord has avenged you on your enemies, on the Ammonites.” 37So she said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me: leave me alone two months, that I may go up and down on the mountains and weep for my virginity, I and my companions.” 38So he said, “Go.” Then he sent her away for two months, and she departed, she and her companions, and wept for her virginity on the mountains. 39And at the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did with her according to his vow that he had made. She had never known a man, and it became a custom in Israel 40that the daughters of Israel went year by year to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in the year.    

2 Corinthians 3:15-4:1, 3-6 • Matthew 5:20-26 Our righteousness will surpass that of the scribes and the Pharisees if we will turn to the Lord who removes the veil from over our hearts. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." The Lord's Spirit moves us to take the initiative in becoming reconciled with others. By that self-surrender, we are transformed from glory to glory and "enter into the Kingdom of heaven."

Christians celebrate Pentecost, gift of the Lord's Spirit to us...20:03 mins length of message,Hebrew number value meaning is 20=Divine Order, 3=Holy Spirit on the day we acknowledge Him ! Wasn't a planned message length...How awesome is that ! Blessings on this day of grace, grace, grace...

Today's Reading: Numbers 25; Psalm 68; Isaiah 15; 1 Peter 3 Today on the podcast, we are called to look at our Christian conduct as it is a vehicle that the Lord's Spirit uses to save and transform this world.

SPIRITUAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY   The Journey to Faith I was born in the Hebei province of China. My hometown was a small village in the south Hebei province. It is adjacent to the Henan province and is located near a river. My family was poor but started to earn more money when my father began to work at the local township auditing department. My mother stayed in the village to grow crops and feed pigs. In spite of the hardships, my family's financial situation was more stable than other families in the village. As a child, I always wondered what our purpose was on earth. I would often think about this in my yard while looking up at the stars. Sometimes I sat on a small hill near my village wondering, “Where will I be in the future?” My older sister enrolled in college in 1981 and was the only one in our county to be accepted into a college that year, which ended up being a huge event. Not only did the local teaching authority pay a lot of attention to this, but it also changed the mind of my grandpa and other family members in regards to the possibility of success. It was not common for a child from a rural village to enter college. Also, people in the village were prejudiced against females. So, my grandpa said that my brother and I must be accepted into college. When it was my turn to go to college, I was accepted into a college in Beijing. However, I faced many hardships. Not only was I pressured financially, but I also had to face inequalities. There are always prejudices against people from rural or poor areas in China. I felt hurt inside and sometimes became very shy and withdrawn. After four years of college, I stayed and worked there for another four years. I wasn't satisfied with that life, and I still felt empty and didn't know what my purpose in life was. Because of this, I decided to study abroad, which is a dream of many Chinese students. I got a joint offer from the London School of Economics in the UK and the University of Southern California. The tuition for the university in London was around 10,300 pounds, but I only had 10,000 pounds. By the third semester, I ran out of money. I did not have enough money to pay rent, tuition, and living expenses. I was also unable to find a job. I asked my family to help, and they gave me 1000 pounds. The university later offered help with my tuition, so that problem was solved. At this point in time, I began to look for a part-time job. One day, I was lingering in a park near McDonald's when I heard people singing hymns. This attracted me to their gathering in the park. They were a group of Christians. They also portrayed through a play how Jesus was crucified. I was so touched and could not help but cry. One sister named Mary came to me and shared with me about God. I asked her if she had ever seen God. How can you say there is a God if you have never seen Him? She said she did not believe it either when she was a student at Oxford. But one day, when she went to a meeting with her father, she was touched when her father was sharing something about the invisible God with other Christians. She thought that was probably God because she did not have it. She sent me a Bible later and asked me to come to her church, but I never had a chance to visit because I had already started to work at McDonald's part-time. I worked the night shift, starting from 8:00PM to 3:00AM or 4:00AM, which was very tiring. Sometimes I tried to get up in the morning to visit her church, but I did not have the strength to wake up. I had already finished my first year of school in London at that time, and I was looking forward to coming to the United States to finish my second-year study, but I did not have the money. I worked out a way to get the school to send me the I-20 form[1] first, and then I got the F-1 student visa as well. But I still did not have the money. I was hoping to get a scholarship from the University of Southern California, but they replied very late and only gave me a tuition waiver for 8 credits. I had to finish 24 credits to graduate. It was a painful struggle to decide if I should come to the US. I had a visa, but I did not have enough money. I really didn't want to go back to China at that time for a few reasons, and I was not satisfied with my one year study in the UK. Most importantly, I felt I was seeking something, but hadn't found it yet. My life was full of anxiety. I cried out in my innermost being, saying, “Whoever gives me peace, I will believe in him.” Finally, I decided to come to the US with a one-way ticket and a couple of hundred dollars. When I was on the airplane, I didn't even have a plan or know what I would do. On the first night in the US, I stayed in a classmate's house. The second night, I had to move out, but I had no place to go. Next, I signed the housing contract with the school and moved into a dorm, but I could not sleep that night. The next morning, I went to the registrar's office, but I couldn't decide if I should register. I knew that if I registered, I would have to pay the fee. If I didn't register, I would just go back to China immediately. I felt torn between the two choices, so I wandered outside of the office from morning until late afternoon. It was a painful experience. Eventually, I decided to go back to China because I realized that I could not survive here. I had already fulfilled my dream by coming to America, so I started to look for some Chinese students who could tell me where to find a travel agency to buy a plane ticket. Before I did this, I cried out to God again from the deepest part of me: “God, I am such a sinner; do you still remember me?” I remember exactly how I said it, and it was in English, not in Chinese. After that, I felt peace in my heart and decided to go back to China. I found a couple of Chinese students and asked them if they knew where to buy plane tickets, but they told me they had no idea. Later, another student walked across the street, but I couldn't tell if he was Chinese or Korean. He looked Korean, so I asked if he was Korean. He was actually Chinese and a brother from the Church in Los Angeles associated with the ministries of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee. I asked him about the travel agency, and he asked me why I wanted to go back. I told him the reason, and he told me that I should not go back, and I should finish my studies here. He brought me to the Brother House near campus, and I fellowshipped with a church elder and other members who lived in this home.  The Brother House was a home where several Christian men lived together. The brothers were willing to let me move into their house. The brothers even agreed to let me pay the rent later if I had no money. The brothers taught me how to pray, and we prayed together before we went to see the housing department and my department director. The housing department agreed to cancel my contract, and the department director agreed that all the 8 credits of scholarship were for the first semester. Originally, 4 credits were for the first semester, and 4 credits were for the second semester. As an international student, I was required to register at least 8 credits to become a full-time student. All of my problems seemed to be solved within a couple of days! I even found a part-time job on campus to help cover food and other needs. I still didn't have money for my second semester's tuition, but the brothers taught me to pray unto God. They told me that the Lord would take care of my needs if I dedicated myself to the Lord. I also felt sinful when I first believed in the Lord, so I prayed desperately for Him to take care of my needs and forgive all my sins. It took about six months for me to feel the assurance of forgiveness, and with the help of our department director and fellow believers, I was able to pay the tuition later. However, I continued to struggle with financial problems. Upon graduation, I couldn't afford the monthly meal expenses because I no longer held a job on campus. During this time, I worked at a toy store for a little while. I ended up quitting this job because the boss was constantly cursing at employees. When I was in desperate need, I received a call from a Chinese magazine that had received my application and wanted to interview me. I went there by bus, and at one bus stop, the bus driver told me I was going in the wrong direction. I was actually going in the right direction, but I didn't know. So I started to walk in the opposite direction to take another bus. While I was walking a little bit, a van stopped by me in the street corner and asked me where I was going. A Hispanic man gave me a ride to the company, and I arrived for my appointment at exactly 9:00AM. Later I thanked him and asked him why he helped me. I also called him brother when I thanked him. It turned out he really was a brother in Christ. He said that he was touched when he saw me walking and decided that he would drive me wherever I needed to go. He also told me that he would generally never stop for a stranger since he had three kids in the van in car seats. They were on their way to a daycare center. I ended up getting the reporting job at the Chinese magazine. But when the boss asked me to have an interview in a certain place, I told her that I did not have a car yet. She cried out, “My God!” The other boss later asked me to get a car as soon as possible. Before that, I had to take the bus to work. At that time, a brother who moved out of the brother's house left a 1984 Lincoln Town Car for me to use, but I did not have a driver's license. I failed a couple of times but finally got it by the due date my boss gave me. Later on, I learned the owners of this magazine were also Christians. During that month, I was planning to come to work by bus, but just a couple of days after I started work, all the MTA(Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority) bus drivers in Los Angeles went on strike for one month, so I was unable to take the bus. Luckily, one private bus was still running from my company to downtown LA, and a Korean brother dropped me off at the bus stop when he went to work. After I got off work, I took the bus downtown and waited for the brothers to take me home. This sometimes took a couple of hours, and I used this time to recite the verses from the book of John while I was waiting. I was so touched by the brotherly love at that time. This difficult time had led me to receive the Lord and to dedicate myself to Him. In the journey of my belief, there were many miracles. After I started to work, my financial situation got better and better. The Lord's hand was still guiding my life. I got the reporting job in November of 2003. That year, I overheard some believers talking about the first New Jersey Chinese Speaking Perfecting training in August of that year. This is an annual Chinese speaking conference within our denomination. They were talking about how the Lord's Spirit was working powerfully there, and how a brother from The Church in Riverside was completely changed after participating in this training. I was determined to join this training in 2004, and I knew I would experience big changes by attending. I felt this plan was not from me, but it was the Spirit leading me. In that meeting in August 2004 at the Church in Franklin, the Spirit was everywhere. The main topic in that training session was to dedicate your whole being to the Lord and to prepare for His second coming. Everyone was encouraged to dedicate himself or herself to the Lord. I refused to do so even though many brothers urged me to. The second to last time, two brothers urged me again to dedicate myself to the Lord, but I refused again. They looked at me with judgment in their eyes, but I didn't take it personally. However, I felt the judgment from the Lord strongly. I felt like he was reminding me by saying, “How many times did you say that you would dedicate your life to me if I did certain things for you?” It only took me a second to recall all my prayers in which I had asked the Lord to take care of my needs and promised that I would dedicate my life to Him. I had forgotten these prayers a long time ago, but the Lord always remembers. That night, I knelt and prayed to the Lord. “Lord, I still have a hard time believing the truth about your second coming. I would dedicate myself to you if you revealed this to me.” Later, when I fell to sleep, I felt two people were fighting for my heart. The Lord was stronger, and He took it. The next day I dedicated my life to the Lord. While one brother was talking about the New Jerusalem, I felt the heavens open in my spirit. The Lord spoke to me and said, “If the body of Christ, the New Jerusalem, is built up, I will come back.” This proved to me that only those who had dedicated their lives to the Lord could see this vision, just like many brothers had told me. I was completely changed when I came back from the training. I changed a lot of bad habits and started to pursue the truth. I read the Bible and the book Life Study by Witness Lee every day. The local believers were so surprised that I had changed.   Overcoming the Past My father was looked down upon by the villagers and his coworkers due to his character and inability to socialize with others. Many people considered him to be a socially awkward person. At one point, he started to work in a brick factory in a nearby village. He started as a laborer, then he became a keeper of the factory warehouse, and after that, he became an accountant. He worked long hours, and he was not able to be there for me emotionally while I was growing up. After this, my father was able to get a government job with the help of a family member who held a position in local government. But my father was still looked down upon by his coworkers even at his new job. His coworkers would point at me and say things like, “Even though his father was such a nerd, his sons are doing great.”  But these words hurt me greatly. As a result of this, I never learned how to socialize with others, so I was often considered socially awkward as well. It was not as noticeable before high school because we lived in a small town where people did not have as many differences. It became more of an issue later when I went to a big city like Beijing to study. I developed low self-esteem because of my circumstances. Not only did I see my father's failures in his life, but I inherited some of his weaknesses as well. So whenever would I fail at something, I would pity myself. I would think, “How can I amount to anything because I am the son of my father.” This was a lie, but I kept repeating it, and I believed it. This became a shadow in my life for many years. On the one hand, this made me work hard to try to not be like my father, but on the other hand, nothing made me more upset than when my wife said to me, “You are exactly like your dad.” I never wanted to be like him. I told myself I would study hard to acquire the skills to excel in life as I knew I was not strong enough physically to fight with others, and I didn't know how to socialize. I felt like at least I needed to be good at something so people would respect me. I felt this drive to excel in my early life, so I wouldn't end up like my father. My father was not good at his new job or good at socializing with others. I felt if he had been good at either one, he would have been in a much better position. If I reflect back now, I believe my father was probably having some emotional issues. He didn't talk much and only focused on his basic needs, like eating and sleeping a lot. Because of this, he didn't take much responsibility as a husband or father. As a result, my mother shouldered most of the responsibilities at home, even though my father was the main breadwinner as he had a stable job in the local government. People often made fun of him because they thought that he got his job from the help of others and not because of his own ability. I remember one instance in the village when the leaders were giving us a hard time in regard to allocating some land for us to build our house. I saw my mom arguing fiercely with them and accusing them of their wrongdoings. My father would never do this due to his weak character. After a few days, my mom ended up inviting these leaders to eat at our home. She was bribing them or trying to make peace with them. She finally resolved the issue, and we got the land we needed to build our house. My mom was a strong woman, and she also had a lot more friends than my father. She loved me very much, especially since I was her youngest son, and I learned a lot from her. I developed perseverance and flexibility.  Even though I encountered many difficult moments in my life down the road, I never gave up. I became even more resilient, and my will to succeed became even stronger after I experienced failures. My wife also saw this quality in me, and she joked, “You are just a little Xiao Qiang that will never die.”  Xiao Qiang is a nickname for a cockroach in Chinese. People use it in a sarcastic manner to describe someone with a strong and resilient character that you just can't kill, even as you can never seem to eradicate cockroaches completely. During my childhood, I got bullied a lot by my peers due to my weak build and lack of male protection at home. But through this, I developed a strong will because I kept fighting even if I lost. I feel this character trait is the main reason that God is using or calling me to do His will.  The call that God has entrusted me with requires a lot of perseverance and discipline. It may be God who was training me through these circumstances in my early life. In spite of this, I was still timid and afraid to step out because of my fears. In recent years the Lord miraculously delivered me from some of these strongholds. I don't have time to go through all of my experiences with deliverance here, but I will share one example. I did end up forgiving my father and loving him after my conversion to Christianity.  This issue became especially clear to me during an inner healing session, where a minister told me that it was the enemy's plan to put an end to God's calling on my life by attacking my father. I believe he was experiencing difficulty expressing his emotions because of this.   The Leading of the Holy Spirit in My Life I took the college entrance exam three times before finally being accepted into a college in Beijing. When I was selecting a major and a college, I was planning on studying philosophy at a renowned university in Beijing. One day around noon, at the time I usually rest, I had a hard time sleeping. I remembered something others had told me during my high school years. A friend of mine told me I would be a good journalist because he thought I spoke eloquently. So I decided to choose journalism as a major in another college that focused on liberal arts instead. I realized years later that this was the leading of the Holy Spirit, even though at that time, I did not know Him. God had led me on a journey to study media and become familiar with these areas. I used to dream of becoming a TV host and having a successful career in this field. But after coming to the US, I started to spend most of my time learning about spiritual things, and my dream of being successful in media died down gradually. One day in 2016, I received a prophetic word from a woman, and she said God wanted me to return to media. It was God who gave me the desire initially. I also had a prophetic dream where I was taken to a heavenly meeting.  Many who were called to TV evangelism were gathered there. I was led to a large TV studio, and I saw a poster that relayed the reason I was chosen to be part of this ministry. The sign said, “eloquent in speaking,” just like my high school classmate had told me. I also had more than a dozen dreams in which either the Lord or various angels asked me to start making films. I figured the media or films would play an important role in the coming revival in China, which I personally feel I am called to be part of. I also had a dream in which a spiritual being or angel decreed to me in English that I would soon be on national TV. I also had many dreams where my cell phone would grow larger and larger and eventually turn into a big TV. Currently, my ministry work is mainly done by using my phone to record audio for social media sites. Even though all these dreams may be true now, I had no knowledge of my future while I was in college. The liberal arts college had more students from affluent families than regular colleges, so I experienced culture shock when I started. I will share an experience to illustrate this. At the beginning of the first semester, I met some classmates chatting in a restaurant near the main cafeteria. I just went to say hello and later left. They didn't know that I was leaving so they ordered a lot of food. I never thought of joining them because the cost of one meal could cost 1/4 of my monthly expenses for food. They were confused that I did not come back to join them, so they thought I was strange. Situations like this continued to occur and magnified my personal weaknesses, such as lack of social skills and other flaws. I started to develop some hostile relationships with others, which made my life miserable, and I became even more closed. In some situations, I had been taken advantage of, so I figured the reason my life was miserable was that I came from a rural area, and people were prejudiced against me. Another issue was that I was too simple and naive and not sophisticated enough to survive in this environment. During this time, an old Chinese history book called Thick Black Theory from 1911 was very popular. The book presents an idea that the more hardened your heart is, the more successful you will be in Chinese society. The original author may have intended to expose this negative culture, but some people used it for different purposes. Because I wasn't in a good place, I had thoughts of taking advantage of others even though I knew it wasn't like me. This left me with regrets later on and became a turning point for me to repent and receive salvation. During my difficult time in college, I realized something. In my class, many students wanted to stay in Beijing after graduating. But only a few bright students or students who have family connections could find jobs in Beijing because China has a Hu Kou[2] system to limit the number of people staying in Beijing. I knew I had no chance of being one of them. I found out that being a graduate student almost guaranteed that I could stay in Beijing, so I decided to take the graduate entrance exam. I focused all my energy on preparing for this exam, and I was very confident that I would be successful. Amazingly I scored third among all the students who tried to enter the graduation program for my major, and they recruited a dozen every year. However, I failed the subject of politics by a few points. I had a really bad headache during the exam, so I did not score well even though I knew the material. I now believe this was God's intervention, as I never had any issues with headaches. During my college years, I learned from some friends at Beijing University that people can take TOFEL or GRE exams to come to the US to study. I felt naturally drawn to this idea. But I was not sure if I really wanted to leave China. I told myself I would stay in China forever if I could get into Chinese graduate school successfully. If not, I would go to the US to attend graduate school. I was never good at planning or having a balanced approach to life. So after I failed to enter the graduate program, I did not have a job either, and I fell into despair. Only a couple of students from my class were able to get jobs in Beijing, and I did not want to go back to my hometown or go to other places to work. I wanted to stay in Beijing as did many people, and unexpectedly a new opportunity opened up. There was a student from another university in one of the departments in my college that could not work out some legal issues for recruitment after spending many months interning there. Everyone wanted him to stay, but he could not violate the legal bond with his sponsor in his own province. By this time, some of the students had already found jobs, so one teacher recommended me for this position. The department head immediately agreed to recruit me after a brief interview. It was considered a great privilege to be recruited by our own college, and students got full boarding with a citizenship status in Beijing and could become a university or state employee.  So many students wanted to get this position but, they could not. Eventually, this news got out, and it caused turmoil. Other faculty members who were supportive of other students got into fights with this director to try to replace me, and all kinds of rumors were circulated on campus. But the more they pushed, the more firmly this director wanted me to stay. I ended up getting a permanent job in Beijing, and I became a citizen of Beijing. I know there are still people who are mad at me because they didn't get that job. Even though I got the job, it didn't satisfy me, and the thought of going out of the country to study still lingered in my mind. I could not take the graduate exam in China again, as the regulation requires that university employees must get approval from a supervisor to do so. My supervisors were not willing to do so. The only way to apply for graduate school was to apply internationally, and there were no regulations for that. Many students in universities in Beijing were very enthusiastic about studying abroad in the late 1990s. The thought could even be considered contagious, and I was influenced by it through my friends at Beijing University.  After I tried for several years, I finally got an offer from the London School of Economics and the University of Southern California in their joint Media and Globalization program. At this point, my story connects with my testimony at the beginning of this assignment. It was in London that I started to encounter God. I would later meet some Christians who shared their faith with me and touched my life in a profound way. I did not sleep well at that point because I started to feel I was a sinner because of some things I did in college during my darkest moments. I had no peace, so I would often go out to a nearby soccer field to shout out in English what came to my mind. I heard this was a good way to practice English by speaking out loud whatever came to mind. So I went to shout out all my anxieties and pains and regrets to heaven. I thought I was the only one there, but later I believed it was the Holy Spirit that was there to convict me. Only later on did I learn that the glory of God can also be translated as the weight of God. I certainly felt the weight at that time, and I felt like the sky pressed down upon me  to such an extent that I could not breathe. It was an encounter with God, even though I only realized this years later.       Maturing in Faith My life was full of miracles and difficult moments one after another. I cannot share all of them in this short biography, but I will share a few stories that impacted my spiritual life greatly. My spiritual journey continued in 2004. I met my wife at the church I was attending in March 2006, and we got married in November 2006. We were on fire for God, and we planned to evangelize to all of our family. We brought a suitcase of Bibles when we returned to China that winter. When my mother-in-law[3] saw my wife return wearing the clothes that she left China in and with no money, but only a suitcase of Bibles, she was very upset and threw the Bibles down the staircase. With tears in our eyes, we went to my home town. A Christian sister received us, hugged my wife, and they both cried. When we returned to the US, my wife struggled with depression because her communication with her mother was cut off. She did not speak to her mom for almost a year, and we fell into despair again. We experienced many trials in our marriage. Sometimes my wife would say that she never had any arguments with her mother before our marriage. Therefore, if she had not married me, it would not have happened. I argued that I was also a victim, and she should not blame me. This tension kept building, and the Lord used this to break me. In August 2006, I moved from Los Angeles to a new job in New Jersey in order to be closer to my wife, who was a graduate student at the University of Maryland. But after marriage, I quit my job to join her in Maryland at the end of 2007. I lost my H-1B status and became her dependent on F-2 visa[4]. The church I was attending tried to help me obtain a religious visa, but it was denied.  The process of obtaining a religious visa was very strict when it came to qualifications. The church I was attending was not well off financially, and I lacked formal seminary training.  One day we were arguing again, and my wife said to me, “Look, you can't make money, and you can't help by applying for a green card either. Let's not talk about those. Now you even don't care for me.” I was completely broken. I felt utterly helpless. I was volunteering in my church at the time and planned to serve full time in the future. In March 2009, my wife told me I had to find a job before the end of April. I fell into despair again. It was very difficult for me to find a job in the DC metro area. I just prayed to God and said, “I know it seems impossible, but I will put my trust in you.” It was another prayer out of the deepest part of my inner being. However, a miracle happened again. Against all the odds, I got a full-time job on April 20 2019, working for a non-profit organization in the DC area. Even more amazingly, we got our green cards in a very short time through the sponsorship of my company. Later on, my wife and her mother were able to reconcile, and her mom came to stay with us when she visited. She was also baptized during one of these visits. Currently, she lives with us and helps us to take care of our daughter. She is a great help to us. We soon experienced another trial in 2010. We recognized we were having trouble getting pregnant after 4 years of marriage. My wife is a physician, and she started to propose trying in vitro fertilization. In 2010 we did our first round of IVF, and we had high hopes of getting pregnant with twins. However, they did not survive beyond three days. My wife fell to depression again.  Both my mom and I were praying that we can have our child. But I prayed to Jesus and she prayed to her idol.     Who is the Real God? Jesus or Buddha? My great-grandfather and grandfather are devout believers of Lü Zu, who is a figure in the Taoism religion. It is said in a local legend that one day, the Japanese were preparing to attack our village, but because of the heavy fog, the Japanese got lost. Thus, they were not able to enter our village. The villagers thought that it was a theophany of Lü Zu, and they built a special temple for him, but the temple was demolished during the Cultural Revolution. However, after the Cultural Revolution, the temple was restored. The people rebuilt the temple, and the incense was flourishing, showing the power of faith and even the superstition of the faith among the people. I had not seen my great grandfather, but I heard from my family that my great grandfather was a former enthusiast of the Lüzu Temple. When the temple was being rebuilt, my grandfather also donated wood, and I saw it with my own eyes. Ever since childhood, I saw in my grandfather's house that he was worshipping Lü Zu. My hometown also had a lot of Buddhist believers, and my mother had always worshipped Guanyin Bodhisattva. The location of our house was the base of a Bodhisattva temple that was previously demolished. Therefore, villagers said that our family is in the "West Temple."  Before my mother received her faith in Jesus Christ, one of her reasons for not believing in Christ was, "Our family is in the West Temple, how can we not believe this?" Although my mother was not on good terms with my grandfather for most of her life and she didn't worship Lü Zu, she highly respected the sorcerer in the Lüzu Temple in our village. This sorcerer did not have a good education or an affluent family background. Suddenly one day, he just seemed to be possessed by a deity and became a sorcerer. Everyone often asked him questions and treated him similarly to how Christians treat prophets. This sorcerer was a frequent and respected guest at the Lüzu Temple. When I was young, he used to come to my house, and I disliked him very much because I didn't believe in anything at that time. Like my father, who was deeply influenced by communist education, I really hated this feudal superstition. I became a Christian when I came to the United States. I have always evangelized my family, but the effect has been very limited. My mom always said, “We should go our own way. You believe in your Christ, I believe in my Bodhisattva.” I took my parents to Qingdao, China, one year, and my friend, a Christian brother, took us out to eat. He tried to evangelize my parents during the meal, but my father left in anger because of it. My wife and I were married for ten years, but we had experienced 10 years of infertility. In addition to seeking medical help, I also prayed that God would heal us. My mother was also anxious, and she prayed to Bodhisattva, asked the sorcerer, and visited all kinds of idols around my hometown, asking them when we would have children. In 2010 our first IVF failed, which was devastating for my wife and I. During this time, my parents came to the United States for a short visit. After coming in contact with the gospel for a time, my mother intended to accept the gospel to please us. However, when she saw the situation we were in, she did not believe in the Lord, and when she left, she told me instead, "You two believe in Jesus, but you were not blessed. Without a child, you two will quarrel and will not agree. I will not believe in this Lord." After returning, she still worshipped Bodhisattva, and her heart had become more hardened. Because she read a little bit of the Bible in her short time in the United States, I took her to participate in the activities of our church in New Jersey. When she saw people being baptized, I encouraged her to accept the Lord. She seemed to have some hesitation, but on the side, my dad was trying his best to stop her from believing in the Lord. She decided she didn't want to, and in the end, she was not baptized. We seemed to have gone back to square one, but I still believed in our God, and my mother still worshipped her Bodhisattva. I then said to my mom, “You worship your Bodhisattva, I believe in my God. We are all praying for us to have children. Why don't we play a game? Let's see if your Bodhisattva or my God is reliable.” At that time, my faith was not sufficient because God hadn't promised and talked with me about our miracle baby yet. I just relied on a Christian's basic belief in God. Six years had gone by so quickly, and we had tried IVF five or six times, but each time it failed. Finally, the doctor at a big hospital in the United States gave us the diagnosis that we could never give birth naturally, and we fell into despair. I felt like I was forced to leave the evangelical church in 2015 to seek healing for infertility. I went to many different churches in the United States to ask for help, which included charismatic churches, and I sought prayer and healing. I had also participated in countless charismatic healing conferences but never saw any results. In January 2016, I found out by chance that there was a prophetic meeting in a small town in Oregon in the Midwestern United States. I signed up, and I flew from Maryland to attend this special meeting. A speaker named Dutch Sheets was preaching at the meeting, and he was filled with the Holy Spirit. He said, "You are here today to attend the special meeting. Don't think it is accidental. God is leading you. Beginning today, you will clearly hear God's voice that you've never had before.” When I heard this, I was moved and greatly encouraged in my spirit. I strolled and walked into a Target store during the break and said to God, “Please speak to me clearly today.” I inexplicably walked to a place inside the Target store, and I saw a Christian bookstore. I could see the inside through the glass window, and there was a bench outside the door. I happened to see the glass window of the bookstore while I was sitting on the bench. Not long after I sat down, my eyes caught sight of a 2016 calendar with the words “2016 Prepare Your Family”. I heard God say to me: "Prepare your family in 2016. You will have a child this year." I was shocked! I had never heard God clearly like this before. I was ecstatic! I immediately took a photo of this calendar and called my wife to tell her that God had spoken to me and that He told me that we would have a child this year. My wife told me to buy this calendar as a keepsake. After I bought it, I went back to the bench, and just as I sat down, I noticed that there was a picture of a Bible hanging on the wall of the Christian bookstore. It was the same picture I found when I was casually searching on the Internet when I first started the "Jairus Bible World Ministry." I use this picture every time I upload a recording. Then I heard God say to me, "Jairus Bible World Ministry came from me." The church I was attending didn't encourage the members to have their own ministry, so I was not sure at the time if I was doing the right thing. But once again, God spoke to me clearly. Thus, I slowly overcame my fear of people and started my own ministry. To my surprise, I clearly heard God's words, but I didn't know when it would be accomplished. In spite of this, my confidence had increased. I returned to China for the Chinese New Year in February 2016, and I had widely publicized to my family that God would give me a child this year. My sister is a straightforward person, and she said dubiously, “Since younger brother said this in advance if it is true, it seems that the God that he believes is true.” However, my mother was still hard-hearted. At that time, I learned a few healing prayers from the charismatics. When I saw people, I prayed, healing prayers over them. My two cousins also struggled with infertility, so I prayed healing prayers over them, and I prayed to God to let them have children. My mother saw this, and she was very upset. She said, “You are not able to solve your own problem. Don't make a fool of yourself.” My mom still didn't believe in God. I went back to the United States, and a few months passed by, but nothing changed. Instead, Satan's attack on our family was even fiercer, causing my wife and me to quarrel often. I was really in agony, and I prayed for something that may not conform to traditional theology. On May 12, 2016, I said to the Holy Spirit, “Holy Spirit, the charismatic Christians are teaching that we should establish a more intimate relationship with You. I don't know how many times I have prayed to Heavenly Father and Jesus. Can you ask Heavenly Father and Jesus for me when this miracle will be accomplished?” I slept, and I had a strange dream in the evening. In the dream, a woman pointed at a man's back and said to me, “Didn't He tell you that you will have a child next month?” I answered her in the dream, “No, I know in my spirit that this will happen soon, but I didn't know that it will be next month.” God is not a human being. The way God speaks is mostly through the language of the spirit and often through pictures. The Bible often uses a woman to represent the Holy Spirit, such as the woman in Luke 15, who had swept the house and searched carefully for lost silver coins. Generally, Christians think that she represents the Holy Spirit. I think that the woman in my dream was the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, and the person whose back I saw was Jesus Christ's. I guess the Holy Spirit was telling me, “Didn't Jesus Christ tell you that you will have a child next month?” I told my wife about my dream, but she didn't believe it. Instead, Satan once again launched a fierce attack on us. Because of a small issue, my wife was very angry with me, and she barely spoke to me for two weeks. This pained me greatly until May 28, 2016, when my wife found herself miraculously pregnant, and she sent a text message to me: "You won the lottery." We had also reconciled. This incident brought a lot of healing to my wife and me. As David said, “Weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.” (NIV, Psalm 30:5). The enemy had violently attacked the plans that God had for us, but in the end, God was victorious through us. Our miracle baby was born without any issues and perfectly healthy in early 2017. When my wife was still in the first trimester, I had not told my mother yet. One day, I was giving out some cash tips in a group of friends and relatives in the WeChat group for a Chinese holiday. My mother was very sensitive and asked if something had happened, so I told her after and she was very happy. Sometime after the baby was born, I was on a video call with my mother, and I asked her about Jesus because I had not mentioned it for a long time since she had previously refused to believe in Him. She said obediently, “I'm willing to believe in Jesus Christ.” I said, “Why?” She replied, “Isn't your fact placed before me?” My mother finally admitted that my God is the true God. This game ended with my victory. In 2018, I went back to China to visit my family. I baptized my father and mother into the name of Jesus Christ.   Convergence During this process of seeking healing for my wife, I was led by the Holy Spirit to come out of my evangelical church and begin to learn more about other denominations, including charismatic churches.  I learned about United Theological Seminary through Global Awakening. During this process, I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and started to speak in tongues. I also earnestly pursued the other gifts of the Holy Spirit, including prophecy and healing. During one of the difficult times of our barrenness, my wife sometimes pushed me into a corner by talking about divorce. I knew she did not mean it and that she was trying to see how far she could push me. She wanted to see if I would still love her if we didn't have a baby. Unfortunately, we knew many Chinese families were broken because of this issue. One day when she was pushing me again, I literally heard Satan whisper to me, “just say yes.” I felt I could no longer bear this burden anymore, so I prayed to God, “if you don't strengthen me right now, I will fall, and I can no longer serve you as I will lose my testimony before you.” Immediately I felt a bolt of electricity poured down from my head toward my entire body, and the grace of the Lord once again sustained me. During this difficult time, I was led into the wilderness to go through a series of trials and tests. The Lord sustained me from the beginning to the end. Recently I met a Korean prophet who told me that the Holy Spirit had led me every step of my life. This resonated in my heart. One night I had a dream, and in this dream, I found an enormous bird with wings of various colors spread out all over the sky. In the corner of the sky, there was a baby bird learning to fly. But the baby birds starting falling, and the big bird swooped down to carry the baby bird on its back, and they sored in heaven. This dream occurred a couple of times, and then I heard God speak to me in the dream. “I will train you myself like the big bird is training the baby bird.” I felt this dream could be from God. My life so far felt like a thrilling ride of a roller coaster. Through the trials, miracles, and encounters, I was now convinced I was in the hand of God. I struggled for a long time, but I learned to rest in God even though many times, I didn't see Him or understand what He was doing. But each time, I had greater faith than I did before. God is in control of everything, whether it is regarding our personal lives or world affairs. One of the greatest struggles, in the beginning, was that I thought I was not smart enough to be used by God. I even felt that I was stupid because of so many failures in my life. I heard a story that greatly encouraged me by D. L. Moody.  He was feeling inferior because of his limited education, but one day he heard a word from an English preacher, the world is yet to see how God can use and will use a person who is absolutely consecrated to God to change the world. D. L. Moody was encouraged greatly and consecrated himself to God, and God used him greatly. I also gained a lot of strength from this word and consecrated myself to God. I know it was not my wisdom but the empowerment of the Holy Spirit who was working in me. After I left my denomination in 2015, many brothers and sisters who loved and cared for me during my early Christians years shared their concerns. Some thought I was deceived by evil spirits or taken over by my own ambition or crazy charismatic teachings. About a month ago, I woke up one morning feeling very tired, so I laid down again to sleep a little more. As I fell back asleep, I had a dream that I was with a brother who was a friend of mine in the Brother's House I used to live when I first came to the US. This brother was my roommate for four years, and now he was serving full time in my previous denomination. In this dream, I was explaining to him why I had another meeting in this Brother's House, which was different from our own denomination. I told him it was because the Lord wanted me to connect with other Christians so my heart could be broadened. In the future, I would not only serve my own denomination, but I would also serve Christians in many other denominations. In other words, the Lord was training me to prepare for bigger ministries. Later on, when I was driving to work, this brother texted me and told me he wanted to visit me that day. He had just traveled to a nearby state a couple of days ago. I told him about the dream I had that morning, and he was stunned. He visited our home that night, and we had lunch the next day. He did share his concerns with me and politely reminded me to stay healthy physically and mentally as well since I always had these weird dreams. I had a very difficult time leaving my denomination as the teachings there stressed the unity of our church to a great extent. I was quite concerned that I may have broken the unity of the body of Christ when I left my church. Even though it was difficult, the church and the brothers and sisters there treated me well, and many felt like family to me. This process was very painful, and it felt like a baby being weaned from its mother. At this time, the Lord showed me a vision in my spirit of the Yangtze River in China. He then showed me a tributary in the upper stream and then showed me a tributary in the lower stream. He then told me that I was in oneness with the body of Christ as long as I follow the leading of His Spirit. It was Him who brought me to the upper stream, and now He was leading me to a different stream. The people in the upper stream where I began would join me later, but I would never go back to Tibetan Plateau even though my tributary started there. He encouraged me just to follow the flow, and I was greatly encouraged by these words from the Lord. I took all of the healing and prophetic classes offered by Global Awakening after I connected with this ministry. Through these courses, I started to learn more about the teachings on the gifts of the Holy Spirit and started to develop my spiritual gifts. I was especially interested in the gifts of healing and prophecy. In a meeting held by Global Awakening in 2015, I received another baptism of the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit fell on me, I fell back a dozen steps and fell down on the chairs along with two other brothers who had been praying with me. After that experience, I started to have more encounters with the spiritual realm, mainly through prophetic dreams. In these dreams, I encountered Jesus, the Holy Spirit, Angels, sometimes evil spirits, and even diseased people (mostly Chinese people) many times. Beginning in 2015, I started to have prophetic dreams almost every night, and I faithfully wrote them down in my journal. Many of them were about the coming revivals in China and other parts of the world. I also had one encounter with Jesus when I was taken to heaven on the last day of 2017. He showed me from behind a glass window that people were coming up to heaven. He challenged me to deal with some issues in my life, so he could use me greatly. He also appeared to me in a dream where I was taken to a campus in China, and he laid his hand on my head. I fell down backward, and he left after I got up. I was also taken to Japan in a prophetic dream, and I saw Jesus taking something out of the nail hole from his leg to rub on the wounds in my hands. My hands were wounded due to my fishing activities there. He also appeared to me in another dream, and He told me that two rivers would emerge in the area of Maryland where I live, but He did not specifically mention what these two rivers were. But when we went to the ministry of Mahesh Chavda for healing prayers and prophetic ministry in 2015, one person who prayed for us saw two lines crossing over the sky and told me he heard the Lord saying “convergence.” I also saw a vision of tornado in 2013, and I felt it was a promise of God that revival will come like a tornado, and it will spread all over the place.   The Coming China Revival When I reflect on this journey of receiving spiritual education, I can clearly see the leading of the Lord. I was saved in a church associated with Watchman Nee and Witness Lee, and this denomination focuses a lot on the inner life and spiritual discipline. After thirteen years in this denomination, I was led by the Lord to learn from other charismatic churches. Now I have the opportunity to be educated by UTS, and the people I have met here have also opened my eyes to new perspectives. I believe the training at UTS will further my understanding of God, the Bible, and the Church. I also trust that God will open more doors for me through my connection with UTS and Global Awakening. Like I told one of my peers during the intensive training at Dayton, I hope to be a bridge between the Chinese church and the churches in the West and the rest of the world. Together we can usher in the promised revivals in China and all over the world. I will conclude this biography with another conversation I had with the Holy Spirit. Before I went to a prophetic conference in 2015, I was reading Chuck Pierce's book, who was one of the speakers at the conference. In this book, he said Jesus visited him in the 1980s and told him China would be huge one day, and there will be a great revival in China, and this revival would spread all over the world. One day after I came back from the trip, I was pondering this when suddenly I heard the Holy Spirit ask me, “what is a great revival?” I immediately answered Him in my spirit, “I heard that one out of ten people in China is a Christian now, isn't that a great revival already?” Then the Holy Spirit replied back, “how about two out of ten?” I calculated quickly in my spirit and realized that it would be another 100 million Chinese people. I was quite shocked. Then I heard a prophecy from Bob Jones that one billion souls would be harvested in the coming revival. It is hard to imagine that at least 100 million Chinese wouldn't be included in this number. I felt my calling was to be a part of this great revival in China. My main gift is teaching, and I learned from a very young age that I was skilled in public speaking even though I was shy in interpersonal communication. I further developed this gift because I had a desire to become a TV host. I also received a teaching anointing while I was with the church associated with Watchman Nee and Witness Lee. They encouraged everyone to teach the Bible, and I have been leading Bible studies for over 10 years, and it has helped improve the gift of teaching. It was confirmed by many prophetic words that the Lord gave me this skill to break down difficult subjects to allow other people to understand easily. I feel I am called to teach the Word of God to help God's people understand the deeper meaning behind the Bible. However, before I do that, I need to be well trained myself. I have limited knowledge of theology, and I have learned a lot in my pre-doctoral program at UTS. I am hoping to learn more during my studies in this doctoral program. There is so much richness in the body of Christ, and I hope to learn as much as I can from others.   Written by Sean Song Edited by Danielle Pagnanella   [1] The Form I-20 is also known as the Certificate of Eligibility for Nonimmigrant (F-1) Student Status-For Academic and Language Students. [2] Hukou is a system of household registration used in mainland China. Wikipedia, Hukou is a system of household registration used in mainland China. Wikipedia, accessed on 12/13/2019 [3] My father-in-law had passed away a while back from a stroke.   [4] The F-2 dependent visa is a nonimmigrant visa which allows dependent spouses and children(unmarried, under 21 years old) of F-1 student visa holders to enter into the U.S. https://www.visapro.com/family-visas/f2-visa/faq2/ accessed on 12/13/2019/

Judges 11:29-15:20 A foolish vow spells death for a Daughter. Vs.29 The Lord's Spirit empowered Jephthah. He passed through Gilead and Manasseh and went to Mizpah in Gilead. From there he approached the Ammonites. V.30 Jephthah made a vow to thr LORD saying "If you really hand the the Ammonites over to me, Vs. 31 then whoever is the first to come through the doors of my house to meet me when I return safely from fighting the Ammonites he will belong to you and I will offer him up as a burnt sacrifice. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lawrence-mwamba/support

In this episode, Pastor Cindy delivers a message that outlines the importance of looking for and following the Divine Direction from God. We learn that his purpose for delivering direction is to bring unity among his people. When we live in step with the Holy Spirit, we are living in a state of divine direction. Everywhere we go, the Lord is with us. And every where the soles of our feet touch, the Lord's Spirit is in us. Because of this truth we can always be in a state of KNOWING. Whether we have complete knowledge or not, we have access to all truth because God's word is for us now.    Scripture reference: Joshua 1:1-3 and 5-9, Joshua 1:11, Joshua 2:8-11, Joshua 3:4-5 and 13, Joshua 4:5-7, Joshua 5:13-15, Exodus 23:23, Numbers 22:23   Please email Cindy with any questions or comments to cindystewartauthor@gmail.com. She'd love to hear from you.    Pastor Cindy's Website  Pastor Cindy's Facebook  Gathering Website  Gathering Facebook   Check out the other shows from KB PODCAST PRODUCTIONS: THE KINGDOM BRINGER PODCAST with Darin Eubanks Next Level Podcast with Michael McIntyre Super-Natural Living with Beth Packard KINGDOM MASTER MIND PODCAST with Ann McDonald   Podcast music from HOOKSOUNDS.COM  

Revelation 11:1-14 Series: Just Conquer #30 # Introduction Maybe you've run into the buzzword argument which threatens that you don't want to be on the wrong side of history. It sounds bad. It also assumes a number of things in order to have its emotional effect (which, it is entirely an emotional appeal, and possibly includes a number of logical fallacies). To be on the wrong side of history means that you have not progressed enough to see how our fathers, and many of our neighbors, are not just old and outdated but obviously wrong, as in ignorant or prejudiced or worse. The assumption is that modern viewpoints must necessarily be more accurate. We moderns see better, we have more information, we are smarter everyday. When it comes to certain products, there may be something to this. Only once you've made a thing can you test it and then improve it. It requires not only developing materials and production methods, but also knowing the purpose of the thing. Does that work with persons? Cultures? The sin of hatred and prejudice toward men based on outward appearance and having a different skin color is a real sin, and in the middle of the last century there were numerous effects. But that sin has always been sin, and it still is sin, regardless of the colors of the hater and the hated. The answer to that sin is not progressing in our mindset, it is repentance and forgiveness and sanctification in Christ. We are not on the right side of history because we preach against hatred, we are living according to God's Word. The right side of history argument is often used today by those who see the ethnic conflict as a playbook for embracing homosexuality (a denial of natural relationships) and transgenderism (a denial of natural identity). We're told that disagreement with those lifestyles/sins is equal to discrimination, to hatred, and we don't want to end up on the wrong side of history again. Who wants future generations writing about how mean and stupid we were? The more evolved are the more accepting are the more virtuous. In reality virtue might be being in the minority; it definitely isn't defined by the majority. (That's the fallacy of *ad populum*, arguing because of the popularity). Virtue likewise isn't defined by one's position on a timeline, though there are different ways to demonstrate virtue depending on when you're living. Being right depends on a standard, and that standard is not based on percentage or by historical perspective. I bring it up to riff off it in two more ways, two considerations of being on the wrong side of *prophecy*. As Christians gathered to hear God's Word we want both to *understand* prophecy for the sake of our faith and hope and obedience and blessing, and we want to understand prophecy for sake of our witness and warning to the world that they might also come to the Lord and Savior. We can be on the wrong side of prophecy by not accepting it as believers (which is not a great place to be) or by not accepting it as unbelievers (which is an even worse place, with eternal consequences). For believers, the book of Revelation is work. I can't remember exactly, and I didn't do a search, but it seems like commentators regularly say "this is one of the toughest passages to interpret." Of the commentaries I'm reading, many of them said it again about chapter 11 with the temple and the two witnesses: difficult and debated. I'd like to propose that some of those challenges arise from tying their faith behind their backs. Their faith is on the wrong side of prophecy. I've said from the start of our study that *everyone's* problem with the Apocalypse is that it hasn't happened like it said, or like it seemed to us it would, or even “soon.” But most of the alternatives involve *selectivity*, not just in determining what is figurative and what isn't, but in what from the visions deserves comment or explanation at all. They turn it into jambalaya, and occasionally you taste a particular flavor, but most of it is more jumble. There are challenges no matter which side you are on. I'm working my way through the text in such a way to show my work, and my assumptions, so that you will have an example for how to read yourself (or, how *not* to if that's your jam). But read the Word in way that bolsters your faith in God's Word, because selective interpretation *will lead to* selective application. And if you have limited confidence in what it means, you will have limited courage in telling others, or holding fast when it gets hard. I think the witnesses in chapter 11 are persons, rather than pictures of the church. They are witnesses who will come onto the world scene at a future point in history. But we can learn from them now, and be emboldened by their example, even though it hasn't happened yet, because we know it *will*. There is another way to be on the wrong side of prophecy: as unbelievers. Especially next week we'll see those among the nations, as John was told to prophecy about in 10:11, who will not repent, who will not submit and worship God. The standard for the world is God's message, the law and the prophets and the gospel as the only hope for anyone. Verses 1-14 belong together, finishing the two visions that follow the sixth trumpet and prior to the seventh trumpet blown in verse 15. In chapter 10, John was recommissioned to prophecy by a mighty angel, and in chapter 11 we see two other prophets announcing judgment. In verses 1-6 we meet the witnesses, in verses 7-10 we see how the world responds to the witnesses, and in verses 11-14 we'll see the outcome of their lives. # Witnesses out of Worship (verses 1-3) John plays another part in the prophecy, just as he ate the little scroll, now he takes out a measuring stick. > Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, "Rise and measure the temple of God and the alter and those who worship there, but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample on the holy city for forty-two months. It seems to me that the majority of interpreters believe that the **temple** does not mean a temple, and the **altar** doesn't mean altar, and the **court outside** isn't a location, neither is **the holy city**, and the **forty-two months** definitely isn't meant to be measured by a calendar. They do think **the nations** means not Christians, and that they **will trample** means something not good. The hermeneutical argument against John's vision of a **temple** being a building is that Revelation is symbolic. And, both hermeneutically and theologically, if you assume that the church has replaced Israel, then the prophecies for Israel are fulfilled by the church, and the church doesn't have a temple. The theological argument against the temple being a real, working temple is that Jesus already died and rose again, so there is no more need for a temple (or an altar for sacrifices, as explained in Hebrews 10). For example, > “The fact that the temple prophesied in Ezekiel 40–48 includes a sacrificial system must be reinterpreted in the light of Heb. 10:1–12” (Beale) There is also a chronological argument for why it *could* be a temple, if Revelation was written before AD 70, but, that position struggles to explain a number of other elements in the vision. What about this: The prophet Ezekiel saw a vision of a temple in the end times, Ezekiel 40-48, that included measuring it (chapters 40-42) and led to the restoration of the nation of Israel, as a socio-ethnic people with faith in the Messiah, not as redefined in only spiritual terms. Such a prophetic expectation provided Paul with justification for why the gospel promises can be trusted, Romans 9-11, and also explained why he saw a temple when the “man of lawlessness” came (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4). Such a view fits with the sealing of the 12 tribes in Revelation 7, compared with the rest of the nations. I am persuaded that while the **measuring rod** isn't primarily about determining building dimensions, it is referring to something physical (as is the temple measuring in Revelation 21:15-17). Again, most take **temple** to mean believers (which, I mean, “temple” *is* used as an analogy for Christians in Ephesians 2:19-22), the **outer court** as the church from a different perspective, and then the **holy city** as yet another reference to the church. The difference between the worshippers around the altar and the outer court area supposedly marks the difference between the inner, spiritual life of Christians compared to their outer, physical lives. Their hearts are protected by God, but their bodies and lives may be destroyed by the world. And although the vision makes a distinction between the temple and the worshippers and the witnesses in the holy city, the symbolic understanding takes *all four pieces* as referring to the *same* group. That is interpretive jumble-aya. The measuring is a way of showing God's attention and favor. He favors those who are worshipping Him. That a temple is restored, even with an altar, does not require that a future generation of Jews are denying Christ's once-for-all sacrifice. The worshippers and the witnesses know that this is the city "where their Lord was crucified" (Revelation 11:8), so whatever is being offered at this altar is not necessarily atonement sacrifices. Why not an earthly altar of incense patterned after the heavenly one (Revelation 8:3)? Those who are *not* worshipping are outside the temple, and they are busy attacking and destroying and **will trample the holy city,** they will conquer it. Nero blamed the Christians for the fire in Rome. Societies are always looking for a scapegoat, and the torment and death in the previous trumpets are too much to take, and of course they won't think it is *their own* fault; they love their idols and immoralities (Revelation 9:20-21). The haters will take out their hate on the worshippers of God. At that time, amidst the trampling, God will call for a powerful testimony. > "And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth." These **two witnesses** are the focus until the seventh trumpet sounds. Here they are introduced in connection with the worship in the holy city, given prophetic work by God for a certain amount of time (**1,260 days**) and with a certain flavor to their ministry (**sackcloth** for mourning). The timing of this three and a half years belongs with the last half of the tribulation before Christ comes. I am frustrated by attempts to make these witnesses symbolic figures of the church. We need to get into more of their description in verses 4-6. # Witnesses to the World (verses 4-6) The imagery is fantastic, related back to a prophetic word in Zechariah, and the witnesses themselves are given powers like those of Moses and Elijah. > 4 These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. There are two arguments for why the two witnesses are actually just *one*. The first is that **lampstands** are used as a symbol of the churches in chapters 1-3, and, supposedly “it is unlikely that the lampstands are different here than in ch. 1” (Beale). But why? Those lampstands are identified in context (Revelation 1:20), as are these. The second argument is that these are prophetic references to priestly work and kingly work, and all the saved are priests and kings (Revelation 1:6; 5:10). These arguments do not persuade me. Zechariah saw a similar vision of two olive trees beside one lampstand (with seven lamps) in Zechariah 4:1-14, empowered by the Lord's Spirit (verse 6), starting from the day of small things (verse 10). But even there, the referents were identified as two human persons. John continues his description. > 5 And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. 6 They have power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire. If the **two witnesses**are the church, then the rest of the imagery is virtually unintelligible; the closest it could mean is jumbled together as a way to say that failure to listen to prophecy means bad things will happen to you. Out of the mouth of the church comes **fire** which would be what? Something like *conviction* has **killed** their foes? The church, **as often as** it has the **desire**, decides for draughts (no rain)...and bitter drink (bloody waters)...and plagues of discontentment? The results come from intentions, and the “church” has never produced such results. Or, these are two future, human witnesses, in the spirit and power of Elijah and Moses, raised by up by God to make the earth-dwellers rage, such that they will attack but be turned back by the prophets. Elijah called down fire on his enemies, King Ahaziah and the two groups of fifty soldiers (2 Kings 1:10, 12), and he prayed down a draught (1 Kings 17:1). Moses turned water to blood (Exodus 7:14ff) and the other plagues (Exodus 8). Elijah and Moses also showed up with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matthew 17:3). As for these witnesses, we will know their names at the right time. We will also find out more about them in the following verses. The point of *two* witnesses, of course, is the legal requirement for a convicting testimony (Deuteronomy 19:15). The world is guilty. They are in constant danger. They sound invincible, and, *everyone* is, until God has something else for them. The olive trees provide the oil for the lampstands, related to the Spirit. They are given **power**, sometimes translated “authority.” Their prophecy and testimony will be powerful. # Conclusion The response that this understanding of the prophecy is too pedestrian, that it misses the incredible parts of the story, does not make sense to me. If anything, I'm trying to *not* make it sensational like end-times money-maker doom-sayers. The powerful testimony of the witnesses comes through their fearless preaching calling for repentance, and we'll see more about how the world responds in verses 7-14. --- ## Charge Jesus said that in this world we will have tribulation (John 16:33. Paul said that we are called, and privileged, to believe and suffer (Philippians 1:29). Peter said that God will restore and establish us *after* we have suffered for a little while (1 Peter 5:10). John said that there are cowards and there are conquerers (Revelation 21:7-8), and the conquerers conquer by *faith*, they have conviction of things not seen. Run to the promised joy. ## Benediction: > Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1–2, ESV)

https://amyelaine.com | This week on Real Victory Radio, I'm sitting down with my sweet friend, Nicole Kary of "Naked Time with Jesus". Like a fly on the wall, we're inviting you to listen in on our chit-chat about finding intimacy with God, overcoming our fears of being fully known and seen, and putting all out there to get to the place of being all-in with God. Wherever the Lord's Spirit is there is freedom...the veil is lifted and we have full access to our Father. We were made for this intimacy with God, yet we rarely feel comfortable and at ease. Leaning in, sitting still, practicing the Presence feels awkward at first. But the more often we abide, the more we realize the truth. THIS is where we belong! We were made for this! Again, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom! Nicole shares part of her journey of meeting God in the Unknown and letting Him have His way. I know you'll be encouraged by our candid conversation and I think you'll laugh a little too! You can listen to Real Victory Radio each week by streaming live from your computer or phone from anywhere on http://947FMTHEWORD.com or there's an app for Apple! If you're local in Denver just tune in to 94.7 FM The Word every Saturday, at 6 am or 4 pm to Real Victory Radio! Real Victory Radio is a listener-supported ministry program of Amy Elaine Ministries, please check out our website to learn more about becoming a partner. Join The Victory Movement and help us inspire others to live a victorious life! You can give a one-time gift or a monthly gift to help keep Real Victory Radio on the air. Honestly, we can't do this without support from our listeners and friends. For more details visit https://www.amyelaine.com/real-victory-radio-movement/ I'd love to hear your feedback on this episode. Please comment to share your thoughts and give a “thumbs-up” if you liked today's conversation! Learn more about my ministry by visiting http://amyelaine.com.

https://amyelaine.com | This week on Real Victory Radio, I'm sitting down with my sweet friend, Nicole Kary of "Naked Time with Jesus". Like a fly on the wall, we're inviting you to listen in on our chit-chat about finding intimacy with God, overcoming our fears of being fully known and seen, and putting all out there to get to the place of being all-in with God. Wherever the Lord's Spirit is there is freedom...the veil is lifted and we have full access to our Father. We were made for this intimacy with God, yet we rarely feel comfortable and at ease. Leaning in, sitting still, practicing the Presence feels awkward at first. But the more often we abide, the more we realize the truth. THIS is where we belong! We were made for this! Again, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom! Nicole shares part of her journey of meeting God in the Unknown and letting Him have His way. I know you'll be encouraged by our candid conversation and I think you'll laugh a little too! You can listen to Real Victory Radio each week by streaming live from your computer or phone from anywhere on http://947FMTHEWORD.com or there's an app for Apple! If you're local in Denver just tune in to 94.7 FM The Word every Saturday, at 6 am or 4 pm to Real Victory Radio! Real Victory Radio is a listener-supported ministry program of Amy Elaine Ministries, please check out our website to learn more about becoming a partner. Join The Victory Movement and help us inspire others to live a victorious life! You can give a one-time gift or a monthly gift to help keep Real Victory Radio on the air. Honestly, we can't do this without support from our listeners and friends. For more details visit https://www.amyelaine.com/real-victory-radio-movement/ I'd love to hear your feedback on this episode. Please comment to share your thoughts and give a “thumbs-up” if you liked today's conversation! Learn more about my ministry by visiting http://amyelaine.com.

(Nm.11:25-29;   Ps.19:8-10,12-14;   Jas.5:1-6;   Mk.9:38-43,45,47-48)  “Would that all the people to the Lord were prophets! Would that the Lord might bestow His Spirit on them all!” There is of course a striking similarity in our first reading and our gospel today.  In one, Joshua, “who from his youth had been Moses' aide,” comes to his master to inform him that two men who had not gone as instructed to the mountain to receive God's Spirit were “prophesying in the camp”: “Moses, my lord, stop them,” he zealously proclaims.  And in the other, John, the Lord's beloved disciple, conveys his message to Jesus: “Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us,” he, too, attempting to thwart the Spirit of God which does not go forth in channels that seem proper.  But Moses' answer above could not be more strongly stated, and Jesus says plainly to His disciples, “Do not prevent them.  There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name who can at the same time speak ill of me.”  And so, let goodness go forth, unto the ends of the earth. Indeed, Moses' cry is the Lord's will, and it is this will Jesus has come to realize – that all may embrace what is right and true and so come to the kingdom of heaven.  However, inherent in Moses' exclamation is also the unfortunate fact that most do not have the Spirit of God; most are not walking in His name.  More often than not the “wanton sin” which James so graphically presents to our eyes and ears is the state of man; and so the horrible miseries he even more graphically represents become their fate.  And so, to accomplish His work of salvation upon the face of the earth, the Christ must necessarily be severe in His speech, in His warning and His instruction: “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off…  If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off…  If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out” – better these measures than the fires of Gehenna… better any pain on this plane than the eternal punishments of the hell wrought by the sins so much a part of all our lives. With great wisdom David speaks of the precepts of the Lord.  First he recognizes that “the law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul” and “fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever”; then, seeking to endure forever with the Lord of all, he declares to God of His laws: “Though your servant is careful of them, very diligent in keeping them, yet who can detect failings?”  And even wiser is he to cry out, “Cleanse me from my unknown faults!” for he knows only this thorough cleansing will make him any prophet of God; only if he be “blameless and innocent” will he maintain the Lord's Spirit within himself.  And so the same is true for all the Lord would gather into His arms, all who seek His eternal reward. Written, read & chanted, and produced by James Kurt. Music: "Open Air" from Thoroughfare, seventh album of Songs for Children of Light, by James Kurt. ******* O LORD, that all were prophets! that all would purify their souls in your undying light and so enter into your kingdom. YHWH, your Spirit be upon us this day.  Let us turn away from all sin that we might enter your kingdom. How perfect you are, O LORD, and how perfect is your Law.  Your Word comes to us as a cleansing flame.  But if we turn our hearts from love of you, that flame becomes a devouring fire.  If we attach ourselves to the riches of this world, seeking its treasure by ungodly means, what can we be but separated from you on your holy Day.  For all that is wicked shall be cast into flame, and from it shall not be withdrawn.  But all your children will be refreshed by that flame, purified to stand in your presence. O let us be innocent and blameless of serious sin, dearest LORD and God!  And let us not lead any astray, that we might not merit condemnation.  It is your will that all come to glory and you cannot but cast aside all who work against the bestowing of your Spirit upon souls.

(Nm.11:25-29;   Ps.19:8-10,12-14;   Jas.5:1-6;   Mk.9:38-43,45,47-48)  “Would that all the people to the Lord were prophets! Would that the Lord might bestow His Spirit on them all!” There is of course a striking similarity in our first reading and our gospel today.  In one, Joshua, “who from his youth had been Moses' aide,” comes to his master to inform him that two men who had not gone as instructed to the mountain to receive God's Spirit were “prophesying in the camp”: “Moses, my lord, stop them,” he zealously proclaims.  And in the other, John, the Lord's beloved disciple, conveys his message to Jesus: “Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us,” he, too, attempting to thwart the Spirit of God which does not go forth in channels that seem proper.  But Moses' answer above could not be more strongly stated, and Jesus says plainly to His disciples, “Do not prevent them.  There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name who can at the same time speak ill of me.”  And so, let goodness go forth, unto the ends of the earth. Indeed, Moses' cry is the Lord's will, and it is this will Jesus has come to realize – that all may embrace what is right and true and so come to the kingdom of heaven.  However, inherent in Moses' exclamation is also the unfortunate fact that most do not have the Spirit of God; most are not walking in His name.  More often than not the “wanton sin” which James so graphically presents to our eyes and ears is the state of man; and so the horrible miseries he even more graphically represents become their fate.  And so, to accomplish His work of salvation upon the face of the earth, the Christ must necessarily be severe in His speech, in His warning and His instruction: “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off…  If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off…  If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out” – better these measures than the fires of Gehenna… better any pain on this plane than the eternal punishments of the hell wrought by the sins so much a part of all our lives. With great wisdom David speaks of the precepts of the Lord.  First he recognizes that “the law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul” and “fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever”; then, seeking to endure forever with the Lord of all, he declares to God of His laws: “Though your servant is careful of them, very diligent in keeping them, yet who can detect failings?”  And even wiser is he to cry out, “Cleanse me from my unknown faults!” for he knows only this thorough cleansing will make him any prophet of God; only if he be “blameless and innocent” will he maintain the Lord's Spirit within himself.  And so the same is true for all the Lord would gather into His arms, all who seek His eternal reward. Written, read & chanted, and produced by James Kurt. Music: "Open Air" from Thoroughfare, seventh album of Songs for Children of Light, by James Kurt. ******* O LORD, that all were prophets! that all would purify their souls in your undying light and so enter into your kingdom. YHWH, your Spirit be upon us this day.  Let us turn away from all sin that we might enter your kingdom. How perfect you are, O LORD, and how perfect is your Law.  Your Word comes to us as a cleansing flame.  But if we turn our hearts from love of you, that flame becomes a devouring fire.  If we attach ourselves to the riches of this world, seeking its treasure by ungodly means, what can we be but separated from you on your holy Day.  For all that is wicked shall be cast into flame, and from it shall not be withdrawn.  But all your children will be refreshed by that flame, purified to stand in your presence. O let us be innocent and blameless of serious sin, dearest LORD and God!  And let us not lead any astray, that we might not merit condemnation.  It is your will that all come to glory and you cannot but cast aside all who work against the bestowing of your Spirit upon souls.

The Lord's Spirit brings us freedom.

Summary of today's show: Cardinal Timothy Dolan set the tone for the semi-annual US Bishops Conference meeting in Baltimore this week in his president's address when he exhorted his brother bishops to greater personal conversion and reconciliation and maintained that the New Evangelization is dead in the water without personal conversion and a striving for holiness by all the people, led by our bishops. Scot Landry and Fr. Chris O'Connor take Cardinal Dolan's speech in-depth and discuss its implications, which include the newsworthy suggestion of the renewal of Friday abstinence throughout the year. Listen to the show: Watch the show via live video streaming or a recording later: Today's host(s): Scot Landry and Fr. Chris O'Connor Links from today's show: Today's topics: Cardinal Dolan calls his brother bishops to repentance for the New Evangelization 1st segment: Scot welcomed listeners to the show and thanked veterans for their service on the day after Veterans Day was observed. Fr. Chris O'Connor related his day yesterday, taking advantage of the beautiful weather. He said he will be at St. Julia in Weston tomorrow at 7pm talking about our faith and what it is we believe, based on the first part of the Catechism. Throughout the rest of the Year of Faith, there will be talks on the three other parts of the Catechism. They also discussed St. Julia's and the beautiful renovations they've done there. Scot said every November all the bishops of the US gather to vote and discuss current issues in the Church and administrative issues. This general assembly has been moderately newsworthy. Earlier today the bishop unanimously agreed to advance the cause of canonization for Dorothy Day. Fr. Chris said she epitomizes the struggle for holiness and the difficulties. She opened soup kitchens throughout the United States and pioneered the social justice movement. He said she showed how the poor that we care for may not be pleasant to our eyes, ears, or nose, but still are Christ among us. The bishops also approved a document on better preaching in our Sunday homilies and a new special collection for the Archdiocese of the Military Services. Scot said many of our servicemen and women can go months without seeing a Catholic chaplain and these mainly young people need to be able to receive the sacraments more often as they are separated from everything they know and love and are often confronted with the great questions of life. Scot said Cardinal Seán briefed his brother bishops yesterday on the defeat of Question 2 and assisted suicide in Massachusetts. The bishops were moved by the fact that despite very long odds, we are able to turn back assisted suicide. On Sunday about 45 bishops and about 50 or so Catholic bloggers talked about how new media and social media have changed how people receive information about the Church. One of the leaders of the event was Bishop Christopher Coyne, who is originally from the archdiocese. Many of the bishops had questions for the bloggers on how to start and what they as bishops should be doing themselves. How can they use Twitter and stay within the propriety of the office of bishop. Fr. Chris said this is part of a larger conversation where our society recognizes that people aren't watching TV or reading newspapers, but are getting information through new media. The message is the same—Jesus is Lord—but the way we spread it changes. The two most discussed addresses at the general assembly are those by the apostolic nuncio, the pope's representative to the US, and that of the president of the USCCB, who is currently Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York. Scot said he was surprised by the tone that Dolan took on the sacrament of penance as a wonderful tool for the New Evangelization. Fr. Chris said it's a return to the basics and the essentials. Cardinal Dolan laments in the decline in the sacrament of the Second Vatican Council. Now Scot played the beginning of his address to his brother bishops: My brother bishops, Yes, we have “a lot on our plate” as we commence our meeting, urgent issues very worthy of our solicitude as pastors — the suffering in vast areas not far from here caused by the Hurricane of two weeks ago, the imperative to the New Evangelization, the invitation offered by the Year of Faith, and our continued dialogue, engagement, and prophetic challenge to our culture over urgent issues such as the protection of human life, the defense of marriage, the promotion of human dignity in the lives of the poor, the immigrant, those in danger from war and persecution throughout the world, and our continued efforts to defend our first and most cherished freedom — all issues calling for our renewed and enthusiastic commitment. But I stand before you this morning to say simply: first things first. We gather as disciples of, as friends of, as believers in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, “the Way, the Truth and the Life,” who exhorted us to “seek first the Kingdom of God.” We cannot engage culture unless we let Him first engage us; we cannot dialogue with others unless we first dialogue with Him; we cannot challenge unless we first let Him challenge us. Scot said that last line is one of the most quoted from this speech so far. Scot said this suggests that the first step of our ongoing conversion of the New Evangelization is to go deeper in our own relationship with Jesus Christ. Even the bishops. Fr. Chris said what's most convincing is not what people say, but how they live their lives. We want to see lives rooted in Jesus Christ and given over to Him. Scot said as the entire Catholic Church in the United States we need to seek first the kingdom of God and we're all called to be holy in our relationship with Jesus Christ. Fr. Chris said we are all on a journey as a Church moving toward the Lord. We're all called to sanctity. The Venerable Servant of God, Fulton J. Sheen, once commented, “The first word of Jesus in the Gospel was ‘come'; the last word of Jesus was ‘go'.” Fifty years ago, on October 11, 1962, Blessed John XXIII courageously convened the Second Vatican Council “the greatest concern of which,” he insisted, “is that the sacred deposit of Christian doctrine should be guarded and taught more efficaciously.” (Allocution on the occasion of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, Gaudet mater ecclesia). We gather for our plenary assembly in our nation's premiere see, at the close of the XIII Ordinary General Synod of Bishops, still near the beginning of the Year of Faith. Both occasions have the same origin, the same goal expressed by Blessed John XXIII: the effective transmission of the faith for the transformation of the world. A year ago we began our visits ad limina Petri et Pauli. I know you join me in expressing deep gratitude for the extraordinary affection, warmth and fraternal care with which our Holy Father welcomed us. But Pope Benedict did not stop with his gracious hospitality. No. He also gave us plenty of fatherly advice — for our ministry as pastors of the Church and our personal role in the New Evangelization. Here's an especially striking example from his first ad limina address: “Evangelization,” the Successor of St. Peter noted, “… appears not simply a task to be undertaken ad extra; we ourselves are the first to need re-evangelization. As with all spiritual crises, whether of individuals or communities, we know that the ultimate answer can only be born of a searching, critical and ongoing self-assessment and conversion in the light of Christ's truth.” Scot said he was surprised by the emphasis to his brother bishops that the bishops are the first to need to re-evangelization. Fr. Chris said he's making it clear that holiness is contagious but must start with the bishops. on the Fulton Sheen reference, Christ wants you to come to recognize the Lord and live like Him and then go and bring Christ to others. Scot said we can't be sent until we know Jesus Christ. Fr. Chris said Cardinal Dolan is reminding the bishops that people need to know the faith and the bishops are the premier teachers of the faith. As we bishops at the just concluded Synod of Bishops confessed in our closing message: “We, however, should never think that the new evangelization does not concern us as Bishops personally. In these days voices among the Bishops were raised to recall that the Church must first of all heed the Word before she can evangelize the world. The invitation to evangelize becomes a call to conversion.” “We Bishops firmly believe that we must convert ourselves first to the power of Jesus Christ who alone can make all things new, above all our poor existence. With humility we must recognize that the poverty and weaknesses of Jesus' disciples, especially us, his ministers, weigh on the credibility of the mission. We are certainly aware – we bishops first of all – that we can never really be equal to the Lord's calling and mandate to proclaim His Gospel to the nations. We… do not hesitate to recognize our personal sins. We are, however, also convinced that the Lord's Spirit is capable of renewing His Church and rendering her garment resplendent if we let Him mold us.” (Final Message of the Synod of Bishops to the People of God, October 28, 2012) The New Evangelization reminds us that the very agents of evangelization – you and me — will never achieve that abundant harvest Blessed John XXIII described unless we are willing and eager to first be evangelized themselves. Only those themselves first evangelized can then evangelize. As St. Bernard put it so well, “If you want to be a channel, you must first be a reservoir.” I would suggest this morning that this reservoir of our lives and ministry, when it comes especially to the New Evangelization, must first be filled with the spirit of interior conversion born of our own renewal. That's the way we become channels of a truly effective transformation of the world, through our own witness of a penitential heart, and our own full embrace of the Sacrament of Penance. Scot said Cardinal Dolan was one of the six principal drafters of the final document of the synod. He says right up front that “we do not hesitate to recognize our personal sins.” The bishops are calling on each other to recognize their own sins and Scot called on all listeners to recognize in humility our weakness and sin to be better prepared for the New Evangelization. Fr. Chris said every saint has a past and every sinner a future. Our sins do not define us. What defines us is the call to holiness. The synod was about the transmission of the faith for the transformation of the world. Dolan said the way we do that is through our own witness of a penitential heart and our own full embrace of the sacrament of penance. Fr. Chris said confession should be a regular part of our Christian life to reconcile us and tell us we are not defined by our sins. “To believers also the Church must ever preach faith and penance,” declared the council fathers in the very first of the documents to appear, Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy. (SC, n. 9) To be sure, the sacraments of initiation - - Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist - - charge, challenge, and equip the agents of evangelization. Without those sacraments, we remain isolated, unredeemed, timid and unfed. But, the Sacrament of Reconciliation evangelizes the evangelizers, as it brings us sacramentally into contact with Jesus, who calls us to conversion of heart, and allows us to answer his invitation to repentance — a repentance from within that can then transform the world without. What an irony that despite the call of the Second Vatican Council for a renewal of the Sacrament of Penance, what we got instead was its near disappearance. We became very good in the years following the Council in calling for the reform of structures, systems, institutions, and people other than ourselves.That, too, is important; it can transform our society and world. But did we fail along the way to realize that in no way can the New Evangelization be reduced to a program, a process, or a call to structural reform; that it is first and foremost a deeply personal conversion within? “The Kingdom of God is within,” as Jesus taught. The premier answer to the question “What's wrong with the world?” “what's wrong with the church?” is not politics, the economy, secularism, sectarianism, globalization or global warming …none of these, as significant as they are. As Chesterton wrote, “The answer to the question ‘What's wrong with the world?' is just two words:'I am,'” Vatican II called for a renewal of the sacrament of penance and what we got is a near disappearance. Fr. Chris said it's one of the most profound sacraments. Scot said after the Council we took our eye off the ball, losing sight of what's really important. We failed to recognize that the New Evangelization is a deeply person conversion within. Fr. Chris recalled instances in Scripture when we hear God say, I am. It is to the great I am that we return for forgiveness of our sins. I am! Admitting that leads to conversion of heart and repentance, the marrow of the Gospel-invitation. I remember the insightful words of a holy priest well known to many of us from his long apostolate to priests and seminarians in Rome, Monsignor Charles Elmer, wondering aloud from time to time if, following the close of the Council, we had sadly become a Church that forgot how to kneel. If we want the New Evangelization to work, it starts on our knees. Remember a few years back, when Cardinal Cahal Daly led us in our June retreat? Speaking somberly of the Church in his home country, he observed, “The Church in Ireland is in the dirt on her knees.” Then he paused, and concluded, “Maybe that's where the Church is at her best.” We kneel in the Sacrament of Penance because we are profoundly sorry for our faults and our sins, serious obstacles to the New Evangelization. But then we stand forgiven, resolute to return to the work entrusted to us - as evangelizers of the Gospel of Mercy. Scot said if we want the New Evangelization to work, it starts on our knees in utter humility before our God. Fr. Chris said Cardinal Sean when he came to Boston spoke of the life of St. Francis and how his ministry took off when he heard from his knees Christ call him to rebuild His Church. Scot said people tell him they love Cardinal Sean because he's so humble and prayerful. Scot said the Church is at her worst when she's arrogant and not acting out of love. The Church on her knees is at her best because she's in prayer and most connected with Christ in humility and open to being his vessel to the world. Fr. Chris said we kneel when we approach royalty. How much more should we kneel before our Lord. He said a priest told him that whenever he enters the church he kneels and prays an act of contrition. I recall a conversation about a year ago with one of our brother bishops, newly ordained, attending his first plenary assembly. I asked his impressions of the meeting. “Well organized, informative, enjoyable,” he replied, but he went on to observe that it was one moment in particular that had the greatest impact on him. It was during our closing Holy Hour, as he entered the large room next to the chapel, to see dozens and dozens of bishops lined up to approach the Sacrament of Penance. This new Bishop told me that he felt that moment had more of an influence upon him than anything else at the meeting. Who can forget the prophetic words of repentance from Blessed John Paul II, during the Great Jubilee, as he expressed contrition – publicly and repeatedly - for the sins of the past? He mentioned the shame of the slave trade, the horrors of the holocaust, the death and destruction wrought by the crusades, the injustices of the conquest of the new world, and the violence of religious wars, to name only a few. I remember during the celebration of the 50th International Eucharistic Congress in Ireland last June, when Cardinal Marc Ouellet, the Papal Legate, expressed this so forcefully as he spoke on behalf of the Holy Father at the penitential shrine of St. Patrick's Purgatory: “I come here with the specific intention of seeking forgiveness, from God and from the victims, for the grave sin of sexual abuse of children by clerics… In the name of the Church, I apologize once again to the victims, some of which I have met here in Lough Derg.” And so it turns to us, my brothers. How will we make the Year of Faith a time to renew the Sacrament of Penance, in our own loves and in the lives of our beloved people whom we serve? Once again, we will later this week approach the Sacrament of Penance. And we'll have the opportunity during this meeting to approve a simple pastoral invitation to all our faithful to join us in renewing our appreciation for and use of the Sacrament. We will “Keep the Light On” during the upcoming Advent Season! The work of our Conference during the coming year includes reflections on re-embracing Friday as a particular day of penance, including the possible re-institution of abstinence on all Fridays of the year, not just during Lent. Our pastoral plan offers numerous resources for catechesis on the Sacrament of Penance, and the manifold graces that come to us from the frequent use of confession. Next June we will gather in a special assembly as brother bishops to pray and reflect on the mission entrusted to us by the Church, including our witness to personal conversion in Jesus Christ, and so to the New Evangelization. We work at giving our people good examples of humble, repentant pastors, aware of our own personal and corporate sins, constantly responding to the call of Jesus to interior conversion. Remember the Curé of Ars? When a concerned group of his worried supporters came to him with a stinging protest letter from a number of parishioners, demanding the bishop to remove John Vianney as their curé, claiming he was a sinner, ignorant, and awkward, St. John Vianney took the letter, read it carefully … and signed the petition! Scot noted that Dolan mentioned dioceses would embrace a program like The Light Is On For You in the Archdiocese of Boston. Fr. Chris said we can't say to folks that confession is important and only offer it during 15 minutes on Saturday. That's why he's so grateful for places like St. Anthony Shrine in Boston for frequent confession. How great would it be to say that in every parish in the United States a priest is available on every Tuesday at the same time. One of the more newsworthy items has been the idea of re-instituting Friday abstinence every week of the year, not just Lent. When we lost this tradition, we lost a weekly reminder of our need for repentance. Fr. Chris said it also serves to make us one body, making a regular communal act of penance together. As I began my talk this morning, my brothers, so I would like to end it, with Blessed John XXIII. It was the Sunday angelus of October 28, 1962.The message the Holy Father delivered on that bright Roman afternoon never even mentions the phrase New Evangelization.But it strikes right at the heart of the mission entrusted to each of us as shepherds. “I feel something touching my spirit that leads to serenity,” Good Pope John remarked. “The word of the Gospel is not silent.It resonates from one end of the world to the other, and finds the way of the heart. Dangers and sorrows, human prudence and wisdom, everything needs to dissolve into a song of love, into a renewed invitation, pleading all to desire and wish for the establishment of the Kingdom of Christ. A kingdom of truth and life; a kingdom of holiness and grace; a kingdom of justice, love and peace.” How could we not see it alive in those holy men and women of every time and place, the heroic evangelizers of our faith, including most recently St. Kateri Tekakwitha and St. Marianne Cope? We have beheld it in the Church's unrelenting corporal and spiritual works of mercy, in the heroic witness of persecuted Christians, in the Church's defense of unborn human life, the care of our elders and the terminally ill, advocacy for the unemployed, those in poverty, our immigrant brothers and sisters, victims of terror and violence throughout our world, of all faiths and creeds, and in our defense of religious freedom, marriage and family. And, I have suggested today, that as we “come and go” in response to the invitation of Jesus, we begin with the Sacrament of Penance.This is the sacrament of the New Evangelization, for as Pope Benedict reminds us, “We cannot speak about the new evangelization without a sincere desire to conversion.” (Homily for the Opening of the XIII Ordinary General Synod of Bishops). With this as my presidential address, I know I risk the criticism. I can hear it now: “With all the controversies and urgent matters for the Church, Dolan spoke of conversion of heart through the Sacrament of Penance. Can you believe it?” To which I reply, “You better believe it!” First things first! Scot said it was classic Dolan. Despite the expected criticism, he knows the bishops and all Catholics need to hear it and to focus first on the spiritual, not temporal problems in the Church. Fr. Chris said people thronged to see Pope John Paul or Mother Teresa because people wanted to see and be near holiness. If we want to be evangelizers, then we need to seek holiness in ourselves first. Scot said he's not surprised that so many of the bishops recognize the need for confession but that they would make the time in their meetings to prioritize this communal act of repentance. Just like at men's or women's conferences where the organizers have created an opportunity for people to act on the movement of the Holy Spirit to repentance and confession. Fr. Chris said it was said that Pope John Paul was the most frequent visitor to reconciliation. The more that the saints became holy, the more they recognize their need to confess their sins. Fr. Chris said Cardinal Dolan wanted to use the opportunity to get all the bishops of the US to think about this topic and how central it is to the New Evangelization. Without repentance, the New Evangelization is dead in the water.

Summary of today's show: The Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization that coincided with the launch of the Year of Faith wrapped up its work last week and sent a summary of their deliberations to Pope Benedict XVI for him to use as he writes his Apostolic Exhortation over the next 18 months. Scot Landry and Janet Benestad take a look at the summary and how it will be the basis for what will become the landmark statement of the Holy Father's papacy. Listen to the show: Watch the show via live video streaming or a recording later: Today's host(s): Scot Landry Today's guest(s): Janet Benestad Links from today's show: Today's topics: The Synod on the New Evangelization 1st segment: Scot Landry welcomed everyone to the show and noted that the weather has gotten pretty bad out there. He welcomed Janet Benestad to the show. There are only a few people in the whole Pastoral Center today. Today's topic will be some summaries of the recently closed Synod of Bishops for the New Evangelization. Janet said it's part of the Year of Faith we're in, to rediscover our faith, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and express our faith to others. Scot said the document they'll consider is being called the Synod's last word. 2nd segment: Scot noted that yesterday Cardinal Seán's homily delivered by video and audio to all parishes on assisted suicide is available for viewing at . This synod document was prepared by a ten-member group that included Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York and Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington, DC. It's considered to be a summary of everything that was discussed in the Synod and in 18 months Pope Benedict XVI will unveil an apostolic exhortation that some are saying will be the most significant document of his pontificate. The document starts by situating us in Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well. There is no man or woman who, in one's life, would not find oneself like the woman of Samaria beside a well with an empty bucket, with the hope of finding the fulfillment of the heart's most profound desire, that which alone could give full meaning to existence. Today, many wells offer themselves to quench humanity's thirst, but we must discern in order to avoid polluted waters. We must orient the search well, so as not to fall prey to disappointment, which can be disastrous. Like Jesus at the well of Sychar, the Church also feels obliged to sit beside today's men and women. She wants to render the Lord present in their lives so that they could encounter him because he alone is the water that gives true and eternal life. Only Jesus can read the depths of our heart and reveal the truth about ourselves: “He told me everything I have done”, the woman confesses to her fellow citizens. This word of proclamation is united to the question that opens up to faith: “Could he possibly be the Messiah?” It shows that whoever receives new life from encountering Jesus cannot but proclaim truth and hope to others. The sinner who was converted becomes a messenger of salvation and leads the whole city to Jesus. The people pass from welcoming her testimony to personally experiencing the encounter: “We no longer believe because of your word; for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world”. Scot said it's a good beginning because we, like the Samaritan, want the life that quenches our thirst. Janet said the woman would have been shocked because he knew everything about her. Janet said its strange that the woman went to tell everyone else, even though she was an outcast from the community. She becomes an instrument that no one else would have expected. Scot said we don't know better than Jesus who should be his messenger and it's our duty too, to reach out and share the Good News. Janet said this experience of the faith can inform us in a way that we can become the best proclaimers. Jesus calls all of us. A new evangelization Leading the men and women of our time to Jesus, to the encounter with him is a necessity that touches all the regions of the world, those of the old and those of the recent evangelization. Everywhere indeed we feel the need to revive a faith that risks eclipse in cultural contexts that hinders its taking root in persons and its presence in society, the clarity of its content and its coherent fruits. It is not about starting again, but entering into the long path of proclaiming the Gospel with the apostolic courage of Paul who would go so far as to say “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!” (1 Corinthians 9:16). Throughout history, from the first centuries of the Christian era to the present, the Gospel has edified communities of believers in all parts of the world. Whether small or great, these are the fruit of the dedication of generations of witnesses to Jesus – missionaries and martyrs – whom we remember with gratitude. Changing societies and cultures call us to something new: to live our communitarian experience of faith in a renewed way and to proclaim it through an evangelization that is “new in its ardor, in its methods, in its expressions” (John Paul II, Discourse to the XIX Assembly of CELAM, Port-au-Prince, 9 March 1983, n. 3) as John Paul II said. Benedict XVI recalled that it is an evangelization that is directed “principally at those who, though baptized, have drifted away from the Church and live without reference to the Christian life… to help these people encounter the Lord, who alone fills our existence with deep meaning and peace; and to favor the rediscovery of the faith, that source of grace which brings joy and hope to personal, family and social life”(Benedict XVI, Homily for the Eucharistic celebration for the solemn inauguration of the XIII Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, Rome, 7 October 2012). Scot said we're called to proclaim Jesus as the kernel of the Good News that is so central to our faith. We know about him because of the dedication of so many generations who have come before us, some who have risked death, and some who have risked ridicule. Janet said it's all about Jesus, it's about Christmas and Easter. It's a phenomenal story we have to tell. Scot said God gives us the grace each day to live that faith, even if we have to bear the crosses of each day. The crosses are lighter if we know Jesus is with us. Janet said we live in a culture that often wants to separate us from our Christian faith, but this is calling us to a new ardor and a new way to express that faith. John Paul called us to express the faith with new zeal and new passion. We are called to use new means, like new media, and new expressions, contemporary language and ways of speaking. Janet said people who live in the modern context have experienced things that beg for a response in the expression of the faith. The synod addressed people from those who live in big fast-paced cities to people who have enormous poverty of culture. The personal encounter with Jesus Christ in the Church Before saying anything about the forms that this new evangelization must assume, we feel the need to tell you with profound conviction that the faith determines everything in the relationship that we build with the person of Jesus who takes the initiative to encounter us. The work of the new evangelization consists in presenting once more the beauty and perennial newness of the encounter with Christ to the often distracted and confused heart and mind of the men and women of our time, above all to ourselves. We invite you all to contemplate the face of the Lord Jesus Christ, to enter the mystery of his existence given for us on the cross, reconfirmed in his resurrection from the dead as the Father's gift and imparted to us through the Spirit. In the person of Jesus, the mystery of God the Father's love for the entire human family is revealed. He did not want us to remain in a false autonomy. Rather he reconciled us to himself in a renewed pact of love. The Church is the space offered by Christ in history where we can encounter him, because he entrusted to her his Word, the Baptism that makes us God's children, his Body and his Blood, the grace of forgiveness of sins above all in the sacrament of Reconciliation, the experience of communion that reflects the very mystery of the Holy Trinity, the strength of the Spirit that generates charity towards all. We must form welcoming communities in which all outcasts find a home, concrete experiences of communion which attract the disenchanted glance of contemporary humanity with the ardent force of love – “See how they love one another!” (Tertullian, Apology, 39, 7). The beauty of faith must particularly shine in the actions of the sacred Liturgy, above all in the Sunday Eucharist. It is precisely in liturgical celebrations that the Church reveals herself as God's work and renders the meaning of the Gospel visible in word and gesture. It is up to us today to render experiences of the Church concretely accessible, to multiply the wells where thirsting men and women are invited to encounter Jesus, to offer oases in the deserts of life. Christian communities and, in them, every disciple of the Lord are responsible for this: an irreplaceable testimony has been entrusted to each one, so that the Gospel can enter the lives of all. This requires of us holiness of life. Scot said this message is first of all for us and then for others. Janet said beauty is going to be a theme of the documents that come out of the synod. Sometimes our world is not so beautiful, because the beauty of God's creation and the love of God for his children are pushed aside. There isn't time for reflection. The synod calls us back to a reflection on that beautiful faith. Scot said Jesus is always taking the opportunity to encounter us. He said the Holy Father said in his World Communications Day message last year, the Holy Father encouraged us to have more silence in our lives so we can hear Jesus speak to us. Janet said God is always leading us to himself and calling us out of terrible conditions to himself. There is a lot of static that interferes with that message. Jesus is always calling us out of that to experience his love in a new and different way. Scot said sometimes the descriptions of the Church in Church documents can be confusing. This has a simple one: “The Church is the space offered by Christ in history where we can encounter him, because he entrusted to her his Word, the Baptism that makes us God's children, his Body and his Blood, the grace of forgiveness of sins above all in the sacrament of Reconciliation, the experience of communion that reflects the very mystery of the Holy Trinity, the strength of the Spirit that generates charity towards all.” That is a beautiful description of what the Church is about. It's a response to those who think the Church is a building. It's where we encounter Christ and one another. If you read Scripture, Jesus formed the Church for us. The first leaders of that Church failed and betrayed him, but came back and did wonderful things. We are called to reconcile ourselves to himself through the Church so we can be the instruments through which he reaches others. Janet said he doesn't want us to remain in a false autonomy. It's a lonely world. Our sacramental life situates us in a family of believers who enjoy one another and forgives one another. Scot said we attract others because they see our love and joy and they decided they want to have that. He said all of our parishes need to work to reach that level. We need to be able to say to returning Christians, I'm glad you're back. 3rd segment: Scot and Janet section 4 and discuss section 5. The occasions of encountering Jesus and listening to the Scriptures Someone will ask how to do all this. We need not invent new strategies as if the Gospel were a product to be placed in the market of religions. We need to rediscover the ways in which Jesus approached persons and called them, in order to put them into practice in today's circumstances. We recall, for example, how Jesus engaged Peter, Andrew, James and John in the context of their work, how Zaccheus was able to pass from simple curiosity to the warmth of sharing a meal with the Master, how the Roman centurion asked him to heal a person dear to him, how the man born blind invoked him as liberator from his own marginalization, how Martha and Mary saw the hospitality of their house and of their heart rewarded by his presence. By going through the pages of the Gospels as well as the apostles' missionary experiences in the early Church, we can discover the various ways and circumstances in which persons' lives were opened to Christ's presence. The frequent reading of the Sacred Scriptures – illuminated by the Tradition of the Church who hands them over to us and is their authentic interpreter – is not only necessary for knowing the very content of the Gospel, which is the person of Jesus in the context of salvation history. Reading the Scriptures also helps us to discover opportunities to encounter Jesus, truly evangelical approaches rooted in the fundamental dimensions of human life: the family, work, friendship, various forms of poverty and the trials of life, etc. Evangelizing ourselves and opening ourselves to conversion We, however, should never think that the new evangelization does not concern us personally. In these days voices among the Bishops were raised to recall that the Church must first of all heed the Word before she could evangelize the world. The invitation to evangelize becomes a call to conversion. We firmly believe that we must convert ourselves above all to the power of Christ who alone can make all things new, above all our poor existence. With humility we must recognize that the poverty and weaknesses of Jesus' disciples, especially of his ministers, weigh on the credibility of the mission. We are certainly aware – we Bishops first of all – that we could never really be equal to the Lord's calling and mandate to proclaim his Gospel to the nations. We know that we must humbly recognize our vulnerability to the wounds of history and we do not hesitate to recognize our personal sins. We are, however, also convinced that the Lord's Spirit is capable of renewing his Church and rendering her garment resplendent if we let him mold us. This is demonstrated by the lives of the Saints, the remembrance and narration of which is a privileged means of the new evangelization. If this renewal were up to us, there would be serious reasons to doubt. But conversion in the Church, just like evangelization, does not come about primarily through us poor mortals, but rather through the Spirit of the Lord. Here we find our strength and our certainty that evil will never have the last word whether in the Church or in history: “Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid” (John 14:27), Jesus said to his disciples. The work of the new evangelization rests on this serene certainty. We are confident in the inspiration and strength of the Spirit, who will teach us what we are to say and what we are to do even in the most difficult moments. It is our duty, therefore, to conquer fear through faith, humiliation through hope, indifference through love. Scot said we're told that if we want to be more effective in the new evangelization we have to convert ourselves first. Janet said it's hard to invite others to something you don't have enthusiasm for yourself. You begin to think in terms of how others you encounter can respond to the needs in their life. When you hear about someone's concerns or problems, if you have a living faith life, then you can respond authentically with advice on turning to God in various ways. Scot said St. Peter's repeated failures inspire him because he always responded with conversion and faith. He noted also the story of France which has gone through successive times of faith and lack of faith and how the Cure of Ars, St. John Vianney, who barely graduated seminary and was ordained, ended up re-converting all of France. Janet said the new evangelization rests on the serene certainty and confidence in the strength of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit can bring about changes that we would never expect could happen. Scot noted that it's called the Year of Faith, not the Year of Catechesis. While catechesis is part of it, what's important first is that we turn to Jesus. We need to trust that God loves us more than we can possibly love him. We need to trust in him. Janet said evil will never have the last word. That's the essence of faith. It is through God's time and initiative that we will do what we do. Seizing new opportunities for evangelization in the world today This serene courage also affects the way we look at the world today. We are not intimidated by the circumstances of the times in which we live. Our world is full of contradictions and challenges, but it remains God's creation. The world is wounded by evil, but God loves it still. It is his field in which the sowing of the Word can be renewed so that it would bear fruit once more. There is no room for pessimism in the minds and hearts of those who know that their Lord has conquered death and that his Spirit works with might in history. We approach this world with humility, but also with determination. This comes from the certainty that the truth triumphs in the end. We choose to see in the world God's invitation to witness to his Name. Our Church is alive and faces the challenges that history brings with the courage of faith and the testimony of her many daughters and sons. We know that we must face in this world a difficult struggle against the “principalities” and “powers”, “the evil spirits” (Ephesians 6:12). We do not ignore the problems that such challenges bring, but they do not frighten us. This is true above all for the phenomena of globalization which must be opportunities for us to expand the presence of the Gospel. Despite the intense sufferings for which we welcome migrants as brethren, migrations have been and continue to be occasions to spread the faith and build communion in its various forms. Secularization – as well as the crisis brought about the ascendancy of politics and of the State – requires the Church to rethink its presence in society without however renouncing it. The many and ever new forms of poverty open new opportunities for charitable service: the proclamation of the Gospel binds the Church to be with the poor and to take on their sufferings like Jesus. Even in the most bitter forms of atheism and agnosticism, we can recognize – although in contradictory forms – not a void but a longing, an expectation that awaits an adequate response. In the face of the questions that dominant cultures pose to faith and to the Church, we renew our trust in the Lord, certain that even in these contexts the Gospel is the bearer of light and capable of healing every human weakness. It is not we who are to conduct the work of evangelization, but God, as the Pope reminded us: “The first word, the true initiative, the true activity comes from God and only by inserting ourselves in to the divine initiative, only by begging this divine initiative, will we too be able to become – with him and in him – evangelizers”(Benedict XVI, Meditation during the first general Congregation of the XIII General Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, Rome, 8 October 2012). Scot said we talk often about the family as the domestic church and the place where we've learned the faith, but in many ways the breakdown in the faith is that our families aren't passing on the faith like they did fifty years ago. Janet said there's no question the family is under attack. She said it's interesting that both parties in this election are pitching their messages to women in particular ways. The Church recognizes that in terms of instruction of the young, women play a very specific role. This document recognizes the important role of the family in handing on the faith. This is about catechesis of the faith, not just of elements, but of faith that is lived, lived at the dining room table, at the bedside at night, and in all the parts of the days. Scot said we try to form our kids in a work ethic and other important life lessons. Do we form them in prayer through praying personally? He recounts how he now begins his prayer with kids by declaring his love for God. He said it's the parents' responsibility, morning, noon and night. It can't be done in an hour at Mass and another hour in religious education. Then it's amazing how kids can pass that faith on to other kids their age. Janet said that as a grandparent she's intentional about how she introduces them to the world of prayer, the world of saints. Evangelization, the family and consecrated life Ever since the first evangelization, the transmission of the faith from one generation to the next found a natural home in the family where women play a very special role without diminishing the figure and responsibility of the father. In the context of the care that every family provides for the growth of its little ones, infants and children are introduced to the signs of faith, the communication of first truths, education in prayer, and the witness of the fruits of love. Despite the diversity of their geographical, cultural and social situations, all the Bishops of the Synod reconfirmed this essential role of the family in the transmission of the faith. A new evangelization is unthinkable without acknowledging a specific responsibility to proclaim the Gospel to families and to sustain them in their task of education. We do not ignore the fact that today the family, established in the marriage of a man and of a woman which makes them “one flesh” (Matthew 19:6) open to life, is assaulted by crises everywhere. It is surrounded by models of life that penalize it and neglected by the politics of society of which it is also the fundamental cell. It is not always respected in its rhythms and sustained in its tasks by ecclesial communities. It is precisely this, however, that impels us to say that we must particularly take care of the family and its mission in society and in the Church, developing specific paths of accompaniment before and after matrimony. We also want to express our gratitude to the many Christian couples and families who, through their witness, show the world an experience of communion and of service which is the seed of a more loving and peaceful society. Our thoughts also went to the many families and couples living together which do not reflect that image of unity and of lifelong love that the Lord entrusted to us. There are couples who live together without the sacramental bond of matrimony. More and more families in irregular situations are established after the failure of previous marriages. These are painful situations that negatively affect the education of sons and daughters in the faith. To all of them we want to say that God's love does not abandon anyone, that the Church loves them, too, that the Church is a house that welcomes all, that they remain members of the Church even if they cannot receive sacramental absolution and the Eucharist. May our Catholic communities welcome all who live in such situations and support those who are in the path of conversion and reconciliation. Family life is the first place in which the Gospel encounters the ordinary life and demonstrates its capacity to transform the fundamental conditions of existence in the horizon of love. But not less important for the witness of the Church is to show how this temporal existence has a fulfillment that goes beyond human history and attains to eternal communion with God. Jesus does not introduce himself to the Samaritan woman simply as the one who gives life, but as the one who gives “eternal life” (John 4:14). God's gift, which faith renders present, is not simply the promise of better conditions in this world. It is the proclamation that our life's ultimate meaning is beyond this world, in that full communion with God that we await at the end of time. Of this supernatural horizon of the meaning of human existence, there are particular witnesses in the Church and in the world whom the Lord has called to consecrated life. Precisely because it is totally consecrated to him in the exercise of poverty, chastity and obedience, consecrated life is the sign of a future world that relativizes everything that is good in this world. May the gratitude of the Assembly of the Synod of Bishops reach these our brothers and sisters for their fidelity to the Lord's calling and for the contribution that they have given and give to the Church's mission. We exhort them to hope in situations that are difficult even for them in these times of change. We invite them to establish themselves as witnesses and promoters of new evangelization in the various fields to which the charism of each of their institutes assigns them. Scot said that his own kids are already curious about what God intends them to be when they're grown up and where it all ends at the end of life. Janet said after 40 years she's learned that her real role as parent and spouse is to get other people to heaven. In the new evangelization, as you do these things more intentionally, you reinforce in yourself the need to do these things more fervently. The life of the family reminds us of the natural rhythms and how they are all sacramental. Scot encouraged listeners to read the rest of the document. The ecclesial community and the many agents of evangelization No one person or group in the Church has exclusive right to the work of evangelization. It is the work of ecclesial communities as such, where one has access to all the means for encountering Jesus: the Word, the sacraments, fraternal communion, charitable service, mission. In this perspective, the role of the parish emerges above all as the presence of the Church where men and women live, “the village fountain”, as John XXIII loved to call it, from which all can drink, finding in it the freshness of the Gospel. It cannot be abandoned, even though changes can require of it to be made up of small Christian communities or to either the articulation into small communities or forge bonds of collaboration within larger pastoral contexts. We exhort our parishes to join the new forms of mission required by the new evangelization to the traditional pastoral care of God's people. These must also permeate the various important expressions of popular piety. In the parish, the ministry of the priest – father and pastor of his people – remains crucial. To all priests, the Bishops of this Synodal Assembly express thanks and fraternal closeness for their difficult task. We invite them to strengthen the bonds of the diocesan presbyterium, to deepen their spiritual life, to an ongoing formation that enables them to face the changes. Alongside the priests, the presence of deacons is to be sustained, as well as the pastoral action of catechists and of many other ministers and animators in the fields of proclamation, catechesis, liturgical life, charitable service. The various forms of participation and co-responsibility of the faithful must also be promoted. We cannot thank enough our lay men and women for their dedication in our communities' manifold services. We ask all of them, too, to place their presence and their service in the Church in the perspective of the new evangelization, taking care of their own human and Christian formation, their understanding of the faith and their sensitivity to contemporary cultural phenomena. With regard to the laity, a special word goes to the various forms of old and new associations, together with the ecclesial movements and the new communities: All are an expression of the richness of the gifts that the Spirit bestows on the Church. We also thank these forms of life and of commitment in the Church, exhorting them to be faithful to their proper charism and to earnest ecclesial communion especially in the concrete context of the particular Churches. Witnessing to the Gospel is not the privilege of one or of a few. We recognize with joy the presence of many men and women who with their lives become a sign of the Gospel in the midst of the world. We recognize them even in many of our Christian brothers and sisters with whom unity unfortunately is not yet full, but are nevertheless marked by the Lord's Baptism and proclaim it. In these days it was a moving experience for us to listen to the voices of many authorities of Churches and ecclesial communities who gave witness to their thirst for Christ and their dedication to the proclamation of the Gospel. They, too, are convinced that the world needs a new evangelization. We are grateful to the Lord for this unity in the necessity of the mission. That the youth may encounter Christ The youth are particularly dear to us, because they, who are a significant part of humanity's and the Church's present, are also their future. With regard to them, the Bishops are far from being pessimistic. Concerned, yes; but not pessimistic. We are concerned because the most aggressive attacks of our times happen to converge precisely on them. We are not, however, pessimistic, above all because what moves in the depths of history is Christ's love, but also because we sense in our youth deep aspirations for authenticity, truth, freedom, generosity, to which we are convinced that the adequate response is Christ. We want to support them in their search and we encourage our communities to listen to, dialogue with and respond boldly and without reservation to the difficult condition of the youth. We want our communities to harness, and not to suppress, the power of their enthusiasm; to struggle for them against the fallacies and selfish ventures of worldly powers which, to their own advantage, dissipate the energies and waste the passion of the young, taking from them every grateful memory of the past and every earnest vision of the future. The world of the young is a demanding but also particularly promising field of the New Evangelization. This is demonstrated by many experiences, from those that draw many of them like the World Youth Days, to the most hidden – but nonetheless powerful – like the different experiences of spirituality, service and mission. The youth's active role in evangelizing first and foremost their world is to be recognized. The Gospel in dialogue with human culture and experience and with religions The New Evangelization is centered on Christ and on care for the human person in order to give life to a real encounter with him. However, its horizons are as wide as the world and beyond any human experience. This means that it carefully cultivates the dialogue with cultures, confident that it can find in each of them the “seeds of the Word” about which the ancient Fathers spoke. In particular, the new evangelization needs a renewed alliance between faith and reason. We are convinced that faith has the capacity to welcome every product of a sound mind open to transcendence and the strength to heal the limits and contradictions into which reason could fall. Faith does not close its eyes, not even before the excruciating questions arising from evil's presence in life and in history, in order to draw the light of hope from Christ's Paschal Mystery. The encounter between faith and reason nourishes also the Christian community's commitment in the field of education and culture. The institutions of formation and of research – schools and universities – occupy a special place in this. Wherever human intelligence is developed and educated, the Church is pleased to bring her experience and contribution to the integral formation of the person. In this context particular care is to be reserved for catholic schools and for catholic universities, in which the openness to transcendence that belongs to every authentic cultural and educational course, must be fulfilled in paths of encounter with the event of Jesus Christ and of his Church. May the gratitude of the Bishops reach all who, in sometimes difficult conditions, are involved in this. Evangelization requires that we pay much attention to the world of social communication, especially the new media, in which many lives, questions and expectations converge. It is the place where consciences are often formed, where people spend their time and live their lives. It is a new opportunity for touching the human heart. A particular field of the encounter between faith and reason today is the dialogue with scientific knowledge. This is not at all far from faith, since it manifests the spiritual principle that God placed in his creatures. It allows us to see the rational structures on which creation is founded. When science and technology do not presume to imprison humanity and the world in a barren materialism, they become an invaluable ally in making life more humane. Our thanks also go to those who are involved in this sensitive field of knowledge. We also want to thank men and women involved in another expression of the human genius, art in its various forms, from the most ancient to the most recent. We recognize in works of art a particularly meaningful way of expressing spirituality inasmuch as they strive to embody humanity's attraction to beauty. We are grateful when artists through their beautiful creations bring out the beauty of God's face and that of his creatures. The way of beauty is a particularly effective path of the new evangelization. In addition to works of art, all of human activity draws our attention as an opportunity in which we cooperate in divine creation through work. We want to remind the world of economy and of labor of some reminders arising from the Gospel: to redeem work from the conditions that often make it an unbearable burden and an uncertain future threatened by youth unemployment, to place the human person at the center of economic development, to think of this development as an occasion for humanity to grow in justice and unity. Humanity transforms the world through work. Nevertheless he is called to safeguard the integrity of creation out of a sense of responsibility towards future generations. The Gospel also illuminates the suffering brought about by disease. Christians must help the sick feel that the Church is near to persons with illness or with disabilities. Christians are to thank all who take care of them professionally and humanely. A field in which the light of the Gospel can and must shine in order to illuminate humanity's footsteps is politics. Politics requires a commitment of selfless and sincere care for the common good by fully respecting the dignity of the human person from conception to natural end, honoring the family founded by the marriage of a man and a woman and protecting academic freedom; by removing the causes of injustice, inequality, discrimination, violence, racism, hunger and war. Christians are asked to give a clear witness to the precept of charity in the exercise of politics. Finally, the Church considers the other religions are her natural partners in dialogue. One is evangelized because one is convinced of the truth of Christ, not because one is against another. The Gospel of Jesus is peace and joy, and his disciples are happy to recognize whatever is true and good that humanity's religious spirit has been able to glimpse in the world created by God and that it has expressed in the various religions. The dialogue among religions intends to be a contribution to peace. It rejects every fundamentalism and denounces every violence that is brought upon believers as serious violations of human rights. The Churches of the whole world are united in prayer and in fraternity to the suffering brethren and ask those who are responsible for the destinies of peoples to safeguard everyone's right to freely choose, profess and witness to one's faith. Remembering the Second Vatican Council and referring to the Catechism of the Catholic Church in the Year of Faith In the path opened by the New Evangelization, we might also feel as if we were in a desert, in the midst of dangers and lacking points of reference. The Holy Father Benedict XVI, in his homily for the Mass opening the Year of Faith, spoke of a “spiritual ‘desertification'” that has advanced in the last decades. But he also encouraged us by affirming that “it is in starting from the experience of this desert, from this void, that we can again discover the joy of believing, its vital importance for us, men and women. In the desert we rediscover the value of what is essential for living” (Homily for the Eucharistic celebration for the opening of the Year of Faith, Rome, 11 October 2012). In the desert, like the Samaritan woman, we seek water and a well from which to drink: blessed is the one who encounters Christ there! We thank the Holy Father for the gift of the Year of Faith, an exquisite portal into the path of the new evangelization. We thank him also for having linked this Year to the grateful remembrance of the opening of the Second Vatican Council fifty years ago. Its fundamental magisterium for our time shines in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which is proposed once more as a sure reference of faith twenty years after its publication. These are important anniversaries, which allow us to reaffirm our close adherence to the Council's teaching and our firm commitment to carry on its implementation. Contemplating the mystery and being at the side of the poor In this perspective we wish to indicate to all the faithful two expressions of the life of faith which seem particularly important to us for witnessing to it in the New Evangelization. The first is constituted by the gift and experience of contemplation. A testimony that the world would consider credible can arise only from an adoring gaze at the mystery of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, only from the deep silence that receives the unique saving Word like a womb. Only this prayerful silence can prevent the word of salvation from being lost in the many noises that overrun the world. We now address a word of gratitude to all men and women who dedicate their lives in monasteries and hermitages to prayer and contemplation. Moments of contemplation must interweave with people's ordinary lives: spaces in the soul, but also physical ones, that remind us of God; interior sanctuaries and temples of stone that, like crossroads, keep us from losing ourselves in a flood of experiences; opportunities in which all could feel accepted, even those who barely know what and whom to seek. The other symbol of authenticity of the new evangelization has the face of the poor. Placing ourselves side by side with those who are wounded by life is not only a social exercise, but above all a spiritual act because it is Christ's face that shines in the face of the poor: “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40). We must recognize the privileged place of the poor in our communities, a place that does not exclude anyone, but wants to reflect how Jesus bound himself to them. The presence of the poor in our communities is mysteriously powerful: it changes persons more than a discourse does, it teaches fidelity, it makes us understand the fragility of life, it asks for prayer: in short, it brings us to Christ. The gesture of charity, on the other hand, must also be accompanied by commitment to justice, with an appeal that concerns all, poor and rich. Hence, the social doctrine of the Church is integral to the pathways of the new evangelization, as well as the formation of Christians to dedicate themselves to serve the human community in social and political life. To the Churches in the various regions of the world The vision of the Bishops gathered in the synodal assembly embraces all the ecclesial communities spread throughout the world. Their vision seeks to be comprehensive, because the call to encounter Christ is one, while keeping diversity in mind. The Bishops gathered in the Synod gave special consideration, full of fraternal affection and gratitude, to you Christians of the Catholic Oriental Churches, those who are heirs of the first wave of evangelization – an experience preserved with love and faithfulness – and those present in Eastern Europe. Today the Gospel comes to you again in a new evangelization through liturgical life, catechesis, daily family prayer, fasting, solidarity among families, the participation of the laity in the life of communities and in dialogue with society. In many places your Churches are amidst trials and tribulation through which they witness to their participation in the sufferings of Christ. Some of the faithful are forced to emigrate. Keeping alive their oneness with their community of origin, they can contribute to the pastoral care and to the work of evangelization in the countries that have welcomed them. May the Lord continue to bless your faithfulness. May your future be marked by the serene confession and practice of your faith in peace and religious liberty. We look to you Christians, men and women, who live in the countries of Africa and we express our gratitude for your witness to the Gospel often in difficult circumstances. We exhort you to revive the evangelization that you received in recent times, to build the Church as the family of God, to strengthen the identity of the family, to sustain the commitment of priests and catechists especially in the small Christian communities. We affirm the need to develop the encounter between the Gospel and old and new cultures. Great expectation and a strong appeal is addressed to the world of politics and to the governments of the various countries of Africa, so that, in collaboration with all people of good will, basic human rights may be promoted and the continent freed from violence and conflicts which still afflict it. The Bishops of the synodal Assembly invite you, Christians of North America, to respond with joy to the call to a new evangelization, while they look with gratitude at how your young Christian communities have borne generous fruits of faith, charity and mission. You need to recognize the many expressions of the present culture in the countries of your world which are today far from the Gospel. Conversion is necessary, from which is born a commitment that does not bring you out of your cultures, but in their midst to offer to all the light of faith and the power of life. As you welcome in your generous lands new populations of immigrants and refugees, may you be willing to open the doors of your homes to the faith. Faithful to the commitments taken at the synodal Assembly for America, be united with Latin America in the ongoing evangelization of the continent you share. The synodal assembly addressed the same sentiment of gratitude to the Church in Latin America and the Caribbean. Particularly striking throughout the ages is the development in your countries of forms of popular piety still fixed in the hearts of many people, of charitable service and of dialogue with cultures. Now, in the face of many present challenges, first of all poverty and violence, the Church in Latin America and in the Caribbean is encouraged to live in an ongoing state of mission, announcing the Gospel with hope and joy, forming communities of true missionary disciples of Jesus Christ, showing in the commitment of its sons and daughters how the Gospel could be the source of a new, just and fraternal society. Religious pluralism also tests your Churches and requires a renewed proclamation of the Gospel. To you, Christians of Asia, we also offer a word of encouragement and of exhortation. As a small minority in the continent which houses almost two thirds of the world's population, your presence is a fruitful seed entrusted to the power of the Spirit, which grows in dialogue with the diverse cultures, with the ancient religions and with the countless poor. Although often outcast by society and in many places also persecuted, the Church of Asia, with its firm faith, is a valuable presence of the Christ's Gospel which proclaims justice, life and harmony. Christians of Asia, feel the fraternal closeness of Christians of other countries of the world which cannot forget that in your continent – in the Holy Land – Jesus was born, lived, died and rose from the dead. The Bishops address a word of gratitude and hope to the Churches of the European continent, in part marked today by a strong – sometimes even aggressive – secularization, and in part still wounded by many decades of regimes with ideologies hostile to God and to man. We look with gratitude towards the past, but also to the present, in which the Gospel has created in Europe singular theologies and experiences of faith – often overflowing with holiness – that have been decisive for the evangelization of the whole world: richness of theological thought, variety of charismatic expressions, varied forms of charitable service towards the poor, profound contemplative experiences, the creation of a humanistic culture which has contributed to defining the dignity of the person and shaping the common good. May the present difficulties not pull you down, dear Christians of Europe: may you consider them instead as a challenge to be overcome and an occasion for a more joyful and vivid proclamation of Christ and of his Gospel of life. Finally, the bishops of the synodal assembly greet the people of Oceania who live under the protection of the southern Cross, they thank them for their witness to the Gospel of Jesus. Our prayer for you is that you might feel a profound thirst for new life, like the Samaritan Woman at the well, and that you might be able to hear the word of Jesus which says: “If you knew the gift of God” (John 4:10). May you more strongly feel the commitment to preach the Gospel and to make Jesus known in the world of today. We exhort you to encounter him in your daily life, to listen to him and to discover, through prayer and meditation, the grace to be able to say: “We know that this is truly the Savior of the World” (John 4:42). The star of Mary illumines the desert Arriving at the end of this experience of communion among Bishops of the entire world and of collaboration with the ministry of the Successor of Peter, we hear echoing in us the actual command of Jesus to his disciples: “Go and make disciples of all nations […] and behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19,20). This time, the mission is not addressed to one geographic area only, but goes to the very hidden depths of the hearts of our contemporaries to draw them back to an encounter with Jesus, the Living One who makes himself present in our communities. This presence fills our hearts with joy. Grateful for the gifts received from him in these days, we raise to him the hymn of praise: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord […] The Mighty One has done great things for me” (Luke 1:46,49). We make Mary's words our own: the Lord has indeed done great things for his Church throughout the ages in various parts of the world and we magnify him, certain that he will not fail to look on our poverty in order to show the strength of his arm in our days and to sustain us in the path of the new evangelization. The figure of Mary guides us on our way. Our work, as Pope Benedict XVI told us, can seem like a path across the desert; we know that we must journey, taking with us what is essential: the company of Jesus, the truth of his word, the eucharistic bread which nourishes us, the fellowship of ecclesial communion, the impetus of charity. It is the water of the well that makes the desert bloom. As stars shine more brightly at night in the desert, so the light of Mary, Star of the new evangelization, brightly shines in heaven on our way. To her we confidently entrust ourselves.