The Scourge Of Racism
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Picking up where I left off at the end of last week’s post,1 it is very sad indeed, that the Lord Jesus Christ must bring severe judgment upon His Church to punish sin including that of racism. Concerning racism, His end as well during the course of His judgment is to potentially move proud and stubborn professed Christian conservative white evangelical men to love their brethren of color and vice versa as He has commanded in His Word (John 13:34-35).2 The love Christ commands is not any old kind of human origin, but unique to the Triune God and apparent when displayed (1 John 4:7-16)! Born again Christians are equipped with God’s love and only fail in it through sin.
As is widely known, we sinful human beings are creatures of conditioning and habit. Despite the plainly written commandment of Christ repeated by Him and His apostles that those of us who become His “born again” followers are to love each other as He set the example (John 3:1-8, 15:12, 17; 1 John 4:20-21, NKJV), coming to salvation in freewill just as we are it is easy to resist being transformed by the mind “renewing” work and “regeneration” “of the Holy Spirit” comfortably clinging to the way we have always operated in culturally conditioned and habitual sinful thinking, attitudes, manner of speaking as well as deeds (Romans 12:1-2; Galatians 5:16-26; Titus 3:1-8, NKJV).
The foregoing would have certainly been the experience of any number of authentic European Christian colonists that came to this land with the culturally ingrained arrogance of racial superiority along with those in largest number practicing a counterfeit manmade form of Christianity that embraced and fostered it toward the indigenous peoples they encountered and later, West Africans brought in. This would help to explain how loveless racism so easily manifested itself and remained intact in toleration and practice by the vast majority of professed white American Christians for over four centuries to this hour including among those identifying as conservative evangelicals.
Bitterness as a reaction in the truly saved objects of white racial bigotry and discrimination can and do offer up the same resistance to the Holy Spirit’s renewing work bringing Him grief as well (Ephesians 4:30-32). All of this suggests intentionality to abandon one’s own sinful way however derived to fully submit to the will of Christ taught in Scripture and empowered by the Holy Spirit as a matter of new conditioning and habit (Romans 8:1-14, 12:9-21; 2 Corinthians 3:17-18, 5:17)! When we submit to the Holy Spirit, now, the unique and awesome love of God is able to display, fill and be the controlling influence in our hearts; enabling us to love God and one another as Christ wills.
As the apostle Paul makes plain, the love of God is the uppermost Christian inner quality and outworking motive for service (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). It is infinitely superior to and better than sin tainted, naturally selfish human love. He teaches the love originating from God “suffers long and is kind;” it “does not envy” nor “parade itself” (as in narcissistic exhibitionism), “is not puffed up” (arrogant), “does not behave rudely” or “seek its own.” God’s love “is not provoked (easily incited), thinks no evil” (keeps score as grudges); “does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth.” It also “bears,” “believes,” “hopes” and “endures all things;” “never fails…,” (1 Corinthians 13:4-13, NKJV).
If it is true “love never fails” as the great apostle writes, then, the allowing of loveless racism to arise, take root and endure centuries within the American Church is the failure to love with God’s love of guilty professed white Christians as the original fathers, embittered objects and the descendants of both until now! For far too long professed Christians from every stripe have couched racism mostly in terms of rights, privileges, advantages and opportunities granted or denied in discrimination.3 But Christ too, from the beginning and consistent with His New Testament teaching frames racism as the failure to love as He exemplified in all disobedience and sin requiring repentance for His forgiveness!4
Thus, conservative white evangelicals in the lead can keep on making racism mainly about acts of discrimination supposedly slowly diminishing as evidence of progress or understand Christ is concerned first and foremost about the blatant disobedience to His command for Christians to love each other as God displayed in Him (Romans 5:6-8).5 The same goes for Christians of color as objects of racial bigotry and discrimination who cultivate bitterness as their chosen response rather than forgiveness with loving rebuke if the opportunity presents itself (Matthew 18:15-35). However, destruction awaits either party since loving one another as Christ loved us is not optional; an entering “by the narrow gate” and “difficult” “way” leading to “life” “few” “find,” (Matthew 7:13-14, NKJV).6
1 Read the November 5, 2023 post, The Little Book, under the category, Bible Prophecy.
2 See the September 24, 2023 post, Racism In Christ’s Church A No-No, under the category, Instruction.
3 Flying in the face of God’s love the apostle Paul describes, this explains why guilty selfish hearted professed white Christians are not eager to engage with their brothers of color in Christ because of the fear of having and unwillingness to share. I write about this reality keeping it real with young black Americans in a November 29, 2015 post, When The Glory Comes, under the category, Glory To God!
4 Here is where the rubber meets the road as far as biblical Christianity centered in the love of God through relationship with Him is concerned versus the dead efforts and works of counterfeit manmade Christianity as religion. The love of God the apostle Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 cannot, has not and will not be displayed by spiritually dead Christian religionists because it is actualized by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5). If you do not have the love of God in you as a professed Christian, the Lord calls you to repent to be saved or return to Him. Watch our ongoing Strong Man Of God Online Rally, Return To The Lord, on YouTube to learn more.
5 As I write in The Scourge Of Racism, loving each other as Christians in the Self-denying example of Christ is exceedingly more than toleration (see book pages 47 and 59)! Also, with a “fervent love” for each other, acts of discrimination that harms a brother in Christ are quickly reduced (1 Peter 4:8, NKJV). The book can be purchased in this Ministry’s Web Site Stores including the Strong Man Store, all major internet booksellers and brick and mortar bookstores. View the short book trailer.
6 Among this few are aspiring strong men of God in the image of Christ I am blessed of the Lord to write about in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics. It is available in the Hard or Soft Cover or E-Book Editions in the Strong Man Store, all major internet booksellers and brick and mortar bookstores.
The Bible teaches that the mark of a genuine Christian is the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit within shining as light out of darkness from that Christian’s life. This happens quite naturally because the unique, superior nature and character of life embodied in the triune God radiates outward as the sun’s light and heat. Of the foremost display of the divine presence and life in genuine Christians is love. Impostors are not able to love God or others as commanded because they do not have the Holy Spirit and the love of God within them. The Holy Spirit leads me to explore the matter more fully in this re-titled and edited 2013 blog repost to help us discern true Christians.
Originally Posted January 13, 2013
It is not without superior, unimpeachable purpose that the Lord Jesus says to Nicodemus, a religious leader of the Jews that was sympathetic toward Him, ‘“You must be born again,’” (John 3:7, NKJV). Spiritual new birth by the Holy Spirit is an absolute requirement for entry into the Kingdom of and intimate relationship with the triune God. Therefore, any person professing to be a Christian that has not been born again by the Holy Spirit--no matter how educated, credentialed or the length of time in a local church--is an impostor (Romans 8:5-9)!
Such being the case, I exhort every professing Christian reading this in the strongest possible terms to heed the counsel of the apostle Paul and examine yourself to see if you are truly “in the faith,” (2 Corinthians 13:5-6, NKJV). In all humility, check yourself for the vital signs of spiritual life that come through the new birth by the Holy Spirit. In the new birth, authentic believers in Jesus Christ are made “partakers of the divine nature” as He also prayed (John 17:20-23; 2 Peter 1:1-4, NKJV). The nature and life of God are brought into the authentic born again believer’s life through the exclusive agency of the Holy Spirit who is God (Acts 5:3-4)!
There are several attributes of the nature of God the apostle Paul calls “fruit” and that serve as vital spiritual life signs in the authentic born again believer. The fruit of His presence is not created, but is the natural reality and display of His Person dwelling in the authentic born again believer (Galatians 5:22-23). Since they are of the nature and life of God, it can be accurately stated that “God is” before each fruit of the Holy Spirit the apostle lists in the well known Galatians passage cited and elsewhere such as Ephesians 5:9. Indeed, the apostle John writes, “God is love” because God uniquely in nature is love (1 John 4:8, NKJV).
The love of God is exceedingly greater than and distinct from fallen, sinful human love. While human love by divine design is modeled on and intended to be a full expression of God’s love, because of sin in us it is a corrupt, inferior imitation. For example, we that are authentic born again believers know from God’s Word and experience in His company that He loves unconditionally (John 3:16; Romans 5:6-8). We, on the other hand in the natural man of the sinful flesh, love very conditionally based on the other person’s performance and reciprocation. Moreover, the apostle Paul gives a brief description of God’s kind of love in contrast to human love in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a.
Paul teaches God’s love is longsuffering, kind, forgives keeping no accounts, rejoices in the truth, bears, believes, hopes and endures all things; does not fail! Human love in contrast, however, is often impatient, unkind, envious, boastful, proud, rude and selfish, easily provoked and offended, keeps records of wrongs in bitterness, revels in perversion and fails miserably. Also, human love is very often confused with sentimentality and lust. Clearly, when it is said the Lord Jesus has commanded Christians to love each other, it is not intended for us to do so with human love. He says in John 13:34, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another,” (NKJV).
The new command of Christ completely fulfills and exceeds the Law which says, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18, NKJV) since He loved by voluntarily laying down His own life in the cause of saving rebel sinners and enemies; the innocent for the guilty (Romans 5:6-11). In our sinful thinking, to love a neighbor as much as we love ourselves is next to impossible since we are born selfish. So, to love even my brother in Christ as He loved me in unconditional, sacrificial self-denial is beyond impossible in human love. Thus, Christ gives His new commandment with the understanding that only His born again followers would be able to carry it out through the exclusive agency and power of the indwelling Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5)!
Impostors in the flesh cannot love either God or a supposed Christian brother with divine love because they are devoid of the Holy Spirit. This is the reason the apostle John is so brutally direct in his Holy Spirit inspired teaching on the subject of Christians loving each other (1 John 2:3-11; 3:10-24, 4:7-21). Divine love for one another actualized by the Holy Spirit is not only a commandment of our Lord, but it is the one and only authenticating sign He gave by which all (believers and the world) would recognize His genuine disciples (John 13:35). The Christian life is a supernatural life!
Hence, the unique calling card of born again believers as witnesses and ambassadors of God in the earth is the divine love filling our hearts by the Holy Spirit and tangibly seen in its display with one another (Acts 1:8; 2 Corinthians 5:20; Colossians 3:12-14). Every aspiring strong man and great woman of God in the image of Christ is a genuine Christian marked by the Holy Spirit and displaying the resulting vital life signs of the new birth through Him including the fruit of divine love.1
1 Get my book The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics to learn more about the fruit of the Spirit. It is available at any major internet bookseller and at the Strong Man Store on our Web Site, www.thestrongmanofgod.org.
Seeing the images from Bible prophecy of faithful born again Christians, the saints of God Almighty in Heaven at the end of last week’s post was deeply encouraging to me and I hope you also if you are a fellow believer.1 They are victorious over the treachery and violence of the most evil man to ever walk the earth and all other haters! How God loves us and cares for our encouragement to present these images to us in advance over nineteen hundred years ago. Indeed, the images convey the tender love God has for all who believe in and follow Christ very powerfully displayed to His eleven disciples as He prepared to make His departure back to Heaven in the Gospel of John.
Under the Holy Spirit’s inspiration, this episode I am permitted to title, “The Lord’s Long Goodbye,” begins at John 13:1, the apostle writing: “Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end,” (NKJV). From that launch point, the final Passover meal and evening together with what began as His twelve apostles proceeded with Him washing their feet and identifying Judas Iscariot as His betrayer he left to fulfill. Alone fully grasping the moment’s significance, the Lord began to declare His and the Father’s glory in it (John 13:2-32)!
Then, the Lord makes a shocking announcement saying, “‘“Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, “‘Where I am going, you cannot come,’” so now I say to you,”’” (John 13:33, NKJV.) From here there is His “new commandment” (John 13:34-35, NKJV), instruction, dialogue with the disciples and prayer to the Father that ends His long goodbye at John 17:26. All of what is said during this time hangs on and is tied to the announcement of His impending departure which is my focus in this post. As such, speaking from the heart “Simon Peter said to Him,” ‘“Lord, where are You going,’” (John 13:36a, NKJV)?
Peter’s question had all of the astonishment, emotion, disappointment, fear of loss, change and the future we all have when confronted with the sudden news someone we care deeply about is leaving for whatever reason. The Lord already knows every one of the other ten men feel the same way as Peter and answers him: ‘“Where I am going you cannot follow Me now, but you shall follow Me afterward,’” (John 13:36b, NKJV).2 Not satisfied, Peter in all sincerity is insistent. He wants to know “why” he cannot “follow” Him “now” and asserts his willingness to die for the Lord which He rebukes; revealing Peter will in fact “deny” Him “three times” before sunrise (John 13:37-38, NKJV).
With great empathy the Lord Jesus begins to comfort the hearts of His eleven that have become deeply saddened by the announcement of His departure. First, He encourages their faith in Him to be on par with their faith in God the Father (John 14:1). Second, He assures, “In my Father’s house are many mansions” or rooms and He goes “to prepare a place for” them (John 14:2, NKJV). Preparing a place has to do with paving the way and readying the rooms where they will live with Him in the “heavenly Jerusalem” though, final fulfillment awaits the New Jerusalem constructed in Heaven and brought down on “a new earth” by God (Hebrews 12:18-24, 13:14; Revelation 21, NKJV).
Final future fulfillment in the New Jerusalem is made all the more sure by what the Lord says in John 14:3a. If He is going to go to the trouble to prepare a place for His disciples, He will “come again and receive” them to Himself (NKJV). What they did not grasp at the time was that the Lord’s departure and return had two parts. His departure from them initially would be by way of death near to being carried out by crucifixion, but He would return on the third day after through resurrection in God’s plan for their eternal redemption (John 14:15-18, 16:16-22)!3 After this initial brief, but all important departure and following instructions He gives making plain why they could not go with Him, the Lord would ascend to Heaven and the Father before their eyes then, come again (Acts 1:4-11).
Third and last, telling about the Lord’s love for His disciples in His long goodbye are the words, “that where I am, there you may be also,” (John 14:3b, NKJV). This is clearly very important to Him for He petitions His Father for the disciples’ union as and with Their Own plus reunion with Him (John 17:20-24). As He taught, His disciples knew where He was going and the way and were enabled to follow Him to the Father (John 14:4-6).4 Once more, this was so they could be with Him there and wherever He was to be thereafter; never to be separated again! This is why in His coming again to earth He brings with Him the spirits of His disciples to resurrect and gather them with the living to Himself as His first priority act (Matthew 24:29-31; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Revelation 19:9-16).5
1 Read the October 23, 2022 post, Revenge Of Those Without God’s Mark, under the category, Bible Prophecy.
2 With this statement, the Lord assures He was only leading out first. His eleven would follow after Him to where He was going at a later time as millions have done until now, through death!
3 The Lord’s resurrection after securing the eternal redemption of His followers made possible the reality of Him, the Father and Holy Spirit taking up residence in them so that even though physically He would return to Heaven, He could still be with them as He explained (John 14:19-24). Later, the apostle Paul celebrates being used of God to re- veal “the riches of the glory of this mystery…which is Christ in” us who believe, “the hope of glory,” (Colossians 1:24-27, NKJV).
4 This truth taught by the Lord is why no aspiring strong man or great woman of God in His image is found among the religious seeking to connect to the Father through any manmade religious means! As the Lord leads I write about essential relationship with Him in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics. Get it along with the com- panion Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study and Great Woman Of God Women’s Group Study for the equipping of the saints in the home and churches in the Strong Man Store, at your favorite internet bookseller or brick and mortar bookstore.
5 The Second Coming of Christ for the saints then, is not about rescue from tribulation as much as it is the union of Christ with His bride and their final reunion as eternally living, glorified immortals (1 Corinthians 15:20-23, 50-57)!
If Christians by the command of Christ are to be known by our love for one another, then it is plain for all to see that in the main historically, there has been a great failure on the part of the many who have professed to be Christians to obey. This sobering reality check cannot just be shrugged off as being due to the fact that Christians are saved, but remain imperfect. Nor can it be said the commandment to love one another by Christ is so hard He could not have meant it literally (as many say for any number of biblical imperatives they do not want to obey). Our Lord would not give us a command that could not be obeyed consistently if it were not possible.
No, failure to love one another in disobedience to Christ has largely attended the history of Christianity on earth since the first century because its assemblies have filled more and more with impostors devoid of the Holy Spirit and weak believers quenching His fire through willful disobedience (1 Thessalonians 5:19)! In the same way Gentiles came to dominate Christianity before the close of the 1st century making Jewish believers a tiny minority, so impostors and rebels have dominated professing Christian assemblies rendering the faithful from all backgrounds a minority. From these loveless impostors and rebelling weak believers came formal layers of authority foreign to New Testament Christianity including eventually, a religious priesthood and educated elite to support it.
Utterly devastating to the true faith with Christ’s command to love also was the emergence of Christianity the religion; a counterfeit, spiritually dead harlot of corruption and ostentation created by the impostors and rebels that has become a monolith in the earth with many daughters. They have also introduced many heresies and worldly compromises destroying the faith of some and on their hands is the blood of faithful saints and prophets that have cried out against their spiritual adultery and wickedly concocted religion (Acts 20:29-31; 2 Timothy 2:16-18; 2 Peter 2:1-3; Jude 3-19; Revelation 17:1-6).
What? Did they not know Christ condemned the corruptions of religious Israel that included their evil press to murder Him, the Son of God (Matthew 23:1-36, 26:1-5, 14-16)? How could they create a Christian religion and expect God to be pleased? Satan, the great deceiver is good at what he does so that smug Christian religionists as impostors and rebels look back on and hold Israel in contempt for their faithless, loveless rejection of Christ, but hypocritically overlook the fact they do the same thing (John 5:39-47)! Because of them biblical Christianity is tarnished and maligned. Our God is blasphemed around the earth; bumper stickers declare “God save us from your people” and they as ancient Israel are proud (Romans 2:17-24)?
Even so, my God has not been thwarted in His purposes. Again in a blog and for eternity I praise the triune God for being able to work to save and keep a faithful remnant of saints in every generation down through the centuries to this hour in spite of the clever opposition of Satan carried out by his legions of carnal impostors and captive rebels in the churches (1 Kings 19:11-18; 2 Timothy 2:20-26)! Truly, God has accomplished much to the divine glory through the faithful remnant who as aspiring strong men and great women have been His witnesses winning souls and servants par excellence shaking kingdoms, bringing down evil schemes and very importantly, putting the Lord on full display in their obedience to His command to love one another.
Every Christian martyr willing to die rather than assent to heresy and corruption is among them. So is every Christian apologist and church reformer that remained true to God’s Word as well as every abolitionist and black preacher from slavery through the Civil Rights Movement who stood to challenge America’s manifestation of Christianity the religion that would not only enslave the black brothers it made in ostensible Gospel evangelism, but also brutally, thoroughly and perpetually oppress them. Towering amid all of these in American history is the 20th century’s Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., preacher, pastor and prophet felled by an assassin’s bullet and whose life our nation remembers as a national holiday.
As with most everything related to doing right by its black citizens, the King Holiday was a matter of reluctant acquiescence on the part of many white Americans including of course, a number professing to be Christians and their churches. Still, to this day many will not honor their Christian brother that gave his life calling them and their segregationist forefathers of a generation ago to obey the commandment to love by the Lord they claim to love in loving their black brothers. Now, we know why loving as Christ commanded has been so hard for the many professing white Christians and keeping it real, those who are black as bitter victims. It is the failure of human love in both as impostors and weak rebels filling churches of Christianity the religion that are incapable of loving and defiantly refuse to love as Jesus commanded through the Holy Spirit. 1
Therefore, in the divine love and mercies of Christ who desires that none should perish, I am calling every professing Christian who believes you are doing great things for God without the fruit of His love through the Holy Spirit to repent since you are irritating noise, nothing and gain nothing for your efforts in His sight (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). You also face the terrifying reality of His judgment for your treachery as impostors and willful rebels (Matthew 7:21-23; Hebrews 3:7-19; 10:26-31)! Finally, with certainty the religion of confusion you love with all of its pageantry, outward splendor and ornate buildings will be destroyed by the Lord as He did the former houses of corrupt harlotry in Israel (Jeremiah 7:1-15; 52:12-14; Matthew 23:37-24:2; Revelation 14:8, 17:15-18:24).
1 Read Dr. King’s Letter From A Birmingham Jail if you never have and again if you have not done so for a time. His assessment of black and white churchmen in 1963 is tragically still current.
Memorial Day causes us to look to the graveyard or if you will, the fields of the dead to remember with esteem those of the military who gave their lives serving our nation. So, I do with all others again this year. The ‘“cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre’” in Israel is the burial place of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their respective wives Jews look to remembering the progenitors of their ethnic heritage (Genesis 49:29-33, NKJV). Jacob, God named Israel, fathered twelve sons by four wives, six of them borne by Leah who is buried with him. How this came about and on this Pentecost, the body of Leah’s greatest Descendant not in a tomb concerns this post.
Leah, daughter of Laban and sister of Rachel examined in last week’s post,1 was honored with burial in the patriarchal cave by her husband, Jacob. She had been his first wife through the deceit of her father when he switched her out for Rachel on what was supposed to be her younger sister’s wedding night (Genesis 29:15-30). For whatever all of the reasons including perhaps, the physical issue with her eyes noted in the referenced passage, Leah as the older of the two sisters had not yet married when Jacob arrived on scene. As with most women of her time, marriage and family were the twin aims of her life and surely the reason in part she cooperated with her father’s treachery.2
In the polygamous marriage to Jacob as his first wife, but second to Rachel because he loved her more, Leah found herself “unloved;” literally hated by her husband. Fortunately for Leah and all women in marriages where their husbands do not love them, God was watching and on the case for her. “He opened her womb” out of mercy, but kept Rachel’s shut (Genesis 29:31, NKJV). While His observation of women in marriages where they are unloved by their husbands is a universal reality that should spur them to prayer for help, God’s specific actions for Leah are not. He acts in accord with His sovereign will, wisdom, unique purposes for all who call upon Him and His glory!3
Leah rightly concluded that the Lord had seen her “affliction” of being unloved by Jacob when she bore him a son she named, Reuben, for that reason (Genesis 29:32, NKJV). However, her hopes Jacob would love her because of this son and the next two that followed were dashed (Genesis 29:33-34). From the seed of her third son, Levi, would come her descendants Aaron, father of Israel’s priesthood and God’s great lawgiver, Moses (Exodus 6:16-27). On her fourth son, Leah seemed to get that God should be praised for her fruitful motherhood and declared: ‘“Now I will praise the Lord.’” So, she named him, Judah, which means praise (Genesis 29:35, NKJV).
From the seed of Judah came Israel’s second king, David, and an eternal, royal dynasty terminating in “Shiloh” God foretold first through Jacob and promised several centuries later by the prophet, Nathan, to the king (Genesis 49:8-12; 2 Samuel 7:1-17, NKJV). This Shiloh, is none other than He Jacob had wrestled with and who came to earth to begin to fulfill all that was written of Him forty-two generations after Abraham (Genesis 32:22-32; Matthew 1:1-17). Of the things written of Him were His birth to a virgin also a descendant of Leah through David and the first priority of His work as Israel’s final King embodied in His name, “JESUS,” (Matthew 1:18-25; Luke 3:23-31, NKJV).
Indeed, Jesus Christ, King of the Jews, completed His work to save His people from their sins as foretold (Psalm 22:1-21a; Matthew 27:32-50; John 19:17-30). On the same day before sunset, He was buried in a rich man’s tomb and on the third day after God resurrected Him (Psalm 22:21b; John 19:38-20:18).4 Following that on the fortieth day, “He was taken up” and glorified; seated at God’s right hand to await His return to rule not only Israel, but the whole earth! On the fiftieth day, “Pentecost,” He sent the Holy Spirit to indwell those who believe and enable His apostles to preach the Gospel about as well as “be witnesses to” Him “to the end of the earth,” (Psalm 22:22-31; Isaiah 53; Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:14-20; Luke 24:36-53; John 20:19-29; Acts 1:4-2:40, 3:11-26, NKJV).
Leah continued to compete with Rachel for Jacob’s love through childbearing; making the same mistake as her sister in giving him her maid for a wife, but to no avail (Genesis 30:1-21). He did honor her above all at her death. Also, not only did Leah prevail in the fruitful bearing of six to Rachel’s two sons, but unknown to her God’s favor ran much deeper. She bore one from who would come Israel and history’s greatest King; even He who is “the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David,” (Revelation 5:5, NKJV)! From what God did through unloved Leah, both His aspiring strong men and great women in the image of Christ are reminded He has worked and wills to work in us far beyond what we could have ever imagined to His glory (1 Corinthians 1:26-31)!5 Let Him have you!
1 Read the May 21, 2023 post, Lessons From Rachel For Aspiring Great Women, under the category, The Cause.
2 Another reason was the universal reverence given to fathers and modeled by God as the heads over their daughters until marriage only rebelled against in this latter days generation (Genesis 2:18, 21-22, 24:47-51; Numbers 12:14-16) though, Leah out of greater reverence for God and as a matter of character could have objected to being a party to deceit.
3 Christian women please note how the Holy Spirit led me to write broadly of women in marriages with husbands that do not love them. In His perfect will and your obedience to marry “only in the Lord,” such a situation should not exist for you. However, if for whatever reasons you are in a situation like this, you all the more know seeking God in prayer is the first right step followed by doing what His Word teaches in longsuffering while you wait on Him to act as He wills. And yes, the same goes for any Christian man in similar circumstances as it is written (1 Corinthians 7:10-16, 39; 1 Peter 3:1-2, NKJV).
4 Because Christ is risen from the dead, we Christians do not look to tombs or graveyards to remember and honor Him as One still slain in battle. But we exalt and magnify Christ within our hearts as our living Savior, Warrior-King and Lord; fellowshipping with and serving Him who is “alive forevermore” as He promised (John 14:18-24; Revela- tion 1:17-18, NKJV). If as a professed Christian you are not inwardly enjoying the resurrection life of Christ, disobedience in sin may be the reason. Watch our latest Strong Man Of God Online Rally on YouTube, Return To The Lord, to hear His summons!
5 Learn more about this by reading my book, The Strong Man Of God; Back To Basics! Get your Hard or Soft Cover or E-Book Edition of the book as well as companion Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study and Great Woman Of God Women’s Group Study in the Strong Man Store, among internet booksellers and brick and mortar book- stores.
Joe Biden was sworn in this past Wednesday, January 20th as the forty-sixth President of the United States. This reality happened despite weeks of disputing the election results and widely declared pre- and post-election prophetic assurances supposedly from the Lord through professed Christian prophets, prophetesses and well known evangelical personalities that Donald Trump would remain in office. The voices making these prophetic declarations obviously all got it wrong. Clearly too, they all uttered their prophecies at cross-purposes with God. So, how did they get it wrong and what should the biblical response of the Body of Christ be to these false prophets?
As it turns out, this is a final post in a series the Lord has led me to write concerning especially professed Christian conservatives praying and teaching at cross-purposes with Him.1 This situation hits home and hard for me. This is because of the struggle I have had since surrendering to Christ in February 1979 first with ignorance as a babe about serving Him in the prophetic ministry He began to quicken in me with the foundational burden for His Church (Ezekiel 8; Revelation 1:9-3:22).2 After that, it was trying to understand the burden, gifting and ministry in the context of Baptist churches that did not recognize the biblical calling and a seminary education that falsely rendered it obsolete.
I have written several posts over the years chronicling my mostly negative experiences among the churches and giving biblical instruction on the gift of prophecy along with the prophetic ministry Heaven will not retire until the Lord Jesus returns!3 I know well the temptation to speak what God has not spoken to me. My saving grace to date has been a healthy fear of God and being wrong with a number of close calls (fulfillment is not always immediate) since according to the standard He gave for those He uses in the prophetic ministry, proof the words they speak have come from Him is their consistent accuracy (Deuteronomy 18:9-22; Matthew 26:31-35, 47-56, 69-75; Acts 11:27-30).
The temptation to prophesy what is not from the Lord arises from two related desires: to please people in telling them what they want to hear and self to the same end. The Lord led me to write about our desires as the core means Satan uses to tempt and deceive any gullible or unguarded Christian into sin no matter how far along in the faith.4 False prophets telling the people what they wanted to hear and out of their own hearts as a living in ancient Israel was condemned by God through His faithful prophets (Jeremiah 14:10-16, 23:9-15). While the false prophets cried “peace,” God’s faithful warned of judgment and charged the people to repent (Jeremiah 23:16-22, NKJV)!
Being on the king’s payroll gave financial incentive to tell him only what the false prophets knew he wanted to hear. It took faith in God, a genuine calling complete with divine encounter, courage and fortitude in suffering to stand often alone 450 to 1 to speak God’s prophetic Word as did Elijah (1 Kings 17:1-7, 18:1-46) and Micaiah who was outnumbered 400 to 1(1 Kings 22:1-18).5 The false prophets prophesied lies out of their own hearts to please the king. Indeed, as Micaiah revealed in his situation, God had even permitted “a lying spirit” to come to and help the false prophets along in their utterance; bringing about the downfall of the king as God willed (1 King 22:19-40, NKJV).
This latter thing has happened before our very eyes within professing Christianity here in America during the just passed Presidential election and interim transition to the next President. Men and women among the ranks of professed Christians that are politically conservative and purportedly operate in the prophetic and word of knowledge gifting were so intent on a Trump second term, they were captured on video in various settings prophesying to and over him supposedly from God with that aim. Aware of the biblical lying spirit incident, one of the prophets is quoted acknowledging this as the only way they could be wrong.6 Pleasing like-minded donors and absorbed with them in the idolatrous delusion of American perpetuity and rabid patriotism seems to have been the major drivers.
Searching out their own motives and publicly confessing the sin with contrition and repentance is what I pray each saved one who uttered false prophesy on now, former President Trump’s behalf will do, since you have given the Lord’s enemies cause to mock, misled His flock and brought shame on the prophetic ministry. The faithful should restore such ones with mercy though having come short of the Lord’s standard, never again receive a prophecy from them!7 For the rest who have made a career out of trafficking in false prophecy and refuse to repent, the Lord calls you ‘“foolish’” and declares, ‘“I am indeed against you.’” You will suffer His judgment on earth and eternally for prophesying falsehood at cross-purposes with God (Ezekiel 13; 2 Peter 2:1-17; Jude 10-13, NKJV).
Seeing then, that false prophets are and will remain among us until the end as forewarned by our Lord Jesus Christ and His apostles, the faithful must be vigilant in discernment to recognize and deal with them (Matthew 7:15-23, 24:11, 23-28; 1 Thessalonians 5:20-22; 1 John 4:1-6; Revelation 13:11-18, 16:13, 19:19-21). Finally also, as a wrap up to this series receive the Word the Lord gave me back on September 6, 2020 for our times. In reply to and firm rebuke of my prayer offered in frustration from a long wait on His guidance for my life circumstances, the Lord sent me to hear Him from Jeremiah 45. I was humbled, repentant and good! The next day the globally heard about fierce winds and firestorms descended upon our Northwest region that brought choking smoke for weeks.8
1 Read the January 10, 2021 post, Praying At Cross-Purposes With God, under the category, Bible Prophecy and the one following on January 17th entitled, Teaching At
Cross-Purposes With God, under the category, Instruction.
2 See the October 2, 2016 post, Gifted With A Prophet’s Heart, under the category, Call To Repent.
3 Read the October 30, 2016 post, No One Speaks For God?, under the category, Instruction. Also, the three-part repost beginning November 13, 2016, Without Honor
In The Churches, under the category, Glory To God!
4 Read the November 8, 2020 post, Why So Easily Deceived?, under the category, Instruction.
5 This is beyond incredible in this land of majority rule! For this cause all of the Lord’s faithful prophets and prophetesses in the Bible fulfill the definition of the aspiring
strong man and great woman of God I write about respectively in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics published by Open Door Communication Minis-
tries, Inc. It is available in print or digital formats at major internet booksellers. You can also purchase a print copy in the Strong Man Store.
6 View the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) produced Christian World News story, Prophets Say They Did Not Get It Wrong: ‘It’s Not Over’ that aired the day after
the election, November 5, 2020 and includes the supposed word from the Lord to CBN founder, Pat Robertson, Trump would win re-election. They were all deceived!
To the credit and integrity of CBN News, though it puts their founder in a bad light, they have left the story intact and available to view.
7 1 Corinthians 14:29-32. It is situations like this that the Lord shows His amazing grace and another of His tough standards: love (2 Corinthians 2:1-11). For here He
has me calling for the faithful to show mercy to largely guilty whites that repent from sin (imperfection does not give Christians a pass from sin guilt that must be con-
fessed and repented of to be forgiven by God) knowing that if it were me as a black man, it would not be as readily forthcoming. As a matter of fact, though the Lord
has caused me to accurately declare His written prophetic Word as well as that which has been extemporaneous, I have been treated as if I have been a guilty false
prophet especially by many whites that consider me inferior because of my black skin, but not to exclude the many who share my skin color out of pride and the psy-
chological legacy of self-hate (removable in Christ) from our American experience to date that will not allow us to easily regard one another.
8 It turns out the multi-year wait for the Lord’s guidance from Jeremiah 45 had been before me all along. I was just not willing to receive it. What about you?
As the Lord leads me to instruct in the two-part post beginning August 18, 2019, Lined Up Behind Jesus, under the category, Instruction, to avoid being deceived in these latter days professed Christians that would be faithful must anchor God’s Word as it is written in our hearts! The only way to anchor God’s Word in our hearts is to purposely internalize it through regular study and practice. Study and practice will not be regular if we do not zealously love the Word as the truth with an intentional desire to apply and obey it even with many failures (2 Timothy 2:15, 3:14-17; James 3:2a).
How does a man get to the point of willingness to regularly study and practice the Word of truth? A hunger and thirst for God and His Word is actualized in every truly born again new follower of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. It manifests for some more quickly than others depending on the depth of surrender at spiritual birth (Acts 2:36-42; 1 Peter 1:22-2:3).1 Purposely making time to study God’s written Word is typically not the issue for hungry and thirsty newborns in Christ. It is how to get enough milk! Those that press to fruitfulness in understanding and practice despite Satan’s effort to take the Word, tribulations and worldly cares have developed a love for it (Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23).
Loving God’s Word is the motivational key for both anchoring it in our hearts and deliberately practicing it through obedience. One major reason sold out, faithful Christians come to love God’s Word is because it “is truth” as the Lord Jesus asserts in His prayer to the Father (John 17:17, NKJV). God’s Word is truth that we not only can rationally appreciate because it is perfectly sound, righteous and just, but also experience since it is spiritually alive having originated with God (John 6:63; Hebrews 4:12). We want more of, desire to go deeper in as well as practice the Word causing us to spiritually mature because the Word of truth we love is alive in us and so good!2
Indeed, just as in our Holy Spirit fired love we love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength (Deuteronomy 6:4-6; Mark 12:28-30; Romans 5:5), so, we love the Word of truth written that in the awesome mysteries of God is embodied by God the Word from eternity (John 1:1); Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord who spoke God’s final Word to the world when He came to us from Heaven in first century Israel (John 1:14-18; Hebrews 1:1-4)! As a result of loving God and everything about God, we love the Word of truth that flows naturally from God--the Person and Source of the Word, Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and honor forever (John 14:6)!
For after He completed His work to save us from our sins by dying on the cross and being buried, He was raised from the dead on the third day following. Among the first disciples to encounter and recognize Him in Luke’s account specifically declared to each other how their hearts burned with what could have only been the same spiritual fire we enjoy as “He opened the Scriptures” to them (Luke 24:28-35, NKJV). He spent forty days on earth teaching and preparing His apostles for His return to Heaven. Then, upon giving final instructions to them, He ascended into Heaven where He, the eternal Word, has been seated again at His Father’s right hand (Acts 1:1-11, 2:32-35)!
In the love we have for Christ, the living Word of truth and all that is written from Him and of Him in the Bible, faithful Christians are ready to stand firm whatever the cost against demonically inspired deceit and falsehood and testify to the most prominent of officials as have all of the saints through all time. Many professed Christians have a misinformed tendency to arrogantly believe we are the only ones that know something about Holy Spirit fired love for God and His Word. Not so, and the writer of Psalm 119 is a classic example of an Old Testament saint--to include Spirit empowered king David (1 Samuel 16:13)--that enjoyed this experience with the living God! This saint wondrously writes in Psalm 119:41-48 with the heart of one that intimately knows and loves God and His Word!
He waited like we do now for the fullness of God’s mercies in salvation to come according to His written Word (vs. 41). He like many of us are was persecuted for his faith and needed to trust God’s Word for a right answer to his persecutors (vs. 42). He sought God’s help as we must also to keep the “word of truth” in his mouth because it was his hope; his eternal preoccupation and source of blessing (vs. 43-44, NKJV). He like us was free in and ready to witness to kings boldly standing on the Word (vs. 45-46; John 8:31-32). Lastly, he delighted himself in and loved God’s commandments; lifting his hands in praise for them and meditating on God’s edicts (vs. 47-48).3 Is that you?4 The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"
1 Read my February 17, 2019 post, Surrendering All To Jesus, under the category, Glory To God! I am one of those whose hunger and thirst for God and His Word
took some time to kick into high gear--22 months after I prayed to receive Christ--because of still trying to cling to my sinful ways of living. But after my total surren-
der to the Lord, I have sought Him and the Word of truth has been my food daily for which my soul yearns throughout the day (Psalms 63:1-8, 119:17-20)!
2 Sadly, the opposite is true for professed Christians that are not inclined to go deeper in the Word and become “dull of hearing;” remaining spiritually immature babes
that still nurse on “milk” and not the “solid food” of the Word. God expects every follower of Christ to grow and mature in the faith made possible only through the
regular intentional study and practice of the Word (Hebrews 5, NKJV). Otherwise, those that purposely remain spiritually immature are easy marks for the deceiver
(Proverbs 14:15; Romans 16:17-20), risk becoming “hardened through the deceitfulness of sin” and open themselves up to the possibility of falling away with no re-
course (Hebrews 3:12-13, 6:1-6, 10:26-31, NKJV). Read my December 4, 2016 post, Now Is The Day Of Salvation, under the category, Call To Repent.
3 Even though the Lord Jesus Christ purposely sends us out to preach the Gospel and witness Him helped by the Holy Spirit (Matthew 10:16-20), we are to still make
purposeful preparation for the task through study to possess knowledge of the Word we love the Holy Spirit can readily bring to our mouths to speak as He wills.
4 It is certainly the heart of every faithful Christian as aspiring strong men and great women of God in the image of Jesus Christ I write about in my book, The Strong
Man Of God: Back To Basics. Get a print copy or digital download of the book at major internet booksellers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, ChristianBooks.com
and Apple (digital only). You can also get a print copy of the book in the Strong Man Store.
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