God can never be defeated! Even satan knows this and yet many people toy with this idea even though the Bible, history and personal accounts reveal God’s command of everything from people to man-made machinery. There are very few incidents in the Bible where God out right zap someone or peoples out of existence. Most notable is Sodom and Gomorrah, where today little to nothing remains to indicate those cities existed. Yet, these cities did not harm or subjugate His people as Egypt did, but God did not wipe Egypt out but rather penalized Pharaoh and his people for their stubbornness not because Pharaoh did not let the Jews go but because Pharaoh refused to acknowledge YHWH as all Powerful. Pharaoh resisted this because it would have circumvented his own claim to godly status. God could have destroyed Egypt and still secured the Jews for His purpose but instead showed His control with playing out Egypt’s submission after the plagues.

The fifth thing to know about God is He controls all forms of timing. Not just things set for signs, wonders and seasons but even man’s actions. Everyone who leads the military or a company knows and factors timing in their plans. Timing that begins, ends or orchestrates other key events. This control is what proves an active God who is involved with every level of His Kingdom in the Heavens as well as on Earth. God’s timing is essential to the miracles and Biblical events that happened which bring into a consensus of all independent factors being worked towards a common cause and outcome. God’s timing is fortitudinous and perfect. 

To know God is really all about having Faith in Him. To not see, or even hear but to believe in Him. That all that we know is sufficient to get us home which is His Kingdom where “many mansions await us” - Jn. 14:2. And that no matter what this life offers; knowing God can never be traded for it. We are given what we need to know and rather than a lengthy dissertation of His resume; God chooses to show us His Power, Principles, and Wisdom of the ages that has kept His Glory intact and our future secure in Him. 

Flush it Out! - To know God is to trust God. 

God’s plans for mankind has not changed since its inception in Heaven despite all the interference not only from satan but especially from man. Now, we can claim, satan made man do it, but in God’s reality and judgment, satan was and is no longer of any consequence in man’s successes as well as his failures. God did nothing to satan after passing judgment in the Garden as stated, “upon your belly shall you go and dust shall you eat for all the days of your life” - Gen. 3:14. How is this possible, when satan is a spirit? Now, some will say God’s judgment on satan was that man shall “bruise his head” but in the same verse, it says, “he, satan shall bruise man’s heel”- Gen. 3:15. This is a quid pro quo and has been happening ever since man and Lucifer fell from Grace. There are four prime actors in the commitment of sin. There is man, woman; the serpent and the fourth; the spirit of disobedience; satan. Did you notice, there is no Spirit of God present during the temptation; a foreshadow of Jesus’ wilderness temptation. Both the first and last Adam had one common source against evil; which is the Tree of good and evil; God manifested, as revealed in the Bible; just as Christian’s today. That Tree has not changed from the Garden to today. The inspired author uses a serpent which has both a physical and metaphoric symbolism in representing satan. The serpent is an innocent creature that the spirit of satan took possession of. Remember; the first thing to knowing God is, He is strategic. The moment satan became possessed by pride and jealousy, challenging God in disobedience; God set His plan into motion that the very icon of satan’s jealousy would be his downfall and demise, starting with Adam and ending with Jesus. Often, the very thing or person that offends us, which is pride raising its ugly head; is the same thing God uses to humble us. The judgment for satan was administered before the Garden or man was created. But because satan chose a serpent; it became a symbol and metaphor of satan and his deceptive and devious ways with the serpent’s main characteristics, including slithering and having a forked tongue. All aspects of deception. 

The second thing in knowing God is He is consistent and equitable in His judgments because He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. What this means for the Body’s individuals is God is not to be taken for granted and to come to the realization that whatever He has decreed cannot be changed regardless of His love, compassion, and mercy for us. His integrity of His Word is absolute for, without this, His Kingdom could not stand, as stated, “You have exalted your Word above all your name” - Ps. 138:2. God will never compromise His foundations because of man’s failures to adhere to His principles simply because man is nothing to Him as stated, “The Heaven is My Throne, Earth My footstool. Where is the house that you built for me and the place of My rest”? Another way to say this is, “Heaven is My seat of judgment and Earth its sentence. Can man give me security and peace”? In reality, many of the Body grovel at the feet of God, seeking to influence God into looking the other way as they indulge and commit disobedience to His Throne, often claiming it will be just this one time for the offense and that they will make amends after the fact. Once, a brother told me, he and God have an understanding. This is bringing God to our level and God is known as stated, “to be a respecter of no man” - Rm. 2:11. Now, some may say, He shows favoritism to some especially the Jews. Or maybe because of their Faith; God rewards them for being long-suffering and walking in His ways as best as they can. God tells us, “Faith pleases Him” - Heb. 11:6. God is the most Faithful of all of us to never change His ways, knowing that through all the challenges things will manifest in the way He desires. He only asks that we be the same in regards to His commands and decrees.

Every effective leader knows it’s better for his followers to buy into the vision, rather than be dragged along in it. Now, the Bible doesn’t disclose all that transacted to bring us to where we are today but consider Lucifer was within God’s inner circle and would be one of the first Archangels to know of God’s vision. God did not make man in response to Lucifer’s abandonment of his place. As God cast His vision, so did evil enter into Lucifer resulting in God exiling him to the Earth. This is inferred because God created the universe prior to the fall of Lucifer as stated, “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground” - Is. 14:12. All spirits must dwell somewhere and because Lucifer became carnal minded it was a natural progression from a Spiritual realm to a manifested physical one called Earth. Lucifer; now satan, can no longer operate within the Heavenly realms. It should be of interest that Lucifer could have been sent to any planet in the solar system, but is sent to the Earth; the perfect atmosphere for the man to live in. He, satan and a third of the fallen angels were remanded to the Earth for their crimes. So why would God place His precious man in the midst of His enemy? For a war of attrition.

Fast forward and all is a utopia in the land of Eden. So why doesn’t God tell Adam to expect the serpent? Because God needed to keep His plan strategic and authentic. Now, some religious minded people will say this proves God doesn’t really care about man and causes pain and sickness for His pleasure. Consider that God is all knowing, then evil as good is known to God as is represented by the Tree of good and evil in the Garden which is God’s Throne or Tabernacle manifested in the Garden and on Earth. The Garden has two trees. The Tree of life which is the foreshadow of the Word that is Jesus and the Tree of good and evil is the foreshadow of God. God did not want Adam and Eve to disobey Him by listening to the serpent but knew that they would. God did not protect them because God wants man to be the one to put satan under His Throne; finally with Jesus, the Son man and now with all saved men and women. Lucifer’s challenge to God is because of pride and jealousy not only of God but of God’s intent to create man to be not only an heir but a son and daughter of His Kingdom. From Lucifer’s perspective, God was willing to give man His Kingdom without actually earning it. Man would and has become the mediator between God and His Angels. The universe is in existence before man and Lucifer's fall, demonstrating God's foresight of the future, while mitigating the present.

He, satan is still up to his old tricks and it’s the responsibility of the Body to put him in his place until God is good and ready to chain him up for all eternity. God’s reason for being hidden in many things is to give the Body an opportunity to take dominion and to maintain His strategic plan for the New Heaven and Earth. Now, the reality of the Christian Faith is that many are still in a stupor as to their role even after the battle over sin and satan was won over two thousand years ago, but continues because Christian’s are still allowing satan to deceive them. God will not lay out His full plans in plain sight for this very reason and is why the Bible exclaims, “creation is groaning for the sons and daughters of God to be seen” - Rm. 8:19. This is also why one of the gifts of the Spirit is speaking in tongues. For by this, mysteries are prayed and hidden from satan. 

The first thing to know about God as the ruler of a vast Spiritual Kingdom and like any King will not surrender His Kingdom simply because one of His subjects has a breakdown in obedience. What this means is that anything pertaining to today, yesterday and the past has everything to do with a future yet to be revealed. God is and will always be strategic in how good and evil play into His desired outcome, for as stated, “The Lord has made all for Himself, even the wicked for the day of evil” - Prob. 16:4. What this means for the Body’s individuals is to trust God and lean not onto their own understanding - Prob. 3:5. Faith is not only about material substance but more about trusting God. What someone experience as depressing by the world’s standard maybe God’s opportunity to lift you up to another level, whether physically or spiritually. The challenge is using and abiding with the fruits of the Spirit until the Blessing is manifested.

Can we truly know everything there is to know about God? And are we capable of knowing or even comprehending all there is to know about God? James tells us, “draw near to God and He will draw near to you” - Jm. 4:8. James is able to say this inspiration only because of Jesus who was an aspect of the physical reality of the Spirit of God and by His death and resurrection; completed the reopening of the door to God as was the original intent of Genesis; but a last, just short of it. The Spiritual Truth of it is that we in our current state are limited in knowing all that makes God tick. Sure, we have Revelations of God and His Kingdom, and even have a very deep relationship with Him. And the more time in the Word and Spirit, the closer we begin to know God.

The point is to coin a phrase, is to, “shoot for eagle, bag pheasant and don’t eat crow”. The condition of sin’s presence has hampered us to achieve a perpetual state of Heavenly bliss and because of this; we constantly have to shoot for the mark, knowing we can’t attain it but rather secure a position that does not degrade us into the darkness of the sin state, for as Paul stated, “all have fallen short of the Glory” - Rm. 3:23. Some say; did not Jesus’ Blood make all things new and put to death sin? Yes! The Blood of Jesus did what God set it out to do, which was to reset the button to the original starting point of Genesis. Jesus is known as the last Adam. A condition and completion of the first. Now, to be clear this is what the Blood did. The Blood paid the price for Godly disobedience which is sin and more importantly put the responsibility of the disobedience back into the genesis of sin; that is the man. The whole ball of wax is that despite all that Jesus won and attained; sin still is in existence. What does this have to do with knowing God? Everything! 

​​For the most part, most people who come into the Body of Christ; only come into it for their selfish reasons and not God’s. Some come into the Kingdom because they want comfort, assurance, and peace. All aspects of Salvation and by maturity we come to appreciate God’s compassion and mercy for our Salvation, but that is nothing more than what Paul alludes to saying, “That the heir, as long as he is a child, differs nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all” - Gal. 4:1. God’s Kingdom is available and yet most in the Body does not see or accept this. Although saved and redeemed; many are still waiting for Jesus to return and save them a second time, before taking the responsibility for the condition of the world and their Faith. When God made the first man and woman it was not just for a relationship, it was for a war. A war which cannot be fought effectively ‘on the ground’ unless the soldiers know what the commander in chief wants. Now, to be fair God doesn’t want you to know everything as anyone in the military will attest. It’s all based on a need to know basis. God purposely did not disclose to Adam and Eve of the coming threat in the form of a serpent. They basically ran slam into sin. God’s purpose for nondisclosure is at least two fold. To see this we have to start and be a viewer on the sidelines as Lucifer challenges God for an equal Throne.

The fourth thing in knowing God is He is a bookkeeper and records every single work that is done for good or evil. No individual will attain Salvation halfheartedly or politically. God prefers those who by boldness chose which side they want to belong on and by their choice know the judgment that will be sentenced. No one will be able to claim ignorance of their choice. It is like someone who picks up a gun and accidentally fire’s it resulting in the death of someone. There was no premeditation but that alone will not stay the judgment of manslaughter which is really saying you did not take responsibility as required for picking the gun even though you knew of its potential to kill in the first place. God has made every effort by all means for His judgments that are to come. 

The third thing in knowing God is everything He has ordained which affects His decisions and action is justified. God doesn’t make things up as situations happen. He believes in justice as a crucial part of His Righteousness to the foundations of His Throne. This justice is not only about good and evil but is holistic in regards to anything Spiritual. Most Christians would believe that the New Jerusalem is in the land of Israel and from the Bible it would seem so. Although the Bible doesn’t explicitly say so. Now, if God is just in reconciling everything that was stolen, destroyed and killed by satan, then even the New Jerusalem is a part of this justification and it's my thought that this may point to the Garden. For this is where God’s Earthly Throne started. So as satan corrupted the Garden’s purpose; it may well be where God will justify it with the New Jerusalem for as stated, “But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother” - Gal. 4:26. The Garden of Genesis is man’s and the world’s mother. And also as stated, “For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God” - Heb. 11:10. This refers to the New Jerusalem which is the same and a metaphor of the Garden in Genesis which was designed and built by God. God’s justification is about reinstating all things as originally designed before it was corrupted by sin; which is His way of saying when He creates there is no other substitution for it. It’s perfect. This principle goes across man, animals, plants and even rocks; not the outward aspects but the inward attributes. God’s justice is perfect as He is perfect in all His ways.  

He, satan is a legalist! The Body constantly fails to understand and appreciate this fact. As the accuser, satan is like a lawyer for the crown, whose main focus is to point out where the offender has broken the law. In this case, God’s law! Now, to think God is like a father sitting in the court room of judgment wanting mercy for his guilty child is nothing short of ignorance. God ultimately is the judge of His laws and where His compassion may be cited in His sentence, nevertheless, He must apply the judgment. One of His prime laws is sowing and reaping which is done Earthly but evaluated Spiritually with Spiritual judgments manifested Earthly; for as stated, “God is not mocked, what a man sows, so shall he reap” - Gal. 6:7. The Body too often forgets or minimize the Truth that God is omnipotent and as creator of everything is the final judge of it. 

Spiritual Awakening

Today’s man can never fully attain what Adam threw away for a piece of ‘bread’ but this is not the concern of God, nor should it be ours. Only God can fulfill the redemption of man and the Earth when Revelation is completed and the New Jerusalem is established. Everything since the fall has been only a foreshadowing of the finality of God’s plans for His people. Now, this may upset some in religious and even evangelical circles that God cannot be fully attained or understood, as stated, "God's ways are higher than man's" - Is. 55:9. The one perspective to appreciate is He is God and we will never be gods having every fortitude and omnipotence as YHWH has. Jesus is the closest a person can get to know God and even He is not aware of God’s final plan for redemption as stated, “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the Son but God” - Matt. 24:36. God, is the Great I Am, and we, His I am’s. This symbiosis is not because we have attained some level of Holiness but by His will, we are partakers in His great works. So what’s the point?

Aug. 3, 2017.

 
Knowing God.

Whenever trials and tribulations come at us; we often want to take control. Many times these issues arise in our lives because of disobedience; first innocently and then by choice. We do what the first people did. They blame others rather than accepting the responsibility for their personal mistakes. Often, this is done insidiously because of the fear of being seen imperfect or being exposed to scrutiny. We think the more we can distance ourselves from our sin, is the more it will not point to us. David’s first sin was lust of the mind which degraded into other types such as pride, envy and then covetousness which led him to murder. The deeper he got into the lair of the trap of his first sin; is the more he tried to cover and distance himself from it, for after all he was known as the man of God. All sins eventually expose the prime one which is against the Throne of God and that is pride; satan’s sin. Everything that the Body does is under the scrutiny of the Blood of Jesus. We can’t escape from this as by the same Blood that is marked on us are we saved. Now, we may commit a sin in innocence or even ignorance but to justify it from a carnal perspective is never acceptable in God’s sight. God gave us ways to be just in His sight which we must use the same way we breathe air to have life.