The Will and
Prayer:
The human “will” is a faculty of
the mind which, when presented with a choice, uses logic and reason to choose
the various options. God’s will is, “that none should perish”. Satan’s will is,
that all should perish, and our
will is that we do what we wish to do
but not perish for it. Note that mankind’s will is at odds with both God
and Satan. Mankind’s problem is independence, doing what is right in our own eyes. 475 That ability is
being in authority, and is just as Satan said, “then your eyes shall be opened,
and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” 476 The problem
with knowing good and evil is that mankind most often chooses evil! Because our
“self-gods” attempt to exert authority over God but can’t, our nature is that
humankind desires to kill God. That’s
not necessarily physical death but denying His authority. Mankind desires to be
masters of their own demand, and we are the second master of ourselves.
Because of our will, being
dualistic: wanting reward but choosing punishment, the cognitive dissonance
needs adjusting. God calls people to get out of the chaos by accepting truth –
one cannot live in iniquity and be rewarded for it. Christians are still
somewhat in dissonance; the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. 477
The spirit desires concordance. The former is a lack of harmony, and the latter
harmony.
That last passage tells how:
“watch and pray”. What are Christians to watch out for? Deception. What are
they to do? Pray. Prayer is not complicated. In Latin it is precarious, and means “obtained from
entreaty, and given as a favor”. 478 Prayer is asking and receiving.
It’s not things but thoughts. Prayer is essentially
harmonizing one’s own will to God’s will.” Prayer should always include, “thy
will be done” 479 because if
it’s in opposition to God’s will it’s disconcerting. For God to honor mankind
with His presence, His will must be done. Scripture calls that “being of one
accord”. 480 Accordance is achieved by being in harmony with God.
With each in harmony with God the Church becomes a Choir! Thus, prayer is
imperative for harmony with God and others. That concordance is loving God, and
others!
If everyone who was righteous
had prayed for God not to die, he would still have died! God picked the method
of His own death years before when it was written: 481
But I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the
slaughter; and I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying, Let
us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the
land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.
This
would have been written circa 600 BC.
The weapon was selected before it ever became a weapon in Judea! Crucifixion
was never a method of death in the pre-Hellenist Greek Empire. 482
Hammers
and nails were used to kill Jesus. Contemporary arguments are that guns be
banned to prevent killings. Banning all the hammers and nails in the Roman
Empire would not have saved Jesus; he was born to die! All the prayer in the
world could not prevent God’s death as long as one person still sinned, and
none had never sinned! If the apostles had prayed, and they did not; the slept
through Jesus’ agony, God still had to die. Why so? God willingly died in the
place of all mankind. Praying that he would not die would have been dissonant
to God’s will. He ordained His own death in the beginning. When he shed the
blood of an animal the first time to cover Adam’s sin, it was an act to be
completed thousands of years later. That time period was the fulfilled the
Adamic Covenant. It gave Adam hope, as well as mankind!
What
is God’s will for man? That we emulate Him. He was born in the flesh and died
in the same. What God wants for mankind, is that we die to the flesh, and
crucify it on the cross, allowing the spirit to live on… for eternity. Most
killers kill with impunity. At least God died for good reason. His death was
efficacious for salvation!
Let’s
look at the plot: Adam killed God when he sinned the first time. Mankind killed
God before the flood with their wickedness. Pharaoh killed God when he wouldn’t
allow the Hebrews out of “Sin”. The Hebrew people killed God by having other
gods. Herod the “not so great” killed God when he beheaded His emissary. Salome
killed God when she danced. Herodias killed God when she fornicated. Agrippa
killed God when he was almost persuaded
but was not! Caiaphas killed God when he accused Jesus or heresy. Pilate killed
God when he washed his hands. The people killed God when they selected
Barnabas. The centurions killed God when they gambled for his garments. We all
killed God when we sin! How can we kill God by sinning? He died for all sins:
past, present, and future! 483
Blame
is a tension reliever. Everyone knows who killed God. Some people blame Pilate.
Most blame the Jews… always did. People hate the Jews in Christ’s Name. Forget
it world; the Jews didn’t kill God – you did! God corrects sinners by
conviction. That’s the pounding feet on the threshing floor. The reprobate
don’t sense the stomp, stomp, stomp; like the thump, thump, thump of the
tell-tale heart. People’s consciences must be sensitive to feel the threshing.
If the conviction is felt, either blame or remorse results. Blame seems to exorcise one from his demons
while remorse disappoints Satan. When
the blaming phase is complete, everyone stands before God in their perishable
fig leaves, waiting to be stripped naked. We all are without excuse – the naked
truth!
The
Resurrection and Persecution:
Surprise, God did not die… he
was just asleep. Some believe in soul sleep. This writer doesn’t. Paul, the
apostle referred to death as “asleep”. 484 Jesus slept for three
days. He remained silent, then with a silent boom, he arose, possibly rolled
his own stone back, and lived again: 485
In the end of the sabbath, as it began
to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other
Mary to see the sepulchre. And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the
angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone
from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his
raiment white as snow: And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as
dead men.
In Scripture, the Angel of the Lord, or the Angel of God, most refers to
a specific angel. The translators
understood context when selecting “an” or “the”. Jacob wrestled with “a man”
until daylight. He referred to this “man” as God: “I have seen God face to
face, and my life is preserved.” 486 Jacob saw Jesus - God
manifested, and wrestled with Him. Scripture describes the Angel of God several
places. “His countenance was like lightening, and his raiment was white as
snow” is similar language to Jesus’s transfiguration 487 and his
appearance to John the Beloved in Revelation.
488 The Angel of the Lord who rolled back the gravestone again was
God manifested! Shortly
thereafter, when the eleven were in a room with the doors closed, Jesus
“appeared”, not having entered therein! 489
God’s flesh died. His Spirit lived on – just asleep for a few days. Satan
had failed. Not only was God alive but he was “glorified”, having a super-flesh
– incorruptible – which the grave could not contain, and neither walls it
seems! Jesus was transformed as he slept. A part of God died on the cross but
Satan was unable to destroy God. God is not dead! Satan thought that by killing
Jesus, he could kill God. Jesus’s flesh died, but he lives on, sitting at the
right hand of God! 490
Mankind
looks at things through dimmed eyes. They visualize God with Jesus sitting on
His right side, and possibly the Holy Ghost on His left. My bright eyes see One
God. He appears to me with how I look at him. There are not three persons or
even three Gods sitting on the throne. If he is viewed as Creator, He cannot
even be conceived. If he is viewed as Jesus, the face of a Man is manifested.
If He is viewed as Comforter He is sensed
as Power! God died to take on better flesh – incorruptible. With His new flesh,
Emmanuel will never die again! That won’t stop Satan, though. He must steal
God’s thunder!
Alive Again:
Jesus was thus resurrected.
Resurrection differs from reincarnation in that it is for one time only, and
the resurrected person has the same identity. Whereas, reincarnated persons may
be of any type of flesh, the resurrected person has glorified flesh in that it is incorruptible – sinless and
invulnerable. Ironically, because sin corrupted the flesh, and made it die, the
resurrected person returns to the state in which he was created. No longer can
he or she die! Neither can glorified flesh be killed. Satan’s mission is impossible once God died
on the cross. He can never die again, even in the flesh!
How, then, can Satan achieve is
goal of killing God? He knows that he can’t but believes he has a shot at
overthrowing the Kingdom of God. Where is that Kingdom? It’s where God is!
Since God is omnipresent the Kingdom of God can be anywhere. It’s entered into
by communion with God.
It may be that living beings
enter the Kingdom of God upon being born-again. Few truly understand what the
rebirth is! Nicodemus asked Jesus to explain it, thinking he must again enter his
mother’s womb. Jesus clarified the rebirth by referring to Moses and the
Hebrews encounter with poisonous vipers. Those who avoided the snakes on their
own were bitten, poisoned, and died. Those who looked upon the bronze serpent
elevated on a pole, trusted God for deliverance. 491 492
Jesus went on to explain that when one realizes that he can’t save himself but
God can, that is being born-again. Ironically, enlightenment is trusting God, not
discarding him as will be discussed later.
Satan can wither the Church by eroding
the lively stones. Anyone who is born-again is part of that Church. God built
that Church one stone at a time upon His foundation and with Him as the
cornerstone – the datum from which buildings are built! As aforementioned,
Peter, all the apostles, and even the prophets are the foundation, but the
people are the Church.
Upon Jesus’s ascension 493,
his “Ghost” descended, 494 and was the Power which built the Church!
As the Comforter, the Holy Ghost is the Protector. Just as God protected the building
of the second temple from it’s adversaries, the Holy Ghost protects the lively
stones as the Church is built. Present tense is used here because the Church is
never completed. As time passes more lively stones are added. Although the
cornerstone was rejected, it is still him on which the Church is built! The
second temple was built, only be torn down again. Satan did that in an attempt
to destroy God’s Kingdom and God. Just as the glorified body can never be destroyed
neither can the glorious Church. It is built on solid Rock!
Who is this Holy Ghost? He is
the transformed Spirit of God. By that I mean, God suffered on the cross. All His
“substances” agonized thereon. God hung there on the tree at Calvary in Mind,
Body, and Spirit. God was transfigured through Jesus a second time. This
transfiguration – from death to resurrection – was not only in appearance but
character. The Holy Spirit upon God suffering death was transformed into Jesus’s
Holy Ghost! 495 496
(But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on
him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus
was not yet glorified.)
And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father,
into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.
Persecution
– The Temple Destroyed:
This transformation is important
because it results in Satan attacking God in a different manner. With Jesus gone,
his Holy Ghost is the Christian’s “safety”. Upon being born-again the
protection is provided by an imbuement of the Holy Ghost. Jesus blood cleansed
the temples of the Christians – what is called the soul – then it was occupied
by Jesus’s Holy Ghost. Those who have experience rebirth are the temple of God,
and the body is no longer his own! 497
Immediately after Jesus’s
ascension, the Church quickly had the lower stones placed. Not surprising, the
Hebrews in Jerusalem were the people and place the first place the stones were
laid. The Holy Ghost was there empowering the workman, so to speak. To
encourage the workers, He showed Himself plainly. Imagine the enthusiasm of the
workers when the Holy Ghost came as a wind and a fire and gave out building
instructions in the very language of God! 498
Taking a respite for a short
time, consider the tearing down of the false church at Babylon. The people
built that building to reach the heavens, likely by astrology, but God tore it
down and encrypted their language. 499 At Jerusalem God came down
and built the Church by building it up and decrypting the language He had
confounded, thus allowing the Church to be constructed to His Plan! Since, unlike
the Greeks who require wisdom, Jews need a sign. 500 Hence, the
miracle of tongues was understanding how to build the Church, and with Jesus’
Ghost as the builder, it was done in safety!
A legalistic young man saw the Church
under construction. Satan used him to destroy the Church. His name was Saul: 501
But Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after
house, and dragging off men and women, he would put them in prison.
Saul was stopped in his tracks
and saw the Light as God blinded him. Saul was transformed from destroyer to
builder. He reminded the people of his own transformer from Saul to Paul: 502
For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism,
how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy
it.
Without going into detail but Saul
had destroyed Stephen but now Paul was the one persecuted. He became part of
the foundation of the Church as the Church accepted him into brotherhood. The
mortal of this new church was the bond of love. They all loved the Cornerstone,
loved the Designer, and loved each other. The Church was erected with ease
because they all were of one accord! Having one faith, one Lord, and one
baptism 504 made the building straight and the path to it narrow! The
temporary temple in the Kingdom of God was being raised in preparation of the indestructible
one in the City of God in Heaven.
With the Church built, Herod’s
Temple was no longer required. God Himself predicted its demise. 505
Seventy years later, precisely as prophesied, God allowed Herod’s Temple to be torn
down. God never needed or wanted a building from the start, and now that was
made the rule. Not even today is the Church the building. The Church are the Christians
inside!
To tear down the Temple, God
used His “useful fool” – The future emperor of Rome, Titus, tore down the
Temple effectively ending the Jewish resistance. 506 Much to Satan’s
chagrin his general did a good thing for God, unwittingly not knowing it was
God’s will! Like the tabernacle centuries before, without the Temple, the Church
was where the people were. It scattered through Asia, Egypt, and Rome. As the
Church began to grow with all its good seed, Satan couldn’t handle it. His
pride was injured! Then along came Nero! He burned Rome and blamed it on the
Christians. 507
There were numerous evil and deranged emperors
and generals. God used them all to grow the Church. Much to Satan’s dismay, as
he led his leaders to persecute the Church grew! Finally, God grabbed one of
those leaders – Constantine – and Church growth exploded. Lively stones were
laid right on top of pagan pavement.
476 Holy Bible; Gen 3:5
477
ibid; Mat 26:41
479
Holy Bible; Mat 6:10.
480
ibid; Acts 2:1.
481
ibid; Jer 11:19.
483
Holy Bible; 1 John 1:9.
484
ibid; 1 Cor 15:16
485
ibid; Mat 28:1-4
486
ibid; Gen 32:30.
487
ibid; Mat 17:2
488
ibid; Rev 1:14.
489
ibid; John 20:19
490
ibid; Acts 2:33.
491
ibid; John 3
492
ibid; Num 21
493
ibid; John 3:3; Acts 1:2.
494
ibid: Acts 2:3-4.
495
ibid; John 7:39.
496
ibid; Luke 23:46.
497
ibid; 1 Cor 6:19.
498
ibid; Acts 2:2-4.
499
ibid; Gen 11.
500
ibid; 1 Cor 1:22.
501
ibid; Acts 8:3.
502
ibid; Gal 1:13.
503
ibid; Acts 2:1.
504
ibid; Ephes 4:5.
505
ibid; Mat 24:1-2; Mark 13:1-2; Luke
21:5-6.
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