Those Who can Hear

Luke 19:41-44
As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it 42and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. 43The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. 44They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”

Those Who can Hear

This morning as I read these words I saw how they will apply to the Christian religion like they did to Jerusalem. The Christian religion is often the Saul that seeks to kill their David and the Jews that kill their Messiah. They call good evil and evil good. They have their established path and doctrine and they so often dogmatically refuse to move from it, truth or not. Many in this hour are catching the vision of how God is taking so many out of a dead form that has been largely shaped and molded by the ideologies and agendas of men with enough truth and Jesus to make it look of God. God is saying this is time for the former things to pass away that all things may become new. God is no longer in our temples made with stone. That is not to say that there are not precious saints still within their walls. It grieved the heart of Jesus because when He saw what was to come upon Jerusalem and because He was their peace and He was hidden from their eyes as a whole. He saw and prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem because it represented the former covenant that was passing away that the NEW covenant might come in. This parallels much of what is happening in this day when many in the throes of the Christian religion fail to see that this is the day of the Kingdom. As Christ is ushering in His Kingdom through a people who are learning their identity in Him, there will be those in Christianity who will be jealous, envious and will rise up to resist this coming move of God. Just as the Jews, as a whole, missed the Messiah many who regard themselves as Christians will miss Him again.
The word of the Lord is going forth to all those who have an ear to hear. It is not your theology of the rapture that will save you, it is your entering into Him now. His presence is already here in such a powerful way moving among those He is raising us up in this hour. Many are looking up into the heavens and into the outward realms for Christ to come and Jesus says what so many fail to hear in Luke 17:20-21, “Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, 21nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.” Many will miss the coming kingdom because they are looking in the wrong place and are still focused on the outward.
Even now these words will be hard for many to hear. Your safety is not in the walls and gates of Jerusalem or the walls of your theology and religion. Your safety is in the mighty fortress of your God and in the power of His Spirit life within you. You must learn where His hiding place is for you and what it is to be hidden under the shadow of His wing. You will find it in the rest of God, not in religious works and efforts. The only one that will bring us peace and safety is Christ and the intimate relationship of knowing Him. He gave warning to the people that truly knew Him and rescued them out of Jerusalem before destruction came, but those who put their confidence in the walls and bulwarks of their tradition and religion that they thought God would protect, found that which they had built and relied upon utterly torn down and destroyed with not one stone left standing upon another. If you are resting and trusting upon the walls of your Christian religion, denominations and traditions you may well perish with them for the Kingdom of God is being ushered in and the former things are passing away with violence.
Hear the Word of the Lord in Luke 13:34, “”O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! 35Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'” So it is in this day and this hour. Hear what the Spirit of the Lord is speaking!

Blessings,
#kent

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Don’t Judge a Book by it’s Cover

Exodus 26:14
And thou shalt make a covering for the tent [of] rams’ skins dyed red, and a covering above [of] badgers’ skins.

Don’t Judge a Book by it’s Cover

If we read the description in the Old Testament of the interior of the Tabernacle we find that it was made up of very costly and finely made furniture and pieces. We know that within the Holiest place were the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat. We know that the very presence of God Himself would manifest and come into that place. Isn’t is strange that with such beauty and holiness within, God chose to have a ram’s skin dyed red and an old plain ugly badger skin to be the outward covering? The person that would look upon the tabernacle from without and that didn’t have knowledge of its contents would not think that it was anything particularly special. It looked very ordinary, plain and unattractive.
We have all heard the expression, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” That was very true of the tabernacle. We can speak to the symbolism of the tabernacle in several different ways. We know it was a type of Christ, but we also know that it can be symbolic of our lives as well. Let’s look for a moment at how it pertains to us. The old badger skin covering is like our bodies, which house our soul and our spirit. The man and woman of God contain something within them that is far more precious than silver or gold. They are the containers of the Christ and the Holy Spirit of God. The outward man, though he or she may be very plain, are the essence of this structure. The body simply serves to house and facilitate the soul and spirit’s function and activity. The ram’s skin dyed red speaks to the redemption of the soul washed in the blood of the lamb. The soul again is the residence of the spirit.
God often wraps His most precious gifts in plain brown paper. If our ideas of wealth, success and power are all about what we see as beauty in the outward world or in the outward man, then we have overlooked the truly rich, wealthy and powerful. The riches of God are hidden throughout the earth covered in plain, ordinary badger skin. The world will be amazed at the unveiling of the sons of God, when Christ is made fully manifest in them. Those they disregarded and counted as nothing will be the kings and priest that rule and reign.
Maybe you don’t even think that you are anything today. Maybe all that you see in yourself is that old badger skin that is getting more weathered and worn with time. What God sees is the rich and eternal presence of His life within you. What God sees is that you have become the habitation of His praise and worship. He covets His redeemed and He nurtures us under the shadow of His wing that which others may see as just a covering of badger skin. Jesus said, “ The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! For, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. (Luke 17:20-21) Don’t be so concerned about your outward status or success or beauty, come to know how rich you are in Christ and cultivate the riches of His grace within you. One day the cover will be opened and your book will be read by all.

Blessings,
#kent