Part 4 of 4 Parts

 

The Following Message Has Been Transcribed For

Clarity, Continuity Of Thought, And Punctuation By

The LEM Transcribing & Editing Team.

 

Praise the Lord. Verse 21, brethren, Ezekiel 39: "And I will set my glory amongst the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed and my hand that I have laid upon them."

 

"I will set my glory." The Hebrew word translated "set," it means to set something over someone or something. And the glory of God is his Spirit. Glory, in the Scripture, is speaking about spirit. Sometimes we hear that word used in the Prophets, speaking about Satan's glory. Glory is spirit as it is appearing in this world system. So when the Lord says, "I will set my glory amongst the heathen," it means that he is going to be putting or placing Christ Jesus not only within the heathen but over the heathen.

 

Now, we know that Christ is in the hearts of men, but the significance here is that Christ has authority. When he is in the midst of you, he has authority over you. And authority is a very important issue. Almost the whole church is in rebellion in this hour. A lot of the condition of rebellion that exists in the hearts of men is due to the fact that rebellion is reigning over the whole nation. When we come to the Lord, we are carnal people, and there is much more involved than learning the word of God.

 

The nations on the other side of the world, where rebellion is still at a minimum, where people are raised to be in submission to authority, have much less trouble lining up with the word of God than the people in this country. This country is just covered over with rebellion, Jezebel and pride. That means, brethren, that we come to the Lord at a disadvantage.

 

You see, the Lord does not want to hear that, well, your father was rebellious, and your mother was rebellious, and Jezebel is laying over this whole nation. God does not want to hear that. He looks at you; he sees Jezebel; he sees rebellion; he loves you. Whack. See, there is no excuse that will keep his hand from contacting you because correction is the love of God. Correction is the love of God.

 

First, he tells you. He comes to you in dreams. He tells you when you are sleeping. What does he tell you? He tells you about your sin. He shows you your sin, not necessarily in your behavior but in the way that you think, in the way that you talk, in the way that you react to other people. And why does he come to you when you are sleeping? Anybody? Why?

 

[INAUDIBLE]

 

OK. That is something else that Mary is going to be doing. Yeah. She is going to be making sure that everybody who talks has a microphone in their hand, and not only a microphone in their hand but that it is held up to their mouth. Please, I rebuke rebellion in this congregation. OK. What is the answer, brother?

 

Your mind is at rest.

 

OK. That is not acceptable. Please speak into the microphone.

 

Your mind is at rest.

 

Well, OK. That is a good answer. But more than that, the Scripture says man is so filled up with pride that, when God speaks to him in his waking hours, all we hear is the pride of our own mind. We do not hear the word of God because pride speaks more loudly than the word of the Lord. Pride makes a big noise and drowns out the word of God. So the Lord will go to most people when they are sleeping, and the pride of their mind is quiet.

 

It depends on where you are in your relationship with Christ, and that is a good way to measure your relationship with him. Can you hear him when you are awake? Or does he talk to you in the wee hours of the morning just as you are waking up? Maybe he does both. But whether or not, or the degree to which, the Father speaks to you when you are wide awake is a measure of how tuned in you are to the Lord.

 

And if you only hear him when you are sleeping, that is nothing to be embarrassed about. It does not mean you are bad. It does not mean God hates you. All that it means is that you should know that you are spiritually on the immature side, and that is OK. You have to know where you are before you can rise up and get more mature. If you think you are mature, and you are immature, you are only fooling yourself, and you are preventing yourself from growing.

 

So we see, in verse 21 of Ezekiel 39, the Lord is saying, "And I will set my glory amongst the heathen." He is saying that Christ is going to the heathen, brethren. The Hebrew word translated "heathen" means "nations." It means the non-Jew.

 

Now, in the Bible days, the physical Israel was the only Jew, natural Israel. And in this day, we have the spiritual Jew. The natural Jew had a covenant with God, which covenant was secured by the ritual of circumcision, physical circumcision in the males. In this hour, God's covenant is with spiritual Israel. And in spiritual Israel, there is no male or female. So the covenant of circumcision is no longer in the flesh.

 

[INAUDIBLE]

 

OK. They are both correct, but the Scripture says "in the heart." But it is OK to say "in the mind" or in the heart. It is a spiritual circumcision.

 

Now, it is much easier to recognize the physical circumcision than the spiritual circumcision. To recognize spiritual circumcision, or to recognize the true Jew in this spiritual aspect of man's covenant with God, we have to be looking for the workings or the expression of the mind of Christ because the whole significance of circumcision is that your carnal mind is circumcised away. And if your carnal mind is not circumcised, your heart is hard. Your heart is cold. You are without the love of God. OK. But if your heart is circumcised, Christ is showing because Christ is underneath the carnal mind.

 

And Christ is love, now, not icky-sticky gooey love but sacrificial love. And Christ is the fruit of the spirit. He is patient. He is kind. He is longsuffering. He does not offend. We have all of the characteristics of the love of God outlined for us in the New Testament. He is gentle. He submits to his brother. He is willing to suffer the loss. He is not a warmonger; he is a peacemaker.

 

So there are many signs to the circumcision of Christ being in you. You may have some of these signs but not all of them. What does that mean? The circumcision is not yet complete in you. Spiritual circumcision takes a long time. It takes a long time, brethren. It could take several years. It could take many years to have your heart completely circumcised.

 

I went to an infant circumcision a couple years ago. That baby screamed his head off, and I know a lot of Christians who are screaming their head off today. They are experiencing a spiritual circumcision, and they are yelling their heads off because it really hurts. Now, I have had several people tell me and I have experienced it myself, an actual awareness of a knife inside of my heart, just cutting me. Right here where the natural heart is, I have had that pain. Brethren, if you are going through spiritual circumcision, it is painful. But the end of it is the full expression of Christ in you. Thank you, Jesus.

 

So we see that the Father is giving his Christ to the heathen. Now, I do not know how you feel about that, but I know that the natural Jew is very upset about that, and I know that the Pharisee in the church today is very upset about that. About what? That Christ is going to be appearing in the heathen.

 

So one of the primary signs of the Pharisee is that, whether he admits it or not, he thinks he is better than the heathen. He thinks he is holier than the heathen. He thinks he is cleaner than the heathen. He thinks he is getting into heaven before the heathen. He thinks he is entitled to benefits ahead of the heathen. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.

 

Every good thing that we get is because of the Son of God that is in us. It has nothing to do with your works, because you go to church, because you cast out demons, because you heal the sick, because you tithe. You should be doing all of these things, but the glory of God is not in you for any of those reasons. He is in you because the Lord has elected you, not because of anything that you have done or that you are capable of doing or that you will do. What are you all puffed up for, brethren? Everything that you have was given to you. Every talent that you have, which has enabled you to accomplish whatever it is that you have accomplished, was a gift to you. So why do you make yourself greater than your brother?

 

The answer is you have pride. And pride is the sin of the Pharisees, and it will keep you out of the kingdom of heaven. Pride is the foundation of your carnal mind, and it must come down. And it is coming down with a crash if you have any hopes of entering into the kingdom of heaven. And if you are in denial, and you think that you have a faraway home in heaven by streets of gold, if you think that there is a mansion waiting for you when your body dies, and you will not receive the word that you are as much of a sinner as the drug addict down in Times Square, there is not much hope for you because the one thing that will keep you out of the kingdom of heaven is your refusal to confess your sins. And the fact that you are blinded to them does not get you any brownie points.

 

So what do you do? You confess on general principle. You look at your life, and you say, Lord, I am aging, and I surely will die in due season if you do not intercede. That means I am a sinner. There is sin in my mind, whether I can see it or not. I confess on general principle. Please help me to see it, to see my sins, so that I can live and not die.

 

And, brethren, examine yourself. If you are angry because God has promised to give his Christ to the heathen, you had better start repenting. You had better start facing the fact that it is sin in your heart.

 

The parable clearly says that Jesus went to the men who were standing idle outside of the garden at the twelfth hour. It was midnight; it was minutes to the resurrection of the dead. And he called them into the garden. He said, "Do not stand there idle. Come in, and work for the kingdom of God, and I will pay you the same wage that I paid the one who has been laboring in my kingdom since the early morning." And Jesus said, if I want to give the one who came in 40 years after you the same reward as I am giving you, who has been laboring for 40 years in my kingdom, what is it to you? It is none of your business. It is none of your business what I do with another one of my sons. Keep your eyes on yourself and on your relationship with me.

 

We see it typified in the Book of Jonah. Jonah was a Hebrew preacher who was sent to preach to the heathen. And he was mad as a hornet that God would send him to the heathen to preach. But who knows what made Jonah even madder than the fact that God sent him to preach to the heathen? What got him really mad? Does anybody know?

 

[INAUDIBLE]

 

Why did he turn his wrath away?

 

[INAUDIBLE]

 

They repented. Jonah was mad as a hornet. Those people repented, and the Hebrews would not.

 

[INAUDIBLE]

 

He would rather see them in sin and dead. The heathen repenting. That heathen king, when he heard the word of God, he not only repented himself, he called a national fast. He said, "The men will fast, and the women will fast." And who else fasted?

 

The cattle.

 

Even the cattle fasted. Put on sack cloth and ashes and pray that the God of the universe will turn his wrath away from this nation. That was his reaction when he heard the truth. And God had mercy and did not destroy the nation.

 

But you, saith the Lord, You, my people who have known me, you, my people who have my word, who have my teachers, who have my prophets, who have my truth, who have my miracles. You, I plead with you day and night, from morning until evening. You, who turn your back on me and walk away and shoot out your lip and stiffen your neck. You who know me and have known me, you do not repent, saith the Lord.

 

Therefore, I shall rain down judgment on this nation, saith God, and they shall know that I am God. And on this church, saith the Lord, on this people that call themselves by my name, I shall rain down judgment, saith the Lord, and you shall know that I am God.

 

There is no fear of God in my church, saith the Lord. They have no fear. They do not know me. They have never known me. They worship a fantasy in their mind that was never me, that is not now me and shall never be me, saith the Lord. They have made me in their image, but I shall not do as they command, saith the Lord. I shall not do as they command.

 

I shall remove myself from their midst, saith God, and I shall go to a people who have been crying out for me for generations. I shall go to another, saith the Lord, for my own wife has played the harlot.

 

"And I will set my glory amongst the heathen, and all the heathens shall see my judgment that I have executed." This Hebrew word translated "judgments," it is plural in the Hebrew, and it means laws. So the heathen shall see the law of Christ.

 

Now, the law is internalized, brethren. You see, everything in this world is a perversion. It is outside of us. It is outside of us. We have some babies that are born with all of their internal organs outside of them. It is a perversion. The fact that all of our strength is outside of us, our food is outside of us; our love is outside of us; our clothing is outside of us, we are in a perverse condition. We are a creation which was made to be ruled from an internalized law. We are to be fed from an internalized position. We are to be loved from an internalized position. We are to be nourished from an internalized position.

 

And in fact, that so well-known Scripture at the end of Revelation 14, which is translated in the King James translation "that the blood from the judgments of God shall be as high as the horse bridles". The true interpretation, the true translation of that Scripture, which is in our Alternate Translation Bible, is nothing of the sort. The true Alternate Translation is "that the spirit of Christ shall be internalized in every member of humanity, and every human need that you have shall be met from within you." It will be impossible for you to starve because of a famine, because the living Christ will be dwelling like a dynamo inside of you. In the summertime, if there is summer and winter, you will be cooled; and in the wintertime, you will be warmed. And your every need will come from within you.

 

The Spirit of Christ shall be internalized in your mind, and your every need shall be met in that day when Jehovah fulfills his promises and his covenant with you. So we see the Lord is promising that the heathen will experience his judgments. That means Christ, the Spirit of Christ, is going to be internalized in the heathen.

 

Brethren, the Father is saving the entire world. He is doing it in stages. The Lord has always worked with small groups, brethren. He saves or works with a small group first, and then he sends each member of that group out, and he spreads out throughout the world. But God's salvation is for all of humanity.

 

I have had a dialogue with a Hasidic Jew, and this teaching is in the church. I do not know if it is in every sect of Judaism or not. But people always want to feel that they are special. They want to make themselves kings over the other men. They think they are going to be in the top echelons, and they are going to rule over the other people.

 

Brethren, this is what man does. Man sets himself up in a caste system where one man is better than another man. And one man is the servant, and the other man is the master. God does not do things like that. I have heard this doctrine come out of sonship teachers. The doctrine is coming out of at least the group of Jews that I have had contact with. Everybody thinks they are going to be top dog, and all of the others are going to have to come to them for nourishment.

 

I rebuke your pride, in the name of Jesus. This condition of caste system, this condition of hierarchy, this condition of order, it is temporary. It is because of the curse, brethren, where all men are under judgment. Therefore, we have caste systems where one man has more authority. No man is better than another man in the eyes of God, and it is supposed to be that way in our legal system, which it is not. That is why you see the image of justice being blind. Every man comes before God, if not the government of this land, equally. We all have equal rights before the Father, every human being.

 

But certain people, in our society and in humanity, have a higher office than other people. Why? Because humanity is fallen. Therefore, a hierarchy of authority is necessary to keep us from destroying one another and from destroying ourselves. But the end of God's plan is that God will be completely internalized, in his fullest degree of maturity, in every man. And therefore, there will be no more need for an order, for a hierarchy, one man to rule over another man. It will not be necessary.

 

Brethren, if the law is completely internalized in you, you do not need a policeman. In our fallen condition right now, if you do what you are supposed to do, no one is coming after you to check up on you. If you do not do what you are supposed to do, and someone corrects you, and you are embarrassed, you are just spinning your wheels because all that that means is, for that moment, you have failed to police yourself. There is no condemnation in it. But if you fail to police yourself, the policing must come from outside of you.

 

You see, in every area that Christ Jesus is functioning within you, you do not need an external correction or an external teacher. But in the areas where he is not yet functioning, you need a teacher. You need an elder. You need a parent. You need a policeman because Christ has not internalized within you in that area.

 

And we see the same thing with young children. Young children need almost constant supervision. But as they grow, if they grow in a healthful way, they are supposed to be internalizing all of the functions of the parent. Young children have very little self-discipline, so they need an external parent to take them by the hand and put them to bed when it is time to go to bed. They need an external parent to take them by the hand and put them in the bathtub even though they are screaming. They need an external parent to take them by the hand and put them in that snowsuit, even though they are screaming, because they do not have the wisdom necessary to protect themselves. If you go out into 20-degree weather without a snowsuit, you can die. If you do not take your bath, you can become diseased. You must be clean. So parents take their children by their hands and literally force them to do these things until the child develops a self-discipline whereby they do these things for themselves.

 

The same thing is true spiritually. Right now, much is outside of us, and we need elders, and we need teachers, and we need rules and laws because we are lacking internally. But Christ has come to build you internally. And when you are built internally, you will receive responsibility and be ministering to others. You are never on your own. Either you are under the law, or you are the law. But so long as this creation is fallen, you will be in one place or the other because the Lord has need of you in the scheme of things.

 

So we see that Jehovah has promised to minister to the heathen and to give Christ to the heathen as well as to the natural Jew and the spiritual Jew. They shall see the laws that he has executed.

 

How could you see laws being executed? I suggest to you that the laws, which are doing the execution, are the Sons of God. What that Scripture means is, well, to say the Lord executed is a spiritual thing. The way God is going to show it to us is that he is going to put his law inside of fallen men. Eventually they will be perfected. But the way you see the law of God is that he is putting his law inside of men.

 

When you see something like Paul standing up and saying to a Elymas the sorcerer (also known as Bar-Jesus)  "You shall be blind for a season." And immediately, this man became blind (Acts 13:6-11). Brethren, that is the law. And when you see him standing up and saying to Ananias and Sapphira, you lied to the Holy Ghost, and you are dead," and they dropped dead, brethren, that is the law in a man functioning at its maximum. And if you witness such a thing, you have seen the laws of God. You have seen them manifest through a man. That is what it means.

 

Also, on a positive plane, when we see Jesus raise the dead, when we see Jesus put an eye where a man was born without an eye, when we see Jesus walk on the water, we are seeing the laws of Christ, which are in direct opposition to the laws of this world system. So the law is not only judgment; the law is positive. The law of God is miracle-working power that directly opposes the laws of this world system. The law of this world system says, if you do such-and-such a thing, you must die. But the law of Christ comes in and says, no, I am a higher power, and I forgive your sins. Therefore, you shall live. When you see this happening, you will be seeing the laws of God wrapped in flesh. Hallelujah.

 

So we see that the Lord is giving Christ Jesus to the heathen, and that the heathen are going to have an experience with the Sons of God and -- the end of verse 21 -- "and my hand that I have laid upon them." So the heathen is going to see the laws, and he is also going to see the hand that he has laid upon them. And of course, the hand typifies ministry. And the Hebrew word translated "laid" means to stand upright. So we see that the Lord is promising that the heathen will see not only the two-witness company, which is the Sons of God that are still in imperfection, but he is promising that the heathen will see the Sons of God in perfection.

 

I have an Alternate Translation for you of verse 21: "And I shall set my Spirit among the nations to rule over them. And the nations shall see the judges that I have appointed and shall know that their authority comes from me."

 

You see, in exhortation today, we talked about that point. It is very hard to recognize authority that comes from Christ when it is manifesting through an imperfect man. It is very hard, and a lot of people have trouble recognizing it. The promise of the Lord is, however, that he shall set his Spirit among the nations to rule over them, and the nations shall see or recognize "the judges that I have appointed, and they shall know that their authority comes from me."

 

You see, when you truly recognize that a man's authority comes from God, you will respect that authority. So anyone who does not respect God-given authority is spiritually immature because only a fool would not respect authority that comes from God. And children are foolish. Foolishness is a characteristic that goes with immaturity.

 

Verse 23 -- Verse 22: "So the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord, their God, from that day forward." So we see that the house of Israel will not know who their own God is until the day comes that the Lord puts his spirit in the heathen.

 

Do you hear what he is saying? The house of Israel is so filled with pride and rebellion, and so covered with their own mind control, they have this conception of God that has nothing to do with God whatsoever, and they are believing their own vision rather than the reality of who Christ is. And the Lord says, "I do not expect them to change until the day that I give my Spirit to the nations, and then they will know that I am God."

 

Well, brethren, I suggest that you read between the lines here. What the Lord is saying is that, in the day that I put Christ Jesus in the nations, the reason Israel is going to know that I am God in that day is that he is going to leave Israel. Christ Jesus, or the Holy Spirit, is going to be removed from the church in the day that Christ Jesus appears in the heathen.

 

Brethren, God took the office from natural Israel. Now, I do not want anybody writing me a letter or calling me up, telling me that I am antisemitic. I am not antisemitic. There are plenty of Jews who are in the Scriptures continuously, and I believe that they do have a relationship with the Spirit of Jesus Christ. They just do not know who he is. But I believe they do have a relationship with him.

 

What Israel lost, when they refused to recognize Messiah, was the public office of mediator between God and the rest of the world. There are individual Jews -- it is on an individual basis right now -- who do have some relationship with the Spirit of Christ. If you do not agree with me, that is fine. Please, you can believe whatever. I will believe whatever I want. That office that they had, that office that the Jews had, the public office which they had as a nation, of mediator between God and the rest of the world, has now been given to the -- Who has the office? Who is the mediator? Who?

 

The church.

 

The church. The church now has -- the true church, not the false church, not the professing church, not the ones with the dove pins or the big buildings with a cross on it, but the true church, the human beings in whom the man Christ Jesus is dwelling and speaking through. Hopefully, that is us. I think it is us. Last time I checked, he was still there.

 

The church has nothing to do with a building. Jesus. It does not matter how many people you have at your meeting. The church is spiritual. The church is spiritual authority and power which comes from Christ Jesus. He says, "Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there in the midst of them." You could have a church with 2,000 people in it, and he is not there. Jesus, help us. Lord, help us. Help us. Help us.

 

So the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord, their God, from that day forward that I remove my Spirit from them and give it to the heathen. So now you ask yourself, how come Israel does not know it? Because they are not recognizing the church. Well, it does not say Judah, brethren. It says Israel. So the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord, their God, from that day that I give my Spirit to the heathen.

 

This is modern-day Israel. I believe it. Israel is the 10 tribes, which some people say are lost. But actually, what happened to them was that they stopped practicing their Judaism and they assimilated into the nations. And history would indicate that they just dissolved into the European nations, which would make the church today the modern-day Israel. That means the church, brethren, is going to know their God when they lose him and see him give himself to the heathen.

 

What a shame that you have to lose it before you know what you had. But is that not the truth about human nature, brethren? You never appreciate it when you have it. And when you lose it, you cry for it. Is that not the way it is? Is that not the nature of man? The most mature people, the most feeling people, the most responsive people, the most reliable people, are people who have experienced great loss in their life. What a shame.

 

Have you ever heard the expression, "love is wasted on the young"? Young people who fall in love so easily, they do not know anything about it. They do not know what love really means. They do not know how to love. They do not know how to appreciate it if they do experience it. Great pain produces depth of life. And unfortunately, most of us have to lose something to learn what a good thing is. So the next time you get your opportunity, you had better grab at it and lay hold of it and fight to keep it because you know what you have got.

 

Verse 23: "And the heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity because of their inequity, because they trespassed against me. Therefore, I hid my face from them and gave them into the hand of their enemies. So fell they all by the sword."

 

"And the heathens shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity because of their inequity." The Hebrew word translated "captivity" can be translated "to make naked" or "to be uncovered." I suggest to you, the meaning of the word "to go into captivity" means they lost the cover of Christ. They lost Christ.

 

Now, that is what I told you about verse 22, and here it is in verse 23. I was ahead of myself. I did this research quite a few weeks ago. So what just came out of my spirit when I said to you that what the Scripture means, that Israel shall recognize their God when Christ Jesus is given to the heathen -- that it means that Israel is going to lose Christ, I was not ahead of myself. And here we see, in verse 23, that is exactly what the Scripture is saying. Israel shall go into captivity. They shall be uncovered. They shall lose the covering of Christ because of their inequity. And the word "inequity" means perversity.

 

What does the Lord consider perverse? Let us get the Lord's definition of perverse. This is what perversion is to the Lord: "They trespassed against me." The Hebrew word translated "trespassed" means they set themselves above me. They made themselves God. Israel lost Christ Jesus because they set themselves above God. They tried to make God in their own image, and you cannot modify God.

 

You see, God comes in, and he engraves our spirit in his image. Then he engraves our soul in his image. But man is trying to make God in man's image. And the Lord is longsuffering. He is longsuffering. He is longsuffering. He speaks; he sends prophets. He gives all kinds of signs to the church that they are out of order, and they cannot hear it. They think it is the other guy's fault. They blame their problems on Satan. And then the Lord just goes away.

 

I have a witness to that, that man has set himself above God. Isaiah 14:13 says: "For thou has said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north." That is the pride of man speaking.

 

Our Alternate Translation of that Scripture is as follows: "Because you have boasted within yourself, I will become a spiritual man" -- listen to this -- "without submitting to God's dominion" -- rebellion. "I will do it by bringing the rightful heirs to God's creation, the spiritual Sons of God, into submission to the soul realm where I am king."

 

This is what a rebellious or immature believer does. They come into a fellowship, and they try to bring the authority into submission to them. It is just natural, like a duck takes unto water. So that rebellion has to be broken, so that young believer can learn to submit to the God-ordained authority because blessings in life are in submission to God's authority.

 

But we see that the carnal man, or the young or the immature believer, says, "I will do it by bringing the rightful heirs to God's creation, the spiritual Sons of God, into submission to the soul realm where I am king. I will inhabit, even overshadow, the nation which is betrothed to God with the fertile parts of that hidden place, Hades, which is my carnal mind." The carnal mind is continuously trying to overshadow Christ, both in your own mind and Christ in other people's mind, wherever he is appearing.

 

Now, we have to learn to recognize this in ourself and resist it in ourself. If our carnal mind is doing whatever it wants and is coming against the God-ordained authority which is in Christ, you are responsible to get your carnal mind on a leash. Your carnal mind is a beast, and you are to stop that beast from trying to take authority and subject the mind of Christ where he is manifesting. You are not supposed to be in a power play with Christ, brethren.

 

And the carnal man goes on to say, "I will ascend higher than Christ, the one who rules over the souls of men. I will be like God, the Father."

 

So the Lord is saying, in verse 23, Israel rebelled against me. They joined with their carnal mind. They agreed with their carnal mind, and therefore, says Jehovah, I -- my face was hid from them because they buried Christ under their carnal minds, and were given over into the hands of their enemies. Because they chose to agree with their carnal minds, God gave them over to their carnal minds, and therefore they fell because of that sword.

 

Now, remember, the mind is our spiritual weapon. So what the Scripture is saying, in verse 23, is that believers -- And this is happening to believers today. They chose in their hearts to agree with their carnal mind, for whatever selfish reason it was.

 

Now, listen to the fall, three stages of the fall. Consciously or unconsciously, we choose to agree, in our mind, with our carnal minds. Finally, God gives up on us and says, if you want to believe it, believe it. He turns us over. And the third stage: "So they fell by that sword." And when they were given over to their carnal mind, that carnal mind killed Christ in them. And as far as God is concerned, you die. If Christ in you dies, you die.

 

And please remember the account of Balaam, the prophet. Balak offered him money to curse Israel, and Balaam said, let me check with the Lord. Let me see if God will let me do it. First of all, brethren, he should have known that God would not let him do it. But, you see, in his heart of hearts, he wanted to do it. He wanted the money, brethren. So he went and said, Lord, can I curse Israel? Of course, God said no.

 

He went back and told the guy who was offering him the money, God said no. And Balak said to him, oh, go ask God again. So Balaam, because he really wanted the money -- he wanted to curse Israel -- he went back. And here he is, blaming it all on Balak. Boy, that guy pressured me. That guy pressured me. He kept sending me back to the Lord. Mr. Balaam, your own legs and your own mind carried you back to the Lord each time that you asked if you could curse Israel.

 

And finally, God got so tired of hearing your petition, and of hearing you ignoring what he was telling you, that he said, if you want to curse Israel, curse Israel. And Balaam went back to Balak, and he said, all right, God said I could do it. You hear Balaam saying, I have got to do it. I got to do it. I need to do it. I need to do it. God said, OK, do it.

 

God did not tell him to do it. God said, leave me alone. You are not -- God did not tell him to do that. God said, obviously, you are not going to listen to me. I have told you these three times not to curse Israel, and you are still not listening. I have just turned you over to yourself. God did not tell him to do it. God said, I am not listening to your words. I am looking into your heart, and I see that you are going to do whatever you want to do. You are not going to do what I tell you. You are going to do whatever you want to do, so leave me alone already. Go do it. That is not telling Balaam to curse Israel. That is saying, leave me alone.

 

So that is the three stages of how we fall, brethren. Excuse me.

 

We are in verse 23: "Because they trespassed against me. Therefore, I hid my face from them and gave them into the hand of their enemies. And so they fell by the sword." They rebelled against me, joined with their carnal mind, and so my face was hid from them because they buried Christ under their carnal minds, and were given over into the hands of their enemies. So they fell because of their own carnal minds. Check it out. They fell because of their own carnal minds.

 

Brethren, I am telling you how I live my life. Every time I am sane, I cry out to God on a regular basis to save me from myself, that when the day comes that I am deceived by the pride of my own carnal mind because I am caught up in some lust for something, some place, something, whatever it is -- People lust for all kinds of things. In the day that I am listening to my own mind rather than you, Lord, because of a weakness in me, because of a failure in me, because of my fallen nature, in that day, Lord Jesus, save me from myself, please. Make your covenant when you are sane because, when you are disobeying God, you are insane. You are insane, and you are out of control.

 

And let me tell you, he is faithful. I am telling you, I have got some good things to teach you here, brethren. This is one of the best things I could teach you or I have ever taught you. There is no way you can keep yourself from falling. The day will surely come when some imperfection in you rises up with full power and authority to slay you.

 

And if, in that moment, you are so out of control that you are going with the flow, and you do not have any covenant with the Lord, or you cannot find the presence of mind to cry out to the Lord Jesus, you are going down, man. So you had better make your covenant when you are sane. And when you are going with the flow, he is going to reach down and pull you out by the scruff of your neck, like a kitten drowning in someone's swimming pool. Hallelujah.

 

Verse 24: "According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions have I done unto them and hid my face from them." The Lord has hid his face from them. He is not covering them because, in their minds, they are given over to their uncleanness and their transgressions. Transgression means rebellion. He has turned them over to their own rebellion and uncleanness.

 

It is speaking about pollution. It is speaking about the filthy rags that we read about in Isaiah. He says, "Your righteousness is as filthy rags." I have not talked about that in a long time. Let me go over that with you. Does anybody -- Can anybody expound on that? Does anybody remember what Isaiah's filthy rags are? OK. Let me go over it.

 

The term, if you look at it in the Hebrew, it is speaking about menstrual cloths that catch women's menstrual blood. Now, we have to raise this up. Spiritually speaking, every human being is an egg capable of conceiving the life of Christ. When that egg is not -- In natural humanity, when a woman is fertile, if she does not conceive when she is fertile, the egg, the mature egg, passes out of her body. And that is what a woman's menstrual cycle is. It is a fertile egg which was not fertilized. And it comes out of her body as the menstrual cycle. Spiritually speaking, each one of us is a fertile egg. Every man on the face of the earth has the potential of being fertilized and producing the Son of God in our mind. If we do not conceive, we pass out of this world system, just as that fertile egg passes out of a woman's body, and that is the end of it.

 

So when the Lord is indicting Israel as being unclean, or being as filthy rags, what he is saying to them is you have not conceived the Son of God, and you are passing out of this world system as a spiritual menstrual cycle. You have not conceived Christ. That is what he is saying to them. And you have not conceived Christ -- Why? Because of your rebellion.

 

Well, what does that mean? I remind you of our study in the Book of Zephaniah. You have not conceived Christ because… You have not?

 

Repented.

 

And what comes before repentance? What did you say?

 

Confess your sins.

 

You have not confessed your sins. You are not going to repent if you do not confess your sins. How can you repent if you are not convicted that you sinned?

 

And we are told, in the Book of Romans, they did not enter in because of unbelief. But if you listen to the study that we did on the Book of Romans, that word "unbelief" is a poor translation. They did not enter in because of disobedience. What did they disobey? The commandment to confess their sins and repent. They failed to enter in because they did not confess their sins or repent. And they were therefore menstruous rags, unclean, polluted, unfertilized eggs, good for nothing except to pass -- excuse me -- pass out of the body of Christ, never to be seen again. That personality, never to be seen again.

 

"According to their uncleanness" -- because they did not conceive Christ -- "and according to their transgressions" -- because of their rebellion, which -- because of which they did not conceive Christ -- they did not conceive Christ because of their rebellion -- "have I done unto them," says the Lord, "and hid my face unto them."

 

The Hebrew word translated "have I done unto them" can be translated "covered with hairs." Why did I put that down? "Have I covered them with hairs" -- Oh, OK. Because of their rebellion, they have not -- transgressions, they have not received Christ -- uncleanness. "And therefore have I hid my face from them and covered them with hairs." I suggest to you that the hairs refer to the beast nature. Beasts are hairy. The Lord said, because of their rebellion, they did not conceive Christ. And therefore, I just stood by and let the carnal mind bury them.

 

So what is the implication there? What is the unstated statement? If they had confessed their sins, he would have reached in and pulled them out. But he stood by and watched them go down under the carnal mind because they did not confess their sins.

 

I am going to say it until you cannot hear the sound of my voice anymore. You cannot save yourself. You cannot enter into this salvation with an intellectual understanding. You cannot do it yourself. Your carnal mind is too strong for you. The only way you will be saved, the only way you will be delivered out from the death of this world system, is because the Lord Jesus Christ, through an internalized Christ, Jesus lifts you out. And he is not doing it unless you confess your sins.

 

Now, some of you have had the experience with the Lord whereby you would recognize that he does not do things for you unless you ask. I know at least one other person in this ministry has been aware of that, that the Lord will help you with the smallest things if you ask. If you have lost something in the house, he will show you where it is. If you cannot figure out how to do some little household chore, he will help you do it. Whatever you are having trouble with, nothing is too small for him to help you with if you ask, there is nothing too unimportant for him to help you with if you ask. It is amazing what the Lord Jesus Christ will do for you if you ask. But if you do not ask, he will not do it, with the small, little things.

 

And I am telling you, if you do not ask him to save you from yourself, he will stand by and watch you drown. And if you do not believe it, you try it. I am telling you the truth. Why would he do that? Because, if you cannot ask him to save you from yourself, if you are not confessing your sins, you are guilty of the sin of pride. And no unclean thing will enter into his kingdom, brethren. You have to humble yourself before the king if you want his help.

 

And we see our natural example in nations that used to have kings. I do not know how it is today. You come into the throne room; you kneel, and you bow your head, and you make your petition before the king. No authority gives you a blessing when you come in thinking that you are entitled to it. They are just going to smack you down, whether it is a godly authority or an ungodly authority. If you need something, ask properly. If you do not want to ask properly, then you will do without it.

 

And if what you need is your life, and you are not willing to ask properly, you will lose it because, if you do not praise him, he will raise up these stones to praise him. If you do not show the Lord respect by acknowledging his superiority to you and your desperate need of his life-giving ability -- If you cannot do that, he is going to let you die. He will find someone who is willing to do it. He will find someone who is willing to praise him, who is willing to acknowledge him, who is willing to humble themselves before him, and who is willing to change by receiving his correction.

 

And his correction does not always come straight from him. Sometimes, it comes -- Lots of times, it comes from his ministers. You cannot tell him how he is going to teach you or who he is going to teach you through. And the more you submit to him, the more you will receive from him, and the faster your change will come. Job says, "I wait for my change to come." And Job had a radical change of his personality and of his whole life.

 

Verse 25: "'Therefore,' thus saith the Lord God, 'now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel and will be jealous for my holy name.'" It means he is bringing -- Jacob is the natural man. That is the natural Jew.

 

And "the whole house of Israel" -- Israel, in different places of the Scripture, means -- can mean two different things. Israel is the name that was given to the 10 tribes which were separated from Judah and Benjamin. And then also is -- When the 12 tribes are reconciled, or when the 12 tribes are combined, the Scripture says that will be the name given to the whole 12 tribes when they are brought back together again, Israel. So you have to read the context of the entire verse to find out whether the word "Israel" is referring to the 10 tribes or to the whole, reunited Israel.

 

So we see here, in verse 25, the Scripture says he will have mercy on the whole house of Israel. I therefore suggest to you that the Lord is speaking about all 12 tribes. He is talking about Jacob, the natural Jew, and the whole 12 tribes of spiritual Israel, which will be made up of both Jew and gentile. There is no male or female, and there is no Greek or Jew, in the Israel of God. Nationality has nothing to do with it. Human sexuality has nothing to do with it. Race, ethnic background, has nothing to do with it. If you are a member of the Israel of God, you are such because of the condition of your heart. And the sign, the only sign that you are a member of the Israel of God, is --

 

[INAUDIBLE]

 

Christ, but what -- the fact that he is showing. And he cannot be showing unless you have been --

 

Circumcised.

 

Circumcised. Your heart has to be circumcised for Christ to be showing through you. You see, having Christ is not enough. He has to be manifesting in you. He has to be functioning in you. He has to be operating in you. He has to be living through you. If you have Christ, and he is covered over by the carnal mind and he cannot get out and he cannot live through you, what good is he? What good is he? He is no good to you at all. OK.

 

So the Lord is going to bring Jacob again. The natural Jew is coming back. He is going to be grafted into his own tree, as we read about in the Book of Romans. And the Lord will have mercy on the whole house of Israel, on the whole Israel of God. Everybody whose heart is circumcised in Christ is a member of the Israel of God. This salvation is available to the whole world, brethren.

 

"And," says the Lord God, Jehovah, "I will be jealous for my holy name." Now, brethren, when the Lord is jealous, it is not the same jealousy that we see in fallen humanity. Actually, the Hebrew word does not mean jealous. That is a poor translation. It should be zealous.

 

And to be jealous is a word that indicates an ungodly emotion which arises out of possession of another human being or an object. But zealousness is godly. And to be zealous, or to have zeal, means that you are devoted, that you are anxious, that you are working hard, that you are committed, that you are dedicated, that you are putting your whole soul into a work. You are -- There is another word; it is not coming to me right now. But it is a strong dedication. You are committed. That is what the Lord means. It is a godly word. Jealousy kills. Zealousness produces life. It is a good thing. It is protectiveness, a godly protectiveness. Hallelujah.

 

"I will have mercy on the whole house of Israel and will be zealous for my holy name." And of course, names in the Scripture refer to spirit. So the Lord is saying, I am going to be doing everything that I have to do to protect my spirit. And his spirit is the Spirit of Christ, which is in the man Christ Jesus.

 

So the Lord is saying he is going to bring Jacob again, the natural Jew, and he is going to have mercy on the Israel of God. Because we are so great? Because we deserve to live? Because he needs us? No, but because he is zealous for his holy name. That means he is doing it for his own sake, brethren. He is bringing natural Israel and all of spiritual Israel to a high place, not for anything that we have done but because his Holy Spirit -- because he wants his Holy Spirit to be manifested through human beings.

 

Why? Because that is what he wants, and that is what he is going to get. And the harder you fight him, the harder the pricks of that pitchfork are going into your behind. Because what the Lord wants, the Lord gets.

 

So, you see, there is nothing special about us. But when he puts his holy name in us, and when he purifies us, and when he brings us into submission and obedience, and we are there completely under his authority, we become very important because, in that condition, there is no separation between he and us. When we separate from the Lord, we are worthless. We are criminals. But when we are in submission and we are one with him, we become dignitaries, kings and priests and very important people. Because -- How could a man separate himself from his own flesh? What man ever hated his own flesh? And we are the Lord's flesh. We are inseparable. And he loves us that much because we are a part of him.

 

So, you see, man, in his own image, is not very important. Actually, we are made out of garbage, out of spiritual garbage, brethren. We are worthless. But when God calls you, and he begins to form you in his image, for you to say that you are worthless is a false pride because you are becoming very valuable as he purifies you and as he reveals the ministry that he intends on manifesting through you, as he reveals the work he is going to be doing through you. And as you become more and more qualified to do that work, you become more and more valuable.

 

So for you to say it is pride to think that we could be like God is really pride to be saying that because, when God makes you in his image, you shall be God. When you do everything that he tells you to do, when every thought that you think is God, when every word that you say is God, when every move that you make is God, when every heartbeat that beats through your heart is God, you shall be the Son of God. There shall be no separation between you and he. And you shall be in his image; he shall not be in your image. And every word that you speak and every thing that you do and every move that you make shall be righteous and produce life.

 

Therefore, it is pride to deny when you are God. It is pride to deny that you are becoming God because you are disagreeing with the mind of God. He is saying, come up higher; I have work for you to do. And you are saying, I am not good enough. You are disagreeing with God because of a false pride. Hallelujah.

 

Verse 26: "After that they have borne their shame, and all their trespasses whereby they have trespassed against me, when they dwelt safely in their land, and none made them afraid." So all this is going to happen to Israel after they have borne their shame. And their shame -- I mentioned this at the beginning of the message. Their shame is a negative way of saying glory. Spiritual shame, brethren, is the carnal mind.

 

Now, a couple of years ago, someone in this ministry was very upset that I used the word "ashamed." He thought I was humiliating somebody. Brethren, "shame" is a scriptural word. You just have to line up your definition with the scriptural definition. The scriptural definition of shame is the carnal mind. If you are walking around with your carnal mind hanging out, it is a shame.

 

We found this concept when we did Revelation 16, and we made a big joke out of it. We made it light so that people could get the revelation without being humiliated. You have to understand this, brethren. When you are a spiritual 2-year-old, if your shame is hanging out, it is OK. You see a 2-year-old baby running around naked; everybody says, is he not cute? When you see a 35-year-old man running around naked, they put him in jail. You cannot go running around naked.

 

This dead soul, we are very immature. We are running around naked, brethren. And the correction has just begun to come. As a matter of fact, the church is so naive that they do not think there is anything wrong with their running around naked. They have been doing it for 2,000 years, and their father did it, and their grandfather did it, and every other Christian that they know is running around naked, and they think this is some kind of a nudist colony or something. But the Lord is coming with a big stick, you see, and he is saying, cover yourself up, son, because the party is over. You cannot be running around with your carnal mind hanging out anymore. It is not nice.

 

Now, you cannot cover up your carnal mind if you cannot even recognize it when it is hanging out. Neither can you cover up your carnal mind if you do not possess the cover for it. And the cover for your carnal mind is --

 

Christ.

 

Christ. So you have to have the cover for your carnal mind. Then you have to recognize your carnal mind, and then you have to cover. The only problem is she does not want to be covered. So you have to beat her down under you because she is not going willingly.

 

Your shame, brethren, is your exposed carnal mind. The upside of that is that, if the Lord is telling you it is a shame, he is also telling you that you are approaching manhood. That is the upside of it. You are approaching manhood. Time to cover yourself.

 

So Israel, they bore their shame. They gave birth to the carnal mind. And after they gave birth to the carnal mind and all of their trespasses, all of their rebellion whereby they rebelled against God -- And they did all that when they dwelt safely in their land. And their land typifies the soul; the soul is made out of earth.

 

"And none made them afraid." One of the signs, brethren, that you are in Christ is your fearlessness. The Scripture clearly states, when your enemies see your fearlessness, they will be terrified, and they will turn away from you.

 

And this is a principle in fallen human life. If you show your enemy that you are afraid, they are going to really come against you. If you can succeed in acting like you are not afraid, they might even back off from the fight. But when your fearlessness is in Christ, when it is real, when it is based on a knowledge that there is nothing that they can do to you that God cannot give you the victory over -- if they kill you, your Father will raise you from the dead -- that kind of fearlessness makes people afraid, brethren. And when you start manifesting the righteousness of Christ, you will see people are afraid of you.

 

They are afraid of a righteous man. People are afraid of a righteous man because there is no compromise in a righteous man. And his righteousness shows you up for what you are: unrighteous, manipulative, seductive, selfish. Brethren, there is weakness in the carnal mind. And when you are truly up against the righteous mind of Christ, he is undefeatable, and you must lose. When that truly is the righteous mind of Christ, the carnal mind has no defense against it.

 

I know; I have experienced it. I have a particular man in mind. He is the biggest bully I ever met in my life. He is strong. He is a lawyer. He has an overpowering personality with a big, booming voice, and he is a big bully. Other lawyers are afraid of him. And I have had several encounters with this man, brethren.

 

And on more than one occasion, he has literally slinked out of the room because he could not defeat me. Christ was up that strong in me, with my small voice. He could not make me afraid, brethren. And I just spoke the truth despite all of his booming, whatever he was saying. And he just looked at me. Whatever God gave me to say at that moment, I do not even remember. And he just turned around and walked out of the room without saying a word.

 

A righteous man is a fearful thing, brethren. It is a fearful thing to be in a conflict with a righteous man when it is truly Christ that is up. Carnal men are afraid.

 

So verse 26 says that, when Israel was safe, nobody made them afraid. That means Christ was in a very high place in their minds. After ascending to that high position of fearlessness in Christ, they turned to their old ways and raised up their carnal mind and rebelled against the Lord.

 

Verse 27 -- That is a sad testimony, brethren. That is a sad testimony, to be in a high place like that and come down.

 

Verse 27: "When I have brought them again from the people and gathered them out of their enemies' lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations, then they shall know that I am the Lord, their God."

 

So the Lord has promised to bring them out from all the people. What does that mean? One of the judgments, which is not stated here but is stated in the other Prophets, is that God is going to scatter them amongst the nations. And we know that that happened to natural Israel. The 10 tribes that went into captivity in Assyria, they were scattered into the European nations, mixed in with them. Then it happened again during the Spanish Inquisition. A large number of Jews converted to Catholicism rather than face the torture and the persecution of the Spanish Inquisition, and they became assimilated into the Spanish culture.

 

I saw it happen on a church level. I saw a church get into trouble. The pastor fell into deep sin. The Lord moved him out of the area, and the church scattered. It was the most awesome experience I have ever seen. Every Sunday, I walked in; somebody else was moving. God sent them all over the country, just broke up that congregation, scattered the people everywhere.

 

So when God removes his anointing, either from a nation or from a fellowship or from a family, he scatters the people. He sends them in all different directions. It is a sign that God has left you. Even in the natural family, brethren, if you are all separated, and you are all going in different directions, it is a sign that God has left you because, when Christ is in the midst of you, you have a lot in common with the other members of your family. Christ is the glue. He is the adhesive. He is what brings you together. It is what you have in common. It does not matter what your age is, what your sex is, what your marital status is. God brings you together. So if you have a natural family, and you are all over the place, and you have nothing in common, that is a sign that God is not in the midst of you. The Lord brings union.

 

So -- "When I have brought them again from their scattered condition" -- that means Israel is coming together again from all the different nations that they have been scattered to -- "and gathered them out of their enemies' lands" -- So that could be taken on the natural level that Jews, spiritual Jews, are coming back from wherever they have been scattered to. And also, the human spirit has been scattered in the enemy land -- enemies' lands. She has been married to the carnal mind and Satan, and God is calling the hol- -- the human spirit back out of the enemies' lands, meaning the carnal mind.

 

"And I am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations." Now, you might have heard all different preaching about sanctification, brethren. There is all kinds of false teaching about sanctification in the church. Sanctification means separation. The only true sanctification, is the separation of the carnal mind from the Christ mind.

 

You see, if you have Christ in the early stages, he is one with the carnal mind. Christ is growing inside of the carnal mind like a peach pit is within the peach. The carnal mind is covering over that Christ mind. That is why you need your heart circumcised. Christ is your heart. He needs to be circumcised. You have to cut that carnal mind off of him. That is the true sanctification, the separation of Christ from the carnal mind. Then Christ can come back towards the carnal mind and tread him underfoot, which is the first stage of the resurrection. You have to separate. You have to be sanctified before you ascend to the first stage of resurrection.

 

Brethren, the peach pit cannot cover the peach until it comes out from the center of the peach. Just to give you a natural example, you have to take that peach pit out. You have to soak it in water. It has to grow roots, and you have to plant it. It has to grow up into a plant that is going to be big enough to cover over the flesh of the peach. Christ has to come out from under the authority of the carnal mind. It is not enough to have Christ. He has got to grow up. He has got to separate. And then he has got to tread your carnal mind underfoot. It is a warfare.

 

"When I have brought them again from the people and gathered them out of their enemies' lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations" -- So we see, once again, when true sanctification takes place, it will be physically visible to the nations. When Christ is truly separated out from the carnal mind and standing in full stature, the man in whom -- the man whom is experiencing this will be a visible, physical, undeniable sign to the nations. He will be so obviously different than a fallen man that it will be undeni- -- No man will be able to deny that this is the Son of God.

 

Verse 28: "'Then shall they know that I am the Lord, their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen. But I have gathered them unto their own land and have left none of them anymore there. Neither will I hide my face anymore from them, for I have poured out my Spirit upon the house of Israel,' saith the Lord God."

 

I think that is pretty self-explanatory. After he judges them and brings them back, they will know he is the Son of God. After he let them go into captivity and then had mercy on them, they will know he is the Son of God. And at that time, he will not hide his face anymore.

 

Verse 28: "Then shall they know that I am the Lord, their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen. But I have gathered them unto their own land and have left none of them anymore there."

 

So the Scripture says, in the King James, that the Lord caused them to be led into captivity. But as we found out in a prior verse, the truth is that it was their own sin which led them into captivity. And the Lord stood by and let it happen. You see, that is why we cannot blame God for any wickedness, including infirmity, which happens to us. Everything that happens to us is a result of sin. Everything is a result of sin.

 

And this is something that you do not hear preached too much in the church today. The most we can hope for is that, when we give our lives to Jesus, he will have mercy on us. And as we get delivered from our sin, our rebellion and our pride, he will keep us from complete destruction. Second to that, if we are still filled with pride and rebellion, we can hope that, when we repent, he will take the consequences of our sin which are falling upon our life and use them for our good.

 

What does that mean? You will have -- The negative things coming into our life because of the presence of sin that we have committed, and because of ancestral sin on our family line, that they will not have any lasting destructive effect on us but that the Lord will use these experiences to teach us and to bring us out from under the authority of sin.

 

But, brethren, every bad thing that happens to us is because of sin. How do I know that? The Scripture says, "Against a righteous man, there is no law." Satan has no power against holiness. Jesus said, "The prince of this world cometh, and he has nothing in me." He could not do a thing to the man Jesus because there was no sin in the man Jesus. He could not only not do anything to the man Jesus; when the man Jesus agreed to let his body be killed, the devil could not even keep him in the grave.

 

So we see the Lord Jesus Christ made an open show of the powers and principalities of this world system. What does that mean? In the face of Jesus' righteousness, the devil, that old serpent, Satan and the carnal mind, were revealed to be powerless in the face of Jesus' righteousness. That is how he made an open show of them.

 

There is strength in righteousness. There is dominion and victory over sin in righteousness. Righteousness are walls of salvation about us when we truly have them, you see. So if destruction is still reigning in your life, it means that you are saved by faith, but that salvation is not yet a reality in your life.

 

Well, what about you, teacher? Yes, me too. You all prayed for me before this service started. Satan could not do what he has done to me -- What has he done to me? I told you, I am all stressed out. He could not do it to me if there was not sin in my life. Our nature is sin. We have a sin nature. We have a mind which is weak. Every man on the face of the earth has a breaking point except Christ Jesus, the man Christ Jesus, the only mediator between God and man. He has no breaking point. Not even the death of his body could break him. There is no weakness in righteousness.

 

So therefore, brethren, be careful that you do not condemn your brother because you see a weakness in him. Who are you to judge another man's servant? Be careful because, if you judge, you shall be judged. And maybe you are not weak where that person is weak. But the great judge, who recognizes that you have judged out of pride, he knows where your weakness is.  And he is sending someone to reveal your weakness because, if you judge, the law says, you shall surely be judged.

 

Therefore, blessed are the merciful, brethren, for they shall receive mercy. And cursed is the unrighteous judge, for you shall receive unrighteous judgment. So examine yourselves continuously, brethren, and curse sin in your own heart so that the Father can bless you and not turn you over to the magistrate. Be wise, sons. Do not be foolish, sons.

 

Verse 29: "Neither will I hide my face anymore from them, for I have poured out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord God."

 

Neither will he hide his face from them. His face is Christ Jesus. Neither will Christ Jesus be hidden under the carnal mind anymore because he has poured out his Spirit. That means he is going to make Christ Jesus -- He is going to place Christ Jesus in a permanent position of dominion. He has poured out his Spirit upon the house of Israel, and he is going to join his Spirit with the human spirit of men and bring forth Christ Jesus in a mature manifestation, in an experience whereby the man in whom he is dwelling confesses his sins and repents and wherefor that man's mind is renewed in the image of Christ. And Christ, having been raised from the dead, will die no more.

 

See, we have talked a lot about -- The weakness of Adam in the garden, of the young Adam in the garden, was that he was disobedient. He was rebellious, but he was also inexperienced. And I suggest to you that he had the potential for sin, but he could not recognize sin. It was within him. The potential for it was within him, but he was blinded to it. He was blinded as to the long-range consequences of it. We talked about that in the exhortation today. But the mature Christ Jesus, he is having many overcoming experiences.

 

That which will kill you is lack of confession. So we see Adam in the garden was rebellious, was disobedient, was immature, was inexperienced and, because of all that, failed to confess his sins. He failed to confess his sins.

 

I remind you, when the Father went looking for him, and he said, "Adam, where are you, and what have you done?" what did Adam say? When God, the Father, said, "Adam, what have you done?" what was his answer?

 

It was not me.

 

It was not me. It was the other guy. It was the woman that you gave me. Adam failed to confess his sins. And that weakness in man is dealt with in the mature man Christ Jesus. Hallelujah.

 

Any questions, anybody?

 

"Yea, saith the Lord, the hour shall soon come. Yea, even now is that I shall pour out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord."

 

Yea, I shall pour it out in judgment, saith God. I shall pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, saith the Lord, no longer upon a small company here or a small company there, but I shall pour my Spirit out upon all flesh. And all who are blind shall see, and all who were deaf shall hear. Yea, saith the Lord, the hour for my truth is come. I shall anoint men's ears, saith the Lord, and I shall strip the scales off of their eyes, saith God, and all shall see and hear. Yea, even the deaf shall hear, and the blind shall see, saith the Lord.

 

And my truth shall go forth from one end of the earth to the other. Yea, saith the Lord, the hour is at hand that I shall hold back no more. Yea, I shall speak to the angels holding back the four winds, saith the Lord, and I shall say, release, release. Yea, even from the north and from the south and from the east and the west, the winds of my Spirit shall blow, and my doctrine shall be in the air like the seeds, like seeds so thick, saith the Lord, that it shall be as pollen in the sky.

 

And wherever they shall fall, they shall plant, saith the Lord, for indeed my seed is fertile, saith the Lord. And my seed has within it enough power to even fertilize the barren, saith the Lord. And I shall take the world by storm, saith the Lord. And they shall turn unto me, and they shall confess their sins, and they shall repent, for they shall know that their God has been amongst them, saith the Lord.

 

But those of my people who will reject me, saith the Lord, I shall reject them. Yea, saith God, I have pleaded with them for many a season, and they have stoned my prophets, saith God. They have rejected me. And in this great hour of ingathering, I shall reject them.

 

The Lord impressed me to make a living will covenant when you were teaching. In other words, covenant now, as you said, to -- for him to overcome our carnal mind when we are overcome with great temptation.

 

Praise God.

 

And I did that. Maybe it is something for the whole [INAUDIBLE]

 

The living will is a modern-day phenomenon. In this hour, when extraordinary means are used by the medical profession to keep people alive -- What does that mean, extraordinary means? It means many people that have no consciousness of being kept alive through a feeding tube. They cannot even feed themselves. So therefore, a feeding tube is extraordinary, or extra-ordinary, means of keeping somebody alive.

 

If the person cannot digest food, if they cannot eat, and they are being kept alive because you put a tube up their nose and you are funneling food into their stomach, that is an extraordinary means of keeping the person alive. In other words, they nor- -- Under normal circumstances, they would die. But the medical profession has taken some extraordinary technique to keep this person alive. But they have no life.

 

So we see a lot of people executing living wills. That means that the will -- You see, most wills do not go into effect until the person dies. A living will goes into effect when the person is still alive but incapacitated. And these living wills will say, I do not want you to do that to me. If I am a vegetable, and I cannot even feed myself or I cannot even breathe, if you have to put me on a respirator to make my lungs work, I do not want to be alive. And it is my will that I die. So that is what a living will is.

 

And I guess that is pretty much the same thing that I have been counseling you to do, when I say make your covenant with the Lord, because the day is surely coming, brethren, when you will be overtaken. I prophesy it to you. The day is coming that you will -- Christ Jesus in you will meet up with an enemy that he cannot overtake. And you are going to be so deceived in your mind that you may not even be able to recognize that you are in trouble.

 

So make -- The same way that you could be in a coma with a feeding tube stuck up your nose, you are in no condition to tell the doctor, hey, I do not want this. And I prophesy it to you. It is part of the temptation. It is coming your way. You will be so overcome in your mind; you will be facing sin, nose to nose, and you will be convinced it is God. So make your living will, or you are going the way of all flesh, right down the tubes.

 

I promise you, it is coming. Make your covenant now. He will get you out. And you cannot get yourself out. He will get you out.

 

Can you lead us right now in doing it?

 

You want me to lead you in prayer?

 

Yes, that we could receive that will right now.

 

OK.

  

I am sure I speak for everyone. Do I?

 

Well, whoever wants to can say it.

 

[INAUDIBLE]

 

I will pray it. If you want to pray it, pray it. If you do not want to, you do not have to.

 

Father, in the name of Jesus, we just come before you, Lord, humbling ourselves, O God, acknowledging that we cannot keep our own soul alive.

 

Acknowledging that we cannot keep our own soul alive.

 

We pray, Father, in the day of our calamity --

 

We pray, Father, in the day of our calamity --

 

-- that you save us from ourselves --

 

-- that you save us from ourselves --

 

-- that you deliver us from the pride of our own mind --

 

-- that you deliver us from the pride of our own mind --

 

-- that you ignore us when we scream, kick and yell.

 

-- that you ignore us when we scream, kick and yell.

 

Save us from the sins of our own mind, Lord --

 

Save us from the sins of our own mind, Lord --

 

-- that we should partake of the heavenly calling --

 

-- that we should partake of the heavenly calling --

 

-- and enter into the kingdom of your dear Son.

 

-- and enter into the kingdom of your dear Son.

 

We thank you, Father --

 

We thank you, Father --

 

-- for all that you have done --

 

-- for all that you have done --

 

-- that you have already overcome the world --

 

-- that you have already overcome the world --

 

-- that you have all power and authority --

 

-- that you have all power and authority --

 

-- over the carnal mind and Satan --

 

-- over the carnal mind and Satan --

 

-- even that wicked devil --

 

-- even that wicked devil --

 

-- even that wicked devil --

 

-- which is the serpent from the ancient times.

 

-- which is the serpent from the ancient times.

 

You are the only one --

 

You are the only one --

 

-- strong enough --

 

-- strong enough --

 

-- to defeat her.

 

-- to defeat her.

 

And we pray --

 

And we pray --

 

-- in accordance with your Scripture --

 

-- in accordance with your Scripture --

 

-- that you burn our carnal mind in the fire, Lord --

 

-- that you burn our carnal mind in the fire, Lord --

 

-- and that you boil Satan as a sin offering, Lord --

 

-- and that you boil Satan as a sin offering, Lord --

 

-- and that you break up that wicked alliance --

 

-- and that you break up that wicked alliance --

 

-- and reform us --

 

-- and reform us --

 

-- in the image of our Father --

 

-- in the image of our Father --

 

-- that we may be translated --

 

-- that we may be translated --

 

-- from death unto life.

 

-- from death unto life.

 

We thank you, Father --

 

We thank you, Father --

 

-- in the name of Jesus.

 

-- in the name of Jesus.

 

Amen.

 

Amen.

 

Signed, sealed and delivered.

 

That is what I did. I wrote it down. I put a date on it.

 

Well, you prayed it now. Whoever prayed it, watch out, because he is going to beat you until you are blue.

 

[INAUDIBLE]

 

Thank God for Jesus. I am telling you, brethren. There were days when I said thank God for Jesus -- Is that still on?

 

There is all kinds of people floating around, saying thank you, Jesus, thank you, Jesus. But they do not really know what they are thanking him for. You have to have that devil looking you right in your face, threatening to kill you, and see his miracle-working power to really say thank you, Jesus. You have to have a revelation that there is nothing you could do to save yourself to really mean that.

 

When you say -- I mean, I hear people say thank you, Jesus, thank you, Jesus, thank you, Jesus. It does not mean a thing. Thank you for my Cadillac. Thank you for my new condominium. Thank you. They do not even know. They do not know the depth or the seriousness of our spiritual condition. They have no idea the danger that we are in every day. They have no idea.

 

But I have an idea, and I thank God for him. I really thank the Father for him and for his marvelous salvation. And I just cannot wait to receive the fullness of the promise. I really cannot wait. Praise the Lord.

 

So there is nothing we can do to pay God back, you see. There is no way. There is nothing that he needs from us. There is only one thing that we can do. Who knows what it is? What does he -- well, not that he needs us. But what does he desire us to do if we would like to show our gratitude?

 

[INAUDIBLE]

 

How? How? What does he want us to do?

 

Confess our sins?

 

No.

 

What is the question again?

 

What does -- Excuse me. For those of us that are really aware that there is nothing that he needs from us, but we have received so much from him, what is it that he wants us to do?

 

[INAUDIBLE]

 

Feed my sheep. He wants you to help his people who are not as strong as you are. That is what he wants you to do. He wants you to feed them. And the word "feed" means more than teach the word of God. You see, he wants you to teach the word of God. But that word "feed" means also to govern and to rule. It means to help people who have not yet internalized the godly discipline of Christ, to help them learn to discipline themselves by teaching them righteousness.

 

So the Sons of God teach more than doctrine. They teach righteousness. They teach correct thinking. They teach every aspect of life that you can imagine. The Sons of God teach other people how to have the most productive, beneficial life available to them in this world. And that means they teach about everything. If you get someone who walks in here who does not know they are supposed to take a bath, you are supposed to teach them to be clean. People have all kinds of problems in this world. Whatever knowledge you have, god- -- whatever godly knowledge you have, if the Lord sends someone to you that does not have that knowledge, you are supposed to teach.

 

But you have to do it in the right spirit. God does not want you condemning them while you teach them. And until you get that spirit of condemnation dealt with -- And condemnation is a sign of immaturity. Until you get it dealt with, he is not going to let you teach his people because he is not going to let you condemn those for whom Christ died. He is not going to let you do it.

 

This one time, I -- Usually, I just hang up. And then I wait five minutes, and I get a dial tone again. But one time, I waited half an hour, and I could not get a dial tone. So I had to leave the house and call repair services. And I found out that there had been a fire in the telephone company, and all the wires to my house had burnt up.

 

So, I mean, you might laugh if you want to. But this is real. This spirit that is in me, that puts you to sleep when you are listening to me preach, there is power in it. And when that power manifests in this world, it comes forth as fire. It has the power to burn telephone wires, to knock out software and to do all of these strange things. And if you had rather not believe it, do not believe it. It is true anyhow.

 

I have been telling you, some of you -- I do not know if I said it publicly or not. There is not a doubt in my mind that it is voodoo that sent that plane crashing into the White House and that set a fire in the White House the next week. Not a doubt in my mind that it is voodoo. The second I heard it, I knew it was voodoo.

 

And much to my amazement, Rush Limbaugh was actually alluding to that fact today on his TV program. Now, he was not talking about the plane crash or the fire in the White House. But he was talking about the one soldier that just died. And to be honest with you, I saw voodoo in the plane crash and in the fire; I did not see voodoo in the death of the soldier. He saw voodoo in the death of the soldier, and he actually put it on his national TV show.

 

That voodoo is almost a national religion in Haiti. And there was a threat made by one of the ministers in the high -- in a high political office that, if the United States threatened to occupy Haiti, he would use his office as high priest of voodoo. He would fight with voodoo. And it was shortly after that that the plane crashed into the White House.

 

Today, on Rush Limbaugh's show, he had -- I do not know who the guy was. He had someone on there from Haiti, talking about voodoo. And it was some government official. And the man was saying that voodoo -- In Haiti, it is not something that someone makes a decision, let us go practice voodoo. It goes on continuously. Just as Christians pray without ceasing, the voodoo goes on continuously. So Rush Limbaugh, he had a clip of this government official talking about it, saying that it goes on continuously.

 

Then he had a clip of a voodoo service, which did not look much different than a Pentecostal service. They were all there dancing around and waving their things. And then Rush showed, on national TV, a voodoo doll which he claims he purchased in Times Square. Hey, look, there is a lot of Haitians in this country. There are a lot of people practicing witchcraft and voodoo in this country, right here in the New York area. And whoever chooses to hide your head in the sand and not believe it, you have a problem because it is going on right in this country.

 

As a matter of fact, the practitioners of voodoo have been bold enough to take their petitions to the Supreme Court. You know, I think they even -- They passed a law that it is now legal to sacrifice chickens.

 

[INAUDIBLE]

 

Yeah. There was a time when you could not sacrifice an animal in this city. It was not legal to slaughter an animal anywhere outside of a licensed slaughterhouse.

 

So first, the Supreme Court made the practice of witchcraft legal in this nation. That was the first thing that happened. And then, not too long ago, within the last year, that slaughterhouse law was overturned, and it is now legal to sacrifice chickens and other animals because it is the practice of their religion. So --

 

Just recently?

 

Within the last year. So Rush had a voodoo doll, and he held it up. He says, "I am not kidding. This is a voodoo doll. We bought it in Times Square." Voodoo is a religion practiced -- protected by the Supreme Court of the United States.

 

And you wonder why the country is deteriorating from the inside out. We have lost all sight of good and evil. We cannot tell the difference between good and evil. That is the sign of a reprobate mind. You cannot tell the difference between good and evil. All you need is the word "religion," and it does not matter what religion it is. You are protected by our constitution, including satanism.

 

[INAUDIBLE]

 

In prison?

 

[INAUDIBLE]

 

Oh, yes. I heard about that case too. Everything is really messed up here. Everything is really messed up.

 

And on "The 700 Club" today, Pat Robertson made a point. You see, when somebody has spiritual sight, when they are a seer, a prophet, it would really do you well to seriously consider what they say. It may seem impossible to you, to the average person right now. But there are certain people that have an ability to see. Not that they are psychic and they are seeing into the future, but they have an ability to see the consequences of -- the long-range consequences of something that is happening today. And a lot of people, the majority of people, cannot see the long-range consequences.

 

So it is definitely a sign of wisdom and maturity when you seriously consider the opinions of someone who has proven themselves to be a prophet in this way, and that you do not have to be a prophet in Christ. There are people who have long-range vision with the stock market. There are people that have long-range vision just with regard to human nature. Some people just see. And it is a mature person who can listen to what they think and at least tuck it under their belt or consider it or keep it in mind.

 

So Pat Robertson was giving a testimony today. And he was speaking about in vitro fertilization. And what is in vitro fertilization? Some women have trouble conceiving. In vitro fertilization is a process whereby the doctor performs surgery on the woman and removes several of her ova and puts a microscopically-sized ovum in a petri dish.

 

A petri dish is a dish that scientists use. If you have ever heard of some- -- If you have a sore throat, and the doctor says he is going to take a culture, what they do is they take a swab of your throat, and they put that swab on a slide or in a petri dish, and they leave it alone, and they see what kind of germs grow on it. A petri dish is a sterile dish. And they watch it under the microscope; they see what grows.

 

So these doctors, they will operate on a woman, remove a couple of her ova, place them in petri dishes with certain -- under certain conditions. And then they will introduce her husband's sperm right into the petri dish and see if the egg gets fertilized. If the egg gets fertilized, they operate on her again, and they put the ovum -- They implant the ovum in her womb. And some women -- With some women, the baby grows to term. And with other women, it does not take. So that is what in vitro fertilization is.

 

So Pat Robertson said, when he first heard about this, the doctors who perfected the technique said, oh, this is a wonderful thing. We are going to help a woman who is having trouble conceiving. We are going to help her to have a child. It is a great humanistic discovery. And Pat Robertson said, no, it is not. It is dangerous. He said, the minute you start growing a baby in a petri dish or in a test tube, you are really playing with the danger of some scientist getting in there and doing experiments on human life.

 

The scientist who st- -- who discovered this in vitro fertilization, they said, oh, no. This is a humanitarian endeavor. It is a wonderful thing that we are helping women who cannot conceive. And this -- Now, about five or 10 years later, it is happening. They are taking the female eggs; they are fertilizing them and doing experiments on them in petri dishes.

 

Now, you see, the whole point is that the evil that is in men's minds escalates downward. So five or 10 years ago, they started growing babies in petri dishes for humanitarian reasons. Now, they have babies growing in petri dishes, and they are experimenting on them. And they are saying, well, it is just a blob of protoplasm. It is not really a baby.

 

Five or 10 years down the road, they are going to be experimenting on aborted babies. Babies are being aborted, 8 and 9 months old. They are alive. They are going to be experimenting on them. They would like to do it now. The scientific community would like to do that now. Do what? Experiment on aborted fetuses that are still living. But it is against the law. So it is just a matter of five or 10 years until you go down to the next step.

 

You see, the heart of man is desperately wicked, brethren, and he never stands still. Either he is being renewed in Christ, or he is escalating downward into the depths of hell. This is the truth of our condition. That is why we must guard our mind continuously. Excuse me. We must stay in Christ. We must wash our mind with the water of the word.

 

Your mind is a garden, and the words that fall on your mind are seeds. The Scripture clearly bears that out. If it is the word of God that is falling on your mind, you have good things growing in your mind. But if you expose yourself to filth, you have filthy things growing in your mind. And if you have filthy things growing in your mind, you are going to be attracted to filthy things outside of your mind.

 

And if you do not stop while you can, you will lose your ability to tell the difference between good things and filthy things. And not only will you lose your ability to tell the difference and think that they are the same, you will not think that they are the same; you will think that the filthy things are good and that the good things are filthy. That is what the Bible says.

 

Now, when we were in Nigeria, the Lord let us do a series on the Gospel of Thomas, which, if the Lord lets me, we will finish here in New York. I am in the middle of six different series here. And we found that this gospel according to Thomas is a satanic gospel which is masquerading as a Christian gospel. When it is read or taught or preached, it has a subliminal message, a message that goes into the unconscious mind of man and does the exact opposite of what the doctrine of Christ is supposed to be doing. The doctrine of Christ is supposed to be building Christ in you and killing your carnal mind, but the gospel according to Thomas builds your carnal mind and kills Christ.

 

And one of the areas that we covered, when we preached these messages on the gospel according to Thomas, was that the message is preaching the equalization of male and female, the equalizing of male and female. You see, men and women are different. They think differently; they look differently; they react differently. But this gospel according to Thomas is preaching, equalize them. Bring the male out of his place; bring the female out of her place. Make the two look like they are the same.

 

And this is what is happening in our nation today. That Gospel of Thomas is Satan's plan to bring down humanity. And the first step is to make the man a woman and the woman a man. So it is going to look like everybody is the same for a season. And then the next step is that the woman becomes the man, and the man becomes the woman, in behavior, in the way they think, in the way they look, in the relationships of humanity, in families. Everything is going to turn around and reverse.

 

And as I watched "The 700 Club" today, I read about -- I think the word they used was the "normalization" of the military. The military is trying to introduce women into the armed forces with no distinction whatsoever from the men. And apparently, some change is taking place which is setting the stage to put women in hard combat in the trenches with the men. And it is just sick. It is just sick. It is just sick.

 

And, you know, for years, I looked at homosexuals on the street. And I looked at their bodies. They had no muscle tone -- a lot of them, a lot of the homosexual men -- no muscle tones. Their jawline looked very fragile. This went beyond long hair. I actually saw physical signs that you -- a physical appearance that you would expect to see in a woman. And I wondered about it, you know.

 

And about a year ago, the Lord it to showed me. He said, Sheila, when your mind is female long enough, it is reflected in the body. And I have told you here that, in my opinion, homosexuality is the last step of a degeneration of the mind that is going on for several generations. For a man and a woman to produce a homosexual child, or a child who becomes a homosexual adult, that homosexuality had to be operating in the realm of the spirit for several generations.

 

And one of the signs of its operation is the production of a child whose body does not even look like a man's, in the secondary sexual characteristics. I mean, their jaws are very fragile and female, no muscles. And on the contrary, women, husky, big muscles, walking like men. How did they get like that? They did not just wake up one morning and be like that. It was operating in the realm of the spirit for two, three or four generations before a physical human being was produced that was not only a homosexual but whose body looked -- in the secondary sexual characteristics -- looked like the opposite sex should look.

 

And this is Satan's plan, as it is revealed in the gospel according to Thomas: to make the man the woman and the woman the man. And for a season, they are trying to make everybody the same. But it will not last long. The men are going right down under, and the women are coming right up on top. And then God kills everybody because it is perverse. Then God wipes out the nation because you are a nation of perverts. I am telling you the truth.

 

[INAUDIBLE]

 

It is a gospel. It is a gospel that passes itself off as a Christian gospel. Pardon me?

 

From our Scriptures?

 

I am sorry?

 

From our Scriptures?

 

No, it is another gospel. It is not in the traditional Bible. It is another book. But for people who are not schooled, people who do not have a discerning eye, when you pick it up and look at it, it sounds like the Bible. And it is identified as part of the apocrypha.

 

So when I arrived in Nigeria, some ministry had been in there before me, handing out all these books of the Bible that are beyond the traditional Bible. Scripture that is not in the traditional Bible are called apocrypha. And there are several books of scripture floating around.

 

So when I got there, a couple of the people came to me, mostly the young men. They said, what do you think of this? What do you think of this? And I looked at all these books, and I just threw them in my suitcase like I do with my mail. I just threw them.

 

And then the Lord had me look at them, and I looked at them with a completely open mind. I looked at three different gospels. I looked at them with a completely open mind. I believe that it is possible that there could be some writing that was truly written under the anointing of Christ that is not in the traditional Bible. I believe that. I believe our book, the Alternate Translation, is of Christ. There is no doubt in my mind. So I looked at it with a completely open mind, prayed about it and looked at it, and found it to be satanic.

 

So we did about six or eight messages on it where I took scriptures out of the gospel according to Thomas, and I gave the corresponding Scripture out of the true Bible, and I revealed the perversion in it. So we -- It is a very exciting series. And the error in the Gospel of Thomas, the Lord used it as a jumping-off point for me to preach the truth upon which this error was based. So it is not just a series of messages talking about error. There is a lot of deep spiritual truth in that series because the way the Lord fights error is to preach the truth.

 

And this gospel according to Thomas is so subtle that, in my opinion, there is no way anybody could tell that it was Satanic unless you have a working knowledge of the doctrine of Christ. And as far as I know, it is a very, very, very, very, very, very rare Christian. There is no way that anybody could tell that this is a satanic doctrine if you do not have an intimate knowledge of the doctrine of Christ. I am telling you. I am not -- The only reason that I recognized the error in it was because my -- The message I preach is the doctrine of Christ. So when you know the real thing, then you recognize the counterfeit.

 

So it is a very exciting series, which I did not finish because I was seduced in Nigeria. A couple of strong minds told me that -- They said, this is your God speaking; go some place else. And I was moved. God forgive me. That Jezebel is wicked. I am telling you, he sits in the temple of God, and he calls himself God, and he gives you instructions, and he tells you what to do. And he is not God. And he is very strong.

 

And we have to overcome him because, when we obey -- Whether it is Jezebel or anti-Christ or whoever it is, when we obey that spirit instead of the Spirit of God, the buck stops here. You cannot blame the person who seduced you. If you are the Son of God, you were seduced. The man was not deceived, brethren. The woman was deceived. You cannot be blaming the people that are giving you grief.

 

We, who are in authority, are supposed to be walking with the Lord, trying every spirit because every spirit is not of Christ, brethren. So try the spirit, and if you mess up and you get seduced and you obey the wrong spirit, you repent, and you start all over again. Do not blame the people that tripped you. You were supposed to see the line out in the middle of the street. You are the one who is responsible. The elder is the one who is responsible.

 

So the Lord did ask me to go over something with you today, and this has led right up to it, so this is a second witness to me. Let me take a few minutes to go over this with you, please.

 

This issue of the fact that a lot of what I say to you, and a lot of what I preach to you and a lot of what I do, is the Lord speaking through me -- Sometimes, it is me. But a lot of the time, especially when it comes to doctrine and ministry business, it is the Lord speaking through me. When it comes to doctrine and spiritual things -- not when I asked you to throw things in the garbage; that was me. But with regard to doctrine and spiritual things, most of the time, it is the Lord speaking through me, a large percentage of the time. And a lot of people have trouble recognizing that. They think that it is Sheila.

 

So this is the issue. I am going to make it as simple as possible. When it is the Lord speaking through me, the issue is not negotiable. Why? Because if it is the Lord speaking through me, that is his instruction to me. And if, for some reason, you disagree with it or it offends you or you do not like it, and you come to me, and I will not discuss it with you, it is because I do not have the authority to negotiate.

 

The Lord asked me to repeat that. It came up Sunday, and I was talking to one person, but the Lord told me that it touched several people in the fellowship. And that is why I am repeating it. If I believe that the Lord has told me to do something with regard to this ministry, and you are trying to influence me to change my mind because you think that it is me who made this decision, OK, you are going to find me being very inflexible because you do not understand that it was not my decision but an instruction from the Lord to me. You cannot negotiate with the servant. You have to go to the master in prayer.

 

Now, if you cannot recognize that it is the master speaking through me, you are at a disadvantage, and you are probably going to completely misunderstand my reactions to you. Somebody thought I took it personally. I do not take it personally. Somebody will think I am inflexible; I am unreasonable. Whatever you want to think, you are totally spinning your wheels because, brethren, there is no way I am going to willingly disobey God to obey a man. I may be overcome in my mind by witchcraft or mind control, but there is no way I am going to compromise God's instructions to me.

 

So if you are getting upset and getting stressed out and getting mad at me, you might be able to save yourself a lot of grief if you could just believe that it is at least a possibility that God has told me to do this. If you cannot believe that it is even a possibility that God has told me to do this, you are really causing yourself great distress.

 

And there is no communication whatsoever, OK, because -- Now, listen. You deal with the problem in two completely different ways if God told me to do it or if it was my own idea. If it is my own idea, well, then maybe it is negotiable. I think I am a reasonable person. You come and tell me how you feel. If I can -- I will do anything I can to make you happy, except compromise what I believe to be righteousness. I will meet you -- I will go the extra mile. I will meet you more than halfway.

 

But if God told me to do it, it is absolutely non-negotiable. Do not come and talk to me. You are wasting your time. But by all means, talk to the Lord. Just do not pray any psychic prayers on me. Do not say, Lord, tell Sheila to do this, or tell Sheila to do that, because your psychic prayers come at me as curses, and they hurt me.

 

So if the -- If my de- -- If what appears -- If what I am doing is something to do with doctrine or the way I am teaching or the way I am ministering, you go to the Lord in prayer and tell him how you feel. Do not tell him to change my mind. Do not give God instructions. Do not give me instructions.

 

And you would be really doing yourself a favor if you asked the Lord, if you are wrong in the way you are thinking, to show it to you, because the chances that he spoke to me are much greater than the chances that he spoke to you about this issue. Why? Because I am the teacher. I might have heard him wrong. I could make a mistake. But it is, like, 99 percent that I heard right and 1 percent possibility that you heard right. But it is possible that you heard right.

 

So you go before him, and you tell him, Lord, let -- You know, let Sheila hear your voice. Let her hear your will. And if I am wrong, correct me. And then you forget about it because, if you are putting your will against me, you are hurting me. Your will is coming at me as curses. That makes you Jezebel, brethren. If God has told me to do something, and you are trying to change my mind because you cannot recognize that it is Christ in me, that is Jezebel in you.

 

So you need to know this. I am the servant of the living God. I am not just the person sitting in the sandbox next to you. I am the servant of the living God. I serve him. All you have to do is look at the fruit that is coming out of this ministry, and you should be able to say, yeah, she is a servant, not perfect but a servant of the living God. So how could you set your mind against me to change my mind? God is not pleased with that.

 

So please, brethren, pray about this issue. Do not be guilty of that. Do not think that you know more than me, that you know more than God's servant. If something is distressing you, come and tell me. I will pray about it. I am fair, and I am decent, and I am honest, and I love you, and I want you to be happy. And if something is hurting you, I will definitely pray about it. But if you do not get the answer that you like, do not jump to the conclusion that you know what you are talking about, and I do not, because you are just manifesting pride and possibly rebellion. Do not hurt me because, when you hurt me, you hurt yourself. When you hurt me, you hurt yourself.

 

OK. That is the end of the exhortation today. I am really frazzled. We are going to pray for a few people here. Then I am going to ask you to lay hands on me quickly. No big, long thing. And I am going to try and finish Ezekiel 39.

 

Transcribed by VerbalFusion, 11/24/21

1st Edit, rh, 02/11/22