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Yearly Archives: 2021
TIMING
GREENVILLE STATION, Nova Scotia, October 14, 2021 – As you’re reading this, there are four angels bound in the Euphrates River waiting to kill a third of the world’s population. God has bound them there to wait for his signal. Even though they’re powerful supernatural beings, these angels have no agency to release themselves or to kill on their own volition; they have to wait for God. Otherwise, their efforts will come to nothing.
The unfolding of God’s plan – and your part in it – is all about timing. There are many lenses to view scripture through, but the lens of timing is one of the most crucial. Jesus was acutely aware of the importance of timing. Despite how eager he was to do his Father’s work, he still had to wait until the time was right. When he tried to start at the wrong time (when he was still a child), he got knocked back. It would be another 18 years before Jesus finally hit the ministry road with God’s blessings.
I think we’ve all experienced getting knocked back by God. I certainly have. The first Bible study I held was a complete bust: Not one soul showed up but me. It was a very sobering and very humbling experience. In hindsight, I’m glad it happened, although I’d be lying if I said it didn’t knock the wind out of my sails for a while. My grandmother used to say “Mistakes keep you humble”, and I was definitely humbled by the sight of that empty room day after day, until I finally accepted that no-one was coming. I was the right person to be hosting a Bible study, just not then.
If you go through the Bible, book by book, and look at the circumstance of timing, you can easily see its significance. Sarah was barren until Abraham’s faith had been successfully tested. In fact, there are many cases of barren women becoming fruitful when the time was right, such as Rachel (the birth-mother of Joseph and Benjamin), Hannah (the prophet Samuel’s mother), and Elizabeth (John the Baptist’s mother). Moses, at the age of 40, tried to assume a leadership role over the Hebrews in Egypt in a bid to rescue them from slavery, but was knocked back by God. He then fled Egypt and steered clear of it until it the time was right – 40 years later – to lead his people to the Promised Land.
The holy angels also have to wait their turn to help and guide people and to reveal secrets. In fact, we all play our part, whether in God’s Kingdom or in the world. Jesus says that those who are only in the world can play their parts whenever they want to – they’re not restricted by God’s timing – but we and the angels have to wait for God’s signal. God tells us many things and then tells us to wait for the signal before revealing them.
You can always tell a false prophet by the way they release information they allege is from God. They will specify a year or a month or even pinpoint an exact day. That’s one of the main indicators of false prophets. Real prophets point to signs that should be looked for; false prophets give dates.
As the world falls deeper and deeper into the new dark age of tyranny, we need to be acutely aware of God’s timing in everything we do. We need to wait for God’s signal before we act. I know it’s difficult for some of you (it certainly is for me) to stay quiet and keep your head down when all you want to do is shout from the rooftops, but shouting without God’s blessings will accomplish nothing but noise, and noise will get you noticed by the wrong people for the wrong reasons.
We need to be patient.
When the time is right for each of us to act, God will let us know, and he’ll do it in such a way that we’ll have zero doubt that he’s giving us the signal. It will be as blatant as trumpets blasting and as personalized as our own thumbprint. We need to wait for God’s timing, like Jesus did. We need to wait, we need to watch, and we need to be ready.
Wait on the Lord
Be of good courage and he will strengthen your heart
Wait, I say, on the Lord.
(Psalm 27)
SYNAGOGUE OF SATAN 2.0
GREENVILLE STATION, Nova Scotia, October 13, 2021 – Back when Jesus was doing his ministry work nearly 2000 years ago, there were many of his people who knew how corrupt the religious powers-that-be were. They were not stupid, these people. They were, however, unprincipled, in the sense that they would go along with the ptb’s edicts in order to get what the ptb were offering them. Or better said, they went along with the edicts in order to avoid what the ptb could do to them if they didn’t go along with them.
In other words, they went along to get along.
Scripture mentions these people as being afraid to openly acknowledge or follow Jesus because they knew if they did, they’d be kicked out of the synagogue. Being kicked out of the synagogue was essentially being kicked out of society. You became a social outcast, and you could no longer work or shop or even openly show your face.
(Sound familiar?)
Not much has changed in the nearly 2000 years since Jesus walked the earth. Today, many people who can see through the obvious lies being blasted at them by politicians, “experts” and the media, have chosen to suspend their disbelief in the same way that people who secretly knew Jesus was speaking God’s Truth chose instead to remain in the synagogue, to remain in good standing with the ptb, and so to be able to continue to access all facets of society.
I was appalled at how many alleged Christians have chosen this course, this unprincipled course of knowing something is suspect but going along with it anyway because going along with it is easier than questioning or defying it. I talked to God about this, and he showed me something that I hadn’t considered: that most people are cowards. I don’t say that in a mean-spirited way, but as a Truth from God. They’re cowards in the sense that they’re constantly afraid. They don’t know God (although many of them call themselves Christians), and not knowing God, they don’t have access to his strength. They’re relying on their own strength, which is poor at best, and so feel they have to lean on each other and on society in general if they’re to get through whatever hardship they’re encountering. Otherwise, they’re too afraid to go on.
Like lies, fear that makes you do something that you know is wrong comes from the devil. God can also strike fear in your heart, but the fear that God strikes in you is holy fear of not doing what’s right. It’s the exact opposite of the unholy pall of fear that now hangs over the world and that has its source in evil.
Just as the people in Jesus’ day were being sifted to see whether they wanted what God was offering or what the world was offering (that is, whether the fear in them was a fear of God or a fear of the devil, and whether that fear made them worship God or the devil), the same sifting is going on now. The obvious lies, half-truths and contradictions constantly being spun and presented as “science” are so blatantly suspect that no-one in their right mind can actually believe them. Even so, the majority has agreed to believe, if in exchange for their consent they can continue to remain in the synagogue.
Jesus was an outsider, even though he was the son of God and the Messiah. The ptb and society treated him as an outsider, and then they hounded him as an outcast and criminal, and then they killed him. Most of his early followers suffered the same treatment.
God has given us all free will, so we all have the ability to choose. We may not like the consequences that some choices bring, but that doesn’t negate the fact that we have free will. We have the option of being like the cowards who choose to remain in the synagogue of Satan (that is, to choose lies), or we have the option to follow Jesus (that is, to choose Truth).
What you choose to do with your free will is up to you, but I would heartily recommend choosing Truth. For me, there is no other option.
GOD IS DOING MY PREPPING
GREENVILLE STATION, Nova Scotia, October 7, 2021 – Back in 2014, I moved to Truro, Nova Scotia, for the summer. I couldn’t find an apartment right away, so I decided to stay at a motel for a while. The suite had a full kitchen and bath, a separate living room and bedroom, and standard TV, internet and phone. About a week after I’d moved into the motel, a summer storm was forecast to hit the next day. I didn’t really think much about storm preps, as all my emergency supplies were in a storage unit on the other side of town. I thought I’d just ride it out with the supplies I had (meaning, just the food and water I had in the fridge).
The next day was a Saturday, and the storm hit as scheduled, but it had been upgraded to a hurricane. The wind was ferocious, uprooting trees and hurling the motel’s flower pots and Adirondack chairs across the parking lot, but thankfully the power didn’t go off and my internet stayed connected. I did, however, lose the phone and TV. I don’t watch TV, anyway, so I didn’t care about losing that, but the phone I did miss.
After the third day of no phone service, I walked over to the motel office to try to find out when the phone would be back on again. The guy who owned the motel told me that the phone would only come back on when the power came back on, and that likely wouldn’t happen for another few days.
I looked at him for a second and said: “The power’s off?”
He said: “Yeah. It’s been off since Saturday.”
I said: “But I have power. My power never went off.”
He said: “That’s because you’re in a power default. It has something to do with the convergence of power lines. You just lucked out with your unit.”
“So the rest of the motel doesn’t have any power?”
“Nope. The power went off during the storm and hasn’t been on since. It probably won’t be back on until Thursday.”
For three whole days and nights since the hurricane hit, I had been blissfully unaware that I was the only guest in the entire motel who had power. Everyone else had lost everything in their fridge and had no stove, no air-con and no lights, while I was sitting well-fed and cool in my bright little self-contained unit, completely insulated from the darkness and misery around me.
I remembered this tonight when I was watching the first few minutes of a doom-and-gloom YouTube video about the coming “dark winter”. Yet another false prophet was urging viewers to prep materially for power outages and food scarcity. And then I remembered the Hebrews when they were in Egypt just before the exodus, and the plague of darkness that left all the Egyptians groping in pitch black, while only the Hebrews had light in their homes.
And that’s when I thought about what Jesus says about prepping. He tells us not to worry about food or anything else, because God knows what we need even before we do and is preparing it for us now. God is doing our prepping. Jesus tells us instead to seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and everything we need will be provided.
I’m not going to say that what happened to me at the motel in Truro is an instance of God doing my prepping, but it sure looks like it. God takes care of his children today in the same way he took care of the Hebrews during the plagues of Egypt nearly 3500 years ago. The Hebrews didn’t prep materially, but they still had everything they needed and were well-protected. God will look after us, too, if we do as Jesus says (seek God’s Kingdom and his righteousness).
Keep in mind that God’s prepping is supernaturally perfect, and that we can never prep better than God, no matter how many batteries and cans of beans we stash away.
I don’t know about you, but I follow the advice of Jesus, not the advice of YouTube doom-and-gloomers, most of whom just want to sell me something. If Jesus says only to prepare for the needs of today, then I’m only going to prepare for the needs of today. If Jesus says to seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, then I’m going to seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, confident that if I do what Jesus says, God will provide whatever I need when I need it.
Amen.
ON THE MOUNTAIN
GREENVILLE STATION, Nova Scotia, October 3, 2021 – We don’t know exactly what Jesus did when he took off by himself for a few days every now and then. Scripture just says that he went up to the mountain to pray, so I guess we should take that at face value. Except I won’t, because I think whatever Jesus did on the mountain when he, according to scripture, went off by himself to pray needs to be talked about. Because we also need to be making our little escape trips every now and then, and what we do up there on our mountain should reflect what Jesus did on his.
Ministry work is oftentimes like performing – exhilarating and draining at the same time. It also puts you constantly in fast-forward mode, so that you’re never really you and never really in the moment. You’re always anticipating, always considering the impact of this or that word, this or that gesture, always aware that the spotlight is on you, exposing you, and that even as some people hang onto your every word, others are lurking in the background waiting for you to mess up. It’s like a tightrope act that requires you to be assiduously careful even while appearing to be carefree and spontaneous. Only there’s no safety net under you in ministry work, and when you fall, you may take others down with you.
It’s no surprise that Jesus needed to get away from the performance pressure every now and then, to realign himself with himself and with God. I think the Jesus who taught in the synagogues was not the same Jesus who taught his disciples privately and also not the same Jesus who spent time with Mary and Martha and Lazarus. These were all different Jesuses. I think the real Jesus is not in scripture and only appeared on the mountain when he was alone with himself and with God.
That is the Jesus that I want to get to know and that I’m getting to know – the Jesus on the mountain. There are flashes of him in scripture, but the real Jesus – the one God knows inside and out – is elusive because he can’t be captured in words. Imagine that – the Word can’t be captured in words! You need to get to know Jesus one-on-one, and only when you’re on your mountain, and only when you’re you.
It’s tempting to want to stay on your mountain, to just go there and stay there. I’m sure there were times when Jesus wanted to stay on his mountain and not go back down for the next performance or the next work shift. Remember that ministry, if done properly, is work. It’s not play. If you approach ministry work as something that should always be enjoyable, you’ll eventually give it up, and likely sooner than later. Jesus was very clear that he was doing his father’s work, not his father’s hobby or his father’s playtime. He was doing God’s work, and work is by definition mostly hard, tedious, and frustrating, even when it’s for God. It’s also done mainly for the reward, not for the work in and of itself.
Very few ministers talk about this, about how tedious and frustrating ministry work can be at times, and how the only way you can get through those times is to focus on your reward. In Jesus’ case, his was a Heavenly reward, and so is ours. Our reward will not be given to us on Earth for doing God’s work. Certainly, God will provide for us, in the same way as companies provide their employees with food, shelter, medical care, and other necessities when they work long shifts in remote locations, but our reward for our labour is in Heaven. Our paycheck is in Heaven. That’s what we’re aiming for and what we’re working for. Whatever God is providing for us now is not our reward. It’s our room and board.
There were times on the mountain when Jesus met with others from Heaven besides God. This was also one of the reasons why he went up to the mountain. He took a few of his disciples with him once to show them what he sometimes did there. The so-called transfiguration wasn’t a one-off event. I believe it happened many times, but only once was it witnessed by the disciples. Moses shone when he came down from the mountain with the Ten Commandments, just like Jesus shone during the transfiguration. The remoteness of the mountain is ideal for meet-ups with Heavenly emissaries.
The different things Jesus might have done during his time on the mountain (and why he went up there in the first place) is something we need to think about because we need to be doing whatever he did if we’re to succeed at our ministry work. We need to take time every now and then (and we’ll know when it’s time to take time) to get back to ourselves as God knows us, not as the world knows us. We need to take time away from the performance exhilaration and the work tedium so that we can again, for a time, be who we are. We must never lose touch of who we are, as it is the true measure of our soul. We need to know where our soul is in relation to where it needs to be if we’re to be fit for Heaven.
So the next time you feel called to go up to the mountain to pray, make sure you go by yourself and make sure you be yourself. It’s a very great privilege and honor to be called exclusively into God’s presence over a period of days, to recoup and regroup as only can be done with God’s help and guidance. And who knows – you might even meet with a surprise guest or two while you’re up there.
The Lord bless thee, and keep thee:
The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:
The Lord lift up his countenance, and give thee peace.
THE FAMINE OF HEARING GOD’S WORD
GREENVILLE STATION, Nova Scotia, September 28, 2021 – The devil has an easy go of it these days. He knows that all he has to do is deliver his lies through an accepted authority, and people will bow down and worship him. Because that’s what it is when you adhere to the devil’s lies – you’re worshiping the devil. Adherence is a form of worship. Nearly the whole world is now bowing down in worship of the devil.
Even Christians are an easy target for the devil’s lies, as most of them don’t know scripture. Three of the biggest lies that are held as sacred truths by the majority of Christians – that Jesus is God, that Jesus is coming back soon to set up an earthly kingdom, and that all you need is “belief” and “faith” to get into Heaven – can easily be refuted with even a passing knowledge of scripture. But most Christians would rather swallow what is spoon-fed to them by their respective authorities than to take the time to read the Bible and learn the Truth for themselves.
Most Christians take the easy way out because they’re spiritually lazy. The devil knows this and is using it to his advantage.
Before I was born-again from atheism 22 years ago, I knew very little scripture beyond that the Bible existed: What was in it was a mystery to me. Within half an hour of my rebirth, I started reading the New Testament. I read all four Gospels in one sitting, and then read the rest of the New Testament the next day. I couldn’t put the Bible down. It was like spiritual mother’s milk to me, and I was ravenous. I learned about Jesus and his teachings from Jesus’ recorded words in scripture, not from someone else’s misinterpretation or misquoting of them.
I’m grateful that I learned that way. I’m still learning. You never stop learning about the Word while you’re on Earth in human form. But you can’t learn if you don’t pick up the Bible and read. That’s how you gain knowledge. And then you take the knowledge that you’ve gained and apply it to your everyday life. That’s how you endure to the end. If you don’t read the Bible and learn from it, and don’t apply what you’ve learned to your everyday life, and then don’t endure to the end, the odds are not in your favour that you’ll make it home to Heaven.
Most Christians don’t know the meaning of spiritual rebirth and/or don’t know if in fact they’re actually reborn. This is a sad and sorry state. Jesus offered himself as a sacrifice to pay the sin debt we inherited from Adam, so that those who chose God’s Way could be cleansed of their sin and have the same relationship with God as Jesus did. This relationship is enabled through the indwelling of God’s Holy Spirit in a born-again soul. God’s Spirit won’t live where sin lives; spiritual rebirth is like deep-cleaning of the soul. Without it, God’s Spirit won’t come and live with you. He might make cameo appearances, like he did with Balaam’s ass, but he doesn’t move in with you unless you’re genuinely reborn.
It’s critically important to be genuinely reborn and to have God’s Spirit living with you, because without God’s Spirit guiding you, you can’t understand scripture. You can read words without the help of God’s Spirit – you can memorize them verbatim and quote them backwards and forwards, if you want to – but you cannot understand them in the way they were meant to be understood. This is the core reason for the misinterpretation and misapplication of scripture, and the devil has had a field day with it for thousands of years.
In Old Testament times, God sent prophets to interpret his Word for the benefit of God’s people. The prophets weren’t born-again, but God’s Spirit was with them from time to time, some more often than others. During the times when the Spirit was with them, the prophets were able to perform miracles, hear directly from God, and interpret scripture.
As born-again followers of Jesus, we always have God’s Spirit with us. That is the definition of being born-again. The measure of God’s Spirit we have depends on how much we choose to submit to God. Jesus humbled himself entirely under God’s mighty hand, and so God was able to work powerfully through Jesus, through his Spirit. However, most born-agains have not made the same commitment to God that Jesus made. They’ve made a partial commitment, but not a full one. They’re holding a part of themselves back. And because of that, the miracles are few and far between with them, they rarely hear from God, and they have difficulty interpreting scripture.
When we give everything we are and everything we have to God, like Jesus did (and like he advised us to do), miracles follow. One of those miracles is being able to understand scripture as it was intended to be understood. This is important, because without understanding scripture, the devil will put his lies into your mouth, you’ll swallow them down, and then you’ll regurgitate them, thinking what’s coming out of you is God’s Truth.
Nearly all of what passes for Christianity today is devil spew. This would not be the case if Christians were actually born-again (which is the very definition of being a Christian) and had committed themselves fully to God. If they were born-again and fully committed to God, they would know scripture as God intended it to be known, that is, through the help and guidance of his Spirit.
The Bible is a holy book. It’s called the “Holy Bible” for that reason. As such, it contains elements that are holy. What is profane cannot understand what is holy. You can’t approach God’s Word through the eyes of the world and still be able to read scripture as it was intended to be read. You’ll see words, but you won’t see the Word. For instance, those who only see words believe that God’s Kingdom will be established by Jesus as an earthly kingdom at his second coming, whereas those who see the Word know that the Kingdom was already established when Jesus started his ministry nearly 2000 years ago, and that the Kingdom is a spiritual realm, not an earthly one, and will never be an earthly one. As Jesus said repeatedly: “My Kingdom is not of this world.”
It’s easy for the devil to fool people who don’t know the Truth. Scripture tells us of a time when there’ll be a famine not of food but of hearing God’s Word. Even though Christianity is supposed to be the prevailing religion today, there is in fact a famine of hearing God’s Word, because most Christians are spiritually lazy and are not genuinely born-again. This makes them prime receptacles for the devil’s lies. They think they’re hearing God’s Word, but what they’re actually hearing are words that have been twisted to mean something that God didn’t intend.
We have a profound responsibility as born-again believers to deliver the Gospel message as it was intended to be delivered. That means we have a profound responsibility to know scripture as it was intended to be known – not as words, but as the Word.
As the world descends deeper and deeper into tyranny, we need now more than ever to know God and his Word. If you haven’t yet committed everything to God, don’t wait another day to do it. You won’t endure to the end unless you’ve given everything you are and have to God, as a follower of Jesus. Once you give him everything, the devil will have no toehold in you. You’ll easily be able to discern the devil’s lies, just as you’ll easily be able to read and speak God’s Word as he intended.
ARE YOU DOING YOUR JOB?
GREENVILLE STATION, Nova Scotia, September 26, 2021 – If you’re not being called a religious fanatic, you’re not doing your job.
If mainstream Christianity hasn’t labeled you a heretic, you’re not doing your job.
If people in general don’t think you’re crazy, you’re not doing your job.
If some aren’t openly accusing you of being certifiable, you’re not doing your job.
Being a born-again believer living in the world and preaching and teaching the Word should be earning you every insult and slight and accusation in the book, if you’re doing your job. Jesus says you’ll be hated and persecuted, and that you should expect these things and be happy when they occur, because it means you’re doing your job.
Jesus was considered crazy by the world. Jesus was labeled a heretic. Jesus was even accused of being demonically possessed. Because the world is by definition opposed to the message of the Gospel, and so those who adhere to the lies of the world will abhor those who adhere to the Truth of God.
So embrace being called a religious fanatic. Revel in being dismissed as a Bible thumper. Agree with those who call you crazy, and tell them you’re crazy like Jesus and you wouldn’t want to be any other way.
I can’t imagine wanting to fit in with the world or wanting to get the world’s approval, knowing that the world is under Satan. The more the world laughs at me and rejects me and bans me and considers me a threat simply for speaking God’s Word, the happier I am and the more I know I’m doing my job.
I hope you’re doing your job, too.
Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
Matthew 5:11-12
HOW TO DEAL WITH UNBELIEVING LOVED ONES
GREENVILLE STATION, Nova Scotia, September 26, 2021 – One of the most difficult things you’ll have to do as a born-again believer (besides being kind to those who are unkind to you) is to separate yourself from those who are not born-again. At some point, you’ll have to leave them behind, including family and friends. Jesus did, and so did all of his early followers. If you don’t leave them behind, they’ll hold you back and drag you down. And while they’re doing it, they’ll compromise your witness.
Oh, you say, I’m not worried about that. My faith is strong. My witness isn’t affected by my family and friends.
Really? Your witness isn’t affected by your family and friends? Then why did Jesus cut his ties with his family and then with everyone in his hometown? Was his faith not strong enough? Why did all the disciples leave their wives and children when they started to follow Jesus? Going back further, why did the Jews who’d married non-Jews leave their wives and children when Judah returned to Jerusalem after the exile in Babylon? The reason is because having close relations with people who do not share your beliefs negatively affects you. You may not think it does, but it does. You are constantly compromising what you believe in order to keep the peace. Your spiritual growth is stunted, or worse, you risk falling away.
Think about what happened to Solomon because of his unbelieving wives. He eventually became a demon-worshiper.
Paul says not to separate from unbelieving spouses IF the spouse wants to remain with you. But the unspoken proviso here would be that the spouse should in no way interfere with the believer fully living his or her faith. I know many believers who live with unbelievers, but the unbelievers hold sway over them, so that the believers can only “be themselves” when they’re not around their spouse. This is not what Paul intended.
Scripture is clear that being a follower of Jesus requires us to die to who we were in order to come back to life as an entirely new creation. Most (if not all) of our family and friends are not born-again and so no longer have a place in our life. Does that mean we should shut them out completely? Of course not. Jesus provided for his mother by giving her into the care of John. Mary later became his disciple, as did his brother James. Jesus didn’t run them off like diseased dogs; he separated himself from them so that he could do the work appointed him by God. The same with the disciples.
The same should be with us.
In the Gospels, Jesus tells his followers that their new family are believers who do the will of God. Jesus is very clear about this. Of course, you have God-given free will so you can defy Jesus and keep on living and socializing with those who are not born-again, but you’ll suffer for it and eventually you’ll regret it, likely forever. That’s a long time to wish you’d done what God had advised you to do when you had the chance.
Again, I’m not the one who’s telling you to leave your family and friends, God is, through Jesus. As I mentioned earlier, this is one of the most difficult things you’ll have to do as a born-again believer. There is no easy way around it; it just has to be done, and the sooner, the better.
Scripture says not to go to them, but to let them come to you. Mary eventually turned and came to Jesus, as did James. Chances are that your family and friends may yet turn, if there’s still time for them, but being with them as a compromised believer and tolerating their sin is not going to help them turn. You need to separate from them, and then let them come to you if and when they become believers.
Jesus extended the redemption invitation to us when we were still in our sin, but he didn’t live with us while we were still in our sin. He only started to live with us when our sin was purged from us through spiritual rebirth. Effectively, then, we went to Jesus spiritually; he didn’t downgrade into sin to live with us while we were still in our sin. He stood apart from us, let us know he was there, and waited for us come to him.
We need to separate ourselves and let our unbelieving loved ones – if they turn – come to us, just like we went to Jesus when we turned.
WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE?
GREENVILLE STATION, Nova Scotia, September 26, 2021 – I usually dislike hypothetical examples, but this one is apt:
If you’re standing with one foot on a boat and the other foot on a dock, are you on the boat or on the dock? You have to be one or the other, either on the boat or on the dock, because being half-on or half-off means you’re neither on the boat nor on the dock. In other words, you’re stuck in no-man’s-land and you’re going nowhere.
That’s a hypothetical scenario. Now let’s look at reality.
Are you living your life one foot in the Kingdom and one foot in the world? Do you have a strong desire to step out in faith, but at the same time are you afraid to lose your footing?
If so, you’re not alone. Peter wanted to walk on water like Jesus, and in fact did for a few seconds before he overthought what he was doing and started to drown. Many of us step out in faith, only to fall flat on our faces after only a few steps because we start overthinking what we’re doing, and in so doing, cut God’s Spirit out of the equation.
Wanting to step out in faith requires more than just a willingness to step out. You first need to know WHY you’re doing it. And to know why, you need to know what is motivating you. You need to know what you believe.
It might help to think of faith as lived belief. Faith is belief in action. So when you step out in faith, you’re simply living your beliefs. But if you want to step out in faith, you first need to know what you believe. That may sound nonsensical (how can you not know what you believe?), yet most people are unable to readily articulate their beliefs. They take them for granted rather than seeing them as internalized agents that affect their external actions.
Belief is expressed through acts of faith. Therefore, you first need to be absolutely clear within yourself about what you believe, because what you believe is what’s motivating you to step out in faith – that is, to live fully in the Kingdom.
So, what do you believe?
_____________________________________
A few weeks ago, a woman came to my kitchen door campaigning for a local politician. I didn’t respond to her knock, but the woman saw me sitting at my desk (the kitchen table), and so she leaned down and yelled through the screen part of the door.
“I REALLY BELIEVE IN THIS CANDIDATE. HE’S A GREAT MAN, AND HE REALLY CARES ABOUT THE PEOPLE.”
I didn’t say anything in response, but that didn’t stop her.
“HE’S BEEN A DOCTOR FOR OVER 30 YEARS, WORKING IN THE COMMUNITY. HE’S A GOOD PERSON.”
I still didn’t say anything.
“YOUR NEIGHBOUR TOLD ME YOU’RE FROM DARTMOUTH. I LIVED IN DARTMOUTH A WHILE BACK. IT’S A GREAT PLACE. SMALL WORLD!”
Still nothing from me.
“OK, I WON’T BOTHER YOU ANYMORE. I CAN SEE YOU’RE BUSY. WHERE SHOULD I LEAVE THE BROCHURE?”
That was a question, and societal norms dictate that I need to answer a question, so I told her to leave the brochure in the mailbox at the end of the driveway. And off she went.
The woman was an unstoppable force for her political cause. She knew exactly what she believed, and she had no problem articulating her beliefs and living her beliefs. She was motivated to act by her beliefs. It’s a shame that all her passion went to politics, but she does serve as a good example of the mechanics underlying stepping out in faith and living fully in the Kingdom.
After she left, I felt a little bad about not engaging her in conversation, but I make it a rule not to talk to people campaigning for political parties. They’re like a cross between a cult member and a door-to-door salesman. The human part of them is so deeply buried underneath the brainwashing that it’s like trying to engage with one of those wind-up toy dogs. All you get is “yap yap yap yap”. It’s frustrating and frankly a waste of time, so I don’t do it anymore.
Yet I had to admit that the woman’s focus and passion were admirable. She had zero doubt that her candidate should win the election and she wanted to share her certainty with everyone.
We likewise need to be 100% certain of our beliefs before we can successfully step out in faith. If we don’t 100% believe in what we’re doing or we don’t 100% know why we’re doing it, God’s Spirit can’t work through us, and if God’s Spirit can’t work through us, we’re going to fail. In other words, we’re not going to live fully in the Kingdom.
Peter started to drown because his faith was weak. Peter thought he should have faith in Peter (that is, “I know I can do this”), when instead he should have had faith in God (that is, “I know God can do this”). Peter started to drown because he knew that, by the laws of nature, he shouldn’t be walking on water, and he stopped his thought process there. What he should have done is shift his thought process into the belief that God can override the laws of nature and do anything, including making him walk on water.
If you feel like you have one foot in the Kingdom and one foot in the world, it’s probably because you do. It’s also why you’re stuck in a spiritual no-man’s land and going nowhere. Maybe you could spend some time thinking about what you believe (not brainwashing yourself into believing something, like a creed, but thinking about what you authentically believe) and what is motivating you to want to step out in faith to live fully in the Kingdom.
As an example, I believe that God loves me and that I love God more than I love anything or anyone else. I also believe that God can do anything, and that everything he does, he does for my benefit, as long as I do what’s right in his eyes. These beliefs motivate me to want to live fully in the Kingdom so that I can “endure to the end” and make it home to Heaven. I’m a born-again believer and, as such, the Kingdom is open to me, so I need to get in there and stay in there fully and full-time, or I won’t endure to the end and I won’t make it home. This I 100% believe and this is what motivates me to step out in faith to live fully in the Kingdom.
What you believe and what is motivating you may or may not be the same as what I believe and what is motivating me. Even so, you need to be able to articulate your beliefs before you can act on them. Weak faith doesn’t mean you don’t believe in God or don’t believe in him enough; weak faith means that you don’t really know what you believe or how that belief can be lived in real-time; weak faith means you’re relying on your own abilities rather than on God’s. The main reason you’re relying on your own abilities is that you haven’t yet articulated your beliefs to yourself.
The political canvasser who came to my kitchen door had zero faith in herself. Her faith was entirely in her candidate. She was just the vessel carrying his message, which is why my silence didn’t faze her in the least or deter her from her mission. She was walking on water while she was hollering through my screen door, and for that she has my respect.
We need to be equally devoid of faith in ourselves. Our faith should always be in God and in his Messiah, Jesus. We should have zero faith in ourselves and zero faith in our own abilities. As long as we hang on to having faith in ourselves, we’ll remain with one foot on the worldly dock. But if we put everything we are and everything we believe into God and into Jesus, we’ll not only step off the dock and fully onto the boat, we’ll step off the boat and fully onto the water.
And then, my friends, we’ll truly be living in the Kingdom.
TELL ME
GREENVILLE STATION, Nova Scotia, September 23, 2021 – Tell me: Will you still worship God when you can’t get into restaurants and cinemas?
Will you still worship God when you can’t fly or take a train or even get on a bus?
How about when you can’t get into grocery stores? Will you still worship God then?
Because those days are coming, when access will be denied. For some, those days are already here.
Will you still worship God when you lose your job or get court martialed or a dishonorable discharge?
How about when you lose your home and your bank account is frozen and you have no money? How about when you can’t get on the Internet anymore and your driver’s license is suspended?
What will happen to your worship when you’re being rounded up for incarceration in a containment camp? Will you still worship God then?
Because those days are coming, too, for some sooner than others.
We need to worship God no matter what’s going on in our lives and no matter what the world throws at us. Worshiping God doesn’t mean going into a certain building and saying certain things. We can worship God wherever we are and under whatever circumstances we find ourselves. In fact, the worse the circumstances, the more we need to worship and the more we need to thank God.
LOVE FOR OUR ENEMIES AND PRAISE AND THANKFULNESS TO GOD IS OUR WORSHIP, as born-again believers, and it shouldn’t stop just because we can no longer get into restaurants or are being hunted down like animals. The worse the times, the more fervent the faith must be; the worse we’re treated, the more we must love in return.
So tell me – will you be worshiping God just in the good times or also in the bad?
THE DIVIDING LINE
GREENVILLE STATION, Nova Scotia, September 20, 2021 – What I am about to state here is considered heresy in most Christian sects, even though the truth of it is backed up by scripture.
Throughout his ministry years, Jesus withdrew from and rejected his blood relatives, including his mother and his siblings. Why? Because they didn’t believe he was the Messiah. They knew he was a prophet sent from God, but they didn’t believe he was the Messiah.
So Jesus had to choose between his family and God.
He chose God.
I mention this now because we are also faced with a similar choice. Society is becoming increasingly divided along a line that even two years would have been unimaginable. Families and friends are finding themselves on opposite sides of that line, with no neutral zone in between. One side is staunchly pro-government and its mandates, and the other is not; one side does whatever is demanded by the government, and the other does not. Even though the obedient and compliant far outnumber the disobedient and non-compliant, families are being torn apart, life-long friends are becoming estranged, and neither side is willing to compromise.
Which side of the divide you stand on is your business. It’s your choice. You have God-given free will. I’m not interested in discussing the virtues of one side over the other or to persuade you to cross over from one side to the other. As far as I’m concerned, the right choice – the godly choice – is more than obvious and doesn’t need to be stated or discussed. Even so, I hope you’re aware that the side you choose will determine your eternity.
Scripture tells us about people who cowed before the religious powers-that-be in Jerusalem because they were afraid to be kicked out of the synagogue. To be kicked out of the synagogue essentially meant that your life as you knew it was over. You would not be permitted to attend religious or cultural events; you’d likely lose your livelihood, as you’d be shunned by the general public; you would even have difficulty carrying out everyday tasks like grocery shopping, as again, you would be shunned and shamed. You would live as an outcast for the rest of your life or until such time as you “came to your senses” and accepted the dictates of the religious ptb.
To avoid what for many would have been a fate worse than death, people tolerated the tyranny and corruption of the rich and powerful so that they could live their daily lives unmolested by the authorities and participate in society.
Recall that Jesus had these “privileges” revoked in many areas where he was under constant threat of arrest. Recall also that even under threat of arrest, Jesus did not alter his position or in any way make concessions, other than to avoid certain areas until God told him it was his time.
As born-again believers, we’re called to live our lives like Jesus lived his life during his ministry years. Jesus is our example. Jesus’ mother isn’t our example; Jesus’ siblings aren’t our example; even Jesus’ early disciples aren’t our example: JESUS IS OUR EXAMPLE. If Jesus chose God over his family and God over his society, then so must we. If our choice means we live as outcasts, then we live as outcasts. Jesus lived his life as an outcast during his ministry years, so why should we be any different?
Jesus is the Messiah. His mother and siblings refused to accept that truth during his ministry years, so he rejected them. He walked away from them, and when they came to get him to take him home (presumably to correct his way of thinking and to keep him from being arrested), he publicly shunned them. He didn’t compromise his position and he didn’t give in just to keep the peace. On the contrary, he doubled down on his affirmation of who he was by replacing his blood family with his spiritual family. From that point onward, only those who did the will of God were considered by Jesus to be his family.
Think very carefully about the choice you make regarding the dividing line. As a born-again believer, your mission is to follow Jesus, not your family and not the world. Don’t be like the people who did whatever they had to do to remain in good standing with the ptb. Jesus was not in good standing with the ptb; he wouldn’t have been doing God’s will if he were.
We are at war, just as Jesus was.
Jesus chose to fight on God’s side.
We need to do the same.
A BORN-AGAIN BELIEVER 