Your Equation of 12

Imagine that the number 12 represents you as a fully mature son of God, as in Ephesians 4:13.

Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.

 

Equations of 12

In our analogy the number 12 represents you, fully formed into the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.

1 John 3:2-3  Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.  3 And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. 

6+6=12                 5+8-1=12        

2+10=12                2 x 6=12      

4+4+4=12             24/2=12

3+3+3+3=12        100-88=12          950.4/79.2=12

There are an infinite number of ways to get to 12, but they all equal 12.

Cattle Chute

What if the choices we make every day are creating the equation of our lives?
What if God is NOT guiding us down a cattle chute toward our 12?

Maybe, as our poor choices send our equation off the mark, God brings situations that offer opportunities to correct our equation.

My equation interacts with your equation and many other equations.  We add to and subtract from one another’s equations.

All the time there is a Guiding Hand, not manipulating, but offering a path that leads to 12.

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The Last Amen – Christian Death

Christian Death

The words don’t go together, Christian death.  It’s an oxymoron, maybe it’s a diptych.  

The following is a guest post by Rae Shrock.  Rae is the editor and creator of the beautiful, slick, full color Daughters of Promise Magazine, available online and in hard copy.

 “The magazine has expanded to include many gifted writers, photographers, and fellow visionaries who share a common passion to encourage women in their faith. DOP is unique in that it is primarily written by women of the Anabaptist denomination. We are a diverse mix, but we share a common love for set-apartness, experiential Christianity, and Jesus.”

In Memory of
Elizabeth Brewer Ward
1981-2013

Rae was inspired to write this article, which is almost a poem, by the Christian deaths of friends and neighbors near her.  She is young, but death experiences reach us all on a deep and common level.  Rae’s gift with words will bring her experience close to your heart and gently warm you with her hope and ours.  The young mother, Elizabeth, whom she mentions toward the end is my precious daughter-in law.  My son is the husband who awoke that morning a widower.  Her three young children are my full-of-life grandchildren.  

Thank you, Rae, for bringing us all the Light of Hope in this article.

 

 

The Last Amen

By Rae Schrock

We live to die.

From the first filling of virgin lungs, the process begins.

Life. It is framed by the handles of time: when we begin, and when we end.

Grasped by the Giver and handed to us, a gift of grace.

Life is a gift.

And to most radiantly honor the Giver, the gift of life lived must glorify Him. Must be full to the brim of worship, one breath after another,

Inhaling Christ. Exhaling praise.

So, as we live to worship, we die to say ‘Amen’.

Could this be the point of it all? To have lived so well that the last breath I draw simply echoes the brevity of all my time here, an exclamation point to the life He gave? God, glorified. Christ, adored. Worship pulsing, filling, spanning the whole of my one solitary life. Death, pronouncing the awe-choked, hands-raised ‘Amen’, to a life fully lived. A glorious ‘Let it be’ to the worship of a life fully laid down to Christ.

If I live to worship,

If I live to die,

Then let death be my final declaration of love. Let it be shouted from my slow- beating heart and emptying lungs that HE was why I lived. That every moment; every bead of choking grief, exhausting labor, tempestuous trial, was encapsulated in the radiant joy of being His. Pearls strung along the strand of time, my every moment was meaningful because it was for Him.

I see the Garden. And beyond, the cross. I glimpse the Son of Man, torn with grief, writhing against the weight of humanity’s sins & the crushing blows of death itself, laying open tattered ribbons across His back. And as blood-caked, sun-scorched lips part to breathe last words, the words that split sky, shook earth, slashed listening ears of demons, & leaped in the hearts of every man who has caught their reverberations throughout the ages; as Jesus embraced what all humanity must, He embraced us more.

It is finished.

Not life, but death!

The words thunder in my heart. They shatter fear, split doubt …

I’m Looking for the Stone Cut out of a Mountain – Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream

Last year I taught a middle school history class that I titled The Development of Western Thought from Babylon to the European Explorers.  I used Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Daniel 2 as the theme and timeline.

Daniel spoke the dream’s interpretation to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, and it has come to pass century after century exactly according to his interpretation.  Long ago the Legs of Iron which depict the Roman Empire have faded into ancient history.  What happened to those Feet of Iron Mixed with Clay?

Daniel 2:31-35  Behold, a great image! …its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.  You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces.  Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. 

Mysteries…
Where is this kingdom of iron mixed with clay?  The others seem so easy.  Gold is Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon as Daniel told the king himself.  Silver came next; that was Medo-Persia.  Then the bronze belly of the statue represented Greek domination in the world.  Iron legs, we know was the next kingdom which was the power of the Roman Empire.  What happened after Rome?  Another empire? Has the statue been struck by a stone and crushed to powder?  What is the Clay?

What is this two part kingdom that has the Roman Empire’s strength mixed with something of clay, and the two can’t mix?  Gold, silver, bronze, and iron are all metals.  Clay is different; it is not a metal.  Clay, hmm, that’s what God used to make Adam’s body.  What else do we know?

Daniel 2:43-44  But they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay.  And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. 

Rome crumbled in the 400’s AD.  Where is the kingdom which will exhibit some things of Roman power yet in other ways will not mix with the pagan world order depicted in the rest of the statue?  When will God set up a different kingdom which shall never be destroyed?  Has it already happened, and we missed it?  If so, how is it that we live in a time when pagan/antichrist culture looms, fiercely set against a Christian culture?

Daniel’s interpretation has been spot on accurate from Babylon through the Roman Empire, a span of nearly 900 years!

I’m looking for the Stone cut out of the mountain without hands to land upon the Feet of Iron Mixed with Clay and crush all oppressive governments to powder.  Hey, Daniel, it’s time!

Israel’s Feasts are God’s Timeline

Below is a link to an article by Dr. Stephen Jones of God’s Kingdom Ministries.  Stephen Jones has many interesting interpretations of scripture which he has gained from study of the Law of God.  Anyone who respects the Bible honestly should take his ideas seriously and study for themselves.  The article below takes some chewing.  You may decide to spit out part of it, but reading it will likely open new ideas that deserve an audience.

 I believe Christians should learn from one another.  Nit-picking and pigeon-holing are only tactics to self-excuse one who will not take the time to study for himself.  We need not fear ideas.  Let’s listen and study with a true heart, and learn what is true from Him who is True.  -EW  

Kingdom Progression by Dr. Stephen Jones

In the progression of the Kingdom since the creation, we ought to know about the changes that God has made over the years, particularly at specific points in history.

Men have tried to explain these changes in various ways. The popular theory today was developed in the 1800’s by those who divided history into “dispensations.” Personally, I divide time according to the pattern of Israel’s feast days:

Pre-feast times: Adam to Moses

Passover Age: Moses to Christ

Pentecost Age: Christ to full Body

Tabernacles Age: Full Body to Great White Throne

Judgment Age: Great White Throne to Creation Jubilee

Each of these ages mark a distinct progression in the developmental history of the Kingdom. Before Moses the Kingdom was ruled by the patriarchs until Nimrod usurped their right to rule. He then organized his own kingdom by force of arms and ruled all that he could conquer. The rule of Noah and Shem depended upon

No Ebb Prophecy and a Modern Day Simeon

Arthur Burt –A Modern Day Simeon?

Arthur Burt is 102 years old.  He lives in Wales.  He has travelled all over the world as a minister of the Gospel, and he still ministers.  He tells this story from 1934:

I was expelled from the Church of England in 1934 for embracing the Pentecostal revelation, the baptism of the Spirit, speaking with other tongues. Right after that, a prophecy came. I remember it as if it was last night.

I walked over to a piano and looked at the open Bible; it was open there at this Word:

“For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come….”

At the meeting that night, not a Church of England meeting, but a Pentecostal meeting, the Spirit of God fell upon a young man and he prophesied. I think it’s about the only prophecy I can remember word-for-word in my entire life. It’s like a scar inside of me!

“It shall come as a breath…
And the breath shall bring the wind…
And the wind shall bring the rain.
And there shall be floods and floods and floods…
And torrents and torrents and torrents.
Souls shall be saved like falling leaves
from mighty oaks swept by a hurricane.
Arms and legs shall come down from heaven…
..And there shall be no ebb.”

I remember that, “Souls shall be saved like falling leaves from mighty oaks swept by a hurricane.” There was another part about “the rich and the poor embracing each other in the streets of New York.” But the final thing was… “And there shall be no ebb.” No ebb!

Since that day Arthur Burt has seen and been involved with many revival movements.  Each one has come to its swell and then gone into ebb like the tide that comes in and goes out again.  Yet Arthur waits for the breath that shall become a wind for which there shall be no ebb.

In 2009

Arise, Sons of the Most High, and Judge the Earth

God cries to His sons to restore justice and stabilize the foundations of the earth.

Psalm 82   A Psalm of Asaph

God [Elohim] stands in the congregation of the mighty [el];
He judges among the gods [elohim].
² How long will you judge unjustly, And show partiality to the wicked? Selah
³ Defend the poor and fatherless; Do justice to the afflicted and needy.
⁴ Deliver the poor and needy; Free them from the hand of the wicked.
⁵ They do not know, nor do they understand; They walk about in darkness;
All the foundations of the earth are unstable.
⁶ I said, “You are gods [elohim], And all of you are children of the Most High.
⁷ But you shall die like men, And fall like one of the princes.”
⁸ Arise, O God [Elohim], judge the earth; For You shall inherit all nations.
[New King James] 

Jesus Christ took this call seriously in John 10:34-35.

Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law [Psalm 82], I said, Ye are gods?  If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken;”

By his reference to this psalm, Jesus also proved the sense of the psalm.

Elohim is a name or title for Yahweh.  As a title it seems to be pluralized as if to say “God of all gods” or “Judge above every other judge.”  But, elohim sometimes refers to human judges or magistrates.

Strong’s Concordance #430: elohim
Meaning:  1) (plural) 1a) rulers, judges 1b) divine ones 1c) angels 1d) gods 2) (plural intensive – singular meaning) 2a) god, goddess 2b) godlike one 2c) works or special possessions of God 2d) the (true) God 2e) God

Psalm 82 is a message to men to take authority as judges in the earth and defend the poor and needy.  Until men take their place as sons of God, and therefore judges in the earth, as the psalm says, “the foundations of the earth are unstable.”

Arise, O God [Elohim], judge the earth; For You shall inherit all nations. 

Is this last verse a cry from the psalmist to God to come and judge the earth, or is it God’s cry to His sons to judge and to defend?  The entire psalm is a plea from God to earthly judges.  Why would the plea be reversed at the end?  The answer lies in “inherit.”  Doesn’t God own all creation?  Does He need to be promised an inheritance? May we read thus…

I said, “You are judges [elohim], And all of you are children of the Most High.  …

⁸ Arise, O judges [elohim], judge the earth; For You shall inherit all nations.” 

Asaph the psalmist seems to be calling men to arise as the sons of the Most High and judge the earth in God’s justice, to free the poor and needy from the hand of the wicked!

Elohim stands in the congregation of the judges; He judges among the judges.
² How long will you judge unjustly, And show partiality to the wicked?
³ Defend the poor and fatherless; Do justice to the afflicted and needy.
⁴ Deliver the poor and needy; Free them from the hand of the wicked.
⁵ They do not know, nor do they understand; They walk about in darkness;
All the foundations of the earth are unstable.
⁶ I said, “You are judges, And all of you are children of the Most High.
⁷ But you shall die like men, And fall like one of the princes.
⁸ Arise, O judges, judge the earth; For you shall inherit all nations.” 

The Corporate Woman and the Manchild

From Revelation 12

In prayer recently I saw the Woman of Revelation chapter 12 as a corporate woman made up of women, generation after generation, bringing forth children who become another generation to bring forth children and so on until the generation arrives which shall bring forth the corporate Manchild.  All along and in each generation the Dragon has stood before her to devour her children with oppression and slavery, yet in each generation some live to bring forth another generation of children born to carry the Covenant Promise to still another generation.  This Woman and her seed have carried the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all nations of the world.

The Dragon’s Tail Casts One Third of the Stars of Heaven Down to Earth

In John’s vision the Woman has a garland of twelve stars on her head.  This seems reminiscent of Joseph’s dream in which he saw the sun, the moon, and eleven stars bow down to his star.  The interpretation given is that Jacob, his wife and all of Joseph’s eleven brothers would bow down to Joseph, which certainly came to pass.  The twelve stars in the corporate Woman’s garland seem to represent the twelve tribes of Israel out of which she and her offspring come.  One third of her offspring are cast out of heavenly authority by the tail, the back-side of the Dragon, one might think, in secret.

Those cast down out of heavenly authority by the Dragon’s tail historically have been those of her offspring who have enslaved, oppressed and robbed the Woman’s children in each generation.  They have been church leaders, both Catholic and Protestant, who have enslaved and robbed by religion.  They have been of the nobility and the wealthy classes who have oppressed and killed and have expanded their kingdoms by force.  They are the heads of international corporations and banking systems who seek to devour all economic systems of the earth into one under their own control.  Yet in every enslaved and oppressed generation, some live to perpetuate the Promise.

The Manchild shall be born as surely as the Messiah was born in Bethlehem.  The generation which is to bring forth the Manchild who is “to rule all nations with a rod of iron” may be very close at hand.  The Manchild is not a whole generation.  The Woman, the generation which brings forth the Manchild, continues to live as the Manchild is “caught up to God and His throne.”  She is protected in a wilderness place by two wings of a great eagle with which she flies in heavenly authority, and she is nourished “away from the face of the serpent.”

The Dragon cannot touch the Woman, but he goes to “make war with the remnant of her seed which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”  Is this remnant of her seed not the children across the earth that she has spawned through the Gospel in every nation?

The Manchild born of the Woman of Revelation 12 shall be caught up to God and to His throne.  At that time a voice in heaven shall say, “Now is come salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of His Christ.”

…the devil knoweth that he hath but a short time.
Revelation 12:12

Rise up and Walk

Crippled by Fear

  And they asked him, saying, Master, but when shall these things be? and what sign will there be when these things shall come to pass?
…Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth.    Luke 21:7, 26

Are you crippled by fear?  Do you so fear the end time prophecies that you dread that day and pray against it?  Do terms like “the vengeance of our God[1]” make you want to cover your ears and shut your eyes?  Do you dread the daily news?  Will Christendom be plunged into a new Dark Age as globalists rise to enslave the remaining free people of the world?  Will the United States fall into the hands of those who hold the trillions of dollars debt note?  Will the debt-ridden US citizenry legally lose the protections of their Constitution?  What do you fear?

Evangelical Christian, where is your Good News?  Are you still hoping and praying that the inevitable will not come in your lifetime?
You say, “It must come.  Ya’ know, ‘as it was in the days of Noah…’[2]”
Must we be reminded of who was destroyed in Noah’s flood?

The feet of iron and clay of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream are stomping nation after nation in our day [3].  We must learn to pray as Daniel prayed:

And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:  ⁴ And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;  ⁵ We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments: …
O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations,…
O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive;
O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God:
for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.
Daniel 9:3-19

Are not the Christian nations of the world called by His Name?  Has not the Gospel of Jesus Christ been carried by them to all the world?  Is not the Creator’s Name mocked because of our nations’ sins!

Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly:
Gather the people…
 and let them say, Spare thy people, O LORD,
and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them:
wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?
Then will the LORD be jealous for his land, and pity his people.
Joel 2:15-18

For the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?
Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning…

Who knoweth if he will return and repent,
and leave a blessing behind him?
Joel 2:11-14

Did I hear you say, “That was for Bible times.  We, in the Last Days, cannot pray this way.  The Lord cannot repent of His judgments in our day. Jesus spoke it.”

THAT IS THE FEAR THAT CRIPPLES YOU! 

Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision:
for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.
The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.
The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake:
but the LORD will be the hope of his people
Joel 3:14-16

Do we bury our heads and hope to be spirited out of this judgment day?  Or, do we bury our heads and hope to stay hidden in the hills and caves of the earth?

There is work to be done!  His Name is blasphemed every day because Christian nations allow their foundations to crumble.

Begin as Daniel did, in personal repentance, then repent for the sins of your nation.  Gather others to join you in prayer.  The result will be as the prophet Joel has said:

Then will the LORD be jealous for his land, and pity his people…
I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:
And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.
And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.
The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.
And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered
Joel 2:18, 28 – 32

Christian, put away your crippling fear.

In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth[4]
RISE UP AND WALK!!!

---

[1] Isaiah 61:1-2  The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;  ² To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn.  Does this really sound so bad?

[2] Luke 17:26-27  And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.  ²⁷ They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.

[3] Daniel 2:28  There is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. [Daniel continues to reveal to the King of Babylon the meaning of his dream.]

[4] Acts 3:6

The Word of Reconciliation

For Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement

Only one who has accepted the pain of suffering can understand the forgiveness of reconciliation.

 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection,
and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
Philippians 3:10-11

To forgive without the requirement of repentance is the beginning of reconciling the world to God.

And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ,
and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them;
and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
2 Corinthians 5:18-19

Scenario: A wife is falsely accused by her husband. (It makes no difference if the matter is small or great.) She recounts the facts to him as she knows them. He disregards her words and makes more cutting statements.
She may:
1. grow angry and hold him to pay by her angry coldness until he admits his wrong at which time she will forgive him.
2. forgive his sin not holding him to its charges.

What will become of this husband? What will become of this wife? If the wife makes the choice  of forgiveness # 2, the husband will be committed to the merciful justice of God, instead of being held to the punishment of the lawful charges of the wife. The wife, in taking the second choice, is committing herself to Him who judges righteously, according to I Peter 2:23.

Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not;
but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.

NO NEED TO FEAR
There is nothing in this world or the next that can induce Father God to ignore the suffering of the innocent. He will avenge the innocent, but He is just.

Will He allow the perpetrator to fall into double jeopardy?

REQUIRE VENGEANCE  OR  RELEASE VENGEANCE

Either the victim will require the vengeance of the Law, or the victim will release vengeance into the hands of The Righteous Judge. Reconciliation of the earth can only be accomplished through all vengeance being released into the hands of Him who said, “I will repay.”(1) The prescriptions of the Law are weak (2). They cannot purge sin from the conscience of the sinner. Only the Merciful Almighty can find the individual prescription that will purge each sinner(3). Only He can bring the sinner to complete repentance. His vengeance will not stop short of a purged conscience.

He has committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

FOOTNOTES:

(1)Romans 12:19 “for it is written, vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”

Psalm 94:1  “ O LORD God, to whom vengeance belongeth; O God, to whom vengeance belongeth, shew thyself.”

(2)Romans 8:3  “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:”

(3) Hebrews 9:14  How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

Feasts of Ancient Israel Define Age Dispensations

Here is an article from Dr. Stephen Jones of God’s Kingdom Ministries.  He is describing the spirit of prophecy in the holy feasts of ancient Israel.  Israelites were required to keep three major feasts each year: The Passover, The Feast of Pentecost, and The Feast of Tabernacles.  Each feast prophesies of an age/era in God’s plan.  See Leviticus 23.

Dr. Jones says,
“The Age of Passover began with Israel’s exodus from Egypt and with their entry into the Promised Land at the feast of Passover.  The Age of Pentecost began in Acts 2.  The Age of Tabernacles will begin with the overcomers receiving the fullness of the Spirit.”

How to divide Time into proper Ages

by Dr. Stephen Jones

About 160 years ago, the Church saw the rise of a new teaching called Dispensationalism. Their definition of “dispensation” was a period of time in which God dealt with mankind in some specific manner that characterized that “dispensation.”

For example, from Moses to Christ was said to be the dispensation of Law, and then after the Cross came the dispensation of Grace.

It gave the impression that Law and Grace were incompatible in the Christian’s life. Law came to be despised as if it were obsolete. But grace and faith are everywhere from Moses to Christ, while Law and obedience are taught after the Cross as well.

The only thing that really changed was the FORM of the law. This so-called “Dispensation of Grace” is better described as the Age of Pentecost. But even this does not imply that the Holy Spirit was absent during the previous Age of Passover. The Holy Spirit was present at creation (Gen. 1:2) and continued through Moses, the Judges, David, and the Prophets. The only real difference was the LEVEL of the Holy Spirit, which increased from a “Passover” level to a “Pentecost” level.

Look at all the miracles that took place in the Old Testament time period.  Read more…