Seek The Light: The King Arrives On Earth - Des Walter

Seek The Light: The King Arrives On Earth - Des Walter: W hen Jesus came to the earth he did not come to start a NEW RELIGION, nor an organization nor to destroy Judaism. Jesus Christ stepped on ...

GOD’S KINGDOM TODAY Although we learned that man was created to express the ‘Zoe’ or eternal Life of God; Zoe life demands certain conditions to exist before it manifests fully in man. Presently, I want to share with you an understanding of how our Heavenly Father purposed for this divine ability to find expression in man. There is a lack of a genuine witness of the manifestation of the power of Christ on earth until the “church” in the world is considered by most people to be irrelevant, having very little positive or uplifting influence on society. The expression of Christ in the life of those who profess to be Christians differs little from the rest of humanity. Sickness and disease are just as prevalent among Christians as they are among the rest of humanity. Adverse issues in life befall Christians just as they do those who do not confess faith in our Savior, until there is no visible evidence of the power of God’s Kingdom on earth today. Our subject matter is the gospel of the Kingdom, which is the only gospel that Jesus preached during His earthly ministry. It is important to note that Jesus did not preach the gospel of salvation that the church has spread around the world. Matthew 4:23 clearly states, And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. What is being preached and demonstrated by the church today is not congruent with the gospel of the Kingdom that Jesus Christ preached and demonstrated. John the Baptist was imprisoned because of his testimony and because of the effectiveness of his ministry. While in prison, he sent GOD’S KINGDOM TODAY his disciples to ask Jesus a pertinent question, “Are you the one that should come, or do we look for another?” (Matthew 11:3). John was the forerunner, the prophet divinely sent by God to announce the coming of the Messiah, the Son of God. John found it hard to reconcile his prophetic calling with being in prison. But John’s questioning 2000 years ago is not different from people today who feel as though God has abandoned them as they go through trials and difficulties in life. They question God’s love for them. Many of the doubts and questioning among Christians - especially under adversity - reveals a tragic lack in their understanding of the ministry Jesus introduced concerning the Kingdom of God. In Matthew 6:33 Jesus declared, “But seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all ‘these things’ shall be added unto you.” In the sixth chapter of Matthew, Jesus Christ reveals important principles through which the Kingdom of God functions. They are not presented as a law. After laying down these principles, Jesus Christ gives us the choice to determine very clearly whether we are willing to be a part of the Kingdom of God or not. This is based upon the fact that in a Kingdom there is only one absolute authority. And if anyone desires to be a part of the Kingdom they must abandon their own personal ideas and adhere only to the voice of the King. “All these things shall be added unto you.” These “things” refer to the wonderful blessings and advantages that are made available to those who submit to the King’s authority. No one can “join the Kingdom”; each individual must be personally accepted by the King. Being a subject of the Kingdom has nothing to do with learning and accepting certain doctrines; the main criteria for each individual is to accept the absolute authority of the King. Remember, Christ dwells in you, so there is no way that you can pretend to be obedient when you are not. In Psalm 139:1-2 - 4 - GOD’S KINGDOM TODAY David states, “O Lord you have searched me and known me, and you know what puts me down, and you know what lifts me up, and you understand all my thoughts.” (Paraphrased) When Jesus sent His disciples out, He gave them this commission in Matthew 10:7-8: “As you go, preach saying, ‘The Kingdom of God is at hand or is already here.’ Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils; freely you have received, so freely give.” Healing the sick was very important because there are no sick people in the Kingdom of God. Jesus Christ never once suffered sickness because His body was controlled by the Spirit, making Him immune to all diseases and infirmities. How did mankind become subject to sickness and death? Back in the garden of Eden, as the woman Eve began to express life independent of Adam, the serpent deceived and convinced her that she had the right to make up her own mind about eating the fruit that God had forbidden Adam and her from eating. God told Adam that in the day he would eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would certainly die. Since that time all of mankind has become a living soul, which is not how God created man in the beginning. Man was created spirit in the likeness and image of God and was therefore eternal. The change in mankind from Adam living in the Garden, to the day we now live is the result of man having established his own mind, a mind beguiled and deceived by the serpent in the Garden. From that time on, that deceived mind gradually took control of man’s physical body until his body became mortal, subject to death. The Apostle - 5 - GOD’S KINGDOM TODAY Paul identifies this “deceived mind” as the carnal mind, or the natural mind in Romans 8:7, “The carnal mind is an enemy of God, for it is not subject to the authority of God.” So while tthe carnal mind is functioning in us we are not able to please God. And so the Kingdom benefits are not available to us. This process encompassed all humanity, making all mankind living souls. God never created a living soul. When Eve responded to another voice - the serpent’s - she allowed an alien authority to usurp control over all mankind. To preach to sinners and ask them to stop sinning will not change their behavior as long as their carnal mind is still functioning. The Apostle Paul provides us with the true answer in Philippians 2:5 when he says, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” Christ Jesus was God’s original man from whom we all have come (Genesis 1:26). Jesus never sinned because He had the mind of Christ which functions in total agreement with God. Everything that Jesus said or did was in harmony with the will and the purpose of God. The concept of kingdom rule is not well understood because the Kingdom’s system of government has almost disappeared in modern life, being replaced by democracy or the rule of the people. In a kingdom, the king is the supreme authority. God established Israel as a kingdom. Indeed, Israel was the only theocracy on earth where God was the Supreme Ruler. God was Israel’s King. God decreed the laws which governed Israel where every man had an inheritance consisting of a piece of land. This was so because the entire land belonged to the King. That which belonged to the father or the head of the family was passed on to the offspring upon his death. The land could not be sold as it belonged to God. What was - 6 - GOD’S KINGDOM TODAY true concerning the land of Israel indeed is true of the whole earth. The whole earth belongs to our God. The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: as for the world and the fullness thereof, thou hast founded them. (Psalm 89:1) THE BASIS OF THE KINGDOM The foundations of the rule of the Kingdom of God were laid down in creation. God created the heavens and the earth. As the Creator, He is the sole owner; all that He possesses exists within the domain of His kingdom. No man can lay claim to the earth, for it was the King who founded the heavens and the earth. Until the flood there was no real ownership of land. However, after Noah’s flood, there was allocation of land among the nations. By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations. (Genesis 10:5) The separation of people into families and nations took place, despite the truth that Paul declared in Acts 17:26. God hath made of o-n-e (blood) all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation. This means that all of mankind came from the same Father, who is God. All mankind is just one family; all are brothers and sisters. For in Him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have - 7 - GOD’S KINGDOM TODAY said, For we are also His (God’s) offspring. (Acts 17:28) In creation, God established both the earth and the people as a kingdom over which He ruled as King with supreme authority over all that He had created. We must face the fact that God’s Kingdom is not evident at all on the earth today as it was when creation was completed. Sickness, lack and poverty have overtaken humanity. The will and purpose of God is not even considered in the life of much of mankind today. Floods, earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, cyclones, disasters and various epidemics bring death and destruction throughout the earth. Unrest and wars destroy lives and nations, further exasperating the mayhem. So where do we start to introduce the Kingdom concept to this world today? It is obvious that man has failed as steward over planet earth, and is to blame for the terrible conditions afflicting nations and peoples. Man lost his dominion and lost the Kingdom through disobedience, forfeiting his right to the provision and blessings of the Garden provided for him. As we are confronted with the issues that Adam had to face, questions arise in our minds. It could have been many ages in which Adam walked and talked with God in glorious harmony and fellowship with his Father before the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone, I will make an help meet for him.” A KING IS BORN Jesus Christ was born a King. Wise men came from the East to worship the King. A king has absolute authority in his kingdom, and many kings who have established kingdoms on the earth in years - 8 - GOD’S KINGDOM TODAY past became tyrants and destroyed the people. In God’s Kingdom, the King accepts total responsibility for the well being of the citizens of His Kingdom. The King becomes the embodiment of his Kingdom. Through Abraham, God promised that He would establish a Kingdom on this earth through which there would be a restoration and a redemption, not just of Abraham’s nation, but of all the nations in the world. God’s program is designed to restore this earth completely and totally to become as the Garden of Eden. In God’s Kingdom there is no sickness, no disease, no poverty, no death and no lack of any kind. We are not speaking about some place up in the sky; God’s Kingdom will embrace the entire world in which we live. Isaiah saw and prophesied the coming of the King, saying, “For unto us a child is born and unto us a son is given and that government shall be upon His shoulder.” (Isaiah 9:6-7) The prophet Daniel also saw both the King and the Kingdom. He saw one like the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven. He was given authority and glory, so that all the nations and the people of every language ‘worshiped’ Him. His is an everlasting dominion, and will not pass away (Daniel 7:13-14). In the Garden of Eden, even after Eve and Adam disobeyed God by eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, God made a promise of the coming of One who would crush the serpent’s head, destroy the power of its deadly poison and end its deception. This promise refers to the ‘seed’ (Jesus Christ), of the woman who fell under the serpent’s power in the Garden of Eden, resulting in the guilty ones having to leave the Garden. The promise of God in Genesis 3:15 concerning the serpent’s destruction was the final step in the redemption of all humanity. This promise introduced a new ‘seed line’ that cannot be affected by the serpent, and opened the way back into the Garden that was a picture of the Kingdom of God - 9 - GOD’S KINGDOM TODAY that was to come. “I will put enmity between thee (the serpent) and the woman and between thy seed (those affected by the serpent, all of humanity) and her seed (the Child of the Virgin by the Christ seed). It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel.” Christ is the seed of the virgin, and at Calvary He paid the price of the serpent’s poison, taking that whole seed line (the seed of man) into death. After being buried, He arose from the dead as a new creation man - no longer subject to the limitations of mankind, and no longer subject to pain, sickness or death. He is the first in a new line, direct from the prototype of Genesis 1:26, Christ Jesus, who was pure and holy and never deceived by the serpent. Christ completely wrought forth the redemption of all humanity because He is the First Adam from the Garden of Eden of whom the apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:45-50, “And so it is written, the first man Adam was ‘made’ a living soul, but the last Adam was made a life giving spirit. But that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, but afterward that which is spiritual. The first man Adam is of the earth earthy, the second man is the Lord from Heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also who are earthy, and as is the heavenly such are they also that are Heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy we shall also bear the image of the Heavenly.” Paul is showing us the progression from living as an earth man - as Adam lived - to living as the children of God. Through Christ’s finished work, we have been redeemed from our former life that was connected with the earth and the seed of man. Now one man, Jesus - 10 - GOD’S KINGDOM TODAY Christ, has broken through the barrier and opened the way for us to see ourselves as the children of God, born of the spirit from above through the Seed of God who is Christ. He made us free of all sin. We have been redeemed from being the earthly Man and have now become the sons of God - from a living soul to a life giving spirit. The Garden of Eden was designed not only to supply all of man’s needs, but also to provide the environment in which man could commune and fellowship with God, in whose image man was crated. The Garden of Eden was not a literal garden but a picture of what the earth was in the beginning, and the kind of life that God intended we should live, in fellowship and communion with the King. In the atmosphere of this “Garden of Eden” there was no lack of any kind in Adam’s life. There was no stress, no sickness, pain or suffering or death, for none of these things can exist in an environment where man walks in fellowship with the King. When the Kingdom of God is established on the earth, the earth will again be as the Garden of Eden, and we will all walk as did Adam - in fellowship and harmony with God. Everything changed when Adam saw himself as incomplete with the female part of the spirit of his true being now walking as a separate entity outside of himself, contrary to how he was created. Adam’s life no longer was centered in fellowship and communion with the King, for he stopped seeing the King as a Father in whom he found his delight. He had been distracted by the woman, and his attitude towards the KING completely changed. Adam’s love towards God changed into fear; God’s affection towards Adam never changed: God loved Adam as his son. That change in the first man Adam affected all of mankind, for the majority of people today are afraid of God and have no true relationship with him. The reason is that we have listened to another voice that told us we are sinners and God is angry with us, putting us out of the Garden of His presence. When we discover that - 11 - GOD’S KINGDOM TODAY the Father dwells within us, we will know that this is a lie. Once we ignore the truth that we were all created in that First Man of Genesis 1:26 who is Christ Jesus, and once we forget that we were created in the likeness and the image of God which is our true identity, we begin to wander off into the imaginary world of mortality and death. When we exclude God from our life we have opened ourselves to a voice that is not on the inside, a voice of deception. We have been lied to regarding the interpretation of Genesis 1:27, that the male and female aspects of the spirit are separate entities. In reality, man was created spirit, and spirit is male and female functioning together as one. When man was created, Father God was the center of our life - the male part of the spirit of our true identity, and we (all mankind) formed the female part of the spirit. For this reason God was able to begat us according to James 1:18 without any help from outside Himself. This means that God and man are not two separate entities. Neither can the male and the female walking on the earth today be separate, because spirit cannot be divided. In John 14:10, Jesus said, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.” Jesus stated clearly that the Father dwelt in Him and therefore in every man. He confirmed this again in John 10:30 when He stated, “I and my Father are One.” However, this is just as true for every one of us as it was for Jesus, for we were created in Christ Jesus. Since He and the Father are ONE, then we must be one with the Father. - 12 - GOD’S KINGDOM TODAY There is no mention of a high fence around the Garden of Eden preventing those on the outside from returning whenever they chose. What kept man from returning was his submission to another authority. Our English Bible says the Lord God ‘drove’ out the Man, as if some force was used; this is not true. In the derivation of the Hebrew word used here we find the word describing a farmer driving the cattle out to pasture, and also of a tree putting forth fruit. So we are not to consider this to be evidence of an angry God. We follow the journey of the first man created from Genesis 1:26, to his being brought forth as a manifestation of that first man with a body made from the dust of the earth. And the breath of God was breathed into his nostrils, in Genesis 2:7. This creature now stands as the first earth man - Adam complete with a physical body - but his essential being is still ‘spirit’ living in a body. This is the man who was placed in the Garden of Eden to guard it and keep it, this man being representative of all mankind. Whatever befalls this single man affects all humanity. Only one issue could radically change man’s relationship with God - disobedience. God said, “You may eat of the fruit of all the trees in the Garden but there is one tree I do not want you to eat the fruit of that tree, which is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. To eat of that fruit will cause death, which will break our relationship, and I do not want to lose you.” (My translation) Moses told the Israelites, “The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people. But because the LORD loved you, and because He would keep the oath which He had - 13 - GOD’S KINGDOM TODAY sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.” (Deuteronomy 7:7-8) It is interesting to note how many times God liberated Israel from slavery and bondage to her enemies. And we are not that different from Israel. In Romans 3:23, Paul declares, “All have sinned (missed the mark) and have come short of the Glory of God.” But the good news is, “For the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the Law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:2) Jesus Christ said, “If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.” (John 8:36) No man can ever free himself, but the Christ of our true identity who dwells in us, has the power to liberate us. There is not a person on this earth that God does not love equally with His Son Jesus Christ. When Jesus Christ went to Calvary’s cross, no one was excluded from the blessing and benefits that His death accomplished for all mankind. What was accomplished there in His death, was pictured in the deliverance of all of Israel from the Pharaoh of Egypt on the night of the Passover. The primary transgression of mankind is our failure to recognize our true identity as the children of God and to honor our responsibility towards God as our Father to love and to obey. Our sins and transgressions were not just forgiven; they were expunged completely. - 14 - GOD’S KINGDOM TODAY There is now therefore no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1a) That includes every person on the earth, for we were all created in Him. Beloved these things are plain to see but we have chosen to consider that God is angry with us so we will have a reason to ignore the truth. Many people would rather believe that God has literally cast us out of the Garden of Eden because of ‘sin’, finding satisfaction in their sorry plight for which they blame God. Let us consider God’s plan of redemption. When Jesus Christ the King was about to be born, there was no suitable place found for Mary to give birth. "There was no room at the Inn." So the King was born in a manger, a shelter for animals. Scroll down 2000 years and we find the same scenario: the King is still waiting to be recognized and to assume His authority over His Kingdom on this earth today in the heart of all mankind. When the wise men called on King Herod 2000 years ago asking him where was the child who was born King of the Jews, he had no idea that another King had been born in his territory. Herod never slept well after those men announced the birth of a King, for there can be only one king in a kingdom. Isaiah 9:6 declares, “Unto us a CHILD IS BORN, unto us a SON IS GIVEN, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his NAME shall be called, Wonderful Counselor, the MIGHTY GOD, the EVERLASTING FATHER, and the PRINCE OF PEACE.” This is the King over all the kings on the earth. But when He was born on this earth, He came in the form of a m-a-n who looked - 15 - GOD’S KINGDOM TODAY like any other man on the earth. What are we to learn from this? Because no other King has ever been born of a Virgin. Why was it a “virgin” that God used to birth Jesus Christ on the earth? In natural conception, the man provides the sperm and the woman provides the egg, ultimately forming a fetus. A child conceived in this manner will be born a mortal human being, because the child is formed from the seed of man. When Father God wanted to bring forth His Son, God choose a different manner because Christ Jesus could not be born from the seed of mankind. He is the Son of God; Isaiah declared, “unto us a child is born, but unto us a Son is given.” No son of God can be born on the earth, because a Son of God must be produced by the seed of God and not the seed of man. In Galatians 3:16, Paul identifies who is the seed of God, Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, "And to seeds," as of many, but as of one, "And to your Seed," who is Christ. When God spoke to Abraham concerning the beneficiaries of the everlasting covenant He had made with him, God specified, “Unto you and your seed.” Paul then explains, God was not talking about many seeds, but only one seed and that Seed is Christ. So the everlasting covenant God made with Abraham was only to the one Seed, which is Christ. Now as we put the truth together, many things become clear. Jesus spoke to Nicodemus and said to him, “Except a man be born from above, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.” What does it mean to be born from ABOVE? It means that we must be born of the Divine Seed of God which is Christ. In Genesis 1:26, all of mankind was created in Him - in Christ - who is the seed of God, and this includes you and me. - 16 - GOD’S KINGDOM TODAY “Unto us a child is born but the son is given.” You may be very surprised to know that your body is the child born. This may also be a shock to many, but in Jeremiah 1:5 God reveals His foreknowledge of the prophet before Jeremiah was born: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you came out from the womb, I sanctified you, and I ordained you a prophet unto the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:5) God spoke these words to a person just like us; these words are true for us today just as they were to Jeremiah. Think about this: God says that He knew you even before you were conceived in your mother’s womb. Clearly you and I had an existence a long time before being born on earth. In that state of existence, you were known by God. This is a shock to those who believe that their life began when they were born from their mother’s womb. Your origin was from another world, with another life quite different from the life you live today. In that life there was no sickness, no pain, and it was filled with a joy in the presence of your Father who found His delight in you. In Proverbs 8:22-31, King Solomon describes the time when Father God poured His love upon you before you were born on this earth, “The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, even before the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth, when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills were brought forth. While as yet He had not made the earth, nor the fields, or the highest part of the dust of - 17 - GOD’S KINGDOM TODAY the earth. When He prepared the heavens, I was there; When He set a compass upon the face of the deep. When He established the clouds above, when He strengthened the fountains of the deep, when He gave to the sea His decree, that the waters should not pass His commandment, when He appointed the foundations of the earth. Then I was by Him, as one who was brought up with Him, and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him. Rejoicing in the habitable part of the earth, and my delight was with the sons of men. Now therefore hearken unto me, O you children, for blessed are those who keep my ways. Hear instruction and reject it not.” (Proverbs 8:22-31) THE IDENTITY OF THE KING Isaiah 9:6 reveals two important issues: the first is that the “child is born; the second is that the son is given and not born. Because that Son is Christ, and Christ is spirit and therefore eternal, spirit cannot be born on this earth; spirit can only be created out of God who is spirit as in Genesis 1:26. In John 14:2-3, Jesus said, In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. What mansions is Jesus speaking of? The term “mansions” - 18 - GOD’S KINGDOM TODAY which refers to big ornate buildings is a poor translation. The actual Greek term means “abiding places,” that altogether form the Father’s House. These abiding places refer to our bodies that are in fact the place where God dwells. In John 14:23, Jesus refers again to the “abiding place” where He dwells saying, “If a man love me he will keep my words, and my Father will love him and will come unto him and make our ‘abode’ with him.” Is it not the desire of every Father to be with his children? In Exodus 25:8, God told Moses, “Let them (Israel) build me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among my people.” It has always been God’s desire to dwell with His children; this is true today. God’s people are in fact the abiding places in which God dwells, and collectively we become the house of God. This may be a surprise to many reading these words today because the generally accepted answer to the question, is that Jesus was speaking about preparing a place in heaven for the Christians after they die. Paul declared, "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus according to God’s will and purpose, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10, paraphrased) This is one of the clearest statements identifying the purpose of man on earth. Because Christ Jesus is the King and we were created in Him, this means that we also must be “Kings.” In 1 Peter 2:9, the apostle declared, “You are a ‘Chosen Generation’ , a royal priesthood, a holy nation and a peculiar people - 19 - GOD’S KINGDOM TODAY (a purchased possession), specifically designed to show forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous Light.” God has previously declared that the government of the Kingdom of God must be through a priesthood. Israel’s priesthood was under the authority of a man - Aaron being the first high priest. The priesthood of God’s Kingdom is under the authority of the High Priest after the order of Melchizedek. Melchizedek was first introduced to us in Genesis 14:18 when he appeared to Abraham who had won the battle over King Chedorlaomer, whose name means ‘a handful of sheaves,’ which were a part of the divine harvest belonging to God. Abraham overcame all the other kings and returned in victory to be greeted by the High Priest of the Most High God through whom the victory was won. Melchizedek brought forth bread and wine - both symbols of the body and the blood of the earthly manifestation of Melchizedek, in Christ Jesus. Under His Priesthood, every other king or authority on this earth must release all those who have been subservient to them, to Melchizedek. In this, Abraham is a type or a picture of the ultimate authority and reign of Melchizedek over the whole earth. We now understand that our body was never created, but it was formed in our mother’s womb; our body is His workmanship. Psalm 139 openly reveals God’s intimate involvement in every aspect of our being. From verse one, David the psalmist declares, “You beset me behind and before, in preparing my body, even before I was conceived. Such knowledge is out of my reach, I cannot comprehend how deeply you were involved in bringing me into this world.” David continues by saying, - 20 - GOD’S KINGDOM TODAY “I will praise You for I am fearfully and wonderfully made, marvelous are your works, and that my soul knows right well. My substance was not hid from You when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lower parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance yet being imperfect, and in Yhy book all my members were written, when in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.” (Psalm 139:14-16) The formation of our body in our mother’s womb was God’s workmanship, making us to function according to His will and purpose. What is not well known is that our body is also the abiding place where Christ Jesus dwells on the earth today. God’s prime purpose in giving man a body was to provide for himself a dwelling place (1 Corinthians 6:19). When the disciples showed Jesus the beautiful temple in Jerusalem He declared, “There will not be one stone left upon another that has not been thrown down.” This was a prophetic word that indicated that God would from that time on cease from dwelling in temples made with hands. From that time He would dwell in the temples He formed for Himself which is our body. So when we speak of a man walking with God we are not speaking about a man walking next to God. No. We are speaking about God walking in those same footsteps, for the King is actually wearing your shoes; He is an integral part of the man. In Colossians 1:27, Paul states, “To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is, Christ in You the hope of - 21 - GOD’S KINGDOM TODAY Glory.” PREPARE FOR THE KING Isaiah 40:3-4 declares, The voice of one crying in the wilderness: "Prepare the way of the Lord; Make straight in the desert A highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted And every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight And the rough places smooth; These verses describe how a people prepared for the arrival of the King and of His coronation by His people. This verse applies to this day in which we live. A king does not just turn up in a kingdom without full preparation for his visit. Recently, Queen Elizabeth II visited Australia; her arrival was preceded by months of preparation for her travel, her accommodation, and every aspect and detail of her itinerary. How much more preparation should we undertake for the King of all kings returning to be crowned and to take up His Kingdom! The Prophet Isaiah speaks of Christ the Lord waiting today for His people to receive Him as King to take up residence in the throne within each one of us. He has been waiting for our preparation to be complete to receive the King for a “coronation service,” in which we personally crown him as Lord and King to rule and reign over us individually. No one is ever forced to bow to the King, which is very unlike most authority on the earth, where we have no choice but to submit. We have been allowed the right to decide if we will give Christ authority over us or retain to our independence, choosing - 22 - GOD’S KINGDOM TODAY our own pathway in life. To hand over such authority to another, is dependant upon us seeing the advantage of the King’s wisdom and knowledge, and His unlimited Love for every one of us - all of which we have found to be experientially true, as life on this earth becomes more complex. Please keep in mind that the King actually never left His kingdom, because He indwells every man on earth. This truth lays dormant in the consciousness of most Christians; hence, the need to prepare for the coming of the King in their own individual life! Isaiah prophesied of the return of the King 3000 years ago. However, the nation of Israel who was God’s chosen people at that time ignored the news. Instead, Israel asked Samuel to give them a king like all the other nations. They had rejected their King who is God. Today the church in the world still elects her king (Pastor) not understanding the fact that their true King is Jesus Christ, dwelling in them. Christians have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior, but not as their King to rule and reign over them, because others have stepped into that position. This is because the Kingdom has little or no place in the life of God’s people today. Before the King will agree to come and take His place of authority in our lives, He needs to know that everything is arranged for the coronation. This is the heart of Isaiah 40:3-4, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” Our creation was incorporated in the Creation of the First Man Christ Jesus: whatever He was, we are exactly the same on earth today (Ephesians 2:10) This also means the will and purpose of God for us must also be the same as that which pertained to Christ Jesus. Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem in - 23 - GOD’S KINGDOM TODAY the same form of man that we have today, visited at his birth by dignitaries whose identities have not been released, except that they were declared to be men of wisdom, who came many miles directed by a star to worship the One who was born a King. Today Christians celebrate Christmas, considering that this is an obligation on our part to sing carols, eat and drink and be merry. But for the majority, the true concept of the birth of the King Jesus Christ on this earth, and our personal involvement with His dwelling in us today, has been all but forgotten. I am not speaking against having a happy time at 'Christmas', but we are missing the import of what is represented by the birth of the King to claim His Kingdom. MAN'S RELATIONSHIP TO THE KINGDOM Paul made it very clear that all of mankind which was naturally born on earth were in fact created in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:10). This is important because God made a covenant with Abraham saying, "I will establish my covenant between me and thee and your seed after you in their generation for an everlasting Covenant, to be a God unto you and to your seed." So God's Covenant with mankind is with Abraham and his "Seed" which means his offspring. It was the Apostle Paul who declared who Abraham's Seed is, "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He did not say, and to seeds, meaning many, but referred to only one seed, and that Seed is Christ." (Galatians 3:16) - 24 - GOD’S KINGDOM TODAY So Christ Jesus the First Man is actually the Seed of God, and this Christ dwells in every man, which means that all of mankind are included in the everlasting covenant God made with Abraham. However, this is contrary to what the Church has been teaching for 2000 years. Christians deny this truth because of John 3:3, Where John states, "Except a man be born (again) from above, he cannot see the Kingdom of God." The word "again" is not a true rendering of the Greek as it should be, born from above, which is clear also from Paul's teaching in Ephesians 2:10, "For we are his workmanship, (speaking concerning our body formed in our mother's Womb) created in Christ Jesus, unto good works, which God has ordained for us to walk in them." "We were created "in Christ Jesus." This tells us that the origin of mankind is from above, that is, it is not simply our birthing on this earth, which only has to do with the formation of our body in our mother's womb, but ‘man’ was created spirit, in the image and the likeness of our Father God, who is spirit. It is important to know that the body is not you, it is the spirit dwelling in the body that is you. However, if we have no concept of our origin from above, then we will believe that we are simply mortal human beings, and the Kingdom of God, which is a spiritual Kingdom will not be recognized. That is why Jesus tells us that the man must be born from above or he will not be able to see the Kingdom of God. The Scriptures are clear that "as a man thinks in his heart or consciousness that is what he is." A man who is only conscious of his natural birth will not be able to function spiritually. This naturally thinking man is spiritually blind, deaf and dumb. - 25 - GOD’S KINGDOM TODAY Jesus healed the deaf, the blind and the dumb to demonstrate this higher spiritual truth. The natural things we can see in life run parallel with the spiritual things which are invisible to our natural eyes. For example, the lame man represents in the spirit realm a man who cannot walk in the ways of God. Many Christians see the miracles of Jesus only from a physical point of view, but Christ saw them with a spiritual application. “For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—then He said to the paralytic, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” (Matthew 9:5-6) The blind man was questioned by the Pharisees about how he could now see, and “Who did this?” All he could say was, “Once I was blind but now I can see (the Christ).” The King sent His disciples out in the beginning of His ministry commanding them to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom and heal the sick. The role of Jesus Christ on this earth as King was to establish His Kingdom after Israel had failed to accept the responsibility for the Kingdom of God. Israel lost her right to be the Kingdom when she asked Samuel for a king like all the nations (1 Samuel 8:5). “Therefore say I unto you, (Israel) the Kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.” (Matthew 21:43) The Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of God are the same. The word ‘heaven’ has nothing to do with the fantasy land most Christians believe they go to after they die. The Greek word for - 26 - GOD’S KINGDOM TODAY heaven is "Ouranus" and means above, as in authority being higher than any authority on this earth. The truth is that all the kingdoms of this world will become the Kingdom of our God and of His Christ who is the King. Unto the King of all Kings, shall every knee bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. "Lord" means the Owner. Please ponder these things to understand that we are not speaking about some religious concept of God's program for this world. In spite of this, the Church says almost nothing concerning the Kingdom except to relegate it to some future time in the sweet bye and bye. If the previous statements have not caused you to open your ears to hear more about the Kingdom of God, perhaps the following will break through your understanding. From God's viewpoint, the Kingdom is already finished and complete in the realm of spirit. Jesus told the people of His day, "The Kingdom is already here," because the King is here; in fact it was the King that was speaking to them, but they did not recognize Him. Because in the mind of the people, He did not appear to look like a King. One of the snapshots of the King that is most dear to Christians today is a man hanging on a cross with a crown of thorns on his head, stark naked, with his life draining away. Over his head is an official sign which said, “JESUS OF NAZARETH - THE KING OF THE JEWS” What a contradiction - a King being crucified with two criminals, by the very people he had brought into the world through Father Abraham, and who delivered them from the greatest military power on the earth at that time, Egypt. In their journey as a nation through the wilderness, the King fed them for 40 years, provided water from a rock that flowed for 40 years, destroyed their enemies and then gave them the promised land. How many Christians wearing a cross around their neck today - 27 - GOD’S KINGDOM TODAY have this picture in their mind? That cross they wear is made of gold, bright and shiny, but His cross is wood and stained with His own blood... and He is the King. Please allow the spirit to cause your mind to comprehend the total ingratitude of the people who stood at that cross on that day rejoicing over His death. He was the sinless Son of the living God - King of Kings and Lord of Lords. But do not think that it is only Israel that is guilty, for we also are just as involved as they were. OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO THE KINGDOM We are told in Genesis 1:26 that man was created in the likeness and the image of God, and God is spirit. There is only one spirit in the universe and there is no other; the man created in Genesis 1:26 is spirit and that man is Jesus Christ. In 1 Corinthians 6:19, Paul declares, "Do you not know that your body is the temple or dwelling place of God." This means that the body of man is the place where God dwells today, and it is in the heart of man that the King desires to establish His throne from which He would rule the world. “Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: And ye shall be unto me a Kingdom of Priests, and an holy nation.” (Exodus 19:5) The Kingdom of God is the divine government which God had purposed to rule over the whole earth. God’s children must come to realize that the only thing that will save the world is to have Christ the King ruling and reigning in us; and then extending His rule over - 28 - GOD’S KINGDOM TODAY the nations through us, until this world becomes the Kingdom of our God and of His Christ. Then there will be peace on earth. Our responsibility is to be the Kingdom builders under the King, a holy nation of kings and priests divinely connected to God, obeying the directions of the King. When the governmental order of God’s Kingdom is manifest over the earth, the whole world become a singular theocratic nation. God had purposed for all mankind to submit to the kingship of Jesus Christ. Israel’s priesthood was supposed to be an example of God’s theocratic government; however, there was no clear line of authority established from God to priesthood of Aaron and his family. Lack of obedience to the voice of God saw corruption entering in and the King only had limited control. Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon His kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this. (Isaiah 9:7) Isaiah 9:7 gives us further insight into the Kingdom. The authority of the King is absolute: it must be extended globally until every kingdom, nation, order and people are brought under the control of the King. This means all governments and power through out the earth must be taken out of the hands of greedy men and placed in the hands of the King. Because in a kingdom there is only one authority, the King’s authority which is supreme and above all. This is why the church in the world today cannot be the Kingdom, and has failed to present the truth of the Kingdom of God. Every church has its individual king - the local pastor - who - 29 - GOD’S KINGDOM TODAY assumes his authority over the people. And this is why the church continues to divide the people in every nation on the earth. If the church was based upon Kingdom principles, there would only be one King and one authority - Christ Jesus. When He is honored as King, the church would be united throughout the world. All the present kingdoms or nations on this earth must be brought under the authority of Jesus Christ the King, until there is nothing that is not under His control. We must understand that the basis of the Kingdom rests with every man bowing the knee to the King. This must begin with those who claim to be Christians, because a Christian is one over whom Christ is Lord and King, and not only Savior. The concept of the absolute authority of the King ruling and reigning over us individually has never been taught; most people retain a large percentage of their right to make decisions for themselves. This is why the Kingdom has never functioned on an individual level. And this is why there has never been a plausible manifestation and genuine evidence of the Kingdom exhibited on earth. There are two aspects of Kingdom rule which must function simultaneously. 1. First, the government and rule of the King is always increasing. 2. Secondly, with the ever increasing reign of the King, peace is extended. Isaiah 9:7a states, “of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end”. There must be an increasing submission in our individual lives to the government and rule of Christ until we all crown Him King and Lord. Only then can we begin to subdue all things in the world, bringing them under the control of the King. This will occur only when the “Gospel of the Kingdom” is preached, causing mankind to recognize the King and - 30 - GOD’S KINGDOM TODAY bow the knee to Him. So many Christians superficially equate submission to the Lord with abstinence from smoking, drinking alcohol, gambling and other vices. He requires a total surrender to His voice. As the manifestation of Christ’s government increases, and as He rules increasingly in the heart of man, genuine peace is extended by the Prince of Peace. We live in a world that knows very little peace. The breakup of families through divorce has created a very troubled generation of children. Nations war against nations; and even within the same country, various factions live in strife and turmoil warring against their fellow countrymen. Governments fail to govern the people with equity, justice and respect for the dignity of man. Today, there is little peace in the heart of man, causing him perplexity, utter confusion and loss of hope. So man tries to numb his spiritual pain with alcohol and mind altering drugs exasperating the confusion. Young people are alienated from their parents and no one sees the vital truth: peace can only come from the Prince of Peace. In John 14:27, Jesus told His disciples, “Peace I leave with you, MY peace I give unto you: not as the world gives, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace. His peace, however, can only function in our lives though the Christ (Spirit) indwelling us. We will never know Christ’s peace through our natural or carnal mind. Christ is one with the Father who created all things and sustains all of creation by the word of His power. When the King is in charge, we will live in peace. When we live in full obedience to the voice of the King dwelling in us we will experience His peace and the joy of His Kingdom. - 31 - GOD’S KINGDOM TODAY This indicates that the peace of God which surpasses all understanding that Christ Jesus said would be the function of our spiritual mind, if we let this mind which was also in Christ Jesus rule in our consciousness (Philippians 2:5). The Christ and the man must be seen as one, functioning through one mind, expressing a singular consciousness. We must become a total expression of who He is and not an imitation! Only then can we express that peace of God which is Kingdom life. The gospel we preach must be based upon the same spiritual aspirations that we seek: our ‘good news’ must be the gospel of the Kingdom of God which affirms the authority of the King who indwells every man. Obey the King and you will receive the peace which passes all understanding. Jesus said, “If you love me you will keep my commandments.” The word ‘love’ has lost its meaning in the world today. In marriage, a man says to his wife “I love you.” But in so many cases that ‘love’ can so easily turn to hate. Love is giving and not getting. “God so loved the world,” but that love caused Him to “give us His Only begotten Son” to dwell in us and also to redeem us from our mortal slavery as He died on Calvary’s cross. This is the ultimate expression of true love. God does not simply love us; the higher truth is that God is love (1 John 4:16). Love is an intrinsic and innate aspect of the Father’s character. In John 14:23 Jesus said, “If a man loves me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” This is true obedience to authority. Isaiah 9:7 clearly states that God’s Kingdom shall be established upon the throne of David. Indeed, David’s life reveals valuable lessons concerning the Kingdom of God. Israel suffered under the failed leadership of Saul who never submitted to the authority of God; just as many of us today suffer under the authority of the carnal mind. But in His infinite wisdom, God long ago had - 32 - GOD’S KINGDOM TODAY made preparation and had anointed a man who could deliver the nation of Israel from being enslaved by the Philistines. Goliath, the Philistine giant, challenged Israel to a singular, man-to-man fight: the nation of the loser of the fight becomes the slave of the nation of the victor. Israel had no man to answer Goliath’s challenge and was preparing to surrender to the Philistines. Today, God’s people face the same challenge in a more subtle way: our mortality demands our submission to its limitations as the years roll by. If ‘age’ had any reality, God would be extremely old by now and very limited in what He could do. But did not the Lord declare through the Prophet Isaiah, “But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31) Our consciousness is rooted in our mortality, despite the truth that our beginning is not in our natural birth on the earth. Our genesis is in creation out of God in Genesis 1:26. The zoe nonceasing eternal life of God was breathed into the nostrils of the first earth man Adam; this divine breath - and life - is not subject to the limitations of natural life and its consequence of death. It can never be! Because that zoe life is continual and perpetual as much as God Himself is eternal and without beginning nor end. In John 17:5, Jesus confidently prayed, “Now O Father, glorify me with your own self and with the glory that I had with you before the world WAS.” Was it this ‘world’ He was referring to? Surely Christ never allowed Himself to be influenced by the hypnotic concept of ever being separate from His Father; He never considered there could be another world other than the world which was. - 33 - GOD’S KINGDOM TODAY Israel had forgotten their “miracle” origin through Abraham and the seed of God. The children of Israel were terrified by the size of the Philistine giant, Goliath. Even though they had dethroned God when they asked Samuel to give them a king, God would not allow the Philistines to destroy His kingdom and His people. God had a secret weapon: a young lad by the name of David, who had no army training and no great skills. But David had already been anointed with the holy anointing oil by Samuel. David was visiting his brothers who were among Israel’s army; and David heard the challenge of the giant Goliath and volunteered to fight the giant that he may deliver Israel. The power of the Divine anointing is hardly recognized among God’s people today but let me remind you what the scriptures say: But the anointing which ye have received of Him abides in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teaches you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him. (1 John 2:27) The term anointing is the Greek word ‘khris-mah’ and literally means to be enchristed; that is to be endowed with the attributes of Christ. Because we were all created in Christ Jesus, we share the same anointing with Him that He presently has, because He indwells us. As we allow Him to express Himself through us today that same anointing will continue to function. Did He not say, “the things that I do you can do also.” David was anointed in his father’s house as Samuel poured the holy anointing oil on his head; this anointing equipped David to deliver Israel and to finally be the King over Israel and to ultimately deliver them from all their enemies. The young man David was allowed by Saul who was then King over Israel to go and fight the - 34 - GOD’S KINGDOM TODAY giant. He rejected Saul’s armor and only took five little stones and his slingshot with him to destroy a mighty giant armed with spear, sword and shield. But the giant did not know this boy had been anointed of God. David needed only one stone, representing the Stone that the builders of the Kingdom refused in Israel. Nothing more was needed. While the Giant ranted and raved David ignored his taunts and continued to move closer. With the lad’s size and lack of armament confusing the giant, David addressed this representative of the Philistines, “You come to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the Lord deliver you into my hand; and I will smite you, and take your head from you; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.” (1 Samuel 17:45-46) David’s stone left his sling and found its mark on the forehead of the giant: Goliath fell to the ground. It was the anointing that brought the giant down, and in doing so the entire nation of Israel was saved from slavery. These are not simply stories we can tell our children; these are proof and evidence of how Christ functions on the earth today through the anointing that is on every man. Most of God’s people have little consciousness or understanding of what great anointing lies dormant within them. This anointing was not just upon David the shepherd boy, but was actually the anointing of the King who was resident in him and in all of mankind that was created in Christ Jesus. Beloved, it - 35 - GOD’S KINGDOM TODAY matters not what we may be in the natural, but we all have been touched by the holy anointing oil of God, and when that registers in our consciousness we will never be the same. It will change our entire life, and allow you to see what the Father wants you to see, even though others cannot see it. This anointing is given to us today so that we can have our spiritual eyes open to see mankind walking about on the earth today in a ‘dream world’ of mortality, crying over the evil that is slowly destroying the peace and tranquility of planet earth, having eaten the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Who is going to set all creation free by establishing Jesus Christ as King in the lives of mankind? This is where the Kingdom of God actually begins. Manifesting the Kingdom on earth today is a great challenge to God’s people; the Kingdom begins in everyone of us - where the King is already installed and anointed. But we have never crowned Christ as King and Lord over our lives, having chosen our own king - Saul, or the flesh - to reign over us. Consequently, we suffer sickness, pain, poverty and lack of every kind. We endure all this while our Heavenly David, Christ the Lord - who can destroy all our enemies and can release us from slavery to mortality - remains uncrowned. When David ruled, the armies of the nation of Israel continually overcame in battle until they had overcome every nation that opposed them by the end of David’s reign. Israel lived victoriously as a free nation in a hostile world. And so shall it be for God’s people when His kingdom manifests in the earth. It all begins when He is crowned King and Lord, one life at a time. If we view this as a parable of the Kingdom, the holy anointing upon the shepherd boy is a promise and a picture of the King rising in each and every one of us, subduing all enemies in this world. This is parallel to what Psalm 8:4 declares concerning us: - 36 - GOD’S KINGDOM TODAY You made the man a little lower than the angels (Elohim) and crowned him with glory and honour, and set him over the works of your hands: You have put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that You put all in subjection under him (the man), You left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him (the man). But we see “Jesus”, (the ‘man’ with Christ within) who was made a little lower than Elohim for the suffering of death, (which Christ could not do as Spirit) crowning (the man Jesus Christ) with glory and honor; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man. For it became Him (Christ) for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many (more) sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both the one that sanctifies and the ones who are sanctified, are all of one: for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren (Brothers) with the same Father. (Hebrews 2:7-11, paraphrased... Compare Psalm 8:4) The divine government of God’s Kingdom is not an interim regulation subject to revision and modifications; God’s Kingdom is eternal from its inception. Many Christians have been taught that the Kingdom shall one day be established in the far distant future, and has nothing to do with us today. Remember that Jesus taught his disciples to pray 2000 years ago, saying, “Thy kingdom come, and Thy will be done on this earth as it is already being done in the spirit world.” - 37 - GOD’S KINGDOM TODAY Jesus never suggested that the Kingdom was reserved for a future time at the end of the ages. Babylon, this confused world of religion, has totally deleted the concept of the Kingdom of God from the gospel that is being preached around the world. The primary focus of the church is not God ruling the earth today. Church doctrine has deferred the rule of God on the earth to the end of the ages. The church in the world fails to read and comprehend the very words with which Jesus began His earthly ministry: “The Kingdom of God is here; it is in you.” This is how we begin to see the Kingdom. The Kingdom begins when King Jesus not only reigns within us; it begins when He has been personally crowned in our life today. While the King is in charge of your life, there will be no more bad decisions, no more mistakes, and nothing can touch your life. His knowledge is infinite. This may suggest that we are abdicating our responsibility to live our own life. Consider these truths. Christ is your true identity because you were created in Christ. When the King rules over your life, then Christ - the real you - assumes all responsibility. The ‘mortal you’ ceases to exist, because God never created a mortal human being. He created man as spirit, which is what you still are today. Secondly our body does not belong to us. Paul said, What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? (It does not belong to you.) May the spirit of wisdom and knowledge open to your understanding what Father is saying to His sons today.

Melchizedek

It is through the priestly office that the church will be built. The first priest according to the Melchizedek order was Melchizedek who came to Abraham after the slaughter of the kings and brought to Abraham the bread and the wine. In Zechariah, it says Jesus will build the church through the office of the priest and the king. The very message of salvation is first of all that Jesus comes to you with the bread and the wine. Jesus comes to you, not as your judge, not as one who would criticize, but He comes to you as one bringing to you the true bread and the wine. The bread is simply our spiritual food.

John 6:32-35 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

To have our spirit fed and to be renewed in the spirit of our mind we must eat the Bread which came down from heaven. Of course we know Jesus taught in allegories and parables. The Bread which came down from heaven was the Living Word. The Word became Flesh. To eat the bread is to assimilate and feast on the living word. The living word is within all of us as we all came from the heavenly realms and was made flesh. We also can give life to the world when we awake to our true identity and realize we also can speak words that give life. Jesus told his disciples, “The words that I speak are spirit and they are life.” The words that we speak that flow from our spirit also give life to those who can hear them.

John 6:56-57 He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.

We all desire to live by Jesus. However we cannot live by him by worshiping him or serving him in a religious way. Christianity has worshiped him for 2000 years but not many live by him. To live by him we must eat and drink him. To eat him is to feast on the living bread and to drink him is to learn to enjoy the Christ within. The cup of wine in communion represents the Blood and wine is for enjoyment. Melchizedek always brings the bread and wine. The Melchizedek priest never comes to condemn but to give you life more abundantly. We may not have the strength to overcome some our bad habit patterns but we can all practice feasting on the living word and enjoy the Christ within. This will in time take care of the carnality within us.

We can all receive Him as the Bread of Life which gives to us His abundant life enabling us to begin to live according to His life and become a habitation of God in the spirit. The only way we will ever become a habitation of God, the only way we will ever put down the habits of the flesh, the only way we will ever, satisfy the heart of God is to learn how to assimilate into our being the Bread of Life. This is what Jesus meant when he said thing like, I am the Way, truth and life.” He was not talking about his flesh man. He said “I of mine own self can do nothing.” It was the Christ within him that was the way and we all have Christ within us.

There’s only one way that we as a believer will ever become filled to overflowing with God, and it won't be by teaching, it won't be by preaching, and it won't be by the Gifts of the Spirit. The scripture says "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." Zechariah said, Jesus will come, and He will build the church, but He'll do it as a priest and a king. He first has to fill you. Let me say it this way: You first have to receive Him as the Bread, and begin to enjoy Him in your daily life. You begin to have Him fill you, and you receive Him as your Bread and begin to enjoy Him as your life supply. He will then become your king. Religion will always get it backwards, religion will always say "He must become your king for Him to receive you". But if you will receive Him, and learn to feed on Him in your daily life, and experience Him as your Bread and your Wine, your food and your enjoyment, He will then become your King.

Let us be glad and rejoice for we are surly beginning to awake in his likeness.

The Unselfishness of God And How I Discovered It

The Unselfishness of God
And How I Discovered It

By Hannah Whitall Smith

Chapter 21
Questionings

During all the years of which I speak the Plymouth Brethren were, as I have said, among my principal teachers. But I began gradually to find some things in their teachings that I could not accept; and this was especially the case with their extreme Calvanism.

There have always been, I believe, differences of opinion among them in regard to this view; but those with whom I was thrown held very rigidly the belief that some people were "elected" to salvation, and some were elected to "reprobation," and that nothing the individual could do could change these eternal decrees. We of course were among those elected to salvation, and for this we were taught to be profoundly thankful. I tried hard to fall in with this. It seemed difficult to believe that those who had taught me so much could possibly be mistaken on such a vital point. But my soul revolted from it more and more. How could I be content in knowing that I myself was sure of Heaven, when other poor souls equally deserving, but who had not had my chances, were "elected," for no fault of their own, but in the eternal decrees of God, to "Reprobation?" Such a doctrine seemed to me utterly inconsistent with the proclamation that had so entranced me. I could not find any limitations in this proclamation, and I could not believe there were any secret limitations in the mind of the God who had made it. Neither could I see how a Creator could be just, even if He were not loving, in consigning some of the creatures He Himself, and no other, had created, to the eternal torment of hell, let them be as great sinners as they might be. I felt that if this doctrine were true, I should be woefully disappointed in the God -whom I had, with so much rapture, discovered.

I could not fail to see, moreover, that, after all, each one of us was largely a creature of circumstance-that what we were, and what we did, was more or less the result of our temperaments, of our inherited characteristics, of our social surroundings and of our education; and that, as these were all providentially arranged for us, with often no power on our part to alter them, it would not be just in the God who had placed us in their midst, to let them determine our eternal destiny.

As an escape from the doctrine of eternal torment, I at first embraced the doctrine of annihilation for the wicked, and for a little while tried to comfort myself with the belief that this life ended all for them. But the more I thought of it, the more it seemed to me that it would be a confession of serious failure on the part of the Creator, if He could find no way out of the problem of His creation, but to annihilate the creatures whom He had created.

Unconsciously, one of my children gave me an illustration of this. She waked me up one morning to tell me that she had been lying in bed having great fun in pretending that she had made a man. She described the color of his hair and his eyes, his figure, his height, his power, his wisdom and all the grand things he was going to do, and was very enthusiastic in her evident delight in the joy of creation. When she had finished enumerating all the magnificent qualities of her man, I said to her, "But, darling, suppose he should turn out badly; suppose he should do mischief and hurt people, and make things go wrong, what would thee do then?" "Oh," she said, "I would not have any trouble; I'd just make him lie down and chop his head off."

I saw at once what a splendid illustration this was of the responsibility of a Creator, and it brought to my mind Mrs. Shelley's weird story of the artist Frankenstein, who made the monstrous image of a man; which, when it was finished, suddenly to his horror, became alive and went out into the world working havoc wherever it went. The horrified maker felt obliged to follow his handiwork everywhere, in order to try to undo a little of the mischief that had been done, and to remedy as far as possible the evils it had caused. The awful sense of the responsibility that rested upon him, because of the things done by the creature he had created, opened my eyes to see the responsibility God must necessarily feel, if the creatures He had created were to turn out badly. I could not believe He would torment them forever; and neither could I rest in the thought of annihilation as His best remedy for sin. I felt hopeless of reconciling the love and the justice of the Creator with the fate of His creatures, and I knew not which way to turn. But deliverance was at hand, and the third epoch in my Christian experience was about to dawn.



Chapter 22
The Third Epoch In My Religious Life

As I stated in the last chapter, after a few years of exuberant enjoyment in the good news of salvation through Christ for myself and for those who thought as I did, my heart began to reach out after those who thought differently, and especially after those who, by reason of the providential circumstances of their birth and their surroundings, had had no fair chance in life. I could not but see that ignorance of God and as a result, lives of sin, seemed the almost inevitable fate of a vast number of my fellow human beings, and I could not reconcile it with the justice of God that these unfortunate mortals should be doomed to eternal torment because of those providential circumstances, for which they were not responsible, and from which, in a charge majority of cases, they could not escape. The fact that I, who no more deserved it than they, should have been brought to the knowledge of the truth, while they were left out in the cold, became so burdensome to me, that I often felt as if I would gladly give up my own salvation, if by this means I could bestow it upon those who had been placed in less fortunate circumstances than myself.

I began to feel that the salvation in which I had been rejoicing was, after all a very limited and a very selfish salvation, and, as such, unworthy of the Creator who had declared so emphatically that His "tender mercies are over all His works," and above all unworthy of the Lord Jesus Christ, who came into the world for the sole and single purpose of saving the world. I could not believe that His life and death for us could be meant to fall so far short of remedying the evil that He came on purpose to remedy, and I felt that it must be impossible that there could be any short-coming in the salvation He had provided. I began to be convinced that my difficulties had simply arisen from a misunderstanding of the plans of God, and I set myself to discover the mistakes.

As I have said, my first refuge had been in the annihilation of the wicked. But this had soon seemed unworthy of a wise and good Creator, and a very sad confession of failure on His part; and I could not reconcile it with either His omnipotence or His omniscience. I began to be afraid I was going to be disappointed in God. But one day a revelation came to me that vindicated Him, and that settled the whole question forever.

We very often had revivalist preachers staying with us, as we sought every opportunity of helping forward whit we called "gospel work." Among the rest there came one who was very full of the idea that it was the privilege and duty of the Christian to share, in a very especial manner, the sufferings of Christ, as well as in His joys. He seemed to think our doing so would in some way help those who knew nothing of the salvation of Christ; and he had adopted the plan of making strong appeals on the subject in his meetings, and of asking Christians who were willing for the sake of others, to take a share of these sufferings upon themselves, to "come forward" to a front bench in the meeting to pray that it might be granted them. Somehow it all sounded very grand and heroic, and it fitted in so exactly with my longings to help my less fortunate fellow human beings, that although I did not go "forward" for prayer at any of his meetings, I did begin to pray privately in a blind sort of way that I might come into the experience, whatever it was. The result was very different from what I had expected, but it was far from tremendous.

I had expected to enter into a feeling of Christ's own personal sufferings in the life and death He bore for our sakes, but instead I seemed to have a revelation, not of His sufferings because of sin, but of ours. I seemed to get a sight of the misery and anguish caused to humanity by the entrance of sin into the world, and of Christ's sorrow, not for His own sufferings because of it, but for the sufferings of the poor human beings who had been cursed by it. I seemed to understand something of what must necessarily be His anguish at the sight of the awful fate which had been permitted to befall the human race, and of His joy that He could do something to alleviate it. I saw that ours was the suffering, and that His was the joy of sacrificing Himself to save us. I felt that if I had been a Divine Creator, and had allowed such an awful fate to befall the creatures I had made, I would have been filled with anguish, and would have realized that simple justice, even if not love, required that I should find some remedy for it. And I knew I could not be more just than God. I echoed in my heart over and over again the lines found by one of George Macdonald's characters engraved on a tombstone.

"Oh Thou, who didst the serpent make,
Our pardon give and pardon take."

I had been used to hearing a great deal about the awfulness of our sins against God, but now I asked myself, what about the awfulness of our fate in having been made sinners? Would I not infinitely rather that a sin should be committed against myself, than that I should commit a sin against any one else? Was it not a far more dreadful thing to be made a sinner than to be merely sinned against? And I began to see that, since God had permitted sin to enter into the world, it must necessarily be that He would be compelled, in common fairness, to provide a remedy that would be equal to the disease. I remembered some mothers I had known with children suffering from inherited diseases, who were only too thankful to lay down their lives in self-sacrifice for their children, if so be they might, in any way, be able to undo the harm they had done in bringing them into the world under such disastrous conditions; and I asked myself, Could God do less? I saw that, when weighed in a balance of wrong done, we, who had been created sinners, had infinitely more to forgive than any one against whom we might have sinned.

The vividness with which all this came to me can never be expressed. I did not think it, or imagine it, or suppose it. I saw it. It was a revelation of the real nature of things--not according to the surface conventional ideas, but according to the actual bottom facts--and it could not be gainsaid.

In every human face I saw, there seemed to be unveiled before me the story of the misery and anguish caused by the entrance of sin into the world. I knew that God must see this with far clearer eyes than mine, and therefore I felt sure that the sufferings of this sight to Him must be infinitely beyond what it was to me, almost unbearable as that seemed. And I began to understand how it was that the least He could do would be to embrace with untold gladness anything that would help to deliver the being He had created for such awful misery.

It was a never-to-be-forgotten insight into the world's anguish because of sin. How long it lasted I cannot remember, but, while it lasted, it almost crushed me. And as it always came afresh at the sight of a strange face, I found myself obliged to wear a thick veil whenever I went into the streets, in order that I might spare myself the awful realization.

One day I was riding on a tram-car along Market Street, Philadelphia, when I saw two men come in and seat themselves opposite to me. I saw them dimly through in veil, but congratulated myself that it was only dimly, as I was thus spared the wave of anguish that had so often swept over me at the full sight of a strange face. The conductor came for his fare, and I was obliged to raise my veil in order to count it out. As I raised it I got a sight of the faces of those two men, and with an overwhelming flood of anguish, I seemed to catch a fresh and clearer revelation of the depth of the misery that had been caused to human beings by sin. It was more than I could bear. I clenched my hands and cried out in my soul, "O, God, how canst thou bear it? Thou mightest have prevented it, but didst not. Thou mightest even now change it, but Thou dost not. I do not see how Thou canst go on living, and endure it." I upbraided God. And I felt I was justified in doing so. Then suddenly God seemed to answer me. An inward voice said, in tones of infinite love and tenderness, "He shall see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied." "Satisfied!" I cried in my heart, "Christ is to be satisfied! He will be able to look at the world's misery, and then at the travail through which He has passed because of it, and will be satisfied with the result; If I were Christ, nothing could satisfy me but that every human being should in the end be saved, and therefore I am sure that nothing less will satisfy Him." And with this a veil seemed to be withdrawn from before the plans of the universe, and I saw that it was true, as the Bible says, that "as in Adam all die-even so in Christ should all be made alive." As was the first, even so was the second. The "all" in one case could not in fairness mean less than the "all" in the other. I saw therefore that the remedy must necessarily be equal to the disease, the salvation must be as universal as the fall.

I saw all this that day on the tram-car on Market street, Philadelphia --not only thought it, or hoped it, or even believed it--but knew it. It was a Divine fact. And from that moment I have never had one questioning thought as to the final destiny of the human race. God is the Creator of every human being, therefore He is the Father of each one, and they are all His children; and Christ died for every one, and is declared to be "the propitiation not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2:2). However great the ignorance therefore, or however grievous the sin, the promise of salvation is positive and without limitations. If it is true that "by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation," it is equally true that "by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." To limit the last "all men" is also to limit the first. The salvation is absolutely equal to the fall. There is to be a final "restitution of all things," when "at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." Every knee, every tongue-words could not be more embracing. The how and the when I could not see; but the one essential fact was all I needed-somewhere and somehow God was going to make every thing right for all the creatures He had created. My heart was at rest about it forever.

I hurried home to get hold of my Bible, to see if the magnificent fact I had discovered could possibly have been all this time in the Bible, and I had not have seen it; and the moment I entered the house, I did not wait to take off my bonnet, but rushed at once to the table where I always kept my Bible and Concordance ready for use, and began my search. Immediately the whole Book seemed to be illuminated. On every page the truth concerning the "times of restitution of all things" of which the Apostle Peter says "God Hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began," shone forth, and no room was left for questioning. I turned greedily from page to page of my Bible, fairly laughing aloud for joy at the blaze of light that illuminated it all. It became a new book. Another skin seemed to have been peeled off every text, and my Bible fairly shone with a new meaning. I do not say with a different meaning, for in no sense did the new meaning contradict the old, but a deeper meaning, the true meaning, hidden behind the outward form of words. The words did not need to be changed, they only needed to be understood; and now at last I began to understand them.

I remember just about this time, in the course of my daily reading in the Bible, coming to the Psalms, and I was amazed at the new light thrown upon their apparently most severe and blood-thirsty denunciations. I saw that, when rightly interpreted, not by the letter, but by the spirit, they were full of the assured and final triumph of good over evil, and were a magnificent vindication of the goodness and justice of God, who will not, and ought not, and cannot, rest until all His enemies and ours are put under His feet. I saw that the kingdom must be interior before it can be exterior, that it is a kingdom of ideas, and not one of brute force; that His rule is over hearts, not over places; that His victories must be inward before they can be outward; that He seeks to control spirits rather than bodies; that no triumph could satisfy Him but a triumph that gains the heart; that in short, where God really reigns, the surrender must be the interior surrender of the convicted free men, and not merely the outward surrender of the conquered slave. Milton says, "Who overcomes by force hath overcome but half his foe," and I saw that this was true.

Read in the light of these views, my whole soul thrilled with praise over the very words that had before caused me to thrill with horror. "Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered; let them also that hate Him flee before Him. As smoke is driven away, so drive them away: as wax melted before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God." God's wrath is against the sin--not against the sinner, and when His enemies are scattered, ours are also. His sword is the righteousness that puts to death sin in order to save the sinner. The fire of His anger is the "refiner's fire", and He sits, not as the destroyer of the human soul, but as its purifier, to purge it as gold and silver are purged.

"Implacable is love
Foes may be bought or teased
From their malign intent;
But He goes unappeased
Who is on kindness bent."

The Psalmist says, "Thou wast a God that forgavest them, though thou takest vengeance of their inventions;" and with this key to interpret it, all the denunciations of God's wrath, which had once seemed so cruel and so unjust, were transformed into declarations of His loving determination to make us good enough to live in Heaven with Himself forever.

I might multiply endlessly similar instances of the new illumination that shone in entrancing beauty on every page of the Bible, but these will suffice. I began at last to understand what the Apostle Paul meant when he said that he had been made the minister of the new testament, not of the letter but of the spirit , for "the letter killeth but the spirit giveth life." Things I had read in the letter, and had shuddered at, now read in the spirit and filled me with joy.



Chapter 23
The Unselfishness of God
I have always felt that this time my real discovery of the unselfishness of God began. Up to then, while I had rejoiced in the salvation for myself that I had discovered, I had been secretly beset from time to time with a torturing feeling that, after all, it was rather a selfish salvation, both for Him and for me. How could a good God enjoy Himself in Heaven, knowing all the while that a large proportion of the beings He had Himself created were doomed to eternal misery, unless He were a selfish God? I had known that the Bible said that He was a God of love, and I had supposed that it must be true, but always there had been at the bottom of my mind this secret feeling that His love could not stand the test of comparison with the ideal of love in my own heart. I knew that, poor and imperfect as my love must be, I could never have enjoyed myself in Heaven while one of my children, no matter how naughty, was shut out; and that He could and did enjoy Himself, while countless thousands of His children were shut out, seemed to me a failure in the most essential element of love. So that, grateful as I had felt for the blessings of forgiveness and of a sure and certain hope of Heaven for myself, I still had often felt as if after all the God I worshiped was a selfish God, who cared more for His own comfort and His own glory than He did for the poor suffering beings He had made. But now I began to see that the wideness of God's love was far beyond any wideness that I could even conceive of; and that if I took all the unselfish love of every mother's heart the whole world over, and piled it all together, and multiplied it by millions, I would still only get a faint idea of the unselfishness of God.
I had always thought of Him as loving, but now I found out that He was far more than loving: He was love, love embodied and ingrained. I saw that He was, as it were, made out of love, so that in the very nature of things He could not do anything contrary to love. Not that He would not do it, but actually could not, because love was the very essence of His being. I saw that the law of love, like he law of gravitation, is inevitable in its working, and that God is, if I may say so, under this law, and cannot help obeying it. I saw that, because He is love, He simply, in the very nature of things, must be loving. It is not a matter of choice with Him, but a matter of necessity. And I saw that, once this fact was known, to trust in this God of love would be as natural as to breathe. Every doubting question was answered, and I was filled with an illimitable delight in the thought of having been created by such an unselfish God. I saw that as a matter of course the fact of His being our creator was an absolute guarantee that He would care for us, and would make all things work together for our good. The duties of ownership blazed with tremendous illumination. Not its rights, of which I had hitherto chiefly thought, but its duties, the things ownership necessarily demands of its owner. I saw that just as in a civilized community people are compelled by public opinion, or if necessary by the law, to take proper care of things that belong to them, so our Creator, by the laws of common morality, is compelled to take proper care of the creatures He has created, and must be held responsible for their well being.

It was all so glorious that it often seemed too good to be true, that we actually did belong to such an unselfish God; that many a time, when a fresh insight into His goodness would come over me, I would be obliged to get my Bible and open it at the texts that declared we really were His property, and put my fingers on them, and read them aloud, just to reassure myself that they did actually say, without any limitations, that He was my owner.

The expression "Remember thy Creator" assumed a totally different aspect to me. I had always thought of it as a kind of threat held over us into good behaviour; but now it seemed full of the most delightful warrant and assurance that all was well for the creatures this unselfish Creator had created. I saw that God was good, not religiously good only, but really and actually good in the truest sense of the word, and that a good Creator was of course bound to make every thing go right with the creatures He had created. And the fact that nothing was hid from His eyes, which had once been so alarming, now began to seem the most delightful fact in the whole universe, because it made it certain that He knew all about us, and would therefore be able to do His best for us.

My own feelings as a mother, which had heretofore seemed to war with what I had believed of God, now came into perfect harmony.

My children have been the joy of my life. I cannot imagine more exquisite bliss than comes to one sometimes in the possession and companionship of a child. To me there have been moments, when my arms have been around my children, that have seemed more like what the bliss of Heaven must be than any other thing I can conceive of; and I think this feeling has taught me more of what are God's feelings towards His children than anything else in the universe. If I, a human being with limited capacity, can find such joy in my children, what must God, with His infinite heart of love, feel towards His; In fact most of my ideas of the love and goodness of God have come from my own experience as a mother, because I could not conceive that God would create me with a greater capacity for unselfishness and self-sacrifice than He possessed Himself; and since this discovery of the mother heart of God I have always been able to answer every doubt that may have arisen in my mind, as to the extent and quality of the love of God, by simply looking at my own feelings as a mother. I cannot understand the possibility of any selfishness on the mother's part coming into her relation to her children. It seems to me a mother, who can be selfish and think of her own comfort and her own welfare before that of her children, is an abnormal mother, who fails in the very highest duty of motherhood.

If one looks at what we call the lower creation, one will see that every animal teaches us this supreme duty of self-sacrifice on the part of the mother.

The tiger mother will suffer herself to be killed rather than that that harm should come to her offspring. She will starve that they may have food. Could our God do less? I speak of self-sacrifice, but I cannot truthfully call it sacrifice. Any true mother, who knows the reality of motherhood, would scorn the idea that the care of her children involved a sacrifice, in the ordinary sense of sacrifice, on her part. It may involve trouble or weariness but not what I could call sacrifice. The sacrifice would be if she were not allowed to care for them, not if she were. I know no more fallacious line of argument than that which is founded upon the idea that children ought to be grateful for the self-sacrifice on the mother's part. Her claim to love and consideration on the part of her children depends altogether to my mind upon how true a mother she has been in the sense I describe; and I believe that thousands of disappointed mothers, who have not received the gratitude and consideration they would like, have only themselves to thank, because they have demanded it, instead of having won it. All this has taught me to understand God's feelings towards us that what we call self-sacrifice on the part of Christ was simply the absolutely necessary expression of His love for us; and that the amazing thing would have been, not that He did it, but if He had not done it.

Since I had this insight of the mother-heart of God, I have never been able to feel the slightest anxiety for any of His children; and by His children I do not mean only the good ones, but I mean the bad ones just as much. Are we not, distinctly told that the Good Shepherd leaves the ninety and nine good sheep in order to find the one naughty sheep that is lost, and that He looks for it until He finds it? And, viewed in the light of motherhood, has not that word "lost" a most comforting meaning, since nothing can be a lost thing that is not owned by somebody, and to be lost means only, not yet found. The lost gold piece is still gold, with the image of the King upon it; the lost sheep is a sheep still, not a wolf; the lost son has still the blood of his father in his veins. And if a person is a lost sinner, it only means that he is owned by the Good Shepherd, and that the Good Shepherd is bound, by the very duties of His ownership, to go after that which is lost, and to go until He finds it. The word "lost" therefore, to my mind, contains in itself the strongest proof of ownership that one could desire. Who can imagine a mother with a lost child ever having a ray of comfort until the child is found, and who can imagine a God being more indifferent than a mother? In fact I believe that all the problems of the spiritual life, which are often so distressing to conscientious souls, would vanish like mist before the rising sun, if the full blaze of the mother-heart of God should be turned upon them.

Moreover I saw that, since it was declared we were created in the image of God, we were bound to believe that the best in us, and not the worst was the reflection of that image, and .that therefore things which to us in our best moments looked selfish, or unkind, or unjust, or self-seeking, must never, no matter what the "seeming", be attributed to God. If He is unselfish, He must be at least as unselfish as the highest human ideal; and of course we know He must be infinitely more.

All the texts in the Bible revealing God's goodness shone with a new meaning, and I saw that His goodness was not merely a patronizing benevolence, but was a genuine bona fide goodness that included unselfishness and consideration, and above all justice, which last has always seemed to me one of the very first elements of goodness. No unjust person could ever, in my opinion, lay the slightest claim to being good, let their outward seemings of goodness be as deceiving as they may. I had in short such an overwhelming revelation of the intrinsic and inherent goodness and unselfishness of God that nothing since has been able to shake it. A great many things in His dealings have been and still are mysteries to me; but I am sure they could all be explained on the basis of love and justice, if only I could look deep enough; and that some day I shall see, what now I firmly believe, that His loving kindness is really and truly over all His works.

I do not mean to say that all this acquaintance with God came to me at once; but I do mean to say that when I had that revelation on the tram-car in Philadelphia that day, a light on the character of God began to shine, that has never since waned in the slightest, and has only grown brighter and brighter with every year of my life. It is enough for me to say "God is" and I have the answer to every possible difficulty.

The amazing thing is that I, in company with so many other Christians, had failed, with the open Bible before me, to see this; and that all sorts of travesties on the character of God, and of libels upon His goodness, can find apparently a welcome entrance into Christian hearts. To me such things became at this time well-nigh intolerable. I could listen patiently, and even with interest, to any sort of strange or heretical ideas that did not touch the character of God, but the one thing I could not endure, and could not sit still to listen to, was anything that contained, even under a show of great piety, the least hint of a libel on His love or His selfishness.

I shall never forget a memorable occasion in our own house, when a celebrated Preacher from Boston , was visiting us. The conversation at the breakfast table turned on the subject of God's love, and this Preacher declared that you must not count on it too much, as there were limits as to what His love could endure, just as there were limits to a mother's love; and he went on to declare that there were certain sins a daughter could commit which the mother never could forgive, and which would forever close her heart and her home against her child, and he asserted that it was just so with God, and that he considered it was a grandmotherly religion that taught anything different.

I have no doubt his object was to combat my views on Restitution, although we were not talking on that subject; but he evidently wanted to convince me that God was not quite so foolishly loving as I thought. It was more than I could endure to hear both mothers, and the God who made mothers so maligned, and although the speaker was my guest, I broke forth into a perfect passion of indignation, and declaring that I would not sit at the table with any one who held such libelous ideas of God, I burst into tears and left the room, and entirely declined to see my guest again. I do not say this was right or courteous, or at all Christlike, but it only illustrates how overwhelmingly I felt on the subject. The honor of God seemed to me of more importance than any ordinary rules of politeness. But I see now that I might have vindicated that honor in an equally effectual but more Christlike way.

Still to this day, the one thing which I find it very hard to tolerate, is any thing which libels the character of God. Nothing else matters like this, for all our salvation depends wholly and entirely upon what God is; and unless He can be proved to be absolutely good, and absolutely unselfish, and absolutely just, our case is absolutely hopeless. God is our salvation, and, if He fails us, in even the slightest degree, we have nowhere else to turn.

The Benedict Arnold Society by Chuck Harder

The Benedict Arnold Society by Chuck Harder

For those who forgot who he was, he was at first a US Officer in the Revolutionary war and at a later date turned against the US and sold out to the British for about $10,000 pounds sterling. He did all he could to help the British and soon was known as a traitor. Benedict Arnold escaped first to New Brunswick and then went to England where he and his sons had a mercantile business. He died about 1791 in England. Had he been caught in the USA he would have been hung as a traitor.

The following entries have been researched and are the opinions after such research of the writers herein. If any factual claim is not correct we wish to hear from you and your research for a correction if is warranted. Abraham Lincoln IS NOT INCLUDED in this group. He is noted as saying during the railroad era, “If we buy a ton of rails from England for $20.00 then we have the rails and they the money. If we buy a ton of rails from an American for $25.00 then we have the rails and keep the money.”

The first President and American Traitor was Woodrow Wilson. He was a man who was a believer in a new world society. To that end, he and Colonel House began the FEDERAL RESERVE which is not federal nor a reserve. It is a private bank that prints our money is NOT OWNED BY THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. Our Presidents up to Roosevelt and Truman were honest American’s as far as we can find. But then after WWII and 160 million people died worldwide the International Bankers took over starting with the 1944 conference at Bretton Woods. Let’s start out with an honorable President who was duped by the Rockefeller-Kissinger crowd. Dwight D. Eisenhower was a good and honest man. He was duped after World War II that the United States should promote TRADE NOT AID. The conference at Bretton Woods in 1944 after the war was essentially what the world bankers wanted and not the USA people who were then and still are constantly duped. In World War II Standard Oil (The Rockefellers) had tanker ships across the global
oceans and would sell oil to any side of the war. Oddly, none of their tankers was ever sunk. They were paid through the BANK OF INTERNATIONAL SETTLEMENTS that existed in a mountain retreat during WWII and did business with all sides and exists to this day.

Shortly thereafter we lost the optics and watch business due to “Trade not aid.” Fairchild Camera, Graflex, Kodak Cameras, Bell and Howell and Wall Cameras were all sacrificed to rebuild Germany and Switzerland. Uncountable thousands lost their jobs at Elgin Watch in a town where I grew up and the famous Bell and Howell line of movie and still cameras, photo lab printers, and other such equipment was taken over by Takita of Japan and other Japanese companies. Hasselblad took over the precision camera business and Yashica, Pentax, Minolta and Mamiya finished off the American companies in the optical and film business. FUJI now has almost a 100% lock on any color film business.
When John F. Kennedy was elected he wanted to rebuild the USA and we believe he was an honest man. One of his early moves aside from starting NASA was to try to do away with the Federal Reserve which is actually a private bank and is not federal but owned by 12 rich families and the bank of England who used their monetary power to pick and choose who got elected and in our opinion, who got shot.

Kennedy in 1963 began to issue $5 dollar bills with a red seal that said FEDERAL TREASURY NOTE. He bypassed the FEDERAL RESERVE that is not Federal and has no reserve. Just three weeks after doing so he was “taken out” by two imported hit men who were paid $100,000.00 each and spirited away back to Germany and Holland. President Lyndon Johnson stopped the printing and circulation of the $5 bills ASAP after he was sworn in and all went back to the Federal Reserve. Johnson was a humble school teacher until he got into office. He died a multi-millionaire and his wife
got FCC licenses to build TV stations that were worth uncountable millions of dollars. Johnson also started the Maquilladora program where factories could move to the Texas/Mexico border. The plants were built on the border and the executives worked on the USA side and then the hallway had a line painted that said MEXICO border. The assembly work was then done by penny per hour frightened Mexican workers. On the Mexico side there was no parking lot as the workers were collected in buses each Morning.

When Richard Nixon was elected the first thing he did was to follow Henry Kissingers dream of a new global government. To that end, Nixon gave away the consumer electronics business to Japan. Soon American manufacturers of color TV’s, radios and record players went broke here in the USA. Matshushita, (the same wonderful
folks who brought us World War II) and SONY and other Japanese plants took over the entire industry.

When AMPEX of Redmond, Washington invented ¾ inch video tape the plants soon were only in Japan. SONY soon had one-inch video tape for broadcasters and replaced RCA and Phillips who used to make color TV Cameras. Nixon had an apartment in a building owned by the Rockefeller family in New York City. David Rockefeller who destroyed his own bank took over telling Kissinger his Dreams.

During the COLD WAR only two American Jets could land in Russia. One was David Rockefeller and the other was Dr. Armand Hammer a heartless world industrialist. Gerald Ford just did as he was told by the Wall Street Bankers and just kept us on a path of destruction.

Jimmy Carter, (The Nuclear Scientist?) was inept and did what he was told. The Panama Canal was a critical possession of the USA. Uncountable thousands died building it for the good of the USA. Jimmy gave it to the Panamanians for FREE to save the Midland Marine Bank of New York. Traitor? Clinton, Carter, Bush and Carla Hills were on the podium endorsing NAFTA and GATT but when his fellow landowners and foresters got the shaft Jimmy Carter wrote a letter to the NEW YORK TIMES called, “A Failed Timber Policy.” He was crying that NAFTA AND GATT put American lumber people out of work. He forgot all the other millions of Americans that saw their factories move offshore as Washington lied and called them GOOD EXPORTS.

Ronald Reagan essentially “Let George Do it.” George Herbert Walker Bush, Sr. Was driven in a limousine to his schools During the depression. Daddy Bush was a biggie with Brown Brothers, Harriman a big New York banking firm. George is the father of NAFTA and GATT and was fascinated with his dreams of a NEW WORLD ORDER. Not mentioned was his ownership in the Carlyle Group that owns lots of world wide assets in energy. Bush’s family owned a lot of deals in China so he was anxious for full trade with China that destroyed our industrial base. Remember, he is the Senior Member of the “I’ve Got Mine Club.” He did not know what a scanner was at the check out counter of a food store. SHAME ON HIM.

Bill Clinton championed the passage of NAFTA and GATT by saying to Congress, “THE STORE IS OPEN.” Whatever they wanted they got for the votes to confirm NAFTA and then GATT. Millions of Americans lost their homes, savings and jobs so this self serving greedster got what he wanted. At the same time, Hilliary installed her college roomie Margerat Milner Richardson as head of the IRS. Later due to the politically motivated audits of Clinton Enemies Ms. Richardson was forced to resign from the IRS. Clinton openly sold our rocket secrets to China for money but was never blamed. On his last day in office, Clinton pardoned murderers and other criminals that even upset THE NEW YORK TIMES who fell over their boots to support him. Please GOOGLE: The Clinton Pardon List and read it. You will puke.

Bush, Jr. kept up the “FREE TRADE” banter with CAFTA and further ruined industry in the USA. When 9/11 hit the heavy equipment you saw on TV at the site had names like KOMATSU and other Japanese names. Even the Bobcat small digging machine is made in Japan.

Now, OBAMA. Nobody can find anyone who remembers him from the graduating classes in the colleges he said he attended. His picture is not in any yearbooks. ABC and FOX news could not find ONE STUDENT at any university who knew him. He is a mystery man and we wonder where he got all the money to do what he has done without any job in any form of industry. He continues FREE TRADE and essentially does what he is told. When the FCC needed millions of converter boxes from Analog to HD TV they were all made in China instead or re-starting the electronics industry in the USA. Mr. Obama has ducked the challenge to re-industrialize the USA. His family are members of the Communist Party and he was taught as a Muslim in Indonesia. Nobody really knows where he was born as a plaque in Kenya states “Here is the birthplace of US President OBAMA.”

The Future: Many problems are on the horizon. We ask you to become aware and study them as there is no other hope but in the American People who died to keep us FREE but sadly we have been constantly fooled by the people we trusted.