Where do your loyalties lie?

There is a pledge of allegiance to Jesus! What is the most important thing? Knowledge of God (Isaiah 5:13)

This is also the question of the hour in Matthew 16

"Who do you say I am?"

My word, the Lord is saying, "You are laying your heart before me, saying "I will go"" but when I lay my heart before you, you refuse to go.

Drink His words in all their glorious inconsistencies.

When you place Isaiah 5, and Revelation 2:8-11 together this is what you get:

In some of the curses that are pronounced against his people there are:

"Woe to you who call good evil, and evil good"

"Woe to those who rise early in the morning,
[That] they may follow intoxicating drink;
Who continue until night, [till] wine inflames them!
The harp and the strings, The tambourine and flute,
And wine are in their feasts;
But they do not regard the work of the LORD,
Nor consider the operation of His hands."

In response to this, God's response is "dig yourselves graves because you will put yourself in them" This is what is meant by "I will lay it waste" (in verse 6)

This phrase in Isaiah 5;5,6 is the center point of the direction of God regarding His vineyard.

We ought to think about the lengths for which God will utterly demolish his inheritance so that they will bear fruit. To bear fruit, implies, it is alive. He is saying "i will bring you to the point of death so that you will live" actually I think that a fair exchange.

I was thinking about how the exhortation to the church of Smyrna falls upon their ears. Jesus finishes the exhortation with these words "be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life" I cannot imagine those that are under this threat of death thinking "I am going to run away" rather this place, the place of death will polarize you. If you are not willing, you simply will not go. You will turn tail and flee (like his disciples did) or you will prepare to die. The exhortation "be faithful until death" will fall on ears that will be exhorted to prepare for this.

What is running through their hearts (and minds)? I thought about Jesus exhortation as the First and the Last. In Daniel 7 it has these words:

"I was watching in the night visions,
And behold, [One] like the Son of Man,
 Coming with the clouds of heaven!
 He came to the Ancient of Days,
 And they brought Him near before Him.
Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom,
 That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him.
 His dominion [is] an everlasting dominion,
 Which shall not pass away,
 And His kingdom [the one]
 Which shall not be destroyed. (emphasis mine)

This is what they were thinking. as opposed to all other kingdoms on the earth, this one will not pass away, this one will not be destroyed.


In fact, their reward is mentioned in both Revelation 5 and Daniel 7. it reads thus:

'But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever.' (Daniel 7:18)

Then the kingdom and dominion, And the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven, Shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most High. His kingdom [is] an everlasting kingdom, And all dominions shall serve and obey Him.' (Daniel 7:27)




And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth." (Rev 5:10)


They were looking for the reward of reigning with Him

We also have an exhortation from Jesus. I know what he is thinking in His heart as He says these words:

But Jesus answered them, saying, "The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him [My] Father will honor.

"I am the First, I am pre-eminant, I am the highest and take precedence. I am the Last, I will be the ultimate end for which anyone lives, And now I am becoming Lord of Death and Life when I die and rise again"

These words are repeated to the church at Smyrna. The question is, "Come die with me!"

Why ought your allegiance be to anyone else?

YWAM Update: We Must Go!

Hello everyone,

Grace and peace be with you in abundance. I am hailing from the home of my parents in Christchurch, New Zealand. With some exciting news! I wanted to share with you, that I will be moving to Queenstown. Why is that, you ask?

This weekend I invited my friend Lara to come for breakfast and to share with her what was happening - God had used her to confirm a direction change to go to Queenstown. However, it wasn't to be! not in the way that I expected anyway.

You see, God had to show me that he is everything that I want, everything that I need, all my passion, desire, delight, sustenance, pleasure, joy, gladness, I'm out of my mind to be saying this!

WE MUST GO!

It's not enough to be sitting in your comfortable surroundings! it's not enough to be given what you want! It has to end with suffering and God's acknowledgement of the goodness of such a thing. Of suffering that reminds you of Jesus, not just reminds, has Him. In other words, "That I may Gain Him, that I may be found in Him"

You who are in your comfortable surroundings are making yourselves enemies of God. He does not condone comfort for the sake of people going to hell without a word

If this makes you tremble, then good, God wants to break your life apart, and show you that he is better than what you gave up, he wants to demonstrate His love for you. if you've never been through trials, then you will complain. But the truth is, no one can say that, not anyone in the world can say that they have never been through trials.

It's just that out in the world, the people will be like the "Lady of the Kingdoms" saying "I will be a lady forever" - totally disregarding all the persecution her lifestyle is bringing. Those who are lovers of the world are enemies of God.

This is his mercy to his church, that he wakes them up out of totally being no Godly good. He wants everyone, regardless of where they come from, adopting a martyr mentality.

Did you make the connection?
I started with God the Father, demonstrating and approving His love for us, by showing his acceptance of the satisfaction of His wrath in Christ. It says "It is finished!" in both John 19:30 and Revelation 16:17

This is then, if we are His sons and daughters, echoed, simply "He forgave me of my sin" now that I am a Son "I have made the choice that I want to give everything to Him because I believe what He has done to be more worth than anything else in life" - then when we are persecuted, tortured, imprisoned, God is giving approval of it, that ought to be everything because He is our Father and He is pleased.

Let me say this: He is worth it. Every painful emotion, every hurt, every circumstance, every confused thought, every moment of perplexity, distress, discomfort, disillusionment, just to be put into the right shape as a vessel and image-bearer of Christ. I esteem him greater riches than the treasures of Egypt (Hebrews 11:26)

My heart is not offended at anything that he has brought along my path, This is the power of his mercy. I could not do it without Him. 

Let me exercise what I believe just happened. Everyone needs to hear this! It can't be stopped! It needs to get out there! This is life! I was seized with fear over what people would think of this! Get over it! I just experienced the greatest pleasure in utter weakness. These are not in contradiction! 

Overcoming SIN, just the beginning

I just experienced something that I have to share with everyone. Out of the overflow of this is a thing that will forever change the way you do everything in life. I want to share this with you

Don't settle for only the family of God, go out as well.

Now think what about I just said!

You have to understand my predicament I am utterly ruined.

I was thinking this way "the next revolution is not the global missions movement" but it is "the Father's heart movement"

Did you know they are the same thing?

Let me explain.

I just EXPERIENCED the full glory of God while I was in my weakness. Point one! you cannot say I'm excluded, because this happened to me when I had nothing!

You see, what I was thinking was this, I'm utterly disillusioned, everything is in calamity, and the things that I enjoyed doing I no longer have any motivation for. Would you guess what these things are? they are spending time with Father, praying, reading the word, and EVERYTHING OF CREATIVITY RELATED TO GOD! who am I talking about? the Father!

For he said to me: "you must come to me because you want to" - it can't come out of dead religion. Equally he said "The reason you will continue to come to me is because you are a Son and you choose to" - this sustains me in the dead times.

I was pondering and thinking, If I have all these things that are wrestling with me, for my attention, maybe this is the time I ought to come to God with supplication. I had something on my heart, so i went and started playing at the piano.

Then I realized the Spirit was being poured out, so I took my voice recorder and started recording. It was motivated by a scripture in Psalm 77, and a statement, "these things will only make the song grow louder, and the little child in me will come out" (From Psalm 8:1,2) actually the inspiration was a song that I had wrote years ago.

Would you imagine what it was?

It was this (very simple)

I see a flame arising, coming from your consuming heart,
I see a fire burning, coming to meet with me!

Who am I talking about? the Father

whose glory, IS the thing that I am after. Am I going to disagree with the Spirit of God?

This is what motivates me to GO! what a profound paradox. did you just get that? I'm ruined, I ought not to be making decisions about what I am going to do.

All of you, hear this!

(I may put the song up later)

Here is the Song.

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