Our History Reritten

Our History Rewritten

Earlier this year during worship we sang a song that said, “You rewrote my history!” this had a profound effect on my understanding of Psalm 139:16 NKJV, “Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.” I understood that when I was born again that GOD forgave my sins and did not see them when He looked at me or thought about me. He did not see my past life of sin, He only saw my life as He had written it out before I was born. When I became a Born again Christian at the age of 23 much of my first 22 years were erased in the sea of forgetfulness and He sees them as they should have been as they were written! This is another amazingly awesome concept of who GOD is and how He sees and interacts with us.

So why do I believe this?

“O LORD, You have searched me and know me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend (winnow) my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O LORD, You know it altogether. You have hedged (enclosed) me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; I cannot attain it…For You formed my inward parts; You covered (wove) me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was (Lit. bones were) not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O GOD! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number that the sand; when I awake, I am still with You.” Psalm 139:1-6 & 13-18 NKJV.

So GOD knows everything about me and He wrote out all the days of my life before I was born. Then I was born and lived my life how I was brought up and influenced by family, friends, and society. I did and said things not based on the Father’s plan for my life but based on my own wants and desires. Then on my 23^rd birthday I began the experience of salvation through Jesus Christ, when I repented I was washed in the blood of the Lamb my sins were forgiven and I was made a new man by the power of the Holy Spirit. My sins were thrown into the sea of forgetfulness and GOD sees me as I was meant to be when He formed me in my mother’s womb. So what happens when He looks at my life as a whole, if my sins are removed and He does not see them what does He see? He sees my life as He wrote it to be, there are no gaps!

How do I know? Here is an example: The birth of Moses and his first encounter with the Hebrews, “And a man of the house of Levi went and took as wife a daughter of Levi. So the woman conceived and bore a son. And when she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid him three months. But when she could no longer hide him, she took an ark of bulrushes for him, daubed it with asphalt and pitch, put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river’s bank…And the child grew, and she brought him in to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. So she called his name Moses, saying, ‘Because I drew him out of the water.’ Now it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out to his brethren and looked at their burdens. And he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. So he looked this way and that way, and when he saw no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. And when he went out the second day, behold, two Hebrew men were fighting, and he said to the one who did the wrong, ‘Why are you striking your companion?’ Then he said, ‘Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?’ So Moses feared and said, ‘Surely this thing is known!’ When Pharaoh heard of this matter, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian; and he sat down by a well.” Exodus 2:1-3, 10-15 NKJV

Here is the abbreviated version from Hebrews 11:23-27, “By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king’s command. By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of GOD than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible.” NKJV

Exodus is what happened before the Cross and Hebrews is how GOD wrote it out while Moses was in his mother’s womb.

In His Hands

“But Zion said, ‘The LORD has forsaken me, and my LORD has forgotten me.’ ‘Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you. See I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; your walls are continually before Me.’” Isaiah 49:14-16 NKJV

Over the years I have heard people quote the Bible as saying GOD has written our names on the palms of His hands. I believe that is the implied understanding of Isaiah 49:16 and as I was thinking about that I thought how awesome it was that whenever GOD; our Heavenly Father; looked at the palms of His hands He saw my name. Every time! But more than that He sees the names of every person that was ever conceived or at least every person that ever called on His name for salvation. How awesome!

Yet as I took the effort to find the actual scripture and read it I was amazed at what it actually says. It is so amazing that I checked every translation that I have and they all say the same thing. GOD did not just write my name in the palm of His hand; He inscribed me in the palm of His hand. When He looks at His palms He sees everything about me there is to know. This is where Psalm 139 is so amazing in that it says that GOD wrote out all the days of our life before any of them existed.* This means that when He looks at the palms of His hands He sees everything about every person ever conceived. That is awesomely amazing!

There are some who will say this is about the Jews only, it was written to the Jews and is for the Jews, but in the context of the whole chapter it is about Jesus and salvation for humanity. There are some who will say this is for believers only, but GOD loves every person ever conceived and Jesus died for every person ever conceived.

If your view, understanding, faith in GOD struggles with this then your view of GOD is just too small; go back and study Genesis chapters 1-5 and The Gospel of John chapters 1-3. Our Heavenly Father the triune GOD, Elohim, who made everything that exists also lives in all believers, we are His living temple in the earth, He spreads out the universe like a cloak and holds all creation in His hands. Stop thinking of GOD only as a Father who provides for our daily needs and loves us so much that He sent His only begotten Son to die for us so that we don’t have to go to hell with the devil. He is so much more than that, more than we will ever know and understand in this mortal life. So we should be seeking to know and understand Him as much as we can!

*Earlier this year during worship we sang a song that said, “You rewrote my history!” this had a profound effect on my understanding of Psalm 139:16, “Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.” NKJV. I understood that when I was born again that GOD forgave my sins and did not see them when He looked at me or thought about me. He did not see my past life of sin, He only saw my life as He had written it out before I was born. When I became a Born again Christian at the age of 23 my first 22 years were erased in the sea of forgetfulness and He sees what they should have been as if they were! This is another amazingly awesome concept of who GOD is and how He sees and interacts with us.

Temple

Temple

There are 3 Hebrew and 3 Greek words that are translated temple in the Bible. The 3 Hebrew words are translated house, palace and temple; the 3 Greek words are translated sacred, priestly, edifice, temple, a dwelling place, inner sanctuary and house.¹

Temple = name given to complex of buildings in Jerusalem which was the center of the sacrificial cult for the Hebrews. Three temples stood successively on Mt. Moriah in Jerusalem: Solomon’s, Zerubbabel’s and Herod the Great’s. See 2 Chronicles 3 & 4; 2 Samual 7; 1 Chronicles 17, 28:12-19; 1 Kings 6 &  7; Leviticus 16:14-15; 2 Kings 25:8-17; Jeremiah 52:12-23; Ezra 6.²

The word temple is used many times in the Bible in reference to the worship of GOD and as His dwelling place.

GOD dwells in a heavenly temple Psalm 11; Ecclesiastes 5:1-2; Isaiah 6:1-4.

GOD does not dwell in temples made by man Isaiah 66:1-2; Acts 7:44-50, 17:22-28.

Don’t put your trust in the natural or earthly temple Jeremiah 7; Micah 3; Matthew 12-1-8, 24:1-2.

We will dwell in GOD’s eternal temple Psalm 36:5-9, 65:1-4; John 14:1-3; Revelation 21.

We are GOD’s temple in the earth 1 Corinthians 3:16-18, 6:19; 2 Corinthians 2:16; Ephesians 2:19-22.

The key to this teaching is that GOD’s Kingdom has come on the earth because Christ gave His life as a ransom for humanity on the cross rose from the grave and ascended to heaven and then He sent His Holy Spirit to live in those who believe in Him. We are the temple of GOD in the earth. When we understand that GOD dwells in us so that we can serve and obey Him then we will walk in the fullness of His Kingdom while we are on the earth as it is in Heaven.

“Nevertheless when one turns to the LORD, the veil is taken away. Now the LORD is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the LORD is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the LORD, are being transformed into the image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the LORD. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from GOD, and you are not your own? And what agreement has the temple of GOD with idols? For you are the temple of the Living GOD. As GOD has said: ‘I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their GOD, and they shall be My people. Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of GOD, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple of the LORD, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of GOD in the Spirit.”

Study the gospels and see what Jesus said about the Kingdom of GOD.

All scripture is from The Holy Bible The New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1994

¹ Young’s analytical Concordance of the Bible, Wm. B. Eerdman’s Publishing Company

² The New Compact Bible Dictionary, Zondervan Publishing House, 1967

He Was Separated From Himself

He was separated from Himself by our sin or He separated from Himself to forgive our sin.

Even in the flesh Jesus was fully GOD, the Bible says He was the fullness of the GODhead incarnate and yet for our sake He was separated from The Father by our sin. In the flesh as He hung on the cross He who knew no sin, became sin for us, to pay the ultimate price which was separation from the Father. When He cried out, “My GOD, My GOD, Why have you forsaken Me?” at that moment He died in the flesh unable to bear our sin in the presence of the True and Living GOD. He took the ultimate punishment that we were destined to suffer for our sin, separation from GOD.

Jesus the Father and Holy Spirit were one before during and after His life in the flesh. This is essential to understand the magnitude of who Jesus was in the flesh and what He did. Elohim the triune GOD who created everything that exists is one GOD and He is The Father, The Son, The Holy Spirit. If your god is not the one true GOD Jehovah than you need to seek Him because only He; by His gift of salvation to humanity through Jesus Christ; can and will keep you from going to hell. Rejecting Jesus the Bible teaches us is the sure path to eternal hell.

Jesus was not defeated on the cross, Jesus did not suffer in hell, Jesus suffered separation from Himself! As the son of man He went to the cross to pay the required price for our salvation, the shedding of the blood of one pure and innocent who had no sin of His own to pay for. His willing innocent live was the price to redeem us to our Heavenly Father. Separation from the Father was the eternal punishment that we were going to receive at judgment for our sin, but Jesus was separated in our place. While He was in hell He preached liberty to the captives and led them to freedom, He defeated death and hell taking the keys of their dominions.

No one who has claimed to be god has claimed the ability to redeem people from hell, no one who has claimed to be god has given his own life to redeem humanity from eternal hell, no one who has claimed to be god has raised himself from the dead: except Jesus Christ.

What He did was: give His physical life because we could not save ourself from sin and hell. While in hell He was still fully GOD and He defeated death and hell, then He rose from the grave and gave us His victory. When we ask Him to forgive our sin and to be LORD of our life then we receive the fullness of the work of salvation that He completed for us. He did not do any of this for Himself He did it for us because GOD loves us and does not want us to be separated from Himself for eternity. The Bible teaches us that hell was created for the devil and fallen angels not for humanity, but that when we like the devil reject GOD (sin) then we condemn ourself to hell.

If you do not want to spend eternity in hell then you have to call out to Father GOD to forgive you for being a sinner in Jesus’ name and ask Holy Spirit to come and fill your life with the presence and power of the fullness of GOD so that you can live for Him as Jesus lived and died for you. Otherwise you’ll spend eternity in hell being tormented with (not by) the devil.

We Are The Temple

Many touched Jesus as He ministered and were healed! So why did He make a big deal about the woman with the issue of blood touching Him as He was walking?

To show that we can touch him at any time and receive the same grace and healing power as during the time of ministry. It’s not about the special situation or time of ministry, it’s about His eternal omnipotent presence to heal.

He was the Kingdom of Heaven present on the earth then and after His ascension He sent His Spirit to live in believers making us His Living Temples here on the earth. His Kingdom has come and it is up to us to do His Will by The Holy Spirit through yielding and humble obedience.

There are many worship songs where we tell Holy Spirit that we want, need and are desperate for His presence. The problem is that we do not present Him our body as a holy sanctified temple for His presence.

How you ask do we do that, by obeying His commandments, start with the 10 Commandments. Then obey Jesus’ commands, Love GOD with our whole heart, mind, body and strength and love your neighbor as yourself; love your enemies; be one as He and the Father are one, that is be in unity with all believers. Then to make sure check against the lists of things not to do in the epistles.

It might seem daunting but it is not really hard, it just requires an honest heart and willing obedience. That is what Jesus presented before Heavenly Father, an honest heart and a willing obedience when He prayed in the Garden the night before He was crucified.

For any who truly do not know the Bible references or how to study the Bible message me, for those who believe but are not sure use your Bible or eBible study tools do the study and learn for yourself. We are all going to be held accountable before Jesus for knowing and obeying His commandments to us The Church.

GOD's Kingdom Has Come

During His earthly ministry Jesus taught His disciples to pray, “Our Father who is in Heaven, holy is Your name. Let your Kingdom come and let Your Will be done in the earth as it is in Heaven. Give us today our daily needs. Forgive us today our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Yours’ are the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory forever. Amen!”

We do not have any problem understanding this prayer and how it applies to our life as Christians, we know that it has been fulfilled even if we struggle in our life at some points. The Bible is full of examples of GOD’s faithfulness as the True and Living GOD who is worthy of the praise and worship of all creation. That He provides for all living creatures and maintains all creation. That He forgives ours sins because of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection and that He requires us to forgive as we are forgiven. That Jesus defeated all evil and has given us His victory, authority and power over all works of the devil. That Jesus is enthroned at the right hand of the Father ruling and reigning over all creation for eternity. Truth!

But I think we do not fully understand the phrases, “Let Your Kingdom come and Your Will be done in the earth as it is in Heaven…For Yours’ are the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory forever.” So this is what I have been coming to understand, the Kingdom of Heaven has come to the earth and we are the ones who are supposed to manifest it through our lives as believers and as the Church, the Body of Christ. This is neither a new or profound revelation but in the Western Church to a large extent I do not see it being practiced.

First we do not truly understand a simple question Paul asked the Church in 1Corinthians 3.

“And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the LORD gave to each one? I planted, Apollos watered, but GOD gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but GOD who gives the increase. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are GOD’s fellow workers; you are GOD’s field, you are GOD’s building. According to the grace of GOD which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. Do you not know that you are the temple of GOD and that the Spirit of GOD dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of GOD, GOD will destroy him. For the temple of GOD is holy, which temple you are. Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with GOD. For it is written, ‘He catches the wise in their own craftiness’; and again, ‘The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.’ Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours: whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or things present or things to come—all are yours.  And you are Christ’s, and Christ is GOD’s.” NKJV

There are several things that Paul said that need to be reapplied to the Church today.

I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal. For where there is envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like unsaved men? For when one says, “I am a Baptist,” and another, “I am Pentecostal,” are you not carnal? Who then are Methodists, and who are Charismatics, but ministries through whom you believed, as the LORD gave to each one? For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with GOD. For it is written, ‘He catches the wise in their own craftiness’; and again, ‘The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.’ Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours: whether charismatic or apostolic or orthodox the world or life or death, or things present or things to come—all are yours.  And you are Christ’s, and Christ is GOD’s.

The Church today is not unified; the Church today is divided by interpretation of doctrine, by politics, by social standards, by race and color. The things that divide the world should divide the Church from the world not from each other! The Western Church has been praying for revival for decades, what we should be praying for is forgiveness and unity! The reason we do not pray for them is twofold; for one we think we are right; for the other we know that true repentance and unity come out of persecution.

I planted, Apollos watered, but GOD gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but GOD who gives the increase. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor (Matthew 13:-30, 36-43). For we are GOD’s fellow workers; you are GOD’s field, you are GOD’s building (1 Peter 2:1-10). According to the grace of GOD which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ (Isaiah 16-17, Ephesians 2 :19-22). This is foundational.

Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, (storing up treasures in Heaven Matthew 6:19-21); wood, hay, straw, (mammon Matthew 6:24); each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, (of the heart Proverbs 17:3); of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. This seems self explanatory.

Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with GOD. For it is written, ‘He catches the wise in their own craftiness;’(Job 5:13) and again, ‘The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.’ (Psalm 94:11) Therefore let no one boast in men. (Jeremiah 9:23-24) Again self explanatory.

This is the part that I started this paper for. Do you not know that you are the temple of GOD and that the Spirit of GOD (Holy Spirit) dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of GOD, GOD will destroy him. For the temple of GOD is holy, which temple you are. This is amazingly great and it is amazingly scary.

Bad news first Jesus said, “’Assuredly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemes they may utter; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation’–because they said, ‘He has an unclean spirit.’” Mark 3:28-30 NKJV, this is the sin that leads to death. “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him. If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death.” 1 John 5:14-17 NKJV. It is clear that Jesus gave us the answer to the question, “What is the unforgiveable sin that leads to death?” Denying or rejecting the Holy Spirit and saying that His works and gifts are of the devil.

Good news when Jesus walked the earth He taught that the Kingdom of GOD sometimes called the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand. He gave parables teaching about the Kingdom, He even told a couple of people they were close to the Kingdom. He chastised the religious leaders for not knowing and recognizing the Kingdom. Later He came to John and gave him the revelation of things to come which included the culmination of the mortal realm with the judgment of all who rejected Him and His eternal Kingdom. If some or all of this does not sound familiar to you then you should read the four gospels and Revelations 1-5 & 19-22.

I think that the thing most of us have missed is the significance of the fact that His Kingdom has come on the earth as it is in Heaven. When the Father sent Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost to indwell the believers and send the Church into the world with the great commission we became the Temples of GOD in the earth. The Spirit of GOD, Holy Spirit lives in us! We are His living temples in the earth! That is why we are admonished by every epistle of the Apostles to live a holy life before GOD. To live sin free, to resist the devil, to flee fleshly lusts, to discipline our mortal bodies, to be conformed to the image of Christ, to have the mind of Christ.

When we are born again by the Blood of the Lamb through our profession of sin and asking of forgiveness we are baptized into salvation in Christ, we are a new creation. The Holy Spirit comes into our life when we are born again and we receive His power to live and serve the call GOD placed in us in our mother’s womb. When we are baptized in water as a public profession of faith and a good conscience we are baptized into His death and resurrected with Christ to be seated at the right hand of GOD our Heavenly Father. When we are baptized in the Holy Spirit we receive His gifts and He produces Kingdom fruit in our life so that we know the fellowship of Christ’s suffering and we are conformed to His death.

This is His Kingdom come in the earth as it is in Heaven and all we have to do is seek it before anything else and everything else is provided so that we can serve Him and His Kingdom in the earth and through all eternity. It is all premised on the words Jesus spoke in the Garden of Gethsemane, that we also must speak from our heart; “Father, not My Will but Yours be done!”

This is the hard part, for the last 3 paragraphs I have not included any scriptures, if you want to know this truth you must search the scriptures to see if these things are true like the Bereans (Acts 17:10-13). This is the process of learning, understanding and applying the truth to our lives.