“FINISHED!“
They gathered there together,
As He hung there on the cross.
The demons ready to party,
At the head was satan their boss.
As Jesus took in His body
The sin of all the world,
The cursings of all the people
To this ‘king’ were hurled.
“By this man’s appearing
He wreaked havoc on our deeds.”
The king of evil gloating,
“Now God’s Son I will defeat.”
But Jesus’ work was not complete,
He lifted head t’ward sky.
The final victory would be sweet
With this battle cry:
“FINISHED!”
The power of sin was broken.
The veil was rent in two.
The Son of God had triumphed
While nailed upon that wood.
satan’s authority had been stripped
By Jesus from the cross
The evil king thought he could win,
Now Jesus is the boss.
For He proclaimed,
“FINISHED!”
From that tree upon that hill:
“FINISHED!”
He is the King of kings … still
satan’ s been defeated.
he only knows deceit.
he comes to the believer;
Will you acknowledge defeat?
“Arise, 0 saint. Be strong,” God says.
“Do not be shy.
Be not good courage,
Raise up the battle cry:”
“FINISHED!”
Mark Dingemans 1998ish
———————————————————-
—The exhortation from the LORD from out of the scriptures has been a mandate to God’s people, to those naming the Name of Christ Jesus:
“Guard your heart with ALL diligence
[ In all your guarding, GUARD YOUR HEART! ]
For from it flow the issues of life.”
Proverbs 4:23
—The simplicity of believing Jesus outright is robbed every time you turn your heart’s eyes & ears to the media, to this age’s news (noise); it is the tree of the KNOWLEDGE of good and of evil, robbing that childlike outright trust in God’s goodness, giving “wisdom” towards reasoning … against Divine Promises graced us through Jesus’s shed blood. It is a “logic” that sees how this life “devours its inhabitants”, (Num. 13:32), thus talking self out of the truth of what Passover – a Lamb sacrificed – actually accomplished for each one of us in stripping completely the Pharoah of this world; (Num. 13:32-14:3; Ps. 106:21 / Col. 2:15).
—Several weeks ago the church celebrated Resurrection Sunday, the day we give honor and glory and praise to ALL-Mighty God for raising up Christ Jesus our Lord forever from out of the realm of the dead. The impact of this one event reverberates through each and every single generation of this present age, and will continue to do so throughout eternity.
—Yet we cannot in truth celebrate the remembrance of the resurrection apart from why God raised Jesus.
“Who was delivered up because of our transgressions,
and was raised BECAUSE OF OUR JUSTIFICATION.” Romans 4:25 (NASB)
“For the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus
HAS SET YOU FREE FROM the law of sin AND OF DEATH.”
Romans 4:25 (NASB)
“Since then the children share in flesh and blood,
He Himself likewise also partook of the same,
that through death He might RENDER POWERLESS
him who has the power of death, that is, the devil,
AND might deliver those who through fear of death
were subject to slavery all their lives.”
Hebrews 2:14-15 (NASB)
—This one single eternal deed addresses boldly, with a drawn sword (Josh. 5:13; Rev. 1:16-mddle phrase), the present giant whose size is gripping with great fear the earth, including believers, causing believers not to take to heart-faith the eternal force of our Lord’s resurrection that DOES burst through in this life to stomp and crush the head all that this present lie is roaring.
—God’s Word is very clear that Jesus’s death, (confirmed by His resurrection) didn’t just break the power of sin from off those believing; it breaks off the SLAVERY TO FEAR AND TO THE FEAR OF DEATH!
“For you have NOT received a spirit of slavery leading to
fear again, but you have received a Spirit of adoption
[lit. “placement as a son”] by which we cry out,
“ABBA! FATHER!” ”
Romans 8:15 (NASB)
“for God did NOT give to-us a spirit of dread/fear,
rather (He gave to-us a Spirit) of-power and of-love
and of-sound-thinking.”
2 Timothy 1:7 (frm Grk text)
“O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY?
O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?
The sting of death is sin,
and the power of sin is the law;
but thanks be to GOD,
who GIVES US THE VICTORY
THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.“
– I Corinthians 15:55-57 (NASB)
—The surpassing greatness of the power of God our Father in raising Jesus from out of the dead ought to have our hearts completely and solely … so that this “giant” is to us as the giants were to Caleb, and as Goliath was to David:
“… and do NOT be afraid of the people of the land, for they
will be like bread for us. Their protection has been removed,
and the LORD is with us. Do NOT be afraid of them!”
Numbers 14:9 (Berean Study Bible)
“For who is this Philistine,
that he should taunt the armies of the living God?”
I Samuel 17:26 (NASB)
The giants in Caleb’s day and David’s day were very real, no less than the virus presently. Yet Caleb and David knew the power of the LORD from what He’d already done for them … and this under the Old Covenant, BEFORE the resurrection. (see Caleb, a Man of a Different Spirit). (I Sam. 17:34-36).
—Our Resurrected Lord Jesus Christ is exceedingly more real than this present lie from hell. He is not theology, history, or a good story for our heads or to make our fluctuating emotions feel temporarily ewey gooey sweet.
—King Jesus has, as a Man, and for our benefit, been exalted, in flesh and bone, by ALL-Mighty God, to THE Highest, most powerful throne in existence (Heb. 1:8, 13; Eph. 1:20-22; Col. 3:1), having been set to that place because He’d humbled Himself in obedience to Almighty God to die our death, and thus to break, utterly, the power of sin and of death from off of us, you and I. This was all towards grace-gifting us from His throne His authority, for the benefit of all, including the lost, to trample on ALL the power of the evil one, which includes this virus.
“And Jesus was … proclaiming the gospel [the Good news]
of the kingdom, and healing EVERY kind of disease and
EVERY kind of sickness among the people …
ALL who were ill, taken with various diseases and pains,
demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics, and He healed them.”
——————————— — — Matthew 4:23-24 (NASB)
“Truly, truly, I tell you, the (one) believing into Me,
the works which I do also that one will do, and greater
than these will he do because I, to My Father I go.” John. 14:12 (lit frm. Grk txt.)
“Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents
and scorpions, and over ALL the power of the enemy,
and NOTHING shall injure you.”
Luke 10:19 (NASB)
—This is not fiction, Beloved. The resurrection is not just an historic account of an awesome story. This was and is always a forever NOW truth of eternal power, to be the Force of this grace from the cross to EVERY SINGLE GENERATION of believers! (Ex.3:14, 15b; Mal. 3:6a; Heb. 10:12-13, 13:8).
————————–
—Father, by His Spirit, has been causing to come alive to me several verses over the last couple of weeks, specifically from Deuteronomy 1 and from 2 Samuel 23. I believe these are for the body of Christ now, to encourage our heart’s believing, towards growing from faith into faith increasingly, even towards boldness in believing Jesus. Let your heart and the confession of your lips take hold of the verses taught in this Kairos, Beloved, from what Holy Spirit is teaching through this. Let Holy Spirit in you set them as an anchor that is Christ Jesus in you, in your private time. Pursue this revelation of God’s love for you in your time with Jesus alone. Go after Him with all your heart, Beloved, no matter how often you have to do so, until this is set as your Rock foundation underneath you (Mat. 7:24-25).
—Do not receive this Kairos exhortation as rebuke. This is by no means criticism, rather encouragement in Christ to let His Spirit through the scriptures utterly uproot every shred of fear. A precious man of God stated that “the presence of fear is the absence of intimacy” (private time with Jesus).
“Do not be afraid of sudden fear,
For the LORD will be your confidence,”
— Proverbs 4:25a,26a (NASB)
“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you;
not as the world gives, do I give to you.
Let not your heart be troubled, not let it be fearful.“
— John 14:27 (NASB)
—If this present situation has caused fear to explode in your heart, it indeed may be unveiling that your private time with God the Father in the Word has been minimal or absent. If you find yourself scrambling, moreover, to find out what this man of God or that preacher has from God, what is “the word from heaven”, then this is showing that your heart is not established in simple childlike trust in your Heavenly Father alone Who is your Awesome God. The noise of this age’s voices has drowned out the revelation of powerful ‘finished work of the cross’ accomplishment for you specifically, the surrounding, encompassing love from heaven’s Throne poured out from Holy Spirit in your heart. It is time to shut off (completely) the noise of this age, and to go after the quiet confidence of such Awesome God that is our Heavenly Father (Ps. 46:10).
“If then you have been raised up with Christ, KEEP SEEKING
the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of
God. Set your mind on the things above, NOT ON THE THINGS THAT ARE ON EARTH. For you have died and your
life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our
life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.”
Colossians 3:1-3 (NASB)
—Pursue Christ Jesus in His Resurrection glory, because this is your life, Beloved, not what this age’s voices are declaring. Let God our Father’s perfect love, in the revelation of the sacrifice of His Son – the finished work of the cross – cast out all fear. There IS a place of very safe security in Christ Jesus your Savior through believing you died, (that you were crucified with Jesus – Rom. 6:3; Gal. 2:20), where the voice and/or hand of darkness just cannot capture and take hold of you … because you’re dead to the curse. … Selah …!
—At the same time, guard against letting your head acknowlede, “Amen” to the truth and then walk away when it is not established in your heart. Faith that speaks originates in a heart persuaded: (“For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” – Rom. 10:10 – NKJV). True believing confession comes out of your heart, Precious One. Therefore, let Father set and establish in your heart the revelation of His perfect love through Jesus’s cross, until it drives out ALL fear, whatever it may be or however it comes at you (I Jhn. 4:9, 17-19; Rom. 5:5-8).
So here we go.
Setting Our Hearts Back To The Simplicity of Believing Jesus Outright
” … your little ones who you said would become prey, and
your sons who this day have NO KNOWLEDGE of good or evil, SHALL ENTER there, and I will give it to them,
and they SHALL POSSESS it.” Deuteronomy 1:39 (NASB)
This verse popped off of the page as I was reading Deuteronomy. What I’m going to share is not new, yet will still bother some, and will appear to be “naivety”, “head in the sand” theology. But my example and standard is Jesus Himself from the gospels. Moreover, it is something towards which Holy Spirit has pressed me increasingly, year by year. This fear that has been burgeoning in WAY too many people has overtly confirmed this that Holy Spirit has taught and set into me from the scriptures, mostly through Caleb’s life as that which took place in Numbers 13 & 14.
—Becoming “wise as serpents” has nothing to do with eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and of evil.
“I want you to be wise as to what is good and
innocent (lit. “without mixture / not mixed”)
as to what is evil. And the God of peace shall
bruise [crush] satan under your feet shortly.”
– Romans 1619b-20a. (ESV, ERV)
Rather it comes by knowing God so intimately, as seen exactly through Jesus’s life in the gospels, that His Spirit in you makes you to know the schemes and methods of the devil whenever the need arises; and He gives you the answer of the tongue to know how to answer (Mat. 22:15-22; Pro. 15:33a;16:1b, et al). The sword of the Spirit of what IS life, not only from the Word to you, but the Word through you, knows how to divide soul and Spirit, what is”spiritual sounding” but is actually subtle demonic religiosity from what really is Holy Spirit Word truth (Heb. 4:12. I.e Lk. 20:20-26).
—Yet even more, this that I’m going to pour out below has everything to do with what means and what it is for God the Father setting ALL the enemies of Jesus under His feet … that is, under our feet, we who are the body of Christ Jesus our Lord on earth (I Cor. 15:25; Eph. 1:22; Heb. 10:12-13). We have not even pondered how much the subtle mixture in our spiritual diet of the tree of the knowledge of good and of evil with the tree of Life is warring against the manifestation of this purpose of God the Father through our lives.
—As blood-bought, ‘redeemed from this age by the cost of Jesus’s very life’ believers into Christ Jesus our LORD, it’s time to face the truth.
—————
—Too many of God’s people for too long have said they don’t hear Holy Spirit, that they don’t hear God talking to them. Yet Jesus said in John 10:27 that His sheep hear His voice, and that they follow Him. Being led by His Spirit requires hearing His voice.
—Paul writes in Romans 8:6, 9, &14-16 that the Spirit of Christ does indeed dwell in those who are His, who are sons & daughters of God, that we CAN walk by the Spirit, by Jesus’s Spirit in us. This means we CAN hear.
—So what’s the hindrance? Not only ought we to hear, we should have the hunger and willingness to press in to hear more and more accurately, yet not out of obligation or rote requirement; this is about pursuing relationship with the Creator of the Universe, the crazy Awesome God Who passionately pursued us, to be our awesome Heavenly Father by sacrificing His Son, to grace-gift us a torn veil, open heaven, uncondemned access to Him, as Father … AND as our Awesome God ( … Let that sink into your hearts!) , where hearing His heartbeat, His very own Spirit, Who lives IN those having believed, is not difficult. ( I Cor. 2:10,16)
—Father declared to Moses, in that Deut. 1:39 passage, that the children who “this day have no knowledge of good or evil,” were going to possess and inherit what He had promised their parents whom He’d delivered from slavery through the sacrifice of a Lamb. Why? Because the children were not talked out of simple childlike believing by the noise of the news of the giants in the land.
—The “not knowing good and evil” directly relates to, is rooted back to, the bad news that ten of the leaders had brought back from the promised land, which news all the parents through all the camp of Israel dismayed over the moment they let that bad news sink into their ears, and then pondered as a growing volcanoe of unbelief all that night, weeping through through the overwhelming scenario building in their heads (Num.14:1).
—They had given place to fear exploding in their hearts from that news, instead of shutting it up from having a voice inside their dwellings, as did Caleb and Joshua. And so it was that that generation completely let be demolished ‘outright believing’ the LORD (YHVH), what ALL He had done through a covenant of Love via their forefathers (Ps. 105:8,42) in having delivered them so incredibly through a sacrificed lamb from the iron fist and chains of Pharaoh.
—They did not, with ALL diligence, … guard … their … hearts! …
– Are you listening, Beloved?
—The LORD’S response to the people’s fear;
“How long will this people spurn Me? How long will they
not believe Me [carries the weight of “How long will they
not ‘Amen’ Me?” see 2 Cor. 1:20], despite all the signs
which I have performed in their midst?”
– Numbers 14:11 (NASB)
—Is it not significant that the LORD intentionally declares that their children who “did not know good and evil” WOULD inherit and possess?
“Jesus … said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are
converted and become as little children, you will by no
means enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 18:2-3 (NKJV)
The wisdom of this world is not even on the same plain as the wisdom of God. The wisdom of this world is what caused Adam’s wife to easily forfeit, with her husband, the inheritance and possession from God in which they were already living (Gen. 3:22-24; ref. also 1 Jhn. 2:16-17a).
“When the woman saw that the tree was …
a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable
to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate;
and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.” Genesis 3:6 (NASB)
“And the LORD God … cast out/drove out Adam from the garden…” Genesis 3:23a, 24
—When she gained the “wisdom” from the knowledge of good and of evil, she threw away, with her husband, the weightiness of the glory, which WAS their covering … the very VOICE of YHVH, the LORD. They discarded the value of the voice of the Spirit of God …
—They dis-esteemed HEARING HIM! (A lot of you need to re-read this statement, because the weightiness in what is being unveiled here is huge).
… Selah …
— The reason why so many believers are not hearing their LORD is rooted right here, Beloved. He that has ears to hear, let him hear.
—When Adam chose to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and of evil, they were cut off from the tree of Life. God the LORD made sure that mixture eating would not occur, because this would bring confusion – the mixture of hearing (eating) from what produces death with what produces life.
—Father is not, from the cross forward, cutting off His people from the tree of Life. Rather people are cutting themselves off from all that the tree of Life offers, (including physical healing), when they choose to diet also from the other tree. This “double dieting” is rooted in believing the original lie, that the LORD, by His Word, is actually withholding something towards wisdom and knowledge that is needed for this life ( “You surely shall not die! For God knows that in the day eat from it your eyes will be opened … ” Gen 3:4b-5a NASB). It’s revealing that your heart and mind believe the tree of the knowledge of good and of evil is on an equal plain (or higher) as the tree of life. It is in truth a mistrust in the complete integrity of the LORD God at His Word for you.
—(I write part of this paragraph above in tears, because it’s like Holy Spirit is bringing to my remembrance that every single physical malady in existence comes from one having eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and of evil; and its “fruit” (the result of eating from this tree) has not changed. Too many believers are not putting 2+2 together as it pertains to gaining AND KEEPING healing that was paid for by the tearing apart of Jesus’s flesh with those Roman whips, while holding fast to a diet from the wrong tree. We wonder why it seems so hard for healing to take place in this country as compared to what we hear take place in Third World countries where they’re not exposed to the onslaught of a media noise as here, where they don’t know all the “logic” & “reasoning” & theology for explaining away Jesus’s stripes for our benefit, all the while satan keeps believers here feeding on a tree that questions, even subtly, the integrity of God at His Word – Are you listening, Beloved? ).
—The amount of your diet of the tree from which Adam ate in comparison to your hunger and feeding of the tree of Life reveals how much you esteem the one in contrast to the other.
—As had been said, so again; the simplicity of believing Jesus outright is robbed every time you give your HEART’S eyes & ears to the media, to this age’s news (noise). You’re letting simple heart trust in your Heavenly Father’s goodness be stolen by the sophisticated glamour, the “delight to the eyes” lie, which is actually questioning the integrity of your Father’s … Voice.
—When this questioning is allowed to set into your heart’s ears and eyes, you begin losing your ability to hear clearly Holy Spirit, because trust in Him is no longer the rock under your feet, or the strong hand holding yours like a father his little child.
—The fruit of this lie allowed to be seeded ? … a short-circuiting of GROWING from faith into more faith augmenting: [“Faith comes by HEARING, “ (Rom. 10:17). If you’re not growing in hearing, you’re not growing in faith!] You stay stagnant pertaining to growing in augmenting believing, and thus you stagnate in an ongoing revelation of God’s righteousness (through which grace-gift you are transformed by Holy Spirit in you); and you settle for being satisfied, in your outlook on life, with your ticket to heaven.
—And so it is that you reduce, for you and for your family, and towards fellow believers, the purpose of God in redemption for this life through His Son’s sacrifice.
—And alas, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done ON EARTH as it is in heaven” praying faith is muddied down to a passive “God is sovereign, He’s in control” believing, … which is actually stripping you of your armor in Christ towards advancing and possessing for this life what Jesus’s blood was spilled to grace-gift us.
—This kind of passive believing leaves you, like the delivered from Egypt generation, in a dry wilderness of unfulfilled hope and destiny, where your heart privately just does not take hold, as would a trusting little child their father, of believing the Goodness of God, that the Kingdom of God or the supernatural life of Jesus, where the transformation of you through the gospel by God’s Holy Spirit into the image of His Son, is actually FOR YOU FOR THIS LIFE NOW, rather for “after we die and go to heaven,” or, “after the rapture, when we come back for a thousand years.” It stagnates some to the point of distancing private time with God the Father in Christ from a sincere, childlike heart. It causes others to believe that what IS the will of God for them, ALL the “yes and Amen” promises in Christ, are just not for them, that somehow God doesn’t really mean what He said through Jesus for them, rather only for other “special Christians.”
—This life’s experiences and “wise reasonings” allow there to be woven into truth a theology that explains away rightful inheritance. It is a subtle strategy from hell that is actually whispering, “Did God really say … ?”
—I know these are strong words, Beloved. But in all truth we have not let be sunk into the Spirit of our minds the full redemption definition of Jesus’s single word from the cross “FINISHED” pertaining to this life, where it causes us to pursue with all diligence this love of God as a possession for this life.
—I believe with all my heart that God the Father is looking for a generation of believers who go after Him for all the revelation and consequential possession of ALL that Jesus let His body be stripped, beaten, flesh torn apart, and then nailed naked to a cross, towards gaining for us all that the first Adam forfeited … so as to glorify Jesus completely as His body on earth and as His fully redeemed Bride (Jhn. 14:13-14).
—A generation has to go after living dead to the tree of the knowledge of good & of evil, so as to live solely for the tree of Life, towards utter glorification of her Savior.
—The ‘nakedness‘ to which the man and woman, as well as the generation delivered out of Egypt (who freaked at the news of the giants), were exposed was seeing themselves vulnerable, unclothed by the protection of the Glory of Almighty God Whose they were.
—When you give yourself to bite and to eat of the noise of the wisdom of this age, of the knowledge of good and of evil, and to make it your regular daily diet, you don’t see and hear, and/or you let get clouded over your heart and soul, what the power of our Passover Lamb, (in Whose blood is this covenant into which we entered when we believed), did to utterly, completely, wholly, break off of you slavery to the god of this age AND TO THE VULNERABILITY that was a part of being under that dominion. You don’t let your eyes see the the royal robe of Christ’s righteousness that IS your authority in glory, your covering protection against every scheme of the devil to strip you again. he hates the light of that Glory of righteousness on you and is afraid of it. he does whatever scheme and sly work of this world’s wisdom and “logic” against the foolishness of the (wisdom of the) cross to cause you to take that robe off and to walk naked, to walk believing you’re vulnerable.
—James writes that the wisdom of the world is “earthly, soulish, demonic“, but that the wisdom of God is “pure, peaceful, gentle, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial, and unhipocritical.” (see James 3:14-18). I heard a definition of the root origin of the verb, “to be sophisticated“, and I was shocked. But we need to see this. For it roots to what James describes as the wisdom of this world.
—From etymology online:
—The verb, “to sophisticate” – “c. 1400 – make impure by admixture,” c. 1600 as “corrupt, delude by sophistry;” from 1796 as “deprive of simplicity.“ (Sounds like this implies, “to steal child-likeness” )
—The adjective “sophisticated” – c. 1600, “mixed with a foreign substance, impure; no longer simple or natural,”
—It seems utterly foolish to shut out the noise of the news, and you may get criticized for it. However, the “wisdom” gained by the knowledge of good and of evil that comes from this noise actually produces anxiety and fear and stress. Again, it robs peace and the simple joy in believing (outright) in the goodness of God. Period!
—While one may feel sophisticated with this age’s knowledge, the impure admixture gained robs childlike newness and freshness of heart towards hearing, believing, and receiving (and even walking in and letting be manifested through you) all the goodness and power from the gospel. Jesus made this clear in His parable of all parables:
“The sower sows the word. …
These … are the ones on whom seed was among the thorns;
these are the ones WHO HAVE HEARD the WORD,
and the worries of the world … enter in and choke the word,
and it (the Word sown into them) becomes unfruitful.”
– excrpt frm Mark 4:14, 18-19 (NASB)
—Has “the Word sown into you become unfruitful”, … where the stuff of life has caused you to think and believe that the Word “doesn’t work”?
– Is the answer to that in Jesus’s statement above? … because of the admixture on which you’ve been feeding with the Word?
—Incidentally, there is an adjective used by James for this world’s “wisdom” that needs to be understood in its root derivation. He said that the wisdom of this world is “demonic“. Both Strong’s & NAS concordances say that this word is ultimately rooted from the verb “daio”, meaning, “to distribute destinies”. And we know that demonic destinies are towards destruction of whatever and all sorts, robbing from out of lives health, hope and a future, etc.
—Consider the “destiny” of that delivered from Egypt generation.
—Are you listening, Beloved
– … Selah …
—————
It’s Time to Believe His Strategy.
It’s Time to Believe His Armor,
Grace-gifted Glory
“But Joshua commanded the people, saying,
“You shall not shout, nor let your voice be heard,
nor let a word a word proceed out of your mouth,
– until the day I tell you, “Shout!”
Then you shall shout!” ”
_ Joshua 6:10 (NASB)
—Joshua had spent forty years in the desert waiting until his generation died, because ten fellow spies brought back bad news to the people, which ended up talking an entire generation out of Divine inheritance, promised rest (Heb. 3:7-19).
—Yet Joshua had taken that desert time to learn the LORD’s voice (Ex. 33:11b) through His Word and private time with Him; which, by the end of that forty years, that Word upon which he was going back to meditate amounted to only the first five books of our Bible, the books of Moses, that’s it. (Josh. 1:8). Yet he knew intimately and clearly the LORD’s voice!
—Joshua did not let his heart dismay in the long waiting. He had not forgotten the slavery into which he was born and grew up, along with the Passover, the final judgment by YHVH that alas “broke the camel’s back” in finally causing Pharaoh to let Joshua and his people go free from their several centuries of hard slavery.
—That Passover night had been the circumcision scarring of Joshua’s heart, forever marking his faith towards God, from which he did not back off. It was, moreover, a benchmark shield guarding his heart against every single noise of news from flesh, the world, and the devil. His hope had been foundationed in faith in the power and love of God so overtly demonstrated towards them through that sacrificed lamb. (Ref. 1 Cor. 2:4-5). While you don’t see Joshua even mentioned in the Exodus 12 account of that Passover in Egypt, he was ever there, letting that night impact forever his entire life forward.
—And God Himself was paying attention to the heart of this young man that night who was letting his heart be fully persuaded in faith to what YHVH God was accomplishing through the foolishness of simply sacrificing a lamb and putting its blood on their doorposts to utterly strip all the gods of Egypt combined.
—Forty years later Joshua, the leader of the people now, watched the LORD roll back the river Jordan when the ark of the covenant, which had the blood of sacrifice on the Mercy Seat lid, was walked into this river at flood stage.
—He was not turning back. Nor would he let the next generation falter into the failed faith of his generation who were now all dead in the desert, save he and Caleb.
—Having crossed the Jordan with this new generation, Passover was again upon them. It would be the scarring upon this new generation which had occurred with him back in Egypt (Josh. 5:2-10). I believe Joshua wanted the voice of the LORD in the power of that opened Jordan, along with Passover itself, to be more real to them than what their eyes were about to see in the natural of the monstrosity of Jericho’s walls.
— With this huge walled city now before them, Joshua would not let its “visual bigness” nor consequential opinions rob this generation as it had his.
—I believe there was marked a change in the Spirit for this new generation in their hearts with the circumcision that was done (Josh. 5:2-10). Everything that was taking place, actually begun forty years earlier when the LORD opened up the Red Sea, but even more now, prophetically instigated an intense fear in the suddenly stripped demonic realm, manifesting in the fear that gripped the land of the Hittites (Josh. 1:4, 5:1). The nationwide circumcision of God’s people just “happened” to coincide with Passover, and immediately after the Jordan opening and crossing (see Col. 2:8-15). The LORD told Joshua that He rolled away the reproach of Egypt (Josh. 5:9).
—I know this might sound crazy, but by this circumcision (in accordance with Passover) this generation was grace-gifted, as it were, an open heaven to believe YHVH outright. And they would need to do so, to believe Him outright, in order to possess promised possession, to literally take out the giants which had spooked their parents towards loosing their Divine promise, so that this generation, under submission to theirJesus (Joshua), would not be moved by their natural seeing and hearing, that faith might not be robbed from their hearts … and lips .
—Take hold of what has been stated above, Beloved. We just celebrated Passover and Resurrection Sunday not that long ago.
—Joshua told this generation to keep their mouths shut when they walked around Jericho, AND to maintain “shut up” until what the LORD required of them was complete. Joshua would have recalled the Numbers 13:30 incident when Caleb shut up the commotion of the bad news of the giants, and how the people back then did not pay attention to the Word of the LORD through Caleb; Joshua was not going to allow this to occur again.
—What I love of this new generation is the wisdom from God that they let Him set into their hearts and minds. They had watched over the desert years all of older generation, who’d refused to believe the LORD, die … that is, their own parents.
—This generation gave themselves at this juncture to listen, outright, to Joshua’s commands. Two men alone, of all the men delivered by the LORD from Egyptian slavery, were still alive … and now the leaders leading them to take possession from the giants who’d spooked their parents’ leaders forty years earlier to noise the news that robbed their parents’ inheritance. (I know I keep reiterating this fact, but I want this sober reality to sink into your heart, that you do not fall into duplicate, unlearned failure of simple trust of your Heavenly Father. – I Cor. 10:11)
—The LORD, by His Word (Num. 14:24 & 30) preserved these two who’d given their heart’s ears to His Word alone. And this generation was giving their hearts’ ears and eyes to the “Jesus” YHVH had raised up and given to them to lead them into inheritance.
—Are you listening, Beloved?
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Defend Your Pea-patch …
It Just Might Affect an Entire Nation
Josheb-basshebeth a Tahchemonite, …, he was
called Adino the Eznite, because of eight hundred
slain by him at one time;
– and after him was Eleazar the son of Dodo the
Ahohite, … arose and struck the Philistines until
his hand was weary and clung to the sword, and
the LORD brought about a great victory that day;
and the people returned after him only to strip the
slain.
– Now after him was Shammah the son of Agee a
Hararite. And the Philistines were gathered into a
troop where there was a plot of ground full of
lentils, and the people fled from the Philistines.
But he took his stand in the midst of the plot,
defended it and struck the Philistines;
and the LORD brought about a great victory.
– Excrpt frm 2 Samuel 23:8-12 (NASB)
—This was the other passage that popped. In a curious tearing apart the names listed, it was like Holy Spirit was giving wisdom, both from what satan’s tactic have been in this time as well as what is God’s purposed heart for us how to walk, how to stay in bold believing Him.
—The goal of the devil is for us to forfeit our identity in Christ, the resurrection glory of our Savior that actually is our armor. If we don’t realize the enemy’s strategy and subtle schemes, we can actually loose possession of what is ours through the shed blood of Jesus. In tearing open the first name above, it became obvious the devil’s tactic AND our grace-gifted destiny as Royal sons and daughters of God in Christ.
—Josheb-basshebeth a Tahchemonite – This man’s name, Josheb-basshebeth, is from a double usage of the verb,” יָשַׁב – Yashab”, meaning, “to sit down”, by implication, to dwell, to remain, to abide”. The description of him, a Tahchemonite, is a noun derivative of the verb, ” חָכַם – chakam” meaning, “to be wise”. His full name means “to sit in the seat of wisdom”.
—Paul wrote in I Corinthians 1 & 2 that Christ was made to us wisdom from God. He writes of the wisdom of God that is through the cross, how it is foolishness to this age, yet by which the devil was fooled into crucifying Jesus; because the cross gained for us “things which eye has not seen, not ear heard, nor what had entered into the heart of man all that God had prepared for those loving Him”, and that God makes all this known by the Spirit whom we have in Christ. Paul writes in Ephesians 1 that we are “seated with Christ in heavenly places.” We are seated on the Royal seat of wisdom, and it is from here that we by the Spirit see what is our inheritance for this life in Christ.
—It is from this place, Precious Ones, that the devil wants us off, not seeing or hearing by the Spirit our inheritance which is through the wisdom of the cross, through the “foolish” wisdom of the FINISHED work of the cross. satan’s goal is to jar us off of promised rest (ref. Heb. 3) to cause us to be fooled by the lie of the wisdom of this world, of the tree of the knowledge of good and of evil, so as to cause us to forfeit what is the goodness of God’s Kingdom paid for by Jesus’s blood.
—Our fight of faith is literally to stay seated (with Christ) on that seat of wisdom. Our victory is resting on the speaking blood of Christ from this Throne. Because the authority of this is the ultimate covenant of Almighty God Himself, (our Almighty God), cut in the blood of the Lamb Who now sits as King of kings, as head over all things to the church.
—Caleb’s heart to sit fully rested in confidence of the LORD, in the face of the giants, was in the finished work of what that Passover lamb sacrificed did, back in Egypt, to so completely strip Pharoah of any more stubbornness and vicious hold of the chains of slavery over Caleb’s people. The boldness of Caleb’s faith utterly rested on that one finished work! … Selah … He never took his heart’s eyes off of that, Beloved, and accordingly shut up every piece of bad news from entering his heart’s ears …
– … and Almighty GOD paid attention to this man! (Num. 14:24).
—Such fullness to follow the LORD, to believe outright like a child the integrity of God’s word was the boldness that caused Caleb, some forty years later, to smite completely the very giants that had put dread/fear into his fellow spies. Caleb’s inheritance from the LORD was the very ground upon which those giants had dwelt (Josh. 14:6-15).
—So it was with these three men in 2 Samuel 23. Each of them was known for not letting go of their single weapon in defeating an enemy troop that was trying to unseat God’s people from their inheritance. Are you listening, Beloved?
— Fear caused God’s people to flee, yet did not take hold in the hearts of each of these three men.
—What you need to pay attention to is that the LORD brought about a great victory … for the entire nation … through each individual victory, and to which the nation of God’s people responded (to strip the slain). The individual battle won of these three, in defending their pea-patch, affected a nation; it wasn’t about only an individual victory.
—Do you see the importance and imperative of letting Holy Spirit in you through the Word, even through the victory of Jesus, our Lord Jesus’s cross, grace-gift you to utterly let go of fear as you believe Jesus, so that you have confidence to stand and defend your own pea-patch? Your victory extends far greater than you realize.
—David’s wrestle against the lion and the bear that had taken his sheep was his pea-patch defense to slay predators taking his possession. He was essentially defending his pea-patch. Such ‘private faith learned’ Holy Spirit set in him as a backbone of steel, as it were, a boldness of confidence in his God, the only God, towards again, in one individual battle, defend his pea-patch, called the land of Israel, against Goliath (I Sam. 17:34-37). The victory – was boldness unto an entire army of God’s people to take out the rest of the army of the enemy. The pea-patch defense of this shepherd boy for his sheep was what would lead to affecting an entire nation.
Are you listening, Beloved?
“Eleazar … arose and struck the Philistines until his
hand was weary and clung to the sword, and the
LORD brought about a great victory.” “Shammah
took his stand in the midst of the plot” “of ground
full of lentils,” ” defended it, and struck the
Philistines; and the LORD brought about a great
victory.”
—If you are hearing, Beloved, your strength and confidence, and foolish wisdom, is in the finished work of our Lamb Who was slain, Who, in being sacrificed, stripped the king and kingdom of darkness, for US! You’ve got to shut up the noise that produces fear in your heart, that causes you to flee from your inheritance and from your active possessing promises. You’ve got to take hold of your sword, and believe it outright and use it till your hand clings to it, and defend your pea-patch till every enemy is dead. I believe Father God our God pays attention, laser focused, to simple outright childlike faith, that believes Him, and doesn’t let go of the sword (the complete integrity of His Word), especially when everyone else flees the battle or thinks you’re foolish (2 Chron. 16:9a).
—Are you listening, Beloved?
—This is not about becoming super-Saints or allowing yourself to become arrogant against fellow believers who are weak in faith (Rom. 14:1, 15:1). Neither is this about becoming angry with the world. Our fight of faith is not against flesh and blood, what so ever. Flesh and blood is just not our enemy, no matter how against the gospel they are. It is up to the LORD to deal with flesh and blood (Acts 4:23-31; Rom. 12:19-21).
“because to us the wrestling is not against blood
and flesh, but against principalities, against the
authorities, against the world forces of this
darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness
in the heavenly places.”
– Ephesians 6:12 (Berean Lit., NKJV, NASB)
Rather it is about booting off (dispossessing) a squatter who lost ALL right of ownership to One Man from Golgatha’s hill two thousand years ago. We are not fighting to defeat the devil, because he’s already been defeated. Yes, we do take authority and walk in power through Holy Spirit in us, as did Jesus when He was confronted with demonic issues (i.e. Mk. 1:21-26). The fight of faith is to believe simply like a child, to believe outright, especially for others (Eph. 6:18), all that the finished work of the cross of Christ gained for us … and to not be guiled into taking off this robe of righteousness that is your armor.
—All of this, Beloved, is established in private time with your Heavenly Father in His Word, letting His Holy Spirit in you unveil Jesus to you in the authority and power of His Resurrection/Throne-seated glory (Jhn. 16:13-15). For it is here that His grace through our believing Him changes and transform us (Eph. 2:8; Rom. 8:29-30; 2 Cor. 3:18).
—It is this image of Christ Jesus in us, on us, glowing from us, of which satan is afraid, and is afraid of us finding out and growing up in, lest we, as did Jesus in the gospels, dispossess and destroy his works, his wreaking havoc in the lives of people.
—The decree of Jesus’s lips from the cross, “FINISHED”, must become the decree of our life. The revelation of victory, the revelation of the Force of the power of God’s love for us, to be manifested through our lives, is in the ongoing unveiling of the revelation of what Jesus proclaimed with a loud voice through bloodied lips and a marred more than any man form, right before He breathed His last breath, all to grant us what the kingdom of darkness feared most … Open uncondemned access for us to ALL-Mighty God’s throne.
—————-
Final Thoughts:
—A number of you know of the great faith of Smith Wiggleworth, the amazing miracles and healings that Holy Spirit did through him. We often wish we had that kind of radical faith. What you may not know of Smith Wigglesworth was that he would not allow a newspaper in his house, and he would speak up if he were staying with someone who got or had one in their house. He did not let the mixture of the news of this age come into his eyes or ears.
—Do you still covet the radical faith that he had?
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—This last word is not for everyone, but I believe is from Holy Spirit to some.
—I believe Holy Spirit would have you to seek Him, especially pertaining to what has been addressed in this Kairos AND with what had been taking place, through fasting. For those who really want a New Covenant understanding of fasting that is not marked by Old Covenant demands or condemnation, the best teacher I have heard teach this is Dan Mohler, from the “school of Kingdom Living” 2011 on YouTube.
—Fasting is not about defeating the kingdom of darkness; Jesus already accomplished that through the cross (Col. 2:15). Rather it is about putting on the cross fleshly understanding, even what is thought to be spiritual understanding in your thinking and believing, that Father wants corrected, changed, or sharpened. It is private time humbling of self, without letting anyone else know, where that can be done. It is a place to let the Spirit of Jesus in you speak to unbelief that is the hindrance against actual outright faith which presently is not getting the illegal squatter off of Divine possession paid for by Jesus’s shed blood (Mk. 9:17-29; 11:21-24).
—The private victory of Jesus’s fast in the wilderness, where satan confronted Him in His weakness, yet faced his first of many outright defeats by a Man utterly dead to sin, (utterly dead to missing the mark of the glory of God the Father), manifested afterwards in countless lives set free through the next three plus years (ref. Lk. 4:1-14). It benefited an entire nation, though no one saw Him fasting through those initial days in the desert.
—The teaching by Jesus, in Mark 2:18-22, where Jesus speaks of new wine in fresh wine-skins, is about new Covenant fasting. He that has ears to hear and be taught by Holy Spirit, let him hear.
—Even if this is new to you, if all you can fast is a meal or a day, it’s not about the marathon whatsoever. It’s about humbling yourself where your ears, your hearing heart, gives extra attention apart from flesh to let Holy Spirit do in you what can only come about through your giving yourself to this.
—I’m going to reiterate: this is a private time between you and Jesus & Father issue alone; don’t noise it abroad. Let your Heavenly Father repay you openly. Don’t settle for a menial “pat on the back” reward of “spirituality” from fellow believers (Mat. 6:6-7, 16-18). Father has stuff to share with you that carries weighty glory: don’t forfeit such opportunity for something less than cheap. You will find grace super-natural from Him to walk through this.
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—You are so greatly loved, Beloved, in whichever country you live. Know that you have the Father’s eyes and ears on you. It is His GOOD pleasure to give you the Kingdom, for this life, for your life, where you are! ( 1 Pet. 3:12a; Lk. 12:32 ).
Mark D
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** – Beloved, you are free to print this and any Kairos for your own study. Take the time to go through these scriptures, and let the Holy Spirit write them and bear witness to them in your hearts and minds. Let the Word of God and the Blood of Jesus and the witness of the Holy Spirit who lives inside of you wash through you and renew your mind. These blogs are meant to be Bible studies, so you are free to print up any newsletter of this blog site for your own study. Feel free to copy and reset these Newsletter with lines in them for notes.
—If you have never believed into Jesus Christ, you can do so now, from your own heart and words. If you wish help to pray, pray, “LORD Jesus, I believe You died for me and as me because You love me. I receive Your Forgiveness for my sin. Thank You for shedding Your blood to cleanse me, for making me clean, for breaking the power of sin in my life, for transforming me as a gift of Your Grace to me. I ask You to live inside of me. I thank You, Jesus, for giving me eternal life, that I might know You and Your Father, as my God, forever. In Your Name, LORD Jesus. Amen!”
—For those of you who have believed into Jesus; take communion often (I Cor. 11:23-26; Lk. 24:30-31a). Let communion be a refreshing of the Blood and the Spirit (Heb. 9:14) to cleanse your conscious from sin consciousness to righteousness consciousness, that you are indeed clean, as a gift of His grace. You are no more, Dearly Beloved, under condemnation; rather, you are under justification – eternally! (Rom. 4:25b, 5:21;b; Heb. 9:11-12). You will find the Holy Spirit of Jesus unveiling Jesus to you from the scriptures like you’ve never seen Him before.
kairos – (Kahee-ros’) – Strong’s concordance defines this word: “an occasion, I.e. set or proper time.” The Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible (NASB) defines this word; “season, time, but not merely as a succession of moments, which is chronos,” [from which we derive the English word ‘chronology’]. “Kairos, however, implies not the convenience of the season, but the necessity of the task at hand, whether the time provides a good, convenient opportunity or not.” This must be understood. Strategic times of the Lord do not necessarily imply good or convenient times. We are in Kairos times. Maybe not good or convenient times, but definitely strategic, opportune times because of the season we are in. We must have “ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches,” (Rev. 2:29), so as to respond correctly to the Kairos time.
* Some Scripture for this letter is taken from the (NASB) – NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE, (c) 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. Other references translated from Grk. Txt as presented in T. Newberry’s Englishman’s Greek New Testament, Zondervan Publishing – 1982- originally published in London, Eng. 1877 Scripture references not showing a Translation in Brackets are this writer’s translation from the Hebrew Massoretic Text as it appears on the web-site “qbible.com”, our from the Greek text of Thomas Newberry’s “Englishman’s Greek New Testament”. Some definitions given to Hebrew words are also referenced from qbible.com website, as well as from Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament, Baker Book House Company, (C) 1979
Several Translations and study guides to which this author refers are taken from biblehub.com website.
Etymology is the study of the origin of words. The link used in this Kairos is– etymonline.com