A Rock Of Offense!/Whole Stones!

By Pastor Bill Taylor

A publication of My Father's House, inc. Volume 6//Issue 14

Prophecy: Those who presumptuously thought they’ve known Me, while taking pride in their own intellect are ordained to stumble. And they’ll stumble upon you who do know Me. They’ll fall and be broken in pieces. And they’ll not rise again. They’ll come down as one and be scattered as many. For their false unity will be broken – their lies will be exposed – their selfish motives will be seen. And all shall know that these who’ve falsely said they’ve known Me haven’t known Me. And those they’ve falsely accused of not knowing Me, these I’ll show are Mine, who do know Me for I’m the banner over My people – I’m the justifier of My people – I’m the one who vindicates My people and I’ll glorify My people, thus saith the Lord. (Prophecy delivered at “My Father’s House”)

 The LORD of hosts, Him you shall hallow; let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread. He’ll be as a sanctuary, but a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, as a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many among them shall stumble; they’ll fall and be broken, be snared and taken. To the law and to the testimony! If they don’t speak according to this Word, it’s because there’s no light in them. (Is8:13-15,20) And blessed is he who’s not offended because of Me. (Mt11:6)

The name Jesus chose for the Apostle Peter, “Petros” in the Babylonian “Cephas,” (Jn1:42) means a piece of rock or a stone. It was chosen by Jesus for a very good purpose because God is building His church out of living stones. Jesus said, “I’m going to build My church on this “petra” mass of rock and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.” (Mt16:18) Petra is feminine and speaks of the church as a mass of rock made up of many “petros” pieces of rock.

In the past there’s been much teaching out of this passage that’s anti-catholic and it’s right that we shouldn’t be accepting the heresies and demonic doctrines of the Roman Catholic church which in this case concern the papacy. The fact that Catholics try to use these verses to establish the authority of their pope totally misses the understanding of what these verses really mean. However those who use these verses against the Catholics often miss the meaning too, because the understanding of this passage begins with Peter’s hearing something he didn’t get from man but from God. And that’s what “living stone-ism” is about. “Living stones” are people who hear God and do what God says. They’ve a real relationship with the living God and know when God’s speaking to them. Flesh and blood hasn’t revealed this to you! (Mt16:17) So Jesus is teaching, “Peter, you’re one of these “living stones” who hears God and it’s people like you out of which My church is to be built.” The house of God will be constructed on the rock foundation of people who dig deep to hear what God says and do it. (Mt7:24) Because of that when the floods come the house won’t come down. (v25) So the gates of hell can’t prevail against the church that’s built of living stones. Another lesson associated with this is to build to last you have to use the right materials. According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I’ve 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…(1Cor3:10-12) Precious stones agrees with Therefore it’s also contained in the Scripture, “Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.” Therefore, to you who believe, He’s precious; but to those who are disobedient, “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone,” (1Pt2:6,7) But we true believers are also precious stones – you also, as living stones, are being built up a Spiritual house…(1Pt2:5) So to build on the foundations of Jesus Christ and the apostles and prophets, men who heard God and obeyed God, you must build with people who also hear and obey God. The Head of the true church is Christ – so the church must be built of people who hear Christ and obey Christ. Most “churches” today don’t hear and obey Christ and they aren’t His church at all. They don’t qualify as the church which the gates of hell won’t prevail against. And the reason they aren’t His church is they aren’t built out of the right material. If anyone builds on this foundation with… 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. (1Cor3:12,13)

In building if you dig deep, find out what God is saying and do it then your house will withstand the floods and tests to come. If you don’t dig deep and do what God requires you’ll be destroyed. Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I’ll show you whom he’s like: he’s like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and couldn’t shake it, for it was founded on the rock. But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great. (Lk6:47-49) Notice the person who doesn’t dig deep is still building. All around us busy “church people” are building. The question is: How are they building? Is their building going to last or is it going to fall? The answer is, if they’re building of wood, hay and straw their building is coming down. If they’re building on sand, it’s going to come down. Such buildings aren’t the church the gates of hell can’t prevail against. But hell’s strategies won’t prevail against the church that hears the Word of God and does it. We’re presently engaged in a warfare against a carnal and false “christianity” that claims they have salvation not because they hear and obey the voice of the living God but because as Jesus says they “Search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you aren’t willing to come to Me that you may have life.” (Jn5:39,40) The church that doesn’t come to Jesus is a false church and is principally a traditional church. They do the things in ways their fathers taught them and they think they know something because they’ve been taught by men but they haven’t learned to hear and obey the Spirit. They elevate their teachers above God and get puffed up with book knowledge from people who claim to represent God but often don’t. The divisions in so called “christianity” are caused by people who follow what men say about God – unity in the church comes from believers who hear what God says about God.

In a true church, like “My Father’s House” we don’t teach doctrine alone but we also teach our members to hear the Spirit. The Spirit will help you read the bible and have devotions in which you’ll hear Him. He’ll teach you all things. (Jn14:26) He’ll guide you into all Truth. (Jn16:13) Then when you come into the church, because of the interactions of the members with each other and with the Spirit the sharings and preaching will confirm the very things the Spirit was speaking to you, often in very supernatural ways. As each church member brings the things God shows them; as they share in the Spirit, the brethren soon recognize they’re individually and corporately hearing God. Through many confirmations God shows He’s indeed speaking to us and we’re hearing Him correctly. Our faith in God is built up. We have a church then that knows it’s being led by the Head Jesus. “Churches” that just listen to preaching may think they know God but they never learn to know His voice or receive any confirmation they’re hearing Him. They may hear their teachers (men) but they don’t learn to hear the Spirit. You begin to hear the Spirit most often in devotions at home by yourself where He shows you things. (Jn16:13) But you get confirmations when you come to church and see that what God’s speaking thru the other members of the church and the pastor is agreeable to what He’s been speaking to you. By the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established. (2Cor13:1b) The living stone church hears the Spirit. They’re being taught by living stone men who are in the Spirit. The members hear the Spirit and get confirmations from men of God who are in the Spirit. Therefore in a living stone church every member also becomes a living stone.

If I build on the rock with living stones when the storms come my house isn’t washed away. When you pass through the waters, I’ll be with you; and through the rivers, they’ll not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you’ll not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you. (Is43:2) These are people who hear and obey God. Too many people today think anyone who claims to be working for God is, but the scriptures prove you have to build with the right materials to be serving the Lord. The person building on sand is building. He’s busy. The person building with wood, hay and stubble is building. He’s busy. But just because he professes to work for God doesn’t mean his work really is God’s! When the flood comes the house that’s built on the sand comes down. It’s not God’s house. It isn’t built on the rock of living stones, people who hear and obey God. These false “churches” are built of people who think they know what the Word says because their false teachers tell them what they say the Word says but in reality they don’t know the Spirit so they don’t know the true meaning of the Word. Only the Spirit, the Author of the Word can really show you what the Word means.

Now the teaching you’re receiving right now comes from a man who hears God. It doesn’t come out of a commentary and you’ve probably never heard it before, yet you can see how true it is. Why would Jesus name Simon a stone? Why would He point out, “Peter, you’ve heard God” then say, “Peter, you’re a stone?” Now in naming Peter, Jesus used the Greek word “Petros” but then He said on this “Petra” I’ll build My church. Petra is the Greek word for a mass of rock. Petros is the Greek name for a piece of rock or a stone. Petra is feminine so it stands for the church which is a mass of rock composed of many (petros) living stones. Jesus was pointing out that, “I’m going to build My church out of living stones.” Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone. (Eph2:20) And what’s the most pertinent characteristic of Jesus? He hears and obeys His Father in everything. The most pertinent characteristic of an apostle or a prophet is he hears God. Every believer is going to hear and obey God in God’s real church because Christ must be the Head of every believer. (Col 1:18;1Cor11:3;Eph4:15) None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, “Know the LORD,” for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. (Heb8:11) Every believer that hears and obeys Jesus is founded upon the rock, so Jesus’ church and its members won’t be washed away in the shakings soon to come. Whose voice then shook the earth; but now He’s promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.” Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which can’t be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we’re receiving a Kingdom which can’t be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. (Heb12:26-28)

One important purpose of becoming connected to the rock is to preserve us in the shakings. The shakings are coming and everything that’s not of God will fall. (v27) But those who’ve built on the rock won’t come down because the rock is as solid as God. Hearing and doing the Word of God establishes you in a safe place while the world around you is crumbling. A thousand may fall at your side ten thousand at your right hand. (Ps91:7) Hearing and doing the Word of God keeps you safe from the towers falling (9/11 see our Glory of His Grace book “When the Towers Fall”) keeps you safe from the things that will happen to people who claim to know God but don’t listen to Him, which has often been God’s problem. He’s always had multitudes who claim to believe in Him while their heart is far from Him. (Mt15:8) They don’t listen to or obey Him. So He’s making a difference between the real and the false. In the building of His true church and doing the work of God it’s not just anyone who works for God but it’s the one who builds with the proper materials who’ll survive. So many people are building charities, businesses even “churches” named for God, but if they’re not doing what God says to do, they’re building on sand. The things that are built on sand will be no safe haven. They’ll come down in the flood and the shakings to come.

Therefore, when I’ve performed this and have sealed to them this fruit, I’ll go by way of you to Spain. (Rom15:28) In talking about having their fruit sealed, Paul means he actually had to deliver their gift to Judea or there’d be no reward to the people who gave the offering. A good intention isn’t enough. To be a good deed God can reward the purpose of the deed actually has to be accomplished. If the work isn’t completed to fulfill that purpose then all is done in vain. (Lk14:29,30) If the building doesn’t stand in the storm there’s no reward to the people who built it. You work all your life thinking you’re working for God but it’s wood, hay and stubble. Why? Because you haven’t been building with living stones, precious stones, stones that hear and obey God. If you haven’t been teaching people to hear and obey God, when the flood comes, or the fire comes your people are lost. They don’t have the faith to stand because they don’t hear God. (Gal 3:2;Rom10:17) The only church that’s God’s church is the one that’s built with the right materials. Because you’ve forgotten the God of your salvation, and haven’t been mindful of the Rock of your stronghold, therefore you’ll plant pleasant plants and set out foreign seedlings; in the day you’ll make your plants to grow, and in the morning you’ll make your seed to flourish; but the harvest will be a heap of ruins in the day of grief and desperate sorrow. (Is17:10,11) It’s obvious 9/11 the day the towers fell was a day of grief and desperate sorrow. Yet the prophet’s point is you’ve forgotten the God of your salvation, and haven’t been mindful of Him. They haven’t listened to Him. They haven’t obeyed Him. But does that mean they don’t work? No, they’re working. They’re planting things and setting out seedlings. They’re expecting a harvest. But because they’ve forgotten God and aren’t obeying His Word their harvest is ruins. They’ve sown wheat but reaped thorns; they’ve put themselves to pain but to no profit. Be ashamed of your harvest because of the fierce anger of the LORD. (Jer12:13) People may look like they’re working for the Lord but God knows they aren’t His if they aren’t listening to Him. So He’ll bring their harvest to a shameful end. But the LORD is with me as a mighty and awesome One. Therefore my persecutors will stumble, and won’t prevail. They’ll be greatly ashamed, for they’ll not prosper. Their everlasting confusion will never be forgotten. (Jer20:11) There’s much confusion today concerning who’s really doing a work for God. But any “preacher” who isn’t teaching “believers” to hear and obey the Spirit of the Lord isn’t doing God’s work. If the teacher isn’t really following the Spirit himself and contributing to the building of the glorious church without spot or wrinkle, (Eph5:27) if he isn’t bringing the “believers” into a right relationship with Christ, blameless in holiness in the time of His appearing, (1Cor1:8;Col 1:22) he isn’t doing a work for God. If the “believers” aren’t hearing and obeying God, their house is coming down; their harvest will be ruins. The fact that they’re working doesn’t mean their work is good. Because in each of these scriptures; Is17, Jer12, Jer20, God says the people are working but they won’t get a good harvest. Now most “christians” will say, “The Lord is my Rock. He’s my Salvation. He’s my Protection.” But often it’s a lie. If the Lord isn’t someone you’re listening to and obeying, He isn’t your Rock because that’s the whole point of what Jesus is saying. Everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and doesn’t do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall. (Mt7:26,27) Your house is coming down unless you’re hearing Him and obeying Him. Jesus is talking about the hearing of faith (Gal 5:2) and not hearing the law here. One who hears God isn’t just living by rules. (Gal 5:4)

I waited patiently for the LORD; and He inclined to me, and heard my cry. (Ps40:1) True Christians have a God who hears, a God who’s alive. Many so called “christians” today have a god who’s ideological and historical but he doesn’t speak to them, he doesn’t answer their prayers, he doesn’t hear them and they don’t hear him. Yet they claim they’re going to Heaven because they, in some manner, “believe” in God or in Jesus. The bible teaches idolaters are stupid because their god can’t answer their prayers, can’t talk to them, and can’t lead them. Their god is dead. But our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They’ve mouths, but they don’t speak; eyes they have, but they don’t see; they’ve ears, but they don’t hear; noses they have, but they don’t smell; they’ve hands, but they don’t handle; feet they have, but they don’t walk; nor do they mutter through their throat. Those who make them are like them; so is everyone who trusts in them. (Ps115:3-8) If your Jesus isn’t leading you and talking to you, your Jesus is dead. If your Jesus isn’t guiding you by His Spirit and teaching you in accordance to His Word, then you don’t have the living Christ and you’re an idolater. You have a man-made Jesus and He’s of no use to you. The immediate battle in Christianity is Spiritual Christians, who hear and know God, working to prove what carnal “christians” have isn’t God and won’t save them. (Jude3)

I waited patiently for the LORD; and He inclined to me, and heard my cry. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a Rock, and established my steps. (Ps40:1,2) The psalmist calls upon the Lord and God hears. He knows God hears because of what God does. God answers by helping him. God establishes his steps. HEAR my cry, O God; attend to my prayer. From the end of the earth I’ll cry to You, when my heart is overwhelmed; lead me to the Rock that’s higher than I. (Ps61:1,2) When I call upon God, He tells me what to do and leads me into a safe place. The things God tells me to do work and I’m saved because my God hears me and I hear Him! That’s the Christianity that saves. Is the Lord your Rock? You can call Him your Rock but if you don’t hear when He leads your god isn’t a rock. You’ve an imaginary, idolatrous form of “christianity.” When the Psalmist says God leads to the rock that’s higher we know that Jesus is that high rock. He’s the cornerstone, which is like a foundation and yet He’s above all things. (Heb7:26) Jesus has the answer to every problem. But there are some believers that are higher than others too. Sometimes the answer you need will come from a believer who’s higher than you, a living rock who has Christ in them in a bigger way than you. Christ in another believer can show you the light you need to overcome your problems. Now beyond all contradiction the lesser is blessed by the better. (Heb7:7) Do you have Jesus in you in such a way God can lead needy believers to you so you can be their higher rock in Christ? That the Lord is my Rock isn’t just a figure of speech but it means He’s a living God who’s doing things that save me. That’s why He’s my rock – He’s a living stone, a safe and secure shelter when I’m led by His Spirit. (Rom8:14)

The LORD is my Rock and my Fortress and my Deliverer… (Ps18:2) He’s all that because I hear and do what He says. That’s the first level of God being your Rock. He’s the One I build upon. He’s my foundation because I dug deep and found out what He was saying and did it and that makes me safe from the storm. (Lk6:48) Deliver me in Your righteousness, and cause me to escape; incline Your ear to me, and save me. Be my strong refuge, to which I may resort continually; You’ve given the commandment to save me, for You’re my Rock and my Fortress. (Ps71:2,3) Of course, God can command an angel to miraculously save me, but again He can command me that I “watch and pray” and that’s also a commandment that will save me. Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man. (Lk21:36)

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who doesn’t need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth. (2Tim2:15) This is another commandment that will save you. The things that God tells you to do save you. They gather together against the life of the righteous, and condemn innocent blood. But the LORD has been my defense, and my God the Rock of my refuge. He’s brought on them their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wickedness; the LORD our God shall cut them off. (Ps94:21-23) Although God is our Rock and Defense the righteous are often subject to attacks from the wicked, and we must be prepared for such. Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious. (1Pt2:4) “Jesus was rejected by men.” He’s still being rejected by men. Do you know why so many “churches” today are unfruitful? Because they reject Jesus. They claim to love Him with their lips but they reject His Spirit. They won’t come to Him. You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you’re not willing to come to Me that you may have life. (Jn5:39,40) Most so called “churches” and people who claim to be “christians” don’t like the living Jesus. They’ve developed a false christ according to the morality of their society and such. They worship a “Jesus” who they think obeys what they call socially acceptable behavior, which usually is a non-confrontational “anything goes” christ while the true Christ of the bible, who’s the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb13:8) is a Christ who shakes things up. He’s the Christ who stands up against the lies of false religion, and traditions of men which are vanity. (Mt15:8,9) The real Jesus shakes people up because He’s bold to stand up for Truth.

One reason I’m hated by many so called “christians” is because I stand up for real Christianity – Spiritual Christianity – in the midst of multitudes of false brethren who want to have “christianity” their own way. They think they’ve a right to have it their way because to them essentially religion is anything you want to make it. Most people, even most “christians” believe, “I have a right to my opinion of who God is, and you have a right to your opinion.” And if I don’t respect their opinion, in their eyes I’m sinning. The truth is if you have an opinion about God, you’re no different than any pagan. Every unbeliever has an opinion about God. And when a “church” entertains an opinion about God, formalizes it, or makes it doctrinal, an element of what that “church” is about – “We have this opinion about God, so this is the way we’re going to worship Him” then what they’ve done is become idolaters. They have a man-made god because they’ve conjured him up out of their own minds, their own opinions, their own imaginations. They’ve decided this is the kind of god we like – this is the kind of god we’re going to worship – this is the way we want to think about god and they develop a religion based upon their fleshly likes and dislikes. Now get this straight if you want to live! God doesn’t care what your opinion of Him is. He is! And He is what He is whether you believe it or not! Your opinion doesn’t mean anything. You may think you have a right to your opinion, but your opinion isn’t going to get you into Heaven. Your opinion isn’t going to get you to a place where Jesus says, “I know you.” The only way you can be acceptable to God is to find out who He is from Him. And because God is real, He has the ability to reveal Himself to people who want to know Him. I don’t have an opinion about God. The things I teach I’m getting from God. That means I’m not sharing opinions. I’m showing you what God is showing me about Himself, and these things are true. So I’m not behaving as a Christian according to what someone else’s opinion of Jesus is. I’m behaving according to what Jesus Himself teaches me. But even most “believers” don’t like the real Jesus. He’s too confrontational for them. Most so called “believers” don’t like me because I’m too confrontational for them. But Jesus loves me because I stand for what He stands for and I do things the way He wants. So I represent a Jesus many don’t know. If you don’t like me, you don’t like Him because He sent me. (Lk10:16) He talked to me and He called me by grace and He’s made me what I am. And He likes what I am. So if you don’t receive me, you don’t receive Him. And it’s your erroneous opinion of Him that makes you think of Him as opposite from me when in Truth He’s like me because He’s made me like Him. And in their arrogance many falsely think they know Him and I don’t when He’s never talked to them, but I do know Him and He talks to me! (2Cor10:7)

Therefore it’s also contained in the Scripture, “Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.” Therefore, to you who believe, He’s precious; but to those who are disobedient, “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone,” and “a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.” They stumble, being disobedient to the Word, to which they also were appointed. (1Pt2:6-8) Because Jesus is called to be a stumbling stone, so am I. And if you’re really in the body of Christ, so are you. Real Christians are people that false “christians” stumble on. It’s meant to be that way. God has ordained it! Once you understand that as a real Christian you’re intended by God to be a stumbling stone to the disobedient then you should realize that people are going to be angry with you when they stumble on you. You have to be able to accept that if you’re to properly serve the Lord. Jesus has been rejected by men and the disciple isn’t above his master. If He’s a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense so are we. It’s because He’s been rejected that He’s a stumbling stone. We’ll be rejected by men also if we’re His living stones. Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel, their Holy One, to Him whom man despises, to Him whom the nation abhors, to the Servant of rulers: “Kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship, because of the LORD who’s faithful, the Holy One of Israel; and He’s chosen You.” (Is49:7) This is talking about Jesus but it’s also talking about we who are chosen in Him. (Eph1:4) The fact that God has chosen us actually causes the world to reject us. If the world hates you, you know it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you aren’t of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. (Jn15:18,19)

The Lord GOD has given Me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who’s weary. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear to hear as the learned. The Lord GOD has opened My ear. This describes Christ and also those who are His living stones. They hear God. God speaks to them. And I wasn’t rebellious, nor did I turn away. I gave My back to those who struck Me, and My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard; I didn’t hide My face from shame and spitting. (Is50:4-6) Because zeal for Your house has eaten me up, and the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me. (Ps69:9) The real Christian has a zeal for God that causes him to stand up for God’s Word. He stands up for God’s Truths and that offends the people who are disobedient to God’s Word. So we’ll have enemies if we stand up for God. The righteous bear the reproaches of those who reproach God. If God says women must wear a covering in the church (1Cor11) those people who don’t want to do it won’t like you when you do it. So they talk against us and bring reproaches on us because our women wear a covering in obedience to God while they won’t do what God says. And whatever else God asks us to do that others of the disobedient won’t will cause them to reject us because we obey.

O LORD, You know; remember me and visit me, and take vengeance for me on my persecutors. In Your enduring patience, don’t take me away. Know that for Your sake I’ve suffered rebuke. Your Words were found, and I ate them, and Your Word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; for I’m called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts. I didn’t sit in the assembly of the mockers, nor did I rejoice; I sat alone because of Your hand, for You’ve filled me with indignation. (Jer15:15-17) In other words zeal for Your house has eaten me up. (Ps69:9) I too am jealous as Christ is over the house of God and Jesus in me is fighting to raise up the glorious church in the midst of a multitude of imposters who don’t love the Lord but want to have church their own way. It was after Jesus turned over the tables of the moneychangers that his disciples remembered “Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.” (Jn2:17b) So what did the scribes say? “Who gives You authority to do this?” (Lk20:2) Jesus replies, “My Father in Heaven who’s house you’re turning into a den of thieves.” (Lk19:46) “Who do You think You are?” is what the chief priest’s attitude is and they reproach Him because they reproach God. They won’t repent and get right with God. So they come against Jesus just like they have come against God’s Word by making God’s house a den of thieves. Later Jesus rebukes them by the parable of the stolen vineyard. (Lk20:9-16)  Concerning Jeremiah it’s also the Word of the Lord that’s made him a reproach. (Jer15:16) O LORD, You induced me, and I was persuaded; You’re stronger than I, and have prevailed. (Jer20:7) Because of the reproach he was receiving for speaking God’s Word Jeremiah tried to stop, but God’s Spirit in him was too strong. He had to speak! When you get a true baptism in the Holy Spirit, it will do that for you. You’ll speak up for God because you have the greater One in you. (1Jn4:4) Because the Word of the LORD was made to me a reproach and a derision daily. Then I said, “I’ll not make mention of Him, nor speak anymore in His name.” But His Word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, and I could not. For I heard many mocking: “Fear on every side!” “Report,” they say, “and we’ll report it!” (Jer20:8-10) But God hasn’t given us a spirit of fear… (2Tim1:7) Yet there’s fear on every side. Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. (2Tim1:6) Paul’s speaking of the baptism in the Holy Spirit, which is given to Spirit filled believers today also by the laying on of hands and we too need to stir this gift up.

For God hasn’t given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Therefore don’t be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, (v7,8) In Jeremiah the power of God causes him to speak God’s Word - to stand up against fear on every side and not be afraid. Today the baptism in the Holy Spirit will cause you to stand up against fear on every side and speak the Truth. False “christians” may try to shut you up because they don’t like God’s Word or the Jesus in you. They want a powerless Jesus who won’t reproach them for anything. They like a Jesus who says everybody can have it their own way, and still go to Heaven. But if you don’t stand up against that you’re helping the devil take them to hell because that kind of “christianity” can’t save them. Because they aren’t living stones – Jesus isn’t in them - they don’t hear God – they don’t obey Him. They trust in some scriptures they think tell them they’re saved but they don’t know God. (Jn5:39,40) They aren’t the church and they don’t have Jesus as their Head. They don’t walk in the Spirit; their steps aren’t ordered by the Lord. They follow the dictates of their own hearts; they’re unsaved people claiming to be God’s people. And they’re destined to stumble because of their disobedience. They stumble, being disobedient to the Word, to which they also were appointed. (1Pt2:8) They aren’t saved and their kind of “christianity” won’t profit them. God won’t let the chaff be counted as though it’s wheat. (Mt3:12)

Therefore don’t be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God. (2Tim1:8) If you’re going to be a real Christian, you must share in the sufferings of Christ. That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death. (Phil 3:10) You must stand up for Jesus against a world that hates Jesus. You must stand up for Truth against a false “church” that hates Truth. (Jn7:7) If you don’t do that, you won’t be fruitful and Jesus will deny you. If you’re ashamed of Him and His words then in the Day of Judgment He’ll be ashamed of you. (Lk9:26) If you don’t confess Him before men and stand up for what He preaches then He won’t confess you before the Father in Heaven. (Mt10:32,33) He’s commanded the things that He says to you in private, are to be preached from the housetops. (Mt10:27) You’re to listen to what God tells you and tell others. The Christian who really hears God and does what God tells him is so different from those who don’t hear God that there can be no agreement between the two. For what communion has light with darkness. (2Cor6:14) Often the false “christians” will blaspheme, slander and judge the true. And when a disobedient “believer” begins judging somebody who’s obeying God, the disobedient one is going to be judged. (Rom2:1-3) God will often strike him with a sickness or something of that nature. For he who eats and drinks (behaves) in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. (The true obedient church is the Lord’s body.) Whoever comes against the true obedient Christians stumbles and God will punish him. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. (1Cor11:29,30) God knows how to convince people they don’t have the real God when they erroneously think they do. To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear? Indeed their ear is uncircumcised, and they can’t give heed. Behold, the Word of the LORD is a reproach to them; they’ve no delight in it. Therefore I’m full of the fury of the LORD. I’m weary of holding it in. I’ll pour it out on the children outside, and on the assembly of young men together; for even the husband shall be taken with the wife, the aged with him who’s full of days. (Jer6:10,11) They’re going to stumble and realize, “God isn’t with me.” But He’s with His obedient church. The ones who are hearing Him and doing His Word – following the Spirit – the ones who are preaching Spirit led Christianity – He’s with them. But He isn’t with these people who are “legal” “christians” or “intellectual christians.” And they’re going to find that out by stumbling on us.

Therefore don’t be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God. (2Tim1:8) God’s power will sustain you and give you all the strength you need to stand up against the opposition to Christ in you. This is the true baptism of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit’s given so you’ll be bold in standing up for the Truth. (Act1:8) That’s what He does all thru the book of Acts. (Act4:31) And where much of the modern church has erred concerning this is they’ve ignored the boldness of the Holy Spirit as described in the book of Acts in favor of the “meekness” of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians. (5:22) This error is inexcusable since Jesus always indicated the primary purpose of the Spirit is to give power and boldness to witness to the believer since that’s what is needed to be a successful preacher, teacher or an evangelist. It’s often easy for flesh to be meek. Cowardly people don’t need to be taught to be meek. To avoid conflict cowardice often disguises itself as meekness. But mighty Moses was the meekest of men. (Num12:3) And when you need to stand up against fear on every side – to preach the truth to people who don’t want to hear, you don’t need God to make you meeker – you need God to make you bold. When “churches” today throw away a God pleasing boldness in favor of a people pleasing meekness you can tell who they’re working for and it isn’t God. They’re serving the devil. There’s a place for meekness but it’s not the place the contemporary “church” has put it. Such people aren’t God’s church. They aren’t living stones and they don’t hear God. They misinterpret the Scriptures because they aren’t taught by God. They follow their own proclivities and do things the way they think is safest for their flesh because they’re cowards who want peace at any price. For when they say, “Peace and safety!” Then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. (1Th5:3) They want to make peace with the devil while Christ’s true church is at war with him. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. (1Jn3:8b) Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they’ve committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him. (Jude 14,15) These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He’s Lord of lords and King of kings; and those with Him are called, chosen, and faithful. (Rev17:14)

Have the reproaches with which men reproach God fallen on you? Has zeal for God’s house eaten you up? (Ps69:9) You’ve seen my zeal in fighting for the true church for over twenty years and how often I’m reproached. But am I getting stronger or weaker? I’m getting stronger because God is with me. Now you do likewise. If Jesus is in you, you must have a zeal for the Lord’s house, because that zeal is in Him. So stir up the gift of the Holy Spirit if He’s in you. Be bold to stand up for Truth. Flee from these cowardly people who suppress the Truth in a false meekness. (Rom1:18) Instead, tell sinners boldly how to save their souls. Represent the Lord in a way He can take pleasure in you.

But the LORD is with me as a mighty, awesome One. Therefore my persecutors will stumble, and won’t prevail. They’ll be greatly ashamed, for they won’t prosper. (Jer20:11) If they aren’t digging deep and building their foundation on hearing and doing the Word of God then they stumble, being disobedient to the Word. (1Pt2:8) Their church will be washed away in the flood. Their plantings will produce a ruin, not a harvest. Their everlasting confusion will never be forgotten. But, O LORD of hosts, You who test the righteous and see the mind and heart, let me see Your vengeance on them; for I’ve pleaded my cause before You. (Jer20:11,12) Jeremiah isn’t taking vengeance himself. He knows “Vengeance is Mine, I’ll repay,” says the Lord. (Rom12:19) He’s just saying, “Lord, let me see it when You do it.” To a true believer, seeing God take vengeance can be a real faith builder and it can also help teach weak “believers” to fear God and obey Him. Strike a scoffer, and the simple will become wary. (Pr19:25)

When the priests in Anathoth were planning to kill Jeremiah, God gave him a word of knowledge. (1Cor12:8) Now the LORD gave me knowledge of it, and I know it; for You showed me their doings. “Let’s destroy the tree with its fruit, and let’s cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be remembered no more.” (Jer11:18,19) Jeremiah is a living stone. He hears God. God speaks to him and he speaks to God. But, O LORD of hosts, you who judge righteously, testing the mind and the heart, let me see Your vengeance on them, for to You I’ve revealed my cause. (Jer11:20) Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: “Behold, I’ll punish them. The young men shall die by the sword, their sons and their daughters shall die by famine; and there shall be no remnant of them, for I’ll bring catastrophe on the men of Anathoth, even the year of their punishment.” (Jer11:22,23) God says to Jeremiah, “I’m going to kill every one of them and all their children because of what they planned against you. There won’t be one survivor left.” The Lord rebuke you is a fearful thing. God does a better job of taking vengeance than we can. And these people are coming against God when they come against a man God has sent. It’s God they’re fighting against not Jeremiah. That’s also why it’s dangerous to stumble against one of God’s true saints.

Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men… (1Pt2:4) Jesus was and is still being rejected by men. Most “christians” love to talk about Jesus while they’re in church but when the Spirit shows up they hate Him and anyone who’s Spiritual. They can’t stand God’s presence because He exposes what they’re doing wrong and shakes them up. He’ll rebuke them and tell them what they need to do to get right and they don’t like it. They want God to save them the way they are and leave them the way they are. But it isn’t going to happen. God won’t save you if you don’t allow Him to change you. (Rom12:2) You also, as living stones, are being built up a Spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up Spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1Pt2:5) The sacrifices Christians offer God must be acceptable, but the sacrifices many offer aren’t acceptable. They’re wood, hay and stubble. They’re Cain’s offering not Abel’s. You can’t build and be rewarded for it if your offering isn’t acceptable.  Behold, I lay in Zion a chief Cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame. Therefore, to you who believe, He’s precious; but to those who are disobedient, “The Stone which the builders rejected has become the chief Cornerstone,” (Jesus is rejected by disobedient men but He’s precious to the obedient) and “a Stone of stumbling and a Rock of offense.” They stumble, being disobedient to the Word, to which they also were appointed. (1Pt2:6-8) Living stones hear the Word of God and obey it. These people stumble because they disobey. Today many denominations stumble because they believe to be saved by faith and not of works means you don’t have to obey because they erroneously define obedience as a work. The Baptists are the worst! Because they’ve defined obedience as a work, they’ve stumbled. Now how does that stumbling work? I’m a true man of God and I hear God. I go into the prisons, for example, and preach as God tells me that real Christianity requires works of faith. (Jms2:24,26) The disobedient people don’t like it and start blaspheming and slandering me. They try to do things to get rid of me, to remove me from the prisons by laying traps. They come to my services to interrupt and cause arguments. They do all these things thinking I’m the heretic – I’m the one who doesn’t know God because I disagree with their “faith without works” doctrine. But I’m getting what I preach from God and they’re getting what they preach from heretical books, commentaries and teachers who claim to know what the bible says but who’ve never heard God tell them what it says. And with most of these “churches” this has gone on for generations.

Some of these people when they were “baby christians” tried to read their bibles but encountered many things they didn’t understand. (2Pt3:16) Then instead of going to God for understanding they went to men. Their man-taught teachers tell them it means this or that. (Jn14:26) So the new “believers” go away thinking, “Now I know what the Bible means.” But they never sat down before the Lord and let the Spirit teach them what it means. (Jn16:13) Then someone like me comes in after Jesus Himself commanded me saying, “Don’t read these commentaries of men for I’m going to teach you.” And Jesus taught me Himself what His Word means. So I start telling them what Jesus says His Word means and it’s distinctly different from what these man-taught believers have been studying and learning. So they judge me and call me a heretic, because I don’t teach in agreement with what they’ve received from men. They come up with anything they can to fight against me. “He doesn’t love us. He’s not friendly. He’s not meek.” And they’ll come against you the same way if you’re zealous for the Lord and His Truth. I’m using myself as an example but all true Christians will experience these same things. For the disciple isn’t above his master. (Lk6:40)

Many people think, “It doesn’t matter what you believe. You can have it your way. You can preach your ‘once save always saved’ and I’ll preach my way and it doesn’t matter.” People without zeal don’t care much about what they’re doing. But with true Christians the things God says are important. They’re important to Jesus. They’re important to God. And they’re important to the well being of all true believers. I can’t ignore people who preach things that disagree with God’s Truths. Jesus didn’t ignore heresies. And Christ in me is going to come against whatever is false because we know such things are leading people to hell. False teachers and liars turn people away from the true salvation. Woe to you lawyers! For you’ve taken away the key of knowledge. You didn’t enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in you hindered. (Lk11:52) Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he’s won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves. (Mt23:15) The false “churches” fulfill! “They set their threshold by My threshold, and their doorpost by My doorpost, with a wall between them and Me, and they defiled My holy name by the abominations which they committed; therefore I’ve consumed them in My anger.” (Ezek43:8) They’re building a man-made “church” that isn’t God’s church and telling people it’s God’s church. So the people that should be going to God’s church are misled and go to this man-made church instead and they miss God because of what these false man-taught “christians” have deceptively put in the way of the Truth. As a true Christian I have to stand for God’s true church and so I must expose the false and call the true believers to the God-made, God-taught church. But then the foul mouthed stumblers in the false “church” say things like, “What a mean man he is. He should respect our opinions. He’s judging us.” And I’m saying, “I sure am. I’m judging you because God is judging you!” And yet if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I’m not alone, but I’m with the Father who sent Me. (Jn8:16) But the stumblers are also judging me that I’m sinning because I don’t agree with what they say. Now you can try to judge me but God has already judged me, and He’s accepted me because my judgment comes from Him. Who’ll bring a charge against God’s elect? It’s God who justifies. (Rom8:33) The Spiritual man judges all things but isn’t judged (correctly) by anyone. (1Cor2:15) Jesus judges when He calls the Pharisees whited sepulchers and a brood of vipers. (Mt23:27,33) He says their father’s the devil. (Jn8:44) He’s judging them, but God doesn’t judge Jesus because Jesus’ judgment isn’t coming from His flesh it’s coming from God.

Now this is how the stumbling works. My judgment is coming from God – your judgment is coming from you! And you’re judging me that I’m not doing right when you’re the one who doesn’t hear God. Which of us is God going to punish? The one who is accusing me falsely that I don’t obey God when in fact they don’t hear God is the one who’s going to fall. God will judge him because, do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you’ll escape the judgment of God? (Rom2:3) If you’re accusing me of not hearing God when you don’t hear God, God will punish you with the punishment you wished on me. Hypocrite! That’s, Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you’ll be judged... (Mt7:1,2) We often encounter so called “christians” today who say, “Don’t judge” but then judge us as being sinners because we righteously correct them. They don’t like to receive correction so when we reprove or rebuke them they call it “judging” and then decide we’re not of God. And here’s the problem – when you decide that I’m not of God, if I am of God, God is going to judge you. God commands us to Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. (2Tim4:2b) So if we’re righteously rebuking that’s not judging. (See our Glory of His Grace book “Reprove and Rebuke”) But by accusing us of sin when we obey God, they’re judging, and will be judged. But the living stones are the ones who are hearing God and their judgment is acceptable to God, so they’re allowed to judge because they’re judging by what God is showing them and there isn’t any sin in their judgments because they’re led by the Spirit. Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person.” (1Cor5:12b,13) The people who don’t hear God are continually misjudging the people who do and every time they misjudge they stumble! When they misjudge us they fall because God is with us. Take counsel together, but it will come to nothing; speak the word, but it won’t stand, for God is with us. (Is8:10) Those who are man-taught but not God-taught have taken council and gathered together and tried to use the Word of God to convince themselves that we aren’t of God, but the gates of Hell won’t prevail against God’s true church that’s built of living stones. And those foolish people who try to bring it down are going to find out that we’re people who do hear God after all and God is with us, not with them.

But whoever listens to me will dwell safely, and will be secure, without fear of evil. (Pr1:33) Long before the towers fell in NYC we were preaching that real Christianity produces a place of security and safety in the Lord. But it depends upon hearing and knowing the Spirit, listening to God and obeying God. Therefore any Christianity that doesn’t do that – doesn’t bring you into contact with the Spirit of God so you’re hearing and obeying – doesn’t produce the safety. Whoever listens to me will dwell safely, and will be secure, without fear of evil. This is a promise from God that those who listen to Him won’t need to fear. So how do we reconcile that with what’s going on in so many “churches” around us wherein the greater majority of “church” people today do fear many of the things that are happening to them? The problem is just what these scriptures are saying – they don’t hear, so they stumble. In fact, some of them when they do meet someone who hears God they reject that person and start misjudging them because those who aren’t listening to the Spirit of God are living according to what they think they know about God in their own heads, their own ideas, their own imaginations and their erroneous religious opinions and not according to Truth. (Ezek20:21b,25) There’s a profound and essential disagreement between the behavior of those who hear and obey God and those who don’t. And those who misjudge the righteous are committing the kind of sinful judgment that God will judge them for. Whereas when you’re listening to and obeying God there’s no sin in that. (Rom8:1)  

The work of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever. My people will dwell in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places, though hail comes down on the forest, and the city is brought low in humiliation. (Is32:17-19) Why will God’s people be safe when the city and the forest aren’t? Because they’re building their houses on the rock. (Mt7:24,25) God’s true people are those who hear Him and listen to Him and they aren’t building in the city or in the forest. They’re in the place God has put them by their obedience to Him. They’re safe in Goshen. (Ex9:26)

But he who’s Spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For “who’s known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (1Cor2:15,16) If we’re listening to the Spirit then we have the mind of Christ and we’re judging according to what He shows us, therefore our judgment is righteous. For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son… and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He’s the Son of Man. I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous. (Jn5:22,27,30) My judgment isn’t from me but from what God shows me, thus there’s no sin in my judgment because there’s no sin in God’s judgment. “My judgment is righteous because I don’t seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.” (Jn5:30) If you’re Spiritual you’re doing the same. If your judgment is coming from God, then no judgment is going to return upon you. But if you’re judging from something other than God you’ll be judged. Don’t judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment. (Jn7:24) You judge according to the flesh. (Jn8:15) You stumble when you judge according to your own ideas. Judge not, that you be not judged means don’t judge according to the flesh. I judge no one. (of Myself) Yet if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I’m not alone, but I’m with the Father who sent Me. (Jn8:16) “I’m not judging by Myself, but because the Father is with Me I’m privy to His judgment.” That’s the Spiritual man. If I have the mind of Christ, my judgment isn’t of myself but of God. I’ve many things to say and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I heard from Him. (v26) Most “churches” today have never seen the permissible side of judgment. They’re all wrapped up in a foolish form of “don’t judge” but Jesus expects us to “judge righteous judgment” by listening to what the Father says and not judging from ourselves. Paul judges often. He says, “I’ve already judged concerning one who’s committed sin in the church. We’re going to turn him over to the devil.” (1Cor5:1-5) His judgment is righteous because it isn’t from himself. He’s judging from God. Most so called “churches” around us don’t understand that because they don’t hear God. But how can you know you’re saved and abiding in Christ except you hear God? I know I have the Spirit because God talks to me. When I got up this morning He was talking to me. The Lord GOD has given Me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who’s weary. He awakens Me morning by morning, he awakens My ear to hear as the learned. The Lord GOD has opened My ear; and I was not rebellious, nor did I turn away. I gave My back to those who struck Me, and My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard; I didn’t hide My face from shame and spitting. For the Lord GOD will help Me; therefore I won’t be disgraced; therefore I’ve set My face like a flint, and I know that I won’t be ashamed. He’s near who justifies Me; who’ll contend with Me? Let’s stand together. Who’s My adversary? Let him come near Me. Surely the Lord GOD will help Me; who’s he who’ll condemn Me? Indeed they’ll all grow old like a garment; the moth will eat them up. (Is50:4-9) God talks to Jesus! And if I’m in Christ, God talks to me. But here’s what happens if we sin – God stops talking. Now if God stops talking then I’m going to have to preach what He said yesterday instead of what He’s saying today. You heard what He gave me to preach yesterday. Am I preaching something new today? Yes! Then He’s still talking to me. When a church sins God stops talking to them. Then they have to preach what they remember. If they stay in sin for years then they’ll still be preaching what they heard years ago because they won’t have anything new. And if they continue in sin they’ll start making things up that aren’t true just to look like they have something new. So they become heretics. That’s the progression of those who apostatize. If God isn’t talking to you, you’d better get on your knees and pray, “Please, Lord, straighten me out.” Repent if you’ve done something wrong? God talks to living stones because He’s a living God and His people know the living God. But when God stops talking you aren’t alive to Him and He isn’t alive to you. (1Jn3:6)

We’re called to stand up for what God says against a people who don’t hear Him and yet believe they’re in Him. As we expose their error, often they’re going to call us names and accuse us of being wrong. Yet if someone doesn’t show them a religion that doesn’t hear God can’t save them, they’ll die in their sins and go to hell. “You’re My witnesses,” says the LORD, “and My servants whom I’ve chosen, that you may know and believe Me, and understand that I’m He. Before Me there was no God formed, nor shall there be after Me. I, even I, am the LORD, and besides Me there’s no savior. I’ve declared and saved, I’ve proclaimed, and there was no foreign god among you; therefore you’re My witnesses,” says the LORD, “that I am God.” (Is43:10-12) The real God declares, proclaims and speaks to His people. This people I’ve formed for Myself; they shall declare My praise. (v21) And we speak for Him. But you’re a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; (1Pt2:9) It’s only concerning His witnesses that He says, “I’ve called you by your name; you’re Mine. When you pass through the waters, I’ll be with you; and through the rivers, they’ll not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you’ll not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you.” (Is43:1,2) There’s security in being called and chosen to be a witness for God. And what is it that we’re to witness? What are we standing for? Above all I’m standing up for the God who speaks to men. I’m standing for Spiritual Christianity, the God who leads by the Spirit and is truly Head of the church. I’m saying God isn’t found in the books. – He’s not found in the rules. – He’s not found in the rituals, traditions, opinions of men. – He’s not found in doctrines alone. I love sound doctrine. – I love the bible. – I love the things God teaches better than the Baptists, or the word people, or the faith people or any others who claim to love God. But I still know God in the Spirit above all other things. And if you don’t know God in the Spirit, you aren’t saved because what you have is a god that has eyes but can’t see, a god that has ears but can’t hear, a god that has a mouth but can’t talk and a god that has feet but doesn’t walk. (Ps115:5-8)

If your god isn’t alive and talking to you then you don’t have the living God and I’m bearing witness to the living God. How often have I testified I didn’t start the Glory of His Grace? God told me to! I didn’t start “My Father’s House.” God told me to! I didn’t make this message up. God gave it to me! And when God can teach people to be living stones we can come together like we did last Sunday and have church where everyone is bringing something they heard from God and you can see the whole service come together out of a divine mind that’s higher than ours; Christ with us. And we know and can prove and demonstrate that we hear God. Our obedience to God – doing what He shows us to do, proves He exists and makes us His witnesses. Whereas if you come to church and you don’t prophesy, pray, or obey Him in sharing something useful you don’t demonstrate God exists. If you don’t hear Him or if He tells you to do something but you don’t do it, you give us no evidence that your God lives. If you don’t find out what your part is and do it, then you’re as dead as a lump on a log; you’re like any false “christian” in any dead church. You exhibit no evidence that Jesus is alive. But if you search the Lord out, if you pray, if you’ll listen to find what He has for you to do, you can bring something in that will be useful to the church. And because you have the love of Christ in you that wants to edify the church, you can bring your effectual part. And when every member of “My Father’s House” does the same then we’ll have a glorious service in which all can see that the mind of Christ is in charge and God is alive in a people who really hear Him. So we can have real church when those around us don’t because we actually hold fast to the Head. (Col 2:19) Most so called “churches” today don’t hear what the Head is saying and don’t bring in what the Head tells them to bring in and they don’t do what the Head tells them to do. So in such “churches” no one can tell whether God is alive or not. And as far as they’re concerned He’s not. For they don’t behave like living stones but dead stones, and dead stones have a dead god. But we stand as witnesses for the God who’s alive and we proclaim there is no other. We are witnesses to the living God – who speaks to men – who leads us by His Spirit – who teaches us all Truth – we’re witnesses to this living God in the midst of a generation of fake “believers” who don’t know the living God. In the midst of a religious people who have theories and doctrines and stories about a historical God, we stand for the God who lives today!

“…and whatever I command you, you’ll speak. Don’t be afraid of their faces, for I’m with you to deliver you,” says the LORD. (Jer1:7,8) “They’ll fight against you, but they’ll not prevail against you. For I’m with you,” says the LORD, “to deliver you.” (v19) Therefore prepare yourself and arise, and speak to them all that I command you. Don’t be dismayed before their faces, lest I dismay you before them. (v17) If we’ll stand up for God He’ll stand up for us. He’s been looking for a people who’ll stand up for Him, and He’s been disappointed most of the time that those who profess to be His people won’t stand up for Him. Now, the same thing God told Jeremiah, is what Jesus tells us in the Great Commission. “Lo, I’m with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Mt28:20) “I’m sending you into trouble. I am sending you into places where the disobedient will stumble on you – they’ll come against you. They’ll fight against you because they think they’re My people though they don’t listen to Me. But I’m going to show them through you who God’s people really are. I’m going to show them a people I speak to and who hear Me. I’m going to shame them and shake them. Many of them will get angry and come against you but they won’t prevail against you because you’re My witnesses and “Lo, I am with you always…” You’ll walk through the fire and it won’t kindle on you and you’ll go through the waters but they’ll not overflow you because you’re My witnesses – I’ve chosen you – I’ll give men for your lives – I’ll bring the disobedient down and I’ll hold you up. (Is43:1-4) Will you trust Me to do that? If you trust Me you’ll prevail but if you don’t trust Me I’ll dismay you before them.” (Jer1:17) God is looking for boldness. He’s looking for someone who’ll stand up and say, “There’s no other God but the one who speaks, the one who leads by the Spirit. There’s no other church except the one that’s made out of living stones. Every other church is coming down. The gates of hell have already prevailed over them.” The only church that will stand is the one that hears God – listens to and obeys what He says – digs deep and lays its foundation upon the solid rock of God’s Word. And that’s the church God is building here.

 Whole Stones!

 Joshua built an altar to the LORD God of Israel in Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded the children of Israel, as it’s written in the Book of the Law of Moses: “an altar of whole stones over which no man has wielded an iron tool.” (Jsh8:30,31) Moses’ commandment was when the people entered the promised land they should build an altar. And there you’ll build an altar to the LORD your God, an altar of stones; you shall not use an iron tool on them. (Dt27:5) Now we’ve just seen how as true believers we’re the living stones in God’s temple, and we’re stumbling stones to the disobedient. But now the Spirit is showing us another way we’re stones. As true believers we’re to be living stones, but we’re also to be whole stones not touched by man’s tools, contrary to, But they’re altogether dull-hearted and foolish; a wooden idol is a worthless doctrine. (Jer10:8) An idol is fashioned by men’s hands, so it’s absolutely worthless. So is a man-made doctrine. It’s just as worthless as an idol that can’t do anything. Idols can’t talk, can’t change you –don’t have any power to do anything to help you. And a worthless doctrine is just like a man-made idol. It doesn’t produce anything of any value. It’s made up by man and whatever it stands for is completely contrary to God’s Word! Everyone’s dull-hearted, without knowledge; every metalsmith is put to shame by an image; for his molded image is falsehood, and there’s no breath in them. They’re futile, a work of errors; in the time of their punishment they’ll perish. (Jer10:14,15)

Moses tells Joshua to build an altar of stones that aren’t touched by man’s tools. And God knows whatever sinful man touches becomes worthless. Man can’t create anything real, only idols and false doctrines. Most of today’s “churches” have been ruined by heretical doctrines and worthless teachings that have been “fashioned by men.” And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. (Mt15:9) In the Glory of His Grace Jesus is exposing the many lies that fill the false “churches” of today. Once saved always saved! Imputed righteousness! That God is love without judgment! Workless grace! All these lies that are running rampant in the so called “churches” are stones defiled by the tools of man. And those who worship at such man-corrupted altars are shamed in the very things they glory about. Whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame -- who set their mind on earthly things. (Phil 3:19) Because their doctrines are man-made, they’re falsehood, so in the time of their punishment they’ll perish. (Jer10:15) And this is what’s going on in most so called “churches” today, yet the stones in Joshua’s altar aren’t touched by man’s tools. God fashions His altar of living stones which aren’t man-made but “taught of God” (Jn6:45) who puts them together as He pleases. But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. (1Cor12:18)

And there, in the presence of the children of Israel, he wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses. (Jsh8:32) Acceptable sacrifices can only be offered on an altar made of whole stone untouched by man’s tools and upon which the law of God is written. It’s because God’s Word is written in our hearts that we can obey and display it. (Rom2:15) God has created us to be a people who cause the disobedient followers of worthless man-made doctrines to come down when they stumble on us. There are no worthless doctrines in God’s church where the law of God’s written on living stones. Which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the Truth. (1Tim3:15b) It’s the Word of God brought forth by the Spirit that makes our Christianity worthwhile –because it’s Truth, because it’s founded on God’s everlasting Word by the Spirit. It’s God in our hearts. It’s the law of God written in us. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. (Heb8:10) Only when the law of God is written on living stones that haven’t been touched by worthless man-made doctrines can we be a people who bring an acceptable sacrifice unto God.

 Prophecy:  Now you’re My living stones because I made you – I put you together – not by the will of man did I do this –I put every stone in place so you can bring acceptable sacrifices unto Me. And now I can cause the disobedient to stumble upon you and expose their shame – that they aren’t My people – that it’s worthless things they’ve built upon and that there’s a great difference between those who obey Me and those who don’t. And it’s going to be shown very clearly that all things which aren’t of Me are worthless, thus saith the Lord! (Prophecy delivered at “My Father’s House”)

 Just because God’s stones haven’t been touched by human tools doesn’t mean they aren’t shaped. They’re fashioned by God. God wants His temple to be made up of living stones conformed to His pattern and He won’t allow men to interfere with what He’s shaping. The stones Joshua uses for his altar are natural stones, not unshaped, but shaped by the hand of God in nature. We’re to be taught of God and not by man except men of God who are implements in God’s hands. Paul for example, says he’s God’s pen which is being used to engrave God’s Word upon the hearts of the believers. (2Cor3:3) The law of God is being written in the hearts of the living stones because Paul is a pen in the hand of God not an instrument man uses. Now the altar is a necessary part of the temple. You have to bring an acceptable sacrifice to the temple before you can approach God. Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a Spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up Spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1Pt2:4,5) Acceptable sacrifices have to be Spiritual and offered on the right altar. Paul tells us what the acceptable sacrifice is in I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service… that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Rom12:1,2) We must be completely consecrated unto God if we’re to worship God in Spirit and Truth, (Jn4:24) undefiled by the corrupted traditions and doctrines of men.

The most pernicious and widespread examples of man-corrupted religion are the altars of denominationalism. How many times have you heard someone say, “I’m a Baptist and Baptists believe this.” or “I’m a Lutheran and we teach such and such.” or the Catholics “Our doctrine is this.” Anytime someone’s saying, “I’m a Baptist and this is what Baptists believe, you’ve a stone shaped by man. The Baptists have shaped their followers to look like Baptists not like Christ. The Catholics conform their members to themselves not Christ. The Lutherans produce more Lutherans not Christians. Their seminaries, theologians, commentaries, preachers and teachers are the iron tools by which they shape their stones into a likeness that doesn’t resemble Jesus. When someone says “We Baptists believe” you can see it’s more important for this person to be a Baptist than to be a Christian. When someone is discussing doctrine with me I’m not going to say, “This is what the Pentecostals believe.” I’m going to say, “This is what the bible says.” or “This is what Jesus teaches.” or “This is what Christians believe.” “This is what the Lord has shown us on this subject.” We’re identifying with God’s doctrine – God’s position. We’re taught by God. And we’re to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ not to what Baptists or Presbyterians or Catholics say we ought to look like. The only church that’s acceptable to Jesus is made of Christ-like living stones. It’s made of stumbling stones. And it’s made of whole stones that haven’t been corrupted by man but shaped by God. Living stones are like Peter and Paul. They hear God. They receive revelations from God. Their faith is in what God says. And that makes them like stones; unshakeable. They’re stable. They aren’t taught of man. When God uses men He confirms what His men are teaching. God speaks to true believers in their hearts in the privacy of their own homes, while we’re resting or even working. And He always confirms what He’s saying thru godly men so we know of a certainty we’re hearing God. (2Cor13:1) God wants whole stones. You don’t take a man-made implement – a human tool to the stones out of which God is building His altar. We must be stones shaped by God and not by man. (Gal 1:1,11,12) Which also makes us the living stones into rocks of offense. We become a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense... (Is8:14) as Christ was because we aren’t shaped by man. We don’t look like what man says we ought to be. We’re shaped by God which makes us different from ordinary men. Baptists, for example, shape Baptists to look like Baptists and they run into one of us and we don’t look like them and that becomes an offense to them. We don’t look like Catholics. We don’t look like Pentecostals. We don’t look like Calvinists. We don’t look like stones that men have shaped. So they reject us because we aren’t like them. But we aren’t rejected by God. We’re elect and precious in His sight because He’s shaping us into what He wants us to be, which is conformed to the image of Christ. I am what I am by the grace of God. (1Cor15:10) Again, when you hear someone say “Our church believes this.” “We Baptists believe” or “We Pentecostals believe” they’re showing you they’ve put the doctrines of their organization ahead of Christ. To the true believer it doesn’t matter what the Baptists believe. It doesn’t matter what the Pentecostals believe. It doesn’t matter what the Catholics believe. What matters is what Jesus says – what God says –what God’s Word says. Because to a true Christian all that matters is what God says, we become an offense to people who want us to believe what they believe. Now we’re always open to hear what God has to say on any subject and we aren’t those who think they’ve arrived. (Phil 3:12) We’re always learning more and even on subjects we know a lot about there’s always more to know. God keeps opening up the more to us so we aren’t like dead stones that don’t grow. We’re living stones that keep expanding and learning yet we’re stable because of our sure foundation. We’re established on God’s Word and we can’t be shaken. So we become a rock of offense because we don’t measure up to what man-taught “church” people are trying to make their stones look like. But when they stumble on us God judges them. And His intentions are they’d see that when they judge us as not having God because we don’t look like them, in Truth they’re the ones who don’t have God. They’re following man not God! How can God show people the true from the false if He doesn’t cause the false to stumble and discover that, in fact, God isn’t with them? Only then can they have an opportunity to repent. But if they don’t stumble, they’re going to think that they’re saved the way they are and they’re going to go on in their false presumptions while actually being enemies to God because they don’t know the real ways of God. And the real way of God is that you’d know God personally. (Jn17:3)

Most contemporary “churches” have put middlemen between their members and Christ. They’re Nicolaitans, which means they’ve put their priests as “lords” over their people. (Rev2:6) Even the world says that if you want a fair deal cut out the middleman because he’s the one who takes advantage of you. There’s never supposed to be a middleman between you and Christ. (1Tim2:15) You’re to have a direct relationship with Him. You’re to talk to Him yourself, hear Him yourself. And you’re to be brethren who help each other hear God. Every member of the church has his part to do in helping the others hear God but not to be in place of God for them. Not that we have dominion over your faith, but are fellow workers for your joy; for by faith you stand. (2Cor1:24)

Our sufficiency is not of ourselves but of Christ. (2Cor3:5) As Paul says, Though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. (Phil 3:4-6) Paul’s saying, “I was a Baptist of the Baptists, a Pentecostal of the Pentecostals. I was a top leader in the man-made church. But all these things I count as loss that I may know Christ.” But what things were gain to me, these I’ve counted loss for Christ. (Phil 3:7) I’m not a Baptist anymore. I’m not a Pentecostal anymore. I’m not a Lutheran anymore. I’m not a Catholic anymore. I’m a Christian! It’s my heart to know the Lord with all that’s in me. I don’t want to know anything else but Jesus. (1Cor2:2) So real Christianity is found in a people like that, such as are living stones and whole stones shaped by God and not man.

 Prophecy: Many people have closed their eyes to Me. But I say to those who’ve closed their eyes to Me, the fact that you’ve closed your eyes doesn’t mean I cease to be. And there are many who’ve turned their backs on Me and on My Word. But because you’ve turned your back to Me doesn’t mean My Word ceases to do its work. And there are many who’ve rejected Me. But I say to you who’ve rejected Me that because you’ve rejected Me doesn’t mean I cease to rule and reign. And there are saints who claim to be Mine but who act as though I’m the creation of their own imagination, that I can be manipulated, transformed and conformed to their own ideas and desires. They try to make Me into a god who serves their prejudices and lusts. But I say to all such, man didn’t make God but God made man. And I’ll rule over that which I’ve made and you won’t conform Me to your desires but I’ll conform you to Mine. For I am what I am and I shall be forever and no man will change Me but I’ll change men. And to those who’ve turned their backs on Me I’ll turn them around and terrify them with what they’ve turned against. And to those who’ve rejected Me I’ll reject them and they’ll be confounded by what they’ve rejected. And to those who’ve closed their eyes to Me I’ll open their eyes and they’ll see what they’ve not wanted to see. For I’ll be glorified in My universe and My creation. And I’ll bring down all that fights against Me. I’ll not sleep and I’ll not slumber until I’ve made all things good according to the pleasure of My will. I’ll remove all things that aren’t according to My will. And as I’ve spoken so shall I do, thus saith the Lord.

 Prophecy: I’ve sent out My blessing and My curse. Whether you believe or don’t believe won’t stop what I’ve sent out, but your obedience brings you the blessing and your disobedience brings the curse. For I judge according to your works. And I’m telling you, the time is now for My judgments to go forth. I’m sending My judgments out and they’ll chase you down and find you. And they’ll find you either wanting or in blessing. It’s up to you to decide which way you’ll be found. For My Word will come to pass. My Word is true, and everything I say and do is justice and Truth. I’m the God who performs His Word. And right now is the time when I’m judging, right now I’m setting things right and building up My true church and tearing down the false. Because right now My light is being set upon a hill, right now My light is being seen. And all that is darkness will be brought to nothing, thus saith the Lord.

 Prophecy: It’s very clear in My Word who I’m warring against. I’m not warring only against the world but I’m warring also against the false church, the false Christs, the anti-Christs. For My prophets have always warred against those who didn’t speak Truth. And I tell you, it’s all coming down – all the deception – all the lies are coming down. For I’m not warring only against those who don’t believe but I’m also against those who say they’re of Me and aren’t – who are a synagogue of satan. For satan has a church which claims to be My church because he’s an imitator and usurper. He makes himself to be even an angel of light. But it’s all coming down for false churches are built on sand – they’re built on their own knowledge and not on knowing Me or My Word. They aren’t My disciples because they aren’t disciplined in Me. And all that’s not of Me will fall. I’m coming quickly. So be ready. It’s no longer time to be getting ready but it’s time to be ready. For you don’t get ready when the bus comes. Because if you aren’t ready when it comes how will you get ready? By the time you’ve gotten ready the bus is already gone. My people I’m coming and if you’re ready I’ll be more than willing to have you ride with Me. I’ll be more than willing to have you sit with Me and eat at My table. Oh how I long to see a people who are ready for Me, who are attaining to perfection, diligent in My Word – following My Spirit – holding fast to the Rock! For I tell you even the false claim to know Me when they don’t – even the false put on garments but they aren’t My garments. But My people, I will glorify you when you’re ready – And I’ll pluck up what’s not of Me but I’ll bring that which I’ve planted to perfection, thus saith the Lord.

 Prophecy: When the towers fell many around you were terrified. But you weren’t because you’re with Me and I’m with you. And I’ll do more things that will terrify these people and it will be as in the days of old when the Egyptians were in darkness but the Israelites were in light. That’s how it is now. So hold fast to Me – hold fast to the Head and stay on the rock. And you won’t be washed away and you won’t be terrified. But you’ll stand for Me and many will see and come to your light, thus saith the Lord.

 Prophecy: I’m a righteous God and I’ve seen the afflictions My people have endured in these times as you’ve gone thru your humiliation. But I’ve risen up and as you’ve stood for Me now I stand for you. No longer will your enemies have dominion over you but you now have dominion over them. For I’ve put the cup of trembling in their hand and now it’s their time to be humbled and yours to be exalted. I’ll show all that you’re My people that many may repent and also become Mine. So stand fast – endure – hold tight to Me. I’m moving, saith the Lord, to glorify My people that I may be glorified in them, thus says the Lord. (Prophecies delivered at “My Father’s House”)

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