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Be Zealous! By Pastor Bill Taylor A publication of My Father's House, inc. Volume 7/Issue 15 Prophecy: There are not many who know Me even amongst those who claim to be the church and amongst those who claim to be My people. For I am Spirit and you must know Me by the Spirit to know Me. And very few today know My Spirit. Many think their own thoughts are My Spirit. They think that when they feel religious that’s My Spirit, but there are many religious spirits that come from the adversary. There are many religious spirits that are at war with Me. The Pharisees were filled with religion but they did not have My Spirit. There are many who think that when they contemplate the things of God, that when their imaginations are fixed upon the things of religion that that is My Spirit and yet it is their own mind. It is their own imaginations and they are just doing their own thing in a religious environment and a religious kind of world that they build in their mind but it isn’t Me. Most of the people who do not know Me have stumbled upon this deception: they do not know Me because they do not believe that I am a mind above their mind. They believe that their mind is My mind or the mind of their particular group is My mind, but I tell you that My mind is far above the mind of man. And those who know Me truly have experienced that they may be thinking to do something that is religious and seems to be acceptable to Me and suddenly I will intervene with My mind and I will stop them and say, “No, that’s not what I want done.” Because those who know Me know that I know more than they do and that I have the power to lead My people in ways that they do not understand at times, and to show them things that they have not known, and to do things in ways that they did not expect. For because I am a mind above the mind of men, I can interrupt. I can turn in another direction. I can lead in ways that are a surprise. I can show things that were not perceived. And those who know Me are humbled before Me because they know how much more I know than they know. And those who think they know Me but do not, they walk in the presumptions of their own thoughts thinking it is Me. And yet they have nothing more than other men. They have merely the power of their own intellect which is a very small thing, a small thing in My sight and it does not lead to life but leads to death. Now I tell you My people, if you want to know Me you must know Me by the Spirit and you must understand and have faith that I am a person above you. I am a person separate from you that can come into you and be one with you and yet I can have My own thoughts, My own plans which are not yours, and I can reveal them to you and show you a better way than your own way, thus saith the Lord. (Prophecy delivered at "My Father’s House") Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. (Jude 3) The admonition from Jude is that in order to maintain or keep hold of the original faith of the gospel we must, in a very real sense, enter into warfare and fight for it. And the reason is that wicked men have crept in secretly to the church who interpret the grace of our God as permission to sin. (vs 4) These are like the people who claim that they are “sinners saved by grace” in the sense that they do not need to struggle against sin but just confess it and believe they are forgiven even though they do not cease to sin and sin still has dominion over them. Whereas God gives the true believers the grace to overcome sin, these “ungodly men” will not crucify their flesh to cease sinning (1Pet 4:1) and they feel like sinning is not a danger to them since they believe all they have to do is confess they are sinning and they will be forgiven. “Because Ephraim has made many altars for sin, they have become for him altars for sinning.” (Hosea 8:11) The fact that they believe sins are easily forgiven causes them to multiply their sins, instead of pursuing righteousness. Now God intended His grace to produce a holy church, “His own special people.” But these “sinners” produce a filthy church – they may even think they can sin willfully and still go to Heaven although God’s word says there is no forgiveness for that. For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. (Heb 10:26-27) And among these are the people who if you try to correct them they will accuse you of judging them for they twist the scriptures like Matthew 7:1 “judge not” into an evil weapon they use to oppose reproving and rebuking. Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convict, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. (2Tim 4:2) This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, (Titus 1:13) So such “Christians” hide behind their twisted scriptures accusing the righteous of sinfully judging them when we are righteously reproving and they refuse correction while they cannot cease from sin (2Pet 2:14) yet claim to be believers. So because of this wickedness if the church is ever to be the place where God’s people can really attain to the faith that saves, we must contend – we must fight for – we must stand up for – we must hold on to – the original faith, the true faith, which produces Christ in you the hope of glory, And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. (1John 3:5-6) And we must be bold to expose and reject these filthy “sinner” Christians and their demonic heresies. Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel, (Phil 1:27) Here Paul charges the church and each of the individual Christians, to be found contending for the original faith, striving to get a hold of that faith which will produce Christ in you, for this is the only way to salvation. Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?-- unless indeed you are disqualified. (2Cor 13:5) True Christians must be zealous in “contending” for the true faith, but; For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, (2Cor 10:3-5) Our weapons are words of truth – the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God (Eph 6:17) and our zeal is for God’s truth – standing up boldly for what is right; preaching and witnessing bravely for God – but not in any way causing physical harm to anyone. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Eph 6:12) Yet this does not prevent us from embarrassing people or “hurting feelings” as is needful to convict those who are in error of their sins. Now the verb contend has the same root as the noun contention. And there are a lot of people in the worldly church who don’t like Christians whom they consider contentious. But God loves a believer who contends for the faith because the true church is in a warfare to establish – hold on to – restore the original faith and it isn’t going to happen unless real believers contend for it. God doesn’t like the cowardly preachers who mince words and pussy foot around His gospel as if they are afraid of hurting someone’s feelings. Proud people need their feelings hurt – they need to see they are wickedly wrong in their conceits and worldly “wisdom” – and they need to be embarrassed, humiliated, and convicted for their ungodly ideas and opinions. And it is not a sin to expose the ignorance and mistakes of such people. Those who are sinning rebuke in the presence of all, that the rest also may fear. (1Tim 5:20) God likes a Christian who doesn’t mince words – who tells it like it is – who makes the truth so plain that “He who runs may read it” (Hab 2:2) – who says what he means and means what he says. Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!” (John 1:47) No hidden motives. Those are the kinds of Christians God likes. And to contend for the faith means you must be verbally contentious. And Jesus was very contentious against the Pharisees. And Paul was very contentious against the Judaizers and idolaters. And Apollos greatly helped those who had believed thru grace for he vigorously refuted the Jews publicly, showing from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ. (Acts 18:27-28) So Apollos contended for the truth. And even in the Old Testament the prophets were always contending against any false form of religion as even when the outward rituals were being kept by the people, but their hearts weren’t in it, (Isa 29:13-14) and that was enough to cause the prophet to be contentious. It is not a sin to be contentious about needful things and Godly things. It is a righteous thing to contend for Godliness. The bible commands us to be contentious, and to be effectually contentious requires zeal. Now when Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose from among the congregation and took a javelin in his hand; (he saw a prince of Israel bringing a Midianite woman in and they were committing idolatry and fornication and such) and he went after the man of Israel into the tent and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her body. So the plague was stopped... Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: “Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned back My wrath from the children of Israel, because he was zealous with My zeal among them...” (Num 25:7-8,10-11) Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the moneychangers doing business. When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables. And He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!” Then His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.” (John 2:13-17) In order to contend for the faith you must have zeal. Jesus has zeal. Anyone who is truly contending for the faith has zeal. And that what you see in Phinehas is his contending for the faith. And that what you see in Jesus is He is contending for the faith. And zeal always shows up where there is an enemy that must be overcome in the correction of error in the church or in the people of God. And there is a tendency today to think that zeal just means that a person is passionate to get things done. But in every place in the Bible where zeal shows up it is a passion to correct and set things right when an enemy stands in the way. Now this is a great indictment against the churches around us. Much of the church at large, the contemporary church today, has interpreted zeal and contention as a sin. And they think the way to be a Christian is to just get along with everybody and be nice to everybody and not rock the boat and never make anybody feel bad and never rebuke anybody. And this is exactly what lukewarmness is. It is the opposite of zeal. If you remember the passage in Revelations, when Jesus says He will spit the lukewarm out of His mouth, He closes with, “Therefore be zealous and repent.” (Rev 3:19) A person that is not passionate about the word of God – passionate about the true faith is an abomination to God. It is distasteful to God and so this is a very strong indictment against modern Christianity that modern Christians are offended with believers who are zealous to straighten out the church, and saying we are wicked because we’re not being nice to people in the way they define niceness. “The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil.” (John 7:7) “And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.” (Luke 7:23) And yet they are nice to the people who have secretly crept into the church to corrupt it (Jude 4). But what God is saying is, “I love a person who is zealous. That is My kind of man.” For you put up with fools gladly, since you yourselves are wise! For you put up with it if one brings you into bondage, if one devours you, if one takes from you, if one exalts himself, if one strikes you on the face. (2Cor 11:19-20) And this occurred because of false brethren secretly brought in (who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage), to whom we did not yield submission even for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you. (Gal 2:4-5) Now I, Paul, myself am pleading with you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ-- who in presence am lowly among you, but being absent am bold toward you. But I beg you that when I am present I may not be bold with that confidence by which I intend to be bold against some, who think of us as if we walked according to the flesh. (2Cor 10:1-2) So Paul is meek towards the true believer but not meek in his writing or contending against the false brethren. Now let us look at something here – striving for the faith (Phil 1:27) – contending for the faith (Jude 3) – all these words that are associated with laying hold of eternal life (1Tim 6:12) – pursuing righteousness and faith (2Tim 2:22) – all these words like diligence – be diligent (2Pet 3:14) – these words that describe what God expects of a real Christian are active verbs – strong action in pursuit of the goal, which includes: striving to attain to the true gospel – strong action in order to hold on to and keep that true gospel what it ought to be – holiness – a gospel that causes you to become Christ-like, not licentious. God is looking for a people of action – men of action – women of action. And He uses very active verbs. And yet what we have today if you want a word to describe “most Christianity” today – PASSIVE! So many “Christians” don’t want to take action on anything. They don’t want to stand up for anything. They don’t want to fight for anything. For you put up with it… if one strikes you on the face. (2Cor 11:20) They just want God to bless them. And leave them to themselves and not expect anything from them. And God is sick of it! He is sick of passivity! He is sick of lukewarm people! “So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.” (Rev 3:16) Passive people are cowards. But aren’t we supposed to turn the other cheek? Not if the gospel is being attacked. You are to fight for the gospel, and not act as a coward. “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father's, and of the holy angels.” (Luke 9:26) The fearful are an abomination to God. (Rev 22:8) So what we have today in contemporary Christianity is they are actually making a virtue out of something God hates; which is do-nothing passivity – an “easy going”-ness and a cowardliness – you can have it your way and I will have it mine and we will just get along. That is considered a virtue in much of the church today. Whereas in the Bible what God is looking for is somebody who will stand up for what is truth and what is right and will fight to establish what is right and contend for it. Therefore in the Judgment there will be a lot of people who think God loves them because they are so easy going, but He will spit them out of His mouth. And there are a lot of people in the churches today who in their conceits think that people who they judge as being contentious couldn’t possibly be from God because we are so unlike them and yet we are righteous in standing up for the truths of God and these people who misjudge us will one day find out that God considers us His favorites for that very reason. And God is much offended with these laid back lukewarm believers and their foolish conceits but He loves us dearly because we do contend for the truth of His gospel and have contended and that is why He is pleased with us. And this is a terrible indictment of contemporary Christians that they do not even know what God likes. Then the LORD saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no justice. He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor; (Isa 59:15-16) I looked, but there was no one to help, and I wondered that there was no one to uphold; therefore My own arm brought salvation for Me; and My own fury, it sustained Me. (Isa 63:5) They claim to be His people and they do the things He doesn’t like, which usually means they do nothing when it is needful to do something against the evil, and they hate the things He does like, including the people who do contend for God’s righteousness, and they like the things He doesn’t like. How can they be His people? Such people have not come to the Bible to learn their “Christianity.” Their ideas about “Christianity” have come from the culture around them – from growing up in false churches – from being around other lukewarm “Christians” – from their own personal biases; likes and dislikes and prideful ideas; being wise in their own conceits, and then they go to the Bible to try to back up what they think they know by twisting a verse here and there. But it is my solemn testimony when God came to me and revealed Himself to me I had attended a variety of churches as a youth and none of them impressed me. I knew they were not of God and as a teenager I left them. And when I got a hold of Jesus or rather He got a hold of me I did not go back to those churches because Christ showed me they were not His. There was something dreadfully wrong with them. But when Jesus took hold of me and revealed Himself to me I asked Jesus to show me what a true church ought to be. And Jesus took me to the Bible and from the scriptures He showed me His real church. And what has been happening in “My Father’s House” is the fruit of that. The Bible and the Spirit of God are teaching us here what church ought to be. We have not accepted what is as what ought to be. The churches around us are what is, but they are not what churches ought to be. We’re looking for the Spirit and the scriptures to tell us what ought to be. And the more I do that the more I find out that what is and what is commonly accepted is NOT what God wills and NOT what OUGHT TO BE! And true faith looks at what ought to be and takes hold of what is God’s will and changes what is to what ought to be. Who calls those things which do not exist as though they did. (Rom 4:17) while we do not look at the things which are seen, (what is) but at the things which are not seen. (the eternal things and what ought to be) For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. (2Cor 4:18) So many of the “Christians” around us do not have faith, for they fight to justify what is and what they already are instead of fighting the good fight of faith to become what they ought to be. Faith changes things. Unbelief makes excuses for and defends what is. Faith stands for what God says will be. And there he (Elijah) went into a cave, and spent the night in that place; and behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and God said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” So he said, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God of hosts; (now he has just finished killing the priests of baal in the Mt Carmel incident) for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.” (1Kings 19:9-10,13-14) When the enemy comes in like a flood the Spirit of the Lord will raise up a ZEALOUS standard against him – somebody who will fight vigorously like Elijah. (Isa 59:19) The only way to stop a vicious enemy is to raise up an unstoppable opponent, someone up who is passionate and zealous. And so the Lord commissions Elijah to anoint Jehu. (vs 16) Now look at the zeal in Jehu. We’ll join the scripture at the place after he has killed Jezabel and the 70 sons of Ahab. And he killed 42 men that were brothers of Ahaziah the King of Judah because they were allied with Ahab’s son. Now when he departed from there, he met Jehonadab the son of Rechab, coming to meet him; and he greeted him and said to him, “Is your heart right, as my heart is toward your heart?” And Jehonadab answered, “It is.” Jehu said, “If it is, give me your hand.” So he gave him his hand, and he took him up to him into the chariot. Then he said, “Come with me, and see my zeal for the LORD.” So they had him ride in his chariot. And when he came to Samaria, he killed all who remained to Ahab in Samaria, till he had destroyed them, according to the word of the LORD which He spoke to Elijah. (2Kings 10:15-17) Now that is zeal! Jehu is doing a work of correction – housecleaning – a work of getting rid of the wicked. “For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and those who escape from Mount Zion. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.” (2Kings 19:31) Now when you see the word ‘zeal’ you can think of judgment. Anyone who is zealous is bringing about change and he is doing it in such a way as to not be stopped. And of course this is a manifestation of God’s judgment. What is Jehu doing? He is killing all the priests of baal, all the sons of Ahab, all the allies of Ahab, all the friends of Ahab. He is wiping out Ahab’s house and everything connected to it because judgment falls thru a zealous God and a zealous agent (standard) raised up by God. Correction comes by defeating God’s adversaries with zeal. And what does Jesus say concerning the lukewarmness of the Laodicean church in Revelations 3 – “be zealous and repent!” (vs 19) Get up and do something about your sin! Act strongly and passionately and get the job done. For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner: What diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication! In all things you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter. (2Cor 7:11) So the Corinthian church deals zealously with their sin and gets rid of it. Zeal is not about just having a little emotion. It’s about not being stoppable – doing whatever it takes to get the job done. For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and those who escape from Mount Zion. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this. (2Kings 19:31) For though your people, O Israel, be as the sand of the sea, a remnant of them will return; the destruction decreed shall overflow with righteousness. For the Lord GOD of hosts will make a determined end in the midst of all the land. (Isa 10:22-23) So the zeal of the Lord of hosts decrees a destruction of the wicked that will permit the righteous to rise up again. And it shall come to pass that he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy... When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and purged the blood of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning, (Isa 4:3-4) The zeal of the Lord is going to perform this. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will straighten things up and clean things up. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will destroy the wicked and preserve a remnant. It will take a massive zealous attack upon the enemy to wipe out everything that hinders God’s Kingdom and to retake the land for the righteous and allow the righteous to flourish as a pure seed. Because for Your sake I have borne reproach; shame has covered my face. I have become a stranger to my brothers, and an alien to my mother's children; Because zeal for Your house has eaten me up, and the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me. (Ps 69:7-9) And God puts His zeal in Godly men. And because we care about the faith that was originally delivered to the saints, and because most of the churchy people around us do not care about contending earnestly for that true faith and they just want to get along with everybody, they count us as strangers, as aliens, as enemies and they reproach us because we don’t take it easy like them; because we don’t have that laid back California spirit that sees everybody doing it their own way as fine. Well, laid back isn’t what God is looking for. You aren’t going to Heaven or have any success as a witness for Jesus Christ if you have a laid back spirit. You must be zealous against what is wrong. I have been unjustly thrown out of several ministries, including the Brevard Correctional Institute, and West Melbourne Nursing Home for preaching zealously against sin. You see false Christians, heretical churches, Catholics and Baptists want to shut me up. They use “force” to intimidate because they cannot win in a lawful discourse and they try to use other, even illegal, means and threats to try to close our mouths so their heresies will not be exposed. And I have to be zealous to preach the truth in the face of these adversaries who try to censor our meetings. And let me make note that though we expose them we do not censor them. But we do zealously expose them which is what we are commanded to do. (Eph 5:11) And I will not stop being zealous for the Lord. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. (2Tim 1:7) And the wicked people who think that zeal is a sin are going to stand before the Lord and they will answer to Him. And they will be terrified and they will be gnashing their teeth in that day when they find out that Jesus considers them wimps and cowards because they wouldn’t stand up for Him or His righteousness or His word. (Luke 9:26) And many of them think of themselves as, “We’re such godly people because we are so nice to everybody.” And they are not nice at all because if you don’t stand up for God’s word, you don’t save people, you help damn them. And that isn’t nice. If you don’t contend for His truth against the lies of the apostate churches, you aren’t saving them. And if the early church Apostles, reformers and such had not zealously stood up for the truth, we could not even hear the gospel that saves us today. My zeal has consumed me, because my enemies have forgotten Your words. (Ps 119:139) What causes the Psalmist to be consumed with zeal is his disgust over the error in God’s enemies. Look at how zealous David was over the honor of God and Israel when he faced Goliath. And what was the word David used to answer the criticism of his older brother? “Is there not a cause?” Well evidently most of the church around us thinks there isn’t a cause. “What do we need to be zealous about? We’re all going to Heaven so everything’s fine.” Well, there is a cause. The Lord knows that most so-called “Christians” are not going to Heaven. They are not serving the Lord. Jesus is not formed in them. They do not have the faith that was once and for all delivered to the saints. They are the foolish virgins or worse. They are a bunch of imposters – liars – deceivers – and they are very ignorant about the things of God. And they are rapidly running in a race towards hell – ignoring God’s word and all that He says about real Christianity and thinking they are going to Heaven just because they are “nice people” who in some superficial way claim to believe in Jesus. Why they aren’t even nice people because if they were nice people, they would be nice to real Christians and they have been very nasty to us. They have hated us without a cause because we’re not the kind of people they are. (John 15:25) We have a different Spirit in us. And zeal for God’s house has eaten me up because I see all the things that are wrong in what they claim is their Christianity. God shows us what is wrong with them. And there is a cause. And I and God’s Spirit are telling you that right now it is time to be zealous for the faith once delivered to the saints. There is a cause to contend for it. There is a cause to strive earnestly that you might attain to that faith yourself. And those in My Father’s House have seen what a battle we have fought here and how our wickedest enemies have been many of the so-called “Christians” around us. There is a cause! And to not have zeal, when there is a cause, is a terrible sin. It is like being a deserter in a battle, a soldier who runs instead of fights. You see, it isn’t just the fact that you need to have some deep feelings or to be awake and alert. If the churches were all in great shape, if the faith of the Christians was good, then we would still need to be diligent about our salvation, watchful and things like that without necessarily being zealous. But zeal always relates to things not being right when there is opposition that must be overcome to set things right. It always relates to correction – to judgment – to chastening – to straightening out when there are adversaries opposing what is right – people trying to shut us up, threatening us and attacking our ministry because of what we preach! And they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:18-20) And when things are going well you don’t have to stir yourself up to straighten things out. When things are going well you just get along with your normal duties and it will be alright with you. But when things are not going right, and there is an enemy trying to resist what is right, you need to stir up courage – you need to stir up zeal because you have to overcome that enemy and straighten things out in the face of people who don’t like what you are doing. “Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word,” (Acts 4:29) Boldness means zeal. And to be successful you have to be stronger than your enemies and you have to overcome their resistance. And that is what zeal is about. It is about putting on strength to do a hard job that requires Spiritual and verbal warfare of some manner to come against people that are opposing God. And whenever you see Godly zeal that is what is going on. Do not let your heart envy sinners, but be zealous for the fear of the LORD all the day; (Prov 23:17) Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this. (Isa 9:7) Thus indicating that there is an enemy who must be overcome in order to accomplish this. So you must be an overcomer! If you are not an overcomer, you will by no means enter into the Kingdom of God. “He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.” (Rev 21:7) And what is connected up with overcoming is Christ has to be in you! Greater is He that is in you than he who is in the world. (1John 4:4) And this is the victory that has overcome the world-- our faith. (1John 5:4) It is the faith that produces Christ in us who overcomes the world. …be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) And you must overcome the world to enter into the joy of the Lord. And you will overcome only if you have the faith that produces that same Jesus in you – the overcoming Jesus. Now another word for the overcoming Jesus would be the zealous Jesus – He… was clad with zeal as a cloak. (Isa 59:17) The Jesus who goes to war against sin, who goes to war against things that aren’t right and that it is the zealous Lord of hosts, the Christ in us, who will perform this. “Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth.” (Rev 2:16) So you must be zealous to overcome. You must not take no for an answer. You must go after the enemy with everything that is in you and you must rise up against him. When you get zealous the devils start running. When there is no zeal they aren’t afraid of you. They know you don’t have any strength or resolve or endurance. You have nothing in you to hit them with, no will to fight. You are too laid back so you will give up at the first opposition so the devils will oppose you. But when they see you stirring up Godly zeal they know they had better get out of the way. They know they aren’t going to stop this guy. He is coming like a cannonball, like a locomotive. He won’t take no for an answer. He is going to accomplish his purpose. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and those who escape from Mount Zion. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this. (Isa 37:32) The LORD shall go forth like a mighty man; he shall stir up His zeal like a man of war. He shall cry out, yes, shout aloud; he shall prevail against His enemies. (Isa 42:13) Now we were recently looking at how the word of the Lord in the early church grew mightily and prevailed. (Acts 19:20) Do you think there is any connection between zealous preachers and the fact that the word of the Lord prevailed? The word of the Lord doesn’t go out by itself. It has to be preached – testified to – witnessed to. And I’m sure you are going to find true zeal where the word of the Lord is prevailing. For He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head; he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak. (Isa 59:17) Can you see Phinehas in this? “I can’t put up with this another second! I am going to put a stop to this sin in the camp!” And he grabbed the javelin and he went out and put a stop to it. And Jesus is like that too. And men of God with Christ in them are like that. And these wimpy wussy church people of today who want to get along with everybody are NOT CHRISTIANS! They are vomit! “So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.” (Rev 3:16) They are not going in the rapture! Jesus does not like them! He does not like the way they think of the gospel or how they think of Him! He likes zealous people. He likes fiery preachers. But we are living in such a terribly wicked apostate age that people don’t even know what God likes. Look down from heaven, and see from Your habitation, holy and glorious. Where are Your zeal and Your strength, the yearning of Your heart and Your mercies toward me? (Isa 63:15) The Psalmist is praying for God to fight for him. Let me see Your zeal on my behalf. And we can pray similar prayers. And when the Lord sees our zeal on His behalf then it is time that we’ll see God’s zeal on our behalf! We have stood. We have been zealous for God and our Lord will be zealous for us. Let the priests, who minister to the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar; let them say, “Spare Your people, O LORD, and do not give Your heritage to reproach, that the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’” Then the LORD will be zealous for His land, and pity His people. (Joel 2:17-18) Blow the trumpet in Zion, consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly; Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children and nursing babes; let the bridegroom go out from his chamber, and the bride from her dressing room. (Joel 2:15-16) When the priests and the people get together to call upon the Lord, Then the LORD will be zealous for His land, and pity His people. (vs 18) And so God goes to war on their behalf. So the angel who spoke with me said to me, “Proclaim, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts: “I am zealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with great zeal. I am exceedingly angry with the nations at ease…’” (Zech 1:14-15) See God is very angry with people who are in a state of unconcern about His things. “Thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘I am zealous for Zion with great zeal; with great fervor I am zealous for her.’ Thus says the LORD: ‘I will return to Zion, and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be called the City of Truth, the Mountain of the LORD of hosts, the Holy Mountain.’” (Zech 8:2-3) Now look at the New Testament: Epaphras, who is one of you, a bondservant of Christ, greets you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. For I bear him witness that he has a great zeal for you... (Col 4:12-13) Epaphras is a champion of the Lord because he has a zeal to straighten the church out – a zeal to get the church perfected and ready to meet the Lord and he is laboring zealously to accomplish these things. We have looked at the necessities of actively pursuing Christ and putting on the new man – putting off the old man – continuing in the word. These are all active verbs. Being diligent is a steady activity. It implies strong action – pursuing righteousness and faith. This is the only kind of Christianity that is acceptable to God. But not all of these words we have looked at pertain to zeal. Zeal is going to war. And zeal is what is expected and required of Christians who are facing enemies that are trying to corrupt and destroy the church. And we are in that kind of an age. In an age of apostasy we are either going to be apostates ourselves or we are going to fight zealously against the apostasy. And even if the apostasy must increase for a season, we are giving glory to God in the fact that we zealously stand against it. And ultimately Christ will be completely victorious. And the scriptures will be fulfilled. God may allow the antichrist to have his little season but that doesn’t mean we are supposed to surrender to the enemy. It doesn’t mean we aren’t supposed to be zealous to keep the elect in a place where they will not be deceived by the enemy. Because even though satan may get his way for a little while in the earth, Christ and His true followers are still going to save the elect. The antichrist will not be able to stop us from doing that because we and they are elect. We are fighting for the elect. We are doing all things for the elect’s sake (2Tim 2:10) and we are being zealous to protect and preserve the elect. And in a time of great opposition we need great zeal. And it is an utter failure – a complete indictment against most of the Christianity around us that in such a perilous time as this many Christians do not regard zeal as a virtue but as a sin. And they are going to be very, very sadly disappointed when they meet Jesus and find out He did regard zeal as a virtue and their passivity, He regarded as a great sin – a grave sin in a time when there was a great reason to be zealous. So the Spirit says to you, if until this time you didn’t understand what Godly zeal is – be zealous and repent because it is time for true Christians to be zealous. And God loves a zealous Christian. And He is pleased with a zealous Christian. And one who contends zealously for the true faith, is a great blessing to God’s church. Apollos greatly helped those who had believed through grace; for he vigorously (zealously) refuted the Jews publicly…(Acts 18:27-28) Apollos is a zealous man. Prophecy: There was a time when Job’s accusers thought that I was with them and I was against Job. They presumptuously spoke the things they thought they knew about Me and they continued and continued to accuse My righteous servant Job. But the day came when I met with them. The day came when I reproved them and I said to them, “You have not spoken of Me what is right as My servant Job has.” And I told them they would have to go to My servant Job and ask him to pray for them because when people do not speak right of Me, My wrath burns against them as it rightly should. And I am telling you My people in “My Father’s House,” you are as Job to Me. All around you people who think that I am with them have spoken against you, but I am telling you that their day is coming. I will reprove them. They will know that I have loved you and that they have not spoken rightly of Me and that they will not be acceptable to Me until they repent and come and confess before you that you are Mine and you have spoken rightly. For those people who have said they have known Me and they have not known Me, there is a day of reckoning coming. And for My people who have known Me and obeyed Me, there is a day of glory. And I say to you, be faithful and continue and increase and grow in the things which I give you for the day of glory is coming, it is coming soon, saith the Lord. For even as I set Job up to be a stumbling block to the presumptuous religion around him, I have called you forth to be a stumbling block to the foolish and presumptuous Christianity around you. And many will stumble and fall. And in their fall they will see that I am not with them and they will repent and they will come to see what real Christianity is because of what I have done through you, saith the Lord. Hold fast to what you have and let no one take your crown from you. And don’t grow weary in doing good for the harvest is soon to come and you will reap if you do not faint, saith the Lord. Prophecy: There has always been two. There has always been the spiritual and there’s always been the carnal. There has always been a difference and a contrast. The problem is the carnal has always put on a picture to make itself look like the spiritual. The carnal has always made itself up pretty and adorned itself. Jezebel did it. The carnal adorn themselves in niceness and pretty pretties and things that make themselves look attractive, pleasing. The Jerusalem below – the worldly church – does the same thing. She adorns herself. She pretties herself and she makes herself look like she’s something great when in reality she is nothing but the same as her sister the world. And I tell you, there is a difference and you must be in the spiritual. The one who knows Me and loves Me, who is chaste, and who is one with Me, who cares to know Me, and cares to know My Spirit, who has stopped looking at the flesh, stopped looking at her ideas, stopped looking at her troubles and her ways and she has come to Me and sought Me out and continued in Me until I set her free and opened her eyes to see what the truth was, what it was to know Me. And I tell you there is a difference between these people and there is an evident difference. And it is because one is deceived and deceptive because they have not received the love of the truth. One is Mine and beautiful because she has. And I don’t care whether you give Me the excuse that these people are nice, how can they be wrong. I don’t care what excuse you give Me. They may seem nice but they don’t have My truth. My people may not look nice. It may not look nice when Peter said, “I can’t go and serve tables.” That may seem like a mean thing, “but I have to serve the Lord. I have to know the truth. I have to continue in the word and in prayer because that is more important to me than serving your tables.” Peter loved My truth and because of that he set My church free and made her a glorious bride. And you can tell when you see a pastor who is more interested in church programs and these silly things and going to group meetings and doing this, that, and the other but has no care for My word. It is easy to see those who are Mine and those who are not because those who are Mine love My word. They continue in My truth. It is easy to see when there is someone whose food is to do the will of Him who sent him, who does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. When he would come home and read his Bible rather than get paid overtime and many other things. It is obvious to see those who love Me and who don’t. And you better stop and look and discern those who love the truth and those who don’t. And you better get to be the ones who love the truth or else you will be deceived and you will go to hell thinking you were godly and thinking you were a people who were nice when you were not the people who love the truth, saith the Lord. Prophecy: My people, I tell you, when I went into the temple with the whip, when I overturned the tables of the money changers, when I stood up for My Father’s house and chased the thieves out, I tell you, My mother was not proud of Me that day. My brothers thought I was beside Myself. My disciples did not know what to think, but My Father in heaven was pleased in Me that day. And I tell you that even today the people who praise My name and call Me Lord, they are not pleased with what I did in that temple, when I cleansed it. For the most part they ignore it. They don’t want to think about it. But I tell you, in this place I have found a people who know Me as the Savior, the Lord with a whip, and who are willing to acknowledge Me in the ministry of cleansing My house and who admire the zeal that I have to accomplish that job. And I tell you My people, I shall accomplish it. And I tell you, I will open things up to you that others have not seen. And I have opened up things to you that others have not seen for the very purpose of bringing to pass the cleansing of My Father’s house because zeal for My Father’s house still eats Me up and He will have a clean house. And I will have a people who admire Me for cleansing, that cleansing work that I do in My Father’s house. And My people, you cannot love Me and admire Me as the Jesus on the cross and despise Me and ignore Me as the Jesus with the whip because it is the same Christ. I am Christ that was crucified for you and I am Christ who took the whip to cleanse My Father’s house. I am one Christ in both manifestations, both things are in Me and you cannot despise one and love the other and be a disciple of Mine, saith the Lord. Prophecy: The land is full of apostate churches who quote some scriptures and say that where two or three are gathered that I am there and yet they refuse to deal with the offending member. They refuse to obey Me. They refuse to stand up for Me. They refuse to cleanse their congregations and yet they say I am in their midst. And I tell you, I am not in their midst. For when they refuse to obey Me, and when they refuse to purge out the old leaven, when they refuse to be the new lump, when they say it is love to allow sinners to continue in unrepented sin, to sin with impunity and stay in the midst of the brethren, when they do that I cut them off as a congregation. I depart from them. I cast them away from Myself and I am not in their midst for they have not joined together in My name, for they come together in the name of their own god, their own christ, their own self-righteous ideas of what it is to serve God. They worship in the flesh and not in the Spirit. They worship in lies and not in truth. They exalt themselves and they do not exalt Me and I am not there and I am not their God. And what they feel is, they feel the demons. They feel the demons that parade themselves as angels of light and they think they’ve had an experience with God and yet they have had an experience with the demons of disobedience. And they go out having been touched by the supernatural of evil, believing that they are My people when they are not My people. And I tell you, you who are My people, I will make known the difference between what is Mine and what is not. And I tell you, I am making it known and I am telling you that even now, even now the word that has gone out to the lands through you is causing people to tremble and shake. Even now their eyes are being opened and they are crying out to Me, “Lord, what shall we do? What is this? What is going on here? How badly have we erred?” And I am telling you, this is just the beginning of the avalanche that I have begun. This is just the first tremblings, the first pieces that are beginning to fall. This is just the first pebbles that are starting to roll. The first hail stones that are coming down and the great, the greater work is still to come; an awesome work of shaking and crushing all that is not of Me is very soon to come, saith the Lord. (Prophecies delivered at "My Father’s House")
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