SERVANTS OF THE ONE TRUE GOD?”

BY:J.FARRELL FISHER,JUNE23-24,2019

I REMEMBER A PHRASE OF ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING WHEN SHE WROTE: “THE BLUE OF HEAVEN IS LARGER THEN THE CLOUD”; & IT’S SO TRUE THAT “SLAVES OF WORLD CULTURES DO LIVE IN ‘DARKNESS’, OR ‘THE CLOUD OF SELF-INTEREST ONLY’,REGARDLESS OF THE PRICE TO BE PAID TO KEEP ONE IN THE ‘DARK WORLD’ OF THEIR SELF-SERVING LIFE, BUT THE SERVANTS OF THE ONE TRUE GOD LIVE IN THE “LIGHT” THAT NEVER CEASES TO SHINE, EVEN WHEN THE WORLD, THE OLD SIN-NATURE, OR THE ‘FLESH’ WOULD LIKE TO OVER-RULE THE “LIGHT” SO THEY CAN CONTINUE IN THAT ENSLAVING WORLD CULTURE OF ‘DARKNESS’!

BUT BY THE GRACE OF GOD, THERE ARE, EVEN IN THIS 21^ST CENTURY, MILLIONS & MILLIONS OF PEOPLE CHOSEN BY GOD HIMSELF TO BE HIS SERVANTS, “FOOT-WASHERS OF KING JESUS”, &,YES, WILLING SERVANTS OF THE “SLAVES OF WORLD-CULTURES” SO THAT THE ‘SLAVES’ CAN AT LEAST ‘SEE THE LIGHT’ WHETHER THEY CHOOSE TO ENTER THE KINGDOM OF GOD AS A WILLING SERVANT OR NOT!

SLAVES OF WORLD CULTURES ‘LIVE’ UNDER THAT ‘CLOUD OF DARKNESS’ THOUGH THEY THEMSELVES INTERPRET ‘DARKNESS’ AS ‘light’ FOR THEIR WORLD! SLAVES OF WORLD CULTURES SEE NO NEED OF GOD ABIDING WITH THEM SINCE IN THEMSELVES THEY’VE DISCERNED THE ‘FLESH LIFE’S’ “WISDOM” (?) TO THRESH OUT FOR THEMSELVES WHAT THEY ‘SEED’ IN THEIR SIN-NATURED SOULS!!

YET, SINCE THE BEGINNING OF EARTHLY HUMAN EXISTENCE, THERE HAVE BEEN INDIVIDUALS WHO DISCERNED, BY THE GRACE OF GOD EVEN THEN, THAT ‘THEY’ ARE ON THIS EARTH WITH ETERNAL PURPOSE INTENDED, &,YES, LED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, THEY NEITHER SHEDDED OR THREADED THE “NEED” OF THE “BLOOD ATONEMENT” THROUGH THE ‘COMING’ SACRIFICE OF THE KING OF KINGS & LORD OF LORDS, BIRTHED BY MARY, THE MOTHER OF JESUS, WHO THEN FACED THE “CROSS”, “DEATH”, & “RESURRECTION” TO REIGN SUPREMELY FOREVER AS THE VICTORIOUS CONQUEROR OVER THE ‘FLESH’, THE ‘WORLD’, & YES, OVER SATAN HIMSELF! “JESUS IS LORD OVER ALL TO THE GLORY OF GOD THE FATHER”!!!

IN THE OLD “BROADMAN HYMNAL” OF 1940, (PUBLISHED BY “BROADMAN PRESS”, NASHVILLE, TENN.”) IS A HYMN WRITTEN BY FANNY J.CROSBY & ROBERT LOWRY ENTITLED, “ALL THE WAY MY SAVIOR LEADS ME.” IT SAYS: “ALL THE WAY MY SAVIOR LEADS ME; WHAT HAVE I TO ASK BESIDE? CAN I DOUBT HIS TENDER MERCY, WHO THROUGH LIFE HAS BEEN MY GUIDE? HEAVELY PEACE, DIVINEST COMFORT, HERE BY FAITH IN HIM TO DWELL! FOR I KNOW, WHATE’ER BEFALL ME, JESUS DOES ALL THINGS WELL.

ALL THE WAY MY SAVIOR LEADS ME, CHEERS EACH WINDING PATH I TREAD, GIVES ME GRACE FOR EVERY TRIAL, FEEDS ME WITH THE LIVING BREAD. THOUGH MY WEARY STEPS MAY FALTER, & MY SOUL ATHIRST MAY BE, GUSHING FROM THE “ROCK” BEFORE ME, LO! A SPRING OF JOY I SEE.

ALL THE WAY MY SAVIOR LEADS ME; OH, THE FULLNESS OF HIS LOVE! PERFECT REST TO ME IS PROMISED IN MY FATHER’S HOUSE ABOVE. WHEN MY SPIRIT, CLOTHED IMMORTAL, WINGS ITS FLIGHT TO REALMS OF DAY, THIS MY SONG THRO’ ENDLESS AGES: JESUS LED ME ALL THE WAY.”

BUT! “SLAVES UNDER A WORLD CULTURE”, WARPED, NOT ONLY BY THE ‘FLESHLY’ REIGN OF ONE’S OLD SIN-NATURE, NOT ONLY BY THAT WARPED, GODLESS CULTURE, BUT ALSO BY SATAN HIMSELF? IN LUKE 22:31-32, THE LORD SAID TO SIMON PETER, “SIMON, SIMON, BEHOLD, SATAN HAS DESIRED TO HAVE YOU, THAT HE MAY SIFT YOU AS WHEAT: BUT I HAVE PRAYED FOR YOU, THAT YOUR FAITH FAIL NOT: & WHEN YOU ARE CONVERTED, STRENGTHEN YOUR BROTHERS (IN THE FAITH!).” AT THE SAME TIME, THERE ARE THOSE WHO DO NOT CHOOSE TO LIVE IN THE “UNCHANGING, ETERNAL, REDEMPTIVE TRUTH” FOUND IN THE “SHED BLOOD”, THE “BURIAL”, & THE “RESURRECTION OF THE CRUCIFIED CHRIST”!

IN EPHESIANS 2:12 PAUL WROTE: “THAT AT THAT TIME YOU WERE WITHOUT CHRIST, BEING ALIENS FROM THE COMMONWEALTH OF ISRAEL, & STRANGERS FROM THE COVENANTS OF PROMISE, HAVING NO HOPE, & WITHOUT GOD IN THE WORLD.” HAS THAT CHANGED? IS THERE STILL THOSE IN THE WORLD TODAY WHO ARE “STRANGERS FROM THE COVENANTS OF PROMISE, WHO (IN THEMSELVES) HAVE NO HOPE OF A BLESSED, ETERNAL LIFE, WHO, SADLY, LIVE WITHOUT HOLY GOD IN THEIR EVERY-DAY LIVES”?

“SLAVES UNDER A WORLD CULTURE”? IS THAT THE “SPIRITUALLY UNCLOTHED”? HOW CLEAR WAS JOHN WHEN HE WROTE IN 1 JOHN 3:10 HE WROTE: “IN THIS THE CHILDREN OF GOD ARE MANIFEST, & THE CHILDREN OF THE DEVIL: WHOSOEVER DOES NOT RIGHTEOUSNESS IS NOT OF GOD, NEITHER HE THAT LOVES NOT HIS BROTHER.” IS IT CLEAR TO YOU THAT TRUE UNBELIEF IN GOD HAS MORE TO DO WITH WHAT GOD HAS ALREADY DONE FOR YOU THROUGH CHRIST AT THE CROSS & EMPTY TOMB, READY, UPON YOUR WILLINGNESS TO OPEN YOUR HEART’S DOOR & ALLOW HIM TO COME IN? (HE’S KNOCKED BEFORE – HE’S STILL KNOCKS TODAY UPON EVERY LIFE, EVERY PEOPLE, EVERY NATION, EVEN EVERY MODERN-DAY ‘CHURCH GATHERING’, ASKING TO COME IN!) BUT: “SLAVES UNDER A WORLD CULTURE” LIVE BOUND UNDER THAT ‘CLOUD OF UNBELIEF’! MAY 10, 2016, I WROTE THE FOLLOWING WORDS:

“UNBELIEF IS THE ROAD TO SUPERSTITION WITH THE DEVIL’S INTENT OF GOD’S ELIMINATION. TO HIM, TRUTH IS A LIE, AS SOULS TO HIM EASILY DENY THE ONE TRUE GOD & SAVIOR OF MEN, TO BE DECEIVED BY SATAN’S DECEPTIVE SPIN.

“YOU WON’T DIE” WAS HIS VOICE TO EVE, AS HE CAME TO EASILY DECEIVE, TO TURN HER FROM GOD TO THE FLESHLY SOD, SELDOM EVEN GIVING AN INCH OF ‘A FLESH NOD TO GOD’!

‘WISE MEN’ ARE THE DEVIL’S ‘DUMBED-DOWN’, EVENTUALLY CHANGING THEIR SMILES INTO FROWNS; ‘PLEASURE-SEEKERS’ ARE HIS MAIN TARGETS, “PLEASING GOD?”, NOT EVEN A NOD!

“SIN IS GOD’S TERM,” SATAN SO EASILY SPOUTS, BLINDING MEN TO WHAT GOD’S ALL ABOUT. SEPARATION FROM “TRUTH” IS HIS MAIN OCCUPATION: “QUIT LISTENING TO THOSE WHO SPEAK OF “GOD’S RESTORATION”!”

SATAN WANTS YOU BOUND, SPIRITUALLY UNSOUND, INDULGING THE ‘FLESH’ TO YOUR OWN SATISFACTION. TO HIM, GOD’S INTENT HAS NO RELEVANCE TO A DEVIL’S PROGRAM OF ONE’S PERSONAL DEVASTATION.

“ME, MY, MINE” ARE HIS THEMES OF PERSONAL PRAISE, WITH NO DESIRE OF HEAVENLY ANTHEMS RAISED” – ‘DENY YOURSELF’? WHAT A RIDICULOUS REQUEST! GIVE ME YOUR ‘WILL’ AS YOUR MOST BELOVED BEQUEST!”

BUT THE SAVIOR OF MEN, CHRIST JESUS IS HIS NAME, NEEDS NO ‘HALL OF FAME’, BECAUSE ACROSS OUR VAST WORLDS IS HIS SIGNATURE STAMPED, & ESPECIALLY IN THE LIVES OF MEN WHO WITH CHRIST HAVE CAMPED.

FORGIVENESS OF SIN IS HIS DIVINE APPOINTMENT & RENEWAL OF TRUE FAITH IN THE SAVIOR’S ANOINTMENTS – “FREE AT LAST” IS THEIR HOLY CRY AS UPON THE SAVIOR THEY FAITHFULLY RELY.

“SET APART” TO HIS GLORY, TRANSFORMING MEN HIS EVERLASTING STORY, WITH REPENTANT MEN BECOMING WITNESSES OF HIM, EXTENDING HIS KINGDOM, YES, WITH REDEMPTIVE HYMNS.

SPENDING THEIR LIVES IN HIS GLORIFICATION, DAILY DESIRING HIS CONTINUOUS EXALTATION, TRUE MEN OF FAITH WILL HONOR THE SON, AS DAY BY DAY, PERSON BY PERSON, THEY SHARE CHRIST’S TRUTH OF DIVINE RESTORATION.

THERE COMES A TIME WHEN ONE EXAMINES HIS LIFE, & BEGINS TO EVALUATE, “HAVE I ENDED SOME STRIFE, AS I POINTED OTHERS TO THE SAVIOR OF THEIR LIFE?” “HAVE I SHOWN THEM THE DOOR TO THE FRUIT OF HIS SPIRIT,” FULLY DESIRING HIS HOLY BLESSING AS I SHOWED THEM “THE DOOR” TO HIS PRECIOUS RESTING”?

“COME UNTO ME”, IS STILL HIS CALL, AS REPENTANT MEN FAITHFULLY FALL, RESTING IN HIS ‘FINISHED WORK’, THEY RISE TO DUTY & CALLING THAT THEY’LL NEVER SHIRK!

BUT IF YOU’RE NOT PREPARED FOR THE DAY OF DEATH, WHAT WILL YOUR FLORIST HAVE TO POST ON YOUR DOOR? DEAD FLOWERS FOR A LIFE POORLY LIVED, OR A WELCOMING WREATH TO GOD’S HOLY PRESENCE, BECAUSE YOU AT LEAST BOASTED IN HIS FINISHED WORK & YOUR RESTORATION?

BIRTHED TO “NEW LIFE” – & IN HIM YOU NEVER DIE, BECAUSE OF HIS LOVE, YOU ETERNALLY RELY – FROM THE DOOR OF DEATH TO HIS THRONE ON HIGH, YOU GIVE EVIDENCE: “ON HIM, I’LL NEVER DENY”, BUT CONSTANTLY HEAR HIS FAITHFUL REPLY: ‘YOUR WALK OF FAITH HAS FINISHED ITS COURSE – WELCOME HOME, SON, TO YOUR MERCIFUL REWARD.”

EXAMINE FOR YOURSELF EPHESIANS 2 WHERE HOLY GOD INSPIRED PAUL TO EXPOSE THE SINFUL CONDITION OF ALL MEN, TO UNVEIL SALVATION THROUGH THE GRACE OF GOD, & TO UNVEIL THE TRANSFORMING POWER OF GOD FOR JEW & GENTILE! “GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD!”

SLAVES OF WORLD CULTURES OR SERVANTS OF THE ONE TRUE GOD? IN 1 KINGS 18:21 ELIJAH CHALLENGED MEN THEN & NOW WHEN HE ASKED, “HOW LONG HALT YOU BETWEEN TWO OPINIONS? IF THE LORD BE GOD, FOLLOW HIM; BUT IF BAAL, THEN FOLLOW HIM.” AND THE PEOPLE ANSWERED HIM NOT A WORD.”

YES, “SLAVES OF ‘RELIGIOUS’ WORLD CULTURES FACE THE SAME ETERNAL JUDGMENT OF THE WORLD’S DETERMINED OPPOSERS OF GOD’S MERCY, HIS GRACE, & HIS LOVE – THEY WANT TO ‘PROVE TO THEMSELVES’ THAT THEY DIDN’T THEN NOR NOW DESERVED ‘CRUCIFIXION WITH CHRIST’!

SEVERAL THINGS YOU MUST BE AWARE OF RELATED TO DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ‘FLESH-RELIGIOUS-CULTURES’ & THE ETERNAL TRUTH OF THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST JESUS! WHAT WAS IT THAT ELIJAH WAS INSISTING UPON?

FOR ONE THING, PROPHETIC MINISTRY DISTINGUISHES BETWEEN ‘RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY –LIKE THE WORSHIP OF BAAL OR ANY FALSE GOD’ & THE TRUE WORSHIP OF HOLY GOD APART FROM ANY COMPROMISING MIND HEART, & SPIRIT!

SECONDLY, PROPHETIC MINISTRY DOESN’T WASTE TIME WITH FOLKS WHO WANT TO ‘THINK’ ABOUT BOWING BEFORE GOD OR NOT! WHAT DID THE PROPHET SAY? “HOW LONG HALT YOU BETWEEN TWO OPINIONS? IF THE LORD BE GOD, FOLLOW HIM: BUT IF BAAL, FOLLOW HIM.” AND THE PEOPLE ANSWERED HIM NOT A WORD.”

HOW LONG HALT YOU? HESITATING ELDERLY MEN STILL SHAKE WITH A CANE IN HAND, BUT THEY STILL CAN’T DECIDE ABOUT THEIR ‘GRIT’ OR GOD’S GRACE! IT’S NOT MORE TIME THAT YOU NEED, BUT TRUE TRUST IN THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD TO SEEK YOU OUT, EXPOSE YOUR STATE OF MIND & HEART, & UNVEIL FOR YOU HIS BLESSED FINISHED WORK THROUGH THE WILLFUL YIELDEDNESS OF CHRIST TO TAKE YOU TO THE CROSS WITH HIM & GET RID OF THAT SATANIC, SIN-CONTROLLED MIND & HEART!

IN THE THIRD PLACE, SLAVES OF WORLD CULTURES, THOUGH ON THE SURFACE, APPEAR TO ‘BE RELIGIOUS’, WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH YIELDING TO AN ALREADY “FINISHED WORK”? DOES “LIMP-LUSTER” ALLEGIANCE DEFINE TRUE DISCIPLES? IT WAS SPURGEON, IN HIS MEMORIAL LIBRARY SERIES, (VOLUME 3,P.183-184), WHO SAID: [IT’S AWESOME! GET READY!!], “I SPEAK NOT, THIS MORNING, TO THE THOROUGHLY WORLDLY; WITH THEM I HAVE NOTHING NOW TO DO; ANOTHER TIME I MAY ADDRESS THEM. BUT NOW I AM SPEAKING TO YOU WHO ARE SEEKING TO SERVE GOD & TO SERVE SATAN; YOU WHO ARE TRYING TO BE CHRISTIAN WORLDLINGS, TRYING TO BE MEMBERS OF THAT EXTRAORDINARY CORPORATION, CALLED THE ‘RELIGIOUS WORLD,’ WHICH IS A THING THAT NEVER HAD AN EXISTENCE EXCEPT IN TITLE. YOU ARE ENDEAVORING, IF YOU CAN, TO MAKE UP YOUR MIND WHICH IT SHALL BE; YOU KNOW YOU CAN NOT SERVE BOTH, & YOU ARE COMING NOW TO THE PERIOD WHEN YOU ARE SAYING, ‘WHICH SHALL IT BE? SHALL I GO THOROUGHLY INTO SIN, & REVEL IN THE PLEASURES OF THE EARTH, “OR” BECOME A SERVANT OF GOD?” NOW, I SAY TO YOU THIS MORNING, AS THE PROPHET DID, ‘HOW LONG HALT YOU?’ SOME OF YOU HAVE BEEN HALTING UNTIL YOUR HAIR HAS GROWN GRAY; THE SIXTIETH YEAR OF SOME OF YOU IS DRAWING NIGH. IS NOT SIXTY YEARS LONG ENOUGH TO MAKE YOUR CHOICE? ‘HOW LONG HALT YOU?’”

FOURTH, SERVANTS OF THE ONE TRUE GOD? OH, THAT WALK OF FAITH IS SO FAR BEYOND ‘MENTAL ASSENT’ – IT’S FOUNDATION IS RESPONSE TO JESUS’ CHALLENGE IN LUKE 6:46-49 WHEN HE SAID: “ & WHY DO YOU CALL ME, LORD, LORD, & DO NOT THE THINGS WHICH I SAY? WHOSOEVER COMES TO ME, & HEARS MY SAYINGS, & DOES THEM, I WILL SHOW YOU TO WHOM HE IS LIKE:

HE IS LIKE A MAN WHICH BUILT A HOUSE, & DIGGED DEEP, & LAID THE FOUNDATION ON A ROCK; & WHEN THE FLOOD AROSE, THE STREAM BEAT VEHEMENTLY UPON THAT HOUSE, & COULD NOT SHAKE IT: FOR IT WAS FOUNDED UPON A ROCK. BUT HE THAT HEARETH, & DOEST NOT, IS LIKE A MAN THAT WITHOUT A FOUNDATION BUILT A HOUSE UPON THE EARTH; AGAINST WHICH THE STREAM DID BEAT VEHEMENTLY, & IMMEDIATELY IT FELL, & THE RUIN OF THAT HOUSE WAS GREAT.”

I MUST SHARE PAUL THE APOSTLE’S WORDS IN 1 CORINTHIANS 3:1-4:21!! (READ ALL!)

I WANT YOU TO HEAR WORDS FROM “THE AMERICAN HYMNAL” OF A HYMN BY DANIEL C.ROBERTS & GEORGE W.WARREN ENTITLED, “GOD OF OUR FATHERS, WHOSE ALMIGHTY HAND.” IT SAYS: “GOD OF OUR FATHERS, WHOSE ALMIGHTY HAND LEADS FORTH IN BEAUTY ALL THE STARRY BAND OF SHINING WORLDS IN SPLENDOR THRO’ THE SKIES, OUR GRATEFUL SONGS BEFORE YOUR THRONE ARISE.

YOUR LOVE DIVINE HAS LED US IN THE PAST, IN THIS FREE LAND BY YOU OUR LOT IS CAST; YOU BE OUR RULER, GUARDIAN, GUIDE & STAY, YOUR WORD OUR LAW, YOUR PATHS OUR CHOSEN WAY.

FROM WAR’S ALARMS, FROM DEADLY PESTILENCE, YOU BE OUR STRONG ARM OUR EVER SURE DEFENCE; YOUR TRUE FAITH IN OUR HEARTS INCRESE, YOUR BOUNTEOUS GOODNESS NOURISH US IN PEACE.

REFRESH YOUR PEOPLE ON THEIR TOILSOME WAY, LEAD US FROM NIGHT TO NEVER-ENDING DAY; FILL ALL OUR LIVES WITH LOVE & GRACE DIVINE, & GLORY, LAUD & PRAISE BE EVER THINE. AMEN! OR “SO BE IT!!” CAN “YOU” SAY AMEN TO THAT?

IS YOUR ‘LIFE OF FAITH IN CHRIST’ LIVED VICTORIOUSLY BECAUSE OF HIS ABIDING PRESENCE IN YOU, OR ARE YOU STILL HELD BACK FROM HIS ETERNAL VICTORY BY THE “BEST” YOUR ‘FLESH’ HAS TO OFFER? OR, UNDERSTANDING, MY OLD SIN-NATURE WAS CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST, AND WHEN THE RESURRECTED CHRIST KNOCKED ON YOUR HEART’S DOOR, DID YOU WILLFULLY OPEN THE DOOR FOR HIM TO COME INTO YOU, EXTENDING HIS LOVE, EXPRESSING HIS POWER, & YOU, ‘DEAD TO SELF’, INVITED THE KING OF KINGS & LORD OF LORDS TO BE HIMSELF THROUGH YOU, REIGNING SUPREMELY AS “VICTOR OVER THE WORLD, YOUR SIN-NATURE, & SATAN HIMSELF”?? AND,DO “YOU” ‘DIE DAILY’, TAKING THE SENTENCE OF DEATH UNTO YOURSELF IN ORDER THAT HIS RESURRECTION PRESENCE WILL BE MANIFESTED IN YOU & THROUGH YOU MOMENT BY MOMENT, DAY BY DAY, YES, ETERNALLY IN HIS EVERLASTING KINGDOM RULE OVER THE LAW OF SIN & DEATH?

IN “THE AMERICAN HYMNAL” PUBLISHED IN 1933 BY BROADMAN PRESS, NASHVILLE, TENN., IS A HYMN ENTITLED, (P93), “YOU SERVANTS OF GOD, YOUR MASTER PROCLAIM”, (BY C.WESLEY & F.J.HAYDEN.). IT SAYS: “YOU SERVANTS OF GOD, YOUR MASTER PROCLAIM, & PUBLISH ABROAD HIS WONDERFUL NAME; THE NAME ALL-VICTORIOUS OF JESUS EXTOL; HIS KINGDOM IS GLORIOUS, HE RULES OVER ALL.

GOD RULES ON HIGH, ALMIGHTY TO SAVE; & STILL HE IS NIGH- HIS PRESENCE WE HAVE; THE GREAT CONGREGATION HIS TRIUMPH SHALL SING, ASCRIBING SALVATION TO JESUS OUR KING.

SALVATION TO OUR GOD, WHO SITS ON THE THRONE, LET ALL CRY ALOUD & HONOR THE SON; THE PRAISES OF JESUS THE ANGELS PROCLAIM, FALL DOWN ON THEIR FACES & WORSHIP THE LAMB.

THEN LET US ADORE & GIVE HIM HIS RIGHT, ALL GLORY, & POWER, & WISDOM & MIGHT; ALL HONOR & BLESSING WITH ANGELS ABOVE, & THANKS NEVER CEASING, & INFINITE LOVE.”

DO “YOU” HONOR HIM & BLESS HIS NAME FOR THE ETERNAL SALVATION HE BOUGHT & BROUGHT TO YOU THROUGH HIS “BLOOD SACRIFICE”?

SERVANTS OF THE ONE TRUE GOD?”

BY:J.FARRELL FISHER,JUNE23-24,2019

I REMEMBER A PHRASE OF ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING WHEN SHE WROTE: “THE BLUE OF HEAVEN IS LARGER THEN THE CLOUD”; & IT’S SO TRUE THAT “SLAVES OF WORLD CULTURES DO LIVE IN ‘DARKNESS’, OR ‘THE CLOUD OF SELF-INTEREST ONLY’,REGARDLESS OF THE PRICE TO BE PAID TO KEEP ONE IN THE ‘DARK WORLD’ OF THEIR SELF-SERVING LIFE, BUT THE SERVANTS OF THE ONE TRUE GOD LIVE IN THE “LIGHT” THAT NEVER CEASES TO SHINE, EVEN WHEN THE WORLD, THE OLD SIN-NATURE, OR THE ‘FLESH’ WOULD LIKE TO OVER-RULE THE “LIGHT” SO THEY CAN CONTINUE IN THAT ENSLAVING WORLD CULTURE OF ‘DARKNESS’!

BUT BY THE GRACE OF GOD, THERE ARE, EVEN IN THIS 21^ST CENTURY, MILLIONS & MILLIONS OF PEOPLE CHOSEN BY GOD HIMSELF TO BE HIS SERVANTS, “FOOT-WASHERS OF KING JESUS”, &,YES, WILLING SERVANTS OF THE “SLAVES OF WORLD-CULTURES” SO THAT THE ‘SLAVES’ CAN AT LEAST ‘SEE THE LIGHT’ WHETHER THEY CHOOSE TO ENTER THE KINGDOM OF GOD AS A WILLING SERVANT OR NOT!

SLAVES OF WORLD CULTURES ‘LIVE’ UNDER THAT ‘CLOUD OF DARKNESS’ THOUGH THEY THEMSELVES INTERPRET ‘DARKNESS’ AS ‘light’ FOR THEIR WORLD! SLAVES OF WORLD CULTURES SEE NO NEED OF GOD ABIDING WITH THEM SINCE IN THEMSELVES THEY’VE DISCERNED THE ‘FLESH LIFE’S’ “WISDOM” (?) TO THRESH OUT FOR THEMSELVES WHAT THEY ‘SEED’ IN THEIR SIN-NATURED SOULS!!

YET, SINCE THE BEGINNING OF EARTHLY HUMAN EXISTENCE, THERE HAVE BEEN INDIVIDUALS WHO DISCERNED, BY THE GRACE OF GOD EVEN THEN, THAT ‘THEY’ ARE ON THIS EARTH WITH ETERNAL PURPOSE INTENDED, &,YES, LED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, THEY NEITHER SHEDDED OR THREADED THE “NEED” OF THE “BLOOD ATONEMENT” THROUGH THE ‘COMING’ SACRIFICE OF THE KING OF KINGS & LORD OF LORDS, BIRTHED BY MARY, THE MOTHER OF JESUS, WHO THEN FACED THE “CROSS”, “DEATH”, & “RESURRECTION” TO REIGN SUPREMELY FOREVER AS THE VICTORIOUS CONQUEROR OVER THE ‘FLESH’, THE ‘WORLD’, & YES, OVER SATAN HIMSELF! “JESUS IS LORD OVER ALL TO THE GLORY OF GOD THE FATHER”!!!

IN THE OLD “BROADMAN HYMNAL” OF 1940, (PUBLISHED BY “BROADMAN PRESS”, NASHVILLE, TENN.”) IS A HYMN WRITTEN BY FANNY J.CROSBY & ROBERT LOWRY ENTITLED, “ALL THE WAY MY SAVIOR LEADS ME.” IT SAYS: “ALL THE WAY MY SAVIOR LEADS ME; WHAT HAVE I TO ASK BESIDE? CAN I DOUBT HIS TENDER MERCY, WHO THROUGH LIFE HAS BEEN MY GUIDE? HEAVELY PEACE, DIVINEST COMFORT, HERE BY FAITH IN HIM TO DWELL! FOR I KNOW, WHATE’ER BEFALL ME, JESUS DOES ALL THINGS WELL.

ALL THE WAY MY SAVIOR LEADS ME, CHEERS EACH WINDING PATH I TREAD, GIVES ME GRACE FOR EVERY TRIAL, FEEDS ME WITH THE LIVING BREAD. THOUGH MY WEARY STEPS MAY FALTER, & MY SOUL ATHIRST MAY BE, GUSHING FROM THE “ROCK” BEFORE ME, LO! A SPRING OF JOY I SEE.

ALL THE WAY MY SAVIOR LEADS ME; OH, THE FULLNESS OF HIS LOVE! PERFECT REST TO ME IS PROMISED IN MY FATHER’S HOUSE ABOVE. WHEN MY SPIRIT, CLOTHED IMMORTAL, WINGS ITS FLIGHT TO REALMS OF DAY, THIS MY SONG THRO’ ENDLESS AGES: JESUS LED ME ALL THE WAY.”

BUT! “SLAVES UNDER A WORLD CULTURE”, WARPED, NOT ONLY BY THE ‘FLESHLY’ REIGN OF ONE’S OLD SIN-NATURE, NOT ONLY BY THAT WARPED, GODLESS CULTURE, BUT ALSO BY SATAN HIMSELF? IN LUKE 22:31-32, THE LORD SAID TO SIMON PETER, “SIMON, SIMON, BEHOLD, SATAN HAS DESIRED TO HAVE YOU, THAT HE MAY SIFT YOU AS WHEAT: BUT I HAVE PRAYED FOR YOU, THAT YOUR FAITH FAIL NOT: & WHEN YOU ARE CONVERTED, STRENGTHEN YOUR BROTHERS (IN THE FAITH!).” AT THE SAME TIME, THERE ARE THOSE WHO DO NOT CHOOSE TO LIVE IN THE “UNCHANGING, ETERNAL, REDEMPTIVE TRUTH” FOUND IN THE “SHED BLOOD”, THE “BURIAL”, & THE “RESURRECTION OF THE CRUCIFIED CHRIST”!

IN EPHESIANS 2:12 PAUL WROTE: “THAT AT THAT TIME YOU WERE WITHOUT CHRIST, BEING ALIENS FROM THE COMMONWEALTH OF ISRAEL, & STRANGERS FROM THE COVENANTS OF PROMISE, HAVING NO HOPE, & WITHOUT GOD IN THE WORLD.” HAS THAT CHANGED? IS THERE STILL THOSE IN THE WORLD TODAY WHO ARE “STRANGERS FROM THE COVENANTS OF PROMISE, WHO (IN THEMSELVES) HAVE NO HOPE OF A BLESSED, ETERNAL LIFE, WHO, SADLY, LIVE WITHOUT HOLY GOD IN THEIR EVERY-DAY LIVES”?

“SLAVES UNDER A WORLD CULTURE”? IS THAT THE “SPIRITUALLY UNCLOTHED”? HOW CLEAR WAS JOHN WHEN HE WROTE IN 1 JOHN 3:10 HE WROTE: “IN THIS THE CHILDREN OF GOD ARE MANIFEST, & THE CHILDREN OF THE DEVIL: WHOSOEVER DOES NOT RIGHTEOUSNESS IS NOT OF GOD, NEITHER HE THAT LOVES NOT HIS BROTHER.” IS IT CLEAR TO YOU THAT TRUE UNBELIEF IN GOD HAS MORE TO DO WITH WHAT GOD HAS ALREADY DONE FOR YOU THROUGH CHRIST AT THE CROSS & EMPTY TOMB, READY, UPON YOUR WILLINGNESS TO OPEN YOUR HEART’S DOOR & ALLOW HIM TO COME IN? (HE’S KNOCKED BEFORE – HE’S STILL KNOCKS TODAY UPON EVERY LIFE, EVERY PEOPLE, EVERY NATION, EVEN EVERY MODERN-DAY ‘CHURCH GATHERING’, ASKING TO COME IN!) BUT: “SLAVES UNDER A WORLD CULTURE” LIVE BOUND UNDER THAT ‘CLOUD OF UNBELIEF’! MAY 10, 2016, I WROTE THE FOLLOWING WORDS:

“UNBELIEF IS THE ROAD TO SUPERSTITION WITH THE DEVIL’S INTENT OF GOD’S ELIMINATION. TO HIM, TRUTH IS A LIE, AS SOULS TO HIM EASILY DENY THE ONE TRUE GOD & SAVIOR OF MEN, TO BE DECEIVED BY SATAN’S DECEPTIVE SPIN.

“YOU WON’T DIE” WAS HIS VOICE TO EVE, AS HE CAME TO EASILY DECEIVE, TO TURN HER FROM GOD TO THE FLESHLY SOD, SELDOM EVEN GIVING AN INCH OF ‘A FLESH NOD TO GOD’!

‘WISE MEN’ ARE THE DEVIL’S ‘DUMBED-DOWN’, EVENTUALLY CHANGING THEIR SMILES INTO FROWNS; ‘PLEASURE-SEEKERS’ ARE HIS MAIN TARGETS, “PLEASING GOD?”, NOT EVEN A NOD!

“SIN IS GOD’S TERM,” SATAN SO EASILY SPOUTS, BLINDING MEN TO WHAT GOD’S ALL ABOUT. SEPARATION FROM “TRUTH” IS HIS MAIN OCCUPATION: “QUIT LISTENING TO THOSE WHO SPEAK OF “GOD’S RESTORATION”!”

SATAN WANTS YOU BOUND, SPIRITUALLY UNSOUND, INDULGING THE ‘FLESH’ TO YOUR OWN SATISFACTION. TO HIM, GOD’S INTENT HAS NO RELEVANCE TO A DEVIL’S PROGRAM OF ONE’S PERSONAL DEVASTATION.

“ME, MY, MINE” ARE HIS THEMES OF PERSONAL PRAISE, WITH NO DESIRE OF HEAVENLY ANTHEMS RAISED” – ‘DENY YOURSELF’? WHAT A RIDICULOUS REQUEST! GIVE ME YOUR ‘WILL’ AS YOUR MOST BELOVED BEQUEST!”

BUT THE SAVIOR OF MEN, CHRIST JESUS IS HIS NAME, NEEDS NO ‘HALL OF FAME’, BECAUSE ACROSS OUR VAST WORLDS IS HIS SIGNATURE STAMPED, & ESPECIALLY IN THE LIVES OF MEN WHO WITH CHRIST HAVE CAMPED.

FORGIVENESS OF SIN IS HIS DIVINE APPOINTMENT & RENEWAL OF TRUE FAITH IN THE SAVIOR’S ANOINTMENTS – “FREE AT LAST” IS THEIR HOLY CRY AS UPON THE SAVIOR THEY FAITHFULLY RELY.

“SET APART” TO HIS GLORY, TRANSFORMING MEN HIS EVERLASTING STORY, WITH REPENTANT MEN BECOMING WITNESSES OF HIM, EXTENDING HIS KINGDOM, YES, WITH REDEMPTIVE HYMNS.

SPENDING THEIR LIVES IN HIS GLORIFICATION, DAILY DESIRING HIS CONTINUOUS EXALTATION, TRUE MEN OF FAITH WILL HONOR THE SON, AS DAY BY DAY, PERSON BY PERSON, THEY SHARE CHRIST’S TRUTH OF DIVINE RESTORATION.

THERE COMES A TIME WHEN ONE EXAMINES HIS LIFE, & BEGINS TO EVALUATE, “HAVE I ENDED SOME STRIFE, AS I POINTED OTHERS TO THE SAVIOR OF THEIR LIFE?” “HAVE I SHOWN THEM THE DOOR TO THE FRUIT OF HIS SPIRIT,” FULLY DESIRING HIS HOLY BLESSING AS I SHOWED THEM “THE DOOR” TO HIS PRECIOUS RESTING”?

“COME UNTO ME”, IS STILL HIS CALL, AS REPENTANT MEN FAITHFULLY FALL, RESTING IN HIS ‘FINISHED WORK’, THEY RISE TO DUTY & CALLING THAT THEY’LL NEVER SHIRK!

BUT IF YOU’RE NOT PREPARED FOR THE DAY OF DEATH, WHAT WILL YOUR FLORIST HAVE TO POST ON YOUR DOOR? DEAD FLOWERS FOR A LIFE POORLY LIVED, OR A WELCOMING WREATH TO GOD’S HOLY PRESENCE, BECAUSE YOU AT LEAST BOASTED IN HIS FINISHED WORK & YOUR RESTORATION?

BIRTHED TO “NEW LIFE” – & IN HIM YOU NEVER DIE, BECAUSE OF HIS LOVE, YOU ETERNALLY RELY – FROM THE DOOR OF DEATH TO HIS THRONE ON HIGH, YOU GIVE EVIDENCE: “ON HIM, I’LL NEVER DENY”, BUT CONSTANTLY HEAR HIS FAITHFUL REPLY: ‘YOUR WALK OF FAITH HAS FINISHED ITS COURSE – WELCOME HOME, SON, TO YOUR MERCIFUL REWARD.”

EXAMINE FOR YOURSELF EPHESIANS 2 WHERE HOLY GOD INSPIRED PAUL TO EXPOSE THE SINFUL CONDITION OF ALL MEN, TO UNVEIL SALVATION THROUGH THE GRACE OF GOD, & TO UNVEIL THE TRANSFORMING POWER OF GOD FOR JEW & GENTILE! “GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD!”

SLAVES OF WORLD CULTURES OR SERVANTS OF THE ONE TRUE GOD? IN 1 KINGS 18:21 ELIJAH CHALLENGED MEN THEN & NOW WHEN HE ASKED, “HOW LONG HALT YOU BETWEEN TWO OPINIONS? IF THE LORD BE GOD, FOLLOW HIM; BUT IF BAAL, THEN FOLLOW HIM.” AND THE PEOPLE ANSWERED HIM NOT A WORD.”

YES, “SLAVES OF ‘RELIGIOUS’ WORLD CULTURES FACE THE SAME ETERNAL JUDGMENT OF THE WORLD’S DETERMINED OPPOSERS OF GOD’S MERCY, HIS GRACE, & HIS LOVE – THEY WANT TO ‘PROVE TO THEMSELVES’ THAT THEY DIDN’T THEN NOR NOW DESERVED ‘CRUCIFIXION WITH CHRIST’!

SEVERAL THINGS YOU MUST BE AWARE OF RELATED TO DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ‘FLESH-RELIGIOUS-CULTURES’ & THE ETERNAL TRUTH OF THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST JESUS! WHAT WAS IT THAT ELIJAH WAS INSISTING UPON?

FOR ONE THING, PROPHETIC MINISTRY DISTINGUISHES BETWEEN ‘RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY –LIKE THE WORSHIP OF BAAL OR ANY FALSE GOD’ & THE TRUE WORSHIP OF HOLY GOD APART FROM ANY COMPROMISING MIND HEART, & SPIRIT!

SECONDLY, PROPHETIC MINISTRY DOESN’T WASTE TIME WITH FOLKS WHO WANT TO ‘THINK’ ABOUT BOWING BEFORE GOD OR NOT! WHAT DID THE PROPHET SAY? “HOW LONG HALT YOU BETWEEN TWO OPINIONS? IF THE LORD BE GOD, FOLLOW HIM: BUT IF BAAL, FOLLOW HIM.” AND THE PEOPLE ANSWERED HIM NOT A WORD.”

HOW LONG HALT YOU? HESITATING ELDERLY MEN STILL SHAKE WITH A CANE IN HAND, BUT THEY STILL CAN’T DECIDE ABOUT THEIR ‘GRIT’ OR GOD’S GRACE! IT’S NOT MORE TIME THAT YOU NEED, BUT TRUE TRUST IN THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD TO SEEK YOU OUT, EXPOSE YOUR STATE OF MIND & HEART, & UNVEIL FOR YOU HIS BLESSED FINISHED WORK THROUGH THE WILLFUL YIELDEDNESS OF CHRIST TO TAKE YOU TO THE CROSS WITH HIM & GET RID OF THAT SATANIC, SIN-CONTROLLED MIND & HEART!

IN THE THIRD PLACE, SLAVES OF WORLD CULTURES, THOUGH ON THE SURFACE, APPEAR TO ‘BE RELIGIOUS’, WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH YIELDING TO AN ALREADY “FINISHED WORK”? DOES “LIMP-LUSTER” ALLEGIANCE DEFINE TRUE DISCIPLES? IT WAS SPURGEON, IN HIS MEMORIAL LIBRARY SERIES, (VOLUME 3,P.183-184), WHO SAID: [IT’S AWESOME! GET READY!!], “I SPEAK NOT, THIS MORNING, TO THE THOROUGHLY WORLDLY; WITH THEM I HAVE NOTHING NOW TO DO; ANOTHER TIME I MAY ADDRESS THEM. BUT NOW I AM SPEAKING TO YOU WHO ARE SEEKING TO SERVE GOD & TO SERVE SATAN; YOU WHO ARE TRYING TO BE CHRISTIAN WORLDLINGS, TRYING TO BE MEMBERS OF THAT EXTRAORDINARY CORPORATION, CALLED THE ‘RELIGIOUS WORLD,’ WHICH IS A THING THAT NEVER HAD AN EXISTENCE EXCEPT IN TITLE. YOU ARE ENDEAVORING, IF YOU CAN, TO MAKE UP YOUR MIND WHICH IT SHALL BE; YOU KNOW YOU CAN NOT SERVE BOTH, & YOU ARE COMING NOW TO THE PERIOD WHEN YOU ARE SAYING, ‘WHICH SHALL IT BE? SHALL I GO THOROUGHLY INTO SIN, & REVEL IN THE PLEASURES OF THE EARTH, “OR” BECOME A SERVANT OF GOD?” NOW, I SAY TO YOU THIS MORNING, AS THE PROPHET DID, ‘HOW LONG HALT YOU?’ SOME OF YOU HAVE BEEN HALTING UNTIL YOUR HAIR HAS GROWN GRAY; THE SIXTIETH YEAR OF SOME OF YOU IS DRAWING NIGH. IS NOT SIXTY YEARS LONG ENOUGH TO MAKE YOUR CHOICE? ‘HOW LONG HALT YOU?’”

FOURTH, SERVANTS OF THE ONE TRUE GOD? OH, THAT WALK OF FAITH IS SO FAR BEYOND ‘MENTAL ASSENT’ – IT’S FOUNDATION IS RESPONSE TO JESUS’ CHALLENGE IN LUKE 6:46-49 WHEN HE SAID: “ & WHY DO YOU CALL ME, LORD, LORD, & DO NOT THE THINGS WHICH I SAY? WHOSOEVER COMES TO ME, & HEARS MY SAYINGS, & DOES THEM, I WILL SHOW YOU TO WHOM HE IS LIKE:

HE IS LIKE A MAN WHICH BUILT A HOUSE, & DIGGED DEEP, & LAID THE FOUNDATION ON A ROCK; & WHEN THE FLOOD AROSE, THE STREAM BEAT VEHEMENTLY UPON THAT HOUSE, & COULD NOT SHAKE IT: FOR IT WAS FOUNDED UPON A ROCK. BUT HE THAT HEARETH, & DOEST NOT, IS LIKE A MAN THAT WITHOUT A FOUNDATION BUILT A HOUSE UPON THE EARTH; AGAINST WHICH THE STREAM DID BEAT VEHEMENTLY, & IMMEDIATELY IT FELL, & THE RUIN OF THAT HOUSE WAS GREAT.”

I MUST SHARE PAUL THE APOSTLE’S WORDS IN 1 CORINTHIANS 3:1-4:21!! (READ ALL!)

I WANT YOU TO HEAR WORDS FROM “THE AMERICAN HYMNAL” OF A HYMN BY DANIEL C.ROBERTS & GEORGE W.WARREN ENTITLED, “GOD OF OUR FATHERS, WHOSE ALMIGHTY HAND.” IT SAYS: “GOD OF OUR FATHERS, WHOSE ALMIGHTY HAND LEADS FORTH IN BEAUTY ALL THE STARRY BAND OF SHINING WORLDS IN SPLENDOR THRO’ THE SKIES, OUR GRATEFUL SONGS BEFORE YOUR THRONE ARISE.

YOUR LOVE DIVINE HAS LED US IN THE PAST, IN THIS FREE LAND BY YOU OUR LOT IS CAST; YOU BE OUR RULER, GUARDIAN, GUIDE & STAY, YOUR WORD OUR LAW, YOUR PATHS OUR CHOSEN WAY.

FROM WAR’S ALARMS, FROM DEADLY PESTILENCE, YOU BE OUR STRONG ARM OUR EVER SURE DEFENCE; YOUR TRUE FAITH IN OUR HEARTS INCRESE, YOUR BOUNTEOUS GOODNESS NOURISH US IN PEACE.

REFRESH YOUR PEOPLE ON THEIR TOILSOME WAY, LEAD US FROM NIGHT TO NEVER-ENDING DAY; FILL ALL OUR LIVES WITH LOVE & GRACE DIVINE, & GLORY, LAUD & PRAISE BE EVER THINE. AMEN! OR “SO BE IT!!” CAN “YOU” SAY AMEN TO THAT?

IS YOUR ‘LIFE OF FAITH IN CHRIST’ LIVED VICTORIOUSLY BECAUSE OF HIS ABIDING PRESENCE IN YOU, OR ARE YOU STILL HELD BACK FROM HIS ETERNAL VICTORY BY THE “BEST” YOUR ‘FLESH’ HAS TO OFFER? OR, UNDERSTANDING, MY OLD SIN-NATURE WAS CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST, AND WHEN THE RESURRECTED CHRIST KNOCKED ON YOUR HEART’S DOOR, DID YOU WILLFULLY OPEN THE DOOR FOR HIM TO COME INTO YOU, EXTENDING HIS LOVE, EXPRESSING HIS POWER, & YOU, ‘DEAD TO SELF’, INVITED THE KING OF KINGS & LORD OF LORDS TO BE HIMSELF THROUGH YOU, REIGNING SUPREMELY AS “VICTOR OVER THE WORLD, YOUR SIN-NATURE, & SATAN HIMSELF”?? AND,DO “YOU” ‘DIE DAILY’, TAKING THE SENTENCE OF DEATH UNTO YOURSELF IN ORDER THAT HIS RESURRECTION PRESENCE WILL BE MANIFESTED IN YOU & THROUGH YOU MOMENT BY MOMENT, DAY BY DAY, YES, ETERNALLY IN HIS EVERLASTING KINGDOM RULE OVER THE LAW OF SIN & DEATH?

IN “THE AMERICAN HYMNAL” PUBLISHED IN 1933 BY BROADMAN PRESS, NASHVILLE, TENN., IS A HYMN ENTITLED, (P93), “YOU SERVANTS OF GOD, YOUR MASTER PROCLAIM”, (BY C.WESLEY & F.J.HAYDEN.). IT SAYS: “YOU SERVANTS OF GOD, YOUR MASTER PROCLAIM, & PUBLISH ABROAD HIS WONDERFUL NAME; THE NAME ALL-VICTORIOUS OF JESUS EXTOL; HIS KINGDOM IS GLORIOUS, HE RULES OVER ALL.

GOD RULES ON HIGH, ALMIGHTY TO SAVE; & STILL HE IS NIGH- HIS PRESENCE WE HAVE; THE GREAT CONGREGATION HIS TRIUMPH SHALL SING, ASCRIBING SALVATION TO JESUS OUR KING.

SALVATION TO OUR GOD, WHO SITS ON THE THRONE, LET ALL CRY ALOUD & HONOR THE SON; THE PRAISES OF JESUS THE ANGELS PROCLAIM, FALL DOWN ON THEIR FACES & WORSHIP THE LAMB.

THEN LET US ADORE & GIVE HIM HIS RIGHT, ALL GLORY, & POWER, & WISDOM & MIGHT; ALL HONOR & BLESSING WITH ANGELS ABOVE, & THANKS NEVER CEASING, & INFINITE LOVE.”

DO “YOU” HONOR HIM & BLESS HIS NAME FOR THE ETERNAL SALVATION HE BOUGHT & BROUGHT TO YOU THROUGH HIS “BLOOD SACRIFICE”?

THE REIGN OF LIGHT?”

By J. Farrell Fisher, June 22-23, 2017

You do realize that multitudes of people today, even like the ‘play-actors’ in Jesus’ day – the ‘religious’ Pharisees, rulers over Israel – ‘professed’ the reign of Light, yet crucified Him, as they devoted themselves to “the rule of darkness”! And in Matthew 24:31-36 we read, Christ Jesus speaking, “Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt. Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?

Therefore, indeed, I (CHRIST JESUS) send you prophets, wise men, and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.”

And, Jesus said, “I say to you – judgment is coming upon this generation.” Which it did! And in 70 AD the world witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple they so desecrated!

My only concern? As a result of God’s faithful judgment upon Israel because of, yes, their submission to the rule of darkness even though they ‘professed’ loyalty to the light they had, is the same judgment on the rule of darkness occurring even if one “pretends” allegiance to the reign of light? Has the rule of darkness so blinded some that they naturally devote their ‘religious hours’ to creating “fetishes” of their assumed faith that has nothing to do with being “born again”, supposedly becoming disciples of Christ when their heart-allegiance is, yes, to the “rule of darkness” under Satan’s manipulating strategies?

Here’s how Oswald Chambers saw it in his day: “My Utmost For His Highest”, (p.237), “It is easier to be a fanatic than a faithful soul, because there is something amazingly humbling, particularly to our religious conceit, in being loyal to God.” Have you ever witnessed “warped loyalty” as one professes Christ but his/her fruit is more of Satan’s manifestation through his trees in his vineyard?

“The Rule of Darkness Or The Reign of Light?” How clear and revealing do you find the words of Paul, when inspired by the Holy Spirit, he wrote in Galatians 5:24-25, “And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh (old sin nature!) with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” A ‘flesh-walk’ unveils an allegiance to the world, the flesh, and to Satan, But a “Spirit-walk” IS “Christ in you the hope of glory” led by the Indwelling and anointing of the Holy Spirit!

In Galatians 5:22 Paul unveiled the evidence of a Spirit-anointed, Christ-honoring life! “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” But in Galatians 5:16-21 he unveiled “the works of the flesh” which have Hell’s inspiration and Satan’s “rule of darkness”! Paul said: I say then: “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh (inspired by Satan!). For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. (Dare I say “under the law of sin and death?”).

Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: (Dare I say “Satan’s portrait unveiled by the Holy Spirit?”), adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, AND THE LIKE; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in times past, THAT THOSE WHO PRACTICE SUCH THINGS WILL NOT INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD.”

The “Rule of Darkness” IS the devil’s domain – and the citizens of his ‘kingdom’ feed eternally on the bad fruit of death in Satan’s rule! But, at the same time, I must ask: “Have YOU rested in the immutability of God’s Word, God’s promises, and God’s grace, mercy, and love?” Or, are you out to ‘prove’ your best, your strategy, and your self-dependence? Does ‘your best’ change? Has your ‘self-dependence’ ushered in “the kingdom of God on earth”, or is it “improved flesh” camouflaged by Satan? Christ’s presence in you is unchangeable, but Satan’s image is like an impish, mischievous, fleshly desires-rebel doing as he pleases!

The “Rule of Darkness” is every man’s ‘right’ to choose for himself what he/she determines to have their time and effort – and “If it satisfies my sin-nature, let it be!” And Satan certainly considered, and still does, “The hope of self-righteousness, as I determine what self-righteousness is, is my ‘religion’ even if it produces only a ‘death-state; because for me, Satan, that’s better than being under the Sovereign Rule of your Holy God’!”

Yes, there is a huge difference between Satan’s “Rule of Darkness” and God’s “Reign of Light”! Have you bathed yourself recently in Psalm 91? Follow with me!!

“He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.” Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence. [ Satan’s snares? Satan’s ‘perilous pestilence’?].

He (Holy God) shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings YOU shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler. You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.

A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come near you. Only with your eyes shall you look, and see the reward of the wicked. (Examine someday what “the high wages” really are that Satan uses to subsidize his deception on the “free-swingers away from God’s oversight”!).

Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place, No evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling. For He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. (Yes! Hallelujah! ANGELIC OVERSIGHT!!).

In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, the young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot. (In my early days as a child and a teen-ager, on a Saturday morning usually around our Courthouse, I would watch the ‘snake handlers’ as they professed their stupidity not having a clue about metaphorical language that “lions and cobras” were Satan’s soldiers who promoted demon’s “sharp teeth” and demons ‘poisonous venom’ – yes, even a child of faith knows Truth and Christ or Falsehood and demons!).

In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. You shall tread upon the lion and cobra (the demons are under your feet of faith!), the young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot.

Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him, and show him My salvation.”

Godless lives live not only with the absence of ‘divine life’ but they live under the curse of the sin nature, corralled by a ‘flesh-centered’ world, and corrupted by Satan with ‘solemn groans, and hollow moans, and shrieks of tortured ghosts’! And Satan wants to seal in you, in your state of unbelief or even ‘half-hearted allegiance to Christ’, his “curse” of death, not life, his “purpose” of poisoned pleasure, not eternal blessing, his “award” for a reputable performance, not a Spirit-transformed new creation! Without Christ as Lord and Savior every man lives under the domination of the devil’s darkness – and to him and them, “The Light of the world” makes no sense since he takes pleasure in the darkness of men’s souls!

In the ‘mortal nature’ of all men there is ingrained the kingdom of darkness, the dominion of evil, the sway of Satan, the lure of demonic activity, the marks of fleshly imperfections, the ‘floating phantoms’ of the defiled sin-nature that is not of God but from the heart, mind, soul, spirit of “born in sin”! The ‘old self’ is enough to open Hell’s doors for us, but Satan wants to insure he takes advantage of any crack in your life that will allow him in to reside and re-assign you from God’s purpose and plan to his perverseness and Hell’s ‘peasant’ status!

It’s so encouraging and powerful and, yes, redemptive to read John in 1 John 3:7-8, and then Verses 10-12: “Little children, (in the Faith, not age), let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness (Biblical righteousness, not one’s fleshly or demonic interpretation!) is righteous, just as He (Jesus) is righteous. He who sins (present tense, continuous action) is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning.” Then…

Verses 10-12, In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? BECAUSE his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.”

Cain was “of the wicked one”? And you’re not sure that was Satan? Do you remember Jesus talking to His disciples in Matthew 13:36-43? The disciples had asked Jesus to “Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.”

Jesus answered and said to them, “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one.[Do you think there is someone else other than Satan who is the wicked one?]. The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels (or messengers of God!), (the end of the age is the end of the Old Covenant, the Judaisation system). Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. (70AD & the end of the Judaistic system!). The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

In 2 Timothy 2:19-26 Paul, again, is instructing his spiritual son, Timothy, and us – and I believe here he’s nailing down understanding for all believers about Satan’s snares! He said: Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity,” (unless you’ve been ingrained by “false professors” that ‘YOU CAN’T DO ANYTHING BUT SIN UNTIL YOU GET TO HEAVEN’!!).

But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor. Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work (not the works of Satan!). Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue (press into) righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife. And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape THE SNARE OF THE DEVIL, having been TAKEN CAPTIVE BY HIM TO DO HIS WILL!”

Are there in God’s awesome, created world men of honor and men of dishonor? Are there ‘clay vessels’ that are invaded by Satan, and through his demonic agents take up ‘residence’? It’s interesting to read in Amos 4:11 where the prophet illumined the danger Israel was in as a nation BECAUSE, hearing God, he wrote: “I overthrew some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and YOU WERE LIKE A FIREBRAND PLUCKED FROM BURNING; yet you have not returned to Me,” says the Lord.

Again, why did Jesus teach His disciple to pray, “Deliver us from evil” or “Deliver us from the evil one”? Do you receive the biblical truth of Hebrews 2:14-18? “Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham (sons of redeeming faith!). Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.”

Have you come to the understanding, by the grace of God, of the need of “The Reign of Light IN and Through Christ ALONE”, because you’ve been made aware through ‘life experiences’ of “The Rule of Darkness” in your life apart from Christ? Yes, are YOU assured, that Christ Jesus, in YOUR behalf, “that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil (or Satan), and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage”? Have YOU prayed to Jesus: “Lord Jesus, free me from the law of sin and death, AND destroy Satan, in my behalf, because I know he still wants me all of my lifetime subject to his bondage and seeking to blot out of my life Christ Jesus’ “rescue story” for me!”

I pray for you right now: “Lord Jesus, enlighten every reader to the blessings of the Master’s blood redemption, and open every believing eye to His ransom purchase of their freedom from the bondage of the old sin nature and the bondage and blasts from my Satanic enemy and demonic forces, in honor of Christ alone! Amen!!”