The veil is removed

 

Rev 19:7

Let us be glad and rejoice, and let us give honour to him. For the time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb, and his bride has prepared herself.

One of the highlights of a wedding ceremony is the custom where the veiled bride walks up the isle towards her bridegroom, and when she reaches him, the veil is removed, and he can at last see her face to face.

This is what the word apocalypse means – the removing of a veil, derived from apo, which means to remove, and kalupsis, which means veil. And of course, this means the removing of the covering that hid the revelation of future end-time events from mankind up until that precise point in time that God gave John the vision that revealed it to us.

But there is a wedding ceremony waiting for us in the future when all events of the apocalypse are drawing to an end, where the highlight for the bride and the Groom will be that face-to-face moment the bride has been preparing herself for throughout her lifetime – when Jesus will present her to her Abba Father, spotless and without wrinkles!

We read in 2 Cor 3:14 that the Israelites also have a veil over their minds and hearts: But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. This veil is only removed when a person repents and accepts Jesus as Lord, as written in verse 16: but whenever a person turns [in repentance and faith] to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

Could this have been the reason for John the Baptist’s baptism of repentance? Acts 19:4 Paul said, “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.”  Could this baptism have been the removal of their veils in order that they could see that Jesus is the Messiah?

Just as Leah hid behind her wedding veil, concealing her identity from Jacob to trick him into marrying her instead of Rachel, so we are all hiding behind our veils, Jews and Gentiles alike. There are things in our lives that we wish to conceal from our Bridegroom! It is time to start preparing for our coming unveiling at the wedding feast of the Lamb – let us get rid of those things hindering our walk of intimacy with our Bridegroom here on earth and start growing in glory and holiness day by day!

Points to ponder:

Wounds, sinful behaviour and unforgiveness (leading to bitterness) are blockages preventing us from experiencing intimacy in our walk with Jesus our Heavenly Bridegroom. All can be dealt with and removed or healed in sessions with our compassionate Healing Rooms councillors. Do not wait another day – make an appointment now!

Open the eyes of my heart, Lord

The sound of silence

                                                          Luke 19:39-40

Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!” “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”

These words were spoken as Jesus entered Jerusalem on the 10^th of Nisan, the same date that the Jews all brought their Passover lambs home for a four-day inspection to make sure that they were perfect in every way before they were brought to the temple as an offering. Jesus rode on a donkey colt, an event prophesied by Zecheriah about 500 years before Jesus was even born, saying “Behold, your King comes to you; He is just and having salvation, patient, meek, lowly and riding on a donkey, upon a colt, the foal of a donkey.”  By this act, Jesus was signalling to all who knew the writings of the Old Testament prophets (and this included all the Pharisees in the crowd), that He was indeed their long-awaited Messiah!

But because they misinterpreted Isiah 53, they could not understand that their Messiah would come twice – once as a suffering servant, and later as reigning King. The Jesus they observed and heard about up to then, was just, proclaimed salvation, patient, meek, and lowly – but this did not fit into their perception (handed down by generations of learned men before them) of what their King should be like and should act like.

This made it impossible for them to admit that Jesus was indeed their Messiah. Trying to silence the disciples from openly proclaiming Him as such, they instructed Jesus to rebuke them, which He answered by saying that the very stones along the road would cry out and proclaim the truth, if His followers were to be silenced.

I find it very interesting that there are so many archaeological findings in Jerusalem and surrounds lately - are they also the stones crying out? Testifying to the authenticity of history as reported in the Bible!

Jesus was then crucified in Jerusalem four days later on the 14^th of Nisan, exactly the same date that all the Passover lambs were slaughtered in the temple as Passover offerings. He was not ashamed to die for you and me, openly acknowledging His love for us, and this even before we chose Him as Lord and Saviour, while we were still living in our sin. He publicly declared His love for us – liars, cheaters, murderers, adulterers, idolaters, fornicators, self-centred to the core, breakers of every law imaginable.

Why then do we find it difficult to acknowledge Him in public - the King of kings, the most powerful Being that exists, the Supreme Ruler over every created thing, glorious, majestic, beautiful, just, faithful, and true? Where are the voices crying out at every injustice we hear about in our neighbourhoods, in our towns and cities? Why are we silent when sinful living is taught at our schools and our children exposed to abhorrent sexual practices? Where are our protests when good is being called evil, and evil, good?

Points to ponder: Are you one of the silent majorities? Ask Holy Spirit to show you how to take a stand against the rising tide of evil all around!

Stand up, stand up for Jesus

Go to war!

 

Ps 149:6

May the praise of God be in their mouths and a double-edged sword in their hands,

It was Derek Prince, that great teacher of the Bible, who first drew my attention to the fact that the above verse was a mighty tool in the hand of a Christian warrior, not only to be used in difficult personal situations, but also in matters pertaining to nations!

The next three verses explain more:

Verse 7: to inflict vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples, meaning to inflict punishment in return for a wrong done, to enforce or restore justice where the regular legal processes had failed.

Verse 8: to bind their kings with shackles and their leaders with iron chains – when the leaders are securely bound and in captivity, no executive orders can be given to the rest of the troops and no new plots and plans can be hatched among them.

Verse 9: to execute the judgment written against them. This is the glorious privilege of his faithful ones. Praise the LORD! We execute the judgements which are already written in God’s Word, by proclaiming them aloud as the Holy Spirit directs us.

As believers under the New Covenant, we know that we fight enemies that are not flesh and blood (Eph 6:12). We are to execute vengeance on every spiritual entity that sets itself up against the truth of Who God is and works against His Kingdom in our lives and the lives of the people of our nation. In this regard, John 16:11 shows that there is already a written judgement against Satan: Judgment will come because the ruler of this world has already been judged. We do not war against people, but against the spirits influencing them.

This is indeed a glorious privilege granted to us, His faithful ones. God will use us to set right the wrongs of this present age, for in the coming Millennium, we will rule and reign with Christ. But we need both: giving praise and wielding the sword.

Here are examples of judgments already written down in Scripture:

Nahum 1:3  The LORD is slow to anger but great in power; the LORD will not leave the guilty unpunished..

Jeremiah 9:15  So now, this is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: Look! I will feed them with bitterness and give them poison to drink.

Lev 26:18  “And if, in spite of all this, you still disobey me, I will punish you seven times over for your sins.

Luke 10:19  I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.

Points to ponder: Are you feeling helpless in your present circumstances? Start worshiping the Lord with all your heart and ask Holy Spirit to reveal to you how to proclaim His judgements over the spiritual entities causing this havoc in your life!

I speak Jesus

A mighty man

 

Judges 6:14-16

Then the LORD turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?” So he said to Him, “O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” And the LORD said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man.”

This scene certainly does not depict what we in this modern day and age would describe as a mighty man, a man of proven courage and boldness, ready to take on an enemy the number of which the Bible describes as “like locusts for multitude”!

Just the opposite. We see Gideon living in a cave, threshing his family’s crop of wheat in a winepress to hide themselves and their crops from the Midianites. His response to the words of the Lord mirrors his self-esteem at that time – ‘my clan is the weakest’ and ‘I am the least in my father’s house’.

What then was it that the Lord saw in Gideon, so that He consistently in that first meeting with him, referred to Gideon as a mighty man of fearless courage? What were the signs pointing to his becoming the great leader of Israel that he eventually did become, that we would have overlooked or ignored as not applicable?

Gideon admitted his weakness, allowing God’s strength to work unhindered through him.

He was humble, not hiding his lack of courage and lowly status.

If we continue reading the rest of the chapter, we see that he loved his nation, asking God why all this has befallen them.

He knew the Scriptures and recounted for the Lord the remarkable things God had done in bringing them up from Egypt.

He was also teachable, listening carefully to and obeying the Lord’s instructions.

We all know the rest of this story, how Gideon did indeed show himself as a fearless warrior of God!

Greatness in the Kingdom of God lies in meekness. We read in the Bible how Jesus often taught about this: how the meek will inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5);  how everyone who wants to be first must be last, indeed the servant of all (Mark 9:35); Peter who was to become a great leader of the church, was instructed to feed the sheep and nurture and tend the flock (John 21:17).

Points to ponder: When God looks at my life, can he find Gideon’s humbleness, weakness, caring attitude, knowledge of Scripture and eagerness to be taught, there? Am I willing to serve and love, instead of selfishly seeking prominence and promotion in His Kingdom?

A Humble Heart