Letter to two young brothers (1)

Beloved nephews of mine, and children of our Abba Father in heaven:

This is the time to pray and seriously consider your life.
The Lord’s Prayer Matthew 6:9-15

9“Therefore, you should pray like this:

“Our Father in heaven,

your name be honored as holy.

10Your kingdom come.

Your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.

11Give us today our daily bread.

12And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.

13And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

For Yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever and ever.”

Jesus added the following points about how offenses could cause obstruction to receiving your blessings for specific areas of your life. Jesus spoke this before the cross.

14“For if you forgive others their offenses, your heavenly Father will forgive you as well. 15But if you don’t forgive others, your Father will not forgive your offenses. (Don’t let any offense from others block your heart. It’s not worth it!)

Jesus has paid the penalty for our sins on the cross.

So by believing and accepting Jesus as your Savior and Lord you are each already forgiven.  This forgiveness and redemption were accomplished through the crucifixion of Jesus on the cross, His death, and His resurrection that proved that He has overcome sin and death for you.

You are now the children of God and are given the authority of His name and the power of His Spirit in you to live His victorious life in His kingdom of light, and not a defeated life in darkness like an unbeliever.

You are a new creation by the new birth with the Holy Spirit. Your old person is dead. The past is gone. Your real life is in Christ now. It is He who lives in you.

You are babies in God’s family and need the feeding of His milk to grow up so you can eat solid food to develop maturity in Christ and enjoy the full abundant life He promised.

His milk is His words. Daily intake of His food is of utmost importance. Which baby could survive without milk? Physical work-out is profitable but spiritual work-out is far more profitable!

I pray you both grow up strong and healthy both inside and outside as you pursue His godliness. Let the light of God shine through you inside out. Our God shall supply all you need according to the riches of His glory!

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Bible verse on forgiveness

Colossians 3:13 accepting one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a complaint against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive.

Picture credit: biblelyfe.com

God’s new mankind

Suddenly, all that Jesus has spoken makes sense. His really means what He says. He has overcome the world. And He has not left us behind in that defeated world! We are God’s real children. God’s new mankind! And He has claimed us as His own!

I suddenly realized one recent day that I am a new mankind. That is exactly what Paul meant in 2 Corinthians 5:17. I memorized this verse when I was first introduced to the Navigators’ Topical Memory System (TMS) In fact, it was the first verse I memorized. And this verse has stayed with me ever since. I used and quoted it countless times. But the true meaning in terms of its depth and height and width and length only just hit me. What it means is I am a new mankind.

After trying to handle physical challenges even using all that I have learned from the Bible, and other Biblical teachers, I have conceded that the only way out is through the spiritual realm. I acknowledge that the challenges are entirely spiritual.

I then woke one recent morning with the prompting from my spirit that I am a new mankind, and I don’t have to deal with the issues the old way like I was still the old mankind. What? Have I heard wrongly? Was it my imagination? But the word is clear and it was an inaudible voice. “You are a new mankind.”

All that I have read and studied and meditated upon suddenly fit together. Yes, that is what God has made. He solved the fall of Adam (mankind) issue by creating a new mankind.

Jesus has told us so. First He spoke of a kingdom of God (separate from the world’s kingdom) that only God’s people/children can see and enter. Having a new birth, being born of God’s Spirit is the number one condition. The Kingdom is in a spiritual realm and yet human can enter and be its citizens while living on earth. God reigns there. (John 3:3, 3:5, 4:24)

The Kingdom is only meant for a certain group of people. Jesus spoke clearly of them. He also said that He would send the Holy Spirit after He left earth, and the Holy Spirit would live in each believer (God’s children) and never leaves. And this has happened just as He said.

Who are the children of God? They are born of God: John 1:¹² But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: ¹³ who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

The apostle Peter also affirmed this born again prerequisite: 1 Peter 1 ²³ having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,

They believe in Jesus, know Him, hear His voice, and follow Him. They are able to know God and Jesus and interact with God. (John 5:24) Note that They have eternal life, actually belong to God and God gave Jesus charge over them to bring them back and safe keep them! (John 10:27-28)

John 5:37 ³⁷ All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. 

John 10:²⁹ My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. ³⁰ I and My Father are one.”

Jesus further reaffirmed in Jesus’ prayer (John 17) on the eve of His arrest, the fact that there is a group of people who belong to God, including the disciples then and also all of us who believe: ⁶ “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. ⁹ “I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. ¹⁰ And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. ²⁰ “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; ²¹ that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.”

Jesus also fulfilled His promise that the Holy Spirit will come and fill God’s people/children. Ten days after His ascension into heaven, the Holy Spirit came and poured on those apostles/disciples who gathered together, as recorded in Acts 2:1-4. The Book of Acts recorded many incidents of the filling of human beings (apostles/disciples) by the Holy Spirit. (Read Acts 2:2-4, 4:8, 4:31, 9:17, 13:9, 7:55, 9:17; 11:24; 13:8-52).

After I revised myself of the above truth, I ask, what is the significance of all these? Being born again of God’s Spirit and further confirmed by the filling of the Holy Spirit (and His power)? I was drawn to read the beginning of the Book of Genesis again. And I realize that this is the way for mankind to be restored to the original intention of God’s creation. God has always wanted His children to be like Him and live a life that reflects God and not the fallen state the fallen mankind (through Adam’s fall) has been living.

The apostle Paul has written on this in Ephesians 1 that He (God) chose us in Him (Christ) before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, ⁵ having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, ⁶ to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. (Read 1:3-14 for the whole salvation plan and intention of God for His new mankind/children). “Having believed, we were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.” Paul’s prayer in verses 17-23 further reinforces this fact that God’s children have been treated with truly the best, unlike what they face in the other kingdom (the world’s).

God’s children have these of God: wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the riches of the glory of His inheritance, and the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe.

In this connection, what further brings joy is the understanding of this following passage from Paul’s prayer in Colossians 1. “¹² giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. ¹³ He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, ” Note that he speaks of two important events that happened to believers when born again by the Spirit of God: (1) instant qualification to partake God’s inheritance (2) instant deliverance from the dark kingdom into the kingdom of light. The place we entered is where the saints in the light are. It is the Kingdom of the beloved Son of God.

Just imagine, the children of God are in fact living in a different kingdom now and are under a different ruler, God’s Son Himself. Yes, that is why God had to make us into a new mankind born of His Spirit. When we think of this fact, we no longer hesitate in speaking to the adversaries with authority and power. We are free from the power of darkness because we are now the legitimate citizens in another kingdom.

Suddenly, all that Jesus has spoken makes sense. His really means what He says. He has overcome the world. And He has not left us behind in that defeated world! Nothing can by any means harm us. He has brought us more abundant life (health, relationship, provisions). He has given us eternal life (intimately knowing God and Jesus His Son). We can use His authority and His name to command mountainous adversaries and challenges. We can pray and ask in His name and our prayers will be granted. We can do the same that He has done and even greater works. The main thing is God has filled us with Himself. The new mankind has God in us. He has filled us all in all in His Son Jesus through His Holy Spirit!

What kind of life the new mankind should live? The verse that instantly comes to mind is: ¹⁴ Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. (2 Corinthians 2:14)

More specifically, we shall live as originally intended in God’s creation of mankind. This is the summary of all purposes of our existence in Revelation 4:11

¹¹ Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

Yes, like Enoch who pleased God, each of the the new mankind pleases God with a life daily walking intimately with Him, living in His presence, for 300 years until God decides one day that they might as well walk further with Him to His home.

Bible verse to meditate: 2 Corinthians 5:17 ¹⁷ When anyone is in Christ, it is a whole new world. The old things are gone; suddenly, everything is new!

Kainotes, 2022-06-08

a priceless ID as in Mark 333

We cannot deny or disguise our true identity. The question is what ID are we carrying? Who are we really? Most people know by now that we are more than the body. We are a thinking, feeling, and reasoning (rational-cognitive-emotive) being. Moreover, we are also a real existence in an unseen realm, the spirit realm. Many earth people may live all their lives on two dimensions, the body and the soul. But some earth inhabitants have citizenship elsewhere, such as, the Kingdom of God, in the spiritual realm, manifesting in the physical who we are and what we have in the spiritual reality. Jesus taught us the reality of the spirit realm. To this group of earth inhabitants, Jesus is right 100%. The spirit realm is actually where our real life is. Why do I talk about this today? Because where you live and who do you think you are makes your decision/choices for you, and dictate the person you manifest now. Your “being” hinges on who you think you are, only two dimensions or beyond the dimensions you can detect with senses and thoughts/feelings.

Back to what Jesus said about the great divide. Today I look through Mark and discovered the most important absolute demarcation line based on a short passage in Mark 3.

The matter of true identity. Your ID. My ID. This is the number one prerequisite. Many of us carry a physical plastic card or a digital registered ID in our phone more to show others who we are on earth mainly for access to certain entitlement purposes when conducting earth affairs.

Jesus said there is one ID we need to be concerned of, who we are to Jesus. This ID gives us far more and beyond what our pieces of paper, plastic, or a number to our name in the digital record somewhere on earth can ever give.

Jesus clearly compared the physical with the spiritual both having reality and impact in terms of life on earth in Mark 3:33. Jesus replied to the notification of the arrival of His physical family, with this crucial question, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” To dispel all doubts, in verse 34 Then he looked at those around him and said, “Look, these are my mother and brothers. 35 Anyone who does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

In summary, taking into consideration of all that Jesus has spoken on this point in the four Gospels, and later confirmed by the Holy Spirit through the apostles and disciples in their writings and actual practice in life, and the vision and prophetic Book of Revelation, Jesus wants His followers to be concerned with the one ID that really matters. And this is what He meant:

1. Yes, a heavenly ID is absolutely important and essential.
2. There are two IDs: one on earth as you were born into, or manmade, often through arbitrary legislation or execution by man.
3. The manmade one has no standing when compared with the other one.
4. In the present, and in the final analysis, the ID that really matters is that which gives you a firm eternal standing with God, through Jesus.
5. This ID is given based on one condition, which is a grace (undeserved, unearned favor) from God.
6. By faith (the faith of the Son of God, Jesus) you can receive this ID.
7. This ID has a seal, that is, the Holy Spirit.
8. This ID has a mark, on every believer’s forehead.
9. there is a heavenly registry for this ID. It is called, the Book of Life.
10. God (the Father, the Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit) knows each person who belongs to Him and has a registered ID in His Book of Life.
11. Each of His subjects is expected to know Him, in an intimate family relationship with Him. We call God our Father, and Jesus is our Brother. The Holy Spirit is the one living in each born again believer, as our spirit is joined to the Lord, one spirit with Him.
12. The heavenly ID is not cheap. It is priceless. Jesus purchased it with His blood. Everyone who believes receives this ID instantly and a seal is marked on us by His Spirit who gives us an instant new birth which is the new ID. This ID gives us the citizenship entitlement in the Kingdom of God which is a parallel kingdom ever since Jesus came to earth and instituted it on earth as in heaven.

There are many more facts about this Kingdom and how it operates. Right now it is wise to ponder on this pertinent point: do you bear the Jesus’ Mark333 or the mark 666 as warned in the Revelation?

“I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” (John 3:3)

“For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.” (Colossians 3:3)

“Go back to what you heard and believed at first; hold to it firmly. Repent and turn to Me again.” (Wake up!) (Revelation 3:3)

Kainotes, 2021-07-06

13:30 unboxed and revealed

Matthew 13:30 describes a very frightening scene, which is real, and happening in our midst throughout human history, until the end. This is the revelation the watchman receives tonight and jumps up from bed and read again this familiar parable. While sleepless, he was anxious and asked the Lord what is real and what is fake and how to sieve through the massive data the present generations who are avid net readers and viewers consuming hungrily daily.Tonight the reply came in the form of the parable of the wheat and darnel which appeared in his mind vividly.

In short, Jesus described how the Lord sowed good seed in His field, i.e. the kingdom of heaven, and His enemy came in the night and sowed darnel among the wheat. Lest in gathering the wild wheat (weeds resembling wheat), the [true] wheat be rooted along with it, the Lord let them grow together until the harvest.

This is the scenario today, and it has been this way throughout history, i.e. God always sows the good seed—those whom He calls wheat, and will be gathered to be with Him in eternity. His enemy always sows the darnels which will be gathered and burnt by the angelic reapers in harvest time. There exists two groups of people on earth: The children of God and the children of the devil.

What are the darnels? Darnel is a mimic weed, an evil twin of wheat. It is a stowaway. Farmers are careful to separate it from the genuine wheat. It is poisonous. When consumed it can cause dizzy, off-balance and nauseous symptoms. A large amount if it can cause death. Its duplicity has been described as symbol of subversion. “Where there is darnel, there is treachery and toxicity”.

Jesus has given this parable as a warning to the churches. The enemy is clever and crafty. The imitation wheat looks very alike the genuine one. It can even be likened to a almost perfect clone though without a human spirit. Human spirit, that make a person human, comes from God. No technology can duplicate human spirit. a darnel is not a wheat. And that is a fact.

What has this parable got to do with my question to God on how to differentiate between truth and fakes? This parable shows that we will only know when it is harvest time. The revelation will be clear and specific and no mistake will be made as far as God’s classification is concerned. Those classified as darnel will be exposed, removed and burned.

Those God classifies as wheat will be gathered to His kingdom.

The Lord’s last word in this parable: Matthew 13:30 ³⁰ “Let them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will say to the reapers, Gather the darnel first and bind it in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my granary.” (Said the Lord.)

Should I worry about what is not revealed yet? The answer is no. The Lord knows what needs to be done and He takes care of the steps ahead. Our responsibility is to stay in a close relationship with Him and bear good fruits as He intended in our design. Make sure our children do the same.

Deuteronomy 29:29 The Lord our God has secrets known to no one. We are not accountable for them, but we and our children are accountable forever for all that he has revealed to us, so that we may obey all the terms of these instructions.

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About the human darnel

“by some means or another, gets into churches, and they become members thereof: at first they look like wheat, like true believers, have a show of religion, a form of godliness, an appearance of grace, but are destitute of it; and prove tares, unfruitful, unprofitable, and of no account, yea hurtful, and whose end is to be burned.” (John Gill’s Exposition of the Bible)

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Watchman’s note:

The above parable applies to all aspects of life, and every field in which human plays a role.

Kainotes, 2021-03-30

The Lord brings down the arrogant city, those who fix their thoughts on God will have perfect peace

God is eager to defend His people. Trust in Him means fix our thoughts on Him—Who He is to us, what He can do, and is more than willing to do for His people. Stop our fixation on the enemies of God. Take note that there are two cities in the eyes of God: the city of God’s people, that is strong in the Lord and watched over by the Lord, and another city which is described as wicked, arrogant, proud and godless, ruled by the enemies of God. The policies and actions show which city they are. They are both physical and spiritual realities.

Isaiah 26 New Living Translation

A Song of Praise to the Lord

26 In that day, everyone in the land of Judah will sing this song: Our city is strong!
    We are surrounded by the walls of God’s salvation.
² Open the gates to all who are righteous;
    allow the faithful to enter.
³ You will keep in perfect peace
    all who trust in You,
    all whose thoughts are fixed on You!
⁴ Trust in the Lord always,
    for the Lord God is the eternal Rock.
⁵ He humbles the proud
    and brings down the arrogant city.
    He brings it down to the dust.

¹⁰ Your kindness to the wicked
    does not make them do good.
Although others do right, the wicked keep doing wrong
    and take no notice of the Lord’s majesty.
¹¹ O Lord, they pay no attention to Your upraised fist.
    Show them your eagerness to defend your people.
Then they will be ashamed. (NKJV They will see and be ashamed for their envy of people.)
    Let your fire consume Your enemies. (NKJV Yes, the fire of Your enemies shall devour them)

¹² Lord, you will grant us peace;
    all we have accomplished is really from You.

²⁰ Go home, My people,
    and lock your doors!
Hide yourselves for a little while
    until the Lord’s anger has passed.
²¹ Look! The Lord is coming from heaven
    to punish the people of the earth for their sins.
The earth will no longer hide those who have been killed.
    They will be brought out for all to see.

Chapter 27  1 In that day the Lord will take His terrible, swift sword and punish Leviathan, the swiftly moving serpent, the coiling, writhing serpent. He will kill the dragon of the sea.