A Battle You Have to Lose to Win

"And Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, Esau came, and with him four hundred men. And he divided the children unto Leah, and unto Rachel, and unto the two handmaids." - Genesis 33:1.

 

The above scripture is a powerful story if you read the whole ordeal from Genesis chapter 32 and 33. Let me give you just a brief summary. Jacob here had for all of his life been a con artist. Whenever he was in trouble, or when he desperately wanted something, he schemed and conned his way to get it. Jacob was a very intelligent man, and with his charm and whit would trick people into getting what he wanted. He tricked his brother Esau out of the family blessing, which meant whoever got this blessing was officially the ruler of all the people and anointed of God. He tricked his father-in-law Laban out of two daughters and the best of all his flocks and herds, and his gold and silver. Jacob came to believe with this power he possessed of whit and trickery, he could master any situation he got into.

Beloved, do you see the trap here? Jacob came to believe he had the power to manipulate his way out of any situation. This trap is called the trap of self reliance. You come to believe YOU possess the power to control your life, and the only one you need to rely on is you. It makes you to believe you are the master of your destiny and you control the outcome. But dear reader, if you are a child of God, you must remember you made a contract, with God, the day you got saved, that no longer were you the master of your destiny. You covenanted with Jesus Christ, to make him lord of your life and take control of your future. We forget this truth, and only invoke this when we are in trouble, or when we go to church on Sunday. Yet through the week, where it counts, we are like Jacob, maneuvering and manipulating people and events in our life to get the outcome we want. And I must warn you, when you get to this point in God’s eyes, something will happen to put you in the place where all your tricks, all your manipulating, will not save you. And I must let you know who will put you there, it will be God himself!

Go back to the scripture reference above. Jacob came to the place here, where Esau and four hundred soldiers were now after him to kill him. On the other side, Laban and his army were after Jacob for his thievery. I could see Jacob’s heart pounding with fear, as he finally came to the “no win” scenario. With both armies coming, cutting off all escape routes, Jacob still tried to manipulate his way out. He sends presents to both men, sending messengers to them to calm down the situation and beg for mercy. But for poor Jacob, every trick worked to no avail. And as the clock is ticking down to his own demise, Jacob finally does what God has been wanting from him from the beginning, he cries out to the Lord for help.

Would to God, that we could understand this truth before we get into the hot seat or the no win scenario. God is a god that will not accept our relying on anything other than him. We have so many scriptures that deal with the fact God wants us to come to him first, cast our cares on him, talk to him first and bring our problems to him to solve. There is a reason for this beloved, God wants faith! And that faith is simply complete trust that HE is in control, HE can fix any situation, and HE wants you to totally rely on him, and have no faith in your abilities, powers and intelligence. And I can promise you, if the “Jacob disease” is in your life, if your reading this and are feeling the conviction this is me, I do try to trick and manipulate people and situations, my friend God is going to put some situation, some trouble in your life that will cause all your tricks not to work, and the only thing left is to cry out to him.

I sense that someone is reading this, right now, that all of Hell is come at you. Everything has been stripped from you in your life. You’ve lost a job, a friend, bills are piling up or the doctor has come to you with bad news. Also, someone is reading this who had everything going good in their life till just recently. Now, you feel this overwhelming depression, a pit so deep you canfind no way to come out. Your life no longer has meaning or fun, your prayers hit the ceiling right now and God feels a million miles away. You have no clear direction on what to do and you have tried everything (trick) in the book, but all you have is silence and confusion. Let me speak to you right now, for I have a word from the Lord for you.

You have been put in the place where God is trying to teach you, stop relying on your abilities and strength. Your faith is not in me alone. For awhile now, you have manipulated your situations, and even me (God) to get what you want, and now I am teaching you, and allowing you to come to the end of your abilities and strength, so you will realize I am your answer, I am your God, and there is no problem or situation I cannot solve, but you must come to me first, and utterly have total faith that, I (God), will take care of it.

Beloved, what you are feeling right now, the depression, the loneliness, the fact that all of Hell and Satan are seeming to take everything out of your life and your situation looks hopeless, is not what it looks like. Remember the reference above. When Esau finally caught up with Jacob after he prayed to God for help, he didn’t get what he thought he would. Instead of Esau taking his life, he ran to him, fell on his neck and embraced him. In the end, because Jacob finally gave up on his strength, and gave all to God, Esau became one of his best friends till the end, and Laban ended up blessing Jacob and helping him the rest of his life. God turned what was to be the NO WIN scenario into the greatest blessings of Jacob’s life. I tell you now, if you will cry out to God, give up on the fact of figuring it all out, believing what the Devil or the Doctor is saying, and totally throw all your trust and help on Jesus, you will see your situation turn around. You will find, your steps have been ordered all along, and that God was always with you, wanting you to understand; “it’s not by might nor by power, but by MY spirit, sayeth the Lord of Hosts”.

KNOWING THE TRUTH

"Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all." - John 18:38

 

Look at our scripture reference today. Imagine the scene before you. Jesus, already having been beaten by the Jews, is brought before the Roman governor of Israel. At this time, Rome had conquered much of the Mediterranean, including Israel and Egypt. The Jews, not wanting to defile themselves so close to Passover, brought Jesus to Pontius Pilate to be put to death, not for the miracles he did, or the things he taught the people, but because he claimed to be the only Begotten of God, making himself equal with God the father.

Did you hear catch that? The reason Jesus was put to death, officially on the books, was his statement, “I and the father (God) are one!”(John 5:18).This made the Jews scream in agony, rent their clothes, and cry blasphemy. How dare a man claim God is his birth father. And to these Jews, who were spiritually dead inside, they were being asked to worship an image, something that would break the first commandment given by God in the old testament. But what they missed in their deadness inside is this; they were not asked to worship a man, a mere mortal born of the line of Adam, they were asked to worship God in the Flesh! Therefore, the first commandment is never broken, because the commandment maker is before you, wrapped in flesh. In our reference here, Pilate never gets his answer to “what is truth?”, because he asked the wrong question. It is not, what is truth?, but, WHO is truth?

Today, many cults and world religions claim they are like Christians. “we are brothers with you”, they say. They take some of the doctrines of Christianity and incorporate it into their false religion even. But beloved, these people are poison to your soul, wolves in sheep’s clothing, only able to give you lies and false doctrine, damning your soul to Hell in the end. Jesus Christ is not in a thousand miles from their places of worship, nor at the heart of their worship services. And these false cults are everywhere, on TV commercials, in your neighborhood, passing themselves off as workers of Jesus, but are disciples of Satan himself.

Let me give you just a small list of the people who claim to be Christian, but are people to stay away from:

· The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day saints (the Mormons)

· The Jehovah’s Witnesses

· Masons and the Masonic Lodge

· Catholic religions (specifically the worship of people; i.e. Mary – and the belief in purgatory (the ability to buy or pray someone out of Hell)

· Islam and Muslim faiths – (specifically the worship of Mohammad as final authority over Jesus Christ)

Notice that I didn’t include such ludicrous religions as Satanism, Buddhism, Witchcraft and the many other religions that preach their own prophets and gods that are specific to their religion. These crazy cults are not a threat to a real Christian. To the worshipper of Jesus, you can see these false doctrines coming from miles away. But I did include the religions that are dangerous, that claim Jesus as their religion, but are far from him being the leader of their faith. In essence, they have just enough truth, mixed with lie, to make you believe they are ok, and snare you in their trap. Don’t believe their lies, don’t go to their churches, don’t even let them in your homes! Do just what the Bible says, stay away from them and don’t even bid them Godspeed when you come in contact.

Without getting into the specifics of what is wrong with them, I shall make this short and sweet for you. The one test you need to perform to make sure any church, any religion, is not like one of the above is this in two simple questions:

1. DO YOU BELIEVE JESUS CHRIST IS GOD, IN FLESH, THAT CAME ON THE EARTH?

2. DO YOU BELIEVE JESUS CHRIST IS THE ONE, THE ONLY, WAY TO HEAVEN?

If the answer to these questions is any other than yes, run! Flee from them and their place of worship! Run like Lot and his family from Sodom and Gomorrah and don’t look back!

I give you a warning from the Spirit of God. There is coming a wave of false cults and religions on the earth. And they are coming with all their disciples to your door, to your work, on your TV and radio and they will be promoting that they are your friend, they are the way to heaven and they have all the answers to your problems. They will talk with Christian talk, they will make you feel that they are ok, and that they will help you. This wave is part of the end, Satan knows his time is short and he will be sending these people out to deceive and destroy you, and take as many to Hell as he can with him. I warn you now, as this time is upon us, RIGHT NOW.

Beloved, don’t believe the lies. Test their spirit, test their doctrine, ask them the hard questions above, if they are not true Christianity, they will not be able to give you a straight “yes this what we believe”. There is no help in a Mormon church, in a Jehovah’s Witness, or in the good works of the mason lodge or a Catholic priest. Your only answer, your only way to heaven, your only truth and help is in one person alone……JESUS CHRIST, EMMANUEL (GOD WITH US). He is the only “truth” and the only way. And only trust those who proclaim this truth.

WHEN GOD IS GONE

"Seek the Lord, while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near." - Isaiah 55:6.


We hear thru our lives by many preachers and pastors, "Just pray, God will always be right there to hear you". And even in this ministry at Watchmen of the Wall, you will hear us beg and plead for you to reach out to God in prayer, we will say please pray because God is waiting to hear from you. But, I believe Isaiah to be a prophet who fortold many future events. This particular scripture holds a key you won't hear many preachers talk about, because it's just to bad, to horrible to imagine. It goes against every doctrine preached by TV evangelists, major denominations and maybe your local pastor.

But as a Watchman I must cry out a truth; THERE IS COMING A DAY GOD WILL BE GONE!

Every word in the Bible, if you believe it to be God's inspired word, is not an idle word placed there to take up space, or link one good thought to another, it has a meaning. And Isaiah here places a prophetic "time will come" situation on this scripture. Preachers will say "seek the Lord" and forget the stipulation, "while he may be found". This tells us a warning, there is coming a time when God will no longer wink at our sin we refuse to repent of, put up with our unbelief in his word, grieve the Holy Spirit every day by telling him we don't need him in our church, running our lives. I must forewarn you, whether your grandpa preacher told you this, whether mother said it's impossible, God's grace and mercy has a limit! And it is soon running out.
Time will not let me get into the many examples of God proving this statement: from Lot and Sodom and Gomorrah ( Genesis 19:24) , Noah and the great flood (Genesis 7:15) , Moses and the children of Isreal (Exodus 32:10) , and many more tell us there comes a time when God says, "Enough" , they no longer care about my word, respect my spirit or the sacrifice of my son, the thoughts and intents of their heart is only evil continually", and I must tell you in Love, this time is almost upon us again. The difference is, this time it will be forever.
I bring this to the warning I want to make to you. The prophet Amos warns us of what is coming just around the corner. Chapter 5 and verse 18 of this book gives us a glimpse into the future of what will happen to the children of this earth who wait to long, put off till tomorrow, what you must do now! Amos declares; "Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord! to what end is it for you? the day of the Lord is darkness, and not light". What he is saying here is there is coming a day when God will turn to his son Jesus, tell him to get his children who recieved him, and when those who have made and kept their self ready are gone, the God of light and mercy turns into the God of darkness and wrath. The sun turns black, the moon turns the color of blood, stars falling from the heavens, men trying to commit suicide to escape, only to be able to not kill themselves. The earth rocking a reeling under the full weight of God's divine justice on the sins of the men and women who shook their fist in God's face before, not wanting to seek him, or have him in their lives.
When God says it is done, their will be no crying out to him for a second chance, no more running to a church altar to pray, " I'm sorry God, forgive me for what I've done, I didn't mean to hurt you or your spirit" No. When God shut the door on Noah's ark, it was over, when he took Lot and his family out of Sodom, it was over, when the 5 foolish virgins waited till the bridegroom came, the other 5 went in, for them it was over (Matthew 25:10). Grace is gone, the Holy Ghost that you pushed aside and kicked out of your life is gone. You will be hopeless.
This terrible day is coming, it is almost upon us, but thanks be to God it is not happening right now! You still have time. The Bible says, right now, call upon him while he is near, seek him right now and you will find him, knock on his door in prayer, right now, and he will open. Whatever thing you are clinging to that is keeping you from seeking God with all your heart, LET IT GO!
Don't believe Satan's lies! That beautiful woman at work, that doesn't belong to you will send you to Hell, the money you are destroying others to get will send you to Hell, the wife and children you are leaving behind so you can keep up your drug and alcohol habit will send you to Hell.
Beloved, I beg you again, whether you profess to be a child of God, or you know you are not in fellowship with him, Seek God now! while he will listen to your prayer and help you. Forsake the weights ( worries and fears) and sins that so easily stop you from seeking God with all your heart. Go after him like a thirsty deer panting for a drink of cool water, go after him like he is the precious expensive coin you have lost somewhere in the store, and you will find him. And the only way you will seek and find God is thru his son, Jesus Christ. But do it now! don't put it off another second! Don't be caught in the day he laughs at your calamity.