JACOB'S LADDER

DO THIS OR ELSE? HAVE I DONE WRONG?

On my last trip while traveling I like to do some reading, and almost every time things will jump out at me that never did before. I end up having one of those moments, where I think, “Wow, what a dummy I was to not see this before.” Of course, that’s the wrong attitude to have because we can only learn what we learn when we are meant to learn it.

Habakkuk 2:3
For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.

There is a time for everything. Not everyone will be where you are, and you won’t be where others are, we are all in the process of coming to the knowledge of the truth, and each person according to their order. Which is why, we shouldn’t worry if people we speak to don’t hear what we hear or agree with what we say. It is not our job to prove anyone wrong and prove ourselves right. Despite what the religious mind has taught us over the years, we don’t need to fight for or defend the truth, the TRUTH stands on its own without our help. In fact, it’s vanity to think that we can lead anyone to Christ. All any of us can do is bear witness of the good news, we can plant, others can water, but it is God that gives the increase. So for all those religious leaders out there that brag about how many salvations, alter calls, and how many people they led to Christ they are really only fooling themselves and those that believe them. For NO ON can come to the knowledge of the truth UNLESS THEY ARE MEANT TO!

John 6:44
No man can come unto me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

It is always the Creator that creates, we are the clay, the Potter has power over the clay to make it as it pleases. In fact, this is great news. This is why we must not worry about others who may not believe what we believe, or see what we see. We must not get upset when we are attacked, persecuted, tempted, and accused for being who God has made us to be, for truly they know no better. In addition, their torment (testing) of us is always for our good.

Ephesians 4
12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
13 TILL WE ALL COME IN THE UNITY OF THE FAITH, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

There it is again, Till we ALL come to the unity of the Faith and Knowledge of the Son of God (in us/as us), unto the perfect man (whom we are and become), and to the fulness of Christ (power and wisdom of God). We need not worry about defending out faith, we need not worry about leaving any behind in knowledge because they cannot hear unless God has opened their ears to hear, they cannot see unless God has opened their eyes to see. So it is a fruitless and vain endeavour to try to convert anyone. Something to consider is, if you still believe you MUST do this then you still have much to learn yourself. We are not meant to force anyone to believe what we know to be true, we are meant to share the Gospel (good news of who humanity is, how not one will be lost, how God is in control, how everyone has purpose, how our trials and hard times pave the way for greater days, how our life and everything that has happened to us was meant for us, how forgiveness, compassion, and love is the key to the kingdom of God.)

I know this may come as a shock, to say, it’s not our job to convince anyone of anything. But it is nevertheless true. And what a relief it is to know this. We are simply meant to be LIVING EPISTLES for all of mankind to read, we are to be LIGHTS in this world. Our words and reciting of scripture is not what saves anyone, God saves, and he does this by letting his LIGHT shine through us.

Acts 13:47
For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.

We are meant to be LIGHTS in this world, living examples of God’s mercy, love, and forgiveness. A tall order, one we all fall short on I understand that all to well. But we move on to what is ahead, never looking back on the failures of yesterday or what we believe to be our shortcomings. So if you lose your temper, or you tell a fib, or you eat one too many pieces of cake 🙂 don’t beat yourself up. In fact, you would be surprised to know that sometimes God will provoke you to do what you believe God does not want you to do, so His Will is done in another. Yes, God can harden our hearts and provoke us to do anything God wills, and when you understand this, it becomes easier to live your life. In fact, it is impossible to do anything outside of God’s will. It’s written nothing can thwart God’s plan and will. You see, it is impossible for us to know what God is doing in our lives, what God has done in our lives, so worrying about what we consider our past mistakes, or dwelling in the “should have, could have, would of’s” is in direct opposition to the very heart and will of God. Because his ways are past our finding out.

Isaiah 55
8For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
9For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

We all struggle and suffer with some of the choices we have made. We all have replayed things in our minds, asking for forgiveness for things we have said or done. But we MUST understand that if that wasn’t part of God’s plan for our life, IT WOULDN’T HAVE HAPPENED. All of these actions are there for our learning, and for the benefit of others. I know that sounds radically different. And by no means am I saying, we can go buck wild and live anyway we want, GOD FORBID! I would never want anyone to take that away from what I am saying. What I am saying is there is no profit in dwelling in our past. We must put our past behind us, as I have written in the past, the accused of the brethren, the DEVIL spelled backwards is LIVED. What you have LIVED is not LIVING, is is death. It is dwelling in Death. We must move onto the promise of tomorrow, and live for the moment. We can’t get stuck on the things we do in life and constantly question if it was right or wrong, for only God knows, if we feel bad and you need to acknowledge it, than do that and move on. You don’t need to repent of something more than once.

Worry and Doubt are strangling the very life out of us all. It is this worry that people so vigorously fight to get people to believe what they believe. Because if everyone agrees with them, then they feel better about their own personal beliefs. I hope you can see the vanity in this and how this line of thinking has nothing to do with God. Sure we are to share the Gospel, but if it isn’t received, or if it is questioned and attacked we aren’t commanded to stay around and defend it. True love doesn’t need to prove itself. It needs to simply accept people are where they are at, and be patient, long-suffering, meek, gentle, and not seeking to strive or fight or debate.

Matthew 10
13And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it: but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you. 14And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.

Those that will hear the truth, will receive the peace that you have in your faith, but if they will not hear then keep your peace, don’t let it bring you down and don’t stick around trying to prove them wrong. Simply shake the Dust (hurt, lies, idolatry that was put on you while trying to share), shake that dust from your feet (your walk/journey in Christ). So much for sticking around for a back and forth sword/words fight about what the bible really means and says.

But as I stated earlier, we all allow worry and doubt to kill our spirit. We constantly worry, “did I make the right decision”,”should I have said this or that”,”why did I do that, now I made things worse”,”should I have left that job”,”should I have stood up for myself”, “should I have sold my house”…. the list goes on and on. We worry about everything. We second, third, fourth, and fifth guess almost everything we do, NEVER ONCE considering that God wouldn’t have allowed us to do this or that, unless it was meant to be.

We have been sold this lie, that is we are suffering we have done something wrong. We have been sold a lie that if we do everything right life will be perfect for us. But that wasn’t the case for any of God’s chosen vessels, and it isn’t the case for any of us.

2 Corinthians 2:4
For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears

We will have trials, we will have anguish, we will cry, and yes we will have doubts and fears. Which is why we MUST REMEMBER that even if a decision we have made brings sorrow to our heart, that we should rejoice instead trusting that God is big enough to work all things together for the good, and that if God didn’t want you to say or do what you did, he wouldn’t have had you make the decision you made.

Let me give you a great example of how I believed I had sinned greatly against God, but years later realized God had provoked me to do what I did to get me to where I am now. Years ago I have a very large fight with a family member that I was allowing to stay at our home. I ended up screaming and yelling, I kicked her out of the house (she had many others homes of her own to stay at anyway). This caused a greater rift in my relationship with my wife’s family than was already there. The fallout would only get worse. I would be attacked, I would attack back, and all of it was so very foolish. And even though in the natural I could have said I was completely in the right, and even though my wife would tell me this, in my heart I had done wrong. I cursed, I yelled, I screamed, I thought bad about her in my heart, and I SUFFERED TERRIBLY BECAUSE OF IT! I asked God multiple times to forgive me for kicking her out. But today, that was the catalyst for the next two years of our lives. Because of that fight we would sell our house, and end up moving into my wife’s dream home. A larger home for less money. With an apartment that our family members in need are now sharing, and yes even enough room to create a room for my Mother in law, who gets along with me now famously.

The point is, what seemed to be a work of wickedness and pride was actually a necessity, because without it we would have never sold our home, and moved here. And now, we have three family members in need living here and helping us with out needs. God was working through it all. I realized that God does inspire us to act the way we must to motivate us to go where God needs us to be. God will use our suffering and fear to move us from place to place. And when we understand this, we can finally REST! Knowing that no matter what we have done, or do, regardless of the cost we may have to pay because YES WE DO REAP WHAT WE SOW, but even in reaping what we have sown God opens our eyes, heals our hearts and moves us to the place we need to be.

Micah 4
9Now why dost thou cry out aloud? is there no king in thee? is thy counsellor perished? for pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail. 10Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail: for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the field, and thou shalt go even to Babylon; there shalt thou be delivered; there the LORD shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies.

We need to know that God is in control of our lives, every aspect of our lives. We need to know that we will make decisions, or do and say things that we may question and believe to be wrong, but in so doing we MUST KNOW that even though we may cry and scream God is within us, working all things for us, and we will be delivered from our ENEMIES!

Enemies, by the way, are not people coming against us. Our enemies are our negative thoughts, the lies we have believed, our fears, our hatred, our bias. When people literally seem like our enemies and are doing things to truly hurt us, the TRUE ENEMY is our negative feelings toward these people. Regardless of what anyone does to us, the real enemies are the carnal thoughts within us. Our enemies are found in our own house (temple/our soul).

Luke 12
53The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.

In the natural sure we may have problems with family members, but this scripture is not speaking of that. It is speaking of what gives birth to our thoughts. Christ came to bring division, to divide the lies we have believed and been taught from the truth of God. And this is the separation that is written about in Genesis.

Genesis 2:24
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

The wife we cleave unto is WISDOM! Wisdom which is a tree of life. We will leave our old beliefs that gave birth to who we think we are, and we shall become ONE with the WISDOM AND TRUTH OF GOD.

Proverbs 3
13 Happy is the man that findeth WISDOM, and the man that getteth understanding.
14 For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold.
15 SHE is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her.
16 Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour.
17 Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.
18 SHE is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her.

Mark 10
11 And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her.

Is this speaking of literal marriage, sure why not. I pray all marriages will be blessed. But since God doesn’t look to the outward man, but the inward man, TRULY what is being taught here is an allegory. HE WHO PUTS AWAY THE WISDOM/UNDERSTANDING AND TRUTH OF GOD for OTHER BELIEFS commits adultery. This is the adultery God is speaking of in the Ten Commandments. And yes, of course you SHOULDN’T CHEAT ON YOUR SPOUSE, because if you do one day you will feel the same betrayal.

And the BELIEFS that make us worry, fear, and doubt. The BELIEFS that make us believe we have to prove everyone wrong and convince everyone what we believe, is actually MARRYING ANOTHER. Everytime we allow our worries and doubts and fears to take over our thoughts, we are leaving the TRUTH OF GOD for an adulterous relationship. In fact, we BECOME ONE with these false beliefs by leaving the truth of God. The good news is, God will even use the torment this caused to put us back on the right track. But how much better would be to cast away every thought of fear because you know….

2 Timothy 1:7
God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

So if God doesn’t give us thoughts of fear, then our fear isn’t coming from God now is it? So we need to learn how to take these thoughts captive and accept things that have happened in our lives, accept things that we have or have not done and just know God is in the middle of it all, and will work all things after the COUNSEL OF GOD’S WILL. Which means, WE CAN’T FAIL! EVER!

Ephesians 1
5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will

We are pre-destined, pre-programmed, no we are not robots but we are led and drawn, and yes we make decisions and have consequences for our actions but all of this is in accordance to what God has purposed for us. Which is why it is time to stop debating, looking down on others for their beliefs, thinking we know more or are somehow more blessed, as well as stop worrying, doubting, and repenting again and again of what we have done. It is time to walk into the promise of tomorrow’s light, it is time to lay our cares upon Christ… Meaning it is time to let go of our worries and fears and beliefs and just rest in the power and wisdom of God.

There is a great burden to carry when you believe you are the one at the helm. There is a light burden to carry when you know it is God directing your steps.

You can choose this…

Proverbs 14:12
There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death

Or this…

Psalm 37:23
The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way.

So trust in God. Let the truth stand for itself. Stop worrying about whether you have done right or wrong and simply seek the Lord in every way. The road won’t always be easy, you may question whether what you have done was God’s will or not, His ways are above ours, understand that and also understand that if God didn’t want whatever it is you are going through in your life, you wouldn’t be going through it. But above all else, know that he who endures until the end OVERCOMES, and every one of you are overcomers and will overcome because you have all been predestined to do so!

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Much love and peace,
Jacob
http://www.JacobIsrael.org