Pray for Judgment – Pt. 3

Ron Weinland

March 5, 2011

Today is Part 3 of the current sermon series entitled Pray for Judgment. As has been stated, NOW is the time to pray for God’s judgment to be unleashed on this earth, including more of the Thunders becoming far more powerful and worldwide candidly, interspersed with Trumpets 2, 3 and 4, as we understand will occur here in this country.  It’s a matter of praying for these things, being in unity, oneness with the Church and what we’re doing, what God has us doing, understanding why these things are transpiring and taking place; and probably today getting a better picture of all that as well as we go through this particular sermon of why and how we’re a part of this.  It’s a spiritual matter in how we think and the job that’s in front of us, and truly being at one with God because if you pray about something and you understand why these things must come to pass there’s a great deal to do with the mind in the sense of righteous judgment before God and that which glorifies and honours God in a right way.

We look at things like death in a totally different way than what God does.  To understand God’s plan, to understand what God has been doing... it’s hard for human beings sometimes to grasp and understand what He is doing and why He’s doing it the way He’s doing it.  But it’s expedient for us in God’s Church, with His holy spirit, with Him living and dwelling within us, to indeed be at one with Him and to understand these things and to honour Him and glorify Him and praise Him for what He’s doing – because what He’d doing is righteous and just, truly, in a very powerful way; very merciful indeed.

And so again, sometimes this puts us to the test, or tries us to see where we are, as a matter of a growth or maturity spiritually.  And so it’s expedient we’re going through these things because it’s an awesome thing that God is doing on this earth, it truly is (always has been), but we’re at an incredible stage right now and one that man doesn’t even grasp, but that only God’s Church grasps.  And that’s awesome that God has given us those blessings that go with that.

So we need to be praying more zealously “Your Kingdom Come!” because this is what it’s about in a nutshell; but to understand what we’re praying for, why we’re praying for it, not just having a nice little phrase like “Your Kingdom come. We look forward to Jesus Christ being here, we look forward to You establishing Your government on this earth for 1,100 years,” but we’re not in unity or not wanting to see the things that are going to come to pass?!  It’s not that you want to see them, but that they’re necessary, it’s expedient in order to have that Kingdom.  It truly puts you to a point where you have to examine your mind and your thinking, to come to grasp and to be in agreement with God that these things are absolutely necessary for His Kingdom to be here.  There is no other way for God’s Kingdom to come.

If Jesus Christ were to return tomorrow, or this Pentecost as an example, before anything happened to this earth in a very powerful way that must happen...  If those things didn’t occur and He returned and there’s a great resurrection of 144,000 it wouldn’t be enough.  Man’s spirit would not be right!  So how are you going to work with that, with billions of human beings who don’t honour God, who don’t want God, who are deeply imbedded in their own ideas, their own pride, their own haughtiness in life, their own governments, their own finances? Their attitude of mind would be very much like Noah’s sons.  “You’re interfering with me!  You’re merciful, you’re full of love and I hear these sermons out here and Your people who are preaching... these spirit beings of Yours out here teaching us these things...”  There would be people who’d say, “I don’t want it.”  And so the correction at that time would be a horrible thing to have to go through, what man would have to go through for an extended period of time because it’d take a long time.

The way that God has planned it long ago is that there will be a world prepared for Jesus Christ when He returns.  And for man to learn to fear his Creator....  It’s one thing to be in awe of God, to love God, to honour God; it’s another thing to understand you don’t deserve life.  Why do you have life?  Who are we?  The Great God of the universe put us here, but mankind snubs his nose at Him.  “You’re interfering in my business!”  Incredible the attitude and spirit of human beings, it really is.  A very merciful God put us here for a purpose – to be in His Family.  The reality is people don’t like the rules, the laws that bring about happiness, right living, right thinking, right relationships.

And so God’s Kingdom, when it comes, is going to start off on the right foot in a very powerful way, to truly humble mankind, to start with, in a large part of the world, human fear; that they’re going to realize that there’s something far greater than them on this earth, that there is a God that put them here, they didn’t crawl out of the slime and out of the ocean over millions of years.  Mankind doesn’t honour God!

And then with that soberness of mind so often then God can begin to work with an individual, because with that comes a humbleness of mind, a teachable spirit.  God’s spirit cannot work with the human mind, with the human spirit, unless it is brought to a point of humility.  God’s spirit can’t work with it!  It doesn’t work!  You can’t work with a mind that has a spirit of pride in it, that’s going to hold onto its own way.  A spirit of meekness as well – that’s necessary, which means a teachable spirit.  If someone doesn’t have a teachable spirit that requires humility along with it then God can’t work with it, God can’t teach the truth to them!

That’s why you can’t teach this way of life to people out here – because they think that they know better!  They know their religion’s right, with all the lies that are in it.  Kissing the statue and toe until it’s about worn off, of the statue they call Peter, which wasn’t Peter the apostle, it was another Peter.  Incredible!  And all the lies that go with that – Easter, Easter bunnies laying eggs!  That’s a great thing to tell your children – lie to them in the very beginning of their life!  “This is what God’s like... He wants you to go out and look for eggs today, and rabbits lay them.”  And then around Christmas time you have this big old guy with a big red suit and white trimming come around and if you’re nice he’s going to give you presents, but if you’re not you’re not going to get any.

Incredible lies; and their religion is based on lies!  ...and they say, “Oh yeah, but it doesn’t hurt and everybody’s doing it so it’s got to be okay.”  Liars! Liars! Liars!  I get some people listening to me that don’t believe this way of life, they just want to find fault and they’d rather believe lies than to believe the truth about God, that God requires mankind to live a certain way of life, that God requires that man obey a Sabbath day, the seventh day because of what it teaches and what you can begin to learn when you humble yourself to believe that God indeed did remould and refashion this earth over a seven day period of time, putting man on it, and gave Him the seventh day and rested on that day and taught him what it was for; because it was on that day He was going to teach mankind.

Jesus Christ came along 4,000 years later and He didn’t correct mankind that they were keeping the wrong day, on the contrary, He continued with the Sabbath – teaching.  And the apostles continued in the Sabbath and the Holy Days; Paul telling people, “Let us keep the Feast!”  And so people went, “What’s a Feast?”  That’s in the New Testament!  “What’s the Feast?  What’s he talking about?”  Well, he’s talking about Leviticus 23. Haven’t you ever read it?  Hasn’t your minister ever told you?  Hasn’t your priest?  Hasn’t your Rabbi?  Well, I shouldn’t say Rabbi... because they have talked about Feasts and so forth.  But the Protestant world is absolutely ignorant!  Ignorant!

And they’re going to hear this in an intensified way in a short time...in an intensified, powerful way – that, “You choose to believe a lie rather than believe your God in what He said very clearly in the Bible.  You’d rather believe in little rabbits running around laying eggs and you know better than that.  You know better than that!  You know better than to lie to your children and to tell them that’s what God wants.  Where do you find that in your Bible?  Where do you find about Easter eggs in the Bible?  Where do you find about rabbits laying eggs?  Where do you find about this jolly old ‘Ho-Ho-Ho’ coming from the North, and all these reindeer flying through the sky?  And even on TV... I mean it must be true because even on the 24th, that night, they have it on TV where our radar has caught him coming into the States and he’s going to go to millions and millions of people’s houses.  He’s faster than ‘The Flash’.  So how they caught him I have no idea because he has to put so many presents in so many places, and then of course he has time to stop and drink some hot cocoa in places too...no wonder he’s oversized, all these cookies that people leave out for him....

Anyway, I’m sorry, but it is a mockery what Satan has done, and yet he’s going to be mocked for what he’s done.  That’s where we are.  All the religions of the world that he’s deceived and so forth and what he’s done to mankind.

So for God’s Kingdom to come these things have to be struck, very powerfully so, struck down, shown to be the lies that they are, because they’ve hurt a lot of people.   They’ve hurt a lot of people!  Even in religions people don’t get along, they hate each other.  History is filled with Protestant and Catholics hating each other; hating each other and killing each other...and it’s supposed to be the same God?!  And we’re somehow all going to heaven together?  Where does that come from?  And you somehow can justify killing each other?  Incredible the world we live in!  Man would rather believe a lie.  He’d rather believe he came from slime in the ocean, started crawling around and slowly developed.  People who believe in evolution are absolute idiots because they’d rather believe a lie.  Intelligent human beings who would rather believe that kind of stupidity?  It just blows the mind, it really does – intellectual people in universities who would rather teach evolution?  It’s just astounding!  And we can’t even give peace on this earth, we can’t even create peace on this earth, we can’t even bring mankind peace on this earth!  Sick, sick, sick world!

So we’re praying zealously now, more zealously, “Your Kingdom Come!  Stop the lies.”  That means there won’t be any political parties anymore.  That’s what it means!  That’s the definition of stopping lies for a lot of governments, it’s no political parties anymore because they can’t lie anymore, they can’t tell things on TV when they come out and tell you that our economy’s getting better and they are worried, they are lying.  Aspects about the banking system and so forth and things they don’t want to tell you because they don’t want you to know certain things or too much?  Incredible!

So we need to be praying far more zealously, “Your Kingdom Come!” ...understanding what this means concerning the necessity for end-time events to increase.

We’ve been going through the story of the Exodus and how God was working with Pharaoh, Egypt, and Israel, to accomplish a very specific purpose.  In all this there is much to learn about stubbornness, the human mind, human nature, the defiance of human nature.  I’m dumbfounded when you go back and look at various things in the Bible – even the Israelites – once they went through the Red Sea and were on the other side....  You’d think after you went through something like that surely you’d be in a little more awe of God, you’d be a little more careful of your attitude.  And they weren’t.  It didn’t take them long... “Oh, wish we were back in Egypt, it was better!  ...all this....”

Human nature, it’s sick, it really is.  We, our human nature, our selfish human nature truly is sick; and people don’t’ like hearing that.  People don’t like to hear that they are selfish – every one of us.  And that’s what we have to repent of and thank God we don’t have to stay this way.  I hate selfishness!  I hate it in me, I hate it in others.  It hurts life!

Let’s go on to Exodus 9.  And it doesn’t matter at this point in time whether people like what is being said or not – God’s going to give it a lot of power now, truly is, and the vast majority now are going to reject it.  Sometimes we can read through stories and we just don’t grasp the intensity of it. The Flood.  All human life wiped off the earth, an incredible event, and Noah was the only one who lived righteous before God.  After all of that his sons, his daughter-in-laws, his wife.... not a one of them chose to honour God, chose to fear God, chose to love God, chose to be thankful that God chose to bring them through to start a new world, a new age.  Not a one of them!  On the contrary, they had some really nasty, bad, filthy attitudes.  And you would think after seeing all that you’d be careful, you’d have a fear toward God which should stir up a sense of humility and meekness, “Lord, what is it you want me to do?  How can I have happiness?”

Let’s go to Exodus 9:25 and pick up where we left off.  We’ll just pick up a few verses here and then continue on.  And the hail struck throughout all the land of Egypt and all that was in the field, both of the people and livestock; and the hail struck every herb of the field, every plant, in that respect, especially that type obviously that produced for food and whether it be for cattle and so forth, or for man; and broke every tree of the field.  Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, there was no hail. And Pharaoh sent and called for Moses and Aaron and said to them, I have sinned this time: the Eternal is righteous, now he didn’t believe that one bit and Moses knew it!  He didn’t believe that one iota, not one bit, but he was willing to say the words to try to appease, to try to get rid of it; but it wasn’t in his heart at all.  He said, and I and my people are unrighteous.  Sometimes people say things because they know that’s the right thing to say, not because they really believe it.

Verse 28 – Appeal unto the Eternal (for this is enough) so that there will not be any more thunderings and hail; and I’ll let you go... No he wouldn’t!  He’s a liar!  He’s lying! He’s lying through his teeth!  It wasn’t in his heart at all; he had no intention of letting them go.  ...and I will let you go and you will not have to stay any longer. In other words, just get rid of this nuisance, this hail, this destruction that’s taking place.

Verse 29 - And Moses said unto him, to Pharaoh, As soon as I am gone out of the city, I’ll spread forth my hands unto the Eternal; and the thunder shall cease, and neither shall there be any more hail; so that you may know that the earth is the Eternal’s. But as for you and your servants, I know that you still do not fear the Eternal God.  Amazing!  After all this!  It takes a lot to break human nature, to break pride, to humble pride enough that someone will say, “Okay, I’m ready to listen.  Tell me what I should be doing.  Tell me what is right. Help me to see it.  I see that this is a wrong path.”  To really acknowledge sincerely that someone has done something wrong is another matter – totally another matter.  Human nature is tough to break; that’s why the vast majority, even after everything that happens in this country, because it starts here first (the big things), even in this country the vast majority are not going to repent.  Human nature is that filled with pride.  Human nature is that stubborn.  Human nature is that resentful toward the truth, toward God.  You know, if it was some other religion, if it was something else that it could blend in with a little bit and maybe give up a little bit here and there it wouldn’t be so difficult.  But when it’s the truth... when it’s the truth...it’s a totally different matter.  When it’s all the truth of what God says it’s a totally different matter.  When you take away all the idols, the Christmas trees, the Santa Claus, the Easter bunny, the Sunday worship... or the Friday worship... or the Monday worship, it really doesn’t matter.

Verse 31 - Now the flax and the barley were destroyed: as the barley had formed in the heads and the flax was in budding. But the wheat and the rye, and some translations put it ‘the spelt or the amar’ was not totally destroyed: for they had not yet ripened. And Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, and spread abroad his hands unto the Eternal: and the thunders and hail ceased, and the rain was not poured out upon the earth any longer. And when Pharaoh saw the rain, the hail, and the thunders had ceased, he sinned even more by hardening his heart, he and his servants. Now it was gone and now he didn’t have to play this game anymore and he just hardened his heart more. He was growing in bitterness and anger and hatred against Moses; and if there was a God, some other God greater than all the god’s of Pharaoh and of Egypt, then he was hating Him.  That’s what was in his heart and in his mind, truly.

And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he would not let the children of Israel go; as the Eternal had spoken by/through Moses. God told Moses that Pharaoh was not going to change; he’s not going to do it.

So it takes a lot, it takes much to humble mankind, it truly does – especially en masse, in large numbers.  It’s one matter when God begins to work with individuals as He’s worked with you, as He called you, as so many of you as you began to go through various things in your life and you came to a certain point, and God had prepared you and worked with you individually for those occasions, for the few that could be called for a particular time and what He was doing.  But to increase that manyfold over, into the thousands and the tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands and into the millions is another matter all together, in a timely fashion.  And that’s what He’s doing in a very timely fashion.  And to do that people have to go through a lot more overall.

There are certain things that God has done and prepared in His plan and His purpose for calling individuals through a period of time, and for you to be here at this time – but to work with the vast majority of mankind is another matter altogether; and there’s a lot more in that story as well that’d take sermons upon sermons to give.

People can be brought to fear, to being afraid, but to be brought to humility is another thing. So it isn’t just fear that God is striving to bring mankind to, that’s not what it’s about.  It’s about bringing them past that into something far greater, and yet even in the Millennium when it starts, when it begins, most on the earth have to be brought to great fear; first of all for what man has done to mankind.  I think of China alone, and Russia and what they’re going to do.  Scripture says that they’re going to destroy a third of all the earth, a third of all mankind just by them, just by that Sixth Trumpet, that Second WOE.  That’s how much they destroy on the earth!  Powerful!  Nuclear weapons!  Their value of life is different than ours in the western world and this country here.  They think differently.  Their leaders think differently.  Their value of life is a totally different matter.  They do not think like we think, as a whole, when it comes to life.  When you have that many masses of people and there are things within a war, or within death and they see the population of the earth like it is – pragmatic, they think different ways than we do.  And things about the economy in the world and so forth and what they’re doing now is totally different.

What was it about nuclear weapons they just came out with that was in the news here this past week?  Was it no limit on theirs that they can develop?[1]   Yes, China is not going to play along with the rest of the world.  “We’re going to build as many and as massive as we want and nothing’s going to stop us.”  And they’ve already been doing it anyway.  They have plans...and they plan to come out on top!  I wouldn’t want to be living in Japan right now; they’re not too happy in Japan because of China right now.  Because you see, the treaties that have been signed and the lack of a military power and nuclear weapons...and now they see this power that’s emerging and they’ve had some jets get a little too close to some of their areas, and it’s caused some fear because they keep penetrating these zones around the world, the Chinese are pressing, seeing how far, how much they can get by with, what they can do, seeing what the response is going to be.  And they judge it quite shrewdly, they truly do.

And how confident do you think the Japanese people are today that we would come to their rescue?  IF China were to say, “We want Japan.  We want Taiwan.  We’re going to take it!”  How confident do you think Japan is today that the United States is really going to go to nuclear war with China; that they’re really going to use that power, the military power of the world, to fight them?  It’s not going to happen and they know it!  They know we’re already spread so thin in the world that we can’t mount any kind of a response against them.

The world is changing rapidly, it truly is, and China already has its own plans - and it’s for a war.  It’s not just about money anymore, it’s not just about the economy, it’s about a World War.  That’s why their military keeps pressing like it is; they’re going to be dominant, they’re going to be in control.  Their idea is not just of half the United States like one General said, “Just give us half and you go over there; we’ll stay on this side, we’ll be happy!”  No, they want it all!  Incredible how foolish we are in thinking they’re not going to do it.  Sad, sad, sad world.  Human nature is pathetic, sad.

That’s why if God didn’t intervene there wouldn’t be a world left.  If everything weren’t timed out the way it is right now, a few years up the road there would not be a world left, because in time there would have to be a response when it’s really too late for the world.  No human life would be left, that’s what God says.

So it takes a lot to bring people to the point where they’ll come to humility and that’s why we’re going to see the things that take place in a very unique, orderly, powerful way.  God knows how to work with mankind.  He knows how to work with the mind, with human beings.  Takes a lot to bring people to where they will listen to truth from God and truth concerning God.

So Pharaoh wasn’t being worked with with a manner like what’s going to take place now, it’s different from what happened back then, but you can see a lot about human nature. There are going to be a lot of things happen to this earth and to people in this country and around the world to bring them to the point that they’re supposed to be by the time Jesus Christ returns, for the kind of impact that God is going to bring upon this earth – because He’s taking control.

Let’s go back to Revelation 8 today. Again, it’s expedient that we pray more fervently concerning these matters.  Pharaoh wasn’t being brought to repentance; for him it was the Great White Throne.  That’s what is ahead for him, that was what was ahead for him anyway with that kind of a mind, with his background, with his life.  It wasn’t to be able to be saved in this age, in this world – that wasn’t God’s purpose anyway; but because of his mind and so forth and where he was the Great White Throne was the only answer for him.  So God had a purpose for him and what He was doing through him.

But we live in a different time for what God’s going to do and we have to work through those things in our own mind, to be in unity and agreement and oneness with God and thank God and praise God for what He’s doing, for His righteous judgment.

I marvel at how God continues to reveal things and how He helps us.  We were talking about that recently of how it’s an amazing thing how you can go and you can read through something, the Bible, or something on the website and you can go back later on and you can read through it again and all of a sudden you see something you never saw before, or a little bit more.  You can read something and all of a sudden you read it again and you add a little bit more to it, your building upon it; building blocks, that’s what it was this morning.  It’s incredible what takes place and how we grow and how we learn in these things.  And I am in awe of this particular chapter here and what is being given to us that’s about us; it’s an awesome thing, truly is.  We get a little bit more each time.

So we’re going to review this again because there’s a lot here, truly is; concerns our prayers that are ascending up before God and being added to all the previous prayers of God’s people.  That’s what this is all about here in Revelation 8, but these prayers that are being added are more specific, as we talked about in the previous sermon when we went through this and talked about some of this.

So again, very much the context here about the Thunders and the Trumpets and what God is doing.  Revelation 8:1 - And when He broke open the Seventh Seal, which was November 14, 2008, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. And I saw the seven angels who stand before God/who are in the presence of God; and to them were given Seven Trumpets. ‘Seven trumpets were placed in their hands,’ as some translations say.  So again here, they were handed over seven trumpets, And then, speaking of that particular time, another angel came and stood at the altar, so it’s kind of interesting here the events; and sometimes we tend to read anyway kind of in a story flow, but sometimes we don’t understand all the story and what is taking place and the picture of what God is giving to us, especially when it comes to prophetic matters.  So it talks about this other angel, not just the seven, but now it goes on and discusses another one, brings him into the picture and says, came and stood at the altar having/holding a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, or in other words meaning ‘more incense’, because that’s the context here, more incense was given.  It says this because we read the other chapter earlier on when it talked about how that the prayers of all the saints came up before God’s throne and you go back through time and all that that was coming up before God, the prayers of all of God’s people.  But here we’re at a point in time where more is being given and so that’s what it’s talking about.

...and given unto him more incense that he should offer it, or as some translations give it accurately so, ‘added it to’ what had previously been given.  ...that he should add it to the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which is before the throne. So it’s a continuing process here and these prayers that continue to go up before God; but this is a specific moment in time, this is unique because it’s about us and it’s about right now.  This even becomes more powerful, what’s taking place here, of something that began in a moment of time and that continues on until something else occurs, and that’s what is being brought in here, something that involves God’s people in a very powerful way.

So God’s now beginning to reveal more that’s contained in the meaning of these verses and there is more to come...some that can’t even be covered yet; timeliness of how God’s going to begin revealing some things.  Powerful!

But this other angel comes in at a time after the seven angels had been given their trumpets and he begins to do something: he begins taking the incense, and again, talking about the prayers that are being added.  But it goes on in the next two verses to explain all that this angel does...but this isn’t all in order here when it talks about the seven angels and when it talks about this angel, and it’s giving a story flow here because it talks about this one angel and it’s going to finish the story about this one angel before it goes on.

Verse 4 – it’s recorded in this specific manner for that purpose, to finish the story about one angel and not to have everything in a specific manner that is chronological, especially when you start going through things in Revelation here, it’s not just one step.  That’s why nobody can go through the Bible, especially the book of Revelation and say, “Look at each event, and this is just a continual progression.”  It’s not written that way at all for a purpose, so that people can’t know unless God reveals it.

Revelation 8:4 - And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand.  So again, this is not an instant event.  It’s just like smoke, it ascends, it just keeps coming...and our prayers... and it builds up to a moment in time as well, and we’re at that time in a very powerful way – it’s ongoing, the smoke ascending up as our prayers ascend up before God.  And so this doesn’t change the reality that it addresses at the beginning of these angels actions and the First Trumpet sounding; after this angel began to offer the smoke on the incense.  In other words, the First Trumpet sounded in the midst of this.  As this began, as it just started, the first angel with the Trumpet sounded.  And again, going back and looking at the timing of what we’ve talked about in times past, but it’s bringing into a story here of what he saw.  He saw seven angels preparing themselves to sound and it goes on to tell that story as we go on here a little bit later, as we continue on in reading the verses (and we will).  But the order of the events here is something having to do with the prayers of the saints and the prayers of God’s people.

Just like I’ve mentioned that there’s yet an even greater fulfillment of what has to take place with the First Trumpet – something that began a long time ago that we began to address on December 14, 2008 that was a process and it involved much and much of it had to do with our prayers; some of our prayers and a great deal of our prayers that had to with that fast that we had, that God led us to, a two day fast.  Powerful!

Who could have contemplated?  I was dumbfounded when God finally gave that to be seen, that it was a year for each day that God held back what He was going to do, to show His great mercy; and this is going to be written in a very powerful way for the ages to come.  You know, we read about Esther, we read about stories in the Bible and sometimes we don’t grasp and comprehend what we’ve lived through and why God has us do the things He does, why we go through the things we do at times, but it’s to glorify Almighty God, and we’re blessed to be a part of it.

What happened in Esther and Mordecai’s day is to glorify God Almighty in a very powerful way, to be remembered through time in a very unique way, as so many stories of the Bible.  So is this one, in a very great and a mighty way – God’s people, God’s Church at the end-time and what will be written about concerning you and what you participated in.  And what we’re reading about right now is as powerful and as awesome, and even more so, than when Mr. Armstrong came to a point in time when he understood some verses he was reading that could only apply to him and his moment in time, concerning what was happening at the sixth revival of the Holy Roman Empire – those specific verses that talk about a specific moment in time and he realized that was the time he was living in.

And what we’re reading about right now, it’s about our time.  So much of it is!  Sometimes we don’t think in those terms, but we need to, to be in awe of what God is doing, to be in awe of how much is happening during this time.  There’s more happening to fulfill God’s word, things in the Bible, during this period of time that goes right up to the time of Christ’s return; the coming of His Kingdom, the Messiah coming...a lot in the Bible about that, truly is, and we get to see it all the way up through that time.

And so there is yet to come a greater fulfillment of the First Trumpet that happens before the Second Trumpet even sounds and as things continue on, and they’ll continue on through the Second Trumpet, the Third, and the Fourth, because what happens with the First goes through all of them to the end.  Very much like the 1st Seal goes all the way through to the end, the effects of it, the magnitude of what took place.

Revelation 8:5 – So this is the next action of this angel that came in the midst of the seven who were given the Seven Trumpets; And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire on the altar and cast it to the earth: or better meaning he poured it out upon the earth, because that’s what he’s doing. It’s the reverse of the action, same kind of action, of the smoke that ascends and the prayers of the saints that ascend up before God – and here is something taken from off the altar now that’s poured out.  It’s not a momentary event, it’s poured out, just like the smoke ascending; and this is being poured out upon the earth and something then responds, something happens as a result of that.  And that’s what it’s describing here, the exact same type of tense that’s used in the Greek language in these two words when it talks about ‘ascending’ and this one here being ‘poured out’.  ...and there were, as we read about, voices/sounds and noises and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake/shaking as it means.  It doesn’t just mean an earthquake, but it can involve an earthquake as well, or earthquakes on the earth; it can be a part of that.  But it’s a complete package here of shaking the earth, it truly is!  And this has very much to do with the Thunders and what has been building up, because they have been held back as well.  I was dumbfounded a few times and I thought, “What’s going on?”  It’s almost like when different hurricanes in the last two years came up...and what happened?  It’s wasn’t time yet and so they’d go off in a different direction.  I’d say, “What’s going on?”  It’s like this country, “What’s taking place?”  I didn’t know and didn’t think about two days of fasting for two years of mercy – it’s being held back – there are things that aren’t being allowed to happen yet.  So Thunders and Trumpets have both been held back and yet the Thunders have been ongoing; but they’re getting really close now to being intensified very powerfully so and necessarily so – they must go along with the Trumpets all the way through because it’s part of a process of humbling people, especially in this country and especially in the Israelite scattered nations of Israel.

So what has been only happening in a small way with the Thunders over the past couple of years is now picking up in momentum.  It already has.  You know, I’ll tell you what, we’d have to be in really bad shape spiritually in the last couple of months here not to see how things are stepping up; and it’s getting far more powerful out here.  Because the news, everything we’ve been seeing that’s coming on the scene, it’s coming at us faster now, and of necessity.  And it’s going to continue to increase in a very powerful way.

So, it’s picking up momentum from where it left off and is increasing quickly and mightily building up to a greater crescendo, it truly is.  People out there like to find fault with, “Well, it didn’t happen.  This didn’t happen and that didn’t happen...and you said in so much time...” and it totally negates what God has done and what we have done and the very thing they find fault with God anyway.  “He’s not merciful. He doesn’t intervene. He doesn’t hear.”  Incredible!  It doesn’t matter what God does, man finds fault with it, truly does.

Verse 6 - And the seven angels who had the Seven Trumpets prepared themselves to sound. Another translation says, ‘Now the seven angels who had the Seven Trumpets made ready to blow them.’  So this is not an orderly sequential thing in that respect, in the sense of that a Trumpet hadn’t already blown in the midst of the story here about this additional angel.  The first angel sounded/blew his Trumpet and there followed, same as verse 5 in the sense of what’s being said here, hail and fire mingled with blood, or in other words, that’s talking about that which appears, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.  So, again, I hope you understand what I’m talking about here when we’re talking about the angels; they were given Seven Trumpets, these seven angels that stood before the presence of God, and then it talks about this other angel that was on the scene and he had a different function.  And it talks about his specific function from beginning to end there, just those few verses, and it talks about him offering up the incense before God and the prayers of the saints that go up before God.

But they’re not prayers of the past, they’re prayers of the things that are continuing on from that period of time on and we, God’s people... and I know you have been pouring out your heart to God about the time you live in, truly, striving to understand, striving to grow, striving to change, talking about the things you’re going through, talking about the uniqueness of this particular time of what we’re in and what we’ve been living through, having a desire to see it finished, to be over with, and yet not even knowing fully what’s taking place during this period of time and why things have happened the way they have.  We serve a very patient merciful God, we truly do.

What were your prayers on that fast?  Do you remember?  Going back in the two day fast you had, what was the overall purpose?  What did we ask for?  Whatever it takes to bring more people, so more could be saved.  What an awesome thing that because of all this that more could be saved, potentially.  Whether they are or not, we don’t know yet; but what an awesome thing that God gave mercy for this length of time, has held things back for that length of time.  Not that there weren’t events still happening.... there were still Thunders going on and still increasing, but not like they would have been if that fast hadn’t taken place.  There’d have been a whole lot of suffering.

Sometimes even amongst ourselves, to consider how blessed we are that we haven’t had to go through and didn’t have to go through a lot of suffering over the past two years.  Things are tough out there economically, but nothing...nothing compared to what happens when number Two, number Three and number Four Trumpets sound.

All those things that are being built up, what I’m telling you, what I’m talking to you about concerning the prayers of that smoke that ascended up – that censer hasn’t been poured out yet.  The First Trumpet has already sounded and there’s a Second one coming, we understand, but there’s far more to take place, there’s more that’s going to happen here before we get there, truly, very powerfully so in what’s happening in this world.  And I hope just as far as an economic thing that you can see what’s happening in this world.

When I listened to the TV this last week it sounded like it was 2008 all over again but this time the response is different, people are different.  What was it here giving an example of the other day?  Someone had mentioned attitudes and responses and how people are different today, even in something like gas prices, it’s like we kind of get numb to certain things.  We hit a high of gas prices at a particular moment in time and then they went back down and now they’re back up there and it’s like where’s the rage?  Where’s the shock?  Where’s the horror?  Where is the panic as compared to back then?  Because you get used to certain things and people are learning to stick their head in the sand.

Those of you who’ve been around a lot longer, those of you who go back to before the apostasy took place, I am dumbfounded by (not really, but in one respect), of how often I hear people talk about how they see the same things taking place now as what (in this country), spiritually, on a spiritual plane as what we experienced in the Church before the apostasy, and after.  A choice by people.  A choice of people to ignore, to stick their head in the sand, to not want to know what’s happening, to rather believe in a fairy tale, to rather believe that they’re going to be able to put all their money back in the stock market or like one individual, pull it out of stocks and put it all in to bonds.  Amazing how we think as human beings sometimes. There are some things that just don’t work out there and aren’t going to work, and yet....  It’s so loud, but who’s willing to listen?

We are getting so very close to a total economic upheaval in this world.  And what was it in the news today that you have to dig for, that isn’t being stated loudly in the news all over the world?  About China, and there’s another word for their currency [renminbi] but the only one I can pronounce very well is Yuan, but anyway, they’re ready to release it now as a world reserve currency.[2]   They prefer now to start trading with other countries with it.  That’s a pretty big step and it’s being quietened.  It’s incredible what’s going on out here.

Exodus 10:1 - The Eternal said unto Moses, Go unto Pharaoh: for I have hardened his heart, in the way He worked with him, showing what human nature is like, showing how Pharaoh so filled with pride would not humble himself to fear God, to honour God.  His heart just got harder and harder, deeper hatred and resentment against Moses and against God as he went through all this.  And it’s kind of hard to think sometimes for some of us in God’s Church to realize that there are going to be all kinds of people in this world, in this society, and in this country who are going to be exactly the same way.  And it’s hard to grasp how the human mind could work like that, to so defy God, to resist so strongly, that instead of coming to repentance as others will be brought to repentance that they become harder inside.  It’s not going to be pleasant out there.

You’re going to have a lot of people out there who hate you far more than what they hate you now, and God’s going to be the one to protect you and you’re going to learn to rely on God and for God’s protection and God’s favour in a way you’ve never even dreamed of yet, because there are things to read about, but until you experience it, until you live it, you can’t understand it.  And truly, you’re going to come to a point where you’re going to trust on God and rely on God in a way that you’ve never had to practice to the same degree yet – and God’ll take care of you, and God’ll intervene for you.  When it comes knocking on your door it becomes a different matter.

There are things I’ve come to learn to understand in the last year or so that I understand about different ones in the Bible now that I didn’t really grasp to the same degree because now I’m living some of those things in a greater way.  And so until you go through certain things sometimes you don’t realize what goes on in your life and what goes on in your mind in how you think, in how you respond, in how you rely on God in ways you read about and thought you understood more deeply, but you grow in even in those things, faith, reliance, trust.  To know that everything is in God’s hand and to have peace of mind with that – it’s a big thing and it’s not a natural thing, it’s something we learn and grow in.

And the Eternal said to Moses, Go unto Pharaoh: He says, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I might show these signs before him: So that you might tell these things in the ears of your children and your children’s children, and we still are, and we still will be on in the Millennium and in the Great White Throne, these stories, the story of what happened here.  And there’s a greater Exodus that God says people are going to talk about as well, and that’s the one we’re living through and being a part of in what God is doing for this world in a very powerful way, taking us out of Babylon, taking us out of Egypt, the world in a very powerful way, delivering us into being able to be governed by Him, by His Son, by His Family.

So you can tell your children’s children concerning the things I have done in Egypt, and the signs that I have done among them; so that you may know that I am the Eternal.  People don’t choose to know God. People truly don’t choose to really know God.

And Moses and Aaron came unto Pharaoh, and said unto him, This is what the Eternal God of the Hebrews says, How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me?  How long will this world refuse when things become greater and greater and continue to mount with greater and greater power?  The vast majority all the way to the end, that’s how many.  The vast majority all the way to the end!  Hard to grasp.  It’s just difficult for us sometimes to grasp the strength, the power of our own human nature in resistance toward God and the battles that are really inside of us as human beings.  That’s why there’s so much to be learned from Paul and what Paul talked about when he talks about this battle inside of us.  He said there’s a war going on and if people aren’t fighting that war, you’ll be conquered, truly.  We have to fight!  You have to fight in your mind!  You have to fight the powers that exist as far as this world is concerned, but you have to fight self day in and day out, truly do; repent, day in and day out.

How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me, let My people go so that they may serve Me. But if you refuse to let My people go, then tomorrow I’ll bring locust upon your coasts: And they will conceal your view of the land so that no one will be able to see the ground: and they shall eat of the remainder of that which had escaped, which still remained for you after the hail, and shall eat every tree which grows for you out of the field. And they shall fill your houses, and the houses of your servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians; which neither your fathers, nor your fathers' fathers had seen since the time that they were upon the earth unto this time. And he turned himself, and went out from Pharaoh. And Pharaoh's servants said to him, How long will this man entrap us? A lot of different expressions can be used here to express some of this, but they were wearied, and how long is this going to keep going on?  ...let the men go, so that they may serve the Eternal their God: so their attitudes were beginning to change.  They were getting to a point where they’d rather see them out of here so we don’t have to keep going through this one after another.

Do you still not know that Egypt is destroyed? Pretty strong for talk coming from servants, those who were officials and so forth that were serving Pharaoh in his kingdom, within Egypt.  These are the ones being spoken of here; and basically to them Egypt has already been destroyed.  “We have nothing. Look at our livestock!  Look at how much destruction there is out there!  Look at the crops!  Look at what we have.  Just let them go!”

And Moses and Aaron were brought again unto Pharaoh: and he said unto them, Go, serve the Eternal your God: but who are they who are going? And Moses said, We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds, and we will all go for we must hold a Feast unto the Eternal. And he said to them, the Eternal, this is the actual translation; it’s kind of awkward in a lot of different translations but I’m just reading to you exactly the response that’s given here.  The Eternal would have to be with you if I let all of you, in other words, there would have to be a God with you, this Eternal your God, He would have to be with you if I were to let you go.  That’s basically what he’s saying, but I see that you are only up to no good/you’re up to evil/mischief/ have evil intent.  That’s how Pharaoh saw it.  Amazing!  It is laughable to see that kind of a human response to something like this and how embittered he was, how stubborn he was, how defiant his nature was, because it was one thing to request a small thing here in the sense of going out for a little bit and coming back, but now he’s taking it farther than what he’s ever said before – our children are going out, our sons, our daughters, our flocks, our herds, we’re all going out, everything’s going out.  We’re all leaving.  And it made him mad.  He had a wrong reaction.

So he said, So, no!  That was his answer, No! But only the men can go and serve the Eternal since that’s what you have desired.  In other words, this is what you’ve desired all along.  It’s basically like, “I didn’t know you all wanted to go out and everything’s going to go out and all the animals... This is what you’ve always wanted isn’t it, Moses?  Isn’t it what you’ve really been after?” And they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence.

And the Eternal said to Moses, Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt so that the locusts may come upon the land of Egypt now… Pharaoh didn’t do what he was supposed to do.  He’s not going to let them go so here comes the locust; and eat every plant of the land that the hail has left behind.  And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the Eternal brought an east wind upon the land all that day, and all night; then when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts. And the locusts went up over the land of Egypt and rested in all the coasts of Egypt in massive force: there were never such locusts as these before this, and there will not be the like after. Nothing like that was ever going to happen in Egypt again, so massive, so mighty.

For they covered the face of the whole land so that the land was darkened; and they ate every plant of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left behind: and nothing green remained in the trees, or the plants of the field, throughout all the land of Egypt. Then Pharaoh quickly called for Moses and Aaron to come; and he said, I have sinned against the Eternal your God, and against you. Now therefore forgive me of my sin only this once, and appeal unto the Eternal your God, that He might take away this deadliness. Just a temporary thing for him.  Such power came upon him, exactly what Moses had said, but it was just a temporary thing, a temporary response, didn’t last too long, just a teeny bit if there was any smidgeon of humbling in there at all.

And he, speaking of Moses, went out from Pharaoh, and appealed unto the Eternal. It’s amazing how the response here, each time Moses and Aaron are in this, Moses is doing the things he’s doing and there is a boldness.  If you go through the story and you read about Moses and what he does, he actually grows in a boldness as he goes through this in his relationship with God and what he’s doing.  Interesting! And the Eternal turned a mighty strong west wind which took away the locusts, and cast them into the Red Sea; and none of the locust remained in all the coasts of Egypt. Not a one. Amazing! The Eternal hardened Pharaoh's heart, happened every time.  As soon as something was taken away he went right back to the way he was except worse.  He got worse!  As you go through the story he gets worse and worse and worse.  His heart becomes harder and harder and harder!

That’s an incredible thing to grasp about human nature, to grasp and comprehend that the vast majority of people out here, this is how they’re going to respond to what they hear about God and as everything comes along, the Thunders become louder, the Second, the Third, the Fourth Trumpet – that attitude that’s going to be there!  Very powerful...and even the Fifth when Europe does what it’s going to do, and even the Sixth when China does what it’s going to do there are going to be a lot of people still here in this country who are going to resist and fight till their end.  That’s almost hard to fathom, it truly is, to grasp that people can actually become harder and harder, to hate more what they’ve heard because of their background and what they believe and they’re going to hold onto it, to ‘their righteousness’, their ‘right belief’, to hate the truth, to hate those who have anything to do with the truth.

You’ve seen it only to a small degree.  You’ve experienced it.  You think some of you experience some things out here?  You have to a degree, but in a small way, from family members, from people you love, from people on a job and you can see a spirit that sometimes works inside of them and how they come at you and they get so stirred up and there’s a hate.  Because it’s an astounding thing of the human mind...they know you’re wrong!  They know you’re wrong and they know they’re right!  They know their religion is right and you can’t be!  Who are you?!  Who are you?!  They look down upon you, they’re lifted up with pride and their pride becomes worse!  Pharaoh hated Moses.  As he went along he hated him more and more and more.

So some of you, what you’ve experienced from a few you’re going to see a lot more of, and that’s why I’ve tried to cry out so often – be careful, protect one another.  Be careful, protect each other, have that attitude of spirit. Be cautious.  Be careful.  Don’t entrust everyone right away when you hear something who says they’re a part with you.  Be careful as time goes forward.  Some are going to lie; no, actually a lot are going to lie.  So you want God’s favour, you want God’s help and you want God’s protection and you’re going to learn to rely upon that far, far more in your life.

You can stockpile some things, but you can’t prevent your neighbour from taking it from you, you have to rely on God.  Some things you’ve taken and you’re put aside and God’s going to bless you to be able to use it, others aren’t.  You’re going to learn from that.  People are going to learn from the things they go through.  We’re going to be moulded and fashioned in a greater way to do a far greater thing later on.  But understand God’s there to take care of you, to bring you through.  He hasn’t called you to fail, He’s called you to bring you all the way through all this, as much as He said He was going to deliver the Israelites – He did it.  Only we can get in the way.  But we have to use wisdom and we have to cry out to God for wisdom and how we do things and what we do in the future because there’s going to come a time when I’m not going to be able to tell you those things, or you’re not going to be able to hear it any longer so now’s the time to be listening, mightily so.

You’re not always going to have the internet here.  You’re not always going to have your computers and your electricity.  You’re not always going to have these things and you’re going to be relying on God in a very powerful way to deliver you and it’s going to be exciting as a whole, for you, for your focus, because you’re not going to be focused on those who hate you.

If I were focused on those who hate me I think I’d find a big bridge somewhere, you know?  It’d be so depressing!  I understand they don’t understand, “Father forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing.”  That’s what your attitude needs to strive to be.  Forgive them!  They don’t understand, and we know that.  What we’re focused upon is what God is doing, the minds that God is changing, and those that are going to be added to the Body in a very powerful way.  We’re going to be so focused on that, but you have to be careful and you have to be cautious and you have to rely on God day in and day out in a very powerful way, in greater ways than what we are even now.

And so human nature, again, is an awesome thing to witness.  And the things that happened in Pharaoh are going to happen over and over again in people’s lives.  We’re going to see it out there.  You’re going to see those attitudes and that spirit that exists, that people’s hearts are going to become harder.  It’s too bad.  You think, “If you’d only repent.  The blessings you could have, the opportunity to think about living into a new age, to be able to grasp...  How else could all these things happen but God is doing it?  How can you hold onto your righteousness?”  And yet that’s what people do.  Some are going to be a Baptist till they die, a Catholic till they die, whatever they are until they die, because they know it’s right and that what they’re hearing is wrong.  Do you know how far they’re going to go with it?  Because of misreading certain prophecies in the Bible that they don’t understand?  What does the Bible say about prophets?  ...and about a prophet in the end-time... in the Protestant world, what do they teach about it?  Great false prophet that’s going to emerge on the scene.  That’s how much they’re going to hold onto their righteousness, their religious beliefs, and they’re going to say that can be the only answer.  Sad.  Sad.  Truly.

That’s why these things are out there, because Satan already knows in advance and so he’s stirred the world up with a lot of different ideas and beliefs out there about certain things that are already implanted in people’s minds.  As much as, even for this end-time, it’s being planted in people’s minds more and more because of technology and because of movies and because of the ability to dub them in different languages, that people all over the world are believing more and more in the possibility, so much so that the Pope even says it may be possible…  Aliens.  It doesn’t conflict with their belief any longer.  That aliens are possible, other beings on other planets; and that’s what they’re going to think at the end here.  It’s astounding what’s taking place.

Going on with these verses; Verse 20 - And the Eternal hardened Pharaoh’s heart so that he would not let the children of Israel go.  And the Eternal said to Moses, Stretch out your hand toward heaven so that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness that causes them to grope, in other words, to search blindly, to feel their way around, to be so dark, no light, nothing could give light, that they’d have to feel around to get around in a room by memory and where things are, like being a blind person.  I don’t understand that, but it was there.

Verse 22 - And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in the land of Egypt for three days: Had to grope around for three days, tried to find food in the house, tried to do a lot of other things over that three day period.  They could not see one another and no one went anywhere for three days: basically they stayed where they were, groping around in the dark; but all the children of Israel had light where they were living. And Pharaoh called for Moses, and said, Go and serve the Eternal, now I don’t know how on earth certain ones made it. They groped until they were across to the other side to Goshen, but somehow they found their way over and when Pharaoh tells you to do something you better do it.  Maybe if you don’t fulfill your job you’re not going to go back.  So there are those who made it through.

Again here, and Pharaoh called for Moses and said, Go and serve the Eternal; but leave your flocks, so this was the message that was left, but leave your flocks and your herds to remain behind. Yet let your children go with you. And Moses said, You must also give us sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice unto the Eternal our God. Our cattle must go with us; Now, when Pharaoh gets to a point – he is the leader of Egypt, powerful army, and when he says something, for the Egyptians it was law, it was like a god said it, that’s how they received it, that’s how they were taught, that was their mindset, and he was that lifted up himself to feel that he had that kind of power or authority and whatever himself.  And so when he’s telling these things and all of a sudden he says, “Now you can go.” and then Moses comes back and says, basically, “No, we need this too.”  This is a part of hardening his heart.  God’s letting him know, “No, this isn’t all, this isn’t how it’s going to be done.”  And so every time that happened it was like something stabbed in Pharaoh and just emboldened him in his hardness and his hatred and his bitterness.  Even in the midst of this...even in the midst of all this the response he got back is not what he wanted.

So he said, Our cattle must go with us; and there shall not be a hoof left behind; for we must take them to serve the Eternal our God; for we do not know what we have need of to serve the Eternal until we get there. But the Eternal hardened Pharaoh's heart, see, that’s the process I’m talking about.  That’s where it comes from because Moses is going to talk that way to Pharaoh when I’ve told you now you can go with your children and so forth and now you’re coming back and telling me this?  And so his heart just became harder, and he would not let them go.

And so at this point Moses told Pharaoh much more than what’s recorded right here before Pharaoh expelled him from his presence, and we’ll talk about that when we get into chapter 11, because again here, this is not all in order and you’ll see that as we go along here, but it completes this part of the story here.  And Pharaoh said unto him, and so this is the conversation at this point in time, toward the end of it.  And Pharaoh said unto him, Get away from me and take heed to yourself, so that you don’t see my face anymore; for in the day that you see my face you shall die. He’d had enough!  So he told him, “Get out of my presence!  Get out of here quickly because the next time you see my face you’ll die.” And Moses said, You have spoken well, I will not see your face again anymore. Powerful!  And so he never saw Pharaoh again.  They never came face to face in another meeting again from this point forward, unlike 'The 10 Commandments’ movie and other places that show it inaccurately.

Going on in chapter 11 now, a very powerful devastating factor was now added, because when you start talking about the death of people… These things happened quickly, unlike what’s getting ready to happen now, it’s strung over a period of time to produce a specific result in a very powerful way in a large numbers of people.  What happened then was for a specific purpose, a quick thing to take place and for the Egyptians to finally let the Israelites go in the way that they did and what they did in response here as we’ll read in the story.  But what’s incredible in all this? God knows us!  He knows human beings!  He knows us inside and out!  That’s why things are happening in the way they are at the very end.  That’s why each Trumpet that takes place produces a specific result, and it’s an awesome thing when you see how God moulds and fashions.

I’m always in awe when I look at the universe, when we see what’s out there, when I meditate upon those things and I think about those things that are out there and that God brought them into being – planned, designed and brought it all into being, the moulding and fashioning.  And yet what He does in the lives of human beings is far more incredible because of how we are, because He’s dealing with the mind of human beings and we resist.  He doesn’t just give us something as He did the universe and it comes into being in the way He designed it and planned it; and yet He’s designing and planning things for His Family and moulding and fashioning but He does it over a long period of time in individual’s lives to specific responses.  And when you look at that process happening in the millions and then billions on the earth at a particular time it becomes that much more awesome!

I hope you are becoming more and more in awe of what God is doing, truly!  We’re going through a period of time right now where you’re going to see things take place that is specifically designed in order to produce specific results, just as it was during the time of Moses.  This is a marvel.  You read through this story and you can’t help but be dumbfounded by the process of what Pharaoh and his servants and Egypt went through, and even what the Israelites were going through, and Moses and Aaron what they were going through, and how God was working with it all.  And what’s taking place now makes that look puny.  What God is getting ready to do now in a massive way makes this look puny in comparison!  What He’s doing now is far, far greater, far mightier, truly is!  And we should be in awe of that, truly!  Whether it be in your life, in the lives of all those who have part in this now, and especially in that which is coming.

So if you think about the Trumpets and what God says happens, you’re going to see as they happen, when they happen is so awesomely timed to produce specific results and responses from people; and God is going to pour out His spirit in very powerful ways at specific times to help people, to open up the mind when they’re ready, to bring them to a point where in mass, at different points in time, they’re going to be ready.  Just like you, when you one day heard the truth and you saw the truth and all of a sudden you knew it was true – you were ready to receive it, you were ready for it at that moment in time.  He can’t do that everywhere, but He’s preparing millions for that!  Awesome, truly is.

Exodus 11:1 – And the Eternal said to Moses, I will yet bring one more plague upon Pharaoh, and upon Egypt; and after that he will let you go: takes this one here, this is the one.  The others didn’t.  This got him!  ...for a little bit, for enough time, for just enough time for them to begin a process to get out; and then he changed his mind again, his heart was hardened with a far deeper bitterness and hatred that raged within him, truly.  Raged!  And so God says this is what it’s going to take; and God knew all along.  God had planned this out, meticulously so, every plague, every moment when it would happen, everything that took place to produce a specific result.  He’s working with the mind.  And when Pharaoh is resurrected... amazing... an ability to work with him and to bring him to humility.  Well, He will have brought him to humility; and when Pharaoh looks back and learns and sees it all – a lot easier to work with that mind and that spirit, to reverse it at that time that He couldn’t before.  Powerful, powerful, powerful...and sometimes we don’t get it!  It’s hard for us to grasp the planning and the purpose of God to save, the planning and purpose of God to bring people through, the planning and purpose of God, His desire for all.  Not all will receive it, not even to be able to be resurrected.

When he does let you go, he’ll surely thrust/cast you out, in other words, meaning more really ‘to drive you out, expel you’.  When you’re expelled from Egypt it will be permanent, “Get out from here altogether!” ...expel you altogether/drive you out altogether. Speak now in the ears of the people and let every man ask of his neighbour, it wasn’t ‘borrow’.  There was no giving back.  It was ‘to ask’; and every woman of her neighbour, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold. And the Eternal gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians. Why?  They were afraid, very massively so.  They didn’t have the attitude of Pharaoh, they didn’t have to lose what Pharaoh did, they had already lost. Moreover the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in other words in the sight of the people.  They were in awe of Moses.  They were becoming more in awe of Moses and what Moses said because when Moses said something it happened and they had never witnessed anything like that, and they saw the power there and they were humbled by it.  Not for the same purpose, not to the point of bringing to repentance and accepting God and being called.  That wasn’t God’s purpose, but enough to do and respond the way they did, to give favour to the Israelites.

I’ve known of so many cases in God’s Church where people have been given favour.  I hope you see it in your life in different things that you’ve gone through in your life where you’ve been given favour at times that’s inexplicable, you can’t explain it.  It’s not a matter of bringing people to conversion, but there’s some reason why they are drawn to you and why they give you a certain amount of favour and so forth. And that’s what God brought the Egyptians to concerning the Israelites. And so He said, ask everyone of gold and silver, neighbour to neighbour, people that you’ve known or had worked around, or worked for, because they worked throughout the land of Egypt.

And the Eternal gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians; moreover the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt in the sight of Pharaoh's servants, and in the sight of the people.  And Moses said, speaking here – now we’re going back to a point in time.  This was what was spoken that wasn’t written up here before, this was something Moses had said earlier.  This is not happening in order here the way it’s written.  So Moses had said to Pharaoh, before Pharaoh had cast him out and said, “Get out of here, because if you see my face next time you’re dead.”  So this is what was taking place here.  This is what the Eternal had said.

About midnight I will go out into the midst of Egypt: And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, that’s why he told him to get out, because of what Pharaoh was told.  “Get out of here!  The next time I see you you’re dead!”  And it’s interesting Moses’ response in all this as well.  Awesome response!

...And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits upon his throne... Can you imagine Moses telling Pharaoh this?  “Your firstborn is going to die.” ...even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of all livestock.  And there shall be a very great cry throughout all the land of Egypt such as there has never been the like, nor shall it be like it again.  But against any of the children of Israel not even a dog will bark against any man or any livestock. In other words, not even going to be a dog barking and there’ll not be anything against any man or any livestock.  In other words, this is showing here that there won’t even be the least little thing happen to anyone as far as the Israelites is concerned.  So it’s giving a contrast here of something that’s peaceful in comparison with what’s going to happen to the Egyptians.  ...that you may know how that the Eternal has put a difference/separation between the Egyptians and Israel.

And God’s going to put a difference between those who resist and have hardened hearts toward the very end and are defiant and will continue to be defiant, and those whom God is calling, because He’s going to call a large number of people to come through all this and He’ll see that they come through it. He’ll give them protection in unique and awesome ways.  He’ll give you protection in unique and awesome ways.  You’re going to experience some dumbfounding things, you truly are.  And those who are going to be called out of this are going to experience some truly dumbfounding things to be saved; some things similar to what happened in Egypt before this is over with.

Verse 8 - And all who are your servants, so this is Moses talking to Pharaoh; in other words, talking about the chief servants, the officials and so forth, shall come down unto me, and bow themselves unto me, saying, Get out, not with anger, but “Get out.” because they understand what’s happened to them and finally when they’re told to do so by Pharaoh it comes to pass, they bow down before Moses because they’ve all lost family; and all the people that follow you: only after that will I go out. In other words, Pharaoh, this is what’s going to happen, all these firstborn are going to die and nothing will happen to Israel, not even a dog barking at any livestock or any people. But all of the firstborn on your side is going to die, they’ll all die throughout the land of Egypt.  And it’s going to come to a point where your own servants are going to come and bow down before me and tell me to get out of Egypt.  Moses said “only then will I leave.”  It’s pretty strong talking to Pharaoh that way.  So this is what occurred previously before Pharaoh stated what he did, to get out of his presence, because the next time you see my face you’re a dead man.  That’s basically what he told him.

And then we continue on and it says, And he went out from Pharaoh in a great anger. Strong anger!  Moses was stirred up.  Basically the word is talking about ‘on fire’.  Why?  That Pharaoh would not humble himself; that it had to come to this.  Did Moses want to see the firstborn of Pharaoh die?  Did Moses want to see the firstborn of the Egyptians die?  ...the firstborn of everything die?  Something so horrifying, something so horrible?  To think you’re going to be so filled with pride to the very end that you’re going to let your people die, that you’re going to let your own family die?  That you’re so filled with pride and haughtiness that you won’t repent?  Righteous indignation, stirred up and on fire to see such a spirit and such an attitude in Pharaoh.  That’s what he was responding to.  Incredible!

And you think of people – they’re going to fight and resist all the way to the end before they’ll repent; hold onto their own pride, hold onto their own religious beliefs against the truth.  It’s hard to grasp sometimes, it truly is, but it’s true.

That’s why I think of people out there who are filled with hatred and bitterness.  It’s hard to describe sometimes how far people can go to hate and to loathe, to loathe what is being told them that is truth, that they become so hateful of it that they reject any thought of any idea of anything to do with Holy Days or Sabbath or things about God – but they’re so convicted and convinced in their minds this can’t be of God!  Because their pride is so welled up and so strong inside of them and their hatred and bitterness toward you is so great.

25 years.  The first time I did it was 25 years after Mr. Armstrong had died; looked at his name on the internet one time.  25 years later and I was dumbfounded by all the bitterness and anger and hatred that was still out there toward him.  Not so dumbfounded by it now because I’ve experienced it too.  But it’s almost hard to imagine, it’s almost hard to grasp sometimes how people can become so filled with bitterness and hatred inside that this is what their life is, to hate what is true.  Some make it their life to hate this way, to hate you, to hate this Church!  It’s dumbfounding!  It’s like their ‘mission’. It’s astounding!  That’s how far the human mind will go and yet that’s going to happen in a massive way and God has to protect you from those things.  That’s why God gave a promise to two witnesses and said you’re not going to die until it’s time, till My time, because otherwise it wouldn’t be too long when things begin to get heated up. That’s how much hatred is going to exist out there.

Verse 9 – And the Eternal said unto Moses, Pharaoh will not listen to you; so that My wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt. Pharaoh’s not going to listen and God’s going to be magnified.  There’s a lot more going to happen yet in the story that’s going to be told to people about what God did to deliver the Israelites.  There’s going to be a lot more told about what God does to Pharaoh and to his army in order to honour and glorify God, for those who choose to see, for those who look at those stories and understand that they are true and powerful and mighty – that God is great, awesome, filled with mercy and kindness and love.

Verse 10 - And Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh: and the Eternal hardened Pharaoh's heart, in other words He did it by what God told Moses to tell him, hardened his heart one final time in a very powerful way.  Didn’t even fear that his own son’s going to die he was so filled with pride.  His pride!  His pride killed his son!  After everything that had happened his pride was so strong, he so hated Moses and anything to do about what he said God was like or what the God of Israel said; so hated it that he didn’t fear losing his own son.  Wouldn’t you think that if a person saw plague after plague after plague, that before it was told it would come to pass, exactly what it was?

These Trumpets don’t mean a thing out there to people who hate the truth!  They don’t mean a thing to them!  The Thunders don’t mean a thing to people out there who hate the truth.  They just mock at that and they’ll mock it till the end, especially the Thunders first, and then the Trumpets as well; to mock and make fun of.  Think, “How could people do that?”  After every one’s been said and the answer only some can come up with when it’s all said and done, their pride is so great, is, “Well you’re the great false prophet!” That’s what some are going to say; it’s already written.  Incredible!   It’s astounding!  And I hope that you’re humbled in your life as you go through stories like this, to understand that human nature inside of you is a very ugly thing.

The Passover period and the Days of Unleavened Bread are very much about dealing with pride, truly is, our own pride.  And understanding we all have a bucketful of it and there’s a lot of it you don’t even see yet in your life.  And as you continue to grow you will see more as time progresses.  As you grow you can better see pride and you’ll come to hate it more and more, to hate selfishness more and more, in self.  And sometimes because you see it so well in self, because you’re experienced it so much in life, sometimes you begin to have a battle toward others because you can see the selfishness in THEM!  You know where it’s coming from!  Know what I’m saying?  Sometimes you have a battle then because you see selfishness in others; you see it so quick, so clearly, you know what it is.  But this is what you always have to be focused upon first and foremost – it’s self.

Don’t read stories like this without learning that the most important aspect you can learn is about yourself and about the need to conquer it and overcome it, how evil it really is, ‘the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life’.  They’re deep, deep, deep down inside every one of us.

As an aside, this is where I was at (I’m telling you about a timeliness of when I was putting the sermon together); this is where I was in the organization of the sermon when during the night I woke up, and what has happened so many times as in the past God revealed to me some things that He’s working out at this specific time (which, again, I can’t go into fully yet), but He has shown that we are to observe a very special and very unique Passover this year.  Truly is going to be an awesome thing, akin to a two day fast in the sense of a spiritual relationship toward God and the importance of this particular Passover that’s coming up.  Because the Passover after that we’re not going to be able to observe as a group together. So this one that we’re going to enter into is going to be very unique in this age at the end of 6,000 years of mankind and it’s very important for us as far as the Church is concerned.  So it’s a spiritual matter is what I’m telling you, of spiritual importance to all of us, and I feel like you’ll all receive it in the same way when it comes time, when we talk about some of the uniqueness of it and the things that God gives to us.

I couldn’t help but think when I went through some of this of things going back in the very beginning, that so many of the things that God has given have happened just like this – name of the Church, names of booklets, names of the books, contents of various things that were to be given – happen in the same way.  So I’m looking forward to the fullness and the fulfillment of some of this that’s taking place here.  We’re entering some incredible times!

The importance of this coming Passover will coincide on a spiritual plane with what occurred on a physical plane with the Israelites at that time when they were preparing to leave Egypt.  Because you see, it’s at this moment in time here that they began to focus on the Passover.  Powerful, powerful!  The first thing that God had me focus upon when He began to work with us as a specific independent group of people once again, bringing us back together as a remnant, was the Passover; to dispel, to fight against everything that had to do with the 14/15th idea of people’s minds in the scattered body and to solidify very powerfully so once and for all the 14th Passover – because it’s awesomely important to God Almighty about His own Son, and should be to us as well.  And so I think it’s an incredible thing to realize that this Passover is going to be one of the most memorable Passovers, except for the original one with Jesus Christ fulfilling it, this year’s is going to be akin to it in importance for God’s Church and for God’s people.

So again, awesome, awesome, awesome!  So on the weekend of our upcoming fast, on the Sabbath of that weekend I’ll mention it in the sermon what this involves in concerning Passover that’s coming shortly behind it.  So we’ll focus on that day on the Passover that’s coming and what I’m alluding to right now in part, and I’ll tell you the rest of the story, or at least a lot of the rest of the story – because there’s more after that as well.

Continuing on with Exodus 12:1 - And the Eternal spoke unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be to you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year.  Speak to all the congregation of Israel and tell them, in the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to their household, a lamb for each household: And if the household is too few in number for the lamb, in other words in the eating of it, let him and his neighbour next to his house take it according to the total number of people; according to each person’s consumption in figuring the number for the lamb. In other words, for eating of the lamb.  So God was very specific here; not too many, not too few.

Your lamb shall be without blemish,  You’d think the world would be able to grasp that, those who profess to be ‘Christian’ in Traditional Christianity in the world; you’d think they’d be able to grasp the importance of what it says back here about a Passover lamb.  You’d think they’d be able to grasp the importance, but you know, until God calls someone, that pride, that stubbornness, that resistance to the truth is so powerful in the human mind, especially when you believe something else and you’ve been taught something else that’s true, you can’t break free of that unless God gives you the ability to break through, to be freed of Egypt, to be freed of being enslaved to it, those ideas and those concepts that you’ve been taught, or people have been taught from birth.  They have control of you until God frees you, truly.

Your lamb shall be without blemish, Jesus Christ was without blemish, without fault – powerful!  ...a male of the first year: and you shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats: And you shall keep it until/up to, in other words, is what it’s telling you here, the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. That’s when the day 14th day begins, at sundown.  Up to the 14th and then that evening, the sundown, begins the first day and He says that’s when you’re to kill it.

And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper doors of the houses, wherein they will eat it. So they’re given this instruction before this event takes place, before the people of Egypt and the children and the animals and everything of the firstborn throughout Egypt die.

And they shall eat the meat in that night, roast with fire and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Dropping down to verse 11 to follow an order here; that they were to be fully prepared for what was to follow.  And we’re to be fully prepared for what is to follow.  We’re going into some incredible times, we truly are, and it’s a spiritual matter for us as far as God’s people is concerned.  In this manner you shall eat it, with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet and your staff in your hand, eat it eating in haste; it is the Eternal’s Passover.  That’s what He gives to us.  It’s awesome!  The things to be learned from this, each little bit teaches so much. It truly is awesome when you see the things that God has given to us to learn from, to be inspired by, to be moved by, to be motivated by.  It is the Eternal’s Passover.  It was the Eternal’s Son He gave to mankind.

For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night and I will strike all the firstborn of the land of Egypt of both man and livestock; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: that’s what God was saying and that’s what we’re praying for. It’s time for God to execute judgment.  I hope we see it very powerfully so.  I hope we see it clearly so, the need, the purpose, the timing and what God is doing and that we’re in unity and oneness with God and we grasp and comprehend God is merciful, God is great, awesome, mighty, wonderful, righteous judgment truly, for what’s to come to pass.  If these things didn’t come to pass we wouldn’t have a Millennium.  We wouldn’t have a Millennium or a Great White Throne and what God has told us He’s going to give to this earth in a very powerful way.

And He says, and I will execute judgment: I am the Eternal. God executes judgment and His judgment is righteous always, always, always.  Human beings are so filled with pride they think that God is unfair.  I am dumbfounded by those things – and man has to be humbled, even if it’s to be put to death in order to be resurrected a thousand years from now.  So be it!  So be it if that’s what it’s going to take in order to bring you through, in order to be able to give you the truth. You don’t want any of that?  So be it!  You don’t want a better world for your children to live in or your grandchildren, or your nephews, your nieces, or whoever it might be.  If you don’t want a better world for family to dwell in, to live in with one Church on the earth?  ...with one religion on the earth?  ...with one truth on the earth?  Not the stupid massive confusion we have today where no one agrees?  What an awesome world when there’s only one truth throughout the earth – the truth! There’s only one truth!  When there aren’t a lot of scattered bodies who were a part of the truth?  No, they’ll have to come back and be a part of the truth.   One truth!  One Church!  One Government on the earth!

I am so looking forward to that one!  Truly!  One worldwide government where everybody functions under one law, one way of life, one Government.  I am so looking forward to ‘politics’ becoming a dirty word!  It’s going to be like cursing.  Truly!  I loathe politics!  I’ve seen it in God’s Church!  I saw it destroy God’s Church, politics!  Because politics incorporates a buddy system and all buddies don’t get along, but certain buddies get together over here and certain buddies get over here and they fight against each other.  And God’s way is not about fighting each other!  And it always involves lying and it always involves compromising.  You can’t have it without compromising, compromising values and standards of life as well and getting to the point where it becomes so bad that everything has to be ‘politically correct’ because you don’t want to offend, because you want to get re-elected, or whatever!  And people are afraid to stand up for what is right and what is true and to tell the truth no matter where the chips fall.  Where is that in this world?  Do you yearn for those things in this earth?  For that which is righteous to exist, righteous rule?  And the reality is it can only come from God, inspired by God’s spirit.  Man can’t do it.  It’s impossible in mankind.

Saw Glenn Beck stating things about mankind that are simply not true.  I thought, “No, you’re wrong!  Man can’t rule himself!”  I was dumbfounded when he said that; it’s like all this good exists within us... if you just reach down there and pull that out because man can govern himself.  After all these years that’s the conclusion he finally came to.  It’s sad, pathetic, it really is, because people can get so close sometimes and you think... yeah, if somebody, some would just...it’s so close but it’s so far away.  It’s like the one guy who nailed it on the head about things about the economy and what’s happening in the world and he says, BUT... we have this step-by-step list of things you can do and if you do then you’re going to come out on top of everybody else in the world when this is all said and done and you’re going to be glad that you put some things in certain countries (not here), but certain countries.  A little gold here, and a little gold there and whatever it might be.  They get so close and yet they’re so far away.

That’s why everything has to happen the way it does.

Verse 29 - And it came to pass at midnight that the Eternal struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the prisoner who was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of the livestock. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all of his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt for there was not a single household where someone had not died. Incredible!  Incredible the human mind!

And he sent word to Moses and Aaron that night, he didn’t go and he didn’t call for them to come to him.  He never saw the face of Moses again.  This is what happened.  And so just like he did the time before, he didn’t go do these things, he sent servants out at times, just like groping through the dark to get there that time to send a message.  That’s what happened here, he sent individuals out just like Moses had said, “Your servants, the officials, are going to come and kneel before me.  Only then will I go.”  And this is the fulfillment of that.

And he sent word to Moses and Aaron that night and said, Rise up, and get out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel; and go and serve the Eternal as you have said.  Also take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone; and bless me also. And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste; for they said, We will all be dead! If they don’t leave, we’re all going to be dead!

Verse 34 - And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading troughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders. And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they asked of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and clothing: And the Eternal gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, after this happened they were ready to give them their wealth – everything!  And so when they asked for gold, and silver, and clothing, they gave them what they had to get rid of them so that all this would leave and not be upon them anymore.

And you know, God is awesomely powerful to work everything out in life.  There are going to be times you’re going to be doubtful.  There are going to be times you’re going to be fearful because of things around you.  And all you have to do is remember stories like this – God is in control.  Nothing can happen to you unless God allows it.  And whatever happens will be for a purpose, a great purpose.  No matter what happens in our lives that’s the Great God we serve, truly.

You can look at any story in the Bible; should be dumbfounded by it all.  Look at the story of just Esther alone.  I was just thinking, “What an incredible story.”  When you go through that story and everything that worked out, worked against Haman to bring such shame upon him as it is against his spiritual counterpart in this world... incredible shame that’s coming on that being, to see him for what he is.  When one day mankind on this earth is going to look and shake their head.

And the Eternal gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians so that they gave these things to them, whatever they asked. And they spoiled the Egyptians. Or better said, ‘they stripped Egypt of their wealth’ as some translations put it; or ‘they plundered Egypt’ as other translations have it, because that’s what happened.  And they went out with a high hand.

Incredible story!  We could go on with more of it but we’ll stop at this point here.  Hope it’s been impressed upon our minds, again, the awesomeness, the power, the resistance, the stubbornness of human nature.  We read about it, we think about it but sometimes it’s just so hard to grasp that it goes this far.  But the lessons of this are not to escape us.  Like I said, please, please, please always understand – that your human nature is your battle.

~~~end

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