I have heard of several ways to interpret the bible. Many of them are true and accurate. What the gentile church lacks in interpreting the bible is the understanding of the Jewish culture, feasts, and traditions that are so graphic in the parables as Jesus taught on the Kingdom of God. If we do not understand these Jewish feasts, traditions and culture, we are so open to falsely translating or misinterpreting the bible. In Jesus’s day, when He used a parable, they understood clearly what He was saying because it was a part of their culture. In our culture today as gentiles, we don’t have a clue and we miss so much of what Jesus was trying to say. Let me give some examples.
When a young Jewish man was to propose to a young virgin, he would go to her and set a glass of wine before her. If she picked up the cup and drank from it, she was accepting his marriage proposal. In the last supper or communion, as we partake in it, we are accepting a marriage proposal and this is why we are to do it in rememberance of the Lord until He returns.Jesus offered His own blood as the wine in which He was purchasing us. When the bible states that we are “sealed” by the spirit, it doesn’t mean “nothing can break the seal and you are forever His”. The word “seal” in the Greek means “deposit”. When we accept Jesus’ marriage proposal, we have been given a deposit, down payment or engagement ring as it were. Just as you would put a deposit on a new home with the intention of purchasing it, Jesus gave us an engagement ring, put a deposit or seal down for us with the intent to fully complete the marriage and we are to become His bride. If you put a deposit on a house with the full intention of purchasing it and the agreement falls apart, the home is never purchased. We are not His bride yet on this earth. We are espoused or engaged. Now this engagement is a covenant which under Jewish law was as binding as a marriage, but it could be broken and a “writ of divorcement” could be obtained if the virgin had not kept herself pure. This is what Joseph was contemplating on doing with Mary when it was discovered she was with child (Jesus) and an angel appeared to him to take Mary as his wife. Joseph was going to seek a “judgment” against Mary privately to release him from his covenant to an unfaithful virgin he was pledged to marry.
After a young Jewish man’s proposal was accepted, he went away to build a suitable house for the two of them to live in. This home construction was overseen by the groom’s father.Otherwise, the young man would just throw up a house and go and get his bride. When Jesus told the disciples “I go and prepare a place for you” and I will be back for you, they knew exactly what He was saying and they knew they were engaged to the Messiah and would eventually be His bride. When Jesus knelt to wash Peter’s feet and Peter objected and Jesus replied, “If you do not allow Me to wash you, you have no part with Me.”Peter knew that if he didn’t allow himself to be washed in the water of the word, he would end up not being married to his groom, the Messiah and no part meant “NO PART” in terms of intimacy with Christ. If you ever wonder why some people never hear from the Lord and do not have that intimacy with Him, this is why. They never allow Him to wash them in the water of the word and have no interest in pursuing Truth which is who Jesus is. They are willfully ignorant by choice. Thus, they have no part with Him and think that they are His just because they accepted His marriage proposal and said the sinner’s prayer.
While the young groom to be was away building a home, the young virgin kept a lamp by her bedside in order to be lit at a moment’s notice. This was done because when a groom to be was to come for his virgin in the middle of the night, he would send a messenger friend ahead of him to ride by the virgins home to wake her announcing that the groom was coming for her and he was to wake her from her sleep. The virgin would then light her lamp, prepare herself, and wait for the groom to come for her. The groom would get his fiance’ and ride away to a wedding ceremony and feast lasting seven days. After the seven days, he would ride through the middle of the village with his bride displaying openly their marriage union. This right here refers to the rapture. There are so many other teaching I could get into, but I won’t right now.
Now that we know this Jewish tradition, so much more of the bible and new testament is able to be understood. Take for instance the 10 virgins who were all asleep and waiting for the bridegroom to come for them. Only five brought extra oil because they did not know how long they would be waiting to see him. The other foolish virgins didn’t have enough oil and ran out and they sought it from those who were wise enough to bring extra. The oil represents the Holy Spirit, which is the seal, deposit, or engagement ring given to the virgin. They did not keep themselves pure and quenched the oil or Spirit and ran out and they were not prepared to meet their groom. They knocked and knocked upon the door of the wedding feast expecting to get in, but the door was shut to them.Stop right there. Ask yourself why they expected to get in? Because they were told they could by the church that they didn’t have to keep themselves pure and they were taught that it was okay to quench the Holy Spirit’s presence in your life by willfully sinning and you could still get in. This is sobering and let those who have ears to hear, hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.
The church teaches today that there is no condemnation for those who said their little prayer excepting Jesus into their heart. They quote this from Romans 8 which state “There is therefore now no condemnation (judgment) to them that are in Christ Jesus, (comma because the sentence is not finished and the church teaches a false doctrine based on an incomplete sentence or thought) who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.
Therefore, you can tell those who are in Christ Jesus because they will have crucified the flesh and will be led and controlled by the Holy Spirit. Obviously, those who have not crucified the flesh and are carnal and love the world will have condemnation or judgment come against them. The word “judgment” means crisis or the point it is determined whether one will live or die or be spiritually cut off from God. The bible also states that judgment begins in the house of the Lord and He will judge the church before He judges the world and those in the five fold ministry who teach heresies that cause people to believe they are eternally secure and can do anything they want and still enter the marriage feast no matter how much they quench the Spirit, will be judged more severely because the blood of those who believed the heresies we teach (I have too so I am not excluding myself and think I am better) will be on our hands. We must blow the trumpet and warn the people.
That is another thing the Lord has been showing me regarding the Jewish culture. If a prophet saw the enemy coming and discerned his tactics as a watchman on the wall and he did not blow the trumpet and sound the warning and those people he was charged with watching over perished, God held the watchman, pastor, apostle, prophet, evangelist and teacher accountable and their blood was on their hands. This is very sobering and this is why I am so passionate and vocal about what I say and teach. Even Pilate, who was not a Jew, knew of this and was frightened enough and believed it enough to wash his hands of the blood of Christ. Okay, here is something else the Lord showed me.Pilot’s wife had a dream about Jesus and went to warn her husband that he should have nothing to do with the death of Christ who was a just man. Did you know that in those days a wife of this stature had to be summond by her husband and she just couldn’t go him of her own accord to tell him something. Pilot’s wife risked her own life to go and warn her husband not to have anything to do with something to protect him spiritually. Many Christians today think that if you feel fear and are not full of faith, it is not God. Do you know that TRUE BRAVERY IS WHEN YOU FEEL THE FEAR AND DO WHAT IS RIGHT ANYWAY FOR THE OTHER PERSON’S SPIRITUAL WELFARE. Ask any soldier. Isn’t that what Jesus did? That is what it means to crucify the flesh, pick up the cross and follow Him. I can always tell when the Lord is calling me to do something because my flesh rises up and fights against it. I am afraid.I am not a bold person and am shy, but when that anointing is there and He is calling me to do something, I hate it. I feel the fear, trust Him and do what He is asking knowing full well that I will be persecuted, called names, judged, etcby people who don’t get it. Pilate got it because he knew and was exposed to the Jewish culture and the church today really truly does not grasp this sobering truth that those in the five fold ministry will be held MORE ACCOUNTABLE and will stand before the Lord regarding those they are charged to watch over. I TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY.
I keep getting something else by the spirit. Be careful HOW YOU HEAR, NOT JUST WHAT YOU HEAR.Gary Smalley taught on something called“confirmational bias. The bible calls it judging.If we have a particular bias about a person or we are judging them, we will hear what they say based on a judgment we have made about them. If I believe that a person is depressed and suicidal and I hear them teach on things regarding spiritual responsibility and their blood being on our hands and that things have to end, I am going to HEAR THAT BASED ON THE JUDGMENT I HAVE MADE ABOUT THAT PERSON and will not hear or receive what the Spirit is saying because of the bias I have about the vessel it comes through. Your mind is carnal and on man, not on what the Spirit is saying. If you can judge the person, you can reject what they are saying. This is exactly why the Pharisees could not HEAR what the Spirit was saying through Jesus or John. Their sense of discernment is not biblically accurate and they had Jesus standing right before them, who they claimed to worship and serve and they rejected Him and all He had to say. Same is true today. We use scripture to reject what the Spirit is saying if our flesh hates it. We say that wisdom is not easily entreated so it must be devilish wisdom. When John called the Pharisees vipers by the spirit, I am sure that wasn’t easily entreated because of their pride. Don’t let the devil deceive you regarding how you discern. I have a whole teaching on Spiritual wisdom and demonic wisdom in “My Glorious Church Without Spot or Wrinkle ” to show us exactly how that looks so that we can discern.
I have great respect for Pastors.I have to say that one of the most difficult of the five fold ministry is that of a Pastor. I will also have to say that because of the false teachings in the church and all the heresies in the church, we have been taught that just because a person says a little prayer and gets baptized, they are a sheep.Not true. John never baptized anyone who showed no fruit of being repentant. As a matter of fact, when John baptized people, they were confessing their sins before they were dunked. I have never seen that taught or done in our churches. Water baptism is for the remission of past sins that are repented of and confessed. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is to empower you not to sin in the future. We don’t teach people this very simple basic foundational teaching to being saved. The purpose of the law was to show us we couldn’t keep it in our own flesh and ability. Jesus could and did. He died to provide justice for the wrath of God against sin. If we repent and believe that the price has been paid, we are now empoweredto keep the commandments. The Holy Spirit is a HOLY SPIRIT AND WILL NOT LIVE IN SOMEONE WHO HAS NO DESIRE TO BE HOLY. With the way the church teaches salvation today as God seeing us just as He sees Jesus and all sins, past, present and future are forgiven, nobody is being taught that they have to be repentant in order to even be empowered to keep the commandments.Look at the promises of God in the New Testament.They are based on “keeping His commandment”. You have all these people out there claimingthe promises of God while viewing porn, abusing kids and sinning up a storm. That is what we have taught them and they do not read the bible for themselves and have no interest in it. I really have to question if someone is born again if they have no interest in reading the bible and pursuing the Lord. If you don’t see any fruit that shows they are repentant and they continue living the way they always have, even though they may have received the seed of the word with joy, they do not have eternal life living in them. This is called trying the fruit, not judging someone’s salvation.Jesus commanded us to try the fruit because by the fruit you will know them. To be fit to be a pastor, you really need to have discernment and how will you have discernment if the devil tells you that you are judging someone’s salvation if you are just being a fruit inspector as Jesus commanded us to be. If a pastor can’t tell a sheep from a goat, pig, dog or sheep in wolf’s clothing, he will not be an effective pastor and he will not be able to protect his sheep and feed his sheep. The devil is slick. He will tell you that you are judging someone’s salvation when God is calling you to try the fruit so you know what you are dealing with. If you don’t know what you are dealing with, how can you effectively pastor. Just because someone said a salvation prayer and got dunked doesn’t make them a sheep. Pigs and dogs return to the mud and go back and eat the vomit they just threw up. Pigs will turn on you and rend you when you cast your spiritual pearls before them. All this is in the book, My Glorious Church Without Spot or Wrinkle. Then there are wheat and tares. Tares look just like wheat until they mature. Discernment is needed and if the devil is telling you that you are judging someone’s salvation when God is calling you to try the fruit in order to minister correctly, don’t be fooled by what “satan the angel of light is telling you”. Go by the word of God.Sounds real loving and spiritual but it renders anyone in the five fold ministry ineffective in the battle for the souls of men. If anyone needs discernment, a pastor does.If anyone has discernment a prophet does. Just because someone prophesies, doesn’t make them a prophet. A prophet will prophecy, but his message is more “repent for the kingdom of God is at hand”. God does nothing but that He reveals it to His prophets first. This ministry has not gone away because the bible states that these five fold ministries are for the perfecting of the saints. The saints are not perfeted yet. If there is any ministry that will see what is wrong and what needs to be done to fix what is wrong it is the prophetic ministry. They talk to God about man and God talks to man through them. Lord, bring on more prophets to restore the church back to what you intended it to be. The gates of hell will not prevail against it, even though some will be lost who choose not to listen. The Lord is coming for a Glorious Church Without Spot or Wrinkle. This is the bride that brought extra oil and did not quench the Spirit by grieving Him. Do we really believe that we can keep willfully sinning and be that bride without spot or wrinkle, or will we be cut off or judged as the bible says as we continue willfully sinning. Hebrews states that if we do this after receiving the Truth and the engagement ring and are empowered not to sin and choose to anyway, we are trodding on the blood of Christ and count His blood an unholy thing and all we should look for is God’s judgment and wrath. The engagement can be broken before the groom arrives.Let the trumpet sound. www.latter-rain.net