John 16, Prophecy & Persecution in Today’s World

John 16, Prophecy & Persecution in Today’s World  by Kelly Durant 3-10-24

¹ “All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. ² They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God. ³ They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. ⁴ I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you, ⁵ but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ ⁶ Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things. ⁷ But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. ⁸ When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: ⁹about sin, because people do not believe in me; ¹⁰ about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; ¹¹ and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.

2. The verses of today are some of Jesus last words before his soon coming arrest, execution, and resurrection. How many of you have ever heard a person share words of who was dying? Sometimes they tell all their family that they love them, and maybe they divide up the inheritance with the family.  Some parents die alone in some rest home with just a worker nearby. We really don’t know about how our circumstances will be!

 You should think about this as we enter into this time of Easter. What are the pages of wisdom you would prepare if you knew you only had a week before you would die? Who would you talk to? What wisdom would you share? Would you tell everyone you loved them, like Jesus did?

Before Jesus leaves this world, He left us a lot to think about. Four chapters in John say a whole lot, 14 to 17.  Also Matthew 23, 24, 25, which coincide with the other chapters in Luke & Mark. Notice how most all of them are full of many prophecies of the future and about Jesus’ return to reign forever and ever. About 25% of each NT gospel are Jesus’ words within the last week of his life! 

3. Leading up to Chapter 16 we have John chapter 15. In John 15 Jesus is the true vine that we must stay connected to, and this coincides with doctrine 9 of the SA, we must continue in obedience, maintaining our faith.  Jesus teaches us about divine love, about laying down our lives for God and others.  In other words, die for Him!

Jesus repeatedly mentions persecution too, which is something very much alive and ongoing today.  And very importantly, He also tells us of the Holy Spirit that will come to us after He is gone to comfort, guide, and teach us all truth.

In John 16 let’s look at these opening words which begin with prophecy. Some people think they always need to hear a word of prophecy from the church or the pastor for their lives, but people who think in this manner rarely are heard just teaching the prophecies of Jesus! 

There are too many modern-day prophets, people who think others will buy into them as being as supernatural and prophetic as Jesus who prophesied, but they have proven their selves to be powerless. For the future, follow only the Bible! 

4. When you hear words of prophecy, be careful who they are coming from and where the focus is: Is it really on Jesus?  Or is it to sweeten your ears and buy you and convince you that your life is extra special to be wealthy, or that some ministry, or some pastor, or denomination are the only ones with the anointing that you must obey since they produce such words? 

We are warned in 2 Timothy 4:3 ³ For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

In the first verse of prophecy in John 16:2 He says those that kill you will believe they are doing God service! How can this be, people killing believers in Jesus thinking they are doing it in God’s service? How did it apply then as well as today?

Did that prophecy occur historically in the disciples’ lives? Yes, each one of them died as martyrs except John which lived by a miracle after being put in oil to boil. In fear, the Romans sent him to live in a lonely island called Patmos.  Historically there was horrible persecution of people killing the followers of Jesus in the name of their church, or pagan Gods, and today it continues as much as it did before.

5. A little over a decade ago, a report came out of the persecution of Christians in Ethiopia. About 20,000 people had to flee! Imagine if you had to leave your home with just a bag of what you could carry, and you are aware many of your neighbors are being killed by invaders. And worse your Christian church got burned down along with dozens of others!

To our horror, there are Communists, false religion followers, and violent terrorists in the world today that would love to burn down every Christian church there is in the entire world! Hundreds have been burnt just in the past few years! The hatred of Jesus and the persecution of Christians is more intense than ever! 

We need to pray for those everywhere and in Africa! Sadly today, as it always has been, hundreds and sometimes thousands die every single day for Jesus in the hands of people who believe they are doing God’s service by killing them! 

Imagine, we have a God that loves like no other; that lays down his son as a sacrificial lamb as a savior of all, but these murderers believe God wants them to kill anyone who will not accept God the way they follow according to their unsacred doctrines! Our God teaches us to love, but theirs teaches to kill!

6. Everyone who boasts spirituality must rely on prophecy as proof of Jesus’ truth. Satan wants to imitate prophecy, but he cannot! Why, because fulfilled prophecy is proof of Christ’s divinity! No one comes close to getting right His predictions!

The false religious followers often declare they have a prophet, but their prophet(s) has no fulfillments to prove anything, no dozens of future events predicted as Jesus did. They have some prophecies, but only are for a self-interested conquest. Khrushchev, the communist leader of Russia when I was a kid prophesied with his shoe banging the UN table that he would bury the United States.  But no book in the world from any man or from any religion has hundreds and hundreds of fulfilled prophecies as the Bible does! Khrushchev died, his words did not happen, but communists & terrorists are still working in the shadows to make it happen!

 ² “They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God.³ They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me”. So many billions of people in the world following false hopes and false prophecies believe that their sacrifices, their self-induced sufferings, their long boring prayers, their dedication to kill others make them worthy to dominate the world. Evil ones always treat other people as their slaves. But since these people have not accepted, loved, and obeyed Jesus, they have not known our true God, our Father creator, and their dedication is in vain and a big waste of life and of their soul! Hell on earth and hell hereafter is for those who seek to murder, and impose lies in order to gain power and money.  

These persecutors may cause Christians to lose their lives, but these evil ones will lose their souls in hell! Matthew 10:28 “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell”. We must fear God, never mortal men, be they ones in the government, of a huge religion, or of a secret world order.

7. In Sudan, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and in dozens of countries, it is against the law to preach Jesus! In these countries dozens of thousands have been killed, and notice that those that “live by the sword, die by the sword.”  

Who could ever imagine we would see the entire world in such turmoil and chaos in these past few decades? All of this coincides with Matt. 24 where Jesus says, “and nation shall rise up against nation, and you will hear of wars and rumors of wars”.  

We should be watchful and pray more for the leaders of this world as war and turmoil is spreading here in the U.S.. After all, the Middle Eastern nations look upon America as the great Satan that invades and destroys them, so they want to destroy us. Communist countries as well. This last great Christian nation is being sold out by corrupt politicians, perverts in power, and by jealous invaders who speak hate.  

8. We should suffer in our spirits for our Christian suffering brothers and sisters in other countries. The Bible says a lot about Ethiopia and the Middle Eastern nations that they would have war in their lands for their sins which have lasted for millennium. Consider these:

11. Ezekiel 38:5
Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet: (in other words they were in war, and keep repeating having turmoil)

Daniel 11:43
But he (the Antichrist world leader) shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.

Zephaniah 2:12
Ye Ethiopians also, ye shall be slain by my sword. (This refers to the ones who will suffer God’s anger for their sins in God’s coming judgment)

Now, imagine if I were to tell you, most of you will die within a few years for being a part of this Christian movement of God?! Put yourself in the disciples’ situation: the disciples had left everything to follow Him and now Jesus is leaving them with the bad news that they will be rejected and killed! But Christians died singing and praising God because Jesus left them, and you and I, the Holy Spirit! It was the blood of the martyrs that was the seed of the church in Rome and the blood thirsty Romans converted and became Christian seeing their love passion, and power.

If you do it right, Satan will fight! Who knows the future and if revolution arrives here in this country. We are peacemakers, but most people don’t want peace!

9. Never think that what happens over in Africa, the Middle East (Ukraine), and Israel could not affect you here! Millions of immigrants from everywhere are arriving here! At Easter every year we are reminded that every day we must read our Bibles like it is our last week to live, pray like it is our last week to live, and write to our families and share our love with them as if we had only one more week to live! We must take advantage of the Holy Week and invite our relatives & friends to church.

⁷ “But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. ⁸ When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: ⁹about sin, because people do not believe in me; ¹⁰ about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; ¹¹ and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned”.

Jesus reassures us His Holy Spirit will be with us and that there will be a final judgment and God will condemn Satan and his followers. And the most wonderful thing Jesus says our sorrow will be turned to joy! The disciples were going to witness Jesus going away, but He is telling them, I am coming back (He meant after 3 days) ^20 “Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy”. 

10. Jesus gives it a powerful meaning when he mentions the birth pangs of the woman, which refers to the end-times, and reaffirms we can pray to the Father and receive answers and have joy. He left and returned after 3 days, and now He will return very soon after all the world hears the gospel & the prophecies are fulfilled!

Jesus said the disciples would be disbanded, and end-time Christians will be as well, but we know Jesus will return to take us to heaven! 33 “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” Do you have dying grace? Probably not yet because you are not dying yet! But remember every Christian martyr died with the Holy Spirit giving them the victory, praising even with their last breath.  How important the Holy Spirit is? It is our comfort; it is what will be present when we must die and leave here. That is Jesus’ Easter gift to us! Come ask God for more of his comfort, His Spirit, his power to witness in you in this special time of the year! 

 

Jesus: Forever Inspiring Love or Controversy

Jesus: Forever Inspiring Love or Controversy         by Kelly Durant     3-22-15 Re: 3-3-24

A study in John 15 concerning His relevant word to us before for His departure. John 15

¹³ Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. ¹⁴ You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.

 

2. Did you know the Bolivians are descendants of the extraterrestrials? When one Indian meets another they do not greet each other as we do, and ask, “How are you?”, they say, “How’s the earth?” referring to the dirt, ha! (They actually do ask that but they are referring to the quality of the dirt and farm production in the area of their fellow brother!)

 

Well, as Christians, we always meet, shake hands or hug and ask each other, “How are you?” but maybe we should do it with the deeper context and ask, “How is your spirit”? How is the quality of your walk with the Lord, your purity, your production for Him? 

 

Today we will do a study on John 15 as a preparation to Easter. I love this chapter! We should read it, absorb it, live by it, and most of all learn to LOVE by it! I will comment after we read the verses. There are several concepts shared here and it is important we grasp each one.  

 

3. John 15 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” Here Jesus is confirming that He is the only true connection to God, and God is the caretaker, the one who makes his vine to grow by fertilizers and additives (the spirit) and pruning (removing the dead branches, symbolic to letting go of the past and bad influences) The ultimate purpose of our lives is to be producing the maximum fruit for God! His Kingdom is forever, so why waste time with gaining so much material stuff you are going to leave behind one day? 

 

Sometimes in our lives when we don’t get what we want in life and we may even get upset at God and others. But in our lean times, in our recessed times, we might take it that God might have cut us back and trimmed us. It is clear here that sometimes God will be trimming back the areas of our lives that are making us die, the deadening parts twisted up in dry pride and selfishness. It hurts us but it matures us to accept that God is in control and He shapes us how He needs us to be to serve Him best. Don’t just look at a pain or loss as undesirable, accept the fact that getting some things cut back is necessary, so we produce more and have a life more like He is and less how we want to be. We don’t like changes in our lives, but God permits them all our lives, so let go of the useless!

 

4. John 15:3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoke to you. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.” Have you ever felt dirty after being around certain people? The words, ways, and life of many people just reek of filth! Or have you ever felt dirty inside after doing something you realized was wrong? The purpose of Satan is to tempt whosoever will listen to get dirty by some sin and then He hopes to keep you separated from God after that, dominated by guilt and shame! Don’t let it paralyze you, Jesus cleans us just for the asking! 

 

The solution to freedom from unclean-ness is so simple it escapes many, even Christians, that all you have to do is get refilled back up with Jesus, absorbing His Words, and everyone must pray and confess anything bothering and then you and I are able to get cleaned up. It is like taking a shower; everyone of us needs to take one daily to be clean! Many people worry about being “holy” for Holy Week with clean new suits and dresses. That is not enough! The outside is only flesh, what matters is being clean spiritually, and it is Jesus’ words washes us clean!

 

We can be clean or holy and it is His work in us, and then this makes us apt to be able to remain in Him. Only staying connected to Jesus will allow the sap of his Holy Spirit to flow to the branches keeping you alive. 

 

5. John 15:5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.

 

The people that love God and are in Jesus will always have good fruit as a proof of it; they will have converted friends, people who love Jesus as well near them. In another part in the parable of the sewer Jesus mentioned this, Matthew 13:23 But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” This implies some people over their lifetime will convert this many (100) or this few (30). Think about it, how many have you converted so far? What is your fruit?

 

Verse 6 does invoke fear! He is referring to the final judgment when the ones not in Him, those who produced nothing, will be cast into the lake of fire.  These are those who are withered and dried up (spiritually, due to sin). Whose fault is that? Only the one who disconnects and goes their own way without being in Jesus. It is worse for you to have had the truth of Jesus and then you separate yourself. 

 

6. John 15:7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples”. How many of you have seen people who when they know a spiritual, righteous living leader is in the room, they prefer they pray when it is for a need of some kind? It just seems logical and natural that people know who has the connection and the power with Christ and who doesn’t.

 

Aren’t you as amazed as I am to hear about answered prayers! We pray, hope, and wait, but never know what God has in mind, and week after week we hear of victories and positive answers. When we prayed for someone and they got healed, we should be very thankful. Answered prayers is a blessing that others of the world do not understand that we have (They would not believe it!) how someone got a job, how someone else was freed from a problem, how if you are pleasing God, He returns the favor in many ways.

 

Jesus is speaking to all humanity for all time in John 15 but when he says, “so you will be My disciples”, His ultimate goal is that everyone who is in Him will become a disciple, which basically is a person who loves, follows, and spreads the good news of His love, Kingdom, salvation, and eternal life as His first ones did.

 

7. John 15:9 “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love”. The greatest need of every person born is love! Babies within a few months will die without love! I think some people who get depressed and die young are very sad people who live without love. One of the main reasons I have dedicated my entire life to Jesus, to love Him and preach about Him, is because I have always been shown a great amount of love and kindness by those that love Him!

 

In the Salvation Army in doctrine 9 “We believe that continuance in a state of salvation depends upon continued obedient faith in Christ”. Basically verse 10 says this same thing! But it refers to getting love and salvation from God the Father (inferred is continuously) by staying connected to Jesus. 

 

Jesus was, is, and forever will be pure love! If we want love from God (love from people is not eternal) then we must grasp the fact that we can only have it by going through the man of love, Jesus. 

 

8. John 15:11 “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. 12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you”.

 

Do you see the connection? To have any happiness in life, any joy whatsoever, you have to have Jesus Word in you! What did He just speak about? Love! Now here joy is defined as a consequence of love. Love is directly connected to joy! If we are in Jesus’ love, we will gain a continued joy which is a happiness light years beyond the momentary stimulations of excitement offered by the world. 

 

Jesus laid down His life for us on the cross, now that is a true friend! Who here has a friend that has saved your life, raise your hand? If you have a story of some friend running in front of a car to push you out of the way so they could die in your place, I want to hear your story! There are a few stories of heroism and of love in this world but not so many really! Jesus died for us and did for us what we could not do for ourselves, and that was to redeem our fallen nature back to restoration with God.  So that motivates me to obey His commands as I have never had a friend like this before!

 

9. John 15:15 “No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you”. Today many people and groups in the world are the ultra-secretive with hidden agendas kind, but not so with Jesus. Our government, and the rich rule over others never revealing an iota of their plans. People hate the 1% rich, the WEF group, the Rothschilds, The Illuminati, the 300 Group, the Bohemian Grove Club, and the world’s most powerful and rich who pull the strings of the politicians changing laws and why are these evil ones hated?

 

Because these people and their groups in their pride have the idea they know what is best for you! They will choose the laws for you; we the people are only the peons. They create double standards and insulate their selves from the common man so they lord over all people. Political powers are all abusive, yet some more murderous than others, but it is in our God given nature to reject lordship and to be subjugated as servants by murderous greedy perverts totally corrupted by pride being full of Satan. 

 

Also, all the world’s religions (except true Christianity) exercise lordship and oblige submission to their laws and customs (often having no logical sense). Some even literally mean submission! I redundantly reject any idea that God wants me under Him by means of any oppression and slavery! Jesus liberates us, from sin and from oppression and deceivers! Satan’s subjugated oppressed followers are murderously jealous over our freedom in Christ! Jesus is our friend, not our slave master! He is the world’s first wise teacher, and only Son God, and He clarified to His followers that you and I would not be kept in the dark on agendas as some subjugated servant. All of Jesus’ preaching was an invitation to the Kingdom of God and His prophecies reveal the future, so He keeps back nothing from us!    

 

10. John 15:16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. 17 These things I command you, that you love one another.

 

Have you ever been to party and then the hosts say, “Okay, it’s time to dance, everybody get up!” I never learned to dance, but I always will go along with it because it is asked of me. Can you relate to this type of situation? In this verse of being chosen, basically Jesus is saying that everyone is chosen to do his will by appointment. But don’t you hate to see party poopers rudely rejecting the will of the hosts acting upset when everyone else is doing what’s requested and being happy? What is it that Jesus just did by ordaining or appointing? We just read it, to bring others to Him bearing fruit, and to get us to love each other! It is simple and direct, but many will not obey this even though they were chosen. Both commands actually are somewhat sacrificial to do, both require hardships and humility, both will involve embarrassment and persistence, but His Holy Spirit gives us power to do it and we gain joy when we accept the appointment!

 

And once again Jesus affirms that if we are in His will, “Whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.” Getting prayers answered is the privilege that those who bear fruit get to have! But the fruit must remain, meaning we must disciple others as well, right? And a second time here we are commanded to love one another! God is love! We must love Him and others! People who never love are of Satan!

 

11. John 15:18 “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. 21 But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.

 

Look how the world is hating Christians today! Has it ever been so bad? Actually it has! From the beginning the Romans murdered in horrific manners a few million Christians! The Roman system still permeates politics & religion. Christians have been hated and murdered ever since the beginning! Who has murdered Christians throughout history and why? When you think of motives, think of Satan’s pride and jealousy. Christ haters go into a murderous rage when a person will not bow down to them, to their ideology, to their despot self, or submit to their enslaving leader. But a Christian will never stop proclaiming that they love Jesus above all things!

 

Consider the politics of Nero. He set fire to Rome so he could rebuild it with his own architectural plans (a personal agenda) and then he falsely blamed the Christians for doing what he actually did so he could arrest and murder them! His crimes and hypocrisy became exposed along with his extreme cruelty and supposedly entertaining way of killing innocent ones. For people like Nero, for fallen angels, along with countless Satanic others, we comprehend why God is justified in allowing the existence of a burning lake of fire hell for souls of those that deserve it. Revelation 20:14 Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.

 

Who persecutes Christians? Those who do not know God the Father (even though they may claim they do), those who refuse to honor Christ, and the result is they share the same sentiments as the murderous followers of Satan! These horrible abusers have always killed children, raped and tortured women, and done horrific crimes. But Christians will be safe in heaven one day leaving this hell and their eternal hell behind!

 

12. John 15:22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 He who hates Me hates My Father also. 24 If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father. 25 But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’

 

Isn’t it amazing how some people actually “hate” Jesus? The basis for His rejection seems unjustifiable and illogical. Why reject a healer, a lover, a teacher, a sacrificial man? Jesus is purity, love, and freedom but His power by authority in Word and in deed shines with a scorching light of truth deep into the dark places of the human soul. It is unrepentant people who want to continue deceptions in the dark, who want to keep on benefiting by propagating lies to others, who want to manipulate followers for gain, who are stubborn in their pride and selfishness, are those who fiercely reject allowing Jesus in their lives! 

 

Pray for each other here! You never know but some spouses give their mates hell over coming to church or doing good for others! Many divorces have happened because one mate accepts Jesus and the other one does not. But one thing is clear, once a person learns about Jesus they at that moment then have a choice, to recognize their sin and repent, or reject Him and the Father and the hate Him without a cause.

13. John 15:26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. 27 And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.

 

How do Christians keep having superhuman strength to overcome in the world? Because Jesus left with us the Holy Spirit! It is an unexplainable force that gives Christians the ability to remain faithful to Jesus, to be able to love the unlovely people and bear fruit for God, to endure persecutions and even death. 

 

You and I have the conviction of Jesus being real and true as our spirit connects with His spirit! He is not controversy to us and hated, Jesus instead is love and power! He created you and I to stay with Him forever, and if we can make it through the tests and trials of life with Jesus’ help, He has reserved for us a mansion in heaven (But that is in John 14, which is a whole additional study!) Do you need power in these trying times? Let’s pray for the “helper”, the Holy Spirit to empower you.

Jesus…in Your Dreams! He visits many people this way to communicate!

Jesus…in Your Dreams!             By Kelly Durant   4-10-13   Re 3-5-23

Matthew 27:19 When he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him.

2. How many of you have dreams? Can you distinguish when a dream really means something and when it is just your mind floating out there trying to make a collage of strange purposeless things?

Have you ever dreamed you are flying? Many people have! According to the scientific study of dreams your mind keeps working on problems you could not solve in the daytime. People who dream flying could be learning what they will need to know after they leave this body behind! Jesus will raise us up! 

Concerning Easter, you can find tens of thousands of sermons on Jesus’ resurrection and that important day and that is priority. But there is one verse I want to explore, and that is how Jesus appears to, and appeared to, different unsuspecting people. Jesus communicates to many in dreams, even though the ones seeing Him did not choose to meet him, nor had they ever met him personally.

3. For example, the wife of Pilate had a dream, and in her dream, Jesus appeared to her, and she suddenly took seriously the injustice that was happening to him. In a dream she was touched by the purity and holiness of Jesus because she described him as a “just man”.  That was divine communication. All the rumors stirred up then were that he was a devil! But she listened to the spirit, not the world’s lies, and we all must develop that skill.

Then, like good wives do, she tells her husband what she feels and thinks about the decision he will make concerning Jesus’ trial. Often the men have the power, but women usually have a strong behind-the-scenes influence. Women often change outcomes from their influence with their words, do they not? She told him she had suffered in a dream because of him. When the wife suffers and is disturbed it affects the man as well!

That dream that she had that we do not know the details of troubled Pilate as she got through to him about the true holy nature of Jesus. This started troubling him that a just man would die, and he was accustomed to sending men to die all the time.  So much was he disturbed by his wife’s dream, and God’s conviction, that he washed his hands in public to symbolize he didn’t want anything to do with what was happening with Jesus condemnation, do you recall that?

4. Matt27: 23 And the governor said, Why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified. 24 When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it. 25 Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.

What we can conclude is that Jesus visited Pilate’s wife and this visit influenced how he handled the case of having Jesus in front of him. He tried to change the mind of the the people by releasing Barabbas instead of Jesus, a known murderer, but it did not work. In reality, he tried to protect an innocent man, but the people chose the death of Jesus despite that. So even evil rulers fear God’s justice!

I am sure Pilate, and his wife was very disturbed after that day.  What sort of terrible people would choose the death of Jesus, a just man over a man who was a dangerous murderous threat to society? 

5. Dreams are a major component in all our lives. A long time before Jesus birth, God sent dreams to Joseph in Egypt and there are many accounts of dreams in the Bible. Recall the dreams of Joseph of Mary to marry her and then to flee Egypt and that of the Wise Men who took action on their dream and traveled away from Herod to avoid his wrath. They did not even know of his plot to kill Jesus until they dreamed it. How do we explain such detailed communication in dreams? God is always working behind the scenes, in the spirit world!

There are day-time dreams that happen as well, but those we usually referred to as visions. Jesus appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus and that changed Paul’s entire life! 

Here is a strange reality, Jesus, God, or angels have been appearing to millions of people in visions, premonitions or dreams ever since He made earth, and these experiences are so real that millions of people have taken radical decisions to start living very different lives from what they were. 

6. Referring to how dreams change others, let’s look at Muslims and those of faiths who are isolated in lands where the gospel is not heard. I have read many testimonies of people being converted just because of a dream they had of Jesus appearing to them. 

These unexplained dreams of Jesus or God have been so real that people have been willing to change their lives and their religion, often leaving their country, or even going to jail to be persecuted for their new found faith in Jesus!

How can science explain that? It can’t! Some things are just supernatural, and it is not that some people in the world are just superstitious or ignorant, to the contrary, many people know how to be sensitive to spiritual communications and act upon them!

Your spiritual sensitivity is everything in life! Have you been shown things from God in dreams, or in prayer and then acted upon them appropriately?

7. When I was 21 and deciding which direction my life would go, I was stuck between staying in the university or leaving it to serve Jesus as a missionary in South America. A major factor in my decision was a dream that came to me.

Here is my dream of being at a Bob Dylan concert. I dreamed I was in a rock concert and the main artist that I thought was the most amazing person alive back then, was being arrogant and stupid keeping the people waiting for hours. During that time the auditorium was filling up with thick smoke form the marijuana everyone was smoking. Suddenly I felt glued to my chair and I got very scared as if I felt I would die immovable, stuck right there if I did not get up immediately!

But I forced myself to get up and when I did in the isle it seemed like a drama skit of something was happening, and a guy said, “Hey you, come here and help us”. There was Jesus carrying a cross and some others people nearby and one gave me a hammer and long nail in my hands and said here, help us to crucify this man? I dropped the hammer and ran outside as fast as I could! I did not want to help them kill Jesus! I had to get away from those terrible people!

Once outside I thought it was going to be night, but instead it was day and there were hundreds of police cars and police there that were getting ready to invade the auditorium and take everyone to jail.

The Lord showed me I needed to escape my old life radically, if not I would be paralyzed from drugs and crucifying Jesus in the process. The police were representative of the angels of God that will return with Jesus to judge the world!

8. Jesus changed my life by appearing in a dream. My sister in law also told me one time that she had a dream in which Jesus told her to stop following the church of her past and follow the evangelicals. Now, let me ask you, how many of you have ever had a dream, or a vision, or an experience with Jesus communicating to you? Look around, that is quite a few of you! My point is Jesus ever since his death, and in all the book of Acts, Jesus has appeared to others in dreams and visions in various supernatural ways. 

Divine communication through dreams and visions is not history; it is a phenomenon that keeps happening today! There is a science study of the mind called ‘noetics’ to try to discover how we experience precognitions and the unexplainable. 

It is also a fulfillment of the verses of Acts 2:17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Take note that the last days began with Jesus birth. (Also, please contextualize that these verses are not a license to get disorderly and randomly interrupt the service to proclaim some personal revelation as if you are the most spiritual one in all the church as is done in some churches today).

9. But here is an undeniable reality, there are people that Jesus has communicated to in his pure and holy way, and they have either resisted or accepted the mission! What did Jesus tell Paul on his way to persecute Christians in Damascus? Acts 9:5 And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks?

Jesus was troubling him and rebuking Paul. How? By a vision shining through his darkness! Jesus love, His nature of purity, of righteousness, His just way of fairness of bringing healing to broken hearts and bodies contrasted greatly against Paul’s intentions of destruction. Jesus getting close to anyone of us would expose our ugly selfish proud human nature which is the opposite of His! So the people that still have many sins and faults, we must assume have not really met Him! 

10. Jesus in dreams is usually not the superman that takes you by the hand and lifts you flying in the sky over the mountains and moon, He is the one who sends a message to you about something important that is happening in your life at that moment and He often is warning you to change immediately, change your attitude, move away to another place, or to take action on an important decision. Jesus wakes you and I up to a new truth and this reality requires a reaction!

Jesus appearing in a dream, or in a vision, is an unexplained internal awareness and it is as God’s Holy Spirit at work.  Those who ignore that tugging of the heart, or reject the revelation of the truth of God, miss the out on the blessings of God, and depending on what message God is convicting them of, that person might even be rejecting salvation! 

11. We see an instance of this is Acts where Stephen, filled with the Holy Ghost, reveals the truth of Jesus to the crowd but despite his vision & powerful glowing presence, despite the heart piercing conviction his anointed words brought to the crowd’s ears, they still resisted! They murdered him as they did Jesus, out of the hatred in their hearts rejecting the fact that Jesus actually is the Son of God. 

We all must bow down and reverence Jesus as Lord of Lords when the Holy Spirit convicts us, if not the only alternative is rejection by choice and an eternal separation from the God which leaves nothing but hell. Stephen’s final warning while having a vision (a daytime dream) was, Acts 7:51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.

12.Today I want you to decide, has Jesus or the Holy Spirit ever appeared to you, in a prayer, in a vision, in a dream in the night, or in a still small voice in your heart and mind? If so, did you act on it? Or do you know someone to whom God communicated? God communicates today but few are talking about it!

John 15: 26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:27 And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.

God may comfort in his message or trouble you, but you must wake up.

Have you responded to some troubling dream or message gotten in a prayer? If not, it is never too late to obey God! God is merciful, but that second bus (after you missing the first) is on a different time clock of God. Many people miss God’s will and really mess things up in their lives! Start asking your friends today, have you ever dreamed with God or Jesus? Use that as a way to share the gospel of His love! 

 

Make Jesus Proud of You: Be Daring, Bold, & Brave!

Make Jesus Proud of You: Be Daring, Bold, & Brave!     Kelly Durant

 

Acts 4:13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.

 

2. Some people love excitement more than others. There are some people that love adventure, being in somewhat dangerous situations, while others are happy to just stay at home and be inside of their safe space wishing the world would just go away.

 

For example, I know of people, who love to drive their Jeeps on top of the Colorado mountains, almost flipping them over, having their hearts pump wildly for the thrill, and this is rewarding for them. This involves risk, but it is fun for them and I hope they have insurance!

 

And then I know some people like how my mother use to be that would only go to the grocery store and to church on Sunday and never wanted any excitement at all. The world has all kinds of people. But all of us take decisions ‘to do or not to do’ many things, but when it comes to our faith and Jesus, we must choose ‘to do’ as it’s known, “nothing ventured, nothing gained’ as God expects it of us.

 

3. People will do bolder things when they are with others in a group than when they are alone. I recall when I was young there were people who would not want to do anything, but if a group was going somewhere, they would go too, even if it meant danger.

 

Think about Jesus and the disciples, he only had a group of 12, not of 12,000 like some mega churches, and they later went on their own, going out two by two, and they accomplished great things spreading the gospel. Mark 6:7 And He called the twelve to Himself, and began to send them out two by two, and gave them power over unclean spirits.  Here we frequently only have a dozen of faithful ones!

 

We must never lose our vision of what we are to accomplish in life as Christians, and that is of the saving of the souls of the lost, of bringing love and comfort to the hurting, of obeying Jesus to love God and others as ourselves. 

 

4. Have you thought about it, The Salvation Army was founded on being risky and exciting! Every day the Officers and Soldiers would go out and preach on the smelly muddy street corners and sometimes a few hundred at a time would come forward around a bass drum to cry, repent, and pray to receive Jesus! How glorious that must have been to have witnessed that!

 

But at the same time, many of them got hit with tomatoes and other objects as they brought the good news to others. But did that stop them? No! Even after they knew about Samuel Logan Brengle almost dying from blow from a brick, they continued on, even going around the world to start up new outposts, missions, and Corps. They opened hundreds of new Corps in 40 countries within the first 40 years! Now we are in 130 countries!

 

Samuel Brengle spent about a year and a half in a hospital bed recovering from a skull fracture that some violent demon inspired person did to him with that brick. But his heart was for God, and he wrote several books on holiness, he used his time to learn about God and today we honor him by studying his theological contributions. You cannot stop a man or woman of God, wounded or impaired, they will continue on in the fight for good!

 

5. We have studied the book of Acts in the recent past. What did we learn of Peter, John, and of the other disciples? Many of them went to jail for preaching Jesus! And they were killed! The idol worshipping pagans, and the hypocrite Jews, did not want to hear about the love of Jesus. But did even being jailed stop them from talking about Jesus? No!   

 

Have you ever made Jesus proud of you by going to jail for Him? I got that opportunity a couple of times. Once it was in a small southern town in Rio Grande do Sur, Brazil. Five policemen stopped me with machine guns for passing out salvation flyers at some apartments. One policeman got really mad and was yelling in my face that I was preaching blasphemy and if he could have his way, I whould be locked up and tortured the way the Catholic Church historically use to do it! Imagine, if a Catholic wants to harm or kill you for preaching Jesus, then could Jesus really be their center of their worship? But they are made up of good and bad like most all organizations. 

 

He took offense because in the gospel pamphlet it mentioned that God had to turn His back on Jesus a few hours to allow Him to die for our sins. God allowed Jesus to die on the cross to be the ultimate sacrifice for us, but obviously this man did not know theology very well. I am thankful I was set free after being about 5 or 6 hours in that tiny facility. I have seen angry red hateful faces many times while out preaching a loving peaceful Jesus! God sees what everyone does. The world is a dangerous place and people are lost, ignorant, and really need Jesus! 

 

6. So when something bad happens, it sometimes scares you, or others nearby, to not want to be risky or carry out the mission of preaching Jesus. My friends, if you can ever learn something in life, learn this, never let anyone intimidate or belittle you for standing up for your faith! Remember, Peter and John had boldness, and God expects us to have boldness and the Holy Spirit power as well!

 

Let’s read on the reaction of the people to Peter and John’s boldness. Acts 4:18 So they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. 19 But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. 20 For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.”

 

Can you do that? Can you not do anything in life but proclaim the good that Jesus has done in your life? 21 “So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way of punishing them, because of the people, since they all glorified God for what had been done”. It happened to them and may happen to us as well if we speak up for Jesus!

 

7. Later in this chapter we see they prayed for boldness, and they stood on God’s Word to give them strength. They quoted Psalm 2, one of my favorites, as it affirms the final destiny of the evil people of the world who hate Jesus.

 

 Acts 4:23 And being let go, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. 24 So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said: “Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them, 25 who by the mouth of Your servant David have said: ‘Why did the nations rage, And the people plot vain things? 26 The kings of the earth took their stand, And the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ.’ Now look up Psalm 2 to hear the rest of it. Vs.3“Let us break Their bonds in pieces And cast away Their cords from us.” 4 He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; The Lord shall hold them in derision. 5 Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, And distress them in His deep displeasure: (skip down to the final verses) 10 Now therefore, be wise, O kings; Be instructed, you judges of the earth. 11 Serve the Lord with fear,  And rejoice with trembling.

12 Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, And you perish in the way, When His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.

 

8. So it is clear, we must be wise and stand with Jesus no matter the cost, no matter how the red-faced agitated demons who hate us for proclaiming Jesus’ message yelling insults at us, hit us, or even jail us, we have God’s boldness and Holy Spirit power!  

 

To serve in this Salvation Army Church, when you serve Jesus for real, you need to be thick skinned, you need to be bold! You need to be a Soldier that battles! No one respects a wimp. I was at the International Market the other day and the young Hispanic cashier I knew went to a Hispanic church (because I had seen him with other Christians before) and I asked him about his faith. I said, “You are a Christian and you go to church, don’t you?” I was hoping to start a conversation.

 

He said, “Hum” and nodded his head about one inch to indicate yes. I thought within myself, how sad! He has no boldness; he is almost ashamed to admit he is a Christian! Then I had another terrible thought, ‘Could it be some of the people in our Corps Church are the same way?’ Are they also afraid to admit they love Jesus and come to worship here’? Please, let’s be bold and make Jesus proud of us! I try to talk about Jesus with every person I meet!

 

 9. The decision is yours day by day, hour by hour, will you be bold for Jesus? All day long we will meet people who were like the pagans mentioned in Psalm 2 who want to undo us, or like the hypocrite Pharisees who hate us for standing for Jesus who is righteousness, holiness, and God’s love. The government was on the shoulder of Jesus, (Isaiah 53) and the ones of the top too want your adoration and absolute dedication as they do not like a competitor controlling your spirit!

 

In the Christian faith, you had better get use to adventure, excitement, danger, risk, resistance, and the battle. You are not in a Salvation Army just to look pretty in uniform, you are here ‘to fight for the good’ and to be so full of the Holy Spirit that your glow attracts others to want to get to know the Jesus you talk about!

 

Is Jesus proud of you? Am I and your leaders proud of you? How long has it been since you have come with a testimony to talk about who you shared your faith with? Jesus expects it of you and if you get persecuted, it will motivate you even more as the Holy Spirit will be filling you up. Be sure you live to reach the poor lost souls out there who need the hope of salvation, or you will regret it after death in heaven when you arrive empty handed! 

Matthew 10:32-33

32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. 33 But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.

Let’s pray…

Christmas: A time to reflect on the EFFECT Jesus made

Christmas: A time to reflect on the effect Jesus made       Kelly Durant

 

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 1 John 3:16 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

 

2. How many of you have seen a movie, “Back to the Future”? It was about a young man that went back into time and then goes back into the future, and he saw how it would be if something were changed. 

 

There is one part where something didn’t happen the way it was suppose to in the past, and if Marty McFly, the main character, didn’t get things the way they were supposed to happen while in the past, and in this case it was the getting together of his parents, then the world was going to become a different, horrible, hell of a place. 

 

This scenario caused me, and should provoke us all, to reflect and ask ourselves this question, what would the world be like today if it had not been for the birth of the Son of God on Christmas over 2,000 years ago? God made hundreds of things come together for Jesus birth at the right place and time.

 

3. Imagine a world with people who are living as Jesus commanded, as salt and light, who are following Jesus’ love and salvation, how would that world be? We could have the ‘kingdom of God’ on earth! Now, imagine a world without the leadership of God’s righteous people, without God’s people doing good, without missionaries bringing a better standard to the pagan idol worshippers, without the message of eternal life and the forgiveness for sins through Christ. This world would be a worse hell than what it already is! 

 

Without Jesus the world would be a thousand times more full of evil, with more human sacrifices than our current infanticide ones; we would be overcome by violence and war as before the flood ‘as in the days of Noah’. There would gross darkness on the people, being devoid, evil, and ignorant. Starvation and misery would prevail more than what it does today. When the European missionaries went out to reach the world with Jesus travelling by ships, establishing colonies worldwide, it is recorded in the history books that they brought prosperity and peace in many places. 

 

Even in the 1700 and 1800s there was still cannibalism on many islands and places, along with idolatry, human sacrifice, and the slave trades. Where the people had never heard the gospel of Jesus, they lived in constant war with their neighbors. It has been the Christians who helped the world progress out of the dark ages and the ones who founded most all of the prestigious colleges of high learning world-wide. It was the Christians who developed the world scientifically, through Galileo, Pascal, and others. It was the Christians who fought to free those enslaved. The world cannot deny that Jesus’ gospel has brought more peace and development wherever it has been practiced. The problem is it must be practiced to work!

 

4. Jesus was the best gift this world has ever received from God! But let’s look at what attributes were necessary in order for there to be the desired effect by God. First, there had to be a willingness to give on His part. God loved the world and gave us Jesus and He too gave of his own self. He renounced heaven, a place of pure perfection and love and peace in order to come here on earth to give Himself to live a life in frail human flesh. He knew His life was going to end torturous but victorious being a sacrifice on the cross, dying in a horrible manner to redeem whosoever would receive Him! Realize this, Jesus’ resurrection means that He can give anyone anywhere the gift of eternal life if you and I, or anyone, chooses to belong to Him! There is no gift that could be better, ever!

 

The first thing that Christmas should do is convict us to give, to give our lives in obedience to Jesus! He gave the example, he was born in a humble little manger, and came not to be rich and spoiled, nor powerful as the kings of earth are, but he came to serve and to give his life for the souls of us all! 

 

There are many people though that live by the contrary. They believe that Christmas is a time to receive and to get, not to give, forgetting the whole picture of Jesus’ life. We must give to be blessed!

 

5. I recall that as a child I got picky and demanding about what I wanted my mother to give me for Christmas and that was being spoiled and wrong, but it happens often with all kids and adults. Since I had no father in the home, my mother always tried to make it up by giving me many toys. 

 

The toys were fun but only for a few days before the reality of life would return. All that I had received did not bring me a lasting happiness, only a temporary one. It was later in my life that I learned the joy of giving after I dedicated my life to the Lord Jesus Christ. 

 

If you want a lasting happiness…then give! It is more blessed to give than to receive! One more time, Jesus said, it is more blessed to give than to receive! We need to teach ourselves and our children to give to others, so we don’t just think about their selves at Christmas time. 

 

6. Give your life in service to God, give your time, your money, your will, everything; and if you do, then you will be following the words and example of Jesus correctly and you will be celebrating what Christmas should really be all about! 

 

The problem is that many people get so materialistic and worried about gifts and the Christmas party and the food that they forget who the party is for and how He wants those at His party to be behaving. Imagine that, Jesus is being left out of His own party in many homes!

 

Another attribute is that we must announce the coming of Jesus, ahead of time. That is what the tradition of the ‘Advent’ is for. John the Baptist’s mother, Elizabeth, recognized Jesus before He was born. The message prepared was that Jesus would bring us peace, hope, and salvation and for all the world. What did God have all the angels announce to the humble poor shepherds when Jesus was born? They all declared, “Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth and good will to men (all humanity)”. If God’s angels praised Him, how much more we must praise Him and give glory to Him!

 

God showed His love and favor to all of us in all the world for all people and for all time. He gave us a new hope, a new life, a life of peace, an internal peace that gives us strength.  He gave us good will, and God gave His example of healing goodness. Without Jesus we would not have learned how real goodness, righteousness, and love was to be practiced! We would also no know that we could have eternal life in heaven either. 

 

7. The effect or reaction God wants by Jesus coming is that we honor Him as the angels did, knowing that the way we honor him is by sharing the story of His life obeying His words sharing salvation! We must give our lives as Jesus gave His. 1 John 3:16 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. This verse is a follow up to John 3:16 which should be the effect Jesus has on us. How has Jesus affected you? Has His effect on you made you do something to make the world a better place? Have you shared His gift of salvation and love?

 

History proves that we as humans usually behave as brute beasts, full of jealousy for power, full of hate, adulteries, selfishness, and even murders, but when we pause to remember the birth of Jesus at Christmas, we are giving ourselves and everyone in the world a chance to see hope and love: that there is an example of a pure life much better than what we ourselves could ever be. We accept Jesus at Christmas and accept that we must change our lives in order to be like Him! Those that have done this, those that have allowed Jesus to take effect in their heart, mind, and soul, they are the world changers! 

 

Jesus caused prostitutes, drunken partiers, greedy tax collectors, and religious hypocrites to repent and live a holy life! What a powerful effect! For over 2,000 years now His story from start to finish combined with His God-breathed Words of teachings have changed millions of lives for the better! The effect is peace with God and freedom from the desire to sin! I know about this because I am one of those whose life turned around completely! What an effect Jesus made on me to leave behind sex, drugs, rock ‘n roll, and new age religions! 

 

Please share Jesus, in your giving and receiving, share His story, and share your story of the effect Jesus has made on your life this Christmas!