Category Archives: Words from the LORD

The joy of the LORD is our strength, how can we know His joy?

22 Saturday Jun 2013

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The joy of the LORD is our strength, how can we know His joy?

In His presence is the fullness of joy. The joy of the LORD is our strength. We can be strong in the LORD and in His mighty power by experiencing His joy.

Nehemiah 8:10

Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”

After the walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt, the people were to celebrate. The word LORD in capital letters stands for the Hebrew name of God. There are four Hebrew consonants that sound like the English letters YHVY and is pronounced as Yahweh. Some translations write it as Jehovah but more accurately Yahweh is the covenant name (promise keeping or testament name) of God the Creator. He is “The I Am” or “The Holy One that Was and Is and Is to come!” The joy of the LORD is your strength. When you need emotional, physical and spiritual strength, it is essential to experience the joy of God the Creator of the heavens and the earth. How can we experience the joy of the LORD?

Psalm 16:11

You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence,

with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

When we are in the presence of God, we will experience the fullness of His joy. How then can we enter in to the manifest presence of the Living God?

Psalm 22:3

But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.

The Hebrew word that is translated as inhabitest also means to dwell or to sit down. When the people of God praise His Name, we create a dwelling place for God’s Presence. We create a spiritual throne in which God’s Spirit will abide when we praise and worship Him.

Although it is important for you to read, study and meditate on God’s Word (the Bible) as well as speak to Him in prayer, it is also essential to sing praises to His Name.

God inhabits the praises of His people. When we praise and worship Him, He will manifest His presence among us and reveal His glory to us. In His presence is the fullness of joy. The joy of the LORD is our strength! To be strong in the LORD and in His mighty power is the key to victorious living. So sing praises to His Name.

The following is known as the doxology (from the Greek doxa, glory + logos, word or speaking) is a short hymn of praise to God.

Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow; Praise Him, all creatures here below;

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host; Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Amazing Grace is a very well known hymn. Here are the lyrics:

Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound), that saved a wretch like me!

I once was lost, but now I’m found, was blind, but now I see.

‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved;

How precious did that grace appear, the hour I first believed!

Through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come;

‘Tis grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.

When we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun,

We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we’d first begun.

Whether you sing a hymn, a chorus or a contemporary song of praise — PRAISE THE LORD!

Gideon and the Midianites

19 Wednesday Jun 2013

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Gideon and the Midianites

Gideon and the hundred men with him reached the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just after they had changed the guard. They blew their trumpets and broke the jars that were in their hands. The three companies blew the trumpets and smashed the jars. Grasping the torches in their left hands and holding in their right hands the trumpets they were to blow, they shouted, “A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!” While each man held his position around the camp, all the Midianites ran, crying out as they fled.

When the three hundred trumpets sounded, the LORD caused the men throughout the camp to turn on each other with their swords. The army fled to Beth Shittah toward Zererah as far as the border of Abel Meholah near Tabbath. Judges 7:19-22

When will there be a great shout, the blowing of trumpets (shofars) and these jars of clay (our bodies) opened up to reveal the light inside (treasure in jars of clay)?

For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 1 Thessalonians 4:16

The supernatural defeat of the Midianites is a prophetic picture of the Rapture!

Where did the battle take place in which God defeated the Midianites?

The camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh (meaning teacher or teaching – where the ungodly are taught it is not by might or power that victory takes place).

The valley near the hill of Moreh is the valley of Jezreel which lies in the view of Megiddo – the location of the final battle of Armageddon!

The Midianites initially fled to Bet-shittah toward Zererah, (Shittah is the same acacia wood of which the ark was made).  So it could be translated: “the house of [acacia] wood of the tying/binding.” Or put another way, “the tying/binding of the house of the [acacia] wood.”

The army of the Midianites fled as far as Abel Meholah near Tabath, but in Hebrew it is: “Avel-Mecholah of Tavat” This can be translated: Avel = mourning, Mechola = affliction; and Tavat = slaying.  This can be put together as “the mourning of the afflicted one [on account of] the slaying.”

Then the leaders of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, Gideon pursued just past Sukkot toward the tower (migdal) Penuel.  So he was chasing these two kings from the place of the “booths/tabernacles” to the “watchtower [of the] face of God”.

The chronology –

1) The Midianites first fled to Beth Shittah (a picture of the First Advent):

“The house of wood of the tying/binding” – the crucifixion of the Messiah

(See – Genesis 22, known as the “Binding of Isaac”)

2) Then as far as Abel Meholah near Tabath (a picture of the Second Coming):

“The mourning of the afflicted one [on account of] the slaying” –

“And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.  Zechariah 12:10-11

3) Then Gideon pursued the leaders of the Midianites, Zebah and Zalmunna past Sukkot (a picture of The Millennial Reign of Messiah): “Booths/Tabernacles”

Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD Almighty, and to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.  Zechariah 14:16

4) Finally the enemies of God’s people were pursued to the tower of Penuel (a   picture of the White Throne Judgment of the unrighteous after the Millennium):

“Watchtower [of the] face of God”

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence (the face of God), and there was no place for them.

Revelation 20:11

Gideon and the Midianites – AN INCREDIBLE PROPHETIC PICTURE!!

To Him Who Overcomes

19 Wednesday Jun 2013

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To Him Who Overcomes

Revelation 1:9

I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus…

Revelation 2:7

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

Revelation  2:11

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death.

Revelation 2:17

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it.

Revelation 2:26

To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations–

Revelation 3:21-22

To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

Revelation 12:11

They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.

Mark 8:35

For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.

The message of the Book of Revelation is an exhortation to the church stand firm in the face of persecution, even if it means to be willing to die for the sake of the Gospel.

All the prophets from righteous Able to Jeremiah were slain. All of the original apostles except for John, who was exiled, were martyred. Jesus was crucified. The 1st century church was thrown to the lions or became torches in Nero’s court.

Revelation 1:3

Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.

Precious metal is refined by fire.