Troubling Times – 3-14-23

“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 14:6NKJV

RELATIONSHIP:         

Do you already have a relationship with a powerful God who cares about your every need because He loves you? Did you know my God can communicate with you and protect you – He has a plan for you to prosper if you just submit to His will and let His plan play out in your life!!! God wants a relationship with you and has already made a plan for your life. He loves you so much He sent His son to this world, to die as a sacrifice for your sins and rise from death with victory over sin and the ability to have a personal relationship with you.

Do you want to know truth? Be able to discern lies? Know how to figure it all out in these confusing times and have peace? The Bible says Jesus is the truth. I have experienced it and it has changed my life. I was once a hot mess of sin, promiscuity, drug and alcohol use and so much more. But I was lost and when I could not find my way, or find a truth, I numbed it with bad choses. When I found Jesus, and truth – I found peace and deliverance from those things.

If you want a relationship with God without truth you will get the counterfeit, hypocritical Christianity that has kept some of you away for too long. You need truth and relationship. You need to be honest with yourself and God (including honest repentance) and God will reveal truth to you. It becomes the two way, interaction that your relationship with God is built on. This is why Jesus is called the truth, because he is our only way to the Father. 

“If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” Romans 10:9-10 NIV
Here is a prayer for you to pray:
Jesus, I believe you are the way, the truth, the life, and the only way to the Father. I believe you are the son of God, you came to Earth and lived. That you died on the cross as a sacrifice for my sins, and rose again so that I may be saved from my sins and be able to get to know you. I declare: Jesus, you are Lord!
Therefore, I confess that I am a sinner and I ask that you forgive me of my sins and come into my life. Help me to turn away from my sins and transform me into what you have lovingly created me to be. Help me through a real personal relationship grow and accept your will for my life – that I may live in your blessings. Please walk with me, and talk with me – I accept a relationship with you and with our Father God, through you. In the name of Jesus I pray ~ Amen

BIBLE READING:

Dear Heavenly Father – Please give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of who you are, who Jesus is, and who the Holy Spirit is. Open the eyes of our understanding, please, so we may know the hope of our calling and the vast sovereignty and power of the grace of the cross. Please do not let us miss out on what you want and need from us today. Lord, I pray that your word prepares us and not scares us! We forbid the works and influences of fear over your word and our sound mind. And please keep us and bless us and shine your face upon us and pour out grace over us and give us peace! And we pray for the peace of Jerusalem! Thank you! – In Jesus name we pray, Amen

Today’s reading we will re-read the same passage in the Gospel of John, chapter 14 at verse 1 (embedded below for your convenience in the NKJV).

The Way, the Truth, and the Life

¹ “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. ² In My Father’s house are many ^[a]mansions; if it were not so, ^[b]I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. ⁴ And where I go you know, and the way you know.”
⁵ Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?”
⁶ Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

John 14:1-6 NKJV

MEMORY VERSE CHALLENGE:

“And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” Luke 4:8 KJV

BIBLE DISCUSSION:

As you know I write these at least a day before they are posted, often times I am a few days before. I have been sitting his struggling to put recent world events into order and I believe God doesn’t want me to speak on things unless in some way our reading is relevant.

I think future historians will lookback, should the Lord wait this out long enough for there to be future historians, and declare that World War III started in 2019 with an attack on the citizens of earth by a join effort from their governments. History would then reveal that the citizens, in mass, did not recognize the assault on them until a supernatural shaking of EVERYTHING that can be shaken occurred in 2023.  

The shaking started with the church leaders, and to my surprise God seemed to let many sleepers remain asleep and did not shake them. And once it was done, He stirred the hearts of the youth. Many called this the Asbury Revival, although if it was a revival or not, time will tell – by faith let us claim it is. Regardless, it birthed a longing for the presence of God. And that seems to have woke up many who slept and they feel they missed out and struggle to figure out where they fit in all this rapidly changing and shaking world. The battle trumpet was sounded and many believers heard the cry and found their place on their knees, in their secret places and prayer closets, and in a life of worship.

Today, let us talk about the slowest moving shock wave and second biggest banking crash in the history of the USA! Friday, end of business, the Silicon Valley Bank collapsed! On Sunday Signature Bank (a NY bank that is a leader in cryptocurrency) followed and became the third largest bank collapse in US history!  What did we think it would look like if EVERYTHING that can be shaken will be shaken? If this has or has not affected you today – do not fear! That is what the enemy wants. You see he thinks he is destroying finances and wealth to inhibit the move of God. What he fails to realize is that God is using this to raise up his army of lions!

In Haggai we’ve read that God said, “The silver is mine and the gold is mine”. Printed notes representing currency has no value and they are vulnerable to the enemy. Granted all the funds that I perceive I have are in these notes held up in banks. Do not worry. Eyes on the provider and not the provisions.

I have been open and honest about my struggles with that over the last two years. Yet here I am in a warm house with food in my belly and a loving Father that meets needs. He also still goes above and beyond. So like Peter stepped out in the storm and walked on water – so should we. In this storm, we are safe as long as we keep our eyes on Jesus and the Father and filled with the Holy Spirit.

Jesus is the only way to heaven – and He is the only way to survive this shaking. Jesus is the truth – so when they say finances and provisions have collapsed, we know the truth is that the Father is the provisions, not the world’s systems. Despair in the coming days will bring death to many, be extra loving and tender as our Father is to us. Our Father gave us life through Jesus and we need to share life with others!

“¹ “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.”

The disciples were facing troubles: Jesus Himself was about to be hung on a cross. Earthquakes, walking dead, and the curtain in the temple was about to be ripped up! Then persecution and death to most of them before the prophecy of Jerusalem’s fall came to be in the year 70!
From Stephen’s death in acts chapter 7, the church was never going back to their financial systems, their social systems, or the old religious systems. (Although, the disciples had long since left those systems and had not even realized it.)
It was critical that before all of this – the disciples needed to be grounded in and solid in their belief in God and in Jesus!! When your heart is troubled – BELIEVE. Nothing else. No magic formula. Nothing to do by way of good works. Just believe!  

“² In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.”

It has always seemed like a leap that Jesus would switch gears mid-paragraph and talk about mansion lined streets of gold. So I realized as I got older that I had missed something! AND something BIG I did miss!
Revelations says we get to heaven and have a worship party then jump on horses and ride into battle (where we show up and instantly the opponent dies). It talks about taking turns standing in front of the judgment seat. It talks about the new heaven and new earth. So if we are not spending a lot of time in heaven why is he building huge lavish houses for us?
In Greek the word mansion just means resting place. But that really over simplifies it and doesn’t give us the bigger mean of why this verse even exists after the command to believe and not be troubled.

“For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” 2 Cor. 5:1 NKJV

Here is one of the two other places this word is used in the New Testament. In this verse we understand “this tent” to be our body – and if it is destroyed we receive a new one in heaven.

So if this is the same word – then Mansions are literally God just preparing all the details of heaven for us, including our new flesh.

It is also found again in this chapter of John where it is translated to home:
“Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.” John 14:23

So this new flesh has something to do with Jesus living with us. But we know God only dwells in tabernacles and temples and isn’t heaven just one big temple?

The word mansion ALSO occurs in once place in a book called 1 Maccabees. This book is not canonized in the King James or other popular versions of the Bible. But it is included in the Hebrew Scriptures that are studied; even Jesus studied the books of Maccabees when He was a child.
In 1 Maccabees 7:38 it says: “…give them not and abode” which is the same Greek word “mansions” – meaning resting place or dwelling.  

All of this to say a mansion is not a physical place like a house or temple – but it is the actual word for when we become the resting place for God – He dwells in us. God does not dwell in heaven… He dwells in and with us! He abides with us.

Imagine if you will that your Pastor and family invited themselves over to your house for dinner on Sunday. Honestly, how much cleaning would you do? What would you hide? Well, the One who is greater, abides with you, shouldn’t you live like it? He has eliminated the temple and we care the mansion, the place of communion!

“³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”

Jesus had to go – go through death and sin to destroy it and prepare our ability to join Him in heaven where God Can have many dwelling places – many of us to live in!

“⁴ And where I go you know, and the way you know.”

Time to take the Bible literal! Jesus IS the way and they know Jesus. You and I are getting to know Jesus, (Jesus is the word and we are studying it!) Therefore we also know the Way – because we know Jesus and He is the way!

“⁵ Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?”
⁶ Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

Now if we know Jesus, in deep communion in a mansion kind of way – He is in us and leads us to the Father who wants to dwell with us eternally with our new body mansioned together with God the Father.

Now let us go back to where we started:
“¹ “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.”

Why would we be troubled? If our bank collapses, it happens also to Jesus within me and God! They are not standing on the sidelines watching these things happening to us – they are here sharing it. Why do we always think they are so far away when we are going through the storm? Jesus even walked on water to go be near the disciples while they were in trouble – He never leaves us or forsakes us, because He lives in us!

Why be troubled – just believe. Just Psalm 91 yourself into the secret place… that place is a mansion… a dwelling, resting place, where we can abide together in worship, enveloped in love and communing intimately with Him. Invite Him in!! Invite God’s presence into you and your home and your space!

Why be troubled – we have Jesus and God and they are not just on our side!!! We all live together in this!

Please join us tomorrow as we continue to discuss the Book of John.

On a side note. I am now also making Christian T-Shirts!! Some of you have reached out in interest of blessing me, however, these studies are made available free! Freely I received and freely I give. However, If God is moving you to bless me, be blessed with a t-shirt as well. T-shirts and other merch are for sale now. (As well as some other fun things people have asked me for.) Right now they are only available for sale and shipping in the USA (free shipping). I will need to learn more about international commerce in order to sell internationally. The link is on the Facebook page with examples of some of the products – I encourage you to follow this blog over there as well. And I’ll give you the link to the Christian T’s and my other silly designs here as well: https://www.etsy.com/shop/JessicasSillyStuff
On Facebook I am explaining which verse each one came from. This makes these a powerful encouragement for others as well as a clean word, and least offensive, means to open a conversation and share the good news (without soliciting or preaching). Although there is a time and place for that, you catch more flies with Honey – we are drawn to Jesus because of His love! I hope you enjoy them!

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I also wanted to remind and inform all of you, that instead of writing a book on fasting (since it is the topic I get asked the most about) I have created a Facebook group that is designed to be interactive and give you all the Bible verses on fasting, all the types of fast, and how to fast. In the group are specialist to help us along the way, like the creator of The Fasting Protocol (fasting for health and weight loss; which is part of fasting and important to know about – He can also speak to fasting in a healthy manner). The group is new and other experts are invited, I am hopeful they will join. So let’s join the group and see what we will learn about prayer and fasting. Here is the link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/509149707741862

Thank you for reading in 2023 – a Year of Grace and Provision
May the God of peace keep you and bless you. May you stay focused on Christ and covered in grace. Walk in wisdom.
Maranatha ~ Come Lord Jesus!

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