The Kingdom of God!

 

Chapter 78

 

 

 

The life we now have is a progressing, growing, conquering life - the LIFE OF THE AGES. It is life that has come by the quickening of our spirit by His Spirit, giving a new beginning, and the potential to become, in due time, all that He is. But I am sure all of us must confess that there is much progress to be made in our lives and much growth and much transformation to be experienced yet before we stand in Him in the fullness of that life that needs no change and no further development.

 

Only faintly now do our eyes behold the splendor of that ETERNAL REALM which lies before us, but if we approach softly with reverence and Godly fear, the Lord of glory will meet us and will be a Father unto us and we shall be the Sons of God in whom the Father shall unfold the fullness of His life, mind, will and glory. Paul told Timothy in 1 Tim,

 

"Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto you are also called, and have professed a good profession before many witnesses."

 

By FAITH we lay hold of the eternal life that has been deposited within us.  However, this is not a name it and claim it proposition. The laying hold on eternal life kind of faith is this.  We know that, as the continual unveiling of His Word to our understanding renews our minds, we are being changed into His Image.  This is a process that He puts each of us through to purge us from the world.  This process cannot be bypassed by Faith. Jesus said, "Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting  ( aionian) fire "  The Bible in Modern English by Farrar Fenton reads, "And these He will dismiss into a LONG CORRECTION."

 

Rotherham's New Testament says, "These shall go away into age-abiding correction."

Young's Literal translation says, "And these shall go away to punishment age-during."

 

How sobering are these meaningful words of truth,

 

"And He shall set the sheep on the RIGHT HAND, but the goats on the LEFT. Then shall the King say unto them on His RIGHT HAND, Come, you blessed of My Father...then shall He say also unto them on the LEFT HAND, Depart from Me, you cursed!"

 

But just what or who are these TWO HANDS OF GOD? The two hands of God represent two aspects of God's dealings, two ways in which He moves and acts to accomplish His purposes. We can readily see from the parable of the sheep and the goats that God deals through both POSITIVE and NEGATIVE forces. The right hand of God speaks of God moving and acting through POSITIVE FORCES, while the left hand of God denotes God moving and acting through NEGATIVE FORCES. A key to this vital truth is found in the words of David in Ps. 111:7-8, (NIV) wherein he states,

 

"The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy. They are established for ever and ever, enacted in faithfulness and uprightness."

 

KJV says,

 

^"The works of his hands are verity and judgment; all his commandments are sure.  They stand fast forever and ever and are done in truth and uprightness."

 

God has two hands, one of verity, and one of judgment. The word "verity" is, actually in the Hebrew, the word for TRUTH. It means the quality or state of being true. Thus, we see with one hand He is bringing forth truth and with the other hand His judgment. He is moving to bring us into harmony with truth. What beautiful co-ordination in all the works of His hands! Every time God initiates a new phase of His purpose, He then brings forth the measures needed to bring us into alignment with that purpose. If He can do this through POSITIVE forces, He will, in the dealing of His right hand. But if corrective measures are needed, He will stretch forth His left hand and bring negative forces into action to teach us the necessary lesson. How often we pray for God to stretch forth His right hand of VERITY because we are hungry for blessing and truth, and He graciously imparts.

 

THE LEFT HAND OF GOD

 

That "all things are of God" is declared over and over again in the Bible. Did not the Lord say to Pharaoh, that wicked man of rebellion against all that was of God Rom 9:17,

 

"I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth."

 

These carnal little heads of ours cannot ascertain the infinite wisdom of God's mind. God is in all things, and is responsible for all things, including all the so-called evil things as well as good things. Is it not a fearful thing to say that evil is of God? There is nothing fearful about this view unless the TRUTH is fearful! I would not be surprised if some of the compatriots of the prophet Amos may have thought he was speaking blasphemy when by the Holy Spirit he said in Amos 3:6,

 

"Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there be EVIL in a city, and THE LORD HAS NOT DONE IT?"

 

There are untold millions of Christians who do not like to believe that ALL THINGS ARE OF GOD - including evil. They much prefer to believe, as the harlot system has taught them, that God created good, and the devil created evil! Why, Oh why can men not believe the simple, unvarnished Word of God? We even have God's own Word for it - His positive statement that HE CREATES EVIL. Isaiah 45:7 says,

 

 "That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that THERE IS NONE BESIDE ME. I am the Lord, and there is none else. I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and CREATE EVIL. I THE LORD DO ALL THESE THINGS"

 

And in Isaiah 54:16-17,

 

"See, it is I who created the blacksmith who fans the coals into flame and forges a weapon fit for its work. And it is I who have created the destroyer to work havoc; no weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and this is their vindication from me," declares the LORD."

 

Brother Dave, are you trying to tell me that God creates evil? No!  God is trying to tell you that He does.  He is sovereign! There is no other sovereign in all of creation. I have shown to you what God, Himself, said about this.  Now, what are you going to do with this information? More than likely, you are going to have to change your understanding of this and admit that God is guilty. No amount of trying to get around this can change what He has said about it.

 

You say, "Surely it cannot mean that GOD creates evil, sin, sinners, devils, famines, pestilence's, calamities, judgments, wrongdoing!"  The word here for 'evil' is the Hebrew word 'ra' which is used throughout the Old Testament to denote wickedness, sin, and all other evil things.  In some five hundred passages it is so used!  You must realize that it solves most all problems to realize that all the forces of good and evil are directly under the HAND and CONTROL of God. Then we can see that God has PURPOSE in it all, and that no evil forces can ever go beyond the bounds of the limits set by God to accomplish His purpose. It is not even a question of how much God PERMITS. The fact is that God creates just the right amount and kind of evil in order to bring His will to pass fully and completely in all He does.

 

But let us UNDERSTAND! The good that God uses COMES OUT FROM GOD. Also, the evil that God uses is CREATED by God only for the purpose that He has for it. The Bible states that God IS GOOD, IS LIFE, IS LIGHT, etc. Nowhere does the Bible say that God IS EVIL, only that He CREATES evil. There is a vast difference. Once having been used of God, He then brings it to naught, or as is often said in the bible, "It came to pass!"

 

One of the fundamental laws of creation is that an OPPOSING FORCE is necessary for growth, and to produce strength, stamina, and endurance. Any living thing that grows up without any opposition is weak and powerless. God's NEW CREATION must be strong and powerful, and anything that desires to be strong, or anyone, must wrestle with a force that is contrary to them. Any man, who wants to develop muscular power and be strong, must spend weeks and months and years in vigorous training doing heavy exercises, lifting heavy weights, using the OPPOSING FORCE of gravity to DEVELOP HIS STRENGTH.

 

A plant that grows in the greenhouse sheltered from the winds and rains, pampered day after day, may grow large, but it is inherently weak, and if suddenly exposed to the elements will wither and die. But a plant that is constantly exposed to the fierce winds and pounding rains, burning heat and chilling cold, is strong and not easily destroyed. Likewise, if we would be the SONS OF THE MOST HIGH, we must be STRONG in the Lord and in the power of HIS might!

 

Our Father wants us to be strong, so He has wisely given us WRESTLING PARTNERS to wrestle with, so we will become strong.   These are NEGATIVE FORCES (thank God for them!) that come from the LEFT HAND of God.  Some of these adverse things are the principalities and powers in the heavenlies. Paul said in Eph 6:12,

 

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in heavenly places"

 

There is a great and magnificent future ahead for the Sons of God and a great work our Father has for us to do in the ages to come and He is preparing us and making us ready for the high and holy place He has for us. Can we not see that ALL THE NEGATIVE OPPOSING FORCES WE NOW ENCOUNTER are working together for our good - to develop the strength, character, wisdom, and power we must have? The chastening and judgments of God, too, are negative, though they do bring forth a positive result.  The positive work of God from the realm of His right hand lies in the inner anointing, guidance, enlightening, etc., and in the fivefold ministries. The Lord has set these in the body for our exhortation, edification, and comfort.

 

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However, there is the work of purging, pruning, discipline, dealing, and training that must be fulfilled in each and every one of God's Sons. The positive work of God is wrought directly by the Holy Spirit within or by the Spirit through His anointed ministries.  The negative work of God is brought about by Satan, his co-horts, his instruments, and the whole negative realm of evil. All the people, things, and happenings used in the chastening and judgments of God are of Satan's manipulation.

 

For example, if someone is opposing us and causing us trouble, this opposition or trouble is directly the work of Satan. Again, a thief who steals our money, or a fire which burns down our house, is the work of the adversary. If someone is obstinate, rebellious and sins against God, and as a result becomes seriously ill, this sickness is a work of the devil. Therefore, all the people, things, and happenings involved in the discipline and judgment of God are measured to us by God according to our need. But the one who is manipulating and acting upon us to harm us is Satan. Actually, if you want to study this deeper, James said in James 1:13-17,

 

"Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither temps he any man: but every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."

 

The whole problem is caused by our mistaken identity and the double mindedness we have. We see the left hand of God revealed in the life of Job. God had blessed this man with great wealth and a large family. He had seven sons and three daughters; He owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she-asses. His household was very great with many hired servants so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east. The only reliable testimony we have of Job's true state of being is that spoken by the Lord Himself, and HE declared that Job was a PERFECT AND UPRIGHT MAN, one that feared God and eschewed evil.

 

Perfect yes, but UNTRIED, UNTESTED, and UNPROVEN, as Job himself witnessed in the midst of his ordeal, declaring, "He knows the way that I take: when He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold" (Job 23:10). His perfection remained to be fully proven, tested, and demonstrated. Now, what does God do but deliberately hand over this perfect man into the hands of Satan to do his worst upon him.  It was because God desired to test Job that He brought forth "the smith to blow the coals upon the fire."

 

Please note that it was not Satan's idea to persecute poor old Job!  Oh, no! It was God Himself who brought up the subject! There Satan was, presenting himself before the Lord, appearing for duty, and God asked, "Where have you been?" Satan replied, "Walking up and down in the earth" (no mention of Job at all).  "Well, Satan," the Lord asked, "Have you considered My servant Job? Have you noticed that he eschews evil and fears God?

 

You can be assured that Satan HAD noticed Job, but he wasn't doing anything to him. Satan responds, saying, "Have You not made a hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth Your HAND now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse You to Your face!"

 

Did Satan ask permission to put forth his OWN HAND and touch Job? Not at all!  He said, YOUR HAND," or "God, you put forth YOUR HAND and touch him."  But he challenged God to stretch out HIS HAND and that if HE touched Job and took away his blessing, Job would curse Him to His face. And the Lord said unto Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in YOUR POWER; only upon himself put not forth YOUR HAND."

 

Can we not see by this that Satan was the NEGATIVE FORCE through which GOD WAS MOVING UPON JOB.  Is it not clear that this was the LEFT HAND of God as He was working with Job to bring him into yet a higher place than he had occupied before? Though Satan moved swiftly against Job, GOD WAS DOING THIS and His intention was to do Job good.  This was not Satan acting out his own little plan in rebellion against God, but his authority to do this came only as God allowed him to act!

 

In the second chapter of Job we find all this repeated. Again, the sons of God have come before God to report on their activities, and again Satan comes among them. Again, Job is presented to Satan by God as a perfect and upright man. I now quote from Job 2:4-6.

 

"And Satan answered the Lord and said, Skin for skin, yea all that a man has will he give for his life. But put forth YOUR HAND now and touch his bone and his flesh and he will curse You to Yopur face. And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, he is in YOUR HAND; but save his life."

 

Now Job's body will be wracked with disease and tortured with pain, and he will lose his reputation before all men. His good works will be forgotten, and he will become the object of ridicule from those who were formerly his friends. I would like to draw your attention to the magnificent words which reveal Job's reaction to all this. Job 2:9-10 says,

 

 "Then said his wife unto him, Do you still retain your integrity? Curse God and die! But he said unto her, You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. What? shall we receive good at the HAND OF GOD and shall we not receive evil? IN ALL THIS DID NOT JOB SIN WITH HIS LIPS"

 

Notice! Job never did recognize any such person as Satan in all his trouble.  He recognized ONLY GOD in this and said that even as he had received good from the HAND OF GOD was it not logical that he should receive EVIL ALSO FROM GOD?

 

What faith! What marvelous UNDERSTANDING! Job actually attributes all this evil to the work of God. He doesn't even recognize Satan as doing anything, no sitting on the ash heap moaning, "The old devil has been after me all week!"  It will be an appalling shock to many precious people to learn that in ALL this Job did NOT SIN with his lips!

 

We have every right to conclude from this that Job was speaking the absolute truth when he attributed all this evil to God.  What he had said was right in the sight of God. No place did the Lord rebuke Job for his words in any way. In fact, in the end of the experience God said that Job had spoken RIGHTLY of Him, and ALL OTHERS HAD NOT.

Job said in Job 19:21,

 

  "Have pity upon me, All of you my friends: for the HAND OF GOD HAS TOUCHED ME" 

 

Whose hand touched him? The hand of God! WHICH hand of God? Why, beloved, it was the LEFT HAND of God! Job knew that the hand of God had not been laid upon him for good, but for evil.  Prior to this experience, Job had known nothing but the RIGHT HAND of God in good and blessing, in the anointing of God.

 

The nominal Church organization and its preachers try to make us believe that Satan conspired to do all this to poor old Job by his own design.  But the truth is that it was God and Satan was only the LEFT HAND of God, or the negative means God used.

 

The nominal Church has no knowledge at all of what they are talking about because they know nothing of the ways and the workings of God. They have exalted Satan to godhood, giving HIM the glory for all he does, and, indeed, in most things, they attribute more power to him and praise him more than they do God!  Ignorantly these foolish ones talk about poor little God "trying" to do this and that, while the shrewder and smarter devil slips up on God's blind side and demolishes His whole work. Rubbish! Don't believe for one moment that anything in all God's great universe in not in the control of HIS HANDS or part of His plan.

 

God IS GOD, He IS in full control of every sphere of activity, and Satan himself is under the province of God. May the blessed Holy Spirit enlighten our minds to perceive the truth that Satan has no power at all except that which God delegates to him. If you believe that Satan is a problem to Almighty God, then your God is entirely too small! It is true that those who would be Sons of God MUST OVERCOME HIM. But when that purpose is accomplished, you will have been fully dealt with by God's LEFT HAND so that you might be exalted to a place of eminence, glory, and power at GOD'S RIGHT HAND! Hallelujah!

 

The left hand of God is manifested through a people who are in the kingdom of darkness. The right hand of God is likewise revealed through a people, the Sons of the Kingdom. Thank God! we are not called to be a part of the left-hand company.

 

Paul said in Col. 3:1-2.

 

"If you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, WHERE CHRIST SITS ON THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth"

 

Jesus said in Rev 3:21,

 

"Him that overcomes will I grant to sit WITH ME IN MY THRONE, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne"

 

Psalms 118:15-16 says,

 

 "The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous: the RIGHT HAND of the Lord does valiantly, the RIGHT HAND of the Lord is exalted"

 

Although at this time there is humiliation and suffering, there is coming a time of exaltation, already experienced within.   Although today it seems as though not much is happening outwardly, yet there is a time approaching when GOD'S RIGHT-HAND COMPANY shall step forth in the fullness of the power of HIS THRONE and there shall be a manifestation of the "greater works" Jesus spoke of. When on earth, the firstborn Son suffered reproach and finally death - but where is He now? Exalted to the RIGHT HAND of the Father, far above all principalities and powers, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but in that which is to come. He passed through a season of shame and reproach, but dwells now in a glory that can never fade. And there is a place with Him and in Him for all who overcome, a place of glory and eminence and power at the right hand of God for all who move on into God!

 

However, there are times that He disciplines us with His left hand. Paul said in Heb:12:1-11, (NIV)

 

 ""In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says, "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son."

 " Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined,and everyone undergoes discipline,then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all.

 

 "Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness.

 "No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it."

 

If you have trouble accepting the fact that God is going to reconcile all people to Himself, go to the sermon that Jesus gave on the Mount in Matt. 5-7 and meditate on what the Lord said about His Father.

 

On the political front, Sidney Powell posted this,

 

A judge in Pennsylvania has ruled that the use of mail-in ballots during the 2020 election was unconstitutional. The Pennsylvania constitution does not allow for the legislature to make this law. To add mail-in voting, the judge advised an amendment, voted on by the people. This is a small victory in the long war to achieve voter integrity. There are many battles being waged.

 A Pennsylvania court Friday struck down Act 77, the 2019 law that among other changes established no-excuse mail-in voting in the state.

Commonwealth Court Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt concluded in her majority opinion Friday that Pennsylvania's legislature did not have the constitutional authority to change the state's strict absentee voting requirements.

Pennsylvania's constitution requires votes to be cast in person, unless certain requirements are met, Leavitt wrote: "No-excuse mail-in voting makes the exercise of the franchise more convenient and has been used four times in the history of Pennsylvania," Leavitt explained,

"Approximately 1.38 million voters have expressed their interest in voting by mail permanently," she added.

"If presented to the people, a constitutional amendment to end the ... requirement of in-person voting is likely to be adopted. But a constitutional amendment must be presented to the people and adopted into our fundamental law before legislation authorizing no-excuse mail-in voting can 'be placed upon our statute books.'"

All factions, at certain points, succumb to the impulse to censor. But for the Democratic Party's liberal adherents, silencing their adversaries has become their primary project.

QUOTE: American liberals are obsessed with finding ways to silence and censor their adversaries. Every week, if not every day, they have new targets they want de-platformed, banned, silenced, and otherwise prevented from speaking or being heard (by "liberals," I mean the term of self-description used by the dominant wing of the Democratic Party).

QUOTE: The emerging campaign to pressure Spotify to remove Joe Rogan from its platform is perhaps the most illustrative episode yet of both the dynamics at play and the desperation of liberals to ban anyone off-key. It was only a matter of time before this effort really galvanized in earnest. Rogan has simply become too influential, with too large of an audience of young people, for the liberal establishment to tolerate his continuing to act up. 

QUOTE: In sum, censorship, once the province of the American Right during the heyday of the Moral Majority of the 1980s, now occurs in isolated instances in that faction. In modern-day American liberalism, however, censorship is a key tenet of their religion.

They simply cannot accept the idea that anyone who thinks differently or sees the world differently than they should be heard. That is why there is much more at stake in this campaign to have Rogan removed from Spotify than whether this extremely popular podcast host will continue to be heard there or on another platform.

If liberals succeed in pressuring Spotify to abandon their most valuable commodity, it will mean nobody is safe from their petty-tyrant tactics. But if they fail, it can embolden other platforms to similarly defy these bullying tactics, keeping our discourse a bit freer for just awhile longer.

A frustrating aspect of life in the 2000s is that rarely are bad politicians held accountable for their horrible decisions and actions against the American people.

With that in mind, we will not forget those who have destroyed a generation and an economy with brainless mandates, lockdowns, masking, and vaccines. There is no way to be exonerated from these continued dictatorial efforts. Unquote!