Pre-entry Purging Patterns (Part 1)

See the series here

Jesus Christ, The Lord God, LOVES repetitive patterns! Period. I recently began to perceive them as the equivalent of His ‘pictures on the box’ of His strategic puzzle pieces strewn across the pages and ages of The Bible. Scripture demonstrates two striking, opposite patterns that He apparently applies to nations, infrequently, to families, occasionally, and to individuals, frequently.

 

1. The Lord directly or indirectly purges individuals, families, societies and nations before allowing them to enter a new season of His peaceful blessing. ¹

2. Families, communities, or family-like groups purge individuals—but The Lord gleans the benefits. 

 

These are uniquely different, cousin-types of purging. One is initiated by The Lord; and the other is beneficial to achieving His purposes for us.

 

Divine Pre-entry Purging 

 

Throughout The Bible, The Lord, in various ways, declares and demonstrates that ALL  creation, including the Earth and everything therein, belong to, and are subject to Him (Psalm 24:1); that He gives and takes away breath to/from every living being (Deuteronomy 32:39); etc. He exercises His authority via His long-term Grace, and relatively short, intensive judgments against our sins (Jeremiah 9:23-24). Righteousness is His strategic purpose. 

 

Reflecting on this, I perceived an iterative pattern of Him exercising His authority:

 

Before any person or group of people (family, society, business, or nation)

enters into a period of His peaceful blessings, The Lord may purge them, using various kinds of judgments.—especially when there has been no sincere, effective repentance of sinfulness during His long periods of Grace. 

 

While we cannot perceive the details of when or how He applies this apparent pattern, here is what we should perceive and understand. Repentance is sincere, Godly sorrow over our sins, followed by demonstrated, sustained lifestyle changes that favor what The Lord calls, righteousness. That’s the strategic purpose of His Grace to us. Our general ignorance or denial of that point, leads us to abuse His Grace, unknowingly, and ergo, to pay the associated price!

 

Here are some pivotal examples of this pre-entry purging pattern:

• Salvation, itself, begins with purging. The Lord’s born-again requirements start with recognizing and repenting of sins. Only after true, Godly repentance does He spiritually apply His blood to wash away our sins. That purging qualifies us to enter into a special ‘sonship’ relationship with Father God, following which we enter into what I call His Salvation Internship Program, which lasts until death. ²

• With a global flood, The Lord purged Earth of the sins of the 1st age population. That purging qualified Noah and all ark occupants, to enter the 2nd age of our history, on a pristine, sin-free Earth.

• Before allowing them to enter extended seasons of relative peace, throughout history, The Lord has used wars between nations and groups of nations to purge societies.

• Before allowing the freed Hebrew slaves to enter the promised land, The Lord iteratively purged the young nation of Israel, beginning with the rebels who contested Moses’ leadership, and concluding with a 40-year wilderness judgment. That judgment purged the nation of all men of the first generation who refused to obey The Lord’s initial command to invade Canaan. That was the first of three pre-entry purging experiences for the descendants of Jacob.

• Before re-establishing Judah as a nation, The Lord iteratively purged all the Jews with 3 sieges by Babylon. After 70 years of captivity in Babylon, a Jewish remnant returned to Palestine to rebuild the temple and Jerusalem, establish Jewish life across Judea, and enjoy a period of extended peace.

• Before re-establishing modern Israel as a nation, The Lord allowed Jews across Europe and beyond, to experience various types of purging. Though most of us might deny The Lord’s Hand in what they experienced, His past and promised future purging of Jacob’s descendants are undeniable. 

• Before initiating His ‘forced peace/no wars’ Millennial Kingdom (in the 5th age of history), The Lord declares He will purge all Jews who will have survived the apocalypse. Only a minority (one-third) will remain to enjoy the benefits of His Millennial blessings—those who will embrace Him as The Messiah and The Lord God Almighty. (Zechariah 13:8–9). FYI, this will be a faint example of how Jacob’s family embraced Joseph who had risen from a falsely-condemned slave, to become the #2 ruler in ancient Egypt, long after his brothers, in a jealous rage, had sold him into slavery. (Genesis 37 – 47)  

In all these cases, The Lord first purged, then blessed. He cleanses, then opens doors to a new age, a new land, or a new season of relative peace. Our personal perspectives on this matter don’t matter to Him. Denying historical events that clearly fit His repetitive patterns, merely prevents us from learning His intended lessons. Our refusal to believe and learn, equates to what we call ‘history repeating itself’. Rather, it really is just successive generations refusing to perceive and learn pivotal, spiritual lessons.

 

So, which do you do:

deny, or perceive, believe and learn?

 

Stay tuned for Part 2

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¹ I intuit ‘societies’ likely include organizations, companies and corporations, as well.

² The errant notion, ‘once saved, always saved’, is not supported in Scripture. Rather, Paul labored to teach us about the conditions that come with the free gift of salvation. Moreover, in His letter to the Church at Laodicea, The Lord personally noted what would happen to believers who fail to meet His conditions. Please see: Revelation 3:14-22, Salvation, An Internship! (Poem), and Laodicean Lackadaisicalness (Series).

Useful Idiots! (Poem)

From presidents-to-paupers,

And everyone in between,

By presidents-and-paupers,

And evil spirits, unseen,

As useful idiot serfs,

We have all likely been screened! ¹

 

It seems, knowingly or un-,

Most of us were recruited,

Then prepped for more deception.

Few of us were unsuited,

And our tasks, we abandoned.

Most enjoy their conscription!

 

People who seem ‘above-board’,

Use other people to do,

Things considered ‘untoward’.

Neither group fears The One Who,

Will curse, or bless with rewards,

All, in this life, we will do! ²

 

Stop! 

Ask yourselves these questions:

By whom were we recruited,

Whether people or demons?

What tasks we’ve not resisted?

To whom are we beholden,

Useful idiot they’ve won?

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¹ Useful idiots - a derogatory term for a naive or credulous people who are unknowingly manipulated and deceived to advance a cause or political agenda; people who support a cause, but who are actually being exploited by its leaders or others. Yes, history and current events prove top leaders, even presidents, are not immune from this devilish trap. This becomes an ‘equal opportunity, 2-way street’ when people who are being manipulated, themselves find others to manipulate!

² Jesus Christ, The Lord God Who promises, and has demonstrated His power to bless or judge every righteous or unrighteous thing we say and do, in His own manner and timing.

Say 'Yes' to His Requests (Poem)

  

Friends,

If, in Christ you’re not mature,

How’s your ‘link’ with Him secured,

So His unctions, you’ll be sure,

Are from Him, with no allure?!

 

‘Test if spirits are from God’,

To avoid being whipsawed.

That’s advice from John, unflawed,

To avoid those that defraud! ¹

 

How, His Spirit, do you test,

So you’ll know His, …from the rest?!

Evil spirits love ‘to dress’,

As ‘The Lord’, so don’t just guess!

Knowing we can be deceived,

And, from Him, want to receive.

It’s The Lord they want to grieve,

When, by us, they are believed!

As The Lord’s ‘lambs’, we are meant,

To be ‘as wise as serpents’,

Yet also ‘dove-like’ agents!

To our minds, that makes no sense ! ²

But to spirits, good and not,

It’s a ‘Gordian trust-knot!’

Evil spirits are distraught,

Perceiving a juggernaut!!! ³

 

To them, that’s a conundrum,

With which they are accustomed!

Think how, to death, Christ succumbed.

Three days later, they were bummed!

 

‘Wise and dovish’, GREAT ADVICE,

How to live this Christian life!

Now let’s make it more precise,

With a tip learned from my life.

 

To vague ‘unctions’, just say, ‘Yes!’,

That will start the ‘unctions test’.

Beautified in ‘dovish dress’,

The Lord’s Spirit …to profess.

 

To ‘back burners’ of your mind,

Let those unctions be consigned.

There, where patience is refined,

There, her work will be ‘divined’. ⁴

 

‘Dove-like’ agents, serpent-wise,

That’s The Holy Spirit’s guise,

The Lord’s Kingdom, aggrandized!

That, The Bible certifies!

 

To vague requests, just say, ‘YES!’,

And to Christ, leave ALL the rest!

In His time, you’ll know what’s best,

How to proceed, Him to bless.

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¹ See: 1 John 4:1-3.

² See: Matthew 10:16. 

³ See: Gordian Knot. Think of a ‘Gordian trust-knot’, metaphorically, as a complex, Holy Spirit way to cloak Heaven’s strategies from on-looking demons and devils, who only seek to disrupt Heaven's plans for lives. Learn to trust The Holy Spirit as a child (childlike faith), and be patient for Him to clarify His strategies for you, so you will perceive what demons and devils can’t. 

⁴ This tip blends child-like, trusting faith, with patient dependence on The Holy Spirit’s wisdom. It signals to The Lord, ‘If this spiritual unction is from You, I’m signaling to You my trust and willingness to receive Your clarification and instructions about it, in Your timing.’

Israel, A Model (Part 3)

See the series here

A Review

 

The Lord selected Israel to be His model of a righteous nation, first, to all the nations and city states across the vast land of Canaan; and subsequently, to all future nations. He patiently equipped them to perform this role by painstakingly teaching Jacob’s early descendants His ways and requirements. But when the national cohesiveness and fidelity of subsequent generations increasingly waned, they eventually rejected the covenants their ancestors had entered into, and broke their intended special relationship with The Lord. That break initiated centuries long strife between Him and them, culminating in His decision to turn them over to their enemies to be killed and captured as slaves in foreign lands. But The Lord ‘stuck to His plan’ to become a man through a small remnant of that errant people—the remaining core tribes—Judah (with Benjamin’s remnant). Just over 3 decades after His birth as a man, Judah’s national leaders demanded for His crucifixion by Rome. They had considerable public support across, its capital, Jerusalem.

 

Neither the leaders nor general population of Judah ‘connected the dots’ between Heaven’s selection of their (post-Egypt) nation, and The Lord’s birth and crucifixion. The Bible reveals the core purpose of this selection was to serve as (1) a model nation of righteousness among observing nations, and (2) the ethnic group through which The Lord would be born as their Messiah and the Savior of the world. ¹ Thus, Jesus Christ was effectively the intended ‘fruit’ or culmination of their selection—the Seed He had predicted in Genesis 3:15.

 

Just as their centuries-earlier rejection of their selection initiated a long period of strife between Him and them, not by Israel’s causation, but by its representation, the same pattern of rejection spilled across all nations. History reveals the culmination of their rejection (i.e., His crucifixion) likewise initiated a much longer period of strife between Him and all nations! Here’s why…

Israel, A Model (Part 2)

See the series here

Reading Part 1 of this series, you may have wondered why it only discusses strategic patterns across The Bible, with no reference at all to Israel. My intent was to lay this  hopefully insightful foundation for Part 2: Repetitive patterns across history, especially those paraded in The Bible, serve as The Lord’s ‘pictures on the box’ of His ‘puzzle pieces’ strategy for humanity.

I perceive His intent is for us to recognize and study His repetitive patterns to discern Who He is, and to decipher what He intends us to learn about His plans for us, collectively and personally. Ignoring His ‘pictures on the box’, we mis-interpret life, mis-read history, and ergo, mis-understand and therefore reject His plan for us. Throughout its ancient history, and even today, Israel did this repeatedly, and continues to do so today. You might correctly think, ‘ALL nations have done that, so why focus on Israel?!’ Here’s why…

Israel, A Model (Part 1)

See the series here

The Lord Jesus is The MOST strategic-minded thinker ever! And that’s an understatement. Moreover, He has a BIG soft spot in His heart for humanity. That’s the spot from which His immeasurable GRACE emanates for and toward us. As our Creator, He knows our weak spots, and had planned for them in the ways He developed to connect with us. The kingpin of His plan is His Bible. In it, we learn He inspired the men who wrote it across the 1st and 2nd ages of our history. Then He carefully preserved it over the millennia, and raised up hegemon empires to play assigned roles to facilitate the unfolding of His GRAND strategy.

 

He knew we would think The Bible is too difficult for the average person to comprehend, and that most of us would give up, and delegate the study of it to professionals. And history proves, we have all paid a high price for that decision as it severed the deeply intimate personal links between Him and us, personally, as He had planned.

 

Repetitive Patterns