In the first two postings of this series we laid the foundation for directing the praise of men toward God through obedience. Though this information is vital, it is useless unless we 1) understand exactly what it is we must obey in order for God to be praised for our obedience and 2) show the observable, material results of God’s blessings upon us for obeying His Law. The true saint’s obedience alone does not bring glory to God because obedience is not known by other people. As Leviticus 26: 1-13 and Deuteronomy 28:1-14 make abundantly clear, it is God’s BLESSINGS FOR OBEDIENCE that bring glory to Him. Here He makes it clear that it is His desire to materially bless His true saints. Otherwise, why did He promise those blessings? It is His desire that the Gentile world see how He treats His true saints and, upon seeing His treatment of them, embrace Him. Recall that a “mixed multitude” of Gentiles embraced Him and left Egypt with the Israelites after watching Him perform miracle after miracle which caused Pharoah to let the Israelites go (Exo. 12:38). Recall that during King David’s reign Israel was the most powerful, most prosperous nation on earth at that time. So famous was Israel that, during the reign of David’s son Solomon, people were coming from distant lands to see the majesty and glory of the Israelite people who were being richly blessed by God for their obedience to His Law. In First Kings 10:1-10 we find recorded the reaction of the Queen of Sheba who came from a great distance to see the wonders of Israel. So impressed was she that “there was no more spirit left in her” (vs 5). Both David and Solomon gave credit for the nation’s success, power and abundance to God, thereby bringing Him glory.

But then Solomon departed from God and drew most of the people into idolatry with him. As a result, Israel came to resemble the miserable heathen nations whom Solomon had embraced by marrying heathen women and allowing them to bring their religious beliefs and practices to Israel with them. Solomon led Israel to worship and serve their gods, even to the point of sacrificing their children to them. As the Scriptures reveal, Israel’s sins grew so onerous that she eventually split into two nations over taxation. Over time both segments of Israel were defeated by their heathen neighbors, multitudes were slaughtered, survivors were enslaved and eventually scattered throughout the earth where they remain to this day with the exception of approximately one third of the world’s Jewish population who occupy the nation falsely called “Israel” today. Their Biblical name is Judah. The glory of Israel is gone because she does not embrace the Giver of the Law they put forth as proof that they are God’s people. The Jews (tribes of Judah and Benjamin), along with the world’s so-called Christian nations, will, like their Israelite ancestors, go down in defeat through a great slaughter. Those who survive will be sent throughout the world as slaves in the countries who defeated them. They will be bought and sold like animals. God has declared it, therefore it shall be.

As the Scriptures tell us many times, believing in God and Christ, recognizing what they did and are doing, believing what They promised to do in the future, etc. are all important. However, those who pay strict attention to what it is we must obey know that there are literally hundreds of different opinions relative to exactly what it is we are commanded to do and not to do. This in spite of the God-spoken fact that there is only ONE GOSPEL, ONE TRUTH, ONE CHURCH, ONE GOD, ONE CHRIST AND ONE PLAN OF SALVATION (Eph. 4:4). And that ONE CHURCH–god’s family–is not what calls itself “the church” today. That two-headed, multi-bodied, man-directed, Satan-empowered, conflicting, contradicting, Law-hating religious morass is an abomination to God and Christ. That there is only one family of God is carefully laid out in the Holy Scriptures. That ONE CHURCH is tiny, politically powerless, socially ignored and spiritually rejected by every one of the cults that make up professing Christendom. The Lord knew this would be the case, which is why He promised to be in their midst when only “two or three are gathered together” in His name (Mat. 18:20). I know this is true for two reasons: 1) He said it and 2) this has been my experience for many years. Since I came to Athens, Texas in 1985 there have been only five people in this area, including the city itself, who have embraced God’s Truth which I have proclaimed in print and on radio.

Is there a nation being blessed by God today? No, not one. Why? Sin, rebellion, rejection and even hatred of God, as proved by the rejection of His Law/Word/Truth/Light (Lk. 10:16). Read all of Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 28 and First John 3:1-11 to learn exactly WHY GOD IS CURSING EVERY NATION ON EARTH TODAY, WITH SPECIAL VITRIOL FOR THE CHURCHES WITHIN THEM. God governs His true saints by His Law, which He kindly condensed into the Ten Commandments.

First and foremost on the list of groups who rebel against Him is the Catholic/Protestant Religious System, commonly called “the church.” Why is this system such an abomination to the Lord? Because she claims to know the way to salvation, but entices the vast majority of salvation seekers to join her by entering Satan’s wide gate (church) and walking his broad way (doctrines) that leads to death (Mat. 7:13,14). Looking ahead, Jesus lamented that few God seekers would answer His call to enter His strait gate and walk His narrow way leading to the Kingdom of God. (Mat. 7:13,14; 22:14). This is not new information. Man has had thousands of years to learn about what is coming on the earth and how to spiritually prepare for it.

In the Book of Daniel God uses a series of dreams and visions to reveal that in the distant future the world would become a caldron of terror, death and destruction unlike anything mankind will have ever experienced. The events leading up to that fateful time, and what will take place during that time, were written on a scroll. Daniel told the Lord that he understood neither what he had been told nor what he had seen, all of which he had recorded and sealed. The Lord informed him the contents of the book was not for him or anyone else to understand until “the time of the end.” In Daniel 12:10 the Lord said to him about the end of the age: “The wicked will not understand (what is happening and why), but those who are wise will understand,” for “God does not act unless He first reveals His secrets to his servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7). It is only in the last few decades that God has opened the eyes of His people to the meaning of Daniel’s Book and John’s writings in The Revelation which go hand-in-hand in describing the final years of this age. Through the Books of Daniel and Revelation God’s true saints have learned what His end-time church must know in order to prepare for the end of the world as we know it.

God told the Prophet Isaiah exactly how the wise would understand what had happened, what was happening in their day, what would happen in the final days of the world. As I have said many times, EVERYTHING GOES BACK TO THE WORD/LAW/TRUTH/LIGHT OF GOD–THE HOLY BIBLE. Isaiah tells us how to prepare for those days in 28:9-13: “Whom can He (God) teach knowledge? and whom can He make to understand (His) doctrine (Words)? They who are weaned from the milk (elementary teachings) and removed from the breast (the church). God tells us that these are they who will study precept upon (added to) precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little. Note that God had Isaiah REPEAT His study rules. As Joseph told Pharoah in Genesis 41:32, when God shows you something twice, that means it is settled. The Lord has given me two such double messages by way of incredibly realistic visions. Each one materialized exactly as He showed me they would end–in the deaths of two very religious church people. In a double, in living color, dream He showed me something that was going to three people in my life. All three have gone the way He said they would–away from Him. All three are very religious in the church sense. The dreams tell me that they will die in their sins.

Read Hebrews 5:11-6:6 for the Apostle Paul’s description of church people who refuse to leave the milk stage of the Christian walk. These, whom God calls “babes,” are those who choose to remain on the church’s “breast milk” supplied by their hirelings who warn them to stay away from God’s Biblical “strong meat” provided by those outside of the Institutional Church. Read “My People Who Are Called By My Name.” Key word–Called.

Because of their rejection of God’s church and way, He has the same relationship with church people that He has with the non-churched. His “voices” are “heard” by both groups. Read The “Voices” of God. Key word–“Voices.” Both groups feel the brunt of God’s curses to the same degree, in the same way and for the same reason–sin–“the transgression of the Law” (1 Jn. 3:4). The two groups’ reactions to God’s “voices” are the same–more sin–which brings on more curses. In the eyes of the Lord, there is no difference between the churched and the non-churched. Note that He used the heathen to defeat and enslave His chosen people. He will do the same thing to professing Christendom in the near future. My GUESS is within eight years there will be no true Christians to be found and no Bibles in existence. All saints will be living in one place, an area in the nation of Jordan.

QUESTION: WHERE IS THE PRAISE GOD IS SUPPOSED TO BE RECEIVING BECAUSE OF HIS BLESSINGS BEING POURED OUT ON THOSE WHO CLAIM TO SERVE HIM? ANSWER: HE IS NOT BLESSING CHURCH PEOPLE, NOR IS HE BLESSING THE NATIONS IN WHICH THEY LIVE. WHY? BECAUSE NEITHER THE CHURCH NOR THE NATIONS OBEY HIM. BOTH HAVE SOWN THE WIND AND ARE BEGINNING TO REAP THE WHIRLWIND. THE WORLD IS NOW EXPERIENCING “THE BEGINNING OF SORROWS” (MAT. 24:8).

I believe that God is going to give the world one last chance to turn from her wickedness and to Him. I believe that what we are seeing in Washington, D.C. is the BEGINNING of His expose` of the wickedness that exists within America’s political system. In the process I believe He will expose those in power for who and what they are–America-hating, God-hating Marxists who want the United States to become part of a one-world communist dictatorship. I believe that there will be a turn to God as happened following 9-11. I believe that God will place Donald Trump back in the presidency in order to turn the nation around economically, militarily, politically, etc. A so-called “Jesus revival” is already on the move. If Israel is our example (and she is), the so-called “revival” will not last long. As did our Israelite ancestors, this people will quickly return to religious business as usual.

Because of God’s saints’ voices and walks of light which expose the darkness of those around them, I believe that a time is coming when true saints will be forced to leave their homelands by governmental decree. God has promised to take them to a place of safety (Rev. 12:6,14). Then the Great Tribulation will begin. For the next 3 1/2 years God’s holy ones will be protected and provided for while the world around them is attacked first by Satan, then by God. I believe that I have visited what the Bible calls “her (the church’s) place of safety.” I believe it is a mountain range called Petra in the nation of Jordan. This beautiful area is dotted with caves which will be perfect for housing God’s people for the 3 1/2 years of hell on earth called the Great Tribulation (first 2 1/2 yrs.) and the Day of the Lord (final yr.).

If you have not done so, there is time to turn to the Lord, embrace Him TOTALLY, obey His Law (including commandment #4) and join His tiny band of zealots who are intent on bringing Him praises. Failing this, people of the world will be cast into the living hell that is soon to arrive. Help is not to be found in “the church” for she is indistinguishable from the world into which she fits so perfectly. Read Second Corinthians 6:14-7:1 and obey God’s clearly-stated command to separate yourself from man’s religions. There is no other way. L.J.