Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. Matthew 18:18.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
Have you noticed that generally, people never include Me when something wonderful happens on the news. Instead, people are often asking why I did this or that or let this or that happen, and always that is something negative or a disaster. My answer is simple, I did not.
Do you think it was My doing that Adam and Eve rejected My Word and together with the devil fell from the perfection in which I made them? Was it My Will that they sin and become evil to the core? Of course not. I gave man a perfect garden, rich in every beautiful thing that they were to cultivate and guard and spread the model plan all over the entire earth. But they did not. Instead they threw it all aside thinking somehow they could do better without Me.
It was the same when I took them out of slavery to give them the land flowing with milk and honey filled with good things. They would not go but thought they knew better what was the right thing to do and it ended up making them miserable and hateful toward each other and Me. I yet I had wonders without number prepared for them.
Do you think it was My Will that Joseph’s brothers throw him in a pit and then sell him into slave traffic with a band of Ishmaelite traders who took him to Egypt where he served as a slave and a prisoner until I worked everything around for his good and the good of the entire middle east and Africa? I never caused that famine either, My plan was for the whole world to be just like the model garden I gave you in Eden.
What caused it?
Listen, I never do evil. I am love. And My plans for you and all the earth are shalom, the abundant life with nothing missing, nothing broken, and no one alone. All sin and its repercussions in the earth are a product of living your life of dominion authority over the earth in rejection of My Word. And I allow you to choose that. But I work with what you do to make things turn out good for those who love Me and want to do My Word. I seek to bring you out of the control of evil back to Me. I try to separate you from your union with the devil, and draw you into Christ to be released from your sins and the realm of darkness, for if you stay united to the devil it will result in your destruction in the end. And I do not want that. I will make every effort to rescue you and get you safely into the Kingdom of My Beloved Son.
I do not cause storms, earthquakes or famine, there were none of these in Eden. But when evil came into the world, the earth itself rebelled against you for the corruption you loaded upon it and the earth is groaning under its weight, looking for the glorious freedom that will come with My children when they rise up and take a stand upon the dust to tread down the evil one. The earth continues to vomit out peoples of perversity and those that shed blood of innocent children and other victims upon it. And it will produce thorns and thistles instead to the delightful plants I gave it to produce towards those who are joined with the evil one.
‘Do not defile yourselves by any of these things; for by all these the nations which I am casting out before you have become defiled. For the land has become defiled, therefore I have brought its punishment upon it, so the land has spewed out its inhabitants. But as for you, you are to keep My statutes and My judgments and shall not do any of these abominations, neither the native, nor the alien who sojourns among you (for the men of the land who have been before you have done all these abominations, and the land has become defiled); so that the land will not spew you out, should you defile it, as it has spewed out the nation which has been before you. Leviticus 18:24-28.
I told Abraham the same, at his time the land was not ripe for conquest yet, the wickedness of the inhabitants did not yet justify the land spewing them out. But it got to that point when I said to My people to go and take the land that I had given them.
God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years. But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age. Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.” Genesis 15:13-16.
Do you recall that all the years after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD by Rome when they Jews were ousted from the land of Israel and other empires took that land, that the land refused to produce? It became a dry and arid waste place. But when My people returned, the ones for whom it was designated, the desert bloomed and today they are producing the fruits and vegetables for Europe. But it is not the way it was meant to be because they still do not keep the Jubilee as I planned it or allow all the land its shabbat year. And that was what sent them to exile before.
People did not do My plan for the earth. Just because I told Abraham his descendants would go to a foreign land and be slaves for 400 years does not mean I arranged that. That was definitely not My plan but I worked with what the jealous brothers of Joseph caused so that he became a savior to Egypt and the whole area there in the time of famine. Was it My will? No, but I made it turn out well.
The fact that I know the end from the beginning does not mean I caused it or it was even My Will. It means I foresaw it and prepared a solution to resolve it for you to turn out good if you will repent, return, and be willing to work with Me.
I have a beautiful and unique plan for each and every one of you but the question is if you will follow it. And I am sorry to tell you this, that it is rare that anyone follows My plan for their life consistently and perfectly. Only Jesus did that.
Is it My Will that you mess up and fail to keep with My plan that I conceived in My heart for you? No. But I see that you will in advance so I work, and I am always working on your behalf, and so is Jesus, in order to keep you on track with the plan for your life.
And the good news is that it is never too late. When you are planted in My house you bear fruit even in old age and are full of My life in you renewing your youth.
To go forward with the life of good deeds I prepared for you in advance you must know and believe in My love for you as manifested in what I have done and do for you in Christ. But to know and believe in that love, however, you have to understand what I have done for you in Christ.
The Holy Spirit testifies to you, and He testifies of Jesus, that in Christ, your sins and offenses I remember no more. Hebrews 10:17. How can I do that? I took all your sins and accounted them to Christ Jesus in the flesh and He was punished for them and took your sentence of death and then once all your sins and offenses were taken care of, I raised Him from the dead and you with Him.
Your sins are not just forgiven, though they are, but they are gone, like they never happened. It is the difference between having something forgiven but the evidence and memory of it is still there and never having done it at all. It is like the evil you did or the mistakes you made in disobedience to My Word never happened. Once you have repented and received Jesus as Lord, your sins are gone, I remember them no more. I took them out of the way by nailing them to the cross, paid for in full.
How can I show you how complete this forgiveness in Christ is? He truly has released you from your sins by His blood. Say you had turned in a Petition at court and afterward realized that you had breached the requirements of the court by revealing confidential information that should have been filed under seal. You realize that it could take months to rectify this by seeking a court order that will order the Petition to be sealed. You pray and cast your cares on Me and then rejoice and apply the voice of thanksgiving that works wonders. 2 Chronicles 20.
And then the unheard of, the impossible happens. I give you the idea to go to the clerk of the court and bring into the light what you have done and ask if you can just remove that Petition and substitute a perfect one. As the clerk goes to talk to someone and look up the rules, you throw yourself face down and sing and shout praise for the good result. And your request is granted! Then when she substitutes the new for the old, there is left behind no trace of what you did wrong. It is as if YOU never did anything wrong. There is no evidence that you were anything but perfect, blameless in My sight. Suddenly you are bright and breezy, the dark cloud of condemnation is gone, taken care of by the Blood. My love is beautiful for all who call, for all who call on the Name of Jesus will be saved.
I love you. Isn’t it time you learned the voice of thanksgiving? It is for those in Christ who want a successful journey through life. If that is you, you will not want to miss our next Life Lesson.