HomeARC ML 0686
"OUT OF THIS WORLD!"--Father David 25-11-77 MO GP NO.686
--And into the Fifth Dimension!--The Spirit World Revealed!
(Complied by Apollos from the Letters of Father David)
© Copyrighted April 1978 by The Family of Love, C.P.748, 001000 Rome, Italy.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
In Search of the Fifth Dimension 2
The Inhabitants of the Spirit World
Almighty God 3
The Son King 5
Holy Ghosts 7
Satan, the Fallen Archangel 9
War in the Spirit! 11
Heavenly Council and Court Sessions 11
Spiritual Powers and Communications 13
Death 17
Life "In the World to Come"
For the Saved 18
For the Unsaved 20
Spirits in Prison 21
Heavenly Powers and Responsibilities 22
A Look at Some Contemporary Belief, Practices and Phenomena
Astrology 23
Meditation and Hypnosis 25
Reincarnation and Metamorphosis 26
UFOs and Flying Saucers 28
Ghosts, Spirits and Haunted houses 29
The "Do-It-Yourself" Religions 30
Conclusion 31
An extensive and revelatory look into the spirit world, that mysterious dimension of eternal realities, the living world of Forever rather than the dying world of Now--the everlasting realm of Eternity rather than the temporary space of Time that fascinating dimension which is largely unseen by us in mortal flesh rather than this mundane plane which is so temporary. "Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth ... for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." (Colossians 3:2; 2Corinthians 4:18)
(Throughout this text you will find many references in parentheses. These are Scripture References to show you the Book, Chapter and Verse where the preceding quotation may be found in the Bible.)
Illustrated by Eman Artist & Laban
Typed by Lois
Layout by Apollos
1. EVERYTHING IS GOING ON IN THE SPIRIT WORLD. What's happening on the surface is nothing but a little physical manifestation of the real action. Where the real action is in the spirit world and it is in full control. We don't have to worry. Everything is under control.
2. THE THINGS AND POWER AND CONFLICTS OF THE SPIRIT WORLD--THE REAL WORLD WHERE WORLD DESTINIES ARE BEING DECIDED by the struggles of the spirits and archangels--this is what is really important! Our daily lives and the world's future are being influenced by the battles in the spirit world between the Lord and His angels on the one hand, and the Devil and his angels on the other.
3. AND ALTHOUGH I COULD HARDLY BEGIN TO FULLY DESCRIBE THE SPIRITUAL REALM OF THE NOW MUCH LESS THE FUTURE, IT MAY BE THAT THE LORD WILL PERMIT ME TO TELL YOU OF THE THINGS HE HAS SHOWN ME to try to help you understand more about this great and mysterious subject! For He has begun to help me put the pieces together of this great puzzle, His conduct of affairs in the spirit world, due to my personal experiences in this realm which have aroused my interest and shed new light on the subject--some of which I will now try to share with you.
4. IN YEARS GONE BY I FOUND THAT MANY SYSTEM CHRISTIANS, PASTORS AND BIBLE TEACHERS WERE AFRAID OF THE SUBJECT because they felt it bordered on spiritualism or spiritism, and that talking about the personal appearances of angels or of saints long dead sounded to them too much like having to do with familiar spirits, dealing with evil spirits and devils, which God's Word condemns, along with witchcraft and wizardry. But may God forgive us for condemning the entire spirit world and being afraid of knowledge of it, just because the Devil uses it, along with his demons. That would be like some narrow-minded churches which refuse to use music just because the Devil uses it! If we stopped using everything the Devil uses, there wouldn't be much left--not even for God!
5. TRUE--WITCHCRAFT, WIZARDRY, AND DEALING WITH EVIL FAMILIAR SPIRITS, DEMONS AND DEVILS ARE CONDEMNED by God; but this does not mean that we are supposed to blind ourselves, ignore, and shut ourselves off completely in ignorance to God's Own marvelous spiritual world in which He Himself dwells with His Son Jesus, His Holy Spirit, all His ministering spirits, the angels--2/3 of the spirit world (Revelation 12:4)--and all the millions of the spirits of the departed saints!
6. WHY SHOULD WE BE LEFT IN DARKNESS by the damned preachers who withhold the Truth and the Light from the people regarding the wonderful world of His spirit--the only real world there is--the eternal, everlasting world--the Spirit Realm--the Heavenly Plane--the fifth Dimension--that thrilling and exciting and marvelous world of the spirit! Unseen that is, usually, by the natural eyes of man, particularly those of the unbelieving, material-minded Systemites!
7. EVEN A LOT OF SCIENTISTS TODAY SEEM TO HAVE MORE FAITH IN IT THAN SOME OF THESE DAMNED PREACHERS, and are speaking of ESP--extra sensory perception--telepathic communication, deja vu, etc., and are saying that it is entirely possible, as Einstein was trying to prove, that there is another dimension--another world--which could be quite scientifically co-existent with this one, and even all around us!
IN SEARCH OF THE FIFTH DIMENSION
8. A LOT OF PEOPLE TODAY, ESPECIALLY THE YOUNG, ARE AWAKENING TO THE FACT THAT THE SPIRITUAL WORLD IS REAL, GOD'S REAL AND THE DEVIL'S REAL.
9. BUT BECAUSE OF THE CHURCH SYSTEM'S LACK OF ACTUAL EXPERIENCE IN THE SPIRITUAL, THE ESTABLISHED RELIGIONS ARE TOTALLY UNREAL AND IRRELEVANT, not a matter of experience whatsoever, just a matter of theoretical "pie in the sky!" The practice of churchianity has made God so distant that people can't even relate Him to their own experience!
10. WITH ALL THE CHURCHES ABOUT THE ONLY THINGS THEY CAN HOPE FOR IS MAYBE THEY'LL MISS HELL by all the works and duties and ceremonies and hocus pocus. About the best the church can promise them is, well, they might not have to stay in purgatory duties so many hundred years--it's just ridiculous!
11. SO IN THE ABSENCE OF ANY SPIRITUAL REALITY IN THE HYPOCRITICAL, FAKE RELIGIONS WHICH THEY'VE BEEN TAUGHT (be it even so-called Christianity), many people, especially the young, have in their pursuit of genuine spirituality and real religion and the actual supernatural and the miraculous, gone into drugs, ancient mysticism and the spirit world.
12. BUT THEY'RE REALLY PLAYING WITH FIRE! Imagine going into the spirit world without God, without the Lord! I'd be scared to death about some of the things that have happened to me if I didn't know the Lord! That's why so many kids flip out when they take LSD, cause they can see those things!
13. THE SAME GOES FOR SOME OF THOSE SCIENTISTS AND PSYCHIATRISTS WHO ARE STUDYING AND FIDDLING AROUND WITH ESP, telepathic communication and telepathic hypnosis in certain universities now. They can no longer deny that these things exist. They've been proven by actual experience and experimentation, beyond a shadow of a doubt they know they're real.
14. BUT WHAT THEY DON'T PERHAPS REALISE IS THAT IT'S NOT JUST A SO-CALLED NATURAL REALM like just a natural realm of natural physical forces, but there are literally spiritual forces behind the scenes with which they're dealing, and that in so doing they're really playing with fire! They're really taking chances because they're not necessarily protected by the Lord. If they're a child of the Devil they could get possessed or a lot of other things could possibly happen.
15. YOU SEE, A LOT OF PEOPLE WANT TO SEE AND THEY WANT TO KNOW.--But like Adam and Eve in the Garden, they already knew good; and the only new thing really revealed to them was evil.--And of course, knowing evil then gave them the knowledge of what good really was, by contrast! (See Genesis 3.)
16. BUT HERE THEY'RE DELVING INTO THE SECRETS OF THE SPIRIT WORLD and the supernatural, and what are they going to find? If God lets them see anything, and the Devil is used to show them anything, if they don't want the truth, then of course they're going to find the delusion, the hell! "Because they received not the love of the truth ... for this cause God shall send them strong delusion." (2Thessalonians 2:10,11)
17. BUT IF YOU'RE A CHILD OF GOD NONE OF THESE THINGS CAN TOUCH YOU! You don't have to worry! "God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love and of a sound mind," for "perfect love casteth out fear." (2Timothy 1:7 and 1John 4:18)
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SPIRIT WORLD
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Almighty God
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18. THE BIBLE TELLS US THAT "GOD IS A SPIRIT: And they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." (John 4:24) It also speaks of Him as "the Father of spirits" in Hebrew 12:9, and "the God of the spirits" in Numbers 16:22 and 27:16. So He is a spiritual God Who dwells and operates in the spiritual realm, and from there conducts His behind-the-scene labours which are almost totally invisible: The work of creation that produced the universe and keeps it running, His design and plan for man and His constant care for His creations.
19. HOWEVER, THE CHURCHES CONCEPT OF GOD IS QUITE DIFFERENT! They see Him as a sort of sissified, namby-pamby, Sunday-school-poster type of kindly old gentleman with bushy grey hair and long white beard, a Santa Clause that loves and brings everybody presents, especially church people! Well, Santa Clause is not my idea of God! In fact, my God's getting bigger all the time, and more and more beyond my comprehension!
20. HE'S NOT THE TRADITIONALLY MANUFACTURED GOD OF HYPOCRITICAL CHURCHIANITY and verbose religiosity, but the genuine Basic Power and Guiding Light of the Universe which has brought men into being, and, as man's benevolent fatherly Creator, has some kind and benign purpose in store for him, a final fulfilment of his undeniably human aspirations for love, life, liberty and happiness!
21. HIS VISIBLE CREATION IS AN ILLUSTRATION OF THE THINGS IN THE SPIRIT of that which is invisible. "For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead." (Romans 1:20) Everything God created, everything God ever made, all the visible creation, is in some way, an illustration of something spiritual. And what did God create to illustrate and show what He Himself is like? What creation gives us the best picture of what God is like?
22. IN THE FIRST CHAPTER OF THE FIRST BOOK OF THE BIBLE WE ARE TOLD THAT "GOD CREATED MAN IN HIS OWN IMAGE, IN THE IMAGE OF GOD CREATED HE HIM." (Genesis 1:27) In other words, God made us very much like Himself in many ways, in His image and His likeness. We are like God!--We have the majesty of choice, we can do good or evil, and we are similar to God in our thinking and in our emotions and in our personalities.
23. HE SAYS IN OTHER PLACE, "YE ARE GODS"--"ARE YE NOT GODS?" (John 10:34,35 and Psalm 82:6) We indeed are like gods. Man was created to be like God Himself, like the gods of the spirit world, yet in a body of flesh bound with the earth and earthen things, "and of the earth, earthy." (1Corinthians 15:47)
24. BUT MAN HAS NOT QUITE AS MUCH FREEDOM BY ANY MEANS AS THE SPIRITS, the spirit gods of the spirit world, who are much greater in power, mightier in influence and have more ability to either do good or to do evil. Man is confined to this world and to a certain environment and to certain limitations, physical weaknesses and restrictions, so that though he were a god on spirit, in a sense, he being on probation and being put to the test of choice, cannot do too much damage in a fleshly body.
25. "BUT, IF THIS IS ALL TRUE," WE OFTEN HEAR, "AND THERE IS AN ALL-POWERFUL GOD BEHIND THE SCENES, WHY THEN DOES HE ALLOW WAR AND PAIN AND SUFFERING AND THE ATROCITIES OF MAN'S INHUMANITY TO MAN?--Why doesn't He put a stop to such evils?"--Well, although He hates war and its rich perpetrators, and deplores the poverty of the poor and their suffering, and is soon going to step in and set things right, He hasn't yet because He would have had to put a stop to the entire thing and man's choice, which is the main idea of the whole Great Design.
26. MAN WAS CREATED AND PUT HERE TO MAKE A CHOICE BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL, to do right or wrong, to serve God or himself and the Devil, and to learn the benefits of serving God--reaping the joy and happiness and pleasures of keeping God's loving rules for his own good and worshipping and thanking God for it all in return, as grateful children of their Heavenly Father, to believe in Him and have faith in Him and trust Him and His Word and obey it for their own good and His glory.
27. OR MAN CAN BELIEVE THE LIES OF THE DEVIL AND REBEL AGAINST GOD and disobey Him and refuse to believe His Word and go their own way and suffer the consequences of violating His law of love, rebellion against which and disobedience to which brings ill health, misery, pain, suffering, man's inhumanity to man, cruelty, atrocities, wars, economic ills, unhappiness, mental anguish, insanity, and finally death and Hell hereafter.
28. GOD IS INTERESTED IN OUR DECISIONS. He's concerned to see that if we are given the great majesty of choice we will make the right choices. Of course He is sad to see when we make the wrong choices. This is why He put us here and this is what we're here to learn: How to make the right decisions. So He has had to give us the opportunity to have our own way and choice to see what we will do.
29. But even if we don't fully understand why God created us the way He did, I'm sure He did it for whatever reasons He felt best, for His sake and our sake and the sake of a lesson to all the Universe. PERHAPS IT'S A GREAT LESSON TO ALL THE SPIRIT WORLD and all the gods and goddesses and the good spirits and evil spirits including the Devil Himself, to give them all a good sample of what is right and what is wrong and how that right pays off and wrong pays off too!
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The Son King
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30. THE BIBLE NOT ONLY TELLS US THAT "GOD IS A SPIRIT," BUT ALSO THAT "GOD IS LOVE!" (1John 4:8) So God is the Spirit of Love, the Great Spirit, the Creator. What is God like? He's Love! And what did God do to prove that He is Love, that He loves us?--"God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16) God gave "His only begotten Son," Jesus, was separated from Him and let Him suffer a cruel, horrible death for us, for our sakes. "In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him." (1John 4:9) Jesus is the manifestation of the Love of God.
31. "OH, WHY CAN'T YOU JUST LEAVE JESUS OUT OF IT?" some people ask. "Why do you have to use that Name? Why does He always have to be the symbol? Why can't you just say God, and speak of God only? Then we could accept it much easier, if you would not insist on using that Name of Jesus!"
32. "WELL," I USUALLY REPLY, "WHY NOT?" If He really was God's Son, and God had chosen Jesus to reveal Himself to the world, and to show His love, then God Himself has insisted on it!--"Love Me, Love My Son." These are God's conditions, not ours. "Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: But he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also." (1John 2:23) God has insisted that we recognise and love His Son, and Jesus Himself said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me!" (John 14:6)
33. JESUS MADE THE WAY. HE IS THE WAY! "Neither is there salvation in any other: For there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved!" (Acts 4:12)--There is only "one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus!" (1Timothy 2:5) And, "no man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." (John 1:18) No man can approach God directly! We have to go through Jesus, Who said,
34. "I AND MY FATHER ARE ONE." (John 10:30) SEE, PRIOR TO HIS INCARNATION HERE ON EARTH, HE AND THE FATHER WERE TOGETHER IN PERSONAL HEAVENLY FELLOWSHIP, which He had to forsake while He was down here with us. Shortly before His crucifixion Jesus prayed, "And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine Own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was." (John 17:5) We're also told that "In the beginning was the Word (Jesus), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ... And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:1,14)
35. JESUS ACTUALLY RENOUNCED THE RIGHTS OF HIS CITIZENSHIP IN HEAVEN, AND "THOUGH HE WAS RICH, YET FOR YOUR SAKES HE BECAME POOR THAT YE THROUGH HIS POVERTY MIGHT BE RICH!" (2Corinthians 8:9) He adapted Himself to our bodily form and conformed to our human ways of life, that he might understand and love us better, and communicate with us on the lowly level of our own human understanding! In a sense He became a citizen of this world, a member of humanity, a man of flesh, in all points like as we are, in order that He might reach us with His love, prove to us His concern, and help us understand His message in simple childlike terms that we could understand!
36. "CHRIST JESUS: WHO, BEING IN THE FORM OF GOD, THOUGHT IT NOT ROBBERY TO BE EQUAL WITH GOD: BUT MADE HIMSELF OF NO REPUTATION, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in fashion as a man: And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in Heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth." (Philippians 2:5-10)
37. HE CAME DOWN HERE TO OUR LEVEL TO TAKE US WITH HIM BACK UP TO HIS! He's didn't leave the Halls of Heaven to come and stay down here forever! Nor is he still asleep in the grave!--HE IS RISEN!--And is now "set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the Heavens" (Hebrews 8:1)--the Throne of the Father--God's Broadcasting Centre--His Central Studio and principal Communication Centre, from where He personally directs operations through the power and communication of His Holy Spirit .
38. This is why He told His disciples, "IT IS EXPEDIENT FOR YOU THAT I GO AWAY: FOR IF I GO NOT AWAY, THE COMFORTER WILL NOT COME UNTO YOU; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you. When He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth ... for He shall receive of Mine, and shall shew it unto you." (John 16:7,13,14)
39. JESUS HAD TO LEAVE THE FEW THAT HE MIGHT SEND HIS SPIRIT TO THE MANY! He had to remove the pleasure of His bodily presence from the handful, in order that He might be with them in the power of the presence of His Own Holy Spirit--with all of them--with multitudes--with millions--yea, hundreds of millions through the ages--something He never could have done in personal bodily, physical presence had He remained here after His resurrection! "For the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal!" (2Corinthians 4:18)
40. SO NOW YOU CAN INTIMATELY AND PERSONALLY KNOW AND ENJOY HIM JUST AS MUCH AS I CAN and I can thrill to His presence just as much as you can, and we can all enjoy Him together anywhere, everywhere, any time, all the time, in all His power and fullness--just as much for you as for me, and just as precious and intimate as for any--by His Spirit and through His Words: "For the Words that I speak unto you they are Spirit and they are Life." (John 6:63)
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Holy Ghosts
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41. BESIDES GOD THE FATHER, THE CREATOR AND LORD OF THE UNIVERSE, AND HIS SON JESUS, THE KING OF KINGS, THERE ARE MANY OTHER GOOD SPIRITS, including the Holy Spirit, the seven Spirits of God of Revelation 4:5, the Seven Stars or Angels or Spirits of the Seven Churches of Revelation 1:20, the Four Spirits of the Heavens of Zechariah 6:5, and the multitudes of other celestial messengers, angels or spirits of God mentioned in the Bible, which are obviously all good spirits. Speaking of His Heavenly Hosts, His Word asks us: "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?" (Hebrews 1:14)
42. INDEED THEY ARE!--AND TO DENY THAT THEY ARE GOOD SPIRITS IS TO DENY ALL THE ANGELS AND SPIRITS OF GOD INCLUDING THE HOLY SPIRIT, as well as all the spirits of the dear departed saints of God, including those who appeared or spoke to men of God throughout the Bible, like the souls under the altar in Heaven in Revelation 6:9-11, and even your own personal spirit, saved by the grace of God which shall join a Heavenful of millions of the saved spirits of all the saints of God when you die or go to be with Jesus when He comes!
43. THESE ARE THEY OF WHOM PAUL SPEAKS IN HEBREWS 12:1 AS A GREAT CLOUD OF WITNESSES which compass us about--here and now! "Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses!" Paul saw them! He knew they were there! Hallelujah! Thank God for His Spirit! Praise God for all His spirits! Thanks be unto God for all the good spirits of God and His saints!
44. THANK THE LORD FOR THE MANY COUNSELLORS AND THE MULTITUDES HE HAS GIVEN US at our disposal and our command. Ask God to open your eyes as He did the Young Man to see the multitudes of His Hosts!--"And Elisha prayed and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: And, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha." (2Kings 6:17)
45. THANK YOU, LORD FOR THY MIGHTY DEFENDERS, one of which could handle all the arms of the Enemy! Thank You for these who work with us within the veil of the Fifth Dimension! Thank God for His angels, who are watching over us continually, even your personal angel, whose job is you! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! The Lord told us one time to thank Him for His angels that guarded and protected us!
46. "THE ANGEL OF THE LORD ENCAMPETH ROUND ABOUT THEM THAT FEAR HIM, and delivereth them." "For He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone." "The Lord ... Who maketh His angels spirits; His ministers a flaming fire [DELETED] ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation." (Psalm 34:7; 91:11,12; 104:4; Hebrews 1:14)
47. PRAISE GOD FOR HIS GOOD SPIRITS--ALL OF THEM!--including yours and mine!--And I'm personally acquainted with quite a few others who have spoken to me and through me in many spiritual experiences described in former Letters. In these experiences God has sent different "ministering spirits" to us personally to reveal His mysteries to us in the spirit, by the spirit, through the Spirit, of the Spirit and for the Spirit!
48. SO I KNOW FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCE THAT SOME OF THE REVELATIONS DO COME IN THIS FASHION.--And why not? They did in the Bible where angelic messengers were sent to convey a message to some prophet of God, or a man or woman of God. Time and again when the prophets revealed something, they said the angel of the Lord or someone else was there showing them. Occasionally, even the angel or spirit of some former man of God, such as Samuel, Moses, Elijah, etc., was used. Search the Scriptures and see if these things be so!
49. IN THE BOOK OF REVELATION FOR EXAMPLE, when the Apostle John was so astonished by the great glad tidings and mysteries of God that a "ministering spirit" was showing him, he wrote, "And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things. Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: For I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets and of them which keep the sayings of this book: Worship God. (Revelation 22:8,9) This "angel" here was a man, a departed prophet in a supernatural spiritual body.
50. A COUPLE OF DEPARTED SAINTS EVEN APPEARED AND MINISTERED TO JESUS, GOD'S OWN SON! We're told that, shortly before His crucifixion, "Jesus went up into a mountain to pray. And as He prayed, the fashion of His countenance was altered, and behold, there talked with Him two men which were Moses and Elijah: Who appeared in glory, and spake of His decease." (Luke 9:28-31) These two former prophets, Moses and Elijah had departed from this life many centuries previous to the day Jesus was praying on the mount, yet God sent them to counsel and confer with His Son!
51. SO GOD CAN USE HIS SERVANTS WHO HAVE ALREADY PASSED ON FROM THIS LIFE! Our own closest spiritual friend and counsellor, Abrahim the Gypsy King who died as a martyr in Bulgaria in 1272, once told us in a spiritual session, "Since I go to Heaven, I go many many places. Help people, many people. Help many people in time of trouble. God help people. Jesus send me many places. Like angel. I travel much."
52. THESE SPIRITS, THEN, ARE ON ASSIGNMENT. They don't just drift around in space with no place to go, nothing to do, and not knowing what their specific duties are. They're all busy! There're a lot of places where they're working, not only in this world but in the world of the spirit.
53. THE HOLY SPIRIT USES THESE HOLY SPIRITS, His angels and these spirit beings, these departed saintly spirits, to lead and guide God's yielded children. In fact, one or more of them are assigned to each of us who receive the anointing or empowerment of the Baptism of the Spirit. Along with the Spirit of God we receive specific spirits who have specific gifts, hence, the "gifts of the Spirit." (1Corinthians 12)
54. IN OTHER WORDS, GOD USES THESE SPIRITS AS HIS AGENTS in imparting not only messages and specific powers for specific occasions, but also the particular gifts that each of us are given by the Holy Spirit.
55. THIS MAKES IT SO SIMPLE TO UNDERSTAND HOW A PERSON RECEIVES A GIFT OF TONGUES, for example (an unlearned language). God lets another language, the native tongue of that particular individual guiding spirit, the particular spirit that God uses who is assigned to you personally. This is what Paul means when he wrote, "I speak with the tongues of men and of angels!" (1Corinthians 13:1)
56. SO GOD HIMSELF AND ALL THESE OTHER DWELL AND OPERATE IN THE GLORIOUS UNIVERSE OF GOOD SPIRITS to which His Word welcomes and introduces His born again children: "Ye are come unto the City of the living God, the Heavenly Jerusalem (space City), and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant." (Hebrews 12:2-24) Hallelujah!
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Satan, The Fallen Archangel
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57. SO FAR, WE HAVE DEALT PRIMARILY WITH THE WONDERFUL REALM OF GOD AND HIS HEAVENLY FORCES, BUT THERE IS ALSO A DARK SIDE OF THE PICTURE, SAD TO SAY, which I don't care to talk too much about, because I think it tends to glorify the Enemy too much, giving him too much credit. However, God's Word does tell us not to be ignorant of the Devil's devices. (2Corinthians 2:11)
58. AND IT DOESN'T PAY TO TRY AND SAY THAT THERE'S NO DEVIL or no demons or no such thing as evil, and just try to ignore the facts! Especially when God's Book, the Bible, warns us explicitly of such spiritual forces and tells us exactly how to overcome them.
59. THESE WICKED SPIRITUAL POWERS ARE LED BY A FALLEN ARCHANGEL, SATAN, whom the Bible calls "the prince of the devils" (Matthew 12:24) and "the god of this world." (2Corinthians 4:4) Speaking of him Jesus said, "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from Heaven." (Luke 10;18) And the Book of Jude speaks of his forces as "the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation." (Jude 6)
60. BEFORE BECOMING THE DEVIL, SATAN HAD BEEN LUCIFER, the Light-Bearer, the mightiest of all archangels, next to God Himself--he ruled the universe, second only unto God, the very Bearer of the Light! But he wasn't to be the Light. So because he wanted it all and wasn't even willing to share a little, he lost it all!
61. HE WANTED TO BE GOD! He did not have to fall--he chose to, because of his lust for power! In the account of his downfall, God's Word says, "How art thou fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into Heaven, I will ascend above the stars of God. ... I will be like the Most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to Hell, to the sides of the pit." (Isaiah 14:12-15)
62. HE WAS THE FIRST WOULD-BE DICTATOR, who didn't want to listen to either God or the other angelic forces! Obviously the majority of them were opposed to his rebellion, for when he totally leaves Heaven at the start of the Great Tribulation he'll only take one-third of them with him! So he and his demons are in the minority, thank God! (See Revelation 12:4.)
63. THE DEVIL, HAVING REFUSED TO LISTEN TO EITHER GOD OR THE MAJORITY OF THE ANGELS, WHAT DOES HE DO? Does he then yield and give up and say "So sorry! I was wrong." No, he goes mad, he goes insane, and he screams that he alone has the power to do as he pleases!
64. HE REBELS AGAINST ALL GOVERNMENTS AND ALL PEOPLES AND BECOMES THE DEVIL, SATAN, THE WAGER OF WARS UPON THE WORLD and all peoples and all governments and even God! He is the rebel of all rebels, the terrorist of all terrorists, the backslider of all backsliders, the delinquent of all delinquents, and the criminal of all criminals and the worst monster of all ages!
65. HE DECLARES HIS INDEPENDENCE FROM ALL RIGHTEOUS RULE and people and goes about doing his dirty work amongst the whole universe as a dandy bad example of what not to be and what not to do! So we have hell on earth and even some hell in the heavenlies at present in the spirit world, until God throws him out completely, and all his devils, in the soon-coming Great Tribulation! (See Revelation 12:7-10.)
66. IN THE MEANTIME, HOWEVER, HE'S STILL BUSY TRYING TO BE GOD AND TRYING TO ESTABLISH HIS COUNTERFEIT KINGDOM ON EARTH. You see, he's not really a creator at all, he's only an imitator and destroyer, a fake god! In fact, the Devil can't do anything, he doesn't know what to do, except to imitate God!--Because he knows what God does works! And so in everything he does he is trying to imitate the Lord.
67. BUT UNLIKE GOD OR CHRIST OR THE HOLY SPIRIT, THE DEVIL IS NOT OMNIPRESENT, HE'S LIMITED! He's limited in his scope of operation, because he is only one of God's creations and limited to one personality in one place at any one given time. Therefore, he has to carry on most of his business through his demons, other evil angels--and through these, the various satanic princes of this world--through these devils he manages to rule a good deal. This is why the Bible calls him "the god of this world." (2Corinthians 4:4) (See also Luke 4:5-7.)
WAR IN THE SPIRIT
!
68. IF YOU COULD SEE WHAT WAS GOING ON BEHIND THE VEIL OF THE FIFTH DIMENSION, YOU WOULD WITNESS AN ALL OUT WAR OF THE WORLDS!--A war between good and evil, God and the Devil, goodness and wickedness, flesh and spirit, angels and devils, love and hate, life and death, joy and misery, a war of the universe between the good spirits of Heaven and the evil spirits of Hell, contending for our souls as well as our bodies!
69. THIS IS WHERE THE MOST IMPORTANT BATTLES AND CATACLYSMIC CHANGES OCCUR, behind the scenes in the spirit world. As the Apostle Paul said, "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." (Ephesians 6:12)
70. IN FACT, I'M PERSONALLY CONVINCED THAT MANY OF THE ANCIENT MYTHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS, EVENTS AND RELIGIONS HAD SOME ORIGINAL BASIS IN ACTUAL FACTS, spiritual personalities and past battles, struggles and occurrences in the spirit world, between good spirits and evil spirits, the angels of God and the demons of Satan!
71. IN THE PROCESS OF TIME AND THROUGH LACK OF SPECIFIC RECORDING OR THE LOSS OF WRITTEN RECORDS, SOME OF THESE ACCOUNTS BECAME CONSIDERABLY CONTORTED, distorted and embellished by word of mouth into some of the odd tales which we have in mythology today, which have been handed down to us from thousands of years ago.
72. WE ARE TOLD IN THE BIBLE THAT THE ARCHANGEL MICHAEL WRESTED AGAINST A DEMON "PRINCE OF PERSIA" FOR 21 DAYS before he finally broke through to answer the Prophet Daniel's prayer with an important prophetic message. (See Daniel 10:11-13,20.) So why could not the gods and goddesses of mythology have been real spirits of ancient times, with their exploits preserved, though somewhat distorted and exaggerated, in the annals of the epics of the Greek and Roman legendary classics! I am convinced that they had a basis in fact in the history of the spirit world!
HEAVENLY COUNCIL AND COURT SESSIONS
73. It is far beyond our comprehension to fully understand how God runs the spiritual government of the universe by means of the Holy Ghost and His angels, "ministering spirits," as His Word calls them . BUT WE DO KNOW THAT HE CONDUCTS SOME KIND OF COUNCILS IN HEAVEN, report sessions, according to Job 1:6 and other related passages--Court Sessions--in which Jesus Himself is a called a Counsellor (Isaiah 9:6), and Satan, "the Accuser of the Saints." (Revolution 12:10)
74. GOD AND HIS SON JESUS CHRIST, THE KING OF KINGS CONDUCT COURT SESSIONS, in which apparently He hears cases and representations, witnesses, for both the Prosecution and the Defense, and makes Judgements accordingly, current Court Sessions in which He judges the living, now, like He did Job and others, like the kings and judges of this world, types and shadows of the True.
75. IN THESE SESSIONS, GOD IS THE JUDGE, JESUS IS THE DEFENSE LAWYER AND THE DEVIL IS THE PROSECUTING ATTORNEY who constantly reminds the Judge of the law. In fact, the Devil is the most legalistic creature in the Universe! Anybody that breaks the law, he wants God to crack down on them and punish them on the spot! The Devil is all for justice and the law!--Like the System, he provokes them to do evil, then jails them for doing it!--It's amazing! (See Revelation 12:10; Zechariah 3:1; Job 1:9-12.)
76. BUT IT'S GOD, WHO EVEN MADE THE LAWS AND THE RULES WHO WANTS YOU TO HAVE MERCY AND FORGIVENESS AND SALVATION!--And this is why He sent Jesus, so that Jesus could be a man and know how men feel. He could be human and know how it is to be human, and therefore could understand us better and have more mercy on us and therefore could be our Intercessor and Mediator with God Himself. (1Timothy 2:5)
77. SO IF JESUS IS IN OUR HEART, HE'S ON OUR SIDE, He's our Intercessor, He's our High Priest. (Hebrews 1-5) The Bible goes on and on about this. Jesus is our Defense Lawyer, He is our Advocate, our Intercessor, our Mediator. He defends us, He intercedes for us and He begs God for mercy.
78. SO "WHO IS HE THAT CONDEMNETH? (The Devil is a Liar, there is no truth in him. John 8:44) It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, Who is even at the right hand of God. Who maketh intercession for us." (Romans 8:34) "For Christ is entered ... into Heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." (Hebrews 9:24) "And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." (1John 2:1)
79. HE SITS AT THE RIGHT HAND OF THE FATHER, PLEADING OUR CAUSE WITH SYMPATHY, EMPATHY AND UNDERSTANDING, Himself having taken on the form of our own human flesh, that He might know and understand us and our problems better, having suffered with us as one of us. "As a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him. For He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust" (Psalm 103:13,14), having worn that frame Himself, suffering in it, dying in it and now living in it again for all Eternity for our sakes! Thank You Jesus!
80. WE ALSO KNOW THAT GOD CALLS IN HIS CHIEF COUNSELLORS AND SPIRITS AND ANGELS AND ASKS THEM THEIR OPINION AND COUNSEL ON DIFFERENT SITUATIONS. He listens to their different plans and suggestions, and then He has the Godly wisdom to know who is right and to make the right choice! If you don't believe it, read Genesis 1:26; 1Kings 22:19-22; Job 1:6-12, etc.!
81. IN 1KINGS CHAPTER 22, YOU'LL SEE "THE LORD SITTING ON HIS THRONE, and all the host of Heaven standing by Him." The spirits appeared before Him and gave Him different suggestions, and He chose the advice of a particular one, which must mean the others were wrong--or at least their advice wasn't as good.
82. THESE SPIRIT BEINGS, ALONG WITH EVEN THE ANGELS, STILL HAVE A LOT TO LEARN, and God uses such council sessions to try to teach them. Look what happened to the Devil! Look at the experiences the spirits are still having! They're still waging wars and spiritual battles.
SPIRITUAL POWERS AND COMMUNICATIONS
83. QUITE A FEW POPULAR FILMS IN RECENT TIMES, SUCH AS "THE EXORCIST," "THE OMEN," "ROSEMARY'S BABY," "THE THREE FACES OF EVE," ETC., HAVE REKINDLED PEOPLE'S INTEREST IN SPIRITS AND THE SPIRIT WORLD--even though most of these have dwelt on the dark side of the picture, the horror of the Devil and his dirty work. But it shows the world is awakening to these things, and recognising and acknowledging that they're true, although some are trying to explain them away scientifically.
84. DEMONS ARE VERY COMMON TODAY, as in all ages, and many people are plagued by them, if not actually possessed; and whether possessed, obsessed, or merely oppressed by them, they need complete deliverance, and they can have it, because demons are totally subject unto us, and must do whatever we say in the Name of Jesus. (See Luke 10:19.)
85. YOU WILL RUN INTO THE SITUATION MORE AND MORE WHERE IT'S NOT A PROBLEM OF DISEASE, OR SIN, BUT MORE AND MORE IT WILL BE DEMON POSSESSION. (Revelation 12:12) The doctors and psychiatrists will usually dismiss it as a mental disorder, an insanity, schizophrenia, they often call it, the most common mental disease in the world which occupies more beds in more mental hospitals than any other kind of mental disease--"schizo" meaning "split" or divided personality--they're two different personalities living in the same body.
86. IT IS THE MOST COMMON MENTAL AILMENT IN THE WORLD TODAY, AND IT IS NOTHING BUT PLAIN OLD DEMON-POSSESSION, another spiritual personality living in that body!--Sometimes a number of personalities! The doctors say, "Well, his personality (for which God uses a very simple word--spirit) has split into two personalities." No! Human spirits don't normally split into two personalities:
87. ANOTHER SPIRIT HAS COME IN AND IS LIVING ALONGSIDE OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT IN THE SAME BODY, and that is what has split the personality! The demon enters in and then it's beyond their own control. To a certain point they can control it, but when they submit to the Enemy at some point, then the Devil takes over, unless, of course, you have the Lord. If you have the Lord and ask for His help, you can control it. But of course, if you let it take over and you don't ask the Lord for His help, it can get out of control!
88. I DON'T BELIEVE A CHILD OF GOD CAN BE TOTALLY POSSESSED BY THE DEVIL. But if you believe his lies, he sometimes seems to be able to take over temporary control, and he can certainly give you hell from the outside! So whatever you do, don't even listen to him, much less believe him or act on his lies!
89. THE CHRISTIAN IS THE LORD'S PROPERTY AND POSSESSED BY THE LORD AND HIS SPIRIT and is the Lord's, he belongs to the Lord and is controlled by the Lord. He's the Lord's possession now and the devils can't have him! But of course, if he has some besetting sin, the Devil can use that thing to weaken him or to cause defeat in that particular area of his life, something that's unyielded to the Lord.
90. AS LONG AS THERE'S ONE LITTLE DARK UNYIELDED CORNER OF YOUR LIFE that you're not willing to yield to the Lord, if there's one little part of it, the Enemy can get at you there, and he can bother you in that one little thing, plague you with that one little thing. Like the guy who said to the rich man who'd bought the whole village except his little cottage:
91. "REMEMBER, HUDDERSFIELD BELONGS TO THEE AND TO ME!" In other words, the Devil can say. "Aha, see! He's yielded everything except this one little thing! So even though he belongs mostly to Thee, a little bit still belongs to me!" So don't let the Devil be able to say that of you to God! Don't let him claim any area of your life.
92. DON'T GIVE HIM AN INCH OR HE'LL TAKE A MILE--or more and everything you've got! And let me warn you: He plays for keeps! So don't let it happen to you! "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you!" (James 4:7) Don't even let the ol' camel get his nose in or he'll soon have the entire tent! "Neither give place to the Devil!" (Ephesians 4:27) Hallelujah!
93. BUT WHAT ABOUT THE CASES OF SO-CALLED WITCHCRAFT , WIZARDRY, BLACK MAGIC, ETC., where individuals fiddle around with spiritual powers, trying to influence or cast spells on other people? Well, just as God has His means of communication in the spirit world, so does the Imitator, the Devil. Just like God has His children, the Devil has his captives.
94. JUST LIKE GOD'S SPIRIT CAN POSSESS US, GOD'S CHILDREN, THE DEVIL'S SPIRIT CAN POSSESS HIS CHILDREN. And therefore, so called witchcraft, demonology, etc., are realities in the world of the evil spirits of the Enemy. God's children can pray to the Lord and ask Him to answer and affect certain people for good, and so can the Devil's children communicate with him and project. God has given the Devil certain powers, particularly over his children, those who aren't protected by the Spirit of God, those who have rejected Christ.
95. BUT THE LORD GIVES PEOPLE A CERTAIN IMMUNITY TO THE INFLUENCE OF SATAN UP TO THE POINT OF DECISION. But, "He that being often reproved and hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed!" (Proverbs 29:1) Every time they resist the truth they are hardening their spirit against the Lord, and therefore, if they reject the truth, they receive strong delusion that they may believe a lie.--Those who are the Devil's children, at least. (2Thessalonians 2:10,11) Until someone reaches that point and if he's not made the final decision, as long as God's Spirit is still dealing with him, he still has a certain immunity or merciful protection against the Enemy's power.
96. IN THE CASE OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY, THE ENEMY ACTS AS A RELAY STATION. Satan's child communicates with the Devil and if it's in accordance with the Devil's will, and not beyond the powers God has given him, then he can operate to influence other children of the Devil, one way or the other. Science of course would call this telepathic hypnosis.
97. BUT NO MATTER WHAT SCIENTIFIC NAMES THEY CALL IT, IT'S STILL SPIRITUAL POWER in operation in the realm of the spirit!--And if they don't have the Lord in their heart it has to be the Devil no matter what good they are trying to do. Things are either controlled by the Lord or the Devil. It takes faith in either case, so it's all in the realm of the spirit.
98. THE DIFFERENCE IS THAT GOD'S POWER IS CREATIVE AND LOVING, BUT THE DEVIL'S POWER IS DESTRUCTIVE AND HATEFUL. What is the Devil usually doing with his wizardry and his black magic? And what do they call that stuff with the zombies in the islands--voodoo! What is most of it used for? Curses!--for curses for people who hate people and who want to curse them.
99. BUT WE DON'T HAVE TO FEAR, BECAUSE WE HAVE A GREATER POWER THAT PROTECTS US. Even if they get a dolly of you and go to this devil-man for the pins and he sticks the pins into your dolly, nothing's going to hurt you at all because God is there protecting you and the Devil can't touch you.
100. THE POWER OF THE LORD, OF COURSE, IS SO MUCH GREATER! HIS WORD TELLS HIS CHILDREN: "GREATER IS HE THAT IS IN YOU THAN HE THAT IS IN THE WORLD," (1John 4:4) In other words God is saying, "My power in you is much greater than the Devil's power in the world's children, his children.--Much greater!" Their power is so puny compared to ours and is so weak and ridiculous compared to the power of God that they're like little kids playing with matches while we've got lightning bolts!
101. GOD'S POWER IS LIKE LIGHT WHICH PENETRATES AND DESTROYS THE ENEMY'S DARKNESS! But it's impossible for the darkness to penetrate the Light, no matter how hard it tries! It can't put out the Light, because it's afraid of the Light! It can't even get close to it, because the light destroys it! For "God is Light, and in Him is no darkness at all." (1John 1:5)
102. SO WE DON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT OR FEAR SATAN'S PUNY POWER because we are protected by the power of the Holy Spirit, which is far greater than the power of the Enemy. If we have the power of the Lord, if we have Christ and the Holy Spirit, we are overshadowed, we are enveloped.
103. THE LORD'S PROTECTION IS JUST LIKE A FORCE FIELD AROUND US AND THE ENEMY CANNOT PENETRATE IT! It's impossible for him to penetrate it unless the Lord allows him to do it as a spanking, as a chastening, as a reaping of something you have done that you haven't confessed or you're not sorry for. Then the Lord allows you to reap the results.
104. BUT THE DEVIL CAN'T DO A DAMN THING, A REAL DAMN THING, WITHOUT GOD'S PERMISSION, without authorisation from the Lord.--He can't touch you! He can't let one of his demons touch you, he can't do a thing, nothing, as long as you have the Lord's power and are in His will.
105. IT'S AMAZING THE POWER THE LORD GIVES US! Almost the Devil's total power is in fear. But the moment the Lord's children are tempted to fear, we immediately think of God and the fears vanish!--Anything that is not of the Lord just vanishes!
106. "FOR GOD HATH NOT GIVEN US THE SPIRIT OF FEAR; BUT OF POWER, AND OF LOVE, AND OF A SOUND MIND!" (2Timothy 1:7) Hallelujah! "For perfect love casts out all fear!" (1John 4:18)--And "God shall keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Him because he trusteth in Him!" (Isaiah 26:3) Praise God forever! God is bigger than any devil!
107. SO "FEAR THOU NOT" HE TELLS US, "I AM WITH THEE! Be not afraid; for I am thy God! I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness!" (Isaiah 41:10) Hallelujah! We don't need to fear the Devil or any and all of his angels!--JESUS is with us! "Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you!" (James 4:7)
108. THANK GOD, ONE LITTLE WORD SHALL FELL HIM!--JESUS!--The Master of all! Hallelujah! You have but to utter the Name of Jesus to fell all the demons of Hell including Satan himself! "Behold, I give unto you power," Jesus promised, "over all the power of the Enemy: And nothing shall by any means hurt you!" (Luke 10:20)
DEATH
109. THERE COMES A TIME FOR EVERYONE TO PASS FROM THE FLESH TO THE SPIRIT WORLD--DEATH. It's really very simple: Leaving this life is just like going from one room into another and closing the door. Everybody does it when they die!
110. DEATH IS THE DEVIL'S DUE. He's like the death angel. Death is the penalty of physical sin and we all have to suffer the penalty physically of death. Because according to God's laws because of the disobedience of Adam and on down, we all have to die because of disobedience and sin!
111. "BY ONE MAN (ADAM) SIN ENTERED INTO THE WORLD, AND DEATH BY SIN: AND SO DEATH PASSED UPON ALL MEN, for all have sinned." (Romans 5:12) The Devil is like the executioner. God won't let him execute us before our time, but sooner or later He has to let the Enemy take our life and bring death to keep His Word, and we suffer the penalty of death physically.
112. BUT INSTANTLY, THE MINUTE GOD'S CHILDREN DIE, ALTHOUGH THE DEVIL GETS TO FULFILL THE LAW TO EXECUTE AND TAKE OUR LIFE PHYSICALLY, WE'RE INSTANTLY FREED SPIRITUALLY, liberated from the flesh into the world of the spirit. So this is why Paul said and flaunted in the face of death, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" (1Corinthians 15:55) In other words, we have to die to pay the penalty, but Jesus took the sting out of it.
113. IT'S AN EMPTY VICTORY FOR THE DEVIL because he can't get us. And actually it's like an escape hatch for us because he can't have us and really take us. Although he's allowed to fulfill the debt, it really escapes his hand.
114. THIS IS WHY JESUS SAID, "THOU SHALT NOT TASTE OF DEATH." (Matthew 16:28) He's talking about spiritually there, because we all die.--"It is appointed unto men once to die." (Hebrews 9:27) But we'll never really die in that sense of spiritual death, or taste the agony of death and separation from God, thanks to Jesus' sacrifice and atonement.
115. The Scripture says that THIS IS WHY JESUS CAME INTO THE WORLD: "THAT HE BY THE GRACE OF GOD SHOULD TASTE DEATH FOR EVERY MAN ... that through (His) death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the Devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." (Hebrews 2:9,14,15)
116. "I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE," Jesus said, "he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die!" (John 11:25,26) He's the only One Who can deliver us out of the jaws of death so we pass through it without sting--through the grave with victory for us, not the grave! Hallelujah!
117. SO FOR THE SAVED, THOSE THAT KNOW THE LORD, DYING IS THE EASIEST THING IN THE WORLD! I means it's so easy to die when you're a Christian, because you know where you're going. It's not hard to die if you want to die, you can practically will yourself to die. It's an abandoning of this world and a desire for the other.
118. IT'S LIKE ALL THE OLD TESTAMENT PATRIARCHS DID, they just gathered the family around and they said their goodbyes and gave their last instructions and they prophesied over them and so on, and then just said goodbye and they gave up the ghost.--They gave up the ghost, they deliberately yielded up their spirit. You can choose to die if you want to.
119. I'VE ALMOST DIED A LOT OF TIMES AND ONCE I DID. Even after I died that time I had such a will to want to come back, and I prayed, "Lord, let me return to my body!" It's a wonderful feeling, though, it's great! I mean you're lighter than a feather, you feel like you're floating on air when you're rid of this body. It's similar, I presume, to what the astronauts feel in their weightlessness. Right now we're burdened by this vile body. But praise God, in the spirit you don't have this weight! You're no longer weighed down with the flesh and burdened with the problems of this physical life. You've graduated from this grade of this earthly life!
LIFE "IN THE WORLD TO COME
"
(Mark 10:30)
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For the Saved
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120. Perhaps you've heard the old proverbial question, written on many a traditional, fundamental Gospel tract: "WHERE WILL YOU SPEND ETERNITY?--HEAVEN?--OR HELL?" Well my answer, which may shock some people, is, "I'm not going to spend it either place and I hope you aren't either!"
121. THE PLACE GOD'S CHILDREN, THE BORN AGAIN, ARE GOING TO DWELL WITH THE LORD FOR ETERNITY IS NOT SOME FANCIFUL DREAMLAND WAY OFF IN OUTER SPACE, but an even more amazing dream city that's going to come down from God, out of Heaven to a New Earth, and God's going to come down and live with us, and we with Him, in that beautiful dreamtown, described in Revelation Chapters 21 and 22!
122. "I JOHN SAW THE HOLY CITY, NEW JERUSALEM, COMING DOWN FROM GOD OUT OF HEAVEN, prepared as a Bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of Heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: For the former things are passed away." (Revelation 21:24)
123. WE'RE NOT GOING TO GO AWAY TO SOME FAR-OFF PLACE CALLED HEAVEN where God is supposed to live; but we have a real down-to-earth God, Who's going to come live with us, and make Heaven on Earth!
124. NOBODY'S GOING TO GO TO HEAVEN except those who die before Jesus comes back, who go to be "with the Lord," and when we go with the Lord to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb during the Wrath of God, just before we return to Earth for the Millennium, when we will rule and reign with Him! So we're not going to Heaven; Heaven is coming to us! This is provable, Scriptural fact!
125. IN FACT, GOD HIMSELF TOOK ME ON AN ACTUAL SPIRITUAL TRIP TO PERSONALLY VIEW AND VISIT HIS HEAVENLY CITY AND I SAW IT WITH MY OWN EYES! And let me tell you, some of the most stupendous things that I have dreamed of are already in existence right now, in that way-out Home of the Children of God--that Heavenly City, "whose builder and maker is God" (Hebrews 11:16), and which our departed friends and saints are already enjoying! It's just about complete and ready to come down! And let me tell you, it is one knockout! I have never seen or even imagined anything like it in my whole life! Even John's description in Revelation couldn't possibly do it justice! It is such a beautiful place you could never even imagine it!
126. IT WILL BE THE PEAK AND ULTIMATE OF HEAVEN ON EARTH the right kind of society with the right kind of city. In Revelation, we're told that it is "the bride, the Lamb's wife," and looks like "a great and high mountain." It has its own "light ... like unto a ... jasper stone, clear as crystal," with" a wall great and high and ... twelve gates." (Revelation 21:9-12)
127. "The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles. ... And the city lieth foursquare" and measures "twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal." (1,500 MILES LONG WIDE AND HIGH!) (Revelation 21:14,16)
128. "The wall of it was of jasper: And THE CITY WAS PURE GOLD LIKE UNTO CLEAR GLASS. ... And I saw no temple therein: For the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it: For the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the ... saved shall walk in the light of it. ... And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth ... but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life." (Revelation 21:18,22-24,27)
129. THIS IS WHERE WE'RE HEADED FOR! For here we have no continuing city but we seek one to come." "Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: For he hath prepared for them a city." This beautiful, physical/spiritual city of God, the perfection of the entire universe, shaped like a mountain or pyramid, 1,500 miles high--"which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God"--it's forever! (Hebrews 13:14; 11:16,10)
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For the Unsaved
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130. BUT WHAT ABOUT THE UNSAVED?--THOSE THAT HAVEN'T RECEIVED JESUS' FORGIVENESS AND FREE GIFT OF ETERNAL LIFE? Is all of mankind divided into just two total classes like most religious leaders and church theologians teach? Are all the rest of the people going to go to an eternal burning, torturing, fiendish, unending hellfire, where there's no difference in punishment or reward?
131. IF THAT'S TRUE, THEN GOD IS A MONSTER! And apparently that's what the God of most of these churchy religious organisations is--a monster! Because their doctrine is: "Either you go our way and attend our services, or that's the kind of a Hell we're going to send you to!"
132. WHEN SOMEONE ONCE TOLD ME, "I COULDN'T BELIEVE IN A GOD THAT'S GOING TO SEND EVERYBODY TO HELL FOREVER, people that never even had a chance to hear about Jesus, little babies and ignorant natives and the millions of people of different religions who are fairly righteous and are trying to do the best they know how, living up to the best they know how, living up to whatever light they've got. I just can't believe in such a God!" I replied,
133. "WELL, I AGREE WITH YOU. I DON'T BELIEVE IN SUCH A GOD EITHER!" For I am personally convinced, from my own study of the Scriptures and people and the nature of God, that God has made some other provision for the ignorant unsaved, those who never heard, the unevangelised unsaved.
134. In the 21st and 22nd Chapters of Revelation, perhaps to your astonishment, you will discover that NOT ONLY ARE THE SAVED LIVING INSIDE OF THE ETERNAL CITY OF THE BLESSED, BUT THERE ARE ALSO PEOPLE LIVING OUTSIDE. Only the saved can go into the heavenly City. But the "Kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it." (Revelation 21:24) Who are these "kings of the earth"?
135. WE'RE ALSO TOLD THAT IN THE CITY IS "THE TREE OF LIFE ... AND THE LEAVES OF THE TREE WERE FOR THE HEALING OF THE NATIONS?" (Revelation 22:2) WHAT NATIONS? If there's not going to be any more pain or death or sickness, sorrow or crying, then what in the world are the leaves of the trees and why do they have to be used for the healing of the nations? Why is healing needed for anybody when there's not supposed to be any more pain, death, sickness or sorrow and so on?
136. WELL TO ME, THE ANSWER IS APPARENT. These kings and nations outside the city that need healing are a class of people who are not in Hell, not in the Lake of Fire which the Bible says is in the center of the earth, nor are they the born again, the Bride, those that enter and enjoy the Heavenly City. I believe that this is the provision God has made for those who were lost, but perhaps never had a chance, never had a choice, never heard of Jesus, never rejected Him because they never really heard about Him.
137. NOW I'M NOT SAYING THAT THERE IS NO HELL, OR THAT NO ONE IS GOING TO GO THERE, because the 21st Chapter of Revelation makes it quite clear that the most wicked "Shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: Which is the second death." (Revolution 21:8) But in the next Chapter, 22, it even says that some people, who sound just like the type who were cast into the Lake of Fire, will also be living outside the City. (Revelation 22:15) Besides, if we're going to rule and reign with the Lord forever, as Revelation 22:5 says, who are we going to rule over?
138. SO APPARENTLY THE LAKE OF FIRE IS WHERE THE WICKED GO TO GET PURGED from their sins, or at least purged out enough to let them eventually come and live outside the City!
139. IT WILL BE A BETTER WORLD THEN WITH BETTER PEOPLE who have learned their lessons of the law of the love of God and will be happier than ever before because at least they will be purged and purified of their sins of rebellion against Him and healed by the leaves of the trees of life which we shall minister to them from where they grow by the River of Life within the City! Hallelujah!
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Spirits in Prison
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140. If there was no hope for the unsaved, and they were all eternally doomed to a fiery torment, then WHY DID JESUS HIMSELF, WHILE SPENDING THREE DAYS AND NIGHTS IN THE HEART OF THE EARTH BETWEEN HIS CRUCIFIXION AND RESURRECTION, WASTE HIS TIME "PREACHING UNTO THE SPIRITS IN PRISON" there if there was no hope of their salvation, as described in 1Peter 3:19-22?--And why does Peter go on to say in 4:6 that "for this cause was the Gospel preached also to them that are dead that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit"?
141. JESUS WENT DOWN THERE AND WAS ONE OF THEM IN HELL, and He preached to them, the spirits that were in prison there. He gave them the Gospel of deliverance. What for? Just as a matter of information so they could be all the more miserable for the rest of Eternity in an eternal Hell?--No!
142. IF THERE WAS NO HOPE FOR THEM, WHY THEN DID HE PREACH TO THEM? Why should He tell them how to get saved if they couldn't get saved? How do we know but what maybe they had never heard and He was giving them their first chance?
143. While in a deep spiritual trance on the night of September 7, 1971, the Lord revealed to us some of His mysteries regarding these "spirits in prison." The following excerpts are drawn directly from the text of the heavenly conversation that took place at that time, which you can find its entirety in "The Pied Piper Prophecy" (Letter No.102). "Some spirits are in prison in the strata, and some are close to the surface, and some are very deep in the rocks and the water. They cannot leave their strata where Jesus put them. ... THEY ARE VERY DEEP IN THE PIT. JESUS' PRISON IS DOWN THERE."
144. My secretary, Maria, who was recording the conversation, then asked, "DO THEY HAVE TO STAY IN PRISON?" To which the Spirit inspired me to reply, "NO, NO, NO!--NOT IF THEY RECEIVE THE WORD! They can go up and live outside of Space City--it's beautiful there!
145.In an Old Testament Scripture which confirms this and apparently refers to these same spirits, God says to His Son, "BY THE BLOOD OF THY COVENANT (JESUS' SACRIFICE) I HAVE SENT FORTH THY PRISONERS OUT OF THE PIT where is no water." (Zechariah 9:11)--Hallelujah--Jesus saves!
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Heavenly Powers and Responsibilities
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146. IN FACT, I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO THE DAY WHEN EVERYBODY OR AT LEAST ALMOST EVERYBODY WILL BE SAVED--at least there won't be many left in Hell if any, and I think that's when God will be satisfied too. But that's a long way off! Brother, we've still gotta lot to do! We haven't just a few years--we've got thousands to go!
147. SOME OF THESE CHURCHY CHRISTIANS ARE GOING TO GET A SURPRISE, a very big surprise, when they find out that as much ground as they've lost or failed to conquer now, they are still going to have to win--they'll still have to take over and win the world! Of course, we'll have supernatural bodies and power and the authority of Christ's Kingdom on Earth which will greatly facilitate the job, and God knows we'll need it, since the Church has failed so miserably for thousands of years!
148. I'm not just theorising, I'm talking about what's actually going to happen when Jesus comes! ALL HE'S GOING TO HAVE TO RUN THE WORLD WITH IS US, BESIDES THE ANGELS OF COURSE! But we are going to be His instruments, we are going to be His organisation.
149. WE WILL HAVE BEEN RESURRECTED, TRANSLATED AND CHANGED AND WE WILL HAVE SUPERNATURAL BODIES, thank God, our eternal bodies, spiritual bodies like the Lord had when He was resurrected. He could materialise or demateralise, and we will have the same. Think of that! He could pass from one dimension to the other through locked doors and solid walls! This will be a great advantage in being officers of the law and law enforcers, governors and so on, miraculous supermen, ruling in love over the villagers of this world who live outside of the Heavenly City. (See Luke 24:31-43,51; John 20:19-29; 1John 3:2; 1Corinthians 15:50-53.)
150. OUR NEW HEAVENLY BODIES WILL HAVE A LOT MORE POWER THAN WE EVER DREAMED OF, and will enable us to circle the globe in nothing flat and even visit other planets and stars and ride the whole range of the universe! Hallelujah!--And it won't take days or weeks or months or years, not even light years, but with the speed of thought!
151. SO HEAVEN IS NOT THE END: IT'S ONLY THE BEGINNING! God only knows how much more we'll have to conquer after we've conquered the Earth and all the souls who have ever lived on it and all the problems! Who knows what other worlds we may have to conquer, what other universes we may yet have to learn to rule!
152. MY IDEA HEAVEN IS NOT FLOATING AROUND ON A CLOUD STRUMMING A HARP ALL DAY LONG!--And it doesn't seem to be God's idea of Heaven either! His universe is full of movement, and He'll never stop! We'll go right on through the coming of Christ and the Millennium and space, and God only knows how far we all have to go ! And we'll enjoy every minute of it if we're faithful servants!
153. Well, that's my idea and I believe it's God's and His Bible's idea, and we're a long way from the End!--ETERNITY HAS NO END! LIKE THE ANGELS, WE'LL FIGHT ON!--Hallelujah!
A LOOK AT SOME CONTEMPORARY BELIEFS, PRACTICES AND PHENOMENA
154. THE INTENSE SEARCH FOR SPIRITUAL REALITY THAT SO MANY PEOPLE ARE CONDUCTING TODAY IS A FULFILMENT OF ANCIENT BIBLE PROPHECY. Over 2,600 years ago the Prophet Amos received and recorded this message: "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord (the Truth!): And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the North even to the East they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord." (Amos 8: 11,12)
155. THE FULFILMENT OF THIS PREDICTION IS CERTAINLY EVIDENT TODAY IN THE COUNTLESS MILLIONS WHO HAVE HAD THEIR FILL OF FALSE CHURCHIANITY. Having had their spiritual hunger unsatisfied and sickened by its emptiness, deadness, hypocrisy, and lack of love, they have--in their search for truth, love and peace--turned to other religions, philosophies and beliefs, some of which we will now comment on:
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Astrology
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156. I CAN PROVE TO YOU FROM THE BIBLE THAT GOD HAS ORDAINED THE STARS AND THE PLANETS TO CONTROL AND INFLUENCE OUR LIVES and at least our personalities, if not actual events! You can certainly determine pretty much what a person is going to be like by the month in which he was born, believe it or not. Genesis 1:14 tells us that God made the stars and planets primarily "for signs, and for seasons (not just Summer and Winter seasons, either!), and for days, and years [DELETED]" as well as "for lights"!
157. "CANST THOU BIND THE SWEET INFLUENCES OF PLEIADES?"--one of the constellation of stars; "or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?" (You'll find these in Job, Chapter 38, verses 31 and 32, one of the oldest, wisest books in the Bible!) And did you know that "the stars in their courses fought against Sisera?" (Judges 5:20) Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 explains that God has a set time for everything.
158. IT WAS EVEN THE PROPER READING OF A STAR THAT LED THE WISE MEN TO JESUS' BIRTHPLACE, and Luke says that in the last days, "there shall be signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars" of the end of things, and the coming of the Lord! (Luke 21:25)
159. THE MISTAKE WHICH THE ANCIENTS OFTEN MADE, AND WHICH THE BIBLE CONDEMNS WAS THEIR WORSHIP OF THE STARS, and their worship of Astrology and Astrologers, and their following of them more than of God--their habit of worshipping the Creation more than the Creator. (Romans 1:25) We can admire God's glorious Creation and we can wonder at its marvels, even the way the stars influence us, a part of His great machinery for controlling the universe and you.
160. OF COURSE, ANYONE FULL OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD AND IN DIRECT COMMUNICATION WITH THE CREATOR CAN DO TEN TIMES BETTER than those who try to find out His purpose merely by reading His Creation, as Daniel 1:20 makes very clear. "In all matters of wisdom and understanding, that the king inquired of them (the Prophet Daniel and his three brethren), he found them ten times better than all the astrologers that were in all his realm." Nevertheless, this does not mean that the stars were not created for this purpose or their secrets could not be read, at least to some extent, by those who understand them!
161. IT'S AMAZING, AND MAKES YOU PRAISE GOD ALL THE MORE FOR HIS WONDERFUL CREATION AND HOW HE RUNS IT! Why not? If He didn't apportion personality characteristics like the balance in His Creation and other of its miracles by some scientific means, or spiritual means, if you prefer, such as the influence of the stars and the various Signs under which we were born, then we might have all wound up like a bunch of robots, exactly the same, like some kind of identical, assembly line productions!
162. BUT IN ORDER TO VARY THE KINDS AND TYPES OF PEOPLE THAT HE WANTED LIVING ON EARTH, and to properly proportion their personalities throughout all the varied hues of the spectrum of characteristics of the human race, as well as perhaps even the guidance of animal and vegetable creatures and their distribution and balance, why couldn't God use a very "scientific" system of control and apportionment and distribution and ordination and foreordination by means of some instrumentalities of His Own Creation, such as the stars!
163. BUT YOU MUST ALWAYS REMEMBER THAT THE INFLUENCE OF THE STARS IS A PART OF HIS PHYSICAL CREATION AND CAN BE COMPLETELY OVERRULED AND OVERCOME BY THE SPIRITUAL POWER OF HIS SPIRIT. The way they affect and influence our lives is a purely natural part of God's physical Creation, like the sun and the moon and the planets influence our lives with heat, photosynthesis, plant life, light, the earth's orbit, tides, menstrual periods, etc. The astral bodies affect and influence the natural man and mind. They are God's system of controls of normal life and the balance of nature.
164. And though you, by your own natural efforts, can strengthen or weaken your natural traits, God-ordained by the stars, ONLY GOD CAN COMPLETELY TRANSFORM YOUR PERSONALITY IN DEFIANCE OF THESE NATURAL INFLUENCES! "Be not conformed to this world: But be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind!" (Romans 12:2) "Ye must be born again!" (John 3:7) "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature! Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new!" (2Corinthians 5:17)--A new birthday!--Hallelujah!
--Meditation and Hypnosis--
165. PEACEFUL MEDITATION AND MENTAL CONCENTRATION ON POSITIVE ATTITUDES AND GOOD THOUGHTS, ETC., DEFINITELY HAVE A GOOD EFFECT on both mind and body through the right spiritual attitude. This is why the Scriptures say, "Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever thing are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." (Philippians 4:8) And King David told the Lord of His Word, "O how I love Thy Law! It is my meditation all the day." (Psalm 119:97)
166. BUT THERE IS A REAL DANGER OF WHICH MANY SO-CALLED MEDITATORS HAD BETTER BEWARE!--The radiating network of nerves centering near our stomachs known as the "solar plexus" is very important to our spiritual emotions. (John 7:38) It is the physical seat of the foundation of the spirit. In some mystical religions, it is this centre of spiritual emotion which actual demons seek to control through trance-like meditation, often resulting in actual "demon possession."
167. THIS SAME WARNING APPLIES TO ANYONE WHO WOULD ALLOW HIMSELF TO BE PUT INTO A SLEEP-LIKE STATE OF MENTAL TRANCE BY AN UNGODLY HYPNOTIST. They can call it psychology, they can call it mental, but I am convinced that hypnotism is also very spiritual and has proven on occasion to be dangerous if the subject is not protected by the Spirit of God.
168. SOME HAVE BEEN KNOWN TO LOSE THEIR MINDS COMPLETELY OR BECOME TOTALLY SCHIZOPHRENIC THROUGH HYPNOTIC EXPERIENCE, going totally insane. I am personally convinced that many of these, while in such a state of total submission of their spirit to the will and spirit of another became possessed and overruled and controlled by an evil spirit, so that they became literally demon-possessed, as frequently acknowledged and demonstrated in the Bible and through the personal experience of untold horrified millions throughout the ages.
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Reincarnation and Metamorphosis
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169. YOU MAY BE SHOCKED BY THIS, BUT I'M BEGINNING TO BE CONVINCED THERE MUST BE SOME TRUTH TO THE OLD ORIENTAL BELIEF IN REINCARNATION, that a human spirit can come back in a different form. God's Word, speaking of some of those living outside of the Heavenly City, says "Without are dogs!" (Revelation 22:15) "But," you say, "he's probably speaking of people!" Well you can't prove to me he's speaking only of people!
170. Even my own father, a great Bible teacher, used to say that PERHAPS PART OF THE CURSE OF THE AFTERLIFE WAS THAT SOME PEOPLE WOULD BE TURNED INTO THE KIND OF ANIMALS THAT THEY WERE AS MEN--pigs and dogs and swine and stubborn oxes or mules and things like that! Now that may sound a little Oriental in religion and like some of the Oriental religions which believe in reincarnation, but maybe that's where the idea of reincarnation originated.
171. GOD HIMSELF USED ANIMALS AND THE NAMES OF ANIMALS TO DESCRIBE MAN. He used these very names for animals and these very animals to be used as examples of men, describing the characteristics and the dispositions of men, like Herod "that old fox," the Holy Spirit "like a dove," three unclean spirits "like frogs" out of the mouth of the "Beast." And the Lord called people pigs, foxes, dogs and sheep. (Matthew 3:16; 7:6; 9:36; Luke 13:32; John 21:16; 1Peter 2:25; Revelation 16:13, etc.)
172. THERE ARE ANIMALS IN THE SPIRIT WORLD--I'VE SEEN THEM! In Space City I very definitely met that lion which was licking my face!--And the prophets Daniel, Ezekiel and John all saw beasts in heavenly places! There were even four creatures, the four beasts of God, around His throne! Now they were heavenly, they were God's beasts, but they were some kind of strange animals, according to the Prophets. They looked like animals to them! How about that?
173. SO THERE ARE ANIMALS IN THE SPIRIT WORLD! Definitely! Now in the prophet's visions the Lord also often symbolised nations and peoples by animals, but of course we were always told they were considered strictly symbolic. But who knows? Maybe their people are like that, and that's why the Lord symbolises them as such! Maybe the very people of those countries are like that.
174. MAN HIMSELF IS OFTEN ABASED AND ABOMINATED AND BESTIALISED IN THIS LIFE! So if he has made a dog or a pig of himself, why could it not be that men as punishment should actually be compelled to take on the forms of such beasts in the afterlife, at least for a time as a purgatorial punishment or a retribution for the evil lives they have lived? "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap!" (Galatians 6:7)
175. MAYBE IT'S THEORY, BUT I'VE A LOT OF EXPERIENCE and seen a lot of things and heard a lot of stories which have convinced me that there must be some truth to it, so I'm definitely expecting to see some animals in the other life, as I already have!
176. ANOTHER VERY IMPORTANT SUBJECT WHICH IS RELATED TO THIS METAMORPHOSIS. There's something real about that, the belief that a person can by supernatural means or magic take on the form and nature of animals. That was a very widespread belief in ancient times when they believed in spirits and the spirit world.
177. ONE OF THE FAMOUS ENCHANTMENTS OF THE WITCHES WAS TO CHANGE A HUMAN BEING INTO A BEAST. You say, "Well that's just fairy tales!"--Oh no!--The king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, became enchanted in this way by God's wizard the Prophet Daniel until the king thought he was an ox, and he was down on all four eating grass for seven years!
178. The Prophet Daniel, whom King Nebuchadnezzar called "Master of the Magicians" (Daniel 4:9) interpreted the king's dream to him, in which a "watcher" announced, "LET HIS HEART (SPIRIT) BE CHANGED FROM MAN'S AND LET A BEAST'S HEART BE GIVEN UNTO HIM."(Daniel 4:16) Daniel interpreted the dream as a message from God to Nebuchadnezzar, and told him that he would actually become as a "beast" of the field." And sure enough, the Scripture says that exactly twelve months later, "he was driven from men and did eat grass as oxen and his body was wet with the dew of Heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers and his nails like birds' claws!" (Daniel 4:33)
179. SOMETIMES THE CHANGE TOOK PLACE ONLY IN THEIR MINDS. But there have been some people who have sworn that they have seen the change take place physically! I remember in the early days of the modern Pentecostal movement that a lot of people who were supposed to be filled with the Holy spirit apparently didn't get the right spirit, and got down on all four and barked like dogs--probably with some other kind of evil--temporarily demon possessed by dog-like spirits! (Revelation 16:13)
180. SO THERE MUST BE SOMETHING TO METAMORPHOSIS wherein people are actually changed into some other form for some reason either as a punishment or because that was what they were like.--There is some kind of reality to it.
181. IN FACT, WE WITNESS SUPERNATURAL MIRACLES OF METAMORPHOSIS ALL THE TIME!--A kind of reverse metamorphosis; Turning beasts into men! The Scripture says that "man that is in honour and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish." (Psalm 49:20) But those who accept God's love and salvation in Jesus are "born again" (John 3) and are changed from mere flesh animals into spiritual beings, God's children: "New creatures!" (2Corinthians 5:17) Hallelujah!
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UFOs and Flying Saucers
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182. MANY PEOPLE TODAY WONDER WHAT TO THINK ABOUT THESE BOOKS, STORIES AND THEORIES ABOUT MEN GETTING THE IDEA OF GOD OR GODS FROM FORMER VISITS TO EARTH BY SUPERIOR INTELLIGENCES FROM OUTER SPACE. Well, of course I believe in UFO's and flying saucers and they are visits of superior intelligences from outer space--the angels--and they are gods to us!
183. THE SCRIPTURES SPEAK OF THE ANGELS AS "GODS"--superior beings, more powerful and intelligent than man, and some of them do travel in these so-called "flying saucers" which are actually circles of power or energy and light because they are light!
184. GOD HIMSELF WAS TRAVELLING IN A WHEEL OR "SAUCER" WHEN EZEKIEL SAW HIM. I dare you to read Ezekiel Chapter One--the amazing picture of God's space vehicle--the chariot of the Most High that all but defies description even by the eloquent tongue of the Prophet under the anointing of God! You've never seen or heard of anything like it in all your life! Further out than anything else you'll ever see outside of Space City is this God's flying chariot--His space vehicle--the original flying saucer far more elaborate and fascinating than any other you'll ever see!--Because this is God's limousine, His mobile throne in which He tours the universe!
185. "I LOOKED, AND BEHOLD A WHIRLWIND CAME OUT OF THE NORTH, A GREAT CLOUD, AND A FIRE INFOLDING ITSELF, AND A BRIGHTNESS WAS ABOUT IT, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber ... like the appearance of lamps: It went up and down ... the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning ... the appearance of the wheels was like unto the colour of a beryl: And their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel [DELETED] they turned not when they went [DELETED] lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up ... and above ... was the likeness of a throne ... this was the appearance of the glory of the Lord." (Ezekiel 1)
186. SO AS FAR AS I'M CONCERNED, UFO'S OR FLYING SAUCERS, these discs or circles of mysterious light which travel at speeds and changes of directions unknown to man or hover silently with a stability thus far unattained by any of man's space vehicles, are nothing more or less than angelic creatures or spirit beings commonly known as angels and often represented by halos in early Christian art!
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Ghosts, Spirits & Haunted Houses
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187. SOME GHOSTS AND SPIRITS ARE KNOWN TO BE BOUND TO CERTAIN HOUSES OR PLACES. Certain spirits as a part of their punishment or assignment, are bound to certain places or creatures or animals.
188. SOME GHOSTS AND SPIRITS THAT ARE NOT ANGELS COULD BE DEMONS. In certain cases they could be the spirits of the departed dead, who for some reason God has allowed, possibly for means of retribution or something, to have to be confined to a certain area, certain place or a certain house to watch the results of their evil deeds and their continuation in others and their reaping what they sowed.
189. CAN YOU IMAGINE HOW HORRIBLE IT WOULD BE to have been an evil father and then die or be killed and have to stay around your house and watch your wife and children and how they have to suffer and everything else for your evil deeds? You see, it could be a form of punishment.
190. I DON'T DOUBT A BIT THAT IN THE AFTERLIFE THOSE THAT REFUSED TO ACCEPT CHRIST'S ATONEMENT ARE GOING TO HAVE TO SUFFER FOR THE VERY SINS THEY COMMITTED! That was the whole idea of the vision of Hell God gave me: (See "The Green Door," Letters No.262.) The pitiful inmates in that hellish hospital were still suffering for the same sins they'd had in this life.
191. CERTAIN GHOSTS ARE CONDEMNED TO REMAIN IN A CERTAIN HOUSE OR PLACE, and certain families are condemned to have these ghosts haunt them because of the sins of the past or of their fathers. In other words, these spirits either are themselves being punished, or those who've been wronged want satisfaction, they want reparation, they want repentance! They want people to be sorry for them so they can forgive them.
192. BUT THEN, ON THE OTHER HAND, DEMONS CAN ALSO HAUNT HOUSES AND CAUSE TROUBLE; BUT YOU DON'T HAVE TO WORRY AS LONG AS YOU HAVE JESUS. Apparently, this is not yet the hour of their torment or punishment, as some of them cried out to Jesus "Art thou come hither to torment us before the time?" (Matthew 8:29) But some of them do seem to already be suffering a mild form of punishment, such as incarceration in a certain house, habitation, rock strata, or bound to seek some form of life to inhabit, such as animals, trees, people, etc.
193. But whatever the case, whether it's a person or property that's being troubled by evil spirits, JUST COMMAND THEM TO DEPART IN THE NAME OF JESUS, AND THEY HAVE TO GO. God's children have absolute authority over them. But just remember that unyielded sin in the heart or life, or a soul that's not filled with the spirit, is an open door and invitation for evil spirits to return, like the man in Matthew 12:43-45! Pray!
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The "Do-It-Yourself" Religions
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194. THIS HARD CORE PHILOSOPHY OF NEARLY ALL SATANIC CULTS AND ISMS IS: "MAN IS BASICALLY GOOD AND RIGHTEOUS AND CAN SAVE HIMSELF." And the main reason man is always trying to save himself, with perhaps just a little help from God thrown in, is so he doesn't have to thank God too much but can give himself most of the credit, and do his own thing and go his own way.
195. THIS IS THE WAY OF ALL FALSE RELIGIONS. THEY ARE ALL DEPENDENT UPON SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS AND THEIR OWN WAY! Most of them claim to be worshipping God and seeking a little help from Him to make it, but are working so hard to earn it they figure they deserve it, with or without His help, and are quite offended if He doesn't seem to appreciate their goodness! "Why look at all I've done for You, God--I really deserve to be saved! If You're ever gonna save anybody, You should save me! If anybody's gonna make it, I should make it!"
196. AND IT'S BECAUSE OF THIS "YOU-CAN-SAVE-YOURSELF" DOCTRINE THAT ALL OF THE FALSE RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS OF THE WORLD HAVE DEVELOPED SOME KIND OF FETISH OF SELF-DENIAL, FAKIRISM AND SELF-TORTURE. Sitting on nails and putting skewers through your cheeks, whatever it is, it's all the same. Some of them have even had themselves nailed to crosses and hung there and suffered all kinds of physical torture, because the more you suffer, the more you're tortured, the more righteously religious you're supposed to be.
197. SO EVEN SO-CALLED CHRISTIANITY OR CHURCHIANITY HAS BECOME A RELIGION OF "DON'TS," AND SAINTLINESS IS SUPPOSED TO CONSIST OF A DENIAL OF ALL HUMAN HAPPINESS AND GENERAL ENJOYMENT OF ANY KIND! A lot of them have even gotten to the point where they seem to think it is sinful to enjoy anything, and a sin to be happy, and that sainthood consists of such suffering, self-crucifixion that you must be in utter misery and agony to get close to God!--Thus the "agony and the ecstasy!" They teach that without the agony of human physical suffering, you can't possibly enjoy the ecstasy of Godly spirituality. But I believe this is a lie, and that the Bible does not teach this at all, but that God created us to enjoy life as well as death!
198. I'M NOT DENYING THERE ARE TIMES WHEN WE HAVE TO SACRIFICE AND SUFFER, but we don't have to do it on purpose just as a self-righteousness gaining of personal merit.--If we do it, it's because it happens and the Lord lets it happen, but not because we necessarily ask for it or want it or think we're gaining any righteousness by it.
199. I DON'T HAVE A SAD GOD!--I HAVE A HAPPY GOD, WHO WANTS ME TO BE HAPPY TOO, AND YOU AS WELL! This is the whole point of it all, to relieve us of the suffering, pain, death and tears brought into the world by the Enemy and the sins of man. Jesus said, "I am come that you might have life, and have it more abundantly!" (John 10:10)--And "these things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full!" (John 15:11) So these poor misguided people who think He's against life and pleasure and happiness, which He created for us to enjoy, are just crazy and don't know the Bible, and they certainly don't know God very well!
200. THEY JUST DON'T REALLY REALISE WHAT GOD'S IDEA OF RIGHTEOUSNESS IS. Their idea of righteousness is so different from God's! The world equates goodness with Godliness, by which they mean self-righteous perfection. Sinfulness they equate with devilishness. But the Lord said the sinner was closer to God than the supposedly sinless self-righteous perfectionist! He told the holier-than-thou priests and Pharisees, "Verily I say unto you, that the publicans and the harlots go into the Kingdom of God before you!" (Matthew 21:31)--For God's way up is down!
201. YOU CAN NEVER BE TOO BAD FOR JESUS, ONLY TOO GOOD! God's idea of righteousness is the pitiful, hopeless, lost, humble, loving, sinful sinner who knows he needs God and depends of Him for salvation--not the Devil's churchy, self-righteous, hypocritical Pharisees who think they can save themselves by their own goodness!--Which are you? Jesus said, "They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick, But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: For I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance!" (Matthew 9:12,13)
CONCLUSION
202. MOST PEOPLE SEEM TO THINK THAT GOD'S SPIRITUAL KINGDOM IS SOME FANCY PLACE SOMEWHERE IN OUTER SPACE CALLED HEAVEN, only to be reached when you die, if you've been good enough while on Earth! But Jesus Himself proved this to be a misconception when He said, "The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! For, behold, the Kingdom of God is within you!" (Luke 17:20,21)
203. WE DON'T HAVE TO WAIT TILL WE DIE TO ENTER IT! In fact, it has already entered you if you have Jesus and are filled with His Holy Spirit--and right now you can experience all of its exciting sights, sounds, visions, voices, and even resultant physical thrills--and many other ecstatic joys of the spirit world--world of His Spirit, where God Himself dwells! Hallelujah!
204. TO ENTER HIS SPIRITUAL KINGDOM IS SO SIMPLE TO DO THAT JESUS HIMSELF SAID THAT YOU MUST FIRST BECOME AS A LITTLE CHILD: "Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!" (Matthew 18:3) He even said, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God." (John 3:3)
205. WHAT JESUS MEANT BY THIS, PLAIN AND SIMPLE, WAS THAT WE CANNOT SAVE OURSELVES by our own works, our own goodness, our own attempts to keep His laws and to love Him, or even our own endeavours to find and follow His truth. He was saying that salvation is a gift of God performed by a miraculous transformation of our lives when we accept His truth in the love of His Son Jesus by the work of God's Spirit. "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saves us." (Titus 3:5) All we have to do is receive Him. "As many as received Him (into their hearts), to them gave He power to become the sons (or children) of God." (John 1:12)
206. "FOR BY GRACE ARE YE SAVED THROUGH FAITH: AND THAT NOT OF YOURSELVES: IT IS THE GIFT OF GOD!--Not of works, lest any man should boast!" (Ephesians 2:8,9) So you cannot save yourself no matter how good you try to be. You can't be good enough, you can't be perfect enough to earn merit or deserve the Heavenly perfection of His Own holy salvation by His Own grace, love and mercy!
207. FOR "ALL WE LIKE SHEEP HAVE GONE ASTRAY; we have turned everyone to his own way; but God hath laid on Him (Jesus, His Own Son) the iniquity of us all." (Isaiah 53:6) God loved us so much, He gave Jesus to die in our place, to take our punishment for us. "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Romans 6:23)
208. BUT MANY PEOPLE ARE TOO PROUD TO ACCEPT A GIFT--they want to work for everything they receive. But Jesus, God's Gift of Love to us, is just that--a Gift--and we just have to receive Him humbly, knowing that we can't possibly pay enough to buy our way into His Heavenly Kingdom, or do enough to earn eternal life or to deserve the happiness that He alone can bring.
209. JESUS STANDS AT YOUR HEART'S DOOR AND BEGS TO COME IN. He promised: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock: If any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me." (Revelation 3:20) You can have Him and all He has to give, which is everything, right this minute, if you'll just sincerely pray and ask Him to come into your heart, forgive you your sins and give you His free gift of eternal life.
210. YOU CAN BE BORN AGAIN INTO THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF HIS SPIRIT WHERE EVERYTHING IS MUCH MORE REAL, MORE BEAUTIFUL, AND MORE LASTING THAN THE ONE WHICH YOU CAN NOW SEE WITH YOUR NATURAL EYES AT THIS VERY MOMENT! For "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him! But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit!" (1Corinthians 2:9,10) Praise the Lord! They're all for you, and you can personally experience their thrilling and ecstatic joys right now, and even take a trip into that world with Jesus' Holy Spirit as your Guide, like the prophets of old and our prophets of today, Praise God! Enjoy it! Experience it! "Be filled with the Spirit!" (Ephesians 5:18)--And then you're safe to make the trip, and get so high you'll never come down!--Hallelujah!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
