Calvary Temple

As mature Christians, we must recognize that some Kingdom principles are paradoxical. On the one hand, the Psalmist David wrote in Psalm 103:3 that God heals all our diseases.

But, in II Corinthians 12:9, when the Apostle Paul prayed three times for healing, the Lord's response was that His grace is sufficient and that His power works best in our weaknesses!

It's certainly in accordance with scripture to continually ask in faith for all of our needs, but it's also scriptural to endure the meantime with patience, so that Christ’s strength and power can be shown through our weakness.

This message is very different from the norm and includes a prophetic dream.  The three things to take away from this message; 

1) The written Word of God is alive and stands on its own meaning and merit, whether or not additional commentary is included!

 2)  God will often give dreams as warnings, teachings, or some other insight. I believe this one is prophetic in that we must be ready and willing because we may be called upon to deal with evil spirits in church. 

3). Even when we don’t want to comply with what God has set before us,  it’s definitely best to let Him have his way with us.

The Apostle Paul wrote in I Corinthians 5:7-8 that, just as God told the Israelites to purge their homes of leaven, which represents sin, and to put the blood of a lamb over their doorposts so the death angel would pass over them, the church must also purge herself of sin, and even remove members who practice sinful behavior, because there was no room for sin under the blood of Christ.

At this time of year, we acknowledge and mourn the excruciating death of Jesus on the cross and we thank Him for shedding that redeeming blood for our salvation.  But the power of the resurrection is what gives us hope that we, too, will be resurrected in Christ.  In I Corinthians 15:20 Paul declared to those who didn’t believe the resurrection was real, “But in Fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died.  V23, But, there is an order to this resurrection: Christ was raised as the first of the harvest—then all who belong to Christ will be raised when he comes back.

He is coming back for you and me!

The Bible records three people whom Jesus raised from the dead.  These were amazing miracles that caught the attention of many, many people and caused them to believe in Jesus.

Jesus had the power over death because He was divine, fully God in the flesh.  But also, these miracles demonstrate Jesus’ humanity, in the love and compassion He had for the families who were grieving the loss of their loved ones.

These miracles give us such hope and confidence in that day when a mass resurrection will take place, the rapture of believers.  The saints of God who’ve  died in Christ, will be raised in heavenly bodies, and those who are alive at the time, will be lifted from this earth and in a moment will be changed from mortal to immortal, to be forever with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the raiser of the dead.

The book of II Samuel chronicles some of the despair and devastation that King David suffered in his lifetime; some of which was his own making. But even when almost everyone he loved and trusted had betrayed him and even tried to murder him and steal the throne, led by his own beloved son Absalom, David kept his heart humble and cried unto God for deliverance. The twists and turns in this book are numerous, but through it all, even when his heart was overwhelmed, as he wrote in Psalms 61:1-6, he called upon the Rock of his Salvation to save him.

There are not very many things in this fallen world that we would consider to be perfect.  Maybe a short list of God’s beautiful creation, and a newborn baby.  But, in Deuteronomy 18:10 God instructed the Israelites to walk perfectly before Him.  He meant that they should keep their hearts pure by worshipping Him only.  In doing so, He would see to it that they had everything they needed to live.  

The Lord still expects us to live perfectly before Him.  That's why in Psalm 138:8 the Psalmist, David wrote: 

The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O LORD, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands. Speaking of his hands working perfection in himself. 

Psalm 57:2  I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth (completes, perfects) all things for me.  He can make a perfect heart.

In Mark 5:25 we find an amazing story where Jesus heals a woman who’d been sick for 12 long years. She’d done everything in her natural power, suffered many things at the hands of many doctors, yet, the scripture says she was no better, but grew worse.

Until she heard about Jesus, and took some steps necessary to get to him and to her healing. Maybe you, too, need a healing. Jesus is fully able to perform what He’s promised and what He paid for at Calvary.

In the book of Exodus, God instructed Moses to create anointing oil to anoint the priests, the tabernacle, and later, kings.

In the New Testament, in the book of I John 2:20, John addressed the church and said that we have an unction from the Holy One. That UNCTION of the Holy Spirit of God is just like the smearing on of the anointing oil used in the Old Testament and this unction gives Christians the ability to know the difference between truth and lies.

This is so important today because in Verse 22, the writer defines who the antichrists are. It's anyone who denies that Jesus Christ is the Son of God; that man is antichrist and the truth is not in him and neither does he know the Father.

We must pay attention and know who is who.

God set up two covenants to deal with the sins of mankind; the first covenant in the Old Testament, which relied upon priests from the tribe of Levi, to be the mediator between unholy men and the Most Holy God. They first had to offer sacrifices for themselves, to ensure that they didn’t die due to their own uncleanness before carrying out the sacrifices that could only symbolically and temporarily address the sins of others.

But, in Hebrews Chapter 7, we read of a better covenant. One in which the Lord Jesus is our High Priest, and He does not need to cleanse himself before touching the lives of others, nor is He subject to sin, disease and death, ever.