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Hi my name is Dean Smith, and in this podcast I want to discuss Noah and the flood. 

In Matthew 24:37, Jesus says the world would be like “Days of Noah” in the lead up into His Second Coming.

If we have entered the end times, as many believe, it shouldn’t surprise us that Noah & his ark are in the news.

According to a CIA document, called “Report Re: Noah’s Ark” recently obtained by the Daily Mail, America’s intelligence agency actually spent time looking for Noah’s ark between 1974–1982.

This included having satellites and a U-2 spy plane take pictures of the Durupınar formation located on Mount Tendurek in Turkey’s Ararat mountains.

The Bible says that when the waters subsided Noah’s “ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat” (Genesis 8:4 NASV). Mountains is in the plural, which mean it wasn’t pointing to one specific mountain, but rather the range. 

Researchers have visited the Durupinar site several times. Its boat-like shape actually fit the dimensions of Noah’s Ark presented in the Bible.

According to the New York Post, this past year a research team led by Andrew Jones used ground penetrating radar at Durupınar and found evidence suggesting a three-story structure with rooms and even corridors existed beneath the surface.

This fits the Biblical description of the ark having three decks. But more work and actual excavation needs to be done to determine if this is where Noah’s Ark came to rest in the Ararat mountains.

But there are other issues.

As we read the Biblical account of Noah’s Ark, not only was Noah and his family preserved but so were one pair of every animal, bird, reptile and amphibian.

Many wonder how if the ark was big enough to hold a pair of every creature.

So in 2014, physics students at England’s University of Leicester initiated a study to determine if Noah’s ark actually could.

To determine this the students first needed to calculate the ark’s buoyancy. They used the dimensions provided in the Biblical account and the commonly accepted view that the Gopher wood used in construction was probably Cyprus.

Using the archimedes principle, the group determined how much weight the ark could safely hold.

Next they had to find out how many animals, birds, reptiles and amphibian pairs would have been taken on the ark.

They went with a high estimate of around 35,000 pairs. Others like Evolutionary Taxonomist Earnst Mayr puts the total closer to 21,000.

But there are a couple of caveats. First the Bible says that Noah took one pair of every kind of animal in Genesis 6:19. This means Noah may not have taken a pair of coyotes, dingoes, hyenas, foxes and wolves. One pair of canines was sufficient.

This would have significantly reduced the numbers even more.

Secondly Noah did not need to take full-grown animals — juveniles would also have worked. 

Next the students needed to determine their total weight. Based on other research, they concluded that the average weight of all the world’s creatures would be be equal to a sheep, about 51.7 pounds or 23.5 kgs. 

From that the physic’s team concluded the ark could hold 2.15 million sheep compared to the 70,000 max that would actually be on it. In other words, the ark was more than capable of holding all the necessary animals.

Others have challenged if ancients had the ability to build an ark of this size. But as many have pointed out, modern engineers still haven’t figured out how the Egyptians built the pyramids. 

But we know they did. 

One strange thing about the world wide flood is that in addition to the Biblical account, there are approximately 300 stories of a world wide flood in cultures from every corner of the world.

These stories shouldn’t surprise us. Because after the flood, the Bible states that God divided the world into different language groups and nations at the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11. 

At this point they started creating their own unique histories, but everything before this, including the world wide flood, was common history to all, which would have been passed down from generation to generation.

This includes the Babylonian story of Gilgamesh who gathered a pair of all the world’s creatures on a giant boat in order to save them from the deluge.

Researchers at London’s British Museum recently translated an ancient Babylonian tablet that was in their collection and were shocked by what it said.

On one side was a map, that actually provided directions so people of that day could visit the ark. 

People were told to go to a known location called ‘Urartu,’ which is the equivalent of Ararat in the Bible. They were then told what direction they had to go and how far they needed to travel to see it for themselves. 

In an interview with CBN, British Museum curator Dr. David Finkel said, “from the Babylonian point of view, this was a matter of fact thing.”

Other flood accounts have surface among Indian tribes in America like the Pueblo, Hopi and Cheyenne and the Blackfoot.

In his book, Mythology of the Blackfoot Tribe, D. C. Duvall writes that a great flood required the Blackfoot to climb a giant mountain to escape the rising waters. While there a god, called Napi, gave them water and food. When they drank the water, the people began speaking in different languages.

This follows the Biblical timetable which has the Tower of Babel taking place shortly after the flood.

In India. The Shatapatha Brahmana dated from 700 to 300 BC, tells how people were warned about an impending flood and how Manu built a giant boat and saved the animals.

Stories abound across Asia of a great flood. One Chinese story states that Fuhi, his wife, three sons and three daughters, survived the flood and repopulated the world. This matches the number in the Biblical account where Noah, his wife, three sons and their wives were taken in the ark. Both accounts have eight people surviving.

From the Incas in South America to aborigines in Australia to the Ket in Siberia, there are stories of a great flood.

While some write off these stories as myths, many wonder why almost every world culture has an account of a great flood in their ancient history.

The Bible says this flood was catastrophic and it would be shocking if there were no stories about it in other cultures.

Thanks for joining me on this podcast, I will catch you again. 

A few years ago, someone told me that nowhere in the New Testament does Jesus claim to be God.

And to be honest, I was caught a bit off guard by the question. Now, to be fair, nowhere in the Gospels did Jesus say, “I am God.” 

In other words, Jesus did not once say “I am Theos,” which is the Greek word for God. 

But Jesus was not speaking to a gentile crowd; the Lord, was speaking to Jews.

And for the benefit of the Jewish elite, Jesus did something much worse: He called Himself the “Son of Man.”

Hi, my name is Dean Smith, and in this podcast, I want to discuss the time that Jesus was accused of blasphemy by the Jewish high priest and why. 

Rome was ruling the world at this time, and they had dozens of gods. According to one list I looked at, they had 21 gods whose names started with the letter A. 

And they had some strange ones. There was Devera, a female god who ruled over the brooms used to sweep out the Roman temples. Yes, I said brooms.

Then there was Laverna, who was the goddess of thieves and con men. Yes, everyone had a god back then.

The Romans had over 200 gods and goddesses and that’s not even including the dozens of Greek gods, that were still hanging around.

The gentile world was crowded with gods, but Jesus was not sent to the gentiles. His message was for the Jews, so He spoke with a Jewish religious accent and you needed understand what the Lord was saying through a Jewish lens? 

Three times in the Gospels, Jews accused Jesus of blasphemy. Accusations of blasphemy typically occurred when an individual claimed to be God.

And there was one time that was very odd, because the High Priest accused Jesus of blasphemy for calling Himself the Son of Man in Mark 14:53-64.

So why would Christ calling Himself the Son of Man enrage the Jewish High Priest? I mean the claim the Lord was the ‘Son of Man’ means the Lord is human.

But this claim was actually the final nail in Christ’s coffin resulting in the Lord’s crucifixion.

Jesus had been healing the sick, casting out demons, and attracting crowds, The priests had had enough and their number one goal was to eliminate Christ any way they could. 

But because of Christ’s popularity they needed a legitimate reason, one the Jews would accept.

After the Lord’s arrest in the garden, Jesus was dragged before the Jewish High Priest and the Sanhedrin.

They had arranged for several witnesses to bring false accusations against Christ. But their testimonies were so contradictory and convoluted, the case fell apart.

Exasperated the High Priest, Caiaphas, asked Jesus, “Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?” (Mark 14:61).

Jesus answered, “I am; and you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.”

As soon as Christ uttered those words, Caiaphas ripped his clothes and said no more witnesses were needed and accused Christ of blasphemy (Mark 14:63-64).

Why would Christ’s claim to be the ‘son of man’ cause such a dramatic reaction?

By adding He was ‘coming in the clouds of heaven,’ Jesus was alluding to a heavenly night vision that the prophet Daniel had in chapter 7. We read:

“I kept looking
Until thrones were set up,
And the Ancient of Days took His seat;
His garment was white as snow,
And the hair of His head like pure wool.
His throne was ablaze with flames,
Its wheels were a burning fire. (Daniel 7:9 NASV)

Daniel had a vision of the heavenly throne room and saw the the Ancient of Days, who of course was Jehovah, sitting on His throne.

But it’s easy to miss the slight, but significant, change in one word in this passage, Daniel writes that there were “thrones” in heaven. It is plural. There  was more than one throne in the heavenly throne room and by implication more than one God,

Obviously, the Ancient of Days (Jehovah) would sit on one of those thrones. But who would sit on the other one?

Then in verse 13, Daniel saw who this second throne was intended for writing:

“I kept looking in the night visions,
And behold, with the clouds of heaven
One like a son of man was coming,
And He came up to the Ancient of Days
And was presented before Him.” (Daniel 7:13 NASV)

Daniel said that another being appeared who looked like a ‘Son of Man. In other words, He looked human and He was carried in on the clouds in the sky.

Daniel then adds:

And to Him was given dominion,
Honor, and a kingdom,
So that all the peoples, nations, and populations of all languages
Might serve Him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion
Which will not pass away… (Daniel 7:14 NASV)

This individual who looked like the ‘Son of Man’ was given full authority and power over all the nations. This is the who will be sitting on the second throne beside the Ancient of Days.

Because of passages like this, up to about the second century, the Jews believed that there were two powers or two Gods in heaven. 

So when the Jesus said He was “sitting at the right hand of power, and coming with the clouds of heaven,” the Lord was stating that He was the Son of Man in Daniel 7.

The High Priest knew exactly what Christ was implying. Jesus was calling himself God. 

Outraged the High Priest called it blasphemy, and sent Jesus to the Romans for execution. 

But this wasn’t the only time, that Jesus was connected to Daniel’s Son of Man. Luke does it in the Book of Acts, when he describes Christ’s ascension to heaven writing that “a cloud took Him up, out of their sight” (Acts 1:9).

Notice how Luke specifically said that Jesus went up in a cloud. Remember in his vision, Daniel saw the Son of Man arriving in the heavenly throne room on the clouds.

We see it again when the Church’s first martyr, Stephen, had finished his sermon telling the leaders of Jerusalem, they were hard hearted and had rejected Jesus as the Jewish Messiah.

In Acts 7:54, Luke writes that they were furious and ground their teeth in anger.

But it was the last thing that Stephen said in verse 56 which got him into trouble.

Stephen had a vision. Looking intently to heaven, Stephen said “Look, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man (a reference to Jesus) standing at the right hand of God.” This was the scene straight out of Daniel 7.

When the Jews heard this they covered their ears because they considered it so blasphemous. 

Outraged, they dragged Stephen out of the city and stoned him to death. They had Jesus crucified for saying He was the Son of Man, and they executed Stephen for claiming Christ was the Son of Man.

The Apostle Paul also connected Jesus to Daniel’s Son of Man.

In Ephesians chapter one, the Apostle described what happened after God raised Christ from the dead. 

We read:

“He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion. (Ephesians 1:20-21)

Paul didn’t pull this concept of Jesus sitting at the right hand of God (remember those thrones in Daniel 7) or being given power and  authority over the world out of a hat. He pulled it all from Daniel 7 where the Son of Man was given this authority. 

Then to wrap it all up, the Son of Man is seen again in the Bible’s last book. 

In Revelation 14:14, John uses the wording from Daniel 7 to describe Jesus writing, “Now in my vision, I saw a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one like a son of man, with a gold crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand.”

So by referring to Himself as the Son of Man, Jesus essentially called Himself God which explains the outrageous reaction of the Jewish High Priest. 

As Jewish Rabbinical scholar Allan Segal pointed out in his book, “Two Powers in Heaven”, up until the second century, the Rabbis believed the Old Testament taught there were two Gods in heaven. 

But they rejected that concept in the second century and began emphasizing the oneness of God after Christians started claiming that Jesus was this second God. Jesus was part of the Trinity or Triune God, made up of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

Thanks for joining me on this podcast, and I will catch you again.

When we look at Jesus’ brief three year ministry, He not only did some miraculous things, but He also gave some very practical advice.

Hi my name is Dean Smith and in this podcast, I want to discuss one piece of advice that Jesus gave and a miracle, that proved itself.

In both instances, it took nearly 2,000 years to fully understand what Jesus said and did. 

First let’s talk about the practical advice that Jesus gave. 

One of the major themes of Christ’s teaching was worry. He told us that we need to trust God.

But the Lord also gave some practical advice stating in Matthew 6:34, “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself.”

What in the world did Jesus mean when He said tomorrow will take care of itself?

Well it took nearly 2,000 years, but researchers from Penn State may have uncovered it?

A few years back they studied 29 people who suffered from a serious anxiety disorder. 

These were not amateurs when it came to worry, they were top-level worriers. For a full month these professional worriers were told to write down everything that they worried about.

Once these lists were compiled, over the next few months the researchers followed up to find out what actually happened with those things they were worrying about. 

There were some remarkable findings. First, they found out that 91% of the things the people worried about didn’t come to pass. This means that they were worrying about problems that didn’t actually exist. We have all heard of “fake-news” well these were “fake-worries.”

There were even a few cases where 100% of the things that people worried about didn’t actually take place.

Then they looked at the 9% of the worries that had “some” legitimacy, and notice how I said “some,” because the researchers discovered that most of them were overblown. The worry exceeded the reality of the situation.

Other worry studies came to a similar conclusion. One determined that 85% of the things that people worried about were fake. And for the remaining 15% that came to pass, 79% were significantly over exaggerated.

So when Jesus said let tomorrow take care of itself, the Lord was simply saying that most of the stuff we worry about is fake and time will simply take care of it.

Oddly it also took about 2,000 years to sort out one of Christ’s oddest healing. It was so strange, that some Christians actually call it a failed healing. Others have even gone the ridiculous step of stating that Christ needed more faith to complete the healing.

But before we look at that crazy story, let’s hit the fast forward button and skip ahead about 2,000 years. 

Diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, Shirl Jennings had been blind since he was 10.

However, in 1991 at the insistence of his girlfriend, Barbara, Shirl saw an eye specialist, Dr. Trevor Woodhams. Since Shirl could still see light, Woodhams didn’t think Shirl had this affliction.

In fact, Shirl had thick cataracts and their removal resulted in a return of Shirl’s eyesight, just before his marriage to Barbara.

For the first time in 40 years, Shirl could see, but there was a problem.

In his article for The New Yorker1, former Columbia University professor, Dr. Oliver Sacks, cited Barbara’s journal who wrote:

“[Shirl] often felt more disabled than he had felt when he was blind… Steps posed a special hazard because all he could see was a confusion, a flat surface of parallel and crisscrossing lines; he could not see them (although he knew them) as solid objects going up or coming down in three-dimensional place.”

The cat was also challenging. Though Shirl identified the cat’s head, tail and paws, he could not visualize the cat as a single entity.

The images were coming in correctly, but Shirl’s mind was not processing them. It took weeks, before Shirl could see properly.

Barbara said trees were also problematic. Shirl recognized their individual parts, trunk, leaves and branches, but they were just a jumbled mess.

This reminds us of Jesus’ strange healing of a blind man at Bethsaida. After spitting on the man’s eyes and laying hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?” He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around” (Mark 8:23-24).

Just like Shirl, all the images were merged together and people looked like walking trees. So Jesus laid hands on the man again, and he saw clearly. 

Now because of modern science, we know this confusion happens to people who are seeing for the first time.

But back in the first century, they had no way of knowing this.

The fact this blind man saw men walking as trees was proof that Jesus healed him.

While many consider this to be a failed healing, all Jesus did the second time was help the man’s mind sort out what he was already seeing. 

But equally important I believe God intended this healing for people living today, because only with modern medical practices can we make sense of of this miracle.

Christ’s advice on worry and the healing of the blind man at Bethsaida is God’s way of showing us that the Bible is as relevant today as it was 2,000 years ago.

Thanks for joining me on this podcast, and I will catch you again. 

Sources:

Hi my name is Dean Smith and in this podcast I want to discuss the mysterious Being in the Old Testament called ‘The Angel of the Lord.’

When you study some of the sects that broke off of Christianity, such as Mormonism and the Jehovah Witnesses, it was due largely to disagreements on the divinity of Christ. 

The Jehovah Witnesses claim that Jesus is not God and that He is a created being. They consider Jesus the highest of all God’s created beings and even the first one God created, but insist that Jesus was not divine. They even insinuate that Jesus is actually Michael the Archangel.

The Mormons followed a similar path, stating that Jesus was created and therefore not divine. But they went one step further and added that Lucifer was Jesus’ brother. 

But Christ’s divinity is not only clearly taught in the New Testament, it is also seen throughout the Old Testament where we see Christ in His Divine pre-incarnate form.

To see that connection, we start with John 8:48-59, where Jewish leaders accused Jesus of having a demon. 

Jesus responded by saying that Abraham was overjoyed that He would see the day Jesus would come.

The Jews replied it was utter nonsense because Jesus wasn’t even 50 years old and He was claiming to have seen Abraham.

Then Jesus takes it one step further, stating quote “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am” Verse 58.

The Jews were outraged. They knew exactly what Christ was doing. He was claiming to be God, which is why they sought to stone Christ for blasphemy in verse 59.

This is because Jesus not only said he existed before Abraham, but called Himself “I Am,” the very name of God. 

Of course, this claim takes us back to the story of Moses’ encounter with the burning bush while he was minding his father-in-law’s flock in Midian.

We read in Exodus 3, verse two:

“Then the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of [a]a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not being consumed.”

In this passage we read that The Angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in the bush. 

But then something strange happens in verse 4:

“When the Lord (Jehovah) saw that he turned aside to look, God (Elohim) called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”

The Angel of the Lord who is in the bush is then referred to as both Jehovah and God. 

When the Angel of the Lord told Moses to lead the Hebrews out of Egypt, Moses asked who shall I say sent me. The Angel of the Lord answered, “I am who I am” in verse 14.

The Angel of the Lord, who is also Jehovah and God is called the “I am” and in the Gospel of John, Jesus said He was the “I Am. 

So was Jesus stating that He was the The Angel of the Lord?

The first thing we need to realize is that the Angel of the Lord is not an angel. 

The Hebrew word, malak, translated angel in this passage simply means messenger. It refers to a role. The same word is used to refer to messengers sent from kings in the Old Testament, but it is also used of angels.

The Angel of the Lord is both the messenger of God in this passage and God Himself. He speaks for God and as God. 

Secondly, like English, Hebrew has a definite article “the” which is used to describe and emphasize one particular being.

So while we have references to angels, there was only one that was referred to as the Angel of the Lord. He is differentiated because He is also God.

We see this in many of the other passages that refer to the Angel of the Lord in the Old Testament.

In Genesis 22:1, we read that God (Hebrew: ‘Elôhı̂ym) commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son. 

When Abraham arrived at the mountain, and was about to sacrifice Isaac, we read that it was the Angel of the Lord who stopped Abraham from doing it.

But look at what happened. We read:

11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 12 And the Angel of the Lord said, “Do not reach out your hand against the boy, and do not do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” (Genesis 22:11-12).

But look at the strange way the Angel of the Lord explains this. First He talks about God in the third person, when The Angel of the Lord says Abraham feared God. But then the Angel of the Lord says you have not withheld your only son from ME.

In the NASV, the word Me is capitalized. The Angel of the Lord is God because He was going to receive the sacrifice intended for God. But He is also separate from God.

Then in verses 16-17, the Angel of the Lord called down from Heaven stating because Abraham had not withheld his son, the Angel of the Lord says “I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens.” 

The Angel of the Lord is the One who will bless Abraham and expand his lineage. This is exactly the same thing that God promised to do in Genesis 12:1-3.

We see the same thing happening in Genesis 31:11-13, when Jacob had a dream. We read, “The angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob.’ I answered, ‘Here I am.’” quote The Angel of the Lord then goes on to say quote “I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a memorial stone, where you made a vow to Me” (Genesis 31:13 NASV).

In this dream, The Angel of the Lord says He is the God of Bethel. Of course that is where Jacob had the dream of angels ascending and descending on a ladder to heaven and set up a memorial stone dedicated to God at this location.

I will leave you with one final example. We read in Jude 9:

“Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved[a] a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.”

So Jude says that Jesus was the one who delivered Israel out of Egypt. Note some translations state that it was the Lord who delivered Israel out of Egypt, but verse before (verse 8) clearly implies that Judes is talking about Jesus in verse 9.

The Apostle Paul says much the same thing when he warned “We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents” (1 Corinthians 10:9 ESV).

Paul was referring to when the Hebrews were wandering in the wilderness and complained about their food and we read that the Lord (Jehovah) sent venomous snakes and many people of Israel died (Numbers 21:6).

So who was this Lord? Paul is clearly saying that the Lord was Christ.

But in Exodus 14:19, we read that it was “the angel of God” who led Israel out of Egypt going before them and behind them as a pillar of cloud.

But look at what God says about The Angel of the Lord:

20 “Behold, I am going to send an angel [literally messenger] before you to guard you along the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. 21 Be attentive to him and obey his voice; do not be rebellious toward him, for he will not pardon your rebellion, since My name is in him. (Exodus 23:20-21).

God says that the Angel or Messenger of the Lord has the ability to forgive or not forgive their sin. 

This Angel of the Lord is like Jehovah in that regard.

This leads to the interesting encounter that Jesus had with the scribes after healing a paralyzed man in Matthew 9. It wasn’t so much that the Lord healed the man, but rather how Jesus did it that got the scribes upset.

We read in verse 2 that Jesus healed the man by forgiving his sins. In verse 3, the scribes were in a blather and accused Jesus of blasphemy because only God can forgive sin. But according to Exodus 23, the Angel of the Lord can also forgive sins.

Then we see this another connection between Jesus and The Angel of the Lord. 

In Exodus 33:9-11, we read when the pillar of cloud descended on the Tabernacle, that Moses would go and talk to the Lord. Of course, as we previously stated it was The Angel of the Lord who was in the pillar of cloud.

But look at what it says in verse 11, “So the Lord {Hebrew Jehovah} used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend.”

Again, the Angel of the Lord and Jehovah are one. But Moses could see the Angel of the Lord face to face and spoke to Him as a friend. 

But there was a second Jehovah, who when Moses asked to see His Glory, on Mt Sinai was told, “You cannot see My face, for mankind shall not see Me and live!” Exodus 33:20. Seeing this Jehovah’s face would kill Moses, so he only saw God’s back.

So there was one Jehovah, who Moses could see face to face and talk to as a friend, but another who Moses couldn’t see face to face.

We also see this in the New Testament, as John explains in chapter 1 verse 18;

“No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.”

Though no one has seen God the Father, Jesus reveals God to humanity.

In John 14:9, Jesus says “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” and in verse 11 adds, “Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.”

So Jesus reveals God the Father to us, and in the same way, Moses could not see God, but could see the Angel of the Lord who because He is also God, represented God or the full godhead to Moses.

Then when God told Moses that His name was in the Angel of the Lord in Exodus 23:21. In John 17:6, Jesus speaking to the Father said, ‘I have manifested Your Name to the People.”

In order for Jesus to manifest God’s name to the people, the name of God must be in Christ, just like it was in the Angel of the Lord. 

Jesus and the Father are one but also separate. 

The Angel of the Lord is God, yet separate from God. He speaks for God and speaks as God. 

This doctrine in the Old Testament proved to be a big quagmire for the Jewish theologians.

In his book, “Two Powers in Heaven”, Jewish Rabbinical scholar, Allan Segal writes that before the second century AD, Jewish rabbis accepted from their study of the Old Testament, that there were two powers in heaven. Two deities revealed by Jehovah and the Angel of the Lord.

However, Segal says that changed after the first century AD when Christians claimed that Jesus was this second deity. So as a result the rabbis rejected this Old Testament teaching and emphasized the oneness of God.  

But in closing Let’s not forget the prophet Isaiah’s description of the Messiah in Isaiah 9:6:

“For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God. Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

Jesus is called the Mighty All-powerful God. He called the “Everlasting Father God, who is without begining and end. In other words, Jesus and the Father are one, yet separate.

Jesus is the Angel or Messenger of the Lord who became flesh and dwelt among us. 

Thanks for joining me on this podcast and I will catch you again.

ESPAÑOL: Un Par de Hechos Curiosos Sobre el Rey David

Hi my name is Dean Smith and in this podcast I want to discuss two odd fact about one of the Bible’s best known heroes, King David.

My first odd fact, actually puts a bit of a different spin on one of the Bible’s more popular stories, David’s battle with the Philistine Giant, Goliath.

Many words in the English language have more than one meaning. “Bark” can refer to the outer layer of a tree, or the sound of a dog.

The same thing happens in Hebrew. 

Take the Hebrew word Mesah. Though most commonly translated forehead, it can also refer to a person’s shin area. This adds an interesting twist to David’s infamous battle with the Philistine giant Goliath in 1 Samuel 17. 

If historical records are any indication, the five stones that David selected from a nearby brook to battle Goliath would have been the size of baseballs.

Using his sling, David hurled a rock at Goliath burying it in his forehead in verse 49. The giant fell to the ground where David took Goliath’s sword and cut off his head.

But did David actually hit Goliath in the forehead?

Though in every other instance that “mesah” is used in the Old Testament, it refers to the forehead, Bible school professor Randy McCracken believes this one time it should refer to the shin.

First he points out that the feminine form of Mesah was used to describe the shin guards of Goliath’s armor which reads quote:

6 He also had bronze greaves (misha) on his legs (verse 6)

The bronze greaves stopped just below the knee joint to allow for movement.

Secondly, ballistic experts state that modern tests of slings, showed that these stones traveled at nearly 130 miles an hour

So if you were struck in the forehead with a baseball-sized rock at that speed which way would you fall?

Most would think that Goliath fell backwards and paintings often portray Goliath doing that or lying on his back.

However, verse 49 tells us Goliath fell forward, so his face hit the ground.

Thirdly, the Bible says the stone embedded in Goliath’s forehead. Images of Philistine soldiers show a helmet covering the forehead. So the rock needed to shatter the metal helmet before embedding in Goliath’s head.

All that is possible, but if we translate the word “mesah” as shin, a different picture emerges.

The hit to the knee would not only have taken the feet out from beneath Goliath causing him to fall forward, it would have embedded in his knee shattering bone preventing him from standing allowing David to quickly dispatch the Philistine giant.

Shin or forehead, it doesn’t really matter what you believe, but one makes more sense. 

For my second odd fact, I want to talk about what King David actually looked like. Sure, we don’t have an official press photos of him, but the Bible provides a bit of a description.

Though most old paintings portray Israel’s King David with dark black hair, he was most likely a redhead. 

And along with red hair, he had movie star good looks and beautiful eyes:

Look at how David was described in when he was brought before the prophet Samuel to be anointed as Israel’s next king: 

12 Now he [David] was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome.” (1 Samuel 16:12 ESV)

I am not sure what they meant by beautiful eyes, but ruddy means red, and though it can describe complexion, it often describes hair as it does in Genesis 25:24-15 describing Esau. 

In fact, even the Philistines acknowledge King David’s red hair and movie-star looks in 1 Samuel 17 verse 42.

In an article published in 2024, the Bible Archaeological Society reports that the only sample of ancient male human hair ever discovered in Israel was actually red. 

It was found in the ‘Talpiot Patio tomb’ in 2000. The tomb located just south of Jerusalem was dated to the first century and contained among others the body of man who probably died from leprosy, with what was described as ‘reddish’ hair.     

And even today, there are many Jews with red hair.

But like they say good things come in small packages. 

Nowhere does the Bible mention how tall David was. But there are references to other people’s height. 

The prophet Samuel thought that David’s oldest half brother, Eliab, was the next King of Israel, but God said, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him.”

When King Saul gave his armor to David to fight Goliath, it was so big, David couldn’t wear it. Now we do know that Saul was head taller than the average Jewish male at this time, but these two indirect references, suggest David was on the smaller size. 

But even if he wasn’t, the average size of an adult Jewish male at that time was 5’3” or 160 centimeters. 

While David stood out with his movie star good looks, Isaiah writes that Jesus had average looks, so that people would not be attracted to Him because of His physical qualities:

Isaiah said, “He [the Messiah, Jesus] had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him (Isaiah 53:2b).

Now admittedly Isaiah’s description of the the Messiah, seems to contradict modern depictions of Jesus that portray Him with flowing locks of hair and movie star good looks.

You will have to decide which one you want to believe.

Thanks for joining me on this podcast, and I will catch you again.

Hi my name is Dean Smith and today I want to talk about taxes which have been the bane of human existence for thousands of years. 

As long as there are governments, which we need, we will have taxation. But when governments start wasting money or taxes become too high, people will get upset and even rebel. 

Sometimes it is done discreetly, like in 1696, when England’s King Henry III came up with the idea of a window tax. 

The tax was easy to calculate as a tax collector only had to stand outside a home and count the windows.

In response, people began bricking up their windows because windows could increase a person’s house tax by 400%. The tax was referred to endearingly as ‘daylight robbery.”

At other times, we have seen serious tax revolts, such as the Boston Tea Party.  In 1773, Americans boarded a ship in the Boston harbor and threw 342 chests of tea off of a ship to protest Britain’s tax on tea. 

Though there were many underlying issues, the Boston Tea Party is considered the catalyst for the American Revolution and America’s break from Britain. 

But what many people don’t realize is that excessive taxation was also the catalyst for two major Biblical events. 

The first involves Israel’s Exodus out of Egypt, which may come as a surprise to many. 

The Hebrews had been invited to live in Egypt when Joseph was second in command a few centuries earlier. But that all changed when a new king or Pharaoh came to the throne in Exodus 1:8. 

This new Pharaoh oppressed the Hebrews. He appointed taskmasters over the Hebrews and a forced them to perform hard labor. In Exodus 2:11-12, we read how Moses killed a taskmaster who was beating a Hebrew. 

Up to this point life had been comfortable in Egypt for the Hebrews, but now they were desperate to leave and were finally only allowed to after God judged the country with ten plagues. While, we typically look upon the Hebrews as slaves, a strange incident takes place in Exodus 10:24 that paints a slightly different picture.

After the ninth plaque of darkness, the Pharaoh said the Hebrews could leave, but they had to leave their flocks behind. Though they were prevented from leaving Egypt, you don’t typically think of slaves having flocks and herds, but the Hebrews did. So they weren’t slaves like we typically envision them today.

You see in ancient times, people. typically paid their taxes in one of three ways. It was paid with money—silver and gold or with goods like grain and livestock, or through actual labor, where they would give their time to work on government construction projects.

This is how the Hebrews were being taxed in Egypt. They were being forced to take time away from raising their livestock or growing crops to work on pharaoh’s building projects.

So when the Pharaoh ordered the Hebrews to collect their own straw for making the bricks (which up to this point the Egyptians had provided), this was essentially a tax increase because the Hebrews would have to spend more of their time working for the pharaoh.

This was the straw that broke the camel’s back so to speak. Because of this abusive level of taxation, the Hebrews were now desperate to leave. God heard their pleas and used Moses to deliver them out of Egypt.

In some respects, it’s not really all that much different today. In 2024, Tax Freedom Day in America fell on April 17th. This means that the average American worked the first 107 days of the year just to pay their federal, state and local taxes.

Another way of looking at this is that Americans are working about 30% of their working day, or nearly 2.5 hours, for the government. Sure you may not be baking bricks under the hot Egyptian sun, but you are still working for the government.

In Canada, Tax Freedom Day fell on June 13 in 2024. Yes, nearly 45% of the average Canadian’s income goes to just pay their tax bill. Now to be fair, these taxes also pay for their medical care.

The Bible’s second major tax revolt took place when Israel split apart into two nations, Israel and Judah.

Back in 2013, archaeologists discovered a palace and tax collection building in the city of Shaarayim, that belonged to King David. 

It’s a bit ironic because it was the tax policy of David’s grandson that ripped Israel in half, forming two nations — Judah and Israel.

The problems started when David’s son Solomon became king. He undertook massive building projects requiring him to raise taxes to pay for them. 

Though Solomon constructed the temple, it was not a major expense as King David — who was forbidden from building it — had already gathered most of the material needed for and had even arranged for some of the workmen. We see that in 1 Chronicles 22:2-4.

Rather it was Solomon’s other construction projects that included a new palace that was the root of the problem. 

Solomon was not content to live in his father’s Jerusalem Palace and built a massive new building to house his 700 wives and 300 concubines. 

To give you an idea how massive this building was, it took seven years to build the temple, but it took 13 years to construct Solomon’s new palace.

It was built largely due to Solomon’s marriage to the daughter of the Egyptian pharaoh. It proved controversial. People in Israel were obviously questioning the outrageous expense, because Solomon was forced to publicly justify it.

Here is the new release that Solomon sent out justifying it. Well, he didn’t really send out a news release, but there was pressure on him and he needed to explain the expenditure:

11Then Solomon brought Pharaoh’s daughter up from the city of David to the house which he had built for her, for he said, “My wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel, because the places are holy where the ark of the Lord has entered.” (2 Chronicles 8:11)

Because she was Egyptian, Solomon said she couldn’t live in David’s palace because the Ark of the Covenant had passed through it.

Reading between the lines: his Egyptian wife obviously hadn’t converted to Judaism. 1 Kings 11:1-5 tells us that most of his wives didn’t in fact they influenced Solomon in his idolatry. The Egyptian princess was undoubtedly demanding a room where she could worship her Egyptian gods.  

Solomon argued that her presence in the old palace would desecrate this sacred ground. So he needed a new fancy palace, with all the trimmings, complete with Egyptian gods and all paid for by the taxpayers of Israel.

In reality, the old palace was just to small and Solomon wanted bigger and more grandiose digs and needed to find some way to justify it, so he blamed one of his wives.

You can imagine this did not go over well with taxpayers.  

Aside from this notorious project, Solomon constructed numerous other building all requiring tax payments and forced labor.

We actually have a reference to this in 1 Kings 9:15-17, we read:

“Now this is the account of the forced labor which King Solomon levied to build the house of the Lord, his own house, the Millo, the wall of Jerusalem, Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer.” (I Kings 9:15 NASV)

Did you notice how the writer of 1 Kings stated that the forced labor was “levied” for construction projects? Levied refers to taxation. People’s time was taxed in the same way as their income.  

This was no different than what happened in Egypt. They wouldn’t work full time on the projects as they still had to earn a living, but the amount of time that the men were forced to give was obviously a major irritant.

When King Solomon died, his son Rehoboam became king. We read in 1 Kings 12 that he was aware resentment was brewing in Israel over his father’s burdensome taxes.

Rehoboam consulted with his father’s advisers and they told him in verse 7 to reduce the tax burden. But when Rehoboam’s young friends said raise the taxes, They said ‘we need more taxes’, because they wanted to pay for their lifestyle, Solomon’s son took their advice instead.

Rehoboam said, “‘Whereas my father loaded you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions’” (v 11).

This was a direct reference to the Israelis being forced to work on government construction projects and Rehoboam was saying if you think my dad was bad, just wait to see what I have in store for you. 

Like they did in Egypt, Solomon’s taskmasters or construction supervisors used whips to punish workers considered slacking off. They had a different breed of tax collectors back in those days.

Rehoboam added that his taskmasters would be using scorpions instead of whips. The tax burden would become painful and torturous.

His refusal to reduce taxes resulted in Israel being split into two nations, Judah and Israel, through a rebellion led by Jeroboam. 

While there is potential for taxes to be abusive, they are also necessary and the issue of taxation pops up in the New Testament. The Jews hated paying the Roman Poll tax. The pharisees tried to trap Jesus by asking in Matthew 22:17, if it was lawful to pay taxes to Caesar. 

Notice how they worded it. Did the Jewish law require them to pay the tax? If Jesus answered yes, they could accuse him of being a Roman sympathizer and no better than a hated tax collector. If Jesus said no, they could go the Roman authorities and accuse Christ of being a rebel. 

Jesus asked for a coin with which they paid the tax and then asked whose image was on it. When the pharisees answered Caesar’s, Jesus said that they should render onto Caesar what was Caesar’s and unto God what was God’s. It was not an either or question, the Jews had an obligation to both human government and to God.

Thanks for joining me on this podcast, and I will talk to you again.

By Ian Byrd: The following is a presentation made by Ian Byrd at the Prophetic Pursuit Conference in Regina, Canada on March 7, 2025.

___________________________

Thank you so much, Diane. You know, it’s a huge honor and privilege to speak tonight. I really felt, yeah, really humbled and privileged to be here and to be able to share with you. 

I want to talk to you tonight about something that I think is just so important. And as I was praying about this, Scripture came to mind. I’m going to call this message tonight, Pathways of the Heart. And so, you know, we’re talking about pathways. 

And I really felt like as we start this conference, God wants to lay a foundation in us in our hearts. You know, as prophetic people, where does everything come from? Where does the revelation, where does the unction from God come from? It comes through our hearts. 

And you know, Proverbs 4 tells us this. It says, “Above all else, guard your heart for everything you do flows from it. Keep your mouth free of perversity. Keep corrupt talk far from your lips. Let your eyes look straight ahead. Fix your gaze directly before you. Give careful thought to the paths for your feet. And be steadfast in all your ways. Do not turn to the right or the left. keep your foot from evil. Guard your heart for everything flows from it.” 

You know, pathways are a means to an end, aren’t they? They all lead to a destination. And so we got to make sure we’re on the right path. Because if we’re on the wrong path, we’re going to go the wrong direction. 

And so God says, look, I want you to guard your heart, the pathways of your heart, so that your focus, your attitudes are proper. So your direction in me is proper. So you can actually guide and be a blessing to others.

You know, sometimes the paths we choose can be downright dangerous, certainly in our spiritual life, but also in our natural life. 

And I just was thinking back to a journey my wife and I took. We must have been early 20s. It was the late 80s. We didn’t have kids yet. And I remember we were, you know, we live, we were living in southern Alberta at the time, living in Lethbridge, Alberta. And so we were, I must have been up in Banff for a break or something. 

And we were coming back to Kananaskis country, beautiful country, Highway 41. But it was winter. And definitely winter turning to spring. 

So we were driving along in our 87 Ford Tempo. I mean, I think in the dictionary, if there’s the word gutless, there’s the Ford Tempo beside it. Because it was a four-cylinder. It didn’t have much jam. It was a front-wheel drive. 

Anyway, so we’re driving along. And I see a sign. I see a sign on that road. And usually that road’s closed. So it must have just been opened. And there was a sign that said Coleman in the Crowsnest Pass. 

I thought, oh, we’ll drive to this. I don’t know. Wonder what this road is. We’ll take this road to Coleman. We’ll get to the Crowsnest Pass. And then we’ll head east to Lethbridge. Sounded like a great plan. And it was dark. It was night.

Did I say I was in my early 20s? Yeah. Okay. So some things are missing. 

So we get in the car. We drive. We’re driving on this road. Well, at first it seems like this isn’t too bad. But then it got muddy and like puddles and it’s wet and it’s night and it’s dark and there’s no one on the road. 

And it was about halfway through the trip, I thought, this is probably stupid. And there’s no cell phones and there wouldn’t have been cell phone coverage there anyway. So we’re driving and I remember it was like turned into a logging road and went up the side. 

Anyway, we came out finally at Coleman. I was so relieved to come out. And I stopped at a gas station. And I got out and looked at my car. And I looked like I’d been off-roading. I mean, I had mud all over the bottom and all over the car. Like, honestly, I was off-roading in a Ford Tempo. But what a stupid path to take. Like, what a dangerous path to take. And thankfully, God was gracious in my ignorance and we made it. 

But sometimes that’s what we’re like in life. And sometimes that’s what we’re like with our hearts. And sometimes we follow the wrong voice and we’re deceived. 

You know, anybody know this phrase? The machine knows where it’s going, yells Michael Scott in an episode of The Office before driving his car directly into a lake. How many people saw that episode? Yeah, yeah. Follow the GPS to the nth degree. 

Well, here’s another story for you. A lady named Sabine Moreau wanted to pick up a friend from the train station, which was north of her home in Brussels. 

But when the GPS directions took her south, instead of north, the 67-year-old woman didn’t question it. She stuck by her GPS, even when she saw the signs for the German towns of Frankfurt and Aachen and Cologne. 

And when the lengthy trip forced her to refuel twice and pull over to catch a few hours of shut eye, Moreau didn’t question the machine even then. Only when she entered the Croatian capital of Zagreb did she finally realize something was up. Her friend at the train station and her son had also caught on and her son called the police. 

When Moreau finally returned home, all she said by way of explanation was, I admit it’s a little weird, but I was distracted. For hours, she was distracted. Listening to the GPS, listening to the wrong direction, going the wrong way and not realizing it. 

And I wonder sometimes how often that happens to us. We get distracted. 

Sometimes we get distracted in life. Sometimes our hearts get distracted. We’re not tuned into God quite the way we used to be. And life is busy. And so we’re not hearing Him properly. We’re actually not hearing Him sometimes at all. And we’re hearing other voices. And we’re being led astray until we wake up someday. And we go, well, how did I end up here? 

I don’t want to be distracted. Do you? I don’t want to be led the wrong way. 

And my heart, the pathway of my heart, it’s so important that it be going the right way, that I have the right pathways. What I want to do is I want to look, first of all, at three pathways that we want to avoid. Three pathways that we do not want to have in our lives. And if we notice it, we need to repent. 

And then I want to look at the pathway that we do need. In fact, the pathway I want to look at will actually help us to leave the other three. Isn’t that good news?

The pathway I’m looking at at the end will actually help us to avoid the three. But we need to see the three for what they are. We need to acknowledge them. And at times we need to repent of them.

The first one is this. 

Proverbs 3 says this. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways submit to him and he will make your path straight. Lean not on your own understanding.” 

You know, years ago, Craig Rochelle, the great pastor in the States, he wrote a book called Christian Atheist. I don’t know if any of you have read it. 

And it’s basically talking about how as Christians, we can often settle into a routine where we act like God isn’t real. You know, we believe He’s real and we would say, yes, I trust Him and I believe He’s all powerful, but we live and act in fear and worry like He’s not real. 

Anyone ever been there? Anyone ever been a Christian atheist? 

And that’s really what this pathway of self-reliance is. You know, we can settle into a safe and tepid state where we’re no longer relying on the Lord, where things are comfortable. Things are simple. In fact, we don’t want to take risk. We don’t want to move beyond the scope of where we’re at because we like our comfort. We like where we’re at. We can trust ourselves. 

We can rely on ourselves. Andy Stanley has said this. He said, past boldness is no assurance of future boldness. Boldness demands continual reliance on God’s Spirit. Can’t rely on past boldness. Can’t rely on what I did yesterday or what I trusted God for yesterday because it’s fragile. 

I could wake up tomorrow, and if I don’t have a fresh relationship with Him, and I’m not trusting in Him, I can be as timid as anything. I need the Lord every day. We must avoid the pathway of self-reliance. So important that we trust in the Lord. So important. 

And sometimes there’s those chains that we talked about, that we talked about in worship. Those chains of fear and anxiety, and they cause us to trust more in ourselves than in the Lord. You know what? God wants to free us from that. 

The second pathway I want to talk about is the pathway of idolatry. 

This passage in Jonah 2.8, I think it just says things so well. It says, “those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.” 

And I often think about this passage. I mean, the man who wrote this passage had a lot of time to think about his idolatry as he was in a fish. I mean, I would probably repent too in a fish. And he did. And he’s realizing that he was clinging to worthless idols, that he wasn’t following God the way he was called to follow God. In fact, he had attitudes and reasons why he chose to go the opposite direction. He was clinging to worthless idols. 

I wonder how often, I’ve seen times in my life where I do this, where I want God’s grace in my life. I think we’d all say, if I said do you want God’s grace? Do you want his empowerment? Do you want his enablement, I think you’d say, absolutely I do. 

But here’s the problem. Sometimes we want that, and yet we want to hold on to some things here that we feel give us comfort. Some things that give us strength, or some things that we look to even more than God. And we say, God, can I just hold on to this thing here, and also have you? Can I just have both? Can I just have both, God? Can you let me in? 

And the Lord says, you know, no, you can’t. You can’t. You can’t hold on to that idol, that thing that you’ve put above me. 

1. Fear of Man

Well, fear of man can be an idol, a desire for glory. Our pride can be an idol. We’re unable to humble ourselves and to look to the Lord and to obey him. 

2. Entertainment

It can be entertainment is an idol. We have our escapism. it could be an overblown hobby in our lives that takes so much time. And we say, God, I really, I want to give to this, but I want to give to you. I don’t want to let go of this, but I want to have you. And he says, I need you to let go of that. I need you to another level.

I’m coming to you. In love I’m coming to you and I’m calling you up to another level. Because I have more for you. I have more for you, your churches, this network. I have more that I want to do. And I want your voice for Me to be strong. I want it to be full of My revelation. I mean that’s why you’re here, right? We’re here to grow in our ability to hear the Lord and grow in our prophetic gifting. 

But God says it starts with the idols in our hearts. And here’s the sobering thing Ezekiel 14 says about idolatry. Listen to this passage, verse 1 to 5. It says, 

“Some of the elders of Israel came to me, to Ezekiel, and they sat down in front of me. Then the word of the Lord came to me, Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts, and they put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces. Should I let them inquire of me at all? Therefore speak to them and tell them, this is what the sovereign Lord says, When any of the Israelites set up idols in their hearts and put a wicked stumbling block before their faces and then go to a prophet. I, the Lord, will answer them myself in keeping with their great idolatry. I will do this to recapture the hearts of the people of Israel who have all deserted me for their idols.” 

Now this is a heavy passage, isn’t it? I was a little nervous. I was like, oh, these heavy passages. People are gonna be like sinking in their seats. But you know, this is something to think about though.

Here’s what it’s saying. When you and I are set on something, Because that’s what an idol is, right? 

Again, our focus is not on the Lord. Our focus is on something else. And when we have set our hearts on something so much that we want it so bad, God is saying, look, I’ll answer you in accordance to your idolatry. I’ll actually say yes. And I’ll do it because I know that when you grab a hold of that, it’s actually going to bring you back to me in the end. You’re going to repent in the end. So I’m going to allow you to go through that. 

3. Desiring Fame

You know, I looked at my own life with this. And there was something, I remember back in the mid-90s, we were living in a town called Tabor. And I bought a business. I bought a television magazine business. And I ran it for a year and lost thousands of dollars. 

I could have just traveled around the world with my family and had a year off and it would have been better. But anyway, I paid this money and I did this. But I was thinking back to when I made the decision to buy that franchise. And I prayed about it. I sought God about it. And I felt like God said, yes, yes. 

Even though he knew what was going to happen to me. He said, yes. And I was thinking, why did he say yes? And I realized something. 

There were some idols that I had in my heart. 

There were some reasons I wanted that business. I wanted it for profile. I felt it would give me profile. There was a bit of me in there. And a lot of me, actually. And there were some other motives I had. 

And when I look back, I realize, oh my goodness, my heart wasn’t clean. So you know what the Lord did at that time? He said, yes. He said, yes. And you know what it did? It did break me and God used it in my life. But it’s sobering for us. 

Listen, we want to be people who hear God correctly.

And so if we have idols in our heart, if there’s anything that’s above the Lord, any attitude, God says, I want to clean that out because I want you to hear me properly. Not just for yourself, but for other people.

And then there’s third pathway is the pathway of impurity. Did I say these are ones you don’t want to be on? I just want to emphasize these are ones you don’t want to be on. Here’s what the pathway of impurity is. 

Ephesians 5 says this. “But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality.” 

A hint. You ever thought about what a hint is? That’s sobering. must not even be a hint of sexual immorality or of any kind of impurity. This is a high level scripture, right? 

Or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk, or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. For of this you can be sure, no immoral, impure, or greedy person, such a person as an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. Therefore, do not be partners with them. Do not b e partners with them.

You know, I think in our age it is very, very tempting for us to be partners with those who are not walking in godliness. To be partners with those who are leading us into immorality. 

You know, Proverbs 2.18 tells us of the adulterous and seductive woman, and she represents sexual sin and impurity. And here’s what it says. “Her house leads down to death and her paths to the spirits of the dead. None who go to her return or attain the paths of life. Impurity in our world is a path to death.” 

That’s what it is. That’s what Bible says. 

Proverbs 4 says, “do not set foot on the path of the wicked or walk in the way of evildoers.” 

Now, I was doing some research on this this week because it’s good to know latest stats, and I got to tell you something, the statistics are horrendous about this. Not just in the world, folks. Listen to me. Not just in the world, in the church. Listen to this. I’ve got this on, I think I did have it on the screen, but listen to this if it’s not up there. 

A majority of practicing Christians, including pastors, admit to viewing pornography and a large share say they are comfortable with the habit a new study has found. 

Some 54% of Christians reported viewing pornography compared with 68% of non-Christians. Think about it. 68% non-Christians, 54% Christians, 14% difference. It’s not a very big difference, is it? 

In general, 75% of Christian men and 40% of Christian women reported consuming porn on some level. What may be more troubling, this is more troubling, is that well over half of Christians who use porn say they are comfortable with their porn use. 

Folks, this is horrific. 

Over half of Christians, first of all, we shouldn’t be using porn, but over half of Christians that do say, you know, I’m actually okay with it. I actually think it’s all right. This is like the frog in the water, isn’t it? This is like the boiling that’s happening to us in our culture. 

And I feel like, like I said to you tonight, I thought, man, I’m talking about some heavy things. The Lord says, I want you to talk about these things. These things matter to me. Because I want people to be free. You know, we can’t be free if we’re not convicted. We can’t be free if we’re not led to repentance. Do you know what I’m saying? 

Now, some of us might think, well, I’m not into porn. I don’t do that. But, you know, I think about a lot of the novels today in our world, right? Some of them are good novels, but they got those little sex scenes all through them, right? 

I know that. You know why? Because when I was in my teens, I used to go to relatives’ houses, here in confession, and I used to grab those novels, you know, and I’d be like looking through them for all the bad bits, right? And I repented of that, thank the Lord. 

But, you know what, the sad part is, if I think about it, I can still think of some of the bad bits. Even now at 60 years old, I can think of them. Because they stick in your mind. They’re terrible and I see and I know of Christians that read these novels. And I think to myself, what are you taking in? 

And I’m not here to lay condemnation. Don’t get me wrong. 

But I just think we have to see it for what it is. The scripture says, not even a hint. Not even a hint. Right? and yet we say well that’s okay I can look past that or whatever.

I know myself I gotta be honest I just gotta be so careful in this area I can be so careful what movies I go to you know there’s movies I’d like to watch and I go oh I’d like to watch that movie and then I look at it I read the the thing about it and there’s such stuff in it and I can’t watch it not watching it why because it just takes me I can’t handle it, I can’t handle it, Sometimes I think we think we can handle more than we can. And so we take stuff in and there’s a cumulative effect on our spirits. 

You know, this area too, in my book, Life is a Highway, $15 at the back table, little plug. But anyway, in my book, Life is a Highway, I talk about how the struggle with pornography. I talk about it, share about it and I remember not wanting to put that in there. I remember thinking I didn’t want to put it in there, but the Lord said, ‘yeah, you should.’ It’s a real deal and you should tell people of the struggle you’ve had, so that they can gain some victory as well. 

And you know, to this day, I have to be really careful. I have three accountability partners that receive notifications from my computer. And what it will tell them is if I even Google something that’s inappropriate or I even open an email that has an inappropriate title, it’ll tell them. One of them is Dave Wells. 

And you know, talking about the fear of the Lord or the fear of Dave Wells. I mean, I don’t want Dave to see. I mean, more than once, that stopped me from even looking at anything close. It’s like some article, like, I don’t want to read that. Dave’s going to see that. He’s going to wonder, what’s he reading that about? 

So actually this week when I was researching this message, you know, the thing I had is, you know, Christians viewing pornography. Dave was notified a few times because I kept going back to it. His phone is exploding. right? Thankfully it talked about Christians viewing pornography. Dave knew I was okay. 

Why do I tell you that? Because I know I’m vulnerable. And you know what? I don’t have room to get on that path. I’ve been on that path and I’m not going back to that path. I’m not going to get on that path. You know what? I’m going to protect myself. I’m going to be accountable. 

Look, if you’re struggling in this area, you can’t win on your own. You need to win in community. You need to come out of the shadows. Get some people involved. Get some allies. Get some people walking with you. It’s the only way you’re going to make it because this is a path that is huge in our world. 

God says, I want you to be holy as I am holy. 

Ephesians 4 says this: 

“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of bitterness, rage, anger, brawling, slander.” It’s a whole list there. “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ forgave you.”

You know, that part of grieving the Holy Spirit of God is the biggest thing. 

What was David in the Bible concerned about? Holy Spirit leaving him. Remember David’s word, “take not your Holy Spirit from me.” That grieving the Holy Spirit is a very key thing. 

I remember we were youth pastors once. I know I don’t look like a youth pastor anymore, but at one point I was. 

And we would drive in vans, long trips, and we’d have youth in the van. And so we would teach them something. This passage here talks about, you know, not talking unwholesome talk and not saying things that are unhelpful. And so when the discussion got a little rangy in the van, you know, people are talking and suddenly they’re getting on a bad vein, we just yell out from the front. “It’s almost 4.30. It’s almost 4.30.” 

What’s Ephesians 4.30 is do not grieve the Holy Spirit. We’re saying you’re almost grieving the Holy Spirit. He’s almost leaving the van. Settle down people, right? Listen, we need to have a barometer in our hearts that says it’s almost 4.30. I don’t want to grieve the Holy Spirit. 

I don’t want to do things, see things, participate in things that are going to taint my spirit, that are going to grieve the spirit of God. It’s important we understand this. 

So God wants us to avoid self-reliance, idolatry, impurity. And here’s the good news though. It’s not a case of just trying to not go in those directions. It’s actually a case of getting onto the right path. I’m going to show you what the right path is. And we’re going to have an opportunity tonight to push into the right path. 

Proverbs 23:19 says, “listen, my son, and be wise and set your heart on the right path.” 

But where does the truth and knowledge come from? Where do we gain that revelation? It’s ultimately from the fear of the Lord. It’s the spirit of the fear of the Lord. 

And here’s what Proverbs 9:10 says. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” 

Proverbs 15:33 says, “The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom. And before honor is humility.” 

And in Isaiah 33:5-6, “The Lord is exalted for he dwells on high. He will fill Zion with His justice and righteousness. He will be the sure foundation for your times. A rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge. The fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure.” 

Wow. 

So here’s what God’s saying. He says, look, I have salvation and wisdom and knowledge. And I have blessing for you. And the way to unlock that treasure chest and to receive it, the key is fearing Me. The fear of the Lord is the key to the treasure. 

You know, I want to tell you something tonight. In those areas that you’re struggling, you know what the key is to freedom? The fear of the Lord. Fear the Lord. It is a gift. It is a gift. 

You know, John Bevere in his book, Fear the Lord, said this, “when the church is infected and diseased with a lack of the fear of the Lord, it will be unable to help society.” 

You know what the society needs from us? It doesn’t need us to be relevant by trying to participate in the stuff that it does. It needs you and I to be set apart. It needs you and I to be holy. It needs you and I to be different. That’s what it needs. That’s what God is calling us to. That’s what God is challenging us to. He’s calling us up to that next level. 

We know the fear of the Lord is a deep reverence and an awe for God — His power. His authority. It’s not meant to be a cowering or terror based fear. It’s meant to be actually out of an awe and respect for who He is. The glory of His majesty. 

We sang the song tonight about Him on the throne. Out of our respect and our honor of Him, we’re meant to fear Him. We’re meant to have such a revelation of who He is. And how powerful He is. That we want to serve Him. We want to walk in his ways. And it’s important for us to have an understanding that He disciplines us. 

You know Hebrews 12.5b-6 says. “It’s my son. Do not make light of the Lord’s discipline. And do not lose heart when he rebukes you. Because the Lord disciplines the one he loves. He chastens everyone he accepts as his son.” 

You know, sometimes I think, I mean, I love the Lord. He’s my friend, right? I mean, I love Jesus, and I think we can get into this place where we think of the Lord God like our friend. He’s like my buddy. He’s like somebody that, and listen, He’s the Lord, right? 

I mean, we do need to have that closeness, and God wants that closeness. He’s our father and He loves us. But we can never get away from the fact that He is the Lord. And sometimes I think we get into a place as Christians where we think God will understand. 

In fact, I’ve had people tell me this. My wife and I have had people say, “Well, I know I’m living poorly right now. I know I’m not doing the right thing. But God will understand. God will just love me. He’ll just accept me.”

Listen, God does love you, but he can’t look past His righteousness. He can’t look past His holiness. He can’t just accept you for that. He can’t just look at that. You need to repent. And God says, I want this to begin in my church. I want my church to understand that I discipline those I love. Because I care for them. And that they’d have a fear of that, in a good way. 

That they’d respond to that and say, you know, I remember, like, I didn’t want to get spanked as a kid. Now, some kids get tons of Spanks, right? I wasn’t one of them, I’ll be honest. I was a little more, you know, I mean, occasionally I get a spanking. But generally I was pretty good. Sometimes even a look would be enough, okay? 

But the reality is I didn’t want to be disciplined. And that was an incentive, right? Sometimes if we lose that sense, like there are consequences, then we just think, oh, no matter what happens, God will be gracious to me. Well, there are consequences, and God does have to discipline us at times. God says, I want you to understand that. 

Isaiah 11 says this in verses 2 and 3: 

“The spirit of the Lord will rest on him, speaking of Jesus. The spirit of wisdom and of understanding. The spirit of counsel and of might. The spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord. And he will delight in the fear of the Lord.” 

Jesus delighted in the fear of the Lord. And I wonder, what does that mean? The Hebrew word for it means ‘to incline to or to bend or to be pleased with.’ To bend. It’s to incline and bend to. It’s a submitting is really what it is. 

if we delight in the fear of the Lord we’re willing to bend and incline ourselves to whatever God wants us to do. It’s a heart posture now. Listen none of us is perfect and none of us can fear the Lord on our own. In fact we need the spirit of the fear of the Lord to come we need him literally to guide us into this. 

Psalm 99 says, “the fear of the Lord is clean enduring forever. The rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.” In another version it says “pure.” The fear of the Lord is pure. The fear of the Lord is clean. It produces true holiness in our life. 

Now listen to this. Look at this. I was reading this article again by John Bevere. And he was talking about a meeting he was in. And the Holy Spirit came and it started off with people laughing and just having a great time, right? And then all of a sudden, the tone and tenure shifted, and it got more serious. And all of a sudden, people were crying. They started to cry, and they started to weep, and they started to repent. 

It was God. God was just touching them, and they were having a sense of His holiness, and it was causing them to repent of things. And it was just a powerful time. And as they left the building, this is in Malaysia. As they left the building, one of the young women goes, after all this experience, she goes, “I just feel so clean. I just feel so clean.” 

And John Bevere went home and went back to his hotel and this just jumped out to him, “The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever.” Listen, the path of the fear of the Lord, which leads to holiness, is clean. It cleans you and I. If we embrace it and allow God to work in our lives. It will clean us. It will get us off the other three paths. And God says, I want to do that in your life. 

Isaiah 35:8 says this, “And a highway will be there. It will be called the way of holiness. It will be for those who walk on that way. The unclean will not journey on it. Wicked fools will not go about on it. It’s the way of holiness.”

So the fear of the Lord leads to holiness. What is holiness? Well, I think a definition is best in Ezekiel 44:23. Look at this for a minute. I want to show you this:

“They are to teach my people the difference between the holy and the common and show them how to distinguish between the unclean and the clean.” 

These are the priests. So the priests were supposed to teach people between the holy and the common. Interesting. The unclean and the clean. The holy and the common. 

I want to read you something by Jackie King of Lewiston, Idaho. You know, Ryan and Jackie were at a young adults conference, at Origin Young Adults Conference at Cranbrook Connect Church a couple weeks ago and Kimberly and Andrew Gal were there too and some young adults from this church. It was wonderful. 

I got to minister a bit and it was just a great time but Jackie King and Ryan gave a great message. And she talked about holiness. 

And I want to, I’m literally going to read her notes, okay? Because it was so good the way she expressed it. And I want you to get this. It’s so important. Here’s what she said:

“For years, I thought the opposite of holy was simply unholy, which certainly makes sense. That is often how we do opposites in the English language. The reality is I hadn’t spent much time thinking about what unholy really meant. I just tucked it away as a word that expresses the opposite of holy. Especially since scripture uses unholy to describe the bad stuff in the Old Testament that displeased God. 

“A few years ago, I was reading a different Bible translation than I normally do. And I came to a passage in the book of Ezekiel that talks about holy and unholy things. But this translation is stated differently. Instead of there being holy things and unholy things, the scripture referred to them as holy things and common things. 

“That changed me. Forced me to pause and realize that many common things are unholy things. Lesser things. God has called us to be holy, not common. Holy and set apart. Different than the world we live in.” 

1 Peter 1:15-16. But now you must be holy in everything you do. Just as God who chose you is holy. For the scriptures say, you must be holy because I am holy. 

Hebrews 12:14, “Work at living in peace with everyone and work at living a holy life. Work at living a holy life for those who are not holy will not see the Lord.” 

Here’s what she goes on to say: 

“Engage in what is common and you will not see the Lord. That is sobering. If you want to see the Lord, do not do what is common. It is common to watch trash shows on TV.” 

“It is common to have sex with people you aren’t married to. It’s common to cut others down with your words. It’s common to swear and tell inappropriate jokes to get a laugh. It’s common to be dissatisfied and compare your body, your job, your car, your education, your life, and your capabilities to other people. Do not be common. You were chosen to be holy and set apart.” 

Wow. Thank you, Jackie. Do not be common. 

You know what this does? This changes the picture of what my life should look like. Because sometimes if it’s holy or unholy, I can think, well, I’m pretty good. You know, I’m doing all right. I’m not really unholy. I’m pretty holy. 

But when we talk about common, that changes it. It’s like, what is it that I do that’s just common? It’s just like everyone else. God says, I want you to be separate. I don’t want you just to be like everyone else. 

1 Corinthians 6, 12 says, “I have the right to do anything, you say, but not everything is beneficial. I have the right to do anything, but I will not be mastered by anything.

I have the right, they were saying, but the reality is I may have the right, but it may master me. It may not be what God has for me.” 

You know, I think of Dave Wells, who’s obviously sitting right here, and I asked him if I could share this. You know, Dave shared a story how when he first became a believer, the Lord told him that he should not drink. 

Now, listen, I don’t think Dave’s putting that on everyone, that no other Christian should drink. But I think for Dave, the Lord spoke to him and said, Dave, and this is literally what he said, “some may, you may not.” 

So for Dave, God was saying, Dave, drinking is common for you. I don’t want you doing that. And Dave hasn’t, right? Had a conviction. And obviously God said, some may, you may not. For whatever reason, God said, Dave, this isn’t for you. 

And I wonder in my life, what are the things that God says, “Ian, those things are common. I want them out of your life. I want you to be holy.” 

For me, God’s been really challenging me about my speech. I can get negative, critical, judgmental. I can speak out stuff that’s not helpful as far as what’s happening. I can be unbelieving. 

And my wife will catch me on it sometimes. I’m grumbling and complaining and she’ll be like the Holy Spirit. And that’s okay. I need her in my life like the Holy Spirit. 

And she’ll say, “Ian, you’re kind of grumbling here. You’re kind of complaining.” 

And I’m like, yes, she’s right. I am. And the Lord’s been catching me up. He says, look, “I want you to be a man of faith. I want you to be a man who speaks right. I want you to speak truth. I don’t want you to speak that garbage.” 

It’s so easy to be common. What does the whole world do? They’re all grumbling and complaining. What’s happening right now in our culture, folks? Grumbling and complaining about tariffs and everything else, right? Pointing fingers, getting mad at people. 

Seriously. I get the angst. I get it. But listen, can we be different and not be common? Can we be different than the world? Isn’t God calling us to be a higher level? Aren’t we supposed to bring hope and not just be the naysayer who’s grumbling and complaining and carping? 

Seriously, I’m tired of it, if I’m honest. Makes me want to leave Facebook. Some of you said, I already have, right? Tired of it. We need to be different. We have a higher call, folks. And yes, these things are important. But the souls of men and the work of God in our nation is more important.

Come on, let’s pray. let’s seek God let’s turn all the angst into prayer. Let’s push in. Let’s believe for a breakthrough in these areas but let’s believe for the hearts of our nation to be turned to God. 

This is an opportunity for God to get a hold of our people. We have been complacent and comfortable and we are being buffeted and you know what this is the perfect moment for God to work. So let’s engage the church. 

People are grumbling complaining and griping we should be bringing life. Well something’s on that or it might just be my personal frustration, but it’s coming out you know. 

I remember a few years ago, Lord really caught me caught me up and brought conviction because I slid into being crude. Someone in our family that I would get with and I would just kind of go off on stuff and I was pushing the line. I just wasn’t being godly and I didn’t see it. 

I just, ah, you know, I’m just being funny. It’s, you know, whatever. And the Lord just caught me up and he said, I want you to stop that. That’s beneath you. That’s not who you are. And I felt like a fiction. You need to stop joking like that. You need to stop just kind of being crass. 

We need to hear when God comes to us. And again, it’s a hint. In fact, what I realized is the closer I get to the Lord, the more He refines it. Do you understand? Do you see that? Like He makes what’s allowable even less. Why? Because He wants us to hear Him even more. 

Look here’s where I want to land tonight. Okay. Here’s where I want to land. The Lord wants us to embrace a new “the fear of the Lord.” And he wants to create a highway or pathway of holiness in our lives. 

He wants us to reject the paths of self-reliance, idolatry, and impurity. And He wants us to follow Him and enter that path of “the fear of the Lord” and holiness. 

You know, I experienced something a few weeks ago. I’ve been going through a really hard time. And I realize, and listen, when we go through hard times and we can’t break free, It’s often lies we’re believing, right? 

I mean, the enemy was working. He was pressing me pretty hard in some areas. But I wasn’t believing some truth. I had allowed some lies to creep in. And I even had a time of fasting and praying and still didn’t break. 

And I was just like, I just not. It was actually one of my hardest times of fasting and praying. Because when you’re not feeling good spiritually and you fast, it’s like even worse. 

But anyway, I was trying to push through. I did.

And then finally, I think as a result of that, the Lord came to me one night. As I was lying in bed, I was talking to my wife. And all of a sudden, He came down on me and He gave me the gift of repentance. And all of a sudden, I could see it all. I could see it so clearly in front of me. I could see what I’d been believing. I could see how I was deceived. I could see, and I started to spontaneously repent. 

I said, “Lord, forgive me.” And I just started to pour it out. And it was His gift. He helped me repent. You ever wanted to repent? You don’t know how? He gave me the gift of repentance. And this all poured out of me. And literally something broke. Just bang. It broke. I could feel it. It was like it was gone. I was clean. Like the spirit of the fear of God came and I was clean. 

And I literally prayed, and I said “God thank you for the gift of repentance.” I believe tonight God wants to grant us the gift of repentance. I believe He wants the spirit of the fear of the Lord to be here and to move in our midst. Because He loves us. 

And we talked about those chains falling off. He wants chains to fall off. But the only way they’re going to fall off and the only way we’re going to be able to move away from the paths that are taking us from Him is if we move toward Him in the fear of the Lord in holiness. 

And that’s what He wants. I believe tonight he wants to do some heart work on each of us. And it’s not me putting anything on you. It’s Holy Spirit. 

Listen, as He moves on you, respond to Him. Because He loves you. He loves you individually. He loves you collectively. And He has more for you. And He doesn’t want you to be common. He doesn’t want you to be merely common. He wants you to be holy and set apart so He can do even more through you.

______________________

Ian Byrd is the Apostolic Team Leader of LifeLinks International Fellowship where he provides oversight and input to network churches. Ian also speaks internationally at ministry training schools and conferences. As a speaker and writer, he has an engaging communication style that helps his audiences receive and process challenging truths.

Hi my name is Dean Smith and in this podcast I want to talk about coughing prayer.

In 2017, archaeologists discovered the skeletal remains of a woman wrapped in heavy chains in a grave just outside of Jerusalem. It was part of a graveyard of an ancient Byzantine monastery.

In addition to the chain, the woman died around 500 AD had heavy iron rings around her neck, hands and feet. While many would think she was some type of nefarious criminal in fact the woman was undoubtedly an ascetic, who was part of a religious community, perhaps a convent. 

After Christianity became the legal religion of Rome around 380 AD, there was a rapid rise in the number of monasteries and convents, throughout the Roman Empire.

As people isolated themselves from the world in these communities, some went to extreme measures such as wrapping themselves in heavy chains to limit their activities. While there are historical records of men doing this, it was rare for women to be involved in this type of activity. In fact, the archaeologists initially presumed this was a man until further tests revealed it was probably a woman.

It seems that on her death, she was buried, wrapped in chains, as a way of honoring her life.

Of course living a life wrapped in chains very much limited what the woman could do. She could worship. She could mediate. But undoubtedly her primary religious activity bound in chains like this would be prayer. 

Oddly enough it was the apostle Paul’s exhortation in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 to “pray without ceasing” that was the back drop to the rise of monasteries and convents.

On its website, St. Bede Abbey, a Benedictine monastery located in Northern Illinois cites this verse in to explain the rise of the monastic orders. 

We read:

“The early desert hermits took very seriously Paul’s injunction to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) and would literally pray in every waking hour and would even arise in the middle of the night for prayer.  As monasticism evolved into more communal forms, specific times were established for common prayer in order to fulfill Paul’s mandate.”

So what exactly was Paul trying to tell us when he exhorted Christians to “pray without ceasing.” Was he really urging us to move to monasteries and convents?

This verse is a bit puzzling, because if you prayed without ceasing, when would you have time to work, talk, do the dishes, eat or even sleep.

At first glance, the Greek word “adialeiptos”  (translated unceasing) suggests we are to pray all the time. Thayer’s Greek Dictionary even interprets it as “unceasing and continual.”

But is this how Paul was using it. 

Because Paul uses the word in Romans 1:9, where he says “For God … is my witness to how unceasingly I make mention of you [the Romans].”

Does this mean he prayed for no one else but the Romans? No, because from his letters we know Paul prayed for the Ephesians (Ephesians 1:6), the Colossians (Colossians 1:3) and Philippians (Philippians 1:3-4).

So when Paul said he was praying unceasingly for the Romans, he was telling them that he was regularly praying for them. Consistency was a trade mark of Paul’s prayer life.

But the usage of this Greek word “adialeiptos” in an ancient papyrus scroll from Egypt may provide additional understanding for the word. In the document the word was used to describe an incessant cough.

I have had these type of irritating coughs. It doesn’t mean that I am coughing all the time, but I am having a regular coughing episodes. 

Maybe this was what Paul was referring to? Throughout your day, there are times when you can utter a brief prayer. It doesn’t have to be long. It could be just a few seconds, similar to a cough in length.

Though brief, make sure these prayer are specific. Don’t pray “God bless the world,” which is so general it’s almost meaningless.

The more specific you during these brief prayers, the better.

I remember a while back, I was going through some old papers, and I came across a funeral notice for a friend. So I took a few moments to pray for the salvation of his unsaved family who I mentioned specifically by name.

You can even ask the Holy Spirit to bring to mind people you should pray for during these moments.

Recently, a memory popped into my mind of an incident involving a neighbor’s teenage son. He was several years older, and enjoyed bullying the kids in our area. I forgave him again, and then prayed for his salvation. It took all of a few seconds.

I believe this is what the Holy Spirit wanted me to do. 

It is a habit that takes time to develop. We aren’t used to praying during our moments of down-time scattered throughout our day.

But you know we always find time to cough when the urge strikes and maybe this was what Paul was referring to when he said “pray without ceasing.”

So when Paul encourages us to pray that way, he is not telling us to pack our bags and head to monastery or nunnery, he is just encouraging us to take moments throughout the day to pray for individuals that the Holy Spirit brings to our remembrance.

In a regular column published in the Globe and Mail several years back called “Ask the Doctor,” the authors discussed the benefits of coughing, writing:1

“Coughing is a natural and important defense mechanism that helps us rid our bodies of secretions, irritants and offending agents such as viruses and bacteria. For that reason, it is never a good idea to suppress a cough.”

So when the Holy Spirit brings people to your mind during the day, don’t suppress those urges to pray. He may be guiding you to utter a quick and brief prayer on their behalf.

Thanks for joining me on this podcast, and I will catch you again.

Source:

1.  Coughing a natural body defense so it’s not a good idea to suppress it: Ask the Doctor (Globe and Mail, February 6, 2007)
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Hi my name is Dean Smith and in this podcast, I want to discuss one the unheralded, but powerful weapons, that God has given believers in our battle against the demonic realm. I am talking about fasting.

This weapon’s effectiveness was on display in an incident involving Lester Sumrall. Sumrall, who died in 1996, was an international Bible teacher who for several years served as a missionary in the Philippines in the 1950s.

In his book, Bitten by the Devil, Sumrall revealed how God used him to deliver a woman named Clarita Villeneuve from a demon. At the time, Clarita was an inmate at the Philippine’s infamous Bilibid Prison.

On May 13, 1953, a story appeared on the front page of the Manila Chronicle entitled “Police Medics probe case of girl bitten by devils.”

The story involved reports circulating that Clarita was being bitten, with actual bite marks, by an evil spirit. Predictably, many laughed it off suggesting Clarita was either being bitten by other inmates or was biting herself. 

This was the opinion even held by Dr. Mariano Lara, the prison’s chief doctor. But that all changed, when Dr. Lara had Clarita in his office and she started screaming that she had been bitten and a bite mark mysteriously appeared on her arm. Some invisible entity had bitten her while she sat in front of Dr. Lara.

By this point, Philippine radio stations were broadcasting recordings of Clarita’s screams as she was bitten.

Like many in the Philippines, Sumrall was intrigued by the story. But then he felt the Holy Spirit tell him that if Sumrall went to see Clarita, that God would cast out the demon.

So he contacted authorities and after several attempts was finally able to meet with Dr. Lara. Lara said that though he did not believe in a spiritual  realm, he admitted he was troubled by the strange things that were going on. 

He agreed to let Sumrall see Clarita. When Sumrall was led to the prison’s chapel, he was shocked to see that in addition to Clarita, there were about 100 people in attendance including reporters, police doctors, prison staff and even inmates.

As soon as Sumrall entered the room, the entity inside Clarita looked at  Sumrall and shouted out through her, “I don’t like you” and then began cursing Christ and Sumrall.

Sumrall had spent time in prayer leading up to this encounter and he began the process of deliverance. Though he had made some headway during the first session, Sumrall knew that the deliverance wasn’t complete. He decided to spend the next day in prayer and fasting and then return.

Reporters in the room also realized that Sumrall had not been successful. One newspaper trumpeted the first day failure with the headline, “The Things Defies Pastor.”

After spending time praying and fasting, Sumrall returned and successfully delivered the woman from her demon. Returned to her right mind, Clarita was finally able to appear before a judge for her charges of vagrancy. After explaining, how Sumrall had delivered her from a demon, the judge immediately released Clarita to a half way house.

Because of all the publicity she was eventually forced to leave the city. But in this classic battle between good and evil, fasting played a role in this deliverance.

The Bible is very clear that our battle is not against flesh and blood but rather principalities and powers. Because of this, Paul writes that our weapons are “not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses” (2 Corinthians 10:4).

We can’t use physical weapons against a spiritual enemy.

One of the those ‘divinely powerful’ weapons is fasting, when we deprive ourselves of food for a period of time. 

Many of us remember how Jesus defeated Satan after coming off a 40 day fast. This is easily the most famous of the over 50 times that fasting is mentioned in the Bible.

But many of the fasts involved partial day fasts, missing one or two meals in a day such as we see in Judges 20:26 and 1 Samuel 7:6 and 2 Samuel 1:12 where they fast until evening. Or a day of fasting such as the widow woman did in Luke 2:37 and when the early church laid hands on Barnabas and Saul and set them into the ministry Acts 13:3. 

What I am saying is that fasting doesn’t have to involve multiple days to be effective. As we saw in Sumrall’s case one day of fasting and prayer was enough to deliver Clarita of her demon.

So why is fasting so powerful? What does it do? In the book of Isaiah, the prophet outlines the power of fasting. 

But first we need to understand the context behind this verse. The religious people were fasting publicly to show off to everyone how spiritual they were. Even as they were fasting they were oppressing the widows and the poor. 

It was hypocritical. It was a joke.

In the midst of this God delivers a word through Isaiah the prophet, where he defines the true purpose of fasting. We read:

Is this not the fast that I choose:
To release the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the ropes of the yoke,
And to let the oppressed go free,
And break every yoke? (Isaiah 58:6 NASV)

While this prophetic word exposed the literal oppression that people were feeling from those who were supposedly fasting, the verse also reveals the intended purpose of fasting in a spiritual sense. 

It seems that these religious hypocrites were unjustly using the law to legally bind the people to indentured servitude. But the true purpose of fasting was break the bonds of wickedness off people.

A yoke was a heavy wooden frame that was placed on the neck of a large animal like oxen. Because of its weight and constant rubbing it would create open wounds. Subsequently, even the slightest tug of the reins would cause the oxen to turn to release the pain. Fasting was a way of breaking this control.

It will let the oppressed go free. It will literally break them out of their prisons.

And then finally not only will the reins be cut, the yokes will be completely destroyed. In other words, the yoke will never be able to put back on their necks. The burden and weight of the yoke will be removed.

This is the power of fasting. It has the power to set people free from the demonic realm. We have to understand that fasting wasn’t going to do anything in the physical realm, obviously it was intended a spiritual exercise.

In order to understand why fasting works, we need to understand the real source of power when it comes to spiritual warfare.

Remember when the pharisees accused Jesus of casting out a demon by the power of Beelzebub a more powerful demonic spirit. In other words, they were saying that Jesus was able to cast out demons because he was possessed by a more powerful evil spirit.

So how did Jesus respond to this blasphemous accusation?

The Lord said, “But if I cast out the demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Matthew 11:20 NASV)

Describing the same story, Matthew added that Jesus cast out demons by the Spirit of God in chapter 12:28. 

In other words, the finger of God and the Spirit of God are the same and the Holy Spirit is the one who drives demons out of people.

In Luke 9:1, we see Jesus sending his disciples out to heal the sick and cast out demons. But in order for them to do this, Jesus had to first empower them.  

We read, Jesus gave them ‘power and authority over demons and the power to heal diseases.’ 

While healing only required power, we notice when it came to dealing with demons, Jesus also had to give them authority, in order to deal with demonic. They had to have both authority and power when it came to dealing with demons.

Christ gave the disciples, His authority. They had been deputized, essentially, by Jesus..

The disciples came back amazed that ‘even the demons are subject to us in your name’ (Luke 10:17).

But there were blips. While, Jesus, Peter, James and John were on the Mount of Transfiguration, a man brought his child to the remaining disciples to cast out an evil spirit. They fell flat on their face.

Then Jesus showed up and delivered the boy. Later, the disciples asked Jesus why they had failed, and Christ said that this kind of evil spirit only comes out by ‘prayer and fasting’ (Mark 9:29).

Now some Bible versions omit “and fasting” in this verse, but the translators for the New English Translation provide a footnote on this verse that, “most witnesses, even early and excellent ones have ‘and fasting’ after prayer here.”

But other major ancient manuscripts do not include ‘and fasting’ so some Bible versions have chosen to omit the phrase. But I think there is good argument for it to be included.

So if we need power and authority to cast out demons, then prayer and fasting must in some way increase our authority and increase the power being released through us. 

James the brother of Jesus writes quote, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7 ESV).

In other words, as we submit to the authority of Jesus, our authority grows. Then as we resist the devil, he will flee. 

At the beginning of this podcast, I talked about Isaiah’s declaration that fasting breaks the bonds of wickedness in Isaiah 58:6.

But in the verse just before this, verse 5, God also explains why fasting is effective. 

While the religious leaders used fasting to show off how spiritual they were, this is not what it was supposed to be used for.

Isaiah writes in verse five that fasting was for “a person to humble himself?”

Fasting is a way of humbling ourselves before God. As we humble and submit ourselves to God, our authority in Christ grows. We have more authority. We basically get an extra stripe on our shirt sleeve when we fast properly.

Remember also that we are temples of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit’s power is resident inside us. 

When we fast, we also make room for the Holy Spirit’s full power to be released through us.

This is why fasting is one of the valuable weapons of our warfare. 

I realize certain health conditions prevent people from fasting food, so as an alternative, you could fast TV or the Internet. Extended fasts can also cause health issues, so don’t take on long fasts without first consulting a doctor. .

So consider fasting. Remember it doesn’t have to be long. You can fast a lunch or perhaps the evening meal. 

When fasting, you should consider praying when you would normally eat, because I believe fasting supercharges our prayers.

Thanks for joining me on this podcast, and I will talk to you again.

Hi my name is Dean Smith and in this podcast, I want to talk about the Manifest Presence of God. 

My wife and I recently attended a conference on the Holy Spirit at our church. Yes, it was a full weekend of talking about the importance of the Holy Spirit in the church and our personal lives.

It was amazing. 

But I want to tell you about something a bit unusual that happened. Well it was unusual for me.

After the Friday night meeting, my wife and I were praying for a woman to receive more of the Holy Spirit. 

The woman was sitting in her chair. As we prayed for her, she held her hands out in front of her with the palms of her hand facing upwards.

As we continued praying for her, she turned to us and said that she was feeling a weight on her hands. In fact, she mentioned it a couple more times as we prayed for her. There was a weight pressing down on her hands even though there was nothing there.

This sounded strange, and we had no idea what was going on. And it wouldn’t make sense until the next day, when Cheryl Klingspon, an anointed worship leader, spoke at the conference. 

During her session she talked about the Manifest Presence of God.

We have verses such as Psalm 139:7-8, that tells us the God’s presence is everywhere. David writes:

“Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol behold, You are there.”

This is God’s omnipresence. God is everywhere.

But there are moments when God’s reveals Himself in powerful distinct way in a particular locality. This is referred to as God’s Manifest Presence. When God supernaturally reveals Himself. 

It occurred when God revealed Himself to Moses through the burning bush.

We also have an example of this Manifest Presence at the inauguration of Solomon’s temple when the ark of the Covenant was moved from the Tabernacle of David into the Temple.

We read:

“The house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud,  so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.” (2 Chronicles 5:13b-14 NASV)

I have read this verse in the past, but understood it rather simply to mean that once the temple filled with smoke the priests couldn’t see what they were doing so they just left.

If that is the case why did the verse specifically say they ‘could not stand to minister.’ Why specifically emphasize their inability to stand? I hadn’t caught that odd phrasing before. 

Cheryl then pointed out that the word glory, which is the Hebrew word kâbôd, literally means weight. It means ‘to be heavy of weight.’ It can also metaphorically speak of honor and importance. 

When God’s glory fell in the Temple, it was a heavy weight, so heavy that the priests could literally not stand to minister. This was not a metaphorical heaviness, it was a literal weight. 

The Apostle Paul also understood this connection between God’s Glory and weight when he writes, “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison (2 Corinthians 4:17 ESV)

Cheryl then shared what happened to her husband when he attended the revival that broke out at Toronto’s Airport Christian Fellowship in the 1990s, often referred to as the Toronto Blessing.

Her husband was sitting in a chair, watching what was going on in the service when a heaviness fell upon him. The weight became heavier and heavier and started pushing down on him. As this heaviness increased over the next several seconds, he was slowly pushed out of the chair and on to the floor. 

As he lie flat on his face pinned to the floor by this heaviness, he felt no pain. Similar to the priests in the Temple, the Glory of God was preventing him from standing up because of its weight. 

Cheryl added that this encounter with God’s glory became a defining moment for them resulting in her husband leaving his job and entering the full time ministry.

As I listened to what she was saying, the word ‘weight’ stuck in my mind, because this sounded similar to the weight the woman was feeling in her hands.

Was she feeling the weight of the glory of the Lord?.

And if so why was she feeling the weight only on her hands?

After the Sunday morning service, the last service for our Holy Spirit conference, I went to the gymnasium along with several members of our church to make sandwiches that will be distributed as part of the Church’s street ministry. 

This ministry is headed by the woman we had prayed for who felt the weight on her hands.

As I sat at the table along with many others from our church, preparing the cheese and meat sandwiches, a light came on.

God’s glory was manifesting on her hands because of what she did. Because of her ministry to the poor. You can call me crazy but I believe this is what was happening. 

After John the Baptist was imprisoned by King Herod, he sent a message to Christ asking if He was the Messiah, or were they to look for another. 

Jesus answered, “The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor” (Matthew 11:15 NASV). 

The Glory of God rested on her hand because she was taking the gospel to the poor of our city.

I don’t know how to say this anymore simply but I believe God desires to manifest His glory in our Church and In your church. He wants to reveal His Glory to us individually and corporately. 

In Psalm 22:3, we read from the King James that “God inhabits the praise of His people” but newer Bible versions such as the NASV translate it slightly differently writing, God is “enthroned upon the praises of Israel.”

God is enthroned in our praises and I believe this speaks of the potential of God’s glory being revealed and manifesting during our services.

This manifestation can come in different ways. He can manifest as a glory cloud in the Temple or like on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit manifested Himself in a very real way through tongues of fire and and “a noise like a violent rushing wind” (Acts 2:2). 

And it can happen on a personal level. In his teaching on the gifts of the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12, Paul writes, “But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” In verse 7. The supernatural gifts are manifestations of the Holy Spirit in our personal lives. 

I believe the Holy Spirit is stirring today and He deeply desires to manifest or reveal Himself in your church and in your life in powerful expressive ways.

What are the conditions for that to happen?

As I mentioned earlier, it can happen through praise and worship. I believe the Holy Spirit want to anoint our worship. He wants to anoint our worshiper leaders and musicians to bring down God’s glory in our services.

But John also writes of the day that Jesus stood up in the Temple on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles and made this proclamation:

“If anyone is thirsty, [a]let him come to Me and drink. 38 The one who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” (John 7:37-38 NASV)

John adds in verse 39 that Jesus was referring to the Holy Spirit. These rivers of water are the Holy Spirit. 

Jesus said if you thirst for for the Holy Spirit out of you will flow rivers of living water. This river will not flow out of Jesus, this river will flow out of you. The Holy Spirit wants to flow out of you. He wants to flow out of me. 

But notice how rivers in the plural, you will become a waterfall with streams of the Holy Spirit pouring out of you. You are the source of the outpouring and through this the Holy Spirit will manifest through signs and wonder. 

But it starts with a thirst…. A thirst for the more of God. We need to have a thirst in order for these rivers of living water to flow out of us.

I just pray for those who do not have a thirst for the Holy Spirit, that you give us this thirst, that you ask for this thirst, that you make us thirsty, so that we want more of you.

I hope this is the desire of your heart.

Thanks for joining me on this podcast, and I will catch you again.