Fiveamprayer

Revelation chapter 21




Today we are walking in: Responding To Freedoms Call








Joshua 23:5



And the Lord your God, he shall expel them from before you, and drive them from out of your sight; and ye shall possess their land, as the Lord your God hath promised H1697 unto you.







PROMISE






Today we look to the word PROMISE-- H1697 -- dâbâr-- ; a word; by implication, a matter (as spoken of) or thing; a cause:—act, advice, answer, chronicles, commandment, communication, decree, deed, power, promise, provision, purpose, as hast said, sake,









The Torah testifies...............



Exodus 12:25



And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the land which the Lord will give you, according as he hath promised H1697, that ye shall keep this service.





Numbers 14:34



After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise H1697.



Deuteronomy 15:6



For the Lord thy God blesseth thee, as he promised H1697 thee: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow; and thou shalt reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over thee.












The prophets proclaim..................



Joshua 22:4



And now the Lord your God hath given rest unto your brethren, as he promised H1697 them: therefore now return ye, and get you unto your tents, and unto the land of your possession, which Moses the servant of the Lord gave you on the other side Jordan.



2 Samuel 7:28



And now, O Lord God, thou art that God, and thy words be true, and thou hast promised H1697 this goodness unto thy servant:



Jeremiah 32:42



For thus saith the Lord; Like as I have brought all this great evil upon this people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised H1697 them.













The writings bear witness...........................



1 Kings 8:20



And the Lord hath performed his word that he spake, and I am risen up in the room of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as the Lord promised H1697, and have built an house for the name of the Lord God of Israel.





1 Chronicles 17:26



And now, Lord, thou art God, and hast promised H1697 this goodness unto thy servant:





2 Chronicles 21:7



Howbeit the Lord would not destroy the house of David, because of the covenant that he had made with David, and as he promised H1697 to give a light to him and to his sons for ever.






Responding to Freedom's Call


You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.
-Abraham Lincoln


I have been impacted by the forty-year wanderings of the Israelites in that small piece of desert! How short the distance was for the community of Israel led by Moses, and how drastic it all turned out. Freedom was all around them, but it never touched their hearts. "We want to go back to Egypt where we got our three square meals a day and everyone knew exactly what was expected of him!" they cried. "What's with all of this unexpected thinking and adventure thing? We want to go home!" These were the very people whose groans for deliverance came before Yah's ears.


The same cries for deliverance are rising from so many corners of the world today as we progress into the twenty first century. "What happened to the miracles? Why aren't You answering my prayers as You once did? Where's my free stuff?"
Although Yah sent Moses to lead Israel out, the people's minds were too oppressed to hear freedom's cry. So they danced for a while; then they cried out for a return to their former Egyptian bondage-and they died in the wilderness without inheritance or home. But it didn't stop there. Within a generation after Joshua's death, the children Yah raised up to enter Canaan squandered their inheritance and freely gave up their homes. Why? Because freedom is expensive. Unless every generation is trained in the discipline of Yah's righteousness, the tests of life will flunk you-and you'll die in the wilderness of life's harsh, desert sands.
Our generation in the church today has groaned, received deliverance and, in some cases, actually crossed over Jordan in possessing the land of Yah's promises. Many have moved on from their miraculous care in the wilderness to shoulder the heavy burden of freedom that Canaan requires. We have more believers in the church world today who have circumcised their hearts and are following Yah's leading in Canaan than any modern generation of the church.


For many of us, the great teaching brought by the Charismatic movement's apostles such as Oral Roberts, Kenneth Hagin, R.W. Shambach and many others has impacted our lives. We recognized when the manna dried up. Then we went to prayer and study, and we made our next move. But thousands of others are wandering yet in the dusty sands of Sinai, unaware of who they truly are or of the promise Yah has given them. They still want to go to a miracle meeting and receive everything they need through the wave of a hand.
Because so many misunderstand their responsibilities in freedom, they want to sit in their front rooms and send in a television love gift that will cure their diseased body and drop money in their hand. It may have worked right after Yahusha saved their lives and miraculously led them through the Red Sea. But now they're wondering why the desert is so hot and the miracles have dried up.
I want to leave you with what I have discovered over my many years of ministry to be the main misconceptions of freedom held by both the world and the church. I offer them as informed revelation that will serve you in effecting change. In this teaching we will examine freedom's misconceptions. In the final teaching we will look once more at the truths of freedom. As you commit to a new era of prayerful Bible study and bear these facts in mind, it is my hope that they will serve you as Yah's disciplined wisdom, able to deliver you from the oppressor's hand into the land of true freedom.
Freedom Is Expensive
We were being circumcised. The last murmuring spirit was being cut out of our hearts. Yah was cutting off the last memory of Egypt and its bondage. Today we have been digging our own prophetic wells and planting our fields for a number of years, and it is a wonderful confirmation in knowing that faith brought us there. Yah has blessed us in the land. But it would never have happened if we did not learn how to dig our own wells.
When you read the Book of judges, you will see how Egypt's mind-set crept back in, and the land was lost. The responsibility of freedom is always ours to bear.
Let me remind you that freedom is expensive. It doesn't come cheaply, and it must be protected at all costs. People are crying out for freedom today around the world. The Third World countries have been crying out for it for hundreds of years- "Freedom!" Most of us have received it. Colonialism in the Caribbean fell apart in the twentieth century because the people cried out for it to end.
But when we say we want freedom, we have to realize what we're asking for-RESPONSIBILITY. So we must consider the principles of freedom before we cry out for it. The dynamics and cost involved in freedom must be comprehended to be prepared for freedom's rewards.
When you say you want freedom, you say you want "talent- trading" management. But few people in the world or church truly understand this. I used to think I knew what freedom was, yet it was my very concept of freedom that kept me in bondage. My old wilderness days of playing music and getting paid handsomely for it with little, if any, effort gave me the impression that freedom consisted of popularity and easy success. Just as Yahusha sent out the disciples the first time, I took no money bag and carried no sword because those easy, early days of music ministry had been prepared by the Most High to keep me safe.
Yah was sending the manna and bringing water forth from the rock. So I traded with my talent. Then one day we reached the edge of Canaan, and as the Jordan rushed before me, Yah stopped His miraculous flow. There I was, looking over into Canaan. The word of the Most High was, "Get to work!" Suddenly, I had to dig my own wells. I found myself scheduling my spiritual, school and work life into seventeen-hour days. But as I entered the land and continued to obey Yah's Word as a faithful servant, He increased my responsibilities as we slowly possessed the land.
Possessing the land makes great demands of us. But the job is only getting done in certain small quarters because the expensive price of freedom remains unpaid in many lives. If most oppressed people had really understood the price of freedom before they cried out for it, they might have kept their mouths shut in favor of staying in Egypt.Why? It's more comfortable in Egypt for the slavery minded oppressed. When you get over into the wilderness,there are tests and perils unheard of before. Then when you get into Canaan, you have to set your own schedule and get to work.
Let's take a look at some freedom misconceptions, and then move on to get the job done.
Freedom Misconceptions
In this crucial section I'm going to challenge your historical perception of freedom, and I am going to do it deliberately. Why? I want to damage your erroneous concepts of freedom so irreparably that you will walk away from this series with a new understanding of why the smells and slavery mind-set of Egypt have kept many bound in Sinai. I want you to get off the road to nowhere; I want you to get on the path to home. As you examine yourself through this knowledge, it is my hope that you will ask the Holy Spirit's help in turning your life around. It's time to put on your management hats, dig up your hidden talents, put them in the market and head into Jericho. No more circles in the desert! No more desert sand!
1. Freedom is the absence of laws and restrictions.
First of all, some people call freedom the absence of laws and restrictions. They don't want any laws; they just want to be free. "Don't tell me what to do!" they complain. "Don't put any limits or restrictions on me."
A sixteen-year-old comes to his parents and says, "That's it. You aren't going to run my life any more. I'm old enough now. I'm moving out of here. I'm tired of you telling me what to do. I'm going to pack my clothes. I'm gone. I want my freedom!"
A tear runs down his mother's cheek while this young fool is rambling on. He thinks she is crying because she doesn't want him to leave-and that's why he is a fool. But she isn't crying because of that. As a matter of fact, she would be glad to get rid of him if that's what he really wanted. What she is tearing up about is the fact that she said the same thing to her mother. This is why she knows that at sixteen he doesn't know how to run an apartment by himself. At his tender young age he doesn't know what it's like to bring up children or pay the utility bills. She would like to spare him all this trauma. But his concept of freedom is displacing his irresponsible lifestyle into a private apartment where he can "sleep" and watch TV all day. To him, freedom is the absence of laws and restrictions. And his misconception has him deceived. When he quits his first two jobs, he will come running home to Mama with a working understanding of freedom's responsibilities.
Some forty-five-year-old adults can sound like children with their complaints: "Hey! ... I come to church when I can. So don't bother me. When I'm there, you should feel privileged that I came. There are many things on my schedule. So don't lay your rules on me. Just let me be free."
Is this you? Have you been deceived into believing that freedom is the absence of laws and restrictions? Freedom without law is anarchy. There is no freedom without law.
2. Freedom is void of work and obligation.
Like our fictitious sixteen-year-old in the previous misconception, many people think freedom means the absence of work. So they look to others in their "freedom" to take care of them. This misconception inevitably costs others the price of their laziness. It happens in the nation and in church. Like the hitchhiker I picked up that I mentioned in an earlier chapter, there are beggars wandering the wilderness of the church. Yahusha didn't die to birth moochers and beggars! But they certainly had them in the first century church, and so do we. The man who planted that first century church wrote, "If a man will not work, he shall not eat" (2 Thess. 3:10). You can't get more direct than that. If you want to experience Yah's lifestyle of freedom, your palms are going to have to come down out of the air to wrap around a shovel handle, because freedom takes hard work. Freedom demands more work than oppression.
3. Freedom is retirement from responsibility.
When the children of Israel were finally free fromPharaoh, suddenly they had no one telling them what to do. No more whips, bricks or pylon raisings. No more "Come here! Put your backs to it there! Time to eat!" or "Go to bed!" They were thankful to Yah for setting them free. But when Pharaoh wasn't there to direct them every day, their slavery mind-sets still needed him. They lacked the personal discipline to work independently. So they complained.
This is why so many in the world have such a discipline problem-they are living with Egyptian mind-sets in the wilderness of deliverance.
Why do you think we have to come up with game-shows like gimmicks to make people attend a conference meeting? Why do you think we have to give out free food and all kinds of prizes to lure folks out to different ministry conference functions? It's because Pharaoh isn't there to force them to get up and out any more, and they still need a push. When fun and food are the reasons to get people in church, our gimmicks and games are "Pharaoh" for them.
I know I'm starting to tread on some toes now. But at least the people who come out to win the barbecue grill do hear Yah's Word. And if you hear and receive enough Word, it can change your mind. Responsibility is in every jot and tittle recorded in Yah's holy Book. So I am glad that some people are open to our gimmicky appeals. It is our responsibility to make you responsible.
But once the games are over, it's time to go to the next level. It's time to start trading with the talent Yah has given. Responsible people will eventually own, not rent.They will trade with the talents Yah gave them and invest in a home or a church. Why give all your money to the money lenders? This will work for a while, but Yah wants everyone to manage their affairs well enough to possess their own property.
Now that we own our own building, we have the responsibility to maintain it. We can't call the landMost High when we have a problem.
The first Saturday we were in our new facility, some of our ministry kids threw a whole roll of tissue paper in the toilet, and it stopped working. In fact, three or four of our toilets got clogged up because our children took our toilet paper and put it in our toilets that we bought, causing our toilets to stop up.
I went in the bathroom myself on Monday morning with the plunger. So here I was, the president of the company, down on my hands and knees working with a plunger. And you know what? It felt good, because this was my bathroom now.
If you want freedom, don't be thinking about retiring from responsibility. In fact, it will increase when your resources increase. So you better be ready to handle it. Freedom is hard work.
4. Freedom is relaxation.
Many people have this crazy dream: "By the time I turn forty years old, I want to be a millionaire." But when they imagine this, they're really dreaming about being free or retired from work and obligation with nothing to do but play golf all day, go shopping, watch TV or anything else they want to do. They don't understand that the kind of person who could earn millions of dollars wouldn't know what to do with twenty-four hours of leisure time a day. Millionaires have to wheel and deal and make things happen. That's how they made their million, and that's how they live. But many think, When I make my million, I'll buy a seaside house and sleep or play golf.
This misconception of freedom has probably done more damage to many than any other, because it has indoctrinated people with an escape mentality. Multitudes think that when they get to heaven they will be swinging on a hammock and drinking mint juleps in the backyard of their mansions, just whiling eternity away. They look at redemption like retirement, and it sadly affects the way they live on the earth.
Ultimate peace is in the "sweet by-and-by" according to so much of our prevalent religious thought. Nobody believes in this relaxation misconception more than Christians. We think of freedom as eternal relaxation. Our theology has promoted the idea of leaving the earth "finally" to enter the promised land for an eternity. In the meantime we spend our lives hiding out from the "evil, cruel world," without much thought for the welfare of the needs of the world.
May Yah deliver us from this spirit of deception. It's foolish to desire a life of nothing.
Freedom is not a vacation from earthly responsibilities and eternal realities; it is actually quite the opposite. In freedom, we finally get to do everything ourselves. We get to see a need and meet it because it's the right thing to do.
This erroneous escape theology has conditioned the church over the centuries to be irresponsible on the planet. Consequently, when the city becomes crime ridden, the youth go to drugs and the families fall apart, we say, "I'll fly away, oh, glory. Come quickly, Most High Yahusha; take me out of this mess."
This is an unYahly attitude because it demonstrates that we don't care about the fallen, dying children of earth who are killing each other. Yahusha died for these children, and He gave you the freedom to do something about it. We are to roll up our sleeves and use Yah's gifts to save the world from its bondage to sin. Paul writes:
All this is from Yah, who reconciled us to himself through Hamachiach and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
-2 CORINTHIANS 5:18
Instead, we pray for eternal relaxation, and sing. "When we all-1-1-1 get to he-e-a-ven, what a day of re-e-joi-ic-ing that will be! When we all-1-1-1 see-ee Yahusha, we'll sing and shout the vic-tort'."
We sing another song that goes like this: "When we cross over Jordan, we are going to sit down and rest a little while." And in our minds, a "little" is a billion, trillion years. We want to sit down next to that crystal lake, throw a bobber into the waters and take an eternal nap. Or we want to picnic by the pearly gates under the tree of anointing, pick golden apples and eternally strum on some harp. We just want to lie by the lake of righteousness for a million years doing NOTHING! And this idea of eternal relaxation produces irresponsible Christians who automatically want to go to heaven when they encounter problems.
The average Christian prays, "0 Yah, how long, how long? Take me out of here, Most High. The world is so corruptmurders and fights, killing and rapes. Come and take Your church out, Most High. Come, Most High. Rapture us now!"
But this isn't how Yahusha thought. Look at the prayer He prayed the night before He died on the cross: "My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one" (John 17:15).
Now whose prayer is going to be answered, yours or Yahusha'?
Whose idea of freedom is Yah going to honor, yours or His? Yah isn't going to "move" us anywhere when times get tough, except forward into the battle. You may run and hide, but His direction is always forward-forward to the test-forward toward Jericho. So we aren't going anywhere to kick off our shoes, flop down on some celestial couch and pull the paper over our head. We have a responsibility-and it has nothing to do with eternal relaxation. True freedom is permission to work and fulfill your potential.
Now, as long as we're destroying misconceptions, I want to challenge your concept of heaven. In the apocalyptic writings of John, the apostle writes in his Book of Revelation these important words:
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from Yah, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of Yah is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and Yah himself will be with them and be their Yah."


-REVELATION 21:1-3
If you thought you were going to recline and eat grapes for the rest of eternity in heaven, John has news for you. According to Yah, you are coming back to earth to live in a holy city, and you aren't coming back to play and fly around. The new Jerusalem John saw descends after the thousand-year reign of Hamachiach on earth as we now know it (with the curse removed). During that time Yahusha will reign physically with His saints from Jerusalem-on earth.
And they sang a new song: "You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for Yah from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our Yah, and they will reign on the earth."
-REVELATION 5:9-10
Our work won't stop during the Millennium. We see this in Yahusha' management parable of the minas taught in Luke 19, which parallels Matthew's teaching on the talents that we have looked at in depth.
A man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then to return. So he called ten of his servants and gave them ten minas. "Put this money to work," he said, "until I come back."... The first one came and said, "Sir, your mina has earned ten more." "Well done, my good servant!" his master replied. "Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities."
-LUKE 19:12-13, 16-17
The distant country in this parable is the Bible's promised heaven where Yahusha sits at the right hand of Yah right now, waiting for His enemies to be made a footstool for His feet (Ps. 110:1; Heb. 1:13). And the trading time is now for the people who will accept His minas and trade. Those who manage well will manage the resources and redemptive realities of earth's millennial cities. Wow! I didn't say it. Yahusha did.
So forget those thoughts about eternal vacation when we enter eternity. Nowhere in the Bible does it say you are going to have huge plantation mansions, hammocks or wings. It may be in your hymn book-but it's not in the Bible. If you want to know what Scripture says about"life after death," read Revelation 5:10 and tell me if you see work in your future: "You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our Yah, and they will reign on the earth." The word reign in this verse doesn't mean "to rest." It means to "exercise kingly power; to administrate, to execute judgment, to rule, to dominate a territory." It's hard work. Yah created every tongue and nation to reign with Him and dominate the earth. So you better get used to it in the here and now, because you are going to do it forever. Your destiny is responsibilityyour future is freedom to work, to dominate and to rule.
5. Freedom is the release from external control.
This fifth freedom misconception speaks to the kind of rebellious thinking every person has had to deal with since Adam's fall. Since all people believe they are free when no one is controlling them, they desire to be even freer from external control. This means they want to be left alone by employers, pastors, presidents-whomever.
I need to emphasize the word external when talking about this kind of control. Yah actually intended for Adam to be free in his own freedom from external control. But Adam mismanaged his freedom. He was not mature enough to handle it-and neither are we.
To many, freedom is the freedom to be "left alone" so they can do what they want to do when they want to do it without anyone to answer to. This is not freedom; this is anarchy.
It is a sign of babyhood when someone must exercise external control by checking the one they are supervising to see how that person is doing. It's like caring for an infant. You have to check a baby every hour to see if he rolled over and suffocated. You check to see if he's burping or whether there is stuff in his mouth. That's external control.
Many Christians flirt with sin to see how close they can get to the fire without getting burned. They may have been converts for ten years, but they're still children. They think no one is watching their actions, and they read you the riot act if you challenge their lifestyles. They think they are free to sin because, after all, Yah will forgive them-so too bad for you if their sin affects you! But remember the fifth mismanagement principle from chapter four: Mismanagement may be "personal," but it is never "private." When this group sneaks around in its "freedom" from control, everyone around it can be affected. Achan thought no one would know about his pilfered silver. Ananias and Sapphira thought they had fooled everyone.
Among the many other responsibilities Yah is calling us to shoulder in our day, loving confrontation is on the top of the list. As a pastor, counselor and advisor, I know how rough growing up can be when people are suddenly challenged to take the wheels of their lives and drive straight even when no one is looking. But this is where Yah's Word and the Holy Spirit help us in growth. A mature person knows that Yah is always watching-he doesn't need a chaperone to watch him anymore. I pray the day will come when we can live on convictions instead of corrections. A day when Yah will bring us to the point where principles instead of punishment guide us. But until then, Yah has placed mentors and other "external controls" in our lives to help us produce and grow.
Freedom is not the absence of external control as some think. Neither is it the absence of laws or work. It is not retirement or continual vacation time. Freedom is the responsible adherence to the laws and principles of Yah in the process of fulfilling your purpose for His glory.
A sense of responsibility is the clearest indication of maturity. -John Maxwell
RESPONDING TO FREEDOM'S CALL
1. Freedom misconceptions:
a. Freedom is the absence of laws and restrictions. b. Freedom is void of work and obligation.
c. Freedom is retirement from responsibility.
d. Freedom is relaxation.
e. Freedom is the release from external control.
2. In freedom, we finally get to do everything ourselves. We get to see a need and meet it because it's the right thing to do.
3. True freedom is permission to work and fulfill your potential.
Revelation 21


And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.


2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from Yah out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.


3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of Yah is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and Yah himself shall be with them, and be their Yah.


4 And Yah shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.


5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.


6 And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.


7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his Yah, and he shall be my son.


8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.


9 And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.


10 And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from Yah,


11 Having the glory of Yah: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;


12 And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:


13 On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates.


14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.


15 And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof.


16 And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal.


17 And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel.


18 And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass.


19 And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald;


20 The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolyte; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst.


21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls: every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.


22 And I saw no temple therein: for the Most High Yah Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.


23 And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of Yah did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.


24 And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.


25 And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.


26 And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.


27 And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.