As I was reading in John where Jesus is responding to Philip’s request of Jesus to show them the Father and then that will be enough for them to believe (John 14:8), Jesus answers him, “believe on the evidence of the works themselves;” the works His Father gave His Son to do. (John 14: 11)

What came out to me was what Jesus said next: “Whoever believes in ME will DO the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. AND I WILL DO WHATEVER YOU ASK IN MY NAME, SO THAT THE FATHER MAY BE GLORIFIED IN THE SON. YOU MAY ASK ME FOR ANYTHING IN MY NAME, A N D I W I L L D O I T.”

I have used this promise in prayer, as if to remind the Father of what Jesus said here, taking this promise: “ask Me for anything and I will do it,” as if it had NO CONDITION! Every promise of God has a condition from Him. Check it out. I would bet everything that the devil’s work, at least one of his greatest evil schemes is to make us believe that we can do our OWN good-seeming works for the Lord, and have this promise fulfilled. NOT TRUE!

The condition for this promise is: Whoever believes in ME will DO the works I HAVE BEEN DOING.” And then Jesus adds: “They will do EVEN GREATER things than these,” greater things than HE has done! I have read this passage many times but for God’s reason this time, ‘the condition’ stood out more than the promise. So, I asked the Lord in prayer, “Lord, help me to do YOUR works, not my own. Show me Lord if what I am doing is only my assumption of YOUR work – NOT really Yours, but rather my own works that seem good to me.

The Lord goes on to say to His disciples that if they love Him, they will keep His commands. (John 14:15) We can read through the gospels to make a list of all that Jesus commanded His disciples to finish after He replaced Himself with His Holy Spirit – so that they could. The works we are each to do are NOT the works that people (church pastors/leaders, godly employers, godly parents) ask or give us to do, or even demand of us. I have seen church leaders/pastors telling people what to do within the church. “Faith comes by hearing, hearing the WORD OF GOD.” It’s what God tells us to do, that we apply our faith to.

We were in a church where every year they used one Sunday to put up ministries (job-posters) that the pastors wanted people to commit to with a sign-up list next to the posters. Mike and I did not sign any of them. Why? None of them revealed what we heard the Lord tell us to do while attending that church.

I have witnessed a pastor say (to a prophet of God – who had come to this pastor with what the Lord put on his heart), “Don’t bring that into MY church!” Whose church? I thought the church belonged to the LORD JESUS CHRIST, who is the HEAD of the BODY a.k.a., “the church.” Why wouldn’t that pastor at least pray with the man about it?

Do you think that God witnesses pastors ignoring the “calling of the Lord” on certain believers in their church, feeling threatened in some way by their calling from the Lord. Why feel threatened if you, as the pastor, see yourself as ‘one part’ of the BODY of Christ? All parts are needed for the LORD to finish HIS WORKS on earth.

I heard a pastor say that the gifts of prophecy and tongues and interpretation of tongues were no longer legitimate gifts/offices once the Bible was written. He uses the passage of Scripture that states that when “the perfect comes” then certain gifts/offices are no longer relevant or useful, such as the gift of prophecy and the office of a prophet – which is for the “church-age.” This pastor referred to the Bible as “the perfect” that came. But he’s wrong. JESUS CHRIST is the “perfection that is to come.” Jesus Christ is called (in the Bible) the living eternal Word of God.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. HE was with God in the beginning. Through HIM all things were made; with HIM nothing was made that has been made. In HIM was life, and that life was the light of all mankind….The Word became FLESH and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:1-4, 14

“To those who believed in HIS NAME, He gave the RIGHT to become children of God.” John 1:12

Note that it does NOT say, to those who believe in ‘the Bible,’ God gives the right to become the children of God. The Bible tells us WHO to believe in and that HE IS COMING AGAIN to finish all the Father’s works on earth. (Revelation 19-22) The HOLY Bible is not “the perfect one,” Jesus Christ is.

“Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know IN PART and we prophesy IN PART, but when perfection (completeness) comes, what is IN PART disappears….for then we shall FACE TO FACE…then I shall know [Him] fully, even as I am fully known [by HIM]. And for now, these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

Love is eternal. Faith and hope are for now – until the PERFECTION comes, the perfect One: JESUS CHRIST. When you are face to face with Jesus – your faith and hope are fulfilled!

The Bible ends with Revelation 22 when Jesus Christ has finished ALL the works of the Father on the earth with His first and second coming. But the LIFE of God with His family (in Christ) goes on forever. The Bible does not tell us about eternity except that we will be forever learning how AWESOME our Father God is, how wonderful His love is for us, and what we get to enjoy throughout eternity that God has prepared for those who love Him. The Bible does not give us THAT information. “No eye has seen, no mind can conceive!” And, I believe it’s because we first need to FINISH what He’s given us to do here and now.

God has placed ‘temporary’ boundaries on everything He has created, even on our minds, and for our own good of simply understanding and faithfully doing the works Jesus Christ has given each of His disciples in every generation – to do, until HE RETURNS: The Perfection to come.

So, for now, we have this promise from Him BUT with a condition: “I will come back and take you to be with Me that you also may be where I am. You know the WAY to the place where I am going.” (John 14:3-4) What is “the way?” By faith, walking with Jesus our Lord – doing what He wants to do with us, seeing what He wants to show us. If this is our true heart’s desire, then He also says:

“You are My friends…I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know His master’s business….everything I heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit – fruit that will last – and so that WHATEVER YOU ASK IN MY NAME THE FATHER WILL GIVE YOU. This is my command: Love one another.” John 15: 14-17

Love never fails! The work of the Lord is rooted in the love of Father God our Maker. His love makes the work He gives us – enjoyable and effortless.

“Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.” John 16:24

I LOVE discussing those things that are to come according to the Word of God; those things to come that Jesus said is the responsibility of the Holy Spirit to tell us – so that WE WILL BE PREPARED in each and every last generation, both physically/practically prepared AND especially spiritually prepared “in Christ.”

God has put it in Mike and I over the last 15 years or more to study this out, not listening to what theologians believe, just from our own continual study with the Holy Spirit teaching us and revealing the time (John 14:26, 15:26 – 16:14), studying as we compare Scripture to Scripture in both the Old and New Testaments.

Mike and I can only share what we have been taught by the Spirit in the books of Isaiah, Daniel 12:7-13, Jesus’ own teaching on the end times in Matthew 24, 1 Cor. 15:51-53, 1 Thess. 4:16-18, Rev. 10:6-7 the “mystery accomplished” (which we believe is the rapture, because it’s “at the 7th trumpet”).

We also see/learn, from the way the Lord our God dealt with Noah, who was told how to escape God’s coming judgment, while being persecuted by those who did not believe what Noah was telling them (repent and believe).

Then God sending Moses to free the Hebrew slaves, and pronounce judgment on Pharaoh and his nation for how they treated God’s chosen people – even while giving Pharaoh time to repent, but then hardening his heart altogether. God’s people went through most judgments in Egypt in order to purify them through obeying God’s Word through Moses, but the Hebrews did NOT experience personally/physically – all the judgments – so that God showed His “distinction” (it says) – meaning that – what He won’t let happen to those who are ‘right with Him;’ protecting them “by the blood of the Lamb,’ while showing His wrath on the rest of the world.

Then there’s God’s example of Lot and his family being taken out of the place of God’s judgment of fire – right before it happens. Lot endured persecution for not conforming to the ways of the wicked. Interesting, that his wife “looked back” after told not to look back with affection or sentiment, and then turned to a pillar of salt when she did go against the Word of God. She was unable to live on in the way of the Lord with His faithful ones.

Then there’s how God used Jacob’s 11th son, Joseph, through all those years of persecution to be set up as God’s provision for God’s people (Joseph’s family) later on – when great famine hit the land.

The “rapture” is our “escaping” the worst time the earth has ever seen, yet going through some in order to prepare us for our Lord, to see Him face and face, and to enter His Kingdom. Unlike before as in the days of Israel: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – God’s full on wrath will be happening ALL over the earth, to the WHOLE world, and not just to certain areas on the earth, or to certain nations. We are seeing “worldwide” things happening now. The Lord’s servants will go through tribulation worldwide, in every nation, even good old America.

When God takes His Faithful Church (with His Holy Spirit – Daniel 12:7) OFF the earth, He replaces them with His “Two Witnesses” to prophesy what is still to come, and to REPENT! Note: We see that the “rapture” has been accomplished, (Rev. 10:7) just as the prophets said, “at the 7th trumpet.” We see that the Church goes through the first woe judgments and part of the second woe judgments (which end after the Two Witnesses have replaced the Church).

After the Two Witnesses have completed their work from God He calls them “up to heaven in a cloud” (Rev. 12) that the whole world notices. Rev.11:14:

“The second woe has passed; the third woe is coming soon.” Then Rev. 11:15 reports that the 7th trumpet is now sounding with it’s events, of which includes: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Messiah, and He will (its coming) reign for ever and ever…..because You have taken Your great power and BEGUN to reign. NOTE: His reign starts in heaven with all His faithful servants finally with Him. Jesus said to all His disciples: “I will come for you so that where ever I am – there you will be also.”

The nations are said to be ALL angry now, because the full-on WRATH has come….” In Revelation chapters 12 – 18 we see all that God does on the earth with the rest of His judgments (the BOWLS – the worst of all the judgments).

Rev. 19:11 then reveals the ‘second’ coming of God’s Son, but this time to “reign a thousand years on the earth” as King of kings and Lord of lords: “The armies of HEAVEN were following Him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen (19:8 the righteous acts of God’s holy people), white and clean. Coming out of His mouth is a sharp sword with which to STRIKE DOWN THE [ANGRY] NATIONS. ‘He will rule them with an iron scepter.'” And on it goes to describe what our KING and His armies accomplish on the earth during those 1000 years.

Then we see in Revelation 21 that New Jerusalem comes down like a bride prepared for her husband (Jesus who is reigning on the earth on David’s throne in Jerusalem, the City God loves, His eternal footstool). Hallelujah! “For the OLD order of things has passed away. I have made all things NEW!”

What our Creator first created and called “good,” will be purified by His judgments, renewed and restored by Christ’s reign with His one-world government. Then eternity can begin, as God intended for mankind before Satan and sin entered the world to spoil, overtake and pervert all that God called “good.”

“God saw all that He had made, and it was VERY GOOD. Thus the heavens and the earth were COMPLETED in all their vast array. And on the 7th day God rested from all His work of creating that He had done.” Genesis 2:2-3

COME LORD JESUS COME!

I was feeling anxious waiting on God to do what He said He would do for us. I was feeling worried about the future for our grandchildren in America. I was feeling angry about America’s new governmental administration of evil in the White House, the Senate and the House. I was asking the Lord to give me something, show me something, tell me something – to give me peace of mind and bring my JOY back. But this is what He said to me: “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” John 13: 7

Peace immediately filled me about our grandchildren’s future; strength to keep waiting on God to act and do what He said He would do for us; confidence that He allowed this evil administration to come into full power with the presidency, the House and Senate – for His good purpose.  How do people live without the presence and favor of God? I’ll never know!

I just learned the other day something (from Mike) about the eagle. God has made the eagle to be able to fly higher than any other bird. A crow pecking at an eagle as the crow latches on to the back of the eagle as the eagle is flying, will pass out as the eagle reaches a height than what the crow is able to survive because the crow can’t breathe at such an altitude.

I just love how God uses the eagle in so many passages of Scripture in relation to our lives with Him. The devil, like the crow, gets to pecking at our lives to at least annoy us, if not to injure or destroy us. We see this annoyance and intent to harm – by how the devil uses powerful people, worldly systems and political administrations against the Lord’s people – in every nation. Now as we clearly see in America too. But as we latch on with our LORD ON HIGH – the devil and his allies can’t survive there at all, their plans against our place/position/purpose with the Lord our God – fall flat.

“You have seen for yourselves what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself.” Exodus 19:4

In case you don’t know what the Lord did to Egypt because of how the Pharaoh and the Egyptians treated God’s people (their Hebrew slaves) and refused to let them go worship the Lord one day a week (in the way God told them to), God brought fierce judgments down on Egypt. God swooped down to show Himself to His oppressed people in ways they had never seen before, and then to carry them out of Egypt – to God’s will and purpose for them, where they would have all His favor to prosper and all His power to overcome their enemies.

And God is the same today as He was then!