It is Also Written
MATTHEW 4:2-7
2 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.
3 And when the tempter came to him (it’s amazing how that the devil always turns up when a person is at their weakest), he said (Notice how that the temptation is going to come through the channel of words), If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. (Now watch how Jesus answers, because this is very cleaver, because if Jesus had turned the stones into bread, then he would have been doing it by obeying the words that had just come out of the devil’s mouth – he would have been minding the devil)
4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
(The whole avalanche of sin and death began when Eve obeyed the words that came out of the serpent’s mouth, but Jesus was not going to fall for that same trick. But look how the devil quoted a scripture to a situation that seemed like that scripture would apply, and yet under the condition of the circumstances it was wrong, because as Jesus said, it is also written)
5 Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,
6 And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down (As Satan had watched and studied the life of Jesus from his birth, he had always struggled to believe that this human being was actually the son of God – and so he is wanting him to perform something supernatural, but God is not a showoff): for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. (Psalms 91:11-12)
7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
If Jesus had willingly jumped off the pinnacle of the temple, then that is not the same as accidently falling, and so that is big difference, and this is why we have to be careful as to how we apply certain scriptures to situations that don’t quite fit the true meaning of the word of God because of the intent of a person’s heart.
And here lays some of the answers to some of our questions as to why God doesn’t always take action in certain situations in the way that we think He should – because of the fact of wrong motives and that it is also written.
It is Also Written
We are still speaking on our theme subject from last week of “Questions and Answers”. And we are wanting to look at this subject, not from the angle of having a long list of questions and then trying to answer them one by one, but we want to study this from the angle of the fact that the reason that we have so many questions concerning many things of what God seems to allow that just don’t look right to our human thought patterns, is because our thoughts are not on the same level of what God’s thoughts are.
ISAIAH 55:8-9
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
In other words, if we could have access into the realms of the higher levels of God’s thinking, then I believe that many of our questions would automatically be answered, because then we wouldn’t be stuck anymore in our one-dimensional human level of temporal and humanistic thinking.
**Job’s three friends could only think about Job at a certain level of a human life span dimensional level – and even though by the reasoning of their human minds they were totally convinced that they were right about Job being a secret sinner, they were actually completely wrong because of what they didn’t know of a higher purpose.
**We are living right now at the time of Revelation 4:1 of where John is called by a voice to come up higher, and so there has been a window opened up in this end time age by the opening of the seven seals that has enabled us to fly up into heavenly places – and so we are called to leave the ground far below us, because this is eagle age, and so this is the time that we are to fly up higher into the realms of the higher thoughts of God.
**When Ruth started out, she didn’t have the answers to her life’s troubles because it looked like everything had gone wrong for her. Her husband had died, and she had left her family behind and had moved to a land that she had never lived in before, and now she had to become almost like a beggar in order to survive.
And so it looked like everything that could have gone wrong had gone wrong for her, but the fact was that it was exactly the opposite that was true for Ruth, in that everything was actually going perfectly right according to the higher thoughts of God for her life, and that was because God had far bigger plans for Ruth’s life that that of what Ruth had for Ruth’s life.
MATTHEW 26:53-56
53 Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?
54 But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be? (We notice here how that Jesus had the power to literally change his immediate circumstances from discomfort to comfort, and from pending pain to freedom from pending pain – and if we had the same power that he had, then this is what we would humanly choose to do throughout our lives, we would fix everything of what we would think is wrong in our lives of our discomforts, and make it right – but then the big problem with that is, how would the scriptures be fulfilled in our lives, because in the volume of the book it is written of us, and so it is impossible for the word of God not to have its fulfilment in our lives – and so God has put certain boundaries on our wills.
***And so this explains why that God has to often withhold from us certain powers to be able to fix things in our immediate lives of struggle and woe, and He does that for the purpose of our eternal place in the kingdom of heaven, because there must be a measure of suffering in this life in order to develop our character for our future purpose in the kingdom that is to come)
55 In that same hour said Jesus to the multitudes, Are ye come out as against a thief with swords and staves for to take me? I sat daily with you teaching in the temple, and ye laid no hold on me.
56 But all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled. (All this of what look like bad things taking place was because of prophecy)
If we could also understand this about our own lives, then this would answer many of our questions of the things that seem to us that have been such negative things that have happened in our lives - because the fact is that what governs our lives is the scriptures that need to be fulfilled in our lives according to the prophecy of the word of God spoken for this hour.
*All the things that were done in your life was so that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.
**And this is why we so often don’t understand our lives, because we are so focused on thinking about our immediate and future comfort, and we do not try to match our lives with the prophecies of the scriptures concerning this day.
**Joseph was promised by God a future of power and respect and comfort, but he had to first have his character shaped by God into the right kind of person in order to handle that future position of glory.
DANIEL 3:17-18
17 If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
18 But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.
**Notice here how that these three wise young men knew that their lives were about to become very uncomfortable – but they also had the wisdom to know that God’s choice for their lives could go either way depending upon the plan of the thoughts of God for their lives.
**None of us would ever doubt that God could do anything that He wishes to do, but we question as to why He chooses to do different things for some and then not to do those same things for others.
If He heals one person one way, then we think that He should always do it that same way, and some even think that if He was really God, then He should just take away all suffering from people - of which we know that He could, but of which He doesn’t? Look at all the suffering of WW1 and WW2, but it was prophecy and as the prophet puts it, the “Tender hand of Jehovah”.
**Why did Jesus Walk through all of the sick people laying at the pool of Bethesda. They were all waiting for the waters to be troubles in order to be healed, but He just healed one man and then walked away? Why?
Why did God let what happened to Job?
Why did Joseph suffer with all sorts of troubles after that God had just promised him that people would bow down to him, but then he was rejected by his brothers, and then he had to do time in jail for something he was falsely accused of, and everything had looked like it had gone wrong?
**Why did Ruth’s first husband die and leave her a pauper?
**Why did God allow Jesus to be crucified and suffer and die – Why, why, why??
You can apply all of this to your own life also. Why did all these bad things and struggles happen in my life??
***The reason to all of these things is because the scriptures have to be fulfilled in your life, and that is a far more powerful and of a greater purpose than our happy and safe lives that we are trying so hard to create for ourselves.
***And this is why that at certain times of your life, God lets you suffer and go through unpleasant things – because there are also scriptures concerning your life that have to be fulfilled and that your character can be developed.
SPIRITUAL.FOOD.IN.DUE.SEASON_ JEFF.IN V-8 N-7 SUNDAY_ 65-0718E
19 … But the dignitaries, the high-ups, under Constantine, and so forth, stilled their voice (It looked like the enemy was winning). Because those, being prophets, knowed that the corn of wheat of the Church Bride had to fall in the ground, the same as a corn of wheat in the Bridegroom had to fall in the ground. And there it laid for a thousand years.
20 That's why they write in the books today, "Where is that silent God that could stand and look, see little children murdered, and women tore to pieces by lions, and sit in the skies and say nothing about it?" They don't know the Word. That corn of wheat's got to fall in the earth. How could a righteous God stand and look at His Own Son die and be spit on, and so forth? But it's according to the Word, it has to be. And that's the way it is even to this hour.
All through the church ages, it often looked like defeat, but each age fulfilled the prophecy for their age, yet at the time they were totally unconscious of it because it looked so wrong. And their lives were full of unanswered questions.
Ruth was also unconscious of what her life was all about, and no doubt that she was full of questions that she had no answers for – not until the very end.
II CORINTHIANS 4:17
17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
I PETER 1:3-6
3 ¶ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,
5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
6 ¶ Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:
The greatest battle that we will ever fight in this life is the battle that takes place in the human mind.
It’s the old age human battle that has been raging ever since man’s fall in Eden, and it’s the battle between faith and doubt in the word of God.
To put this into plain English – The battle in our mind, if we could simply paraphrase it would be “should we put our trust in the promises of God’s word and leadership for our lives, or should we put our trust in our own leadership by the understanding of our personal level of human reasoning?
**But because we are of Abraham’s faith seed, then we are to enter into a higher realm of reasoning – and that is the reasoning in that Abraham knew that no matter what happened, that God was able to keep his promise regardless of how bad things looked in the natural world of everyday life, and even after it was literally humanly impossible to the point that it had even looked to many like God had failed, Abraham still believed in the promise of God concerning his life.
How could they have a baby together when they long past the age of being humanly able to have a baby, and on top of that, they had even ceased from having family relations – you talk about a double impossibility, it looked so imposisble.
HEBREWS 11:11-13
11 Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. (To everyone around them, they were totally convinced that God had failed to keep His promise to Abraham and Sarah.
Sara was so far past the time of child bearing that it was humanly impossible for her to conceive to the point of where even her human reasoning would have been telling her subconscious realm to doubt the promise of God.
***But then there was a higher thinking of reasoning that kicked in, in that she judged the one who had made the promise faithful in that she believed that He would be able to keep His promise even after it had looked like it had failed.
12 Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.
13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.