September 4th.

You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.

He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant of the spirit; for the spirit gives life.

"The time is coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers.

"This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel
after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts. I will be their God,
and they will be my people."

Paul knows that the covenant promised in Jeremiah is being fulfilled in and around him, in the bodies of those who were being inhabited by the spirit, which was the mechanism of this promised new covenant. The great and dreadful day of the Lord was fulfilled because Jesus' heart was turned toward his Father, and the Father's heart was turned toward His Son. Paul speaks as one who understands that what he knows is as though a veil had been lifted, which prevented him from seeing before when the veil was in place, how Jesus fulfilled so many words and promises in the scriptures that Paul had diligent studied all his life before his conversion.

Paul's previous life was merely another piece of the cursed creation, that of a mere animal who was destined to die like all animals if not for the grace extended to him, having specifically been chosen to have the true things secretly revealed to him. That was the case for the other sons of God being born all around him in the first century, whom he calls his true brothers in the same manner that the firstborn Son regarded those men chosen by the Father as his true family while he disregarded his flesh and blood family.

May those who hope in you not be disgraced because of me,
O Lord, the LORD Almighty; may those who seek you
not be put to shame because of me, O God of Israel.

For I endure scorn for your sake, and shame covers my face.
I am a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my own mother's sons;
for zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who insult you fall on me.

This is not an academic exercise; the teacher enlightens the darkness of a man's heart so that he can see what before he was blind to, as all the humans are and remain in their natural state. It's not a thing that doesn't totally affect every one of them; they deny it because they can't see it, just as we were 100% blind to it before the Father's true reality was *specifically* revealed to us. That has been a living revelation that has been growing, like things naturally grow in this creation—slowly, methodically, orderly, and with a purpose. It isn't primarily for our sake, but for the sake of the Father whose intention has brought it about in us, that we might know the truth and be able to choose it, or else shrink back into our old way of life because of our fear, where we find our own comfort by the power of our own hand to set up for ourselves what we know has worked, that which has achieved a certain level of safety for us. However, we must remember that even though that life may look appealing at times, that was the life we lived when there was a veil over our eyes that prevented us from seeing what has been revealed, so if we shrink back and choose that way, that life, we are in danger of the revelation being taken away. And why shouldn't we expect that, if we reject what the Father is offering us and instead choose our selves and the life we want to live (even though it's only gonna last another 40 years)?

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

If anyone should have been able to recognize the references to the Son in the OT it should have been Paul, because of his thorough knowledge of the scriptures, studying at the feet of Gamaliel. But he did not see these things until the spirit came to him and lifted that veil of ignorance. He does not express his discovery by some natural, epiphanic shift in his thinking or a mental breakthrough. He attributes it completely to the spirit, who before did not live in him and now did.

I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day.

Before his conversion he had no idea that the references to the Son of God, the coming Messiah, the great prophet applied to Jesus—to him and his colleagues that was an absurd notion because of how Jesus appeared as nothing in the natural (how the Father kept him hidden and secret from the humans at large). Paul had to be particularly enlightened by the spiritual force which was the unseen life of God in order to be able to see what was hidden. If that didn't happen, he would have just continued along the way he was going as a wealthy, respected Jew who despised the Jesus he later learned to become a servant to, giving up all that he had and could have had as a wealthy, respected Jew at the top of the society of the humans in which he lived.

After he had been enlightened by the power of the spirit he sees that the references to, prophesies about, and promises of fulfillment in Jesus as God's Messiah are everywhere. However, they couldn't be recognized, because that was how God wanted His truth to be—hidden to the humans, and revealed only to those He chose, and when He wanted to reveal them. Now Paul could see what he never saw before, and he realizes what the Jews who were still studying the law could not see. The veil which was once over his eyes is still over their eyes, and what is obvious and clear to him totally escapes them because they weren't chosen to become a part of the true family, the true brotherhood, the true chosen people that the nation of Israel only pointed at—but were destined to just remain an integral part of the old creation that gets plowed back into the earth while another takes its place.

Their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

From Genesis to Malachi, God continually promises this greater covenant through the mouths of His prophets, the new and lasting way which is the fulfillment of all that has been written down and preserved. The great Prophet predicted by Moses—God's Messiah—was coming, whose heart would be turned toward the Father, and the Father's heart would be turned toward the Son. He would conquer death and also, because of that, turn the hearts of the chosen sons—true Israel—away from the serpent, (the animal) and toward their Father, and His heart toward them. Otherwise, the curse that brought the original desolation would just remain, as per the last words of Malachi.

This had to create a dilemma for Paul shortly after his conversion, who has it more figured out now that he is further along in the new way, on the straight path that leads to the Father. He must have wondered why the veil was lifted for him and not for the bulk of the Jews who still held fast to the Judaism they were convinced was going to save them. He was shown that natural Israel was only a copy of true Israel, the long awaited sons of God, the true temple in whom God would live in their hearts, and the true ark of the new covenant was the heart of God living in the midst of His sons.

It was obviously a powerful force within him that could effect this transformation from someone highly valuable and respected to one highly pitied and scorned. His desire to give up everything he had and could have had to labor and live for the people he formerly despised—to have nothing yet feel that having nothing was actually having everything. To choose a life of being tortured and abused, imprisoned for the sake of this Jesus was not something that normal, rational men do on their own. They had to be driven by another force, an unexplainable yet powerful thing he claimed lived within him to do what he did; or else he was as many saw him, which was the only explanation for such an irrational thing—out of his mind.

He recognized that there was some extraordinary supernatural force living in him, and that was what allowed him to see the many OT references of fulfillment in Jesus. No amount of study could allow him to see what he now saw. Instead it was purely the work of the spirit, which was the same Jesus in his transformed state, and the Father, because they had been made One. Paul recognized the coming of the new covenant, because he was chosen to be an integral part of it, as the disciples had been.

Blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.

Jeremiah, Isaiah, Moses, Ezekiel and all the prophets of God spoke about the coming One and the future covenant the sons would have with their true Father, because God specifically put that information into them. These are the ones who heard the words and promises from the mouth of God, the spirit of God on them, directing and guiding them, but they didn't see the fulfillment of it. Paul lived the fulfillment, and knew that he was a brother to these men not by any other connection than the spirit living in him, having been chosen to have the veil lifted from his spiritual eyes to see another way beside the way of the animal doomed to destruction. That is the way of all the humans who are not chosen, destined to merely be forgotten in the ground.

In the same way the spirit also allows us to recognize Paul as our brother, and Jesus as our Master. We can also read the OT and see him as the fulfillment of the promises made throughout, just as Paul did—the giver of life and the author of the new covenant, which was the vehicle of salvation for those who were under it. The sons can read the preserved words—of Jesus the great Prophet and all of God's holy prophets—and understand them in a supernatural way because of the great prophet who lives in their bodies, heretofore unavailable to them just before they were given the promise and seal of life.

The sons of God can read the apostles' writings, the words destined to be understood by the 1st century believers, and understand the power that was working in them, because it is also at work in their bodies. But it isn't in line with the humans around them, or those who go to church or anyone who claims to know the way to God because that way is hidden and not generally revealed—the way of the Father is not for public consumption, which goes against what the humans think and say. The son have a fellowship with the other chosen sons not by stagnant, printed words but because of the living word who links them up with them in a real, yet unseen way. It is a condition of their heart, as it was for them, the place where the only true God of the only true Israel lives in the true ark of the true and lasting covenant, in the true temple—the hearts within the bodies of His sons.

The sons become enlightened in this supernatural way to the mysteries of God, the same as Paul and the other first century believers were. They begin to actually feel themselves being changed from that base animal to brother of those recipients of the new covenant—the servant of a new Master and son of a new Father. The spirit lifts the veil which was once upon their eyes, which is upon the eyes of all animals. They see dimly when they are young, but their hope and purpose is for bodies with hearts that are not ruled by the animal, but the new way of love and peace with the Father, and true brotherhood with those who are also born of God. Yet their way and the process they embark upon remains hidden to the humans at large, because that's the way the Father wants it to be.

Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire," says the LORD Almighty. "Not a root or a branch will be left to them. But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall. Then you will trample down the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I do these things," says the LORD Almighty.

Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel.

See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse.

While I was sleeping I heard the words: "The Lord will touch Israel and she will be restored." Just as natural Israel was restored and the land was made ready for the coming of the true and lasting covenant, about which Paul considered himself a minister, so also true Israel, she which existed for a short period of time in the first century, will be restored as part of the plan of God to have a big swell at the beginning, directly after Jesus ascended, and then at the end, when he comes to claim his true bride. In the middle will be the period of desolation and darkness when the beast, also known as the serpent—that ancient one called the devil—will rule with the false bride, the whore known as mystery Babylon who gave birth to many daughters who were also prostitutes as she was, but who also claimed to be the Lord's true bride.

The end of Malachi is about the beginning of the present creation, marked not by blessing but by curses, as per Genesis 3. The heart of the children turned toward the Father, and the Father's heart toward the sons is what was intended with the first humans, but the opposite happened and God turned His heart not toward but away from the humans as He bound them together with the thing they trusted more than Him—the serpent, the craftiest of all the animals. According to Malachi, unless the heart of the Son is turned toward the Father, and His heart turned toward the Son; meaning the Son would do the Father's will and not his own—what all the humans are cursed to do because of that being bound up with the animal nature—then what was promised by God's holy prophets, the long awaited new covenant predicted by Jeremiah in chapter 31 would never happen and the earth would just remain cursed as per the original curses in Gen 3 i.e., the new covenant would not be given.

The LORD said, "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by." Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.

Malachi's Elijah was not one person, but the condition that made the new covenant what it was, hidden and secret to the observations and expectations of the humans—not what they were expecting. Just as Elijah may have expected God to be in the wind, earthquake or fire, but He was actually in the thing he didn't expect, that which was the barely noticeable whisper, like the slightest wind blowing across his face.

The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.

I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, "Surely he was the Son of God!"

Malachi's Elijah was him who would prepare the way for the One who would bring the new covenant, that which existed in the first century as the real Israel. Not a group of humans but God's true sons.

I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the very work that the Father has given me to finish, and which I am doing, testifies that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent.

John spoke about a reality that none of the humans could see, that Jesus was the One they all waited for and expected, but they couldn't notice him because he was hidden by God.

You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

They studied and thought they knew what the Messiah would look like, but they were mistaken, as per the Elijah account with the gentle whisper. Everything that God intended, that which the prophets predicted, all happened right in front of their eyes, and by their own hands they accomplished what God desired to have happen within the natural creation. The new covenant came and existed on the earth, in the bodies and hearts of some believers, then it went away.

The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned!
Because of this our hearts are faint, because of these things our eyes grow dim
for Mount Zion, which lies desolate, with jackals prowling over it.
You, O LORD, reign forever; your throne endures from generation to generation.
Why do you always forget us? Why do you forsake us so long?
Restore us to yourself, O LORD, that we may return; renew our days as of old
unless you have utterly rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure.

His armed forces will rise up to desecrate the temple fortress and will abolish the daily sacrifice. Then they will set up the abomination that causes desolation. With flattery he will corrupt those who have violated the covenant, but the people who know their God will firmly resist him.

Those who are wise will instruct many, though for a time they will fall by the sword or be burned or captured or plundered. When they fall, they will receive a little help, and many who are not sincere will join them. Some of the wise will stumble, so that they may be refined, purified and made spotless until the time of the end, for it will still come at the appointed time.

It was truly an abomination to take what had been promised for so long—the new covenant, the life of God living in the true temple (the hearts of His sons)—and replace that with the animal nature, which is the will and desire of the humans, what they want for themselves—power, respect, honor, ego, positions, identities, validation, wealth, etc., which is what the new covenant became when the predictions of Daniel and Jesus came true in the earth.

God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

Then there was a darkness where there once was, for a short time, light shining in the hearts of the sons, which gave them life. The condition that existed for a short while became darkness instead, as the animals took over what was once the blessed, long awaited condition of God living in the hearts of His sons, the kingdom where God ruled, into what they make it—a human institution ruled by humans, for their benefit and according to their will and purpose. The events of Revelation, of mystery Babylon, the woman, the serpent (beast), etc. is about this period of darkness when the animal nature ruled the hearts of the humans—the abominable condition predicted by Daniel and Jesus, and the truth of God was taken away—the period of desolation.

"The Lord will touch Israel and she will be restored." Those who were touched by Jesus were restored, even if only their physical body. If there's a desolation, then there must also be a restoration. Not of a group of humans who call themselves Israel, but the true Israel. A big swell at the end like there was at the beginning, with a long period of darkness and captivity in the middle (the present darkness).

"I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom." After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.

Why are Elijah and Moses both with Jesus at the transfiguration? God hid both of them inside a hole in the side of a rock, then revealed Himself to them. That's the nature of the kingdom, God revealing His true self to the humans of His choosing, those whom He desired to know Him, and whom He desired to know—to be familiar with, to be near, and to love and be loved back by—to become His own sons in His long-awaited family.