September 11th.

Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry. He was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph...

"So it was thought (enomizeto)," or "As was supposed," is an important phrase because it cuts to the heart of who this Jesus was. A human? Well, yes, he was formed in Mary's womb. But in the normal way every human is formed? Well, no, as is described in the previous chapters of Luke there was no coming together of Mary and Joseph to create a human in the normal way a human is created, which is the way all animals are created i.e., the humans are fundamentally the same as all animals which extends to more than just their individual physical origins.

Does the fact that a human male did not inseminate Mary prove that he must have been a god who came down from heaven and inserted himself into Mary's womb so he could grow up and look like one of the humans even though he always existed as a god? That is the lie of darkness that the entirety of the christian world has believed since the whore, mystery babylon gobbled up what the first century sons knew.

Do we say that he was fully human then, just like all of us who are fully human? No, because that's going too far the other way, trying to compensate for the lie of darkness that rules the world of humans in regards to the identity of the Son of God. The christians think they're doing their jesus god a favor by elevating him to the position of god from time past to time forward. What they actually do, though, is bring him down to the position of detestable fraud, and make the work he did for the Father into a mockery. If the family of God's fate rested upon the Son's obedience to the Father, then what is the big deal if a god obeyed another god, which means he obeyed his own twisted up requirement of providing salvation, because the christian jesus, spirit, and father gods are actually said to be the same god, with these three different personalities, or identities. So according to them it is the same god obeying himself, which is not only confusing but stupid. And there's an explanation why it's stupid and confusing, because the idea got hatched in the second, third and fourth centuries and had its origins in the popular Roman and Greek systems of mythology. Those systems of thought are what the truth of the new covenant was conformed to. That is what the entirety of the christian world is built upon—a system of thought that is rooted in mythological ideas of many gods which goes back to the beginning.

The Son's identity lies somewhere in between those two things, being fully a god and being fully a man. While being fully a god who made himself into a man makes what he did into a joke, being fully a man would mean then that he was unable to do that work because the only way he could have done the work would have been if he heard the voice of the Father, who spoke to him from the deep places in his heart because He inhabited the Son, as the words testify. However, this Jesus who was born of a woman, yet without the sperm of a human male, was the only human who could be inhabited by the Father (the only living God), only because he *wasn't* fully human. Being born into the curse that was laid upon the first humans is an across the board type of deal i.e., there are no exceptions made. The exception wasn't just made for Jesus because he was the Son of God, rather it was made for him because he was *the* Son of God, not fully human, and therefore not inhabited by the animal whose presence in him would have made him unclean, and therefore unable to be inhabited by the God who cannot be around anything unclean. That's what all the business with the Tabernacle and all the people and things that were used in and around it needing to be consecrated and made clean was all about—it isn't just arbitrary but it points to this identity of Jesus (and later to his brothers who were born of God because he opened the gate).

In the family of the sons of the living God, Jesus the firstborn Son who is the Cornerstone of the building where each son is one brick that together rises up to from God's house—the house where He wants to live in the middle of them all, right in the midst of all His sons—is like one abnormally born because he is different than all the rest. The difference is that he was the only human in whom the Father could fully live, precisely because he was different than all the rest of the sons.

Where it gets sticky is when we assume that he could only have been truly tempted in every way as we are if he was an animal, which is our condition. Just because he wasn't an animal like every other human (us in particular), doesn't mean that he wasn't tempted by the animal to follow it and do its will instead of the Father. The next chapter of Luke clearly says that he was, so there is no argument. However, to bring him down to the level of being the same as us means that he would have been just as powerless as we are to effect our salvation. No, he was infinitely more special and different than all of us—that is before we were born of God—which is a thing that will forever remain both a source of humility and respect for the Son, once we are able to comprehend the whole picture of what happened (not with these pitifully weak, ignorant and obtuse earthly minds). That is because he had to be, he must have been to be able to provide such a permanent salvation to those who indeed were/are destined to be just another piece of the natural creation, which effectively means not a member of the family of God.

There was only ever one Lamb of God. He was the one at whom all of the OT sons of God were waiting for, the one whom—as was put into their heart by God their true Father—would be powerful enough to break the curse of the animal so that they would/could be remembered by God to be raised up out of the ground they became one with, to forever just remain a captive there of this creation like everything else. They will be those with whom we will become one because they are our true brothers and sisters, in whom this hope of the true Israel was mysteriously put, what made them wait for the coming salvation they weren't even sure what it looked like. They just knew, and that knowledge turned into a devotion for the Father and His purpose to be accomplished, of which they were an integral part—each one fully a member of the true family, what Israel and even the first century church only ever pointed at, because being natural everything is inferior to that which fully exists and has its reality not in this world that we were fully a part of but in the world where the Father lives.

So back to the important opening phrase, that the humans supposed this Jesus was the human son of Joseph, just because he looked like an ordinary human like all the rest. However, in this human (only in him) the seed of life was planted, which was hidden and remained a secret to everyone but himself and John, who probably wasn't 100% sure about until the word of God came to him in the desert. The condition that is enduring is that he remained hidden and secret. This fact cannot be reviewed enough towards comprehension, because it goes against everything in the world, and also what's in us. The Father chose to hide the Son and his identity, so that he wasn't a part of the human life and process.

This becomes important for us, if we have been chosen to become sons of God. We are not as Jesus was in the world, who was insulated from the animal so that he wasn't polluted. We are fully polluted, fully dead to the Father which means separated from Him so that our birth to Him means we were taken out of the ground—where we would have gone to become and remain dead to Him because we were one with that which is temporary—and lifted up to His reality. Not becoming equal with Him or the firstborn Son, which is the sin of the first humans. We become subordinate sons to the Father, and brothers to the Father's firstborn Son. That means we aren't ever to receive the position he will forever be in because we were never so splendid and special, just as the Father intended him to forever be.

...the son of Perez, the son of Judah, the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham...

"Be still and know that I am God" Be still. Stop striving, because what God has intended to do He is accomplishing, so let God do what He wants to do. We know what He has put into us to make us know what we are, and just as this unknown man Jesus who seemed to be lost in the lineage of David, Noah and Abraham—just another Israelite—he wasn't lost or insignificant as the world of humans viewed him enough to only want to get rid of him because he was a threat to their precious way of life (he didn't become "famous" until he was elevated to godhood). He was always found because it was the Father's intention to bring him when the time was ready for him. Until that time the world just had to wait and watch for the one who was coming, and he came as intended by the Father. Despite how we think things should look or be, God will have His way with the situation around us, if we have been chosen to be redeemed from the earth, the present creation, from the pool of humanity. The sons of God will know they have been chosen to receive His mark on their forehead, which is their Father's name in place of their own. There won't be any guessing about that—what is uncertain is how we will choose to respond.

A mistake the sons make along the way is thinking that they know what God will do because of the presumption that they know how He will act (based on their own evil—instinctive survivalist human animal—presumptions), therefore what He will do, or how things must look to be right according to Him. But that's just another agreement they're looking for, as per how they used to comfort themselves when they were dead. Being humans pulled from the pool of humanity, they are trained to look and understand with the eyes and minds of humans, not sons. So things will look wrong to them, because they are still looking with the old eyes, because the transformation from human to son takes a long time. To the humans who aren't chosen, the sons of God will appear wrong and bad (because they are hidden, just as the firstborn Son was hidden and kept a secret). God will be pulling them away from what the humans love, which is themselves and the ways they have established to respect and cling to.

To the humans, the sons of God always look bad and wrong, because of the great ironic nature of their Father who *wants* them to appear that way, just because that's the way He wants it to be. The lineage of Jesus was marred by things that looked wrong, but it was preserved nonetheless. Tamar lied to Judah and disguised herself as a prostitute to get pregnant because Judah wouldn't be responsible to God, to give his last son, Shelah—whom he loved—for God's purpose. God filled her womb with twins-Perez and Zerah. Perez was in the royal line birthed out of so called "sin." God's foolishness is wiser than the wisdom of man. This is the short story of a link in Jesus' lineage that was almost broken because of man's "wisdom," yet was preserved by God's "foolishness."

At that time, Judah left his brothers and went down to stay with a man of Adullam named Hirah. There Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua. He married her and lay with her; she became pregnant and gave birth to a son, who was named Er. She conceived again and gave birth to a son and named him Onan. She gave birth to still another son and named him Shelah. It was at Kezib that she gave birth to him.

Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. But Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the LORD's sight; so the LORD put him to death.

Then Judah said to Onan, "Lie with your brother's wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to produce offspring for your brother." But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so whenever he lay with his brother's wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from producing offspring for his brother. What he did was wicked in the LORD's sight; so he put him to death also.

Judah then said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, "Live as a widow in your father's house until my son Shelah grows up." For he thought, "He may die too, just like his brothers." So Tamar went to live in her father's house.

After a long time Judah's wife, the daughter of Shua, died. When Judah had recovered from his grief, he went up to Timnah, to the men who were shearing his sheep, and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went with him.

When Tamar was told, "Your father-in-law is on his way to Timnah to shear his sheep," she took off her widow's clothes, covered herself with a veil to disguise herself, and then sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that, though Shelah had now grown up, she had not been given to him as his wife.

When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face. Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her by the roadside and said, "Come now, let me sleep with you." "And what will you give me to sleep with you?" she asked.

"I'll send you a young goat from my flock," he said. "Will you give me something as a pledge until you send it?" she asked.

He said, "What pledge should I give you?" "Your seal and its cord, and the staff in your hand," she answered. So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by him. After she left, she took off her veil and put on her widow's clothes again.

Meanwhile Judah sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite in order to get his pledge back from the woman, but he did not find her. He asked the men who lived there, "Where is the shrine prostitute who was beside the road at Enaim?" "There hasn't been any shrine prostitute here," they said.

So he went back to Judah and said, "I didn't find her. Besides, the men who lived there said, 'There hasn't been any shrine prostitute here.' "

Then Judah said, "Let her keep what she has, or we will become a laughingstock. After all, I did send her this young goat, but you didn't find her."

About three months later Judah was told, "Your daughter-in-law Tamar is guilty of prostitution, and as a result she is now pregnant." Judah said, "Bring her out and have her burned to death!"

As she was being brought out, she sent a message to her father-in-law. "I am pregnant by the man who owns these," she said. And she added, "See if you recognize whose seal and cord and staff these are."

Judah recognized them and said, "She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn't give her to my son Shelah." And he did not sleep with her again.

When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. As she was giving birth, one of them put out his hand; so the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it on his wrist and said, "This one came out first." But when he drew back his hand, his brother came out, and she said, "So this is how you have broken out!" And he was named Perez.

Jesus also appeared to the humans as something bad, something sinful, shameful and loathed. Because Mary got pregnant while she was betrothed to Joseph, before they were wed, Jesus appears to be a bastard son of an unfaithful, sinful woman. Jesus' birth was surrounded by all sort of dubious circumstance, as it appeared to the humans. We have to remember that God chose it to appear that way, that He purposely made His own Son appear to the humans as less than they all were—truly an unacceptable human, like a reject, a bastard child like garbage compared to their pedigree Israelite lineage. God made all these things appear like this, which is easily forgotten because of so many lies that the jesus god was revered and great and everyone loved him and the things he said, and how he appeared.

And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."

Jesus wasn't the son of Joseph, but of God who made Mary look like a sinner to the humans. God put her in an awkward, shameful position that way; something the humans who claim to follow God cannot understand because they always think God works for them and serves them—He keeps them respectful and honorable—instead of the other way around. When God comes to a human, He doesn't make them look good, but like garbage to the humans. He decides how things will go according to the way the one looks to those who aren't even important. But our vision is skewed by the old way, and we hang on to the lie that we must be honorable and respectable. We secretly loathe the thought of being anything less, while right in front of us are the preserved stories of the one who looked like garbage, less than an acceptable humans to the humans because of how God created the situation. The one He is coming to will want to keep everything intact the way they want to keep it, but that cannot be, because God doesn't serve them and their needs to maintain what they behold as sacred (their identity among the humans, which means nothing to God). His sons learn another way beside the one taught to them either purposefully or by osmosis, merely learning to be and adjust to being a human in a world ruled by the humans (the animal nature, the ruler of this world, the devil).

"What should we do then?" the crowd asked. John answered, "The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same."

The first thing that came from John when asked by the humans how they should act in order to be right with God was to not act like a human naturally wants to act because of the animal instincts that are naturally bred into them, as per the curse they are under. That is, go against your natural inclinations, for instance if you have 2 tunics and see someone with none, your natural inclination will be to keep the 2 for yourself because of the need to survive, not give it away. All other ramifications and considerations aside, the basic message that was in John and Jesus, when they spoke to the crowds, was "Don't be a human, because humans are inherently evil (something that is very hard to get), not good (why it's so hard to get, because we naturally think we're so good, not evil."

They always think they're good, precisely because they're evil, because of the nature that's naturally in them and which instinctually drives them all, like animals—which is what makes and keeps us in the orbit of being evil and not being able to do anything about it, because we don't think we have to since we think we're good. According to Jesus, it isn't the rich, the happy and the strong that are blessed by God, but the poor, the mourners, and the meek who have no human power i.e., the ones who are actually blessed according to God are the ones who appear to not be blessed according to the humans. Within the life of Jesus, God was turning the way of the humans on its head. That's how He does things, which is why what appears to be actually isn't.

The day is here! It has come! Doom has burst forth, the rod has budded, arrogance has blossomed! Violence has grown into a rod to punish wickedness; none of the people will be left, none of that crowd--no wealth, nothing of value. The time has come, the day has arrived. Let not the buyer rejoice nor the seller grieve, for wrath is upon the whole crowd. The seller will not recover the land he has sold as long as both of them live, for the vision concerning the whole crowd will not be reversed. Because of their sins, not one of them will preserve his life. Though they blow the trumpet and get everything ready, no one will go into battle, for my wrath is upon the whole crowd.

They will throw their silver into the streets, and their gold will be an unclean thing. Their silver and gold will not be able to save them in the day of the LORD's wrath.

I will turn my face away from them, and they will desecrate my treasured place; robbers will enter it and desecrate it.

Calamity upon calamity will come, and rumor upon rumor. They will try to get a vision from the prophet; the teaching of the law by the priest will be lost, as will the counsel of the elders. The king will mourn, the prince will be clothed with despair, and the hands of the people of the land will tremble. I will deal with them according to their conduct, and by their own standards I will judge them. Then they will know that I am the LORD.

He forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name.

This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man's number.

Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads.

No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they kept themselves pure. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes.

They were purchased from among men and offered as firstfruits to God and the Lamb. No lie was found in their mouths; they are blameless.

This world is ruled by the humans and they reinforce its way all the time in many ways. By direct propaganda or cultural osmosis, the humans learn how to become humans from other humans, who reinforce the instincts that are naturally in them, and continue to maintain that reinforcement by the way they live and act (like good humans should), and what they run after and love.

The Revelation account serves to set up the distinction between God's sons versus all the other humans. Man's number, his mark, is the mark of the beast, who is the serpent, the ruler of this world, the devil, satan, the flesh—the animal nature that wants to rule and lead him. It is whatever is flesh and blood, whatever is an integral part of this natural creation, and therefore opposite to what God is—spirit, removed from it and everything temporary. It's the humans that are naturally evil just because they are not like God. It isn't because they're "bad." That's one of the big lies, that which was given and is maintained by the humans by what's naturally inside them—that they're good and special, not like the bad people (no matter who or what they think they are). It is the deceitfulness built right into the animal nature that drives and leads them, and keeps them evil and separated from God.

God's sons are those who are being secretly redeemed from the pool of humanity which make up the other group. They are redeemed from the earth, the present natural, temporary, dying creation, which is itself evil because it's not where God lives, nor is it like Him. Whereas He and what is like Him is spirit, eternal; the natural creation is based on so many repeating cycles of death, and the humans are merely just another part of it, the same as all animals, plants, dirt and rocks are. There's nothing special to God about the humans; there is, however, about the sons who were once humans, but whom He has chosen to be redeemed from what is evil so they can be transformed into what is good.

They are the ones who are purchased from among men, pulled out from what is bad to be made into what is good. And what is good—that they themselves are good and special? That is human thinking, based on the instinctual drive to preserve one's own self, the thing that keeps all the humans in their orbit of evil by thinking there is something good about them, according to what is naturally inside them to make them think that. God is the only good thing. The sons must become useful and pleasing to their Father rather than what the humans naturally are—as useful as an ant, or rat, or plant, in that they are an integral part of the natural creation, and that's about it. The nature that drives and leads them makes them useless to God compared to those He has chosen to redeem from their midst.

The sons become useful because He changes the nature that they become bound up with when they pass over from child to adult, which is the transformation that all the humans go through. The sons have to make a reverse journey, transforming back to something similar to what they were in the very beginning. Not mature, independent, survivalists; but totally dependent, fragile and weak, possessing nothing but the blood that covers them when they came out of the womb—all things that the mature humans despise and loathe.

The fact that there may be an exact number of sons of God just means that He has chosen them all (His family is not random), to redeem them from among the humans, from the earth, the present creation. The 144,000 figure is either literal or figurative, either way designating an exact number of sons as compared to the rest of the humans who have the mark of the number of man on them. All the details are beyond figuring out to these lowly animal minds, and certainly not worth fighting about.

All this took place because the Israelites had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up out of Egypt from under the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshiped other gods and followed the practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before them, as well as the practices that the kings of Israel had introduced. The Israelites secretly did things against the LORD their God that were not right.

This is for the benefit of the sons, to warn them through Israel, the copy of them, about "following the practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before them." For the sons of God, that is running after the ways of the humans, and the instincts that are still bound to be naturally inside them, what defines them as mere animals according to God. The Israelites were a ragtag group of slaves who didn't have their own country who were, according to God's will and purpose for them (the copy for the real sons, the real people, family of God), supposed to be and remain a special group, a holy people unlike all the rest of the humans who were not chosen, not special to Him. They would only serve to lead His people away from Him if they wanted to mix with them. There couldn't be any mixing of the two, and if they tried the evil would overcome the good, which is always, ultimately the case with them. The way to remain faithful and loyal to God was to not mix with them, or be exposed to these un chosen, unclean people.

Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people."

"Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord.
Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you."

"I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters,
says the Lord Almighty."

Paul understood that the OT scriptures were for the sons' benefit, that the accounts served them as copies for the spiritual reality, of which he knew he and the other believers in the first century were part. That is the other creation, the world where God is ruler and king, where there is no death, the new creation. Paul knew that he was an actual son of God in this other creation, and he lived to exhort the others whom he also assumed were being pulled from the pool of humanity to become sons of God, separated from the humans to Him.

If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: `No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.

The mistakes that the copy of God's people continually made is a warning to the true people of God, to not go that way because it is a real threat for them, and a real warning comes because there is a real power that continually tries to lead the sons away from their Father. As it tried to lead Jesus away, so it tries to lead all the sons away, for no servant is greater than his master. As does the father, so does the son.

They would not listen and were as stiff-necked as their fathers, who did not trust in the LORD their God. They rejected his decrees and the covenant he had made with their fathers and the warnings he had given them. They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless. They imitated the nations around them although the LORD had ordered them, "Do not do as they do," and they did the things the LORD had forbidden them to do.

They forsook all the commands of the LORD their God and made for themselves two idols cast in the shape of calves, and an Asherah pole. They bowed down to all the starry hosts, and they worshiped Baal. They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire. They practiced divination and sorcery and sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of the LORD, provoking him to anger.

Then the king of Assyria gave this order: "Have one of the priests you took captive from Samaria go back to live there and teach the people what the god of the land requires." So one of the priests who had been exiled from Samaria came to live in Bethel and taught them how to worship the LORD.

Nevertheless, each national group made its own gods in the several towns where they settled, and set them up in the shrines the people of Samaria had made at the high places. The men from Babylon made Succoth Benoth, the men from Cuthah made Nergal, and the men from Hamath made Ashima; the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire as sacrifices to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.

They worshiped the LORD, but they also appointed all sorts of their own people to officiate for them as priests in the shrines at the high places. They worshiped the LORD, but they also served their own gods in accordance with the customs of the nations from which they had been brought.

Even while these people were worshiping the LORD, they were serving their idols.

Peter cut off the ear of Malchus and assumed that doing something to stop what was happening was right, a thing that God approved of, because of what was naturally, instinctually in him. Peter was still thoroughly human. Though he was clean because of the word that Jesus spoke to him for 3 years (that God was Peter's true Father and He intended to remember Peter, like He would soon remember Jesus to not let him become one with the creation), nevertheless he could only act by what instinctually drove him, the animal nature which wants to defend what it thinks is right and good—in this case it was Jesus' life and the good cause Peter assumed should be happening, though thoroughly a human one which meant nothing to God. That Israel should be a great nation was a very highly respected attitude amongst the humans who called themselves descendants of Abraham.

John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, `We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire."

Instead of being still and letting the Lord do what He needed to do, that which was difficult enough without Peter tempting him to go the way of the humans (greatness, respect, strength, validation) instead of the way God wanted him to go (shame, humiliation, weakness, mourning and sorrow), Peter was striving with God's will by superimposing his sense of rightness and his sense of what looked to be so wrong to him by trying to take charge and change things that God had already purposed. He had no ability to be still and allow Jesus to be taken—nor to identify with him in his shame—because he did not recognize God was in control, because he hadn't been transformed yet into one who could recognize that because of the new life that was in him.

Like the Romans thing (ch. 14) about not using our personal judgment either for the good or bad toward the Lord's purpose in us, we don't know what God is doing with us for our good, no matter how "bad" it looks to us and to others, as in Peter's case. They were coming to kill Jesus and Peter was going to lose everything he was hoping would rescue him. It looked very bad—like the loss of all hope. He tried to defend himself and Jesus against the will of God—to make things "right" by man's standard. How wrong he was in working against the supreme purpose of God.

So it is with us. The spirit is in us and all around us. He has given us a continual stream of spiritual hard evidence that we are chosen and special, different than the humans all around us. We don't ever know exactly what is happening, nor where it is we are going for sure; because we're still so much more animal than son that we'd use what we knew for evil purposes if we knew it. We wouldn't be able to help it because we're so gullible, naive and mistaken about what's going on (even though we think we're so smart and in control of everything—which is the deception of the serpent to keep us serving ourselves—it).

Like Peter, we struggle and exert our will for what we think, based on what's wrong, is right. We cannot be still and let Him compel us and constrain us for His good will and purpose, because we're still too evil, still too driven and led by the serpent instead of the Lord, still too vulnerable to its deceptions because we haven't been transformed yet, only chosen. After that comes the journey, which is never over; we just keep walking. We are not completely or immediately transformed, and then we're all good and safe.

That is human thinking, what we're always vulnerable to until we know a little more and transformed a little more. But we never fully know like humans know and therefore have a grasp on things, something they can hold on to and therefore control. Rather, we are continually becoming more like newborn babies who have no control at all, but are totally at the mercy of others or they die in minutes. We have no way of controlling, manipulating or hanging onto what we have or are, by the ways we used to do these things. That's human thinking, and we cannot mix what we knew before, what we're continually being drawn back to, with the new way that we're learning from the living word who is teaching us the new way, how to be good sons. The only thing the humans can teach us is how to be good humans, which are naturally bad sons because they are ignorant of how to please their Father, while thinking they actually are, caught up in the lie of the human because of that influence.

He will have His way despite our feeble attempts at manipulation and control. The spirit's scope is much greater than anything we could work, yet we always feel the need to make sure we know things are going okay—to control the situation. He is greater than our greatest weakness. So much greater than any work our flesh could purpose. That's what His death did for those to whom the Lord has given his life—not everyone but only the sons who are chosen but God to be redeemed and transformed. Whoever else is given life will be because of their judgment, as they take over the work of their Father, and can because they increasingly have His nature and ability to judge, as pleases Him, not themselves, for their own benefit.

I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.

Some situations where God used man's deception, greed and foolishness to further His purpose and make things right:

Rebekah deceiving Isaac over Jacob's blessing. God used this lie and prevailed to bring about the 12 tribes of Israel—the very type Jesus used with His disciples to represent the sons of God.

Sarah laughing when an angel told her at 90 she was going to have a baby and then lying about it. What did God call the baby to remind Sarah that His will was done? Isaac means ironically "He who laughs" God had the last laugh.

David thinking he could lie to God and hide from Him in committing adultery, that God couldn't see his sin somehow. But in God's mercy He used that very sin and that very woman to bring forth His own "child of sin" Messiah, the one to save them from those very lies and deceptions.

As already stated, Tamar lied to Judah and disguised herself as a prostitute to get pregnant because Judah wouldn't be responsible to God, to give his last son, Shelah—who he loved—for God's purpose. God filled her womb with twins-Perez and Zerah. Perez was of course in the royal line birthed out of so called "sin."

Jonah tried to deceive God and run away and hide from his Godly responsibility towards the people of Nineveh, as Moses the murderer did also. Jonah was swallowed up (a type of What the Lord does with our sin) by a fish and God's purpose was done despite Jonah's failings.

Jesus himself was called a greater Moses, that's how great God esteemed His servant Moses. Despite all his sin God loved him more than his failings, weakness and deceptions.

Those who have God's spirit in them belong to God. God doesn't care about any man's judgment either for the good or the bad toward them. They are controlled and owned by Him, Period. Nothing in the flesh can touch them or tear them away from His purpose for them. He is THE TRUTH, working His purpose in them.

I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.