September 16th.

So the LORD said, "I will remove Judah also from my presence as I removed Israel, and I will reject Jerusalem, the city I chose, and this temple, about which I said, 'There shall my Name be.' "

There seems to be a conflict in the word that God spoke to His prophets, saying that He would never abandon Israel, Jerusalem or the temple some times, and then as per the above verse at others. It's cleared up when we understand that the true Israel, Jerusalem and the temple was yet to come. In the OT period, before the true high priest came, God's word (His intention to have His family with Him where He is) lived sparingly in the bodies of His holy men. He put His word in their mouth, and the faithfulness that was in their heart drove them to speak the word they heard that they knew was true. The perfect had not yet come, instead they all as one body and mind—driven by the same intention—kept pointing to that which was coming.

Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple.

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

For in Scripture it says: "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame." Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, "The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone, " and, "A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall." They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Paul and Peter both understood something about the temple that was totally supernatural, and they considered themselves to be right in the middle of it. The apostles understood that they were living in a time that was predicted by God's holy men from the OT period. It was a supernatural period of time that was predicted for Israel, brought about by the Messiah, the son of David and king who would fulfill many prophesies. The humans assumed he would be another period of human reign, similar to the Davidic kingdom when Israel would be made great again amongst the kingdoms of humans who filled the earth. The writer of Hebrews talked about his understanding of what the words, stories of the OT accounts were for:

They (priests) serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: "See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain." But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises.

For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. But God found fault with the people and said:

"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
when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt,
because they did not remain faithful to my covenant,
and I turned away from them, declares the Lord.

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

No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, `Know the Lord,'
because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.

For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."

The Holy Spirit was showing by this that the way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been disclosed as long as the first tabernacle was still standing. This is an illustration for the present time, indicating that the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper. They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings--external regulations applying until the time of the new order.

When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence.

They were a copy of the better things to come, and were preserved for the sake of those who were living in Paul's time, who were being built into this spiritual house. The coming of John and Jesus were anticipated because God spoke it before it happened, and they brought this incredible time with them, when the Son would make it possible for the Father to live in the hearts of His sons, His chosen people, His royal priesthood—the culmination and ultimate desire of God, that which everything in the OT pointed at.

Son of man, you are living among a rebellious people. They have eyes to see but do not see and ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious people.

When he said this, he called out, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." His disciples asked him what this parable meant. He said, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, 'though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.' "

However, even the events that happened amongst the humans in the years immediately following the time when the Son went to the Father were also just a pointing at something better, the fulfillment of which couldn't happen on the earth because the earth and everything in it is temporary. We know that's true because the truth that these few humans who lived in this time of the pouring out of God's spirit upon them as per Joel knew—that they were being called to be sons of God while others weren't for whatever reason God had—went away from the earth ruled by the humans.

We know this is true because we can look around and notice that there isn't any truth in the world of the humans. None of them know the living God. Those who claim to know believe the lies that were made up by other humans, which were allowed to propagate and replace what was true in the first century. And the rest don't care, they are just living their lives as any animal would—to and for their own selves without any desire to find the hidden God. It is the way it is because it's the way the Father has wanted it to be.

This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God.
My mother and brothers are those who hear God's word and put it into practice.

Jesus understood the words that were put in the mouths of God's prophets, which also applied to him because the living word, the intention of the Father who in spirit form lived in the Son's heart to teach him about him and the humans, to show him whom God had chosen and not chosen to be able to have these special eyes and ears which could see and hear what the others couldn't.

When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his robes. He gave these orders to Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Acbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the secretary and Asaiah the king's attendant: "Go and inquire of the LORD for me and for the people and for all Judah about what is written in this book that has been found. Great is the LORD's anger that burns against us because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written there concerning us."

This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says concerning the words you heard: "Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before the LORD when you heard what I have spoken against this place and its people, that they would become accursed and laid waste, and because you tore your robes and wept in my presence, I have heard you," declares the LORD.

It's important then to understand what the "word of God" is. It couldn't mean the printed words that are bound up and called the Bible, because when Jesus spoke about the word it didn't exist. Some of the book of the law was preserved, but not many possessed it to be able to read it, nor were many literate. The ideas about what the words pointed to, sometimes the very words in conjunction with those ideas. They were held together, though by another word, the living word, that which enlightened God's holy men and taught them the truth about Him, even when nobody else knew it.

That living word, the "Word of God," is His intention from the beginning to have His own family with Him where He is, in the world where He exists and lives, even right now. The humans can't know about that world or even about His existence because they are flesh and blood and He is spirit—so far removed from and above them that they are totally and effectively separated from the knowledge of God. Look around, nobody cares or even knows how to care about searching for the living God because that isn't in them. That desire left the earth so long ago. Those who say they do think they have found Him and are satisfied with the pile of crap they call their service to the lifeless gods that were made up by the humans who don't save anyone because they aren't real.

That's what lived in the self-appointed leaders of God's people, who hated and despised the real Jesus because he was driven by the intention of God to have His family with Him where He is (the word of God that lived in Jesus' body). Along with teaching him the truth, it also was the power that performed the miracles he did, because it was not a natural power, but spiritual, supernatural. It wasn't something that could be bought or controlled, which is the overriding assumption of the humans who constituted the whore of babylon and every other religion since, which calls itself "christian," which are all based on the same lies the whore cemented into her creeds and doctrinal laws of what lies the humans must adhere to in order to be ushered into their made up heaven where they, not accidentally, assume will be great, just as they are great here amongst their ranks of obedient humans, reaping whatever they can from them financially, emotionally and egotistically while posing as the little demigods who keep the people safe from their made up devil god. All the while they are unaware that the real devil lives in them to make them what they are—animals with the wild animal nature, not inherently good but evil because they're separated from the only good thing that is.

"Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good—except God alone.

Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.

That was the power that was inside him, the life of the Father who put His word in the mouth of John, as per the way He did it with all of His holy men before John. The way God lived in Jesus was different than John, and the six months between their conceptions was sort of a bridge between the old and the new. Jesus was the first of his kind, the first human to ever be clean enough to be inhabited by God. Because he remained clean and allowed God to offer his body as the perfect sacrifice that could make all of His sons clean, He subsequently inhabited the bodies and more specifically the hearts of some other humans, as He did in Jesus, directly after the Son went to become one with the Father. In fact, that act of becoming one with the Father was what allowed them to live inside those humans.

If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

The first century was the culmination and reality of so much that had been anticipated, but it wasn't the most important thing because it was allowed to go away since it was still just pointing at the better thing—the Father's intention to have His own family with Him where He is.

No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away.

The Son was talking here about the time just after he went to the Father, when he would come back to live in them, as the Father had been living in him. He hadn't "come back" yet, as he had been promising he would be coming back to claim them, to inhabit them so they would not be left as orphans on the earth without him.

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.

The purpose of God in that time would be to choose one of the humans, while He passed over another, meaning it was not a random deal that was happening. To say this is some kind of rapture speak is to not understand he was talking about the first century, when this in fact did happen. Some were "taken," meaning inhabited by the spirit, caught up in its outpouring and separated into the group to whom it was happening, while others just went about their lives like business as usual.

Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

They to whom it wasn't happening looked upon those to whom it was with scorn and contempt, assuming they had lost their minds because it wasn't an apparent reality to them. What was the apparent reality were all those like themselves to whom it didn't happen, the reality they could observe and control, because to them it was the only thing that was "real."

If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.

What's another important deal for us living in this time is the abomination that caused the reversal and therefore the desolation of that phenomenon of the spiritual (hidden life of God—the way He deals with those who are flesh and blood) invading the earthly (the human, flesh and blood existence), because it's the reason why the earth is now devoid of that truth and power, which existed for a short while but then faded out, as predicted. The letters of those in the first century who were living in that time of the outpouring of the spirit are a testimony to it actually happening in that time. However, even within those same letter are some references to how it wouldn't last, how it would be threatened, how it might even go away because of what was coming.

First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, "Where is this `coming' he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation."

For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.

Following the Lord means losing our human life and nature. It's not something bad, that we lose, as much as it's more something that we gain—what those first century sons of God had. It means not participating in what the world, filled with and ruled by humans, participates in. It means being set apart from the humans in that regard; sanctified to the Lord as his faithful wife and servant who doesn't love the things of the world as everyone else does. It may take us a while to be mature enough to realize it for our own lives, but true nonetheless.

There is always a "getting the hearers ready" period. So it goes with those who will follow the Lord, who become sons in the present age. They have to be nurtured so they grow roots which enable them to follow, to persevere and produce a crop. They have to be taught by the living word who lives in their heart, not to allow that word in them to be choked by worrying about life's "necessities." They have to unlearn the ways of man, and learn the new way—not to love the things of the world but to see them as things that can turn our hearts away from the Lord. And our love for him (which also is a thing that has to grow in us) makes us want to not cling to the things that the world runs after. It's not something we can hold on to or accelerate; it's a totally supernatural thing that the humans don't, can't know about unless they've been given those eyes to see and ears to hear.

What are those things? Look around and see what the world does, contemplate the system of the humans and what they love and run after. "How can we survive if we don't work," will be one of the first objections. With God all things are possible, with man all things are limited to the natural, even our understanding of God. But see, God is not limited to the natural, or bound by anything natural like time or causation. He sets things up ahead of time so that we don't even perceive that they are out of the ordinary. They just seem to be what has happened, and they are, but they will have been manipulated by the Lord or his messengers for His purpose, so that he can take care of us in ways that we couldn't even comprehend existed in our limited minds.

Faith is believing in the unseen things of God when He has first revealed them to us. Choosing Him when it's going to cost us to do so is what He loves, because it's a sign that we believe, not just with our words but by actually doing something. Faith is a currency in God's culture. It is our "treasure in heaven," our spiritual treasure. It is what God loves, and what pleases Him. Our rules and rituals cannot please God. He desires and deserves more than that from the one who would seek to have a pure and acceptable, clean heart before Him.

What is the gift of life worth? For the gift that God gives to His sons we should expect nothing more than enough food and clothing in this life because our human existence doesn't mean anything. Can we imagine being satisfied with that? These are the words of the Lord, who says that we can be content with this much when we have a taste of the better thing, what truly and actually satisfies us. We don't have the capacity to understand what being content even feels like or how it looks, and definitely how it comes about. It was definitely the understanding of Paul, who sang while he was in prison because he was happy and satisfied with the life he had been given.

We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

This attitude can only come to those to whom the taste of that life has first been given. That is real life, spiritual life, eternal life; the life of the seed of the spirit being put in a man so that he is moved from the kingdom of the natural to the kingdom of the spirit. Without this power, a man can only conceptualize about what the things of God are like, because the spirit, the living word which is active and alive, brings the power of the gift of wisdom and understanding about spiritual things (NOT referencing the christian, "holy spirit" god, which is made up). Without it we are relegated to the  natural, which cannot break out of the bubble of death that surrounds all men.