September 29th.

Then the spirit came upon Amasai, chief of the Thirty, and he said: "We are yours, O David! We are with you, O son of Jesse! Success, success to you, and success to those who help you, for your God will help you."

God loved David and wanted him to feel supported and not alone in his dilemma, which was immediately realized by his feeling the overwhelming loyalty of these fighting men to David's side, accomplished by the spirit and how it gave Amasai this feeling of loyalty and faithfulness to David and his cause. David's dilemma was being brought about by God's hand on David versus the "evil spirit" He was also putting in Saul to cause David to have no other option except to cling to Him as his protector while he was all alone with Saul intending to kill him because of God's prompting. God wanted David to be and remain loyal to Him and His cause, by remaining loyal and faithful to the fact that only God could protect David against such a threat as Saul with the army of Israel trying to wipe David out (motivated by the evil spirit that God put into Saul). The men who joined up with David were made to feel for him as he was made to feel for God—loyal and faithful, as their leader, which was God's intention.

Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve. And Judas went to the chief priests and the officers of the temple guard and discussed with them how he might betray Jesus. They were delighted and agreed to give him money.

This is the opposite picture of what God wanted to accomplish with David and those who were being drawn to be loyal and faithful to him. Satan entering Judas is a picture of a subtle and common type of deal, not as the modern day thinking about satan goes. It is about the wild animal nature that is primarily concerned about physical and emotional (egotistical/mental) survival at its core, which drives everything else. What was Judas interested in, and what was he asked to do? Money is an obvious way to appease the wild animal fear of not being able to survive since it can be used to buy food, clothes and shelter. He got money for what he did by betraying Jesus and his cause instead of remaining loyal and faithful to him, while Jesus was remaining loyal to the Father, just as David with God and the fighting men with David. Judas also got another more subtle thing by which he could have easily justified himself, since he was a zealot and fiercely devoted to the Zionist cause of the resurgence of the Davidic kingdom, which is what he thought Jesus was going to join him in bringing about, like so many zealots in Israel. That was his cause, what he believed was the right thing, what justified his existence in his mind, which he thought he was doing God a favor by devoting his life to this, his cause.

Even though the other 11 disciples originally had the same thoughts about Jesus and applied their mistaken ideas about the kingdom onto him as that type of savior, their mistaken ideas and aspirations about the kingdom of God and what God wanted, instead of what they assumed He wanted, were eventually broken down. They were—after much trauma, grief, suffering and internal heartache—made to conform to another reality which was very difficult to accept about this one they were following who claimed to be the chosen One whom all Israel had for thousands of years been waiting for.

You are those who have stood by me in my trials. And I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Being made willing to conform is a description of the internal process that the sons of God must go through. It is being changed from a creature that can only truly—at its very core and foundation of what it is more than anything else—be driven to be concerned about its dilemma and take care of itself, to one which can become willing to be conformed to another reality than that which it is naturally willing to accept. There is no higher aspiration for a son than to become willing to conform to being loyal and faithful to the cause of God and His desire to have His family with Him where He is. That's all there is.

Who is my mother, and who are my brothers (my true family)?" Pointing to his disciples, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother."

Judas wouldn't become conformed to anything but this thing he was hanging onto and wouldn't let go of. The fact that he was described later as a thief reinforces his being driven by fear to help himself to what he thought could help his individual cause (sheer survival), while he disregarded the community of brothers, and the Father whose purpose (the work of the Son to save the family and give it to Him) he was being asked to be loyal and faithful to. Loyalty is the most important thing to God regarding Himself and those who are His. It is the meat of the two greatest commandments of the Law—to love, be loyal and faithful to the God who brought them out from their oppression so He could deliver them to a place where they could live together with Him in their midst, at peace with the living God. With the same kind of vigor He wanted them to be loyal and faithful to those who were their brothers, who were being brought out with them in this cooperative journey. To love them is to look out for their interests and take care of them as much as they looked out for their own, which is a radical departure from what the wild animal nature wants to continue to accomplish in us.

All these were fighting men who volunteered to serve in the ranks. They came to Hebron fully determined to make David king over all Israel. All the rest of the Israelites were also of one mind to make David king...there was joy in Israel.

There was a man whose heart was pointed toward God, who could be a true shepherd and a leader of God's people, who would have His needs and desires in mind instead of his own.

And the LORD your God said to you, "You will shepherd my people Israel, and you will become their ruler."

The kingdom of David was what all the jews thought was going to be renewed by the Messiah, and the disciples believed that Jesus was that one.

Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father, who is spirit.

Man is natural; God is the spirit. No man revealed that truth to Peter, but the living God who is the spirit revealed it to him. However, they didn't get it, because they were still so aware and in touch only with the natural reality, that even though God revealed that in a spiritual way to Peter, it couldn't stay with him. The natural was so much stronger in him than the spiritual, because the animal nature still lived in him, ruled him, led him, and the divine nature hadn't actually been established in Peter's body yet. What happened in Peter was like the word that was planted and was either snatched away or withered by the anxieties and worries of life.

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

These words were written about 34 years after the spirit had been living in Peter, when he was in cooperation with that divine nature, so he could write about it because he recognized the spiritual reality since he had already been thoroughly transformed from mere animal—what he was when he was with Jesus—to son of God who was familiar with the spiritual reality, who wasn't so thoroughly entrenched with the natural reality like the humans, being natural animals, naturally are.

Also a dispute arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest. Jesus said to them, "The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. But you are not to be like that.

Their reality was more about the natural order of things, so they beheld things as animals behold them, and value what the animals value like who would be the greatest, strongest and most powerful among them (the opposite of what Jesus was).

The greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves. You are those who have stood by me in my trials. And I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel."

There was no agreement in the natural with this promise of Jesus to the men who were being loyal to him, nothing they could hold on to or control in any way. They had to believe and wait, and continue to be faithful to Jesus, even though they got no agreement or validation via the natural, which was a period of serious suffering for them and the testing of their faith.

Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.

Jesus, in saying "When you have turned back" tells him flat out that he's going to fail. He will not be able to fight the power that makes him want to protect himself by abandoning his master. Strengthening his brothers was the way he would be able to use what would happen to him for the good of the community of the mere 10 other men who were driven to remain loyal to Jesus when he needed their loyalty the most.

Peter answered him, "We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?"

After having given up everything to follow Jesus, they should have expected something in exchange for their loyalty, but they were still thinking like animals. Looking back on and knowing what finally happened, it's not an easy thing to be able to empathize with the disciples' plight of anxiety and worry, the natural reaction to what was going on in and around them. They were given a supernatural ability to see what others could not see, and hear words that others couldn't hear, and in that sense the supernatural didn't agree with the natural, but overrode it. However, since they were natural creatures and not spiritual, they were still looking for agreement in the natural, proof and validation that they had done the right thing in abandoning everything to follow him.

What did they get? Their master and teacher was all of a sudden very unceremoniously betrayed by another one of them who couldn't remain loyal to him, then charged and treated as a criminal, then killed. Not much agreement or validation in the natural, which is all they were left with in that period of time they were made to wait and remain faithful. What they had were things that weren't natural at all. They were left with the promises Jesus made to them before he was made to look like a failure, the false prophet he was being accused of being, of leading Israel astray. According to the law, that one should be killed. In the natural it looked like Jesus was getting what he deserved, and it looked like he wasn't the One he claimed to be, because he just died.

Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.

This wouldn't have meant very much to those men shortly after Jesus was taken and killed. The natural events that had just taken place, which would have seemed to override all of the hope and momentum that they had accumulated to that point, was what they would have been consumed with during this time. It's hard to empathize with how freaked out they would have been. For Jesus, the spiritual promises the Father gave to him, and the spiritual reality of God's life living in his body, were stronger than the natural. For the disciples, the natural reality, that everything was gone and there was nothing to hold on to, since their master and teacher had just been killed off, was stronger than the spiritual reality that Jesus was fulfilling what needed to be fulfilled, and the promises he made to them that he would come back for them. A consciousness of the natural reality is stronger than the spiritual reality in the animals who have the nature of the serpent living stronger (the disciples, us) in them than the divine nature, which lived in the Son so that it made him one with the Father. The natural reality is ubiquitous amongst the humans, and no will power or anything else can all of a sudden make it weak so that the divine nature is all of a sudden strong in them, and therefore the spiritual reality is apparent all the time. 

But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.

The fact that they weren't yet able to grab hold of what Jesus was telling them doesn't discount its importance or mean that his words were wasted on them. They would have to grow into all of the words, commands and promises that Jesus made them. But they hadn't even yet been born of God. They didn't have the word actually living in them until later, when it counseled them and brought all of what Jesus said to them before to mind. It confirmed the words, commands and promises, as the very promise he made to them that he would come back to them. The intention of God to make them His sons was what made them clean.

You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.

And He did, in the form of the eternal spirit of the Father and the Son who would soon inhabit their bodies and bring that new covenant, promised by the prophets, into them. When he came back to them in the form of unseen spirit, then he was able to teach them how to be as he was, but so much more effectively than he was able to before, when he existed in his natural body. Before, he was limited by the natural; whereas after he came back, after being united with the Father, he was able to live in the deepest part of their hearts, where they could actually be taught on a level that was so true and deep that it was able to usurp the animal nature, which so thoroughly rules the humans.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

This is the ultimate desire of God, to live with/in the body of the family of His sons; in peace without death, crying, mourning and pain. That is the old order of things, what it is now, where the animal nature lives in, dwells in their bodies, their hearts, and completely rules them. That is the sinful nature, what keeps the humans far from God, and unfortunately it keeps the sons away from Him too, because they are taken from the stock of humanity, what is cursed by that inhabitation of the unclean spirit/nature.

Even though it seems like one thing in the natural reality which is so apparent and evident—especially because that is the reality that is constantly reinforced by all the other animals, wherever we look—the son's burden is to learn to continue to be faithful to what we know we've already been told. Sometimes the voice of the teacher, the life of God, the divine nature, will be stronger in us; and it's easier to believe in what seems impossible. In those times we could easily lay down our life for the Lord's sake because we're filled with a certain knowledge that the spiritual reality is true, and in a way it sort of overrides the natural reality, even in those times when it's strong.

Sometimes it will go away and we'll be left to believe and remain faithful even though we very much don't want to do that. Learning to remain faithful is what the teacher is teaching us, because he always comes back. He remains faithful to us, even when we are faithless. When the Lord went away from the disciples, they were devastated by what seemed in the natural to be so devastating. Before he left, though, he promised to come back and get them, to take them to where he was going. It was all a very unnatural thing, as were the promises that he made to them.

In hand with that, to help the teacher accomplish his aim to teach the sons how to abandon the old nature and replace it with the new one, there is another need for the sons to work toward what reinforces the new nature in us, rather than the animal nature, which rules the humans. The continually reinforced idea in the preserved words about coming out and away; being actively separated from what pollutes and contaminates, what will definitely lead the son away from the Father instead of toward Him, addresses this idea of reinforcing what's good instead of what's bad.

What's good is knowing the truth about their true identity as sons, and being on the path that leads to the Father, being in the active process of being transformed from dead animal to son of God who is alive to Him. What's bad is about remaining dead, being unable to be faithful because the natural reality continues to be so strong in us, because we allow ourselves to be exposed to the lies that so easily drop us back into the state of it being virtually impossible to believe, because the natural can't agree with the spiritual reality. If our eyes, ears, mind and heart are continually being filled with the reinforcement of the natural reality, we can't hear the word speaking, which does the transformation of our hearts from evil, unclean animal to good son who can be brought near to God.

Then Satan entered Judas...

It's hard to abandon what we love, what we have built our hope and dreaming around, what we are driven to accommodate because we've learned so well to satisfy ourselves by all it gives us. Judas was pretty much a normal guy, not too different than the other disciples. He was zealous for the championing of the state and nation of Israel, of it becoming again what it was in the time of David. In that respect he would have been liked and respected by many of the oppressed Jews, even supported to a large degree. He was one, though, who couldn't let go of the natural reality, and what he wanted to accomplish for himself in it, even satisfying his political and religious goals, which may have not been such an offensive looking thing in Israel, to the Jews. Judas is the example of the son who has been given many gifts, and the ability to see the right, but actively chooses his own life, because he can't give it up—he loves it too much.

That servant who knows his master's will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.

It's not pleasant to think about not being faithful to the Lord, but it is something to consider since they are his words. It's truly a logical type of justice, even according to what the humans know, being evil. If some respond to the word and actively choose to listen, doing what's hard, losing their life by abandoning what they know contaminates them, yet is so appealing and desirous to hang on to (the disciples) while some do not (Judas); justice would declare that there should be a reward for the former and not for the latter. And how hard will it be for the sons who couldn't suffer and give up what they loved in this life to be in the midst of those who did, for God's sake and their family of brothers.

One of the great, fantastic and glorious times will be when the reality that we longed for, suffered for, and gave up what we love for, will be validated by God, when we will be rewarded by Him, in front of everyone who mocked, ridiculed, laughed at, scorned and abused us because we did hear the voice they couldn't hear, and responded to it by giving up what they consider so valuable, even our respect among them. When what we said all along was true is firmly verified in their hearing, that is the time for God's righteousness to become validated, as the proud Father of one who did respond, who chose Him instead of what was more appealing and alluring, easier, more satisfying and enjoyable. Then we will honor the Lamb of God, not ridicule him, or say his name as though it meant nothing more than a curse word. Then it will be easy to believe in him, because he will be revealed. Then it will be too late to choose him instead of our life and what we love.

When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. And he said to them, "I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God."

Then the angel said to me, "Write: 'Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!' " And he added, "These are the true words of God."

Here is the fulfillment, but I would guess that there are many who are invited who cannot be chosen because they were too busy with their life i.e., they loved their life and wanted to hang on to it, couldn't let it go—as per the parable:

Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying:  "The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come. Then he sent some more servants and said, 'Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.' But they paid no attention and went off--one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city."

"Then he said to his servants, `The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.' So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. `Friend,' he asked, `how did you get in here without wedding clothes?' The man was speechless. Then the king told the attendants, `Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' "

What God had offered to Israel—to be His people and He to be their God—they rejected, which is what Jesus was telling them was happening in the first paragraph. Even though He was offering it now to a different people, and taking it away from the Jews, it wouldn't be as before, as per the old covenant. It wasn't just open to anyone and everyone who wanted to be invited, to just stroll in off the streets in their own plain clothes, meaning ordinary humans, animals with that nature. To get in to the wedding banquet, one would have to have had special clothes. Ordinary clothes goes all the way back to Genesis 3, and the suit of clothes that God "put on" the humans, which was the skins of animals, the symbol of what they had become since now they were bound to that nature of the serpent, the king of the animals whom they loved and trusted more than God their creator and Father.

For many are invited, but few are chosen.

The wedding clothes that Jesus speaks of in the second paragraph of the parable is the requirement of the new covenant, that which was replacing the old one. Wedding clothes is the new nature, the divine nature, being inhabited by God's spirit so that one could be transformed from mere animal to son of God. The invitation came with the requirement that one had to have proper clothes, not the clothes of man the animal, but the clothes that only God can give to one who is invited and chosen. These are they who respond exactly opposite than the Jews always did, and want to be pleasing to Him more than their own life, which itself is the opposite of what the animal is programmed to be and do.

After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice:

"Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb."

Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city.

Outside are the dogs (animals), those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood (false religion).

Then he told me, "Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, because the time is near. Let him who does wrong continue to do wrong; let him who is vile continue to be vile; let him who does right continue to do right; and let him who is holy continue to be holy."

Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. "Never, Lord!" he said. "This shall never happen to you!"

Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."

The "things of men" are indeed the animal's need to survive. That was a stumbling block, an adversary of the Lord's intention to go to Jerusalem to offer his body to God, so that God could offer the perfect sacrifice. It was not an easy thing for the Lord to do. We easily forget how hard it must have been for the Lord at this particular time. He had to contend with the animal inside him, tempting him to preserve his life, away from the work of being the Lamb of God.

He heard the word of God in him, assuring him about who he was, and what his mission was. As long as he kept his mind and heart close to the Father and lived in the Father instead of the animal, he could see what was the right thing, and could have the strength to go on to do it. However, he also knew that the animal was so close to him, constantly wanting to deceive him, and in a minute he could turn his back on the Father if he allowed the snake to rule him even in the smallest way. That is why he had such a violent reaction to Peter's so-called concern for him, because it was motivated by the animal in Peter and Jesus did not want to bond with it.

The smallest bit of yeast quickly works through the entire batch, and Jesus knew that agreeing in the smallest way with the animal could lead to abandoning his mission in an effort to preserve his own desires—restoring the kingdom at once, which all Israel wanted. The disciples especially wanted it, because they were closest to him and would have the most to gain from Jesus becoming king, and Peter spoke for them all.

The 1 Chronicles reading is apropos because it speaks to the warriors who defected to David while he was still fighting for his life. It is clear that these men, joining with and standing by David when he was being hunted by Saul, could assume that they would have been rewarded with positions of great honor when David gained the kingship.

Peter knew Jesus was from God, he was convinced that he was the Messiah of Israel. He knew that Jesus spoke like no other and did things no man could do. He also knew that Messiah was the son of David, and was most assuredly familiar with this understanding from the Chronicles account. Although I wouldn't attribute the disciples' motivations completely toward their own gain, I would assume they were motivated a great deal by what they would have received by such an event occurring. We do have this from Luke, though, which betrays their motivations as animal induced—the need to preserve and propel themselves at the expense of others:

Also a dispute arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest.

Peter's 'bold' declaration in this chapter that he would go to prison and death with the Lord was just a cover for the animal fear which actually ruled him. The mouth says one thing but the heart is where we follow or don't follow the Lord to his death. His mouth said one thing, but his heart showed what he was made of—so much fear for his life that he denied Jesus instead of doing what he claimed with his mouth he would do.

It isn't until after they received the spirit that they were able to be free from the animal's control over them. Although Jesus made it clear that he would be raised from the dead on the third day, they didn't believe it would actually happen. Until that time, when the spirit was actually given to them, they were in bondage to the animal's complete domination over them.

The spirit tells us the truth about the animal nature, then it sets us free from its control over us. It is that animal nature that the Lord killed on the cross, so that he could dispatch it to those who could receive it. Without it we are bound to the animal, and the snake is our father who leaves us as orphans to fend for ourselves in the world. With it we can understand the mysteries of God and know Him as our true Father. He adopts us, comforts us, gives us hope and reassurance and the guarantee that we will live.