Oracles of God, chapter 5
To: 38,647 subscribers we pray God is making Temples of God’s spirit. 8/20/22, God’s 6th “month, Av 24, 5,782
At Revelations 1:10 is the only place the words “Lord’s day” is in the Bible’s same verse. In King James index’s we find “Lord’s day” together once referring to the Sabbath. (At Matt 12:8 “For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”) (At Mark 2:28; & Luke 13:15. “For this reason the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath”) (At Luke 6:5; “For this reason the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath”) (At Acts 13:44; “On the next Sabbath almost the whole city assembled together to hear the word of the Lord.”) YET people use the term “Lord’s-day” for their reason to assemble on the first day rather than the 7th day Sabbath, seemingly not aware that God says to Israel “keeping the Sabbath is perpetual through all your generations.” These same groups don’t realize Christians are Spiritual Israelites.
Unbelievers twist The Word of God and some use James’ letter to the gentile converts, as a divisionary tool. Believers IN, know there’s One God, One truth and One way that’s absolute. There’s no division. Satan and his followers, ‘manifest themselves as angels of light, condone pagan philosophy that causes division.’ The apostles’ letter does not give gentiles permission to forget the Sabbaths, nor Jesus’ ten commandments, nor His New commandment, “love others as I have loved you.” Contrary, gentiles turning to God became spiritual Israelites, accepted the God of Abraham, and was spiritually led to believe IN Jesus’ shed blood for the remission of their sins. They became fellow citizens with the Saints.
(Eph 2:19-22; So then you, “gentiles” are no longer foreigners and non-citizens, but you’re fellow citizens with the Saints and members of God’s household, because you’ve been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the Cornerstone. In Him the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”)
Apostles Barnabas and Paul, with others from the Jerusalem congregation, encouraged the gentile converts to be At-One with God the Father and God the Son, mindful that they’re At-One with one another.
(Acts 15:30-35; “So when they, “Paul & companions” were dismissed, they went down to Antioch, and after gathering the entire group together, they delivered (James’) letter. When they read it aloud, the people rejoiced at its encouragement. Both Judas and Silas who were prophets themselves, encouraged and strengthened the brothers with a long speech. After they had spent some time there, they were sent off in peace by the brothers to those who had sent them. But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, teaching, and proclaiming (with many others) The Word of the Lord.”)
Considering the fleshly nature, we all inherited, its logical that fleshly thinking Judaism would at first think circumcision necessary. The spiritually led soon had no problem turning from that thinking. When considering the Lord’s word through Moses on circumcision, other prophets, that gentiles too had been gifted with the Holy Spirit as were they.
(Acts 15:36-41; After some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let’s return and visit the brothers in every town where we proclaimed the word of the Lord, to see how they are doing.” Barnabas wanted to bring John ‘called Mark’ along with them too, but Paul insisted that they should not take along this one who had left them in Pamphylia and had not accompanied them in The Work. They had a sharp disagreement, so that they parted company. Barnabas took along, “John Mark” and sailed away to Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and set out, commended to the grace of the Lord by the brothers and sisters. He passed through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.”)
Remember, Dr. Luke is the writer of “Acts of the Apostles” apparently it was his decision to continue following Paul rather than Barnabas.
Timothy joins Paul’s team.
(Acts 16:1-5; “He, “Paul” also came to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple named Timothy was there, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but whose father was a Greek. The brothers in Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him. Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was Greek. As they went through the towns, they passed on the decrees that had been decided on by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the Gentile believers to obey. So, the churches were being strengthened in the faith and were increasing in number every day.”)
Paul’s having Timothy circumcised was not spiritually necessary, but, thought it good to appease the Jews. Circumcision isn’t necessary for salvation but acknowledges the covenant with our Creator and has health benefits.
(Acts 16:6-10; They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, (From where Paul would later write a letter to the Galatians.) having been prevented by the Holy Spirit from speaking the message in the province of Asia. When they came to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them to do this, so they passed through Mysia and went down to Troas.
A vision appeared to Paul during the night: A Macedonian man was standing there urging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!” After Paul saw the vision, we attempted immediately to go over to Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.”)
(Again, we should see “knowing faith” at work in Paul’s ministry. The Comforter ‘Holy Spirit’ and ‘Spirit of Truth’ are the same, Paul was attuned to its workings in his mind. (Translating from Greek to English is difficult because of sentence construction. For example, “Province of Asia?” Refers to the Roman province of Asia, made up of about one-third of the west and southwest end of modern Asia Minor. Asia lay to the west of the region of Phrygia and Galatia. The words “the province of”, are supplied to indicate to the modern reader that this does not refer to the continent of Asia.)
(Acts 16:11-15; We put out to sea from Troas and sailed a straight course to Samothrace, the next day to Neapolis and from there to Philippi, (From where Paul would later write back to the Philippian’s.) which is a leading city of that district of Macedonia, a Roman colony. We stayed in this city for some days. On the Sabbath day we went outside the city gate to the side of the river, where we thought there would be a place of prayer, and we sat down and began to speak to the women who had assembled there.
A woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, a God-fearing woman, listened to us. The Lord opened her heart to respond to what Paul was saying. After she and her household were baptized she urged us, “If you consider me to be a believer in the Lord, come and stay in my house. And she persuaded us.””)
Two points: (1) Paul and companions are remembering the Sabbath. (2) “The Lord opened Lydia’s heart.” Paul didn’t save Lydia.”
(Acts 16:16-31; Now as we were going to the place of prayer, a slave girl met us who had a spirit that enabled her to foretell the future by supernatural means. She brought her owners a great profit by fortune-telling. She followed behind Paul and us and kept crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High, God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.” She continued to do this for many days. But Paul became greatly annoyed and turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!” And it came out of her at once. But when her owners saw their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities. When they had brought them before the magistrates, they said, “These men are throwing our city into confusion. They are Jews and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us to accept or practice, since we are Romans.”)
Demonic revelations are supernatural and has impact on many societies. This girl was demonically enabled to tell futures and knew ‘whose servants Paul and companions were.’ Through knowing revealed faith, Paul recognized the demonic spirit and cast it out. The people charging Paul and companions were traditionalist, advocating customs not traditionally lawful in Roman society. Many denominations still maintain similar divisionary views, concluding that certain practices do or does not belong to their ethnicity.
(Acts 16:22-24; The crowd joined the attack against them, the magistrates tore the clothes off Paul and Silas and ordered them to be beaten with rods. After beating them severely, they threw them into prison and commanded the jailer to guard them securely. Receiving such orders, he threw them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.”) Remember, Jesus had told Ananias that Paul would suffer many things because of His name.
Jesus Release Paul supernaturally.
(Acts 16:25-31; “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the rest of the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly a great earthquake occurred, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. Immediately all the doors flew open, and the bonds of all the prisoners came loose. When the jailer woke up and saw the doors of the prison standing open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, because he assumed the prisoners had escaped. But Paul called out loudly, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here!” Calling for lights, the jailer rushed in and fell down trembling at the feet of Paul and Silas. Then he brought them outside and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They replied, “Believe IN the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household.”)
‘Believing IN’ is not ‘believing that.’ After this statement, Paul and Silas spoke, “The Word of Truth” to them, “their believing IN was God gifted, not a conjured up faith in Paul and Silas.” The jailer was, gifted with ‘believing IN’ faith.
(Acts 16:32-34; Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him, along with all those who were in his house. At that hour of the night, he took them and washed their wounds; then he and all his family, was, baptized right away. The jailer brought them into his house and set food before them and rejoiced greatly that he had come to believe in God, together with his entire household.)
(‘Believers IN’ are gifted to recognize Jesus’ good news message by the spirit of truth, knowing the Word includes that “Jesus is the Son of God” “One prophesied to come and fulfill all that David and the prophets wrote about Him.” Believing IN these things about Jesus, is a spiritual calling to serve the God of Abraham. Such spiritual understanding is gifted, and doesn’t come from within a person’s intellect; gifted to His chosen. (The difference between, ‘believing IN’ and ‘believing that’ is; ‘Believing that’ allows assumptions from within fleshly intellect, that fit’s a preferred, usually a denominational narrative. ‘Believing that’ allows for division. ‘Believing IN’ is singular, with gifted knowing faith that God is as He’s manifested to be, through Jesus, His prophets and apostles.)
(Acts 16:35-40; At daybreak the magistrates sent their police officers, saying, “Release those men.” The jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, “The magistrates have sent orders to release you. So come out now and go in peace.” But Paul said to the police officers, “They had us beaten in public without a proper trial – even though we are Roman citizens – and they threw us in prison. And now they want to send us away secretly? Absolutely not! They themselves must come and escort us out!” The police officers reported these words to the magistrates. They were frightened when they heard Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, came and apologized to them. After they brought them out, they asked them repeatedly to leave the city. When they came out of the prison, they entered Lydia’s house, and when they saw the brothers, they encouraged them and then departed.)
(Paul was able to use his Roman citizenship several times. A spiritual overview of Paul’s conversion, Jesus’ revelations and teachings through him, reveals the characteristics of the God family, whose members we are when gifted to believe IN.)