Everlasting Covenant: June 2020

Wednesday, June 17, 2020

Who and Where Are The People of God?*

In the middle of a pandemic, we are also seeing that this nation is being torn apart by many divisions, especially racial and ethnic divisions. Even the Church is often divided along racial lines. Jesus warned that racial animosity would rise as a sign of the last days before His return (Mt. 24:7, "kingdom" in this verse being the Greek word ethnos). However, His final instructions to His disciples, called The Great Commission, never divided the Gospel of Salvation along racial and ethnic lines, but included all ethnicities:

"All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world ("aion" meaning: age, period of time, forever)...".
Mt. 28:18-20

Seeing these signs and these divisions all around us, we should not be surprised, but we should be doing. The LORD has clearly told us what we should be "doing" in these challenging times which were foretold by God:

"If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, of if I send pestilence among my people; If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attend unto the prayer that is made in this place. For now have I chosen and sanctified this house, that my name may be there forever: and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually." 2 Chron. 7:13-16

God is addressing His people, above. He has chosen and sanctified this house. We are the chosen and sanctified (by the blood of the Lamb of God) temple, or house, of the Holy Spirit. Our land needs the healing of God, so where are God's people? These verses above are a key for the hope for us, and for our nation.

Our nation was founded in and by the Word of God, but we have forgotten it, and we have rejected it, and we are being destroyed because of that. God warned His people through the prophet Hosea of the consequences of rejecting His Word:

"...because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood. Therefore shall the land mourn...Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night, and I will destroy thy mother. My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge, because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. As they were increased, so they sinned against me: therefore will I change their glory into shame." Hosea 4:1-7 (excerpt)

Where are the people of God? Instead of seeing the healing that follows the repentance of God's people (2 Chron. 7:14), we are seeing instead the destruction that comes when God's people have forgotten and rejected His knowledge (Hos. 4:6).

Who are the people whom God calls "my people" in 2 Chron. 7:14? Are we even able to recognize them, if they don't look like us? Revelation talks about those in heaven who have been redeemed. His people are praising the Lamb, proclaiming:
"...for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God king and priests: and we shall reign on the earth." Rev. 5:9-10
There is no racial nor ethnic preference in the kingdom of God.
The fragrances of the saints prayers fill golden vials in heaven (v. 8). Those who are God's people pray.

Again in another place in Revelation, it is revealed to us that the people of God are a great multitude, beyond number, "of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues...clothed in white robes" who praise the salvation of God, and the Lamb (Rev. 7:9-10). One of the elders in heaven asks John, the Revelator, "What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?" (v. 13). The elder tells John that this multitude came out of great tribulation. They washed their robes white in the blood of the Lamb. By this they stand before the throne of God, serving Him continually in His temple. The One who sits on the throne dwells among them. The Lamb, Himself, feeds them and leads them to living fountains of water, and there, God personally ministers to them (v. 14-17).
Scripture further describes those whom God calls, "my people". The Apostle Paul wrote that they are ones who present themselves to God as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable. They are those who are not conformed to this world, but are transformed by the renewing of their minds (washed in the water of the Word of God), showing forth to others through their lives what is the good, acceptable and perfect will of God. Though they are individual members, they are one body in Christ (Rom. 12:1-5).
These are who the people of God are, and this is where they are.

*The above is based upon the 6/14/20 message to the Church from Dr. Kenneth Stevenson.

To Contact/Submit prayer requests/Support the ministry/Order the book, "NAZAH-White Linen and the Blood of Sprinkling", and to help us get out the message, to contribute to the Book of Remembrance for Sean Stevenson:

Dr. Kenneth Stevenson
P.O. Box 154221
Waco, TX 76705

https://twitter.com/everlastingcov8

http://endtimeschool.com/

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Prayer of Salvation for all who desire to receive Jesus as their Savior: Lord Jesus, I desire to know You, and to know Your salvation. I believe that You died for me, and that You were resurrected for me. Forgive me of my sins. Come into my heart, change me, fill me with Your righteousness. Inscribe my name in the Lamb's book of life. Baptize me in Your Holy Spirit, so that I can learn the truth of Your Word and ways, and be strengthened in my walk all the days of my life. You are the hope of my life, and You are my eternal life. I place my trust in You, Lord, for myself, and my whole household. Use me to do the will of the heavenly Father, Who sent You, in Whose name You came. In Your name, and in thanks and praise I pray, Amen.

Dr. Stevenson's newest book is now available:

NAZAH: White Linen and the Blood of Sprinkling

To order "NAZAH": https://twitter.com/everlastingcov8 http://endtimeschool.com/

Sean Stevenson

Thursday, June 11, 2020

Passover, Communion, and Faith*

The Last Supper from which we receive our communion elements and significance was a Passover Seder that the Lord shared with His disciples on the night He was arrested:

"And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer: For I say unto you, I will not anymore eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God." Lk. 22:15-16

He expressed above that it was with great desire that He would share this special Passover Seder with them, because it represented His fulfilled purpose among men:

"And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: do this in remembrance of me. Likewise also, the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you." v. 19-20

He made a note to point out at this time that even in the revelation of this great redemption miracle, a betrayer, who had been with them from the beginning, one who had witnessed the teachings and the miracles, was sitting there with Him at the table (v. 21). Communion must be received with the same kind of faith as the Israelites required for participating in the first Passover: believing that the blood of the Passover lamb applied to their doorposts and lintels, would protect them from the death that was sent that night. John the Baptist identified Jesus as "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world" (Jn. 1:29, 36).

Passover is a feast of the LORD given to Israel to be kept throughout all generations to remember the night that the LORD provided the principle truth that the blood of the lamb that would protect them from death, and deliver them from bondage (see Lev. 23:4-8).

As the apostle Paul delivered the revelation of communion that he had directly received from the Lord, it followed exactly what Jesus had said to His disciples (1 Cor. 11:23-25). Paul also reminded the Corinthian church of the attitude with which to come to the Supper of the Lord. As with Passover, above, the Table of the Lord is kept for "remembrance", in faith, of the Lamb of God who was sacrificed for us, and the promises of the new covenant that freed us, not just for a night, not just for a year, but forever. Paul wrote that as we keep the Table of the Lord in this manner, "For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come." (v. 26). Without this remembrance in faith, we are not "shewing the Lord's death till he come", we are eating the bread, and drinking the cup unworthily, without its important spiritual remembrance, thereby being guilty of the blood and body of the Lord (v. 27). All that we do, including the Table of the Lord, we do in faith in His accomplishment, faith in His Word, in Who He is for us. Paul further instructs that we examine ourselves in this very thing. By partaking of the Table of the Lord without this remembrance and appreciation of its meaning, we can bring sickness, death, and even damnation to ourselves (v. 27-30), in the same manner as those who did not trust in the blood of the Passover Lamb in Egypt, and in the same manner as Judas, who did not believe Jesus as the Lamb of God. There is either faith, or unbelief.

In another place, Paul wrote:

"Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates (disqualified, not approved)? 2 Cor. 13:5

Unlike man, who looks upon appearances, God looks at the heart, and the heart is deceitful above all things. Because our hearts are so deceitful to us, the Word of God must examine it, as we will see later.

Romans 16:17-18 warns of those who cause divisions, and we see that the Church is deeply divided. Though these dividers are cloaked in the Gospel, they teach contrary doctrines, fooling and deceiving those who are simple, or foolish. They do this for purposes of greed. We see many strange doctrines that have entered the Church- doctrines that twist the scriptures or are outside of the scriptures. Hold on, rather, to the true doctrines which we have been taught. Teach the Word of God that we have received that corrects and reproves any false doctrines of men that would lead us away from truth, and towards destruction. We cannot teach anything that sanctifies what the Lord has called sin. We warn in love instead, because the wages of sin is death, and Christ gave His body and blood to take the sin of the world, to defeat the power of death; not to teach or praise sin, whose bitter fruit, without exception, is death.

The Word of God reveals and weighs unbelief. It discerns the thoughts, even the most hidden thoughts and intents of the heart, like a sword that slices through to reveal the covered depths. Everything is revealed before Him. The purpose of this revealing and discerning of our hearts is to bring God's people into His rest, the same rest that He entered into after His work was completed. It is the rest of faith, and it is entered into only through faith (Heb. 4:9-13):

"Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession (homologia: to say the same things as, to agree with (the Word of God)." Heb. 4:14

*The above is based upon the 6/7/20 message to the Church from Dr. Kenneth Stevenson.

To Contact/Submit prayer requests/Support the ministry/Order the book, "NAZAH-White Linen and the Blood of Sprinkling", and to help us get out the message, to contribute to the Book of Remembrance for Sean Stevenson: