Tonight in the prophecy continuation from the study done years ago I talk about the overwhelming importance of prophecy. I can't stress enough how important prophecy is, I just can't. Please read this and pray, pray like you've never prayed before. We need the guidance of our Savior, we need the Holy Spirit to open our understanding. Please! Please Lord we would KNOW TRUTH! We KNOW You are returning again, we know this for a fact! We don't know when, but we do know it will happen. Please, please, Lord Savior, please show us all we need to know to be known by You when You return! We would be YOURS! Please. In Your name!
******* Continuing our prophecy study-- Please GO back and read the study from the beginning to gain full understanding of where we are if you haven't been following this study daily. Thank you :) God bless you! ******
God's holy word, God's holy prophecies.
Act 17:11 ... in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
Searched the scriptures DAILY.
Luk 11:3 Give us day by day our daily bread.
Mat 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
We live by eating. No one will dispute the fact that without physical sustenance we would die.
When someone is in the hospital and they can't eat solid food they are given nutrition in a bag, not just a normal IV filled with liquid, but liquid that has additives that give that liquid nutrients as if the person were actually eating solid food- all the vitamins, minerals, and everything they need without actually eating. When a loved one of mine was in the hospital and hadn't eaten for five days they had to call in a nutritionist to calculate what should be put in his liquid nutrition. It wasn't a matter of simply hanging up yet another bag of fluids with the ones already there. This was a very special bag of liquid food they were making- why? Because the body needs food, it needs to eat, it needs the nutrition we get from food in order for it to stay alive. A person can and many unfortunately do- starve to death without the necessary food. Ideally we are meant to eat daily. And the best of saints along with the worst of sinners must eat food daily.
The difference between saint and sinner is the saint knows that they might as well be dead than live without the daily bread that is the WORD of GOD.
The daily bread - our daily physical sustenance does not bring full life- but the WORD of GOD brings full life- life eternal- spiritual life. Yes, we must eat food to live, but just eating food to live will not give us spiritual life. The WORD of GOD will feed our spiritual life. We need spiritual food daily every bit as much as we need physical food, but people don't seem to fully comprehend this.
People are starving spiritually, barely existing on maybe one spiritual meal a week. Others are spiritually dead not even receiving that weekly spiritual feeding. If we wonder why we might not be spiritually strong could it be we are not getting our daily bread? Could it be we are trying to live by bread alone and not by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God?
Hunger pangs tells us we need food. Spiritual hunger pangs hit us ALL the time and we choose to ignore them and in their place substitute other things- thinking that'll take care of the spiritual hunger pangs. We shove alcohol, pills, sex, video games, online games, people, work, play- we shove everything we can into our spirit void wanting to dull the pangs of life with all those things that can never ever fully satisfy the spiritual hunger inside us all.
It's true also that people who eat don't always get the proper nutrition while they're eating- still end up dying because they didn't get the proper nutrition. Silly? No. Take scurvy for one example. Up to a million people over the course of many, many years have died from scurvy- lacking vitamin c in their diets- these people were mostly sailors who would exist on dried salted meats and dried grains as they took their sea voyages. So they had food but it wasn't necessarily all the food they needed, the proper food, the correct nutrients.
Spiritually we shove all sorts of food into our spiritual life hoping to feed the spiritual hunger that exists inside us, but all that food being shoved into our spiritual life isn't necessary the spiritual food we truly need to live a Spiritual life in Christ- the source of all things truly spiritually necessary.
Daily we need spiritual food every bit as much as we need tangible food. This means what, how often?
Every day.
Job 23:12 Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.
Luk 9:23 And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
Act 5:42 And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.
Daily teaching and preaching Jesus Christ. Daily learning. We must daily learn more and more of our Savior. If we study ANYTHING in God's word and it does NOT point us to our Savior then we are NOT studying as God would have us study. Every prophecy we study is with the realization that the prophecy points towards one ultimate fulfillment- Christ and His return bringing His kingdom with Him.
Some will lose interest in prophecy studying quickly because there is so much history involved, and to many history is boring. People have gone to great lengths to make prophecy lectures and whatnot - exciting.
Babes in the word of God need that simple feeding, those enticing bits that piqué interest. Those who are NOT babes in the word need much more than a simple feeding, they need something they can chew. Those who are not babes understand that a tough bit of meat may take a long time to chew, and while the goal is biting, chewing, and ultimately swallowing our food it's not always something that is done in a few seconds.
Have you ever had food in your mouth that has made your jaw tired from chewing? I know I have. The word of God can mean studying things that cause our minds to ache, our spiritual teeth to hurt. Sure we can live on spiritual baby food, never, ever studying to the point we are wresting with things to gain understanding. We can believe that all we are required to do is read simple, easy to understand verses about God's love and never, ever try to comprehend the harder things of Scripture- leaving them for greater minds than ours- but that isn't what our God wants from us. God wants us to grow up in our spiritual lives every bit as much as we grow up in our physical lives.
How many, many hours of tedious schooling did you have when you were growing up? And all that tedious schooling, all those hours of homework, all that time spent studying was to prepare you for a future giving you knowledge. We find it heartbreaking when we hear of children being denied the chance at an education. We think about how much knowledge the children are missing out on when they don't attend a school, or get schooling at home. While some are great advocates of something called 'unschooling' allowing children to learn only that which truly interests them, that doesn't mean they are opposed to schooling children- they give those children access and means to LEARN only the focus is on their interests. The children who are taken out of school, or never have an opportunity to go, those who don't even have the opportunity to be school in things of their interest are those we understand innately are being deprived of a chance to grow mentally. People have fought hard to be able to gain the right to be taught, the right to learn rather than stay in a set routine of life- following only down the path of their forefathers. People today pay thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars for higher education- for MORE learning than is deemed required by our various governments. Our secular learning is that important, yet all the secular learning in the world, all the degrees in the world, all the education we can possibly gain means NOTHING in the eternal realm. If we neglect our spiritual education and only focus on our temporal flesh education we might have a great secular, temporary life but lose life eternal. We NEED a spiritual education that NEVER ends. We need a spiritual feeding daily, and the food we eat will vary. Some days our spiritual food will be light and easy to comprehend, to digest. Other days our spiritual food will be tough and not so easy to comprehend, or digest. We cannot shun the food meant for those grown up no longer needing just the milk of babes in Christ, we have to be willing to chew.
To me these prophecy studies are filled with a lot of tough spiritual meat that will make us chew long and hard before we can swallow it. Because the studies are such tough meat it will take perseverance to get through it all, but we can by the grace of God. I'm not looking to make these studies light and fluffy so everyone will want to gobble them up, I'm looking to make these studies filled with TRUTH! Those who desire truth enough to read through all the boring stuff will be rewarded, right? When truth is presented it pushes out the untruth, is shoves aside the doubts that Satan will push at us trying to get us to falter and fail.
Let's read the following and while we are reading it note how prophecy is mentioned--
Act 6:8 And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.
Act 6:9 Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen.
Act 6:10 And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake.
Act 6:11 Then they suborned men, which said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses, and against God.
Act 6:12 And they stirred up the people, and the elders, and the scribes, and came upon him, and caught him, and brought him to the council,
Act 6:13 And set up false witnesses, which said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law:
Act 6:14 For we have heard him say, that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us.
Act 6:15 And all that sat in the council, looking stedfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.
Act 7:1 Then said the high priest, Are these things so?
Act 7:2 And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran,
Act 7:3 And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee.
(PROPHECY) If Abraham were to listen- a land would be shown him- a prophetic - conditional happenstance.
Act 7:4 Then came he out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and dwelt in Charran: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell.
Act 7:5 And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on: yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child.
(PROPHECY) a promise that Abraham's seed after him would inherit- and Abraham had no children!
Act 7:6 And God spake on this wise, That his seed should sojourn in a strange land; and that they should bring them into bondage, and entreat them evil four hundred years.
Act 7:7 And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge, said God: and after that shall they come forth, and serve me in this place.
(PROPHECY) Four hundred years of evil would befall Abraham's seed. A prophecy encompassing four hundred future years!
Act 7:8 And he gave him the covenant of circumcision: and so Abraham begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs.
Act 7:9 And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt: but God was with him,
Act 7:10 And delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favour and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house.
Act 7:11 Now there came a dearth over all the land of Egypt and Chanaan, and great affliction: and our fathers found no sustenance.
Act 7:12 But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first.
Act 7:13 And at the second time Joseph was made known to his brethren; and Joseph's kindred was made known unto Pharaoh.
Act 7:14 Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls.
Act 7:15 So Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, he, and our fathers,
Act 7:16 And were carried over into Sychem, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor the father of Sychem.
Act 7:17 But when the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt,
Act 7:18 Till another king arose, which knew not Joseph.
Act 7:19 The same dealt subtilly with our kindred, and evil entreated our fathers, so that they cast out their young children, to the end they might not live.
Act 7:20 In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his father's house three months:
Act 7:21 And when he was cast out, Pharaoh's daughter took him up, and nourished him for her own son.
Act 7:22 And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds.
Act 7:23 And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel.
Act 7:24 And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian:
Act 7:25 For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not.
Act 7:26 And the next day he shewed himself unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another?
Act 7:27 But he that did his neighbour wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us?
Act 7:28 Wilt thou kill me, as thou diddest the Egyptian yesterday?
Act 7:29 Then fled Moses at this saying, and was a stranger in the land of Madian, where he begat two sons.
Act 7:30 And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sina an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush.
Act 7:31 When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight: and as he drew near to behold it, the voice of the Lord came unto him,
Act 7:32 Saying, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled, and durst not behold.
Act 7:33 Then said the Lord to him, Put off thy shoes from thy feet: for the place where thou standest is holy ground.
Act 7:34 I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send thee into Egypt.
Act 7:35 This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush.
Act 7:36 He brought them out, after that he had shewed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years.
Act 7:37 This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear.
Act 7:38 This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:
Act 7:39 To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt,
Act 7:40 Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.
Act 7:41 And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.
Act 7:42 Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness?
Act 7:43 Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.
Act 7:44 Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen.
(PROPHECY) Fulfilled! What was told to Abraham came to pass.
Act 7:45 Which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave out before the face of our fathers, unto the days of David;
Act 7:46 Who found favour before God, and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob.
Act 7:47 But Solomon built him an house.
Act 7:48 Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet,
Act 7:49 Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest?
Act 7:50 Hath not my hand made all these things?
Act 7:51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
Act 7:52 Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:
Act 7:53 Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.
Prophets persecuted, prophets slain, those which showed the coming of the SAVIOR. The Savior betrayed and murdered.
Act 7:54 When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.
Act 7:55 But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,
Act 7:56 And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.
Act 7:57 Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord,
Act 7:58 And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul.
Act 7:59 And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
Act 7:60 And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
Prophecy. Stephen recounted the importance of prophecy in his last speech. Did he say- 'Hey everyone, prophecy is important, so read it, study it.' ? No. He didn't use those words but His entire speech revealed prophecy and how it'd been fulfilled and was even then being fulfilled. He pointed out to the very people who were about to murder him that their fathers had done the same thing to other prophets-murdered them. We want truth, all truth, but so many just want fables and fancy.
We are given prophecy- not just to shove it away as being overcooked meat too tough to even bother to chew. We are given prophecy so that we can comprehend the fullness of truth found in our Savior!
Having said all this … let's continue tomorrow with our prophecy studies …for those who want meat to chew keep reading, those who don't, I'm sure there are a lot of blogs out there that suit more of what you desire and by the grace of God may we all find the spiritual eternal life we seek in our Savior, in His righteousness!
In His love!
Amen.
******* Continuing our prophecy study-- Please GO back and read the study from the beginning to gain full understanding of where we are if you haven't been following this study daily. Thank you :) God bless you! ******
God's holy word, God's holy prophecies.
Act 17:11 ... in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
Searched the scriptures DAILY.
Luk 11:3 Give us day by day our daily bread.
Mat 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
We live by eating. No one will dispute the fact that without physical sustenance we would die.
When someone is in the hospital and they can't eat solid food they are given nutrition in a bag, not just a normal IV filled with liquid, but liquid that has additives that give that liquid nutrients as if the person were actually eating solid food- all the vitamins, minerals, and everything they need without actually eating. When a loved one of mine was in the hospital and hadn't eaten for five days they had to call in a nutritionist to calculate what should be put in his liquid nutrition. It wasn't a matter of simply hanging up yet another bag of fluids with the ones already there. This was a very special bag of liquid food they were making- why? Because the body needs food, it needs to eat, it needs the nutrition we get from food in order for it to stay alive. A person can and many unfortunately do- starve to death without the necessary food. Ideally we are meant to eat daily. And the best of saints along with the worst of sinners must eat food daily.
The difference between saint and sinner is the saint knows that they might as well be dead than live without the daily bread that is the WORD of GOD.
The daily bread - our daily physical sustenance does not bring full life- but the WORD of GOD brings full life- life eternal- spiritual life. Yes, we must eat food to live, but just eating food to live will not give us spiritual life. The WORD of GOD will feed our spiritual life. We need spiritual food daily every bit as much as we need physical food, but people don't seem to fully comprehend this.
People are starving spiritually, barely existing on maybe one spiritual meal a week. Others are spiritually dead not even receiving that weekly spiritual feeding. If we wonder why we might not be spiritually strong could it be we are not getting our daily bread? Could it be we are trying to live by bread alone and not by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God?
Hunger pangs tells us we need food. Spiritual hunger pangs hit us ALL the time and we choose to ignore them and in their place substitute other things- thinking that'll take care of the spiritual hunger pangs. We shove alcohol, pills, sex, video games, online games, people, work, play- we shove everything we can into our spirit void wanting to dull the pangs of life with all those things that can never ever fully satisfy the spiritual hunger inside us all.
It's true also that people who eat don't always get the proper nutrition while they're eating- still end up dying because they didn't get the proper nutrition. Silly? No. Take scurvy for one example. Up to a million people over the course of many, many years have died from scurvy- lacking vitamin c in their diets- these people were mostly sailors who would exist on dried salted meats and dried grains as they took their sea voyages. So they had food but it wasn't necessarily all the food they needed, the proper food, the correct nutrients.
Spiritually we shove all sorts of food into our spiritual life hoping to feed the spiritual hunger that exists inside us, but all that food being shoved into our spiritual life isn't necessary the spiritual food we truly need to live a Spiritual life in Christ- the source of all things truly spiritually necessary.
Daily we need spiritual food every bit as much as we need tangible food. This means what, how often?
Every day.
Job 23:12 Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.
Luk 9:23 And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
Act 5:42 And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.
Daily teaching and preaching Jesus Christ. Daily learning. We must daily learn more and more of our Savior. If we study ANYTHING in God's word and it does NOT point us to our Savior then we are NOT studying as God would have us study. Every prophecy we study is with the realization that the prophecy points towards one ultimate fulfillment- Christ and His return bringing His kingdom with Him.
Some will lose interest in prophecy studying quickly because there is so much history involved, and to many history is boring. People have gone to great lengths to make prophecy lectures and whatnot - exciting.
Babes in the word of God need that simple feeding, those enticing bits that piqué interest. Those who are NOT babes in the word need much more than a simple feeding, they need something they can chew. Those who are not babes understand that a tough bit of meat may take a long time to chew, and while the goal is biting, chewing, and ultimately swallowing our food it's not always something that is done in a few seconds.
Have you ever had food in your mouth that has made your jaw tired from chewing? I know I have. The word of God can mean studying things that cause our minds to ache, our spiritual teeth to hurt. Sure we can live on spiritual baby food, never, ever studying to the point we are wresting with things to gain understanding. We can believe that all we are required to do is read simple, easy to understand verses about God's love and never, ever try to comprehend the harder things of Scripture- leaving them for greater minds than ours- but that isn't what our God wants from us. God wants us to grow up in our spiritual lives every bit as much as we grow up in our physical lives.
How many, many hours of tedious schooling did you have when you were growing up? And all that tedious schooling, all those hours of homework, all that time spent studying was to prepare you for a future giving you knowledge. We find it heartbreaking when we hear of children being denied the chance at an education. We think about how much knowledge the children are missing out on when they don't attend a school, or get schooling at home. While some are great advocates of something called 'unschooling' allowing children to learn only that which truly interests them, that doesn't mean they are opposed to schooling children- they give those children access and means to LEARN only the focus is on their interests. The children who are taken out of school, or never have an opportunity to go, those who don't even have the opportunity to be school in things of their interest are those we understand innately are being deprived of a chance to grow mentally. People have fought hard to be able to gain the right to be taught, the right to learn rather than stay in a set routine of life- following only down the path of their forefathers. People today pay thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars for higher education- for MORE learning than is deemed required by our various governments. Our secular learning is that important, yet all the secular learning in the world, all the degrees in the world, all the education we can possibly gain means NOTHING in the eternal realm. If we neglect our spiritual education and only focus on our temporal flesh education we might have a great secular, temporary life but lose life eternal. We NEED a spiritual education that NEVER ends. We need a spiritual feeding daily, and the food we eat will vary. Some days our spiritual food will be light and easy to comprehend, to digest. Other days our spiritual food will be tough and not so easy to comprehend, or digest. We cannot shun the food meant for those grown up no longer needing just the milk of babes in Christ, we have to be willing to chew.
To me these prophecy studies are filled with a lot of tough spiritual meat that will make us chew long and hard before we can swallow it. Because the studies are such tough meat it will take perseverance to get through it all, but we can by the grace of God. I'm not looking to make these studies light and fluffy so everyone will want to gobble them up, I'm looking to make these studies filled with TRUTH! Those who desire truth enough to read through all the boring stuff will be rewarded, right? When truth is presented it pushes out the untruth, is shoves aside the doubts that Satan will push at us trying to get us to falter and fail.
Let's read the following and while we are reading it note how prophecy is mentioned--
Act 6:8 And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.
Act 6:9 Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen.
Act 6:10 And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake.
Act 6:11 Then they suborned men, which said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses, and against God.
Act 6:12 And they stirred up the people, and the elders, and the scribes, and came upon him, and caught him, and brought him to the council,
Act 6:13 And set up false witnesses, which said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law:
Act 6:14 For we have heard him say, that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us.
Act 6:15 And all that sat in the council, looking stedfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.
Act 7:1 Then said the high priest, Are these things so?
Act 7:2 And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran,
Act 7:3 And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee.
(PROPHECY) If Abraham were to listen- a land would be shown him- a prophetic - conditional happenstance.
Act 7:4 Then came he out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and dwelt in Charran: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell.
Act 7:5 And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on: yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child.
(PROPHECY) a promise that Abraham's seed after him would inherit- and Abraham had no children!
Act 7:6 And God spake on this wise, That his seed should sojourn in a strange land; and that they should bring them into bondage, and entreat them evil four hundred years.
Act 7:7 And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge, said God: and after that shall they come forth, and serve me in this place.
(PROPHECY) Four hundred years of evil would befall Abraham's seed. A prophecy encompassing four hundred future years!
Act 7:8 And he gave him the covenant of circumcision: and so Abraham begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs.
Act 7:9 And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt: but God was with him,
Act 7:10 And delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favour and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house.
Act 7:11 Now there came a dearth over all the land of Egypt and Chanaan, and great affliction: and our fathers found no sustenance.
Act 7:12 But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first.
Act 7:13 And at the second time Joseph was made known to his brethren; and Joseph's kindred was made known unto Pharaoh.
Act 7:14 Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls.
Act 7:15 So Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, he, and our fathers,
Act 7:16 And were carried over into Sychem, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor the father of Sychem.
Act 7:17 But when the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt,
Act 7:18 Till another king arose, which knew not Joseph.
Act 7:19 The same dealt subtilly with our kindred, and evil entreated our fathers, so that they cast out their young children, to the end they might not live.
Act 7:20 In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his father's house three months:
Act 7:21 And when he was cast out, Pharaoh's daughter took him up, and nourished him for her own son.
Act 7:22 And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds.
Act 7:23 And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel.
Act 7:24 And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian:
Act 7:25 For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not.
Act 7:26 And the next day he shewed himself unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another?
Act 7:27 But he that did his neighbour wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us?
Act 7:28 Wilt thou kill me, as thou diddest the Egyptian yesterday?
Act 7:29 Then fled Moses at this saying, and was a stranger in the land of Madian, where he begat two sons.
Act 7:30 And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sina an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush.
Act 7:31 When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight: and as he drew near to behold it, the voice of the Lord came unto him,
Act 7:32 Saying, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled, and durst not behold.
Act 7:33 Then said the Lord to him, Put off thy shoes from thy feet: for the place where thou standest is holy ground.
Act 7:34 I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send thee into Egypt.
Act 7:35 This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush.
Act 7:36 He brought them out, after that he had shewed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years.
Act 7:37 This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear.
Act 7:38 This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:
Act 7:39 To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt,
Act 7:40 Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.
Act 7:41 And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.
Act 7:42 Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness?
Act 7:43 Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.
Act 7:44 Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen.
(PROPHECY) Fulfilled! What was told to Abraham came to pass.
Act 7:45 Which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave out before the face of our fathers, unto the days of David;
Act 7:46 Who found favour before God, and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob.
Act 7:47 But Solomon built him an house.
Act 7:48 Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet,
Act 7:49 Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest?
Act 7:50 Hath not my hand made all these things?
Act 7:51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
Act 7:52 Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:
Act 7:53 Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.
Prophets persecuted, prophets slain, those which showed the coming of the SAVIOR. The Savior betrayed and murdered.
Act 7:54 When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.
Act 7:55 But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,
Act 7:56 And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.
Act 7:57 Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord,
Act 7:58 And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul.
Act 7:59 And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
Act 7:60 And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
Prophecy. Stephen recounted the importance of prophecy in his last speech. Did he say- 'Hey everyone, prophecy is important, so read it, study it.' ? No. He didn't use those words but His entire speech revealed prophecy and how it'd been fulfilled and was even then being fulfilled. He pointed out to the very people who were about to murder him that their fathers had done the same thing to other prophets-murdered them. We want truth, all truth, but so many just want fables and fancy.
We are given prophecy- not just to shove it away as being overcooked meat too tough to even bother to chew. We are given prophecy so that we can comprehend the fullness of truth found in our Savior!
Having said all this … let's continue tomorrow with our prophecy studies …for those who want meat to chew keep reading, those who don't, I'm sure there are a lot of blogs out there that suit more of what you desire and by the grace of God may we all find the spiritual eternal life we seek in our Savior, in His righteousness!
In His love!
Amen.
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