Scripture: Matthew 7 v 21: "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven."
Matthew 25 v 20 - 21: "And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more.
21 His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord."
In our personal relationship with Jesus one of our priorities is to find out what He wants from us. Not the collective commission to preach the gospel to the lost, but our individual contribution to bringing in the harvest of souls.
We are all different and have unique talents which, if all were brought to the table, would be an awesome arsenal against the enemy. However, people are rather private about their abilities and we don't always know what, or who, is available. Jesus wants to change that situation.
Our Father wants all people to be saved, no matter how far or how badly they have fallen into sins, error, evil and deadly practices. In order to reach them we have to put aside our natural objections, flash judgments, self-righteous hypocrisy and snobbery to get down to where they have sunk and start to lift them out of the mire.
Most people have seen the movie, Taken, and watched Brian Mills, played by Liam Neeson, hunt down those who kidnapped his daughter and sold her as a sex slave, using extraordinary skills, top level communications, a network of highly trained operatives, and total dedication to his task. Against all odds he succeeded and rescued her from a fate worse than death.
This movie blew me away because it came out shortly after the Lord permitted me to share what He had started revealing to me of why we are here on Earth, far from our heavenly home, because His Bride was TAKEN hostage by Satan on her wedding day in Heaven. Jesus chose to be the RANSOM for her, even to be substituted for her using all the resources of Heaven to do so.
As in many kidnapping dramas, tragedy strikes and the victim dies. It happened to the Bride too. Her spirit was shattered into a billion fragments after she had been subjected to unspeakable torment, torture, brain-washing, mind-altering false memories, and every unimaginable horror. In His substitution for her, Jesus, the Bridegroom, had to suffer the same fate. This all happened before the world was formed.
So watching Brian Mills go through being captured and condemned to death and surviving it to kill those evil men, and fight his way through to rescue his daughter, gave me a small sample of how Jesus was prepared to lay down His life for His Bride.
He was likewise shattered into billions of fragments. Each fragment of Bride and Bridegroom became a soul. The Bride became Israel, the Bridegroom became the Church, the Body of Jesus. Each soul has been damaged by Satan.
The rescue operation is still ongoing and the Body of Christ has been resurrected and born again. The souls have been healed and given new life. They have spiritual gifts, skills and talents. They have superior new communication skills, enabling individual and group rescues of captive souls.
Every day since Adam and Eve sold out to the Serpent, the battle has raged. The events on Earth are actually a slow motion action replay of all that happened to us in Satan's clutches. Things like the Holocaust, wars, corruption, slavery, coma, murder, addiction, rape, all occurred there first.
Jesus said these last days would be tough, worse than any time ever before. He said it would be like the times of Noah or Lot. Lot saw the nuclear destruction of the evil cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Noah saw only his family of 8 rescued from the flood that killed everything and everyone not on his Ark.
I want to include an archaeologist's report of what was discovered about the destruction of Sodom and the surrounding area, which I first saw this week.
Steven Collins writes in "Wrathful Destruction": "Across Tall el Hammam archaeologists found widespread evidence on an intense, fiery conflagration that left the Middle Bronze Age city in charred ruins. Well below the later Iron Age levels of this trench are the scorched walls and floor of a structure buried beneath nearly 3 feet of dark grey ash.
Amid this ash was found a 4.5" pottery shred from a Middle Bronze Age storage jar. It's glassy appearance indicates it was briefly exposed to well over 2000 degrees Fahrenheit. There were many similar finds suggesting the city and its surrounds were catastrophically destroyed in a sudden extreme conflagration. The Biblical account gives the city's name as Sodom."
The archaeologists findings prove that the sudden destruction of five cities is not a myth. It really happened and our God caused it to happen in His wrath. It will be terrifying to go through the second half of the great tribulation facing the Wrath of the Lamb. The Bible is true in every way and we need to read it daily to know its Author and His instructions for us.
The true, invisible, born again church is now the new Ark. All those in it will be safe. God promised by a rainbow that He would not flood the Earth again, so that probably means it will be destroyed by fire.
Jesus wants everyone to be on the Ark. His Body and Israel, His Bride. She is still resisting as are many Gentiles (non-Jews). There is rampant antisemitism all over the world, and many Arab nations refuse to acknowledge Israel's existence and want to see every Jew wiped off the planet. Satan is as determined now as he was before the foundation of the world to prevent this marriage. If he can outwit God he can still win control of the universe.
So Jesus wants us to boldly use every skill, every waking moment, every gift and talent to keep finding ways to reach the fragments, the souls that are still unaccounted for. He is keeping up the pressure because, as science tells us, pressure turns coal into diamonds. So will you be a lump of coal in danger of being consumed in the final fire, or are you willing to become a diamond?
The intensity of watching Brian Mills find leads to the people who kidnapped his daughter, is a guideline to how intensely Jesus wants us to plunder Hell to populate Heaven as one well-known evangelist was fond of saying. He gave us the example of leaving the 99 safe sheep to seek the one that had fallen into a crevice.
I found out what Jesus wants from my life and I could never have done anything without Him inspiring and leading me His way. Jesus has a plan for each one of us and the closer we get to being like Him, the more we understand and receive to get His will for us moving in the right direction.
I want to encourage you to find out what Jesus wants you to do and be. Then do it with all your might and you will see the victories. Pray in your closet and He will reward you openly. Watching Taken was like seeing how Jesus answers prayers by sending hidden people like Mills to do extraordinary things to rescue one sheep lost in a crevice.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, I want to do what Jesus wants me to do to rescue lost sheep. I am open to receive spiritual gifts, and to be trained by the Holy Spirit to go the extra mile. Give me Your intensity of purpose, Your love and whatever skills I need to get this job done to Your glory. In Jesus' name. Amen.