SALT & LIGHT - ISSUE 4

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The Blessing of Jesus (sent 29/12/2009) “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep, And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light day, and the darkness He called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so... And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called He Seas: and God saw that is was good. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day. And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: He made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that has life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moves, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps upon the earth after his

God saw that it was good. And God said... Let Us make man Our Image, after Our Likeness: and let them have dominion (Complete

kind: and

in Authority) over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and

God created man in His Own Image, in the Image of God created He him; male and female created He them. And God blessed them, and God said over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. So

unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion (Complete Authority) over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth. And God said, Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for food....And

God saw everything that He had made, and


behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day”. (The Book of Genesis Chapter One written by Moses as inspired by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:20&21))

What pursuits are you engaged in to ensure a comfortable and secure financial future for you and your family? Have you decided you are not going to have any family of your own because things are a bit too rough for you now, and you want to ensure you put the right things in place so they can enjoy life with a lot more liberty than you had... You got this from God... He created the earth, set about making everything comfortable because He had planned to create Himself a family just like any well-meaning man would set about to do... And just like any well-meaning man, He wanted to ensure that every comfort was available to His family even before they arrived. If you read on after Chapter One of the book of Genesis, Verse 8 of Chapter 2 would reveal how God planted a garden around the area now known as modern day Iraq “...eastward in eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed...”. This man had everything he could possibly desire within his grasp. He did not even know the word lack, he had complete abundance. Please notice the Lord’s description in the Amplified Version of this garden He put man in “...And the Lord God planted a garden towards the east, in Eden (delight); and there He put the man whom He had formed (framed, constituted). And out of the ground


the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight or to be desired- good (suitable, pleasant) for food...Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it divided and became four (river) heads. The first is named Pishon; it is the one flowing around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. The gold of that land is of high quality...”.

Man was born with such intellectual capacity, that without any formal education just like God, he began to name every animal “...the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof...” (Genesis 2:19&20) Can you see this... such power... such prowess... such intellectual dexterity that no business school, university or training institution could give him...

Man was tasked with tending,

guarding,

and

Now guard

keeping this garden (Chapter 2:15 AMP)...

why would God ask you to something if there is no enemy, that old thief who would like to kill, steal, and destroy it (John 10:10/ Luke 22:31/ Revelation 12:9/ 20:2)... God’s purpose was for Man to continue the work He had started and tend and keep this garden till it spread all around the whole earth, populating it with all of us


enjoying the bounty and goodness of this garden... In God’s plan, there would be no racial barriers in His family, no social classes, no gender discrimination... and all would enjoy the full riches of this garden spread out to its fullness and fellowship with each other in the satisfying streams of His love (1 Corinthians 12:13).

Man enjoyed a close relationship with the Lord such that they “...heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day...”; but we all know the story of what happened... how man disobeyed God and obeyed the devil, thus relinquishing his complete authority over the earth to the devil and coming under his dominion... this is not my main point but might I just add that it was primarily the male part of man’s fault... God never mentioned anything about touching the fruit of the trees of the knowledge of good and evil, He had to touch it! Because it was his responsibility to tend and keep the whole garden... this was when the first religiously legalistic rules that have so enslaved men pitifully was instituted... These were God’s exact instructions and I quote “...You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and blessing and calamity you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die...” The following verses clearly shows how God then decided the male part of man needed a female to help him keep this... but there is another side to the story, instead of the man relaying these exact instructions from the Lord to the woman, this is what he told her which she relayed word for word to the enemy when he came to tempt “...We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die..”, so then what must have transpired in this deception to get her to eat of this fruit was the enemy must have touched it and said see I am not dead, God did not really mean this so go ahead and eat of it... and she did... and she gave to Adam... and He did eat... he knew better... he was not deceived... he should have said “..you get out of my garden you filthy devil, in the name of Almighty God!”, and the force of that would have blown the devil right out... the Spirit of God even witnesses to me that Adam did not even need to use His Name to knock that slimy thief down... God had made him His delegated Authority over the whole earth, just as God is King over the whole Universe... and the devil would’ve had no choice but to obey... and might I add that he, Adam was actually physically present while Eve was being mislead... there are loads of questions I have too for the Lord, but it is clear to draw from His word that the woman was unprepared with the complete information to confront the enemy with the authority God had given them. Man failed woefully in their collective responsibility to guard this garden, and thus they were kicked out for their own good because exactly what God had warned resulted, spiritual death or a separation from the Life of God, the Zoe... was the result. God had to kick them out because just as you would go to the ends of the earth to look for ways to bail your children out of the mess they’ve put themselves into, He immediately put into action a plan to rescue them... us... He said “...lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever...” 3:22. This was not a denial of man something that would benefit him, this was protection par excellence... man had come under the dominion and control of the devil... the enemy would have then made them eat of this tree of life, and keep them in this debased state forever... and then God would have had to destroy all of us and start his family afresh.


Imagine such pain the Lord felt all that time to be estranged from His new family... imagine the sorrow as the beauty He created for them began to disintegrate into an empty waste... just imagine their confusion as they began to experience things they never knew existed... as they began to suffer sicknesses and diseases.. and they watched one of their sons murder the other... as they lived all those 930 years watching their lives fall to pieces... watching their children murder each other... back-stab each other... gossip and plot evil against each other to bring it to pass... control and manipulate each other... and say defensively “...Am I my brother’s keeper...” Genesis 4:9, all characteristic of the devil’s nature because he had become the god of this world system (2 Corinthians 4:4) since Adam transferred his reign of authority over to him by obeying him. Imagine their confusion as they began to toil for a living...

This state of affairs continued until He saw a man named Noah who is described as a “...preacher of righteousness” Genesis 7:1, and decided to start afresh with this man because “...God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that

every imagination of the thoughts of His heart was only evil continually...”

(2 Peter 2:5/ Genesis 6:5). Guess what the Lord says when this is all done... the same blessing He said over Adam, He said over Noah in Genesis Chapter 9:1... “...Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth...” To those who would say the Lord was just talking about enough stamina for physical reproduction, would you bring a family into the world without the financial wherewithal to care for them... would God... This physical reproduction fruitfulness business does not even hold true for so many men and women today as health statistics would reveal. God’s decree to man in Genesis 1:28 according to the Amplified Version which every Bible scholar widely accepts brings out the subtle Hebrew and Greek meanings states thus “...Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it (using

all of its vast resources in the

service of God and man)...”.

Furthermore, the word fruitful means “Very productive, plenteous, abounding in anything”, multiply means “To increase in number, to make more by natural generation or production, to increase in extent, to extend, to spread...”, fill, even more exciting, means “...to press; to crowd; to stuff, to put or pour in, till the thing will hold no more, to store, to supply with abundance, to satisfy, to content, to glut, to surfeit, to press and dilate on all sides or to the extremities, to fill out, to extend or enlarge to the desired limit, to complete, to accomplish, to satiate..”.

You love your family, don’t you... Reality dawn, your family is every human being on the face of this planet... yes, this includes all the starving people in what is often


called `The third World`...the distraught immigrants on the borders of Europe who are often used by border guards as target practice... What gives any person rights to any part of the world? “We were here first!”... come on... does this not ring shallow to you... let’s go back to the Book, we `collectively`, were given complete authority over all the earth. Every human being has claim to every square inch of real estate on this planet which is reflected in the laws of countries like the United Kingdom etc, yet personal experience has shown me individual attitudes don’t quite measure up... Did you know that the laws of the UK, USA as well as many other western countries were founded on the Bible, the written Word of God of which we all have a copy... This should answer any questions as to why these places have had the highest volumes of immigration, as the value of human life is held highly. And yes, your family does include Osama Bin Laden too... Apostle Paul who was previously known as Saul was a terrorist who killed and maimed people for his beliefs too... yet he is credited with giving us some of the greatest revelations of our heritage... Forget about conspiracy theories but could it be that 5,000 people died because there was not a single Christian around those Saudi Arabians who decided look I know they just came to learn how to fly a plane but I’ve got to love these guys into the kingdom of God, pray them in diligently... and then one of them or all of them would have decided to spill the beans... we have a good example of this from what happened at Glencoe here in Scotland, the morning of the 13th of February 1692, how the Macdonald families extended hospitality, and cared for the very English soldiers who had orders to destroy them, and this led to one of the soldiers revealing the plan to the family he boarded with which led to their saving... or perhaps one single Christian who was listening to the Holy Spirit to try and avert this... Do these things describe your heart attitude today... your vision for your life, and your finances today? Check out what the Lord said to Noah...

“And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein. And God spoke unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you...And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there anymore be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, this is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow (rainbow) in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth” Genesis 9:7-13.

I know what you’re thinking... you are saying now Temisan what about that Tsunami that destroyed part of the earth killing thousands and thousands of people... well my answer would be if the church had known this, and the authority they had then all those people would not have died. Even in the midst of such death and destruction, there were shining testimonials of light, God’s grace and dramatic deliverance as a Pastor, like Jesus commanded the waves to be still, standing on his church on the forefront of this tsunami, the shores of Sri Lanka ... and commanded the waves to be still and his church was the only one left standing, all the other people who lived in that area lost everything, and the church, the only building left standing sheltered lots and lots of people (Matthew 13:31).


Some generations after Noah, a group came together and decided they were going to make their own way in life without God’s help (Genesis 11), the birth of the Babylonian system of commerce which functions on the pedals of two emotions, fear and greed... still thrives today and was responsible for the Slave Trade and every other form of human exploitation there has been till today... the gist of a different issue... anyways they were scattered all over the face of the earth and everyone began to form their own ideologies and philosophies to understand and control their circumstances in life, which was confused in conjunction with the languages... why is it that at Pentecost, the first thing to happen was men from every nation gathered in Jerusalem began hearing the wonderful works of God in their own native languages?

Around the same time period, God was dealing with a man called Abraham... Before the Lord could impact him positively, his instructions to Abraham were to leave his

Philosophies and ideologies take root in geographical locations which is often called `culture`. These `cultures` often take ascendancy over the written counsel of God in the souls of men, and limit the operation of God in their lives. So then immediate family... now, why would God say that?

Abraham obeys the Lord, and see what God tells him in the Amplified version:

“Now (in Haran) the Lord said to Abram. Go for yourself (for

your own

advantage) away from your country, from your relatives and your father’s house, to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you (with abundant increase of favors) and make your name famous and distinguished, and you will be a blessing (dispensing good to others). And I will bless those who bless you (who confer prosperity or happiness upon you)

in you will all the families and kindred of the earth be blessed (and by you they will bless themselves). So Abram departed, as the Lord had and curse him who curses or uses insolent language toward you:

directed him... Genesis 12:1 - 4


While others were struggling to establish their own ideologies, philosophies, cultures and ways to prosper and get God to acknowledge and endorse it, this was a man walking in step by step obedience with the Almighty, not knowing where life was taking him but confident in the fact that He was being led by the One who started it all...

Your brother In the patience of Christ, Temisan


“...You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavour? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless. You are the light of the world-like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father...” – Jesus Christ (Matthew 5:13 – 16) New Living Translation


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