Author: adonai4oo

Does God tempt or test man? Or let us rephrase the question; does God allow man to be tested/tempted? Given the fact or the truth that God led the 100 per cent man or Son of Man called Jesus Christ, to the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And since Jesus Christ is our Lord and Saviour, 100 per cent man, and 100 per cent God, does that mean that God led God to the wilderness and allowed the devil to tempt Him thrice. Until after the third temptation, Yeshua responded to the devil with the statement in Mathew 4:7,10; Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’

What we do know from Scriptures is that God allows disasters or some events that acts as test of our faith to take place. Isaiah 45:7; I am the LORD, and there is no other. I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things. Such an example of God bringing disaster or allowing it, can be found in the book of Job. The contextual background is laid out in Job 1:8-12; Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.” “Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.” The LORD said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your power, but on the man, himself do not lay a finger.”

Ecclesiastes 3:18; I also said to myself, “As for humans, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals.

1 Chronicles 29:17; I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity.

Jeremiah 17:10; “I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.

James 1:13-15; When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

Mathew 4:1; Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. An observation to be made here, is that since God allowed Himself to be tested by the devil, He may allow others, His creations, to be tested by the devil, who by the way is also one of His creations.

A relative of mine, in a discussion stated that “they do not believe in the Old Testament but do believe in the New Testament and in Jesus Christ”. This sounds illogical and incomprehensible, but to the individual, it makes perfect sense. Apparently, many of us chose which parts of the Scriptures we believe, and which parts seems farfetched and have no basis in reality as we know. This speaks to the amount of faith; an individual is given by God.

As far as this publication is concerned, I am yet to be confronted by any Scripture text from the New Testament, that is not based on the Old Testament. Case in point is the commandment given to us by our Lord Jesus Christ in the gospel of Mathew 23:9; Do not call anyone on earth [who guides you spiritually] your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven.

Is this a new commandment from our Lord God? Or does it have roots in the Old Testament? Well, the answer to that question with regards to whether it is a new commandment or not, can be illuminated by delving into the Old Testament, specifically the book of Ezekiel 18:3-4; “As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, you will no longer quote this proverb in Israel. For everyone belongs to me, the parent as well as the child—both alike belong to me.

The truth of the matter is that everything our Lord God declared through the mouth of His prophets and chosen men and women, in the Old Testament, were re-stated, or were executed, or was done in physical reality, in the New Testament: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. There is or was no new commandment from our Lord God, in the New Testament.

Any prayer that is more than thanksgiving and praise, is just a “shopping list “, because (1) Jesus Christ has taught us how to pray ‘Our Lord’s prayer’, and (2) The Holy Spirit said through Paul in the book of Romans: Romans 8:26-27; patiently. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and every other thing shall be added unto you. Here in this passage, Yeshua talked about our Father, the Spirit, knowing all our needs, even the hairs on our heads are numbered. And our Father that knows when a sparrow is done, a bird that does not sow but yet is provided for by the Spirit, how much less we, more important and valuable.

Who knows what is needed by themselves in a years’ time, or 5 years from today? What we may ask for today may be unnecessary or useless in a year’s time. However, the One who knows the end from the beginning, knows what is good for us, that love Him. Jesus Christ, in whose Name we pray. His Words are pure, flawless without any need for interpretation. The Holy Spirit that He promised to send after His resurrection, spoke the Truth, through Paul in the quoted Scriptures from the book of Romans. In addition to the quoted Scriptures from our Lord Yeshua, our God. Only the parables of Jesus Christ are metaphoric in nature, other aspects of His sermons are explicit and literal. Pure, flawless; such as ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with your soul and with all your mind. Secondly, love your neighbour (including your enemy) like yourself, upon these two hangs all the laws. Love transcends the laws. Through the laws, everyone falls short. However, there is no law against love. True love is described in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8.

However, the fundamental point in the sermons by Jesus Christ, with regards to prayers, is a key divergence for believers. First of all, if we really believe that God knows everything (in theology, that is Omniscient God), then isn’t it redundancy on our part, telling or asking God for things. When He knows what we need and what is good for us and the appropriate time to give us. This is the basis of the sermon where Jesus Christ said: seek ye first the kingdom of God, and every other thing shall be added unto you. Where He said: ‘seek, knock, and ask’, when God grants us understanding of His Words, then we understand that the ‘seek, knock, and ask’ here refers to seeking God, the Holy Spirit, and not asking for miracles, but the miracle worker Himself; Yeshua. Not asking for our flesh desires, but spirit One. We should ask God for our daily bread, after He has given us the gift of life, breathe for the day, though He provides some of us without our asking Him. God is Spirit (John 4:24) Any argument against the Omniscient attribute of God shows lack of understanding of the nature of God. Some people have been blessed with actions of faith from God, that Yeshua is indeed Omniscient. What does a man have to tell the One who knows everything; the past, the present, and the future, including eternity to come. There is only thanksgiving and praises to the Almighty Yeshua, that man has to say and do. Praise the Lord. Hosanna to Yeshua.

Prayers that go beyond thanksgiving and praises, are simply attempts to blackmail God; or insinuate that God is forgetful; or imply that we know better than God, what is good for, or needed by us; or use reverse psychology on God; or that the prayer He, God taught us, is not exhaustive or complete enough. An example is the prayer of Moses in Exodus 32:9-14; “I have seen these people,” the Lord said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.” But Moses sought the favour of the Lord his God. “Lord,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’” Then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened. However, the rest of that story was that none of that generation reached the Promised Land. Moses’ prayer only resulted in the can being kicked further down the road, the Word of God still came to pass.

Some believers point to the prayer of King Hezekiah as an example of effectiveness of prayer, however, that one is also taken out of context. The annals of the Kings; 2 Kings 20 and 21, tells the story in context, if King Hezekiah had joined his forefathers at the time God originally appointed for him, he would not have had the child Manasseh who was twelve years old when he became king, and did evil in the sight of God. Remember that God added fifteen years to the life of Hezekiah. Some point out what the Holy Spirit said through Paul in Romans 12:12; Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Well what kind of prayer? Thus, how or for what should we pray, well God taught us in Mathew 6:9-13; Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen. Well, some of us are looking for a good spouse, a good job, shelter, or healing or something else. This write-up is not advocating that one should not ask God for what we lack or need or desire, however, remember according to the Gospel of John 9:1–12, Jesus saw a man who had been blind since birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus replied: Neither this man nor his parents sinned … but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. God is always in control, nothing is hidden from Him, He sees everything, He knows everything, He is Wisdom, Love, Kindness, Integrity, Faithful, Magnanimous, Gentle, Caring, Righteous, Just, Forgiving, and Creator of Heaven and Earth. Our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Blessed is He, who comes in the Name of the Lord – HOSANNA

God is the Prophet. He prophesied through one of His prophets, Zechariah, five to seven centuries earlier. And since Yeshua is the One who says a thing and brings it to pass. What He prophesied through Zechariah 9:9, was later fulfilled on Palm Sunday. Zechariah 9:9; Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

God said in the gospel of Mathew 11:29; I am meek and lowly in heart. Since Yeshua is lowly in heart, no wonder He hates the proud, which is why He said in Mathew 23:12; For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. God sees everything, there are those who study the Scriptures with their head, and therefore try to follow this attribute of Christ with their head, they try to exhibit meekness from their head, and not from their heart. For these people the Holy Spirit said in Colossians 2:18; Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind.

The fulfilment of the prophecy in Zechariah came to pass on Palm Sunday in Mark 11:1-11; As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.’” They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, some people standing there asked, “What are you doing, untying that colt?” They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted, “Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!” “Hosanna in the highest heaven!” Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.

When those singing Hosanna were being rebuked by those who exalts themselves, Yeshua reminded them of what He, the Holy Spirit said through King David, a millennium earlier. We have the account in Mathew 21:15-16; But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant. “Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him. “Yes,” replied Jesus, “have you never read, “‘From the lips of children and infants you, Lord, have called forth your praise’?” Yeshua was quoting from Psalm 8:2; Through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. Yeshua is indeed meek and lowly of heart, so much so that when He came to execute the most important task since before Creation, which is Salvation, He didn’t come with His Hosts, Mighty Angels, Heavenly Army primed for battle, instead with the stronghold of praise from the mouth of children and infants singing HOSANNA, HOSANNA, HOSANNA to the King of Kings.

John 14:6; Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. Exodus 35:31; He has filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills.

Applying for a job involves being interviewed before being hired for the job. Most interviewers are interested in who a candidate is, since the curriculum vitae already tells them what the candidate is. Most unsuccessful applicants are not able to answer the question “Who are you?”, instead they give the answer detailing what they are, to the question of who they are. And when a person does not know who they are, others will tell them who they want them to be or should be.

The Scripture text of Exodus quoted above, is about what a person is, and it is God that endows a person with skill sets required to perform any kind of work. While the text in the book of John quoted above tells us that it is also God that is the source of life.

All human beings are vessels, tools, ‘what’, inanimate objects created by God. Jesus Christ then breathes life into the vessels, that then assumes personalities or personas or life forces or ‘who’. Any tool without life is simply a thing, inanimate or dead. Other tools can and do subsequently project whatever image they want, which is less than they themselves unto those who are not rooted in Christ.

There is no life outside of Jesus Christ. Who am I? I am a child of Yeshua. I try to live like Him. You want to know my personality, then I suggest you read your Bible to find out about His personality, that is my personality blueprint. Do not bother to compare yourself to me. It is futile if you are trying to proof that you are better than me or worse than me, or more intelligent, or less intelligent than me, more or less artistic than me, or whether you are a better Lawyer than me, or a better doctor, engineer or whatever skillset based professional than me. I am who Christ says I am. The what can change over time, but the who does not change.