“I JUDGE HIM FAITHFUL”
In the late Fall (Autumn) of 2011, Abba put it in my spirit that I must return to the Isle of Patmos. (Revelation 1:9) I had gone there on assignment for Abba in May of 2001, during the years I lived in Aqaba, Jordan, on the Red Sea.
But, in 2011, I did not know where to fit Patmos intoa time-frame. Patmos, Greece, is not far from Tel Aviv. I thought it would be cost-efficient to combine Patmos with my next trip to Israel. I kept waiting or His instructions as to “when,” to go, and for what purpose. Upon giving me an assignment, the Master always gives me a definite purpose, with Scripture, directions, and timing. Knowing that I had to get to Patmos grew and grew in my spirit. When something is an assignment from Abba, it just doesn’t go away! In the Spring of 2012, I still had no clear direction from Him. I wanted to use my Delta mileage to go there. But, in getting my ticket back to Israel in 2012, I did not have enough mileage to fly to Israel for free. I did not think. I could have used the mileage to fly into Athens. From Athens to Tel Aviv would have cost under $300.00, round trip. But, see, with all that reasoning, none of it was Abba’s plan. I thought of the almost impossible difficulty I would have lugging my suitcases onto boats, ships, small airplanes, in and out of taxis, buses, and up and down many hills and steps, if I went to Patmos before of after being in Israel. I was discouraged. So, I paid for a round trip ticket to Tel Aviv, which of course put my mileage amount way over what was needed for a free ticket (which I used in the Fall of 2012).
I sat in my apartment in Tiberias (spring 2012), seeing if could plan a trip in and out of Israel while I was there. Abba remained silent. So, I just committed it to Him, and stopped questioning. Upon returning to Florida in June of 2012, Abba spoke finally. I learned that the Olympics would be in London. The more I studied, the more His watchmen confirmed, the more I saw in the spirit what was happening, the more He directed me to Scripture and to understanding what He wanted me to proclaim for Him on Patmos. Believe me! Organizing a trip to Patmos takes a tremendous amount of logistical preparations! He impressed on me that I had to go in the summer as a separate trip unconnected to Israel. I wrote several articles about what this Olympics meant. The understand grew and grew, and the assignment grew and grew, realizing it was a major turning point in the world as a whole rejecting Yahuweh and Yahushua and calling for the sky gods, sun gods, of ancient Greece, Rome, Egypt, Persia, and whoever they were called all over the earth, to come and rule the earth. This “calling” has been going on for some time, but it reached world intensity at the Olympics. He instructed me to go during the time of the Olympics in London. I knew this assignment was an extremely important one, and I was very humbled that Abba would ask me to do it. He began preparing me in 2010 for it, actually, though I did not know it at the time.
In the meantime, as I was looking at a map of the Greek Islands, I saw in my peripheral vision a big star on the map to the west. I looked to see what was starred and went numb with shock. The star was by Rome. Into my spirit came what I thought would never come. I said to Abba: “OH NO! You don’t want me to go to Rome do You?”
I never wanted to go to Rome, let alone to the Vatican. But, that is just where He wanted me to go before Patmos. I arranged to go July 29th, arriving in Rome July 30th, staying the 30th and 31stto do my proclamation/declaration assignment to proclaim His message in the face of the “Dragon,” then flying to Athens on August 1st. I would return to America just before the end of the Olympics. In the meantime, He became talkative, as He always does when His servants prepare to go on an assignment for Him. Thing is, He keeps His servants on assignment, so hearing from Him in one of those 40 ways that are with precedent in the Bible is absolutely as normal as a person’s earthly Boss at work giving an employee his work for the day. It is this world that contains the illusions; Abba’s world is pure reality!!!
I fulfilled my assignment on Patmos and returned to Athens two days before my flight would leave for America. On the one non-travel free day, I felt I had to get to Delphi. The ruins of ancient Delphi lie about 1/4th mile outside the modern village. It is about 3 ½ hours drive from Athens by bus. I stayed at the Niki Hotel downtown Athens, not too far from their Central Bus Station. It was a blazing-hot day. Thank goodness the bus was air conditioned. The bus stopped at a nice tourist rest place in the mountains. Delphi is very high in the mountains, though only about 10 miles from the Corinthian Channel that opens into the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. I’ve written how I sat across from the rock, below the Temple of Apollo, on which sat the first of the Sibyls, the Cumaean Sibyl, who gave the ancient prophecy of the return of Apollo--which is extremely relevant to us now.There is a painting by Michael Angelo on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel of her. Interesting that she has 6 fingers…
But, as I walked up to the temple of Apollo, I knew I was beginning to feel the symptoms of heat stroke. I had heat stroke as a teenager, and I knew its symptoms. I had failed to wear a hat. It was over 100 degree heat yet I was getting chills. So, I went back down, and walked to the little village, praying as I went. I sat in a little restaurant. The last bus back to Athens would be coming in about ½ an hour. Before the bus was due, I went across the street to the imaginary bus stop along the road. There was a young girl there who was backpacking, and two young boys who wanted on the bus, too. In the middle of the night, about 3:00AM, I had to take a taxi to the airport to fly to New York, then to Tampa. I needed to rest some, and get something to eat. By the time the bus would get me to the bus station and I would get a taxi to the Niki, I would not have too much time to eat and sleep. I could not miss that plane!
But, as I stood there, the bus didn’t come, and didn’t come…
One song had stuck in my mind, which I sang the whole trip, as it played over and over in my head: “Faithful God,” from Kent Henry’s CD album “Come to the Oasis.”
Here are the words:
This I testify, until I see it with my eyes, that Your Word is true My God, You cannot lie: I would would’ve despaired unless I had believed I’d see Your goodness, that your Word says your mercy will follow me all of my days. And I would’ve despaired unless I had believed I’d see your glory, for I know that by seeking You promised that I’d see your face--my faithful God. My faithful God … (repeated) from generation to generation – faithful God…
It is a song of great passion, taken from Psalm 27:13 (KJV), by King David: “I would have fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of Yahuweh in the land of the living.”
Jerusalem Bible, Psalm 27:13-14: “This I believe, that I shall see the goodness of Yahweh in the land of the living. Put your hope in Yahweh; be strong, let your heart be bold, put your hope in Yahweh.”
Psalm 23:6: “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of Yahuweh forever.”
Jeremiah 29:13: “And you will seek Me, and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”
Psalm 24:6: “This is the generation that seek Him – that seek Your face, O Ya’cob.”
Psalm 27:8, words of King David to Yahuweh: “When you said `seek My face,’ my heart said to You, `Your face will I seek.”
As I stood there waiting for the bus, that song played in my head with full musical accompaniment, Kent singing, “And I would’ve despaired unless I had believed I’d see your goodness…”
It gave me joy and peace! He never leaves us or forsakes us. The word “forsake” means “to strand along the roadside with no help.” He has never stranded me, though I have been along many roadsides with no help apparent, for a short time!
Then as the song progressed louder and louder in my mind, here came the bus over the hillside.To this day, every time I listen to that song, I see clearly that scenario in my mind of my waiting by the roadside for that bus, and then seeing the bus coming over the hill. It never fails. Upon hearing that song, and envisioning that bus, I burst into tears and “sob my heart out.” In reality, I would not be alive if He was not faithful!
I chose the song by Steven Curtis Chapman The Great Adventure a long time ago as a theme song of my life. Now, at age 69, I look back over my great adventurous life at the miracles of His faithfulness, and my theme song has become “Faithful God” (Yah).
My proclamation is found is Lamentations 3:21-26: “I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. It is of Yahuweh’s mercies that we are not consumed because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is Your faithfulness! Yahuweh is my portion says my soul, therefore will I hope in Him. Yahuweh is good unto them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeks Him. It is good for a man to hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Yahuweh.”
Hebrews 11:8-12 (KJV): “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out to a place which he should after receive for an inheritance obeyed. And he went out not knowing where he was going. By faith, he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him in the same promise, for he looked for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. By faith also, Sarah received faith to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, BECAUSE SHE JUDGED HIM FAITHFUL WHO HAD PROMISED. Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, as many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable.”
THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE IS FAITHFUL. LOOK AT THE CONSISTENT ORDER OF HIS CREATION! The Word is full of references to Him as Creator!
In my article “The Sunrise Lessons,”/September 17, 2007, the one thing that was really embedded in my spirit after 6 weeks of daily watching the sun rise over Lake Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee), was that HE IS FAITHFUL. Each day, the sun would rise a little later. It was impossible to tell from my vantage point just when that bright yellow ball would rise over the Golan Heights, or exactly when. But, morning after morning, it rose, just as it always did. My son recently asked:” Do we fret and worry every night because we fear that the sun might not rise?” No, almost no one ever stops to think about the possibility that the sun won’t rise, or set, or that the earth will stop turning on its axis and fly into space, that spring may never come, or summer… Yet, since the creation of the universe, so many million, billion, trillion, or zillion years ago, never once has our sun failed to rise over planet earth at its appointed time. His universe was set in motion, and as He tells us, it will not ever fail in its motion. He created the universe by His Word. If His Word ever fails, the universe will collapse in upon itself and be destroyed. Talk about a “big bang!”
The Scriptures tell us that it is Yahushua who holds everything in place, for He is the embodiment of the Word of Yahuweh. Colossians 1:15-17, speaking of Messiah Yahushua: “Who is the image of the invisible Elohim, the firstborn of creation. For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible, and invisible…all things were created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things and by Him all things consist.” (Note Greek: …by Him all things hold together.)
Elohim is incredibly consistent. Man is unstable, always in flux, always up and down, in and out. Stability and consistency is not the nature of man whose nature rebels against his Creator. But… II Timothy 2:13: “If we believe not, yet He abides faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.”
Once He sets His Word into motion, giving His promises, they will come to pass. In walking by faith, we must not do anything of importance without having His Word on it. He always gives me His Word, to let me know what He has in mind, and what the outcome of it will be. On things important, and even mundane things that may lead to things important, daily I do not act or speak on my own, but follow the example of Yahushua, and wait to hear from my Abba. Sometimes He tells us to do the simplest things, and if we do not do them, a whole chain of events is broken!
Once, as an immature believer, after moving to Texas in 1986, we found a house that we really wanted to buy. We had sold our house in North Carolina. But, upon submitting our application to the realtor, in Fort Worth, and the bank, we were denied credit to buy the house. I was very mad at “GOD.” He was supposed to get that house for us, so I thought. But, He patiently asked me: “Did I tell you that house was yours?” I was shocked. No, He had not told me. I learned that unless He says something is ours, we must wait until He directs. Faith has to be based on “thus says Yahuweh!” Once He gives His Word on something, it is a sure thing!
Once His Word goes into the earth, it accomplishes what its purpose, and does not return to Him void (empty).
Isaiah 55:8-11: “`For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways’, says Yahuweh. `For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain comes down and the snow from heaven, and returns not, but waters the earth, and makes it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My Word that goes forth out of My mouth – it shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.’ ”
Malachi 3:6: “For I am Yahuweh, I change not! Therefore the sons of Ya’cob are not consumed.”
Do you realize, sons and daughters of Ya’cob, that we all would be destroyed by now, or not even born, if He was not faithful to His promises to our forefathers – Abraham, Yitzak, and Ya’cob? Because He made His promise with Abraham, swearing by His own faithfulness, we are not consumed. Like with my own life, He had every right to throw me into the pit of hell forever. I deserved it. But, He was faithful to His promises to me.
This is why II Timothy 2:13 is the bedrock of my testimony!
Because He keeps His Word, we are not consumed and destroyed. Neither will the earth or heavens ever be destroyed, they will simply be renewed … return back to their original splendor. He will “renew” the earth.
Psalm 33:4-9: “The Word of Yahuweh is right, and all His works are done in truth. He loves righteousness and judgment. The earth is full of the goodness of Yahuweh. By the Word of Yahuweh were the heavens made, and all the hosts of them by the breath of His mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap…Let all the earth fear Yahuweh. Let all the inhabitants of the earth stand in awe of Him. For He spoke and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast.” Worship Him as Creator, fear Him as your Creator. He will come to redeem (buy back) His Creation. (Revelation 11:15-19)
Psalm 119:160: “Your Word is true from the beginning, and every one of Your righteous judgments endure forever.”
John 17:17: “Set them apart through Your Word – Your Word is Truth.”
He is faithful, trustworthy, consistent, never-changing, immoveable, stable, infallible, all loving, all Light, all justice and righteousness, all purity and set-apartness, all perfection, all powerful. And He wants to fellowship with us!
The more you get His Word into your spirit, and hear it sung, and sing it yourself, the more it will affect your “soul,” – mind, emotions, reasoning, and will. Until it’s transforming power will unite you to the nature, ways, and thinking, of your Creator.
He opened the bars of my cage and set me free! I have a passion for Him as Creator, for the Word keeps returning to that fact so that we might know that He is Elohim, and we are not! If there is anything I know, it is that He is faithful, “for He cannot deny Himself.” What He has set in motion will have its fulfillment, what He wills shall come to pass! He is consistent; we are not. However, by His Spirit, we can become consistent. We can take on His nature. But, it takes being broken, crushed, and humbled, so that we die to self, and only desire Him with all our heart.