July 5, 2020

Shalom, shalom; peace, peace in the name of Yeshua. I am your host Crystal Sharpe and welcome to the Ancient Scrolls program. I do have a website called ancientscrollsonline.com and I post prophetic dreams, prophetic words, prophetic visions, articles, and sources. Shema Deuteronomy 6 Shema (hear), O Israel, the Lord God, the Lord is One. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your strength. Psalm 24 The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof; the world and those who dwell therein. Father YHVH, You are the King of the Universe, King over heaven and earth. Your throne sits on righteousness and justice. We ask that Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. I ask that You cleanse me of all unrighteousness, make my heart pure, and my hands clean. Cleanse my thoughts of any evil intent. I desire Your words to penetrate my being and to change me. Work Your will, Your purpose in me. Pull down strongholds and make my heart sensitive to You, my ear open to Your voice. My hand a ready pen to write Your vision, to write Your Words, to write Your message, to record them for posterity. We pray for hearts to receive Your message. We pray You will breathe Your breath of life over Your people. We pray for a spirit of repentance to fall on your creation. I pray for those who resist the call of repentance, that one day they will submit to the Holy Spirit. We ask that You remove the spirit of delusion from their minds and open the eyes of their hearts so that they can receive You. We forgive others of their sins against us. We thank You for Your Word, for it is a light to guide us in these dark, uncertain, and traumatic times. We pray for strength to endure the rest of the year. We pray Your vision will saturate those that are faithful to You. We pray clarity over Your true core of people. We bless You, You are faithful and true and every knee will bow before You. Father, You have given Yeshua the name that is above every name, that at the name of Yeshua every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Yeshua HaMashiach is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Amen. Philippians 2:9-11 Alright, I am thinking some of you are keeping up with the news. One can look at the world and make some comparisons to Matthew 24 and Luke 17; the chapters in these gospels that speak prophetically of events that will occur before the return of Yeshua. Everything I see tells me His return is imminent. The prophetic words of Yeshua, when you make comparisons to some of these evernts, one would think they are coming to pass. The news mediums have established the coronavirus has rebounded. Of course, Fauci guaranteed it would a month ago. Civil unrest has subsided some, but then there isn’t anything left to burn in some of these cities. I saw images of Minneapolis, New York and other places, and they all look worse than third world nations. One image, I thought it was Iraq with the burned-out buildings and vehicles, but it was Minneapolis. It is terrible. New York in 24 hours had 4 people to die from Coronavirus, and in that same span of time, 19 people died from gunshot wounds. Maybe instead of buying masks they should purchase bullet proof vests. But what do I know? I had read an article concerning Shaun King of Black Lives Matter, and he was aggressively urging the burning of churches. A few have been torched, along with synagogues. Mosques remain unscathed. So, it appears to me that persecution is here. Some would be a little cautious in using the P word, persecution, but I don’t have a problem with stating it. Sooner or later we will be confronted with it. If churches are targeted, that is persecution. The news programs and the mob ruling people, and the world’s elitists are fomenting a civil war. This is, of course, spiritually agitated by demonic forces, by Satan. For some years I have seen images of these things taking place. If this is not checked, the worse is yet to come. The enemy is creating fear through all this chaos. For people in general and Christians this is certainly a trying time. It is difficult to think all this may be over in a couple of months or even before December. However, I can’t. Just looking at what the nation is coming through right now, and the election coming up in November, well, we have been fasting concerning many issues. So, what would be my opinion on the next few months. I would think that things may not improve very much. The elitists are squeezing everything they can out of COVID-19; more fear and more chaos. We don’t know if everything will be shut down again so we are just preparing ourselves a little better for this next round. Then we do have the election in November. We will have to wait and see. We are continuing to fast and pray. It is a time to become more intimate with God, and wait on His justice and righteousness. The world has always been dysfunctional, it is always has been full of uncertainties, it is not a secure place, and right now we are seeing perilous times which are violent times. The next few months may become even more unpredictable and perhaps even more violent because the spiritual forces of God’s kingdom and the forces of the Devil are colliding. What is unfolding before us is this great spiritual conflict between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness. The devil has an agenda to stop revival, and to bring in the beast of Revelation 13. The war is real! We are eye witnesses to a real spiritual war. The enemy thinks he is going to win, but God will win. We all have read the end of the book, and God brings everything to order. His Son will defeat the rebellious nations, He will defeat the beast from the sea and the beast from the earth. God has already promised victory, it’s just the process is long and tedious. But those who over come will inherit the kingdom. Those who endure to the end will be saved. In the process we have to guard our hearts. We have to guard our salvation. We have to continually wear the armor of God and not take it off. The Whole Armor of God Ephesians 6:10-20 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil n the heavenly places. 13. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand firm. 14. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having the breastplate of righteousness, 15. and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17. and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 18. praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, 19. and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, 20. for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak. (Paul was imprisoned while in Rome). So here we see Paul introduces the armor of God by focusing on the strength it gives. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. As people we cannot stand on our own against superhuman powers, as Christians we must rely upon the strength of the Lord’s own might Ephesians 1:19 And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of His great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but in the one to come. Paul piles up “power words” to express the immeasurable greatness of God’s power, working, and great might toward believers. Power over supernatural forces. In Ephesus was this backdrop of idol worship of Diana. Her devotees focused on the occult, magic and the dark arts of Satan. But the power of the living God triumphed over all these competing authorities. Remember in Acts 19, those who came to believe in Messiah burned their black art books, and the gospel of Yeshua affected all the traders that made silver shrines to Diana. The gospel was effective. 11. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. The Greek word for whole armor is panoplia, it refers to the complete equipment of a fully armed soldier, complete with shields and weapons. The weapons of God are supernatural against a supernatural force of evil. God’s armor is more powerful and fully equips us for battle or for war against the enemy; and it never fails. Though this armor is similar to the equipment of a Roman soldier, their equipment could fail them at times; swords could break and the more ancient shields were made of wood. If arrows were saturated with some flammable material and once airborne and penetrated the shield, it would catch fire. But the darts of the enemy has no affect and cannot penetrate the shield of faith. The darts fail and fall to the ground. 11. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. The schemes or wiles of the devil. The Greek word is (3180) methodeia. It is an orderly, logical, effective arrangement, usually in steps followed to achieve an end; as reference to planned, subtle, systematized error. It has its own logic, its own method to mislead, to lead astray from the Word to error or another doctrine. Paul was constantly putting down errors in the churches. The Judaizers would come and teach that to be saved one would have to be circumcised, the Gnostics would come and teach another message, there were issues with angel worship. It was a constant battle. 12. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness (against the world rulers of this darkness), against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (or the supernatural sphere, in the spiritual realm). But here is where the analogy with wrestling breaks down somewhat, for this spiritual battle is not a power struggle but a truth struggle. God’s Word of Truth renews our mind (Ep 4:23- note), and determines how we think and believe and therefore how we act and behave. Then as we obey the truth, we are in fact standing firm, resisting the lies of the devil and the world (and our flesh) which says you can serve two masters and still be a disciple, and still be controlled by the Spirit. We struggle with people, with society, politics, family, but in this mess of struggle we wrestle with ourselves as well. The world system presses on us to conform in one way or another. It creates a situation where you have to wrestle with it, with your flesh or the flesh of others, their actions and conduct. 13. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, (be decisive, apply the armor, apply the weapons of your warfare) that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand firm. Okay, I do not understand why people say there is no armor for the back. I had gone to the museums in Germany a few times and on display were different types of chest armor and they have to be attached to something on the back in order for it to be continually held in place on the chest. The soldiers were fitted with a front and back and a wide strap on each side shoulder would lock or hold the metal together. There were some breast plates that were made like shingles or siding on a house; by that, I mean the metal would overlap each other, and this would cover the front and back. 14. Stand therefore (stand firm, that is, take a posture of the Word, take the position of the Word, stand against the ideologies of the world, do not allow for syncretism which is a blending), having fastened on the belt of truth (be ready for combat, to defeat the lies of the enemy with the Word ), and having the breastplate of righteousness, 15. and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17. and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 18. praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, 19. and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, 20. for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak. When Yeshua was in the wilderness, Israel is a hot and dry climate; he was out there with beasts; He was hungry and thirsty, weak and tired; and that is when Satan came to Him. But Yeshua had His whole armor on. In His condition, in His circumstances, He stood firm against the darts of the enemy. He was able to extinguish every doubt set forth by Satan. Right now, with the world and national events that are unfolding before us, the church may be going into the wilderness of sorts to be tested. Genuine Christians will already have been wearing their armor and will not waver, will not be double minded. Yeshua utilized the Word while begin confronted by Satan and today’s genuine believers will have to do the same. I am going to end the program here. If it is God’s will, I will be here next week. Remember to walk by faith and not by sight. Ask God to cleanse you of all unrighteousness every day. Hunger and thirst after righteousness, so that you will be enriched in all His wisdom. Keep your spiritual garments clean from spot, wrinkle, and blemish. Do two things this week, love and forgive. Love God and love your neighbor. Rico Cortes will sing the Aaronic priestly blessing.