“Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.”

Persecution November 25 2018

That was the sound of the shofar; Moses would say at the movement of the Ark of the Covenant: “Rise up, O LORD! Let Your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate You flee before You.”  To that I would say: Amen!

Shalom, shalom; peace in the name of Yeshua. This is Crystal Sharpe and welcome to the Ancient Scrolls program. Today is the first day of the week, it is Sunday November 25. I hope everyone enjoyed Thanksgiving Day. We felt entirely blessed to be able to enjoy family and friends. It is just 36 more days until the year 2019.

Friday morning I woke up with the Father speaking to me and this is what He was saying to everyone who has ears to hear, and that is a Hebrew idiom to mean those who have understanding, that now is the time to pay off any debt one may have; this is credit card debt, housing debt, any outstanding balance on vehicles or medical expenses, just debt.

The Father has been speaking to us that a market crash is imminent, how imminent? We are not certain, and it could be that He is waiting for us to get understanding to do what He says so that it will be less painful when it finally happens. It will be still painful but not as painful as it would have been had not one used their understanding to prepare for what is coming.

There is going to be persecution besides a market crash. Only a very few people are prepared for that.  

Today, because we are aware of the time in which we are living, we know where society is going. I am going to go over a few passages concerning persecution. It isn’t a popular message and I know that some would prefer hearing a more positive message that would lure everyone into false security.

I am not called to give a false message, that message–don’t worry; be happy, but I am required to give the reality of what God says is coming. He is saying prepare for the persecution, prepare for the economy to fail you and the government to fail you. This nation is not repenting before God, it is not giving up its sex idols, it is not giving up its murder of the innocent, it isn’t giving up its god called Mammon. Mammon has infiltrated the pulpits of God.

Why be mesmerized by a false doctrine of a false god? I am going to read I Timothy chapter 6, and it is pure in its language about what true godliness is.

Those who are under the yoke of slavery should regard their masters as worthy of full respect, so that the name of God and the teaching will not be brought into disrepute. And those who have believing masters are not to show them (their slaves) less respect on the ground that they are brothers, on the contrary, they should serve all the more diligently, since those benefiting from their service are believers whom they love.  (This is pure doctrine in submitting to each other. How will the world know you are my disciples? By our love for one another)

Teach and exhort people about these things. If anyone teaches differently and does not agree to the sound precepts of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah and to the doctrine that is in keeping with godliness he is swollen with conceit and understands nothing.

Instead he has a morbid desire for controversies and word-battles, out of which come jealousy, dissension, insults, evil suspicions, and constant wrangling among people whose minds no longer function properly and who have been deprived of the truth, so that they imagine that religion is a road to riches.

Verse 6 Now true religion does bring great riches, but only to those who are content with what they have.

Chapter 6 begins with the teaching on the Master and the slave submitting to one another. The disciple of the god of Mammon submits also, but only to his greed—they will not receive or submit to truth; they will not submit to Biblical doctrine; will not submit themselves one to another—they submit to greed and because of it will deprived of the of the truth, of the riches of true religion.

For we have brought nothing into the world; and we can take nothing out of it; so if we have food and clothing, we will be satisfied with these. Furthermore, those whose goal is to be rich fall into temptation; they get trapped in may foolish and hurtful ambitions which plunge them into ruin and destruction, for the love of money is a root of all the evils; because of this craving, some people have wandered away from faith and pierced themselves to the heart with many pains.

Verse 11. But you, as a man of God, flee from these things; and pursue righteousness, godliness, faithfulness, love, steadfastness, gentleness. (The disciple of mammon cannot do or practice these things) Fight the good fight of the faith, take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, when you testified so well to your faith before many witnesses.

We are living in the day of strong delusion, though people are swept away by it—we don’t have to be. Stick to the Word, to the Bible to its doctrines.

There are wicked, and vile people in this nation’s government that have nefarious plans to bring this nation underneath the authority of the antichrist. Those of you who are practicing the word, you are not caught in the strong delusion; you don’t agree with the ideologies of the Babylonian system; listen you are a threat to the antichrist system. They don’t care about the apostate church of mammon and sex idols and their many other lusts; but you who have understanding—you are a threat because you would expose the antichrist.

Besides, I do have positive news: We are in the end days and Yeshua is returning soon! Even so Lord Jesus, come.

Let us pray and bring our concerns to the Father in Yeshua’s name.

Father,

We thank You for being God, for being the King of the Universe over heaven and earth. The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof; the world, and those who dwell therein. The joy of the Lord is my strength. I ask You to cleanse me from all unrighteousness so my prayers will not be hindered.

The Shema proclamation:

Shema, O America, the Lord our 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.

We pray that You would push back the darkness, the principalities, powers, rulers of darkness and spiritual wickedness in high places. We pray for the people of this nation to receive understanding, to receive the love of Your truth; and to resist the strong delusion of the antichrist spirit. We pray for a Spirit of repentance to saturate this nation. We pray Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

We thank You for the rhema Word we received from You last week. You said: “I will breathe on them new life.” We receive Your Word, we receive Your breath of new life.

We pray life over Your people. We pray healing over Your people. We pray repentance. We pray restoration. Many people are broken by the changes in this life, by loss of jobs, homes, spouses—divorce, coping with illnesses and death, the curse of drug addiction is epidemic; and recently an outbreak of Hepatitis A has surfaced here in Beckley. Last year, Hepatitis A caused over 11,000 deaths.

We cannot believe in the economy, we cannot look to politicians for answers, we cannot look to men, but we can believe and look to God. He is my God our helper. He paid a great price for us.

We pray for President Trump. We pray for Your wisdom, knowledge and understanding to permeate every aspect of his life, along with Your Spirit of the fear of the Lord. We pray for his protection. We pray for him to be a seeker of You and Your ways.

We pray for Israel, and their protection as well. We pray for their leaders to have hidden strategies against the world that is conspiring to annihilate them. Their only trust is in You—the hope of all Israel.

Father, here we are in the dark ages once more. You are the only light we have in this dark world.  We ask You to remember Your righteous people today; bring healing to those who have been sexually abused by church members, and family members; those who carry these deep wounds in their emotions and their minds; bring deliverance to those who are pleading for release from various addictions . Send a Spirit of repentance, and restoration in Yeshua’s name. Amen.

So, we are going to cover what the apostles and the early church considered persecution.

This is from the One New Man Bible Philippians 3:5-6

Paul, whose Hebrew name is Sha’ul. Paul writes to the Philippians a brief biography and from it we understand he was circumcised on the eighth day according to the prescribed edicts of the Torah; he was of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews, according to the sect of Pharisees, with respect to zeal, persecuting the congregation, regarding righteousness because I was blameless in legalism.

So, from the New Testament we are told by Paul that he was a persecutor of those who followed the Messiah. We know that he was present at the stoning of Stephen and approved of it. This is in Acts chapter 8, it continues to say that in that day a great persecution against the congregation in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria. And devout men buried Stephen and they made great lamenting over him. And Saul was damaging the congregation by entering their houses, dragging away and giving men and women to prison.

Acts 9

And Sha’ul, still breathing threat and murder among the disciples of the Lord, when he went to the high priest, asked from him letters to the synagogues in Damascus, to the end that if he would find any who were of the Way, both men and women, he would lead them bound to Jerusalem.   It is on the road to Damascus that Yeshua confronts Paul about his persecuting the Way and Paul is converted.

Paul began his life as a persecutor of the disciples, or followers of the Messiah, and he spent possibly the latter part of 40 years of his life being persecuted.

2 Corinthians 12

Paul says here: I will rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak I am strong.

Infirmities is feebleness

Reproaches are heated insults, abusive words, verbal expressions of hatred and animosity toward a person.

Yeshua had to endure insults while He was dying on the cross.

Distresses mean great anguish.

2 Corinthians 4

We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed, we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

Hebrews 10:32

But recall the former days in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings: partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated;

For you had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven.

So these early Christians, these early Messianic Jews, also suffered with the writer, they were his brothers in the Lord, and they chose to lose their material goods and counted it as joy.

I am going to end the program. Rico Cortes will sing the Aaronic blessing in Hebrew from Numbers 6:24-26.

If it is God’s will I will be here next program. Remember to walk by faith and not by sight. Do two things this week: love and forgive. Ask God to cleanse you from all unrighteousness every day. Keep your spiritual garments clean from wrinkles, spots and wrinkles. Love God, love your neighbor.